Introduction / Harold Bloom
Biography of William Shakespeare
List of characters in Macbeth
Criticism through the ages
Macbeth in the seventeenth century
From A Continuance of Albions England / William Warner 1606
From The Bock of Palies and Notes thereof per Formans for Common Pollicie / Simon Forman c. 1611
Excerpts from his adaptation of Macbeth / William Davenant 1664
From The Diary of Samuel Pepys / Samuel Pepys 1664-1668
Macbeth in the eighteenth century
From Roscius Anglicanus / John Downes 1708
"Macbeth" from Notes on Shakespeare's Plays / Samuel Johnson 1745
"The tragedy of Macbeth," from An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare / Elizabeth Montagu 1769
"Macbeth," from The Dramatic Censor ; or, Critical Companion / Francis Gentleman 1770
"On the character of Macbeth," from A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of Some of Shakespeare's Remarkable Characters / William Richardson 1780
From "Remarks on Some of the Characters of Shakespere / Thomas Whately 1785
Macbeth in the nineteenth century
From Lectures on Dramatics Art and Literature / August Wilhelm von Schlegel 1809
"Macbeth," from Characters of Shakespear's Plays / William Hazlitt 1817
"Notes on Macbeth," from Shakespeare, with Introductory Remarks on Poetry, the Drama, and the Stage / Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1818
From "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" / Thomas DeQuincey 1823
"Lady Macbeth," from Shakespeare's Heroines : Characteristics of Women : Moral, Poetical and Historical / Anna Jameson 1832
From Conversations with Goethe / Peter Eckermann 1836
"Mrs. Siddons acts Lady Macbeth - her own remarks on the character" and "Observations on Mrs. Siddons estimate," from The Life of Mrs. Siddons / Thomas Campbell 1839
From William Shakespeare / Victor Hugo 1864
From "Macbeth and Lady Macbeth," from The Fortnightly Review / P.W. Clayden 1867
"The third murderer in Macbeth," from The Nineteenth Century / Henry Irving 1877
"Macbeth," from Shakespeare : His Life, Art, and Characters / H.N. Hudson 1880
"Some notes upon the characters in Shakespeare's play of Macbeth," from Notes Upon Some of Shakespeare's Plays / Frances Anne Kemble 1882
From Chapter 7, "Macbeth, Lord and Lady : a study in character-contrast," in Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist / Richard G. Moulton 1893
"Macbeth in comparison to Hamlet," from William Shakespeare : A Critical Study / Georg Brandes 1898
Macbeth in the twentieth century
"Lecture 9 : Macbeth" and "Lecture 10 : Macbeth," from Shakespearean Tragedy / A.C. Bradley 1904
"Remarks on Macbeth," from Some Character-types Met With in Psychoanalytic Work / Sigmund Freud 1916
"Macbeth," from Notes on Shakespeare's Workmanship / Arthur Quiller-Couch 1917
From "Macbeth and the metaphysic of evil," from The Wheel of Fire / G. Wilson Knight 1930
"The naked babe and the cloak of manliness," from The Well Wrought Urn / Cleanth Brooks 1947
"Macbeth's imagination," from The Royal Play of Macbeth / Henry N. Paul 1950
"Macbeth," from The Meaning of Shakespeare / Harold C. Goddard 1951
"Macbeth," from Shakespeare : the Pattern in His Carpet / Francis Fergusson 1958
"Macbeth : a lust for power," from Some Shakespearean themes / L.C. Knights 1959
"Notes on Macbeth," from The Freedom of the Poet /
"Macbeth," from Essays on Shakespeare / William Empson 1986
"Introduction," from Macbeth (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations series) / Harold Bloom 1987
From "Macbeth," in Shakespeare's Tragic Cosmos / Thomas McAlindon 1991
Macbeth in the twenty-first century
"Macbeth : loyal stewards and royal succession," from Shakespearean Tragedy as Chivalric Romance / Michael L. Hays 2003
"Macbeth : a deed without a name," from Shakespeare's Tragedies : Violation and Identity / Alexander Leggatt 2005
Critical extracts / William Warner, S.
"An unknown fear" : the tragedie of Macbeth / Wilbur Sanders
