How then
(should we still receive the notion which we are now combating) are
we to account for his anomalous practice in this particular case?
When the witches are about to vanish, Macbeth attempts to delay their
departure, exclaiming,
"Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinol's death, I know I am thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; _and, to be king_
_Stands not within the prospect of belief,_
_No more than to be Cawdor_. Say, from whence
You owe this strange _intelligence?_"
"To be king stands not within the prospect of belief, _no more than
to be Cawdor_." No! it naturally stands much _less_ within the
prospect of belief. Here the mind of Macbeth, having long been
accustomed to the nurture of its "royal hope," conceives that it is
uttering a very suitable hyperbole of comparison. Had that mind been
hitherto an honest mind the word "Cawdor" would have occupied the
place of "king," "king" that of "Cawdor." Observe too the general
character of this speech: Although the coincidence of the principal
prophecy with his own thoughts has so strong an effect upon Macbeth
as to induce him to, at once, pronounce the words of the sisters,
"intelligence;" he nevertheless affects to treat that prophecy as
completely secondary to the other in the strength of its claims upon
his consideration.
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