MACBETH
Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman; and to be king Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence? or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.
Macbeth now follows Banquo by addressing the witches directly. They are, he says, “imperfect speakers”; the prophecies they give are half-formed and incomplete, but “imperfect” also implies (at least until the mid-16th century) something not properly formed, sinful and immoral, a broken image of society. Macbeth is eager to know more about the prophecies, demanding detail with the imperative “tell me more”. He acknowledges the first truth - “by Sinel’s death” is taken from the Holinshed chronicles, where Sinel is Macbeth’s father, his title of “Glamis” a hereditary inheritance in conflict with the ideology of tanistry, much as Malcolm will be made Duncan’s heir. His consideration of the second greeting remains respectful and humble, though it is laced with dramatic irony: he refers to the current thane of Cawdor as a “prosperous gentleman”; Macbeth – unlike the audience - is ignorant of Cawdor’s cowardice. Both prophecies are met with surprise and seem “not within the prospect of belief”. Though his interest has been ignited, he chooses not to believe them. His curiosity is held at a distance through the conditional adjectives: it is “strange intelligence” on a “blasted heath”. That he recognises the prophecies as “strange” suggests he attempts to dissociate himself from the ‘otherness’ of the witches, but his repeated questioning shows he remains both doubtful and curious about their words. This extract once again ends with the use of an imperative, but this time it feels more assertive, even aggressive: “Speak, I charge you”. Whether he recognises the witches as holding power or not, Macbeth does not seem to fear them, and even believes he can exert control over them and command their actions.
- Xanthia, Nora and Linha
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