# What's the story on the curse of Macbeth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [October 12, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476 "2007-10-12T15:29:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/21 "2007-10-16T15:03:00Z")
From the report - > [@](#): > > • In the first production of Macbeth, on August 7, 1606, Hal Berridge, the boy playing Lady Macbeth, became feverish and died backstage. Tradition says that Shakespeare had to take over the part. (One version holds that Shakespeare played the role badly, and later chewed out his fellow actors for mentioning “that play,” thus beginning the tradition of not referring to it by name.) As Gabriel Egan has pointed out in an article that first appeared in _Notes and Queries_ in 2002, all this doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny. [‘The early seventeenth-century origin of the _Macbeth_ superstition’](http://www.gabrielegan.com/publications/Egan2002k.htm) And while Egan’s point that the Brome and Heywood passage is an allusion to _Macbeth_ seems fair enough, one could argue that it doesn’t actually amount to evidence that the play itself was already by then thought to be cursed. Perhaps we ought to ‘be tempted to assign the origin of the superstition about _Macbeth_ to the nineteenth-century theatre industry’, after all. Also, how about some hard evidence that ‘King James I banned the play for about five years after he first saw it, in 1606’? ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/22 "2007-10-16T15:52:16Z")
[QUOTE=APB] Also, how about some hard evidence that ‘King James I banned the play for about five years after he first saw it, in 1606’? [/QUOTE] Yes, I’d like to see the evidence for that–that’s one that I’d never heard before. Upon googling I find it in a bunch of spots, none with decent-sounding attribution. It strikes me as odd because James was nuts for witches and the legend is that the play was written for him (it seems odd that we have only ever called this a legend, which leads me to think that there may be even less hard evidence for the supposed banning–if he banned it, we could be sure at least that he had seen it). I recently read Asimov’s Shakespeare and he speculates in the other direction–that James was likely to have “learnedly” discussed witches and theology between the acts. The stuff I have read, older (either because I read it long ago during my schooling or because I read older stuff recently) definitly does not mention a banning. Is this a recent addition to the legend canon? ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/23 "2007-10-16T16:44:37Z")
If the King had banned the play, perhaps the last line would have been “Lay off MacDuff!” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/24 "2007-10-16T16:53:50Z")
[QUOTE=Dex] Macbeth is also Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, and thus somewhat cheaper to put on; one theory suggests that when finances get tight, companies will slap together a production of Macbeth, and during the general cutting of corners safety gets compromised. [/QUOTE] I used to have a TD who would say, “Don’t worry about quality; it’s only supposed for four weeks, and if it fails catastrophically, they’re only actors. We can get more.” ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/25 "2007-10-16T18:04:04Z")
I’ll amend the Staff Report to reflect that the Hal Berrige story is likely mythical. Thanks! On the banning by King J, I’ll try to see if I can find some more documentation, but my life is kinda hectic just now, so it will have to wait a few weeks. I used several different sources (books) that seemed to be reasonably historical; however, it’s hard to know what’s what and what came from where, and digging seems to have got me into some circularity (e.g., A copies from B without citation, so it looks like they’re independent scholarly sources… a serious problem with internet research. ) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/26 "2007-10-16T18:45:55Z")
The woman who directed the Macbeth that I stagemanaged says that the bad luck stories come up when they started to cut the Hecate scenes entirely. (we did cut the singing cat in ours) However with Hecate back in the play, things run smoothly. I’ll ask her about the King James. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/27 "2007-10-16T18:48:22Z")
Great column, **CKDH**! Sir Ian McKellen, who was appearing in the Scottish play, was pounded to within an inch of his life - including being hit by lightning and having the theater sign fall on top of him - when Bart repeatedly said the play’s name on _The Simpsons_. It’s also the play being performed at the beginning and end of the _Star Trek_ episode “The Conscience of the King” (title taken from _Hamlet_, as it happens), and you could say it’s unlucky for both the father and the daughter who lead the Karidian Company of Players. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/28 "2007-10-16T19:15:38Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] It’s also the play being performed at the beginning and end of the _Star Trek_ episode “The Conscience of the King” (title taken from _Hamlet_, as it happens), and you could say it’s unlucky for both the father and the daughter who lead the Karidian Company of Players. [/QUOTE] Not quite. Karidian’s troupe performs a scene from _Macbeth_ at the beginning of the episode, and a scene from _Hamlet_ at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/29 "2007-10-16T19:51:10Z")
Right you are. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/30 "2007-10-16T22:36:29Z")
> [@](#): > > So, while I’m delighted to have you here, and glad to hear your theories/suggestions, they were already covered. Actually, I’ve read that report (it’s a very interesting one) and I don’t think it did cover my suggestion that some plays, including the Scottish play, are harder to produce competently - they’re either wonderful or awful. If I missed that section, or if my suggestion isn’t robust enough to count, I apologise. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/31 "2007-10-16T23:04:52Z")
If I can blow my own horn, there was a thread some time ago started by yours truly on [this very subject](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=268207) when I first read of the real witches cursing the play aspect. **CKDH** hisself said it was being considered for a staff report. Three years plus is a while for it to steep, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![rocketman938](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a587f6/32.png) [@rocketman938](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocketman938)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2007, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/32 "2007-10-17T04:29:38Z")
