MACBETH
NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE SCRIPT
No Fear Shakespeare puts Shakespeare's language side-by-side with a facing-page translation
into modern English—the kind of English people actually speak today.
Table of
Contents
* Characters
* Background
Background
courtesy of
No Fear,
Shakespeare,
SparkNotes, and
the British
Broadcasting
Corp.
Act 1
Act 1, Scene 1
Act 1, Scene 2
Act 1, Scene 3
Act 1, Scene 4
Act 1, Scene 5
Act 1, Scene 6
Act 1, Scene 7
Act 2
Act 2, Scene 1
Act 2, Scene 2
Act 2, Scene 3
Act 2, Scene 4
Act 3
Act 3, Scene 1
Act 3, Scene 2
Act 3, Scene 3
Act 3, Scene 4
Act 3, Scene 5
Act 3, Scene 6
Act 4
Act 4, Scene 1
Act 4, Scene 2
Act 4, Scene 3
Act 5
Act 5, Scene 1
Act 5, Scene 2
Act 5, Scene 3
Act 5, Scene 4
Act 5, Scene 5
Act 5, Scene 6
Act 5, Scene 7
Act 5, Scene 8
CHARACTERS
Macbeth
A Scottish general and the thane of Glamis.
(“Thane” is a Scottish title of nobility, and
Glamis is a village in eastern Scotland.)
Macbeth is led to wicked thoughts by the
prophecies of three witches, especially after
their prophecy that he will be made thane of
Cawdor comes true. Macbeth is a brave
soldier and a powerful man, but he is not
virtuous. He is easily tempted into murder to
fulfill his ambitions to the throne, and once
he commits his first crime and is crowned
king of Scotland, he embarks on further
atrocities with increasing ease. Macbeth
cannot maintain his power because his
increasingly brutal actions make him hated
as a tyrant. Unlike Shakespeare’s other great
villains, such as Iago in Othello and Richard
III in Richard III, who revel in their villainy,
Macbeth is never comfortable in his role as a
criminal. He shows at the beginning of the
play that he knows right from wrong, and
chooses to do wrong without being able to
justify it to himself. Ultimately, he is unable
to bear the psychic consequences of his
atrocities.
Lady Macbeth
Macbeth’s wife, a deeply ambitious woman
who lusts for power and position. Early in
the play she seems to be the stronger and
more ruthless of the two, as she urges her
husband to kill Duncan and seize the crown.
After the bloodshed begins, however, Lady
Macbeth falls victim to guilt and madness to
an even greater degree than her husband.
Her conscience affects her to such an extent
in using their knowledge of the future to toy
with and destroy human beings.
Banquo
The brave, noble general whose children,
according to the witches' prophecy, will
inherit the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth,
Banquo thinks ambitious thoughts, but he
does not translate those thoughts into action.
In a sense, Banquo’s character stands as a
that she eventually commits suicide. At the
rebuke to Macbeth, since he represents the
beginning of the play, Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth apparently feel quite passionately
for one another, and Lady Macbeth exploits
her sexual hold over Macbeth as a means to
persuade him to commit murder. However,
their shared alienation from the world,
occasioned by their partnership in crime,
does not bring them closer together, but
path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in
which ambition need not lead to betrayal
and murder. Appropriately, then, it is
Banquo’s ghost and not Duncan’s that
haunts Macbeth. In addition to embodying
Macbeth’s guilt for killing Banquo, the
ghost also reminds Macbeth that he did not
emulate Banquo’s reaction to the witches'
instead seems to numb their feelings for one
another.
prophecy.
The Three Witches
The good king of Scotland whom Macbeth,
ambitious for the crown, murders. Duncan is
the model of a virtuous, benevolent ruler.
His death symbolizes the destruction of an
order in Scotland that can be restored only
when Duncan’s line, in the person of
Three mysterious hags who plot mischief
against Macbeth using charms, spells, and
prophecies. Their predictions prompt him to
murder Duncan, to order the deaths of
Banquo and his son, and to blindly believe
in his own immortality. The play leaves the
witches' true nature unclear we don’t
really know whether they make their own
prophecies come true, or where they get
their knowledge from. In some ways they
resemble the mythological Fates, who
impersonally wove the threads of human
destiny. They clearly take a perverse delight
King Duncan
Malcolm, once more occupies the throne.
Macduff
Fleance
A Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth’s
kingship from the start. He eventually
becomes a leader of the crusade to unseat
Macbeth. The crusade’s mission is to place
the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne,
but Macduff also desires vengeance for
Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s wife and
young son.
Banquo’s son, who survives Macbeth’s
attempt to murder him. At the end of the
play, Fleance’s whereabouts are unknown.
Presumably, he may come to rule Scotland,
fulfilling the witches' prophecy that
Banquo’s sons will sit on the Scottish
throne.
Lennox
Malcolm
The son of Duncan, whose restoration to the
throne signals Scotland’s return to order
following Macbeth’s reign of terror.
Malcolm becomes a serious challenge to
Macbeth with Macduff’s aid (and the
support of England). Prior to this, he appears
weak and uncertain of his own power, as
when he and Donalbain flee Scotland after
their father’s murder.
Hecate
The goddess of witchcraft, who helps the
three witches work their mischief on
Macbeth.
A Scottish nobleman.
Ross
A Scottish nobleman.
The Murderers
A group of ruffians conscripted by Macbeth
to murder Banquo, Fleance (whom they fail
to kill), and Macduff’s wife and children.
Porter
The drunken doorman of Macbeth’s castle.
Lady Macduff
Macduff’s wife. The scene in her castle
provides our only glimpse of family life
other than that of Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth. She and her home serve as
contrasts to Lady Macbeth and the hellish
world of Inverness.
Donalbain
Duncan’s son and Malcolm’s younger
brother.
Macbeth: Background Info and History
William Shakespeare
The most influential writer in all of English
literature, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a
successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-uponAvon, England. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but
his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582 he
married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three
children with her. Around 1590 he left his family behind
and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright.
Public and critical acclaim quickly followed, and
Shakespeare eventually became the most popular
playwright in England and part-owner of the Globe Theater.
His career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558–
1603) and James I (ruled 1603–1625), and he was a favorite
of both monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare’s company the greatest possible
compliment by bestowing upon its members the title of King’s Men. Wealthy and renowned,
Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. At the time of
Shakespeare’s death, literary luminaries such as Ben Jonson hailed his works as timeless.
Shakespeare’s works were collected and printed in various editions in the century
following his death, and by the early eighteenth century his reputation as the greatest poet ever to
write in English was well established. The unprecedented admiration garnered by his works led
to a fierce curiosity about Shakespeare’s life, but the dearth of biographical information has left
many details of Shakespeare’s personal history shrouded in mystery. Some people have
concluded from this fact and from Shakespeare’s modest education that Shakespeare’s plays
were actually written by someone else—Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are the two most
popular candidates—but the support for this claim is overwhelmingly circumstantial, and the
theory is not taken seriously by many scholars.
In the absence of credible evidence to the contrary, Shakespeare must be viewed as the
author of the thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets that bear his name. The legacy of this body of
work is immense. A number of Shakespeare’s plays seem to have transcended even the category
of brilliance, becoming so influential as to affect profoundly the course of Western literature and
culture ever after.
Shakespeare’s shortest and bloodiest tragedy, Macbeth tells the story of a brave Scottish
general (Macbeth) who receives a prophecy from a trio of sinister witches that one day he will
become King of Scotland. Consumed with ambitious thoughts and spurred to action by his wife,
Macbeth murders King Duncan and seizes the throne for himself. He begins his reign racked
with guilt and fear and soon becomes a tyrannical ruler, as he is forced to commit more and more
murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion. The bloodbath swiftly propels Macbeth
and Lady Macbeth to arrogance, madness, and death.
Macbeth was most likely written in 1606, early in the reign of James I, who had been
James VI of Scotland before he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. James was a patron of
Shakespeare’s acting company, and of all the plays Shakespeare wrote under James’s
reign, Macbeth most clearly reflects the playwright’s close relationship with the sovereign. In
focusing on Macbeth, a figure from Scottish history, Shakespeare paid homage to his king’s
Scottish lineage. Additionally, the witches’ prophecy that Banquo will found a line of kings is a
clear nod to James’s family’s claim to have descended from the historical Banquo. In a larger
sense, the theme of bad versus good kingship, embodied by Macbeth and Duncan, respectively,
would have resonated at the royal court, where James was busy developing his English version
of the theory of divine right.
Macbeth is not Shakespeare’s most complex play, but it is certainly one of his most
powerful and emotionally intense. Whereas Shakespeare’s other major tragedies, such
as Hamlet and Othello, fastidiously explore the intellectual predicaments faced by their subjects
and the fine nuances of their subjects’ characters, Macbeth tumbles madly from its opening to its
conclusion. It is a sharp, jagged sketch of theme and character; as such, it has shocked and
fascinated audiences for nearly four hundred years.
Political
Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606. It is important to understand the political context in
which it was written, as that is the key to the main theme of the play, which is that excessive
ambition will have terrible consequences. Shakespeare was writing for the theatre during the
reigns of two monarchs, Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. The plays he wrote during the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, are often seen to embody the
generally happy, confident and optimistic mood of the Elizabethans. However, those he wrote
during James's reign, such as Macbeth and Hamlet, are darker and more cynical, reflecting the
insecurities of the Jacobean period. Macbeth was written the year after the Gunpowder Plot of
1605.
When Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, she had no children, or even nephews or nieces. The
throne was offered to James Stuart, James VI of Scotland, who then became James I of Britain.
He was a distant cousin of Elizabeth, being descended from Margaret Tudor, the sister of
Elizabeth's grandfather, Henry the Eighth. James was the son of the Catholic Mary Queen of
Scots, who had been deposed and imprisoned when he was a baby, and later executed on
Elizabeth's orders. Brought up by Protestant regents, James maintained a Protestant regime in
Scotland when he came of age, and so was an acceptable choice for England which had become
firmly Protestant under Elizabeth. However, his accession was by no means a popular choice
with everyone. Since he was not a direct descendant of Elizabeth, there were other relatives who
believed they also had a strong claim and James feared that discontented factions might gather
around them. At first the Catholics had hoped James might support them, since his mother had
been such a staunch Catholic, but when they realized this would not happen conspiracies
developed, one of which was the Gunpowder Plot. Guy Fawkes and his men tried to blow up
James and his parliament in 1605. The conspirators were betrayed, and horribly tortured on the
rack until they confessed. They were then executed in the most brutal fashion as a warning to
other would-be traitors. Shakespeare's play Macbeth is to some extent a cautionary tale, warning
any other potential regicides (king-killers) of the awful fate that will inevitably overtake them.
Philosophical
Religious thinkers in the Middle Ages had upheld the idea of
'The Great Chain of Being'. This was the belief that God had designed
an ordered system for both nature and humankind within which every
creature and person had an allotted place. It was considered an offense
against God for anyone to try to alter their station in life. After death,
however, all would be raised in the kingdom of heaven, if they
respected God's will. Since royal rank was bestowed by God, it was a
sin to aspire to it. This doctrine – a convenient one for King James –
was still widely held in Shakespeare's day.
Mary Queen of Scots
Although his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was a beautiful and
charming woman, James I was aware he was ugly and lacking in the charisma which inspired
loyalty. But he was an intelligent and well-educated man, and espoused various beliefs which he
felt would keep his position secure. One of these was the so-called 'divine right of kings'. This
was the belief that the power of monarchs was given directly by God, and thus monarchs were
answerable only to God. Any opposition to the King was an attack on God himself, and therefore
sacrilege, the most heinous of sins. The anointing ceremony at the coronation made the King
virtually divine. All the Stuart kings strongly supported the belief in their 'divine right' to rule as
it was an effective safeguard of their position. They even claimed Christ-like powers of healing.
In Macbeth, Shakespeare alludes to King Edward of England successfully healing the sick: 'such
sanctity hath heaven given his hand'. Queen Anne was the last British monarch who used 'the
Queen's touch' in this way.
Historical
Shakespeare's plot is only partly based on fact. Macbeth was a real eleventh century
Scottish king, but the historical Macbeth, who had a valid right to the throne, reigned capably in
Scotland from 1040 till 1057. He succeeded Duncan, whom he had defeated in battle, but the real
Duncan was a weak man, around Macbeth's own age, not the respected elderly figure we meet in
the play. In reality, Macbeth was succeeded by his own stepson, not by Duncan's son, Malcolm,
who came to the throne later. The Stuart kings claimed descent from Banquo, but Banquo is a
mythical figure who never really existed. Shakespeare found his version of the story of Macbeth
in the Chronicles of Holinshed, a historian of his own time. Holinshed does include a Banquo in
his version, but he is also a traitor who assists Macbeth in the murder. As a tribute to the Stuarts,
and James in particular, Shakespeare presents Banquo as a wise, noble and regal figure who
arouses jealousy in Macbeth as much for his own good qualities as for the promise the witches
make to him of founding a dynasty.
Shakespeare and the Court
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare's acting company was called the
'Chamberlain's Men', and it is known that they performed for the court. After the accession of
James they changed their name to the 'King's Men' as a tribute to him. The patronage of the King
and court was obviously valuable to Shakespeare. In Macbeth, Shakespeare seeks to flatter and
please the King in various ways. Macbeth, the character who usurps the place of a lawful King,
is shown as losing everything as a result – he becomes hated and demonized by all his subjects,
as does his wife, who supports him in his crime. Banquo, whom the Stuarts claimed as their
ancestor, is presented in a completely positive light. When the witches show Macbeth the future,
he sees a line of kings descended from Banquo that seems to 'stretch out to the crack of doom'.
This flatters King James with the promise of a long-standing dynasty, although in fact James's
father, Charles I, would be executed, and the Stuart line was to die out with Queen Anne in 1714.
Shakespeare also included other enthusiasms of the King in the play. James had written a
book called Basilikon Doron, which looks at the theme of kingship. In the book, James identifies
the ideal king as one who does his duty to God and to his country and who is also a man of
spotless personal integrity. In the play, Shakespeare, too, explores this topic, with the character
of Malcolm representing the template of the ideal king. In addition, the idealized portrait of
Edward the Confessor, the 'holy king' who has the power literally to heal his people, would come
across to a contemporary audience as an indirect tribute to James himself. James was also very
interested in the supernatural, and had written a paper called Daemonologie on the subject.
During his reign as King of Scotland, James is known to have been directly involved in some
witch trials at North Berwick. Women were regularly burnt as witches, and Shakespeare presents
his witches unequivocally as powerful and evil emissaries of the devil. In his day, the majority of
the general public, too, believed in witches and the power of the supernatural, and the witch
scenes would have been taken very seriously.
Other background thoughts
Macbeth is a dark play both literally and symbolically. The tone of the play is sinister and
its central characters are evil. Wicked witches and the supernatural influence the action which is
characterized by bloody death.
When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606 James I had been King of England for three
years. He had previously been James VI of Scotland. King James symbolized the union of the
Scottish and English crowns, a union to which Shakespeare refers in the play. It was well known
that the new king was fascinated by witchcraft; Shakespeare might have been trying to win his
approval by introducing the figures of the 'three weird sisters' into the play.
Macbeth was first performed at Hampton Court Palace before James I and his guests in
1606. The storyline, like that of most of Shakespeare's plays, was not original, and in this case
was based on fact. The story was familiar to James: he had inherited the throne of Scotland
through his ancestors Banquo and Fleance, and the story of Duncan's murder was well known.
The real Macbeth reigned in Scotland from 1040 to 1057. He killed his predecessor Duncan I,
and was in turn killed by Duncan’s, son Malcolm III. Events such as these were not uncommon
in the 'barbaric' feudal Scotland of the eleventh century. Of the fourteen kings who reigned
between 943 and 1097, ten were murdered.
Macbeth ruled wisely and well for seventeen years. During his reign the north and south
of Scotland were united for the first time. He was defeated in battle near Aberdeen by Malcolm
III, the son of Duncan I, who had invaded Scotland with the help of Edward the Confessor, King
of England. Malcolm slaughtered Macbeth's family so that his own kingship would be stabilized.
This marked the end of the purely Celtic, exclusively 'barbaric' Scottish folk as it led to the
gradual breaking down of barriers between England and Scotland and to the introduction of
English ways and customs.
Shakespeare never let historical fact get in the way of a good story. He changed several
key aspects of the original story, either to intensify his drama or to ensure political correctness.
As an example of the latter, Shakespeare's Macbeth, who commits the greatest of all crimes by
murdering his king, finds he cannot live with himself and the consequences of his actions. He has
rebelled against God and the order of creation; he becomes inhumane and his crime is rightly
punished by his death.
