Page:Macbeth (1918) Yale.djvu/115

Macbeth the three weird sisters and the one witch into one group of three persons, whom he calls sometimes 'witches' and sometimes 'weird sisters'; and all their part in the play except the bare fact of their prophecies is of Shakespeare's invention. It is noteworthy, also, that according to Holinshed Macbeth reigned seventeen years, and that for the first ten years he ruled worthily and well; but that then he became uneasy about Banquo and caused him to be murdered, and the rest of his reign was cruel and tyrannical.

Several of the most striking incidents of the play are wholly original with Shakespeare; among others, the knocking at the gate and the drunken porter, the appearance of Banquo's ghost, and the sleep-walking. For the chief characters in the play, Shakespeare found only meagre hints in Holinshed; and such things as the soliloquies of Macbeth and the talks between Macbeth and his wife are entirely new. The conversation between Malcolm and Macduff at the English court, on the other hand, is largely a close paraphrase from Holinshed.

The following extract contains Holinshed's account of the murder of Duncan:

'The woords of the three weird sisters also (of whom before ye haue heard) greatlie incouraged him herevnto, but speciallie his wife lay sore vpon him to attempt the thing, as she that was verie ambitious, burning in vnquenchable desire to beare the name of a queene. At length therefore, communicating his purposed intent with his trustie friends, amongst whome Banquho was the chiefest, vpon confidence of their promised aid, he slue the king at Enuerns, or (as some say) at Botgosuane, in the sixt yeare of his