ALL Double, double toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Double, double toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
SECOND WITCH Cool it with a baboon’s blood, Then the charm is firm and good. We’ll cool the mixture with baboon blood. After that the charm is finished.
Enter HECATE and the other three WITCHES / HECATE enters with three other WITCHES.
HECATE Oh well done! I commend your pains, And every one shall share i' th' gains. And now about the cauldron sing, Like elves and fairies in a ring, Enchanting all that you put in. Well done! I admire your efforts, and all of you will share the rewards. Now come sing around the cauldron like a ring of elves and fairies, enchanting everything you put in.
Music and a song: “Black spirits,” &c. HECATE retires / Music plays and the six WITCHES sing a song called “Black Spirits.” HECATE leaves.
SECOND WITCH By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Open, locks, Whoever knocks. I can tell that something wicked is coming by the tingling in my thumbs. Doors, open up for whoever is knocking!
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Enter MACBETH / MACBETH enters.
MACBETH How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags? What is ’t you do? What’s going on here, you secret, evil, midnight hags? What are you doing?
ALL A deed without a name. Something there isn’t a word for.
MACBETH I conjure you by that which you profess— Howe'er you come to know it—answer me. Though you untie the winds and let them fight Against the churches, though the yeasty waves Confound and swallow navigation up, Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down, Though castles topple on their warders' heads, Though palaces and pyramids do slope Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure Of nature’s germens tumble all together, Even till destruction sicken, answer me To what I ask you. I don’t know how you know the things you do, but I insist that you answer my questions. I command you in the name of whatever dark powers you serve. I don’t care if you unleash violent winds that tear down churches, make the foamy waves overwhelm ships and send sailors to their deaths, flatten crops and trees, make castles fall down on their inhabitants' heads, make palaces and pyramids collapse, and mix up everything in nature. Tell me what I want to know.
FIRST WITCH Speak. Speak.
SECOND WITCH Demand. Demand.
THIRD WITCH We’ll answer. We’ll answer.
FIRST WITCH Say, if th' hadst rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters'. Would you rather hear these things from our mouths or from our master’s?
MACBETH Call 'em. Let me see 'em. Call them. Let me see them.
FIRST WITCH Pour in sow’s blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten From the murderer’s gibbet throw Into the flame. Pour in the blood of a sow who has eaten her nine offspring. Take the sweat of a murderer on the gallows and throw it into the flame.
ALL Come, high or low; Thyself and office deftly show! Come, high or low spirits. Show yourself and what you do.
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Thunder. FIRST APPARITION : an armed head / Thunder. The FIRST APPARITION appears, looking like a head with an armored helmet.
MACBETH Tell me, thou unknown power— Tell me, you unknown power—
FIRST WITCH He knows thy thought. Hear his speech but say thou nought. He can read your thoughts. Listen, but don’t speak.
FIRST APPARITION Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff. Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff. Beware the thane of Fife. Let me go. Enough.
Descends / The FIRST APPARITION descends.
MACBETH Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks. Thou hast harped my fear aright. But one word more— Whatever you are, thanks for your advice. You have guessed exactly what I feared. But one word more—
FIRST WITCH He will not be commanded. Here’s another More potent than the first. He will not be commanded by you. Here’s another, stronger than the first.
Thunder. SECOND APPARITION : a bloody child / Thunder. The SECOND APPARITION appears, looking like a bloody child.
SECOND APPARITION Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!— Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!
MACBETH Had I three ears, I’d hear thee. If I had three ears I’d listen with all three.
SECOND APPARITION Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. Be violent, bold, and firm. Laugh at the power of other men, because nobody born from a woman will ever harm Macbeth.
Descends / The SECOND APPARITION descends.
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MACBETH Then live, Macduff. What need I fear of thee? But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate. Thou shalt not live, That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder. Then I don’t need to kill Macduff. I have no reason to fear him. But even so, I’ll make doubly sure. I’ll guarantee my own fate by having you killed, Macduff. That way I can conquer my own fear and sleep easy at night.
Thunder. THIRD APPARITION : a child crowned, with a tree in his hand / Thunder. The THIRD APPARITION appears, in the form of a child with a crown on his head and a tree in his hand.
What is this That rises like the issue of a king, And wears upon his baby-brow the round And top of sovereignty? What is this spirit that looks like the son of a king and wears a crown on his young head?
ALL Listen but speak not to ’t. Listen but don’t speak to it.
THIRD APPARITION Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him. Be brave like the lion and proud. Don’t even worry about who hates you, who resents you, and who conspires against you. Macbeth will never be defeated until Birnam Wood marches to fight you at Dunsinane Hill.
Descends / The THIRD APPARITION descends.
MACBETH That will never be. Who can impress the forest, bid the tree Unfix his earthbound root? Sweet bodements! Good! Rebellious dead, rise never till the wood Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart Throbs to know one thing. Tell me, if your art Can tell so much: shall Banquo’s issue ever Reign in this kingdom? That will never happen. Who can command the forest and make the trees pull their roots out of the earth? These were sweet omens! Good! My murders will never come back to threaten me until the forest of Birnam gets up and moves, and I will be king for my entire natural life. But my heart is still throbbing to know one thing. Tell me, if your dark powers can see this far: will Banquo’s sons ever reign in this kingdom?
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ALL Seek to know no more. Don’t try to find out more.
MACBETH I will be satisfied. Deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know. Why sinks that cauldron? And what noise is this? I demand to be satisfied. If you refuse, let an eternal curse fall on you. Let me know. Why is that cauldron sinking? And what is that music?
Hautboys / Hautboys play music for a ceremonial procession.
FIRST WITCH Show. Show.
SECOND WITCH Show. Show.
THIRD WITCH Show. Show.
ALL Show his eyes and grieve his heart. Come like shadows; so depart! Show him and make him grieve. Come like shadows and depart in the same way!
A show of eight kings, the last with a glass in his hand, followed by BANQUO / Eight kings march across the stage, the last one with a mirror in his hand, followed by the GHOST OF BANQUO.
MACBETH Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. A third is like the former.—Filthy hags! Why do you show me this? A fourth? Start, eyes! What, will the line stretch out to th' crack of doom? Another yet? A seventh? I’ll see no more. And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass Which shows me many more, and some I see That twofold balls and treble scepters carry. Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis true; For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me And points at them for his. You look too much like the ghost of Banquo. Go away! (to the first) Your crown hurts my eyes. (to the second) Your blond hair, which looks like another crown underneath the one you’re wearing, looks just like the first king’s hair. Now I see a third king who looks just like the second. Filthy hags! Why are you showing me this? A fourth! My eyes are bulging out of their sockets! Will this line stretch on forever? Another one! And a seventh! I don’t want to see any more. And yet an eighth appears, holding a mirror in which I see many more men. And some are carrying double balls and triple scepters, meaning they’re kings of more than one country! Horrible sight! Now I see it is true, they are Banquo’s descendants. Banquo, with his blood-clotted hair, is smiling at me and pointing to them as his.
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Apparitions vanish / The spirits of the kings and the GHOST OF BANQUO vanish.
What, is this so? What? Is this true?
FIRST WITCH Ay, sir, all this is so. But why Stands Macbeth thus amazedly? Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, And show the best of our delights. I’ll charm th' air to give a sound, While you perform your antic round. That this great king may kindly say, Our duties did his welcome pay. Yes, this is true, but why do you stand there so dumbfounded? Come, sisters, let’s cheer him up and show him our talents. I will charm the air to produce music while you all dance around like crazy, so this king will say we did our duty and entertained him.
Music. The WITCHES dance and then vanish / Music plays. The WITCHES dance and then vanish.
MACBETH Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursèd in the calendar! Come in, without there. Where are they? Gone? Let this evil hour be marked forever in the calendar as cursed. (calls to someone offstage) You outside, come in!
Enter LENNOX / LENNOX enters.
LENNOX What’s your grace’s will? What does your grace want?
MACBETH Saw you the weird sisters? Did you see the weird sisters?
LENNOX No, my lord. No, my lord.
MACBETH Came they not by you? Didn’t they pass by you?
LENNOX No, indeed, my lord. No, indeed, my lord.
MACBETH Infected be the air whereon they ride, And damned all those that trust them! I did hear The galloping of horse. Who was ’t came by? The air on which they ride is infected. Damn all those who trust them! I heard the galloping of horses. Who was it that came here?
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LENNOX 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word Macduff is fled to England. Two or three men, my lord, who brought the message that Macduff has fled to England.
MACBETH Fled to England? Fled to England?
LENNOX Ay, my good lord. Yes, my good lord.
MACBETH Time, thou anticipat’st my dread exploits. The flighty purpose never is o'ertook Unless the deed go with it. From this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: The castle of Macduff I will surprise, Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool. This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool. But no more sights!—Where are these gentlemen? Come, bring me where they are. Time, you thwart my dreadful plans. Unless a person does something the second he thinks of it, he’ll never get a chance to do it. From now on, as soon as I decide to do something I’m going to act immediately. In fact, I’ll start following up my thoughts with actions right now. I’ll raid Macduff’s castle, seize the town of Fife, and kill his wife, his children, and anyone else unfortunate enough to stand in line for his inheritance. No more foolish talk. I will do this deed before I lose my sense of purpose. But no more spooky visions!—Where are the messengers? Come, bring me to them.
Exeunt / They exit.
Scene 2
Enter LADY MACDUFF, her SON, and ROSS / LADY MACDUFF, her SON, and ROSS enter.
LADY MACDUFF What had he done to make him fly the land? What did he do that made him flee this land?
ROSS You must have patience, madam. You have to be patient, madam.
LADY MACDUFF He had none. His flight was madness. When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors. He had no patience. He was crazy to run away. Even if you’re not a traitor, you’re going to look like one if you run away.
ROSS You know not Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. You don’t know whether it was wisdom or fear that made him flee.
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LADY MACDUFF Wisdom! To leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion and his titles in a place From whence himself does fly? He loves us not; He wants the natural touch. For the poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. All is the fear and nothing is the love, As little is the wisdom, where the flight So runs against all reason. How could it be wisdom! To leave his wife, his children, his house, and his titles in a place so unsafe that he himself flees it! He doesn’t love us. He lacks the natural instinct to protect his family. Even the fragile wren, the smallest of birds, will fight against the owl when it threatens her young ones in the nest. His running away has everything to do with fear and nothing to do with love. And since it’s so unreasonable for him to run away, it has nothing to do with wisdom either.
ROSS My dearest coz, I pray you school yourself. But for your husband, He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows The fits o' th' season. I dare not speak much further; But cruel are the times when we are traitors And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, But float upon a wild and violent sea Each way and none. I take my leave of you. Shall not be long but I’ll be here again. Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward To what they were before.—My pretty cousin, Blessing upon you. My dearest relative, I’m begging you, pull yourself together. As for your husband, he is noble, wise, and judicious, and he understands what the times require. It’s not safe for me to say much more than this, but times are bad when people get denounced as traitors and don’t even know why. In times like these, we believe frightening rumors but we don’t even know what we’re afraid of. It’s like being tossed around on the ocean in every direction, and finally getting nowhere. I’ll say good-bye now. It won’t be long before I’m back. When things are at their worst they have to stop, or else improve to the way things were before. My young cousin, I put my blessing upon you.
LADY MACDUFF Fathered he is, and yet he’s fatherless. He has a father, and yet he is fatherless.
ROSS I am so much a fool, should I stay longer It would be my disgrace and your discomfort. I take my leave at once. I have to go. If I stay longer, I’ll embarrass you and disgrace myself by crying. I’m leaving now.
Exit / ROSS exits.
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LADY MACDUFF Sirrah, your father’s dead. And what will you do now? How will you live? Young man, your father’s dead. What are you going to do now? How are you going to live?
SON As birds do, Mother. I will live the way birds do, Mother.
LADY MACDUFF What, with worms and flies? What? Are you going to start eating worms and flies?
SON With what I get, I mean, and so do they. I mean I will live on whatever I get, like birds do.
LADY MACDUFF Poor bird! Thou ’dst never fear the net nor lime, The pitfall nor the gin. You’d be a pivotal bird. You wouldn’t know enough to be afraid of traps.
SON Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for. My father is not dead, for all your saying. Why should I be afraid of them, Mother? If I’m a pitiful bird, like you say, hunters won’t want me. No matter what you say, my father is not dead.
LADY MACDUFF Yes, he is dead. How wilt thou do for a father? Yes, he is dead. What are you going to do for a father?
SON Nay, how will you do for a husband? Maybe you should ask, what will you do for a husband?
LADY MACDUFF Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. Oh, I can buy twenty husbands at any market.
SON Then you’ll buy 'em to sell again. If so, you’d be buying them to sell again.
LADY MACDUFF Thou speak’st with all thy wit; and yet, i' faith, With wit enough for thee. You talk like a child, but you’re very smart anyway.
SON Was my father a traitor, Mother? Was my father a traitor, Mother?
LADY MACDUFF Ay, that he was. Yes, he was.
SON What is a traitor? What is a traitor?
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LADY MACDUFF Why, one that swears and lies. Someone who makes a promise and breaks it.
SON And be all traitors that do so? And is everyone who swears and lies a traitor?
LADY MACDUFF Every one that does so is a traitor and must be hanged. Everyone who does so is a traitor and should be hanged.
SON And must they all be hanged that swear and lie? And should everyone who makes promises and breaks them be hanged?
LADY MACDUFF Every one. Everyone.
SON Who must hang them? Who should hang them?
LADY MACDUFF Why, the honest men. The honest men.
