Collins Classics

Prefatory Note

This Shakespeare play uses the full Alexander text. By keeping in mind the fact that the language has changed considerably in four hundred years, as have customs, jokes, and stage conventions, the editors have aimed at helping the modern reader – whether English is their mother tongue or not – to grasp the full significance of the play. The Notes, intended primarily for examination candidates, are presented in a simple, direct style. The needs of those unfamiliar with British culture have been specially considered.

Since quiet study of the printed word is unlikely to bring fully to life plays that were written directly for the public theatre, attention has been drawn to dramatic effects which are important in performance. The editors see Shakespeare’s plays as living works of art which can be enjoyed today on stage, film and television in many parts of the world.

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Prefatory Note

The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day

Shakespeare: A Timeline

Life & Times

Money in Shakespeare’s Day

INTRODUCTION

LIST OF CHARACTERS

ACT ONE

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

Scene V

Scene VI

Scene VII

ACT TWO

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

ACT THREE

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

Scene V

Scene VI

ACT FOUR

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

ACT FIVE

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

Scene V

Scene VI

Scene VII

Scene VIII

SUMMING UP

THEME INDEX

Shakespeare: Words and Phrases

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day

On the face of it, the conditions in the Elizabethan theatre were not such as to encourage great writers. The public playhouse itself was not very different from an ordinary inn-yard; it was open to the weather; among the spectators were often louts, pickpockets and prostitutes; some of the actors played up to the rowdy elements in the audience by inserting their own jokes into the authors’ lines, while others spoke their words loudly but unfeelingly; the presentation was often rough and noisy, with fireworks to represent storms and battles, and a table and a few chairs to represent a tavern; there were no actresses, so boys took the parts of women, even such subtle and mature ones as Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth; there was rarely any scenery at all in the modern sense. In fact, a quick inspection of the English theatre in the reign of Elizabeth I by a time-traveller from the twentieth century might well produce only one positive reaction: the costumes were often elaborate and beautiful.

Shakespeare himself makes frequent comments in his plays about the limitations of the playhouse and the actors of his time, often apologizing for them. At the beginning of Henry V the Prologue refers to the stage as ‘this unworthy scaffold’ and to the theatre building (the Globe, probably) as ‘this wooden O, and emphasizes the urgent need for imagination in making up for all the deficiencies of presentation. In introducing Act IV the Chorus goes so far as to say:

…we shall much disgrace

With four or five most vile and ragged foils,

Right ill-dispos’d in brawl ridiculous, The name of Agincourt. (lines 49–52)

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act V, Scene i) he seems to dismiss actors with the words:

The best in this kind are but shadows.

Yet Elizabeth’s theatre, with all its faults, stimulated dramatists to a variety of achievement that has never been equalled and, in Shakespeare, produced one of the greatest writers in history. In spite of all his grumbles he seems to have been fascinated by the challenge that it presented him with. It is necessary to re-examine his theatre carefully in order to understand how he was able to achieve so much with the materials he chose to use. What sort of place was the Elizabethan playhouse in reality? What sort of people were these criticized actors? And what sort of audiences gave them their living.

The Development of the Theatre up to Shakespeare’s Time

For centuries in England noblemen had employed groups of skilled people to entertain them when required. Under Tudor rule, as England became more secure and united, actors such as these were given more freedom, and they often performed in public, while still acknowledging their ‘overlords’ (in the 1570s, for example, when Shakespeare was still a schoolboy at Stratford, one famous company was called ‘Lord Leicester’s Men’). London was rapidly becoming larger and more important in the second half of the sixteenth century, and many of the companies of actors took the opportunities offered to establish themselves at inns on the main roads leading to the City (for example, the Boar’s Head in Whitechapel and the Tabard in South-wark) or in the City itself. These groups of actors would come to an agreement with the inn-keeper which would give them the use of the yard for their performances after people had eaten and drunk well in the middle of the day. Before long, some inns were taken over completely by companies of players and thus became the first public theatres. In 1574 the officials of the City of London issued an order which shows clearly that these theatres were both popular and also offensive to some respectable people, because the order complains about ‘the inordinate haunting of great multitudes of people, specially youth, to plays interludes and shows; namely occasion of frays and quarrels, evil practices of incontinency in great inns…’ There is evidence that, on public holidays, the theatres on the banks of the Thames were crowded with noisy apprentices and tradesmen, but it would be wrong to think that audiences were always undiscriminating and loudmouthed. In spite of the disapproval of Puritans and the more staid members of society, by the 1590s, when Shakespeare’s plays were beginning to be performed, audiences consisted of a good cross-section of English society, nobility as well as workers, intellectuals as well as simple people out for a laugh; also (and in this respect English theatres were unique in Europe), it was quite normal for respectable women to attend plays. So Shakespeare had to write plays which would appeal to people of widely different kinds. He had to provide ‘something for everyone’ but at the same time to take care to unify the material so that it would not seem to fall into separate pieces as they watched it. A speech like that of the drunken porter in Macbeth could provide the ‘groundlings’ with a belly-laugh, but also held a deeper significance for those who could appreciate it. The audience he wrote for was one of a number of apparent drawbacks which Shakespeare was able to turn to his and our advantage.

Shakespeare’s Actors

Nor were all the actors of the time mere ‘rogues, vagabonds and sturdy beggars’ as some were described in a Statute of 1572. It is true that many of them had a hard life and earned very little money, but leading actors could become partners in the ownership of the theatres in which they acted: Shakespeare was a shareholder in the Globe and the Blackfriars theatres when he was an actor as well as a playwright. In any case, the attacks made on Elizabethan actors were usually directed at their morals and not at their acting ability; it is clear that many of them must have been good at their trade if they were able to interpret complex works like the great tragedies in such a way as to attract enthusiastic audiences. Undoubtedly some of the boys took the women’s parts with skill and confidence, since a man called Coryate, visiting Venice in 1611, expressed surprise that women could act as well as they: ‘I saw women act, a thing that I never saw before…and they performed it with as good a grace, action, gesture…as ever I saw any masculine actor.’ The quality of most of the actors who first presented Shakespeare’s plays is probably accurately summed up by Fynes Moryson, who wrote, ‘…as there be, in my opinion, more plays in London than in all the parts of the world I have seen, so do these players or comedians excel all other in the world.’

The Structure of the Public Theatre

Although the ‘purpose-built’ theatres were based on the inn-yards which had been used for play-acting, most of them were circular. The walls contained galleries on three storeys from which the wealthier patrons watched, they must have been something like the ‘boxes’ in a modern theatre, except that they held much larger numbers – as many as 1500. The ‘groundlings’ stood on the floor of the building, facing a raised stage which projected from the ‘stage-wall’, the main features of which were:

1 a small room opening on to the back of the main stage and on the same level as it (rear stage),

2 a gallery above this inner stage (upper stage),

3 a canopy projecting from above the gallery over the main stage, to protect the actors from the weather (the 700 or 800 members of the audience who occupied the yard, or ‘pit’ as we call it today, had the sky above them).

In addition to these features there were dressing-rooms behind the stage and a space underneath it from which entrances could be made through trap-doors. All the acting areas – main stage, rear stage, upper stage and under stage – could be entered by actors directly from their dressing rooms, and all of them were used in productions of Shakespeare’s plays. For example, the inner stage, an almost cave-like structure, would have been where Ferdinand and Miranda are ‘discovered’ playing chess in the last act of The Tempest, while the upper stage was certainly the balcony from which Romeo climbs down in Act III of Romeo and Juliet.

It can be seen that such a building, simple but adaptable, was not really unsuited to the presentation of plays like Shakespeare’s. On the contrary, its simplicity guaranteed the minimum of distraction, while its shape and construction must have produced a sense of involvement on the part of the audience that modern producers would envy.

