\ ^'^
Zbc Blisabetban Sbalispere
VOLUME I
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
V
Zbc lElisabetban SbaKepere')
sW^l<t
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
A NEW EDITION OF SHAKSPERE'S WORKS WITH CRITICAL
TEXT IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH AND BRIEF NOTES
ILLUSTRATIVE OF ELIZABETHAN LIFE
THOUGHT AND IDIOM
BY
MARK HARVEY LIDDELL
y
.■^>=.^'
NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO.
MCM HI
hLs-
Copyright, 1903, by DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO.
TO
ARTHUR S. NAPIER
MERTON PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
THIS EDITION OF SHAKSPERE
IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED
GBNB'R/IL 'P'REFnCB
The aim of this new edition of Shakspere is twofold: to give the modern reader an accurate critical text of Shakspere^ s works in the language of Shakspere^ s time^ and to interpret this in the light of Elizabethan conditions of life and thought and idiom, I ZVhen Nicholas 'J^owe in 1 709 published the first modern edition
of Shakspere' s plays, he printed the text in the English of the eigh- teenth century and explained its divergencies from the idiom then cur- rent as being due to the obsolete words of the ^ old print' and to the ^corruptions' of the early printers. Where the text was to him un- intelligible he amended it to suit his notions of what Shakspere should have written.
The apparent unintelligibilities, confusions, and imperfections of Shakspere' s writings when read as eighteenth-century English and weighed by the exact and formal mind of ^ope, Shakspere' s next editor {1725); were even more frankly acknowledged than they had been by 'J^owe, 'Pope, however, assigned them to the peculiar defects of Shakspere' s genius : ^^ It must be owned that with all these great excellencies he has almost as great defects; and that as he has cer- tainly written better, so he has perhaps written worse than any other," Guided by this belief, Pope made numerous changes and ^improve- ments" in Shakspere' s text,
Theobald, in his edition, 1733; took much the same attitude to Shakspere' s supposed imperfections that Pope did, and wrote: ^^ /Is in great piles of building some parts are often finished up to hit the taste of the connoisseur, others more negligently put together to strike
^he fancy of a common and unlearned beholder, , , so in Shakspere."
1
vu
GENB'R/IL ^"RBF/ICB
** Nullum sine venia placuit ingenium, says Seneca, The genius that gives us the greatest pleasure sometime stands in need of our indulgence/ ^ Theobald^ therefore (to use his own words) ^ set himself the task of emend- ing the corrupt passages^ of explaining the obscure and difficult ones, and of inquiring into the beauties and defects of composition. His guiding principles were admirable: ^ ^ Wherever the author^ s sense is clear and discoverable [tho\ perchance^ low and trivial) ^ I have not by any in- novation tampered with his text out of an ostentation of endeavouring to make him speak better than the old copies have done. ZVhere^ thro^ all the former editions^ a passage has laboured under flat nonsense and invincible darkness^ if^ by the addition or alteration of a letter or two^ or a transposition in the pointings I have restored to him both sense and sentiment^ such corrections^ I am persuaded^ will need no indulgence, JJnd whenever I have taken a greater latitude and liberty in amending^ I have constantly endeavoured to support my corrections and conjectures by parallel passages and authorities from himself^ the surest means of expounding any author whatever, Cette voie d'interpreter un autheur par lui-meme est plus sure que tous les commentaires, says a very learned French critick,^^
ZVhile these principles and this practice were far in advance of the scholarship of Theobald^ s day, Theobald^ s edition laboured under the same disadvantages as did that of 'Pope, — namely, the assumption that whatever was unintelligible in Shakspere when read as eighteenth-cen- tury English must likewise have been unintelligible to Shakspere^ s audi- ence. He says there are very few pages in Shakspere upon which ^^ some suspicions of depravity do not frequently arise, ^^ Jlgain, ^^ as to his style and diction, we may much more justly apply to Shakespeare, what a celebrated writer has said of Milton : Our language sunk under him, and was unequal to that greatness of soul which furnished him with such glorious conceptions. He therefore frequently uses old words to give his diction an air of solemnity, as he coins others to express the novelty and variety of his ideas ^^ — modern appreciations are often quite as ill founded as is this one of Theobald^s,
VIU
GENE'R/IL ^^BFnCB
These two eighteenth-century editors of Shakspere^ 'Pope and Theo- bald^ though such bitter rivals^ both recognized a certain amount of obscurity in Shakspere^s language as they understood it^ and each in his own way endeavoured to alleviate it or palliate it for contemporary readers. In the one we have the prototype of the literary^ in the other the prototype of the critical editor ofShakspere. ZVarburton ( / 747) and Johnson [1 763) followed more or less closely in the footsteps of Pope; Capell {1768)^ Steevens {1773), and Malone [1790, 1821), followed in the footsteps of Theobald, ^ut they all printed Shakspere^s text in the current idiom of their day, and explained its divergencies as being due to obsolete words, depravity of text, and the general inade- quacy of language to the task Shakspere imposed upon it.
The nineteenth-century editors largely occupied themselves with adding to the explanatory material already collected by their predecessors and emending the text in a growing spirit of conservatism. P)yce ( 1857) enriched the work of Steevens and Malone. The first edition to show the impulse of the critical method which, during the middle of the last century, did so much to purify our texts of Greek and Latin classics was that of P>elius { 1834), which is in some respects superior to the work of the Cambridge editors, T)elius^s edition, too, contained evidence of that careful and scholarly judgement which bore such rich fruit in Ger- many during the latter part of the last century. The Cambridge edition, begun in 1863, finished in 1866, and revised in 1887, carried this criti- cal scholarship a long step in advance, furnishing a conservative text with, for its time, a minimum of emendation, and supplying a more or less complete apparatus for textual study. This text has usually been reprinted with slight variations in recent editions of Shakspere, In 187 1 was begun a New Variorum by Horace Howard Furness, collecting in convenient form a vast number of notes and emendations of previous editors. 'But in the nineteenth century, as well as in the eighteenth, Shak- ! spere has invariably, save in the case ofT)r. Furness^ s Variorum, which \ copies the First Folio punctuatim et literatim, been modernized and transliterated into the current idiom.
IX
Thus in two centuries of editing, Shakspere^s works have usually been printed as if the differences between Elizabethan and current idiom were largely a matter of obsolete words, and this modernized text has usually been interpreted from the standpoint of modern idiom. The consequent obscurities and confusions have been set down with more or less insistence to the two causes stated by Theobald, viz. the depravity of the text and the inadequacy of the English language to express Shak- spere^s great thought. Through the labours of successive generations of Shakspere scholars the number of the ^depravities^ has been greatly reduced, and the ^obscurities ^ illustrated and more or less clarified, ^ut Shakspere is still given to us in modern English dress and interpreted to us as current idiom, and a large number of apparent depravities of text and obscurities of diction still remain to puzzle the modern reader.
For a full half-century it has been known that the development of a living language such as our English consists not merely in an aban- donment of a certain part of its vocabulary, but in successive alterations of its entire structure. Its sounds, the stresses of its syllables, its in- flectional modes, its syntactical habits of collocating words, its pro- sodic forms, the delicate shadings of meaning and connotation which are conveyed by its words and idioms, — all these undergo a continuous process of transformation, sometimes rapid, sometimes slow, the net result of which is that the idiom of one period fails to express for a suc- ceeding generation its original content and meaning.
No single work of actual scholarship has contributed so much to the explanation and elucidation of this scientific principle as has the Oxford dictionary. The resources which this one book places at the disposal of the Shakspere scholar of the present century put him in possession of a means of understanding apparent depravities and inadequacies which Shakspere^ s earlier editors did not dream of.
^ut not only this : the stimulus of new scientific methods has set to work the English scholars of Jlmerica, England, and Germany at re- casting and rearranging the whole subject of English in the light of the facts of its historical development. The fresh knowledge that has re-
X
/
GENE'R/IL 'P'RBFnCE
suited gives a new interest to ^ text depravity/ and invests the apparent quaintnesses and abnormalities of the ^ old spelling^ with a new mean- ing. Words and idioms which were thought to be ^ corrupt^ in Shak- spere^s text turn out to be normal forms of expression in normal forms of representation. For instance^ in ^^ZJUe have scorched the snake^ not kilFd it^^ Macbeth 111,2, 13; the ^^ scorched ^^ of Shakspere^ s text^ which has been changed by a ^ happy emendation ^ of Theobald's to the ^ scotched' of all modern editions^ is a normal Middle English word-form still in use in Elizabethan literature and employed in 'Beaumont and Fletcher' s Knight of the burning 'Pestle; though here^ as in Shakspere^ it has been assumed that the ^^ scorch' d" of the half-dozen independent edi- tions of Beaumont and Fletcher's text is a misprint in each case for ^scotched,' /Ind^ notwithstanding that the r looks like such an obvious * depravity ' of an original t, ^^ scorch' d" meaning ^scored' or ^hacked' was the word Shakspere used, Jlnd so in Errors V, 1, 183; where this same word describes the scratching of one's face ; though here some editors explain it as meaning ^ singe' and others emend to ^scotch,'
Likewise^ the obscurity of diction so readily laid to Shakspere' s charge vanishes away when we confront it with a modern historical knowledge of Elizabethan idiom. For instance^ in such a phrase as ^^ Let not my jealousies be your dishonors^ 'But mine owne safeties/' Macbeth IV, 3*2'^^ we do not have a vague expression of the thought^ '/ am jealous for my honour: but this jealousy implies no dishonour to you; think of it merely as proceeding from my care for my own safety;' but a sharp J clear ^ and idiomatically expressed notion^ ^ Let not my sus- picions be a cause of shame to you, but a safeguard to myself/ — a no- tion that has more clearness and definiteness in its Elizabethan form than it is possible to give it in a modern translation,
T)epravity of text undoubtedly is to be reckoned with in Shakspere, Incorrect punctuation, misprinted words, bad line divisions, and occa- sional dislocations of the sense were undoubtedly frequently overlooked by the proof-readers in early editions of the text, But these depravities are normal and human, and are not much worse than those that occur
XI
GENE'R/JL ^P'J^EPnCE
in the other printed books of Shakspere^s time. They are to a large extent such mistakes as we should expect to find in the work of any author . whose writing was not revised and corrected by the author himself , ^ut the compositor^ s capacity for error has its limitations : he does not make ^^pi^^ of his own language. If the reader will consider the hundreds of emendations that have been proposed forthe text of Macbeth^ traditionally regarded as one of the worst printed of Shakspere^s plays^ and subse- quently been shown to be due to editorial unfamiliarity with Elizabethan English^ he will see that this invocation of the deus ex machina of cor- ruptness to solve the text problems of Shakspere has been appealed to needlessly in nine cases out of ten, I
/Is to the inadequacy of English speech to convey the greatness of ' any one^s thought^ our language has never failed to rise to any emer- . gency that English thinkers^ small and great ^ have created for it. Indeed^ \ in the very nature of language such an inadequacy can never exist^ be- J cause language is thought itself^ and the possession of the power of creating great thought carries with it ipso facto the capacity of putting that thought into form, Shakspere is never superior to his idiom : indeed^ I no thinker of English ever demonstrated more clearly the capacity of our language for clear ^ direct, and forthright expression, ZVe should be ' as carefulf there fore , in invoking this explanation of ^obscurity of dic- tion ' to help us over a difficult passage as we should be in resorting to assumptions of corruptness, lest in charging Shakspere with ob- scurity we convict ourselves of ignorance, I
It is the purpose, therefore, of this new edition of Shakspere^ s works to bring this new learning to bear on the elucidation of Shakspere^ s text, and to give new point to the illustrative material collected by the editors of the last two centuries, with the single aim of making the sense of Shak- spere^ s English clear and inevitable to the modern reader. |
Jlnd while we may not succeed to the full in clearing from all its obscurities the text of Shakspere, or in illustrating to the complete satis faction of the modern reader the implication of Shakspere^ s thought an idiom, yet we hope to be able to push the great work of interpretin
I
xu
GENE'RnL ^"REFACB
Shakspere a step or two along its course^ and to point the way to a fuller comprehension of the greatest and mightiest piece of literature^ save one^ that the human mind has produced.
The text of this edition is a critical one newly compiled from the various Quarto and Folio sources in the light of their known relations to one another^ and not selected from them with the purpose of obtaining the most literary and ^ from the modern standpoint^ the most easily intelligible form in which the plays might have been written, /is the basis of the form of the text the Folio of 1623 has been chosen because it presents the uniformity of a collected edition^ and its English is essentially that of Shakspere^ s time. This text is printed in the forms of Elizabethan English^ not from any desire to preserve the ^ ^ quaintness ^ ^ of the original^ nor yet from any philological pedantry^ but simply because the scholar- ship of the last quarter-century has made evident the importance of read- ing Elizabethan literature in the language in which it was written^ and not in modern transliterations or translations of it.
^ut while the spelling of Shakspere^ s English is an essential ele- ment of its structure indicating essential distinctions of sound^ the typo- graphical peculiarities of the FoliOj such as the capitalization of important words and the printing of the letters f, i, and u for s, j, and v, are dis- tinctions which have only formal and not essential significance. The punctuation system^ too^ of Elizabethan English is a formal method of pointing thought that is different from our modern one^ but does not in- dicate thought divisions essentially different from those of modern Eng- lish. It is therefore unnecessary to preserve these formal peculiarities of printings and the editor has followed the system adopted by the Oxford dictionary for quoting Elizabethan literature^ with the sole distinction of substituting modern capitalization for Elizabethan.^
Significant variant readings^ where there is more than one indepen- dent source of the text, are given in their original form. Mere variations in spelling and readings of Quartos or Folios which are not independent
^The capitalization of important ivords is not peculiar to the Folio, but was a common practice of Elizabethan printing-offices.
xiii
GENB'R/IL ^"RBFJlCB
sources of the text are omitted. These latter are of no more weight in determining the text than are modern guesses. Conjectural emendations are not noticed unless they supply in the place of a word obviously un- intelligible as Elizabethan English another word-form which makes apt sense in Shakspere^s time^ and can be assumed as the basis of a more or less evident printer^ s error. In shorty it is the aim of the text and of the critical notes to present the work of Shakspere simply and clearly in a form which Shakspere himself would understand^ and one as nearly like the form he may be supposed to have given his writing as a conservative application of the principles of evidence can attain to.
The aim of the explanatory notes is to bring together in brief space and compact form such material as is necessary to the clear understand- ing of Shakspere^ s text. Those which have to do with glossarial ex- planations aim to give as accurately as possible the exact shade of mean- ing which Shakspere^ s words had at the time they were written. Many Elizabethan locutions^ while not entirely obsolete in modern English, nevertheless suggest a range of associated ideas that is quite different from those they now suggest. In the misunderstanding of these Eliza- bethan connotations lies the ground of the charge of obscurity which is so frequently brought against Shakspere^ s thinking: an intimate understand- ing, therefore, of these word meanings is necessary not only to an in- telligent comprehension of Shakspere^ s text, but is also necessary to an appreciation of the literary quality of his writing. Left to himself, the modern reader can only guess at these connotations, and his guess, as is evident from the explanations of almost any edition of Shakspere, does not always hit the mark. Very frequently a delicate implication or a fine reference is missed in this process of guessing. The editor, therefore, has preferred to incur the criticism of ^^ insulting the reader^ s intelligence^^ (as it is called) by glossing these obsolete connotations, rather than that any should miss the full meaning of Shakspere^ s words by not being familiar with Elizabethan idiom. The glossarial notes are not intended to set down inferences more or less obvious from the con- text, but are designed as far as possible to give a definite authority for
XIV
GBNE'R/IL 'P'RBF/iCB
such an inference. Jlnd in all cases either a reference to the Oxford '•Dictionary is cited in justification of the meaning given^ or a reference from contemporary literature is appended to show that the reader^ s in- ference {if he would naturally make it) is authorized by contemporary usage.
The same plan has been followed in respect to the grammatical idiom of Elizabethan English, These illustrative references are given as far as possible in the language of Shakspere^s time} their sources indicated ^ and where they have been made use of in earlier editions due credit has been given to the editor who first pointed them out. In some cases it has been necessary to cite them in modernized forms because the original quotation has not been accessible to the editor. Such citations are dis- tinguished from the others by being printed within single quotation-marks, 'Brief notes of a literary character^ or illustrating the dramatic action^ have been added where it has seemed to the editor that these helped to a clearer appreciation of the text; and summaries of the dramatic action have been appended to the several acts to keep before the reader^ s mind the unity which the play would have when represented upon the stage.
The numeration of the Globe Text^ which has come to be the classic one and is now used in standard Shakspere dictionaries and grammars^ has been followed in this edition. ZVhere the editor has seen fit to de- part from the verse division of the Globe Text^ or from the act and scene division^ the departure has been carefully indicated^ and Globe refer- ences appended in small type at the side of the text.
The form in which the note matter is arranged about the text^ re- viving a fifteenth-century method of note-composition^ with some slight modifications to suit modern conditions of printings has been adopted to secure ease of reading and beauty of typography.
It only remains to say that the editor is not insensible of the deep obligation which he owes to the Shakspere scholarship of the past^ as well as to that of the present. The labours of Steevens and Malone [whose wide reading in Elizabethan literature furnished rich material for the modern editor to draw upon)^ the careful work of the editors of the Cam-
XV
GBNB'R/iL ^"RBPnCE
bridge Text in accurately recording the variants of the Quartos and Folios^ the learning and perspicacity of Nicolaus ^elius^ the substantial work of ©r. Furnivall and the New Shakspere Society^ the photographic fac- similes of the Quartos [largely due to T)r, FurnivaW s energy)^ the fine Staunton facsimile of the First Folio^ the valuable material in the Ger- man Shakespeare Jahrbuch^ the careful compilations of the Variorum editions^ especially of 'Dr. Furness^s modern Variorum — all these have contributed to lighten the present editor^ s task and enrich his work, fl modern evaluation of the Shakspere scholarship of the past two centuries is not necessarily a light one because modern scholarship seeks to give its results a new bearing and a fresh interpretation. Though ideals of editing may change^ faithful and earnest work abides^ and the old wis- dom dies not with the advent of the new learning, beneath the mask of Shakspere^ s easy fluency there lies a revelation of human nature that is as broad as the earth and as deep as the sea. No one scholar^ no one generation of scholars^ can compass its interpretation, /Is long as men shall live^ and till the thoughts of all hearts be revealed^ there will be material for new thought in the pages of Shakspere, The danger that Shakspere study has to fear is not the multiplication of new editions^ but the classicization of a single edition which all shall possess and no one read,
M, H, L,
Summit^ N, J,^ January^ 1903*
XVI
INT'RO^UCTION TO M/JCBBTH
Macbeth belongs to that group of great dramas^ Hamlet^ Othello^ and Lear^ which marks the culmination of Shakspere^s literary develop- ment. These plays were all produced in the first decade of the sev- enteenth century^ probably between 1602 and 1606^
The date of Macbeth is now usually set down as 1606. The earliest certain mention of the play- is a note in Forman^s 'Diary roughly de- scribing the tragedy as he saw it acted at the Globe Theatre on the 20th Jlpril^ 16 10 [Jlpril 30th N. S.).^ ^ut the reference to the double crowning of James at Scone and at ZVestminster^ the allusion to equivo- cation in connection with treason^^ the flattering description of Edward touching for the king^s evil^ and^ if we recall the legal aspect of the Scot- tish Jameses succession to the throne of Elizabeth^ the unusual notion
^Cp. The Succession of Shakspere's are reprinted in the New Shakspere So-
ZVorks; being 'Dr. FurnivalU s introduction ciety' s Transactions^ I875-I876, pp. 415 ff.
to the English translation of Gervinus's They are preserved at Oxford in A shmolean
Commentaries J 1874; p- x liv. MS. no. 208. The note on Macbeth occurs at
-Farmer thought that the lines in The leaf 207 1 article x, and begins: ^^ In Mack-
'Puritan or Widow of Watling Street (a beth at the glod [sic], 16 jo) the 20 of /I prill
play published in 1607 and now usually h, ther was to be obserued/' etc. Forman,
assigned to Middleton), 'Instead of a jester who was an astrologer , in this as in the other
we'll have a ghost in a white sheet sit at entries wrote the astronomical sign corre-
the head of the table/ contain an earlier sponding to the day of the week, here that of
reference to Macbeth, and Farmer's notion Saturn for Saturday, but these marks were
has been revived in recent editions of Shak- overlooked by the N. Sh. Society's copyist,
spere. 'But, as 'Professor Manly has pointed The entry was evidently made from memory
out (Macbeth, Longmans, 1876, pp. x ff.)j in I6II, and, besides being inaccurate in its
these words have been taken from their con- description of Macbeth (see note on p. 122)^
text, and their reference is to a ghost in The is in error in so far as the 20th of April in
T^uritan, not to 'Banquo's ghost. 16 10 fell upon a Friday, not upon a Saturday.
^ Forman's entries are random moraliz- ^It has recently been argued that the
ings for '^ common pollicie," suggested by 'farmer' who hanged himself is a punning
the plays he saw, among them three of allusion to the Farmer of the gunpowder
Shakspere's, the entries concerning which treason ^ but see the note to the passage.
XVll
INTI^O^UCTION TO MnCBBTH
of ^affeering^ a royal title ^ all point to an earlier date, at least for the composition of Macbeth , than Forman^s note would give us.
For although the defence of equivocation is a subject of popular and literary reference well into the middle of the seventeenth century, and panegyrics on the Union abound for a generation after the kingdoms were united,^ it is hardly likely that Shakspere would have referred to Jameses peculiar scruples about the king^s evil (see note onp, 180) much later than I6O3. The king soon forgot them himself. The spirit of the play also points to the early years of Jameses reign, when interest in early Scot- tish history was keen and the king^s own discussion of witchcraft was fresh in the public mind, ZVe are not apt to be far wrong, therefore, if we assume 1603 as a rough date for Macbeth.^
The version of the Macbeth legend upon which Shakspere based his play he found in Holinshed's Chronicle:^ it has not yet been made evi- dent that he followed any other account than the one Holinshed gives,^ This subject-matter, to the modern historian largely legendary, but to Shakspere^ s contemporaries true history, was especially acceptable dur- ing the early days of the reign of James I, not only because the impulse to give a quasi epic form to the early history of 'Britain was a character- istic feature of the literature of the period, but also because the Scottish origin of England^ s new king was attracting public attention to Scottish
^ The ^Hrehhle scepters'' in IV. 1. 121 and ^ For evidence that it was the second edi-
the reference to the good year in the porter' s tion of Holinshed and not the first that
speech are also usually taken as evidence Shakspere used, see the preface to Shak-
pointing to 1606. 'But the former is not nee- spere's Holinshed, ZV. G. ''Boswell-Stone,
essarily a reference to the Union, and the Longmans, 18^6 {also one of the publica-
latter seems to have been a current jest of tions of the New Shakspere Society). This
Shakspere' s time: see note to the passage, reprint is the most accurate and most con-
^ 'Dr. 'J^ichard Garnett in the Shakespeare venient yet published. Others will be found
Jahrbuch,vol. xxxvii, p. 214, in order to sup- in 'Delius's edition, 1855, Furness's Vario-
port the late 17th-century tradition that Shak- rum, Clark and ZVright's Clarendon 'Press
spere when living at New 'Place regularly edition, and in the various single-play edi-
supplied the London stage with two plays a tions of Macbeth.
year, has maintained that Forman's descrip- ^/in attempt has been made to show that
tion is of a first representation of cMacbeth he also consulted ZVilliam Stewart's Chron-
in l6lI,Hheplay being withheld duringi 6 10.' icle, ed. I^olls Series, 1858, a versified his-
'But I6I0, and not 161 1, is the date which tory of Scotland that is assumed to have
Forman gives, — see the note on the preced- been circulated in MS. form in Shakspere' s
ing page, — and local Shakspere traditions time j but the evidence is far from convincing,
are exceedingly uncertain lights to follow. See /Jthenoeum for July 25, 18^6.
li
XVlll
INT'RO^UCTION TO MACBETH
history, ^oth of these interests are combined in Slatyer^s T^aloealhion with the inclusion of the Macbeth legend and the usual flattery of the reigning sovereign, Warner , too^ in the 1606 edition of his /llbion^s Bngla n d in serted the His torie of Ma cbeth. The fact that neither of these writers follows Shakspere^s story points to a general interest in the theme as associated with Jameses ancestors^ rather than to a particular interest roused by Shakspere^s work. This interest is further shown by the circumstance that James, upon his visit to Oxford in /lugust, 160^^ was welcomed by a Latin entertainment representing the witch episode of the Macbeth legend and associating the king with the prophecy re- garding ^anquo^s line,^ Farmer thought that Shakspere, notwithstand- ing his ^ small Latin, ^^ might here have obtained a hint for his compliment to James, /Ind Farmer^ s view is not unlikely : for Shakspere would have been indeed stupid had he not got sufficient learning from the Strat- ford grammar-school to enable him to read the sort of Latin that the play was couched in,"
Shakspere^ s Macbeth, however, is not a chronicle play based upon dramatic events in the early history of his sovereign's native country. He condenses and boldly alters Holinshed's narrative, adapting the material to his purposes, and giving to history the unity and tense in- terest of tragedy,^ He seizes on the theme which the story presented to him, — namely, the influence of the weird sisters' prophecy on Mac- beth's career, an episode more or less incidental in Holinshed's account, — and with this Scottish Saul and his ZVitches of Endor, interpreted in the light of popular notions of witchcraft and the current psychology of insanity, builds up a tragedy whose motif is essentially the same with that of the Heracles Mainomenos of Euripides, or that of the classic
^ See Farmer on the Learning of Shak- Jonson was one of the best Latinists of his
spere, apudV ariorum, 1803,11, p. 54f or Sim- time and duly proud of his accomplishments f
rock in publications of Old Shakspere So- Shakspere' s knowledge of Latin might have
ciety, 1833, p- 127: Simrock quotes ZVake's been ^ small' in his scholarly friend's estima-
Latin description of the play in its entirety, tion and still have been quite sufficient to pose
-It is often assumed that Shakspere could many a modern schoolmaster,
not read Latin at all: the fact that '^en ^See, for example, the introductory notes
Jonson said his Latin scholarship was incon- to Scene II and Scene V of Act I, and the
siderable is evidence quite to the contrary, summary at the end of /let II,
XIX
INTRODUCTION TO M/ICBETH
and mediceval story of Hercules Furens^ or that of the mediaeval and modern Faust legend^ a tragedy which in respect to unity and tenseness of interest is unequalled in the history of literature,
/Is the play has come down to us^ we have it in the dress which Hemminge and Condell gave it in 1623^ almost twenty years after its production. In it there are obvious interpolations,^ It is characterized also by unusual condensation in style^ probably due to the fact that it was intended to be filled out by spectacular additions^ evidences of the existence of which are to be found in contemporary references and sub- sequent traditions in regard to its stage history. This condensation makes Macbeth difficult to read even when one is familiar with Eliza- bethan English. When it is read as modern English and due attention is not given to the current psychology of Shakspere^ s time, the action seems abrupt and disconnected. Much of this unintelligibility has been charged up to careless printing, successive editors having perpetuated the notion that the text is an unusually corrupt one, 'But a careful comparison of the text of this edition with that of the First Folio will show clearly that Macbeth is not nearly so badly printed a play as it has been supposed to be, /Ind a careful study of the Elizabethan word meanings and their implications will show a wonderful continuity and unity in the develop- ment of its thought; and will point to the conclusion that, save for the few obvious interpolations, all of which could be taken out without sacrific- ing its interest or hindering its movement, we have Macbeth essentially as Shakspere wrote it.
The theme of Macbeth is a favourite subject of Greek drama in- vested with Germanic interests — namely, the fatal consequences of the intervention of supernatural influences for evil in the affairs of men, /Ind the power of the tragedy lies in the fact that we, helpless specta- tors, look on consumed with pity but unable to avert the doom, /III of Shakspere^ s greatest tragedies present to us the picture of a mens in- sana, a diseased soul whose powers are out of balance and out of tune
^These are discussed in the notes to the various suspected passages. See especially
the introductory note to Scene V of /let III.
XX
INTRODUCTION TO MACBETH
through the excess of some one faculty dominating the others and over- throwing the ^^ state of man ^^ which Macbeth speaks of in L3. I40, In Hamlet it is a mind essentially weak from excess of deliberation ^ ^^a resolution [i. e. will-power^ sicklied ore with the pale cast of thought [i. e. brooding anxiety]/^ that defeats a noble purpose and wrecks a noble souL In Lear we have the tragic results of a single foolish act^ a single fatal aberration of judgement^ proceeding from an excess of caution. It is the ^^ consequence^^ — using the word in its Elizabethan sense — of this that produces the mens insana and mocks the noble hope of an old age to be spent in the happy comfort of filial care. In Othello it is a pitiful jeal- ousy^ arising from an excess of credulity and causing melancholia {an aspect of the mens insana in Shakspere^s time : see Burton^ s Anatomy of Melancholy^ passim), that shatters a noble love, Hamlet^ Lear^ Othello^ Macbeth are all^ in the language of Elizabethan psychology^ ^^ distempered^^ souls,
But Macbeth is different from the former three in having a moving cause from without. Like Hercules^ as he returns victoriously from the scene of his conquests^ the furies invade his soul^ and he becomes mai- nomenos, furens, ^ regarding neither lazv of God nor law of man, ^ The modern reader misses much of this aspect of the play by putting modern meanings upon the words in which it is involved^ and letting their sense go for literary when he cannot clearly understand them. So that when Shakspere for the first time presents this notion of an invasion of Mac- beth^ s soul by the powers of evil in the implication of Macbeth^ s own wordsj Shakspere^ s thought gets lost in thevagueness of the modern trans- lation. The modern reader ^ toOj is prone to overlook the nature and sig- nificance of the embodiment of these powers of evil which Shakspere presents in hiswitches,^ He sees the instigating machinery of the tragedy as a mere incident in the course of its development. But Shakspere^ s conception of these agencies was far otherwise. The powers of darkness and their evil instruments were to him and to the common people of his
'^/i glance at Scene V of /id III will show missed the meaning of these moving influ- clearly^ also^ how the careless interpolator ences of the tragedy.
XXI
INTRODUCTION TO M/IC^ETH
day horrible realities^ fleshly embodiments of evil to be met with in every countryside. No mere theological figures to express the spiritual aspects of the evil tendencies of the human soul^ they really entered men^ s bodies and took possession of the house ^ ruling all for their wicked ends. Thus^ as were the classic furies to the Greek mind^ these powers of evil were to the Elizabethan actual personalities lying in wait for those they would destroy. The literature of the time is full of this notion. Even 'Bacon reflects it, James was interested in the subject and wrote his tract on demonology to counteract the juster notions that were appearing from time to time in the tracts of liberally minded theologians. The whole force of the law of England wCts brought to bear against the poor crea- tures who were thought to be possessed by these demons of evil ^ and not till a century after Shakspere^s time did this notion of the actual entrance of the devil into the body of man lose its hold on the imagination of men. Even yet^ in out-of-the-way corners of popular superstition and belief in England and Jlmerica^ can one find it lingering. The story of Macbeth f therefore ^ is one of that class of themes which represent an ambitious man as bargaining with the devil and selling his soul in ex- change for power, /Ind if the reader is to get a clear notion of the essen- tial tragedy of Macbeth^ s harried life he must bear this in mind.
In Holinshed Macbeth already belongs to an heroic period of British history ; but Shakspere adds touches here and there ^ giving more sharp- ness to the epic characteristics. In the opening scene of the play the hero towers vast and bulky above all others in the battle^ tearing his way single-handed through an opposing army of rebels and cleaving their leader from neck to navel in true Homeric fashion^ while Bellona smiles proudly on the glorious achievements of her beloved minion. It is an epic and Homeric picture. This heroic aspect of Macbeth comes out again when he returns in triumph to receive his meed of praise from Duncan and be hailed in triumph as the saviour of his country. These epic characteristics flash forth from time to time throughout the play^ perhaps nowhere more clearly than when Macbeth longs for the former age ere human statute had purged the gentle weal — when the brains
xxu
J.
INTI^O^UCTION TO M/ICBBTH
were out the man would die! — the time when a man could go straight to his purpose^ be it foul or good^ and gain his end in a forthright way. His virtues are heroic: when he plans to murder T)uncan it is the heroic notion of the rites of hospitality and the patriarchal notion of allegiance to a just king that stay his hand, not the thought of killing an innocent old man in cold blood. It is his fear of the taunt of cowardice that nerves him to the deed itself It is the dread that he will have to drink the same cup that taints his joy : he ^11 gladly risk the life to come. /Ind when the powers of evil get hold of his imagination and poison his soul at the springs his vices become heroic too; and^ being heroic^ they are interesting^ possessing that fatal attraction which magnificent strength has even when viciously applied. Thus the wild havoc which the victim of these instigations works suggests no ^^ vulgar criminal/^ but a Her- cules furens^ and awe and pity overpower our loathing of his crimes, Euripides^ s treatment of this theme in its general outlines presents strik- ing similarities to Shakspere^ s handling of the Macbeth story — similari- ties due to the fact that the methods of great art are eternally the same; and perhaps it will be worth our while for a moment to glance at this^ in a certain sense^ Greek prototype of the English Macbeth,
The colossal and heroic figure of early Greek history^ like Macbeth^ has his soul invaded by the furies as he is returning triumphant from one of his great labours; and Euripides^ s play is the tragic consequence of this supernatural invasion, Hercules^ s madness^ however^ is of a simpler and more elemental character than Macbeth^ s. Made furens by these powers ofevil^ he murders his dear ones. In Macbeth^ s case the instigation is more subtle , less objective; the evil influences seize upon a strong ambition of kingship already firmly planted in Macbeth^ s mind and fostered by a native imagination of unusual strength^ and work upon this to poison his soul, Hercules^ when he again recovers his sanity and sees in its true light the enormity of his crime ^ is plunged into de- spair^ and on the brink of suicide exclaims that ^ his bark is full fraught with horrors,^ Macbeth^ looking back over the long train of bloody yesterdays and helplessly involved in their tragic consequence^ is like-
XXIU
INTRODUCTION TO MACBETH
wise on the brink of suicide — ^^Out^ out^ breefe candle! ^^ — andin thebit- terness of his despair he too exclaims^ ^^I have supped full of horrors/^^ Hercules recovers his former self through the ministrations of friendship and Euripides^ s play comes to a redeeming end; Macbeth does not wholly recover^ — the poison has worked too deeply for that^ — but the ne- cessity for action rouses his titanic will in something like its early strength^ and his manly end at least suggests the redemptive note.
These two dramas^ then, while written to meet radically different con- ditions of interest, have a certain subtle kinship with one another that seems deeper than a mere accidental coincidence. For Macbeth, while not insane in our modern sense of the word, is essentially mad when his acts and words are viewed in the light of Elizabethan psychology. He has that ^ great imagination proper to madmen ^ : the shaping fancies of his seething brain ^apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends,^ The poet, ^ of imagination all compact,^ comes out clearly in his first words, ^^So foule and faire a day I have not seene,^^ as he blends together in his thought the blustery, fitful, stormy day and the battle he has just passed through. Thus at the very outset Macbeth is presented to us as a dreamer of dreams, Jlnd all through the course of the play it is rather the poetic visions which he sees than the facts which are that lead him on from day to day. The natural influences which surround him and the supernatural powers which he thinks are brooding over his career glorify with their misty haze every one of his soliloquies. ZVhen the instru- ments of darkness deprive him of his sovereignty of reason and drive him into madness, he is the lunatic, the madman, ^who sees more devils than vast hell can hold,^ Life becomes one long, changing ^ fever, ^ and ^what 's a fever but a fit of madness ? ' These restless ^ extacies, ^ these ^ fever fits, ^ as Shakspere calls them, using the technical language by which the physician of his time described this kind of alienation, make the ^torture of the mind^ that becomes the Nemesis of his tragedy,
^Likewise Macbeth' s ''I have lived long resque, nihil est: cuncta iam amisi bona."
enough/' etc.f has an interesting parallel in (This parallel was pointed out by 'Professor
the words of Seneca's Hercules: **Cur ani- Munro in the Journal of Philology , Vol. VI ^
mam in ista luce detineam amplius, Mo- p. 70 ff.)
XXIV
INTI^O^UCTION TO MACBETH
The evidences which show that Shakspere conceived Macbeth as ^suffering from a ^ mind diseased^ are to he found rather in the language which he uses to describe its symptoms than in the text itself. If one reads these words with their Elizabethan connotations^ and notes their application to various forms of alienation in the technical literature of the subject as it was in Shakspere^ s time^ especially as gathered to- gether in 'Burton^s great treatise on insanity^ he will see clearly that Shakspere intended to represent Macbeth as a person of unsound mind.
This is not the historical Macbeth of Holinshed. T)r. Furness {Variorum^ p, 359) suggested that Shakspere got his hint for Macbeth^ s hallucinations from Hqlinshed^s story of the unquiet mind of Kenneth after the murder of his nephew Malcolm^ the son of King 'Duff: cp. 'Boswell-Stone^ p. 30, 'But in this account of Kenneth^ s unquietness it is only one voice and one unquiet night that are described '^ the visions are absent. In 'Buchanan^ s Historia Rerum Scoticarum, cap, vi, which was extant in Latin in Shakspere^ s time ( 1st ed,^ 1 582)^ and might easily have been accessible to him^ we have the words : '* Tamen animus, con- scientia sceleris inquietus, nullum solidum et sincerum ei gaudium esse permittebat ; sed intercursantibus per otium cogitationibus sceleris foedissime interdiu vexabatur; et per somnum observantia visa hor- roris plena quietem interpellabant. Tandem sive vere vox coelo edita est, sive turbatus animus earn sibi ipse speciem finxerat/' etc. This gives us the picture of Macbeth^ s torture almost exactly as Shakspere conceived it,^ It will be remembered^ also^ that it was 'Buchanan who made the suggestion that the Macbeth story was fitter for dramatic pur-
'^Shakspere, in describing Macbeth' s men- ing' Malcolm^ to his peace' — **intcrcursanti-
tal torture, employs verbiage that sounds bus per otium" — and could ^ gain no peace'
very like a rough translation of 'Buchanan's for himself, — "et visa horroris plena" — but
Latin ; one can almost fancy him reading it : ' terrible dreams ' and * visions ' — " obser-
"animusconscientia sceleris inquietus" — his vantia " — 'afflicting' him — ** per somnum
mind in 'restless ecstacy' with the conscious- quietem interpellabant " — 'shook him night-
ness of his guilt — ''nullum solidum et sin- ly'^ — "sive vere vox coelo edita est" — either
cerum ei gaudium esse permittebat" — kept he heard a voice from heaven crying ' sleep no
him ' dwelling in doubtful joy/ — " sed foedis- more, Kenneth doth murder sleep' — "sive"
sime interdiu vexabatur" — and he was con- — or — "turbatus animus" — his 'diseased
tinually 'tortured' — "cogitationibus sceleris" mind' — " ipse eam speciem sibi finxerat" —
— by thoughts of his wicked deed in 'send- itself 'informed' thus to his guilty ears, etc.
XXV
INTRODUCTION TO MnCBBTH
poses than for historical — '^quisrtheatris aut Milesiis fabulis sunt ap- tiora quam historiae." If Shakspere did not get his hint direct from ^uchanan^ — and he might easily have done so^ — he could well have obtained it from current literature^ since 'Burton refers to the story as a sort of commonplace illustrating an unquiet conscience.^
Macbeth^ s own realization of his ^possession ^ is rather the vague consciousness of a mysterious disturbing power within him than a clear acknowledgement of the fact that he has sold his soul to the powers of darkness. He knows that he is sick^ but until the very end of the play he thinks his ^rooted sorrow^ is temporary ^ action will rid him of it; to-morrow he will be well: to-morrow the consequence will be tram- melled up. If Banquo becomes a disturbing element to his peace of mindf he will get Banquo out of the way and to-morrow be at peace. If Macduff rises to take ^anquo^s place as a disturber of his peace^ he will wade on through the stream of bloody and to-morrow^ having gained firm ground on the other side^ he will sleep in spite of thunder. So it is — to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow — peace ever just beyond until the end comes and he is face to face with his shattered life^ his broken hopes^ lighted by yesterdays the way to dusty death. Life is meaningless^ a gibbering idiofs tale^ a strutting actor^s rant^ full of sound and fury^ signifying nothing.
JJnd at last^ too late^ poor Macbeth comes to the bitter realization that the juggling fiends have been paltering with him in a double sense, keeping the word of promise to his ear and breaking it to his hope, lying like truth; that his rooted sorrow has been planted by himself. With one last frenzied tug he tears it from his mind, and is almost him- self again when, defying fate as well as men, his life goes out in the flaming words ^^ Lay on, Macduffe, Jlnd damned be him that first cries 'Hold, enough!'''
^'Burton/Zlnatomy of Melancholy' III. 4. sembled the matter a longtime^ at last his
ii. 3, quotes the substance of 'Buchanan's de- conscience accused him, his unquiet soul
scription: ' Kennetus, King of Scotland, could not rest day or night, he was terrified
when he had murdered his nephew Malcolm, with fearful dreams, visions, and so miser-
King'Duff'sson,'Princeof Cumberland, and ably tormented all his life.' {A foot-note
with counterfeit tears and protestations dis- shows that he cites 'Buchanan from memory.)
xxvi \ /I
INT'RO^UCTION TO MnCBBTH
The contributory characters to his tragedy are sketched in with a few touches^ sharp enough for clear definition^ hut never with sufficient detail to make them of paramount interest: Lady Macbeth^ ^anquo^ Macduff^ Malcolm. With marvellous skilly Shakspere prevents even the most important of them — Lady Macbeth — from becoming a para- mount theme. Jit the beginning the woman^ as the instigator of Mac- beth^ s first step in his bloody course^ does threaten to absorb the reader^ s whole attention, ^ut Shakspere withholds the details which would con- tribute to this end and ^ instead of giving them in their proper place ^ re- flects them backward into the action after Macbeth has become the paramount theme^ and there is therefore no danger of weakening our interest in the main current of the action,^
^anquOf too^ is kept in the background^ though we would gladly know just how 'Banquo felt about T)uncan^s murder^ the authorship and motive of which he must have suspected^ and what he really thought about the witches^ prophecy promising kingship to his family, ZVhen we come to Macduff the danger of a subsidiary theme becoming of paramount interest is over^ and Shakspere gives us more detail because the detail will now heighten the interest of the external climax of the tragedy without marring its unity,'
Lady Macbeth^ s possession by the powers of evil^ which in the havoc it works is essentially the same as Macbeth^ s^ is yet so care- fully differentiated from Macbeth^ s madness in the manner of its in- ception that the unity of interest in the play is in no way marred. The insidious combination of ambition and supernatural soliciting in Mac- beth^s case is counteracted by a natural manliness and a ^^ milk of human kindness ^^ that make a continuous and interesting resistance
'^A short-sighted criticism, reading Mac- left out by accident or through abridgement
beth in modern English as a tragedy of for practical purposes of stage representation,
events rather than one of character, has gone -Here again criticism has cavilled at the
so far as to assume that these detailed ac- disproportionate amount of attention which
tions — for instance, the planning out of 'Dun- Shakspere gives to the plans of Malcolm and
can's murder either by letter or in conference in 3^1 acduff to restore the Scottish throne to
the early part of the play — were represented its rightful heir, the objective and spectacu-
in the original copy of Macbeth but have been lar culmination of the drama.
xxvu
INTRODUCTION TO M/ICBETH
to the ^ disenfranchisement of his bosom ^ and the dethronement of his will. Jlnd when this struggle is over the fact that his imagination is the strongest element of his mental character^ and that it is only neces- sary for the instruments of evil to work upon that to produce the mental torture which forms the Nemesis of Macbeth^ s tragedy^ furnishes a new interest for the course of the play. Lady Macbeth^ however^ is pre- sented to us not only as not resisting the powers of evil which threaten her peace ^ but as furiously invoking their entrance into her souL
Jlfter she has accomplished her purpose of inciting Macbeth to the murder ofT>uncan^ she fades out of the drama and becomes a merely pas- sive subject in the hands of fate ^ emerging only to her final doom in the last act. The invoked powers of evil immediately poison her will, Mac- beth says of himself that his state of man is thrown into insurrection^ and this insurrection is the theme of his tragedy } but there is no insur- rection in Lady Macbeth^ s case because there is no resistance ', her ex- ecutive instruments themselves are evilj and even her hints are fatal,^
The internal unity of theme and interest in Macbeth is comple- mented by an external unity of form that is peculiar to this among Shak- spere^s great tragedies. This unity of structure is secured by the in- sertion of narrative scenes between the several acts of the play to serve the purposes of the Greek chorus. Through the influence of Seneca on Elizabethan play-writing this form of dramatic structure was not un- known to Shakspere^ s contemporaries , Shakspere^s very practical adap- tation of it shows clearly what a stage master he was. Indeed^ he has been so successful that modern criticism has failed to notice these linking scenes as being at all external to the main interest of the tragedy. Their character and their peculiar effect in uniting and making one picture of a long series of events will be best observed by reading them in their places with a consciousness of their dramaturgic import,
/Inother striking characteristic of Macbeth is its absence of perspec-
^It is going far afield to assume that a and no contemporary version of the story
blood feud existed between Lady Macbeth attaches any importance to it. Indeed, the
and 'Duncan's house. There is no trace of whole thing is a motif evolved from the mind
this in the action or phraseology of Macbeth, of a foreign critic of the play.
XXVlll
INT'RO'DUCTION TO MACBETH
five. Its scenes are presented to the imagination with such sharpness of outline and at the same time with such conciseness of interest that the whole tragedy becomes a single picture. The play is peculiar in this respect. Its main action is sketched out at first more or less roughly ; but as we watch the unfolding^ details which really belong to scenes that have passed the immediate vision of the mind^s eye are filled in to recall that past and bind it in with the present. /Is a work of art Macbeth is thus in its aesthetic unity a marvellous achievement^ because to a certain extent it transcends its own limitations. In a great picture or in a great piece of statuary ^ a single moment of interest is pressed upon the at- tention by the skill of art in such a way that all which has preceded that particular moment and all that will follow is at once seized upon by the comprehending imagination^ which of itself knows not the limita- tions of time and space. The interest of a great work of literature^ how- ever^ is a consecutive interest^ moment succeeding moment in rhythmic pulse and all contributing to a final impression when we reach the end of the series. 'But Shakspere in his,Mac-beth^ by the simple device of adding fresh detail to recalled scenes^ keeps the whole tragedy as it were before the mind^s eye at one time. One of the most interesting and important scenes in the whole play is the murder of ^uncan^ yet we do not get the full details of this scene at the time of its enactment. We merely get the impression of a deed of horror done in darkness. When the scene y however ^ is recalled at the end of the play in Lady Macbeth^ s sleep-walkings it comes into the imagination^ as Shakspere represents it, not with a loss of detail as is usually the case in a recalled experi- ence ^ but with added detail which it did not have before. Just a word — a single association or two — gives the past act a new and present in- terest. The time analysis of the play considered as history covers a period of some score of years. ''Right in the middle of it is a gap seven- teen years long. 'But when viewed by the imagination as Shakspere forces us to look at itj Macbeth is crowned at Scone yesterday and to- day overthrown at T)unsinane. Yet^ paradoxical as it may seem^ while the action is thus brought before us as a single conspectus^ this is done
XXIX
INT'RO^UCTION TO MnCBBTH
without sacrificing the interests which come from a long course of devel- opment. Little hints and suggestions^ word associations^ all the sub- sidiary interests of literature^ combine to suggest the result of a long course of events in single moments. While the action of the play has been rushing along through a few days of rapid denouement^ Macbeth passes from middle age into the sear and yellow leaf. He tastes the whole bitterness of despair in a succession of disappointing yesterdays stretching back through a lifetime of defeated hopes, Shakspere^ s power in securing this unity and continuity at the same time^ thus presenting action as it comes to us in dreams without the limitations of time and spacCf is well illustrated in Hamlet where the clock strikes twelve in the opening of the first scene and three minutes afterward strikes one without producing any sense of incongruity in the reader^ s mind.
Still another characteristic of Macbeth which is well worth the reader^ s attention is the wonderful fitness of its rhythms. It is not only in its verbiage one of the most poetical of Shakspere^ s plays ^ but is also^ in the way in which the rhythmic flow of their attention stresses reflects the notions expressed by his words, one of the most poetic plays of that period when he had fully learned the power and use of English rhythms. There is no surer mark to distinguish his later from his earlier poetry than this harmonious fitness of speech rhythms, /Ind in no respect is the distinction between the interpolated matter in this play and Shak- spere^s own work sharper and clearer than in the difference between the rhythms of the added matter and Shakspere^s own. There is no poetry in English literature in which such perfect rhythmic fitness in the move- ment of the thought is secured without the sacrifice of a single idiomatic locution or graphic word association as we have in Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, and Lear, Some of these harmonious rhythm series are pointed out in the notes, but there has not been space sufficient to include a notice of anything like their full number,^
^ The relation of such rhythm series to the English 'Poetry CDoubleday^ Page S Co.;
structure of English poetry is briefly dis- I902;pp. 275-305), and the nomenclature and
cussed f with special re ference toShakspere's notation there explained are employed in the
verse, in An Introduction to the Study of ensuing notes.
XXX
J
INT'J^O^UCTION TO M/ICBETH
These are hut a few of the characteristics of this great tragedy^ second only to Hamlet as a picture of the overthrow of a human souL Shak- spere is his own best commentator^ and a clear understanding of the- meaning and implication of his words in the senses which they bore when he used them is a surer guide to a full appreciation of his works than all the books that have been written about them.
The only textual source for Macbeth is the Folio of 1623^ This undoubtedly gives us an acting version which^ if not one of Shakspere^s ^^blotless papers/^ at least comes as near being an authorized edition as any version we shall ever have. No change^ therefore^ has been made in its verbiage save for the attempted corrections of its indubitable misprints,^
In consonance with the general plan of the edition^ the text is pre- sented in the language of Shakspere^s time. 'But the reader hardly needs to be told that Shakspere^s words may be pronounced as the English of to-day without serious detriment save to the sound-colouring of his verses~ — may the time soon come when even this drawback to the full appreciation of Shakspere^s poetry shall be removed!
The abbreviations used in the notes are in the main self-explanatory^ or in such common usage as to need no explanation here. The con- stantly recurringwords ^' Old English J ^^ ^^ Middle English , '^ and ^^ New English/^ connoting respectively the periods of our language from the be- ginning to 1025 J from 1023 to I55O; and from 1550 to the present^ are represented by the current abbreviations O. E.^ M, E,, and N, B. These are often further qualified by the words ^ early ^ and ^ late/ respectively abbreviated to e. and I. The Folio and Quarto Texts of Shakspere are represented by FO, and QO, followed by the numeral which indicates their respective places in the series. The Oxford^ or New English^ dictionary is represented by N, E, ©., and the Century dictionary by Cent, T)ict, ; the number or letter following the abbreviation represents
^ A list of these will be found in the Index. inary glance at the references there given will '^ The chief peculiarities of Elizabethan enable the reader easily to surmount stum- word representation are arranged in the In- bling-blocks that might otherwise halt him dex under the rubric Spellings and a prelim- from time to time in the course of his reading.
XXXI
INT'RO^UCTION TO M/ICBETH
the peculiar sense of the word referred to. /Ifter the reader has become familiar with them the titles of the early New English dictionaries are ohhreviated to Cooper^ Minsheu^ Jllvearie^ Coles^ Glossographia^ T^hr. Gen,^ etc. Save where special note is made^ I cite these dictionaries in the following editions : ^aret^s /llvearie^ 1 580 [Isted.] ; Coles^s Eng- lish ^ictionary^ I? 13 (isted.^ 1677); Coles^s Latin ^ictionary^ 1679 [Isted.y 1677); Comenius^s Janua Linguarum ^eserata, translated hy Horn and ^ohotham, 1643 ( Horn^s translation is dated 1634 ); Cooper^ s Thesaurus f 1573 [Isted., 1565); Cotgrave^s French dictionary, with HoweWs supplement, 1650 {1st ed., 161 1) ;* CoweU s Law T)iction- ary, 1684 {1st ed., 1607); Florio^s Italian dictionary, 161 1 (1st ed., 1597); Glossographia, 1707 {1st ed., 1656); Holyoke^s Latin dic- tionary, 1677 ( 1st ed. ) ; Kersey^ s English T)ictionary, 1708 ( 1st ed. ) ; Minsheu^s T)uctor in Linguas [containing 1st ed. of 'Percivale], 16 17 (Isted.); ^ercivale^s Spanish T)ictionary, 1623; 'Phillips^ s New World of Words, 1678 (1st ed., 1658); T^hraseologia Generalis (The Cambridge T^hrase ^ook), 1 68 1 (isted.); SeweU s T)utch T)iction- ary, 1708 (1st ed.); Skinner^ s Etymologicon, 1 67 1 (licensed 1668); Thomases Latin T)ictionary, with Holland^ s supplement, 1620 (1st ed., 1596); WithaU s Little 'Dictionarie for Children, 1556 (Isted.). The names of the various learned societies whose publications are fre- quently referred to are abbreviated as follows : O. Sh. Soc, The Old Shakspere Society ; N. Sh. Soc, The New Shakspere Society ; Shake- speare Jahrbuch, or Jahrb., the Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakespeare Gesellschaft; E. E. T. S., The Early English Text Society ; Sp. Soc, The Spenser Society ; Per. Soc, The Percy Society.
The names of the various editors of Shakspere whose work is referred to will be found chronologically arranged in Furness^s Variorum, or in the Preface to the Cambridge Edition, or in Mr. Lee^s Life of William Shakespeare { pp. 36 1 ff.). Professor J. M, Manly, whose excellent school edition of Macbeth appeared in 1896, should be added to the list. The title of the Clarendon Press edition of Macbeth, by Clark and Wright ( Oxford, 1878), I have shortened to CI. Pr. The titles of the books from
XXXll
INT'RO'DUCTION TO MACBETH
which illustrative quotations have been drawn are cited in the forms given in the New English and the Century dictionaries^ and are in the main self-explanatory. Its date usually accompanies each citation. The ab- breviations of the titles of Shakspere^s works are practically those em- ployed by the Oxford T)ictionary and do not need explanation to the Shakspere student. The marks ' and " indicate primary and secon- dary grades of stress : unstressed impulses are left unmarked. The conventional turned e (a) represents the vowel sound of an unstressed syllable^ or the sound of u in ^ but/ ^ cut/ etc.
My indebtedness to my predecessors has already been acknowledged in the General T^reface. 'But I desire especially to express my obliga- tions to Schmidt^ s Shakspere Lexicon^ for many finely discriminated definitions '^ to the Century T)ictionary^ for many supplementary Eliza- bethan quotations ; and to the Clarendon T^ress edition of Macbeth^ for many valuable cross-references.
The practical and mechanical difficulties attendant upon the form of composition have been many and various^ and I should be indeed un- grateful if I did not acknowledge the unfailing courtesy of the publishers and the ready skill of the printers in coping with these^ commonly counted the humiles et sordidae curce of editorship. And in this connection I must also express my deep obligation to the good sense and good taste of my assistant^ who has relieved me of much of the burden of arrang- ing the note-matter in such a way as to make possible^ under modern conditions^ a fifteenth-century form of printing.
XXXUl
I
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
THE NAMES OF THE ACTORS The King of Scotland.
Malcolm E, 'Prince of Cumberland, )
his sons.
donalbaine, )
Macbeth, ) ^ » />.» t^- .?
' ' generals of the King s army.
Banquo, ) Macduffe/ Lenox,
ROSSE,
MENTETH, j noblemen of Scotland.
Angus, Cathnes,
FlEANS, son to 'Banquo.
SEYWARD, earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces.
Young Seyward, his so^.
SEYTON, an officer attending on Macbeth. Boy, son to Macduffe.
An English Doctor.
A Scottish Doctor of Physicke. |
A Captaine.
A Porter.
An Old Man.
Three Murtherers.
Lady Macbeth.
Macduffes Wife. m
Waiting Gentlewoman.
Ghost of Banquo.
Hecat.
Three Witches.
Apparitions.
Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Souldiers, Attendants, and Messengers.
The Scene: Scotland; England.
The First Folio ( FO. I ) gives no list of players for Macbeth. This is a rearrangement of "The Person's Names" prefixed to Davenant's version of the play in 1674.
I
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
THE FIRST ACT
SCENE I : A DESERT PLACE: THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
ENTER THREE WITCHES
I-II
FIRST WITCH HEN shall we three meet a^aine ?
In thunder, lightning, or in raine ?
SECOND WITCH. When the hurley-hurley 's done,
When the battaile's lost and wonne.
THIRD WITCH. That will be ere th' set of sunne.
FIRST WITCH. Where the place?
SECOND WITCH. Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth.
FIRST WITCH. I come, Gray-Malkin. ALL. Padock calls anon. Faire is foule, and foule is faire, Hover through th' fogge and filth ie ayre.
EXEUNT
SF I The opening verse has a peculiar slowing in the mid- dle caused by the heavy sec- ondary stress on THREE, which slightly differentiates its rhythm from that of the following verses. *1F2 If one thinks of IN THUNDER, LIGHTNING, OR IN RAINE merely as denoting meteorological conditions, * or ' is an awkward connective: some modern editors, following Hanmer, 1744, have therefore changed 'or' to 'and.' But the words denote the three several elements in which, according to Elizabethan (EL.) demonology, witches are most potent, and their connotations naturally stand in dis- junctive relation to one another. SF 3 HURLEY-BURLEY in Shakspere's time is a ■usual term to describe the * tumult ' of an insurrection such as Macdonwald's was ; e. g. Halle's Chronicle, ed. 1548, Hen. VIII, 23Ia, " In this tyme of insurrection, and in the rage of horley borley," and Newton's Thebais, Tragedies of Seneca, Spenser Soc, p. 84, **This CEdipus in a certayne sedicious hurly burly . . slew King Laius." DONE
3
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
corresponds to Modern English (MN. E.) 'over' : cp. 1.7. 1. SF 4 BATTAILE is an Eliza- bethan English (EL. E.) spelling of the word due to the retention of its Middle English (M. E.) form. *1F 5 In TH' SET and TH' FOGGE (v. 1 1) we have illustrations of the loss of the vowel of the definite article common in EL. E. both in poetry and in prose and whether the following word began with a consonant or with a vowel. The evidence of this is found in EL. printing and in the versification of careful writers: cp. "from th'rest " Drayton/ Barrons Warres' V. 63. 7 ; "affright th' most senselesse thing" ibid.U. 66. 5 ; " in th' daies" (prose) Dekker, * Knights Conjuring/ Percy Soc, p. 33. We have probably an evidence of this elision in the apostrophe in such printing as ** would here set ' pcacefull period to my dayes " Ben Jonson, * Sejanus/ 1640, p. 341, and " Well said, this carries ' palme with it " ' Poetaster' p. 300. (The phenomenon still survives as a peculiarity of modern dialect English; see Prof. Wright's * Dialect of Windhill,' Eng. Dial. Soc, 1892, pp. 91 and 1 10; in the Windhill dialect the remaining spirant is fur- ther reduced to t.) The elision is of very frequent occurrence in Macbeth. We may assume, therefore, that the printer of the Folio in these two cases neglected to denote the omission by the customary apostrophe of EL. texts. Pope's excision of the ar- ticle here and in v. II, and Abbott's attempt to explain HOVER in v. II as a mono- syllable, are due to efforts to make the verses perfectly rhythmical in MN. E. *1F 6 HEATH in EL. E. rhymed with MACBETH, the vowels of the two words differing only in quantity, and was sounded as if rhyming with MN. E. " faith." Almost without ex- ception, ea in Shakspere has nearly the sound of a in MN. E. 'make' and ay in MN. E. 'day,' viz. a long close e-sound, and our present /-sound for this vowel, as in MN. E. "heath," is nearly a century later than Shakspere. SF 7 The scansion "There to meet with Macbeth" forces a strong pause after MEET and thus gives peculiar im- pressivcncss to WITH MACBETH. The loss of an unstressed syllable after a caesural pause is of common occurrence in English verse and gives no occasion for the numer- ous emendations which supply a monosyllabic adjective like 'brave' or 'great' before MACBETH. SF8 In the Folio I COME, GRAY-MALKIN is assigned to the First Witch, having ' I ' before it. What follows is printed as a couplet, preceded by the stage direc- tion ' AIL' It is probable, however, that after v. 9 some 'stage business' of the witches intervened, like the dance in 1.3-32 ff., abruptly ended by the summons of the nuntius spirit (see note to III. v. 34), and that the witches then vanished singing the couplet in vv. 10 and II. Shakspere uses for the names of his witches' familiars GRAY-MALKIN, the common appellation of a cat, like MN.E. 'Tabby,' and PADOCK, the M.E. and EL. E. word for toad: cp. Gifford's 'Dialogue concerning Witches,' I6O3, ed. Percy Soc, p. 19: "Witches have their spirits . . some in one likenesse and some in another . . as like cats . . toades . . or mice, whom they nourish with milk or with a chicken." On the same page is a story of a witch who "had three spirits, one like a cat which she called Lightfoot, another like a toade which she called Lunch, and a third like a weasill which she called Makeshift." The punctuation of the Cambridge Text in v. 9» " Pad- dock calls — anon!" follows Capell, 1768, departing from that of the Folio and assuming ANON to be an answer to Padock's summons, 'Coming!' But as punctuated in the Folio the expression is natural and makes good sense, i.e. ' Padock will summon us presently': for the use of the present tense, cp. "Farewell, thou Lob of spirits, I 'le be gon. Our queene and all her elves come here anon" Mids. ILL 16. There is there- fore no good reason for altering the text. TF 10 In EL. E. FAIRE and FOULE mark off a sharper and more fundamental distinction than they do now, nearly that of right and wrong, a distinction which Shakspere makes frequent use of; cp. the many instances in Schmidt s.v. 'fair.' SF II The notion of the powers of evil HOVERING in the air is also found in John III. 2. 2, "Some ayery devill hovers in the skie. And pours downe mischiefe." FILTHIE has since Shakspere's time acquired a strong connotation of dis- gust: see Mr. Bradley's note on the history of the word's meaning in the New English Dictionary (N. E. D.). To the ears of Shakspere's audience it meant only 'murky.'
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE II
The subject matter for this scene comes from Holinshed's Historic of Scotland, 1587, pp. 169 ff- But Shakspere aptly fits this historical material to his dramatic purpose. Holinshed describes four successive battles in which Macbeth took part: in the first he puts an end to the rebellion of Macdowald ; in the second he, Banquo, and the king are defeated at Culros by Sweno, the King of Norway, who immediately after the vic- tory over Macdowald invades the realm of Scotland; in the third, the Scots having drugged the Norwegian soldiers by mingling the **juyce of mekilwort berries" with their food, Macbeth falls upon them and destroys their army, Sweno and ten others escaping to their ships; in the fourth Macbeth and Banquo defeat an avenging incursion of the Danes sent by Canute and arriving while the Scots were still celebrating their victory over Sweno. The * composition ' of vv. 59 ff. is the result of this battle. "And these were the warres that Duncane had with forrayne enemies in the seventh yearc of his raigne."
Shakspere rolls these four into one, linking the last three with the first by hinting that the Norwegian hosts, coming to the aid of the Scots, cp. v, 27, turned on them, "assisted" by the treachery of the Thane of Cawdor, and began a fresh attack, but were defeated by Macbeth and Banquo. In Holinshed the treachery of Cawdor is briefly mentioned in the words : "shortlie after the Thane of Cawdor being condemned at Fores of treason against the King committed, his lands livings and offices were given of the King's liberalitie to Macbeth," and the invasion of the King of Norway is not connected with Macdowald's rebellion. In Holinshed's account, too, Duncan and Malcolm take an active part in the fighting. We must remember, therefore, that in Scene II we are dealing with Shakspere's Macbeth and not with Holinshed's,-that all this first act is not the ' Historic of Scotland' but the background of a tragedy. The details of those parts of the action in which Mac- beth is not directly concerned are thus mere hints and suggestions, intentionally left vague and undefined, and due historic sequences of time and events have but little place in the dramatic interest. What Shakspere gives us is the picture of a great battle whose central figure is Macbeth twice snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat and disaster : the other figures are merely sketched in, as it were, so that the heroic personality may stand forth in greater clearness and distinction.
The first three sentences of this scene do not sound like Shakspere, especially the awk- ward and unnecessary inversion "of the revolt the newest state." Moreover, they intro- duce the succeeding events as an aspect of a revolt, not as a single battle ; they explain to the audience the relations of the actors to the action in a bald and mechanical way quite unlike Shakspere's, who usually leaves the action to explain itself; they make Malcolm participate in the battle but leave the field for no apparent cause before its crisis has come on and in utter ignorance of the issue of even the first stage of the fight ; and they contain a reference to the news-bringcr as a wounded "serjeant" that is inconsistent with the scene and stage directions. These inconsistencies give good ground for supposing that Scene II when it left Shakspere's hands began with Malcolm's words " Haile, brave friend! " These lines are therefore marked off from the rest of the play by an obelus (f), and the " Captaine " of FO. I is not altered to "Sergeant" or "Soldier" in the stage directions, as in modern editions beginning with Capell's, 1767, The "Duncan (Dun.)" of modern editions has also been changed back to the " King" of FO. I. There is only one king in the play, and that is Duncan. Macbeth's kingship is an ill-worn, ill-fitting garment, and we are never allowed by Shakspere to forget the fact ; even Davenant's later version of the play, 1674, recognized the fitness of this stage direction. The theory stated by the editors of the Clarendon Press edition (CI. Pr.), that the whole scene, together with vv. I-37 of Scene III, is by another hand than Shakspere's, is quite untenable.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SCENE II: A CAMP NEAR FORRES: ALARUM WITHIN ENTER KING MALCOLME DONALBAINE LENOX WITH ATTENDANTS
MEETING A BLEEDING CAPTAINE
I-I3
*1F3 NEWEST often in EL. E. corresponds to MN.E. * lat- est,'cp. Malcolm's ** what 's the newest griefe?" in IV. 3. 174. SERJEANT seems here to be a trisyllable but is a dis- syllable elsewhere in Shak- spere. SF4 Malcolm's epithet HARDIE implies 'daring,' as in MN.E. 'foolhardy,' and GOOD is an ordinary 1 6th century equivalent of ' brave ' as in "good men" IV. 3- 3. SF 5 The CAPTIVITIE he re- fers to may have been sug- gested by Holinshed's "Mac- dowald [in an earlier stage of the revolt] . . by mere force tooke their capteine Malcolme [not the king's son, however] and after the end of the bat- tell smote off his head." The printer of FO. 2 noticedthe lack of an unstressed syllable after "captivitie" and added an-
f KING HAT bloody man is that? He can
report, As seemeth by his plight, of the
revolt The newest state. j" MALCOLME
•j'This is the Serjeant Who like a ^ood and bardie souldier fought 'Gainst my captivitie.f Haile, brave friend! Say to the king the knowledge of the
broyle As thou didst leave it.
CAPTAINE
Doubtfull it stood, As two spent swimmers that doe cling together And choake their art. The mercilesse Mac-
donwald — Worthie to be a rebell, for to that The multiplying villanies of nature Doe swarme upon him — from the Westerne
Isles Of kernes and gallowglasses is supply'd;
other "haile" to make up the rhythm ; Walker and Abbott suggested several botchings of the verse into normal regular- ity; but this is only one of numerous instances in Eng- lish poetry — there are at least ninein this play — where an unstressed impulse is lost after the verse pause: cp. I. 1.7, note, and I. 5- 41. SF 6 Malcolm's words SAY TO THE KING, etc., are not so stilted as they seem to modern ears, for "say" and "say to" in EL. E. were commonly used of narration, e.g. "say in brief e the cause Why thou departedst" Err. 1, 1.29, and the definite article had a force nearly like that of the modern possessive pronoun, so that THE KNOWLEDGE stands for MN.E. 'your knowledge.' The extra syllabic in SF 7 may be accounted for by assuming a common EL. contraction by which the pronoun IT is absorbed in the pre- ceding word, like "goes't" IV. 3. 179, "deny't" III. 6. 15. Four-wave verses are not un- common in Shakspere's blank verse and are especially frequent in Macbeth. *ff 8 The captain's simile seems to be taken from a swimming match in which each of the contes- tants, worn out by his efforts and in despair of winning the goal, seeks to prevent the other from getting the prize. *1F9 As the skill of the swimmers is 'obstructed' (cp. N. E. D. 'choke' 10) by theiV too close proximity, so in this BROYLE, a word suggestive of confused tumult and 'hurly-burly,' the too close quarters of the combatants prevent all exercise
6
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
of military art. In Holinshed the name of the leader of the rebels is " Macdowald" ; MAC- DONWALD is probably, as Malone suggested, due to a confusion with the" Donwald" spoken of by Holinshed on p. 149- *1F 10 THAT seems to refer to the rebels' mercilessness, with TO in its common EL. sense of * besides ' ; cp. "to that dauntlesse temper of his mindc "
III. 1.52. SF13 OF is used in the sense of *by'; and SUPPLY'D is the regular EL.E. military term for 'reinforced,' cp. Kersey, * Dictionarium,' 1708, "supply, . . recruits of forces"; cp. also John V.3.9- Spenser, Globe ed., pp. 639 ff-, gives us a description of these KERNES AND GALLOWGLASSES (the word is misprinted " gallowgrosses " in FO. I) : "for it [i.e. "the quilted leather jacke"] is then [i. e. "in warre"] worn likewise of a footeman under a shirte of mayle, the which footeman they call a galloglass . . And he being soe armed, in a long shirt of mayle down to the calfe of his legg with a long brode axe in his hand, was then pedes gravis armaturae.^^ These gallowglasses and "kearne," light-armed Irish soldiers, are "the most loathsome and barbarous conditions of any people under heaven. They do use all the beastly behavior that may be ; they oppress all men; they spoyle as well the subject as the enemy," etc. Eudoxus exclaims, "These be most villenous conditions!" Spenser goes on to describe the "frye [an EL. E. synonym of 'swarm'] of rakehelle horse-boyes" as especially needing reformation: "for out of these . . are theyr kearne continually supplyed and maintained." It would seem, there- fore, that the MULTIPLYING VILLANIES OF NATURE in v. II are the 'kernes and gal- lowglasses'themselves, and not vicious aspects of Macdonwald's character. SF 12 SWARME is not elsewhere by Shakspere used with reference to abstract qualities, but refers to the gathering of mobs: e.g. "our peasants . . swarme About our squares of battaile" Hen. 5
IV. 2. 27, "With the plebians swarming at their heeles " Hen.5 V. chor. 27 ; "The common people by numbers swarme to us" 3Hen.6 IV.2.2. MULTIPLYING, too, generally means
' prolific,' not ' multiplied,' and
APTT QPPMPTT 1 A r)r\ 's used here, if this interpreta-
■^'--' ^ ^ DUtiiNn 11 1 4 — 20 tion is the correct one, as in
Cor. II. 2. 82: "Your multi-
And Fortune on his damned quarrysmiling plying spawne how can he Shew'd like a rebell's whore. But all 's too ^^ter.
weake; *ffI4 quarry is usually al-
For brave Macbeth — well hee deserves that ^^^^ ^o "quarrel" by modern
editors ; but there is no good name reason for the change, despite
Disdaynin^ Fortune, with his brandisht Holinshed's "rebellious quar-
. 1 rel" in his description of
^^^^^^f ' Macdowald's rebellion. That
Which Smoak'd with bloody execution, quarrel, 'crossbow bolt,' is oc-
Like Valour's minion Carv'd out his passage ^asionally spelled 'quarry ' in
T-n U f U .U 1 r 6 EL.E. (cp. CI. Pr., p. 77),
1 ill hee taC d the slave: and that quarrel, 'small square
window pane,' is often simi- larly spelled, is not surprising: for both these words had in EL. E. doublet forms in -y. But quarrel, MN. E. 'quarrel,' had not. QUARRY in the sense of 'heaps of slain' is also found in Cor. 1. 1.202, " I 'de make a quarrie With thousands of these quarter'd slaves": properly the word describes a heap of slaughtered game, and the association is not so entirely inapposite here as to lead to the inference that it is a misprint for "quarrel." A somewhat similar expression is found in Drayton's Barrons Warres, 1605,11.57: "O ill did Fate these noble armes bestow Which as a quarry on the soilde earth lay. Seized on by conquest as a glorious pray." DAMN in the sense of 'to doom,' 'ruin,' 'destroy' without the connotation 'doom to everlasting perdition' is sufficiently common in EL.E. to make no difficulty; cp. Oth. I. 3. 359, lago to Roderigo, "If thou wilt needs
7
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH |
damne thy selfc, do it a more delicate [i. e. pleasant] way then drowning." *IFl5 SHEW'D (i. e. 'appeared,' 'looked/ cp, I. 3- 54) in the preterite tense is awkward with the IS preceding it. But in M.E. and EL. E. the historical present and past tenses are frequently used together in the same narrative. Here, too, SHEW'D seems to point to the first stage of the battle, now past. ALL 'S TOO WEAKE presents a similar inconsequence of tenses if ALL 'S is to be taken for 'All is.' It may possibly, however, be the contracted form of 'All was,' like "There's" for 'There was' in II. 2. 23- Such forms were not uncommon-in EL. E., cp. Jonson, ' Sejanus,' 1640, p. 338, "/7^r. Dying? Ner. That 's strange ! J^gr. Yo' were with him yesternight," where no contraction is possible but 'you're.' SFI8 SMOAK'D is here used in its well-nigh obsolete sense of 'steamed' (though we still say "smoking hot") ; cp. "Thy murd'rous faulchion smoaking in his blood" Rich. 3 1.2.94. EXECUTION: in EL, E. the suffixes -sion, -tion, -tience can be either dissyllabic as in M. E. or monosyllabic as in MN.E. The word refers to the wielding of any weapon or instrument; cp. " In fellest manner execute [i. e. 'wield,' N. E. D. 'execute' lb] your armes" Tro.&Cr. V. 7. 6, where to make MN.E. sense many editors change "armes" to the weak "aims"! *1F 20 In TILL HE FAC'D THE SLAVE we seem to have a verse beginning with a doubled unstressed impulse ; such verses are not common in Macbeth; there is one in 1.2.46, and another in III. 4. 133- Lines of less than the five normal waves occur frequently in EL. blank verse, and this one is well adapted to a wounded soldier's narrative. But perhaps LIKE VALOUR'S MINION (three
syllables), V. 19, was an after ACT T ^^PPMP TT OT 04
insertion which broke in two ^^ ^ ^ ^)I^C1N C 1 1 21-2^
a verse originally beginning ,„. , , i i p n i •
with CARV'D and ending Which nev r shooke hands nor bad tarwell to him with SLAVE. Till he unseam'd him ffom thenave to th'chops
<IF2i WHICH refers to Mac- ^"^ ^^^'d his head upon our battlements.
beth, being an instance of the KING
common EL. usage of the /^ i i i i i
relative pronoun as a con- U valiant cousin ! worthy gentleman !
nective, 'and he'; cp. 1.5.
37, and III. 1.85 where "which" stands for 'and this.' SHOOKE HANDS seems to refer to the formal preliminaries of a fight, as in Sidney's Arcadia, 1590, p. 267: " After the terrible salutation of warlike noyse, the shaking of handes was with sharpe weapons," with NOR in its common sense of 'and not.' " Shook hands" in the sense of 'took leave oi^ is usually found in EL. E. in connection with abstract notions, e.g. "shake hands with chastitie" ' Euphues,' Arber, p. 75 (quoted in CI. Pr.), "with folly" Middlcton's Witch (quoted by Manly), "with earth,"?, e. with earthly things, Quarles, 'Emblems' (quoted by Cent. Diet.), "with virtue" Cooper, 'Thesaurus' s.v. nuntius. *ff22 NAVE, 'navel,' seems to be the right word here, though this anomalous form has not yet been found in EL. E. That the two words "navel," M.E. "navele," and "nave," M.E. "nave," 'the centre of a wheel,' were confused in EL. E. is shown by Massinger's use of "navel" for "nave" in "Circle him round with death and if he stir His body be the navel to the wheel In which your rapiers like so many spokes Shall^meet and fix themselves" * Pari. of Love' II. 3 (Cent. Diet.). That the expression was more or less familiar to EL. ears is shown by Nash's, 1594, "Then from the navel to the throat at once He ript old Priam" (quoted from Steevens's note). In Holinshed Macbeth finds Macdowald already dead on taking his castle. CHOPS, an EL. form of MN.E. "chaps," 'jaws,' was used of persons as well as of animals in Shakspere's time. SF 24 As to Macbeth's cousinship with Dun- can, cp. Hoi., p. 168: "After Malcolme succeeded his nephue Duncane [the Duncan of the play] the sonne of his daughter Beatrice : for Malcome had two daughters, the one, which was this Beatrice, being given in mariage unto one Abbanath Crinen . . bare of that mariage
8
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT I
SCENE II
25-35
the foresaid Duncane. The other called Doada, was mar- led unto Sinell [cp. 1.3. 71] the thane of Glammis, by whom she had issue one Mac- beth, a valiant gentleman.''
Thefigurein SF25 ff. is a refer- ence to storms rising out of the east and not to the storms of the vernal equinox, a curious interpretation tortured out of the Latin meaning of re- and flectioj * turning back.' RE- FLECTION in EL. E.isusedof direct shiningjCp. ** May never glorious sunne reflex his beames Upon the countrey where you make abode" I Hen.6V.4.87 ; *'Mostradiant and refulgent Lampe of light . . from thee Reflect [i. e. shine] those rayes that have en- lightnedmee"Quarles,*Sion's Sonets/ 1630, V. The same metaphor is found in 2Hen.4 IV. 4. 34, 35, "As humorous as winter and as sudden As flawes congealed in the spring of day," which also showsthe EL. use of SPRING, v. 27, in the sense of ' sunrise ' : in the ' dayspring from on high ' of Luke 1.78 this meaning is still pre- served. That Shakspere intends us to think of Sweno as coming to the aid of the Scots and then turning on them is evident from the WHENCE COMFORT SEEM'D TO COME, i. e. whence help was to have come, for SEEM in EL. E. often connotes an immediate or near futurity, * was on the point of,' as here and in v. 47 below. SF 26 After THUNDERS mod- ern editors, following Pope, supply 'break'; but 'storms break' and 'thunders break' are neither of them Shaksperian locutions. The word which Shakspere generally uses in connection with thunder is " bursts," cp. Lear III. 2. 46, "such bursts of horrid thunder," and this would also aptly describe the coming of a sudden flaw. The verse, however, does not really need a patch either to make sense, for with ideas of motion the verb is often omitted in M.E. and EL. E. where it can be supplied from the context, or to make metre, for four-wave verses are common in Macbeth : in III. I. 103 and I. 4. 14 are two instances ; in the latter the verse ends with a falling impulse as here. SF 27 COMFORT, still used in the sense of 'aid,' 'support' in our phrase 'give comfort to the enemy,' was common in EL. E. with this signification : cp. IV. 3- 193 ; SF 28 DISCOMFORT, likewise, connoted the negative of this idea and corresponds to MN. E. ' undoing,' ' disaster' : cp. " Should I stay longer. It would be my disgrace and your discomfort" IV. 2. 29. SF 29 NO SOONER — BUT is EL. E. idiom for ' no sooner— than,' cp. N. E. D. ' but ' 16 ; but in MN. E. the verb usually precedes the subject ; the same word order occurs in 1.2. 63, " No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive," etc. SF3I SURVEYING VANTAGE seems to mean 'seeing his opportunity,' cp. N. E. D. ' advantage ' 4 and Cym. 1.3.24; but SU RVEY in the sense ' dis- cern ' is not elsewhere found in EL. E. In Rich. 3 V. 3. 1 5, " Let us survey the vantage of
9
CAPTAINE As whence the sunne '^ins his reflection Shipwrackin^ stormes and direfull thunders, So from that spring whence comfort seem'd
to come Discomfort swells. Marke, King of Scot- land, marke: No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd, Compeird these skipping kernes to trust
their heeles. But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, With f urbusht armes and new supplyes of men Began a fresh assault.
KING
Dismay'd not this Our capitaines, Macbeth and Banquoh?
CAPTAINE
Yes — As sparrowes eagles, or the hare the lyon.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
the field," " vantage " refers to opportunity of place rather than to opportunity of time, and " survey " has its usual sense of * view.' *IF 33 There are two forms of the word cap- tain in EL. E. as in M. E., one " captain " and the other CAPITAINE ; both forms continue to be written through the 1 7th century, and the latter, the trisyllabic, is of constant occurrence in books of Shakspere's time, e. g. Halle's Chronicle, Henry VIII, 292 b. Cooper's Thesaurus, etc. ; cp., too, Marston as quoted in Warton-Hazlitt IV, p. 417, "with farewell, capitaine, kind heart,
ACT I SCENE II
adew 1 " There can be but little doubt that here and in 3Hen.6lV.7.30 Shakspere used the CAPITAINE form, though the printer of the Folio has set the dissyllabic word,
<IF37 CRACKS seems here to mean * shots,' but this pas- sage is as yet the only evidence that has been cited for such a meaning in EL. E. : its usual sense is * crash.' This double charging of pieces is jokingly referred to by Falstaff when he hears the good news of Prince Hal's accession: ** Pistol," he says, " I will double charge thee with dignities" 2Hen.4 V. 3.130. SF38 SO THEY, which makes the verse one of six waves with the cazsura after THEY, is here printed as in FO. I ; some editors append it to V. 37, others make a sepa- rate line of it. But such ex- pedients help little. There are many six-wave verses in Shakspere and the EL. poets ; whether they were due tO' carelessness or were a permissible variation of the blank-verse structure has not yet been made out. Such expressions as DOUBLY REDOUBLED — this one occurs in Rich. 2 I. 3.80 — are frequent in EL. E., but now give offence by their tautology. SF 39 The captain's know- ledge of the battle seems to end at this point : but his closing words are not so abruptly broken off as they seem to be in MN.E., for I CANNOT TELL is 1 6th century idiom for 'I do not know what to say,' cp. Spenser's Faerie Queene I. 8. 34, and would be so under- stood by an EL. audience. EXCEPT is used in its EL. sense of * unless,' cp. N.E.D., and MEMORIZE is 'make memorable,' cp. Hen. 8 III. 2. 52. We have precisely the same sort of sentence in Tam. of Shr. IV. 4. 91' ** I cannot tell, except they are busied about a counterfeit assurance," where the punctuation of FO. I — and it is the only authority for the passage — shows that its "expect" is a misprint for "except," noticed and corrected by F0.2, though modern editions strangely return to "expect." Thissentence istherefore printedhere as it stands in FO. I, without the dash after "tell." SF43 SO — AS is a regular M.E.and EL. E. idiom corresponding to MN. E. *as— as.' The stage direction of the Folio, ENTER ROSSE AND ANGUS, which follows the captain's exit, is altered to " Enter Ross" by modern editors and placed after WHO COMES HERE? But Rosse and Angus in I. 3- 88 together bring news of Macbeth's promotion. That Angus does not speak is no evidence for his not
10
36-45
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons over-charg'd with double cracks,
So they doubly redoubled stroakes upon the
foe: Except they meant to bathe in reeking
wounds, Or memorize another Golgotha, I cannot tell. But I am faint; my gashes cry for helpe.
KING So well thy words become thee as thy wounds ; They smack of honor both. Goe get him
surgeons.
EXIT CAPTAINE ATTENDED ENTER ROSSE AND ANGUS
Who comes here?
MALCOLME The worthy Thane of Rosse 1
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
beirg in the scene : Donalbaine (see scene direction) does not speak at all, and Lenox only onc'^. It is likely, therefore, that Shakspere intended them both to enter here as the Folio records, Rosse somewhat in advance and alone taking part in the dialogue. In EL. stage directions "Enter" means 'begins to take part in the action' and not necessarily in the dialogue. There is, therefore, no occasion for changing either the form or the position of the stage direction. *1F 45 Malcolm's words seem to be rather an exclamation than an an- swer to Duncan's question ;
ACT I SCENE II
46-53
So
king!
the Folio has a period after Rosse, but its printer rarely uses the exclamation-point, e.g. GOD SAVE THE KING, V. 47, is followed by a period. EL.E. WORTH Yhaspart of the connotation of MN. E. 'brave,' 'valiant,' as it had in M. E.
SF46 Either WHAT A HASTE or "what haste" is idiomatic EL.E.; but two unstressed syllables at the beginning of a verse areof comparatively rare occurrence ; and it was prob- ably for this reason that the editor of FO. 2 dropped out the article. SF 47 SEEMES is here used, like "seem'd" in v. 27 above and " seeme" in I. 5- 30 below, to denote something im- mediately imminent, and cor- responds to MN.E. 'is going to,' 'is about to,' 'is on the point of.' Sidney, 'Arcadia,' p. 291, uses much the same words as those Shakspere puts into the m.outh of Lenox : "the messenger came in with letters in his hand and hast in his countenence" ; cp. also, "And., that [t.e. if] our drift [i.e. intention] looke through our bad performance" Ham. IV. 7. 1 52, and "The businesse of this man lookes out of him" Ant.&Cl. V. I. 50 (cited by CI. Pr.). SF48 In M.E. and early New English (e. N.E.) the imperfect tense often expresses action which in MN.E. is represented by the perfect, as CAM'ST, here ; the illustrations given by Koch, 'Engl. Gram.,' p. 40, could be greatly multiplied, reaching back to Chaucer and for- ward through the 1 7th century. SF 49 To an Englishman of Shakspere's time the mere un- furling of foreign banners on English soil was an insult to heaven : in John V. L 69 ff., speak- ing of "arms invasive," the Bastard says, "Shall a beardlesse boy . . flesh his spirit [i.e. courage] in a warre-like soyle. Mocking the ayre with colours idlely [i.e. foolishly, rashly] spread?" An alliance of a foreign power with discontented elements in Ireland and Scotland was much more than a dramatic situation to Shakspere's audience, and the blood of more than one of them had already run " cold " at the thought of it. Rosse, of course, represents the appalling situation in present time, just as does the wounded captain in v. I 3. SF 50 For FANNE OUR PEOPLE COLD cp. "Let . . your enemies with nodding of their plumes fanyouintodespaire"Cor. in.3- 126. *1F5I TERRIBLE belongs to a large class of EL. words in which an unstressed syllable — usually one containing a liquid or nasal — preceded by a full stressed syllable and followed by one of secondary stress, was lost, and the following
II
LENOX What a haste lookes through his eyes
should he looke That seemes to speake things strange.
ROSSE
God save the KING Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?
ROSSE From Fiffe, 'great king, Where the Norweyan banners flowt the
skie, And fanne our people cold. Norway himselfe, with terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyall traytor The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismall conflict,
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
secondarily stressed syllable reduced to an unstressed syllable. These words occur in the best literary idiom of the EL. period; many printers indicate the loss of this syllable both in prose and poetry by an apostrophe, showing that it was not mere poetic license. Some of these syncopated words are still heard, like "med'cine," ** parlous," ('perilous,' with the further change of e to a) , " nat'ral," but are recognized as vulgar ; others, like " fev'rish " and "tott'ring," are in constant unquestioned use ; while innumerable others, like ** visited" and **enemy,"haveentirely lost their syncopated forms. SF 52 ASSISTED does not mean neces- sarily that the Thane of Cawdor stood fighting by the side of the King of Norway: he merely furthers the designs of the invaders, as the Host "assists" Fenton '*in his purpose" in Merry W. IV. 6. 3 5 the details are left to the imagination. The only interest that the fact has for the tragedy of Macbeth lies in the confirmation which it gives to the first part of the witches' prophecy, and Shakspere would have been the less Shakspere had he stopped to describe the treachery to the satisfaction of the historical student. SF 53 In the DIS- MALL CONFLICT, as in the "dismall fight" which the messenger describes to the Bishop of Winchester in I Hen. 6 I. I. 105, ''dismal" is used in its obsolete sense of 'disastrous.' The word was originally a
ACT I SCENE II
phrase meaning 'an unlucky day, 'and in Shakspere's time still retained a part of this M.E. connotation of misfortune.
*1F54 THAT is a strengthen- ing particle with M.E. and EL. E. conjunctive adverbs like "till," "when," "if," etc., still familiar to us in Bible English. Rosse calls Mac- beth BELLONA'S BRIDE- GROOME, as the wounded soldier describes him as " Val- our's darling," picturing him as one who had newly taken the goddess of war for his bride. The classical incon- sistency of making Bellona, the maid of war, even momen- tarily a bride — that Shak- spere did not do it out of ig- norance is fortunately evident fromlHen.4IV.I.II2ff. — has not escaped the criticism of Shakspere scholars, who offer various mitigating explana- tions. LAPT IN PROOFE car- ries out the picture of this new god of war, another "mailed Mars"(cp. lHen.4 IV. I. II6) with his "armours forg'd for proofeeterne"(cp. Ham. II. 2. 512). <IF55 In Shakspere's time COMPARISON had the connotation of ' rivalry,' a shade of meaning which is
54-67
Till that Bellona^s bridegroome, lapt in proofe, Confronted him with selfe-comparisons, Point against point, rebellious arme 'gainst
arme Curbing his lavish spirit; and, to conclude, The victorie fell on us, —
KING
Great happinesse! —
ROSSE
that now Sweno, The Norwayes king, craves composition; Nor would we deigne him buriall of his men Till he disbursed at Saint Colmes ynch Ten thousand dollars to our generall use.
KING No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosome interest : goe pronounce his
present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.
ROSSE I 'le see it done.
KING What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath- wonne.
EXEUNT 12
A
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
prominent here, and SELFE in EL. E. was frequently used as the first element of a compound word whose connotation was a property of the subject of the thought ; cp. ''selfe-bounty" Oth. III. 3- 200, "selfe-danger" Cym. III. 4. 149, and Jonson's *'thou art not covetous of least selfe-fame" *Epigrammes' II, ed. 1640. SF 56 That POINT is a metonymy for 'sword' is evident from "Turne face to face and bloody point to point" John II. 1.390, and **How often he had met you sword to sword" Cor. III. 1. 1 3. The text follows the punctuation of the Folio, which makes good sense, and the comma is not put after REBELLIOUS as in many modern editions. (FO. I has a comma also after ARME, which has been removed, for in FO. I a descriptive participial clause, as is usual in EL. printing, is almost invariably pointed off from its noun: e.g. ^^ And the late dignities, Heap'd up to them" I. 6. 19, and "we shall have cause of state. Craving us jointly" III. I. 34, and **His silver skinne, lac'd with his golden blood" II. 3- 118.) As HIS is the EL.E. equivalent of MN.E. 'its,' and SPIRIT a psychological term for the physical energy supposed to reside in the members of the body, HIS probably refers to REBEL- LIOUS ARME ; i. e. *the arm of the King of Norway, now fighting for the rebels, against the arm of Macbeth, curbing its unbridled strength.' SF 57 LAVISH in MN.E. is usually limited to unrestrained expenditure or prodigal giving; in EL. E. it had a far more general application, e.^. ''his lavish tongue" lHen.6 II. 5.47, "lavish manners" 2Hen.4 IV. 4.64. SF58 GREAT HAPPINESSE means 'what good fortune!' cp. Oth. III. 4. 108, where Cassius's meeting with Desdemona provokes lago to exclaim, " Loe, the happinessc ! " The line is interjectory and the interrupted verse is continued in THAT NOW, etc. THAT in EL.E. often expresses result, 'so that,' as here. SF 59 NORWAYES is EL.E. for ' Norwegians'and not a mistake for ' Norway' ; cp. "English, Scots, Danes, Norwayes, they Foure mighty people" Slatyer, ' PalcEalbion,' I619, p. 219- COMPOSITION means 'terms of surrender,' cp. "Thus we are agreed; 1 crave our composition may be written And seal'd betweene us," Ant.&Cl. II. 6. 58; the word has five syllables, cp. v. 18. SF6I SAINT COLMES YNCH ("inch" is a Gaelic word for a small island) is now Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth opposite Leith. SF 62 Minsheu, I6l7, says the DOLLAR was a "Dutch coine worth about foure shillings." Shakspere may have had in mind, however, the "rigs dollar" of the northern countries, which the visit of Christian IV to the court of King James in I6O6 had recently made familiar to Londoners. TO OUR GENERALL USE is EL.E. for 'to defray our state expenses,' cp. "Whose ransomes did the generall coffers fill" CcEs. III.2. 94, and " Hath here distrayn'd the tower to his use" I Hen. 6 I. 3- 61. SF64 In EL.E. BOSOME was used as an adjective meaning 'close,' 'intimate,' and hints at an intimate relation between the treacherous thane and Duncan (OUR, of course, is the majesty plural). PRESENT DEATH is 'immediate death,' cp. "Martius is worthy of pres- ent death" Cor. III. I. 211. The scene closes with a couplet, a common practice with Elizabethan dramatists.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE III
Scene III resumes the falling lyric rhythm of Scene I; now running lightly along with no secondarily stressed syllables, now swirling back on itself in short intervals of rising rhythm, as in vv. II, 12, 13, 17, and 18, now poised for a moment, as in " Looke what I have," V. 26, then madly rushing on again to be caught back in vv. 30 and 31- Then the final rush of the chorus, "about, about," ending with the three verses whose rhythm is "Peace! the charme's wound up," a wonderfully fitting cadence to the series. The witchery of such rhythm is paralleled only by that of Puck's charm in Midsummer Night's Dream III. 2. 148 ff. And yet, with the strange obliquity of judgement which sometimes besets Shakspere scholarship, these verses have been thought unShaksperian.
13
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SCENE III : A HEATH: THUNDER: ENTER THE THREE WITCHES
FIRST WITCH HERE hast thou beene, sister? SECOND WITCH. Killing swine. THIRD WITCH. Sister, where
thou? FIRST WITCH A saylor's wife had chestnuts in her lappe, And mouncht and mouncht and mouncht:
'Give me/ quoth I. * Aroynt thee, witch ! ' the rumpe-fed ronyon
cryes. Her husband 's to Aleppo gone, Master o' th' Tiger ; But in a syve I 'le thither sayle. And, like a rat without a tayle.
I 'le doe, I 'le doe, and I 'le doe.
*1F I Jonson, in a note to his 'Masque of Queenes/ 1 609, tells us: **This is also sol- emne [«. e. part of the ritual] in their witchcraft, to be ex- amined,either by the Divill, or their Dame, at their meetings, of what mischief they have done and what they can con- fer ['contribute'] to a future hurt,"subjoiningreferencesto the classical literature of de- monology. Shakspere makes his witches interrogate one another, omitting the dame features altogether (see note on III. 5. 2). Jonson makes them ** sisters," but Shak- sperealwayskeepsintheback- ground their norn character: to him they are the **weyard sisters," the Three Sisters of Destiny. *1F 2 Giffordin his Dialogue concerning Witches, 1 603, tells us that their powers are " when they are offended with any . . to hurt them in their bodies, yea, to kill them, and to kill their cattcU." *JF 5 The form MOUNCH,* to chew with closed lips,' is not uncommon in EL.E., cp. **Mounch-present," Awdley, 'The XXV orders of Knaves,' E. E. T. S., p. 14. GIVE ME is EL.E. for 'give it to me': Juliet asks the Friar for the vial with " Give me, give me, O tell me not of feare" in Rom.&Jul. IV. 1. 121. <1F 6 AROYNT THEE is evidently an adjuration to a witch, meaning ' begone ' ; the word is used also in the same sense in Lear III.4. 129, **aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee!" But the locution has not yet been found elsewhere in EL.E., cp. N. E. D.s.v. RUMPE-FED seems to be the equiva- lent of Cotgrave's ^^ hanchuy bumme-growne, great hipt"; with FED in its EL. sense of 'fatted': "fed calfe " in Coverdale's version corresponds to the "fatted calf" of Luke XV. 27, cp. N. E. D. 'fed' b. It may, however, mean 'fed on rumps,' cp. " beane fed" Mids. II. I. 45, and "Had he [i.e. my father] set me to grammer schole . . instead of treading corontoes and making fidlers fat with rumps of capon I had by this time read homilyes" Dekker, * Knights Conjuring,' Percy Soc, p. 31. The abusive RONYON origi- nally meant 'scurvy person.' In Merry W. IV. 2. 193, Ford, who takes the disguised Falstaff for a witch, cries "Out of my doorc you witch . . you poulcat, you runnion." *IF7 HER . . GONE, MASTER . . TIGER seem to be intended for two verses, though printed as one in the Folio. In O' TH' appears a common EL. contraction for * of the ' that counts as but one verse impulse ; the definite article is enclitic, as is shown by the EL. printing " ithe," a similar contraction for 'in the,' and " tothe," a similar contraction for 'to the.' These contract forms are not peculiar to poetry as in MN.E., but are found in EL. prose as well. Collier cites an account of a voyage to ALEPPO in a ship called the TIGER of London in 1583 as given by Hakluyt II, pp. 247, 251, which seems to be more than a mere coincidence, though Tiger is a common ship-name in the 1 6th and 1 7th
14
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
centuries. SF 8 That witches went to sea in sieves was a popular belief in the 1 6th cen- tury. The form **sivc/' *' syve," is common in EL. E. ; it is our modern spelling that is anomalous. SF 9 Steevens, 1793, states that it was a belief of the times that though a witch could assume the form of any animal she pleased, the tail would be wanting; but unfortunately he gives no evidence of this popular superstition. IF 10 DOE seems to be
used vaguely here for * work
ACT I
SCENE III
11-26
SECOND WITCH I 'le ^ive thee a winde.
FIRST WITCH Th' art kinde.
THIRD WITCH And I another.
FIRST WITCH I my selfe have all the other, And the very ports they blow — All the quarters that they know r th' ship-man's card. I 'le dreyne him drie as hay, Sleepe shall neyther night nor day Hang upon his pent-house lid; He shall live a man forbid: Wearie sev'nights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peake, and pine; Though his barke cannot be lost Yet it shall be tempest tost. Looke what I have.
mischief,' like the MN. E. " I '11 do him ! " The thrice repeated threat has a peculiar solem- nity,imitatingthe/iaf, /iaf,/'iaf of an excommunication writ.
*1F 1 1 Her witch sisters prom- ise her winds, which they were popularly supposed to con- trol, cp. "The witches raise tempests,"etc.,Gifford,'Dial.' p. 74. Burton in his *Anat. of Mel.' says that ** nothing is so familiar as for witches and sorcerers in Scandinavia to sell winds to mariners and cause tempests." WINDE in EL.E. rhymed with KINDE. <IF 14 OTHER is the EL. plural, and that BLOW is used in the sense of *blow upon' seems evident from ** Ayre, quoth he, thy cheekes may blowe" L.L.L. IV. 3. 109, though this sense is not given in N.E.D. save in the phrases *'to blow
one s nails or finge
rs " and
"blowthefire. " Many changes have been proposed to avoid the seeming unintelligibility of the verse when it is read as MN.E. Shakspere may have had in mind the proverb quoted by Cotgrave s.v.vent, "No one can blow him to good whom destinie will not harbour." SFl7 For l' TH', cp. v. 7. THE SHIP-MAN'S CARD is the mariner's compass, cp. " Not now to learne his compasse by the carde" Drayton, * Bar- tons Warres,' III. 15.6. Chaucer's "shipman " for * sailor ' was still in common use in EL.E.: Cooper defines nauta as "a shipman,a mariner," and Shakspere speaks of "ship- men"inTro.&Cr.V.2. 172. SF 18 The witch's threat I 'LE DREYNE — the word meansMry up' in EL. E. — HIM DRIE AS HAY has reference to EL. psychology; cp. Burton, * Anat. of Mel.,' III. 4. 2. 4, ** Fear takes away their content, and dries the blood, wasteth the marrow": this explains also vv. 22, 23. Shakspere in Sonnet LXIII refers to the same notion in "With Time's injurious hand crusht and oreworne, When houres [MN. E. 'hours of anxiety' as in Tim. III. 1.66] have dreind his blood." SF 20 The figure by which Shakspere expresses the sleepless anxiety of the witch's victim is taken, not from what we know as a PENT-HOUSE (pronounced "pentice" in EL.E.), which would describe rather the eyebrow than the eyelid, but from the EL. usage of the word in the sense of 'curtain'; cp. Cotgrave, "Aauiyens, penthouses of cloth hung before shop win-
15
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
dows," and L.L.L. 1 1 1 . 1 . 1 7. Shakspere is fond of the figure : cp. " The fringed curtaines of thine eye advance" Temp. I. 2. 408, and '* would under peepe her lids To see th' enclosed lights now canopied Under these windowes" Cym. II. 2. 21. Puck's charm in Mids. II. 2. 80 is ** When thou wak'st let love forbid Sleepe his seate on thy eye-lid." SF2I FOR- BID here seems to mean 'cursed/ 'banned/ though this and a passage probably written in imitation of Shakspere's use of the word here are the only instances given in N.E.D. for FORBID in this sense. It may be the English equivalent of homo interdictus, with another suggestion of excommunication. SF22 The SEV'NIGHT ('sennit'), seven days or half a fortnight, was a common EL. measure of time that has now become poetic. SF 23 Many have thought the sailor's dwindling away is a reference to the making of wax figures by witches, who by their charms caused their victims to waste as the wax melted. But the anxiety of a sea captain storm tossed and kept from haven for a year and a half is surely sufficient cause for his dwindling away ; see note on "dreyne" above. PEAKE is used by Shakspere, but in
ACT I
a slightly different sense, in "peake Like John-a-dreames" Ham.1 1.2.594; Kersey,I708, gives"peaking,that is of sickly constitution"; so 'Glosso- Shew me! graphia,' 1707; and Sewell's Dutch Dictionary glosses "peaking, ziekelgk^ quy- nende^^ j "peaked," 'sickly,' is still common in English dia- lects and often heard in the United States. SF 24 THOUGH HIS BARKE CANNOT BE LOST seems to be one of those limitations which often condi- tionedthemischief of witches ; but possibly a hint at the fate character of the Three Sisters of Destiny is meant.
SCENE III
27-37
SECOND WITCH shew me!
FIRST WITCH Here I have a pilot's thumbe, Wrackt as homeward he did come.
DRUM
THIRD WITCH A drumme, a drumme! Macbeth doth come.
ALL
The weyward sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus doe goe, about, about: Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice a^aine to make up nine- Peace! the charme 's wound up.
WITHIN
SF32 The WEYWARD SIS- TERS are part of the Macbeth legend. Shakspere undoubt- edly derived his knowledge of them from Holinshed, who says that "these women were cither the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries indued with knowledge of prophesie by their necromantical science." The word "weird" is a I6th century Northern English form of M.E. "werd," meaning 'fate,' 'destiny.' Douglas uses "werd sisters" to render 'Parcae in ^n. III.379>ed. Small, 1 1, p. 142, V. 24. For the place of these fate sisters in Germanic mythology see J. Grimm, 'Deutsche Mythologie,' I, p. 379 ff. It is not strange that in the EL. imagination these beings should be confused with witches: Slatyer's Pala2albion, I6l9r refers to them as witches; Simon Forman, who saw Macbeth played in 1 6 10, calls them "3 women feiries or nimphes," i. e. witches and enchantresses — Saxo Grammaticus calls the norns nymphae] Skinner, ' Etymologicon,' explaining "weirdes," says the term etiam sagas seu pgthonissas notat^^ ; Coles, I7I3, glosses "wieres" (misprint for "wierdes"?) "witches, destinies." SF33 POSTERS is EL. E. for 'couriers,' cp. Cotgrave, ^^courrier, a post, or, a poster." The significance of the number three in demonology is so common as
16
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
scarcely to be worth remark. This witches' dance Jonson probably had in mind when he wrote his dance song in the 'Masque of Queenes/ 1609: but the cadence rhythm of the finale in Shakspere's lyric ** Peace ! the charme's wound up!" is quite lacking in Jonson's *'And our charm^es advance."
''About, about, and about. Till the mist arise, and the lights flie out, The images neither be scene, nor felt ; The wollen burne, and the waxen melt ; Sprinkle your liquors upon the ground, And into the ayre ; around, around,
Around, around,
Around, around.
Till a musique sound.
And the pase be found.
To which we may dance.
And our charmes advance."
Whether the form WEYWARD, WEYARD be a phonetic Southern English rendering of the Northern "weird," or due to a confusion with "wayward" ('morose,' 'grim,' 'per- verse' in EL. E.), WAYWARD SISTERS, and not "weird sisters," was the phrase by which these creatures were known in England during the 1 7th century: e. g. Th. Heywood, 'The Late Witches of Lancashire,' 1633, "you look like one of the Scottish wayward sis- ters" (quoted from Hudson's note in Furness's Variorum) ; Sewell, Dutch Diet., glosses "the wayward sisters, de Hexen, Kolleny It can scarcely be, therefore, a mere mis- print for "weird," as Theobald and modern editors suppose. Such a term as WAY- WARD SISTERS, 'the gloomy sisters,' 'the grim sisters,' presents a not uncommon association of ideas, cp. fata perversa and Old Norse grimmar as applied to the norns. In view of these facts and Shakspere's use of the word as a dissyllable, the Folio spelling WEYWARD and WEYARD is retained. From Shakspere's spelling " Seyward " and " Sey-
ton" below, "weyward,"
ACT I SCENE III 38-43 "weyard" would indicate a
•^ ^ -' word sounded as it spelled m
ENTER MACBETH AND BANQUO • ^^- ^' "^^y^''^'"
MACBETH In SF 38 Macbeth refers to the
Q/^ (^-.A^ ^^J C:^^ ^ J T U J. fair issue of the battle and the
bo foule and faire a day I have not seene. w weather. Holinshed,ed.
BANOUO Boswell-Stone, p. 21, tells us
HP . , ,,, , _, -^ ^Yri "the Scots after this victory
ow tarre is t call d to horis? What are caused, .thanks to be given to
these, almightie God, that had sent
Q/> ittJ+U^^'J J ^^ ,, -IJ • iU • i-i. them so faire a day over their
^ Wither d and so wilde m their attyre, enemies." SF39 The Folio
That looke not like th' inhabitants o' th' misprints" Soris"forFORis,
earth '^'^ ^^* fo''"^ of modern
XI f -i T • "Forres" (dissyllabic). The
And yet are on t .'' Live you, or are you place is on the Moray Firth,
audht tenmilesW.S.W. of Elgin, and
TUif »v-.o»^ *v^^,r ^.,^--+:^^ ■) V^ i. nnore than a hundred miles
1 hat man may question? You seeme to f^^^ Kingcorne and Inch- understand me colm, near which the battle
17
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
took place. Holinshed intro- duces the incident of Mac- beth's meeting the witches as occurring ''shortly after" the battle: Shakspere seems to consider it as happening im- mediately after. WHAT is the M.E. and EL. E. inter- rogative relative correspond- ing to the Latin qualisj 'what sort of persons/ cp. "what were these" Temp. III. 3.20. SF40 WILDE means 'strange/ 'fantastic': Holins- hed mentions their "strange and wild apparell." *iF43Thc word QUESTION had a wider range of meaning in EL. E. than it has now, and meant 'converse with/ 'talk to'; hence the YOU SEEME TO UNDERSTAND ME that fol- lows. The verse is a good illustration of the extra rhythmical syllable before the cassural pause.
<IF44 Their CHOPPIE FIN- GERS were 'fissured with wrinkles'; cp. "Her cheeks with chops and wrincles were disguiz'd" Lucr. 1452. ^45 YOU SHOULD BE is ^one would expect you to be/ with SHOULD in the M.E. sense of the auxiliary. *ff46 BEARDS were sup- posed to be characteristic of witches : Evans in Merry W. IV. 2. 202, says "By yea and no, I thinke the 'oman is a witch indeede : I like not when a 'oman has a great peard ; I spie a great peard under his muffler." INTER- PRETE is somewhat loosely used in EL. E. in the sense of 'rendering into specific terras'; cp. III. 6. 1, "My for- mer speeches have but hit your thoughts. Which can interpret farther," i. e. ' you can put them in words for yourself.'
ACT I
SCENE III
44-61
By each at once her choppie finder laying Upon her skinnie lips. You should be
women. And yet your beards forbid me to interprete That you are so.
MACBETH Speake, if you can: what are you? FIRST WITCH All haile, Macbeth ! Haile to thee, Thane of Glamis!
SECOND WITCH All haile, Macbeth ! Haile to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
THIRD WITCH All haile, Macbeth, that shalt be king here- after !
BANQUO Good sir, why doe you start, and seeme to
feare Things that doe sound so faire?
TO WITCHES
r th' name of truth, Are ye fantasticall, or that indeed Which outwardly ye shew? My noble part- ner You greet with present grace and great pre- diction Of noble having and of royall hope, That he seemes wrapt withall; to me you
speake not. If you can looke into the seedes of time And say which graine will grow and which
will not, Speake then to me, who neyther begge nor
feare Your favors nor your hate. j
18 !
Ji
I
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
<1F 48 The rhythms of the first two prophecies are identical, thus : " ' "^ ' || ' ^ " ' "^ ' "^ ; the third has its last phrase slightly slowed '""'"' ^ giving a peculiar finale effect to the prediction, an interesting improvement upon Holinshcd's "All Haile Macbeth Thane of Glamis! Haile, Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor! All haile Macbeth, that hereafter shalt be King of Scotland!" TF53 FANTASTICALL is the regular EL. word for 'imaginary'; cp. 1.3. 139 and N.E. D. I ; here it means 'creatures of the imagination.' *IF54 SHEW has already occurred in its EL. sense of 'appear,' cp L 2. 15- PARTNER is commonly used in EL. E. in the sense of 'companion,' 'colleague' ; in Cor. V. 3- 2 Coriolanus calls Aufidius his "partner," so in L 3- 142. SF55 GRACE is more than 'favour' here: rather 'good fortune' (N.E.D. 10), as in Ham. L 3- 53, "A double blessing is a double grace." SF56 HAVING is EL. E. for ' property," estate ' ; cp. Jonson, 'Every Man in his Humour' 1.4, " Lye in a water-bearer's house ! a Gentleman of his havings ! " SF 57 THAT corresponds to MN. E. ' so that,' as in L 2. 57. WRAPT is a common 1 7th century spelling for * rapt,' proba- bly due to confusing the word in the EL. idiom ' rapt in,' i.e. ' dazed by,' which occurs in L 5. 6, with " wrapt in," ' wrapped in,' ' enfolded by.' WITH ALL is in EL. E. an adverb, like the Ger- man 'damit,' and corresponds to MN. E. 'with it,' 'with them,' etc. These half jesting words of Banquo's show what a deep impression the witches' prophecy has made on Mac- beth's mind. SF 58 SEEDES and " germins," as in IV. 1 . 59, were favorite 1 7th century forms under which to think of the elements of the universe ; TIME connoted a much wider range of association in EL. E. than it does now, being often used as here for the general course
of things. In 2Hen.4 III. I.