SON Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men and hang up them. Then the liars are fools, for there are enough liars in the world to beat up the honest men and hang them.
LADY MACDUFF Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father? (laughing) Heaven help you for saying that, boy! (sad again) But what will you do without a father?
SON If he were dead, you’d weep for him. If you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father. If he were dead, you’d be weeping for him. If you aren’t weeping, it’s a good sign that I’ll soon have a new father.
LADY MACDUFF Poor prattler, how thou talk’st! Silly babbler, how you talk!
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Enter a MESSENGER / A MESSENGER enters.
MESSENGER Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known, Though in your state of honor I am perfect. I doubt some danger does approach you nearly. If you will take a homely man’s advice, Be not found here. Hence with your little ones. To fright you thus methinks I am too savage; To do worse to you were fell cruelty, Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you! I dare abide no longer. Bless you, fair lady! You don’t know me, but I know you’re an important person. I’m afraid something dangerous is coming toward you. If you’ll take a simple man’s advice, don’t be here when it arrives. Go away and take your children. I feel bad for scaring you like this, but it would be much worse for me to let you come to harm. And harm is getting close! Heaven keep you safe!
Exit / The MESSENGER exits.
LADY MACDUFF Whither should I fly? I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world, where to do harm Is often laudable, to do good sometime Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas, Do I put up that womanly defense, To say I have done no harm? Where should I go? I haven’t done anything wrong. But I have to remember that I’m here on Earth, where doing evil is often praised, and doing good is sometimes a stupid and dangerous mistake. So then why should I offer this womanish defense that I’m innocent?
Enter MURDERERS / The MURDERERS enter.
What are these faces? Who are these men?
FIRST MURDERER Where is your husband? Where is your husband?
LADY MACDUFF I hope, in no place so unsanctified Where such as thou mayst find him. I hope he’s not anywhere so disreputable that thugs like you can find him.
FIRST MURDERER He’s a traitor. He’s a traitor.
SON Thou liest, thou shag-haired villain! You’re lying, you shaggy-haired villain!
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FIRST MURDERER (Stabbing him) What, you egg? Young fry of treachery! What’s that, you runt? (stabbing him) Young son of a traitor!
SON He has killed me, mother. Run away, I pray you! He has killed me, Mother. Run away, I beg you!
He dies. Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying “Murder!” followed by MURDERERS / The SON dies. LADY MACDUFF exits, crying “Murder!” The MURDERERS exit, following her.
Scene 3
Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF / MALCOLM and MACDUFF enter.
MALCOLM Let us seek out some desolate shade and there Weep our sad bosoms empty. Let’s seek out some shady place where we can sit down alone and cry our hearts out.
MACDUFF Let us rather Hold fast the mortal sword and, like good men, Bestride our downfall'n birthdom. Each new morn New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out Like syllable of dolor. Instead of crying, let’s keep hold of our swords and defend our fallen homeland like honorable men. Each day new widows howl, new orphans cry, and new sorrows slap heaven in the face, until it sounds like heaven itself feels Scotland’s anguish and screams in pain.
MALCOLM What I believe I’ll wail; What know believe, and what I can redress, As I shall find the time to friend, I will. What you have spoke, it may be so perchance. This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, Was once thought honest. You have loved him well. He hath not touched you yet. I am young, but something You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb T' appease an angry god. I will avenge whatever I believe is wrong. And I’ll believe whatever I’m sure is true. And I’ll put right whatever I can when the time comes. What you just said may perhaps be true. This tyrant, whose mere name is so awful it hurts us to say it, was once considered an honest man. You were one of his favorites. He hasn’t done anything to harm you yet. I’m inexperienced, but maybe you’re planning to win Macbeth’s favor by betraying me to him. It would be smart to offer someone poor and innocent like me as a sacrificial lamb to satisfy an angry god like Macbeth.
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MACDUFF I am not treacherous. I am not treacherous.
MALCOLM But Macbeth is. A good and virtuous nature may recoil In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon. That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose. Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, Yet grace must still look so. But Macbeth is. Even someone with a good and virtuous nature might give way to a royal command. But I beg your pardon. My fears can’t actually make you evil. Angels are still bright even though Lucifer, the brightest angel, fell from heaven. Even though everything evil wants to look good, good still has to look good too.
MACDUFF I have lost my hopes. I have lost my hope of convincing you to fight against Macbeth.
MALCOLM Perchance even there where I did find my doubts. Why in that rawness left you wife and child, Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, Without leave-taking? I pray you, Let not my jealousies be your dishonors, But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, Whatever I shall think. Maybe you lost your hopes about me where I found my doubts about you. Why did you leave your wife and child vulnerable—the most precious things in your life, those strong bonds of love? How could you leave them behind? But I beg you, don’t interpret my suspicions as slander against you. You must understand that I want to protect myself. You may really be honest, no matter what I think.
MACDUFF Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy wrongs; The title is affeered.—Fare thee well, lord. I would not be the villain that thou think’st For the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp, And the rich East to boot. Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyrant, go ahead and build yourself up, because good people are afraid to stand up to you. Enjoy everything you stole, because your title is safe! Farewell, lord. I wouldn’t be the villain you think I am even if I were offered all of Macbeth’s kingdom and the riches of the East too.
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MALCOLM Be not offended. I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds. I think withal There would be hands uplifted in my right; And here from gracious England have I offer Of goodly thousands. But, for all this, When I shall tread upon the tyrant’s head, Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country Shall have more vices than it had before, More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever, By him that shall succeed. Don’t be offended. I don’t completely distrust you. I do think Scotland is sinking under Macbeth’s oppression. Our country weeps, it bleeds, and each day a fresh cut is added to her wounds. I also think there would be many people willing to fight for me. The English have promised me thousands of troops. But even so, when I have Macbeth’s head under my foot, or stuck on the end of my sword, then my poor country will be plagued by worse evil than it was before. It will suffer worse and in more ways than ever under the reign of the king who follows Macbeth.
MACDUFF What should he be? Who are you talking about?
MALCOLM It is myself I mean, in whom I know All the particulars of vice so grafted That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state Esteem him as a lamb, being compared With my confineless harms. I’m talking about myself. I know I have so many vices that when people see all of them exposed, evil Macbeth will seem as pure as snow in comparison, and poor Scotland will call him a sweet lamb when they compare him to me and my infinite evils.
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MACDUFF Not in the legions Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned In evils to top Macbeth. Even in hell you couldn’t find a devil worse than Macbeth.
MALCOLM I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name. But there’s no bottom, none, In my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters, Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up The cistern of my lust, and my desire All continent impediments would o'erbear That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth Than such an one to reign. I admit that he’s murderous, lecherous, greedy, lying, deceitful, violent, malicious, and guilty of every sin that has a name. But there is no end, absolutely none, to my sexual desires. Your wives, your daughters, your old women, and your young maids together could not satisfy my lust. My desire would overpower all restraints and anyone who stood in my way. It would be better for Macbeth to rule than someone like me.
MACDUFF Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny. It hath been The untimely emptying of the happy throne And fall of many kings. But fear not yet To take upon you what is yours. You may Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty And yet seem cold; the time you may so hoodwink. We have willing dames enough. There cannot be That vulture in you to devour so many As will to greatness dedicate themselves, Finding it so inclined. Endless greed and lust in a man’s nature is a kind of tyranny. It has caused the downfall of many kings. But don’t be afraid to take the crown that belongs to you. You can find a way to satisfy your desires in secret, while still appearing virtuous. You can deceive everyone. There are more than enough willing women around. Your lust can’t possibly be so strong that you’d use up all the women willing to give themselves to the king once they find out he wants them.
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MALCOLM With this there grows In my most ill-composed affection such A stanchless avarice that, were I king, I should cut off the nobles for their lands, Desire his jewels and this other’s house. And my more-having would be as a sauce To make me hunger more, that I should forge Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, Destroying them for wealth. Along with being full of lust, I’m also incredibly greedy. If I became king, I would steal the nobles' lands, taking jewels from one guy and houses from another. The more I had, the greedier I would grow, until I’d invent false quarrels with my good and loyal subjects, destroying them so I could get my hands on their wealth.
MACDUFF This avarice Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been The sword of our slain kings. Yet do not fear; Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will, Of your mere own. All these are portable, With other graces weighed. The greed you’re talking about is worse than lust because you won’t outgrow it. Greed has been the downfall of many kings. But don’t be afraid. Scotland has enough treasures to satisfy you out of your own royal coffers. These bad qualities are bearable when balanced against your good sides.
MALCOLM But I have none. The king-becoming graces, As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no relish of them but abound In the division of each several crime, Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal peace, confound All unity on earth. But I don’t have any good sides. I don’t have a trace of the qualities a king needs, such as justice, truth, moderation, stability, generosity, perseverance, mercy, humility, devotion, patience, courage, and bravery. Instead, I overflow with every variation of all the different vices. No, if I had power I would take world peace and throw it down to hell.
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MACDUFF O Scotland, Scotland! Oh Scotland, Scotland!
MALCOLM If such a one be fit to govern, speak. I am as I have spoken. If someone like me is fit to be king, let me know. I really am exactly as I have described myself to you.
MACDUFF Fit to govern? No, not to live.—O nation miserable, With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered, When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, Since that the truest issue of thy throne By his own interdiction stands accursed, And does blaspheme his breed?—Thy royal father Was a most sainted king. The queen that bore thee, Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, Died every day she lived. Fare thee well! These evils thou repeat’st upon thyself Have banished me from Scotland.—O my breast, Thy hope ends here! (to MALCOLM) Fit to be king? You’re not fit to live!—Oh miserable nation, ruled by a usurping, murderous tyrant, when will you see peaceful days again? The man who has a legal right to the throne is, by his own admission, a cursed man and a disgrace to the royal family.—Your royal father Duncan was a virtuous king. Your mother spent more time on her knees in prayer than she did standing up, and she lived a life of absolute piety. Good-bye. The evils you have described inside yourself have driven me out of Scotland forever. Oh my heart, your hope is dead!
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MALCOLM Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth By many of these trains hath sought to win me Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me From overcredulous haste. But God above Deal between thee and me, for even now I put myself to thy direction and Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure The taints and blames I laid upon myself, For strangers to my nature. I am yet Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, At no time broke my faith, would not betray The devil to his fellow, and delight No less in truth than life. My first false speaking Was this upon myself. What I am truly, Is thine and my poor country’s to command. Macduff, this passionate outburst, which proves your integrity, has removed my doubts about you and made me realize that you really are trustworthy and honorable. That devil Macbeth has tried many times to trick me and lure me into his power, and prudence prevents me from believing people too quickly. But with God as my witness, I will let myself be guided by you, and I take back my confession. I take back all the bad things I said about myself, because none of those flaws are really part of my character. I’m still a virgin. I have never told a lie. I barely care about what I already own, let alone feel jealous of another’s possessions. I have never broken a promise. I wouldn’t betray the devil himself. I love truth as much as I love life. The lies I told about my character are actually the first false words I have ever spoken. The person who I really am is ready to serve you and our poor country.
Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men, Already at a point, was setting forth. Now we’ll together, and the chance of goodness Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent? Indeed, before you arrived here, old Siward, with ten thousand soldiers already prepared for battle, was making his way here. Now we will fight Macbeth together, and may the chances of our success be as great as the justice of our cause! Why are you silent?
MACDUFF Such welcome and unwelcome things at once 'Tis hard to reconcile. It’s hard to make sense of such different stories.
Enter a DOCTOR / A DOCTOR enters.
MALCOLM Well, more anon.—Comes the king forth, I pray you? Well, we’ll speak more soon. (to the DOCTOR) Is King Edward coming out?
DOCTOR Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched souls That stay his cure. Their malady convinces The great assay of art, but at his touch— Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand— They presently amend. Yes, sir. A crowd of sick people is waiting for him to heal them. Their illness confounds the most advanced techniques of modern medicine, but when he touches them, they heal immediately because of the power granted to him by heaven.
MALCOLM I thank you, doctor. Thank you, doctor.
Exit DOCTOR / The DOCTOR exits.
MACDUFF What’s the disease he means? What disease is he talking about?
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MALCOLM 'Tis called the evil. A most miraculous work in this good king, Which often since my here-remain in England I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, Himself best knows, but strangely visited people, All swoll'n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere despair of surgery, he cures, Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, Put on with holy prayers. And, ’tis spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, And sundry blessings hang about his throne, That speak him full of grace. It’s called the evil. Edward’s healing touch is a miracle that I have seen him perform many times during my stay in England. How he receives these gifts from heaven, only he can say. But he cures people with strange conditions—all swollen, plagued by ulcers, and pitiful to look at, patients who are beyond the help of surgery—by placing a gold coin around their necks and saying holy prayers over them. They say that he bequeaths this ability to heal to his royal descendants. Along with this strange power, he also has the gift of prophecy and various other abilities. All of these signs mark him as a man graced by God.
Enter ROSS / ROSS enters.
MACDUFF See, who comes here? Who’s that coming over here?
MALCOLM My countryman, but yet I know him not. By his dress I can tell he’s my countryman, but I don’t recognize him.
MACDUFF My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither. My noble kinsman, welcome.
MALCOLM I know him now.—Good God, betimes remove The means that makes us strangers! I recognize him now. May God alter the circumstances that keep us apart!
ROSS Sir, amen. Hello, sir.
MACDUFF Stands Scotland where it did? Is Scotland the same as when I left it?
