king duncan was king of england when macbeth was written.
king duncan was king of england when macbeth was written.
who was king of england when macbeth was written?
king duncan
when james became king of england, a feeling of uncertainty settled over the nation. james was a scottish king and the son of mary, queen of scots, a staunch catholic and english traitor. in the words of critic robert crawford, ""macbeth" was a play for a post-elizabethan england facing up to what it might mean to have a scottish king. england seems comparatively benign, while its northern neighbour is mired in a bloody, monarch-killing past. ... "macbeth" may have been set in medieval scotland, but it was filled with material of interest to england and england's ruler." critics argue that the content of the play is clearly a message to james, the new scottish king of england. likewise, the critic andrew hadfield noted the contrast the play draws between the saintly king edward the confessor of england who has the power of the royal touch to cure scrofula and whose realm is portrayed as peaceful and prosperous vs. the bloody chaos of scotland. james in his 1598 book "the trew law of free monarchies" had asserted that kings are always right, if not just, and his subjects owe him total loyalty at all times, writing that even if a king is a tyrant, his subjects must never rebel and just endure his tyranny for their own good. james had argued that the tyranny was preferable to the problems caused by rebellion which were even worse; shakespeare by contrast in "macbeth" argued for the right of the subjects to overthrow a tyrant king, in what appeared to be an implied criticism of james's theories if applied to england. hadfield also noted a curious aspect of the play in that it implies that primogeniture is the norm in scotland, but duncan has to nominate his son malcolm to be his successor while macbeth is accepted without protest by the scottish lairds as their king despite being an usurper. hadfield argued this aspect of the play with the thanes apparently choosing their king was a reference to the stuart claim to the english throne, and the attempts of the english parliament to block the succession of james's catholic mother, mary, queen of scots, from succeeding to the english throne. hadfield argued that shakespeare implied that james was indeed the rightful king of england, but owned his throne not to divine favour as james would have it, but rather due to the willingness of the english parliament to accept the protestant son of the catholic mary, queen of scots, as their king.
macbeth
andy, lisa and danny are practicing a scene from "macbeth". they make a potion with all three of them then drinking the potion, which sends them into the "macbeth" play. after a battle andy and danny walk and find three witches, who tell them that macbeth is going to be thane of cawdor and banquo's children will be king before disappearing. andy and danny then realized that they are in macbeth, andy is macbeth and danny is banquo. lennox then comes in and tells them that king duncan would be arriving at macbeth’s castle to celebrate and he would be staying the night there. macbeth goes back to his castle where he finds that lisa is lady macbeth. king duncan and lennox then arrive at their castle and celebrate their victory. lisa tells andy to kill the king. when andy goes out to kill king duncan he meets danny and his son fleance. andy kills the king in his sleep. everyone is shocked to hear that the king has been killed. because duncan's son is away, macbeth was decided to be king. andy becomes increasingly suspicious of danny and the witch’s prophecy. he orders two assassins to kill danny and fleance. they succeed in killing danny but fleance escapes. at the banquet, danny's ghost haunts macbeth, who runs away from the ghost in fear. the others who can't see the ghost think macbeth is going mad. macbeth then goes to visit the witches again. the witches summon some spirits who tell him that no man born of a woman can kill him. andy thinks everybody is born from a woman, and that no one can kill him and that he will never be overthrown. he orders many people to be killed by his invention: mash and pulverizing machine. a doctor and a nurse tell andy that lisa has gone mad and sleepwalks. andy becomes increasingly guilty of what he has done. a guard then tells andy that lisa died and that an army of gnomes are attacking from england. still convinced that no one can kill him, he fights the gnomes. macduff then fights macbeth. macduff tells andy that he was not born of a woman because "from his mother's womb he was untimely ripped" right before cutting andy's head off. it is then revealed that the entire play was andy, danny and lisa’s version of "macbeth".
just macbeth!