The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0637 Tuesday, 11 July 2006
From: Geralyn Horton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 10 Jul 2006 14:26:16 -0400
Subject: Lady Macbeth
Somehow I thought because "How many children had Lady Macbeth?" is an
old joke, there would be masses of misapplied speculation on the
subject, far beyond "The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines" that I read
when I was a girl myself. If a backstory exists, I've failed to find
it. Would some kind soul take pity on me and send me a sample of an at
least semi-coherent account of the alleged "historical" background of
the Gruoch (apparently daughter to royal somebodies, married first to
somebody with royal aspirations before being widowed-- probably by
Macbeth or somebody allied to him)-- who was married to Macbeth? It
doesn't have to be accurate, just coherent. I have exhausted the
resources of the Internet and my local library. I can't make head or
narrative of the snippets available-- mostly because all the women are
named Gruoch and half the men are named Malcolm and none of the
titles/estates/clans are named consistently. I promise not to pass off
any speculative flights as scholarship, or use them to interpret The
Play. I have in mind a minor fiction of my own, and need a simple Who,
Where, When, and What from which to proceed. The Why and How will be
the fun part.
G.L. Horton, playwright
Newton, MA
http://www.stagepage.info
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