Macbeth Summary

Summary of Act 1, Scene 1: The witches plan their meeting with Macbeth. Thunder and lightning.
Enter three Witches: In the play as a whole, people are tossed about by forces that they cannot control, and so it is in the opening scene. The witches, blown by the storms of nature and war, swirl in, then out. As soon as we see them, they are on their way out again, and the first one is asking, When shall we three meet again? / In thunder, lightning, or in rain?" (1.1.1-2). They will meet when "the battle's lost and won" (1.1.4). Note the "and." It's not when the battle is lost or won. If someone wins, someone also loses; it doesn't really matter to the witches, who don't take sides with people, only against them. The first witch asks where they will meet, and the other two tell her that it will be upon the "heath," a barren, windswept place, in order to meet Macbeth. Then they're off, called by their familiar spirits, one of which inhabits a grey cat, and another of which lives in a toad. As they leave, they chant a witchly chant: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair: / Hover through the fog and filthy air" (1.1.11-12). As creatures of the night and the devil, they like whatever is "foul" and hate the "fair." So they will "hover" in the fog, and in the dust and dirt of battle, waiting for the chance to do evil.
Summary of Act 1, Scene 2:

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Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.A sergeant tells of the heroic deeds of Macbeth. Enter Ross and Angus.King Duncan announces that Macbeth will be given the title of Thane of Cawdor.
Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant: We hear an "alarum," a trumpet call which gives directions to soldiers, so we know that the battle is being fought very nearby. Then we see Duncan, King of Scotland, with his sons and followers, just as Duncan sees a "bleeding Sergeant." Because the sergeant has just come from the battle, Duncan judges that he "can report, / As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt / The newest state" (1.2.1-3). Thus we learn that the battle is a revolt against the king, who wants to know if his side is winning or losing.
Because he is all covered with blood, the sergeant looks heroic himself, and everything he says emphasizes the heroism of Macbeth. The sergeant describes the two sides as being like "two spent swimmers, that do cling together / And choke their art" (1.2.8-9). That is, the two sides were exhausted, just going through the motions, until the rebel Macdonwald "from the western isles / Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied" (1.2.12-13). "Kerns" are lightly armed soldiers; "gallowglasses" have heavier armor. The phrase "Macdonwald . . . is supplied" means that he suddenly got reinforcements, so that it looked like he was about to given the kiss of victory by the whore Fortune. "But all's too weak" (1.2.15), says the sergeant, meaning that neither the reinforcements nor the favor of Fortune did Macdonwald any good. Macbeth charged through Macdonwald's soldiers, killing them left and right, until he got to the rebel captain himself. Then, says the sergeant with grim humor, Macbeth was downright rude to Macdonwald, because he "ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, / Till he unseam'd [split] him from the nave [bellybutton] to the chops [jaws], / And fix'd his head upon our battlements" (1.2.21-23). King Duncan exclaims, "O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!" (The "cousin" reminds us that Macbeth has royal lineage; both he and King Duncan are grandsons of King Malcolm.) Duncan doesn't get a chance to say any more, because the sergeant charges ahead with his story. He wants King Duncan to not just understand what happened, but to feel it. He reminds him of how, just as spring has started, and we're looking forward warm days, we can be blown away by "Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders" (1.2.26). And so it was with Macbeth. Just as Macbeth was chasing away the last of Macdonwald's army, the Norwegian King mounted a surprise attack against the Scottish forces. "Dismay'd not this / Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?" (1.2.34-35), asks King Duncan. Yes, replies the sergeant, with macho irony, like a sparrow dismays an eagle, or a rabbit dismays a lion. Macbeth and Banquo exploded upon the Norwegians like cannons packed with double charges of gunpowder, and they made the battlefield into a place of skulls, a new Golgotha . . . . At this point, the sergeant's wounds catch up with him. He grows faint and is taken away before we can learn the end of the story of the fight with the Norwegian army. Enter Ross and Angus: As the sergeant is taken out, the noblemen Ross and Angus appear. As they approach, one of King Duncan's followers comments about Ross: "What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look / That seems to speak things strange" (1.2.46-47). The strange thing that Ross tells is the rest of the story of the battle against the Norwegians. The end of that story, like the beginning, emphasizes the heroism of Macbeth. The Norwegian King himself led the attack, with "terrible numbers" (1.2.51); that is, his troops terribly outnumbered the Scots. Not only that, but the traitorous Thane of Cawdor also brought his forces into the battle against Macbeth. But none of this did any good. The way Ross tells the story, we get the impression that Macbeth almost single-handedly defeated the Norwegian forces and captured the Thane of Cawdor. Duncan celebrates the victory by ordering that the rebel Thane of Cawdor be hung,
and Macbeth be given his title. Ross goes to carry out the king's orders, and we are left to wonder what business the witches will have with the heroic Macbeth.

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Enter the three witches.The witches prophesy that Macbeth shall be king and Banquo shall be father of kings. Enter Macbeth and Banquo.Ross and Angus tell Macbeth he has been given the title of Thane of Cawdor. Enter Ross and Angus.Macbeth muses on the possibility of killing the King in order to be king.
Enter the three witches: As they said they would, the witches meet upon the heath. The first asks the other two what they've been doing. The second witch answers simply, "Killing swine" (1.3.2). Then the third witch asks the first one where she's been, and we hear a story that tells us quite a lot about who witches are and what they do. Here's how the first witch's story starts: A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:--"Give me!" quoth I: "Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries. (1.3.4-6). The sailor's wife is a "have" and the witch is a "have-not." The sailor's wife, though she is a "ronyon," a scabby thing, gets to eat all the good food, so she is "rump-fed" and has a lap full of chestnuts, which she eats right in front of the "have-not," who can't stand it, and bursts out with "Give me!" But that only makes the sailor's wife call her a "witch" and order her to go away. (This sort of scene was probably played out many times in the real life of Shakespeare's time, because poor, old women often received little food and less respect.) Naturally, the witch wants to get back at the sailor's wife. The first witch continues by boasting about how she will get her revenge. Interestingly, the object of her revenge is the sailor, not the sailor's wife, and the revenge has very definite limits. The witch, with the help of her sister witches, will control the winds so that the sailor won't be able to come into port. Contending with the storm, he won't sleep and so he will "dwindle." The witch gloats that "Though his bark cannot be lost, / Yet it shall be tempest-toss'd" (1.3.24-25). Then the witch, apparently to prove what a wicked witch she is, shows the others a thumb she took from a drowned pilot. This little story shows that the witch is like a very bad child. She impulsively demands chestnuts, and when she gets only insults, she becomes spiteful and plans (or perhaps
fantasizes) a sneaky revenge, not on the woman, but on her husband. And, by the way, she keeps a severed thumb as a kind of toy. Just as the first witch is showing the thumb to the other two, they all hear a drum, so they know that Macbeth is coming. (We never see the drummer, but apparently the idea is that he is beating out a marching rhythm for the army that Macbeth and Banquo are leading. However, when they speak to the witches, they are quite alone.) To get ready for Macbeth, the witches chant and dance. The chant begins with them calling themselves "the weird sisters" (1.3.32). The word "weird" comes from an older word that means "fate," but by Shakespeare's time, "weird" had come to also have the sense of "wayward"--that is, unpredictable, peculiar. "Weird" in this sense is a good description of how the witches operate. They are unpredictable and can make a lot of trouble, but they aren't necessarily agents of inevitable fate. Enter Macbeth and Banquo: As their dance ends, the witches tell each other "Peace," which means "be quiet," and they wait silently. When Macbeth and Banquo appear, we see that the two men are on their way back to the King's palace at Forres. Macbeth remarks "So foul and fair a day I have not seen" (1.3.38), which simply means that it's one of those days when fog is followed by sunshine, then a thunderstorm, some hail, and more sunshine. Then Banquo sees the witches. They are "So wither'd and so wild in their attire" (1.3.40) that Banquo asks them, "Live you?" Instead of answering, they each put a finger to their lips, as though they have a secret. Banquo remarks that they look like women, but he won't call them women, because they have beards. Then Macbeth asks them to speak, and that seems to be what they were waiting for. They hail Macbeth as "Thane of Glamis," "Thane of Cawdor," and "King hereafter." Macbeth's reaction is described in Banquo's next words: "Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear / Things that do sound so fair?" (1.3.51-52). Where Banquo uses the word "start," we would use the word "jump." It's as though someone had just come up behind Macbeth and yelled "Boo!" A little later we learn that Macbeth is thinking very hard about becoming king by killing King Duncan, so we can guess that it now might seem to him that the witches are reading his mind. Macbeth doesn't reply, so Banquo--as if to show Macbeth how to act--challenges the witches. He says that if they really can predict the future ("look into the seeds of time"), they should "Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear / Your favours nor your hate" (1.3.60-61). The witches respond by hailing Banquo as the father of future kings, and then they begin to leave, or fade. Macbeth tries to stop them, calling out, "Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more" (1.3.70). Actually, he does not want to hear more. He only wants to know that what he has heard is true. He says that he knows that he is Thane of Glamis because his father, Sinel, died, leaving him the title, "But how of Cawdor?" he asks. At this point it seems that Shakespeare wants us to see how people can lie to themselves. Macbeth says that "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" (1.3.72-75). In the previous scene Ross told the story of how Macbeth fought and won the battle against the rebel Cawdor, so how can Macbeth be surprised that he might get Cawdor's title? It would be only reasonable to guess that a rebel would be put to death and his title given to someone else. Therefore, it appears that Macbeth's desire to be king blinds him to himself. He says that he can't believe that he can be king any more than he can believe that he can be Thane of Cawdor. But if he secretly knows that it's very possible that he will be Thane of Cawdor, he might also be thinking that it's possible he could be king. As Macbeth is demanding that the witches tell him how they know what they know, they vanish. For a moment, he and Banquo are alone again, and they both begin to deny what they have seen. Banquo speculates that the witches were illusory, "bubbles" of the earth, and Macbeth remarks that their bodies melted into the wind. Banquo asks if they have "eaten on the insane root / That takes the reason prisoner" (1.3.84-85). Then they mockingly repeat the witches' prophecies to each other, until they are interrupted by the arrival of Ross and Angus. Enter Ross and Angus: Ross and Angus deliver the news that's not news to us: The traitorous Thane of Cawdor is to be executed, and Macbeth is to be given his title. What is interesting is how Macbeth turns this unsurprising news into a sign that he is destined to be king. Before Ross and Angus tell their news, they deliver the King's high praise, beginning with Ross' "The King hath happily received, Macbeth, / The news of thy success" (1.3.89-90). Angus adds that the King sends his thanks "Only to herald thee into his sight, / Not pay thee" (1.3.102-103). He means that the King's praise and thanks are not payment for all of Macbeth's heroic deeds; the King just wants to trumpet Macbeth's accomplishments to the world. However, the King does have an immediate reward for the hero: Macbeth is now Thane of Cawdor. When Ross hails Macbeth with his new title of Thane of Cawdor, Banquo wonders (probably to himself), "What, can the devil speak true?" (1.3.107). Meanwhile, Macbeth responds to the news by asking, "The Thane of Cawdor lives; why do you dress me / In borrow'd robes?" (1.3.108-109). Thus Macbeth gets Ross to tell him what could be easily guessed, that the Thane of Cawdor is going to be executed as a traitor. When he's sure that he really is Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth says to himself: "Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor! / The greatest is behind" (1.3.116-117). "Behind" means "next," and of course "the greatest" is the kingship; Macbeth is already looking forward to being king. Macbeth then asks Banquo, out of the hearing of Ross and Angus, if Banquo now believes that his children shall be kings, since the witches were right about Macbeth being Thane of Cawdor. Banquo doesn't really answer Macbeth's question; instead, he says: 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. (1.3.120-126) This is a blunt warning that the witches could be tricking Macbeth into evil, and it shows that Banquo has a strong suspicion that Macbeth's ambition could make him go bad. Banquo then steps aside to have a few words with Ross and Angus. Meanwhile, we hear Macbeth thinking. At first he's elated. He says, "Two truths are told, / As happy prologues to the swelling act / Of the imperial theme" (1.3.127-129). But then he has second thoughts. If the witches' prophecies are good, he asks himself, "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?" (1.3.134-137). "Suggestion" means "temptation," so Macbeth is asking himself why he feels himself giving into temptation, especially a temptation that makes his heart race and his hair stand on end. We should take Macbeth's words seriously. Macbeth is a warrior and has killed men, but he's never murdered anyone. These days, we watch movies in which there's a casual murder every few minutes, but Shakespeare is more realistic than those movies. Macbeth's reaction is the normal one; murder--or even the thought of doing a murder-is likely to get your blood racing. But even though his body is telling him that he shouldn't be thinking about murdering King Duncan, he can't help himself. This is what he means when he says that his "function / Is smother'd in surmise" (1.3.140-141). "Function" is normal activity; "surmise" is the thought of a future activity. Macbeth is thinking so hard about what he might do that he can't do anything but stand there and think. As Banquo remarks to Ross and Angus, Macbeth is "rapt," that is, in a kind of trance. Then Macbeth pulls himself together, at least to a certain extent. He remarks to himself that if the witches' prophecies are right, he won't have to do a thing to become king. As he says, "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, / Without my stir" (1.3.143-144). Not only that, but "Come what come may, / Time and the hour runs through the roughest day" (1.3.146-147), which is a saying like our saying that "nothing lasts forever--thank God!" In other words, the thought of murdering his king has Macbeth all shaken up, but he believes he'll get over it. At this point Banquo informs Macbeth that they're just waiting until he is ready to go. Macbeth makes the lying excuse that he was thinking about something so unimportant that he has already forgotten what it was. He says, "my dull brain was wrought / With things forgotten" (3.1.149-150). However, those things are far from forgotten. As they all start on their journey to see the King, Macbeth has a last aside to Banquo, in which he says he wants to have an honest discussion of what has happened. Banquo agrees, and they are off.

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Enter King Duncan, Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, and Attendants. King Duncan is told of the execution of the rebel Thane of Cawdor. Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus.King Duncan thanks Macbeth for his heroic service, then announces that Malcolm is heir to the throne.
Enter King Duncan, Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, and Attendants: When we see the King and the members of the royal circle, the King is asking "Is execution done on Cawdor?" (1.4.1). Malcolm tells him that the rebel Thane of Cawdor has just been executed, and that he had a good death. Cawdor confessed his treason, asked the King's forgiveness, and went to his death willingly, so that "Nothing in his life / Became him like the leaving it" (1.4.7-8). The King comments that he an "absolute trust" in the man, but "There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face" (1.4.11-12). In other words, you can't tell a book by its cover. [The story of the Thane of Cawdor foreshadows the story of Macbeth. Both appear to be honest and are trusted by King Duncan. But both turn bad and betray their king. In the end what they have done catches up with them, and they both die courageously.] Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus: Just as the King is commenting on the fate of the former Thane of Cawdor, in comes the new Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth, along with Banquo, Ross, and Angus. The King greets Macbeth as "worthiest cousin!" (1.4.14) and says in several different ways that he can't thank him enough. Macbeth answers with heroic modesty that "The service and the loyalty I owe, / In doing it, pays itself" (1.4.22-23). That is, it's payment enough to know that he did the right thing as a loyal servant of the King. Then Macbeth, speaking for every subject of the King, says that they only do what they should when they do everything they can to ensure the King's safety and show their love for him. Macbeth appears sincere as he delivers these noble sentiments, but in two or three minutes we'll overhear him as he thinks about killing both the King and his son. King Duncan, after telling Macbeth that there are more rewards in store for him, turns to Banquo and thanks him, too. He hugs him and tells him that he will hold him in his heart. Banquo graciously replies "There if I grow, / The harvest is your own" (1.4.3233), meaning that if Banquo grows in the King's heart, the King will have himself to thank, for being a good king. Finally, the King says to everyone, "My plenteous joys, / Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves / In drops of sorrow" (1.4.33-35). In short, he's so happy he's crying. [Shakespeare doesn't write many stage directions, but this is an implied stage direction that should be taken seriously. The King is indeed weeping. These two warriors, Macbeth and Banquo, have saved his kingdom and probably his life. Today men try to hide tears of joy, because they're considered to be a sign of weakness, but Duncan isn't weak, he's just very very happy that his men won. And his joy in his men, particularly Macbeth, makes Macbeth's murderous plans even more shameful.]
Overcoming his tears, King Duncan now announces that his oldest son, Malcolm, is heir to throne, and has therefore been given the title of Prince of Cumberland. The King promises that others will receive honors, too, and then tells Macbeth that he is coming to visit him at Inverness, the location of Macbeth's castle, Dunsinane. Macbeth replies that he'll be glad to have the King as a guest, and that he'll go immediately to tell his wife. No sooner said than done, and Macbeth hurries away. As he is leaving, we hear him thinking to himself, "The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step / On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, / For in my way it lies" (1.4.48-50). Of course he means that Malcolm, too, is now between him and the throne. (This is something that Macbeth should have thought of before. The throne of Scotland was not strictly hereditary, but it should be no big surprise to Macbeth that the King would name his son heir.) As soon as he thinks this thought about Malcolm, it's obvious that it's a murderous thought. He says to himself: 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. (1.4.50-53) Macbeth wants impossibilities. He wants the stars to go out, so that no one can see what it is he wants, not even himself. His own eye should "wink," that is, blind itself to what his own hand wants to do. "Let that be" he says, because he wants the thing done, even if afterwards, "when it is done," his own eye would be afraid to look at what his hand had done. What could he be talking about, except murder? With that thought, Macbeth disappears from the scene. Meanwhile, the King and Banquo have been talking about him, and the King is saying how much he enjoys praising Macbeth. As he looks foward to Macbeth's hospitality, the King says that he is a "a peerless kinsman" (1.4.58). Thus a chilling irony is created by the contrast between the King's thoughts about Macbeth and Macbeth's thoughts about the King .

