Macbeth – “So foul and fair a day I have not seen."

 Macbeth – “So foul and fair a day I have not seen."

Late on the night of November 4^th, 1605, as the wind picked up outside his window, Shakespeare probably put down his 1599 copy the ‘Discovery of Witchcraft, and Daemonologie’ wriiten by the new king James I. The weather outside was foul and well suited to a bit of reading on witches. He then probably downed the last of the mulled wine in the goblet beside his bed before he lifted the brass candle snuffer and put out the candle.

Early the next morning, Shakespeare was probably awoken by a loud knock on the door of his large room at his Silver Street lodgings which he rented from Christopher Mountjoy (a French Huguenot and a wigmaker by trade). The news had started to spread that a plot to blow up the houses of parliament had been foiled the night before and a certain Guy Fawkes had been arrested. The early visitor was probably one of Mountjoy’s apprentices, a young provincial boy from Shakespeare’s home county of Warwickshire. News that people from Warwickshire were involved in the plot probably came as warning to Shakespeare to lay low for a while. Shakespeare could see that his family’s Catholic sympathies might come to haunt him again. He probably then got dressed and went down the local inn where he could get a hearty breakfast of porridge and a pint of ale.

As he walked back to his lodgings he probably pondered on how some of the good men of Warwickshire could let their private ambitions drive them to acts like the attempt to blow up parliament. He thoughts may have drifted momentarily to his own ambitions and as he avoided the inevitable horse manure in the streets and slopsbuckets being emptied out of windows and doors, he may have worried that this new plot could stop his dreams of having a new play and a dozen odd performances at the court this winter. At £10 a performance and sometimes £12 for a new play that King James I liked, Shakespeare knew how lucrative a few court performances could be, so he thought of what of the ideas he had and what stories he could make into plays to make a good impression on James I.

As he walked back along Muggle Street, Shakespeare could have thought back to one of his first projects for Ferdinando (the Lord Strange) back in the early 90’s when he was commissioned to write the Henry VI trilogy for the company known as the Lord Strange’s Men. They were a good set of plays but ultimately a piece of flattery, a rewriting of royal history but with the exploits and loyalty of the Lord Strange’s ancestors the Stanleys made to sound pivotal to the English crown. Perhaps he could do the same with James’ Scottish ancestors.

In earnest, Shakespeare walked up the stairs of his Silver Street lodgings, unlocked and walked into his room, fully opened the curtains and took out his ‘Holinshed’s  Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland’. It was a 1587 Second Edition which he either had picked up in London in 1590 or it had been given by the Earl of Southhampton if he had worked for him in 1588 at Titchfield. He scanned through the pages until he found the story he wanted and then took down his copy of George Buchanan’s account of the same story in ‘Rerum Scoticarum Historia’. He then took out a leaf of new parchment and the good goose quill that he had purchased a week before and he wrote the title on the parchment ‘The Tragedie of Macbeth’.

Then his imagination traveled and meandered almost as much as the quill on the page. A Scottish moor, a desolate place. Thunder and lightning crash. Enter three witches.

First Witch: “When shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?”

Three witches meet and just like the storm they appear in, they brew thunderous and ethereal plans. They decide to meet after some battle and it is revealed to the audience that they intend to meet on the heath with Macbeth.

We cross to a battle camp at Forres, where the King of Scotland, Duncan sees a bleeding sergeant who then tells the latest news from the battlefield where Scottish forces fight with Irish forces led by the Scottish rebel and traitor Macdonwald. The sergeant initially says that the battle was close: “Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together

And choke their art..”

He then relates how their own generals Macbeth and Banquo fought with valour and courage. The horror of the battle is described especially how Macbeth fought his way through and killed Macdonald:

“Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,

Which smoked with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion carved out his passage

Till he faced the slave;

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

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

And fix'd his head upon our battlements.”

It then is revealed that a second assault happened when the Norwegian army arrived to attack them. The Sergeant is led away to have his wounds treated. Ross then enters and tells of how the traitor the Thane of Cawdor worked with the Norwegian invading army but eventually the Norwegian were defeated and the Thane of Cawdor captured. King Duncan decides to execute Cawdor and give this title to Macbeth for his bravery.

