MACBETH, by William Shakespeare Characters in the play : -
Macbeth (Thane of Glamis => Thane of Cawdor => King of Scotland)
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Lady Macbeth, his wife
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Banquo, Macbeth’s brother in arms
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Fleance, Banquo’s son
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Duncan, the king of Scotland
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3 witches
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2 murderers
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A porter
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A doctor
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Servants, attendants, messengers, soldiers…
Prologue: Enter soldiers (including Macbeth and Banquo, and their enemies) Mime of battle. Macbeth victorious. Cries of “Victory to Macbeth!”; “Hail, Macbeth!”; “Brave Macbeth!”; “Victory to the Thane of Glamis” etc. etc. Scene 1 1st Witch: When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 2nd Witch: When the hurlyburly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won. 3rd Witch: That will be ere set of sun. 1st Witch: Where the place? 2nd Witch: Upon the heath. 3rd Witch: There to meet with Macbeth. All: Fair is foul and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.
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Sound of a drum 3rd Witch: A drum! a drum! Macbeth doth come. Enter Macbeth and Banquo Banquo: What are these? Macbeth: Speak if you can: - what are you? 1st Witch: All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! 2nd Witch: All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! 3rd Witch: All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be King hereafter. Banquo: To me you speak not. Speak then to me. 1st Witch: Hail! 2nd Witch: Hail! 3rd Witch: Hail! 1st Witch: Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 2nd Witch: Not so happy, yet much happier. 3rd Witch: Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! Macbeth: Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. I know I am Thane of Glamis But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives… Speak I charge you. The witches vanish. Enter messenger Messenger: The King hath happily receiv’d, Macbeth, The news of thy success. He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth: What! Can the Devil speak true? Enter King Duncan Duncan: (To Macbeth, embracing him) O worthiest cousin! (To Banquo) Noble Banquo, 1 0
Thou hast no less deserv’d.
(Exeunt)
Scene 2 Enter Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth holding a letter in her hand. She looks at it and says: From Macbeth. She opens it and reads bits from it: Thane of Cawdor! King thou shalt be! She puts the letter down Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promised. - Yet I do fear thy nature: It is too full of the milk of human kindness, To catch the nearest way. Enter a messenger Messenger: The King comes here tonight. Lady Macbeth: Thou art mad to say it. Messenger: So please you, it is true: our Thane is coming. Enter Macbeth Lady Macbeth: Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! Macbeth: Duncan comes here tonight. Lady Macbeth: And when goes hence? Macbeth: Tomorrow, as he purposes. Lady Macbeth: O! never Shall sun that morrow see! He that’s coming Must be provided for; and you shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch. Macbeth: We will speak further.
Exeunt
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Scene 3 Trumpets announcing the arrival of King Duncan at Macbeth’s castle. Enter Duncan, Banquo, Lords and attendants. Duncan: See, see! Our honour’d hostess. Enter Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth kneeling: All our service to your Majesty. Duncan: Give me your hand; Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly, And shall continue our graces towards him. Exeunt Enter Macbeth. Noise of banquet off-stage. Macbeth: If it were done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. But the king is here in trust. As his host, I should against the murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Enter Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth: Why have you left the chamber? Macbeth: We will proceed no further in this business. Lady Macbeth: Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour, As thou art in desire? Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’? Macbeth: I dare do all that may become a man; Lady Macbeth: When you durst do it, then you were a man. Macbeth: If we should fail? Lady Macbeth: We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place, And we’ll not fail. Macbeth: I am settled. Away, and mock the time with fairest show: False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
Exeunt 1 0
Scene 4 Night. Enter Macbeth. Macbeth: 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. 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. The clock strikes the hour (midnight?) 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.