Other Resources of the Elizabethan Theatre

Although there were few attempts at scenery in the public theatre (painted backcloths were occasionally used in court performances), Shakespeare and his fellow playwrights were able to make use of a fair variety of ‘properties’, lists of such articles have survived: they include beds, tables, thrones, and also trees, walls, a gallows, a Trojan horse and a ‘Mouth of Hell’; in a list of properties belonging to the manager, Philip Henslowe, the curious item ‘two mossy banks’ appears. Possibly one of them was used for the

bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows

in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act II, Scene i). Once again, imagination must have been required of the audience.

Costumes were the one aspect of stage production in which trouble and expense were hardly ever spared to obtain a magnificent effect. Only occasionally did they attempt any historical accuracy (almost all Elizabethan productions were what we should call ‘modern-dress’ ones), but they were appropriate to the characters who wore them: kings were seen to be kings and beggars were similarly unmistakable. It is an odd fact that there was usually no attempt at illusion in the costuming: if a costume looked fine and rich it probably was. Indeed, some of the costumes were almost unbelievably expensive. Henslowe lent his company £19 to buy a cloak, and the Alleyn brothers, well-known actors, gave £20 for a ‘black velvet cloak, with sleeves embroidered all with silver and gold, lined with black satin striped with gold’.

With the one exception of the costumes, the ‘machinery’ of the playhouse was economical and uncomplicated rather than crude and rough, as we can see from this second and more leisurely look at it. This meant that playwrights were stimulated to produce the imaginative effects that they wanted from the language that they used. In the case of a really great writer like Shakespeare, when he had learned his trade in the theatre as an actor, it seems that he received quite enough assistance of a mechanical and structural kind without having irksome restrictions and conventions imposed on him; it is interesting to try to guess what he would have done with the highly complex apparatus of a modern television studio. We can see when we look back to his time that he used his instrument, the Elizabethan theatre, to the full, but placed his ultimate reliance on the communication between his imagination and that of his audience through the medium of words. It is, above all, his rich and wonderful use of language that must have made play-going at that time a memorable experience for people of widely different kinds. Fortunately, the deep satisfaction of appreciating and enjoying Shakespeare’s work can be ours also, if we are willing to overcome the language difficulty produced by the passing of time.

Shakespeare: A Timeline

Very little indeed is known about Shakespeare’s private life: the facts included here are almost the only indisputable ones. The dates of Shakespeare’s plays are those on which they were first produced.

Life & Times
William Shakespeare the Playwright

There exists a curious paradox when it comes to the life of William Shakespeare. He easily has more words written about him than any other famous English writer, yet we know the least about him. This inevitably means that most of what is written about him is either fabrication or speculation. The reason why so little is known about Shakespeare is that he wasn’t a novelist or a historian or a man of letters. He was a playwright, and playwrights were considered fairly low on the social pecking order in Elizabethan society. Writing plays was about providing entertainment for the masses – the great unwashed. It was the equivalent to being a journalist for a tabloid newspaper.

In fact, we only know of Shakespeare’s work because two of his friends had the foresight to collect his plays together following his death and have them printed. The only reason they did so was apparently because they rated his talent and thought it would be a shame if his words were lost.

Consequently his body of work has ever since been assessed and reassessed as the greatest contribution to English literature. That is despite the fact that we know that different printers took it upon themselves to heavily edit the material they worked from. We also know that Elizabethan plays were worked and reworked frequently, so that they evolved over time until they were honed to perfection, which means that many different hands played their part in the active writing process. It would therefore be fair to say that any play attributed to Shakespeare is unlikely to contain a great deal of original input. Even the plots were based on well known historical events, so it would be hard to know what fragments of any Shakespeare play came from that single mind.

One might draw a comparison with the Christian bible, which remains such a compelling read because it came from the collaboration of many contributors and translators over centuries, who each adjusted the stories until they could no longer be improved. As virtually nothing is known of Shakespeare’s life and even less about his method of working, we shall never know the truth about his plays. They certainly contain some very elegant phrasing, clever plot devices and plenty of words never before seen in print, but as to whether Shakespeare invented them from a unique imagination or whether he simply took them from others around him is anyone’s guess.

The best bet seems to be that Shakespeare probably took the lead role in devising the original drafts of the plays, but was open to collaboration from any source when it came to developing them into workable scripts for effective performances. He would have had to work closely with his fellow actors in rehearsals, thereby finding out where to edit, abridge, alter, reword and so on.

In turn, similar adjustments would have occurred in his absence, so that definitive versions of his plays never really existed. In effect Shakespeare was only responsible for providing the framework of plays, upon which others took liberties over time. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the English language itself was not definitive at that time either. The consequence was that people took it upon themselves to spell words however they pleased or to completely change words and phrasing to suit their own preferences.

It is easy to see then, that Shakespeare’s plays were always going to have lives of their own, mutating and distorting in detail like Chinese whispers. The culture of creative preservation was simply not established in Elizabethan England. Creative ownership of Shakespeare’s plays was lost to him as soon as he released them into the consciousness of others. They saw nothing wrong with taking his ideas and running with them, because no one had ever suggested that one shouldn’t, and Shakespeare probably regarded his work in the same way. His plays weren’t sacrosanct works of art, they were templates for theatre folk to make their livings from, so they had every right to mould them into productions that drew in the crowds as effectively as possible. Shakespeare was like the helmsman of a sailing ship, steering the vessel but wholly reliant on the team work of his crew to arrive at the desired destination.

It seems that Shakespeare certainly had a natural gift, but the genius of his plays may be attributable to the collective efforts of Shakespeare and others. It is a rather satisfying notion to think that his plays might actually be the creative outpourings of the Elizabethan milieu in which Shakespeare immersed himself. That makes them important social documents as well as seminal works of the English language.

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Money in Shakespeare’s Day

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to relate the value of money in our time to its value in another age and to compare prices of commodities today and in the past. Many items are simply not comparable on grounds of quality or serviceability.

There was a bewildering variety of coins in use in Elizabethan England. As nearly all English and European coins were gold or silver, they had intrinsic value apart from their official value. This meant that foreign coins circulated freely in England and were officially recognized, for example the French crown (écu) worth about 30p (72 cents), and the Spanish ducat worth about 33p (79 cents). The following table shows some of the coins mentioned by Shakespeare and their relation to one another.

A comparison of the following prices in Shakespeare’s time with the prices of the same items today will give some idea of the change in the value of money.

There was a bewildering variety of coins in use in Elizabethan England. As nearly all English and European coins were gold or silver, they had intrinsic value apart from their official value. This meant that foreign coins circulated freely in England and were officially recognized, for example the French crown (écu) worth about 30p (72 cents), and the Spanish ducat worth about 33p (79 cents). The following table shows some of the coins mentioned by Shakespeare and their relation to one another.

INTRODUCTION

Macbeth is a simple play. That is to say, the plot is straightforward, the characters clearly presented, the opposition of good and evil perfectly plain. There is not even much doubt, at any stage, about the ultimate fate of Macbeth and his wife. In fact, a heavy sense of inevitability hangs over all their actions. Nevertheless, where so much is obvious, there is still a great deal of mystery. Why does this sturdy soldier become a mean killer and, worse, a hirer of thugs to do his killing for him, particularly when he knows, and says, that his plans are sure to bring retribution upon him? Why does Lady Macbeth, an apparently loving wife, see it almost as a duty to drive herself and her husband into evil ways? And why do so many quite good men allow this vicious couple to gain total power and ruin the state of Scotland?

