Macbeth Read online

  What, then, about the riddles, those verbal incarnations of the imperfect speakers the witches? Macbeth is told that he will never be conquered till Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane; and that no man of woman born will harm him. Are these paradoxical impossibilities realized? Not at all, really: the Birnam Wood prophecy does not come true, it just appears to Macbeth that it does-the wood is not moving, it merely looks as if it is. Or alternatively, we could say that "Birnam Wood" is a quibble: Macbeth assumes it means the forest, but it could mean merely wood from the forest, the branches the soldiers are using for camouflage-the prophecy comes true merely as a stage device. As for no man of woman born, maybe the problem is that Macbeth is not a close enough reader: he takes the operative word to be "woman"-"No man of woman born shall harm Macbeth"-but the key word turns out to be "born"-"No man of woman born shall harm Macbeth." If this is right, we must go on to consider the implications of the assumption that a cesarean section does not constitute birth. This is really, historically, quite significant: a vaginal birth would have been handled by women-the midwife, maids, attendants-with no men present. But surgery was a male prerogative-the surgeon was always a man; midwives were not allowed to use surgical instruments-and the surgical birth thus means, in Renaissance terms, that Macduff was brought to life by men, not women: carried by a woman, but made viable only through masculine intervention. Such a birth, all but invariably, involved the mother's death.

  Macbeth himself sees it this way, when he defies Macduff and says,

  Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,

  And thou opposed, being of no woman born,

  (V.8.30-31)

  where logically it should be "being not of woman born": the key concept is not "no woman," but "not born." But Shakespeare seems to be conceiving of a masculine equivalent to the Immaculate Conception, a birth uncontaminated by women, as the Virgin Mary's was uncontaminated by man.

  So this riddle bears on the whole issue of the place of women in the play's world, and especially on how very disruptive they seem to be, even when, like Lady Macduff, they are loving and nurturing. Why is it so important, for example, at the end of the play, that Malcolm is a virgin? Malcolm insists to Macduff that he is utterly pure, "yet / Unknown to woman" (IV.3.125-26), uncontaminated by heterosexuality-this is offered as the first of his qualifications for displacing and succeeding Macbeth. Perhaps this bears too on the really big unanswered question about Macduff: why he left his family unprotected when he went to seek Malcolm in England-this is what makes Malcolm mistrust him so deeply. Why would you leave your wife and children unprotected, to face the tyrant's rage, unless you knew they were really in no danger?

  But somehow the question goes unanswered, does not need to be answered, perhaps because Lady Macduff in some way is the problem, just as, more obviously, Lady Macbeth and the witches are. Those claims on Macduff that tie him to his wife and children, that would keep him at home, that purport to be higher than the claims of masculine solidarity, are in fact rejected quite decisively by the play. In Holinshed, Macduff flees only after his wife and children have been murdered, and therefore for the best of reasons. Macduff's desertion of his family is Shakespeare's addition to the story. Maybe, the play keeps saying, if it weren't for all those women? The play is very much a masculinist, even misogynistic, fantasy, especially at the end, when there are simply no women left, not even the witches, and the restored commonwealth is a world of heroic soldiers.

  So, to return to the increasingly elaborate witches' scenes, the first thing they do for this claustrophobic play is to open up a space for women; and it is a subversive and paradoxical space. This is a play in which paradoxes abound, and for Shakespeare's audience, Lady Macbeth would have embodied those paradoxes as powerfully as the witches do: in her proclaimed ability to "unsex" herself, in her willingness to dash her own infant's brains out, but most of all, in the kind of control she exercises over her husband. The marriage at the center of the play is one of the most frightening things about it, but it is worth observing that, as Shakespearean marriages go, this is a good one: intense, intimate, loving. The notion that your wife is your friend and your comfort is not a Shakespearean one. The relaxed, easygoing, happy times men and women have together in Shakespeare all take place before marriage, as part of the wooing process-this is the subject of comedy. What happens after marriage is the subject of tragedy-King Lear's wicked daughters Goneril and Regan are only extreme versions of perfectly normative Shakespearean wives. The only Shakespearean marriage of any duration that is represented as specifically sexually happy is the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude, a murderer and an adulteress; and it is probably to the point that even they stop sleeping together after only four months-not, to be sure, by choice.

