Shakespeare's tragedy of Macbeth

Front matter

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

The Silver Series of English Classics

SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDY

Introduction

" There is a brief mention in the Life of Macaulay of a discussion among some members of the Literary Clnb as to the relative ranks of Shakespeare's four great tragedies — Lear, Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet. This is the order in which they were ranked by Macaulay. The other speakers, however, agreed in assigning the highest place to Macbeth, a preference which Macaulay attributed to the powerful impression produced by Mrs. Siddons in her famous personification of Lady Macbeth. But many persons who never saw Mrs. Siddons, and who perhaps formed their judgment merely from reading the play, have taken the same view ; and it is one in which all readers might concur if they confined their attention to the dramatic construction of the work, and looked at it simply as the production of a consummate playwright. In this respect it is undoubtedly the author's masterpiece. It may be called a typical Elizabethan drama, in the same sense in which the (Edipus Tyrannus has been called a typical Greek drama ; bearing the same analogy, though not the same resemblance, to that which King Lear bears to the (Edipus Coloneus. It is distinguished by the concentration and rapid movement of the action, by the logical development of the plot from the initiatory situation to the inevitable conclusion, and by the absence of subordinate complications and of everything par-

Xll INTRODUCTION.

taking of the nature of digression, episode, or commentary. It is the shortest of the great tragedies, with the fewest changes of scene, the smallest number of important characters, and the most concise speeches. Alike in soliloquy and in dialogue, the utterance is constantly connected with or suggestive of some external movement or perception, so that here, at least, the performers should find little difficulty in suiting the action to the word, the word to the action. Finally, the ' effects ' are in the highest degree ' telling,' full of strong contrasts and swift alternations, such as hold an audience in a state of breathless suspense, or startle it as with a sudden crash.

" These peculiarities, coupled with some incidental defects in the literary workmanship, have suggested a theory that the play was written in haste, for a particular occasion. That it was struck off, so to speak, at a white heat is highly probable ; but the subject was one which imposed a purely dramatic treatment, and did not lend itself to that expansive and discursive elaboration with which Shakespeare is wont to pour forth his profoundest thoughts, his subtlest observations, his most bewitching fancies, and his sweetest flow of verse, in passages which we study and are enthralled by in the closet, but which the modern stage so often finds it necessary to mutilate or excise. . . .

" One might have expected that Macbeth would prove the most popular of Shakespeare's tragedies, both with actors and with audiences, and especially in these later times, when there is a complete divorce between the drama and literature properly so called ; when plays are not only written exclusively for representation, but have no vitality

INTRODUCTION. xiii

apart from that. Such has not, however, been the case. Except on rare occasions Macbeth, despite its apparent supremacy as an acting play, has less attraction than Lear, Othello, and above all, Hamlet. Nor is the reason far to seek. Of the two elements which Aristotle's definition requires in tragedy, it has but one. It works by terror alone, and does not touch the springs of pity. It has no bursts and swells of pathos, no outpours of tenderness, no sweet dews of hapless love. Lacking these, it lacks charm. The characters on whom the interest is concentrated are not the innocent sufferers, but the guilty workers of woe, and, if not outcasts from our sympathy in the woe they hereby bring upon themselves, they are far from making any demands upon our affection. Macbeth stands alone among Shakespeare's great productions as a picture of crime and retribution unrelieved by any softer features, — like some awful Alpine peak, girdled with glaciers, abysses, and seething mists, with no glimpses of green vales or flowerbespangled pastures." — John Foster Kirk in The Atlantic Monthly.

AUTHORITIES.

The following list of authorities on Macbeth seems to me to be the minimum one that any well-ordered school library should contain. There are, of course, a vast number of other books upon the subject, many of them of extreme value, but, as it is not possible to aim at anything like completeness in such a library, I have chosen only a few of the best helps to actual class-room work. For a more complete list, see Funiess.

Abbott. Shakespearian Grammar. The Macmillan Company, 1891. Chambers, Macbeth, The Arden Shakespeare. D. C. Heath & Co.,

1896.

Clark and Wright, Macbeth. Clarendon Press Series, The Macmillan Company, 1894.

Coleridge, Lectures and Notes on Shakspeare. Bonn's Library,

1890.

Deightox, Macbeth. The Macmillan Company, 1896. Dowdex, Shakspere; his Mind and Art. Harper & Brothers, 3d

edition.

