awaiting a guide to victorian shakespeare.

I finished reading Macbeth yesterday, and while reading I tried to underline all the references to magic and spirits as I could so I could go back to the text later when I find some more solid research to refer back to. And along those lines of research, I'm actually having a much harder time that I had anticipated finding reference to magic, spiritualism, and ritualism in Victorian productions of Macbeth and The Tempest. I may not be looking in the right area, but I haven't given up yet. Also, I used this site that is linked from the HBLL website, but I found it very confusing. I don't know if anyone else has used the Chadwyck collections resource to find anything Shakespeare, but I had a really hard time navigating the site.
Anyway, as I mentioned previously, I wanted to read Macbeth, and I have, and I also wanted to reread The Tempest, which I will start today. After I have a basic understanding of these two texts, I will delve more deeply into the magic of these plays and how it was received among Victorian readers and audiences.
Also, if anyone knows of any resource that could point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful to you!
Oh, and something that is sort of on topic, but not entirely, is that I've been watching the PBS version of Macbeth with Patrick Stewart, and the emphasis on the magic is hardly there. Anyway, I thought that was interesting...

the scottish play.

I've been reading Macbeth since yesterday, and I'm afraid I just haven't finished it yet, but something in the Bevington got me thinking:

Macbeth is a difficult play to present on stage, at least according to stage tradition: ever since the early twentieth century, actors have referred to [Macbeth] superstitiously as "he Scottish play" as a way of avoiding bad luck that otherwise can hover menacingly over the action company (714).

Now, although this quote says that the plague of the play only began since the first bit of the twentieth century, I did some internet research and found that from the very first production of Macbeth there were incidents: the lead actor dying off before the production of the play, an actor killed when stabbed with a real dagger instead of a prop, real witches who were offended about how they were portrayed cursed the play, etc. So, knowing that the Victorians were also very superstitious and were very interested in incantations and seances from earlier periods of history,there has to be something about all the magic and mayhem in Macbeth that they felt akin to. So I plan to dig a little deeper to find out exactly what the Victorians did with the magic within Macbeth, and also if they had their own scary superstitions they adhered to when performing "the Scottish play."

shakespearean magic.

John William Waterhouse, The Magic Circle. 1886.
Not Shakespearean, but definitely magic in theme and Victorian. 

I think I've realized a focus for the next little bit. I'm really interested in the magic and rituals that are described in Shakespeare's plays, so my plan for now is to read Macbeth and review The Tempest then see how it all fits into Victorian revivalism of ritualism.
I know this is an ity bity post, but it's a start for the weekend!