SCENE III
FIRST WITCH
SECOND WITCH
THIRD WITCH
ACT I SCENE III 62-72
Hayle!
Hayle!
Hayle!
FIRST WITCH Lesser then Macbeth, and greater.
SECOND WITCH Not so happy, yet much happyer.
THIRD WITCH Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So all haile, Macbeth and Banquol
FIRST WITCH Banquo and Macbeth, all haile!
MACBETH Stay, you imperfect speakers; tell me more! By Sinell's death I know I am Thane of
Glamis, But how of Cawdor? the Thane of Cawdor lives,
19
80 ff. the same notion oc- curs: "There is a historic in all men's lives, Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd : The which observ'd, a man may prophecie With a ncere ayme of the maine chance of things As yet not come to life, which in their seedes And weake beginnings lye entreasured ; Such things be- come the hatch and brood of Time
?T
*ff62 ff. Again the formal rhythm series thrice repeated, and again "Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none," with the finale effect. HAPPY, of course, has here its EL. meaning of 'fortunate.' SF 69 The change in the order of names implies an equal distri- bution of favor, as in Ham. II. 2. 33, where the king's "Thankes, Rosincrance and gentle Guildensterne" is fol- lowed by the queen's kindly "Thankes, Guildensterne and gentle Rosincrance." SF 70 Macbeth calls them IMPER- FECT SPEAKERS because of
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
the incompleteness, not be- cause of the unintelligibility of what they have said : the adj. "perfect" in EL.E. con- notes completeness of infor- mation; cp. **perfect'st re-
ACT I
SCENE III
73-78
, cp port "1. 5
2,and*' in your state
A prosperous gentleman : and to be kin^ Stands not within the prospect of beleefe, No more then to be Cawdor. Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence, or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetique greeting? Speake, I charge you.
WITCHES VANISH
of honor I am perfect," i.e. 'well informed,' IV. 2. 66. SF 7 1 The death of Sinel— the name seems originally to have been * Finel,' corrupted through the likeness of the written forms of S and F to "Sinel," as was * Foris,' to
" Soris" above — is mentioned by Holinshed in connection with the First Witch's salutation : " All haile, Macbeth, thane of Glammis (for he had entered into that dignitie and office by the death of his father Sinell)." SF 72 Macbeth may well be ignorant of Cawdor's treachery. Shakspere's words, as pointed out above, do not imply that the traitor was present at the battle. SF 74 STANDS NOT WITHIN THE PROSPECT OF BELEEPE is like "Shall come . . into the eye and prospect of his soule" Ado IV. 1. 23 1, and " Nothing that can be can come betweene me and the full prospect of my hopes" Tw. N. III. 4. 90, with the word used to connote a mental range of vision. EL. thinking was full of such metaphors for the perceptive powers of the mind f cp. N.E. D. *eye' 4 c and 8. The double negative STANDS NOT . . NO MORE violates only our modern notions of grammar; in literary English up to the 1 7th century, and still in popular English, such idioms are common. SF 75 The two parallel forms " thanne " and " thenne " in M. E. remained in EL. E. as THAN and THEN; *than'has since been set apart for use in comparison, while 'then' remains temporal. SF 76 The word OWE in O. E. and M.E. meant *to possess,'* to obtain,' as well as *to be under obligation to,' a double meaning still retained in Shakspere's time. SF 78 -que in PROPHETIQUE is merely the French spelling of a final A, giving such EL.E. forms as "musique," "an- tique" (still preserved), "poli- AnT T tique," -- ^^ ^ ^
etc.
SCENE III
79-85
<iF79 The Folio reads HA'S, as often ; but this is a mere, gratuitous piece of philologi- cal information — and incor- rect, as such information usu- ally is — on the part of the printer, who seems to have supposed that "has" was formed from "haves" by dropping the t)e. SF80THESE ARE OF THEM, i.e. 'these are some of them,' is a parti- tive genitive idiom, now obso- lete, but common in the 1 7th century ; cp. " He sent thither straight of the best soldiers he had about him" North, 'Plu- tarch/ ed. 1 595, p. 240. ARE
BANQUO The earth hath bubbles as the water has. And these are of them : whither are they van- ished?
MACBETH Into the ayre; and what seem'd corporall Melted as breath into the winde. Would they had stay'd!
BANQUO Were such things here as we doe speake
about ? Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner ?
20
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
THEY VANISHED is another M.E. and EL.E. idiom still familiar from Bible English, but obsolete in our thinking, through which Ms,' not *have,' forms the auxiliary for past time with verbs of motion. SF8I CORPORALL is EL.E. for 'material,' 'substantial'; cp. N.E.D., especially the quotation from West, ' Symboleographia,' 1592, "Corporal things are such as of their own nature may be felt or seen." Modern editors take MELTED from the next verse and add it to this, bringing up WOULD THEY HAD STAY'D, which is printed as a separate verse in the Folio, to fill the measure of v. 82. This quite mars the graphic rhythm in ** Melted as breath," and the effect of astonishment produced by the incom- plete verse following with its necessary pause after WINDE. Despite the fact that the verse division of FO. I is not always to be trusted, the verses are probably correct as they stand ; but the reader may make the improvement for himself if his sense of rhythm will justify it. SF82 For MELT in the sense of 'fade away,' cp. "the boy . . was melted like a vapour from her sight " Ven.& Ad. 1 1 66. *JF 84 To EAT ON or U PON is a common EL. E. idiom corresponding to MN.E. 'eat of,' 'taste of,' cp. N.E.D. 'eat' 3 c. INSANE in the sense of 'making insane' seems to be a translation of insana in ^ herba insana,^ the name by which henbane was known in Shakspere's time. Douce, ' Illustrations,' I, p. 372, quotes ' Batman uppon Bartholome,' ed. 1582, XVII, 87: " Henbane is called /nsana, mad, . . for if it be eat or dronke it breedeth madnesse . . Therefore this hearb is called commonly Mirilidium for it taketh away wit and reason"; cp. Holyoke's Latin Dictionary, 1677, s.v. 'insanus' : ^^ insana herba, henbane sic dicitur per metonomiam quia comedentes facit insanas^^ : Coles, 1679, also has '■'■insana herba, henbane." Shakspere may have been thinking of the " roots of hemlock," cp. IV. 1 . 25, referred to in Greene's Never Too Late, 1 590: "you have eaten of the roots of hemlock, that makes men's eyes conceit unseen objects" (cited by Steevens), and either borrowed the epithet from ^'herba insana^^ or
confounded henbane and
ACT I SCENEIII 86-88 l;""'^^^^-. f^°"°'t ^^°^^
w ^v^wx-, y^^ ^^^ ^^ acuta, henbane, kex and
hearbebennet" shows clearly
MACBETH such a confusion, for cicuta
Your children shall be kinds. is Latin for hemlock, for
^ which "kex" and "herb-
BANQUO bennet" {herba benedicta)
You shall be king. ^''^ ^^-E- equivalents.
MACBETH <]f87 InrepeatingtheTHANE
And ' Thane of Cawdor,' too : went it not so ? op cawdor Macbeth prob- ably imitated the peculiar BANQUO rhythm which marked the
Toth' selfe-same tune and words. Who 's ^^^^^'^ prophecy, and thus
1 \ occasioned Banquo s remark
^^^^* which follows. The reference
ENTER ROSSE AND ANGUS in TUNE, v. 88, is to rhythm,
notto melody : oneofWebbe's rules of poetry, 'A Discourse of English Poesie,' 1586, ed. Arber, p. 57, is that a"meeter or verse . . be proportionable to the tune whereby it is to be measured." It is the prompt fulfilment of the "Thane of Cawdor" part of the prophecy that is the key to Macbeth's implicit belief in the supernatural power of the witches: cp. 1.3. 119, 122, 133. And Shakspere keeps these words before our minds, not varying their order or stress rela-- tions, so that the title comes to have an ominous ring in the early part of the play. With 1 the same iterating insistence " Birnam wood" and " Dunsinane " arc thrust upon the rttention later on, till they, too, come to have an ominous ring. SF 88 Such EL. E. forms \s TOTH' have already been explained; this is one of the four-wave verses that are .^■equent in Macbeth.
21
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT I
SCENE III
89-103
ROSSE The king bath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, The newes of thy successe: and when be
reades Thy personail venture in the rebel's fight, His wonders and his prayses doe contend Which should be thine or his: silenc'd with
that, In viewing o're the rest o'th' selfe-same day. He findes thee in the stout Norweyan rankes, Nothingafeard of what thy selfe didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as haile Ran post with post, and every one did beare Thy prayses in his kingdomes great defence, And powr'd them downe before him.
ANGUS
Wee are sent To give thee from our royall master thanks Onely to harrold thee into his sight. Not pay thee.
SF9I IN goes with READES rather than with VENTURE, and the phrase means 'infers from," gathers from' ; cp.'*In the modesty of fearefull duty [i.e. a duty performed fear- fully] I read as much as from the rattling tongue" Mids. V. lOI, and "read not my blem- ishes in the world's report" Ant. & CI. II. 3. 5; cp. too, lHen.4 IV. 1.49. This notion of 'inference' was promi- nently attached to the word in M.E., continued through the 1 7th century (cp. e.g. Coles, 1679, "read, ghess, divino^^), and survives in some MN.E. phrases like "read one's se- cret." FIGHT was up to the beginning of the 1 8th century used to connote the action of fighting, a sense of the word preserved in 'valiant in fight,' 'to show fight.' Shakspere calls Mars the god of fight in Ven.&Ad. 1 14 (cp. N. E. D. I), and Cooper, 'Thesaurus,' glosses ^^aspera pugna sur- git^^ by "sore fight begin- neth." ' Fighting' seemsto be the sense intended here, and
REBELS of FO. I is therefore singular, Rosse's meaning being; 'When he infers from the rebel's fighting what your personal risk was,' etc. SF93 THINE and HIS seem to be used here as objective genitives, and the sense to be ' contend which should take the form of praise due to Macbeth's prowess and which should take the form of wonder affecting Duncan at Macbeth's miraculous escape from danger.' A similar use of HIS occurs in "gazing in a doubt Whether those peales of praise be his or no," Merch. III. 2. 146, and a similar use of 'contend' in " Death and Nature doe contend about them, Whether they live or dye" II. 2. 7. Duncan is nonplussed by (the preposition WITH as often in EL. E. corresponds to MN.E. 'by') this contention: cp. ' Phraseologia Generalis,' Cambridge, I681,"he was quite blank; silent; at a non plus: . . obstupuit.^^ SF95 STOUT means 'proud' as well as 'bold' in EL.E. ; cp. "As stout and proud as he were lord of all" 2Hen.6 1. 1. 187. SF96 NOTHING is adverbial, 'not at all,' and AFEARD OF is a common EL.E. synonym of 'frightened by.' SF 97 For the meaning of STRANGE IMAGES OF DEATH, i.e. 'unusual types or forms of death,' cp. "images of revolt" Lear II. 4. 91. Purchas in his ' Pilgrim- age,' vol. V, describing the destruction of Jerusalem, says: " Everywheer the eye is enter- tayned with differing spectacles of diversified Deaths" ; and Sidney, 'Arcadia' (Sommer's 1 rcpr., p. 268) makes use of the same notion in "So was the face therof [i.e. of the earth] ' hidden with dead bodies to whome Death had come masked in diverse manners." THICK AS HAILE: (misprinted in FO. I "Thick as Tale") is a common EL. comparison, c. 'Phr. Gen.,' "as thick as hail,«n modum grandinis,^^ and Purchas, ' Pilgrimage,' V. 901," Ta fowles flew over them as thicke as haile." SF98 RAN, likewise, is misprinted "Carf'
22
I
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
in FO. I. Many editors read "Came"; but 'run 'is of common occurrence in connection with POST, 'messenger/ and involves only one misprint, while **Came" involves three. *IF 102 ONELY TO is used, as the punctuation shows, in its EL. sense of 'merely in order to'; cp. "as fond fathers Having bound up the threatning twigs of birch Onely to stick it in their children's sight For terror" Meas. 1.3-25. Misapprehending this sense, modern editors alter the comma of the Folio after THANKS to a semicolon, which led Hudson to conjecture that WEE ARE SENT should be "we are not sent." HARROLD is an EL.
form of MN.E. "herald," cp.
ACT I SCENE III
I04-I 17
ROSSE And for an earnest of a greater honor, He bad me, from him, call thee thane of
Cawdor: In which addition, haile, most worthy thane ! For it is thine.
BANQUO What! can the devil! speake true? MACBETH The Thane of Cawdor lives: why doe you
dresse me In borrowed robes?
ANGUS Who was the thane lives yet, But under heavie judgement beares that life Which he deserves to loose. Whether he
was combined With those of Norway, or did lyne the rebell With hidden helpe and vantage, or that with
both He labour'd in his countreyeswracke, I know
not; But treasons capitall, confessed and prov'd, Have overthrowne him.
MACBETH
ASIDE
' Glamys,' and ' Thane of Cawdor ' 1 The greatest is behinde.
TO ROSSE AND ANGUS
Thankes for your paines.
23
N.E.D. SF 105 FROM HIM means 'by his authority,' cp. " I do it . . from Lord Angelo by speciall charge" Meas. I, 2. 123, not 'as a favor from him,' as the MN.E. words sug- gest. SFI06 ADDITION is a regular EL. synonym for 'title,' cp. III. I. TOO. 9^107 DEVILL is generally mono- syllabic, ' deel,' in Shakspere, cp. Schmidt's Shaks. Lexi- con for instances. This, wrongly supposed a dialect form, is common in EL. liter- ary English, and is no more dialect than is our MN. E. "ill" from "evill," "ivill." *1FI09 WHO is M.E. and EL.E. syntax corresponding to MN.E. 'he who.' SF 110 BEARES seems here to be used in its sense of 'possess,' 'maintain,' 'keep,' cp. "beare a charmed life" V. 8. 12. *IF III COMBIN'D carries with it the meaning ' in league with'; EL.E. "combination" is a regular word for 'league,' 'alliance', N.E.D. 4 c. It is best to treat the verse as one of six waves, notwithstanding that WHETHER is often a monosyllable, "wher," in EL. E., for " combined " is not found in Shakspere. SFII2 LYNE is EL.E. for 'furnish,' 'support'; cp. "who lin'd himselfe with hope" 2Hen.4 1.3.27. SF 113 VANTAGE is EL.E. for 'opportunity,' 'ad- vantage,' cp. I. 2. 31 ; THAT inM.E.andearly New English (e. N. E.) often serves, as here, to repeat a connective ; cp. I.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT I
SCENE III
II8-I27
TO BANQUO
Doe you nothopeyour children shall bekings, When those that gave the 'Thane of Caw- dor' to me Promised no lesse to them?
BANQUO
That, trusted home, Might yet enkindle you unto the crowne, Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But 't is
strange : And oftentimes, to winne us to our harme, The instruments of darknesse tell us truths, Winne us with honest trifles to betray 's In deepest consequence.
TO ROSSE AND ANGUS
Cousins, a word, I pray you.
7. 4. Rosse and Angus know only the fact of Cawdor's treachery, and their ignorance of its details, like Macbeth's ignorance of the fact, vaguely points to secret treachery on Cawdor's part.
SF I 19 GAVE . . TO is EL.E. for 'declared that I was' ; cp. Rom.&Jul. IV. 5.1 16, '* I will give you the minstrell"; we still use the idiom in "to give the lie direct." The stress seems to be on ME as con- trasted with THEM : possibly an elision was intended here as in "t' our," -'t' an," "t' whom," cp. note on I. 6. 24. "t"' for *to' before infinitives begin- ning with a consonant fre- quently occurs in Ben Jon- son, likewise **unt'" and *Mnt'" before following pro- nouns. <IFI20 NO LESSE, i.e. 'nothing less than king- ship.' The period instead of the interrogation-point after TH EM in FO. I seems to be a misprint. It must be borne in mind that Macbeth and Banquo are jesting; cp. Holinshed, p. 170 ( Stone's ed., p. 24), **this [the meeting with the witches] was reputed at the first but some vaine fantasticall illusion by Mackbeth and Banquho, insomuch that Banquho would call Mackbeth in jest King of Scotland; and Mackbeth againc would call him in sport like- wise the father of manie kings." HOME is an EL. adverb meaning 'thoroughly,' 'en- tirely,' cp. "revenged home" Lear in.3. I3r "satisfie home" Cym.IIL5.92, "know . . home" All's W. V. 3- 3, and Cotgrave ^^d fonds de cave, throughly, fully, largely, home." SF 121 ENKINDLE TO is EL. E. for 'incite to obtain,' cp. N. E. D. I b. SF 123 AND indicates an ellipsis of "perhaps true, for." These witches are to Banquo's mind the agents of Satan: Gifford, * Dialogue,' Percy Soc, p. 36, says the devils "deale by such instruments" as witches, and, p. 22, quotes S. Paul as calling the "divils" "the rulers of the dark- nesse of this world" ; on p. 55 he writes "they make shew of doing good unto men only of a most cruell and murtherous purpose, even to draw men deeper into the pit of hell with them." (The latter citation is in Shaks. Soc. Trans., '80-'85,pt. I, Proceedings for Feb. 9? 1 883, p. 63.) SF 125 TRIFLES in EL.E. still had its M.E. meaning of 'tricks,' cp."some enchanted triffle to abuse [MN.E. 'deceive'] me" Temp. V. 112 ; and this meaning, with HONEST in the sense of 'seeming true,' as in "honest slanders" Ado III. I. 84, appears to be implied by Banquo. Such contractions as BETRAY 'S are common in EL.E. SF 126 IN is EL.E. for 'into,' cp. "draw in(to) consequence" N. E. D. 'consequence' I b. DEEPEST is EL. E. for MN.E. 'gravest,' and CONSEQUENCE has sharper reference to succession than now. So that Banquo's words do not so much mean 'are faithful to us in matters of small importance and betray us in matters of serious consequence,' but rather 'win our confidence in order to seduce us into grave error.' Macbeth has affected by his jest to make light of a prediction which at the same time promises kingship to himself and to Banquo's children : Banquo's retort, though in jest, at once unmasks the affectation and parries its implication that the prophecy means as much for him as it does for Macbeth — YOU has a slight
24
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
verse-stress : ' If you wanted to believe the prediction concerning the kingship this ap- parent conflict in details would only serve as **ye't" another confirmation of it "besides the Thane of Cawdor."' He does not explain his words further, but their import lies in the fact that Macbeth has no heir. In Holinshed Macbeth draws Banquo into his con- spiracy ; but in Shakspere Banquo never even admits to Macbeth his community of interest in the witches' prediction, though Shakspere hints that he was not unaffected by the words of the weird sisters; cp. III. I. 6 and II. I. 20. Banquo's latter words, foreshadowing the 'deep consequence' of Macbeth's trust in the instruments of darkness, whether a dramatic aside — and they may well be such, for asides are not indicated in the Folio — or a general remark, the deep meaning of which Macbeth already absorbed in thoughts of his own great future fails to catch, are the theme of the tragedy. Macbeth's "betrayal" has its "final consequence" in a fact which is essentially tragic ; but its deeper tragedy lies in the
shattering of his whole man-
ACT I SCENE III
127-138
MACBETH
ASIDE
Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperiall theame.
TO ROSSE AND ANGUS
I thanke you, gentlemen.
ASIDE
hood which attends the very "first motion" of his "dread- ful" purpose, a tragic conse- quence which he now becomes aware of. He unconsciously thinks of the new and unreal world in which he finds him- self as a scene from a play.
*ff 127 The significance of the TWO lies in the fact that the death of the Thane of Glamis and the consequent succes- sion of Macbeth to his father's earldom were circumstances which, for some reason or other, the witches were not likely to know of. Shakspere leaves this to our imagination, nor does Holinshed throw any light upon the matter. *iF 128 HAPPY here practically means 'felicitously written,' cp. "happy verse" Timon I. I. 16. PROLOGUES were often prefixed to the several acts of a play, as in Hen. 5. SWELLING had in EL.E. the connotation of * proud,' ' mag- nificent,' cp. Baret, 'Alvea- rie,' " to begin to swell, to wax proud and stately, s'en//er," and "swelling scene" Hen.5, Prol. 4. SF 129 IMPERIALL illus- trates a common EL. E. use of the adjective where MN. E. prefers the preposition and noun ; the phrase is equivalent to 'theme of empire,' just as"generall use" in 1.2.62 corresponds to MN.E. 'expenditures of state.' THEAME in EL.E. denotes the subject of an action as well as the subject of a thought or discussion, cp. Cor. II. 2. 61. GENTLEMEN was often dissyllabic in literary EL. E. and frequently printed "gent'men": 'gen'men,' heard among cultivated people of the South and corrupted by the negroes to ' gemmen,' may be a descen- dant of this EL. form. SF 130 SOLLICITING is 'advocacy of my interests,' not 'temptation,' as it is usually understood to mean ; cp. IV. 3- 149- SFI3I ILL seems to mean 'dangerous,'
25
This supernaturall soUiciting Cannot be ill; cannot be good: if ill, Why hath it given me earnest of successe. Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of
Cawdor: If good, why doe I yeeld to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfixe my heire And make my seated heart knock at my
ribbes Against the use of nature? Present feares Are lesse then horrible imaginings:
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
'likely to turn out badly,' not 'wicked'; cp. "I told thee they [i.e. prawnes] were ill for agreene wound" 2Hen.4 II. 1. 106 (N.E. D. 3). SF 132 EARNEST is used in its now rather unusual sense of 'pledge'; and SUCCESSE in EL. E. had more notion of sequence than it now has. SF 133 I AM was probably intended for the contraction " I'm." SFI34 GOOD, the opposite of ILL, means 'tending to well-being,' N.E.D.7 b. Macbeth is not thinking of the moral consequences of the "suggestion," but of the effect his yielding to it has on his "state of man" ; as far as its relation to Macbeth's character goes, the deed is already done. He is not struggling with temptation, as he seems to be when his words are read as MN.E., but is becoming aware of a confusion of soul brought about by his willingness to employ instruments of darkness whose watchword is "faire is foul and foul is faire." He is yielding unresi^tantly ; his conflict with the powers of evil is over, if it ever took place ; the mere perception of the fact that supernatural influences are working in his favour crystallizes his ambition so that no solvent of conscience or scruple, no "milk of human kindness" can do other than trouble and muddy his peace of mind with realizations of "consequence" which a sting of pride or pang of fear will straight drive back to kennel. His 'moral reason,' if we may use the term, is dethroned.
This agitation of mind forebodes disaster: cp. "As heavines foretels some harme at hand. So minds disturb'd presage ensuing ills" Bodenham, * Belvedere,' ed. 1600, p. 1 60. SUGGESTION in EL. E. also connotes 'temptation,' cp. "Suggestions are to other as to me" L.L.L. 1. 1. 159. *1F 135 IMAGE expresses a realization of a situation by imagination like MN.E. 'idea,'cp. "theimageof it gives me content already " Meas. III. 1.270. UNFIXE is of course merely 'to loosen,' and not a misprint for "upfix," cp. IV. 1.96 and Ham. 1.5. 18, a notion carried further in SF 136 SEATED [i.e. fixed]. Steevens quotes 'Para- dise Lost' VI. 643: "From thir foundations loosning to and fro They pluckt the seated hills." SF 137 AGAINST THE USE OF NATURE seems to mean, not that such symp- toms of fear are unnatural, but that they are unusual to Macbeth : NATURE in EL.E. fre- quently means 'character,' 'disposition,' cp. II. 4. I6, and USE commonly means 'custom,' cp.1.3. 146. If THE has here the definite sense it has in 1.2.6 and is equivalent to a light MN.E. 'my,' the expression is like that found in North's Plutarch, p. I07I : "Cassius . . was full of thoughts [i.e. anxieties], although it was against his nature." FEARES is EL.E. for ' objects of fear,' ' things to be feared,' cp. N. E. D. 5 d. PRESENT, i.e. ' present before one,' such dangers as Macbeth has been used to confronting; Harrison, 'Description of England,' ed. Furnivall, I. p. 1 3, writing of the excommunication of King John, speaks of the then archbishop as "the present Archbishop of Canturburie," meaning the archbishop who was present at the meeting between king and clergy at Lincoln. Macbeth's words reveal a sense of changed character : he recognizes it by the presence of fear, which has hitherto been a stranger to him, and of indecision, which is likewise unfamiliar; he sees its effects in a constraint of conduct as if he were already under suspicion, and in an inability to determine essential relations as if he were already insane.
The passage that follows must be understood in terms of EL. psychology, by which the ego, with its controlling powers of will, conscience, and right imagination making for the good, is conceived as the head of a state, having the "mortal instruments" of the body as its executive agents. The best comment on the passage is found in Cees. II. 1.63 ff.r where Shakspere describes the effect of a murderous purpose on Brutus's mind, saying that 'All the interval between the first conception of a dreadful purpose and its execution is a "phantasma" or a hideous dream: the personality of the individual ("genius") and his bodily powers (the "mortal instruments") are then in secret sym- pathy ("in councell"),' "and the state of man. Like to a little kingdome, suffers then The nature of an [i.e. a kind of] insurrection"; i.e. will and conscience are deposed, and the man is no longer master of himself and of his acts. It is a state of mind to which all is nightmare, a hideous dream, which brings its subject to "thinke that which is nothynge is somwhat, and fele that thyng which he feleth not and to se that thing which he seeth not."
26
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
Such dreams are, according to Boorde's EHetary, E. E. T. S. selections, p. 79, the fore- runner of '*madnes named Mania," and a cause of them is "fantasticalnes, or coUucion or illusyons of the devyll." This awful nightmare of soul is the price of Macbeth's col- lusion with the instruments of
ACT I
My
SCENE III
thought, whose murther yet is but fan- tastical!, Shakes so my single state of man that
function Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is But what is not.
BANQUO
TO ROSSE AND ANGUS
Looke how our partner 's rapt.
J QQ ] AA darkness. He shall "sleep no ^ ? J— i^^^ more," but on the ''torture of the minde" shall "lye in rest- lesse extasie" till, spent with life, he shall cry, "it is a tale Told by an ideot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing."
MACBETH
ASIDE
If chance will have me king, why, chance
may crowrie me, Without my stirre.
*1FI39 In EL.E. the word THOUGHT covered a far wider range of association than it does in MN. E., and in- cluded 'purpose,' 'design,' ' hope, "expectation' : here the purpose notion seems upper- most, Macbeth's ambition of kingship now doubly strong from the trust he has in the witches' prediction. The word is used in the sense of 'ambi- tion' in Jonson's Sejanus V. 1.34: "I did not live till now ; this [i.e. this is] my first hower. Wherein I see my thoughts reach'd by my power." The murderous aspects of this THOUGHT are as yet only FANTASTICALL, i.e. 'imaginary ' (cp.I.3.53), but they shake Macbeth's hitherto SINGLE, i.e. 'simple,' 'united,' 'harmonious,' STATE OF MAN into mutiny and insurrection. SF 140 The notion of the soul of man being a kingdom is not an uncommon one in EL.E. Jonson, in 'Every Man in his Humour' II. 3, ed. 1640, p. 20, makes use of a similar figure:
"Is 't like [i.e. likely] that factious beauty will preserve The publicke weale of Chastitie unshaken,
Whensuch strongmotives [i.e. impulses, "thoughts"] muster and make head Against her single peace?"
(It is interesting to note that "Will. Shakspeare" was the first of the " Principall Come- dians" in this play when it was acted in 1598, and probably played the role of Kitely, the actor who speaks these words.) Cp. also Lear III. 1. 10 and 2Hen.4 IV. 3- 1 18. The same psychology occurs in John IV. 2. 245 :
" Nay, in the body of this fleshly land. This kingdome, this confine of blood and breathe, Hostilitie, and civill tumult reignes Between my conscience and my cosin's death."
EL.E. FUNCTION is defined in N.E.D. as 'activity of intellectual powers'; the word seems here to refer to such normal activity as is revealed in outward conduct, gesture ; cp. " his whole function suiting With formes to [i.e. according to] his conceit" Ham. II. 2. 582. SF 141 To SURMISE in EL.E. is 'to accuse,' 'to bring forward a charge,' cp. Baret's Al-
27
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
vcarie, "to surmise, or devise a forged crime" ; here, and in the phrase "such exufflicate and blow'd surmises" Oth. III.3. 182, the noun also seems to have this connotation of 'accusation.' Macbcth's self-accusation renders him powerless to control his conduct. Unlike lago, who boasts"! am not what I am," whose very element is duplicity and un- reality, Macbeth, man of action and realities as he is, is appalled by his situation : " nothing is but what is not." SF 142 Banquo's remark and his explanation call attention to Mac- beth's RAPT state. PARTNER, as has already been pointed out, merely means 'com- panion' in EL. E. SF 144 STIRRE is EL. E. for 'action,' 'activity,' cp. "you shall know . . of stirresabroad" Ant.&Cl. L4.82. Macbeth's decision to let chance run its course
ACT I
SCENE III
144-132
is continued in vv. 146, 147.
*ff 144 COME seems to be the verb, not the participle, and the construction one of those EL. and /coivoi) idioms through which a single verb is made to do duty for two subjects — ' New honors come upon him asdo our new garments, which assume their proper shape onlywith thewearing.' LIKE as an adverb is common in EL.E. SF145 STRANGEhas its EL. sense of 'new,' 'un- familiar.' SF 147 Macbeth's proverbial philosophy con- tinues the thought of v. 143 and means that the most unpromising day has its op- portunity, not Cotgrave's" the longest day will have a dawn- ing," i.e. come to an end. As Fate is on his side, he will await Fate's opportunity, not seek to forestall it. The prov- erb has not yet been found in the form which Macbeth uses, but there can be little doubt as to its meaning: TIME and HOURE are con- stantly used in EL.E. in the sense of 'fitting time' and 'appointed hour'; cp. "Wee see which way the streame of Time doth runne. And are enforc'd from our most quiet there, by the rough torrent of occasion" 2Hen.4 IV. 1.70 ff. The singular verb with plural subject is an idiom found in almost every EL. writer. To our strict classic notions of congruence it seems ungrammatical, but it is far too frequent in the best writers of the 1 6th century to allow us to suppose that it gave offence to a 1 6th century audience. *1F 148 WEE STAY UPON YOUR LEYSURE is a conventional phrase meaning 'we wait for you,' cp. N.E.D. 'leisure' 3 c. SF 149 Macbeth's answei is also conventional and is tantamount to 'Pardon my absent-mindedness'; cp. "Pray give me favour, sir" Hen. 8 1. 1. 168. The division of the following verses, 149-156, in the Folio is
28
BANQUO
TO ROSSE AND ANGUS
New honors come upon him Like our strange garments cleave not to
their mould But with the aid of use.
MACBETH
ASIDE
Come what come may, Time and the houre runs through the rough- est day.
BANQUO Worthy Macbeth, wee stay upon your leysure.
MACBETH Give me your favour: my dull braine was
wrought With things forgotten.
TO ROSSE AND ANGUS
Kinde gentlemen, your paines Are registred where every day I turne The leafe to reade them. Let us toward the king.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
Give . . favour, My . . forgotten, Kinde . . registred, Where . . leafe. To . . them, Let . . upon, What . . time. The . . speake. EL. WROUGHT, the preterite of ** work," means 'anxiously occupied with'; cp. *'thy heart's workings" Sonn. XCIII, 1 1, and '* I am sicke with working of my thoughts" I Hen. 6 V. 5-86. In SF 150 we have the extra syl- lable before the C32sura as in 1.3.72. Macbeth's words already smack of sovereignty as he tells Rosse and Angus that their services are noted down in the 'tablets of his mem- ory.' SF 152 Such omissions of the verb are common in M.E. and EL. E. and still occur
in MN.E. poetry. TOWARD
ACT I SCENE III 153-156
TO BANQUO
Thinke upon what hath chanc'd,and at more
time, The interim having weigh'd it, let us speake Our free hearts each to other.
is monosyllabic ; intervocalic w in such words, including "coward," is often lost in EL.E.
BANQUO
Very gladly.
MACBETH Till then, enough. Come, friends.
*ffl53 AT MORE TIME is 'with better opportunity,' cp. " At our more leysure " Meas. L3.49r and "at more leasure you shall understand of me" Sidney, ' Arcadia,' p. 6o, illus- trating a very common M.E. and EL.E. use of "more" in the sense of 'greater,' 'bet- ter,' 'stronger,' etc. *1F 154 INTERIM seemstobcthesub- ject of HAVING WEIGH'D, 'lapse of time having enabled us to see the matter in its true light.' It is italicized in the Folio because a foreign word in Shakspere's time, cp. "all the Interim is" Caas. II. 1.64. There is no adverbial phrase "the interim" in N.E.D. : when the notion is adverbial "the" is omitted. SF 155 FREE HEARTS is EL.E. for 'frank, unrestrained thoughts,' cp. "speake his very heart" Wint.T. IV. 4. 575? and "give me leave To have free speech with you" Meas. 1. 1.78. But Macbeth and Banquo never speak "their free hearts each to other": their conversation about their meeting with the witches is from first to last equivocal. Even here Macbeth uses a word for 'frank' that also means 'innocent.' Banquo does "thinke upon what hath chanc'd," and deeply too : but to talk freely about it is impossible ; see the opening verses of Act III.
EXEUNT
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE IV
Like so many of Shakspere's scenes, this one begins with the end of an action. Cawdor's execution, like his treason, is kept in the background, for it is the effect which flows from it and not the fact itself which is of interest to the play. It furnishes a linking association, too, between the scenes in the fact that Cawdor's discovered treachery is of little consequence to Duncan compared with the intended treachery of Macbeth. Steevens thought that Shakspcre, in describing the execution of Cawdor, had in mind Essex's behaviour on the scaffold in I60I : this may well be, though such scenes were not uncommon in the London of Shakspere's day. The motive for the immediate execution of the murder which Scene IV leads up to is contained in 48 ff. Macbeth has been the natural heir to the crown after Duncan. Duncan's making of his son Prince of Cumberland is tantamount to settling the succession on him, a consequence which Macbeth's victory brings about. This act of Duncan's brings Macbeth's ambition to a head and makes it impossible for chance to crown him king without his stir.
29
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SCENE IV: THE PALACE ENTER KING DONALBAINE LENOX
|
M |
||
|
I^H |
^S |
|
|
™ |
,^^ |
AT FORRES: FLOURISH
MALCOLME
AND ATTENDANTS
I-I4 KING
S execution done on Cawdor; or
not Those in commission yet re- turned? MALCOLME
My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have
spoke With one that saw him die, who did report That very frankly hee confessed his treasons. Implored your highnesse pardon and set forth A deepe repentance: nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; hee dy'de As one that had beene studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd. As 't were a carelesse trifle.
KING
There 's no art To finde the mindes construction in the face: He was a gentleman on whom I built An absolute trust.
*ff I The Folio verse division, Is . . Cawdor, Or . . return'd, My . . back, But . . die, Who . . hee, Confess'd . . pardon. And . . repentance. Nothing . . him, Like . . dy'de, is un- doubtedly incorrect. But it is a question whether OR is a mis- print for "are"; such omis- sions of the verb where it can be supplied from the context are frequently found in M.E. and e.N.E., and the king's question seems to be a double one: cp. **And I, my Lord, am Mandricard of Mexico, Whose climate fairer than Iberia's" Greene, *Orl. Fur.' 60, where the modern editor also assumes a misprint : the words are therefore printed as in the Folio, despite Dyce's ** school-girl," who would be the person most likely to ** per- ceive that or is a misprint for are." SF 2 IN COMMISSION is a legal expression meaning * authorized to hold trial ' ; cp. "itismyCosin Silenceincom- mission with mee" 2Hen.4 III. 2. 97. *IF3 Perfect par- ticiples had two forms in M.E. according as the O. E. final n was lost or retained, and many of these double forms survived in EL.E. MN.E. usually prefers the form with- out the -n, but in such words as 'grown,' 'shown,' 'spoken,' 'taken' the -n has been re- tained: so that Shakspere's SPOKE, which is good EL.E., appears to us ungrammatical. *1F6 Words, like HIGHNESSE, ending in -es had no possessive case in M.E. In e.N.E. they sometimes, especially in the case of proper nouns, make the genitive with "his," but are often uninfected as here ; the apostrophe after the s is a modern device. SET FORTH is in EL. E. 'to declare publicly,' a meaning still occasionally met with in MN.E. SF 7 EL. DEEPE, with words of emotion indicating intensity of feeling, has a somewhat wider ap- plication than in M N. E., cp. N. E. D. 8 b ; though no instances arc there cited for EL. E., this one seems sufficiently clear. A "deep sense of sin" would be entirely consonant with MN.E. idiom, but hardly a "deep repentance." SF 9 STUDIED, 'trained,' 'practised,' is in EL. E. used of persons as well as of manner; cp. North's Plutarch, 1593? P- 759> "besides that rare gift [i.e. of speaking well] he [Ca2sar] was excellently well studied, so that doubtlesse he was counted the second man for eloquence in his time." SF 10 OWE
30
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
has here the meaning of ' possess,' cp, 1. 3, 76. *ff 1 1 AS in M. E. and c. N. E. is often equiv- alent to MN.E. 'as if and is followed by the subjunctive mood. CARELESSE is EL. E. for * uncared for,' cp. ** their careless harmcs " Spenser, * Faerie Queene ' IV. 4. 38 (N. E. D. 4 a). ART TO FINDE is a M.E. and e.N.E. idiom whose MN.E. form would be 'art of finding.'
*ffl2 CONSTRUCTION is
ACT I SCENE IV
'interpretation,' cp. "O ille- gitimate construction ! " Ado
III. 4. 50. SF 14 ABSOLUTE was often clipped in EL. E. to "abs'lute," cp. " I speake not as in absolute feare of you"
IV. 3- 38. Duncan's remark about Cawdor,followedbythe immediate entrance of Mac- beth, has a peculiar pathos.
*IF 1 6 contains the extra syl- lable before the ca2sura with a reversal after it. SFl7 In EL. E. the article is often omit- ted before the superlative de- gree : a similar instance oc- curs inlll. 3-21, "We havelost beste halfe of our affaire" ; cp. "in servilst place" Drayton, ' Leg. of Duke of N .,' Sp. Soc, II. 419. WING is EL.E. for 'flight' and is not a metony- my as it seems to be in MN.E. ; cp. "they stoupe with the Hke wing" Hen.5 IV. 1. 1 12; a similar notion occurs in Wint.T.V.2.62,"whichlames reportto follow it." SF 19 PRO- PORTION is 'portion,' 'allot- ment'inEL. E.,cp."herprom- is'd proportions Came short of composition" Meas. V. I. 219 ; it seems here to be used in an active sense and mean ^proper apportioning.' SF 20 MINE here means 'in my power,' cp. "let that be mine," i.e. *a thing for me to attend to,' Meas. II. 2. 12. ONELY and other EL. adverbs had not that fixity of position whirh they have in MN.E.; cp. "onely I say," /.e. 'I only say,' III. 6.2, and "onely in the wor i I fil up a place" A.Y.L. 1.2.204. Duncan means 'it is only left for me to say,' *JF22 OWE has both meanings here (cp. note on 1.4. 10) : 'the service I owe you and the loyaltie I feel,' for Macbeth would hardly represent his loyalty as an obligation ; but the two notions are as one, and in the latter part of the sentence are repre- sented by IT SELFE : * in what I have done the pleasure of service and the honour of loyalty reward themselves.' Macbeth's heart is not "free" and both words and rhythm reflect his embarrassment. His thought, however, is the same as is contained in the king's words to Wolsey, Hen.8III.2. 179 ff., " Fairely answer'd: A loyall and obedient subject is Therein illustrated, the honor of it Does pay the act of it," i.e. the honour of loyalty rewards the act of obedience. SF24 DUTIES is used in both senses, 'marks of respect due to a superior'
31
14-27
ENTER MACBETH BANQUO ROSSE AND ANGUS
O worthyest cousin, The sinne of my ingratitude even now Was heavie on me. Thou art so farre before, That swiftest wing of recompence is slow To overtake thee. Would thou hadst lesse
deserv'd, That the proportion both of thanks and pay- ment Might have beene mine! onely I have left to
say, More is thy due then more then all can pay.
MACBETH The service and the loyaltie I owe, In doing it, payes it selfe. Your highnesse
part Is to receive our duties: and our duties Are to your throne and state children and
servants ; Which doe but what they should, by doing
every thing Safe toward your love and honor.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
and 'obligation/ especially that of loyalty. SF 25 ff. The one is personal (THRONE) and in- volves obedience (CHILDREN), the other is official (STATE) and involves loyalty (SER- VANTS): the throne's reward of the one duty is (v.27) LOVE, the state's reward of the other is HONOR: as obedient children subjects are 'sure' of the one, as loyal servanis they are 'secure' as to the other. Macbeth may also mean that this loving and willing service makes those who tender it SAFE, i.e. 'beyond the power of doing harm,' cp. nL4.25 and Baret, 'Alvearie,' "I have kept my mind safe from committing anie evill or mischief." That 'compelled services are dangerous' was a current aphorism in Shakspcre's time. "'T is a studied not a present thought. By duty ruminated." The words SAFE, etc., have given great difficulty to Shakspere editors : but to * do a thing safe ' is not English idiom, cp. N. E. D. ' do ' ; " safe " as the EL. adverb for ' safely ' does not make sense ; and * safe to ward ' spoils the metre besides causing an awkward inversion. The words refer, not to 'doing,' but to "children and servants." The text is here printed as in FO. I except that its line division. In . . selfe. Your . . duties. And , . state, Children . . should, By . . love, And . , honor, is altered to make perfect verses.
SF29 GROWING, 'fruitage,' cp cing in power/ cp. " Men grow vours " Jonson, 'Scjanus' V. 10, and "Had he done so to great and growing men, Thej'^ might have liv'd to beare, and he to taste Their f ruites of dutie" Rich.2 III. 4.61. SF 30 NOR .. KNOWNENOLESSE, i.e. 'and . . no lesse acknow- ledged,' with the common EL. double-negative construction and NO LESSE in the sense of 'as much.' SF32 Banquo plays upon the word GROW, thinking of it in the sense of 'becoming fixed,' 'attached to.' Milton puns on the word in 'Par. Lost' XII. 351 : "grown In wealth and multi- tude, factious they grow." <1F33 YOUR OWNE, 'to your advantage, not mine.' SF 34 WANTON has here the sense of 'capricious,' and IN FUL- NESSE means 'by reason of satiety,' cp. N. E. D. 4. *1F 35 DROPS was more frequently used in EL. E. for ' tears ' than now ; cp. " drops of modestie " Merch. II. 2. I95, "these fool- ish drops" ibid. II. 3- I3> and "sorrowfull drops" Titus V. 3. 154. The missing un- stressed verse impulse marks the pause between the two thoughts. *1F37 ff.: The plural
. N.E. D. 2 b; the word was also used in EL. E. of 'advan- not in the state, but as they are planted Warme in his fa-
ACT I
SCENE IV
KING
27-40
Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, That hast no lesse deserv'd, nor must be
knowne No lesse to have done so: let me enfold thee And hold thee to my heart.
BANQUO
There if I grow, The harvest is your owne.
KING
My plenteous joyes. Wanton in fulnesse, seeke to hide themselves In drops of sorrow. Sonnes, kinsmen, thanes. And you whose places are the nearest, know. We will establish our estate upon Our eldest, Malcolme, whom we name here- after The Prince of Cumberland: which honor
must Not unaccompanied invest him onely, 32
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT I
SCENE IV
41-53
of majesty is usually used in M. E. ande. N. E. when princes speak. *To establish the es- tate upon ' is EL. legal phrase- ology for fixing the succes- sion, cp. *Phr. Gen./ "an estate, or right, and title, /us, autoritasy The title PRINCE OF CUMBERLAND was the official style of the Scottish heir apparent, corresponding to 'Prince of Wales' in the English succession. Holins- hed says, *'shortlie after [the weird sisters episode] Dun- cane . . made the elder of them, called Malcolme, prince of Cumberland as it were there- by to appoint him his succes- sor in the kingdome, immedi- ately after his deceasse" ; the prince was still underage, ac- cording to Holinshed, andbut for this appointment by the will of the sovereign Macbeth was the next heir to the crown until Malcolm came of age ; hence his aside in vv. 48 f f ., and Malcolm's "This murtherous shaft that's shot Hath not yet lighted" in IL3. 147.
<1F4I SIGNESinEL.E. means 'markes of distinction,' cp. "leaving me no signe . . To shew the world I am a gentle- man" Rich. 2 IILI. 25 Jthereis also a graceful reference in the word to the constellations of the heavens. SF42 ENVERNES, the Folio spelling of MN.E. 'Inverness,' follows Holins- hed. Modern Scotch place-names in "Inver-" were in Middle Scotch " Enver-," or "Enner-," cp. Bruce, ed. Skeat, XVL 549? IX. 34, etc. ; these earlier forms doubtless remained in the spelling of the 1 6th century; e.^. "Innerness" occurs in Drummond's History of Scotland, I655r P- 65- *1F44 REST is used in its EL. sense of 'case,' 'idle- ness'; cp. "My rest and negligence befriends thee now" Tro.&Cr.V. 6. 17. SF45 A HER- BENGER was a royal messenger sent to purvey lodgings for the king and his suite, N. E. D. 2. The late M.E (1. M.E.) form of this word, "harbeger," "harbiger," developed an n before the g" in e. N.E., like "messager," "messenger." But the form without n was still in use in the 1 6th century, and this would be subject to the EL. syncopation and become HARB'GER ; Shakspere probably intended this dissyllabic form here, as Middleton evidently does in his 'Virgin Martyr,' 1622, L 1.6 : "The harbinger to prepare their entertainment." HF48 STEP in EL. E. means both 'round of a ladder' (cp. its gloss ^^climacter'' in ' Phr. Gen.') and 'promotion.' The same play of meaning is found in Hen. 8 IL4. 1 12 : "You have
33
But signes of noblenesse, like starres, shall
shine On all deservers.
TO MACBETH
From hence to Envernes, And binde us further to you.
MACBETH The rest is labor, which is not us'd for you: I 'le be my selfe the herben^er, and make
joyful! The hearing of my wife with your approach ; So humbly take my leave.
KING
My worthy Cawdor!
MACBETH
ASIDE
The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step On which I must fall downe, or else oVe-
leape, For in my way it lyes. Starres, hide your
fires,
Let not light see my black and deepe desires : The eye winke at the hand; yet let that bee, Which the eye feares, when it is done, to see.
EXIT
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
by fortune and his Highnesse favors, Gone slightly o're lowe steppes, and now are mounted," etc, SF49 As the vowel of LEAPE was still long e in EL. E., not i as now, the word rhymed with " step," cp, note on 1. 1 . 6. SF 50 EL. STARRES included the sun and moon as well as the stars and planets. SF 52 WINKE in EL. E. was used to connote more than a momentary closing of
the eyes, cp. Sonn. LVL 6, ApT T ^PPMP TV Ka Kii
" fill Thy hungrie eies, even ^^i^ ^^^UINCIV 54-58
till they winck with f ulnesse,"
and "good boy, winke at me, KING
and say thou saw'stmee not" True, wortbv Banquo, he is full so valiant;
Timonin. 1.47. The verb is aj-u- j^- t a j
imperative. ^^^ ^^ "^^ commendations i am red;
It is a banquet to me. Let's after him, <jF54 As often in Shakspere, Whose care is done before to bid us welcome:
the imagmation must supply , , ^ ,
the preceding conversation: It is a peerelesse kinsman.
Banquo has been praising
Macbeth's prowess and Dun- FLOURISH: EXEUNT
can agrees: *he is quite as
brave as you say he is.' *IF55 The HIS is, of course, objective genitive, 'with commen- dations of him.' A similar notion occurs in "cram's with prayse and make's as fat as tame things" Wint.T. 1. 2.91. SF57 CARE is Moving regard,' cp. "The reverent care I beare unto my lord" 2Hen.6 III. 1.34. SF 58 IT IS in M.E. and EL. E. is frequently used for ^he is' to express affection; cp. Marston, "'Tis a good boy" 'Antonio and Mellida,' III. 1. 105.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE V
Lady Macbeth's influence over her husband, the details of her plan to murder Duncan, and her part in carrying it out, do not belong to the story of Duncan's murder as told by Holinshed, who merely says: "but speciallie his wife lay sore upon him to attempt the thing, as she that was verie ambitious, burning in unquenchable desire to beare the name of queene," p. 171. But on pp. 150 ff. is the story of the murder of King Duff, one of Duncan's predecessors: how King Duff hanged Donwald's kinsmen; how Donwald's wife, perceiving the manifest tokens of his grief, "ceased not to travell with him till she understood" its cause ; how she "bare no lesse malice toward the king" and "counselled him to make him awaie"; how " Donwald being the more kindled in wrath by the words of his wife determined to follow her advice." The scene opens abruptly. Lady Macbeth is reading the latter part of Macbeth's letter as she enters. Davenant thought the opening too abrupt, and prefixed an introductory dialogue between Lady Macbeth and Lady Mac- duff about their absent husbands. But there can be little doubt that Davenant quite mis- construed the scene. It is one of Shakspere's characteristics to plunge in medias res, leaving the imagination to supply the preceding action. We are led to suppose that let- ters were written by Macbeth in the interval between Scenes III and IV ; we are made to infer, too, from Lady Macbeth's intimate knowledge of her husband's character that she was 'partner' in his counsels, and in her "chastise with the valour of my tongue "we read as clearly as words can say it the secret of her influence over him. It is just such touches as these that distinguish Shakspere's plays from those of his Elizabethan contemporaries ; and it is this trick of his, by which he makes the mere turn of a phrase do the work of categoric statement or of extended dialogue and action, that gives his plays their remark- able literary interest.
34
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SCENE V: INVERNESS: MACBETH'S CASTLE: ENTER MACBETH'S WIFE ALONE WITH A LETTER
I-I5
LADY MACBETH READING
HEY met me in the day of suc- cesse; and I have learn'd by the perfect'st report, they have more in them then mortall knowledge. When I burnt in desire to ques-
f I IN THE DAY OP SUC- CESSE means *on the day of victory': IN is frequently used in EL. E. where MN.E. requires *on/ cp. "that our armies joyn not in a hot day" 2Hen.4,I.2.234, and **in the day of battell" Rich.3 IV. 4. 188. <1F3 PERFECT'ST, 'most accurate/ cp. "a per- fect guesse"2Hen.4 III. 1.88. REPORT may be a reference to inquiries that Macbeth has instituted; but if THE is equivalent to * their/ and RE- PORT has its common EL. meaning, *a statement of facts,' the superlative might have its EL. absolute signifi- cation and the whole phrase mean 'their very accurate statements' ; cp. "observe his reports for me," i.e. 'what he says' (but Parroles is speak- ing), All's W. II. 1.46, and "Sonne to the Queene after
4,
tion them further, they made themselves ayre, into which they vanish'd. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-haiPd me 'Thane of Caw- dor'; by which title, before, these weyward sisters saluted me and referr'd me to thecom- ming on of time, with ' Haile, king that shalt be!' This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatnesse, that thou might'st not loose the dues of rejoycing by being ignorant of what greatnesse is prom- ised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell."
his owne report," i.e. 'ac cording to his own statement' Cym. IV. 2. 119; cp., too. Cooper, ^^nuntiatioy a report, a shewing or declaring." The superlative ending was affixed to polysyllabic words in M.E. and e.N.E., and EL. superlatives were commonly contracted as here: e.g. "fertilst soylc" Drayton, 'Harmony of Church,' Per. Soc, p. 8 ; "welcomst" Jonson, 'Silent Woman,' 1640, p. 462. SF 6 WHILES is an EL. form of 'while.' RAPT IN is 'carried away by,' cp. 1.3. 142. SF 7 MISSIVES, 'messengers/ cp. "did gibe my misive out of audience" Ant.&Cl. II. 2. 74. ALL-HAILE, cp. Cotgrave, ^^saluer, to salute, greet, all- haile," and Florio, ^^salutare, to salute, to greet, to al-haile" (latter quotation in CI. Pr.). SF9 The notion in REFERR'D seems to be that of appealing his claim to higher power: cp. Kersey, Diet., 1708, "refer, to leave to ones judgment or determination"; and COM- MING ON looks as if it related to the advent of a judge, a meaning which the phrase seems to have in Hen. 5 1.2.289, "But this lyes all within the wil of God, To whom I do appeale, and in whose name, Tel you the Dolphin, I am comming on, To venge me as I may." But as this meaning is not supported by N.E.D. we shall have to take COM- MING ON in its sense of 'maturing' — 'to the fulness of time.' SF 12 DELIVER, 'tell/ ^communicate,' cp. "her verie words Didst thou deliver to me" Err. II. 2. 166. SFI3 LOOSE is an EL. spelling for 'lose,' cp. "loosing his verdure" Two Gent. 1. 1.49, and "This deceit looses the name of craft" Merry W. V. 5.239- ('Loose' and 'lose' were identical in M.E. ; MN.E. 'loose' with the voiceless s is due to the influence of the adjec- tive.) THE DUES is 'thy dues,' i.e. 'thy rightful share in the joy of my success.' The spirit of Macbeth's letter bespeaks an intimate relation between him and his wife, of
35
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
which Shakspere gives us glimpses all through the early part of the play. SFI7FEARE in EL. E, means *to fear for/ *be concerned about/ cp. Ham. IV. 5. 122, where the king says, ** Do not feare our person: There 's such di- vinity doth hedge a king," etc. NATURE has here its usual EL. meaning of 'char- acter/ cp. L 3. 137. SF 18 O'TH^cp.noteto L3.7. HU- MANE is EL. spelling for 'human'; ^ human' and ^hu- mdne^ is a stress-distinction laterthan Shakspere. Theex- pression's *'milke of humane kindnesse"and** sweet milke of concord" IV. 3-98 were in EL. E. striking metaphors, the first of which has become familiar idiom. Goneril ac- cuses Albany of "milky gen- tlenesse" and **harmefull mildnesse"in Lear I.4.364ff. (cited by CI. Pr.). SF 19 TO CATCH THE NEEREST WAY is *to see the shortest road to the fulfilment of your ambi- tion,* cp. **He conceiveth (catcheth) all things, who desireth to do it" Come- nius, *Janua Linguarum' 12. WOULD'ST here and in V. 21 preserves the original independent meaning of the auxiliary, Mesirest.' SF 2 1 ILL- NESSE is EL. E for 'unscru- pulousness,' cp. N.E. D. I.
ACT I
SCENE V
I6-31
Glamys thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised: yet doe I feare thy
nature ; It is too full o' th' milke of humane kindnesse To catch the neerest way. Thou would'st
be ^reat; Art not without ambition, but without The illnesse should attend it. What thou
would'st highly, That would'st thou holily : would'st not play
false, And yet would'st wrongly winne. Thould'st
have, great Glamys, That which cryes ''Thus thou must doe" if
thou have it, And that which rather thou do'st feare to doe Then wishest should be undone. High thee
hither. That I may powre my spirits in thine eare, And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impeides thee from the golden round Which fate and metaphysicall ayde doth
seeme To have thee crown'd withall.
ENTER MESSENGER
What is your tidings?
EL. HIGH denotes earnest- ness of any feeling, cp. *' A high hope for a low heaven" L. L.L.I. 1. 1 96 and MN.E. ''high hopes." Here HIGHLY seems to refer to the intensity of Macbeth's ambition, cp. N.E. D.5. SF 22 HOLILY frequently occurs in EL. E. with the meaning Mn a scrupulous way,' cp. N. E. D. 2. Vv. 22-24 have occasioned great difficulty to Shakspere editors. There are no quotation-marks in the Folio and the verse division is Thould'st . . cryes. Thus . . it. And . . doe. Noneof the emendationsandexplanationsclears awaythe difficulty, which seemsto lie in an EL. dnb kolvov construction by which CRYES is first used in its sense of 'exclaim- ing' and is then understood in its other EL. sense of 'demanding' with a direct object after it. This latter sense we have in Oth. 1.3.277, "Th' affaire cries hast." Such syn- tax is found also in Merch. 1 1. 4. 30, "she hath directed How I shall take her from her Father's house, {_sc. directed in the sense of 'communicated,' N.E. D. 2 b] What gold and jewels she is furnisht with, What pages suite she hath in readinesse," and in Pericles, Prol.,
36 I
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
"to keep [i.e. retain] her still and \_sc. keep in the sense of 'hold'] men in awe." The meaning, then, is 'Thould'st have, great Glamis, that which cries "Thus must thou do," etc., . . and requires that which thou,' etc. SF26 TO BE UNDONE means 'not to be done,' cp, "un-provokes," 'fails to provoke,' II. 3-32; this is a frequent signification of the prefix in EL. E. HIGH is not a misprint for "hie," 'to hasten,' due to confusion of the verb with the adjective, but a regular EL. E. spelling of the word; cp. M.E. "highen." Lady Macbeth's shrewd and clear-cut analysis of her husband's character has already been foreshadowed in Macbeth's own words, 1.4. 52, "let that bee which the eye feares, when it is done, to see." His weakness comes to the fore again in 1.7. 1 6 ff., and follows him like a Nemesis all through the play, lashing him with whips of steel. She sums it up in the words "humane kindnessc" — a strain of sentimentality, a touch of human sympathy that makes him kin with his victim. Like many a brave man, he is both superstitious and sentimental. He can shed blood relentlessly in the heat of battle and action, but cold- blooded murder he balks at. Without her instigation he never would have 'screwed his courage to the sticking-poiat.' SF 27 SPIRITS, 'vigor,' 'energy,' cp. " Faire daughter you doe draw my spirits from me. With new lamenting ancient over-sights" 2Hen.4 II. 3-46. SF28 CHASTISE is stressed on the first syllable in EL. E., cp. note on the word in N.E.D. It has also the connotation of putting down rebellion, N.E.D. 3 b. SF 29 IMPEIDES seems to be a spelling of "impede" based on the analogy of "receive," etc. ; so "theis," "feitures," "retreit," etc., occur frequently in EL.E. ROUND is one of the words for
in M.E. and e.N.E. ;
'circle'
ACT I
SCENE V
32-39
MESSENGER The kin^ comes here to-night.
LADY MACBETH
Thou Vt mad to say it. Is not thy master with him? who, wer 't so, Would have inform'd for preparation.
MESSENGER So please you, it is true: our thane is com-
ming: One of my fellowes had the speed of him; Who almost dead for breath, had scarcely
more Then would make up his message.
LADY MACBETH
Give him tending; He brings great newes.
EXIT MESSENGER
Shakspere frequently uses it for ' crown ' ; cp. IV. 1 . 88 and "With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads" Merry W.
«.
IV. 4. 50, and Coles, "a round, orfczs." SF30META- PHYSICALL is EL. E. for ' su- pernatural,' cp. Cotgrave, ^^ supernaturely supernaturall, metaphisicall, above nature." DOTH SEEME TO is EL.E. for ' is about to,' cp. 1.2.27 and note. SF3I WITHALL,'with,' cp. note to 1.3.57. EL. TID- INGS, like MN. "news," is often singular.
SF 32 THOU 'RT MAD TO SAY IT : cp. " I shall be hated to report it" Wint. T. III. 2. 144. SF 34 INFORM'D is EL. E. for 'given directions,' cp. N.E.D. 4 c. In PREPARATION the suffix -tion is dissyllabic, cp. 1. 2. 1 8, and the verse is there- fore quite normal. SF36HAD THE SPEED OF: a similar phrase is found in "the slow outstrippeth (gets the start of) the swift" Comenius, 'Janua' 8O9. In both of these idioms the preposition retains some of its M.E. connotation 'away from.' SF37 WHO is the connective relative, 'and almost dead for breath, he had,' cp. I.2.2I. *1F38 TENDING, *attentif-in' cp. Cooper's Thesaurus, ^^curatioj diligent tending," and "tend" in v. 42.
37
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SF39 RAVEN, like 'heaven/ 'seven/ and participles in -en, is often monosyllabic in e. N.E. It was a popular su- perstition that the croaking of a raven was always an omen of ill and at times foreboded death ; cp. Brand's Popular Antiquities, III. 210, 211, and especially the quotation from Poole's Parnassus, 1 657, **The om'nous raven with a dismal chear. Through his hoarse beak of following hor- ror tells." Peele, 'David and Bethsabe,' 1599, Chor. to Sc. Ill, also refers to this popular belief. Shakspere again im- plies it in Oth. IV. I.2I and 2Hen.6 III. 2. 40. *ff40 EN- TERANCE (the Folio prints "entrance") isalso trisyllabic in Per. II. 3.64 and in Faerie Queene 1.8.34; it is often spelled "enterance" in EL. prose. In e. N.E. the vowel sound which developed out of r frequently makes a distinct syllable, cp. "childeren " IV. 3- 177, "rememberance" III. 2. 30, "prayers" II. 2. 25; we still have "fire," "power," and " hour" as dissyllables in MN.E. SF4I The lacking impulse after the CcEsura is supplied by the pause before COME. SPIRITSisoftenmon- osyllabic in EL. E., 'sprites'
ACT I
SCENE V
39-55
The raven himselfe is hoarse That croakes the fatall enterance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortall thoughts, unsex me
here, And fill me, from the crowne to th' toe, top- full Of direst crueltie! make thick my blood, Stop up th' accesse and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keepe peace be-
tweene Th' effect and hit. Come to my woman's
brests, And take my milke for gall, you murthVing
ministers, Where-ever in your sightlesse substances You wait on nature's mischiefe ! Come, thick
night. And pall thee in the dunnest smoake of hell. That my keene knife see not the wound it
makes. Nor heaven peepe through the blanket of
the darke. To cry 'Hold, hold!'
(whence MN.E. 'sprightly'), and is probably so here, for the rhythm is smoother if v. 41 ends in a rising wave. *TF42 MORTALL THOUGHTS is not 'human thinking' but 'deadly purposes'; cp. note to 1.3- 139. These 'devilish spirits of murder' Shakspere refers to in 2Hen.6 IV. 7. 80. SF 43 TOTH'TOE is "to the toe" in FO. I ; but the printer probably neglected to mark the elision, cp. 1. 1.5 note. The whole expression is idiomatic in EL.E., cp. " rrom the top to the toe, a capite ad calcem usque^^ Baret, ' Alvearie' ; and TOPFULL, 'brimful,' is likewise a usual word, cp. "Topfull with Faith" Taylor, Works, Sp. Soc, II. 230. SF44 MAKE THICK MY BLOOD : cp. "if that surly spirit melancholy Had bak'd thy bloud and made it heavy thicke. Which else runnes tickling up and downe the veines" John 111.3-42; see also Wint.T. 1.2. 171 and Ham. 1. 5-70. ^45 ACCESSE frequently has its M.E. stress"ac- cesse" in e.N.E., cp, e.g. "get swift accesse" Jonson, 'Sejanus' II. 2. REMORSE does not here correspond to the MN. E. word, but connotes the idea 'compassion' ; cp." We know yourtendernesseof heart, Andgentle,kinde, effeminate [i.e. womanly] remorse" R^^.h.3III.7. 210, and "Not doubting but to finde such kinde remorse As naturally you ^^^j-jgiclyned
38
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
to" 'Faire Em 'II. 1. 132. SF 46 COMPUNCTIOUS was a rare word in Shakspere's time, if, indeed, not coined by Shakspere himself. NATURE, * natural feeling,' 'sympathy,' cp. ''You, brother mine, that entertaine ambition, Expell'd remorse and nature" Temp. V. I. 75. It is only in the light of Shakspere's psychology in 1.3- 139 that this picture of Lady Macbeth's mind becomes clear. In SF48 HIT (the M.E. form corresponding to MN.E. Mt' which occasionally appears in e.N.E. as here) refers to "nature," and TH' EFFECT is equivalent to MN.E. 'its accomplishment,' cp. N.E.D. 7, and "Could have attained th' effect of your owne purpose" Meas. II. 1. 13. Lady Macbeth deliberately invokes the devils of murder to forestall the "shaking" of her fell purpose andthe "hostilitie and civill tumult" between her conscience and Duncan's death — to use the phraseology of John IV. 2. 245 — by blocking up all avenues to pity and compassion. SF 47 NOR KEEPE PEACE, therefore, is tantamount to 'and make war' between my "thought" and the "mortal instruments" which are to execute it ; cp. the notion of "single peace" in the passage from Ben Jonson above, and "In absence of her knight the lady noway could Keepe trewce between her greefes and her, though nere so fayne she would . . Yet did her face disclose the pas- sions of her hart" Brooke's Romeus and Juliet, ed. 1562, vv. 1 78 1 ff. (quoted in part by Malone), where we have again the 'microcosmic' psychology. The conscienceless strength of Lady Macbeth is thus luridly contrasted with her husband's ' infirmity of purpose ' : only one 'visiting of nature' docs she show in II. 2. 13, "Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had don 't," and she refers to this with an implied apology for a momentary weakness. The fact that Lady Macbeth had been a mother, cp. 1.7.54, adds more horror to her imprecation. SF49 TAKE is explained by Schmidt as referring to malignant su- pernatural influences, as in "he blasts the tree and takes the cattle" Merry W. IV. 4. 32, and in "No faiery takes" Ham. 1. 1. 163 ; but the syntax does not permit such an interpreta- tion ; the idiom is TAKE FOR, not "take"; TAKE FOR in the sense of 'turn into' is not English idiom ; 'take away my milk and put gall in its place' is a far-fetched use of "take" in the sense of 'exchange.' It is better to understand the word in its usual sense of 're- ceive.' GALL, 'poison,' 'venom,' cp. " Poyson be their drinke ! Gall, worse then gall the daintiest that they taste" 2Hen.6 III. 2. 322. In EL. psychology the gall was the seat of the bitter and violent passions of hatred and revenge, cp. N.E.D. 3- So Hamlet, using the concrete for the abstract, says he 'lacks gall to make tyrannous violence bitter' Ham. II. 2. 605. Minsheu s, v. ' gall ' says " it is the humor which nourishes wrath," and this seems to be Lady Macbeth's notion here, carrying out the idea in v. 42, "unsex me here, and fill me . . topfull of direst crucltie!" MINISTERS in e.N.E. usage denoted the "in- struments of darknesse " as well as " ministers of grace " ; cp. Titus V. 2. 6 1 , where Murder and Rapine are spoken of as "ministers," and Rich. 3 1.2.46, "dreadfull minister of hell." Burton, 'Anat. of Mel.,' 1 62 1, speaks of the "devil and his ministers." The clipped form of the word, "min'sters," is probably intended here. SF 50 SIGHTLESSE is acommon EL. synonym of 'invisible'; it is used again in 1.7.23- One of the nine kinds of bad spirits mentioned by Burton, I.ii. 1.2, instigates to fury ; another is 'those vessels of anger in- ventors of all mischief (cp.v. 51). 'These unclean spirits go in and out of our bodies as bees do in a hive and so provoke and tempt us as they perceive our temperature [i.e. temperament] inclined of itself and most apt to be deluded.' They are 'corporeal and have aerial bodies' ; 'the air is not so full of flies in summer as it is at all times of invisi- ble devils.' These devils or spirits in EL. metaphysics, taking possession of the body and working upon its ' humours,' produced all those forms of insanity and mental disorder which were termed melancholy. Shakspere's psychology, while it is not a bald transcription of it, nevertheless reflects the doctrine in a general way, and Macbeth's soul "blasted with extasy" and Lady Macbeth's "mind diseased" are each conceived in the terms of its phi- losophy. They are both 'possessed of devils,' Macbeth through his allowing the witches to help on his ambition, Lady Macbeth through the obsession of the unclean spirits which she invokes to her aid. The one passively submits to the supernatural control, the other actively invokes it. The ruin of the man's cankered soul is gradual, opposed always by
39
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
resisting forces of his character; the ruin of the woman's "mind diseased" swiftly cul- minates in insanity and self-destruction. SF52 PALL THEE, 'cloak thyself; Shakspere seems to have made the verb from the noun, cp. Cooper, ^^ palliolatinij clad in a mantle, pall, or robe." DUNNEST, 'murkiest,' cp. N.E.D. and Coles, ^^obfuscusy black, dark, dun." Peele has a somewhat similar phrase in ' David and Bethsabe, X. II, " O would my breath were made the smoke of hell ! " SF 53 Lady Macbeth here intends herself to com- mit the murder; Macbeth speaks of doing it in 1.7. 16; he has sworn to do it in 1.7.58; both together are to perform it in 1.7.69; in 1 1. 2. 13 Lady Macbeth tries and fails; finally Macbeth does the deed in 1 1. 2. 15. Thus by keeping vague the outlines of the act does Shakspere intensify the horror of its circumstances. SF 54 Such figures as BLANKET OF THE DARKE were common in EL. E., cp. " Come seeling night, Skarfe up the tender eye of pittifuU day" III. 2. 46. A similar association of ideas occurs in Drayton's Barrens Warres, III. 17. 18, ed. 1605, "The sullen night hath her blacke curtaines spread, Lowring [i.e. scowling because] the day had tarried up so long. Whose faire eyes closing softly [in MN. E. sc. 'she'] steales to bed when all the heavens with duskie clowdes are hung . . The glim- mering lights, like sentinels in warre, Behind the clowdes stand craftily to pry And through false loope-holes looking from afarre To see him skirmish with his destcny." The first verse was cited by Malone in its earlier form,ed. 1596, "The sullen night in mistie rugge [i.e. blanket] is wrapp'd" ; CI. Pr. also adds Drayton's notion of night as "heaven's black nightgowne." The homely figure was taken exception to by Coleridge, and vari- ous foolish emendations, 'blackness,' 'blankness,' 'blank-height,' 'blankest,' etc., have been proposed. But one who will criticize such figures in Shakspere shows little know- ledge of Elizabethan literature. It has also been suggested that "blanket" refers to the 'curtain of a theatre' with 'heaven 'in its EL. sense of 'roof of the stage'; but the N.E.D. records no such usage of the word 'blanket.' The associative interests of the earlier passages, "milk," "woman's
breasts," suggest motherhood A/^TT Cr^TZTMCTA/ cc^t
-cp.alsoI.7 54ff.-andthis ^^ ^ ^ bCbNb V 55-61
culminating figure brings to _
the mind the picture of a ter- ENTER MACBETH
ror-stricken child peering over Great Glamys! worthy Cawdor !
the edge of his blanket into the Greater then both, by the all-haile hereafter!
awtul gloom 01 night. Kob the ;_. , 1 11 1
context of these associations 1 hy letters have transported me beyond and the marvellous power of This ignorant present, and I feele now
the thought is ^one from it. /-pi £ a. • ^1 • ^ ^
We have much to thank Shak- ^^^ ^^^^^^ '^ the instant.
spere scholarship for, but MACBETH
surely its cavilling at this pas- ra J ^ 1
sage is little to iti credit. ^Y Nearest love,
Duncan comes here to night.
<ff58 IGNORANT is probably
used here, as in Wint.T. 1.2. ^^^^ MACBETH
397, with the sense of 'keep- And when gocs hence?
ing one in ignorance' (cp. MACBETH
N.E.D. s.v. 3 b): "If you _,
know ought, .imprison 't not lo morrow, as he purposes.
In ignorant concealement."
The rhythm of the verse, like that of IV. 3. 28, lacks a stressed impulse after PRESENT, if "ign'rant" is so syncopated: Pope supplied "time" after PRESENT to fill the measure, preferring a limping verse to an 'incorrect' one; Lettsom proposed "e'en now" — there is some ground for this, cp. 1.4. 15, IV. 1. 148, IV. 3- 1 21, V.2. 10; Abbott reads "fe-el," but 1 while the development of an extra syllable out of r is a general EL. phenomenon not pccu-
40
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
liar to prosody, and has had its due effect on MN.E., there is no evidence for / having thus produced an extra syllable after e in EL. E. The verse is probably correct as it stands. IN THE INSTANT, 'on the instant,' is an EL. phrase meaning *at this moment'; cp.
N. E. D, s. V. 3 and " in the in-
ACT I
SCENE V
LADY MACBETH
61-74
O
never,
stant came The fiery Tibalt" Rom.&Jul.I. I.II5. SF60The rhythm of Lady Macbeth's words, "Arid when goes hence?" aptly reflects the gravity of her question.
Shall sunne that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a booke where men
May reade strange matters. To beguile the
time, Looke like the time; beare welcome in your
Your hand, your tongue: looke like th' inno- cent flower.
But be the serpent under 't. He that's com- ming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great businesse into my dispatch.
Which shall to all our nights and dayes to come
Give solely soveraigne sway and masterdome.
MACBETH We will speake further.
LADY MACBETH
Onely looke up cleare; To alter favor ever is to feare: Leave all the rest to me.
EXEUNT
hoodwinke." The editors of FO. I seem to have misunderstood the word BEGUILE, and punctuate with comma after MATTERS and period after TIME. SF 65 THE TIME here means 'the moment,' and re- fers to the welcoming of Duncan, cp. "it spoyles the pleasure of the time," i.e. the feast, III. 4. 98. Shakspere is fond of thus varying the significance of a word by its context. SF 66 TH' INNOCENT places stress on the second syllable of the word ; but "the inn'cent," a usual EL. contraction (cp. II. 2. 36), makes equally good rhythm. The sense of the word seems to be 'innocuous,' 'harmless.' The earliest quotation in N.E.D. 5 for this meaning is dated 1662, but in Baret's Alvearie "innocent " is glossed ^^innocuuSy^'' and "inno- cently," ^^innoxie^^ ; so likewise in Phr. Gen. SF 68 Lady Macbeth's PROVIDED FOR sug- gests a grim irony. SF69 DISPATCH is 'management,' cp. N.E.D. 5 b. SF 72 SPEAKE, 'confer,' cp. "Have you spoke" All'sW. V.3.28. CLEARE is an adverb meaning 'frankly,' cp. N.E.D. 'clearly,' 7. In M.E. and O. E. the usual adverb suffix was -e : when this was lost in late M.E. (l.M.E.) and e. N.E. monosyllabic adverbs and adjectives became iden-
41
SF63 Macbeth's appalling realization of the significance of "O never shall sun that morrow see"— MORROWalso means 'morning' in EL. E. — is reflected in Lady Macbeth's words. SF 64 STRANG E,'un. usual'; cp. "Looke like the time" V. 65. MATTERS, 'subject matter,' cp. "I read in 's looks Matter against me" Hen.8 1. 1. I25,and"Was ever booke containing such vile matter So fairely bound ? " [i.e. as Romeo's beauty] Rom.&Jul. III. 2. 83. BE- GUILE THE TIME, 'deceive the world' ; EL. E. frequently uses THE TIME in the sense of ' men and things about one,' 'the world,' 'the times'; cp. "he did serve the time cun- ningly, omnium horarum ho- minem se agebat^^ Phr. Gen. s.u. 'time.' The word occurs again in this sense in I. 7.81, "Mock the time," and in IV. 3.72, "the time you may so
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
tical in form. SF73 FAVOR is EL. E. for 'face,' 'countenance/ cp. N. E. D. 9 b. TO FEARE seems to mean 'to give cause for alarm/ cp. N.B. D. I (though not illustrated in this intransitive sense).
SCENE VI: BEFORE MACBETH'S CASTLE
HOBOYES AND TORCHES
ENTER KING MALCOLME DONALBAINE BANQUO LENOX
MACDUFF ROSSE ANGUS AND ATTENDANTS
I-IO KING
HIS castle hath a pleasant seat;
the ay re Nimbly and sweetly recommends
it selfe Unto our gentle sences.
Duncan arrives in the even- ing,hencetheTORCHESofthe stage direction, cp. I. 7. 25. HOBOYES is the English spelling of 'hautboy': the word was used in EL.E. for the player of the oboe as well as for the instrument itself. So TORCH in EL. scene di- rections is usually the ' bearer of a torch' or * link-boy.' SF I SEAT,'site'; cp. Jonson, 'Poetaster' ILI, "You are most delicately seated here . . an excellent ayre"; Burton, ' Anat. of Mel.' Lii. 2. 5/* How can they be excused that have a delicious seat, a pleasant air and all that nature can af- ford..?" AYRE is somewhat generally used in EL. E. for 'climate.' In FO. I THE AYRE is part of v. 2. *1F 3 It is not necessary to suppose that G ENTLE is proleptically used
for 'our senses made gentle by the air,' as it is usually understood; Duncan merely says that his senses, gentled and tamed by age (cp. N.E.D. 8), ill endure a rough climate. This suggestion of the peace and quietness of his mind is tragically contrasted with L5.40 ff. It is well borne out, too, by the easy-flowing rhythm of the passage, with its freedom from reversals and its lack of tensely stressed syllables. The notion of the even- ing quiet is added to by the suggestion of the swallows which flit in and out the eaves, with a further suggestion of the holy time in the epithet "temple-haunting." It is the flitting martin, summer's guest, not the boding raven, that welcomes Duncan. *ff 4 MARLET — the "Barlet" of FO. I is obviously a misprint — is an EL. form of 'martlet' (O.FR./ner/effe), cp. Skinner, "marlet quasi martlet"; it is used for 'swift' or 'swallow.' Minsheu says "they are called Martlets or Martens, because they come unto us about the end of March and goe away before s. Marten's day, that is about the twelfth of No- vember, by reason of cold"; the same fanciful etymology is found in Junius's Etymo-
42
BANQUO
This guest of summer^ The temple-haunting marlet, does approve By his lov'dmansionryth at th* heaven's breath Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, Buttrice, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird Hath made his pendant bed and procreant
cradle; Where they most breed and haunt, I have
observ'd The ayre is delicate.
ENTER LADY MACBETH
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
logicon — and repeated, alas, in modern dictionaries: hence Shakspere's GUEST OF SUMMER. APPROVE is 'prove," show,' cp. N.E.D. I. SF 5 LOV'D is an instance of the suffix -ed (which, Hke the past participle ending, was often syncopated) in its EL. sense of 'full of,' 'characterized by,' and the word is an adjective and corresponds to MN.E. 'loving/ not ' loved.' The FO. reads " mansonry," for which Pope conjectured " masonry " and Theo- bald MANSIONRY. Either word makes fitting sense. 'Masonry' in EL. E. connotes the art of putting together rubble or brick with plaster as well as that of hewing and placing stones; cp. Cooper, ^^ccementarius, a dauber, a parzetter, a rough mason": in Minsheu and Skinner mason is glossed ^^ccementarius^^ ; so also in Baret's Alvearie. The work of the martin could therefore be called "masonry" ; cp. "the artificiall [i.e. skilful] nest-com- posing swallow" Robert Chester's Love's Martyr, 1 60 1 (ed. Grosart), p. 122. On the other hand, mansionarium in Media2val Latin (cp. Du Cange s.v.) denotes the residence of a canon in a cathedral: and the O. FR. and M.E. form of this word would have been mansionrie] though the word is not found in O.FR. Shakspere may have known it, nevertheless, and most beautifully used it here; cp. "temple-haunting": / and fi were single types in EL. typography, and, like f and fi or //, are easily confused in printing. But MANSIONRY may simply mean 'house-building.' SF 6 SMELLS seems in EL. E. to have meant 'breathes upon,' cp. Florio, ^^ oreggiarej to breathe, to blow as aire or winde, to sent, or smell pleasantly"; cp., too, "The ayre breathes upon us here most sweetly" Temp. IL 1.46. WOOINGLY : in EL. present participles of verbs ending in a long vowel, like 'doing,* 'being,' etc., the suffix is frequently taken with the preceding vowel to make a single syl- lable. JUTTY: cp. Cotgravc,
SCENE VI
ACT I
10-20
KING See, see, our honor'd hostesse! The love that followes us sometime is our
trouble, Which still we thanke as love. Herein I teach
you Howyou shall bid God-eyld us for your paines, And thanke us for your trouble.
LADY MACBETH
All our service In every point twice done, and then done
double, Were poore and single businesse to con- tend Against those honors deepe and broad where- with Your majestie loades our house: for those
of old, And the late dignities heap'd up to them, We rest your ermites.
43
^^ soupendue . . juttie, or part of a building that juttieth be- yond or leaneth overthe rest." <ff9 FO. I reads "must" for MOST ("most" is a M.E. form of " must "), with comma after CRADLE and colon after HAUNT. HAUNT, 'resort habitually,' cp.N.E.D. 7. SF 10 DELICATE, 'pleasant,' 'de- lightful,' cp. N.E.D. I a.
<ffll THAT FOLLOWES US, i.e. is the concomitant of king- ship ; cp. "the libertic that followes our places" Hen. 5 V. 2.297. SOMETIME is a common EL. E.form of 'some- times.' SF 12 STILL, 'always.' AS, 'as being,' 'because it is,' cp. "as his host" i.e. in that I am his host, I. 7. 14. The mo- mentary change to " I " gives Duncan's words a personal turn. TEACH has here its EL. sense of 'teaching by exam- ple,'cp. I. 7. 8. SF 13 SHALL BID GOD-EYLD US, 'shall pray God reward us,' with BID in its e. N. E. sense of 'ask,' 'pray,' and GOD-EYLD an
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
EL. phrase, like MN.E. 'good-bye/ composed of *God' and *yeld,' i.e. reward; cp. N.E.D. 'God/ 8, and A.Y.L. III. 3. 76. SF I6 SINGLE in EL.E. often means 'trivial/ 'trifling/ cp. "He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice" Fletcher, 'Queen of Corinth' III. I (Cent. Diet.), and Jonson, 'Every Man out of his Humour' II. 3: *^Mit. But he might have altered the shape of his argument and explicated 'hem better in single scenes. Cor. That had been single indeed." BUSINESSE has probably its EL. significa- tion of 'care,' 'attention,' cp. N.E.D. 6; it seems to be the notion of loving attention to Duncan's comfort that Lady Macbeth has in mind. SF 17 DEEPE, 'weighty,' 'important/ cp. 1.4. 7 and N.E.D. 7 b. SF 18 MAJESTIE is prosodically equivalent to a dissyllabic here, as it is in III. 4. 2. The verse division of FO. I is Against . . broad. Wherewith . . house. For . . dignities, Heap'd . . ermites. OF OLD is an EL. phrase meaning 'formerly' ; cp. "even for that our love of old" Caes. V.5.27, and Phr. Gen., "He was my tutor of old, olim mihi poedagogus erat^ *JF 19 TO, 'in addition to,' cp. 1.2. 10. *JF 20 REST, 'remain,' cp. I Hen. 6 V.5.95. ERMITES is the EL. spelling of 'hermits,' and the word is here used in the sense of ' beadsmen,' N. E. D. 2 c. Steevens cites a similar passage from ' Arden of Fcversham' III. 6. 120: " God save your honour ; lam your bedesman boundtoprayforyou." Lady Macbeth's compliment
ACT I SCENE VI 20-28
has reference to Duncan's 'You shall pray God's bless- ing on my head,' v. 13; she replies, 'we will spend our lives praying for you.' The difference between the easy flow of Duncan's words and the tortuous rhythm of Lady Macbeth's is worth noting.
SF2I COURST,'chased,"pur- sued.' AT THE HEELES, cp. "follow him at foote" Ham. IV.3.56. SF22TOBE is EL. syntax for 'of being.' A PURVEYOR— "cater"isan EL. synonym of the word — was, according to Cowel's Law Dictionary (ed. 1684), "an officer of the King or Queen, or other great per- sonage, that providith corn and other victual for their house." Duncan in v. 24 applies it to the preparation of a loving reception for Mac- beth. The word is stressed on the first and third syllables, cp. EL. E. 'pursue,' "In all their drifts and councells pursue profit," Jonson, 'Sejanus' III. 2. SF23 HOLP is the M.E. strong form of the verb — it is still used in the Au- thorized Version — which the weak form 'helped' had not yet supplanted in e.N.E. Both forms occur in Shakspere, cp. Schmidt s.v. *1F 24 For TO HIS "to 's" was proba- bly intended by Shakspere. In the Epilogue to Jonson's Poetaster we have "t' him- self" ; in Drayton's Barrons Warres 11.46. 7, "T' an open smile convert"; so"t'our" III. 28.6 and "unt' her/' Sidney, 'Arcadia/ ed. 1590, 243 b. SF26 The first THEIRS is EL.E. for 'their family and retinue'; cp. "points at them for his" IV. 1. 124, and "I can-
44
KING Where's the Thane of Cawdor?
We courst him at the heeles, and had a pur- pose
To be his purveyor: but he rides well,
And his great love, sharpe as his spurre, hath holp him
To his home before us. Faire and noble hostesse,
We are your guest to night.
LADY MACBETH
Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs,
in compt, To make their audit at your highnesse plea- sure, Still to returne your owne.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
not perswadc myself that you will either forget or neglect this point concerning the insti- tution of yours" Florio's Montaigne, 1.25 ; the second THEIRS has its MN. sense of 'their property.' HAVE . . IN COMPT (an EL. form of 'account/ cp. N. E. D. s.v.) seems to mean 'to hold subject to account.' SF 27 HIGHNESSE is an instance of the e. N.E. inflec-
tionlessgenitiveasin 1.4.6,23. AnT 1 Q.nU\]U \r^ 00 ot ^'^^ still has here its el.
^^ A 1 ^UUlNn VI i«-31 sense of 'always,' 'in order
always to return to you what KING is yours.'
Give me your hand;
^ J ^ ^ • 1_ * 1 u- U-^Ul *ff29 HIGHLY,'earnestly,'cp.
Conductmeto mine host: we love him highly, j ^ 21. <if30 There is proba- And shall continue our graces towards him. bly intended a union of the By your leave, hostesse. [^f, f^^^^^ °^ continue
J J ' (it had not yet become la, but
EXEUNT was still u in EL.E.) and the first syllable of OUR. FO. I has a comma before 'our.' SF3I BYYOUR LEAVE in Merry W.III.2.28and Merch. II. 4. 15 is a ceremonious expression of farewell: but here it seems to mean 'Permit me, madam' and to refer to some action, like his kissing Lady Macbeth's hand, or his preceding or following her through the door.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE VII
Macbeth's welcome of Duncan is left to the imagination. The banquet with which he entertains his royal guest is likewise unrepresented. Macbeth, unable longer to endure the strain, has escaped from the banqueting-room. The court ringing with his praises has made him for the first time realize what the court really is. Not only the king must be murdered, but the suspicions of Rosse, Donalbainc, Macduff, and the rest must be allayed ; Malcolm's legitimate claims must be 'o'erleaped' ; Banquo's hopes, based on the witches' prediction, must be nipped in the bud. He thus sees his deed stretch away in its long train of bloody consequences and murderous practice, with possibly himself the victim at the last. Then the thought of the king's gracious meekness — the pity of being forced to sacrifice such an innocent victim on the altar of his ambition — no, it cannot be done. Here Lady Macbeth enters to prick the sides of his intent with taunts of cowardice, and threatens him with the loss of her love and respect on account of his unmanly weakness and faithless vacillation. As each taunt goes home through the weak spots of Macbeth's armour, she seizes her advantage. Her plot comes from the"Historie of Scotland" (Bos- well-Stone, p.27) where Holinshed describes the murder of Duff by Donwald and his wife. The scene is a wonderful illustration of Shakspere's dramatic power: its words teem with interest ; every line is crowded with pictures, association succeeding associa- tion in rapid panorama. Some of them are startlingly new : the kingdom of Scotland has been ringing with Macbeth's praises, v. 32 ; Macbeth is a lover as well as a husband, v. 39 ; the thought of a violent seizure upon the crown is not for the first time entering Macbeth's mind, v. 5I ; Lady Macbeth has known the joys of motherhood, v. 54. All of these unite and blend like varying chords in music. The scene opens with the banquet well under way : music in the outer room, servants passing formally into the hall with a new course. The SEWER in EL. households was the chief butler, cp. "Clap me a cleane towell about you, like a sewer ; and bare-headed march afore it [i.e. the dinner] with good confidence" J onson, 'Silent Woman' III. 3 (cited in part by Steevens), and "the gentleman sewer that goeth before the meat to his lord or master's table, vide maestre sala^^ Percivale's Spanish Dictionary, 1623- SERVICE means *a course,' cp. Ham. IV. 3. 25.
45
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SCENE VII: THE COURT OF MACBETH'S CASTLE
HOBOYES TORCHES
ENTER A SEWER AND DIVERS SERVANTS WITH DISHES AND
SERVICE OVER THE STAGE: THEN ENTER MACBETH
I-I2 MACBETH
F it were done when 't is done,
then 't wer well It were done quickly: if th' assas- sination Could trammell up the conse- quence, and catch With his surcease successe ; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all heere. But heere, upon this banke andschoole of time, Wee 'Id jumpe the life to come. But in these
cases We still have judgement heere, that we but
teach Bloody instructions, which being taught, re-
turne To plague th' inventer. This even-handed
justice Commends th' ingredience of our poyson'd challice
Hee 's heere in double
<ff I The first DONE here, as in 1. 1, 3r corresponds to MN.E. 'over' (cp. N. E. D. 'do,' 8; but in this instance its quota- tions are not sharply discrimi- nated). InM.E.ande.N.E.the word is used of things running a course as well as of things brought about by a definite agency. The second DONE refers to the accomplishment of the act of murder; DONE in V. 2 refers to the execution of the act. The stress "'t is done" seems awkward in MN.E., but cp. "must do" I. 5.24. SF3 TRAMMELL UP, 'net up'; cp. Cotgrave, "fra- meau, a kind of drag-net or draw-net for fish," '■'■tramail- ler, to weave, bind, fasten or insnare by threfold meshes," ^^trameller, to trammel for larkes." CONSEQUENCE, 'sequel,' 'all that follows'; cp. N.E.D.2 and "My mind misgives Some consequence . . shall bitterly begin his fearefull date with this night's revels" Rom.&Jul. L 4. 106. CATCH carries out the meta- phor of a net. SF 4 H I S is the EL. possessive case of ' it,' and refers to " consequence " ; cp. thequotationfrom Rom.&Jul. above. SURCEASE,' cessation,' cp." no pulse Shall keepe his native [i.e. natural] progresse, but surcease" Rom.&Jul. IV. 1. 96, and Baret, 'Alvearie,' "to surcease, or to cease from doing something, super sedeo.'''' THAT, as in L3. 113, re- peats the connective 'if.' BUT THIS BLOW, 'only this blow,' 'this one blow.' SF 5 BE-ALL and ENt)-ALL are instances of a form of noun composition common in EL. E., like "mar-all," "spend-all," "do-all." *]F 6 BUT, 'only.' The BANKE AND SCHOOLE of FO. I has given much difficulty to editors, some of whom take it for 'bench and school' ; others, following Theobald, assuming a misprint in SCHOOLE for 'shoal,' read 'bank and shoal': but the latter assumption is unnecessary, as EL. sh is sometimes spelled sch] we have retained one of those scA-forms in 'schedule' ; in Purchas, ' Pilgrimage,' 2d ed., vol. V, p. 109, "shoole-master" occurs, illustrating the opposite confusion. The e.N.E. spell- ing of school (of fishes) is "shole." But the oo ( = u) in "schoole" would not represent
46
To our owne trust:
li
IDS.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
the EL. E. 0 in *' shoal," whose EL. forms are "shole," "shoale," "shoul." BANKE can be either 'bench' or 'shoal'; cp. Cotgrave, "6anc, a bench, banke, forme, seat . .; also a long shole, shelfe, or sandie hill in the sea against which the waves doe break." Th(2 as- sociation of 'teaching' that follows, "teach Bloody instructions," supports the literal reading, and " this banke and schoole of time " might be an EL. E. hendiadys for ' this bench of time's school,' a notion found in Lucr. 995 (cited by Nichols), "Time thou art tutor both to good and bad." The notion of time as the shore of eternity is undoubtedly poetic and Shaksperian withal; and BANKE in EL. E. also means 'beach,' cp. Baret, 'Alvcarie,' "the banke, properly of the sea and sometimes of any great river," and "I was the other day talking on the sea-banke with certaine Venetians" Oth.IV. 1. 137. For the whole no- tion cp. "The tyde of pompe That beates upon the high shore of this world" Hen. 5 IV. I. 281, and "The varrying shore o'th' world" Ant.&Cl. IV. 15- 1 1. It is, and always will be, impossible definitely to decide between the two readings ; the reader must make his own choice. SF 7 J UMPE,' risk," hazard' ; cp. "you must . .jump the after-enquiry on your owne perill" Cym. V.4. 188, and "Our fortune lyes Upon this jumpe" Ant.&Cl. III. 8. 6, and "it putteth the patient to a jumpe or great hazzard" (cited from Holland's Pliny in N.E.D, 6b). SF8 STILL, 'always.' HAVE JUDGEMENT, i.e. 'receive sentence,' cp. "He con- fessed the inditement and had judgment to bee hanged" Halle, 'Chronicle' 244 b. THAT has here its common EL. meaning of 'because,' and TEACH connotes 'teaching by ex- ample' as in 1.6. 12, with INSTRUCTION, v. 9, in the sense of 'methods'; cp. "The villanie you teach me I will execute, and it shall goe hard but I will better the instruction"
Merch. III. 1.74 ff. SF 10 IN-
ACT I
SCENE VII
13-25
VENTER, 'contriver,' as in "purposes mistooke,Falne on the inventors' heads" Ham. V.2.395. SFII COMMENDS, not 'recommends,' but 'of- fers,' 'presents'; cp. "to her white hand see thou do com- mend This seal'd-up coun- saile" L.L. L. III. I. 169, in N.E.D. la. INGREDIENCEis an EL. E. spelling of 'ingre- dients,' and means 'mixture' N.E.D. I a.
SF13 AS, 'because I am,' cp. 1.6. 12; Macbeth was Dun- can's cousin, see 1.2. 24. *1F 1 7 FACULTIES, 'authority,' is an EL. E. legal term glossed in Cowel's Law Dictionary "a priviledge, or special power granted unto a man byfavour, indulgence, and dispensation, to do that which by the com- mon-law he cannot do." It is here applied to the prerogative of the king, who is supra legem and habet omnia jura in manu sua. CI. Pr. cites Hen. 8 1.2.73. MEEKE is an instance of the EL.adverb without the -ly suffix. SF 18 CLEERE, 'faultless,' N.E.D. 15; cp. "least my life be cropt to keep you clear" Per. 1. 1. 141. *1F 19 AGAINST, according to the punctuation of FO. I, goes with trumpet-tongued and means 'in view of.' SF20 TAKING OFF, 'death,' cp. III. 1. 105 and "His speedy taking off " Lear V. 1.65
47
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed ; then,ashishost, Who should against his murtherer shut the
doore. Not beare the knife my selfe. Besides, this
Duncane Hath borne his faculties so meeke, hath bin So cleere in his great office, that his vertues Will pleade like angels, trumpet-tongu'd
against The deepe damnation of his taking off: And pitty, like a naked new-borne-babe. Striding the blast,orheaven'scherubinhors'd Upon the sightlesse curriors of the ayre, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye. That teares shall drowne the winde.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
(cited by Delius). SF2I A similar association occurs in Ham. III. 3-70 : "heart with strings of Steele, Be soft as sinewes of the new-borne babe." In the three passages where the murder is realized by the imagination, 1. 5. 4 1 ff., here, and 1.7.55 ff., its horror is heightened by association with the innocence of childhood. Such associations are implied also in II. 2. 13 and II. 2. 54. SF22 STRIDING, 'mounted on'; cp. ^^ strideth, straddleth" Co- menius, *Janua'944; Coles, '■'■ divaricoj to stride or straddle"*, and " I meane to stride your steed" Cor. 1.9- 71. CHERUBIN seems to be intendedfor a plural ; see N.E. D. s.vAor an interesting account of the
'^^flTJ^LEssEXTst ACT I SCENE VII 25-30
ble,' as in 1.5-50 g.u. CUR- , ,
RiORS is the EL. spelling of i have no spurre
'couriers.' SF 24 BLOw,etc., To pricke the sides of my intent, but onely
'proclaim [N. E. D. 13] the \t V. , i ... \^- \^ 1 •* U
deed in the sight of every ine'; Vaulting ambition, which ore-leapes It selfe cp.N.E.D.'eye'4candHam. And falles on th' Other
IV. 4. 6. SF25Cp. "Where ENTER LADY MACBETH
are my tcares r Kame to lay ., - ,„., .^
this winde, or my heart will be H OW nOW .'' W bat newes .'' blowne up by the root!"
Tro.&Cr. rv.4.55. LADY MACBETH
He has almost supt: why have you left the
<IF26 INTENT is a stronger U I. !>
wordin M.E.andEL.E.than cnamDerr
in MN.E., cp. "That nys no- MACBETH
thyng the entent of myn la- pjath he ask'd for me? bour Chaucer, 'Legend ot
Goode Women' Prol. 78, and LADY MACBETH
" He thought by their mcanes .^ l i_ ^
the soner to come to his en- ^ KnOW yOU not he haS.-*
tent" Berners, ' Froissart ' I.
cxl, 1 67 (cited from N. E. D. 6). *JF 27, 28 The meaning here has been the subject of consid- erable controversy, and various emendations have been needlessly proposed. To "ORE- LEAPE oneselfe," like "over-shoot ones selfe," "over-study ones selfe," is an idiomatic locution in EL. E. '■, cp. "he that in this action contrives against his owne nobility in his proper streame ore-flowes himselfe " AU'sW. IV. 3- 28 ; we still have * over reach one's self ' with ' over ' connoting too violent action for the end in view. The fact that the anacoluthon in v. 28 is followed by a period in FO. I is not very significant, for the printer of the Folio punctuates such anacolutha variously, probably because he did not always understand them : e.^. in III. I. 128 he uses a double hyphen, in IV. 1.69 a period, in V.3- 13 a single short dash. In Lear 1.4.356 we have in FO. I, "If she sustaine him, and his hundred knights When I have shew'd th' unfitnesse. Enter Steward How now Oswald?" Such expedients as "it selle" [z.e. its saddle], "it sete"for IT SELFE, or that of supplying "side" or "one" after OTHER — a German has solved the problem by reading "author" for OTHER (the pro- nunciation of the two words was similar in EL. E.), and an English editor would read "earth" for OTHER ! — are good illustrations of the torture which Shakspere's text has undergone at the hands of modern editors. Macbeth's sentence would probably have been completed by "side" if Lady Macbeth had not entered. His figure is taken from a com- mon EL. athletic sport, cp. "a vaulter that leapeth up and downe from a horse, c/esu/for" Baret, 'Alvearie'; Cooper, '■'■ desultores^ horsemen that in battaile had two horses, and quickly would change horses, and Icape from one to an other," '■'■ desulturuy vaulting from one horse to another." It is possible that OTHER means the other horse. Strutt, ' Sports and Pastimes of the People of England' ed. 1898, p. 318, writes: "William Stokes,
48
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
a vaulting-master of the seventeenth century, boasted, in a publication called 'The Vaulting Master,' &c., printed at Oxford in 1652, that he had reduced * vaulting to a method.' In his book are several plates containing different specimens of his practice, which con- sisted chiefly in leaping over
ACT I SCENE VII
one or more horses, or upon them, sometimes seating him- self in the saddle, and some- times standing upon the same." SF 30 ASK'D FOR (sentence stress on FOR), 'in- quired about,' 'missed'; cp. " if he aske for me I am ill and gone to bed" Lear III. 3. 17.
SF32 BOUGHT, 'obtained,' cp. "his silver hairs will pur- chase us a good opinion. And buy mens voyses [i.e. votes] to commend our deeds " Caas. II. I. 144. SF33 SORTS, 'classes,' the usual EL. E. meaning; cp. "of all sorts cn- chantingly beloved" A.Y.L. 1. 1. 174. SF 34 The auxiliaries "will" and "shall" were not sharply distinguished for per- son as in MN. E. literary idi- om, and WOULD here means 'ought to be.' SF35 Cp. "O where hath our intelligence bin drunke? Where hath it slept?" John IV. 2. Il6 (cited by Malonc). HOPE in EL. E. means 'confidence,' a mean- ing still retained in Bible English ; cp. N. E. D. 2. SF 36 Perhaps enough of the origi- nal meaning of DRESS was preserved in Shakspere'stime to warrant our supposing that Lady Macbeth had in mind the notion of 'addressing one's self to a task' as well as 'arraying one's self ; cp. Phr. Gen., "to dress one's self . . com- parare se." SF 37 G REENE, ' sickly' — a sense the word still bears in MN. E. — and PALE are EL. adverbs. *ff 38 DID repeats the verb "look on," a use of the auxiliary which was more common in EL. E. than it is now. Not understanding this, one Shakspere editor reads "eyed," assuming that the word was first corrupted to "dyed" and then to "did" ! SF 39 Lady Macbeth's SUCH was probably accompanied by a gesture like snapping the fingers. AFFEAR'D, cp. note to 1.3-96. SF40 Such contrasts as this were common in EL. litera- ture, cp. e.g. "Wise in conceit, in Act a very sot" Drayton, 'Idea' 860, and echo the medieeval distinction between "life active" and "life contemplative." SF 42 ORNAMENT OF LIFE, i.e. honour, cp. "Yet know I not whether in all his life he shewed . . an ornament [i.e. honorable act] so .. famous" Florio's Montaigne, 1,23- SF45 The proverb referred to is common in e. N.E., cp. Heywood, 'Three Hundred Epigrammes,' ed. 1562, No. 258 (Sp. Soc. reprint, p. 1 66)," The cat woulde eate fyshe but she wyll not weate her feete,"and Ray's
49
31-43
MACBETH We will proceed no further in this businesse : He hath honoured me of late, and I have
bought Golden Opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worne now in their newest
glosse, Not cast aside so soone.
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunke Wherein you drest your selfe? Hath it slept
since? And wakes it now to looke so greene and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou affear'd To be the same in thine owne act and valour As thou art in desire? Would'st thou have
that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine owne esteeme? Letting M dare not' wait upon 'I would,' Like the poore cat i' th' addage?
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETF
ACT I
SCENE VII
45-59
Proverbs, p. 84, *' Fain would the cat fish eat, But she's loth her feet to wet."
SF47 For DO, Rowe's correc- tion, FO. I reads **no," which seems to be a misprint ; n was immediately under d in the EL. type-case. Lady Mac- beth's reply shows that NONE is equivalent to * not one,' with *one' referring to 'man'; cp. "I am none of those that thynke," etc., Florio's Mon- taigne, I. 25 (Temple reprint of I632ed., p. 254),and**Our Lord Jesus Christ regarded not what manner of ones men are"Golding's Translation of Calvin, Galatians, 1574, p. 206. A similar notion isfound in Meas. II. 4. 135 (cited by Steevens), *' Be that you are, That is a woman ; if you be more, you 'r none." BEAST frequently in EL. E. connotes the notion 'not man,'cp. ** Un- seemely woman in a seeming man, And ill beseeming beast in seeming both" Rom.&Jul. III. 3. 112 (see ibid. v. Ill), and"for,the philosopherssay, amongst all other thinges be- ware of those persons thatfol- lowc drunkennes, for they be accomptedfor nomenbecause they live a life bestiall " Vicary, *Anatomie,' 1577, E.E.T.S., p. 15. In EL. E. the word connotes the stupidity and cowardice of a beast as negatives of manly character as well as coarseness and vulgarity; sec quotations in N.E.D. under * beast' 5. The point of Lady Macbeth's taunt here is its implication of unmanly cowardice. SF48 BREAKS is EL.E. for 'disclose,' cp. ''therefore . . Katherine, breake thy minde to me in broken English" Hen. 5 V.2.265. SF 50 In EL.E. the infinitive often corresponds to the M N. E. participial phrase, e.g. " Thou gainest faire to lose thyselfe " Purchas, ' Pilgrimage ' V, p. 27, and "O why should Fortune make thecitty prowdTo give that more than isthecourt allow'd" Drayton, 'Heroical Epistles' p. 69. Lady Macbeth says 'by being more [i.e. stronger] now than you were then, you would be so much more the man.' In attempting to make MN.E. sense out of the passage, editors have changed BEAST in v. 47 to "boast," Collier, to "baseness," Bailey, and THE in v. 51 to "than," Hanmcr. SF52 ADHERE, 'suit,' 'agree,' * be fitting,' N.E.D. 4. Shakspere uses the word in the sense of 'agree' in Merry Wives II. 1.62 ; a similar notion with "cohere" occurs in " Had time cohear'd with place or place with wishing" Meas. II. 1. 1 1. SF53 THAT THEIR FITNESSE, 'their very fitness.' SF54 UNMAKE: Cooper glosses (ii//in^o by "To marre : to unmake"; Coles, by
50
MACBETH
Prythee peace: I dare do all that may become a man, Who dares do more is none.
LADY MACBETH
What beast was 't then That made you breake this enterprize to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man : And to be more then what you were, you would Be so much more the man. Nor time nor
place Did then adhere, and yet you would make
both: They have made themselves, and that their
fitnesse now Does unmake you. I have given sucke, and
know How tender 't is to love the babe that milkes
me: I would, while it was smyling in my face, Have pluckt my nipple from his bonelesse
gummes, And dasht the braines out, had I so sworne As you have done to this.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
"unmake, mar, undo." SF 55 TENDER, 'exciting to commiseration,' cp. "tender objects," Tro.&Cr. IV.5. 106. SF 58 THE BRAINES corresponds to MN. E. 'its brains'; cp. note on 1.2,6. SO SWORN E TO: "to swear to" in EL. E. is *to swear to do'; cp. "you swore to that," i.e. not to see ladies, L. L. L.I. 1.53. The verse has an extra impulse after the pause. It has been urged that vv. 50-52, 58, 59 refer to a scene or scenes that have been cut out of or lost from the play, since the action which they describe is too important to have been overlooked by Shakspere ; sec * Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakespeare Gesellschaft,' I. I45ff. But this is not likely: we have already seen that in 1.3. 130, where the notion of Duncan's murder is first presented, it is not in the light of a new and unexpected temptation, if Shakspere's words are clearly understood in their EL. signification. We have seen, too, how Shakspere is prone to represent only culminating points of interest ; that successions of time and place are not connected in his work, sometimes not even logical : e.g. in Ham. L I, at the beginning of an apparently continuous dialogue, it is twelve o'clock ; thirty-nine lines later it is one. The imagination is not a logical faculty, and often in Shakspere successions of time and place as in a dream blend into one another to make complete pictures rather than successive series. Here, therefore, there is no real inconsistency : a thought is simply represented in a new light, turning, as it were, a new facet for us to look upon. Indeed, to have represented in action what is here left to
the imagination would have
SCENE VII
ACT I
59-72
MACBETH If we should faile?
interfered with the dramatic interest of the play and have marred its unity, for the mur- der of Duncan is its starting- point, not its end. Shakspere magnifies the awful horror of the deed by continually shift- ing its outlines, else it would find a fixed lodgement in our imaginations and become a vulgar crime. We are never allowed to see its real face : it is a deed of darkness which we see as through a glass darkly.
*ff 59 The Folio punctuation of Lady Macbeth's answer is a question-mark, which mod- ern editors, following Rowe, alter to an exclamation-point. The printer of FO. I makes but sparing use of the ex- clamation-point, setting in its stead sometimes an interro- gation-point, sometimes a period or colon. Most of the former cases, however, are in such phrases as" How now?" v.28or "What hoa?" n.2.9r phrases which in EL. E. were evidently regarded as interrogative — as they really are — and were therefore punctuated with an interrogation-point, though in modern printing they require a mark of exclamation. Both the query-mark and the exclamation-point were originally variations of the semi-
51
LADY MACBETH
We faile? But screw your courage to the sticking place, And wee 'le not fayle. When Duncan is
asleepe, Whereto the rather shall his dayes hard
journey Soundly invite him, his two chamberlaines Will I with wine and wassell so convince, That memorie, the warder of the braine, Shall be a fume, and the receit of reason A lymbeck onely: when in swinish sleepe Their drenched natures lyes as in a death, What cannot you and I performe upon Th' unguarded Duncan ? What not put upon His spungie officers, who shall bearethe guilt Of our great quell?
