Annotated Text of Macbeth: Act I Scene II

The Three Witches

The tragic drama Macbeth written by William Shakespeare requires an alert reader. The ISC students will therefore do well to read the following annotated text of Macbeth Act I Scene II with all the devotion that this particular tragic drama of William Shakespeare deserves. This is the minimum prerequisite for rendering a classy analysis of Macbeth.

In the tragic drama Macbeth, we witness the protagonist coming back having quelled a revolt against the king in this scene. At one point of time of the civil war, as described by this annotated text of Macbeth Act I Scene II, the rebels come back with renewed forces though the brave and erstwhile loyal cousin to the king, had almost overcome them. Only a dramatist of the stature of William Shakespeare could have conveyed so much factual information in not so long a scene. Any analysis of Macbeth on the part of the ISC students, would be incomplete and ineffectual if he or she doesn’t study the tragic drama Macbeth in an animated manner.

All ISC students in India need also familiarise themselves with the sources of the play, Holinshed’s history and the artistic transformation of the same by the ‘bard’ of the Arden to do justice before attempting an analysis of Macbeth.

Act I Scene II

A camp near Forres

Alarum (noise) within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants meeting a bleeding Sergeant.

Duncan: What bloody (blood-stained) man is that? He can report. (he has can tell me what has happened) As seemth (seems) by his plight (troubles), of the revolt
The newest state (latest developments).

Malcolm: This is the sergeant,
Who, like a good and hardy solider, fought
‘Gainst my captivity (to prevent my being taken prisoner). Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil (fight)
As thou dids’t leave it.

Sergeant: Doubtful it stood;
As two spent (exhausted) swimmers, that do cling together
And choke (hamper) their art (skills). The merciless Macdonwald-
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that (to that end)
The multiplying villainies of nature (increasing vices of human nature)
Do swarm (crowd) upon him—from the western isles
Of kerns (light-armed foot soldiers) and gallow-glasses ( heavily armed troops) is supplied;
And fortune (luck), on his damned quarrel smiling (favouring him),
Show’d like a rebel’s whore (prostitute): but all’s too weak(it is of no consequence to him)
For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—
Disdaining fortune (challenging fate), with his brandish’d steel (brandishing his sword),
Which smoked (dripping with blood) with bloody execution (deeds of slaughter),
Like valour’s minion (favourite) carv’d out (cut through) his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam’d (ripped open) him from the nave (navel) to the chaps (jaws),
And fix’d his head upon our battlements.

Duncan: O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!

Sergeant: As whence the sun ‘gins (begins) his reflection
Shipwrecking storms and direful (dreadful) thunders break;
So from that spring (source), whence comfort seem’d to come,
Discomfort swell. (setbacks strengthen) Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had, with valour arm’d,
Compell’d these skipping (light-footed) kerns to trust their heels (to take to flight)
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage (discovering opportunity),
With furbish’d (burnished) arms and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

To be continued..............