This version of Macbeth first appearing in 1673, with later editions of 1687 and 1710, 'is assigned expressly to D'Avenant by Downes, who speaks of its being in the nature of an opera and of the singing and dancing in it, 'The first compos'd by Mr. Lock,the other by Mr. Channell and Mr. Joseph Preist'. There is no exact evidence when it was performed. Pepys saw a 'Macbeth' 5 Nov. 1664, "a pretty good play", again 28 Dec. 1666, and once more 7 Jan. 1667, when he especially admired the 'divertissement', which he held 'a strange perfection in a tragedy'. Genest ascribes to 1672, when it was given at Dorset Garden, the first performance of this play, and holds, doubtless in error, that the 'Macbeth' given at Lincoln's Inn Fields was Shakespeare's. To this notion Pepys's mention of the 'divertissement' seems fatal' [DNB].

Running title: 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'.

Wing S2932; Woodward & McManaway 317 [under Davenant]; Jaggard 380 [with note: 'An anonymous issue; Betterton [misprinted Batterton] [as in Percy copy] appeared as 'Macbeth' in the cast'].