MACBETH
Enter LADY MACBETH How now! what news?
LADY MACBETH
He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber?
MACBETH
Hath he ask'd for me?
LADY MACBETH
Know you not he has?
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this business: He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon.
Lady Macbeth's entrance snaps Macbeth from his thoughts and roots him back in the present. Their exchanges are rapid – four half-lines, where each poses a question which is met with another question, rather than an answer. The lines leave choices to the actors. The exclamatory nature of Macbeth's "How now!" and the quick stichomythic response of Lady Macbeth could either show growing tension or excitement and agitation, an urgency to set "the deed" in motion. Macbeth's response of "hath he ask'd for me?" is either evasive or naive, and can be met with frustration, anger or dismay by Lady Macbeth's "know you not he has?". Macbeth can be either assertive or he can be speaking in fear of betraying his nerves. Tension is perhaps suggested by the shared reference to Duncan only through the pronoun "he", as though both realise the enormity of the crime and can no longer bring themselves to voice the human aspect of it. Macbeth breaks the questions with a direct statement: the "great business" of 1.5 is now simply "business" and one they shall pursue "no further". He justifies his reasoning; Duncan has "honour'd" him and these honours – the "golden opinions" his bravery has "bought" - should be savoured. The language of honour is again phrased in somewhat mercantile language, a transaction for profit, rather than an act of sacrifice or an intrinsic heroism. It stresses the value of reputation and appearances, an importance Macbeth seems to realise in his metaphor of clothing: his honours should be "worn" and not "cast aside". Whereas in 1.3, the clothing metaphor of "borrowed robes" and "strange garments" suggested Macbeth's concern with unearned rewards and hypocrisy, he is here eager to enjoy "their newest gloss". He uses the metaphor to suggest a current fit, to justify to his clearly ambitious wife his own ability to keep his ambition in check.