LearnHub

SCENE II
A camp near Forres.

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

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

MALCOLM
This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought
'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.

Sergeant
Doubtful it stood;
As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
And choke their art. ³ The merciless Macdonwald-
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that ⁴
The multiplying villanies of nature⁵
Do swarm upon him - from the western isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; ⁶
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak:
For brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name -
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

DUNCAN
O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!

Sergeant
As whence the sun 'gins his reflection ⁷
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,
So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had with valour arm'd
Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage, ⁸
With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men
Began a fresh assault.

DUNCAN
Dismay'd not this
Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Sergeant
Yes;
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. ⁹
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorise another Golgotha,
I cannot tell.
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

DUNCAN
So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;
They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons.

Exit Sergeant, attended

Who comes here?

Enter ROSS.

MALCOLM
The worthy thane of Ross.

LENNOX
What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
That seems to speak things strange.

ROSS
God save the king!

DUNCAN
Whence camest thou, worthy thane?

ROSS
From Fife, great king;
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
And fan our people cold. ¹⁰ Norway himself,
With terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, ¹¹
Confronted him with self-comparisons, ¹²
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm.
Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude,
The victory fell on us.

DUNCAN
Great happiness!

ROSS
That now
Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition: ¹³
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch ¹⁴
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

DUNCAN
No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our bosom interest: ¹⁵ go pronounce his present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.

ROSS
I'll see it done.

DUNCAN
What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.

Exeunt.

FOOTNOTES

¹ "Alarum within" means a call to arms (trumpets) heard offstage.
² He can report on the latest conditions
³ "Choke their art" refers to the swimmers impeding each other's skill - imagery of two drowning swimmers clawing at each other to stay alive.
⁴ It is no surprise that someone so merciless as the scoundrel Macdonwald has turned out to be a traitor, because of his merciless nature.
⁵ The growing forces of evil
⁶ Kerns are Irish or Scottish foot soldiers, while gallowglasses were Celtic warriors.
⁷ From where the sun rises (in the east).
⁸ "Surveying vantage" means examining his chances
⁹The Captain humorously answers that Macbeth and Banquo were as frightened of Norway's army as an eagle is of a sparrow, or a lion is of a hare.
¹⁰ The Norweigan flags mock the Scottish sky and caused fear in the hearts of the people.
¹¹ Bellona is the Roman goddess of war, so he refers to Macbeth's unsurpassed skill on the battlefield as Bellona's husband, clad in strong armour.
¹² This showed the king that he had an equal in Macbeth to compare himself with.
¹³ He desires a truce.
¹⁴ Inchcolm, an island in the Firth of Forth.
¹⁵ Betray the matter most important to Duncan - the welfare of Scotland. Note that Duncan uses the royal plural.

SUMMARY

At a military camp near his palace at Forres, King Duncan of Scotland speaks with a sargeant who was wounded helping Duncan's son Malcolm escape capture by the Irish. King Duncan asks for news about the Scots' battle with the Irish invaders (led by the rebel Macdonwald). The captain replies that the Scottish generals Macbeth and Banquo fought with great courage and violence.

The captain asks Duncan how Macbeth killed the traitorous Macdonwald. As the captain is carried off to have his wounds attended to, the thane/official of Ross, a Scottish nobleman, enters and tells the king that the traitorous thane of Cawdor has been defeated and the army of Norway has been repelled. Duncan decrees that the thane of Cawdor be put to death and that Macbeth, the hero of the victorious army, be given Cawdor's title. Ross leaves to deliver the news to Macbeth.