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A short or long poem written in metered verse (a rhythmic or rhyming structure).

Epics, ballads, idylls or lays: think Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Dante's The Divine Comedy or Homer's The Odyssey.

Shakespeare's narrative poems, like many in the genre, focused on mythology and love.

Narrative poems, not plays, were considered the high-art of Shakespeare's day.

EVEN as the sun with purple-colour'd face
Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn,
Rose-cheek'd Adonis hied him to the chase;
Hunting he loved, but love he laugh'd to scorn;
Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,
And like a bold-faced suitor 'gins to woo him.

'Thrice-fairer than myself,' thus she began,
'The field's chief flower, sweet above compare,
Stain to all nymphs, more lovely than a man,
More white and red than doves or roses are;
Nature that made thee, with herself at strife,
Saith that the world hath ending with thy life.

'Vouchsafe, thou wonder, to alight thy steed,
And rein his proud head to the saddle-bow;
If thou wilt deign this favour, for thy meed
A thousand honey secrets shalt thou know:
Here come and sit, where never serpent hisses,
And being set, I'll smother thee with kisses;
(Lines 1-18.)

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Shakespeare: The Intersection of Art & Life Timeline | PBS Shakespeare Uncovered

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A short or long poem written in metered verse (a rhythmic or rhyming structure). Epics, ballads, idylls or lays: think Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Dante's The Divine Comedy or Homer's The Odyssey. Shakespeare's narrative poems, like many in the genre, focused on mythology and love. Narrative poems, not plays, were considered the high-art of Shakespeare's day.

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William Shakespeare - Playwright | Mini Bio | BIO

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Although there is clearly more than one of them, the Witches may be seen as seem as a single character; they are often referred to as "The Weird Sisters".

Their predictions drive matters forward though they never actually suggest direct action. Rather, they plant ideas in Macbeth's mind and let his ambition do the rest. Many of their predictions are ambiguousambiguous Something that could be interpreted in more than one way. .

How are the Witches like this?

Evidence

Analysis

Supernatural

The Witches are clearly unlike any other characters in the play. Their physical appearance, their style of speech, their actions and their apparent ability to predict the future sets them apart from the humans they seek to control.

Round about the cauldron go; / In, the poisoned entrails throw. / Toad, that under cold stone / Days and nights hast thirty-one / Sweltered venom sleeping got, / Boil thou first i'th'charmèd pot. / Double, double, toil and trouble; / Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. (Act 4 Scene 1)

The Witches meet around one of the most well-known symbols of witchcraft - a cauldron. Into this they throw all manner of foul and evil objects ('poisoned entrails') and cast a spell. Although it is not clear what the spell is for, it is obvious they are up to no good. The Witches' chant is in a different rhythm to the way the other characters speak - this also suggests their supernatural nature.

Ambiguous

When the Witches make their predictions, they only say what will happen and not how it will happen. Macbeth falls into their trap and believes that he is safer than he actually is.

THIRD APPARITION: Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care / Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him. MACBETH: That will never be. (Act 4 Scene 1)

The Witches have conjured up three ghostly visions that make ambiguous predictions. Macbeth is told that he need not fear anything ('take no care who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are') until a forest of trees uproots itself and moves. As this seems to be a physical impossibility Macbeth instantly dismisses it ever happening ('That will never be'). The prediction will come true - but not quite in the way Macbeth expects.

Supernatural

How are the Witches like this?

The Witches are clearly unlike any other characters in the play. Their physical appearance, their style of speech, their actions and their apparent ability to predict the future sets them apart from the humans they seek to control.

Evidence

Round about the cauldron go; / In, the poisoned entrails throw. / Toad, that under cold stone / Days and nights hast thirty-one / Sweltered venom sleeping got, / Boil thou first i'th'charmèd pot. / Double, double, toil and trouble; / Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. (Act 4 Scene 1)

Analysis

The Witches meet around one of the most well-known symbols of witchcraft - a cauldron. Into this they throw all manner of foul and evil objects ('poisoned entrails') and cast a spell. Although it is not clear what the spell is for, it is obvious they are up to no good. The Witches' chant is in a different rhythm to the way the other characters speak - this also suggests their supernatural nature.

Ambiguous

How are the Witches like this?

When the Witches make their predictions, they only say what will happen and not how it will happen. Macbeth falls into their trap and believes that he is safer than he actually is.

Evidence

THIRD APPARITION: Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care / Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him. MACBETH: That will never be. (Act 4 Scene 1)

Analysis

The Witches have conjured up three ghostly visions that make ambiguous predictions. Macbeth is told that he need not fear anything ('take no care who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are') until a forest of trees uproots itself and moves. As this seems to be a physical impossibility Macbeth instantly dismisses it ever happening ('That will never be'). The prediction will come true - but not quite in the way Macbeth expects.

More guides on this topic

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The Witches in Macbeth - Characters - AQA - GCSE English Literature Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

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Revise and learn about the characters in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth with BBC Bitesize GCSE English Literature (AQA).

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Shakespeare, Witchcraft, and the Supernatural

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Shakespeare, Witchcraft, and the Supernatural

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Shakespeare, Witchcraft and the Supernatural

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A closer look at how witchcraft and the Supernatural influenced some of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays. Resources for primary and secondary students.

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The Weïrd Sisters: Interpretations of the Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth — The Theatrical Board

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The witches have an exceptionally large role in facilitating the plot of Macbeth .

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Shakespeare and Magic | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Folger Shakespeare Library is the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world. Shakespeare belongs to you. His world is vast. Come explore. Join us online, on the road, or in Washington, DC.

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Australia's national Shakespeare theatre company. Sharing works that are timeless and borderless.

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Macbeth | Shakespeare Learning Zone | Royal Shakespeare Company

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All the information you need about the play is here, from Story to Characters, Language to Performance, including videos and photos from our shows.

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Use of language in Macbeth - Form, structure and language - AQA - GCSE English Literature Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

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Three witches enter the scene with a creepy fanfare of thunder and lightning. The first witch asks when they'll all three meet again, and the second and third agree to meet on the heath after "the battle's lost and won," but before sunset. It turns out they'll have another in the party: none other than Macbeth.

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All about Shakespeare's childhood.

We know very little about Shakespeare's early childhood or teenage years. In those days children were seen as miniature adults to be manipulated and trained to take their place in the adult world as soon as possible. In the modern world teenagers are a clear and distinct group, with a 'teenage' identity and a clear and distinct way of life, recognised by adults. Marriage was the natural step as soon as one was not a child anymore. You will know that Juliet was just fourteen when her parents were arranging her marriage, and Romeo wasn't much older. In the meantime, teenagers either went to work or endured a very hard slog at school.

We first hear of the young William as a baby being baptised. The next time we hear of him is when he marries the twenty-six year-old 'old maid', Anne Hathaway, when he was eighteen. She was three months pregnant on her wedding day. Her parents were dead and she lived with her brother in the family home, where William visited her. We can see, then, that young Will does as any seventeen year-old boy, given the chance; he hurries to this older woman's cottage to spend long rainy afternoons alone with her!

It wasn't unusual for women and girls to be pregnant when they married. When a boy made a girl pregnant he was honour-bound to marry her, and Shakespeare did that. If he hadn't, her child would have been a 'bastard', looked down on throughout its childhood and adulthood, and without any legal rights. So the pressure to marry in those circumstances was compelling.

We know, then, that Shakespeare was a teenage father, having to marry the woman he had made pregnant and supporting her and her child. He was penniless at the time and his father had fallen on hard times: we don't know how William supported his wife and baby girl, but, a few years later, soon after they had their twins, another girl, and a boy, he went to London and started his career in the theatre. He did really well in that and was able to send money to his family and visit them frequently. Eleven years after the twins' birth he had become so rich that he bought New Place, one of Stratford's biggest houses, and moved his family into it. There is a sad note here: one of the twins, the boy, Hamnet, died in the same year, aged eleven. (Read our Shakespeare Timeline or Shakespeare biography to see how that all fits in.)

Hygiene was not a strong point during Shakespeare's childhood. It's thought that young William had a bath once a year in May. The water had to be fetched; then the mother spent hours boiling it. She would fill a barrel or the biggest tub they had. The father bathed first, then any other men who lived in the house, then the women, and finally the children, in order of their age. By the time it got to the baby's turn the water was thick and black with all the dirt.

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Shakespeare's Childhood Facts: Shakespeare As A Young Child

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All about Shakespeare's childhood. We know very little about Shakespeare's early childhood or teenage years. In those days children were seen as miniature adults to be manipulated and trained to take their place in the adult world as soon as possible.

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TL;DR (may contain spoilers): Macbeth hears that he is going to be king; he and Lady Macbeth kill people so he can become king; both of them die.
Macbeth Summary

Three witches tell the Scottish general Macbeth that he will be King of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth kills the king, becomes the new king, and kills more people out of paranoia. Civil war erupts to overthrow Macbeth, resulting in more death.
More detail: 2 minute read
Act I

On a bleak Scottish moorland, Macbeth and Banquo, two of King Duncan's generals, discover three strange women (witches). The witches prophesy that Macbeth will be promoted twice: to Thane of Cawdor (a rank of the aristocracy bestowed by grateful kings) and King of Scotland. Banquo's descendants will be kings, but Banquo isn't promised any kingdom himself. The generals want to hear more, but the "weird sisters" disappear.

Soon afterwards, King Duncan names Macbeth Thane of Cawdor as a reward for his success in the recent battles. The promotion seems to support the prophecy. The King then proposes to make a brief visit that night to Macbeth's castle at Inverness. Lady Macbeth receives news from her husband about the prophecy and his new title. She vows to help him become king by whatever means are necessary (*ominous music*).

Is this a dagger which I see before me?
- Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 1

Macbeth with Henry Irving Programme, 1889

Act II

Macbeth returns to his castle, followed almost immediately by King Duncan. The Macbeths plot together to kill Duncan and wait until everyone is asleep. At the appointed time, Lady Macbeth gives the guards drugged wine so Macbeth can enter and kill the King. He regrets this almost immediately, but his wife reassures him. She leaves the bloody daggers by the dead king just before Macduff, a nobleman, arrives. When Macduff discovers the murder, Macbeth kills the drunken guards in a show of rage and retribution. Duncan's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, flee, fearing for their own lives; but they are, nevertheless, blamed for the murder.

Act III

Macbeth becomes King of Scotland but is plagued by feelings of insecurity. He remembers the prophecy that Banquo's descendants will inherit the throne and arranges for Banquo and his son Fleance to be killed. In the darkness, Banquo is murdered, but his son escapes the assassins. At his state banquet that night, Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo and worries the courtiers with his mad response. Lady Macbeth dismisses the court and unsuccessfully tries to calm her husband.

Costume for Vivien Leigh as Lady Macbeth, 1955

Act IV

Macbeth seeks out the witches who say that he will be safe until a local wood, Birnam Wood, marches into battle against him. He also need not fear anyone born of woman (that sounds secure, no loop-holes here). They also prophesy that the Scottish succession will still come from Banquo's son. Macbeth embarks on a reign of terror, slaughtering many, including Macduff's family. Macduff had gone to seek Malcolm (one of Duncan's sons who fled) at the court of the English king. Malcolm is young and unsure of himself, but Macduff, pained with grief, persuades him to lead an army against Macbeth.

By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes
- Macbeth, Act 4 Scene 1

Royal Shakespeare Company, 1967

Act V

Macbeth feels safe in his remote castle at Dunsinane until he is told that Birnam Wood is moving towards him. Malcolm's army is carrying branches from the forest as camouflage for their assault on Macbeth's stronghold. Meanwhile, an overwrought and conscience-ridden Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep and tells her secrets to her doctor. She commits suicide. As the final battle commences, Macbeth hears of Lady Macbeth's suicide and mourns.

Out, damned spot!
- Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 1

George Skillan as Macbeth, 1920

In the midst of a losing battle, Macduff challenges Macbeth. Macbeth learns Macduff is the child of a caesarean birth (loophole!), realises he is doomed, and submits to his enemy. Macduff triumphs and brings the head of the traitor Macbeth to Malcolm. Malcolm declares peace and goes to Scone to be crowned king.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
- Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 5

For additional reading, see our blogs on Macbeth
Find more Shakespearian insults from Macbeth and other plays: Funny Shakespeare Quotes

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Summary of William Shakespeare's Macbeth: Macbeth hears that he is going to be king; he and Lady Macbeth kill people so he can become king; both of them die.

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William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April (see When was Shakespeare born), which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare's plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare's poems also remain popular to this day.

Shakespeare's Family Life

Records survive relating to William Shakespeare's family that offer an understanding of the context of Shakespeare's early life and the lives of his family members. John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, and together they had eight children. John and Mary lost two daughters as infants, so William became their eldest child. John Shakespeare worked as a glove-maker, but he also became an important figure in the town of Stratford by fulfilling civic positions. His elevated status meant that he was even more likely to have sent his children, including William, to the local grammar school.

William Shakespeare would have lived with his family in their house on Henley Street until he turned eighteen. When he was eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was twenty-six. It was a rushed marriage because Anne was already pregnant at the time of the ceremony. Together they had three children. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born six months after the wedding and was later followed by twins Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died when he was just 11 years old.

Shakespeare in London

Shakespeare's career jump-started in London, but when did he go there? We know Shakespeare's twins were baptised in 1585, and that by 1592 his reputation was established in London, but the intervening years are considered a mystery. Scholars generally refer to these years as ' The Lost Years '.

During his time in London, Shakespeare's first printed works were published. They were two long poems, 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of Lucrece' (1594). He also became a founding member of The Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company of actors. Shakespeare was the company's regular dramatist, producing on average two plays a year, for almost twenty years.

He remained with the company for the rest of his career, during which time it evolved into The King's Men under the patronage of King James I (from 1603). During his time in the company Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous tragedies, such as King Lear and Macbeth, as well as great romances, like The Winter's Tale and The Tempest.

Shakespeare's Works

Altogether Shakespeare's works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare's company that we have about half of the plays at all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio ('Folio' refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry.

Shakespeare's legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have spawned countless adaptations across multiple genres and cultures. His plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film. His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which include all of his plays, sonnets, and other poems. William Shakespeare continues to be one of the most important literary figures of the English language.

New Place; a home in Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare's success in the London theatres made him considerably wealthy, and by 1597 he was able to purchase New Place,the largest house in the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon. Although his professional career was spent in London, he maintained close links with his native town.

Recent archaeological evidence discovered on the site of Shakespeare's New Place shows that Shakespeare was only ever an intermittent lodger in London. This suggests he divided his time between Stratford and London (a two or three-day commute). In his later years, he may have spent more time in Stratford-upon-Avon than scholars previously thought.

Watch our video for more about Shakespeare as a literary commuter:

On his father's death in 1601, William Shakespeare inherited the old family home in Henley Street part of which was then leased to tenants. Further property investments in Stratford followed, including the purchase of 107 acres of land in 1602.

Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52. He is buried in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity.

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William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564. Read about his life and works.

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William Shakespeare: A biography

Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about Shakespeare's life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes.

Looking for more in-depth information? Need something you can cite? Read an essay about Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Editions. Read essay

Early life: Birth and childhood

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.

A horn book in the Folger collection, similar to one that Shakespeare might have learned to read from

Marriage (to Anne Hathaway) and children

A few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. She was already expecting their first-born child, Susanna, which was a fairly common situation at the time. When they married, Anne was 26 and William was 18. Anne grew up just outside Stratford in the village of Shottery. After marrying, she spent the rest of her life in Stratford.

In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet, completing the family. In the years ahead, Anne and the children lived in Stratford while Shakespeare worked in London, although we don't know when he moved there. Some later observers have suggested that this separation, and the couple's relatively few children, were signs of a strained marriage, but we do not know that, either. Someone pursuing a theater career had no choice but to work in London, and many branches of the Shakespeares had small families.

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died in 1596 at the age of 11. His older daughter Susanna later married a well-to-do Stratford doctor, John Hall. Their daughter Elizabeth, Shakespeare's first grandchild, was born in 1608. In 1616, just months before his death, Shakespeare's daughter Judith married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford vintner. The family subsequently died out, leaving no direct descendants of Shakespeare.

London theater

For several years after the birth of Judith and Hamnet in 1585, nothing is known for certain of Shakespeare's activities: how he earned a living, when he moved from Stratford, or how he got his start in the theater.

Following this gap in the record, the first definite mention of Shakespeare is in 1592 as an established London actor and playwright, mocked by a contemporary as a "Shake-scene." The same writer alludes to one of Shakespeare's earliest history plays, Henry VI, Part 3, which must already have been performed. The next year, in 1593, Shakespeare published a long poem, Venus and Adonis. The first quarto editions of his early plays appeared in 1594.

For more than two decades, Shakespeare had multiple roles in the London theater as an actor, playwright, and, in time, a business partner in a major acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (renamed the King's Men in 1603). Over the years, he became steadily more famous in the London theater world; his name, which was not even listed on the first quartos of his plays, became a regular feature-clearly a selling point-on later title pages.

Final years and death

Shakespeare prospered financially from his partnership in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men), as well as from his writing and acting. He invested much of his wealth in real-estate purchases in Stratford and bought the second-largest house in town, New Place, in 1597.

Among the last plays that Shakespeare worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with a frequent collaborator, John Fletcher, most likely in 1613. He died on April 23, 1616-the traditional date of his birthday, though his precise birthdate is unknown. We also do not know the cause of his death. His brother-in-law had died a week earlier, which could imply infectious disease, but Shakespeare's health may have had a longer decline.

The memorial bust of Shakespeare at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is considered one of two authentic likenesses, because it was approved by people who knew him. The other such likeness is the engraving by Martin Droeshout in the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death by his friends and colleagues from the King's Men.

Timeline

View a timeline of Shakespeare's life with links to key supporting documents on Shakespeare Documented.
View timeline

The bust of Shakespeare in the Folger Reading Room is a copy of the statue at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Shakespeare leave his wife his "second best bed"?

William Shakespeare wrote in his last will and testament, dated March 25, 1616, "Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture" (furniture is used to refer to the curtains and bedcover which formed part of the complete bed).

This was not an unusual bequest, nor was it likely to have been intended as a snub. The best bed was usually regarded as an heirloom piece, to be passed to the heir rather than the spouse. It is also probable that the best bed would have been reserved for guests, meaning the "second best" was the bed that William and Anne shared.

What did Shakespeare's son die of?

We don't really know how Shakespeare's young son Hamnet died. He had a twin sister named Judith, who lived to adulthood and married, but Hamnet died at the age of 11 and a half. Child mortality was high in the 16th century; there were no antibiotics and many childhood diseases might therefore prove fatal, such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, and even measles. He was buried on August 11, 1596.

What is the inscription on Shakespeare's grave?

GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE:
BLESTE BE Ye [the] MAN Yt [that] SPARES THES STONES,
AND CURST BE HE Yt [that] MOVES MY BONES.

Did Shakespeare have a coat of arms?

Yes, William's father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms in 1596. It was disputed in 1602 by York Herald, Ralph Brooke, saying that the arms were too similar to existing coats of arms, and that the family was unworthy. However, the challenge was unsuccessful, as the Shakespeare coat of arms appears in later heraldic collections and on William Shakespeare's funeral monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Does Shakespeare have descendants?

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had three children. The eldest, Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583, and married John Hall in 1607. They had one child, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nash in 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by either husband.

William and Anne also had twins, Judith and Hamnet, who were baptized on February 2, 1585. Hamnet died at age 11 and a half. Judith married Thomas Quiney in 1616, and the couple had three sons: Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died in 1639 within a month of each other. Since neither of the boys married, there is no possibility of any legitimate descendants from Shakespeare's line.

It is possible, however, to claim a relationship to Shakespeare through his sister, Joan. She married William Hart some time before 1600, and there are many descendants of this marriage alive today, in both the male and female lines.

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Shakespeare's life | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Learn about Shakespeare's life and family: birth in Stratford-upon-Avon, marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, work in London theaters, and death.

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It's commonly held that Shakespeare wrote his plays for the monarchs of England. There are many stories, mostly apocryphal, that connect this play to that monarch; for example, one popular story says that Queen Elizabeth, upon learning that John Falstaff dies in Henry V, demanded that Shakespeare write a new play for Falstaff, one in which he falls in love- resulting in The Merry Wives of Windsor (whether or not this is a true story, it's definitely entertaining). But there's one play that was clearly written with a monarch in mind. Shakespeare's Macbeth was pretty obviously a nod (and not a subtle one) to King James I.

There are a lot of reasons to say this. For one thing, the play is entirely set in Scotland, based on Scottish history and legend, and populated with Scotsmen. James I of England was actually from Scotland as well; he ruled over both England and his own home country, where he was called James VI. Though there are other Scottish characters in Shakespearean plays, there are none with so many as in Macbeth.

Then there's all the supernatural elements. James I was an avid scholar of all things strange, weird, and superstitious. In 1597, the king published a book called Daemonologie; it was a study of witchcraft, necromancy, demons, werewolves, vampires, and all sorts of other spooky things. In fact, much of the witchcraft in Macbeth was actually taken directly from Daemonologie, probably as a form of flattery to the king himself. It goes further than that, though. Witchcraft seems to have been a real obsession of James, as he was heavily involved in a series of witch trials in 1590. Supposedly, a coven of witches were trying to personally attack him, which was high treason, so James had them tracked down, forced them to confess to witchcraft, tortured them, and had them burned at the stake. So it's no wonder that the witches in Macbeth are so demented and evil! Shakespeare wanted to make it clear that he was on the king's side in the whole witch debacle.

King James was widely considered paranoid (can you tell from the witch thing?). Throughout his whole reign, he was terrified that he would be assassinated. He was very harsh with treasonous criminals and he constantly seemed to fear usurpation. And to be fair, he had some real reasons to be afraid of all of that. When Queen Elizabeth I died, she left no children behind, which meant England fell into a crisis. The English throne only came to James because he was technically the closest relative. Even so, Elizabeth never formally acknowledged him as her heir, so he never felt fully secure on the throne. Not only that, but Elizabeth had executed his mother years before, so he had more reason to fear the English. In 1605, James uncovered an assassination attempt against him: the Gunpowder Plot. The plan was for a group of dissatisfied Jesuits to blow up the House of Lords when James was there. After discovering the plot, James arrested and executed the conspirators. The whole incident only served to feed the fire of his paranoia.

Because of the Gunpowder Plot, most scholars today date Macbeth to 1606, just after the plot. There seem to be a few references to it in the play: for instance, the porter at Macbeth's castle, in a little joke to himself, says "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" (2.3.7-12). Equivocation, which is both lying and telling the truth at the same time, was used as a defense by one of the conspirators at the Gunpowder Plot trial, so Shakespeare could easily be alluding to that in order to get further into the king's good graces (Globe Research Team, "The Gunpowder Plot and Shakespeare's Macbeth," Shakespeare's Globe Blog, November 5, 2014).

Besides that, Macbeth is full of other references to James' fears. King Duncan, a beloved, good king, is assassinated by one of his noblemen- something that seems to have been a great fear for James. Not only that, but the nobleman was consorting with witches and demons- another fear. So Shakespeare punishes Macbeth for his treason and evil behavior in the play; Macbeth himself becomes increasingly paranoid, he gets haunted by the ghosts of those he's wronged, and he ends up beheaded and hated by all of Scotland. Shakespeare wanted Macbeth to get his just desserts so that James would be appeased.

Scottish history and legend contain a real life King Duncan, who was really murdered by Macbeth (the real Macbeth apparently was a decent king- that wouldn't have really worked for Shakespeare's play though). Banquo, too, was apparently a real figure. King James claimed descendance through him, so in Macbeth, when the Weird Sisters tell Banquo that "thou shalt get [beget] kings, though thou be none," Shakespeare was really trying to help legitimize James's place on the Scottish throne- he was saying that Banquo's descendants deserve to be king, therefore James has a rightful claim to the throne.

Even though Macbeth was written for King James I, it's really for all of us. The themes of triumph over evil, of greed and ambition, and of tyranny are all very important- they were relevant in Shakespeare's day, and they're relevant now. The reasons it was written aren't nearly as important as the words themselves. So don't miss your chance to see Macbeth this summer at the Festival. It's bound to be an amazing experience.

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King James I and Macbeth | Utah Shakespeare Festival

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It's commonly held that Shakespeare wrote his plays for the monarchs of England. There are many stories, mostly apocryphal, that connect this play to that monarch; for example, one popular story says that Queen Elizabeth, upon learning that John Falstaff dies in Henry V, demanded that Shakespeare write a new play for Falstaff, one in which he falls in love- resulting in The Merry Wives of Windsor (whether or not this is a true story, it's definitely entertaining).

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Sacred Texts Wicca and Paganism Index Previous

Of the apprehension of sundrye

Witches lately taken in Scotland:
wherof some are executed, and some are
yet imprisoned.

With a particuler recitall of their examinations,
taken in the presence of the Kinges Maiestie.

GOd by his omnipotent power, hath at al times and daily doth take such care, and is so vigillant, for the weale and preseruation of his owne, that thereby he disapointeth the wicked practises and euil intents of all such as by any meanes whatsoeuer, seeke indirectly to conspire any thing contrary to his holy will: yea and by the same power, he hath lately ouerthrown and hindered the intentions and wicked dealinges of a great number of vngodly creatures, no better then Diuels: who suffering themselues to be allured and inticed by the Diuell whom they serued, and to whome they were pritiatelye sworne: entered into y e detestable Art of witch-

{p. 8}

craft, which they studied and practised so long time, that in the end they had seduced by their sorcery a number of other to be as bad as themselues: dwelling in the boundes of Lowthian, which is a principall shire or parte of Scotland, where the Kings Maiestie vseth to make his cheefest residence or abode: and to the end that their detestable wickednes which they priuilye had pretended against the Kings Maiestie, the Common-weale of that Country, with the Nobilitie and subiects of the same, should come to light: God of his vnspeakeable goodnes did reueale and lay it open in very strange sorte, therby to make knowne vnto the worlde, that there actions were contrarye to the lawe of God, and the naturall affection which we ought generallye to beare one to another: the manner of the reuealing wherof was as followeth.

'Within the towne of Trenent in the Kingdome of Scotland, there dwelleth one Dauid Seaton, who being deputie Bailiffe in the saide Towne, had a maide seruant called Geillis Duncane, who vsed secretly to be absent and to lye foorth of her Maisters house euery other night: this Geillis Duncane took in hand to help all such as were troubled or greeued with any kinde of sicknes or infirmitie: and in short space did perfourme manye matters most miraculous, which thinges forasmuch as she began to doe them vpon a sodaine, hauing neuer doon the like

{p. 9}

before, made her Maister and others to be in great admiracion, and wondred thereat: by meanes wherof the saide Dauid Seaton had his maide in some great suspition, that she did not those things by naturall and lawfull wayes, but rather supposed it to be doone by some extraordinary and vnlawfull meanes.

Whervpon, her Maister began to growe very inquisitiue, and examined her which way and by what meanes she were able to perfourme matters of so great importance: whereat she gaue him no answere, neuerthelesse, her Maister to the intent that he might the better trye and finde out the trueth of the same, did with the helpe of others, torment her with the torture of the Pilliwinckes vpon her fingers, which is a greeuous torture, and binding or wrinching her head with a corde or roape, which is a most cruell torment also, yet would she not confesse any thing, whereupon they suspecting that she had beene marked by the Diuell (as commonly witches are) made dilligent search about her, and found the enemies marke to be in her fore crag or foreparte of her throate: which being found, she confessed that all her dooings was doone by the wicked allurements and inticements of the Diuell, and that she did them by witchcraft.

After this her confession, she was committed to prison, where she continued for a season,

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where immediatly she accused these persons following to be notorious witches, and caused them foorthwith to be apprehended one after an

other, vidz. Agnis Sampson the eldest Witch of them al, dwelling in Haddington, Agnes Tompson of Edenbrough, Doctor Fian, alias Iohn Cunningham, maister of the Schoole at Salt-

{p. 11}

pans in Lowthian, of whose life and strange actes, you shall heare more largely in the ende of this discourse: these were by the saide Geillis Duncane accused, as also George Motts wife dwelling in Saltpans, Robert Griersonn skipper, and Iennit Bandilandis, with the Porters wife of Seaton, the Smith at the brigge Hallis with innumerable others in that partes, and dwelling in those bounds aforesaide: of whom some are alreadye executed, the rest remaine in prison, to receiue the doome of Iudgement at the Kings maiesties will and pleasure.

The said Geillis Duncane also caused Ewphame Meealrean to be apprehended, who conspired and perfourmed the death of her Godfather, and who vsed her art vpon a gentleman being one of the Lords and Iustices of the Session, for bearing good will to her Daughter: she also caused to be apprehended one Barbara Naper, for bewitching to death Archibalde, last Earle of Angus, who languished to death by witchcraft and yet the same was not suspected, but that he died of so strange a disease, as the Phisition knew not how to cure or remedy the same: but of all other the saide witches, these two last before recited, were reputed for as ciuill honest women as any that dwelled within the Citie of Edenbrough, before they were apprehended. Many other besides were taken dwelling in

{p. 12}

Lieth, who are detayned in prison, vntill his Maiesties further will and pleasure be known: of whose wicked dooings you shall particularly heare, which was as followeth.

This aforeaside Agnis Sampson which was the elder Witch, was taken and brought to Haliciud house before the Kings Maiestie and sundry other of the nobility of Scotland, where she was straitly examined, but all the perswasions which the Kings maiestie vsed to her with y e rest of his counsell, might not prouoke or induce her to confesse any thing, but stood stiffely in the deniall of all that was laide to her charge: whervpon they caused her to be conueied awaye to prison, there to receiue such torture as hath been lately prouided for witches in that country: and forasmuch as by due examination of witchcraft and witches in Scotland, it hath latelye beene found that the Deuill dooth generallye marke them with a priuie marke, by reason the Witches haue confessed themselues, that the Diuell dooth lick them with his tung in some priuy part of their bodie, before hee dooth receiue them to be his seruants, which marke commonly is giuen them vnder the haire in some part of their bodye, wherby it may not easily be found out or seene, although they be searched: and generally so long as the marke is not seene to those which search them, so long the parties that hath the

{p. 13}

marke will neuer confesse any thing. Therfore by special commaundement this Agnis Sampson had all her haire shauen of, in each parte of her bodie, and her head thrawen with a rope according to the custome of that Countrye, beeing a paine most greeuous, which she continued almost an hower, during which time she would not confesse any thing vntill the Diuels marke was found vpon her priuities, then she immediatlye confessed whatsoeuer was demaunded of her, and iustifying those persons aforesaid to be notorious witches.

Item, the saide Agnis Tompson was after brought againe before the Kings Maiestie and his Counsell, and being examined of the meetings and detestable dealings of those witches, she confessed that vpon the night of Allhollon Euen last, she was accompanied aswell with the persons aforesaide, as also with a great many other witches, to the number of two hundreth: and that all they together went by Sea each one in a Riddle or Ciue, {sieve?-- jbh} and went in the same very substantially with Flaggons of wine making merrie and drinking by the waye in the same Riddles or Ciues, to the Kerke of North Barrick in Lowthian, and that after they had landed, tooke handes on the land and daunced this reill or short daunce, singing all with one voice.

{p. 14}

Commer goe ye before, commer goe ye,
Gif ye will not goe before, commer let me.

At which time she confessed, that this Geilles Duncane did goe before them playing this reill or daunce vpon a small Trump, called a Iewes Trump, vntill they entred into the Kerk of north Barrick.

These confessions made the King in a woderful admiration and sent for y e said GeillisDuncane, who vpon the like Trump did playe the said daunce before the Kings Maiestie, who in respect of the strangenes of these matters, tooke great delight to bee present at their examinations.

Item, the said Agnis Tompson confessed that the Diuell being then at North Barrick Kerke attending their comming in the habit or likenes of a man, and seeing that they tarried ouer long, he at their comming enioyned them all to a pennance, which was, that they should kisse his Buttockes, in signe of duetye to him: which being put ouer the Pulpit barre, euerye one did as he had enioyned them: and hauing made his vngodly exhortations, wherein he did greatlye enveighe against the King of Scotland, he receiued their oathes for their good and true seruice towards him, and departed: which doone, they returned to Sea, and so home againe.

{p. 15}

At which time the witches demaunded of the Diuel why he did beare such hatred to the King, who answered, by reason the King is the greatest enemy he hath in the worlde: all which their onfessions and depositions are still extant vpon record.

Item, the saide Agnis Sampson confessed before the Kings Maiestie sundrye thinges which were so miraculous and strange, as that his Maiestie saide they were all extreame lyars, wherat she answered, she would not wishe his Maiestie to suppose her woords to be false, but rather to beleeue them, in that she would discouer such matter vnto him as his maiestie should not any way doubt off.

And therupon taking his Maiestie a little aside, she declared vnto him the verye woordes which passed betweene the Kings Maiestie and his Queene at Vpslo in Norway the first night of their mariage, with their answere eache to other: whereat the Kinges Maiestie wondered greatlye, and swore by the liuing God, that he beleeued that all the Diuels in hell could not haue discouered the same: acknowledging her woords to be most true, and therefore gaue the more credit to the rest which is before declared.

Touching this Agnis Tompson, she is the onlye woman, who by the Diuels perswasion should haue entended and put in execution the

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Kings Maiesties death in this manner.

She confessed that she tooke a blacke Toade, and did hang the same vp by the heeles, three daies, and collected and gathered the venome as it dropped and fell from it in an Oister shell, and kept the same venome close couered, vntill she should obtaine any parte or peece of foule linnen cloth, that had appertained to the Kings Maiestie, as shirt, handkercher, napkin or any other thing which she practised to obtaine by meanes of one Iohn Kers, who being attendant in his Maiesties Chamber, desired him for olde acquaintance betweene them, to helpe her to one or a peece of such a cloth as is aforesaide, which thing the said Iohn Kers denyed to helpe her too, saying he could not help her too it.

And the said Agnis Tompson by her depositions since her apprehension saith, that if she had obtained any one peece of linnen cloth which the King had worne and fouled, she had bewitched him to death, and put him to such extraordinary paines, as if he had beene lying vpon sharp thornes and endes of Needles.

Moreouer she confessed that at the time when his Maiestie was in Denmarke, she being accompanied with the parties before specially named, tooke a Cat and christened it, and afterward bound to each parte of that Cat, the cheefest partes of a dead man, and seuerall ioynts of

{p. 17}

his bodie, and that in the night following the saide Cat was conueied into the midst of the sea by all these witches sayling in their riddles or Cities as is aforesaide, and so left the saide Cat right before the Towne of Lieth in Scotland: this doone, there did arise such a tempest in the Sea, as a greater hath not beene scene: which tempest was the cause of the perrishing of a Boate or vessell comming ouer from the towne of Brunt Iland to the towne of Lieth, wherein was sundrye Iewelles and riche giftes, which should haue been presented to the now Queen of Scotland, at her Maiesties comming to Lieth.

Againe it is confessed, that the said christened Cat was the cause that the Kinges Maiesties Ship at his comming foorth of Denmarke, had a contrary winde to the rest of his Ships, then being in his companye, which thing was most strange and true, as the Kings Maiestie acknowledgeth, for when the rest of the Shippes had a faire and good winde, then was the winde contrarye and altogither against his Maiestie: and further the saide witche declared, that his Maiestie had neuer come safelye from the Sea, if his faith had not preuailed aboue their ententions.

Moreouer the said Witches being demaun-

{p. 18}

ded how the Dwell would vse them when he was in their company, they confessed that when the Diuell did receiue them for his seruants, and that they had vowed themselues vnto him, then he would Carnallye vse them, albeit to their little pleasure, in respect of his colde nature: and would doo the like at sundry other times.

As touching the aforesaide Doctor Fian, alias Iohn Cunningham, the examination of his actes since his apprehension, declareth the great subtiltye of the diuell, and therfore maketh thinges to appeere the more miraculous: for being apprehended by the accusation of the saide Geillis Duncane aforesaide, who confessed he was their Regester, and that there was not one man suffered to come to the Diuels readinges but onlye he: the saide Doctor was taken and imprisoned, and vsed with the accustomed paine, prouided for those offences, inflicted vpon the rest as is aforesaide.

First by thrawing of his head with a roape, wherat he would confesse nothing.

Secondly, he was perswaded by faire means to confesse his follies, but that would preuaile as little.

Lastly he was put to the most seuere and cruell paine in the world, called the bootes, who af-

{p. 19}

ter he had receiued three strokes, being enquired if he would confesse his damnable acts and wicked life, his tung would not serue him to speak, in respect wherof the rest of the witches willed to search his tung, vnder which was found two pinnes thrust vp into the head, whereupon the VVitches did laye, Now is the Charme stinted, and shewed that those charmed Pinnes were the cause he could not confesse any thing: then was he immediatly released of the bootes, brought before the King, his confession was taken, and his owne hand willingly set ther-vnto, which contained as followeth.

First, that at the generall meetinges of those witches, hee was alwayes preasent: that he was Clarke to all those that were in subiection to the Diuels seruice, bearing the name of witches, that alwaye he did take their othes for their true seruice to the Diuell, and that he wrot for them such matters as the Diuell still pleased to commaund him.

Item, he confessed that by his witchcrafte he did bewitch a Gentleman dwelling neere to the Saltpans, where the said Doctor kept Schoole, onely for being enamoured of a Gentlewoman whome he loued himselfe: by meanes of which

{p. 20}

his Sorcerye, witchcraft and diuelish practises, he caused the said Gentleman that once in xxiiij. howres he fell into a lunacie and madnes, and so

cotinued one whole hower together, and for the veritie of the same, he caused the Gentleman to be brought before the Kinges Maiestie, which was vpon the xxiiij. day of December last, and being

{p. 21}

in his Maiesties Chamber, suddenly he gaue a great scritch and fell into a madnes, sometime bending himselfe, and sometime capring so directly vp, that his head did touch the seeling of the Chamber, to the great admiration of his Maiestie and others then present: so that all the Gentlemen in the Chamber were not able to holde him, vntill they called in more helpe, who together bound him hand and foot: and suffering the said gentleman to lye still vntill his furye were past, he within an hower came againe to himselfe, when being demaunded of the Kings Maiestie what he saw or did all that while, answered that he had been in a sound sleepe.

Item the said Doctor did also confesse that he had vsed means sundry times to obtain his purpose and wicked intent of the same Gentlewoman, and seeing himselfe disapointed of his intention, he determined by all waies he might to obtaine the same, trusting by coniuring, witchcraft and Sorcery to obtaine it in this manner.

It happened this gentlewoman being vnmaried, had a brother who went to schoole with the said Doctor, and calling his Scholler to him, demaunded if he did lye with his sister, who answered he did, by meanes wherof he thought to obtaine his purpose, and therefore secretlye promised to teach him w t out stripes, so he would obtain for him three haires of his sisters priuities.

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at such time as he should spye best occasion for it: which the youth promised faithfullye to perfourme, and vowed speedily to put it in practise, taking a peece of coniured paper of his maister to lappe them in when he had gotten them: and therevpon the boye practised nightlye to obtaine his maisters purpose, especially when his sister was a sleepe.

But God who knoweth the secrets of all harts, and reuealeth all wicked and vngodlye practises, would not suffer the intents of this diuilish Doctor to come to that purpose which he supposed it would, and therefore to declare that he was heauilye offended with his wicked entent, did so woorke by the Gentlewomans owne meanes, that in the ende the same was discouered and brought to light: for she being one night a sleepe, and her brother in bed with her, suddenlye cryed out to her mother, declaring that her Brother would not suffer her to sleepe, wherevpon her mother hauing a quick capacitie, did vehemently suspect Doctor Fians entention, by reason she was a witche of her selfe, and therefore presently arose, and was very inquisitiue of the boy to vnderstand his intent, and the better to know y e same, did beat him with sundry stripes, wherby he discouered the trueth vnto her.

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The Mother therefore being well practised in witchcrafte, did thinke it most conuenient to meete with the Doctor in his owne Arte, and therevpon tooke the paper from the boy, wherein hee should haue put the same haires, and went to a young Heyfer which neuer had borne Calfe nor gone to the Bull, and with a paire of sheeres, clipped off three haires from the vdder of the Cow, and wrapt them in the same paper, which she againe deliuered to the boy, then willing him to giue the same to his saide Maister, which he immediatly did.

The Schoolemaister so soone as he had receiued them, thinking them indeede to bee the Maides haires, went straight and wrought his arte vpon them: But the Doctor had no sooner doone his intent to them, but presentlye the Hayfer or Cow whose haires they were indeed, came vnto the doore of the Church wherein the Schoolemaister was, into the which the Hayfer went, and made towards the Schoolemaister, leaping and dauncing vpon him, and following him foorth of the church and to what place so euer he went, to the great admiration of all the townes men of Saltpans, and many other who did beholde the same.

The reporte whereof made all men imagine

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that hee did woorke it by the Dwell, without whom it could neuer haue beene so sufficientlye effected: and thervpon, the name of the said Doctor Fien (who was but a very yong man) began to grow so common among the people of Scotland, that he was secretlye nominated for a notable Cuniurer.

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All which although in the beginning he denied, and would not confesse, yet hauing felt the pain of the bootes (and the charme stinted, as aforesayd) be confessed all the aforesaid to be most true, without producing anie witnesses to iustifie the same, & thervpon before the kings maiesty he subscribed the sayd confessions with his owne hande, which for truth remaineth vpon record in Scotland.

After that the depositions and examinations of the sayd doctor Fian Alias Cuningham was taken, as alreadie is declared, with his owne hand willingly set therevnto, hee was by the master of the prison committed to ward, and appointed to a chamber by himselfe, where forsaking his wicked wayes, acknowledging his most vngodly lyfe, shewing that he had too much folowed the allurements and entisements of sathan, and fondly practised his conclusions by coniuring, witchcraft, inchantment, sorcerie, and such like, hee renounced the deuill and all his wicked workes, vowed to leade the life of a Christian, and seemed newly connected towards God.

The morrow after vpon conference had with him, he granted that the deuill had appeared vnto him in the night before, appareled all in blacke, with a white wand in his hande, and that the deuill demaunded of him if hee would continue his faithfull seruice, according to his first oath and promise made to that effect. Whome (as hee then

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sayd) he vtterly renounced to his face, and sayde vnto him in this manner, Auoide Satan, auoide, for I haue listned too much vnto thee, and by the same thou hast vndone mee, in respect whereof I vtterly forsake thee. To whome the deuill answered, That once ere thou die thou shalt bee mine. And with that (as he sayde) the deuill brake the white wande, and immediatly vanished foorth of his sight.

Thus all the daie this Doctor Fian continued verie solitarie, and seemed to haue care of his owne soule, and would call vppon God, shewing himselfe penitent for his wicked life, neuerthelesse the same night hee founde such meanes, that hee stole the key of the prison doore and chamber in the which he was, which in the night hee opened and fled awaie to the Salt pans, where hee was alwayes resident, and first apprehended. Of whose sodaine departure when the Kings maiestie had intelligence, hee presently commanded diligent inquirie to bee made for his apprehension, and for the better effecting thereof, hee sent publike proclamations into all partes of his lande to the same effect. By meanes of whose hot and harde pursuite, he was agayn taken and brought to prison, and then being called before the kings highnes, hee was reexamined as well touching his departure, as also touching all that had before happened.

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But this Doctor, notwithstanding that his owne confession appeareth remaining in recorde vnder his owne hande writing, and the same therevnto fixed in the presence of the Kings maiestie and sundrie of his Councell, yet did hee vtterly denie the same.

Wherevpon the kinges maiestie perceiuing his stubbourne wilfulnesse, conceiued and imagined that in the time of his absence hee had entered into newe conference and league with the deuill his master, and that hee had beene agayne newly marked, for the which hee was narrowly searched, but it coulde not in anie wise bee founde, yet for more tryall of him to make him confesse, hee was commaunded to haue a most straunge torment which was done in this manner following.

His nailes vpon all his fingers were riuen and pulled off with an instrument called in Scottish a Turkas, which in England wee call a payre of pincers, and vnder euerie nayle there was thrust in two needels ouer euen up to the heads. At all which tormentes notwithstanding the Doctor neuer shronke anie whit, neither woulde he then confesse it the sooner for all the tortures inflicted vpon him.

Then was hee with all conuenient speed, by commandement, conuaied againe to the torment

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of the bootes, wherein hee continued a long time, and did abide so many blowes in them, that his legges were crushte and beaten togeather as small as might bee, and the bones and flesh so brused, that the bloud and marrowe spouted forth in great abundance, whereby they were made unseruiceable for euer. And notwithstanding al these grieuous paines and cruell torments hee would not confesse anie thing, so deepely had the deuill entered into his heart, that hee vtterly denied all that which he had before auouched, and woulde saie nothing therevnto but this, that what hee had done and sayde before, was onely done and sayde for feare of paynes which he had endured.

Upon great consideration therefore taken by the Kings maiestie and his Councell, as well for the due execution of iustice vppon such detestable malefactors, as also for example sake, to remayne a terrour to all others heereafter, that shall attempt to deale in the lyke wicked and vngodlye actions, as witchcraft, sorcery, cuniuration, &such lyke, the sayde Doctor Fian was soone after araigned, condemned, and adiudged by the law to die, and then to bee burned according to the lawe of that lande, prouided in that behalfe. Wherevpon hee was put into a carte, and beeing first strangled, hee was immediatly put into a great fire, being readie prouided for that purpose, and there

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burned in the Castle hill of Edenbrough on a saterdaie in the ende of Ianuarie last past. 1591.

The rest of the witches which are not yet executed, remayne in prison till farther triall, and knowledge of his maiesties pleasure.

This strange discourse before recited, may perhaps giue some occasion of doubt to such as shall happen to reade the same, and thereby coniecture that the Kings maiestie would not hazarde himselfe in the presence of such notorious witches, least therby might haue insued great danger to his person and the generall state of the land, which thing in truth might wel haue bene feared. But to answer generally to such, let this suffice: that first it is well knowen that the King is the child & seruant of God, and they but seruants to the deuil, hee is the Lords annointed, and they but vesselles of Gods wrath: he is a true Christian, and trusteth in God, they worse than Infidels, for they onely trust in the deuill, who daily serue them, till he haue brought them to vtter destruction. But heereby it seemeth that his Highnesse caried a magnanimious and vndanted mind, not feared with their inchantmentes, but resolute in this, that so long as God is with him, hee feareth not who is against him. And trulie the whole scope of this treatise dooth so plainely laie open the wonderfull prouidence of the Almightie, that if he had not bene defended by his omnipotencie and power, his Highnes had neuer returned aliue in his voiage fro~ Denmarke, so that there is no doubt but God woulde as well defend him on the land as on the sea, where they pretended their damnable practise.

FINIS.

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Sacred Texts Wicca and Paganism Index Previous Witches lately taken in Scotland: wherof some are executed, and some are yet imprisoned. With a particuler recitall of their examinations, taken in the presence of the Kinges Maiestie.

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A code-breaking book which aims to change the image of William Shakespeare and reveal him as a subversive who embedded dangerous political messages in his work is to be published in Britain.

Far from being an ambitious entertainer who played down his Catholic roots under a repressive Elizabethan regime, Shakespeare took deliberate risks each time he took up his quill, according to Clare Asquith's new book Shadowplay. She argues that the plays and poems are a network of crossword puzzle-like clues to his strong Catholic beliefs and his fears for England's future. Aside from being the first to spot this daring Shakespearean code, Asquith also claims to be the first to have cracked it.

'It has not been picked up on before because people have not had the complete context,' she explained this weekend. 'I am braced for flak, but we now know we have had the history from that period wrong for a long time because we have seen it through the eyes of the Protestant, Whig ascendancy who, after all, have written the history.'

It is now widely accepted that the era was not a period of political consensus, says Asquith. Instead, it was a time in which opposition voices were banished and censorship meant the burning of illegal pamphlets and printed works.

As a result the Catholic resistance, which had been going for 70 years by the time Shakespeare was writing, had already developed its own secret code words; a subversive communication system which the playwright developed further in his work.

'They inevitably had a hidden language, and Shakespeare used it rather like the composer Shostakovich used political codes in the 20th century,' she said.

Asquith, the wife of a British diplomat who was posted to Moscow and Kiev during the Cold War, says that while she was living in the Soviet Union she began to understand how 'dissident meanings' worked in live theatre.

Shakespeare, she claims, adopted some of the more general Catholic code terms that were current, such as the use of the words 'tempest' or 'storm' to signify England's troubles, but he also used new cyphers. Asquith argues, for example, that his obsession with the theme of romantic love was much more than a crowd pleaser.

Constancy in love was Shakespeare's way of alluding to the importance of a true faith in the 'old religion', she says. More specifically, his puns and metaphors often circled around certain key phrases. For instance, to be 'sunburned' or 'tanned', as are his heroines Viola, Imogen and Portia, was to be close to God and so understood as a true Catholic.

Already hailed as a triumph of scholarship by writer and leading Catholic thinker Piers Paul Read (who wrote: 'It is rare when a work of such painstaking scholarship is so dramatic, important and exciting to read') and by Tom Paulin (who has called Asquith 'an inspired and compelling code-breaker'), the new book also makes the startling suggestion that Shakespeare studied covertly at an Oxford University college in order to gain such a wide-ranging literary knowledge.

This suggestion goes against the work of earlier scholars who have explained away the poet's extraordinary learning as simply the product of a rigorous Elizabethan grammar school education.

'You do get new insights into his life if you look at the code,' she said. 'He must have gone up to Oxford, as many Catholics did at the time, by finding a sympathetic college, such as Hertford, but not officially signing on.' To join as an undergraduate would have meant having to forswear his religion officially, Asquith added.

By looking closely at scenes which include particularly baffling banter to the modern ear, Asquith claims to be able to prove her case. In the first scene of Much Ado About Nothing, for example, bemusing references to 6 July are used to tease the hero, Benedick. 'Mock not, mock not,' he replies, 'ere you flout old ends any further, examine your consciences'.

To Elizabethan Catholics, Asquith argues, this was a highly significant date. It was on 6 July that Henry VIII executed Sir Thomas More, his Chancellor, for refusing to acknowledge the monarch as the supreme head of the Church in England. More had become a role model for 'recusants' or dissident English Catholics.

The significance of the date was deepened for Catholics when the young Edward VI, Henry VIII's fervently Protestant son, also died on 6 July - a coincidence that was viewed as a judgment on his heretic father. 'This is why Benedick puts a stop to the banter,' says Asquith. 'His friends have gone too far. Mock not old ends, he says - the deaths of Thomas More and Edward are not a laughing matter.'

The book, set to cause controversy among experts, is full of such detailed analysis and reads, as historian Antonia Fraser has said, 'like a literary detective story.'
What's in a name? Decoding the Bard
'Words, words, words,' said Shakespeare's Hamlet. But the words used by the subversive Shakespeare in his plays and poems disguised a hidden pro-Catholic message, according to controversial new research.
Sunburn:
The sun represented divinity, and so sunburn denotes closeness to God. Shakespeare described himself as 'tanned' in Sonnet 62.
Turtle dove:
A traditional image for the apostles, used to signify those who remained faithful in the face of persecution.
Nightingale:
The story of Philomela, who was turned into a nightingale, was an image of the desecrated church and its covert protests.
Red rose:
A term used by Catholics for their 'old, beautiful' religion.
Dark:
The new, Protestant religion, associated with black print and sober dress.
Five:
Devotion to the five wounds of Christ led to patterned emblems on the banners borne against the new regime. Shakespeare uses it in the form of flowers, birthmarks or heraldic blazons as a marker of Catholicism.

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Shakespeare was a political rebel who wrote in code, claims author

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A code-breaking book which aims to change the image of William Shakespeare and reveal him as a subversive who embedded dangerous political messages in his work is to be published in Britain.

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[Shakespeare's primary source for Macbeth was Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, first published in 1577. The outlines of Shakespeare's story are derived from Holinshed's account of Kings Duncan and Macbeth. In addition, Shakespeare seems to have taken many particulars from Holinshed's account of King Duffe, who died eighty years before Macbeth did.]

Source of these excerpts:
Holinshed, Raphael. Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 5.
London: J. Johnson, et al, 1808.

Notes: To see a note on the notes to this text, click the asterisk.*

Index:

King Duncan and King Macbeth:

from page 264: Duncan's ascension to the throne of Scotland. | The kinship between Duncan and Macbeth.

page 265: The characters of Duncan and Macbeth compared. | The defeat of Macdonwald by Banquo and Macbeth.

from page 266: Macbeth's cruelty to Macdonwald. | The arrival in Scotland of Sweno.

from page 267: Sweno defeated by Duncan's trick.

from page 268: Macbeth and Banquo repel an invasion by King Canute of England, who pays them "a great summe of gold" to be allowed to bury his dead at "saint Colmes Inch." | Macbeth and Banquo encounter "thrée women in strange and wild apparell."

page 269: Macbeth becomes Thane of Cawdor | Duncan proclaims Malcom Prince of Cumberland | Macbeth and Banquo slay King Duncan, and Macbeth ascends the throne. | Malcolm and Donalbain flee. | Macbeth sets the kingdom to rights, punishing evildoers.

from page 270: Macbeth's good deeds as king.

from page 271: Macbeth has Banquo murdered, but Fleance escapes. | How Fleance's descendants become Kings of Scotland.

from page 273: After the killing of Banquo, nothing goes well for Macbeth. Many are afraid of him, and he is afraid of many.

page 274: Macbeth puts many nobles to death on trumped-up charges and seizes their goods. | To increase his power, Macbeth orders a great castle to be built on Dunsinane hill. | Macduff, in fear of his life, sends workmen to the castle but does not go himself. Macbeth takes offense at this, especially since "certeine wizzards" had told him to take heed of Macduff. | Macbeth refrains from killing Macduff only because "a certeine witch" told him that he could not be slain by any man born of woman, nor be vanquished until "the wood of Bernane came to the castell of Dunsinane." | Macduff goes to England to persuade Malcolm to claim the throne of Scotland. Macbeth, through his spies, hears of Macduff's plan and goes to Macduff's dwelling, expecting to find him there. Macduff's people open the gate to Macbeth, but he nevertheless kills everyone inside.

page 275: Macduff pleads with Malcolm to come to Scotland, take the throne, and rescue the country from Macbeth. | Malcolm tests Macduff by telling him that he (Malcolm) is lustful and greedy, and would be a worse king than Macbeth.

page 276: Malcolm, continuing to test Macduff, says he is a liar. At this, Macduff is disgusted and weeps for Scotland. | Malcolm tells Macduff he was only testing him, to see if he might be an agent of Macbeth. | Malcolm and Macduff plan the invasion of Scotland and receive the aid of old Siward and an army of ten thousand. | Macbeth decides to defend himself at Dunsinane, despite advice to the contrary, because he trusts in the prophecies. | In Birnam wood, Malcolm orders his men to cut boughs to disguise themselves as they approach Dunsinane.

from page 277: Macbeth sees Birnam wood move, but urges his men to stand and fight. However, when Macbeth sees the size of the opposing army he tries to run away. | Macduff pursues Macbeth, and Macbeth tells him that he cannot be killed of woman born. Macduff reveals that he was "neuer borne of my mother, but ripped out of her wombe" and kills Macbeth, then cuts off his head, puts it on a pole, and takes it to Malcom. | Malcolm is crowned king and rewards his followers by creating them the first earls of Scotland. The new earls are "Fife, Menteth, Atholl, Leuenox, Murrey, Cathnes, Rosse, and Angus."

King Duffe:

from page 233: King Duffe falls into a wasting disease, which prevents him from sleeping, and witches are found to be causing it.

page 234: The witches are discovered roasting a wax image of King Duffe over a fire and reciting enchantments. They confess that they meant to make the king waste away, and that the enchantments were to keep him from sleeping. The witches are burnt to death, and the king recovers his health. | Donwald tries to get the king to pardon certain rebellious kin and friends, but the king refuses. Donwald, at the urging of his wife plans the murder of the king.

page 235: In Donwald's castle (Forres), King Duffe rewards Donwald and others for their assistance in putting down a rebellion, then goes to bed. | Donwald and his wife feed the king's chamberlains plenty of meat and drink, making them fall fast asleep when they return to the king's chamber. | Donwald bribes four of his servants to cut the king's throat, then bury the body in the bed of a river, so that it would never be discovered. This was done because it was thought that a murder victim's body would bleed in the presence of the victim's murderer. | Meanwhile, Donwald stays up with the guards all night, then pretends great surprise when the king's bloody and empty bed is discovered. Donwald kills the king's chamberlains and blames the murder on them. | Donwald rushes about, pretending to be looking for other guilty parties, which raises suspicions about him, but no one dares say anything, because they're in his castle. | For six months after the murder neither the sun nor moon are seen, and great winds make people fear for their lives.

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The Source of Macbeth: Holinshed's Chronicles

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Shakespeare's primary source for Macbeth was Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, first published in 1577. The outlines of Shakespeare's story are derived from Holinshed's account of Kings Duncan and Macbeth. In addition, Shakespeare seems to have taken many particulars from Holinshed's account of King Duffe, who died eighty years before Macbeth did.]

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weird | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

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The online etymology dictionary is the internet's go-to source for quick and reliable accounts of the origin and history of English words, phrases, and idioms. It is professional enough to satisfy academic standards, but accessible enough to be used by anyone. The site has become a favorite resource of teachers of reading, spelling, and English as a second language.

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Explained In 5 Questions: William Shakespeare | Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Looking at context, language and form, Carol Atherton provides a close analysis of the Witches in Act 1, Scene 3 of Macbeth.

Key quotation

ALL 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. (1.3.30-37)

Setting the scene

At the start of Act 1, Scene 3 of , we see the Witches preparing for their first encounter with Macbeth. The First Witch tells her companions that she has been insulted by a sailor's wife who refused to give her some of the chestnuts that she was eating ('"Give me!" quoth I. / "Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries' (1.3.5-6)). The First Witch says that she will take revenge by punishing the woman's husband, describing in detail what 'I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do' (1.1.10) to him: she will deprive him of sleep ('Sleep shall neither night nor day / Hang upon his penthouse lid' (1.3.19-20)) and ensure that his ship is tossed by the waves ('tempest-toss'd' (1.3.25)) and unable to find safe harbour. The passage ends with the Witches chanting a spell as they prepare to meet Macbeth, repeating a movement three times in the direction of each Witch in order to consolidate their power.

Photograph of the witches in Barry Kyle's production of Macbeth, 1983
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How does Shakespeare present the Witches here?

Shakespeare wrote Macbeth at a time when interest in witchcraft bordered on hysteria. Witches were blamed for causing illness, death and disaster, and were thought to punish their enemies by giving them nightmares, making their crops fail and their animals sicken. Witches were thought to allow the Devil to suckle from them in the form of an animal, such as 'Graymalkin' and 'Paddock', the grey cat and the toad mentioned by the Witches in Act 1, Scene 1. Those who were convicted were often tortured, their trials reported in grisly detail in pamphlets that circulated in their hundreds. Often, those accused of witchcraft lived on the edges of society: they were old, poor and unprotected, and were therefore easy to blame.

King James VI of Scotland was deeply concerned about the threat posed by witches. He believed that a group of witches had tried to kill him by drowning him while he was at sea (a curse echoed here by the First Witch). During his reign thousands of people in Scotland were put on trial for witchcraft. In 1604, under his rule as king of England and Wales, witchcraft was made a capital offence, meaning that anyone who was found guilty of being a witch could be executed. When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606, then, he knew that his audience would have felt a mixture of fear and fascination for the three 'weird sisters', their imaginations captivated by the mysterious meeting on the desolate heath with which the play begins.

Shakespeare's portrayal of the Witches in Act 1, Scene 3 draws directly on many of the beliefs about witchcraft that his audience would have held. They harm animals (as when the Second Witch reports, matter-of-factly, that she has been 'killing swine' (1.3.2)). Their power over the elements means that they can control the winds, raise storms and sail in sieves. They use gruesome ingredients such as body parts (the 'pilot's thumb' (1.3.28)) in their spells. They are also deeply vindictive. The First Witch vows to make the sailor suffer simply because his wife refuses to give in to her gluttonous demand. Her reaction is shockingly, disproportionately cruel: she vows to drain the life out of him until he is 'dry as hay' (1.3.18) and curses him with a tortuous inability to sleep, declaring 'He shall live a man forbid' (1.3.21) and that he shall 'dwindle, peak and pine' (1.3.23). This is a clear example of the crime known in Shakespeare's day as 'mischief following anger', a punishment inflicted as a result of some kind of grievance. Shakespeare uses this passage, then, to demonstrate the Witches' vindictive nature, leaving the audience in no doubt as to their connection with the powers of evil.
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Boydell's Collection of Prints illustrating Shakespeare's works

The Witches' language

Throughout the play, the language used by the Witches helps to mark them out as mysterious and other-worldly. They speak in verse, but it is a form of verse that is very different from that which is used by most of Shakespeare's characters. Many of the lines in this passage are in rhyming couplets, in contrast to the unrhymed verse used elsewhere in the play. Rather than speaking in an iambic metre, with alternating unstressed and stressed syllables, the Witches speak in a trochaic metre, with stressed syllables followed by unstressed. In addition, where most of Shakespeare's verse lines have five stresses, the Witches' lines typically only have four. In this scene, compare Macbeth's first line with the First Witch's description of how she will torture the sailor:

These heavy stresses give the Witches' speech a sense of foreboding that emphasises their malevolence and unearthliness. In the First Witch's lines, they make her vendetta against the sailor seem relentless. At the end of this passage, when the Witches chant in unison, they bring a sense of eeriness.

It's also worth noting that the Witches' speech is full of numbers. The First Witch will make the sailor's torture last 'sev'nnights, nine times nine' (1.3.22): a 'sev'nnight' was a week (seven nights), so the sailor will suffer for 81 weeks. As the Witches chant, they move 'Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine / And thrice again, to make up nine' (1.3.35-36). There are further examples of the number three: the sailor's wife 'mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd' (1.3.5); the First Witch repeats 'I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do' (1.1.10); and there are, of course, three witches. Three is a number that is often seen as having a particular significance. In Christianity, for example, there is the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Bad luck is frequently thought to come in threes. Macbeth is hailed by three titles (Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King hereafter) and is later given three prophecies. When the Witches concoct their famous spell in Act 4, Scene 1, they begin with two references to the number three:

FIRST WITCH Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

SECOND WITCH Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whin'd. (4.1.1-2)

Nine, meanwhile, is a multiple of three: therefore, 'nine' and 'nine times nine' multiplies and reinforces the power of the number three. Is Shakespeare suggesting that the Witches are a kind of unholy trinity? It's an obvious conclusion.

How does this scene fit into Macbeth as a whole?

This is the second time that we've met the Witches, and the second time that they've mentioned Macbeth, building a sense of anticipation for their forthcoming encounter. In Act 1, Scene 2, Macbeth is presented as a loyal warrior, a hero who fights valiantly on the battlefield to defend his country against invasion and treachery. Yet the association between Macbeth and the Witches introduces a different side to his character. The battle referred to by the Second Witch in Act 1, Scene 1 could be interpreted as not just a literal battle (the conflict raging between Scotland and Norway) but also a metaphorical battle: the battle for Macbeth's soul. It's significant, therefore, that Macbeth's first words to the Witches - 'So foul and fair a day I have not seen' (1.3.38) - echo the Witches' chant, 'Fair is foul, and foul is fair', from Act 1, Scene 1 (l. 11). Banquo soon echoes the Witches, too, asking Macbeth, 'Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear / Things that do sound so fair?' (1.3.51-52). This allusion is loaded with dramatic irony: while Banquo perceives the Witches' prophecies as 'fair', the audience is already aware things are not necessarily what they seem. Banquo introduces an element of doubt, too, by framing his observation within a question. The Witches' paradox - which indicates that appearances can be deceiving - is central to the play and reverberates through the major characters. Take Lady Macbeth, for example: 'look like th' innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't' (1.5.65-66).

When Macbeth and Banquo meet the Witches, their reactions give us an important insight into their personalities. Banquo is unafraid, but Macbeth 'start[s]' (1.3.51), or flinches, and 'seems rapt' (1.3.57), so mystified by their greeting that he is rendered speechless. Once he has regained his composure, he challenges the Witches to tell him more. They vanish, but it is not long before Macbeth finds that he is to become Thane of Cawdor - a 'truth' that immediately sets him wondering how the Witches' final prophecy will come about, and losing himself in the 'horrible imaginings' (1.3.138) that will eventually lead to the murder of King Duncan. Later in the play, it is Macbeth who seeks out the Witches, cementing his willingness to give himself over to the 'instruments of darkness' (1.3.124).

How have the Witches been interpreted?

It is Banquo who first describes the Witches. His words in Act 1, Scene 3 depict the Witches as stereotypical hags - 'withered' and 'wild', unearthly beings ('That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' Earth') with 'skinny lips', chapped ('choppy') fingers and beards (1.3.40-46). However, directors and designers have shown that the Witches don't have to be portrayed like this.

In Rupert Goold's 2010 film version of the play, starring Patrick Stewart as Macbeth, the Witches appear first as nurses in a nightmarish hospital, ripping out the heart of the wounded soldier. They later appear in the film in a number of other roles, including Lady Macbeth's attendants and serving-women at the banquet. In Justin Kurzel's 2015 production, starring Michael Fassbender as Macbeth, the witches are more conventional, looming through the mist at the edge of the battlefield and encircling Macbeth before greeting him in whispered voices. They are not physically grotesque, however, in the way that Banquo describes them. Interestingly, Kurzel gives us four witches: one is a child and two are young adults, while the eldest holds a baby. Other versions have drawn on the play's historical context: the actors who played the Witches in the Globe Theatre's 2010 production developed backstories for their characters that explained why they were isolated from society, leading to the vindictive behaviour they display in Act 1, Scene 3.

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Character analysis: The Witches in Macbeth | The British Library

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Looking at context, language and form, Carol Atherton provides a close analysis of the Witches in Act 1, Scene 3 of Macbeth. ALL 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.

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The language in Macbeth | Shakespeare Learning Zone | Royal Shakespeare Company

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The different language and techniques that Shakespeare used in Macbeth, including key terms like iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter and verse and prose.

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Why should you read "Macbeth"? - Brendan Pelsue

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Tomorrow, and tomorrow -- Ian McKellen analyzes Macbeth speech (1979)

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It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare's plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own.

Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of "taking up Shakespeare," finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classic texts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as Folger Digital Texts, we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants them.

The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare's plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare's works. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger's holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare's works in the Folger's Elizabethan Theater.

I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare's works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire.

Michael Witmore
Director, Folger Shakespeare Library

Until now, with the release of the Folger Digital Texts, readers in search of a free online text of Shakespeare's plays had to be content primarily with using the Moby™ Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version of the plays. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. But Shakespeare's plays were not published the way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the First Folio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more accurate text.

Other editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of the period or whether it should be changed; decisions about words that made it into Shakespeare's text by accident through four hundred years of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based on cultural preference and taste. When the Moby™ Text was created, for example, it was deemed "improper" and "indecent" for Miranda to chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See The Tempest, 1.2: "Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt not take,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee..."). All Shakespeare editors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to her father, Prospero.

The editors of the Moby™ Shakespeare produced their text long before scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to make the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. The Folger Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Digital Texts depend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby™, which hide editorial interventions. The reader of the Folger Shakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorial interventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, from Othello: " If she in chains of magic were not bound, "), half-square brackets (for example, from Henry V: "With Hamlet: "O farewell, honest blood and sword and fire to win your right,"), or angle brackets (for example, from soldier. Who hath relieved/you?"). At any point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket for more information.

Because the Folger Digital Texts are edited in accord with twenty-first century knowledge about Shakespeare's texts, the Folger here provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors, and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of the plays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the study and enjoyment of Shakespeare.

Macbeth, set primarily in Scotland, mixes witchcraft, prophecy, and murder. Three "Weïrd Sisters" appear to Macbeth and his comrade Banquo after a battle and prophesy that Macbeth will be king and that the descendants of Banquo will also reign. When Macbeth arrives at his castle, he and Lady Macbeth plot to assassinate King Duncan, soon to be their guest, so that Macbeth can become king.

After Macbeth murders Duncan, the king's two sons flee, and Macbeth is crowned. Fearing that Banquo's descendants will, according to the Weïrd Sisters' predictions, take over the kingdom, Macbeth has Banquo killed. At a royal banquet that evening, Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost appear covered in blood. Macbeth determines to consult the Weïrd Sisters again. They comfort him with ambiguous promises.

Another nobleman, Macduff, rides to England to join Duncan's older son, Malcolm. Macbeth has Macduff's wife and children murdered. Malcolm and Macduff lead an army against Macbeth, as Lady Macbeth goes mad and commits suicide.

Macbeth confronts Malcolm's army, trusting in the Weïrd Sisters' comforting promises. He learns that the promises are tricks, but continues to fight. Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcolm becomes Scotland's king.

Three Witches, the Weïrd Sisters

Donalbain, Duncan's younger son

Seyton, attendant to Macbeth

Macduff, a Scottish noble

Young Siward, Siward's son

A Captain in Duncan's army

Three Messengers, Three Servants, a Lord, a Soldier

Attendants, a Sewer, Servants, Lords, Thanes, Soldiers (all nonspeaking)

Alarum within. Enter King , Duncan Malcolm,
Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding
Captain.

DUNCAN Of kerns and And Fortune, on his damnèd Shipwracking storms and direful thunders ,
FTLN 0014 What bloody man is that? He can report,
FTLN 0015 As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
FTLN 0016 The newest state.
MALCOLM FTLN 0017 This is the sergeant
FTLN 0018 5 Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought
FTLN 0019 'Gainst my captivity.-Hail, brave friend!
FTLN 0020 Say to the King the knowledge of the broil
FTLN 0021 As thou didst leave it.
CAPTAIN FTLN 0022 Doubtful it stood,
FTLN 0023 10 As two spent swimmers that do cling together
FTLN 0024 And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald
FTLN 0025 (Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
FTLN 0026 The multiplying villainies of nature
FTLN 0027 Do swarm upon him) from the Western Isles
FTLN 0028 15 is supplied;
FTLN 0029 smiling,
FTLN 0030 Showed like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak;
FTLN 0031 For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name),
FTLN 0032 Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,
FTLN 0033 20 Which smoked with bloody execution,
FTLN 0034 Like Valor's minion, carved out his passage
FTLN 0035 Till he faced the slave;
FTLN 0036 Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
FTLN 0037 Till he unseamed him from the nave to th' chops,
FTLN 0038 25 And fixed his head upon our battlements. gallowglasses
DUNCAN
FTLN 0039 O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman! quarrel
CAPTAIN
FTLN 0040 As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
FTLN 0041
FTLN 0042 So from that spring whence comfort seemed to
FTLN 0043 30 come
FTLN 0044 Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark:
FTLN 0045 No sooner justice had, with valor armed,
FTLN 0046 Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
FTLN 0047 But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
FTLN 0048 35 With furbished arms and new supplies of men,
FTLN 0049 Began a fresh assault.
DUNCAN
FTLN 0050 Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and
FTLN 0051 Banquo?
CAPTAIN
FTLN 0052 Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
FTLN 0053 40 If I say sooth, I must report they were
FTLN 0054 As cannons overcharged with double cracks,
FTLN 0055 So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.
FTLN 0056 Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
FTLN 0057 Or memorize another Golgotha,
FTLN 0058 45 I cannot tell-
FTLN 0059 break But I am faint. My gashes cry for help.
DUNCAN
FTLN 0060 So well thy words become thee as thy wounds:
FTLN 0061 They smack of honor both.-Go, get him surgeons.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

Enter Macbeth and Banquo.

MACBETH How far is 't called to ?
FTLN 0130 So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
BANQUO
FTLN 0131 40 -What are these,
FTLN 0132 So withered, and so wild in their attire, Forres
FTLN 0133 That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' Earth
FTLN 0134 And yet are on 't?-Live you? Or are you aught
FTLN 0135 That man may question? You seem to understand
FTLN 0136 45 me
FTLN 0137 By each at once her choppy finger laying
FTLN 0138 Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,
FTLN 0139 And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
FTLN 0140 That you are so.
MACBETH FTLN 0141 50 Speak if you can. What are you?
FIRST WITCH
FTLN 0142 All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
SECOND WITCH
FTLN 0143 All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
THIRD WITCH
FTLN 0144 All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
BANQUO
FTLN 0145 Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear
FTLN 0146 55 Things that do sound so fair?-I' th' name of truth,
FTLN 0147 Are you fantastical, or that indeed
FTLN 0148 Which outwardly you show? My noble partner
FTLN 0149 You greet with present grace and great prediction
FTLN 0150 Of noble having and of royal hope,
FTLN 0151 60 That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.
FTLN 0152 If you can look into the seeds of time
FTLN 0153 And say which grain will grow and which will not,
FTLN 0154 Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear
FTLN 0155 Your favors nor your hate.
FIRST WITCH FTLN 0156 65 Hail!
SECOND WITCH FTLN 0157 Hail!
THIRD WITCH FTLN 0158 Hail!
FIRST WITCH
FTLN 0159 Lesser than Macbeth and greater.
SECOND WITCH
FTLN 0160 Not so happy, yet much happier.
THIRD WITCH
FTLN 0161 70 Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
FTLN 0162 So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
FIRST WITCH
FTLN 0163 Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
MACBETH
FTLN 0164 Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more.
FTLN 0165 By Sinel's death I know I am Thane of Glamis.
FTLN 0166 75 But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives
FTLN 0167 A prosperous gentleman, and to be king
FTLN 0168 Stands not within the prospect of belief,
FTLN 0169 No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
FTLN 0170 You owe this strange intelligence or why
FTLN 0171 80 Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
FTLN 0172 With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you.
Witches vanish.
BANQUO
FTLN 0173 The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
FTLN 0174 And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
MACBETH
FTLN 0175 Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted,
FTLN 0176 85 As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed!
BANQUO
FTLN 0177 Were such things here as we do speak about?
FTLN 0178 Or have we eaten on the insane root
FTLN 0179 That takes the reason prisoner?
MACBETH
FTLN 0180 Your children shall be kings.
BANQUO FTLN 0181 90 You shall be king.
MACBETH
FTLN 0182 And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?
BANQUO
FTLN 0183 To th' selfsame tune and words.-Who's here?

ROSS
FTLN 0184 The King hath happily received, Macbeth,
FTLN 0185 The news of thy success, and, when he reads
FTLN 0186 95 Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
FTLN 0187 His wonders and his praises do contend
FTLN 0188 Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that,
FTLN 0189 In viewing o'er the rest o' th' selfsame day
FTLN 0190 He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
FTLN 0191 100 Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
FTLN 0192 Strange images of death. As thick as tale
FTLN 0193 post with post, and every one did bear
FTLN 0194 Thy praises in his kingdom's great defense,
FTLN 0195 And poured them down before him.
ANGUS FTLN 0196 105 We are sent
FTLN 0197 To give thee from our royal master thanks,
FTLN 0198 Only to herald thee into his sight,
FTLN 0199 Not pay thee. Came
ROSS
FTLN 0200 And for an earnest of a greater honor,
FTLN 0201 110 He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor,
FTLN 0202 In which addition, hail, most worthy thane,
FTLN 0203 For it is thine.
BANQUO FTLN 0204 What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH
FTLN 0205 The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
FTLN 0206 115 In borrowed robes?
ANGUS FTLN 0207 Who was the Thane lives yet,
FTLN 0208 But under heavy judgment bears that life
FTLN 0209 Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was
FTLN 0210 combined
FTLN 0211 120 With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
FTLN 0212 With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
FTLN 0213 He labored in his country's wrack, I know not;
FTLN 0214 But treasons capital, confessed and proved,
FTLN 0215 Have overthrown him.
MACBETH FTLN 0216 125 Glamis and Thane of Cawdor!
FTLN 0217 The greatest is behind. Thanks
FTLN 0218 for your pains.
FTLN 0219 Do you not hope your children
FTLN 0220 shall be kings,
FTLN 0221 130 When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
FTLN 0222 Promised no less to them?
BANQUO FTLN 0223 That, trusted home,
FTLN 0224 Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
FTLN 0225 Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange.
FTLN 0226 135 And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
FTLN 0227 The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
FTLN 0228 Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's
FTLN 0229 In deepest consequence.-
FTLN 0230 Cousins, a word, I pray you.
MACBETH FTLN 0231 140 Two truths are told
FTLN 0232 As happy prologues to the swelling act
FTLN 0233 Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.
FTLN 0234 This supernatural soliciting
FTLN 0235 Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
FTLN 0236 145 Why hath it given me earnest of success
FTLN 0237 Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
FTLN 0238 If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
FTLN 0239 Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
FTLN 0240 And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
FTLN 0241 150 Against the use of nature? Present fears
FTLN 0242 Are less than horrible imaginings.
FTLN 0243 My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
FTLN 0244 Shakes so my single state of man
FTLN 0245 That function is smothered in surmise,
FTLN 0246 155 And nothing is but what is not.
BANQUO FTLN 0247 Look how our partner's rapt.
MACBETH
FTLN 0248 If chance will have me king, why, chance may
FTLN 0249 crown me
FTLN 0250 Without my stir.
BANQUO FTLN 0251 160 New honors come upon him,
FTLN 0252 Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold
FTLN 0253 But with the aid of use.
MACBETH FTLN 0254 Come what come may,
FTLN 0255 Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
BANQUO
FTLN 0256 165 Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
MACBETH
FTLN 0257 Give me your favor. My dull brain was wrought
FTLN 0258 With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
FTLN 0259 Are registered where every day I turn
FTLN 0260 The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.
FTLN 0261 170 Think upon what hath chanced,
FTLN 0262 and at more time,
FTLN 0263 The interim having weighed it, let us speak
FTLN 0264 Our free hearts each to other.
BANQUO FTLN 0265 Very gladly.
MACBETH FTLN 0266 175 Till then, enough.-Come, friends.
They exit.

Flourish. Enter King , Duncan Lennox, Malcolm,
Donalbain, and Attendants.

DUNCAN Is execution done on Cawdor?
FTLN 0267 not Are
FTLN 0268 Those in commission yet returned?
MALCOLM FTLN 0269 My liege,
FTLN 0270 They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
FTLN 0271 5 With one that saw him die, who did report
FTLN 0272 That very frankly he confessed his treasons,
FTLN 0273 Implored your Highness' pardon, and set forth
FTLN 0274 A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
FTLN 0275 Became him like the leaving it. He died
FTLN 0276 10 As one that had been studied in his death
FTLN 0277 To throw away the dearest thing he owed
FTLN 0278 As 'twere a careless trifle.
DUNCAN FTLN 0279 There's no art
FTLN 0280 To find the mind's construction in the face.
FTLN 0281 15 He was a gentleman on whom I built
FTLN 0282 An absolute trust.

Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus.

FTLN 0283 O worthiest cousin,
FTLN 0284 The sin of my ingratitude even now
FTLN 0285 Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before
FTLN 0286 20 That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
FTLN 0287 To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
FTLN 0288 That the proportion both of thanks and payment
FTLN 0289 Might have been mine! Only I have left to say,
FTLN 0290 More is thy due than more than all can pay.
MACBETH
FTLN 0291 25 The service and the loyalty I owe
FTLN 0292 In doing it pays itself. Your Highness' part
FTLN 0293 Is to receive our duties, and our duties
FTLN 0294 Are to your throne and state children and servants,
FTLN 0295 Which do but what they should by doing everything
FTLN 0296 30 Safe toward your love and honor.
DUNCAN FTLN 0297 Welcome hither.
FTLN 0298 I have begun to plant thee and will labor
FTLN 0299 To make thee full of growing.-Noble Banquo,
FTLN 0300 That hast no less deserved nor must be known
FTLN 0301 35 No less to have done so, let me enfold thee
FTLN 0302 And hold thee to my heart.
BANQUO FTLN 0303 There, if I grow,
FTLN 0304 The harvest is your own.
DUNCAN FTLN 0305 My plenteous joys,
FTLN 0306 40 Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves
FTLN 0307 In drops of sorrow.-Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
FTLN 0308 And you whose places are the nearest, know
FTLN 0309 We will establish our estate upon
FTLN 0310 Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
FTLN 0311 45 The Prince of Cumberland; which honor must
FTLN 0312 Not unaccompanied invest him only,
FTLN 0313 But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
FTLN 0314 On all deservers.-From hence to Inverness
FTLN 0315 And bind us further to you.
MACBETH
FTLN 0316 50 The rest is labor which is not used for you.
FTLN 0317 I'll be myself the harbinger and make joyful
FTLN 0318 The hearing of my wife with your approach.
FTLN 0319 So humbly take my leave.
DUNCAN FTLN 0320 My worthy Cawdor.
MACBETH
FTLN 0321 55 The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
FTLN 0322 On which I must fall down or else o'erleap,
FTLN 0323 For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
FTLN 0324 Let not light see my black and deep desires.
FTLN 0325 The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be
FTLN 0326 60 Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

DUNCAN
FTLN 0327 True, worthy Banquo. He is full so valiant,
FTLN 0328 And in his commendations I am fed:
FTLN 0329 It is a banquet to me.-Let's after him,
FTLN 0330 Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome.
FTLN 0331 65 It is a peerless kinsman.
Flourish. They exit.

Enter Macbeth's Wife, alone, with a letter.

LADY MACBETH FTLN 0332 They met me in the
FTLN 0333 day of success, and I have learned by the perfect'st
FTLN 0334 report they have more in them than mortal knowledge.
FTLN 0335 When I burned in desire to question them further, they
FTLN 0336 5 made themselves air, into which they vanished.
FTLN 0337 Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives
FTLN 0338 from the King, who all-hailed me "Thane of Cawdor,"
FTLN 0339 by which title, before, these Weïrd Sisters saluted me
FTLN 0340 and referred me to the coming on of time with "Hail,
FTLN 0341 10 king that shalt be." This have I thought good to deliver
FTLN 0342 thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou
FTLN 0343 might'st not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant
FTLN 0344 of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy
FTLN 0345 heart, and farewell.
FTLN 0346 15 Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
FTLN 0347 What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;
FTLN 0348 It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness
FTLN 0349 To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,
FTLN 0350 Art not without ambition, but without
FTLN 0351 20 The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst
FTLN 0352 highly,
FTLN 0353 That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false
FTLN 0354 And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou 'dst have, great
FTLN 0355 Glamis,
FTLN 0356 25 That which cries "Thus thou must do," if thou have
FTLN 0357 it,
FTLN 0358 And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
FTLN 0359 Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
FTLN 0360 That I may pour my spirits in thine ear
FTLN 0361 30 And chastise with the valor of my tongue
FTLN 0362 All that impedes thee from the golden round,
FTLN 0363 Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
FTLN 0364 To have thee crowned withal.
Enter Messenger.

FTLN 0365 What is your tidings?
MESSENGER
FTLN 0366 35 The King comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0367 Thou 'rt mad to say it.
FTLN 0368 Is not thy master with him, who, were 't so,
FTLN 0369 Would have informed for preparation?
MESSENGER
FTLN 0370 So please you, it is true. Our thane is coming.
FTLN 0371 40 One of my fellows had the speed of him,
FTLN 0372 Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
FTLN 0373 Than would make up his message.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0374 Give him tending.
FTLN 0375 He brings great news. Messenger exits.
FTLN 0376 45 The raven himself is hoarse
FTLN 0377 That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
FTLN 0378 Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
FTLN 0379 That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
FTLN 0380 And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
FTLN 0381 50 Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.
FTLN 0382 Stop up th' access and passage to remorse,
FTLN 0383 That no compunctious visitings of nature
FTLN 0384 Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
FTLN 0385 Th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts
FTLN 0386 55 And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,
FTLN 0387 Wherever in your sightless substances
FTLN 0388 You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night,
FTLN 0389 And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
FTLN 0390 That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
FTLN 0391 60 Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
FTLN 0392 To cry "Hold, hold!"

FTLN 0393 Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor,
FTLN 0394 Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter!
FTLN 0395 Thy letters have transported me beyond
FTLN 0396 65 This ignorant present, and I feel now
FTLN 0397 The future in the instant.
MACBETH FTLN 0398 My dearest love,
FTLN 0399 Duncan comes here tonight.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0400 And when goes hence?
MACBETH
FTLN 0401 70 Tomorrow, as he purposes.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0402 O, never
FTLN 0403 Shall sun that morrow see!
FTLN 0404 Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
FTLN 0405 May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
FTLN 0406 75 Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye,
FTLN 0407 Your hand, your tongue. Look like th' innocent
FTLN 0408 flower,
FTLN 0409 But be the serpent under 't. He that's coming
FTLN 0410 Must be provided for; and you shall put
FTLN 0411 80 This night's great business into my dispatch,
FTLN 0412 Which shall to all our nights and days to come
FTLN 0413 Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
MACBETH
FTLN 0414 We will speak further.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0415 Only look up clear.
FTLN 0416 85 To alter favor ever is to fear.
FTLN 0417 Leave all the rest to me.

Hautboys and Torches. Enter King , Duncan Malcolm,
Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and
Attendants.

DUNCAN The temple-haunting ,By his loved ,Where they
FTLN 0418 This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air
FTLN 0419 Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
FTLN 0420 Unto our gentle senses.
BANQUO FTLN 0421 This guest of summer,
FTLN 0422 5 does approve,
FTLN 0423 that the heaven's breath
FTLN 0424 Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
martlet FTLN 0425 Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
FTLN 0426 Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle.
FTLN 0427 mansionry 10 breed and haunt, I have
FTLN 0428 observed,
FTLN 0429 The air is delicate. most

DUNCAN FTLN 0430 See, see our honored hostess!-
FTLN 0431 The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
FTLN 0432 15 Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you
FTLN 0433 How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains
FTLN 0434 And thank us for your trouble.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0435 All our service,
FTLN 0436 In every point twice done and then done double,
FTLN 0437 20 Were poor and single business to contend
FTLN 0438 Against those honors deep and broad wherewith
FTLN 0439 Your Majesty loads our house. For those of old,
FTLN 0440 And the late dignities heaped up to them,
FTLN 0441 We rest your hermits.
DUNCAN FTLN 0442 25 Where's the Thane of Cawdor?
FTLN 0443 We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose
FTLN 0444 To be his purveyor; but he rides well,
FTLN 0445 And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath helped
FTLN 0446 him
FTLN 0447 30 To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
FTLN 0448 We are your guest tonight.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0449 Your servants ever
FTLN 0450 Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs in compt
FTLN 0451 To make their audit at your Highness' pleasure,
FTLN 0452 35 Still to return your own.
DUNCAN FTLN 0453 Give me your hand.

FTLN 0454 Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly
FTLN 0455 And shall continue our graces towards him.
FTLN 0456 By your leave, hostess.

Hautboys. Torches. Enter a Sewer and divers Servants
with dishes and service over the stage.

MACBETH But here, upon this bank and
FTLN 0457 If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
FTLN 0458 It were done quickly. If th' assassination
FTLN 0459 Could trammel up the consequence and catch
FTLN 0460 With his surcease success, that but this blow
FTLN 0461 5 Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
FTLN 0462 of time,
FTLN 0463 We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases
FTLN 0464 We still have judgment here, that we but teach
FTLN 0465 Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
FTLN 0466 shoal 10 To plague th' inventor. This even-handed justice
FTLN 0467 Commends th' ingredience of our poisoned chalice
FTLN 0468 To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
FTLN 0469 First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
FTLN 0470 Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
FTLN 0471 15 Who should against his murderer shut the door,
FTLN 0472 Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
FTLN 0473 Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
FTLN 0474 So clear in his great office, that his virtues
FTLN 0475 Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
FTLN 0476 20 The deep damnation of his taking-off;
FTLN 0477 And pity, like a naked newborn babe
FTLN 0478 Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin horsed
FTLN 0479 Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
FTLN 0480 Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
FTLN 0481 25 That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
FTLN 0482 To prick the sides of my intent, but only
FTLN 0483 Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
FTLN 0484 And falls on th' other-

FTLN 0485 How now, what news? Who dares
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 0486 30 He has almost supped. Why have you left the
FTLN 0487 chamber?
MACBETH
FTLN 0488 Hath he asked for me?
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0489 Know you not he has?
MACBETH
FTLN 0490 We will proceed no further in this business.
FTLN 0491 35 He hath honored me of late, and I have bought
FTLN 0492 Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
FTLN 0493 Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
FTLN 0494 Not cast aside so soon.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0495 Was the hope drunk
FTLN 0496 40 Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
FTLN 0497 And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
FTLN 0498 At what it did so freely? From this time
FTLN 0499 Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
FTLN 0500 To be the same in thine own act and valor
FTLN 0501 45 As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
FTLN 0502 Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life
FTLN 0503 And live a coward in thine own esteem,
FTLN 0504 Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would,"
FTLN 0505 Like the poor cat i' th' adage?
MACBETH FTLN 0506 50 Prithee, peace.
FTLN 0507 I dare do all that may become a man.
FTLN 0508 more is none.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0509 What beast was 't,
FTLN 0510 then,
FTLN 0511 55 That made you break this enterprise to me?
FTLN 0512 When you durst do it, then you were a man;
FTLN 0513 And to be more than what you were, you would
FTLN 0514 Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
FTLN 0515 Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
FTLN 0516 60 They have made themselves, and that their fitness
FTLN 0517 now
FTLN 0518 Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
FTLN 0519 How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me.
FTLN 0520 I would, while it was smiling in my face,
FTLN 0521 65 Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
FTLN 0522 And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
FTLN 0523 Have done to this.
MACBETH FTLN 0524 If we should fail-
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0525 do We fail?
FTLN 0526 70 But screw your courage to the sticking place
FTLN 0527 And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep
FTLN 0528 (Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
FTLN 0529 Soundly invite him), his two chamberlains
FTLN 0530 Will I with wine and wassail so convince
FTLN 0531 75 That memory, the warder of the brain,
FTLN 0532 Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
FTLN 0533 A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep
FTLN 0534 Their drenchèd natures lies as in a death,
FTLN 0535 What cannot you and I perform upon
FTLN 0536 80 Th' unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
FTLN 0537 His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
FTLN 0538 Of our great quell?
MACBETH FTLN 0539 Bring forth men-children only,
FTLN 0540 For thy undaunted mettle should compose
FTLN 0541 85 Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
FTLN 0542 When we have marked with blood those sleepy two
FTLN 0543 Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
FTLN 0544 That they have done 't?
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0545 Who dares receive it other,
FTLN 0546 90 As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar
FTLN 0547 Upon his death?
MACBETH FTLN 0548 I am settled and bend up
FTLN 0549 Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
FTLN 0550 Away, and mock the time with fairest show.
FTLN 0551 95 False face must hide what the false heart doth
FTLN 0552 know.
They exit.

Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch before him.

BANQUO FTLN 0553 How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE
FTLN 0554 The moon is down. I have not heard the clock.
BANQUO FTLN 0555 And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE FTLN 0556 I take 't 'tis later, sir.
BANQUO
FTLN 0557 5 Hold, take my sword.
FTLN 0558 There's husbandry in heaven;
FTLN 0559 Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
FTLN 0560 A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
FTLN 0561 And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,
FTLN 0562 10 Restrain in me the cursèd thoughts that nature
FTLN 0563 Gives way to in repose.

Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch.

FTLN 0564 Give me my sword.-Who's With Tarquin's ravishing ,Moves like a ghost. Thou Hear not my steps, which they
FTLN 0565 there?
MACBETH FTLN 0566 A friend.
BANQUO
FTLN 0567 15 What, sir, not yet at rest? The King's abed.
FTLN 0568 He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
FTLN 0569 Sent forth great largess to your offices.
FTLN 0570 This diamond he greets your wife withal,
FTLN 0571 By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up
FTLN 0572 20 In measureless content.

MACBETH FTLN 0573 Being unprepared,
FTLN 0574 Our will became the servant to defect,
FTLN 0575 Which else should free have wrought.
BANQUO FTLN 0576 All's well.
FTLN 0577 25 I dreamt last night of the three Weïrd Sisters.
FTLN 0578 To you they have showed some truth.
MACBETH FTLN 0579 I think not of
FTLN 0580 them.
FTLN 0581 Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
FTLN 0582 30 We would spend it in some words upon that
FTLN 0583 business,
FTLN 0584 If you would grant the time.
BANQUO FTLN 0585 At your kind'st leisure.
MACBETH
FTLN 0586 If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,
FTLN 0587 35 It shall make honor for you.
BANQUO FTLN 0588 So I lose none
FTLN 0589 In seeking to augment it, but still keep
FTLN 0590 My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
FTLN 0591 I shall be counseled.
MACBETH FTLN 0592 40 Good repose the while.
BANQUO FTLN 0593 Thanks, sir. The like to you.

MACBETH
FTLN 0594 Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
FTLN 0595 She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

FTLN 0596 Is this a dagger which I see before me,
FTLN 0597 45 The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch
FTLN 0598 thee.
FTLN 0599 I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
FTLN 0600 Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
FTLN 0601 To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
FTLN 0602 50 A dagger of the mind, a false creation
FTLN 0603 Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
FTLN 0604 I see thee yet, in form as palpable
FTLN 0605 As this which now I draw.
FTLN 0606 Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going,
FTLN 0607 55 And such an instrument I was to use.
FTLN 0608 Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses
FTLN 0609 Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,
FTLN 0610 And, on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood,
FTLN 0611 Which was not so before. There's no such thing.
FTLN 0612 60 It is the bloody business which informs
FTLN 0613 Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one-half world
FTLN 0614 Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
FTLN 0615 The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates
FTLN 0616 Pale Hecate's off'rings, and withered murder,
FTLN 0617 65 Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
FTLN 0618 Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
FTLN 0619 towards his
FTLN 0620 design
FTLN 0621 and firm-set earth,
FTLN 0622 70 walk, for fear
FTLN 0623 Thy very stones prate of my whereabouts
FTLN 0624 And take the present horror from the time,
FTLN 0625 Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives.
FTLN 0626 Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
A bell rings.
FTLN 0627 75 I go, and it is done. The bell invites me.
FTLN 0628 Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell
FTLN 0629 That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
He exits. strides sure way

LADY MACBETH
FTLN 0630 That which hath made them drunk hath made me
FTLN 0631 bold.
FTLN 0632 What hath quenched them hath given me fire.
FTLN 0633 Hark!-Peace.
FTLN 0634 5 It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,
FTLN 0635 Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it.
FTLN 0636 The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms
FTLN 0637 Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged
FTLN 0638 their possets,
FTLN 0639 10 That death and nature do contend about them
FTLN 0640 Whether they live or die.
MACBETH FTLN 0641 Who's there? what, ho!
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 0642 Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
FTLN 0643 And 'tis not done. Th' attempt and not the deed
FTLN 0644 15 Confounds us. Hark!-I laid their daggers ready;
FTLN 0645 He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled
FTLN 0646 My father as he slept, I had done 't.

FTLN 0647 My husband? She exits the daggers.
MACBETH
FTLN 0648 I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 0649 20 I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
FTLN 0650 Did not you speak?
MACBETH FTLN 0651 When?
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0652 Now.
MACBETH FTLN 0653 As I descended?
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0654 25 Ay.
MACBETH FTLN 0655 Hark!-Who lies i' th' second chamber?
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0656 Donalbain.
MACBETH FTLN 0657 This is a sorry sight.
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 0658 A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
MACBETH
FTLN 0659 30 There's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried
FTLN 0660 "Murder!"
FTLN 0661 That they did wake each other. I stood and heard
FTLN 0662 them.
FTLN 0663 But they did say their prayers and addressed them
FTLN 0664 35 Again to sleep.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0665 There are two lodged together.
MACBETH
FTLN 0666 One cried "God bless us" and "Amen" the other,
FTLN 0667 As they had seen me with these hangman's hands,
FTLN 0668 List'ning their fear. I could not say "Amen"
FTLN 0669 40 When they did say "God bless us."
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0670 Consider it not so deeply.
MACBETH
FTLN 0671 But wherefore could not I pronounce "Amen"?
FTLN 0672 I had most need of blessing, and "Amen"
FTLN 0673 Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0674 45 These deeds must not be thought
FTLN 0675 After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
MACBETH
FTLN 0676 Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!
FTLN 0677 Macbeth does murder sleep"-the innocent sleep,
FTLN 0678 Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
FTLN 0679 50 The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
FTLN 0680 Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
FTLN 0681 Chief nourisher in life's feast.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0682 What do you mean?
MACBETH
FTLN 0683 Still it cried "Sleep no more!" to all the house.
FTLN 0684 55 "Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore
FTLN 0685 Cawdor
FTLN 0686 Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more."
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 0687 Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
FTLN 0688 You do unbend your noble strength to think
FTLN 0689 60 So brainsickly of things. Go get some water
FTLN 0690 And wash this filthy witness from your hand.-
FTLN 0691 Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
FTLN 0692 They must lie there. Go, carry them and smear
FTLN 0693 The sleepy grooms with blood.
MACBETH FTLN 0694 65 I'll go no more.
FTLN 0695 I am afraid to think what I have done.
FTLN 0696 Look on 't again I dare not.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0697 Infirm of purpose!
FTLN 0698 Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
FTLN 0699 70 Are but as pictures. 'Tis the eye of childhood
FTLN 0700 That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
FTLN 0701 I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
FTLN 0702 For it must seem their guilt.

MACBETH FTLN 0703 Whence is that
FTLN 0704 75 knocking?
FTLN 0705 How is 't with me when every noise appalls me?
FTLN 0706 What hands are here! Ha, they pluck out mine eyes.
FTLN 0707 Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
FTLN 0708 Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
FTLN 0709 80 The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
FTLN 0710 Making the green one red. with Knock within.

PORTER FTLN 0725 Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were
FTLN 0726 porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the
FTLN 0727 key. Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i'
FTLN 0728 th' name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer that hanged
FTLN 0729 5 himself on th' expectation of plenty. Come in time!
FTLN 0730 Have napkins enough about you; here you'll sweat
FTLN 0731 for 't. Knock, knock! Who's there, in th'
FTLN 0732 other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator
FTLN 0733 that could swear in both the scales against either
FTLN 0734 10 scale, who committed treason enough for God's
FTLN 0735 sake yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in,
FTLN 0736 equivocator. Knock, knock, knock! Who's
FTLN 0737 there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither for
FTLN 0738 stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor. Here
FTLN 0739 15 you may roast your goose. Knock, knock!
FTLN 0740 Never at quiet.-What are you?-But this place is
FTLN 0741 too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further. I had
FTLN 0742 thought to have let in some of all professions that go
FTLN 0743 the primrose way to th' everlasting bonfire.
FTLN 0744 20 Anon, anon!

to The Porter opens the door Macduff and Lennox.

FTLN 0745 I pray you, remember the porter.
MACDUFF
FTLN 0746 Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed
FTLN 0747 That you do lie so late?
PORTER FTLN 0748 Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second
FTLN 0749 25 cock, and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three
FTLN 0750 things.
MACDUFF FTLN 0751 What three things does drink especially
FTLN 0752 provoke?
PORTER FTLN 0753 Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.
FTLN 0754 30 Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes. It provokes
FTLN 0755 the desire, but it takes away the performance.
FTLN 0756 Therefore much drink may be said to be an
FTLN 0757 equivocator with lechery. It makes him, and it
FTLN 0758 mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it
FTLN 0759 35 persuades him and disheartens him; makes him
FTLN 0760 stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates
FTLN 0761 him in a sleep and, giving him the lie, leaves
FTLN 0762 him.
MACDUFF FTLN 0763 I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
PORTER FTLN 0764 40 That it did, sir, i' th' very throat on me; but I
FTLN 0765 requited him for his lie, and, I think, being too
FTLN 0766 strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime,
FTLN 0767 yet I made a shift to cast him.
MACDUFF FTLN 0768 Is thy master stirring?

MACDUFF FTLN 0797 O horror, horror, horror!
FTLN 0798 Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!
MACBETH AND LENNOX FTLN 0799 75 What's the matter?
MACDUFF
FTLN 0800 Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.
FTLN 0801 Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
FTLN 0802 The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence
FTLN 0803 The life o' th' building.
MACBETH FTLN 0804 80 What is 't you say? The life?
LENNOX FTLN 0805 Mean you his Majesty?
MACDUFF
FTLN 0806 Approach the chamber and destroy your sight
FTLN 0807 With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak.
FTLN 0808 See and then speak yourselves.
Macbeth and Lennox exit.
FTLN 0809 85 Awake, awake!
FTLN 0810 Ring the alarum bell.-Murder and treason!
FTLN 0811 Banquo and Donalbain, Malcolm, awake!
FTLN 0812 Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
FTLN 0813 And look on death itself. Up, up, and see
FTLN 0814 90 The great doom's image. Malcolm, Banquo,
FTLN 0815 As from your graves rise up and walk like sprites
FTLN 0816 To countenance this horror.-Ring the bell.

LADY MACBETH FTLN 0817 What's the business,
FTLN 0818 That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
FTLN 0819 95 The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!
MACDUFF FTLN 0820 O gentle lady,
FTLN 0821 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak.
FTLN 0822 The repetition in a woman's ear
FTLN 0823 Would murder as it fell.

MACBETH
FTLN 0831 Had I but died an hour before this chance,
FTLN 0832 I had lived a blessèd time; for from this instant
FTLN 0833 There's nothing serious in mortality.
FTLN 0834 110 All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead.
FTLN 0835 The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
FTLN 0836 Is left this vault to brag of.

Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.

DONALBAIN FTLN 0837 What is amiss?
MACBETH FTLN 0838 You are, and do not know 't.
FTLN 0839 115 The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
FTLN 0840 Is stopped; the very source of it is stopped.
MACDUFF
FTLN 0841 Your royal father's murdered.
MALCOLM FTLN 0842 O, by whom?
LENNOX
FTLN 0843 Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done 't.
FTLN 0844 120 Their hands and faces were all badged with blood.
FTLN 0845 So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
FTLN 0846 Upon their pillows. They stared and were distracted.
FTLN 0847 No man's life was to be trusted with them.
MACBETH
FTLN 0848 O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
FTLN 0849 125 That I did kill them.
MACDUFF FTLN 0850 Wherefore did you so?
MACBETH
FTLN 0851 Who can be wise, amazed, temp'rate, and furious,
FTLN 0852 Loyal, and neutral, in a moment? No man.
FTLN 0853 Th' expedition of my violent love
FTLN 0854 130 Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
FTLN 0855 His silver skin laced with his golden blood,
FTLN 0856 And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature
FTLN 0857 For ruin's wasteful entrance; there the murderers,
FTLN 0858 Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers
FTLN 0859 135 Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain
FTLN 0860 That had a heart to love, and in that heart
FTLN 0861 Courage to make 's love known?
LADY MACBETH FTLN 0862 Help me hence, ho!
MACDUFF
FTLN 0863 Look to the lady.
MALCOLM FTLN 0864 140 Why do we hold our
FTLN 0865 tongues,
FTLN 0866 That most may claim this argument for ours?
DONALBAIN
FTLN 0867 What should be spoken here, where our fate,
FTLN 0868 Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us?
FTLN 0869 145 Let's away. Our tears are not yet brewed.
MALCOLM
FTLN 0870 Nor our strong sorrow upon the foot of motion.
BANQUO FTLN 0871 Look to the lady.

FTLN 0872 And when we have our naked frailties hid,
FTLN 0873 That suffer in exposure, let us meet
FTLN 0874 150 And question this most bloody piece of work
FTLN 0875 To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us.
FTLN 0876 In the great hand of God I stand, and thence
FTLN 0877 Against the undivulged pretense I fight
FTLN 0878 Of treasonous malice.
MACDUFF FTLN 0879 155 And so do I.
ALL FTLN 0880 So all.
MACBETH
FTLN 0881 Let's briefly put on manly readiness
FTLN 0882 And meet i' th' hall together.
ALL FTLN 0883 Well contented.

MALCOLM
FTLN 0884 160 What will you do? Let's not consort with them.
FTLN 0885 To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
FTLN 0886 Which the false man does easy. I'll to England.
DONALBAIN
FTLN 0887 To Ireland I. Our separated fortune
FTLN 0888 Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are,
FTLN 0889 165 There's daggers in men's smiles. The near in blood,
FTLN 0890 The nearer bloody.
MALCOLM FTLN 0891 This murderous shaft that's shot
FTLN 0892 Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way
FTLN 0893 Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse,
FTLN 0894 170 And let us not be dainty of leave-taking
FTLN 0895 But shift away. There's warrant in that theft
FTLN 0896 Which steals itself when there's no mercy left.

Enter Macbeth's Lady and a Servant.

FTLN 1124 10 How now, my lord, why do you keep alone,
FTLN 1125 Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
FTLN 1126 Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
FTLN 1127 With them they think on? Things without all remedy
FTLN 1128 Should be without regard. What's done is done.
MACBETH
FTLN 1129 15 We have scorched the snake, not killed it.
FTLN 1130 She'll close and be herself whilst our poor malice
FTLN 1131 Remains in danger of her former tooth.
FTLN 1132 But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds
FTLN 1133 suffer,
FTLN 1134 20 Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
FTLN 1135 In the affliction of these terrible dreams
FTLN 1136 That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,
FTLN 1137 Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
FTLN 1138 Than on the torture of the mind to lie
FTLN 1139 25 In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave.
FTLN 1140 After life's fitful fever he sleeps well.
FTLN 1141 Treason has done his worst; nor steel nor poison,
FTLN 1142 Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
FTLN 1143 Can touch him further.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1144 30 Come on, gentle my lord,
FTLN 1145 Sleek o'er your rugged looks. Be bright and jovial
FTLN 1146 Among your guests tonight.
MACBETH FTLN 1147 So shall I, love,
FTLN 1148 And so I pray be you. Let your remembrance
FTLN 1149 35 Apply to Banquo; present him eminence
FTLN 1150 Both with eye and tongue: unsafe the while that we
FTLN 1151 Must lave our honors in these flattering streams
FTLN 1152 And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
FTLN 1153 Disguising what they are.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1154 40 You must leave this.
MACBETH
FTLN 1155 O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
FTLN 1156 Thou know'st that Banquo and his Fleance lives.
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 1157 But in them nature's copy's not eterne.
MACBETH
FTLN 1158 There's comfort yet; they are assailable.
FTLN 1159 45 Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown
FTLN 1160 His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate's summons
FTLN 1161 The shard-born beetle with his drowsy hums
FTLN 1162 Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
FTLN 1163 A deed of dreadful note.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1164 50 What's to be done?
MACBETH
FTLN 1165 Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
FTLN 1166 Till thou applaud the deed.-Come, seeling night,
FTLN 1167 Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day
FTLN 1168 And with thy bloody and invisible hand
FTLN 1169 55 Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
FTLN 1170 Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow
FTLN 1171 Makes wing to th' rooky wood.
FTLN 1172 Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
FTLN 1173 Whiles night's black agents to their preys do
FTLN 1174 60 rouse.-
FTLN 1175 Thou marvel'st at my words, but hold thee still.
FTLN 1176 Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
FTLN 1177 So prithee go with me.

Banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady , Macbeth
Ross, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants.

MACBETH
FTLN 1211 You know your own degrees; sit down. At first
FTLN 1212 And last, the hearty welcome.
LORDS FTLN 1213 Thanks to your Majesty.
MACBETH
FTLN 1214 Ourself will mingle with society
FTLN 1215 5 And play the humble host.
FTLN 1216 Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time
FTLN 1217 We will require her welcome.
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 1218 Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends,
FTLN 1219 For my heart speaks they are welcome.

MACBETH
FTLN 1220 10 See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.
FTLN 1221 Both sides are even. Here I'll sit i' th' midst.
FTLN 1222 Be large in mirth. Anon we'll drink a measure
FTLN 1223 The table round. There's
FTLN 1224 blood upon thy face.
MURDERER FTLN 1225 15 'Tis Banquo's then.
MACBETH
FTLN 1226 'Tis better thee without than he within.
FTLN 1227 Is he dispatched?
MURDERER
FTLN 1228 My lord, his throat is cut. That I did for him.
MACBETH
FTLN 1229 Thou art the best o' th' cutthroats,
FTLN 1230 20 Yet he's good that did the like for Fleance.
FTLN 1231 If thou didst it, thou art the nonpareil.
MURDERER
FTLN 1232 Most royal sir, Fleance is 'scaped.
MACBETH
FTLN 1233 Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect,
FTLN 1234 Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
FTLN 1235 25 As broad and general as the casing air.
FTLN 1236 But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
FTLN 1237 To saucy doubts and fears.-But Banquo's safe?
MURDERER
FTLN 1238 Ay, my good lord. Safe in a ditch he bides,
FTLN 1239 With twenty trenchèd gashes on his head,
FTLN 1240 30 The least a death to nature.
MACBETH FTLN 1241 Thanks for that.
FTLN 1242 There the grown serpent lies. The worm that's fled
FTLN 1243 Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
FTLN 1244 No teeth for th' present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow
FTLN 1245 35 We'll hear ourselves again. Murderer exits.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1246 My royal lord,
FTLN 1247 You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold
FTLN 1248 That is not often vouched, while 'tis a-making,
FTLN 1249 'Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home;
FTLN 1250 40 From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;
FTLN 1251 Meeting were bare without it.

Enter the Ghost of Banquo, and sits in Macbeth's place.

MACBETH FTLN 1252 Sweet remembrancer!- Too terrible for the ear. The
FTLN 1253 Now, good digestion wait on appetite
FTLN 1254 And health on both!
LENNOX FTLN 1255 45 May 't please your Highness sit.
MACBETH
FTLN 1256 Here had we now our country's honor roofed,
FTLN 1257 Were the graced person of our Banquo present,
FTLN 1258 Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
FTLN 1259 Than pity for mischance.
ROSS FTLN 1260 50 His absence, sir,
FTLN 1261 Lays blame upon his promise. Please 't your
FTLN 1262 Highness
FTLN 1263 To grace us with your royal company?
MACBETH
FTLN 1264 The table's full.
LENNOX FTLN 1265 55 Here is a place reserved, sir.
MACBETH FTLN 1266 Where?
LENNOX
FTLN 1267 Here, my good lord. What is 't that moves your
FTLN 1268 Highness?
MACBETH
FTLN 1269 Which of you have done this?
LORDS FTLN 1270 60 What, my good lord?
MACBETH
FTLN 1271 Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake
FTLN 1272 Thy gory locks at me.
ROSS
FTLN 1273 Gentlemen, rise. His Highness is not well.
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 1274 Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus
FTLN 1275 65 And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat.
FTLN 1276 The fit is momentary; upon a thought
FTLN 1277 He will again be well. If much you note him
FTLN 1278 You shall offend him and extend his passion.
FTLN 1279 Feed and regard him not.
FTLN 1280 70 Are you a man?
MACBETH
FTLN 1281 Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
FTLN 1282 Which might appall the devil.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1283 O, proper stuff!
FTLN 1284 This is the very painting of your fear.
FTLN 1285 75 This is the air-drawn dagger which you said
FTLN 1286 Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
FTLN 1287 Impostors to true fear, would well become
FTLN 1288 A woman's story at a winter's fire,
FTLN 1289 Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
FTLN 1290 80 Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
FTLN 1291 You look but on a stool.
MACBETH
FTLN 1292 Prithee, see there. Behold, look! Lo,
FTLN 1293 how say you?
FTLN 1294 Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.-
FTLN 1295 85 If charnel houses and our graves must send
FTLN 1296 Those that we bury back, our monuments
FTLN 1297 Shall be the maws of kites.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1298 What, quite unmanned in folly?
MACBETH
FTLN 1299 If I stand here, I saw him.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1300 90 Fie, for shame!
MACBETH
FTLN 1301 Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden time,
FTLN 1302 Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal;
FTLN 1303 Ay, and since too, murders have been performed
FTLN 1304 has been
FTLN 1305 95 That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
FTLN 1306 And there an end. But now they rise again
FTLN 1307 With twenty mortal murders on their crowns
FTLN 1308 And push us from our stools. This is more strange
FTLN 1309 Than such a murder is.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1310 100 My worthy lord,
FTLN 1311 Your noble friends do lack you.
MACBETH FTLN 1312 I do forget.-
FTLN 1313 Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends.
FTLN 1314 I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
FTLN 1315 105 To those that know me. Come, love and health to
FTLN 1316 all.
FTLN 1317 Then I'll sit down.-Give me some wine. Fill full. time

FTLN 1318 I drink to th' general joy o' th' whole table
FTLN 1319 And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.
FTLN 1320 110 Would he were here! To all, and him we thirst,
FTLN 1321 And all to all.
LORDS FTLN 1322 Our duties, and the pledge.

MACBETH
FTLN 1323 Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee.
FTLN 1324 Thy bones are marrowless; thy blood is cold;
FTLN 1325 115 Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
FTLN 1326 Which thou dost glare with.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1327 Think of this, good
FTLN 1328 peers,
FTLN 1329 But as a thing of custom. 'Tis no other;
FTLN 1330 120 Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
MACBETH FTLN 1331 What man dare, I dare.
FTLN 1332 Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
FTLN 1333 The armed rhinoceros, or th' Hyrcan tiger;
FTLN 1334 Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
FTLN 1335 125 Shall never tremble. Or be alive again
FTLN 1336 And dare me to the desert with thy sword.
FTLN 1337 If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
FTLN 1338 The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
FTLN 1339 Unreal mock'ry, hence!
FTLN 1340 130 Why so, being gone,
FTLN 1341 I am a man again.-Pray you sit still.
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 1342 You have displaced the mirth, broke the good
FTLN 1343 meeting
FTLN 1344 With most admired disorder.
MACBETH FTLN 1345 135 Can such things be
FTLN 1346 And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
FTLN 1347 Without our special wonder? You make me strange
FTLN 1348 Even to the disposition that I owe
FTLN 1349 When now I think you can behold such sights
FTLN 1350 140 And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks
FTLN 1351 When mine is blanched with fear.
ROSS FTLN 1352 What sights, my
FTLN 1353 lord?
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 1354 I pray you, speak not. He grows worse and worse.
FTLN 1355 145 Question enrages him. At once, good night.
FTLN 1356 Stand not upon the order of your going,
FTLN 1357 But go at once.
LENNOX FTLN 1358 Good night, and better health
FTLN 1359 Attend his Majesty.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1360 150 A kind good night to all.

MACBETH
FTLN 1361 It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.
FTLN 1362 Stones have been known to move, and trees to
FTLN 1363 speak.
FTLN 1364 Augurs and understood relations have
FTLN 1365 155 By maggot pies and choughs and rooks brought
FTLN 1366 forth
FTLN 1367 The secret'st man of blood.-What is the night?
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 1368 Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
MACBETH
FTLN 1369 How say'st thou that Macduff denies his person
FTLN 1370 160 At our great bidding?
LADY MACBETH FTLN 1371 Did you send to him, sir?
MACBETH
FTLN 1372 I hear it by the way; but I will send.
FTLN 1373 There's not a one of them but in his house
FTLN 1374 I keep a servant fee'd. I will tomorrow
FTLN 1375 165 (And betimes I will) to the Weïrd Sisters.
FTLN 1376 More shall they speak, for now I am bent to know
FTLN 1377 By the worst means the worst. For mine own good,
FTLN 1378 All causes shall give way. I am in blood
FTLN 1379 Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
FTLN 1380 170 Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
FTLN 1381 Strange things I have in head that will to hand,
FTLN 1382 Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.
LADY MACBETH
FTLN 1383 You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
MACBETH
FTLN 1384 Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
FTLN 1385 175 Is the initiate fear that wants hard use.
FTLN 1386 We are yet but young in deed.

Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman.

DOCTOR FTLN 2036 I have two nights watched with you but can
FTLN 2037 perceive no truth in your report. When was it she
FTLN 2038 last walked?
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2039 Since his Majesty went into the field, I
FTLN 2040 5 have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown
FTLN 2041 upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper,
FTLN 2042 fold it, write upon 't, read it, afterwards seal it, and
FTLN 2043 again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast
FTLN 2044 sleep.
DOCTOR FTLN 2045 10 A great perturbation in nature, to receive at
FTLN 2046 once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of
FTLN 2047 watching. In this slumb'ry agitation, besides her
FTLN 2048 walking and other actual performances, what at any
FTLN 2049 time have you heard her say?
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2050 15 That, sir, which I will not report after
FTLN 2051 her.
DOCTOR FTLN 2052 You may to me, and 'tis most meet you
FTLN 2053 should.
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2054 Neither to you nor anyone, having no
FTLN 2055 20 witness to confirm my speech.