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ROSS Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing, But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile; Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems A modern ecstasy. The dead man’s knell Is there scarce asked for who, and good men’s lives Expire before the flowers in their caps, Dying or ere they sicken. Alas, our poor country! It’s too frightened to look at itself. Scotland is no longer the land where we were born; it’s the land where we’ll die. Where no one ever smiles except for the fool who knows nothing. Where sighs, groans, and shrieks rip through the air but no one notices. Where violent sorrow is a common emotion. When the funeral bells ring, people no longer ask who died. Good men die before the flowers in their caps wilt. They die before they even fall sick.
MACDUFF Oh, relation Too nice and yet too true! Oh, your report is too poetic, but it sounds so true!
MALCOLM What’s the newest grief? What is the most recent news?
ROSS That of an hour’s age doth hiss the speaker. Each minute teems a new one. Even news an hour old is old news. Every minute another awful thing happens.
MACDUFF How does my wife? How is my wife?
ROSS Why, well. She’s well.
MACDUFF And all my children? And all my children?
ROSS Well too. They’re well too.
MACDUFF The tyrant has not battered at their peace? Macbeth hasn’t attacked them?
ROSS No, they were well at peace when I did leave 'em. They were at peace when I left them.
MACDUFF Be not a niggard of your speech. How goes ’t? Don’t be stingy with your words. What’s the news?
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ROSS When I came hither to transport the tidings, Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor Of many worthy fellows that were out; Which was to my belief witnessed the rather For that I saw the tyrant’s power afoot. Now is the time of help. Your eye in Scotland Would create soldiers, make our women fight, To doff their dire distresses. While I was coming here to tell you my sad news, I heard rumors that many good men are arming themselves to rebel against Macbeth. When I saw Macbeth’s army on the move, I knew the rumors must be true. Now is the time when we need your help. Your presence in Scotland would inspire people to fight. Even the women would fight to rid themselves of Macbeth’s oppression.
MALCOLM Be ’t their comfort We are coming thither. Gracious England hath Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men; An older and a better soldier none That Christendom gives out. Let them be comforted—I’m returning to Scotland. Gracious King Edward has sent us noble Siward and ten thousand soldiers. There is no soldier more experienced or successful than Siward in the entire Christian world.
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ROSS Would I could answer This comfort with the like. But I have words That would be howled out in the desert air, Where hearing should not latch them. I wish I could repay this happy news with good news of my own. But I have some news that should be howled in a barren desert where nobody can hear it.
MACDUFF What concern they? The general cause, or is it a fee-grief Due to some single breast? What is this news about? Does it affect all of us? Or just one of us?
ROSS No mind that’s honest But in it shares some woe, though the main part Pertains to you alone. No decent man can keep from sharing in the sorrow, but my news affects you alone.
MACDUFF If it be mine, Keep it not from me. Quickly let me have it. If it’s for me, don’t keep it from me. Let me have it now.
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ROSS Let not your ears despise my tongue forever, Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound That ever yet they heard. I hope you won’t hate me forever after I say these things, because I will soon fill your ears with the most dreadful news you have ever heard.
MACDUFF Hum! I guess at it. I think I can guess what you’re about to say.
ROSS Your castle is surprised, your wife and babes Savagely slaughtered. To relate the manner, Were, on the quarry of these murdered deer To add the death of you. Your castle was attacked. Your wife and children were savagely slaughtered. If I told you how they were killed, it would cause you so much pain that it would kill you too, and add your body to the pile of murdered corpses.
MALCOLM Merciful heaven! What, man! Ne'er pull your hat upon your brows. Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak Whispers the o'erfraught heart and bids it break. Merciful heaven! (to MACDUFF) Come on, man, don’t keep your grief hidden. Put your sorrow into words. The grief you keep inside you will whisper in your heart until it breaks.
MACDUFF My children too? They killed my children too?
ROSS Wife, children, servants, all that could be found. They killed your wife, your children, your servants, anyone they could find.
MACDUFF And I must be from thence! My wife killed too? And I had to be away! My wife was killed too?
ROSS I have said. I said she was.
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MALCOLM Be comforted. Let’s make us med'cines of our great revenge, To cure this deadly grief. Take comfort. Let’s cure this awful grief by taking revenge on Macbeth.
MACDUFF He has no children. All my pretty ones? Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop? He doesn’t have children. All my pretty little children? Did you say all? Oh, that bird from hell! All of them? What, all my children and their mother dead in one fell swoop?
MALCOLM Dispute it like a man. Fight it like a man.
MACDUFF I shall do so, But I must also feel it as a man. I cannot but remember such things were That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on, And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff, They were all struck for thee! Naught that I am, Not for their own demerits, but for mine, Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now. I will. But I also have to feel it like a man. I can’t help remembering the things that were most precious to me. Did heaven watch the slaughter and not send down any help? Sinful Macduff, they were killed because of you! As wicked as I am, they were slaughtered because of me, not because of anything they did. May God give their souls rest.
MALCOLM Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief Convert to anger. Blunt not the heart, enrage it. Let this anger sharpen your sword. Transform your grief into anger. Don’t block the feelings in your heart; let them loose as rage.
MACDUFF Oh, I could play the woman with mine eyes And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens, Cut short all intermission. Front to front Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself. Within my sword’s length set him; if he ’scape, Heaven forgive him too. I could go on weeping like a woman and bragging about how I will avenge them! But gentle heavens, don’t keep me waiting. Bring me face to face with Macbeth, that devil of Scotland. Put him within the reach of my sword, and if he escapes, may heaven forgive him as well!
MALCOLM This tune goes manly. Come, go we to the king. Our power is ready; Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may. The night is long that never finds the day. Now you sound like a man. Come on, let’s go see King Edward. The army is ready. All we have to do now is say goodbye to the king. Macbeth is ripe for the picking. We’ll be acting as God’s agents. Cheer up as much as you can. A new day will come at last.
Exeunt / They exit.
BANQUO So I lose none In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counselled. I’ll do whatever you say, as long as I can do it with a clear conscience.
MACBETH Good repose the while! Rest easy in the meantime.
BANQUO Thanks, sir: the like to you! Thank you, sir. You do the same.
Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE / BANQUO and FLEANCE exit.
MACBETH (to the SERVANT) Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. (to the SERVANT) Go and tell your mistress to strike the bell when my drink is ready. Get yourself to bed.
Exit SERVANT / The SERVANT exits.
MACBETH (Cont.) Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable... Is this a dagger I see in front of me, with its handle pointing toward my hand? (to the dagger) Come, let me hold you. (he grabs at the air in front of him without touching anything) I don’t have you but I can still see you. Fateful apparition, isn’t it possible to touch you as well as see you? Or are you nothing more than a dagger created by the mind, a hallucination from my fevered brain? I can still see you, and you look as...
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MACBETH (Cont.) ...As this which now I draw. Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going, And such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses, Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing. It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate’s offerings, and withered murder, Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives. Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. ...real as this other dagger that I’m pulling out now. (he draws a dagger) You’re leading me toward the place I was going already, and I was planning to use a weapon just like you. My eyesight must either be the one sense that’s not working, or else it’s the only one that’s working right. I can still see you, and I see blood splotches on your blade and handle that weren’t there before. (to himself) There’s no dagger here. It’s the murder I’m about to do that’s making me think I see one. Now half the world is asleep and being deceived by evil nightmares. Witches are offering sacrifices to their goddess Hecate. Old man murder, having been roused by the howls of his wolf, walks silently to his destination, moving like Tarquin, as quiet as a ghost. (speaking to the ground) Hard ground, don’t listen to the direction of my steps. I don’t want you to echo back where I am and break the terrible stillness of this moment, a silence that is so appropriate for what I’m about to do. While I stay here talking, Duncan lives. The more I talk, the more my courage cools.
A bell rings / A bell rings.
MACBETH I go, and it is done. The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. I’m going now. The murder is as good as done. The bell is telling me to do it. Don’t listen to the bell, Duncan, because it summons you either to heaven or to hell.
Exit / MACBETH exits.
Scene 2
Enter LADY MACBETH / LADY MACBETH enters.
LADY MACBETH That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold. What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it. The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets, That death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live or die. The alcohol that got the servants drunk has made me bold. The same liquor that quenched their thirst has fired me up. Listen! Quiet! That was the owl that shrieked, with a scary “good night” like the bells they ring before they execute people. Macbeth must be killing the king right now. The doors to Duncan’s chamber are open, and the drunk servants make a mockery of their jobs by snoring instead of protecting the king. I put so many drugs in their drinks that you can’t tell if they’re alive or dead.
MACBETH (within) Who’s there? What, ho! (from offstage) Who’s there? What is it?
LADY MACBETH Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, And ’tis not done. Th' attempt and not the deed Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done ’t. Oh no, I’m afraid the servants woke up, and the murder didn’t happen. For us to attempt murder and not succeed would ruin us. (She hears a noise.) Listen to that! I put the servants' daggers where Macbeth would find them. He couldn’t have missed them. If Duncan hadn’t reminded me of my father when I saw him sleeping, I would have killed him myself.
Enter MACBETH, with bloody daggers / MACBETH enters carrying bloody daggers.
LADY MACBETH My husband! My husband!
MACBETH I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? I have done the deed. Did you hear a noise?
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LADY MACBETH I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak? I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Didn’t you say something?
MACBETH When? When?
LADY MACBETH Now. Just now.
MACBETH As I descended? As I came down?
LADY MACBETH Ay. Yes.
MACBETH Hark! Who lies i' th' second chamber? Listen! Who’s sleeping in the second chamber?
LADY MACBETH Donalbain. Donalbain.
MACBETH (looking at his hands) This is a sorry sight. (looking at his bloody hands) This is a sorry sight.
LADY MACBETH A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. That’s a stupid thing to say.
MACBETH There’s one did laugh in ’s sleep, and one cried. “Murder!” That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them. But they did say their prayers, and addressed them Again to sleep. One of the servants laughed in his sleep, and one cried, “Murder!” and they woke each other up. I stood and listened to them, but then they said their prayers and went back to sleep.
LADY MACBETH There are two lodged together. Malcolm and Donalbain are asleep in the same room.
MACBETH One cried, “God bless us!” and “Amen” the other, As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands. List'ning their fear I could not say “Amen,” When they did say “God bless us!” One servant cried, “God bless us!” and the other replied, “Amen,” as if they had seen my bloody hands. Listening to their frightened voices, I couldn’t reply “Amen” when they said “God bless us!”
LADY MACBETH Consider it not so deeply. Don’t think about it so much.
MACBETH But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”? I had most need of blessing, and “Amen” Stuck in my throat. But why couldn’t I say “Amen”? I desperately needed God’s blessing, but the word “Amen” stuck in my throat.
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LADY MACBETH These deeds must not be thought After these ways. So, it will make us mad. We can’t think that way about what we did. If we do, it’ll drive us crazy.
MACBETH Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast. I thought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth is murdering sleep.” Innocent sleep. Sleep that soothes away all our worries. Sleep that puts each day to rest. Sleep that relieves the weary laborer and heals hurt minds. Sleep, the main course in life’s feast, and the most nourishing.
LADY MACBETH What do you mean? What are you talking about?
MACBETH Still it cried, “Sleep no more!” to all the house. “Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.” The voice kept crying, “Sleep no more!” to everyone in the house. “Macbeth has murdered sleep, and therefore Macbeth will sleep no more.”
LADY MACBETH Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, You do unbend your noble strength to think So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, And wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go carry them and smear The sleepy grooms with blood. Who said that? Why, my worthy lord, you let yourself become weak when you think about things in this cowardly way. Go get some water and wash this bloody evidence from your hands. Why did you carry these daggers out of the room? They have to stay there. Go take them back and smear the sleeping guards with the blood.
MACBETH I’ll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on ’t again I dare not. I can’t go back. I’m afraid even to think about what I’ve done. I can’t stand to look at it again.
LADY MACBETH Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures. 'Tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt. Coward! Give me the daggers. Dead and sleeping people can’t hurt you any more than pictures can. Only children are afraid of scary pictures. If Duncan bleeds I’ll paint the servants' faces with his blood. We must make it seem like they’re guilty.
Exit LADY MACBETH / LADY MACBETH exits.
Knock within / A sound of knocking from offstage.
MACBETH Whence is that knocking? How is ’t with me when every noise appals me? What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather... Where is that knocking coming from? What’s happening to me, that I’m frightened of every noise? (looking at his hands) Whose hands are these? Ha! They’re plucking out my eyes. Will all the water in the ocean wash this blood from my...
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MACBETH (Cont.) ...The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red. ...hands? No, instead my hands will stain the seas scarlet, turning the green waters red.
Enter LADY MACBETH / LADY MACBETH enters.
LADY MACBETH My hands are of your color, but I shame To wear a heart so white. My hands are as red as yours, but I would be ashamed if my heart were as pale and weak.
Knock within / A sound of knocking from offstage.
I hear a knocking At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber. A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it, then! Your constancy Hath left you unattended. I hear someone knocking at the south entry. Let’s go back to our bedroom. A little water will wash away the evidence of our guilt. It’s so simple! You’ve lost your resolve.
Knock within / A sound of knocking from offstage.
Hark! More knocking. Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us And show us to be watchers. Be not lost So poorly in your thoughts. Listen! There’s more knocking. Put on your nightgown, in case someone comes and sees that we’re awake. Snap out of your daze.
MACBETH To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself. Rather than have to think about my crime, I’d prefer to be completely unconscious.
Knock within / A sound of knocking from offstage.
Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst. Wake Duncan with your knocking. I wish you could!
Exeunt / They exit.
Scene 3
Enter a PORTER. Knocking within / A sound of knocking from offstage. A PORTER, who is obviously drunk, enters.