Some aspects of the Macbeth story have become horribly familiar in the course of the history of our own century. Several modem dictators have begun as brave soldiers and ended as crazy destroyers, so that the line between legitimate warfare and power-hungry violence has become very blurred indeed. Psychologists have shown us that, behind seemingly straightforward human motives, good or bad, there are often extremely complicated emotions and intentions. For these and other reasons this play, now nearly four hundred years old, based on the life of a man who lived six hundred years before Shakespeare himself, still exerts a great fascination on audiences and readers all over the world. In the summing-up at the end of this book an attempt will be made to analyse the reasons for this continued interest, and to go more deeply into the questions raised in this introduction. In the meantime, those new to the play may care to consider some of the intriguing ingredients of the play they are about to study, particularly those that are likely to be evident on first seeing or reading it.

The witches These three sinister creatures introduce the play, in a very brief first scene. They intend to meet with Macbeth, and they immediately convey an impression of impending horror. There is no clue to the nature of this horror, but we are uneasily aware of limitless possibilities. These agents of evil are at hand, ready to be consulted, ready to influence for the worse, for much of the play.

The good king King Duncan of Scotland soon appears, and impresses us with his integrity and generosity, as well as with his determination to do all he can for his kingdom’s welfare. He is, in the early stages, the representative of goodness, trust and benevolent order.

The ‘decent’ men We are introduced to a number of Scotsmen – the bleeding Sergeant, the king’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, Lennox, Ross, Banquo and Angus – who serve their king and country as well as they can. Under good leadership they are faithful and useful. They react in various ways to the kingship of the ruthless Macbeth.

The strongholds Much of the action takes place in the Scottish castles of Inverness, Forres, Dunsinane and Fife. These grim, grey containers of human turmoil provide effective settings for the deeds done. We are frequently reminded of their walls, battlements and heavy gates. The principal murders take place in or near them. Such deeds are partly hidden by their walls, or by darkness, or by both.

The weather The play starts with thunder, lightning, fog and filthy air; there is a moment of serene summer (seen through Duncan’s innocent eyes), followed by a brooding, overcast night, breaking into unprecedented tempest (the night of the first murder). The evening of the banquet is also calm, but with the prospect of rain. Banquo dies and, soon after, the Macduff family is destroyed. During the rest of the play there is no direct description of the weather. The disturbances seem to reflect not only Scotland’s time of trial but also the upheaval in Macbeth’s mind. For most of the last two acts he is settled in and almost resigned to his own evil.

Scotland and England Scotland, suffering under Macbeth’s tyranny, and England, an idyllic country under the saintly King Edward the Confessor, are vividly contrasted. But the essence of the contrast is not in any Scottish inferiority; rather, it is Scotland’s sheer misfortune to have such an inexplicably evil ruler as Macbeth, and England’s simple duty to help to destroy him.

Apparitions Apart from the witches themselves, there are several possibly supernatural elements in the play: the air-drawn dagger which Macbeth saw before he killed Duncan (though this might well have been the product of his own feverish imagination), the ghost of Banquo, and the things the witches conjure up for Macbeth’s inspection at the beginning of Act IV. As a member of a modern audience, how would you explain these visions? Are they an embarrassment, or do they add to the horrible reality of the story?

The words of the play Finally, as you go through the play, it should be stimulating to notice how Shakespeare uses words to gain his effects. Unfortunately there are many words and phrases which require explanation to twentieth century readers (which is why notes are provided), but a little thought and imagination can make a great deal clear. The verse rhythms, the images, the descriptive words, even the punning and other forms of word-play, all add to the main impression: this is a tale of human evil and human goodness much of which appeals directly to us today.

After this brief outline of the main features of Macbeth we shall look more closely and intently at its constituent parts and examine the contribution each makes to the whole effect. After this analysis of the ingredients of the play, the ‘Summing Up’ (page 247) will attempt to put things together again and leave you better equipped to explore the play for yourself.

The Language of the Play

It has already been said that many Shakespearean words and phrases require explanation to twentieth century readers and play-goers. It is not at all surprising that a play written nearly four hundred years ago should present problems of understanding. Living languages are always changing and developing. Another difficulty is that playwrights have always interested and amused audiences by making topical references. An Elizabethan audience would have instantly recognized a mention of the Spanish Armada, or something relating to the contemporary troubles in Ireland, which people in a twentieth century theatre might not even notice. Although it must be said that much of what is most important ‘gets across’ quite readily, we can all gain more from a Shakespeare play by deepening our understanding of the text. But, however conscientiously readers follow any textual notes, they will only be adding to their comprehension of words and phrases. There is a broader strategy at work in Shakespeare’s use of language that notes can only hint at. For example, the linguistic style often varies to suit the mood of the moment or the personality of the speaker. Macbeth begins with a heavy, menacing rhythm, a kind of incantation by the witches:

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air

(Act 1, Scene i, lines 12–13)

which breaks off suddenly and is replaced by a passage full of long, involved sentences of description and explanation. The wounded Sergeant tries to convey in detail to his king the reality of a terrible battle, and the almost superhuman impression that Macbeth’s quality of fighting has made upon him. The Sergeant’s account falters, he breaks off, exhausted, and the scene ends with a mixture of long, rolling lines and short, exclamatory ones. The news seems good: The victory fell on us (Act 1, Scene iii, line 59) says Ross, but the news of Cawdor’s treachery is dismaying and the rhythms hint at confusion, not resolution. Ambiguous notes have been struck which condition our responses to what follows. As the play goes on, more doubts arise, and motives become obscure: these abstractions are reflected in the language. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, when talking to themselves or to each other, are generally clear and direct in style:

Lady Macbeth:

Yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way

(Act 1, Scene v, lines 15–17)

and

Macbeth:

He’s here in double trust:’

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject…

(Act 1, Scene vii, lines 12–13

Both of them, however, adopt a flamboyant, almost unctuous manner when they want to conceal their true feelings and intentions.

All our service

In every point twice done, and then done double,

Were poor and single business to contend

Against those honours deep and broad wherewith

Your Majesty loads our house;

(Act 1, Scene vi, lines 14–18)

says Lady Macbeth to Duncan, with murder in her mind, when welcoming him to the castle at Inverness. Her husband outdoes her in fulsome language, just after he has killed Duncan:

Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood;

And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature

For ruin’s wasteful entrance

(Act II, Scene iii, lines 111–14)

He goes on in such extravagant terms that (some critics suggest) Lady Macbeth has to pretend to faint in order to shut him up. Duncan and Banquo are almost the only characters whose true feelings are regularly reflected in their words. Even among some of those who represent the forces of goodness and truth, language is sometimes used to hide feelings rather than to express them. In the mysterious Act IV, Scene iii, Malcolm, who is to prove the saviour of Scotland, pours out hundreds of words of self-description, most of which he contradicts a little later on (I…unspeak mine own detraction).

By Act V, clarity and directness have returned. Lady Macbeth, in her madness, speaks the simple words of truth:

Yet who would have thought the old man to have had

so much blood in him?

(Act V, Scene i, lines 35–7)

Macbeth himself, face to face with ultimate reality, no longer has any need for words as disguises:

…that which should accompany old age,

As honour, lover obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have.

(Act V, Scene in, lines 24–6)

So, although it is apparent that language in this play frequently reflects the moods and characters of the speakers, it often does so in subtle ways. In addition, deeper and wider impressions are being evoked, so that the language of the play throughout reflects its underlying ideas: the onset of evil fostered in human souls, doubt and insecurity (represented in ambiguous words) and finally the triumph of truth and justice. Some further suggestions are made in the Theme Index (page 214) about the use of particular words by which these wide-ranging impressions are conveyed.