“No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive

Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.”

As promised earlier, the three witches meet on a heath near the Forres battlefield. They seem to have been all involved in different activities since they last met. One has been killing swine, while another met a woman who was pigging out on chestnuts and wouldn’t share them with her so she threatens to cast a spell or a curse on the woman’s husband who has sailed off to Allepo. The other witches help her to cast a spell. Then, a drum is heard and the witches know that this signals the approach of Macbeth so they start their mischief or ‘charm’ for Macbeth.

“The weird sisters, hand in hand,

Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about:

Thrice to thine and thrice to mine

And thrice again, to make up nine.

Peace! the charm's wound up.”

Enter Macbeth and Banquo, on their way to Forres, when they see the three witches who “… look not like the inhabitants o' the earth…” and Macbeth asks them to speak. The witches one by one hail Macbeth first as thane of Glamis (his family title), then as thane of Cawdor (which we know he is about to receive because we heard King Duncan declare it in the last scene but Macbeth doesn’t know yet) and finally the Third Witch hails Macbeth who she declares “…shalt be king hereafter.” Macbeth is taken back by both the hailing by the title of Cawdor and the prediction of kingship. Banquo then asks if they can”… look into the seeds of time” to also predict his future. They witches reply that Banquo will be “… lesser than Macbeth, and greater…” and that his own children shall be kings. When Macbeth demands that the witches explain themselves, they vanish “Into the air… as breath into the wind…”

While Macbeth and Banquo talk about the strange predictions Ross and Angus, arrive and bring the news that King Duncan has rewarded Macbeth with the title of Thane of Cawdor, because the previous thane is about to be tried, judged and probably killed for treason. Macbeth talks then to Banquo about the prophesies of the three witches and questions Banquo whether he has hopes that his own children will be kings. Banquo is cautious and replies that he finds it strange but he remarks that:

“… 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.”

Macbeth then ignores his companions and in a soliloquy , ruminates upon the possibility that he might one day be king. He contemplates that the two truths in the witches ‘predictions’ could be “…happy prologues to the selling act of the imperial theme…” He goes on to think that none of what the witches say can be evil or “ill” or even “good” because as he logically asks himself:

“Why hath it given me earnest of success,

Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,

Against the use of nature?”

Macbeth decides to leave the future up to chance.

“If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,

Without my stir.”

Macbeth is brought back to reality and they depart for Forres but not before Macbeth and `Banquo agree to speak again privately about the group departs for Forres. As they leave, Macbeth and Banquo decide to later speak their “free hearts” to each other about this whole business.

At King Duncan’s palace at Forres we hear that of the traitor Cawdor’s death just as Macbeth and Banquo enter. King Duncan shows his gratitude to Macbeth and Banquo and they swear their loyalty to Duncan. Duncan then announces that he declares his eldest son Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland and thus will pass on his throne to him. Duncan then announces that he and the royal party will go straight to Macbeth’s castle in Inverness to celebrate. Macbeth declares that he will go straight away to prepare for King Duncan’s arrival. As he goes, he decides that he will have to do something about matters and asks that his desires stay deep and hidden:

“The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step

On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;

Let not light see my black and deep desires:

The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,

Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.”

At Macbeth’s castle in Inverness, we encounter Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth, reading a letter from Macbeth which tells of the witches predictions and his appointment to Thane of Cawdor.

“’They met me in the day of success: and I have

learned by the perfectest report, they have more in

them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire

to question them further, they made themselves air,

into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in

the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who

all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title,

before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred

me to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king that

shalt be!' This have I thought good to deliver

thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou

mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being

ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it

to thy heart, and farewell.’”

Lady Macbeth is happy and declares that Macbeth “shalt be what thou art promised”. But she expresses her reservations and fears that Macbeth will not be ruthless enough to cease this opportunity and she decides to do what ever it takes to help her husband become king.

“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be

What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;

Art not without ambition, but without

The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,

And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis,

That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it;

And that which rather thou dost fear to do

Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither,

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;

And chastise with the valour of my tongue

All that impedes thee from the golden round,

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem

To have thee crown'd withal.”

