The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act 2
Author: William Shakespeare
“Folger Digital Texts.” Edited by Rebecca Niles and Michael Poston, Folger Digital Texts, 1606, www.folgerdigitaltexts.org/?chapter=5&play=Mac&loc=p7.
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ACT 2
Scene 1
Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch before him.
BANQUO How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE
The moon is down.
I have not heard the clock.
BANQUO And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE I take ’t ’tis later, sir.
BANQUO
Hold, take my sword.He gives his sword to Fleance.
There’s husbandry in heaven;
Their candles are all out.
Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep.
Merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursèd thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose.
Banquo and Fleance were worrying about the time. They were trying to figure out wether if it was night by if the moon was out or not.
Fleance is Banquo’s son. He is inferior to his father in every way and its how just how it is. I don’t think that theres any disrespect in Banquo calling his son “boy”.
what does banqou mean by ‘she’
I don’t get what he means by that
maybe hes afraid he’ll harm himself and he wants to take the precaution? maybe its the sword used to kill king duncan and hes afraid hes being haunted by duncan and hes afraid of having it in his possesion.
why would he give fleece his sword? is he scared something will happen?
ig thhat he doesnt want him son to be attacked if something happend to banquo
Was there something Fleance should be aware about? Was Banquo scared that Fleance could be a target? Was Banquo scared he was gonna kill someone or do something bad if ?Fleance was threatened?
he seems to be having a nightmare. he says " mercifal powers, restrain me in cursèd thoughts" i be;lieve he is scared to sleep because he knows hell have another nightmare
maybe he knew that Macbeth was gonna kill the king and he might of known that Macbeth wanted to become king and that he might be next .
I think Banquo is having trouble sleeping because he is having nightmares from the war. War is a traumatizing thing for anyone and now Banquo is suffering from flashbacks.
Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch.
yeehaw
yeehaw
Does Banquo already know what is about to become of him? Had he already expected that Macbeth would do something like this?
why could Macbeth be with a servant, does this mean anything? what would be different if he had come alone?
Give me my sword.—Who’s
there?
MACBETH A friend.
BANQUO
What, sir, not yet at rest?
The King’s abed.
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
Sent forth great largess to your offices.
This diamond he greets your wife withal,
By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up
In measureless content.
He gives Macbeth a jewel.
MACBETH Being unprepared,
Our will became the servant to defect,
Which else should free have wrought.
BANQUO All’s well.
I dreamt last night of the three Weïrd Sisters.
To you they have showed some truth.
MACBETH I think not of
them.
Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
We would spend it in some words upon that
business,
If you would grant the time.
BANQUO At your kind’st leisure.
MACBETH
If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis,
It shall make honor for you.
BANQUO So I lose none
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
I shall be counseled.
MACBETH Good repose the while.
BANQUO Thanks, sir.
The like to you.
Banquo and Fleance exit.
MACBETH
Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
She strike upon the bell.
Get thee to bed.
Banquo gives Macbeth a jewel, a gift from the king to give to lady Macbeth. Jewels are supposed to symbolize truth and purity, the king gives this to Macbeth because that is what he thinks suits her. However, lady Macbeth is deceitful and cruel, basically the opposite of what the king thinks.
He tis suspicious that someone is ther he just doesnt know who it is so he takes his sword back for protection
he might have thought that someone was after him or was gonna kill him
Does it mean that Duncan would propose to Lady Macbeth since he’s giving her a diamond?
why does he give macbeth a jewel?
Banquo gave macbeth a jewel so macbeth could give it to lady macbeth as a thank you for throwing the party. Banquo was showing gratitude
he had a dream about the witches which he continues to call the three sisters rather than the 3 witches
he probably doesn’t believe them so he is just referring to them as weird instead of supernatural
yeehaw
Does this mean that Banquo is also in contact with the witches? Did they tell him something about his own future?
does this mean he had a vision? did he have a prediction of the future? what did they tell them in his dream?
Was it Banquo who was dreaming of the 3 three witch’s or was it Macbeth who was dreaming of the three witch’s
Banquo still has dreams about the witches it’s like he’s been haunted or something.
If Macbeth admits that he is following what the witches said then that would imply that he’s going to dethrone Duncan. Or Macbeth might just be trying to avoid thinking about the fact that he’s about to kill Duncan because he knows he’ll be disgusted with himself.
