If thou couldst, doctor, cast
The water of my land, find her disease,
And purge it to a sound and pristine health.
– William Shakespeare
Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 3. After the Doctor says he cannot heal the mentally troubled Lady Macbeth, Macbeth makes this sarcastic request of him. He asks him to treat the metaphorical disease Scotland is afflicted with, which in Macbeth’s view is the English invasion. Scotland is personified as a patient suffering an illness. But the irony of Macbeth’s words is that he is the disease and only his death can bring Scotland back to health again.