PORTER Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. This is a lot of knocking! Come to think of it, if a man were in charge of opening the gates of hell to let people in, he would have to turn the key a lot.
Knock within / A sound of knocking from offstage.
PORTER (Cont.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i' th' name of Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty. Come in time, have napkins enough about you, here you’ll sweat for ’t. Knock, knock, knock! (pretending he’s the gatekeeper in hell) Who’s there, in the devil’s name? Maybe it’s a farmer who killed himself because grain was cheap. (talking to the imaginary farmer) You’re here just in time! I hope you brought some handkerchiefs; you’re going to sweat a lot here.
Knock within / A sound of knocking from offstage.
PORTER (Cont.) Knock, knock! Who’s there, in th' other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator. Knock, knock! Who’s there, in the other devil’s name? Maybe it’s some slick, two-faced con man who lied under oath. But he found out that you can’t lie to God, and now he’s going to hell for perjury. Come on in, con man.
Knock within / A sound of knocking from offstage.
PORTER (Cont.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith, here’s an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor. Here you may roast your goose. Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there? Maybe it’s an English tailor who liked to skimp on the fabric for people’s clothes. But now that tight pants are in...
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PORTER (Cont.) ...fashion he can’t get away with it. Come on in, tailor. You can heat your iron up in here. ...fashion he can’t get away with it. Come on in, tailor. You can heat your iron up in here.
Knock within / A sound of knocking from offstage.
PORTER (Cont.) Knock, knock! Never at quiet. What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter it no further. I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. Knock, knock! Never a moment of peace! Who are you? Ah, this place is too cold to be hell. I won’t pretend to be the devil’s porter anymore. I was going to let someone from every profession into hell.
Knock within / A sound of knocking from offstage.
PORTER (Cont.) Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter. I’m coming, I’m coming! Please, don’t forget to leave me a tip.
Opens the gate / The PORTER opens the gate.
Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX / MACDUFF and LENNOX enter.
MACDUFF Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, That you do lie so late? Did you go to bed so late, my friend, that you’re having a hard time getting up now?
PORTER 'Faith sir, we were carousing till the second cock. And drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things. That’s right sir, we were drinking until 3 A.M., and drink, sir, makes a man do three things.
MACDUFF What three things does drink especially provoke? What three things does drink make a man do?
PORTER Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes. It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery. It makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him. Drinking turns your nose red, it puts you to sleep, and it makes you urinate. Lust it turns on but also turns off. What I mean is, drinking stimulates desire but hinders performance. Therefore, too much drink is like a con artist when it comes to your sex drive. It sets you up for a fall. It gets you up but it keeps you from getting off. It persuades you and discourages you. It gives you an erection but doesn’t let you keep it, if you see what I’m saying. It makes you dream about erotic experiences, but then it leaves you asleep and needing to pee.
MACDUFF I believe drink gave thee the lie last night. I believe drink did all of this to you last night.
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PORTER That it did, sir, i' th' very throat on me; but I requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him. It did, sir. It got me right in the throat. But I got even with drink. I was too strong for it. Although it weakened my legs and made me unsteady, I managed to vomit it out and laid it flat on the ground.
MACDUFF Is thy master stirring? Is your master awake?
Enter MACBETH / MACBETH enters.
MACDUFF Our knocking has awaked him. Here he comes. Our knocking woke him up. Here he comes.
LENNOX Good morrow, noble sir. Good morning, noble sir.
MACBETH Good morrow, both. Good morning to both of you.
MACDUFF Is the king stirring, worthy thane? Is the king awake, worthy thane?
MACBETH Not yet. Not yet.
MACDUFF He did command me to call timely on him. I have almost slipped the hour. He commanded me to wake him up early. I’ve almost missed the time he requested.
MACBETH I’ll bring you to him. I’ll bring you to him.
MACDUFF I know this is a joyful trouble to you, But yet ’tis one. I know the burden of hosting him is both an honor and a trouble, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a trouble just the same.
MACBETH The labor we delight in physics pain. This is the door. The work we enjoy is not really work. This is the door.
MACDUFF I’ll make so bold to call, For ’tis my limited service. I’ll wake him, because that’s my job.
Exit MACDUFF / MACDUFF exits.
LENNOX Goes the king hence today? Is the king leaving here today?
MACBETH He does. He did appoint so. He is. He told us to arrange it.
LENNOX The night has been unruly. Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say, Lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of death, And prophesying with accents terrible Of dire combustion and confused events New hatched to the woeful time. The obscure bird Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth Was feverous and did shake. The night has been chaotic. The wind blew down through the chimneys where we were sleeping. People are saying they heard cries of grief in the air, strange screams of death, and terrible voices predicting catastrophes that will usher in a woeful new age. The owl made noise all night. Some people say that the earth shook as if it had a fever.
MACBETH 'Twas a rough night. It was a rough night.
LENNOX My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it. I’m too young to remember anything like it.
Enter MACDUFF / MACDUFF enters, upset.
MACDUFF O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee! Oh, horror, horror, horror! This is beyond words and beyond belief!
MACBETH & LENNOX What’s the matter? What’s the matter?
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MACDUFF Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence The life o' th' building! The worst thing imaginable has happened. A murderer has broken into God’s temple and stolen the life out of it.
MACBETH What is ’t you say? “The life”? What are you talking about? “The life”?
LENNOX Mean you his majesty? Do you mean the king?
MACDUFF Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak. See, and then speak yourselves. Go into the bedroom and see for yourself. What’s in there will make you freeze with horror. Don’t ask me to talk about it. Go look and then do the talking yourselves.
Exeunt MACBETH and LENNOX / MACBETH and LENNOX exit.
MACDUFF (Cont.) Awake, awake! Ring the alarum bell. Murder and treason! Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! Awake! Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit, And look on death itself! Up, up, and see The great doom’s image! Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, To countenance this horror! Ring the bell. Wake up, wake up! Ring the alarm bell. Murder and treason! Banquo and Donalbain, Malcolm! Wake up! Shake off sleep, which looks like death, and look at death itself! Get up, get up, and look at this image of doomsday! Malcolm! Banquo! Get up from your beds as if you were rising out of your own graves, and walk like ghosts to come witness this horror. Ring the bell.
Bell rings. Enter LADY MACBETH / A bell rings. LADY MACBETH enters.
LADY MACBETH What’s the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak! What’s going on? Why is that terrifying trumpet calling together everyone who’s sleeping in the house? Speak up and tell me!
MACDUFF O gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition, in a woman’s ear, Would murder as it fell. Oh gentle lady, my news isn’t fit for your ears. If I repeated it to you, it would kill you as soon as you heard it.
Enter BANQUO / BANQUO enters.
MACDUFF O Banquo, Banquo, Our royal master’s murdered! Oh Banquo, Banquo, the king has been murdered!
LADY MACBETH Woe, alas! What, in our house? How horrible! What, in our own house?
BANQUO Too cruel any where. Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, And say it is not so. It would be a terrible event no matter where it happened. Dear Macduff, I beg you, tell us you were lying and say it isn’t so.
Enter MACBETH, LENNOX, and ROSS / MACBETH and LENNOX reenter, with ROSS.
MACBETH Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessèd time, for from this instant There’s nothing serious in mortality. All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead. The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of. If I had only died an hour before this event I could say I had lived a blessed life. Because from this moment on, there is nothing worth living for. Everything is a sick joke. The graceful and renowned king is dead. The wine of life has been poured out, and only the dregs remain.
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Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN / MALCOLM and DONALBAIN enter.
DONALBAIN What is amiss? What’s wrong?
MACBETH You are, and do not know ’t. The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped. You are, but you don’t know it yet. The source from which your royal blood comes has been stopped.
MACDUFF Your royal father’s murdered. Your royal father is murdered.
MALCOLM Oh, by whom? Who did it?
LENNOX Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done ’t. Their hands and faces were all badged with blood. So were their daggers, which unwiped we found Upon their pillows. They stared, and were distracted. No man’s life was to be trusted with them. It seems that the guards who were supposed to be protecting his chamber did it. Their hands and faces were all covered with blood. So were their daggers, which we found on their pillows, unwiped. They stared at us in confusion. No one’s life should have been entrusted to them.
MACBETH Oh, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them. And yet I still regret the anger that drove me to kill them.
MACDUFF Wherefore did you so? What did you do that for?
MACBETH Who can be wise, amazed, temp'rate, and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man. Th' expedition of my violent love Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there, the murderers, Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make ’s love known? Is it possible to be wise, bewildered, calm, furious, loyal, and neutral all at once? Nobody can do that. The violent rage inspired by my love for Duncan caused me to act before I could think rationally and tell myself to pause. There was Duncan, his white skin all splattered with his precious blood. The gashes where the knives had cut him looked like wounds to nature itself. Then right next to him I saw the murderers, dripping with blood, their daggers rudely covered in gore. Who could have refrained himself, who loved Duncan and had the courage to act on it?
LADY MACBETH Help me hence, ho! Help me out of here, quickly!
MACDUFF Look to the lady. Take care of the lady.
MALCOLM (aside to DONALBAIN) Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? (speaking so that only DONALBAIN can hear) Why are we keeping quiet? The two of us have the most to say in this matter.
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DONALBAIN (aside to MALCOLM) What should be spoken here, where our fate, Hid in an auger-hole, may rush and seize us? Let’s away. Our tears are not yet brewed. (speaking so that only MALCOLM can hear) What are we going to say here, where danger may be waiting to strike at us from anywhere? Let’s get out of here. We haven’t even begun to weep yet—but there will be time for that later.
MALCOLM (aside to DONALBAIN) Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion. (speaking so that only DONALBAIN can hear) And the time hasn’t come yet for us to turn our deep grief into action.
BANQUO Look to the lady. Take care of the lady.
Exit LADY MACBETH, attended / LADY MACBETH is carried out.
BANQUO (Cont.) And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet And question this most bloody piece of work, To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us. In the great hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulged pretense I fight Of treasonous malice. When we’re properly dressed for the cold, let’s meet and discuss this bloody crime to see if we can figure anything out. Right now we’re shaken up by fears and doubts. I’m putting myself in God’s hands, and with his help I plan to fight against the secret plot that caused this treasonous murder.
MACDUFF And so do I. So will I.
ALL So all. So will we all.
MACBETH Let’s briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i' th' hall together. Let’s get dressed quickly and then meet in the hall.
ALL Well contented. Agreed.
Exeunt all but MALCOLM and DONALBAIN / Everyone exits except MALCOLM and DONALBAIN.
MALCOLM What will you do? Let’s not consort with them. To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy. I’ll to England. What are you going to do? Let’s not stay here with them. It’s easy for a liar to pretend to feel sorrow when he actually feels none. I’m going to England.
DONALBAIN To Ireland, I. Our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are, There’s daggers in men’s smiles. The near in blood, The nearer bloody. I’ll go to Ireland. We’ll both be safer if we go separate ways. Wherever we go, men will smile at us while hiding daggers. Our closest relatives are the ones most likely to murder us.
MALCOLM This murderous shaft that’s shot Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse, And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away. There’s warrant in that theft Which steals itself when there’s no mercy left. We haven’t yet encountered that danger, and the best thing to do is avoid it entirely. With that in mind, let’s get on our horses. We’d better not worry about saying polite good-byes; we should just get away quickly. There’s good reason to escape when there’s no mercy to be found anymore.
Exeunt / They exit.
Scene 4
Enter ROSS with an OLD MAN / ROSS and an OLD MAN enter.
OLD MAN Threescore and ten I can remember well, Within the volume of which time I have seen Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. I can remember the past seventy years pretty well, and in all that time I have seen dreadful hours and strange things. But last night’s horrors make everything that came before seem like a joke.
ROSS Ha, good father, Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, Threatens his bloody stage. By th' clock ’tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. Is ’t night’s predominance or the day’s shame That darkness does the face of Earth entomb When living light should kiss it? Ah yes, old man. You can see the skies. They look like they’re upset about what mankind has been doing, and they’re threatening the Earth with storms. The clock says it’s daytime, but dark night is strangling the sun. Is it because night is so strong, or because day is so weak, that darkness covers the earth when it’s supposed to be light?
OLD MAN 'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed. It’s unnatural, just like the murder that has been committed. Last Tuesday a falcon was circling high in the sky, and it was caught and killed by an ordinary owl that usually goes after mice.
ROSS And Duncan’s horses—a thing most strange and certain— Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would Make war with mankind. And something else strange happened. Duncan’s horses, which are beautiful and swift and the best of their breed, suddenly turned wild and broke out of their stalls. Refusing to be obedient as usual, they acted like they were at war with mankind.
OLD MAN 'Tis said they eat each other. They say the horses ate each other.
ROSS They did so, to th' amazement of mine eyes That looked upon ’t. Here comes the good Macduff. I saw it with my own eyes. It was an amazing sight. Here comes the good Macduff.
Enter MACDUFF / MACDUFF enters.
ROSS How goes the world, sir, now? How are things going now?
MACDUFF Why, see you not? Can’t you see for yourself?
ROSS Is ’t known who did this more than bloody deed? Does anyone know who committed this horrible crime?
MACDUFF Those that Macbeth hath slain. The servants Macbeth killed.
ROSS Alas, the day! What good could they pretend? It’s too bad he killed them. What good would it have done those men to kill Duncan?
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MACDUFF They were suborned. Malcolm and Donalbain, the king’s two sons, Are stol'n away and fled, which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed. They were paid to betray their master. Malcolm and Donalbain, the king’s two sons, have run away and fled, which makes them the prime suspects.
