Text & Annotations/Insight
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Act V, Scene viii
Another part of the field Enter MACBETH MACBETH Why should I play the Roman fool and die On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes Do better upon them. Enter MACDUFF ------------------------------------------------------ MACDUFF Turn, hell-hound, turn! ------------------------------------------------------ MACBETH Of all men else I have avoided thee. But get thee back. My soul is too much charg'd With blood of thine already. ------------------------------------------------------ MACDUFF I have no words. My voice is in my sword. Thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out! They fight ------------------------------------------------------ MACBETH Thou losest labour. As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed. Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests. I bear a charmed life, which must not yield To one of woman born. ------------------------------------------------------ MACDUFF Despair thy charm, And let the angel whom thou still hast serv'd Tell thee Macduff was from his mother's womb Untimely ripp'd. ------------------------------------------------------ MACBETH Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cow'd my better part of man! And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd, That palter with us in a double sense, That keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee. ------------------------------------------------------ MACDUFF Then yield thee, coward, And live to be the show and gaze o' th' time. We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, Painted on a pole, and underwrit, "Here may you see the tyrant." ------------------------------------------------------ MACBETH I will not yield To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet And to be baited with the rabble's curse. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, And thou oppos'd being of no woman born, Yet 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!" Exeunt, fighting. Alarums Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colors, MALCOLM, SIWARD, ROSS, thanes, and soldiers ------------------------------------------------------ MALCOLM I would the friends we miss were safe arriv'd. ------------------------------------------------------ SIWARD Some must go off. And yet, by these I see, So great a day as this is cheaply bought. ------------------------------------------------------ MALCOLM Macduff is missing, and your noble son. ------------------------------------------------------ ROSS Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt. He only liv'd but till he was a man, The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd In the unshrinking station where he fought, But like a man he died. ------------------------------------------------------ SIWARD Then he is dead? ------------------------------------------------------ ROSS Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow Must not be measur'd by his worth, for then It hath no end. ------------------------------------------------------ SIWARD Had he his hurts before? ------------------------------------------------------ ROSS Ay, on the front. ------------------------------------------------------ SIWARD Why then, God's soldier be he! Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death. And so, his knell is knoll'd. ------------------------------------------------------ MALCOLM He's worth more sorrow, And that I'll spend for him. ------------------------------------------------------ SIWARD He's worth no more. They say he parted well and paid his score. And so, God be with him. Here comes newer comfort. Re-enter MACDUFF with MACBETH's head ------------------------------------------------------ MACDUFF Hail, king! For so thou art. Behold, where stands The usurper's cursed head. The time is free. I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, That speak my salutation in their minds, Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: Hail, king of Scotland! ------------------------------------------------------ ALL Hail, king of Scotland! Flourish ------------------------------------------------------ MALCOLM We shall not spend a large expense of time Before we reckon with your several loves And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honor nam'd. What's more to do, Which would be planted newly with the time, As calling home our exil'd friends abroad, That fled the snares of watchful tyranny, Producing forth the cruel ministers Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands Took off her life. This, and what needful else That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, We will perform in measure, time, and place. So, thanks to all at once and to each one, Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone. Flourish. Exeunt |
MACBETH
Why should I play the Roman fool and die/On mine own sword?: Roman fool = This refers to the Roman Empire where politicians or emperors committed suicide to maintain their dignity in death by falling onto their sword for a quick death. While I see Lives, the gashes do better upon them. = As long as I see my enemies, I would rather my sword afflict damage to them than me. ------------------------------------------------------ MACDUFF Turn around you dog from Hell! ------------------------------------------------------ MACBETH Before this line Macbeth and Macduff can be portrayed to be fighting each other with their swords. When the battle is over and Macbeth had Macduff at the tip of his blade he speaks these lines. Of all men else…With blood of thine already. = I have killed many but I have been avoiding to kill you. Leave now while you can. I am already guilty of killing your family [blood of thine] so I am not going to kill you too because that would be taking it too far. This initial denial to fight Macduf shows that Macbeth is still not quite without a conscience but does in fact hesitate, however he is too far gone to in a sense re-sensitize himself ------------------------------------------------------ MACDUFF I have no words…can give thee out! = I don’t have anything to say to you. My sword will speak for me. You are so covered in blood so guilty and so evil that words cannot properly express you. ------------------------------------------------------ MACBETH Thou losest labor…vulnerable crests. = Your effort to kill me is in vain. You may as well swing at the air because it would fair just as effective to injure me. I bear a charmed life…to one of a woman born. = I am not afraid of you because of the prophesy [I bear a charmed life] states that I will not