Plot

The story of the play may be set down in the following matter-of-fact way:

ACT I

A note of doubt and confusion is struck by three witches in the first scene. They refer to a battle that is not yet concluded; they plan to meet Macbeth, one of the Scottish generals, in a deserted place, at the end of the day’s fighting. This is followed by a scene in which Duncan, King of Scotland, hears an interim report on the battle between the rebels (Macdonwald and the Thane of Cawdor) together with an army of Norwegian invaders, and the loyal Scottish forces led by Macbeth and Banquo. A wounded Sergeant describes a ferocious fight in which both Macbeth and Banquo are acquitting themselves with tremendous skill and determination. Ross, another Scottish lord, comes in to announce victory. King Duncan orders the execution of Cawdor and the honouring of Macbeth with the traitor’s title.

The witches meet Macbeth as they had planned. Banquo, who is with him, addresses the witches with suspicion, seeing them as probably evil. Macbeth says little, but seems prepared to listen to them. They greet him as Thane of Glamis (his correct title), Thane of Cawdor (a title which, by now, is his, but he doesn’t know it), and future king. Banquo notices that Macbeth reacts to what the witches say with apparent fear. He orders the witches to make some announcement about his future, too; they respond by telling his fortune in riddles. In particular, they say that he is to be the ancestor of kings, though not a king himself. The witches disappear, leaving the two men, bewildered, repeating the prophecies. Ross arrives to announce Macbeth’s new title of Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth’s thoughts turn at once to the possibility of being king, while Banquo shows again that he deeply distrusts the witches. (What, can the devil speak true?) Before the end of the scene Macbeth is already contemplating the murder of Duncan, though hoping that the final prophecy may come true without any action on his part.

In Scene iv, at the royal palace at Forres, King Duncan and Macbeth face each other. The former is warm, friendly, grateful for his general’s services; the latter superficially responsive and dutiful Duncan proclaims his son Malcolm as his heir. This leaves Macbeth almost committed to the murder of Duncan, but well aware of the nature of what he contemplates (he refers to his black and deep desires). In Scene v, Lady Macbeth makes her first appearance. She is reading a letter she has just received from Macbeth in which he tells her about the witches’ prophecies, and the speedy fulfilment of part of them. Lady Macbeth immediately determines that he shall be king, by whatever means may be necessary. She thinks he may be too good-natured to catch the nearest way (that is, to kill Duncan), but she feels confident that she can persuade him to do it. Fate seems to be on her side when a messenger enters to say that Duncan is on his way to honour them with a visit. In a speech in which she reveals much of her character (The raven himself is hoarse…, lines 38–54), she acknowledges her natural womanly feelings but appeals to the powers of darkness to make her cruelly resolute. Macbeth arrives and his wife makes it clear that she expects him to kill Duncan that night. He makes no clear response. Duncan and his court come to Inverness Castle and are greeted effusively by Lady Macbeth but, significantly, not by Macbeth himself.

In the final scene of the first Act, Macbeth struggles with his ambition and his conscience. He has left the banquet hall where the king is dining to try to work things out on his own. He knows that Duncan is a good king, and is clear that nothing but selfish ambition is pressing him towards a terrible crime. He has just concluded that the plan is a wicked one and that he will abandon it, when his wife appears and attacks him viciously and determinedly at his weakest point – his pride in his own courage and manliness. She accuses him of cowardice, and of not loving her. She follows this up with an appalling demonstration that she is willing to go to any lengths herself, declaring that she would dash her own baby to the ground rather than go back on her word. She outlines a plan of action. Macbeth is persuaded, though he is dreadfully aware of the wickedness of what they plan to do.

ACT II

Banquo, as well as Macbeth, seems to be plagued by disturbing thoughts and temptations, but when Macbeth suggests that they should meet to discuss the witches’ prophecies Banquo stresses that he will do nothing dishonourable. Left alone, in another agonized soliloquy (Is this a dagger which I see before me…?) Macbeth shows how deeply disturbed he is by the crime he is now committed to. He hears the bell, struck by Lady Macbeth, which is the signal for him to act; she has done her part by giving Duncan’s servants drink, to make them sleepy. She hears Macbeth shout, and thinks that he has failed to kill the king, but he comes in saying that he has ‘done the deed’.

He seems shattered, and she has to stop him thinking about the crime and his lost honour. As before, she uses the weapon of scorn against him, but this time it does not work. He cannot bring himself to return to the king’s room with the bloody daggers which he should have left there. She goes instead and smears the servants with blood. A thunderous knocking is heard. Macbeth is obsessed with the horror of Duncan’s blood on his hands; Lady Macbeth, on the contrary, whose hands are now also red, dismisses it as unimportant (A little water clears us of this deed).

The porter of the castle is roused at last from his drunken sleep by the knocking. He staggers to the door of the castle to let in Macduff and Lennox, who have come to wake the king. Macbeth comes to see them, pretending that he has only just been awakened himself, and escorts Macduff to the king’s apartment. After Lennox has commented on the wild weather, Macduff re-enters, so appalled that he can hardly say what he has seen. All the thanes and and the two princes, Malcolm and Donalbain, are roused. Lennox, Ross and Macbeth go back to the king’s room, where Macbeth kills the two servants who are covered in blood. Soon afterwards Lennox blames these servants for the murder, but Macduff seems to have some doubts, since he asks Macbeth why he killed them. Macbeth begins to explain in an elaborate, overwrought manner and Lady Macbeth either faints or pretends to do so. Malcolm and Donalbain, who have hardly had time to feel anything except fear, decide to go away. Malcolm’s words suggest that he already suspects Macbeth.

The final scene in the Act presents a picture of total disorder in the natural world, reflecting the chaos in human society. An old man describes bizarre events. Macduff says that Malcolm and Donalbain, because they have fled, are suspected of paying the servants to kill Duncan, their father. He also says that Macbeth has been named as the new king; he is shortly to be crowned at Scone.

ACT III

Banquo clearly suspects that Macbeth has become king by foul means. Macbeth invites Banquo to a feast, and goes on to extract information from him about his planned movements in the afternoon. Because he is deeply concerned about the witches’ prophecy that Banquo is to be the ancestor of kings, Macbeth is plotting to kill his comrade. As soon as he has said farewell to Banquo (God be with you!) he meets two murderers whom, with a strange mixture of lies, temptations, insults and compliments, he persuades to intercept Banquo as he returns towards the castle and kill him. Lady Macbeth tries to comfort her husband, who is full of gloom and fear but is not taking her into his confidence. He hints that he is arranging the removal of Banquo, the most obvious obstacle to his peace of mind. The murderers succeed in killing Banquo but, significantly, Fleance his son escapes.

While the banquet proceeds, the murderers tell Macbeth what has happened; he sinks again into gloom. Banquo’s ghost enters and sits in Macbeth’s seat. Macbeth, shaken with guilt and horror, creates a sensation among the guests and Lady Macbeth has to pretend that he often has such fits, which soon pass. The ghost disappears temporarily and Macbeth seems to recover, but when he proposes a toast to Banquo the ghost returns and Macbeth behaves like a madman. Lady Macbeth, worried that her husband will soon reveal his terrible secrets, ushers out the guests. Macbeth resolves to visit the witches and find out what his future holds. At the same time he contemplates even more frightful crimes (Strange things I have in head that will to hand).

After a brief and not very important scene in which Hecate, the witches’ goddess, appears, two of the Scottish lords make it quite clear to each other that they strongly suspect Macbeth of the two murders. They reveal that Macduff has gone to the court of Edward the Confessor of England (where Malcolm, Duncan’s son, is living) to beg his military assistance in opposing Macbeth.

