When Duncan was the king of Scotland, there lived a brave General who was looked up to with high esteem throughout Scotland for his great valour and skill in wars. He was also a close relative of the old king. He was Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis. Of late, he defeated a rebel army assisted by the troops of Norway in great numbers-he emerged as "valour's minion" and "Bellona's bridegroom"-his valour and courage demanded praise from all and sundry.
The two Scottish Generals, Macbeth and Banquo, were returning from the great battle. There was thunder and lightning. On the way they were stopped by the strange appearance of three figures that looked like women, except that they had beards, and their withered skin and wild dresses made them look like unearthly creatures. They were dancing, they were singing:
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair Hover through the fog and filthy air."
As they saw the two Generals, the first witch saluted Macbeth with the title of "Thane of Glamis. The general was scarcely startled to find himself known by such creatures. The second witch addressed him as the "Thane of Cawdor' to which he had no pretensions; and the third told him, "You will be the king of Scotland hereafter." Such a prophetic greeting might well amaze him for he knew that as long as the king's sons survived, he could scarcely hope to succeed to the throne. By this time, Banquo was curious to know the reason why the witches had little to say about him whereas they kindled hope in the heart of his dearest friend. So the witches turned towards Banquo and told him in somewhat riddling terms: to be lesser than Macbeth and greater, not so happy, but much happier. They also prophesied that although Banquo would never reign as the king of Scotland, yet his successors would be the kings. And then they turned into thin air and vanished, by which the Generals realized the weird sisters to be witches.
While they stood there pondering on the strangeness of this adventure, there arrived certain envoys from the king, who were empowered to confer upon Macbeth the title of the Thane of Cawdor. It was an event so miraculously corresponding with the prediction of the witches that Macbeth stood there wrapped in amazement, unable to respond to the greetings of the envoys, Ross & Angus. Hopes began to swell in his heart with this Thane of Cawdorship and he was now thinking of the prediction of the third witch. Turning to Banquo, he said, "Do you not hope that your children shall be the kings of the future, since, what the witches promised to me has so wonderfully come to pass?" "That hope," replied Banquo, "might enkindle you to aim at the throne, but oftentimes these ministers of darkness tell us truths in little things, to betray us into deeds of greatest consequence."
However, the prophesies of the witches had sunk too deep into the mind of Macbeth. He told his wife about the strange prediction of the three witches, and also its partial accomplishment. Lady Macbeth spurred on the reluctant purpose of Macbeth who felt compunction at the thoughts of blood. She did not cease to represent the murder of the king as a step absolutely necessary to the fulfillment of the flattering prophecy. It happened that at this time King Duncan came to visit Macbeth's castle along with his two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain and numerous Thanes and attendants to honour Macbeth for his triumph against the rebels.
Inverness, the castle of Macbeth was pleasantly situated on a hill and the air about it was sweet and wholesome. The nests that the swallows or the marlets had built under all the jutting friezes and buttresses of the building. The king was extremely pleased as he entered the palace not only for its wonderful ambience but also due to the attention and respect of his hostess, Lady Macbeth, who had developed the art of camouflaging her treacherous purposes with smiles and charming etiquette.
Tired of his long journey the king went early to bed. It was the middle of the night. Now over half the world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse sleeping men's minds, and none but the wolf or the murderer is out for hunt. This was the time when Lady Macbeth woke up to plot the murder of the king. She would not have undertaken a deed so abhorrent to her sex, and she was well aware of her husband's nature that was too full of the milk of human kindness to execute a contrived murder. She knew that her husband was ambitious but he was not prepared for the height of crime which commonly accompanies inordinate ambition. She had won his consent about the murder, but she doubted his resolution, and she feared that the natural tenderness of his disposition would defeat the purpose. So, armed with a dagger, she approached the king's chamber. There she found Duncan in sound sleep and as she viewed him earnestly, there was something in his face which resembled her own father. Thus she had not the courage to proceed further.
