Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle. Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman.
Doctor
I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive
no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?
Gentlewoman
Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen
her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon
her, unlock her closetDefinitionprivate cabinet or chest, take forth paper, fold it,
write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again
return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.
Doctor
A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once
the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of
watching! In this slumbery agitation, besides her
walking and other actual performances, what, at any
time, have you heard her say?
Gentlewoman
That, sir, which I will not report after her.
Doctor
You may to me: and 'tis most meet you should.
Gentlewoman
Neither to you nor any one; having no witness to
confirm my speech.
Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper.
Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise;
and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.
Doctor
How came she by that light?
Gentlewoman
Why, it stood by her: she has light by her
continually; 'tis her command.
Doctor
You see, her eyes are open.
Gentlewoman
Ay, but their sense is shut.
Doctor
What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.
Gentlewoman
It is an accustomed actionDefinitionhabitual action with her, to seem thus
washing her hands: I have known her continue in
this a quarter of an hour.
Lady Macbeth
Yet here's a spot.
Doctor
Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes from
her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
Lady Macbeth
Out, damned spot! out, I say!Psychological AnalysisThe blood is a manifestation of her guilt. Unlike Act 2 where she claimed "a little water clears us of this deed," she now realizes the stain is indelible. One: two: why,
then, 'tis time to do't. Hell is murkyInterpretationShe is likely reliving the night of the murder, or perhaps seeing the hell that awaits her.! 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.
Doctor
Do you mark that?
Lady Macbeth
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.
Doctor
Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
Gentlewoman
She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of
that: heaven knows what she has known.
Lady Macbeth
Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little handParallelismEchoes Macbeth's line in Act 2 about Neptune's ocean not washing the blood clean.. Oh, oh, oh!
Doctor
What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.
Gentlewoman
I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the
dignity of the whole body.
Doctor
Well, well, well,--
Gentlewoman
Pray God it be, sir.
Doctor
This disease is beyond my practise: yet I have known
those which have walked in their sleep who have died
holily in their beds.
Lady Macbeth
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.
Doctor
Even so?
Lady Macbeth
To bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate:
come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's
done cannot be undoneThemeThe finality of their crimes. A reversal of her earlier confidence that "what's done is done.". To bed, to bed, to bed!
Exit.
Doctor
Will she go now to bed?
Gentlewoman
Directly.
Doctor
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 matedDefinitionstupefied / confused (checkmated), and amazed my sight.
Country near Birnam wood. Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, SIWARD and YOUNG SIWARD, MACDUFF, MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, ROSS, and Soldiers, marching.
Dunsinane. Within the castle. Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours.
Macbeth
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:
Were they not forcedDefinitionreinforced / strengthened with those that should be ours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
And beat them backward home.
A cry of women within.
What is that noise?
Seyton
It is the cry of women, my good lord.
Exit.
Macbeth
I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrorsDefinitionconsumed so much horror I am desensitized;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.
Re-enter SEYTON.
Wherefore was that cry?
Seyton
The queen, my lord, is dead.
Macbeth
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrowFamous SoliloquyMacbeth expresses his total nihilism. Life is a "walking shadow," a "poor player," a "tale told by an idiot," signifying nothing.,
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 deathDefinitiondeath and decay (biblical echo: 'dust to dust'). Out, out, brief candleDefinitionmetaphor for the fragility and brevity of life!
Life's but a walking shadowDefinitionan actor on stage / an illusion, a poor player
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant airDefinitionair that cannot be cut
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.
Macduff
Despair thy charm;
And let the angelDefinitiondemon / fiend whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'dProphecy FulfilledMacduff was born by Caesarean section, meaning he was not "born of woman" in the natural sense. The prophecy was a trick of semantics..
Macbeth
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.
Macduff
Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time:
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted on a poleDefinitionsignpost (like a circus freak), and underwrit,
'Here may you see the tyrant.'
Macbeth
I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baitedDefinitionharassed / tormented (like a bear) 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!'