Part Three of a Series on How to Teach >Macbeth<, Exemplary of My Approach to Presenting the Wonders of Shakespeare to My Students

Introductory Comments to Part Three of this Series

 

Please read below how I would handle reading, explanation, and discussion of Part Three of this series on how to teach Macbetht, as an example of how I go about presenting Shakespeare to students. 

 

I am using my compressed version of Macbeth.  Know that I read every word of the original play with my students and then perform my compressed version at our annual banquet.  I am using the latter version to demonstrate some of the many explanations I give and questions that I ask when I present a Shakespearean play to my students.

 

Shakespeare’s  The Tragedy of Macbeth

All original lines by William Shakespeare           

Compressed for Presentation at Spring 2019

New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet

 

by Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.                                                

 

Director, New Salem Educational Initiative

 

From Macbeth, Act I, Scene Seven         

 

[Macbeth’s castle.]

 

[Enter Macbeth and Lady Macbeth]

 

Macbeth:                           

 

We will proceed no further in this business:

He hath honored me of late;  and I have bought

Golden opinions from all sorts of people,

Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,

Not cast aside so soon.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

26)  Macbeth has apparently been thinking about Lady Macbeth’s plan to off Duncan and has decided not to go through with the scheme.  He remarks that the king has bestowed many honors on him lately and that he has gained great public esteem.  He says that all of this good fortune should be appreciated “in their newest gloss,” that he should dwell on these favorable new developments before casting them aside to focus on any other matters.

 

Lady Macbeth                  

 

What beast was it, then,

That made you break this enterprise to me?

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

27)  Lady Macbeth asks him why he should be so cruel, then, to raise her hopes.

 

Macbeth:                           

 

If we should fail?

 

Lady Macbeth                  

 

We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking place,

And we’ll not fail!  When Duncan is asleep---

his two chamberlains

Will I with wine and wassail so convince

That memory, the warder of the brain,

Shall be a fume:  when in swinish sleep

Their drenched natures lie as in death,

What cannot you and I perform upon

the unguarded Duncan? What not put upon

His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt of our great quell?

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

28)   Macbeth asks what would happen if they fail, to which Lady Macbeth replies indignantly that if Macbeth’ll just buck it up and quit being the wuss she feared he’d be, they cannot fail.  Read again the following lines carefully and see if you can tell the details of Lady Macbeth’s scheme:

 

When Duncan is asleep---

his two chamberlains [guards]

Will I with wine and wassail [an alcoholic beverage]

so convince [alter their consciousness]

That memory, the warder of the brain [gate to and controller of the brain],

Shall be a fume:  when in swinish [piggish] sleep

Their drenched natures lie as in death [they lay out all nasty drunk],

What cannot you and I perform upon

the unguarded Duncan? What not put upon

His spongy [alcohol-soaked] officers, who shall bear the guilt of our great quell [scheming enterprise]?

 

Macbeth:                           

 

Will it not be received

When we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two

Of his chamber and used their very daggers,

That they have done it?

                                                                                

Lady Macbeth                  

 

Who dares receive it other,

As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar

Upon his death?

 

Macbeth:                           

 

I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.

Away, and mock the time with fairest show:

False face hide what the false heart doth know.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

29)   Macbeth has been won over.  He takes heart that he and Lady Macbeth will be able to blame the guards for murdering Duncan, to which Lady Macbeth adds that they’ll also do such a good job pretending that they’re surprised and horrified by the king’s death that no one will ever suspect them.  Macbeth replies that he is going to summon all of his physical energy [“each corporal agent” means “every part of my body”] and to put on his best false face to hide the truth of the scheme well-known to his soul.

 

Notice that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are all too willing to put the blame of their deeds on two other people.  Do you think that is a common sentiment or that most people own up to what they do?  Can you think of any experiences either that you have witnessed or that you know from our reading the news [students always read news sources with me;  I find that they have rarely gone to quality news sources at home and that neither their parents nor other teachers have discussed current items in the news with them] that are similar to what Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are doing in shifting the blame to someone else?

