Lecture 5.
5.1.William Shakespeare. The traditional biography and his works. The dating of Shakespeare’s plays.
Nowadays it is comparatively easy to compile the biography of a modern writer or dramatist. The essential facts of his life are available in public records, newspapers and periodicals. But little of this material remains for the biographer of dramatists of the 17th century. The parish registers may be lost, there were no newspapers yet, and the art of letter – writing was not well – developed.
Thus, many periods of Shakespeare’s life remain a mystery to us. Subject – matter for his biography began to be collected only about a century after his death, and many of the facts gathered are very doubtful.
For the biography of an Elizabethan dramatist there are four sources of information:
1) his works;
2) the comments of contemporaries;
3) traditions and gossip;
4) documentary records.
Neither Shakespeare’s sonnets nor plays by themselves can serve as reliable material for a biographer. Shakespeare said so much it is impossible to know when he himself is speaking out of his own experience or creating experience proper to his characters; but it is generally true that no writer who portrays a wide variety of characters and shows acquaintance with so wide a range of human experience can have lived all his life in a narrow and confined environment. All great writers to some extent betrayed themselves in their works.
There are many early references to Shakespeare made even before his death: mentions of his plays, of characters, or obvious borrowings of lines; but they prove Shakespeare’s existence (or the existence of the plays signed by somebody called “Shakespeare”?) rather than give facts about the man himself.
The most important sources for the biographer of Shakespeare are official and documentary records: definite, reliable and usually dull. Of prime importance is the register of Stradford – on – Avon (Holy Trinity Church) which gives the date (and therefore fact) of the Baptism of William Shakespeare, his marriage, the baptism of his children, and his death.
William Shakespeare was born in 1564, in Stradford-on-Avon, and was christened in Holy Trinity Church on April, 26. Hence, his birthday is believed to be April, 23 St. George’s day, who is the holy patron of England. William’s father, John Shakespeare, was one of the wealthiest citizens, and his mother, Mary Arden, belonged to an ancient and distinguished Catholic family. William was their third child and the eldest son.
There are records of William’s boyhood (it would be surprising if there were, for who could have imagined that he was to become the pride of the nation?). He probably attended the Stradford Grammar school, where he acquired the knowledge of Latin. Later Shakespeare satirized the school education of his time in his comedies “Love’s Labour’s Lost” and “The Merry Wives and Windsor”.
The next record of Shakespeare life is his marriage to Anne Hathaway, a daughter of a wealthy yeoman, in 1582. On 26 of May, 1583, their first child, Susanna, was baptized, followed in February of 1585 by the twins, Hamnet and Judith.
After the birth of the twins we know absolutely nothing about Shakespeare’s life for the next seven years. It can be stated with certainty that by 1592 Shakespeare had already settled in London and had started writing plays, because Robert Green, one of the University wits, published a pamphlet in which he made some insulting remarks about Shakespeare, who was growing to be a serious competitor of his more experienced colleagues.
In 1593 a very serious epidemic of the plague broke out, and all the theatres were temporarily closed down. During that time Shakespeare have written his two narrative poems, both of which were dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, “Venus and Adonis” (1593) and the “Rope of Lucrece”. These poems were the only ones in the publication of which Shakespeare took part himself.
At the same time William Shakespeare became closely allied to the theatre company headed by the great tragedian, Richard Burbage. In 1599 the company built and occupied the best- known Elizabethan theatres, the Globe, on the southern bank of the Thames, in London.
Shakespeare eventually become a leading share-holder, the principal playwright and a second rate actor. Shakespeare wrote and staged comedies, tragedies, historical plays and dramas. With time he became rather rich, wrote less and less, and in 1613, after the Globe had been destroyed by fire, Shakespeare retired to Stradford, where he died three years later, on 23rd of April, 1616, and was buried in the same Holy Trinity Church, where he was christened.
In 1623 Shakespeare’s plays were collected by his fellow-actors and published in a single volume, known as the First Folio. Sixteen plays in the collection were published for the first time.
Shakespeare’s literary work may be divided into several periods but it must be taken into account that the division is rather relative all in all there are 37 plays ascribed to William Shakespeare, and they fall into four periods:
The first period: includes the plays that were written under the influence of the University Wits:
1590/91 – “Henry VI Part II”
“Henry VI Part III”
1591/92 “Henry VI Part I”
1592/93 “Richard III”
“The Comedy of Errors”
1593/94 “Titus Andronicus”
“The taming of the shrew”.
