Background It is believed that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth largely to please King James. The Scottish king claimed to be descended from a historical figure named Banquo. In Macbeth, the witches predict that Banquo will be the first in a long line of kings. James’s interest in witchcraft—he penned a book on the subject in 597—may also account for the prominence of the witches themselves in the play. The play also spoke to James’s fears of assassination; he had survived several attempts on his life.
Act I
Scene 1 An open place in Scotland.The play opens in a wild and lonely place in medieval Scotland. Three witches enter and speak of what they know will happen this day: the civil war will end, and they will meet Macbeth, one of the generals. Their meeting ends when their demon companions, in the form of a toad and a cat, call them away.
[Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.]
First Witch.When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch.When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
Third Witch.That will be ere the set of sun.
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.
Third Witch.Anon.
All.Fair is foul, and foul is fair,
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
[They exit.]
Scene 2 King Duncan’s camp near the battlefield.
Duncan, the king of Scotland, waits in his camp for news of the battle. He learns that one of his generals, Macbeth, has been victorious in several battles. Not only has Macbeth defeated the rebellious Macdonwald, but he has also conquered the armies of the king of Norway and the Scottish traitor, the thane of Cawdor. Duncan orders the thane of Cawdor’s execution and announces that Macbeth will receive the traitor’s title.
[Alarum within. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain.]
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
Writer’s Technique
Figurative Language
Shakespeare uses figurative language to paint a vivid picture of the battle. Here he uses a simile comparing it to two tired swimmers hanging on to each other, each nearly causing the other to drown. In line 12, he uses an implied metaphor with the word swarm. It brings to mind the image of a swarm of bees overtaking a man.
Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought
’Gainst my captivity.—Hail, brave friend!
Say to the King the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.
Captain.Doubtful it stood,
As two spent swimmers that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald
(Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him) from the Western Isles
Of kerns and gallow glasses is supplied;
And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak;
For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name),
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valor’s minion, carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops,
And fixed his head upon our battlements.
Duncan.O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!
Captain.As whence the sun ’gins his reflection
Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break,
So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had, with valor armed,
Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbished arms and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.
Duncan.Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
Captain.Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharged with double cracks,
So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
Or memorize another Golgotha,
I cannot tell—
But I am faint. My gashes cry for help.
Duncan.So well thy words become thee as thy wounds:
They smack of honor both.—Go, get him surgeons.
[The Captain is led off by Attendants.]
[Enter Ross and Angus.]
Who comes here?
Malcolm.The worthy Thane of Ross.
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
And fan our people cold.
Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,
The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict,
Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapped in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,
Point against point, rebellious arm ’gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit. And to conclude,
The victory fell on us.
Duncan.Great happiness!
Ross.That now Sweno,
The Norways’ king, craves composition.
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme’s Inch
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
Duncan.No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our bosom interest. Go, pronounce his present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.
Ross.I’ll see it done.
Duncan.What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
[They exit.]
Scene 3 A bleak place near the battlefield.
While leaving the battlefield, Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches, who are gleefully discussing the trouble they have caused. The witches hail Macbeth by a title he already holds, thane of Glamis. Then they prophesy that he will become both thane of Cawdor and king. When Banquo asks about his future, they speak in riddles, saying that he will be the father of kings but not a king himself.After the witches vanish, Ross and Angus arrive to announce that Macbeth has been named thane of Cawdor. The first part of the witches’ prophecy has come true, and Macbeth is stunned. He immediately begins to consider the possibility of murdering King Duncan to fulfill the rest of the witches’ prophecy to him. Shaken, he turns his thoughts away from this “horrid image.”
[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 munched and munched and munched. “Give me,” quoth I.
“Aroint thee, witch,” the rump-fed runnion cries.
Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’ th’ Tiger;
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail
And, like a rat without a tail,
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
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,
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I’ th’ shipman’s card.
I’ll drain him dry as hay.
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid.
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary sev’nnights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.
Look what I have.
Second Witch.Show me, show me.
First Witch.Here I have a pilot’s thumb,
Wracked as homeward he did come.