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Enter Macbeth's Wife, alone.Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth's letter about the weird sisters. Enter Messenger.Lady Macbeth works herself up to work Macbeth up to murder. Enter Macbeth.Lady Macbeth tells her husband to look innocent and follow her lead.
Enter Macbeth's Wife, alone: As the scene opens, Lady Macbeth is reading a letter from her husband. The letter tells of the witches' prophecy for him, which is treated as a certainty, because "I have
learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge" (1.5.1-3). "The perfectest report" means "the most reliable information," so it appears that Macbeth has been asking people what they know about the reliability of witches. If that's the case, he has ignored the advice ot Banquo, who is quite sure that witches can't be trusted. But Macbeth seems to trust the witches absolutely, because he is writing to his wife, his "dearest partner of greatness," so that she "mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing" (1.5.11-12). That is, he believes that she has a right to rejoice because she will be a queen. However, Lady Macbeth doesn't rejoice. She is determined that he will be king, but she suspects that he doesn't have the right stuff to do what needs to be done. Speaking to him as though he were really there, she says: "Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o' the milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way" (1.5.16-18). Her reaction to the letter shows that Lady Macbeth is a woman who knows her husband very well, perhaps because she shares some of his instincts. For both of them, murder is the "nearest way." In an earlier scene, Macbeth had commented that "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, / Without my stir" (1.3.143144), but later he assumes that he must be an assassin in order to be king. And this is always his wife's assumption. In addition, Lady Macbeth seems to share the witches' views on good and bad. She says to her absent husband, "Thou wouldst be great; / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it" (1.5.18-20). She, like the witches, believes that foul is fair. Ambition "should" be accompanied by "illness." Yet she does not believe that Macbeth is really good. She says that he "wouldst not play false, / And yet wouldst wrongly win" (1.5.21-22). In her view, he's something of a coward, because he has that within him that tells him what he must do if he is to have the throne, but he's afraid to do it. She tells her absent husband that he should hurry home so that she can "chastise with the valour of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round" (1.5.27-28). In other words, she plans to nag him until he's ashamed of himself for being afraid to be bad. After all, it's only that fear that's keeping him from wearing the crown. Enter Messenger: As Lady Macbeth is wrapped up in these murderous thoughts, a messenger comes in with the news that the King is coming to stay the night. Lady Macbeth's first reaction is almost enough to give her away. "Thou'rt mad to say it!" (1.5.31), she exclaims. To her, it must seem that there's some magic at work, because just as she's thinking about killing the King, here comes the news that he's going to be sleeping under her roof. She covers up by saying that Macbeth must be with the King, and that her husband would have sent someone ahead to tell her, so that she could prepare for the King's arrival. The messenger informs her that Macbeth's messenger has just now come, only moments ahead of Macbeth himself. With that, she sends the messenger away and prepares herself for what's next. As she waits for her husband, Lady Macbeth works herself into a killer's state of mind. She says, "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!" (1.5.40-43). In Shakespeare's time, as now, women were thought to be naturally more kind and gentle than men. But, Lady Macbeth, who is thinking deadly ("mortal") thoughts, calls on the "spirits" of murder to take away her womanliness. We would say that those "spirits" are that part of her that can kill and not care; nowadays we might show such a person talking to herself, saying "you can do it." But can she? For a person who wants to be cold-hearted, she seems to be talking quite a lot. She wants her blood to be thick and her milk to be bitter poison, but at the end she--as her husband did earlier--asks for the ability to kill without seeing what she is doing, and without being seen. She says: 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!" (1.5.50-54) In an atmosphere of black on black, of dark night darkened with the smoke of hell, Lady Macbeth's knife won't see what it's doing, and neither will heaven. Of course, a real knife has no eyes and God's eyes in heaven can see through night and smoke and all. The knife, then, is a metaphor for something else, perhaps her steely will, and "heaven" is probably a metaphor for her conscience. In short, she thinks she's a killer, but there's a part of her that wants to close its eyes to what she wants to do. Enter Macbeth: As Lady Macbeth is working herself up to a fever pitch of murderous intentions, Macbeth enters. She greets him as "Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor! / Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!" (1.5.54-55), and tells him that she feels "The future in the instant" (1.5.58). In other words, she already feels like a queen. Macbeth then says that Duncan is arriving that night, as though he's just telling her the news. However, Lady Macbeth already knows about Duncan's arrival, and Macbeth probably knows that his wife knows, because he's the one who sent the messenger. Given this, it seems likely that he's sounding her out, that he wants to know if she's thinking what he's thinking. Of course she is. When he says that Duncan will leave "to-morrow," she responds, "O, never / Shall sun that morrow see!" (1.5.60-61). The sun will rise, but not on a tomorrow in which Duncan is alive. She goes on to give him a little advice, which is that "Your face, my thane, is as a book where men / May read strange matters" (1.5.62-63). In other words, he's not a very good hypocrite. Now we use the word "matter" a little differently, and we would say that just by looking at his face, anyone could see that something is the matter with Macbeth. He should, says his wife, "look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't" (1.5.65-66). Macbeth answers, "We will speak further" (1.5.71), but if he intends to appear noncommittal, he hasn't fooled his wife. She tells him that all he has to do is put on a pleasant face, and "Leave all the rest to me" (1.5.73). With that, they hurry out to welcome the King they are going to kill.
Summary of Act 1, Scene 6: King Duncan arrives at Macbeth's castle and is greeted by Lady Macbeth. Hoboys and torches. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and Attendants: In this short little scene, nothing much happens, except that the lamb is brought to the door of the slaughter-house. King Duncan is most gracious and kind to his hostess, who means to kill him. The first thing to notice is the stage direction. The King's arrival is announced not with the usual flourish of trumpets, but with "Hoboys," which are the ancestors of our mournful-sounding oboes. Also, the King's followers and servants are carrying torches, to indicate that the sun is down. Both the sound of the oboes and the darkness of the hour remind us that the King will never again see the light of day. Pausing at the gate of Macbeth's castle with his loyal followers, Duncan remarks that "This castle hath a pleasant seat [location]; the air / Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself / Unto our gentle senses" (1.6.1-3). Banquo agrees. The air must indeed be sweet, he says, because swallows have built their nests here. Banquo describes those nests as the swallows' "pendant bed and procreant cradle" (1.6.8). In other words, the nests that are hanging ("pendant") high on the castle walls are the beds of the birds, the place ("procreant cradle") where they make love and produce chicks and keep their chicks safe. Thus, on the outside of the castle, everything looks homey and cozy, but inside the castle, Duncan will be murdered. Now Lady Macbeth enters, and King Duncan makes a gentle jest. He says to her: See, see, our honour'd 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 'ield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble. (1.6.10-14) Duncan's whole speech is based on our ancient custom of a guest saying something like "I don't want to trouble you," and the host replying with some version of "It's my pleasure." By saying that his people's love is sometimes his "trouble," King Duncan is saying that his loving people go to a great deal of trouble for him, and he's troubled by the fact that they take all that trouble. Nevertheless, when people take trouble for him, he knows that they do it because they love their king, and so he thanks them for their love. Next, referring to himself royally as "us," the King jokingly tells Lady Macbeth that he's saying all of this so that -- instead of him thanking her for taking trouble -she will thank God and him for giving her trouble. The joke is not as complicated as this explanation has been, and in making it the King shows himself to be kindly and humorous. He can make the joke only because he's
sure that it's really no trouble, and that she really is glad to be his hostess, because she really is a loving subject to her king. Of course the grand irony is that we know that Lady Macbeth plans to kill her King that very night. By the end of the scene, he and she are walking to the castle gates hand-in-hand. It's a chilling picture.

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Enter Macbeth.Macbeth almost talks himself out of killing the King. Enter Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth gives her husband a tongue-lashing that makes him commit to their plan to murder the King.
Enter Macbeth: The scene opens with the same "hoboys and torches" that announced the King's arrival in the previous scene, then we see a "Sewer" (a butler) and some assistants carrying dishes for the feast that Macbeth is giving for the King. But Macbeth himself has ducked out to think things over. Apparently it's difficult for him to play host to a man he's about to kill. Macbeth says to himself, "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well / It were done quickly (1.7.1-2). That is, if everything could be over with as soon as Duncan is killed, then it would be best for Macbeth to kill him quickly. If only, Macbeth thinks, the assassination could be "the be-all and the end-all--here / But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, / We'ld jump the life to come" (1.7.5-7). Where Macbeth says "but here," we would say "just here" or "only here." In other words, Macbeth knows that he can get away with murder only here on earth. In the afterlife he will certainly be punished. He also knows that the afterlife is very long; it's like a boundless ocean, and our life is only a "bank or shoal" on the edge of that ocean. Nevertheless, if one murder could be the last murder, he would take his chances with the afterlife. The problem is, it's not very likely to be "done when 'tis done," and Macbeth knows this, too. He knows that--as we say--what goes around comes around, that acts of violence are "Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return / To plague the inventor" (1.7.9-10). Of course, Macbeth has good reason to be afraid. In a warrior society such as his, there would be plenty of kith and kin eager to avenge the murder of any man, even if he weren't a king. To put it bluntly, Macbeth is about to chicken out because he thinks that he's likely to get caught. Only at this point does he start thinking of other reasons that he shouldn't kill his king. As the King's subject, as his kinsman, as his host, Macbeth is supposed to protect his king, not kill him. Besides, Duncan has done nothing wrong. He is a good king, and he is "meek," not arrogant, so when he is killed, pity itself "Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, / That tears shall drown the wind" (1.7.24-25). This
outpouring of pity for King Duncan will make things even more dangerous for Macbeth. On the other hand, his only motivation is his "Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself / And falls on the other" (1.7.27-28). This image suggests his inner emptiness. He is obsessed with the idea of doing the deed and becoming king. After that, he hasn't a clue. Enter Lady Macbeth: Just as Macbeth is thinking about the senselessness of the murder he's planning, his wife comes looking for him. She very forcibly points out that the King has almost finished his supper, and Macbeth should be there, pretending to be the happy host. Macbeth then attempts to put an end to his problem by saying that "We will proceed no further in this business" (1.7.29). He explains that he wants to enjoy the honors that the King has just bestowed upon him. In saying this, he may sound firm and reasonable, but it turns out that he doesn't have a chance against his wife's passionate scorn. She accuses him of being the kind of person who can dream of wearing kingly robes only when he's drunk. She asks sarcastically, "Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dress'd yourself? Hath it slept since?" (1.7.35-36). This is harsh enough, but it gets worse. She tells him that if he's going to go back on his word, he doesn't really love her, and he's a coward, no better than the "poor cat i' the adage" (1.7.45), who wants a fish, but doesn't want to get its feet wet. Macbeth tries to defend himself by saying, "I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none" (1.7.46-47). He's right about what a real man will and won't do. A real man will dare risk his life to protect his King, but a man who dares to murder his King is not a true man. This perfectly reasonable statement only makes his wife more scornful. She tells him that "When you durst do it, then you were a man" (1.7.49). [A note: When was that "when"? Lady Macbeth refers to a previous time when Macbeth did not have the opportunity to kill the King, but was thinking about ways to create such an opportunity. But there is no previous scene which matches her description. It's possible that Shakespeare wrote such a scene, but it was lost. Many scholars think that Macbeth was orginally a much longer play.] Now, Lady Macbeth declares, the perfect opportunity to kill the King has presented itself, and Macbeth is backing out, making him less than a man. Then, after ridiculing Macbeth's manhood, Lady Macbeth declares that she's more man than he is: 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 pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this. (1.7.54-59) After this, it's really all over. Lady Macbeth wins. Macbeth asks what happens if they fail, and his wife pooh-poohs the very idea. She will get King Duncan's two attendants
drunk, so they won't be able to protect him, and then they'll take the blame for the King's death. Macbeth replies with admiration, "Bring forth men-children only; / For thy undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males" (1.7.72-74). [A note on their children: They have no children, but Lady Macbeth has nursed a child. This does not mean that they are in late middle age, as they are often portrayed in movies. In Shakespeare's time the child mortality rate was very high, so that it was quite common for a young woman to have given birth, and nursed an infant, without having any living children.] Macbeth improves a bit on his wife's plan by saying that they'll use the daggers of Duncan's attendants, and then smear his blood on the attendants. Lady Macbeth assures him that nobody will dare raise any questions because he and she will "make our griefs and clamour roar / Upon his death" (1.7.78-79). With that, Macbeth's courage is up again. As they leave he is promising to be a good hypocrite, saying "False face must hide what the false heart doth know" (1.7.82).

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Enter Banquo and Fleance.Past midnight, Banquo prepares to go to bed, but is edgy and haunted by strange thoughts. Enter Macbeth and a Servant.Macbeth and Banquo discuss King Duncan and the witches. Macbeth says that Banquo could be rewarded for following his lead on something to do with the witches' prophecies. Exit Banquo and Fleance.Macbeth sees "a dagger of the mind," hears his wife's bell, and goes to kill King Duncan.
Enter Banquo and Fleance: The scene opens with some casual conversation which tells us that it's very dark, and that something bad is about to happen. Banquo and his son Fleance are in the courtyard of Macbeth's castle, and Fleance is carrying a torch. Banquo asks Fleance, "How goes the night, boy? (2.1.1). He's not asking Fleance how he's doing; he's asking how late it is. Fleance hasn't heard a clock strike, but the moon is down, so it must be past midnight. Banquo then hands his sword to Fleance, who is apparently serving as his father's squire. Banquo also gives Fleance something else, perhaps the belt and sheath for the sword. It appears that Banquo is getting ready to go to bed, and he remarks that "There's husbandry in heaven; / Their candles are all out" (2.1.5). "Husbandry" is thriftiness; Banquo means that heaven has gone to bed, and has put out its "candles" (the stars) for the night. The moon is down, the night is starless, and there are no street lights in Macbeth's castle. In short, it's darker than any dark most of us have ever seen. And within this dark is fear. Banquo is dead tired and feels as heavy as lead, but he's fighting sleep
because he's afraid of his own thoughts or dreams. He asks the powers above to "Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature / Gives way to in repose!" (2.1.8-9), but we don't know exactly what "thoughts" he's afraid of. A little later he says that he has dreamed of the weird sisters, so maybe he's been thinking about their prophecies. Perhaps he fears that Macbeth is planning murder. Or he might fear his own thoughts about how he might become the father of kings. Or maybe he's just been having uncanny thoughts, such as seem to creep up on us in a very dark night, when every bush can be a bear. Whatever fear it is that's keeping Banquo awake, it's also made him edgy. When he sees another torch, he takes his sword from Fleance and calls out "Who's there?" (2.1.10). Logically, he should have nothing to fear within the locked gates of Macbeth's castle, but he still feels the need to have his sword ready, just in case. Enter Macbeth and a Servant: When Banquo recognizes Macbeth in the dark night, he wonders why Macbeth is still up, and then tells him how pleased the King is with Macbeth's hospitality. The King has sent gifts to the cooks and other servants, and Banquo has a diamond which is a gift from the King to Lady Macbeth, to thank her for being a "most kind hostess" (2.1.16). Macbeth, with apparent modesty, replies that he and his wife were unprepared for the King's visit, so they weren't able to entertain him as they would have wished to. Banquo reassures Macbeth that he has been an excellent host to the King, then brings up the subject of the witches. He says that he dreamed of the weird sisters the night before, and tells Macbeth that "To you they have show'd some truth." Macbeth replies, "I think not of them" (2.1.21), which is a lie. True, we haven't heard him mention the witches, but he's been thinking of nothing except how to make their prophecies come true. After this lie, Macbeth adds, with seeming casualness, that sometime he'd like to talk with Banquo about the witches. Banquo replies that he's willing, anytime. Then Macbeth almost gives himself away by saying, "If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, / It shall make honour for you" (2.1.25-26). "Cleave to my consent" means "give me your support"; "when 'tis" means "when the time comes"; and "honour," as it is used here, seems to mean the sort of honor which Macbeth himself received when the King gave him the title of Thane of Cawdor. In short, it looks like Macbeth is offering Banquo a bribe for Banquo's support regarding something having to do with the witches, who said that Macbeth would be king. Despite Macbeth's vagueness about the purpose of the support he might need from Banquo, Banquo senses that something could be very wrong, and replies, "So I lose none / In seeking to augment it, but still keep / My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, / I shall be counsell'd" (2.1.26-29). Both the "none" and the "it" refer back to "honor," so Banquo is saying "So long as I don't lose my honor (my personal integrity) in trying to gain honor (rewards), and so long as I can act with a clear conscience, I'll listen to your advice." This is very nearly an insult to Macbeth. Banquo has very clearly implied that Macbeth could have something dishonorable in
mind. Understandably, Macbeth has no more to say to Banquo, and bids him goodnight. Exeunt Banquo and Fleance: After Banquo and Fleance leave him, Macbeth sends his servant to tell Lady Macbeth to ring a bell when Macbeth's drink is ready. The servant is supposed to think that the drink is some sort of toddy that one would have just before going to bed. Actually, there is no drink, and the bell is Lady Macbeth's signal that the coast is clear for Macbeth to go and murder the King. Alone now, Macbeth is so obsessed by thoughts of the murder that he starts to hallucinate. He says, "Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? (2.1.33-34), and reaches for it. Of course he can't grasp it, and he realizes that he's seeing the dagger that he plans to use in the murder, a dagger which beckons him toward King Duncan's door, and a dagger upon which appear thick drops of blood. He understands that "It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes" (2.1.48-49), but he is not horrified. Rather, he wants to be as deadly as that dagger. The darkness of the dark night suits Macbeth's purpose and mood. In the dark terrible dreams come, and witchcraft celebrates its rites, and Murder itself stalks the night. In Macbeth's words: . . . wither'd Murder, Alarum'd 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. (2.1.52-60) In his imagination, Macbeth sees Murder as a withered man who is "alarumed," called to action, by his sentinel, the wolf. Normally, a sentinel would keep an eye out for danger and call out a warning, but Murder's sentinel keeps an eye out for the opportunity to kill, and his howl is his "watch," his announcement that another victim has been found for Murder. At this point, where Macbeth describes Murder as moving "thus with his stealthy pace," it's important to notice the "thus." It doesn't make sense unless Macbeth himself is now pacing like Murder itself, like the murderous rapist Tarquin, "like a ghost." He asks the earth to be deaf to his steps, not to "prate [chatter] of my whereabout," because the present silence of the night suits the horror of what he's about to do. Thus we see in Macbeth a man who wants to be a silent and deadly figure of horror. If he were alive today, Macbeth would be comparing himself to the Night Stalker, or the Hillside Strangler, or Charles Manson. But Macbeth hasn't done the murder yet; he hasn't even gone to the King's door yet, and he tells himself that "Whiles I threat, he lives: / Words to the heat of deeds too
cold breath gives" (2.1.60-61). In other words, while he's saying all these threatening things, King Duncan still lives, and his words haven't yet inspired him to actually do the deed. Then the bell rings, and Macbeth answers the call, finally moving from horrifying words to a horrible deed only when his wife's bell tells him it's time.

