âTo Meet with Macbeth,â given by tutor Louis ... - St. John's College

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III and IV. We should expect the middle to intervene (such is the form of tragedy) because this delicate bell is not the kind of bell to summon souls to their final ends. We will hear the ringing of other bells as loud as thunder on two later occasions. Macduff rings “the alarum bell” the morning after the murder to wake “the sleepers of the house” to see “the great doom’s image” (II.iii.76, 80, 84). And Macbeth rings “the alarum bell” to call his forces to arms against the moving wood of Birnam, while he wishes that the fixed “estate of the world” were as “undone” as those woods are from the ground (V.v.50, 51). These two bells, loud and repeated in their ringing, have common apocalyptic meanings. Shakespeare knew better than to rely on words only when the ultimate end calls to souls. As Macbeth exits on the word “hell,” Lady Macbeth boldly enters, on fire with desire. “Hark! Peace!” (II.ii.2). She hears something. Her confidence in what is real depends on that little sound. She is not of sufficient strength to lose her hold on reality and still meet with it. Thus she decides “It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,” her accomplice in ringing speech into prepared action (II.ii.3). Listening, she dares to hear more: “He is about it”—being “more the man.” “The doors are open”--the drugged grooms snore heavily between life and death (II.ii.4, 5). A voice is heard twice from within: “Who’s there? What, ho?” (II.ii.8). These questions surround her like thunder. She prepared everything for him—what could have gone wrong? At last he enters and for the first time she calls him, “My husband!” (II.ii.13). “I have done the deed,” he declares (II.ii.14). Now should be the time to embrace his wife and to release all the tension of desire that has been building since the prologue. But that tension continues to mount until it becomes almost unbearable: Macbeth. Didst thou not hear a noise? Lady Macbeth. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak? Macbeth. When? 30
Lady Macbeth. Macbeth. Now. Lady Macbeth. Ay. Macbeth. Hark! Who lies i’ th’ second chamber? Lady Macbeth. As I descended? Donalbain. (II.ii.14-19) The noises and voices of the night come from things they strain to master by naming or placing. But what kind of a world sounds like this? Macbeth. There’s one did laugh in ’s sleep, and one cried “Murder!” That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them. But they did say their prayers, and addressed them Again to sleep. Lady Macbeth. There are two lodged together. (II.ii.22-25) Something intervenes in the bedchamber when two opposing voices of laughter and of cries issue from someplace before they converge in prayer: Macbeth. One cried “God bless us!” and “Amen” the other, As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands: List’ning their fear, I could not say “Amen,” When they did say “God bless us!” Lady Macbeth. Consider it not so deeply. Macbeth. But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”? I had most need of blessing, and “Amen” Stuck in my throat. Lady Macbeth. These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so, it will make us mad. (II.ii.26-34). 31
Page 1 and 2: To Meet With Macbeth Louis Petrich
Page 3 and 4: world not yet formed. Rather, let u
Page 5 and 6: from our sources with this same wor
Page 7 and 8: y “cancel[ling] and tear[ing] to
Page 9 and 10: Sisters had foreseen a meeting with
Page 11 and 12: air, Macbeth says, “What seemed c
Page 13 and 14: yearnings, as Macbeth believes what
Page 15 and 16: Conduct me to mine host: we love hi
Page 17 and 18: Greater than both, by the all-hail
Page 19 and 20: Macbeth, his immediate desires post
Page 21 and 22: He pauses: she says nothing but loo
Page 23 and 24: to his own wife and babes who cry o
Page 25 and 26: and colored by the poet’s design,
Page 27 and 28: amazement that he cannot pronounce
Page 29: and tongue are one seamless suit of
Page 33 and 34: not the voice she tuned, so she que
Page 35 and 36: that he sees and holds in his other
Page 37 and 38: “as King” in III.i. But the not
Page 39 and 40: This sense of incongruence is even
Page 41 and 42: Banquo’s ghost, seated and moving
Page 43 and 44: Lady Macduff. Sirrah, your father
Page 45 and 46: Let us rather Hold fast the mortal
Page 47 and 48: end). What can we say about how she
Page 49 and 50: that Shakespeare should have played
Page 51 and 52: First, Birnam Wood comes to Dunsina
Page 53 and 54: Ross. Ay, on the front. Siward. Why
Page 55 and 56: Tell thee, Macduff was from his mot
Page 57 and 58: Macduff fights to free the time. Hi
Page 59: crowned. We are among the spectator

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