Banquo maybe thought what they said was going to come true. Did Banquo believe the 3 sisters?
this is the part where macbeth dreams of the three sisters
yeehaw
yeehaw
Does this imply that Macbeth thinks his new role as king is a curse?
Macbeth says he doesn’t think of the witches but he is probably lying trying to hide something.
makes me think of what would happen if he hadn’t even met the weird sisters(witches) in the first place
yeehaw
perhaps, despite his cruelty to all of his victims, and his clouded judgement after killing so many, he still feels somewhat of a friendship with Banquo?
what is he augmenting? he seems to want to change things but still keep out of trouble
does he mean this as in he knows hes going crazy and he needs to speak to someone?
i think hes telling banqou to bring lady macbeth when his drink is ready
Servant exits.
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-oppressèd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.He draws his dagger.
Thou marshal’st me the way that I was going,
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o’ th’ 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-half world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep.
Witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate’s off’rings, and withered murder,
Alarumed 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 whereabouts
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 rings.
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.
He exits.
I think this means he came back with the dagger. This the part where Macbeth kills Duncan.
yeehaw
would this signify that he is about to kill again? Is it the same dagger that Macbeth used to kill the king?
im guessing that it is because why else would he be imagining the dagger hes talking about
like Banquo, MAcbeth is also obsessing over something, this causes him to hallucinate the dagger. The dagger is probably the same one that he killed Duncan with and he is feeling guilt over this, he is obsessing over it.
I agree with this because when Macbeth sees the dagger, he realizes what power he has with it. He knows that with this dagger, he can do whatever he wants and get whatever he wants.
where was the dagger at that moment? did he find it ? did the dagger contain something different?
So is this the dagger that is used to kill Duncan With?
He sees a bloody dagger and i’m assuming it’s the dagger he used to killed king duncan.
yeehaw
Macbeth willingness to hold the weapon ight signify/correlate with how willing he is to kill
he cant hold it because hes imagining it. and hes also probably imagining himself killing duncan or how the murder will go or take place or should look like to make this murder run smoothly.
yeehaw
this represents his decent into madness, perhaps highlighting how murdering people close to him so much impacted his mental stability.
This could possibly show that he can be feeling guilty and he just doesn’t know how to feel so he starts hallucinating and just thinking to himself
why is macbeth saying that his eyes are fools when he could clearly see what hes doing/talking about
ive noticed that they never say murder they always try to hide it or prevent themselves from saying murder straight foward i guess they think that if u dont say it it wont come back to you or you wont get karma
Most of this book blood business is mostly used instead of murder or doing a crime. Was this a way to keep the secret? where they scared that people would find out about what they were doing?
yeehaw
perhaps this is an example of foreshadowing, in reference to Banquo’s death after Macbeth’s servants reach him
i believe this means he moves secretly like a ghost moves without being seen
was he trying not to let people hear him? was he on his way to kill the king?
yeehaw
perhaps he says this in regards to how cold it is outside- and how if he speaks out loud his breath will be visible; possibly leading to him getting caught in the act, therefore compromising his plan
Scene 2
Enter Lady Macbeth.
LADY MACBETH
That which hath made them drunk hath made me
bold.
What hath quenched them hath given me fire.
Hark!—Peace.
It was the owl that shrieked, 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 have drugged
their possets,
That death and nature do contend about them
Whether they live or die.
MACBETH,
within Who’s there? what, ho!
LADY MACBETH
Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
And ’tis not done.
Th’ attempt and not the deed
Confounds us.
Hark!—I laid their daggers ready;
He could not miss ’em.
Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done ’t.
Shes saying shes going to put the dagger next to the guards for they could get blame for killing DUncan
some people become sleepy or angry or laugh alot from alcahol i think she was saying that alcahol gave her the courage to speak up by saying “that which hath made them drunk hath made me bold.”
for this line, i think that when she says drunk she means drugged, and by them they probably mean duncans butler. so this would mean that she drugged the servants thats why shes not drunk
yeehaw
perhaps the bell is a symbol of death in Macbeth?
maybe it was a signal letting macbeth know that nobody was looking? but i do agree with what u said
its the third time the word bell comes up.
yeehaw
yeehaw
perhaps the bell was some sort of “all clear” signal, but it comes up multiple times in the text as a symbol of death; which alludes to the way that Macbeth is about to murder the king.
yeehaw
yeehaw
wouldn’t the other guests notice that Lady Macbeth was acting a bit strange as hostess? Did Banquo think she was a bit suspicious?
