MacPeep

A plot syneepsis

ACT I

Scene i. [Scotland. An open place.]Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches

“When shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?”

“When the hurlyburly’s done,

When the battle’s lost and won.”

Scene ii. [A camp near Forres.]Alarum within. Enter Duncan with attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain.

“What bloody man is that? He can report…”

The brave exploits of MacPeep are reported back to King Duncan. He decides to promote MacPeep toThane of Cawdor. Meanwhile, the Witches await MacPeep on the heath.

“A drum, a drum!

MacPeep doth come.”

“What are these,

So withered, and so wild in their attire,

That look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth,

And yet are on’t?”

“All hail , MacPeep, that shalt be King hereafter!”

MacPeep writes home to his old lady

“King hereafter” ehh? Why not give fate a little push?

Lady MacPeep urges her husband to action.

“Screw your courage to the sticking place And we’ll not fail.”

I.vii.60-1

Translation: “Grow a pair, why don’t ya. Kill the king.”

ACT II

After some ….

… hesitation …

…MacPeep kills Duncan.

Like any poor amateur, MacPeep attempts to frame the guards outside Duncan’s door by planting the bloody dagger on them, a piece of circumstantial evidence that any forensic expert on CSI would see through. Then, MacDuff is sent to awaken the King

“Oh horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive or name thee!”

“O Banquo, Banquo,

Our royal master’s murdered!”

“What, in our house?” How tacky.

MacPeep, in a “rage” kills the guards he just finished framing.

“Oh, yet I do repent me of my fury,That I did kill them.”

II.iii.112-113

Banquo’s suspicions are raised.

ACT III

MacPeep is worried Banquo suspects the truth, so…

“Oh, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!”

III.iii.17

That night, Banquo’s ghost Confronts MacPeep.

“Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake thy gory locks at me”

III.iv.50-1

ACT IV

Scene i. [A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.]

“Round about the cauldron go;In the poisoned entrails throw.”

MacPeep visits the witches for advice.

“Be bloody, bold and resolute; laugh to scorn

The pow’r of man, for none of woman born

Shall harm MacPeep.”

“MacPeep shall never vanquished by until

Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill

Shall come against him.”

Scene ii. [Fife. MacDuff’s Castle.]MacDuff, fearing for his life, has fled Scotland, leaving behind his wife and family.

“Was my father a traitor, Mother?”

IV.ii.44

“What, all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop?

MacPeep: 7Good guys: 0

ACT VThe stress has begun toAffect Lady MacPeep.

DOCT: You see, her eyes are open.GEN: Aye, but their sense is shut.

DOCT: What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands.

“Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh.”

V. I. 58

“The Queen, my lord is dead.”

“As I did stand my watch upon the hill,I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought

The wood began to move.”

V.v.32-4

“Turn, hellhound, turn!”

“I bear a charmed life, which must not yieldTo one of woman born.”

“Despair thy charm,…Macduff was from his mother’s womb

Untimely ripped.”

#!*#!

“Lay on. MacDuff,

And damned be him that first cries ‘Hold, enough!’”

Flourish. Exeunt omnes.