An assortment of separate editions of Macbeth with extracts from other publications, mostly relating to specific productions of the play.
Simon Forman (1552–1611), ‘astrologer and quack-doctor’ (DNB), ‘astrologer and medical practitioner’ (ODNB), decided, in his late fifties, to start writing down remarks about plays that he had seen from which useful lessons might be learned. He made himself a notebook (seven folded sheets of paper – or six with a seventh tucked into the middle later) and gave it the title ‘The Bocke of Plaies and Notes therof’; but he died before he had made much progress with it. Only four plays were described, a page or two for each. Three of those four were by Shakespeare; one of those three was Macbeth.
Despite being mostly blank, the notebook survived. With many other loose papers of Forman’s, it eventually passed into the possession of Elias Ashmole; by the 1690s, when Edward Lhwyd drew up a summary catalogue of the manuscripts in the Ashmolean Museum, this item – ‘Of Places [sic] and Notes thereof, &c.’ – was part of a bound volume numbered 208 (Bernard 1697 1 (1) 352). (The Ashmolean manuscripts were transferred to the Bodleian Library in 1860, and that is where Forman’s notes are now to be found (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole 208, fos 200–13).)
In 1832, while he was compiling a catalogue of the Ashmolean manuscripts, the archivist W. H. Black came across these notes. Recognizing their curiosity value, he made a copy and sent it to J. Payne Collier – who had previously heard of the existence of some such notes but had failed to track them down. It was Collier, four years later, who put Forman’s notes into print for the first time (Collier 1836:6–26). Though Black was not mentioned there by name, it was never a secret that he was working on this catalogue; and Halliwell, in speaking of the ‘Book of Plays’, says plainly that it ‘was discovered by Mr. W. H. Black, and printed by Mr. Collier’ (Halliwell 1841:37n).
Yet to say that Forman’s notes were ‘discovered’ by Black is to overstate the case. Joseph Hunter, writing in 1845, was emphatic that he had known about them several years before they were put into print. ‘My attention was first drawn to these notes of Forman by my friend Dr. Bliss (to whom every thing of this kind at Oxford is perfectly familiar), at the meeting of the British Association at Oxford in the summer of 1832’ (Hunter 1845 1:413). And Bliss had looked through Forman’s papers in the Ashmolean Museum – ‘most of which are of no value’ (Bliss 1813–20 2:104) – long before that, while he was working on his revised edition of Wood’s Athenae Oxonienses. Between the lines, Hunter is saying that if Collier had had the sense to ask for Bliss’s help, he would not have needed to make a mystery of it.
This is a tighter transcription of Forman’s notes made by E. K. Chambers (1930). It was his suggestion that the innermost sheet (fos. 206–7) is folded the wrong way round, and that the notes about Cymbeline (fo. 206r) ought to come after the notes about Macbeth (fo. 207r–v); I go along with that.
It is faintly possible, I think, that the contents of this innermost sheet might be spurious. If someone can tell me that there is nothing suspicious about the stitching, paper, ink or handwriting, I will breathe a small sigh of relief. But no one has told me that yet.
In the end, even if it is perfectly genuine, I do not see that this evidence counts for much. In matters of detail, Forman is not at all reliable. He cannot even be trusted to get the dates right. An astrologer, one might think, would be sure to check the calendar. But Forman says that he saw Macbeth ‘1610, the 20th of April, Saturday’ (using the symbol ♄ for Saturn to denote the day); and 20 April 1610 was a Friday, not a Saturday. The discrepancy was, I think, first noticed by Halliwell-Phillipps (1881:172, 1882:290).*
* There are four elements in the date, at least one of which must be wrong. It has come to be generally supposed that ‘20’, ‘April’ and ♄ are right, and that ‘1610’ ought to be ‘1611’. But there are other possibilities – one being that ‘1610’, ‘20’ and ‘April’ are right, and that ♄ ought to be ♀. Happily, as long as it is not supposed that the play was a new one when Forman saw it performed, it is not going to make much difference when exactly that was.