A messenger interrupts her and tells Lady Macbeth that King Duncan is on his way to their castle and that Macbeth is going to be here himself soon. She dismisses the messenger and conjures spirits to help her do what she knows has to be done.

“The raven himself is hoarse

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements. Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;

Stop up the access and passage to remorse,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,

And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,

Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,

That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,

To cry 'Hold, hold!'”

Then Macbeth arrives enters, and Lady Macbeth seems pleased to see him. Macbeth announces that Duncan comes that very night and will leave the next day and Lady Macbeth declares:

“O, never

Shall sun that morrow see!

Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters. To beguile the time,

Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,

Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under't. He that's coming

Must be provided for: and you shall put

This night's great business into my dispatch;

Which shall to all our nights and days to come

Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.”

Macbeth baulks at what is suggested and Lady Macbeth says that they should cease this opportunity and asks that Macbeth leaves the plans to her. He agrees that they will speak later about this.

King Duncan and his party arrive at Inverness and are greeted by Lady Macbeth who says that they are indebted to the king and are his servants. They then go in to see Macbeth.

It is night and the festivities are well under way and King Duncan has almost finished eating. Macbeth enters contemplates the murder of Duncan deciding that as Duncan’s kinsman and host that he should not do it and that other reasons such as the virtues of Duncan himself mean that he should not be killed particularly since the only reasons Macbeth has to kill Duncan are his own over-reaching ambition:

“If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well

It were done quickly: if the assassination

Could trammel up the consequence, and catch

With his surcease success; that but this blow

Might be the be-all and the end-all here,

But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,

We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases

We still have judgment here; that we but teach

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice

Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice

To our own lips. He's here in double trust;

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

Who should against his murderer shut the door,

Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been

So clear in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against

The deep damnation of his taking-off;

And pity, like a naked new-born babe,

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed

Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself

And falls on the other.”

Then Lady Macbeth enters and asks why Macbeth has left the feast particularly since King Duncan is asking for him. Macbeth replies that they “will proceed no further in this business” of killing Duncan since he has already honoured them. Lady Macbeth is beside herself and call Macbeth a coward and attacks his masculinity. She even declares that she would follow through with infanticide if she had sworn as Macbeth has sworn:

“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.”

The tide has turned. Macbeth asks what happens if they fail and lady Macbeth says that with courage they cannot fail. She tells Macbeth of the plan she has hatched to get chamberlains drunk so that then they can “perform” anything on the “unguarded Duncan”. Macbeth adds to the plan by suggesting that they smear the chamberlains faces with blood to make it look as if they had done it. Act One ends with Macbeth now resolved to kill King Duncan.

“I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.

Away, and mock the time with fairest show:

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”

Macbeth Act Two – “There’s daggers in men’s smiles…”

It is after midnight in Macbeth’s castle and Banquo and his son Fleance enter carrying torches. Banquo can’t get to sleep because of “cursed thoughts”. Banquo draws his sword when he sees another torch. It is Macbeth and a servant and Banquo and Macbeth talk about the three weird sisters and Banquo mentions that has thought much about the witches and that he even had a dream about them. Macbeth says that he does not think about the witches at all but says to Banquo that “…when we can entreat an hour to serve, we would spend it in some words upon that business…” Banquo agrees to this and he and Fleance exit.

Macbeth dismisses his servant and then a vision appears before him.

“Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;

And such an instrument I was to use.

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,

Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,

And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,

Which was not so before. There's no such thing:

It is the bloody business which informs

Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse

The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates

Pale Hecate's offerings, and 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. Whiles I threat, he lives:

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.”

A bell tolls. Lady Macbeth is signaling that Duncan’s chamberlains are asleep. Macbeth sees his next actions as inevitable as he moves to the bedchamber of Duncan.

“I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.

Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell

That summons thee to heaven or to hell.”

Lady Macbeth enters and she remarks how she seems to be growing in boldness as her plan unfolds.

“That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;

What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.

Hark! Peace!

It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,

Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:

The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms

Do mock their charge with snores…

I laid their daggers ready;

He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I had done't.”

