William Shakespare

a cura di J. Pignet e C. Aira
 
 One of the best-known of William Shakespeare's plays and his shortest tragedy. Often regarded as archetypal, the play tells of the dangers of lust for power and betrayal of friends.
 Macbeth is given a prophecy by a trio of witches: he himself will become king. Fired by ambition and pushed by his ruthless wife, he murders theking and assumes the throne. More killings follow as Macbeth attempts to retain his crown, until he discovers that prophecies are not always what they seem…
 The numerous in-depth analyses are about history and fiction in Macbeth, the paintings, films and music inspired by the tragedy, its stage performances and a close examination of the characters. 
 
 Teacher's Resources available online: Answer Key - Audioscripts - Key to Summing-up Activities
 
 Macbeth è una delle opere più famose di Shakespeare e la sua tragedia più breve. Tre streghe profetizzano a Macbeth che egli salirà sempre più nella scala gerarchica fino a diventare re. Avveratasi la prima delle profezie, accecato dall'ambizione e spinto dalla spietata moglie, Macbeth uccide il re e sale sul trono. Seguiranno altre orribili uccisioni nel tentativo di conservare la corona, finché scoprirà che le profezie possono avere un'altra verità…

William Shakespeare

Chapter 1 – The Prophecy

Extension: History and fiction in Macbeth

Chapter 2 – A False Welcome

Extension: Macbeth on stage

Chapter 3 – A Night of Horrors

Extension: Paintings

Chapter 4 – A Tortured Mind

Extension: Macbeth in music

Chapter 5 – A Career of Blood

Extension: Macbeth on screen

Chapter 6 – Birnam Wood

Extension: The seeds of evil

Summing-up activities

Glossary

The author William Shakespeare Facts and legend are mixed in Shakespeare s life. Church documents prove that he was baptized on 26th April 1564 at Stratford-uponAvon and buried1 there on 25th April 1616. His family was well-known in the area as2 his mother was the descendant of Thomas More, Henry VIII s Chancellor. Shakespeare s father was an eminent citizen, a merchant in skins3, wool and corn4 and active in local government. At the time, Stratford was an important commercial centre with a local Grammar School, where Oxford students acted as teachers. So Shakespeare, too, learnt reading and arithmetic, some history and a lot of Latin rhetoric, logic and literature. On 27th November 1582, William Shakespeare, then eighteen, married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, and the following May they had a daughter called Susanna; in 1585 twins were born, Hamnet and Judith. It was difficult for young Shakespeare to provide for a family of four; unfortunately one day he was found killing game5 in a private estate6 and was forced to leave Stratford in a hurry not to be imprisoned. In one sense he was glad to go away from a wife he no longer loved and to discover the world of London. The capital of England was full of life and opportunities for enterprising7 men: the Queen, her court and the nobles spent a lot of money enjoying themselves and encouraging the arts. The theatres were built in Shoreditch, on the left bank of the Thames and outside the city walls; they attracted all sorts of people, from the lower to the upper classes, and offered interesting and amusing entertainment. Shakespeare soon became a favourite among theatre-goers as an actor, but mostly as an author of comic and dramatic plays. By 1592 he was already so famous that a jealous rival playwright8 (Robert Greene, c. 1558-1592) attacked him, accusing him of plagiarism9. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. buried: put under ground. as: because. skin: animal covering. corn: grain. game: wild animals and birds hunted. estate: extensive areas of land owned by a lord. 7. enterprising: full of courage and willing to do new things. 8. playwright: author of theatre plays. 9. plagiarism: using somebody else s ideas. 4 

Between 1592 and 1594, the theatres were closed due to10 the plague11 and Shakespeare devoted himself12 to poetry. He wrote two long poems (Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece), some of his 154 Sonnets, and dedicated them to his protector and friend Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In 1594, Shakespeare became a member of the theatrical company called the Chamberlain s Men, later the King s Men, when James I ascended the throne (1603). The company acted mainly at the Globe Theatre, a public playhouse built in Shoreditch and owned in part by Shakespeare. Shakespeare s activities and theatre profits made him rich. In 1596 he obtained a coat of arms13 for his family; the following year he bought New Place, the second largest house in Stratford, where he retired in 1611 and died on 23rd April 1616. Using Raphael Holinshed s Chronicles (1577) as his source, Shakespeare started writing a series of historical plays (e.g. Henry VI, Richard II, Richard III), and then gradually evolved a more personal form of drama which also included comical scenes and characters (e.g. Falstaff in Henry IV). With Falstaff, Shakespeare s conception of comedy matured, and moved from the courtly14 atmosphere of Love s Labours Lost to the romantic humanity of The Taming of the Shrew. All these early experiments combined to produce the magic of A Midsummer Night s Dream, Shakespeare s most original and perfectly designed play. His later comedies, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night show a world in which reality and laughing often clash15, and the romantic story risks becoming too serious. Shakespeare s best production is mostly connected with his great tragedies, all composed between 1600 and 1608, beginning with Hamlet and including Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet and Coriolanus. Shakespeare s last romances, The Winter s Tale and The Tempest, are half-allegorical and the theme of pardon and reconciliation is dominant. His poetical and psychological sensibility also appears in his 154 Sonnets, written from 1592 to about 1595. Shakespeare s plays, which amount to thirty-six, were collected and published in 1623 by John Heminges and Henry Condell, in the first Folio16. 10. 11. 12. 13. due to: because of. plague: pestilence, infectious disease. devoted himself: gave all his attention. coat of arms: family emblem. 14. courtly: set in court. 15. clash: conflict, fight. 16. Folio: volume with pages half a sheet. 5 

Macbeth, la tragedia più breve di Shakespeare, racconta l'ascesa e la caduta del protagonista, spinto dall'ambizione e da profezie ingannevoli.

Macbeth Collana RAINBOWS

Level B1 • Pre-Intermediate - Collana RAINBOWS

Macbeth

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