The ghost of Banquo spooks Macbeth’s court in this 19th-century painting. Shakespeare’s tragedy is critical of tyrannical leadership
Shakespeare had explored kingship in many other plays before Macbeth (c1606). We know that he was writing to please James VI & I, who, from 1603, was the patron of the King’s Men, the company for which Shakespeare was the leading playwright and in which he owned shares. We also know that in 1605 James saw a production of Matthew Gwinne’s Tres Sibyllae (Three Sibyls), in which the title characters prophesy that the seed of Banquo – Macbeth’s ally turned ghostly nemesis – will rule forever. James traced his ancestry back to the historical Banquo, so would have been delighted that Shakespeare’s play hinted at the triumph of his ancestor’s children.
In 1599, James wrote Basilikon Doron (The King’s Gifts) – a kind of how-to-be-aking book, which Shakespeare clearly read. (James was also interested in witchcraft, which also influenced Shakespeare’s portrayal of the three weird sisters in Macbeth.) The book sees James differentiate between a true king and a tyrant: one acknowledges himself ordained for his people, having received from God a burden of government whereof he must be accountable, whereas the
other thinks his people ordained for him are prey to his appetites. We very much see the latter in
Macbeth,
which also features searing references to the state of Scotland under that tyrant’s power.