She drugged the guards’ drink, milk so it could seem like if they did the killing.
yeehaw
she notes the possibility of them getting killed as well- which foreshadows what happens after the king is found dead.
Macbeth is sacred that everyone has seen the murder that he has commited
yeehaw
This hows that Lady Macbeth is still a conspirator to the murders, it seems like he isn’t yet regretful of any of the murders she and her husband participated in
Especially because with a capital letter on the “H” for Macbeth it makes it like Macbeth is more important.
i dont get if she means her actual father or god. or who it reminds her of
Enter Macbeth with bloody daggers.
yeehaw
didn’t lady macbeth direct him to place them by the drunken guards in order to frame them, instead of bringing them back?
My husband?
MACBETH
I have done the deed.
Didst thou not hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH
I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
Did not you speak?
MACBETH When?
LADY MACBETH Now.
MACBETH As I descended?
LADY MACBETH Ay.
MACBETH Hark!—Who lies i’ th’ second chamber?
LADY MACBETH Donalbain.
MACBETH This is a sorry sight.
LADY MACBETH
A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
MACBETH
There’s one did laugh in ’s sleep, and one cried
“Murder!”
That they did wake each other.
I stood and heard
them.
But they did say their prayers and addressed them
Again to sleep.
LADY MACBETH There are two lodged together.
MACBETH
One cried “God bless us” and “Amen” the other,
As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands,
List’ning their fear.
I could not say “Amen”
When they did say “God bless us.”
LADY MACBETH Consider it not so deeply.
MACBETH
But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”?
I had most need of blessing, and “Amen”
Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
MACBETH
Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
LADY MACBETH What do you mean?
MACBETH
Still it cried “Sleep no more!” to all the house.
“Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore
Cawdor
Shall sleep no more.
Macbeth shall sleep no more.”
LADY MACBETH
Who was it that thus cried?
Why, worthy thane,
You do unbend your noble strength to think
So brainsickly of things.
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.
Look on ’t again I dare not.
LADY MACBETH 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.
She exits with the daggers.
Knock within.
MACBETH Whence is that
knocking?
How is ’t with me when every noise appalls me?
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 incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Macbeth told Lady Macbeth he has done the deed. He asked if she heard anything but Lady Macbeth said she only heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Macbeth wanted to let his wife know that her wish has an granted.
Macbeth’s conscious is guilty I guess because originally he did not want to kill Duncan but lady Macbeth had made him. 🗡
Macbeth had completed what Lady Macbeth wanted him to do, so he wanted to know if anything was heard during the murder. All Lady macbeth heard was the animals.
Owls don’t usually scream and with this it just makes it unusual. Scream and cry sets kind of a bad tone or mood.
she doesnt seem to believe him, he seems to be losing her trust
Macbeth says that he has “descended” from the scene of the crime. But one could argue that Macbeth has not only descended physically, but also morally. Macbeth has killed his King in cold blood. He has taken a life. So he has fallen from his previous moral status. This downward movement is an important depiction as it is a cue to the director, and the actors as to how Macbeth should be moving.
i believe shes saying that foolish sight is an understatement
When Macbeth was killing Duncan he heard people praying. But after the prayer he couldn’t say “Amen”. This is probably because he was doing an unholy deed, a sin which was killing Duncan. And that caused him to not be able to say “Amen”.
yeehaw
yeehaw
would this symbolize how the murder that Macbeth decided to commit tainted his religious views? does this mean that he no longer turns to his faith?
Macbeth told Lady Macbeth about how he couldn’t say “Amen”. But Lady Macbeth doesn’t want Macbeth to worry about it. Maybe this is because she doesn’t want him to feel bad because then he won’t want to be king, and all LM wants is for Macbeth to become king. So she tells him to not think about it, and that it doesn’t matter.
yeehaw
yeehaw
Perhaps this is to signify both Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth’s distance from their origional character traits. This is because both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself considered themselves as Christian, Lady Macbeth even visited the chapel she had constructed on her property as a sign of her devotion to religion.
