Machiavelli
“I think that it is probably true
to say that Fortune (luck,
destiny, fate) governs one half
of our actions, but that we
ourselves have control of the
other half.
It is better to be bold than timid,
for Fortune is a woman. And,
like a woman, she prefers young
men, because they are less
cautious, more ardent, and more
daring in their demands.”
Act 1, Scene 7
Macbeth's castle.
A medieval
instrument
similar to an
oboe
A servant who
tastes food to
ensure there is no
poison.
Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and
divers Servants with dishes and service, and
pass over the stage. Then enter MACBETH
Diverse/varied-remember these
are the “preparations” for the King
MACBETH
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly:
Murder
Macbeth’s soliloquy
If the murder led to no
consequences…
if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'ld jump the life to come.
If this attack was simply the
…and catches with his
successful end i.e. his murder
“Bank and shoal of time” Is a metaphor
for life, or the present. He means this shallow
Crossing we call life as opposed to the great
Abyss of eternity
end of it in this life and I was
king...
…then I’d risk the
consequences in the life to
come.
Macbeth is worried about the example
he sets and the consequences of these
Macbeth uses Legal
terminology as he is debating
good and evil, right from
wrong
But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips.
Justice personified as fair
(“even-handed”) will give
Macbeth a taste of his own
medicine (“poison’d chalice”).
By committing murder and
deposing of the king, we teach
others to do the same. The
lesson will come back to
“plague” Macbeth.
Foreshadowing his end.
Dunsinane
Has two reasons to trust
me. There are two
reasons why I shouldn’t
kill him
Related
Duncan
He's here in double trust;
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself.
A person
who he
rules over
Laws of
hospitality
Two powerful
reasons for not
killing him
Powers (as king)
so gently
Free from guilt or
stain in his role
Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
Simile-angels
innocence-good
etc
Alliteration. Notice
the antithesisdamnation-hell/angel
Good
qualitiesPersonified,
“plead”=beg
Metaphor-tongues
as trumpets
protesting loudly
Murder. Taking off
the throne.
Pity personified.
One of the highest
orders of heaven’s
angels
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
Courier=
messenger i.e.
That tears shall drown the wind.
wind
Travelling on the
blast of virtue’s
trumpets
The murder
So that tears will drown the
wind (personified…again)
Metaphor.
Intention, ambition,
desire as a horse
ready to gallop off
Spur symbolises
Motivation
(metaphor)
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.
Vaulting-to jump over a
fence. The horse
metaphor is continued
Gets carried away and
falls on the other side of
the fence.
i.e. When he becomes
king the example he’s set
will see him murdered for
his crown.
What does this image have to do
with Macbeth’s “vaulting ambition”?
I have no spur
To prick the sides of
my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition,
Enter LADY MACBETH
How now! what news?
LADY MACBETH
Eaten/drunk. Had
his supper
He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber?
MACBETH
Hath he ask'd for me?
Worried?
LADY MACBETH
Know you not he has?
Don’t you know he has?
Metaphor: murder as “Business”
Euphemistic: nicer way of saying
something.
MACBETH
Given me
honours lately.
Titles: Thane of
Cawdor
We will proceed no further in this business:
He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
should
Metaphor: Reputation as
clothes; a golden robe.
Metaphor:
Reputation/people’s opinions
as valuable objects which can
be bought (earned) yet also
lost!
What does this
picture have to
do with what
we’ve just
read?
Lady Macbeth begins her persuasion.
Notice the rhetorical questions
LADY MACBETH
Macbeth has obviously boasted that he’ll
kill Duncan. He has “dress’d” himself in
hopes and ambitiously brave boasts.
Metaphor: bragging as dressing/clothes.
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely?
Now it seems he’s changed
his mind. LM is suggesting
he was drunk and full of
brave words and promises.
Personification: now “hope” has woken up
and is scared by what it promised to do
LM is using shame
and guilt to persuade
From now on, this is how much I shall
value your love. What could she be doing
here
From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire?
Are you afraid to do the deeds which will
get you what you say you desire?
Would you have
Value as
The crown
Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'
Like the poor cat i' the adage?
The most beautiful
thing/most desirable thing
in life i.e. The Crown/Power
Simile
An adage is a proverbial saying: The
cat likes to eat fish but doesn’t like
to wet her feet.
You want to be the king
but “dare not”
MACBETH
I pray you be
quiet
Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
There is
nobody more
daring than
me
I am brave enough
to do anything that is
fitting for a man
This word is in
antithesis with
“man” in the
previous line.
LADY MACBETH
This proves the murder
has been discussed
earlier The letter in 1.5.
doesn’t mention the
“enterprise”: another
euphemistic metaphor.
M merely says “We will
speak further”.
What beast was't, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man.
Power and bravery
seems intimately tied
up with power and
status.
If you were to
become King you’d
be even more of a
man
When you
were brave
enough to do
it you were a
man
The time and place were not
right when you boasted you’d
kill Duncan…yet you wished
they were.
Time and place are now right.
They’ve made themselves.
Now is the opportunity.
Hint at fate
Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you.
suitability
makes you a coward or
less than a man.
Remember LM’s plea
for the spirits to
“unsex” her and make
her more masculine in
1.5?
I have breast-fed
I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
toothless
smashed
If I promised it and
then backed down
like you
MACBETH
If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH
How would she say
this line?
We fail!
But screw your courage to the
sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.
Old crossbows were wound
until the bolt reached the
“sticking place” and was
ready to be fired.
Plot
Hard work personified as
“inviting”
When Duncan is asleep-Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him--his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only:
Hard day’s work personified
as “inviting” Duncan to sleep
Plot
Gentlemen of the
bedchamber
I will with wine and
hot spiced punch
When Duncan is asleep-Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him--his two chamberlains
ConvinceWill I with wine and wassail so convince
overpower
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Memory
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
personified as
the jailor of the
A limbeck only:
A smoke-misty-unclear
Limbeck, a pot used
in distillation of chemicals.
Basically, she says
sensible thoughts will
Bubble away in their drunken
heads
brain. Locking
up memories
etc
The collection of sensible
information
Pig-like,
notice the
sibilance
Drowned in drink
when in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
Simile
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?
When they are like this,
Drunken
what can’t we do to
Duncan?
Murder
MACBETH
Give birth to…
Spirit
Bring forth men-children only;
How can we link
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
to 1.5?
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
That they have done't?
Seen/perceived
Their own
weapons
Macbeth her begins to be convinced by the plan
LADY MACBETH
Who dares to see it
otherwise when we
will shout the house
down ?
Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?
MACBETH
My bodily
power.
If he is the
physical power,
LM is the spirit?
I am settled, and bend up
Smiling false
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
face
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
Exeunt
Echoes LM’s advice to look the
flower but be a serpent under it
Rhyming couplet.
On A3 paper, make another PEE plan for this scene.
Remember to
use PEE
Try and make links
between the scenes.
E.g. masculine vs
feminine; body vs spirit;
breast-feeding imagery;
appearance and reality
Remember to
use EVA, link to
Globe
Use connectives to
highlight the
links…similarly, also,
moreover, in the same
way.
Machiavelli
“I think that it is probably true
to say that Fortune (luck,
destiny, fate) governs one half
of our actions, but that we
ourselves have control of the
other half.
It is better to be bold than timid,
for Fortune is a woman. And,
like a woman, she prefers young
men, because they are less
cautious, more ardent, and more
daring in their demands.”