THE MAN BEHIND MACBETH

the notorious Captain James Stewart, briefly Earl of Arran and Chancellor of Scotland, and his flamboyantly wicked wife, two of the best-known and best-hated figures in Scotland during the early years of King James VI and I, that King for whose particular diversion Shakespeare wrote his play. Sir James Fergusson s long familiarity with record sources enabled him to make skilful use of previously unpublished documents and to illuminate the course of history from quite unexpected angles.