TEXT:
Sergeant
Yes;
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorise another Golgotha,
I cannot tell.
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.
DUNCAN
So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;
They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons.
Exit Sergeant, attended
Who comes here?
Enter ROSS
MALCOLM
The worthy thane of Ross.
LENNOX
What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
That seems to speak things strange.
ROSS
God save the king!
DUNCAN
Whence camest thou, worthy thane?
ROSS
From Fife, great king;
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
And fan our people cold. Norway himself,
With terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm.
Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude,
The victory fell on us.
DUNCAN
Great happiness!
ROSS
That now
Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition:
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disburséd at Saint Colme's inch
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
DUNCAN
No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.
ROSS
I'll see it done.
DUNCAN
What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.
Exeunt
NOTES:
Golgotha
Golgotha means skull in Aramaic; some sources suggest that that it actually looked like a skull, and this inference found its way into several depictions in art and literature. The more well-known version of the name, Calvary, also takes its etymology from the Latin for skull.
Fife
Fife is Macduff’s home and family seat; he is the Thane of Fife. He is absolutely associated with the place, and so when this portion of the scene begins with Ross explaining that this is where he has come from, it’s fairly reasonable to assume that his news concerns its Thane. Teasing out this idea has cracked open my opinion of this scene, since most of my readings of the play to date have left me assuming that the entire scene is describing Macbeth’s exploits. But having this introduction to Macduff as a comparative equal in valour makes things significantly more dramatic, don’t you think?
Bellona
Bellona is a comparatively obscure Roman goddess: generally the god of war is Mars, but given how much the Romans liked conflict and conquest it’s not surprising that they had more than one war deity to pray to..!
Saint Colm’s Inch / Inchcolme
This is a small island in the Firth of Forth, not far from Edinburgh. There was a famous monastery there - it sometimes feels like every small island in Scotland had a monastery - and indeed the name derives from Inis - island - and Colm, or Columba, one of the country’s most famous saints. As mentioned in the episode, it was frequent practice to bury the dead on islands because the mainland was beset with wolves and wild dogs that might dig up the corpses.
Dollars
This mention of a currency called a dollar is extremely rare in Shakespeare. (The word appears again in The Tempest, but nowhere else.) The word had a very long process of development, given how it’s one of the most common words in the world today. For more information on its long history, click here.