• When reading the play, modern readers must forget present day ideas of witches. Macbeth's witches would have been very real to the audience: their way of explaining bad things that happened in life. They were not figures of fun, but deadly serious.

• King James I of England was previously King James VI of Scotland.

• He attended trials of witches, so had first hand experience of them.

• Macbeth has many references to King James I - in some ways the play could be said to have been written for him.

Within the town of Trenent, in the kingdom of Scotland, there dwelleth one David Seaton, who, being deputy bailiff in the said town, had a maid called Geillis Duncane, who used secretly to absent and lie forth of her master’s house every other night. This Geillis DunCane took in hand to help all such as were troubled or grieved with any kind of sickness of infirmity, and in short space did perform many matters most miraculous; which things, for as much as she began to do them upon a sudden, having never done the like before, made her master and others to be in great admiration, and wondered thereat: by means whereof, the said David Seaton had his maid in great suspicion that she did not those things by natural and lawful ways, but rather supposed it to be done by some extraordinary and unlawful means. Whereupon, her master began to grow very inquisitive, and examined her which way and by what means she was able to perform matters of so great importance; whereat she gave him no answer. Nevertheless, her master, to the intent that he might the better try and find out the truth of the same, did with the help of others torment her with the torture of the pilliwinks upon her fingers, which is a grievous torture; and binding or wrenching her head with a cord or rope, which is a most cruel torment also; yet would she not confess anything; whereupon, they suspecting that she had been marked by the devil (as commonly witches are), made diligent search about her, and found the enemy’s mark to be in her fore crag, or fore part of her throat; which being found, she confessed that all her doings were done by the wicked allurements and enticements of the devil, and that she did them by witchcraft. After this her confession, she was committed to prison, where she continued a season, where immediately she accused these persons following to be notorious witches, and caused them forthwith to be apprehended, one after another, viz. Agnes Sampson, the eldest witch of them all, dwelling in Haddington; Agnes Tompson of Edinburgh; Doctor Fian alias John Cuningham, master of the school at Saltpans in Lothian ...

 The said Agnes Sampson was after brought again before the King’s Majesty and his Council, and being examined of the meetings and detestable dealings of those witches, she confessed that upon the night of All-hallow Even last, she was accompanied, as well with the persons aforesaid, as also with a great many other witches, to the number of two hundred, and that all they together went to sea, each one in a riddle or sieve, and went into the same very substantially, with flagons of wine, making merry and drinking by the way in the same riddles or sieves, to the kirk of North Berwick in Lothian; and that after they had landed, took hands on the land, and danced this reel or short dance, singing all with one voice, Commer go ye before, commer go ye, Gif ye will not go before, commer let me. At which time she confessed, that this Geillis Duncane did go before them, playing this reel or dance, upon a small trump, called a Jew’s trump, until they entered into the kirk of North Berwick.

 These confessions made the King in a wonderful admiration, and he sent for the said Geillus Duncane, who the like trump did play the said dance before the King's Majesty, who in respect of the strangeness of these matters, took great delight to be present at their examinations.

 The said Agnes Sampson confessed that the devil, being then at North Berwick kirk attending their coming, in the habit or likeness of a man, and seeing that they tarried over long, he at their coming enjoined them all to a penance, which was, that they should kiss his buttocks, in sign of duty to him; which being put over the pulpit bare, everyone did as he had enjoined them. And having made his ungodly exhortations, wherein he did greatly inveigh against the King of Scotland, he received their oaths for their good and true service towards him, and departed; which done, they returned to sea, and so home again. At which time, the witches demanded of the devil, ‘Why he did bear such hatred to the King?’ Who answered, ‘By reason the King is the greatest enemy he hath in the world.’ All which their confessions and depositions are still extant upon record.

 The said Agnes Sampson confessed before the King’s Majesty sundry things, which were so miraculous and strange, as that his Majesty said ‘they were all extreme liars’; whereat she answered, ‘she would not wish his Majesty to suppose her words to be false, but rather to believe them, in that she would discover such matter unto him as his Majesty should not anyway doubt of.’ And thereupon taking his Majesty a little aside, she declared unto him the very words which passed between the King’s Majesty and his Queen at Upslo in Norway, the first night of marriage, with the answer each to other; whereat the King’s Majesty wondered greatly, and swore ‘by the living God, that he believed all the devils in hell could not have discovered the same,’ acknowledging her words to be most true; and therefore gave the more credit to the rest that is before declared.