Bernard 1697 Edward Bernard (comp.), Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 2 vols.\ (Oxford, 1697).
Chambers 1930 E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare – a study of facts and problems, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1930).
Collier 1836 J. Payne Collier, New particulars regarding the works of Shakespeare (London, 1836).
Halliwell 1841 J. O. Halliwell (ed.), ‘Dr. Simon Forman’s diary’, Archaeologist, 1 (1841–2), 34–7 (Sep. 1841).
Halliwell-Phillipps 1881 J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Outlines of the life of Shakespeare (privately printed, 1881).
Halliwell-Phillipps 1882 J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Outlines of the life of Shakespeare, 2nd ed. (London, 1882).
Hunter 1845 Joseph Hunter, New illustrations of the life, studies, and writings of Shakespeare, 2 vols. (London, 1845).
Wood ed. Bliss 1813–20 Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, ed. Philip Bliss, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1813–20).
This file is a rough sketch intended to show what an edition of Davenant’s play might look like. As any edition would have to be, it is based on the quarto printed for Philip Chetwin in 1674 (see below). I have made a few large changes and many small ones. As for the former: I have omitted the musical extravaganza which got itself wedged awkwardly into the last scene of Act II, and also two whole scenes (conversations between Macduff and his wife) which consist of rhymed couplets throughout and (to my ear) do not sound like Davenant’s work. As for the latter: I have modernized the spelling, made free with the punctuation, and removed some inconsistencies (different spellings of Malcolm, for example). For the rest, I have largely left things as they are. The only emendations that I have made are those that I thought it would be silly not to make. Some faults remain, however, which cannot be put right. And so, for what it is worth, here is my idea of an approximation to the play as Davenant wrote it in 1663 – and as Samuel Pepys saw it performed several times at the theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields between 1664 and 1669.
The music which accompanied this play was part of the attraction, but there is almost no contemporary record of it – just a single part of a single dance tune, ‘A Jig called Macbeth’. The piece was first published anonymously in 1666; in 1669 it was credited to ‘M.L.’. Slight though it is, this evidence does narrowly suffice to prove that Matthew Locke wrote the music for the original version of Davenant’s play, as well as for the subsequent revival at Dorset Garden. Locke’s jig is one of the MIDI files listed here: Songs and dances.
The lyrics for ‘Let’s have a dance upon the heath’, one of the songs in Davenant’s version of Macbeth, included in a collection of popular songs printed for Samuel Speed in 1669 (Wing N529).
There are two later editions of this book, published in 1671 and 1681 (Wing N530–1), and the lyrics can be found there too, with just slight variations.
A quarto edition printed for William Cademan in 1673 (Wing S2929). The title-page is disingenuous: this is not the play that was being performed at the Duke’s Theatre. The text was copied from the ‘First Folio’ edition of Shakespeare’s play; the only novel elements are a partial list of the cast and lyrics for some of the songs. (I do not know whether the bookseller William Cademan was related to the actor Philip Cademan (who played Donalbain in this production).)
A quarto edition printed for Philip Chetwin in 1674 (Wing S2930). This is the first edition of Sir William Davenant’s adaptation of Macbeth. It seems to have been produced in a hurry (the work was distributed among three compositors), and numerous mistakes – some silly, some obvious, some both – were allowed to go uncorrected. Subsequent editions are all derived from this one, and most of its errors persist. (This is the quarto used by Furness (1873).) Some copies have a different title-page (Wing S2930A).
(The incongruous ‘Argument’, which tells a very different version of the story from the one told by Davenant’s play, was copied word for word from one of the various editions of Heylin’s Cosmography. That book was first published in 1652 (Wing H1689) and reprinted at intervals over the next thirty years. Philip Chetwin had acquired a share of the copyright by 1662. In the edition which he started having printed then (Wing H1691A) the Macbeth story occurs at p. 336.)
