Page 18 - Macbeth Modern Translation
P. 18
Do you want to eat fish without getting your feet wet like the poor cat in the
saying?’
‘Stop,’ cried Macbeth. ‘Please don’t. I would dare to do anything a man
should do. There are some things no human being should even think of
doing.’
‘What animal were you then when you thought about it, only to break your
promise to me? When you dared to do it, then you were a man. And the
more you dared the more of a man you were in my eyes. There were no
excuses then and now you’re all excuses: they’re just pouring out – making
themselves! And unmaking you!’
He turned away and she went round him and faced him squarely. ‘Look
here,’ she said. ‘I have breast fed and I know what a tender thing it is to love
the baby that milks me. I would rather pull my nipple from its boneless gums
and dash its brains out than break a promise I’ve made to you!’
They stood glaring at each other. But Macbeth’s gaze began to soften and
admiration crept in.
‘What if we fail?’ he said.
‘We fail!’ she said adamantly. ‘But if you keep your nerve we won’t fail.’
They were silent for a long time. Then she spoke again, fast and low: ‘When
Duncan is asleep – which shouldn’t be too long, after the ride he’s had – I’ll
make sure his two chamber attendants are so drunk that they won’t be able
to remember a thing. And when they’re lying sleeping like pigs, what can’t
you and I do to the unguarded Duncan? And what can’t we pin on them?
They’ll take the blame for what we do!’
She crept into his arms and he held her close. ‘You should have only boys,’ he
said. ‘Your qualities are so masculine. Won’t everyone think, once we have
smeared them with blood and even used their daggers, that they’ve done
it?’
‘Who would dare think otherwise after we’ve had our say?’
Macbeth’s uncertainty had evaporated. ‘I’m ready,’ he said. ‘And all my
muscles are wound up for this act. Let’s go. We’ll go back and put on an act.
False faces must hide the secrets of false hearts.’
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