ROSS 'Gainst nature still! Thriftless ambition, that will raven up Thine own lives' means! Then ’tis most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. Everything about this is unnatural! What a stupid ambition, causing a son to kill the father who supports him. Then it looks like Macbeth will become king.
MACDUFF He is already named and gone to Scone To be invested. He has already been named king and has left for Scone to be crowned.
ROSS Where is Duncan’s body? Where is Duncan’s body?
MACDUFF Carried to Colmekill, The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones. It was carried to Colmekill to be placed in the tomb of his ancestors, where their bones are kept safe.
ROSS Will you to Scone? Are you going to Scone?
MACDUFF No, cousin, I’ll to Fife. No, cousin, I’m going to Fife.
ROSS Well, I will thither. Well, I’ll go to Scone.
MACDUFF Well, may you see things well done there. Adieu, Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! I hope things go well there. Good-bye! And let’s hope things don’t get worse.
ROSS Farewell, father. Farewell, old man.
OLD MAN God’s benison go with you and with those That would make good of bad and friends of foes. May God’s blessing go with you and with all who turn bad into good, and enemies into friends!
Exeunt / They all exit.
DUNCAN O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman! My brave relative! What a worthy man!
CAPTAIN As whence the sun 'gins his reflection Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break, So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark: No sooner justice had, with valor armed, Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels, But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, With furbished arms and new supplies of men, Began a fresh assault. But in the same way that violent storms always come just as spring appears, our success against Macdonwald created new problems for us. Listen to this, King: as soon as we sent those Irish soldiers running for cover, the Norwegian king saw his chance to attack us with fresh troops and shiny weapons.
DUNCAN Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? Didn’t this frighten our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
CAPTAIN Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. If I say sooth, I must report they were As cannons overcharged with double cracks, So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe. Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, Or memorize another Golgotha, I cannot tell— But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. The new challenge scared them about as much as sparrows frighten eagles, or rabbits frighten a lion. To tell you the truth, they fought the new enemy with twice as much force as before; they were like cannons loaded with double ammunition. Maybe they wanted to take a bath in their enemies' blood, or make that battlefield as infamous as Golgotha, where Christ was crucified, I don’t know. But I feel weak. My wounds must be tended to.
DUNCAN So well thy words become thee as thy wounds; They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons. Your words, like your wounds, bring you honor. Take him to the surgeons.
Exit CAPTAIN with attendants / The CAPTAIN exits, helped by attendants.
Enter ROSS and ANGUS / ROSS and ANGUS enter.
DUNCAN Who comes here? Who is this?
MALCOLM The worthy thane of Ross. The worthy Thane of Ross.
LENNOX What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look That seems to speak things strange. His eyes seem frantic! He looks like someone with a strange tale to tell.
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ROSS God save the king. God save the king!
DUNCAN Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane? Where have you come from, worthy thane?
ROSS From Fife, great king, Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold. Norway himself, with terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor, The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict, Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapped in proof, Confronted him with self-comparisons, Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm, Curbing his lavish spirit; and to conclude, The victory fell on us. Great king, I’ve come from Fife, where the Norwegian flag flies, mocking our country and frightening our people. Leading an enormous army and assisted by that disloyal traitor, the thane of Cawdor, the king of Norway began a bloody battle. But outfitted in his battle-weathered armor, Macbeth met the Norwegian attacks shot for shot, as if he were the goddess of war’s husband. Finally he broke the enemy’s spirit, and we were victorious.
DUNCAN Great happiness! Great happiness!
ROSS That now Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition. Nor would we deign him burial of his men Till he disbursed at Saint Colme’s Inch Ten thousand dollars to our general use. So now Sweno, the Norwegian king, wants a treaty. We told him we wouldn’t even let him bury his men until he retreated to Saint Colme’s Inch and paid us ten thousand dollars.
DUNCAN No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth. The thane of Cawdor will never again betray me. Go announce that he will be executed, and tell Macbeth that Cawdor’s titles will be given to him.
ROSS I’ll see it done. I’ll get it done right away.
DUNCAN What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. The thane of Cawdor has lost what the noble Macbeth has won.
Exeunt / They all exit.
Scene 3
Thunder. Enter the three WITCHES / Thunder. The three WITCHES enter.
FIRST WITCH Where hast thou been, sister? Where have you been, sister?
SECOND WITCH Killing swine. Killing pigs.
THIRD WITCH Sister, where thou? And you, sister?
FIRST WITCH A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munched, and munched, and munched. “Give me,” quoth I. “Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed runnion cries. Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o' th' Tiger; But in a sieve I’ll thither sail, And like a rat without a tail, I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do. A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap and munched away at them. “Give me one,” I said. “Get away from me, witch!” the fat woman cried. Her husband has sailed off to Aleppo as master of a ship called the Tiger. I’ll sail there in a kitchen strainer, turn myself into a tailless rat, and do things to him.
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SECOND WITCH I’ll give thee a wind. I’ll give you some wind to sail there.
FIRST WITCH Thou 'rt kind. How nice of you!
THIRD WITCH And I another. And I will give you some more.
FIRST WITCH I myself have all the other, And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know I' th' shipman’s card. I’ll drain him dry as hay. Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid. He shall live a man forbid. Weary sev'nnights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak and pine. I already have control of all the other winds, along with the ports from which they blow and every direction on the sailor’s compass in which they can go. I’ll drain the life out of him. He won’t catch a wink of sleep, either at night or during the day. He will live as a cursed man. For eighty-one weeks he will waste away in agony.
FIRST WITCH (Cont.) Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tossed. Look what I have. Although I can’t make his ship disappear, I can still make his journey miserable. Look what I have here.
SECOND WITCH Show me, show me. Show me, show me.
FIRST WITCH Here I have a pilot’s thumb, Wrecked as homeward he did come. Here I have the thumb of a pilot who was drowned while trying to return home.
Drum within / A drum sounds offstage.
THIRD WITCH A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come. A drum, a drum! Macbeth has come.
ALL (dancing together in a circle) The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about, Thrice to thine and thrice to mine And thrice again, to make up nine. Peace! The charm’s wound up. (dancing together in a circle) We weird sisters, hand in hand, swift travelers over the sea and land, dance around and around like so. Three times to yours, and three times to mine, and three times again, to add up to nine. Enough! The charm is ready.
Enter MACBETH and BANQUO / MACBETH and BANQUO enter.
MACBETH So foul and fair a day I have not seen. (to BANQUO) I have never seen a day that was so good and bad at the same time.
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BANQUO How far is ’t called to Forres?—What are these So withered and so wild in their attire, That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' Earth, And yet are on ’t?—Live you? Or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips. You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so. How far is it supposed to be to Forres? (he sees the WITCHES) What are these creatures? They’re so withered-looking and crazily dressed. They don’t look like they belong on this planet, but I see them standing here on Earth. (to the WITCHES) Are you alive? Can you answer questions? You seem to understand me, because each of you has put a gruesome finger to her skinny lips. You look like women, but your beards keep me from believing that you really are.
MACBETH Speak, if you can: what are you? Speak, if you can. What kind of creatures are you?
FIRST WITCH All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to you, thane of Glamis!
SECOND WITCH All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to you, thane of Cawdor!
THIRD WITCH All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter! All hail, Macbeth, the future king!
BANQUO Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair? (to the WITCHES) I' th' name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction Of noble having and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not. If you can look into the seeds of time And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favors nor your hate. My dear Macbeth, why do you look so startled and afraid of these nice things they’re saying? (to the WITCHES) Tell me honestly, are you illusions, or are you really what you seem to be? You’ve greeted my noble friend with honors and talk of a future so glorious that you’ve made him speechless. But you don’t say anything to me. If you can see the future and say how things will turn out, tell me. I don’t want your favors and I’m not afraid of your hatred.
FIRST WITCH Hail! Hail!
SECOND WITCH Hail! Hail!
THIRD WITCH Hail! Hail!
FIRST WITCH Lesser than Macbeth and greater. You are lesser than Macbeth but also greater.
SECOND WITCH Not so happy, yet much happier. You are not as happy as Macbeth, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! Your descendants will be kings, even though you will not be one. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
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FIRST WITCH Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
MACBETH Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. By Sinel’s death I know I am thane of Glamis. But how of Cawdor? The thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman, and to be king Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence, or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you. Wait! You only told me part of what I want to know. Stay and tell me more. I already know I am the thane of Glamis because I inherited the position when my father, Sinel, died. But how can you call me the thane of Cawdor? The thane of Cawdor is alive, and he’s a rich and powerful man. And for me to be the king is completely impossible, just as it’s impossible for me to be thane of Cawdor. Tell me where you learned these strange things, and why you stop us at this desolate place with this prophetic greeting? Speak, I command you.
WITCHES vanish / The WITCHES vanish.
BANQUO The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanished? The earth has bubbles, just like the water, and these creatures must have come from a bubble in the earth. Where did they disappear to?
MACBETH Into the air, and what seemed corporal Melted, as breath into the wind. Would they had stayed. Into thin air. Their bodies melted like breath in the wind. I wish they had stayed!
BANQUO Were such things here as we do speak about? Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner? Were these things we’re talking about really here? Or have we both on drugs?
MACBETH Your children shall be kings. Your children will be kings.
BANQUO You shall be king. You will be the king.
MACBETH And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so? And thane of Cawdor too. Isn’t that what they said?
BANQUO To the selfsame tune and words. Who’s here? That’s exactly what they said. Who’s this?
Enter ROSS and ANGUS / ROSS and ANGUS enter.
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ROSS The king hath happily received, Macbeth, The news of thy success, and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, His wonders and his praises do contend Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that, In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as tale Can post with post, and every one did bear Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defense, And poured them down before him. The king was happy to hear of your success, Macbeth. Whenever he hears the story of your exploits in the fight against the rebels, he becomes so amazed it makes him speechless. He was also shocked to learn that on the same day you fought the rebels you also fought against the army of Norway, and that you weren’t the least bit afraid of death, even as you killed everyone around you. Messenger after messenger delivered news of your bravery to the king with praise for how you defended his country.
ANGUS We are sent To give thee from our royal master thanks, Only to herald thee into his sight, Not pay thee. The king sent us to give you his thanks and to bring you to him. Your real reward won’t come from us.
ROSS And, for an earnest of a greater honor, He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor: In which addition, hail, most worthy thane, For it is thine. And to give you a taste of what’s in store for you, he told me to call you the thane of Cawdor. So hail, thane of Cawdor! That title belongs to you now.
BANQUO What, can the devil speak true? (shocked) Can the devil tell the truth?
MACBETH The thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me In borrowed robes? The thane of Cawdor is still alive. Why are you putting his clothes on me?
ANGUS Who was the thane lives yet, But under heavy judgment bears that life Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined With those of Norway, or did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage, or that with both He labored in his country’s wrack, I know not; But treasons capital, confessed and proved, Have overthrown him. The man who was the thane of Cawdor is still alive, but he’s been sentenced to death, and he deserves to die. I don’t know whether he fought on Norway’s side, or if he secretly aided the rebels, or if he fought with both of our enemies. But his treason, which has been proven, and to which he’s confessed, means he’s finished.
MACBETH (aside) Glamis, and thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind. (to ROSS and ANGUS) Thanks for your pains. (aside to BANQUO) Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me Promised no less to them? (to himself) It’s just like they said—now I’m the thane of Glamis and the thane of Cawdor. And the best part of what they predicted is still to come. (to ROSS and ANGUS) Thank you for the news. (speaking so that only BANQUO can hear) Aren’t you beginning to hope your children will be kings? After all, the witches who said I was thane of Cawdor promised them nothing less.
BANQUO That, trusted home, Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange. And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s In deepest consequence. (to ROSS and ANGUS) Cousins, a word, I pray you. If you trust what they say, you might be on your way to becoming king, as well as thane of Cawdor. But this whole thing is strange. The agents of evil often tell us part of the truth in order to lead us to our destruction. They earn our trust by telling us the truth about little things, but then they betray us when it will damage us the most. (to ROSS and ANGUS) Gentlemen, I’d like to have a word with you, please.
BANQUO, ROSS, and ANGUS move to one side / ROSS, ANGUS, and BANQUO move to one side.
MACBETH (aside) Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme. (to ROSS and ANGUS) I thank you, gentlemen. (aside) This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings. (to himself) So far the witches have told me two things that came true, so it seems like this will culminate in my becoming king. (to ROSS and ANGUS) Thank you, gentlemen. (to himself) This supernatural temptation doesn’t seem like it can be a bad thing, but it can’t be good either. If it’s a bad thing, why was I promised a promotion that turned out to be true? Now I’m the thane of Cawdor, just like they said I would be. But if this is a good thing, why do I find myself thinking about murdering King Duncan, a thought so horrifying that it makes my hair stand on end and my heart pound inside my chest? The dangers that actually threaten me here and now frighten me less than the horrible things I’m imagining.
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MACBETH (Cont.) My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man That function is smothered in surmise, And nothing is but what is not. Even though it’s just a fantasy so far, the mere thought of committing murder shakes me up so much that I hardly know who I am anymore. My ability to act is stifled by my thoughts and speculations, and the only things that matter to me are things that don’t really exist.
BANQUO Look how our partner’s rapt. Look at Macbeth—he’s in a daze.
MACBETH (aside) If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me Without my stir. (to himself) If fate wants me to be king, perhaps fate will just make it happen and I won’t have to do anything.
BANQUO New honors come upon him, Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold But with the aid of use. (to ROSS and ANGUS) Macbeth is not used to his new titles. They’re like new clothes: they don’t fit until you break them in over time.
