Macbeth (play)

The play opens with a thunderous scene with thunder and lightning, the three witches-sisters decide where their meeting with Macbeth will be. In the next scene, a wounded warrior reports to the king of Scotland Duncan that his generals Macbeth and Banco had defeated troops from Norway and Ireland led by the rebel MacDonald. The noble Macbeth is praised for his courage and courage.

Scene change. Macbeth and Banco talk, including discussing the weather and victory (“I don’t remember a harsher and more beautiful day”).

Macbeth and the Witches , painting by Henry Fuseli (1741-1825)

They meet witches who give them their predictions. The first praises Macbeth as a Glamis tan (the Scottish noble title that Macbeth was endowed with by birth), the second as tan, and the third that he will even be the new king. While Macbeth is thoughtful, they tell their predictions to Banco: "he will not be king, but he will become the ancestor of a whole dynasty of kings." Then the witches quietly disappear, and instead an emissary from King Ross appears and announces Macbeth’s assignment of the title of Cavdor tan (the previous tan was convicted of treason to execution) - the first prediction is fulfilled. Naturally, Macbeth immediately appears to become king.

Macbeth gave his wife predictions. When King Duncan decided to stay at Macbeth Castle (according to legend Kavdor Castle ) near Inverness , Macbeth's wife wanted to kill him to guarantee the throne to her husband. Macbeth doubted the need for regicide, but his wife convinced him to agree with the plan.

Macbeth was so shocked by the perfect murder that his wife took everything else upon herself - placing a bloodied dagger to the sleeping servant.

The next morning, Lennox and Macduff, Tan Fife, arrive. Macbeth escorts them to the king, and Macduf discovers a corpse. In fake rage, Macbeth kills the servant, preventing them from making excuses. However, Macduff nevertheless immediately begins to suspect Macbeth, without giving, however, a look.

Fearing for their lives, the sons of King Duncan flee: Malcolm - to England, and Donalbane - to Ireland. The flight of the heirs rightfully falls under suspicion, and Macbeth assumes the throne of Scotland.

Despite this success, Macbeth reflects on the third prophecy given by Banco. He invites him to a feast, but when he finds out that Banco and his younger son, Flins, are already going for a horse ride that evening, he hires killers. Banco was killed, but Flyns managed to escape.

At the banquet, the ghost of Banco suddenly appears and sits on the throne of Macbeth. Only Macbeth himself can see him. The other guests react in surprise to how Macbeth screams at the empty throne - Lady Macbeth orders them to leave. Alarmed Macbeth again goes to the witches.

They evoke three ghosts with three warning predictions: “Beware of Macduff,” “None of those born to women will harm Macbeth” and “We save fate from all enemies Macbeth until the Birnam Forest enters battle on Dunsinan Hill” (cited translated by M. Lozinsky ). While Macduff is in exile in England (planning to go to war with Macbeth along with Malcolm), Macbeth kills everyone in his castle, including Lady MacDuff and the three sons of MacDuff.

Lady Macbeth is gnawing at this time - she walks in a dream and tries to wash off imaginary blood from her hands, all the while talking about terrible things.

Malcolm and Macduff, meanwhile, having gathered an army, plan to invade Scotland and overthrow the "tyrant" of Macbeth. Macbeth sees that many of his nobles (tans) left him. Malcolm, Macduff and Siward surround the Dunsinan Castle. Their warriors gather tree branches to mask their location in the Birnam Forest; the servant in a panic tells Macbeth that the forest began to move. The second prophecy has come true.

Meanwhile, Macbeth pronounces the famous nihilistic monologue “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow,” upon learning of the death of Lady Macbeth (Macbeth concludes that this is suicide).

The battle breaks out, Siward Jr. is killed, Macduff converges with Macbeth. Macbeth says he is not afraid of Macduff and that he cannot be killed by any man born of a woman. Then Macduf replies that he is " ejected from the mother’s womb with a knife ." Macbeth finally understands the last prophecy, but late. The battle ends with Macduf chopping off Macbeth's head, fulfilling a prophecy.

In the final scene, Malcolm is crowned. It is believed that the witches' prophecy regarding Banco is fulfilled, because the real king of England, James I of the Scottish Stuart house, was considered to be Shakespeare's audience as a descendant of Banco. There is a direct hint of this in the text of Shakespeare, when Macbeth sees the ghost of Banco and a number of his descendant kings; the eighth of them holds a mirror where the new kings are visible “with a three-barrel scepter, with a double power” (since starting from Jacob I, the eighth king from the Stuart’s house , the Scottish monarchs also began to rule England and Ireland).

