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THE ROYAL PLAY OF MACBETH by Henry N. Paul

THE ROYAL PLAY OF MACBETH

By

Pub Date: Nov. 21st, 1950
Publisher: Macmillan

An extremely interesting and scholarly analysis of the background against which Shakespeare's great tragedy was written. Mr. Paul contends that the play was written for King James I in 1605 and 1606, produced rather hurriedly for him and his royal guest, King Christian of Denmark. He believes that James' particular history was kept in mind as an act of flattery, and that its supernatural elements were based on a close examination of James' own published work on demonology and his known views of witchcraft and necromancy. Although this scholarship is of a very specialized nature, Mr. Paul brings to it great enthusiasm and a lively style. The market however will be a circumscribed one.