The chipmunks and the curse of Macbeth It was a bright and sunny day in the chipmunk village. The chipmunks, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, were excitedly preparing for their annual play. This year, they had chosen to perform Shakespeare's famous tragedy, Macbeth. Little did they know that this decision would lead to a series of unfortunate events. As rehearsals began, strange things started happening. Props began to go missing, and the actors started forgetting their lines.

Under These Restless Skies

Circa Regna Tonat: Around the throne, the thunder rolls.

Props began to go missing, and the actors started forgetting their lines. The chipmunks couldn't understand what was going on. They had never experienced such difficulties before.

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Anne Boleyn: Wicked Stepmother?

Anne Boleyn's relationship with Princess Mary Tudor was doomed from the start.

Mary was her mother's fierce partisan when it came to the Great Matter and would not accept that her parents' marriage had been annulled by the English church. She felt that doing so would be a betrayal of her mother, and a betrayal of her Catholic faith. Her father might claim the title of Head of the English Church, but to Mary, the Pope was the only one who could rule on the legitimacy of her parents' marriage, and of Mary herself.

Because Mary refused to accept her new status, the king exiled her from court, separated from her mother, whom she would never see again. Mary blamed this cruel treatment on Anne, whom she was convinced had bewitched her father.

Mary had memories of a golden childhood in which her proud father carried her around and showed her off, calling her the "pearl" of his kingdom. Now, he wouldn't even speak to her, or allow her to see her beloved mother. He now called Mary his "greatest enemy" and told ambassadors she was trying to incite rebellion against him.

Anne is often portrayed as having been spiteful and vindictive to her stepdaughter, but the documentary evidence for their relationship actually indicates that Anne tried several times to reconcile with Mary, or to at least make peace. She first sent Mary a message, offering to intercede with the king on her behalf if she would but acknowledge Anne as queen. Mary sent back a "puzzled" response saying she knew of no queen in England but her mother, but if Lady Pembroke wished to assist her in reuniting with her father, she would be grateful.

According to legend, Anne and Mary were once in the chapel of Eltham at the same time. A lady in waiting erroneously informed Anne that Mary had bowed to her, but Anne hadn't noticed. She sent Mary an apologetic note in which Anne explained she hadn't seen Mary's symbolic submission to her, but hoped this would be the beginning of friendly relations between the two.

Mary's ladies brought the note to her, saying it was from the queen. Mary retorted that the note couldn't be from the queen because it wasn't from Katharine. It was from Lady Pembroke, and Mary certainly hadn't acknowledged Lady Pembroke.

The story might not be true, but it illustrates the impasse of these two women.

Anne was exasperated and frustrated by this. She'd tried kindness and patience, and that didn't work. Henry was outraged. He expected his daughter to be obedient, and her defiance was infuriating.

Henry ordered that Mary was to go serve her new half-sister Elizabeth as a maid, hoping to break her "stiff-necked Spanish pride." Instructions were given to Lady Shelton, her governess, to box Mary's ears as "the cursed bastard" she was if she refused to obey. Who sent these instructions? Most history books attribute them to Anne, but I haven't seen documentary evidence of it. Likely, Eustace Chapuys heard of it and attributed it to Anne, as he did every cruel action Henry took toward his daughter.

Despite the multiple conversations Chapuys had with Henry about the princess in which Henry restated his hostility to the girl for her refusal to obey, Chapuys believed it was Anne who put him in this "perverse temper." Anne undoubtedly had her own frustrations with Mary, but it's ridiculous to paint the situation as though Anne somehow manipulated or henpecked Henry into abusing his daughter, especially considering the fact the cruelty only increased after Anne died.

Mary was truly Henry's daughter. Her will was iron. She would not bend. Her always-fragile health suffered, but Henry was unsympathetic. As far as he was concerned, her misery could end as soon as she was once again an obedient daughter, but until then, she could suffer in a situation of her own making.

