Macbeth’s dead! (but, head?) HAIL, KING OF SCOTLAND! (5.11.20-25) #DaggerDrawn #SlowShakespeare

Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head

MACDUFF      Hail, King, for so thou art. Behold where stands

Th’usurper’s cursèd head. The time is free.

I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl,

That speak my salutation in their minds,

Whose voices I desire aloud with mine.

Hail, King of Scotland!

ALL                 Hail, King of Scotland!

Flourish                       (5.11.20-25)

 

Always a bit tricky, that stage-direction. The easiest thing is to ignore and gesture offstage, or even cut behold where stands th’usurper’s cursèd head; it works perfectly well in metrical terms. A little nip and tuck. In a production that has been set in any period later than the early modern, the savagery, and also the realism, of a severed head is potentially disruptive, distracting, distressing. (And it’s a tiny moment: decent fake severed heads cost money; a bad fake head, feather light, papier mâché moulded on a balloon, no ears, is worse than no head at all.) Bloodstained sack is one solution, appropriately weighted. What matters more is Macduff’s salutation: Hail, King, for so thou art. It’s done, he’s dead, you’re safe, we’re all safe. And the response of the assembled company, relief at Macduff’s appearance, and then, very often, kneeling before Malcolm. The time is free, a sense of liberation and recovery, of morning and possibility, a fresh start in a play which has so often been nocturnal and nightmarish, out of joint and marked by the ominous tolling of bells.

 

I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl, the thanes, Malcolm’s peers and supporters, who are surrounding him like a crown, perhaps already on their knees, doing homage. And Macduff knows that he’s spoken for all of them already in his greeting, Hail, King, and that they speak that salutation in their minds. Now’s the time for them all to join together, and to say it out loud: Hail, King of Scotland! Hail, King of Scotland! FANFARE.

 

(Another reason not to have a head on stage. Distracting, and what does Macduff DO with it? Stick it on a pike or a post, is one suggestion editors make. But it’s not very festive, and the problems with cheap fake heads remain. Better to erase Macbeth entirely from this moment, that weight of darkness and anger and paranoia and shame. Let in the light. The time is free.)

 

View 2 comments on “Macbeth’s dead! (but, head?) HAIL, KING OF SCOTLAND! (5.11.20-25) #DaggerDrawn #SlowShakespeare

  1. I like your thoughts about modern staging—severed heads are rather icky. But I think editors who suggest Macduff puts the head on a pike may have it right—he does say “Behold where stands the usurper’s head.” Having it “stand” on a pike sounds about right. Looks to me like typical Shakespearean dialogue serving as stage direction. But as you suggest, better to leave it on the page and off the modern stage.

    1. The tricky thing, of course, is that it’s a pretty messed about text in F. I think it’s probably recording performance tradition in some way, definitely. Garrick changed it to ‘sword’ which is a nonsense. I think it can be a gesture offstage? it’s chilling if done well – there’s a very realistic Patrick Stewart head in Goold’s film…..

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