Simon Forman on Macbeth

Last week we took a look at Simon Forman's eyewitness account of a production of Cymbeline.  He also left us an eyewitness account of Macbeth.  Today I provide that account, reprinted from The New Variorum edition of Macbeth, ed. H. H. Furness, 1901, p. 356.

Simon Forman on Macbeth:

In Mackbeth at the glob, 16jo, the 20 of Aprill, ther was to be obserued, firste, howe Mackbeth and Bancko, 2 noble men of Scotland, Ridinge thorowe a wod, the[r] stode before them 3 women feiries or Nimphes, And saluted Mackbeth, sayinge, 3 tyms vnto him, haille mackbeth, King of Codon ; for thon shalt be a kinge, but shalt beget No kinge, &c. then said Bancko, what all to mackbeth And nothing to me. Yes, said the nimphes, haille to thee Banko, thou shalt beget kinges, yet be no kinge. And so they departed & cam to the courte of Scotland to Dunkin king of Scotes, and yt was in the dais of Edward the Confessor. And Dunkin bad them both kindly wellcome, And made Mackbeth forth with Prince of Northumberland, and sent him hom to his own castell, and appointed mackbeth to prouid for him, for he wold Sup with him the next dai at night, & did soe. And mackebeth contriued to kull Dunkin, & thorowe the persuasion of his wife did that night Murder the kinge in his own castell, beinge his gueste. And ther were many prodigies seen that night & the dai before. And when Mack Beth had murdred the kinge, the blod on his handes could not be washed of by any means, nor from his wiues handes which handled the bloodi daggers in hiding them, By which means they became both much amazed & affronted. the murder being knowen, Dunkins 2 sonns fled, the on to England, the [other to] Walles, to saue them selues.  They beinge fled, they were supposed guilty of the murder of their father, which was nothinge so. Then was Mackbeth crowned kinge, and then he for feare of Banko, his old companion, that he should beget kinges but be no kinge him selfe, he contriued the death of Banko, and caused him to be Murdred on the way as he Rode. The next night, being at supper with his noble men whom he had bid to a feaste to the which also Banco should haue com, he began to speak of Noble Banco, and to wish that he were ther.  And as he thus did, standing vp to drincke a Carouse to him, the ghoste of Banco came and sate down in his cheier be-hind him. And he turning A-bout to sit down Again sawe the goste of banco, which fronted him so, that he fell in-to a great passion of fear and fury, Vtteringe many wordes about his murder, by which, when they hard that Banco was Murdred they Suspected Mackbet.

Then Mack Dove fled to England to the kinges sonn, And soe they Raised an Army, And cam into scotland, and at dunston Anyse ouerthrue Mackbet. In the mean tyme whille macdouee was in England, Mackbet slewe Mackdoues wife & children, and after in the battelle mackdoue slewe mackbet.

Obserue Also howe mackbetes quen did Rise in the night, in the night in her slepe, & walke and talked and confessed all & the doctor noted her wordes.

Since Forman's accounts of The Winter's Tale and Richard II (a non-Shakespearean--or at least very different Richard II) are dated in 1611, and the Cymbeline entry is undated, most scholars feel that the 1610 date in this entry is an error for 1611.  All of the entries must have been made about the same time.

The account, nontheless, prompts several questions. 

First, how has the riding scene managed?  Forman says "Mackbeth and Bancko, 2 noble men of Scotland, Ridinge thorowe a wod."  Were there horses on stage?  Extremely unlikely.  Forman was possessed of a vivid imagination.  Perhaps he is conflating the illustration from Holinshed with what he saw at the Globe.

Secondly, notice the "King of Codon" apellation, and the other misnomers committed by Forman.  For those trying to decide the Imogen-Innogen controversy in Cymbeline, Forman is not their best witness.

Scholars have thought it odd that Forman, in light of his occult interests, said so little about the witches, espceially the cauldron scene.  It is hard to generalize, however, about something not said.  We know that the Hecate scenes are an interpolation by Middleton, but we do not know at what date they were added to the play.  It is noteworthy that Forman noted the note taking of the doctor, something he himself did a great deal of.  A. L. Rowse pictures Forman as more of a serious doctor than an Elizabethan cunning man or wizard, and undoubtedly that is how he saw himself.

Unfortunately Forman's notes do not help resolve several of the mysteries about the play and its later revision before it was printed in the Folio.