The country near Dunsinane — the lords

Open country near Dunsinane. The Scottish lords — Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, with drums and colours — are on the move with their forces. They are heading to Birnam Wood to meet Malcolm, Siward, and Macduff and the English army. The scene is short and almost entirely composed of evaluations of Macbeth from the inside of the rebellion. Menteith reports that Malcolm and his uncle, the good Siward, and Macduff, "with goodly forces of English power," are within striking distance.

Caithness asks: "what does the tyrant?" The answer is unflattering. He has fortified Dunsinane and is preparing for siege. Some say he is mad; others, less hateful, call it valiant fury. What is clear is that he no longer has any practical control. "He cannot buckle his distempered cause within the belt of rule." Angus expands the figure. "Now does he feel his secret murders sticking on his hands; now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach; those he commands move only in command, nothing in love. Now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief." It is the play's clearest political summation of where Macbeth has ended up.

They march on. The scene is roughly thirty lines long and does not need to be longer. What it does is establish, with the precision of an inventory, that the country has turned. Most of Macbeth's men, says Caithness, "obey his commands out of fear, not love." His title fits him like stolen clothes. The English army is across the border with Malcolm at its head. The Scottish lords are openly with the rebellion. Dunsinane is no longer a centre of state; it is a position to be reduced. The next time we see Macbeth he will be inside it, calling for his armour, and learning that the country has emptied around him.