Macbeth enters saying that Duncan has been killed but he seems to hear noises and is afraid. He claims that he thought he heard the chamberlains awake saying prays and claims that as he killed Duncan he heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep…” Lady Macbeth tries to calm her husband and even claims that all they need is a little water to wash away this business and then she notices that inside his bloodied hands he still carries the daggers.

“… Go get some water,

And wash this filthy witness from your hand.

Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

They must lie there: go carry them; and smear

The sleepy grooms with blood.”

Macbeth is distraught and refuses to go back into Duncan’s chamber. Lady Macbeth takes the daggers and goes back to plant them on the chamberlains and smear their faces with blood.

“Infirm of purpose!

Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead

Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood

That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,

I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal:

For it must seem their guilt.”

A knocking is heard from the South entry to the castle. Macbeth is startled and tries to desperately wash his hands of the blood.

“What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,

Making the green one red.”

The knocking continues as Lady Macbeth reenters and she washes her hands claiming that “A little water clears us of this deed…” She then hurries her and Macbeth back to their bedchamber. 

After the success of playing The Fool in ‘King Lear’, Robert Armin must have felt that there was not much for him to do in ‘Macbeth’. He had been pushing for Shakespeare to write a few dramatic parts for him as well but in the meantime, the entry of the Porter was his moment in ‘Macbeth’. He was only 43 or 44 when he played the Porter but he had been playing old drunkards from the age of 30 back in the Chandos company. When he entered as The Porter he knew how to be rude, crude and how to get laughs:

“Here's a knocking indeed! If a

man were porter of hell-gate, he should have

old turning the key.

Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of

Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged

himself on the expectation of plenty: come in

time; have napkins enow about you; here

you'll sweat for't.

Knock, knock! Who's there, in the other devil's

name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could

swear in both the scales against either scale;

who committed treason enough for God's sake,

yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come

in, equivocator.

Knock, knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an

English tailor come hither, for stealing out of

a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may

roast your goose.

Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you? But

this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter

it no further: I had thought to have let in

some of all professions that go the primrose

way to the everlasting bonfire.

Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.”

Then the Porter opens the gate and Macduff and Lennox appear commenting on the slowness of the Porter to open the gate the Porter says that he was up late carousing and talks about how drink brigs red noses, sleepiness, urination and “provokes and unprovokes” sexual feelings.

Macbeth then enters, and Macduff asks if the king is awake because he had asked Macduff to call early for him. Macbeth takes Macduff to the Duncan’s chamber but does not enter. Macduff enters and Lennox talks to Macbeth about the storms of that evening. Then Macduff re-enters in shock at what he has discovered and shouts for the alarm bells to be rung: “O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart

Cannot conceive nor name thee…

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope

The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence

The life o' the building…

Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight

With a new Gorgon: do not bid me speak;

See, and then speak yourselves.

Awake, awake!

Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason!

Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,

And look on death itself! up, up, and see

The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!

As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,

To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.”

Macbeth and Lennox go into Duncan’s bedchamber just as Lady Macbeth enters remarking her horror that such a deed should be done in her house. Macduff says it would be too cruel a deed wherever it was done. Then Macbeth and Lennox come out of the bedchamber and Duncan’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain enter also. Macbeth then admits that he just killed the chamberlains. Macduff asks him why he killed them and Macbeth replies:

“Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:

The expedition my violent love

Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin laced with his golden blood;

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

For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,

Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers

Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart

Courage to make 's love kno wn?”

Lady Macbeth then faints, either as a distraction or because she is genuinely overcome by the events and her husband’s actions. Macduff and Banquo get someone to attend to Lady Macbeth. Malcolm and Donalbain quietly communicate to one another that they are not safe here. Banquo, Macbeth and Macduff decide to bring everybody together to discuss this this “treasonous malice”. Malcolm and Donalbain are left on stage and they decide that the safest course for them is to escape. Malcolm decides to flee south to England and Donalbain decides to go to Ireland.

