ABSTRACT

This chapter explores when the murder of Duncan first plotted. It relates a scene where Lady Macbeth is urging her husband to the deed. She asserts that Macbeth proposed the murder to her; that he did so at a time when there was no opportunity to attack Duncan, no adherence of time and place; and that he declared he would make an opportunity, and swore to carry out the murder. It can be supposed that Lady Macbeth refers throughout the passage to some interview subsequent to her husband's return, and that, in making her do so, Shakespeare simply forgot her speeches on welcoming Macbeth home, and also forgot that at any such interview time and place did adhere. The chapter also explores whether Lady Macbeth really fainted in the Macbeth in the scene of confusion where the murder of Duncan is discovered, and Lennox describes the grooms who, as it seemed, had done the deed.