Macbeth
(eBook)

"...something wicked this way comes." This is a beautifully designed original classic edition of William Shakespeare's tragedy that is considered one of his darkest and most powerful works. A dark and bloody drama of ambition, murder, guilt, and revenge set amid the dreary castles and isolated moors of medieval Scotland illustrates the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. Macbeth paints a striking portrait of an honorable man destroyed by a fatal character flaw and the tortures of a guilty imagination. Partly based on a true historical account the play charts the bloody rise to power and tragic downfall of the warrior Macbeth, a Scottish general under the rule of King Duncan. Three witches tell Macbeth that he will become the king of Scotland. Macbeth, spurred on by his ambition and by his wife, murders Duncan and ascends to the throne. His evil deed entangles the conscience-stricken Macbeth in a web of treachery, deceit, and more murders, which ultimately spells his doom. His reign is bloody and tyrannical and is ended by the combined forces of Scotland and England. The play is believed to have been written in 1606 and it was first performed that summer at the Globe Theatre. Attracting the most renowned actors to the leading roles, the play has been continuously in production since the 1660s. It has often been referred to as "The Scottish Play" since speaking the title in a theater has been associated with a curse.