[Drum within]
Third Witch.A drum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come.
All.[Dancing in a circle] The Weird Sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about,
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace, the charm’s wound up.
[Enter Macbeth and Banquo.]
Macbeth.So foul and fair a day I have not seen[93].
Banquo.How far is ’t called to Forres?—What are these,
So withered, and so wild in their attire,
That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth
And yet are on’t?—Live you? Or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me
By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
Macbeth.Speak, if you can. What are you?
First Witch.All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
Second Witch.All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch.All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
Banquo.Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I’ th’ name of truth,
Are you fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly you show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favors nor your hate.
First Witch.Hail!
Second Witch.Hail!
Third Witch.Hail!
First Witch.Lesser than Macbeth and greater.
Second Witch.Not so happy, yet much happier.
Third Witch.Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo![94]
First Witch.Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
Macbeth.Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more.
Writer’s Technique
Ambiguity
Ambiguity is the use of a word or expression that can be interpreted in more than one way. In line 56, Banquo uses the expression present grace in speaking of the witches’ addresses to Macbeth. This literally refers to the honor Macbeth currently receives as Thane of Glamis. However, present grace can also be a reference to the Christian state of grace that indicates a person is free from sin or is honored by God for his purity. To this point, Macbeth has lived virtuously. Look for other examples of ambiguity in Shakespeare’s word choice.
By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis.
But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives
A prosperous gentleman, and to be king
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you.
[Witches vanish.]
Banquo.The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
Macbeth.Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted,
As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed!
Banquo.Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?
Macbeth.Your children shall be kings.
Banquo.You shall be king.
Macbeth.And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?
Banquo.To th’ selfsame tune and words.—Who’s here?
[Enter Ross and Angus.]
Ross.The King hath happily received, Macbeth,
The news of thy success, and, when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels’ fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend
Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that,
In viewing o’er the rest o’ th’ selfsame day
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as hail
Came post with post, and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom’s great defense,
And poured them down before him.
Angus.We are sent
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 honor,
He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor,
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
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
He labored in his country’s wrack, I know not;
But treasons capital, confessed and proved,
Have overthrown him.
Macbeth.[Aside] Glamis and Thane of Cawdor!
The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus] Thanks for your pains.
[Aside to Banquo] Do you not hope your children shall be kings
When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
Language History
“Cousin”
The word cousin is used with different meanings in the play. When Banquo calls Ross and Angus cousins, he means persons of the same race or nation. Kings, such as Duncan, often used the term when referring to other monarchs or nobles. Historically, Duncan and Macbeth were first cousins; their mothers were sisters.
Promised no less to them?
Banquo.That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange.
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s
In deepest consequence.—
Cousins, a word, I pray you. [They step aside.]
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
Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man
That function is smothered in surmise,
And nothing is but what is not[95].
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 honors come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold
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 favor. My dull brain was wrought
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are registered where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.
[Aside to Banquo] Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time,
The interim having weighed it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.
Banquo.Very gladly.
Macbeth.Till then, enough.—Come, friends.
[They exit.]
Scene 4 A room in the king’s palace at Forres.
King Duncan receives news of the execution of the former thane of Cawdor. As the king is admitting his bad judgment concerning the traitor, Macbeth enters with Banquo, Ross, and Angus. Duncan expresses his gratitude to them and then, in a most unusual action, officially names his own son Malcolm as heir to the throne. To honor Macbeth, Duncan decides to visit Macbeth’s castle at Inverness. Macbeth, his thoughts full of dark ambition, leaves to prepare for the king’s visit.
[Flourish. Enter King Duncan, Lennox, Malcolm, Donalbain, and Attendants.]
Duncan.Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet returned?
Malcolm.My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die, who did report
That very frankly he confessed his treasons,
Implored your Highness’ pardon, and set forth
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it. He died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owed
As ’twere a careless trifle.
Duncan.There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust[96].
[Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus.]
O worthiest cousin,
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! Only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
Macbeth.The service and the loyalty I owe
In doing it pays itself. Your Highness’ part
Is to receive our duties, and our duties
Are to your throne and state children and servants,
Which do but what they should by doing everything
Safe toward your love and honor.