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Enter Lady Macbeth.Lady Macbeth waits for Macbeth to come with the news that he has killed the King. Enter Macbeth.Macbeth announces that he has done the deed, but he is so shaken by the murder that he brings the bloody daggers with him, and Lady Macbeth takes them from him, to place them with the sleeping grooms. Exit Lady Macbeth.A knocking at the castle gate frightens Macbeth, and his wife comes to lead him away, so that they can wash the blood from their hands.
Enter Lady Macbeth: This scene, like the previous one and the next, is usually shown as taking place in the courtyard of Macbeth's castle. In the previous scene Macbeth had an ostensibly casual conversation with Banquo, but as soon as Banquo went to bed, it became apparent that Macbeth was awaiting his wife's signal (a bell) to go do the murder. Now, where Macbeth waited for his wife's bell, she waits for the news that he has killed the King. The courtyard is apparently quite near the King's bedchamber, and she listens intently, as though she could actually hear the murder being committed. She is very excited, and says of herself, "That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold / What hath quench'd them hath given me fire" (2.2.1-2). The "them" whom she refers to are the King's two personal servants, his "grooms." She has given each of them a "posset," a mixture of wine and milk. It's something you would drink just before going to bed, to help you sleep, but Lady Macbeth has drugged the grooms' possets, so that their sleep is the next thing to death. Lady Macbeth herself has also had some wine, but she feels bold and fierce, not drunk and sleepy. At this moment she thinks she hears something and says, "Hark! Peace! / It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, / Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it" (2.2.2-4). A lot happens in these few words. When she says "Hark!" she's telling herself to listen, and then when she says "Peace!" she's telling herself to be quiet, so that she can hear what she's listening for. After she listens, she decides that she heard a screech owl, and she takes that as a good omen, because the screech owl is nature's own "fatal bellman." A "fatal bellman" is a night watchman who rings a bell at the door of a prisoner scheduled for execution in the morning, and an owl does the same job in nature, because--according to folklore--the screech of a screech owl foretells the death of a person. Therefore, Lady Macbeth believes that because she has just heard the owl's screech, her husband must be "about it," doing the murder at this very moment. But suddenly she hears her husband say--probably in a hoarse whisper--
"Who's there? what, ho!" (2.2.8). Just as Lady Macbeth thinks she heard something, so now Macbeth thinks he hears someone, and he's trying to check it out. Immediately, Lady Macbeth assumes the worst, that the grooms have awakened before the murder has been done, and that all will be lost. She also assumes the worst about her husband. She says to herself, "I laid their daggers ready; / He [Macbeth] could not miss 'em. Had he [King Duncan] not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done't" (2.2.11-13). She's thinking that maybe her husband is so addled that he can't find the grooms' daggers, even though she put them in plain sight. And she's thinking that she should have done the job herself, which she would have, if the King hadn't looked like her father. [This momentary revelation of a spark of human sympathy foreshadows Lady Macbeth's descent into madness later in the play. It turns out that she's not nearly so steely as she now believes herself to be.] Enter Macbeth: As Lady Macbeth is thinking that she would be a better killer than her husband, he appears, and says, "I have done the deed" (2.2.14). But though he has done the deed, he can't handle the psychological consequences. For one thing, he is hearing things, or thinks he is. He asks his wife if she heard a noise, and she says she heard only the owl and some crickets. Then he asks her if she was talking as he came down the stairs from King Duncan's bedchamber, and she says she was. But now he thinks he hears something else, and asks who's sleeping in the bedchamber next to the King's. His wife answers that Donalbain has that room, and Macbeth says "This is a sorry sight" (2.2.18). This last remark of Macbeth's shows how his mind is jumping around. After worrying about this noise and that, Macbeth suddenly says something is a "sorry sight." Editors always explain it by inserting a stage direction, "Looking on his hands," which are covered with blood. His wife tells him he's a fool, but his mind has already jumped to something else. As he was leaving the King's bedchamber, Macbeth heard someone in another room laugh in his sleep, and someone else call out "Murder!" These two sleepers then awoke, and prayed, and settled down to sleep again. Meanwhile, Macbeth was frozen in his tracks outside their door, and as the two settled down to sleep, "One cried "God bless us!" and "Amen" the other; / As they had seen me with these hangman's hands" (2.2.24-25). "As" means "as if" and the idea is that Macbeth felt that the two sleepers could see his bloody hands -- and his guilt -- right through their door. Now Macbeth wonders why he couldn't say "amen" to the "God bless us" that he heard. Lady Macbeth tells her husband that he'll drive them both crazy if he keeps thinking like that, but he says, "Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep'" (2.2.32-33). Now his mind has made a very large leap, not just a jump. This "voice" is a pure hallucination, just as the "dagger of the mind" was. He praises sleep as innocence, as the one sure relief from all of life's problems, but seems sure that he -- who murdered an innocent man in his sleep -- will never sleep again.
His wife who the voice belonged to, but he doesn't answer the question, and she says, "Why, worthy thane, / You do unbend your noble strength, to think / So brainsickly of things" (2.2.41-43). She tells him to "Go get some water, / And wash this filthy witness from your hand" (2.2.43-44). The "filthy witness" is the blood of Duncan, which acts as a witness to Macbeth's crime, but as Lady Macbeth is saying this, she sees another "witness": Macbeth is still carrying the grooms' daggers! She tells him he must take the daggers back, put them with the grooms, and smear the grooms with blood, so it will look like the grooms killed the King. Macbeth, however, is paralyzed with the horror of what he has done. He says, "I'll go no more: / I am afraid to think what I have done; / Look on't again I dare not" (2.2.4749). Now Lady Macbeth is scornful of her husband. She takes the daggers from him and tells him that it's childish to be afraid of the sleeping or the dead. And she's not afraid of blood, either. She says, "If he [King Duncan] do bleed, / I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal / For it must seem their guilt" (2.2.52-54). With these bitter words, she goes to finish her husband's job for him. Exit Lady Macbeth As soon as Lady Macbeth has exited, we hear a knocking. Macbeth hears it, too, and it frightens him, but he can do nothing except stare at his hands. He looks at them as though he had never seen them before, and he feels that looking at them is like getting his eyes gouged out. It is the blood on his hands that causes this horrible fascination, and he feels that the blood can never be washed away. Before his hands are clean, they will make all the seas of the world turn red: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red" (2.2.57-60). As she returns, Lady Macbeth hears what Macbeth is saying to himself, and she comments, "My hands are of your colour; but I shame / To wear a heart so white" (2.2.61-62). She means that her hands are red, too (because she has been busy smearing the King's blood on the grooms), but that she would be ashamed to have a heart as white as Macbeth's. A white heart is white because it has no blood, and the person with a white heart is a coward. As she delivers this insult, we hear the knocking again, and Lady Macbeth takes her husband away so that they can wash up. In her opinion, it will only take a little water to make them innocent. She also tells him he must put on his night-gown, so that if they have to get up and talk to whoever is knocking, it won't look like they've been up all night. He's unresponsive, and seems lost in his thoughts. She advises him to snap out of it, but he can't. As he is being led away, he says that "To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself" (2.2.70). He means that if he fully understands what he has done, he will see what a monster he has become, and he doesn't want to know that monster. At the very last, as we hear the knocking again, Macbeth wishes none of it had ever happened, and he calls out "Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!" (2.2.71).

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Enter a Porter.The Porter pretends that he is hell's gatekeeper, then lets in Macduff and Lennox. Enter Macduff and Lennox.The Porter begs a tip and makes jokes about drinking. Enter Macbeth.Macduff discovers King Duncan's body. Enter Lady Macbeth.Banquo, Macduff, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth express their woe at the death of King Duncan. Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.Malcolm and Donalbain are told of their father's murder. Macbeth announces that he killed the grooms who did the deed. Lady Macbeth faints. Malcolm and Donalbain, fearing that they will be murdered next, flee.
Enter a Porter: In the previous scene, a repeated knocking frightened Macbeth. In this scene, the knocking continues, louder and more impatient. [You might be interested in reading Thomas DeQuincey's famous comments on the significance of the knocking, in his essay, "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth."] A Porter comes to the gate, but he doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry. Perhaps that's because he is -- as Lady Macbeth was at the opening of the previous scene -still a little drunk. It occurs to him that if he were the gatekeeper of hell, he'd have plenty of opportunities to turn the key. He says, "Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key" (2.3.1-3). Then, instead of turning the key and opening the gate, he describes some people he might welcome to hell. First there is a farmer who hanged himself "on the expectation of plenty" (2.3.6). Because everyone was going to have plenty of food, the farmer's prices were going to go down, and he couldn't stand it. Next, there is an equivocator, the kind of person who thinks it's not a sin to tell a lie, if what he says is somehow true. (Later in the play, the witches equivocate with Macbeth when they tell him that he cannot be killed by man "of woman born." That sounds like it means that Macbeth cannot be killed by any man, but he is killed by Macduff, who wasn't "born," but from his mother's womb "untimely ripped.") After the equivocator is let into hell, there's an English tailor who steals cloth by making his customer's pants smaller than he should. Finally, the Porter just gets tired of himself and opens the gate. [We may be a bit tired of him, too. We've seen all the blood on Macbeth's hands, and then on Lady Macbeth's hands, and we've heard the knocking at the gate, and we're wondering if they're going to get caught, but then comes this cursed Porter with his dumb jokes. We could justify the passage by calling it comic relief, but the jokes are all of the "you-had-to-be-there" variety. For example, if you were an Elizabethan Englishman and had a bad experience with a tailor who had sold you baggy pants instead of the extra-baggy ones you really wanted, you might laugh at the tailor joke. Then again, you might not, because there were as many tailor jokes then as there are
lawyer jokes now. Stage directors generally understand that the audience is unlikely to get the jokes, so they often give the Porter supposedly funny stuff to do, such as peeing, or talking in an accent so thick that you can't understand a word. The result is generally just boring.] Enter Macduff and Lennox: Ironically, when the Porter finally does open the gate, he has the cheek to beg a tip, saying, "I pray you, remember the porter" (2.3.21). It doesn't seem likely that the Porter gets his tip. Macduff asks him if he was up late, and the Porter answers "'Faith sir, we were carousing till the second cock [3 a.m.]; and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things" (2.3.24-26). Macduff plays along, and asks what the three things are. The Porter answers, "nose-painting, sleep, and urine" (2.3.28-29). Sleep and urine don't need explaining; "nose-painting" merely alludes to the fact that drinking a lot makes your face flush. This supposed joke falls flat, and the Porter adds, "Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes" (2.3.29). He explains that drinking increases the desire for sex as it takes away the ability to perform. Therefore, it can be said that "much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery" (2.3.31-32). This, like most drunk jokes, might be funny to other drunks, but Macduff is not impressed. He remarks that the Porter has had too much to drink, and asks if Macbeth is up. Enter Macbeth: Just as Macduff is asking for him, Macbeth appears in his nightshirt, as though he had been awakened by the knocking. Macduff asks "Is the king stirring, worthy thane?" (2.3.45). Macbeth says that he's not, and leads him to the door of the King's chamber. When Macduff goes in to see the King, Lennox comments on what a terrible night it's been. The wind has blown chimneys down and it howled so terribly that it sounded like "Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death" (2.3.56), and prophecies of some unknown terror. The owl, bird of darkness and death, was heard all night long, and some said that the very earth shook like a man with chills and fever. Macbeth doesn't make much of an answer. He's probably preparing himself for the moment when Macduff discovers the King's murder, and it comes soon enough. As Lennox starts to speak again, Macduff rushes in, crying "O horror, horror, horror!" (2.3.64). The next few moments are often hard for readers to "get." The important thing is not to understand that King Duncan is dead, but to feel how the characters feel. They may sound a bit melodramatic to us, but of course most of us have never seen the bloody corpse of a someone we loved, and none of us have Shakespeare to help us express our feelings. For Macduff, King Duncan is "the Lord's anointed temple" (2.3.68), which has been vandalized and destroyed. He tells Macbeth and Lennox that they must see for themselves. It will make them blind and turn them to stone, but then they will feel and speak has he does. Macbeth and Lennox go, and Macduff calls out to all those sleeping in the castle, "Awake, awake! / Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason!" (2.3.73-74). He calls upon Banquo, Donalbain, and Macolm rise from the apparent
death of sleep and confront real death, to rise up like ghosts, because the King's death will be too much for living men. Enter Lady Macbeth: As the alarm bell rings out, the stage fills with people. First comes Lady Macbeth, asking why the terrible bell is ringing. Macduff tells her that the news is not for her to hear, because it would kill a woman, but then Banquo appears, and Lady Macbeth hears Macduff tell Banquo that the king has been murdered. At this point, Lady Macbeth strikes a false note. Her response to the news that her king has been murdered is, "Woe, alas! / What, in our house?" (2.3.87-88). After just two words of mourning, the "What, in our house?" comes very quickly, and it sounds defensive, as though someone had hinted that the sheets weren't clean. Luckily for Lady Macbeth, what she says is hardly noticed in the atmosphere of crisis and outrage. Banquo pleads with Macduff to tell him it didn't happen, and then Macbeth returns, saying that "from this instant, / There 's nothing serious in mortality: / All is but toys: renown and grace is dead" (2.3.92-94). Despite the fact that he is the murderer, this doesn't sound entirely like play-acting. It really does seem that Macbeth feels that the death of King Duncan has made the world meaningless. Enter Malcolm and Donalbain: Just behind Macbeth comes Lennox, now joined by Ross, who was apparently sleeping in the castle. On their heels come Malcolm and Donalbain, the King's sons. Donalbain, the younger son, asks what's wrong, and Macbeth answers with a metaphor, "The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood / Is stopp'd" (2.3.98-99), while Macduff says simply, "Your royal father 's murder'd" (2.3.100). Malcolm asks who did the murder. Lennox replies that it seemed that the grooms did, because of the blood on their hands, on their faces, and on the daggers which were lying on their pillows. He says, "They stared, and were distracted; / No man's life was to be trusted with them" (2.3.104-105). We know the truth that Lennox doesn't. The grooms were staring at all that blood, and they were distracted because they were still feeling the effects of the drug that Lady Macbeth slipped into their drinks. In that state they weren't any good as bodyguards, but they didn't appear guilty of premeditated murder, either, so it's a shock when Macbeth says, "O, yet I do repent me of my fury, / That I did kill them" (2.3.106-107). We understand Macbeth's motivation. When he was doing the deed he had heard noises. Maybe the grooms had made those noises, and maybe the grooms, even in their stupor, might have seen or heard something. And even if they hadn't, it was just better to shut them up for good. When Macduff asks why he killed the grooms, Macbeth speaks as though he is his own defense lawyer, and says that anyone would have done the same thing. He describes how Duncan was all covered with blood, and how the grooms were all covered with blood, and then asks rhetorically, "Who could refrain, / That had a heart to love, and in that heart / Courage to make's love known?" (2.3.116-118). So Macbeth depicts himself as a man of love and courage. Before anyone can ask just how much courage it takes to kill two dazed and defenseless men, Lady Macbeth
punctuates Macbeth's performance by calling out, "Help me hence, ho!" (2.3.118), and falls down in a faint. [Perhaps her faint is real, but it certainly a distractionMacduff doesn't ask any more questions of Macbeth.] As Macduff and others tend to the lady, we see that Macbeth and his wife have not fooled everyone. Malcolm asks his brother why the two of them aren't grieving as loudly as everyone else, and Donalbain says what they are both thinking: "What should be spoken here, where our fate, / Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?" (2.3.121-122). Now is not the time or place to express their grief, because they could be murdered at any minute. They need to get out of there as quickly as possible. Malcolm adds that when they do express their grief, their "strong sorrow" will be "Upon the foot of motion" (2.3.124-125). In other words, they will express their sorrow when they are able to do something about it, such as take revenge on their father's killer. Meanwhile, Banquo appears to be taking charge of the situation. He makes sure that someone carries away Lady Macbeth, and then proposes that the men hold a meeting "when we have our naked frailties hid, / That suffer in exposure" (2.3.126-127). This reminds us that everyone, except Macduff and Lennox, are in their nightclothes. They're not really "naked," but night in windy Scotland must be cold enough to make them feel frail and exposed. Banquo wants to discuss the murder, because they have all been shaken by "Fears and scruples" (2.3.129). "Scruples" are doubts and suspicions. Banquo will not just accept the idea that the murder was the work of two drunken grooms, and he assumes that no one else will, either. He says, "In the great hand of God I stand; and thence / Against the undivulged pretence I fight / Of treasonous malice" (2.3.130-132). An "undivulged pretence . . . of treasonous malice" is a secret conspiracy by the evil forces of treason. Of course everyone agrees to put on their clothes and come to the meeting that Banquo proposes, but as soon as the rest have gone, Malcolm and Donalbain make their plans to escape the place where their father was butchered. Malcolm doesn't point the finger at anyone in particular, but he feels that someone is faking grief for King Duncan. As he says, "To show an unfelt sorrow is an office / Which the false man does easy" (2.3.136-137). He's going to England. Donalbain agrees that "There's daggers in men's smiles" (2.3.140), and he's going to Ireland. That way, they'll have a little additional safety, because no one will be able to kill them both at once. In a moment they're gone into the night, without saying goodbye to anyone, not even each other.

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Enter Ross and an Old Man.Ross and an Old Man discuss what an unnatural night it has been.
Enter Macduff.Ross and Macduff doubtfully discuss the news that Malcolm and Donalbain are responsible for their father's murder.
Enter Ross and an Old Man: This short scene is like the rumblings of distant thunder. It reminds you of the great storm that has just passed, and suggests that another may be on the way. The discovery of King Duncan's corpse happened shortly after 3 a.m. Now it is daytime, but still strangely dark. The place is somewhere near Macbeth's castle, and Ross is talking to an Old Man. Ross is a minor character who seems to function as an observer of Macbeth. He was the one who appeared in the second scene of the play to tell the final part of the story of Macbeth's defeat of the rebel forces led by the first Thane of Cawdor. It was Ross (accompanied by Angus) who first greeted Macbeth with the title of Thane of Cawdor. And Ross probably saw Macbeth kill King Duncan's grooms. At the end of this scene Ross says that he will go to see Macbeth crowned King of Scotland. The Old Man's memories go back seventy years, but nothing he can remember compares to what has happened during this night: "I have seen / Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night / Hath trifled former knowings" (2.4.2-4). Ross replies "Ah, good father, / Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, / Threaten his bloody stage" (2.4.4-6). The "heavens" are the heavens above, where God lives, and they are also the upper regions of Shakespeare's Globe theater. Ross is saying that the heavens frown angrily ("threaten") as they look down upon man playing his part on the stage of life, which has been made bloody by the murder of King Duncan. King Duncan should have been honored and loved, so his murder was unnatural, and Ross and the Old Man go on to tell each other of all the unnatural things that have been happening lately. They do not know that Macbeth is the murderer, but as they speak we can see the parallels to Macbeth and what he has done. Ross points out that though the clock says it's time for the sun to shine, it's still dark. Ross thinks that maybe this terrible night is stronger than day, or maybe the day is ashamed to see what has been done in the night. We are reminded that Macbeth wanted a very dark night for the murder, one in which he wouldn't have to look at what he was doing, and he got such a night. Now that night has lingered into the day. The Old Man answers that other unnatural things have been happening, too: "On Tuesday last, / A falcon, towering in her pride of place, / Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd" (2.4.11-13). The falcon's "pride of place" is the highest point of its flight. And the owl, which usually catches mice on the ground, went up instead of down, and killed a falcon. Also, a falcon is a day creature, and a royal companion, while the owl is an untamable bird of night and death. If things in nature stands for things in human life, King Duncan was the falcon, and Macbeth the owl.
Even worse, King Duncan's horses, "Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, / Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, / Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make / War with mankind." (2.4.15-18) A "minion" is someone's favorite. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were King Duncan's minions. The King showered them with honors and gifts, but they turned wild and made war on their master. In the end, the horses ate each other. At their ends, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will be eaten up from inside. Macbeth will fall into despair and Lady Macbeth will go mad from thinking about King Duncan's blood. Enter Macduff: As Ross and the Old Man are marveling at the fact that King Duncan's horses ate one another, Macduff appears. Ross greets Macduff in most ordinary way, saying "How goes the world, sir, now?" Macduff's reply is edgy: "Why, see you not? (2.4.21). In Macduff's place we might say "What do you think?" or "Just take a look around you." After all, a good king has just been murdered. Ross then asks who did the murder. This is probably not an innocent question. Both Macduff and Ross heard Macbeth explain that he killed King Duncan's grooms because they killed the King. Just the fact that Ross asks the question seems to show that he thinks that maybe Macbeth's explanation doesn't hold water. Macduff repeats the official line: King Duncan was killed by his grooms, who were bribed by Malcolm and Donalbain, whose guilt is shown by the fact that they ran away. Ross exclaims "'Gainst nature still!" He adds an outburst against "Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up / Thine own life's means!" (2.4.27-29). Ross means that what Malcolm and Donalbain are said to have done was not only unnatural, it was stupid, because in killing their father, they killed everything he could have given them. [That is, if they did kill their father. If Macbeth killed him, then everything would make more sense. But if Ross and Macduff are thinking that Macbeth killed the King, they're too cautious to say it out loud at the moment.] In any case, the Scottish nobles have already given Macbeth the throne. (This apparently happened in Macbeth's castle soon after King Duncan was murdered. Once Malcolm and Donalbain had fled, Macbeth, as Duncan's cousin, had the strongest claim.) Ross is on his way to Scone to see him crowned, but Macduff is going home to Fife. Bidding farewell to Ross, Macduff says, "Well, may you see things well done there: adieu! / Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!" (2.4.38). Macduff is wishing everyone well, but also suggesting that they may find that Duncan was a better king than Macbeth will be.

