“To Meet with Macbeth,” given by tutor Louis ... - St. John's College

Ross.
Ay, on the front.
Siward.
Why then, God’s soldier be he!
Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
I would not wish them to a fairer death:
And so his knell is knolled.
Now the politic young Malcolm, also not a fighter, but the chief beneficiary of the sacrifices of this war,
tries to appropriate the action emotionally:
Malcolm.
He’s worth more sorrow,
And that I’ll spend for him.
Siward.
He’s worth no more:
They say he parted well and paid his score:
And so God be with him!
(V.viii.39-53)
Does Young Siward die a fair death? To those who do not witness it, perhaps. What is beautiful to me is
how the father receives the news his way in this unmilitary company of uneasy survivors. However, I
have seen productions that cut those of his lines that the director and company found morally
repugnant. We must all make our decisions about what “more” or “no more” we would tolerate of
certain things in this play, for we are not given to see if God has soldiers, or what He requires of man to
“pay the score.” Yet we have our moral business still to conduct unseeingly .
Macduff’s meeting with Macbeth is the greatest of the fights in Shakespeare to watch and
ponder. An honest and decent audience must find it troubling. Imagine that Macbeth enters stage left,
having gashed open a few more foes, and he strides towards the opposite stage right exit; Macduff now
enters stage left, sees Macbeth about to slip away, and in that apocalyptic voice that we heard raising
the sleepers to face the image of doomsday, he booms out four distinct syllables: “Turn, hell-hound,
turn!” (V.viii.3). They must sound like the thunder, completely arresting, like the voice of God
demanding that the great sinner turn and face his deeds to see how vile he is become. Macbeth
53