  In this context, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are really quite well matched. They care for each other and understand each other deeply, exhibiting a genuine intimacy and trust of a sort one does not find, for example, in the marriage of the Capulets, or in Iago and Emilia (to say nothing of Othello and Desdemona), or in Coriolanus and Virgilia, or in Cymbeline and his villainous queen (who is not even provided with a name), or in Leontes and Hermione. The prospects for life after marriage in Shakespeare are pretty grim. And in this respect, probably the most frightening thing in the play is the genuine power of Lady Macbeth's mind, her powers of both analysis and persuasion, and even more her intimate apprehension of her husband's deepest desires, her perfect understanding of what combination of arguments will prove irresistible to the masculine ego: "Be a man," and "If you really loved me you'd do it."

  But can the play's action really be accounted for simply by the addition of yet another witch? Macbeth's marriage is a version of the Adam and Eve story, the woman persuading the man to commit the primal sin against the father. But the case is loaded: surely Lady Macbeth is not the culprit, any more than Eve is-or than the witches are. What she does is give voice to Macbeth's inner life, release in him the same forbidden desire that the witches have called forth. To act on this desire is what it means in the play to be a man. But having evoked her husband's murderous ambition, having dared him to stop being a child, she suddenly finds that when he is a man, she is powerless. Her own power was only her power over the child, the child she was willing to destroy to gain the power of a man.

  Performers and revisers from the late seventeenth century on have never been happy with the way Lady Macbeth simply fades out, and Macbeth is perfunctorily killed. The play does not even provide its hero with a final speech, let alone a eulogy for Shakespeare's most complex and brilliant studies in villainy. Malcolm dismisses the pair succinctly as "this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen." Sir William Davenant, refurbishing the play for Restoration audiences, added a rather awkward dying line for Macbeth ("Farewell, vain world, and what's most vain in it, ambition"), and tastefully resolved the problem of Macbeth's double death by leaving the body onstage and having Macduff reenter with Macbeth's sword, instead of his head. By the mid-eighteenth century, David Garrick-who was claiming to be performing the play "as written by Shakespeare"-had inserted an extended death speech for the hero:

  'Tis done! The scene of life will quickly close.

  Ambition's vain, delusive dreams are fled,

  And now I wake to darkness, guilt and horror;

  I cannot bear it! Let me shake it off-

  'Twill not be; my soul is clogged with blood—

  I cannot rise! I dare not ask for mercy—

  It is too late, hell drags me down; I sink,

  I sink-Oh!-my soul is lost forever!

  Oh!

  This Faustian peroration went on being used until well into the nineteenth century.

  The one element that has always proved satisfying in Shakespeare's ending is the clear and unambiguous triumph of good over evil. But there is a puzzling aspect to the conclusion, which is less symmetrical and more open-ended than this suggests. Why, in a play so clearly organized around ideas of good and evil, is it not Malcolm who defea
ts Macbeth-the incarnation of virtue, the man who has never told a lie or slept with a woman, overcoming the monster of vice? In fact, historically, this is what happened: Macbeth was killed in battle by Malcolm, not Macduff. Shakespeare is following Holinshed here, but why, especially in a play that revises so much else in its source material? Davenant recognizes this as a problem, and, followed by Garrick, gives Macduff a few lines of justification as he kills Macbeth:

  This for thy Royal master Duncan

  This for my dearest friend my wife,

  This for those pledges of our loves my children...

  I'll as a trophy bear away his sword

  To witness my revenge.