Macbeth feels guilty for what he has done and so he knows he could probably not go to heaven cause he had done a bad deed.
macbeth cant say amen because he has murdered the and he is a god man and has a good heart so thats whhy he cant say amen because he never wanted to kill anyone but lady macbeth manipulated him to commiting murder
lady macbeth has no conciouse or soul because she doesnt care about the murder and how macbeth feels after he has murdered the servants and duncan
yeehaw
yeehaw
perhaps this is a reference to Macbeth’s rising mental instability
Macbeth feels like he no longer can sleep bc he killed the king just so that he could be crowned king himself. So maybe he just feels like he no longer can sleep in peace without thinking about “it”. (he doesn’t even wanna say the word murder)
i believe shes referring to blood as a witness so get water to wash the blood off his hands
she didnt want him getting caught so he could be king
yeehaw
yeehaw
why didn’t she tell this to Macbeth before? Or did she actually tell him before, and his decent into madness just fog his memory?
yeehaw
Lady Macbeth still does not seem resentful, or regretful of what she had convinced Macbeth to do.
yeehaw
yeehaw
This shows how Macbeth still seems to have morality- despite being convinced that murder was the fastest way to size the throne.
he does’t wanna think about how he just killed someone, maybe this could be evidence that macbeth was influenced by his wife to kill the king
I am pretty sure in this part Lady Macbeth took the daggers so she could frame the grooms. She took the daggers so she could plant the evidence on the grooms so her and Macbeth wouldn’t be caught for killing Duncan.
Since Macbeth stabbed Duncan, Duncan’s blood is on Macbeth’s hands. So Macbeth is wondering if he will be able to wash the blood off of his hands. But I don’t think that Macbeth is talking about blood literally. I believe he is also talking about his guilt. I think he is wondering if he will be able to wash off his guilt of killing Duncan.
yeehaw
does this represent how Macbeth still feels guilty about what he had done to the king?
yeehaw
maybe this shows Macbeth’s true guilt for the murder he just committed
Enter Lady Macbeth.
LADY MACBETH
My hands are of your color, but I shame
To wear a heart so white.Knock.
I hear a knocking
At the south entry.
Retire we to our chamber.
A little water clears us of this deed.
How easy is it, then!
Your constancy
Hath left you unattended.Knock.
Hark, more knocking.
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us
And show us to be watchers.
Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.
MACBETH
To know my deed ’twere best not know myself.
Knock.
Wake Duncan with thy knocking.
I would thou
couldst.
They exit.
maybe she is saying that she feels bad about feeling bad for killing the king, a white heart could mean a good heart so she feels bad for being a good person and feeling terrible about killing someone.
Lady Macbeth feels they can just wash ff the blood with some water while Macbeth doesn’t think it will be that easy. And I think Macbeth feels that way because he feels more guilt than Lady Macbeth.
a little water can clean his hands off of blood and itll be as if nothing ever happened
yeehaw
perhaps this shows that deep down they still follow their religion, despite committing and conspiring murder together.
Scene 3
Knocking within.
Enter a Porter.
PORTER Here’s a knocking indeed!
If a man were
porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the
key.
(Knock.)
Knock, knock, knock!
Who’s there, i’
th’ name of Beelzebub?
Here’s a farmer that hanged
himself on th’ expectation of plenty.
Come in time!
Have napkins enough about you; here you’ll sweat
for ’t.
(Knock.)
Knock, knock!
Who’s there, in th’
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, 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, 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 th’ everlasting bonfire.
(Knock.)
Anon, anon!
it’s almost like he’s emphasizing how where he is, is just like but without the benefit of warmth.
This thing that the Porter says here is a little suspcious to me. He makes many satanic references here for example, Beelzebub, equivocate to heaven, and devil-porter. Does this mean anything about his character? Is he a demonic presence in the story?
yeehaw
there is no response and the mood of the story slightly shifts and suggests uneasyness
what other devil could there be?
The porter jokes about welcoming all kinds of sinners, and warning them about the heat inside. His words describe “Beelzebub”… “a farmer that hanged himself”… “here you’ll sweat”…“committed treason”… “a tailor come hither for stealing”… “roast”… “bonfire”.
The Porter opens the door to Macduff and Lennox.
I pray you, remember the porter.
MACDUFF
Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed
That you do lie so late?
PORTER Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second
cock, and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three
things.
