Holinshed's Chronicles

The Chronicles have been a source of interest because of their extensive links to Shakespearean history, as well as King Lear, Macbeth and Cymbeline.

[1] The Chronicles would have been a primary source for many other literary writers of the Renaissance such as Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser and George Daniel.

[2] In 1548, Reginald Wolfe, a London printer, conceived the idea of creating a "Universal Cosmography of the whole world, and therewith also certain particular histories of every known nation".

[3] The Chronicles narrative is characterised by a set of rhetorical figures and thematic paradigms that establish the national, royal, chivalrous and heroic ideals that define a state, its monarch, its leaders, and the political role of the common people.

[4] William Shakespeare is widely believed[5] to have used the revised second edition of the Chronicles (published in 1587) as the source for most of his history plays, the plot of Macbeth, and portions of King Lear and Cymbeline.

Nymphs and fairies are generally viewed as beautiful and youthful, but Shakespeare's three witches in Macbeth are ugly, dark, and bizarre.

"[10] In the Chronicles, Macbeth rules Scotland not briefly, but for 10 years, and is a capable and wise monarch who implements commendable laws.

Macbeth, convinced by the witches of his invincibility, commits outrageous acts against his subjects, gradually becoming a cruel and paranoid ruler.

The tale ends with Macbeth slain by Macduff, who then brings his head to the son of the original king, Malcolm.

After the love test Leir decrees only half of his kingdom is to be assigned to the dukes immediately, with the rest to be divided at his death.

The 1577 Chronicle features woodcuts of King Lear and Cordelia, depicted as the rightful rulers and highlighting their prevailing goodness within the story.