We can't know how Anne felt about Princess Mary. If we accept the position of Eustace Chapuys, Anne despised her, but he's the sole source for most of this "information," and it's well-known that he was deeply biased, and not above reporting snippets of gossip as fact, as long as it made Anne look bad.

Chapuys quoted Anne as saying that "[Mary] is my death, and I am hers," meaning, "That girl will be the death of me, or I'll be the death of her." He reported it as a cold-blooded threat, but I'm sure many stepmothers have thrown up their hands in exasperation and something similar of a rebellious teenage girl.

Chapuys also reported Anne told her brother if Henry left for France and made Anne regent, she'd take it as a chance to execute the girl, to which George replied the king might be upset. Anne supposedly said she didn't care if it meant her own death. Again, Chapuys reports these words literally, as statements of intent, but people sometimes say things they don't really mean in the heat of the moment. Anne is also known to have had a macabre sense of humor and may have even been joking about it in order to relieve stress.

And in this particular situation, we have to question whether they actually said them at all. Chapuys never gives a source for who overheard these supposed statements, only that it was someone he trusted. Why would Anne be stupid enough to publicly threaten to murder someone?

Who knows how many layers of "the telephone game" the story went through before it got to Chapuys's eager ears? Some historians acknowledge Chapuys's errors and biases, but then go on to report his words as established fact, basing judgments about Anne's actions and character on them.

Anne tried one last time when Katharine died. She told Mary she would find a second mother in Anne if Mary would obey her father and extend just the minimal courtesies. Mary retorted she would obey her father as far as her conscience would allow - which was, essentially, a flat-out refusal.

Soon afterward, Chapuys reported a strange incident. He said Mary found a letter in the chapel, addressed to her guardian, Lady Shelton. She copied it and put it back where she found it. Chapuys and Mary didn't know what to make of the letter. Chapuys thought it had to be some kind of trick.

Mrs. Shelton, my pleasure is that you do not further move the lady Mary to be towards the King's Grace otherwise than it pleases herself. What I have done has been more for charity than for anything the King or I care what road she takes, or whether she will change her purpose, for if I have a son, as I hope shortly, I know what will happen to her; and therefore, considering the Word of God, to do good to one's enemy, I wished to warn her before hand, because I have daily experience that the King's wisdom is such as not to esteem her repentance of her rudeness and unnatural obstinacy when she has no choice. By the law of God and of the King, she ought clearly to acknowledge her error and evil conscience if her blind affection had not so blinded her eyes that she will see nothing but what pleases herself. Mrs. Shelton, I beg you not to think to do me any pleasure by turning her from any of her wilful courses, because she could not do me [good] or evil; and do your duty about her according to the King's command, as I am assured you do.

Little mention of this letter is made in some histories of Anne and Mary, except for taking the line, "I know what will happen to her," and making it sound ominous. (Likely, Anne referred to Henry's plans to marry Mary off to one of his courtiers once he had his heir.) As far as Anne was concerned, she wasn't going to try anymore, and Mary and the king would have to sort it out themselves.

It would be very odd for Anne to have written, "What I have done has been more for charity than for anything . " if her actions had been spiteful and cruel as some people allege.

Anne would be arrested only a few months later.

Before she died, Anne called aside Lady Kingston, who was known to be friendly with Mary. The
Victorian version of this story says Anne asked Lady Kingston to take a message to Mary and deliver it exactly as Anne was delivering it. She pushed the protesting Lady Kingston into her chair of estate and bowed to her - bowing to Mary by proxy - and begged on her knees that Mary would forgive Anne for any wrongs Anne had done her. This story has a ring of truth, though I don't think it was so dramatically enacted. Anne likely did ask lady Kingston to ask Mary's forgiveness. It was something customarily done by prisoners awaiting execution, to try to right any wrongs, settle debts and differences.

But Mary would not forgive. She was delighted with Anne's fall and execution. She thought the sentence was just and legitimate, and was later fond of saying that Elizabeth looked just like her father, Mark Smeaton. She thought her suffering was over at long last, and she would soon be restored to her position as princess and as the jewel of her father's heart.