During the second period Shakespeare mainly wrote histories (historical plays, or Chtonicles) and comedies:
1594/95 “The two Gentlemen of Verona”
“Love’s Labour Lost”
“Romeo and Juliet”
1595/96 “Richard II”
“A midsummer Night’s Dream”
1596/97 “King John”
“The merchant of Venice”
1597/98 Henry IV Part I
Henry IV Part II
1598/99 Much Ado about nothing
Henry V
1596/1600 Julius Caesar
As you like it
The Twelfth Night
The third period is marked by Shakespeare’s great tragedies that were the peak of his achievement, and made him truly immortal.
1600/01 Hamlet
The Merry Wives of Windsor
1601/02 Troilus and Cressida
1603/1604 All’s well that ends well
1604/1605 Measure for measure
Othello
1605/06 King Lear
Macbeth
1606/07 Antony and Cleopatra
1607/08 Coriolanus
Timon of Athens
The fourth period of Shakespeare creative activity is mainly constituted by the romantic dramas – plays written around a dramatic conflict, but the tension in them is not so great as in the tragedies; all of them have happy endings.
1608/09 Pericles
1609/10 Cymbeline
1610/11 The Winter’s Tale
1611/12 The Temptest
1612/13 Henry VIII
Shakespeare’s plays were conditioned by three main issues to be taken into account by the modern reader.
1) the historical and social events of his play;
2) the theatrical company for which he wrote;
3) the construction of the Globe theatre.
Queen Elizabeth was the last in her line, she had no certain heir, and it was only too likely that her death would be followed by another period of disputed succession, civil war, and general anarchy. This grim prospect was a constant anxiety of statesman through the reign; it is subtly present in each of Shakespeare’s History plays.
These plays meant far more to his first audiences than they can to us for they dealt with events which were still important. The London theatre was the only place where the common man could hear direct and honest comment on life. “Players (said Hamlet) are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time”). People therefore went to the theatre with his ears open and his wits keen to detect hidden meanings.
One more consideration to be taken into account when discussing Shakespeare’s plays is the company of actors for which he wrote. Shakespeare had to write for his company as it existed: he could not produce characters for which there was no physical representatives, he had to make use of the peculiarities of the actors, and it should also be remembered that in Shakespeare’s days there were no women actresses.
The construction of the Globe theatre considerably affected the form of Shakespeare’s plays as well. In the modern theatre the actor is separated from the audience by a curtain which can either conceal or reveal the whole stage, he acts in bright light before spectators hidden in an darkened auditorium.
On the apron stage of the Elizabethan theatre the actor came forward in daylight into the midst of his audience. Apparently, there was practically no scenery, and the plays were acted in daylight. The actor was thus without lighting, scenery, sound effects, and other realistic or symbolic adjuncts of the modern stage. In their place he gained his effects by a direct assault on the emotions and the imagination of the spectators.
Poetry was thus a natural medium for dramatic speech, and a good actor could carry his audience with him by the emotional force of rhetoric.
5.2. Shakespeare’s comedies. “Taming of the Shrew”, “Twelfth Night”, “A Midsummer Night’s dream”, “Merchant of Venice”.
The comedies of Shakespeare did not establish a lasting literary tradition in the theatre, as did those of Ben Jonson or Moliere, in which the authors portrayed the everyday life of their time, and the characters were exaggerated almost into satirical grotesque.
Shakespeare’s comedies are based on different principles. The scene is usually set in some imaginary country but in this fairy-tale setting we find characters that are true to life and they are depicted with the deep insight into human psychology for which Shakespeare is famed. In each comedy there is the main plot and one or more subplots. The comic characters always have an English flavour, even if the scene is laid in some distant or imaginary place. All these plays are written easy flowing verse and light prose; the texts are full of jokes and puns. The comedies tell of love and harmony, at first disturbed but finally restored.
In the merry farse play “Taming of the Shrew” there appeared such bright characters as those of Catherin and Petrucio. They are distinguished among pragmatic citizens of Padua. Catherine is famous for her shrew character whereas her sister is known obedient. Rudeness of Catherine is the way to defend her dignity, a way to resist her father’s despotic practicism. Catherine is irritated by the blind obedience of her sister with usual rudeness she meets Petrucio. A long competition between them resulted in marriage. They both felt that they are equal in energy, spirit, liveliness and wits, that they are worthy of each other in sense and spirit.
