Macbeth - Act 5 Scene 8
Another part of the field.
Enter MACBETH
It was a practice in ancient Rome for defeated or disgraced warriors to kill themselves by falling on their own swords. Brutus does this in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, as does Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra. Macbeth would rather die fighting than accept defeat.
MACBETH
Why should I play the Roman fool, and die
On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes
Do better upon them.
Enter MACDUFF
MACDUFF
Turn, hell-hound, turn!
This line could indicate remorse on Macbeth's part, or could be used to goad Macduff into combat.
MACBETH
Of all men else I have avoided thee.
But get thee back; my soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.
MACDUFF
I have no words:
My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!
They fight
Like Macbeth's earlier line, this speech could be taken as boasting, or as a warning to Macduff to give up and save his own life.
MACBETH
Thou losest labour.
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,
To one of woman born.
MACDUFF
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripped.
Like Macbeth's earlier line, this speech could be taken as boasting, or as a warning to Macduff to give up and save his own life.
MACBETH
Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cowed my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
"Rarer monsters" is a reference to traveling freak-shows. Macduff is threatening to turn Macbeth into an exhibit for public entertainment. Similar references appear in Much Ado About Nothing and Antony and Cleopatra.
The thought of captivity and humiliation fills Macbeth with new determination, as he would rather die in combat than live in disgrace.
MACDUFF
Then yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time:
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted on a pole, and underwrit,
“Here may you see the tyrant.”
MACBETH
I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”
The Folio stage directions call for Macbeth and Macduff to exit fighting, then re-enter, at which point Macbeth is slain. The exit and re-entry may have allowed for the preparation of fake blood (or even a fake head), to make the death more spectacular. The fight may have ended in an upper gallery or an inner stage, so that Macbeth's body wouldn't have to be carried off before Malcolm and the Thanes enter.
Enter fighting, and Macbeth slain.
Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, MALCOLM, SIWARD,
ROSS, the other Thanes, and Soldiers
MALCOLM
I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.
SIWARD
Some must go off: and yet, by these I see,
So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
MALCOLM
Macduff is missing, and your noble son.
Ross presumably arrives separately from Siward and Malcolm, possibly from another door, in order to report Young Siward's death.
ROSS
Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt:
He only lived but till he was a man;
The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he died.
SIWARD
Then he is dead?
ROSS
Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow
Must not be measured by his worth, for then
It hath no end.
SIWARD
Had he his hurts before?
This exchange echoes Ross' report to Macduff in 4.3. Where Macduff was crippled by grief and then determined to revenge, Siward is stoically accepting of his son's death, once he determines that Young Siward died honorably.
ROSS
Ay, on the front.
SIWARD
Why then, God's soldier be he!
Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
I would not wish them to a fairer death:
And so, his knell is knolled.
MALCOLM
He's worth more sorrow,
And that I'll spend for him.
SIWARD
He's worth no more
They say he parted well, and paid his score:
And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.
Many plays in Shakespeare's day called for prop heads, and it was an item that most companies would own. Traitors in these days would be beheaded, and their heads would be covered in pitch and placed on display above Traitor's Gate in London. The sight of a criminal's head on display would be familiar to Shakespeare's audience, and linked to the operations of justice.
This scene visually echoes 1.4, where Duncan stood as legitimate King of Scotland, surrounded by his thanes.
The creation of earldoms signals a change from the transferable titles earlier in the play (when the title of thane could be given or taken away by the king), to a system of permanent titles, inherited through birthright.
The news that Lady Macbeth killed herself is not surprising, given her mental state and the Doctor's warning in 5.1, but it is unusual to have the news come from Malcolm, and at this late moment in the play.
Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's head
MACDUFF
Hail, King! For so thou art: behold, where stands
The usurper's cursèd head: the time is free:
I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
Hail, King of Scotland!
ALL
Hail, King of Scotland!
Flourish
MALCOLM
We shall not spend a large expense of time
Before we reckon with your several loves,
And make us even with you. My Thanes and kinsmen,
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland
In such an honour named. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exiled friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like Queen,
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life; this, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
We will perform in measure, time and place:
So, thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.
Flourish. Exeunt