'Macbeth' structure - a different approach
A play in 5 acts, right? Problem: the version we have is from the 1623 Folio, is divided into Acts and contains some Middleton. There is, so far, no extant quarto edition of the play. The first record of a performance at 'The Globe' is from Simon Forman in 1611, 5 years after its performance for James I and King Christian of Denmark at Whitehall. Forman's account differs somewhat from the text with which we are familiar. Plays performed in amphitheatres were not routinely divided into acts, though plays played indoors were, as breaks were required for candle trimming. (The intervals also often included entertainments unrelated to the play.) At 'The Globe' there would be no interval of any kind. Division into acts was, therefore, irrelevant in terms of the written script. Scene divisions are signalled by a concluding rhyming couplet*. However, audiences still needed some kind of structure and 'Macbeth' is, like Gaul, divided into 3 parts. These