The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship & emphasis on performance The series features line-by-line commentaries & textual notes on the plays & poems Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical stage & screen interpretations This second edition of Macbeth provides a thorough reconsideration of one of Shakespeare's most popular plays In his introduction A R Braunmuller explores Macbeth's immediate theatrical & political contexts particularly the Gunpowder Plot & addresses such celebrated questions as do the Witches compel Macbeth to murder; is Lady Macbeth herself in some sense a witch; is Macduff morally culpable? A new & well-illustrated account of the play in performance examines several cinematic versions such as those by Kurosawa & Roman Polanski as well as other dramatic adaptations Several possible new sources are suggested & the presence of Thomas Middleton's writing in the play is also proposed