• Duncan , King of Scotland
  • Malcolm , Duncan's eldest son
  • Donalbane , youngest son of Duncan
• Macbeth , leader of the Duncan forces
  • , his wife
• Banco , Duncan's army leader
  • Flyns , son of Banco
• Macduff , Scottish nobleman
  • Lady Macduff , his wife
  • Macduff's son
• Lennox , Ross , Mentis , Angus , Caitnes , Scottish nobles
• Siward , Earl of Northumberland , leader of the English army
  • young Siward , his son.
• Seyton , Macbeth Officer
• Hecate
• Semuel
• Three witches .

In the theater community, it is considered a bad sign to pronounce the name of the play out loud in the theater. Instead, actors and other members of the theater troupe use the Scottish play euphemism . ^[one]

The first translation of Macbeth into Russian was made in 1802 by A. I. Turgenev . The conscientious author of the translation admitted that the work failed him: "he is generally weak." Conscious of the incomparability of his and Shakespeare's Macbeth, the translator did not find a better way to destroy the translation.

Almost all of Shakespeare's translations made in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century are made in prose from the French and German versions. In 1827, M.P. Pogodin wrote: "Is it not a shame for Russian literature that we still do not have any of his tragedies translated from the original?" It came to incidents: in 1830, A. G. Rotchev entitled the translation of Schiller's alteration of Macbeth as follows: Macbeth. The tragedy of Shakespeare. From the works of Schiller . "

Among the Russian writers of that time, perhaps the most zealous admirer of Shakespeare was V.K. Küchelbeker . During his stay in the Shlisselburg Fortress (June 1826 - October 1827), Küchelbecker took up the English language to read Shakespeare in the original. In August - September 1828, the historical chronicle Richard II was translated in draft form. In November - December of the same year, Kuchelbecker translated Macbeth. Subsequently, already in exile (that is, after December 1835), the poet radically revised the translation of the first three acts of the tragedy. ^[2]

M.P. Vronchenko (1802-1855) - a military surveyor and geographer by profession, the first in Russia decided to recreate Shakespeare's plays in Russian in the true form, without arbitrary changes that distinguished previous remake translations. For "Macbeth," Vronchenko began in 1828, however, due to official studies, work on the translation was delayed, the translation was completed only in 1836. In the same year, the translator introduced the tragedy into dramatic censorship, where it was banned. The image of regicide contained in Macbeth made Shakespeare’s tragedy particularly suspicious in the eyes of the tsar’s censors, and during the reign of Nicholas I, her productions were repeatedly prohibited. ^[3] .

Subsequently, Macbeth was repeatedly translated into Russian, including A. Kroneberg (1847), S. Solovyov (1934) ^[4] , A. Radlov (1935), B. Pasternak (30s of the XX century) , M. Lozinsky (c. 1949), Yu. Korneev (1960), M. Verbina (2005), V. Gandelsman (2010), G. Segal (2013), A. Chernov (2015).