Plot Overview
The play begins with the brief appearance of a trio of witches and then moves to a
military camp, where the Scottish King Duncan hears the news that his generals, Macbeth and
Banquo, have defeated two separate invading armies—one from Ireland, led by the rebel
Macdonwald, and one from Norway. Following their pitched battle with these enemy forces,
Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches as they cross a moor. The witches prophesy that
Macbeth will be made thane (a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King of
Scotland. They also prophesy that Macbeth’s companion, Banquo, will beget a line of Scottish
kings, although Banquo will never be king himself. The witches vanish, and Macbeth and
Banquo treat their prophecies skeptically until some of King Duncan’s men come to thank the
two generals for their victories in battle and to tell Macbeth that he has indeed been named thane
of Cawdor. The previous thane betrayed Scotland by fighting for the Norwegians and Duncan
has condemned him to death. Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility that the remainder of the
witches’ prophecy—that he will be crowned king—might be true, but he is uncertain what to
expect. He visits with King Duncan, and they plan to dine together at Inverness, Macbeth’s
castle, that night. Macbeth writes ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that has
happened.
Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husband’s uncertainty. She desires the kingship for
him and wants him to murder Duncan in order to obtain it. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness,
she overrides all of her husband’s objections and persuades him to kill the king that very night.
He and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncan’s two chamberlains drunk so they will black out; the
next morning they will blame the murder on the chamberlains, who will be defenseless, as they
will remember nothing. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and a
number of supernatural portents, including a vision of a bloody dagger. When Duncan’s death is
discovered the next morning, Macbeth kills the chamberlains—ostensibly out of rage at their
crime—and easily assumes the kingship. Duncan’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England
and Ireland, respectively, fearing that whoever killed Duncan desires their demise as well.
Fearful of the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs will seize the throne, Macbeth hires
a group of murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. They ambush Banquo on his way to a
royal feast, but they fail to kill Fleance, who escapes into the night. Macbeth becomes furious: as
long as Fleance is alive, he fears that his power remains insecure. At the feast that night,
Banquo’s ghost visits Macbeth. When he sees the ghost, Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his
guests, who include most of the great Scottish nobility. Lady Macbeth tries to neutralize the
damage, but Macbeth’s kingship incites increasing resistance from his nobles and subjects.
Frightened, Macbeth goes to visit the witches in their cavern. There, they show him a sequence
of demons and spirits who present him with further prophecies: he must beware of Macduff, a
Scottish nobleman who opposed Macbeth’s accession to the throne; he is incapable of being
harmed by any man born of woman; and he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane
Castle. Macbeth is relieved and feels secure, because he knows that all men are born of women
and that forests cannot move. When he learns that Macduff has fled to England to join Malcolm,
Macbeth orders that Macduff’s castle be seized and, most cruelly, that Lady Macduff and her
children be murdered.
When news of his family’s execution reaches Macduff in England, he is stricken with
grief and vows revenge. Prince Malcolm, Duncan’s son, has succeeded in raising an army in
England, and Macduff joins him as he rides to Scotland to challenge Macbeth’s forces. The
invasion has the support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled and frightened by Macbeth’s
tyrannical and murderous behavior. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, becomes plagued with fits of
sleepwalking in which she bemoans what she believes to be bloodstains on her hands. Before
Macbeth’s opponents arrive, Macbeth receives news that she has killed herself, causing him to
sink into a deep and pessimistic despair. Nevertheless, he awaits the English and fortifies
Dunsinane, to which he seems to have withdrawn in order to defend himself, certain that the
witches’ prophecies guarantee his invincibility. He is struck numb with fear, however, when he
learns that the English army is advancing on Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam
Wood. Birnam Wood is indeed coming to Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the witches’ prophecy.
In the battle, Macbeth hews violently, but the English forces gradually overwhelm his
army and castle. On the battlefield, Macbeth encounters the vengeful Macduff, who declares that
he was not “of woman born” but was instead “untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb (what
we now call birth by cesarean section). Though he realizes that he is doomed, Macbeth continues
to fight until Macduff kills and beheads him. Malcolm, now the King of Scotland, declares his
benevolent intentions for the country and invites all to see him crowned at Scone.