'LET'S HAVE A DANCE': STAGING SHAKESPEARE IN RESTORATION LONDON

When we think of Shakespeares tragedy Macbeth, we might recall the famous soliloquy upon a dagger or Lady Macbeths compulsive hand washing. We do not think of showstopping musical numbers. And yet, for audiences in Restoration London, the musical witches in Macbeth were a big draw. As diarist Samuel Pepys observed, [it is] one of the best plays for a stage, and variety of dancing and music, that ever I saw (19 April 1667). This chapter considers the dramaturgical strategies Restoration-era adapters used when making space for music, through an analysis of Davenants Macbeth (1663/1664), Dryden/Davenants The Tempest (1667; rev. Shadwell, 1674), Purcells The Fairy-Queen (1692), and Gildons Measure for Measure (1700). As innovative as these adaptations were, not everything was new: I also consider Restoration Shakespeare as palimpsest. Just as traces of Shakespeares plays co-existed alongside newly composed lines of text, older songs were retained or their memory lingered.