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SCENE V
Inverness. Macbeth's castle.

Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter. ¹

LADY MACBETH
'They met me in the day of success: and I have
learned by the perfectest report, they have more in
them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire
to question them further, they made themselves air,
into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in
the wonder of it, came missives ² from the king, who
all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title,
before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred
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
mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being
ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it
to thy heart, and farewell.'
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness ³
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness ⁴ should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst 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; ⁵
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round, ⁶
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.

Enter a Messenger.

What is your tidings?⁷

Messenger
The king comes here to-night.

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, ⁸
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 ⁹
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, ¹⁰
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it!¹¹ Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, ¹²
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief!¹³ Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, 14
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, ¹⁵
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 to-night.

LADY MACBETH
And when goes hence?

MACBETH
To-morrow, as he purposes.

LADY MACBETH
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time;¹⁶ bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't.¹⁷ He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great business into my dispatch;¹⁸
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 favour ever is to fear: ¹⁹
Leave all the rest to me.

Exeunt.

FOOTNOTES

¹ Why is the letter in prose?
A.C. Bradley, a popular analyst of Shakespeare's tragedies, makes several points about Shakespeare's rare use of prose: "The speeches of the Porter, a low comic character, are in prose. So is the letter of Macbeth to his wife. In both these cases Shakespeare follows his general rule or custom … Somnambulism (sleepwalking) is an abnormal condition, and it is his general rule to assign prose to persons whose state of mind is abnormal. E.g. almost all of King Lear's speeches, after he has become insane, are in prose: where he wakes from sleep recovered, the verse/poetry returns." (Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York. St. Martin's Press, 1966. [p.p. 335-6])
² Messengers from the king
³ She believes his nature is too full of compassion and not enough ruthlessness for him to become king.
⁴ Illness here means wickedness or ruthlessness
⁵ That I may empower you with my poisonous words.
⁶ Renounce with my words of bravery any reasons you may find not to commit King Duncan's murder.
⁷ tidings = news
⁸ had outdistanced him
⁹ The raven was associated with death and was often heard croaking over the corpses of soldiers on the battlefields. Soon the raven will have reason to croak above Macbeth's castle (battlements).
¹⁰ Come, you spirits that are responsible for murderous thoughts, and take away my excessive womanly feelings of compassion and fear to make me a warrior.
¹¹ That no forces of goodness ('nature') invade my conscience and stop me from proceeding with my cruel intention ('fell purpose') of trying to murder Duncan, nor interfere ('keep peace') with the actual outcome of the attempt.
¹² i.e., turn my milk bitter. Note the reference to the four humours and, the excess of yellow bile in the gall blander (this imbalance was thought to turn one ruthless and insolent).
¹³ i.e., You wait for horrible events to befall mankind.
¹⁴ cover you in the thicket smoke of hell.
¹⁵ "Keen" here has two meanings: eager and sharp. Lady Macbeth has every intention of killing Duncan herself. In her castle, she will carry out her "fell purpose" with her own "keen knife." Of course, as we see in 2.2., Lady Macbeth fails to commit the murder because Duncan resembled her father "as he slept" (12). So the real reason for her hesitation was likely part true compassion, part simple cowardice.
¹⁶ i.e., to deceive the men of our time you must look like the men of our time, with an expression on your face befitting the glorious arrival of the king.
¹⁷ In The Royal Play of Macbeth, Henry Neill Paul explains that these lines are an allusion to a significant moment in Shakespeare's time, the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. To commemorate the discovery of the heinous scheme, King James had a medal created picturing a serpent hiding amongst flowers. Every person watching Shakespeare's drama in Jacobean England would have understood immediately the context of the allusion.
¹⁸ you shall leave the murder of the king to me.
¹⁹ Ensure you maintain a guiltless ('clear') expression because fear might show in your face.

SUMMARY

In Inverness (Macbeth's castle), Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband to herself. The letter describes Macbeth's promotion to "thane of Cawdor" and his meeting with the witches. Lady Macbeth notices that she knows Macbeth is ambitious, but fears he is too full of compassion to take the steps necessary to make himself king. She decides to convince her husband to do whatever it takes to become king.

A messenger enters and informs Lady Macbeth that the king is riding towards the castle, and that Macbeth is on his way as well. She awaits her husband's arrival and delivers a famous speech where she begs, "you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty" (I.v.38-41). She wants to put her natural femininity aside so that she can do the bloody deeds necessary to seize the crown. Macbeth enters, and he and his wife discuss the king's forthcoming visit. Macbeth tells his wife that King Duncan plans to depart the next day, but Lady Macbeth declares that the king will never see tomorrow. She tells her husband to have patience, and to leave the plan to her.