RALPH: “Mate” means to completely defeat or overpower, and comes from the Latin “matare”, to kill. A matador kills the bull. Lady Macbeth’s disorder has completely defeated the doctor’s ability to heal. 
DAVINA: Shakespeare’s audience may have picked up on a very clever wordplay. “Mate” is also used as an abbreviated form of the word “checkmate”. This word means winning at the game of chess. 
RALPH: But interestingly enough, the word checkmate has a completely different origin. It derives from a European pronunciation of an Arabic phrase which literally means, “The king is dead.”