MACBETH
Where did Shakespeare get his ideas from?
The extract below is taken from a translation by John Bellenden of the History and Chronicles of Scotland written in Latin by Hector Boece. James V of Scotland asked Bellenden to make the translation which was printed in Edinburgh about 1536. It would therefore be quite possible for Shakespeare to have read it.
How does this account differ from Shakespeare’s version of events?
Off þe weirdis gevin to Makbeth and Banquho; how Makbeth was maid Thayne of Cauder, and how he slew King Duncan to mak him self king.
1. The samyn tyme happynnit ane wounderfull thing. Quhen Makbeth and Banquho war passand to Foress, quhair King Duncan wes for þe tyme, thai mett be þe gaitt thre weird sisteris or wiches, quhilk come to þame with elrege clething. The first of þame sayid to Makbeth: ‘Haill, Thayne of Glammys!’ Þe secund sayid: ‘Hayill Thane of Cawder!’ The thrid sayid: ‘Haill, Makbeth, þat salbe sum tyme King of Scotlannd!’ þan said Banquho: ‘Quhat wemen be ʒe, quhilkis bene sa vnmercifull to me and sa propiciant to my companʒeoun, gevand him nocht onlie landis and grete rentis bot als triumphand kingdome, and gevis me nocht?’
2. To this ansuerit þe first of þir wiches: ‘Wee schaw mair feliciteis appering to the þan to him; for thocht he happin to be ane king, ʒite his empyre sall end vnhappely, and nane of his blude sall eftir him succede. Be contrair, þou sall neuer be king. bot of þe sall cum mony kingis, quhilkis with lang and anciant lynage sall reioise þe crovun of Scotland’ Thir wourdis beand sayid, þai suddanlye evanyst oute of þair sycht.
3. This prophecy & diuinacioun was haldin lang in derisioun to Banquho and Makbeth, for sum tyme Banquho wald call Makbeth ‘King of Scottis’ for derisioun and he on the samyn maner wald call Banquho ‘The fader of mony kingis’. Nochtþeless becaus all thingis come as þir wiches divinit, the pepill traistit þame to be werd sisteris. Schort tyme eftir, þe Thayne of Cawder wes disherisit of his landis for certane crymes of leiss maieste, and his landis were givin be King Duncan to Makbeth.
4. It happynnit the nixt nycht that Banquho and Makbeth war sportand to gidder at þair suppair. Þan said Banquho ‘Þou has gottin all þat þe first twa sisteris hecht; restis nocht bot the croun, quhilk was hecht be þe thrid sister.’ Makbeth, revolwing all thingis as þai war said by thir wyches, began to to covaitt þe crovun, nochtþeles thocht best to abyde quhill he saw his tyme, and tuke sikkir esperence þat þe thrid werde suld cum to him as þe first twa did afoir.
5. In the menetyme King Duncan maid his son Macolme Prince of Cumbir, to signifye þat he suld regnne eftir him; quhilk thing wes importabill displeser to Makbeth, for it maid plane derogacioun to the thrid weird promittit afoir to him be þir werede sisteris; nochtþeles, thocht, gif King Duncan wer slayne, he had maist richt to þe croun and nerrest of blude þerto, becaus it wes þe auld consuetude, quhen ʒoung childerin wer vnabill to governe þe crovne, þe nerrest of þair blude suld regne.
6. Attoure, his wyfe, impacient of lang tary, as wemen ar to all thing quhair þai sett þame, gaif him grete artacioun to persew þe samyn, þat scho mycht be ane qwene, calland him oft tymes febill cowart and nocht desyrus of honouris, sen he durst nocht assailʒe þe thing with manhede and curage quhilk is offerit to him be beneuolence of fortoun...
Mackbeth, be impulsioun of his wyfe, gaderit all his freyndis to ane counsale, and went to Inuernes, quhair he slew King Duncan þe vij ʒere of his regne. His body wes beryitt in Elgin, bot it wes eftir takin vp and berijt in Colmkill amang þe anciant sepulturis of kingis.
7. Duncane slayne, as we haif writin, Makbeth come with ane grete powere of freyndis to Skoyne, quhair he was crovnit, fra oure redempcioun jmxlvj ʒeris, and chasit Macolme Canmore and Donald Bayne, the sonnis of King Duncane, in Cumber, quhair þai remanit continewallye…
8. þan sayd Makbeth: ‘þou followis me in wayne, for nane þat is borne of ane wife may slay me.’ þan said Makduff: ‘I am þe samyn man, for I was schorne out of my moderis wayme’; incontinent schure of his heid, and brocht the samyn on a staik to Macolme.
The Chronicles of Scotland compiled by Hector Boece translated into Scots by John Bellenden 1531 eds E Batho & H W Husbands, STS, Edinburgh 1941, Vol II pp149-162.
