Our lack is nothing but our leave: Macbeth you may; Receive what cheer The night is long that never finds the day. [Exeunt. ACT V. 'SCENE I. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle. Enter a Doctor of Physick, and a waiting Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked? Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep. Doct. A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching. In this slumbry agitation, besides her walking, and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say? Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her. Doct. You may, to me; and 'tis most meet you should. Gent. Neither to you, nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech. 31 i. e. encourage, thrust us their instruments forward against the tyrant. Enter LADY MACBETH, with a Taper. Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise; and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close. Doct. How came she by that light? Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command. Doct. You see her eyes are open. Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut1. Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands. Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour. Lady M. Yet here's a spot. Doct. Hark, she speaks: I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say!-One: Two: Why, then 'tis time to do't:- -Hell is murky!-Fye, my lord, fye! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can 1 Ay, but their sense is shut.' The old copy reads 'Ay, but their sense are shut.' Malone has quoted other instances of the same inaccurate grammar, according to modern notions, from Julius Cæsar: The posture of his blows are yet unknown.' And from the hundred and twelfth Sonnet of Shakspeare:- Vide note on Hamlet, Act i. Sc. i. 2 Lady Macbeth, in her dream, imagines herself talking to her husband, who (she supposes) had just said Hell is murky (i. e. hell is a dismal place to go to in consequence of such a deed), and repeats his words in contempt of his cowardice.' Hell is murky!-Fye, my lord, fye! a soldier, and afeard?' This expla nation is by Steevens, and appears to me very judicious. call our power to account?-Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? Doct. Do you mark that? Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife: Where is she now?What, will these hands ne'er be clean?-No more o'that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with this starting 3. Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not. Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: Heaven knows what she has known. Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh! Doct. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged. Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bo> som, for the dignity of the whole body. Doct. Well, well, well, Gent. 'Pray God, it be, sir. Doct. This disease is beyond my practice: Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds. Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale:-I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out of his grave. Doct. Even so? Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; What's done, cannot be undone: To bed, to bed, to bed. [Exit LADY MACBETH, Doct. Will she go now to bed? 3 You mar all with this starting.' She is here again alluding to the terrors of Macbeth when the Ghost broke in on the festivity of the banquet. Gent. Directly. Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad; Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds Gent. Good night, good doctor. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Country near Dunsinane. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MENTETH, CATH- Ment. The English power is near, led on by His uncle Siward1, and the good Macduff. 4 'My mind she has mated.' Mated, or amated, from matté, old French, signified to overcome, confound, dismay, or make afraid. The word is to be found in Bullokar's Expositor, 1616; in Cotgrave's French Dictionary; and in Philips's World of Words. Philips distinguishes it as an old word, or obsolete; and derives it from the Saxon; but, I believe, without foundation. 1 Duncan had two sons by his wife, who was the daughter of Siward, Earl of Northumberland. HOLINSHed. 2 By the mortified man is meant a religious man; one who has mortified his passions, is dead to the world, has abandoned it, and all the affairs of it; an ascetic. So in Monsieur D'Olive, 1606: 'He like a mortified hermit sits.' And in Love's Labour's Lost, Act i. Sc. 1:- The grosser manner of this world's delights Ang. Near Birnam wood Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming. Cath. Who knows, if Donalbain be with his brother? Len. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file Ment. What does the tyrant? Cath. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies : Some say, he's mad; others, that lesser hate him, Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain, He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause Within the belt of rule. Ang. Now does he feel Ment. Who then shall blame His pester'd senses to recoil, and start, When all that is within him does condemn Cath. Well, march we on, To give obedience where 'tis truly ow'd: 3 And many unrough youths.' This odd expression means smooth-faced, unbearded. See the Tempest: 4 i. e. when all the faculties of the mind are employed in selfcondemnation. 5 The medecin, the physician. In the Winter's Tale, Camillo is called by Perdita 'the medecin of our house.' |