Dowdex, Shakspere. Literature Primers Series, American Book

Company.

Furxess, Macbeth. Variorum Edition, J. B. Lippincott Companv,

1873.

1883.

Hudsox, Macbeth. Ginn & Co., 1888.

Hudsox, Shakespeare ; his Life, Art, and Characters. Ginn & Co. Mrs. Jamesox, Characteristics of Women. Bohn's Library, 1891. Motjltox, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. Clarendon Press, 1893. Raxsome, Short Studies in Shakespeare's Plots. The Macmillan

Company, 1893.

Rolfe, Macbeth. English Classics Edition, Harper & Brothers,

1894.

Shakespeare's Complete Works. Globe Edition. Sprague. Macbeth. Studies in English Classics, Silver, Burdett

& Company, 1894.

Wendell, William Shakspere. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895.

xiv

THE TRAGEDY

MACBETH.

MACBETH.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

noblemen of Scotland.

Duncan, King of Scotland.

Malcolm, J his sons .

DONALBAIN, 1

Macbeth, j generals of his army-

Banquo, ) &

Macduff,

Lennox,

Ross,

Menteith,

Angus,

Caithness,

Fleance, son to Banquo.

Siward, Earl of Northumberland,

general of the English forces.

Young Siward, his son.

Seyton, an officer attending on

Macbeth.

Boy, son to Macduff.

An English Doctor.

A Scotch Doctor.

A Sergeant.

A Porter.

An Old Man.

Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macduff.

Gentlewoman attending on Lady

Macbeth.

Hecate.

Three Witches.

Apparitions.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers.

Scene: Scotland; England.

Scene I. — A Desert Place

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.

First Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, and in rain ?

Second Witch. When the hurly-burly 's * done, When the battle 's lost and won.

Act I., Scene I. — 1 Hurly-burly = uproar, tumult. Referring to the attle then in progress.

Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 5

First Witch. Where the place ?

Second Witch. Upon the heath.

r Hi i rd Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. First Witch. I come, Graymalkin ! 2 /Second Witch. Paddock 3 calls.

Third Witch. Anon. 4

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair : 10

I lover through the fog and filthy air. [Exeunt.

Scene II. — A Camp near Forres

Alarum within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.

Duncan. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state. 1

Malcolm. This is the sergeant

Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 'Gainst my captivity. — Hail, brave friend ! 5

Say to the king the knowledge of the broil As thou didst leave it. ' Sergeant. Doubtful it stood,

As two spent swimmers that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald — Worthy to be a rebel, for to that 2 10

The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm upon him — from the western isles Of kerns 3 and gallowglasses 4 is supplied ;

2 Graymalkin — gray cat. s Paddock = toad.

4 Anon = presently. Witches were supposed to be attended by familiar spirits in the form of certain animals, whose orders they were bound to obey. Scene II. — 1 The newest state = the latest news.

2 For to that — for to that very end.

3 Kerns = light-armed Irish infantry.

4 Gallowglasses = heavy-armed Irish soldiers.

SCENE II.] MACBETH. 3

And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,

Show'd like a rebel's trull : but all's too weak ; 15

For brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name —

Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish'd steel,

Which smok'd with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion 5 carv'd out his passage

Till he fac'd the slave ; 2 c

And 6 ne'er shook hands, 7 nor bade farewell to him,

Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, 8

And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Duncan. valiant cousin ! 9 worthy gentleman !

Sergeant. As whence 10 the sun gins his reflection 25

Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break, So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark : No sooner justice had with valour arm'd Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 30

But the Norweyan lord, 11 'surveying vantage, With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men Began a fresh assault.

Duncan. Dismay'd not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo ?

Sergeant. Yes ;

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 35

If I say sooth, 12 1 must report they were As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks, so they Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe :

5 Minion = favorite.

6 And. The folios have " which."

7 Shook hands. The signal for parting.

8 From the nave to the chaps = from the navel to the chin.

9 Cousin. Duncan and Macheth were first cousins.

10 As ivhence the sun, etc. Just as storms often come out of the east where the warm, bright sun arises, so, even at this joyous time of victory, a great danger came.

11 Having overcome a domestic insurrection, Macbeth is on the same day forced to meet an invading foreign army.

12 Sooth = true.

Except 13 they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,

Or memorize another Golgotha, 4 o

I cannot tell —

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

Duncan. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds ; They smack of honour both. — Go get him surgeons.