As costumes and set are changed for Act Three, the Thane of Ross, enters with an old man and they discuss the strange events including unnatural events such as an owl killing a falcon and one of Duncan’s thoroughbreds eating another horse. Macduff enters and he tells of how Macbeth  has been declared king and that Macbeth and others go to Scone for him to be crowned. Macduff mentions that suspicion for the organization of Duncan’s murder seems to now lie with Duncan’s own sons Malcolm and Donalbain who left soon after the murder. When asked whether he will attend Macbeth’s coronation. Macduff replies that he will return to his home in Fife. Ross exits to attend the crowning of Macbeth.

Macbeth Act Three – “We have scorched the snake, not killed it.”

Macbeth is now king at the palace at Forres. Enter Banquo, who thinks about the prophesies of the witches and how they have brought the kingship to Macbeth, but he fears that Macbeth has “play'dst most foully for't”. Banquo contemplates that if prophesies have come true for Macbeth, “Why, by the verities on thee made good,

May they not be my oracles as well,

And set me up in hope?”

Then Macbeth enters with Lady Macbeth as Queen, and he invites Banquo to attend a feast that very night. Banquo says that he is riding in the afternoon with his son Fleance but he agrees to come to the feast that night – a promise he will honour in spirit. Macbeth says that Malcolm and Donalbain have fled and are “filling their hearers with strange invention”.

Then Banquo exits and Macbeth dismisses everyone else and gets a servant to bring some visitors he has arranged to meet. Alone, Macbeth contemplates his situation and how to retain the crown:

“To be thus is nothing;

But to be safely thus.--Our fears in Banquo

Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature

Reigns that which would be fear'd: 'tis much he dares;

And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,

He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour

To act in safety. There is none but he

Whose being I do fear: and, under him,

My Genius is rebuked… He chid the sisters

When first they put the name of king upon me,

And bade them speak to him: then prophet-like

They hail'd him father to a line of kings:

Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,

And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,

Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,

No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so,

For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;

For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;

Put rancours in the vessel of my peace

Only for them; and mine eternal jewel

Given to the common enemy of man,

To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!

Rather than so, come fate into the list.

And champion me to the utterance!”

Then Macbeth’s servant enters with two murderers whom he has hired and convinced to kill Banquo. Macbeth reiterates to the murderers that he wants Fleance, Banquo’s son, to be killed along with his father. The murderers exit.

Later, Lady Macbeth shows caution with their position and then Macbeth enters and tells his wife that they have much more work to do:

“We have scorched the snake, not kill'd it:

She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice

Remains in danger of her former tooth.

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the

worlds suffer,

Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep

In the affliction of these terrible dreams

That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,

Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,

Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;

After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;

Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,

Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,

Can touch him further.”

Macbeth then announces to Lady Macbeth that he is planning “a deed of dreadful note”. When she asks him what he is planning he tells her to be “innocent of the knowledge… till thou applaud the deed.”

We cross to the two murderers in a wood or park near the palace where they wait for Banquo and Fleance to approach. They are joined by a third murderer who says that Macbeth asked him to join them. Banquo and Fleance enter and they attack and kill Banquo who urges Fleance to flee which he does successfully.

It is now nighttime and we are at Macbeth’s feast which Macbeth and lasy Macbeth preside over. Macbeth quickly goes to see the murderer who appears with blood on his face and tells Macbeth that Banquo is dead but that Fleance escaped. Macbeth is upset that Fleance has escaped. Then Macbeth dismisses the murderer and goes back to the feast but when he goes to sit at the head of the table he sees the ghost of Banquo there even though no-one else does. Macbeth is shocked and demands that the ghost does not “shake thy gory locks”. Lady Macbeth saves the situation and gets everyone to sit again and explains that Macbeth has had visions since he was young. Macbeth talks to Lady Macbeth and realizes even she does not see the vision. Macbeth concentrates once more concentrates on his guests and confirms to them that this “strange infirmity” is nothing to those that know him. Macbeth then proposes a he offers a toast to all those assembled and to Banquo who is absent. The Banquo’s ghost appears again and Macbeth tries to make the ghost leave:

“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

Which thou dost glare with!”

Lady Macbeth dismisses all the guests as the ghost vanishes.

With the guests departed, Macbeth is distraught:

“It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood…”

He also is upset that Macduff did not come to his feast. And reveals that he keeps spies in everyone’s house. Macbeth decides that he will go to visit the witches again:

“… I will to-morrow,

And betimes I will, to the weird sisters:

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.”

