And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature, For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers, Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breech'd with gore 12: Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage, to make his love known? Lady M. Macd. Look to the lady. Mal. Help me hence, ho! Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? Where our fate, hid in an auger-hole, Aside to each other. Look to the lady: : [LADY MACBETH is carried out. And when we have our naked frailties hid 13, And question this most bloody piece of work, of Macbeth, as a mark of artifice and dissimulation, to show the difference between the studied language of hypocrisy and the natural outcries of sudden passion. This whole speech, so considered, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists of antithesis only." 12 Breech'd with gore, i. e. covered with blood to their hilts. 13 i. e. when we have clothed our half-dressed bodies. The Porter had already said that this "place is too cold for hell," meaning the court-yard of the castle in which Banquo and the rest now So in Timon of Athens: are. "Call the creatures Whose naked natures live in all the spight Against the undivulg'd pretence 14 I fight Of treasonous malice. Macd. All. And so do I. So all. Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i' the hall together. All. Well contented. [Exeunt all but MAL. and DON Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them : To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy: I'll to England. Mal. 14 Pretence is here put for design or intention. It is so used again in The Winter's Tale : "The pretence whereof being by circumstance partly laid open." Thus again in the next scene: "What good could they pretend;" i. e. intend to themselves: in the sense of the Latin prætendo, “to design or lay for a thing before it come," as the old dictionaries explain it. Banquo's meaning is—“in our present state of doubt and uncertainty about this murder, I have nothing to do but to put myself under the direction of God; and, relying on his support, I here declare myself an eternal enemy to this treason, and to all its further designs that have not yet come to light." 15 The near in blood, The nearer bloody." Meaning that he suspects Macbeth to be the murderer: for he was the nearest in blood to the two princes, being the cousingerman of Duncan. 16 The allusion of the unlighted shaft appears to be "The murderous shaft has not yet done all its intended mischief; I and my brother stand in the way of its aim, yet to be destroyed before it will reach its mark and do no more harm." But shift away: There's warrant in that theft SCENE IV) Without the Castle. Enter Rosse and an Old Man. left. [Exeunt. Old M, Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. Rosse. Ah, good father, Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Old M. 1 "After the murder of King Duffe," says Holinshed, "for the space of six months togither there appeared no sunne by daye, nor moone by night, in anie part of the realme; but still the sky was covered with continual clouds; and sometimes such outrageous winds arose, with lightenings and tempests, that the people were in great fear of present destruction." It is evident that Shakespeare had this passage in his thoughts. Most of the portents here mentioned are related by Holinshed, as accompanying King Duffe's death: "there was a sparhawk strangled by an owl," and "horses of singular beauty and swiftness did eat their own flesh." 2 A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place, a technical phrase in falconry for soaring to the highest pitch. Faulcon haultain was the French term for a towering or high flying hawk. Mr. Dyce has cited the following passage from Donne, addressing Sir H. Goodyere and speaking of his Hawk: "Which when herself she lessens in the aire, Rosse. And Duncan's horses (a thing most strange and certain), Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Old M. 'Tis said, they ate each other. Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes, That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Macduff: Enter MACDuff. How goes the world, sir, now? Macd. - Why, see you not? Rosse. Is't known who did this more than bloody deed? Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. Rosse. Alas, the day! They were suborn'd: What good could they pretend3? Macd. Malcolm, and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Suspicion of the deed. Rosse. 'Gainst nature still : Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up Thine own life's means !—Then 'tis most like, Macd. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone. To be invested. Rosse. Where is Duncan's body? Macd. Carried to Colme-kill5; 3 Pretend, i. e. intend. See note 14, p. 50. "Macbeth, by his birth, stood next in succession to the crown after the sons of Duncan. King Malcolm, Duncan's predecessor, had two daughters, the eldest of whom was the mother of Duncan, the younger the mother of Macbeth."-Holinshed. 5 Colme-kill is the famous Iona, one of the western isles mentioned by Holinshed as the burial place of many ancient kings of Scotland. Colme-kill means the cell or chapel of St. Columbo See note 15, p. 12. The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, Rosse. Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. Rosse. Will you to Scone? Well, I will thither. Macd. Well, may you see things well done there; adieu! Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! Rosse. Farewell, father. Old M. God's benison go with you: and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes! [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. Fores. A Room in the Palace. Enter BANQUO. Banquo. HOU hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, It should not stand in thy posterity; But that myself should be the root and father And set me up in hope? But, hush; no more. Senet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as King: LADY MACBETH, as Queen; LENOX, ROSSE, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants. Macb. Here's our chief guest. Lady M. If he had been forgotten, |