Macbeth Script Annotation

ACT I

SCENE I. A desert place.

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches
First Witch
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch
When the battle's lost and won.When the hurlyburly's done,
(when the noise of the battle is one. And when someone wins or loses the battle)

Third Witch
That will be ere the set of sun.
(it will happen before sunset)
First Witch
Where the place?
(where will be the place that we will go)
Second Witch
Upon the heath.
(In the open field)
Third Witch
There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch
I come, Graymalkin!
(I come cat)
Second Witch
Paddock calls.
(My toad calls me)
Third Witch
Anon.
(soon)
ALL
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
(everything that's rotten is fair and everything that's fair is rotten.)

Exeunt
SCENE II. A camp near Forres.
Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants,
meeting a bleeding Sergeant
DUNCAN
What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
The newest state.
(By his appearance he can tell us what happened)
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
(tell him what happened)
As thou didst leave it.
Sergeant
Doubtful it stood;
(couldn't say who'd win)
As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
And choke their art. (the armies were struggling)The merciless Macdonwald--
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villanies of nature
Do swarm upon him--from the western isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;
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 smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave; (Macbeth split
him open from his navel to his jawbone and stuck
his head on our castle walls.)
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.

DUNCAN
O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sergeant
As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
(when the sun hits his reflection)
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,
So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had with valour arm'd
Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage,
 With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men
Began a fresh assault.(the king saw his chance to attack them with fresh troops and shiny
weapons)
DUNCAN
Dismay'd not this
Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
(didn't it frighten them)
Sergeant
Yes;
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.(comparing Macbeth to the lion and the enemy to the
rabbit.)
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorise 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 honour both. Go get him surgeons.

Exit Sergeant, attended

Who comes here?

Enter ROSS

MALCOLM
The worthy thane of Ross.
LENNOX
What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
That seems to speak things strange.(he looks like someone who has a strange story to tell)
ROSS
God save the king!
DUNCAN
Whence camest thou, worthy thane?(where did you come from?)
ROSS
From Fife, great king;
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky(I've come from where the Norweyan flag flies. He
says it frightens out people)
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, lapp'd 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
That now
Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition:
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.(they won't bury his men unless they get paid 10k)

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.

Exeunt

SCENE III. A heath near Forres.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches
First Witch
Where hast thou been, sister?(where have you been sister)
Second Witch
Killing swine.(killing pigs)
Third Witch
Sister, where thou?(And you sister)
First Witch
A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,
And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:--
'Give me,' quoth I:
'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cries.
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:(Her husband has sailed off to Aleppo
as master of a ship called the Tiger.)
But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
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.
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:(I’ll Kill him)
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid:
Weary se'nnights nine times nine
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine.
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.(She's saying I can't make his ship lost but make him
miserable)
Look what I have.

Second Witch
Show me, show me.
First witch
Here I have a pilot's thumb,
Wracked as homeward he did come. (drum within)

Third witch
A drum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come.

Difficult words and their meanings:

Thou: you
Doth: do
Thou'rt: you are
Ne'er: never
Anon: soon
Aroint: begone
Hath: have
Rump-fed: pampered