Thunder and lightning on a heath reveal the witches and Hecate, their mistress. Hecate is angry that the witches have traded and trafficked with Macbeth without her say so. Hecate eventually agrees to them  continuing their plans and she vanishes, while the witches prepare for the arrival of Macbeth.

In a scene which often cut out in performance we encounter Lennox and another lord, discussing what has happened to the kingdom. Fleance is blamed for his father’s death but Lennox and his companion believe Macbeth had a part in the death of both Banquo and King Duncan. Lennox reveals that Macduff has escaped to England and is joining Malcolm who is trying to get King Edward of England to help him reclaim the throne. They hope and pray that Malcolm succeeds and that:

“Some holy angel

Fly to the court of England and unfold

His message ere he come, that a swift blessing

May soon return to this our suffering country

Under a hand accursed!”

Macbeth Act Four –  “Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break.”

Thunder. Enter the three Witches

First Witch:

“Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd…” And so begins Act Four of ‘Macbeth, in a dark cave with a cauldron on the boil and the three witches chanting, casting charms and spells and filling the cauldron. Hecate appears and praises the witches on their work. Suddenly Macbeth is heard.

Macbeth enters and demands that the witches reveal all that they know and the witches ask Macbeth whether he would rather hear it from them or from their masters. Macbeth wants it from the masters and three apparitions appear. The first apparition warns him to beware Macduff;and Macbeth suggests that he has already thought this. The second is the apparition of a bloody child and this apparition tells Macbeth that “…none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”. The third apparition is a child with a crown holding a tree which tells Macbeth not to fear until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane Hill. When macbeth presses the witches further to find out whether Banquo's issue will ever reign in the kingdom, a procession of eight kings in crowns appear and the last carries a mirror and the ghost of Banquo appears at the end. Macbeth demands to know the meaning of this final vision, but do a dance and vanish into the air at the end. Then Lennox enters with the news that Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth decides to take Macduff’s castle and to kill Macduff’s wife and all his children in one fell swoop.

We cross to Fife and Macduff’s castle, where Lady Macduff confronts Ross, demanding to know why her husband has fled. Ross gently tries to reinforce to Lady Macduff that she should trust her husbands judgement in these matters. When Ross leaves, Lady Macduff rants on to her son about how his father is all but dead to them. Then a strange unknown messenger enters and warns lady macduff to flee. She tragically decides to stay saying she has done no harm. Then the murderers enter and claim that Macduff is a traitor. Macduff’s son claims that the murderer is a liar, andhe is stabbed by the murderer. Lady Macduff turns and runs, and screams before, we assume, she is horrifically killed.

A little later, probably about a week with the road time Ross would take, down in England outside the palace of King Edward, Malcolm speaks with Macduff, telling him that he does not trust him since he has left his family in Scotland and may be secretly working for Macbeth. Malcolm denounces his own vices and claims he would make a terrible king since he claims to be lustful, greedy, and violent.

“But I have none: the king-becoming graces,

As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,

Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,

Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,

I have no relish of them, but abound

In the division of each several crime,

Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should

Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,

Uproar the universal peace, confound

All unity on earth.”

Initially, Macduff politely disagrees with his future king, but eventually Macduff cannot contain himself and cries out for Scotland. Malcolm then reveals that he was testing Macduff and that he embraces him now as an ally against Macbeth. 

Ross arrives from Scotland and he initially tells Macduff that his wife and children are well. Ross tries to encourage Malcolm to return to Scotland as he talks of what has bellan Scotland since he left.  Malcolm says that he will return with an English force of ten thousand soldiers. Then, Ross confesses to Macduff that Macbeth has murdered his wife and children. Macduff is grief stricken while Malcolm urges him to dispute it like a man to which Macduff replies:

“But I must also feel it as a man:

I cannot but remember such things were,

That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,

And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,

They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,

Not for their own demerits, but for mine,

Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!”

Macduff avouches that he will take revenge out on Macbeth whatever the cost.

Macbeth Act Five  –  “I have almost forgot the taste of fears.”

