Characters: Macbeth, doctor, servant, attendants, Seyton

Location: Dunsinane, a room in the castle

Events: As the rebel Scots march towards Birnam to meet the army led by Malcolm and Macduff. Macbeth receives reports of the approaching forces, but comforts himself with the Witches’ predictions. Macbeth faces the fact that he cannot loo forward to an old age of comfort and respect. The doctor reports that Lady Macbeth’s sickness is of the mind. As Macbeth struggles into his armour, the doctor leaves, wishing he were well away from Dunsinane.

Quote: ‘…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.”…’

Explanation:

Quote: ‘Not so sick, my lord, as she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, that keep her from rest.’

‘Cure her of that: canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, pluck from the memory to a mind diseased, pluck from the memory of rooted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain, and with some sweet, oblivious antidote cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart?’

Explanation:

Quote: ‘Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, profit again should hardly draw me here.’