Dear Class,
For those now eager to consider Shakespeare's drama in relation to early
sources, I've provided a link below to a 1597 treatise on witchcraft by
King James and short passages about Macbeth from Raphael Holinshed's
Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (first published in 1577).
You'll note "Makbeth" and "Banquho"--perhaps reminding you that spelling
was not yet standardized! Also, below are links to just a just a few
critical essays for students interested in testing the critical waters.
1) HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Holinshed's Chronicles (short passage related to Macbeth)
Holinshed (woodcuts and excerpts from "The Historie of Scotland")
King James, Daemonologie (1597)
2) ONLINE ARTICLES
Macbeth and the Background of Jesuitical Equivocation. Frank L. Huntley. PMLA, Vol. 79, No. 4. (Sep., 1964), pp. 390-400. Stable URL
"Unreal Mockery": Unreason and the Problem of Spectacle in Macbeth. Karin S. Coddon. ELH, Vol. 56, No. 3. (Autumn, 1989), pp. 485-501. Stable URL
Lady MacBeth and the Daemonologie of Hysteria. Joanna Levin. ELH, Vol. 69, No. 1. (Spring, 2002), pp. 21-55.
(if above link doesn't work, search through "J Stor" linked on our course website)
Other works of interest:
Reginald Scott, Discovery of Witchcraft (1584).