Macbeth
Which of you have done this?
Macbeth
Thou canst not say I did it – never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
You, Banquo’s ghost, cannot accuse me of killing you.
Ross
Gentlemen rise, his highness is not well.
What do you think Ross and the thanes think about Macbeth’s unexpected behaviour?
Lady Macbeth
Sit, worthy friends, my lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth. Pray you keep seat,
The fit is momentary, upon a thought
He will again be well. If much you note him
You shall offend him and extend his passion;
Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?
If you make a fuss of him, you will make things worse.
This question is directed at Macbeth. How public do you think this question is? How could you stage this question and the conversation that comes afterwards, without the thanes overhearing?
Macbeth
Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appal the Devil.
Lady Macbeth
O proper stuff.
This is the very painting of your fear:
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
Led you to Duncan. O these flaws and starts,
Impostors to true fear, would well become
A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
Authorised by her grandam – shame itself,
Why do you make such faces? When all’s done
You look but on a stool.
Ridiculous! This is all imaginary. This is exactly like when you had a vision of a dagger before you killed Duncan.
This feeling is completely unreal in comparison to real fears.
Macbeth
Prithee, see there.
Behold. Look. Lo, how say you?
Why what care I, if thou canst nod, speak too.
If charnel houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites.
Macbeth is responding to the ghost’s movements. What do you think the ghost is doing? Can the audience see the ghost or is it all in his imagination?
If buried bodies rise, there will be no bones left in the graves - like in the stomach of a bird of prey.
Lady Macbeth
What, quite unmanned in folly?
Have you completely lost sense of who you are as a man, with your silliness?
Macbeth
If I stand here, I saw him.
(Text edited for rehearsals by Polly Findlay and Zoe Svendsen)