by Noah Lukeman
SCENE VIII
Dunsinane. Malcolm’s chamber.
Malcolm, seated. Enter Doctor and Siward.
SIWARD He’s not moved from this window since the death
of his brief wife. ’Tis as if he’s frozen.
DOCTOR He is not frozen; only the thoughts have
within him froze. He is beyond physic.
SIWARD But you must intervene. You are a doctor.
And he is king.
DOCTOR Even doctors cannot
heal a mind diseased. Our good king
has supped from the root of sorrow; once
ingested, ’tis not quick to leave the blood.
Enter Messenger.
MESSENGER My king! An army doth approach, with Fleance
at its head!
SIWARD What, to Dunsinane?
MESSENGER My king? Dost hear?
SIWARD Go to, sirrah!
Exit Messenger.
SIWARD My king!
We must defend! Grant me authority
to summon our men. Merely nod your head—
Enter Nurse.
DOCTOR What now, nurse?
NURSE I swear, it was not me.
’Twas the brutal lady.
SIWARD Shall maladies
never cease? She walks as she sleeps,
and speaks as she walks.
DOCTOR ’Tis the sign
of a mind disturbed.
NURSE Forgive me, Lady Malcolm.
A saint more righteous I’d not seen.
SIWARD E’en so?
NURSE ’Twas Seyton, and his daughter. You were but
the stepping stone. I spoke false! O! Forgive!
MALCOLM False?
SIWARD The king rouses!
DOCTOR O unlikely
physic! One malady heals another.
MALCOLM Speak again, nurse.
NURSE Forgive! Malcolm
has been sore deceived. O forgive!
Malcolm rises and stabs her. She dies.
MALCOLM Prepare my army.
Exit Siward.
DOCTOR My liege, I joy to see
you roused.
MALCOLM I do not. Better I had sunk
unto the depths. O black nurse! Evil Seyton!
They dragged my queen onto the gallows—whilst I,
their donkey, was by them led.
Nothing is but what is not.
DOCTOR And now?
MALCOLM If half a man, I’d take my own life.
I am Cawdor, after all: so who
more fit? Yet e’en for this, I lack resolve.
Thus, to Fleance.
Let his men do what I cannot.
Exit Malcolm.
DOCTOR And I, anywhere but here. Farewell,
Dunsinane. Your walls I pray to never
see again.
Exit.