Macbeth, 1: The Politics Of Power

[Music] [Music] [Music] When shall we three meet again thunder lightning or in rain when the hurly Bly is done when the battle's lost and one that will be the set of sun where the place upon the heath there to meet with [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this film deals with MC Beth but it deals with it in a special way I am by profession an actor and a director and I offer here my interpretation of the play as I see it Shakespeare of course was a man of a theater he wrote his play not for the library but for the stage as an actor himself he depended upon actors on their gestures their inflections their pauses emphases to make clear not everything perhaps that he intended but at least one powerful and moving interpretation now I do not ask you to accept my interpretation as the final truth indeed 5 years from now I might conceivably have a radically different point of view of all Shakespeare's tragedies McBeth is probably the most puzzling what does it say what is its Chief theme Thou shalt not kill ambition makes men do Deeds of dreadful note life is meaningless a tale told by an idiot full of Sound and Fury signifying nothing and one of its principal characters is MC Beth a villain or a hero are we to identify ourselves I mean our own human nature with a man and a woman who could plot and carry out the ruthless murder of a seemingly good and gracious King and what of the text practically all Scholars see at least some evidence of rewriting by another hand there are seeming inconsistencies obscure passages spor scenes and it is my guess some scenes that are missing still in spite of all this mbth remains one of the most fascinating of all Shakespeare's tragedies the first problem a director of of mbth must face is this what role are the witches to play in his production they are sometimes presented on the stage as goddesses of Fate supernatural beings who control mcbeth's future and against whom he is powerless all hail McBeth Hail to the S of glams oh Hail mcbell Hail to the P of cordor all hell McBeth that shalt be king here after what else could be made of the witches in the 16th century belief in witchcraft was widespread King James himself wrote a book about witches and it seems certain that Shakespeare wrote McBeth for presentation at James's Court another possibility then would be to present the witches as it were in a King James version We Are Not To Doubt their Supernatural Powers besides concocting fearful witch broths and sailing the Sea and cves the witches are able to fores show things to come to predict but not to control the future to influence mcbeth's actions but not to determine them there is a difficulty here however for a modern audience how long can you for example suspend your disbelief in witchcraft why not then present the weird sisters in this fashion where hast thou been sister killing swine sister where thou the sailor's wife had just nuts in her lap and munched and munched and munched give me qu I a Ry witch the rumped runion cries her husbands to a leoon Master Of The Tiger but in a SI I'll VI sail and like a rat without a tail I'll do I'll do and I'll do I'll give thee a wind not kind and I another I myself have all the other look what I have show me show me here I have a pilot's thumb wrecked as Homeward he did come a drum a drum.com [Music] [Music] The Witches then can be shown on the stage simply as poor deluded women hideous and ragged outcasts full of Spite and Mischief but you might ask given such an interpretation what of their prophecies which prove as they turn out to be true for instance all hail McBeth Hail to the say of Cordo or H mcth the chel be king herea they have been scaling about the battlefield in the darkness and fog robbing the slain soldiers perhaps picking up rumors mbth the great nobleman is Victorious the King has already named him F of cordor he will surely reward him even more handsomely the Scottish monarchy it must be remembered was not hereditary McBeth the king's cousin was the greatest of the Scottish THS why should he not be king Hereafter it is thus that I would present the weird sisters when they first meet McBeth they are women who believe themselves to be witches and McBeth and Bano also believe in their Supernatural Powers later on a more imaginative level I will show how they become creatures of my MC Beth's fantasy like the air drawn dagger and Banko's ghost like the voice that cried sleep no more MC Beth does murder sleep creatures of his diseased imagination imagination this of course is the key word for mcbeth's character McBeth is perhaps one of the most difficult of Shakespearean roles to play he must be a soldier a warrior capable of unse a man from the Nave to the chops in other words of splitting him neatly and two with his broadsword he must be capable of murdering a king and then of stabbing the king's drugged and defenseless guards all this and yet he must be also a sensitive imaginative man in some strange way a poet the tragedy of McBeth is a poetic drama and most of the characters speak in verse but none with the imaginative intensity of McBeth notice the imagery which floods his mind