ACT 1

Scene 1

Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches.

FIRST WITCH When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

SECOND WITCH When the hurly-burly’s done,When the battle’s lost and won.

THIRD WITCH That will be ere the set of sun.

FIRST WITCH Where the place?

SECOND WITCH Upon the heath.

THIRD WITCH There to meet with Macbeth.

FIRST WITCH I come, Graymalkin.

SECOND WITCH Paddock calls.

THIRD WITCH Anon.

ALL Fair is foul, and foul is fair; Hover through the fog and filthy air. 45 secs

Scene 2

As the play opens, Scotland is embroiled in a fierce conflict. The scene is chaotic and intense, as King Duncan’s forces are battling against the
rebellious Macdonwald, supported by Norwegian invaders.

Duncan: What bloody man is that? He can report, as seemeth by his plight, of the revolt the newest state.

Sergeant: Hail, brave friend! The merciless Macdonwald was supplied with men from the Western Isles. But all's too weak, for brave Macbeth, well
he deserves that name, with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution, carved out his passage till he faced the slave and unseamed
him from the nave to the chops.

Duncan: O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!

Sergeant: As from the spring whence comfort seemed to come, discomfort swells. The Norweyan lord, with fresh supplies of men, began a new
assault.

Duncan: Dismayed not this our sergeants, Macbeth and Banquo?

Sergeant: Yes, as sparrows dismay eagles. They redoubled strokes upon the foe, till they bathed in reeking wounds. But I am faint. My gashes cry for
help.

Duncan: Go, get him surgeons.

The victory is decisive, and the Scottish forces stand triumphant. Macbeth’s heroic deeds in battle do not go unnoticed. He is hailed as a hero by his
peers, and King Duncan.

The Sergeant is led off by Attendants. Enter Ross.

Ross: God save the King.

Duncan: Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?

Ross: From Fife, great king, where the Norweyan banners flout the sky. But Macbeth, lapped in proof, confronted him and the victory fell on us.

Duncan: Great happiness! No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive. Go, pronounce his present death, and with his former title greet Macbeth.

Ross: I’ll see it done.

Macbeth’s actions on the battlefield earn him the title of Thane of Cawdor, a reward that comes with its own dark forebodings. 2:30 mins 3 total

Scene 3

First Witch: Where hast thou been, sister?

Second Witch: Killing swine.

Third Witch: Sister, where thou?

First Witch: A sailor’s wife had chestnuts and munched. “Give me,” quoth I. “Aroint thee, witch,” her husband’s to Aleppo gone. But I’ll do, I’ll do,
and I’ll do.

Second Witch: I’ll give thee a wind.

First Witch: Th’ art kind.

Third Witch: And I another.

First Witch: I have all the other. I’ll drain him dry. Sleep shall neither night nor day hang upon his lids. Though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be
tempest-tossed.

Second Witch: Show me.

First Witch: Here I have a pilot’s thumb. Drum within.

Third Witch: A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come.

All: The weird sisters, hand in hand,

Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about,

Thrice to thine and thrice to mine,

And thrice again to make up nine.

Peace, the charm's wound up.

Enter Macbeth and Banquo.

Macbeth: So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Banquo: How far is’t to Forres?—What are these, so withered, and so wild in their attire?—Live you? Or are you aught that man may question? You
seem to understand me.

Macbeth: Speak if you can. What are you?

First Witch: All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!

Second Witch: All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

Third Witch: All hail, Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter!

Banquo: I’ th’ name of truth, are you fantastical? My noble partner you greet with present grace and royal hope. To me you speak not. If you can
look into the seeds of time, speak, then, to me.

All Witches: Hail Banquo!

First Witch: Lesser than Macbeth and greater.

Second Witch: Not so happy, yet much happier.

Macbeth: Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more. By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis. But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor
lives. Say from whence you owe this strange intelligence. Speak, I charge you.

Witches vanish.

Banquo: The earth hath bubbles, and these are of them. Whither are they vanished?

Macbeth: Into the air. Would they had stayed!

Banquo: Were such things here as we do speak about? Or have we eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner?

Macbeth: Your children shall be kings.

Banquo: You shall be king.

Macbeth: And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?

Banquo: Those were the very and words.—Who’s here?

Ross: The King has received news of your success, Macbeth, and praises you. He has named you Thane of Cawdor.

Banquo: What, can the devil speak true?

Macbeth: The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?

Angus: The former Thane is to be executed for treason.

Macbeth: [Aside] Glamis and Thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind.

