Read Macbeth Online

PREFACE 

The purpose of this edition is essentially to enable 
the student to gain a general notion of this play as an 
acting piece, to become familiar with the plot through 
scene development and to feel compelled to settle for 
himself problems which too often are settled for him 
in an elaborate introduction. It is intended solely as a 
a working edition and to that end all materials whose 
chief aim might seem to be to show the scholarship of 
the editor have been carefully excluded and the brief 
notes are unhampered by any references to contempo- 
rary writers or by explanations of words which the 
student can find for himself in any good dictionary. 

The special features of the edition may be briefly 
stated as follows : — The life of Shakespeare and the 
sources of the plot, which often are far too lengthy, 
are here briefly treated and placed in the notes where 
they properly belong. Thus instead of a mass of in- 
formation which he seldom utilizes, the student finds 
in the introduction clearly set forth those essentials of 
plot development in tragedy which are needful for the 
interpretation and appreciation of the play. A special 
chart adds to the vividness of his conception of plot 
construction, and the latter part of the introduction 
presents a general idea of the play as a whole.