Macbeth, written around 1606, is the shortest and darkest of Shakespeare's great tragedies. A Scottish general, told by three witches that he will be king, murders King Duncan with the encouragement of his wife and plunges into a spiral of tyranny, guilt and further murders. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623.
The story
Returning from a victory, Macbeth and his fellow general Banquo meet three witches on a heath. They greet Macbeth as the future king, and promise Banquo that his descendants will reign. Spurred on by Lady Macbeth, Macbeth kills King Duncan, who is a guest in his castle, and takes the throne.
To keep his crown he has Banquo murdered, but Banquo's ghost appears at a banquet. Macbeth becomes a tyrant and has the family of the nobleman Macduff killed. Lady Macbeth, haunted by guilt, walks in her sleep trying to wash imaginary blood from her hands, and dies. Macduff and Duncan's son Malcolm defeat and kill Macbeth.
History and politics
The real Macbeth ruled Scotland from 1040 to 1057 and was by the standards of his time a fairly successful king. Shakespeare took the story from Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, published in 1587, and changed it freely, making Duncan an old and saintly king and Banquo an innocent man.
The play was written for the court of James I, who was also King of Scotland, claimed descent from Banquo and had written a treatise on witchcraft. Its theme of treason echoed the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a failed conspiracy to blow up the king and Parliament.
The play on stage
The surviving text is unusually short and seems to have been revised, perhaps by the playwright Thomas Middleton, who probably added the scenes with the goddess Hecate and two songs. For a long time the play was performed in versions with extra music and dancing witches.
Lady Macbeth became one of the great roles for actresses, especially after Sarah Siddons in the late eighteenth century. The play has been adapted by Verdi as an opera and by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa as the film Throne of Blood (1957).
Anecdotes
The Scottish play
Many actors consider it unlucky to say the name Macbeth inside a theatre, except during the play itself, and refer to it as the Scottish play. Someone who breaks the rule is sometimes asked to leave the building, turn round three times, spit and knock to be let back in.
A riot over two Macbeths
On 10 May 1849, rival performances of Macbeth in New York by the English actor William Macready and the American Edwin Forrest, whose supporters despised each other, led to the Astor Place Riot. The militia fired on the crowd, and more than twenty people were killed.
Frequently asked questions
Was Macbeth a real person?
Yes. Macbeth was King of Scotland from 1040 to 1057; he killed Duncan I in battle and was himself killed by Duncan's son Malcolm.
When was Macbeth written?
Around 1606, early in the reign of James I. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623.
Why is Macbeth called the Scottish play?
Because of a theatrical superstition that saying its title in a theatre brings bad luck.