She returned to confer with her husband. He thought that there were strong reasons against the murder. Macbeth was not only a subject but also a close relative to Duncan. Besides, he had been a host to the king, so his duty would be to protect the king from the threat of the murderers, not to bear the dagger himself. He also considered how just and merciful a king this Duncan had been, how clear of offence to his subjects, how loving to his nobility that his subjects are doubly bound to avenge his death. Moreover, by the favours of the king, Macbeth stood high in the opinion of all sorts of men, and how would those honours
be stained by the reputation of so foul a murder!
In these conflicts of the mind Lady Macbeth found that her husband had resolved to proceed no further. But she was a woman not easily shaken from her purpose. She began to pour in at his ears words tinged with a "valour of her tongue" infusing a portion of her own spirit into his mind, assigning reason upon reason why he should not shrink from the resolution he had earlier undertaken, and how the action of one short night would give to all their nights and days to come sovereign power and royalty! She even accused him of cowardice and fickleness for reverting to his decision. She also told him how practicable it would be to lay the guilt of the deed on the drunken grooms who were sleeping outside the king's chamber.
So Macbeth took the dagger in his hand, and softly stole in the dark to the room where Duncan slept. As he advanced towards the bed-chamber he visualized another dagger hanging in the air with the handle pointed towards him and there were drops of blood on the tip and the blade of the dagger. Macbeth tried to grasp the dagger, but it faded into the air. To his realisation it was only a mere phantasm created from his hot and oppressed brain for the business he had in hand.
Overcoming this fear, Macbeth entered Duncan's room, and slew the hapless king. Just as he was about to leave the room, one of the grooms, who was sleeping adjacent to the chamber, laughed in his sleep, and the cried out, "Murder" for which both of the grooms woke up; but then, one of them said, "God bless us!" and the other responded, "Amen", and went off to sleep. Macbeth also tried to say "Amen", but the word seemed to be stuck in his throat, and he could not utter it. He felt that he heard a voice which said, "Sleep no more, Macbeth murders sleep, the innocent sleep, that nourishes life. Glamis has murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more."
Macbeth thus returned to his wife who by now started to think that he had failed in his objective. He came in such distracted a state that she reproached for his want of resoluteness, and sent him to wash his hands of the blood that stained then. Meanwhile she took the dagger to stain the cheeks of the grooms with blood in order to make it seem their guilt.
Day broke, and with it the discovery of the murder, and though Macbeth and his wife showed their utmost grief, and the evidence of murder was sufficiently strong against the grooms, yet the entire suspicion fell upon Macbeth. Duncan's two sons fled immediately. Malcolm, the eldest, sought for refuge in the English court, while Donalbain, the youngest son, fled to Ireland. With the death of the king, the throne being vacated, and the sons being unavailable, Macbeth who was the next claimer was crowned the king of Scotland. Thus the prediction of the weird sisters was literally accomplished.
Macbeth and his queen could not forget the prophecy of the weird sisters that though Macbeth would be the king, the children of Banquo, and not of Macbeth, would be the kings after him. The thought, that they had defiled their hands with blood by committing regicide, only to place the posterity of Banquo upon the throne had rankled within then. So Macbeth decided to kill Banquo and his son Fleance to nullify the prediction of the weird sisters. To solemnise the kingship a banquet was arranged. All the chief Thanes along with Banquo and Fleance were invited. Macbeth appointed some hired assassins and beset them on the way Banquo and his son were supposed to pass. The assassins pounced upon them and killed Banquo, but Fleance managed to escape.
Meanwhile, Macbeth and his wife played the role of perfect hosts with affable and graceful manners that conciliated everyone present in the banquet. Macbeth discoursed freely with the Thanes and noblemen and regretted the absence of his dearest friend Banquo. No sooner did he lament for his friend whom he was missing in the banquet, than Macbeth saw the ghost of Banquo occupying the seat reserved for him. At this horrible sight, his cheeks became white with fear, and he stood quite unmannered and unnerved with his eyes fixed upon the ghost. His queen and all other nobles saw nothing, but perceived him gazing upon an empty chair. They took it to be a fit of distraction, and Lady Macbeth even reproached him, and told him that it was the same fancy which made him see the dagger in the air when he was about to murder Duncan. But Macbeth continued to visualize the ghost of Banquo, and gave no heed to all the noblemen could say, and addressed the ghost with distracted words. Lady Macbeth, fearing the dreadful secret would be disclosed, in great haste dismissed the guests, excusing the infirmity of Macbeth as a disorder he was often troubled with.
Macheth and his wife had their sleeps affected with terrible dreams, and the blood of Banquo troubled them not more than the escape of Fleance, whom they now looked upon as father to a line of kings who would keep their posterity on the throne. With these miserable thoughts they found no peace, and Macbeth decided to visit the heath once more in search of the three weird sisters to know his final outcome.
He found them in a cave near the heath where they were engaged in preparing their dreadful charms by which they conjured up infernal spirits to reveal his futurity. Their horrid ingredients were toads, bats, and serpents, the eye of a newt, the tongue of a dog, the leg of a lizard, the wing of a night-owl, the scale of a dragon, the tooth of a wolf, the mummy of a witch, the root of poisonous hemlock, the gall of a goat, the liver of a Jew, and the finger of a dead child. All these were set on to boil in a huge cauldron, which was cooled with baboon's blood; to the potion they poured in the blood of a sow that had eaten her young, and they threw into the flame the grease that had sweaten from a murderer's gibbet. By these charms they invoked the infernal spirits to answer their questions.
Macbeth demanded to know from them whether he would have his doubts resolved by them or by their masters, the Spirits. He was not daunted by the ceremonies that he saw and boldly said, "Where are they? Let me see them." So they called the Spirits. There were three of them. The first one looked like an armed head, and he called Macbeth by name and told him, "Beware of the Thane of Fife." Macbeth thanked him for the caution. He was jealous of Macduff, the Thane of Fife.
The second Spirit arose in the likeness of a bloody child. He called Macbeth by name, and told him to have no fear of death, but to laugh and scorn at the power of man born naturally of a woman's womb. He advised him to be bold, bloody and resolute. "Then live Macduff," remarked the king, "What need do I fear of you, Macduff? But yet I will make assurance doubly sure. You shall not live so that I may tell the pale-hearted Fear that it lies, and sleep in spite of thunder."
The third spirit arose in the form of a crowned child with a tree in his hand. He also called Macbeth by name, and comforted him against conspiracies, and told him that he should never be vanquished, until the wood of Birnam to Dunsinane Hill would come.
"Who can unfix the forest, and move it from its earth-bound roots?" said the king. "I see I shall live the usual period of man's life, and not be cut off by a violent death. But my heart throbs to know one thing: tell me, if you can tell me so much, if Banquo's issue shall ever reign this kingdom?"
Here the cauldron sank into the ground, and a noise of music was heard, and eight shadowy, like kings, passed by Macbeth, and Banquo was the last figure, all smeared with blood, and Banquo smiled at Macbeth. Banquo bore a glass which showed the figures of many more, and pointed to the images. Macbeth realized that these were the posterity of Banquo, who would reign after him in Scotland. The three witches danced with a sound of soft music, and making a show of duty and welcome to Macbeth, vanished in the air.
The first news that Macbeth got soon after coming out of the witches' cave was that Macduff, the Thane of Fife, had fled to England, to join the army which was forming against him under the leadership of Malcolm to displace Macbeth, and set Malcolm, the right heir, upon the throne of Scotland. Stung with rage, Macbeth set upon the castle of Macduff. Macduff's wife and children, whom the Thane had left behind in Scotland, were brutally slaughtered.
