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LADY MACBETH
Naught's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content:
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

Enter MACBETH

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.

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Notes and Glossary
NOTES ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1076 Naught's had, all's spent. This brief soliloquy shows us the deep-seated misery of the murderess, discontented with rank gained by loss of peace, absolutely envying her victim sent to peace, and writhing beneath the constant sense of doubt and dread. It allows us to see the inward dejection of her spirit, the profound melancholy and perturbation m which she is secretly steeped. Yet the very instant that she sees her husband approach, she can rally her forces, assume exterior fortitude, and resume accustomed hardness of manner, with which to stimulate him by remonstrance almost amounting to reproach. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1079 Doubtful. Uncertain, full of doubts and suspicions. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1081 Sorriest. Here used for 'grimmest,' 'dismalest,' as before, m the present play, where Macbeth, looking on his blood-stained hands, says, "This is a sorry sight," "sorry" means 'grim, , 'dismal, , 'ghastly.' See Act v, "Comedy of Errors." ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1085 Scotch'd. The Folio prints 'scrch'd.' This was possibly an old form of the word, as it seems to be derived from the old French escorcher, 'to flay,' 'to skin.' The word "scotch'd," however, can also mean 'gashed with cuts rather more than skin deep;' and Shakespeare uses it here and elsewhere. See Act iv "Coriolanus." ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1092 To gain our peace, have sent to peace. The second Folio changed the first "peace" m this line to 'place; , a change that has ~en adopted by several editors. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1094 Ecstasy. 'Strong emotional disturbance.' See Act ii "Much Ado." ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1097 Malice domestic. Hostility m his own kingdom. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1097 Foreign levy. Armies levied abroad. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1100 Sleek. Smooth. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1104 Present him eminence. 'Treat him with the highest distinction.' ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1107 Vizards. Masks. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1112 In them nature's copy's not eterne. "Eterne" is an abbreviated form of 'eternal, , frequently used by Chaucer. The two meanings of this phrase are: 1, their descendants won't go on forever, and 2, they are not immortal. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1114 Jocund Joyful. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1115 Cloistered Secluded, furtive. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1116 The shard-borne beetle. 'The beetle borne along the air by its shards or scaly wings. , ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1121 Come, seeling night. "Seeling" is here used for 'blinding. ' The term is from falconry: it being the custom to seel the eyes of a hawk by sewing its upper and under lids together, which was done in order to accustom it to its hood. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1122 Scarf up. Tie up (as in seeling). ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1124 That great bond. Macbeth here alludes to the life of Banquo by a legal expression; Shakespeare uses a similar form where he makes Queen Margaret say, in "Richard III" Act iv sc 4, "Cancel his bond of life." ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1125 The crow makes wing to the rooky wood. This most poetical sentence gives most vividly the impression of the long flight of crows that troop at close of day to their nests among the high trees of a wood-rooks returning to their rookery. The very epithet "rooky," appears to caw with the sound of many bed-ward rooks bustling and croaking to their several roosts. ACT 3 Scene 2 Line 1128 Preys. One of the words which were used in Shakespeare's time in the plural that now are employed only in the singular. See Act iv "Richard 111."

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MACBETH
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood:
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
So, prithee, go with me.

Exuent

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