A camp near Forres — the bloody captain's report

A camp near Forres. Duncan, his sons Malcolm and Donalbain, and his lords await news of the battle. A wounded captain staggers in. He gives the first of the play's two long battle reports. The rebel Macdonwald, supplied with foot soldiers and gallowglasses from the Western Isles, had nearly turned the battle until Macbeth — "valour's minion" — carved his way through the enemy line, met Macdonwald face to face, and "unseamed him from the nave to the chops" before fixing his head on the battlements. Then a fresh attack from Norway. Macbeth and Banquo, "as cannons overcharged with double cracks," redoubled their blows and held the field.

The captain, faint from his own wounds, is led off to the surgeons. Ross and Angus arrive with the rest of the news. The Thane of Cawdor, trusted by Duncan, has secretly fought on the Norwegian side; the battle has been won; the Norwegian king Sweno has begged for a peace treaty and will pay ten thousand dollars at Saint Colme's Inch for the right to bury his dead. Cawdor is in custody.

Duncan responds with the line that begins the play's plot proper. "No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, and with his former title greet Macbeth." The transfer is unwitting on Duncan's side; he is rewarding heroism. From the audience's point of view, having heard the witches in the previous scene, the line is the trapdoor opening. The first of the three prophecies — that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor — is now in motion. Macbeth himself does not yet know. He is somewhere else on the heath, walking toward the witches, who are waiting for him.