<P> Macbeth (/ məkˈbɛθ /; full title The Tragedy of Macbeth) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare; it is thought to have been first performed in 1606 . It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake . Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, who was patron of Shakespeare's acting company, Macbeth most clearly reflects the playwright's relationship with his sovereign . It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy . </P> <P> A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland . Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself . He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia . Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler . The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death . </P> <P> Shakespeare's source for the story is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland; Macduff; and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland, and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, although the events in the play differ extensively from the history of the real Macbeth . The events of the tragedy are usually associated with the execution of Henry Garnet for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 . </P>

Who is macbeth fighting in the beginning of the play