Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest, most visceral and most disturbing tragedy. It was written in or about 1606, during the reign of King James I (VI of Scotland) and prudently places the current monarch as one of the line of good and justified kings deriving from Banquo, which is what the Stuart house itself to which James belonged also claimed. The plot centres on the Scottish general Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth (as a married woman, she must live in the public domain through the identity

Source:Tragedies of Shakespeare: Macbeth