How much truth is there in fiction?
The shortest, and probably the most effective piece of drama Shakespeare wrote was Macbeth. Even the least educated among us will quote from this play, perhaps without knowing we are doing so. ‘Is this a dagger I see before me?’ ‘And good men’s lives expire before the feathers in their cap,’ ‘Double, double, toil and trouble . . .’ ‘Ring the alarum bell! – Blow wind, come wrack/ At least we’ll die with harness on our back.’ ‘I bear a charméd life, which must not yield/ to one of woman born.’ ‘Despair thy charm/and let the angel whom thou still hast served/tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb/untimely ripped.’ Etcetera. (more…)