Duncan.Welcome hither.
I have begun to plant thee and will labor
To make thee full of growing.—Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserved nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me enfold thee
And hold thee to my heart.
Banquo.There, if I grow,
The harvest is your own.
Duncan.My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow.—Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know
We will establish our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
The Prince of Cumberland; which honor must
Not unaccompanied invest him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers.—From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you.
Macbeth.The rest is labor which is not used for you.
I’ll be myself the harbinger and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach.
So humbly take my leave.
Duncan.My worthy Cawdor.
Macbeth.[Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
On which I must fall down or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see[97].
[He exits.]
Duncan.True, worthy Banquo. He is full so valiant,
And in his commendations I am fed:
It is a banquet to me.—Let’s after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome.
It is a peerless kinsman.
[Flourish. They exit.]
Scene 5 Macbeth’s castle at Inverness.
Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband that tells her of the witches’ prophecies, one of which has already come true. She is determined that Macbeth will be king. However, she fears that he lacks the courage to kill Duncan. After a messenger tells her the king is coming, she calls on the powers of evil to help her do what must be done. When Macbeth arrives, she tells him that the king must die that night but reminds him that he must appear to be a good and loyal host.
[Enter Lady Macbeth, alone, with a letter.]
Lady Macbeth.[Reading the letter] “They met me in the day of success,
and I have learned by the perfect’st 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[98]
dearest partner of greatness, that thou might’st not lose the dues of
rejoicing by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it
to thy heart, and farewell.”
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’d’st have, great Glamis,
That which cries “Thus thou must do,” if thou have it,
And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear
And chastise with the valor of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crowned withal[99].
[Enter Messenger.]
What is your tidings?
Messenger.The King comes here tonight.
Lady Macbeth.Thou’rt mad to say it!
Is not thy master with him? who, were’t so,
Would have informed for preparation.
Messenger.So please you, it is true. Our Thane is coming.
One of my fellows had the speed of him,
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.
Lady Macbeth.Give him tending.
He brings great news.
[Messenger exits.]
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.
Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th‘ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
To cry “Hold, hold!”
[Enter Macbeth.]
Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor,
Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.
Macbeth.My dearest love,
Duncan comes here tonight.
Lady Macbeth.And when goes hence?
Macbeth.Tomorrow, as he purposes.
Lady Macbeth.O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue. Look like th’ innocent flower,
But be the serpent under ’t. He that’s coming
Must be provided for; and you shall put
This night’s great business into my dispatch,
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Macbeth.We will speak further.
Lady Macbeth.Only look up clear.
To alter favor ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me.
[They exit.]
Scene 6 In front of Macbeth’s castle.
King Duncan and his party arrive, and Lady Macbeth welcomes them. Duncan is generous in his praise of his hosts and eagerly awaits the arrival of Macbeth.
[Hautboys and Torches. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and Attendants.]
Duncan.This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
Banquo.This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath
Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle.
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,
The air is delicate.
[Enter Lady Macbeth.]
Duncan.See, see, our honored hostess!—
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you
How you shall bid God ’ild us for your pains
And thank us for your trouble.
Lady Macbeth.All our service,
In every point twice done and then done double,
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honors deep and broad wherewith
Your Majesty loads our house. For those of old,
And the late dignities heaped up to them,
We rest your hermits.
Duncan.Where’s the Thane of Cawdor?
We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose
To be his purveyor; but he rides well,
And his great love (sharp as his spur) hath helped him
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest tonight.
Lady Macbeth.Your servants ever
Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in compt
To make their audit at your Highness’ pleasure,
Still to return your own.
Cultural History
Martlets
Martlets are small European swallows, birds that often nest in churches to breed. This also happens in the United States. Each spring a great number of swallows return from a migration to the mission of San Juan Capistrano in southern California.
Duncan.Give me your hand.
[Taking her hand]
Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess[100].
[They exit.]
Scene 7 A room in Macbeth’s castle.
