The Shakespeare Code

(It’s best to read Parts ONE and TWO first)

THE GEAT WITCH FINALE!!

STEWART

Picture the first production of Macbeth at Holyrood house…….

…..with King James in attendance, sitting in state….

Enter the witches round a bubbling cauldron………

…….constructing a destructive spell……..

…….just like the Satanical conspirators of North Berwick….

But unlike King James, the witches have unleashed something in Macbeth that was lurking there anyway…..

FIRST WITCH (Amanda Walker)

Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.

SECOND WITCH (Kate Godfrey)

Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.

THIRD WITCH (Karen Little)

Harpier cries ‘Tis time, ’tis time’.

FIRST WITCH

Round about the cauldron go;

In the poison’d entrails throw.

Toad, that under cold stone

Days and nights has thirty-one

Swelter’d venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble

SECOND WITCH

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble…………..

THIRD WITCH

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,

Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf

Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,

Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,

Liver of blaspheming Jew,

Gall of goat, and slips of yew

Silver’d in the moon’s eclipse,

Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,

Make the gruel thick and slab:

Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,

For the ingredients of our cauldron.

ALL

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

SECOND WITCH

Cool it with a baboon’s blood,

Then the charm is firm and goo

By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.

Open, locks, Whoever knocks…

STEWART

Macbeth arrives to consult the witches…………

……….exactly the way Queen Elizabeth used to ride to Mortlake to consult her own wizard, John Dee…

MACBETH (Mike Burnside)

How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! What is’t you do?

ALL

A deed without a name.

MACBETH

I conjure you, by that which you profess,

Howe’er you come to know it, answer me:

Though you untie the winds and let them fight

Against the churches; though the yesty waves

Confound and swallow navigation up;

Answer me to what I ask you.

FIRST WITCH

Speak.

SECOND WITCH

Demand.

THIRD WITCH

We’ll answer.

FIRST WITCH

Say, if thou’dst rather hear it from our mouths,

Or from our masters?

MACBETH

Call ’em; let me see ’em.

STEWART

And so the witches summon up their familiar spirits, just as Agnes Sampson did….

FIRST WITCH

Pour in sow’s blood, that hath eaten

Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten

From the murderer’s gibbet throw

Into the flame.

ALL

Come, high or low;

Thyself and office deftly show….

STEWART

A floating head appears – just as had been reported to James before his mother’s execution….

MACBETH

Tell me, thou unknown power,–

FIRST WITCH

He knows thy thought:

Hear his speech, but say thou nought.

STEWART

The floating head utters a prophecy which the play reveals to be completely true:

FIRST APPARITION

Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff;

Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough

MACBETH

Whate’er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks;

Thou hast harp’d my fear aright: but one word more,–

STEWART

The witches then show their power over Macbet……

…….just as Agnes showed her power over King James….

FIRST WITCH

He will not be commanded: here’s another,

More potent than the first.

STEWART

The second apparition appears – a bloody Child.

SECOND APPARITION

Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!

MACBETH

Had I three ears, I’d hear thee.

SECOND APPARITION

Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn

The power of man, for none of woman born

Shall harm Macbeth.

STEWART

The bloody child represents Macduff torn from his mother’s womb!

Another witches’ prophesy which the play proves correct…

MACBETH

Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?

But yet I’ll make assurance double sure,

And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live;

That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder.

STEWART

The Third Apparition appears: a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand….

Macbeth will soon discover who this is….

MACBETH

What is this That rises like the issue of a king,

And wears upon his baby-brow the round

And top of sovereignty?

ALL

Listen, but speak not to’t.

THIRD APPARITION

Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:

Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until

Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill

Shall come against him.

Again a prophecy that James sees enacted before his eyes….

MACBETH

That will never be! Who can impress the forest, bid the tree

Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good!

Rebellion’s head, rise never till the wood

Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth

Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath

To time and mortal custom.

Yet my heart Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art

Can tell so much: shall Banquo’s issue ever

Reign in this kingdom?

ALL

Seek to know  no more!

MACBETH

I will be satisfied: deny me this,

And an eternal curse fall on you!

(Witches laugh)

Let me know.

Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise is this?

