© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.NOTESHath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongu’d, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, hors’d
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself,
And falls on th’ other—
(1–28)
The passage is famous, and so are some examples of interpretative
criticism it has attracted.^3 Like St. Augustine, Macbeth has to consider
what is implied by his need to do in order to possess what is by that
act done. The triple repetition of “done” gives a fairly commonplace,
even proverbial saying an intense local force.^4 If the murder could of
its own power prevent all that follows such a deed, if Duncan’s death
could put an end not only to him but to all that would follow it, then
at this stationary moment in time he would “jump the life to come,”
risk consequences in another life. But paraphrase of this sort entirely
misses the force of “surcease, success,” a compaction of language into
what has been called a “seesaw rhythm” that is the motto rhythm of
the great interim. “Be-all and end-all,” another such compaction, has
passed into the common language, yet it seems to be Shakespeare’s
coinage. If only time could be made to stop at the desired moment
of the future! However, to be and to end are antithetical, they can
only contradict each other; time, as Hotspur said in his dying speech,
“must have a stop,” though our experience of it does not. The act
of murder cannot be an end;^5 nothing in time can, in that sense, be
“done.” You can’t have hurly without burly, surcease does not imply
the end of success (succession). No act is without success in this
sense. ❧- For example, Cleanth Brooks, “The Naked Babe and the Cloak of Manliness,” in The Well
Wrought Urn (1947). Brooks’s methods are no longer in fashion, and his emphasis on the
structural importance of images has often been contested, but if it is valid anywhere it is
valid in relation to Macbeth. - “The thing that is done is not to do”—M. P. Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England
(1950, s.v.). We have not yet done with these repetitions: “Things without all remedy / Should
be without regard: what’s done, is done” (III.ii.12); “What’s done cannot be undone” (V.i.65). - Hilda Hulme in Explorations in Shakespeare’s Language persuasively suggests that trammel
in the third line of the speech, means “to bind up a corpse within a shroud” (pp. 21–22). The
word is usually taken to drive from the noun trammel, a fishing or fowling net, a hobble for
a horse, or a device for hanging pots over a fire; where the first sense is preferred, the net
being a figure for the catching up of “success.” See Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity, pp.
49–50. Hulme’s proposal is apt in that a murdered body so bound up would rather vividly
symbolise an end, here so much desired.
Excerpts from “Macbeth” from Shakespeare’s Language 2000 by Frank Kermode. Copyright © 2000 by Frank Kermode.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. CAUTION: Users are warned that this work is protected under
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10394 UNIT 3 • FACING THE FUTURE, CONFRONTING THE PASTLIT17_SE12_U03_B2_SG.indd 394 20/03/16 4:01 AMFACILITATING
Analyze a Conclusion
Circulate among groups as students begin
their close read. Suggest that as groups close
read paragraph 10 of Kermode’s essay, they
note how Kermode concludes his essay.
Encourage them to talk about the annotations
that they mark. If needed, provide the
following support.
AnnotAte: Have students mark details
that show how the essay concludes and
comes full circle by echoing earlier details
and ideas, or work with small groups to have
students participate while you highlight the
details together.
Question: Guide students to consider what
these echoes achieve in the last paragraph.
Ask: What does the writer want the reader
to think about as the essay concludes?, and
accept student responses.
Possible response: In this concluding
paragraph, Kermode brings back many of the
ideas and examples he has cited throughout
the essay to remind readers about what
they have read, and to emphasize his most
important points.ConClude: Help students formulate ideas
about good conclusions to essays of literary
criticism.
Possible response: Good conclusions in essays
of literary criticism leave the reader with a
feeling of closure and remind readers of the
most important details, images, and ideas. They
also end with a powerful last sentence that
makes you stop and think, as this one does.
Confirm that students understand that in
a conclusion, the writer must be able to
restate the main idea of the essay. Remind
students of the distinction between inductive
Reasoning (specific to general) and
deductive Reasoning (general to specific)
and ask them to determine which type of
reasoning Kermode uses in his essay.Closer look
PERSONALIZE FOR LEARNING
english language support
Be-All and end-All Focus students’ attention on
the idiom “be-all and end-all” (paragraph 10) that
Kermode cites as an example of compaction. It
names something considered to be of the utmost
importance, something central, primary, and so
essential that there is no need to search for a
replacement. It ends any discussion about analternative. The idiom has crept into our
vernacular, and most people don’t realize they
are quoting Macbeth when they use it. Invite
students to write original sentences about their
own experiences using the phrase, such as, “My
friends’ opinions are important, but they are not
the be-all and end-all.” Bridging394 UNIT 3 • FACING THE FUTURE, CONFRONTING THE PAST
LIT17_TE12_U03_B2_SG.indd 394 16-04-12 2:09 AM