In the land of Scotland, where noble deeds and dark desires intertwine, Macbeth is being celebrated for his valor on the battlefield. But behind the
praise and honor lies a man with ambition as boundless as the sky, a man who will soon be ensnared by fate's cruel hand. The witches, those
mysterious agents of chaos, have whispered promises of power, planting the seeds of a treacherous path. And so begins our tale, where the line
between good and evil blurs, and where every choice leads closer to doom 5 min 7 mins total

Scene 4:

Duncan: Is execution done on Cawdor?

Malcolm: Not yet, but he confessed his treasons and showed deep repentance before his death.

Duncan: There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.

Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus.

Duncan: O worthiest cousin, more is thy due than more than all can pay.

Macbeth: The service and loyalty I owe in doing it pays itself. Your Highness’ part is to receive our duties, which we do everything to honor.

Duncan: Welcome hither. Noble Banquo, let me enfold thee and hold thee to my heart.

Banquo: There, if I grow, the harvest is your own.

Duncan: Sons, kinsmen, thanes, we will establish our estate upon Malcolm, whom we name hereafter the Prince of Cumberland. From hence to
Inverness and bind us further to you.

Macbeth: The rest is labor which is not used for you. I’ll be myself the harbinger and make joyful the hearing of my wife with your approach. So
humbly take my leave.

Duncan: My worthy Cawdor.

Macbeth, aside: The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o’erleap, for in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; let
not light see my black and deep desires.
Duncan: True, worthy Banquo. He is full so valiant, and in his commendations I am fed: it is a banquet to me.—Let’s after him, whose care is gone
before to bid us welcome. It is a peerless kinsman. 2 mins 9 total

Scene 5

Lady Macbeth (reading): "They met me in the day of success, and I have learned by the perfect’st report they have more in them than mortal
knowledge... Hail, king that shalt be... This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou might’st not lose the dues
of rejoicing by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee."

Lady Macbeth: Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o’ th’ milk of human
kindness to catch the nearest way. Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes
thee from the golden round.

A messenger enters.

Messenger: The King comes here tonight.

Lady Macbeth: Thou ’rt mad to say it. Is not thy master with him, who, were ’t so, would have informed for preparation?

Messenger: So please you, it is true. Our thane is coming. One of my fellows had the speed of him, who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
than would make up his message.

Lady Macbeth: Give him tending. He brings great news.

The messenger exits. Lady Macbeth is filled with dark ambition.

Lady Macbeth: The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements. Come, you spirits that tend on mortal
thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
that my keen knife see not the wound it makes.

Macbeth enters.

Lady Macbeth: Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, greater than both by the all-hail hereafter!

Macbeth: My dearest love, Duncan comes here tonight.

Lady Macbeth: And when goes hence?

Macbeth: Tomorrow, as he purposes.

Lady Macbeth: O, never shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters. To beguile the time, look
like the time. Bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue. Look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under ’t

Macbeth: We will speak further.

Lady Macbeth: Only look up clear. To alter favor ever is to fear. Leave all the rest to me.

They exit.

King Duncan arrives at Macbeth’s castle. He is enchanted by its tranquil and inviting atmosphere. Lady Macbeth greets Duncan with exaggerated
warmth and humility. She is a perfect hostess and a perfect actress. Duncan, charmed by Lady Macbeth’s hospitality, feels deeply honored and
reassured.

As the evening unfolds, King Duncan, lulled by the castle's serene atmosphere and Lady Macbeth’s warm hospitality, enjoys a false sense of security.
Unbeknownst to him, the castle's opulent halls are the stage for a grim conspiracy. 11: 30 total

Scene 7:

In the privacy of their chamber, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth convene in whispered, urgent tones. The air is thick with ambition and dread as they plot
the murder of the unsuspecting king

MACBETH: If it were done when ’tis done, then it were well it were done quickly. If the assassination could end it all, I’d do it now. But killing
Duncan will have consequences. We teach bloody lessons, and they return to haunt us. He’s here in double trust: First, as his kinsman and subject,
then, as his host. I should protect him, not kill him. Besides, he’s a good king, and I have no reason to do this, but my own ambition.
LADY MACBETH He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?

MACBETH We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people
LADY MACBETH: Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale

MACBETH: Prithee, peace. I dare do all that may become a [Link] dares do more is none.

LADY MACBETH: What beast was ’t, then, That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; I have given
suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me.I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless
gumsAnd dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you

MACBETH: If we should fail—

LADY MACBETH: We fail? Screw your courage to the sticking place, and we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep, I’ll make his guards drunk, so
they won’t remember anything. Then, we can kill Duncan and blame it on them.

MACBETH: Bring forth men-children only, for your undaunted spirit should create nothing but males.

Macbeth, once a loyal subject, now stands at the edge of a dark abyss, driven by ambition and the relentless persuasion of his wife. The seeds of
treachery have been sown, and the night grows darker still. In their hearts, the light of honor fades, replaced by shadows of deceit. The path they tread
is one of no return, where blood will answer blood, and guilt will haunt their every step. The play’s tragic dance begins, as destiny tightens its grip on
the doomed thane and his queen. 5 mins 15 total

Act 2

As night descends, Banquo and his son, Fleance, talk under the dim moonlight. Banquo, unable to sleep due to unsettling thoughts, hands his sword
to Fleance.

Enter Macbeth, with a Servant carrying a torch.

Banquo: Who’s there?

Macbeth: A friend.

Banquo All’s well.I dreamt last night of the three Weïrd [Link] you they have showed some truth.

Macbeth: I think not of them. Yet, we should discuss it later.

Banquo: At your kind’st leisure.

Macbeth: If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis, It shall make honor for you.

Banquo: So I lose none In seeking to augment it, but still keepMy bosom franchised and allegiance clear,I shall be counseled.

Banquo and Fleance exit.

Macbeth Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

The servant exits. Macbeth paces, grappling with his thoughts. He looks around and sees a dagger floating in front of him.

Macbeth Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressed
brain?

He draws his own dagger and looks at it rapted

Macbeth I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw. Thou marshal’st me The way that I was going, and such an instrument
I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o’ th’ other senses Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still, And, on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of
blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing. It is the bloody business which informs ,Thus to mine eyes.

Macbeth Now o’er the one-half world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate’s
offerings, and withered [Link] Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design ,Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my
steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabouts And take the present horror from the time,

The distant sound of a bell rings, its chime resonating through the stillness of the night. The bell’s toll is deliberate and solemn, breaking the heavy
silence that has enveloped Macbeth.

Macbeth Whiles I threat, he lives. Words to the heat of deeds Too cold breath gives. The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell

That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

Scene 2

LADY MACBETH: What has made them drunk has made me bold. The same thing that quenched their thirst has fired me up. Hark!—Peace. It was
the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, giving a grim farewell. The doors are open, and the grooms, heavy with sleep, mock their duty with snores. I
have drugged their drinks so that death and nature battle over whether they live or die.

(Macbeth’s voice is heard from within.)

MACBETH (within) Who’s there? What, ho!

LADY MACBETH: I’m afraid they’ve awoken and the deed isn’t done. The attempt is confusing us. I had their daggers ready; he could not miss
them. Had he not looked like my father as he slept, I would have done it.

**(Macbeth enters with bloodstained daggers.)**

LADY MACBETH: My husband?

Macbeth I have done the deed. Did you not hear a noise?

LADY MACBETH: I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did you not speak?

Macbeth Hark! Who lies in the second chamber?

LADY MACBETH: Donalbain.

Macbeth One cried “God bless us” and “Amen,” and they woke each other. I stood and heard them. But they said their prayers and went back to
sleep.

LADY MACBETH: There are two lodged together.

Macbeth One cried “God bless us” and “Amen” the other, as if they had seen me with these bloodstained hands, listening to their fear. I could not say
“Amen.” The words stuck in my throat.

LADY MACBETH Don’t think too deeply about it; it will drive us mad.

Macbeth I thought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep, that soothes care and ends the labor of each
day, balm for hurt minds, nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast.

LADY MACBETH: What do you mean?

Macbeth The voice cried “Sleep no more!” to all the house. “Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall
sleep no more.”

LADY MACBETH: Who cried out like that? You’re letting your thoughts weaken you. Go get some water and wash this blood from your hands.
Why did you bring the daggers? They must stay there. Go, carry them and smear the grooms with blood.

Macbeth I’ll go no more. I’m afraid to think of what I’ve done. I dare not look at it again.

LADY MACBETH You’re weak! Give me the daggers. The dead and the sleeping are like pictures. Only a child fears a painted devil. If he bleeds,
I’ll paint the grooms’ faces with it so they’ll seem guilty.
(Lady Macbeth exits with the daggers. Knocking is heard from outside.)

Macbeth Where is that knocking coming from? How is it that every noise terrifies me? What hands are these! Ha, they pluck out my eyes. Will all
great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood from my hand? No, this hand will rather turn all the seas red, making the green one red.

Re entering Lady Macbeth: My hands are red too, but I’m ashamed to have a heart so white. Knock. I hear knocking at the south entry. Let’s go to
our chamber. A little water will clear us of this deed. How easy is it! Your constancy has left you. Knock. More knocking. Put on your nightgown, or
we might be found out and exposed as sleepless watchers. Don’t get lost in your thoughts.

