S This a Dagger I See Before Me Its Handle Towards My Hand? Art Though but a Dagger of the Mind
MacbethPlease see the bottom of the folio and the highlighted text for total explanatory notes and helpful resources.
Next: Macbeth, Act ii, Scene ii Explanatory notes below for Act 2, Scene one The second act is devoted wholly to the murder of Duncan. There is practically no time interval between this and the preceding act. It begins after midnight on the day of the king'southward arrival at Inverness, with a scene devoted to the preliminaries of the murder, and closes belatedly in the following day with a scene telling u.s.a. of the immediate consequences of the deed, the flight of the princes and the election of Macbeth to the sovereignty. The offset scene falls into 3 parts; the dialogue between Banquo and his son, the dialogue between Macbeth and Banquo, and the soliloquy of Macbeth before the murder. It is laid in the inner courtroom of Macbeth's castle, from which at that place was easy access to the bedchambers by means of the gallery that surrounded the court. Banquo is on his fashion to bed, accompanied by his son, who bears the torch. On his manner he hands over to Fleance his sword (line four) and perhaps his dagger (line 5), which he will not demand to have by his bedside in a friendly firm. 4. husbandry, frugality, economy. 5. thee, to thyself, the dative of interest. 6. A heavy summons, a drowsy influence. 7. I would not slumber. Banquo'south reason for wishing to remain awake is given in the side by side lines. On the dark before this he had dreamt of the witches (1. 20), and their prophecy has seemed to him, in his sleep, a temptation to evil. This explains his prayer to heaven to restrain "the cursed thoughts." Shakespeare, no doubt, means us to dissimilarity the two figures who appear in this scene, both tried by the aforementioned temptation, Banquo praying against its ability over even his hours of slumber, Macbeth waking, and watching to turn its suggestions into deeds. 9. Gives way to, gives free rein to. ix. my sword. It marks, maybe, the excited state of Banquo'due south listen, that when he sees the calorie-free of Macbeth's torch, he at once calls to Fleance to return him his sword. 14. largess, gifts. 14. offices, servants' quarters. sixteen. shut upward, ended, i.due east. finished the banquet, and went to bed. Note the irony of the state of affairs as described in these lines. 17-xix. Being unprepared ... wrought. Since I was taken by surprise, my desire, to entertain fhe rex fittingly, was impeded by unavoidable deficiencies; otherwise, it would have displayed itself at full, liberally. nineteen. All's well, Banquo assures Macbeth that his entertainment has been suitable. 22. entreat an hour to serve, beg an hour of your time for our service. Note how Macbeth in this oral communication adopts unconsciously the purple way of speaking of himself in the plural. He knows that when he has this conversation with Banquo he will exist rex, and speaks as if he were already crowned. 25. cleave to my consent, Macbeth is throwing out a line, so to speak, for Banquo. "If you lot join my party," he says, "you'll gain new honours past so doing." 25. consent, counsel. 25. When 'tis. This phrase is purposely obscure; Macbeth does not intendance to speak out plainly. Nosotros may accept it, all the same, as referring to the proposed briefing on the subject of the witches' prophecy. 26-29. So I lose ... counsell'd, It is hard to decide just what was in the mind of Banquo when he uttered these words. He may possibly have suspected Macbeth of wishing to form some conspiracy confronting the male monarch. In this case he wished to give him a friendly but emphatic warning that he would be no party to it. "I'll have your advice," he says, referring to Macbeth'south phrase, "carve to my consent," "so long as I do non forfeit thereby my character equally an honourable man, only withal keep my heart free from guilt and my loyalty to my rex unstained." 28. franchised, gratis. 28. clear, unstained. 29. Macbeth sees that nothing is to be gained from Banquo, and closes the chat. 32. The bong is really to allow Macbeth know that everything is in readiness for the murder. 36. sensible, perceptible. 33-64. In this long soliloquy nosotros detect Macbeth, whose mind is wrought almost to madness by the act he is well-nigh to perpetrate, the victim of a hallucination. He thinks for a moment that he actually sees a dagger floating before him; simply with a strong effort he recovers his self-possession and pronounces the vision unreal. Then he plunges into a gloomy reverie, illumined by lightning flashes of poetic imagination. He is roused from this mood by the sound of the signal for action, and without hesitating longer hurries to Duncan's sleeping accommodation. [For more than on this soliloquy please click here.] 44, 45. Mine eyes ... rest. If the dagger is unreal, his eyes, which bear witness to its presence, are pronounced foolish by his other senses. If on the contrary, the dagger is really at that place, the testimony of his eyes is more reliable than that of his other senses. 46. dudgeon, handle. 46. gouts, drops. 46. Notice how the dagger seems to grow more real to Macbeth; he can now distinguish drops of blood on its blade and handle. 48. informs, takes shape. 48. the bloody business, the murder, which is occupying his mind, seems to take visible shape in the course of a dagger. 50. abuse, deceive. 51. An unaccented syllable is lacking in the tertiary human foot of this line. Its identify is taken past the pause between two clauses. "Sleep" is here personified as a man resting in a concealed bed. Evil dreams play most him and deceive his mind. 52. Hecate, ane of the many names of Diana. In Shakespeare'southward 24-hour interval she was regarded every bit the goddess and queen of the witches. Shakespeare always pronounces her name as two syllables. 52. wither'd murder, murder is here personified as a gaunt an ghostlike homo. 53. Alarum'd, chosen to arms. The give-and-take comes from the Italian phrase all 'arme, "to artillery." 54. Whose howl's his scout, the long howl of the wolf is idea of as the phone call of a sentinel upon his sentry. 55. Tarquin's, Sextus Tarquin who ravished Lucretia. The adjective "ravishing" is transferred from Tarquin to the "strides" that took him into Lucretia's chamber. 57. Hear non ... have. Hear not the direction my steps take, i.e. toward Duncan's chamber. Macbeth fancies in his overwrought mood that if the very stones of the courtyard knew which fashion he was going they would cry out and reveal his presence. 58. whereabout, purpose. 59. accept the nowadays horror, take away, by their outcry, the prevailing silence, "present horror," which and then befits the time. 61. gives, some other example of the Northern plural. The line ways that words accident common cold upon the heat of action. ________ How to cite the explanatory notes:________ More Resource |  More to Explore Points to Ponder ... Just equally talk of the murder is about to stifle his backbone, Macbeth'southward intense illusion is shattered by the bong, a signal from Lady Macbeth that Duncan'southward chamberlains are asleep, and Macbeth races away to commit the heinous crime. 1 tin simply wonder if a few more than moments of deliberation would take inverse Macbeth's heed. More on Macbeth's soliloquy... |
The Chronology of Shakespeare'south Plays Source: http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth_2_1.html
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