ABSTRACT
The consistent echoes of Gunpowder Plot rhetoric and imagery give some credence to the view that Macbeth constitutes “a mystical and legitimist version of Scottish history.” Macbeth’s assassination of the “gracious” Duncan is as unjustified and horrific as the Plotters’ attempt to blow up James, his family, and everyone else in the building. William Shakespeare’s treatment of the Gunpowder Plot in Macbeth thus constitutes a model for future treatments of terrorism. The Folio Macbeth demonstrates how Shakespeare pioneered a sophisticated approach to terrorism, one that suggested commonalities with terrorism rather than insisting on absolute difference. In Holinshed, Banquo and Macbeth encounter “thre women in strange and wild apparel, resembling creatures of elder world,” “elder” meaning “uncanny” or “elvish,” not “old.” Shakespeare’s treatment of the Gunpowder Plot in Macbeth thus constitutes a model for future treatments of terrorism.
