Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University.

It is a generally accepted scholarly truth that Shakespeare’s Macbeth was written with the intent of pleasing the newly crowned James I, a few years after his ascension to the English throne in 1603. The main arguments for this claim are, first, Shakespeare’s inclusion of witches—a well-known interest of James’s—and second, the portrayal of Banquo, the fictional ancestor of the House of Stuart. Some recent scholarship has, however, questioned this view, arguing, among other things, that James did not wish to be associated with his Scottish heritage and that witchcraft is not as prominent in Shakespeare’s play as it might have been if pleasing James was his objective. In this paper, I look specifically at the part of the theory of “the royal play” which pertains to the question of the witches and, against the background of this recent research, argue that Shakespeare’s reasons for including witches in his play have less to do with James and more to do with his own interest in human psychology. By analysing the ways in which Shakespeare adapts his sources—the chronicles of Raphael Holinshed and Hector Boece—I argue, first, that Shakespeare is less interested in catering specifically to James’s demonological theories than to make the three women into witches as such. Secondly, I compare the function of prophecy in Macbeth to Greek tragedy and the historical writing of Holinshed and Boece against the sociological theory of George Park and argue that Shakespeare’s purpose in letting witches function as the deliverers of prophecy is to create an element of uncertainty and thus a vantage point from which to explore the psychological complexities of human decision-making and the perils of trusting appearances.

THESIS ABSTRACT This MA thesis examines the portrayal of King Richard III (1452-1485) in texts preceding William Shakespeare's canonical play on this subject. By analyzing a wide range of sources written between the 1480s and the 1590s, it traces how the reputation of Richard III as an epitome of a tyrant, a usurper and a royal murderer was created and consolidated. At the same time, special attention is paid to innovations and deviations from this interpretation that contributed to the diversification of the King's image. The first chapter covers some of the most significant historiographic works of the Tudor era: The Second Continuation of The Crowland Chronicle, chronicles by Polydore Vergil, Edward Hall, and Raphael Holinshed, Thomas More's historical narrative, as well as a less-known manuscript by Dominic Mancini who described the early months of the reign of Richard III. The second chapter examines the transformation of the historical topic into poetry. The image of Richard III is analyzed in as diverse sources as, on the one hand, a popular ballad and, on the other hand, a prominent poetically-didactic work A Mirror for Magistrates. The representation of Richard III on the English stage is discussed in the third chapter in connection with Thomas Legge's university drama Richardus Tertius and the...