But Mary was stunned when the cruel treatment only increased after Anne died. Her father still insisted his marriage to Katharine had been invalid and demanded Mary admit she was a bastard. Mary had firmly believed that all of it - the isolation, the increasing pressure, her friends and partisans being taken from her, being forced to serve as a maid to her sister, the "heretical" changes her father was making to the church - had been Anne's doing. But her father's demands and pressure only increased after Anne's death. Eventually, Mary broke beneath it and submitted to her father's will.

Ultimately, Henry was the one to blame for all of this. Even if Anne had been as vindictive and spiteful as she's sometimes painted, it was Henry who had the last word, Henry who could have stopped it with one single command. It was Henry's authority which carried out these cruelties. The fact that it didn't stop after Anne died shows who was really the one who was inflicting the punishment on Mary.

Mary would spend the rest of her life trying to undo what Anne Boleyn had done and restore England to what it had been during her childhood. She would die lonely and heartbroken, having never accomplished it. And Anne Boleyn's daughter would rule after she took her last breath.

Anne Boleyn and the Charge of Witchcraft: A Guest Post by Claire Ridgway

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I’m delighted to welcome Claire Ridgway to my blog! Claire’s new nonfiction book, The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown is a concise day-by-day look at the events leading up to the execution of Henry VIII’s most famous queen.

Claire is also offering a surprise to one lucky person who comments here before before midnight on May 30, US Eastern Standard time: an Anne Boleyn wine stopper! And as a bonus, I’ll throw in a copy of Her Highness, the Traitor (in which Anne Boleyn makes a cameo appearance to give some helpful advice to one of the heroines).

So without further ado, here’s Ms. Ridgway to point out that sometimes, a hare is just a hare.

In the lead-up to the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution on the 19 th May, I noticed lots of Tweets and Facebook comments referring to Anne Boleyn being charged with witchcraft, in addition to treason, adultery and incest. I bit my tongue and sat on my hands, resisting the urge to point out the glaring error in these posts. Then, as I was sitting there itching to reply, I saw Hilary Mantel’s article in The Guardian newspaper. Its title: “Anne Boleyn: witch, bitch, temptress, feminist” – face palm!

Now, Mantel was not actually suggesting that Anne was a witch or that she had been charged with witchcraft. In fact, Mantel writes, “Anne was not charged with witchcraft, as some people believe. She was charged with treasonable conspiracy to procure the king’s death, a charge supported by details of adultery”, and she is correct, Anne was not charged with witchcraft. But, Anne Boleyn’s name is too often linked with witchcraft and many people, even Tudor history buffs, assume that she was charged with it. It’s no wonder that people make that assumption when Anne’s portrait is on the wall at Hogwarts (not to be taken seriously though), the 2009 Hampton Court Palace Flower Show had a Witch’s Garden to represent Anne Boleyn and The Other Boleyn Girl depicted Anne Boleyn dabbling in witchcraft, taking a potion to bring on the miscarriage of a baby (which turns out to be monstrously deformed) and having a “witch taker” help to bring her down. You only have to google “Anne Boleyn witchcraft” to find sites claiming that Anne was charged with witchcraft and executed for witchcraft, or mentions of her having an extra finger and moles all over her body, which could have been seen as “witch’s teats” and the marks of a witch. Even an article on the BBC site refers to her being accused of being “a disciple of witchcraft”.

Some non-fiction authors and historians give credence to the witchcraft theory. In her biography of Anne Boleyn, Norah Lofts writes of Anne bearing a mole known as the ‘Devil’s Pawmark” and making a “typical witch’s threat” when she was in the Tower, claiming that there would be no rain in England for seven years. Lofts explains that seven was the magic number and that witch’s were thought to control the weather. What’s more, Anne had a dog named Urian, one of Satan’s names, and she managed to cast a spell on Henry which eventually ran out in 1536, hence his violent reaction, “the passing from adoration to hatred”. Lofts goes even further when she writes about the story of Anne haunting Salle Church in Norfolk, where, according to legend, Anne’s body was really buried. Loft writes of meeting the sexton of the church who told her of how he kept vigil one year on 19 th May to see if Anne’s ghost appeared. He didn’t see a ghost, but he did see a huge hare “which seemed to come from nowhere”. It jumped around the church before vanishing into thin air. According to Lofts “a hare was one of the shapes that a witch was supposed to be able to take at will” and she pondered if it was indeed Anne Boleyn.

