Artistic License History: Difference between revisions
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** ''[[Macbeth]]'' changes Duncan from a young, violent invader to a wise old king, telescopes Macbeth's 17-year reign into two years, creates Lady Macbeth almost from whole cloth, and even reimagines the Stuart family tree.
*** King James was supposedly descended from Banquo through his son Fleance. ''[[Macbeth]]'' was commissioned by James, who paid Shakespeare a king's ransom to write and stage it. [[Executive Meddling|Naturally Shakespeare would throw in things that would please James.]] This is also why at the end of the original play, Shakespeare put on another play showing the descent of the Stuarts from Fleance through to James VI. Total nonsense, but James and Shakespeare both liked it.
*** There ''was'' a Macduff during Macbeth's reign (1040-1057). But there was no Thane of Fife. The title of the Earl of Fife was first given to a man called Ethelred in 1057...after Macbeth's death.
*** Contrary to Shakespeare, Macbeth's stepson Lulach ruled Scotland after his death. Lady Macbeth--Gruoch ingen Boite meic Cináeda (Gruoch, daughter of Boite, who was the son of Kenneth)--had one child by her first husband, Gille Coemgáin, the King of Moray. However, Lulach's reign only lasted seven months; he died (either "slain by craft" by a grandson of Duncan on March 17, 1058 or in battle at the hand of Mael-Colum, a.k.a. Malcolm, the son of Donnchadh, a.k.a. Donalbain--or rather Donal Bán, Donal the Fair-Haired).
*** Macduff didn't kill Macbeth in real life. Malcolm, the son of Duncan, did--three years after the Battle of Dunsinane.
*** Duncan. a.k.a. Donnchad mac Crinain, actually died in battle. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3ltXDhC36QgC&pg=PA121&dq=Duncan+Moray+1040&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiL39TQt-7LAhWIPCYKHcpbAy0Q6AEIPDAE#v=onepage&q=Duncan%20Moray%201040&f=false He was attacking Moray, Macbeth's domain] (which Macbeth had acquired by marrying Gruoch, the widow of the previous King of Moray).
*** Part of the reason for the historical Lady Macbeth's ambition lies in the name that Shakespeare never mentions: Gruoch ingen Boite meic Cináeda (Gruoch, daughter of Boite, who was the son of Kenneth). In this case, "Kenneth" was Kenneth III of Scotland. And thanks to the way that Scots at that time decided who would be king (the throne generally passed back and forth from the king to his sister's sons to their cousins, the king's grandsons. In other words, Lady Macbeth was not just a nobly-born wife of a lord--she was the grandchild of a king. If she had been male, she would have been a potential candidate for the High Throne of Scotland...and there is no way that she wouldn't have known this. Shakespeare omits this information completely. (Granted, the last thing he would have wanted to do in his play flattering the Stuarts was point out that, according to the tradition of royal inheritance in Scotland, Macbeth (a cousin of Duncan's) and his wife ''were'' viable heirs.)
** Many people believe that Sir John Falstaff was a historical person because of his inclusion in ''Henry IV Parts 1 and 2". Although he may have been [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]] on an old Stratford acquaintance of Shakespeare's, Falstaff himself is wholly fictional.
*** Sir John '''Fastolf''' was a very real knight of the Garter who was a contemporary of Henry V (and long outlived him). To what extent he was the inspiration for Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff is debated to this day.
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*** Books with pages aren't as bad a problem as usually assumed—vellum codexes bound in wood did exist in the Roman times.
*** And Caesar saying "For I am constant as the Northern Star"; the location in the sky of the North Celestial Pole varies due to the Precession of the Equinoxes, and in Roman times it wasn't near any star.
** Shakespeare's portrayal of Henry V as a wild vagabond when he was the heir to the throne is also inaccurate. Henry was always the same duty
** Shakespeare has King John say, "The thunder of my cannon shall be heard" in France. The first English cannons were used at the battle of Crécy in 1346 – 130 years after the death of King John. Cannon are also mentioned in ''Theater/Hamlet'' which is set in the 11th century, well before gunpowder was invented im Europe.
* [[Christopher Marlowe]], an Elizabethan dramatist who influenced Shakespeare, was also prone to this. In his ''Tamburlaine'' plays, the eponymous (anachronistic) Scythian conqueror takes control of the Persian Empire (which ceased to exist in 330 BCE, unless he meant the contemporary Safavid Empire, which did not exist in "Tamburlaine's" time) by capturing its capital, Persepolis (which was burned down by [[Alexander the Great]] over a millennium ago), capturing the King of Turkey (which was a sultanate) and marrying the daughter of the Egyptian (Mamluk) Sultan, Zenocrate (who, aside from being invented, has a Greek name).
* ''[[The Crucible]]'' has so many inaccuracies about the [[Burn the Witch|Salem Witch trials]] that it practically needs its own page.
** For starters, the ages of the "afflicted girls"--Elizabeth Booth (18), Sarah Churchill (25), Elizabeth Hubbard (17), Mercy Lewis (17), Betty Parris (9), Ann Putnam, Jr. (12), Susanna Sheldon (18), Mary Walcott (17), Mary Warren (21), and Abigail Williams (11)--[http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ma-salemafflicted.html varied greatly]. In the play, all the girls are teenagers except for Betty.
*** On that note - John Proctor was good to his wife, and wasn't [[Squick|banging Abigail, who was, like,
**** Arthur Miller changed her age in order to introduce the subplot. He admitted this.
** The play also features a character called Susanna Walcott. Historically, there ''was'' an "afflicted girl" named '''Susanna''' Sheldon and another called Mary '''Walcott''' (the latter being a cousin of Ann Putname, Jr.), but there was no Susanna Walcott.
** While it is true that Giles Corey died while being pressed, they were already convinced that he was a witch, and that's how the law saw his death.
*** A bigger problem is that the play says that he died Christian under the law, "so his sons will have his farm." Giles Corey had four daughters--[https://www.geni.com/people/Mary-Parker/6000000026161612914 Mary], [https://www.geni.com/people/Margaret-Cleaves/6000000002151977741 Margaret], [https://www.geni.com/people/Elizabeth-Moulton/6000000002603444834 Elizabeth] and [https://www.geni.com/people/Deliverance-Crosby/6000000003811106771 Deliverance]--but no sons.
** John and Elizabeth Proctor tried very hard to stop this nonsense, but John was hanged long before the craze died, and Elizabeth only escaped on account of pregnancy, being released once the hysteria ran its course.
** Another note that falls under this is that its attempt to connect the Salem Witch trials to the [[Red Scare]], which—in spite of its justification in pointing out some facts—has opened it up to a counterattack by those who point out that [[Broken Aesop|Communist spies in the Western governments were not imaginary creatures]], though the hunts for them did cause considerable collateral damage.
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