FIRST WITCH

Show!

SECOND WITCH

Show!

THIRD WITCH

Show!

ALL

Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;

Come like shadows, so depart!

STEWART

A procession of Kings begins…

Now Macbeth discovers who the child with the crown was –

…………the start of the Stuart line!

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…..

STEWART

The eighth King holds a great mirror so it reflects King James, sitting in state in the audience…..

MACBETH

Some I see

That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry……

STEWART

The orbs of Scotland AND England –

…….and the single coronation sceptre of Scotland……….

…… and the double coronation sceptres of England…

MACBETH

Horrible sight! Now, I see, ’tis true;

For the blood-bolter’d Banquo smiles upon me,

And points at them for his.

STEWART

The apparitions vanish.

MACBETH

What, is this so?

FIRST WITCH

Ay, sir, all this is so: but why

Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?

Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites,

And show the best of our delights:

I’ll charm the air to give a sound,

While you perform your antic round:

That this great king may kindly say,

Our duties did his welcome pay.

STEWART

The witches dance – on exactly the same spot in Holyrood house where the Berwick witches danced – and then vanish.

In every prophesy they are proved to be right…

…..as Agnes Sampson was….

Invade England!……

The witches are saying……

You will establish a line of Kings that will exist unto the end of time!

But, of course, James DIDN’T invade England. He was far too canny for that.

He knew in a few years Elizabeth would die and the crown would become his without a struggle….

So Shakespeare needn’t have bothered writing this play at all…

But I’m awfully glad he did!

BOWS

ENCORE

For an encore, the ENTIRE COMPANY recited The Night I appeared as Macbeth

 ……..by William Hargreaves…..

………with additions by Fenton Gray.…..

MIKE BURNSIDE

For most of my life I confess it

I’ve had no desire for the stage

But one fatal night I was asked to recite

Gadzooks I was quickly the rage!

AMANDA WALKER

I thought that Macbeth was the one role

That would certainly make my career,

And my friends said ‘Of course you must do it,

As long as you don’t do it here!’

KAREN LITTLE

So I went, hired a hall,

Then gave a performance that shattered them all…

STEWART TROTTER

I acted so tragic the house rose like magic

The audience yelled….

MIKE

You’re sublime!

STEWART

They made me a present of Mornington Crescent

They threw it a brick at a time

KATE

The crowd filled the air with their clatter and chatter

And threw an assortment of vegetable matter.

They queered me, they cheered me,

And they cheered at the scene of my death

I got no ‘Hosannahs’ – just eggs and bananas

ALL

The night I appeared as Macbeth!

MIKE

The play tho’ ascribed to Bill Shakespeare,

To me lacked both polish and tone

So I threw in some bits of some popular hits

And a few comic lines of my own

AMANDA

Unfortunately the director

Decided the play was too long

So he forced me to cut out my clog dance

And half of my second act song!

KAREN

And the flowers! What a feast!

They threw them in bag-fulls – self-raising and yeast….

STEWART

I acted so tragic the house rose like magic

An evening of mayhem and thrills,

My tender emotion caused such a commotion

The Dress Circle wrote out their wills.

KATE

They hooted like hounds and they whistled like crickets

Especially those who had paid for their tickets,

The witches, were in stitches

And five of the band met their death

I cried ‘Lay on Macduff’

They cried:

 

STEWART

Lay orf! Enuff!

ALL

The night I appeared as Macbeth!

THE END

 

 Brothers and Sister of The Code who enjoyed this might like previous Grosvenor Chapel talks….

(1.) Shakespeare, Love Politics and Religion

A Series of Three Talks which cover the Life and Career of William Shakespeare.

(2.) How Shakespeare’s Dark Lady found God

A Talk which deals with Aemelia Lanyer – Shakespeare’s capricious, dark-skinned mistress who, The Code argues, was the secret author of the satire against men, Willobie his Avisa.

(3.)  Fairie Lore and Roman Catholicism in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

A Talk which shows how Fairie Lore was a coded reference to Roman Catholicisim in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

And here is Fenton Gray…..

……. performing his adaptation of ‘The Night I appeared as Macbeth.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIJdDNwvauI