thinking how the murder of Duncan will appear to others. Its peculiar wickedness makes it especially dangerous.
I. vii. 28. falls on the other. If the image in Macbeth's mind is of a man vaulting over a bar or a horse, these words must mean 'falls on the other side.' The word 'side,' indeed, is needed to fill the metre of the line, and it seems to have been omitted only by a printer's error. If this is not the meaning, we may imagine that Macbeth is thinking not of one vaulter but of two professional tumblers (who were commonly called 'vaulters'), or even of two players at leap-frog. One attempts too long a take-off, and falls on the other.
I. vii. 42. That which Macbeth esteems the ornament of life is the 'golden opinions' of line 33.
I. vii. 45. adage. 'The cat would eat fish, and would not wet her feet.'
I. vii. 60. sticking-place. The image is of a soldier winding up his cross-bow. He turns a screw until the cord reaches the notch and sticks.
II. i. 16. shut up. This expression apparently has its modern meaning, but without any shade of disrespect.
II. i. 17–19. The sense is: As we were unprepared, our desire to honor the King was hampered by our unpreparedness. Otherwise it certainly would have had free play.
II. i. 54. Whose howl's his watch. The howl of the wolf is the watch-cry that arouses Murder to action.
II. i. 55. Tarquin was the son of the last of the kings of prehistoric Rome. His crime was a midnight assault upon Lucrece, in her chamber.
II. ii. 3. bellman. The allusion is to the watch that was set over a condemned person the night before his execution.
