TERMINALE LV1 · UPPER SECONDARY · B2 to C1 · C1/C2 extension track in every session

Session 1: A king, witches and a plot: the world of Macbeth

Part 1. Why would a play about witches and the murder of a king fascinate and frighten audiences in 1606?

Objectives

Understand the Jacobean context: James I, witchcraft, the Gunpowder Plot
Analyse a painting and the opening scene
Discover iambic pentameter and the witches' different rhythm

Warm-up

Image analysis. Look at the painting for one minute in silence.

Henry Fuseli, Study for the Three Witches in Macbeth, about 1783, Auckland Art Gallery — Henry Fuseli, *Study for the Three Witches in Macbeth*, about 1783, Auckland Art Gallery. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Describe the three figures: faces, gestures, light. What is striking?
Fuseli paints them in profile, all pointing the same way. What effect does this create?
Why does fear often start with an image?

Documents

Document 1: Jacobean England.

In 1603, James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England. Shakespeare's company becomes the King's Men.
James is fascinated by witchcraft. He attended the North Berwick witch trials (1590), where women were accused of raising storms against his ship, and published Daemonologie in 1597, a treatise on witches and demons.
On 5 November 1605, the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament and the king fails. In 1606, the Jesuit Henry Garnet is tried and accused of "equivocation": answering with ambiguous words to hide the truth.
James claimed to descend from Banquo, a character in the play.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.
William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Scene 1, the three witches

Glossary: fair: beautiful, good · foul: ugly, evil · hover: float in the air

Document 2: verse. Most of the play is in blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter, ten syllables, five beats (da DUM da DUM...). The witches speak differently: short rhyming lines with four beats that start on a stressed syllable. Their language sounds like a spell.

Activities

Context jigsaw: four groups (James I, Daemonologie, the Gunpowder Plot, equivocation) prepare a two minute presentation.
Close reading of "Fair is foul": find the paradox, the chiasmus and the alliteration. What does it announce about the play?
Scansion: clap the rhythm of the witches' lines, then of a pentameter line. What is the difference?
Intermediary task (oral): present your context topic and explain why it would matter to Shakespeare's first audience.

Sentence starters

In 1606, the audience would have...
James I was obsessed with...
The paradox 'fair is foul' suggests that...
The witches' rhythm differs from...
This context explains why Shakespeare...

Role play

Pairs: a London theatre goer in 1606 and a foreign visitor. The theatre goer explains why a play about witches and regicide is thrilling and dangerous to watch with the king nearby.

Gap-fill worksheet

Word bank: paradox, treatise, regicide, equivocation, pentameter, plot, chiasmus, witchcraft

James I wrote Daemonologie, a ______ on witches.
The Gunpowder ______ failed in November 1605.
Killing a king is called ______.
Using ambiguous words to hide the truth is ______.
"Fair is foul" is a ______: two opposites joined.
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair" repeats the words in reverse order: it is a ______.
A line of ten syllables and five beats is an iambic ______.
James I was fascinated by ______.

Answer key

treatise
Plot
regicide
equivocation
paradox
chiasmus
pentameter
witchcraft

Homework

Write 150 words: "Why was Macbeth a political play in 1606?" Use three facts from the documents.

Watch the film at home

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), directed by Joel Coen, with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, in black and white. Where to watch: JustWatch France.
Macbeth (2015), directed by Justin Kurzel, with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. Where to watch: JustWatch France.
DVD: ask at your local library or médiathèque.
Scenes to watch: the witches on the heath (Act I), the dagger and the murder of Duncan (Act II), the banquet and Banquo's ghost (Act III), the sleepwalking scene (Act V).

Watch with English subtitles if you can. The films contain violence.

Assessment grid

Criteria	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Context knowledge	Vague	Some facts	Accurate facts	Accurate facts linked to the play
Literary vocabulary	Absent	Some terms	Accurate terms	Precise and well used
Oral presentation	Reads notes	Some pauses	Mostly fluent	Fluent and engaging
Pronunciation	Hard to understand	Understandable	Clear	Clear with good stress and rhythm

Terminale LV1 · C1/C2 extension track

For strong or anglophone students. Context is read through a royal text of the time.

Extended extract

The fearful abounding at this time in this country of these detestable slaves of the Devil, the Witches or enchanters, hath moved me (beloved reader) to dispatch in post this following treatise of mine.
King James VI and I, Daemonologie, 1597 (public domain)

Critical analysis

What is the tone of the king's text?
Why might Shakespeare write a play about witches for this king?
Is Macbeth flattery or critique of power?

Nuanced vocabulary

Word or phrase	Meaning and use
treatise	a formal written study
patronage	support given by a powerful person to an artist
demonology	the study of demons and witchcraft
arguably	to present a view as defensible but open to debate
to hinge on	to depend entirely on