Medieval Warcraft

Act I, Scene 2 begins with King Duncan asking for a report of the ongoing battle between his supporters and invading Vikings (Norwegians) allied with Scottish traitors like Macdonwald and the Thane of Cawdor. Since the battle takes place offstage, we must visualize it from the reports provided by soldiers returned from the front. Modern movies of course zoom in on raging battles, so hearing about one second-hand may seem dull. But there are interesting aspects to these reports. In this Explore-the-Battles lesson, we ask you to zoom in on these interesting aspects and interpret them.

Although Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in about 1606, the play is set in the middle of the 11th century, during the reigns of the real Duncan and Macbeth. Do Shakespeare’s characters fight like 11th-century warriors or does he give the combat a 17th-century flavor? In other words, are the battle scenes in Macbeth at all anachronistic? Remember, Shakespeare’s plays were written for 16th and 17th-century audiences, most of whom were not war historians or even well-educated. They would have been much more familiar with 17th-century battle weapons and tactics, so perhaps Shakespeare, in some cases, to make a situation clear to his audiences, updated some of the military action. In fact there are at least two anachronisms in Act I, Scene 2? Can you find them?

Nevertheless, to understand the warfare that begins and ends the play, it helps to know something about medieval warcraft: castles with battlements, drawbridges and moats; sieges and siege engines like trebuchets and battering rams; medieval weaponry such as battle-axes, pikes, maces, longbows and crossbows;  ransoming captive nobles, and  ferocious Viking warfare (see “Vikings in Macbeth” in the NEXUS volume Macbeth and the Dark Ages). If any of these are unfamiliar, Google them. Also read “Trebuchet – The Nightmare Weapon of the Middle Ages” in Macbeth and the Dark Ages. Reread the battle scenes in the play carefully, then answer the questions below. And remember, in Act I, Macbeth and Banquo are fighting Vikings. Vikings were notoriously tough. 

Questions for ACT I, Scene 2

ANSWER THE 20 QUESTIONS BELOW, WHICH REFER TO THE PASSAGES HIGHLIGHTED IN BLUE OR GREEN. TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS YOU WILL NEED TO KNOW THE MEANING OR MEANINGS OF EVERY WORD IN EACH PASSAGE. IN ADDITION, FOR SOME QUESTIONS YOU MAY NEED TO DO A LITTLE RESEARCH.

1. WHY DID THE SERGEANT FIGHT TO PROTECT MALCOLM FROM CAPTIVITY INSTEAD OF FIGHTING SIMPLY TO PRESERVE HIS LIFE?

MALCOLM: This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought
‘Gainst my captivity.

2. EXPLAIN (explicate) THE SERGEANT’S SIMILE BELOW IN TERMS OF THE BATTLE.

NOTE: To explain this simile you must know what a “spent” swimmer is.

SERGEANT: Doubtful it stood,
As two spent swimmers that do cling together
And choke their art. 

3. WHERE ARE THE WESTERN ISLES AND WHAT ARE “KERNS” AND “GALLOWGLASSES”?

SERGEANT: The merciless Macdonwald –
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
the multiplying villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him – from the Western Isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied.

4. WHAT DO THE EXPRESSIONS “DISDAINING FORTUNE” AND “BRANDISH’D STEEL” MEAN?  IN WHAT WAY(S) IS MACBETH “VALOUR’S MINION”? WHAT DOES “CARV’D OUT HIS PASSAGE” SUGGEST AND WHY IS IT A POWERFUL DESCRIPTION? EXPLAIN THE LAST TWO LINES.

SERGEANT: For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name –
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish’d steel
Which smok’d with bloody execution,
like valour’s minion, carv’d out his passage
Till he fac’d the slave:
Which ne’er  shook hands, nor bade farewell to him.
Till he unseam’d him from the nave to th’chaps.
And fix’d his head upon our battlements.

5. EXPLAIN THE LINES IN BLUE. WHAT AND WHERE IS SAINT COLME’S INCH? 

ROSS: Sweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition;
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme’s Inch,
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Image Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library

Questions for ACT V

6. FIRST, WHY DOES MACBETH FORTIFY DUNSINANE? SECONDLY, WHAT DO THE LINES HIGHLIGHTED IN GREEN TELL US ABOUT HUMAN NATURE? THIRDLY, EXPLAIN THE METAPHOR IN CAITHNESS’S SPEECH (highlighted in blue). In your answer you should explain what a “distempered cause” is. Also, in your opinion, is a belt-and-buckle metaphor fitting here (pun intended)?

CAITHNESS: Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
Some say he’s mad; others that lesser hate him
Do call it valiant fury. But for certain
He cannot buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule.

NOTE: Both Sparknotes and Schmoop, in their modern translations, oversimplify this metaphor to mean “he’s out of control.” Don’t oversimplify in your answer. 

7. FIRST, EXPLAIN THE LINE HIGHLIGHTED GREEN. THEN EXPLICATE THE MEDICINE METAPHOR INTRODUCED BY CAITHNESS AND MODIFIED BY LENNOX.