Literature

• The title and plot of the story by Nikolai Leskov and the opera by Dmitry Shostakovich “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk County” , as well as numerous screen versions of Leskov’s story, are sent to Shakespeare’s play.
• The title of The Sound and the Fury ( 1929 ) by American writer William Faulkner refers to the lines of Macbeth: “Life is a story told by an idiot, filled with noise and fury and meaning nothing” (Act V , scene 5).
• The title of the story “ Fire, Burn!” "( Eng. Fire, Burn!, 1957 ) by British detective writer John Dixon Carr is a quote from a witch song in Act IV of Macbeth.
• Eugene Ionesco in the play "Macbeth", which is an absurd arrangement of Shakespeare's play, partially uses the plot and some characters.
• Mikhail Volokhov in the play "Macbeth Chronicles" uses the Shakespearean bloody theme of the struggle for power of "social celestials . "
• Terry Pratchett ’s novel “The Real Sisters ” is full of allusions to “Macbeth”, practically it is his arrangement in a fantasy vein.
• The Prophetic Sisters, the three witches from the play, are mentioned in Stephen King's novel, The Long Walk .
• In the work of A. Sapkowski “ Tower of the Jesters ”, one of the three witches confuses Reinevan and Macbeth.
• In the poem of the Russian poet Konstantin Sluchevsky, “Remember you want to kill ?!” there is an image of the character of the play: a heavy memory “secretly make his way to the banquet / And shadow will sit at the table.”
• The heroine of the play is easily guessed in the figurative drawing of the poem of the Russian poet Vladislav Khodasevich, “Ladies washed their hands for soaps ...” (1922).
• In Agatha Christie’s novel “The White Horse” Villa (The Pale Horse), the protagonist Mark Easterbrook, in the fourth chapter with his companion Hermia Radcliffe and other characters, discusses the production of Macbeth, in particular, the images of witches.
• Bubbles of the Earth is an expression found in Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth”: “The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them: —whither are they vanish'd? ...” (in the translation of B. L. Pasternak: "The earth blows bubbles in the same way, // Like water. Appear on the surface // And spread out"). It is this expression that Alexander Blok chose to headline the first cycle of the second volume of collections of his own works.
• The image of the “bubbles of the earth” is played out in a poem about premonitions of the tragic repetition of the Russian history of Inna Lisnyanskaya “I write to anyone, because I myself am nobody ...”.
• In Yu Nesby's novel Macbeth, the action of the play, with certain assumptions, is carried over into our time. The names of the main characters are saved. The novel was written as part of the Shakespeare XXI project on the modernization of Shakespearean plays.

Music

• “The Real Sisters” is also mentioned in the Dead Celebrity Status song “Somebody Turn The Lights Off”.
• The plot of the play formed the basis of the album "Thane To The Throne" by the heavy metal band Jag Panzer .
• The 2002 Rebellion album is called Shakespeare's Macbeth - A Tragedy In Steel.
• Macbeth is a gothic metal band from Milan , Italy , formed in the summer of 1995 under the name “Land of Dark Souls”. They released one demo and four albums.
• Under the influence of Shakespeare's play, the ninth studio album of the American rock band Marilyn Manson , Born Villain, was written. At the beginning of Overneath the Path of Misery, Marilyn Manson recites Macbeth’s monologue “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow ...”

Cinema and television

• In the American short silent film "When Macbeth Came to Snakeville" / When Macbeth Came to Snakeville (1914), the play is played out in a comedy form.
• In several episodes (2nd, end of 9th, 10th) of the second season of the anime series “ Horizon on the Void Frontier ” Thomas Shakespeare (in the story - a student at the Oxford Academy and a famous writer in England) in the battles with Tusan Nashinbar (secretary Musashi Ariadust Academy) stage the production of Macbeth, thus making his opponent a participant in the tragedy (2012).
• Macbeth is a character in the animated series " Gargoyles ." At the same time, in a number of episodes, there are references to a Shakespeare play.
• The BBC channel in 2005 released the mini-series Shakespeare in a New Way ( ShakespeaRe-Told ), the second episode of which was a free adaptation of Macbeth, starring James McAvoy . The plot has been postponed at present, and events unfold around a famous restaurant owned by Duncan.

• 1611 - the very first production at the Globe Theater, London . Macbeth - R. Burbage .
• 1976, 1978 - The Royal Shakespeare Company at the Second Stage Theater ( Stratford-upon-Avon ) and Donmar Warehouse ( Covent Garden , London ), directed by Trevor Nunn . Macbeth - Ian McKellen , Lady Macbeth - Judy Dench . The performance was highly praised by critics. ^[5] Judy Dench won her first Lawrence Olivier Award for her performance. In 1979, Nunn made a television film in his production . ^[6]
• 2013 - St. Peter's Church ( Manchester ), directed by Kenneth Branagh . Macbeth - Kenneth Branagh , Lady Macbeth - Alex Kingston , Macduff - Ray Firon , Lady MacDuff - Rosalie Craig . The performance, staged as part of the Manchester International Theater Festival, took place in a devoid of consecrated church status: spectators sat on benches, and the action took place along the nave with real rain and battle scenes. The production was broadcast in the framework of the project " National Theater Live " ^[7]

Performances in Russia

In Russia, the play until 1860 was banned for production.