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
colon and early printers do not sharply distinguish between them. Here, however, it is better to retain the Folio pointing, for WE FAILE seems rather to be a surprised inquiry at the notion of failure than 'the calm deduction of a mind which, having weighed all circumstances, is prepared, without loss of confidence in itself, for the worst that can happen,' as Steevens would have it. It is not the effect of failure on her own mind, but how the possibility of it is affecting Macbeth, that Lady Macbeth is con- cerned about, and in her assured confidence she echoes her husband's words with an ironical rising inflection : she will not contemplate the notion — the thing is too easy for failure, if only Macbeth will not play the '*poor cat in th' addage " — how easy she goes on to show. Moreover, she knows that they dare not fail: **th' attempt and not the deed Confounds us" II. 2. II. It is better, therefore, to take the words as they are printed in FO. I, 'Are you thinking of failure?' with heavy secondary stress on WE, "We faile?" SF60 BUT, if we follow the punctuation of the Folio for "We faile?" is probably used in its adverbial sense of 'only,' and not as an adversative conjunction; cp, v. 6. Steevens thought that the reference in this verse was to the screwing up of a stringed instrument. But there is an incongruity of association between the tuning of a musical instrument and Macbeth's nerving himself to his task — an incongruity that Shakspere would have avoided. It is more likely that Lady Macbeth is thinking of the cross-bow rack or gaffle, a small detachable winch to draw the string of the bow to its STICKING PLACE, the action of which would naturally be connoted by SCREW. There seems to be an echo of this in Macbeth's "bend up" in v. 79. Cp., too, "As [i.e. as if] he had seen 't or beene an instrument To vice you to 't" Wint. T. I.2.4I5 and "Wrench up thy power to th' highest" Cor. 1.8. II (cited by CI. Pr.) and "I partly know the instrument That screwes me from my true place" Tw. N.V. 1. 125 (cited by Steevens). The rhythm "And wee 'le not fayle" reflects the tensity of Lady Macbeth's purpose: if "We faile '^ is a mere declaration, and not an inquiry, the rhythm is difficult to catch, for too much stress thus falls upon NOT. *IF 62 WHERETO, 'to which'; M.E. and EL. E. frequently made use of the adverb where MN.E. prefers the relative phrase. RATHER has here its original sense of 'earlier,' and the instrumental article THE seems to be used as in III. 1.26, 'earlier than usual.' *IF 63 SOUNDLY, 'heartily,' cp. "love me soundly" Hen. 5 V. 2. 105. SF 64 WASSELL, 'carousing,' cp. "Antony, leave thy lascivious wassailes" Ant.&Cl. 1.4.56. CONVINCE, 'overpower,' cp. N.E.D. I and IV. 3-142. SF 65 In mediazval psychology the MEMORIE had its "seat and organ" in "the back part of the brain," fantasy or imagination in the middle "cell," the "Common sense," i.e. sensation, in the fore part, cp. Burton, 'Anat. of Mel.' I.i.2.7. Vicary's division is somewhat dif- ferent: "Common sense" in the fore part; in the one part of this same ventricle is the "vertue that is called Fantasie"; in the other part is the "Imaginative vertue"; "in the middest scl" the "cogitative or estimative vertue; for he rehearseth, sheweth, declareth and deemeth those things that be offered unto him [hence Shakspere's "receit of reason" V.66] by the other"; in the third ventricle "the vertue Memorative." Comenius^ 'Janua' 343r in giving the same psychology adds, "This [i.e. the fore part] in sleep time is stopped up by moist steams : hence cometh insensibleness." But it is not clear why Shakspere calls memory the WARDER OF THE BRAINE: that would rather be sensation — the "five wittes" are sometimes spoken of in mediazval literature as the "watchmen" in the foremost cell. There is a similar difficulty in L.L.L. IV. 2. 70, where the fancy is referred to as " memoric," but there the confusion may be intentional: it is Holofernes that is speaking. The quotation from Comenius, too, points to the senses as being overpowered by the "fume." SF 66 FUMES were vapours produced in the body and rising to the brain : we still speak of the fumes of alcohol mounting to one's brain. Here memory itself becomes a fume, cp. "The charme dessolves apace . . their rising senses Begin to chace [i.e. drive away] the ignorant [i.e. blinding, keeping in ignorance, cp. note to 1.5-58] fumes that mantle Their clearer reason" Temp. V. 1.64. RECEIT, 'place of receipt,' 'treasury,' still familiar to us from Matt. IX. 9r "the receipt of custom"; cp.jj
52 :j
M
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
too, "The most convenient place that I can thinke of For such receipt of learning is Black-Fryers" Hen.8 II. 2. 139- SF 67 LYMBECK, 'an alembic or still/ cp. N.E.D. 'alem- bic': 'their confused brains shall collect not ideas but fumes.' SF 68 DRENCHED, 'sub- merged/ 'drowned,' cp. N.E.D. 6 and "till you have drench'd our steeples" Lear III. 2. 3. NATURE frequently in EL.E. stands for 'life,' 'vitality,' cp. II. 2. 7. A DEATH does not mean 'a kind of death,' but is an instance of the common EL. use of the indefinite article before abstract nouns where in MN.E. it is omitted; cp. "I require a clearenesse" III. I. I33r "the waight of present miserie pressing him, the dread of a death, and a death attending him" Purchas, 'Pilgrimage' V, p. 33t and "but with a crossebowe sent a death to the poore beast" Sidney, 'Arcadia' p. 40. SF 70 PUT UPON, 'accuse of,' cp. "put on him what forgeries you please" Ham. II.I.I9. SF72 QUELL, 'mur- der,' usually a verb in EL.E.;
SCENE VII
ACT I
72-82
cp. Florio, ^*mazzare, to kill, to slay, to quell," and "syth I did father quell" New- ton, 'Thebais' (Sp. Soc, p. 94); in Comenius, 'Janua' 669, " manslayers" is glossed "manquellers, assassinats." The word seems to be slightly euphemistic, like Macbeth's "taking off" in v. 20.
*1F72 Macbeth's amazement at his wife's courage is admir- ably reflected in the rhythm, contrasting as it does with the rapidly moving verses which precede. SF73 UN- DAUNTED is another of those EL. adjectives in -ed, 'un- dauntable,' 'fearless.' In Upon his death? el. E. mettle and "metal"
^ had not yet been distinguished
by different forms, and the word still retained its mean- ing of ' material,' ' constituent elements'; cp. " I am made of that selfe-same mettle as my sister" Lear I. I. 71. <1F74 RECEIV'D, 'believed'; cp. " It is reported to them for my humour and they re- ceive it so" Ben Jonson, 'Silent Woman' III. I ; cp., too, Meas. 1.3. I6. With a touch of vulgar criminality Mac- beth begins to give active support to Lady Macbeth's plot. SF 77 OTHER is still an adverb in EL. E.,* otherwise.' SF 78 AS, rather 'when' than 'since.' RORE in EL. E. was a more dignified term for loud weeping and sobbing than it is now ; cp. " Did I say before, they began to weep? I can assure you when she had done they roared outright" ' Patient Grissel,' I619, Per. Soc, p. 31 ; cp. Oth. V. 2. I98. SF 79 SETTLED, 'determined'; cp. "No he's setled. Not to come off, in his displeasure" Hen.8 III. 2. 22. The verse has an extra impulse after the pause unless I AM is to be read "I 'm" : the printer of FO. I does not always mark contractions with an apostrophe, e.g. IV. 2. 16, IV.3. 149- SF80 The
53
MACBETH Bring forth men-children onely; For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be received, When we have mark'd with blood those
sleepie two Of his owne chamber, and us'd their very
daggers, That they have don't?
LADY MACBETH
Who dares receive it other, As we shall make our griefes and clamor rore )on his death?
MACBETH
I am settled, and bend up Each corporall agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show; False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
EXEUNT
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
CORPORALL AGENTS are, of course, the ''mortal instruments," the spirits which exe- cute the will of the ego. SF 81, 82 To finish a scene with a couplet, as here, was a common practice with Elizabethan dramatists, cp. e.^. the end of the next scene and of 1 1.3, II. 4, III. 2, IV. 3> etc. The effect of such verses, after the freedom of Shakspere's easy-flowing blank verse, is unfortunately mechanical ; scholars, therefore, forgetting the taste of the time, are prone to consider them spurious. The action closes with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth returning to the banqueting-room.
The first act has presented the murder of Duncan as a "thought," an idea assuming the aspects of a malicious purpose. In the prologue scene it is foreshadowed as a malicious intention of the powers of evil brooding over and controlling, through their witch instru- ments, the action which is to follow. Scene II prepares for its lodgement in Macbeth's mind by creating for him the opportunity of power. Scene III gives the idea a lodgement there by playing on the ambitions of a man naturally superstitious. Scene IV furnishes the opportunity of place for its execution. Scene V reveals it as a malicious design already in the mind of Lady Macbeth, but now ineradicably fixed there by her invocation of the powers of evil. Scene VI brings together the two "thoughts" — Lady Macbeth's and her husband's — and welds them into one consuming ambition that will devastate the soul of each, and drive them both to madness.
The harmonious unity of this first act is often missed because the modern reader is quite unaware of the seriousness and awful reality which demoniacal possession assumed in the Elizabethan mind. To get the full significance of the tragedy one must remember that the reality and malignity of supernatural influences for evil was doubted by few in Shakspere's time. Even Bacon, despite the scientific acuteness of his mind, has this to say about them : " But the sober and grounded enquiry into the nature of angels and spirits which may arise out of the passages of Holy Scriptures, or out of the gradations [i.e. processes] of Nature, is not restrained [i.e. subject to restriction] ; so that of de- generate and revolted spirits ; the conversing with them or the employment of them is prohibited: much more any veneration toward them. [Macduff in V.8. 14 speaks of Macbeth as having continually served the devil.] But the contemplation or science of their nature, their power, their illusions, either by scripture or reason, is a part of spiri- tual! wisdome " 'Advancement of Learning, The Second Booke' (I633)r p- 136.
It is only from such a point of view that one can clearly grasp the magnificent unity of Shakspere's involution. For the tragedy lies in the spiritual significance and fatal consequence of Macbeth's yielding to the powers of evil, not in the action itself. And, like Hamlet, Macbeth is a tragedy of character, not a tragedy of events. Its evolution does not begin until Act III. Act I, therefore, is but the preparatory stage, despite the fact that it is so crowded with cumulating detail, and its theme is the 'thought' of Dun- can's murder, the moving cause of Macbeth's insanity. Shakspere has embodied this theme in Macbeth's words in 1,3.139-142. Act II will have for its theme the act of murder and its immediate consequence.
54
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
THE SECOND ACT
SCENE I: INVERNESS: THE COURT OF MACBETH'S CASTLE ENTER BANQUO AND FLEANCE WITH A TORCH BEFORE HIM
1-9 BANQUO OW goes the night, boy? FLEANCE. Themooneis downe; I have not heard
the clock. BANQUO. And she goes downe at twelve. FLEANCE. I take 't, 't is later, sir.
BANQUO. Hold, take my sword: there's hus- bandry in heaven, Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
EXIT FLEANCE As usual, there is no place direction in FO. I, but from what follows there can be lit- tle doubt that Banquo and Fleancearecrossingthequad- rangle or inner court of the castle on the way to bed ; see the introductory note to
A heavie summons lyes like lead upon me. And yet I would not sleepe : mercif ull powers, Restraine in me the cursed thoughts that
nature Gives way to in repose.
Scene II. The stage direction of modern editions reads "bearing a torch," etc. ; but TORCH in EL. E. frequently means * link-boy,' * torch-bearer,' cp. introductory note to L 7. SF 4 HOLD . . HEAVEN is two verses in FO. I, the first ending at SWORD. The words are addressed to Fleance. That Banquo parts with his sword may be an evidence of "confidence in the in- tegrity of his host" (CI. Pr.), or merely a suggestion to the audience that he intends to retire for the night. HUSBANDRY, * careful management,' N.E. D. 4 b : "If you suspect my hus- bandry . . Call me before th'exactest auditors" Timon II. 2. 164. It is one of those homely associations such as occurs in "blanket of the dark" 1.5.54. SF 5 THEIR is an instance of M.E. and EL. E. syntax by which the third personal pronoun is used indefinitely with ref- erence to an antecedent implied, not expressed. THEE: in EL. E. the personal pronoun is frequently used to denote the person interested in the action ; cp. " Kalander . . never having heard [EL.E. for * heard of '] him his beloved guestes" Sidney, 'Arcadia' p. 324, and "That Blaunche be sent me home again" 'Faire Em' III. 5.46. The construction is fre- quent in an imperative idiom where, according to MN.E. notions of syntax, the reflexive pronoun of the second person takes the place of a subject ; see Schmidt for instances, "stay thee," "hark thee" (cp. dial, "harkee"), "run thee," etc., and Spies, 'zur Geschichte der englischen Pronomens' (Halle, 1897), pp. 152 ff. THAT is probably a reference to his dagger. Fleance goes out here, leaving his father to walk in the courtyard for a while before going to bed. There is no EXIT FLEANCE in FO. I ; but that Fleance does not hear the colloquy between Macbeth and his father is evident from the EXIT BANQUO after v. 30,
55
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
and from the fact that Macbeth would hardly be so rude as to ignore Fleance's presence in saying **good night." It is more likely that the exit has been omitted here than that the EXIT BANQUO after v. 30 is a printer's error for ** Exeunt Banquo and Fleance" ; the omis- sion is rendered still more probable by the fact that v. 5 ends the page in FO. I : thus EXIT FLEANCE would have come in the lower right-hand corner, and to the proof-reader would have looked like a mistaken catchword. In Lear 1.4. 362 (FO. I, p. 289) an *' Exit Oswald" has obviously been lost after v. 362, which ends the page, only the catchword **and" stand- ing in the corner. SF 6 HEAVIE, 'overpowering,' N.E.D, 26; cp. *'the heavy offer of it [i.e. sleep] "Temp. II. I. 194. SF 7 WOULD NOT, 'do not want to.' SF9 GIVES WAY TO means 'gives rein to,' not 'succumbs to'; cp. "gave him way In all his owne desires" Cor. V. 6. 32. In EL. psychology the "Phantasie" was "evermore stirring" (Comenius, 'Janua' 343)- That Banquo's fantasy has been working on the meeting with the weird sis- ters we are explicitly told in v. 20 ; that these fancies are not unaccompanied by tempta- tion we gather from the word "cursed," and at the same time we learn that Banquo has put the temptation behind him. Alone with his son in Macbeth's castle, clearly realizing on what a slender thread the life of the king hangs ; knowing, as he alone does, the secret of Macbeth's ambition ; having noticed, too, in all probability, Macbeth's departure from the hall and his return with Lady Macbeth, and realizing that he has only to give his sup- port to Macbeth's interests to ensure the kingly honour for his son — amid such surround- ings there is little wonder that he should be anxious. His anxiety is reflected in the dia- logue as it is in that of the opening scene of Hamlet — short, tense sentences relating to the time of night. The reader, in thinking of Macbeth's entrance, must remember that " Enter" in EL. stage directions means
merely that the actor noted Ar^'T'TT cr^DMCT r>. i n
begins his part. Macbethand ^^ ^ ^^ bUblNU 1 9-17
his servant are supposed to be unrecognizable in the gloom ENTER MACBETH AND A SERVANT WITH A TORCH
until quite near to Banquo; Give me my sword : who 's there? 9. lo
cp. Ham. 1. 1. 14, where mod- ern editors displace the " En- MACBETH
ter Horatio and Marcellus" : ^ friend. n
in FO. I it comes before Fran- cisco's "Who 's there?" BANQUO
-. ^ „ , What, sir, not yet at rest? the kin^ 's a bed.
*1|- 10 Banquo hears some one ttiii • ni i
approaching, and in his ner- He hath beene m unusuail pleasure, and vousness calls for his sword: Sent forth ^reat largesse to your offices:
either Fleance returns mo- t'i • j- j !_ j- i. -r -xL ii
mentarily to give it to him and ^^'^ diamond he greetes your Wife withall, goes to bed when he discovers By th' name of most kind hostesse; and
that the stranger is their host, shut UD
or Banquo's words are merely , ^ .
a reahzation of his defenceless An measureiesse content.
position. SF13 The verse di- vision of FO. I is He . . pleasure, And . . offices. This . . withall, By . . hostesse, And . . content. PLEASURE, cp. " I am full of pleasure" Temp. III. 2. 125. SF 14 LARGESSE is plural in EL. E., like "richesse,"and means 'gifts.' OFFICES, 'the apartments of domestics,' cp. "empty lodgings and unfurnish'd wallcs, unpeopel'd offices, untroden stones" Rich. 2 1.2.68; it is not a misprint for "officers," as Malone thought. The king intends to leave on the morrow. SFl5 WITHALL, cp. 1.3-57 and note. SF I6 " By the name" of FO. I is probably the printer's error for BY TH' NAME. SHUT UP (FO, 2, FO. 3, FO. 4 "shut it up") used intransitively for going to bed has not yet been found in EL, E. In Marston, 'Antonio and Mellida' V. I. 150, occurs the locution "shut up night": "I was
56
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
mighty strong in thought we should have shut up night with an old comedy." It may be that in EL. E. ** shut up " with a similar connotation was used intransitively, as in " Actions begunne in glory shut up in shame" (cited by Cent. Diet, from Bishop Hall's Contem- plations II. 2, published in I6l2): the change in tense would not be unusual in EL. E., cp. note to 1.2. 15- But it is quite possible that AND SHUT UP, etc., has been misplaced, be- longing after PLEASURE, v. 13 ; see the verse division of the Folio. The fact that the two passages begin with the same word makes this likely. Putting it in as an independent verse after ''pleasure," omitting the "and" before "sent forth," or making it exchange places with "and . . offices," gives us excellent sense. SHUT UP IN will then have its EL. meaning of 'restricted to'; cp. "shut us up in wishes," i.e. confine us to expressions of good will, All's W. I.I.I 97, and " So shall I cloath me in a forc'd content. And shut my
selfe up in [i.e. confine myself Ar^T'TT Qr^HMni 1-7 0/1 to] some other course To For-
ACl 11 bCbNb 1 17-24 tunc'salmes"Oth.III.4.I20.
Such an idea sounds like Dun-
MACBETH can,cp. I.4.2I ; but wearenot
Being unprepared, warranted in makingthealter-
O-n 1 „ -.1 4. 4. J r i ation until we are sure that
ur Will became the servant to detect, u^u * " ■ ci c
' shut up m EL. E. cannot
Which else should free have wrought. mean "retired for the night."
BANQUO ^ SFlSDEFECTinEL.E.means
All 's well. 'faultiness,' cp. N. E. D. 3.
I dreamt last nioht of the three weyward "^ ^'^ f,^^^' likewise, con-
^ '' notes laultlessiy as well as
Sisters: 'unrestrainedly,' cp. 1.3- 155-
To you they have shew'd some truth. wrought is the preterite of
'work,' as in 1.3. 1 49? and here
MACBETH means 'had its due effect';
I thinke not of them: cp. "The better shall my pur-
■v/ . 1 ^ ^ 1 ^ pose worke on him" Oth.
Yet, when we can entreat an houre to serve, [^ 3^7 <jp2i shew'd *dis-
We would spend it in some words upon that closed,' ' told,' cp. "Shew me
businesse, ^^y thought'' Oth.iii.3.116.
,„ '. , tsanquo evidently thmks it
it you would graunt the time. wise for him to be the first to
broach the subject which he knows is uppermost in Macbeth's mind, displaying that "wisdom to act in safety" which Macbeth remarks on in III. 1.53- This terse dialogue, with its thrust and parry, is a fine illustration of Shakspere's power to depict the thought behind the word. EL. E. was an admirable tool for this purpose. The language was then gaining much of its modern ac- curacy and definiteness of connotation, without yet having lost the richness of the M.E. vocabulary. Its virility, too, had not yet been impaired by a literary consciousness begot of grammars and dictionaries, and many direct and forceful idioms which are now become dialectic or vulgar still remained in good literary usage. And wide as was Shakspere's range of expression, we must not forget that it lay within the limits of current Elizabethan idiom. Contemporary critics, though they did not hesitate to say that he borrowed his matter and padded out his verse, never accused him of unintelligibility. I THINKE NOT OF THEM, 'I pay no heed to them,' cp. "not a thought but thinkes on dignitie" 2Hen.6 III. 1.338. The word occurs with the same meaning in III. 1. 132, "alwayes thought That I require a clearenesse," i.e. always bearing in mind, etc. : Macbeth affects indifference, as in 1.3. 119. SF22 ENTREAT, either 'induce,' 'get' (N.E.D. 10 a) with 'to serve' as complementing infinitive, or used in the sense of 'passing the time,' cp. " My lord, we must
57
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
intreat the time alone" Rom.&Jul. IV. 1.40. SF23 WE is taken by CI. Pr. as referringto Mac- beth, who adopts **the royal we by anticipation." But such an explanation is awkward; "consent" below would have been far more likely to occasion such a usage. In view of Macbeth's affected indifference in v. 21 and of his evident desire to entrap Banquo into compromising overtures, it is much more likely that WE is the ordinary plural, and WE WOULD expresses merely futurity as the apodosis of " If you would grant." The rhythm requires the contracted form **we'd"; it is probable that the contraction was over- looked by the printer, as is often the case in EL. texts, e.g, "I would scratch that face" Drayton,* Heroical Epistles,'
Sp.Soc.,p.27I. BUSINESSE ApHT TT CppMC T r,. of)
in the I7th century means ^^ ^ ^^ Oi^HiNH 1 i^-:JU
'topic,' N.E. D. 17, but per- haps here merely 'matter,' as BANQUO
understood by N.E.D. 18. At your kind'st leysure.
<1F24 KIND'ST, cp. note MACBETH
on 1.5.2. SF25 Macbeth's If you shall cleave to my consent, when 't is,
CLEAVE TO MY CONSENT j^ ghall make honor for you.
seems to be equivocal, cp. '^
note to 1.3. 155: he may BANQUO
mean 'if you should concur So I lose none
withmyopinion,'cp.N.E.D.6 i^ seekind to augment it, but still keepe
and Dv mv consent wee le o o ' i
even let them alone" I Hen.6 My bosome franchis'd and allegeance cleare,. L2.44; or 'if you will join I shall be counsail'd.
my party,' N. E. D. 7, inviting
Banquo to enter into con- m/\K^Dain
spiracy with him, but leaving Good repOSe the while 1
himself the loophole of cs- BANOUO
cape if Banquo refuses. He _,, . . i i.i i
intends to learn, too, whether Ihankes, Sir: the like to you !
Banquo'sinterestinthematter EXIT BANQUO
is philosophical or personal.
Many foolish conjectures have been proposed for CONSENT in order to make the phrase into MN.E. WHEN 'T IS, i.e. when the time comes; the line division of the Folio is If . . consent. When . . you. SF26 HONOR, also, is a purposely vague word. It may have, if the words are jestingly taken, its EL. meaning of 'reputation,' 'it will redound to your credit,' cp. "to cause honour or make men much esteeme and reverence one" Baret, 'Alvearie' s.v.j or it may have its meaning of 'rank,' 'position,' as in 1.6. 17, if the words are seriously taken. Banquo, by a platitudinous and non-committal answer, quite evades the issue that Macbeth has raised. NONE, i.e. honor, integrity, or rank. SF27 IT, I.e. reputation, position. STILL, 'always.' SF 28 FRANCHIS'D seems here to refer to moral freedom, but in N.E.D. I b no instance later than 1483 is given for the word with this meaning. Banquo seems to be thinking of the word in association with HONOR in its feudal sense, 'lordship,' and to mean to say that if he is to have honours they must be honours of "free tenure" as far as Macbeth is concerned. He carries the notion further in ALLEGEANCE CLEARE ; cp. Cowel, 1687, s.v. 'ligeancy,' " Ligeancy is such a duty or fealty as no man may owe to more than one Lord, and therefore it is most commonly used for that duty and allegiance which every good subject owes to his Liege Lord the King" : he cites the' Grand Customary of Normandy,' cap. I3r to show that thedutyof loyal vassals to their lord is" eisez'n omnibus innocuos [cp. Shakspere's"cleare"] exhibere, nee ei adversantium partem in aliquo confovere.^^ It has long since been pointed out that Shakspere was not ignorant of the technical forms and verbiage of English
58
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
law, and his representation of Banquo's thought shows marvellous skill in implicating a par- ticular situation in general legal terms. SF 29 TO BE COUNSAIL'D is an EL. phrase mean- ing *to take advice/ cp. "pray be counsail'd," i.e. take my advice, Cor. III. 2.28. Banquo's
words show a wisdom, not
ACT II SCENE I
only to act in safety, but to speak in safety, and Macbeth is little wiser than he was at first : he knows Banquo's ** royalty of nature," but he docs not know how deep Ban- quo's suspicions are. SF 30 Modern editors here read ** Exeunt Banquo and Fle- ance," cp. note to v. 5-
*iF3I BID isusedinitse.N.E. sense of * ask.' The omission of "that" in EL. E. where modern idiom requires its presence is not unusual ; cp. 1.6. 13 and "Obedience bids I shouldnot bidagcn" Rich. 2 I. I. 163. DRINKE, a night drink or posset, like that re- ferred to in II. 2. 6. That it was customary to take them before going tobedisshownby Merry W. 1.4. 8 and V. 5- 180. Cp., too, "Andrew Boorde [commends as a remedy against terrible dreams] a good draught of strong drink before one goes to bed" It is probable that Macbeth intends Banquo to hear these words as he leaves him for the night in order to give him the impression that he is going at once to bed, as well as to afford his servant a natural reason for leaving him alone. *IF36 FATALL in EL.E. means 'prophetic,' N.E.D. 4 b; cp. "fatall bell-man" II. 2. 3 and "fatall raven" Titus 11.3-97; this seems to be its meaning here, cp. vv.42,43. SENSI- BLE, 'perceptible,' cp. Cotgrave, "/?erce/)fi6/e, perceivable, sensible," and Florio, "percef- tibile, perceivable, sensible." SF 39 Macbeth's explanation of the phenomenon is similar to that in Burton, ' Anat. of Mel.' 1.3-3: * As Lord Mercutius proves, by reason of inward vapours and humours from the blood, cholcr, &c., diversely mixed, they apprehend and see outwardly,asthey suppose, divers images which indeed are not. . . Corrupt vapours, mount- ing from the body to the head and distilling again from thence to the eyes,' are the causes of these visions. It is the Aristotelian explanation of hallucinations, *^ Mira vis concitat humoreSf ardorque vehemens mentem exagitat^^ {i.e. a strange energy stirs up the humours and oppressive heat excites the brain) : Macbeth echoes the mediazval phraseology. But Shakspere himself all through the tragedy represents Macbeth's fits as being due to hallucinations put in his brain by "instruments of darkness," quite the view Burton takes in ' I may not deny that oftentime the devil deludes them, takes opportunity to suggest and represent vain objects. . . I should rather hold with Avicenna and his asso- ciates that such symptoms proceed from evil spirits which take all opportunities of humours, decayed or otherwise, to pervert the soul of man.' Shakspere never states
59
31-43
MACBETH Goe bid thy mistresse, when my drinke is
ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
EXIT SERVANT
Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me
clutch thee: I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatall vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the minde, a false creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressed braine? I see thee yet, in forme as palpable, As this which now I draw. Thou marshalTst me the way that I was
going, And such an instrument I was to use.
Burton, * Anat. of Mel.' II. 2. 5.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
this explanation explicitly : the nearest approach to it is in V. 8. 1 9 ff- J but the educated part of Shakspere's audience no doubt saw the connection between Macbeth's hallucinations and histraffic with the witches. *IF42 MARSHALL'ST,Meadest/cp.** Reason becomes the mar- shall to my will" Mids. II. 2. 120. SF 43 TO USE: in EL. E. the substantive verb followed by the infinitive was often employed to express necessity, cp. ** Minos is not to learne how," etc., Jonson, 'Poetaster' II. 4, and **that ancient painter . . being to represent the griefe of the by standers . . drew," etc., Florio's Montaigne 1.2, and" I am to breake with thee of some affaires" Two Gent. III. 1.59- Macbeth's words in MN. E. suggest that he has been directed to use a dagger: in EL. E. they mean that he is obliged to use one.
SF44 ARE MADE THE FOOLES O', 'are made the laughing-stock of; the definite ar- ticle is omitted in the corresponding MN.E. phrase. SF 46 Hafts of weapons were fre- quently made of boxwood, and DUDGEON, whose earliest English meaning is 'boxwood,' cp. N.E.D. I, is used here for the haft itself. From Cotgrave's '''■ dague a roelles, a Scot- tish dagger, or dudgeon haft dagger," one would infer that the word in Shakspere's time had special reference to a Scottish weapon. GOUTS, 'drops' in EL. E. ; but from a mis- understanding of this passage the word has taken on the meaning of ' splotches' in MN. E., see N.E.D. 5- The verb "are" is often omitted in EL. E. SF47 SO is more widely used in EL. E. than in MN.E. to represent a preceding sentence; cp. "Where was she born? In Argier. O, was she so?" Temp. 1.2.259- SF 48 THE, probably 'my.' BUSINESSE, either 'task,' N.E.D. II, or 'purpose,' N.E.D. 10. INFORMES, 'takes visible shape,' N.E.D. 2. <ff49 HALFE-WORLD, 'hemisphere'; cp. Comenius, 32, "the half-ball," and Cotgrave, s.v. horison, "half-sphere." The stress halfe-world seems unusual to modern ears; but Jonson's "the sun as loth to part from this halfe-sphcare" ' Entertainments,' ed. 1640, p. 85, shows that it was normal in EL. E. Cp., also, MN. E. "man-kind" with EL. E." man-kind." "Sweet-heart," "life-blood," "like-wise," "fore-father" occur in the verse of good EL, writers. SF 50 ABUSE, 'deceive,' a common EL. meaning of the word; cp. "Abuses me to damne me" Ham. II. 2. 632. SF5I The fact that there is lacking to the verse an un- stressed impulse before the pause has exposed it to various emendations which supply such a word as "now" before WITCHCRAFT, or turn SLEEPE to 'sleeper.' See note to 1. 1. 7. To CELEBRATE is 'to perform with ritual,' N.E.D. I. SF 52 HECCAT: the word is not evidence of Shak- spere's ignorance of the clas- cr-nMI^T AA nn sics, but merely an illustra- AC 1 11 bUbJNb 1 44-52 tion of the varying forms
which classical proper names Mine eves are made the fooles o' tb' other
assumed in EL. E. ; some- times they were M.E. ver- sences,
sions of o.FR. words, some- Or else worth all the rest: I see thee still;
times these were altered to j^^^ ^^ thy blade and duddeon ^OUtS of blood, be more in accord with their ...,, , '^ i r n-fi ? i
Latin originals, and some- Which was not SO before. There s no such
times they entirely gave place thind :
to the Latin originals. We find Tx-.iii ii • i-i-p
Ixion, Pactolus, Cinthea in a ^^ IS the bloody businesse, which informes poetic miscellany of the time Thus to mine eyes. Now oVe the one halfe-
of James I ; Atrides rhyming world
with "brides" in John Hey-
wood's Marriage Triumph; Nature secmes dead, and wicked dreames
Delphes in North's Plutarch ; abuse
Helenie for Helen in Robin- ri-ri ^ • r i i -^ i r. i i x
son's HandefuU of Pleasant ^ ^^ curtain d sleepe : Witchcraft celebrates Delites. Hecate was the Pale Heccat'soffrin^s ; and withered murther,
60
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT II
SCENE I
53-64
patron goddess of classic and mediaeval witchcraft ; cp. Jon- son's note to **three-formed- star" in 'Masque of Queenes/ p. 168, '* Hccat : . . She was beleev'd'to governe in witch- craft and is remembered in all their [cp. note to II. 1.5] invocations." WITHER'D, ^colorless/ 'ghastly/ cp. ** These eyes . . shall see thee withered, bloody, pale, and dead" I Hen. 6 IV. 2. 38.
SF53 ALARUM'D, 'aroused,' cp. "my best alarum'd spirits" Lear II. 1.55. CEN- TINELL is an illustration of a common M. E. and e. N. E. use of initial c before a palatal vowel to represent the sound of s; MN.E. 'city,' 'cele- brate,' 'century,' etc., are in- stances where it has been preserved. SF 54 WATCH seems in EL. E. to have been applied to any instrument for telling time. In Phr. Gen. ^'a watch or clock" is glossed horarium ; this is followed by EXIT "pocket watch"; cp. "A woman that is like a Ger- mane clocke . . being a watch But being watcht that it may still goe right" L.L.L. III. 1. 194» In "Give me a watch" Rich. 3 V.3.63, the word appears from the context to mean a 'watch-candle.' To speak of the wolf-howls as murder's watch is not, therefore, an inapposite figure in EL. E. A similar association of ideas occurs in 2Hen. 6 IV. 1.2 : "And now loud houling wolves arouse the jades That dragge the tragicke melancholy night." But it is possible that EL. WATCH meant 'watchword,' cp. "an alarum, alarm, or watchword shewing the nearnesse of the enemies" Phr. Gen. ; if this were the case, the passage would echo the phraseology of Lucr. 365 ff. SF55 SLIDES : the "sides" of FO. I seems to be a misprint : Pope suggested 'strides,' which has been followed by the Cambridge text and is supported by "stalkes" in Lucr. 365. But 'slides' involves only one confusion, that of the tall / and //, which were single types: cp. note to 1.6.5- The word in EL. E. con- noted an even, gliding movement and was applied to the creeping of a serpent or to the approach of a thief; cp. Cooper, 'Thesaurus,' ^^ lapsus serpentum, the sliding, gliding, or creeping of a serpent," and Cotgrave, ^^griller: . . to glide, slip, slide, steal"; ^^glisser: to slip; to slide or glide"; ^^ glissade: gliding, sliding"; ^^glisse: slipped; slid; crept, or stoUen along." This would make the passage echo the phraseology of Lucr. 305, where Tarquin is a 'creeping thief,' or of v. 362, where he is a 'lurking serpent.' The word is used as a noun, though in a different sense, in Bacon, who speaks of the "slide and easi- ness" of Homer's verses, cp. Cent. Diet., 'slide,' n.3. RAVISHING was syncopated in EL. E. to "rav'shing" (cp. M.E. "parisshe" and "parshe"); the use of the word as an adjective meaning 'relating to ravishment' has been found fault with: some editors put a
61
Alarum'd by his centinell, the wolfe, Whose howle 's his watch, thus with his
stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing slides, towards his
designe Moves like a ghost. Thou sowre and firme-
set earth Heare not my steps, which way they walke,
for feare Thy very stones prate of my where-about. And take the present horror from the time, Which now sutes with it. Whiles I threat,
he lives: Words to the heat of deedes too cold breath
gives.
A BELL RINGS
I goe, and it is done: the bell invites me. Heare it not, Duncan, for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
comma after it, making the word a substantive ; others assume a misprint for ** Ravishing Tarquin's"; it has even been proposed to read ''with Tarquin's ravishing ideas"! In M.E. the word seems to have had the meaning of * rapid/ 'swift': Chaucer translates Boethius's rapido turbine by "ravysshyngc sweighe/' see ' Globe' Chaucer, p. 360. This meaning may have been preserved in EL. E. Cotgrave, who usually points off different senses of the same word by a semicolon, has ^^ ravissanty ravishing, ravenous, violent, greedy, swift." Skinner, 1 67 1, gives among his obsolete words "Ravish" in the sense of 'take,' 'carry,' and notes "e/usc/e/7? familiae est Ravishing, quod exp. a swift sway," evi- dently having in mind Chaucer's phraseology. But in the lack of better evidence we hardly dare take the word in the sense of 'sweeping,' though enough of this meaning may have clung to it in Shakspere's time to make the epithet a natural one. SF56 SOWRE of FO. I is usually taken for a misprint for "sure" : but if the word be misprinted, it is much more likely that Shakspere wrote "sowrd," 'deaf.' d was next to e in the EL. type-case, and " sowrd" would not be an abnormal EL. E. spelling ; cp. Coles's Diet., 1 7 1 3, "sourd, deaf," and ' Glossographia,' 1707, "surdity, deafness, dulness"; the same gloss is found in Phillipps, ' New World of Words,' 1678, and in Kersey's Diet., 1708. In EL.E. the word seems to have been associated with dullness, stupidity; cp. "a surd and earless generation of men, stupid unto all instruction," Sir Thos. Browne (1 605-1 682), 'Chris- tian Martyr' in.6 (cited from Cent. Diet.). Shakspere elsewhere applies the epithets "dull" and "sullen" to the earth, and insensibility to sound and motion seems to be the association in Macbeth's mind : 'hear not and prate not with your echoes.' But EL.E. "sowre" has a somewhat wider range of association than the MN.E. word ; cp. Cotgrave, ^^ rebarbatif, grim, stern, sowre," and ^^ saturnien, rude, harsh, unpleasant, rough, sowre"; "sowre earth" therefore is not such an artificial locution for 'sullen earth' as to make it quite improbable that the Folio represents the word Shakspere wrote. *1F57 HEARE in EL.E. means 'listen to,' cp. "I stood and heard them" n.2.24. WAY THEY is "they may" in FO. I, clearly a misprint, first corrected by Pope. SF 58 As WHERE-ABOUT and "whereabouts" were common EL. forms of the adverb (see L 5. 6), "whereabout" as a substantive was no more unusual to EL. ears than "whereabouts" is to ours. SF 59 PRESENT, 'attendant,' cp. note to L3.I37. SF 60 WHILES, 'whilst,' cp. L5.6. *1F6I Macbeth's thought seems to be like that in IV. I. 146, with TO THE HEAT construed as indirect object, BREATH taken as meaning 'breathing-space,' 'respite,' N.E.D.8, and COLD as meaning 'dispiriting,' N.E.D.9. A similar form of expression occurs in "the great breath that was given the states in the heatof their affairs," cited from Temple, 1673, in N.E. D, s,v. 'breath.' For the singular verb with plural subject, see note to 1.3. 147. SF62 THE BELL is probably Lady Macbeth's summons, cp. v. 32; some have taken it as a reference to the clock striking the hour of two. The scene would have been stronger if it had ended, as does Scene V of Act I, with the short verse after the couplet : the con- trasts, too, in INVITE and SUMMON and TO HEAVEN OR TO HELL do not sound like Shakspere. The thought is similar to that of I Hen. 6 IV. 2.39: "Harke, harke, the Dol- phin's drumme, a warning bell. Sings heavy musicke to thy timorous soule, And mine shall ring thy dire departure out."
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE II
Davcnant arranges the action of this scene as continuous with that of Scene I. Some modern editors also expunge the scene division. But the action marks a separate stage in the drama, and demands an interval for the imagination to grasp the horror of the impending calamity, though the actual time interval between the scenes is slight. In III. 4. 62 Lady Macbeth evidently refers to this scene in "This is the ayre-drawne-dagger which you said Led you to Duncan." It is likely that Macbeth tells her of his vision when he joins her
62
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
at the end of the last scene. In V. 1.35 ff. Lady Macbeth fixes the time of the murder at two, counting off the strokes of the bell"! ** One : two : why then 't is time to doo 't." There is thus a brief time interval between the two scenes: what is more likely, then, than that this is spent in perfecting the last details of the tragedy as the two sit over their possets in the hall? The place is usually given as the same as that of the previous scene, viz. "a courtyard." But the courtyard is so dark that Banquo does not recognize Macbeth in II. 1. 10: how, then, can Macbeth say *'This is a sorry sight" in II. 2.21 ? If we recall for a moment the castle architecture with which Shakspere was familiar, — for instance, that of Kenilworth, — we have a large courtyard with a flight of steps in one corner leading up to the sleeping-rooms, such as is shown in the cut of Kenilworth in 1620 which is prefixed to the New Shaks. Soc.'s ed. of Robert Laneham's Letter. It is in this courtyard that Scene I takes place. In these quadrangular houses the hall occupied one side of the build- ing, and out of this, at one end, a flight of steps led to a lobby which opened on the guest- chamber: see the rooms lettered E and V in the cut referred to above. In the theatre this lobby would, of course, be the usual gallery or balcony at the back of the stage. Duncan and his two grooms of the chamber would naturally be lodged in the guest- chamber; back of this would be the "second chamber," occupied by Donalbaine and an- other. Such an arrangement would be familiar to an EL. audience, and explains clearly the action of the scene. At its opening Lady Macbeth is in the hall below, waiting for her husband's return. She has been in Duncan's chamber to see that all is ready, and has laid the daggers of the two grooms where Macbeth ** could not misse 'em." The grooms are fast asleep : the doors are open, and she can distinctly hear their drunken snoring. The servants have retired to their quarters, and there is still late carousing through the castle: hence the noises that startle the murderers, and Macbeth's imagined ''voice" crying "Sleep no more!" In v. 66 the guilty pair retire to their chamber to wash their hands and put on their night garments, so that it will look as if they had gone to bed.
SCENE II
THE HALL OF MACBETH'S CASTLE ENTER LADY MACBETH
1-8
LADY MACBETH HAT which hath made them
drunk hath made me bold: What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire. Hearke ! peace ! It was the owle that shriek'd, the fatall bell-man, Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is
about it, The doores are open, and the surfeted groomes Doe mock their charge with snores; I have
drugged their possets That death and nature doe contend about
them. Whether they live or dye.
63
*1F I Thesecondarystresseson THEMandMEgivetherhythm tenseness. SF2 QUENCH'D has a double sense, 'allayed their thirst' and 'smothered their vital energy.' A similar play of meaning occurs in 'A bottle of ale to quench me, rascal, I am all fire' Jonson, ' Bartholomew Fair' II. I. For the other meaning, cp. " Dost thou thinke in time she will not quench?" Cym. I. 5-47. SF3 FATALL, 'death-boding,' cp. II. 1.36. BELL-MAN, cp. "a bellman which goeth be- fore a corps, praeco feralis^^ Phr. Gen. SF4 For form of STERN'ST see note to 1.5.3-
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT II
SCENE II
9-14
The word is used in its sense of* gloomy," grim.' SF 5 SUR- FETED : probably a dissylla- ble here; cp. *'with forfeited credits make 'em wish a change" Massinger, * Believe as you List' I.I (Per. Soc, p. 22), and ** Macro, most wel- come as mostcoveted friend" Jonson, 'Sejanus' V. 6. SF 7 NATURE, i.e. life, cp. note to 1.7.68.
*1F9 The stage direction ''Enter Macbeth" is usually removed by modern editors to a place before MY HUS- BAND. Macbeth comes into the lobby — the gallery above the stage — on his way down into the hall, but hears a noise in the second chamber, cp. v, 19, and softly calling WHO 'S THERE? goes back to see if any one has awakened. The house is full of noises, young courtiers carousing in their rooms and drunken servants in the "offices," and Macbeth's nerves are strung to the point of breaking. Lady Macbeth, too, has heard the noise and fears their plans have miscarried. SF 1 1 They are prepared to explain the 'act' of the murder, but to be caught in the ATTEMPT will ruin them. Baret, 'Alvearie' s.v. 'to attempt,' gives "to assayle a man"; Shakspere was probably thinking of the attempt on the king's life in its legal aspect. SFI3 'EM is now a colloquial clipping of the pronoun 'them': in Shakspere's time it was a common literary idiom, frequent in Ben Jonson and the most careful writers. The contraction is not necessary to the rhythm here, but is found in FO. I. The representative interest in v. 13 is something more than "very artful," as Warburton called it : it is a
ENTER MACBETH
MACBETH Who 's there? what hoa?
LADY MACBETH Alack ! I am afraid they have awak'd And 't is not done: th' attempt, and not the
deed, Confounds us. Hearke! I lay'd their daggers
ready. He could not misse 'em. Had he not re- sembled My father as he slept, I had don 't.
startlingly human "touch of nature," one of those associa- tions of childhood that flash into consciousness in a crisis like this. The stress seems to fall upon the pronoun I, the unstressed impulse being omitted, cp. 1. 1.7. The verse is independent and not com- pleted by the words "My husband" below, as editors generally print it.
*ff 14 If we take the punctua- tion of the Folio, MY HUS- BAND? is an exclamation of inquiry as Lady Macbeth hears the sound of approach- ing footsteps. She does not know but that some one may
ACT II SCENE II 14-17
My husband?
MACBETH I have done the deed. Didst thou not heare a noyse?
LADY MACBETH I heard the owle schreame and the crickets
cry. Did not you speake?
MACBETH
When?
LADY MACBETH
Now.
64
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
have awakened and be coming into the hall. The modern punctuation takes the words as an exclamation of admiration — her woman's recognition that Macbeth is worthy of her love : a tempting explanation. But we have just had one exhibition of sentiment in Lady Macbeth : is it likely that Shakspere would add another? If ** My husband?" is spoken before Macbeth comes down, and we take I HAVE DONE THE DEED, i.e. ' It 's over now/ cp. I. 7. I ff., as muttered by Macbeth to himself as he descends and indistinctly heard by Lady Macbeth, we have an easy explanation of her "Did not you speake?" He does not need to tell her that he has done the deed: the bloody daggers and the omi- nous stillness above speak for themselves. SF 17 DID NOT YOU SPEAKE? (the phrase is in its normal EL. E. word order, the parent of our colloquial **Did n't you speak?"): some editors, not understanding the action of the scene, alter the text so as to give
this speech to Macbeth, and
ACT II
SCENE II
17-26
19
20
WHEN? as well as NOW? to Lady Macbeth, pointing DE- SCENDED withaperiod. But if we may take such liberties with Shakspere, we might as well rewrite the play to suit our own notions, as Davenant did, and have done with it. Lady Macbeth is evidently referring to something that she heard Macbeth say as he came into the hall.
*IF 17 The sharp, broken dia- logue makes a panting rhythm admirably adapted to the thought : in FO. I each part of thedialogue between** When" and ** I " makes a separate verse : if we arrange them to- gether they fall rather into two verses, each of four stresses, with pauses occa- sionally taking the place of un- stressed impulses, than into one verse of five stresses followed by two broken verses, as in the Cambridge Text. Lady Macbeth's I is the normal EL. spelling of the particle of assent, now 'aye' ; the earliest diphthongal spell- ing in N. E. D. is dated 1 637 : 'yes' has taken its place in literary MN.E. Macbeth does not answer, his attention being distracted by another alarm. SF 20 LYES is, of course, the EL. word for MN.E. 'sleeps.' By the SECOND CHAMBER was probably meant the one next the chamber of state, either connected with it by a gallery or inde- pendent as in Kenilworth Castle. If the latter, Macbeth hears the mutterings of the rest-
65
MACBETH As I descended?
LADY MACBETH I. MACBETH
Hearke! Who lyes i' th' second chamber? LADY MACBETH
Donalbaine. MACBETH
MARKING THE DAGGERS
This is a sorry si^ht.
LADY MACBETH A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
MACBETH There 's one did laugh in 's sleepe, and one
cry'd, 'Murtherl' That they did wake each other: I stood and
heard them : But they did say their prayers, and addrest
them Againe to sleepe.
LADY MACBETH There are two lodg'd together.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
less sleepers through the open windows. Lady Macbeth's answer seems to satisfy him for the moment. He then notices with a start his blood-stained hands, probably holding up the daggers which he still clutches. MARKING THE DAGGERS is not in FO. I : stage directions occur but sparsely in EL. dramatic texts. Pope added 'Looks on his hands,' and 'Looking on his hands' is usually given in modern editions. Some direction is un- doubtedly necessary to point the reference; but 'looking on his hands' is hardly appo- site when each hand grips its bloody 'instrument'; see v. 48. *1F2I THIS IS A SORRY SIGHT: may not these words be a first realization of his helplessness? — he cannot to find out what is the
go
cause of the noise with these
things in his hands. He then recalls that when he went backtowardthe room whence the sounds came there were two voices. SF 23 THERE'S, the EL. contraction for 'there was,'cp.noteto 1.2. 15. SF 24 THAT, 'so that.' STOOD, 'stood still,' cp. "take leave and stand not to reply " 3Hen.6 IV. 8. 23- HEARD, 'listened to,' cp. II. I. 57. *ff 25 PRAYERS is dissyllabic in EL. E., cp. note to 1.5-40. THEM, 'themselves' : in M. E. and c. N.E. the pronoun of the third person is used re- flexively. ADDREST TO SLEEPE is an EL. idiom like that in 'address one's self to a task,' and is here equiva- lent to little more than ' went.' Lady Macbeth's explanation is natural and matter of fact : she has assigned two guests to a single chamber.
«ff28 AS, 'as if,' cp. 1.4. II. HANGMAN in EL. E. means 'executioner,' N. E. D. I ; cp. "the hangman's axe" Merch. IV. 1. 125. SF29 LISTNING, listening to the expression of,' cp. "To listen our pur- pose" Ado III. 1. 1 1. Mac- beth's surprise at not being able to say AMEN to a GOD BLESSE US is not a note of hypocrisy in his character, but due to his failure to realize the fact that he has sold himself to the powers of darkness. It was a popular superstition of
ACT II
SCENE II
27-40
an
d'A
men
th«
MACBETH One cry'd ' God blesse us ! '
other, As they had seene me with these hangman's
hands: Listning their feare, I could not say 'Amen/ When they did say 'God blesse us.' 30
LADY MACBETH Consider it not so deepely. 30
MACBETH But wherefore could not I pronounce
'Amen' ? I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen' Stuck in my throat.
LADY MACBETH These deeds must not be thought After these wayes: so, it will make us mad.
MACBETH Me thought I heard a voyce cry 'Sleep no
more! Macbeth does murther sleepe' — the inno- cent sleepe, Sleepe that knits up the ravel'd sleave of
care, The death of each dayes life, sore labor's
bath, Balme of hurt mindes, great nature's second
course, Chiefe nourisher in life's feast, — 66
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT II
SCENE II
40-47
LADY MACBETH
What doe you meane?
MACBETH Still it cry'd ' Sleepe no more!' to all the
house: ^ Glamis hath murther'd sleepe, and therefore
Cawdor Shall sleepe no more; Macbeth shall sleepe
no more.'
LADY MACBETH Who was it that thus cry'd? Why, worthy
thane, You doe unbend your noble strength to thinke So braine-sickly of things. Goe get some
water. And wash this filthie witnesse from your
hand.
Shakspere's time that *God bless us ' was a charm against sorcery and witchcraft ; cp. Comenius, 'Janua' 793,**Be- witchings are driven away by amulets, spels, or charms, yea by this one word 'Praefiscini, God forfend, God bless us, &c., spoken to prevent envie or witchcraft." Shaksperc again refers to this supersti- tion in Merch. III. 1 . 22, ** Let me say Amen betimes, least the devill crosse my praicr." There can be little doubt that Shakpere's audience under- stood the sleeper's cry as an invocation of protection against the devil, and well knew why it was Amen stuck in Macbeth's throat. SF33 THESE inEL.E. is sometimes equivalent to* such as these,' cp. IV.3.II8 and IV.3.74. DEEDSin EL. E. means *acts,' 'actions,' without the conno- tation of importance which we
usually attach to the word, a sense still retained in phrases like ' in word and deed'; and so Macbeth says in III. 4. 144 that he and his partner are '* young in deed," i.e. inexperienced in action. THOUGHT means 'looked at,' 'considered,' 'regarded': see note to II. 1. 21. SF 34 AFTER THESE WAVES, 'in this fashion,' cp. "after this downe-right way" Meas. III.2. 112. SO: i.e. 'if we regard them in this way,' see note to II. 1.47. SF35 The voice, 'procedingfrom a corrupt imagination' (Burton, 'Anat. of Mel.' 1.3. 1), may have had its origin in the shouting of drunken revellers in another part of the house. It is another symptom of Macbeth's insanity. As in 1. 5. 24 ff., there are no quotation-marks in FO. I : but it is not likely that the quotation extends beyond "more." SF36 INNOCENT is probably "inn'cent," cp. 1.5-66. SF37 KNITS UP, 'binds up,' cp. "let me teach you how to knit againe This scattred corne into one mutuall shcafe" Titus V.3.70. RAVEL'D, 'entangled,' cp. "as you unwind her love from him, Least it should ravell and be good to none" Two Gent. III. 2. 51- SLEAVE in EL. E. is the name for unwrought or unspun silk; cp. "thou idle, immateriall skiene of sleive silke" Tro.&Cr. V. 1.35. In Florio, 1598, sfillazza is glossed "any kind of ravelled stuffe, or sleave silk," cited by Malonc ; CI. Pr. adds ^'■hauellare., to ravell as raw silke." Both these entries show that "ravelling" was a common association with this "unwrought silk." Skinner, in attempting to trace sleave silk to Dutch sleyp, says that it is so called because, before it is knit up, netum sit, it hangs to the ground in a long train, syrmate : Dutch sleyp is a translation of Latin syrma. The Folio spelling "sleeve" seems to be abnormal, as the e is generally written as an open vowel in EL. E. ; in Tro.&Cr. the Quarto spelling is "sleive," the Folio spelling "sleyd," but this latter may have been corrupted from "slev'd," another form of the adjective. The history of 'sleave' has not yet been made out, and it may be that a form with close e existed in Shakspere's time. *IF 38 DEATH OF EACH DAYES LIFE; cp. "death-counterfeiting sleepe" Mids. III. 2. 364 and "To see the life as lively mock'd as ever Still sleepe mock'd death" Wint.T. V.3.I9-
67
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
Notwithstanding the aptness of the association between sleep and death, Warburton pro- posed 'birth' and Becket * breath' for "death," and Jennens conjectured 'grief for "hfe." *IF39 BALME OF HURT MINDES: Burton, ' Anat. of Mel.,' says that sleep sometimes is a sufficient remedy for 'head-melancholy' *of itself without any other physic' SECOND COURSE : in ' For to Serve a Lord,' written at the end of the I 5th or the beginning of the 1 6th century, and printed on p. 366 of the ' Babees Book,' ed. Furnivall, the "second course" is described as the substantial course of a dinner, with a long list of dishes, p. 370, preceded by the "potage" and followed by the "dessert." SF 40 NOURISHER seems here to be syncopated to "nour'sher." The reader will do well to compare 2Hen.4 III. 1,6 ff. and Hen. 5 IV. 1.274 ff. with this passage. *iF 41 As in vv. 22 and 27, Macbeth, in his rapt state, pays no attention to Lady Macbeth's words. SF43 The verse echoes the rhythm of 1.3. 50, and by its repetition also suggests " All haile, Macbeth ! " — a fact which hardly leaves room for doubt as to where the quotation-marks belong. SF45 TO THINKE is normal EL. syntax corre-
ACT II SCENE II
sponding to *by thinking' or ' when you think' ; cp. I. 5. 32. SF46 BRAINE-SICKLY: EL. adjectives in -ly formed ad- verbs without the suffix. The word means 'insanely,' not 'foolishly' : "brain-sickness" is the usual EL. gloss for maiiiaj "a disease rising of too much abundance of good bloud having recourse to the head, which causeth the partie to bee braine-sicke and to fall into furie and rage." SF 47 FILTHIE in EL. E. was not so strong a word as now, cp. note to 1. 1. 10, and WIT- NESSE is the usual term in EL. E. for 'evidence.'
SF49 CARRY in this sense of 'taking to a place' is now obsolete, N. E. D. 5, though still used in Virginia. SF50 SLEEPIE, 'plunged in sleep,' as in I. 7.75, cp. Cot- grave, '■'■ sommeillanty sleep- ing; sleepie." SF 56 GUILD: the redness of gold gave rise to various word associations in EL. E. which now seem unnatural; "to gild" was to smear with blood, as here and in John II. 1 . 3 1 6, " all gilt with Frenchmen's blood" — this and other citations in N. E. D. Id. Duncan's "golden blood" in 11.3.118 is not afar-fetched figure, but another instance
48-59
Why did you bring these daggers from the
place? They must lye there: goe carry them, and
smeare The sleepie groomes with blood.
MACBETH
I 'le goe no more: I am afraid to thinke what I have done; Looke on 't againe, I dare not.
LADY MACBETH
Infirme of purpose! Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the
dead Are but as pictures: 't is the eye of child- hood That feares a painted devill. If he doe bleed, I 'le guild the faces of the groomes withall, For it must seeme their guilt.
EXIT KNOCKE WITHIN
MACBETH
Whence is that knocking? How is 't with me, when every noyse appalls
me? What hands are here? hah ! They pluck out mine eyes! 68
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
of this same association of ideas — unfortunately overlooked in N. E. D. So Shakspere writes " g'uilded pale lookes, Part shame, part spirit renew'd " for flushing of the face in Cym. V. 3- 34, and '*this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em" for the flushing of drink in Temp. V. I. 280. WITHALL, 'with his blood'; cp. note to 1.3-5. SF57 THEIR GUILT is a grim jest: such puns were more acceptable to EL. ears than to ours. The same play of meaning is found in Hen. 5 II. Chor. 26 (cited by Stecvens). The insistent knocking, though it cannot be that which is the subject of the Porter's soliloquy in the scenethatfoUows, neverthelessconnects the two scenes. It further carries on the interest of this scene by affording occasion to con- tinue the starts and breaks of thought and rhythm which mark its progress. SF 58 HOW I S 'T WITH ME,* In what condition am I?' 'What is the matter with me?' cp.'*you see how all is, i.e. the case stands, things go, with me; quo in loco sint res et fortunae meae vides^^ Phr. Gen. s.v. * how,' The words show that Macbeth as well as his wife is ignorant of the cause of his delusion. *ff59 WHAT, i.e. what sort of, cp. 1.3-39. The interjection HAH is often
interrogative in EL. E. and
ACT II SCENE II 60-63 TE^o^r T.fs'tTyXr?:
, fore, that HAH belongs with
Will all great Neptune S ocean wash this the first clause rather than
blood with the second: in FO. I it
ap , 1 1 XT ^1 • 1 J is followed by a colon,
eane from my hand.'' No, this my hand
will rather *ff62 The aptness of the asso-
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, ciation in multitudinous
' SEAS perhaps accounts tor
Making the greene one red. the fact that incarnadine
now means *to stain with blood ' : but before Shakspere wrote this passage the word meant * to make flesh-colored ' or 'rose-colored'; cp. N.E. D. s.u.A. The Folios read "incarnardine" : but such a spellingis anomalous and here probably a mere misprint. «1F 63 MAKING THE GREENE ONE RED has occasioned much difficulty to Shakspere scholars. The phrase is punctuated in the first three Folios with a comma after ONE; evidently the editors of FO. I took GREENE ONE together. The fact that ''Greene" and "Red" are capitalized in FO. I may be taken as an indication that they understood "Greene one" to be a reference to Neptune above. Shakspere speaks of " the grcene Neptune " in Wint.T. IV. 4. 28 and in Ant.&Cl. IV. 14-58; "Mars the red" is a common M.E. phrase, though Shakspere only once refers to Mars's color and then indirectly in "as red as Mars his heart" Tro.&Cr. V. 2. 164. Shakspere may have had in mind the notion of the rosy sea dyeing Neptune in Mars's color. If one objects to this on the ground that Macbeth would scarcely be guilty of such an artificial metaphor under the circumstances, he must remember that such notions were not so artificial to EL. ears as they are to ours : he must, moreover, be prepared to excuse "incarnadine," an epithet that was highly artificial in EL. E., as has been pointed out- But another interpretation is possible: "one" is very common in EL. E. as a grammatical substitute for a noun just mentioned, and is often used when in MN.E. such a locution would be avoided; "making the grecne one red" can therefore be equivalent to 'making the green sea red,' as in Steevens's citation from Heywood, "He made the green sea red with Turkish blood." Many modern editors say this reading is ridiculous : but unfortunately their judgement is not always to be trusted as to what is ridiculous or not ridiculous in EL. E. ; and when one thinks of the hopelessly absurd idiom that they are from time to time will- ing to put in Shakspere's mouth if they do not happen to understand his EL. phraseology, one can only smile at their eagerness to lay on the printer the burden of their own igno- rance. One editor 'feels instinctively that the passage has been corrupted,' yet his instinct leads him to 'surmise that the passage originally read: Making the green zone red'! One might exclaim with Falstaff, 'Beware instinct!' Moreover, the substitute
69
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
proposed, 'making the green uniformly red/ is, as Malone maintained, neither good EL.E. nor good MN.E., however well such a reading may satisfy our modern literary sense. Such a notion takes the form "all one" in M.E. and N.E., with **one" in its M.E. sense of 'same.' "One red" is not in Shakspere's English the equivalent of 'one uni- form redness,' nor are the "total gules" of Ham. II. 2. 479 and Mihon's "one blot" in Comus, V. 133, parallel idioms to "one red." The phraseology of this modern reading — it begins with Johnson, 1795 — is therefore as much open to question as is the taste of the Folio reading. That it now passes muster as good English is rather due to the fact that the syntax of the pas-
sage, so often quoted with ^^j jj SCENE II 64-74
this idea in mind, has be- come familiar to our ears. It seems better therefore to take " greene " and " one " to- gether than to assume with- out evidence that the Folio misprints the verse.
ENTER LADY MACBETH LADY MACBETH My hands are of your colour, but I shame To weare a heart so white.
KNOCKE WITHIN
I heare a knocking At the south entry: retyrewe to our chamber: A little water cleares us of this deed: How easie is it then! Your constancie Hath left you unattended.
KNOCKE WITHIN
Hearkel more knocking: Get on your night-gowne, least occasion
call us And shew us to be watchers: be not lost So poorely in your thoughts.
MACBETH To know my deed 't were best not know my selfe.
KNOCKE WITHIN
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou could'st! -^'W!^</
EXEUNT
SF64 YOUR COLOUR, i.e. red, cp. V. 55 and V. 1.48. SHAME: Lady Macbeth can hardly mean that she is ashamed to be such a coward as her husband is: in the Cent, Diet, is cited a sen- tence from Greene in which the verb seems to mean to 'avoidwithasenseof shame' : "My master sad — forwhy [i.e. wherefore] he shames thecourt — is fled away "'Jas. IV ' V. 6. Perhaps " shame " has some such meaning here and is used like MN.E. 'scorn' in "to scorn to do." SF68 A similar notion occurs in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 293 b, "His mind was evill wayted on by his lamed force," re- flecting the EL. psychology referred to in the note on p. 26. Lady Macbeth here and in the last part of v. 64 shows by her words that the knocking creates a panic in Macbeth's mind each time he hears it. *1F 70 NIGHT-GOWNE here and in V. I. 5 is 'dressing-gown,' the usual meaning of the word in EL.E. OCCASION, 'necessity,' as in "My master is awak'd [z'.e. impelled] by great occasion " Timon II. 2. 21. It 7 1 A WATCHER in EL. E. is not only 'one who watches,' but also 'one who sits up late.' LOST, 'bewildered,' 'not knowing what to do,' as in "I 'm lost in it, my lord" Ham. IV. 7. 55- *ff 72 POORELY, 'spiritlessly,' cp. "To looke so poorely and to speake so faire" Rich. 2 III. 3. 128. SF73 TO KNOW MY DEED, 'to know what I am to do': DEED in EL.E. had the sense of 'thing to be done'; cp. N.E.D.3 and especially the quotation from North's Plutarch,
70
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
''You shall set the poor distressed city of Syracusa again on foot, which is your deed." Macbeth is not thinking of the past, but of the future. Utterly bewildered and horror- stricken, this last knocking rouses only the impatience of impotence and the helpless re- gret of one who for the first time realizes the irrevocableness of his past action.
SCENE III: MACBETH'S CASTLE: ENTER A PORTER
1-27
KNOCKING WITHIN
PORTER
ERE 'S a knocking indeede! If
a man were porter of hell gate,
hee should have old turning the
key. [KNOCK within.] Knock,
knock, knock! Who 's there, i' th' name of Belzebub? Here's a farmer, that hang'd himselfe on th' expectation of plentie: come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you 'le sweat for 't. [knock WITHIN.] Knock, knock! Who's there, in th' other devil's name? 'Faith, here 's an equivocator, that could sweare in both the scales against eyther scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: oh, come in, equivoca- tor. [knock WITHIN.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's there? 'Faith, here's an English taylor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose: come in, taylor; here you may rost your goose, [knock within.] Knock, knock! Neverat quiet! What are you? — but this place is too cold for hell : I'le devill-porter it no further. I had thought to have let in some of all professions that goe the prim- rose way to th' everlasting bonfire, [knock within.] Anon, anon! I pray you remember the porter. opens the gate
was prospect of plenty of corn in the summer and autumn of that year. But the fact that the story had already been used by Jonson in 1599 makes his argument of little weight. *iF 7 EXPECTATION, 'prospect,'
71
^ 2 HELL GATE, 'the gates of hell': 'hell' here, as in "hell-hound" V. 7. 32, and in MN.E. "hell-fire," is really a genitive from M.E. "helle," and 'gate' is a plural form from M.E. 'gate'; "hell-kite" IV. 3.217, and "hell-broth" IV. I. 19, are later imitations of these earlier phrases. SF 3 OLD is an EL. expletive word, loosely used for emphasis sake, like our MN.E. "jolly." In MN.E. "high old time" there is perhaps a survival of this EL. E. idiom. Cotgrave under diahle gives ^^faire le diahle de vauvertj to keep an oldcoyle"; Shakspere again uses the idiom in "we shal have old swearing" Merch. IV. 2. 15. SF4 The half-awake porter falls a-dreaming that he is the porter of hell. The allusion in *1F 6 seems to be to a current jest of the time : it is also found in Jonson's Every Man out of his Hu- mour, 1599, IILvii: ^^Sor- dido. Soule, if this [i.e. the good weather] hold, we shall shortly have an excellent crop of corne spring out of the high wayes . . goe to, I '11 prevent the sight of it." He then hangs himself, "falls off" the stage direction reads. Ma- lone argued that Shakspere's words pointed to 1 606 as the date of the play because there
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
'promise,' cp. "A good plotte, good friends, and full of expectation" lHen.4 II.3. I9f and see N. E. D.4. SF8 COME IN TIME, *an early arrival,' "come" being the past par- ticiple, cp. Phr. Gen. "timely, in time, mafure." NAPKINS, 'handkerchiefs,' cp. "a napkin or handkerchiefe wherewith wee wipe away the sweate" Baret's Alvearie s.t). 'hand'; also Oth. III. 3. 287. The form ENOW in e.N.E. is usually the plural of "enough" as it is here, preserving an O.E. and M.E. form distinction; see N. E. D. s.u. SF9 To SWEAT FOR 'T in EL. E., as in MN. E., meant to pay the penalty for a wrong done, see Cent. Diet. SF 1 1 TH' other devil's name that the porter could not recall may have been Behe- moth or Demogorgon, both of which were used as names for devils in mediazval demon- ology. SF 12 The Jesuitical doctrine of equivocation, according to which the making of a false statement under oath was not perjury if the speaker could put any sense, however extravagant, upon the words of which he made use, became prominent at the time of the trial of the Gunpowder conspirators in the spring of 1 606 ; cp. Gardiner's History, vol. XI, pp. 281 ff. The mention of TREASON in the connection would indicate that this passage was written after the trial. SF 13 SCALES in EL. E. are the scale-pans of the balance. BOTH seems here to be used in the sense of 'either of two,' uterque, 'he could swear on cither side of the case against the other.' SF 19 HOSE, 'breeches,' N.E. D.2. The pecu- liar enormity of the tailor's crime consisted in the fact that one kind of French hose "contained neither length, breadth, nor sideness [i.e. fullness]" Stubbes's Anatomic of Abuses, I583,ed. Furnivall, p. 56, cited by CI. Pr. Shakspere calls them "short blistred breeches" in Hen.8 I.3.3I. SF2I AT QUIET is an EL. phrase like 'at rest' ; Phr. Gen. gives 'at quiet' as a synonym of 'quiet.' The interrogative WHAT frequently occurs in EL.E. where MN.E. employs 'who.' SF 24 The porter's PRIMROSE WAY, which Shak- spere also uses in All 's W, IV. 5. 56 and in Ham. 1. 3- 50, seems to have been a cant phrase of the time. His notion is something like one in Dekker's Knight's Conjuring : " You have of all trades, of all professions, of all states, some there," i.e. in hell. There is regret in his I HAD THOUGHT as the morning chill wakens him to the realization that some one is really knocking at his gate. His sleepy ANON, ANON 1 ('coming, coming! ') and his mechanical demand for a gratuity, I PRAY YOU RE- Ap'T' TT MEMBERTHE PORTER,are ^^ * Al touches of nature which only Shakspere would have given the scene.
SCENE III
28-37
*IF 28 Macduff's words call attention to the fact that the porter has over-slept himself ; they can be construed into a sort of blank verse — indeed, the whole passage is in that rhythmic prose which EL. dramatists often fall into : such prose differs from poetry in not having a clearly marked coincidence of phrase and verse division. FO.I divides inverses : Was . . bed. That . . late, 'Faith . . cock, And . . things ; what follows until Macbeth enters is printed as prose. *]F30 THE SECOND COCK, cp. " The second cocke
ENTER MACDUFF AND LENOX
MACDUFF
Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, that you doe lye so late?
PORTER 'Faith, sir, we were carowsing till the second cock: and drinke, sir, is a great provoker of three things.
MACDUFF What three things does drinke especially provoke?
PORTER Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleepe and urine. Lecherie, sir, it provokes and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the
72
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT II
SCENE III
38-50
performance: therefore much drinke maybe said to be an equivocator with lecherie : it makes him and it marres him ; it sets him on and it takes him off ; it perswadeshim and dis- heartens him; makes him stand too and not stand too; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleepe, and ^ivin^ him the lye, leaves him.
MACDUFF I beleeve drinke ^ave thee the lye last night.
PORTER That it did, sir, i^ the very throat on me: but I requited him for his lye, and, I thinke, being too strong for him, though he tooke up my legges sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.
hath crow'd . . 't is three a clocke" Rom. & Jul. IV. 4. 3 (cited by Malone). *1F 36 EL. E. an- in composition frequently means to undo the effect connoted by the verb with which it is compounded. *ff40 SETS ON, 'eggs on.' *iF4I TAKES OFF, cp. "He endeavors to take me off, operant dat ut me abstrahat " Coles. SF42 STAND TOO, 'maintain one's ground' : the form distinction between 'to' and 'too' is modern. SF 43 IN sometimes in EL. E. corre- sponds to MN.E. 'into,' cp. 1.3. 1 26. This seems to be its sense here. SF44 There is un- doubtedly a double meaning in the porter's words : Autoly- cus makes a similar jest in Wint.T. IV. 4. 745, where the unsuccessful effortstoexplain or emend the passage into MN.E. sense show that the phrase "give the lye" in EL. E. had a double meaning. The N.E. D. throws no light on the difficulty. The notion here seems to be that of 'providing sleeping quarters for,' cp. 'lie' in the sense of 'lodge.' Autolycus's words will bear such a meaning : " it [i.e. lying] becomes none but tradesmen [cp. Stubbes, 'Anatomic of Abuses,' ed. Furnivall, p. 87], and they often give us souldiers the lye, but wee pay them for it with stamped coyne, not stabbing Steele, therefore they doe not give us the lye. Clo. Your worship had like to have given us one if you had not taken your selfe with the manner [i.e. 'in the act,' playing on 'give' and 'take']." And so here: "giving the lye" has obvious reference to putting one to bed. Shakspere is fond of punning on the word. At all events, the phrase undoubtedly had to Shakspere's audience a meaning appropriate to the context, and was not the sheer nonsense that modern editors of Shakspere are willing to suppose it. SF46 l' THE THROAT is a common EL. expletive of giving the lie, cp. "you lye in your throat" 2Hen.4 1.2.97, and "gives me the lye i' th' throate As deepe as to the lungs" Ham. II. 2.601. ON was frequently used in EL.E. where MN.E. requires 'of,' especially in colloquial idiom: MN.E. 'to have the law on one' seems to be due to such syntax. SF 47 LYE in this instance, as Delius pointed out, seems to mean 'a fall in wrestling,' echoing the sense of the word in v. 45. No such meaning is given in N.E.D. nor any such wrestling term as TAKE UP ONE'S LEGS; but that this is the reference seems clear from CAST, 'to throw in wrestling,' N.E.D. 13- The quibble turns on this meaning and that in N.E. D. 25 ; Ben Jonson has a similar quibble in Every Man in his Humour I.iv, using the word as referring to the laying of a stake in gambling as well as to the disturbance of the stomach caused by excessive drinking : "You shall find him with two cushions under his head . . as though he had neither won nor lost, and yet I warrant he ne're cast better in his life than he has done tonight. cMat. Why? was he drunke?" Such quibbling as this of the porter's was conventional for clowns and rustics on the EL. stage, cp. the clowns in Wint.T. and Hamlet and the dialogue between the porter and his man in Hen. 8. V. 4, where the porter's obscenity is even worse than it is here. That EL. notions of propriety were not shocked by such language is evident
73
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
from the fact that it occurs in the work of the best dramatists. Shakspere in this respect is neither better nor worse than his time. It is interesting to find in Jonson's arraign-
ment of the indecency of contemporary dramatic literature words and expressions which to our modern ears are, to
ACT II SCENE III 47*-58
say the least, indehcate. How really indecent the drama can be, and yet strictly conform to correct notions of pro- priety in its phraseology, our modern stage, alas ! will bear eloquent testimony. Inde- cency of language is quite another thing from indecency of imagination, and in judg- ing of the moral tone of EL. or M.E. literature we must be careful to make the dis- tinction clearly if we would escape the imputation of hy- pocrisy.
<IF48 HERE HE COMES shows that the scene takes place in the porter's lodge or near it. SF 49 GOOD MOR- ROW, the conventional salu- tation *Good morning,' cp. 1.5.62. <IF5ITIMELY,'early,' cp. note to V. 8 and ** The beds i' th' east are soft and thanks to you. That cal'd me time- lier then my purpose hither" Ant.&Cl.II.6.5I. SF52 SLIPT THE HOURE, Met slip the appointment,' cp. "And we . . Had slipt our claime un- till another age" 3Hen.6 II. 2. I6l. SF 54 ONE, I.e. a trou- ble. The sentence stressupon **one" seems unusual to mod- ern ears : possibly no contrac- tion of IT IS was intended. SF55 PHYSICKS,*heals,'cp. "it is [see 1.4.58] a gallant child, one that indeed phys- icks the subject" Wint.T. I. 1.42. PAINE, 'trouble,' cp. "The paine be mine but thine shal be the praise" Sonn. XXXVIII. 14. *1F56 SO is frequently used in EL. E. with- out its correlative " as " before a following infinitive, cp. "So
ENTER MACBETH
MACDUFF Is thy master stirring?
Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.
LENOX Good morrow, noble sir.
MACBETH
Good morrow, both. MACDUFF Is the king stirring, worthy thane?
MACBETH
Not yet.
MACDUFF He did command me to call timely on him: I have almost slipt the houre.
MACBETH
rie bring you to him.
MACDUFF I know this is a joyfull trouble to you; But yet 't is one.
MACBETH The labour we delight in physicks paine. This is the doore.
MACDUFF rie make so bold to call, For 't is my limitted service.
EXIT MACDUFF
LENOX Goes the king hence to day?
MACBETH He does: he did appoint so.
* The text returns to the standard numeration.
74
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
APT TT SCENE III S9-68 good, sir, to rise" Meas. IV.
Al^ 1 11 O^^niNC ill :?>! t)» 3.29. LIMITTED,*appointed,'
cp. " having the houre limited and an expresse command" Meas. IV. 2. 175. As far as the language goes it is not necessary to suppose that Macduff was a Mord of the bed-chamber': he merely says that he has an early ap- pointment withthe king. SF 59 "When one thinks of what was happening at the time, this picture of the storm adds new horrortothe ideaof Duncan's murder. Shakspere in repre- senting it here may have had in mind a popular notion like that reflected in ' Besides, the devil many times takes his opportunity of such storms, and when the humours of the air be stirred he goes in with them, exagitates our spirits and vexeth our souls ; as the sea waves, so are the spir- its and humours in our bod- ies tossed with tempestuous winds and storms' Burton, 'Anat. of Mel.' I.ii. 2. 5. LAY of course means 'lodged' as in II. 2. 20. SF6I DEATH in EL. E. can mean 'bloodshed,' 'murder,' cp. N.E. D. 6 and "Death or slaughter of man or beast, occisio, ccedes'' Phr. Gen.; so that SCHREEMES OF DEATH corresponds to MN. E. ' shrieks of murder.' The ee seems to be anomalous, pointing to the sound i rather than e when the Folio was printed. But e before n and r was in many instances a close vowel toward the end of the 1 6th century, and it may be that after r also the change was taking place. SF 62 PROPHECYING is probably an adjective limiting "schreemes" and connected with "strange," i.e. 'screams of death strange and prophesying combustion,' etc.; such word order was not uncommon in EL. E., and is preserved in MN.E. phrases like "good men and true," cp. "a wise man and of great poUicy" Bacon's Atlantis, 30, 18 (ed. Moore-Smith) ; see also the citation from lHen.4 in the note to v. 7. The word "prophccying" is of three syllables, see note to 1.6.6. SF 63 OF is often used in EL. E. before the direct object of present active participles ; the idiom now survives only in dialect English. COMBUSTION, 'political confusion,' 'tumult,' a sense of the word which, according to N.E.D., was very common in the 1 6th and 1 7th centuries, but is now some- what unusual; cp. "kindling such a combustion in the state" Hen. 8 V. 4. 51- CON- FUS'D may have the meaning 'full of confusion,' 'distracting,' for adjectives formed by the suffix -ed had such wide range of meaning in EL. E. that they often corresponded to MN.E. present participles, cp. 1.6.5, "dishonored [i.e. dishonouring] peace" Drayton, 'Barrons W.' IV. 4. 2; "these thraled [i.e. enthralling] dumps" ' Faire Em' 1. 1.25; "A custome More honour'd in the breach then the observance" Ham. 1.4. 15. SF64 NEW H ATCH'D : Malone aptly compared this with the passage cited in note to I. 3. 58 ; but, failing to see that "such things become the hatch and brood of time" shows that TO here refers to time as the mother of events, he construed the preposition in the sense of 'to suit.'
75
LENOX The night has been unruly: where we lay, Our chimneys were blowne downe, and, as
they say, Lamentings heard i' th' ayre, strange
schreemes of death And prophecying, with accents terrible, Of dyre combustion and confus'd events New hatch'd to th'wofuU time: the obscure
bird Clamor'd the live-long night: some say, the
earth Was feverous and did shake.
MACBETH
'T was a rough night.
LENOX My young remembrance cannot paralell A fellow to it.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
The perplexing events can surely be thought of as being already hatched but not grown to maturity. OBSCURE has word stress on the first syllable, like ** oblique" in "By oblique glance of his licentious pen" Jonson, 'Sejanus' III, I ; it has this stress in Merch. II. 7. 5 1 also, "In the obscure grave." The word is here used in its sense of 'haunting the darkness,' cp. "with obscure wing Scout far and wide" Milton, 'Paradise Lost' II, 132 (Cent. Diet.); Shakspere speaks of the "nightly [i.e. night-loving] owle" in Titus II, 3-97. SF65 CLAMOR'D in
ACT II SCENE III
EL. E. had not the association of rapidly repeated sounds which it has in MN.E., but could well describe the owl's hooting: it is used of wailing in 1.7.78. <ff66 FEVOROUS, cp, "feavorous life" Meas, III. 1.75 ; in Shakspere'stime the word suggested the shak- ing of an ague as well as high temperature of the blood, SF67 PARALELL, 'bring into comparison with,' cp, " I had thought once to have paral- lelled him with the great Alex- ander"Jonson,' Sejanus' 1. 1. (Cent. Diet.).
69-74
ENTER MACDUFF MACDUFF
O horror, horror, horror I tongue nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee.
MACBETH AND LENOX
What's the matter? MACDUFF Confusion now hath made his master-peece: Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope The Lord's anoynted temple, and stole thence The life o' th' building.
*1F69 Such chiastic construc- tions as this were a common ornament of style in EL. writers. *1F7I CONFUSION, 'ruin,' as in " Make large confusion and, thy fury spent, Confounded be thy selfe" Timon IV.3,127, HIS, 'its,' SF72 MOST SACRILEGIOUS: superlatives were very frequently used absolutely in EL, E., e.^. "most glorious exploits of warre" Florio's Montaigne, 1.23; "chastest bed of mine" Sidney, 'Arcadia' p. 173. SF73 ANOYNTED : it is not necessary to suppose that the metaphor is confused as Delius does: "anointed" is used in EL. E. as a synonym for 'consecrated,' cp. "Barring the anointed liberty of laws" Daniel, 'Civil War' III. 23 (cited by N.E. D.). The word has a peculiar fitness here in its reference to the king as the Lord's anointed, cp. I Sam. XXIV. 10 (CI. Pr,). Richard calls himself the Lord's an-
ointed in Rich.3 IV, 4. 150 (Herford). *1F 74 THE LIFE O'TH' BUILDING seems to be a recollection of " For ye are the temple of the living God"IICor.VI.l6(Cl.Pr.). To "reave of life" is an old association in English, and Shakspere makes frequent use of it. The notion of the temple and the "life of the building" may have a remote association with the vestal fire. Shakspere speaks of breaking within the "bloody [i.e. full of blood] house of life" in John IV. 2. 2 10, and of
ACT II
SCENE III
74-78
? the life?
MACBETH What is 't you say
LENOX Meane you his majestic?
MACDUFF
Approch the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon: doe not bid me speake;
See, and then speake your selves. Awake,
awake 1
EXEUNT MACBETH AND LENOX 76
II
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
the "empty casket where the jewell of life By some damn'd hand was rob'd" in John V. 1.40. 'liF 76 SIGHT is here used in its now somewhat restricted sense of 'power of see- ing.' SF77 Shakspere did not necessarily draw the GORGON notion from Ovid: we may surely suppose him familiar with the classic mythology of his time. As a boy at school
he would have been stupid
ACT II SCENE III
indeed if he had not known the Medusa fable, and the story was accessible to him in almost any Latin dictionary of his time.
*ff79 The castle bell sum- moned all the retainers and servants, cp. V.5-5I. SF8I Shakspere, in order to height- en the horror of Macbeth's doom, 'sleep no more,' all through this play introduces associations of softness and quietness when speaking of sleep, even when such notions are unnatural and artificial as here. COUNTERFEIT, 'portrait,' N.E.D. 3. InWint. T. V.3. 18 Paulina with the words "prepare To see the life as lively mock'd as ever Still slecpe mock'd death" draws the curtain and shows Hermione standing like a statue. SF83 IMAGE, 'repre- sentation,' cp. "This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna" Ham. III. 2.248. *1F84 SPRIGHT and "spirit" are different forms of the same word in EL. E. SF85 The N.E.D. takes COUNTENANCE here as meaning 'to keep in countenance,' a sense of the word for which this passage alone is cited ; it is rather the appearance and actions of Malcolm and Banquo as haunting spirits, and not the persons themselves, that Shakspere is putting before the mind; so the word may have the meaning given in N.E.D. 4, es- pecially that illustrated in the quotation from Laneham's Letter, "who for parsonage [EL. form of 'personage'] gesture and utterauns beside countenaunst the matter too ['to'] very good liking"; cp., too, 2Hen.4 IV. 1.35- It is a play that Macduff is thinking of, and he adds the figure as he calls to Malcolm and Banquo and Donalbaine to rise from their "downey sleepe" — RISE UP is used as in "they rose up early" Mids. IV. 1. 137; cp. "the graves all gaping wide. Every one lets forth his spright" Mids. V. 1.387. Mac- duff's words may contain a suspicion that Banquo and Malcolm also have been mur- dered. RING THE BELL has been frequently taken by editors for a stage direction that has slipped into the text ; but the words may well be a natural expression of impatience at the slowness with which the alarm spreads through the castle. SF86 BUSINESSE, 'com- motion,' 'tumult,' cp. N.E.D. 7 b and its citation from Holinshed, " Argudus sent forth . . with a power to appease this business." This, dated 1 587, is the latest quotation in N. E. D. ;
77
79-91
Ring the alarum bell ! Murther and treason !
Banquo and Donalbaine ! Malcolme ! awake !
Shake off this downey sleepe, death's coun- terfeit,
And looke on death it selfe! up, up, and see
The great doomes image! Malcolme! Banquo!
As from your graves rise up, and walke like sprights
To countenance this horror. Ring the bell!
BELL RINGS. ENTER LADY MACBETH
LADY MACBETH What 's the businesse,
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? speake, speake!
MACDUFF
O gentle lady, 'T is not for you to heare what I can speake: The repetition in a woman's eare Would murther as it fell.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
but in Phr. Gen. (a century later) "Business or trouble" is glossed turba, tumultus: the same gloss occurs in Holyokc, 1 677. SF 87 TO PARLEY, * to conference ' ; cp. ** Our trum- pet call'd you to this gentle parle" John 11.205. *1F88 SPEAICE, SPEAKE! Of two suc- ceeding imperatives the second receives a heavier stress than the first, so the verse is quite rhythmical, though Macduff's words make it one of six waves. *1F90 REPETITION, 'utterance,' cp. " if it should be told The repetition cannot make it lesse" Lucr. 1284, the utterance of a thought being conceived as a repetition of its form. Macduff's unsus- picious concern for Lady
ACT II SCENE III 9I-I0I
Macbeth's womanly feelings heightens the interest of the situation.
ENTER BANQUO
O Banquo, Banquo! Our royall master's murther'd. LADY MACBETH
Woe, alas! What, in our house?
BANQUO
Too cruell any where! Deare Duff, I prythee contradict thy selfe. And say it is not so.
ENTER MACBETH, LENOX, AND ROSSB
MACBETH Had I but dy'd an houre before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time ; for from this instant There's nothing serious in mortalitie: All is but toyes: renowne and grace is dead; The wine of life is drawne, and the meere lees Is left this vault to brag of.
ENTER MALCOLME AND DONALBAINE between an entrance and a re- entrance is not noted in the FoHo stage directions. SF96 CHANCE in EL. E. often means 'misfortune,' 'calamity'; cp. "Ah! what an unkind houre Is guiltie of this lamentable chance!" Rom.&Jul. V. 3.145. SF98 SERIOUS, 'important," of value'; cp. "our rash fauhs Make trivial! price of serious things we have " All 's W. V. 3- 60. SF 99 ALL, a com- mon EL.E. idiom for the 'sum of things,' 'everything.' TOYES: the EL. sense of the word as used here has gone over to MN.E. 'trifles,' i.e. meaningless nothings; later Mac- beth will strangely come to realize the truth of his words, " Life . . is a tale Told by an ideot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing" V.5.26. SF 100 LEES, as in MN.E., is usually plural, but Shakspere has used it here as a collective noun. *1F lOI VAULT is here used in a double sense, ' wine-vault ' and ' earth.' SF 96 ff. Such highly wrought lan- guage as Macbeth employs did not offend Elizabethan taste. Hamlet, in 1.5.29, when he hears of his father's murder, declares that he will sweep to his revenge "with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love." Othello, V.2.350, declares that his eyes, 'subdued' by his sorrows, "Drops teares as fast as th' Arabian trees Their medicinable gumme." Highly wrought phraseology was an every-day matter in the Elizabethan age.
78
SF93 SurelyIN OUR HOUSE may be taken in its natural sense: 'What! here in the midst of friends? It is im- possible ! ' Lady Macbeth's words, thus addressed to Banquo, are probably in- tended to forestall a suspicion that Duncan's being in Mac- beth's house had anything to do with his murder. Ban- quo's TOO CRUELL ANY WHERE, 'a deed of sav- agery even if committed by his enemies,' answers Lady Macbeth's exclamation. His epithet CRUELL in MN.E. seems weak; but in EL.E. the adjective meant 'wild, fierce, savage,' N.E.D. 2. SF 94 PRYTHEE and "prethee" were common EL. forms of 'pray thee,' the diphthong be- ing weakened by its lack of stress. SF 95 The difference
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT II
SCENE III
I02-1 19
DONALBAINE
What is amisse?
MACBETH You are, and doe not know't: The spring, the head, the fountaine of your
blood Is stopt; the very source of it is stopt.
MACDUFF Your royall father 's murther'd.
MALCOLME
Oh, by whom? LENOX Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had
done 't: Their hands and faces were all badg'd with
blood; So were their daggers, which unwipM we
found Upon their pillowes:
They star'd,and were distracted ; no man's life Was to be trusted with them.
MACBETH O, yet I doe repent me of my furie, That I did kill them.
MACDUFF
Wherefore did you so? MACBETH Who can be wise, amaz'd, temp'rate and
furious, Loyall and neutrall, in a moment? No man: Th' expedition of my violent love Out-run the pawser, reason. Here lay Dun- can, His silver skinne lac'd with his golden blood. And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature
79
*1F 102 AMISSE, in its refer- ence to Malcolm, seems to mean'ataloss.'SF 103 HEAD, I.e. fountainhead. SF 105 Mal- colm's first question BY WHOM? must have been a shock to Macbeth. IF 107 BADG'D, cp. " Steep'd in the colours of their trade " v. 1 2 1 . SFlIO DISTRACTED, * mad,' 'crazed,' 'insane,' N.E.D. 5. SFII3 Something in Mac- beth's manner must have aroused Macduff's suspicions to make him put this direct question. SF 114 Enough of the M.E. meaning of 'pru- dent,' * having presence of mind,' must have clung to the word WISE in EL. E. to justify Macbeth's contrasting it with "amaz'd." Baret gives it the meaning sollers as well as sa- piens and prudens. amaz'd, 'dazed,' 'stupid,' N.E.D. I. TEMP'RATE, i.e. self-con- trolled. SFII5 NEUTRALL, 'indifferent,' cp. "one that 's of a newtrall heart" Lear III. 7.48. IN A MOMENT, i.e. at the same instant. ' Mo- ment'in MN.E. usually means 'a brief space of time' as dis- tinct from 'instant.' In EL.E. "in a moment" is equiva- lent to "in the twinkling of an eye" as the Phr. Gen. explains it. SF II6 EXPEDI- TION, i.e. haste, swiftness. *ff 117 OUT-RUN: 'run' is a regular past tense of 'run' in M.E. and EL.E. PAWSER is neither a noun of agent in -er meaning 'one who makes to pause,' nor an adjective mean- ing ' slower,' as it is usually explained: but an EL. noun meaning 'loiterer,' cp. Cot- grave, ^^ musard, a pawser, lingerer, deferrer, delayer," and '■'rumineur^ one that de- liberates or pauses on a mat- ter": Coles also glosses "a
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
pauser on, Wifafor"; and ACT II SCENE III 120-124
Hamlets "must give us
pawse," i.e. must make us t:^ . xU n x ^i ^i
deliberate, III. 1.68. <lFii8 ^^^ ^^^^^s wastfull entrance: there the
SILVER, i.e. pure white, cp. murtherers,
^silver cheekes" Lucr 6i. Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their
1 he word still means white . ^ '
in silver maple, silver birch, daggers
silver dawn. LAC'D: Cot- Unmannerly breech'd with ^ore: who could
grave defines cAamare 'Maced n
thick all over; aslope, ore- retraine,
crosse, or billetwise," show- That had a heart to love, and in that heart
ing that the word refers to Qoura^e to make 's love knowne?
reticulate ornamentation by °
interlaced bars or cords. In
Rom.&Jul. III.5.7, ''envious streakes Do lace the severing [departing] cloudes in yonder east," the word aptly describes the effect of dawn streaks crossing bars of low-lying cirrus clouds. GOLDEN, 'red,' cp. note to II. 2. 56 and Lucr. 57 ff. Macbeth's words with their EL. associations are not artificial, though it is little wonder that they should be thought far fetched when one understands "laced" as meaning 'covered with lace-work' and ignores the association of redness that attached to " golden " in EL. E. With such an interpretation one can sympathize with Johnson, who, with his usual intolerance of what he could not un- derstand, and in despair of patching the verse into what he thought good English, — for it is a difficult line to amend, as Warburton's Maqu'd' for Maced' clearly shows, — pronounced the passage hopeless and not to be amended 'but by a general blot.' SF 119 NATURE, 'life,' as frequently; the figure seems to be the same as that in " Poore soule, the center of my sinful! earth, [Hemmed by] these rebbell powres that thee array" Sonn. CXLVI. I. SF 120 WASTFULL is used in its common EL. sense of 'devastating,' cp. "When waste- full warre shall statues overturne" Sonn. LV.5. *ff 122 UNMANNERLY BREECH'D WITH GORE: the words have been the subject of much controversy. The attempts at explanation worth considering are (I) that Shakspere thought of the blades of the daggers as indecently covered with blood instead of properly sheathed in their scabbards; (2) that "breech" is used for 'hilt' in EL. E. ; and (3) that the phrase is misprinted. In making good the last explanation the emendations proposed are 'unmanly rech'd' (explained as meaning 'soiled with dark yellow') Warburton ; 'unmanly drenched' Johnson; 'unman- nerly hatched' Seward; 'in a manner lay drenched' Heath (the two latter are good illustrations of the emendatorial instinct!); 'unmanly breech'd' Travcrs ; etc. If the ne- cessity for emendation is once granted the easiest and most natural word for Shakspere to have used would have been 'imbrewed,' cp. Baret's Alvearie, "to imbrue, or make foule, to smeere, or make foule round about, oblino^^ ; "to imbrue or die with some colour, im- feuo" ; "to imbrue his handes with bloud, sanguine respergere dextram.^^ Baret also gives "embrew, ferrum tingere sanguine^^ ; "all bloudie, all cmbrewed with bloud, perfusus cruore^^ f "to embrew the harnesse with bloud"; "daughters embrewed with the bloud of their mother." There was an aphetic form of the word, viz. 'brewed,' 'brued,' 'brude,' two instances of whicharecited in N.E.D. from literature of Shakspere's time. This'brew'd,' written in a handwriting in which the right arm of the w had a curving ascender, as, e.g.y in Queen Elizabeth's, might have looked like 'breech'd' written with an h which did not go below the line, a form of the letter not unusual in EL. manuscripts. But even grant- ing this, there still remains the fact that 'unmannerly' is hardly the word to go with 'embrewed' or 'brew'd.' As to the second explanation: there is no evidence that 'breeched' was used in EL. E. for the hilt of a dagger, see N.E. D. ; and if there was, 'hilted with gore' would of itself require a deal of explanation to make it intelligible. We are forced to conclude, for the present at least, that the words are as Shakspere
80
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
wrote them. The "strippe your sword starke naked" Tw.N. III. 4. 274, cited by Cl.Pr., presents a similar figurative phraseology, though one not so violent as 'breeched with gore.' ** Breeches" in EL. E. described the long hose of the time as well as that part of the clothing which we now know as breeches. Shakspere has used the florid idiom of EL. E. in the early part of the passage, describing Duncan's appearance in terms of EL. dress ; it is likely that he would continue the same idiom in the latter part of his contrast. UNMANNERLY means 'boorish,' 'vulgar,' 'rustic,' in EL.E. "Unmannerly breech'd with gore" may thus easily describe the lower parts of the daggers, their blades, inde- cently and only partially covered with clotted blood and not properly clad with scabbards as they should have been. As we have already pointed out, Shakspere in using such highly figurative language as this was but following the custom of his time. In EL.E. it was scarcely possible to think at all without falling into the rich idiom then current. Even the sober writers on theology constantly employ forms of expression that to our notions are absurdly and grotesquely overwrought. Bacon, accurate and scientific as he is, con- stantly employs figurative idiom in his closest reasoning. Such books, too, as Spenser's Faerie Queene, Sidney's Arcadia, and Lyly's Buphues — very gardens of florid phrase- ology— were not frowned at, but considered to be the highest literary achievement of their time. A look into Puttenham will show pages of prescription in which these usages are reduced to classic rule and method. Shakspere, it is true, in employing figurative lan- guage usually weaves it into his thought so that his word associations are rarely far fetched and dear bought ; but the modern editor is not justified in botching the text when- ever he finds a figure loose-
ACT II SCENE III 124-125 % i',r^\kr's%:uS:'
another of those enclitic pro-
LADY MACBETH nominal contractions so com-
Helpe me hence, hoa! monin el. E.,cp." betray 's"
^ L3. I25,"under't"L5.67,and
MACDUFF note to L6.24.
Looke to the lady. c^ 124 The fainting fit of
Lady Macbeth interrupts the dialogue and for the moment throws the scene into confusion. The stage business must be supplied by conjecture from the context: not even the 'Lady Macbeth is carried out' below is to be found in FO. I,and Davenant alters the action entirely. HELPE ME HENCE indicates that Lady Macbeth tries to get away, and as faintness overpowers her calls for her servants. Whether she succeeds in leaving the stage or not would probably depend on the actors' interpretation of the scene ; if she does Macbeth must have run to her assistance, returning in v. 139, and Macduff's and Banquo's LOOKE TO THE LADY are to be taken as directions to the excited servants coming on the stage in answer to the HOA ! If Lady Macbeth swoons upon the stage Macbeth and the others surround her and carry her out, Malcolm and Donalbainc drawing apart and conversing with one an- other in asides. That Lady Macbeth should really swoon, 'murdered by the repetition in her woman's ears' of the ghastly and bloody details of Duncan's murder, introduces no inconsistency. In all the devilish fury of her purposes, we are never allowed quite to forget that she is a woman. Her language is womanly even in her terrible soliloquy, and her inability wholly to control her sentiment comes clearly forth in "Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had don 't." Her "undaunted metal" is only intellectual, a quick intelligence and a shrewd mind grasping a situation with masculine vigour : emotionally she is still the woman. That Macbeth should not take part in the dialogue here has been over-subtly construed by some critics as an evidence of his indifference. But these critics do not tell us what Macbeth should have said. If the scene is naturally construed surely his silence means the very opposite of indifference.
81
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SFI26 MOST is used in its EL. absolute sense and corre- sponds to MN. E. 'best.' AR- GUMENT, 'theme,' 'subject of conversation,' cp, "could thou and I rob the theeves . . it would be argument for a weeke" I Hen. 4 II. 2. 99. *1FI27 SHOULD illustrates the EL. E. and M.E. usage of the auxiliary in the sense of 'can,' 'may,' expressing pos- sibility from a subjective point of view; MN.E. uses 'may* in this idiom, but constantly confuses it with 'can,' despite grammatical injunctions ; cp. "What should he be?" i.e. 'Who may he be?' IV.3.49, and " Where shold this musick be?" i.e. 'Where can it be?' 'Where are we to look for it?' Temp. 1.2. 387. FATE, as in " If to my sword his fate be not the glory" Tro.&Cr. IV. 1.26, is here used in its sense of 'death,' 'ruin.' Staunton's emendation 'hide we in an auger-hole' in order to avoid the notion of ' Fate lying perdu in an auger-hole' is therefore quite unneces- sary. SFI28 The EL. word AUGURE HOLE, like MN.E. 'knot-hole,' denotedany small orifice, cp. "To creep into an auger-hole to hide their heads'' Dent, 1 60 1, cited in N. E. D., and "the like illu- sion is of their phantasie in . . creeping thorow augur- holes" Jonson's Masque of Queenes, note in ed. 1640, p. 169; "augor's boare" isuscd
ACT II
SCENE III
125-138
MALCOLME
ASIDE TO DONALBAINE
Why doe we hold our tongues, That most may clayme this argument for ours?
DONALBAINE
ASIDE TO MALCOLME
What should be spoken here, where our fate^ Hidinan augure hole, may rush and seize us? Let us away; our teares are not yet brew'd»
MALCOLME
ASIDE TO DONALBAINE
Nor our strong sorrow upon the foot of
motion. 130, 131
BANQUO
Looke to the lady: 131
LADY MACBETH IS CARRIED OUT
And when we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure, let us meet, And question this most bloody piece of worke, To know it further. Feares and scruples
shake us : In the great hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight Of treasonous mallice.
MACDUFF
And so doe ALL
I.
So all.
in the same way in Cor. IV. 6.87 (cited by Steevens). *1FI29 For LET US FO. I reads "Let 's." The verse division of FO. I for vv. 127 to 1 30 is What . . here, Where . . hole, May . . away. Our . . brew'd. Nor . . sorrow, Upon . . motion. Modern editors usually make two verses of Let's away. Our . . brew'd. But by reading "Let us" as in the text the broken verses dis- appear. For SORROW as a monosyllable, cp. "follow" in 1.6. II ; words ending in -ow had monosyllabic forms in e.N.E., and many of them seem to be' so used in EL. poetry. The 'brewing' of rain and showers is not an uncommon figure in J^l.E. and e.N.E., and such an extension of the notion as the 'brewing of tears' is not unnatural in EL. E, It
82
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
occurs also in Titus III. 2. 38 (cited by Delius). STRONG in EL. E. often connotes what in MN.E. would be described as 'violent.* UPON THE FOOT OF is an EL. phrase mean- ing 'ready to start upon/ see N.E. D.s.u. 'foot' 29; MOTION is used by Malcolm in its EL. psychological meaning of 'expression,' cp. "in thy face strange motions have ap- pear'd" lHen.4 II. 3-63. SF 132 NAKED FRAILTIES is probably a reference to the effect of the morning chill upon the half-clad actors in the scene ; but Banquo's words may have a deeper application, since "naked frailty" also means 'unprotected weakness'; see N.E.D. 'frailty' — 'exposure to the undivulged pretence of treasonous malice' as well as to cold. For HID in the sense of 'shielded,' 'protected,' cp. "having nothing but a cote of thatch to hide them from heaven" Bishop Hall, I6I4 (cited in N. E. D. I b). SF 134 QUESTION, 'inquire into,' as in 1.3-43. SF 135 SCRUPLES in EL.E. means 'doubts' or 'anxieties' of any sort, and is not restricted to those of conscience. SF 136 IN THE GREAT HAND OF GOD: Shakspere evidently had in mind I Pet. V. 6 ff . : "Humble
your selves therefore under
ACT II SCENE III
the mighty hand of God, casting all your care upon him, for hee careth for you. Beesober,bevigilant : because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may de- voure." SF137 PRETENCE, 'intention,' 'purpose,' cp. "the pretence whereof [i.e. the treason] being by circum- stances partly layd open [i.e. divulged]" Wint.T. III. 2. 18, and "Fair knight, . . what is your pretence?" Halle, 'Chronicle,' Hen. VIII, 4. SF138 TREASONOUS is here syncopated to 'treas'nous.'
SF139 BRIEFELY, 'without delay,' a common EL. mean- ing of the word, cp. N.E.D. 2, which cites: ^'■/Jnt. Go put on thy defences. Bros. Briefely, sir" Ant.&Cl. IV. 4. 10. MANLY READINESSE: 'ready' in EL.E. was closely associated with apparel, cp. " Enter severall wayes Bas- tard, Alanson, Reignier, halfe ready and halfe unready" stage direction to I Hen. 6 II. 1.39 (cited by Cl.Pr.). The gloss of Phr.Gen. "in readi- ness, alte prcecinctus eif^ is another instance in point. But even without this associa- tion the phrase is clear, cp. "put we on Industrious souldiership" V.4. 15, "She puts on outward strangenesse" Ven.&Ad. 310, "put on feare" C32S.I.3.6O, and "Put on what weary negligence you please" Lear 1.3. 12. SF 140 CONTENTED in EL.E. means 'agreed' as well as 'satisfied'; the king plays on the double meaning of the word in Rich. 2 IV. 1.200: '"Su//, Are you contented to resigne the crowne? '^ich. I [i.e. aye], no; no, I." SF 142 OFFICE, 'performance of duty,' cp. "you have shewne your father
83
139-147
MACBETH Let 's briefely put on manly readinesse, And meet i' th' hall together.
ALL
Well contented.
EXEUNT ALL BUT MALCOLME AND DONALBAINE
MALCOLME
What vv^ill you doe? Let 's not consort with them:
To shew an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man do's easie. Tie to Eng- land.
DONALBAINE
To Ireland I; our seperated fortune
Shall keepe us both the safer: where we are
There 's daggers in men's smiles: the neere in blood,
The neerer bloody.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
A child-like office" Lear II. 1. 107. SF 143 FALSE in this sense of 'treacherous* as an attribute of persons is now usually strengthened by '-hearted.' EASIE is the EL. adverb form without -ly. As has already been pointed out, the omission of the verb in expres- sions denoting motion is common in EL. syntax; cp. also II. 4. 35 ff. SF 146 THERE 'S is EL. syntax by which a singular verb agrees with a plural subject. THE . . THE is a correlative idiom, descended from the O. E. instrumental case, still in use in MN.E. com- parisons with the sense of 'by how much . . by so much.' NEERE is an e. N.E. compara- tive form which survived from M. E. and means 'nearer': cp. Hey wood's proverb, "the neare to the churche, the furder from God" Sp. Soc.,p. 152. The whole expression seems to have been prover-
'^N::r^^^'Zl^s ^cr n SCENE III 147-152
[i.e. purposes] and not in
blood" Rich.3 II. 1.92. MALCOLME
This murtberous shaft that 's shot
SF149 AVOID THE AYME, o .u * ^ ]-aU\ J J £ ^
'get away from the mark,' ^ath not yet lighted, and OUT safest way N.E.D. 6;cp."agarishflagge Is to avoid the ayme. Therefore to horse;
To be the ayme of every dan- J^^^ j^^ ^5 ^^^ ^^ daintie of leave-takind, gerous shot" Rich.3IV.4.89: o 1 r 1 1 r
nearness of kin to Duncan t>ut shitt away : there s warrant in that thett
and not to Macbeth is the Which steales it selfe when there 's no mercie
ground of Malcolm's dread. 1 n
Despite Shakspere's marvel- leiL.
lous skill in the development . EXEUNT
of his theme, modern editors
will have it that this remark of Malcolm's — indeed the whole scene — reveals a universal suspicion of Macbeth, the fastening of which upon him is avoided only by the timely fainting fit of Lady Macbeth. But we must remember that only Banquo is in a position to suspect the real author of the crime, and he cannot bring himself definitely to avow, even in soliloquy, aught more than vague suspicion ; he has been too much impressed by the witches' prophecy as it concerns himself to resist the course of events, cp. III. I.I ff. And Macbeth in III. 1.48 ff. does not so much fear Banquo's suspicion as he does the fulfilment of the witches' prophecy that makes Banquo the father of a line of kings. It is the doubtful joy of his success as tainted by this thought that nerves him to the new murder. SF 1 50 LEAVE-TAKING seems to have had the word stress upon its second member in EL.E. SFI5I SHIFT is glossed evado in Coles, cp. "Oh Mistris, Mistris, shift and save your selfe" Err. V. 1. 168 ; it was also a euphemism for practising knavery, cp. Merry W. 1.3-37, hence the turn of Malcolm's words which follow. The same notion occurs in AU'sW. II. I. 33 (cited by Delius) : ^^'Ber. By heaven ! I 'le steale away. / Lord. There's honour in the theft"; cp. also Sonn. XCII. I.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE IV
This closing scene of Act II is not really a part of the play's dramatic action, but rather serves the purpose of a chorus, bridging over the gap between Act II, which leaves Mac- beth having successfully accomplished the murder, and Act III, which presents him in the full enjoyment of the fruits of his crime. It has a double and typical chorus theme, narrating how the bloody act affects the powers above and how it affects men below — the divine and the human aspects of the tragedy. The first theme ii unfolded in vv. 1-20, the second in vv. 21-41. Intervening thus between the two chief divisions of the tragedy,
84
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
the bloody deed and the retribution, it binds them together, furnishing an epilogue to Act II and a prologue to Act III. In its epilogue character it reflects the apparent suc- cess of Macbeth's plot ; in its prologue character it forecasts the retribution of the powers of heaven through their agent Macduff. In its latter aspect it contrasts with the prologue scene to the first part of the play, whose theme was the powers of darkness brooding over the action of the tragedy.
SCENE IV: OUTSIDE MACBETH'S CASTLE ENTER ROSSE WITH AN OLD MAN
I-IO
OLD MAN HREESCORE and ten I can re- member well : Within the volume of which time
I have scene H cures dreadfuU and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings.
ROSSE
Ha, good father, Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with
man's act, Threatens his bloody stage: by th' clock 't is
SF I A similar ellipsis occurs in 2Hen.4 III. 2. 51 ff . : '*a [i.e. he] would have clapt in the clowt [i.e. hit the nail] at twelve-score [i.e. yards], and carryed you a fore-hand shaft at foureteene [i.e. fourteen score yards] and foureteene and a halfe." While still fre- quent in MN. E. in giving time, age, or date, it would not now be employed in such an idiom as this. SF3 SORE, 'griev- ous': this original sense of the word is now obsolete save in *sore trouble.* SF4 TRIFLED, 'made a jest of,'
And yet darke night strangles the travailing
lampe : Is 'tnight'spredominance,orthe dayesshame, That darknesse does the face of earth in-
tombe, When living light should kisse it?
J cp.'* Howdothe ourebysshop
y^ . trifle and mock us" Berners's
Froissart I.cc. (quoted by Cent. Diet.). But in this sense the word is rare and a nonce-usage in Shakspere. KNOWINGS, not'knowledge' but 'experiences,' cp. "gen- tlemen of your knowing" Cym. I. 4. 29 (cited by CI. Pr.) ; the substantive is evi- dently founded on 'know' in the sense of 'to experience' N.E.D.^c, as is EL. "hav- ings" from 'have.' FATHER is still a term of respect, less familiar than 'uncle,' applied to an old man; Mcnenius says, "He call'd me father," in Cor. V.I. 3? cp. N.E. D.8. *1F 5 SEEST in e. N.E. is a monosyllable regularly developed from M.E. "sest": 'se-est' is a modern form. Rosse's thought, like Macbeth's in I. 3. 1 27 ff., is couched in the tech- nical language of the theatre. The canopy of the stage in the EL. theatre was called the HEAVENS, see N.E. D.s.u. 8. The fact that the stage was hung with black for the performance of tragedies — cp. " Blacke stage for tragedies and murthers fell" Lucr. 766 — explains Rosse's allusion to the darkness. ACT in EL. E. often corresponds to MN. E. 'action,' 'activity,' a meaning still preserved in 'act of God,' cp. N.E.D.4. *1F 6 The THREATENS of FO. I is altered by modern editors to 'threaten' in order to make Shak-
85
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
spere conform to MN. rules of grammar; but "heavens" seems sometimes to have been a collective noun in EL.E., cp. IV. 3- 23 1. SF 7 LAMPE, i.e. the sun, cp. N.E. D.2, especially the quotation from Dunbar: *' Phebus the radius [i.e. radiant] lamp diurn." The notion occurs also in 3Hen.6 II. 1. 31, "one lampe, one light, one sunne." The association of the TRAVAILING sun is not an unusual one in Shakspere and contemporary poets, cp. "Now is the sun upon the highmost hill Of this daies journey" Rom.&Jul. II. 5. 9; the "weary sun" occurs several times in Shakspere. Dyce cites Drayton, 'Elegies,' p. 185, ed. 1627: "nor regard him [i.e. the sun] travelling the signes," and adds that the notion is traceable to Ps.XIX.5 — rather to Ps.XIX.6: "His going foorth is from the ende of the heaven, and his circuite unto the endcs of it." Travel, *to go on a journey,' and travail, 'to toil,' were not distinguished by different spellings until after Shakspere's time. SF8 PREDOMINANCE, 'astrological influence,' cp. " Fooles by heavenly compul- sion, knaves, thecves, and treachers by sphericall predominance, drunkards, lyars, and adulterers by an enforc'd obedience of planatary influence" Lear 1.2. 132 ff. Rosse's thought is * Does the baleful
ACT II SCENE IV
influence of night still domi- nate the world, or is the day ashamed of the deeds of dark
ness
•5»
most 2.60.