 

From Macbeth, Act II, Scene Two                            

[Court of Macbeth’s castle.]

[Enter Macbeth and Lady Macbeth]

 

Macbeth:                           

 

I have done the deed.  

[Looking at his hands]  This is a sorry sight.

 

Lady Macbeth:                 

 

Go get some water,

And wash up your hand.

Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

They must lie there:  go carry them;

and smear the sleepy grooms with blood. 

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

30)  Macbeth returns from murdering Duncan but has screwed up by bringing the daggers back with him, rather than placing them in the hands of the guards according to plan.  Lady Macbeth gets real salty, telling Macbeth to wash his dang hands and go back and do what he was supposed to do, including smearing the guards’ clothes and hands with blood.               

 

Macbeth:                           

 

I’ll go no more:

I am afraid to look on what I have done:

Look on’t again I dare not.  

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

31)  Macbeth says ain’t no way he’s going back;  he can’t stand to see what he has done, cannot bear to see the scene he left behind.

 

Lady Macbeth:                 

 

Infirm of purpose!

Give me the daggers:  the sleeping and the

Dead are but as pictures:  ‘tis the eye of childhood

That fears a painted devil.  If he do bleed,

I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal;

For it must seem their guilt.

 

[Exit.  Knocking within]

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

32)  Lady Macbeth calls Macbeth out for being a wimp and lacking the courage to follow through with the plan.  She says that dead people are just like folks in a painting and that only childish fools fear the sight of blood.  She takes the daggers and exits to go finish the task of putting the daggers in the hands of the guards, smearing them with blood, and setting them up for the fall.

 

Macbeth:                           

 

Whence is that knocking?

How is it with me when every noise I hear appalls me?

What hands are here?  ha!  They pluck out mine eyes.

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand?

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

33)  Someone starts to knock on the door.  Macbeth is shook.  He ridicules himself for being so jumpy.  He looks at his bloody hands and says that not even the Roman God of the Seas [Neptune] could wash that blood away [metaphorically speaking, from his stained soul].

 

[Reenter Lady Macbeth.]

 

Lady Macbeth:                 

 

My hands are of your color;  but I shame

To wear a heart so white.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

34)  Lady Macbeth returns, now giving evidence of blood from her return to the scene of the crime;  she chides Macbeth that her hands are now are red like his, but that she has none of his cowardly white soul.

 

[Knocking within]

 

I hear a knocking at the south entry:  retire we to our chamber:

a little water clears us of this deed:  How easy it is, then!

 

[Knocking within]

 

Hark!  More knocking. 

Get on your nightgown. 

Be not lost so poorly in your thoughts

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

35)  Lady Macbeth acknowledges the knocking at the door and says that she and Macbeth need to be off to their bedroom [chamber].  She says that all they have to do is wash their hands and no one will be the wiser about what they have done.  As the knocking continues, she tells Macbeth to snap out of it, get a move on, and get in his nightgown [long dress-like pajamas, sleeping attire].

                                               

Macbeth:                           

                                   

To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself.

 

[Knocking within]

 

Wake Duncan with thy knocking!  I wish thou couldst!                                 

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

36)  Macbeth says that he’d rather not know himself when he thinks what he has done;  he wishes that the knocking could somehow bring Duncan back to life.

 

Wow.  What a scene.  Who do you think is at the door?  What do you think will happen when the murder of Duncan is discovered?

 

Part Two of a Series on How to Teach >Macbeth<, Exemplary of My Approach to Presenting the Wonders of Shakespeare to My Students

Introductory Comments to Part Two of this Series

 

Please read below how I would handle reading, explanation, and discussion of part Two of this series on how to teach Macbetht, as an example of how I go about presenting Shakespeare to students. 