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Enter Banquo.Banquo expresses his suspicion of Macbeth, and wonders if the witches' predictions will come true for himself, as they have for Macbeth.
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Enter Macbeth, as king, Lady Macbeth, as queen, Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants.Macbeth questions Banquo about the ride he's taking and insists he return in time for a banquet that night. Exeunt all but Macbeth, and a Servant.Macbeth soliloquizes about his resentment and fear of Banquo. Re-enter Servant, with two Murderers.Macbeth persuades two Murderers that Banquo is their enemy, then sends them out to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance.
Enter Banquo: At the opening of a short soliloquy, Banquo speaks to Macbeth -- even though Macbeth isn't there -- saying, "Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, / As the weird women promised, and, I fear, / Thou play'dst most foully for't" (3.1.1-3) Then he reminds the absent Macbeth that the witches also predicted that he, not Macbeth, would be the father of the future kings of Scotland. He asks Macbeth why he shouldn't think that the witches will be "my oracles as well, / And set me up in hope?" (3.1.10). Because Banquo speaks to Macbeth, the speech has a personal tone, as though Banquo is asking his old friend if he hasn't been pretty stupid. Enter Macbeth, as king, Lady Macbeth, as queen, Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants: Now we hear a "sennet" (a flourish of trumpets) and see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in royal robes. The robes probably look very much like the robes in which we last saw King Duncan, and we may be shocked to see the murderers wearing the clothes of the man they killed. The new King and Queen are accompanied by Lennox, Ross, and other important people. Macbeth proceeds to put on a show for those people. He wants them all to see what a good friend he is to Banquo. He addresses Banquo as "our chief guest" (3.1.11), and requests his presence at an evening feast. Banquo answers that Macbeth, as King, can command him and it will be his duty to obey. This may sound a bit sarcastic, but Banquo is probably just being very cautious. If Macbeth is thinking that Banquo suspects him of killing King Duncan, it's in Banquo's best interest to remind Macbeth that he is King Macbeth's loyal subject. Macbeth now asks some questions that are supposed to look like friendly chat, but which have a darker purpose. He wants to know if it's true that Banquo is going for a ride, and how long he will be gone, and if Fleance (Banquo's son) will ride with him. He finds out that all of that is true, and that -- the better for Macbeth's murderous purpose -- Banquo will be riding in the dark for an hour or two. Macbeth also mentions that "our bloody cousins [Malcolm and Donalbain] are bestow'd / In England and in Ireland, not confessing / Their cruel parricide" (3.1.29-31). But, he says, discussion of that matter can wait until tomorrow. Thus he shows Banquo, and whoever else is listening, that he's not afraid of what King Duncan's sons might be saying about him. He ends by giving Banquo a gracious farewell. As soon as Banquo is gone, Macbeth announces that everyone can do as they like until the feast, at seven that night. As for himself, he will spend the time alone. This is
his kingly way of getting rid of everyone except a certain servant with whom he has some particular business. It's interesting that one of those whom he thus dismisses from his company is his wife, who doesn't seem to be running his life anymore. Exeunt all but Macbeth, and a Servant: After sending the Servant to get two men who are waiting outside the palace gate, Macbeth has a soliloquy in which he reveals that being king isn't enough; he needs to feel safe in the position, and he has reasons to fear Banquo: "To be thus is nothing; / But to be safely thus.--Our fears in Banquo / Stick deep" (3.1.47-49). He doesn't mention what we might think is the obvious reason for fearing Banquo -- that Banquo heard the witches' prophecy and could suspect Macbeth of murder. He seems to fear Banquo on general grounds, because Banquo has "royalty of nature" (3.1.49), and courage, and wisdom. Macbeth says of Banquo, "under him, / My Genius is rebuked" (3.1.54-55). A man's "Genius" is his guardian spirit, but Macbeth isn't being particularly mystic here. He feels that Banquo is naturally superior to him, and just being near Banquo makes Macbeth feel ashamed of himself. For example, he recalls, Banquo defied the witches and challenged them to speak to him. (In contrast, we should remember, the witches' prophecy put Macbeth into a kind of trance, a reverie of ambition and murder.) It's not only Banquo's character that makes Macbeth afraid. There's also the witches' prophecy, which Macbeth resents, because "If 't be so, / For Banquo's issue [descendants] have I filed [defiled, dirtied] my mind; / For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd" (3.1.63-65). He is determined not to let it happen: "Rather than so, come fate into the list, / And champion me to the utterance!" (3.1.70-71). This is Macbeth's challenge to fate. "Come fate" means "let fate come." A "list" is an arena in which knights joust against one another. "Champion me" means to fight as a champion against him. And "the utterance" has the now-obsolete meaning of "the very end." In short, Macbeth is challenging fate to a fight to the bitter end. He appears to know that he is up against long odds, and he imagines himself as a knight, going bravely into battle against fate itself. Re-enter Servant, with two Murderers: At the end of Macbeth's soliloquy, his Servant brings in "two Murderers." Macbeth immediately sends the Servant to wait outside the door, indicating that the conversation is going to be very private. And, it turns out, the "two Murderers" are not professional hit men. They're just two guys who have had tough lives. Before this, Macbeth has been busy telling them that Banquo is the source of all of their problems. Now he wants to know if they have come around to his way of thinking, and he asks, "Well then, now / Have you consider'd of [thought about] my speeches?" (3.1.74-75). The two men don't say anything, or maybe Macbeth doesn't give them a chance, because he presses on. He points out that he has not only told them that Banquo was their enemy, he has proved it, and his proofs would "To half a soul and to a notion crazed / Say 'Thus did Banquo'" (3.1.82-83). In other words, anyone who didn't believe Macbeth would have less than half a soul and a mind worse than crazed. After all this, the only response is a noncommittal "You made it known to us" (3.1.83). This is not nearly good enough for Macbeth. They need to be as angry at
Banquo as he is. He pictures them as overly religious wimps, asking sarcastically, "Are you so gospell'd / To pray for this good man and for his issue, / Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave / And beggar'd yours [your families] for ever? (3.1.87-90). To this, Macbeth gets another noncommittal response: "We are men, my liege" (3.1.90). Failing to get the response he wants by other means, Macbeth challenges their manhood, as Lady Macbeth challenged his manhood to get him to kill Duncan. (See the Summary of Act 1, Scene 7.) Yes, says Macbeth, they are men, in the way all kinds of dogs are dogs. But most dogs are good for something; for example, a hound hunts, and a greyhound races. If a dog is good for nothing in particular, he's just a dog. The same with men. Real men "have a station in the file" -- a place in the list of men that are worth something. So, says Macbeth, now is the time for them to prove that they are real men: "Now, if you have a station in the file, / Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say 't" (3.1.101-102). If they "say't," if they can show that they are worth something, he will give them a job that will allow them to get rid of their enemy, and which will be a favor to Macbeth, who is sick of Banquo. How much of this pitch do the two men buy? It's hard to tell, because they don't respond directly to what Macbeth says. They don't say that they hate Banquo, too, or that they are now ready to be real men and get their revenge on Banquo. Instead, they whine. Second Murderer describes himself as one "Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world / Have so incensed that I am reckless what / I do to spite the world" (3.1.108-110). First Murderer feels the same way and describes himself as "So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune, / That I would set my life on any chance, / To mend it, or be rid on't" (3.1.111-113). Both men feel that life hasn't been fair to them, and they're desperate. Second Murderer is willing to do anything to get back at ("spite") the world. First Murderer will also do anything, and he doesn't much care whether it makes his life better or ends it. Maybe these two men haven't been listening very closely to Macbeth's arguments, but they are the right men for Macbeth's purposes. They're losers who feel they have nothing left to lose. Like Macbeth, who is willing to take his chances against the witches' prophecy, these men will take their chances against a world which has treated them badly. Having gotten this much from the two men, Macbeth gets down to business. He says that Banquo is dangerous to him, and that therefore he has a right to kill him, but that he also needs the friendship of Banquo's friends. All of which means that the two men are going to be doing the right thing, but they have to keep it a secret. They start to assure him that they are the men for the job, but he hurries on to the practical matters. Within an hour he will tell them just where and when to lie in ambush for Banquo. It has to be away from the palace, so that no one will suspect him. Also, they have to kill Fleance, Banquo's young son. He doesn't say why they have to kill Fleance, just that it's important to him that they do so. Finally, after Macbeth has told the two men that he has already planned all the details of Banquo's murder, he tells them that they can still talk it over, and decide if they really want to do it. But of course, they're already committed to the plan, so Macbeth
sends them away to await further instructions. Once they're gone, Macbeth ends the scene by saying, "Banquo, thy soul's flight, / If it find heaven, must find it out to-night (3.1.140-141). Thus, as the scene opened with Banquo speaking to the image of Macbeth that was in his mind, the scene closes with Macbeth speaking to Banquo in the same way.

