Shakespeare's Macbeth, which is aptly named "the Scottish play-, is based loosely upon.
Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Shakespeare includes and.
disregards sections of Holinshed's account of Macbeth's reign at his leisure. However, he does.
not do this simply to add certain elements to his play, but does so for a purpose. Granted, several.
minor changes have been made so the story follows the format of a tragedy that was prevalent at.
the time, but these rearrange the chain of events to control the suspense of the play better, and.
have little to do with the personalities of the main characters. Shakespeare's motives for his.
major changes to Holinshed's tale of Macbeth were to flatter the king of England at the time,.
King James I.
Shakespeare's source of information for the play was a source of misinformation.
However, this could not have been proven by Shakespeare, and so no blame can be put on him.
for his choice. Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland combined fact.
with fiction, and included superstitious elements which would have been regarded as wholly.
natural and truthful at the time, but were later discovered to be false. The witches, whom .
Martinson 2.
Holinshed claims "were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say) the goddesses of.
destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries, indued with knowledge of prophesie by their.
necromanticall science- (Holinshed, 269), their predictions, and the resolution of these.
predictions in Holinshed's work has never been entirely explained. It is likely that they were.
added not by Holinshed himself, but perhaps by someone involved in the events firsthand, such.
as Macbeth, who may have told of the witches during his rule to accentuate his rightfulness to the.
throne. Another speculation on the witches is that they were created by some critic of the Celtic.