  The addition is significant, and revealing: in Shakespeare, Macduff, fulfilling the prophecy, is simply acting as Malcolm's agent, the man not born of woman acting for the king uncontaminated by women. But why does virtue need an agent, while vice can act for itself? And what about the agent: does the unanswered question about Macduff abandoning his family not linger in the back of our minds? Does his willingness to condone the vices Malcolm invents for himself not say something disturbing about the quality of Macduff as a hero? Is he not, in fact, the pragmatic soldier who does what needs to be done so that the saintly king can stay clear of the complexities and paradoxes of politics and war? And what happens next, with a saintly king of Scotland, and an ambitious soldier as his right-hand man, and those threatening offspring, the heirs of Banquo, still waiting in the wings?

  STEPHEN ORGEL

  Stanford University

  Note on the Text

  THIS EDITION IS, with the two exceptions indicated below, based on the only substantive text, the folio of 1623. This apparently derived from a transcript of the promptbook, which preserved a revised version of the play, including some non-Shakespearean elements (see the Introduction). The act and scene division here supplied coincides with that of the folio text except that V.7 of the latter is here subdivided into scenes 7 and 8. (Another possible point of subdivision comes at V.8.35, and is marked by some editors as scene 9.) The following list of emendations records the only substantive departures from the folio text; however, the lineation in the folio is unusually erratic, and relineation has not been recorded. The readings in this edition are in italics, the folio readings in roman.

  I.1 10-13SECOND WITCH...air (in F these lines form a single speech attributed to "All") I.2 13galloglasses Gallowgrosses 14quarrel Quarry (a variant spelling of "quarrel") I.3 32weird weyward (so throughout) 39Forres Soris (The town is named Forres. The error is Holinshed's, like the S/F error in Macbeth's father's name at line 71.) 71Finel Sinel (his name was Finel or Finley; another S/F error from Holinshed) 98Came Can I.4 1Are Or I.5 46it hit (a variant spelling) I.6 4martlet Barlet 9most must 27count compt (a variant spelling) I.7 6shoal Schoole (a variant spelling) 47do no II.1 56side sides (Pope's emendation "strides" has been almost universally adopted, but it is bibliographically unsound-a compositor would not have misread "strides" as "sides"-and both neatens and contradicts the sense: a "stealthy pace" does not "stride." "Sides" is undeniably puzzling, but so is much else in the play. As it stands, it can mean "loins," or, as a verb, "sides with." If the word is to be emended, a more plausible reading would be "side," arrogance-the OED records the noun only in modern examples, but adjectival usages date from the early sixteenth century, and Shakespeare often uses adjectives as substantives. There is a possible parallel in Coriolanus I.1.191: Martius claims the plebeians "presume to know What's done i'th Capitoll: Who's like to rise, Who thriues, & who declines: Side factions, & giue out / Coniecturall Marriages...." "Side" is always taken as a verb here-they will favor certain factions-but syntactically the adjectival use is more likely: they will pretend to know which factions are arrogant, guilty of their own vice of presumptuousness. "Sides" for "side" is, moreover, a plausible compositor's error: the tail of a final e in secretary hand is easily misread as a final s.) 57sure sowre 58way they they may II.2 13 s.d.Enter Macbeth (after "die" in line 8 in F) II.3 79horror (F adds "Ring the bell," but the bell has already been called for at line 73, and is rung, logically, as soon as the speech is finished. As Theobald observed, this looks like the prompter's marginal instruction to himself, and Lady Macbeth's line metrically completes the verse.) III.1 62grip Gripe (a variant spelling) III.4 41 s.d. F has the ghost enter at line 37; but he logically enters when he is summoned (as at line 92 also) 79time times 92 s.d. (after line 89 in F) 136worst. For worst, for 145in deed indeed III.5 35ff. F reads, Hearke, I am call'd: my little Spirit see Sits in a Foggy cloud, and stayes for me.

  Sing within. Come away, come away, &c.