 

I am using my compressed version of Macbeth.  Know that I read every word of the original play with my students and then perform my compressed version at our annual banquet.  I am using the latter version to demonstrate some of the many explanations I give and questions that I ask when I present a Shakespearean play to my students.

 

Shakespeare’s  The Tragedy of Macbeth

All original lines by William Shakespeare           

Compressed for Presentation at Spring 2019

New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet

 

by Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.                                                

 

Director, New Salem Educational Initiative

 

From Macbeth, Act I, Scene Four                             

 

[Forres.  The palace.]

 

[Enter Duncan]

                                               

Duncan:                              

 

[To Macbeth] 

 

Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labor

To make thee full of growing. 

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

18)  Duncan is the King of Scotland.  He welcomes Macbeth and tells him that he is going to hook him up, that he will have a promising future.

 

[To Banquo] 

 

Noble Banquo,

That hast no less deserved, let me unfold thee

And hold thee to my heart.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

19)  Duncan tells Banquo that he is as much in the king’s favor as is Macbeth.

                                               

[To All] 

               

Sons, kinsmen, thanes, know

We will establish our estate upon

Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter

The Prince of Cumberland.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

20)  Duncan says to family and aristocrats gathered that his eldest son, Malcolm. is being given title as Prince of Cumberland, the position that puts Malcolm in line to be king.

 

Macbeth:                           

 

[Aside] 

 

Prince of Cumberland!  That is a step

On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,

For in my way it lies.  Stars, hide your fires:

Let not light see my deep desires:

The eye wink at the hand;  yet let it be,

Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

21)  Read again this line  >>>>>

 

Prince of Cumberland!  That is a step

On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,

For in my way it lies.

 

How is Macbeth reacting to Malcolm’s being next in line to the throne?

 

Now read again this line   >>>>>

 

Stars, hide your fires:

Let not light see my deep desires:

The eye wink at the hand;  yet let it be,

Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

 

What emotions is Macbeth experiencing?  Ever known anyone caught up in such strong feelings of envy and ambition that she or he would act a fool to get what that person wants?  Any predictions as to what Macbeth is going to do now?

 

From Macbeth, Act I, Scene Five              [Inverness.  Macbeth’s castle.]

 

[Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter.]

 

Lady Macbeth:                 

 

They made themselves air, into which they vanished.

Whiles I stood rapt in wonder of it,

came missives from the king,

who hailed me “Thane of Cawdor”; 

by which the title before, these weird sisters saluted

me, and referred me to the coming on of time

with “Hail, king that shalt be.”

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

22)  Lady Macbeth is reading a letter from husband Macbeth giving an account of his encounter with the witches, saying that they vanished as if into thin air after predicting his gaining title to Cawdor and eventually becoming king.  “Rapt” means “enthralled,” which means “amazed.”

 

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor;  and shalt be

What thou art promised;  yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full of the milk of human kindness.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

23)  Lady Macbeth is delighted with these predictions but assumes that she is going to have to buck Macbeth up because in her view he is too much of a wuss to take the bold action she now envisions.  What doe she mean when she says,

 

yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full of the milk of human kindness ?

 

Hie thee hither,

That I may pour spirits in thine ear;

And chastise with the valour of my tongue

All that impedes thee from the golden round,

Which fate and metaphysical doth seem

To have crown’d thee withal.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

24)  “Hie” means “get moving’;  “hither” means “here.”  She tells Macbeth (speaking as if he could hear her) to get on home so that she could buck him up and move him to aggressive action for fulfillment of the prophecies. 

 

“Valour” means courage.  Notices that this follows the conservative (traditional) spelling still used, retaining the “u” as is done in the United Kingdom and Canada.  (I usually have to explain the composition of the United Kingdom and Canadian history as a British imperial possession, because such important details are not explained in social studies classes.)

 

“Chastise” in our common usage means to criticize negatively;  here it means “speak bold words.”

