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These are all aspects of the play normally discussed in terms of Elizabethan England, the Gunpowder Plot, Father Garnet, and the Jesuits, discussions which have yielded valuable insights into Shakespeare’s great work, but early Celtic literature such as the Welsh Mabinogi found in The White Book of Rhydderach and the Irish Táin Bó Cuailnge found in The Book of Leinster, along with numerous shorter tales and tale fragments, also offer a few interesting insights that seem worth exploring a native perspective, if you will, into the “hurly burly” world that is Macbeth. Episode 3 of Unseen Academicals, examining the second book in the Witches Series, Wyrd Sisters (1988), and using it to explore theories of humour, the power. One might even mention the curious porter scene as the source of much disagreement, and the theme of equivocation which runs throughout MacBeth like a great undercurrent. If one were to enumerate the many striking characteristics of the Scottish Tragedy, features certain to be noted would be its pervasive darkness, supernatural omens, perilous witches, and the villainous Lady MacBeth.
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Macbeth is the tale of a Scottish king, and in many ways the story itself is essentially Celtic.
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