[muh
k-beth, mak-] 
| 1. | died 1057, king of Scotland 1040–57. |
| 2. | (italics) a tragedy (1606?) by Shakespeare. |
| Mac·beth (mək-běth') King of Scotland (1040-1057) who ascended the throne after killing his cousin King Duncan (died 1040) in battle. Legends of his rise to power and reign are the basis of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. |
A tragedy by William Shakespeare, in which the Scottish nobleman Macbeth, misled by the prophecy of three witches and goaded on by his wife, murders the king and usurps the throne. Well-known lines from the play include “Lay on, Macduff” and “Out, damned spot!”
Macbeth
king of Scots from 1040, the legend of whose life was the basis of Shakespeare's Macbeth. He was probably a grandson of King Kenneth II (reigned 971-995), and he married Gruoch, a descendant of King Kenneth III (reigned 997-1005). About 1031 Macbeth succeeded his father, Findlaech (Sinel in Shakespeare), as mormaer, or chief, in the province of Moray, in northern Scotland. Macbeth established himself on the throne after killing his cousin King Duncan I in battle near Elgin-not, as in Shakespeare, by murdering Duncan in bed-on August 14, 1040. Both Duncan and Macbeth derived their rights to the crown through their mothers.
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