(The list of ‘The persons’ names’ is also incongruous, and was presumably copied from the Cademan quarto (see above). It is a list of the characters who appear in Shakespeare’s play – and several of those characters were absent from the play that was being presented at the Duke’s Theatre. (And Philip Cademan meanwhile had suffered such a serious injury that he was no longer capable of performing Donalbain, or any other part.))
I have marked three stretches of text (pp. 26–8, 32–4, 39–40, the last echoed by three lines on pp. 47–8) which I would regard as interpolations for which Sir William Davenant (who had died six years previously) ought not to be held accountable. I omit them from my sketch of an edition (see above). But I emphasize that this is just my opinion: there is nothing to distinguish these passages in the text as it is printed.
A farce staged by the His Majesty’s Servants, printed in 1674 (Wing D2446). The author’s name does not appear, but according to Langbaine (1691:530) the piece was ‘said to be writ by Thomas Duffet’, and no one has thought of doubting that, as far as I am aware. I reproduce only the so-called ‘Epilogue’, a crude spoof of the witch-scenes in Macbeth as they were now being performed by the rival company, at their splendid new theatre in Dorset Garden. The jokes have mostly lost their point, but some are still amusing. (‘By the itching of my bum’ has to be worth a smile.)
The copy which I have been using has had its first leaf removed. There ought to be an engraved frontispiece opposite the title-page – a half-length portrait of the empress, personated by a male actor in brownface. It has been reproduced occasionally – first of all, I think, by Montague Summers, The Restoration theatre (London, 1934), opp. p. 282, from a perfect copy of this quarto in the library of Worcester College, Oxford. (Summers, by the way, identified the actor correctly, without making any fuss about it.)
Chetwin’s quarto edition of Davenant’s Macbeth reprinted for Andrew Clark in 1674 (Wing S2931).
Clark’s quarto edition of Davenant’s Macbeth reprinted for Henry Herringman in 1687 (Wing S2932). I reproduce only the title-page. (This is the quarto used by Maidment and Logan (1874).) Some copies have different title-pages (Wing S2933–4).
Herringman’s quarto edition of Davenant’s Macbeth reprinted for him and Richard Bentley in 1695 (Wing S2935). I reproduce only the title-page.
Herringman and Bentley’s quarto edition of Davenant’s Macbeth reprinted for Jacob Tonson in 1710. This is the only edition which shows any sign of having been checked against a manuscript, presumably the prompt-book. (I have marked all the differences between this and the Chetwin quarto which might be thought significant: if the change was made in one of the intervening editions, I have given the date.) Nevertheless, numerous errors remain. (Macbeth is still ‘this Dire Friend of Scotland’ (page 44), just as he was in 1674.)
In this slightly revised form, Davenant’s Macbeth was reprinted more than once – most recently, it seems, in Edinburgh in 1731, ‘as it is now Acted at the New Theatre’. In London by that time, if one had gone into a bookshop and asked for a copy of Macbeth, one would probably have been offered a copy of Shakespeare’s play. But Davenant’s Macbeth continued to be performed, at least until the 1760s.
A 12mo edition of Shakespeare’s Macbeth published by Jacob Tonson (the younger) in 1729, reprinted from the 12mo reprint of Pope’s edition (1728). This is the first separate edition of the play – the first, at least, of which copies are known to survive. It is not of any interest in any other respect. I reproduce only the title-page.
A 12mo edition of Shakespeare’s Macbeth published by Tonson in 1734. The text of the play is taken from Theobald’s edition: that is not of any interest. At the back, however, there are four unnumbered pages giving the lyrics of the songs, ‘never printed in any of the former editions’, as they were being performed in Davenant’s Macbeth. I reproduce only the title-page and the songs.
Also in 1734, a 12mo edition of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (as edited by Pope) was printed by Robert Walker, in defiance of the monopoly claimed by Tonson and his associates. At the back, just as in Tonson’s edition, there are four unnumbered pages giving the lyrics of the songs. I assume that Walker stole them from Tonson, rather than vice versa, but I am not certain of that.