[Exit Sergeant, attended.

Who comes here ?

Enter Ross.

Malcolm. The worthy thane H of Ross. 45

Lennox. What a haste looks through his eyes ! So should he look That seems to speak things strange.

Ross. God save the king !

Duncan. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?

Ross. From Fife, great king ;

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold. Norway himself, 50

With terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor, The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict ; Till that Bellona's bridegroom, 15 lapp'd in proof, 16 Confronted him with self-comparisons 17 55

Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, Curbing his lavish spirit : and, to conclude, The victory fell on us.

Duncan. Great happiness !

13 Except = unless.

14 Thane = " An Anglo-Saxon nobleman inferior in rank to an earl or alderman." — Bosworth, quotedby Furness.

15 Bellona's bridegroom = Macbeth. Bellona was the Roman goddess of war.

16 Lapp'd in proof = cased in armor.

17 Confronted him with self -comparisons, etc. Confronted him with a valor that was the counterpart of his own, his sword matched with the rebel's sword, etc.

Scene Iii.] Macbeth. 5

Boss. That 18 now

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition ; 19 Nor would we deign him burial of his men 60

Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's Inch 20 Ten thousand dollars to onr general use.

Duncan. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest : go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth. 65

Boss. I '11 see it done.

Duncan. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.

[Exeunt.

Scene III. — A Heath.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister ?

Second Witch. Killing swine.

Third Witch. Sister, where thou ?

First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch' d. ' Give me,' quoth 1 : 5

' Aroint thee, witch ! ' the rump-fed ronyon 1 cries. Her husband 's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger : But in a sieve I '11 thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail, 2 I '11 do, I '11 do, and I '11 do. 3

Second Witch. I '11 give thee a wind.

First Witch. Thou 'rt kind.

Third Witch. And I another.

18 That = so that.

19 Composition = terms of peace.

> Scene III. — 1 Ronyon = a mangy person. A term of abuse.

2 And, like a rat without a tail. It was believed that witches could assume the form of any animal they wished, but in every case the tail would be missing.

3 I'll do = I '11 gnaw a hole in the bottom of the ship and spring a leak.

First Witch. I myself have all the other, And the very points they blow, 15

All the quarters that they know I' the shipman's card.

I '11 drain him dry as hay : Sleep shall neither night nor day

Hang upon his pent-house lid ; 20

He shall live a man forbid : Weary se'nnights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak, 4 and pine : Though his bark cannot be lost,

Yet it shall be tempest-tost. 25

Look what I have.

Second Witch. Show me, show me.

First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wrack'd as homeward he did come. [Drmn ivithin.

TJiircl Witch. A drum, a drum ! 30

Macbeth doth come.

All. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters 5 of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about :

Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, 35

And thrice again, to make up nine.

Peace ! the charm 's wound up.

Filter Macbeth and Banquo.

Macbeth. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Banquo. How far is 't call'd to Forres ? — What are these So wither'd and so wild in their attire, 40

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on 't ? — Live you ? or are you aught That man may question ? You seem to understand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying

SCENE III.] MACBETH. 7

Upon her skinny lips : yon shonld be women, 45

And yet yonr beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.

Macbeth. Speak, if yon can : what are you ?

First Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of G-lamis !

Second Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor !

Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter ! 50

Banquo. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair ? — V the name of truth, Are ye fantastical, 6 or that indeed Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction 55

Of noble having and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal ; to me you speak not. If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 60

Your favours nor your hate.

First Witch. Hail!

Second Witch. Hail !

Third Witch. Hail!

First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 65

Second Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier.

Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none : So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo !

First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail !

Macbeth. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more : 70 By Sinel's 7 death I know I am thane of Glamis ; But how of Cawdor ? the thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman ; and to be king

6 Fantastical = creatures of the imagination.

7 Sinel, Macbeth's father.

Stands not within the prospect of belief,

No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence 75

You owe this strange intelligence ? or why

Upon this blasted heath you stop our way

With such prophetic greeting? speak, I charge you.

[ Witches vanish.

Banquo. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd ? 80

Macbeth. Into the air ; and what seem'd corporal melted As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd !

Banquo. Were such things here as we do speak about ? Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner ? 85

Macbeth. Your children shall be kings.

Banquo. You shall be king.

Macbeth. And thane of Cawdor too : went it not so ?

