Macbeth
Act 1 Sc 1
A Desert Place
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning or in rain?
When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
That will be ere the set of sun.
Where the place?
Upon the heath.
There to meet with Macbeth.
-The Witches
Cairngorm National Park, Scotland
Background - “What is past is prologue”
Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852-1917), as Macbeth. Charles A. Buchel.
MACBETH
Macbeth is thought to have been first performed in 1606, with the original story coming from Holinshed’s Chronicles, a history of England, Scotland and Ireland published in 1577.
It tells of Macbeth’s rise to power through murder, driven by the prophecies of witches and the ambition of his wife, Lady Macbeth. It ends with his realisation of the futility of his existence and *spoiler alert* death at the hands of his enemies.
Historically the play opens in 1040 when King Duncan was killed and closes on July 27th 1054 when Siward, the Earl of Northumbria, defeated Macbeth in battle at Dunsinane. In the play Macbeth is killed but according to history he escaped with his life and ultimately met his end some three years later at the Battle of Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire. He was buried on the island of Iona.
Macbeth was almost certainly written with James I of England in mind. He was Scottish, the patron of Shakespeare’s acting company, The King’s Men, and he believed he was descended from Banquo. (The witches in the play tell Banquo that his descendants will be kings.) However, it’s now believed that Banquo was actually a fictional character created in an earlier work by the Scottish historian Hector Boece which Holinshed used as a source.
The King had a first-hand interest in witches, too. In 1590, while still James VI of Scotland, he sat at the North Berwick witch trials where dozens of women, and men, confessed, after appalling, brutal torture, to imaginary crimes, and were put to death.
On the Stage - “The play’s the thing…”
The Three Witches in Macbeth, each portrayed by Cavendish Morton. Cavendish, Morton (1909) The Art of Theatrical Make-up, London: Adam and Charles Black.
Three Witches agree to gather on the heath before sunset where they will meet Macbeth. “When the battle’s lost and won..’.
On the Ground - “Presume not that I am the thing I was”
Cairngorms National Park
Although this scene is pure fancy we can still look for somewhere near Forres for the Witches to gather.
Macbeth and Banquo are heading to meet with Duncan at his camp there.
If I were a witch, which I’m not. A witch, I’m not.
Anyway, if I were a Witch looking for barren and atmospheric scenery I’d head for the Cairngorms National Park on the Old Military Road, the A 939. The picture here was taken near Tor Na Haish about 50 miles south of Forres.
I’m sure the Witches would have time to get from there to the heath by whatever devilish means and still have time to kill some swine on the way, along with the other evil deeds they lay claim to two scenes later.
But in the end this is just a theory about something that never happened aimed at firing the imagination.