as he contemplates the murder of King Duncan besides this Duncan ha borne his faculties so Meek have been so clear in his great office that his virtues will plead like Angels Trumpet tonged against the Deep damnation of his taking off and pity like a naked newborn babe striding the blast or Heaven's cherubin HED upon the sightless corers of the air shall blow the horrid deed in every eye the tears shall drown the wind the king in one sense is the decisive element in the play or rather I should say the power of the king the Elizabethan conception of the monarchy most elizabethans did not think of power as coming from the people they thought of it as coming down from above from God to them the ultimate source of power the King has the power they say because God gave it to him the King was God's representative on Earth mbth as I mentioned was probably written for presentation at King James's court and James as we know liked to think of himself as a direct descendant of Bano one of the chief characters of the play thus James would have taken great pleasure in the downfall of a man McBeth who dared to kill a king the Lord's anointed there is however an interesting point here when the pr opens the kingdom of Scotland is in grave danger decisive battles are raging battles in which king Duncan too old to fight has taken no part Duncan's eldest son Malcolm appears to be something of a weakling about to be captured he has been rescued by a good and Hardy Soldier but at last the war is one the kingdom secure thanks chiefly to Scotland's three greatest THS McBeth Bano and from the battle in five McDuff all three have journeyed to the Palace to receive Duncan's Praises but Duncan after bestoring lavish thanks then goes on to do rather a strange thing he decides that Here and Now surrounded by the great generals whose courage saved the kingdom is the time to name his successor to the crown any one of the three men is eligible and worthy to be chosen but who does Duncan name in this scene let us see Duncan portrayed not as he usually is as a great and wise King possessed of all the king becoming Graces but as a man of wayward arrogance corrupted by power almost if not quite senile Sons Kinsmen FES and you whose places are the nearest no we will establish our estate [Music] Upon Our eldest Malcolm whom we name Hereafter the prince of Cumberland now I don't say mind you that Shakespeare's company would have presented King Duncan as a corrupt Monarch at James's Court I do say however that such an interpretation subtly hinted at I feel in the text gives added Edge and bite to the story for reasons you will soon see you will have noticed that I have included the nobleman McDuff in that scene in most Shakespearean tragedies and histories there are usually two antagonists whose opposition makes up one of the principal threads of the story in scene after SE the conflict between the monks almost unbearably until at the end they confront each other in a terrible life and death struggle so it is in Hamlet with Hamlet and the king and so it ought to be with McBeth and McDuff the character of McDuff however is curiously neglected his part seems underwritten almost as though scenes are missing for The Shakespearean director who must mount a production in which the story line is clearly delineated this presents a problem David garri the great 18th century actor manager thought he had solved it in this [Music] way this for my royal master [Music] Duncan this for my bosom friend my wife and this for the pledges of her love and mine my children good God the scene of life will quickly close Ambitions vain elusive dreams are fled and now I wake to Darkness guilt and horror I dare not ask for Mercy it is too late hell drags me down I thinkink I thinkink my soul is lost forever if you have already read mbth you will recognize that these lines are not Shakespeare's they were of course written by G who played mbth not only has he given lines to McDuff in which he sums up his grievances against McBeth he has provided himself as star with a dying speech on stage whereas in the original text McBeth is killed offstage in my view of the tragedy of mbth the conflict between mbth and McDuff must be clearly stated from the beginning and clearly delineated as the play unfolds McBeth and McDuff must be presented on a certain level as symbols together with the great nobleman Bano symbols of the king becoming Graces those qualities which made up what the elizabethans considered to be a perfect King Bano is the courtier a diplomat and as we shall see a compromiser McBeth courageous honorable we are told loved well by McDuff and more important imaginative and ambitious McDuff is the soul of loyalty He Is We are told Noble wise judicious a man who places love of country above all take an all together in one man these qualities would make up a perfect King separately they lead to tragedy mcduff's sense of loyalty we find leads to the death of his wife and children banquo's diplomacy leads to his destruction and mcbeth's Imagination perverted and finally diseased results not only in his own death but his country's near ruin this then is the shape the form I would delineate on a