ACT IV

Macbeth visits the witches who conjure up, first, a helmeted head; next, a bloody child; and then a crowned child with a tree in his hand. The first apparition warns him to beware of Macduff; the second says that no man born of woman can harm him; and the third informs him that he will never be defeated until Birnam Wood moves towards his castle at Dusinane. Macbeth is encouraged by the second and third prophecies but insists on putting a question to the supernatural powers about Banquo’s descendants: will they ever rule Scotland? In answer he is shown a line of eight kings, accom-panied by Banquo, whom they all resemble; the last king holds a mirror in which still more Banquo-like kings are visible. Immediately after this, news comes that Macduff has fled to, England. Macbeth plans to attack his castle and slaughter his wife and entire family. In the next scene Lady Macduff has just been told by Ross that her husband has gone to England. She is angry and contemptuous of her husband and tells her small son that his father is dead. After a messenger has warned them that they are in danger, murderers sent by Macbeth enter and stab the son. We learn later that the whole family has been killed.

The scene switches to the English, court where Malcolm and Macduff have a long and strange conversation. Macduff is urging Malcolm to return to Scotland to attempt to destroy Macbeth, but Malcolm is suspicious: he thinks Macduff (on Macbeth’s behalf) may be trying to lure him back to Scotland. He tests Macduff by describing himself as a thoroughly wicked man, totally unsuited to be king in Macbeth’s place. He wants to see if Macduff will go on encouraging him beyond all reasonable limits, in which case he will know that he is being deceived. Up to a point Macduff accepts Malcolm’s supposed vices, but eventually he despairs, says Malcolm is not even fit to live, let alone govern Scotland, and prepares to leave. This convinces Malcolm that Macduff is honest. When a doctor suddenly appears to tell them that King Edward is about to cure sick people by the laying on of hands, a new note of hope is introduced (the implication is that he will help Malcolm cure the social and political sickness in Scotland). Malcolm and Macduff are reconciled. Ross comes from Scotland with the appalling news of the destruction of Macduff’s family and, after cursing himself for neglecting them, Macduff determines to seek revenge. The English army under Siward is ready and Malcolm, Macduff and Ross prepare to march northward.

ACT V

The last Act begins with talk between a doctor and a gentlewoman about the serious illness of Lady Macbeth. We are told that she is in the habit of sleepwalking in a state of great agitation. She says things that seem to incriminate herself and her husband. Then Lady Macbeth herself enters with a lighted taper and the doctor prepares to record what she says. She appears to be washing her hands, and, in a fragmentary way, gives details of the murder of Duncan. She also refers to the killing of Lady Macduff and of Banquo. The watchers express their horror at the significance of what she has said.

A Scottish army is about to combine with the English forces under Malcolm and Siward, and attack Macbeth at Dunsinane. In Scene iii, Macbeth declares his desperate trust in the statements of the witches’ apparitions: Birnam Wood cannot possibly move, and all men are born of women. Soon after this he is brought news of the approach of an army of ten thousand men; he sinks temporarily into a state of despair, seeing his own life as near its end. The doctor tells him that there is no change in Lady Macbeth’s state. Macbeth rouses himself and prepares for battle.

The combined army halts near Birnam Wood and Malcolm gives orders for the soldiers to camouflage themselves with leafy boughs cut from the trees. In Dusinane Castle Lady Macbeth’s death is announced and Macbeth reacts by commenting on the meaninglessness of life. A messenger tells him that Birnam Wood is moving towards them. Macbeth flies into an almost insane rage, then lapses into weary resignation, and finally determines to die fighting. Two brief scenes follow (vii and viii) in which the battle is presented. Macbeth is still half-depending on the statement that he cannot be killed by any man ‘of woman born’ and, when he kills young Siward, is re-encouraged. He encounters the angry Macduff, who tells him that he was born by Caesarian section (i.e. cut from his mother’s body). The last of the supernatural assurances is shown to be a deception. Macbeth refuses to fight Macduff and then, after all, decides to rely on his own strength and courage. They go off fighting. Soon afterwards Macduff returns with Macbeth’s severed head. Malcolm ends the play by heralding a new era for his kingdom of Scotland.

Characterization

Even in such a prosaic summary of the plot, attitudes and relationships in the war between good and evil have to be presented and to some extent explained. In the process, certain characters stand out. It has often been said that Shakespeare’s supreme achievement is in the depth and range of the characters he creates – that he constantly presents us with totally credible individuals. In most of his plays, certainly, the characters ‘ring true’. Some of them are profound and convincing portraits, ‘psychologically accurate’, to use a familiar modern phrase. Shakespeare seems to have succeeded in creating people. He is assisted, of course, by the fact that we usually meet these characters as they are embodied by skilful actors and actresses. We watch a human being in the part, speaking the lines, frowning, moving, gesticulating. Gradually the illusion takes a grip upon us, our imaginations take over (guided by the imagination of the playwright) and we react for a time as though we are watching and listening to real people living their own real lives. In Macbeth there are certainly two characters who are presented skilfully, imaginatively and fully enough to have this effect upon us from the stage and, indeed, even from the pages of a book: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. A good deal has been said about them in this introduction already, but it may be helpful to say a little more. It has been pointed out that the play is one battle in the universal war of good and evil, and that the battle is not between thoroughly bad people and thoroughly good ones. Notwithstanding, by the middle of the play, Macbeth and his wife epitomize the evil which is feared and hated by almost everyone else and, by the end, it is virtually Macbeth versus the rest. The battle also goes on within the two chief characters. There is some danger of seeing them as figures in a sensational horror, story, but close attention dispels this tendency. We have to believe Lady Macbeth when she says that her husband is full o’ th’ milk of human kindness when we listen to what he says. No-one expresses the positive side of human nature more truly, from Macbeth’s early comments on Duncan:

this Duncan

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been

So clear in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angels…

(Act I, Scene vii, lines 16–19)

to his poignant regrets at the end of his life:

My way of life

is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf…

(Act V, Scene iii, lines 22–3)

How does a man who knows what human goodness is, and respects it, decline so rapidly into a murderous tyrant? Essentially, he chooses to do so, and knows that it is his choice, because of his ambition, the influence of a beloved wife, and the value he attaches to being thought a brave man. None of these aspects of his character is, in itself, evil, but he allows himself to be led by them into evil Ambition becomes an insatiable hunger, his love for his wife leads him to agree to frightful deeds, and his fighting quality degenerates into bloodlust. Accordingly, he alienates all our respect, yet evokes genuine pity at the last. We recognize a human being.

Lady Macbeth seems to alienate respect in playgoers and readers even more completely, and may not evoke pity, even at the end of her life. Yet she is, potentially, a ‘partner in greatness’ who, like Macbeth, takes it for granted that greatness is all that matters. Like so many other words in the play, this word is interpreted in various ways by various people. Lady Macbeth is a woman who will ‘do anything’ for her husband, just as he will ‘do anything’ for her. She is even willing, and able, to deny her own deepest feelings as a woman and a human being: it is at the moment when she declares that she would kill her own child rather than go back on her word that she inspires most repugnance; and it is at this moment that they are at one. It is the moment of commitment for both of them, and the signal for the train of events which plunges the whole of their society into tragic suffering. She is broken by it, and before long becomes a pathetic, deranged creature, as much a prey to guilt as Macbeth is.

No other character in the play is nearly as fully drawn as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Duncan is a good old man, reluctant to see evil in anyone. Malcolm is a tougher version of his father, and his personality seems at one point to veer towards interesting complexity (in the long conversation with Macduff at the English court). Banquo acts as a foil to Macbeth, as a man similarly tempted but too staunchly honourable to fall into evil ways himself – though he appears to do nothing to follow up his suspicions of Macbeth. Even Macduff, although he becomes the tyrant’s executioner, does not develop into a particularly subtle personality, perhaps because we are not allowed to see him agonizing over the decision to leave his family and go to England. All these supporting characters revolve around Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, however. After Macbeth has died, we just feel confident that those who have survived will lead Scotland wisely and well.

