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→Act Four: Act Four
===Act Four===
===Act Four===
====Scene One====
The witches meet once again in thunder, adding ingredients to a large cauldron pot, including various organs of various animals. Hecate appears, to commend them, and orders them to sing to enchant the mixture.<ref>They sing "Black Spirits," from a play by Middleton, leading some to suggest that Middleton wrote these lines.</ref> Hecate disappears, and they immediately see Macbeth, who asks them what they're doing. "A deed without a name," they reply.
He tells them that despite all the supernatural disasters that have been observed, they must not disappear and they must answer him. They comply, and ask if he'd rather hear it from them or from their masters. He requests the masters, and is greeted by an apparition of an armed head.<ref>It is most likely that this means a helmeted head.</ref> As Macbeth starts to speak, a witch tells him that the head knows his thoughts, and the head shouts: "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff! / Beware the Thane of Fife! Dismiss me. Enough."
He asks for more, but the head is gone, and the witches show him another spirit, a bloody child, who states: "Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn / the power of man, for none of woman born / shall harm Macbeth."
He is glad to hear that he will not be harmed, and decides that perhaps Macduff may live, but then spies a third apparition, a crowned child, to whom Macbeth may not speak. The child states: {{cquote|Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care / who chafes, or frets, or where conspirers are. / Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / shall come against him.}} Macbeth is glad that he will not be vanquished until a forest moves several miles away, and asks only about Banquo, whether Banquo's line will be kings of Scotland or not. They tell him to seek no more knowledge. Macbeth hears the sound of trumpets, and sees yet another apparition: a show of eight kings, the eighth king holding a mirror, revealing more kings, and Banquo at the end. Macbeth assumes it is only a hallucination, like Banquo's silent ghost, and it is gone. The witches try to cheer him up with music, and disappear.
Lennox arrives. After Macbeth's confirming that Lennox did not see the witches (and cursing the witches), Lennox informs him that Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth decides he will have the castle on Fife of his own, and kill Macduff's wife and family.
====Scene Two====
Ross explains to Lady Macduff and her son why Macduff fled to England - because he would safer, and he was the only one of interest to Macbeth. Both Lady Macduff and Ross think that Macduff is a traitor, though for different reasons. Lady Macduff believes he is a traitor to the family. The son is more cynical in his definition of a traitor. A messenger then arrives to warn them, but Lady Macduff does not understand, and murderers soon arrive in search of Macduff. They ask where he is - Lady Macduff says he is gone, while the son still speaks of how everyone is really a traitor to something, and the son is killed while Lady Macduff flees.
====Scene Three====
Malcolm and Macduff meet each other in the court at England. Malcolm assumes that Macduff was sent to take Malcolm back to England, where Macbeth will kill him, so when Macduff says that Scotland needs a new ruler, he is reluctant. He says he would be a worse ruler than Macbeth, no matter how evil and sinful Macbeth is. Malcolm says that he is too lustful and too greedy; Macduff says a kingly position would offer many opportunities to satisfy both desires. Eventually Macduff decides Malcolm is in fact worse, and decides to stay loyal to Macbeth, at which point Malcolm decides Macduff has no desire whatsoever to become an unlawful king.
Malcolm reveals that the King of England, King Edward, has prepared an army of 10,000 and the commander, Siward, to invade Scotland. Macduff is satisfied, until Ross arrives to inform him that his son has been killed, an immediately he seeks revenge upon Macbeth. Prince Malcolm leads them back to England, stating, {{Come, go we to the King. Our power is ready; / Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth / is ripe for shaking and the powers above / put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may / the night is long that never finds the day.}} (276-281)
===Act Five===
===Act Five===
==Lines and Quotes==
==Lines and Quotes==