MACBETH (aside) Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. (to himself) One way or another, what’s going to happen is going to happen.
BANQUO Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Good Macbeth, we’re ready when you are.
MACBETH Give me your favor. My dull brain was wrought With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains Are registered where every day I turn The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king. (aside to BANQUO) Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time, The interim having weighed it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other. I beg your pardon; I was distracted. Kind gentlemen, I won’t forget the trouble you’ve taken for me whenever I think of this day. Let’s go to the king. (speaking so that only BANQUO can hear) Think about what happened today, and when we’ve both had time to consider things, let’s talk.
BANQUO Very gladly. Absolutely.
MACBETH Till then, enough. (to ROSS and ANGUS) Come, friends. Until then, we’ve said enough. (to ROSS and ANGUS) Let’s go, my friends.
Exeunt / They all exit.
Scene 4
Flourish. Enter KING DUNCAN, LENNOX, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, and attendants / A trumpet fanfare sounds. KING DUNCAN, LENNOX, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, and their attendants enter.
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DUNCAN Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet returned? Has the former thane of Cawdor been executed yet? Haven’t the people in charge of that come back?
MALCOLM My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one that saw him die, who did report That very frankly he confessed his treasons, Implored your highness' pardon, and set forth A deep repentance. Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. He died As one that had been studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he owed As ’twere a careless trifle. My king, they haven’t come back yet. But I spoke with someone who saw Cawdor die, and he said that Cawdor openly confessed his treasons, begged your highness’s forgiveness, and repented deeply. He never did anything in his whole life that looked as good as the way he died. He died like someone who had practiced how to toss away his most cherished possession as if it were a worthless a piece of garbage.
DUNCAN There’s no art To find the mind’s construction in the face. He was a gentleman on whom I built An absolute trust. There’s no way to read a man’s mind by looking at his face. I trusted Cawdor completely.
Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS, and ANGUS / MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS, and ANGUS enter.
DUNCAN (to MACBETH) O worthiest cousin, The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before That swiftest wing of recompense is slow To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, That the proportion both of thanks and payment Might have been mine! Only I have left to say, More is thy due than more than all can pay. (to MACBETH) My worthiest kinsman! Just this moment I was feeling guilty for not having thanked you enough. You have done so much for me so fast that it has been impossible to reward you properly. If you deserved less, then perhaps my payment would have matched your deeds! All I can say is that I owe you more than I can ever repay.
MACBETH The service and the loyalty I owe In doing it pays itself. Your highness' part Is to receive our duties, and our duties Are to your throne and state children and servants, Which do but what they should, by doing everything Safe toward your love and honor. The opportunity to serve you is its own reward. Your only duty, your highness, is to accept what we owe you. Our duty to you and your state is like the duty of children to their father or servants to their master. By doing everything we can to protect you, we’re only doing what we should.
DUNCAN Welcome hither. I have begun to plant thee, and will labor To make thee full of growing. (to BANQUO) Noble Banquo, That hast no less deserved, nor must be known No less to have done so, let me infold thee And hold thee to my heart. You are welcome here. By making you thane of Cawdor, I have planted the seeds of a great career for you, and I will make sure they grow. (to BANQUO) Noble Banquo, you deserve no less than Macbeth, and everyone should know it. Let me bring you close to me and give you the benefit of my love and good will.
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BANQUO There, if I grow, The harvest is your own. Then if I accomplish anything great, it will be a credit to you.
DUNCAN My plenteous joys, Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, And you whose places are the nearest, know We will establish our estate upon Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter The prince of Cumberland; which honor must Not unaccompanied invest him only, But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine On all deservers. (to MACBETH) From hence to Inverness, And bind us further to you. My joy is so overwhelming it brings tears to my eyes. My sons, relatives, lords, and all those closest to me, I want you to witness that I will bestow my kingdom on my eldest son, Malcolm. Today I name him the prince of Cumberland. But Malcolm isn’t going to be alone in receiving honors—titles of nobility will shine like stars on all of you who deserve them. (to MACBETH) And now, let’s go to your castle at Inverness, where I will become even more obliged to you because of your hospitality.
MACBETH The rest is labor which is not used for you: I’ll be myself the harbinger and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach. So humbly take my leave. I’m not happy unless I can be working for you. I will go ahead and bring my wife the good news that you are coming. With that, I’ll be off.
DUNCAN My worthy Cawdor! My worthy Cawdor!
MACBETH (aside) The prince of Cumberland! That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (to himself) Malcolm is now the prince of Cumberland! To become king myself, I’m either going to have to step over him or give up, because he’s in my way. Stars, hide your light so no one can see the terrible desires within me. I won’t let my eye look at what my hand is doing, but in the end I’m still going to do that thing I’d be horrified to see.
Exit MACBETH / MACBETH exits.
DUNCAN True, worthy Banquo. He is full so valiant, And in his commendations I am fed; It is a banquet to me.—Let’s after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: It is a peerless kinsman. (to BANQUO, in the middle of a conversation we haven’t heard) You’re right, Banquo. Macbeth is every bit as valiant as you say, and I am satisfied with these praises of him. Let’s follow after him, now that he has gone ahead to prepare our welcome. He is a man without equal.
Flourish. Exeunt / Trumpet fanfare. They exit.
Scene 5
Enter LADY MACBETH, alone, with a letter / LADY MACBETH enters, reading a letter.
LADY MACBETH (reading) “They met me in the day of success, and I have learned by the perfectest report they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives from the king, who all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor,' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time with 'Hail, king that shalt be!' This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou might’st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.” “The witches met me on the day of my victory in battle, and I have since learned that they have supernatural knowledge. When I tried desperately to question them further, they vanished into thin air. While I stood spellbound, messengers from the king arrived and greeted me as the thane of Cawdor, which is precisely how the weird sisters had saluted me before calling me ’the future king!' I thought I should tell you this news, my dearest partner in greatness, so that you could rejoice along with me about the greatness that is promised to us. Keep it secret, and farewell.”
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LADY MACBETH (Cont.) Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'ld’st have, great Glamis, That which cries, “Thus thou must do,” if thou have it, And that which rather thou dost fear to do, Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valor of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crowned withal. (she looks up from the letter) You are thane of Glamis and Cawdor, and you’re going to be king, just like you were promised. But I worry about whether or not you have what it takes to seize the crown. You are too full of the milk of human kindness to strike aggressively at your first opportunity. You want to be powerful, and you don’t lack ambition, but you don’t have the mean streak that these things call for. The things you want to do, you want to do like a good man. You don’t want to cheat, yet you want what doesn’t belong to you. There’s something you want, but you’re afraid to do what you need to do to get it. You want it to be done for you. Hurry home so I can persuade you and talk you out of whatever’s keeping you from going after the crown. After all, fate and witchcraft both seem to want you to be king.
Enter SERVANT / A SERVANT enters.
LADY MACBETH What is your tidings? What news do you bring?
SERVANT The king comes here tonight. The king is coming here tonight.
LADY MACBETH Thou 'rt mad to say it. Is not thy master with him, who, were ’t so, Would have informed for preparation? You must be crazy to say that! Isn’t Macbeth with the king, and wouldn’t Macbeth have told me in advance so I could prepare, if the king were really coming?
SERVANT So please you, it is true: our thane is coming. One of my fellows had the speed of him, Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. Macbeth is coming. He sent a messenger ahead of him who arrived here so out of breath that he could barely speak his message.
LADY MACBETH Give him tending. He brings great news. Take good care of him. He brings great news.
Exit SERVANT / The SERVANT exits.
The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry “Hold, hold!” So the messenger is short of breath, like a hoarse raven, as he announces Duncan’s entrance into my fortress, where he will die. Come, you spirits that asist murderous thoughts, make me less like a woman and more like a man, and fill me from head to toe with deadly cruelty! Thicken my blood and clog up my veins so I won’t feel remorse, so that no human compassion can stop my evil plan or prevent me from accomplishing it! Come to my female breast and turn my mother’s milk into poisonous acid, you murdering demons, wherever you hide, invisible and waiting to do evil! Come, thick night, and cover the world in the darkest smoke of hell, so that my sharp knife can’t see the wound it cuts open, and so heaven can’t peep through the darkness and cry, “No! Stop!”
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Enter MACBETH / MACBETH enters.
LADY MACBETH Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter, Thy letters have transported me beyond This ignorant present, and I feel now The future in the instant. Great thane of Glamis! Worthy thane of Cawdor! You’ll soon be greater than both those titles, once you become king! Your letter has transported me from the present moment, when who knows what will happen, and has made me feel like the future is already here.
MACBETH My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight. My dearest love, Duncan is coming here tonight.
LADY MACBETH And when goes hence? And when is he leaving?
MACBETH Tomorrow, as he purposes. He plans to leave tomorrow.
LADY MACBETH O, never Shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue. Look like th' innocent flower, But be the serpent under ’t. He that’s coming Must be provided for; and you shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch, Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. That day will never come. Your face betrays strange feelings, my lord, and people will be able to read it like a book. In order to deceive them, you must appear the way they expect you to look. Greet the king with a welcoming expression in your eyes, your hands, and your words. You should look like an innocent flower, but be like the snake that hides underneath the flower. The king is coming, and he’s got to be taken care of. Let me handle tonight’s preparations, because tonight will change every night and day for the rest of our lives.
MACBETH We will speak further. We will speak about this further.
LADY MACBETH Only look up clear. To alter favor ever is to fear. Leave all the rest to me. You should project a peaceful mood, because if you look troubled, you will arouse suspicion. Leave all the rest to me.
Exeunt / They exit.
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Scene 6
hautboys and torches. Enter KING DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX, MACDUFF, ROSS, ANGUS, and attendants
The stage is lit by torches. Hautboys play. DUNCAN enters, together with MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX, MACDUFF, ROSS, ANGUS, and their attendants.
DUNCAN This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses. This castle is in a pleasant place. The air is sweet and appeals to my refined senses.
BANQUO This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze, Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle. Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, The air is delicate. The fact that this summer bird, the house martin, builds his nests here proves how inviting the breezes are. There isn’t a single protrusion in the castle walls where these birds haven’t built their hanging nests to sleep and breed. I’ve noticed that they always like to settle and mate where the air is the nicest.
Enter LADY MACBETH / LADY MACBETH enters.
DUNCAN See, see, our honored hostess! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble. Look, here comes our honored hostess! Sometimes the love my subjects bring me is inconvenient, but I still accept it as love. In doing so, I’m teaching you to thank me for the incovenience I’m causing you by being here, because it comes from my love to you.
LADY MACBETH All our service, In every point twice done and then done double, Were poor and single business to contend Against those honors deep and broad wherewith Your majesty loads our house. For those of old, And the late dignities heaped up to them, We rest your hermits. Everything we’re doing for you, even if it were doubled and then doubled again, is nothing compared to the honors you have brought to our family. We gladly welcome you as our guests, with gratitude for both the honors you’ve given us before and the new honors you’ve just given us.
DUNCAN Where’s the thane of Cawdor? We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose To be his purveyor; but he rides well, And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, We are your guest tonight. Where is Macbeth, the thane of Cawdor? We followed closely after him. I hoped to arrive here before him, but he rides swiftly. And his great love, which is as sharp as his spur, helped him beat us here. Fair and noble hostess, we are your guests tonight.
LADY MACBETH Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in compt, To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, Still to return your own. We are your servants, your highness, and as always our house and everything in it is at your disposal, for after all, we keep it in your trust and we’re glad to give you back what’s yours.
DUNCAN Give me your hand. Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly And shall continue our graces towards him. By your leave, hostess. Give me your hand. Bring me to my host, Macbeth. I love him dearly, and I shall continue to favor him. Whenever you’re ready, hostess.
Exeunt / They all exit.
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Scene 7
Hautboys. Torches. Enter a sewer and divers servants with dishes and service over the stage. Then enter MACBETH
Hautboys play. The stage is lit by torches. A butler enters, and various servants carry utensils and dishes of food across the stage. Then MACBETH enters.
MACBETH If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. If the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgment here, that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague th' inventor: this even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking-off; And pity, like a naked newborn babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubim, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself And falls on th' other. If this business would really be finished when I did the deed, then it would be best to get it over with quickly. If the assassination of the king could work like a net, sweeping up everything and preventing any consequences, then the murder would be the be-all and end-all of the whole affair, and I would gladly put my soul and the afterlife at risk to do it. But for crimes like these there are still punishments in this world. By committing violent crimes we only teach other people to commit violence, and the violence of our students will come back to plague us teachers. Justice, being equal to everyone, forces us to drink from the poisoned cup that we serve to others. The king trusts me in two ways. First of all, I am his kinsman and his subject, so I should always try to protect him. Second, I am his host, so I should be closing the door in his murderer’s face, not trying to murder him myself. Besides, Duncan has been such a humble leader, so free of corruption, that his virtuous legacy will speak for him when he dies, as if angels were playing trumpets against the injustice of his murder. Pity, like an innocent newborn baby, will ride the wind with winged angels on invisible horses through the air to spread news of the horrible deed to everyone everywhere. People will shed a flood of tears that will drown the wind like a horrible downpour of rain. I can’t spur myself to action. The only thing motivating me is ambition, which makes people rush ahead of themselves toward disaster.
Enter LADY MACBETH / LADY MACBETH enters.
MACBETH How now! What news? What news do you have?
LADY MACBETH He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber? He has almost finished dinner. Why did you leave the dining room?
MACBETH Hath he asked for me? Has he asked for me?
LADY MACBETH Know you not he has? Don’t you know he has?
