Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX. Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant, There's nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys: renown, and grace, is dead; Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. Don. What is amiss? Macb. You are, and do not know it: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd. Macd. Your royal father's murder'd. Mal. O, by whom? Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't: Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood, They star'd, and were distracted; no man's life Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them. Macd. Wherefore did you so? Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: The expedition of my violent love Out-ran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan, Here lay Duncan, His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;] It is not improbable, that Shakspeare put these forced and unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth, as a mark of artifice and dissimula And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature, For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers, Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breech'd with gore: Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage, to make his love known? Lady M. Macd. Look to the lady. Mal. Help me hence, ho! Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? Where our fate, hid within an augre-hole, May rush, and seize us? Let's away; our tears Mal. The foot of motion. Ban. Nor our strong sorrow on [Lady MACBETH is carried out. And when we have our naked frailties hid, 8 That suffer in exposure, let us meet, And question this most bloody piece of work, tion, to show the difference between the studied language of hypocrisy, and the natural outcries of sudden passion. This whole speech, so considered, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists entirely of antithesis and metaphor. Yet some of these metaphors are to be found in old plays. JOHNSON. 7 Unmannerly breech'd with gore:] According to Mr. Steevens the expression may mean, that the daggers were covered with blood, quite to their breeches, i. e. their hilts or handles. The lower end of a cannon is called the breech of it; and it is known that both to breech and to unbreech a gun are common terms; but Dr. Farmer says that the sense is, in plain language, Daggers filthily-in a foul manner,—sheath'd with blood, and has given an example where sheaths are called breeches. And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure.] i. e. when we have clothed our halfdrest bodies, which may take cold from being exposed to the air. It is possible that, in such a cloud of words, the meaning might escape the reader. STEEVENS. To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us: In the great hand of God I stand; and, thence, Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight Of treasonous malice." Macb. All. And so do I. So all. Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness. And meet i'the hall together. All. Well contented. [Exeunt all but MAL. and DON. Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them: To show an unfelt sorrow, is an office Which the false man does easy: I'll to England. Don. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer: where we are, Mal. This murderous shaft that's shot, Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way Is, to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse; And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, 9 In the great hand of God I stand; and, thence, Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight Of treasonous malice.] Pretence is intention, design, a sense in which the word is often used by Shakspeare. Banquo's meaning is,-in our present state of doubt and uncertainty about this murder, I have nothing to do but to put myself under the direction of God; and, relying on his support, I here declare myself an eternal enemy to this treason, and to all its further designs that have not yet come to light. STEEVENS. the near in blood, The nearer bloody.] Meaning, that he suspected Macbeth to be the murderer; for he was the nearest in blood to the two princes, being the cousin-german of Duncan. STEEVENS. 2 This murderous shaft that's shot, Hath not yet lighted;] The design to fix the murder upon some innocent person has not yet taken effect; or, the end for which the murder was committed is not yet attained. But shift away: There's warrant in that theft [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Without the Castle. Enter ROSSE and an old Man. Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. Ah, good father, Rosse. Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp: Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame, That darkness does the face of earth intomb, When living light should kiss it? Old M. "Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd. Rosse. And Duncan's horses, (a thing most strange and certain,) Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make War with mankind. Old M. 'Tis said, they eat each other. Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes, That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Mac duff: VOL. IV. DD Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. Now to the door, and stay there till we call. [Exit Attendant. you Was it not yesterday we spoke together? Who wrought with them; and all things else, that might, To half a soul, and a notion craz'd, Say, Thus did Banquo. 1 Mur. You made it known to us. Macb. I did so; and went further, which is now Our point of second meeting. Do you find Your patience so predominant in your nature, explained by translating it into the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it is borrowed. Que la destinée se rende en lice, et qu'elle me donne un defi à l'outrance. A challenge, or a combat à l'outrance, to extremity, was a fixed term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odium internecinum, an intention to destroy each other, in opposition to trials of skill at festivals, or on other occasions, where the contest was only for reputation or a prize. The sense therefore is: Let fate, that has fore-doomed the exaltation of the sons of Banquo, enter the lists against me, with the utmost animosity, in defence of its own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the danger. JOHNSON. 1 · pass'd in probation with you, How you were borne in hand; &c.] Pass'd in probation is, perhaps, only a bulky phrase, employed to signify-proved.-To bear in hand is, to delude by encouraging hope and holding out fair prospects, without any intention of performance. |