So were their daggers, which unwiped we found They stared, 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, amazed, temperate, and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man. Outran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature, 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? Here, where our fate, hid in an auger 2-hole, May rush, and seize us? Let's away; our tears Are not yet brewed. Mal. Upon the foot of motion. Ban. Nor our strong sorrow Look to the lady ; [LADY MACBETH is carried out. And when we have our naked frailties hid, And question this most bloody piece of work, To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us : 1 "Breeched with gore," covered with blood to their hilts. Against the undivulged pretence1 I fight 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. Mal. This murderous shaft that's shot, Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way There's warrant in that theft Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left. [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 1 Pretence is here put for design or intention. 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." Meaning that he suspects Macbeth to be the murderer; for he was the nearest in blood to the two princes, being the cousin-german of Duncan. 3 Malcolm means to say, "The shaft has not yet done all its intended mischief." Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. Ah, good father, Rosse. Old M. Was by a mousing owl hawked at, and killed. Rosse. And Duncan's horses, (a thing most strange and certain,) Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Old M. 'Tis said, they ate each other. Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes, That looked upon't. Here comes the good Mac duff. Enter MACDuff. Why, see you not? How goes the world, sir, now? Macd. deed? 1 "After the murder of king Duffe," says Holinshed, "for the space of six months togither there appeared no sunne by daye, nor moon by night in anie part of the realme; but still the sky was covered with continual clouds; and sometimes such outrageous winds arose, with lightenings and tempests, that the people were in great fear of present destruction."-It is evident that Shakspeare had this passage in his thoughts. Most of the portents here mentioned are related by Holinshed, as accompanying king Duffe's death: "there was a sparhawk strangled by an owl," and "horses of singular beauty and swiftness did eat their own flesh." 2 "A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place," a technical phrase in falconry for soaring to the highest pitch. Faulcon haultain, was the French term for a towering or high-flying hawk. VOL. III. 27 Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. Rosse. What good could they pretend?1 Macd. Alas, the day! They were suborned. Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Rosse. 'Gainst nature still. Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like, The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.2 Macd. He is already named; and gone to Scone, To be invested. Rosse. Where is Duncan's body? Macd. Carried to Colme-kill;3 The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones. Rosse. Will you to Scone ? Well, I will thither. Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. Rosse. Macd. Well, may you see things well done there;— adieu! Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! Rosse. Father, farewell. Old M. God's benison go with you; and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes! [Exeunt. 1 Pretend, in the sense of the Latin prætendo, to design, or “lay for a thing before it come," as the old dictionaries explain it. 2 Macbeth, by his birth, stood next in succession to the crown, after the sons of Duncan. King Malcolm, Duncan's predecessor, had two daughters, the eldest of whom was the mother of Duncan, the younger the mother of Macbeth.-Holinshed. 3 Colme-kill is the famous Iona, one of the Western Isles, mentioned by Holinshed as the burial-place of many ancient kings of Scotland. Colmekill means the cell or chapel of St. Columbo. ACT III. SCENE I. Fores. A Room in the Palace. Enter BANQUO. Ban. Thou hast it now-King, Cawdor, Glamis, all But that myself should be the root and father And set me up in hope? But hush; no more. Senet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as king; LADY Macb. Here's our chief guest. If he had been forgotten, It had been as a gap in our great feast, And all things unbecoming. Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper,' sir, And I'll request your presence. Ban. Let your highness Command upon me; to the which, my duties Are with a most indissoluble tie 1 "A solemn supper." This was the phrase of Shakspeare's time for a feast or banquet given on a particular occasion, to solemnize any event, as a birth, marriage, coronation." |