Macbeth 1982

Think about what they're thinking

Act 5 Scene 5 beginning of scene    I say a moving grove [My recollection is that when it was announced by Mr. Johnson that we would each read & discuss a scene, my arm hit the air as fast as could be. I'd recently watched an acting program with Ian McKellen in which that very scene was performed and I LOVED (and still love) it.]

Act 5 Scene 5

Macbeth: Hang out our banners on the outward walls

The cry is still "they come!" our castle's strength

will laugh a siege to score; here let them lie {sleep theme}

Till famine and the ague eat them up.

Were they not forced with those that should be ours {reinforced with those who have deserted}

We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,

And beat them backward home. {a cry of women within

What is that noise?

Seyton: It is the cry of women, my good lord.

Macbeth: I have almost forgot the taste of fears.

The time has been, my senses would have cooled

To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair {the hair on my scalp}

Would at dismal treatise {gloomy story} rouse and stir

As life were in 't. I have supped full with horrors;

Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,

Cannot once start me. {re-enter Seyton

Wherefore was that cry?

Seyton: The queen, my lord, is dead.

Macbeth: She should have died hereafter; {book says: she was bound to die sometime} {time theme}

There would have been a time {theme} for such a word

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow {time theme}

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day {theme}

To the last syllable of recorded time {theme}

And all our yesterdays {theme} have lighted {theme} fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! {theme}

Life's but a walking shadow, {light dark theme} a poor player

That struts and frets his hour {theme} upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

signifying nothing. {enter messenger

Though comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.

Messenger: Gracious my lord,

I should report that which I say I saw,

But I know not how to do it.

Macbeth: Well, say, sir.

Messenger: As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

I looked toward Birnam, and anon, methought,

The wood began to move.

Macbeth: Liar and slave!

Messenger: Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so.

Within this three mile may you see it coming;

I say, a moving grove.

Act IV Scene 1 3rd app. "Macbeth shall never vanquished be until, Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill, shall come against him."

Themes

(Blood), Time, sleep, light/dark, (Night), fire

Comments

Macbeth

Think about what they're thinking

Act 5 Scene 5 beginning of scene    I say a moving grove [My recollection is that when it was announced by Mr. Johnson that we would each read & discuss a scene, my arm hit the air as fast as could be. I'd recently watched an acting program with Ian McKellen in which that very scene was performed and I LOVED (and still love) it.]

Act 5 Scene 5

Macbeth: Hang out our banners on the outward walls

The cry is still "they come!" our castle's strength

will laugh a siege to score; here let them lie {sleep theme}

Till famine and the ague eat them up.

Were they not forced with those that should be ours {reinforced with those who have deserted}

We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,

And beat them backward home. {a cry of women within

What is that noise?

Seyton: It is the cry of women, my good lord.

Macbeth: I have almost forgot the taste of fears.

The time has been, my senses would have cooled

To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair {the hair on my scalp}

Would at dismal treatise {gloomy story} rouse and stir

As life were in 't. I have supped full with horrors;

Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,

Cannot once start me. {re-enter Seyton

Wherefore was that cry?

Seyton: The queen, my lord, is dead.

Macbeth: She should have died hereafter; {book says: she was bound to die sometime} {time theme}

There would have been a time {theme} for such a word

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow {time theme}

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day {theme}

To the last syllable of recorded time {theme}

And all our yesterdays {theme} have lighted {theme} fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! {theme}

Life's but a walking shadow, {light dark theme} a poor player

That struts and frets his hour {theme} upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

signifying nothing. {enter messenger

Though comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.

Messenger: Gracious my lord,

I should report that which I say I saw,

But I know not how to do it.

Macbeth: Well, say, sir.

Messenger: As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

I looked toward Birnam, and anon, methought,

The wood began to move.

Macbeth: Liar and slave!

Messenger: Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so.

Within this three mile may you see it coming;

I say, a moving grove.

Act IV Scene 1 3rd app. "Macbeth shall never vanquished be until, Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill, shall come against him."

Themes

(Blood), Time, sleep, light/dark, (Night), fire

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