The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of arrogance, madness, and death. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia, and he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler as he is forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the throne for himself. Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy, and tells the story of a brave Scottish general named Macbeth who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. James was a patron of Shakespeare's acting company, and of all the plays Shakespeare wrote during James's reign, Macbeth most clearly reflects the playwright's relationship with the sovereign. It was most likely written during the reign of James I, who had been James VI of Scotland before he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book. The earliest account of a performance of what was probably Shakespeare's play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre. The play is believed to have been written between 15. Set mainly in Scotland, the play dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. Macbeth / m ə k ˈ b ɛ θ/ (full title The Tragedy of Macbeth) is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. Depicted, anticlockwise from top-left, are: Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches just after the murder of Duncan Banquo's ghost Macbeth duels Macduff and Macbeth. 1884 American production of Macbeth, starring Thomas W.