Macbeth (play)

Macbeth (play), tragedy in five acts, written by English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. First performed in about 1606, the play was originally printed in the 1623 edition of Shakespeare's works known as the First Folio. The author’s principal source for Macbeth was Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577) by English chronicler Raphael Holinshed. The play’s title role is loosely based on the career of a King Macbeth of Scotland. A commander under King Duncan I, Macbeth murdered Duncan in 1040 and claimed the kingdom for himself. After a rule of 17 years, Macbeth was killed by Duncan’s son Malcolm, who later became King Malcolm III.

The tragedy is a penetrating, concentrated, and harrowing study of the ambition of Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth. Three witches, who appear on the stage when the play opens, confront Macbeth and prophesy that he will one day become king of Scotland, and that his companion Banquo will beget kings, although he will never become one himself. Macbeth, who is already a hero because of his skill as a soldier, cannot rest with his knowledge of the prophecy but instead takes fate into his own hands.

Macbeth and his wife feel compelled to protect the station promised them by the witches, and to thwart the heirs of Banquo and any other possible heirs. With Lady Macbeth as his accomplice, Macbeth murders King Duncan and is elected king of Scotland. Duncan’s son Malcolm flees to England. Suddenly suspicious of Banquo, Macbeth has him assassinated, but fails to kill Banquo’s son Fleance. Another high-ranking soldier, Macduff, who does not trust Macbeth, goes to England to join Malcolm, and Macbeth takes the opportunity to murder Macduff’s wife and heirs. Macduff returns as a member of Malcolm’s avenging army and kills Macbeth, and Malcolm is then made king.

As in many of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the action of the play-in this case, its sustained evil and violence-is balanced by its study of the minds of its main characters. Macbeth and his wife are repulsed and torn by their own behavior, and they both seem to verge on hallucination and madness as they recoil from the mayhem they have created around them. Still, the lust for ambition proves the overwhelming force. In the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, the play offers two strong roles long regarded as major roles for actors. Shakespeare's tragedy also provided the basis for the libretto of the opera Macbeth (1847) by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi.