Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 3

Macbeth trusts the prophecies · William Shakespeare

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Previously, in Act 5, Scene 2

Scottish nobles gather forces near Dunsinane and report that Malcolm's English-backed army is approaching. They describe Macbeth as a hated tyrant whose followers obey from fear rather than loyalty. The nobles march toward Birnam Wood to join Malcolm.

SCENE III. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.

Enter Macbeth, Doctor and Attendants.

MACBETH

Bring me no more reports; let them fly all:Till Birnam wood remove to DunsinaneI cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?Was he not born of woman? The spirits that knowAll mortal consequences have pronounc’d me thus:“Fear not, Macbeth; no man that’s born of womanShall e’er have power upon thee.”—Then fly, false thanes,And mingle with the English epicures:The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear,Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.

Macbeth stakes his manhood on the witches' "born of woman" prophecy.

The historical Macbeth was killed on 15 August 1057 at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire by Malcolm, son of Duncan. Malcolm did not then take the throne. Macbeth's stepson Lulach reigned briefly until he was killed in 1058, and only after that did Malcolm III become king.

Macbeth dismisses alarming reports because Birnam Wood has not moved towards his castle.

Certainty kept alive by refusing information and reciting the prophecy aloud

Macbeth treats the prophecy as a guarantee of safety, choosing to interpret an unlikely event as an impossible one. His confidence shows how belief in fate shapes his decisions.

Holinshed's Chronicles credit the promise that no man born of woman would slay Macbeth, and the warning to beware Macduff, to 'certeine wizzards' and a witch. The play instead assigns both to the second meeting with the weird sisters, delivered by apparitions they raise, which Macbeth here calls 'the spirits'.

He belittles Malcolm as "the boy," contrasting boyhood with true manhood.

In eleventh-century Scotland the rulers of provinces such as Moray bore the title mormaer. A thane (thegn) was a lesser royal officer or landholder. The play gives 'thane' to its great lords throughout, which departs from the record for the period depicted.

He trusts the spirits’ promise that nobody naturally born can defeat him.

Macbeth relies on the spirits’ apparently reassuring promise. Its carefully ambiguous wording shows how supernatural predictions tempt him with a deceptive sense of security.

Holinshed's chronicle records Malcolm's army cutting boughs in Birnam wood and carrying them as camouflage on the march towards Dunsinane. Macbeth's line treats the wood's 'remove' as an impossibility that guarantees his safety; the source supplies the literal military stratagem by which the wood does move.

"Epicures" feminises the English as soft and indulgent.

Macbeth says deserting Scottish nobles may join Malcolm’s English-backed army without frightening him.

Enter a Servant.

MACBETH

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac’d loon!Where gott’st thou that goose look?

SERVANT

There is ten thousand—

MACBETH

Geese, villain?

SERVANT

Soldiers, sir.

MACBETH

Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear,Thou lily-liver’d boy. What soldiers, patch?Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thineAre counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?

SERVANT

The English force, so please you.

MACBETH

Take thy face hence.

Exit Servant.

MACBETH

Seyton!—I am sick at heart,When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This pushWill cheer me ever or disseat me now.I have liv’d long enough: my way of lifeIs fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf;And that which should accompany old age,As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,I must not look to have; but, in their stead,Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.Seyton!—

Enter Seyton.

SEYTON

What’s your gracious pleasure?

MACBETH

What news more?

SEYTON

All is confirm’d, my lord, which was reported.

MACBETH

I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d.Give me my armour.

SEYTON

’Tis not needed yet.

MACBETH

I’ll put it on.Send out more horses, skirr the country round;Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour.—How does your patient, doctor?

DOCTOR

Not so sick, my lord,As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,That keep her from her rest.

MACBETH

Cure her of that:Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d,Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,Raze out the written troubles of the brain,And with some sweet oblivious antidoteCleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuffWhich weighs upon the heart?

DOCTOR

Therein the patientMust minister to himself.

MACBETH

Throw physic to the dogs, I’ll none of it.Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff:Seyton, send out.—Doctor, the Thanes fly from me.—Come, sir, despatch.—If thou couldst, doctor, castThe water of my land, find her disease,And purge it to a sound and pristine health,I would applaud thee to the very echo,That should applaud again.—Pull’t off, I say.—What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug,Would scour these English hence? Hear’st thou of them?

DOCTOR

Ay, my good lord. Your royal preparationMakes us hear something.

MACBETH

Bring it after me.—I will not be afraid of death and bane,Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.

Exeunt all except Doctor.

DOCTOR

Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,Profit again should hardly draw me here.

Exit.