马克白

Scene from Macbeth, depicting the witches' conjuring of an apparition in Act IV, Scene I. Painting by William Rimmer

马克白是莎士比亚最短的悲剧，也是他最受欢迎的作品。此部作品经常在世界各地的专业和社区剧院上演。

这出戏剧是典型的因权利的渴望而背弃朋友的故事。它大致根据了苏格兰人哲学家Hector Boece的《苏格兰国王马克白》,which flattered the antecedents of Boece's patron 苏格兰国王詹姆士六世，也就是詹姆士一世 (英格兰)，并且大肆诽谤真正的马克白, 苏格兰国王.

Macbeth incorporates characteristic features of a morality play. Scholars think it an archetypal Jacobean play, with plenty of endorsements of James I's reign, and place its composition around 1606. There is considerable evidence that the text of the play as we have it incorporates later revisions by Thomas Middleton, who inserted popular passages (notably an extra scene involving the witches and Hecate, for such scenes proved highly popular with audiences) from his own play The Witch (1615). These revisions (the whole of Act III, Scene v, and a portion of Act IV, Scene i) are generally indicated as such in modern texts.

On the stage, Lady Macbeth is seen by many as one of the most challenging roles for women in theatre.

Actors often consider the play to be 'unlucky', and usually refer to it as The Scottish Play rather than by name. The characters are sometimes referred to as Mackers and Lady Mackers. To say the name of the play inside a theatre is considered to doom the production to failure.

In Macbeth there is the constant question posed if magic exists, and the witches are indeed predicting the future or simply manipulating Macbeth's mind and forcing him to murder Duncan and Banquo.

Synopsis

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The play opens with the three Witches ("weird sisters") discussing their upcoming meeting with Macbeth. Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, and Banquo, generals to King Duncan of Scotland, have just defeated an invasion of Scotland by the allied forces of Norway and Ireland led by the rebel Macdonwald.

As Macbeth and Banquo wander into a heath the three Witches greet them with prophecies. The first witch hails Macbeth as "Thane of Glamis", the second as "Thane of Cawdor", and the third that he shall "be King hereafter". The Witches also inform Banquo he shall be father of a line of kings. While they wonder at these prophecies, the witches disappear, and the Thane of Ross - a messenger from the King - arrives and informs Macbeth of his new title, Thane of Cawdor—the first prophecy fulfilled (as Macbeth is already Thane of Glamis). Immediately Macbeth begins to harbour ambitions of becoming king.

Macbeth writes to his wife about the witches' prophecies. Duncan decides to stay at Macbeth's castle at Inverness and the couple hatch a plan to murder him and seize the throne. While Macbeth raises concerns about the regicide, Lady Macbeth manages to persuade her husband that murder is the only route to kingship.

In the night Macbeth kills Duncan and the two arrange bloody daggers to frame Duncan's servants for murder. In a sham fit of grief, however, Macbeth murders the servants before they can protest their innocences. Duncan's body is discovered by Macduff, the loyal Thane of Fife, who is immediately suspicious of Macbeth. Fearing for their lives, Duncan's son Malcolm flees to England, and his brother Donalbain to Ireland. Macbeth uses their unexplained disappearances to accuse the pair of regicide. With the rightful heirs gone, Macbeth assumes the throne as new King of Scotland because of his relation to the dead King.

Despite his success, Macbeth remains uneasy regarding the prophecies that Banquo would be progenitor of kings. Macbeth therefore sees Banquo as an element jeopardising his rule. Becoming progressively paranoid and ruthless, he incites murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. Fleance, however, manages to escape. At the royal banquet, Banquo's ghost enters and sits in Macbeth's place. Macbeth is the only person who can see the ghost, and his display of terror convinces his guests of his guilt.

Disturbed, Macbeth goes to the Witches again and receives three more prophecies. The witches conjure spirits which tell him he will not "vanquish'd be until Great Birnam wood to high (Dunsinane Hill) shall come against him" and that "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth", but also to "beware Macduff". Since Macduff is in exile, Macbeth massacres everyone in Macduff's castle, including Macduff's wife and children.

Lady Macbeth eventually becomes racked mentally with guilt from the crimes she has committed. In a famous scene, she sleepwalks and tries to wash imaginary bloodstains off her hands.

In England, Malcolm and Macduff plan for an invasion of Scotland. Macduff leads a camouflaged army with Malcolm and Englishman Siward (the Elder), the Earl of Northumbria, against Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth delivers a famous nihilistic soliloquy upon learning of Lady Macbeth's death (the cause of it is unexplained although it is generally assumed that she commited suicide). Meanwhile, Malcolm's army advances as though in a moving wood, as they have cut off the trunks of the forest while moving as camouflage.

A battle ensues, culminating in Macduff's confrontation of Macbeth. Macbeth boasts that he has no reason to fear Macduff, as he cannot be killed by any man born of woman. Macduff declares that he was born by Caesarean section (before his mother's actual delivery)—and was therefore not "of woman born". Too late Macbeth realises the Witches have been equivocating. A fight ensues, which ends with Macduff beheading Macbeth offstage, thereby fulfilling the last of the witches' prophecies.

In the final scene of the play, Malcolm is crowned as rightful King of Scotland, suggesting that peace is restored to the kingdom. However, the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo, "Thou shalt [be]get kings", was known to the audience of Shakespeare's time to be true, as James I of England was supposedly a descendant of Banquo.