Macbeth

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together

And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald--

Worthy to be a rebel, for to that

The multiplying villanies of nature

Do swarm upon him--from the western isles

Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;

And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,

Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak:

For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--

Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,

Which smoked with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion carved out his passage

Till he faced the slave;

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,

Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,

And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

One of Shakespeare's more famous plays (but, honestly, almost all of his plays are quite famous), Macbeth is perhaps the codifier of theater tragedy.

Thoughts

Obviously modern standards differ, but Macbeth sells me on the tragedy quite well, perhaps because Macbeth feels like a very real person even to modern senses. If you think over the story, you are definitely inclined to ask: how much of everything is Macbeth's fault? How much can we blame the witches, Lady Macbeth, whatever? Was Macbeth always a good guy that got corrupted, or did he always have ambition but never thought he had a chance to satisfy it all?

A bit of a nitpick I have is that Macbeth's tyranny is largely offstage, so we don't really know exactly what he's doing that's so bad - well, besides hunting out political enemies, but that's on par for the course for most kings. And needless to say, "no man of woman born" looks tediously lame to modern eyes.

In any case - I'm no Shakespeare freak, but this is my personal favorite of his plays, and definitely recommended to anyone trying to get a taste for why Shakespeare's name is sacred in English literature (whether it should be or not is a separate topic).