© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.NOTESThe tempting promise of the Sisters, here compacted in the sinister
phrase “supernatural soliciting,” seems good in so far as it began with
a now undoubted truth; it seems bad in that the temptation to murder
induces in him an unnatural fear and brings up the image of a dead
king. These fears arise from something less than the horrors would be
if they were actual; yet they are already actual enough to shake him
terribly. He is “rapt” (142), his ordinary behaviour forgotten in thoughts
of that imagined future action. “[N]othing is / But what is not”—that
is, the present is no longer present, the unacted future has occupied its
place. These difficult thoughts all turn on the incantatory rhythm of
“Cannot be ill; cannot be good,” and of “nothing is / But what is not,” as
indeed will much of the verse from this point on until Duncan is dead.
More than any other play, Macbeth dwells on this moment of crisis,
a moment that seems exempt from the usual movement of time,
when the future is crammed into the present. St. Augustine wrote
about such a moment, the gap between desire and act. Though he
was certain of the end desires, he was “at strife” with himself. The
choices to be made were “all meeting together in the same juncture
of time.” He said to himself, “Be it done now, be it done now,” but
he continued to hesitate between fair and foul, crying, “How long?
How long? Tomorrow and tomorrow?”^2 This, for Macbeth, as for the
saint, is the moment when the soul distends itself to include past and
future. Throughout the early scenes we are being prepared for the
astonishingly original verse of the great soliloquy in I.vii....... On many occasions Shakespeare, needing a simple expression,
cannot avoid complicating it... as if by an excess of energy, but they
should be distinguished from passages in which that energy is fully
and properly employed; and one of the greatest of these is Macbeth’s
soliloquy at the beginning of I.vii:
If it were done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly. If th’ assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease, success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all—here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th’ inventor. This even-handed justice
Commends th’ ingredience of our poison’d chalice
To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murtherer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan- Confessions, VII, xii (quamdiu, quamdiu, ‘cras et cras’?”). Reading The Tragedy of Macbeth,
I find it hard to believe that Shakespeare did not know this work, especially Book XI.
789from Macbeth 393LIT17_SE12_U03_B2_SG.indd Page 393 4/27/17 5:54 AM f-0242new /140/PE02830/MYPERSPECTIVES_ENGLISH_LANGUAGE_ARTS_SE_and_TE/NA/SE/2017/G1/XXXXXXX ...Integrate Quotations
Circulate among groups as students begin
their close read. Suggest that as groups
close read paragraphs 8 and 9, they notice
how the writer integrates quotations into
his sentences. Encourage them to talk about
the annotations that they mark. If needed,
provide the following support.ANNOTATE: Have students mark three
different ways in which Kermode integrates
Shakespeare’s words into his own writing,
or work with small groups to have students
participate while you highlight them together.QuEsTiON: Guide students to consider what
these details might tell them. Ask the reader
to identify the three ways in which Kermode
integrates quotations into his own sentences,
and accept student responses.
Possible response: Kermode introduces a
quotation with a complete sentence and a colon
in paragraph 9. He uses an introductory phrase,
separated from the quotation with a comma
when he writes, “He said to himself.” He makes
a quotation part of the sentence without any
separating punctuation after “choices to be
made were”; “he was ‘at strife.’”CONCludE: Help students to formulate
conclusions about integrating quotations
into writing.
Possible response: It is good to use several
ways to integrate quotations into sentences to
achieve greater sentence variety, to economize
words, and to optimize the use of sources to
support ideas.
Explain that an essay about literature often
includes references and quotations from
the text it discusses. Remind students that a
citation is necessary whenever a writer quotes
a literary source, no matter how short the
quotation may be. Citations of drama typically
include author, title, and line. Since this essay
is about one author and one play, Kermode
only cites line references.Closer look
CROSS-CURRICULAR CONCEPTS
Humanities Review paragraph 8. Interested
students may want to learn more about
Augustine of Hippo (354−430 AD) commonly
known as St. Augustine, referenced in this
paragraph. This early Christian theologian,
born in Roman Africa, had a huge influence
on the development of Western philosophy.
Focus attention on the footnote that speculatesthat Shakespeare must have read Augustine’s
Confessions, his most famous work. Augustine
was a strong advocate of critical thinking skills
and believed that active discussion among small
groups of teachers and students is the best
means of education. Encourage students to
learn more about this influential figure and share
details with the group.Small-Group Learning 393
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