by IAN GRIMBLE
Shakespeare's plays are not noted for their historical accuracy even when they are called ' histories ' - and Macbeth is numbered among the tragedies. Its characters, however, were drawn from British history, and there is some interest in sorting out the real from the imagined.
Macbeth himself was no usurper but a rightful Highland king who reigned for seventeen years; his wife Queen Gruoch, Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, had even better title to the throne. Duncan was not an old man but a younger cousin who invaded the Norse earldom of Orkney to the north and was defeated and murdered, it is not certain by whom, on his way home. Finally, Banquo and his offspring seem to have been invented by chroniclers of the Stuarts, the Royal house which was of Anglo-Norman origin but wanted a genuine Celtic pedigree.
Dr Grimble, the Scottish historian, draws on Irish, Scottish. and English records for this account of the historical background to the Macbeth story.
With ALAN BARRY , DENIS GOACHER and DUNCAN MCINTYRE
Produced by CHRISTOPHER HOLME (To be repeated on 23 Feb)