Before becoming Shakespeare's tormented tyrant, Macbeth was a man of flesh and blood: a king of Scotland who really existed, reigned for about seventeen years and was not the monster that the theater consecrated.
A king of flesh and blood
The historical Macbeth lived in the 11th century and ruled Scotland for almost two decades, a relatively long and stable reign by the standards of the time. There is no record of the paranoid tyrant killing sleeping guests. The portrait we know is, to a large extent, a dramatic creation, not a historical report.
The source: the Holinshed Chronicles
Shakespeare didn't invent it out of thin air. He found Macbeth in the Holinshed Chronicles, a vast history of England, Scotland and Ireland published in the 16th century, which was his main source for several plays. From there he took names, episodes and the skeleton of the plot, and then cut, compressed and rewrote what he needed to build a tragedy.
Shakespeare found Macbeth in the story and turned him into the darkest mirror of the human soul.
Why change history?
For two reasons. The dramatic: a long and administrative reign does not yield a tragedy; the crime, the guilt and the fall, yes. And the political: Shakespeare was writing for King James I, a descendant of Banquo, and needed a play that spoke to the fear of regicide recently awakened by the Gunpowder Plot. The historical Macbeth was the raw material; the tragedy was the work.
Historical or fictional, what matters
Knowing that there was a real Macbeth does not diminish the play, on the contrary. It shows what literature does with history: it doesn't copy it, it interprets it. Shakespeare took an ordinary king and turned him into a universal study in ambition and fear. The Macbeth that survives is not the one of the chronicles, it is the one of human consciousness.
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Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, on video
From the historical king to the tragic character, the play analyzed scene by scene on the Nous.
Watch the class on YouTubeFrequently asked questions
Did Shakespeare's Macbeth really exist?
Yes. Macbeth was an eleventh-century Scottish king who reigned for about seventeen years. Shakespeare's character is a dramatic recreation, very different from the historical king, who was not the bloodthirsty tyrant of the play.
Where did Shakespeare find the story of Macbeth?
In Holinshed's Chronicles, a history of England, Scotland, and Ireland published in the 16th century, which was Shakespeare's main source for his history plays. He cut and dramatized the material freely.
Why did Shakespeare change the real story of Macbeth?
For dramatic and political reasons: I was writing to King James I and needed a tragedy about regicide and guilt. He turned a relatively long reign into a dark, compressed tale of ambition and fear.
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