Annotation Of Macbeth

Act I, Scene I

FIRST WITCH
Where is the place?

SECOND WITCH SECOND WITCH

THIRD WITCH
There to meet with Macbeth.

FIRST WITCH
I come, Graymalkin!

SECOND WITCH
Paddock calls.

THIRD WITCH THIRD WITCH

ALL
Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Act I, Scene II
DUNCAN DUNCAN
What bloody man is that? He can report, From the looks of him, it seems likely he
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt can give us the latest news about the revolt.
The newest state.

MALCOLM MALCOM
This is the sergeant Tell the king about your knowledge of the
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought battle from how you left it.
‘Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.

CAPTAIN CAPTAIN
Doubtful it stood,
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that were reinforced by foot soldiers and
The multiplying villanies of nature warriors with axes from Ireland and the
Do swarm upon him— from the Western Hebrides.
Isles Luck was smiling on his damned rebellion
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied, as if she were his whore.
And fortune, on his damnèd quarrel smiling,
Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too Defied Lady Luck with his sword, which
weak, smoked with blood, and carved through
For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that Macdonwald’s army until he faced the
name— rogue.
Disdaining fortune, with his brandished
steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valor’s minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell
to him,
Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’
chops,
And fixed his head upon our battlements.

DUNCAN
O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!

CAPTAIN CAPTAIN
As whence the sun ‘gins his reflection But just as terrible storms and dreadful
Shipwracking storms and direful thunders thunder come right when the sun rises,
break,
So from that spring whence comfort seemed The Norwegian king spied an advantage
to come and began a new assault with fresh soldiers
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, and sharpened weapons.
mark:
No sooner justice had, with valor armed,
Compelled these skipping kerns to trust
their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbished arms and new supplies of
men,

The armies of the merciless Macdonwald—

DUNCAN
Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth
and Banquo?

CAPTAIN CAPTAIN
Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the They fought this new opponent with double
lion. their earlier ferocity. Perhaps they wanted to
If I say sooth, I must report they were bathe in the blood of their enemies’ wounds,
As cannons overcharged with double or make that battlefield as infamous as
cracks, Golgotha.
So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the
foe.
Except they meant to bathe in reeking
wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,
I cannot tell—
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

DUNCAN
So well thy words become thee as thy
wounds;
They smack of honor both. Go get him
surgeons.
ROSS and ANGUS enter.

DUNCAN
Who comes here?

MALCOLM
The worthy thane of Ross.

LENNOX
What a haste looks through his eyes! So
should he look
That seems to speak things strange.

ROSS
God save the king.

DUNCAN DUNCAN
Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane? Where have you come from, heroic thane?
ROSS
From Fife, great king,
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
And fan our people cold.
Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,
The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal
conflict,
Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapped in
proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,
Point against point, rebellious arm ‘gainst
arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit; and to conclude,
The victory fell on us.

DUNCAN
Great happiness!

ROSS ROSS
That now We refused to let him bury his men until he
Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves retreated to Saint Colme’s Inch and gave us
composition. ten thousand dollars.
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme’s Inch
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

DUNCAN
No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our bosom interest: go pronounce his
present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.

ROSS
I’ll see it done.

DUNCAN
What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
 ACT I, SCENE III

First Witch
Where hast thou been, sister?
Second Witch
Killing swine. (Killing pigs)
Third Witch
Sister, where thou?
First Witch
A sailor's wife had chestnuts in
her lap,
And munch'd, and munch'd,
and munch'd:--
'Give me,' quoth I: (“Give me” I said)
'Aroint thee, witch!' the “Get out of here, witch!” the
rump-fed ronyon cries. fat-bottomed, women cried)
Her husband's to Aleppo gone,
master o' the Tiger:
But in a sieve I'll thither sail, (I’m going to sail there in a strainer)
And, like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.
Second Witch
I'll give thee a wind.
First Witch
Thou'rt kind. (That's very kind)
Third Witch
And I another.
First Witch
I myself have all the other,
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card.
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor (Won't let him sleep night or
day day)
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid: (He’ll live as a cursed man)
Weary se'nnights nine times (For 81 weary weeks)
nine
Shall he dwindle, peak and (He’ll slowly become sick &
pine: waste away from grief)
Though his bark cannot be lost,
(Where have you been sister?) Yet it shall be tempest-tost.
 Although I can't destroy his ship
Look what I have. I can still wreck it by controlling the winds.
Second Witch
Show me, show me.
First Witch
Here I have a pilot's thumb,
Wreck'd as homeward he did
come.

Drum within

Third Witch
A drum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come.
ALL
The weird sisters, hand in hand, ALL
Posters of the sea and land, Swift travelers over the sea and land, dance
Thus do go about, about: around and around! Three times your way,
Thrice to thine and thrice to then three times mine
mine
And thrice again, to make up
nine.
Peace! the charm's wound up.