That all sounds rather far-fetched, but reputable historian Retha Warnicke also mentions witchcraft in her book on Anne, writing that sodomy and incest were associated with witchcraft. Warnicke believes that the men executed for adultery with Anne were “libertines” who practised buggery and, of course, Anne and George were charged with incest. Warnicke also thinks that the rather lurid mentions in the indictments of Anne procuring the men and inciting them to have sexual relations with her was “consistent with the need to prove that she was a witch”. She continues, saying that “the licentious charges against the queen, even if the rumours of her attempted poisonings and of her causing her husband’s impotence were never introduced into any of the trials, indicate that Henry believed that she was a witch.” Now, Henry VIII may well have said “ that he had been seduced and forced into this second marriage by means of sortileges and charms”, but I don’t for one second believe that Henry was convinced that Anne was a witch. If he had believed it, then surely Cromwell would have used it to get Henry’s marriage to Anne annulled. If Anne was a witch then it could be said that Henry had been bewitched and tricked into the marriage, that the marriage was, therefore, invalid. Anne Boleyn was charged with adultery, plotting the King’s death and committing incest with her brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford. There was no mention or suggestion of witchcraft or sorcery in the Middlesex or Kent indictments and at her trial, Anne was found guilty of committing treason against the King – again, no mention of witchcraft. Although witchcraft was not a felony or a crime punishable by death until the act of 1542, a suggestion of witchcraft could still have helped the Crown’s case and served as propaganda. I believe that the details of the indictments were simply there for shock value, rather than to prove that Anne was a witch.

So, where does the whole witchcraft charge come from if it was not mentioned in 1536? Well, I think we can put some of the blame on the Catholic recusant Nicholas Sander, who wrote “Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism” in 1585, while in exile during the reign of Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn’s daughter. In his book, Sander describes Anne Boleyn as having “a projecting tooth”, six fingers on her right hand and “a large wen under her chin” – very witch-like! He also writes that Anne miscarried “a shapeless mass of flesh” in January 1536. This “shapeless mass” was turned into “a monster”, “a baby horridly malformed, with a spine flayed open and a huge head, twice as large as the spindly little body”, by historical fiction writer Philippa Gregory and was used to back up the idea that Anne had committed incest and dabbled in witchcraft. However, Sander’s words have to be judged as Catholic propaganda, as an attempt to denigrate Elizabeth I by blackening the name of her mother. Sander was only about six years of age when Anne died, so he could hardly have known her, and he was a priest, not a courtier, so would not have heard court gossip about Anne. None of Anne’s contemporaries mention an extra finger, projecting tooth or wen, and even Anne’s enemy, Eustace Chapuys, describes her miscarriage as the loss of “a male child which she had not borne 3½ months”. He would surely have mentioned it being deformed, if it was, and I’m sure that Chapuys would also have mentioned any physical deformities that Anne possessed. He nicknamed her “the concubine” and “the putain”, or whore, so he wasn’t afraid of saying what he thought!

While I cannot prove that Anne Boleyn was a witch, I can cast doubt on this belief. Norah Lofts’ claims can easily be refuted. Anne’s mole was simply a mole, her dog was named after Urian Brereton (brother of William Brereton, who gave the dog to Anne), Anne’s mention of the weather in the Tower was simply the ramblings of a terrified and hysterical woman, and the hare was simply a hare! As for Retha Warnicke’s views, I have found no evidence to prove that the men executed in May 1536 were homosexual and the only evidence for the deformed foetus is Nicholas Sander. Also Henry’s words concerning “sortileges and charm” were more likely to have been bluster, rather than a serious accusation. He also said that Anne had had over 100 lovers and that she had tried to poison his son, Fitzroy, and his daughter, Mary. The bluster of an angry and defensive man, I believe, and not something to take seriously.