“Impede” means to get in the way of someone.  What is meant by “the golden round”?  (Here I typically encircle my head to suggest a royal crown.)  “Metaphysical” means something spiritual that cannot be known by rational (logical) thought processes.  To whom and what is Lady Macbeth referring when she says,

 

Which fate and metaphysical doth seem

To have crown’d thee withal  ?

 

[Enter Macbeth]

 

Macbeth:                           

 

My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight.

 

Lady Macbeth                  

 

And when goes hither?

 

Macbeth:                           

 

Tomorrow, as he purposes.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

25)  “Hither” means “here” but in this usage Lady Macbeth is asking when Duncan will go out from here, the Macbeth palace---  wanting to know how long Duncan will be visiting them.  Macbeth says that the king “purposes” or intends to return tomorrow, after just an overnight stay.

 

Lady Macbeth                  

 

O, never shall sun that morrow see!

To beguile the time, look like the time; 

bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue; 

look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under it. 

 

You shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch

Leave all the rest to me.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

25) Lady Macbeth says that Duncan will never see tomorrow.

 

“Beguile” means to charm, bewitch, fool someone with a false face.

 

What does she mean by 

 

To beguile the time, look like the time; 

bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue; 

look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under it ? 

 

“Dispatch” usually means to notify or to send a messenger to notify someone;  here Lady Macbeth uses the word to mean her “control” of the scheme that will ensure that Duncan does not see tomorrow’s light of day.

 

This is an enormously important juncture in the play.  What do you think is going to happen?

 

Teaching Shakes peare >>>>> Breaking Down >Macbeth< >>>>> Part One

 

Please read below how I would handle reading, explanation, and discussion of the opening of my compressed version of Macbeth.  Know that I read every word of the original play with my students and then perform my compressed version at our annual banquet.  I am using the latter version to demonstrate some of the many explanations I give and questions that I ask when I present a Shakespearean play to my students.

 

Shakespeare’s  The Tragedy of Macbeth

All original lines by William Shakespeare           

Compressed for Presentation at Spring 2019

New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet

 

by Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.                                                

 

Director, New Salem Educational Initiative

 

From Macbeth, Act I, Scene One                             

 

[A desert place]

 

[Thunder and lightning.  Enter three witches.]

 

First witch:                          

 

When shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

 

Second witch:                    

 

When the hurlyburly’s done

When the battle’s lost and won.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

1)  “Hurly-burly” means a lotta stuff goin’ on---  What hurly burly do you have in your own lives?

 

Third witch:                         

 

That shall be ere the set of sun.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

2)  “Ere” means “before in the Elizabethan language of Shakespeare, who wrote during the transition from  King James II to Queen Elizabeth. 

 

First witch:                        

 

Where the place?                            

 

Second witch:                    

 

Upon the heath.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

3)  “Heath” means open, flat land, not typically used for farming or other productive purposes.

 

Third witch:                         

 

There to meet with Macbeth.

 

All:                                        

 

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

4)  How can things sometimes be good (“fair”) and not so good (“foul’) at the same time?  Can ya’ll think of such circumstances in your own lives? 

 

[Exeunt.]

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

5)  “Exeunt” means more than one actor exiting the stage.. 

 

 

From Macbeth, Act I, Scene Three                          

 

[A heath near Forres]

 

[Thunder.  Enter the three witches.]

 

Macbeth:                           

 

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

6)  Notice that “foul” and “fair” stuff again?  Let’s see to what Macbeth might be referring here.

               

                [Notice my mix of slang (but with proper syntax) and highly conventional grammar (“to what… referring” instead of “referring to”)  

 

Banquo:                              

 

What are these

So wither’d and wild in their attire,

That look not like the inhabitants of the earth,

And yet are on’t?                            

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

7)  “Withered means “dried up and skinny.”  “Inhabitants” are people who live in a place.

What do you think Banquo means in saying the witches do not look like anything we’d expect to find on the earth?

  

Macbeth:                           

 

Speak, if you can:  what are you?

 

First witch:                          

 

All hail, Macbeth!  Hail to thee,

thane of Glamis!