MACDUFF What three things does drink especially
provoke?
PORTER Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.
Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes.
It provokes
the desire, but it takes away the performance.
Therefore much drink may be said to be an
equivocator with lechery.
It makes him, and it
mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it
persuades him and disheartens him; makes him
stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates
him in a sleep and, giving him the lie, leaves
him.
MACDUFF I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
PORTER That it did, sir, i’ th’ very throat on me; but I
requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too
strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime,
yet I made a shift to cast him.
MACDUFF Is thy master stirring?
Enter Macbeth.
Our knocking has awaked him.
Here he comes.
Porter exits.
LENNOX
Good morrow, noble sir.
MACBETH Good morrow, both.
MACDUFF
Is the King stirring, worthy thane?
MACBETH Not yet.
MACDUFF
He did command me to call timely on him.
I have almost slipped the hour.
MACBETH I’ll bring you to him.
MACDUFF
I know this is a joyful trouble to you,
But yet ’tis one.
MACBETH
The labor we delight in physics pain.
This is the door.
MACDUFF I’ll make so bold to call,
For ’tis my limited service.Macduff exits.
LENNOX Goes the King hence today?
MACBETH He does.
He did appoint so.
LENNOX
The night has been unruly.
Where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i’ th’ air, strange screams of
death,
And prophesying, with accents terrible,
Of dire combustion and confused events
New hatched to th’ woeful time.
The obscure bird
Clamored the livelong night.
Some say the Earth
Was feverous and did shake.
MACBETH ’Twas a rough night.
LENNOX
My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.
Enter Macduff.
MACDUFF O horror, horror, horror!
Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!
MACBETH AND LENNOX What’s the matter?
MACDUFF
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence
The life o’ th’ building.
MACBETH What is ’t you say?
The life?
LENNOX Mean you his Majesty?
MACDUFF
Approach the chamber and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon.
Do not bid me speak.
See and then speak yourselves.
Macbeth and Lennox exit.
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.
Bell rings.
Right in this moment is a crucial moment. This is when Macduff discovers the kings body, cold and dead. I wonder what is going through Macbeths head during this, how is he feeling. He doesnt seem to be panicking.
yeehaw
everyone who sees the dead king is in confusion, unable to figure out who had done it
Enter Lady Macbeth.
LADY MACBETH What’s the business,
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
The sleepers of the house?
Speak, speak!
MACDUFF O gentle lady,
’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak.
The repetition in a woman’s ear
Would murder as it fell.
Enter Banquo.
O Banquo, Banquo,
Our royal master’s murdered.
LADY MACBETH Woe, alas!
What, in our house?
BANQUO Too cruel anywhere.—
Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself
And say it is not so.
Enter Macbeth, Lennox, and Ross.
Banquo knows that Macbeth was given the prophecy by the witches that Macbeth will be king. So I wonder if Banquo suspects that Macbeth killed the king because after Macbeth got that prophecy Duncan the current king was murdered. I mean if I were Banquo I would suspect that it was Macbeth.
MACBETH
Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had lived a blessèd time; for from this instant
There’s nothing serious in mortality.
All is but toys.
Renown and grace is dead.
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
He saying that if he knew the king was going to die he would want to die a hour before
Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.
DONALBAIN What is amiss?
MACBETH You are, and do not know ’t.
The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped.
MACDUFF
Your royal father’s murdered.
MALCOLM O, by whom?
LENNOX
Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done ’t.
Their hands and faces were all badged with blood.
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
Upon their pillows.
They stared and were distracted.
No man’s life was to be trusted with them.
MACBETH
O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them.
MACDUFF Wherefore did you so?
MACBETH
Who can be wise, amazed, temp’rate, and furious,
Loyal, and neutral, in a moment?
No man.
Th’ expedition of my violent love
Outrun the pauser, reason.
Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced with his golden blood,
And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature
For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers,
Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breeched with gore.
Who could refrain
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make ’s love known?
LADY MACBETH Help me hence, ho!
MACDUFF
Look to the lady.
MALCOLM, aside to Donalbain Why do we hold our
tongues,
That most may claim this argument for ours?
DONALBAIN, aside to Malcolm
What should be spoken here, where our fate,
Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us?
Let’s away.
Our tears are not yet brewed.
MALCOLM, aside to Donalbain
Nor our strong sorrow upon the foot of motion.
