Originally published: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King’s New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as “an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers.” Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later under James I, called the King’s Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain’s Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio.


From the Paperback edition.

Dramatis Personae

DUNCAN, King of Scotland
MALCOLM his sons
DONALBAIN

MACBETH, Thane of Glamis, later of Cawdor, later
King of Scotland
LADY MACBETH

BANQUO, a thane of Scotland
FLEANCE, his son
MACDUFF, Thane of Fife
LADY MACDUFF
SON of Macduff and Lady Macduff

LENNEX
ROSS
MENTEITH thanes and noblemen of Scotland
ANGUS
CAITHNESS

SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland
YOUNG SIWARD, his son
SEYTON, an officer attending Macbeth
Another LORD
ENGLISH DOCTOR
SCOTTISH DOCTOR
GENTLEWOMAN attending Lady Macbeth
CAPTAIN serving Duncan
PORTER
OLD MAN
Three MURDERERS of Banquo
First MURDERERS at Macduff's castle
MESSENGER to Lady Macbeth
MESSENGER to Lady Macduff
SERVENT to Macbeth
SERVENT to Lady Macbeth
Three WITCHES or WEIRD SISTERS
HECATE
Three APPARITIONS

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers,
and Attendants

SCENE: Scotland; England

Location: An open place.
hurlyburly tumult
Grimalkin i.e., gray cat, name of the witch's familiar—a demon or evil spirit supposed to answer a witch's call and to allow him or her to perform black magic.
Paddock toad; also a familiar
Anon At once, right away.

1.2 Location: A camp near Forres.
0.1 Alarum trumpet call to arms

1.1 * Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.

FIRST WITCH
When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

SECOND WITCH
When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.

THIRD WITCH
That will be ere the set of sun.
first witch
Where the place?
second witch Upon the heath.
third witch
There to meet with Macbeth.

FIRST WITCH  I come, Grimalkin!

SECOND WITCH  Paddock calls.

THIRD WITCH  Anon.

ALL
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt.
1.2 * Alarum within. Enter King [Duncan], Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with attendants, meeting a
bleeding Captain.

DUNCAN
What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

newest state latest news.   sergeant i.e., staff officer. (There may be no inconsistency with his rank of "captain" in the stage direction and speech prefixes in the Folio.)
broil battle spent tired out choke their art render their skill in swimming useless.
The merciless . . . supplied The merciless Macdonwald—worthy of the hated name of rebel, for in the cause of rebellion an ever-increasing number of villainous persons and unnatural qualities swarm about him like vermin—is joined by light-armed Irish footsoldiers and ax-armed horsemen from the western islands of Scotland (the Hebrides and perhaps Ireland)
And Fortune . . . whore i.e., Fortune, proverbially a false strumpet, smiles at first on Macdonwald's damned rebellion but deserts him in his hour of need.
well . . . name well he deserves a name that is synonymous with "brave"
minion darling. (Macbeth is Valor's darling, not Fortune's.)
the slave i.e., Macdonwald
Which . . . to him i.e., Macbeth paused for no ceremonious greeting or farewell to Macdonwald.
nave navel.   chops jaws
cousin kinsman
As . . . swells Just as terrible storms at sea arise out of the east, from the place where the sun first shows itself in the seeming comfort of the dawn, even thus did a new military threat come on the heels of the seeming good news of Macdonwald's execution.
skipping (1) lightly armed, quick at maneuvering (2) skittish
surveying vantage seeing an opportunity

The newest state.

MALCOLM This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought
'Gainst my captivity.—Hail, brave friend!
Say to the King the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.

CAPTAIN Doubtful it stood,
As two spent swimme

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Excerpted from Macbeth by William Shakespeare
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