'e'en
SFlO UNNATURALL, 'un- nat'ral,' cp. note to I. 2.51; the word means contrary to the laws of nature, cp. for a similar double meaning "Thy deeds inhumane and unnat- urall Provokes this deluge
unnaturall" Rich. 3 I.
It II EVEN LIKE, I.e.
like,' 'just like'; the word is really a compound adjective, M.E.'evenlik.' SF 12 FAULCON: the diphthong is due to the development in EL.E. of u before / followed by a consonant and gives MN. E. 'folcon ' (the first sylla- ble rhyming with 'ball') ; 'fcBl- con' is due to an attempt to pronounce f-a-1-c-o-n. TOWR- ING is a technical term of falconry denoting the rising of the hawk just before strik- ing her game, cp. 2Hen.6 II. 1. 1 ff., especially v. 10, " My lord Protector's hawkes doc towre so well " ; cp. also " she towrcth, insurgit^^ Holyoke
10-20
OLD MAN
'T is unnaturall, Even like the deed that 's done. On Tuesday
last A faulcon towring in her pride of place Was by a mowsing owle hawkt at and kilFd.
ROSSE And Duncan's horses — athing most strange
and certaine — Beauteous and swift, the minions of their
race, Turn'd wilde in nature, broke their stalls,
flong out, Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would Make warre with mankinde.
OLD MAN 'T is said they eate each other. i8
ROSSE
They did so.
To th' amazement of mine eyes that look'd
upon 't. 19. 20
s.v. 'hawk' — all the verbs Holyoke notes as applicable to falconry are introduced by 'she.' PLACE, likewise, denotes the hawk's highest pitch in soaring, cp. "She made the height of the moone the place of her flight," "he [i.e. the "tassel gentle"] never ceased in his circular motion untill he had recovered his place" Nash's Quaternio, 1633 (cited in Drake's Shakspeare and his Times, p. 127), and "A tiercel gentle . . In such a place flies
86
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
as he seems to say 'see me, or see me not!'" Massinger's Guardian, I. I (also cited by Drake). ^13 The low-flying MOWSING OWLE is contrasted with the soaring falcon. HAWKT AT, 'attacked,' 'pounced upon,' N.E.D.3. SF 14 HORSES: the regular O.E. and M.E. plural 'hors' survived in e. N.E., see N.E.D. lb; the monosyllable is still used in MN.E. when we say 'a troop of fifty horse,' and it is possible that this mono- syllabic form was here intended by Shakspcre, though the extra syllable before the ca2sural pause is not an uncommon characteristic of EL. and M.E. versification. CER- TAINE, 'infallible as an omen,' N. E. D. 2, cp. "that will not let you Beleeve things certaine" Temp. V. 124. *IF 15 MINIONS, 'darlings,' cp. 1.2. 19; the word refers to the esteem in which the animals were held. SF 16 NATURE: the word is used as in III. 4. 30 to denote the essential characteristics of an animal. SF 18 EATE is the EL. form of the past tense, still in use with shortened vowel, 'et,' side by side with another past-tense form 'ate.' As one of its common senses is to 'gnaw upon,' 'feed upon,' the absurdity of the horses consuming one another is only apparent. The portents which Shakspcre here refers
to are described in Holins-
ACT II
SCENE IV
20-27
ENTER MACDUFFE
Heere comes the ^ood Macduffe. How ^oes the world, sir, now?
MACDUFFE
Why, see you not? ROSSE Is 't known who did this more then bloody deed?
MACDUFFE Those that Macbeth hath slaine.
ROSSE
Alas, the day! What ^ood could they pretend?
MACDUFFE
They were subborned: Malcolme and Donalbaine, the king's two
sonnes, Are stolne away and fled, which puts upon
them Suspition of the deed.
hed's account of the murder of King Duff: "For the space of six moneths togither after this heinous murther thus committed, there appeered no sunne by day, nor moone by night in anie part of the realme, but still was the skie covered with continuall clouds, and sometimes such outragious winds arose, with lightenings and tempests, that the people were in great feare of present distruction. . . Monstrous sights also that were scene within the Scottish kingdome thatyeerewerethese : horsses in Louthian, being of singular beautie and swiftnesse, did eate their owne flesh, and would in no wise taste anie other meate. . . There was a sparhawke also strangled by an owle." SF 18 ff. The verses are divided as in FO. I. For "mankinde" see note to
n. 1.49.
<ff2I HOW GOES THE WORLD is an EL. conven- tional expression meaning 'What 's the news?' as in Tam. of Shr. IV. 1.35 (cited by Delius) ; in Phr. Gen. it is translated by quid novi. SF24 GOOD, 'advantage.' PRETEND is used in its common EL. sense of 'aim at,' cp. II. 3- 137. SUBBORNED is now usually restricted to false swearing, 'subornation of perjury,' but in EL. E. it was applied to the instigation of any form of crime, cp. " Dighton and Forrest, whom I did suborne to do this pcece of ruthfuU butchery, . . Melted with tendernesse" Rich.3 IV. 3. 4.
87
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SCENE IV
27-41
*IF 27 Modern editors alterthe ACT II comma of FO. I after STILL to a colon ; but 'GAINST NA- TURE STILL, i.e. 'always violating natural instincts/ seems to be a part of the apos- trophe carried out by "raven up thine ownc lives meancs." <1F28 THRIFTLESSEinEL.E. means * greedy ' as well as * im- provident.' Rosse says that the sons could not wait for the course of nature to make them kings, and now their guilty flight has deprived them of ever attaining to the sover- eignty. RAVEN UP, 'de- vour': "[fast days] are of a Flemish breed, I am sure on 't, for they ravin up more butterthan all the dayes of the week besides" Every Man in his Humour IIL4. SF 29 MEANES is often singular in EL. E., and is applied to per- sons in a wide range of con- notation, including 'medium,' 'agent,' 'instrument,' etc., cp. "And make the Douglas Sonne your onely meane For powres in Scotland" I Hen. 4 1. 3. 261. SF3I SCONE was the ancient seat of the Scottish kings, and thither they rode "for to be set in kingis stole, and to be king." The seat of the "kingis stole" was the stone of Scone, which was carried to England by Ed- ward I in 1 296. SF 33 COLME- KILL is lona: Shakspere in his mention of Scone and Colmekill as being respec- tively the place of ' investiture' and the burial-place of Dun- can's 'predecessors' follows Holinshed; but Holinshed does not mention the fact that
it was at lona that the records of the ancient kings were kept. Shakspere seems to have been familiar with the fact, however, and also with the 'sacred' estimation in which the place was held from its connection with St. Columba. *IF36 FIFE was the seat of Mac- duff. SF37 There seems to be a play intended on the word WELL as in IV. 3. ^77, where Rosse informs Macduff that Macbeth has murdered his wife and children ; but modern
88
ROSSE
'Gainst nature still, Thriftlesse ambition, that will raven up Thine owne lives meanes! Then 't is most
like The soverai^nty will fall upon Macbeth.
MACDUFFE He is already nam'd, and ^one to Scone To be invested.
ROSSE
Where is Duncan's body? MACDUFFE Carried to Colmekill,
The sacred store-house of his predecessors And guardian of their bones.
ROSSE
Will you to Scone? MACDUFFE No, cosin. Fie to Fife.
ROSSE
Well, I will thither. MACDUFFE Well may you see things wel done there:
adieu! Least our old robes fit easier then our new!
ROSSE Farewell, father.
OLD MAN God's benyson go with you, and with those That would make good of bad and friends of foes.
EXEUNT OMNES
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
editors insert a comma after the first WELL. Rosse later joins Macduff's party, but for the present remains with Macbeth; doubtless, therefore, the old man's words in v. 4 1 are in- tended as an explanation of the part he is to take in the action immediately subsequent. Macduff's ADIEU, etc., seems to be tantamount to ' Farewell ! I fear lest we begin to talk treason, for I cannot shift my allegiance so easily as you do.' The FO. spelling LEAST is that of the word before its long open e was shortened to its MN.E. form.
As Act I had for its theme the purpose or "thought" of Duncan's murder, so Act II has for its subject the achievement of the purpose. In the first act it was the subjective interests of this thought that we had before us : its incipiency as a fatal decree of the powers of darkness, its effect upon Macbeth and upon Lady Macbeth, the boding shadow it casts upon Banquo. In this act the objective aspects of the murder are presented — the great fact and its immediate consequence — Scene I representing the action imme- diately preparatory. Scene II the act itself. Scene III Malcolm and Donalbaine fixing the guilt on themselves by their flight. Scene IV the consequent accession of Macbeth (repre- sented in narrative). These first two acts, therefore, present the involution of the tragedy whose evolution lies in the vengeance of heaven for a foul crime instigated by the powers of evil and perpetrated by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth under the control of demoniacal agents. As has already been pointed out, the division between the two parts of the play is marked by a short scene which takes the place of a chorus.
Historically considered, Acts III, IV, and V cover a period of seventeen years, the duration of Macbeth's reign, at least ten years of which were, according to Holinshed, marked by a vigorous and righteous administration of the government, the king "govern- ing the realme for the space of ten yeares in equall justis." After this period he begins to dread the accession of Banquo's line and murders him. The interval, therefore, be- tween the two acts is at least ten years. But Shakspere, with his great power of lending dramatic unity to a long series of connected events only a few of which he seizes on to represent his subject, gives this time interval a certain vagueness, so that Act III is really continuous with Act II, sometimes reflecting the long historical interval, sometimes the short psychological interval. In this way he keeps ever before us the central figure, Mac- beth, and the central theme, his insanity.
89
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
THE THIRD ACT
SCENE 1: FORRES: THE PALACE ENTER BANQUO
I-I3
BANQUO HOU hast it now, kin^, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weyard women promised; and I feare Thou playd'st most fowly for 't: yet it was saide It should not stand in thy posterity. But that my selfe should be the roote and father Of many kings. If there come truth from them^ As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine, Why, by the verities on thee made good. May they not be my oracles as well.
And set me up in hope? But hush, no more !
SENIT SOUNDED ENTER MACBETH AS KING LADY MACBETH LENOX ROSSE LORDS LADIES AND ATTENDANTS
MACBETH Heere 's our chiefe guest.
LADY MACBETH
If he had beene forgotten, It had bene as a gap in our great feast, And all-thing unbecomming.
SF2 Either THE before WEY- ARD is intended to be read as *th" or WEYARD is to be scanned as a monosyllable ; the former seems more likely, as 'weird' can hardly have less stress than WOMEN. SF4 IT, i.e. the sovereignty. STAND, 'abide,' 'remain.' POSTERITY, 'Une,' 'issue'; the word is used in EL. E. of one's immediate descendants, cp. "Hee'ld make an end of thy posterity" Cor. IV. 2. 26.
SF 5 The reflexive pronouns like MY SELFE are often used as subjects in M. E. and e. N. E. without the strengthening pronouns, cp. 1.3.96. ROOTE, 'progenitor,' a figurative use of the word not uncommon in EL. E., cp. "In several tables they [i.e. the Scripture genealo- gies] are here exhibited even from their first root" Genealogies appended to the I6l3 ver- sion of the Bible, p. 2; cp., too, Rom. XV. 12, "the root of David," and Rev. XXII. 16. ^7 The modern punctuation, through which AS . . SHINE is cut off by dashes instead of by commas as in FO. I, is misleading. AS is used in its EL. sense of 'in proportion as.* SPEECHES, 'statements,' here equivalent to 'predictions,' cp. " Have you consider'd of my ; speeches?" III. 1.76; the word was used thus in EL. E. without the connotation of formal and premeditated utterance which it now has. SHINE, 'reflect glory and honour,' cp. 1. 4.41. SF8 VERITIES, cp. "which you shal finde By every sellable a faithful veritie" ! Meas. IV. 3. 130. SF 10 SENIT SOUNDED: cp. "Other soundings there are . . a senet for state" 'The Souldier's Accidence' pp. 60-62, cited in N. Shak. Soc. Proceedings, ■'80-'8^, Appendix, p. 86. Another stage direction of the same sort is found at the end :]
90
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
of Hen. 5. It seems to have been a peculiar set of notes on the cornet associated with the movements of royal persons, cp. the interesting note on the word in Nares's Glossary. For other forms of it see Cent. Diet. s.t). The LADIES after LORDS is a modern addi-
tion to the sta^e direction. SF 13
ALL-THING, 'quite,' 'altogether,' N.
E. D. 'air 2 b; the
accusative of 'thing' and 'way' with a qualifying adjective did duty as adverbs in M.E. and e. N. E., cp. "nothing afeard" 1.3.96, "something from" III. 1. 132; cp. also "each
wayguilty" Sidney's Arcadia,
SCENE I
ACT III
14-28
MACBETH To ni^ht we hold a solemne supper, sir, And rie request your presence.
BANQUO
Let your hi^hnesse Command upon me, to the which my duties Are with a most indissoluble tye For ever knit.
MACBETH Ride you this afternoone?
BANQUO
I, my good lord. 20 MACBETH We should have else desired your good
advice, Which still hath been both grave and pros- perous. In this dayes councell; but wee 'le take to
morrow. Is 't farre you ride?
BANQUO As farre, my lord, as will fill up the time 'Twixt this and supper: goe not my horse
the better, I must become a borrower of the night For a darke houre or twaine.
considered,' 'authoritative,' N. E.D.I. PROSPEROU S, ' turning out well,' as in " And may our oathes well kept and pros- p'rous be" Hen.5 V.2.402; possibly, however, Macbeth wishes Banquo to understand the word in its now obsolete sense of 'favourable,' cp. "To my unfolding lend your pros- perous earc" Oth.I.3.245. SF 23 TAKE was widely used in EL. expressions of time, cp. "Take thyfaire houre" Ham. 1.2.62 ; here Macbeth seems to mean that he will postpone the meeting so that Banquo may be present at it. The words thus spoken in the presence
91
p. 304, " something too great " ibid., p. 42 b, "any way im- portune [i.e. importunate]," ibid., p. 4 b.
SF 14 SOLEMNE has here its common EL. sense of 'for- mal,' ' ceremonial,' cp. " at thy solemnefeast"TitusV.2. 1 15. SF16 UPON goes with ME rather than with COMMAND, and is used in its EL. E. sense of 'concerning,' 'with refer- ence to,' cp. " I have no power upon you" Ant.&Cl. 1.3-23, and "upon for concerning; c/e" Phr. Gen. WHICH in e. N.E. refers to persons as well as to things, cp. "Our Father which art in heaven" in our EL. version of the Bible; as in M.E., it often takes the definite article, cp. "some soldier . . the which for feare had sneaked from campe" Greene's Alphonso, v. 256. Banquo's words echo the notion in Macbeth's speech to Duncan in 1.4.23. 4 19 RIDE YOU, etc., illus- trates a not uncommon word order for the EL. interrogative sentence. The word RIDE in M.E. and e. N.E. is a general term for travelling, and its em- ployment here does not imply that Banquo is taking a ride for pleasure. SF 22 STILL, 'always.' GRAVE, 'carefully
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
of the court, like the order given to the servant in II. I. 3 1, were perhaps intended to fore- stall the suspicion that might fall upon Macbeth when Banquo's murder became known. SF26 THE BETTER: the correlative clause is to be supplied, *the better for having so much work to do'; cp. "they will be sure if he ride not the stronger to be fingering his purse" Harrison's England, ed. Furnivall, p. 284 : the phrase is thus tantamount to 'better than usual.' SF 28 TWAINE
was originally the masculine form of the numeral whose neuter was 'two.' The gender distinction was lost in M. E., and the two words were used more or less interchangeably in e. N. E., 'twain' being re- stricted to substantive usage, and,probablyfrom itslikeness to 'twin,' being thought to stand for bini rather than for duo. By the time of Kersey, 1708, it was considered ar- chaic, as it is in MN.E.
SF28 FAILE,'miss,"beabsent from,'N.E.D.9,I0. SF 29 Ban- quo's brief answer with stress falling on WILL is peculiarly ominous. SF 30 BLOODY, 'murderous,' 'blood-guilty,' cp. N.E. D. 6, a sense of the word now somewhat unusual. BESTOW'D; 'lodged,' as in III. 6.24. SF32 PARRICIDE applied to 'the murder of a father' is not so common now as is the word in the sense of *the murderer of one's father/ <1F33 INVENTION: the no- tion is now more concrete and would be plural in MN. E. SF34 THEREWITHALL, 'be- sides that,' "withall" being equivalent to 'with.' Mac- beth treats the matter as per- sonal. CAUSE, 'business,' cp. N. E. D. 10, especially the citation "The cause craves hast" Lucr. 1295, which also illustrates CRAVING in the sense of 'demanding' — here ' requiring our attention.' Macbeth treats Banquo as his trusted lieutenant. *ff 36
ACT III
SCENE I
28-44
MACBETH
Faile not our feast. BANQUO My lord, I v^ill not.
MACBETH We heare our bloody cozens are bestow'd In England and in Ireland, not confessing Their cruell parricide, filling their hearers With strange invention: but of that to mor- row, When therewithall, we shall have cause of
state Craving us joyntly. Hye you to horse : adieu, Till you returne at night. Goes Fleance with you?
BANQUO I, my good lord: our time does call upon 's.
MACBETH I wish your horses swift and sure of foot, And so I doe commend you to their backs. Farwell.
EXIT BANQUO
Let every man be master of his time
Till seven at night; to make societie
The sweeter welcome, we will keepe our
selfe Till supper time alone: while then, God be
with you!
EXEUNT LORDS GOES FLEANCE WITH YOU? is artfully added as an
apparent afterthought. But Macbeth's plot aims at Fleance as well as at his father. SF37
TIME, ' appointment.
DOES CALL UPON 'S, 'claims us,' cp. " A verie serrious businesse
92
I
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
call's on him" All's W. II.4.4I. *1F 39 COMMEND, 'commit/ as in 1.7. II, smilingly said in imitation of the farewell formula. SF 40 Words like HARWELL, short phrases like "no, no," and compellations like *' My lords," *' Sir knight," etc., are often not reckoned as part of the verse in EL. dramatic poetry, see e.g. Peele's Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes (ed. BuUen), joasszm. SF42 SOCIETIE is often used in EL. E. in the sense of social intercourse, cp. ** there is nothing to which nature hath more addressed us than to society" Florio's Montaigne, 1.27. SF43 WELCOME is used in its adjective sense. The Folio verse divi- sion is The . . welcome. We , . alone, While . . you. SF44 WHILE has here its M.E. and
e. N.E. sense of 'until,' cp. Tw.N. IV.3.29, and ''While signifying 'until' or 'so long till ' is made by donee, dam and tantis per dum : as I will not leave while I have done it, hauddesinam donee perfecero hoc, etc." Phr. Gen. GOD BE WITH YOU is merely the fuller form of 'good-bye' and is probably trisyllabic here, 'God b'wy ye.'
ACT III
SCENE I
43-48
Sirrha, A word
wi
ith
Pl
you:
attend those men our
easure :
SERVANT They are, my lord, without the pallace ^ate.
MACBETH Brin^ them before us.
EXIT SERVANT
<IF45 SIRRHA: the word is not part of v. 45, though so printed in theCambridge text : see note to v, 40. EL. printers frequently make the extra measure phrases part of the verse which follows, as the printer of FO. I has done in this case, throwing OUR PLEASURE into a separate line. The form SIRRHA is common in EL. E. Minsheu s.v. says that the word is one of contempt : though usually in Shakspere implying the social inferiority of the person so addressed, it is not always thus used, cp. IV. 2. 30. SF47 WITHOUT, 'out- side of,' a sense the word of
ACT III SCENE I
ten bears in M.E. and e. N.E.
48-57
<1F48,49 TO BE THUS IS NO- THING BUT TO BE SAFELY THUS, 'To be what I am is nothing at all if I cannot be what I am in security and without fear.' This usage of BUT is paralleled in Merry W. II. 2. 32 1 ff.: "what they thinke in their hearts they may effect, they will breake their hearts but they will effect." The idiom is not uncommon in EL. E., cp. the statement in
My denius is rebuk'd, as it is said J^^'',^^"- ,!° ^^^ f ^^^ ^^'^^
- J c> ' *but was "anciently used m
this sense [i.e. of 'if not,' 'did not,' 'were it not that'] for 'unless,' 'without that.'" The idiom occurs also in Cooper's Thesaurus s.v. fero: ^^non feret quin vapulet, he shall not scape but be [i.e. without being] beaten." " I have much to do But to go hang my head all at one side" in Oth. IV. 3.31 illustrates the use of the conjunction to connect two infinitives as here, but the passage has been variously miscon-
93
To be thus is nothing But to be safely thus: our feares in Banquo Sticke deepe; and in his royaltie of nature Reignes that which would be fear'd: 'tis
much he dares, And to that dauntlesse temper of his minde, He hath a wisdome that doth guide his valour To act in safetie. There is none but he Whose being I doe feare: and under him
genius is rebuk'd, as it is said Mark Anthonies was by Caesar.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
strued by modern editors. The same idiom is found in Temp. II. 1.240 ff. : ** No hope that way is Another way [i.e. looked at in another light] so high a hope [i.e. for the sovereignty] that even Ambition cannot pierce a winke beyond But doubt [i.e. without doubting] discovery [i.e. what is brought to light, N.E.D. 5] there," where again modern editors miss the sense in attempting to construe the passage into modern idiom. It almost always happens, as it does here, that whenever it has been assumed that a passage of Shakspere's text is corrupt, a reference to other instances where the same idiom occurs will show that they too will have been independently assumed to be corrupt. The Cambridge Text, overlooking this usage of 'but,' adopts Theobald's punctuation, changing the comma after NOTHING to a semicolon, and construing BUT TO BE SAFELY THUS as a kind of aposiopesis. This alteration reduces Macbeth's words to sheer nonsense. The whole passage is con- tinuous, and 'to be safely thus is everything,' or 'oh to be safely thus,' or ' I must be safely thus,' or 'to reign in safety is the thing to be desired,' or ' I will be safely thus,' no matter how the words are stressed, are ideas which could not in any period of English syntax be inferred from "But to be safely thus." "Safe" and its corresponding adverb SAFELY often in EL. E. connote the notion of 'secure,' 'securely,' cp. 1.4.27 and "But in our orbs will live so round and safe" Per. 1.2. 122 ; this seems to be the meaning here. It is the insecurity of his "fruitlesse crowne" and his "barren scepter," menaced by the prediction of the witches regarding Banquo and Fleance, rather than his personal danger, that puts "rancours in the vessell" of Macbeth's peace. *IF49 Not FEARES in Banquo, but 'stick deep in Banquo,* 'have taken root in Banquo,' cp. "Opinion that so stickes on Martius" Cor. 1. 1.275. SF50 ROYALTIE OF NATURE, i.e. his fitness for kingship, not his innate nobility of character ; Shakspere does not use the word in this latter modern sense, but attaches to it a more literal significance. It is 'the invisible instinct framing him to royalty unlearned' which will draw the court to his support once he makes his claim that Macbeth is afraid of; Shakspere's unerring instinct in choosing words expresses this 'dominance' by the word REIGNES. SF5I WOULD BE, 'is to be,' 'must be,' a sense of the auxiliary not altogether lost in MN.E. SF 52 TO, 'in addition to.' DAUNTLESSE MINDE refers to Banquo's courage, not to his intellect ; " mind" in EL. E. was not so restricted to intellec- tion as in MN. E. ; cp. "but let thy dauntlesse minde still ride in triumph" 3Hen.6 III. 3. 1 7. SF54 ACT IN SAFETIE, 'mature his plans in security.' Macbeth is not afraid of Mal- colm, Donalbaine, and Macduff, but of the quiet, far-seeing Banquo. The audience knows, however, that it is the vagueness of Banquo's suspicions and his unwillingness to lend himself to the powers of evil, not his deep-laid plans, that have prevented him from pushing his claim. SAFETIE in EL. E. is often a trisyllable saf-e-ty : Shakspere so uses the word in Ham. I.3.2I ; to read it so here and contract THERE ISto 'there 's' gives more prominent stress to NONE. SF55 UNDER HIM reveals most clearly his sense of inferiority to Banquo. SF 56 The GENIUS or "daimon" was a Platonic conception of EL. psychology which conceived of a personal spirit attending the career of the individual ; Burton, 'Anat. of Mel.' I.ii. 1.2, says of them: 'as Anthony Rusca contends, every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular all his life long, which lam- blichus calls dcemonem . . That base fellows are often advanced, undeserving Gnathoes and vicious parasites, whereas virtuous and worthy men are neglected and unrewarded, they refer to these domineering spirits or subordinate Genii ; . . for as Libanius supposcth in our ordinary conflicts and contentions Genius genio cedit et obtemperat, one genius yields and is overcome by another.' Burton calls these notions '■ineptice et fahulosce nu£fce,' but Shakspere reflects the belief here and in Ant.&Cl. 11.3' 18: "Therefore, oh An- thony, stay not by his side : Thy Dasmon, that thy spirit which keepes thee, is Noble, couragious, high unmatchable. Where Caesar's is not. But neere him thy angell Becomes a feare as being o're-powr'd." As CI. Pr. points out, Shaksper^, in writing the latter passage, follows North's Plutarch, ed. 1579, p. 983 : *" For thy demon,' said he [i.e. the soothsayer who warned Antony of Caesar's predominance], 'that is to say the good angell and spirit that keepeth thee, is afraid of his : and being coragious and high when he is alone
94
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
bccomcth fearefull and temerous when he cometh neere unto the other.'" The date of Ant. &CL (1606-7?) is near that of Macbeth. REBUK'D/checked,' 'restrained/ cp. ** wee could have rebuk'd him at Harflewe" Hen.5 III. 6. 128. *1F57 C^SAR: not 'by Caasar's
genius/ but by Caesar him-
ACT III SCENE I
57-72
He chid the sisters When first they put the name of kin^ upon
me, And bad them speake to him; then, prophet- like, They hayl'd him father to a line of kin^s: Upon my head they plac'd a fruitlesse crowne And put a barren scepter in my ^ripe, Thence to be wrencht with an unlineall hand, No Sonne of mine succeeding. If 't be so, For Banquo's issue have I fiFd my minde. For them the gracious Duncan have I mur-
ther'd; Put rancours in the vessell of my peace Onely for them, and mine eternall Jewell Given to the common enemie of man. To make them kings, the seedes of Banquo
kings ! Rather then so, come fate into the lyst And champion me to th' utterance! Who 's there?
self, i.e. in his presence. The verse has an extra impulse before the caesura.
<1F58 PUT . . UPON ME, 'ad- dressed me with,' cp. "he . . put strange speech upon me" Tw.N.V. 1.70. SF63 WITH, 'by,' cp. note to 1.3.93. UN- LINEALL, not in the line of Macbeth and Duncan. The word is a nonce-usage in Shakspere. Slatyer in a note to Canto XIV of his Jacobus (p. 287) says that " The house of Loquhabar to which Ban- quo belonged was an ancient house andallyedto the kings." It suits Shakspere's dramatic purpose to conceive of the sceptre being WRENCHT from the usurper Macbeth's hands, and to such a concep- tion NO SONNE OF MINE SUCCEEDING is a dramatic necessity. One tradition at least gives Macbeth an heir; Holinshed is silent on the subject. But Macbeth's strong hope for a son is sufficient ground for his bitterness against Banquo and Fleance.
And such a hope he must have had, for that Lady Macbeth had borne children we get from 1.7.54: her hus- band's admiration of her power in I. 7. 72 takes the form, " Bring forth men-children onely," and the despair that overtakes him when in V. 5. 17 he hears that the queen is dead may have a deeper root than in the mere loss of a companion in his ambition, and his' "She should have dy'de heereafter" be more than the mere platitude it is usually under- stood to be. SF65 For BANQUO'S ISSUE see note to IV. 1. 121. FIL'D MY MINDE, 'defiled my soul' ; FILE in M.E. ande. N.E. means 'to defile,' N.E. D. 3 ; it is an O.E. weak verb form based upon the adjective which has become 'foul' in MN.E. : and MINDE in EL. E. is frequently used where MN.E. employs 'soul' to denote the moral nature of man, cp. "the guiltinesse of my minde" Merry W. V. 5. 130. In the interval between Act II and Act III Macbeth has come to realize the price he has paid for success in allowing foul and unclean spirits to reside in his "minde." *jF 67 RANCOURS still retained enough of its original connotation in EL. E. to make Shakspere's figure of a tainted wine-vessel an apposite one, cp. Phillips's New World of Words, "rancidity or rancor, mouldiness, rotten- ness, mustincss," and Coles, 171 3, "rancor, rottenness." VESSELL is similarly used in "If I would broach the vessels of my love" Timon II. 2. 186, and has nothing to do with
95
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
Rom. IX. 22, 23, as CI. Pr. supposes. SF 68 MINE ETERNALL JEWELL, cp. ** the Jewell of life By some damn'd hand was rob'dand tane away" John V. 1.40. ETERNALL in EL. E. means 'immortal,' cp. ** They beleeve their soules to be eternall" Florio's Montaigne, I.xxx. SF69 THE COMMON ENEMIE OF MAN, j.e. Satan, cp. "What, man ! defie the divell? con- sider, he 's an enemy to mankinde" Tw.N. III. 4. 107. This and v. 65 go deeper than a mere 'expression of remorse of conscience,' as they are generally understood. They rather show Macbeth's guilty consciousness that his belief in the instruments of darkness is practically a tacit bargain with the powers of evil. SF 70 SEEDES, 'descendants,' cp. ** Saw his heroi- call seed and smil'd to see him" Hen. 5 II.4.59r * My flesh divided in your precious shapes Shall still retain my spirit though I die And live in all your [quarto of 1 606, 'our'] seeds immortally' Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 2d part, V.3 (cited by Dycc), and 'Thunders on your head And after you crush your surviving seeds' Chapman and Shirley's Chabot, 11-3 (cited by Walker). In spite of these passages, many modern editors assume that 'seed' cannot have a plural, and change Shakspere's "seedes" of FOS. I, 2, 3? and 4 to 'seed.' Dyce says that the Marlowe passage is 'corrupt' in both editions, and Walker says that Shirley's whole play is 'corrupt.' But such arbitrary assumptions of grammatical usage in EL.E. and such wholesale invokings of the deus ex machina of corruptness to explain EL. usages which do not conform to modern notions are unreasonable and unscholarly. The citation from Hen. 5 clearly shows that "seed" in EL.E. was used as a singular and concrete noun as well as a collective term for descendants : we are not warranted there- fore in altering Shakspere's text as do the Cambridge editors on mere arbitrary grounds, despite the fact that"sonnes" isapparently printed for "son" in III. 6.24. SF7I RATHER THEN SO, i.e. rather than have Banquo's descendants become kings; cp. note to II. 1.47. COME FATE is usually construed as a vocative idiom and "fate" cut off by commas ; but there is no good ground for departing from the FO. punctuation, that of the text, which makes the idiom subjunctive, i.e. let fate come, etc. LYST as a term for the enclosure in which formal combats were held is usually plural, 'lists,' in EL. E. as in MN. E. Minsheu, however, gives "a list to fight in," and there is as little ground for making the word into 'lists' as there is for making "seedes" into 'seed.' SF72 CHAMPION METOTH'UT- TERANCE : the phraseology of this passage and the use of " me " after " champion " make it scarcely possible that the modern construction 'fight against me to the uttermost' was the one which an EL. audience would put upon Shakspere's words. CHAMPION used as a verb is not elsewhere found in EL.E., see N.E. D. ; but there can be little doubt that Macbeth means that FATE is to be his champion to maintain his royal title against all comers, and not Banquo's champion. Cowel in his law dictionary gives an interesting definition of the tenure of the royal championship by the house of Dimnock, cited in N. E. D. The Dimnock title and tenure to the royal championship are not yet extinct, though the ser- vice had degenerated to the mere bearing of the royal standard of England at the coro- nation of King Edward VII. Halle's description of the championship of Henry VIII, 'Chronicle,' 1550, Hen. 8, folio 4, contains the phrase Shakspere used : "Then he [i.e. Sir William Dimnocke] commaunded his awnc [i.e. owne] herauld . . to saie : if there be any personc, of what estate or degree soever he be, that will saie or prove [i.e. maintain] that Kyng Henry the Eight is not the rightful inheritor and kyng of this realme I sir William Dimnocke, here his champion, offre my glove to fight in his querell [i.e. cause] with any persone to th' utterance." TO TH' UTTERANCE and 'to the outrance' are English ver- sions of the O.FR. ^ combattre jusq'a outrance de mort/ which denoted a combat to the death, a fight without quarter, that must continue until one or the other of the combatants was killed. The English phrase 'to the uttermost' is probably responsible for the form 'utterance' instead of 'outrance.' To "keepe at utterance," i.e. to hold to the last ex- tremity, occurs in Cym. III. 1.73- FATE in EL.E. is used or death, destruction, ruin, cp. note to II. 3- 127 : Fleance "must embrace the fate of that darke houre " in v. 137, Macbeth will "take a bond of [t.e. from] fate" by killing Macduff in IV. 1.84. Here death and ruin are to be Macbeth's champions and maintain his claim to the crown 'e'en till distruction
96
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
sicken.' The words are not a challenge to destiny : Macbeth is not ready for that until the end of the play, cp. V.8. 30 ff . ; when he can challenge destiny he redeems himself, and his long tragedy is over. This soliloquy of Macbeth, like the other soliloquy in 1. 3. 1 30 ff., from " To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus " to these, its closing words, becomes hopelessly confused when we try to wrest its phraseology into MN.E., and
clearly illustrates the folly of
ACT III SCENE I 73-84
ENTER SERVANT AND TWO MURTHERERS
Now goe to the doore, and stay there till we call.
EXIT SERVANT
Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
MURTHERERS It was, so please your highnesse.
MACBETH
Well then, now Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know That it was he in the times past which held
you So under fortune, which you thought had been Our innocent selfe: this I made good to you In our last conference, past in probation
with you How you were borne in hand, how crost, the
instruments, Who wrought with them, and all things else
that might To halfe a soule and to a notion craz'd ^Thus did Banquo.'
ignoring the fact that Shak- spere's English is quite dif- ferent from modern idiom.
The ENTER SERVANT would, of course, be * re-enter ' in MN. stage directions, cp. notetoll.3.95. *IF74 SPOKE is again used in its EL. sense of 'conferred.' SF75 WELL THEN seems to be an answer to the first murderer's state- ment. The FO. begins a new verse with "now": but the A'' in **Now" may be a misprint for //, its neighbour- ing letter in the printers' case. "Well then, how" would avoid the awkward collo- cation of notions presented by **then now." F0.3 and FO. 4 read *' You have" in- stead of **Have you." From here to v. 82 the FO. verse division is Know . . past. Which . . fortune. Which . . selfe, This . . conference. Past . . you, How . . crost. The instruments . . them, And . . might. SF76 CONSID- ER'D OF, 'thought carefully over,'N.E.D. II. SPEECHES, o .0^1 1- 1 D J 'statements,' or possibly 'of-
bay 1 bus did banquo. fers'; cp. note on 111.1.7 and
in. 6. 1. Shakspere by thus picturing the continuation of negotiations already begun avoids the introduction of a new theme of interest. SF77 The rhythm of IN THE TIMES PAST is " ' " ' with reversal occurring after the caasura. The idiom is now 'in the past' with 'times,' i.e. occasions, omitted. SF 78 UNDER FORTUNE, 'exposed to danger,' with FORTUNE in its somewhat rare sense of 'misfortunes,' 'perils,' cp. "the battailes, sieges, fortune That I have past" Oth.I.3.130, also III. 1. 1 12 of this play and N.E.D. 2 b. That this is the meaning here seems clear from " He is now under the hazards of fortune, fortunce jam ictibus est ex- positus^^ Phr. Gen. s.u. 'fortune.' SF 79 INNOCENT, 'inn'cent,' see note to 1. 5. 66; so *conf'rence' in the next verse. *IF80 PAST IN PROBATION, 'spent with you in proving how, etc.': PAST is the adjectively used past participle and goes with CONFERENCE; FO. I has a comma after "conference," but, as has already been pointed out, this is normal EL. punctuation, see note to 1.2.56. Many modern editors alter the sense by printing a
97
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
semicolon after "conference," making '*past" the past tense. But no such idiom as 'to pass in probation' in the sense of 'going over the evidence' has yet been found in EL.E. PROBATION, 'proving,' cp. "probation . . proving" Cotgrave. SF 8 I BORNE IN HAND is a common M. E. and e.N.E. phrase meaning 'charged' and also 'deceived.' In the N.E.D. s.v. 'bear' 3 c the former sense is said to be obsolete circa 1540; but a kindred meaning to 'charge,' viz. 'falsely maintain,' was still in use in I68I ; cp. "Do not bear me in hand, that ; Noli quceso prce te ferre vos — " (the rest of its unfinished citation is ^^ plane expertes esse doctrince''^) Phr. Gen. s.v. 'hand.' 'Bear in hand,' therefore, in the sense of 'charge' may well have been in use in Shakspere's time even though not noticed by the readers for the Oxford Dictionary. The notion of preferring false charges seems to be in Macbeth's mind. CROST, ' thwarted,' 'opposed,' N. E. D. 14. INSTRU- MENTS, 'means,' N.E.D. I. The verse seems to be one of six waves; but "instrument" appears to be stressed on its second syllable in Rich. 2 V. 5-107 and possibly also in Cym.III.4.75 : so the reading 'th' instrument' may have been here intended. Abbott supposes that the word was syncopated to 'instr'ment,' but such a syncopation bringing -sfr/T?- together would be phonetically difficult. SF 83 SOULE in EL.E. was somewhat more extensively used to denote an individual than in MN.E., cp. "that unlettered, small knowing soule" L.L.L. 1. 1.253- NOTION, 'understanding' ; Kersey glosses the word by "knowledge," Coles, 1 71 3, by "knowledge or understanding, also a conceit or point de- livered." Cent. Diet, cites Lear 1.4. 248, "his notion weakens," and Milton, ' Paradise Lost' VII. 179, "The acts of
ACT III SCENE I
God so told as earthly notion can receive." The verse has the extra syllable before the C32sura.
*1F85 The FO. verse division is I . . so, And . . now, Our . . meeting, Doe . . predomi- nant. In . . goe. Are . . man, And . . hand, Hath . . beg- ger'd. Yours . . ever. SF86 POINT OF, not 'point where we meet a second time,' but 'my reason for this second conference'; cp. "As the maine point of this our after- meeting" Cor.II.2.43, ''The ground and principal point of the cause" Alvearie s.v. 'point,' and "a pretty point of security" Suckling's Let- ters, 1648, cited in Cent. Diet.; cp. also Coles, l679, " point, causa, status, caput.'''' SF88 LET . . GOE, 'let this go on unchecked,' N. E. D. ' let,' V '^., 22 e, or perhaps ' dis- miss thisfrom your thoughts,' N.E.D. 22 c. ARE YOU SO GOSPELL'D TO, 'have you been so converted as to,' see N. E. D. s.v. ' gospelled ' a.
84-94
FIRST MURTHERER
You made it knowne to us.
MACBETH I did so; and went further, which is now Our point of second meeting. Doe you finde Your patience so predominant in your nature, That you can let this goe? Are you so gos-
pell'd, To pray for this good man and for his issue, Whose heavie hand hath bow'd you to the
grave And begger'd yours for ever?
FIRST MURTHERER
We are men, my liege.
MACBETH I, in the catalogue ye goe for men; As hounds and greyhounds, mungrels, span- iels, curres, Showghes, water-rugs and demy-wolves, are dipt
98
■'I
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT III SCENE I 95-108 Macbeth alludes to "Ye have
heard that it hath beene said
Ml ,1 • p J ., .1 1 J r-1 Thou shah love thy neighbor
by the name of dogges : the valued file ^„^ ^ate thine enemy . But
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, I say unto you, Love your
The house-keeper, the hunter, every one ^f-T'^: * ^"^ P'-^y fo'' t^^^"^
- . 1 p 1 1 1 which dispitetuUy use you
According to the gift which bounteous nature and persecute you" Matt. v. Hath in him clos'd, whereby he does receive 43, 44. For so . . to in
]-) ^. 1 jj-.- r .1 T -ii EL.E.correspondino'toMN.E.
Particular addition, from the bill *so..asto' seenotetoii.3.56.
That writes them all alike: and so of men. *ff89 for his issue: with Now if you have a station in the file ^[^ wonderful insight into
- -. '^ 1 p 1 1 T character, bhakspere makes
Not i th worst ranke ot manhood, say t, Macbeth reflect his own pur-
And I will put that businesse in your bosomes pose and motives into the
wn ^- ^ 1 • rr minds of the soldiers. SF9I
Whose execution takes your enemie off, yours, 'your families,' see
Grapples you to the heart and love of us, note on 1.6.26. SF92 Mac-
Who weare our health but sickly in his life, Y'"^. '?r'u ^u^ ^^^^^^J\^^
__. 1111 0 Lady Macbeth taunted him
Which in his death were perfect. in 1.7.47, affecting to misun-
derstand their use of the word MEN. IN THE CATALOGUE has not here the vague general sense which is given it in MN.E. In Comenius's Janua "list (catalogue)" stands in the index with a reference to 650, **In the same place is kept the register of the citizens names"; cp. also Coles, ^^catalogusj roll, bill, catalogue." Macbeth says *on the muster-roll you pass for men.' YE is the unemphatic form of the plural second personal pronoun. SF 93 Of the dogs Macbeth mentions MUNGRELS were used for sheep-herding, cp. "heards . . whom mas- tiffs (bandogs) or mungrels protect from the woolf" Janua, 410; SPANIELS were bird- dogs, cp. Cotgrave, chien dCoiseaux : they were distinguished as 'water spaniels ' and 'land spaniels'; CURRES were watch-dogs and sheep-dogs, N.E.D. I,cp. "cur dogg, canis gregarius'' Withall's ' Littell Dictionary for Children' ; SHOWGHES is probably a variant spelling of 'shocks'; Coles's gloss, "shock (dog), cam's /s/anc/icus," would point to a Norse origin for the word, and the variation between 'shough' and 'shock' would indi- cate an early introduction of it into English ; the term is usually taken to mean a rough, shaggy dog ; WATER-RUGS : Coles gives " Rug (a dog's name), Lachne^' ; the Cent. Diet., and perhaps' rightly, connects the word with 'rug,' a shaggy garment; DEMY-WOLVES: cp. ^^Ucisque, a dog engendred between a wolfe and a dog" Cotgrave, and ^^licisco, a dog engendred between a wolfe and a bitch, a mungrell curre" Florio ; the prefix 'demi' was widely used in EL. E. to denote things or persons belonging half to one class and half to another, cp. quotations in N.E.D. s.v. 'demi' II. SF 94 CLIPT, another form of 'clept,' 'called,' was not yet obsolete in EL. E. though archaic: Shakspere uses it again in Ham. I. 4.19. *1F95 THE VALUED FILE, 'the priced list,' cp. " This is the breefe of money, plate, and jewels I am possest of; 'tis exactly valewed" Ant. &C1. V. 2. 138, and "Our present musters grow upon the file To five and twenty thousand men" 2Hen.4 1.3-10. SF96 DISTINGUISHES, 'singles out,' N.E.D.3 b. SF 97 HOUSE-KEEPER, 'watch-dog,' N.E.D. 3 b. SF99 CLOS'D, 'enclosed,' N.E.D.3; the verb was also used in EL.E. in the sense of setting a jewel. SF 100 ADDITION, ' mark of distinction,' see note to I. 3. 106. BILL, 'general catalogue,' cp. "a bil of properties" Mids. 1.2. 108, and the citation in note to " catalogue," v. 92 above. The word is still in use in ' bill of particulars,' * bill of lading,' etc. SF lOI WRITES, 'enrolls,' cp. "who writes himselfe Armigero in any bill" Merry W.I. 1.9; Baret seems to intend this meaning in his gloss "to write . . enrol men of armes, conscribo^^
99
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBEThI
Alvearie' 5.U. *1F 102 STATION IN THE FILE, i.e. a place on the list ; the Folio's comma after **file" has been removed, as NOT I'TH', etc., evidently goes with STATION. SF 103 The FO. text makes this a four-wave verse, and perhaps it was intended to be such: Not i' th' worst ranke of manhood, say 't ; various expedients have been resorted to in order to fill out the verse, perhaps the best of which is Not in the w6-erst ranke, etc., cp. note to I. 5. 40. For the verbiage of the passage, cp. " of the best ranck and station " Ham. 1.3. 73. SF 104 PUT IN YOUR BOSOMES is normal EL.E. for 'confide to you,' cp. "thy bosome shall partake The secrets of my heart" Ca2s. II. 1.305- SF 105 ENEMIE is almost as fre- quently a dissyllable in EL. E., *en'my' (usually so printed), as it is a trisyllable. TAKES . . OFF, cp. I. 7. 20. SF 107 WEARE is used in EL. E., at least by Shakspere, to denote exhaus- tion of energy, and may be followed by a predicate adjective denoting the effect of this exhaustion, cp. ''this exceeding posting . . Must wear your spirits low" All's W. V. I.I, IN HIS LIFE and IN HIS DEATH both illustrate a M.E. and e. N. E. idiom by which IN is used to express the occasion of an
action, cp."Dighton and For- Ap'T'TTT SPPNPT TOR TJt^
rest .. Wept like to children ^'^ i ^ ^ ^l^niNU 1 lUS-lO
in their death's sad story,"
i.e. at the sad story of their SECOND MURTHERER
death, Rich.3 IV. 3-4. I am one, my lie^e^
^108 MY LIEGE is proba- Wbom the vileblowes and buffets of the wodd bly extraneous to -the verse, Hatb SO incens'd tbat I am recklesse wbat
cp. note to III 1.40; but the J J^^ ^^ gpidbt tbe WOrld.
passage can be scanned by ^ ^
contracting I AM to 'I'm,' FIRST MURTHERER
making a verse with an extra J^^^ I anotber,
impulse before the ca2sura. -, , , r rt i • i p
<IFi09 VILE has in EL.E. the bo wearie With disasters, tugg d With tortune, senseof'wicked,"malicious'; That I would set my life on any chance,
Coles distinguishes between rrt j •>. i_ -j t,
"vile (filthy)," which he ^^ "^^^^ '^ ^^ ^e rid on t.
glosses sordidus, and "vile MACBETH
(wicked)," which he glosses go^h of yOU
flagitiosus ', cp. also " 1 is a ,^ ^ ''
vile thing to dye, my gracious Know Banquo was your enemie.
lord When men are unpre- MURTHERERS
par d, and looke not tor ,_, , ,
it" Rich.3 III. 2. 64. SFiii li"ue, my lord.
SPIGHT is one of a group of
e. N.E. forms into which an English gh intruded from the analogy of 'right,' Might,' etc.; 'sprightly' is still in use. SF 112 WEARIE, almost equivalent to 'disgusted,' 'sick,' an EL. meaning of the word recrudescent some years ago in American slang ; cp. " wherein we are not destitute for want. But wearie for the stalenesse" Per. V. 1.57. DISASTERS, not 'calamities,' but 'bad luck'; the word originally denotes an unfavorable position of the heavenly bodies, cp. Ham. 1. 1. 1 18. TUGG'D WITH FORTUNE, not 'dragged by fortune,' as usually understood, but 'buffeted by misfortune'; cp. Cotgrave's gloss, '■'' sahouler [the word means 'to toss about'], tug, mumble, or scuffle with"; '■'■ sahoulementj a tugging or scuffling with." In Wint.T. IV. 4. 507 we have "let my selfe and fortune Tug for the time to come," where the 'scuffling' notion is prominent. EL. WITH corresponding to MN.E. 'by' has already been sufficiently illustrated. SF 1 13 SET, 'stake,' cp. "Were it good to set the exact wealth of all our states All at one cast?" I Hen. 4 IV. 1.45. SFII4 RID ON 'T : as to the usage of ON for ' of,' cp. note to II. 3. 43. SF II 5 WAS, ' has been,' a M. E. use of the imperfect sometimes met with in e. N.E. ENEMIE, 'en'my' again, as above.
100
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
<ffll6 IN BLOODY DISTANCE, 'with bloodthirsty enmity' (see note on ''bloody cozens," V. 30 above) ; "distance" here means 'discord,' 'enmity,' N.E. D. I, and to the EL. mind con- tained no suggestion of 'the distance mortal enemies would stand from each other,' as it is usually explained. Enmity, strife, debate, is the original meaning of the word, and is found
in English as early as 1297;
ACT III SCENE I
the modern notion of 'dis- tance' is later, the first quota- tion in N.E. D. being dated 1440. <IFII7, 118 THRUSTS AGAINST can mean 'makes thrusts against'; but Cot- grave glosses renitance by "a hard thrusting or endeavoring against," and renitent by "re- sisting, indeavoring, laboring or thrusting against" ; Coles gives repulsus for "thrust against" and glosses obdo by "to thrust against." Perhaps, therefore, the notion is one of hampering or besetting rather than 'aiming at.' SFII8 MY NEER'STOF LI FE, like " their first of manhood" V. 2. 1 1 and ''thy best of rest" Mcas. III. 1 . 1 7, is the EL. partitive form of the superlative, correspond- ing to MN.E. 'the dearest in- terest of my life ' ; cp. " which many my neere occasions [i.e. private interests of my own] did urge mee to put off" Ti- mon III. 6. II. The form NEER'ST is the usual synco- pated superlative of M.E. and c.N.E. <1FII9 BARE-FAC'D means 'open,' 'avowed,' in EL.E., cp. N.E.D. 2 ; the re- striction of the word to its bad sense, 'impudent,' is later than Shakspere. SF 120 WILL, 'pleasure,' a common EL. meaning of the word: see Sonnet CXXXV. AVOUCH, 'war- rant,' 'stand sponsor for,' cp. "if the duke avouch the justice of your dealing" Meas. IV. 2.200. SF121 FOR, 'on account of," because of.' *1F 122 WHOSE is the connective rela- tive, 'and their.' LOVES is another instance of the EL. plural of abstract nouns where two or more persons or things are concerned, cp. v. 70. I MAY NOT had in e.N.E. the sense of 'it is not possible for me to' : see the numerous instances in Schmidt s.v. 'may' ; this phrase was tantamount to ' I am obliged to,' with a verb expressing the contrary no- tion; Macbeth's words are therefore equivalent to 'whose good will I am obliged to main- tain.' EL. E. permitted certain zeugmatic constructions which are no longer tolerated ; by one of these a word was expressed in one sense and supplied mentally in another, cp. note to 1. 5. 20-22 ; such a zeugma we have here: the MAY is first used as part of a negative notion, 'it is not possible for me,' etc., then it is supplied in its positive form, 'but I shall be obliged to wail,' etc. We have the same kind of zeugma in Sonnet XXXVI, " I may not ever more acknowledge thee [i.e. I am obliged to disown thee from this time forth]. Nor
1 01
I 16-127
MACBETH So is he mine; and in such bloody distance That every minute of his being thrusts Against my neer'st of life: and though I could With bare-fac'd power sweepe him from my
sight And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not For certaine friends that are both his and
mine; Whose loves I may not drop, but wayle his
fall Who I my selfe struck downe: and thence
it is That I to your assistance doe make love, Masking the businesse from the common eye For sundry weightie reasons.
SECOND MURTHERER
We shall, my lord, Performe what you command us. FIRST MURTHERER
Though our lives —
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
thou with pubUc kindness honor me, Unless, etc.," i.e. and it is not possible for thee to honour me, etc. SF 123 WHO, of course, in MN. E. would be accusative, but such case con- fusions are common in EL. E. ; thousands of instances might be cited from the best EL. writers. These idioms are offensive to our modern notions of grammar: modern editors sometimes alter them into corresponding MN. E. forms, sometimes leave them alone. SF 125 COMMON, 'public'; this sense is now confined to phrases like 'common prayer,' 'com- mon carrier,' etc. SF 126 The person distinction between SHALL and 'will' is a MN.E. literary idiom, as has already
ACT III SCENE I
been pointed out. *1FI27 This anacoluthon is punctuated in FO. I with two short dashes.
SFI28 Macbeth wants no protestations of willingness, and artfully says that he can see that they are determined men. SPIRITS is here a mon- osyllable, as often in EL. E. For the notion cp. 1.2.46 and 1.5.27. SF 130 PERFECT SPY O'TH'TIME has long been a subject of controversy: the words are usually explained as meaning 'the exact instant at which it must be done'; this reading reflects the MN. E. meanings of Shakspere's words ; it is also supported by " I 'le spie some fitter time soone, or tomorrow" Jon-
128-139
MACBETH Your spirits shine through you. Within this
houre at most I will advise you where to plant your selves^ Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' th' time The moment on 't; for 't must be done to
night, And something from the pallace; alwayes
thought That I require a clearenesse: and with him, To leave no rubs nor botches in the worke, Fleans his sonne,that keepes him companie, Whose absence is no lesse materiall to me Then is his father's, must embrace the fate Of that darke houre. Resolve your selves
apart: I 'le come to you anon.
son's Every Man in his Hu- mour, III. 3* If we adopt this reading the FOR, etc., will express the reason for Mac- beth's haste : the chief objec- tion to it is the unusual usage
of "spy" as a noun meaning 'estimate.* Another interpretation was suggested by John- son, who took the statement as a reference to the mysterious "third murderer" in Scene III, and changed THE to A : Johnson's change is no longer necessary to his interpretation, for we now know that THE had frequently in EL. E. a demonstrative force represented in MN. E. by a light possessive adjective. Steevens inclined to Johnson's view, but unne- cessarily altered the comma after YOUR SELVES to a semicolon so as to make ACQUAINT an imperative. If we adopt it ACQUAINT . . WITH will mean 'cause you to know,' cp. Temp. II. 2.41 ; THE will correspond to MN.E. 'my'; PERFECT will have its sense of 'well informed,' cp.I.5.2; TIME will refer to 'the opportunity to murder Banquo'; THE MOMENT ON 'T will mean 'on the spot' (the comma after "time" in FO. I does not inter- fere with this construction because EL. printers often cut off such phrases with commas re- gardless of their close relation to the sentence) ; and the following clause, FOR, etc., will give the reason why the third murderer has not been introduced to them — there is no time for such formalities. The advantage of this latter interpretation is that it affords some explanation of the third murderer's presence in Scene III; the reason the second mur- derer there gives for trusting him is "he tells us just what to do." The 'third murderer' is clearly one of those hired spies Macbeth speaks of in III. 4. 131? and to Elizabethan ears
102
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
'the perfect spy' for 'my perfect spy' would not be an unfamiliar idiom. Various emen- dations have been proposed, but, as is usually the case, they create new difficulties without solving the old ones. SF 132 SOMETHING, 'somewhat,' an EL. adverb, cp. note to v. 13. FROM has here its adverbial sense, 'at a distance from,' still preserved in the phrase 'from home,' N.E.D.5. ALWAYES THOUGHT, an EL. absolute construction meaning 'always bearing in mind'; a similar idiom occurs in "Alwayes conditioned the master bethinke himselfe where to his charge tendeth" Florio's Montaigne, Lxxv. SF 133 I REQUIRE, 'it is necessary for me to have' : a strong emphasis falls upon I. CLEARENESSE, i.e. free- dom from blame, cp. "clearness (from fault), innocentia^^ Coles; also 1.7. 18. For the indefinite article, see note to 1.7.68, and cp. "ready, or in a readiness, promptus'''' Baret's Alvearie. As Steevens pointed out, the parenthesis "alwayes . . clearenesse" was doubt- less suggested by Holinshed's "appointing them to meet with the same Banquho and his Sonne without the palace as they returned to the palace, and there to slea them, so that he would not have his house slandered, but that in time to come he might cleare himselfe if anie thing were laid to his charge upon anie suspicion that might arise " Boswell-Stone's Holins- hed, p. 33- SF 134 RUBS were the rough places on a bowling-green which deflected the
course of the bowl ; the no-
ACT III SCENE I 139-142 rdeftttg MiX.hUir::
BOTCHES is a common EL.
MURTHERERS word for ' patches,' see N. E. D.
We are resolv'd, my lord. *ffi36 absence, another of
Macbeth's euphemisms. SF 137
MACBETH FATE, 'ruin,' 'destruction,'
^ 1111 cp. note to V.7I. RESOLVE
1 le call upon you straight: abide within. your selves,' cometo your
It is concluded. Banquo, thy SOules flight decision,' cp. "Resolve thee,
Tp .^ p. 1 1 1 r- J ■. ^^ -aU^ Richard" 3Hen.6 1. 1.49.
It it tinde heaven must imde it out to night.
'^ EXEUNT SFI39 The two half verses
make one of six rhythm waves. SFI40 I'LE CALL UPON YOU, ' I will demand your services,' N. E. D. 23 c ; cp. "speake not to him till we call upon you" Meas. V. 1.287. STRAIGHT, 'immediately,' a common e. N. E. sense of the word. The EXEUNT is probably only a rough stage direction, the mur- derers leaving Macbeth after his " Abide within." Though Macbeth utters only the couplet in vv. 141, 142, he probably walks back and forth upon the stage for a short interval, giv- ing the audience the impression of a mental struggle which is brought to an end by his " It is concluded." Davenant after this action introduces a dialogue between Macduff and Lady Macduff.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE II
While the dramatic purpose of Scene II is to supply an interval between the plot against Banquo and Fleance and the accomplishment of the murder, its psychological purpose, if we may so term it, is to join Lady Macbeth and her husband in a common sympathy and a common responsibility on the threshold of this new murder. This time the fixed pur- pose to remove the menace to their peace is Macbeth's and the details of the work are of his planning: it is Lady Macbeth who acquiesces — "But in them nature's coppie 's not eterne" — with a single pregnant utterance whose oracularly grim association of ideas is later reflected in Macbeth's "great bond which keepes me pale." We get from it also a clear vision of the torture of Macbeth's mind which forms the prelude to this second "deed of dreadfull note." With a masterly treatment of detail Shakspere exposes to view the
103
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
harried soul, fear, doubt, anxiety, remorse, all mingling together in a Witches' Sabbath of mad passion. The unrest is intensified by the contrasted notion of Duncan's peace — a peace which Macbeth cries for when there is no peace. We are thus prepared for the mad fits which follow, and arc made to see that there is no escape from them this side the gra^^e. The snake Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have 'scorched' is 'the worm that dieth not,' and their poor malice will always be in danger of its former tooth — unsafe to-morrows stretch- ing out to the crack of doom. That their minds should break under such a strain is scarcely to be wondered at after a picture like this : the only wonder is that Macbeth should be able to resist his doom so long. It seems strange that in this second deed of blood he should not take Lady Macbeth with him. It cannot be because he will conceal it from her — his references to Banquo are too clumsy for that. It must be that for some reason or other he will keep her out of the action. May it not be because she is in no physical condition to endure it and that Macbeth will spare her the strain? He hints at a new fondness for her in his ** dearest chuck," a fondness that he has not been in the habit of displaying. If we take this with Macbeth's strange words in ** she should have dy'de heereaftcr" and their connection, "to morrow and to morrow and to morrow" in V.5. 17, may we not see in this tenderness and in this apparent reluctance to make his wife a sharer in the details of the second murder the dim reflection of a more definite hope for the heir finally to defeat the claims of Banquo's line? It is like Shakspere to give the imagination hints of a situation which he does not explicitly define.
SCENE II: THE PALACE ENTER MACBETH'S LADY AND A SERVANT
1-7
LADY MACBETH |S Banquo ^one from court? SERVANT I,madame,but returnes againe to night.
LADY MACBETH Say to the king I would attend his leysure For a few words.
SERVANT Madame, I will.
EXIT LADY MACBETH
Nought *s had, all 's spent, Where our desire is got without content: 'T is safer to be chat which we destroy Then by destruction dwell in doubtfull joy.
has led her into. Macbeth
enters with the same thought in mind. SF 6 DESTROY in M. E. and c. N. E. is used of putting
persons as well as things out of existence. SF 7 DOUBTFULL, apprehensive, N.E.D. 5.
104
*1F I The usual EL. auxiliary with verbs of motion is IS, correspondingto MN. E. * has.' COURT, 'the immediate sur- roundings of the king,' N. E. D. 6. The word now usually re- fers to a formal assembly held by the sovereign. Lady Mac- beth's words strike the key- note of the scene. *IF 2 I is the EL. form of 'Aye,' cp. note to II. 2. 17. ^3 SAY TO THE KING, 'tell the king,' cp.I.2.6. ATTEND, 'await,' N.E.D. 13. *1F4 Lady Mac- beth's words are the conclu- sion, couched in the form of proverbs, of a train of thought which her evident intention to speak to her husband on the subject of his despondency
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SF8 KEEPE ALONE: Burton, * Anat. of Mel.' I.3.i.2, says that solitariness is one of the symptoms of 'melancholy madness': 'they abhor all companions, at last even their near- est acquaintances and most familiar friends.' In this solitariness 'there is nothing so vain,
absurd, ridiculous, extrava
ACT III SCENE II
8-12
ENTER MACBETH
How now, my lord! why doe you keepe alone, Of sorryest fancies your companions making. Using those thoughts which should indeed
have dy'd With them they thinke on ? Things without
all remedie Should be without regard: what's done is
done.
gant, impossible, incredible . . which they will not really fear, feign, suspect and ima- gine unto themselves,' cp. "of sorryest fancies your com- panions making." SF9 SOR- RYEST, as in II. 2. 21, here means 'most gloomy,' 'most dismal,'cp.Cent. Diet. 3. SF 10 USING, 'making yourself fa- miliar with,' 'entertaining,' a common EL. meaning of the word, cp. " I will make all use of it [i.e. discontent], for I use it onely" Ado 1.3-41. THOUGHTS in M.E. and c.N.E. often means 'anxieties,' and has such a shade of meaning here; we still have this sense of the word in 'take no thought for the morrow.' SF II THINKE ON, 'bring to mind,'cp. "not a thought but thinkes on dignitic" 2Hen.6 III. 1.338. In M.E. and e. N.E. ALL is frequently used in the sense of 'any,' e.g. "at all adventure," i.e. on any chance, Golding's Translation of Calvin's Galatians, p. 187 b. It is very frequent after WITHOUT, cp." without all helpe" Newton's Thebais, Sp.Soc.,p. 108 ; "without all question" James's Corruption of Scripture, I6l2, p. 23; "without all vayne glory" Arcadia, p. 19 b.
SF13 SCORCH'D, 'hacked,' 'lacerated' ; the Cambridge Text and most modern editors print Theobald's * scotch'd' for Shakspere's " scorch'd." Modern editors of Beaumont and Fletcher likewise change the text of the 'Knight of the Burning Pestle' III. 4, where
" scorcht and scored in this inhuman wise" occurs, alter- ing the EL. "scorcht" to 'scotcht.' The word" scorch" is a derivative verb from " score" and means' to hack.' InRhodes's Book of Nurture, 1577, a boy is told "With knyfe scortche not the boorde [i.e. table] " Babees Book, E. E.T.S., p. 80. Shakspere uses the word also in Err. V. To scorch your face and to dis- figure you," where some modern editors strangely understand 'to singe,' and Warburton and Dyce emend the text to 'scotch.' This, like so many other alleged misprints in Shakspere, is therefore a creature of the editorial imagination. *IF 14 SHEE 'LE : the word 'snake' is feminine as well as neuter in EL. E. CLOSE, 'come together,' 'join,' cp. "As many lynes close in the dial's center" Hen. 5 1. 2. 210. For the whole notion, cp. "The sillie serpent found by country swaine And cut in peeces [i.e. scorched] by his furious blowes Yet if his [genitive of ' it '] head do scape away untoucht, As many write, it very strangelye goes To fetch an herbe, with which in little time Her battred corpes again she doth con- joyne" Greene's Alphonsus, 1577,308-313. POORE MALLICE, 'ineffective influence
105
ACT III
SCENE II
13-15
MACBETH We have scorch'd the snake, not kill'd it: Shee'le close and be her selfe, whilest our
poore mallice Remaines in danger of her former tooth.
1. 183 in the sense of lacerate, 'to tear': "and vowes
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
for evil,' one of those marvellously tense expressions of Shakspere's so hard to render into MN.E. terms. The word **mallice" in EL.E. connotes 'influence for evil' as well as 'desire to do evil/ cp. v. 25- SF 15 FORMER, 'formerly possessed,' cp. "I 'le worke My selfe a former fortune" Cor.
ACT III
SCENE II
16-26
But let the frame of things dis-joynt, Both the worlds suffer, i6
Ere we will eate our meale in feare, and sleepe In the affliction of these terrible dreames That shake us nightly: better be with the
dead. Whom we, to gayne our peace, have sent to
peace, Then on the torture of the minde to lye In restlesse extasie. Duncane is in his grave ; After life's fitfuU fever he sleepes well; Treason has done his worst: nor Steele nor
poyson, Mallice domestique, forraine levie, nothings Can touch him further.
V.3.20I.
*1FI6 FRAME OF THINGS, 'the established order of things,' N. E. D. 4; but pos- sibly Macbeth means 'the earth' : Hamlet speaks of "this goodly frame the earth" II. 2.309. In Shakspere's time the word was common in this sense, see N. E. D. 8. DIS- JOYNT, 'fall to pieces,' N. E. D. 4, cp. "Our state to be dis- joyntand out of frame" Ham. 1.2.20. BOTHTHEWORLDS, 'both hemispheres, "the whole world,' cp. II. 1.49; Delius explains as ^thc terrestrial and the celestial worlds,' and illustrates by "both the worlds I give to negligence" Ham. IV. 5- 134. SUFFER: CI. Pr. glosses 'perish,' and perhaps rightly, citing " I have suf- fered with those I saw suf- fer" Temp. 1. 2. 6. This meaning of the word, however, is an unusual extension of the sense 'suffer loss or injury.' The passage is here printed as in FO. I : the Cambridge Text makes a single verse of "But . . suffer"; we frequently have incomplete verses in Macbeth, and these two, one of four waves and one of two and a half, admirably suit the "extasie" of Macbeth's utterance. But if we read "th' worlds" and "th"fliction" (for which there is ample warrant in EL. prosody), ending the verses at "worlds" and "fear," the whole passage can be made metrical. SF 17 MEALE in EL.E. is often sin- gular as here, cp. "Whose hourcs, whose bed, whose meale and exercise" Cor. IV. 4. 14. SFI8 TERR'BLE, as frequently in EL.E. SF 19 SHAKE, an anticipation of the "fitfuU fever" below. SF 20 Many modern editors, quite missing the deep meaning in GAYNE OUR PEACE, would alter "peace" to 'state' or 'seat' or 'pangs'; others follow the 'place' of FOS. 2, 3, and 4. Macbeth's effort to "gayne peace" when there is no peace is the motive of his murder of Banquo ; and now, as he looks back over the ten years of his reign, he thinks of Duncan's murder, too, as having been contrived to gain peace, — as it really was, a peace from his restless ambition, — the lurid light of his agony mould- ing the act into the form of this subsequent bitter experience. To alter the word to 'place' is almost as fatal as would be a change of "poore mallice," above, to 'sore mal- ice.' HAVE SENT TO PEACE is a beautiful euphemism whose sense is fortunately not lost from MN.E. *IF2I TORTURE, i.e. the rack ; Shakspere uses the word as mean- ing an instrument of torture in "He calles for the tortures, what will you say without 'em?" All's W. IV.3. 137. *1F22 RESTLESSE, 'that gives no rest,' cp. "restlesse cares" Rich.3 I.4.8I. EXTASIE, 'madness,' 'the state of being out of one's mind,' cp. IV. 3.170. Burton, 'Anat. of Mel.' I.I.i.4, does not define it clearly, though he leaves it to be inferred that ecstasy is a form of temporary mental alienation. The notion Mac-
106
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
beth here expresses is found also in Meas. V. 1. 401 : *' But peace be with him ! That life- is better life, past fearing death, Then that which lives to feare"; Ben Jonson has the same idea in Every Man in his Humour, III. 3: **No greater hell than to be slave to feare." Montaigne, too, Florio's translation, I.xxiii, tells the story of how a fugitive gave himself up to his pursuers, ** calling to minde . . how much better it were for him to die once than live in such continuall feare and agonie," adding that this "were better . . than remaine still in the continuall fit of such a fever that hath no remedie" (sec the next note). SF23 FITFULL FEVER has gone into the language from this passage with the stereotyped connotation of 'the feverish anxieties of life': but **fever" in EL. E. usually suggests the intermittent fever of an ague, hence the epithet "fitfull." In Shakspere's time "fitfull" had not the general meaning of 'changing or spasmodic': according to N.E. D., Scott, I8I0, is the first to use it in this sense. Both words had in EL. E. a special reference to insanity, which was formerly viewed as a periodic disease of the nature of a fever; see N.E. D. * fit' 3 b. In Titus IV. 1. 17 we have : '* Unlesse some fit or frenzie do possesse her," and in Temp. 1.2.208 : **Not a soule But felt a feaver of the madde and plaid Some tricks of desperation" ; and see Lady Macbeth's words in III. 4. 55. The picture of Duncan's reign which Macbeth gives in 1.7. 16 ff. does not justify his description of Duncan's life as a "fitfuU fever" ; but Macbeth now reflects his own unrest upon all life. HE SLEEPES WELL: "he" and "well" have primary stress, and "sleepes" a heavy secondary stress, the rhythm reflecting the notion in the words. Shakspere, in depicting these 'fine frenzies' of Macbeth, touches his language with a poetic magic re- flecting the rich associations with which his overwrought thought is charged. SF 24 HIS is the EL. genitive of *it.' The double NOR construction is still in use in poetry: 'neither . . nor 'is the corresponding MN.E. prose idiom. SF 25 MALLICE : see note to v. 1 4. DOMES- TIQUE, i.e. 'at home': for the spelling sec note to 1.3.78. FORRAINE, ' abroad,' con- trasted with "domestique" : the word is now obsolete in this sense, see N.E.D. I b. This spelling is common in Shakspere's time and represents the M. E. form, cp. O. FR. forein : the gn of the modern form — it dates from the I6th century — is probably due to such words as 'sovereign,' 'reign.' LEVIE in MN. E. means 'a body of troops levied' ; in EL.E.
it can mean 'the act of levy-
ACT 111 SCFNF TT 96 98 ing troops.' SF 26 TOUCH,
^^ ^ ^^^ :5<^niNCll 2b- 2^ *harm,' 'injure,' a meaning
frequent in Shakspere ; cp.
LADY MACBETH IV. 3. 14 and "Seeing his
Come on reputation touch'd to death "
Gentle my lord, sleeke o're your rugged ^"^°"
lookes; SF26 come on in el. E.
Be bridht and joviall amond your duests to- ff" correspond to 'come!'
. .^ "^ o J o *have done with this, cp.
night. "Come on, sir knave, have
done your foolishnes" Err. I. 2.72; despite the colon after the word in FO. I,it seems to have this sense here, cp. Lady Macbeth's "You must leave this" in v. 35- Lady Macbeth recognizes in her hus- band's overwrought language and distorted features the imminence of one of his hallucina- tion periods, and tries to guide his thoughts into safer channels. *ff 27 GENTLE MY LORD is common EL. word order for 'my noble lord,' cp. "gracious my lord" V.5.30. SLEEKE, 'smooth out,' cp. "To sleek (make sleek), Icevigo^^ Coles, and "A locksmith . . smotheth [glossed "maketh sleek" in margin and referred to as "to sleek" in index] the roughnesse with a plane" Comenius, 'Janua' 532; Drayton in ' Barrons Warres' III. 47 also has "sleek every little dimple of the lake" (cited by Cent. Diet.). RUGGED, 'wrinkled': Comenius, 'Janua' 77, speaks of the earth as being "cragged or rugged," translating con- fragosa ; and Spenser in the Prologue to Book IV of the Faerie Qucene writes "The rugged
107
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
forhead that with grave foresight Wields kingdomes, causes, and affaires of state" (cited by the Cent. Diet.) ; Cotgrave defines rugueux by ''rugged, wrinkled" ; the Glossographia gives " rugosity ; ruggedness, a being full of wrinkles." So we are not justified in assuming that LOOKES is a misprintfor
ACT III SCENE II
Mocks' even though Shak spcre has elsewhere used "rugged" to mean 'ruffled.' SF 28 is a six-wave verse un- less we read '"mong" for AMONG.
<1F30 REMEMBRANCE (four syllables, cp. note to 1. 5.40), 'consideration,' as in "One thus descended . . we did commend To your remem- brances" Cor. II. 3.253. AP- PLY, 'attend assiduously/ N.E.D.I5. SF3I PRESENT, 'show,' cp. "Yet oftentimes it [z.e. your fault] doth present harsh rage" I Hen.4 1 1 1. 1. 1 83. EMINENCE, 'deference,' cp. " Equity is a due to people as eminency is to princes" Ward, 1647, cited in N.E.D. s.u.'eminency'6. SF32 UN- SAFE THE WHILE, etc., has caused great difficulty to Shakspere editors, and va- rious far-fetched attempts have been made to botch the
text into MN.E. sense. But such syntax as we have here, through which both subject and predicate are left to be supplied mentally from the context, is not uncommon in EL. E. Another such idiom appears in III. 4. 31, " [he hath] no teeth for th' present"; also in Tro.&Cr. IV.4.57, "[there is] no remedy"; and in Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, III. 3 (cited above), "[there is] no greater hell than to be slave to fear"; likewise in Bur- ton's Anatomy, 1. 2.ii. 7, ' Nothing better than moderate sleep, nothing worse than it if it be in extremes.' And such instances could be indefinitely multiplied. The thought, then, resumes that of v. 29, 'I shall be jovial and so, I pray, be you; but we are insecure so long as we,' etc. The use of SAFE in the sense of 'secure' has already been noted. It is Macbeth's insecurity that is gall and wormwood to him. THE WHILE is adverbially used in M.E. and e. N.E., and here means 'so long as,' THAT being the strengthening particle. In FO. I there is a comma after "that," which has led modern editors to read "that" as tantamount to 'in that.' But in EL. punctuation a subordinate clause, no matter what its relation to the context, is cut off by commas. Macbeth is thinking of Banquo's "being" as the menace to his peace. Vv. 31, 32 are here printed as in FO. I : the Cambridge Text prints Unsafe . . we, an imperfect verse, followed by Must . . streams, a complete one. *IF34 VIZARDS, 'masks,' cp. L.L.L. V.2.242. SF35 YOU MUST LEAVE THIS, 'you must cease to think of this,' N. E. D. 'leave' 1 1 ; cp. "But leav- ing this, what is your grace's pleasure?" Rich. 3 III. 7. 108. SF37 Again the singular verb with the plural subject. IP 38 NATURE'S COPPIE S NOT ETERNE, 'life's tenure in them is terminable': Lady Macbeth uses legal phraseology; "copy" in EL. E. was a 'holding
108
29-38
MACBETH So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you: Let your remembrance apply to Banquo; Present him eminence, both with eye and
tongue : Unsafe the while that wee must lave Our honors in these flattering streames, And make our faces vizards to our hearts, Disguising what they are.
LADY MACBETH
You must leave this. MACBETH O, full of scorpions is my minde, deare wife! Thou know'st that Banquo and his Fleans lives.
LADY MACBETH But in them nature's coppie 's not eterne.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
by copy/ which, as defined by Cowel, is "a tenure for which the tenant hath nothing to show but the copy of the Rolls made by the Steward of the Lord's Court [i.e. the mano- rial court-roll]." Cowel says that these copyholds vary with the customs of the manor, which are infinite; some of them are "fineable at will"; some ''certain," i.e. the next of blood inherits on payment of a customary fine. NATURE, here used in its common EL. sense of 'life,' is thought of as residing in Banquo and Fleance as if holding a manorial tenancy from the Sovereign of Life. Lady Macbeth remarks that this tenure is terminable, darkly hinting at a " deed of dreadfull note." And by this hint not only does she show that she has read the thought which lies behind her husband's "Thou know'st that Banquo and his Fleans lives," but she also includes herself in this second plot, and invites her share of the doom which follows. In her delirium (cp. V. I ) she is haunted by the murder of Ban- quo as well as by the blood of Duncan. ETERNE, an earlier form of 'eternal,' O.FR. eterne,
which was evidently becom-
ACT III SCENE II 39-44 "^1.:^^ l^t^
and in Ham. II. 2.512 ; but it MACBblH is not uncommon in EL. prose
There's comfort yet; they are assaileable; and poetry, see n.e.d. i.
Then bethou jocund: ere the bathath flowne c,f4o jocund, 'well pleased,' His cloyster'd flight, ere to black Heccat's 'joyful,' see n.e.d. b. SF4i
summons CLOYSTER'D, 'confined to
r^|^ 1 11 1 1 .11-1 -1 cloisters,' 'cloister haunting,'
1 he shard-borne beetle With his drowsie hums acurioususeoftheword. to Hath rung night's yawning peale, there shall 'in accord with," in obedience
k^ J^^^ to,' cp. "a souldier Even to
be done n\^^ rcr^ in i m ■ u'»
Uato sLFO. I "calves Jwish
A deed of dreadfull note. Cor. l 4. 56. black, cp.
LADY MACBETH '[^^t''^^ l^ }^^ ^'''^^^ °^.^f '
,„,. , L J -) ^^ '^'^ ° dungeons, and the
What S to be done.'' schoole [an el. variant spell- ing of " skull," ' head armour '] of night" L.L.L. IV. 3. 254. HECCAT, again the dissyllabic form with stress on the first syllable; cp. note to II. 1.52. SF42 Many of the earlier commentators of Shakspere took the SHARD-BORNE BEETLE for a scarab or sort of tumble-bug born in 'shards' or rubbish. But the reference to the insect's "drowsie hums" in the evening shows that it is the tree-beetle that Shakspere means. He distinguishes this insect from other beetles by describing it as borne up by "shards," or scaly wing-cases. Beetles and locusts were not sharply distinguished in Shakspere's time, and it is the locust or hanne- ton which Muffet thus describes in his 'Insectorum Theatrum': "The tree beetle is very common and everywhere to be met with, especially in the moneths of July and August after sunset: for then it flyeth giddily in men's faces with a great humming and loud noise." Cotgrave, s.v. hanneton, speaks of their scaly wing-cases as a characteristic. Ben Jonson refers to their wing-cases as "habergeons" in "The scaly beetles, with their habergeons. That make a humming murmur as they fly," and makes them the instruments of witches in The Sad Shepherd II. 2. SHARD is not an uncommon name of the ely- trum of the beetle: Shakspere uses it in Ant.&Cl.III.2.20, "They are his shards and he their beetle," and in Cym. III.3.20, "The sharded-beetle." Chapman, I6l4 (cited by Steevens), reflects a popular superstition that associates this insect with death bodings : " The beetle . . with his knoll-like [i.e. knell-like] humming gave the dor of death to men [gave them the mock of death, i.e. sleep]," hence " hath rung night's yawning peale." SF 43 YAWN- ING, ' drowsy,' cp. Coles, " yawning, oscitahunduSj^ and " The lazie yawning drone " Hen. 5 1.2.204. SF44 NOTE, 'importance,' cp. "he is one of the noblest note" Cym. 1.6.22.
109
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SF45 INNOCENT, a dissyllable. DEAREST CHUCK is a term of endearment used also in L.L.L. V.2.667 and Hen. 5 111.2,25. SF46 With an exquisite transition, Shakspere makes Macbeth demand of nature the same secrecy which he has been asking of Lady Macbeth. SEELING is an EL. term of falconry denoting the sewing up of the hawk's eyelids. It had a general application to hoodwinking, however, as is shown by Cotgrave's "siller les yeux, to seele or sew up the eye-lids and thence also to hoodwinke, blind, keepe in darknesse, deprive of
sight," cp. -to seele her ^^r^ jjj SCENE II 45-56
father's eyes up close as '' "-^ * * oake" Oth.III. 3.210. SF47 SKARFE UP, 'blindfold,' cp. "imbendare, to inscarfe, to blind fould" Florio. PITTI- FULL: in EL. E. the word was subjectively as well as objectively used, and could mean 'feeling pity' as well as 'exciting pity,' cp. "good ground, be pittifull and hurt me not" John IV. 3- 2. The word was often syncopated to "pit'ful" in M. E. and e.N.E. SF48 INVISIBLEalso is probably meant to be syn- copated, cp. ** Which now in visible hatred are burst out" Jonson,'Sejanus'lV.3. SF49 ** Death cancells all bonds" was a commonplace in Shak- sperc's time, cp. "The com- mon saying is that death acquits us of all our bonds" Florio's Montaigne,!, vii. The phrase occurs in another forminlHen.4 III.2.I57,"the end of life cancells all bands." Shakspere employs the can- celling of the bond of life as
MACBETH Be innocent of the knowledge, clearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling
night, Skarfe up the tender eye of pittifull day, And with thy bloodie and invisible hand Cancell and teare to pieces that great bond Which keepes me pale ! Light thickens, and
the crow Makes wing to th' rookie wood: Good things of day begin to droope and
drowse. Whiles night's black agents to their preys
doe rowse. Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee
still; Things bad begun make strong themselves
by ill: So, prythee, goe with me.
EXEUNT
a euphemism for death in "Cancell his bond of life, deere God, I pray" Rich.3 IV. 4. 77, and in "great powres . . take this life and cancell these cold bonds" Cym.V.4.26. Macbeth invokes night, whom he now thinks of as death, to cancel the bond of Banquo's life and thus tear in pieces the deed (cp. N.E. D. 'bond' 9) by which the 'great powers' have bound themselves to confer the sovereignty on Banquo's issue. In this latter sense of 'instrument of obliga- tion' the word "bond" had a wider application in EL. E. than in MN.E., e.£f. in The Mer- chant of Venice a promissory note is a bond, and we have "take a bond of fate" in IV. 1.84. The blending of two meanings of a word or phrase in a harmonious union so close as to present but a single idea is a characteristic of Shakspere's English. It is the implied obligation in the witches' prophecy that keeps Macbeth pale, and his words here are but the nearer echo of his invocation of the powers of darkness and ruin to champion him to the uttermost. In the literal sense Banquo's bond of life includes Fleance's also ; and when they embrace the fate of their dark hour death will cancel the great bond by making it impossible of fulfilment, and thus will Macbeth cheat the powers
110
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
of destiny. The verse division of FO. I for vv. 50 and 51 is "Which . . thickens, And . . wood"; the modern verse division, 'Which . . crow, Makes . . wood,' is Rowe's. Some editors, convinced that ** Makes . . wood" is a verse accidentally incomplete, at- tempt to restore it : Kcightley clapped to it the patch * on earth below,' binding woolsey on a coat of silk. The broken line would come more naturally after "pale," but that would make v. 5 I a verse of six waves, so perhaps Rowe's division is the better. SF 50 THICK- ENS, 'becomes obscure,' cp. "thy luster thickens When he shines by" Ant.&Cl. II. 3. 27. *IF 5 1 ROOKIE : a large class of adjectives in EL. E. were formed by adding -g to a noun or to another adjective stem with the sense of 'abounding in,' 'full of,' 'characterized by' ; e.g'. "helly" for hell-like, Heywood's Hercules Furens, Sp. Soc, p. 14, "shelfye," abound- ing in shoals, ibid., p. 15, "dampy," full of damp, Drayton's Heroicall Epistles, p. 53 ; so " roundy " Sidney's Arcadia, " hugy " Peek's Clyomon and Clamydes, and a host of others. Most of these have disappeared in MN.E. The MN.E. distinction between a crow, 'a large black bird that feeds on carrion,' and a rook, corvus frugilegus, does not seem to have been always observed in EL.E. Rooks are still called crows in northern England and Scotland, and crow is still the generic name for both rooks and crows in the United States. Shakspere calls the boy who frightens away the rooks a "crow-keeper" in Rom.&Jul. 1.4.6, and Kersey, 1708, defines a rook as a "bird that preys upon carrion." There is, therefore, no inconsistency in Shakspere's making CROWS fly to the ROOKIE WOOD as Steevcns supposed, and such emendations as ' rook i' th',' ' reeky,' ' murky,' etc., for "rookie" are fortunately unnecessary here. Other editors with some reason have thought that ROOKIE was the EL. form of the M.E. word found in the Promptorium Parvulorum : "roky or mysty, nebulosus,^^ "roke, myste, nefeu/a." This word, at least in its noun form, was current in literary EL.E., as is shown by Levin's Manipulus Vocabu- lorum, 1570, which glosses pruina by "ye hore roke," i.e. the mist which settles over hoar-frost. Kersey has it in 1708: "roke, as 'To make one's self all in a roke,' i.e. to put one's self into a great sweat." The word is still common in dialects and is used by Tennyson: see Cent. Diet. It is quite possible, therefore, that "rookie" of FO. I is a printer's error for ' roakie ' or ' rokie,' as may be the " schoole " for ' schole 'in 1.7.6. And here, as in I. 7. 6, it happens that both words make good Shaksperian sense, 'the cawing rooks' or 'the evening mists.' But as the text is for "rookie," pronounced almost as in MN.E., instead of 'rokie' (rhyming with 'smoky'), perhaps it is better to adhere to the former interpretation. Any one who has noticed the rooks settling down for the night into the tops of tall elm trees, as they do, for instance, in the trees about Magdalen Col- lege, will not have difficulty in understanding Shakspere's "rookie wood." SF52 GOOD THINGS OF DAY seems to be a reminiscence of a passage from Euripides current in EL. E. ; Steevens cites it from Ascham's Toxophilus : " II thynges the nyght, good thynges the day doth haunt and use." SF53 BLACK AGENTS, 'dark influences.' PREYS (mis- printed "prey's" in FO. 1) : the usual EL. distributive plural, cp. note to III. 1. 122. SF 54 MARVELL'ST: the second personal verb ending was often thus syncopated in M.E. and c.N.E. ; such forms are now usually confined to short words like 'dost,' 'hast,' etc. HOLD THEE STILL, 'have patience,' probably in anticipation of such a protest from Lady Mac- beth as in III. 2. 35. SF55 BAD, the EL. adverb. <1F56 PRYTHEE, cp. note to 1.7.45. This is the second time that, as the dark and evil powers of his character rouse them- selves to their task, Macbeth reflects his mood of darkness upon the face of nature. In II. 1.49 ff-r as he goes to murder Duncan, dead nature, deceiving dreams, witchcraft, pale Hecate, stalking murder, the howling wolf, the dull and sleepy earth add their present horror to the time. So here, with a few touches of association, — and it is marvellous how few they are : the deepening light, the cawing rooks, plants and animals drooping and drowsing to healthy rest while the mysterious forces of darkness stir themselves to their nightly ac- tivity,—Shakspere tunes Macbeth's soul into unison with the mysterious powers of evil that fly by night. It is this mystery of evil, this bloody and invisible hand of the night groping for human souls out of that realm of dark imagination to which the human mind has
III
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
given a local habitation and a name in its eerie folk-lore, that is the deep undercurrent of interest, lending, even at this late day, a sort of fascination to the tragedy of Macbeth. We catch an early glimpse of this eerie world as we learn in childhood the story of Saul and the witch of Endor, and there are indeed few of us who ever quite forget its essential tragedy.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE III
The scene begins in medias res : the murderers have already met and planned their attack ; the third murderer has instructed the other two as to just what they are to do, vv. 2 and 3^ He himself does not seem to take an actual part in the encounter, but merely superintends it: this points strongly to his being Macbeth's "perfect spy." It is he who has planned out the details ; it is he who knows the courtiers' habit of walking through the palace yard. When Macbeth speaks to the two in III. 1. 129 ff. he gives them no plan of action : he only asks them to make up their minds. This third murderer must therefore be *'the perfect spy o' th' time" referred to in III. 1.30, or *a perfect spy of the time' in Macbeth's employ introduced here in order to give the scene more lifelikeness. The far-fetched theory that the third murderer is Macbeth himself disguised ( !) has nothing to recommend it save its ingenuity. Any such mystery would have needed a commentator to explain it, since there are evidently no asides in the action, and any distinction of dress would have betrayed Macbeth to his fellow-murderers at the moment when it disclosed him to the audience.
SCENE III: A PARK NEAR THE PALACE ENTER THREE MURTHERERS
1-4 FIRST MURTHERER UT who did bid thee joyne with us?
THIRD MURTHERER Macbeth.
*IF I BUT marks the sharp turn of suspicion that crosses the mind of the first murderer as the new accession to their party finishes his directions. SF2 HE NEEDES NOT OUR MISTRUST, 'there is no rea- son why we should mistrust him'; such e. N. E. syntax grew out of the development of M.E. impersonal idioms into e. N. E. personal forms of thinking. Such an expression as "it needeth not that we mistruste him," i.e. there is no reason that, etc., became "he needes not our mistrust"; the opus est meaning of 'needs' is now quite obsolete, and such a phrase as we have here in MN.E. seems like a clumsy figure of speech, and such expressions as "What need the bridge much broder then the flood?" i.e. Why should the bridge be broader than the stream? Ado I. 1. 318, and"What need these tricks?" Tro.&Cr. V. 1 . 1 4, appear to us sheer nonsense. DELIVERS, * describes,' N. E. D. II, cp. " I . . heard the old shepheard deliver the manner how he found it" Wint.T. V. 2.4. SF 3 OFFICES, 'parts,' cp. "this is thy office, Bcare thee well in it" Ado III. 1. 12. SF 4 TO, 'according
112
SECOND MURTHERER He needes not our mistrust, since he delivers Our offices and what we have to doe To the direction just.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT III
SCENE III
4-16
FIRST MURTHERER
Then stand with us. The west yet glimmers with some streakes
of day: Now spurres the lated traveller apace To ^ayne the timely inne, and neere approches The subject of our watch.
THIRD MURTHERER
Hearke! I heare horses.
BANQUO WITHIN
Give us a li^ht there, hoa!
SECOND MURTHERER
Then 'tis hee: the rest That are within the note of expectation Alreadie are i' th' court.
FIRST MURTHERER
His horses goe about.
THIRD MURTHERER Almost a mile: but he does usually, So all men doe, from hence to th' pallace ^ate Make it their walke.
ENTER BANQUO AND FLEANS WITH A TORCH
SECOND MURTHERER
A light, a light! THIRD MURTHERER
to,'acommonM.E.ande.N, E. meaning of the preposition. THE, probably equivalent to JUST, *ex-
or
'our.'
'his'
actly,' 'precisely,' see N.E.D.2, whose citation from Stern- hold and Hopkins's Psalmes, 1549-1562, "The Lord . . knoweth our shape, Our mould and fashion just," shows that the position of the adverb is not anomalous in EL. E.
*1F4 The first murderer's STAND WITH US seems to be proposed as a test of the new arrival's sincerity. SF 6 LATED is not an aphetic form of 'belated,' used here for rhythm's sake, but a not un- common participial adjective in -ed, 'made late.' It occurs also in Ant.&Cl. III. II. 3. *1F7 TIMELY, 'opportune,' ' welcome,' cp. Coles," timely, opportunusy SF 8 SUBJECT is frequently used in EL. E. where MN. E. prefers 'ob- ject,' cp. "To be shame's scorne and subject of mis- chance" I Hen.6 IV. 6. 49. SF9 HOA is Banquo's call to his attendants, who are taking the horses around by the road ; the word is extra-metrical : FO. I makes THE REST part of the following verse. SF 10 WITHIN THE NOTE, 'com- prised in the list,' cp. "mace, dates, none ; that's out of my note" Wint.T. IV.3.49. OF EXPECTATION, 'of the ex- pected guests,' cp. "The ut- most man of expectation," i.e. the full complement of the soldiers we expected, 2Hen.4 I.3.65. This meaning of the *IF II I' TH' COURT, 'at the palace,' N.E.D.5. ABOUT, 'by a circuitous way,' cp. "I was forc'd to wheele Three or foure miles about" Cor. 1.6. 19. SF14 THEIR would be 'his' in MN.E. The syntax is similar to that ex- plained in the note to 1.3. 144. A LIGHT, the torch that Fleance is carrying. SF I6 IT WILL BE RAYNE, 'there will be rain'; the impersonal idiom in M.E. could have "it" for its subject, and this form of it survived into e. N.E. ; cp. the German locution 'es giebt.'
113
'T is hee.
FIRST MURTHERER Stand too 't.
BANQUO It will be rayne to ni^ht.
word has been overlooked by the N. E. D.
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
*1F 16 LET IT COME DOWNE is probably said with ironical double meaning — 'let the blow fall.' «IFI7 TRECHERIE, 'treach'ry.' <JF 18 The Mac- beth tradition made Fleance flee to Wales, cp. ** About this timealso Fleance, from whom the later kings of Scotlandare descended, fled from his tyr- anny into Wales : where by Nest, daughter to Griffith ap Lewlyn, then Prince of all Wales, he had Walter, first Lord Steward of Scotland" Slatyer's Palaaalbion, I619, p. 282. Holinshed also makes Fleance escape, not at the time of the murder, but later. SF20 WE HAVE LOST was probably intended for a con- traction,'we've lost.' *IF2I BEST HALFE: the parti- tive superlative frequently appears in EL.E. without the definite article, as here, cp. '* I am grieved to sec how we employ most part of our time " Florio's Montaigne, L XXV.
ACT III
SCENE III
16-22
FIRST MURTHERER
Let it come downe.
THEY SET UPON BANQUO
BANQUO O, trecherie ! Flye,good Fleans,flye, flye,flye, Thou may'st revenge. O slave!
DIES. FLEANS ESCAPES THIRD MURTHERER Who did strike out the light?
FIRST MURTHERER
Was 't not the way? THIRD MURTHERER There's but one downe; the sonne is fled. SECOND MURTHERER
We have lost Best halfe of our affaire.
FIRST MURTHERER Well, let 's away and say how much is done.
EXEUNT
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE IV
The scene that follows is really the critical point of the play. Macbeth's insanity now be- comes a menace to his personal security, and the other 'tortures of his mind' pale before a greater torture when he becomes aware that the " fits " which he suffers from have become matters of public comment, and that now he cannot help betraying himself and unfolding all the dark horrors of his life to the public gaze. His terrible dreams have now invaded the daylight. His will, whose impotence to restrain his own evil ambitions he becomes aware of in the first act of the play, is now the active agent of powers which, fight against it as he may, are assuring his own destruction. How frequent the fits must be Shakspere contrives to show us in presenting but one: what anxieties they cause the guilty pair and how impossible of control they are appears later from the sleep-walking scene where Lady Macbeth exclaims "you marre all with this starting." Shakspere here, as in Hamlet, pre- sents the tragic Nemesis as an instrument of torture wrought out of the material of the victim's own character. But not only Macbeth, Lady Macbeth likewise becomes the vic- tim of "even-handed justice." She has instigated the murder of Duncan, embarking her husband on his career of bloodshed; she 'goes with him' in his murder of Banquo ; she accedes to his designs against Macduff as implied in his notion of wading on through the stream of blood — perhaps a helpless accession, but none the less conscious, as she shows in the sleep-walking scene. She has enjoyed the first fruits of their common crime, as we see from the well-borne queenly dignity with which Shakspere endues her ; and in her
114
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
anxiety to shield her husband from the consequences of his self-betrayal, she drinks of the cup that Nemesis commends to the lips of Macbeth. And with the close of the scene, like the primeval pair who left Eden **hand in hand with wandring steps and slow," they together enter into their heritage of bitterness 'but young in deed,' novitiates in suffering.
SCENE IV: THE HALL IN THE PALACE
BANQUET PREPARED: ENTER MACBETH LADY MACBETH
ROSSE LENOX LORDS AND ATTENDANTS
MACBETH OU know your owne decrees ; sit
downe: at first And last the hearty welcome. LORDS Thankes to your majesty. MACBETH
1-6
<1FI DEGREES, 'rank,' 'or- der of precedence,' N.E.D.4, cp. "O that estates, degrees and offices Were not deriv'd corruptly" Merch. II. 9. 41 ; the plural form is used as it is in **preys" 111.2.53- SIT DOWNE not only seems in- apposite as coming from the king, but makes the rhythm difficult, forcing either two incomplete verses as in FO. I, You . . downe. At . . wel-
come, or a bad verse division
Our selfe will mingle with society
And play the humble host.
Ourhostesse keepes her state, but in best time
We will require her welcome.
in the middle of a phrase,** At first And last," as in the Cambridge Text, or an alexandrine. You . . last, Delius. It may be an extra-metrical phrase, cp. note to III. 1.40, or is possibly an actor's direction in- truded from the margin. AT FIRST AND LAST: the phrase occurs also in "I, greefe, I feare me, both at first and last," i.e. Aye, I fear this matter will be first and last a trouble to the state, I Hen. 6 V. 5. 102. One would naturally expect Macbeth to give his pledge 'to first and last' after having referred to the various degrees of his nobility. But AT in its M. E. sense of ' apud,' ' in the presence of,' is not cited in N. E. D. later than 1 580, though there is obviously an EL. survival of this sense in the idiom " to do at one," cp. " What will she do at me, quid faciei mihij^^ " What wouldst thou do at him, quid illo facias " Phr. Gen. ; the phrase is also given in Coles. Moreover, even if current in the sense of 'apud,' the ^'at" would normally be understood as part of an adverbial phrase if coming before "first." Johnson was for taking "at first" with "sit downe," and altering "last" to 'next'; but this construction makes lame sense, besides departing from the FO. texts and punctuation. Other editors alter "at" to 'to' or to 'and.' But probably Shakspere was merely pre- paring for Macbeth to take his place among his guests as "humble host" instead of sitting in state on the dais above them, so as to provide for his asides to the murderer and his attempt to take Banquo's empty scat: as royal host he pledges the court 'once for all.' SF 2 THE . . WELCOME: the definite article seems to have been used to mark a certain formality, 'the pledge of welcome'; one editor changes it to 'a' in this passage, and most editors remove it from the text in Tro.&Cr. III. 3. I68 : "the welcome ever smiles and fare- well [FO. I "farewels"] goes out sighing." SF 3 OUR SELFE, the majesty plural of the reflexive used as personal pronoun. MINGLE WITH, 'associate with,' cp. "Mingled his royaltie with carping fooles" I Hen. 4 III. 2. 63. SOCIETY, 'company,' cp. " My riots past, my wilde societies" Merry W. 1 1 1. 4. 8. SF4 HUMBLE: Macbeth will lay aside his royalty.
115
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SF 5 STATE frequently in EL.E. means 'chair of state/ 'throne/ cp. "This chayre shall bee my state" lHen.4 II. 4. 415, and Marston's Antonio and Mellida, II. i, stage direc- tion: " Forobosco ushers the duke to his state," IN BEST TIME seems to be a super- lative form of *in good time/ i.e. when the feast is at its height (another instance of the EL. superlative without the definite article). SF 6 REQUIRE, 'ask for/ a usual sense of the word in EL.E.
wek';mT^' ''* ^^'^^' °^ ACT III SCENEIV 7-15
SF8 THEY ARE, probably contracted to ' they Ve.' SF 9 ENCOUNTER seems to be used here in the sense of 'address,' N. E. D. 7, cp. "I could . . have char^'d him At the sixt houre of morne, at noone, at midnight, T' en- counter me with orisons, for then I am in heaven for him" Cym. 1.3.25 ff. But there may be in the word a suggestion of 'countering' in the sense of 'retorting to/ N.E.D. 'counter' 4, or of singing an accompaniment to a melody, N.E.D. 'counter/ v., 2, as the forms of ' counter ' and 'encounter' were con-
LADY MACBETH Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends, For my heart speakes they are welcome.
ENTER FIRST MURTHERER MACBETH See, they encounter thee with their harts^
thanks. Both sides are even: heerel'le sit i'th'mid'st: Be large in mirth ; anon wee 4 drinke a mea- sure The table round. to murtherer
There 's blood upon thy face. MURTHERER 'T is Banquo's then.
MACBETH 'T is better thee without then he within. Is he dispatch'd?
fused in EL.E. The latter meaning beautifully fits the Cymbeline passage. Mac- beth speaks as the lords stand to pledge the queen. THEIR has full stress, contrasting with MY in the previous verse. SF 10 BOTH SIDES ARE EVEN goes with the preceding line in FO. I, which has no mark of punctuation after THANKS; V. 9 in the FO. is closely spaced and its last letter comes to the edge of the column measure, so a period may have been lost in the exigencies of printing, and Mac- beth's words be, as they are always understood to be, a dramatic explanation of his reason for taking Banquo's empty chair at the head of the table. But they could well be a playful reference to the result of the 'countering' between Lady Macbeth and the court, and his "sit i' th' mid'st" be a punning allusion to his taking neutral ground in the con- test of compliment. SF II LARGE, 'unrestrained,' N.E.D. II, cp. "Your praises are too large" Wint.T. IV. 4. 147. ANON, 'in a moment': as he rises to give the pledge which Lady Macbeth in v. 33 chides him for delaying, he catches sight of the murderer at the door and walks toward him. The blood upon the murderer's face is probably one of Macbeth's delusions.^ *1F 14 'T IS BETTER THEE WITHOUT THEN HE WITHIN has been interpreted in various ways : "T is better for you to be outside the banquet-hall, dangerous to me as your presence may be, than for Banquo to be one of my guests,' "T is better that blood should be on thy face than that Banquo should be in the hall,' and *'Tis better the blood should be outside thee than within him.' The last of these is the most apposite: but the nominative "he" governed by the preposition "within" is anoma- lous English. Confusions between the objective and the nominative cases of the per- sonal pronoun after "than" were not uncommon in literary EL.E. (they are still to be
II6
J
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
found in colloquial MN.E., educated persons being often in doubt whether to say 'better than I' or 'better than me'), and the nominative for the accusative after a preposition also occurs in such a careful writer as Ben Jonson: ** It hath been otherwise between you and I" Sejanus V. 10. But Shakspere's locution goes further, for it is not here a case of subject or object of an implied clause, or object of a quasi-preposition, if "within" be a preposition and not an adverb. Perhaps, therefore, it is better to understand Mac- beth's remark as an aside when he recognizes in the blood-stained murderer's presence
at the door a less danger than
ACT III
SCENE IV
16-25
My
would be the menace of Banquo's presence at the feast, than to convict Shak- spere of anomalous English.
SF 17 There is a grimness in Macbeth's jest about CUT- THROATS and his use of the word NON-PAREILL below, 'the star of your profession' ; cp. "he himselfe Cals her a non-pareill" Temp. III. 2. 107, and "non-pareil, that has no equal" Glossographia. SF20 SCAP'D is not, as usu- ally printed, a poetic short- ening for 'escaped,' but is a normal EL. form representing M. E. " scapen " and preserved in MN.E. 'scapegrace.' SF2I The AGAINE has a pathetic significance, 'another parox- ysm of madness,' another at- tack of his insanity. In con- struing this passage the EL. notion of insanity must be borne in mind, see note to in. 2. 23 and " Unlesse some fit or f renzie do possesse her" Titus IV. 1. 17. <IF2I ff. We have here one of those rap- idly moving metaphors, so common in Shakspere, by which various aspects of a notion are linked together through common associations : PER- FECT, 'in sound mental health,' 'sane,' cp. " I feare I am not in my perfect mind" Lsar IV. 7. 63 ; health suggests the 'wholeness,' f lawlessness, soundness of marble, and this the stability of the rock not to be disturbed by tempests ; the tempests suggest the encasing air, and this notion passes into that of a prison, where Macbeth is confined in a filthy hovel with impudent and base-born knaves, " sawcy doubts and feares,'' as his fellow-prisoners. SF 23 BROAD, 'free,' 'unrestrained by restless fears,' cp. III.6. 21. GENERALL, 'unrestricted,' 'unlimited,' cp. "a generall, honest thought" Ca2S.V.5.7I, and "Whose private [i.e. per- sonal interests] with me of the dolphines love Is much more generall then these lines import" John IV. 3. 17. SF24 CABIN in EL. E. is a common name for a prison cell. In the authorized version of Jeremiah XXVII. 16 it is still retained in this sense: "When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon and into the cabins." CRIB denotes a hovel,
117
MURTHERER lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.
MACBETH Thou art the best o' th' cut-throats: yet
hee 's good That did the like for Fleans : if thou did'st it, Thou art the non-pareill.
MURTHERER
Most royall sir, Fleans is scapM.
MACBETH
ASIDE
Then comes my fit againe: I had else beene
perfect, Whole as the marble, founded as the rocke, As broad and generall as the casing ayre: But now I am cabin'd, crib'd, confin'd,
bound in To sawcy doubts and feares.
TO MURTHERER
But Banquo 's safe?
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
cp. "Why rather, sleepe, lyest thou in smoakie cribs?" 2Hen.4 III. 1.9. BOUND IN TO, 'confined with/ cp. "To night she is mewed up to her heavinesse " Rom.&Jul. III. 4. II. SF25 SAWCY, 'insolent/ a somewhat stronger word than it is now, cp. 111.5.3- The tor- ture which Macbeth endures is that of a criminal close confined in narrow quarters with in- sulting cell-mates, who mock him day and night with their insolent jibes. The association of restriction and restraint
suggests the thought that at ApT TTT SPFNP TV OA ^0
least Banquo is 'restricted' ^^ ^ ^^^ b^^niNU IV 26-32
andean no longerdo him harm,
cp. ''<Bullinghrooke, drawing. MURTHERER
Villaine, rie make thee safe ! I^ my good lord: safe in a ditch be bides,
ifand'; tlol^l^st nTcTufJ^o ^itb twenty trencbed gasbes on bis bead, feare" Rich.2 v.3.4iff. Tbe least a deatb to nature.
<1F27 TRENCHED,'deepcut/ MACBETH
not mere 'scorchings,' cp. Tbankes for tbat.
"the wide wound that the ,^, , , ,
boare had trencht In his soft Tbere tbe growne serpent lyes; the worme
flanke"Ven.&Ad. 1052. SF 28 tbat 's fled
oTrb'ody,c;.no;r,"?7! Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
SF29 WORME, a usual EL. No teetb for tb' present. Get tbee ^one: to
word for serpent, cp. " I wish morroW
you all joy of the worme" ,„/• n i 1 r •
Ant.&Cl.v.2.26i. SF30 NA- Wee 1 heare our selves againe.
TURE: cp. note to II. 4.16. EXIT MURTHERER
SF3I NO TEETH FOR TH'
PRESENT ; for the omitted subject and predicate cp. note to III. 2. 32. SF 32 WEE 'L HEARE OUR SELVES AG AINE : in the present state of our knowledge of EL. idiom it is difficult to fix the meaning of this phrase. HEARE may possibly mean 'listen to,' 'hearken to,' N.E. D. 4 b, with OUR SELVES used reciprocally; cp. "as we walke To our owne selves bend we our needefuU talke" Tro.&Cr. IV. 4. 141 ; or OUR SELVES may be majesty plural for 'my- self: the form "our selves" for 'ourself occurs also in Rich.2 I. I. 16, "our selves will heare Th' accuser and the accused," and in Rich.2 III. 3- 127 the Quartos read "our selves" in "We doe abase our selfe," etc. The statements of grammarians that "our selves" is not a proper form of the majesty plural of the reflexive pronoun, and of CI. Pr. that we require 'our self if Macbeth's words are to be taken as meaning 'I myself,' are therefore incorrect. There is another possibility, viz. that "We will heare our selves" is a majesty plural of 'I will hear me,' the EL. ethical dative idiom referred to in the note to II. 1.5 — see the idiom in the citation given there from the 'Arcadia' — the MN.E. of which would be 'I will give you audience again to-morrow.' Some editors put in a comma after "heare" and make the words an absolute idiom, "our selves againe," i.e. when 1 am myself again. To this it is objected that Shakspere would hardly make Macbeth take the murderer into his confidence in the way that this interpretation implies; but "our selves againe" may well be the completion of the thought in Macbeth's own mind, mut- tered as the murderer goes away from the door and heard by the audience as an aside — one of those pathetic 'to-morrow' thoughts that light fools the way to dusty death, as he bitterly says later: 'To morrow, when I shall be well and the fit be past.' That he is in one of his abstracted fits when coming back to the table is clear from Lady Macbeth's next words, and it is quite possible that it begins as the murderers leave him. There are thus four possible interpretations of these words, and all of them grammatically justifiable. The last is the most apposite, for it gives the maximum of interest to Macbeth's remark.
118
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT Ilf
SCENE IV
32-45
LADY MACBETH
My royall lord,
You do not ^ive the cheere: the feast is sold
That is not often vouch'd while 't is a making,
'T is given with welcome. To feede were best at home;
From thence, the sawce to meate is cere- mony;
Meeting were bare without it.
ENTER THE GHOST OF BANQUO AND SITS IN MACBETH'S PLACE
*1F33 CHEERE, 'the toast of welcome/ N.E.D. 5r cp. ** So guiltlesse shee securely gives good cheare And reverend welcome to her princely guest "Lucr. 89. Lady Mac- beth refers to the interrupted toast and recalls her husband to a sense of his surround- ings. He has forgotten all about the pledge he proposed when the sight of the mur- derer's face interrupted him, and there is a certain impa- tience at his absent-minded- ness in Lady Macbeth's words. SF35 'T IS, 'that it is * : the ' that ' is often omitted in M.E. and e. N.E. where it is required in MN.E. GIVEN is one of those -en words which often in EL.E. have but one impulse, 'giv'n,' see note to 1.5.39. FEEDE, merely to
MACBETH
Sweet remembrancer! Now good digestion waite on appetite, And health on both !
LENOX May 't please your highnesse sit.
MACBETH Here had we now our countries honor roofM, Were the grac'd person of our Banquo
present; Who may I rather challenge for unkindnesse Then pitty for mischance.
ROSSE
"remembrancer, nomenclator memorialise magister memo- rice, monitor ^^ Skinner, and "remembrancer, ee/2 indacht- /^-/naaAer"Sewell,I708. SF39 There is a deep pathos in Macbeth's toast — Health ! — though of course it is a mere formality. The entrance of Banquo's ghost is displaced in MN. editions and put after v. 39; but it belongs where the FO. has it. Macbeth, recalled from his absent-mindedness, proposes the toast standing behind the vacant seat — Ban- quo's — which he had taken when coming down from the throne. Somewhat dazed, he notices at first only that the table is full, probably supposing that some newly arrived guest has taken his place while he was talking to the murderer at the door. The full table leads to his gracious remark about having all the nobility of Scotland at his banquet.
