Page:Macbeth (1918) Yale.djvu/107

Macbeth thou rather fearest to do than wishest undone. Logically we should expect in line 24 'Thus thou must do, if thou have me,' but the speaker shifts suddenly from direct to indirect quotation.

time. This word (with the definite article) sometimes means 'the age,' i.e., 'all living men.' To beguile the time means substantially 'to deceive everybody.' In the next line, look like the time means 'adapt your expression to the festive occasion.'

'eyld. 'God 'eyld you' is merely a way of saying 'thank you.' Duncan's meaning is: The love that makes people come to visit us is sometimes a nuisance, though we still are grateful for it as love; therefore you must thank us for the pains we put you to.

The sense is: Your servants ever hold their retainers, their own persons, and their property subject and accountable (in compt) to you, to render their accounts whenever you please, and always to repay you what is yours. (Or it may be that the first theirs in line 26 means 'all that they own,' and the words themselves, and what is theirs are but an amplified repetition of the same idea.)

The sense is: If the whole business were finished when the murder is done, then 'twere well to do the murder quickly; if the killing of Duncan could at the same time remove the possibility of unpleasant consequences to myself, and with the removal thereof achieve final success; so that this murderous blow might be the end of the story so far as this life is concerned; then I would take the chances of the life to come.

In lines 7–12 Macbeth means that he cannot expect to go unpunished even in this life; he will be setting an example of murder which will react upon himself; he will have to drink his own medicine. In the twelve lines which ensue, he is