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Act V, 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 Dunsinane,
I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounc'd me thus:
"Fear not, Macbeth. No man that's born of woman
Shall 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.
Enter a SERVANT
"reports" = The reports that Macbeth dismisses are of the desertions of
thanes who refuse any longer to be subjects to the tyrant.
"Let them fly all" = let all the thanes desert me
"taint" = wither; rot
"mortal consequences" = human outcomes
"the English epicures" = An old Scottish perception of the English was of
men who were unmanly, of being soft and devoted to selfish pleasures,
eating and drinking excessively and otherwise indulging the senses. This
way of living was associated with the ancient Greek philosophical school
called Epicureanism, which posited that the highest human goods to be
sought are serenity and freedom from fear. Actually Epicureanism had
been (and often is still) misrepresented as mere hedonism (excessive selfindulgence), and it is with this misrepresentation in mind that Macbeth
applies it to the English.
"I sway by" = that directs my actions
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd loon!
Where got'st thou that goose look?
SERVANT
There is ten thousand—
"cream-fac'd loon" / "goose look" / "lily-liver'd boy" / "linen cheeks" /
"whey face" = Macbeth's invective emphasizes the Servant's fear, which
is apparent in his pale skin. There is nothing false about this face.
"patch" = clown; fool
"Are counselors to fear" = prompt others to be fearful
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 thine
Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
SERVANT
The English force, so please you.
"Seyton! — I am sick at heart, / When I behold — Seyton, I say! — This
push . . ." = Macbeth's interruption of his own speech, resulting in
expression that sounds halting and erratic, effectively suggests the anger
and anxiety he is currently subject to and gives the sense that he is
disintegrating.
MACBETH
Take thy face hence.
Exit SERVANT
Seyton! — I am sick at heart,
When I behold — Seyton, I say! — This push
Will cheer me ever or disseat me now.
I have liv'd long enough. My way of life
Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf.
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have, but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not.
Seyton!
"This push / Will cheer me ever or disseat me now" = this crisis ("push")
will end with my continued success (and so "cheer me [for]ever") or will
dethrone ("disseat") me. Note how Macbeth's statement contradicts his
earlier confident assertion that he is invulnerable and suggests that he
(either consciously or unconsciously) does not believe the prophecy that
he "will never vanquish'd be." After all, if he were truly invulnerable, he
would not pronounce the possibility that the English "push" could
"disseat" him. Add to this that his ensuing lines in the speech suggest that
he sees himself as at the end of his tether and ripe for death.
"Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf" = has become ("fall'n") withered
("sere"—over-ripe) and deathly (like the "yellow leaf" of the "fall"
season)
"I must not look to have" = I cannot expect to have (the pleasant
conditions that ordinarily come to people in their autumn years)
"Curses, not loud but deep" = curses of me that are spoken quietly but
meant intensely
"mouth-honor" = lip-service (expressions of respect that come from false
faces)
Enter SEYTON
SEYTON
What is your gracious pleasure?
"breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not" = words
(the "mouth-honor" that is carried on the "breath"), which my powerless
("poor") subjects would rather ("would fain") withhold ("deny") from me
but fear to do so
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 armor.
"I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack'd" = Again, Macbeth's
impulsive statement betrays his "rooted" fear—namely, that the prophecy
is misleading and that he is bound to be destroyed.
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 armor.
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.
"Skirr" = scour; swiftly seek out ("those that talk of fear")
"thick-coming fancies" = rushing delusions (imagined threats)
"Cure her of that" = Macbeth speaks in this line, and those following,
with heavy sarcasm. He knows that the doctor cannot "cure" a troubled
mind—not Lady Macbeth's, not his own.
"minister to" = tend to; take care of
"Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow" = as though it were a weed
that can be eliminated only if it is pulled up from the root. Recall,
incidentally, that Macbeth is identified by Lennox, in the preceding
scene, as a weed.
"Raze" = erase
"oblivious antidote" = medicine that induces forgetfulness (of being
"oblivious")
"stuff'd bosom" = sorrow-filled heart
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 antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
DOCTOR
Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.
"physic" = medicine
MACBETH
Throw physic to the dogs. I'll none of it—
Come, put mine armor on. Give me my staff—
Seyton, send out—Doctor, the thanes fly from me—
Come, sir, dispatch—If thou couldst, doctor, cast
The 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?
"I'll none of it" = I'll have nothing to do with it
"Give me my staff . . . If thou couldst . . ." = Again, Macbeth's
interrupted speech suggests his erratic emotional state.
"cast / The water" = diagnose ("cast") the water ("urine"). Macbeth's
metaphor—of Scotland as a sick person who might be diagnosed and
treated by a doctor—suggests once more the concept in the Great Chain
of Being of correspondences between individuals and larger orders.
"purge" = cleanse
"pristine" = pure
"What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug" = Rhubarb and senna are
both purgatives (laxatives).
DOCTOR
Ay, my good lord, your royal preparation
Makes us hear something.
MACBETH
Bring it after me—
I will not be afraid of death and bane,
Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.
Exit
DOCTOR
[Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
Profit again should hardly draw me here.
Exeunt
"your royal preparation / Makes us hear something" = your current
preparations are signs to us that war is in the offing
"bane" = destruction
"Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, / Profit again should hardly
draw me here" = if I were safely removed from this place, not even the
promise of riches could lure be back