119
'eat,' but not so coarse a word as it now is in MN. E., cp. " Sit downe and feed, and welcome to our table" A.Y.L.II.7.IO5. SF36 FROM THENCE, i.e. away from home, cp. "And feedes from home"Err.II.I.IOI. MEATE in EL. E. had a sound like that of MN.E.' mate,' and so there is no pun intended. CERE- MONY, 'cer'mony,' the syn- copated form of the word. *1F37 REMEMBRANCER,
'prompter,' 'monitor,' cp.
His absence, sir,
Layes blame upon his promise. Pleas 't your
highnesse To grace us with your royall company?
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
*1F40 HONOR, 'nobility,' cp. note to II. 1.26. *ff4I GRAC'D, 'accomplished,' cp. "After a well grac'd actor leaves the stage" Rich. 2 V. 2. 24. SF42 WHO: the confusion of relative cases is common in EL. syntax. MAY I RATHER, * I must rather,' cp. note on III. 1. 122. CHALLENGE, 'find fault with,' a common EL. meaning of the word, see N.E. D.2. *IF43 MISCHANCE, i.e. 'his mis-
ACT III
SCENE IV
46-58
Th(
fortune in not being here'; but Macbeth's overwrought mind falls foul of an unlucky word. SF 44 Rosse refers to the colloquy between Mac- beth and Banquo in the opening of Scene I of this act. PLEAS 'T, ' may it please,' an EL. phrase preserving the M.E. subjunctive idiom.
*1F46 Macbeth, seeing the table full, is turning again to his throne, or perhaps leaving the banquet-hall. Banquo's chair is still empty, of course, to the vision of all save Macbeth, and to him the ghostly occupant of it has his back turned. Rosse asks Macbeth not to leave their company and he naturally replies "the table's full." Lenox points out the place that has been kept for him : this place is to Macbeth's eyes occupied, and he naturally asks "Where?" At Lenox's " Heere, my good lord " Mac- beth comes nearer and the ghost slowly turns his head, forbiddino Macbeth to sit down. The first explanation that occurs to Macbeth is that he is the victim of trick- ery, that some one is per- sonating Banquo. 'Angers' is a common EL. sense of MOVES. "Which of you have done this ?" can hardly mean 'has murdered Banquo' be- cause it is no corpse that
Macbeth is looking on. Then the ghost shakes its head to indicate a denial, hence Mac- beth's "never shake thy goary lockes at me." SF 50 The stress is upon I, the reversal oc- curring after the ceesural pause made by SAY. SF 52 RISE, 'break up the meeting,' still used in this sense in the phrase ' the house rises.' SF 53 Lady Macbeth rushes down from her throne to explain that her husband is subject to these sudden seizures. LORD in M. E. and e. N.E. means 'husband' ; cp. Desdemona's " My lord is not my lord" in Oth.III.4. 124.
120
MACBETH table 's full.
LENOX Heere is a place reserved, sir. MACBETH Where?
LENOX Heere, my good lord. What is 't that moves your highnesse?
MACBETH Which of you have done this?
LORDS
What, my good lord? MACBETH Thou canst not say I did it: never shake Thy goary lockes at me.
ROSSE Gentlemen, rise; his highnesse is not well.
LADY MACBETH Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus, And hath beene from his youth. Pray you,
keepe seat; The fit is momentary; upon a thought He will againe be well. If much you note
him You shall offend him and extend his passion ; Feed, and regard him not.
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
SF55 UPON A THOUGHT, 'in a moment': 'upon* was frequently used in M.E. and e.N.E. temporal phrases ; cp, "upon the moment" Compl. 248. SF 56 NOTE, 'pay atten- tion to,' cp. "Tie re you, Tie fa you, do you note me?" Rom.&Jul. IV. 5. 121. SF57 OF- FEND probably has its EL. connotation of ' injure ' as well as of ' give offence to.' EXTEN D, i.e.
aggravate. PASSION, 'dis-
ACT III
SCENE IV
58-68
ease,' referring to insanity, cp. " But till this afternoone his passion [i.e. madness] Ne'er brake into extremity of rage" Err. V. 47. SF 58 FEED, cp. V. 35.
Lady Macbeth is, of course, now standing by her husband, so that her aside is natural ; she appeals to him to recover his self-possession as she did before in I. 7. 35, and he answers as before. SF 60 APPALL carried with it in EL. E. the sense of 'make pale ' as well as its modern meaning. PROPER,' fine,' cp. "A proper title of a peace" Hen.8I.I.98.STUFFE,'rant,' cp. "At this fusty stuffc . . Achilles. . laughes"Tro.&Cr. 1.3. 161, and "such stuffe as madmen Tongue" Cym.V.4.
Why do you make such faces? When all 's 146. SF62 ayre-drawne,
i.e. pictured in the air: this is one of those implications woven into a situation that are so common in Shakspere ; nowhere in the previous action has Macbeth spoken to his wife about this dagger, but his words here suggest to the imagination a scene in which he has discussed the phenomenon with Lady Macbeth, and they exaggerate too the horror of the supernatural control under which Macbeth's deeds of evil are committed. SF 63 FLAWES, 'outbursts or accesses of passion,' cp. "this mad-bred flawe" 2 Hen. 6 III. I. 354. York has just said," You put sharpe weapons in a madman's hands." See also N. E. D. s.v., and its citation from Spenser, " She at the first encounter on him ran . . But he . . from that first flaw himself right well de- fended." STARTS: cp. " For she did speake in starts distractedly" Tw.N. II. 2. 22, and "Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him "Lear 1. 1.304. I n"flawcs and starts" there seems thus to be a reference to Macbeth's insanity. SF 64 IMPOSTORS: the idea of 'cheating' is more prominent in the EL. word than in MN.E. — see N. E.D. — and to the EL. mind the term suggested a mountebank. TO, ' compared to,' a common EL. meaning of the preposition. SF 65 Lady Macbeth refers to the 'eerie stories nurses tell'; that these "straunge and marvellous tales which they have heard of their grandmothers and mothers" were a popular recreation for a winter's eve in Shakspere's time is shown by contemporary references cited in Drake, pp. I54ff. The taunt in Lady Macbeth's words lies in their accusation that her husband is a child afraid of ghosts. SF 66 AUTHORIZ'D, 'vouched for as true,' N.E.D.4; the word is stressed upon its second syllable in EL. E., cp. Minsheu, I6I7, "to authorize" (Minsheu marks primary stresses in many English
121
ASIDE TO MACBETH
Are you a man? MACBETH I, and a bold one, that dare looke on that Which might appall the divell.
LADY. MACBETH
O proper stuffe ! This is the very painting of your feare: This is the ayre-drawne-dagger which you
said Led you to Duncan. O, these flawes and
starts, Impostors to true feare, would well become A woman's story at a winter's fire, Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame it selfe ! do you make such faces? When all 's done. You looke but on a stoole.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
words); cp. also Sonnet XXXV. 6 and Lover's Compl. 104. The th in the word repre- sented t in EL. E. SHAME IT SELFE, from the pointing of FO. I, which has a comma after "it selfe," seems to be a strong exclamation of disgust provoked by a fresh ac- cess of Macbeth's madness.
SF68 STOOLEinEL.E.means AnT TTT Cr^ETMn l\r r c\ ia
'chair' as well as what we ^^ ^ ^^^ bCbJNblV 69-74
now call a stool.
MACBETH
It is quite possible that here Prythee, see there ! behold ! looke ! Loe, how
the ghost of Duncan appears, -\
or at least that Macbeth sees ^^7 Y^^ •
Duncan as he saw the air- Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speake
drawn dagger. The mention 4.^- [
of Duncan in v. 63 would be ,„-*., , . ,
the psychological moment for li charnell houses and our graves must send
such an apparition. In Fo. I Those that we bury backe, our monuments two entrances are marked oi n i ^i j? i ^
for the ghost, the words of ^hall be the mawes of kytes.
the first entrance pointing to EXIT GHOST
the ghost coming in on the LADY MACBETH
stage while Macbeth is at the What, quite unmanned in folly?
door, and not commg up ^ ''
through theflooras Davenant MACBETH
arranged it. Forman thus de- If I stand heere, I saw him. scribes the play as he saw it i AHV M APRPTH
in I6I0: ''The next night ^^^^ MACBETH
being at supper with his noble Fie, for shame !
men whom he had bid to a
feast, to the which also Banco [Forman spells the word in what was probably its English form, 'Banquho' being the Scottish orthography] should have com, he began to speake of noble Banco, and to wish he wer ther. And as he thus did, standing up to drinke a carouse to him, the ghoste of Banco came and sat down in his chaire behind him. And he turning about to sit down again, sawe the goste of Banco which fronted him so that he fell into a great passion of fear and fury, utteringe many wordes about his murder, by which when they hard that Banco was murdred, they suspected Macbet." In reading this description it is to be noted that Forman is writing from memory, and that he is only setting down 'moral conclusions' from the play — in this case the fact that murder will discover itself. Too much importance, therefore, must not be attached to his descrip- tion : it is obviously imperfect in describing only the ghost in vv. 88 ff., saying nothing about its previous appearance. The utmost that we can infer from his failure to note the appearance of Duncan's ghost is that it was not actually visible to the audience. There seems to be a note of awe in Macbeth's reference here which is lacking in the other two cases, and the expression "those that we bury" is rather out of place applied to Banquo, who is " safe in a ditch " and not ' buried ' or ' entombed.' The plural in v. 80 points to the same interpretation. Perhaps, therefore, we are justified in assuming that vv. 69-73 refer to a vision of Duncan in Macbeth's mind even if Duncan's ghost does not actually make its appearance to the audience. If this be the case and vv. 68 ff. refer to Duncan, the * Exit Ghost ' which in modern editions is placed after v. 73 belongs after v. 52. If not, the various exclamations are uttered as Macbeth tries to make Lady Macbeth see the apparition of Banquo as it moves away from the table. *1F 70 WHAT CARE I? i.e. for your nods and gestures. SF7I CHARNELL HOUSES, i.e. the places where dead men's bones are kept. SF72 MONUMENTS in EL. E. means 'tombs,* 'burying- vaults,' as well as the monuments erected over them; cp. "like a taper in some monument" Titus II. 3. 228. SF73 SHALL
122
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
BE, 'will be/ i.e. will come to be. MAWES, 'stomachs': when Romeo opens the tomb he calls it **Thou detestable mawe, . . Gorg'd with the dearest morsell of the earth, Thus I enforce thy rotten jawes to open, And in despight I'le cram thee with more food" Rom.&Jul. V.3.45. Harrison in his 'Description of England' II, p. 45, says that the Cas- pians nourish mastiffs "to the end they should devoure their carcases after their deaths, thinking the dogs bellies to be the most honourable sepulchres." Steevens cites ' Faerie Qucene' II. 8. I6, "What herce or steede (said he) should he have dight But be entombed in the raven or the kight?" Dclius points out the same figure in Kyd's Cornelia: "the vulture and the crowes, Lyons and beares are their best Sepulchres." EXIT GHOST
» is not found in FO. I : there
ACT III
SCENE IV
75-83
is a similar omission of the EXIT GHOST in Caes. IV. 3.287 (FO. I, p. 127).
<IF76 HUMANE, 'human,' see note to 1.5. 18. Florio glosses ragione humana by "humane law" as distinguished from ragione divina, "divine law." PURGE was a general EL.E. term for 'remedy,' as disease was thought to be caused by the presence of bad humours that had to be purged from thebody. GENTLE WEALE: " weale " is the e. N. E. form of a M.E. noun meaning 'well- being,' 'happiness,' the op- posite of 'woe,' and still survives in ' for weal or woe' ; "public weal," "common weal " are e. N. E. terms corre- sponding to MN.E. 'state,' and in some of their senses to MN.E. 'commonwealth,' and "weale" alone frequently takes on in e.N.E. the meaning 'public weal.' It appears again in this sense in V. 2. 27 with the same attendant notion of purging as here. G ENTLE is here usually understood to be proleptically used, the notion being that of the "weale" made gentle by purging. But the instances of prolepsis which grammarians find so frequent in Shakspere are nearly all of them due to ignoring EL. word associations which make the assumption of this figure unnecessary, cp. note to 1.6. 3. Shakspere frequently uses the term "gentle" as the opposite of "wild" and in the sense of 'tame,' 'cultivated' ; "gentle weale" could therefore refer to the softening influences of civilization (cp. N.E. D. 3 c and 8) and the whole thought be 'before civilization devised human law as a means of purging itself of murderers.' Many editors of Shakspere propose 'ungentle' or 'general' or 'golden' (szc) for "gentle." Macbeth's remark is interesting as being a note of heroic personality belonging to an age which had not yet curbed the strong passions of strong men : he frets under the checks and restraints that human law puts upon his violent impulses. *IF 78 TERRIBLE, probably syncopated to "terr'ble." TIMES HAS is probably as Shakspere wrote it, though the editors of FOS. 2, 3y and 4 make the verb plural to accord with later notions of English syntax. Modern editors change it to 'time has,' our modern idiom. TIMES in the plural, however, means 'manners,' 'customs 'in EL.E. as well as in MN.E., which conveys quite a different notion from 'time' in the singular. SFSI
123
MACBETH Blood hath bene shed ere now, i'th' olden
time, Ere humane statute purg'd the gentle weale; I, and since too, murthers have bene per-
form'd Too terrible for the eare. The times has bene That when the braines were out, the man
would dye. And there an end; but now they rise againe With twenty mortall murthers on their
crownes, And push us from our stooles. This is more
strange Then such a murther is.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
TWENTY is often an indefinite numeral in EL. E. like MN.E. 'dozen/ cp. 'for one injury done they provoke another cum foenore, and twenty enemies for one' Burton, *Anat. of Mel.' II. 3- 7. But clear reference seems here to be made to Banquo's head with its 'twenty gashes each a death
ACT III SCENE IV
to nature,' and to Banquo's pushing Macbeth from his chair.
83-92
LADY MACBETH
My worthy lord, Your noble friends do lacke you.
MACBETH
I do forget: Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends ; I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing To those that know me. Come, love and
health to all; Then rie sit downe. Give me some wine, fill full.
ENTER GHOST
I drinke to th' generall joy of the whole table. And to our deere friend Banquo, whom we
misse; Would he were heere! to all, and him we
thirst. And all to all !
LORDS Our duties, and the pledge!
or, "and thirsts hir blood";
cp. also "that unhappy king, my master, whom I so much thirst to see" Wint.T. IV.4. 523- SF92 AND ALL TO ALL: the first "all" is used in the sense of 'everything,' i.e. every good thing, cp. note to 1.7.5 ; the words were evidently a customary form of pledge, cp. Timon's toast to the company, "All to you" Timon 1.2.234.
The skill with which Shakspere here represents the workings of Macbeth's mind is worthy of more than passing attention. In vv. 40 ff. a normal association, the full table, turns his thinking to the absent noble. Perfectly calm and quite master of himself, he seizes the occasion to point a reference to Banquo's unkindness in not having made a greater effort to be present, thus preparing, as he usually does, for the "consequence" — • the suspicion that may fall on him when the news of Banquo's murder reaches the court. But he is reckoning with forces beyond his control, for his pointed reference leads naturally to the request from Rosse and Angus that he take Banquo's empty place, and this dwelling upon the thought of Banquo brings on his fit again. The "flawe" sweeps away his outward calm and in a moment all is mad confusion. The wild storm of passion spends its first fury, but Lady Macbeth's unfortunate reference to Duncan brings on another immediately in its wake, to Macbeth worse than the first in its ruthless havoc,
124
SF 83 The fit is now past and Lady Macbeth recalls him to his duties. *IF 84 LACKE YOU, 'notice your absence,' cp. " I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd" Cor. IV. I. 15. There is an extra syllable at the end of the first half verse. SF85 MUSE, 'wonder,' cp. "I muse your majesty doth seeme so cold" John III. 1. 3 1 7. The sentence stress seems to fall upon AT, cp. the rhythm of 1.4.52. SF 89 OF THE WHOLE TAbLE seems to be the rhythm, though FO.I prints "o'th"' for OF THE. SF 90 OUR and WE are instances of the majesty plural. SF9I THIRST seems to mean 'long for': the 'for,' which is essential to the verb in MN.E., did not alwaysaccompany itin EL. E., cp. citations in Cent. Diet. from Tyndale, "to thirst his true doctrine," and from Pri-
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
as is shown by his reckless **Why, what care I?" — a scream of defiance as he screws his manly courage to the fight against his imagined enemy. And he succeeds in gaining at least sufficient self-control to reason about the phenomenon in vv.4I ff. Slowly his harried mind rights itself, and when Lady Macbeth, taught by experience to avoid refer- ences like her former one, makes him realize his danger, he guides his thought again into calm waters. But unfortunately, as he resumes his normal thinking, his mind takes up again the train of ideas that was broken off by his access of 'passion'; and, like one passing out of delirium, he goes back to the last moment of sane thought to restore the continuity of his self-consciousness; his first wholly conscious act is to propose the health of the absent Banquo. This time it is not the accidental insistence of Rosse and Lenox that he should remain in their company, nor a tactless reference of Lady Macbeth's to the murdered Duncan, that precipitates the attack, but the normal and natural opera- tions of his own mind as it strives to recover itself. The demons of his worser self — that self which he has given over to the powers of evil and which has now become strong enough to enslave him — have him again in their clutches. Thus ** our deere friend Banquo, whom we misse" brings on the last and worst fit, from which he does not escape. Even when the banquet has broken up in confusion and alarm and he is alone with Lady Mac- beth it still continues, down to the middle of v. 126. And then, at last, he awakes from his awful dream, one of those "terrible dreams" that have now invaded his strongest conscious moments to stalk through his noonday hours as well as to shake him nightly. And as he wakes he turns to Lady Macbeth with the world-old inquiry that follows a night of agony, "What time is it?"
The "Enter Ghost" of the FO. is by modern editors placed after v.92; but the FO. probably represents what Shakspere wrote, for it corresponds to the psychology of the play as well as to its action. For, as at v. 37, it is the thought of Banquo in Macbeth's
mind that causes the ghost
ACT III SCENE IV 93-98 L%?S irhirl^d'Si
he utters the words of v. 40, MACBETH so here the intention to drink
Avant ! and quit my si^ht ! let the earth hide Banquo's health is in Mac-
, , ^ JO beth's mind when he says
tnse ! ufiii f^iin though he couples
Thy bones are marrowlesse, thy blood is cold ; it with a general pledge ; and Thou hast no speculation in those eyes '' ^f '}}'^ '^°"i^lu°l ^''"'^''°'
r J not the words that express
Which thou dost glare with. it, that causes his image to
appear. It fits in with the LADY MACBETH ^^^-^^^ ^j^^^ f^^. Macbeth has
Thinke of this, good peeres, not yet sat down; he will sit
But as a thind of custome: 'tis no other; ^^°^" ""^l^' the toast, and
111 r 1 then, as before, the mtention
Onely it spoyles the pleasure or the time. totake Banquo's place, which
his ghost forbids, will, as it were, make the subjective notion objective and arouse anger. Shakspere thus shows clearly that the ghost is a creation of Macbeth's own mind, unseen by the others. Yet modern editors destroy all this, and then argue as to whether the ghost was real or ima- ginary. SF 94 The MARROW in EL. psychology was thought of as the seat of nerve force. Vicary, in his * Anatomic,' ed. 1577, calls the spinal cord the "spinal marrow," and the term is still in popular usage. Shakspere frequently associates the word with nervous energy, cp. "my marrow burning" Ven.&Ad. 142, and " Spending his manlie marrow in her arms" All's W. II. 3. 298. Here the ghost is said to be without feeling — 'dead life.'
125
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
THY BLOOD IS COLD: 'cold-blooded' is still a phrase for 'passionless,' cp. "In whose cold blood no sparke of honor bides" 3Hen.6 L 1. 184. But in EL. E. it is scientific and not figurative language. SF95 SPECULATION, 'power of vision,' illustrating an earlier and literal meaning of the word, viz., 'spying out' ; Othello speaks of Cupid 'seeling his speculative instruments' in Oth. 1.3.270; cp. "nor doth the eye it selfe . . behold it selfe Not going from it selfe . . For speculation turnes not to it selfe Till it hath travel'd and is married there Where it may see it selfe" Tro.&Cr. III. 3. 106 (cited by Delius), and " Dead life, blind sight, poore mortall living ghost" Rich.3 IV. 4.26. *1F97 OF CUSTOME, 'habit- ual,'cp. "Our dance of custome . . let us not forget" Merry W.V. 5. 79. NO OTHER is com- mon M.E. and e.N.E. idiom
i:r^!:"'%Ts"o^EiT!^ act m scene IV 99-108
SPOYLES,'it merely spoils' ;
for the position and meaning MACBETH
of"onely,"cp.notetoL4.20. What man dare, I dare:
SF99 As in V.59 Macbeth Approach thou like the rugged Russian beare, protests his human courage. The arm'd rhinoceros, or th' Hircan tiger;
DARE is an old subjunctive, ^ ^]^^ ^^ j^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ nerveS
I.e. 'what any man may dare oi n i i /^ i i
to do.' *lFioo RUGGED in ohall never tremble. Ur be alive againe, EL.E. may mean 'shaggy,' And dare me to the desart with thy sword;
cp. "His well proportion'd tp , ui- ^ T • U L-^ ^.u ^
beard made ruffe and rugged" ^^ tremblmg I inhabit then, protest mee 2Hen.6 III. 2. 175; but the Thebaby of agirle. Hence, horrible shadow! word also means 'fierce' Unreall mockVy, hence !
' savage, cp. ' 1 he rugged "^
Pyrrhus like th' Hyrcanian EXIT GHOST
beast" Ham. II. 2. 472. From Why, SO: beind done,
TH' HIRCAN TIGER of the t ^ • r) ■. .-11
following verse it would seem ^ ^m a man againe. Pray you, sit still.
that the latter meaning was
intended here. RUSSIAN BEARE: Bear-baiting was a familiar sport to Shakspere's audience ; cp. " Foolish curres [i.e. mastiffs used in bear-baiting] that runne winking into the mouth of a Russian beare, and have their heads crusht like rotten apples" Hen. 5 III. 7. 1 53. SF lOI ARM'D : Shakspere's epithet is explained by a passage from Purchas's Pilgrimage, vol. V, p. 472: "The skinne upon the upper part of this beast [i.e. the " Rhi- nocerote"] is all wrinkled as if he were armed with shields." HYRCAN occurs side by side with Hyrcanian in EL.E. Shakspere has the latter form in Ham. II. 2. 472, and "The Hircanion deserts," i.e. the country south of the Caspian Sea, are referred to in Merch. II. 7. 41. The form " Hyrcan" occurs in Daniel's Sonnets, 1594: "To Hyrcan tigers and to ruthless beares"; also in Holland's Pliny. The fierceness of the Hyrcanian tiger, proverbial in EL. literature, is probably traceable to Vergil's y^ncis, IV. 367 ff., where Dido speaks of her lover's cruelty: Marlowe translates the line, 'And tigers of Hyrcania gave thee suck' The Tragedy of Dido, Act V. SF 102 NERVES, ' sinews,' a com- mon EL. meaning of the word ; cp. "Thy nerves are in their infancy againe" Temp. 1.2.484. SF 104 DARE ME TO THE DESART: Shakspere elsewhere twice makes use of this ro- mantic form of defiance, in Rich. 2 1. 1.62 and ibid. IW. 1.74. SF 105 INHABIT THEN: the words have given much difficulty; "inhabit" is often used absolutely in EL.E. in the sense of 'dwell,' e.g. "the Ammonites inhabited northward" Purchas's Pilgrimage, vol. V, p. 97, but the word is usually accompanied by some definition of place as in "so eating love Inhabits in the finest wits of all" Two Gent. 1. 1.43. It may be, therefore, that THEN is a misprint for 'there,' as Delius thought. The phrase with this correction would
126
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
mean ' If I tremble while I wait for you there/ and would make excellent sense. But Milton in Paradise Lost VII. I62 ff. has the same idiom as appears in the FO. : "Mean while inhabit laxe, ye Powers of Hcav'n, And thou, my Word, begotten son, by thee This I perform, speak thou and be it don" (cited by Henley). In this passage ** inhabit" is clearly used in the sense of 'remain,' 'keep,' 'stay' : so that Macbeth's words, if Milton's usage is here norma loquendi, may mean ' If I keep trembling then, etc' lachimo's phrase, "I lodge in feare" Cym. II.2.49r gives color to this interpretation, for his 'in feare' is obviously not a locative but a modal qualification of the 'dwelling' notion. It has been suggested that "inhabit" may be a by-form of 'enhabit,' but as far as the quotations of the N.E.D. show, 'enhabit' has no meaning in EL. E. that fits the context. Many absurd emendations have been proposed to botch the passage into modern idiom ; but, as is usu- ally the case, their presence in the text of Shakspere would be more difficult to explain than the phrase which they would supplant, for they not only betray a palpable inferiority of diction, but most of them would be sheer nonsense in the English of any period. The use of TREMBLING where MN.E. usage prefers 'in trembling' is paralleled in "with the very noise I trembling waked" Rich. 3 1.4.60. PROTEST, 'make public declaration of,' 'proclaim,' an early meaning of the word, cp. "I will protest your cowardise" Ado V.I. 149- SFI06 BABY, 'doll,' N.E.D. 2, cp. "toying with babies" Marston's Scourge of Villainy, VIII. 207, "A baby or puppet that children play with, pupus^^ Phr. Gen., and muneco de nihos, a babie, a puppet for children" Percival's Spanish Diet. "Puppet" was a common epithet of opprobrium in EL. E., still retained in 'cowardly puppy,' and the two forms, 'puppet' and 'puppy,' seem to have been equivalent in e.N.E., cp. '''''Pupus autem, a babe or baby or a puppet . . anglice puppy, dicitur quasi parvus puer''^ Phr. Gen. Some have taken the phrase to mean 'the child of a very young mother,' but without a specific qualification like 'green' or 'young' "girl" would not necessarily mean a very
youngmotherinEL.E. SF 107
ACT III SCENE IV 109- n e ^^i::^;^^^^^-
things by what their mock'- LADY MACBETH ries be" Hen.5 IV.ProL53.
You have displac'd the mirth, broke the ^ood
. , ^ ^ SFI09 DISPLAC'D, 'banish-
meeting ^^^, ^ f j-equent meaning of the
With most admir'd disorder. wordinEL.E. : seeN.E.D. ib.
THE would be 'our' in MACBETH MN.E. BROKE, 'broken up':
Can such things be, *" ^-^-P- ^! ^^^ earliest ci-
, , ,., til tation tor the word in this
And overcome us like a summer s clowd, sense is dated i685, and its
Without our speciall wonder? You make me phraseological limitation is
, r 'to break (i.e. dissolve) par-
Strange liament,' and 'to break (i.e.
Even to the disposition that I owe, disband) a regiment'; but the
When now I thinke you can behold such sense of 'breaking up a com-
, "^ pany is clearly in the word as
Sights, it is used here and in Hen.8
And keepe the naturall rubie of your cheekes, i-4. 6i, where Wolsey puns
w/u • -LI U'J -iU £ after the Chamberlain and
When mine is blanch d with feare. his attendants leave the table:
"You have now a broken banket, but wee'l mend it. A good digestion to you all." For the form of the word see note to 1.4.3. SF 110 ADMIR'D, 'astonishing," amazing,' from "admire," 'to be amazed' ; as in "undaunted" 1.7.73, the -ed suffix has its EL. causative force. SF 1 1 1 That is, 'and
127
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
yet only pass over us like a summer's cloud.' OVERCOME in EL. E. still retained enough of its literal signification of 'come over/ 'pass over,' 'cover/ to make Macbeth's simile of the oppression of a summer thunder-cloud clear to Shakspere's audience ; cp. " his eyes were overcome with fervor" Chapman, Iliad XV (cited in Cent. Diet.). The same figure occurs in Spenser's Faerie Qucene, III. 7.4 : "A little valley subject to the same [i.e. lying on the hillside] All covered with thicke woodes that quite it overcame" (cited in part by Farmer): so in Titus II. 3- 94: "The trees . . Orecome with mosse and balefuU mis- sleto.'' Macbeth seizes on the 'wonder' notion in Lady Macbeth's "admir'd disorder" and philosophizes upon it. In SFII2 he turns and speaks directly to her. STRANGE TO, 'unacquainted with,' 'unfamiliar with,' cp. "To put a strange face on his owne per- fection" Ado II. 3.49. SF 113 DISPOSITION often occurs in EL. E. where MN.E. employs 'character.' It was also used to denote 'health of mind,' see N.E.D. 10 b. OWE, 'pos- sess,' as in 1.4. 10. Much the same notion occurs in Rom.&Jul. 111.3- 109 ff-, where Friar Laurence addresses the furi-
ous Romeo with the words ^CTIII SCENE IV II6-I2I
"Art thou a man .-* thy torme
cries out thou art : Thy teares
are womanish, thy wild acts KUbbb
denote The unreasonable fu- What sidhtS, my lord?
rie of a beast. Unseemely ^^^^ MACBETH
woman m a seemmg man.
And ill beseeming beast in I pray you, speake not ; he growes worse and
seeming both, Thou hast wrr^rco •
»j D u 1 woi be ,
amaz d me. By my holy r>>. • r i • j- i • ri
order, I thought thy disposi- Question enrages him: at once, good night. tion better temper'd." SF ii6 Stand not upon the Order of your going,
MINE, i.e. my cheeks; it is d . r ,
common EL. syntax thus to ^^^ 8° ^^ °"^^-
make a pronoun stand for a LENOX
word that is to be supplied Good nidht, and better health
from the context. But in at- , i i • a» • i
tempting to construe the Attend his Majesty !
passage as MN.E. many edi- LADY MACBETH
tors change IS to 'are,' and ^ ^.^ . ^ ^..^^ ^^ ^jj ,
CI. Fr. makes "mme stand o o
for RUBIE. EXEUNT LORDS
SF II6 Rosse has caught the word SIGHTS, 'visions,' from Macbeth's somewhat excited protest to his wife. SFII8 QUESTION, 'discussion,' cp. 1.3.43; AT ONCE, 'without more ado.' 'IFII9 STAND NOT, 'attach no importance to,' cp. "we stand upon our manners " Wint.T. IV. 4. 1 64. The phrase has become stereotyped in MN. E., and is often absurdly used where only one person is concerned.
In the passage that follows Macbeth, still in the "fit" and absorbed in his thoughts about the ghost, pays no attention to the breaking up of the company, but continues to ponder on the meaning of the "strange sight." SF 122 He quotes a current popular superstition, cp. "Blood will have blood, so ever mought it be" Peele, 'Tale of Troy' 321. The Cambridge Text alters the punctuation of the FO., placing a colon after BLOOD and a comma after SAY. But the proverb first occurs to Macbeth vaguely, 'they say it [i.e. a ghost] will haunt one until it is revenged, and will have blood expiation.' Then the exact words of the proverb chant their ominous refrain through his mind. " Blood will have blood," i.e. a deed of murder (N.E.D. 3 c) will not be satisfied short of an expiation by blood-shedding (N. E. D. 3 b). To alter the punctuation not only flattens out the
128
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
sense, but weakens the rhythm, " x x ' >; " || ' " " ' being much more effective than " ^ ^ ' \\ " ' \\ ' " " >. <lf 123 ff. Shakspere was perhaps thinking of the tree which re- vealed the murder of Polydorus in Vergil's ^neis, III.22.59» as Steevens suggests; he may also have had in mind the story told in Montaigne's Essays, II. 5 of Bessus the
Poenian, which was '*so
ACT III SCENE IV 122- 127 3^^f tV^r.ot'ht--
how Bessus, ** being found
MACBETH fault withall, that in mirth he
It will have blood, they say: ' Blood will have had beaten downe a nest of
111,^ ./ t/ young sparrowes and then
'^^°^*-^ • killed them, answered he had
Stones have beene knowne to move and trees great reason to doe it ; for so
to speake; much as those young birds
r^ ' . , , . ceased not talseiy to accuse
Augures and understood relations have him to have murdered his
By ma^dot pyes and choughes and rookes father, which parricide was
1 ^? f +U neversuspectedtohavebeene brought torth committed by him, and untill The secret'st man of blood. What is the that day had layen secret." j^j^^|.p SF 124 AUGURES,^.e.divina- S * tion,especially from the flight LADY MACBETH or chirping of birds, see
Almostatoddeswithmornind, which is which. n-E. d. s.t;. and its citations :
'-' Mo lerne and know by au-
gures and divinacions of briddis" Book of Noblesse, 1475; "a good augur or foreboding of a martiall minde" Florio's Montaigne, I603. The word is an EL. by-form of 'augury' (cp. O.FR. augure). RELATIONS, 'utterances,' here of birds, as in the story of Bessus; a somewhat forced interpretation of 'secret relations between things' (Schmidt, following Johnson) has been put upon the phrase. SFI25 MAGGOT PYES, the EL. form of 'magpie.' CHOUGHES was a popular name applied somewhat widely to all the smaller chattering species of birds, but especially to the common jackdaw, see N. E. D. 4. Shakspere again refers to the bird in Mids. III.2.2I. N.E.D. has a citation from Wilkinson, 1620, which groups together "Crowes, rookes, choghes, pyes, jeyes, ringdoves." BROUGHT FORTH, 'dis- covered,' 'brought to light,' a common meaning of the word in Shakspere; see N.E.D. 16 d. SF126 SECRET'ST: for the form of the word see note to I. 5-3 ; for the meaning cp. "in this city will I stay And live alone as secret as I may" 2Hen.6 IV. 4. 47. WHAT IS THE NIGHT? seems to be formed on the analogy of 'What is the time?' i.e. How goes the time? In M.E. and e.N.E. WHAT is frequently used in idiom that requires 'how' in MN.E. The sudden awakening of Macbeth to a sense of his surroundings as he emerges from his delirium with the question 'What time is it?' is a wonderfully dramatic touch of human interest. SF 127 ALMOST AT ODDES, i.e. on the point of quarrelling, cp. "I do not know that Englishman alive With whom my soule is any jot at oddes" Rich.3 II. 1. 69.
Again, as normal consciousness returns to him, Macbeth's mind takes up its interrupted activities, the interval of unconscious action being a blank to him. He says to himself. Not only was Banquo absent from the table, but Macduff also. What does Macduff's absence mean? Then, turning to Lady Macbeth, he puts the question in v. 128, 'What do you think of this absence of Macduff's?' The new train of "consequence" that will precipitate Macbeth's doom is thus artfully joined without a break on to the old. The menace of Banquo's being and the rebuke of Banquo's genius are no sooner disposed of than Macduff begins to threaten Macbeth's peace and provide fresh work for Ruin,
129
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
Macbcth's royal 'champion to the utterance.' Thus is the aesthetic continuity of this rapid tragedy maintained, event involving event in continuous series, but all so wrought together as to present a single picture. To secure this end Shakspere, as usual, departs from Holinshed's account. There it is the building of Macbeth's castle of Dunsinane that provokes Macduff's surly 'denial of his person' to Macbeth: "Macbeth being once de- termined to have the worke go forward, caused the thanes of each shire within the rcalme to come and helpe towards that building, each man his course about." When Macduff's turn comes he sends his quota of material and his contingent of workmen, but refuses to come himself, and his refusal
Macbetr'' °^ °^^'"'' '° ACT III SCENE IV 128-140
MACBETH How say'st thou that Macduff denies his
person At our great bidding?
LADY MACBETH
Did you send to him, sir? MACBETH I heare it by the way, but I will send: There 's not a one of them but in his house I keepe a servant fee'd. I will to morrow, And betimes I will, to the weyard sisters. More shall they speake, for now I am bent
to know By the worst meanes the worst. For mine
owne good All causes shall give way. I am in blood Stept in so farre that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go ore: Strange things I have in head that will to
hand, Which must be acted ere they may be scan'd.
<1FI28 HOW SAY'ST THOU THAT MACDUFF DENIES? 'What do you say to Mac- duff's refusal?' cp. " Launce, how saiest thou that my master is become a notable lover?" Two Gent. II. 5.42. Though there is no comma after THOU in FO. I, modern editors, including the Cam- bridge Text, insert one, mak- ing nonsense of the passage. The expression in EL. E. is not exclamatory but inter- rogative: "How [in e. N.E.] is sometimes used interrog- atively for what," as Phr.Gcn. says, illustrating by "how (i.e. what) think you ? Quid tibi viditury " H ow mean you ? " is another common e. N.E. idiom of this sort. DENIES HIS PERSON, 'refuses his presence': the common MN. E. phrase ' in person ' contains the word in this early sense ; cp. "I'le . . tender your persons to his presence" Wint.T. IV. 4. 826. <IFl29 GREAT is still used in MN. E.
in some phrases, like 'great house,' 'great family,' with the meaning 'noble,' 'pertaining to persons of high rank or office,' but "great bidding" would not now mean 'royal com- mand,' as it evidently did in Shakspere's time; cp. "great command {i.e. royal authority] o're-swaies the order" Ham. V.I. 251. BIDDING, 'command,' not 'invitation' — a king commands his guests; the latter sense of the word is not older than the nineteenth cen- tury; cp. "the thunder would not peace at my bidding" Lear IV. 6. 103- Lady Macbeth's counter-question, 'Did you send a special messenger to invite him?' illustrates the EL. absolute usage of SEND in the sense of ' send a messenger.' It occurs again in " Seyton, send out" V.3.49. TO HIM is probably intended to be contracted, — see note to 1.3. 119, — with SIR (the usual EL. form of address to a sovereign, corresponding to the French 'Sire') a stressed impulse. There is nothing remarkable in Lady Macbeth's
130
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
thus addressing her husband : quite misunderstanding the EL. use of " send," and exag- gerating the significance of Lady Macbeth's ** Sir," critics comment upon a supposed change in Lady Macbeth's character: 'She now addresses him in the humbled tone of an inferior ; we now see fright and astonishment seated on her face.' Macbeth would hardly have asked his wife what she thought of Macduff's sulkiness if this had been her relation to him. SF 130 The EL. phrase BY THE WAY is slightly different from MN.E. *by the way,' and is tantamount to * incidentally ' ; cp. Cotgrave's " en passant, accidentally, by the way." SF13I Holinshed notices this system of back-stairs espionage which Macbeth practised on his nobles. A ONE: many modern editors, unfamiliar with the EL. usage of ONE in the sense of 'person,' have subjected the phrase to such emendations as 'not a man,' 'not a thane,' in order to prevent Shakspere from being 'guilty' of faulty locution; but cp. the quotation from Golding in the note to 1.7.47. SF 132 I WILL, i.e. I will go, the usual EL. omission of the verb of motion. SF 133 The verse seems to lack an unstressed syllable. If TO THE is not contracted into "to th'," WEYARD is to be read as a monosylla- ble ; the former scansion is preferable, but perhaps the verse is not authentic. *ff 134 TO KNOW : MN.E. uses the phrase 'on knowing.' SF 135 GOOD has here its EL. sense of 'ad- vantage'; the stress mine owne good is different from that of the MN.E. phrase. SF 136 CAUSES, ' matters of dispute ' and so ' interests,' cp. " The extreme parts of time extreme- lie formes All causes to the purpose of his speed" L.L.L. V.2.750. In EL. E. the u in BLOOD had not yet developed to a, so that the word was a perfect rhyme to " good." SF 1 37 STEPT IN : a similar notion occurs in "a friend of mine, who in hot blood Hath stept into the law, which is past depth To those that without heede do plundge intoo 't" Timon III. 5. II ; cp. also " But I am in So farre in blood that sinne will pluck on sinne" Rich. 3 IV. 2.64. The repetition of the preposition in such phrases is common EL. syntax. MORE, 'farther,' a frequent e. N.E. sense of the word, cp. "And yet we ascended mor and came to the place wher ower Savyor Crist . . wepte" Tarkington, cited in Cent. Diet. SF 138 GO: the infinitive without "to "was frequently employed in EL. E. where MN.E. requires the prepositional form ; it here corresponds to the MN.E. present participle in -ing. SF 1 39 IN HEAD, 'in mind,' cp. "'Tis in my head to doe my master good" Tam.of Shr. II. 1.408 ; "head" in EL. E. frequently means 'mind' as here; this usage is preserved in MN. phrases like 'out of one's head,' and in the MN. colloquial usage of 'head' in the sense of 'mental power.' WILL TO HAND, i.e. will come to hand. SF 140 ACTED, 'carried into execu- tion,' a common EL. meaning of the verb, cp. "thou wast a spirit too delicate To act her earthy and abhord commands" Temp. 1.2.272. SCAN'D is a somewhat stronger word in EL.E. than in MN.E., and here means 'carefully considered,' 'judged,' cp. "that would
be scann'd" Ham. III. 3. 75-
ACT III SCENE IV 141 -144 ^l^!^^^Ze^^
through his bloody course,
LADY MACBETH the sooner to reach the end of
You lacke the season of all natures, sleepe. it and attain his 'peace'; then
he 'will tell pale-hearted fear
Come, wee '1 to sleepe. My strange and self- thunder.'
, Lady Macbeth reads his
is the initiate feare that wants hard use: thought, and with marvellous
We are yet but yond in deed. skill turns it to her practical
'^ t/ o purpose of getting him to bed.
EXEUNT tjfi4i SEASON, 'seasoning,'
'that which preserves from
decay,' cp. " And good men like the sea should still maintain Their noble taste in midst of all
fresh humours . . Bearing no season^ much Icsse salt of goodnesse" Ben Jonson, 'Cynthia's
131
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
RevcUs' V.I (cited in Cent. Diet.). NATURES, 'forms of life/ cp. note, to I. 7.68. Shak- spere expresses the same notion in Lear IV. 4. 12 : **our foster nurse of nature is repose, The which he lackes" ; Boorde, Hkewise, in his Dietary, E. E. T. S., p. 244, says, '' It [i.e. sleep] doth restore nature," i.e. makes life fresh again when it has lost its savour. SF 142 STRANGE AND SELF-ABUSE, J.e. my strange delusion: Delius long ago called attention to the fact that "self-abuse" is an EL. syntactical compound of *self' and * abuse' in its common EL. sense of 'deception' referred to in the note on II. 1.50, and not our MN.E. compound word 'self-abuse' ; "self- " is treated like an adjective, hence the AND. *1F 143 INITIATE FEARE, i.e. the fear of the novice: perfect participles of polysyllabic verbs in -c/in M.E. and e.N.E. often took no suffix. Shakspcre uses this form as an adjective, Macbeth's notion being that of a raw recruit or 'fresh- water soldier' whose fear wants hard usage, cp. "when we in our viciousnesse grow hard (Oh misery on 't!), the wise Gods scele our eyes" Ant.&Cl. III. 13- 1 1 1. He adds 'We are but young in action,' see N.E. D. 'deed' 5 b. FO. I prints "indeed," but this seems to be a printer's error.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE V
There is good reason to conclude that this scene is a later addition to Macbeth, designed to furnish more of that spectacular interest which, as we know from contemporary ac- counts, was a popular accompaniment of early representations of the play. Its witches are quite unlike those of the earlier scenes. Hitherto the instruments of darkness have been akin to those mysterious creatures of the elder world with which the Germanic imagination peopled the moors and fens of northern Europe. They have little in common with classical demonology. Fates and Furies at once, like Grendel, 'they will work mischief until the end cometh,' and no one to hinder. It is their fatal power that makes them terrible and invests them with the mysterious awfulness of a predestinated doom — a seductive terror which has always appealed strongly to the Northern imagination. En- gendered of the mist and fog, they are awful from their very vagueness and formlessness. They are nameless horrors haunting the by-paths of moral conduct, lying in wait for him who will entertain evil purposes. One must ever be on his guard that he be not unwit- tingly trapped into their clutches. One must shut his ears and flee from them : Macbeth listens and stands irresolute, and his irresolution costs him the loss of his soul. In the persons of witches they work the petty tragedies of village life, drowning sailors, blighting corn, blasting cattle ; but their chief business is the seduction of human souls.
As Shakspere has presented them in the previous scenes, they are a mysterious trinity of mischief-makers who come and are gone, swirling through the action of the play like formless wraiths. But in this scene they are fixed and sharply drawn according to the classic notions of mediaeval demonology. Hecate is their queen, and with all the offended dignity of a peevish schoolmistress she chides their recreancy for 'trading and trafficking with Macbeth in riddles and affairs of death'; and, having learned their lesson in good manners, they are to meet their dame at the pit of Acheron. They are like the artificial creations of Jonson's Masque of Queenes or of Middleton's Witch, not like Shakspere's embodiment of a mystery-loving Germanic folk-lore.
And their relation to Macbeth is different from what it was before. Hitherto it has been the fatal meeting of Macbeth's evil ambition and their evil purposes that brings them into his life. He does not seek them ; they cross his path. His bargain with them is a tacit one, and he hopes to escape from his share in the fulfilment of it by ignoring its ex- istence. He thinks himself strong enough to use these supernatural powers, and when he has gained his end to cast them aside. His "I will to the weyard sisters" in III. 4. 132 ff. sounds like Middleton rather than Shakspere, cp. 'The Witch' I.I where Almachildes says, " I am a little headstrong and so Are most of the company. I will to the witches ;
132
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
They say they have charms and tricks, etc." The whole setting of Scene I of Act IV, too, implies a chance meeting like that of 1.3. If Macbeth has sought them out in their cave, why is Lenox in Scene I of Act IV? It is not unlikely, therefore, that these two verses are part of the machinery that introduces Scene V, and that as originally conceived the passage ran :
''There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servent feed : I am bent to know By the worst means, the worst, etc." ;
that Macbeth does not tell Lady Macbeth that he ''will to the weyard sisters"; and that he has only a vague purpose in his mind whose presence is sufficient to bring about another meeting with the sisters, apparently accidental, but really fatally ordained. When he meets them in IV. 1.48 his words are an expression of surprise, "What is 't you do?" They 'harp his fear aright,' and without his asking them they cry "Beware Macduff!" The witches' words in IV. 1. 6 1 likewise suggest an accidental meeting rather than a meet- ing by appointment with the king.
Again, how is it possible for any one who has followed the action intelligently up to this point to conceive of the witch dame's calling Macbeth 'a wayward son, spiteful and wrathful'? (See the note on the passage.)
And not only does the treatment of the subject-matter violate the organic unity of the play, the style and verse structure also are quite unlike Shakspere's. The words lack the richness of association which characterizes Shakspere's English: Hecate is "mistris of their charmes," "close contriver of all harmes," what they "have done hath bene but for a wayward sonne, Spightfull and wrathfull, who . . Loves for his owne ends, not for you." "Thither he Will come to know his destinie" — these and other such forms of expression in the scene lack those dramatic and intimate associations drawn from actual life that distinguish Shakspere's writing from that of his contemporaries. The artificial divisions of the thought to make the rhymes fit into their proper places, and the consequent padding out of the idea to fill the measure, like "Your vessels and your spels provide, Your charmes, and everything beside," or "who, as others do. Loves for his owne ends, not for you," are not at all in Shakspere's style. The verse form, four-wave rising rhythm rhymed in couplets, is one that Shakspere, with his instinctive appreciation of the fitness of a falling rhythm for such subjects, does not use in treating supernatural interests. For such subjects he employs an inimitably capricious falling rhythm, full of starts and turns, made up usually of two phrases, as in "On the ground Sleepe sound, I 'le apply To your eie. Gentle lover remedy" (Mids. III. 2.448), or "Double, double, toile and trouble: Fire burne and cauldron bubble," or " Sleepe shall neythcr night nor day Hang upon his pent- house lid," all of which are essential variations of the same rhythm theme. But " I am for th' ayre : this night I 'le spend Unto a dismall and a fatall end" is built upon an entirely different theme, and is a form of rhythm that Shakspere does not use in continuous verse. This rhythm lacks, too, that lyric quality which the certainty of stress incidence gives. Such verses as "Have I not reason, beldams as you are," or "And, which is worse, all you have done," or " And you all know security Is mortals' cheefest enemie" are in narra- tive and not in lyric rhythm. The abrupt ending of the verse on monosyllabic words, which by its staccato effect gives Shakspere's witch rhythm its eerie music, is lacking in " Will come to know his destinie," "As by the strength of their illusion Shall draw him on to his confusion," and "And you all know security Is mortals' cheefest enemie," where the final stresses fall on secondary syllables, — to say nothing of the inappropriateness of such a platitude as this last in lyric poetry, for men do not sing philosophy, nor would Shakspere have been likely to finish a lyric strain with a commonplace of classic literature, neminem celerius opprimi quam qui nihil timeretj even did he know it in Ben Jonson's version : " Be not secure : non swiftlyer are opprest Than they whom confidence betrays to rest" Sejanus II. 2.
133
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
In view, then, of the awkwardness of this scene, its palpable violation of the theme interest of the tragedy, its artificial structure, and its unShaksperian style, one need have little fear that in repudiating it he is in danger-of lessening Shakspere's credit or of doing violence to the principles of sound literary criticism.
The question arises : Who interpolated these and the other obvious patchwork pieces into Macbeth? Many considerations point to Middleton as being responsible for them. In his Witch he makes use of the same conceptions of Hecate and her crew that are found in this scene, and in this play is found the notion of witches having lovers, see note to III. 5. 10; in his Trick to Catch an Old One, Scene II of Act V, as well as in parts of his Witch, he makes continuous use of the verse form we have in this scene ; throughout the Witch arc scattered palpable imitations of Macbeth ; and in it occur in full the two songs that the stage directions (vv. 33 and 35) call for. The Witch was written some time before Middleton's death, for he speaks in his preface of 'having recovered into his hands, after much difficulty, this ignorantly ill fated labour' of his, which can only mean that the play had been unsuccessfully put upon the stage some years before he wrote it out for Thomas Holmes, Esq. A passage from this play occurs in Davenant's version and ex- pansion of Macbeth, and it is not unlikely that Middleton and not Davenant is respon- sible for much of the padding out which appears in Davenant's version. But the whole question has not yet been sufficiently investigated for us to pronounce with any degree of certainty whether or not Middleton is responsible for the few obvious additions in Shak- spere's Macbeth as printed in the Folio of 1623, and still less with any degree of proba- bility that Davenant made use of a version of Macbeth by Middleton, which was cut down to the presumably Shaksperian matter by the editors of the Folio. The play is complete as it stands, and, when clearly understood, possesses the peculiar organic unity so char- acteristic of Shakspere. We may therefore conclude that even if there was a fuller form of it current on the stage, it was there only to make Macbeth longer and more entertaining, and that the editors of the Folio did wisely in excising it to its present dimensions.
SCENE V: A HEATH: THUNDER ENTER THE THREE WITCHES MEETING HECAT
1-5 FIRST WITCH
HY, how now, Hecat, you looke
angerly?
HECAT
Have I not reason, beldams as
you are?
Sawcy and over-bold, how did you dare
To trade and trafficke with Macbeth
In riddles and affaires of death;
SF I For the form HECAT "j* and the place of Hecate in EL. demonology, cp. note to II. 1.52. ANGERLY isan EL. by-form of the adverb that appears side by side with 'angrily': see N. E. D. and cp. "angerly (in look), torve^^ Holyoke, 1677. The word occurs in John IV. 1. 82, "Nor looke upon the iron angerly." *ff 2 For the notion of the witch dame's holding her sub- ordinates to account, cp. note to I. 3- 1. BELDAMS AS YOU ARE, i.e. you hags ; the word "beldam" originally meant 'grandmother' or 'old woman'; but in the sixteenth century it gained the depreciativc sense of 'virago," hag.' For "as you are" in such expressions as this, MN.E. prefers 'that you are'; cp. "coward as thou art" Rich.3 1.4.286. Ine.N.E.
134
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ARE had a literary form sounded like the 'air' that is often heard in MN. dialects, so that the rhyme 'are : dare' is a perfect one. MN. editors generally depart from the FO. print- ing, placing a comma after ARE and an interrogation-point after OVER-BOLD, beginning a new sentence with HOW. But there is no ground for this ; indeed, as is usually the case, the departure weakens the sense, for Hecate means that the witches are saucy and over- bold in trading and trafficking with Macbeth : cp. the similar departure from the FO. in 1 1. 4. 27. It is needless to say that Shakspere has not represented Macbeth as ''trading and trafficking" with the witches. The very essence of the tragedy lies in the fact that
Macbeth's ambition and the
ACT III
SCENE V
6-25
purposes of the powers of evil come together fatally, not through Macbeth's seeking.
*ff7 CLOSE, 'secret,' a com- mon EL. meaning of the word. *IF9 OUR ART: itisnot"art" but ' nature' that characterizes the workings of Shakspere's wayward sisters. *ff 10 ff. WHICH IS WORSE isacom- mon EL. E. idiom correspond- ing to MN. E. 'what is worse.' The lines really belong in Middleton's Witch, where the disgusting theme of sexual love between witches and young men is treated ad nau- seam. With his usual moral healthfulness and good sense, Shakspere avoids such noi- some themes. *1F 1 5 The glar- ing inconsistency of THE PIT OF ACHERON is ex- plained by modern editors on the assumption that Shak- T T , » 1 spere meant his audience to
Upon the corner of the moone understand by "Acheron"
some foul tarn in the neigh- bourhood! The phrase seems to be, not a reference to the river Acheron of the lower world, but to the EL. notion of Acherusia ; cp. Cooper's Thesaurus: "Acherusia . . is also a poole or mere of Thesportia [sic for Thesprotia] in Epyre, out of which issueth the ryver Acheron. . . Acherusia is also a hole or cave which the poets suppose to be a way into hell." SF2I DISMALL, 'calamitous,' 'disastrous,' cp. note to 1.2. 53- SF22 BUSI- NESSE may be a plural form like "riches," "largesse," cp. note to II. 1. 14 ; the word had an inflcctionless plural in EL. E., e.g. "during all these great businesse " Browne, ' Polex.' (1647) 1.66, as cited in N.E.D. s.v. 15- So the sense of this passage may be 'important tasks,' cp. note to II. 1.48. But "businesse" also means 'disturbance,' 'commotion' in EL.E., cp. note to II. 3.86. *IF 23 That CORNER OF THE MOONE is not an unusual poetical expression, imitated by Milton in his "To the corners of the moon," as it has been explained to be, but a common EL. idiom for the 'horn of the moon,' is shown by Cooper's translation of Ovid's ^^ cornua lunaria " by "the poynts or corners of the moone."
135
And I, the mistris of your charmes,
The close contriver of all harmes,
Was never call'd to beare my part,
Or shew the ^lory of our art?
And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath bene but for a wayward sonne,
Spightfull and wrathfull; who, as others do,
Loves for his owne ends, not for you.
But make amends now: get you gon,
And at the pit of Acheron
Meete me i' th' morning: thither he
Will come to know his destinie:
Your vessels and your spels provide,
Your charmes, and every thing beside.
I am for th' ayre; this night I 'le spend
Unto a dismall and a fatall end.
Great businesse must be wrought ere noone:
)on the corner of the moone There hangs a vap'rous drop profound; I 'le catch it ere it come to ground:
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
*IF24 Steevcns's inference that VAP'ROUS DROP is a reference to thz virus lunare oi medisz- val demonology, mentioned in Lucan's Pharsalia, VI, is probably correct. For though this phrase has commonly a different meaning in EL.E. (see Cooper s.v. virus lunare), Thomas May, 1627, renders the Lucan passage ^^ virus large lunare ministr at j^^hy **of the moones poysonous gelly store she takes." PROFOUND seems to be used here in its sense 'of deep significance,' with
ACT III SCENE V
perhaps a reminiscence of the Latin profunda, 'poured forth.'
SF26 SLIGHTS, 'arts," con- trivances,' a meaning still preserved in MN, E. ' sleight of hand.' SF 27 ARTIFICIALL, 'cunning,' shading into 'de- ceitful,' a meaning that has gone over to ' artful,' cp. " thy prosperous and artificial fate [i.e. feat]" Per. V. 1.72. SPRIGHTS, the common EL. contracted form of 'spirits'; see note to 1.5-41. SF 29 CONFUSION, 'ruin'; seethe note to II. 3. 7 1. SF 30 Mac- beth does not "spurne fate" until the end of the play. The interpolator has quite misconceived his relation to the supernatural agencies which work his ruin. BEARE seems to have been used in EL.E. with a sense akin to
'exalt,' N.E.D. 19; cp. the citation from Knowles, "the Spaniards bearing themselves upon their wealth." But the N. E. D. gives the word only in a reflexive usage in this sense. Per- haps, however, HOPES has its EL. meaning of 'confidence,' as in 1.7.35, and BEARE its common sense of 'maintain,' with 'BOVE relating to Macbeth and meaning 'superior to.' ^31 GRACE, 'favour.' FEARE rhymes with "bcare," cp. note to 1. 1.6. SF32 SECURITY in Shakspere's time had a shade of meaning now commonly expressed by ' confidence,' cp. "security gives way to \i.e. gives free rein to] conspiracie" Ca2s.II.3.8. SF33 CHEEF- EST in EL. E. connoted an aspect of superiority now usually denoted by ' greatest ' or ' best ' or 'most important,' e.£f. "Within their chief est temple" I Hen. 6 II. 2. 12, "the king's chief est friend" 3Hen.6 IV. 3. 1 1, "nephew to your chiefest enemy" Middleton's A Trick to Catch an Old One, IV. 2. The first stage direction calls for music to accompany Hecate's exit : in Middleton's play witches are spoken of as flying overhead "with a noise of musi- cians." The "Come away" song is intended to accompany the exeunt of the other witches, closing the scene. Modern editors run both together into one stage direction which they place after v. 33- SF 34 MY LITTLE SPIRIT: Ben Jonson explains this ref- erence in a note to his Masque of Queenes : "Their little martin is he that calls them to their conventicles, which is done in a humane voice ; . . their little martens or martinets, of whom I have mentioned before, use this forme in dismissing their conventions, Bja faces- site propere hinc omnesj^^ i.e. "Come away, come away," etc. This notion may be vaguely involved in the " Padock calls anon" of 1. 1. The song referred to in the stage direction is found in Middleton's Witch in the form :
136
26-36
And that, distill'd by magicke slights, Shall raise such artificiall sprights As by the strength of their illusion Shall draw him on to his confusion. He shall spurne fate, scorne death, and beare His hopes 'bove wisedome, grace, and feare: And you all know security Is mortals' cheefest enemie.
MUSICKE AND A SONG
Hearke! I am call'd; my little spirit, see, Sits in a foggy cloud, and stayes for me.
SING WITHIN: "COME AWAY COME AWAY " &C FIRST WITCH Come, let's make hast; shee '1 soone be backe againe.
EXEUNTf
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
{Song above.) {Voice above.)
Come away, come away, There's one comes down to fetch his dues,
Hecate, Hecate, come away! A kiss, a coll, a sip of blood,
Hec. I come, I come, I come, I come, And why thou stay'st so long
With all the speed I may, I muse, I muse.
With all the speed I may. Since the air's so sweet and good.
Where's Stadlin? Hec. O, art thou come?
{Voice above.) Here. What news, what news?
Hec. Where's Puckle? Spirit. All goes still to our delight;
{Voice above.) Here; Either come, or else
And Hoppotoo, and Hellwain too; Refuse, refuse.
We lack but you, we lack but you ; Hec. Now I 'm furnished for the flight.
Come away, make up the count. Hec. I will but 'noint, and then I mount.
Hec. {going up). Now I go, now I fly,
Malkin my sweet spirit and I.
O what a dainty pleasure 'tis
To ride in the air
When the moon shines fair.
And sing and dance and toy and kiss !
Over woods, high rocks, and mountains.
Over seas, our mistress' fountains.
Over steep towers and turrets.
We fly by night, 'mongst troops of spirits :
No ring of bells to our ears sounds.
No howl of wolves, no yelps of hounds;
No, not the noise of water's breach.
Or cannon's throat our height can reach. {Voices above.) No ring of bells, etc.
(Cited from Dyce's modernized copy of the MS. discovered by Steevens in 1778.) It is probable that all this is meant by the '* Song" given in the stage direction of the FO., though the words **Come away" occur only in the first stanza; for Davenant includes the three stanzas in his Macbeth, slightly altering the form of expression here and there.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE VI
The action ana thought of this scene, as Davenant noticed in his revision of the play, immediately follow those of Scene IV. Davenant therefore placed it before Scene V, closing the act with the Witch Dance and Song. This arrangement is far better than that of the textus receptus, because the recalcitrancy of Macduff, which arouses again Macbeth's murderous thoughts in Scene IV, demands an immediate explanation such as is given in this scene. The scene is really a chorus closing Act III, and serves the pur- pose of a narrative like the scene which closes Act II ; and in its chorus aspect it describes to the audience the action which is to follow, and forecasts the probable consequences, outstripping thus the dramatic development of the play and putting the audience in pos- session of information of Macduff's flight that Macbeth does not get until later.
The modern conventional scene direction, "The Palace," is probably correct, though it is of little moment where the scene takes place. The imagination of Elizabethan theatre-
137
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
goers was used to supplying proper scene settings for the dramatic action represented before them. It is likewise a matter of little moment who is meant by "Another Lord," which Johnson proposed to alter to 'Angus/ and Dyce, on the authority of a MS. entry in his copy of FO. I, to ' Rosse.' The scene subserves the purpose of furnishing general information, and is not strictly a dramatic representation.
SCENE VI: FORRES: THE PALACE ENTER LENOX AND ANOTHER LORD
LENOX '-'^
Y former speeches have but hit
your thoughts, Which can interpret farther:
onely I say Things have bin strangely borne. The gracious Duncan Was pittied of Macbeth: marry, he was
dead: And the right valiant Banquo walk'd too
late; Whom you may say, if 't please you, Fleans
kiird. For Fleans fled: men must not walke too
late. Who cannot want the thought, how mon- strous It was for Malcolme and for Donalbane To kill their gracious father? damned fact!
SF I SPEECHES,*statements,' here * expressions of suspi- cion,' cp. note to III. L 76. HIT, 'fallen in with,' cp. " [I] sought with deedes thy will to hit" Sidney, Ps. XL, as cited in N.E.D. 15. THOUGHTS has its M. E.and e.N. E. mean- ing, 'anxieties.' Lenox has only voiced the anxiety and alarm of the other lords. SF 2 WHICH is probably the con- nective relative, 'but you can put them in words for your- selves.' For INTERPRET in this sense of 'say explicitly,' see note to 1.3-46. Lenox has not dared to refer to the matter save in general terms, for specific reference would be treason, and treason is dan- gerous when Macbeth's spies may be lurking in any corner. ONELY I SAY, 'I merely re- mark,' cp. note to III. 4. 98. SF3 BORNE: v. 17 shows that "borne" has here the sense of 'managed,' as perhaps also in 1.7. 17. A passage in Ado 11.3.229 shows the word in the same sense, "the conference was sadly borne," i.e. was carried on seriously. Baret's Alvearie gives "also to do, to execute" as a synonym of 'beare,' but possibly Baret is thinking of Latin gero rather than of English 'bear.' The reflexive idiom 'to bear one's self,' i.e. to behave, implies this 'wield' or 'manage' meaning in the simple verb. We are therefore justified in assuming 'wield,' 'manage,' 'conduct' as a transitive meaning of "beare," even if such a sense is not given in N.E. D., and that Lenox means 'things have been curiously managed.' *IF 4 OF, 'by,' a common e.N.E. meaning of the preposition. MARRY, originally a form of adjuration, 'Mary,' with the vowel shortened through lack of stress. But in EL.E. it was used merely as an exclama- tion with various applications, — here, 'to be sure,' ironically spoken; i.e. 'to be sure, he did not express his pity for Duncan until after his murder,' the allusion being to that over- wrought utterance of Macbeth's about "silver skin" and "golden blood." SF 7 WALKE
138
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
has its EL. sense of 'be abroad/ still preserved in MN.E. 'ghosts walk/ The rhythm of vv. 6 and 7, with its turns and twists,is full of irony : '" y "" " \\' ■- ' \\- ' '< ' \\"' - '" '||. *1F8 WANT is usually explained as being here tantamount to a negative verb, 'not to have/ and as such involved in the double-negative idiom common in M.E. and e.N.E. Similar syntax has been cited by Delius : "That any of these bolder vices wanted Lesse impudence" Wint.T. III. 2. 56, and "be it but to fortifie her judgement . . for taking a beggar without lesse quality" Cym. 1.4". 21, where "lesse" is tantamount to a negative, and "wanted lesse" corresponds to MN.E. 'lacked more,' and "without lesse" to MN.E. 'not having more.' But these are not quite parallel cases, and nowhere else (so far as has been noted) does Shakspere say anything like "Who cannot want" when he means 'Who can fail to have.' It is possible, however, that the interrogation-point after FATHER is the EL. printer's exclamation-point, denoting the irony in Lenox's words, and that WHO is the EL. connective relative separated from its antecedent as it was in L 2. 2 1, and connected with it only by the sentence stress which the speaker gave it: 'You may say Fleance killed him, for Fleance fled — men must not walk too late ! — since you, of course, cannot have escaped the reflection how,' etc. It is also possible that "Men must not walke too late" has fallen out of place and should immediately follow " Banquo walk'd too late" : if we may go so far as to assume such a displacement the sense of vv. 6 and 7 becomes perfectly clear. Of the emendations — 'You cannot want' Hanmer, 'Who can want' or 'Who cannot have' Jennens, 'We cannot want' Keightley, ' Who can now want' Cartwright — the last gives apt stress, Who can now want, and good sense: 'As Fleance killed Banquo because Fleance fled, every one must now conclude that Malcolm and Donalbaine killed their father because they fled' ; and it involves only a printer's error of misreading it; as f in his copy. MONSTROUS has two trisyllabic forms in EL. E., one through the extra syllable caused by r (see note to L5.40) and the other due to analogy with the Latin monstruum, viz. "monstruous" ; cp. "Her fault so vile and monsterous before" Drayton's Heroicall Epistles, ed. Sp. Soc, p. 196, and "So filthy and so mon- struous that sure I think no age" Newton's Thebais, ed. Sp. Soc, p. 51. SF 10 DAMNED,
'damnable' or 'damning,' an-
x/^'T-'TTT o/^T-'XTT^AT'T tt t^ Other iUustration of thc force
ACT III SCENE VI II-I6 „f ^^e el. suffix -ed; cp.
TT 11 a;i 1 1 . r^-J 1 N.E.D. 3and V. 1.39. FACT,
How it did ^reeve Macbeth! Did he not 'crime': the word was com-
Straidht monly used in the sixteenth
T . , 1 11- ^ >. century in this sense, and is
In pious rage, the two dehnquents teare, g^iH retained in the legal
That were the slaves of drinke and thralles phrase 'before the fact.'
ot sleepe. ^^^^^ delinquents: the
Was not that nobly done? I, and wisely too; word is somewhat stronger For 'twould have ander'd any heart alive in el. e. than now, and stands
rri ^ 1 IT for 'criminals'; cp. "delin-
io heare the men deny t. q^^^t, a criminal" Glosso-
graphia. TEARE in EL. E. has a range of meaning which includes laniare, cp. ^^laniatus, rent : torne : cut in peeces" Cooper, and "All his body is rent or torne, laceratus est toto corpore^^ Baret's Alvearie. In this sense it is often equivalent to MN.E. 'mangle,' cp. Cotgrave, ^^deschirer, to teare, dismember, mangle," and "teare him for his bad verses" Caes. nL3.34, and "inforced hate . . shall rudelie teare thee" Lucr.669. The word is therefore aptly used here to por- tray the fury with which Macbeth, in Lenox's presence, gashed the sleeping grooms, and gives no ground for supposing that Shakspere did not write the passage, as Cl.Pr. ar- gues from what its editors, construing the word in its MN. sense, consider inapt verbiage. *1FI5 HEART ALIVE: "of the world" and "alive" (which is tantamount to the same no-
139
^. m
•W'
I
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
*IF 24 Steevens's inference that VAP'ROUS DROP is a reference to the viruslunare of mediae- val demonology, mentioned in Lucan's PharsaUa, VI, is probably correct. For though this phrase has commonly a different meaning in EL. E. (see Cooper s.v. virus lunare), Thomas May, 1627, renders the Lucan passage ^^ virus large lunare ministraty^hy "of the moones poysonous gclly store she takes." PROFOUND seems to be used here in its sense 'of deep significance,' with
ACT III SCENE V 26-36
And that, distiird by magicke slights, Shall raise such artificial! sprights As by the strength of their illusion Shall draw him on to his confusion. He shall spurne fate, scorne death, and beare His hopes 'hove wisedome, grace, and feare : And you all know security Is mortals' cheefest enemie.
MUSICKE AND A SONG
Hearke! I am calFd; my little spirit, see, Sits in a foggy cloud, and stayes for me.
SING WITHIN: **COME AWAY COME AWAY " &C
FIRST WITCH Come, let's make hast; shee '1 soone be backe againe.
EXEUNTt
perhaps a reminiscence of the Latin profunda^ 'poured forth.'
SF26 SLIGHTS, 'arts,' 'con- trivances,' a meaning still preserved in MN. E. ' sleight of hand.' SF27 ARTIFICIALL, 'cunning,' shading into 'de- ceitful,' a meaning that has gone over to ' artful,' cp. " thy prosperous and artificial fate [i.e. feat]" Per. V. 1.72. SPRIGHTS, the common EL. contracted form of 'spirits'; sec note to I. 5- 41. SF29 CONFUSION, 'ruin'; seethe noteto II.3.7I. SF 30 Mac- beth does not "spurne fate" until the end of the play. The interpolator has quite misconceived his relation to the supernatural agencies which work his ruin. BEARE seems to have been used in EL.E. with a sense akin to
'exalt,' N.E.D. 19; cp. the citation from Knowles, "the Spaniards bearing themselves upon their wealth." But the N. E. D. gives the word only in a reflexive usage in this sense. Per- haps, however, HOPES has its EL. meaning of 'confidence,' as in 1.7.35, and BEARE its common sense of 'maintain,' with 'BOVE relating to Macbeth and meaning 'superior to.' <IF3I GRACE, 'favour.' FEARE rhymes with "beare," cp. note to 1. 1.6. SF32 SECURITY in Shakspere'stime had a shade of meaning now commonly expressed by 'confidence,' cp. "security gives way to [i.e. gives free rein to] conspiracie" Ca2S.II.3.8. SF33 CHEEF- EST in EL. E. connoted an aspect of superiority now usually denoted by ' greatest ' or ' best ' or ' most important,' e.g. " Within their chiefest temple " I Hen. 6 1 1. 2. 1 2, " the king's chiefest friend" 3Hen.6 IV. 3. II, "nephew to your chiefest enemy" Middleton's A Trick to Catch an Old One, IV. 2. The first stage direction calls for music to accompany Hecate's exit : in Middleton's play witches are spoken of as flying overhead "with a noise of musi- cians." The "Come away" song is intended to accompany the exeunt of the other witches, closing the scene. Modern editors run both together into one stage direction which they place after v. 33. *1F 34 MY LITTLE SPIRIT: Ben Jonson explains this ref- erence in a note to his Masque of Queenes : "Their little martin is he that calls them to their conventicles, which is done in a humane voice ; • . their little martens or martinets, of whom I have mentioned before, use this forme in dismissing their conventions, Bja faces- site propere hinc omnes,''^ i.e. "Come away, come away," etc. This notion may be vaguely involved in the " Padock calls anon" of 1. 1. The song referred to in the stage direction is found in Middleton's Witch in the form :
136
THE
Cor: He::-
k- ' ■ f::
Wbcrcs
Ht^- •'■ (Doia--
Ana
We:
Ccr. /feci-
iChc:--
■Kc;-:--
Ttieact:
iJat c- Ma;r:-
pose ::
St:;:' i2ss;-- '
T:.. itisc:
1
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
:i
(Song above.)
Come away, come away,
Hecate, Hecate, come away! Hec. I come, I come, I come, I come,
With all the speed I may,
With all the speed I may. Where's Stadlin? {Voice above.) Here. Hec. Where's Puckle? {Voice above.) Here;
And Hoppotoo, and Hellwain too;
We lack but you, we lack but you ;
Come away, make up the count. Hec. I will but 'noint, and then I mount.
{Voice above.)
There's one comes down to fetch his dues, A kiss, a coll, a sip of blood, And why thou stay'st so long
I muse, I muse. Since the air's so sweet and good. Hec. O, art thou come?
What news, what news? Spirit. All goes still to our delight ; Either come, or else Refuse, refuse. Hec. Now I 'm furnished for the flight.
Hec. {going up). Now I go, now I fly,
Malkin my sweet spirit and I,
O what a dainty pleasure 'tis
To ride in the air
When the moon shines fair,
And sing and dance and toy and kiss !
Over woods, high rocks, and mountains,
Over seas, our mistress' fountains,
Over steep towers and turrets,
We fly by night, 'mongst troops of spirits:
No ring of bells to our ears sounds.
No howl of wolves, no yelps of hounds;
No, not the noise of water's breach,
Or cannon's throat our height can reach. {Voices above.) No ring of bells, etc.
(Cited from Dyce's modernized copy of the MS. discovered by Steevens in 1778.) It is probable that all this is meant by the *' Song" given in the stage direction of the FO., though the words "Come away" occur only in the first stanza; for Davenant includes the three stanzas in his Macbeth, slightly altering the form of expression here and there.
; Hcc::o'5
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE VI
The action ana thought of this scene, as Davenant noticed in his revision of the play, immediately follow those of Scene IV. Davenant therefore placed it before Scene V, closing the act with the Witch Dance and Song. This arrangement is far better than that of the textus receptus, because the recalcitrancy of Macduff, which arouses again Macbeth's murderous thoughts in Scene IV, demands an immediate explanation such as is given in this scene. The scene is really a chorus closing Act III, and serves the pur- pose of a narrative like the scene which closes Act II ; and in its chorus aspect it describes to the audience the action which is to follow, and forecasts the probable consequences, outstripping thus the dramatic development of the play and putting the audience in pos- session of information of Macduff's flight that Macbeth does not get until later.
The modern conventional scene direction, ''The Palace," is probably correct, though it is of little moment where the scene takes place. The imagination of Elizabethan theatre-
137
m
^^^^g
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
goers was used to supplying proper scene settings for the dramatic action represented before them. It is likewise a matter of little moment who is meant by *' Another Lord," which Johnson proposed to alter to 'Angus,' and Dyce, on the authority of a MS. entry in his copy of FO. I, to * Rosse,' The scene subserves the purpose of furnishing general information, and is not strictly a dramatic representation.
SCENE VI: FORRES: THE PALACE ENTER LENOX AND ANOTHER LORD
LENOX '-'<^
Y former speeches have but hit
your thoughts, Which can interpret farther:
onely I say Things have bin strangely borne. The gracious Duncan Was pittied of Macbeth: marry, he was
dead: And the right valiant Banquo walk'd too
late ; Whom you may say, if 't please you, Fleans
kiird, For Fleans fled: men must not walke too
late. Who cannot want the thought, how mon- strous It was for Malcolme and for Donalbane To kill their gracious father? damned fact!
SF I SPEECHES,*statements,' here 'expressions of suspi- cion,' cp. note to III. 1.76. HIT, 'fallen in with,' cp. " [I] sought with deedes thy will to hit" Sidney, Ps. XL, as cited in N.E.D. 15. THOUGHTS has its M. E.and e.N. E. mean- ing, 'anxieties.' Lenox has only voiced the anxiety and alarm of the other lords. SF 2 WHICH is probably the con- nective relative, 'but you can put them in words for your- selves.' For INTERPRET in this sense of 'say explicitly,' see note to 1.3.46. Lenox has not dared to refer to the matter save in general terms, for specific reference would be treason, and treason is dan- gerous when Macbeth's spies may be lurking in any corner. ONELY I SAY, 'I merely re- mark,' cp. note to I II. 4. 98. SF3 BORNE: V. 17 shows that "borne" has here the sense of 'managed,' as perhaps also in 1.7. 17. A passage in Ado II. 3. 229 shows the word in the same sense, "the conference was sadly borne," i.e. was carried on seriously. Baret's Alvearie gives "also to do, to execute" as a synonym of 'beare,' but possibly Baret is thinking of Latin gero rather than of English 'bear.' The reflexive idiom 'to bear one's self,' i.e. to behave, implies this 'wield' or 'manage' meaning in the simple verb. We are therefore justified in assuming 'wield,' 'manage,' 'conduct' as a transitive meaning of "beare," even if such a sense is not given in N.E. D., and that Lenox means 'things have been curiously managed.' *JF 4 OF, 'by,' a common e.N.E. meaning of the preposition. MARRY, originally a form of adjuration, 'Mary,' with the vowel shortened through lack of stress. But in EL. E. it was used merely as an exclama- tion with various applications, — here, 'to be sure,' ironically spoken; i.e. 'to be sure, he did not express his pity for Duncan until after his murder,' the allusion being to that over- wrought utterance of Macbeth's about "silver skin" and "golden blood." SF 7 WALKE
138
Coo-
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
>ii;,
:crne.
too
has its EL. sense of 'be abroad,' still preserved in MN.E. 'ghosts walk.' The rhythm of vv. 6 and 7, with its turns and twists,is full of irony :'"•""" || '<' || x / x / || /// x / // r||^ SF8 WANT is usually explained as being here tantamount to a negative verb, 'not to have/ and as such involved in the double-negative idiom common in M.E. and e.N.E. Similar syntax has been cited by Delius : "That any of these bolder vices wanted Lesse impudence" Wint.T. III. 2. 56, and "be it but to fortifie her judgement . . for taking a beggar without lesse quality " Cym. 1.4*. 21, where "lesse" is tantamount to a negative, and "wanted lesse" corresponds to MN.E. 'lacked more,' and "without lesse" to MN.E. 'not having more.' But these are not quite parallel cases, and nowhere else (so far as has been noted) does Shakspere say anything like "Who cannot want" when he means 'Who can fail to have.' It is possible, however, that the interrogation-point after FATHER is the EL. printer's exclamation-point, denoting the irony in Lenox's words, and that WHO is the EL. connective relative separated from its antecedent as it was in L2.2I, and connected with it only by the sentence stress which the speaker gave it: 'You may say Fleance killed him, for Fleance fled — men must not walk too late! — since you, of course, cannot have escaped the reflection how,' etc. It is also possible that "Men must not walke too late" has fallen out of place and should immediately follow " Banquo walk'd too late" : if we may go so far as to assume such a displacement the sense of vv. 6 and 7 becomes perfectly clear. Of the emendations — 'You cannot want' Hanmer, 'Who can want' or 'Who cannot have' Jennens, 'We cannot want' Keightley, ' Who can now want' Cartwright — the last gives apt stress. Who can now want, and good sense: 'As Fleance killed Banquo because Fleance fled, every one must now conclude that Malcolm and Donalbaine killed their father because they fled' ; and it involves only a printer's error of misreading li; as f in his copy. MONSTROUS has two trisyllabic forms in EL. E., one through the extra syllable caused by r (see note to L5.40) and the other due to analogy with the hatin monstruum, viz. "monstruous" ; cp. "Her fault so vile and monsterous before" Drayton's Heroicall Epistles, ed. Sp. Soc, p. 196, and "So filthy and so mon- struous that sure I think no age" Newton's Thebais,ed. Sp. Soc, p. 51. *ff 10 DAMNED,
'damnable' or 'damning,' an
ACT III SCENE VI
I I-I6
How it did ^reeve Macbeth! Did he not
straight, In pious rage, the two delinquents teare, That were the slaves of drinke and thralles
of sleepe? Was not that nobly done? I, and wisely too; For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive To heare the men deny 't.
other illustration of the force of the EL. suffix -ed j cp. N.E.D. 3 and V. 1.39. FACT, 'crime': the word was com- monly used in the sixteenth century in this sense, and is still retained in the legal phrase 'before the fact.'
<1FI2 DELINQUENTS: the word is somewhat stronger in EL. E.than now, and stands for 'criminals'; cp. "delin- quent, a criminal" Glosso- graphia. TEARE in EL.E. has a range of meaning which includes laniare, cp. ^^laniatus, rent : torne : cut in peeces" Cooper, and "All his body is rent or torne, laceratus est toto corpore^' Baret's Alvearie. In this sense it is often equivalent to MN.E. 'mangle,' cp. Cotgrave, ^^deschirer, to teare, dismember, mangle," and "teare him for his bad verses" Ca2s.nL3.34, and "inforced hate . . shall rudelie teare thee" Lucr. 669. The word is therefore aptly used here to por- tray the fury with which Macbeth, in Lenox's presence, gashed the sleeping grooms, and gives no ground for supposing that Shakspere did not write the passage, as CI. Pr. ar- gues from what its editors, construing the word in its MN. sense, consider inapt verbiage. *ff 15 HEART ALIVE: "of the world" and "alive" (which is tantamount to the same no-
139
--■J^r>t^.-->
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
tion, for it represents M.E. ** on-live/' Mn life') are frequently used in M. E. and e.N.E. as intensifying phrases with no definite meaning. In the American ' sakes alive ! ' and the col- loquial * man alive ! ' the idiom
woSLj^Tama^tn"; ACT III SCENE VI 16-24
heart,' with strong accent on C l_ T
'any.' SF16 DENY 'T, cp. ' OO that 1 Say
note to 1.2.7. He has borne all things Well : and I do thinke
<1FI7 InHEHASBORNEALL ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ Duncan^s sonnes under his
THINGS WELL the slight key
verse stress on "has"-'yes, ^g ^^d 't please heaven, he shall not — they
he has managed everythmg i 11 r- j
weir-addsto Lenox's irony. should tmde
The stresses of this passage What 't were to kill a father: so should
are so apt, and so clearly re- PUnnc
fleet the bitter irony of one Jrife^ciiib.
who will not express his But, peace ! for from broad words, and cause
thought frankly, that it is |^g favl'd
perhaps worth while to note ■, j . ^ , , „ , ,
them: *'f, and wisely too; ^is presence at the tyrant s least, 1 heare, For 'twould have anger'd Macduffe lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell
any heart alive To heare the w/L l_ 1^ * L- ir •:>
/ 1 ' K„. ^1 ^ ■ A Where he bestowes himselre.'^
men deny t , then, turnmg the thought with a reversal:
** So that I say. He has borne all things well : and I do thinke That had he Duncan's sonnes under his key— As, and 't please heaven, he shall not — they should finde What 't were to kill a father." SF 18 UNDER HIS KEY, Sn his power,' z.e. as he had Duncan. ^19 AND is a M. E. and e. N. E. use of the conjunction in the sense of * if,' * provided that.' ** And it " was frequently contracted in EL. E. to ** an 't" in lightly stressed phrases like** an 't please you," etc. From this a fictitious word, *an,' meaning Mf,' has been created, and this non- existent word has been put into Shakspere wherever **and" occurs in the sense of 'if ' ; see N. E. D. s.v. SF 20 WERE, the subjunctive of unfulfilled condition, common in e. N. E. and still in use. SF2I Lenox passes from these thoughts with the reflection that it was Mac- duff's frank speech that got him into trouble. BROAD WORDS, 'frank speech.' In the MN. E. ' broad jest ' ' broad ' is similarly used but restricted to the meaning ' vulgarly frank ' ; in 'broad hint' the EL. meaning survives in its original force. CAUSE is not 'because' clipped for the sake of rhythm, but a c. N. E. idiom common in prose as well as poetry, and still preserved in the dialectic ' cause why ' and the ' cause ' of vulgar English. FAYLE, thus used in the sense of ' deny,' ' refuse,' ' withhold from,' with a direct object, has not yet been found elsewhere in EL. E. nor recorded in N. E. D. A similar usage occurs in " I will never faile Beginning nor supplymcnt [i.e. support] " Cym. III.4. 181. SF22 TYRANT, 'usurper,' cp. "To prove him tyrant this reason may suffice, that Henry liveth still" 3Hen.6 III. 3. 71. His using the word with this sense argues nothing as to Shakspere's knowledge or ignor- ance of Greek, for 'usurper' is a recognized e.N.E. meaning of the word, cp. "tyrant, a cruel governour or usurper" Glossographia, and "tyrant, one that has usurped the sover- eign power in a state," "tyranny, cruel and violent empire or dominion unlawfully usurped" Kersey's Dictionarium. The word had this meaning of 'usurper' even in M.E., cp. Piers Plowman, I II. 2 II, "go atack tho [z.e. those] tyrauns," j.e. Falsehood and Flat- tery. As in so many other instances, Shakspere's apparent knowledge of the classics turns out to be only a wide familiarity with English. Lenox has now thrown off his mask of irony and boldly calls Macbeth a usurper. SF 24 BESTOWES HIMSELFE, 'lodges,' a reflexive meaning of "bestow" common in e.N.E., cp. III. 1. 30.
140
J,
Mi
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
*1F24 SONNE is "sonnes" in FO. I, which seems to be a misprint. In FOS. I, 2, and 3 "lives" was altered to *Mive" in v. 26 and "is" allowed to stand. But only Malcolm fled to England: Donalbaine went to Ireland. SF25 HOLDS, * withholds/ cp. "Your crowne and kingdome indirectly held From him the native and true challenger" Hen. 5 II. 4-94. DUE OF BIRTH, 'birthright': "due" has this legal sense in EL.E., cp. "The key of this
infernal pit by due . . I keep"
ACT III SCENE VI
'Par. Lost' 11.850 (cited in N. E. D. 6). The article is equivalent to a MN.E. pos- sessive pronoun. SF27 OF, *by.' PIOUS here and HOLY KING, V. 30, are due to the fact that Malcolm, according to Holinshed,fled to the court of Edward the Confessor, cp. note to IV. 3. 144. SF 30 UPON HIS AYD, 'with his [i.e. the king's] support,' the infinitive having the sense of 'that he may.' U PON has a wide range of usage in EL. E. to express various forms of cause, cp. " I am come hither . . upon my man's instigation" 2Hen.6 II. 3.87, and "they Upon their ancient mallice will forget . . these his new honors" Cor. II. I. 243- The phrase is usually explained 'in his [i.e. Malcolm's] aid,' but EL. syn- tax does not warrant this construction. SF3I WAKE, ' rouse,' is still in poetic usage in MN.E. NORTHUMBER- LAND, i.e. the county, not the earl, of that name : in Holins- hed Seyward is the Earl of Northumberland. SF35 FREE in Shakspere's time meant 'banish,' cp. " Free thine owne torment" Daniel, and "Free suspicion" Ford (cited in N.E.D. 4), and there is therefore no ground for assuming a transposition of notions as did Steevens, or for amending the text with patches like 'keep' for "free." BLOODY KNIVES is probably a pregnant term for deeds of violence and assassination, and is Shakspere's way of implying Holinshed's statement that Macbeth "committed manic horrible slaughters and murders both as well of the nobles as commons." Delius thought it a reference to the murderer in III. 4. SF 36 FREE HONORS, 'guiltless honours,' not bought by treachery. Hamlet says, "Your majestic, and wee that have free soules, it touches us not" III. 2. 251. The words recall Banquo's "bosome franchis'd" in II. 1.28. SF38 EXASPERATE, the EL. past participle without suffix, cp. note to IIL4. 143. THEIR KING of FO. I is changed to 'the king' in the Cambridge Text and in modern edi- tions, and taken to refer to Macbeth. The Folio's " their " might easily be a mistake for an original "the," since the definite article with possessive force and the possessive adjective pronoun, especially 'the' and 'their,' are constantly subject to interchange in EL. texts: often a first edition will have the former and later editions the latter, showing that in the early
141
24-39
LORD
The Sonne of Duncane, From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, Lives in the English court, and is receyv'd Of the most pious Edward with such grace That the malevolence of fortune nothing Takes from his high respect. Thither Mac-
duffe Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his ayd To wake Northumberland and warlike Sey- ward, That by the helpe of these, with Him above To ratifie the worke, we may againe Give to our tables meate, sleepe to our nights. Free from our feasts and banquets bloody
knives. Do faithfuU homage and receive free honors: All which we pine for now. And this report Hath so exasperate their king that hee Prepares for some attempt of warre.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
part of the 1 7th century editors and printers felt at liberty to substitute the more modern form, as they felt at liberty to make a singular verb plural when it had a plural subject. But neither "their king" nor 'the king' can mean Macbeth, for Macbeth does not yet know of Macduff's going to England — Lenox himself informs him of it in IV. 1. 142. Delius con- strues THIS REPORT as referring to Malcolm's escape to England and having nothing to do with Macduff and the reprisal which Macbeth will make upon him, THEIR KING imply- ing that the lord cannot accept Macbeth as his king, because he belongs to Malcolm's faction; but this explanation is not satisfactory. THIS REPORT is in Shakspere some- times tantamount to'the report of this,' e.g. ^^cMessala. Seeke him [i.e. Pindarus], Titinius, whilst I go to meet The noble Brutus, thrusting this report Into his eares ; I may say 'thrusting' it. For piercing Steele and darts invenomed Shall be as welcome to the eares of Brutus As tydings of this sight" Cees. V. 3-73. Here there has been no 'report'; Titinius and Messala have themselves found Cassius's dead body. So likewise in John IV. 2.260, "Doth Arthur live? O hast thee to the peeres. Throw this report [i.e. the statement of this fact] on their incensed rage." We have already noticed (cp. note to 1.5.3) that "report" in EL. E. was not so strictly limited as it is in MN.E. : that it could mean 'state- ments,' 'rumour,' or 'reputation' ; the apparent objective use of "this report" is a natural consequence of such a range of meaning, the "this" referring, not to the statement itself, but to the conditions which the statement represented to the mind. If we may assume this syntax here, the lord simply says 'The King of England, having been told of these conditions which we live under, is preparing for an invasion' (cp. note on "attempt of warre" below). Lenox and the lord are traitors, and that the latter has been in secret communication with England since Malcolm's flight ten years before is not inconsistent with Macbeth's real and Lenox's assumed ignorance in IV. 1. 142. What the lord informs Lenox of is that the "English powre," referred to in V.2. 1, is already 'being mustered.' In IV. 3. 43 Malcolm, on Macduff's arrival, tells him that he has an offer from the King of England of "goodly thousands," and that even before his coming Old Seyward was on the point of setting out for Scotland with ten thousand men. This scene presents to the audience a condition of things that Macbeth is unaware of, viz. that Malcolm has been doing something more than telling lies during his residence in England. There is nothing inconsistent in it ; on the contrary, it helps to keep before the mind, as a single picture, a long and complex series of events covering a wide range of time and space. It is thus that Shakspere gives to history the marvellous unity of art, as it were focusing its vary- ing aspects into one single burning-point of human interest. SF 39 ATTEMPT means 'attack' in EL.E., cp. "No
man can charge us of any at- ApT HI SPFNP VI ^9-4^
tempt against the realm"(cita- ^^ ^ ^^^ CJl^CiND VI ^J ^^
tion dated 1584 inN.E.D.3), T RMnv
and "to attempt, or try to ' LbMUA
make war upon, attentate Sent he tO Macduffe?
aliquem hello'''' Phr. Gen. ___
^ LORD
<ff39 SENT HE: the pronoun He did: and v^ith an absolute *Sir, not I,' JLif ittck .'o MaXthtt The clowdy messenger turnes me his backe, an inquiry as to why Macduff And hums, as who should say ' You 1 rue the
fled. He knows only that he time
was in disgrace for not at- rri\ \ r r • i i • f
tending the banquet and for That clogges me With this answer.
unguarded language : why did
he fly? Did Macbeth send for Macduff to come to him? For SENT in this sense, cp. note to III. 4. 129. It is implied here that Macbeth has sent for Macduff to come to court and explain his absence, as he said he would do in III. 4. 130. SF40 ABSOLUTE, 'positive,'
142
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
cp. ** Be absolute for death" Meas. III. 1. 5 (N.E.D. II). *1F4I CLOWDY, used of persons in EL. E. with the sense 'gloomy,' 'sullen/ see N.E.D. I b. TURNES ME is an instance of the EL. E. so-called ethical dative. It is frequent in Shakspere and quite untranslatable in MN. terms. As here, it expresses the speaker's personal interest in what he is saying — the narrator of the story enjoys the situation. SF42 HUMS is still used in the phrase 'to hum and haw,' to express embarrassment or hesitation, cp. N.E.D. 2c; but in M.E. and e. N. E. it may stand independently, cp. " Al rosy hewed tho waxe she And gan to hum " Chaucer'sTroilus, II.II50, and "hum and stroke thy beard" Tro.&Cr. 1.3. I65 (cited from
N.E.D.). AS WHO SHOULD
x/^T'TTT o/^T^M-r'-VT-T ^o a r^ SAY is a phrasc Still retained
ACT III SCENE VI 43-49 in ^erary usage, in which
"as" has its e. N.E. meaning
LENOX of 'as if,' and the relative is
And that well midht "sed in its M.E. indefinite
\ A ■ 1- X ^- .t'LiJ 1-4.J-* sense of 'some one.' SF 43
Advise him to a caution, t hold what distance ^log is originally a 'block His wisedome can provide. Some holy an^ell attached to the leg or neck of
Five to the court of England and unfold \."^^^ t° ^'^P^j^^ T'°"'i:
J o „ , . this association gives the verb
Hismessageerehe come,thata swift blessing its meaning of 'hamper," em-
' May soone returne to this our suffering barrass.' The word reflects •^ the messenger's dread of
country Macbeth's temper.
Under a hand accursed!
<IF44 For ADVISE . . TO in
LORD *^^ sense of 'recommending
T .1 1 •J.^ ^ ■ acourseof action,' see N. E. D.
I le send my prayers with him. c,k, caution, 'precaution,'
EXEUNT N.E.D. 5; the indefinite ar- ticle is used as in 1. 7. 68. T' HOLD, 'in preserving,' illustrating the EL. usage of the infinitive, corresponding to a MN.E. participial phrase. SF 49 Phrases modifying participles used adjectively are often separated from their participles, as here. A similar arrangement occurs in II. 3. 138.
Acts I and II had a single theme, the murder of Duncan, and apparent success crowned the wicked work; the 'consequence' for the time was trammelled up, and Macbeth had gone to Scone to be invested. As Banquo says in the opening verses of Act III, he has it now, king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, as the weird women promised. The third act of the drama opens with a fresh theme, the murder of Banquo. Though so rapidly brought to its execution, — the faulty purpose almost cheek by jowl with the deed, — the new theme can be traced through the same course as the old. In the opening verses the unsuspicious per- sonality of Banquo is presented, as was Duncan's in the early part of the play ; and, like Duncan as a guest in Macbeth's house, he is in Macbeth's power (vv. 1-44). The 'thought,' already full formed in Macbeth's mind, is clearly represented in detail in the soliloquy of VV.49-7I, recalling the soliloquy of 1.7.28 ff. ; the 'instrument' for its execution, already provided in the maliciousness of the two disgruntled soldiers, is represented to the audience in the succeeding dialogue, vv. 72-142. In Scene II Macbeth shares this new 'thought' with Lady Macbeth, but this time vaguely and darkly. The reason for this is not far to seek. If we turn to the wonderful sleep-walking scene, where Lady Macbeth presents in broken mutterings a miniature of the mental aspects of the tragedy as they concern her
143
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
and her husband, we shall see her not only repeating the horror of Duncan's murder, for which she is directly responsible, but haunted by visions of Banquo and Lady Macduff as well. They all blend together in one awful scene that she cannot banish from her mind. Shakspere intends, therefore, to put before us a double tragedy, its two parts in- terwoven inextricably, its two actors suffering each the penalty for the acts of the other. The execution of the * thought' is the subject of Scene III. The new murder links it- self with the old. But the removal of Banquo, instead of securing for Macbeth * peace' from the 'restless extasy' caused by Duncan's murder, adds fresh horror to it; and the second deed of dreadful note not only brings its own immediate retribution but precipitates the retribution for the first. The psychological 'consequences' of the two are marvellously interwoven, for in Scene IV Duncan's ghost as well as Banquo's haunts Macbeth. Whether the former actually appears to him or not is of little consequence: the "send those that we bury backe" clearly shows that the murdered Duncan as well as the "blood-boltred" Banquo is present to his mind. Not only is peace unattainable now, but from Scene IV on it is a fight for life itself. Banquo, the menace to peace, is removed only to give place to a menace from another quarter — Macduff. And this new situation is harder to deal with than the old, for Macduff will not put himself in the tyrant's power ; he holds his distance. Act III thus not only reveals the Nemesis in its subjective aspect in Macbeth's insanity, but prepares the way for his final overthrow in the 'raising of rebellion's head' by Mac- duff and Malcolm. The new Macduff motif thus begins to develop in the end of Scene IV, and Scene VI as a chorus forecasts the course of this new consequence, which will be the theme of Act IV.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE I OF ACT IV
The witch scene which opens Act IV is quite different from that of Act III, both in its style and in its matter, replete as it is with popular, not classic, notions of witchcraft. It returns to the four- wave rhythm found in Scene III of Act I save for a few obvious patches that are written in the verse form of Scene V of Act III.
Shakspere found his material in Holinshed, who says that Macbeth "had learned of certaine wizzards in whose words he put great confidence (for that the prophesie had hap- pened so right which the three fairies or weird-sisters had declared unto him) how that he ought to take heed of Makduffe, who in time to come should seeke to destroie him. And surelie hereupon had he put Makduffe to death but that a certaine witch whom hee had in great trust had told him that he should never be slaine with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the castle of Dunsinane." Shakspere works these together and unites them with the prediction of 1.3.67.
The place of the scene was marked by Rowe as 'a dark cave' ; the modern scene di- rection is 'a cavern,' which is consistent with 111.5- 15. But what is Lenox's relation to the action? "Come in without there" indicates that Macbeth is in some enclosed space, and this must be outside the castle, for messengers on the way to the king are spoken of as 'coming by.' But Lenox can scarcely have gone with Macbeth to a cavern known to be haunted by witches, that the king may consult the powers of darkness while he stands sentinel at the rendezvous, else he would have shown some interest in the result of the in- terview ; moreover, in v. 49 Macbeth's meeting with the witches seems to be more or less fortuitous, and not by appointment. That Lenox, like Banquo, has been walking with Macbeth near the castle and has left him momentarily to see who it is that is riding by is not sufficiently clear from the dialogue or from the action. But perhaps an Elizabethan audience would understand some such situation and would not be too curious in localizing the scene. In default of a better scene direction we shall have to retain Rowe's in its modern form, 'a cavern,' and assume that Lenox is waiting outside.
144
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
THE FOURTH ACT '
SCENE I: A CAVERN: IN THE MIDDLE A BOILING CAULDRON THUNDER: ENTER THE THREE WITCHES
FIRST WITCH HRICE the brinded cat hath mew'd. SECOND WITCH. Thrice and once the pi^^e whinM.
hedge
Boyle thou first i' th' charmed pot.
ALL Double, double, toile and trouble; Fire burne and cauldron bubble.
THIRD WITCH. Harpier cries/ T is time/t is time.' FIRST WITCH. Round about the caldron go; In the poysonM entrailes throw. Toad, that under cold stone Dayes and nights has thirty one Sweltred venom sleeping got,
SFl BRINDED is the EL.form of 'brindled,' see N.E. D. s.v. The word is now usually applied to dogs and cattle marked with streaks, and a 'brindled cat' is called a 'tabby cat.' SF 2 THRICE AND ONCE was emended by Theobald, on the score of pro- priety, to 'twice and once.' But Ben Jonson is guilty of the very impropriety with which Theobald charges Shakspere in using even numbers in witchcraft ritual: "And if thou dost what we would have thee doe Thou shalt have three, thou shalt have foure, Thou shalt have ten, thou shalt have a score" 'Masque of Queenes' p. 171, and here Jonson has put it out of the power of the emendator to alter his text. Moreover, "thrice and once" is four in a series of notation by odd numbers. The comma of the FO. after THRICE seems, therefore, to be due to the printer's close punctuation. A similar phrase, " I have been merry twice and once, ere now," occurring in 2 Hen. 4 V. 3. 42, is not so punc- tuated ; but just above it, v. 36, we have the punctuation "both short, and tall," FO. p. 98. HEDGE-PIGGE: the association of the hedgehog with witchcraft is very old: a relic of it is preserved in MN. E. 'urchin' (a M.E. and e. N.E. word for hedgehog), which, popu- larly used as the designation of a mischief-working fairy, was then applied to a mischief- making boy. " Hedge-pigge" seems to be a fanciful diminutive of 'hedgehog,' coined by Shakspere. SF 3 HARRIER, like Middleton's "Tiffin" and Jonson's " Rouncie," is a fanciful name for an evil spirit, here conceived of as * sitting aloft ' and directing the witches' movements as did Padock and Graymalkin in 1. 1.8. It is probably an EL. popular form of 'harpy,' as "harper" for 'harpy' is found in the quarto edition of Marlowe's Tam- burlaine, II. 7, and it is not likely that these two independent instances are printer's errors. "Enter Ariell like a Harpey" occurs as the stage direction to Temp. III. 3. 52. As usual, there are no quotation-marks in FO. I, but 'TIS TIME seems to be the substance of
145
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
Harpier's cry. SF 5 Similar ingredients make up witches' charms in Ben Jonson's Masque of Queenes and Middleton's Witch, Jonson supplying a rich commentary from classical demonology to illustrate his folk-lore. FO. I has no point after THROW. SF 6 In the Masque of Queenes *the toad that breeds under the walF is an ingredient of one of the witch charms. Such rhythms as COLD STONE, in which the emotional signifi- cance of a word forces a slight pause after it which makes the descending part of the rhythm wave, are frequent in English popular poetry. "Swifter then the moon's sphere," Mids.III.7, is cited by Dclius as another instance of the intrusion of this popular rhythm into Shakspere's four-wave falling verse, but such a verse as Jonson's ** Flow water, and blow wind" in the Masque of Queenes, p. 1 69, is a much better instance. These juxta- positions of stressed impulses are a native feature of English verse and have never been entirely banished from lyric measures. Editors try to emend them out of Shakspere, and, laying the responsibility for this verse upon the omnipeccant printer, have given us 'under the cold stone,' 'under a cold stone,' 'under coldest stone,' 'under cold, cold stone,' 'under cold-e stone' (an English flexional monstrosity), 'under co-uld stone,' 'underneath cold stone,' 'under some cold stone,' 'under cursed stone.' SF 7 ONE in EL.E. had not yet developed its initial w with the consequent change of o to a, so the word is here a perfect rhyme to " stone." FO. I punctuates with a comma after NIGHTS and a colon after ONE ; but it must be remembered that in EL. printing a colon was a lighter point than it is now, and frequently stood for a modern comma. SF 8 The usual EL. meaning of SWELTER is ^^ calore suffocare^^ (to stifle with heat), as it, is usually glossed. "Swelt" is associated with fever in Spenser's Faerie Queene, Lvii.6, the cheerful blood like a fever fit through all his body swelts," where it is almost equivalent to 'boils.' Skinner gives "swelt" and "swelter" as different forms of the same word. The picture seems to be that of a toad which has "pestilent poyson
;Lt, V'r;e^''p':%^27; act iv scene i 12-21
exuding this at the mouth
during its sleep. The pop- SECOND WITCH
ular superstition that toads Fillet of a fenny snake,
were venomous is also re- t ,..1- 1J l- i J U l
flectedinA.Y.L.n.Li3. SFio ^^ ^he cauldron boyle and bake; The FO.'s comma after the Eye of newt and toe of frog^e,
second DOUBLE is removed ^^QQ\\ of bat and tondue of dodde, by the Cambridge Text, but a ji t r i i ii- i oo t
the words mark a ccesura and Adder s torke and blinde-wormes stm^, are probably unrelated to the Lizard's legge and howlet's wing,
rest of the sentence, as in the r:: i p r ii 4. i_i
child's charm "King, king, ^^^ -^ charme of powrefull trouble, double king. Never trade back Like a hell-broth boyle and bubble.
again." SF 1 1 FIRE is dis- syllabic, as often in MN. E. ALL
^^'■^^- Double, double, toyle and trouble;
<IFi2 FILLET in EL.E. was Fire burne and cauldron bubble.
used to designate the lobes
of the liver, N.E. D. 5 c, and also the lobes of the lung, cp. "And lungs with fillets whole unwounded hung" May's Lucan, VI. I (ed. 1635, sig. L). The word also means 'muscle-' or ' nerve-fibre,' N. E. D. 5- Either of these meanings fits better with " Eye of newt and toe of frogge," etc., than does the word in the sense of 'a rolled slice,' as it is usually inter- preted. FENNY, 'fen-inhabiting,' see note to III. 2. 51, and cp. " Dragons fenny and living in marishes" Topsell, 1607 (in N.E.D.2). Harrison, II. 35, says "in our fennie countries . . serpents are found of greater quantitie [i.e. size] than either our adder or snake."
146
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SF 1 3 BOYLE AND BAKE are intransitive ; one of the meanings of the latter word in EL. E. is to 'cake' or 'coagulate into a sticky mass/ N.E.D.4. *ff 14 NEWTS, the small rep- tiles known in America as lizards, were popularly believed to be hurtful in Shakspere's time, cp. " Newts and blinde wormes, do no wrong" Mids. IL2. 1 1, and frogs were thought to be bred of the slime of standing pools; see Phipson, p. 322. *1F 15 In the Masque of Queenes it is the bat's wings that are used for the witch's charm on the authority of Corn. Agrippa de occulta 'Philosophiay L I5t who recommends also 'bat's blood.' The popular dread of bats is still well known. SF 1 6 FORKE is the EL. name for the tongue of a serpent, cp. "the soft and tender forke Of a poore worme" Meas.in.Ll6. BLINDE- WORMES were also reckoned among the popular reptile antipathies — "common annoi- ances" as Harrison calls them — of Shakspere's time, cp. " Neverthelesse we have a blinde worme . . which some also do call (and upon better ground) by the name of slow wormes . . and yet their venem deadlie," etc., Harrison's England, IILvii (cp. Timon IV. 3- 182). SFl7 The LIZARD is referred to as venomous in 2Hen. 6 III. 2. 325, "Their softest touch as smart as lyzard's stings." The word was loosely applied in EL. E. as in MN.E. to designate any lizard-like reptile from the newt to the crocodile. HOWLET is a M.E. and e. N.E.form of 'owlet,' cp. O. FR. Au/offe. A charm ingredient in the Masque of Queenes is "the scrich-owles egs and the feathers black." *IF 18 POWREFULL, 'potent,' cp. "powrefuU rime" Sonn.LV.2, "powerfull sound" All's W.II.I.I79. TROUBLE: the
sense of 'means of physical
ACT IV SCENE I 22-36
THIRD WITCH Scale of dragon, tooth of wolfe, Witches' mummey, maw and gulfe Of the ravin'd salt sea sharke, Roote of hemlocke digg'd i' th' darke, Liver of blaspheming Jsw, Gall of goate, and slippes of yew Sliver'd in the moones ecclipse, Nose of Turke and Tartar's lips, Finger of birth-strangled babe Ditch-deliver'd by a drab — Make the grewell thicke and slab: Adde thereto a tiger's chawdron, For th' ingredience of our cawdron.
ALL Double, double, toyle and trouble; Fire burne and cauldron bubble.
annoyance' has not quite faded from the meaning of the word, though now some- what vague.
SF22 In Ben Jonson it is ^'^oculi draconum'''' (cp. v. 15) and "/upi crines^^ that are the charm ingredients. SF 23 WITCHES' MUMMEY: the EL. mummia or mummy, ac- cording to the New World of Words, is " a kind of pitchy substance arising from mois- ture which is sweat out of dead bodies that have been embalmed with divers sorts of spices." Purchas's Pil- grimage, V, p. 682, speaks of a method of manufacturing this in Ethiopia : "They make mummia otherwise then in other partes, where it is eyther made of bodies buried in the sands or taken out of ancient sepulcheres where they had been laide being embalmed with spices. For they take a captive Moore, of the best complexion, and after long dieting and medicining of him, cut off his head in his sleepe, and gashing his bodie full of wounds, put therein all the best spices, and then wrap him up in hay, being covered with a searc-cloth [cp. Merch. II. 7.51], after which they burie him in a moyst place, covering the bodie with earth. Five dayes being passed, they take him up againe, and removing the seare-cloth and hay,
147
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
hang him up in the sunne, whereby the bodie resolveth and droppeth a substance Hke pure balme, which liquor is of great price." Some such horrible concoction as this Shak- spere evidently had in mind here and in Oth. III.4. 74, where he says ''There's magicke in the web of it . . And it was dyde in mummey which the skilful! Conserve of maidens' hearts." MAW usually means stomach in EL. E., but the word is applied in MN.E. to the air-bladder of a fish — see Cent. Diet. 3 — and may have been so used in EL. E. also. For GULFE as applied to the stomach of an animal, cp. ** Whether thou wilt remaine with the serpent and . . be swallowed up into the gowlfe of his body" Arlington, 1 566 (cited in N.E. D. 3 b). In Shakspere's time the word rhymed with "wolfe." SF 24 RAVIN'D, 'gorged with prey,' another instance of the -ed suffix in the sense of 'full of.' The noun "ravin," in the sense of 'prey,' occurs in Nahum IL 12, "The lion . . filled . . his holes with pray and his dennes with ravine" (cited in Cent. Diet.). SHARKE as the name of the dog-fish or ' hound-fish ' seems to have been a new word in EL. E., and hence, probably, the epithet SALT SEA, i.e. marmus, cp. "fishes called sharkes, most ravenous devourers" Purchas's Pilgrimage, V, p. 712. Sir John Hawkins also says that the "shark is a fish like unto those which wee call dog-fishes" Purchas, IV, p. 1330 (cited in Phipson). SF 25 HEMLOCKE, the cicuta already referred to in L3.84; cp. "hemlocke is very evyl, dan- gerous, hurtful, and venemous" Lyte, 1578 (cited in N.E. D.). In the Masque of Queenes it is the mandrake that is 'digged in the dark.' SF26 Whether BLASPHEMING is in- tended in its modern sense of
'blaspheming against God' APTTV ^^PFMRI 27 20.