In conclusion, witchcraft was not something that was linked to Anne Boleyn in the sixteenth century, so I feel that it is about time that people stopped talking about Anne and witchcraft in the same breath. Let’s get the facts straight.

Sources:

Richard Bevan, Anne Boleyn and the Downfall of her Family, BBC History website – http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/anne_boleyn_01.shtml

Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 5, Part 2: 1536-1538, note 59

Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl, Harper, 2007

Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10: January-June 1536, note 284

Norah Lofts, Anne Boleyn, Orbis Publishing, 1979

Hilary Mantel, Anne Boleyn: witch, bitch, temptress, feminist, The Guardian, 11 May 2012

Nicholas Sander, Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism, 1585

Retha Warnicke, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn, Cambridge University Press, 1989

Anne Boleyn – The Witch

[audio:anne_boleyn_the_witch.mp3]
Over the next couple of weeks, I will be exploring three very different opinions of Anne Boleyn – the Witch, the Whore and the Martyr – and trying to understand why people have these incredibly different views of her. We’ll start today with the view that Anne Boleyn was a witch and that that is the reason why she was executed and the reason why Henry VIII did not seem to feel any remorse at her death.

(See video below for why David Starkey believes that Anne Boleyn was executed, and it has nothing to do with witchcraft or sexual heresy.)

The idea that Anne Boleyn was a witch was a myth spread and popularized by her opponents and by people like Nicholas Sander, who probably never even met the queen but who described her as having a sixth finger, a wen under her chin and a protruding tooth – all things that could be associated with witchcraft. Sander also wrote of how Anne’s father, Thomas Boleyn, had sent her away to France because she had committed sexual acts as a child with his chaplain and butler.

But where did this view or myth come from? Why was Anne Boleyn ever accused of being a witch?

Evidence for Anne Committing Witchcraft

However preposterous we feel that this charge against Anne was and is, we have to understand what Tudor England was like. In the sixteenth century, it was believed that witchcraft was a real and credible problem and that Satan used women to do his work on Earth. According to widely held beliefs, witches were lustful, they used “sortileges” (spells and sorcery) to entice men into marriage, they committed unnatural sexual acts, they had “union” with the Devil and gave birth to deformed children, they committed incest and they could afflict men with impotence.

• It was alleged that she gave miscarried a deformed or “monstrous” foetus.
• Henry VIII started to suffer with impotency – a fact that came out at Lord Rochord’s trial when Rochford was accused of discussing it with Anne.
• Anne was said to have enticed her brother into committing incest with her.
• Anne was accused of committing adultery with known “libertines”, men linked with sexual immorality and buggery.
• Deformities in babies were God’s punishment for the sexual sins of the parents.
• Henry VIII had apparently admitted to one of his “principal courtiers” that he had been “seduced and forced into his second marriage by means of sortileges and charms” (Chapuys).
• Anne’s alleged sexual enticements were discussed in court – It was said that she had thrust her tongue into the men’s mouths and that they had done the same to her, and that she was the initiator. This backed up the view that witches enticed men into sexual immorality.
• Anne had managed to commit incest with her brother, Lord Rochford, at Westminster when she was actually with the King at Windsor – There was the belief that witches could fly.
• The dates that Anne Boleyn was accused of committing adultery and incest coincided with times of pagan eroticism.
• Evidence from the late Lady Bridget Wingfield implied that Anne had been a “libertine” who had committed sexual acts (as the mistress of the King) before marriage.
• Henry VIII was alleged to have confided in his son, the Duke of Richmond, that Anne had planned to murder him (Richmond) and the Lady Mary.
• Henry VIII did not try to save his wife from execution but, instead, concentrated on preparations for his marriage to Jane Seymour.