Dramatic Structure and the Thematic Pattern

The first comment in this introduction was ‘Macbeth is a simple play’. This is particularly true of its dramatic structure and thematic pattern, both of which depend on the central issue of a struggle between good and evil. The play begins with a clear-cut physical conflict with, seemingly, no ambiguities. Scotland is a ‘good’ society ruled by a good man: the enemies are traitors, vicious invaders and contemptible mercenaries. Macbeth emerges as the champion of goodness and is immediately transformed into the enemy of goodness. Evil power proliferates, good men are destroyed, other good men run away. By Act IV, Scene iii, evil seems triumphant. Then Malcolm and Macduff reach agreement and the good King Edward lends his holy power. Faith and hope return and fortune swings away from evil. Act V shows the final battle. Scotland is cleansed and the new king acknowledges the need for supernatural goodness (the grace of Grace) to support human striving.

LIST OF CHARACTERS

ACT ONE

Scene I

An open place

[Thunder and lightning. Enter three WITCHES.]

First Witch

When shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch

When the hurlyburly’s done,

When the battle’s lost and won.

Third Witch

That will be ere the set of sun. 5

First Witch

Where the place?

Second Witch

Upon the heath.

Third Witch

There to meet with Macbeth.

First Witch

I come, Graymalkin.

Second Witch

Paddock calls. 10

Third Witch

Anon!

All

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[WITCHES vanish.]

ACT I SCENE I

This short opening scene gives an immediate impression of mystery, horror and uncertainty. These witches would have been truly frightening to an audience in Shakespeare’s day, many of whom would have seen, or at the very least known about, women burnt at the stake for selling themselves to the Devil. Macbeth is introduced by name by the Third Witch, and this raises questions in the audience’s mind – who is he? And what can these disgusting hags want with him?

3. hurlyburly the confused noise of storm and battle. Thunder was produced for the Elizabethan stage by rolling cannon-balls. Nowadays the same effect is produced by shaking sheets of metal, or through electronic and digital sound equipment.

4. lost and won the first of many apparent contradictions and confusions (see line 12 of this scene). The words can mean ‘decided one way or the other’.

9. Graymalkin a name for a grey cat, which was a common ‘familiar’ of witches. A familiar was a demon which attended and assisted a witch; these spirits usually took some rather sinister form.

10. Paddock a toad. This is the Second Witch’s familiar. Sounds were probably made off-stage to represent the calls of these familiar spirits, though it is difficult to imagine what sound a toad was supposed to make.

11. Anon! I am coming at once.

12. This line is a kind of motto for the witches. They delight in a reversal of all the normal values. Macbeth seems to involve himself with them by echoing the phrase in Act I, Scene iii, line 39.

13. fog and filthy air this may have been produced by burning resin under the stage; again, in today’s theatre if an effect is required it is more likely to be produced by smoke machine, dry ice or something similar.

Scene II

A camp near Forres

[Alarum within. Enter KING DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX with ATTENDANTS, meeting a bleeding SERGEANT.]

Duncan

What bloody man is that? He can report,

As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

Malcolm

This is the sergeant

Who like a good and hardy soldier fought

‘Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! 5

Say to the King the knowledge of the broil

As thou didst leave it.

Sergeant

Doubtful it stood,

As two spent swimmers that do cling together

And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald –

Worthy to be a rebel, for to that 10

The multiplying villainies of nature

Do swarm upon him – from the Western Isles

Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;

And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,

Show’d like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak; 15

For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name –

Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish’d steel

Which smok’d with bloody execution,

Like valour’s minion, carv’d out his passage

Till he fac’d the slave; 20

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

Till he unseam’d him from the nave to th’ chaps,

And fix’d his head upon our battlements.

Duncan

O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!

Sergeant

As whence the sun gins his reflection 25

Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,

So from that spring whence comfort seem’d to come

Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark:

No sooner justice had, with valour arm’d,

Compell’d these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 30

But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,

With furbish’d arms and new supplies of men,

Began a fresh assault.

Duncan

Dismay’d not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Sergeant

Yes;

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 35

If I say sooth, I must report they were

As cannons overcharg’d with double cracks;

So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,

Or memorize another Golgotha, 40

I cannot tell –

But I am faint; my gashes cry for help.

Duncan

So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;

They smack of honour both. – Go get him surgeons.

[Exit SERGEANT, attended. Enter ROSS.]

Who comes here?

Malcolm

The worthy Thane of Ross. 45

Lennox

What a haste looks through his eyes!

So should he look that seems to speak things strange.

Ross

God save the King!

Duncan

Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?

Ross

From Fife, great King

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 50

And fan our people cold.

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,

Assisted by that most disloyal traitor

The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict,

Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapp’d in proof, 55

Confronted him with self-comparisons,

Point against point rebellious, arm ‘gainst arm,

Curbing his lavish spirit; and to conclude,

The victory fell on us.

Duncan

Great happiness!

Ross

That now 60

Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition;

Nor would we deign him burial of his men

Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme’s Inch,

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Duncan

No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive 65

Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Ross

I’ll see it done.

Duncan

What be hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II

The second scene deals mainly with the report of the battle in which the ‘Macbeth’ we have already heard about, and another man, Banquo, have excelled. However, the feeling of uncertainty is maintained, because the outcome of the battle is left in doubt by the Sergeant. He nevertheless presents Macbeth as the decisive factor, and Ross gives the same impression from his point of view when he provides the final news that the battle has been won. We get a remarkable picture of Macbeth as a kind of superman, a fearless, ferocious, almost untouchable champion of right against treachery.

1–3. He can report…state He looks as though he has come, wounded, straight from the battle, and will be able to give us an up-to-date report.

5. ‘Gainst my captivity to save me from being captured.

6. knowledge of the broil news of the battle.

9. choke their art (the two exhausted swimmers) prevent each other from using their swimming skill.

10. to that to that end, i.e. to show that he is without doubt a traitor.

12. swarm upon him like lice.

12. Western Isles islands to the west, including Ireland and the Hebrides.

13. kerns and gallowglasses lightly-armed foot-soldiers and horsemen armed with axes.

14–15. Fortune the Roman goddess Fortuna, regarded as highly unreliable. Macbeth ignores her (Disdaining Fortune, line 17) and takes his fate into his own hands, a trait we are to see repeated later in the play.

17–18. brandished steel…execution His sword steamed with the hot blood of those he had just killed.

19. valour’s minion the favourite of Valour (personified in much the same way as Fortune).

carv’d out his passage cut his way through the men on the battlefield.

22–3. Till he unseam’d…he thrust his sword in at the navel (nave), ripped him open up to the jaws (chaps), then cut his head off and stuck it on the battlements.

24. cousin Macbeth and Duncan were both grandsons of King Malcolm, but in any case the word cousin was often used by sovereigns of their noblemen.

24. worthy gentleman! What Macbeth has just done seems hardly gentlemanly, but there is no irony in Duncan’s remark. Such actions in defence of king and country would have been regarded as truly to be admired.

25–8. As whence…Discomfort swells ‘Just as storms fatal to ships can burst out of the east, where the sun first shines, so danger springs from the place where everything seems well.’ Note the irony here, even if the Sergeant doesn’t realize it. These words could be a warning to Duncan about Macbeth, who seems fair.

30. Compell’d…heels Forced these unreliable soldiers to rely on running away.

31. Norweyan an old form of Norwegian.

31. surveying vantage seeing his chance. No doubt Duncan’s troops had relaxed on seeing the kerns run away.

