Did Lady Macbeth Really Faint?

Abstract

In the scene of confusion where the murder of Duncan is discovered, Macbeth and Lennox return from the royal chamber; Lennox describes the grooms who, as it seemed, had done the deed:

Their hands and faces were all badged with blood;

So were their daggers, which unwiped we found

Upon their pillows:

They stared, and were distracted; no man’s life

Was to be trusted with them.

Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury

That I did kill them.

Macd. Wherefore did you so?

Macb. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:

The expedition of my violent love

Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin laced with his golden blood;

And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature

For ruin’s wasteful entrance; there, the murderers,

Steep’d in the colours of their trade, their daggers

Unmannerly breech’d with gore: who could refrain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart

Courage to make’s love know?