QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Macbeth ACT/SCENE: 1.7 SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth CONTEXT: We fail?
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep—
Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey
Soundly invite him—his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep
Their drenchèd natures lie as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell? DUTCH: Mislukken!
Schroef slechts uw moed tot aan het hoogste punt,
En het mislukt ons niet. MORE: There are several definitions of ‘sticking place’: Samuel Johnson descibes it as the place of being stopped, unable to proceed. It is also described as the point at which a tuning peg is set in its hole and the mark to which a soldier screwed up the cord of a crossbow (OED).
Schmidt:
Sticking-place= the place in which the peg of a stringed instrument remains fast; the proper degree of tension
Convince=Overcome, defeat
Warder=A guard, a keeper, a sentinel “Memory, the warder of the brain”
A fume=A delusion, a phantasm, anything hindering, like a mist, the function of the brain
Limbeck=An alembic (alchemical still)
Onions:
Sticking-place=Point at which (it) remains firm
The rather=The more quickly
Compleat:
Limbeck=Een afzyphelm
Alembick=Een Destilleerhelm, in de Scheikonst Topics: invented or popularised, still in use, plans/intentions, conspiracy, deceit, offence