MACBETH We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon. We can’t go on with this plan. The king has just honored me, and I have earned the good opinion of all sorts of people. I want to enjoy these honors while the feeling is fresh and not throw them away so soon.
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LADY MACBETH Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valor As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would, ” Like the poor cat i' th' adage? Were you drunk when you seemed so hopeful before? Have you gone to sleep and woken up green and pale in fear of this idea? From now on this is what I’ll think of your love. Are you afraid to act the way you desire? Will you take the crown you want so badly, or will you live as a coward, always saying “I can’t” after you say “I want to”? You’re like the poor cat in the old story.
MACBETH Prithee, peace: I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none. Please, stop! I dare to do only what is proper for a man to do. He who dares to do more is not a man at all.
LADY MACBETH What beast was ’t, then, That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both. They have made themselves, and that their fitness now Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this. If you weren’t a man, then what kind of animal were you when you first told me you wanted to do this? When you dared to do it, that’s when you were a man. And if you go one step further by doing what you dared to do before, you’ll be that much more the man. The time and place weren’t right before, but you would have gone ahead with the murder anyhow. Now the time and place are just right, but they’re almost too good for you. I have suckled a baby, and I know how sweet it is to love the baby at my breast. But even as the baby was smiling up at me, I would have plucked my nipple out of its mouth and smashed its brains out against a wall if I had sworn to do that the same way you have sworn to do this.
MACBETH If we should fail? But if we fail—
LADY MACBETH We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep— Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey Soundly invite him—his two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassail so convince That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason Shall be a limbeck only: when in swinish sleep Their drenchèd natures lie as in a death, What cannot you and I perform upon... We, fail? If you get your courage up, we can’t fail. When Duncan is asleep—the day’s hard journey has definitely made him tired—I’ll get his two servants so drunk that their memory will go up in smoke through the chimneys of their brains. When they lie asleep like pigs, so drunk they’ll be dead to the world, what won’t you and I be able to do to the...
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LADY MACBETH (Cont.) ...The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell? ...unguarded Duncan? And whatever we do, we can lay all the blame on the drunken servants.
MACBETH Bring forth men-children only, For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be received, When we have marked with blood those sleepy two Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, That they have done ’t? May you only give birth to male children, because your fearless spirit should create nothing that isn’t masculine. Once we have covered the two servants with blood, and used their daggers to kill, won’t people believe that they were the culprits?
LADY MACBETH Who dares receive it other, As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar Upon his death? Who could think it happened any other way? We’ll be grieving loudly when we hear that Duncan has died.
MACBETH I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show. False face must hide what the false heart doth know. Now I’m decided, and I will exert every muscle in my body to commit this crime. Go now, and pretend to be a friendly hostess. Hide with a false pleasant face what you know in your false, evil heart.
Exeunt / They exit.
GENTLEWOMAN It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour. She often does that. She looks like she’s washing her hands. I’ve seen her do that before for as long as fifteen minutes.
LADY MACBETH Yet here’s a spot. There’s still a spot here.
DOCTOR Hark! She speaks. I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. Listen! She’s talking. I’ll write down what she says, so I’ll remember it better.
LADY MACBETH Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. (rubbing her hands) Come out, damned spot! Out, I command you! One, two. OK, it’s time to do it now. Hell is murky! Nonsense, my lord, nonsense! You are a soldier, and yet you are afraid? Why should we be scared, when no one can lay the guilt upon us? But who would have thought the old man would have had so much blood in him?
DOCTOR Do you mark that? Did you hear that?
LADY MACBETH The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?—What, will these hands ne'er be clean?—No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that. You mar all with this starting. The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will my hands never be clean? No more of that, my lord, no more of that. You’ll ruin everything by acting startled like this.
DOCTOR Go to, go to. You have known what you should not. Now look what you’ve done. You’ve heard something you shouldn’t have.
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GENTLEWOMAN She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that. Heaven knows what she has known. She said something she shouldn’t have said, I’m sure of that. Heaven knows what secrets she’s keeping.
LADY MACBETH Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh! I still have the smell of blood on my hand. All the perfumes of Arabia couldn’t make my little hand smell better. Oh, oh, oh!
DOCTOR What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged. What a heavy sigh! Her heart is carrying a heavy weight.
GENTLEWOMAN I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body. I wouldn’t want a heart like hers even if you made me queen.
DOCTOR Well, well, well. Well, well, well.
GENTLEWOMAN Pray God it be, sir. I hope what she’s saying is well, sir!
DOCTOR This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds. This disease is beyond my medical skills. But I have known people who sleepwalked and weren’t guilty of anything.
LADY MACBETH Wash your hands. Put on your nightgown. Look not so pale.—I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ’s grave. Wash your hands. Put on your nightgown. Don’t look so frightened. I tell you again, Banquo is buried. He cannot come out of his grave.
DOCTOR Even so? Is this true?
LADY MACBETH To bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come. Give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone.—To bed, to bed, to bed! To bed, to bed! There’s a knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed!
Exit LADY MACBETH / LADY MACBETH exits.
DOCTOR Will she go now to bed? Will she go to bed now?
GENTLEWOMAN Directly. Yes, right away.
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DOCTOR Foul whisp'rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. More needs she the divine than the physician. God, God forgive us all! Look after her, Remove from her the means of all annoyance, And still keep eyes upon her. So, good-night. My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. I think, but dare not speak. Evil rumors are going around. Unnatural acts will cause supernatural things to happen. People with guilty and deranged minds will confess their secrets to their pillows as they sleep. This woman needs a priest more than a doctor. God forgive us all! (to the waiting GENTLEWOMAN) Look after her. Remove anything she might hurt herself with. Watch her constantly. And now, good-night. She has bewildered my mind and amazed my eyes. I have an opinion, but I don’t dare to say it out loud.
GENTLEWOMAN Good night, good doctor. Good night, good doctor.
Exeunt / They exit.
Scene 2
Drum and colors. Enter MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, and soldiers / MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, and soldiers enter with a drummer and flag.
MENTEITH The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, His uncle Siward and the good Macduff. Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm Excite the mortified man. The English army is near, led by Malcolm, his uncle Siward, and the good Macduff. They burn for revenge. The wrongs they have suffered would make dead men rise up and fight.
ANGUS Near Birnam Wood Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming. We’ll meet them near Birnam Wood. They are coming that way.
CAITHNESS Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother? Does anyone know if Donalbain is with his brother?
LENNOX For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file Of all the gentry. There is Siward’s son, And many unrough youths that even now Protest their first of manhood. He is definitely not there, sir. I have a list of all the important men. Siward’s son is there, as well as many boys too young to have beards who will become men by joining in this battle.
MENTEITH What does the tyrant? What is the tyrant Macbeth doing?
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CAITHNESS Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies. Some say he’s mad, others that lesser hate him Do call it valiant fury. But, for certain, He cannot buckle his distempered cause Within the belt of rule. He is fortifying his castle at Dunsinane with heavy defenses. Some say he’s insane. Those who hate him less call it brave anger. One thing is certain: he’s out of control.
ANGUS Now does he feel His secret murders sticking on his hands. Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach. Those he commands move only in command, Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe Upon a dwarfish thief. Now Macbeth feels the blood of his murdered enemies sticking to his hands. Now, rebel armies punish him every minute for his treachery. The soldiers he commands are only following orders. They don’t fight because they love Macbeth. Now he seems too small to be a great king, like a midget trying to wear the robes of a giant.
MENTEITH Who then shall blame His pestered senses to recoil and start, When all that is within him does condemn Itself for being there? Who can blame him for acting crazy, when inside he condemns himself for everything he’s done?
CAITHNESS Well, march we on, To give obedience where ’tis truly owed. Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, And with him pour we in our country’s purge Each drop of us. Well, let’s keep marching and give our loyalty to someone who truly deserves it. We’re going to meet Malcolm, the doctor who will cure our sick country. We’ll pour out our own blood to help him.
LENNOX Or so much as it needs, To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. Make we our march towards Birnam. However much blood we need to give to water the royal flower and drown the weeds—to make Malcolm king and get rid of Macbeth. Let’s proceed on our march to Birnam.
Exeunt, marching / They exit, marching.
Scene 3
Enter MACBETH, DOCTOR, and attendants / MACBETH, a DOCTOR, and attendants enter.
MACBETH Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all. Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm? Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus: “Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman Shall e'er have power upon thee.” Then fly, false thanes, And mingle with the English epicures. The mind I sway by and the heart I bear Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. Don’t bring me any more reports. I don’t care if all the thanes desert me. Until Birnam Wood gets up and moves to Dunsinane, I won’t be affected by fear. What’s the boy Malcolm? Wasn’t he born from a woman? The spirits that know the future have told me this: “Don’t be afraid, Macbeth. No man born from a woman will ever defeat you.” So get out of here, disloyal thanes, and join the weak and decadent English! My mind and courage will never falter with doubt or shake with fear.
Enter a SERVANT / A SERVANT enters.
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! Where got’st thou that goose look? May the devil turn you black, you white-faced fool! Why do you look like a frightened goose?
SERVANT There is ten thousand— There are ten thousand—
MACBETH Geese, villain? Geese, you idiot?
SERVANT Soldiers, sir. Soldiers, sir.
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MACBETH Go, prick thy face and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch? Death of thy soul! Those linen cheeks of thine Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face? Go pinch your cheeks and bring some color back into your face, you cowardly boy. What soldiers, fool? Curse you! That pale face of yours will frighten the others as well. What soldiers, milk face?
SERVANT The English force, so please you. The English army, sir.
MACBETH Take thy face hence. Get out of my sight.
Exit SERVANT / The SERVANT exits.
Seyton!—I am sick at heart, When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This push Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. I have lived long enough. My way of life Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf, And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have, but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not. Seyton! Seyton!—I’m sick at heart when I see—Seyton, come here!—This battle will either secure my reign forever or else topple me from the throne. I have lived long enough. The course of my life is beginning to wither and fall away, like a yellowing leaf in autumn. The things that should go along with old age, like honor, love, obedience, and loyal friends, I cannot hope to have. Instead, I have passionate but quietly whispered curses, people who honor me with their words but not in their hearts, and lingering life, which my heart would gladly end, though I can’t bring myself to do it. Seyton!
Enter SEYTON / SEYTON enters.
SEYTON What’s your gracious pleasure? What do you want?
MACBETH What news more? Is there more news?
SEYTON All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported. All the rumors have been confirmed.
MACBETH I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked. Give me my armor. I’ll fight until they hack the flesh off my bones. Give me my armor.
SEYTON 'Tis not needed yet. You don’t need it yet.
MACBETH I’ll put it on. Send out more horses. Skirr the country round. Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor. How does your patient, doctor? I’ll put it on anyway. Send out more cavalry. Scour the whole country and hang anyone spreading fear. Give me my armor. (to the DOCTOR) How is my wife, doctor?
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DOCTOR Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies That keep her from her rest. She is not sick, my lord, but she is troubled with endless visions that keep her from sleeping.
MACBETH Cure her of that. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart? Cure her of that. Can’t you treat a diseased mind? Take away her memory of sorrow? Use some drug to erase the troubling thoughts from her brain and ease her heart?
DOCTOR Therein the patient Must minister to himself. For that kind of relief, the patient must heal herself.
MACBETH Throw physic to the dogs; I’ll none of it. Come, put mine armor on. Give me my staff. Seyton, send out.—Doctor, the thanes fly from me. Come, sir, dispatch.—If thou couldst, doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again.—Pull ’t off, I say.— What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, Would scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of them? Medicine is for the dogs. I won’t have anything to do with it. (to SEYTON) Come, put my armor on me. Give me my lance. Seyton, send out the soldiers. (to the DOCTOR) Doctor, the thanes are running away from me. (to SEYTON) Come on, sir, hurry. (to the DOCTOR) Can you figure out what’s wrong with my country? If you can diagnose its disease by examining its urine, and bring it back to health, I will praise you to the ends of the Earth, where the sound will echo back so you can hear the applause again.—(to SEYTON) Pull it off, I tell you. (to the DOCTOR) What drug would purge the English from this country? Have you heard of any?
DOCTOR Ay, my good lord. Your royal preparation Makes us hear something. Yes, my good lord. Your preparation for war sounds like something.
MACBETH Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane. (to SEYTON) Bring the armor and follow me. I will not be afraid of death and destruction until Birnam forest picks itself up and moves to Dunsinane.
DOCTOR (aside) Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. (to himself) I wish I were far away from Dunsinane. You couldn’t pay me to come back here.
Exeunt / They exit.
Original Source Page 67
Scene 4
Drum and colors. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD, MACDUFF, Siward’s SON, MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, ROSS, and SOLDIERS, marching / MALCOLM, old SIWARD and his SON, MACDUFF, MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, ROSS, and SOLDIERS enter marching, with a drummer and flag.
MALCOLM Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe. Kinsmen, I hope the time is coming when people will be safe in their own bedrooms.
MENTEITH We doubt it nothing. We don’t doubt it.
SIWARD What wood is this before us? What’s the name of this forest behind us?
MENTEITH The wood of Birnam. Birnam Wood.
MALCOLM Let every soldier hew him down a bough And bear ’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow The numbers of our host and make discovery Err in report of us. Tell every soldier to break off a branch and hold it in front of him. That way we can conceal how many of us there are, and Macbeth’s spies will give him inaccurate reports.
SOLDIERS It shall be done. We’ll do it.
SIWARD We learn no other but the confident tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure Our setting down before ’t. We have no news except that the overconfident Macbeth is still in Dunsinane and will allow us to lay siege to the castle.
