For more than three hundred fifty years, Macbeth has been one of the most steadily popular of Shakespeare¡¯s tragedies. On the stage, it has also proved itself an enduring hit. Innumerable scholars and writers have taken so much interest in Macbeth that they have written hundreds of thousands of books and articles about the play and its characters.
             As a story Macbeth movers directly and swiftly from beginning to end. Its compact intensity is one reason why it appeals to spectators and readers alike. Almost every scene has mysterious, suppressive, or vigorous action. Gripping as the plot of Macbeth is, it also provides the basis for a clear understanding and appreciation of the play as tragedy. Like most writers of his time, Shakespeare subscribed to the theory that poetry should ¡°delight and instruct¡±, and Macbeth is a poetic drama.
             I think most of us have read Macbeth either in English or in Chinese and some of us may have even been lucky enough to see the play on the stage. So I am going to repeat the story. The tragedy was first written performed at the Globe in 1606. The text is brief and is believed to contain some materials by Middleton and the second edition of Raphael Holinshed¡¯s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. There is no evidence that Shakespeare knew or used any of Holinshed¡¯s sources of information. Shakespeare was a playwright not a historian. He mainly combined two chapters together from Scotish history: Donwald¡¯s murder of King Duff and Macbeth¡¯s assassination of Duncan and subsequent reign. In using Holinshed¡¯s accounts Shakespeare adopted many details, omitted or changed others, and added still others. Shakespeare¡¯s Macbeth is obviously a composite individual made up of Holished¡¯s Donwald and Macbeth, with the adding of King Kenneth¡¯s sleeplessness. The principle difference between the stage of Macbeth and the his chronicle model lies in the Shakespeare¡¯s sup...