die by one born of a woman. I will yield to no one because that is not my fate. Macbeth's arrogance is apparent however it could bee looked at as Macbeth attemting to reassure himself into believing the weird sisters' prophesy this also displays his false face that is put on in order to fool others into thinking that he is fearless. ------------------------------------------------------ MACDUFF You can forget about your prophesy because I was not in fact born of a woman. I was cut from my mother’s womb when I was born and was therefore born of a copse rather than a woman. [He was a caesarean section child, and back in the times of Macbeth, the C-Section did not fare as well for the mother and often resulted in her death.] This is when the tables are turned Macbeth's confidence is shattered and he nearly pees himself. ------------------------------------------------------ MACBETH Cow’d = Cowed: cause (someone) to submit to one's wishes by intimidation. Palter = To trifle with Accursed be that tongue…to break our hope. = Curse you for telling me this. All the courage I had is now frightened away. I no longer believe those juggling fiends [referring to the weird sisters]. The witches fooled me by telling me an obscure truth that has a hidden meaning. They brought my hope up to thinking that I was invincible but really they were telling me who was going to be my demise. Now instead of not fighting Macduff because he is fearless and is pretending to be merciful, he is not fighting him because he is afraid of what is to happen next. ------------------------------------------------------ MACDUFF Then surrender [yield] coward, and you will become the laughing stock or part of the freakshow where all of the rare and deformed animals are kept. A sign depicting a picture of you will read “Come see the tyrant.” ------------------------------------------------------ MACBETH Rabble: a disorderly crowd; a mob. I will not surrender and let young Malcolm become king, or let common people crowd and bait me [like the action of bear baiting]. Even though Birnam wood came to Dunsinane, and even though I’m fighting one who is not woman born, I will fight until I die. [I will try the last]. I raise my shield and prepare to battle you. Let’s fight, and he who surrenders first is damn’d . Because of the original urge to become king, he would not surrender his royal status so easily, much less to someone as young as Malcolm. Earlier on in the play Macbeths seemed to believe that he was more deserving of the throne than Malcolm was and because of that fact, Macbeth is not going down without a fight. ------------------------------------------------------ MALCOLM “I would the friends we miss were safe arriv’d.” = I wish that all friends who didn’t make it would have survived. ------------------------------------------------------ SIWARD “Some must go off. And yet, by these I see, / So great a day as this is cheaply bought.” = some men will die in every battle. But still, they have won the day more easily than would have been expected. ------------------------------------------------------ MALCOLM Macduff is missing and so is your son. ------------------------------------------------------ ROSS “Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt.” = that the son of Siward has paid the debt of a soldier. He has died in combat. Ross then proceeds to explain that not long after he had become a man and proven his skills as a fighter, he was killed. He was not killed as a coward but as a man. He died honorably. ------------------------------------------------------ SIWARD So he is dead? ------------------------------------------------------ ROSS “Your cause of sorrow must not be measur’d by his worth, for then it hath no end.” = if Siward’s sorrow for the loss of his son is determined by his worth, then his sorrow will never end because he was invaluable. ------------------------------------------------------ SIWARD “Had he his hurts before?” = a fancy, old fashioned way of asking if he had been slain from the front or from behind. It is considered much more honorable to die with wounds on the front as opposed to the back because it shows that he died fighting, with dignity, and not from an assassin. ------------------------------------------------------ ROSS Yes, on the front. This small line is significant because it signifies that he was slain in battle while fighting Macbeth versus being slain from the back while he was fleeing. ------------------------------------------------------ SIWARD “Why then, God’s soldier be he! / Had I as many sons as I have hairs, / I would not wish them to a fairer death.” = Siward is talking about how proud he is of his son. It was the best possible death he could have wished for him. “Knell” = A sound that announces somebody’s death, like a funeral bell. “Knoll’d” = A small hill or mound. “And so his knell is knoll’d.” = And so Macduff is dead. ------------------------------------------------------ MALCOLM “He’s worth more sorrow, / And that I’ll spend for him.” = His memory is worth honoring and expressing sadness of his death for longer, and that is just what I shall do. ------------------------------------------------------ SIWARD “He’s worth no more. / They say he parted well and paid his score.” = No, his death is worth no more sorrow because we are told that he died a meaningful death. ------------------------------------------------------ MACDUFF Usurper = one who wrongfully or illegally seizes and holds the place of another “Behold, where stands / The usurper’s cursed head.” = (The “usurper’s cursed head” being Macbeth’s lifeless, severed head that Macduff is holding.) He is basically praising the new king and urging all people to evoke the words “Hail, king of Scotland!” ------------------------------------------------------ ALL Hail the new king of Scotland! ------------------------------------------------------ MALCOLM Earl/s: a British nobleman ranking above a viscount and below a marquess. "We shall not spend a large expense of time.....Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone." = My thanes and kinsmen, I deem that you are now earls, feel honored because you are the first earls that Scotland has ever seen or had. We had much to do with the we mark the start of a new beginning, a new age. We will call home our exiled friends who fled the previous king's tyranny. We must bring the ministers of dead Macbeth and his devilish queen, who seems to have committed suicide, to justice. We will do this, and whatever else we are instructed by God to accomplish when the time is right and place appropriate. Thank you everybody, I invite you to come to Scone to see me crowned king. |
