Macbeth summary skit
The play begins with the brief appearance of a trio of witches who decide to meet again after a nearby battle is over. (1) (2) (3) (4)
The next scene moves to a military camp, where the Scottish King Duncan hears from two of his confidants about the battleand the news that his generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have defeated two separate invading armies—one from Ireland, led by the rebel Macdonwald (Thane of Cawdor), and one from Norway. (5) The King is so proud of Macbeth that he gives Macbeth the new title of Thane of Cawdor. (6)
Elsewhere, following their battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and Banquo encounter the earlier witches. The witches prophesy that Macbeth will be made Thane of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. (7) Macbeth, not aware of the King’s earlier proclamation, doesn’t understand why they say this, and he doesn’t believe them. (8) The witches also prophesy that Macbeth’s companion, Banquo, will have children who will become Scottish kings, although Banquo will never be king himself. The witches then 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. They also 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, and not unhappy, about this promotion. (9) He also begins to wonder about 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. (10)
Macbeth travels to King Duncan, and thanks him for the new title. Banquo, however, who was also in the battle, gets nothing. King Duncan comments on how he had completely trusted the old Thane of Cawdor. (11) The King also announces that his son, Malcom, will be the new Prince of Cumberland. Macbeth now sees Malcom as a threat to what he seriously sees as his destiny to be king. (12)
Macbeth writes to his wife, Lady Macbeth, to tell her of the recent events, including the prophesy that Macbeth will be King. Lady Macbeth desperately wants her husband to be King. She fears that Macbeth is too compassionate and too weak-willed to do what needs to be done (killing Duncan). (13) She embraces the witches’ prophecies as fact, and she asks the gods to remove from her all signs of compassion and femininity, replacing them with cold remorseless ruthlessness. (14) She also finds out that Macbeth is returning home and the King is coming with him. This makes her very happy as her plan can be put into action. She secretly tells Macbeth that she wants him to kill the King that very night. (15) Macbeth isn’t so sure about this plan, and wants time to think it through. (16)
When King Duncan arrives, Lady Macbeth plays the perfect hostess. Meanwhile, Macbeth wrestles with his conscience, certain he should not kill King Duncan yet guiltily having to remind himself of all the reasons why it would be wrong. (17) Lady Macbeth, however, belittles him for not being able to murder, and threatens to take her love away if Macbeth does not go through with it. (18) They plan to kill King Duncan in his sleep while he is visiting their castle, and then to blame his two chamberlains, who they will drug that very night.The chamberlains will be defenseless because they will remember nothing.
Banquo and Fleance arrive at Macbeth’s castle, and Banquo tells Macbeth he is still troubled by the witches’ prophesies, (19) but Macbeth pretends he is not taking them seriously. Banquo tells Macbeth that the King is indeed asleep, so Macbeth puts the plan into action. He heads to King Duncan’s room, following an imaginary, bloody dagger (20), and kills Duncan. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile is startled by a bell, and anxious to hear from Macbeth, who returns and reports that the deed has been done. He still feels guilty, and Lady Macbeth assures him that a little water will wash away the ‘blood’ on their hands. (21)
Duncan’s death is discovered the next morning by Macduff (22), Lady Macbeth faints at the news. (23) 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. (24) (25) Meanwhile, Ross and an Old Man discuss various unnatural acts happening in Scotland; it seems dark all the time, birds are attacking one another, and King Duncan’s horses are acting strangely. (26)
Macbeth is indeed crowned King of Scotland, though Macduff, Thane of Fife, does not stay to see the ceremony. Banquo wonders aloud to himself if the prophesies are coming true. (27) 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. (28) Macbeth, still feeling guilty about what he has done, talks with Lady Macbeth who tells him to forget it. (29) Meanwhile, the murders ambush Banquo on his way to a royal feast and kill him, but they fail to kill Fleance, who escapes into the night. (30) Macbeth becomes furious when he learns from the murders that Fleance lives: as long as Fleance is alive, he fears that his power remains insecure. At the feast that night, Banquo’s ghost visits Macbeth and takes his place at the table. 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. (31) Frightened, Macbeth goes to visit the witches in their cavern. (32)
There, Hecate (head witch) berates her three sister witches for helping Macbeth. Before he arrives, they plan to use their prophesies against Macbeth. (33) (34) (35) (36) Macbeth arrives and 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; (37) he is incapable of being harmed by any man born of woman; (38) and he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle. (39) 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. (40)
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. (41) 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. (42) Before Macbeth’s opponents arrive, Macbeth receives news that she has killed herself, causing him to sink into a deep and pessimistic despair. (43) 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 trees cut from Birnam Wood, and carrying boughs as camouflage. Birnam Wood is indeed coming to Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the witches’ prophecy. He hears drums, and Malcom calls out to his troops. (44)
In the battle, Macbeth hews violently, but the English forces gradually overwhelm his army and castle. On the battlefield, Macbeth fights, but has no fear because all men are born of women, so he knows he will not die. (45) Eventually, he encounters the vengeful Macduff, who who is full of rage. (46) There is a viscous fight. Macbeth is still confident in the prophesies, until Macduff declares that he was not “of woman born” but was instead ‘taken’ from his mother’s womb (what we now call birth by cesarean section). (47) Though he now realizes that he is doomed, Macbeth decides to go down fighting. (48)
We next see Malcom joined in the castle by Macduff, who is carrying Macbeth’s head. Prince Malcom, now about to be crowned the new King of Scotland, vows to restore order to the kingdom and to make amends. (49)
- Witch 1: “When shall we three meet again? In thunder lightning or in rain?