Macbeth has left Duncan in the middle of dinner. Alone, he begins to have second thoughts about his murderous plan. Lady Macbeth enters and discovers that he has changed his mind. She scornfully accuses him of cowardice and tells him that a true man would never back out of a commitment. She reassures him of success and explains her plan. She will make sure that the king’s attendants drink too much. When they are fast asleep, Macbeth will stab the king with the servants’ weapons.
[Hautboys. Torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service over the stage. Then enter Macbeth.]
Macbeth.If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly. If th’ assassination
Could trammel up the consequence and catch
With his surcease success, that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th’ inventor. This even-handed justice
Commends th’ ingredience of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked newborn babe
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
And falls on th’ other— [101]
[Enter Lady Macbeth.]
How now? What news?
Lady Macbeth.He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?
Macbeth.Hath he asked for me?
Lady Macbeth.Know you not he has?
Macbeth.We will proceed no further in this business.
He hath honored me of late, and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
Lady Macbeth.Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valor
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,”
Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage?
Macbeth.Prithee, peace.
I dare do all that may become a man.
Who dares do more is none.
Lady Macbeth.What beast was’t, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me.
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this[102].
Macbeth.If we should fail—
Lady Macbeth.We fail?
But screw your courage to the sticking place
And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep
(Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey
Soundly invite him), his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep
Their drenchèd natures lie as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th’ unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?
Macbeth.Bring forth men-children only,
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
When we have marked with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
That they have done’t?
Lady Macbeth.Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar
Upon his death?
Macbeth.I am settled and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show.
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
[They exit.]
After Reading
Comprehension: Recall and Interpret
1.What predictions do the witches make about Macbeth’s future? about Banquo’s? How does Macbeth’s reaction differ from Banquo’s?
2.What conflict arises in Macbeth after the first prediction proves true? What does this inner conflict reveal about his character?
3.What personality trait of her husband’s does Lady Macbeth fear? What does this fear tell you about Lady Macbeth’s character?
4.Summarize the arguments Lady Macbeth uses to convince her husband to murder Duncan. Do these arguments appeal to Macbeth’s reason, his emotions, or both? Explain your answer.
Literary Analysis: Evaluate
5. Identify MoodReread Scene 1, lines 1–11. What mood is created by the witches? Why do you think the drama opens with this scene?
6. Make InferencesWhat does each of the following scenes reveal about the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth? What can you infer about their marriage?
• Scene 5, lines 22–27
• Scene 7, lines 35–39
• Scene 7, lines 72–74
7. Analyze Shakespearean DramaReview the actions you’ve recorded in your charts so far for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. At this point in the play, which characterdo you think is more forceful? Cite evidence to explain your answer.
8. Interpret ValuesWhat value does Macbeth place on the following? Cite specific details from the drama to support your conclusions.
• fate
• power
• fearlessness
9. Make Judgments About a CharacterWhat character traits do Macbeth’s exploits on the battlefield demonstrate? Are these qualities consistent with the plot he devises? Explain why or why not.
Literary Criticism
10. Critical InterpretationsSome critics have pointed out that Macbeth clearly recognizes the immorality of his murderous plan and foresees its terrible consequences, yet still goes through with it. What does Macbeth’s internal conflictsuggest about the relationship between obsessive ambitionand evil?
11. Critical InterpretationsScholar Faith Nostbakken asks, “What are those three characters who begin [the] play? Fates? Old hags? Mad people? Evil tempters? Prophets? Macbeth’s personal demons?” How would you answer her question? Write a letter to Nostbakken giving her your opinion of the three characters and of their function in the play. Be sure to provide evidence from the play to support your ideas.
12. Interdisciplinary ActivityTruth Is Stranger than FictionResearch the real-life characters of Macbeth, such as King Duncan, Banquo, and Macbeth. In an oral report based on your research, describe their personalities and values and the events that took place in their lives. Save your work for your portfolio.
13. Internet ConnectionTo learn more about Shakespeare and his plays, search the Internet using these keywords: “Shakespeare,” “Globe Theater,” “Elizabethan art and culture,” and “Macbeth.” Share your findings with the class. Save your work for your portfolio.
