The Tragedy of Macbeth, Part II: The Seed of Banquo Read online

SCENE IX

  Dunsinane. Corridor.

  Enter Malcolm.

  Seyton and Syna approach.

  SEYTON My king, may I present my daughter—

  Malcolm stabs and kills them both.

  MALCOLM Present her to my Lady Malcolm.

  Exit.

  SCENE X

  Witches’ place.

  Enter Malcolm, Siward and Soldiers.

  Malcolm dismounts, carrying the corpse of Lady Malcolm.

  MALCOLM Rouse you, hags! Rise up from your foul depths,

  and lend me a potion to revive my lady.

  Answer, I say!

  Witches’ laughter.

 

  SOLDIER What wretched noise is this! As if the earth

  were torn in two.

  SIWARD They mock, my lord.

  MALCOLM Then I, too,

  will mock: Cawdor shall not Cawdor take.

  I’ll see myself slain by some other—

  any other—but by myself, and thereby

  prove their prophecy false.

  Donalbain, be patient; your brother comes to visit!

  Exeunt.

  SCENE XI

  Scotland. Battlefield.

  Enter Malcolm, Siward, and Soldiers.

  Enter Fleance’s soldiers. They fight.

  MALCOLM Donalbain! Where art thou?

  SIWARD This fog rolls in

  so thick, I cannot see who we fight.

  MALCOLM ’Tis the witches’ breath, come to confuse.

  You there! Fight your king!

  Malcolm kills a Soldier.

  MALCOLM And you!

  Malcolm kills another.

  MALCOLM And you!

  ROSS ’Tis Ross you taunt.

  MALCOLM Traitor!

  The better for my sword.

  They fight. Malcolm kills him.

  ROSS Alas! Slain

  by the monster. Donalbain, forgive.

  Thee I did not avenge.

  Ross dies.

  MALCOLM Donalbain!

  Dare you invoke my brother’s name?

  Malcolm stabs Ross’s corpse repeatedly.

  MALCOLM Who else?

  Who else shall die by Cawdor’s hand? For none

  but Cawdor can touch, and on this bloody day.

  I shall not kill myself!

  Malcolm kills several soldiers.

  Battlefield. Elsewhere.

  FLEANCE You there! Turn and fight!

  SIWARD I shall not fight

  a boy!

  FLEANCE A man who is your king!

  SIWARD Worm

  of prophecy! Coward who fled his father’s

  death!

  FLEANCE Coward who fled his young son’s death!

  SIWARD Villain! Young Siward died a soldier’s death.

  You shall die a traitor’s.

  They fight. Fleance wounds him.

  SIWARD Slain by one

  so young. Age, thou art deception.

  Siward dies.

  Battlefield. Elsewhere.

  Cawdor kills several of Malcolm’s soldiers.

  Enter Malcolm.

  MALCOLM You there! Art thou ready now to meet

  thy maker?

  CAWDOR Not by your hand. And not today.

  They fight.

  MALCOLM What? My sword does not pierce. What man

  art thou?

  They fight.

  CAWDOR Cawdor.

  MALCOLM Liar! I am Cawdor!

  CAWDOR But my father was before you—

  and I after!

  Cawdor stabs and wounds Malcolm.

  MALCOLM At least in this, the sisters

  speak true. My lady, forgive your husband.

  Malcolm dies.

  Enter Fleance, Lennox, Angus and all Soldiers.

  FLEANCE Thus the tyrant falls. But our day’s work

  is yet undone.

  Enter Soldiers, escorting the Three Murderers.

  FLEANCE Here stand before us three

  of the most heinous creatures e’er to stain

  our Scottish soil: these three who murdered first

  my father, then Macduff’s beloved wife

  and son; who took from me my fair Fiona.

  Murderers, what say you? Nothing.

  ’Tis fitting. Then let it come down!

  Fleance stabs and kills all three. The crowd cheers.

  ALL Hail, Fleance! All hail the boy king!

  Exeunt.

  Finis.

  About the Author

  A 20 year veteran of the book publishing industry, Noah Lukeman is author of several books on the craft of writing, including The First Five Pages, The Plot Thickens and A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation, published by W.W. Norton in the U.S. and by Oxford University Press in the U.K. His critically-acclaimed books have been selections of multiple book clubs, Book Sense 76 picks, Publishers Weekly Daily picks, and translated into Japanese, Portuguese, Korean, Turkish, Chinese and Indonesian. His screenplay, Brothers in Arms, was selected for Hollywood’s Black List top 100 screenplays of the year. Noah lives in New York. Please feel free to learn more at www.noahlukeman.com or to email him at [email protected]. To learn more about the play and watch a video, please visit: www.macbethtwo.com