Exit
Mime of the murder. Macbeth kills the King and the servants guarding him. Exit. Enter Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth: Who’s there? My husband! Enter Macbeth with bloody hands Macbeth: I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? Methought, I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth doth murder sleep’. Lady Macbeth: 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: I’ll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done. Lady Macbeth: Give me the daggers. Exit. She carries the daggers back to the murder scene Knocking at the gate Macbeth: Whence is that knocking? Re-enter Lady Macbeth with bloody hands Lady Macbeth: My hands are of your colour. I hear a knocking, retire we to our chamber. A little water clears us of this deed. Exeunt 1 0
The knocking continues. Porter: Here’s a knocking indeed! Knock, knock, knock, who’s there i’ th’ name of Belzebub? Knock, knock. Never at quiet! Anon, anon. The Porter opens the gate to a messenger. I pray you remember the Porter. Messenger: Good morrow. Is the King stirring? Porter: I’ll bring you to him. Messenger (discovering the body of the King): O horror! horror! horror! Ring the alarum-bell. Murder, and treason! Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo and attendants enter, they shout and scream: Woe! Alas! Murder! Treason! The King is dead! etc etc. Lady Macbeth pretends to faint. Mime. The crown is taken from Duncan’s head and placed on Macbeth’s. Scene 5 Enter Macbeth, Banquo and Fleance, Banquo’s son Macbeth: Ride you this afternoon? Banquo: Ay, my good Lord. Macbeth: Goes Fleance with you? Fleance: Ay, my good Lord. Macbeth: Fail not our feast. Banquo: My Lord, I will not. Exeunt Banquo and Fleance. Macbeth: To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus: Our fears in Banquo stick deep. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, And put a barren sceptre in my gripe. For Banquo’s issue have I fil’d my mind; For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered. Enter two murderers. Macbeth: Both of you Know, Banquo was your enemy. So is he mine. 1st Murderer: We shall, my Lord, 1 0
Perform what you command us. Macbeth: It must be done tonight, And something from the palace. Fleance his son, that keeps him company Must embrace the fate of that dark hour. 2nd Murderer: We are resolv’d, my Lord. Exeunt two murderers Macbeth alone Macbeth: I am in blood Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er. Banquo and Fleance his son cross the stage. The two murderers pursue them and strike Banquo. Banquo: O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou may’st revenge (Fleance runs off) - (To murderer) O slave! Banquo dies 1st Murderer: There’s but one down: the son is fled. 2nd Murderer: Well, let’s away, And say how much is done. Scene 6 A banquet is prepared. Enter Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, the host and hostess. Guests enter. The two murderers enter and speak privately to Macbeth, obviously telling him what they have done. Exeunt murderers. Macbeth: (to his guests) Now, good digestion wait on appetite, And health on both! Guest: May it please your Highness sit? The ghost of Banquo enters and sits in Macbeth’s place. Macbeth: The table’s full. Guest: Here’s a place reserv’d, Sir. Macbeth: Where?
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Guest: Here, my good Lord (indicating the place where Macbeth sees Banquo). What is it moves your Highness? Macbeth: Which of you have done this? Guest: What, my good Lord? Macbeth (pointing to the ghost) Behold! look! lo! how say you? The ghost disappears Lady Macbeth: What! Quite unmann’d in folly? Macbeth: If I stand here, I saw him. Lady Macbeth: Fie! for shame! Re-enter ghost Macbeth: Avaunt! And quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Hence horrible shadow! Ghost disappears Guest: What sights, my Lord? Lady Macbeth: I pray you speak not; he grows worse and worse. At once good night. Guests: Good night. Macbeth: I will tomorrow to the weird sisters, More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, By the worst means the worst. Scene 7 The three witches around their cauldron. 1st Witch: Double, double toil and trouble: Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 2nd Witch: By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Enter Macbeth Macbeth: How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! What is’t you do? 1 0
3rd Witch: A deed without a name. Macbeth: I conjure you, by that which you profess, Answer me to what I ask you. 1st Witch: Speak. 2nd Witch: Demand. 3rd Witch: We’ll answer. Macbeth: Tell me by your unknown power, shall I live? 1st Witch: Be bloody, bold and resolute: laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. 2nd Witch: Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. Macbeth: That will never be. Scene 8 Enter Doctor and servant Doctor: When was it she last walked? Enter Lady Macbeth sleepwalking Servant: Lo, you! Here she comes. Fast asleep. Observe her. Lady Macbeth: (miming the washing of her hands) Yet here’s a spot. Doctor: Hark! she speaks. Lady Macbeth: (still apparently washing her hands) Out, damned spot! Out I say. Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him? Servant: She has spoke what she should not. Lady Macbeth: There’s the smell of blood still. (As if speaking to Macbeth) Wash your hands, put on your night gown. Look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried: he cannot come out of his grave. To bed, to bed.
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Doctor: Will she now go to bed? Servant: Directly Doctor: Look after her and still keep eyes upon her. So good night. Servant: Good night, good doctor. Scene 9 Enter Macbeth and doctor Doctor: The Queen, my Lord is dead. Macbeth: She should have died hereafter. 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 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Exit Doctor Enter messenger Messenger: As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look’d toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move. Macbeth: Liar, slave! Enter Macbeth’s enemies, disguised with branches of trees. They surround him. One soldier comes towards Macbeth Soldier: Turn, Hell-hound, turn! Macbeth: Thou losest labour: I bear a charmed life: which must not yield To one of woman born. Soldier: Despair thy charm, And let me tell you, I was from my mother’s womb Untimely ripped. Then yield thee, coward! Macbeth: I will not yield.
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They fight. Macbeth is killed. Shouts of joy. The King is dead!
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