A Desert 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'sDefinitioncommotion / tumult / chaos of battleSource: C.T. Onions (1911) done,
When the battle's lost and won.
Third Witch
That will be ereDefinitionbeforeSource: C.T. Onions (1911) the set of sun.
First Witch
Where the place?
Second Witch
Upon the heathDefinitionan open area of uncultivated land.
Third Witch
There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch
I come, GraymalkinDefinitiona gray cat (the witch's familiar spirit)!
Second Witch
PaddockDefinitiona toad (the witch's familiar spirit) calls.
Third Witch
AnonDefinitionsoon / right away.
All
Fair is foul, and foul is fairThematic AnalysisThe central paradox of the play. This chiasmus (reversal of structure) establishes moral confusion: good people will do bad things, and bad things will seem attractive. It foreshadows Macbeth's first line in Scene 3.:
A Camp near Forres. Alarum within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.
Duncan
What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plightDefinitioncondition / stateSource: A. Schmidt (1874), of the revolt
The newest state.
Malcolm
This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardyDefinitionbold / braveSource: C.T. Onions (1911) soldier fought
'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broilDefinitionbattle / quarrel / tumultSource: A. Schmidt (1874)
As thou didst leave it.
Sergeant
Doubtful it stood;
As two spentDefinitionexhausted swimmers, that do cling together
And choke their artDefinitionskill (swimming ability). 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 gallowglassesDefinitionlightly armed and heavily armed Irish foot soldiersSource: C.T. Onions (1911) is supplied;
And fortune, on his damned quarrelDefinitioncause / rebellion smiling,
Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak:
For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minionDefinitiondarling / favoriteSource: C.T. Onions (1911) carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'dDefinitionripped open him from the naveDefinitionnavel to the chapsDefinitionjaws,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.
Duncan
O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sergeant
As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
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,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantageDefinitionadvantage / opportunitySource: A. Schmidt (1874),
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.
If I say soothDefinitiontruth, 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 GolgothaDefinitionPlace of the Skull (where Jesus was crucified)Source: Biblical Allusion,
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.
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 camest thou, worthy thane?
Ross
From Fife, great king;
Where the Norweyan banners floutDefinitionmock / insultSource: C.T. Onions (1911) 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 bridegroomMythological AllusionBellona was the Roman goddess of war. Ross is calling Macbeth the "bridegroom" (husband) of the War Goddess, praising his terrifying skill in battle., lapp'd 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 compositionDefinitiontreaty / peace termsSource: A. Schmidt (1874);
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 interestDefinitionheart's trust / vital interestsSource: A. Schmidt (1874): go pronounce his present death,
Inverness. Macbeth's Castle. Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter.
Lady Macbeth
'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 missivesDefinitionmessengers 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 rejoicingDefinitionowed joy, 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' 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. Hie theeDefinitionHurry hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastiseDefinitionpunish with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden roundDefinitioncrown,
Which fate and metaphysicalDefinitionsupernatural aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.
Enter a Messenger.
Lady Macbeth
What is your tidings?
Messenger
The king comes here to-night.
Lady Macbeth
Thou'rt mad to say it:
Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,
Would have inform'd 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.
Exit Messenger.
Lady Macbeth
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughtsDefinitionmurderous thoughts, unsex me hereThematic AnalysisShe asks to be stripped of femininity/compassion.,
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 remorseDefinitionpity,
That no compunctious visitingsDefinitionfeelings of guilt 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 gallDefinitionbile, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
And pallDefinitionshroud thee in the dunnestDefinitiondarkest 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.
Lady Macbeth
Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.
Macbeth
My dearest love,
Duncan comes here to-night.
Lady Macbeth
And when goes hence?
Macbeth
To-morrow, 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 timeDefinitiondeceive the world,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under'tThematic AnalysisUse deception to hide lethal intent (Eden allusion).. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great business into my dispatchDefinitionmanagement;
Macbeth's Castle. Hautboys and torches. Enter a SewerDefinitionChief Butler, and divers Servants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. Then enter MACBETH.
Macbeth
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel upDefinitioncatch in a net the consequence, and catch
With his surceaseDefinitiondeath success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoalDefinitionsandbar 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 the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chaliceDefinitioncup
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 facultiesDefinitionroyal powers 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.
Enter LADY MACBETH.
Macbeth
How now! what news?
Lady Macbeth
He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber?
Macbeth
Hath he ask'd for me?
Lady Macbeth
Know you not he has?
Macbeth
We will proceed no further in this business:
He hath honour'd 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 dress'd 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 valour
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' the adageDefinitioncat who wants fish but hates water?
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 pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
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 wassailDefinitiondrinking so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeckDefinitiondistilling tool only: when in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quellDefinitionmurder?
Macbeth
Bring forth men-children only;
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
When we have mark'd 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 clamour 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.
Exeunt.
Critical Frameworks & Sources
The analysis notes in this act rely on the following historical and philosophical concepts: