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THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

BY

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

AMONG the tragedies of Shakespeare, "Macbeth" is noted for the exceptional simplicity of the plot and the directness of the action. Here is no underplot to complicate or enrich, hardly more than a glimpse of humor to relieve the dark picture of criminal ambition, only the steady march toward an inevitable catastrophe.

The story belongs to the half-legendary history of Scotland, and was drawn by Shakespeare from the "Chronicles of Holinshed." For the most part, he follows the historian with considerable fidelity, but details such as the drugging of the grooms by Lady Macbeth, the portents described in the fourth scene of the second act, and the voice that called, "Sleep no more!" were suggested by other parts of the "Chronicle" than that dealing with the reigns of Duncan and Macbeth.

Even the witches occur in Holinshed, who says: "The common opinion was that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say) the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or fairies, indued with knowledge of prophecy by their necromantical science." While keeping this aspect of these figures as Fates, Shakespeare added details from the witch lore of his time, and made them capable of a symbolical and spiritual signification that brought them into vital relation with the change in the character of Macbeth.

This tragedy illustrates in its close the conventional poetic justice that demands the triumph of the righteous cause and the downfall of the wicked. But there is not lacking that more subtle justice, so impressive in "Lear" because unaccompanied by the temporal reward of the good, which reveals itself in the subduing of character to what it works in. Far more terrible than the defeat and death of Macbeth is the picture of the degradation of his nature, when he appears in the scene before the battle like a beast at bay.

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Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers

1. Witch

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SCENE: SCOTLAND; ENGLAND]

ACT I

SCENE I. [A heath]

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches

HEN shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2. Witch. When the hurlyburly's done,

When the battle's lost and won.

3. Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 1. Witch. Where the place?

2. Witch.

Upon the heath.

3. Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.

I. Witch. I come, Graymalkin!1

[2. Witch.] Paddock2 calls:-Anon!

1 Cat.

of animals.

2 Toad. These are the names of the witches' familiars, devils in the form

321

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair;

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

SCENE II. [A camp near Forres]

Exeunt.

Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain

Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report,

As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

Mal.

This is the sergeant Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! Say to the King the knowledge of the broil As thou didst leave it.

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As two spent swimmers that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald-
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that'

The multiplying villainies of nature

Do swarm upon him-from the Western Isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses3 is suppli'd;
And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Show'd like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak;
For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smok'd with bloody execution,

Like Valour's minion" carv'd out his passage
Till he fac'd the slave;

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,"
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Cap. As whence the sun gins his reflection
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,

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3 Heavy-armed foot-soldiers.

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