Translation
About the prophecies given to Macbeth and Banquho; how Macbeth was made Thane of Cawdor and how he killed King Duncan to make himself king.
At the same time, a wonderful thing happened. When Macbeth and Banquo were travelling to Forres, where King Duncan was at the time, they met by the road three paranormally-gifted sisters or witches, who came to them wearing other-worldly clothes. The first of them said to Macbeth, ‘Hail, Thane of Glamis!.’ The second said, ‘Hail, Thane of Cawdor!’ The third said, ‘Hail Macbeth who will one day be King of Scotland!’ Then Banquho said, ‘What women are you who are so ungenerous to me and so well-disposed towards my companion, giving him not only lands and rents but also a glorious kingdom, and who give me nothing?’
To this the first of the witches answered, ‘We show more a fortunate vision to you than to him; for though he may chance to be a king, yet his rule shall end unfortunately and none of his blood will succeed after him. By contrast, you will never be king but of you will come many kings who, with a long and ancient lineage, will bring joy to the crown of Scotland.’ These words being said, they suddenly vanished out of their sight.
This prophecy and divination was for a long time treated as a joke between Banquho and Macbeth, for sometimes Banquho would call Macbeth ‘King of Scots’ in mockery and he in the same way would call Banquho ‘The father of many kings.’ Nevertheless, because all things happened as these witches foretold, the people believed them to be paranormally-gifted sisters. A short time after, the Thane of Cawdor was disinherited of his lands for certain crimes of treason and his lands were given by King Duncan to Macbeth.
It happened the next night that Banquho and Macbeth were joking together at supper. Then Banquho said, ‘You have got everything that the first two sisters promised. Nothing remains but the crown which was promised by the third sister.’ Macbeth, considering all things as they were said by these witches began to covet the crown; nevertheless, he thought it best to wait until he saw his opportunity, and he took certain hope that the third prophesy would come true for him as the first two did before.
In the meantime, King Duncan made his son Malcolm Prince of Cumbria, to signify that he should reign after him; which was an unbearable annoyance to Macbeth, for it was a complete contradiction to the third prophesy promised before to him by these sisters with second sight. Nevertheless, though, if King Duncan were killed, he had most right to the crown and was nearest to it by blood, because it was the old custom, when young children were unable to take over the government the nearest of their blood should reign.
Besides, his wife, impatient of waiting long, as women are for all things that they have set their hearts on, put him under great pressure to for it, so that she could be a queen, often calling him a feeble coward and not ambitious for honours since he did not dare seize the matter with manliness and courage that was offered to him by the benevolence of fortune...Macbeth, at the instigation of his wife, gathered all his friends to a council and went to Inverness where he killed King Duncan in the seventh year of his reign.
His body was buried in Elgin, but it was afterwards lifted and buried in Iona and the ancient tombs of kings.
weirdis
Weird means fate or destiny. Here it means destinies or prophesies. In the plural, it can mean the three sisters, kent in mythology as the Fates (Parcae tae the Romans and the Moirae tae the Greeks).There wis ane that span the threid o life, anithir meisured it oot and the third, cried Morta by the Romans, snippit the threid and that wis you, deid. In Norse mythology they were kent as the Norns and their names were Urd (that which haes become), Verdandi (that which is becoming) and Skuld (should). Daes that mind ye on onything? ‘Glamis thou art and Cawdor and shall be what thou art promised.’
The Auld Norse wird urd is the cognate (cognate words are words in related languages that derive from a common ancestor) of weird which also derives from the verb meaning ‘to become’.
Weird stertit aff as a noun but became yaised as an adjective as we find here in the weird sisteris. Note that the meaning o the adjective is no the jist same as it is in Modren Scots.
passand
The –and on the end o this wird is the endin for the present participle (the bit o the verb that ye get in Modren Scots I am/wis passin, he is/wis passin, they are/were passin etc. It gets yaised as an adjective as weel – Aulder Scots wad hae a passand fancy, Modren Scots wad hae a passin fancy. Hoo mony mair –and endins in this passage wad hae –in in Modren Scots or –ing in Modren Inglish.
Here is anithir wird whaur we can see chynges o meanin doon the years. It sterit aff meanin tae walk. It is related tae the wird pace = step.
Can ye describe the wey the meanins are different in:
- The watter passes ablow the brig.
- He passes watter.
- The auld man passed awa and we haed a braw wake.
- Did ye pass yer exam? (Ay, Ah walked it.)
- Schumacher passed Coultard on the final bend.