As I read the final act of ‘Macbeth’, I suppose I need to ask myself why do I like this play so much. It’s probably not just because I studied it at high school and played the part straight out of acting school with a wonderful small theatre company called 'Sugar and Spite'. It’s probably not because of seeing the amazing Polanski’s film version and the great Orson Well’s film version a number of times. When I think about it, it is probably the fact that at many points in the play, Macbeth could go either way. He is pushed by Lady Macbeth but eventually embraces the dark side. She cracks under the guilt and pressure of what they have done, whereas he soldiers on and even when nearly all his charms are proven worthless, he still 'tries the last' and challenges fate with the words “Lay on Macduff, and damned be he that first cries ‘Hold enough’.”  

Another reason probably goes more to the heart of most of Shakespeare’s plays and especially ‘Macbeth’. It is what Harold Bloom (the American critic) expresses in ‘Shakespeare – The Invention of the Human’ when he says that Shakespeare ‘invents’ personality in drama. All the characters in ‘Macbeth’ from Seyton to the Doctor to each of the witches to Macduff to Lady Macbeth and Macbeth seem to have a personality, an intention, an inner and an outer life that seaps through the play at every moment. My last reason probably is that the rhythm and pace of Act Five of ‘Macbeth’ is unified in the final one metaphor of the forest moving toward macbeth in his castle. In Act Five, the final eight short fast-paced scenes shift and move towards the climax just like Birnam Wood moves towards Dunsinane. And now, Act Five of 'Macbeth'.

It is late at night at Dunsinane Castle as we enter Act Five. Macbeth has moved his court away from Duncan’s castle in Forres to his own castle on high Dunsinane Hill. A doctor and a gentlewoman talk in low tones about the strange behaviour of the queen, the former Lady Macbeth. Then, Lady Macbeth enters in a sleepwalking trance carrying a candle (a motif used much in Act Five). She speaks in prose and is distraught about the deaths of Banquo and Macduff’s wife and literally, psychologically and metaphorically sees that she has blood on her hands. She seems to see blood on her hands and claims that nothing will ever wash it off.

“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…

The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?--

What, will these hands ne'er be clean?--No more o'

that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with

this starting… Here's the smell of the blood still: all the

perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little

hand. Oh, oh, oh!

Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so

pale.--I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he

cannot come out on's grave…

To bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate:

come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's

done cannot be undone.--To bed, to bed, to bed!”

Lady Macbeth goes back to bed and the doctor marvels at what he has heard and asks the gentlewoman to take care of the queen fearing that she will harm herself.

“Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets:

More needs she the divine than the physician.

God, God forgive us all! Look after her;

Remove from her the means of all annoyance,

And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night:

My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight.

I think, but dare not speak.”

A little way off, a group of Scottish thanes and soldiers discuss where they should join Malcolm’s forces that approach with the English army. They decide that they will join them near Birnam Wood. Even Lennox has turned against Macbeth and it is revealed that Macbeth is fortifying Dunsinane Castle and that the only people who he commands now are those who  “move only in command; nothing in love”.

Finally we see Macbeth again, this time in the great halls of Dunsinane. He is boastful as he comes before the doctor and his dwindling number of attendants and seems to treat all bad news with distain.

“Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:

Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,

I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?

Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know

All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:

'Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman

Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly,

false thanes,

And mingle with the English epicures:

The mind I sway by and the heart I bear

Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.”

Macbeth does seem a little disturbed when he hears that an army of ten thousand English forces approaches and he asks for Seyton to bring his armour even though the invading forces are still a fair way off. Macbeth asks the Doctor about his wife’s sickness and the Doctor underplays what he knows and says that she has “thick-coming fancies”. Macbeth asks for the doctor to cure the queen. When Macbeth exits to make preparations, the Doctor reveals to the audience that he intends to flee quickly from Dunsinane castle.

Malcolm, the English forces and a growing number Scottish soldiers and thanes who oppose Macbeth, gather before Birnam Wood. Malcolm sets forth commands for their approach:

“Let every soldier hew him down a bough

And bear't before him: thereby shall we shadow

The numbers of our host and make discovery

Err in report of us.”