CAITHNESS: Well, march we on
To give obedience where ’tis truly owed.
Meet we the med’cine of the sickly weal,
And with him pour we in our country’s purge
Each drop of us.

LENNOX: Or so much as it needs
To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.
Make we our march towards Birnam.

8. EXPLAIN THE HIGHLIGHTED LINES. WHY DOES MACBETH CALL THE ENGLISH “EPICURES”?

MACBETH: Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all.
Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane
I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
“Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman
Shall e’er have power upon thee.” Then fly, false
thanes,
And mingle with the English epicures.
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.

9. EXPLAIN MALCOLM’S MILITARY STRATEGY IN THE PASSAGE BELOW FROM ACT V, SCENE 4. IN YOUR ANSWER, YOU SHOULD STATE WHAT FIGURE OF SPEECH “discovery err in report of us” IS AND EXPLAIN WHAT’S INTERESTING OR TRICKY ABOUT THIS FIGURE OF SPEECH.

SIWARD: What wood is this before us?

MENTEITH: The Wood of Birnam.

MALCOLM: 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.

10. WHAT TYPE OF WARFARE IS IMPLIED BY SIWARD IN THE PASSAGE BELOW FROM SCENE 4? IS “endure” AN EFFECTIVE AND FITTING VERB IN THIS PASSAGE? WHY OR WHY NOT?

SIWARD: We learn no other but the confident tyrant
Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure
Our setting down before ’t.

11. EXPLAIN MALCOLM’S STATEMENT BELOW FROM SCENE 4. WHAT RELATED WORDS ARE CONTRASTED?

MALCOLM: ’Tis his main hope;
For, where there is advantage to be given,
Both more and less have given him the revolt,
And none serve with him but constrainèd things
Whose hearts are absent too.

12. EXPLAIN SEWARD’S THINKING (LINE BY LINE) IN SCENE 4. Do Not Paraphrase. Also, point out the contrasting words in the last antithesis. (Be SURE you know what arbitrate means.)

SIWARD: The time approaches
That will with due decision make us know
What we shall say we have and what we owe.
Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate,
But certain issue strokes must arbitrate;
Towards which, advance the war.

13. EXPLAIN THE STRATEGY THAT MACBETH RELIES ON IN THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE FROM SCENE 5. WHAT DOES MACBETH MEAN BY “BEARD TO BEARD”?

MACBETH: Hang out our banners on the outward walls.
The cry is still “They come!” Our castle’s strength
Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie
Till famine and the ague eat them up.
Were they not forced with those that should be
ours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
And beat them backward home.

14. WHAT IS (or are) THE PURPOSE(s) OF THE TRUMPETS? WHAT DOES “CLAMOROUS HARBINGERS” MEAN?

MACDUFF: Make all our trumpets speak; give them all breath,
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.

15. EXPLAIN THE HIGHLIGHTED PARTS OF MACDUFF’S SPEECH FROM SCENE 7.

MACDUFF: That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!
If thou beest slain, and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword with an unbattered edge
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note
Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune,
And more I beg not. He exits. Alarums.

16. WHAT DOES SIWARD MEAN IN THE PASSAGE BELOW FROM SCENE 7?

SIWARD: This way, my lord. The castle’s gently rendered.
The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight,

17. EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING LINES FROM SCENE 8 HIGHLIGHTED IN BLUE. WHAT, IF ANYTHING, DOES SIWARD’S  WORD  CHOICE “CHEAPLY BOUGHT” TELL US ABOUT HIM?

MALCOLM: I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.

SIWARD: Some must go off; and yet by these I see
So great a day as this is cheaply bought.

18 & 19. WHAT ARE THE CONTRASTING WORDS IN ROSS’S STATEMENT (THE WORDS HIGHLIGHTED IN GREEN)? WHAT DOES “HIS PROWESS CONFIRMED IN THE UNSHRINKING STATION WHERE HE FOUGHT” MEAN? WHAT IS THE EXTENDED METAPHOR IN THE LINES HIGHLIGHTED IN BLUE?

MALCOLM: Macduff is missing, and your noble son.

ROSS: Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt.
He only lived but till he was a man,
The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he died.

SIWARD: Then he is dead?

ROSS: Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow
Must not be measured by his worth, for then
It hath no end.

SIWARD: Had he his hurts before?

ROSS: Ay, on the front.

SIWARD: Why then, God’s soldier be he!
Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
I would not wish them to a fairer death;
And so his knell is knolled.

MALCOLM: He’s worth more sorrow, and that I’ll spend for
him.

SIWARD: He’s worth no more.
They say he parted well and paid his score,
And so, God be with him. Here comes newer
comfort.

20. WHAT DOES MACBETH MEAN WHEN HE SAYS HE WILL NOT “BE BAITED WITH THE RABBLE’S CURSE”? WHAT FEUDAL BATTLE CUSTOM IS MACBETH REFERRING TO WHEN HE SAYS “DAMN’D BE HIM THAT FIRST CRIES ‘HOLD, ENOUGH!’?

MACBETH: I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet
And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.
Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou oppos’d, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay, Macduff;
And damn’d be him that first cried ‘Hold, enough!’

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