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Macbeth: Act I, Scene 2

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Macbeth
Act I, Scene 2

A camp near Forres.

Scene from the Coburn Players performance of Macbeth

Scene from the Coburn Players performance of Macbeth

Coburn Players, 1912

  1. Alarum within. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain,
  2. Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.

Duncan

1 - 3
  1. What bloody man is that? He can report,
  2. As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
  3. The newest state.

Malcolm

4 - 8
  1.                   This is the sergeant,
  2. Who like a good and hardy soldier fought
  3. ’Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
  4. Say to the King the knowledge of the broil
  5. As thou didst leave it.

Sergeant

9 - 25
  1.                         Doubtful it stood,
  2. As two spent swimmers that do cling together
  3. And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald
    Feb 24, 2019 Miko
    According to Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (which Shakespeare used as a source for his plays), the historical Macdonwald (or “Makdowald” as Holinshed spelled it) was defeated by Macbeth. Macdonwald then retreated to his castle, killed his wife and children, then killed himself. Macbeth had Macdonwald's head cut off, stuck on a pole, and presented to the king.
  4. (Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
  5. The multiplying villainies of nature
  6. Do swarm upon him) from the Western Isles
  7. Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied,
  8. And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
  9. Show’d like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak;
  10. For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name),
  11. Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish’d steel,
  12. Which smok’d with bloody execution,
  13. (Like Valor’s minion) carv’d out his passage
  14. Till he fac’d the slave;
  15. Which nev’r shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
  16. Till he unseam’d him from the nave to th’ chops,
  17. And fix’d his head upon our battlements.

Duncan

26
  1. O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!

Sergeant

27 - 35
  1. As whence the sun gins his reflection
  2. Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break,
  3. So from that spring whence comfort seem’d to come
  4. Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark!
  5. No sooner justice had, with valor arm’d,
  6. Compell’d these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
  7. But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
  8. With furbish’d arms and new supplies of men,
  9. Began a fresh assault.

Duncan

36 - 37
  1.                        Dismay’d not this
  2. Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Sergeant

38 - 46
  1.                                   Yes,
  2. As sparrows eagles; or the hare the lion.
  3. If I say sooth, I must report they were
  4. As cannons overcharg’d with double cracks, so they
  5. Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.
  6. Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
  7. Or memorize another Golgotha,
  8. I cannot tell—
  9. But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

Duncan

47 - 49
  1. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds,
  2. They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons.
  3. Exit Sergeant, attended.
  4. Enter Rosse and Angus.
  5. Who comes here?

Malcolm

50
  1.                 The worthy Thane of Rosse.

Lennox

51 - 52
  1. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
  2. That seems to speak things strange.

Rosse

53
  1.                                     God save the King!

Duncan

54
  1. Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?

Rosse

55 - 65
  1.                                   From Fife, great King,
  2. Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
  3. And fan our people cold.
  4. Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
  5. Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,
  6. The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict,
  7. Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapp’d in proof,
  8. Confronted him with self-comparisons,
  9. Point against point, rebellious arm ’gainst arm,
  10. Curbing his lavish spirit; and to conclude,
  11. The victory fell on us.

Duncan

66
  1.                         Great happiness!

Rosse

67 - 71
  1.                  That now
  2. Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition;
  3. Nor would we deign him burial of his men
  4. Till he disbursed at Saint Colme’s inch
  5. Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Duncan

72 - 74
  1. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive
  2. Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death,
  3. And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Rosse

75
  1. I’ll see it done.

Duncan

76
  1. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
  1. Exeunt.
Frontpiece for Macbeth in Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Frontpiece for Macbeth in Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Charles Cowden Clarke, Mary Cowden Clarke, 1866

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