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Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant.Lady Macbeth sends a servant to ask Macbeth come talk with her. In a soliloquy, she expresses a deep uneasiness because "our desire is got without content." Enter Macbeth.Macbeth reassures Lady Macbeth that their problems will be solved by a terrible deed to be done in the night..
Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant: As the scene opens, Lady Macbeth appears with a servant. She asks if Banquo has gone, and the servant says he has, but will return that night. She then sends the servant to ask her husband to come and speak with her. Something is weighing on her mind, and when the servant has gone, she gives it voice: Nought's had, all's spent, / Where our desire is got without content: / 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy / Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy" (3.2.4-7). Because they rhyme, her lines sound a bit like proverbial folk wisdom such as "a stitch in time saves nine." The first rhyme expresses a common experience, which is that if we get what we want, but aren't happy with it, we really don't have it. The second rhyme deepens the thought by saying that it would be better to be dead than to feel what Lady Macbeth is now feeling. She and her husband destroyed King Duncan, who is now safe from all the world's problems. In contrast, the lady and her husband live in "doubtful joy." In Shakespeare's time the word "doubt" was commonly used to mean "suspicion" or "fear," and Macbeth and his wife live in fear that their guilt will be discovered, and suspicion that the witches' prophecy about Banquo will come true. Enter Macbeth: Despite her own depression, Lady Macbeth tries to make her husband cheer up. She asks him why he has been keeping to himself, and why he has been keeping company with his "sorriest fancies" (3.2.9). A "fancy" is a daydream or fantasy; a "sorry" fancy is one that is depressing or frightening. We have already seen one of Macbeth's sorry fancies: his vision of a bloody dagger just before he murdered King Duncan. But recently Macbeth has been seeing visions of the men he killed, the King and his grooms. Lady Macbeth tells her husband that such thoughts "should indeed have died / With them they think on," because it's no use thinking about things that you can't do anything about: "Things without all remedy / Should be without regard: what's done is done" (3.2.10-12)
Macbeth replies, "We have scorch'd [slashed] the snake, not kill'd it: / She'll close [heal] and be herself" (3.2.13-14). In other words, there is still a job to done, a snake to be killed, not just wounded. But what is that snake? It's not only the threat posed by Banquo. In Macbeth's mind, the snake seems to be everything that is against Macbeth. Whatever it is, he is determined to fight it, no matter what the cost, to "let the frame of things disjoint [fall apart], both the worlds [heaven and earth] suffer" (3.2.16), rather than continue to "sleep / In the affliction of these terrible dreams / That shake us nightly" (3.2.17-19). Macbeth goes on to say what Lady Macbeth has already said to herself: that it would be better to be dead than to live like this. And like Lady Macbeth, Macbeth expresses envy of Duncan, because "After life's fitful fever he sleeps well" (3.2.23). But Lady Macbeth thinks that the only thing to do is to carry on. She asks her husband to "sleek o'er your rugged looks; / Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night" (3.2.27-28). Macbeth's reply is bitter. He promises to do as she says, and advises her to do the same. Banquo is a great danger to them, so they must "make our faces vizards [masks] to our hearts, / Disguising what they are" (3.2.34-35). It's clear that he hates the idea that they have to flatter Banquo. Lady Macbeth continues to try to calm her husband. She tells him that he must stop thinking that way, and when he reminds her that Banquo and Fleance are alive, she answers that they won't live forever. He says that there's comfort in that thought. If they are mortal, they can be attacked. Therefore she should be happy because before night falls, "there shall be done / A deed of dreadful note" (3.2.43-44). Lady Macbeth asks what's going to be done, but her husband answers, "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed" (3.2.46). "Chuck" is a pet name, a variant of "chick." So it seems that now Macbeth has the upper hand in their relationship. He's telling her that she doesn't need to worry herself about anything until it comes time to be his cheerleader. After this, Macbeth speaks to the approaching night: Come, seeling [blinding] night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day; And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond [Banquo's lease on life] Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow Makes wing to the rooky wood: Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; While night's black agents to their preys do rouse. (3.2.46-53) Thus Macbeth summons the pitiless powers of darkness to his aid. "Night's black agents" come alive in his mind, and they are going bring down the curtain on Banquo's life. Then Macbeth realizes that he has gone off into his own world, and he says to his wife, "Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still; / Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill" (3.2.54-55). Even if she doesn't understand precisely what he's talking about, she will, and then she'll see what her husband can really do.
The thing he's doing was "bad begun" with the killing of Duncan, but by doing another "ill," he's going to make it stronger. His evil is torturing him, and he's going to fix it by doing more evil. Like a gangster, he seeks safety and respect in being bad and then badder.
Summary of Act 3, Scene 3: A third Murderer joins the first two. Banquo is killed, but Fleance escapes. Enter three Murderers: This short scene opens with a little surprise: there's a third murderer. (Teachers like to ask who the third murderer is, although it's hard to see the point of the question. If we were supposed to know who he is, Shakespeare would have let us know. As it is, the third murderer is just a mysterious manifestation of Macbeth's distrust of everyone.) Apparently the third murderer has just now shown up. First Murderer is asking him, "But who did bid thee join with us?" Third Murderer answers shortly, "Macbeth" (3.3.1). Second Murderer grumbles that there's no reason for Macbeth to distrust them, since he told them exactly what to do. Despite the grumbling, they quickly get down to business. First Murderer shows Third Murderer where to stand and explains that because it's late dusk, almost night, Banquo should be near. (These explanations are probably intended more for us than for Third Murderer.) As the murderers wait, we hear horses, and then Banquo's voice, asking for some light. The murderers are sure that this must be Banquo, and that he's now on foot. We also hear that all riders walk from this point to the palace gate. (It's as good a reason as any for not bringing horses on stage.) Then there's the glimmer of light, and Banquo appears with Fleance, who is carrying a torch. There aren't many more words in the scene, but Banquo's heroism can make it exciting to watch. Despite being taken completely by surprise, Banquo manages to hold off the three men long enough for Fleance to escape. Also, it appears that there's some bumbling on the part of the murderers. In the melee someone puts out Fleance's torch, and Third Murderer asks "Who did strike out the light?" First Murderer answers, "Wast not the way?" (3.3.18), meaning, "Wasn't that what we were supposed to do?" If putting out the torch was part of the plan, it didn't work too well, because Fleance has fled into the dark. The three know that they have "lost / Best half of our affair" (3.3.20-21), but all they can do now is go tell Macbeth.
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Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth welcome the guests to their royal banquet. First Murderer appears at the door.Macbeth hears from First Murderer that Banquo is dead, but Fleance has escaped. Enter the Ghost of Banquo and sits in Macbeth's place.The bloody Ghost of Banquo which only Macbeth can see appears among the guests. Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.When his guests are gone, Macbeth tells his wife he's going to find out why Macduff didn't attend their banquet. Then he hints that he may have to shed more blood, and decides he will speak to the witches again.
Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants: The first stage direction, "A banquet prepared " (3.4.1, s.d.), is important. To prepare a banquet, servants would bring in tables, stools, dishes, cutlery, cups, food, and drink. This hustle and bustle makes it seem like a good time is going to be had by all. Macbeth certainly seems in the mood. He welcomes everyone at once, saying, "You know your own degrees; sit down. At first / And last the hearty welcome" (3.4.1-2). The "degrees" of the guests are their social ranks. Normally, each guest would receive an individual greeting and then be escorted to his seat, with the highest ranking person sitting closest to the king, and the next highest the next closest, etc. Macbeth tells them that they know where they should sit, and welcomes everyone at once. He will "play the humble host" (3.4.4), showing how friendly and down-to-earth he is, even though he is now the king. First Murderer appears at the door: Just as Macbeth is taking his place among all of his loving subjects, he sees First Murderer come to the door with blood on his face. Not wanting anyone else to see the bloody man, Macbeth jumps up and hurries to the door. As he goes, he tells his guests that in a minute "we'll drink a measure / The table round" (3.4.11-12). Macbeth whispers with the murderer at the door. (Of course we can hear what they say, but Macbeth's guests can't.) First Murderer says that the blood on his face is Banquo's. In reply, Macbeth makes a cruel joke, saying that it's better for the blood to be on the outside of the murderer than on the inside of Banquo: "'Tis better thee without than he within" (3.4.14). Then tells the murderer that he will be best cut-throat in the world if he can report that Fleance is dead, too. But the murderer honestly reports that Fleance has escaped. "Then comes my fit again" (3.4.20) Macbeth complains, as though he feels a migraine coming on. He says that if Fleance were dead he would feel free and easy; instead, he is "cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in / To saucy doubts and fears" (3.4.23-24). Despite his disappointment that Fleance escaped with his life, there's nothing more to be done in this matter, so Macbeth tells First Murderer to leave. Just at this moment Lady Macbeth comes with some advice for her husband. She is afraid that Macbeth's behavior standing at the door and apparently saying nothing will make the guests feel unwelcome. She tells him, "The feast is sold / That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making, / 'Tis given with welcome" (3.4.32-34). She means that a host makes his guests feel welcome by often inviting them to eat and drink freely. If a feast
is not thus "vouch'd," it's no better than a meal that is "sold" at an inn. She goes on to say that if a person just wants to eat, the best place to do that is at home. Away from home, the most important thing for a guest is to be treated like a guest. Enter the Ghost of Banquo and sits in Macbeth's place. Taking his wife's advice to heart, Macbeth returns to his guests, wishing them good digestion, good appetite, and good health. As he is doing so, the last stool is take by an uninvited guest the Ghost of Banquo. Macbeth is so busy playing the good host that he doesn't notice the ghost. No one else sees the ghost, either, because it's invisible to everyone except Macbeth. Ironically, Macbeth now chooses to comment about Banquo's absence from the banquet. He says, "Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, / Were the graced person of our Banquo present / Who may I rather challenge for unkindness / Than pity for mischance!" (3.4.39-42). If you "roof" an honor, you put the top on it. Macbeth is literally praising Banquo to the skies, but he also takes care to mention that he's sure that Banquo is absent because of Banquo's own "unkindness," not because of any "mischance" that could have happened to him. Ross agrees that Banquo should have kept his promise to come to the banquet, then invites Macbeth to sit among them. This is exactly the sort of thing that Macbeth wants; he hopes to be seen by the thanes as not only their king, but their friend. He starts towards the table, then sees that there's no empty stool. He can't find a place for himself and says, "The table's full" (3.4.45). It takes Macbeth a moment before he sees why the table is full. When Lennox points to the empty place, Macbeth asks where it is, looks harder, and sees the bloody figure of Banquo's Ghost. At first Macbeth thinks it might be some sort of ghastly joke, and asks, "Which of you have done this?" (3.4.48), but no one knows what he's talking about. Then Macbeth speaks to the ghost, saying "Thou canst not say I did it: never shake / Thy gory locks at me" (3.4.50). The ghost's "locks" of hair are "gory" because as First Murderer told Macbeth Banquo died with twenty gashes on his head At this point Ross thinks it best if they all just go away and leave Macbeth alone, but Lady Macbeth covers for her husband. She asks everyone to stay seated, and explains that Macbeth is often like this, and has been ever since he was young. He'll recover in a moment, she says, but if they stare at him, it will only make him worse, so they should just eat and pretend that nothing has happened. The guests do as they are told, and Lady Macbeth takes her husband aside. As she did early in the play, Lady Macbeth challenges her husband's manhood. The first thing out of her mouth is the insulting question, "Are you a man?" (3.4.57). Macbeth answers that he's not only man, he's a bold man who can look at things that might frighten the devil. His wife is not impressed. She exclaims sarcastically, "O proper stuff!" Then she tells him that "This is the very painting of your fear: / This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, / Led you to Duncan" (3.4.59-62). She also tells him that he's making ridiculous faces, so that he reminds her of a woman telling a scary story that she heard from her grandmother. His fear is shameful because, "When all's done, / You look but on a stool" (3.4.66-67).
Of course, where Lady Macbeth sees a stool, Macbeth sees the Ghost of Banquo. He tells her to "see" for herself, to "behold," to "look." As Macbeth speaks, the ghost nods at him, and he challenges the ghost to speak up: "Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too" (3.4.69). Of course, the ghost does not speak, but Macbeth does, saying "If charnel-houses and our graves must send / Those that we bury back, our monuments / Shall be the maws of kites" (3.4.70-72). "Monuments," like "charnelhouses" and "graves," are the places where the dead belong. "Kites" are hawks, and their "maws" are their entire eating apparatuses beaks, gullets, and stomachs. An ancient fear was that a person who was not properly buried would have his bones picked clean by birds. Macbeth thinks that the dead ought to stay where they belong; if the graves are going to send the bodies back, the kites, with their maws full of human flesh, are going to be the only real graves. In short, Macbeth is describing the horror that he himself has created. He wanted Banquo killed away from the castle, in the dark, out of sight. That was done, but the body was left in a ditch, and now it has come back to show Macbeth the truth of what he has done. As Macbeth is saying this, the Ghost of Banquo exits. (We don't know if the Ghost is supposed to suddenly vanish, or just walk out. Shakespeare doesn't provide a stage direction.) Lady Macbeth continues her tongue-lashing, but Macbeth is sure he saw what he saw. He even tries to explain that it's not his fault that the Ghost showed up. He says that men have been killing men for a long time, since before there were even laws against it: "Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time, / Ere human statute purged the gentle weal" (3.4.74-75). It's a natural thing to shed blood; what's not natural is that now the dead "rise again, / With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, / And push us from our stools" (3.4.81). Having said this, Macbeth seems to calm down. At the same time, his wife changes her tune. Instead of telling him again that he's not a real man, she points out that his guests need him to come back to the banquet. Hearing this, he returns to his guests, telling them that they shouldn't wonder at what they've just seen. (They've haven't seen the Ghost, only Macbeth making faces and talking to the stool.) Not to worry, Macbeth says. He happens to have a "strange infirmity, which is nothing / To those that know me" (3.4.85-86). Now he returns to his role as genial host. He calls for wine and proposes a toast to "the general joy o' the whole table, / And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss" (3.4.88-89). But as Macbeth reaches this height of hypocrisy, the Ghost returns. This time Macbeth shows he's a real man. This time his wife won't be able to accuse him of being a fearful girl. As soon as the Ghost appears, Macbeth tries to drive it away with words: "Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee! / Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; / Thou hast no speculation in those eyes" (3.4.92-95). "Speculation" is the ability to see. Macbeth is making sure that the Ghost knows that it belongs in the grave because it is very, very dead. Lady Macbeth tries to tell the guests that her husband does this all the time. It doesn't mean anything; it just spoils the banquet. But Macbeth doesn't care about the guests or the banquet. He is determined to face down the Ghost. He tells it that he dares to do anything a man can do. He would not tremble if the Ghost should take the shape of a terrible beast. "Or be alive again, / And
dare me to the desert with thy sword; / If trembling I inhabit then, protest me / The baby of a girl" (3.4.102-105). A "desert" doesn't have to have sand in it; it's just any deserted place where they could be alone and fight man to man. "Protest" means "proclaim," and "if trembling I inhabit" means "if I live inside a trembling body." Macbeth is daring the Ghost to come alive and fight. If it does, and Macbeth shows fear, then it can tell the world that Macbeth is a little doll-baby. Finally, Macbeth's defiance works. Again he tells the Ghost to go away, and it goes. Using the word "so" as we do when we say "so much for that," Macbeth expresses his satisfaction and asks his guests to stay seated: "Why, so: being gone, / I am a man again. Pray you, sit still" (3.4.106-107). But it's too late. His wife tells him that he has "displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting, / With most admired disorder" (3.4.108109). "Admired" does not mean "admirable," but "amazing" or "obvious." She means that after all they have seen, his guests are not going to be in any mood to go on with the banquet. Macbeth tries to justify himself. He asks his wife (and perhaps his guests) "Can such things be, / And overcome us like a summer's cloud, / Without our special wonder?" (3.4.109-111). "Overcome" means "come over," and a "summer's cloud" is something that can come over us very quickly. The phrase "special wonder" is meant to be stronger than it looks now. If Shakespeare saw us staring up into the blinding lights of a spaceship that was about to vaporize us, he might say that we were in a state of "special wonder." As for the word "us," Macbeth is entitled to use it because he is king, but it seems that he also means that anyone all of us would react as he did. He goes on to say that he's starting to question himself because "you can behold such sights, / And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, / When mine is blanched with fear" (3.4.113-115). Macbeth thinks that the others have seen the Ghost, too. They have not, but when Ross asks Macbeth what he's seen, that's one question too many for Lady Macbeth. She doesn't know what her husband thought he was seeing, but whatever it was, she doesn't want him talking about it. She quickly gets rid of the guests, telling them that if they question Macbeth, it will only make him worse. Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: As Lady Macbeth says a hasty goodbye to the guests, Macbeth seems not to notice or care about anything except his own thoughts. He mutters to himself that "they say, blood will have blood" (3.4.121). The saying means that the blood of a murder victim will seek out the blood of his killer, and so a murder will always be discovered. Macbeth knows that stones have moved, trees have spoken, birds have told secrets. All of these things have "brought forth / The secret'st man of blood" (3.4.124-125). Macbeth himself is a secret man of blood, and the bloody Ghost confronted him. His guilt was almost "brought forth" in front of his guests. None of this makes him feel remorse, or anything but a determination to see things through to the bitter end. He immediately starts thinking of what must be done next, and asks his wife what she thinks of the fact that Macduff has refused to come to their banquet. She asks if he has sent for Macduff, to get an explanation. He answers that he will send for him, and besides, "There's not a one of them but in his house / I keep a servant fee'd" (3.4130-
131). A "servant fee'd" is a spy, and "them" almost certainly refers to his banquet guests and all the other noblemen who are supposed to be his loyal subjects. He trusts no one. In addition to dealing with Macduff, Macbeth will speak again with the witches: More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good, All causes shall give way: I am in blood Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er: Strange things I have in head, that will to hand; Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd. (3.4.133-139) He knows that the witches are "the worst means," and he expects they will tell him "the worst" that can happen to him, but he's going to speak to them anyway, because his "own good" is the only thing he cares about. He is in the middle of a river of blood, and he might as well go over to the other side. That means that he will have to do "strange" (and bloody) things right away, before he has "scanned" them. This is implies that if he did scan them, look at them, think about them, he might not do them. All in all, he doesn't seem to have much hope of happiness from doing the evil he feels he must do. Now, at the very end of the scene, Lady Macbeth seems to be in a gentler mood. She tells her husband that he needs to sleep. He replies, "Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse / Is the initiate fear that wants hard use: / We are yet but young in deed" (3.4.141-143). Without changing his mind about what he's going to do, he's trying to put the best face on things. His "strange and self-abuse" is his reaction to the Ghost of Banquo, but now he sees that it was only the result of beginner's nerves, "intiate fear." That fear can be cured by "hard use," by doing more, by wading more deeply into the river of blood. [There's an unconscious irony in Macbeth's final statement. He has killed King Duncan, his grooms, and Banquo, so he is hardly "young in deed," but he believes that more such deeds will solve his problems.]
Summary of Act 3, Scene 5: The three Witches appear with Hecate, who scolds them for having dealings with Macbeth without including her. Hecate tells them that Macbeth is coming to see them the next morning, and then they will show him some magic that will mislead him to his own destruction. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate: Most editors say that this scene is "spurious," that is, written by someone else and inserted into the play when Shakespeare wasn't looking. Maybe. But the scene certainly fits in with the thought and action of the rest of the play. In the scene before,
Macbeth said that he was going to see the witches in the morning, and in this scene Hecate says that Macbeth is coming in the morning. Also, Hecate says that she will prepare magical illusions that will give Macbeth a false sense of security and so lure him to his destruction, and that is exactly what happens. As a reminder that Hecate comes from the underworld, the scene opens with "Thunder (3.5.1, s.d.)," and probably not just distant rumblings, either. Shakespeare's theater company put a lot of effort in to their stage effects, so we should think of this thunder as the crackling, ripping kind that gives us a jolt and reminds us that hell is just next door. Hecate is angry with the three Witches because of their "trade and traffic with Macbeth / In riddles and affairs of death" (3.5.4-5). They should have let her take the lead, because without her, they are nothing. She is "mistress of your charms, / The close [secret] contriver of all harms" (3.5.6-7). In addition, Macbeth is "Spiteful and wrathful," and "Loves for his own ends, not for you"(3.5.12-13). In other words, Macbeth doesn't love the witches, only himself. This may seem like a strange thing for Hecate to say -- after all, who would love witches? - but it's a good commentary on Macbeth's character. Earlier in the play, in a soliloquy on Banquo, Macbeth complained about the unfairness of the witches' prophecy. In Macbeth's view, he will have done all the work, and Banquo's descendants will get all the rewards, because they will be the future kings. Macbeth will have given his eternal soul to Satan for Banquo's children and grandchildren, "mine eternal jewel / Given to the common enemy of man, / To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!" (3.1.67-69). Thus Macbeth expresses both spite and wrath. And thus we see that Hecate's description of Macbeth is accurate. After this, Hecate says that the three Witches can make amends by meeting her in hell, where Macbeth will come to learn his fate. She commands them to prepare themselves, saying "Your vessels and your spells provide, / Your charms and every thing beside" (3.5.19). "Vessels" are pots, "spells" are magical words, and "charms" are magical objects. In an upcoming scene the witches will do as they're told, bringing a cauldron and throwing charms into it while saying spells. While the witches are getting ready for their evil work, Hecate also will prepare herself. She's going to catch a drop from the corner of the moon, distill it, and from it create illusions that will make Macbeth "spurn fate, scorn death, and bear / His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear" (3.5.30-31). Having said this, Hecate is called away. From backstage ("within") we hear "Come away, come away" being sung. Hecate says, "Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see, / Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays [waits] for me" (3.5.34-35). The "little spirit" is apparently Hecate's familiar. This last touch of witchery may be a somewhat corny, but it's meant to emphasize the closeness of ultimate evil. Thunder announced Hecate's arrival from the underworld; now a spirit in a cloud calls her back. As for the three witches, they hasten off to prepare Macbeth's doom.
Summary of Act 3, Scene 6: Lennox and another Lord have a conversation which shows that they have seen through Macbeth's lies and know that he is responsible for the murder of Banquo and King Duncan. They also wish Macduff well, because he has gone to England for help in freeing Scotland from the tyrant Macbeth. Enter Lennox and another Lord: This is the sort of scene that is difficult to do well just two people talking about things that the audience needs to know. Such an expository scene can be unconvincing and boring, like those Monday sequences on soap operas, in which characters do plot summary for all the members of the viewing audience who missed the previous week. Shakespeare overcomes the problem by letting us in on the middle of a conversation. Lennox, who was a guest at Macbeth's banquet, is speaking with somebody. Lennox probably knows this somebody's name, but to us he's just "another Lord" that is, anybody, any Scotsman. The two of them live under a tyrant who has many spies, so they need to be careful what they say and to whom they say it. They have just gotten to the point at which they are sure that they are on the same side and have many of the same thoughts. As Lennox says, "My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, / Which can interpret further" (3.6.1-2). Perhaps the other Lord nods agreement, because Lennox now launches on a string of sarcasms about Macbeth. Lennox says, "The gracious Duncan / Was pitied of Macbeth: marry, he was dead" (3.6.4). This bitter joke describes both Macbeth's facade that he was sorry for King Duncan and the truth about Macbeth, which was that he was sorry for King Duncan only after he killed him. Then Lennox proceeds to ridicule Macbeth's version of everything that has happened to this point. Banquo died because he took a walk after dark, and Fleance must have killed him, because Fleance ran away. And speaking of that, wasn't it terrible for Malcolm and Donalbain to kill their father? And of course Macbeth felt terrible about Duncan's murder, which is why he killed the only two possible witnesses, Duncan's grooms. If Malcolm, Donalbain, and Fleance were in Macbeth's power, he'd certainly teach them a lesson or two about killing a father! After a bit, Lennox drops the sarcasm and turns to the subject of Macduff. He has heard that Macduff has gotten on Macbeth's bad side because Macduff used some "broad words" (3.6.21) about Macbeth, and because he failed to show up for Macbeth's banquet. Does the other Lord know, Lennox asks, where Macduff might be? The other Lord does know. Macduff is on his way to the English court, where Malcolm has been respectfully received by King Edward the Confessor. Macduff has gone to plead with King Edward to help Malcolm by sending to Scotland the forces of Northumberland and Siward, two English nobles famous as warriors. If Macduff is successful, Scotland will be freed of Macbeth's tyranny. Then "we may again / Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, / Free from our feasts and banquets bloody
knives, / Do faithful homage and receive free honours" (3.6.33-36). The other Lord adds that Macbeth has heard about Macduff's plans and is preparing for war. Upon hearing this, Lennox asks if Macbeth sent for Macduff. The other Lord's answer gives some insight into both Macduff and Macbeth. Macbeth did send for Macduff, but "with an absolute 'Sir, not I,' / The cloudy messenger turns me his back, / And hums, as who should say 'You'll rue the time / That clogs me with this answer'" (3.6.40-43). The "Sir, not I" came from Macduff. The "me" in "turns me his back" is a kind of slang that is used as "like" is used now. If we heard that someone "like, turned his back on him," we would know that the back was turned in an insulting way. So we see that Macduff is blunt; he doesn't make any polite excuses for not going to speak with Macbeth. And we see that Macbeth is dangerous. Macbeth's messenger is sure that Macduff is going to suffer, but he's afraid that Macbeth is going to be angry at him, too. This little story of Macduff and Macbeth's messenger makes Lennox hope that Macduff stays out of Macbeth's grasp. Lennox also wishes that some angel could fly ahead of Macduff with Macduff's message to the English King, so that a "swift blessing / May soon return to this our suffering country" (3.6.47-48). So we see that while Macbeth is planning to go to witches to learn his destiny, his destiny is already taking shape. It's not going to be long before Macbeth will have to fight for his throne and his life.