Further 12mo editions, substantially the same as the one printed for Tonson in 1734, were published in 1745, 1750, 1755, and at intervals after that. (To judge from the title and pagination, a 12mo edition printed for William Bowen in 1776 would seem to be the last in the series, but I have not seen it for myself.)
The first edition of the music for Macbeth, published by John Johnston in 1770. (The date was determined by Moore (1961:27).) I reproduce the title-page and the dedication to Garrick; the music itself I have reproduced as a collection of MIDI files (plus a songsheet). Those files can be found here: Songs and dances.
An edition of the play as it was being performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, with David Garrick as Macbeth and Ann Barry as Lady Macbeth.
Despite being much too old for the part, Charles Macklin insisted on starring in his own production of Macbeth at Covent Garden in October 1773. The script, I assume, was much the same as that being used by Garrick at Drury Lane: where Macklin found scope for originality was in the staging of the play. Costumes, scenery, incidental music – all were designed to evoke a romantic idea of Scottishness. Even though there were only four performances of it (Genest 1832:414–15), this production exerted a powerful influence. Within thirty years, it had become the regular practice, ‘not only on the London boards, but in all the provincial and country Theatres’, for Macbeth to be made to look (and sound) distinctively Scottish.
This file is an account of Macklin’s production written long after the event by William Cooke. It appeared first, in April 1801, in one of a series of articles published in the European Magazine between November 1799 and March 1802; when those articles were turned into a book, this passage appeared there too (Cooke 1804:281–6). (A few small adjustments were made to the wording, but they are not of any significance. Like the articles, the book was published anonymously, but its authorship was never a mystery.) Cooke is one year wrong about the date, but in other respects, I take it, he is accurate enough.
Another printing of Bell’s edition, differing in many details from the first. As far as the text is concerned, there is only one large discrepancy: two lines omitted in 1773 have been reinstated here (‘know That it was he … so under fortune’).
A 12mo edition published by a consortium of London booksellers in 1785. Abnormally for an acting edition, it gives the entire text (with the words of the songs spliced in at the proper places), using inverted commas to cancel the passages which are ‘omitted in the Representation at the Theatre’. (The only copy which I have seen lacks the last page and has some other blemishes; but these defects do not prevent it from being useful.)
Another 12mo edition published in 1785 – ‘Printed for the Proprietors, and sold by R(achael) Randall’ – seems to have been reprinted from this one: it omits the cancelled passages, but in every other respect is almost identical with it.
An edition of the play as it was performed at the opening of the new Theatre Royal in Drury Lane on 21 April 1794, with John Philip Kemble as Macbeth and Sarah Siddons as Lady Macbeth. Famously, this is the production in which Banquo’s Ghost became invisible to the audience (in the banquet scene, not in the cauldron scene). It is notable too that the lords bring their ladies to the banquet. All in all, Kemble’s adaptation is a very thoughtful piece of work: one can learn a lot about the play by asking why Kemble made the changes that he did.
A good-looking 6mo edition printed for the firm of Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme. One of a collection of matching booklets, 125 in all, published separately, but with the idea that they would eventually be bound up together to make a set of 25 volumes, under the overall title ‘The British theatre’. (When that happened, Macbeth became the third item in volume 4.) Like the other booklets, it has an engraved frontispiece (‘Painted by Cook. / Engrav’d by Raimbach. / Publish’d by Longman & Co. 1806’) and a short introduction by Elizabeth Inchbald. The script is basically the same as in Kemble’s edition, but there are numerous differences in detail. Banquo’s Ghost reappears in the banquet scene – just once, however, not twice.
A sumptuous production of Macbeth starring Edmund Kean and Sarah Bartley was premiered at Drury Lane on Saturday 5 Nov. 1814. I have not seen the souvenir edition cited by Jaggard (1911:384): Macbeth ... Revived at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, November, 1814, under the superintendence of S. J. Arnold (London, 1814). This file contains transcripts of (1) the original playbill; (2) a review in the Morning Chronicle; and (3) an extract from the memoirs of the musical director, Michael Kelly.