Macbeth To know my deed were best not to know myself. Knock. Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I wish you could.

Scene 3

PORTER:

Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key. Knock, knock! Who’s there, in the name of
Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer who hanged himself on expectation. Come in time! Knock, knock! Who’s there, in the other devil’s name? Faith, here’s
an equivocator who could swear against either side but couldn’t equivocate to heaven. Knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith, an English tailor. Come in,
tailor. Here you may roast your goose. Knock, knock! Never at quiet.—What are you?—But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter it no
further. I had thought to let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to th’ everlasting bonfire. Anon, anon!

(The Porter opens the door to Macduff and Lennox.)

MACDUFF: Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed that you lie so late?

PORTER: Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock.

MACDUFF: I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.

PORTER: That it did, sir, i’ th’ very throat on me. (Macbeth enters.)

MACBETH: Good morrow, both.

MACDUFF: Is the King stirring, worthy thane?

MACBETH: Not yet. He did command me to call timely on him. I have almost slipped the hour.

MACBETH: I’ll bring you to him. (Macduff exits.)

LENNOX: Goes the King hence today?

MACBETH: He does. He did appoint so.

LENNOX: The night has been unruly. Our chimneys were blown down, lamentings heard i’ th’ air, strange screams of death, and prophesying, with
accents terrible, of dire combustion and confused events. The obscure bird clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth was feverous and did
shake. My young remembrance cannot parallel a fellow to it.

Enter MACDUFF: O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. Most
sacrilegious murder hath broke ope the Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence the life o’ th’ building.

LENNOX: Mean you his Majesty?

MACDUFF:Approach the chamber and destroy your sight with a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak. See and then speak yourselves.

(Macbeth and Lennox exit.)MACDUFF:

Awake, awake! Ring the alarum bell. Murder and treason! Banquo and Donalbain, Malcolm, awake! Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,
and look on death itself. Up, up, and see the great doom’s image. Ring the bell(Bell rings. Enter Lady Macbeth.) O Banquo, Banquo, Our royal
master’s murdered (Enter Banquo.)

BANQUO: Too cruel anywhere. Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself and say it is not so.

(Enter Macbeth, Lennox, and Ross.)MACBETH: Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessèd time; for from this instant, there’s
nothing serious in mortality. All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead. The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of.
(Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.)

DONALBAIN:What is amiss?

MACBETH: You are, and do not know ’t. The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood is stopped; the very source of it is stopped.

MACDUFF: Your royal father’s murdered.

MALCOLM: O, by whom?

LENNOX Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done ’t. Their hands and faces were all badged with blood. So were their daggers, which unwiped
we found upon their pillows. They stared and were distracted. No man’s life was to be trusted with them.

MACBETH:O, yet I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill them.

MACDUFF: Wherefore did you so?

MACBETH: Who can be wise, amazed, temp’rate, and furious, loyal, and neutral, in a moment? No man. Th’ expedition of my violent love outran
the pauser, reason.

LADY MACBETH: Help me hence, ho!

MACDUFF: Look to the lady.

MALCOLM (aside to Donalbain):

Why do we hold our tongues, that most may claim this argument for ours?

DONALBAIN (aside to Malcolm): What should be spoken here, where our fate, hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us? Let’s away. Our tears
are not yet brewed.

MALCOLM (aside to Donalbain): Nor our strong sorrow upon the foot of motion.

MACBETH:Let’s briefly put on manly readiness and meet i’ th’ hall together.

ALL:Well contented.

(All but Malcolm and Donalbain exit.)

MALCOLM:What will you do? Let’s not consort with them. To show an unfelt sorrow is an office which the false man does easy. I’ll to England.

DONALBAIN: To Ireland I. Our separated fortune shall keep us both the safer. Where we are, there’s daggers in men’s smiles. The near in blood,
the nearer bloody.

MALCOLM:This murderous shaft that’s shot hath not yet lighted, and our safest way is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse, and let us not be dainty
of leave-taking but shift away. There’s warrant in that theft which steals itself when there’s no mercy left.

The kingdom of Scotland shudders under the weight of the dreadful night, marked by the heinous murder of King Duncan. This brutal act disrupts the
divine order, casting a pall over the land. Natural signs reflect the unnatural deed—darkness blankets the day, falcons fall prey to owls, and Duncan’s
noble horses turn wild, attacking each other in a frenzy and eating each other.

The sons of Duncan, Malcolm and Donalbain, flee in terror, their flight construed as an admission of guilt. This leaves the path clear for Macbeth's
coronation.