Act I, Scene v

Inverness. A room in Macbeth's castle Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter

LADY MACBETH "They met me in the day of success, and I have learn'd, by the perfect'st report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burn'd in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanish'd. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hail'd me 'thane of Cawdor,' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me and referr'd me to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king that shalt be.' This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou might'st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promis'd thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell." Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promis'd. Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily, wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'dst have, great Glamis, That which cries "Thus thou must do" if thou have it, And that which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valor of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown'd withal.

"They met me in the day of success" = the weird women encountered me on the day of my success in battle "perfect'st report" = the best intelligence (Ross' report that Duncan had invested Macbeth as the new thane of Cawdor) "missives" = messengers (Ross and Angus) Note that Macbeth's letter to Lady Macbeth does not say anything about any plans he might have for making what has been "promis'd" come true. His news is simply that the promise was announced, as though kingship could come to him without anyone's "stir."

"and shalt be / What thou art promis'd" = and you will be what has been promised you (king). That she makes this claim so forcefully suggests, from the first, a quality of intense determination in Lady Macbeth. "Yet do I fear thy nature. / It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way" = Lady Macbeth fears that her husband is altogether too kind ("too full o' th' milk of human kindness") to seize opportunities ("catch the nearest way"), especially if seizing those opportunities might mean having to act unkindly. Yet perhaps Lady Macbeth does not know her husband as well as she thinks she does, for, as we have seen, he has already contemplated killing Duncan. "Thou wouldst be great" = you wish to be highly placed in the world "Art not without ambition" = are ambitious "without / The illness should attend it" = lacking the ruthlessness that must accompany an ambitious spirit "What thou wouldst highly, / That wouldst thou holily" = any great goal you wish to achieve, you wish to achieve honestly and fairly ("holily"—in a holy way) "Thou'dst have, great Glamis, / That which cries 'Thus thou must do' if thou have it" = you wish to achieve the kind of goal that would require you to do something that would make you uncomfortable (but you aren't willing to feel uncomfortable) "Hie" = a command to go or come. "Hie thee hither," then, means Come you here. "That I may" = so that I may "pour my spirits in thine ear" = encourage you with my words. Interestingly, one method of assassination that Shakespeare was aware of (as shown by Claudius' assassinating of his brother, the king of Denmark, in Hamlet) was that of pouring poison in the ear of a sleeping victim. With this in mind, we can see Lady Macbeth's metaphor—of pouring spirits in her husband's ear—as doubly dark. "chastise with the valor of my tongue" = scold with my brave speech "All that impedes thee from the golden round" = everything that holds you back ("impedes thee") from seizing the crown "Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem / To have thee crown'd withal" = supernatural forces appearing to have made you altogether ("withal") king already Observe that Lady Macbeth's speech is delivered in apostrophe—a form of personification in which the speaker addresses an inanimate object, abstract condition, or absent person as if that object, condition, or person were able to reply. Here, Lady Macbeth's speaking to Macbeth as if he has already come to her suggests her impatience to see her desires realized—to, as she will later say, "see the future in the instant." This is further suggested in her final assertion that "fate and metaphysical aid" seem to have made Macbeth king already—that the future, in effect, has already come to pass.

Enter a Messenger What is your tidings? MESSENGER The king comes here tonight. LADY MACBETH Thou'rt mad to say it. Is not thy master with him, who, were't so, Would have inform'd for preparation? MESSENGER So please you, it is true. Our thane is coming. One of my fellows had the speed of him, Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message. LADY MACBETH Give him tending. He brings great news. Exit Messenger

The raven himself is hoarse, That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood. Stop up th' access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between The effect and it!

"tidings" = news

"inform'd for preparation" = sent a harbinger (as opposed to being the harbinger himself, which he said to Duncan he would be)

"One of my fellows had the speed of him" = one of my fellow servants ran ahead of him

"The raven himself is hoarse, / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan / Under my battlements" = Lady Macbeth says that the raven (a bird of ill omen, whose presence and cry was often thought to foretell death) is croaking so continually and frantically that its voice has become raw as it foretells the destruction of Duncan inside Inverness (under its "battlements"). Of course, Duncan has not yet entered Inverness, and any raven who thought to croak the royal croaking would be too early. Here is another example of Lady Macbeth's impatience to see the future fulfilled this very instant. "Come you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts" = Lady Macbeth here invokes spirits into her sphere, evil spirits that wait on ("tend on") the invitations of humans, especially those humans who nurse deadly ("mortal") thoughts. "unsex me here" = A quality of nurturing tenderness—more commonly associated with women than with men—does not become the woman who would seek someone's death. Lady Macbeth, therefore, prays to the spirits to "unsex" her, to remove from her any gentle feminine impulses that might impede her from the crown. Note that the idea of exchanging one gender for the other is a strong example of the even-handedness motif. "from the crown to the toe" = The more usual expression is from top to toe. But Lady Macbeth's use of the word "crown" (the top of the head) obviously suggests her preoccupation with a royal future—again, a future she desires so strongly that the fulfillment of it seems, in her mind, already to have occurred. "direst" = most deadly "Make thick my blood" = make my blood thick—the idea being that feelings of tenderness and pity flow freely through the veins of one whose blood is "thin," a condition that would be an impediment for Lady Macbeth "That no compunctious visitings of nature / Shake my fell purpose" = so that no moral ("compunctious") feelings ("visitings") undermine ("shake" to pieces) my cruel ("fell") intention ("purpose") nor use the inhibiting authority of a peacemaker ("keep peace") between my intention ("the effect") and the achievement of it (the killing of Duncan)

Come to my woman's breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry, "Hold, hold!" Enter MACBETH Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! Thy letters have transported me beyond This ignorant present, and I feel now The future in the instant. MACBETH My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight. LADY MACBETH And when goes hence? MACBETH Tomorrow, as he purposes. LADY MACBETH O never Shall sun that morrow see!

