And now I wake to darkness, guilt and horror;
I cannot bear it! Let me shake it off-
'Twill not be; my soul is clogged with blood—
I cannot rise! I dare not ask for mercy—
It is too late, hell drags me down; I sink,
I sink-Oh!-my soul is lost forever!
Oh!
This Faustian peroration went on being used until well into the nineteenth century.
The one element that has always proved satisfying in Shakespeare's ending is the clear and unambiguous triumph of good over evil. But there is a puzzling aspect to the conclusion, which is less symmetrical and more open-ended than this suggests. Why, in a play so clearly organized around ideas of good and evil, is it not Malcolm who defea
ts Macbeth-the incarnation of virtue, the man who has never told a lie or slept with a woman, overcoming the monster of vice? In fact, historically, this is what happened: Macbeth was killed in battle by Malcolm, not Macduff. Shakespeare is following Holinshed here, but why, especially in a play that revises so much else in its source material? Davenant recognizes this as a problem, and, followed by Garrick, gives Macduff a few lines of justification as he kills Macbeth:
This for thy Royal master Duncan
This for my dearest friend my wife,
This for those pledges of our loves my children...
I'll as a trophy bear away his sword
To witness my revenge.
The addition is significant, and revealing: in Shakespeare, Macduff, fulfilling the prophecy, is simply acting as Malcolm's agent, the man not born of woman acting for the king uncontaminated by women. But why does virtue need an agent, while vice can act for itself? And what about the agent: does the unanswered question about Macduff abandoning his family not linger in the back of our minds? Does his willingness to condone the vices Malcolm invents for himself not say something disturbing about the quality of Macduff as a hero? Is he not, in fact, the pragmatic soldier who does what needs to be done so that the saintly king can stay clear of the complexities and paradoxes of politics and war? And what happens next, with a saintly king of Scotland, and an ambitious soldier as his right-hand man, and those threatening offspring, the heirs of Banquo, still waiting in the wings?
STEPHEN ORGEL
Stanford University
Note on the Text
THIS EDITION IS, with the two exceptions indicated below, based on the only substantive text, the folio of 1623. This apparently derived from a transcript of the promptbook, which preserved a revised version of the play, including some non-Shakespearean elements (see the Introduction). The act and scene division here supplied coincides with that of the folio text except that V.7 of the latter is here subdivided into scenes 7 and 8. (Another possible point of subdivision comes at V.8.35, and is marked by some editors as scene 9.) The following list of emendations records the only substantive departures from the folio text; however, the lineation in the folio is unusually erratic, and relineation has not been recorded. The readings in this edition are in italics, the folio readings in roman.
I.1 10-13SECOND WITCH...air (in F these lines form a single speech attributed to "All") I.2 13galloglasses Gallowgrosses 14quarrel Quarry (a variant spelling of "quarrel") I.3 32weird weyward (so throughout) 39Forres Soris (The town is named Forres. The error is Holinshed's, like the S/F error in Macbeth's father's name at line 71.) 71Finel Sinel (his name was Finel or Finley; another S/F error from Holinshed) 98Came Can I.4 1Are Or I.5 46it hit (a variant spelling) I.6 4martlet Barlet 9most must 27count compt (a variant spelling) I.7 6shoal Schoole (a variant spelling) 47do no II.1 56side sides (Pope's emendation "strides" has been almost universally adopted, but it is bibliographically unsound-a compositor would not have misread "strides" as "sides"-and both neatens and contradicts the sense: a "stealthy pace" does not "stride." "Sides" is undeniably puzzling, but so is much else in the play. As it stands, it can mean "loins," or, as a verb, "sides with." If the word is to be emended, a more plausible reading would be "side," arrogance-the OED records the noun only in modern examples, but adjectival usages date from the early sixteenth century, and Shakespeare often uses adjectives as substantives. There is a possible parallel in Coriolanus I.1.191: Martius claims the plebeians "presume to know What's done i'th Capitoll: Who's like to rise, Who thriues, & who declines: Side factions, & giue out / Coniecturall Marriages...." "Side" is always taken as a verb here-they will favor certain factions-but syntactically the adjectival use is more likely: they will pretend to know which factions are arrogant, guilty of their own vice of presumptuousness. "Sides" for "side" is, moreover, a plausible compositor's error: the tail of a final e in secretary hand is easily misread as a final s.) 57sure sowre 58way they they may II.2 13 s.d.Enter Macbeth (after "die" in line 8 in F) II.3 79horror (F adds "Ring the bell," but the bell has already been called for at line 73, and is rung, logically, as soon as the speech is finished. As Theobald observed, this looks like the prompter's marginal instruction to himself, and Lady Macbeth's line metrically completes the verse.) III.1 62grip Gripe (a variant spelling) III.4 41 s.d. F has the ghost enter at line 37; but he logically enters when he is summoned (as at line 92 also) 79time times 92 s.d. (after line 89 in F) 136worst. For worst, for 145in deed indeed III.5 35ff. F reads, Hearke, I am call'd: my little Spirit see Sits in a Foggy cloud, and stayes for me.
Sing within. Come away, come away, &c.
I. Come, Let's make hast, shee'l soone be Backe againe. Exeunt.
My text is edited from the ms of Davenant's Macbeth, which apparently derives from the King's Men's prompt copy. See the Introduction.
III.6 24son Sonnes 38the their IV.1 43 s.d. F reads, Musicke and a Song. Blacke Spirits, &c. See the Introduction. 81all together altogether 115Dunsinane Dunsmane 120Birnam Byrnan 133 s.d.Kings and Banquo, last Kings, and Banquo last 141eighth eight IV.2 22none moue 30 s.d.Exit Exit Rosse 73 s.d.Exit Exit Messenger 83shag-haired shagge-ear'd IV.3 15deserve discerne 107accursed accust 133thy here-approach they heere approach 235tune time V.1 1two too V.2 5Birnam Byrnan 31Birnam Birnan V.3 2Birnam Byrnane 41Cure her Cure 57senna Cyme 62Birnam Birnane V.4 3Birnam Birnane V.5 34, 44Birnam Byrnane 39shalt shall V.8 30Birnam Byrnane
Macbeth
FLEANCE, son to Banquo
SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland
YOUNG SIWARD, his son
SEYTON, an officer attending on Macbeth BOY, son to Macduff