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Thunder. Enter the three Witches.Chanting "Double, double, toil and trouble," the three Witches stir the cauldron. Enter Macbeth. The witches call up apparitions which give Macbeth warnings, promises, and prophecies: beware Macduff; fear "none of woman born"; fear nothing until Birnam wood come to Dunsinane; Banquo's issue shall be kings. The witches dance and then vanish.The Witches vanish and Macbeth calls in Lennox, who tells him that Macduff has fled to England, whereupon Macbeth determines to murder Macduff's wife and children.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches: Most editions of Macbeth say that this scene takes place in a cave, around a boiling cauldron. That's reasonable, even though Shakespeare didn't write any such stage direction. A cave is a dark place that could remind us of hell, and the Witches certainly intend to summon up the powers of hell. As for the cauldron, the Witches chant of making a sickening stew in a cauldron, and it would seem right for the Witches' apparitions to rise like steam out of that stew.
Thunder announces the entrance of the Witches. As another reminder that they are acting at the behest of evil powers, they tell each other about the voices they are hearing, beginning with First Witch crying, "Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd" (4.1.1). A hedgehog has spoken to the Second Witch, and the Third Witch is taking orders from "Harpier" (4.1.3) , whose name suggests "harpy," which is a disgusting monster with the head of a woman and the wings, feet, and claws of a bird of prey. Now the Witches chant of what they are putting into the cauldron to make the magic potion. First there's a toad, chosen because it has been sweating poison for a month. After that, the ingredients are all mutilated body parts, beginning with "Fillet [slice] of a fenny [swamp-dwelling] snake" (4.1.12), and including "Lizard's leg and owlet's wing" (4.1.17). It's as though the witches had gone dumpster-diving at some ghastly slaughter house. After this, the stew gets ever more foul as human parts start to go into the pot, the last one being, "Finger of birth-strangled babe / Ditch-deliver'd by a drab" (4.1.31). A "drab" is a prostitute, and in the real world of Shakespeare's time it did happen that prostitutes, with no money, no family, and no friends, delivered their babies in hiding, then killed and disposed of them. This should remind us that these Witches are not cute old ladies in pointy hats. Finally, the mixture in the cauldron is cooled with "baboon's blood, / Then the charm is firm and good" (4.1.37-38). (At this point, Hecate enters, to congratulate the witches on their work, and to lead them in a song which we know was not written by Shakespeare. All editors agree that Shakespeare never intended for Hecate or her song to get into his play, which is a good thing, because her song is pretty boring.) Now the Witches are ready for Macbeth, and the Second Witch, sensing his approach, says, "By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes" (4.1.45). Enter Macbeth: It seems that the cave has a door, and that the door opens by Witches' magic, because when Second Witch says, "Open, locks, / Whoever knocks!" (4.1.47), in comes Macbeth. He asks them what they're doing, and they answer mysteriously, "A deed without a name" (4.1.49), but Macbeth doesn't seem to be listening. He immediately demands that they answer his questions, saying "I conjure you, by that which you profess, / Howe'er you come to know it, answer me" (4.1.50-51). What they "profess" are the arts of black magic, but Macbeth cares about nothing except himself. He wants answers, even if it means that winds knock down churches, waves swallow ships, crops are lost, or "though the treasure / Of nature's germains tumble all together, / Even till destruction sicken" (4.1.58-60). "Nature's germains" are the seeds of all nature (we might call them "the building blocks of life"), and "destruction" is imagined as a person who would destroy so much that he would become sick of himself. In short, Macbeth wants his answers, even if the whole world goes to hell. The Witches tell Macbeth that they will answer his questions, and ask if he would like to hear the answers from them or from their masters. Macbeth boldly replies that he wants to see the masters.
Hearing this, the First Witch throws the final ingredients into the cauldron, saying, "Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten / Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten / From the murderer's gibbet throw / Into the flame" (4.1.64-67). These images are both horrifying and prophetic. The gruesome picture of a sow eating all nine of her own piglets represents what Macbeth is doing to Scotland. A sow should nurture and protect her babies, and a king should nurture and protect his people, but by the end of this scene Macbeth will order the murder of the innocent wife and children of Macduff. As for the "murder's gibbet," it is the gallows where the murderer is hanged by the neck until dead, and "sweaten" means "sweated." How can a gallows sweat? Here, thanks to Ed Friedlander, M.D, is the explanation: "I'm an autopsy pathologist. I am very familiar with how human bodies decompose. . . . The bodies of murderers were left hanging on the gallows (gibbet) until they were skeletonized, which takes weeks. At about ten days in suitable weather, there are enough weak points in the skin that the bodyfat, which has liquified, can start dripping through. There will be a puddle of oil underneath the body." Macbeth is a murderer who will leave a stain on Scotland. At the end of the play, the last thing we will see is his head on a pole. Now come the apparitions. Each is an illusion created by the Witches to lure Macbeth to his destruction, but they can only do so with the help of Macbeth himself. As with horoscopes, everything depends on the interpretation, and we tend to interpret by the light of our own hope and fears. The first apparition is an "an armed Head " (4.1.68, s.d.). The head apparently represents Macduff, who will come to Scotland at the head of an army. Macbeth tries to question it, but First Witch tells him that the apparition knows what he's thinking, so he should be quiet and just listen. She's right about the apparition knowing Macbeth's thoughts; it cries, "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; / Beware the thane of Fife" (4.1.71-72). This is exactly what Macbeth was thinking even before he saw the apparition. The second apparition is a bloody child which tells Macbeth to "Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth" (4.1.81). This is an equivocation. It sounds like it means that no man can harm Macbeth, because every man is born of woman. Except Macduff. At the end of the play, in his last battle, Macbeth learns that "Macduff was from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd" (5.8.15-16). Cesarean section doesn't count. "Ripp'd" isn't "born." After the second apparition disappears, Macbeth notices that the first two apparitions have contradicted each other. If "none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth," then he doesn't need to "beware Macduff." "Then live, Macduff," Macbeth says to himself, "what need I fear of thee?" (4.1.82). But in the next breath he changes his tune, saying, "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" (4.1.83-85). His reasoning contradicts itself. If fate isn't a sure thing, then it isn't fate, but Macbeth is going to murder Macduff, to make sure that fate keeps its promises. In addition, Macbeth is afraid of being afraid, and is going to kill Macduff to prove that he's courageous.
The third apparition is "a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand " (4.1.86, s.d.). The child must represent Malcolm, child of King Duncan, and the tree in his hand shows how his army will camouflage itself as it approaches Macbeth's castle. However, this significance is lost on Macbeth, and he believes he is safe when the apparition says that "Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until / Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him" (4.1.92-94). He is exultant because he's sure that trees can't walk, but he still wants to know if Banquo's descendants will become kings of Scotland. The Witches warn Macbeth that he shouldn't ask any more questions, but he flies into a rage and demands that they answer. At this, the cauldron sinks out of sight, ominous oboes are heard, and the last illusion appears. It is a parade of eight kings, escorted by Banquo. Macbeth doesn't want to look, but he can't help himself. When he sees the first king, he says to it, "Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls" (4.1.113). Yet he keeps looking. By the time the fourth one appears, he says, "Start, eyes!" (4.1.116), as though he could command his own eyes to jump ("start") out of his head and make him blind. Yet still he looks, though it appears that the line of kings will "stretch out to the crack of doom" (4.1.117). And the more he looks, the worse it gets. The eighth king holds a mirror in which Macbeth sees even more kings, some with "two-fold balls and treble scepters" (4.1.121), indicating kingship of both Scotland and England. The final touch of this show of kings comes when "blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me, / And points at them for his" (4.1.123-124). "Blood-bolter'd" means that Banquo's hair is matted with blood, as the murderers left him, but still Banquo can smile, because all of those kings are his descendants. The witches dance and then vanish: At this point, there are a few lines which indicate that the witches do a song and dance to help Macbeth cheer up, but Shakespeare's editors consider this passage spurious. Now the witches vanish, together with the appartions of Banquo and his line of kings. Macbeth, in a rage at what he has seen, calls for whoever is outside to come in, and in comes Lennox. Macbeth asks him, "Saw you the weird sisters?" (4.1.136). No, Lennox didn't see them, even though Macbeth is sure they must have come out right past him. Macbeth curses the witches, saying, "Infected be the air whereon they ride; / And damn'd all those that trust them!" (4.1.138-139). We wonder, does Macbeth realize that he's damning himself? Macbeth also heard horses, and now he wants to know who that was. Lennox informs him that it was messengers with the news that Macduff has fled to England. (Lennox knew earlier that Macduff had gone to England, but didn't tell Macbeth.) At the news, Macbeth is angry at himself for not acting quickly enough. He had meant to murder Macduff, too, and now it's too late. He promises himself that "from this moment / The very firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand" (4.1.146-148). Immediately, he keeps that promise to himself, and announces that "The castle of Macduff I will surprise; / Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword / His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls / That trace him in his line" (4.1.150-153). He has just said that he will act upon impluse, and this is an act of pure impluse. It does nothing to make to make him safer; in fact, later in the play we will see that he has only given Macduff even more reason to search him out and kill him.
The scene began with the witches stirring up a cauldron of evil, and it ends with the promise of more slaughter.

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Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross.Ross brings Lady Macduff the news that her husband has fled Scotland. Exit Ross.Lady Macduff and her son joke about Macduff being a dead. Enter Messenger.A messenger rushes in to tell Lady Macduff to run for her life, but right after him come the murderers, who kill the boy and his mother.
Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross: If this scene had a title, it would be "The Slaughter of the Innocents." With a few masterful strokes, Shakespeare shows us an appealing mother and son, then kills them off. As the scene opens, Ross has already told Lady Macduff that her husband has fled from Scotland, and she is already extremely upset. She exclaims, "What had he done, to make him fly the land?" (4.2.1). Ross tries to get her to calm down, but she replies that her husband's "flight was madness: when our actions do not, / Our fears do make us traitors" (4.2.3-4). She means that her husband has done nothing traitorous, but running away from Scotland makes it look like he has. Still trying to calm her down, Ross says that she doesn't know whether it was wisdom or fear that made her husband go to England. Ross is suggesting that Macduff's wisdom made him go, but Lady Macduff declares that it must have been his fear. Otherwise, why would he leave his wife, children, and possessions behind? If Scotland isn't safe for him, it can't be safe for them. Then Lady Macduff gives voice to her own worst fear: "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" (4.2.11). Her metaphor shows that she knows that Macduff, by himself, wouldn't have much of a chance against Macbeth and all the powers a king can command. In such a fight Macduff would be the wren and Macbeth the owl, the bird of night and death. Even so, she's angry with her husband because she wants him with her. Trying to reassure the lady, Ross tells her that he is sure her husband is "noble, wise, judicious" (4.2.16), and knows best how to act in these dangerous times, "when we are traitors / And do not know ourselves" (4.2.18-19). He means that under Macbeth (who keeps a spy in every house) anyone can become a traitor without even knowing it. Under these conditions people believe rumors because of what they fear, yet don't know exactly what it is they fear, and don't know which way to turn. Or, in Ross's words, "we hold rumour / From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, / But float upon a wild and violent sea / Each way and none" (4.2.22). Thus Ross suggests that
even if Macduff did flee because he was afraid, he probably had good reason to be afraid, because Macbeth makes everyone afraid. Now Ross says he must leave, promises to return, and tries to comfort the lady with the idea that things can't get much worse. Exit Ross: Before he goes, Ross notices Macduff's son, who has been there all along, with his ears open, listening to the news that his father may be considered a traitor. This boy's age is not given, but on stage he appears to be nine or ten -- still a child, but old enough to make a few wisecracks. Ross wishes blessings upon the boy, and his mother remarks, "Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless" (4.2.27). She means that the boy looks just like his dad, but he doesn't really have a father. This bitter joke expresses her anger at her husband for leaving them in the lurch, and perhaps also hints at how much she misses the man whose face she sees in her son's face. Touched by the plight of the mother and son, Ross says that he'll weep if he stays any longer, then leaves quickly. Once he's gone, Lady Macduff tries to make light of the situation by pretending to believe that things are worse than they really are. She says to her son, "Sirrah, your father's dead; / And what will you do now? How will you live?" (4.2.30-31). This is a joke. It may be a bitter joke, but it's still a joke. As the boy's replies will show, he doesn't for a minute believe that his father is really dead. His answer to her question of how he will live is "As birds do, mother" (4.2.32), and when she asks if that means he will eat worms and flies, he replies "With what I get, I mean; and so do they" (4.2.33). What the birds get is provided by God, as Jesus said: "Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them" (Matt. 6:26). Lady Macduff comments, "Poor bird! thou'ldst never fear the net nor lime" (4.2.34). "The net" and "lime" (birdlime, a sticky substance) were the two most common ways of catching birds, but this boy -- his mother says -- is so innocent or stupid that he wouldn't fear either one. The boy is unfazed. He take the word "poor" to mean "little," and says that poor birds are too little to be trapped. Now the boy tries to turn the tables on his mother. He says that he knows that his father is not dead, despite what his mother has said. Teasing, she says again that his father is dead, and asks what he will do for a father. He throws it back on her and asks what she will do for a husband. She says that she can buy twenty husbands at any market. He answers that if she did that, she'd just sell them again. She then acknowledges that there's a lot of truth in his joke. Apparently they both mean that none of those twenty husbands would be good enough for her, because none of them would be as good as Macduff. As though he knows exactly what is on his mother's mind, the boy asks, "Was my father a traitor, mother?" (4.2.44). Continuing to joke with her son as she has before, Lady Macduff says that yes, her husband was a traitor. (Note that they are now both talking in the past tense, as though Macduff has already been hung for being a traitor.) Starting a rather long joke, the boy asks what a traitor is, and his mother answers that a traitor is a person who lies while he swears that he is telling the truth. The boy then asks if all traitors have to be hung. His mother says yes, they must be. Finally, the boy
asks who hangs the traitors, and his mother answers that the honest men do that. Now comes the punch line of the joke. The boy says, "Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enow [enough] to beat the honest men and hang up them" (4.2.56-58). This joke probably gives Lady Macduff a little smile, because she calls her son a "monkey" and urges him on by asking him again what he will do for a father. The boy replies with another joke, saying "If he were dead, you'ld weep for him: if you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father" (4.2.63). He knows that she's been joking because if she were the sort of woman who could hear of her husband's death without crying, she would be the sort of woman who would quickly get another husband, so the boy would quickly have a new father. Under the surface -though not very far under the surface -- this joke means that Macduff is alive and that Lady Macduff dearly loves him. Still, this gallows-humor reflects the very real danger to mother and son. Enter Messenger: Once we see the love that Lady Macduff and her son have for each other, in comes a messenger with the news that they are about to die. The messenger himself is in a panic. He tells Lady Macduff that she doesn't know who he is, but he knows who she is, and he thinks that she and her children are in great danger. He apologizes for frightening her, saying, "To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage" (4.2.70), but then he adds that much worse could happen at any moment. With this, the messenger runs out of courage and runs out of the room, saying, "Heaven preserve you! / I dare abide no longer" (4.2.73-74). Now Lady Macduff realizes her absolute helplessness. She says, "Whither should I fly?" (4.2.74). She's already at home; if she's not safe there, she's not safe anywhere. Her next thought is that she has "done no harm" (4.2.75), but then she remembers that in this evil world, to do good is often dangerous, and she asks herself, "why then, alas, / Do I put up that womanly defence, / To say I have done no harm?" (4.2.78-80). As she says this, the murderers are upon her. There are only ten more lines in the scene, and it is too easy to read them quickly, which can make us miss the full horror that is enacted. The main thing to remember is that a child is murdered before our eyes. A murderer demands to know where Macduff is, but Lady Macduff stands up for her husband, saying, "I hope, in no place so unsanctified / Where such as thou mayst find him" (4.2.81-82). Her son also shows his courage. When a murderer says that Macduff is a traitor, the boy cries out, "Thou liest, thou shag-ear'd villain!" (4.2.83). Maybe the boy means that the murderer has a bad haircut, so that the hair hangs over his ears, or maybe he means that the murderer is an ass, and has an ass's hairy ears. In any case, his curse is a childish curse, and it emphasizes the terror of what is happening. In the next instant he is dying, and his mother is running away without any chance of escape. If we see all of this -- if only in our mind's eye -- it can make our stomachs churn and teach us the full force of Macbeth's evil.

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Enter Malcolm and Macduff.Macduff seeks Malcolm's support for a war against Macbeth, and Malcolm tests Macduff's intentions. Enter a Doctor.A doctor tells of the English King's miraculous ability to heal the sick. Enter Ross.Speaking to Malcolm and Macduff, Ross tells of Scotland's suffering under Macbeth and of the slaughter of Macduff's wife and children. Everyone is now ready to make war against Macbeth.
Enter Malcolm and Macduff: To understand the first part of this scene, we must remember that Macbeth pays spies to keep tabs on his nobles, and that he sends assassins after his enemies. With such a king on the throne of Scotland, it's not safe to trust anyone from Scotland, so Malcolm is extremely cautious in his dealings with Macduff. Malcolm and Macduff are at the English court, and as the scene opens, Macduff has already been telling Malcolm of the terrible things that have been happening in Scotland. The first words of the scene are Malcolm's response: "Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there / Weep our sad bosoms empty" (4.3.1-2). This is Malcolm's way of expressing sympathy without committing himself to anything. Of course, this isn't the response that Macduff wants. Macduff replies, "Let us rather / Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men / Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom" (4.3.2-4). There is a great sense of urgency in Macduff's words. When a soldier bestrides a fallen comrade, he protects him by standing with one foot on each side of his comrade's body, and fighting from there. Macduff believes that his "birthdom," his native land and Malcolm's, is in desperate trouble, and he wants protect it at all costs. Macduff goes on to describe Scotland's agony, but Malcolm remains very wary. First of all he tells Macduff, "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" (4.3.8-11). This is quite a lot of cold water. Malcolm has said that he will shed tears only if he believes what Macduff is saying, and he will believe it only if he knows it to be true (presumably from other sources). Also, he says "what I can redress . . . I will," which implies that there may be problems that he can not redress. In addition, he will take action only when he "shall find the time to friend," that is, when all the circumstances show that a particular time is friendly to his cause. Finally, everything that Macduff has been saying "may be so perchance," which means that it very well could be true. Malcolm then makes things even worse for Macduff by expressing doubts about Macduff's own motivations. He points out that Macduff could still go back over to to the side of Macbeth, who "Was once thought honest: you have loved him well. / He hath not touch'd you yet" (4.3.13-14). Malcolm goes on to say that even though he is young (and therefore not worth much), Macduff may
"deserve of him through me," by betraying him to Macbeth, using him as "a weak poor innocent lamb / To appease an angry god" (4.3.15-17). Macduff protests that he is not treacherous, but Malcolm answers that a forceful king (such as Macbeth) may make a good man turn bad, because "A good and virtuous nature may recoil / In an imperial charge" (4.3.20). Then Malcolm apologizes, in a way. He says, "That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose" (4.3.21). In other words, whatever Macduff is, he is, and that can't be changed by what Malcolm thinks. Thus, if Macduff is a good man, he won't be made into a bad man just because Malcolm is thinking bad thoughts about him. And although Malcolm can't tell that Macduff is a good man just by looking at him, "Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell; / Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, / Yet grace must still look so" (4.3.22-24). The "brightest" angel was Lucifer, who fell and became Satan. But angels are "bright still"; they look good and they are good. So, although "all things foul" want to look good, looking good doesn't mean that you are really evil, because "grace must still look so." In sum, Macduff may be a good man who is telling the truth. Still, Malcolm isn't ready to put complete trust in him. Because it appears that there is no way that he can win over Malcolm, Macduff cries out, I have lost my hopes" (4.3.24). Malcolm replies, "Perchance even there where I did find my doubts" (4.3.25). Literally, this means that Macduff lost his hopes in the same place that Malcom found his doubts about Macduff's loyalty. He's suggesting that Macduff needs to do some more explaining. He asks Macduff: "Why in that rawness [unprotected state] left you wife and child, / Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, / Without leave-taking?" (4.3.26-28). (In the previous scene Lady Macduff raised this same question, but it's never answered.) Apparently this question stuns Macduff, because Malcolm seems to regret asking it. He says, "Let not my jealousies [suspicions] be your dishonours, / But mine own safeties" (4.3.29-30). He means that the source of his suspicion is only his fear for his own safety, not anything dishonorable in Macduff. If this is supposed to make Macduff feel better, it doesn't work. Macduff exclaims that goodness is afraid of tyranny, so there's no hope for Scotland. He's also angry that his honor has been questioned, and he's ready to give up on Malcolm. He says, "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" (4.3.34-36). Malcolm, however, is not ready to give up on Macduff. He asks him drop his anger, and tells him that he knows that he has been telling the truth about the suffering of Scotland. Malcolm adds that there are those that will fight for his right to the throne, and that England has already offered troops. All of this is the sort of thing that Macduff wanted to hear in the first place, but then Malcolm begins a new test of Macbeth's honor. Malcolm begins his test by saying that Scotland will suffer even more after Macbeth is crushed. The reason: Malcolm will be more evil than Macbeth. (Malcolm's plan is to find out if Macduff wants what is best for Scotland, or just wants to defeat Macbeth.) First, Malcolm says that he will be so lustful that "your wives, your daughters, / Your matrons and your maids, could not fill up / The cistern of my lust" (4.3.61-63). Macduff's response is more than a little wimpy. He says that uncontrolled lust is bad, but he's sure that Scotland can provide Malcolm with enough willing
women to satisfy him. But Malcolm goes on to declare that he's also so avaricious 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" (4.3.78-82). Macduff admits that avarice in a king is even worse than lust, but he's sure that Scotland has abundance enough to satisfy Malcolm. Such lust and avarice would be bearable, balanced against good qualities. "But I have none" (4.3.91), Malcolm answers. He goes on to assert that he has not a single virtue that a king needs. Not only that, but he is positively evil, so evil that "had I power, I should / Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, / Uproar the universal peace, confound / All unity on earth" (4.3.97-100). After describing himself as the worst possible person on the face of the earth, Malcolm then asks Macduff if someone like him is fit to govern. "Fit to govern! / No, not to live" (4.3.102-103), Macduff bursts out. Then he laments the fate of Scotland and wonders that such a bad man could come from such good parents. After this, he's about to storm off, but Malcolm once again calls him back. This time, Malcolm takes back everything he's just said about himself. He is, he now says, chaste, generous, and trustworthy. He also tells Macduff that the English warrior Siward is already marching towards Scotland with an army of ten thousand. Malcolm and Macduff will join them, with every hope that they'll quickly defeat Macbeth. After putting Macduff through all of this psychological torture, Malcolm asks him, "Why are you silent?" (4.3.137). Macduff replies, "Such welcome and unwelcome things at once / 'Tis hard to reconcile" (4.3.138-139). Right. It's also hard for us to believe that Macduff would believe that an evil man would say that he is evil, but that's the way Shakespeare wrote it. Enter a Doctor: After the tyranny of Macbeth is contrasted with the goodness of Macduff and Malcolm, we are again reminded of what a good king should be. A doctor enters and tells Macduff and Malcolm that a crowd of sick people are waiting to be cured by the English king. Their sickness can't be cured by doctors, but only by the king: "at his touch-- / Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand-- / They presently amend" (4.3.143-145). The doctor leaves, and Macduff asks what disease he was talking about. Malcolm explains, "'Tis call'd the evil" (4.3.146). (The disease is scrofula, which causes ugly swellings of glands in the neck. It was called "the king's evil" because of the popular idea that a holy king could cure it by touching the diseased person.) Malcolm goes on to speak of what a miracle-worker the English king is. He brings God's healing power to his people, and it's a wonder, because "How he solicits heaven, / Himself best knows" (4.3.150). In addition to being able to heal the sick, the English king "hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, / And sundry blessings hang about his throne" (4.3.157-158). Malcolm doesn't mention Macbeth, but the only apparent reason for this description of the English king is to provide a picture of heavenly good to contrast with Macbeth's hellish evil. Enter Ross: After we know that Malcolm and Macduff are ready to go to war against Macbeth, Ross brings news that gives them even more reason to destroy the tyrant.
Macduff asks Ross how things are going in Scotland, and Ross answers, "Alas, poor country! / Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot / Be call'd our mother, but our grave" (4.3.164-166). In a previous scene, we have seen Macbeth's terrorism in action against Lady Macduff and her son. Now Ross says that Macbeth does this sort of thing every day, so that "the dead man's knell / Is there scarce ask'd for who" (4.3.170-171). He means that the death knell rings so often that people don't even ask who's dead. Macduff asks about his wife and children, and Ross says that they are "well." Macduff repeats the question, asking "The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace?" (4.3.178). Ross answers with an equivocation: "No; they were well at peace when I did leave 'em" (4.3.179). We know that Macbeth has not "batter'd at their peace," he's killed them, and that they are "well at peace" because they are gone from this world to the peace of heaven. Ross has good intentions; he wants to spare Macduff's feelings, at least for the moment. Macduff, sensing that Ross is holding something back, presses him to say more, and Ross gives him some good news. He has heard that men in Scotland are taking up arms against Macbeth, and he believes it because he has seen Macbeth's forces gathering for battle. Now appealing directly to Malcolm, he says, "Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland / Would create soldiers" (4.3.186-187). Ross knows that Malcolm, as the son of good King Duncan, could inspire everyone to fight against Macbeth. In answer to this appeal, Malcolm reassures Ross that he is on his way to Scotland with ten thousand men commanded by Siward. Now Ross can no longer hold back the worst news. Before he delivers it, he asks forgiveness from Macduff, saying "Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, / Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound / That ever yet they heard" (4.3.201-203). What follows is one of the most affecting moments in the play. Ross tells the terrible news: "Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes / Savagely slaughter'd" 4.3.204-205). Macduff is so overcome with emotion that he chokes up. As we put a hand to our mouth when we feel tears coming on, Macduff pulls his hat down. Malcolm tells him he must give voice to his pain, saying, "Merciful heaven! / What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows; / Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak / Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break" (4.3.207-210). Still, Macduff can barely speak. He does not want to believe what he has heard, and asks, "My children too?" Ross answers, "Wife, children, servants, all . . . ." (4.3.211). Blaming himself for his decision to flee from Scotland, Macduff says, "And I must be from thence!" (4.3.212). Malcolm advises him to cure his grief with revenge against Macbeth, but Macduff cries out, "He has no children." He means that he can't get complete revenge by killing the children of the child-killer, even if he were such a monster as to be a child-killer himself. Macduff continues, All my pretty ones? / Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? / What, all my pretty chickens and their dam / At one fell swoop?" (4.3.217-220). Disconcerted by Macduff's outburst, Malcolm tells him to keep his emotions in check, to "Dispute it like a man." His idea is the familiar one that real men don't cry, but Macduff knows better, and says, "I shall do so; / But I must also feel it as a man" (4.3.220-221). Malcolm, however, continues to urge him to turn his grief into anger,
and Macduff finally determines to do so. He wants to come face-to-face with Macbeth immediately. "Front to front / Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself," he says. "Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape, / Heaven forgive him too!" (4.3.233235). Of course he means that only heaven itself can save Macbeth. Now everything is prepared for Macbeth's destruction. Malcolm and Macduff have a righteous cause, backed by ten thousand soldiers and powered by Macduff's hot rage. As Malcolm says, "Macbeth / Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above / Put on their instruments" (4.3.237-239). Nothing can save Macbeth from destruction now. The only question is how he will face it.