The idea of life and love triumph is revealed in the comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The poetic world of the comedy is in the fantastic mixture of reality and fairy tale. In this comedy Shakespeare enlights the theme of love in lyrical – humouristic perfective. The young characters’ love is a pure feeling. It wins inspite the all caprices of human character and behaviour.
In Shakespearean comedy there are deep dramatic conflicts and even tragic themes. In this regard the comedy “Merchant of Venice” is a good example. In the background of a merry carnival atmosphere of Venice there happens a conflict between the world of joy, confidence and generosity and the world of cruelty, greediness and avarice.In this play Shakespeare contrasts those who appreciated human friendship (Portia, Antonio, Bassanio and those who subdue human relations to pragmatic interests. Antonio borrows money at Shejilock to help his friend Bassanio, who loves Portia. Antonio didn’t manage to return the money in time and has to stand the court’s trial. Shejilock demands a pound of his flesh Portia, disguised as a lawyer, defends Antonio. So the young people win Shejilock.
The image of Shejilock presented in the comedy not only as an embodiment of evil. He is greedy, smart, witty and in the same time he loves his child. There is something tragic in him. He is shown as a greedy, revengeful, but in the same time as a person who suffers his inferior position in the society. He says that people are equal in spite of nationalities.
The setting of “Twelfth Night” is the court of Orsino, Duke of Illyria, and the house of the wealthy Countess Olivia, whom is courting. He uses as a go-between his page Cesario, really a girl, Viola, disguised as a boy. This page has already fallen in love with Orsino, and sentiments on love so eloquently to Olivia that the Countess believes herself in love, but the page, not with the Duke. Meanwhile, Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian, turns up, wearing the same style of clothes that his sister has chosen to wear as Cesario; he has been rescued from shipwreck by a sea – captain, Antonio, who feels a deep affection for him. The possibility of confusion is clearly various and great, and every possible confusion occurs.
A subplot centures on Olivia’s drunken kinsman, Sir Toby Belch, and her conceited Steward Malvolio; sir Toby Belch takes revenge on Malvolio for an insult and incidentally gets mixed up in the confusion occurring round Viola and Sebastian by playing a trick on his friend. His interference ends in a clearing-up of the confusions of identity and a subsequent suitable pairing off Orsino and Viola, Sebastian and Olivia.
5.3. Shakespeare’s histories or chronicles.
The histories, or chronicle plays, are more closely related to Shakespeare’s tragedies than to the comedies. They can be regarded as a profound and detailed treatise upon the nature of monarchy. In them Shakespeare shows us all types of autocratic rules.
The best histories of Shakespeare are Henry IV and Henry V. In Henry IV the central character is Prince Hal, the King’s son and later Henry V. The king is grieved first by the opposition of some rebels led by the Percy family, notably Henry Hotpur, son of the Earl of Northumberland, and secondly by the dissolute conduct of his own son, who wastes his life in taverns instead of emulating Hotspur in a career of military honour. Hal’s tavern companion is Sir John Falstaff one of the greatest of Shakespeare’s comic characters.
In this chronicle Shakespeare shows the unavoidable defeat of feudals in the combat with the royal power. However, Hotspur is shown in positive regard. We sympathize with his faithfulness to his ideals, with his courage and bravery.
The important role in the play is given to Prince Harry. Shakespeare presented him as a merry fellow, who wastes his time on adventures in the company of Falstaff. His character is many-sided. He is resolute and brave in battles, lively and easy-going with common people, clever in state affairs.
Shakespeare stresses Henry’s democratic manner when he describes him as he talks to his soldiers; he chats with them. He is brave and modest too. His strength founded on the support of the masses, he wins his victories over France.
The most remarkable features of Shakespeare’s chronicles are that it is not only individuals who are active in them, as with Marlowe, for whom only Tamburlaine acts. While with Marlowe the army is only a pale appendix to the titanic figure of the Victor, with Shakespeare the French are defeated not solely by Henry V but the entire English army: the battle of Agincourt was won not only by a little group of well-born heroes but by the English soldiers. The English Yeomanry conquered the disintegrated feudal nobility of France. Henry’s soldiers come from various national groups. Williams and Bates are English, Fluellin is Welsh, Macmorris is Irish and Samy is Scotch. They talk English in their own ways. Fluellin speaks in prose and pistol, a remnant of the dying feudal forces, in verse.
