Macbeth ... help me out.

[joggerjayne]

I'm reading Macbeth, and I got to this bit ...

Inspired by 3 mad old bats, Macbeth plans to murder King Duncan.

Then he gets cold feet.

Lady Macbeth persuades him to do it (because she wants to be Queen ... she was SUCH a WAG !!).

When explaining just how badly she wants Macbeth to do the murder, she says ...

... "I have given suck"

(Act 1, Scene 7, Line 54)

Now ... she could be saying that she has been a mother, and breast fed her children.

However, Macduff says that Macbeth ... " ... has no children"

(Act 4, Scene 3, Line 215)

Now, Lady Macbeth was clearly very persuasive, because Macbeth goes ahead with the murder.

But in explaining how she got her own way by saying ... "I have given suck" ...

... what has Lady Macbeth been doing ?

[joggerjayne]

Well, Orcadia ...

On the subject of sucking, Shakespeare only wrote the "Scottish Play" to suck up to King James ...

... so lots of sucking all round.

[joggerjayne]

LOL McMouse ...

oranges, hosepipes, and all that !!

[Bobbisox]

over me heed, just a wee ignorant Geordie,,,lol

[joggerjayne]

It is set in Scotland, Mopsy ...

... just up the road from you !

[Bobbisox]

ha-ha I know of it..naturally
isn't that the one that is never mentioned by the acting fraternity?

[Davethedog]

Orcadian, shirley that phrase is only used by Actors

[mike11111]

I'm not a Shakesperean scholar, but I wonder if Lady Macbeth had been married previously.

[joggerjayne]

That's the one, Mopsy.

I've had it in my bag for the last few days.

[joggerjayne]

Interesting thought, Mike !

You should read it, Mopsy.

It's quite short, and very exciting. Lots of murders and plotting, and stuff.

[joggerjayne]

... and, apparently, a thinly disguised naughty bit !

[joggerjayne]

So was he a son of Lady Macbeth ?

James I was supposedly a son of Banquo.

So when Shakespeare wrote (from one of the witches) ...

... "Thou shalt (be)get kings, though thou be none" ...

... he was just being a total butt kissing brown noser.

"Oh, look, Your Majesty ... a character in my play, speaking to Your Majesty's ancestor, predicted Your Majesty's reign ... mwah, mwah, mwah ... kiss, kiss, kiss ..."

What a toady.

[boxtops]

There you go JJ, sorry to bring things back to land - but it looks as if Lady M was married before and has a non-Macbeth child.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3206576
The wikipedia analysis of her character is quite interesting reading!

[joggerjayne]

That's interesting, Boxy.

Last time I was in Daunt Books in Marylebone (last week) there was a Biography about Macbeth ... supposedly showing how different he was from the way that Shakespeare had portrayed him (rather like Richard III, I suppose).

I wish I'd bought it, now.

[joggerjayne]

I've not read the Wikipedia entry, but I think Lady Macbeth is just a total Wannabee !

[boxtops]

Shakespeare when you are grown up is soooo different from the learning at school - I learned rafts of Julius Caesar when I was 12, had no idea what it was all about. The programme finishing the other day about two schools coming together for Romeo & Juliet was really good, youngsters who wouldn't dream of admitting to liking Shakespeare having a great time in a modern version. Brilliantly staged.

[joggerjayne]

Yes, it's jolly, really.