TEXT:
ACT V - SCENE III. Dunsinane. A room in the castle.
Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants
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.
Enter a Servant
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!
Where got'st thou that goose look?
Servant
There is ten thousand--
MACBETH
Geese, villain!
Servant
Soldiers, sir.
MACBETH
Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,
Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch?
Death of thy soul! Those linen cheeks of thine
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
Servant
The English force, so please you.
MACBETH
Take thy face hence.
Exit Servant
Seyton! - I am sick at heart,
When I behold--Seyton, I say! - This push
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.
I have lived long enough: my way of life
Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf;
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Seyton!
NOTES:
English Epicures
This is a really weird but charming little reference. Shakespare has Macbeth refer to these English epicures (over-eaters, or people who live only for pleasure) because of a passage in Holinshed. As mentioned in the episode, Holinshed’s Chronicle suggested that it was the English who brought fine dining to Scotland - and so here we have a Scottish (anti)hero dismissing such contributions outright. Holinshed’s own text says that “The Scottish people before had no knowledge nor under- standing of fine fare or riotous surfet . . . those . . . superfluities . . . came into the realme of Scotland with the Englishmen . . . For manie of the people abhorring the riotous maners and superfluous gourmandizing brought in among them by the Englishmen, were willing inough to receiue this Donald for their King, trusting . . . they should by his severe order in gouernement recouer againe the former temperance of their old progenitors.”
Black and White
Throughout this scene Macbeth alternates between images of black and white. White in particular is associated with cowardice, and since he’s steeling himself before the battle starts, he starts by saying he will not taint himself with it, the colour of fear. He curses the frightened servant with a wish that the devil (already associated with damnation and darkness) will damn him black. This is primarily because the servant’s literally appalled, and his face is the colour of cream. His liver, as Macbeth imagines it, is likewise lily-white. His cheeks are linen, and his face is the colour of whey. Even his look is the colour of a goose. All these variations of white are anathema to Macbeth, who instructs the poor servant to prick his face so that it will bleed a little and over-red his fearful whiteness.
Loon and Patch
These are both words for a clown or a fool. Macbeth is demeaning the servant as an idiot.
Seyton
Depending how an actor chooses to pronounce this name, it could also sound rather like Satan.
Sonnet 73
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.