![]() ![]() However, the meaning of the witches in Macbeth, for both Shakespeare and Verdi, remains the same. The title page of Shakespeare’s play, printed in the Second Folio of 1632 (left) and the poster for the premiere of Verdi’s opera (right). The witches, then, play to the King’s favor Shakespeare termed them the “Wyrd Sisters,” using the Old English word for “fate” (“wyrd”) that, over time, morphed into the word “weird” and eventually came to a very different meaning. ![]() The play is full of insider homages to the king as well as a cautionary tale about the need for power and more power. William Shakespeare took James’s witch fancy to the page, crafting his typical low-brow, high lyricism into a play about a Scottish king bandied about by the prophecy of three witches plotting upon a heath. Thus, when he ascended to the British throne as King James I-personally overseeing the English translation of the Bible as well as the torture of women accused of witchcraft-the mighty poet of the day saw a golden opportunity. James, widely regarded by self and others to be an expert on the subject, knew, without a shred of empirical proof, that witches were real women, usually old and greedy, determined to exact a reckless vengeance on a hapless person. In 1597, King James of Scotland wrote a work of what he considered to be definitive scholarship: Daemonologie, a paper on witchcraft. “Macbeth and Banquo meeting the witches on the heath” by Théodore Chassériau, 1855. Giuseppe Verdi’s version of “more cowbell” looks something like an entire chorus of witches in Macbeth versus the Bard’s three.
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