FTLN 2056 Lo you, here she comes. This is her very guise and,
FTLN 2057 upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.
DOCTOR FTLN 2058 How came she by that light?
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2059 Why, it stood by her. She has light by
FTLN 2060 25 her continually. 'Tis her command.
DOCTOR FTLN 2061 You see her eyes are open.
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2062 Ay, but their sense are shut.
DOCTOR FTLN 2063 What is it she does now? Look how she rubs
FTLN 2064 her hands.
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2065 30 It is an accustomed action with her to
FTLN 2066 seem thus washing her hands. I have known her
FTLN 2067 continue in this a quarter of an hour.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 2068 Yet here's a spot.
DOCTOR FTLN 2069 Hark, she speaks. I will set down what comes
FTLN 2070 35 from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more
FTLN 2071 strongly.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 2072 Out, damned spot, out, I say! One. Two.
FTLN 2073 Why then, 'tis time to do 't. Hell is murky. Fie, my
FTLN 2074 lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear
FTLN 2075 40 who knows it, when none can call our power to
FTLN 2076 account? Yet who would have thought the old man
FTLN 2077 to have had so much blood in him?
DOCTOR FTLN 2078 Do you mark that?
LADY MACBETH FTLN 2079 The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is
FTLN 2080 45 she now? What, will these hands ne'er be clean? No
FTLN 2081 more o' that, my lord, no more o' that. You mar all
FTLN 2082 with this starting.
DOCTOR FTLN 2083 Go to, go to. You have known what you should
FTLN 2084 not.
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2085 50 She has spoke what she should not,
FTLN 2086 I am sure of that. Heaven knows what she has
FTLN 2087 known.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 2088 Here's the smell of the blood still. All
FTLN 2089 the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
FTLN 2090 55 hand. O, O, O!
DOCTOR FTLN 2091 What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely
FTLN 2092 charged.
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2093 I would not have such a heart in my
FTLN 2094 bosom for the dignity of the whole body.
DOCTOR FTLN 2095 60 Well, well, well.
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2096 Pray God it be, sir.
DOCTOR FTLN 2097 This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have
FTLN 2098 known those which have walked in their sleep,
FTLN 2099 who have died holily in their beds.
LADY MACBETH FTLN 2100 65 Wash your hands. Put on your nightgown.
FTLN 2101 Look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo's
FTLN 2102 buried; he cannot come out on 's grave.
DOCTOR FTLN 2103 Even so?
LADY MACBETH FTLN 2104 To bed, to bed. There's knocking at the
FTLN 2105 70 gate. Come, come, come, come. Give me your
FTLN 2106 hand. What's done cannot be undone. To bed, to
FTLN 2107 bed, to bed.
DOCTOR FTLN 2108 Will she go now to bed?
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2109 Directly.
DOCTOR
FTLN 2110 75 Foul whisp'rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds
FTLN 2111 Do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds
FTLN 2112 To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
FTLN 2113 More needs she the divine than the physician.
FTLN 2114 God, God forgive us all. Look after her.
FTLN 2115 80 Remove from her the means of all annoyance
FTLN 2116 And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night.
FTLN 2117 My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight.
FTLN 2118 I think but dare not speak.
GENTLEWOMAN FTLN 2119 Good night, good doctor.

Drum and Colors. Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox,
and Soldiers.

MENTEITH
FTLN 2120 The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
FTLN 2121 His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
FTLN 2122 Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes
FTLN 2123 Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
FTLN 2124 5 Excite the mortified man.
ANGUS FTLN 2125 Near Birnam Wood
FTLN 2126 Shall we well meet them. That way are they coming.
CAITHNESS
FTLN 2127 Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
LENNOX
FTLN 2128 For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file
FTLN 2129 10 Of all the gentry. There is Siward's son
FTLN 2130 And many unrough youths that even now
FTLN 2131 Protest their first of manhood.
MENTEITH FTLN 2132 What does the tyrant?
CAITHNESS
FTLN 2133 Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
FTLN 2134 15 Some say he's mad; others that lesser hate him
FTLN 2135 Do call it valiant fury. But for certain
FTLN 2136 He cannot buckle his distempered cause
FTLN 2137 Within the belt of rule.
ANGUS FTLN 2138 Now does he feel
FTLN 2139 20 His secret murders sticking on his hands.
FTLN 2140 Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.
FTLN 2141 Those he commands move only in command,
FTLN 2142 Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
FTLN 2143 Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
FTLN 2144 25 Upon a dwarfish thief.
MENTEITH FTLN 2145 Who, then, shall blame
FTLN 2146 His pestered senses to recoil and start
FTLN 2147 When all that is within him does condemn
FTLN 2148 Itself for being there?
CAITHNESS FTLN 2149 30 Well, march we on
FTLN 2150 To give obedience where 'tis truly owed.
FTLN 2151 Meet we the med'cine of the sickly weal,
FTLN 2152 And with him pour we in our country's purge
FTLN 2153 Each drop of us.
LENNOX FTLN 2154 35 Or so much as it needs
FTLN 2155 To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.
FTLN 2156 Make we our march towards Birnam.
They exit marching.

MACBETH
FTLN 2157 Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all.
FTLN 2158 Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane
FTLN 2159 I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
FTLN 2160 Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
FTLN 2161 5 All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
FTLN 2162 "Fear not, Macbeth. No man that's born of woman
FTLN 2163 Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly, false
FTLN 2164 thanes,
FTLN 2165 And mingle with the English epicures.
FTLN 2166 10 The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
FTLN 2167 Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.

FTLN 2168 The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! Will cheer me ever or
FTLN 2169 Where got'st thou that goose-look?
SERVANT FTLN 2170 There is ten thousand-
MACBETH FTLN 2171 15 Geese, villain?
SERVANT FTLN 2172 Soldiers, sir.
MACBETH
FTLN 2173 Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear,
FTLN 2174 Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch?
FTLN 2175 Death of thy soul! Those linen cheeks of thine
FTLN 2176 20 Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
SERVANT FTLN 2177 The English force, so please you.
MACBETH
FTLN 2178 Take thy face hence.
FTLN 2179 Seyton!-I am sick at heart
FTLN 2180 When I behold-Seyton, I say!-This push
FTLN 2181 25 me now.
FTLN 2182 I have lived long enough. My way of life
FTLN 2183 Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf,
FTLN 2184 And that which should accompany old age,
FTLN 2185 As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
FTLN 2186 30 I must not look to have, but in their stead
FTLN 2187 Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath
FTLN 2188 Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare
FTLN 2189 not.-
FTLN 2190 Seyton! disseat

SEYTON Cure
FTLN 2191 35 What's your gracious pleasure?
MACBETH FTLN 2192 What news more?
SEYTON
FTLN 2193 All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.
MACBETH
FTLN 2194 I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked.
FTLN 2195 Give me my armor.
SEYTON FTLN 2196 40 'Tis not needed yet.
MACBETH FTLN 2197 I'll put it on.
FTLN 2198 Send out more horses. Skirr the country round.
FTLN 2199 Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine
FTLN 2200 armor.-
FTLN 2201 45 How does your patient, doctor?
DOCTOR FTLN 2202 Not so sick, my lord,
FTLN 2203 As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies
FTLN 2204 That keep her from her rest.
MACBETH FTLN 2205 of that.
FTLN 2206 50 Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
FTLN 2207 Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
FTLN 2208 Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
FTLN 2209 And with some sweet oblivious antidote
FTLN 2210 Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
FTLN 2211 55 Which weighs upon the heart?
DOCTOR FTLN 2212 Therein the patient
FTLN 2213 Must minister to himself.
MACBETH
FTLN 2214 Throw physic to the dogs. I'll none of it.-
FTLN 2215 Come, put mine armor on. Give me my staff.

FTLN 2216 her 60 Seyton, send out.-Doctor, the thanes fly from
FTLN 2217 me.-
FTLN 2218 Come, sir, dispatch.-If thou couldst, doctor, cast
FTLN 2219 The water of my land, find her disease,
FTLN 2220 And purge it to a sound and pristine health,
FTLN 2221 65 I would applaud thee to the very echo
FTLN 2222 That should applaud again.-Pull 't off, I say.-
FTLN 2223 What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug
FTLN 2224 Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of
FTLN 2225 them?
DOCTOR
FTLN 2226 70 Ay, my good lord. Your royal preparation
FTLN 2227 Makes us hear something.
MACBETH FTLN 2228 Bring it after me.-
FTLN 2229 I will not be afraid of death and bane
FTLN 2230 Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
DOCTOR
FTLN 2231 75 Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
FTLN 2232 Profit again should hardly draw me here.
They exit.

Drum and Colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff,
Siward's son, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, and Soldiers,
marching.

MALCOLM
FTLN 2233 Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
FTLN 2234 That chambers will be safe.
MENTEITH FTLN 2235 We doubt it nothing.
SIWARD
FTLN 2236 What wood is this before us?
MENTEITH FTLN 2237 5 The Wood of Birnam.
MALCOLM
FTLN 2238 Let every soldier hew him down a bough
FTLN 2239 And bear 't before him. Thereby shall we shadow
FTLN 2240 The numbers of our host and make discovery
FTLN 2241 Err in report of us.
SOLDIER FTLN 2242 10 It shall be done.
SIWARD
FTLN 2243 We learn no other but the confident tyrant
FTLN 2244 Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure
FTLN 2245 Our setting down before 't.
MALCOLM FTLN 2246 'Tis his main hope;
FTLN 2247 15 For, where there is advantage to be given,
FTLN 2248 Both more and less have given him the revolt,
FTLN 2249 And none serve with him but constrainèd things
FTLN 2250 Whose hearts are absent too.
MACDUFF FTLN 2251 Let our just censures
FTLN 2252 20 Attend the true event, and put we on
FTLN 2253 Industrious soldiership.
SIWARD FTLN 2254 The time approaches
FTLN 2255 That will with due decision make us know
FTLN 2256 What we shall say we have and what we owe.
FTLN 2257 25 Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate,
FTLN 2258 But certain issue strokes must arbitrate;
FTLN 2259 Towards which, advance the war.
They exit marching.

Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with Drum and
Colors.

MACBETH
FTLN 2260 Hang out our banners on the outward walls.
FTLN 2261 The cry is still "They come!" Our castle's strength
FTLN 2262 Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie
FTLN 2263 Till famine and the ague eat them up.
FTLN 2264 5 Were they not forced with those that should be
FTLN 2265 ours,
FTLN 2266 We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
FTLN 2267 And beat them backward home.
A cry within of women.
FTLN 2268 What is that noise?
SEYTON
FTLN 2269 10 It is the cry of women, my good lord.
MACBETH
FTLN 2270 I have almost forgot the taste of fears.
FTLN 2271 The time has been my senses would have cooled
FTLN 2272 To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair
FTLN 2273 Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
FTLN 2274 15 As life were in 't. I have supped full with horrors.
FTLN 2275 Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
FTLN 2276 Cannot once start me.

FTLN 2277 Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON FTLN 2278 The Queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH FTLN 2279 20 She should have died hereafter.
FTLN 2280 There would have been a time for such a word.
FTLN 2281 Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
FTLN 2282 Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
FTLN 2283 To the last syllable of recorded time,
FTLN 2284 25 And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
FTLN 2285 The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
FTLN 2286 Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
FTLN 2287 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
FTLN 2288 And then is heard no more. It is a tale
FTLN 2289 30 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
FTLN 2290 Signifying nothing.

FTLN 2291 Thou com'st to use thy tongue: thy story quickly.
MESSENGER FTLN 2292 Gracious my lord,
FTLN 2293 I should report that which I say I saw,
FTLN 2294 35 But know not how to do 't.
MACBETH FTLN 2295 Well, say, sir.
MESSENGER
FTLN 2296 As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
FTLN 2297 I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought
FTLN 2298 The Wood began to move.
MACBETH FTLN 2299 40 Liar and slave!
MESSENGER
FTLN 2300 Let me endure your wrath if 't be not so.
FTLN 2301 Within this three mile may you see it coming.
FTLN 2302 I say, a moving grove.
MACBETH FTLN 2303 If thou speak'st false,
FTLN 2304 45 Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive
FTLN 2305 Till famine cling thee. If thy speech be sooth,
FTLN 2306 I care not if thou dost for me as much.-
FTLN 2307 I pull in resolution and begin
FTLN 2308 To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend,
FTLN 2309 50 That lies like truth. "Fear not till Birnam Wood
FTLN 2310 Do come to Dunsinane," and now a wood
FTLN 2311 Comes toward Dunsinane.-Arm, arm, and out!-
FTLN 2312 If this which he avouches does appear,
FTLN 2313 There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.
FTLN 2314 55 I 'gin to be aweary of the sun
FTLN 2315 And wish th' estate o' th' world were now
FTLN 2316 undone.-
FTLN 2317 Ring the alarum bell!-Blow wind, come wrack,
FTLN 2318 At least we'll die with harness on our back.

Drum and Colors. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and
their army, with boughs.

MALCOLM
FTLN 2319 Now near enough. Your leafy screens throw down
FTLN 2320 And show like those you are.-You, worthy uncle,
FTLN 2321 Shall with my cousin, your right noble son,
FTLN 2322 Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we
FTLN 2323 5 Shall take upon 's what else remains to do,
FTLN 2324 According to our order.
SIWARD FTLN 2325 Fare you well.
FTLN 2326 Do we but find the tyrant's power tonight,
FTLN 2327 Let us be beaten if we cannot fight.
MACDUFF
FTLN 2328 10 Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath,
FTLN 2329 Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.

Alarums continued.

MACBETH
FTLN 2366 Why should I play the Roman fool and die
FTLN 2367 On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes
FTLN 2368 Do better upon them.

MACDUFF FTLN 2369 Turn, hellhound, turn!
MACBETH
FTLN 2370 5 Of all men else I have avoided thee.
FTLN 2371 But get thee back. My soul is too much charged
FTLN 2372 With blood of thine already.
MACDUFF FTLN 2373 I have no words;
FTLN 2374 My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain
FTLN 2375 10 Than terms can give thee out. Fight. Alarum.
MACBETH FTLN 2376 Thou losest labor.
FTLN 2377 As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
FTLN 2378 With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.
FTLN 2379 Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
FTLN 2380 15 I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield
FTLN 2381 To one of woman born.
MACDUFF FTLN 2382 Despair thy charm,
FTLN 2383 And let the angel whom thou still hast served
FTLN 2384 Tell thee Macduff was from his mother's womb
FTLN 2385 20 Untimely ripped.
MACBETH
FTLN 2386 Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so,
FTLN 2387 For it hath cowed my better part of man!
FTLN 2388 And be these juggling fiends no more believed
FTLN 2389 That palter with us in a double sense,
FTLN 2390 25 That keep the word of promise to our ear
FTLN 2391 And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
MACDUFF FTLN 2392 Then yield thee, coward,
FTLN 2393 And live to be the show and gaze o' th' time.
FTLN 2394 We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
FTLN 2395 30 Painted upon a pole, and underwrit
FTLN 2396 "Here may you see the tyrant."
MACBETH FTLN 2397 I will not yield
FTLN 2398 To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet
FTLN 2399 And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
FTLN 2400 35 Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane
FTLN 2401 And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
FTLN 2402 Yet I will try the last. Before my body
FTLN 2403 I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
FTLN 2404 And damned be him that first cries "Hold! Enough!"
They exit fighting. Alarums.

enter fighting, and Macbeth slain. exits carrying off Macbeth's body.Enter, with Drum and Colors, Malcolm, Siward, Ross, They is
Thanes, and Soldiers. Macduff
Retreat and flourish.

Enter Macduff with Macbeth's head.

MACDUFF
FTLN 2430 65 Hail, King! for so thou art. Behold where stands
FTLN 2431 Th' usurper's cursèd head. The time is free.
FTLN 2432 I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl,
FTLN 2433 That speak my salutation in their minds,
FTLN 2434 Whose voices I desire aloud with mine.
FTLN 2435 70 Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL FTLN 2436 Hail, King of Scotland!
MALCOLM
FTLN 2437 We shall not spend a large expense of time
FTLN 2438 Before we reckon with your several loves
FTLN 2439 And make us even with you. My thanes and
FTLN 2440 75 kinsmen,
FTLN 2441 Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
FTLN 2442 In such an honor named. What's more to do,
FTLN 2443 Which would be planted newly with the time,
FTLN 2444 As calling home our exiled friends abroad
FTLN 2445 80 That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,
FTLN 2446 Producing forth the cruel ministers
FTLN 2447 Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen
FTLN 2448 (Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands,
FTLN 2449 Took off her life)-this, and what needful else
FTLN 2450 85 That calls upon us, by the grace of grace,
FTLN 2451 We will perform in measure, time, and place.
FTLN 2452 So thanks to all at once and to each one,
FTLN 2453 Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
Flourish. All exit.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare's plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own.