"Come to my woman's breasts, / And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers = Lady Macbeth now invites the evil spirits that she wishes to serve her (the "murd'ring ministers") to nurse from her, but not to drink milk from her—instead to drink gall, which is bile, bitter stomach fluid associated with murderous rancor. This is not her first or last reference to mother's milk or to nursing. But where Lady Macbeth is pictured as a nursing mother, it is plainly not a picture of nurturing goodness. Rather, it is a demonic parody of motherhood—a foul image in place of a fair one. "sightless" = invisible "You wait on nature's mischief" = wait your turn to bring mischief into the natural world "Come, thick night" = Having finished invoking dark spirits, Lady Macbeth now invokes dark night to assist her. Observe that her request echoes Macbeth's similar request—"Stars, hide your fires"—made in the previous scene. Note here, too, that Lady Macbeth speaks in apostrophe, for she addresses the night (a concept or condition, not a person) as though it could hear her and reply. Her address to the "murd'ring ministers," however, should not be pegged as apostrophe, for she believes that she really is addressing conscious beings (even though invisible) that can hear and do reply by accepting her invitation. This is a case of welcoming vampires, as it were, into one's home. "pall" = The word is normally a noun referring to a black cloth or blanket commonly used as a coffin covering, but here it is applied as a verb. "dunnest" = darkest "That my keen knife see not the wound it makes" = so that my sharp ("keen") blade cannot see the gash it leaves. Here also is an echo of a line spoken earlier by her husband—"the eye wink at the hand." "Hold" = stop

"Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter" = Soon, as Lady Macbeth would have it, Macbeth will be hailed by all people, and hailed as king, not a mere thane. "transported me beyond / This ignorant present, and I feel now / The future in the instant" = Macbeth's news has excited his lady so much that she feels as though she has already been transformed into the queen of Scotland, a condition of which the present moment (that is, those of the present moment who are not in on this secret) is unaware ("ignorant"). She feels it so strongly, indeed, that it is as if the future event is taking place right now ("in the instant"). "goes hence" = leaves here "purposes" = intends "never / Shall sun that morrow see" = This line may be read in two ways. In one sense, Lady Macbeth, her grammar elliptical, can mean that Duncan will not see tomorrow's sun because, of course, he will be dead. In this case, her line could be paraphrased as, O never shall he see tomorrow's sun. A more interesting reading, though, is that of the sun not being seen tomorrow by anyone—this because kings are traditionally identified symbolically with the sun, for it supplies to the world all the blessings that a king, correspondingly, is meant to supply to his realm. The king metaphorically is the sun. This reading has the advantage of emphasizing the unnaturalness of the deed that the thane and his lady would do. They would, in effect, be putting an end to daylight—a condition, incidentally, that becomes a key image later in the play.

Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue. Look like th' innocent flower, But be the serpent under't. He that's coming Must be provided for. And you shall put This night's great business into my dispatch, Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. MACBETH We will speak further. LADY MACBETH Only look up clear. To alter favor ever is to fear. Leave all the rest to me. Exeunt

"as a book" = like a book. Lady Macbeth reads the shock on her husband's face, which registers obviously when she reveals to him her "fell purpose." "beguile" = deceive "the time" = "The time" is used here to refer to the state of all people and things at once. The action, then, of "[beguiling] the time" is that of tricking everybody. "To beguile the time, / Look like the time" = to trick people, the trick is to appear to be just like them "you shall put / This night's great business into my dispatch" = you will leave in my hands the planning (the dispatching) of this large ("great") event. The word "dispatch," commonly a verb meaning to carry out, can also be used as noun (as it is in Lady Macbeth's line) referring to the management of one's affairs. In this sense, therefore, she can speak of herself as one who will engineer the assassination of Duncan without actually being the assassin. As well, the word "dispatch" often appears in Shakespeare generally, both as a noun and a verb, as a euphemism for death or kill. "Which shall to all our nights and days to come / Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom" = which (my "dispatch") will result in our having, for the rest of our lives and all to ourselves ("solely"), royal ("sovereign") authority ("sway") and control ("masterdom") "look up clear" = look forward, seeing no impediments "To alter favor ever is to fear" = to show a disturbed expression ("alter favor"—which would cause people to be suspicious of you) is to put yourself in a position where you would have reason to be fearful For the most part, Macbeth is quite quiet in this exchange between himself and his wife. The dialogue is not even-handed. Lady Macbeth is leading the charge and giving substance to impulses that Macbeth has so far acted only in imagination. Hearing aloud, and from his own fair lady, the intention of actual regicide—the killing of a king, which is regarded in the Elizabethan era as the greatest of all crimes—is enough to strike Macbeth nearly dumb.