Шекспир написал "Макбета", чтобы угодить королю Якову Первому, или Джеймсу, что одно и то же. Король чрезвычайно интересовался колдовством и ведьмами. А на веселый праздник Хэллоуин эти ведьмы нам очень пригодятся. Начать можно со стишка из сборника "Матушки Гусыни", прокричав его со сцены:
This is the night of Hallowe’en,
When all the witches might be seen;
Some of them black, some of them green,
Some of them like a turkey bean.
Потом три косматые ведьмы врываются на сцену, кружась и разбрасывая сухие листья — натуральные или бумажные. Последние ярче. Можно под какой-нибудь тяжелый рок. Шекспировские ведьмы должны быть с бородой, но никто и никогда, кроме постановок тех времен, так не делал. В "Макбете" за сценой звучит далекая битва, в небе молнии и раскаты грома. Шекспир ставил свою трагедию в крытом театре "Блэкфрайерс", так что можно было использовать больше эффектов, чем в "Глобусе", где спектакли шли при дневном свете.
Язык Шекспира уже считается современным и не нуждается в переводе, как, например, язык Чосера, но пояснения несомненно потребуются. Thou, thee, thine — архаические формы, которые Шекспир использует наряду с you и yours. Thou art = you are. В школьных постановках вполне допустимо немного модернизировать и лексику, и произношение.
Эти сцены, а также и некоторые другие, я ставила много раз с детьми разных возрастов — от седьмого до одиннадцатого класса.
Act 1, Scene 1.
First Witch:
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch:
When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
Third Witch:
That will be ere the set of sun.
First Witch:
Where the place?
Second Witch:
Upon the heath.
Third Witch:
There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch:
I come, Graymalkin!
Second Witch:
Paddock calls.
Third Witch:
Anon.
All:
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
When the hurlyburly’s done.—The witches propose to meet again when the battle now in progress is finished—when it is lost and won, i.e. lost by one side and therefore won by the other.
Graymalkin is the name of a cat; witches were said to keep cats as assistants in their ceremonies.
Paddock—toad
Fair is foul, and foul is fair—The good and bad are confused; there is an evil influence.
Пропускаем вторую сцену. Ведьмы полетали и возвращаются. Опять гром.
Act 1, Scene 3.
First Witch:
Where hast thou been, sister?
Second Witch:
Killing swine.
Third Witch:
Sister, where thou?
First Witch:
A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And munched, and munched, and munched:
"Give me," quoth I:
"Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
And, like a rat without a tail,
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
Second Witch:
I’ll give thee a wind.
First Witch:
Thou art kind.
Third Witch:
And I another.
Весь следующий кусок можно опустить, хотя он и важен для понимания всей пьесы. Ведьма собирается отомстить мужу шкиперши за то, что та не угостила ее каштанами. Месть будет страшной: шкипер лишится сна, как позже сна лишатся супруги Макбеты после убийства Дункана. Но так как мы не собираемся ставить всю пьесу, то можно сразу перейти к отрезанному пальцу лоцмана, который ведьма достает из кармана, завернутый в какую-нибудь грязную тряпицу.
First Witch:
I myself have all the other;
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
In the shipman’s card;
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary seven-nights nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
Look what I have.
Second Witch:
Show me, show me.
First Witch:
Here I have a pilot’s thumb,
Wrecked as homeward he did come.
Third Witch:
A drum! A drum!
Macbeth doth come.
All:
Weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! — the charm’s wound up.
Enter Macbeth and Banquo.
Macbeth:
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Banquo:
How far is’t called to Forres? [He notices the witches]
What are these,
So wither’d and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on it? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
Macbeth:
Speak, if you can: what are you?
First Witch:
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee,
Thane of Glamis!
Second Witch:
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch:
All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter.
Banquo:
[Turning to Macbeth]
Good Sir, why do you start, and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? [To the witches]
In the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace, and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow, and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.
First Witch:
Hail!
Second Witch:
Hail!
Third Witch:
Hail!
First Witch:
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Second Witch:
Not so happy, yet much happier.
Third Witch:
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
First Witch:
Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
Macbeth:
Stay, you imperfect creatures, tell me more:
By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the Thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be king
Stands not in within the prospect of belief
No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.
[Witches vanish]
Banquo:
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
Macbeth:
Into the air; and what seemed corporal, melted
As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed!
Banquo:
Were such things here, as we do speak about,
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?
Macbeth:
Your children shall be kings.
Banquo:
You shall be king.
Macbeth:
And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?
Banquo:
To the selfsame tune and words.
Я представляю, что тут они оба смеются, как будто предсказания прозвучали как нелепые шутки. Но тут же появляется посланник от короля и сообщает Макбету, что тот теперь еще и Кавдорский тан. Первое предсказание сбылось.
Необходимые пояснения:
When the hurlyburly’s done.—The witches propose to meet again when the battle now in progress is finished—when it is lost and won, i.e. lost by one side and therefore won by the other.
Graymalkin is the name of a cat; witches were said to keep cats as assistants in their ceremonies.
Paddock—toad
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.—The good and bad are confused; there is an evil influence.
Aroint!—Go away!
Rump-fed ronyon —foul fat woman
The ship is called Tiger.
In a sieve—The witch plans to sail in a sieve, which, being full of holes, would not make a boat for an ordinary human being.
A rat without a tail—Witches could change themselves into animals, it was believed, but no part of their bodies could become a tail.
I’ll do—As a rat, she will eat away the side of the ship, piece by piece.
I’ll give you a wind.—Witches were supposed to "sell" winds.
And the very … blow—and even the ports which the winds blow from, keeping the ships away.
The quarters… in the shipman’s card —are the points of the seaman’s compass.
The penthouse lid—eyelid
Forbid = forbidden = cursed
Tempest tost—tossed by tempest
Are you… aught question?—Аre you anything (aught) a man can talk to?
Forbid me from interpret—prevent me from concluding
All hail is a very honourable greeting. The audience knows that Macbeth has been already made Thane of Cawdor by the king (scene 2), but Macbeth himself does not.
Though thou be none—even though you are not to be one yourself.
Imperfect—in that they have answered imperfectly, without making their meaning clear
Selfsame—just the same