Upon a “blasted heath” near Forres, three Witches, Weird Sisters, meeting the King of Scotland’s generals, Macbeth and Banquo, hail Macbeth in a triple prophecy, ending with the promise of kingship. Banquo is told that he “shall get kings, though thou be none”. After King Duncan has made him Thane of Cawdor (as the Witches promised), Macbeth knows that he and his unflinching wife are ambitious for the greater honour. She drives him onward; and that night he murders the sleeping King, their guest at the castle of Dunsinane. At dawn (Act II) Macduff and Lennox discover the murder, assumed to be by the King’s sons, Donalbain and Malcolm, who fly for safety. Macbeth goes to Forres to be crowned. Remembering the Witches’ prophecies, he has Banquo killed (Act III), but Banquo’s son Fleance escapes; that night Banquo’s ghost appears to Macbeth at a state banquet.

Macbeth goes (Act IV) to the Witches’ “pit of Acheron”, where he hears that he must beware Macduff, that he is to fear no man born of woman, and that he will remain unvanquished until Birnam Wood has come to Dunsinane. Macduff, meanwhile, has joined Malcolm in England, where he hears that in Fife the tyrant has had his family murdered. Revenge will follow. At Dunsinane (Act V) Lady Macbeth, burdened by guilt, reveals much during her sleepwalking (“Infected minds,” says the doctor, “to their deep pillows will discharge their secrets”). Malcolm’s invading army advances under the shelter of branches from Birnam Wood; Macbeth, who has just learned of his wife’s suicide (“She should have died hereafter”), hears that Birnam Wood is indeed coming towards Dunsinane. Trusting desperately to the charmed life that “must not yield to one of woman born”, he faces in battle Macduff, who cries to him: “Let the angel whom thou still hast serv’d/Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb/Untimely ripp’d”./ Macbeth is slain and Malcolm hailed as King of Scotland.

-The Pocket Companion to Shakespeare’s Plays by J C Trewin