The chronicles impress us with the versability of Shakespeare's genius. It is in these chronicles that his ability to depict the great variety of real life grew up and matured. he displays a panoramic picture of royal palaces, taverns, battlefields and other scenes from real life.
Lecture 6.
6.1. Shakespeare’s tragedies. Shakespeare’s innovations in the genre of tragedy. The specific features of “Hamlet”.
Shakespeare brought something new to the genre of tragedy: the hero of any of his tragedies perishes by reason of some trait of character that makes him either prefer some positive ideal to life or make him betray an ideal and meet his doom. All the tragic characters of Shakespeare are shown in their development: a hero at the end of the tragedy is not the man at the beginning. The development of the character is explained by social factors that form their psychology and influence their lives. in some of the tragedies Shakespeare treats important ethical problems.
“Romeo and Juliet” was written in 1591-96 and drew its plot from Arthur Broke’s metrical version “Romeus and Juliet”. The tale had been dramatized and performed before Arthur Broke published his poem in 1562.
The basic theme of his tragedy is the struggle of humanism against heartless feudalism. It depicts the new man of the Renaissance against the feudal order, and the struggle takes the form of defiance of the acquainted social traditions with the demand for freedom in love. For the first time, Shakespeare presents fate as an awful power, stronger than the deeds of men.
A young couple, of the warring houses of Montague and Capulet, fall in love with each other. The quarrel dates from pre-feudal times. The young couple struggle against their social environment and this struggle represents that of bourgeois humanism against feudalism, the Renaissance against the Middle Ages. Juliet here is depicted as perfect a woman as could be. She chooses for her husband not Count Paris of the nobility, but Romeo of the house of Montague. She rebels not only against bourgeois common sense, made incarnate in the advice of her nurse.
In the prologue Shakespeare calls the lovers the doomed ones. The lovers themselves consider themselves to be doomed. They die, but their struggle and untimely death is not in vain. With them dies the long hereditary hatred between their families.
To make the situation clearer, Shakespeare introduces a number of secondary characters who indirectly bring into relief the classes nature of the chief actors and the conflicting class forces. The brilliant Mercutio, Romeo’s closest friend, is contrasted with guardian of family honour, Tybalt, the true feudal noble. Juliet’s suitor, Count Paris, is also a feudal lord. He woos Juliet through her father, not taking the trouble to seek her feelings. He is handsome and scrupulous, but as dull and lifeless as a wax figure.
Friar Lawrence, who assists the lovers in their struggle against the old order, is an amazing character. A clergy-man in name only, he is both scholar and philosopher, not sharing at all in the church bigotry. He is a direct follower of Saint Francis of Assissi, the most progressive person of medieval Christianity, and Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for his bold progressive opinions. he is one of Shakespeare’s most progressive characters.
Shakespeare gives us the social background against which the conflict is projected. The old men, Montague and Capulet, re sick and tired of the long family feud and apathetically let it rest, but there are always young hot-heads such as Tybalt to inflame it anew. Romeo and Juliet are the victims of this feud, but in death they are victorious as “with their death” bury their parent’s strife”. The play ends with an affirmation of the new life as the two families are reconciled over the dead bodies of the two lovers.
After Romeo’s and Juliet, who are depicted so attractively, comes the bright image of Mercutio, who is so loyal to his friend Romeo and gives his life for their true friendship.
Juliet’s nurse is the other attractive character, who does everything she can to avoid her beloved mistress.
The prince of Verona also belongs to the Renaissance. He proclaims at the end the reconciliation.
The play “Hamlet” was written in the time of Shakespeare’s full maturity, when he presents great problems, hard to solve, as his heroes are transformed from creators of their own fate into the victims of fate.
Hamlet was written in 1601-02 and published in an imperfect from, 160s, more perfectly in 1604.
The source of the plot, which had been popular in London during the last decades of the 16th century.
The story is told by Saxo Grammaticus in his “Historia Danica” at the beginning of the 13th century. In the 16th century Thomas Kyd’s Hamlet was running on the London stage, but nothing of this tragedy has come to us.