Touching this Agnes Sampson, she is the only woman who, by the devil’s persuasion, should have intended and put in execution the King’s Majesty’s death in this manner. She confessed that she took a black toad, and did hang the same up by the heels three days, and collected and gathered the venom as it dropped and fell from it in an oyster shell, and kept the same venom close covered, until she should obtain any part or piece of foul linen cloth that had appertained to the King’s Majesty, as shirt, handkercher, napkin or any other thing, which she practised to obtain by means of one John Kers, who being attendant in his Majesty’s chamber, desired him for old acquaintance between them, to help her to one, or a piece of such a cloth as is aforesaid; which thing the said John Kers denied to help her to saying he could not help her unto it. And the said Agnes Sampson, by her depositions since her apprehension, saith, that if she had obtained any one piece of linen cloth which the King had worn and fouled, she had bewitched him to death, and put him to such extraordinary pains, as if he had been lying upon sharp thorns and ends of needles. Moreover she confessed, that at the time when his Majesty was in Denmark, she being accompanied by the parties before specially named, took a cat and christened it, and afterwards bound to each part of that cat, the chiefest part of a dead man, and several joints of his body: and that in the night following, the said cat was conveyed into the midst of the sea by all these witches, sailing in their riddles or sieves, as is aforesaid, and so left the said cat right before the town of Leith in Scotland. This done, there did arise such a tempest in the sea, as a greater hath not been seen; which tempest was the cause of the perishing of a boat or vessel coming from the town of Brunt Island to the town of Leith, wherein was sundry jewels and rich gifts, which should have been presented to the now Queen of Scotland, at her Majesty’s coming to Leith. Again, it is confessed, that the said christened cat was the cause that the King’s Majesty’s ship, at his coming forth of Denmark, had a contrary wind to the rest of his ships then being in his company; which thing was most strange and true, as the King’s Majesty acknowledgeth, for when the rest of the ships had a fair and good wind, then was the wind contrary and altogether against his Majesty; and further, the said witch declared, that his Majesty had never come safely from the sea, if his faith had not prevailed above their intentions. . .

Then he (the Devil) teacheth them to make ointments of the bowels and members of children, whereby they ride in the air, and accomplish all their desires. So as, if there, be any children unbaptized, or not guarded with the sign of the cross or orisons; then the witches may and do catch them from their mothers’ sides in the night, or out of their cradles, or otherwise kill them with their ceremonies; and after burial steal them out of their graves, and seethe them in a cauldron, until their flesh be made potable. Of the thickest whereof they make ointments, whereby they ride in the air; but the thinner potion they put into flagons, whereof whosoever drinketh, observing certain ceremonies, immediately becometh a master or rather a mistress in that practice and faculty …

 It shall not be amiss here in this place to repeat an ointment greatly to this purpose ... The receipt is as followeth. R. the fat of young children, and seethe it with water in a brazen vessel, reserving the thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the bottom, which they lay up and keep until occasion serveth to use it. They put hereunto eleoseleniun, aconitum, frondes populeas, and soot. Another receipt to the same purpose. R. sium, acarum vulgare, pentaphyllon, the blood of a flitter-mouse, solanum somniferum, et oleum. They stamp all these together, and then they rub all parts of their bodies exceedingly, till they look red, and be very hot, so as the pores may be opened, and their flesh soluble and loose. They join herewithal either fat, or oil instead thereof, that the force of the ointment may the rather pierce inwardly, and so be more effectual. By this means in a moonlight night they seem to be carried in the air, to feasting, singing, dancing, kissing, culling and other acts of venery, with such youths as they love and desire most: for the force of their imagination is so vehement, that almost all that part of the brain, wherein the memory consisteth, is full of such conceits. And whereas they are naturally prone to believe any thing; so do they receive such impressions and steadfast imaginations into their minds, as even their spirits are altered thereby; not thinking upon any thing else, either by day or by night. And this helpeth them forward in their imaginations, that their usual food is none other commonly but beets, roots, nuts, beans, peas, etc.

2 The play starts with witches - the mood of the play is black and sombre all the way through to the end.  They point us to expect evil.

3 But they do not damn Macbeth, they only tempt him.  Macbeth brings about his own downfall, not the witches.

4 "The Great Chain of Being" was a means by which the order of the universe was explained.  If that chain were broken, then disorder would follow.  The disorder that follows Duncan's murder, is all part of the influence of the evil in the play.  Because of the disruption of order through Duncan's murder, the order in the world is lost: so a falcon is killed by an owl and the state itself is plunged into turmoil and bloodshed under Macbeth's rule.

5 The evil in the play operates through deceit, both of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, and the witches who deceive Macbeth - although in large part he deceives himself.

6 This evil is spoken of, at various times, as an illness which afflicts Scotland.  Edward (the confessor), whom Malcolm allies himself to when he goes to England, had the power of curing sickness known as the King's evil.  Malcolm sets forth to cure Scotland of her illness (Macbeth and his evil-doing) in the same way that Edward had cured people in England of their illnesses.