- He passed the baw oot tae the wing.
gaitt
this comes fae Auld Norse gata and means road.
elrige
This is an affae appropriate adjective in this context. Gin we tak a luik at the etymology o this wird we find that it is thocht tae come fae elfrice meaning ‘elfkingdom’. The f wad hae been pronoonced as [v] and as we can see fae wirds like hae and doo, [v] aften got lost.
quhilkis
It’s nae hard tae see that this is the cognate o Modren English which. We hae here an exaumple o Auld Norse influence on pronoonciation sae that we get kirk, birk and breeks in Scots and church, birch and breeches in English. Quhilkis wad gie us whilk in Modren Scots. But whit aboot the –is? That’s acause it is plural. Whilk, like whae and that, is aften a relative pronoun. It refers back tae anithir wird (its antecedent). Here the antecedent is зe and its plural. Luik at aw the ither relative pronouns in the passage. Whit are their antecedents. Are they singular or plural?
Answer
...thre weird sisteris or wiches, quhilk...antecedent plural but relative pronoun does not have plural ending
Quhat wemen be зe, quhilkis... antecedent is plural syne it in turn refers back tae the plural wemen. This time the relative pronoun also haes a plural ending.
...mony kingis quhilkis... Plural antecedent and relative pronoun haes plural ending.
the croun, quhilk....Singular.
sen he durst nocht assailзe Þe thing with manhede and curage quilk is offerit...It is a bit harder tae see whan the relative pronoun isnae neist the antecedent. Singular.
We can see fae this that whiles ye get a –is endin on the relative pronoun efter a plural antecedent and whiles ye dinnae. When ye get variation like this the chaunces are that ae wey will stert tae tak ower and the ithir will dee oot. Richt eneuch, the –is endins are nae mair.
companʒeoun
This is ane o the mony French loan wirds in the passage. This ane haes survived, wi a wee chynge in the spellin. The yogh spellin aften haes the soond o the y in yes and yellae and whiles it disnae hae muckle soond o its ain ava. It near ayewis comes efter a n or l.
crovun
v, u and w dae some gey unexpeckit things in this passage.Whit wad crovun be in Modren Scots? And in English? Hoo mony ithir spellins o crovin can ye find in the passage?
answers: croon; crown;
croun, crovne.
Hoo mony weys can v be yaised? Luik at thir wirds and mak up yer mind whit wet tae pronoonce the v in each o them:
vnmercifull, gevand, evanyst, divinit.
Whit dae ye notice aboot the u in this wirds:
ansuerit, neuer, cum, diuinacioun.
Whit aboot revolwing?
Shakespeare’s English haed a rule that ye yaised v at the stert o a wird for baith the consonant and the vowel and u in the midlle o the wird for baith the consonant and the vowel. Sae he wad hae spellins like vp and vine, cut and neuer. Daes that rule wirk in Aulder Scots?
Thir wourdis beand sayid
We hae noted the –and endin awreddies, sae wi can pit this intae Modern Scots as This wirds bein said...Whit is interestin aboot this phrase is that this construction wis mair common in Aulder Scots and it is influenced by a similar very common construction in Latin.
leiss maieste
This is another French loan meaning ‘treason’. Note that i spellings can be used interchangeably with j spellings.
revolwing
w could be used in the same ways as v and u. Wery confusing! In revolwing, it wad be pronoonced like a v. Ye micht hae thocht that we hae a present participle here and it ocht tae end in –and. Ye wad be richt. This –ing is an example o anglicisation.
esperence
French loan = hope
consuetude
Latin loan = habit, custom
childerin
Whit wey dae ye form plurals in Scots?You can see fae this text that the maist usual wey is tae add –s or -is . Ye will also find –es, but that is an anglicisation. In Middle English and Aulder Scots a wheen o wird formed their plural by addin –en or, for Scots -in. Noo in English we jist hae oxen but we still hae shuin, een etc. in Scots. In childerin, the -in merkin the plural is clear eneuch, but whit about the –er? In Auld English(afore aboot 1100ce) a wee boorach o wirds formed their plurals by addin –ru. There wis calfru and lambru and crumbru and cildru. Aw wee things! Jist occasionally, ye still get caur yaised as the plural o calf (note the the f wad hae been pronoonced [v] and then it got lost). Whit ye hae in childerin and modern children are twa plural endins,–er (from –ru) and
–in or –en.
Colmkill
This wad be Iona, whaur Columcille, bettir kent as St Columba, landit wi twal ithir monks in 563.
jmxlvj
Roman numerals:
i = 1, ii = 2, iii = 3 iv = 4 (ane afore five), v = 5, vi = 6 (ane efter five)
x = 10
In aulder writin, the first or the lest i is aften written as a j.
L = 50
C = 100
D = 500
M = 1000
The wey this is written means 1x 1000. Then ten afore fifty gies 40. Ane efter five gies 6. Pit at aw thegither: 1046.
incontinent
This is a richt guid example o a wird that has chynged its meanin ower the years. In this text it means immediately. Whit daes it mean noo?