- Witch 2: “When the hurlyburly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won.”
- Witch 3: “There to meet with Macbeth.”
- All witches: “Fair is foul and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
- King Duncan: “O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!”
- King Duncan: “Great happiness!”
- All witches: “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!”
- Macbeth: “To be king stands not within the prospect of belief.”
- Macbeth: “Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind!”
- Macbeth: “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.”
- King Duncan: “He was a gentleman on whom I built trust.”
- Macbeth: “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall
down, or else o’er leap. Stars, hide your fires; Let not
the light see my black and deep desires!”
- Lady Macbeth: “Yet I do fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of
kindness.”
- Lady Macbeth: “Come you spirits… Fill me from the crown to the toe-top
of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood and stop up
the access and passage to remorse.”
- Lady Macbeth: “Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent
under’t.”
16. Macbeth: “We will speak further.”
- Macbeth: “I am his kinsman and his subject. We will not proceed further
in this business: He hath honored me of late.”
18. Lady Macbeth: “Screw your courage to the sticking place, and we’ll not fail.”
19. Banquo: “I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters.”
20. Macbeth: “Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle toward my hand?”
21. Lady Macbeth: “A little water clears us of this deed.”
22. Macduff: “Oh horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive or
name thee!”
23. Lady Macbeth: “Help me hence, ho!”
24. Malcom: “What will you do? I’ll to England.”
25. Donalbain: “To Ireland, I: our separated fortune shall keep us both the safer.”
26. Ross: “They broke their stalls, flung out, as they would make war with
mankind.”
27. Banquo: “All as the weird sisters promised… May they not be my oracles as
well,and set me up in hope?”
28. Macbeth: “It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight, if it find heaven, must find
it outtonight.”
29. Lady Macbeth: “Things without all remedy should be without regard. You
must leave this. What’s done is done.”
30. Banquo: “O, treachery! Fly good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayest revenge
me!”
31. Lady Macbeth: “Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus, and hath been
from his youth. Rgard him not, He will again be well.”
32. Macbeth: “At bedtimes I will to the weird sisters: More shall they speak; for
now I am bent to know.”
33. Hecate: “He will come thither to know his destiny… We shall raise such
artificial sprites and illusions, that they shall draw him on to his confusion.”
34. All witches: “Double double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.”
35. Hecate: “O well done! I commend your pains, and now about the cauldron
sing, liveelves and fairies in a ring, enchanting all that you put in.”
36. All witches: By pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks, Whoever knocks!”
37. Witch 1: “Macbeth, Macbeth, beware Macduff!!”
38. Witch 2: “None of woman born shall harm Macbeth!”
39. Witch 3: “Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until Great Birnam wood to high
Dunsinana hill shall come against him!”
40. Macbeth: “The castle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon Fife; give the edge
o’ the sword, His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate
souls that trace him in his line.”
41. Malcom: “Let grief convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.”
42. Lady Macbeth: “Out, damned spot! Here’s the smell of the blood still!”
43. Macbeth: “Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”
44. Malcom: “Now near enough; your leafy screens thrown down. And show like
those you are.”
45. Macbeth: “Thou wast born of woman, But swords I smile at. Weapons laugh
to scorn.Brandish’d by man that’s of woman born.”
46. Macduff: “Turn hell-hound, turn! I have no words: my voice is in my sword:
Thoubloodier villain than terms can give thee out!”
47. Macduff: “I tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripp’d.”
48. Macbeth: “I will not yield to kiss the ground before Malcom’s feet. I will try
the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff!And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”
49. Malcom: “We shall not spend a large expanse of time before we reckon with
mythanes and kinsmen. What’s more to do; as calling home ourexiled friends abroad that fled the snares of tyranny, of the cruel ministers of this dead butcher and his fiend-likequeen.”