These are the reasons that historian Retha Warnicke believes that people of the time could well believe that Anne Boleyn was a witch. Warnicke also puts forward the view that Henry VIII actually believed that his second wife was a witch. Warnicke says:

“The licentious charges against the queen, even if the rumours of her attempted poisonings and of her causing her husband’s impotence were never introduced into any of the trials, indicate that Henry believed that she was a witch.”

“All of his actions, including the marriage to Jane Seymour on 30 May 1536, indicate that Henry genuinely believed that Anne was guilty of the crimes for which she had died.”

That would explain how Henry VIII’s obvious passion and love for Anne Boleyn, which had involved him breaking with his beloved Church, could sour to the extent that he could execute her without any remorse or guilt.

The Witchcraft Theory Debunked

Although Warnicke’s view that Henry’s belief in Anne committing witchcraft and “sexual heresy” was the key to Anne Boleyn’s fall, many historians do not agree.

Eric Ives, in his biography of Anne Boleyn, disputes the claim that Anne miscarried a deformed foetus, saying that the only evidence of this is from Nicholas Sander, who was only about 6 at the time! Ives points out that a deformed foetus was never mentioned in 1536, or even after Anne’s death, that it was not brought up at her trial and that it was never even mentioned during Mary I’s reign when Mary could have used it to blacken Anne’s reputation. When we consider Sander’s physical description of Anne, his suggestion that Anne had been fathered by Henry VIII (!) and his age at the time of Anne’s miscarriage, we cannot really give any credence to his story of a deformed foetus.

Eric Ives discounts the whole story of the deformed foetus because if it was true then surely it would have been used as evidence in court of Anne’s guilt, and the guilt of the 5 men, because a deformed foetus was said to be God’s punishment for sexual sin. The only comment that we know Henry VIII made on Anne’s miscarriage was “I see that God will not give me male children” and that suggests that he blamed God, not Anne, for the miscarriage.

Henry’s comments about Anne’s use of “sortilege” do not necessarily mean that he believed that Anne was a witch. “Sortilege” could mean no more than “bewitched” or enchanted and, as Ives says, could be put down to bluster on Henry’s part and have no real truth in it. Henry VIII was known for his bluster and his exaggerations, after all, he also said that Anne had slept with a hundred men!

In my blog on “Why Was Anne Boleyn Executed?”, I discuss why I think this Queen Consort of England was executed and the answer is not witchcraft! Although Warnicke believes that:

“It was not a coalition of factions that brought down Anne but Henry’s disaffection caused by her miscarriage of a defective child, the one act, besides adultery, that would certainly destroy his trust in her.”

and that Henry blamed Anne Boleyn for God making her carry a deformed son, I believe that her downfall CAN be attributed to “a coalition of factions”.

I believe that Cromwell conspired with Chapuys, the Imperial Ambassador, and the Catholic faction to get rid of a queen who was having so much influence on the King that she was adversely affecting foreign policy plans. I also believe that Henry had started to believe that his marriage was “cursed”, not in a witchcraft way, but because of what he had had to do to marry Anne (and the fact that he had previously slept with Mary Boleyn), and that Anne had let him down by not giving him a son. Henry was vulnerable and “raw” after Anne’s miscarriage and so was open to having doubts about Anne planted in his mind by Cromwell.

To me, the fact that witchcraft was hinted at, rather than actually being used as a charge against Anne, means that no one really believed that Anne Boleyn was a witch. Witchcraft was just a “suggestion” that was used to blacken Anne’s name, not a serious charge. Archbishop Cranmer’s words to Henry VIII, after Anne’s arrest:

“If it be true that is openly reported of the Queen’s Grace… I am in such perplexity that my mind is clean amazed; for I never had better opinion in woman than I had in her; which maketh me to think that she should not be culpable… Next to Your Grace, I was most bound to her of all creatures living… I wish and pray for her that she may declare herself inculpable and innocent… I loved her not a little for the love which I judged her to bear towards God and His Gospel.”

and the fact that, after he found out that she had been executed, he said: “She who has been the Queen of England on earth will today become a Queen in Heaven”

do not sit comfortably with the idea of Anne being accused of witchcraft. Cranmer was close to the Queen and would have known what was going on, surely it would have been dangerous for him to defend a woman accused of witchcraft!

