What Scottish people think of Shakespeare's Macbeth

[lotus0kid]

Setting: Contemporary, a small rural Scottish town.

I've got a non-Scottish character talking to a Scottish character about Shakespeare's Macbeth and I was wondering if there is any kind of general opinion on the play. Is it considered part of the cultural identity, just a story that happens to be set in a place calling itself Scotland, or is it

Comments

[inamac]

There are 200 people called Macbeth (or MacBeth) in the Scottish phone directory - so not very common, but not unheard off. I'd assume a connection with the poet George MacBeth rather than the Shakespeare play.

[bopeepsheep]

Are you basing that on a websearch? 192.com returns 170 Macbeths in Glasgow alone. Their cut-off for "Scotland" is 200, but that's true of Smiths too - all numbers cut off at 200.

(30 in Edinburgh, 23 in Inverness, 19 in Aberdeen, 4 in Stirling...)

[inamac]

I only found 5 in Edinburgh - but it does indicate that the name is midling-common. (It is so much easier to hunt through paper directories for names!) The 1911 Census results for Scotland gives 827 matches. (It's too early for 2011 census data.)

[squidger]

Is a census only done every one hundred years?

[hazeln]

Nobody yet has mentioned that's it's often referred to by something other than it's name as described here on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scottish_Play . I'm from the middle of England but studied it as part of my GCSE in English Literature so have heard of it. I didn't particularly enjoy it but that's down to me not enjoying Shakespeare in any form. I've never heard of anyone called Macbeth.

[sollersuk]

The small Scottish town that I stayed in many years ago has a prehistoric fortification on the outskirts that locals said was the site of Macbeth's last stand. Most of the Scots I know are fairly vehement about the play, which they consider completely traduces him; they tell me that he was the rightful king and Duncan (who I gather was younger than him) an usurper, that he had a long and mostly peaceful reign and was secure enough that he was able to make a pilgrimage to Rome and still be king when he got home.

It's a more common surname in some areas than others, but not so unusual anywhere as to cause many comments.

[janewilliams20]

I gather Dorothy Dunnett's "King hereafter" is a lot closer to history, as I'd expect from her.

[sollersuk]

I had high hopes of it but found it very unsatisfying.

[lilacsigil]

I have a cousin in Scotland who married a Macbeth. She was teased more about the show Hamish Macbeth than the play.

[akcipitrokulo]

I studied it for my O-grade English - it tends to be done at some point in High School, either for O-grade (now standard grade) or highers. I think a lot of Scottish people would react to it as "oh yeah, I was forced to read that when I was 15..."

The thing about never mentioning the name of the play Macbeth is generally regarded with amusement and something that people who are a little theatrical/upperclass ... quite a few of my friends will think of the scene in Blackadder about it!

It's uncommon enough that someone could notice and someone could get the piss taken a bit because of it, but no major surprise.

[miri_d]

Theatrical person here, with a side note, as this was not what OP was referring to about not speaking about it in polite company - as far as the Macbeth "jinx" goes, it only applies when you're actually physically in a theatre or performance venue. You're fine to say the name "Macbeth" or the title anywhere else, but you must refer to it as "The Scottish Play" in a/the site where the play could be performed. Some rebels still call it "Macbeth" even then, but if you're superstitious your only say "the M word" when you're actually performing the play and must call the character by name.

[rhiannon_s]

I once worked back stage in a small local theatre, and it was a game amongst stage hands to try and trick visiting thesps into saying the name. We never had any noticeable bad luck, well beyond having to buy a round if you were too obvious about doing it and failed. (if you were really obvious, and succeeded the other backstage guys all bought you a drink...the hangover could be considered bad luck I suppose).

[luna_glass_wall]

The "only in a theater" bit depends on where you are. I don't allow anyone to say or read the M-word at any point when I'm directing a play XD Had a bad experience with reading the word on my SATs, and then going to paint sets and a girl got her hair stuck in a drill, so I am extra careful.