political level on this level mbth is a play about power power relationships the politics of part if you will this I believe was Shakespeare's intention the existing text however presents a problem tends to Cloud the issues in the First Act for example when the relationships between the king McBeth Bano and McDuff should be set forth we do see the king receive the news of the great bravery shown by McBeth and Bangor in their fight against the rebels but so far no word of McDuff then two Messengers greet the king with news of another battle on the same day when came our worthy a from F great king where the noan banners flout the sky and fan our people cold Norway himself with terrible numbers assisted by that most disloyal traitor the th of cordor began a dismal conflict till that Bona's bridegroom laed in proof Bona's bridegroom here a footnote is necessary balona is the Roman goddess of war her bridegroom obviously a great warrior is generally taken to refer to mbth but these Messengers are from F mcduff's home McBeth has been fighting in in vaness or near to it he can hardly have taken part in two widely separated battles on the selfsame day in fact in a later scene we hear that he is ignorant of the Second Battle ignorant of the th of cordor treachery the th of cordor lives he says a prosperous gentleman it is my contention therefore that the reference to Bona's bridegroom is intended to be McDuff thus I would alter the line till that bala's bridegroom lapped in proof to till that Bona's bridegroom Brave McDuff confronted him with self-comparisons Point against Point rebellious arm against arm curbing his lavish spirit and to conclude the victory fell on us great happiness now why is the king troubled he must be happy to know that the Norwegian forces have been defeated but he is a king and he would not pleased to hear that a mere mortal McDuff had dared to engage in single combat with the king of Norway another of God's Representatives on Earth thus we see again Duncan's arrogance the Wayward arrogance of a man in supreme power a man who actually believes in his own Godlike image and because of this he rewards not McDuff but McBeth with cordor title no more that th of cordor shall deceive our bosom interest go pronounce his present death and with his former title greet MC Beth I'll see it done [Music] [Music] Noble McBeth worthy as cousin the sin of my ingratitude even now was heavy on me thou art so far before the swiftest wing of recompense is slow to overtake thee only we have left to say more is thy due than more than all can pay the service and the Loyalty I owe in doing it pays itself your highest part is to receive our duties welcome M Duff I have begun to plant thee and will labor to make thee full of growing Noble Bano that h no less deserved and must be known no less to have done so let me unfold the and hold thee to my heart dare If I Grow the Harvest is your own my plenteous chice want and in fullness seek to hide themselves in drops of Sorrow Sons Kinsmen FES and you whose places are the nearest no we will establish our estate Upon Our eldest Malcolm whom we name Hereafter the prince of Cumberland [Music] the prince of Cumberland that is a step on which I must fall down or else all leap for in my way it lies Mark that McDuff has noticed mcbeth's reaction to the king's words thus We Lay the groundwork early on for the final life and death struggle between them in the last act let us Trace then with these thoughts in mind the relationships of these three men mbth Bano and McDuff first McBeth and Bano the great generals Victorious exalted weary coming from strange images of death and now lost in the darkness on the fog fair day I have not seen how far is called a farz what are these so withered and so wild in their attire I look not like the inhabitants of the earth and yet are AR live you or are you off that man May question but you seem to understand me by each at once her choppy finger laying upon her skinny lips speak if you can what are you [Music] [Music] Hail mcth Hail to the F of GL all hail MCB Hail to the F of cordor all hail McBeth that shalt be king here [Music] after but sir why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair be the name of Truth are ye Fantastical all that in indeed which outwardly ye show my Noble partner you greet with present Grace and great prediction of noble having and of Royal hope that he seems wrapped with all to me you speak not if you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not speak then to me who neither beg nor fear your favors no your hate hail hail hail lesser than MC Beth and greater not so happy yet much happier Thou shalt get Kings though thou be none so all hail mbth and Bango Bango and MC Beth all hail stay you imperfect speakers tell me more by sino's death I know I'm th of glams but how of cordor the thing of cordor lives a prosperous gentleman I you the Earth ha Bubbles as the water has and these are of them whether are they vanished into the air what seemed Corporal melted as breath into the wind what they had stayed where such things here as we do speak about or have we eaten on the insane route that takes the reason prisoner [Music]