Before deciding how to play the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth, it is helpful to consider the historical and theatrical context of this famous trio.
The witches in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth can be approached several ways in production. They have been presented as pantomime villains, prophetic wisewomen, agents of Fate, and even figments of Macbeth’s own psyche. Looking at the other witches around in Jacobean life and literature can at least clarify the situation.
Witchcraft was a live issue in the early reign of James I. Even before he ascended the throne, he believed he had been the subject of a plot by three Scottish witches to shipwreck him by stirring up storms, which was related in the sensational pamphlet News From Scotland, Declaring the Damnable Life and Death of Dr. Fian (1591) Witches appeared in pamphlets based on famous trials, rather like the modern tabloid press, which took a high moral tone of disgust at the depravity and sin which they were forced to relate in such lascivious detail.
Learned books were also published on the subject such as A Discourse of the Subtle Practices of Devils (1587) and King James’ own Demonology (1597). Though some of these works expressed scepticism as to the more lurid claims made about witches, like Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584, banned under the witch enthusiastic James I), they agreed that the spiritual world was a source of danger and the devil sought to do harm to ordinary people.
Witches on the stage, however, tended to be regarded less seriously. Jonson’s The Masque of Queens (1609) included a dance of witches as a prelude to the appearance of the queens, and a later comparison can be made with Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas (1689), whose singing witches seem to be mostly concerned with elaborate musical cackling. When William Davenant revived Macbeth in 1667, he used the witches as an opportunity for a mid-air song and dance sequence.
Of course, we cannot tell exactly how serious or comic these passages would have been in production, but (aside from The Witch of Edmonton, 1658) there don’t seem to be any witch characters in Renaissance drama with either the psychological complexity or demonic drive to be found in roles like Iago or Lady Macbeth. Their appearance in dances and masquing suggests that their role was more as symbols than characters. It is also worth bearing in mind that the witch scenes in Macbeth, particularly the parade of kings they summon up for Macbeth, may have been at least partially intended to please James I, who claimed to be descended from Banquo and was therefore a member of the glorious royal line the witches foretell.
