Macbeth Act Two – “There’s daggers in men’s smiles…”

Macbeth Act Two – “There’s daggers in men’s smiles…”

It is after midnight in Macbeth’s castle and Banquo and his son Fleance enter carrying torches. Banquo can’t get to sleep because of “cursed thoughts”. Banquo draws his sword when he sees another torch. It is Macbeth and a servant and Banquo and Macbeth talk about the three weird sisters and Banquo mentions that has thought much about the witches and that he even had a dream about them. Macbeth says that he does not think about the witches at all but says to Banquo that “…when we can entreat an hour to serve, we would spend it in some words upon that business…” Banquo agrees to this and he and Fleance exit.

Macbeth dismisses his servant and then a vision appears before him.

“Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;

And such an instrument I was to use.

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,

Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,

And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,

Which was not so before. There's no such thing:

It is the bloody business which informs

Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse

The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates

Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,

Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.

With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design

Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear

Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,

And take the present horror from the time,

Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.”

A bell tolls. Lady Macbeth is signaling that Duncan’s chamberlains are asleep. Macbeth sees his next actions as inevitable as he moves to the bedchamber of Duncan.

“I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.

Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell

That summons thee to heaven or to hell.”

Lady Macbeth enters and she remarks how she seems to be growing in boldness as her plan unfolds.

“That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;

What hath quench'd them hath given me fire.

Hark! Peace!

It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,

Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it:

The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms

Do mock their charge with snores…

I laid their daggers ready;

He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I had done't.”

Macbeth enters saying that Duncan has been killed but he seems to hear noises and is afraid. He claims that he thought he heard the chamberlains awake saying prays and claims that as he killed Duncan he heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep…” Lady Macbeth tries to calm her husband and even claims that all they need is a little water to wash away this business and then she notices that inside his bloodied hands he still carries the daggers.

“… Go get some water,

And wash this filthy witness from your hand.

Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

They must lie there: go carry them; and smear

The sleepy grooms with blood.”

Macbeth is distraught and refuses to go back into Duncan’s chamber. Lady Macbeth takes the daggers and goes back to plant them on the chamberlains and smear their faces with blood.

“Infirm of purpose!

Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead

Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood

That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,

I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal:

For it must seem their guilt.”

A knocking is heard from the South entry to the castle. Macbeth is startled and tries to desperately wash his hands of the blood.

“What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,

Making the green one red.”

The knocking continues as Lady Macbeth reenters and she washes her hands claiming that “A little water clears us of this deed…” She then hurries her and Macbeth back to their bedchamber. 

After the success of playing The Fool in ‘King Lear’, Robert Armin must have felt that there was not much for him to do in ‘Macbeth’. He had been pushing for Shakespeare to write a few dramatic parts for him as well but in the meantime, the entry of the Porter was his moment in ‘Macbeth’. He was only 43 or 44 when he played the Porter but he had been playing old drunkards from the age of 30 back in the Chandos company. When he entered as The Porter he knew how to be rude, crude and how to get laughs:

“Here's a knocking indeed! If a

man were porter of hell-gate, he should have

old turning the key.

Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of

Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged

himself on the expectation of plenty: come in

time; have napkins enow about you; here

you'll sweat for't.

Knock, knock! Who's there, in the other devil's

name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could

swear in both the scales against either scale;

who committed treason enough for God's sake,

yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come

in, equivocator.

Knock, knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an

English tailor come hither, for stealing out of

a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may

roast your goose.

Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you? But

this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter

it no further: I had thought to have let in

some of all professions that go the primrose

way to the everlasting bonfire.

Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter.”

Then the Porter opens the gate and Macduff and Lennox appear commenting on the slowness of the Porter to open the gate the Porter says that he was up late carousing and talks about how drink brigs red noses, sleepiness, urination and “provokes and unprovokes” sexual feelings.

Macbeth then enters, and Macduff asks if the king is awake because he had asked Macduff to call early for him. Macbeth takes Macduff to the Duncan’s chamber but does not enter. Macduff enters and Lennox talks to Macbeth about the storms of that evening. Then Macduff re-enters in shock at what he has discovered and shouts for the alarm bells to be rung: “O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart

Cannot conceive nor name thee…

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope

The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence

The life o' the building…

Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight

With a new Gorgon: do not bid me speak;

See, and then speak yourselves.

Awake, awake!

Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason!

Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,

And look on death itself! up, up, and see

The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!

As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,

To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.”

Macbeth and Lennox go into Duncan’s bedchamber just as Lady Macbeth enters remarking her horror that such a deed should be done in her house. Macduff says it would be too cruel a deed wherever it was done. Then Macbeth and Lennox come out of the bedchamber and Duncan’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain enter also. Macbeth then admits that he just killed the chamberlains. Macduff asks him why he killed them and Macbeth replies:

“Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:

The expedition my violent love

Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin laced with his golden blood;

And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature

For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,

Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers

Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart

Courage to make 's love kno wn?”

Lady Macbeth then faints, either as a distraction or because she is genuinely overcome by the events and her husband’s actions. Macduff and Banquo get someone to attend to Lady Macbeth. Malcolm and Donalbain quietly communicate to one another that they are not safe here. Banquo, Macbeth and Macduff decide to bring everybody together to discuss this this “treasonous malice”. Malcolm and Donalbain are left on stage and they decide that the safest course for them is to escape. Malcolm decides to flee south to England and Donalbain decides to go to Ireland.

As costumes and set are changed for Act Three, the Thane of Ross, enters with an old man and they discuss the strange events including unnatural events such as an owl killing a falcon and one of Duncan’s thoroughbreds eating another horse. Macduff enters and he tells of how Macbeth  has been declared king and that Macbeth and others go to Scone for him to be crowned. Macduff mentions that suspicion for the organization of Duncan’s murder seems to now lie with Duncan’s own sons Malcolm and Donalbain who left soon after the murder. When asked whether he will attend Macbeth’s coronation. Macduff replies that he will return to his home in Fife. Ross exits to attend the crowning of Macbeth.