МАСВ. What is 't you say? the life? LEN. Mean you his majesty? MACD. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon :-Do not bid me speak; See, and then speak yourselves.—Awake! awake !— [Exeunt MACBETH and LENOX. 80 Ring the alarum-bell :--Murther! and treason! LADY M. What's the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley O, gentle lady, 90 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak : The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murther as it fell. Enter BANQUO. O Banquo! Banquo! our royal master's murther'd! Too cruel, anywhere. Dear Duff, I prithee contradict thyself, And say, it is not so. Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX. MACB. Had I but died an hour before this chance, All is but toys renown, and grace, is dead; Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. DON. What is amiss? MACB. 100 You are, and do not know 't, The spring, the head: the fountain of your blood Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd. 83 The great doom's image. See King Lear, v. 3, 264. MACD. Your royal father 's murther❜d. O, by whom? LEN. Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had done 't : Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood, So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found Upon their pillows: they star'd, and were distracted; 110 No man's life was to be trusted with them. 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, Outran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan, And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature LADY M. MACD. Look to the lady. 120 Help me hence, hoa ! Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? Where our fate, hid in an auger-hole, May rush, and seize us? Let's away; our tears Are not yet brew'd. 130 110 No man's life. It was unsafe to come near them. The emphasis on 'no' gives it the time of a dissyllable. golden blood. 118 Silver skin τὸ ψυχρὸν γίγνεται ἐν τοῖς διπλοῖς ὀνόμασι, says Aristotle. These epithets may therefore be intended to have an artificial tone: yet they serve to lighten and glorify an image of too great horror; and besides this they suit the conception of the saintly king, whose very bodily frame is refined and precious. 124 Help me hence. Either her highly-strung nerves give way at feeling that Macbeth has gone beyond her in crime, or she pretends fainting to cause a diversion from the inquiry. 126 This argument. To whom it most belongs to take up the case. 127 Where our fate. 'Where' is a dissyllable. MAL. Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion. 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, Of treasonous malice. MACB. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i' the hall together. 139 ALL. Well contented. [ [Exeunt all but MAL. and DON. MAL. What will you do? Let's not consort with them: To shew an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy: I'll to England. There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood, MAL. This murtherous shaft that's shot 150 [Exeunt. 131 Upon the foot of motion. Our strong sorrow is not able as yet to get on its feet and move. 132 Our naked frailties. When we have clothed our frail bodies which suffer from the keen night air. 135 Fears and scruples shake us. Understand 'if,' as in Cymb. Act iii. Sc. 1 "Of him I gathered honour, Which he to seek of me again, perforce Behoves me keep at utterance. 146 The near in blood. The adjective is in the comparative degree; as in Richard II. Act v. Sc. 1, "Better far off than near be ne'er the near," that is, 'it is better to be far off than near and yet never the nearer.' 147 Hath not yet lighted. Has not yet spent its force. 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. 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. ΙΟ ROSSE. And Duncan's horses (a thing most strange and certain), Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, I Threescore and ten. I can remember well seventy years backward. 6 Threaten his bloody stage. Frown upon the earth where such horrors are enacted. 7 Strangles the travelling lamp. So Virg. Georg. i. 466 (see Conington's note)— "Ille etiam exstincto miseratus Cæsare Romam : Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit, Impiaque æternam timuerunt sæcula noctem. Holinshed goes so far as to say: "For six months after this heinous murther thus committed, there appeared no sunne by day nor moone by night in anie part of the realm; but stille was the skie covered with continuall clouds; and sometimes such outragious winds arose, with lightening and tempests, that the people were in great feare of present destruction." 8 The day's shame. Is it that night is aggressive, or that the day is ashamed to appear? 12 In her pride of place. In her most daring flight. 14 Duncan's horses. Pronounced 'horse.' See the note on 'princess' in As You Like It, i. 2. 15 The minions of their race. 'Horses,' says the chronicle, ' of singular swiftness and beauty did eat their own flesh.' D Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, 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 Macduff :— Enter MACDUFF. How goes the world, sir, now? MACD. Why, see you not? 21 ROSSE. Is't known who did this more than bloody deed? MACD. Those that Macbeth hath slain. ROSSE. What good could they pretend? MACD. Alas, the day! They were suborn'd: ROSSE. 'Gainst nature still : Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up Thine own life's means !-Then 't is most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. MACD. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone, To be invested. ROSSE. Where is Duncan's body? MACD. Carried to Colmes-kill; 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. 30 MACD. Well, may you see things well done there :— adieu ! Could they propose? 24 Could they pretena. 33 Colmes-kill: The church of Columba,' that is, Iona, where the tombs of the Scottish kings are still shewn. Scone, the place of coronation, is near Perth. From thence Edward I. brought the stone which forms the base of the present coronation chair of our own sovereigns; and to which these lines apply— "Ni fallat fatum, Scoti quocumque locatum Invenient lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem." The Earls of Fife, the descendants of Macduff, had traditionally the duty of placing the crown on the king's head. |