A 12mo edition printed by William Oxberry in 1821. Published separately, but also as part of a 20-volume collection called ‘The new English drama’. (Macbeth is the second item in volume 14.) As with Longman’s edition, there is an engraved frontispiece (‘Mr. Macready, as Macbeth. / Engraved by W. Coutts from an original painting by Clint. / Published 1821 ...’) and a short introduction, supplied in this case by George Soane. There are numerous footnotes as well; but they are not of any usefulness that I can see, and I have omitted them all.
A 12mo edition printed by John Cumberland in 1827, the prefatory remarks contributed by George Daniel. There are so many errors and eccentric readings that I have thought it advisable to mark them (with red daggers).
The collection of plays called ‘Cumberland’s British Theatre’ began publication in 1826 and ran and ran and ran. (Many of the later volumes are undated. Of those which I have seen, vol. 20 has a title-page dated 1828 and vol. 36 has a frontispiece dated 1837.) The series was able to get off to a flying start because the first 84 plays (which make up the first twelve volumes) were cannibalized from an earlier collection of the same kind, ‘Dolby’s British Theatre’ (1823–5), which had come to a sudden end. (The publisher, Thomas Dolby, was made bankrupt in Nov. 1825 (Gazette, 19 Nov. 1825, 2134).) In both collections, Macbeth was the third item in the first volume, preceded only by Romeo and Juliet and She stoops to conquer. I have not seen Dolby’s Macbeth (1823). To get some sort of grip, I have compared Cumberland’s version of King John (1826) with Dolby’s version (1823), and it turns out that Cumberland reprinted the script page for page, almost indistinguishably. I suppose that he would have done the same for Macbeth. If that is right, parts of the present file will need to be cancelled once I can get hold of a copy of Dolby’s edition. Apart from the title-page, Cumberland may have added nothing more than the preface and the cast lists.
The comical frontispiece used for this edition – Macbeth and Banquo confronted by the witches, engraved by Henry White ‘from a Drawing taken in the Theatre’ by Robert Cruikshank – was, I think, originally made for Dolby.
I have not yet been able to get hold of the acting edition published by John Tallis & Co. in January 1851. This is the script of the play ‘as produced at the Theatres-Royal Covent Garden and Drury Lane, whilst under the management of W. C. Macready, Esq., and now universally adopted by the principal theatres in England, Ireland, Scotland, and America’; so Tallis’s advertisements say.
An edition of the play as it was staged by Charles Kean at the Princess’s Theatre in 1853. I have omitted all the annotation, with the exception of four footnotes which are in a category by themselves: they mark the places where Kean had fallen for some of the spurious emendations propagated by John Payne Collier.
An edition of the play published in New York in 1878, based on the prompt-book used by Edwin Booth. Some of the annotation was supplied by Booth himself, some by the editor, William Winter. (The format is abnormal: I have not tried to reproduce it, only to convey some idea of it.)
An edition of the play as it was staged by Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre in 1888, with music specially composed by Sir Arthur Sullivan.
There exists at least one other impression of this booklet, dated 1889. Much of it is identical; but some further cuts are made, and the pagination differs in places for that reason.
The ‘Henry Irving Shakespeare’ was published in eight volumes between 1888 and 1890. It was mainly edited by Francis Albert (‘Frank A.’) Marshall. Irving lent his name and moral support; his only editorial contribution was to look through the proofs and cancel the passages which he thought should be omitted in performance. Towards the end, Marshall’s health began to fail (in fact he died before the last volume was published), and other editors had to help out. Macbeth was dealt with by Arthur Symons. This is his edition, minus the introduction and annotation. The passages cancelled by Irving are roughly – only roughly – the same as those omitted from the script of his acting edition.
An edition of the play as it was staged by Johnston Forbes Robertson at the Lyceum Theatre in 1898. There are two versions of this booklet, with or without illustrations. The illustrated version has five photographic portraits: two of Forbes Robertson as Macbeth, two of Mrs Patrick Campbell as Lady Macbeth, one of Robert Taber as Macduff.