(cp. John III. I. 161) and ^^ ^ ^^ C^^^CiMC 1 :i/ - ^ii Shakspere had in mind 'the
apostate Jew,' or whether it SECOND WITCH
is intended in its strictly Coole it with a baboones blood,
Elizabethan sense of 'speak- rp, ^11 • e- 1^1
ing ill against,' 'revUing,' ^^^^ ^he charme IS firme and good.
N.E. D.3, is uncertain. We
learn from Purchas's Pilgrimage, V,p. 155, how deep was the prejudice against the Jews in England as well as in the rest of Europe during the sixteenth century, and how the Elizabethan, in reckoning him with Turks and infidels, thought that he was only helping the Almighty to carry out a Biblical curse, A sympathetic account of the Jew in Eliza- bethan England will be found in Mr. Sidney Lee's essay printed in the Shak. Soc. Trans., '87-'92, pp. 143 ff- SF27 SLIPPES, cp. "a slip of a tree, surculus'' Phr.Gen. The YEW was held in sinister regard from the fact that it was planted in churchyards, cp. "dismall yew" Titus II. 3- 107. SF28 SLIVER'D, 'lopped off,' 'clipped,' cp. "sliver, findo^'' Coles, and "She that her selfe will sliver and disbranch From her material! sap" Lear IV.2.34. SF29 TURKE AND TARTAR, the latter word designating the hordes of northern China, were the two great divisions of the terrible infidel perils that menaced Christendom in the sixteenth century, a terror that is still reflected in our modern usage of these words for persons of a savage disposition. SF 30 Middleton's lines in the Witch, 1.2, "Here, take this unbaptized brat *, Boil it well, preserve the fat. You know 't is precious to transfer Our 'nointed flesh into the air" reflects the same notion; cp. also Jonson, "Their killing of infants is common, both for confection of their ointment (wherto one ingredient is the fat boiled)," etc. So, too, Reginald Scot, X.vii: "R [i.e. take] The fat of young children and seeth it, . . reserving the thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the bottome" (cp. v. 32). The sound of a in BABE was something like that of MN. ce in 'grass,' as pronounced in the United States, so that the rhymed sylla- bles present only a difference in length and not one of character. *JF 3 1 FO. I and modern editions place a comma after "drab." SF 32 SLAB ; the usual form of the word is "slabby" in Minsheu, Kersey, Skinner, Holyoke, etc.; it means ' miry," sticky," pasty' : "slab" is a noun meaning 'mud puddle' in Kersey and in the Glossographia. SF33 CHAWDRON, 'the entrails of a beast,' N.E.D. 2. SF 34 INGREDIENCE,cp.note to 1.7. II. SF37 BABOON
148
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
and **babioun," another form of the same word, were stressed upon the first syllable in Shakspere's time, cp. **babion or great monckie" Minsheu, and '*a babian or monkey, mice^^ Percival. The same stress occurs in ** For what thou professest a baboon, could he speak" Per, IV.6.I89. SF 38 FIRME, 'close in texture,' N. E.D.I; the reference is to V. 32. The Mngredience' of this mixture could not possibly be represented upon the stage. Its horrible interest is literary, bringing together a multitude of gruesome asso- ciations, "poyson," "entrailes," "toad," "cold stone," "sweltred venom," etc. — a cata- logue of popular repugnances that haunt the imagination of the child and are never quite banished from the mind of the maturer man. The chorus also has the traditional rhythm association of popular poetry, ' x ' - || ' x ' >|| '-'<'■=' x^ a typical charm series of rhythm waves whose impulses begin with explosive consonants. Such poetry is of the sort that human nature weaves about the supernatural, and is quite different from the
artificial verse of Act III,
ACT IV SCENE I
39-47
fENTER HECAT AND THE OTHER THREE WITCHES
HECAT O well done! I commend your paines; And every one shall share i' th'gaines: And now about the cauldron sing. Like elves and fairies in a ring, Inchanting all that you put in.
MUSICKE AND A SONG: "BLACKE SPIRITS" &C
HECAT retires!
SECOND WITCH By the pricking of my thumbes, Something wicked this way comes. )en lockes, who ever knockes!
Scene V.
ENTER HECAT AND THE OTHER THREE WITCHES is palpably an interpolation intended to join the machin- ery of Act III, Scene V to this. Modern editors alter the AND to *to' in order to make the fitting more apt ; but this does not improve mat- ters, for it makes OTHER peculiar, to say the least, de- spite Dyce's consciousness of his 'great mistake' and the stage interpretation of Mac- ready. The whole passage down to v. 43 is obviously in- terpolated, probably by Mid-
dleton: HECAT RETIRES Open lockes, who ever knockes! 46.47 has been added by modern
editors. Steevens pointed out that the son^ called for is to be found in Middleton's Witch as well as in Davenant's Macbeth. It reads thus:
Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray. Make it lucky ;
Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may! Liard, Robin,
Titty, Tiffin, You must bob in.
Keep it stiff in ; Round, around, around, about, about !
Firedrake, Puckey, All ill come running in, all good keep out !
SF39 The stress **well done" may be EL. idiom: Shakspere seems to employ the same stress in II.4. 37, but in all other instances it is ** well done." *IF 43 This rhymeless verse is not in Davenant's version. The song in the Witch is introduced by *' Stir, stir about whilst I begin the charme " : with the excision of the last two words, this would make a good pair for *' Enchanting all that you put in." Whether or not vv. 44-47 are part of the interpo- lation is not certain. In Davenant's version they are in four-wave rising rhythm, *'I, by the pricking of my thumbs. Know something wicked this way comes," which may have been their original form. If this be so they belong with the interpolated Hecate passage above. Shakspere's witches would hardly say of Macbeth, ** Something wicked this way
149
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
comes" ; the attitude which these words represent fits in rather with 124 ff., an indubitably interpolated passage. The itching of the thumbs as an omen is commented upon in Brand's Antiquities, but only on the basis of this passage. SF 46 The opening of locks as a witches' prerogative is
ACT IV SCENE I
referred to in Jonson's Sad Shepherd, II. 2, "Search for a weed To open locks with."
*]F48 SECRET, 'occult,' cp. **If secret powers suggest but truth To my divining thoughts" 3Hen.6 IV. 6. 68. Macbeth here uses the term BLACK in its EL. sense of ' sinister,' cp. 1. 4.51, IV.3.52, and ''that black name, Ed- ward, Black Princeof Wales'* Hen.5 II. 4.56. SF 50 CON- JURE in EL. E. is a synonym of 'adjure,' cp. " I conjure thee to leave me and be gon" Err. IV. 3. 68. The word had stress on the first syllable. PROFESSE in EL. E. means 'make claim to know,' cp. "In what he did professe wellfound"AirsW.II.I.I05. *IF52 A similar description is found in Lear III. 2. Iff. SF54 CONFOUND,'ruin'and ' mingle together,' one of those graphic words with double sense so common in Shak- spere. NAVIGATION in the 1 7th century had the concrete meaning, ' shipping' ; cp."'this kingdomes wonderous en- crease of traffique and navi- gation" Harrison's England, 11.23, and "great expense of timber for navigation" Stowe's Annales, I63I, p. 1024. SF55 BLADED: Collier and some modern editors ob- ject to "bladed" because corn 'not yet in the ear' cannot be "lodged" by storms. But ■"bladed" in EL. E. implies that the corn is in the green ear, cp. "those fruits of the earth that rise up to blade (straw, stal [i.e. "stale," an EL. word for 'stalk']) and bear eares" Comenius, 'Janua' 127, and "As soon as standing corn shoots up to a blade it is in dan- ger of scath by tempests" ibid. 394. LODG'D, 'beaten down by the wind.' SF 57 PYRA- MIDS in EL. E. described both obelisks and pyramids, and was therefore used of any spire-like structure; cp. Marlowe's Dido, III. I, 'The masts whereon the swelling sails shall hang. Hollow pyramides of silver plate'; cp., too, Marlowe's Faustus, VII. 43r 'high pyramides Which Julius Caesar brought from Africa,' and the editor's note that 'it had been rather beyond Julius Caesar's power' to bring a pyramid from Egypt (Ward's Old English Drama, p. 181). Cooper glosses pyramis "also a steeple," and pyramidatus
150
48-61
ENTER MACBETH
MACBETH How now, you secret, black, and midnight
bags! Wbat is 't you do?
ALL
A deed witbout a name.
MACBETH
I conjure you, by tbat wbicb you professe.
How ere you come to know it, answer me:
Tbougb you untye tbe windes and let tbem
fight
Against tbe cburcbes ; tbougb tbe yesty waves Confound and swallow navigation up; Tbougb bladed corne be lodg'd and trees
blown downe; Tbougb castles topple on tbeir warders'
beads; Tbougb pallaces and pyramids do slope Tbeir beads to tbeir foundations ; tbougb tbe
treasure Of nature's germaine tumble altogetber. Even till destruction sicken; answer me To wbat I aske you.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
•'made steeple wise" ; so Coles, '■^pyramis, an Egyptian building like a spire-steeple," and Holyoke, ^'pyramis, a steeple, a spire, a shaft, a broach [i.e. obelisk]." The word here, therefore, means 'towers,' 'spires,' or 'pinnacles,' and not the 'pyramids of Egypt.' SLOPE is a stronger word in EL.E. than now, and means 'to incline,' 'slant,' 'lean': an oblique line is defined in EL. dictionaries as 'a sloping line.' SF58 HEAD, 'the summit of an eminence or erection,' N. E. D. 12. In EL.E. the word denoted also 'the capstone of acolumn,' N.E.D.8 1. A similar figure is found in Merch.L 1.28. SF 59 GERMAINE, 'seeds.' Bacon speaks of the "principles or seedes of things," and Jonson has the same notion in "You . . that know how well it [i.e. union] binds the fighting seeds of things" Masques, p. 132. Cp. also note to L 3-58. In a note to his Masque of Queenes, p. I65, Jonson says these powers of troubling nature are frequently ascribed to witches, and cites Remigius : "Qua possint evertere funditus orbem et manes superis miscere hac unica cura esf." The same notion occurs in Lear in.2.8: "all germaines spill at once That makes ingratefull man" — cp. Lucretius's ^^Celesti semine omnes sumus oriundi.^^ Theo- bald's emendation, 'germins' (the plural form), is incorporated into the Cambridge and other MN. texts, but it rests on the same foundation as the changing of "seedes" to 'seed' in IIL 1.70. Shakspere was the first to use the word in English, and no doubt felt at liberty to employ it collectively, as Delius suggests. The climax of this mass of asso- ciations— unleashed winds venting their mad fury on the churches, yeasty waves swallow- ing ships, storm-lodged corn, toppling castles and overturned pinnacles crashing down until ruin itself is nauseated— true children of Macbeth's poetic imagination — is aptly repre- sented in the rhythm, a series of rising, cumulative phrases piling themselves up, one after another, without a single check in the onward flow, until the whole flood swells over its barrier in the reversal of v. 60, '><><'■' >. It is an excellent illustration of the power of Shakspere's versification, whose full force can readily be appreciated if one alters, for instance, vv. 55 ff. to ' Lodging the bladed corn, uprooting trees, Toppling their castles on the warders' heads,' etc. ; any other disposition of stress than the marvellously fitting one
Shakspere gives will rob the
ACT IV SCENE I 6I-63 ^-rlVhes-^'LwerTo";
with its cumulative series, FIRST WITCH ' P ' II "' ■, is in peculiarly
Soeake. Shaksperian rhythm.
SECOND WITCH <IF 63 The masters here are
Demand. f'Ot the evil spirits sitting aloft
TUTor^ WTT/-U todirectthe witches as in IIL
IMIKU WUUH 5.35,butare'theentreasured
Wee U answer. seeds and weak beginnings'
FIRST WITCH of the events that are to influ- ence Macbeth's destiny. But
Say if th' hadst rather heare it from our it is not a happy word: indeed,
mouthes, vv.62and 63 are strangely out
' or kcepmg with the context,
Or from our masters? for the First Witch's distinc-
MAPRFTH ^^°" ^^ ^"^^ °^ academic de-
monology,andMacbeth'spro- Call em; let me see em. saic"Cairem;letmesee'em,"
a strange anticlimax to hispre- cedingdemand. "Thy selfe and office deaftly show" in v.68isalsoa more orless artificial no- tion which hardly belongs in Shakspere's demonology. It is possible, therefore, that vv. 62 to 68 are a part of the interpolated matter. The 'EM in v. 63 is not so undignified in EL.E. as in MN.E., see note to II. 2. 1 3. Many modern editors alter '"em" in both cases to 'them.'
151
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
*IF64 POWRE : w in M.E.andc. N. E. is usually written for u when it is the second element of a diphthong followed by a consonant ; MN. E. words usually retain this spelling before /, e.^. 'bowl/ 'brawl.' SOWES BLOOD THAT HATH EATEN, etc., is good EL. word order : such collocations are usually avoided in MN.E. by the use of the 'of genitive. EATEN rhymes with SWEATEN, ea not yet having become i in the former word, and the vowel not yet having been shortened in the latter. SF 65 FARROW, Mitters,' the word is a col- lective plural, N.E.D. 3 J Stcevcns quotes from the laws of Kenneth in Holinshed, p. 181, " If a sowe eate her pigges let her be stoned to death and buried." Shakspere's sow is nine times wicked. G RE AZE : the word was applied in EL. E. to any fatlike substance, N. E.D.I; the intervocalic ^r is still heard.
SWEATEN is made on the analogy of a strong past par- ticiple ; "have sitten down," ** hunger-starven," " had lien " are similar e. N. E. forms. SF66 In the Masque of Queencs it is the ** sinew" and "hair" of a hanged mur- derer that are used. SF 67 HIGH OR LOW, 'great spirits or lesser spirits.' *1F 68 THY SELFE AND OFFICE [i.e. function] DEAFTLY SHOW sounds like Act III, Scene V. DEAFTLY is MN.E. 'deftly,' with the e not yet shortened. The apparitions which follow are "the hatch and brood of time," embryos of coming events. The ARMED HEAD (i.e. head cased in armour, see note to III.4. lOI) repre- sents symbolically Macbeth's head cut off and brought to Malcolm by Macduff (V.8. 53). The BLOODY CHILDE is Macduff, untimely ripped from his mother's womb (V. 8. 15). The CHILDE CROWN- ED with the bough in his hand is Malcolm, who ordered his soldiers to hew down boughs
ACT IV
SCENE I
64-72
FIRST WITCH Powre in sowes blood that bath eaten Her nine farrow; greaze that's sweaten From the murderer's gibbet throw Into the flame.
ALL Come high or low; Thy selfe and office deaftly show!
THUNDER FIRST APPARITION: AN ARMED HEAD
MACBETH Tell me, thou unknowne power, —
FIRST WITCH
He knowes thy thought: Heare his speech, but say thou nought.
FIRST APPARITION Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware
Macduffe; Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismisse me.
Enough.
HE DESCENDS
The apparitions are
and bear them before them
to Dunsinane (Steevcns's 'observation' adopted from Mr. Upton
misunderstood by Macbeth, who probably takes the armed head for rebellion's head, the
bloody child for Macduff's murdered son, and the child with the crown on his head and the
bough in his hand as the insignia of his own house, now made secure by the Dunsin^e
prophecy. SF7I The rhythm is full of omen, x . || x / || w || x . ■■ . || x / x / x r || x . xx ._
ME and ENOUGH are in all probability intended to be run together; that such elision even of long vowels was a current feature of EL. verse is shown by the numerous in- stances of it in EL. poetry where EL. printers have set an apostrophe instead of the vowel, e.g. "Why shouldst thou hope of men to b' intertained" Poetic Miscellany of the Time of James I, ed. Halliwell, Percy Soc, p. I ; "I will not
152
strive m' invention to inforce"
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
Drayton, 'Dedication/ Spenser Soc, p. 3 J "To b'earle of March doth suddainely aspire'* ibid., *Barrons Warres' VI. 4. 3; ** I do exceed m' instructions to acquaint" Jonson's Sejanus, V.6, ed. 1640, p. 365. Such eUsions were a common feature of M.E. versifi- cation, and are found all through EL. poetry. Abbott cites a number from Shakspere, — "How came we a shore?" Temp. 1. 2. 158, "too unkinde a cause of greefe" Merch.V. 1. 175, etc., — and his list could be greatly extended. The apparition's ENOUGH is not only the last word of the armed head, but Macbeth's last word also, cp. V.8.34. HE DE- SCENDS is the direction for
ACT IV
SCENE I
73-86
the apparition to go down through the trap-door of the stage.
<ff74 HARP'D, 'guessed,' an EL. meaning of the word il- lustrated in N. E. D. 7, cp. ^'■'Parler a taston, to speak byghesse orconjecture,onely to harpe at the matter" Cot- grave. SF 75 Though it was a popular belief that spirits could not be commanded, there is a deep irony in the witches thus informing Mac- beth that he is not king in dealing with the powers of evil : so, too, there is a hidden irony in the fact that the sec- ond apparition, Macduff, is described as MORE POTENT than the first, Macbeth. SF 79 RESOLUTE, 'res'lute,' like "absolute "in IV. 3. 38. SF80 The equivocal prophecy of Macbeth's invulnerability is recorded in Holinshed (Bos- well-Stone, p. 36) along with the warning against Macduff and the Dunsinane prediction. SF82 OF,'from,'ausualsense of the preposition. SF 83 DOUBLE, 'doubly,' N.E. D. I, cp. All's W. II. 3. 254 and "Those that gull us with the assuranceof anextraordinarie facultie [i.e. power] . . ought to be double punished" Flo- rio's Montaigne, I. XXX. SF 84 TAKE A BOND OF FATE, 'require a pledge [cp. note to 1 1 1.2. 49] from death,' and thus have two bonds for the ful- filment of the prophecy that none shall harm Macbeth. The sense of "double" is missed by the modern reading of FATE in the sense of 'destiny'; the stress falls upon "fate," not upon "bond." SF85 PALE-HEARTED FEARE is a haunting, ever-present person to Macbeth : to get rid of "feare," which he never knew before his meeting with the witches,
153
MACBETH What ere thou art, for thy good caution,
thanks; Thou hast harp'd my feare aright: but one word more, —
FIRST WITCH He will not be commanded : heere 's another, More potent then the first.
THUNDER SECOND APPARITION: A BLOODY CHILDE
SECOND APPARITION
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!
MACBETH Had I three eares, I 'Id heare thee.
SECOND APPARITION Be bloody, bold, and resolute ; laugh to scorne The powre of man, for none of woman borne Shall harme Macbeth.
DESCENDS
MACBETH Then live, Macduffe: what need I feare of
thee? But yet I 'le make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live; That I may tell pale-hearted feare it lies, And sleepe in spight of thunder.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
has been the end of his titanic efforts all through the play. SF 86 TO SLEEPE IN SPIGHT OF THUNDER is not inapposite and disconnected as it seems to us to be, but one of those side-lights that flash out from time to time to reveal to the audience Macbeth's suffering. Dread at the approach of a
IV SCENE I
thunder-storm is a symptom of insanity in'Anat. of Mel.' 1.2.25: 'Those which are already mad rave down right either in or against [i.e. at the approach of, cp. 1.7. 19] a tempest': see also note to II.3.59.
ACT
86-103
THUNDER CROWNED HIS HAND
THIRD APPARITION: A CHILDE WITH A TREE IN
What is this That rises like the issue of a king, And weares upon his baby-brow the round And top of soveraignty?
ALL Listen, but speake not too 't.
THIRD APPARITION Be lyon metled, proud; and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers
are: Macbeth shall never vanquished be untill Great Byrnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him.
DESCEND
MACBETH
That will never bee: Who can impresse the forrest, bid the tree Unfixe his earth-bound root? Sweet boad-
ments! good! Rebellious head rise never till the wood Of Byrnan rise, and our high placed Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath To time and mortall custome. Yet my hart Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your
art Can tell so much : Shall Banquo's issue ever Reigne in this kingdome?
*IF88 ROUND, 'crown,' cp. note to 1.5.29. SF89 TOP is commented upon by MN. editors as an unusual poetic usage of words. Johnson ex- plains that by ''round" is meant the base of the crown and by "top" the ornament above it. But in EL. E. the word meant ' crown,' ' pitch of attainment,' see the examples in Cent. Diet. s.v. 8, and cp. "O Mustapha, the top of glorie, . . grant us victorie" Purchas's Pilgrimage, V. 3 1 1 , and "to the spire and top of prayses vouched" Cor.1.9. 24. TOO'T, cp. 1.2.7. SF9I ARE rhymes with CARE, see note to III. 5. 2. SF93 BYR- NAM WOOD is twelve miles W.N.W. of Dunsinane. DUN- SINANE: FO. I has "Duns- mane," apparently an over- looked printer's error of m for in. Both" Dunsinane "(corre- sponding to the MN. Scotch accentuation) and " Dunsi- nane" occur in Wyntown as wellasin Shakspere( noted by Steevens). The latter form Slatyer syncopates to Duns- nane in "Till Dunsnane cas- tell, high in th' ayre," which he makes 'Dusitana cacumine montisj probably ^ metri gra- tia, though he may have in- tended'Dunstana.' *1F95 IMPRESSE, 'force to serve as soldiers,' due to the "come against'* above. SF96 BOADMENTS, 'predictions,' N.E.D. I. *ff97 REBELLIOUS HEAD : FO. I has "rebellious dead" : Theobald emended this to ' Rebellion's head,' which the Cambridge
154
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
Text and other MN. editions incorporate. But there is no warrant for assuming anything further than a mistake of d for h (the letters were contiguous in the EL. type-case, d being above and to the left of h). HEAD in EL.E. means 'a body of people gathered together,' N. E. D. 30, cp. ** That Dowglas and the English rebels met, . . A mightie and a fearefuU head they are" I Hen. 4 in. 2. 1 65. ** Rebellious head," therefore, refers to the populace rising in rebellion under Macduff's leadership, as Macbeth interprets the armed head to foretell. This second reading, * rebellious head,' is likewise a conjecture of Theobald's. The whole thought is conditional, RISE being tantamount to a subjunctive, * if no rebellious head shall rise,' etc. MN. editors change the punctuation of the Folio, adding a comma after NEVER to make the construction imperative. SF 98 BYRN AN is a variant form of Birnam, and not a printer's error as MN. editors assume. Holinshed has "the wood of Bernane" ; Slatyer's Paleeal- bion,p.288,"'B|;rnar?cesz7ucE'," which he renders in English "woods of Weyre" ; Wyntown gives the form "Brynnane." OUR has been found fault with as coming from Macbeth himself, and variously emended to ' your,' * now,' and ' old.' But Macbeth thinks of himself objectively as one whom he and the weird sisters — he has already hinted at the community of interest in his "sweet boadments" — are backing in a game against fate and death. HIGH PLAC'D is a palpable reference to his castle on "high Dunsinane hill," and not to Macbeth's sov- ereignty. SF 99 LEASE OF NATURE, i.e. lease of life, the same notion as Lady Macbeth's in "nature's coppie" III. 2. 38. BREATH, *life,' 'spirit,' still used in *breath of life'; cp. "Whan with honour up yolden ['yielded'] is his breeth" Chaucer, Cant. Tales, A 3052, and Wesley's Psalms, "He guards our souls, he keeps our breath" (cited in N.E.D.). SF 100
TIME, I.e. Time thedestroyer.
ACT IV SCENE I
103-1 1 1
ALL
Seeke to know no more. MACBETH I will be satisfied: deny me this, And an eternall curse fall on you! Let me
know! Why sinkes that caldron? and what noise is this?
HOBOYES
FIRST WITCH
MORTALL CUSTOME, 'the custom of mortality,' ' the universal due of death,' an in- stance of Shakspere's mar- vellous power in bringing together poetic associations. YET, 'still,' in its usual EL. position at the beginning of the sentence: 'my heart still throbs.' HART is a common EL. spelling of 'heart,' see N.E.D.s.v. *1FI02 EVER is probably intended to be read as 'e'er,' and the verse to close with a rising impulse.
Shew! Shew! Shew!
<IFI04 SATISFIED is used in its EL. sense of 'having full knowledge'; Macbeth will knowfora certainty the whole future. His imperiousness and uncertain temper come out in "an eternall curse fall on you!" SF 1 06 The sink- ing caldron is Shakspere's wayof showingthat the witch- scene is such stuff as dreams are made of. WHAT, 'what kind of,' cp. 1.3.39. NOISE in EL.E. was applied to music as well as to inharmonious sound, cp. "the isle is full of noyses. Sounds and sweet aires that give delight and hurt not" Temp. III. 2. 144. The
155
SECOND WITCH
THIRD WITCH
ALL
Shew his eyes, and ^reeve his hart; Come like shadowes, so depart!
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
HOBOYES are behind the scenes, and the music is of the sort that accompanies the incan- tation scenes in Middleton's Witch. SF 107 The triple SHEW is like the triple '*haile" in 1.3.62 ff. The word is the normal historical form ; 'show' is due to a M.E. change of stress incidence in the diphthong. 1 1 is probably used here in the sense of * let him know,' as in 1 1. 1 .2 1 .
The following stage direction reads in FO. I "A shew of eight kings and Banquo last with a glasse in his hand." But Banquo is not one of the eight kings, and in v. 1 19 it is the eighth king and not Banquo who bears the glass. The FO.'S stage direction has been vari- ously emended. The Cambridge text reads * A shew of eight kings, the last with a glass in his hand: Banquo's ghost following.' But if we punctuate ** A shew of eight kings and Banquo : the last with a glasse in his hand," adding only the definite article, the stage direction becomes clear. In EL.E. *Mast" means 'rearmost,' N. E. D. I e, and the error may have arisen through the FO. editor understanding it in the sense of 'last-mentioned' and referring it to Banquo. Shaksperc follows the Macbeth tradition of Holinshed, connect- ing Banquo with James I of England: "But here I thinke it shall not much make against my purpose if (according to th' order which I find observed in the Scottish historic) I shall in few words rehearse the originall line of those kings which have descended from the fore- said Banquo. . . Fleance, therefore, (as before is said) fled into Wales," and had by the daughter of the King of Wales (cp. note to III. 3. 18) "a sonne named Walter." The king slew Fleance. Fleance's son, "falling out with one of his companions" who "to his re- proch objected that he was a bastard, . . ran upon him and slue him. Then was he glad to flee out of Wales, and coming into Scotland . . within a while was highly esteemed of them." Having put down a rebellion in "the Westerne Isles," "upon his rcturnc to court he was made lord steward of Scotland." One of his descendants, Walter Steward, mar- ried Marjorie Bruce, daughter to King Robert Bruce, "by whom he had issue King Robert the Second of that name." This is the first of the "eight kings"; Robert III, his son, was the second. Holinshed then carries the line down through James I, James II, James III, James IV, James V, all of Scotland, to "Charles James, now king of Scot- land," i.e. James VI of Scot- land in 1577 (quoted from Collier's Holinshed : the pas- sage is not given in Boswell- Stone). Slatycr gives sub- stantially the same genealogy. SHEW in EL.E. is the nor- mal word to describe a pa- geant or procession like this, and is still retained in this sense in the 'Lord Mayor's Show.' SFII2 SPIRIT, a monosyllable. SFII3 HAIRE is undoubtedlythe right word, and not 'air' or 'heir,' as modern editors have emended. Shaksperc, it must be remem- bered, is paying a compliment to the royal race of James. Tradition represents Robert III as a man of "goodly and comely personage," and it is Robert III that occupies the second place in this series if the kings appear in chronological succession, as'secms to be intended from v. 1 1 9. If, on the other hand, Macbeth sees the present of Shakspere's
156
ACT IV
SCENE I
I I2-I 18
A SHEW OF EIGHT KINGS AND BANQUO: THE LAST WITH A GLASSE IN HIS HAND
MACBETH Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo ; down ! Thy crowne does seare mine eye-bals. And
thy haire, Thou other gold-bound-brow, is like the first. A third is like the former. Filthy haggesi Why do you shew me this? A fourth ! Start,
eyes! What, will the line stretch out toth'cracke
of doome? Another yet ! A seaventh ! I 'le see no more :
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
day stretching to the past of his own time, James VI is the first and the second is James V, of whose splendid hair Ronsard wrote :
**Ce Roy D'Escosse estoit en la fleur de ses ans: Ses cheveux non tondus comme fin or luisans, Cordonnez et crespez, flotans dessus sa face Et sur son col de laict, luy donnoit bonne grace."
*ff 114 OTHER often means 'second' in M.E., and seems to be used in that sense here. SF 1 15 FORMER in EL. E. meant not only 'preceding' but 'the immediately preceding one in a series,' N. E. D. 2 a. SF 1 1 6 A FOU RTH is followed by an interrogation-point in FO. I . START, f.e. start from your spheres, cp. Ham. 1.5. 17. SF 117 CRACKE in EL.E. denoted any loud noise, the blare of a trumpet as well as the crash of thunder, N.E.D. I. It is probably the former signification that gives us the phrase 'crack of doom,' though the latter may have entered into it; for it is the 'judgement blast' — ^^Omnes resurgent in mo- mento in ictu oculi in novissima tuba^^ — rather than the 'mighty earthquake' that the Eng- lish mind has seized on to suggest the Day of Judgement. SF 1 18 SEAVENTH shows an EL. spelling of long open e still retained in ' heaven,' ' head,' etc. Macbeth's " I 'le see no more "
is pathetic evidence of his constant effort to shut his eyes to the 'consequence.'
ACT IV SCENE I 119-124
And yet the eight appeares, who beares a ^^nc, eight, "sixt," and
gi
Q55g "fift"arethe M.E.andc.N.E.
ivT-P. 11 IT formsoftheseordinals, which,
Which shewes me many more; and some 1 ^^^^^ Shakspere's day, have
see been given their th by anal-
That two-fold balles and trebble scepters f^^ T;\^\*^°"?!;'' ^TfJlV
^ 'nmth, etc. 1 he GLASSE,
carry : as Steevens pointed out, is
Horrible sidht ! Now, I see, 't is true; » reference to the magic mir-
F, 11111 TIT-) -1 ror which represented future
or the blood-bolter d Banquo smiles upon events, a method of divination
me, still practised on the credu-
And points at them for his. i^^V""* '"'^'Vixrfl'''' l""
r his Discovery or Witchcrait,
APPARITIONS VANISH enumerates the "regular, the
irregular, the coloured and cleare glasses" (cited in N.E.D.) ; cp. also Gifford, p. 48, "Is it an angell from heaven or the soule of some man that is dead which appeareth in the christall or in the glasse?" and p. 54, "There is ado to get him [i.e. Satan] into the glasse," and p. 58, " For what though the witch suppose it is the soule of Moses which appeareth in the christall, is he not there- fore a witch?" SF 121 BALLES, f.e. the golden orb borne together with the sceptre as the emblem of sovereignty, N.E.D. 3- Shakspere's epithet TWO-FOLD seems to be a refer- ence to the double crowning of James at Scone and at Westminster. The TREBBLE SCEPTERS, however, does not necessarily contain a reference to the sovereignty of Eng- land, Scotland, and Ireland. The coin of James I which celebrates the union bears the inscription ^^ Jacobus 'D. G. Mag. 'Brit. Fran. <S Hib. "T^ex," a style commemorating the 'triple' kingdom of Great Britain, France, and Ireland after it had ceased to be a reality. From these references it has been inferred that Macbeth was written after October 24, 1 604 ; but the lines might have been inserted by Shakspere at any time out of compliment to the sovereign. SF 123 BLOOD-BOLTER'D, 'having hair matted with blood.' The normal forms of the word are "baltered," "baultcred," cp. N.E. D. s.u. 'baiter' ; "bolstered" in
157
II
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
'Arden of Feversham' III. 1.73 seems to be the same word incorrectly spelled. The o is probably a phonetic spelling, and the word in MN.E. should rhyme with 'falter' ; 'bod- kin' and 'bawdkin' are similar doublet forms of the seventeenth century. It is not 'a Warwickshire dialect word in Shakspere's time,' as editors are fond of assuming, but occurs in Holland's Pliny, I6OI, XII, xxii, p. 370 (cited by Steevens), and in Phr. Gen. '*tobaulter ones hair, complicare crines''^
(citedinN.E.D.) <1FI24HIS ^(^j jy SCENE I 124-132
IS here used m the EL. sense -^
of 'his descendants,' cp. note , -.vn , . ,1 . -^
to 1.6.26. y What, IS this SO?
FIRST WITCH
SFI24 WHAT ISTHISSO? j ^ ^. • ^^^ ,
down to the stage direction, ' 1 xn 1 1 1 11 -^
which in its original form was Stands Macbeth thus amazedly? probably 'Witches vanish' Come, sisters, cheere we up his spridhts,
as in 1.3.78, is so palpably x 1 1 11 n 1 1 • ri ,
unShaksperian that even the And shew the best of our dehghts: consensus of modern editors I 'le charme the ayre to give a sound, has admitted its spuriousness. ^j^.^ performe your antique round;
1 he rising tour-wave rhythm, '^ r J jl '
Macbeth's stupid question, That this great king may kindly say, the stress "Macbeth," the ar- Qur duties did his welcome pay.
tificial and mechanical repre- ^ ''
sentation of the relation of MUSICKE
the witches to Macbeth, all THE WITCHES DANCE AND VANISH f
point unmistakably to the
writer of III. 5. SF 126 STANDS, 'stands still.' AMAZEDLY, 'in consternation,' cp.N. E.D. s.u. and Mids. IV. I.I5I. SF 127 SPRIGHTS, a common EL. form of 'spirits.' SFI29 SOUND has in M.E. and EL. E. the sense of 'humming,' 'murmuring,' 'rustling,' like the ' sound of bees,' the ' sound of waters,' the ' sound of the leaves in the wind.' This specific sense was already merging into the general one in EL. E., but Shakspere makes a beautiful use of it, playing on its identity of form with "sound," 'to swoon,' and probably thinking of the notion 'sound of many waters,' associated with swooning, in Tw. N. 1. 1.4: "That straine agen, it had a dying fall [the EL, musical term for ' cadence,' but suggesting ' swoon,' and so leading to the next figure] ; O, it came ore my eare like the sweet sound [mur- mur of rustling leaves] That breathes [often used of light, hovering winds in EL. E.] upon a bank of violets. Stealing and giving odour" — a group of associations whose beauty is quite lost when the words are read as MN.E. SF 130 ANTIQUE as applied to EL. dancing is illustrated by a citation from Ascham in N.E.D. : "To go on a man his [i.e. man's] tip- toes, stretch out th' one of his armes forwarde, the other backewarde, which, if he blered out his tunge [i.e. protruded the tongue in mockery] also, myght be thought to daunce an- ticke verye properlye [is one of the 'pastimes' unfit for scholars]"; cp. also L.L.L. V. I. 119. In Ben Jonson's Masque of Queencs, p. 171, the witches' incantation closes thus : "At which, with a strange and sudden musique, they fell into a magicall dance [in a note appended Jonson cites classic authorities for these 'antique rounds'] full of praaposterous change and gesticulation, but most applying to their propertie : who at their meetings doe all things contrary to the custome of men, dancing backe to backe and hip to hip, their hands joyned and making their circles backward to the left hand, with strange phantastick motions of their heads and bodies." SF 132 PAY, 'reward,' a common EL. meaning of the word. Their "antique round" is a return for Macbeth's kindly welcome.
SF133 WHERE ARE THEY? probably originally finished v. 124, having been displaced by ' What, is this so ? ' The verse division of FO. I is Where . . gone. Let . . houre. Stand . . kalen-
158
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT IV
SCENE I
133-147
MACBETH Where are they? Gone? Let this pernitious
houre Stand aye accursed in the kalender! Come in, without there!
ENTER LENOX
LENOX
What 's your graces will?
MACBETH Saw you the weyard sisters?
LENOX
No, my lord. MACBETH Came they not by you?
LENOX
No, indeed, my lord. MACBETH Infected be the ayre whereon they ride; And damn'd all those that trust them ! I did
heare The gallopping of horse: who was 't came
by?
LENOX 'T is two or three, my lord, that bring you
word Macduff is fled to England.
MACBETH
Fled to England? LENOX
I, my good lord.
MACBETH
ASIDE
Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits: The flighty purpose never is o're-tooke Unlessethe deed go with it: from this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be
159
der, Come . . there. It is possible that Let . . accursed, I'th' kalender . . there, were intended for two verses. But the division of the Cambridge text is here followed because it fits in with the interpolated matter. SF 133,134 HOURE.. ACCURSED: Shaksperemay have had in mind a ^dies maledictus^ or ^dies /Bgypti- cus,^ *on which nothing must be begun, for it will turn out ill,' a day which *is affirmed to lead the unwary to the shades of death': see Du Cange's Glossarium,s.'U. dies /Egyptici. SF134 KALEN- DER is an EL. spelling, prob- ably due to an imitation of the Greek form 'kalends': the word itself is from the O. FR. SF135 COMEIN,etc.: see in- troductory note to the scene. SF139 A pathetic anticipa- tion of Macbeth's own doom. SF 140 HORSE is plural, cp. note to n.4. 14. SF 144 AN- TICIPATE is still used in the sense of 'prevent,' 'forestall,' see N. E. D. 3. EXPLOIT, 'act' or 'deed,' but in EL.E. not necessarily implying skill. Shakspere probably intended also the legal meaning, 'cita- tion,' 'summons,' which the word had in EL. E., — see N.E.D. 5, — and Macbeth is thinking of his citation of Macduff to answer for his 'contempt.' SF 145 FLIGHTY means 'fleet," swift,' N. E. D. I . O'RE-TOOKE, 'overtaken,' a common form of the past par- ticiple. SF 146 THE DEED,
*itsexecution,'cp.II.2.33. GO is probably used here in its sense of 'start,' N.E.D. 22; the figure is that of two runners making for a goal, the purpose and act together 'from the word go.' SF 147 FIRSTLINGS, 'the first of
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT IV
SCENE I
148-156
their kind,' N. E. D. I. The HEART was supposed to be the seat of the will in EL. psychology. Macbeth re- flects this psychology in II. 3. 123 when he makes the heart the fountain of courage.
SF149 BE IT, probably 'be 't.' *JFI52 UNFORTUNATE was subject to syncopation in EL. E., 'unfort'nate,' the u not having developed to a diphthong. Such EL. spell- ings as "fortcn" show this clearly. SFI53 TRACE, 'fol- low,' a common meaning of the word, cp. "Can trace me in the tedious wayes of art" lHen.4 III. 1.48. NOBOAST- ING LIKE A FOOLE: EL. syntax by which subject and predicate are implied, ' I will make,' etc., see note to III. 4. 31. SF 155 SIGHTS is a common EL. word for 'portents,' 'visions,' cp. Ca2S.I.3. 138 and ibid. II. 2.16. Macbeth refers to Banquo's ghost as a "sight" in III. 4. 114 and IV. I. 122. Here, however, it has probably the sense which Cooper gives it, ^^spectaculum, a sight, a pageant," or, as Holyoke glosses, "a sight or shew, spectaculumy Macbeth refers to the " shew of eight kings." Notwithstanding this, some modern editors will have Macbeth say 'no more flights' ; others, 'no more sprights.' Macbeth carries out his determination to have no more to do with the witches, and from this point forth we have a man striving to free himself by main force from the entangle- ments of evil in which he is involved. The vision of Banquo's royal line has cured him of his desire to penetrate the secrets of the future, though he still believes in the predic- tion of the witches and depends upon its fulfilment. His disillusionment, which is con- summated in V.8. 17, thus begins here.
The firstlings of my hand. And even now, To crown my thoughts with acts, be it
thoght and done: The castle of Macduff I will surprize; Seize upon Fife ; give to th' edge o* th' sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate soules That trace him in his line. No boasting like
a foole; This deed I 'le do before this purpose coole. But no more sights!
TO LENOX
Where are these gentlemen? Come, bring me where they are.
EXEUNT
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE H
Of the scene that follows the dialogue between Lady Macduff and her son, vv. 30-64, is omitted in Davenant's version of the play, and Rosse's farewell words, " Heaven protect you," follow "to what they were before," v. 25- The murder scene, vv. 79-85, is likewise omitted. Parts of these passages certainly do not sound like Shakspere,who would scarcely represent a childish prattler as asking his mother what she would do for a husband if his father were dead, and telling her if she did not weep for him it would be a good sign that he should quickly have a new father. ' Pure pathos,' or no pathos, such a situation is grotesque and could hardly have been written by one who imagined the scene between Arthur and Herbert. To construe the dialogue as an interlude, as was the porter scene above, does not help matters. The Rabelaisian humor of the half-awake, half-sober porter moralizing on the effect of drink the morning after is something quite different from the far-fetched wit of Macduff's son prattling to his mother in the terms of conven- tional jests about marriage. The one is redolent of humanity — of a coarse sort, it is true,
160
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
but that big, out-of-doors humanity that Shakspere gives us in Falstaff. This latter smacks of the drawing-room. Moreover, the murder of a child in cold blood upon the stage in broad daylight in full sight of the audience is hardly of a piece with Shakspere's dramatic art. The verses at the end of Scene I seem to have been written with the purpose of making such representation unnecessary. To represent the murder of Banquo by cutthroats in the gloom of a night attack is an altogether different matter. To reject the passages, however, on these aesthetic grounds is, perhaps, unwarranted in the lack of any other evidence pointing to their spuriousncss. But we must conclude that if these passages were a part of Macbeth, ^^ dormitat HomeruSj'' and Davenant's critical judgment which omittedthem was a sound one.
SCENE II: FIFE: MACDUFFES CASTLE ENTER MACDUFFES WIFE HER SON AND ROSSE
WIFE HAT had he done, to make him fly the land?
ROSSE
You must have patience, madam.
WIFE
He had none: His flight was madnesse: when our actions
do not, Our feares do make us traitors.
ROSSE
You know not Whether it was his wisedome or his feare.
WIFE Wisedom! to leave his wife, to leave his
babes, His mansion and his titles in a place From whence himselfe do's flye? He loves
us not; He wants the naturall touch : for the poore
wren. The most diminitive of birds, will fight. Her yong ones in her nest, against the owle. All is the feare and nothing is the love; As little is the wisedome, where the flight So runnes against all reason.
i6i
I-I4
*ff 4 MAKE, 'represent to be,' cp. "make it Naturall re- bellion, done i'th* blade [i.e. * greenness,' * freshness,' N. E. D. 2 b. The word is altered in modern editions to 'blaze.'] of youth" All's W. V. 3. 5, and "Your vertue is [i.e. consists in] To make him worthy, whose offence subdues him" Cor. 1. 1. 178. MN.E. generally adds ' out ' to ' make ' when this senseisintended. SF 6 LEAVE, 'abandon': "in" goes with "place," not with "leave." SF 7 TITLES : Cowel's defi- nition is "hYu/a est justa causa possidendi quod nos- trum esf'' (title is the legal ground for possessing what is our own). The word also means * claim ' in EL. E., — cp. IV.3.34, — and was transferred to 'the record of claim' so that it corresponded to MN. E. 'title-deed'; cp. "title; writ- ings or records to prove one's right" Kersey. This is the meaning here, and not 'pos- sessions' as it is usually explained. The citations supporting this last meaning are wrongly interpreted in Schmidt, as is "time enough to heare . . passages Of his
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
true titles [i.e. valid title-deeds] to some certaine Dukedomes" Hen.5 1. 1. 84. SF8 HIMSELFE, 'he himself/ cp. note to III. 1.5. SF 9 NATURALL TOUCH, 'natural sym- pathy/ 'humanity'; EL. E." touch" alone sometimes corresponds to MN.E. 'sympathy/ cp. "Hast thou . . a touch, a feeling Of their afflictions" Temp. V.I. 2 1, and " touch f feeling" Kersey. *JFl2 ALL, Wrything/ cp. note to H. ^(37 IV SCENE II 14-26
ROSSE
My deerest cooz, I pray you schoole your selfe: but for your
husband, He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knowes The fits o' th' season. I dare not speake much
further: But cruel! are the times, when we are traitors And do not know our selves; when we hold
rumor From what we feare, yet know not what we
feare, But floate upon a wilde and violent sea Each way and move. I take my leave of you : Shall not be long but I 'le be heere againe: Things at the worst will cease, or else climbe
upward To what they were before. My pretty cosine, Blessing upon you!
icle, " [he] cursed the time
that ever he knewe Doctor Barnes," and is found also in I Hen. 4 IV. 3. 74, "He presently, as greatnesse knows it selfe. Steps me [EL. ethical dative] a little higher then his vow." As has already been pointed out in the note to III. 4. 32, OUR SELVES is sometimes used reciprocally in EL. E., corresponding to MN.E. 'one another.' This is the simplest ex- planation of Rosse's words, which vividly demonstrate the effectiveness of Macbeth's es- pionage. HOLD RUMOR: the explanations of these words are numerous. That "hold" is used in the sense of 'accept,' 'receive,' 'believe to be true' is the commonest explana- tion. But while 'hold opinion,' 'hold belief,' etc., are idiomatic locutions in English, "hold rumor" is not so illustrated in N.E.D., and "I finde the people strangely fantasied, Possest with rumors, full of idle dreames. Not knowing what they feare, but full of feare" John IV. 2. 144, seems to be a different idiom. A rumour may ' hold for true,' also, but one may not "hold rumor." But, admitting this unusual locution, it fits but illy with "from what we feare." HOLD FROM in EL. E. means 'restrain,' cp. "so they would hold their fingers from him," cited in N.E. D.s.u. 1 1, and MN.E. 'hold your noise.' We have already had this meaning in III. 2. 54. SF 20 FEARE may mean 'fear is true,' 'fear is the case,' cp. " See what a ready tongue suspition hath : He that but feares the thing he would not know Hath by instinct knowledge from other's eyes That what he fear'd is chanc'd" 2 Hen. 4
162
*IFI4 COOZ: in this abbre- viated form of 'cousin,' 'coz- en,' the vowel a in EL. E. was evidently not yet shortened to 9 as in MN. E., hence the spell- ing (oo=u). SFl5 SCHOOLE YOUR SELFE in MN.E. usu- ally takes a complement, 'to.' It was used absolutely in EL. E. and meant 'find fault with,' 'reprove,' cp. "Well, I am school'd" I Hen.4 III. I. 190. The stress is on "your selfe," 'find fault with your- self, not with your hus- band.' FOR: the correspond- ing MN.E. idiom is 'as for your husband.' SFI7 FITS, cp. note to III. 2.22. A simi- lar expression occurs in Cor. III. 2. 33, "The violent fit o' th'time." SF 19 KNOW OUR SELVES, 'become acquainted with one another' ; this obso- lete sense of "know" is illus- trated in N.E.D. s.v. G by a citation from Halle's Chron-
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
1. 1.84. We thus get from Rosse's words a picture of loyal but unavailing efforts to keep rumour still in regard to the murders of Duncan and Banquo. His thought passes into a general expression of uncertainty: 'they float rudderless, tossed on a violent sea.' SF2I FLOATE is obsolete in this sense of moving to and fro, cp. '* Let the instrument rest until the water has done floating" James, cited in N.E.D. 4. *ff22 EACH WAY AND MOVE: Davenant could make nothing of these words, writing in their stead ' Each way and more, I take my leave of you.' Nor have later editors been more successful. The emendations are numerous: 'Each way, and move' Johnson, 'And move each way' Capell, 'And each way move' Stcevens, etc., 'Which way we move' Ingleby, 'Each sway and move' Staunton, 'Each way and none' CI. Pr.,etc., etc. — quot homines tot sententice. But all these editors have ignored the fact that "move" in EL. E. means 'to toss,' or, when used in a reflexive sense, 'to toss (one's self)': we have Cooper glossing ago "to move or wagge"; jactare, "to move or wagge"; ^^assiliunt imi fluctus e gurgite ponti, the waves were moved high from the bottom of the sea" ; '■'■ Juna freta torquet, Juno moves or tosses the seas" ; so "the floods being greatly moved make a hideous noise" ; and Coles, "moved (tossed), exa^iYaf us" ; Holyoke, "to move or wag, jacto^^ ', ^^Jacto, to throw often, to throw, cast, wag, shake, or move." Cooper's gloss "/acfare se, to bestirre himselfe and move now this way now that way" illustrates the reflexive sense of the word; cp., too, "m toto corpus jactare cubilij to tosse and remoove often to and fro in his bedde." So, too,
Florio in translating Mon-
APT IV SrPNF TT 97 ^O taigne, 1.4, "So seemes it
Ai^l IV :5l^DiNn 11 i7-30 jhat the soule, moved and
tossed, if she have not some
WIFE hold to take loseth itself."
FatherM he is, and yet hee 's fatber-lesse. There can be little doubt,
pn<^<^P therefore, that "move" in
^ Shakspere's verses means
I am so much a foole, should I stay longer, 'are tossed about," tossed to
It would be my disgrace and your discomfort : ^"^ l'°\ ^"'^ ^^^^ it is just the , , 1 word the context requires.
1 take my leave at once. each way means 'in every
EXIT ROSSE direction,' for 'each' often means 'every' in M.E. and e.N.E.; cp. "I go beyond each other night" Heywood's Thyestes, Sp. Soc, I, p. 74 ; so "each where" corresponds to 'everywhere' in Newton's Thebais, Sp. Soc, I, p. 1 10. Shakspere's words as they stand in FO. I may therefore mean 'float every way, and toss to and fro.' There is a post-positive use of AND in M.E. and e.N.E. which is so awkward to modern ears that dictionary readers assume it to be a mistake and do not note it. A good M.E. instance is found in the Prohemium to a version of ' Palladius de re rustica,' written about 1440, "So sende he me sense and science Of my baladc away to rade [i.e. erase] errour, Pallade and do [i.e. translate Palladius] to glad his excellence." An e.N.E. instance occurs in Drayton, " For twenty years and have I serv'd in Fraunce . . and have I scene Vernoylas batfull fields . . through all my life these perills have I passed, and now to feare a banishment at last?" Heroicall Epistles, Sp. Soc, p. 288. But this idiom is perhaps too infrequent to assume it here. Another possibility is that "each way and move" was an after insertion written in the margin, with a caret in the text pointing it to a place before "upon . . sea," but by mistake inserted after it. Such displacements are not infrequent in MSB. "But floate upon a wilde and violent sea" if expanded to "But floate each way and move ['toss'] upon a wilde and violent sea. I take my leave of you" makes clear sense and good rhythm. SF23 SHALL: the omission of the subject when it can be supplied from the context is a common idiom of M.E. and e.N.E. frequently occurring in EL. E., cp. "Then as carefull he was what to doo himselfe : at length [sc. he] determined never to leave seeking him" Sidney's Arcadia, Sommer repr., p. 41, and "And
163
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
thereto [sc. I] will not disagree in nothing that you say But [sc. I] will content your mind truely in all things that I may" ' HandefuU of Pleasant Delitcs' p. 5. BUT I 'LE BE, ' until I will be.' Rosse, of course, is leaving to join the rebels. *1F 24 THINGS AT THE WORST, e-tc, seems to have
ACT IV SCENE II
been a proverbial sayingbased upon the notion of fortune's revolving wheel so common in media2val literature, cp. *'When bale is hext boote is next," i.e. when misfortune is highest remedy is nighest, Heywood, Sp. Soc, p. 170. <1F29 DISCOMFORT seems here to have its EL. meaning of 'undoing' as well as 'in- convenience.'
*ff30 SIRRA was used in speaking to young people as well as to inferiors, cp. " But, sirrah, what said he to it" Wellhred to Knowell in 'Every Man in his Humour' III. I. SF 32 WITH, 'by means of," on,' cp. " I live with bread" Rich.2 III. 2. 175. FLYES in EL. E. is used of all wiiaged insects and is not restricted to the family cMuscidce, cp. N. E. D. I. <1F35 PITFALL, GIN: cp. "the fowler . . entangleth them [i.e. "little birds"] with lime twigs which he sets forth on a pole or perch, or snareth them in the noozes of a springe, a pitfall, or gins" Comenius's Janua, cap. 39' Minsheu describes a pitfall thus: "esf fouea in quam dicidunt aues ancipiter impendentis inescato ligno.^^ A GIN is any sort of trap in EL. E. SF 36 The stress falls, of course, on POORE as men- tally contrasted with 'rich,' the verse having an extra syl- lable before the caesura. De- lius takes THEY as the re- peated pronominal subject so common in EL. E., 'Poor
30-43
WIFE Sirra, your father's dead: And what will you do now? How will you live?
SON As birds do, mother.
WIFE What, with wormes and flyes? SON With what I ^et, I meane; and so do they.
WIFE Poore bird! Thou 'dst never feare the net
nor lime, The pitfall nor the ^in.
SON Why should I, mother? Poore birds they are
not set for. My father is not dead, for all your saying.
WIFE ■j"Yes, he is dead: how wilt thou do for a father?
SON Nay, how will you do for a husband?
WIFE Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.
SON Then you '1 by 'em to sell againe.f
WIFE Thou speak'st withall thy wit; and yet, i' faith
With wit enough for thee.
birds are not trapped,' — to
SET in EL.E. may mean 'to catch birds in a net,' see Cent. Diet. II. 7, —but to take "they"
as referring to pitfalls and gins gives a simpler sense. SF 38, 39r 40, 41 The fact that these
164
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT IV
SCENE II
44-64
f SON Was my father a traitor, mother?
WIFE I, that he was.
SON
What is a traitor?
WIFE Why, one that sweares and lyes.
SON And be all traitors that do so?
WIFE Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hang'd.
SON And must they all be hang'd that swear and lye?
WIFE Every one.
SON Who must hang them?
WIFE Why, the honest men.
SON Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are lyars and swearers enow to beate the honest men and hang up them.
WIFE Now, God helpe thee, poore monkie! But how wilt thou do for a father?
SON If he were dead, you 'Id weepe for him: if you would not, it were a good signe that 1 should quickely have a new father.
WIFE
i Poore pratler, how thou talk'stj-j*
165
lines are in prose and vv.42, 43 blank verse again, followed by prose as far as v. 64, rnay be construed as evidence that only the blank verse of this passage is Shakspere's, Lady Macduff's words in vv.42, 43 having originally followed after v. 37 and closed the dia- logue. Such a conception of the passage as the omission of its prose parts would give us adds pathos to the murder of Macduff's lady and her son — the wren and her young one in the nest — and yet does not conflict with Shak- spere's known method of treatment. The action loses nothing by the excision, and the interest gains enormously, for nothing so mars a work of art as the inhuman touch, and nothing so clearly ex- hibits lack of humanity as dis- tortion in the representation of childhood. SF4I SELL seems to have had a punning sense of * deceive,' 'betray,' cp.^^ Som. Whether were you sent? Luci/. Whether my lord? from bought and sold Lord Talbot"lHen.6lV.4.I2. <1F42 WIT, 'understanding,' 'intel- ligence,' cp. "With all my wits" Hen.5 V.2.25.
SF47 SWEARES and LYES are used in their EL. senses of ' swears allegiance ' and ' be- trays,' cp. " I 'le sweare my selfe thy subject " Temp. I L 2. 156. SF48 BE: this l.M.E. form of the third person plural indicative of the substantive verb was of common occur- rence in e. N.E., and not re- stricted to poetic or archaic forms of expression as it is now. SF57 ENOW, plural of 'enough,' cp. v. 43- SF58 HANG UP THEM : in MN.E. the adverb usually follows the
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
pronominal object in such construction: in EL.E. it may follow the verb, cp. "they all lockup themselves a Uate" Jonson/ Sejanus,' 1640, p. 335, and *'Go thou to Juliet, helpe to decke up her" Rom.&Jul. IV.2.4I. *1F 59 MONKIE is still a term of endearment applied to children. " Pu^," another
*5»
EL. word for monkey, was ACT' TX/ applied in the same sense. ^^
SCENE II
65-79
ENTER A MESSENGER
MESSENGER
Blesse you, faire dame! I am not to you known,
Though in your state of honor I am perfect.
I doubt some danger does approach you neerely :
if you will take a homely man's advice,
Be not found heere; hence, with your little ones.
To fright you thus, me thinkes, I am too savage ;
To do worse to you were fell cruelty,
Which is too nie your person. Heaven pre- serve you!
I dare abide no longer.
EXIT MESSENGER
WIFE Whether should I flye? I have done no harme. But I remember now I am in this earthly world ; where to do harme Is often laudable, to do good sometime Accounted dangerous folly: why then, alas! Do I put up that womanly defence, To say I have done no harme?
The MESSENGER is a dra- matic device to represent Macbeth's murderous net closing around Lady Mac- duff. SF66 STATE OF HONOR, 'rank'; "estate" and ** state" are practically the same words in EL.E.: Cooper, Thomas, and Holy- oke all gloss gradus as **a degree or estate of honor." PERFECT, 'familiar with,' cp. note to L5-2, and "that pretty Welsh . . I am too per- fect in" I Hen.4 in. 1. 201, and " I am perfit [another form of the word] In thcis notes you gave mee" Massinger's Be- lieve as you List, I. I. SF67 DOUBT, 'fear,' a common EL. sense of "doubt," cp. N. E. D. 5. SF68 HOMELY, 'simple,' 'plain,' 'humble,' N.E.D. 4 b. <1F69 LITTLE ONES: Rosse in IV. 3- 204 as well as Macbeth in IV. I. 152 speaks of Macduff's "babes," which is slightly in- consistent with the part of this scene which represents only the murder of Lady Macduff's son. SF 70 TO FRIGHT, 'in frightening,' the EL. use of the infinitive where MN.E. requires the participial phrase. ME THINKES originally in M.E. means 'it seems to 'me.' SAVAGE, 'brutal,' a prominent meaning of the word in c. N. E., cp. " those pampred animalls That rage in savage sensualitie" Ado IV. I.6I. SF7I TO DO WORSE, etc., i.e. to do more than frighten. FELL is a stronger word in EL. E. than now, and means ' savage,' ' murderous,' cp. N. E. D. I . SF73 WHETHER is a M.E. form of 'whither' not yet obsolete in Shakspere's time, cp. "Whether in this sense [i.e. to what place] is most usually written 'whither.' But that distinction in writing and printing is net always strictly observed. . . Mr. Butler writes it 'whether' for 'whither,' and so 'hether,' 'thether,'" etc., etc., Phr. Gen. The word has a contracted form "wher" in EL.E., but it is not necessary to assume it here, for six-wave verses such as this are common in Shakspere. SHOULD I, 'am I to,' a common e. N.E. sense of the auxiliary. In the face of danger the first thought that naturally occurs to
166
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
Lady Macduff is her helplessness — she has no refuge ; then she asks herself, * Why should I try to escape? I have done no harm' — a perfectly normal succession of ideas. But even if *the context requires why/ as some modern editors think, no alteration is necessary, since "whether" may introduce a simple question in EL. E., cp. "Whether will ye allowe him to protecte, to safe-conducte and to have marshall lawe as they are accustomed?" Spenser's State of Ireland (cited in Cent. Diet.). Lady Macduff's words can therefore mean * And am I to fly?' if the reader wishes to put that sense on them. It is likely that the only difference between the two phrases was one of stress. SF 74 The contracted form ' I 've ' is probably intended here and in v. 79, and * I 'm ' in v. 75 ; both were common in EL. E. as in MN.E. SF 76 LAUDABLE seems to be syncopated to 'laud'ble' here (cp. note to IIL2.48),for GOOD requires sentence stress from its contrast to HARME. SOME- TIME, cp. L6. n. SF77 DANGEROUS, 'dang'rous'; the word recalls the tone of Ham. in. 1.69 ff- and of Sonn. LXVI. ^78 WOMANLY and 'manly' now connote spiritual rather than physical qualities; but Chaucer uses "manly" in the sense of 'strong,' *of fine physique,' and Shakspere here evidently is thinking of the weakness of Lady Mac- duff's defence. Coles glosses 'womanish, womanly' by "Tnu/Zefcris, /no//is" ; cp., also,
"nor the Queene of Ptolemy More womanly then he" Ant.&Cl. 1.4.6. <IF79 TO SAY, 'of saying,' cp. note to v. 70, above.
ACT IV
SCENE II
79-85
What are these faces?
ENTER MURTHERERS
^ MURTHERER
Where is your husband?
WIFE I hope, in no place so unsanctified Where such as thou may'st finde him.
MURTHERER
He 's a traitor. SON Thou ly'st, thou shagge-ear'd villaine!
MURTHERER
What, you e^^e! Yong fry of treachery!
STABBING HIM
SON He has killed me, mother: Run away, I pray you!
DIES. EXIT LADY MACDUFF CRYING MURTHER
EXEUNT MURTHERERS
The FACES are probably those of Macbeth's troops who have surprised the castle. It is probable that the scene when it left Shakspere's hands ended here with the EXIT CRYING MURTHER, the hor- rors of the carnage being left to the imagination. SF8I UNSANCTIFIED seems to mean 'without sanctuary,' 'violable,"unprotected.' *1F82 WHERE : the EL. relative ad- verb is often equivalent to a MN.E. relative phrase, e.g. "that people where [i.e. among whom] God shall or- daine this ark to come to land" Bacon, 'Atlantis' 13, I7(Moore-Smith). Byexten- sion of this usage "where" comes to be a correlative of SO in the sense of 'that • . in it,' cp. "honour travels in a straight so narrow Where one
but goes a breast [i.e. so narrow that in it only one goes abreast]" Tro.&Cr. III. 3. 154. SUCH AS THOU MAY'ST, 'it is possible for such as thou to,' cp. note to III. I. 122. SF 83 LY'ST, a monosylla- ble in e.N.E.,cp. III.2.54. SHAGGE-EAR'D, ' shaggy-eared,' ' rough -eared ' ; the epithet seems meaningless: but 'shag-haired' is a common word in EL. E. (cp. "shac< haired, villosus'" Phr. Gen., "shag-haire, pelado^^ Percival) and occurs in 2Hen.6 III. 1. 367 in a
167
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
connection similar to this, **a shag-hayr'd craftie kerne." "Heare" is a common six- teenth-century spelling of 'hair'; e.g., in Ven.&Ad. 19I, QO. 1593? we have **heares" for * haires.' " Ear'd " may therefore be an error for ' hear'd ' as some editors suppose. Again, "flag-cared" is a common EL. word meaning Mop-eared.' Thomas, 1620, glosses flaccidce aures as 'Moosly flagging ears," and Percival, ed. 1 605, has "flag-eared" as a gloss for en- capotado de orejas. Comenius says a "loll ear'd" person is one "whose eares hang flagging downe." // and sh are single types in EL. printing, and one is liable to be mis- printed for the other: "flagge ear'd" may therefore have been intended; cp. also "flap- eared knave" in Tam. IV. I. I6O. But it is perhaps wise to retain the reading of FO. I even though "shagge-ear'd" is a difficult epithet to understand. EGGE is a term of con- tempt for a puny person, cp. "Finch egge" Tro.&Cr. V. 1.40. SF 84 FRY is now obso- lete in the sense of 'offspring,' cp. N. E.D.I. EXIT: FO. I omits 'Lady Macduff and 'exeunt murtherers.'
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE III
Scene III, like Scene IV at the end of Act II and Scene VI at the end of Act III, serves the purpose of a chorus intervening between Acts IV and V, its subject-matter being not so much res acta as res transacta — not dramatic, but historical. There is interjected an episode from Holinshed to sharpen the personalities of Macduff and Malcolm, and the arrival of Rosse bringing news of the action in Act IV furnishes the "messenger" to link it with what follows. As a chorus the scene has a double character, serving as epilogue to Act IV, "each new morne New widdowes howle," etc., and as prologue to Act V, "Macbeth Is ripe for shaking and the powres above Put on their instruments."
SCENE III: ENGLAND: BEFORE THE KING'S PALACE ENTER MALCOLME AND MACDUFFE
1-8
Shaksperc in representing Malcolm's test of Macduff's loyalty follows Holinshed: "yet doubting whether he [i.e. Macduff] were come as one that ment unfeinedlic as he spake, or else as sent from Macbeth tobetraic him, he thought to have some fur- ther triall." SF I DESOLATE, 'des'late.' %1 BOSOMES, 'hearts': the bosom was thought of as the seat of the emotionsin EL.E.,sothatsuch a notion as "sad bosome" corresponded to MN.E. 'sad heart.' SF 3 MORTALL,'death- dealing,' cp. "should by my mortall sword Be drained" Tro.&Cr. IV. 5. 134. GOOD
MALCOLME ET us seeke out some desolate
shade, and there Weepe our sad bosomes empty.
MACDUFFE
Let us rather Hold fast the mortall sword, and like ^ood
men Bestride our dow^nfall birthdome: each new
morne New widdowes howle, new orphans cry, new
sorowes Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds As if it felt with Scotland and yelFd out Like syllable of dolour. 168
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
MEN, 'brave men/ cp. note to 1.2.4. *IF4 BESTRIDE in EL.E. means 'defend/ N.E.D. 2 c, an association traceable to such a use of the word as occurs in "a Romaine souldier being thrown to the ground even harde by him, Martius straight bestrod him and slew the enemie" North's Plutarch, 1595, p. 236. The same notion occurs also in 2Hen.4 1. 1.207, "Tels them he doth bestride a bleeding land." DOWNFALL seems to be an EL. form of the participle without -n rather than a misprint, cp. the American 'forgotten' beside the English 'forgot.' In Skelton, 'Against the Scottes' v. 6lO, the same form occurs, "Now is your pride fall to decay," and Stowe's Annales, I6l5, p- 872, has "well-growe woods." BIRTH DOME, 'land of our birth,' cp. the quotation from 2 Hen. 4, above. The suffix -dom has a wider range of usage in EL.E. than in MN.E., cp. "the matter is verified too much of the Popedom" Golding's Calvin's Sermons, and see I. 5- 71 of this play. "Birth- hood," 'native country,' is likewise good EL.E. SF 5 HOWLE, like YELL in v. 7, had not in EL. E. the sense of depreciation which we attach to the words, see N. E. D. s.v. and note to 1.7.78. SF6 THAT, 'so that,' as in 1.2.58. SF 8 The appropriateness of SYLLABLE
is, of course, dependant on the ACT IV , SCENE III 8-17 potion of an echo suggested
MALCOLME SF8 WAILE, 'bewail/ cp.
What I beleeve I 'le waile, ""^/^ iond [i.e. foohsh] to
■YT, , , , 1 1 T 1 wane mevitable strokes Cor.
What know, beleeve, and what 1 can redresse, iv. i. 26. Malcolm affects As I shall finde the time to friend, I wil. to beheve Macduff's state-
\Y/i i i_ 1 -x 1 1 ment an exaggeration. *IF 10
Whatyou have spoke, It may be SO, perchance. ^^ friend is a m.e. and This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our e.N.E. phrase meaning 'fa-
tondiip«; vourable,' see N. E. D. 6 b.
luxi^utis,, SFII SPOKE, 'spoken/ like
Was once thought honest: you have lov d '* downfall," above, it: the
him well. repetition of the subject by a
HI ^1 - X 1 »J ^ T _f pronoun is a common EL.
e hath not touch d you yet. I am yong; f^^^^ ^^j^ preserved in vul-
but something gar and colloquial English.
You may discerne of him through me, and V\ ^°A^/ /TT' 'H'^
.<^ ^ rhythm or Malcolm s words,
wisedome // / x w/ / y / . // /^ j^ f^jj ^f
To offer up a weake, poore, innocent lambe bitterness. SF I4 touch'd,
rr>i ^ ^ r^ J *injured,'asin III. 2.26. SF 15
T appease an angry God. Modern editors accept Theo-
bald's emendation of 'de- serve'for DISCERNE, and the Cambridge text changes FO. I's comma after ME to a semicolon, evidently construing AND WISEDOME as a sentence without subject and predi- cate: but "and" makes such an interpretation difficult, for it connects "wisedome" with the preceding verb. 'Deserve' for "discerne" makes nonsense out of the latter part of the passage: I AM YONG, which is in contrast to the thought which BUT introduces, is meaningless with ' But you deserve something through me.' The normal contrast with Malcolm's youth and innocency would be a characteristic of age and experience ; this we have if we take "discerne" in its EL. sense 'to learn by discernment,' N.E.D, 4: the word in this sense is usually followed by "of," "to discerne of truth." THROUGH ME, i.e. by my sad experience. ' I am young, but still able to teach you what sort of a man Macbeth is.' AND WISEDOME is connected with "something" by one of those EL. zeugmatic constructions such as are found in 1.5.22 and III. 1. 122. Malcolm's words are thus ' You may perceive what sort of a man Macbeth is from my experience, and learn
169
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
from me the wisdom of offering up,' etc. Besides the alteration of the punctuation in the Cambridge text, AND WISEDOME has been emended by "t is wisdom,' 'wisdom 't were,' etc., and CI. Pr. suggests that a whole line has dropped out. But we have already had this syntax twice in Macbeth, with the usual crop of emendations and assumptions of corruptness in each instance, and we shall have it again in V.2.4, where the text again makes difficulty when read
asMN.E<IF 16 INNOCENT, j^^r^ jy SCENE III
*mn cent, as beiore.
18-31
SFI8 The stress falls upon I; either TREACHEROUS is syncopated and the com- pleted verse has only four waves, or the indignation and surprise of Macduff at Mal- colm's implication force a pause after ** treacherous." The strong caasura caused by such a pause often takes the place of an unstressed im- pulse in EL. verse. SF 19 RECOYLE, * give way,' * break down'; Cotgrave glosses '■^retrograder''^ by "to re- coile." Shakspere uses the word in the sense of 'degen- erate' in " Recoyle from your great stocke" Cym. 1.6. 128. *ff20 IN, 'on the occasion of,' 'in the event of,' N.E.D. lib. IMPERI ALL, 'supreme in authority,' N.E.D. 4; the word takes the chief stress of the phrase. CHARGE, 'commission,' cp. "To resist these incursions William Douglas, Earl of Angus, get- teth charge" Drummond's History of Scotland, 1654, p. 25. Malcolm means 'in the event of a commission im- posed by supreme authority.' SH ALL,the EL. use of the aux- iliary in the sense of 'ought to," must.' The verse has six waves. *iF2I THOUGHTS, 'fancies,' with possibly the sense of 'anxieties.' TRANS-
MACDUFFE I am not treacherous.
MALCOLME
But Macbeth is. A good and vertuous nature may recoyle In an imperiall charge. But I shall crave
your pardon; That which you are my thoughts cannot
transpose: Angels are bright still, though the brightest
fell: Though all things foule would wear the
brows of grace, Yet grace must still looke so.
MACDUFFE
I have lost my hopes- MALCOLME Perchance even there where I did finde my
doubts : Why in that rawnesse left you wife and
childe, Those precious motives, those strong knots
of love, Without leave-taking? I pray you. Let not my jealousies be your dishonors. But mine owne safeties. You may be rightly
just, What ever I shall thinke.
POSE, 'change,' 'alter the na- ture of,' cp. 'do something or other, let it [i.e. brooding fear] not transpose thee' Burton's Anat. of Mel., II. 3. 5. Oliphant, ' New English' I, p. 378, cites the word as used by Barclay in the sense of ' wresting the law ' ; Shakspere is fond of using words in legal senses, and " trans- pose " may have such a sense here : ' cannot wrest your character from its true action.' *1F 23
170
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
WOULD, 'were to,' cp. note to 1.7.34. BROWS in EL. E. often means 'face," appearance,' cp. "This seeming brow of justice" lHen.4 IV. 3.83 (cited in N.E.D. 5 c). The word usually carries with it a suggestion of hypocrisy. SF 24 SO, i.e. look like grace, an in- stance of the EL. use of "so" to represent a notion implied in the previous statement. HOPES, 'what I had hoped for,' N.E.D. 4 c. Macduff had expected to be welcomed by Malcolm and return with him to the rescue of Scotland. *IF 25 That is, in the rashness of your flight. " Hope "also means 'ground of confidence 'in EL. E.,of which notion DOUBT is the negative ; and in this negative form Malcolm couches his suspicion of Macduff, at the same time giving the reason for his distrust. The words are a good illustration of Shak- spere's compact phraseology. SF26 THAT, 'such,' cp. note to v. 74. RAWNESSE: both 'rashness' and 'cruelty' seem to have blended in the EL. use of this word, cp. " Some crying . . upon their children rawly left" Hen. 5 IV. 1. 147 (cited by CI. Pr.). *IF 27 MOTIVES, cp. "motive, a moving cause or argument" Glossographia, here 'moving cause for action.' Shakspere frequently applies the word to persons, see Schmidt s.v. KNOTS, 'bonds,' 'ties,' as often in EL.E.; cp. N.E.D. II. 4 28 LEAVE-TAKING: the stress falls upon the second element of the compound as in 11.3- 150. The pause that intervenes after the pointed question probably takes the place of a stressed impulse, giving a verse such as we have in 1. 5-41, 1.5-58, II. I. 5 1, and IV. 3- 1 1 1. It is possible to explain "I pray you" as an interjected phrase not part of the verse, such as appears in III. 1.40, but this in- volves alteration of the FO. verse division down to "What ever I shall thinke " in v. 3 1 . *1F 29 JEALOUSIES, 'expressions of distrust,' cp. N.E.D. 5 and its citation from Pell, 1659: " Sailing without any mistrust or jealousy of sands." For the plural form in "jealousies," "dishonors," "safeties," cp. note to III. 1. 122. DISHONORS, 'causes for shame,' a sense now somewhat unusual, cp. N.E.D. 2 and its citation from Eden, 1553: "they toke it for a dishonour to . . forsake their captayne." *1F 30 SAFETIES in EL.E. means 'safeguards,' 'means of safety'; cp. "This is the safety or safeguard of our confederates" Phr. Gen., and "It is our safetie, and we must embrace This gentle offer of the perillous time" John IV. 3. 12; see also Ham. II. 2. 79. The word has three syllables. For the stress "mine owne safeties," cp. note to III. 4. 135. The sentence stress falls upon MAY, i.e. it is possible that you are. RIGHTLY, 'really,' 'perfectly,' as frequently in EL.E.; cp. "Rightly to be great" Ham. IV. 4. 53- JUST connoted in EL.E. the notion of faithfulness in personal obligations, a notion now expressed by 'honourable,' see N.E.D. 2 b and its citations from
Smith's Virginia, 1624: "He
ATT TV SPFNF TTT ^T ^7 was very just of [z.e. in respect
Al^l IV :5l^UlNU 111 31-37 to] his promise," and from
Ca2s. III. 2. 90, "He was my MACDUFFE friend, faithfull and just to
Bleed, bleed, poore country: "^2-" *'f3i shall, 'may,'
/^ , . 1 *u .tL u • 'am^oin^to'; cp. "What is
Great tyrrany, lay thou thy basis sure, ^e thit shall buy his flocke?"
For goodnesse dare not check thee: wear A.Y.L. 11. 4.88, and see note thou thy wrongs; toii.3. 127.
The title is affear'd. Far thee well, lord: <ip32 tyrrany probably I would not be the villaine that thou think'st carries with it its el. notion For the whole space that 's in the tyrant's ^i:^^^li:'f:\,S:'' r!:
graspe, tion following. SF33 GOOD-
And the rich east to boot. ^^1^^ ^J^"^^ ^^l"^ to mean
* right and justice : the word had a much wider appli- cation in EL. E. than it now has. DARE, the subjunctive form, cp. III. 4. 99. WEAR, 'proclaim,' 'maintain,' arising out of its EL. connotation of 'display,' found in v. 46; cp.
171
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
*' You may weare her in title yours" Cym. 1.4.96, and *I wore the Christian cause upon my sword' Beaumont and Fletcher's Captain, II. I (cited in Cent. Diet. s.v. 8). *'Win and weare" is a common EL. phrase which Shakspere employs in Ado V. 1.82. In the ex- planation of the title-page to Slatyer's Palazalbion, the word is used of usurpation as it is here; for "tyrrany," not "country," is the implied subject, as is shown by the context: "the Dane in armes by stealth Sought win [i.e. to win] or wed or weare her [i.e. England's] wealth." SF34 THE, 'thy,' the EL. use of the definite article for the MN.E. possessive pronoun; unfamiliar with this syntax, many editors adopt Malone's emendation *thy.' AFFEAR'D is an EL. legal term meaning 'established,' N. E. D. 2 ; an official who fixed the amount of fines, such as was Shakspere's father, was called an "affeeror." The word is spelled both "affear" and"affeer," — sec citation from Manwood, N.E.D. s.f. 'affceror,' — the ea before r being probably pronounced i. For TITLE in the sense of 'claim,' cp. note to IV. 2. 7. The verse lacks an impulse after "affear'd,"cp. note to V. 28. *JF35 THINK'ST, 'hast in mind,' and not a mis- t^ake^for'thinkme'; cp.in. ^CTIV SCENE III 37-49
<ff.38 ABSOLUTE, 'positive,' 'downright,' as in 1 1. 6. 40; the word is clipped to 'abs'- lute.' <IF39 THE is again more definite than in MN.E. and tantamount to ' his yoke.' SF4I The change from neuter gender to personal gender in the course of the sentence is common in EL. E.,cp. citation from Greene in the note to III. 2. 14. WITHALL, 'in ad- dition to this,' 'moreover,' cp. "withall full ofte we see Cold wisdome waighting on superfluous foUie" All 's W.
I. I. 115, and "therewithall" III. I. 34. SF 42 IN MY RIGHT, 'in support of my claim to the crown,' cp. "in his [i.e. the King of England's] right we hold this towne" John
II. I.268,and"Inherright we came" J6zc?. II. 1.548. Cowel defines a right as "not only a right for which a writ of right lies, but also any title or claim . . for which no
MALCOLME
Be not offended: I speake not as in absolute feare of you. I thinke our country sinkes beneath the
yoake ; It weepes, it bleeds; and each new day a
gash Is added to her wounds: I thinke withall There would be hands uplifted in my right; And heerefrom gracious England have I offer Of goodly thousands; but for all this, When I shall treade upon the tyrant's head, Or weare it on my sword, yet my poore
country Shall have more vices then it had before, More suffer and more sundry wayes then
ever, By him that shall succeede.
MACDUFFE
What should he be?
action is given by law but
only an entry." 4 43 ENGLAND, i.e. Edward, the King of England; cp. "Norway him- sclfe" 1.2.50. SF44 FOR, 'notwithstanding,' an obsolete meaning illustrated in N.E.D. 25 a. SF46 WEARE in the sense of 'display,' a kindred sense to that found in v. 33- YET goes with MORE, 'still more'; for the position of the adverb, cp. note to 1.4.20. SF48 SUNDRY, 'distinct,' 'diverse,' a meaning now obsolete; see Cent. Diet. s.v. *IF49 WHAT, 'who,' 'what sort of person,' cp. note to 1.3-39. SHOULD BE, 'is to be,' cp. note to II. 3. 127.
172
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SF 50 After verbs like KNOW, see, say, etc., the infinitive 'to be' is often omitted in EL.E., cp. **a grave man whom we had seen of great trust with Plexirtus " Sidney's Ar- cadia, p. 209 b ; cp. also " I can say no more of myself but [sc. that I am] beloved of my people" ibid. p. 44. SF5I PARTICULARS in EL.E. often means 'peculiar characteristics,' cp. "the particulars of future beings must needs be dark unto ancient theories" Browne's
Urn Burial, IV (cited by Cent
ACT IV SCENE III
50-66
MALCOLME It is my selfe I meane: in whom I know All the particulars of vice so grafted That, when they shall be open'd, blacke
Macbeth Will seeme as pure as snow, and the poore
state Esteeme him as a lambe, being compared With my confinelesse harmes.
MACDUFFE
Not in the legions Of horrid hell can come a divell more
damn'd In evils to top Macbeth.
MALCOLME
I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitfull, Sodaine, malicious, smacking of every sinne That has a name: but there 's no bottome,
none. In my voluptuousnesse: your wives, your
daughters, Your matrons and your maides, could not
fill up The cesterne of my lust, and my desire All continent impediments would ore-beare That did oppose my will: better Macbeth Then such an one to reigne.
of "in evils." SF57 EVILS and 'ills' are the same words, and no distinction was made between the two forms, "evil" being written where 'ill' was spoken as here. This is not confined to Scotch idiom, as stated in N.E.D. ; there are numerous instances in literary English. TO TOP: cp. "to top or over-top one, superare, exuperare^^ Phr.Gen., and see the note to IV. 1.89; cp.
173
Diet.). GRAFTED: MN.E. 'inoculated' [i.e. budded as in grafting] involves a similar association of ideas. SF52 OPEN'D seems here to have a double meaning applying to the unfolding and develop- ment of the graft and to the disclosure of fault ; for the latter meaning, cp. "It is a great wisdom in a prince not to reject . . them who . . open to him his misdemeanours to the commonwealth" Drum- mond's History of Scotland, ed. I654,p.241. SF54 BEING COMPAR'D, i.e. when his misdeeds are compared, an EL. construction according to sense rather than grammar. SF55 CONFINELESSEseems to be made upon the analogy of "fineless" and to mean 'limitless'; there is no other instance of the word given in N.E.D. MY HARMES, 'in- juries done by me,' cp. "the most bloody nursser of his harmes" lHen.6 IV. 7. 46. SF56 DIVELL, the form with I still survives in vulgar Eng- lish. In EL. literary English the word is frequently a monosyllable, cp. note to 1.3. 107. "Damned in hell" for 'damned to hell' is common EL. phraseology illustrating the use of IN to express the end of an action, and the FO. punctuation, with its comma after "evils," is probably cor-
rect as indicating the relation
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
also V. 52. BLOODY, 'murderous,' cp. note to III. 1.30. *ff 58 LUXURIOUS in M. E. and e.N.E. means* lecherous,' cp." thou damned and luxurious mountaine goat" Hen. 5 IV. 4. 20. FALSE, 'false-hearted,' cp. note to II. 3- 143- SF59 SODAINE is a M. E. and e. N. E. form of the word that is now * sudden,' and means ' rash,' ' passionate ' ; cp. " sodaine and quicke inquarrell" A. Y.L. II. 7. 151, and " How, child of wrath and anger ! theloudlie? For what, my sodaine boy?" Jonson's Alchemist, IV. 2. 569- There is an extra impulse before the caesura and the second half-verse begins with a reversal, "smacking of," etc. SF 63 CESTERNE is a l.M.E. and e.N.E. spelling of 'cistern' ; in EL.E. the word was commonly applied to a pool. SF 64
ACT IV SCENE III 66-84
CONTINENT, 'restraining,' a common EL. meaning of the word, and not an imitation of the Latin continens as it is often explained, see N. E. D. 3- SF65 WILL, 'pleasure,' cp. note to III. I. 120; in Shak- spere's time the word was often used for 'lust.'
SF66 INTEMPERANCE, 'in- temp'rance.' *ff67 NATURE,
*character,"disposition' ; the phrase goes with "intem- perance." A TYRANNY, 'a sort of usurping power,' cp. note to III. 6. 23. That this meaning is involved in "tyr- anny" is shown by the thought which follows, 'it empties thrones'; the figure is of a piece withthat EL. psychology of the will referred to in the note to 1. 3. 1 39 ff- IT HATH is frequently contracted to '"t hath" in EL. verse, and probably is so here. *iF68 THRONE, i.e. of many kings, the EL. a.-TO KOLvov construc- tion. SF69 FALL, 'cause of ruin,' cp. " I wil not dryve them out before you, that they maye beafall unto you"Cov- erdale's version of Judges II. 3, and "The tongue of man is his fall" Authorized Ver- sion of Eccles. V. 13 (cited in N.E.D. s.v. 17). YET, 'not- withstanding,' 'though this is
the case': in MN.E. syntax 'yet' follows immediately after 'but.' SF7I CONVEY, 'carry on,' with the notion of secrecy, N. E. D. 12. In Holinshed (Boswell-Stone, p. 38) Macduff promises to "convey the matter wiselie." SPACIOUS PLENTY, 'unrestricted license'; Baret glosses 'plentie' by "leave, licence, power." SF72 TIME, 'the world,' cp. note to 1.5.64. HOODWINKE in Shakspere's time still retained much of its literal meaning,
174
MACDUFFE
Boundlesse intemperance In nature is a tyranny; it hath beene Th* untimely emptying of the happy throne And fall of many kings. But feare not yet To take upon you what is yours: you may Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty, And yet seeme cold, the time you may so
hoodwinke. We have willing dames enough ; there can- not be That vulture in you, to devoure so many As will to greatnesse dedicate themselves, Finding it so inclinde.
MALCOLME
With this there growes In my most ill-compos'd affection such A stanchlesse avarice that, were I king, I should cut off the nobles for their lands, Desire his jewels and this other's house: And my more-having would be as a sawce To make me hunger more; that I should
forge Quarrels unjust against the good and loyall. Destroying them for wealth.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
'blindfold,' cp. the citation from Cotgrave in note to III. 2. 46. *ff 74 The demonstrative pronoun in EL. E. is sometimes equivalent to * such a/ ' such/ cp. *' that rawnesse " IV. 3. 26, '*thesetraines" IV. 3. 1 18, and "Crassus . . bought bondmen that were masons, carpenters, and these devisours and builders" North's Plutarch, p. 597: THAT VULTURE TO here, therefore, means 'such a vulture as to.' SF 76 WITH THIS, 'in addition to this,' a frequent meaning of the preposition in e.N.E. SF77 ILL-COMPOS'D, 'badly compounded,' cp. N.E.D. 4. AFFECTION, 'disposition,' N.E.D. 4. SF 78 " Staunch" is a noun in EL. E. mean- ing 'that which quenches,' and STANCHLESSE, therefore, a normal compound. SF80 The personal pronoun of the third person was very frequently used indefinitely in EL. syntax, cp. "Let Amuracke himself or any he the proudest of you all" Greene's Al- phonsus, 1662. Here it stands for 'one man's.' SF8I MORE-HAVING is hyphenated in FO. I. A SAWCE in EL. E. is 'a provocative of appetite' ; this meaning is still retained in
the proverb 'Hunger is the
& CT T\/' QPPMP TTT «/i an ^'^^^ sauce'; a shade of this
AU 1 IV O'^ClNO 111 im-J(J meaning may be contained in
Lady Macbeth's words in III.
MACDUFFE 4.36. <IF82 THAT, 'so that.'
This avarice forge, ' invent,' n.e.d. 4.
Stickes deeper, ^rowes with more pernicious <]p85 stickes deeper,
roote 'has a deeper root,' cp. III. I.
Then summer-seemind lust, and it hath bin ^o <1F86 summer-seem-
o ' ING : the words evidently
The sword of our slaine kings: yet do not denote the opposite of 'deep-
feare • rooted': a similar notion is
^ , \ , , p p.,, .It involved in "lest the base
Scotland hath toysons to till up your will ^^^th . . Disdaine to roote
Of your meere owne: all these are portable, the sommer-swellingflowre"
W.,1 .1 ^ ^^^ ,,,^;^U'J TwoGent.II.4.l62. "Seem"
ith Other oraces weiqh a. • ct c u ^u u
o o m EL. E. means both 'to ap-
pear' and 'to belong to,' 'to be suitable to,' and the two notions often blend. Perdita, in Wint.T. IV. 4. 74, says that rosemary and rue"keepe seeming [i.e. comely appearance] and savour [i.e. fragrance] all the winter long"; "summer-seeming," therefore, in normal EL. E. suggests a flower that blooms in the summer-time, i.e. an annual, and has the same meaning as "sommer-swell- ing," f.e. summer-blooming. The difficulty of the epithet when construed as MN.E. has given rise to various emendations, chief among which is 'summer-teeming' Theobald, and 'summer-seeding' (d is immediately over m in the EL. type-case) Heath apud Steevens, 1785 ; these emendations are better than such patches usually are, but so long as "summer- seeming" gives an apt and intelligible sense we are not justified in improving upon it. Malone called attention to the lines in Donne's Love's Alchymie : "And as no chymique [i.e. chemist] yet th' Elixar got. But glorifies his pregnant pot If by the way to him befall Some oderiferous thing or medicinal [med'cinal]. So lovers dreame a rich and long delight. But get a winter-seeming summer's night," i.e. a short night of pleasure that belongs to winter because of the bitterness which follows (?), cd. 1650, p. 32. Shakspere makes "summer" stand for 'pleasant' in " If 't be summer newes Smile too 't before: if winterly, thou need' St But keepe that count'nance stil" Gym. III. 4. 12. *1F87 THE SWORD OF OUR SLAINE KINGS: cp. "for that crime [i.e. avarice] the most part of our kings have beene slaine and brought to their final end" Holinshed (Boswell-Stone, p. 39). *1F 88 FOYSONS in EL. E. means 'resources,' an extension of its sense of 'strength,' 'power,' N.E.D. 2. FILL UP, 'satisfy,' cp. N.E.D. s.v. f, and its citation "comes . . to fill up your grace's request" Merch. IV. 1. 159- WILL, 'pleasure,' 'sensual appetite,' as above, v. 65. SF89 OF goes with "fill" and means 'with.' MEERE in EL.E. means 'absolute,' cp. v. 152 and
175
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
"aforeign stranger mere" Peele,* Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes' 1.45 j the words "meere owne" have a peculiar fitness when applied to the king's property: "this [i.e. property] none in our kingdom can be said to have in any lands and tenements, but only the king" Cowel s.v. 'property.' PORTABLE, 'endurable,' see N.E. D. s.v. 'importable' and cp. Holinshed, ed. Boswell-Stone, p. 38, "mine intemperance should be more importable unto you than the bloudie tyrannie
ACT IV SCENE III 91-102
of Macbeth now is." <1F 90 GRACES, 'good qualities,' ' virtues,' N. E. D. 1 3 b, a com- mon meaning of the word in the 1 7th century, cp. "these graces [i.e. virtues] challenge [i.e. claim] grace [i.e. favour] " 3Hen.6 IV.8.48.
SF92 AS, 'such as,'acommon meaning of the adverb in EL.E. VERITY, 'faithfulness,' cp. "his verity in love" A.Y.L. III. 4. 25. It is syncopated to 'ver'ty.' <ff 93 BOUNTY, 'gen- erosity,' N. E. D. 4. PERSE- VERANCE and "persever" is the normal EL. stress, and not peculiar to Shakspere, cp. "O lively life that death- less shall persever" [rhymes with ever] Collier, 'Lyrical Poems,' Per. Soc, p. 12, and "And wilt thou still persever in thy love" Greene, Orl. Fur., 488. " Perseverance" is the stress given by Minsheu : the word is syncopated to 'per- sev'rance.' SF 94 DEVOTION, 'earnest application,' N. E.D. 5. *iF 95 RELLISH OF, not 'taste for,' but 'trace of,' cp. "some acte That has no rellish of salvation in't" Ham. III. 3.92 ; "it smacks of" and "it rellishes of " are common glosses of sapiYin EL.E. ABOUND : cp. "aboundeth in wickednesse" Coverdale's version of Jer. VI. 6, and "to abound . . in wickedness and vices, abundare nequitia et •urYjis" Phr. Gen. SF96 DIVISION is an EL. musical term denoting 'the execution of a rapid melodic passage originally conceived as the dividing of each of a succession of long notes into several short ones' : cp. "the larke makes sweete division" Rom.&Jul. III.5.29. Malcolm's vices run the gamut of crime. SF97 ACTING, 'executing,' cp. note to III. 4. 140. The verse is one of six waves. SF98 MILKE OF CONCORD: see note to 1.5- 18. *1F 99 UPRORE, 'breakup in revolution,' cp. ^^permiscere Grceciam dictiis est, to trouble all Greece and set it in an uprore," and " tumul- tuari Gallias comperit,hz found that the countreys of France were in an uprore" Cooper, and "an uproar, tumult, or hurley burley, tumultus, insurrectio^^ Holyoke. Modern edi- tors would botch this graphic word into 'uptear,' 'uproot,' 'uprear.' UNIVERSALL PEACE is an EL. phrase for 'world-wide peace' ; Shakspere uses it also in Ant.&Cl. IV.6. 5r '^The time of universall peace is neere." CONFOUND, 'bring to naught,' as frequently in EL.E. *ff 100 The passage is a delicate compliment to James I, whose proud boast was that he had peacefully accomplished the unity of England and Scotland, and whose whole political endeavour was to establish something like a 'universal peace' among the nations.
176
MALCOLME But I have none: the king-becoming graces, As justice, verity, tempVance, stablenesse, Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowlinesse, Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no rellish of them, but abound In the division of each severall crime, Acting it many wayes. Nay, had I powre,
I should Poure the sweet milke of concord into hell, Uprore the universall peace, confound All unity on earth.
MACDUFFE
O Scotland, Scotland!
MALCOLME If such a one be fit to governe, speake: I am as I have spoken.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SFI04 WITH, 'by.' UNTITLED, the negative of 'titled,' 'having no title,' cp. " False Duessa now untitled queene," i.e. having no claim to the throne, Spenser's Faerie Queene, V.9.42. BLOODY SCEPTRED, 'bloodily ruled,' cp. "This royall throne of kings, this sceptred isle" Rich. 2 II. 1 .40. Holinshed's words are : "the wicked tyrant that now reigneth over you, without anie right or title oppressing you with his most bloudie crueltie." SF 105 WHOLSOME means both 'prosperous' and 'healthy,' cp. "the tender of a wholesome weale" Lear 1.4.230, and "like a mildew'd eare Blasting his [i.e. its] wholsom brother" Ham. III. 4. 64. SF 106 SINCE THAT: in M.E. and e.N.E. particles are frequently strengthened by 'that'; the idiom is now archaic. TRUEST, 'most rightful,' 'legitimate,' cp. "the true prince" lHen.4 1.2. 173 (though Falstaff is punning on the phrase). SF 107
An INTERDICTION in Scot-
ACT IV
SCENE III
102-I14
tish law isa restraint imposed upon a person incapable of managing his own affairs on account of unsoundness of mind, improvidence, etc., cp. Scottish Acts of James VI, 1597, c. 118: "That the per- son at quhais instance the other is interdicted or inhibite produce the said interdiction and inhibition to the clerke of the shire" N.E.D. 'interdict' 2. This is another illustration of Shakspere's wide legal know- ledge. Modern editors, in- cluding those of the Cam- bridge text, unaware of this legal sense of 'interdiction,' and supposing the word to have a religious signification, have adopted the "accurst" of FOS. 2, 3, etc., for the "ac- cust " of FO.I, which seems to be an anomalous spelling of 'accus'd,' due to s coming in contact with the participial rj-r, 1 111 ending; in EL. E. the word
1 hy hope ends heere ! means 'revealed in true char-
acter,'N.E.D. 6. SF 108 BLAS- PHEME was used in EL. E. in the sense of 'slander,' 'speak great evil of,' N.E.D. 3; the sense still survives in MN.E., but not in such a connection as here. BREED, 'breeding,' 'ancestry,' N.E.D. 2b. SF 109 SAINTED, 'saint-like,' 'holy,' cp. "This outward sainted deputie . . is yet a divell" Meas. III. 1.89- FO. I hyphenates "sainted-king," why it is not easy to explain. SF 1 1 1 DY'DE EVERY DAY SHE LIV'D : Shakspere evidently remem- bered St. Paul's words, "I die daily" I Cor. XV. 31. LIV'D : the inflectional ending of weak verbs in EL. E. still retained in many instances its M. E. syllabic force, cp. " Who with a taper walked in a sheete" Drayton, Sp. Soc, I. 288, and "Whenas myne eyes I raked out with pawes" Newton, 'Thebais,' Sp. Soc, 1.92, and "And seemed to disswade the hand" ibid.} so "he look-ed," "I dream-ed," "I procur-ed," and such forms occur con- stantly in EL. poetry. "Lived" is dissyllabic in Ca2s. III. I. 257 (cited by Williams and Dyce). But the FO.'S "liv'd" makes a verse of the type illustrated in V. 28. *IFlI2 EVILS, ' sins,' ' vices,' a common meaning in EL. E. ; cp. N. E. D. 5 and the citation from ' The Mir-
177
MACDUFFE
Fit to govern ! No, not to live. O nation miserable, With an untitled tyrant bloody sceptred, When shalt thou see thy wholsome dayes
againe, Since that the truest issue of thy throne By his owne interdiction stands accus'd, And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royall
father Was a most sainted king: the queene that
bore thee, Oftner upon her knees then on her feet, Dy'de every day she liv'd. Fare thee well ! These evils thou repeat'st upon thy selfe Hath banish'd me from Scotland. O my
brest,
hope ends heere!
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ror for Magistrates,' " King Edwardes evils all wer counted mine." UPON as denoting the thing effected by the action has a wider range of usage in EL. E. than in M N. E., see v. 1 3 1 ; ** do good upon one " and " do
ACT IV SCENE III II4-I37
harm upon one " are common idioms in Shakspere. The notionin REPEATisprobably that of 'reiterating charges.' *1F 113 BREST :seenotetov.2.
<ill6 SCRUPLES/ doubts,' asinIL3.I35. THOUGHTS, 'purposes'; the verse is one of six waves. SF 1 18 THESE, 'such as these,' cp. note to V.74. TRAINES, 'tricks,' cp. "And all her traynes and all her treasons forth did lay" Spenser's Faerie Queene, V. 9- 47, and "train, a trap or wheedle" Kersey. SF 1 19 MODEST, 'sober,' cp. "men modest or moderate enough, homines satis frugi ac so6n'i" Phr. Gen. PLUCKES ME, i.e. holds me back. SF 120 CREDULOUS : the u had not yet become iu as in MN.E., and the word was subject to syncopation, cp. "mirac'lous" in V. 147. SFI22 PUT TO, 'confide in,' cp. " I 'le put My fortunes to your service" Wint.T. L2.439. SFI23 UN- SPEAKE, 'to speak the con- trary of,' like "unsay"; cp. "she wishedtounknowewhat she knewe" Sidney's Arca- dia, 260 b. SF 124 BLAMES, 'charges," accusations,' a fre- quent meaning of the word in M. E.ande. N. E., see N. E. D. 2. SFI25 NATURE, 'character.* SF13I TRULY, 'really,' 'ac- cording to nature,' cp. "ef- figies . . Most truly limn'd" A. Y. L. H. 7. 193. SF133 THY : apparently misprinted "they"in FO.I. HEERE AP- PROACH : such compounds are frequent in EL. E., cp. "heere remaine "before breach"
MALCOLME Macduff, this noble passion, Childe of integrity, hath from my soule Wip'd the blacke scruples, reconcil'd my
thoughts To thy good truth and honor. Divellish
Macbeth By many of these traines hath sought to win
me Into his power, and modest wisedome pluckes
me From over-credulous hast: but God above Deale betweene thee and me ! For even now I put my selfe to thy direction, and Unspeakemine owne detraction, heere abjure The taints and blames I laide upon my selfe. For strangers to my nature. I am yet Unknowne to woman, never was forsworne, Scarsely have coveted what was mine owne, At no time broke my faith, would not betray The devill to his fellow and delight No lesse in truth then life: my first false
speaking Was this upon my selfe: what I am truly, Is thine and mypoore countries to command: Whither, indeed, before thy heere approach. Old Seyward,with ten thousand warlike men. Already at a point, was setting foorth. Now wee '1 together; and the chance of
goodnesse Be like our warranted quarrell ! Why are
you silent?
179. <1FI34 OLD SEYWARD is Holinshed's phraseology; the epithet does not savour of disrespect in EL. E., but is tantamount to ' senior.' SF 1 35 AT
178
V. 148, and Hen. 5 IV. L
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
A POINT, i.e. ready; ''at point" is a common EL. phrase, cp. "all at point to die with violent laughter" Chapman's Odyssey, XVIII. 140; the indefinite article is unusual, but Halliwell cites two instances from EL. literature, and CI. Pr. quotes Florio's definition ^'■essere in puntOj to be in a readinesse, to be at a point." FOORTH : a M.E. lengthening of o + r followed by a consonant was still preserved in EL. E., probably with the sound u, giving such spellings as ''foorth," *'woorth," "woord," etc. SF 136 WEE 'L, 'we'll go,' with the usual omission of the verb of motion. CHANCE OF GOODNESSE has been much discussed, and there are at least eight emendations recorded, for the most part lame and impotent conclusions, based upon a lack of familiarity with Elizabethan idiom. But the N. E. D. shows that " goodnesse " in M. E. and e.N. E. had the sense of ' advantage,' * profit,' passing into 'prosperity,' 'good fortune,' 'good success' ; cp. its citation from Coverdale, 1 550, " After trouble and adversite foloweth al maner of goodnes and felicite." This mean- ing is a natural inference from "God send you good of it, feliciter tihi cedaf^ Baret's Alvearie ; "much good do 't you" was a common EL. phrase. In Rich. 2 II. 1. 212 York says, "What will ensue heereof there's none can tell. But by bad courses may be under- stood That their events can never fall out good." The same meaning occurs in the FO. text of Rich. 3 1.4. 194, " I charge you, as you hope for any goodnesse" (the Quarto reads : "to have redemption"); so "blisse and goodnesse on you" Meas. III. 2. 228. But another interpretation is possilsle by taking "of goodnesse" as a limiting genitive in the sense of 'rightfulness,' 'right and justice,' as used in IV. 3- 33- In either case Malcolm's words mean 'May our chance of good success be as sure as our cause is just,' i.e. May God
defend the right! <IFl37WAR-
A/^T' ^\T C/^CMC TTT too i a c RANTED, 'justified,' * author-
ACT IV SCENE III I38-I45 ized,' herL of course by right
and justice, with also the lit- MACDUFFE eral sense of the word which
Such welcome and unwelcom thinds at once is now borne by its by-form
jrn . 1 1 , .1 'guarantee.' OUR QUAR-
T IS hard to reconcile. RELL,' my cause," my claim,'
ENTER A DOCTOR cp. "The quarrell of a true
MALCOLME Vl^f^^f'" 2Hen.4 IV 5. I69.
__, ,. Malcolm unconsciously uses
Well, more anon. the majesty plural.
TO DOCTOR
Comes the kind forth, I pray you? "^Y^^ ,^^^7"' '^"^'.^f^ "^
'-' i J J public, an EL. meanmg or the
DOCTOR adverb now obsolete. SFI4I
I, sir; there are a crew of wretched soules CREWinEL.E.didnotalways
rrri , 1 • ^1 • 1 J • have the derogatory sense that
That stay his cure; their malady convinces -^ ^as now elcept in phrases The ^reat assay of art; but at his touch — like 'boat's crew'; here it Such sanctity hath heaven diven his hand— %^^^^ 'i^fv^T^ of people.'
J ^ tF 142 STAY, 'wait tor, asm
They presently amend. 111.5.35. convinces, 'de-
feats,' i.e. will not yield to; the word in EL. E. also means 'to demonstrate anything to be erroneous,' cp. N. E.D.6, and the meaning here may be 'demonstrates as ineffectual.' SF 143 GREAT ASSAY: "assay" means 'effort' or 'attempt,' N. E. D. I, and "great" is used in its EL. sense of 'mighty,' 'powerful,' cp. "great tyranny" v. 32. ART, 'professional skill,' cp. IV. I.IOI and "work in which they have . . used a great deal of art" Moxon, ' Mechanick Exercises' (cited in N. E. D. 4). 4 1 44 Fault has been found with SANCTITY, and Theobald proposed * sanity,' evidently supposing that the word meant 'healing power'; but no trace of this meaning has as yet been found in EL. E. The word seems to be here used in the sense of ' miraculous
179
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
power'; Purchas, * Pilgrimage' V. 310, speaking of " soules or persons" supposed to be "begotten of the Holy Spirit," says that they are held in "such reputation" that "if their haires be laid upon any they say that their sicknesses are cured," and goes on to cite a particular instance in the words "In this reputation of sanctitie they have a certaine old woman," etc. Here the notion involved in the word "sanctity" is the same as that im- plied by Shakspcre, viz. * miracle-working power.' SF 145 PRESENTLY, 'immediately,' the usual meaning of the word in e. N.E. ; cp. "with this knife I 'le helpe it presently" Rom.&Jul.IV. 1.54. AMEND,
SCENE III
not 'improve,' as in MN.E., APT TV but 'recover,' N.E.D. 6 b. ^'^ 1 iV
145-159
MALCOLME
I thanke you, doctor.
EXIT
MACDUFFE What's the disease he meanes?
MALCOLME
'T is caird the evill: A most myraculous worke in this good king; Which often, since my heere remaine in
England, I have scene him do. How he solicites
heaven, Himselfe best knowes: but strangely visited
people. All swolne and ulcerous, pittifull to the eye, The meere dispaire of surgery, he cures, Hanging a golden stampe about their neckes. Put on with holy prayers: and 't is spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. With this strange
vertue. He hath a heavenly guift of prophesie. And sundry blessings hang about his throne. That speake him full of grace.
<IFl46 EVILL in M.E. and e.N.E. had the meaning of 'disease,' 'malady'; in this sense it is recorded in N. E. D. as late as 1725. The "king's evil " was one of a number of compounds like "foul evil," "falling evil," and described various scrofulous affections. "The evil" itself thus came to designate scrofula, which was a common affection, be- yond "the great assay of art," in the 1 5th and 1 6th centuries. The power of the king to heal this disease by laying on of hands was popularly traced to Edward the Confessor, and was from time to time asserted by the Plantagenet and Stuart kings. James I, during the early years of his reign, revived public inter- est in the matter, expressing his fears that he might be considered superstitious in following the practice of his predecessors. The king, how- ever,compromised by ascrib- ing the potent effects of the royal touch to the efficacy of prayer. This was in the latter part of 1603, see Gar- diner's History of England, I. 152. Shakspere seems pointedly to refer to this peculiar explanation in "How he solicites heaven, Himselfe best knowes," and in speaking of the power as a "healing benediction," so that the passage must have been written when James's public declara- tion was fresh in the public mind, say 1 605 or 1 606, and not in "after years," as Gar- diner assumes, when this peculiar interpretation had been forgotten. SF 147 MYRAC- ULOUS,'mirac'lous,' see v. 120. *1FI48 HEERE REMAINE: cp.v. 133; so "their often meeting" Jonson, ' Sejanus,' 1640, p. 335, and "the often harmonie" Drayton, ' Barrons Warres.' SF 149 I HAVE: probably contracted to "I've." SOLICITES, 'wins the favour of,'
180
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
<*<
cp. ''to solicite men's minds and entice them with brybes" Cooper, and the similar notion involved in the use of the word in 1.3. 130. SF 150 HIMSELFE: see note to III. 1.5. VISITED was probably shortened to 'vis'ted'; the word was widely used in EL. E. in the sense of 'afflicted/ and ''visiting" is still found in the Bible in the sense of 'visi- tation' or 'infliction of evil.' SF I 5 I PITTIFULL is likewise syncopated, cp. III. 2.47. *IFl52 MEERE, 'absolute,' 'utter,' cp. note to V. 89. SF 153 STAMPE is an EL. word for 'coin,' cp. "I found thee of more valew Then stampes in gold" Merry W. III. 4. 15- The coin hung about the necks of those touched for the 'evil' was the angel of about ten shil- lings value and known as "evil-gold," N.E.D. 6. Charles II had a special coin made for the ceremony, which came to be known as a "touch-piece." SF 154 HOLY PRAYERS: the form of prayer used on these occasions was inserted in the prayer-book in 1684 and remained until I7I9 (CI. Pr.). SPOKEN, 'currently reported,' cp. "there's wondrous things spoke of him" Cor. II. 1. 152. SF 156 WITH, 'in addition to,' as frequently in EL. E. VERTU E in M. E. and e. N. E. meant ' power,' cp. " knowing in himselfe that vertue had gone out of him" Mark V.3.3O. SF 157 GUIFT: Baret laments the lack of a letter "to sound like gamma^^ ', "for in spelling and reading we sound g before e and i after another sorte then we do before a, o, or u" ; this lack was often supplied by gu in EL. writing, and the device is still current in MN.E. 'guess' (M.E. "gcsse") and 'guilt' (M.E. "gilt"), etc. The GUIFT OF PROPHESIE may be a covert reference to James's fondness for theological discussion : after the Hampton Court Conference in 1 604 it was commonly remarked that "His majesty spoke by inspiration of the Spirit of God," and Ellesmere quoted the legal maxim <7^ex est mixta persona cum sacerdote. The words, however,
are primarily due to Holins-
ACT IV
SCENE III
159-I63
ENTER ROSSE
MACDUFFE
See, who comes heere? MALCOLME My countryman; but yet I know him not.
MACDUFFE My ever gentle cozen, welcome hither!
MALCOLME I know him now. Good God, betimes remove The meanes that makes us strangers!
ROSSE
Sir, amen!
bed's statement — * Historic of England' p. I65 (Boswell- Stone, p. 40) — that Edward the Confessor,besides his gift of touch fortheking'sevil, was inspired with the gift of pro- phecy. SFI58 BLESSINGS, 'evidences of divine favour,' cp. "eminence, wealth, sover- aignty, Which, to say sooth, are blessings" Hen. 8 11.3- 29- SF159 SPEAKE, 'prove,' cp. "Howe this grace Speakes his owne standing" Timon I.I .30.
SFI6O From Malcolm's ex- planation of his words in v. 1 62 it would seem that he does not know whether Rosse is to be trusted or not — the enemies of Macbeth do not "know themselves." Other interpretations are that Malcolm fails to recognize Rosse because of the distance (Delius), and that he fails to recognize him because of his long absence from Scotland (Furness) : the first quite ignores Mal- colm's own explanation ; the second gives " makes us strangers " the slightly forced mean- ing of ' has kept me away from Scotland.' SF 1 6 1 GENTLE, ' courteous,' ' noble,' cp. note to III. 2. 27. Macduff's hearty welcome of Rosse carries us back to their last meeting. Act II, Scene IV, and tells us that Rosse is no longer on the side of Macbeth as well as reassures Malcolm of his fidelity. SF I63 MEANES: cp. note to II. 4. 29. MAKES US STRANGERS, 'causes us to act in such an unnatural way,' 'makes us suspicious of one an- other,' cp. Macbeth's "you make me strange Even to the disposition that I owe" III. 4. 1 12.
181
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
In this passage, as in the former one and in Ado II. 3. 49; the words carry the notion of SIR, probably the majesty 'sir,' cp. note to 1 1 1. 4. 129.
