#10 "The Lute Reborn, Macbeth, Chansons De Geste"

Macbeth and the North Berwick Conspiracy
Actors are a superstitious lot. Other plays with supernatural overtones are regarded with suspicion. But Shakespeare's Macbeth has held superstitious dread for successive generations of performers; stories of bad luck plaguing its productions are legion. But how did the play come to be written, and what are the origins of this supernatural thread which gives rise to such tales?

Sing a Song of Heroes: The Chansons de Geste
The Chansons de geste, literally "songs of deeds," were epic poems composed by 12th and 13th-century troubadours and sung by public entertainers to audiences gathered in the halls of nobles or in public places. But where other types of chansons formed the popular diversions of the day, the chansons de geste represented the earliest form of literary activity in France.

The Lute Reborn
The Renaissance was the golden age of the lute, an era in which this instrument reigned supreme among courtly instruments. While other musicians during the Renaissance were generally looked upon as mere craftsmen, lutenists were considered artists and were paid salaries by their royal patrons that exceeded the annual earnings of a British admiral.