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Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman.Lady Macbeth's waiting-gentlewoman tells a doctor of the Lady's sleep-walking. Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper.Lady Macbeth walks and talks in her sleep, revealing guilty secrets.
Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman: As the scene opens, the doctor is complaining "I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report" (5.1.1-2). To "watch" means to stay up at night, which the doctor has done, but without seeing anything. He then asks, ""When was it she last walked? (5.1.2). If we're seeing the play, rather than reading it, there's a small mystery, because we have never seen these two people before, and we don't know whom they're talking about. The gentlewoman insists that ever "Since his majesty went into the field" (5.1.3), "she" has often risen from her bed, gone through the motions of writing a letter and preparing it to be sent, then returned to bed, all while fast asleep. That Macbeth "went into the field" means that he is with his army, so perhaps Lady Macbeth is dreaming that she is writing to her husband. The doctor comments that there must be something seriously wrong, and that the sleepwalking will only make it worse, then he asks what the lady has said. The gentlewoman refuses to tell. The doctor says that it's ok to tell him, but the gentlewoman still refuses, "having no witness to confirm my speech" (5.1.17-18). Without a witness to confirm that Lady Macbeth did indeed say what the gentlewoman heard, the danger would be too great. Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper: At this point Lady Macbeth enters, carrying a candle, and we soon learn why her gentlewoman is afraid to repeat what she has heard. In her sleep, Lady Macbeth relives the crimes that she has helped Macbeth to commit. First she rubs her hands as though washing them. The gentlewoman explains that she has seen the lady do this for as much as fifteen minutes at a time. Now, after rubbing her hands, Lady Macbeth looks at them and says, "Yet here's a spot" (5.1.31). What she is seeing in her trance-
like state is a spot of blood that she cannot wash off her hand. We can see the irony, because just after the murder of Duncan, the lady scorned her husband for staring at his own bloody hands, and she told him that a little water would fix everything. She continues to "wash" her hands until she is interrupted by the memory of the bell that she herself rang to summon her husband to the murder of King Duncan: 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? (5.1.35-40) Lady Macbeth had thought that once her husband was king, it wouldn't matter who knew that they murdered King Duncan, because no one would be able to challenge Macbeth's power as king, to "call our power to account." Yet the old man had a lot of blood, and she can still see it on her hands, reminding her of her guilt. His blood is pursuing her in another way, too, although she may not know it. A man's "blood" is his family, and Malcolm, who is of King Duncan's blood, is now marching with ten thousand English soldiers to call Macbeth to account. Lady Macbeth's mind wanders to other horrors, and back to the blood on her hands. She asks, "The thane of Fife [Macduff] had a wife: where is she now?" (5.1.42-43), and then she wonders if her hands will ever be clean. She tells her husband to be calm, and then she smells blood on her hands and says, "Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O! (5.1.50-52). Meanwhile, the doctor is beginning to understand the implications of Lady Macbeth's ravings, and it makes him very nervous. He tells the gentlewoman that she shouldn't know what she does know, but the gentlewoman replies that Lady Macbeth shouldn't have spoken what she did. Then the gentlewoman adds, "heaven knows what she has known" (5.1.49). God may know just what is in Lady Macbeth's heart, but her sleepwalking and sleep-talking ramblings aren't proof of anything. Still, the gentlewoman is sure that Lady Macbeth has a guilty heart. The doctor wants to give the lady the benefit of the doubt, and says that he has "known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds." (5.1.59-61). However, just as the doctor says this, Lady Macbeth tells imagined Macbeth to wash his hands and reminds him that Banquo can't come out of the grave. Then she leads him away, saying, "What's done cannot be undone.--To bed, to bed, to bed!" (5.1.6768). With this, the lady exits. The gentlewoman tells the doctor that Lady Macbeth will now go directly to bed. The doctor realizes that there's not much doubt about the meaning of what Lady Macbeth has said, but there's also not much he can do. It's her soul that is sick, not her body, and "More needs she the divine than the physician" (5.1.74). He can only advise the gentlewoman to keep an eye on the lady, and take away anything that she might use to hurt herself. As for what Lady Macbeth has said, he's helpless. He says, "I think, but dare not speak" (5.1.79).
Summary of Act 5, Scene 2: The Scottish forces arrayed against Macbeth are on the march. The Scottish leaders comment on Macbeth's desperate rage. Drum and colours. Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, and Soldiers: The sense of Macbeth's certain doom dominates this short scene. First we hear and see "Drum and colours " (5.2.1, s.d.), then the leaders of the Scottish forces and their soldiers following. We learn that they are to join with the much larger English force in Birnam wood, which fronts Macbeth's castle. Lennox and Angus are the two Scotsmen we have seen before. Angus (with Ross) brought Macbeth the news that he had been given the title of Thane of Cawdor. Lennox was at Macbeth's banquet and at the door the witches' cave when Macbeth visited them. The other two who speak are Menteith and Caithness, whom we have never seen before. Also, their names are given only in the speech headings. If we were seeing the play, rather than reading it, all we would know about them is that they are Scotsmen. None of these men have any marked individuality, and our general impression is that these men in beards and kilts are representatives of all the Scots who hate Macbeth and can't wait for his defeat. Menteith says of Malcolm and Macduff, "Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes / Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm / Excite the mortified man" (5.2.35). Their "dear causes" are their motivations -- Macbeth's murder of Malcolm's father and of Macduff's wife and children. An "alarm" is a battle, a "mortified man" is one who is half-dead, and "excite" was used the way "incite" is used now. Mentieth is saying even a man who was half-dead would rush into the most bloody battle if that man had the reasons to fight that Malcolm and Macduff have. Shortly after this, the converstion turns to how things look from Macbeth's point of view. Menteith asks what the tyrant is doing, and Caithness replies, "Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies: / Some say he's mad; others that lesser hate him / Do call it valiant fury" (5.2.12-14). Then he adds, "He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause / Within the belt of rule" (5.2.15-16). Macbeth's cause is sick, "distemper'd," because he is defending himself against the consequences of his own criminal actions. Furthermore, Menteith's metaphor portrays Macbeth as being so sick that he is grossly swollen, unable to put a belt around himself, unable to rule himself. Call it madness or valiant fury, Macbeth is out of control and in no shape to fight. Angus comments that every minute Macbeth faces a new revolt, all reminding him that he has breached his faith as King Duncan's subject and Banquo's friend and king: "Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach; / Those he commands move only in command, / Nothing in love" (5.2.18-20). In fact, he is not even in command of his own senses. Because of his guilt, he must think that everyone and everything is out to get him, as Menteith says: "Who then shall blame / His pester'd senses to recoil and start [jump, jerk], / When all that is within him does condemn / Itself for being there?"
(5.2.22-25). In the next scene, we will see that what these men think about Macbeth is all true. All of this said, they march on to Birnam wood to meet Malcolm, who is "the medicine of the sickly weal" (5.2.27), the cure for sick Scotland.
Summary of Act 5, Scene 3: Macbeth hears that his thanes are abandoning him, that the English army is approaching, and that his wife is soul-sick, but he tries to convince himself that he has nothing to fear, and prepares to fight. Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants: In the previous scene we heard of Macbeth's desperation; in this scene we see it. As the scene opens, Macbeth is saying, "Bring me no more reports; let them fly all" (5.3.1). We don't see just who has been bringing him reports, but we can understand why he doesn't like what he's been hearing. As king, Macbeth would have few soldiers of his own. To make up an army he would call upon his thanes to bring their soldiers to the support of Scotland, but none of his thanes are answering his call. They are either avoiding him or -- as we have seen from the previous scene -- joining the forces which are marching against him. In a blustery speech, Macbeth tells everyone (and himself) that he has nothing to fear. Only when Birnam wood comes to the royal castle, Dunsinane, will he have the least reason to be afraid. As for Malcolm, he's a boy who was born of woman. Believing himself protected by the witches' prophecies, Macbeth declares, "The mind I sway by [rule myself by] and the heart I bear / Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear" (5.3.9-10). Despite this declaration of his courage, we can see his desperation. When a servant enters with news about the English force, Macbeth shows his courage the way a bully does -- by picking on someone weaker. Even before the servant has a chance to speak, Macbeth shouts, "The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! / Where got'st thou that goose look?" (5.3.11-12). The servant is only a boy, and he is pale with fear, which enrages Macbeth. Macbeth calls him names and mocks him, then says something revealing: "Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine / Are counsellors to fear" (5.3.16-17). A counsellor is someone who gives advice, so "counsellors to fear" would tell someone to be afraid. Macbeth feels that the boy's pale cheeks are telling him that he, too, should be afraid, and if he fears nothing else, Macbeth does fear fear itself. (For more examples of this characteristic, see the Macbeth Navigator page on Macbeth's Fear of Fear.) As soon as the servant is able to deliver the news that an English army of ten thousand is approaching, Macbeth sends him away and calls for Seyton. Seyton is apparently a kind of butler, or perhaps an officer in Macbeth's non-existent army. In any case, it
takes a while for him to appear. In the meantime, Macbeth has a moment of truth with himself. He reflects that "This push / Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now" (5.3.2021). "Disseat" means "dethrone"; some editors substitute "disease" for "disseat," but that doesn't change the essential meaning. The "push" is the approaching battle, and Macbeth thinks that if he wins, he will be safe forever, but if he loses, he will no longer be king. Having acknowledged the possibility that he could lose, Macbeth tries to find a way to accept defeat. In a famous passage, Macbeth tells himself that his life is not worth living: I have lived long enough: my way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf; And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. (5.3.22-28) From this we can see that Macbeth knows that it's not just his throne that is at stake, but his life. He also knows that he is utterly alone; he rules only by fear, which means that all those he rules hate him. This moment of truth, however, soon passes. Seyton appears, and Macbeth asks him for news, but the only news is what has already been reported. Macbeth avows that he will "fight till from my bones my flesh be hack'd" (5.3.32), and calls for his armor. Seyton tells him that there's no need for the armor just yet, but Macbeth insists. While Seyton is getting the armor, Macbeth asks the doctor about his patient, Lady Macbeth. The doctor tells him that she is "Not so sick, my lord, / As she is troubled with thick coming fancies" (5.3.37-38). Macbeth then asks the doctor if he can "minister to a mind diseased" (5.3.40), but the doctor replies, "Therein the patient / Must minister to himself" (5.3.45-46). At this, Macbeth's anger grows hotter. "Throw physic [medicine] to the dogs; I'll none of it" (5.3.47), he says, and starts to put on his armor. Then he sarcastically asks the doctor if there are any medicines that will cure Scotland of its disease and cast out the English. "Hear'st thou of them?" (5.3.56), he demands. Cautiously, the doctor answers, "Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation / Makes us hear something" (5.3.57-58). The doctor means that Macbeth's preparations for battle are the medicine for Scotland, although -- as we will see in a moment -- he doesn't really believe it. Now Macbeth has no more time for talk. He doesn't have all of his armor on, but he tells Seyton to send the rest of it after him, and rushes out, saying "I will not be afraid of death and bane, / Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane" (5.3.59-60). This is no comfort to the doctor, who ends the scene by saying, "Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, / Profit again should hardly draw me here" (5.3.61-62). Despite Macbeth's bravado, he's facing a hopeless battle in which no one, not even the lowly doctor, will be at his side.
Summary of Act 5, Scene 4: The forces opposed to Macbeth enter Birnam wood, and Malcolm gives the order for every soldier to cut a tree branch and hold it before him. Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, Siward and Young Siward, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, Ross, and Soldiers, marching: Now the Scottish forces have joined the English army. All have arrived at Birnam wood, before Macbeth's castle. Malcolm says, "Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand / That chambers will be safe," and Mentieth replies, "We doubt it nothing" (5.4.1-2). Malcolm is referring to the murder of King Duncan in his bedchamber, and they are both expressing confidence that their side will win. Malcolm gives the order for the soldiers to cut branches and carry them in order to disguise the size of the army that will attack Macbeth. However, this precaution is hardly necessary. Siward comments, "We learn no other but the confident tyrant / Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure / Our setting down before 't" (5.4.8-10). Siward means that it appears that Macbeth is so overconfident that he will allow the enemy to approach the castle and begin a siege, but Malcolm points out that Macbeth doesn't have much of a choice. Fighting a defensive battle is Macbeth's only option because he has hardly any support. Everyone who has had a chance to run from Macbeth has done so, and the rest don't have their hearts in the battle. At this point, Macduff says, "Let our just censures / Attend the true event, and put we on / Industrious soldiership" (5.4.14-16). A "censure" is a judgment or opinion; "attend" means "wait for"; and "event" means "outcome." Macduff is making the point that that they will know how strong Macbeth is after they have fought the battle; until that time, all they have to do is be good soldiers. Siward agrees, and thus the scene ends with a contrast between Macbeth's desperate overconfidence and his enemies' calm determination.

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Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with drum and colours.Macbeth expresses his defiance of the forces marching against him, then hears a cry of women and receives the news of his wife's death. Enter a Messenger.A messenger reports that Birnam woods is coming to Dunsinane; Macbeth goes out to meet his fate.
Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with drum and colours: At Dunsinane, the royal castle that was King Duncan's and is now Macbeth's, we see
Macbeth preparing for battle. He calls out, "Hang out our banners on the outward walls. / The cry is still 'They come!'" (5.5.1-2). The banners are meant to show his enemies that he will not surrender. The "cry" is either what the soldiers should say when they see the enemy, or the message that Macbeth has heard so often that he is sick of it. Then Macbeth proceeds to deliver a pep talk, directed at Seyton, the soldiers, and -- most of all -- himself. He says that the castle "Will laugh a siege to scorn" (5.5.3), and he predicts that his enemies will starve and sicken in front of Dunsinane's walls. Then he adds, "Were they not forced [reinforced] with those that should be ours, / We might have met them dareful [boldly], beard to beard, / And beat them backward home" (5.5.5-7). By "those that should be ours" Macbeth means all the Scottish thanes who have gone over to the other side, including Angus, Lennox, Ross, and Macduff. As we will see, however, his own soldiers will go over to the other side as soon as they have a chance, making the siege very short. Macbeth's boasting is interrupted by "A cry of women within" (5.5.7, s.d.). While Seyton goes to investigate the noise, Macbeth congratulates himself on his own savageness, saying, "I have almost forgot the taste of fears" (5.5.9). There was a time, he says, when such a shriek in the night would have given him the chills and when a story of horror would have made his hair stand on end. But now, "I have supp'd full with horrors; / Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, / Cannot once start [scare] me" (5.5.13-15). Seyton returns and tells Macbeth, "The queen, my lord, is dead" (5.5.16). That's the whole message. We are never told how or why she died, and Macbeth doesn't ask. In a show of callousness, he says he doesn't have time for her: "She should have died hereafter; / There would have been a time for such a word" (5.5.17-18). Thus begins the most famous passage in the play. The rest of the speech is despair masquerading as stoicism: To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 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. (5.5.19-28) At the first "to-morrow" it sounds like he's thinking that he will have time to grieve for his wife tomorrow, but if that was his first thought, it quickly changes. He knows that we can live just one day at a time, but he doesn't believe in the modern clich that says "today is the first day of the rest of your life." He sees things the other way around. Each tomorrow is the last day of all our yesterdays, and Macbeth has spent all of his yesterdays killing people. To use another clich, what goes around, comes around. His wife is dead, and he may well be next. But he can face it. He tells the candle of life to go ahead and flicker out. It doesn't matter, because nothing matters. Life is only a part we play. We "strut and fret" as though we have accomplished
something or have something important to worry about, but we're soon forgotten. But even that doesn't matter, because life is "a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing." Enter a Messenger: As Macbeth reaches the dead end of his dead-end philosophy, a messenger enters with urgent news. "I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, / The wood began to move." At this, Macbeth roars, "Liar and slave!" (5.5.33-34), but his anger doesn't deter the messenger. Macbeth threatens to hang the messenger if he's lying, but then his mood changes, and he says that if the messenger is telling the truth he wouldn't mind being hung himself. He has begun "To doubt the equivocation of the fiend / That lies like truth" (5.5.43-44). He sees that if the wood is indeed moving, he's in a hopeless situation, but there's nothing for him to do except fight on. As the scene ends he says, "I gin [begin] to be aweary of the sun, / And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. / Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack! / At least we'll die with harness [armor] on our back" (5.5.49-52). The rising and the setting of the sun are part of the "estate o' the world," which is the set of general rules and principles by which the world works. Macbeth is tired of all that and wants it "undone" because it allows him no hope. In the "estate o' the world" murderous Macbeth must surely die. His only consolation is that he can die fighting, in his armor.
Summary of Act 5, Scene 6: The English and Scottish forces, led by Malcolm, begin their attack upon Dunsinane.
Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their Army, with boughs: The forces arrayed against Macbeth are now near enough to Dunsinane that further concealment is not necessary, and Malcolm gives the order: "Now near enough: your leafy screens throw down. / And show like those you are" (5.6.1-2). He then directs the battalion led by Siward and his son to begin the attack, and says that a second battalion, led by Macduff and himself will do the mopping-up operations. Siward responds, "Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, / Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight" (5.6.7-8). He means that if they can only find Macbeth's pitiful army, they will deserve to lose if they can't fight well enough to win a quick victory. Macduff calls out for the trumpets to sound, and they do, and so the charge begins. And so this very brief scene ends.