32. With furbished arms ‘having repaired their weapons’ (or perhaps taken up new ones).

34–5. Yes…the lion The Sergeant is being very sarcastic. ‘Yes, they were about as dismayed as an eagle is by a sparrow, or a lion by a hare,’ he says.

36. sooth truth.

37. as cannons…cracks Like cannons with double charges of gunpowder.

39–40. Except they meant…Golgotha Unless they intended to bathe in the steaming wounds (of their enemies) or make the battle as grimly memorable a scene as the crucifixion of Christ.

43–4. So well…both Your words and your wounds do you equal honour.

44. smack taste.

45. Thane a Scottish nobleman and landowner, often the chief of a clan

47. So should he…strange His appearance suggests that he has strange news to tell.

50–1. Where…cold Where the Norwegian banners mock the (Scottish) sky and, as they wave, freeze our men with fear.

52. Norway himself King Sweno of Norway.

54. a dismal conflict one which filled the Scottish forces with foreboding.

55. Bellona’s bridegroom the bridegroom of Bellona, the Roman goddess of war. Macbeth is being compared with Mars, the god of war himself.

55. lapp’d in proof wearing tried and tested armour.

56. Confronted…self-comparisons Gave him something (i.e. a model of a fighting man) to compare himself with.

58. Curbing his lavish spirit overcoming his insolent courage.

61. craves composition begs for peace terms.

62. Nor would we…men We would not allow him to bury his dead soldiers.

63. disbursed paid.

63. Saint Colme’s Inch a small island in the Firth of Forth, now called Inchcolm. (St. Colme is another form of St. Columba.)

64. dollars These coins were in fact not minted until the early sixteenth century, 500 years after the time of the real Duncan and Macbeth. Does it matter that Shakespeare that Shakespeare isn’t worried about such inaccuracy? Could it have had a deliberate purpose?

65–6. deceive…interest treacherously attack our dearest interests. pronounce his present death order his immediate execution.

Scene III

A blasted heath

[Thunder. Enter the three WITCHES.]

First Witch

Where hast thou been, sister?

Second Witch

Killing swine.

Third Witch

Sister, where thou?

First Witch

A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,

And mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d. 5

‘Give me’ quoth I.

‘Aroint thee, witch!’ the rump-fed ronyon cries.

Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’ th’ Tiger;

But in a sieve I’ll thither sail

And, like a rat without a tail, 10

I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.

Second Witch

I’ll give thee a wind,

First Witch

Th’art kind.

Third Witch

And I another.

First Witch

I myself have all the other; 15

And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know

I’ th’ shipman’s card.

I’ll drain him dry as hay:

Sleep shall neither night nor day 20

Hang upon his pent-house lid;

He shall live a man forbid;

Weary sev’nights, nine times nine,

Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.

Though his bark cannot be lost, 25

Yet it shall be tempest-tost.

Look what I have.

Second Witch

Show me, show me.

First Witch

Here I have a pilot’s thumb,

Wreck’d as homeward he did come. 30

[Drum within.]

Third Witch

A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come.

All

The Weird Sisters, hand in hand,

Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about;

Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, 35

And thrice again, to make up nine.

Peace! The charm’s wound up.

[Enter MACBETH and BANQUO.]

Macbeth

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Banquo

How far is’t call’d to Forres? What are these,

So withered, and so wild in their attire, 40

That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth,

And yet are on’t? Live you, or are you aught

That man may question? You seem to understand me,

By each at once her choppy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips. You should be women, 45

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

Macbeth

Speak, if you can. What are you?

First Witch

All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee. Thane of Glamis!

Second Witch

All hall, Macbeth! Hail to thee. Thane of Cawdor!

Third Witch

All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter! 50

Banquo

Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear

Things that do sound so fair? I’ th’ name of truth,

Are ye fantastical, or that indeed

Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner

You greet with present grace and great prediction 55

Of noble having and of royal hope,

That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.

If you can look into the seeds of time

And say which grain will grow and which will not,

Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 60

Your favours nor your hate.

First Witch

Hail!

Second Witch

Hail!

Third Witch

Hail!

First Witch

Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 65

Second Witch

Not so happy, yet much happier.

Third Witch

Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.

So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

First Witch

Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

Macbeth

Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. 70

By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis;

But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,

A prosperous gentleman; and to be King

Stands not within the prospect of belief,

No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence 75

You owe this strange intelligence, or why

Upon this blasted heath you stop our way

With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.

[WITCHES vanish.]

Banquo

The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them. Whither are they vanish’d? 80

Macbeth

Into the air; and what seem’d corporal melted

As breath into the wind. Would they had stay’d!

Banquo

Were such things here as we do speak about?

Or have we eaten on the insane root

That takes the reason prisoner? 85

Macbeth

Your children shall be kings.

Banquo

You shall be King.

Macbeth

And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?

Banquo

To th’ self-same tune and words. Who’s here?

[Enter ROSS and ANGUS.]

Ross

The King hath happily receiv’d, Macbeth,

The news of thy success; and when he reads 90

Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight,

His wonders and his praises do contend

Which should be thine or his. Silenc’d with that,

In viewing o’er the rest o’ th’ self-same day,

He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, 95

Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,

Strange images of death. As thick as tale

Came post with post, and every one did bear

Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defence,

And pour’d them down before him.

Angus

We are sent 100

To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;

Only to herald thee into his sight,

Not pay thee.

Ross

And, for an earnest of a greater honour,

He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor; 105

In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane!

For it is thine.

Banquo

What, can the devil speak true?

Macbeth

The Thane of Cawdor lives; why do you dress me

In borrowed robes?

Angus

Who was the Thane lives yet;

But under heavy judgment bears that life 110

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combin’d

With those of Norway, or did line the rebel

With hidden help and vantage, or that with both

He labour’d in his country’s wreck, I know not;

But treasons capital, confess’d and prov’d, 115

Have overthrown him.

Macbeth

[aside] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor!

The greatest is behind. – Thanks for your pains.

[Aside to BANQUO] Do you not hope your children shall be kings,

When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me

Promis’d no less to them?

Banquo

[aside to MACBETH] That, trusted home, 120

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 125

In deepest consequence. –

Cousins, a word, I pray you.

Macbeth

[aside] Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme. – I thank you, gentlemen.

[Aside] This supernatural soliciting 130

Cannot be ill; cannot be good. If ill,

Why hath it given me earnest of success,

Commencing in a truth I am Thane of Cawdor.

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair 135

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs

Against the use of nature? Present fears

Are less than horrible imaginings.

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,

Shakes so my single state of man 140

That function is smothered in surmise,

And nothing is but what is not.

Banquo

Look how our partner’s rapt.

Macbeth

[aside] If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me,

Without my stir.

Banquo

New honours come upon him, 145

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould

But with the aid of use.

Macbeth [aside]

Come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

Banquo

Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

Macbeth

Give me your favour. My dull brain was wrought 150

With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains

Are register’d where every day I turn

The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.

[Aside to BANQUO] Think upon what hath chanc’d; and, at more time,

The interim having weigh’d it, let us speak 155

Our free hearts each to other.

Banquo

[aside to MACBETH] Very gladly.

Macbeth

[aside to BANQUO] Till then, enough. – Come, friends.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III

The meeting of Macbeth and the witches, which we heard them predict in Act I, Scene i, is about to take place. However, before Macbeth arrives on the heath, unaware of what he will find, the witches plan to torment a sea-captain whose wife has annoyed them.

2. Killing swine Witches were said to kill farm animals, often in revenge for some supposed insult.

7. Aroint thee…! Get out!

7. rump-fed this probably means ‘fed on rump-steak’, therefore sleek and plump. The gaunt witches would envy her.

7. ronyon worthless woman.

