Gentlewoman (The True Tragedie of Macbeth)

A gentlewoman was a character in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth.

She appeared in Act V Scene I (PROSE: The True Tragedie of Macbeth) during which she conversed with a doctor about Lady Macbeth's health (PROSE: The Empire of Glass) or, in earlier drafts, with a character named the Doctor. (PROSE: The True Tragedie of Macbeth) For the first staging of Macbeth, performed in the presence of King James I and Queen Anne, the gentlewoman was played by Vicki Pallister though this casting had not been authorised by the King's Men. At the end of Act IV, the First Doctor and Vicki clambered onto the stage in order to get Shakespeare, who was himself playing Lady Macbeth, to take an amnesia pill. The actor who was on the stage at the time hissed at them to get off but the Doctor claimed to be a friend of the King and threatened that he would be "most displeased" if he was not allowed to participate in the production. The actor exited rapidly through the curtain and, although there was some commotion backstage, the play was allowed to continue with the Doctor and Vicki assuming the roles of Lady Macbeth's doctor and the gentlewoman respectively. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)

In the earlier draft of Macbeth, upon their arrival in Macbeth's castle, the gentlewoman asked if either the Doctor or Jamie was the doctor called for to discover the cure to Lady Macbeth's "new-found malady". The Doctor posed as this doctor and asked the gentlewoman what was wrong. She told him she had seen Lady Macbeth "rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon’t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed" yet all the while in a "most fast sleep". Lady Macbeth then suddenly entered and the gentlewoman called for the Doctor to observe. She wrung her hands which the gentlewoman explained was "an accustomed action with her" that she had known to last for up to fifteen minutes at a time. Lady Macbeth then began speaking including the question "Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?". The gentlewoman only commented that she was sure she had just "spoke what she should not" and that "Heaven kn[e]w what she ha[d] known". After confirming to the Doctor that when Lady Macbeth left she would go directly to bed, she wished him a good night and exited herself. (PROSE: The True Tragedie of Macbeth) During the first performance of the play, the Doctor was able to correctly convey Vicki's lines to her through cues and gestures given to her by the Doctor. Although, as she thought, she "certainly hadn't used Shakespeare's words", the Doctor's smile indicated to her that he believed she had gotten his sense across. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)