Macbeth and the Dark Ages

It looks like a magazine, 34 glossy pages packed with information -- articles, illustrations, but unlike most periodicals, no advertisements. Reading Macbeth & the Dark Ages, I get the mental picture of a wheel with Shakespeare's play Macbeth at the center, and spokes radiating in all directions. Each spoke points to related material in language arts, history, science, music, art, and more. One of the ideas behind this curriculum is that a student who finds a particular subject boring may be drawn in by studying a related subject, and there's plenty of variety here to choose from.

Macbeth & the Dark Ages starts out with a map of Scotland and England, with place names marked but no explanation on the map page. (It becomes a handy reference as you read the following articles.) You'll find within this slim volume articles on staging Shakespeare (an interview with a stage director), exploring words (opposites, metaphors), psychology (conscience and motivation), history (Vikings, the true story behind the play and the people represented), art history (the Bayeux Tapestry, which was the facet that drew me into this study, and a discussion of illuminated manuscripts), music history (music of the 11th century), science (the history and physics behind the trebuchet, a medieval weapon), and an exploration of beliefs about witchcraft in Shakespeare's time.

Black-and-white and glowing color illustrations enrich the impact of the text. Far from dry academic writing, the articles are written to stimulate interest and conversational in tone. I had to look up an occasional word, however. This is not "dumbed down." I didn't feel quite so badly when I ran across the advice in one of the articles that said, "Always look up the words whose meanings you're unsure of." Even though the author was talking about reading Shakespeare, it's good all-purpose advice. Since I have a pretty good vocabulary, I'd peg this NEXUS guide at a solid high school level or above.

An accompanying document is available with "Interdisciplinary Guidelines and Reproducible Supplements." Please see related review.

NEXUS guides are a great way to start with a literary work and expand from there, exploring related themes and the backdrop of history, suited to individual homeschool use, but also providing a marvelous resource for a co-op class.