Fortified in his castle, Macbeth shouts orders and makes preparations to:

“Hang out our banners on the outward walls;

The cry is still 'They come:' our castle's strength

Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie

Till famine and the ague eat them up…” 
Suddenly, preparations are paused when, after the cry of women is heard, it is revealed by Seyton that the queen is dead. Macbeth is shocked his wife's death causes him to contemplate death and the purpose and meaning of life itself:

“She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.

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.”

A messenger enters and he finally tells what seems like unbelievable news. Birnam Wood seems to be advancing towards Dunsinane. Enraged and terrified, Macbeth recalls the prophecy that said he could not die till Birnam Wood moved to Dunsinane. Macbeth initially accuses the messenger of lying but then rallies himself to fight even though the charm that he could not be defeated until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane seems to have lost its power for him:

“If thou speak'st false,

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,

Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,

I care not if thou dost for me as much.

I pull in resolution, and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend

That lies like truth: 'Fear not, till Birnam wood

Do come to Dunsinane:' and now a wood

Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!

If this which he avouches does appear,

There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.

I gin to be aweary of the sun,

And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.

Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!

At least we'll die with harness on our back.”

With drums and colours, Malcolm and his army arrive before the walls of Dunsinane Castle. Malcolm orders that they throw down their “leafy screens” and take up their swords. He then decides that Young Siward should lead the first assault while Macduff and the others shall handle what else needs to be done.

Macbeth enters and indicates that he still holds onto the second charm that he cannot be killed by any that is born of woman. His words and charm seem true when he kills Young Siward and utters the triumphant and challenging words:

“Thou wast born of woman

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,

Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born.”

As Macbeth leaves, Macduff enters and he asks for fate and fortune to bring Macbeth before him. Chaos seems to reign and Malcolm and Siward enter the fray.

Macbeth reenters declaring that he will not commit suicide like a “Roman fool” and die on his own sword.

Enter Macduff who has revenge, fate and fortune on his side. They fight, their voices in their swords and Macbeth seems to be arrogant, unbeatable and immortal due to the witches charms. Macbeth boastfully says to Macduff:

“Thou losest labour:

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air

With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:

Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;

I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,

To one of woman born.”

It is then that Fortune’s wheel finally turns on Macbeth when Macduff reveals that he, Macduff, was not ‘borne’ of woman but came into the world from a caesarean birth.

“Despair thy charm;

And let the angel whom thou still hast served

Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb

Untimely ripp'd.”

Macbeth suddenly realises that the witches have juggled and played with him and he decides momentarily that he will not fight with Macduff: 
“Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,

For it hath cow'd my better part of man!

And be these juggling fiends no more believed,

That palter with us in a double sense;

That keep the word of promise to our ear,

And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.”

But Macduff’s threats, along with the thought that he, Macbeth, would have to surrender and kiss the ground before Malcolm, leads Macbeth to fight to the death with Macduff:

“I will not yield,

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,

And to be baited with the rabble's curse.

Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,

And thou opposed, being of no woman born,

Yet I will try the last. Before my body

I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,

And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'”

As Macbeth and Macduff exit fighting, Malcolm and Old Siward enter Dunsinane Castle which they have taken over. Ross reveals to Siward that his son is dead but has paid a soldier’s debt and although Siward seems upset, he seems to find some solace in the thought that his son died in battle. Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head in his hand as he hails Malcolm King of Scotland. Then Malcolm meekly declares:

“We shall not spend a large expense of time

Before we reckon with your several loves,

And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,

Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland

In such an honour named. What's more to do,

Which would be planted newly with the time,

As calling home our exiled friends abroad

That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;

Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,

Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands

Took off her life; this, and what needful else

That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,

We will perform in measure, time and place:

So, thanks to all at once and to each one,

Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.”

As King James I himself started a thunderous applause for the King’s Men at the end of probably the first performance of Macbeth, Shakespeare knew that he had warmed his way back into the heart of an English regent with flattery, allusions to witchcraft and a play which is driven by characters who amongst the most loved and hated of all his creations.

Resources for Teaching Macbeth

RSC. (2021). Macbeth Resources. Accessed from

https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/macbeth