Still, whatever Warnicke, Ives and you or I believe, we probably will never know the real truth about why Anne Boleyn was executed and why Henry’s love turned to hate or indifference. There really are no right answers!

What do you think? Please take the time to comment below and let me know your thoughts about Anne Boleyn and witchcraft.

P.S. The British Library have added another David Starkey lecture to their podcast page. It is entitled “The Change 1509-1533” and looks at Henry VIII’s personality change, from virtuous prince to tyrannical adult. Click here for details.

Rumors started circulating that the village had fallen under the curse of Macbeth. According to the legend, anyone who uttered the name of the play inside a theater would face a string of bad luck. Some believed it was just a silly superstition, while others feared it was true. Regardless of the rumors, the chipmunks couldn't back down. They were determined to put on a great show. They thought if they rehearsed harder and focused on their performance, everything would be fine. But the curse had other plans. On the day of the performance, the chipmunks woke up to find their costumes torn to shreds. Panic set in, but they refused to give up. They quickly scrambled to find replacement costumes and continued with their preparations. As the show began, the audience could sense the tension in the air. The chipmunks put on a brave face and delivered their lines flawlessly. The curse seemed to be losing its power. But just as they were about to breathe a sigh of relief, disaster struck. In the middle of a dramatic scene, the stage collapsed, sending the chipmunks flying. The audience gasped in horror. It seemed like the curse had finally caught up with them. Bruised and shaken, the chipmunks decided to cancel the play. They realized that they had underestimated the power of the curse. They couldn't risk any more accidents and decided it was better to be safe than sorry. The chipmunks vowed to never mention the name Macbeth again. They believed that by avoiding its mention, they could break the curse. From that day on, they focused on other plays and lived happily ever after, leaving the curse of Macbeth behind them. In this tale of the chipmunks and the curse of Macbeth, we see the power of superstitions and the consequences of tempting fate. It serves as a reminder that sometimes it is better to be cautious and respect the legends that have been passed down through generations..

Reviews for "Macbeth's Curse Resurfaces: The Chipmunks Battle Forces of Evil"

1. Jennifer - 1/5 stars - I was extremely disappointed with "The Chipmunks and the Curse of Macbeth." As a fan of the original Chipmunks series, I expected a fun and entertaining movie. However, this film missed the mark completely. The plot was confusing and didn't make much sense, and the attempts at humor fell flat. The musical numbers, which are usually a highlight of Chipmunks movies, were uninspired and forgettable. Overall, I found it to be a waste of time and not worth the ticket price.

2. Michael - 2/5 stars - I had high hopes for "The Chipmunks and the Curse of Macbeth," but it failed to live up to expectations. The storyline was convoluted, and it seemed like the filmmakers were trying to cram too many ideas into one movie. The constant references to Macbeth became tedious and didn't add anything to the story. The animation and voice acting were decent, but that couldn't save the movie from its lackluster script. It's a forgettable addition to the Chipmunks franchise.

3. Susan - 1/5 stars - "The Chipmunks and the Curse of Macbeth" was a complete disaster in my opinion. The movie had no coherence and felt like a jumbled mess. The characters were poorly developed, and the dialogue was cringe-worthy. I found myself checking my watch multiple times throughout the film, hoping for it to end. The attempt to incorporate Shakespeare's Macbeth into a Chipmunks movie was a bizarre and unsuccessful choice. I wouldn't recommend wasting your time on this film.

4. Robert - 2/5 stars - I was left underwhelmed by "The Chipmunks and the Curse of Macbeth." The plot lacked excitement and felt like a recycled version of previous Chipmunks movies. The attempts at humor were juvenile and often fell flat. The musical numbers, which should have been a highlight, lacked the catchy tunes and energy that the Chipmunks series is known for. Overall, it was a forgettable movie that didn't bring anything new or exciting to the franchise.

Macbeth's Curse and the Chipmunks: A Deadly Encounter