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There's a play so powerful
that an old superstition says
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its name should never
even be uttered in a theater,
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a play that begins with witchcraft
and ends with a bloody severed head,
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a play filled with riddles, prophesies,
nightmare visions,
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and lots of brutal murder,
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a play by William Shakespeare sometimes
referred to as the Scottish Play
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or the Tragedy of Macbeth.
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First performed at the Globe Theater
in London in 1606,
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Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy.
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It is also one of his most action-packed.
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In five acts, he recounts a story
of a Scottish Nobelman
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who steals the throne,
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presides over a reign of terror,
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and then meets a bloody end.
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Along the way, it asks important questions
about ambition,
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power,
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and violence
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that spoke directly to the politics
of Shakespeare's time
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and continue to echo in our own.
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England in the early 17th century
was politically precarious.
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Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603
without producing an heir,
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and in a surprise move,
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her advisors passed the crown
to James Stewart, King of Scotland.
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Two years later, James was subject
to an assassination attempt
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called the Gunpowder Plot.
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Questions of what made
for a legitimate king
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were on everyone's lips.
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So Shakespeare must have known
he had potent material
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when he conflated and adapted the stories
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of a murderous 11th century
Scottish King named Macbeth
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and those of several
other Scottish nobles.
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He found their alums
in Hollinshed's Chronicles,
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a popular 16th century history
of Britain and Ireland.
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Shakespeare would also have known
he needed to tell his story
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in a way that would
immediately grab the attention
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of his diverse and rowdy audience.
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The Globe welcomed
all sections of society.
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Wealthier patrons watched the stage
from covered balconies
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while poorer people paid a penny
to take in the show
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from an open-air section called the pit.
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Talking, jeering and cheering
was common during performances.
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There are even accounts of audiences
throwing furniture when plays were flops.
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So Macbeth opens with a literal bang.
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Thunder cracks and three witches appear.
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They announce they're searching
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for a Scottish nobleman
and war hero named Macbeth,
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then fly off while chanting a curse
that predicts a world gone mad.
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"Fair is foul and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air."
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As seen later, they find Macbeth
and his fellow nobleman Banquo.
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"All hail Macbeth," they prophesize,
"that shalt be king hearafter!"
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"King?" Macbeth wonders.
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Just what would he have to do
to gain the crown?
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Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth
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soon chart a course of murder,
lies, and betrayal.
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In the ensuing bloodbath,
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Shakespeare provides viewers with some
of the most memorable passage
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in English literature.
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"Out, damned spot! out, I say!"
Lady Macbeth cries when she believes
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she can't wipe her victim's blood
off her hands.
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Her obsession with guilt is one
of many themes that runs through the play,
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along with the universal tendency
to abuse power,
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the endless cycles of violence
and betrayal,
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the defying political conflict.
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As is typical with Shakespeare's language,
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a number of phrases
that got their start in the play
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have been repeated so many times
that they now feel commonplace.
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They include "the milk of human kindness,"
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"what's done is done,"
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and the famous witches' spell,
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"Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble."
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But Shakespeares saves the juiciest
bit of all for Macbeth himself.
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Towards the end of the play,
Macbeth reflects on universality of death
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and the futility of life.
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"Out, out, brief candle!" he laments.
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"Life's but a walking shadow,
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a poor player that struts
and frets his hour upon the stage
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and then is heard no more.
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It is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury
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signifying nothing."
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Life may be a tale told my an idiot,
but Macbeth is not.
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Shakespeare's language and characters
have entered our cultural consciousness
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to a rare extent.
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Directors often use the story
to shed light on abuses of power,
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ranging from the American mafia
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to dictators across the globe.
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The play has been adapted
to film many times,
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including Akira Kurosawa's
Throne of Blood,
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which takes place in feudal Japan,
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and a modernized version
called Scotland, PA,
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in which Macbeth and his rivals
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are managers of competing
fast food restaurants.
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No matter the presentation,
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questions of morality,
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politics,
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and power are still relevant today,
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and so, it seems,
is Shakespeare's Macbeth.