Act 1 scene 7 Macbeth: annotated text for GCSE students

ACT 1, SCENE 7: Macbeth's castle.

Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. Then enter MACBETH.

MACBETH: If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well

It were done quickly: if the assassination

Could trammel up the consequence, and catch

With his surcease success; that but this blow

Might be the be-all and the end-all here,

But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,

We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases

We still have judgement here; that we but teach

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice

Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice

To our own lips. He's here in double trust;

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

Who should against his murderer shut the door,

Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been

So clear in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against

The deep damnation of his taking-off; 

And pity, like a naked newborn babe,

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed

Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself

And falls on the other.

Enter LADY MACBETH.

                                    How now? What news?

Annotations:

• Macbeth contemplates whether or not he can perform the dreadful deed of killing King Duncan.  He is trying to build up the courage to fulfill his terrible desires.  He knows that he must rush into the deed and think later if he is ever going to do it.  Above all, he knows what he is about to do is wrong.  He will only kill King Duncan if he can conquer his own conscience first.
• The word ‘catch’ – shows that  Macbeth recognises his intentions are a crime.
• During this section Macbeth muses on the irony of Duncan’s murder whilst staying with the Macbeths.  He recognises that the King has done a lot for him and that he should be very grateful. Macbeth articulates two reasons why he should not kill King Duncan.  Firstly– he is a subject of the King so should be a loyal servant to him. Secondly– as host, he should protect King Duncan from intruders whilst he is in his care.
• Macbeth reveals a whole series of conflicting thoughts and feelings by talking aloud to the audience.  This is called a soliloquy.
• Macbeth declares that King Duncan has been a very good King and that his murder would therefore not be justified in the eyes of the heavens.  This may result in God punishing everyone involved.
• Macbeth tries to use his own selfish ambition to justify his actions.  He attempts to detach himself from the true evil of the intended deed by personifying ambition and suggesting it is out of his control.
• ‘'tis done, then 'twere well’ and ‘heaven's cherubim, horsed’ are examples of alliteration.

LADY MACBETH: He has almost supped: why have you left the chamber?

MACBETH: Hath he asked for me?

LADY MACBETH: Know you not he has?

MACBETH: We will proceed no further in this business.

He hath honoured me of late; and I have bought

Golden opinions from all sorts of people,

Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,

Not cast aside so soon.

Annotations:

• Lady Macbeth and Macbeth ask each other a short series of questions about Duncan.  The unanswered questions they both pose highlight the tension of the situation.
• Macbeth suggests that he no longer wants to contemplate killing Duncan, because he wants to enjoy his new present position as Thane of Cawdor before considering any future plans or changes.

LADY MACBETH: Was the hope drunk

Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?

And wakes it now, to look so green and pale

At what it did so freely? From this time

Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard

To be the same in thine own act and valour 

As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that

Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,

And live a coward in thine own esteem,

Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'

Like the poor cat i' the adage? 

MACBETH: Prithee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man;

Who dares do more is none.

Annotations:

• Lady Macbeth asks several rhetorical questions in order to warn Macbeth that she is not pleased with his change of mind.
• She goes on to say that she will use this situation in order to judge the extent Macbeth loves her.  Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to kill King Duncan, by suggesting that if Macbeth is really passionate about her then he should use this passion to fulfil all their desires. 
• She goads him further by suggesting that she will think him a coward if he dare not commit the murder.
• Macbeth suggests that he ‘dares to do anything.’  His masculine pride blinds him to the fact that Lady Macbeth is deliberately manipulating him to do something that she herself is not prepared to do.

LADY MACBETH: What beast was't, then,

That made you break this enterprise to me?

When you durst do it, then you were a man;

And, to be more than what you were, you would 

Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place

Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:

They have made themselves, and that their fitness now

Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know

How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:

I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,

And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you

Have done to this.

Annotations:

• Lady Macbeth concludes by arguing that Macbeth had all but promised to kill King Duncan.  She will not regard him as a man unless he does the deed.

• As this speech draws to a conclusion the audience of the day would have been appalled by the implications of Lady Macbeth’s claims.  Lady Macbeth says that she would have taken her new born child off her breast and smashed its head in if Macbeth asked her to do so.

MACBETH: If we should fail?

LADY MACBETH: We fail?

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,

And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep--

Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey

Soundly invite him--his two chamberlains

Will I with wine and wassail so convince

That memory, the warder of the brain,

Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason

A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep

Their drenchèd natures lie as in a death,

What cannot you and I perform upon

The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon

His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt

Of our great quell?

Annotations:

• Lady Macbeth continues to speak to Macbeth in a confident and calculating way.  She says that if Macbeth twists his knife as soon as it enters Duncan’s heart he will manage to kill him almost instantly.
• Lady Macbeth has planned everything down to the last detail.  She proposes Macbeth kill Duncan whilst he is asleep and that they drug the guards to prevent them.

MACBETH: Bring forth men-children only;

For thy undaunted mettle should compose

Nothing but males. Will it not be received,

When we have marked with blood those sleepy two

Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,

That they have done't?

LADY MACBETH: Who dares receive it other,

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar

Upon his death?

MACBETH: I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.

Away, and mock the time with fairest show:

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

[Exeunt.]

Annotations:

• The guards will inevitably be blamed since they are to be discovered drunk and holding the murder weapons.
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will pretend to be grief-stricken by Duncan’s death so no one will question their innocence.
• Macbeth is aroused by Lady Macbeth’s talk.  He is now as ready as she is.
• Macbeth promises to muster all the necessary determination and ruthlessness required to kill King Duncan. 
• He acknowledges the need to play a deceptive game with the King first.
• The guards will inevitably be blamed since they are to be discovered drunk and holding the murder weapons.
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will pretend to be grief-stricken by Duncan’s death so no one will question their innocence.