Banquo. To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here ?

Enter Ross and A

NOUS.

Boss. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, The news of thy success ; and when he reads 90

Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, His wonders and his praises do contend Which should be thine or his : 8 silenc'd with that, 9 In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, 95

Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as hail Came post with post, and every one did bear Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, And pour'd them down before him.

Angus. We are sent 100

8 His ivonders, etc. He is in doubt as to what he should give to Macbeth as praise and what he should withhold to himself as wonder.

9 Silenc'd xoith that. The problem is too hard aud he is reduced to silence.

SCENE III.] MACBETH. 9

To give thee from our royal master thanks ; Only to herald thee into his sight, Not pay thee.

Boss. And for an earnest 10 of a greater honour, He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor : 105

In. which addition, hail, most worthy thane ! For it is thine.

Banquo. What, can the devil speak true ?

Macbeth. The thane of Cawdor lives : why do you dress me In borrow'd robes ?

Angus. Who was the thane lives yet,

But under heavy judgment bears that life no

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combin'd With those of Norway, or did line the rebel u With hidden help and vantage, or that with both He labour' d in his country's wrack, I know not ; But treasons capital, confess'd and prov'd, 115

Have overthrown him.

Macbeth. [Aside'] Glamis, and thane of Cawdor !

The greatest is behind. — Thanks for your pains. — Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me Promis'd no less to them ?

Banquo. That trusted home 120

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 't is strange : 12 And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's 125

In deepest consequence. — Cousins, 13 a word, I pray you.

10 Earnest = pledge.

11 Rebel = Macdonwald.

12 But 't is strange = But it is a strange piece of business, I confess.

13 Cousins. They were not necessarily relatives. The word was often used in familiar address, especially among nobles.

10 MACBETH. [ACT l

Macbeth. [Aside'] Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme. — I thank you, gentlemen. [Aside] This supernatural soliciting i 3 <x

Cannot be ill, cannot be good : if ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth ? I am thane of Cawdor : If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 14 Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair i 35

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature ? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings : My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical, 15 Shakes so my single state of man that function 16 140

Is smother'd in surmise, 17 and nothing is But what is not. 18

Banquo. Look how our partner 's rapt.

Macbeth. [Aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir.

Banquo. New honours come upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould 145

But with the aid of use.

Macbeth. [Aside] Come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

Banquo. Worthy Macbeth, we stay 19 upon your leisure.

14 Suggestion = temptation.

15 My thought, etc. "My thought, though it is only of a murder in imagination or fantasy, so disturbs my feeble manhood of reason," etc. — Hudson.

16 Function — real performance.

17 Surmise = imagination, conjecture.

18 And nothing is but what is not. " The visible, tangible, and present are as nothing; the invisible, intangible, and future, everything." — Sprague.

19 We stay upon your leisure = we are waiting for you to be at leisure to go with us to the king.

Scene Iv.] Macbeth. 11

Macbeth. Give me your favour : my dull brain was wrought With, things forgotten. 20 Kind gentlemen, your pains 150 Are register'd where every day I turn The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king. — Think upon what hath chanc'd, and at more time, The interim 21 having weigh'd it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other.

Banquo. Very gladly. 155

Macbeth. Till then, enough. — Come, friends. [Exeunt.

Scene IV. — Forres. The Palace.

Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox,

and Attendants.

Duncan. Is execution done on Cawdor ? Are not Those in commission yet return' d ?

Malcolm. My liege,

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one that saw him die, who did report That very frankly he confess'd his treasons, Implor'd your highness' pardon, and set forth A deep repentance : nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it ; he died As one that had been studied in his death To throw away the dearest thing he owed 10

As 't were a careless trifle.

Duncan. There 's no art

To find the mind's construction in the face : He was a gentleman on whom I built An absolute trust. —

Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus. worthiest cousin !

The sin of my ingratitude even now 15

20 My dull brain, etc. = I was in a "brown study " trying to recall a matter that I could almost remember and yet could not.

21 Interim — the interval between.

Was heavy on me : thou art so far before

That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserv'd,

That the proportion both of thanks and payment

Might have been mine ! l only I have left to say, 20

More is thy due than more than all can pay.

Macbeth. The service and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part Is to receive our duties : and our duties Are to your throne and state children and servants; 25

Which do but what they should, by doing everything Safe toward your love and honour.