'suspicions '
SF 165 KNOW IT SELFE, 'acknowledge what it really is/ cp. "know yourself, consider what you are, in fe<iescer?(ias" Phr. Gen. ; theM.E. sense 'confess," acknowledge, 'N.E.D. 3 b, was probably still impliedly present in many of the idiomatic uses of the word. Rosse car- ries on Malcolm's notion of 'knowing.' SF 1 66 WHERE, 'for in Scotland' ; in EL. E. "where" is often used like the connec-
ACT IV
SCENE III
164-173
tivc relative. NOTHING does not mean 'nobody' as it has been interpreted, but the con- struction is anb KOivoVj for SMILE in v. I67 has its EL. meaning of 'prosper' as vvell as that of MN. E. 'smile': i.e. 'where nothing prospers and no one smiles but he who knows nothing.' *ff 168 RENT is a e. N. E. verb mean- ing 'to tear, 'usually replaced in MN.E. by 'rend'; cp. "rent- ing his face with his nayles" Cooper. SF 169 MADE: to make a groan, a sigh, a shriek, etc., are idiomatic EL. locu- tions in which the verb is now replaced by 'utter' ; cp. Schmidt s.v. ' make,' and " he made a groan at it" Per. IV. 2. 117. SF 170 MODERNEin EL. E. often means 'com- monplace,' cp. "which mod- erne lamentation might have mov'd" Rom.&Jul. III. 2. 120 (cited by Delius), and 'That were no modern conse- quence' Jonson's Poetaster. EXTASIE,as is shown by "violent," has much the same meaning as in III.2.22, f.e. fit of mad passion. Rosse says that no more importance is attached to it than to the ravings of delirium. DEADMAN'S is a compound word in EL.E., often hyphenated and often, as here, printed as one word, with the stress deadman's ; it survives in certain place-names, see N.E.D. s.v. and cp. " the strait passe was damm'd with deadmen " Cym. V. 3. H , there cited. " Sickeman," found in Vicary, E. E. T. S., p. 1 6, seems to be another such compound. SF 171 FOR WHO is one of those bold locutions which, while violating the rules of gram- mar, logically reflect normal development of language: cp. III. 1.25. One of these is still preserved in the colloquial idiom "Who have we here?" GOOD, 'brave,' cp. note to 1.2.4. SF 172 Shakspere probably refers to the custom of decorating the bonnet with sprigs of holly, broom, etc., assumed as badges of the various Scottish clans ; cp. Planchc, ' British Costume' p. 176. EXPIRE: it must be remembered that a 'vegetative soul' as well as an 'animal soul' played an important part in the biology of Shakspere's time; cp. 'The common division of the soul is into three principal faculties, vegetal, sensitive, and rational, which makes three distinct kinds of living creatures, vegetal plants, sensible beasts, rational men. . . Necessary concomitants or affections of this
182
MACDUFFE Stands Scotland where it did?
ROSSE
Alas, poore countrey, Almost affraid to know it selfe! It cannot Be caird our mother, but our grave; where
nothing But who knowes nothing is once scene to
smile; Where sighes and groanes and shrieks that
rent the ayre Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow
seemes A moderne extasie: the deadman's knell Is there scarse ask'd for who; and good
men's lives Expire before the flowers in their caps, Dying or ere they sicken.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
vegetal faculty are life and death/ etc., Burton, 'Anat. of Mel.' 1. 1.25. Herbert, 1634, reflects the same notion in " Palmeto . . is a soft pith in which consists the soule and vege- tative virtue of that tree, which cut out the tree expires" (cited in N. E. D. 'expire' 5 b). Shakspere's "expire," therefore, and "sicken," below, are applicable to both plants and
men. SFI73 ORERE, *even
SCENE III
ACT IV
173-180
MACDUFFE
Ob, relation Too nice, and yet too true!
MALCOLME What 's the newest griefe? ROSSE That of an houres a^e doth hisse the speaker : Each minute teemes a new one.
MACDUFFE
How does my wife? ROSSE well.
MACDUFFE And all my children? ROSSE
Well too. MACDUFFE The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace?
ROSSE No; they were wel at peace when I did leave 'em.
MACDUFFE Be not a niggard of your speech : how goes 't?
before,' a doubled form of "ere" current in M.E. and C.N. E., and often confused with " or e'er," the contracted form of 'or ever.'
the distinction
"Oh" and
O"
IS
<1FI73 OH between
not made in EL. printing. RELATION, 'report,' as fre- quently in EL. E. ; cp. " I will believe thee and make my senses credite thy relation" Per. V.I. 123. ^ 174 NICE, 'accurate,' with the notion of 'fanciful,' 'sophisticated.' Macduff alludes to Rosse's flower metaphor. Rosse's Why well. fondness for poetic and grace-
ful verbiage is evident all through the play; cp. Act I, Sc. Ill, Act II, Sc. IV, etc. Though he rarely appears in the play, Shakspere con- trivestoimpressusso sharply with his character that Mac- duff's epithet, "ever gentle," i.e. always courteous, always a gentleman, seems to fit him exactly. For WHAT 'S' what is' may have been intended, making the verse one of six waves. The FO. prints Oh . . true as one verse. NEW- EST, ' latest,' cp. note to 1.2.3. SF 175 OFAN HOURES AGE: cp. "but of a minute old " Cym. II. 5. 31. HISSE : the idiom is now usually 'hiss at,' see N.E.D.s.v. SPEAKER, 'reporter,' cp. note to V. 154. *1FI76 TEEMES, 'gives birth to,' cp. "The earth obey'd and strait Op'ning her fertile woomb teem'd at a birth Innumerous living creatures" Milton, 'Paradise Lost' VII. 454. SFI77 CHILDREN : three syllables, cp. note to 1.5.40. SF 178 BATTER'D AT, 'laid siege to,' cp. "batter, to play upon with ordnance" Baret's Alvearie. Macduff is thinking of his family as protected by the defences of his strong castle. SF 179 WEL AT PEACE: the truth of Rosse's equivocal answer de- pends upon the fact that " well " is used euphemistically in EL. E. of the dead ; cp. " we use To say [i.e. are in the habit of saying] thedeadarewell" Ant.&Cl. II. 5.32 (cited by Steevens). "At peace" is still so used in MN.E., but not "well." SF 180 Macduff's suspicions are aroused by the brevity of Rosse's answers, cp. "niggard of question" Ham. III. 1. 13. *1F 181 TRANSPORT in EL. E. is used of carrying news, messages, terms, etc. ; cp." Which
183
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH!
[i.e. the terms] . . shall be transported presently to France" I Hen. 6 V. 1.39, and ** Might not you transport her purposes by word?" Lear IV. 5. 19- SF 182 HEAVILY: cp. ^^hcec tristia dicta reportat^ he bringeth this hcavie aunswere" Cooper. The word is probably syncopated to 'heav'ly': "easly" is a constantly recurring form of 'easily' in EL. texts. *ff 183 WORTHY inM.E. means 'able/ * strong/ 'possessing power or wealth/ and much of this earlier meaning clung
ACT IV SCENE III
'under
to the word in Shakspere's time. OUT, ' away from home,' a common meaning of the adverb in EL. E. ; this usage easily passed into arms,' like our MN.E. 'up 'out in '45,' i.e. in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, still pre- serves this sense of the word, as does also 'call out the mi- litia.' SF 184 WITN EST, 'at- tested,' still preserved in the phrase 'witnesseth his hand and seal.' THE RATHER . . FOR THAT, 'the more strongly because,' cp. " Let me aske The rather for I now must make you know" Meas.I.4.2I. SF 185 POWER, 'troops,' an association of ideas like that in the Latin copia: cp. v. 236. SF 186 TIME OF HELPE seems to mean 'opportunity for mili- tary aid to be sent' ; "helpe" in EL.E. sometimes means 'allies,' cp. " Now if the helpe of Norfolke and my selfe . . Will but amount to five and twenty thousand" 3Hen.6 II. 1. 178 (cited in N. E. D. 3 b). EYE, 'presence,' cp. "she . . is banish'd from your eye" Temp. II. I. 126, and "We shall cxpresse our dutie in his eye" Ham. IV. 4. 6. InN.E.D. the word is said to occur with this sense only in phrases, but Shakspere seems here to use it absolutely. SF 188 DOFFE (f.e. do off), 'put away,'N.E.D. 3. 189 ENGLAND, 'the King of England,' cp. v. 43. SF 191 NONE, 'there is none,' the EL. omission of subject and predicate with the syntax noted in V. 50. SF 192 GIVES OUT is still used in this sense of 'report.' SF 195 LATCH is an e.N.E. word for 'catch': in Sonn. CXIII the eye is said to latch a form; cp. also "By hearing we know one sound from another, for a sound . . latch'd by the outward eare . . is conveyed to the inbred aire [i.e. ear — an interesting commentary on the possibility of "shag-ear'd" being a mistake for ' shag-hair'd' in IV. 2. 83]" Comenius's Janua, 330.
184
I8I-I93
ROSSE When I came hither to transport the tydin^s, Which I have heavily borne, there ran a
rumour Of many worthy fellowes that were out; Which was to my beleefe witnest the rather For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot: Now is the time of helpe; your eye in
Scotland Would create soldiours, make our women
fight,
To doffe their dire distresses.
MALCOLME
Bee 't their comfort We are commin^ thither: gracious England
hath Lent us good Seyward and ten thousand
men; An older and a better souldier none That Christendome gives out.
ROSSE
Would I could answer This comfort with the like! But I have
words That would be howl'd out in the desert ayre, Where hearing should not latch them.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
<1FI95 It is possible that WHAT CONCERNE THEY THE GENERALL CAUSE is the first member of a double question, since WHAT is frequently used in EL. E. as an untrans- latable interrogative particle
ACT IV SCENE III
195-210
MACDUFFE
What concerne they? The ^enerall cause? or is it a fee-griefe Due to some single brest?
ROSSE No minde that's honest But in it shares some woe ; though the maine
part Pertaines to you alone.
MACDUFFE
If it be mine Keepe it not from me, quickly let me have it.
ROSSE Let not your eares dispise my tongue for ever, Which shall possesse them with the heaviest
sound >
That ever yet they heard.
MACDUFFE
Humh! I guesse at it. ROSSE Your castle is surpriz'd ; your wife and babes Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner, Were on the quarry of these murther'd deere To adde the death of you.
MALCOLME
Mercifull heaven ! What, man! neVe pull your hat upon your
browes ; Give sorrow words: the griefe that does not
speake Whispers the oVe-fraught heart and bids it
breake. ,. , , ,. , ,
cordmg as the lips are closed or left open at the end of it : quite different from the short grunt of dissatisfaction ex- pressed by 'humph!' The same interjection occurs in Oth. V.2.36, ^^Oth. Humh! ©es.
185
without pronominal force and practically equivalent to the Latin ne. Sometimes this EL. *what' is understood by the modern editor as a particle of exclamation expressing sur- prise : one of these occurs in Ham. 1. 1. 19, "What is Hora- tio there?" where there can be no surprise felt by the speaker, who is expecting Horatio. But as FO. I prints a commaafterTHEY themod- ern punctuation is here fol- lowed. SF 196 FEE-GRIEFE seems to be made upon the analogy of "fee-farm" (cp. Tro.&Cr. III. 2. 53), "fee- buck," "fee-penny," etc., where "fee" denotes a ^rant for some particular service. Macduff jokingly says, * Who is so fortunate as to deserve this special favour?' SF 197 The omitted subject and pred- icate a^ain : 'There is no honest heart but has a share in the woe which I shall tell,' referring to Macduff's "gen- eral! cause." *1F202 POS- SESSE, 'make owner of,' a sense of the word now some- what rare. *ff 203 HUMH! Modern editors print ' hum ! ' which N.E.D. gives as a by- form of 'humph'; but the latter form dates from 1 68 1, and the meaning, 'doubt or dissatisfaction,' does not at all fit this passage. "Humh" is probably the modern inter- jection of despair that is not represented in the literary language, but is a sound made by a groan of anguish, a re- laxed vocal utterance with labial or nasal colouring ac-
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
And yet I feare you: for you're fatall then When your eyes rowle so." SF 205 MAN- NER: cp. **she is dead and by strange manner" Cass. IV. 3- 189- SF 206 QUARRY, 'heap of slaughtered game,' cp. note to 1.2. 14. SF 207 DEATH OF YOU, * your own death' : the prepositional form of the genitive is frequently used in EL.E. where MN.E. prefers the adjective pronoun. One of these idioms is still preserved in *it will be the death of me.' SF 208 Shakspere so frequently describes gestures and action in his dialogue that we can almost see the play as we read it. Pulling the hat over the brows seems to have been in his time a mark of desperation, cp. *'with your hat penthouse like ore the shop of your eies" L.L.L. III. 1. 17, and *'How melancholly doth he sit with his hat like a pent- house over the shop of his eyes" Poor Robin's Hue and Cry after Honey (cited from Halliwell's note on the L.L.L. passage). SF 209 SPEAKE in EL. E. rhymes with BREAKE, cp. note to 1. 1.6. SF2I0 WHISPERS,*whispers to,' cp. ''whisper her eare and tell her" Ado III. I. 4. O'RE-FRAUGHT,
'over-freighted,' 'over-laden.' Collier thought that Shak- spere had in mind a couplet of Fiorio's translating Seneca's ^^curce leves loquuntur^ in- gentes stupent^^ Montaigne's Essays, 1.2, viz. "light cares can freely speake, G reat cares heart rather breake." But the expression may have been proverbial ; it occurs several times couched in varying phraseology in Bodenham's Belvedere.
<IF2I2 I MUST, etc., i.e. I had to be absent; "must" is originally a past tense. SF2I3 I HAVE SAID, 'I said so,' is an instance of an absolute use of 'say' now obsolete. It occurs in Ant.&Cl. III. 2. 34; cp. also "You have said, but whether wisely or no let the forrest judge" A.Y.L. III. 2. 129. "Thou hast say d," the Authorized translation of ov eiTrng [i.e. you have said so] in Matt. XXVI. 64, pre- serves the same phrase, and is idiomatic EL.E., not a
ACT IV
SCENE III
21 I-2I9
MACDUFFE My children, too?
ROSSE
Wife, children, servants, all That could be found.
MACDUFFE And I must be from thence! My wife kil'd too?
ROSSE
I have said.
MALCOLME
Be comforted: Let 's make us medicines of our great revenge, To cure this deadly greefe.
MACDUFFE He has no children. All my pretty ones? Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their damme At one fell swoope?
Grecism. SF2I4 US, i.e. for ourselves, the reflexive use of the personal pronoun. *ff2I5 CURE, 'assuage'; it must be remembered that "cure" in EL.E. means 'to treat with the purpose of healing,' and not necessarily to succeed in the treatment as it does in MN.E., cp. N.E.D. 3 and "To cure, to heale, to help, medico j loathing of meat is eased and cured with some bitter thing, cibi satietas atque fastidium subamara aliqua re relevatur'''' Baret's Alvearie. Malcolm's words "cure" and "deadly" are therefore not necessarily contradictory. DEADLY, 'killing,' 'mortal,' as usually in EL.E. SF2I6 It has been the subject of much dispute whether Macduff means that Macbeth has no children and there- fore cannot feel the bitterness of a father's revenge, or simply remarks that Malcolm is
186
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
too young to understand the depth of a father's grief. But it is hardly likely that the ordinary reader of Shakspere would have hesitated to refer Macduff's words to Macbeth, coming as they do after Malcolm's suggestion of a bitter revenge and followed as they are by the epithet " hell-kite," if Shakspere editors had not suggested the difficulty. For Macduff to pause between these two thoughts and turn to Rosse with the artificial remark that Malcolm has no children might be a Miterary' touch, but is surely not a human one. Even had he done so, the audience would have to know beforehand that Rosse was a father too in order to make Macduff's turn to him for sympathy at all natural, and the audience has had no means of being sure of this. That Macbeth has a son according to one of the Scottish traditions does not interfere with Shakspere's making him childless here ; and even if there were such a tradition in Holinshed, Shakspere need not have used it. He has prepared for such a situation as this by Macbeth's bitter speech about the "barren scepter" and the *^unlineall hand," showing the deep yearning for fatherhood in the man and thus making us realize how terrible Macduff's revenge would have been had not fate put it beyond his power to wreak it. Macduff's thought is not that Malcolm cannot understand his grief (Malcolm's * deadly' is clear enough evidence to the con- trary), but that no revenge on
ACT IV
SCENE III
220-229
MALCOLME Dispute it like a man.
. MACDUFFE
I shall do so; But I must also feele it as a man: I cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me. Did heaven
looke on, And would not take their part? Sinfull
Macduff, They were all strooke for thee ! Naught that
I am, Not for their owne demerits, but for mine, Fell slaughter on their soules. Heaven rest them now!
MALCOLME Be this the whetstone of your sword: let
griefe Convert to anger: blunt not the heart, en- rage it.
Macbeth can be adequate to assuage it. SF2I8 DAMME, 'mother,' in EL. E. is not re- stricted to quadrupeds as it is in MN.E., cp. the citation fromTopsell, 1 607, in N. E. D. : ''the duckling the first day [can] swim in the water with his dam."
'oppose,'
*ff220 DISPUTE, 'strive against,* N.E.D. 6; in EL. E. the word was not re- stricted to argumentation. The sentence stress is "I shall do so," cp. alson.4. 18: similar stress is still some- times heard in colloquial Eng- lish. <1F225 STROOKE is the EL. form of the participle be- fore its u was shortened to u and developed to a as in MN.E. In EL. E. the word was used of 'smiting by a mysterious power,' cp. " I shall meet him like a basilisk and strike him" Fletcher's False One, IV. 2 (cited in Cent. Diet.). MN. E. ' strick- en " still retains a shade of this meaning. FOR THEE, i.e. on thy account. NAUGHT, 'wicked,' a common EL. meaning of the word that is preserved with weakened force in MN.E. 'naughty'; cp. "crooked, shrewd, evill, naught, pravus j naughtie and horrible, nefastum et dirum'' Baret's Alvearie. SF229 CONVERT TO, 'change its nature and be- come,' a meaning of the phrase current in the 1 6th and 1 7th centuries, cp. N.E.D. II e.
187
i
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
*1F232 INTERMISSION, 'respite/ cp. "They . . Afresh with conscious terrors vex me round That rest or intermission none I find" 'Paradise Lost' 11.802 (cited in N.E.D.). SF233 FIEND in EL.E. carries with it the notion of 'monster' as well as of 'demon.' SF235 TIME, 'tune," measure' : the
ACT IV SCENE III
Cambridge text and all mod ern editors assume that the word is a misprint for 'tune.' But "time" is an EL. word for 'tune,' as is clearly shown by its entry in proper place in EL. dictionaries with melos as a gloss, as, e.g"., in Holyoke and Coles; cp. also "a won- der to her time, in which she did nothing out of time " ' Patient G risell,'ed. Per. Soc, p. 15; "The motions of the spheres are out of time " Massinger's Roman Actor (cited by Delius) ; " Some few lines set unto a solemn time" Fletcher'sFalseOne,I.2 ;and " I must fit all these times or there's no music" Middle- ton's Chaste Maid, II. 3 (cited in Cent. Diet.). In Ham. III. I. 166 the QOS. all read " Like sweet bells jangled out of time," which the FOS. change to "out of tune" and modern editors improve into ' Like sweet bells jangled ; out of tune and harsh.' In
Tw.N. II. 3. 100 "time" seems to have the same meaning as here, but has been allowed to stand by most modern editors. It is apparent from these illustrations that the dis- tinction between melody and rhythm was not sharply drawn in EL.E., and in view of this it is best to let the "time" of FO. I remain in the text. MANLY : in EL. E. adjectives end- ing in -ly are used as adverbs without change of form, e.g. "everi sonet orderly pointed" Robinson's Handeful of Pleasant Delites, title-page. Malcolm's reference is, of course, to "play the woman" (as on an instrument) in v. 230. SF236 POWER, 'army,' as above, V. 185 ; cp. "a power of Danes arrive at Kingcorne" Holinshed, ed. Boswell-Stonc, p. 21. SF237 OUR LACKE, i.e. what we lack, with a suggestion of the meaning 'absence of a person,' making the phrase epigrammatic. LEAVE, 'royal permission to depart' or 'final audience with the king,' cp. N. E. D. SF 239 PUT ON has its EL. meaning of ' set to work,' cp. " Wee'l put on those shall praise your excellence" Ham. IV. 7. 132. Divine vengeance is ripe and the powers above are setting the scene for the final catastrophe, the deep con- sequence into which the 'instruments of darkness' have betrayed Macbeth. SF 240 It is perhaps worth recalling that the thought which closes the scene and forecasts the ultimate consequence is the same thought that Macbeth gives utterance to when he embarks on his career of bloodshed: "Time and the houre runs through the thickest day."
230-240
MACDUFFE O, I could play the woman with mine eyes And braggart with my tongue ! But, gentle
heavens, Cut short all intermission ; front to front Bringthouthis fiendof Scotland and my selfe; Within my sword's length set him; if he
scape, Heaven forgive him too!
MALCOLME
This time goes manly. Come, go we to the king ; our power is ready ; Our lacke is nothing but our leave : Macbeth Is ripe for shaking, and the powres above Put on their instruments. Receive what
cheere you may: The night is long that never findes the day.
EXEUNT
188
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
Act III pictures the internal catastrophe of the tragedy; Act V will portray the external catastrophe; Act IV links the two together. The internal Nemesis is Banquo's avenging minister ; the external Nemesis is Macduff. The chief points of interest of the succes- sive acts of the drama are thus Macbeth, Duncan, Banquo, Macduff, Malcolm. In Act IV it is the fear of Macduff, as in Act III it was the dread of Banquo, that is the central theme. The act begins with the witches' 'harping this fear aright' ; it goes on to Macbeth's deter- mination to remove its cause that he may * sleep in spite of thunder,' his failure, and the revenge he will wreak by crushing Macduff's family. Scene II portrays the execution of this vindictive purpose ; Scene III pictures the working of the consequence that Macbeth has failed to 'trammel up' and its leading on to the final catastrophe of Act V. This last scene we have called a chorus connecting Acts IV and V : but perhaps some word of qualification is necessary. The formal interest of a chorus — viz. that the actors in it shall not be participators in the tragedy — is lacking here, but the essential chorus interest is ob- served: for the main purpose of a chorus is to sum up the action which precedes and fqcus it upon what follows, and this function Scene III subserves. Although its actors are involved in the play itself, and perhaps more intimately involved than in the previous chorus scenes, yet they are during its course spectators as well, reviewing its action and forecasting its development. This is clearly brought out by Malcolm's words at the end of the scene: "Macbeth Is ripe for shaking, and the powres above Put on their instru- ments." He and Macduff thus picture themselves as the instruments of a divine vengeance rather than as individuals seeking their own selfish ends.
Act V presents the conclusion of the drama in a triple aspect which it will be well for the reader to bear in mind when he begins to study it — viz. the end of Lady Macbeth, the end of Macbeth, and the end of the Scottish interregnum of blood and tyranny. Around these subjects have been, as it were, the current interests of the play, eddying now about one theme, now about another, but always moving toward a final goal.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE I OF ACT V
The sleep-walking scene is one of the most striking of the whole play. It not only gives us a notion of the mental torture which Lady Macbeth suffers, but represents to us as in a mirror the action of Acts II and III. No device could be more skilful: for the new events which attend the flight of Macduff and the murder of his family are in danger of absorbing all our sympathies and turning the main current of interest from Macbeth to Macduff and Malcolm. It serves another purpose, too, for it brings us back to Lady Macbeth herself, who has slipped out of the drama during the preceding act. We have already pointed out how she is involved in the internal catastrophe of Act III: but the play would lack symmetry were she not involved in its external Nemesis as well. This fifth act has a score to even for her as well as for Macbeth.
189
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
THE FIFT ACT
SCENE I: DUNSINANE: ANTE-ROOM IN THE CASTLE ENTER A DOCTOR OF PHYSICKE AND A
WAYTING GENTLEWOMAN I-I5
|
1 |
7 I |
1 |
DOCTOR HAVE too nights watcb'd with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it shee last walk'd?
GENTLEWOMAN Since his Majesty went into the field, I have seene her rise from her bed, throw her night- gown uppon her, unlocke her closset, take foorth paper, folde it, write upon 't, read it, afterwards scale it, and againe returne to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleepe.
DOCTOR A great perturbation in nature, to receyve at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching! In this slumbry agitation, be- sides her walking and other actuall perform- ances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?
sitting up at night, cp. II. 2.71. *[F3 WALK'D: the word is common in el. E. to denote unconscious locomotion, and does not need a quahfying phrase 'in her sleep 'as in MN. E. SF4 WENT INTO THE FIELD : Steevens, supposing that Macbeth was besieged in his castle of Dunsinane, found a con- tradiction in these words. But Holinshed tells us : ** Hcere upon issued oftentimes sundrie bickerings and diverse light skirmishes ; for these that were of Malcolme's side would not jeopard to joine with their enemies in a pight [z.e. pitched] field . . But after Macbeth per- ceived his enemies power to increase by such aid as came to them foorth of [i.e. out of] England with his adversarie Malcolme, he recoiled back into Fife, there purposing to abide in campe fortified at the castell of Dunsinane" ed. Boswell-Stone, p. 41. The time of this scene is therefore just before the arrival of the English power, and antecedent to that of Scene II. SF5 NIGHT-GOWN, a night-robe or dressing-gown, as in II. 2. 70. *ff 6 A CLOSSET in EL. E. was a writing-desk or cabinet, N.E. D.3 a; cp. *' I have lock'd the letter in my closset" Lear III. 3-1 1. SF 7 To FOLDE a paper seems to have been a preliminary to writing a letter, the folding marking margins ; cp. " I have accustomed those great persons that know me to endure blots, blurs, dashes, and botches in my letters, and a sheete with-
190
The place direction is, of course, a modern addition. DOCTOR OF PHYSICKE dis- tinguishes the physician from the doctor of IV. 3- 129, who seems to be a doctor in the sense of Mearncd man/ N. E. D. 4 or 5, such as James I gathered about him. *1F I WATCH'D in EL.E. implies
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
out folding or margine" Florio's Montaigne, 1. 39- Lady Macbeth writes no letter in the play. But it is possible that Shakspere means to imply here that the first suggestion of the murder of Duncan was conveyed by a letter from Lady Macbeth to her husband. In 1.5.57 Lady Macbeth has received "letters" from Macbeth in the interval between Scenes IV and V of Act I, though only one letter appears in the action : 1.5.25 points to the thought of Duncan's murder as being already in Macbeth's mind, and to his having expressed scruples about it, yet lending himself to the act. And "Chastise with the valour of my tongue" may imply that Lady Macbeth's pen has been at work already, her "high thee hither" expressing her impatience for him to get near enough for her to pour her spirits in his ear. It is quite possible that this was Shakspcre's conception of the situation, and that the Elizabethan actor expressed it by the way in which he read the letter which opens Scene V of Act I, and the stress he put upon the word 'tongue' in 1.5.28. In 1.7.47 ff. the plot seems to have been in the minds of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth longer than has been represented on the stage. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth's act maybe one of those im- plications, so common in Shakspere, which throw new light back upon an action long after it has passed the attention, to give it a richer value in the completed picture. Either explana- tion saves us from the necessity of considering this letter-writing of Lady Macbeth's as merely a casual and unrelated act mentioned by her attendant as a symptom of sleep-walk- ing. Nor would Shakspere in a scene like this be likely to represent the action of receiving a letter by the act of writing one, as has been suggested. We may see here also Shaksperc's . vivid psychology : the fact that her husband is absent and that she is anxious for his safety produces the " perturbation," and she repeats, step by step, the experience of that other criti- cal time when her husband was absent and she was anxious about him. SF 9 MOST in M. E. and e. N. E. was more frequently used with monosyllabic adjectives to make the superlative than it is now. FAST, 'sound,' now used only in the phrase 'fast asleep.' SF 10 The doctor uses professional language: PERTURBATION is the term used for 'anxiety,' 'sor- row' in Burton's Anat. of Mel. SF II DO THE EFFECTS OF is an EL. phrase meaning 'perform the acts associated with' ; cp. "You say you' love me and yet do the effectes of cnmitie" Sidney's Arcadia, p. 254, and "the verie horses, angrie in their maister's anger, with love and obedience brought foorth the effects of hate and resistance" ibid., p. 2G8. *1F 12 WATCHING, 'waking,' cp. v. I and "though it cost mee ten nights' watchings" Ado II.
1.386. SLUMBRY,'occurring
Arir V QPRMP T T(^ on in sleep,' one of the EL. adjec-
-^'^ ^ ^ OV^CiNC 1 ID-^U tivesin-j/. AGITATION, 'ac-
tivity,' not ' mental agitation ' : GENTLEWOMAN cp.N. E.D.I. SFI3ACTU-
That, sir, which I will not report after her. all performances, 'ac-
tive functions,' 'mechanical
DOCTOR acts': "actuall" had this lit-
You may to me: and 'tis most meet you cralsensein el.e. Thedoc-
1 11 tor opposes actual perform-
ances to mental operations. GENTLEWOMAN
Neither to vou nor any one, havind no wit- ^^f after her is el.e.
'^ -^ ' , ^ for'as she said It,' cp. N.E. D.
nesse to COntirme my speech. 12 c; the notion is still pre-
served in restricted usage with 'repeat' and 'say,' but not with 'report.' SF 19 The gentlewoman's canny reluctance to shelter herself under the physician's professional privilege is probably due to Shakspere's knowledge of law. The question of the incompetency of the testimony of an "uncon- firmed," i.e. unsupported, witness in trials for treason was not settled until 1695. The gentlewoman declines to take any risks : for her unsupported statement as to what Lady Macbeth has said would amount to treason if the doctor chose to betray her confidence.
191
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT V
SCENE I
21-37
IF 2 1 The interjection LO was commonly thus used in M.E. and e. N.E. with a following pronoun to attract attention, cp. "Whylo-you now; I have spoke to the purpose twice" Wint.T. I.2.I06. SF22 GUISE, 'peculiar habit,' N. E. D. 2 ; VERY intensifies the noun, giving the sense of an adverb 'exactly.' SF 23 STAND CLOSE, 'keep hidden,' the usual meaning of the EL. E. phrase. SF 24-30 The prose has the rhythm cadence of blank verse, cp. note to n.3.28. <1F26 'TIS HER COMMAND shows Lady Macbeth's ter- ror of the darkness which she herself invoked in I. 5- 51. The doctor's interest is professional, and his profes- sional notes give a realistic touch to the picture. *1F28 SENSE ARE: modern edi- tions alter to 'sense is' ; but "sense" in EL. E. can be a plural form: in M.E. mono- syllabic nouns endingins, like "cas," "pas," etc., formed the plural without suffix. Some of these historical forms sur- vived in e. N.E., e.^. Sidney writes : " Do you not see the grasse ["grasse" in EL. E. means'bladeof grass,' N.E.D. 3] how they excel in colour the emeralds, everie one striv- ing to passe his fellow, and yettheyareallkeptof anequal height?" 'Arcadia' p. 37 b ; "businesse," another of these inflectionless plurals, is cited inthe note to III. 5-22. "Sense" occurs as a plural in "my adder's sense To cryttick and to flatterer stopped are " Sonn.CXII. 10, where the fact that "are" rhymes with "care" has saved it from the havoc of emendations. Other such forms are " ballance " Merch. IV. 1.255 (altered to 'balan- ces' by Rowe), and "corpes" in I Hen. 4 I. 1.43 (emended to 'corses' by Staunton).
Horse," already noted in
ENTER LADY MACBETH WITH A TAPER
Lo you, beere she comes! This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleepe. Ob- serve her; stand close.
DOCTOR How came she by that light? GENTLEWOMAN Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command.
DOCTOR You see, her eyes are open.
GENTLEWOMAN I, but their sense are shut.
DOCTOR What is it she does now? Looke how she rubbes her hands.
GENTLEWOMAN It is an accustom'd action with her to seeme thus washing her hands: I have knowne her continue in this a quarter of an houre.
LADY MACBETH Yet heere ^s a spot.
DOCTOR Heark! she speaks: I will set downe what comes from her to satisfie my remembrance the more strongly.
1 1. 4. 14, belongs to another class of words like 'mile,' etc., which retain O. E. forms. *1F3I ACCUSTOM'D, 'customary,' N.E. D.I; the word is now usually restricted to persons. The notes of habit here imply a periodic recurrence of Lady Macbeth's hallucinations. *1F34 YET, 'still,' an adverb of time in this position in EL. E., cp. note to IV. I. 100. SF 36 SATISFIE, 'assure'; Collier, unfamiliar with EL. idiom, thought Shakspere wrote 'fortify,' but cp. Coles's gloss "satisfied, certior f act us, ^^ and see the note to IV. 1. 104.
192
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SF38 DAMNED, either 'damning' or 'damnable' ; cp. note to L 2. 14. There is probably a long pause after SAY ; Lady Macbeth then lives over again the moments of the murder itself; she counts the clock strokes as the time set for the murder of Duncan arrives. SF39 HELL IS MURKY: this apparently unconnected notion is usually taken as an ex- pression of Lady Macbeth's horror at the soul-gloom she is plunged in. Delius, following a suggestion of Steevens, took it for a fear-inspired exclamation of Macbeth's at the time of the murder, "chastised" by Lady Macbeth's words that follow : but this seems to be a somewhat artificial interpretation. The thought may be due to one of those graphic as- sociations of ideas which Shakspere's words frequently imply: the remembrance of the oppressive gloom of the night when they started forth to murder Duncan, or even Lady Macbeth's recollection of her own words, "the night is murky," unites with her horror at the gloom in which her soul is plunged, and is transformed into terms of her present ex- perience— "Hell is murky!"
ACT V SCENE I
38-51
LADY MACBETH Out, damned spot! out, I say! — One: two: why, then 't is time to doo 't. — Hell is murky! Fye, my lord, fie! a souldier, and affear'd? what need we feare who knowes it, when none can call our powre to accompt? — Yet who would have thought the olde man to have had so much blood in him ?
DOCTOR Do you marke that?
LADY MACBETH
The Thane of Fife
Had a wife:
Where is she now? — What, will these hands neVe be cleane? — No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that: you marre all with this starting.
That one of the effects of her madness is a terror of the darkness Shakspere has al- ready shown us in v. 26, and these two great horrors of darkness and hell may well blend together in her mind in anawful harmony. In Temp. L 2.214 Ferdinand's mad cry as he jumps into the sea, "Hell is empty. And all the divels are heere," seems to be due to the same spiritual vision of a haunted soul as that which causes Lady Macbeth's out- cry. SF 40 Here we get more details of the murder thus reflected back upon it : Mac- beth is afraid, and Lady Mac- beth, as she has so often done, taunts him with personal cowardice, appealing to one of the deep springs of action in the man's character. FIE is an interjection of indignant reproach in EL. E., whose force has been much weak-
ened in later usage, see N.E.D. s.v.l. *1F4I In M.E. and e.N.E. the interrogative WHAT often means 'why.' IF 42 ACCOMPT, 'account,' cp. note to L6.26. SF 43 There is probably a pause here, followed by "Yet who would have thought the olde man to have had so much blood in him?" This horrible, grim reflection of Lady Macbeth's depends for its point on age's poverty of blood ; cp. "Stay, father, for . . My youth can better spare my blood then you" Titus II L 1. 153? and "I 'le pawne the little blood which I have left" Wint.T. II. 3. I66. It throws back a lurid light on the dripping daggers which Macbeth forgot to leave in Duncan's chamber. The inhuman jest would have been disgusting at the time of the act itself: there the touch of nature was necessary — "Had he not resembled My father as he slept I had don't"; now we see the act in all its demoniac fury. A tragic interlude follows, pro.bably with more washing of hands. SF46 The new movement, though printed as prose in FO. I and in all modern editions, is couched in the rhythm of a ballad refrain. This lyric form and
193
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
the awful jest which precedes give the thought of the murder of an innocent mother the horror of demoniacal laughter. Lady Macbeth's words also seem to express the joy of a triumph over her hated rival. SF 50 NO MORE O'THAT: a new theme, with again the reflection of a fresh interest into a preceding scene, the grim repetition noting the authorita- tive insistence of Lady Macbeth's presence of mind. SF5I YOU MARRE ALL/you spoil everything'; the phrase was almost stereotyped in EL. E. : cp. 'their own foolish pro- ceedings that mar all' Burton, 'Anat. of Mel' II. 2. 55. STARTING, cp. "he trembleth (starteth) at them ; quaking,
ACT V SCENE I
starting (shivering)" Come- nius's Janua, 370; and also the note to 1 1 1. 4. 63.
52-65
DOCTOR Go too, go too; you have knowne what you should not.
GENTLEWOMAN She has spoke what shee should not, I am sure of that: heaven knowes what she has knowne.
LADY MACBETH Heere 's the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh !
DOCTOR What a sigh is there! The hart is sorely charged.
GENTLEWOMAN I would not have such a heart in my bosome for the dignity of the whole body.
DOCTOR Well, well, well!
GENTLEWOMAN Pray God it be, sir.
Er'd in this point which now you censure him, And puld the law upon you" Meas. II. 1.8. It is pretty clear, therefore, that the N. E. D.'s citations s.v. 1 3 ought to be carried down to the seventeenth century. If the word has not this sense in this passage it is hard to see why the physician should have said, "Go too, go too ! " SF 54 The stress on the gentlewoman's SPOKE also implies the 'acknowledge ' meaning of the doctor's " knowne " : ' she has said what she should not say, but whether or not it is a confession of fact, heaven only knows!' SF55 WHAT SHE HAS KNOWNE, 'what she has gone through,' a meaning still preserved in such MN.E. phrases as M have known misfortune.' SF 59 Lady Macbeth's OH, OH, OH ! in MN.E. suggests rather a groan of pain than the sigh of an overburdened heart. But from Florio's glossing of Italian aih by "oh, aye me, alas" and hai by **oh me" it would seem that EL. E. "oh" corresponded to MN.E. *ah,' not MN. E. *oh,' The variation between "ah" and " oh " in the Quarto spellings points in the same direction and can easily be accounted
194
*ff 52 GO TOO in EL. E. is a
strong expression of disap- proval, like MN.E. 'Come, come, now ! ' cp. N. E. D. 9I b. Here we seem again to have KNOWNE implying its common M.E. sense of 'ac- knowledged.' The last usage of the word in this sense cited in N. E. D. is dated 1450, but it may neverthe- less have possessed its M.E. shade of meaning in Shak- spere's time : often a longer interval than a hundred years will separate two successive citations in the dictionary. "Know" seems to have the sense 'acknowledge' also in "'T were better for you if it were known in councell [i.e. in secret] : you '11 be laugh'd at" MerryW. I.I.I22 (Shal- low has just told Falstaff, "The Councell shall know this"). Again, in "Let but your honour know . . Whether you had not sometime in your life
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
for on the assumption that the o represented a long, open o. SF6I CHARG'D, 'burdened/ cp.N. E.D.I and V. 8. 5. SF 63 DIGNITY in M.E. and e.N.E. often means 'worth," value/ cp. "a finger's dignity" Tro.&Cr. 1.3-204. *ff64 WELL, WELL, WELL! seems to be the
f-xpression of amazement still
ACT V SCENE I
current in MN.E., and not an aposiopesis, as usually print- ed. The gentlewoman replies to the literal sense of the words.
<ff66 BEYOND MY PRAC- TISE, 'outside of my ex- perience,' cp. "Meere pratle without practise Is all his souldiership" Oth. I. I. 26. <ff68 HOLILY: that is, after the administration of the sac- rament. *1F69 is an epitome of II. 2. 66-72. SF 70 I TELL Aj.^^Q YOU YET AGAINE: a frag-
o * ment of her talk with Macbeth
after the banquet scene. SF7I ON 'S illustrates the frequent EL. confusion of the un- stressed forms of "of" and "on." SF73 EVEN SO? in EL. E. expresses surprise like our MN.E. 'Is it possible?' cp. " your brother cannot live. Isab. Even so?" Meas. II. 4. 33. SF 74 Shakspere makes the semiconscious purpose of getting to bed reflect Lady Macbeth back to her going to bed on the night of Duncan's murder, the knocking at the gate, Macbeth's dazed mental condition, and, supreme touch, the helpless regret of his *'Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou could'st." There is no finer illustra- tion of the power of word associations to reproduce or suggest experience than the one which Shakspere gives us in these random utterances of Lady Macbeth : a few broken, disconnected phrases put before us a mass of perceptions, judgements, emotions, and all the external surroundings which framed them, so that the scene is as vividly present to our minds as if we were ourselves actors in it. And no more vivid picture of the hell that the human mind can make for itself out of its own experience has ever been revealed to the eye of the soul in sacred literature or profane than the one whose gates have here been for a moment opened to us. It is like the delirium of a fever in which the mind, loosed from the control of consciousness, returns to the scenes that have engraved themselves most deeply on its experience, and, following the deep grooves of association over and over again, lives through these experiences and all their concomitant perceptions, judgements, and emotions, only to return again and yet again, sucked back into their eddying currents as soon as the outer edge is reached, in an endless cycle of torture. Grant only the re- moval of the external stimuli to attention, and one has in the soul itself the material for a hell which needs no fire and brimstone to suggest its torture. For Lady Macbeth the play is over, her cup of horrors is drained : it needs only the messenger to announce her end — "The quccne, my lord, is dead." Macbeth will fight against his doom a while longer,
195
66-77
DOCTOR This disease is beyond my practise: yet I have knowne those which have walkt in their sleep who have dyed holily in their beds.
LADY MACBETH Wash your hands, put on your night-^owne. — Looke not so pale; I tell you yet againe, Banquo 's buried: he cannot come out on 's [rave.
DOCTOR Even so?
LADY MACBETH To bed, to bed 1 there 's knocking at the ^ate : come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's done cannot be undone. — To bed, to bed, to bed!
EXIT LADY MACBETH
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
as he has fought it all along. And his stubborn resistance will save him at the last, not from paying the penalty of his acts, but from the complete destruction of soul that has overtaken his wife. Though in V.5. 17 ff. he will come to the edge of the abyss into which Lady Macbeth has plunged and for a moment stand tottering on the brink of suicide, he will save himself and boldly front his doom, challenging his fate on the ground that he has been deceived by his
ACT V SCENE I
intelligence and misled by
77*-87
DOCTOR
Will she go now to bed?
GENTLEWOMAN Directly.
DOCTOR Foule whispVings are abroad: unnaturall
deeds Do breed unnaturall troubles : infected mindes To their deafe pillowes will discharge their
secrets: More needs she the divine then the physitian. God, God forgive us all! Looke after her; Remove from her the meanes of all annoyance, And still keepe eyes upon her. So, good
night. My minde she has mated, and amaz'd my
sight; I thinke, but dare not speake. GENTLEWOMAN
Good night, good doctor.
EXEUNT 1 1 J '..1 /l ^ -1 * The text returns to the standard numeration.
bled with the greene-sick-
nesse," in Ant.&Cl. III.2. 5, and Antony is "troubled with a rume" f6ici. III.2.57. Baret glosses "a minde troubled" by alienatus. This meaning of the word is still current in colloquial English. INFECTED MINDES, 'hearts tainted with crime' (cp. note to III. 1.65 and N.E.D. 6) as well as 'minds tainted with disease,' N. E.D.I b. SF8I This figurative use of DISCHARGE, N.E.D. 8 c, now rare, was common in Shakspere's time; the original meaning of the word is ' disburden,' not ' emit.' SF 83 GOD, g6d illustrates the increment of stress that comes by repetition. The words give a deep touch of human sympathy: the evidence of a terrible punishment for sin always makes the beholder feel the weakness of his own nature, "saved as by fire." SF84 ALL, 'any.' ANNOYANCE is glossed "in- jury" in Kersey, ^^Icesio^^ in Phr. Gen. and Cooper. The physician's inference is that Lady Macbeth will try to commit suicide. *1F 85 STILL, 'always,' cp. 1.7.8. SF 86 SHE HAS was probably contracted. MATED is a M.E. and e. N.E. word meaning ' dazed,' cp. "I thinke you are all mated or starke mad" Err. V. 281. AMAZ'D, 'bewildered,' 'con- fused,' cp. II. 3. 114. SIGHT is often used for eyes in EL.E., or rather for perception by
196
his love, a claim that has in it elements of essential justness.
<IF78 DIRECTLY, 'without more ado.' SF 79 The change to rhythm in a way closes the scene itself and adds a sort of epilogue that affects one like a sudden change from a minor key to the key of Cmajor. WHISP'RINGSin EL. E. is the equivalent of ' in- sinuations," slanders ' ; in the Authorized Version it trans- lates the ^cSvpiofioL of II Cor. XII. 20, rendering the Greek original with an exactness of connotation not now possi- ble. SF80 UNNATURALL, 'unnat'ral,' as frequently in EL. E. ; i.e. deeds which vio- late natural instincts breed unusual disturbances of the human organism. The doc- tor's words have more point in EL.E., where TROUBLES means ' diseased conditions ' ; cp.Oth. III.3.4I4, where lago is "troubled with a raging tooth"; Lepidus is "trou-
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
the sense of sight, cp. "The mind and sight distractedly commixt" Lover's Compl.28. The doctor cannot believe the evidence of his eyes. SF 87 GOOD NIGHT, GOOD DOC- TOR is another of those human touches so frequent in Shakspere : the gentlewoman's " good night " brings the scene to a close in a phrase pregnant with homely association ; her " good doctor" sinks the professional interest in the human, and in her simple words vibrates a sympathy born of their common vigil and their common vision of the unspeakable awful- ness of human sin. The falling rhythm of the last word has a lingering note, — "Good night, good doctor," — almost as if she had said, "Yea, God forgive us all!" One can easily perceive the peculiar force of this by imagining the scene to close in rising rhythm with V.85.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE II
After the tragic climax of Scene I, Scene II brings us back to Macbeth and the doom that is gathering about him as the powers above put on their instruments. The scene is a continuation of the theme of Scene VI of Act IV, by way of prologue to the catastrophe that is coming on. The editors of the Clarendon Press Macbeth were inclined to doubt its authenticity. But in its condensation and tenseness of expression it would be hard to parallel its style outside of Shakspere; and its central notion — v. I 2, Macbeth expressly recognized as mad by some of the actors in the drama — is an organic part of the play that could scarcely be omitted without marring the azsthctic structure of the whole. Moreover, its action supplements the "since his Majesty went into the field" of Scene I in such a way as to show that the two were conceived together.
SCENE II: THE COUNTRY NEAR DUNSINANE
DRUM AND COLOURS
ENTER MENTETH CATHNES ANGUS LENOX SOLDIERS
MENTETH HE English powre is neere, led
on by Malcolm, His unkle Seyw^ard and the good
Macduff: Revenges burne in them; for their deere causes Would to the bleeding, and the grim alarme Excite the mortified man.
1-5
SF2 SEYWARD is spoken of by Holinshed as being the grandfather of Malcolm : " Duncane having two sonnes by his wife which was the daughter of Siward, earle of Northumberland" Boswell- Stone,p.25. But "nephew" in EL. E. means 'grandson' as well as corresponds to MN.E. 'nephew,' cp. Baret's Alvearie, " a nephew . . qui ex filio filiave natus estj nepos ex fratre, vel sorore''^ ; Cooper glosses nepos "the sonne or daughter's sonne, a nephew"; Comenius, 604, is also quite clear on this point: "In the rank of them that lineally descend are the grandchild (the nephew — grandson — and neece), the great-grandchild (the nephew's son and the neece's daughter), the great-great-grand- child, and so downward with all their posterity." So " cousin " is a general term in EL. E. : "they that are of the same race — linage — and pcdegree are called coozens, and kinsmen
197
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
by blood" Comenius, 601. It was, perhaps, this use of **nephew" that led Shakspere to call Seyward Malcolm's UNKLE. GOOD, *brave,' cp. note to 1.2.4. *1F 3 REVENGES: the EL. distributive plural of abstract nouns, cp. note to III. 1. 122. DEERE is used in EL. E. of what stands in an intimate relation to a person, whether of affection or of interest ; in this latter usage it is almost untranslatable into MN.E. SF 4, 5 The FO. prints a comma after BLEEDING, but all modern editors depart from its punctuation. Two in- terpretations of these words have been given : Theobald, followed by most of the editors down to CI. Pr., took THE MORTIFIED MAN in the sense of 'an ascetic,' referring to Rom. VIII. 3, **but if yee through the spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Steevens added citations from Greene's Never too Late, "I perceive in the words of the hermit the perfect idea of a mortified man," and from Monsieur d'Olive, 1606, "He like a mortified hermit sits." But "mortified man" in EL. E. does not neces- sarily imply that the mortified person is averse to bloodshedding. In BuUein's Dia- logue, 1564, E.E.T. S.,p.24, Ambodexter says, ** I do remember that reverent mortified father, that holy man. Bishop Boner; . . if he were againe at libertie [he was confined in the Marshalsea in 1564] he . . trimely would roste these felowes and after burne them." This "mortified father" was the Bishop Bonner of 'Bloody Mary's' reign. Warburton noticed the difficulty in the definite article, and was for reading 'a mortified man.' The editors of the CI. Pr. likewise objected to this established interpretation on the score of feebleness, and showed that "mortified" in EL. E. also meant 'made dead.' They saw in the passage a possible reference to the 'well-known superstition that the corpse of a mur- dered man bled afresh in the presence of the murderer.' (Burton, 'Anat. of Mel.' 1. 1.25, says that 'Campanella tries to prove the opinion of Paracelsus that there is a spiritual soul' by the fact that 'carcasses bleed at the sight of the murderer.') They give the inter- pretation, 'their dear causes would rouse a dead man to bleeding and to the grim call to arms,' admitting that the words yield an extravagant sense, but contending that we must choose between extravagance and feebleness. They suggested, too, that the whole pas- sage maybe spurious. The N.E.D. makes their interpretation more intelligible by show- ing that GRIM ALARM in EL.E. can mean 'furious [s.v. 2 a] onset [s.v. II],' and that BLEEDING can mean 'gory,' ' sanguinary ' (s.u. I b). Shakspere uses "bleeding" in this sense in John II. 1. 304, "bleeding ground" ; in Rich. 2 III. 3-94, "bleeding warre" ; in Rich.3 IV. 4. 209, "bleeding slaughter" ; and in Caas. III. 1. 168, "bleeding businesse." These con- notations also apply to the former interpretation. But the objection of lack of point if we take "mortified man" as standing for ascetic still holds, and that of extravagance still remains if "mortified man" is tantamount to 'dead man' ; and the objections that both interpretations depart from the FO. punctuation and that the notion demands the indefinite article likewise remain in either event.
But if we take the words with their context we have the suggestion of revenge being a burning fever. CAUSE in EL.E. means 'sickness,' 'disease,' N.E.D. 12; Shakspere in All's W. II. 1. 113 writes "toucht With that malignant cause" ; in Cor. III. 1.235 the first senator says, " Leave us to cure this cause " ; Menenius adds, " For [i.e. ' he uses the word cause'] 't is a sore upon us. You cannot tent [i.e. probe] your selfe." In 2Hen.4 IV. 1.53 the archbishop says, "Wherefore doe I this [i.e. take up arms in rebellion]? Wee are all diseas'd And with our surfetting and wanton howres Have brought our selves into a burn- ing fever. And wee must bleede for it" ; cp. also "A fever in your bloud? why then, inci- sion [i.e. bleeding] Would let her out in sawcers" L.L.L. IV.3.97 ; cp., too, Rich.3 III. 1. 183. Bleeding for fever was common medical practice in Shakspere's day. The latter part of the sentence carries out this medical phraseology but gives it a different turn. MOR- TIFIED as an EL.E. medical term means 'benumbed,' 'incapable of function,' cp. Ker- sey, "mortification . . in surgery: a loss of the native heat and of sense in any part of the body." This meaning is clearly implied in Lear II. 3- 14, " Bedlam beggars who . . Strike [i.e. thrust] in their num'd and mortified armes. Pins, wooden-prickes, nayles." MAN in EL.E. is used frequently in the sense of 'manhood,' 'manliness' : in V.8. 18 Mac-
198
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
beth says that Macduff's words have cowed his ** better part of man," i.e. the better part of his manhood, his personal courage; Marston in 'Antonio and Mellida' 1. 1. 1 60 has **0 now Antonio . . Heap up thy powers, double all thy man"; Ben Jonson in 'Every Man in his Humour' II. I writes " Mee thought hee bare himselfe in such a fashion. So full of man and sweetnesse in his courage." THE MORTIFIED MAN in EL. E. can there- fore mean 'their paralysed manhood,' the definite article being used as a possessive pro- noun. EXCITE, in its sense of 'arouse,' 'quicken,' N.E.D.2 c, is a fitting word for GRIM ALARM, which in EL.E. means not only the 'stern alarm' of war, but has also the sense of ' incitement,' N. E. D. 6, now obsolete. The connection between the two clauses may easily be that of an EL. dr:b Koivov construction, always a stone of stumbling to modern readers, cp. notes to 1.5-24, III. 1. 1 22, and IV. 3. 1 5. If this be the case we have WOULD expressed in the first clause with its EL. sense of 'are ready for,' cp. " he is very sicke and would to bed" Hen. 5 II. 1.86, recalling Malcolm's words "Macbeth is ripe for shaking"; in the second clause its 'must have' meaning is understood, cp. "that would be scann'd" Ham. III. 3- 75, and "Sorrow would sollace and mine age would ease" 2Hen.6 11.3-21. To sum up, this interpretation gives us as the M N. E. sense of the whole passage : ' Revenges burn in them : I say burn, because they suffer from a fever which needs to be bled, and war's stern alarm must furnish the furious incitement to rouse from its lethargy their lifeless man- hood, so long crushed under the heel of the tyrant.' This reading not only preserves the punctuation of FO. I but gives to Shakspere's words that graphic and tense connection which is so characteristic of his writing. The only objection to it is that the words and syntax are unfamiliar to MN.E. But Shakspere is never considerate of the modern reader, and did not reckon with the comprehension of a generation which would read his plays three hundred years after he wrote them. If, however, the objection is to hold, the only escape from the dilemma of obscurity or weakness is to throw the blame upon the printer or
upon the editorial careless- ACT V SCENE II 5-1 I ness of Hemminge and Con-
dell, and say that the passage ANGUS '^ 'hopelessly corrupt.'
Neere Byrnan wood <ff6 well is used as an in- Shall we well meet them; that way are they tensive adverb in el.e. with
. r the notion of 'fitness,' 'ad-
COmmmg. vantage,' still preserved in
CATHNES such phrases as 'he is well
Who knowes if Donalbane be with his brother? able,' 'I can well afford,'
T PNinY 'you are well met,' etc. *1F8
LbNUA Pjj^g^ ijjg^^r ^p_ III. 1.95, and
For certaine, sir, he is not: I have a file "Our present musters grow
Of all the Gentry: there is Seyward's sonne, uponthefile" 2Hen.4 1.3-IO.
o J J ' SF 9 GENTRY m Its EL. sense
And many unruffe youths that even now includes the nobility. ' SF 10
Protest their first of manhood. unruffe : Autolycus an-
swers the shepherd's "Wc are but plaine fellowes, sir" with "A lye: you are rough and hayrie," playing on "plaine" in the sense of 'smooth.' "Rough," "hearie," was a common EL. gloss for hirsutuSy see Cooper, s.v. ; and cp. "rough or rugged with haires or bristles" ; "my brother is hearie but I am smooth" Baret, 'Alvearie.' un- had a much wider range of application in EL.E. than in MN.E., giving forms like "unlevell," "unpossible," "unperfect," "uncessantly." The Folio spelling seems to be phonetic. SF II PROTEST THEIR FIRST OF MAN- HOOD: 'proclaim the first of their manhood' is the usual explanation, — cp. "my neer'st of life" III. 1. 117, — but it is an awkward one. The words are better taken as a con- tinuation of the thought in the previous clause, with "protest" in its EL, sense of 'put
199
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
in evidence/ 'cite as evidence' ; cp. Comenius, "a man's chin is covered first with down, then a long and large beard ; . . yet some are beardless, some have beards beginning to bud." This gives point to
the EVEN NOW, the -first ACTV SCENE II II-I6
or manhood bemg the down
on their unrough chins. ,.^.,^t^^,,
^ MENTETH
«lFii WHAT DOES THE TY- What does the tyrant?
RANT? illustrates a common /^at-uktcc
T^T ^ . r ^u • CATHNES
EL. arrangement oi the m-
terrogative sentence now ob- Great Dunsinane he Strongly fortifies:
solete. SF 13 LESSER is an Some sav hee 's mad ; Others, that lesser hate
adverb in EL. E., see N.E.D. , . -^
S.U., and cp. "No lesser of nim,
her honour confident" Cym. Do call it valiant fury: but, for certaine,
V 5.187. Macbeth'sinsanity, ^ ^^^j^l^ ^.^ distemper'd cause
like Hamlet s, is but sug- i . , i , r i
gested to the reader: Shak- Wlthm the belt 01 rule. spere is too much of a poet
to declare explicitly what insanity is, or to label Lear, Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth as mad. They have all ''a feaver of the madde" in them that lifts them out of the common range of experience and makes them interesting. Moreover, the phenomena of insanity in Shakspere's time were vague and mysterious, as is evident from Burton's treatment of the subject. The abnormal acts of Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, and Othello belong to that borderland of diseased mentality which in Elizabethan, as in classic phraseology, was denoted by the term ** melancholy." Macbeth does not understand human and divine laws, — ^non cognoscit homines^ non cognoscit leges,^— Lear and Othello do not understand women, Hamlet does not understand himself: this touch of the mad, this lack of balance of soul and mind, this 'mind diseased' and all its havoc of human life and human hopes is the theme of Shakspere's great tragedies. In Hamlet and Macbeth the exciting influences of the tragedy come from without, the ghost in the one case, the witches in the other; in Othello and Lear they work from within, rising from a natural jealousy and suspicion ren- dered inordinate by an inordinate love. In all it is their failure to understand the souls of men and the laws of life that gives the deep pathos. <1F 14 FOR CERTAINE, i.e. I report it for a certainty, was used thus absolutely in EL.E. in the sense of MN.E. 'one thing is certain'; it is now felt rather as an adverbial phrase qualifying the verb of the sentence in which it stands. SF 15 Caithness's words have made great difficulty for modern editors, some of whom would change "cause" to 'course' or to 'corse,' under the usual assumption that where the text is unintelligible as MN.E. it is corrupt. But BUCKLE IN is used in this same figurative sense of 'limit,' 'enclose' (N.E.D. I b) in "That the stretching of a span buckles in his summe of age" A.Y.L. III. 2. 140, where the EL. meaning 'fasten in any way' passes over into figurative usage. CAUSE is not only intelligible in EL.E. but ex- actly the word that suits the connection, for it means 'disease,' see note to "deere causes" V. 3. DISTEMPER'D in EL.E. is a medical term denoting what was conceived to be a disproportionate mixture of the bodily humours: see N.E.D. 'distemper' sb. 13- In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it is frequently used with reference to insanity, which, in the EL. mind, was associated with a diseased condition of the 'humours.' N.E.D.s.u. 3 b cites Hooker, 1594, as speaking of "distempered affection"; Herbert, 1633, of "dis- tempered fears" ; Hobbes, 1 65 1, of a "distempered brain" : this latter association is still in use, though it has lost its sharpness. As the word "distempered" also means 'im- moderate,' 'extreme,'— Hooker, I586,speaks of a "distempered or extraordinarie choler," N.E.D. 5, — "distempered cause" is a very apposite reference to Macbeth's insanity and has nothing to do with 'dropsical affections' or with 'discontented parties in the state.'
200
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
*1F l6 RULE in EL. E., as frequently in MN.E., is used in the sense of 'regimen/ and "rule of health " is a M. E. and e. N. E. phrase for * regimen of health.' The verb " rule " in EL. E. also meant *to control the passions/ cp. "To rule his affection and talk, animo et orationi moderarij^ "I could not rule myself but that, etc., imperare animo nequivi quin,^^ and "I should be scantly able to rule my selfe, vix compos mei essem^^ Baret's Alvearie. The words, then, arc not a mere general figure but have immediate reference to the "mad" above
and to Macbeth's distem-
A/^T'iT- o/^r^MT^TT ,, «,. pered will, which he himself
ACT V SCENEII I6-25 Lt recognized to have
passed beyond his "rule" in ANGUS LI. 139.
Now does he feele „
Tj. ^ ^1 .• 1 • ^ L- u J ^17 STICKING ON HIS
His secret murthers sticking on his hands; hands seems to be the Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith- phrase which in Coles has
L L. the form "to stick a hand,
' cegre distrahij raro prcesti-
Those he commands move onely in command, naW," and to mean that Mac-
Nothind in love: now does he feele his title ^^^^ ^^" "°^ ^i"^ "° o"^ ^o
H- 1 1 ^ 1 . 1.1 ,. , 1 take his secret murders off
ang loose about him, like a giant s robe his hands, as Malcolm and
Upon a dwarfish theefe. Donalbaine took the odium of
MFNTPTH Duncan's murder and the
assassins that of Banquo ; Who then shall blame the market is glutted now, he
His pestered senses to recoyle and start, ^^^ 'palm them off on no
Tv/i 11 ^1 .^ • -.1 • 1 • 1 1 one. A similar EL.expression
When all that is within him does condemne is^to lie upon one's hands,"
It selfe for being there? which occurs in "The mar-
chandize . . Are all too deere for me: Lye they upon thy hand and be undone by 'em!" Ant.&Cl.II.5. 105. The 'merchandise' that Cleopatra here alludes to is the messenger's announcement that An- tony is married to Octavia. *IF 18 MINUTELY, with the stress on the first syllable, is an EL. compound like MN.E. 'hourly,' cp. "God's minutely providence," cited from Hammond (I6O5-I66O) in Cent. Diet. UPBRAID in EL. E. means 'to cast in one's teeth/ 'to twit with,' as it is glossed in Comenius and Baret's Alvearie; cp. "I would not boast my actions, yet 'tis lawful To upbraid my benefits to unthankful men" Massinger's Un- natural Combat, I.I (cited in Cent. Diet.). FAITH in EL. E. carries with it the notion of * fealty,' cp. "The lords took . . their oaths of faith and allegiance unto Don Philip" W. Phillips, 1 598 (cited in N.E.D.9). The revolts of Macbeth's own subjects cast in his teeth his disloyalty to Duncan. SF 19 IN COMMAND, 'by reason of command,' cp. "in an im- periall charge" IV.3.20. *1F 20 NOTHING is the EL. adverb, cp. note to I. 3-96. TITLE, 'claim to the sovereignty,' cp. note to IV. 3- 104. SF 23 PESTER'D in EL. E. means 'ham- pered,' ' cumbered,' cp. " now all places are pestered with builded houses " Comenius, 522 ; the word passes over into the general sense of 'vex,' 'annoy,' cp. "would over boord have cast his golden sheepe As to unworthy ballace [ballast, lading] to be thought To pester roome" Drayton's Heroicall Epistles, 61, Sp. Soc, p. 290 ; see also Ham. 1. 2. 22 ; the word is retained in the sense of 'annoy' in MN.E. In Shakspere's time it seems also to have been applied to an overloaded stomach, cp. "to pester, to cloie" Baret's Alvearie; Per- cival glosses it by the Spanish enfadar, enfastidiar •, Cotgrave, by empescAe, and gives ^^empesche de sa personne, unwieldie, pursie, grosse ; poictrine empesche, troubled with obstruction and (more particularly) obstruction of the stomach": hence the turn of the phrase which follows. Macbeth himself says he has " supt full with horrors." The refer-
201
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT V
SCENE II
25-31
ence of course is to the ** start- ings" of Macbeth's madness as being but the natural re- sult of his crime-cloyed soul. RECOYLE AND START/for recoiling and starting'; the EL. infinitive often corre- sponding to the MN. E. prepo- sition and participle. For "recoyle^in its EL. sense of 'break,' * break down,' cp. IV. 3. 1 9> and for " start " see note to IIL4.63.
SF25 MARCHWEONisanor- mal EL. form of the first per- son plural imperative. SF27 THE MED'CINE OF THE SICKLY WEALE is Mal- colm ; the word has been
taken in its somewhat rare EL. sense of 'physician,' cp. Florio's ^^ medico, a medicine, a leach, a phisitian" (cited by CI. Pr.), but such an interpretation weakens the force of the WITH HIM : Malcolm too will, if need be, shed his last drop of blood for his country, and the healing purge of their shed blood will medicine the sickly weal. SF 28 POURE, 'pour out' ; in EL. E. the word did not require the complementing adverb. OUR COUNTRIES PURGEistheEL.E. objective genitive idiom. SF 29 EACH in M.E. and EL. E. is often tanta- mount to 'every,' cp. note to IV. 2. 22 and its citation from Heywood. US is the reflexively used personal pronoun common in EL. E. IT NEEDES, 'is necessary,' the M. E. and e. N. E. impersonal idiom. SF 30 SOVERAIGNE in EL. E. is used of anything that has a potency for healing, cp. "the most soveraigne prescription in Galen" Cor. ILL 127. The verbiage of the whole scene is medical, — fever of revenge, paralysis of manliness, dropsical affec- tions with their distempered humours, cloyed sensations with embarrassed digestion, purg- ing medicines, sovereign flower, — and forms a close associational link between this and the preceding scene. This constant recurrence to medical phraseology clearly reflects Shakspere's conception of Macbeth's mind as 'diseased.'
CATHNES
Well, march we on, To ^ive obedience where 'tis truly ow'd: Meet we the med'cine of the sickly weale, And with him poure we incur countries pur^e Each drop of us.
LENOX
Or so much as it needes To dew the soveraigne flower and drowne
the weeds. Make we our march towards Birnan.
EXEUNT MARCHING
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE III
Scene III pictures Macbeth "sick at hart" in the midst of the disasters thickening round him, but nerving himself for the crisis and bringing back to us that former Macbeth which we became acquainted with at the beginning of the play. He shows a new imperiousness born of a rule by force and fear — Seyton, send out! Doctor, how's your patient? — a new testiness, the fruit of nights of watching and days of dread — The divell damne thee blacke, thou cream-fac'd loonc ! Where got'st thou that goose-looke? — a new impatience springing from a feeling that his only means of safety lies in prompt action With these there is the note of regret and a sense of the vanity of a life which has yielded him nothing that he had hoped for, though it has granted everything that he asked of it. But in spite of these, the new Macbeth is the old Macbeth ; and as he returns to the sphere of bold, resolute action, throwing aside the ill-fitting robe of duplicity and indirectness worn during his later years, he seems in a measure to regain his original freedom and his original no- bility. As he himself puts it, they have tied him to a stake, but he will fight the course.
202
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
In this tragedy of misguided force Shakspere never for a moment allows his Hercules to show weakness : he never whines. In his moment of deepest despair he recovers himself by his own self-contempt. Play the Roman fool? Not he!
SCENE III: A ROOM IN THE CASTLE ENTER MACBETH DOCTOR AND ATTENDANTS
I-IO
MACBETH RING me no more reports; let
them flye all : Till Byrnane wood remove to
Dunsinane, I cannot taint with feare. What 's the boy Malcolme? Was he not borne of woman? The spirits
that know All mortall consequences have pronounc'd
me thus: ' Feare not, Macbeth ; no man that 's borne
of woman Shall ere have power upon thee.' Then fly,
false thanes. And mingle with the English epicures: The minde I sway by and the heart I beare Shall never sagge with doubt nor shake with feare.
nius, 'Janua' 106. Macbeth's notion is therefore similar to that of I.3. 18 and 23, 'fear cannot dry his blood and waste his marrow till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane.' He is as strong as ever he was: what is the boy Malcolm to oppose him? SF4 SPIRITS, monosyllabic 'sprites' as usual. SF5 CONSEQUENCES, 'what follows,' 'the future,' cp. note to 1.7.3. PRONOUNC'D in EL. E. may mean 'proclaimed,' but the word is probably used intransitively with ME as the EL. ethical dative, cp. note to III.6.4I. The verse seems to be an alexandrine, and as such has a peculiar impressiveness in its onward flowing rhythm. *IF 7 UPON is used in its sense of 'over,' cp. "command upon me" in III. 1. 17. The verse has an extra im- pulse before the cazsura, aptly marking the transition in the thought. *1F 8 The contemp- tuous reference to the ENGLISH EPICURES is probably due to Holinshed, p. 180 (ed. Bothwell-Stone, p. 42), as pointed out by Steevens : " For manie of the people, abhorring the riotous manners and superfluous gormandizing brought in among them by the Eng- lishmen, were willing inough to receive this Donald for their king, trusting, because he had beene brought up . . in the lies . . without tast of the English likerous delicats, . . they should . . recover again the former temperance of their old progenitors." "Epicure" in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is used for ' one who gives himself up to sensual
203
The scene opens with Shak- spere's graphic directness : the attendants have brought word that the nobles are de- serting Macbeth ; he will not hear such news. ^ I FLYE ALL, not 'let them all fly' but 'letthemflyinabody' ; "all" in EL.E. is frequently used as an adverb meaning 'as a whole,' cp. "where so ever the mind is busied there it is all" Florio's Montaigne, 1. 38. SF3 TAINT has been taken exception to and 'faint' pro- posed as a substitute ; mod- ern editors usually retain "taint," explaining it as meaning 'become corrupted.' But fear does not corrupt. In EL.E., however, "taint" means 'wither,' cp. "failing of that moisture it flags, tainteth (withereth) and by and by drieth away" Come-
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
pleasure.' This sense has given rise to our MN. meaning of the word, SF9 SWAY BY, 'govern by,' 'hold my prestige by,' cp. "And, Henry, had'st thou sway'd as kings should do. Or as thy father and his father did. Giving no ground unto the house of Yorke, They then had never sprung like sommer flyes" 3Hen.6 II. 6. 14, and Coles's glosses, "sway, ^«6er/2o, rmpero," "to sway with one, prceua/eo." SF 10 SAGGE is glossed by Kersey "to hang down by one side," and the word is still used in the United States of anything that bends under a heavy
ACT V
SCENE III
II-I9
weight. "A sagging gait" is EL. E. for 'slouching,' and since "sway" also means 'advance' in EL. E., Shak- spere may have had in mind the unsteady and vacillating gait of an old man. BEARE rhymes with FEARE in EL. E., cp.noteto I.I.6. The rhythm, with its strong monosyllabic impulses, is peculiarly con- fident.
SF II LOONE seems to have
been a Scottish term of abuse
in Shakspere's day ; it occurs
in Patten's account of the
Duke of Somerset's march
into Scotland, ed. Arber, p.
114. SFI2 GOOSE-LOOKE:
cp. "this goose, you see, puts
downe his head before there
be anything neere to touch
him" Sidney's Arcadia, III.
237 (cited in N.E.D.). SFl3
THERE IS: the singular
verb with "there" followed
by a plural complement is
common EL. idiom. SFI5
PATCH is an EL. word for
'fool.' Moth plays upon it
in L.L.L. IV. 2. 32, "So were
there a patch set on learning
to see him in a schoole."
*1F 16 DEATH OF THY SOULE ! illustrates the use of the word "death" in imprecations
like "Death and damnation!" Oth. 111.3- 396. LINNEN, i.e. white; CI. Pr. cites "Their
cheekes are paper" from Hen. 5 II. 2. 74. WHAY is a common EL. spelling of 'whey.'
*IFl9 The repeated " Seyton ! — Seyton, 1 say!" interjected into Macbeth's soliloquy graphically pictures the rash impatience of his mind. The FO. punctuates with a comma after SEYTON in both instances. SF 20 BEHOLD has a number of intransitive uses in EL. E., — cp. N.E. D.8, — and it may mean 'stop to consider,' — 'when I face this crisis.' *IF2I CHEERE and the FO.'S "dis-eate me now" have caused great difficulty: many editors assume that "dis-eate" is a printer's error for the "disease" of FO. 2 used in its EL. sense of 'trouble,' 'vex'; but were that the meaning it would be "trouble me ever," not "trouble me now," for disease suggests continuous action. Besides, the emendation is
204
ENTER SERVANT
The divell damne thee blacke, thou cream-
fac'd loone! Where got'st thou that goose-looke?
SERVANT There is ten thousand —
MACBETH
'Geese/ villaine? SERVANT
Souldiers, sir. MACBETH Go pricke thy face and over-red thy feare, Thou lilly-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch? Death of thy soule! those linnen cheekes of
thine Are counsailers to feare. What soldiers, wh ay-face?
SERVANT The English force, so please you.
MACBETH Take thy face hence.
EXIT SERVANT
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
weak and the word * disease ' has no relation to PUSH. Other emendations are 'disseize' and 'defeat/ equally unsatisfactory. The words taken just as they stand, allowing for the possibility of a somewhat anomalous spelling in CHEERE and DIS-EATE, give a better sense than any of the alterations proposed. "Cheere" may easily be a confusion of spell- ing between " cheere " and " chaire " ; the two words seem to have had the same pronuncia- tion in EL. E., " cheere " probably still retaining its open e alongside of the newer i. N. E. D.
under the substantive records
ACT V SCENE III 19-29 ^ttj Vem-^ ^''-Sr ;•
j^ . -J -11 ^^'^ ^^^ confusion may well
beyton! 1 am sick at hart, have worked the other way.
When I behold Seyton, I say! this push "Chair" frequently means
W.11 1 J- 4. 'throne'inEL.E. ; "chairedor
ill cheere me ever, or dis-seate me now. ^^^n^^. .^ ^^^J^^ cat^hedra-
I have liv'd lon^ enough : my way of life tus in Holyoke; and cp. "is
Is falne into the scare, the yellow leafe; ]^.^ chayre emptie? . . Is the
1/ ' kin^ dead? Rich. 3. IV. 4. 470.
And that which should accompany old-age, "Chair" in the sense '*en- As honor, love, obedience, troopes of friends, throne' exactly fits the con-
T ^ ^11^1 Lx-j-L-xJ text, for Macbeth, already on
I must not looke to have; but in their steed, the throne, adds ever, which
Curses, not lowd but deepe, mouth-honor, is el. e. for 'forever," for the
breath ^^^^ ^^ "^^ life,' cp. "Let me
live here ever Temp. IV. I.
Which the poore heart would faine deny, and 123. push as a verb we
dare not. have already had in a similar
SI connection in III. 4. 82, "push
^yt°^' us from our stooles"; the
noun also means 'test' or
'issue' in EL. E., cp. "Wee'l put the matter to the present push" Ham.V. I.3I8, and "What propugnation is in one man's valour To stand the push and enmity of those This quarrell would excite?" Tro.&Cr. II. 2. 136. DIS-SEATE, 'unseat,' cp. "the hot horse . . seekcs to dis-seate his lord" Two Noble Kinsmen, V.4.72 — the hyphen is significant. Macbeth's words, therefore, mean, 'This crisis will either establish me on the throne for the rest of my life or unking me at once.' THIS PUSH could well be the object of BEHOLD were it not for the FO. punctuation, "behold: Seyton, I say, this push," etc., for the EL. rela- tive pronoun is frequently omitted in M.E.and e.N.E.even in restrictive clauses where MN.E. sense requires it, cp. " Haply I see a friend will save my life" Err.V. 1. 283, and "The way is danger leadeth to thy cell'' Drayton, 'Duke of Normandie,' p. 417. Such an interpreta- tion gives unity to Macbeth's words and reflects into them a moody despondency like that of V.5.23 : 'I am sick at heart when I behold this fierce opposition which will estab- lish me in perpetuity upon my throne or remove me from it now. For I have lived long enough, etc.,' i.e. the game is scarce worth the candle. *IF 22 For WAY OF LIFE John- son proposed 'May of life' to avoid what he thought confusion of metaphor; but for a 'May to fall into the yellow leaf is a notion more confused than that of Shakspere's words. WAY in EL. E. means 'course'; Steevens cited the phrase "way of life" from Per. 1. 1 . 54, " Thus ready for the way of life or death " ; cp., too, " Hee 's walk'd the way of nature" 2Hen.4 V.2.4. *ff23 IS FALNE: "To fall in age" is the idiom cited from Palsgrave, 1530, in N.E.D.; the phrase "fall into" was used with a wide range of applica- tion in EL. E. to describe ' persons passing into some specified condition, bodily or mental,' N. E. D. 38. SEARE, ' withered,' ' dry,' is now only poetic, cp. " deformed, crooked, old, and sere" Err. IV. 2.19. SF27 After BREATH modern editors add a comma not in FO. I ; but in Macbeth's thought "which" seems to refer only to "breath"and not to "mouth-honor" ;
205
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
the word in EL.E. often means 'flattery/ cp. "publicke fame or private breath" Wotton, 1639 (cited in N. E. D. 4 c), and ** commends and courteous breath" Merch. II. 9. 90. SF 28 DENY is used in its EL.E. sense of 'refuse.' As has been pointed out by Clark, this soliloquy is one of the long-time suggestions in Macbeth. Coming in as it does between the two impatient calls for Seyton, his only faithful noble, it gives us a glimpse of the man's loneliness, and, without delay-
ACT V SCENE III
ing the action, awakens sym- pathy for him in the crisis
that is approaching.
^^ ^ ENTER SEYTON
QRVT-rW!
SF30 MORE, *further,'cp. III. 4. 137. SF33 French in his ' Shakespeareana Genealogi- ca' (cited in Furness's Vario- rum) says that the Setons of Touch were hereditary ar- mour-bearers to the kings of Scotland. SF35 MOE is a comparative M.E. form used as a noun with the partitive genitive following which sur- vived into e.N.E. SKIRRE is a phonetic spelling of * scur/ an EL. word meaning 'to flit,' 'pass hurriedly over'; it is used by Jonson (cp. Cent. Diet, s.v.) and by Fletcher, "the light shadows That in a thought scur o'er the fields of corn" Bonduca I.I (cited by Steevens). SF36 MINE: an EL. form of the pronoun fre- quent before a word begin- ning with a vowel. SF37Mac- beth's quick turning to the doctor to ask how his patient is getting on aptly brings the thought of Lady Macbeth into the action. The doctor probably enters while Mac- beth is talking to Seyton, though the FO. puts his en-" trance at the beginning of the scene ; for it is hardly likely that Macbeth would ignore the doctor in the soliloquy, and there is no occasion for his appearance in the action before this point. His coming in here to report on Lady Macbeth's condition would naturally bring out Macbeth's question. Had he been on the stage before, Shakspere would probably have assumed that Macbeth knew about the "thicke-comming fancies." As it is, the doctor probably comes to tell the king of what he saw in Scene I, but the imperative interruption, "Cure her of that," and the impatient demand that follows, prevent him from communicating his news. The sim- ple inquiry with its homely phrasing indicates a deep concern for Lady Macbeth; but here, as in II. 3. 124, a selfish indifference has been read into Macbeth's words. English- men do not sentimentalize in a crisis such as Macbeth is in ; and a German inference
206
30-39
SEYTON
What's your gracious pleasure?
MACBETH
What newes more? SEYTON All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported.
MACBETH I 'le fi^ht till from my bones my flesh be hackt. Give me my armor.
SEYTON
'T is not needed yet. MACBETH I 'le put it on. Send out moe horses; skirre the country
round; Hang those that talke of feare.
mine armor. How does your patient, doctor?
DOCTOR
Not so sicke, my lord, As she is troubled with thicke-comming
fancies, That keepe her from her rest.
Gi
ive me
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
of Macbeth's selfishness because he does not express to the doctor his love and anxiety is apt to be misleading. His brusque ' How 's your patient, doctor?' is the truest note of his anxiety that he could give. SF 39 REST, i.e. sleep, was the recognized remedy for
insanity in Shakspere's time,
ACT V SCENE III 39-46 ^"<i Macbeth knows from his
^ ^ ^ own experience what loss or
sleep means. MACBETH ^
Cure her of that. *1F39 fo. i prints **Cure of
Can'st thou not minister to a minde diseas'd, ^^ 'iTss'tul'Xlitl
Plucke from the memory a rooted sorrow, **her" of fo.2 is probably
Raze out the written troubles of the braine, ^^^ "^^^ °"^-, ^^ ^^^^ !"
, , . , , ,. . EL. E. means to treat medi-
And with some sweet oblivious antidote cinally,' cp. iv.3.215, Mac-
Cleanse the Stufft bosome of that perillous beth's direction is* treat her . rr for that.' The doctor probably
makes some gesture of dis- Which weighes upon the heart? sent here, indicating that the
trouble is past curing, and DOCTOR leading to Macbeth's ques-
Therein the patient ^\°"' ^^^^ soliloquy, half com-
,. . . 1 • IP plaint at the impotence of
Must minister to himselte. science. Plato's maxim, in
the form ^^cuncta mala cor- poris ah animo procedunt, quce nisi curentur corpus curari minime potest,^^ was an axiom of current medical practice which Shakspere probably had in mind when he wrote these oft-quoted words. Burton in citing it adds: 'Yea, but you will here infer that this is an excellent good indeed if it could be done ; but how shall it be effected, by whom, what art, what means? hie labor, hie opus esf.' SF 40 MINISTER here and in v. 46 was probably syncopated to 'min'ster'; cp. **And minister in their steeds [i.e. steads]" Timon IV. 1.6, and **keep in awe Your gelded ministers ; shall I yielde accompe Of what I doe to you?" Massinger's Believe as you List, 1.2. The word is used in EL. E. in the sense of 'pre- scribe,' cp. "you gave me bitter pils. And I must minister the like to you" Two Gent. II. 4. 149. *IF4I 'Sorrow,' says Burton, 'is a sole cause of madness' . . . ' If it take root once it ends in despair' I.ii. 3-5. SF 42 RAZE OUT, 'erase,' cp. 'razing out one name and putting in another' Jonson, 'Bart. Fair' V.2. SF43 OBLIVIOUS, 'causing forgetfulness,' 'soporific,' cp. Milton's "oblivious pool" Par. Lost, 1.263 (cited in Cent. Diet.). ANTI- DOTE: cp. Minsheu, "a medicine given against venime . . veneni propulsatorium, i.e. a driver away of venome" ; this driving away or purging notion of the word seems to have been in Shakspere's mind. *1F 44 STUFFT, 'crammed full,' the usual EL. meaning of the word; Comenius speaks of a "stomach stuffed or cramm'd full," so here it is the heart 'clogged with troubles' that Macbeth is asking the doctor to purge. PERILLOUS is syn- copated to 'per'lous' in EL. E., cp. "So hard and perlous to be brought to passe" Dray- ton's Barrens Warres, III. 30. 4. Macbeth thinks of the diseased soul as an overladen stomach that must be purged: *'' strangulat inclusus dolor atque excestuat intus,^^ as cur- rent medical parlance, citing Ovid, had it. Such repetitions of a word as we have here are very frequent in Shakspere and the best EL. writers, and give no occasion for the numerous emendations that have been proposed for "stuffe." *IF45 The doctor's reply echoes the medical notion of Shakspere's times. Burton says that in these cases of minds diseased 'from the patient himself the first and chiefest remedy must be had' II.6I. The words which follow are Macbeth's attempt to dismiss the matter. Remedy, if there is one, lies in action, not in brooding. He can at least fight — 'fight the course,'
207
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
as he says later: he is still sure of winning. A wave of loneliness comes over him as he says, ** Doctor, the thanes flye from me" — the rats are leaving the sinking ship ; but he puts the thought aside with a jest, turning the 'suffering country' into terms of medical diagnosis. All through the
passage his impatience keeps ^qj y SCENE III 47-62
breaking out m petulance — * Come, sir, quick ! ' * No, take it off!' 'Bring it along after
me
I '
IF 48 The STAFFE was the
shaft of the spear, and is in Shakspere frequently used for the spear itself. But it may also be the royal sceptre of authority, cp. **£fmefa, a captaines leading staffe" Per- cival. This latter meaning seems to be more appropriate to the context : Macbeth fightswithaswordinV.7.31 ff. SF49 SEND OUT, 'send out messengers or scouts' as in III. 4. 129, Macbeth having in mind the "Send out moe horses "above. Delius, think- ing the sentence unfinished, punctuated it as an anacolu- thon, FO. I cuts off the words by semicolons. *1F 50 The COME, SIR, dispatch! is addressed to Seyton or the attendant who is buckling on Macbeth's armour ; likewise, the PULL 'T OFF, I SAY! (v. 54) is an impatient order to remove some piece of ar- mour, probably the helmet — he will not be afraid, but will meet death full in front : BRING IT AFTER MEinv.58 evidently refers to the same thing. Macbeth's repetition of DOCTOR, with its second demand for attention, graphi-
MACBETH
Throw pbysicke to the dogs; I *le none of it.
— Come, put mine armour on; give me my
staffe. Seyton, send out. — Doctor, the thanes flye
from me. — Come, sir, dispatch ! — If thou could'st, doc- tor, cast The water of my land, finde her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very eccho, That should applaud againe. — Pull 't off, I
say! — What rubarb,cenny, or what purgative drugge, ' Would scowre these English hence? hear'st thou of them?
DOCTOR I, my good lord; your royall preparation Makes us heare something.
MACBETH
Bring it after me. I will not be affraid of death and bane. Till Birnane forrest come to Dunsinane.
DOCTOR
ASIDE
Were I from Dunsinane away and cleere. Profit againe should hardly draw me heere.
EXEUNT
cally shows the medical man's nervousness. ^51 The first step in seventeenth-century diagnosis was the examina- tion—" casting"— of the diseased patient's urine. SF52 PURGE is used in its general sense of ' cure.' SF 55 The " cyme " of FO. I seems to be an overlooked printer's error for CENNY, an EL. form of ' senne,' i.e. cassia, a purgative drug: cp. "the common purgation called casia fistula'^ Cooper; the words that follow fix the plant as a purgative, so that it is likely that the correction of F0.2, "cazny," corresponds to Florio's spelling, "senie"; Turner spells the word " sene," Cotgrave " sene," defining it as ' a purge ' ; Boorde, p. 289,
208
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
spells it "seene," and gives it in a list of purgative medicines; Minsheu,who spells it** senie" and **sene," also notes its purgative qualities. The variousemendations — 'rhubarb-clysme' Badham, 'sirrah' Bullock, *ochyme' Seager — either lack point or require a commentary. PURGATIVE was probably syncopated in EL. E. *1F 59 BANE is used in its EL. sense of destruction, N.E.D. 3. SF6I The doctor is evidently perplexed ; his interview has not turned out well. He had perhaps intended to let the king know that he is aware of the cause of Lady Macbeth's thick-coming fancies ; he may even have had some brave notion of charging him with the murders of Duncan and Banquo. But in Macbeth's hands he is as wax. A pointed question, a curt order, a sharp arraignment of his profession, a jest on his practice, and the poor doctor is left helpless and alone, with no thought in his mind but to get away.
SCENE IV: COUNTRY NEAR BIRNANE WOOD
DRUM AND COLOURS: ENTER MALCOLME SEYWARD
MACDUFFE SEYWARD'S SONNE MENTETH CATHNES ANGUS
AND SOLDIERS MARCHING
MALCOLME OSINS, I hope the dayes are
neere at hand That chambers will be safe. MENTETH
We doubt it nothing. SEYWARD What wood is this before us?
MENTETH
The wood of Birnane. MALCOLME . Let every souldier hew him downe a bough And bear H before him: thereby shall we
shadow The numbers of our hoast and make dis- covery Erre in report of us.
SOLDIERS
It shall be done.
1-7
Scene IV continues the action of Scene II. SF I COSINS, the EL. use of the word in the sense of 'kinsmen,' cp. note toV.2.2. SF2 CHAMBERS in EL. E. corresponds to MN.E. 'private rooms,' and hence the omission of 'our.' It also describes the residence of the king, N. E. D. 6, and Malcolm's words convey a reference to the murder of Duncan as well as to the con- ditions described in 111.6.35- NOTHING, the EL. adverb. SF 5 THEREBY in EL.E. some- times seems to have stress on its first element: see also Cor. V. 3. 133, 2Hen.6. II. I. 187, L.L.L. IV.3.283, Meas. III. 1.6. SHADOW in EL.E. is a regular word for ' conceal,' cp. " His nose being shadow- ed by his neighbour's eare" Lucr. 14 16, and "they seek
out all shifts that can be . . to shadow their self love" J. Bradford, died 1555 (cited in Cent. Diet.). SF6 DISCOVERY in EL.E. means 'information,' N.E.D. 4, and is the regular word for 'reconnaissance'; cp. "Here is the guesse of their true strength and forces By diligent discoverie" Lear V. 1. 13 (in N.E.D. 3 b). SF 7 REPORT OF US, 'in reporting our numbers,' cp. note to III. 6.37.
209
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
*IF8 NO OTHER BUT is EL. idiom for 'no one besides*; Macbeth is abandoned by his thanes. Delius took "no other" as 'not otherwise than/ giving the phrase the sense it bears in III. 4. 97; but such an interpretation makes Seyward's words rather pointless, as Malcolm's followers are probably already aware that Macbeth is at Dunsinane. CONFI- DENT was probably syncopated to 'confdent' in EL. E., however harsh such syncopa- tion may sound to modern ears; but there is no other clear instance of it in Shakspere. The word sometimes means 'overbold' in EL. E., and probably has that meaning here. SF9 AND WILL IN DURE, 'and he means to hold out against': in M. E. and e. N. E. syntax the subject is frequently left unexpressed when it can be easily supplied from the context ; and this idiom is found in
EL. E. even where a gram- ACT' \r Q.H'CKTC T\/ o t ^
matical change of subject oc- ^^ ^ ^ ^<^t,lNt,lV 8-I4
curs without any pronoun bc-
ingexpressed. "Indure"here SEYWARD
means 'withstand,' 'oppose,' We learne no Other but the confident tyrant
not 'endure,' 'suffer,' see t^ ^-w ■ r\ ■ i-n-i
N.E.D. 3c. SFio SETTING J^sepes Still in Uunsmane, and will indure
DOWNE BEFORE is a regu- Our Setting downe befor 't.
lar EL. E. phrase for 'be- sieging.' MAINE is in wide MALCOLME use in EL. E. in the sense of ^T ic- Uic -^^^^^^ U^^^.
< , . j>, . ££ . . 1 1 IS nis maine nope:
* chief ; m an eiiort to make t:> 1 1 1 i ^
the sense more apt in MN.E., ^^or where there is advantage to be given, 'vain' has been conjectured Both more and lesse have <iiven him the
for "maine." SF II ADVAN- 1
TAGE TO BE GIVEN is like- reVOlt,
wise unintelligible as MN. E., And none serve with him but constrained
and various emendations of thinds
the phrase have been pro- ,„., ^, ,
posed: Johnson was for 'ad- Whose hearts are absent too.
vantage to be gone,' others
read 'advantage to be got,' 'to be gotten,' 'to be ta'en,' 'to 'em given,' etc. But the evident word play on " given " speaks for the authenticity of the text, which makes good sense in EL.E. For "advantage" means 'opportunity,' 'chance,' in Shakspere's time : see N. E. D.s.t^., and cp. "The next advantage will we take" Temp. III. 3. 13 ; the use of the substantive verb in the sense of 'have to," must needs,' has already been noted in II. 1.43 ; cp. also "You know, sir, where I am to go and the necessitie [i.e. you know where I have to go and the reason] " Jonson's Poetaster, III. I. So here, 'where an opportunity for desertion has to be given [i.e. in the open field] his followers have abandoned him, so that he knows better than to risk battle outside his castle.' SF 1 2 MORE AND LESSE : the words are used in their EL. senses of 'great ones,' 'nobles,' and 'those of lower rank and station,' N.E.D. 2. HAVE GIVEN HIM THE REVOLT: "revolt" in EL.E. means 'desertion,' cp. "gravitie's revolt to wanton- ness" L.L.L. V. 2.74 ; Comcnius glosses "renegadoes, that turn Turks" by "revolters." "Given" in EL. E.,as we have already seen (cp. note to 1.3.119)? expresses the notion of 'forcing one to accept,' and the phrase means force him to accept the consequences of their desertion; MN. idiom retains this association in 'to give one the slip.' SF 13 THINGS is applied to persons in EL.E. to connote an absence of volition ; in I Hen. 4 III. 3. 131 ff- the hostess resents Falstaff's use of the word "thing" in this sense of 'personality without will power,' and "beast" in the sense of 'personality without reasoning power': "I am no thing to thanke heaven on, I wold thou shouldst know it . . Falsi. . . Thou art a beast to say otherwise. Host. Say, what beast, thou knave, thou ! " MN. E. in such phrases as 'poor thing' still retains this earlier shade of meaning. Shakspere gives point to the word in the following line, 'whose love, as well as power of volition, is absent.'
210
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT V
SCENE IV
14-21
*1FI4 CENSURES/judgemcnts/a common meaning of the word in EL.E. SF 15 ATTEND, 'wait for,' cp. **from thence he could attend small succour" Sidney's Arcadia, p. 256. TRUE in EL. E. is very frequently applied to things which are to be relied upon as well as to trustworthy persons, cp. *' true complaint" Meas. V. I. 24,** true sight" Sonn.CXLVIII.2, "Your spirit is too true, your feares too certaine" 2Hen.4 1. 1-92, and IV. 1. 122 of this play. PUT ON, cp. note to II. 3. 139- SF 16 INDUSTRIOUS, 'able,' 'efficient,' an e.N.E. mean- ing of the word that is now obsolete, see N.E.D. I. This 'obscurely worded sentence' is obscure only in MN. E. Macduff, who has known what it is to be loyal to his king, rebukes
the somewhat harsh words of Malcolm about "constrained things" and Malcolm's im- plication that those who sur- round Macbeth have no affec- tion for him by saying that they must suspend judgement until after the issue of the battle which will decide the matter, and must fight to the best of their ability for what they think to be the right. Scyward carries on the thought in the following lines. SFI8 SHALL, 'must.' HAVE AND . . OWE, i.e. true hearts and rightful allegiance ; the words are not 'pompous' or ' sententious,' but a natural assent to Macduff's caution. SFI9 SPECULATIVE was probably 'spec'lative' in EL.E. RELATE, 'give utterance to,' cp. " I nill relate, action may Conveniently the rest con- vey" Per. III. Gower 55 ; cp. also III. 4. 124. *1F 20 ARBITRATE, 'decide," determine,' a meaning now archaic, N.E.D. 2 ; the object is "certaine issue." SF2I TOWARDS WHICH, i.e. the "certaine issue." WARRE in EL.E. is often equivalent to 'contest,' 'quarrel,' a meaning still preserved in modern phrases like 'war of words,' etc.
MACDUFFE
Let our just censures Attend the true event, and put we on Industrious souldiership.
SEYWARD
The time approaches That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have and what we
owe. Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes
relate, But certaine issue stroakes must arbitrate: Towards which advance the warre.
EXEUNT MARCHING
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE V
Scene V continues the action of Scene I and in a few brief words closes the drama of Lady Macbeth's life. Shakspere does not tell us the manner of her death — we merely know that she dies amid the shrieking of women. Even when, at the end of the play, Malcolm refers to her tragic end, it is in the doubtful words, "Who, as 'tis thought, by selfe and violent hands Tooke off her life." Already we have had the physician warning the nurse against a probable attempt by Lady Macbeth at self-destruction — "Remove from her the meanes of all annoyance." But this fear of the doctor's, the "cry of women," and Malcolm's suspicion are the only hints we get of the manner of her end. In Act III Shakspere be- gins to draw our attention away from Lady Macbeth to her husband ; she does not appear at all in Act IV ; and in the first scene of Act V she stalks through the action as a spirit that has already gone to her doom. In this way he gives to the tragedy a unity of interest
211
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
which it would not otherwise possess. For a double interest is a divided interest, and had Lady Macbeth remained as prominent in the last half of the play as she was in the first half, the fatal end of the fury-driven, vision-haunted Macbeth would have lacked the clearness and definiteness which, read back into his tragedy, gives to its long course in time, its varied changes of place, and its multitudinous action, an azsthetic completeness and singleness of purpose which far transcend the mechanical unities of classic drama.
SCENE V: DUNSINANE: WITHIN THE CASTLE ENTER MACBETH SEYTON AND SOULDIERS WITH DRUM
AND COLOURS
I
Macbeth's first words not only express his defiance of Malcolm's forces, but keep before us the action of Scene IV, with which this is con- tinuous. SF2 CRY in EL. E. may mean 'report,' 'rumour,' N.E. D. 7. STILL, 'always.' SF 3 LYE is the regular word in EL. E. for the encampment of an army, cp. N.E.D.5b and the quotation from Halle's Chronicle, "The kyng lay before BuUein and was like to have conquered the same.'' <1F5 FORC'D is an e. N. E. verb meaning 'reinforced,' ' strengthened,' N. E. D. 1 3, and not an error for 'farced.' OURS, 'belonging on our side,' cp. the note to 1.7.26. SF6 DAREFULL,cp."Notby the prowesse of his owne dare-
8 on the
MACBETH ANG out our banners
outward walls ; The cry is still, ' They come ' : our
castle's strength Will laugh a siedge to scorne: heere let them lye Till famine and the ague eate them up: Were they not forc'd with those that should
be ours, We might have met them darefull, beard to
beard, And beate them backward home.
A CRY WITHIN OF WOMEN
What is that noyse? SEYTON It is the cry of women, my good lord.
EXIT SEYTON
full hand" Sylvester (cited in N.E.D.s.v.}. SF7 A CRY WITHIN OF WOMEN illustrates the word order noted in III. 6.48. The word " cry " seems to be used in the sense of ' scream,' ' clamour,' ' outcry,' N. E. D. 6 ; in this sense it is not illustrated in N.E.D. after 1440, but Phr. Gen. gives "they set up a cry, clamorem sustulerunt'''' j "to confuse all things with hideous noise and cry, omnia tu- multu et vociferatione concutere^'' : this is exactly the sense the context requires. NOYSE also refers to 'clamour,' 'outcries,' in EL.E., cp. "a lamentable noise or crie, flebilis fre- mitus''^ Baret's Alvearic. SF 8 Seyton's words show that "cry" means 'shrieking.' He probably leaves the stage to ascertain the cause of the outcries, but no EXIT here or at v. 16 and no ENTRANCE at v. 15 are marked in the FO.
SF 10 MY SENCES WOULD HAVE COOL'D: the effect of fear is usually thought of as chilling the blood, cp. "freeze thy young blood" Ham. 1. 5. I6, and "the bloud waxing colde for feare" Baret's Alvearie. " Sences" : in EL. psychology the mind was thought of as con-
212
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
sisting of 'outer senses' (MN. 'sensations') and the 'inner senses' (common sense, judge- ment, memory, imagination). Spirits in the blood, 'the spirits of sense,' ministered to these. Shakspere often uses "senses" for the 'spirits of sense,' cp. L.L.L. II. 1.240,242, and Temp.V. 1.66, and perhaps that is the notion here. "Cool" is a stronger word in EL. E.
than in MN.E. and translates
ACT V
SCENE V
9-16
MACBETH I have almost forgot the taste of feares: The time has beene my sences would have
cool'd To heare a night-shrieke; and my fell of
haire Would at a dismall treatise rowze and stirre As life were in 't : I have supt full with horrors ; Direnesse, familiar to my slaughterous
thoughts, Cannot once start me.
RE-ENTER SEYTON
Wherefore was that cry?
SEYTON The queene, my lord, is dead.
EXIT SEYTON
frigesco in the Latin diction- aries of the time. CI. Pr. cites *' Least [i.e. lest] zeale . . Coole and congeale againe to what it was" John II. 1.477. SF II NIGHT-SHRIEKE,'the hooting of the night owl,' cp. "night-owl's shrike" Rich.2 III. 3. 183. FELL, 'a covering of hair or wool,' N.E. D.3; the phrase "fell of haire" is used in EL.E. for 'scalp cov- ered with hair.' *IFI2 DIS- MALL, 'disastrous,' 'tragic,' cp.notetol.2.53. TREATISE is a common EL. word for
* story,' ' narration,' cp. " Y
our
treatise makes me like you worse and worse" Ven.&Ad. 774. SFI3 AS, 'as if,' cp. note to 1.4. II. WITH means ' on ' and goes with SU PT, cp. note to IV. 2. 32. Macbeth, in the depths of his despair, utters words like those of Herculesin ' Heracles Maino- menos': 'my bark is full fraught with horrors.' *1F 14 SLAUGHTEROUS THOUGHTS, 'murderous impulses,' cp. "Such butchers as yourselves never want A colour to excuse your slaughterous mind" Hey wood's Edward IV (cited in Cent. Diet.) ; see also note to 1.3. 139. *IF 15 START, 'make to tremble,' cp. note to V. 1. 50. Macbeth's familiarity with fear dates, of course, from the murder of Duncan ; before that he 'knew not the taste of fears,' see 1.3.30 ff. Yet, as in these words of self-revelation he reviews the horror of his reign, it reflects itself over the whole of his life, and the time when he would start at the owl's shriek (cp. II. 2. 16), or be frightened at a woman's story at a winter's fire (cp. III. 4. 65), seems long ago. SF I6 Seyton's answer, brief, respectful, sounds like the an- nouncement of an executed doom.
Macbeth's words that follow have given rise to much comment. Taken as they stand and read as EL. E., they mean : ' She must necessarily have died sometime ; there must have come a time when I should have to hear this message of her doom. But we always think of death as something that must happen to-morrow, never to-day.' SFl7 SHOULD, 'must necessarily have,' cp. note to 11.3- 127 where the notion of fittingness is implied, and note to IV. 3. 20 where the notion of something necessary is involved. HEEREAFTER: some- what less definite than in MN.E., cp. Lady Macbeth's "the all-haile hereafter" 1.5-56. *IF 18 WOULD, 'must inevitably have been,' cp. note to III. 1. 5 1. Ignoring this notion of necessity which the EL. auxiliaries convey, many have commented on the selfishness of Mac- beth's words. But it is because Macbeth has supped full of horrors that death now be- comes an insignificant fact in life ; he thinks life itself is meaningless delusion, and why
213
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
should one bother about ending it sooner or later? A TIME, i.e. a fitting time, cp. ** Though you heare now, too late, yet no we' s a time" Timon II. 2. 152. SF 19 The bitterness of Mac- beth's words, with their iterating rhythm, " ' " || " ' ' " || " > / "^ ^^y have been intensified by a heart-sickness at his always deferred hope of cheating Banquo's line of the fulfilment of the witches' prophecy. Now at last the to-morrows are ended and there is no hope more. Banquo has triumphed, all the long fight has been for nothing, 'to be nothing,' a mere cipher in time's annals — 'time's fool.' TO MORROW: Halliwell thought that an engraving in Barclay's Ship of Fooles, 1570, representing a fool with crows sitting on his cap and on each hand and the word eras written above each one, may have suggested the notion of to-morrows lighting fools the way to dusty death. The passage which this illustrates is :
They folowe the crowes crye to their great sorowe :
^CraSy^ ^crasy^ ^cras, to morowe we shall amende.
And if we mende not then, then shall we the next morowe ;
Or els shortly after we shall no more offende.
Amende, mad foole, when God this grace doth sende.
ACT V
SCENE V
17-28
It may be worth noting that in Old and Middle High German an r was heard in the caw of the crow, giving the form craa for 'caw.' The word "craw" is also found in English for the caw of a crow, see N.E. D. s.u. SF 20 PETTY in EL. E. has a wider range of use than in MN.E. in the sense which we still preserve in 'petty felony' and in 'petty jury,' and does not necessa- rily connote annoyance. Co- menius calls a primary school a "petty schoole" ; Coles glosses the word by paruus, exiguus'y cp. also "petty ar- tire [artery]" Ham. 1.4.82, "petty present" Ant. & CI. 1.5.45. PACE: cp. "a pace or manner of going, incessus " Phr.Gen. SF2I TO in EL. expressions of time is often used where MN.E. prefers 'until' ; cp. "being two houres to day " Merch. V. 1 . 303, and " For since the birth of Caine, the first male-childe. To him that did but yesterday sus- pire" John III. 4. 79. RE- CORDED TIME: a similar notion of the course of the world as being a book of record occurred in II. 4. 2. *IF22 LIGHTED in EL.E. is a common synonym of 'guided': one needs only to think of the London of Shakspere's day, with its link-boys, to appreciate the association. SF23 DUSTY is taken by Steevens as a reference to the 'dust to dust' of the burial service. Collier cites Anthonie Copley's A Fig for Fortune, 1596 (Sp. Soc, p. 49), "Time and the grave did first salute thy nature. Inviting it to dustie death's defeature" ; the same notion is found in " Death is the drearie
214
MACBETH She should have dy'de heereafter; There would have beene a time for such a
word. To morrow, and to morrow, and to morrow, Creepes in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdayes have lighted fooles The way to dusty death. Out, out, breefe
candle ! Life 's but a walking shadow, a poore player That struts and frets his houre upon the
stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an ideot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
dad and dust the dame Of all flesh-frailtie" Bodenham's Belvedere, p. 231, citing a near-by verse of Copley's. *' Dust" in M.E. ande.N.E. connoted 'worthlessness,' 'emptiness,' N.E.D. sb. I, 3 d, and this association attached to "dusty " in EL. E. ; in Tro.&Cr. III. 2. 195 we have the same notion, **mightie states characterlesse are grated To dustie nothing." For the notion of THE WAY TO DEATH, cp. ''This way to death my wretched sonnes are gone" Titus HI. 1.98. Shakspere may have had in mind the words in Florio's Mon- taigne, I.xix, "All daies march toward death." As Macbeth reviews his own empty yes- terdays of promises kept to his ear and broken to his hope, he bitterly says, 'AH men are fools and life an idiot's tale!' From the notion of light he passes to that of a candle; much the same notions are linked in " Heere burnes my candle out ; I, heere it dies, Which whiles it lasted gave King Henry light" 3Hen.6 n.6. 1. *IF 24 WALKING in EL.E. is used of the stalking movements of spirits or spectres, — cp. note to V. I.3r — and SHADOW is applied to any spectral illusion ; Guildenstern's words, Ham. II. 2. 262, that the substance of ambition is the shadow of a dream, contain the same notion of haunting unreality. The thought of this unreality of life leads Macbeth on to the notion of the stage-player, and recalls that proud moment, years ago, when he heard himself hailed as king to be. Then it was the happy prologue, the swelling act, the imperial theme : the play is oyer now, with its hour of strut and fret, and the poor actor is to be heard no more. This last is the bitter drop in the cup Macbeth is draining — 'no son of his succeeding,' the dynastic hope now shattered and all that he has sacrificed his soul for gone for naught. SF 26 The thought of the actor's strutting and fretting leads on to that of an idiot's tale full of sound and fury; the association of life and a tale is found also in John III. 4. 108, "Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull eare of a drowsie man" ; but here Macbeth's bitterness intensifies the figure. The nineteenth chapter of the first book of Florio's Montaigne is full of similar notions and may have suggested the verbiage of this passage: "being faire and gently led on by her hand in a slow and as it were unperceived descent by little and little, and step by step ['the petty pace'], she roules us into that miserable state and day by day seeks to acquaint us with it." The player notion is also found here : "He hath plaied his part. . . Make room for others, as others have done for you."
The rhythm of this passage shows the marvellous capabilities of English stress to re- flect action : "have lighted fooles The way to dusty death," with its firm and regular for- ward movement, pictures to the mind the action the words describe. "Out, out, breefe candle," reflects the act that Macbeth intends. In " Life's but a walking shadow, a poore player" the long waves in "life," "walking," "poore," add to the notion of stalking that the rhythm expresses. In " struts and frets," with its short, explosive impulses, we have a picture of the actor himself. " And then is heard no more " with the long secondary impulse on "no" and the lingering stress on "more," is full of pathos. The reversals, short and quick, in "it is a tale. Told by an ideot," suggesting inconsequence of thinking; "full of sound and fury," with its swelling wave closing in an unstressed impulse ; " Signifying nothing," with its bold start and its impotent conclusion recalling the inconclusive rhythms of Hamlet — all these adaptations of the verse to the thought show Shakspere's marvellous command over the resources of English rhythm.
Macbeth is evidently on the point of suicide. The double imperative "Out, out, breefe candle!" clearly points to action (cp. V. 1.38) ; the words cannot mean that Lady Mac- beth's candle is out, or that Macbeth wishes that life's candle might be extinguished. The only construction that can be put upon them is that of an immediate purpose to take his life. Like Hercules, when he realizes the utter hopelessness of the future, when he sees his life as behind him and no longer as in a vision before, he will destroy himself. The impatient words he speaks upon the entrance of the messenger likewise point to this action as that intended by Shakspere, — "Thou com'st to use thy tongue" meaning that the messenger is dazed by the scene his eyes present to him and is helplessly staring at what he sees. 'Thou com'st to use thy tongue, not thine eyes. Why stand'st thou there staring like a fool? Thy story quickly ! '
215
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
*ff30 The messenger excuses himself by the strangeness of his news. GRACIOUS MY LORD: for the word order cp. III. 2. 27. SF3I SHOULD, 'must/ *am obliged to/ as in V. 17. I SAY, * I declare'; the
ACT V SCENE V
words were objected to by Keightley as * needless/ and stricken out to make 'good metre.' *IF32 SAY is used absolutely in its EL. connota- tion of 'tell/ cp. ^'■Cor. First hearemespeake. T'rifes. Well, say" Cor. III. 3- 41. *1F 34 ANON METHOUGHT/pres- ently it seemed to me that.' SF36 ENDURE, 'suffer/ cp.V. 4.9. SF 37 MILE, like" hors," has no plural ending in O. E., and ine. N. E.retainsthis flex- ionless form which in vulgar English still survives, cp. note to II. 4. 14. <IF 38 The rhythm is itself a threat— """. SF 39 NEXT still retained its origi- nal meaning of 'nearest' in EL. E. SHALL is changed to 'shalt'in MN. editions ; but in EL. E. the apparently third personal ending -s is often attached to the second, and the forms "will" and "wilt," "shall" and " shalt," appear side by side. The FO. in Ant. &C1.V.2.208 has "shall" for "shalt." SF40CLING>'shrivel up,' cp. "That . . clings not his guts with niggish fare" Surrey,Eccl.V (citedinN.E.D. 3 c) ; the word had this sense of 'shrivelling' in O. E. and M.E., but was used intransi- tively. SOOTH, 'truth,' still in archaic use. SF42 PULL IN in EL. E., as in MN. E., has two meanings, 'to check' or * restrain,' and ' to draw back.' Stecvens took the former meaning. But it is difficult to think of Macbeth restrain- ing resolution in this crisis, and coupling the restrained resolution with fear. Mason
29-46
ENTER A MESSENGER
Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story
quickly.
