Page 

Stage Directions/Planned Action 

Characters 

Notes 

33 

Enter Banquo and Fleance, with a torch. 

SECOND MURDERER  A light, a light!              

THIRD MURDERER  ’Tis he. 

FIRST MURDERER  Stand to ’t. 

BANQUO, to Fleance  It will be rain tonight. 

FIRST MURDERER  Let it come down! 

The three Murderers attack. 

BANQUO 

O treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!  

Thou mayst revenge 

He dies. Fleance exits. 

Banquo, Seyton, 1st Murderer, 2nd Murderer, Fleance 

48 

Enter Murderers. 

LADY MACDUFF 

What are these faces? 

MURDERER  Where is your husband? 

LADY MACDUFF 

I hope in no place so unsanctified  

Where such as thou mayst find him. 

MURDERER  He’s a traitor. 

SON 

Thou liest, thou shag-eared villain! 

MURDERER  What, you egg? 

Stabbing him. Young fry of treachery!        

SON  He has killed 

me, mother. 

Run away, I pray you. 

Lady Macduff exits, crying “Murder!” followed by the Murderers bearing the Son’s body. 

Lady Macduff, Seyton, 1st Murderer, 2nd Murderer, Macduff’s Son 

58 

MACBETH 

Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all. 

Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane 

I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm? 

Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know 

All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:                                  5 

“Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman 

Shall e’er have power upon thee.”  

The mind I sway by and the heart I bear 

Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. 

Enter Servant. 

Where got’st thou that goose-look? 

SERVANT  There is ten thousand— 

MACBETH  Geese, villain?                                 

SERVANT  Soldiers, sir. 

MACBETH 

Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear, 

Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch? 

Death of thy soul! Those linen cheeks of thine 

Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?                                                      

SERVANT  The English force, so please you. 

MACBETH 

Take thy face hence.                Servant exits. 

Macbeth, Messenger 

Macbeth will be tossing the messenger offstage and/or throwing items at them. When Seyton enters later in the scene there will be a slap or a kick depending on what is discussed with our fight choreographer.  

59 

Enter Seyton. 

SEYTON 

What’s your gracious pleasure?                    

MACBETH  What news more? 

SEYTON 

All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported. 

MACBETH 

I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked. 

Give me my armor. 

SEYTON  ’Tis not needed yet.                           

MACBETH  I’ll put it on. 

Send out more horses. Skirr the country round. 

Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine 

armor.— 

How does your patient, doctor?                    

DOCTOR  Not so sick, my lord, 

As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies 

That keep her from her rest. 

MACBETH  Cure her of that. 

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,                                                         

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 

Raze out the written troubles of the brain, 

And with some sweet oblivious antidote 

Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff 

Which weighs upon the heart?                     

DOCTOR  Therein the patient 

Must minister to himself. 

MACBETH 

Throw physic to the dogs. I’ll none of it.— 

Come, put mine armor on. Give me my staff. 

Attendants begin to arm him. 

Seyton, send out.—Doctor, the thanes fly from  

me.— 

Come, sir, dispatch.—If thou couldst, doctor, cast 

The water of my land, find her disease, 

And purge it to a sound and pristine health, 

I would applaud thee to the very echo         

That should applaud again.—Pull ’t off, I say.— 

What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug 

Would scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of 

them? 

Macbeth, Seyton 

When Seyton enters later in the scene there will be a slap or a kick depending on what is discussed with our fight choreographer. 

64 

Enter Macbeth. 

MACBETH 

They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly, 

But, bear-like, I must fight the course. What’s he 

That was not born of woman? Such a one 

Am I to fear, or none. 

Enter young Siward. 

YOUNG SIWARD  What is thy name?               

MACBETH  Thou ’lt be afraid to hear it. 

YOUNG SIWARD 

No, though thou call’st thyself a hotter name 

Than any is in hell. 

MACBETH  My name’s Macbeth. 

YOUNG SIWARD 

The devil himself could not pronounce a title   

More hateful to mine ear. 

MACBETH  No, nor more fearful. 

YOUNG SIWARD 

Thou liest, abhorrèd tyrant. With my sword 

I’ll prove the lie thou speak’st. 

They fight, and young Siward is slain. 

Macbeth, Young Siward 

65-66 

Enter Macduff. 

MACDUFF  Turn, hellhound, turn! 

MACBETH 

Of all men else I have avoided thee.             

But get thee back. My soul is too much charged 

With blood of thine already. 

MACDUFF  I have no words; 

My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain 

Than terms can give thee out.            Fight. Alarum.   

MACBETH  Thou losest labor. 

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air 

With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed. 

Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; 

I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield  

To one of woman born. 

MACDUFF  Despair thy charm, 

And let the angel whom thou still hast served 

Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb 

Untimely ripped.                                            

MACBETH 

Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so, 

For it hath cowed my better part of man! 

And be these juggling fiends no more believed 

That palter with us in a double sense, 

That keep the word of promise to our ear   

And break it to our hope. I’ll not fight with thee. 

MACDUFF  Then yield thee, coward, 

And live to be the show and gaze o’ th’ time. 

We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 

Painted upon a pole, and underwrit             

“Here may you see the tyrant.” 

MACBETH  I will not yield 

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet 

And to be baited with the rabble’s curse. 

Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane                                                       

And thou opposed, being of no woman born, 

Yet I will try the last. Before my body 

I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, 

And damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough!” 

They exit fighting. Alarums. 

They enter fighting, and Macbeth is slain. Macduff exits carrying off Macbeth’s body. Retreat and flourish. 

… 

Enter Macduff with Macbeth’s head. 

Macbeth, Macduff