Macbeth, William Shakespeare

When we the students of Prima went to see the play it was very confusing because it was in old English and there where only a few actors that where performing multiple roles.

The story is about a brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death.

Between about 1590 and 1613, Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more. His 17 comedies include The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing. Among his 10 history plays are Henry V and Richard III. The most famous among his tragedies are Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.

Now, let’s see some interesting details of his life that you maybe didn’t know.

Fun facts about Shakespeare:

1 Shakespeare’s grave includes a curse against moving his bones.

2 Macbeth was often unpopular for its reference to witches which created fear in the middle ages. There remains a long theatre superstition of saying aloud the name ‘Macbeth’

3 Before Shakespeare, the English language was much less codified with no official dictionary and many variations on spelling.

4 Shakespeare has given many words (estimate of 1,700 – 3,000) to the English language.

5 Estimations of Shakespeare’s vocabulary range from 17,000 to 29,000 words.

6 Shakespeare’s plays contain 200 references to dogs and 600 references to birds

7 Many of Shakespeare’s plays were based on historical accounts, dramatized by Shakespeare. He also dramatized stories from classical writers such as Plutarch and Holinshed. (Good they didn’t have copyrights)

8 Shakespeare lived through an outbreak of the bubonic plague in London (1524-94) and 1609. The plague also came to Stratford, when Shakespeare was just 3 months old

9 Shakespeare acted in many of his plays.