Theater in Shakespeare's lifetime

What was theater like when Shakespeare was alive?

- Only men could perform in plays
- If plays were not liked the audience would throw tomatoes and other soft foods on stage
- Theater was performed in the round
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The Globe Theater

Shakespeare invested in this theater along with his Lord Chamberlains men and it was built in 1599. However it was destroyed by a fire in 1613 and so a second globe theater was built in the same location in 1614 later closing in 1642. The globe theater was an Elizabethan theater
Address- maiden street, London.
The original Globe theater was built out of timber from an old theater called "The Theater". It was built by burbages father in 1579 but on leased land. When the lease ran out the landlord Giles Allen claimed that the building now belonged to him, however it was outright property of the Burbages. Whilst Allen was away at his country home the company took the theater apart and moved it to the location where the globe was being built. The theater later caught fire after a theatrical cannon was fired during a performance of Henry V111 and thus the new theater was built. In 1942 the second Globe was closed and later torn down by the puritans, as was every other theater.

Political and historical research

Political and Historical research on Macbeth

Just before William Shakespeare wrote the play of Macbeth, the catholic gun powder plot had just happened. In 1605 on the 5th of November barrels of gun powder were found underneath the chamber of commons being guarded by Guy Fawkes. The plot was an assassination attempt on King James but luckily one of the Kings spies found out and it was prevented. The plot was planned by a group of Catholics who believed that King James treated Catholics unfairly and was headed by Robert Catesby. Guy Fawkes was arrested and tortured until he gave up the names of his accomplices, which he did, and they were arrested. They were all then drawn, hanged, and quartered. James' response was that he told people to celebrate by burning scarecrows of Guy Fawkes over bonfires. This is where bonfire night on the 5th of November originates from.

The first time that Shakespeare performed his play Macbeth, King James was present and its believed that the whole play was basically written for him. There are many connections between the gun powder plot and the story of Macbeth.
Firstly the play is based around treason, the overthrow of a good king and the downfall of their murderers. Sound similar James? Also King James is commonly believed to have descended from banquho the Thane of Lochquhaber, who Shakespeare's character of Banquo is questionably similar to. The witches in Macbeth tell Banquo that his ancestors are going to be kings and what do you know Banquho's ancestor, James Stuart, is king of Scotland and England. Another connection is that King James had a medal made for him of a snake hiding in some flowers and its directly referenced to in the play. Lady Macbeth talks to Macbeth about how to go about the murder of King Duncan advising him to "look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it" (act 1 scene 2).  Lastly the head of the gun powder plot Robert Catesby, admitted his plans to kill the king in a confession to Father Henry Garnet. However Garnet did not report what he was told to the authorities. His defense when he finally confessed was that he did not commit a crime as he was protecting the seal of confession and was lying for god. All of this resulted in him becoming known as the great equivocator. In act 2 scene 3 Macbeth's porter wonders what type of people get sent to hell and so pretends to be the guard at the gates of hell. He says "Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator." This is referring to Henry Garnet, inferring that he got sent to hell for his crimes.

So why did Shakespeare feel the need to have to write a whole play around King James and the gun powder plot? Good question. There are only 2 different reasons that I have concluded on. One of them being selfless and the other more selfish.
I will start with the selfless reasoning that could have been the drive behind Shakespeare's Macbeth. King James was a very new leader when the gun powder plot occurred and so was probably unsure on the best way to respond and prevent further assassination attempts. In Macbeth two different kings are presented to James a good fair king and then a wild tyrant king. Shakespeare used the character of Macbeth to show the king that he shouldn't be a tyrant leader but more like Duncan who ruled fairly and was a proper ruler. One question you may ask yourself is why does Shakespeare care about the kings reaction and the answer is that Shakespeare is believed to have been catholic himself. This means he didn't exactly want the king to go around and sought out every Catholic to question and punish them over the actions of these extremists. Shakespeare wanted James to go easy on Catholics overall because he wanted to protect them. Shakespeare warns King James the effects of acting as a tyrant leader through Macbeth as eventually his country turned on him and he was killed by people he wronged.

The above argument definitely sounds like a plausible reason however I have another slightly more contrasting logic behind Macbeth which is based around Shakespeare himself. So what many people don't know is that Shakespeare had a couple of connections to the turncoats that where involved in the gun powder plot. One of these was the friendship between his father John Shakespeare and William Catesby, who was the father of Robert Catesby who headed the attempted assassination. The two fathers shared illegal catholic papers. The second connection is that the mermaid tavern was a local pub Shakespeare drunk in, and guess who used to meet there? The very group that planned the gun powder plot. They would meet there often to discuss their plans to kill the king. So with both of these connections to the group Shakespeare was probably worried that he was going to be the next one to be questioned and possibly tortured for information he presumably didn't have. This brings me to the conclusion that maybe Macbeth was written less as a bid for King James to go easy on Catholics but more as "a perfect propaganda machine that seemed to clear Shakespeare of any suspicion" (link 1)

My Shakespeare bio

Shakespeare research

- He had 4 sisters (only one surviving childhood) and 3 brothers.
- He was the oldest brother out of his siblings.
- Wrote 39 plays and 154 sonnets.
- A lot of his plays come from Roman history/tales of ovids/plays of Terrence and Plautus.
- The above stimuli were all taught in his classroom.
- He had three children, 1 boy and 2 girls.
- Shakespeare died as an incredibly wealthy man.
- He was one of the Lord Chamberlains men.
- The Lord Chamberlains men were later renamed The Kings Men.
- His company performed at court more than any other company.
- His plays are divided into three themes- Comedies, Tragedies and Histories.
- He invested in the Globe Theater.

1564- 23rd April, born in Stratford upon Avon
1582- At 18 he married Anne Hathaway (26)
1593- Plague broke out and theaters closed, turned to poetry
1594- Became a member of The Lord Chamberlains men
1611- Retired to Stratford
1616- 23rd April, he died age 52 (his birthday)
1623- His wife Anne died
1623- John Heminge and Henry Condell had his plays published in a book "The First Folio" for £1

Synopsis of Macbeth

Outline of the play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare.

After Macbeth has won the war against Macdonwald and the King of Norway three witches appear to him and Banquo, speaking of how Macbeth will be King of Scotland and Banquo will get future Kings. Upon returning home to his wife, lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to go through with a plan to kill King Duncan and fulfill his given prophecy. He abides, kills the king, and as spoken by the witches he becomes the new King. Macbeth is paranoid that Banquo will know what he has done and so has plans put in place to have him and his son killed, however his son manages to escape. Macbeth holds a feast to celebrate his coronation and starts to see the ghost of Banquo, slowly sending Macbeth mad and chaotic. Macbeth then has Macduffs wife and children killed as a punishment for him fleeing off to England to support the rebellion against his throne. Lady Macbeth feels guilty and responsible for these deaths, after all she did start Macbeth's tyranny leadership. She goes mad and falls very ill, eventually leading to her death. Macbeth then has to fight Macduff, who has returned with an army that just took down Macbeth's men. Macbeth loses the fight and dies. The deceased King Duncan's son Malcolm takes the throne.
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