CAPTAIN
Doubtful it stood; As two spent swimmers, that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald-- Worthy to be a rebel, for to that The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm upon him--from the western isles Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show'd like a rebel's whore:
In the style of Greek theatre, these lines seem to act as a prologue - a precursor to the fall from grace that will follow in Macbeth’s own tragic downfall. The metaphor of “two spent swimmers” highlights the fact that, despite the battle having been won, both sides have suffered equally, and are victims of the chaos of war. The conflict is bittersweet, and “fortune” is already fickle, something we will see again in Macbeth’s loss of nobility in his rise to power. The oxymoron of “worthy to be a rebel” recalls the witches’ earlier paradoxical phrases and emphasises the ambiguity of worth: is loyalty as crucial as power? Macbeth himself will be referred to as “worthy” numerous times throughout the play, and the word here seems to be loaded with irony, so that we are asked to question it when we hear it again. This scene sets up the consequences of rebellion (consequences we will see again in Macbeth’s downfall). Macdonwald is the victim of “the multiplying villanies of nature”, which suggests that all the natural forces of good are opposing him, perhaps as punishment for his rebellious acts and attempted inversion of the Great Chain of Being. There is a moral ambivalence here: treason is punished with death, but the distinction between good and evil, between “worthy” and “rebel”, is becoming increasingly blurred.
- Kate, Emily and Ella
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