George Washington University In Deepest Consequence: Macbeth Author(s): Herbert R. Coursen, Jr. Source: Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Autumn, 1967), pp. 375-388 Published by: Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2867630 . Accessed: 15/10/2011 18:49 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Folger Shakespeare Library and George Washington University are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Shakespeare Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org In DeepestConsequence: Macbeth HERBERT R. COURSEN, JR. ACBETH is powerfuleven for the mature Shakespeare. The play demands that we share its experienceintensely, that we feel the strengthof Macbeth'sthirst for kingship, the forceof Lady Macbeth'spersuasions, the anguishof Mac- beth'sstruggle before the murder,and the impactof nature's retributionafter the murder.' The play partakesof what GilbertMurray calls "the strange,unanalyzed vibration below the surface... an undercurrentof desiresand fearsand passions,long slumberingyet eternally familiar,which have for thousandsof years lain near the root of our most magical dramas."2This essaywill attemptto analyzethat subsurface vibration, to examine at least one source of the play's power-the mythwhich Shake- speare'sgenius transmutesinto drama. Such examinationshould give the play a new context,one whichwill reinforcemeanings long recognizedin Macbeth and, further,bring into relationshipseveral otherwise disparate elements of the play. Without attemptingto definethe over-definedterm myth, I shall assume with Philip Wheelwrightthat it concerns"the original and essentiallyun- changeableconditions of human insight."3The mythvibrating beneath the surfaceof Macbethis one of the originalmyths-that of the fall froma state of grace. That it is a source of the play's power suggestsits continuingrele- vance to thehuman situation, its truth. The mannerin whichthe myth is mani- festedin Macbethis perhapsbest suggested by Lady Macbeth: . looklike theinnocent flower, But be the serpentunder't. (I. v. 66-67)4 1 In a recentarticle, Mary McCarthy seems to takeexception to theplay's power. She findsMac- beth ratherdull, a man of "unimaginativemediocrity", a victimof "know-nothingmaterialism", "timorous,unimaginative". She suggeststhat "Macbeth does not fall; if anything,he somewhatim- provesas a resultof his careerin crime" ("General Macbeth",Harper's (June,I962), pp. 35-39). Assuming,perhaps dangerously, that Miss McCarthyintends to be takenseriously, one has only to pointout thatwere Macbethas stultifiedas she claims,the play which bearshis name would not have survivedfor her to attack.For morepositive feminine reactions see MargaretWebster, Shake- speare WithoutTears (New York, 1955), pp. I69-174, and Dame Edith Sitwell,A Notebookon WilliamShakespeare (London, 1948), pp. 24-46. For a morepersuasive version of the materialist argument,see WalterC. Curry,Shakespeare's Philosophical Patterns (Baton Rouge,1937), pp. 112- II9. A furthernegative opinion is thatof G. B. Harrison,who says that"Macbeth has been ex- travagantlyoverpraised . it is the weakestof Shakespeare'sgreat tragedies . .", Shakespeare's Tragedies(New York, 1956), p. i84. 2 Quoted in HerbertWeisinger, "An Examinationof the Mythand RitualApproach to Shake- speare",Myth and Mythmaking(New York, i960), p. 140. 3 "Poetry,Myth, and Reality",in The Language of Poetry,Allen Tate, ed. (Princeton,1942), PP. 3-33. 4AIl quotationsfrom Macbeth are in accordancewith the G. L. Kittredgeedition (Boston, 1936) 376 SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY The flowersuggests Creation and linksitself with the play's many images of growingthings. The serpentsuggests the deception which slithered into Eden to temptEve-as the GenevaBible callsit in the glossto Revelationxii:g, "Thatolde serpent called the devill and Satan"which was hurledfrom Heaven by Michaeland "whichdeceiveth all theworlde." Lady Macbethhere is the temptingserpent and, of course,is alsothe deceived. In thatMacbeth is a man in a fallenworld, the play concerns the further fall of man-the loss of his soul. But in thatMacbeth stands closest to royalfavor (with the exceptionof Malcolm)in a potentiallyredeemable world, his fallparallels that of Lucifer, whostood closest to God (withthe exception of theSon). The fallof Macbeth drawsfor its precedent on bothGenesis and Revelation,the first and thelast booksof theBible, a factwhich suggests the fundamental implications of his crime."Christian philosophy", says Walter C. Curry,"recognizes two tragedies