Under Goethe’s idealistic influence, the subjective theory was created during the 19th century. This theory claimed the basic idea in Hamlet to be the conflict between the Hamlet’s thought and his will, in which he appears as the victim of the dominance of thought over will, a martyr to reflection incapable of realistic action. This theory is, however, entirely wrong. Actually Hamlet is capable of action to the highest degree, even of heroic action, as seen by the episode of his sea journey, in which he showed great energy in dealing with the pirates.
The idea of conflict between thought and action was unfamiliar to the artists of the Renaissance and particularly to Shakespeare, who couldn’t conceive of thought as separated from action. The question here arises – what prevents Hamlet from avenging his father’s murder?
Some critics claim that Hamlet’s procrastinations in the projected killing of Claudius was logically motivated. They point out Hamlet’s reluctance tokill the king while praying lest his soul should enter heaven. they do not take into consideration the social framework of the play.
Hamlet is horrified by his mother’s unfaithfulness in marrying the murderer and by the hypocrisy and debauchery of the entire court even of his beloved Ophelia, which he attributes to the world at large:
As a humanist Hamlet never thinks of taking revenge as an act of personal justice, as had been customary under the feudalism. his father is dear to him not only as a father, but as incarnation of goodness, a great man as well as a monarch, and especially in comparison with Claudius. Hamlet views this private crime as an indication of the general corruption of the age. Under such circumstances, personal revenge is futile. The man Hamlet has to kill is a King, and in killing him Hamlet would have to take power and reign among debauchees, hypocrites and degenerates; he considers himself unable to cope with all this and to right the wrongs of the world. In addition, Hamlet being more honest than ambitious wants to be sure of the King’s guilt. For this reason he arranges the “play … to catch the conscience of the King”.
Hamlet is not entirely free from traditional idea of ancestral revenge, which existed in society, and became one of the bases pulse for it. Laertes, a feudal representative, follows it; and Fortinbras, although he does not believe in its efficiency, uses it as an excuse for political advancement. He is a true representative of primary accumulation. Hamlet, who stands between these two men, frees himself with difficulty from the feudal type and Fortinbras an opportunist. Hamlet hesitates and suffers, because he is far advanced for his time. It was a prevailing custom at the time of the Renaissance and particularly during the reign of Elizabeth to plot for power. Shakespeare had an insight into these practices, and depicts them with unusual depth, transferring the seat of action from England to Denmark. He corrupt agents of the king, Rosencrats and Guildenstern, the stupid Osric, the shrewd but foolish Polonius. A network of thought and action is displayed in a whole group of characters in Hamlet. Shakespeare depicts the family of Polonius: the father is an aristocrat who has adapted himself to primary accumulation, having become in part a bourgeois. The son and the daughter are feudal representatives who are equally practical and calculating. Ophelia, with her natural simplicity, is a positive character who is typically feudal in her blind obedience to her father, as Laertes with his rage when he revenges the death of Polonius.
Shakespeare criticizes the new class of gentry, which, without changing its feudal nature, accepts the worst habits of the bourgeoisie.
Hamlet is a pessimist because he does not see a new world that will satisfy him. Caught between the corruption of the court, the opportunism of the growing bourgeoisie, and the masses in whom he has no faith, there is only one way for him: the half-pretended madness and apathetic action by which he brings about his futile revenge before he himself perishes. His will-power is weak; but that is due, not to his nature but to the breaking- up of society.
The next tragedy, King Lear, takes us back to the earliest days of Britain. It was written in 1605-06 and published in 1608. The story was taken from Holiinshed’s Cronicles, in a play by an unknown author, The True Cronicle History of King Leir, and a few stanzos of the tenth canto of the second book of Spencer’s Fearie, Queene. The pre-Shakespearean Lear differs from Shakespeare’s in its happy ending. Lear and Cornelia at the end are rewarded. In their well – being they merge with reality, while among the positive heroes of Shakespeare’s tragedy. They rise above the society surrounding them. The scenes of the steppe during the night are omitted in the pre-Shakespearean drama. The fool, the man representing the people’s wisdom, is also missing. King Lear resembles to a certain extent King Gorboduc, who in the same manner divided his rule between his two sons, bringing forth a war and much bloodshed and misery to the people. Lear, dividing his kingdom between his two daughters, also creates a divided kingdom, an easy prey to foreign conquerors. The tragedy differs greatly from his its sources, above all by dealing with humanistic, true Shakespearean problems. While occupying the throne Lear is a tyrant, a feudal despot, surrounded with pomp and vanity, as described in the first scene. Feudal symbols and formulas are most important to him. he demands from his daughters not sincere feeling, but flattery and phrases expressing the love and devotion of a vassal. His two older daughters are moved by the same feudal ideas with the additional traits so typical of primary accumulation – perfidy, cruelty, greed and ruthlessness. Regan and Goneril mark the transition from feudalism to the bourgeois order. Cordelia as a humanist expresses the new era. When her turn comes to answer her father’s question, she says, “I love your majesty according to my bond; nor more, nor less”. Lear: “so young and so untender?”
