TEXT:
MACBETH
Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.
Exit Servant
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
A bell rings
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
Exit
NOTES:
Bells
Bells make something like seventy-two appearances in Shakespeare’s plays. They are always an effective device, and always mean something significant. This particular soliloquy is book-ended by the bell. Macbeth asks for it at the beginning, and then it is sounded at the end.
Daggers
I spoke in the episode about how prevalent daggers are in Shakespeare’s plays. There are probably more daggers than there are swords. (As I mentioned, everyone from Juliet to Julius Caesar dies at the point of a dagger…) The dagger is a matter-of-fact weapon. It’s a personal, almost intimate weapon to use to murder one’s houseguest - certainly it’s not at all the kind of ceremonial or formal sword one might use to execute or assassinate a king. As the text mentioned, it would have consisted of a blade and dudgeon - the metal blade, and the wooden dudgeon of the handle.
Regicide on Stage
Violence on stage was a tricky issue for Shakespeare. It was not acceptable to kill the king on stage, certainly, and this is why Duncan’s murder takes place offstage.
Hecate
Hecate was an ancient Greek goddess associated with witchcraft and the blackest hours of the night.
Tarquin
Sextus Tarquinius, Tarquin, is the awful villain of The Rape of Lucrece. He is notorious as the man who raped Lucretia (Lucrece), the wife of his political enemy Collatinus. The historical Tarquin was the son of Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome. Indeed, Tarquin Junior’s disgraceful acts were among the key events that led to the end of the monarchy and the rise of the Roman Republic. It’s worth bearing in mind that Macbeth is here making reference to Hecate, the goddess of witches, Murder, personified as a nighttime monster with wolves as his sentinels, and Tarquin, the most notorious rapist. These are the main agitators at this time of night, and Macbeth is starting to feel like he should be counted among them.
Curtained Sleep
Shakespeare’s own experience would have been in beds curtained off to keep them warm. Here’s a picture of a bed in Anne Hathaway’s cottage to give you a sense of it.