MALCOLM 'Tis his main hope: For, where there is advantage to be given, Both more and less have given him the revolt, And none serve with him but constrainèd things Whose hearts are absent too. He wants us to lay siege. Wherever his soldiers have an opportunity to leave him, they do, whatever rank they are. No one fights with him except men who are forced to, and their hearts aren’t in it.
MACDUFF Let our just censures Attend the true event, and put we on Industrious soldiership. We shouldn’t make any judgments until we achieve our goal. Let’s go fight like hardworking soldiers.
SIWARD The time approaches That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have and what we owe. Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, But certain issue strokes must arbitrate. Towards which, advance the war. Soon we’ll find out what’s really ours and what isn’t. It’s easy for us to get our hopes up just sitting around thinking about it, but the only way this is really going to be settled is by violence. So let’s move our armies forward.
Exeunt, marching / They exit, marching.
Scene 5
Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and SOLDIERS, with drum and colors / MACBETH, SEYTON, and SOLDIERS enter with a drummer and flag.
MACBETH Hang out our banners on the outward walls. The cry is still “They come!” Our castle’s strength Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie Till famine and the ague eat them up. Were they not forced with those that should be ours, We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat them backward home. Hang our flags on the outer walls. Everyone keeps yelling, “Here they come!” Our castle is strong enough to laugh off their seige. They can sit out there until they die of hunger and disease. If it weren’t for the fact that so many of our soldiers revolted and joined them, we could have met them out in front of the castle, man to man, and beaten them back to England.
A cry within of women / A sound of women crying offstage.
What is that noise? What’s that noise?
SEYTON It is the cry of women, my good lord. It’s women crying, my good lord.
Exit SEYTON / SEYTON exits.
Original Source Page 68
MACBETH I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been my senses would have cooled To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in ’t. I have supped full with horrors. Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts Cannot once start me. I’ve almost forgotten what fear feels like. There was a time when I would have been terrified by a shriek in the night, and the hair on my skin would have stood up when I heard a ghost story. But now I’ve had my fill of real horrors. Horrible things are so familiar that they can’t startle me.
Enter SEYTON / SEYTON comes back in.
Wherefore was that cry? What was that cry for?
SEYTON The queen, my lord, is dead. The queen is dead, my lord.
MACBETH She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. She would have died later anyway. That news was bound to come someday. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. The days creep slowly along until the end of time. And every day that’s already happened has taken fools that much closer to their deaths. Out, out, brief candle. Life is nothing more than an illusion. It’s like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning.
Enter a MESSENGER / A MESSENGER enters.
Thou comest to use Thy tongue; thy story quickly. You’ve come to tell me something. Tell me quickly.
MESSENGER Gracious my lord, I should report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do ’t. My gracious lord, I should tell you what I saw, but I don’t know how to say it.
MACBETH Well, say, sir. Just say it.
MESSENGER As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought The wood began to move. As I was standing watch on the hill, I looked toward Birnam, and I thought I saw the forest begin to move.
MACBETH Liar and slave! Liar and slave!
Original Source Page 69
MESSENGER Let me endure your wrath, if ’t be not so. Within this three mile may you see it coming; I say, a moving grove. Punish me if it’s not true. Three miles from here you can see it coming, a moving forest.
MACBETH If thou speak’st false, Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive Till famine cling thee. If thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much. I pull in resolution and begin To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend That lies like truth. “Fear not, till Birnam wood Do come to Dunsinane”; and now a wood Comes toward Dunsinane.—Arm, arm, and out!— If this which he avouches does appear, There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish th' estate o' th' world were now undone.— Ring the alarum-bell!—Blow, wind! Come, wrack! At least we’ll die with harness on our back. If you’re lying, I’ll hang you alive from the nearest tree until you die of hunger. If what you say is true, you can do the same to me. (to himself) My confidence is failing. I’m starting to doubt the lies the devil told me, which sounded like truth. “Don’t worry until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane.” And now a wood is coming to Dunsinane. Prepare for battle, and go! If what this messenger says is true, it’s no use running away or staying here. I’m starting to grow tired of living, and I’d like to see the world plunged into chaos. Ring the alarms! Blow, wind! Come, ruin! At least we’ll die with our armor on.
Exeunt / They exit.
Scene 6
Drum and colors. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD, MACDUFF, and their army, with boughs / MALCOLM, old SIWARD, MACDUFF, and their army enter carrying branches, with a drummer and flag.
MALCOLM Now near enough. Your leafy screens throw down, And show like those you are.—You, worthy uncle, Shall, with my cousin, your right-noble son, Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we Shall take upon ’s what else remains to do, According to our order. We’re close enough now. Throw down these branches and show them who you really are. Uncle Siward, you and your son will lead the first battle. Brave Macduff and I will do the rest, according to our battle plan.
SIWARD Fare you well. Do we but find the tyrant’s power tonight, Let us be beaten if we cannot fight. Good luck. If we meet Macbeth’s army tonight, let us be beaten if we cannot fight.
MACDUFF Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. Blow all the trumpets. They loudly announce the news of blood and death.
Exeunt / They exit.
Scene 7
Alarums. Enter MACBETH / Trumpets and the noise of battle. MACBETH enters.
MACBETH They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly, But, bearlike, I must fight the course. What’s he That was not born of woman? Such a one Am I to fear, or none. They have me tied to a stake. I can’t run away. I have to stand and fight, like a bear. Where’s the man who wasn’t born from a woman? He’s the only one I’m afraid of, nobody else.
Enter YOUNG SIWARD / YOUNG SIWARD enters.
YOUNG SIWARD What is thy name? What’s your name?
MACBETH Thou 'lt be afraid to hear it. You’ll be afraid to hear it.
YOUNG SIWARD No, though thou call’st thyself a hotter name Than any is in hell. No I won’t, even if you were one of the worst demons in hell.
MACBETH My name’s Macbeth. My name’s Macbeth.
YOUNG SIWARD The devil himself could not pronounce a title More hateful to mine ear. The devil himself couldn’t say a name I hate more.
MACBETH No, nor more fearful. No, nor could the devil’s name be more frightening.
YOUNG SIWARD Thou liest, abhorrèd tyrant. With my sword I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st. You lie, you disgusting tyrant. I’ll prove with my sword that I’m not scared of you.
They fight and YOUNG SIWARD is slain / They fight and YOUNG SIWARD is killed.
MACBETH Thou wast born of woman. But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandished by man that’s of a woman born. You were born from a woman. Swords don’t frighten me. I laugh at any weapon used by a man who was born from a woman.
Exit MACBETH / MACBETH exits.
Alarums. Enter MACDUFF / Trumpets and battle sounds. MACDUFF enters.
Original Source Page 70
MACDUFF That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face! If thou beest slain, and with no stroke of mine, My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still. I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth, Or else my sword with an unbattered edge I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be; By this great clatter, one of the greatest note Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune, And more I beg not. The noise is coming from over there. Tyrant, show your face! If someone other than me kills you, the ghosts of my wife and children will haunt me forever. I can’t be bothered to fight these lame soldiers who only fight for money. I’ll either fight you, Macbeth, or else I’ll put down my sword unused. You must be over there. By the great noise, it sounds like one of the highest-ranking men is being announced. I hope I find him! I ask for nothing more than that.
Exit. Alarums / MACDUFF exits. More battle noises.
Enter MALCOLM and SIWARD / MALCOLM and old SIWARD enter.
SIWARD This way, my lord. The castle’s gently rendered. The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight, The noble thanes do bravely in the war, The day almost itself professes yours, And little is to do. Come this way, my lord. The castle has been surrendered without a fight. Macbeth’s soldiers are fighting on both sides. Our noblemen are battling bravely. The victory is almost yours, and it seems like there’s not much left to do.
MALCOLM We have met with foes That strike beside us. Our enemies fight as if they’re trying not to hurt us.
SIWARD Enter, sir, the castle. Sir, enter the castle.
Exeunt. Alarums / They exit. Battle noises continue.
Scene 8
Enter MACBETH / MACBETH enters.
MACBETH Why should I play the Roman fool and die On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes Do better upon them. Why should I commit suicide like one of the ancient Romans? As long as I see enemies of mine alive, I would rather see my sword wound them than me.
Enter MACDUFF / MACDUFF enters.
MACDUFF Turn, hellhound, turn! Turn around, you dog from hell, turn around!
MACBETH Of all men else I have avoided thee. But get thee back. My soul is too much charged With blood of thine already. You are the only man I have avoided. But go away now. I’m already guilty of killing your whole family.
MACDUFF I have no words. My voice is in my sword. Thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out! I have nothing to say to you. My sword will talk for me. You are too evil for words!
They fight / They fight.
Original Source Page 71
MACBETH Thou losest labor. As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed. Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield To one of woman born. You’re wasting your time trying to wound me. You might as well try to stab the air with your sword. Go fight someone who can be harmed. I lead a charmed life, which can’t be ended by anyone born from a woman.
MACDUFF Despair thy charm, And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb Untimely ripped. You can forget about your charm. The evil spirit you serve can tell you that I was not born. They cut me out of my mother’s womb before she could bear me naturally.
MACBETH Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cowed my better part of man! And be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense, That keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope. I’ll not fight with thee. Curse you for telling me this. You’ve fightened away my courage. I don’t believe those evil creatures anymore. They tricked me with their wordgames, raising my hopes and then destroying them. I won’t fight you.
MACDUFF Then yield thee, coward, And live to be the show and gaze o' th' time. We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, Painted on a pole, and underwrit, “Here may you see the tyrant.” Then surrender, coward, and we’ll put you in a freakshow, just like they do with deformed animals. We’ll put a picture of you on a sign, right above the words “Come see the tyrant!”
MACBETH I will not yield, To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet, And to be baited with the rabble’s curse. Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane, And thou opposed, being of no woman born, Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, And damned be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!” I’m not going to surrender and have to kiss the ground in front of Malcolm, or be taunted by the common people. Even though Birnam Wood really did come to Dunsinane, and I’m fighting a man not of woman born, I’ll fight to the end. I’ll put up my shield and battle you. Come on, let’s go at it, Macduff, and damn the first man who cries, “Stop! Enough!”
Exeunt, fighting. Alarums. They enter fighting, and MACBETH slain. Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colors MALCOLM, SIWARD, ROSS, THANES, and SOLDIERS / They exit fighting. Trumpets and battle noises. The trumpet of one army sounds a call to retreat. The other army’s trumpet sounds a call of victory. The victorious army enters, led by MALCOLM, old SIWARD, ROSS, the other THANES, and soldiers, with a drummer and flag.
Original Source Page 72
MALCOLM I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. I wish all of our friends could have survived this battle.
SIWARD Some must go off. And yet, by these I see, So great a day as this is cheaply bought. In every battle, some people will always be killed, but judging from the men we see around us, our great victory didn’t cost us very much.
MALCOLM Macduff is missing, and your noble son. Macduff is missing, and so is your noble son.
ROSS Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt. He only lived but till he was a man, The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed In the unshrinking station where he fought, But like a man he died. My lord, your son has paid the soldier’s price: death. He only lived long enough to become a man, and as soon as he proved that he was a man by fighting like one, he died.
SIWARD Then he is dead? So he’s dead?
ROSS Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow Must not be measured by his worth, for then It hath no end. Yes, and he’s been carried off the field. Your grief should not be equal to his worth, because then your sorrow would never end.
SIWARD Had he his hurts before? Were his wounds on his front side?
ROSS Ay, on the front. Yes, on his front.
SIWARD Why then, God’s soldier be he! Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death. And so, his knell is knolled. Well then, he’s God’s soldier now! If I had as many sons as I have hairs on my head, I couldn’t hope that any of them would die more honorably than he did. And that’s all there is to it.
MALCOLM He’s worth more sorrow, And that I’ll spend for him. He is worth more mourning than that, and I will mourn for him.
SIWARD He’s worth no more. They say he parted well and paid his score. And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort. He is worth no more than that. They tell me he died well, and settled his scores. With that, I hope God is with him! Here comes better news.
Enter MACDUFF with MACBETH’s head / MACDUFF enters, carrying MACBETH’s head.
MACDUFF Hail, king! For so thou art. Behold where stands The usurper’s cursèd head. The time is free. I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl, That speak my salutation in their minds, Whose voices I desire aloud with mine. Hail, King of Scotland! Hail, king! Because that’s what you are now. Look, here I have Macbeth’s cursed head. We are free from his tyranny. I see that you have the kingdom’s noblemen around you, and they’re thinking the same thing as me. I want them to join me in this loud cheer: Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL Hail, King of Scotland! Hail, King of Scotland!
Flourish / Trumpets play.
MALCOLM We shall not spend a large expense of time Before we reckon with your several loves And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honor named. What’s more to do, Which would be planted newly with the time, As calling home our exiled friends abroad That fled the snares of watchful tyranny, Producing forth the cruel ministers Of this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen, Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands Took off her life; this, and what needful else That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, We will perform in measure, time, and place. So, thanks to all at once and to each one, Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone. It won’t be long before I reward each of you as he deserves. My thanes and kinsmen, I name you all earls, the first earls that Scotland has ever had. We have a lot to do at the dawn of this new era. We must call home all of our exiled friends who fled from the grip of Macbeth’s tyranny, and we must bring to justice all the evil ministers of this dead butcher and his demon-like queen, who, rumor has it, committed suicide. This, and whatever else we are called to do by God, we will do at the right time and in the right place. So I thank you all, and I invite each and every one of you to come watch me be crowned king of Scotland at Scone.
Flourish. Exeunt / Trumpets play. They all exit.