BANQUO Look to the lady.
Lady Macbeth is assisted to leave.
And when we have our naked frailties hid,
That suffer in exposure, let us meet
And question this most bloody piece of work
To know it further.
Fears and scruples shake us.
In the great hand of God I stand, and thence
Against the undivulged pretense I fight
Of treasonous malice.
MACDUFF And so do I.
ALL So all.
MACBETH
Let’s briefly put on manly readiness
And meet i’ th’ hall together.
ALL Well contented.
All but Malcolm and Donalbain exit.
MALCOLM
What will you do?
Let’s not consort with them.
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy.
I’ll to England.
DONALBAIN
To Ireland I. Our separated fortune
Shall keep us both the safer.
Where we are,
There’s daggers in men’s smiles.
The near in blood,
The nearer bloody.
MALCOLM This murderous shaft that’s shot
Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way
Is to avoid the aim.
Therefore to horse,
And let us not be dainty of leave-taking
But shift away.
There’s warrant in that theft
Which steals itself when there’s no mercy left.
They exit.
Lady Macbeth framed the grooms, and now everyone believes that the grooms were the ones who killed Duncan. And so now Macbeth and Lady Macbeth think they are in the clear which was the pan.
yeehaw
yeehaw
b framing the guards the Macbeth’s avoided all suspicion for the murder
This comparison implies a larger meaning to the king being killed. It means that the kings death has split apart everything around it, nature.
yeehaw
Donalbain suggests running away while they still can, if they succeed; is there a possibility of them being able to overthrow Macbeth in the future?
yeehaw
perhaps the king’s sons were afraid for their own lives, and needed to leave as soon as possible; not knowing that this was the perfect situation for Macbeth to take over
Scene 4
Enter Ross with an Old Man.
OLD MAN
Threescore and ten I can remember well,
Within the volume of which time I have seen
Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore
night
Hath trifled former knowings.
ROSS Ha, good father,
Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act,
Threatens his bloody stage.
By th’ clock ’tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp.
Is ’t night’s predominance or the day’s shame
That darkness does the face of earth entomb
When living light should kiss it?
OLD MAN ’Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that’s done.
On Tuesday last
A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.
ROSS
And Duncan’s horses (a thing most strange and
certain),
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would
Make war with mankind.
OLD MAN ’Tis said they eat each
other.
ROSS
They did so, to th’ amazement of mine eyes
That looked upon ’t.
They agree on the premonitions that were not acknowledged as they talk about how Duncan’s horses broke free from their reigns, ran off into the night and then ate each other.
Enter Macduff.
Here comes the good
Macduff.—
How goes the world, sir, now?
MACDUFF Why, see you not?
ROSS
Is ’t known who did this more than bloody deed?
MACDUFF
Those that Macbeth hath slain.
ROSS Alas the day,
What good could they pretend?
MACDUFF They were suborned.
Malcolm and Donalbain, the King’s two sons,
Are stol’n away and fled, which puts upon them
Suspicion of the deed.
ROSS ’Gainst nature still!
Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up
Thine own lives’ means.
Then ’tis most like
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
MACDUFF
He is already named and gone to Scone
To be invested.
ROSS Where is Duncan’s body?
MACDUFF Carried to Colmekill,
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors
And guardian of their bones.
ROSS Will you to Scone?
MACDUFF
No, cousin, I’ll to Fife.
ROSS Well, I will thither.
MACDUFF
Well, may you see things well done there.
Adieu,
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new.
ROSS Farewell, father.
OLD MAN
God’s benison go with you and with those
That would make good of bad and friends of foes.
All exit.
yeehaw
yeehaw
they seem to know that Macbeth was the murderer, however; now that Macbeth has become king they can’t really do much about what he did to the king.
yeehaw
now, after Duncan’s sons have run away; this gives Macbeth an opportunity to take over the land as the new king, giving him validation for his act of killing the king
yeehaw
yeehaw
this shows that even after his death, the people of the land still greatly respect the king
yeehaw
yeehaw
this seems to be a repeated theme throughout the text- and it connects with all of the characters ways of thinking, and their actions; referring to how things might not really be as they seem (Macbeth pretended to be innocent before committing treason and killing the king, the original thane of Cawdor seemed like a trustable friend to the king-until they found out he was a traitor, etc.)
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