These merciless activities had gradually alienated the nobility from Macbeth. Many fled to join Malcolm and Macduff, who were now approaching with a powerful army, which had been raised in England, and the rest secretly wished success to their arms, though for fear of Macbeth they could not take active part. Everybody hated Macbeth, the tyrant. Nobody honoured him, but all suspected him, and he began to envy the condition of Duncan, who now slept soundly in his grave, against whom treason had done its worst. Neither steel nor poison, domestic malice nor foreign levies, could hurt him any longer.
Meanwhile the Queen, who had been the sole partner in his wickedness, in whose bosom he could sometimes seek a momentary repose from those terrible dreams which afflicted them both, passed away. Unable to bear the remorse of guilt she began to suffer from somnambulism and she ultimately died. Macbeth was left alone; he grew careless of life and longed for death. The near approach of Malcolm's army roused in him what remained of his ancient courage, and he determined to die with armour on his back. The hollow promises of the three witches had also filled in him a kind false confidence, and he remembered the prophecies of the spirits that no one born of a woman's womb could kill him. He also believed in the soothsaying that he could never be vanquished until Birnam wood would come to Dunsinane, which he thought was impossible. So he shut himself up in his own castle, which was thought to be absolutely impregnable, and waited for Malcolm to invade it.
Finally, a day came, when a messenger approached him, pale and trembling with fear, almost unable to report to Macbeth that which he had seen, and yet he averred that, as he stood on the hill for his watch, he chanced to see the Birnam and perceived the wood to be moving. "Liar", roared Macbeth, "if you speak false, you shall be hanged alive upon the next tree, till famine ends your life."
By now Macbeth had begun to doubt the equivocal sayings of the three spirits. He never feared of being vanquished till Bimam wood should advance towards Dunsinane, and now the wood did move. "However," said Macbeth, "if this which he vouches be true, let us take arms and move out. There is no fleeing from hence, nor staying in here. I begin to be weary of the sun, and wish my life is at an end." Saying these he sallied forth upon the besiegers who had now reached the castle.
The strange sight of the moving wood was easily solved. When the besieging army advanced towards the castle through the wood of Birnam, Malcolm, like an astute general, instructed all his soldiers to hew down a bough and bear it before them so that they could conceal the actual number of invaders to Macbeth. This marching of soldiers with boughs in their hands had appeared, from a distance, like a moving wood, and the messenger was evidently frightened. Thus the words of the spirits brought to pass, in a sense different from that in which Macbeth understood, and so he lost his confidence.
A fierce skirmish took place, in which Macbeth slaughtered all those who challenged him, until he faced Macduff, and remembering the caution of the spirit who had counselled him to stay away from the Thane of Fife, he would have turned back, but Macduff who had been seeking him through the whole fight, opposed his turning, and a fierce contest ensued. Macduff reproached him and called him a tyrant, murderer, hell-hound and a villain for brutally slaughtering his wife and his innocent children by hired murderers. Then Macbeth remembered the words of the spirit, and boldly proclaimed, "I bear a charmed life which must not yield to a man born naturally of a woman." At this Macduff snubbed him and declared that he was never, as the ordinary man is naturally born, but was untimely taken out from his mother's womb.
Macbeth lost his strength and resoluteness. He lamented, in future a man should never believe the lying equivocations of witches and juggling spirits, who deceive us in words that have double meanings, and while they keep their promise literally, they disappoint us
by providing different meanings. He then refused to fight against Macduff. Macduff who abhorred him, scornfully told him that they would imprison him and demonstrate him to the laity as a tyrant, quite like the way monsters are displayed. "Never." said Macbeth, "I will not live to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet." His valiance returned with despair and he threw upon Macduff who after a great struggle overpowered him and severed his head and presented it to the young and lawful new king. Malcolm, then, ascended the throne amid acclamations of the noblemen and the people of Scotland.