MESSENGER
Gracious my lord,
I should report that which I say I saw,
But know not how to doo 't.
MACBETH
Well, say, sir. MESSENGER
As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I look'd toward Byrnane, and anon me
thought The wood began to move.
MACBETH
Lyar and slave ! MESSENGER Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so: Within this three mile may you see it com-
ming; I say, a moving grove.
MACBETH
If thou speak'st false Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive. Till famine cling thee : if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much. I pull in resolution, and begin To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend That lies like truth : ^ Feare not, till Byrnane
wood Do come to Dunsinane': and now a wood Comes toward Dunsinane.
took the latter meaning, and
cited Fletcher's Sea Voyage III. I, "All my spirits, as if they had heard my passing-bell
go for me, Pull in their powers and give me up to destiny." But "pull in" here reflects
216
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
the EL. psychology of life — the spirits drawing in their vital instruments preparatory to death. This thought hardly suits the context, for Macbeth's "Arme, arme ! " are not the words of one resigning himself to death. And that Macbeth pulls in his own resolution leaves the same difficulty as before. '' Pull" may be the independent verb used in a sense not yet recorded for EL. E. Cent. Diet, quotes a passage from Fletcher where '* pulled" seems to mean 'reduce,' 'abate' : " His rank flesh shall be pulled with daily fasting." Or it may be a misprint. Johnson suggested *'pall" in the sense of 'languish,' and the word makes even better sense than he dreamed : for "appale," "appall," have parallel meanings in EL. E. : either can mean 'to wax faint in any quality'; the words frequently, too, con- note 'dismay,' see N. E.D. s.v. (One citation in N. E. D., dated 1450, is : " Yf theise men ap- pall and lacke when you do call"; here the word, though a century earlier than Shakspere, has the meaning 'lose heart or resolution.') Aphetic forms of "appall" are common in EL.E., see N.E.D. Johnson's "pall," therefore, would suggest in EL. E. the same notion that we have in Hamlet, in.L84, "the native hew of resolution Is sicklied o're with the pale cast of thought [i.e. anxiety]." Or, again, the misprint may be for "dull" (a turned d in the FO. type would scarcely be distinguishable from a p). "Dull" in EL.E. is com- monly associated with ' spiritlessncss' ; and a verb "to dull" in the sense of 'become stupid' is cited in N.E.D. from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries (the MN. instances seem to imply 'make leaden or dull in color'). The dictionary also records, s.v. 7, an absolute meaning of 'become listless,' but "he dradde [i.e. feared] moche of the forseid word and greatly dulled therewith" Gesta Romanorum, 1440, is its latest citation for this sense. Here, however, we have the association of 'dazed will' and 'fear,' and it is quite possible that this meaning survived in Shakspere's time. (The next meaning of the word, i.e. to weary, is not illustrated in N.E.D. later than 1540, but was in current use in EL.E., see Baret's Alvearie and Sonn. CILM.) Cooper gives ^^obtorpesco, to be very slow or dull : to faint for feare : to be benummed with fear." Baret and Holyoke have the same gloss; cp., also, "to cause astonnedness or dullness of the members" and "a faint cour- age, a dull spirit" Baret's Alvearie, and " Dull not device by coldnesse and delay" Oth. IL 3.394. The notion of 'dazed will' — for the "resolution" in EL. E. is the 'will power' — is just the one which fits the words that follow': the sudden and strange news that Macbeth hears dulls his will and shakes his faith in the witches. SF43 DOUBT, 'fear,"become afraid of,' a common EL.E. meaning of the word. EQUIVOCATION : cp. note to II. 3- 12. Macbeth must have already felt the fear he voices here, else he would not have been so ready to
call the prophecies "equivo-
ACT V SCENE V 46-52 ^:^:^:^,:^^^^:'
, - , that he has been bargaining
Arme, arme, and out ! with Satan, a fact he has
If this which he avouches does appeare, never allowed himself to look
>T-ri . n • _f 1 J. • _r 1 squarely in the face before.
1 here is nor tlymg hence nor tarrying here. ^ -^
I 'ginne to be a-weary of the sun, *iF47, 48, 49, 50 could hardly
And wish th' estate o' th' world were now un- have been written by the same
J hand as that which wrote vv.
don. 20-28, nor do the padded
Ring the alarum bell! blow, winde! come, phrases, "does appeare,"
1 I "now undon," sound like
wracKe. ^ Shakspere. <IF 47 appeare,
At least wee *1 dye with harnesse on our backe. 'become visible,' but the word
EXEUNT is almost as flat in EL.E. as
it is in MN.E. SF 48 NOR . .
NOR, the EL. form of the 'neither . . nor' idiom. SF49 A-WEARY OF THE SUN is an
EL. phrase for tcedium vitce. SF 50 TH' ESTATE O' TH' WORLD WERE NOW UNDON,
217
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
after " Life . . is a tale Told by an ideot,full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing," sounds like a row of accepted emendations. SF5I THE ALARUM BELL: cp. note to IL3.85. WRACKE, 'destruction': the word is still used in the phrase *rack and ruin,' though its e. N. E. w has been lost. Macbeth here invokes the impending storm in the same mad fury that characterizes Lear's "Blow, windes and crack your cheeks; rage! blow!" IIL2. 1. ALARUM was probably syncopated to 'alarm' (both forms are common in EL. E.), for the normal stress of imperative and noun is ' ". *1F52 HARNESSE: the M. E. and e. N.E, word for armour, still in archaic use.
SCENE VI: DUNSINANE BEFORE THE CASTLE DRUMME AND COLOURS: ENTER MALCOLME SEYWARD MACDUFFE
AND THEIR ARMY WITH BOUGHES j_jq
MALCOLME OW neere enough : your leavy
skreenes throw downe, And shew like those you are.
You, worthy unkle. Shall with my cosin, your right noble Sonne, Leade our first battell : worthy Macduffe and
wee Shall take upon 's what else remaines to do^ According to our order.
SEYWARD
Fare you well. Do we but finde the tyrant's power to night, Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.
MACDUFFE Make all our trumpets speak; give them all
breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and
death. EXEUNT
ALARUMS CONTINUED
SF I LEAVY is the normal form of M.E. 'Mevi," and is common in c. N.E. MN.E. Meafy' is made from the noun Meaf.' SF2 SHEW, 'disclose yourselves in your true form,' cp. L3. 54. SF4 BATTELL from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries means a file or line of troops, acies, N.E.D.8. *1F5 TO DO, *to be done,* cp. note to V. 8.30. SF 6 ORDER is probably * plan of battle' rather than 'com- mand,' cp. *'we put our men into order, legiones instruxi- mus'' Coles. SF 7 DO, Mf we do,' the M. E. subjunctive still current in EL. E. TO NIGHT seems to be a time suggestion placing the battle in the late afternoon. <ff 9 GIVE THEM ALL BREATH, *put breath into them,' *makethem speak.' SFlO HARBINGERS, cp. note to 1.4.45 ; the word retains its full form,CLAM'ROUS being syncopated. The EL. stage direction ALARUMS usually denotes the din and noise of battle. CONTINUED here seems to mean 'continuous,' and the stage direction to represent the trumpet blasts challenging the defenders of the castle. The battle immediately follows, though Shakspere represents it as well under way when Scene VII opens. The action of Scene VII is closely joined to that of Scene V : Macbeth was at first resolved to stand a siege ; but on hearing the news of the moving wood he decided to put his fate at once to the test in an immediate sally. Scene VI forms the connecting link.
218
THE TRAGEDIE OP MACBETH
SCENE VII: THE BATTLEFIELD ENTER MACBETH
I-I2
MACBETH HEY have tied me to a stake; I
cannot flye, But beare-like I must fi^ht the
course. What 's he That was not borne of woman? Such a one Am I to feare, or none.
ENTER YOUNG SEYWARD YOUNG SEYWARD
What is thy name? MACBETH Thou 'It be affraid to heare it. YOUNG SEYWARD No; though thou call'st thy selfe a hoter
name Then any is in hell.
MACBETH
My name 's Macbeth.
YOUNG SEYWARD The divell himselfe could not pronounce a
title More hatefull to mine eare.
MACBETH
No, nor more fearefull. YOUNG SEYWARD Thou lyest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword I 'le prove the lye thou speak'st.
FIGHT AND YOUNG SEYWARD SLAINE
MACBETH Thou wast borne of woman. But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorne,
219
SF2 COURSE in EL.E. was the technical term for a round of fighting in the sport of bear- baiting. Gloucester uses the same figure in Lear III. 7. 54. Macbeth is pushed to the last extremity with but one pro- phecy to tie to, and is afraid that will turn out to have been equivocal. He repeats this over to himself, and, impa- tient to try its efficacy, glee- fully welcomes young Sey- ward as a test, finishing him off with a satisfied 'Well, it held for once ; thou wast born of woman.' WHAT'S, 'who is,' cp. note to II. 3. 2 1. SF4 AM I TO FEARE, 'am I go- ing to fear,'cp. note to II. 1.43. *ff 5 TO HEARE, 'at hearing,' the common EL. infinitive idiom. SF7 THEN ANY IS, 'than any that is,' the EL. omitted relative. SF 10 LY- EST, 'ly'st,' as in IV.2.83, with ABHORRED three sylla- bles. SF 1 1 Macbeth has now tested the prophecy, and in his words appears a fresh confidence.
*1FI5 BEEST, monosyllabic in EL. E., cp. "seest," II.4.5. <1FI6 STILL, 'always.' SFl7 KERNES was frequently used in EL. E. for peasant soldiers, cp. 1.2. 13. *ff 18 STAVES, 'spears,' cp. note to V.3.48. EITHER is frequently a mon- osyllable in EL.E.; this loss of intervocalic th occurs also in "thither" and "whether" ('whithcr,'cp. note to IV. 2. 73), which had forms "th'er" and "wh'er"in EL.E. ; cp. "which
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
hath thine honour reft from thee and either by force of hand," etc., Pcele's Sir Clyo- monand SirClamydes, III. 73 (the poem is in septenarius verse), and ** either well or yll according to thy [see note to
IV. 1. 71] intent" Faire Em,
V. 1.25; cp., also, Caes. IV. 1.23, Rich.3 1. 2. 64, etc. The THOU is probably not *un- grammatical,' but in Mac- duffs mind the subject of some verb like 'must meet me.' SFI9 UNBATTERED: in an anticipation of the fierce- ness of the combat between him and Macbeth. *IF 20 UN- DEEDED: cp. 'Veil educated of the king and proving nobly deeded" Albion's England, 377 (cited in N. E. D. s.v.). SHOU LD'ST, ' must,' cp. note to II. 3. 127: the stress is, '* There thou should'st be." *ff2I CLATTER in EL. E. is applied to anyclangingnoise ; cp. 'with clattering of cym- bals' Comenius's Janua, 643- It also means the din of loud voices, N. E. D. 2 ; hence the ''bruited" which follows. OF GREATEST NOTE: cp. III. 2.44. SF 22 SEEMES BRUIT- ED, 'seems to be announced,' the EL. participle construc- tion in indirect discourse. <1F24 GENTLY here is usu- ally interpreted as meaning 'without resistance,' 'with- out reluctance'; but no such meaning is given in N.E.D., and Schmidt's citation from Temp. I. 2. 298, "doe my spryting gently," is obviously an instance of the common EL. meaning of the word, viz. 'courteously.' It is possible that 'tamely' is the meaning, based upon the sense of " gen- tle" as used in 1.6.3- REN- DRED, 'surrendered,' a com- mon meaning of the word
ACT V
SCENE VII
13-29
Brandish 'd by man that 's of a v^oman borne.
EXIT ALARUMS: ENTER MACDUFFE
MACDUFFE That way the noise is. Tyrant, shew thy
face! If thou beest slaine and with no stroake of
mine, My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me
still. I cannot strike at wretched kernes, whose
armes Are hyr'd to beare their staves: either thou,
Macbeth, Or else my sword with an unbattered edge I sheath againe undeeded. There thou
should'st be; By this great clatter, one of greatest note Seemes bruited. Let me finde him, Fortune, And more I begge not.
EXIT: ALARUMS ENTER MALCOLME AND SEYWARD
SEYWARD This way, my lord; the castle's gently
rendred: The tyrant's people on both sides do fight; The noble thanes do bravely in the warre; The day almost it selfe professes yours, And little is to do.
MALCOLME
We have met with foes That strike beside us.
SEYWARD
Enter, sir, the castle.
EXEUNT: ALARUM 220
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
in EL. E. In the past tense of verbs ending in -en, like "happen," and in -er, Hke "render," the e of the verb stem was often dropped ; whether this represents an actual EL. form of these words or was merely a way of representing the vocalic character of the liquid or nasal has not yet been made clear. SF25 means that the royal household is divided and that their half-heartedness practically amounts to fighting upon Malcolm's side. SF 26 DO BRAVELY is a common EL. phrase meaning to act in a highly creditable way; the phrase is not found in N.E.D. but depends on DO in the sense of 'behaving,' cp. "to doe or exercise: to beare, to behave, gero^^ Baret, "Do bravely, horse" Ant.&Cl. L5.22, and "see you do it bravely" Titus IV.3.II3. WARRE, 'battle,' as in V.4.2L SF 27 DAY, 'battle,' cp. L3.38. ALMOST IT SELFE seems to go together, meaning 'of its own ac- cord.' PROFESSES YOURS, 'declares for your party,' cp. "by the saint whom I professc" Meas. IV. 2. I9I. SF28 TO DO, 'to be done,' cp. V.6.5 ; the passive and active infinitives have the same form in 1. M. E., due to the loss of final -e in the former idiom ; some of these appear in EL. E., and one, 'is to let,' still survives. SF 29 BESIDE US, 'so as to miss us,' a meaning of the preposition now obsolete, cp. "oh, do him not the wrong to look beside him, for if you see him not he comes by to no purpose" Gaule, 1629 (cited in" N.E. D.4 a), and "to go besides or out of the right way," "the lot did fall besides the persons fit or
meet, i.e. the lot happen'd to ACT V SCENEVII 30-35 t^hem^h^a^t were nothing meet"
I
ENTER MACBETH
MACBETH Why should I play the Roman foole, and
dye VIII. I*
On mine owne sword? Whiles I see lives, the
gashes Do better upon them.
^ ENTER MACDUFFE
MACDUFFE Turne, hell-hound, turne!
MACBETH Of all men else I have avoyded thee: But get thee backe; my soule is too much
charged With blood of thine already. vm. 6
* These figures indicate the Globe numeration.
At this point Dyce made a new scene division which the Cambridge Text follows. But the action is continuous with Macduff's words " Let me finde him." The actors come on and off the stage as the battle ebbs and flows, the reader's interest now with Malcolm's party, now with Macbeth's ; but the main ac- tion is continuous : Scene V represents Macbeth's prepa- ration for the struggle, Scene VI Malcolm's, Scene VII the battle itself. A necessary change of scene from the bat- tle-field to the court of the castle occurs after Macbeth's death in v. 34 (see the intro- ductory note to Scene VIII).
To make a new scene here with the place direction 'Another part of the plain' or 'Another part of the field' awkwardly interrupts the continuity of the battle with a gap in the action which the imagination finds it hard to fill. *1F 30 PLAY THE ROMAN FOOLE : Macbeth contemptuously puts aside the temptation to take his own life when overwhelmed by disaster ; the allusion is to the example of Brutus, Cassius, Antony, and Cato, familiar to Shakspere's audience from the pages of Plutarch; Shakspere calls suicide "a Roman's part" in CcES.V.3.89. The fine strength of Macbeth comes out so clearly in these words that they go far to redeem him in his last appearance before us. SF31 WHILES, 'while,' cp. note to 1.5-6. LIVES: in M.E. "life" often corresponds to MN.E. 'person' and sometimes to 'body,' a usage still retained in such MN. idioms as 'twenty lives were lost' and in 'life-guard,' i.e. body-guard. Shak-
221
1
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
spere seems to have used the word in this concrete sense here. Scholars have been wont to assume for Shakspere a peculiar proneness to use abstract words in concrete senses, but the N.E. D. shows that Shakspere's English is not unusual in this respect, being in most cases the reflection of the idiom of his time ; most of the abstract significations of MN. E. words have developed out of earlier concrete significations. A good illustra- tion of this is ** gaze," v. 53 (sec note). THE: * its,' f.e. the gashes made by his sword. SF 32 DO BETTER,*lookbetter': the stress is "Do better upon them." HELL-HOUND: cp. note to n.3.2, and 'Down, hell-hound, down' Massinger's Virgin Martyr, V.2. SF33 OF ALL MEN ELSE, ' more than any one else,' cp. ** he of all the rest hath never mov'd me [i.e. hath failed to move me]" Two Gent. L2.27, and "To sec my friends in Padua, but of all . . Hortensio" Tam.of Shr. L2.2 ; in these idioms "of" expresses an adverbial notion of eminence equivalent to MN.E. 'more than,' 'above.' But it seems strange that Macbeth should say that he has avoided any one after his desperate resolution in v. 31 ; he is evi- dently plunging into the thick of the fight, not running away, when Macduff calls to him to turn: one would therefore expect him to face Macduff with the words "Of all men least have I avoided thee!" True, he has been told to "beware Macduff," but he would naturally suppose that Macduff had already done the evil the witches warned him against, and would feel that Macduff, of all others, was the man now to be revenged upon. The compunction which comes over him when he stands face to face with the father of the murdered babes seems to be a sudden rush of feeling rather than a settled conviction of guilt — " But get thee backe!" — and can hardly be the reason for any past avoidance of Macduff; yet as the text stands we shall have to consider it as such. *1F 34 GET THEE BACKE: Macduff has evi-
dently rushed forward from a group of Malcolm's men. CHARG'D, 'burdened,' cp. V. I. 61. <iF35 THINE, 'thy family,' 'thy house,' cp. V. 1. 61.
ACT V
SCENE VII
35-42
IS
MACDUFFE
I have no words: vm. 6 in my sword, thou bloodier
My voice villaine Then tearmes can give thee out!
FIGHT: ALARUM
MACBETH
Thou loosest labour; As easie may'st thou the intrenchant ayre With thy keene sword impresse as make me
bleed: Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; I beare a charmed life, which must not yeeld To one of woman borne. vm. 13
III. 4. 27 ; Shakspere'spassive use of the adjective is somewhat anomalous. SF 39 IMPRESSE, 'make a mark or inci- sion in,' cp. "Albe the wound were nothing deep imprest" Spenser's Faerie Queene, Ill.xii. 33 (cited in N.E.D.). SF4I MUST in EL. E. expresses a fatal necessity as well as a moral obligation; this shade of meaning is involved in Macduff's "must" in IV. 3.212.
SF42 DISPAIRE, 'cease to trust in,' a meaning common in EL. E., cp. N.E. D. 3. *ff 43 ANGELL, i.e. Satan. STILL, 'always': an intimation that Macbeth has sold his soul to
222
It 37 TEARMES, 'names,' 'epithets,' cp. 'stand under the adoption of abhominable termes: . , termes 1 names! Amaimon sounds well, Lu- cifer, well" Merry W. II. 2. 308. GIVE.. OUT, 'describe,' N.E. D. 62 a; for the word order, cp. note to III. 6. 48. TO LOOSE LABOUR is an EL. phrase for ' to waste time,' cp. "This is but lost labor, verba fiunt morfwo" Cooper s.v.morior. SF 38 INTRENCH- ANT, 'not to be cut,' cp. note to
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
ACT V
SCENE VII
42-63
MACDUFFE Dispaire thy cbarme; vm. 13 And let the an^ell whom thou still hast
serv'd Tell thee Macduffe was from his mother's
womb Untimely ript.
MACBETH Accursed be that tongue that tels mee so, For it hath cow'd my better part of man ! And be these jugling fiends no more beleev'd, That palter with us in a double sence; That keepe the word of promise to our eare, And breake it to our hope. I 'le not fight
with thee
MACDUFFE Then yeeld thee, coward, And live to be the shew and gaze o' th' time : Wee '1 have thee, as our rarer monsters are, Painted upon a pole, and under-writ, 'Heere may you see the tyrant/
MACBETH
I will not yeeld To kisse the ground before young Malcolmes
feet, And to be baited with the rabble's curse. Though Byrnanewoodbecometo Dunsinane, And thou oppos'd, being of no woman borne. Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduffe, And damn'd be him that first cries ' Hold,
enough ! ' vm. 34
EXEUNT FIGHTING: ALARUMS
ENTER FIGHTING AND MACBETH SLAINE
223
the evil one. *1F 45 UNTIMELY RIPT and so not *'borne" in the literal sense of the word. *IF47 MY BETTER PART OF, 'the stronger part of my,' cp. V.2. II. MAN, 'manhood,' ' manliness,' cp. note to V. 2.5- IF 49 To PALTER in EL.E. is to ''dodge off and on" as Comenius glosses it; cp., also, "Whereas they [i.e. the devils] could not tell what should fall out, they framed the oracle in such sort as it was doubtfull, and might be taken both waies" Gif- ford's Dialogue, p. 48. SF5I I 'LE NOT FIGHT WITH THEE: the stress necessary to make the verse normal does not give good sense in MN.E. If "Tie "and "fight" and "thee" are stressed we have a verse like III. 6. 14. Walker would read " I will" and join the half verse to the next. *1F53 GAZE, 'object to gaze at'; like "lives" in V. 31, this use of the word has been assumed to be pe- culiar to Shakspere, but in N. E. D. s.v. I it is shown that 'that which is gazed or stared at' is the original meaning of the noun, and that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was in common use with this sense. SF55 PAINTED UPON A POLE, i.e. depicted upon a banner hung upon a pole as an ad- vertisement of the show with- in the booth. Such exhibi- tions are referred to in Ado 1. 1.267 and in Temp. II. 2. 28 ff. "Paint" in EL.E. is used of advertising wares for sale, cp. "to paint or counterfait and set out things for the better sale" Baret's Alvcarie. *JF 56 The verse has the extra syllable before the ca2sura. <1F60 OPPOS'D, i.e. my ad-
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
vcrsary, in EL. E. a more or less technical term, cp. '' Bear 't that th' opposed may beware of thee" Ham. 1.3.67. BEING, monosyllabic, as usually in EL. E. A participial idiom often occurs in EL. E. where MN.E. prefers the relative clause, cp. *'hearc answere of the shippes set foorth [i.e. listen to the report from the ships which set forth] " Sidney's Arcadia, p. 9. SF6I TRY THE LAST: the words are usually taken to mean something like 'run the hazard to the end' : but they may mean 'test the last of these conditions,' i.e. Macduff's statement. SF 62 WARLIKE in MN. E. sounds weak from the prominence which attaches to '-like'; but in EL. E. it was evidently a much stronger word, as Baret's entries show: " warrelike, like a warrier" ; "a great fighter, warrelike, contentious" ; " valiantlie warre- like." "Warlike shield" here has the meaning 'warrior's shield,' cp. "my warlike word [i.e. the word of a soldier]" lHcn.6 IV. 3-31, and "Thy warlike sword" ibid. IV. 6. 8. SF63 Cp."To cry hold is the word of yielding" Carew's Survey of Cornwall (cited by Toilet). The rhythm, with its tense monosyllabic impulses, its continuous flow, and its sharp rise at the verse end, " ' ^ ' || ^ ' " ' x ' " ' >; '^ carries out to the very last the no- tion of strength that Shakspere has associated with Macbeth. It is interesting to com- pare the rhythm of these words with that of Hamlet's "the rest is silence."
The stage direction ENTER [i.e. 're-enter'] FIGHTING AND MACBETH SLAINE is usu- ally omitted by modern editors. But just such action is frequently indicated as a part of battle scenes in EL. drama, e.£f. " Here alarum, they are beaten back by the English with great losse" iHen. 6 I. 2.21, FO. I, p. 97, and "Alarum. Exeunt. Here alarum againe, and Tal- bot pursueth the Dolphin and driveth him. Then enter," etc., ibid. 1.4. 1 1 1, FO. I, p. 100. It is quite likely, therefore, that the FO. represents Shakspcre's conception of Macbeth's end. The long and bitter fight he makes for life when all has turned against him is quite in keeping with the rest of the play. It must be remembered, too, that this part of the scene describes a battle, not a duel — the ALARUMS, 'onsets,' 'rushes,' 'attacks,' cp. N.E.D. 1 1, show that clearly ; while the two furious protagonists are the centre of interest, they are not alone, nor when they go out do they leave the stage empty. It is better, therefore, to leave such a usual Elizabethan stage direction stand, and not to try to botch Shaksperc's text to suit modern notions of dramatic art.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SCENE VIII
The scene direction 'Another part of the field,' which has been prefixed by the Cambridge editors to what has been assumed for the beginning of Scene VII, certainly cannot apply to the verses which follow. For Malcolm enters the castle in V. 7.29 and it is hardly likely that he comes forth again; the body of young Seyward has been "brought off the field" in v. 10 ; and Macduff does not make his appearance until v. 20. The action, there- fore, must take place inside the castle court and not on the field. Moreover, the long stage direction, with its detailed entrances, its retreat and flourish, and its drums and colours, can hardly be other than a stage direction for the opening of a new and final scene. It is likely, therefore, that the scene division which modern editors insert at v. 30 really belongs here, and that the Scena Octava has been accidentally omitted in the FO. text, probably to make the columns finish at the bottom of the page. We had the prelude to the battle in Scene VI, and all of Scene VII up to this point has depicted the struggle itself, with its fights and alarums. What follows is not a part of the battle, but the nobles' acclamation of Malcolm as king, and naturally belongs by itself. The "Scene VIIl" which modern editors insert after v. 29 is therefore placed here, where it more naturally belongs.
The real end of the tragedy comes with Macbeth's death. This last scene, like the verses which finish Hamlet, is only a sort of dramatic epilogue, rounding out the action and bringing it to a conclusion.
224
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
SCENE VIII: THE COURT OF THE CASTLE
RETREAT AND FLOURISH: ENTER WITH DRUMME AND COLOURS
MALCOLM SEYWARD ROSSE THANES AND SOLDIERS
MALCOLME
WOULD the friends we misse
were safe arrivM. vm. 35
SEYWARD
Some must go off: and yet, by
these I see,
So great a day as this is cheapely bought.
MALCOLME
Macduffe is missing, and your noble sonne.
ROSSE
Your son, my lord, has paid a souldier's debt;
He onely liv'd but till he was a man;
The which no sooner had his prowesse
confirm'd
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he dy'de.
SEYWARD
Then he is dead? ROSSE
I, and brought off the field: your cause of
sorrow
Must not be measured by his worth, for then
It hath no end.
SEYWARD
Had he his hurts before?
^ ^ ROSSE
1, on the front.
SEYWARD
then, God's soldier be he!
Had I as many sonnes as I have haires,
I would not wish them to a fairer death :
And so his knell is knoU'd. vm. 50
'confirmed by the fearless manner in which he fought.'
* ground for sorrowing' : *' cause" has frequently in EL. E. this sense of 'ground/* occasion,' 'reason for'; the verbiage is not 'pleonastic,' as it seemed to the editors of CI. Pr., nor is there any occasion for the emendation 'course' for "cause." 9f 12 BEFORE is used
225
Why
I-I6
RETREAT, a set of notes as a signal for giving up the pursuit, cp. " Here sound re- treat and cease our hot pur- suit"lHen.6lI.2.3. FLOUR- ISH, the usual prelude to a king's entry. SF I MISSE seems to have the sense 'long for in absence' as in IIL4.90. SF2 GOOFF as a euphemism for 'die' is I6th- and 17th-century English, see N.E. D.83d. BY THESE, I.e. to judge from these. *JF 6 BUT in the sense of 'only' was in EL. E. often strength- ened by "only " itself, N.E.D. 6 c. SF7 PROWESSE is one of the words which, like "coward," lose their intervo- calic w in EL.E. and become monosyllables, cp. " Nor do I scorne, thou goddess, for to staine My prowes with thee" Greene's Alphonsus, v. 1749? and "Whose prowesse alone hath bene the onely cause" ibid. V. 754. SF8 IN . . FOUGHT seems like a loca- tive qualifier either of DY'DE or of CONFIRM'D. UN- SHRINKING is an awkward adjective if STATION means 'position' as in III. 1. 102 ; but "station" in EL. E. also means 'bearing'; IN may mean 'by,' and WHERE maybe the rela- tively used adverb. The fact that there is no comma after "confirm'd" in FO. I points to this latter interpretation — SFlO CAUSE OF SORROW,
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
both as adverb and preposition in M. E. and e. N. E. for * in the front part/ cp. *' The life of Mahomet is at large described by divers authors, but I find it nowhere so fully as before the Alcaron" Purchas's Pilgrimage V.iii. 243. SFl3 GOD'S SOLDIER BE HE ! a euphem- ism for Met him be God's soldier/ probably a stereotyped phrase, as is "he is made God's saint" in Cooper. SF 15 WISH THEM TO A FAIRER DEATH is not 'wish a fairer death for them,' as it is usually trans-
ACT V SCENE VIII
16-25
VIII. 50
lated, but WISH is used in the sense of 'commend,' cp. "I will wish him to her father" Tam.of Shr. I.I.II3.
*1FI8 PARTED is here used in its EL. sense of 'departed,' a euphemism still current in the phrase 'the dear departed'; cp. also "a' parted . . at the turning o' th' tyde" Hen.5 II. 3-12. WELL,'nobly.' SCORE, 'reckoning,' 'scot' : the asso- ciation between settling one's account at an inn and death occurs frequently in English speech ; a kindred figure is that embodied in the Western phrase, 'to pass in one's checks.' Young Seyward's euthanasia and his father's stoical reception of the news are told in Holinshed. *JF2I TIME, 'the world,' cp. note to 1.5.64. SF22 THY KING- DOMES PEARLE, 'flower of the nobility,' EL. E. "pearle" being a collective plural form; cp. "Decking with liquid pearle the bladed grasse" Mids. I. I.2II, and "pearle andgold"Tam.of Shr.V.1.77, so Rich. 3 IV. 4. 322; there is thus no occasion for emending the word to 'peares' (which, by the way, does not spell ' peers 'in EL. E.), nor to 'pearls,' nor to 'pale.' But it maybe that Macduff is thinking of the word in its heraldic sense, cp. "pearl, in heraldry ; the silver or white colour in the coats of barons and other noblemen" Kersey. *1F 24 WHOSE is the EL. connective rela- tive corresponding to MN. E. 'but their.' VOYCE in EL. E. is the regular word for 'assent,' and frequently means 'vote,' 'suffrage'; cp. "I meane your voice for crowning of the king" Rich.3 III. 4.29.
*1F26 EXPENCE in the sense of 'expenditure' is now obsolete, N.E.D. lb, but was com- mon in the 1 6th and 1 7th centuries, so that emendations like 'expanse,' 'excess,' etc., are idle. SPEND ,. EXPENCE: cp. note to V. 3- 44. SF27 RECKON WITH, 'render account for.' LOVES, the usual EL. abstract plural. SF 29 EARLES: the historical note about the appointment of the earls is from Holinshed: "These were the first earles that have beene heard of amongst the Scotishmen" ed. Boswell-Stone, p. 45- SF 30 MORE, 'further,'
226
MALCOLME Hee 's worth more sorrow, And that I 'le spend for him.
SEYWARD
He 's worth no more: They say he parted well, and paid his score: And so, God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.
ENTER MACDUFFE WITH MACBETH'S HEAD
MACDUFFE Haile, king! for so thou art: behold, where
stands Th' usurper's cursed head: the time is free: I see thee compast with thy kingdomes pearle. That speake my salutation in their minds. Whose voyces I desire alowd with mine: Haile, King of Scotland!
ALL Haile, King of Scotland! vm. 59
FLOURISH
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
cp. note to III. 4. 137. TO DO : cp. note to V. 7.28. *1F3I WOULD : cp. notes to 1.7.34 and V.2.4. PLANTED in EL.E. means 'established/ cp. "in one . . howre To plant and orewhelmecustome" Wint. T.I V.I. 8, and 1.4.28 of this play. NEWLY, *anew/cp. "I will
have that subject newly writ
ACT V SCENE VIII
ore L.L.L. 1.2. 120, and "newly, . . in a new sort or maner: contrare to the old fashion, noue" Baret's Al- vearie. WITH, 'in accordance with.' SF32 AS in EL. E. and still in colloquial MN.E. means ♦to wit.' *IF34 PRODUCING FORTH, 'bringing forth into the light,' a meaning still cur- rent in 'produce the prisoner.' MINISTERS, 'agents.' SF 36 SELFE is usedas an adjective, cp.thenoteto III.4. 142. It 37 OFF in this idiom has its EL. sense of ' away,' cp. " it takes one off from business" Phr. Gen., and "your command is takenoff"Oth.V.2.33I. The idiom is similar to that of III. 1. 105 and the notion parallels that of 1.7.20. WHAT NEED- FULL ELSE, 'what is needful besides,' a usage common in e. N.E., cp. "At what time Sylla was made lord of all he would have had Caesar put away his wife Cornelia" North's Plutarch, p. 758. <1F 38 CALLS UPON US, 'demands our attention,' cp, note to III. 1.37. THE GRACE OF GRACE, 'the favour of divine guidance': such plays on word meanings are com- mon in Shakspere's time, as Theobald pointed out : " Doe curse the grace that with such grace hath blest them" Two. Gent. III. I. 146 ; "The greatest gracelendinggrace" AU'sW. II.I.I63; "spight of spight" 3Hen.6 II. 3. 5; "for the love of love" Ant.&Cl. I.I.44. SF40 ONE and SCONE rhyme in EL.E., see note to IV. 1.7. <IF4I According to Holinshed, ed. Boswell-Stone, p. 44, Malcolm "was crowned at Scone the 25th day of Aprill in the yeere of our Lord 1057."
26-41
MALCOLME [vm. 60
We shall not spend a lar^e expence of time
Before we reckon with your severall loves,
And make us even with you. My thanes and
kinsmen,
j Henceforth be earles, the first that ever
Scotland
In such an honor nam'd. What 's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exil'd friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchfuU tyranny;
I Producing forth the cruell ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like
I queene,
Who, as 't is thought, by selfe and violent
hands
I Tooke off her life; this, and what needfuU
else
That calls upon us, by the grace of grace.
We will performe in measure, time and place :
So, thankes to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.
FLOURISH '^^""^" '5
EXEUNT OMNES
Act V is, as it were, a grand finale to this Faust symphony, and the azsthetic analogy is more than mere accident. For Macbeth is a group of themes wrought together into an a2Sthetic unity, and this closing act reviews them all, like the closing movement of a great musical symphony. The play opened with a brief introductory motive of supernatural in-
227
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH
tercsts, which reappears from time to time during its course. Act I was what might be called the soldier theme, Macbeth triumphant; Act II had for its theme Lady Macbeth and the murder of Duncan; Act III gave us the Banquo theme with the Duncan and Lady Macbeth interests woven into it, all three uniting in the punishment of Macbeth, the internal Nemesis of the tragedy; Act IV presents the Macduff-Malcolm theme. Act V begins in Scene I with the Lady Macbeth theme — recalling, too, the Duncan and Banquo themes that have preceded; Scene II develops the Macduff-Malcolm theme; Scene III recurs to the soldier theme — Macbeth in action; Scene IV carries further the Macduff- Malcolm theme; Scene V returns to the horrors of Act III, weaves in the Lady Macbeth interest, and suggests again the Macbeth in action of Act I more sharply and strongly; Scenes VI and VII bring them all into a swirling finale, with the soldier theme struck hard and tense in "Lay on, Macduffe, and damn'd be him that first cries 'Hold, enough!'" while Scene VIII adds the finishing cadence to the whole, the strong C major of Macduff's "the time is free" and Scotland herself again.
There is no play of Shakspere that has such a marvellous azsthetic unity as this of the fury-driven Macbeth. There is an incompleteness about Hamlet, the long wailing minor of "the rest is silence." There is no redemption for his failure: one closes the book, saddened by a yearning pathos and wondering if, after all, there is another life for the lessons this life should learn. But it is not so with Macbeth. His is, as it were, a tri- umphant failure : tricked and cheated by the powers of evil, he would be on his guard against them if he were given another chance. In the last action he is himself again and dies bravely fighting. He has sold his soul, but with his mighty human strength he wins back his manliness. And damned though he be, — damned with the deep desert of sin, — he pays the price like a man.
228
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
The first number refers to the page, the second to the note; where but one reference is given it is the page number that is indicated.
a, sound of, in EL. E., 134.2, 1 48.30 ; before / and conso- nant, 86.12
jUbound, moral connotation of, 176.95
/I bout, by a circuitous way, 113. II
/?bso/ufe, positive, 142.40; downright, 172.38
Abstract nouns : plural of jealousies, 171.29; loves, 1 01. 1 22, 226.27 ; revenges, 198.3; seedes, 96.70
Abstract words concrete in EL.E., 221.31
Abuse, deceive, 60. 50
JJccompt, account, 193-42
/Iccus'd, revealed in true character, 177.107
JJccustom'd, customary, 192.31
Acheron, Acherusia, 135.15
/let, action, activity, 85.5 ; execute, 1 3 1. 1 40, 176.97
/let in safetie, mature plans in security, 94.54
/Ictuall performances, ac- tive functions, mechanical acts, 1 9 1. 1 3
/Addition, title, 23. 1 06 ; mark of distinction, 99.100
/Jddrest to sleepe, 66.25
/idhere, suit, agree, be fit- ting, 50.52
Adjectives in -ed corre- sponding to MN.E. parti- ciples, 75.63 ; to adjec- tives in -able, 53.73 ; ab- solute use of superlative of, 76.72
/Idmir'd, amazing, aston- ishing, I27.II0
Advantage, opportunity, chance, 210. 1 1
Adverbs without suffix, 41. 72,47.17,84.143; from ad- jectives ending in -ly, 68.46, I88.235 ; position of,31.20, 172.46
Advise . . to, recommend course of action, 143-44
Afeard, frightened, 22.96,
49.39 Affear'd (used of a title),
confirmed, 172.34 /^//ecf ion, disposition, 175. 77 Agitation, activity, 1 9 1. 1 2 ai, unstressed in words of
French origin, 4.4 /? /arum, onset, 198.4,5 ; din
of battle, 218.10 Alexandrine. See Versifica- tion, six-wave series All, any, 1 05. II, 196.84;
everything, 78.99, I62.I2;
as a whole, 203-1 All-haile, to salute, to greet,
35.7 All thing, quite, altogether,
91-13
All to all, 124.92
/?/mo5f af 0(ic/es, on the point of quarrelling, 129.127
Almost it selfe, of its own accord, 221.27
Alwages thought, IO3.I32
Amaz'd, dazed, bewildered, 79.114, 196.86
Amazedly, in consterna- tion, 158.126
Amend, recover, 180.145
Amisse, at a loss, 79.102
Am to, am going to, 219-4; have to, must, 60.43
Anacolutha, punctuation of, 48.28
And, if, 140.19; post-posi- tive, 163-22
231
Angell, applied to Satan, 222.43
Angerly, 1 34. 1
Annoyance, injury, 196.84
Anon, coming, 72.24 ; in a moment, 1 1 6. 1 1
/?not/nfec?,consecrated,76.73
Anticipate, prevent, fore- stall, 159.144
Antidote, 207.43
Antique, a dance, 158.130
dnb Koivov. See Zeugmatic constructions
Apostrophes in Folio; ha's, 20.79
Appall, make pale, 121.60
Appeare, become visible, 217.47
Apply, attend assiduously, IO8.3O
Approve, prove, show, 42.4
Arbitrate, decide, deter- mine, 2 II. 20
Are, with verbs of motion, 20.80 ; rhymes with care,
154.91
Arm'd, protected by armor, I26.IOI, 152.68
Aroynt, begone, 14.6
Art, professional skill, 179.143
A rticle, definite, correspond- ing to a MN.E. possessive pronoun, 6.6, 26.137, 35. 13,51.58,60.48, 1 12.4, 127. 109, 141.25, 172.34, 39; demonstrative force of, 102.130 ; enclitic, 14.7; loss of vowel of, 4.5 ; mark- ing formality, 1 15.2 ; omit- ted before the superlative, 31.17, II4.2I
Article, indefinite, before ab- stract nouns, 53-68
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
I
Article, instrumental case of, 92.26
Artificially cunning, 136.27
/Js, as being, because it is, 43.12, 47.13; as if, 31. II, 66.28, 213.13; in propor- tion as, 90.7 ; such as, 176. 92 ; to wit, 227.32 ; when, 53.78 ; as who should say^ 1 43.42 ; as you are, that you are, 134.2
Ask'd for, inquired about, missed, 49.30
Assay, effort, attempt, 179.
143
y?ssis<^ec/, supported, 12.52
Astrology, 86.8
At, *apud,' in the presence
of, II 5. 1 At first and last, once for
all, 1 1 5. 1 At more time, with better
opportunity, 29.153 At once, without more ado,
I28.II8 At quiet, 72.21 Attempt,<iX\ack,G^. 1 1,142.39 Attend, await, 104.3; wait
for, expect, 2 II. 1 5 Augure hole, 82.128 Augures, divination,
129.124 Authoriz'd, vouched for as
true, 121.66 Auxiliary verbs. See under
separate entries Avouch, warrant, stand
sponsor for, 1 01. 1 20 Aweary of the sun, 217.49 Ayme, mark, 84.149 Ayre, climate, 42.1 Ayre-drawne, pictured in
air, 121.62
^aby, doll, 127.106 'Bad, EL. adverb, 111.55 "Balles, orbs, emblem of
sovereignty, 1 57.1 2 1 'Banke and schoole, 46.6 'Barefaced, open, avowed,
I0I.II9 Battell, division of troops,
218.4
Batter' d at, laid siege to,
183.178 'Be, 3d pers.plu. indie, 1 65.48 Bear-baiting, 126.100, 219.2 'Beare, exalt, maintain,
136.30 'Beares, possesses, 23.110 'Beast, not man, connoting
stupidity and cowardice as
well as vulgarity, 50.47 'Beest, monosyllabic, 219.15 'Before, in the front part of,
226.12 'Behold, transitive uses of,
204.20 'Being, monosyllabic, 223.60 Beldams, hags, 134.2 ^ell-man, 63.3 'Beside us, so as to miss us,
221.29 'Bestowe, lodge, 92.30,
140.24 'Bestride, defend, 169.4 Bible, reference to, 76.74,
83.136, I77.III
•Bic/, ask, 43.13, 59-31 'Bidding, command, 130.129 'Bill, catalogue, 99.100 Birnam Wood, 154.93 'Birthdome, land of our
birth, 169.4 'Black, sinister, 1 1 1.53,
149.43, 150.48 'Bladed, in the green ear,
150.55 'Blames, charges, accusa- tions, 178.124 'Blaspheme, slander, speak
evil of, 148.26, 177.108 'Blessings, evidences of divine favour, 1 8 1. 1 58 Blind-worms, 147. I6 <Blood-holter' d, 157.123 bloody, murderous, blood- guilty, 92.30, I0I.II6, 173. 57 Blow, blow upon, 15.14;
proclaim, 48.24 'Boadments, predictions,
154.96 'Bond, deed, 1 10.49 ; pledge,
153.84 'Borne, managed, 138.3
232
'Borne in hand, charged or
deceived, 98.81 'Bosome, intimate, 13.64 'Bosomes, hearts, 168.2 ©of c/jes, patches, 103.134 'Both, either of two, 72.13 'Both the worlds, 1 06. 1 6 'Bought, obtained, 49.32 'Bound in to, confined with,
117.24 'Bounty, generosity, 176.93 'Bove, superior to, 1 36.30 'Braine-sickly, insanely,
68.46 'Breake, disclose, 50.48 'Breath, flattery, 205.27 ; life, spirit, 155.99; respite, 62.61 ; give them breath, make them speak, 218.9 Creech' d with gore, 80.122 ©reec?, breeding, 177.108 'Briefely, without delay,
83.139 Grinded, brindled, 1 45. 1 ^road, free, 117.23 ^road words, frank speech,
140.21 'Broke, broken up, 127.109 'Brought forth, discovered,
brought to light, 129.125 'Brows, face, appearance,
170.23 'Bruited, announced, pro- claimed, 220.22 'Buckle in, limit, enclose,
200.15
'Businesse, care, attention, 44.16; commotion, tumult, 77.86, 135.22; task or pur- pose, 60.48 ; topic or mat- ter, 58.23
But, only, 46.4, 46.6, 52.60 ; strengthened by only, 225. 6 ; than, 9.29 ; unless, without being, 93.48, 49 J until, 163.23
'Byrnan, 155-98
'By the way, incidentally, 131.130
'By your leave, permit me, 45.31
Cabin, prison cell, 117.24
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Call upon, make demand
upon, 103.140, 227.38 Capitainej trisyllabic,
10.33 Care, loving regard, 34.57 CarelessCj uncared for,
31. II Carry, to take to a place,
68.49 Cases, confusion of,
102.123, II6.I4, 120.42 Cast, to throw in wrestling,
73.47 ; to diagnose, 208.51 Cafa/o^ue,muster-roll, 99-92 Catch, take, 36.19 Cause, because, 140.21 ;
business, 92.34; matter of
dispute, interest, 131 136;
disease, 198.4,5, 200.15 Cause of, ground for, 225.10 Caution, precaution, 143.44 Celebrate, perform with
ritual, 60.51 Cenny, senna, 208.55 Censure, judgement, 21 1. 1 4 Certaine, infallible, 87.14;
for certaine, I am sure,
200.14 Cesterne, a pool, 174.63 Chair, throne, 204.21 Challenge, find fault with,
120.42 C hambers, private rooms or
residence of a king, 209.2 Chance, misfortune, calam- ity, 78.96 Charge, commission, 1 70.20 Charg'd, burdened, 1 95.6 1,
222.34 Chastise, to put down re- bellion, 37.28 Chawdron, entrails, 148.33 Cheere, toast of welcome,
119.33. See Chair Chiastic construction,
76.69 Chiefest, greatest, best,
most important, 136.33 Children, three syllables,
183.177 Choake, obstruct, 6.9 Choppie, fissured with
wrinkles, 18.44
Chops, jaws, 8.22 Chuck, epithet of endear- ment, 110.45 Clatter, noise of voices,
220.21 Clearenesse, freedom from
blame, 103.133 Cleere, faultless, 47.18; frankly, 41.72 Cling, shrivel up, 216.39 Clipt, called, 99-94 Clogge, hamper, embar- rass, 143-43 Close, secret, 135.7 Close, to come together,
105.14 Clos'd, enclosed, 99.99 Closset, writing-desk or
cabinet, 1 90.6 Clowdy, sullen, 143.41 Cloyster'd, cloister-haunt- ing, 109.41 Cold, dispiriting, 62.61 Colmekill, lona, 88.33 Combin'd, in league with,
23-1 1 1 Combustion, political con- fusion, tumult, 75.63 Come in time, 72.8 Come on, 107.26 Coming on of time, 35.9 Comfort, aid, support, 9-27 Commend, offer, present,
47.11 ; commit, 93.39 Common, public, 102.125 Composition, terms of sur- render, 13-59 Compt, account, 44.26 Compunctious, 39-46 Confident, overbold, 210.8 Confinelesse, limitless,
173.55 Confound, ruin, bring to naught, 150.54, 176.99 Con/uszo/?, ruin, 76. 71, 136.29 Conjure, adjure, 1 50.50 Connective relative, 37.37,
I0I.I22, 138.2 Consent, 58.25 Consequence, sequel,
24.126, 46.3, 203.5 Considered of, thought care- fully over, 97.76
233
Consfrucf io/2,interpretation,
31.12 Construction according to
sense, 173.54 Contented, agreed, 83.140 Continent, restraining,
174.64 Continued, continuous,
218.10 Contractions. See Stress,
lack of Convert to, change its na- ture and become, 187.229 Convey, carry on (with no- tion of secrecy), 174.71 Convince, overpower, 52.64,
179.142 Cool, to chill, 212.10 Coppie, holding by copy,
108.38 Corner of the moone, horn
of the moon, 135.23 Corporall, material, 21.81 Corporall agents, 53.80 Cosin, kinsman, 209.1 To be counsail'd, to take
advice, 59.29 Countenance, 77.85 Counterfeit, portrait, 77.81 Couplet at close of scene,
13.64 Course, technical term in
bear-baiting, 219.2 Courst, chased, pursued,
44.21 Court, immediate surround- ings of the king, 1 04. 1 ;
i' th' court, at the palace,
113. II Cracke, loud noise, blare of
trumpet, 1 57.1 17 Cracks, shots, 10.37 Craving, demanding, 92.34 Craw, caw, 214.19 Crew, company of people,
I79.I4I Crib, hovel, 117.24 Crost, thwarted, opposed,
98.81 Crow, rook, 1 1 1. 5 1 Cruell, wild, fierce, savage,
78.93 Cry, report, rumour, 212.2;
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
scream, clamour, outcry,
212.6 Cure, assuage, 186.215;
treat medicinally, 207.39 Carres, watch-dogs and
sheep-dogs, 99-93 Of custome, habitual, 126.97
<Damme, mother, 187.218 'Damn, to doom, 7.14 'Damned, damning or dam- nable, 139.10, 193-38 'Dare, subjunctive, 126.99,
171.33 Date of Macbeth, 71.6, 72.
12, 94-56, 180.146 Dative, ethical, 55-5, 1 18.32,
143-41, 203-5 Davenant, 34, 103-140, 137,
149-43 ©at/, battle, 221.27 'Deadly, death-dealing,
186.215
Deddmdn, 182.170
Deaftly, ea shortened in MN. E., 152.68
Death, bloodshed, murder, 75.61 ; in imprecations, 204.16
'Deed, action, 67.33, 132. 143 *r execution (of pur- pose), 159-146; thing to be done, 70.73
'Deepe, weighty, important, 24.126, 44.17; wide ap- plication of, in EL. E., 30.7
Deere, used of what stands in intimate relation to a person's interest or affec- tion, 198.3
Defect, faultiness, 57.18
Defiance, Romantic forms of, 126.104
Degrees, rank, order of pre- cedence, 1 1 5- 1
'Delicate, pleasant, delight- ful, 43.10
'Delinquent, criminal, 139-12
'Deliver, tell, 35-12; de- scribe, 1 1 2.2
Demonology, academic, 132, 151-63; Bacon's re- lation to, 54 ; charms, 66.29,
146.5, 6, 147.15, 22, 148. 30, 152.66; devils hover in the air, 4.11 ; devil, names of, 72.11 ; work in storms, 75.59; hedge-pig, 145-2; magic mirror, 157.119; number three, 16.33, 145-2; popular, 1 1 1.56 ; spirits of evil, 39-50; witches: their dame, 134-2; their dances, 1 58.1 30; familiars of witches, 4.8 ; fly in the air, 136.33; habits of, 14.1, 15.8, 16.23, 18.46, 136.33; their Mittle Martins,' I36. 34 ; names of these spirits, 145-3; powers of, 14.2, 15-11, 16.24,24.123, 150.46 'Demy-wolves, 99-93 denies his person, refuses
his presence, 130.128 'Deny, refuse, 206.28 'Destroy, used of persons,
104.6 'Devil, monosyllabic in EL.
E., 23-107, 173-56 'Devotion, earnest applica- tion, 176.94 'Dignity, worth, value, 1 95-63 directly, without more ado,
196.78 'Disaster, bad luck, lOO.1 12 'Disc/2ar£fe,unburden, 1 96.8 1 'Discomfort, undoing, 9-28,
164.29 'Discovery, reconnaissance,
209.6 'Disjoynt, fall to pieces,
106.16 'Dismall, disastrous, 12.53,
135-21, 213-12 ^ispaire, cease to trust in,
222.42 dispatch, management,
41.69 ©rsp/ac'c/, banished, 127.109 'Disposition, character,
128.113 'Dispute, oppose, strive
against, 187.220 D)is-seate, unseat, 204.21 distance, discord, enmity,
101.116
234
'Distempered, a medical
term, 200.15 ©isfin^uisA, single out, 99-96 'Distracted, mad, crazed,
insane, 79-1 10 'Divell, EL. form of devil,
173.56 'Division, a musical term,
176.96 'Do, behave, 221.26; work
mischief, 15-10 Oofeeffer, look better, 222.32 'Do bravely, act in a highly
creditable way, 221.26 'Doffe (do off), put away,
184.188 Dollar, 13-62 -dom, 169.4
'Domestique, at home, 1 07.25 'Done, over, 3.3, 46.1 double, doubly, 153.83 Double meaning implied: casf, 73-47 ; chambers, 209. 2; come down, 114.16; consent, 58.25 ; cries, 36. 22 ; dress, 49-36 ; duties, 31.24; encounter, 116.9; foule, 17.38; frailties, 83- 132; free, 29-155; grace, 227.38 ; guilt, 69-57 ; honor, 58.26 ; lye, 73-44 ; morrow, 41.63; open, 173-52; owe, 31.22; quenched, 63-2; safe, 32.25; step, 33-48; time, 41-64, 65; unnatu- ral, 86.10; vault, 78.101 ; well, 88.37
Double negative,20.74,32.30 Double question, 185-195 <Z)ou6f, fear, 166.67,217.43; ground of distrust, 171.25 'Doubtfull, apprehensive,
104.7 D>ownfall, down-fallen, 1 69-4 drenched, drowned, 53-68 'Dress, to address one's
self to, 49-36 'Drops, tears, 32-35 'Dudgeon, haft of dagger,
60.46 Dull, lose will power, 2 1 6,42 Duncan, his relationship to Macbeth, 8.24
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
'Dunnestj murkiest, 40.52 Dunsinane, 154.93 'Dusty, worthless, empty, 214.23
ea represents a long, close e in EL. E., 4.6, 34.49, 88.37, 119.36, 136.31, 152.64, 186. 209, 204.10
Each, every, 202.29 ; each way, in every direction, 163.22
Earnest, pledge, 26.132
Easie, easily, 84.143
Eate, form of past tense : feed upon, gnaw at, 87.18
Eat on, eat of, 21.84
-ec/, full of, 148.24; charac- terized by, 53-73; equiva- lent to particip. adj. in -ing, 43-5 ; with causative force,
127. no
Effect, accomplishment, 39.48
Effects of, actions asso- ciated with, 1 9 1. 1 1
Egge, term of opprobrium, 167.83
Eight, e.N. E. form of eighth,
I57.II9 Either, a monosyllable,
219.I8 Elision,24.1 19,45.30, 152.71 Emendations: accust, 177. 107; advantage to be given, 2I0.II; and wisedome, 169.15; at first and last, 1 1 5. 1 ; beast, 5O.5O ; cause, 200.15, 225.10 ; cheere and dis-eate, 204.21 ; cold stone, 146.6; consent, 58.25; death, 67.38; dis- cerne, 1 69. 1 5 ; expence, 226. 26; forc'd, 212.5; gentle, 123.76 ; greene one red, 69. 63 ; haire, I56.1 13 ; inhabit then, 127.105; / say, 2 1 6. 31 ; lookes, 107.27; maine, 210.10; makes . . wood, 1 10.49 ; move, 163.22 ; one, 131. 131 ; our, 155.98; peace, 106.20; pearle, 226. 22 ; pull in, 216.42 ; rookie,
1 1 1.5 1 ; sanctity, 179. 144 ; shagge-eared, 167.83 ; shut up, 56.16; sleep . . celebrates, 60.5 1 ; sowre, 62.56 ; stuffe, 207.44 ; sum- mer-seeming, 175-86 ; taint, 203.3; the, 50.50 ; time, 188.235; times has, 123. 78; unsafe the while, 108. 32; uprore, 176.99; vault- ing ambition, etc., 48.28; way of life, 205-22; who cannot want, 139-8
Hmrnence, deference, 108. 31 Enow, plu. of enough, 72.8,
165.57 Enterance, three syllables,
38.40 Entreat, get, induce (or)
pass the time, 57.22 Envernes, I7th-cent. form
of Inverness, 33-42 Epicure, sensualist, 203-8 Equivocation, doctrine of,
72.12, 217.43 Ermites, hermits, beadsmen,
44.20 Establish estate, fix suc- cession, 32.37 Eternal, immortal, 96.68 Eterne, eternal, 108.38 Euripides, referred to,
111. 52
Even like, M.E. even lik: 'just like,' 86.11
Hfenso, is it possible, 195.73
Ever, forever, 204.21
Evill, disease, malady, 180.146
Evils, ills, 173.57; sins, vices, I77.II2
Exasperate, a past parti- ciple, 141.38
Except, unless, 10.39
Execution, wielding, 8.18
Expectation, prospect,prom- ise, 71.7; of expectation, of those expected, 1 1 3. 10
Expedition, haste, swiftness, 79.1 16
Hxpense,expenditure, 226.26
Expire, 182.172
Exploit, act, 159.144
235
Extasie, madness, 106.22,
182.170 Extend, aggravate, 121.57 Eye, presence, 184.186 Eyld, reward, 43.13
Fact, crime, 139.10 Faculties, authority, 47.17 Faile, miss, 92.28 ; deny, re- fuse, withhold from, 140.21 Faire, contrasted with foule,
4.10 Faith, fealty, 201.18 Falconry, 1 10.46 Fall, cause of ruin, 174.69 False, treacherous, 84.143 Fantasticall, imaginary,
19.53, 27.139 Farrow, litters, 152.65 Fast, sound, 1 9 1. 9 Fatall, death-boding, pro- phetic, 59.36, 63.3 Fate, death, ruin, 82.127,
96.72, 103.137, 153.84 Father, a term of respect,
85.4 Favor, face, countenance,
42.73 Feare, to give cause for
alarm, 42.73 ; to fear for,
36.17; to fear is true,
162.20 Feares, objects of fear,
26.137 Fed, fatted, 14.6 Feede, eat, 119.35 Fee-grief e, 185.196 Fell, savage, murderous,
1 66.7 1 ; covering of hair,
213. II Fenny, fen-inhabiting,
146.12 Fevorous, characterized by
shaking, 76.66 Fie, interjection of indignant
reproach, 193.40 Fiend, monster, 188.233 Fife, 88.36 Fight, fighting, 22.91 Figures of speech, homely,
etc., 40.54 File, to defile, 95.65; list,
199.8
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Fillet, lobe of lung or liver,
146.12 Fill up, satisfy, 175.88 Filthie, murky, 4.1 1 Fire, dissyllabic, 1 46. 1 1 Fir7r?e,close in texture,I49.38 Firstlings, the first of their
kind, 159.147 Fit full fever, 107.23 Flawes, outbursts or ac- cesses of passion, 121.63 Flighty, ilezt, swift, 159.145 Floate, move to and fro,
163.21 Florid style, 78.96 Flowt, insult, 11.49 Fly, any winged insect,
164.32 Folk-lore. See Demonology Fool, laughing-stock, 60.44 For, as for, 1 62. 1 5 ; notwith- standing, 172.44; on ac- count of, because of, 1 01. 121, 187.225 Forbid, banned {homo inter-
dictus), 16.21 Forc'd, reinforced, 212.5 Forge, invent, 175.82 Forke, serpent's tongue,
147.16 Forman's Diary, 122 Former, immediately pre- ceding, 1 57.1 15 Forraine, abroad, 107.25 Forres, 17.39 Forf/j, abroad, 179.140 Fortune, misfortunes, perils,
97.78 Foysons, resources, 175.88 Frailties, unprotected weak- ness, 83.132 Frame of things, the uni- verse, 106.16 Franchis'd, made free, 58.28 Free, faultlessly, 57.19; to
banish, 141.35 Free hearts, unrestrained
thoughts, 29.155 Free honors, guiltless hon- ours, 141.36 From him, by his authority,
23.105 Fry, offspring, 168.84
Fumes, medical meaning of, 52.66
Function, activity of intel- lectual powers, 27.140
Gall, poison, venom, 39-49
Gaze, object to gaze at, 223.53
Gender, change of, 172.41 ; snake, fem., 105.14
Generall, unrestricted, un- limited, 117.23; common, public, 13.62
Genitive, objective, 22.93, 202.28 ; prepositional form of, equivalent to posses- sive pronoun, 186.207; without -s, 30.6, 45.27
Genius, daimon, 94.56
Gentle, courteous, 181. I6I ; tame, subdued, 42.3, 123. 76 ; gentle my lord, 107.27 ; gentle weale, 123.76
Gently, tamely, 220.24
Gentry, nobility, 1 99.9
Germaine, a collective plural, 151.59
Gerund construction, 218.5, 221.28
Give me, omission of object, 14.5
Give me your favour, 28.149
Given, forced to accept, 210.12
Give out, report, 184.192; describe, 222.37
Gives way to, gives rein to, 56.9
Give . . to, declare to be, 24.119
Glasse, magic mirror,
157. 119 Go, start, 159.146 Go off, euphemism for die,
225.2 Go too, strong expression
of disapproval, 194.52 God be with you, good-bye,
93.44 God bless us, a charm
against devils, 66.29 God eyld us, God bless us,
43.13
236
God's soldier be he, 226.13
Golden, red, 80.118
Gooc?, advantage, 87.24, 1 3 1. 135; brave, 6.4, 1 68.3, 182. 171,197.2; tending to well- being, 26.134
Good morrow, 74.49
Goodnesse, right and justice, 171.33; success, 179.136
Goose, associated with cowardice, 204.12
Gorgon J 77.77
Gospell'd, 98.88
Gouts, drops, 60.46
Grace, good fortune, 19.55; favour, 136.31
Grace of grace, 227.38
Grac'd, accomplished, 120.41
Craces,good qualities, 1 76.90
Grafted, moral meaning of, 173.51
Grave, carefully considered, authoritative, 91.22
Great, noble, pertaining to persons of high rank or office, 130.129; mighty, powerful, 179.143
Greaze, any fat-like sub- stance, 152.65
Greene, sickly, 49.37
Greene one red, 69.63
Grim alarm, 198.4, 5
Grow, become fixed, 32.32
Growing, fruitage, 32.29
Guild, to make red, 68.56
Had the speed of, 37.36 Hah, exclamation of sur- prise, 69.59 Halfe-world, hemisphere,
60.49 Hangman, executioner,
66.28 Happinesse, good fortune,
13.58 Happy, felicitously written,
25.128; fortunate, 19.62 Harmes, injuries, 173-55 Harnesse, armour, 218.52 Harp'd, guessed, 153.74 Harrold, herald, 23.102 Haunt, resort habitually,43.9
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Have in compt, to hold on account, 44.26
Having, property, estate, 19.56
Hawking terms, 86.12
Hawkt at, 'attacked,' pounced upon, 87.13
Head, f ountainhead, 79- 1 03 ; summit of eminence, cap- stone, 151.58; body of people gathered together, 154.97; in head, in mind,
131. 139 Heare, listen to, 62.57, 66.24 Heart alive, 139.15 Heavens, collective noun,
85.5 ; stage canopy, 85.5 Heavie, overpowering, 56.6 //eccaf, 60.52, 109.41, 134.I //eere, as adjective, 178.133?
180.148 Heereafter, 213.17 Hell gate, the gates of hell,
71.2 Hell-hound, 222.32 Hell is murky, 193-39 Helpe, allies, 184.186 Hemlocke, 148.25 Hendiadys; banke and
schoole, 46.6 Herbenger, purveyor, 33«45>
218.10 Hid, shielded, protected,
83.132 High, earnest, 36.21 Highly, earnestly, intensely,
36.21, 45.29 High or low, great or lesser,
152.67 Himselfe, used as subject,
162.8, 181. 150 Hircan, Hyrcanian, 1 26.101 His, his descendants, 158.
124; possessive case of it,
13.56, 46.4, 76.71, 107.24;
objective genitive, 34.55 Hisse, 183.175 Hit, M. E. form of it, 39-48 ;
fallen in with, 1 38. 1 Hoa, 1 1 3-9 Hold, withhold, 141.25; cry
of surrender, 224.63 Hold from, restrain, 162.19
Hold rumor, 162.19 Hold thee still, have pa- tience, 1 1 1.54 Holily, scrupulously, 36.22 ; after the administration of the sacrament, 195.68 Holinshed, Shakspere's use of, 5 (intro. note); refer- ence to, 6.5, 6.9, 8.22, 8.24, 16.32, 17.39, 19-48, 20.71, 24.120, 24.126, 25.127, 32. 37, 34 (intro. note), 45 (in- tro. note), 88.33, 89 (intro. note), 103-133, 1 14.18, 130, 131. 131, I53.8O, 156, I68.I, 174.71, 175.87, 175.89, 177. 104, 178. 134, 181. 157, 190. 4, 197.2, 203-8,226.18, 226^ 29, 227.41 Holp, past participle of help,
44.23 Home, thoroughly, 24.120 Homely, simple, plain,
humble, 1 66.68 //onesf, seeming true, 24.125 Honor, reputation or rank,
58.26; nobility, 120.40 Hoodwinke, blindfold, 1 74.72 Hope, ground of confidence,
49-35, 136.30, 171.25 Horse, plural form, 87.14,
159-140 Hose, breeches, 72.19 Houre, appointed hour,
28.147 Houre accursed, 159-133 Housekeeper, watch-dog,
99-97 How, what, 130.128 How goes the world, 87.2 1 How is 't with, 69.58 How sayst thou that,
130.128 Howie, wail, 169.5 H owlet, owlet, 147.17 Hum, to express doubt,
143.42 Humane, human, 123.76 Humh, interjection of de- spair, 185.203 Hurley-burley, tumult, 3.3 Husbandry, careful manage- ment, 55.4
237
I, not shortened in winde, I5.II
/, aye, yes, 65.17, 104.2
/ cannot tell, I do not know what to say, 10.39
Ignorant, keeping in igno- rance, 40.58
///, dangerous, 25.131
/// composed, badly com- pounded, 175.77
////jesse^jinscrupulousness, 3^.21"^^ ~~^^
Image, realization by im- agination, 26.135; repre- sentation, 77.83 ; type,/ form, 22.97 ^
Impersonal idioms: it will _^he-raine, 1 1 3. 1 6 ; it needes (is necessary), 202.29
Impresse, make mark or in- cision in, 222.39
In, by, 225.8; into, 24.126, 73.43 ; used to express the occasion of an action, 100.107, 170.20; used to express the end of an ac- tion, 173.56
In best time, 1 16.5
In commission, authorized to hold trial, 30.2
In fulnesse, by reason of satiety, 32.34
In the instant, at this mo- ment, 40.58
Indure, hold out against, withstand, 210.9
Industrious, able, efficient, 211. 16
Infinitive construction equi- valent to MN.E. participial phrase, 3I.II, 44.22, 50. 50, 68.45, 131. 134, 143.44, 166.70, 167.79, 201.23,219. 5; without to, 1 3 1. 1 38; passive, 221.28
Inform, to give directions, 37.34 ; take visible shape, 60.48
Ingredience, collective plural, 47.11, 148.34
Inhabit then, 126.105
Initiate feare, fear of a novice, 132.143
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Innocent, harmless, 41.66 Insane, making mad, 21.84 Insanity, phenomena of,
200.13 Instrumental case, 84.146 Instruments, means, 98.81 Interdiction, 177.107 Interim, used as noun, 29. 1 54 Intermission, respite,
188.232 Interpolations in Macbeth,
5, 13, 62.62, 132, 133, 134,
149, 151.63, 158.124, 160,
164.38 to 41, 197, 217.47
to 50 Interpret, say explicitly,
18.46, 138.2 Intrenchant, not to be cut,
222.38 Inventer, contriver, 47.10 Invention, collective plural,
92.33
Is, has to, must, 210. II; auxiliary with verbs of mo- tion, 205.23
Is instead of has with verbs of motion, 20.80, 1 04. 1
It, as expression of affec- tion, 34.58
Itching thumbes, 149.43
Jealousies, expressions of distrust, 171.29
Jews, 148.26
Jocund, well pleased, joy- ful, 109.40
Jumpe, risk, hazard, 47.7
Just, post-positive, 1 1 2.4; faithful in personal obliga- tion, 171.30
Jutty, part of a building that leans over the rest, 43.6
Kernes, peasant soldiers,
7.13, 219.17 Knit, to bind, 67.37 Knot, bond, tie, 171.27 Know, acknowledge,
182.165, 194.52 Knowings, experiences, 85.4
LacV,ornamentedwith inter- laced bars or cords, 80. 1 1 8
Lacke you, notice your ab- sence, 124.84; our lacke, I88.237 Lampe, applied to sun, 86.7 Larg'e, unrestrained, 1 16. II Largesse, gif ts ( plural), 56. 1 4 Last, rearmost, 1 56 Latch, catch, 184.195 Lated, made late, 1 1 3.6 Lavish, general application
of, 13.57 Law terms: affear'd, \71. 34 ; allegeance clear e, 58. 28 ; in commission, 30.2 ; copy, 108.38; due, 141.25; establish estate upon, 32. 37; exploit, 159.144; in- terdiction, 177.107; trans- pose, 170.21 ', unsupported testimony in cases of trea- son, 191. 19 Lay, lodged, 75.59 Lease of nature, 155.99 Least, EL. speUing of, 88.37 Leave, royal permission or
final audience, 188.237 Leavy, leafy, 218. 1 Lees, collective noun,
78.100 Lesser, used as adverb,
200. 1 3 Letter-writing: folding the paper, 190.7 Levie, act of levying troops,
107.25 Like, an adverb, 28.144 Limited, appointed, 74.56 Listning, listening to, 66.29 Liues,persons,bodies,22I.3I Lizards, 147.17 Loone, Scottish term of
abuse, 204.11 Loose, lose, 35.13 Loose labour, 222.37 Lord, husband, 120.53 Lost, bewildered, 70.71 Lo you, 192.21 Luxurious, lecherous, 1 74.58 Lye, sleep, 65.20; a term in wrestling, 73.47 ; encamp, 212.3 L|/esf, monosyllabic, 167.83, 219.10
238
Lymbeck, an alembic, still,
53.67 Li//je,furnish, support, 23. 1 12
Macbeth tradition, Slatyer's
Palaaalbion, 1 14.18 Made, uttered, 182.169
Ma^^of pi/e,magpie, 129.125 Maine, chief, 210.10 Majesty plural, 1 3.64, 32.37,
11 5.3, II8.32, 124.90, 179. 137
Make, represent to be, 1 6 1. 4 Man, manhood, manliness,
198.4, 5, 223.47 Mansionry, 43-5 Marlet,swih or swallow,42.4 Marre all, to spoil every- thing, 194.51
Marrow, seat of nerve force,
125.94 Marry, to be sure, 138.4 Mated, dazed, 1 96.86 May, denoting possibility,
I0I.I22, 167.82; denoting
obligation, 120.42 Meale, a singular noun,
106.17 Meanes (sing.), medium, in- strument, agent, etc., 88.
29, 181. 163 Medical terms : perturba- tion, 19 1. 10; distempered,
200.15, 202.30,207.45 Meere, absolute, 175.89,
181. 152 Melt, fadeaway, 21.82 Memory. See Psychology Metal, material, constituent
elements, 53.73 Metaphysical, supernatural,
37.30 Methinks, it seems to me,
166.70, 216.34 Milke of concord, 1 76.98 Mind, in EL. psychology,
94.52, 95.65 Mine, usual form before
vowel, 206.36; in my
power, 31.20 Minions, darlings, 87.15 Minister, to prescribe,
207.40
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Ministers, instruments of darkness, 39-49 } agents, 227.34
Minutely, every minute, 201.18
Mischance, misfortune,
120.43
Misprints in the First Folio edition of Macbeth : harlet for marlet, 42.4 ; cyme for cenny, 208.55 ; dead for head, 154.97; /jer omitted, 207.39; indeed for in deed, 132.143; incarnar- dine for incarnadine, 69. 62 ; mansonry for mansion- ry or masionry, 43-5 ; must for most, 43-9; ? Now for How, 97.75 ; no for do, 50. 47; prey''s for preys, III. 53 ; ? pull for <i«// or pa//, 216.42; can for ran or cam, 22.98 ; sides ior slides, 61.55; sonnes for sonne, 141.24; 5ons for Foris, 1 7. 39 ; .'' sowre for sowrd, 62. 56; fa/e for iiai/e, 22.97; }then for ^Aere, 126.105; they ior thy, 178.133; they may for way they, 62.57; misplaced line possible, 56.16, 163.22
Misse, long for in absence, 225.1
Missives, messengers, 35.7
Moderne, commonplace, 182.170
Modest, sober, 1 78. 1 19
Moe, form of comparative when used as noun with partitive genitive, 206.35
Monkie, term of endear- ment, 166.59
Monstrous, trisyllabic in EL. E., 139-8
Monuments, tombs, burying- vaults, 122.72
More, greater, better, strong- er, etc., 29.153; farther, further, 1 3 1. 1 37, 226.30
More and lesse, great ones (nobles) and those of lesser rank, 210.12
Morrow, retains its sense of
morning, 41.63 Mortall, deadly, death-deal- ing, 38.42, I68.3 Mortall custome, 155.100 Mortified, benumbed,
198.4, 5 Most, best, 82.126; form- ing superlative of mono- syllabic adj., 1 9 1. 9 Motion, expression, 82.129 Motives, moving causes for
action, 171.27 Mounch, to chew with closed
lips, 14.5 Move, toss, 163.22 Moves, angers, 120.46 Multiplying, prolific, 7.12 Mummy, 147.23 Mungrels, sheep-dogs, 99-93 Muse, wonder, 124-85 Must, expresses fatal neces- sity as well as moral obli- gation, 222.41 ; had to be (originally past tense), 186. 212 My better part of, the stronger part of my, 223-47
A^apAins, handkerchiefs, 72.8 Nature, character, disposi- tion, 26.137, 36.17, 174.67, 178.125; essential charac- teristics,87.l6 ; life, vitality, 53.68, 64.7,80.119, 108.38, 118.28, 131. 141; natural feeling, sympathy, 39.46 Naught, wicked, 187.225 Nave, (?) navel, 8.22 Navigation, shipping, 1 50.54 Needs, it is necessary, 1 12.2 Neere, a comparative form,
84.146 Nerves, sinews, 126.102 Neutrall, indifferent, 79.115 Newest, latest, 6.3, 183.174 Newly, anew, 226.31 Newts, 147.14 Next, nearest, 216.39 Nice, used of figurative lan- guage, 183.174 Night gowne, dressing- gown, 70.70, 190.5
239
Night shrieke, hooting of
night-owl, 2 1 3. 1 1 No lesse, as much, 32.30 ;
no other, nothing else, 126.
97 ; no other but, no one
besides (or) not otherwise
than, 210.8 None, not one (man), 50.47 Non-pareill, the star of one's
profession, 1 17.17 A^or, and not, 8.21, 39.47 A^or . . nor, 107.24,217.48 Norwayes, Norwegians,
13.59 Note, importance, 109.44,
220.21 ; list, II3.IO; topay
attention to, 121.56 Nothing, used as an adverb,
22.96, 201.20, 209.2 Notion, understanding, 98.83 Noyse, applied to musical
sounds, 155.106; clamour,
outcries, 212,7
Oblivious, causing forgetful- ness, 207.43
Obscure, haunting the dark- ness, 75.64
Occasion, necessity, 70.70
Of, by, 7.13, 138.4, 141.27; from, 153.82; away from, 37.36; with, 175.89; before direct object after present active participles, 75.63
Of all men else, more than any one else, 222.33
Of old, formerly, 44.18
Off, away, 227.37
Offend, injure, 121.57
Office, performance of duty, 83.142; part, 1 12.3
Offices, apartments of domestics, 56.14
Oh! ah! 194.59
Old, expletive word in EL. E., 71.3; senior, 178.134
Omission of subject and predicate, 108.32, 1 1 8.3 1, I6O.I53, I84.I9I, 185. 197
Omission of verb of motion, 179.136
Omitted relative, 219.7
On, of, 73.46, 1 00. 1 1 4, 1 95.7 1
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
One, not yet wdn, 146.7, 227.40; person, I3I.I3I
Onely, position of, 31.20, 126.98 ; onelg to, merely in order to, 23-102
Open, disclose, 173.52
Opposed, an adversary, 223.60
Or ere, even before, 183.173
Order, plan of battle, 218.6
Oreleape, 48.27
Other, plural, 15-14; other- wise, 53-77; second, 1 57. 1 14
Ours, belonging to our side, 212.5
Out, away from home (and hence) under arms, 184.183
Overcome, come over, pass over, I27.III
Owe, possess, 20.76, 30.10, I28.II3
'Paint, advertise, 223-55 'Pall, lose will power, 2 1 6.42 Palter, dodge off and on,
223.49 Paralell, bring into com- parison with, 76.67 Parted, departed, 226.18 Participial construction for relative clause, 223.60; with indirect-discourse verbs, 173.50, 220.22 Particulars, peculiar char- acteristics, 173-51 Partitive genitive, 20.80 'Partner, companion, 19-54,
28.142 Passion, paroxysm, 121.57 Past participles, strong in EL. E., 30.3, 1 52.65 ; mono- syllabic, 38.39 ; without suf- fix, 127.109, 141.38; used as adjectives, 97.80 Past tense : suffix -ed mak- ing separate syllable, 177. Ill Patch, fool, 204.15 Pawser, loiterer, 79.117 P*ay, reward, 158.132 Peake, grow sickly, 16.23 Pearle, collective plural in EL.E., 226.22
'Pent-house, curtain, 15.20 P^erfect, familiar with, in- formed, 35-3, 166.66; in sound mental health, sane, 117.21 Perfect spy, 102.130 Personal ending of third at- tached to second person, 216.39 Perturbation, anxiety,
191-10 'Pester'd, hampered, cum- bered (applied to over- loaded stomach), 201.23 Petty, wide range of use in
EL.E., 214.20 Physick, heal, 74.55 Pitfall, 164.35 Pit of Acheron, 135.15 P>ittiful, feeling pity, 1 10.47 Palace, hawking term, 86.12 P>lanted, established, 226.31 P^leas 't, retaining subjunc- tive idiom, 120.44 P>luckes, holds back, 1 78. 1 1 9 Plural, inflectionless : husi- nesse, 135.22; mile, 216. 37; sense, 192.28 P'oint, reason, 98.86; at a
point, ready, 178.135 'Poorely, spiritlessly, 70.72 P>ortahle, endurable, 175.89 Portents of Duncan's mur- der, 87.18 Possessive case. See
Genitive 'Posters, couriers, 16.33 'Poure, pour out, 202.28 P'ower, troops, 184.185,
188.236 'Beyond my practice, out- side my experience, 195.66 P^rayers, dissyllabic, 66.25 Predicate, omission of, 9.26, 29-152, 30.1, 60.46, 131. 132; singular with plural subject, 28.147, 62.61, 84. 146, 85.6, 108.37, 123.78 'Predominance, astrological influence, 86.8 Preposition, repetition of,
I3I-I37 Present, to show, IO8.3I ;
240
attendant, 62.59 ; present before one, 26.137 ; imme- diate, 13.64
'Presently, immediately, 180.145
Present participle of mono- syllabic verbs ending in long vowel, 43-6
Pretend, aim at, 87.24
'Pretense, intention, pur- pose, 83-137
'Preys, distributive plural, 111-53
Primrose way, 72.24
Prince of Cumberland, 29, 32.37
Printing, peculiarities of Elizabethan, 20.79
Prithee, 78.94, 111. 56
Probation, proving, 97.80
Produce forth, bring forth into light, 227.34
Professe, claim to know, 1 50.50 ; declare adherence to, 221.27
'Profound, of deep signifi- cance, 136.24
Prolepsis, 42.3
P^ronounc'd, proclaimed, 203.5
Pronouns, personal, used reflexively, 186.214, 202. 29 ; used indefinitely, 55. 5, 175-80; possessive, de- notingfamily, retinue, prop- erty, etc., 44.26, 2 1 2.5, 222. 35 ; reflexive, used as sub- jects without strengthening pronouns, 90.5 ; relative used as connective, 8.21, 37.37, 101.122; standing for word to be supplied from context, 128.116
P'roper, fine, 1 2 1 .60
P^roportion, portion, allot- ment, 31.19
Prosody. See Rhythm, Versification, Stress
'Prosperous, turning out well (or) favourable, 91-22
'Protest, proclaim, make public declaration of, 126. 105 ; put in evidence, 1 99. 1 1
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Proverbs and proverbial ex- pressions : blood will have bloodj 128.122} death can- cels all bonds J 110.49; from the top to the toe, 38. 43 j the farmer that hanged himself, 71.6; naught's had . . without content, 104.4; neere in blood, etc., 84.146; the night is long that never finds the day, 188.240; cat that would eat fish, 49.45 ; things at the ivorst, 164.24; time and the houre, 28.147
Psychology of Shakspere's time: anxiety, 15.18; cor- poral agents, 53-80, 70.68; ego, 26 ; gall, 39-49 ; genius, 94.56; hallucinations, 122, 124, 125 ; heart the seat of will, 159-147; heat-op- pressed braine, 59-39; marrow, 125-94; melan- choly, 38.44, 67.35, 105.8; memorie, 52.65 ; motion, 82.129; phantasy, 56.9; senses, 212.10 ; spirits, 13- 56,39-50; suggestion, 19 1, 195-74; will, 26, 39.47
'Pull in, 216.42
Punctuation, alterations of, which confuse the sense, 23.102, 88.27, 88.37, 90.7, 93-48, 96.71, 128.122, 130. 128, 134.2, 146.10, 154.97, 169-15, 198.4,5, 204.21, 205.27 ; of anacolutha, 102.127, 148.31, 204.19; of clauses, 13-56, 97-80, 100.102, 108.32; close, 145.2; colon a light point in EL. printing, 146.7; of exclamations, 11.45, 51-59, 69-59, I57.II6; hy- phens: more-having, 175. 81 ; sainted-king, 177.109; misprints in, 24.120, 146.5 ; quotation-marks, 67.35,
145-3 Puns. See Double meaning ^urge, remedy, 123.76; to
cure, 2O8.52
I
'Purveyor, caterer, 44.22 'Push, test, issue, 204.21 'Put in your bosomes, confide
to you, 100.104 'Put on, set to work, 188.239 'Put to, confide in, 178.122 'Put upon, address with,
95.58; accuse of, 53-70 'Pyramid, steeple, spire,
150.57
Quarrell, cause, claim, 179-137
Quarry, heap of slain, 7.14; heap of slaughtered game, 186.206
Quell, murder, 53-72
Quench, smother vital en- ergy, 63.2
Question, talk with, 18.43; inquire into, 83-134; dis- cussion, 1 28.1 18
r, vowel sound developed
out of, 38.40, 1 08.30, 139-8 'Rancours, 95.67 'Rapt, 28.142
The rather . . for that, the more strongly because, 184. 184 'Ravel'd, entangled, 67.37 'Raven up, devour, 88.28 'Ravin' d, gorged with prey,
148.24 'Ravishing, rapid, swift,
61.55 'Rawnesse, rashness,
cruelty, 171.26 'Reades m, infers from, 22.91 'Readinesse, associated with
dress in EL.E., 83-139 'Rebellious head, 154.97 'Rebuked, checked, re- strained, 94.56 'Receit, treasury, 52.66 'Receiv'd, believed, 53-74 'Reckon with, render ac- count for, 226.27 'Recorded time, 214.21 •T^ecoj/Ze, break, 201.23 ; give
way, break down, 170.19 'Reflection, direct shining, 9-25
241
'Relate, give utterance to,
211. 19 'Relation, report, 183-173 'Relations, utterances,
129.124 'Rellish of, trace of, 176.95 'Remembrance, considera- tion, 108. 30; has four sylla- bles, 1 08.30 'Remembrancer, prompter,
monitor, 1 19.37 'Remorse, compassion, 38.45 'Rendred, surrendered,
220.24 'Rent, rend, tear, 182.168 'Repeat, reiterate charges,
177. 112 'Repetition, utterance, 78.90 Repetitions, 207.44, 226.26,
227.38 'Report, statement of facts, 35.3 ; with objective modi- fier, 141.38, 209.7 'Require, ask for, 1 1 6.6 / require, it is necessary for
me to have, 103.133 'Resolve your selves, come to your decision, 103-137 'Rest, remain, 44.20 ; sleep, 207.39; ease, idleness, 33. 44 'Restlesse, that gives no
rest, 106.22 'Retreat, signal for giving up
the pursuit, 225 'Revolt, desertion, 210.12 Rhythm: adapted to thought, 3.1, 4.7, 13, 19-48, 19.62, 21.81, 41.60, 42.3, 44.20, 53-72, 63-1, 65.17, 68.43, 107.23, 128.122, 133,138.7, 140.17,149-38,151-59, 152. 71, 169.12, 196.79, 197.87, 204.10,214.19,215,216.38, 224.62 ; cadence-rhythm, 1 6.33 ; falling rhythm suited to supernatural interests, 133; prose rhythms, 72.28, 192.24 to 30; reversal of, 31.16, 97.77, 120.50 'Ride, peculiar use of, 91-19 'Right, claim to the throne^. 172.42
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
I
Rightly, really, perfectly, 171.30
^ise, to break up a meeting, 120.52
The Roman fool, 221.30
Ronsard's description of James V, 157
'J^onyon, scurvy person, 14.6
l^ookie, full of rooks, or (?) misty, 1 1 1. 5 1
'J^oote, progenitor, 90.5
^orey more dignified than in MN.E., 53.78
Rosse, personal character- istics, 183.174
'J^ound, circlet, crown, 37.29, 154.88
Royalty of nature, fitness for kingship, 94.50
'J^ubs, rough places on bowl- ing-green, 103.134
'J^uggedj wrinkled, 107.27; shaggy, fierce, 126.100
'J^ule, regimen, to control, 201.16
'J^umpe-fed, 14.6
'T^un, past tense of to run, 79.117
Outrun, 79.117
'J^ussian beare, 126.100
Safeties, safeguards, 171.30 Safety, trisyllabic, 94.54,
171.30 Sagge, 204.10 Sainted, saint-like, holy,
177.109 Sanctity, miraculous power,
179.144 Satis fie, assure, 155.104,
192.36 Sauce, a provocative of
appetite, 175.81 Savage, brutal, 166.70 5aj/, tell, 6.6, 104.3, 216.32;
absolute use of, 186.213 Scan'd, judged, 1 3 1. 1 40 Scene directions in Macbeth
are modern additions, 144,
190 Scene division, alteration of
FO.'S, 62, 221.30 Schoole, reprove, 1 62. 1 5
Schreemes of death, 75.61 Scone, 88.31, 227.40 Scorched, hacked, lacerated,
105.13 Scruples, doubts, 83.135r
I78.II6 Scare, withered, dry, 205-23 Season, a preservative from
decay, I3I-I4I Seat, site, 42.1 Seated, fixed, 26.136 Second cock, 72.30 Second course, 68.39 Secret, occult, 150.48 SecurrYi/, confidence, 1 36.32 Seedes, descendants, 96.70 Seeling, term of falconry,
110.46 Seem to, to be on the point
of, 9.25, 11.47, 37.30 Seeming, belonging to, suit- able to, appearing, 175-86 Seest, a monosyllable, 85-5 Selfe, as an adjective, 227. 36 ; as first element of compound words, 12,55, 132.142 Sell, deceive, betray, 165-41 Send, send a messenger,
130.129, 142.39, 208.49 Senit, set of notes on the
trumpet, 90.10 Sense, plural without suffix,
192.28 Sensible, perceptible, 59-36 Sergeant, a trisyllable, 6.3 Service, course, 45 Set forth, declare publicly,
30.6 Setons of Touch, 206.33 Setting downe before, be- sieging, 210.10 Settled, determined, 53-79 Sev' night, week, 16.22 Sewer, chief butler, 45 Shadow, spectral illusion, 215.24; to conceal, 209.5 Shagge-ear'd, 167.83 Shall, ought to, must, 43-13, 170-20, 21 1- 18; may, am going to, 171-31 ; shall be, will be, will come to be, 122.73
242
Shall and will, use of, in EL.
E., 102.126 Shame, to avoid with sense
of shame, 70.64 Shame it selfe, 121.66 Shard, scaly wing-case,
109-42 Sharks, 148-24 Shew, pageant or proces- sion, 156 ; toappear, 19-54 ;
let one know, 156.107 ; dis- close oneself, 218.2 Shewed, disclosed, told, 57.
21 ; appeared, looked, 8.15 Shift, to practise knavery,
84.151 Shine, reflect glory and
honor, 90.7 Ship of Fooles, the, referred
to, 214.19 S hipman, marinzT, 15.17 Shipman''s card, compass,
15.17 Shooke hands, 8.21 Should, 18.45, 82.127, I66.
73, 172.49, 213-17, 2I6.3I,
220.20. See Shall Showgh, shock, rough,
shaggy dog, 99-93 Shut up in, restricted to,
56-16 Sight, perception by sight,
77.76, 196.86; portent or
pageant, 160.155 Sightlesse, invisible, 39-50,
48.23 Signes, marks of distinction,
33-41 Silenc'd, at a non plus, 22-93 Silver, connoting whiteness,
80.118 Single, simple, united, har- monious, 27.139; trivial,
44.16 -sion, dissyllabic, 8.18 Sir, address to majesty,
130.129, 181. 163 Sirrha, use of, 93-45, 164-30 Skarfe up, blindfold, 1 10.47 Skirre, to flit, to pass hur- riedly over, 206.35 Slab, miry, sticky, pasty,
143.32
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Slaughterous thoughts, mur- derous impulses, 213.14 Sleave, unspun silk, 67.37 S/eeAe, to smooth out, 107.27 Sleep, 77.79, 154.86 Sleepie, plunged in sleep,
68.50 Slides, glides, 61.55 Slights, arts, contrivances,
136.26 Slip, let slip, 74.52 Slippes, small branches,
148.27 Slivered, lopped off, clipped,
148.28 Slope, incline, 150.57 Slumbry, occurring in sleep,
191. 12 Smells, breathes upon, 43.6 So, used to represent pre- ceding notion, 60.47, 171. 24; without as, 74.56 So as, as . . as, 10.43 Society, social intercourse,
93.42; company, 1 1 5.3 Sodaine, sudden, 174.59 Sole, mere, 169.12 Solemne, ceremonial, 91 -M Solicites, wins the favour of,
180.149 Soliciting, advocacy of one's
interests, 25.130 Something, somewhat,
103.132 Sometime, sometimes, 43-1 1 Sore, grievous, 85.3 Sorrow, monosyllabic,
82.129 Sorri/esfjmost gloomy, 105.9 Sorts, classes, 49.33 Soule, person, 98.83 Soundly, heartily, 52.63 Soveraigne, used of potency
for healing, 202.30 Sowre, saturnine, 62.56 Spacious plenty, unrestrict- ed license, 174.71 Spaniels, 99-93 Speake, confer, 41.72,97.74;
prove, 181. 159 Speaker, reporter, 183.175 Speculation, power of vision,
126.95
Speeches, statements, 90.7, 97.76, I38.I
Spelling: anomalous in bol- ter'd, 157.123 ; a for ea in Aear^, 1 5 5. 1 00; M.E. ai re- tained in unstressed syl- lables, 4.4, 86.7, 107.25, 174.59; ay for MN.E. ey, 204.16; c corresponding to MN.E. s, 61.53, 208. 55 ; e for i in cistern, 174. 63; ea representing M.E. long open e in lest, 88. 37; in seaventh, 1 57.1 18; ea and ee confused, 67,37 ; ea and ee before or after n andr, 75.61, 172.34 ; pos- sible mistake of ee for ai, 204.21 ; ei representing i, 37.29; M. E. ^/j retained in high, 37.26 ; unhistoric gh in spite, 1 00. 1 II ', gu before palatal vowels, 181. 157; loss of A, 44.20; long open o in oh, 1 83. 1 73 ; 00 before r and consonant, 178.135; 00 { = u) representing ou, 162.14 ; past tense of verbs in-en,-er,220.24; phonetic: hoboyes, 42 ; skirre, 206.35 ; unruffe, 1 99- 1 0 ; -que, suffix corresponding to MN.E. c, 20.78, 107.25; sch and sc confused, 75.6 1 ; sh and sch confused, 46.6 ; -t in past participles, 19-57, 177.107; th a Latin form of f, 1 2 1 .66 ; u before / and consonant, 86.12 ; u corresponding to MN. E. ou, 48.23 ; u written w before a consonant, 152. 64; miscellaneous: humane for human, 36. 18;/ for aye, 65. 1 7 ; ingredience, 47. 1 1 ; kalender, 159.134; metal and mettle not distin- guished, 53.73; schoole, 46.6 ; too and to not dis- tinguished, 73.42
Spirit, monosyllabic, 38.41, 102.128
Spirits, vigour, energy, 13.56, 37.27
243
Spoke, spoken, 1 69. 1 1 Spoken, currently reported,
181. 154 Sprights, spirits, 77.84,
136.27, 158.127 Spring, sunrise, 9.25 Spy o' th' time, 102.130 Staffe, baton, 208.48 Stage direction, altered by modern editors, 10.43? 64.9, 119.39, 125.93, 149.39; '* enter" means takes part in action, 56.9; "enter" means re-enter, 78.95, 97. 73 ; intruded from margin of MS., 77.85, 115.1 ; mean- ing of torches in, 42 ; omit- ted in FO., 55.5, 65.20, 212. 8, 122.73; pantomimic, 224.63 Stampe, coin, 1 8 1. 1 53 Stand, stand still, 66.24,
158.126 Stand close, keep hidden,
192.23 Stand not, attach no impor- tance to, I28.II9 Starres, all heavenly bodies,
34.50 Start, to tremble, 194.51,
213.15 State, throne, chair of state,
1 16.5 State of honor, rank,
166.66 State of man, 27.140 Station, bearing, 225.8 Staunchlesse, normal com- pound from staunch, that which quenches, 175.78 Staves, spears, 219.18 Stay, wait for, 179.142 Step, round of ladder, pro- motion, 33.48 Stept in, advanced in,
131. 137 Stern''st, grimmest, 63.4 Stick deep, take deep root,
94.49r 175.85 Sticking on his hands,
201.17 S ticking-place of crossbow,
52.60
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Still, always, 43.12, 45-28, 47.8, 58.27
Stirre, action, activity, 28.144
Stoole, chair, 122.68
Stout, proud, 22.95
Straight, immediately, 103.140
Strange, unfamiliar, 28.145, 41.64, I28.II2
Stress, in general: 49-30, 90.2, 92.29, 1 16.9, 164.36, 167.76, 171.30,220.20,222. 32, 223.51 ; lack of, pro- ducing contractions — pro- nouns : it reduced to 't, 6.7, 58.25, 140.16, 154.89, 160.149, 174.67; them re- duced to 'em, 64.13, 15 1- 63 ; US reduced to 's, 24.125, his reduced to 's, 44.24,81.124; definite arti- cle : the reduced to th', 4. 5, 21.88, 38.43, 56.16, 90.2, 131. I33,andcp. 14.7,15.17, 36.I8; substantive verb: am reduced to ^/n, 26.133, 53-79, 100.108, 167.74; is reduced to 's, 8.15, 94.54, 1 83. 1 74 ; are reduced to V, 1 16.8; was reduced to ^5, 8.15, 66.23; were reduced to 'r, 8.15; other verbs: have reduced to 'v, 1 14.20, 167.74, 180.149; has re- duced to 's, 196.86 ; would reduced to 'd, 58.23 ; prep- ositions : in reduced to i', 14.7, 15-17; 0/ reduced to o', 14.7, 36.18; to reduced to f, 44.24, 1 30. 1 29;, do an unstressed word : / shall do so, 187.220; 't is done, 46.1 ; must do, 36.24 ; well done, 14939', mine stressed in mine owne, 1 3 1 • 1 35, 171. 30 ; it is one, 74-54 ; in repe- titions : speak, speak, 78. 88; G'6d, God, 196.83; in simple words : accesse, 38. 45; authorized, 121.66; baboon, 148.37; chastise, 37.28; Heccat, 60.52, IO9.
41; minutely, 201.18; ob- scure, 75.64 ; perseverance, 176.93; purveyor, 44.11', thereby, 209-5 ; instrument, 98.81 ;incompoundwords : hdlfe-world, 60.49 ; leave- taking, 84.150, 171.28; mdnkinde, 87.18
Strike, smite with mysteri- ous power, 187.225
Strong, violent, 82.129
Strooke, e.N. E. past partici- ple and past tense of strike, 187.225
Studied, trained, practised, 30.9
Stuff e, rant, 1 2 1 .60
Style, 73.47, 78.96
Subborned, instigated to crime, 87.24
Subject, object, 1 1 3.8
Subject, omission of, 163.23, 210.9; repeated by pro- noun, 164.36
Subjunctive forms. See ^are, fleas' t
Subjunctive idioms : do, 218.7; rise, 154.97
Successe, issue, 26.132
Suffer, perish, 1 06. 1 6
Suffixes. See under sepa- rate suffixes
Suggestion, temptation, 26.134
Suicide intended by Mac- beth, 215
Summer, pleasant, 175.86
Sundry, distinct, diverse, 172.48
Superlative, formed by -st: kindst, ^8.14', neerst, lOI. 118; perfectst, 35.3; se- cretst, 129.126; sternst, 63.4 ; used substantively, I0I.II8
Superstitions : croaking of ravens, 38.39; venomous beasts, 146.8
Supply' d, reinforced, 7.13
Surcease, cessation, 46.4
Surmise, accuse, charge, 27.141
Survey, discern, 9-31
244
Swarme, used of mobs, 7.12
Sway by, govern by, hold prestige by, 204.9
Sweares, swears allegiance, 165.47
Sweat for H, pay the pen- alty, 72.9
Swelling, proud, magnifi- cent, 25.128
Swelter, exude, 146,8
Sworne to, sworn to do, 51.58
Syncopations (loss of medial unstressed syllable) : a6so- /«fe, 3 1. 1 4, 172.38; alarum, 218.10; ceremony, \ 193^ confident, 210.8; confer ence, 97.79 ; credulous 178.120; dangerous, 1 67 77 ; desolate, 1 68. 1 ; en emy, 100.105, 115; gentle men, 25.129; heavily, 184 182; herbenger, 33-45; in nocent, 41.66, 67.36, 97.79 110.45, 170.16; intemper ance, 1 74.66 ; invisible, 1 10 48; laudable, \G7.7G', maj estie, 44-18 ; medicine, 202 27; minister, 39-49, 207 40, 46; mockry (so print cd), 127.107; myraculous 1 80. 1 47 ; nourisher, 68.40 perilous, 207.44 ; perse verance, 176.93; pittifull 110.47, 181. 151 ; purga tive, 208.55 ; ravishing, 6 1 55 ; resolute, 153-79 ; specu lative, 2 1 1 . 1 9 ; sur feted 64.5; terrible, 1 1.5 1, 1 06 18,123.78; treachery, 114 17; treacherous, 170.18 treasonous, 83. 1 38 ; unfor fu/jafe, 160.152 ; unnatural 86.10, 1 96.80; verity, 176 92; visited, 1 8 1. 1 50
Taint, wither, 203.3
Take off, discourage, 73.41
Taking off, death, 47.20,
100.105 Tautology, 10.38 Teach, implying teaching by
example, 43.12, 47.8
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Teare, mangle, 139-12
TearmeSj names, epithets, 222.37
TeemeSj gives birth to, 183.176
Tender, exciting commisera- tion, 51.55
Tending, attention, 37.38
Tense, historical present and past tenses in same narrative, 8.15; past cor- responding to MN. E. per- fect, 11.48; present as fu- ture, 4.8
Th, loss of intervocalic, 219.I8; Latin t, 121.66
Than and then, same word, 20.75
That (pron.), corresponding to MN. E. such, such a, 171. 26, 175.74; to that, to that end, 7.10; that their fit- nesse, 50.53
That (conj.), because, 47.8; particles strengthened by, 12.54, IO8.32, 177.106; re- peats connective, 23.1 1 3> 46.4; so that, 13.58, 19.57, 66.23, 169.6, 175.82
The. See Article, definite
Theame, used of action as well as of discourse, 25.129
Their, corresponding to MN. his, 1 13.14 ; misprinted for the, and vice versa, 141.38
Theirs, their property, 44.26
There is, with plural com- plement, 204.13
Therewithall, besides that, 92.34
These, such as these, 67. 33? I78.II8 I The time, the moment, 41. " 65; the world, 41.64, 174. 72, 226.21
Thickens, becomes obscure, 1 1 1.50
Thine, thy family, thy house,
222.35
Things, applied to persons to connote absence of voli- tion, 210.13
Thinke, to pay heed to, 57.
21 ; f/jinAe on, bring to mind, 105. II Think' st, hast in mind, 1 72.35 Thirst, long for, 124.91 Thought, purpose, design, hope, expectation, etc., 27. 139,38.42, I78.II6; looked at, considered, regarded, 67.33 ; thoughts, anxieties, 105.10, I38.I, 170.21 Thriftlesse, greedy, 88.28 Thrusts, hampers, besets,
I0I.II7 Tidings, singular, 37.31 -tience, dissyllabic, 8.18 Time, appointment, 92.37 ; fitting time, 28. 147,213-18; tune, measure, 188.235; wide range of association of the word, 19.58 Time analysis, 89 Time of helpe, opportunity for military aid to be sent, 184.186 Timely, early, 74.51 ; oppor- tune, welcome, 1 13.7 Times, manners, customs, 123.78; times has, 123.78 -tion, dissyllabic, 8.18, 37.34 Title, claim, 172.34, 201.20 Titles, title-deeds, 1 6 1. 7 To, according to, 109.41, 1 12.4; besides, 7.10 ; com- pared to, 121.64; in addi- tion to, 44.19, 94.52 ; until, 214.21 ; to friend, 1 69. 10 Top, pitch of attainment,
154.89; to surpass, 173.57 Torch, bearer of a torch,
42, 55 Torture, the rack, 106.21 Touch, to injure, 107.26,
169-14; sympathy, 162.9 Toward, monosyllable,
29.152 Towring, hawking term,
86.12 Toyes, trifles, 78.99 Trace, follow, 160.153 T raines, Xr'icks, 1 78. II 8 Trammell up, net up, 46.3 Transport, used of carrying news, etc., 183-181
245
Transpose, change, alter the
nature of, 170.21 Travail, not distinguished
from travel in EL. E., 86.7 Treatise, story, narration,
213.12 Trenched, deep-cut, 118.27 Trifled, made a jest of, 85-4 Trifles, tricks, 24.125 Trouble, physical annoy- ance, 147.18, I96.8O True, applied to things as
well as persons, 211,15;
rightful, legitimate, 177.106 Truly, really, according to
nature, 1 78.1 3 1 Try the last, II^M Tune, rhythm, 21.87 Turke and Tartar, 148.29 Twaine, originally masc.
form of two, 92.28 Twenty, indefinite numeral,
123.8I Tyranny, usurpation,
171.32, 174.67 Tyrant, usurper, 140.22
u not shortened and de- veloped into a in blood, 1 3 1. 1 36; in strooke, 187. 225; development of u be- fore / and consonant, 86. 1 2
un-, wide use of, to express negation, 37.26, 73-36, 199.10
Uncle, use of term in EL. E., 197.2
Undaunted, undauntable, fearless, 53.73
Undeeded, 220.20
Under fortune, exposed to danger, 97.78
Under his key, in his power, 140.18
Unfixe, loosen, 26.135
Universal peace, 1 76.99
Unlineal, 95-63
Unmake, mar, 50.54
Unmannerly breech' d with gore, 80.122
Unnaturall, violating natural instincts, 1 96-80; unusual, 1 96.80
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Unruffe, beardless, 199.10
Unsafe, insecure, 108.32
Unsafe the while, 108.32
Unsanctified, without sanc- tuary, 167.81
Unspeake, to speak the con- trary of, 178.123
Untitled, having no claim, 177.104
Upbraid, to cast in one^s teeth, 201.18
Upon, concerning, 91.16; denoting the thing affected by the action, 1 77.1 12 ; in temporal phrases, 121.55; over, 203.7 ; upon his ayd, with his support, 141.30; upon thz foot of, ready to start upon, 82.129
Uprore, break up in revolu- tion, 176.99
Use, custom, 13.62, 26.137 ; to familiarize with, 105.10
Utterance, uttermost, 96.72
V, intervocalic, loss of : devil, 23.107; even like, 86.11 ; ever, 155.102; given, II9. 35
Valued file, price-list, 99.95
Vantage, opportunity, 9.31? 23.113
Vaulting, an EL. sport, 48.28
Verbs ending in -en, -er, past tense and participles of, 220.24
Verity, truthfulness, 90.8 ; faithfulness, 176.92
Verses wrongly divided in FO. I : 14.7, 21.81, 28.149, 30.1, 32.25, 42.1, 44.18, 55.4, 56.13, 58.25, 72.28, 82.129, 87.18,93.43,97.75, 98.85,108.32,110.49,113.9, 158.133
Versification : alexandrine, 203.5 ; couplet at end of scene, 54.81, 82; extra- metrical words and phrases, 93.40, 100.108, 1 13.9; ex- tra unstressed impulse at
beginning, 8.20, 11.46; ex- tra impulse before ca2- sura, 18.43, 29.150, 31. 16, 95.57, 98.83, 100.108, 124.84, 164.36, 174.59,203. 7, 223.56 ; four-wave verses 6.7, 9.26, 21.88, 100.103, 158.124, 170.18; loss of unstressed impulse after ca2sura, 4.7, 6.5, 38.41, 60. 51, 64.13, 170.18, 172.34; loss of unstressed impulse at beginning of verse, 1 3 1. 133; in middle of verse, 146.6; six-wave verses, 10. 38, 23.1 1 1, 78.88, 103.139, 170.20, 176.97, 1 78.116 Vertue, power, 1 8 1. 1 56 Very, intensifies the noun, giving sense of exactly, 192.22 Vile, wicked, malicious,
100.109 Visited, afflicted, 1 8 1. 1 50 Vizards, masks, 108.34
w, intervocalic, lost, 29.152, 225.7 ; written form of u before consonant, 152.64 Waile, bewail, 1 69.8 Wake, rouse, 1 4 1. 3 1 Walke, be abroad, 138.7 tJDalk'd, of unconscious lo- comotion, 190.3 ZVanton, capricious, 32.34 ZVarlike, stronger word in
EL. E., 224.62 ZV arr anted, ^ustihed, author- ized, guaranteed, 1 79. 137 ZVarre, contest, quarrel,
21 1.2 1 ; battle, 221.26 ZVassell, carousing, 52.64 ZVastfull, devastating,
80.120 t£^afc/2, any instrument to tell time, 61.54; to sit up at night, I90.I, 191. 12; cp. 70.71 Water-rugs, 99.93 Way of life, 205.22 Way to death, 214.23 Wee stay upon your leysure, 28.148
246
Weare, display, 172.46;
proclaim, maintain, 171.
33 Wearie, disgusted, sick,
I00.II2 Wee' I heare ourselves
againe, 118.32 Wei at peace, 183.179 Welcome, pledge of wel-
come, 1 16.6
Weyward, form of the word,
17 Weyward sisters, 1 4. 1,
I6.32 What, what kind of, 17.39,
69.59, 155. 106, 172.49 What used for who, 72.21,
219.2 What, why, 193.41 What, that which is, 227.37 What is the night, 129.126 When 'tis, when the time
comes, 58.25 Where, relatively used adv.,
167.82, 182.166, 225.8 Whereabout, whereabouts,
62.58 Whereto, to which, 52.62 Whether, form of whither,
166.73 Which, for what, 135.10;
referring to persons, 9 1. 1 6 While, until, 93.44 ; the
while, so long as, 108.32 Whiles, whilst, while, 35.6,
62.60, 22L3I Whisper, whisper to,
186.210 Whisp'rings, insinuations,
slanders, 196.79 Who, he who, 23-109 Wholsome, prosperous,
healthy, 177.105 Wilde, strange, fantastic,
18.40 Will, pleasure, appetite,
I0LI20, 174.65, 175.88 Will to hand, 1 3 1. 1 39 Wing, flight, 31.17 Winke, keep the eyes closed,
34.52 Wise, prudent, 79.114 Wish, to commend, 226.15
INDEX TO THE NOTES ON MACBETH
Witchcraft. SeeDemonology Witches. See Demonology With, by, 22.93,95.63, 100. 112, 177.104; by means of, 164.32, 213.13; in ac- cordance with, 227.31 ; in addition to, 175.76, 1 8 1 . 1 56 Withall, with, 37.31; with it, etc., 19-57, 56.15, 68.56; in addition to this, more- over, 172.41 ZVither'dj colorless, ghastly,
60.52 ZVithoutj outside of, on the
outside, 93.47, 1 1 6. 14 ZVitnessCj evidence, 68.47 Witnest, attested, 184.184 ZVomanly, weak, unmanly, 167.78
Word order, 9-29, 65.17, 75.
62, 91.19, 107.27, 143.49,
152.64, 165.58,200.11,202.
25, 212.7, 216.30 Worme, snake, 118.29 ZVorthy, brave, I 1.45 ; able,
strong, possessing power
or wealth, 184.183 VDouldj are ready for, must
have, 198.4,5,227.31 ; must
inevitably have been, 213.
1 8 ; would 6e, is to be, must
be, 94.51 ; would not J do
not want to, 56.7 Wouldst, desirest, 36.19 Wrack, destruction, 218.51 Wrestling, 73.47 Writes, enrolls, 99.101 Wrought,past tense oiwork,
28.149 ; had its due effect, 57.19
y, adjectives in, 1 1 1 .5 1 ,
191.12 Yawning, drowsy, 109.43 Yell, cry aloud, I69.5 Yet, still, 155.100, 172.46, 192.34; notwithstanding, 174.69 Your owne, to your advan- tage, 32.33 Yours, your families, 99.91
z, intervocalic, 152.65 Zeugmatic construction, 28.
144, 36.22, I0I.I22, 169.
15, 174.68, 182.166, 198.
4,5
247
xO.
S
^
• I p
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
PR 2823
Shakespeare, William
The tracedie of Ilacbeth
5