Cordelia: “So young, my lord, and true”.
Lear is enraged by these words and disowns her. Blinded by the flattery of his subordinates and considering only his crown, royal robes and titles as sacred and solid, he couldn’t understand the true reality of the situation.
Later Lear’s delusions are dispelled. He undergoes great suffering and is regenerated. Deprived of his royal power and dignity, Lear finds himself to be “a poor infirm, weak and despised old man”. (Act III, scene 2).
At the beginning of the play Lear has a repulsive character but under the hard circumstances he goes through a moral evolution and becomes a positive one.
During the night storm in the steppes he understands much of what he hitherto did not comprehend. He begins to regard his power, life and humanity itself in a different light, and pronounces the famous monologue in which he sympathizes with the poor, who are wronged by the feudal-aristocratic system:
In “King Lear” Shakespeare depicts the evolution of his central character as complete and rounded as in no other work. Lear understands in the scene in the steppe what his jester had understood before. Also in the steppe are roaming Edgar, pretending to be mad and the blinded Gloucester, whose fate develops in parallel with that of Lear. He also, though suffering and through the treachery of his son Edmund, changes his outlook on the world. He admits that:
«I stumbled when I saw”. Now he is being but he sees the truth. Addressing his son Edgar (whom he doesn’t recognize, but gives him his purse.
The active force in this tragedy is exemplified by the two daughters Goneril and Regan, and Edmund – son of Gloucester. Edmund destroys his brother through his designs on the throne. he is guided by cupidity and ambition. Shakespeare depicts him as the aristocrat who follows the worst practices of primary accumulation. These three characters, Goneril, Regan and Edmund, are the new generation that rises to replace the old one.
The progressive characters in this drama, besides Kent – who is a minor figure – and Gloucester, are Cordelia and Edgar. They also are of the young generation but are humanist in the Shakespearian sense of the world.
Cordelia is defeated, but there remains Edgar, invested with royal power by the Duke of Albany.
Macbeth deals with the problem of royal power and usurpation. It was written in 1605-06 and published in the first folio in 1623. The source of the plot in “Holinshed’s Chronicle” of Scottish History.
Macbeth is similar to Richard III, but more profoundly conceived. Like Richard and Bolingbroke, Macbeth, with his bloody usurpation, paves the way for a counter usurpation.
Macbeth, advised by witches that he is to be a king, is persuaded by his wife to kill king Duncan and seize the crown. The King, coming to Macbeth’s castle for a night, is there murdered by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Duncan’s sons fly to England and Macbeth causes himself to be a king.
Like most Shakespearean tragedies Macbeth is a tragedy of a man betrayed by his obsession. Unlike Richard and Bolingbroke Macbeth is aware from the very beginning of his action.
After the assassination and seizure of the throne, there are indications of revolt. Macbeth begins to defend his position by new murders and acts of violence, which only hasten the inevitable counteraction.
Some critics emphasize the gloominess of Macbeth. This is due to the lofty tragic pathos of the drama, one of the most profound and mature of Shakespeare’s plays.
The emphasis is correct, as it refers to the basic theme and situation. And there are characters moving on the periphery of the tragedy who are far from being gloomy.
The optimistic tone of the tragedy is felt in the action and words of Malcolm. His social relation is fully revealed in the scene in which he and Meduff sound each other before uniting against Macbeth. Malcolm, pretending he is unfit, to wear the crown of Scotland, mentions his fondness for woman and his cupidity
Macduff is very much disturbed, but is willing to overlook these vices.