--- title: "The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare — Classic Ebook | Publi…" description: "Read a free sample of The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare at Publica Now — a public-domain classic ebook, readable online." canonical: "https://publica.now/creators/vito/works/the-tragedy-of-macbeth" --- Literary # The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare [ V Vito ](https://publica.now/creators/vito) Follow $2.99 [ Sign in to buy ](https://publica.now/access?redirect=%2Fcheckout%2Fthe-tragedy-of-macbeth) Secure payment on Stripe. publica.now never sees your card. Share Link copied Format epub Published May 02, 2026 Rating No reviews yet ![The Tragedy of Macbeth](https://fls-a13cb2d7-1b3e-4883-a0bd-297afd110a11.367be3a2035528943240074d0096e0cd.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/works/01kqn18cxqfyx7sgaqy040rqj8/editions/2026-09-06-html-v1/cover.png?X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=d29ce3bb571c165c97a702f29f7aee93%2F20261001%2Fauto%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20261001T115457Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Signature=9327e51a2c16a9c15ff8e430fd0c7332b5193d46c970e824e44f33f10d666b77) ## About this work “When shall we three meet againe?” With thunder, lightning, and rain, Shakespeare’s Macbeth begins in an atmosphere of ominous prophecy and gathering darkness. At its heart lies a tragedy of Scotland, kingship, and regicide—a drama whose language has endured for centuries while retaining the charged strangeness of its early printed form. This publica.now edition presents the play in a text drawn from Shakespeare’s First Folio tradition. Spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and other features have been kept close to the historical source, while the edition’s notes explain the work of transcription, correction, and comparison among more than thirty First Folio copies. For readers drawn to Shakespeare’s tragedies, to the turbulent drama of rulers and kingdoms, or to the texture of an early modern text, this is Macbeth in an intentionally close public-domain presentation. This Publica.now Classics edition includes a new typographic cover and publisher opening and closing pages. Sample ## Take a look inside Executive Director's Notes: In addition to the notes below, and so you will \*NOT\* think all the spelling errors introduced by the printers of the time have been corrected, here are the first few lines of Hamlet, as they are presented herein: Barnardo. Who's there? Fran. Nay answer me: Stand & vnfold your selfe Bar. Long liue the King \* \* \* \* \* As I understand it, the printers often ran out of certain words or letters they had often packed into a "cliche". . .this is the original meaning of the term cliche. . .and thus, being unwilling to unpack the cliches, and thus you will see some substitutions that look very odd. . .such as the exchanges of u for v, v for u, above. . .and you may wonder why they did it this way, presuming Shakespeare did not actually write the play in this manner. . . . The answer is that they MAY have packed "liue" into a cliche at a time when they were out of "v"'s. . .possibly having used "vv" in place of some "w"'s, etc. This was a common practice of the day, as print was still quite expensive, and they didn't want to spend more on a wider selection of characters than they had to. You will find a lot of these kinds of "errors" in this text, as I have mentioned in other times and places, many "scholars" have an extreme attachment to these errors, and many have accorded them a very high place in the "canon" of Shakespeare. My father read an assortment of these made available to him by Cambridge University in England for several months in a glass room constructed for the purpose. To the best of my knowledge he read ALL those available .… [ Sign in to buy ](https://publica.now/access?redirect=%2Fcheckout%2Fthe-tragedy-of-macbeth) The sample continues in the full work. [ #Tragedies (Drama) ](/search?query=Tragedies+%28Drama%29) [ #Regicides -- Drama ](/search?query=Regicides+--+Drama) [ #Macbeth, King of Scotland, active 11th century -- Drama ](/search?query=Macbeth%2C+King+of+Scotland%2C+active+11th+century+--+Drama) [ #Scotland -- Kings and rulers -- Drama ](/search?query=Scotland+--+Kings+and+rulers+--+Drama) [ #Tragedies ](/search?query=Tragedies) [ #Drama ](/search?query=Drama) [ #Regicides ](/search?query=Regicides) [ #Macbeth ](/search?query=Macbeth) [ #Scotland ](/search?query=Scotland) [ #Kings and rulers ](/search?query=Kings+and+rulers) ## Reviews No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts. [Sign in to leave a review](https://publica.now/access?redirect=%2Fcreators%2Fvito%2Fworks%2Fthe-tragedy-of-macbeth) No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts. 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