y y y y
Enter Macbeth.Macbeth says that he knows he's trapped. Enter Young Siward.Macbeth fights Young Siward and kills him. Exit Macbeth.Macduff seeks Macbeth. Enter Malcolm and Siward.Malcolm and Siward take possession of Dunsinane.
Enter Macbeth: The last time we saw Macbeth, his soldiers were with him. Now he is alone. He says, "They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, / But, bear-like, I must fight the course" (5.7.1-2). "They" refers to Malcolm's forces, and "bear-like" refers to an extremely cruel sport that was popular at the time. In the neighborhood of Shakespeare's Globe Theater was a similar building, called The Bear Garden. There a bear would be chained to a stake driven into the ground, and a pack of dogs would be let loose upon the bear for a fight to the death. The spectators made bets on such things as how many dogs the bear would kill before he died in this spectacle of blood and death. Macbeth compares himself to the bear, and he's right. Later in the scene we find that his soldiers have put up no resistance at all, so he is absolutely alone, surrounded by a force of more than ten thousand, all of whom want to kill him. Enter Young Siward. Macbeth's only hope is the prophecy of the second apparition, so he says to himself, "What's he / That was not born of woman? Such a one / Am I to fear, or none" (5.7.24). At this point Young Siward enters, and asks Macbeth his name. (Young Siward is probably looking to fight someone of name, not just a common soldier.) Macbeth tells the boy that he doesn't really want to hear his name, because it will make him afraid. This show of arrogance, however, doesn't cow Young Siward, and they fight. Macbeth kills the boy, and exults in his own invulnerability: "Thou wast born of woman / But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, / Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born" (5.7.11-13). Macbeth then exits, probably taking the body of Young Siward with him, as a kind of grisly trophy. Exit Macbeth. As Macbeth is leaving, we hear trumpets and then see Macduff, who rushes in, looking for him. Apparently Macduff realizes that he has just missed Macbeth, and he shouts out a challenge to his unseen enemy: "Tyrant, show thy face! / If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, / My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still" (5.7.14-16). Macduff goes on to say that he has no wish to fight Macbeth's unwilling soldiers, then hears a noise which he thinks will lead him to Macbeth, and he rushes out again. Enter Malcolm and Siward. Again we hear trumpets, and then Malcolm and Siward enter, knowing that they have already won the battle. Siward comments that "the castle's gently render'd: / The tyrant's people on both sides do fight" (5.7.24-25). He means that the castle was surrendered without any real resistance, because Macbeth's soldiers fought only until they saw a chance to switch sides. Malcolm, too, has seen how easy the victory has
been, because "We have met with foes / That strike beside us" (5.7.28-29). "Strike beside us" means either that Macbeth's soldiers deliberately missed when they swung their swords, or that they came over to Malcolm's side. In any case, the royal castle of Dunsinane now belongs to the next king, Malcolm. The only piece of unfinished business is the killing of Macbeth.

y
Enter Macbeth.Macduff and Macbeth do battle. Macbeth boasts that he cannot be harmed by "one of woman born," but Macduff replies that he was "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd." They fight on and Macduff kills Macbeth. Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, Siward, Ross, the other Thanes, and Soldiers.Siward receives the news of his son's heroic death. Macduff enters with the head of Macbeth. Malcolm is hailed king of Scotland, whereupon he rewards his followers and invites all to see him crowned.
Enter Macbeth: The last time we saw Macbeth, he was leaving the scene after killing Young Siward. Then Macduff entered and followed a noise that he thought indicated that Macbeth was in the midst of another fight. What we need to remember, then, as Macbeth comes into view, is that he knows he is being hunted down. He has been thinking of the possibility of committing suicide, but he quickly rejects that, saying, "Why should I play the Roman fool, and die / On mine own sword?" (5.8.1-2). The Romans that Macbeth refers to considered suicide to be an honorable way out of an impossible situation. Macbeth is in an impossible situation, but he is determined to do as much damage as possible before he dies. He says, "Whiles I see lives [living men], the gashes / Do better upon them" (5.8.2-3). In other words, he just likes to see the blood flow. Now Macduff catches up with Macbeth and challenges him, calling out, "Turn, hellhound, turn!" (5.8.3). Macbeth answers, "Of all men else I have avoided thee: / But get thee back; my soul is too much charged / With blood of thine" (5.8.5-7). He is giving Macduff a chance to back away without doing battle, but why? He says that his "soul is too much charged / With blood of thine." "Charged" means full, overburdened, and the "blood" to which Macbeth refers is the blood that was shed in the slaughter of Macduff's wife and children. In short, Macbeth is saying that those murders are on his conscience, so he doesn't want to shed Macduff's blood. Could it be that he really feels remorse? Or is he just making an excuse for backing out of a fight with Macduff?
Macduff is not impressed and says that he will let his sword do his talking. They fight, and it should be an exciting and suspenseful fight. When Macbeth fought Young Siward, he finished him off quickly, and we saw the boy die in front of our eyes, so we know that a sword can be as deadly as a bullet. After they have fought for a while, Macbeth seems to think that he has the advantage, and he boasts, telling Macduff that he it would be easier to make a wound upon the air than to make him bleed. Macduff, Macbeth says, should go fight someone who can be beaten, but as for himself: "I bear a charmed life, which must not yield, / To one of woman born" (5.8.12-13) Destroying Macbeth's last hope, Macduff replies, "Despair thy charm / And let the angel whom thou still hast served / Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd" (5.8.16-19). Hearing this, Macbeth curses Macduff, because what he has said has "cow'd my better part of man" (5.8.18). His "better part of man" is his courage, and he feels it fading. After this confession of fear--his first in the play-Macbeth curses the fiends who have lied to him and tells Macduff that he won't fight him. It's somewhat surprising that Macbeth thinks he has a choice about whether or not to fight, but Macduff makes it clear that it's not much of a choice. If Macbeth won't fight, he'll be taken prisoner and paraded about for people to jeer at. This is too much for Macbeth to take, and he regains his courage. Knowing that Birnam wood has come to Dunsinane, knowing that Macduff is not of woman born, knowing that he has no chance, Macbeth determines to fight on, saying "Lay on, Macduff, / And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'" (5.8.33-34). Again they fight, and they fight so hard that they disappear from view for a moment. Trumpets sound, letting us know that others are about to arrive, then Macbeth and Macduff come back into view just as Macduff is delivering the death-blow to Macbeth. Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, Siward, Ross, the other Thanes, and Soldiers: As Macduff is dragging out Macbeth's body, we hear trumpets sounding a retreat, indicating that the battle is over, and then a flourish, announcing the arrival of the victors, led by Malcolm. Malcolm, like a good prince, thinks first of his brothers in arms, and says, "I would the friends we miss were safe arrived" (5.8.35). The "friends we miss" are all those missing in action, and among them are Macduff and Young Siward. We know the fate of both, but their stories are yet to be told to the company of soldiers. Ross tells Siward that his son is dead, and that he died like a man. Siward, all soldier, asks, "Had he his hurts before?" (5.8.46). Siward is asking if his son was wounded on the front of his body, which would show that he died fighting. (Siward doesn't want to hear that the wounds were on his son's back, which would mean that he died while trying to run away.) Ross assures Siward that the wounds were indeed on his son's front, and Siward expresses his pride in his son, saying "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" (5.8.47-49). Malcolm, more tender-hearted than the old soldier, says "He's worth more sorrow, / And that I'll spend for him" (5.8.50-51). Siward replies, "He's worth no more
/ They say he parted well, and paid his score: / And so, God be with him!" (5.8.5153). By saying "He's worth no more," Siward doesn't mean to belittle his son; he only means that the sorrow of Malcolm, who is now king, is the best reward that his son could have here on earth. After this passage of stern grief for one of Macbeth's victims comes the most shocking moment of the play: Macduff suddenly appears, carrying a pole, on the top of which is Macbeth's head. Macduff hails Malcolm as king of Scotland and says, "Behold, where stands / The usurper's cursed head: the time is free" (5.8.54-55). The "time is free" because they are all now free of Macbeth's reign of terror over Scotland. Macduff then leads the men in a shout of victory and loyalty. He says, "I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, / That speak my salutation in their minds; / Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: / Hail, King of Scotland!" (5.8.56-59). "Compassed" means "encircled" and Malcolm's "kingdom's pearl" is Malcolm's circle of loyal thanes, who encircle him like a string of pearls encircles a crown. Macduff knows that these thanes already think of Malcolm as their king, and now he asks them to join him in shouting out loud, "Hail, King of Scotland!" And so they do, honoring Malcolm, above whose head looms the severed head of Macbeth. The final speech of the play is Malcolm's. He thanks everyone and promises rewards, the first of which is that all of his thanes will henceforth be earls, Scotland's first. He also promises to call home all those who fled from Macbeth's tyranny and punish those who assisted Macbeth and "his fiend-like queen -- / Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands / Took off her life" (5.8.70-72). Again, he expresses his thanks to all, and invites all to Scone for his coronation. As they exit, there is a smile on every face -- except Macbeth's.

y y y y
Enter Macbeth.Macbeth says that he knows he's trapped. Enter Young Siward.Macbeth fights Young Siward and kills him. Exit Macbeth.Macduff seeks Macbeth. Enter Malcolm and Siward.Malcolm and Siward take possession of Dunsinane.
Enter Macbeth: The last time we saw Macbeth, his soldiers were with him. Now he is alone. He says, "They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, / But, bear-like, I must fight the course" (5.7.1-2). "They" refers to Malcolm's forces, and "bear-like" refers to an extremely cruel sport that was popular at the time. In the neighborhood of Shakespeare's Globe Theater was a similar building, called The Bear Garden. There a bear would be
chained to a stake driven into the ground, and a pack of dogs would be let loose upon the bear for a fight to the death. The spectators made bets on such things as how many dogs the bear would kill before he died in this spectacle of blood and death. Macbeth compares himself to the bear, and he's right. Later in the scene we find that his soldiers have put up no resistance at all, so he is absolutely alone, surrounded by a force of more than ten thousand, all of whom want to kill him. Enter Young Siward. Macbeth's only hope is the prophecy of the second apparition, so he says to himself, "What's he / That was not born of woman? Such a one / Am I to fear, or none" (5.7.24). At this point Young Siward enters, and asks Macbeth his name. (Young Siward is probably looking to fight someone of name, not just a common soldier.) Macbeth tells the boy that he doesn't really want to hear his name, because it will make him afraid. This show of arrogance, however, doesn't cow Young Siward, and they fight. Macbeth kills the boy, and exults in his own invulnerability: "Thou wast born of woman / But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, / Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born" (5.7.11-13). Macbeth then exits, probably taking the body of Young Siward with him, as a kind of grisly trophy. Exit Macbeth. As Macbeth is leaving, we hear trumpets and then see Macduff, who rushes in, looking for him. Apparently Macduff realizes that he has just missed Macbeth, and he shouts out a challenge to his unseen enemy: "Tyrant, show thy face! / If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, / My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still" (5.7.14-16). Macduff goes on to say that he has no wish to fight Macbeth's unwilling soldiers, then hears a noise which he thinks will lead him to Macbeth, and he rushes out again. Enter Malcolm and Siward. Again we hear trumpets, and then Malcolm and Siward enter, knowing that they have already won the battle. Siward comments that "the castle's gently render'd: / The tyrant's people on both sides do fight" (5.7.24-25). He means that the castle was surrendered without any real resistance, because Macbeth's soldiers fought only until they saw a chance to switch sides. Malcolm, too, has seen how easy the victory has been, because "We have met with foes / That strike beside us" (5.7.28-29). "Strike beside us" means either that Macbeth's soldiers deliberately missed when they swung their swords, or that they came over to Malcolm's side. In any case, the royal castle of Dunsinane now belongs to the next king, Malcolm. The only piece of unfinished business is the killing of Macbeth.

y
Enter Macbeth.Macduff and Macbeth do battle. Macbeth boasts that he cannot be harmed by "one of woman born," but Macduff replies that he was
"from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd." They fight on and Macduff kills Macbeth. Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, Siward, Ross, the other Thanes, and Soldiers.Siward receives the news of his son's heroic death. Macduff enters with the head of Macbeth. Malcolm is hailed king of Scotland, whereupon he rewards his followers and invites all to see him crowned.
Enter Macbeth: The last time we saw Macbeth, he was leaving the scene after killing Young Siward. Then Macduff entered and followed a noise that he thought indicated that Macbeth was in the midst of another fight. What we need to remember, then, as Macbeth comes into view, is that he knows he is being hunted down. He has been thinking of the possibility of committing suicide, but he quickly rejects that, saying, "Why should I play the Roman fool, and die / On mine own sword?" (5.8.1-2). The Romans that Macbeth refers to considered suicide to be an honorable way out of an impossible situation. Macbeth is in an impossible situation, but he is determined to do as much damage as possible before he dies. He says, "Whiles I see lives [living men], the gashes / Do better upon them" (5.8.2-3). In other words, he just likes to see the blood flow. Now Macduff catches up with Macbeth and challenges him, calling out, "Turn, hellhound, turn!" (5.8.3). Macbeth answers, "Of all men else I have avoided thee: / But get thee back; my soul is too much charged / With blood of thine" (5.8.5-7). He is giving Macduff a chance to back away without doing battle, but why? He says that his "soul is too much charged / With blood of thine." "Charged" means full, overburdened, and the "blood" to which Macbeth refers is the blood that was shed in the slaughter of Macduff's wife and children. In short, Macbeth is saying that those murders are on his conscience, so he doesn't want to shed Macduff's blood. Could it be that he really feels remorse? Or is he just making an excuse for backing out of a fight with Macduff? Macduff is not impressed and says that he will let his sword do his talking. They fight, and it should be an exciting and suspenseful fight. When Macbeth fought Young Siward, he finished him off quickly, and we saw the boy die in front of our eyes, so we know that a sword can be as deadly as a bullet. After they have fought for a while, Macbeth seems to think that he has the advantage, and he boasts, telling Macduff that he it would be easier to make a wound upon the air than to make him bleed. Macduff, Macbeth says, should go fight someone who can be beaten, but as for himself: "I bear a charmed life, which must not yield, / To one of woman born" (5.8.12-13) Destroying Macbeth's last hope, Macduff replies, "Despair thy charm / And let the angel whom thou still hast served / Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd" (5.8.16-19). Hearing this, Macbeth curses Macduff, because what he has said has "cow'd my better part of man" (5.8.18). His "better part of man" is his courage, and he feels it fading. After this confession of fear--his first in the play-Macbeth curses the fiends who have lied to him and tells Macduff that he won't fight him.
It's somewhat surprising that Macbeth thinks he has a choice about whether or not to fight, but Macduff makes it clear that it's not much of a choice. If Macbeth won't fight, he'll be taken prisoner and paraded about for people to jeer at. This is too much for Macbeth to take, and he regains his courage. Knowing that Birnam wood has come to Dunsinane, knowing that Macduff is not of woman born, knowing that he has no chance, Macbeth determines to fight on, saying "Lay on, Macduff, / And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'" (5.8.33-34). Again they fight, and they fight so hard that they disappear from view for a moment. Trumpets sound, letting us know that others are about to arrive, then Macbeth and Macduff come back into view just as Macduff is delivering the death-blow to Macbeth. Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, Siward, Ross, the other Thanes, and Soldiers: As Macduff is dragging out Macbeth's body, we hear trumpets sounding a retreat, indicating that the battle is over, and then a flourish, announcing the arrival of the victors, led by Malcolm. Malcolm, like a good prince, thinks first of his brothers in arms, and says, "I would the friends we miss were safe arrived" (5.8.35). The "friends we miss" are all those missing in action, and among them are Macduff and Young Siward. We know the fate of both, but their stories are yet to be told to the company of soldiers. Ross tells Siward that his son is dead, and that he died like a man. Siward, all soldier, asks, "Had he his hurts before?" (5.8.46). Siward is asking if his son was wounded on the front of his body, which would show that he died fighting. (Siward doesn't want to hear that the wounds were on his son's back, which would mean that he died while trying to run away.) Ross assures Siward that the wounds were indeed on his son's front, and Siward expresses his pride in his son, saying "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" (5.8.47-49). Malcolm, more tender-hearted than the old soldier, says "He's worth more sorrow, / And that I'll spend for him" (5.8.50-51). Siward replies, "He's worth no more / They say he parted well, and paid his score: / And so, God be with him!" (5.8.5153). By saying "He's worth no more," Siward doesn't mean to belittle his son; he only means that the sorrow of Malcolm, who is now king, is the best reward that his son could have here on earth. After this passage of stern grief for one of Macbeth's victims comes the most shocking moment of the play: Macduff suddenly appears, carrying a pole, on the top of which is Macbeth's head. Macduff hails Malcolm as king of Scotland and says, "Behold, where stands / The usurper's cursed head: the time is free" (5.8.54-55). The "time is free" because they are all now free of Macbeth's reign of terror over Scotland. Macduff then leads the men in a shout of victory and loyalty. He says, "I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, / That speak my salutation in their minds; / Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: / Hail, King of Scotland!" (5.8.56-59). "Compassed" means "encircled" and Malcolm's "kingdom's pearl" is Malcolm's circle of loyal thanes, who encircle him like a string of pearls encircles a crown. Macduff knows that these thanes
already think of Malcolm as their king, and now he asks them to join him in shouting out loud, "Hail, King of Scotland!" And so they do, honoring Malcolm, above whose head looms the severed head of Macbeth. The final speech of the play is Malcolm's. He thanks everyone and promises rewards, the first of which is that all of his thanes will henceforth be earls, Scotland's first. He also promises to call home all those who fled from Macbeth's tyranny and punish those who assisted Macbeth and "his fiend-like queen -- / Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands / Took off her life" (5.8.70-72). Again, he expresses his thanks to all, and invites all to Scone for his coronation. As they exit, there is a smile on every face -- except Macbeth's.

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Summary of Act 1, Scene 1: The witches plan their meeting with Macbeth. Thunder and lightning.

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