• September 27, 1862 - first production in Russia ( Aldridge tour with the Maly Theater troupe, on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater; Macbeth - Aldridge , Lady Macbeth - N. Rykalova )
• 1866 - Petersburg German troupe.
• 1890 - the first production entirely in Russian; Maly Theater (translation by S. Yuryev ; Macbeth - A. Yuzhin , Lady Macbeth - G. Fedotov ). Among the subsequent productions of the Maly Theater: 1896 , Macbeth - A. Yuzhin , Lady Macbeth - M. Ermolova , Duncan - Anat. Lensky , Macduf - K. Rybakov ; 1899 , Malcolm - A. Ostuzhev ; 1914 , Lady Macbeth - N. Smirnova .
• 1900 - Theater of the Literary and Art Society, Petersburg (Macbeth - V. Dalmatov , Lady Macbeth - L. Yavorskaya ).
• 1906 - Vasilyeostrovsky Theater, Petersburg (Macbeth - V. Gardin ).

Performances on provincial and metropolitan Russian stages (the play was staged quite rarely): among the performers are A.K. Lyubsky , E.F. Pavlenkov, I.M. Shuvalov (Macbeth); A.V.Daryal , A.A. Paskhalova (Lady Macbeth).

• August 23, 1918 - Petrograd, the Ciniselli Circus (dir. A. Granovsky ; Macbeth - Yu. Yuriev , Lady Macbeth - M. Andreeva ).
• 1940 - Leningrad Drama Theater. Pushkin (dir. L. Vivien ; Macbeth - N. Simonov , Lady Macbeth - E. Zhikhareva )
• 1955 - Maly Theater , Moscow (dir. K. Zubov , E. Velikhov , thin. Volkov, comp. A. Khachaturian ; Macbeth - M. Tsarev , Lady Macbeth - E. Gogolev )
• 1957 — Рижский русский театр, реж. С. Радлов ; Макбет — Ю. Юровский ).
• 1982 Саратовский академический драматический театр им. Карла Маркса постановка Александра Дзекуна
• 27 марта 1995 — Большой драматический театр имени Г. А. Товстоногова , Санкт-Петербург (постановка Т. Чхеидзе ; Леди Макбет — Алиса Фрейндлих ).
• 1986 — Москва, ЦАТСА, Реж. И. Унгуряну.
• 2008 — НГАДТ « Красный факел », Режиссёр-постановщик — Тимофей Кулябин, Макбет — Константин Телегин.
• 2012 — Самарский академический театр драмы им. М. Горького , Режиссёр-постановщик — Альгирдас Латенас (Литва); Дункан — Владимир Гальченко; Макбет — Даниил Богомолов; Леди Макбет — Нина Лоленко, Наталья Ионова; Банко — Георгий Кузубов.
• 2012 — 13 октября состоялась премьера в театр имени Ленсовета « Макбет. Кино. » Режиссёр Юрий Бутусов . (Макбет — Иван Бровин, Леди Макбет — Лаура Пицхелаури , Дункан — Виталий Куликов , Банко — Григорий Чабан, Флинс — Роман Кочержевский). Юрий Бутусов был удостоен Специальной премии жюри драматического театра и театра кукол Российской национальной театральной премии «Золотая Маска» «За поиск уникального сценического языка».
• 2019 - декабрь 2018 - январь 2019. Москва, Театр на Малой Бронной. Режиссер Антон Яковлев. В ролях Настасья Самбурская и Даниил Страхов.
• ноябрь 2018. Москва, театр им. М.Н. Ермоловой. Режиссер и исполнитель главной роли - Олег Меньшиков.

Пьеса экранизировалась и адаптировалась для кино десятки раз ^[8] . Including:

• Bubbles of the earth

• Yutkevich S. From Citizen Kane to Sir John Falstaff, or a Brief History of the Greatness and Fall of Mr. Orson Welles // Shakespeare and Cinema . - M .: Science , 1973 . - S. 71-113.
• Yutkevich S. Masks of Akira Kurosawa // Shakespeare and Cinema. - M .: Science , 1973 . - S. 114—121.

• “Macbeth” in the Maxim Moshkov Library
• Macbeth in Russian translations in the Russian Shakespeare database
• (English) Project Gutenberg: Macbeth - ASCII text version from Gutenberg Project
• (English) Classic Literature Library - HTML Version
• (English) shakespeareNet - Macbeth. Comments Act by Act
• (English) Photographs from Macbeth’s performances in London and Stratford 1960-2000
• "Macbeth" translated by Andrei Chernov