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Macbeth

by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

  • Free to read
  • 1 hour to read
  • Reading level: 6th grade

"Macbeth" by William Shakespeare is a tragedy first performed in 1606. When a Scottish general receives a prophecy from three witches that he will become king, his ambition awakens. Spurred by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and seizes the throne. But power corrupts absolutely—consumed by guilt and paranoia, he commits more murders to secure his position, descending into tyranny and madness. This dark exploration of ambition's destructive force remains Shakespeare's shortest and most psychologically intense tragedy.

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  • Tragedies (Drama)
  • Regicides
  • Macbeth, King of Scotland, active 11th century
  • Scotland · Kings and rulers

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Executive Director's Notes:

In addition to the notes below, and so you will *NOT* think all the spelling errors introduced by the printers of the time have been corrected, here are the first few lines of Hamlet, as they are presented herein:

Barnardo. Who's there?
Fran. Nay answer me: Stand & vnfold
your selfe

Bar. Long liue the King

As I understand it, the printers often ran out of certain words or letters they had often packed into a "cliche". . .this is the original meaning of the term cliche. . .and thus, being unwilling to unpack the cliches, and thus you will see some substitutions that look very odd. . .such as the exchanges of u for v, v for u, above. . .and you may wonder why they did it this way, presuming Shakespeare did not actually write the play in this manner. . . .

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About this edition

This free edition of Macbeth by William Shakespeare comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #2264, released 2000-07-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Plays/Films/Dramas, Classics of Literature, British Literature.

Other editions: eBook #1533 (most read), eBook #1795.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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