Duncan. Welcome hither :

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing. — Noble Banquo, That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known 30

No less to have done so, let me infold thee And hold thee to my heart.

Banquo. There if I gr®w,

The harvest is your own.

Duncan. My plenteous joys,

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow. — Sons, kinsmen, thanes, 35

And you whose places are the nearest, know We will establish our estate upon Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter The Prince of Cumberland ; 2 which honour must Not unaccompanied invest him only, 4 c

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine On all deservers. — From hence to Inverness, And bind us further to you.

Scene IV. — 1 That the proportion, etc. That I might have given thee more instead of less than thy deserts.

2 The Scottish crown at that time was elective within certain limits. Macbeth, being of the royal line, might hope, with good reason, to be made the Prince of Cumberland, which was then the title of the crown prince.

Scene V.] Macbeth. 15

Macbeth. The rest is labour, whitf>ive him tending ; 35 I '11 be myself the harbinger 4 and mai [Exit Messenger.

The hearing of my wife with your apjself is hoarse So humbly take my leave. m

Duncan. My worthy its

Macbeth. [Aside] The Prince of Cumbei"h. e re On which I must fall down, or else o'erleLf u n 4&

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fh Let not light see my black and deep desires The eye wink at the hand ; 6 yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. 3I1

Duncan. True, worthy Banquo : he is full s^ ? 45

And in his commendations I am fed ; o rs

It is a banquet to me. Let 's after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome : It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt.

Scene V. — Inverness. A room in Macbeth' s Castle.

Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter.

Lady Macbeth [Reads]. They met me in the day of success : arid I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives 1 from the king, who all-hailed me ' Thane of Cawdor; ' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with ' Hail, king that shalt be I ' This have I thought good to deliver 2 thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of re-

3 The rest is labour, etc. Even our hours of rest we count as labor when they are not used for you.

4 Harbinger — forerunner.

6 Step, in the sense of a stepping stone.

6 Wink at f= pretend not to see.

Scene V. — 1 Missives — messengers. 2 Deliver = report to.

joicing, by being ignorant f w j iat greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.

Glamis thou art, and <Jawdor, and shalt be What thou art promi^d. Yet do I fear thy nature ; It is too full o' the \\i\\ of human kindness i 5

To catch the nearer wav . Thou wouldst be great ; Art not without ai ibition, but without The illness 3 should attend it: what thou wouldst highly, That wouldst tW u holily ; wouldst not play false, And yet woulds^ wrongly win : thou 'dst have, great Glamis, That which cr^s, < Thus thou must do, if thou have it ; ' 21 And that wlVch rather thou dost fear to do Than wisest should be undone. 4 Hie thee hither, That J may pour my spirits in thine ear, AiU chastise with the valour of my tongue 25

All that impedes thee from the golden round Which fate and metaphysical 5 aid doth seem To have thee crown'd withal.

Enter a Messenger.

What is your tidings ?

Messenger. The king comes here to-night.

Lady Macbeth. Thou 'rt mad to say it :

Is not thy master with him ? who, were 't so, 30

Would have inform'd for preparation.

Messenger. So please you, it is true : our thane is coming. One of my fellows had the speed of him, 6 Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message.

3 Illness = unscrupulousness, evil.

4 Thou'dst have, etc. "Thou'dst have, great Glamis, that (i.e. the crown) which (crown) cries, ' Thus thou must do, if thou have it .(i.e. me, the crown),' and (thou wouldst have) that (i.e. murder) which rather thou dost fear to do, than wishest to be undone (i.e. unperformed)." — Spraguc.

5 Metaphysical = beyond the physical, supernatural.

6 Had the speed of him = outstripped him.

SCENE V.J MACBETH. 15

Lady Macbeth. Give him tending ; 35

He brings great news. [Exit Messenger.

The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full 40

Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood ; Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace 7 between The effect and it ! Come to my woman's breasts, 45

And take my milk for gall, you murthering ministers, Wherever in your sightless 8 substances You wait on nature's mischief ! Come, thick night, And pall 9 thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, 50

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry ' Hold, hold ! '

Enter Macbeth.

Great Glamis ! worthy Cawdor !

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! 10 Thy letters have transported me beyond This ignorant present, and I feel now 55

The future in the instant. 11

Macbeth. My dearest love,

Duncan comes here to-night.

Lady Macbeth. And when goes hence ?

Macbeth. To-morrow, — as he purposes.