Foreword
This document tried to be an accurate translation of Macbeth.
The original Macbeth script is to be strictly followed, and ambiguous interpretations of the original text are translated into the most appropriate definitions.
This work is published under the public domain.
Characters
Duncan (king of Scotland)
Malcolm (the king’s older son and heir)
Donalbain (the king’s younger son)
Macbeth (Scottish nobleman and a general of the king’s army) Banquo (Scottish nobleman and a general of the king’s army) Fleance (Banquo’s son)
Macduff (Scottish nobleman)
Boy (Macduff’s son)
Lennox (Scottish nobleman)
Ross (Scottish nobleman)
Menteith (Scottish nobleman)
Angus (Scottish nobleman)
Caithness (Scottish nobleman)
Siward (Earl of Northumberland and English general)
Young Siward (his son)
Seyton (servant to Macbeth)
Doctor (English)
Doctor (Scottish)
Soldier
Porter
Old Man
Murderers
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macduff
Gentlewoman (servant to Lady Macbeth)
Hecat (Hecate)
Witches
Apparitions
Lords, Soldiers, Servants, Messengers
Act 1
Scene 1
Set in an open place, near Forres
Lightning and thunder
Enter three witches
Witch 1: When shall we three meet again,
In thunder, lightning or in rain?
Witch 2: When the fighting is done,
when the battle’s lost and won.
Witch 3: That will be before the set of sun.
Witch 1: Which place?
Witch 2: On the heath.
Witch 3: There to meet with Macbeth.
Witch 1: I come, my cat!
Witch 2: My frog calls.
Witch 3: At once!
All: Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hove through the fog and filthy air.
Scene 2
Set in a battlefield camp, near Forres
Trumpets sound offstage.
Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with servants and a bleeding sergeant.
Duncan: Who is this bloody man? He can report, as he’s just come from the battle so he can give us the latest news.
Malcolm: This is the sergeant who fought like a courageous soldier to save me from captivity. Hail, brave friend. Tell the king about the fight.
Sergeant: It was on a dangerous brink. The armies were like two exhausted swimmers clinging together. Then the merciless Macdonwald, a powerful rebel, brought reinforcements from the western isles. Then fortune was smiling on him. But the rebels weren’t strong enough, for brace Macbeth - he deserves that name very much - disdaining fortune with his brandished blade that smoked with bloody execution, valiantly carved his way through the enemies. He faced Macdonwald, and did not shake hands with him nor bade farewell to him as he ripped him up from his navel to his jaws and placed his head upon our battlements.
Duncan: Oh valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!
Sergeant: Just as the sun begins to shine, shipwrecking storms and dire thunders start. Macdonwald . Listen, king of Scotland, listen:
But the Norweyan king, observing an advantage, with polished arms and new supplies of men, began a new assault.
Duncan: Didn’t that dismay our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
Sergeant: Yes - As much as sparrows dismay eagles or hares lions. To say the truth, I must report they are like cannons overcharged with gunpowder. Whether they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, or memorize another burial ground, I cannot tell. But I’m faint, my wounds cry for help.
Duncan:
Scene 3
Witch 1: Where have you been, sister?
Witch 2: Killing swine.
Witch 3: Sister, where have you been?
Witch 1: A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap, and munched, and munched, and munched. “Give me,” I demanded. “Go away, witch!” the overfed female cries. Her husband went to the city of Aleppo alone as captain of the ship Tiger. But I’d rather sail in a sieve, and like a rat without a tail, I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.
Witch 2: I’ll give you a wind.
Witch 1: You are kind.
Witch 3: And I another.
Witch 1: I myself have all the other ones, and the very ports they blow, all the quarters that they know in the shipman’s card.
…
Enter Macbeth and Banquo
Macbeth: So fair and foul a day I have not seen.
Banquo: How far away is Forres? (sees witches) What are these, so withered and wild in their attire, that look not like the inhabitants of the earth, and yet are on it? (to witches) Are you living? Or are you questionably suspicious? You seem to understand me, cracked finger laying upon her skinny lips. You ought to be women, and yet your beads forbid me to interpret that you are so.
Macbeth: Speak, if you can. What are you?
Witch 1: All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
Witch 2: All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
Witch 3: All hail, Macbeth, that shall be king hereafter!
Banquo: (to Macbeth) Good sir, why are you startled, and seem to fear things that do sound so fair? (to witches) In the name of truth, are you imaginary, or actually what you look like? You greet my noble partner with instant goodwill and important predictions of nobleness and royal hope, and he seems completely enraptured. To me you speak not. If you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak to me, who doesn’t beg for or fear your favors or your hate.
Witch 1: Hail.
Witch 2: Hail.
Witch 3: Hail.
Witch 1: Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Witch 2: Not so happy, yet much happier.
Witch 3: You shall beget kings, but you will not be king. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
Witch 1: Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
Macbeth: Stay, you unfinished speakers, tell me more. By my father’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis, but how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives, a prosperous gentleman, and to be king is not within the prospect of belief. It’s not more believable than being Thane of Cawdor. Tell me where you get this strange information. Or why you stop our way on this blighted heath? Speak, I command you.
Witches vanish.
…
Banquo: or have we eaten the insanity-causing plant that takes the mind prisoner?
Macbeth: Your children shall be kings.
Banquo: You shall be king.
Macbeth: And Thane of Cawdor too. Wasn’t it?
Banquo: To the very same words. Who’s there?
Enter Ross and Angus
Ross: The king has happily received, Macbeth, the news of your success, and when he thinks about your personal venture into the rebel’s fight, his astonishment and his praises are so strong he doesn’t know which should come first. With that, considering the rest in the same day, he finds you in the fierce and brave Norweyan ranks, not at all afraid of you created, strange corpses of death. As thick as hail came the messengers going to the king one after the other, and every one praised you in his kingdom’s great defense, and poured them down upon him.
Angus: We are sent to give you from our royal master thanks, only to usher you to meet him, not pay you.
Ross: And, for a pledge of greater honor, He told me to address you as Thane of Cawdor - hail, most worthy Thane, for that is your title.
Banquo: What, can the devil speak true?
Macbeth: The Thane of Cawdor lives yet. Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?
Angus: Who was the Thane still lives, but he’s under a serious punishment for his life which he deserves to lose. Whether he was allied with those of Norway, or helped the rebel with hidden help and vantage, or with both he caused his country’s destruction, I do not know, But treasons punishable by death, confessed and proved, have overthrown him.
Macbeth: (aside) Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor. The greatest is yet to come. (to Ross and Angus) Thanks for your trouble. (to Banquo) Do you not hope that your children shall be kings, when those who gave the Thane of Cawdor to me promised no less to them?
Banquo: (to Macbeth) That trusted home might enkindle you to take the crown, besides the Thane of Cawdor. But it is strange, and oftentimes, to persuade us to our harm, these instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to be betray us with the most serious consequences. (to Ross and Angus) Cousins, a word, I pray you.
Macbth: (aside) Two truths are told, as happy prologues before the best part comes. (to Ross and Angus) I thank you, gentlemen. (aside) This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill and cannot be good. If ill, why has it given me earnest success, starting with a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion and think about doing something so unnatural it makes my hair stand up on end and my heart pound furiously against my ribs? My fears are much less horrible than these imaginings. My thought of murdering the king is just a fantasy
Banquo: (to Ross and Angus) Look how our partner is in contemplation.
Macbeth: (aside) If chance will have me king, chance may crown me without me actively doing anything.
Act 2
Scene 3
Set in Macbeth’s castle
Enter a porter
Knocking sounds
Porter: Here’s a knocking sound indeed! If a man was the porter of the Hell gate, he should turn the key a lot of times.
Knocking sounds
Porter: Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, in the name of the God of Hell? Here’s a farmer, that hanged himself in anticipation of a plentiful harvest. You have come to the right place.
Opening the gates a hell a lot of times. Because lots of bad things are happening
Lennox: The night has been unruly.