Country near Dunsinane — Birnam Wood
Malcolm gives the order that turns the witches' prophecy against Macbeth.
Summary
Open country in front of Birnam Wood. The army has arrived: Malcolm at the head, with old Siward and his son, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, and the rest of the lords, with drums and colours. Malcolm asks how near the day is when "chambers will be safe" — when houses in Scotland will once again be safe to sleep in. Menteith answers: very near.
Malcolm gives the order. "Let every soldier hew him down a bough and bear't before him: thereby shall we shadow the numbers of our host, and make discovery err in report of us." The reasoning is purely tactical. The branches will conceal the size of the advancing army from Macbeth's scouts on the walls; reports will undercount; surprise will be greater. There is no mention, in any of the lines, of the witches' prophecy. Malcolm, Siward, Macduff — none of the army's leadership has heard the prophecy. The order is military.
The audience, who has heard the prophecy, recognises immediately what has happened. The third apparition told Macbeth he was safe "until great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him." Macbeth, hearing it, was exultant: trees do not march. The trees are now, by an entirely ordinary decision, marching. The witches' word, which seemed impossible, is being made true by a sergeant-major's logic in the woods. The scene is roughly fifteen lines long. It is the play's quiet demonstration that the prophecies will all come true, that none of them mean what Macbeth thought they meant, and that the trap Hecate prepared has just snapped shut without anyone in the army knowing they have closed it.
- Scene 1Thunder, lightning, an open desolate place. Three witches meet to plan their next encounter. They will meet again on the heath...
- Scene 2Duncan and his lords at a camp near Forres receive reports from the battle. A wounded captain describes how Macbeth carved his way...
- Scene 3Macbeth and Banquo, riding home from the battle, meet the witches on the heath. The witches hail Macbeth three times: Thane of...
- Scene 4At Forres. Duncan asks whether Cawdor has been executed; Malcolm reports the old traitor "very frankly" begged the king's pardon....
- Scene 5Inverness. Lady Macbeth, alone, reads Macbeth's letter recounting the prophecy. She fears he is too "full o' the milk of human...
- Scene 6Outside Inverness. Duncan and his retinue arrive at the castle. Duncan, looking up at the walls, says "this castle hath a pleasant...
- Scene 7During the banquet for Duncan. Macbeth steps out alone and delivers the play's clearest argument against the act he is about to...
- Scene 8Past midnight in the courtyard at Inverness. Banquo and Fleance walk through with a torch — Banquo cannot sleep, troubled by the...
- Scene 9Lady Macbeth waits in the antechamber, slightly drunk on the wine she has used to drug the grooms. Macbeth returns from Duncan's...
- Scene 10The knocking continues. The porter, hung over, drags himself to the gate while pretending to be hell's gatekeeper, admitting an...
- Scene 11Outside the castle the next morning. An old man tells Ross what the night was like — the sun has not risen, a falcon was killed by...
- Scene 12Forres. Macbeth is now king. Banquo, alone, speaks the suspicion the audience has been waiting for — Macbeth has played most...
- Scene 13Lady Macbeth, alone, finds the crown empty: "naught's had, all's spent, where our desire is got without content." It is the play's...
- Scene 14A park near the palace, near sunset. Three murderers — Macbeth has sent a third the others did not know about — wait by the road....
- Scene 15The royal banquet. The first murderer appears at a side door with blood on his face: Banquo is dead, Fleance has escaped. Macbeth...
- Scene 16A short scene on the heath. Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and queen of the witches, meets the three Weird Sisters and scolds...
- Scene 17A private room in the palace. Lennox and another lord, alone, talk politics in a way no one would dare in front of the king....
- Scene 18A dark cave. The witches at their cauldron — "double, double, toil and trouble" — conjure three apparitions for Macbeth: beware...
- Scene 19Macduff's castle in Fife. Lady Macduff is angry that her husband has fled to England, leaving her and the children unprotected....
- Scene 20England. Macduff has come to ask Malcolm to lead an army into Scotland. Malcolm, cautious, tests him with a long speech pretending...
- Scene 21Dunsinane Castle, late at night. A doctor and a gentlewoman watch Lady Macbeth walk through her own castle in her sleep, candle in...
- Scene 22Open country near Dunsinane. The Scottish lords are on the move with their forces, going to meet Malcolm and Siward and the...
- Scene 23Inside Dunsinane. Macbeth refuses to be afraid. The witches told him no man of woman born could harm him; they told him he was...
- Scene 24Open country in front of Birnam Wood. The combined English and Scottish army has arrived. Malcolm gives an order with both a...
- Scene 25Inside Dunsinane. Macbeth, in armour, paces. A cry of women is heard within the castle. Seyton brings the news: "the queen, my...
- Scene 26A plain in front of Dunsinane. The army has arrived at the walls carrying the boughs they cut at Birnam. Malcolm gives the order...
- Scene 27Another part of the plain, in the heat of the battle. Macbeth, still believing no man of woman born can harm him, is fighting...
- Scene 28Macduff finds Macbeth at last. Macbeth, still trusting the prophecy, would rather not fight him — "my soul is too much charged...