Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without The illness 2 should attend it: what thou wouldst highly, And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'dst have, great Glamis, An act which rather thou dost fear to do Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, Enter a Messenger. What is your tidings? Thou'rt mad to say it : Mess. The King comes here to-night. Lady M. Is not thy master with him? who, were't so, Would have inform'd for preparation. Mess. So please you, it is true. Our thane is coming: 2 Illness in the sense, not only of wickedness, but of remorselessness or hardness of heart. 'Macbeth," says Coleridge, "is described by Lady Macbeth so as at the same time to reveal her own character. Could he have every thing he wanted, he would rather have it innocently; ignorant, as, alas, how many of us are! that he who wishes a temporal end for itself does in truth will the means; and hence the danger of indulging fancies." Editors differ as to how much is here uttered by the voice which Lady Macbeth imagines speaking to her husband. See Critical Notes. 4 Metaphysical for supernatural. So in Florio's World of Words, 1598: "Metafisico, one that professeth things supernaturall." And in Minsheu's Spanish Dictionary, 1599: “Metafisica, things supernaturall, metaphisickes." -For this use of seem, see page 15, note 15. One of my fellows had the speed of him ; Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Lady M. Give him tending ; He brings great news. [Exit Messenger. The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance 5 of Duncan 5 Meaning, probably, the raven has made himself hoarse with croaking, or has croaked so loud and long as to become hoarse, over the fatal entrance, &c. The figure of speech called prolepsis. Shakespeare has other allusions to the ominousness of the raven's croak; as he also has many such anticipative expressions. See vol. xiii. page 188, note 1. 6 Mortal and deadly were synonymous in Shakespeare's time. Later in this play we have "the mortal sword," and "mortal gashes."-The spirits here addressed are thus described in Nashe's Pierce Pennilesse: "The second kind of devils, which he most employeth, are those northern Martii, called the spirits of revenge, and the authors of massacres, and seedsmen of mischief; for they have commission to incense men to rapines, sacrilege, theft, murder, wrath, fury, and all manner of cruelties." Remorse here means pity, the relentings of compassion; as it generally does in the writings of Shakespeare's time. 8 Peace is of course broken between the effect and the purpose when the two stand in conflict or at odds with each other; that is, when the purpose remains unexecuted. See Critical Notes. 9"Take away my milk, and give me gall instead," is probably the meaning. In her fiery thirst of power, Lady Macbeth feels that her woman's heart is unequal to the calls of her ambition, and she would fain exchange her "milk of human kindness," for a fiercer infusion. You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Enter MACBETH. Great Glamis ! worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! This ignorant present, and I feel now The future in the instant.12 Your face, my thane, is as a book where men 10" Thick night " is explained by "light thickens," later in the play. We still have the phrase "thick darkness." —To pall is to robe, to shroud, to wrap: from the Latin pallium, a cloak or mantle. 11 The metaphor of darkness being a blanket wrapped round the world, so as to keep the Divine Eye from seeing what Lady Macbeth longs and expects to have done, is just such a one as it was fitting for the boldest of poets to put into the mouth of the boldest of women. The old poets, however, were rather fond of representing night in some such way. So in The Faerie Queene, i. 4, 44: "Now whenas darksome night had all displayd her coleblacke curtein over brightest skye." And in Milton's Ode on the Passion: "Befriend me, night; over the pole thy thickest mantle throw." 12 Instant in the Latin sense of instans; that which is pressing. The enthusiasm of her newly-kindled expectation quickens the dull present with the spirit of the future, and gives to hope the life and substance of fruition. 18 Time is here put for its contents, or what occurs in time. It is a time of full-hearted welcome and hospitality; and such are the looks which Macbeth is urged to counterfeit. Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, Must be provided for: and you shall put This night's great business into my dispatch; Macb. We will speak further. *Lady M. *To alter favour 14 ever is to fear: *Leave all the rest to me. SCENE VI. Only look up clear; [Exeunt. The Same. Before MACBETH's Castle. Hautboys and torches. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX, MACDUFF, ROSS, ANGUS, and Attendants. Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.1 Ban. The guest of Summer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,2 By his loved mansionry, that the heavens' breath Buttress, nor coign of vantage,3 but this bird Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 14 Favour is countenance.- Lady Macbeth is here mad, or inspired, with a kind of extemporized ferocity, so that she feels herself able to perform without flinching the crime she has conceived, if her husband will only keep his face from telling any tales of their purpose. 1 That is, "The air, by its purity and sweetness, attempers our senses to its own state, and so makes them gentle, or sweetens them into gentleness." Another proleptical form of speech. See page 30, note 5. 2 Approve in the sense of prove simply, or make evident. 8" Coigne of vantage" is a convenient nook or corner; coigne being a corner-stone at the exterior angle of a building. So in Coriolanus, v. 4: "See you yond coigne o' the Capital, yond corner-stone ?" Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed Dun. Enter Lady MACBETH. See, see, our honour'd hostess ! The love that follows us sometime 5 is our trouble, Lady M. Dun. Where's the Thane of Cawdor? 4 The subject of this quiet and easy conversation gives that repose so necessary to the mind after the tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts the scene of horror that succeeds. This also is frequently the practice of Homer, who, from the midst of battles and horrors, relieves and refreshes the mind of the reader, by introducing some quiet rural image or picture of familiar domestic life. - REYNOLDS. 5 Sometime and sometimes were used indiscriminately. "God yield us," that is, reward us. To bid is here used in its old sense of to pray. So to bid the beads is to pray through the rosary. See vol. x. page 193, note 11.- The kind-hearted monarch means that his love is what puts him upon troubling them thus, and therefore they will be grateful for the pains he causes them. 7 Here, again, too is understood before poor. Single, again, also, in the sense of weak or small. See page 24, note 30, and page 26, note 3. 8 "To contend against "here means to vie with, to counterpoise or match. Here, as often, to has the force of in addition to. 10 That is, "We remain as hermits or beadsmen to pray for you." 11 Purveyor is, properly, one sent before, to provide food and drink for some person or party that is to follow. |