of cosmicimportance: (i) thefall of Luciferand a thirdpart of theangelic hosts,who rebelled against God and werecast out, and (2) thefall of Adam, whowas originallyendowed with perfection and freedombut who set his will againstGod's will and so broughtsin and limitedfreedom upon mankind" (p. 67). The fallof Macbeth draws on thecombined power of those of Lucifer andAdam-and on more, of course, since it is alsohis own. The playabounds in allusionsto fallenangels. The Portermentions "Belze- bub" (II. iii.4) evenas Macbeth'ssoul is absorbingthe dimensions of itsfall. Suspiciousof Macduff,Malcolm says that "Angels are brightstill, though the brightestfell" (IV.iii.22). Thinkingprobably of Macbeth,Malcolm goes on to recastwhat his father once said about finding the mind's construction in the face: Thoughall thingsfoul would wear the brows of grace Yetgrace must still look so. (IV. iii. 23-24) Malcolmis paraphrasingthe firstgloss on Genesisiii in the GenevaBible; here,the bright deceitful angel is linkedto the myth of Eden: As Satancan change himselfe into an Angelof light, so didhe abusethe wisdomeof the serpent todeceive man. The play,of course,is fullof directreferences to "DevilishMacbeth" (IV. iii. II7). He is a "hell-kite"(IV. iii.2I7) and a "hellhound"5(V. viii.3). Hell can produceneither a "devilmore damn'd/In evils" (IV. iii. 56-57)nor a "hotter name"(V. vii.6). Recognizingthat Macbeth is doomed,Macduff taunts him as a subordinatefiend: Despairthy charm! Andlet the angel whom thou still hast serv'd Tellthee, Macduff was from his mother's womb Untimelyripp'd. (V. viii. I3-i6) ?Shakespeare'sconstant equation of Macbethwith bestialityin Act Five ("my fell of haire, v. xI: "harnesson our back", v. 52: "They have tied me to a stake. bear-likeI mustfight the course",vii. I-2: "our rarermonsters", viii. 25: "baited with the rabble'scurse", viii. 29) suggests the traditionthat both the fallenangels and the titanswere transformedinto monstersafter their falls.Macduff's "By this greatclatter one of greatestnote/ Seems bruited"(vii. 2I-22) may be a pun on "brute".The suggestionof a warriorsurrounded by adversariesrecalls the bear-baitingmet- aphor. IN DEEPEST CONSEQUENCE 377 The powerbeneath the surface, then, is themyth of thefall from a stateof grace,whether the fall from the beneficent light of God or theexpulsion from paradiseon Earth.The mythhas threebasic manifestationsin Macbeth:6 moraldecision, feminine persuasion, and cosmic retribution. I The auditorof Macbeth is projectedinto a fallenworld, one which seems to haveeaten of the fruit of the tree of good and evil and which cannot tell the two apart.There are the obvious ambiguities-"Fair is foul, and foul is fair"(I. i. Io), "fairand foul"(I. iii.38)-which resound so ominouslythrough the early por- tionsof the play, as twoof Banquo's utterances testify: Goodsir, why do youstart and seem to fear Thingsthat do soundso fair?(I. iii. 5I-52) Andmore negatively, Thouhast it now-King,Cawdor, Glamis, all, As theWeird Women promis'd; and, I fear Thouplay'dst most foully for't. (III. i. i-3) Moralconfusion is concentrated, ofcourse, in Macbeth: Thissupernatural soliciting Cannotbe ill; cannotbe good.(L iii. I30-I30) . .function Is smother'din surmise.And nothingis But whatis not.(I. iii. I40-I42) The wordsof theopening scenes are likethose two spent swimmers of whom the woundedCaptain speaks-they "cling together/ And choketheir art" (I. i 8-9).Often the lines say two things about Macbeth-they praise him as a heroand, prophet-like, predict his coming treason: Norwayhimself, With terriblenumbers, Assistedby thatmost disloyal traitor, The Thaneof Cawdor, began a dismalconflict, Till thatBellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, Confrontedhim withself-comparisons, Pointagainst point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm.. (IL ii. 50-56) The linesare constructed tosuggest that Macbeth confronted Cawdor as wellas Sweno-a self-comparisonwhich becomes an ominousmirror reflecting trea- son presentand future.The hintis reinforcedby the adjective"rebellious", which pointsacross the sentenceto modifythe second arm-Macbeth's. This subversionof a line'sprimary meaning recurs in Ross'sgreeting to Macbeth: 6 A fourthpossible manifestation, that of deception,or appearanceversus reality, is too pervasive a Shakespeariantheme to be attributableto the Eden portionof the mythof the fall.This aspectof Macbethis discussedby TheodoreSpencer, Shakespeare and the Natureof Man (New York, i96i), pp. I53-i62, and by L. C. Knights,"King Lear and the GreatTragedies", The