  I. Come, Let's make hast, shee'l soone be Backe againe. Exeunt.

  My text is edited from the ms of Davenant's Macbeth, which apparently derives from the King's Men's prompt copy. See the Introduction.

  III.6 24son Sonnes 38the their IV.1 43 s.d. F reads, Musicke and a Song. Blacke Spirits, &c. See the Introduction. 81all together altogether 115Dunsinane Dunsmane 120Birnam Byrnan 133 s.d.Kings and Banquo, last Kings, and Banquo last 141eighth eight IV.2 22none moue 30 s.d.Exit Exit Rosse 73 s.d.Exit Exit Messenger 83shag-haired shagge-ear'd IV.3 15deserve discerne 107accursed accust 133thy here-approach they heere approach 235tune time V.1 1two too V.2 5Birnam Byrnan 31Birnam Birnan V.3 2Birnam Byrnane 41Cure her Cure 57senna Cyme 62Birnam Birnane V.4 3Birnam Birnane V.5 34, 44Birnam Byrnane 39shalt shall V.8 30Birnam Byrnane

  Macbeth

  FLEANCE, son to Banquo

  SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland

  YOUNG SIWARD, his son

  SEYTON, an officer attending on Macbeth BOY, son to Macduff

  A CAPTAIN

  AN ENGLISH DOCTOR

  A SCOTTISH DOCTOR

  A PORTER

  AN OLD MAN

  THREE MURDERERS

  LADY MACBETH

  LADY MACDUFF

  A GENTLEWOMAN, attending on Lady Macbeth THE WEIRD SISTERS, witches

  HECATE

  APPARITIONS

  LORDS, OFFICERS, SOLDIERS, MESSENGERS, ATTENDANTS

  SCENE: Scotland and England]

  Macbeth

  I.1Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.

  FIRST WITCH

  When shall we three meet again?

  In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

  SECOND WITCH

  When the hurly-burly's done,3

  When the battle's lost and won.

  THIRD WITCH

  That will be ere the set of sun.

  FIRST WITCH

  Where the place?

  SECOND WITCH

  Upon the heath.

  THIRD WITCH

  There to meet with Macbeth.

  FIRST WITCH

  I come, Graymalkin!9

  SECOND WITCH

  Paddock calls.10

  THIRD WITCH

  Anon!11

  ALL

  Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

  Hover through the fog and filthy air.

  Exeunt.

  I.2Alarum within. Enter King [Duncan], Malcolm,

  Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting

  a bleeding Captain.

  KING DUNCAN

  What bloody man is that? He can report,

  As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

  3 The newest state.

  MALCOLM 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.

  CAPTAIN Doubtful it stood,

  As two spent swimmers that do cling together

  And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald-

  10 Worthy to be a rebel, for to that The multiplying villainies of nature

  12 Do swarm upon him-from the Western Isles 13 Of kerns and galloglasses is supplied; And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,

  Showed like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak:

 
For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name—

  Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,

  Which smoked with bloody execution,

  19 Like valor's minion carved out his passage 20 Till he faced the slave; Which ne'er shook hands nor bade farewell to him

  22 Till he unseamed him from the nave to th' chaps And fixed his head upon our battlements.

  KING DUNCAN

  O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!

  CAPTAIN

  As whence the sun gins his reflection

  Shipwracking storms and direful thunders,

  So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come

  Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark.

  No sooner justice had, with valor armed,

  Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels30

  But the Norwegian lord, surveying vantage,31

  With furbished arms and new supplies of men,

  Began a fresh assault.

  KING DUNCAN Dismayed not this

  Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

  CAPTAIN Yes,

  As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.

  If I say sooth, I must report they were

  As cannons overcharged with double cracks,37

  So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.

  Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,39

  Or memorize another Golgotha,40

  I cannot tell—

  But I am faint; my gashes cry for help.

  KING DUNCAN

  So well thy words become thee as thy wounds,