I’m not sure what the rules are but it sure looks like Cecil has been plagiarized. This website has his reply verbatim. [http://theroundy.typepad.com/my\_weblog/2007/10/the-curse-of-th.html](http://theroundy.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/the-curse-of-th.html) Feel free to sue but I want 10% for a finder’s fee. ---
**Author:** ![dankravetz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dankravetz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dankravetz)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2007, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/33 "2007-10-17T05:42:40Z")
One of the most chilling examples of the Macbeth curse occurred during a performance of Verdi’s opera version of the play at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1988. An 82-year-old opera fan fell to his death from the balcony of the house during intermission, an apparent suicide. The remainder of the performance, which was being broadcast live on radio, was cancelled. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2007, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/34 "2007-10-17T11:35:30Z")
Thanks, **rocketman938** , I’ve notified the READER authorities. Sheeesh. I guess it’s sort of a compliment, in a screwey way. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2007, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/35 "2007-10-17T15:28:45Z")
[QUOTE=C K Dexter Haven] I’ll amend the Staff Report to reflect that the Hal Berrige story is likely mythical. Thanks! On the banning by King J, I’ll try to see if I can find some more documentation, but my life is kinda hectic just now, so it will have to wait a few weeks. I used several different sources (books) that seemed to be reasonably historical; however, it’s hard to know what’s what and what came from where, and digging seems to have got me into some circularity (e.g., A copies from B without citation, so it looks like they’re independent scholarly sources… a serious problem with internet research. ) [/QUOTE] I entirely understand. My query was a bit unfair, in that I’m fully aware that trying to trace such a claim back through the secondary literature can be just about the most difficult and potentially soul-destroying type of historical research. Unless everyone carefully cites their sources, which, of course, they don’t, you can never be sure what you might have missed. Especially when dealing with an historiography as vast as that about Shakespeare over the past four centuries. Just a couple of observations. Schoenbaum’s _Documentary Life_ makes no mention of a royal ban, even to discount the idea, so the chances of there being any ‘hard’ evidence are likely to be nil. Moreover, if it was true, such a claim would surely be a key piece of evidence for the dating of the play. It has often been suggested that _Macbeth_ was written for the visit of James’s brother-in-law, Christian IV, to London in 1606. Convincing evidence that James saw the play, let alone that he had a view on it, would be an important angle on that debate. But this never gets mentioned when the experts discuss possible dates. Why? Presumably because that evidence is less than convincing. As it is, there is general agreement that, apart from the possible literary allusions by Middleton and Beaumont, the earliest undoubted reference to the play is [Simon Forman’s diary entry of 1610](http://shakespeare.about.com/library/weekly/aa062200b.htm). Any claim that James had banned the play must be later. Very much later would be my hunch. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/36 "2007-10-18T13:48:10Z")
Hmmm. OK, I’m going to amend the Staff Report again, since I won’t have time to go digging for a while. Thanks for the comments. Note to self: merely finding the same story in multiple sources does not constitute verification. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/37 "2007-10-19T16:40:19Z")
There’s also the point that in the scene where the witches conjure up Banquo’s ghost for Macbeth, Banquo points to a long line of kings that descend from him, and rule over all of Britain. That has normally been considered a compliment to King James, since Banquo was one of his ancestors. I would be surprised that he would have banned a play that attested to his long royal lineage. [Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1](http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html) > [@](#): > > **First Witch** > > Show! > > **Second Witch** > Show! > > **Third Witch** > > Show! > > **ALL** > > Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; > Come like shadows, so depart! > > _A show of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; GHOST OF BANQUO following_ > > **MACBETH** > > Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo: down! > Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair, > Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. > A third is like the former. Filthy hags! > Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes! > What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom? > Another yet! A seventh! I’ll see no more: > And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass > Which shows me many more; and **some I see > That two-fold balls and treble scepters carry:** > Horrible sight! Now, I see, 'tis true; > For the blood-bolter’d Banquo smiles upon me, > And points at them for his. > > _Apparitions vanish_ Ther reference to the treble sceptres is usually taken to mean that some of the later kings being shown will rule over the three kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland - a comforting prediction that had come true in the person of James VI/I, whose lineage would stretch out to the “crack of doom” - a prediction that so far is still on track, since Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of James (albeit not according to strict rules of primogeniture). ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/38 "2007-10-19T17:31:16Z")
Not to mention the part with the English Doctor who tells of the English King who cures the sick because he is God’s annointed. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/39 "2007-10-19T18:31:22Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] Not to mention the part with the English Doctor who tells of the English King who cures the sick because he is God’s annointed. [/QUOTE] The practice of resorting to the Royal Touch to cure scrofula continued until George I dropped it as “too Catholic”. The particular king in question would St Edward the Confessor. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476/40 "2007-10-19T18:36:01Z")
[QUOTE=Northern Piper] That has normally been considered a compliment to King James, since Banquo was one of his ancestors. [/QUOTE] Or at least was reputed to be. In actual history, the fathers of what would later be called the House of Stuart appear to have been living in Brittany. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-the-curse-of-macbeth/422476.md?page=3)