8. Tiger a common name for a ship in Shakespeare’s time.

9. There are records of criminal trials in which so-called witches confessed that they went to sea in a sieve.

10. Another special ability witches were belived to have was to turn themselves into animals, but when they did this they became tailless and could be identified.

11. She seems almost fuming with rage and malice. What do you think she intends to do?

15–18. I myself have…card ‘I have control of all the other winds and (I know) the exact harbours from which they blow, from all points of the compass.’ The main point is that she wants to prevent the Tiger from entering any port, and leave the poor ship miserably tossing on the waves.

19. Because the Tiger will not be able to refill her water-supply.

20–1. This is an ominous suggestion of Macbeth’s later insomnia (see, for example, Act III, Scene iv, line 141).

21. pent-house lid An eyelid slopes something like the roof of a pent-house. (A penthouse is a small structure built against a larger one, therefore having only one roof-slope).

22. forbid cursed.

23. sev’nights weeks. Compare the similar word fortnight (fourteen nights) which is still in regular use. The witch is going to manipulate the winds to keep the ship at sea for 81 weeks.

24. dwindle, peak become thin.

25. bark ship. It is important to note that the power of the witches is limited. At crucial points in the play Macbeth excuses or explains his past actions or what he is about to do by assuming that they have absolute power and knowledge, but this is not so.

29. a pilot’s thumb. Bits of dead bodies were valued ingredients in making spells.

31. Is this perhaps a supernatural drum? There is no indication that Macbeth and Banquo have an escort, but they may have.

32. Weird This coms from an Old English word ‘wyrd’ which means fate.

33. Posters creatures which travel quickly.

35–6. Three and multiples of three have always been regarded as magic numbers. At this point they also indicate roughly the steps of their dance: ‘three paces your way, three paces my way, and three more paces (in the direction of the Third Witch).’

37. wound up ‘set, and ready for action’. At this very moment Macbeth and Banquo enter, as though brought there by the charm.

38. So foul and fair Macbeth’s unconscious echo of the witches’ words in Act I, Scene i, confirms the impression that he is already under their influence.

39. How far is’t called…? How far do they reckon it is…?

39–61. Banquo’s reaction to the first sight of the witches is a suspicious one. Macbeth says little, but seems far more prepared than Banquo to accept the witches’ words.

42–3. aught that man may question? beings with whom one is allowed to communicate?

44. choppy chapped. The fact that the witches put their fingers on their lips in answer to Banquo seems to suggest that they want to speak, not to him, but to Macbeth.

50. hereafter in the future. They have just addressed him as the present Thane of Cawdor, as well as Glamis.

51. Banquo notices that Macbeth jumps when he hears the witches’ greetings. Is this just normal surprise and wonder, or has Macbeth already considered the possibility of becoming king, by foul means if necessary?

53. fantastical imaginary.

53–4. or that…ye show? or are you what you appear to be?

55–6. present grace being Thane of Glamis.

great prediction Of noble having becoming Thane of Cawdor.

royal hope becoming king.

57. rapt withal entranced by them (the witches’ mysterious greetings).

58. look into the seeds of time Banquo is prepared to accept the witches’ power to see into the future, but he goes on to show (lines 60–1) that he will not put himself in their power. Their response is to speak to him in riddles, whereas they gave Macbeth plain statements.

67. get kings: be the ancestor of kings.

70. imperfect speakers Macbeth says this because he wants to know more. He has come out of his trance and now demands further information.

71. Sinel Macbeth’s father, from whom he had inherited the title of Thane of Glamis.

73–4. Neither Macbeth nor Banquo seems to have heard of Cawdor’s treachery.

74. Stands not…belief Is so unlikely as to be unbelievable.

76. owe own, possess.

intelligence information.

78. Having asked for information twice, Macbeth becomes bolder and orders the witches to answer him.

79–80. The witches have vanished like burst bubbles. Although they had seemed very real, physical, living creatures, it now appears that they belong to the supernatural.

81. corporal made of flesh and blood.

84–5. the insane root…prisoner the root (of the hemlock or some other plant) which causes madness when eaten.

86. Is Macbeth envious and annoyed because no mention was made of his own heirs?

91. Thy personal…fight Your individual contribution in putting down the rebellion of Macdonwald.

95. Ross goes on to mention the other phase of the battle, against the Norwegian forces.

95. stout bold, tough.

96–7. Nothing afeard…death Ross comments that Macbeth is not frightened by the sight of the mangled bodies of those he has killed. We will see a different reaction later.

97–100. Macbeth’s great achievement was acclaimed in all the messages which piled up in front of Duncan. It is especially ironic that just when the audience is beginning to suspect Macbeth’s intentions, everyone else on stage is praising him.

98. post with post message after message.

102. herald…sight escort you into the king’s presence.

104. for an earnest as a first instalment.

105–6. The words are close enough to those of the Second Witch to underline the rapid fulfilment of the prophecy.

106. addition title.

106. Banquo has clearly decided that the witches are evil.

108–9. The play contains many examples of imagery related to clothes, particularly those that do not fit. This creates a picture of Macbeth wearing clothes that were not meant for him. Keep this in mind as the play develops.

110–11. The ex-thane of Cawdor is under sentence of death (see Act 1, Scene ii, line 66).

111. was combin’d allied himself.

112. line the rebel assist Macdonwald.

113. hidden help and vantage secret aid.

114. labour’d…wreck worked to ruin his country.

115. treasons capital acts of treason worthy of the death penalty.

117. The greatest is behind the fulfilment of the Third Witch’s prophecy, the Kingship, will follow after this stage, in the future (hence the word ‘behind’).

118. Macbeth again refers to the prophecy about Banquo’s children becoming kings.

120. trusted home believed in fully.

122–6. Banquo reveals his own deep distrust of the witches and their words, saying ‘The Devil’s helpers often impress us and win our confidence by telling us some small truths about our lives so that, once we are in their power, they can deceive us in really important matters (and thus destroy us).’

128–9. the swelling act…theme Macbeth sees himself as king at

the climax of a great drama.

130. soliciting prompting, egging on.

131–3. What Banquo suspected and dismissed (a small truth leading to betrayal In deepest consequence) Macbeth also suspects but will not dismiss.

134–7. If good…nature? Already Macbeth is contradicting Ross’s remark in lines 97–8. Here is an image of death of which he is clearly afraid. Is it one of his own creation or not? He is certainly considering murder (see line 140).

135. unfix my hair make my hair stand on end.

136. seated firmly fixed.

137. Against the use of nature in an unnatural way.

137–8. Present fears…imaginings A real cause of fear (e.g. a fierce enemy in the recent battle) is less frightening than something horrible which you imagine.

139–42. Macbeth is obsessed by the idea of murder and is incapable of normal action. Nothing seems real to him except what he is creating in his mind.

143. rapt lost in his own thoughts.

144–5. At first, in order to escape his horrible imaginings, Macbeth adopts the attitude of saying to himself: ‘There is no need for me to take any action; if it is my fate to be king, it will just happen that way.’

145–6. New honours…use The honours which have just come to him (Macbeth) are like new clothes which take time to shape themselves comfortably to the body. Note the reference to clothing imagery again.

147–8. Come what…roughest day Macbeth continues to shrug off his troubled thoughts: ‘I suppose I shall live through it. Even the most troubled day has to come to an end.’ The words give him something to hang on to.

149. Banquo indicates politely that they are waiting until Macbeth is ready to go.

150–1. ‘Do forgive me. My over–tired brain was disturbed by things that I can’t even remember now’. This may not seem a big lie, but it is a lie nevertheless.

151. your pains your services to me.

152–3. where every day…read them i.e. in his mind.

155. The interim having weigh’d it the interval having given us a chance to consider it.

156. Our free hearts Can either of their hearts be described as free?

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