Macbeth Resources

Shakespeare

A hypertext version of the Complete Works of Shakespeare is found at http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html. Though the annotations are generic, this is a good resour ce for general Shakespeare discussion and information, as well as for reading any of his other plays.

The Shakespeare page is also an excellent resource for Shakespeare information.

Yahoo offers an excellent listing of other Shakespeare web pages at http://www.yahoo.com /Arts/Drama/Plays/Playwrights/Shakespeare__William__1564_1616_/.

Macbeth

Another version of Macbeth can be found at http://www.falconedlink.com/falcon/Macbeth.html.

There are on-line lecture notes for Macbeth at http://www.emporia.edu/s/www/english/courses/shakespr/macb_lec.htm.

You can download a shareware software program with notes, quizzes and other Macbeth resources from here.

Related to Macbeth

Songs

The songs ("Come away, come away" and "Black spirits") referred to in the play were written by Thomas Middleton, a Shakespearean contemporary. Chris Cleary, who maintains an excellent Thomas Middleton web page, explains, "It appears that Middleton wrote it [the song] for his play [The Witch] (approx. 1613), but it appears in Macbeth texts only because stage companies interpolated it into later performances of Macbeth (Macbeth was first staged approx. 1606)."
Black spirits also appears in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

Sources

Shakespeare used Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles as the basis for his history. You can read a relevant portion at http://jefferson.village.virg inia.edu/courses/ennc986/class/germ3/holin.html.

Scotland For information about the setting, see Yahoo's listing for Scotland. James VI of Scotland (James I of England) For a brief overview of the king that Macbeth was written for (with his interest in Scotland and witchcraft), see http://www.cypass.com/greenwich2000/jamesI.htm. Medieval/Rennaisance Times Try Yale's listing of Medieval/Rennasiance Internet Resources at http://www.library.yale.edu/Internet/medieval.html.

Structure

The acts in a Shakespearean tragedy are constucted according a formula, with each act accorded a specific purpose.

General Resources

Try the on-line Webster's Dictionary.

You can have each word on a page linked to a definition by using Wordbot.

Look up bible references using the on-line bible search.

Look up Greek Myth references at here.

Other external related links can be found on the vocab page.