“I’ll fight till from my bones the flesh be hack’d.
Give me my armor.”
In this mood the illness and death of the queen is nothing to him;
he fights bravely to the end; though, superstitious to the last, his
“better part of man” is cowed by the knowledge that Macduff “was from
his mother’s womb untimely ripped,” and so not of woman born.
And so, by the sword of Macduff, perishes the worst villain, save Iago,
that Shakespeare ever drew.
We have called the witches the projections of Macbeth’s evil thoughts,
and suggested that they were only objective representations of his
inward being. To this it may be objected that they were seen also by
Banquo. But this may well be; for Banquo also seems to have had evil
intentions, which are vaguely hinted at in the play. He constantly
harps on the idea that his children are to be kings. Approaching the
castle of Inverness at night, before the murder of the king, he says,—
“Hold, take my sword....
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers!
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose!—Give me my sword.”
Meeting then Macbeth, he gives him the diamond sent by the king to Lady
Macbeth; and after speaking of Duncan’s “measureless content,” he says,—
“I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have show’d some truth.”