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

7)  “Hail” means “Hey, there, greetings to you.”  “Thane” is an aristocrat or noble---  someone who inherited land from daddy and mama, and has status just because of that.

 

Do you think that having thanes is fair---  that having status because of the landed wealth of your family is okay?  Do the wealthy have such advantages in the United States?

 

Second witch:                    

 

All hail, Macbeth!  Hail to thee,

thane of Cawdor!

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

8)  “Glamis [glaa-miss] and “Cawdor” (caw-door”) are both names of certain territories in Scotland.   

 

Third witch:                       

 

All hail, Macbeth, that shalt

be king hereafter!

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

9)  Whoa---  How does she know that Macbeth is going to be king?

 

Banquo:                              

 

Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear

Your favors nor your hate.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

9)  “Favors” means favorable treatment;  “hate” someone dissin” smeone pretty badly.  Banquo just wants to know what’s up for him also, now that the witches have made predictions for Macbeth.

 

First witch:                        

 

Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.                           

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

10)  Any guesses as to what the first witch means in predicting that Banquo will both greater and not as great as Macbeth in the future?

 

Second witch:                  

 

Not so happy, yet much happier.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

11)  And how could Banquo in the future be both happier and not as happy as Macbeth?            

 

Third witch:       

 

Thou shalt get kings, though

thou be none.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

12)  “Get” means to “beget” or to give birth to a child (or be the husband or partner of a woman who does so).  Usually one needed to be a monarch (queen or king) before one of the princes or princesses became king.  What do you think might happen so as to lead to Banquo’s children to becoming monarchs when he himself is not predicted by the witches to be one?

 

First witch:                        

 

Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

                                                                                                                                           

[Witches move as if to exit.]

Macbeth:                           

 

Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.

Say why upon this blasted heath you stop our way

With such prophetic greeting?

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

13)  “Imperfect” here refers to the wild and atypical look of the witches.  “Blasted’ means “dang.”  “Prophetic greeting” means being spoken to with prophesies (predictions for the future).  Macbeth wants to know more because he is still confused as to what the witches’ prophecies mean.

 

[Witches vanish.]

 

[Enter Ross and Angus.]

 

Ross:                                    

 

The king hath happily received, Macbeth,

The news of thy success;

He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor.

 

Banquo:                              

 

What, can the devil speak true?

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

14)  A messenger says that Macbeth has been given more land and now, in addition to being the thane of Glamis, is also the thane of Cawdor.  Banquo’s reply means “Wow---  just like the witches predicted---“

 

Macbeth:                           

 

The thane of Cawdor lives:  why do you dress me

In borrowed robes?

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

15)  Macbeth says that there is already a thane of Cawdor, so how could he be given the same land and title.

 

Angus:                                 

 

Under heavy judgment bears that life

Which he deserves to lose.

Treasons capital, confess’d and proved,

Have overthrown him.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

16)  The other messenger says that the Thane of Cawdor got busted for doing illegal stuff and was going to be executed;  Macbeth is replacing him and has been given his land and titles.  “Treason” means crimes against the nation.  Were the insurrectionists who stormed the United States Capitol on January 6^th guilty of treason?  Was Donald Trump guilty of treason for telling them a crowd to go to the Capitol and protest the electoral college certification?  (Here I typically have to explain how the Senate, House of Representatives, and electoral college work, because these are not properly explained in social studies classes.)

 

Macbeth:                           

 

[Aside]

 

[I am already thane of] Glamis, and [now thane of] Cawdor [too]!

The greatest is behind.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

17)  Macbeth says, “Man, the witches were right about my getting the land and title to Cawdor;  now I’m gonna see what happens with that becoming king thing.”

                                               

[To Ross and Angus]

 

Thanks for your pains.

 

My Comment/Question      >>>>>

 

17)  Macbeth tells Ross and Angus thanks for your efforts in bringing me the news.

 

[Exit Ross and Angus.]