Sacking the Temple II

Bill Long 8/11/05

Better Biblical Examples

In the previous essay I argued that the biblical parallels to Malcolm's horrified speech in 2.3.62-68 suggested by the editors of the Arden Shakespeare (I Sam. 24:10; II Cor 6:16) were not helpful parallels. They tended to freeze Shakespeare's language and make it woodenly literal. In this essay I will show that if we look at the Bible more imaginatively, the images behind Malcolm's words are much the richer.

The Text--and One Biblical Allusion

Malcolm says:

"Oh horror! horror! horror!
Tongue nor heart cannot conceive, nor name thee!..
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious Murther hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed Temple, and stole thence
The life o'th'building" (2.3.62-68).

The first picture is taken from the process of giving birth. Conception comes first, and naming follows. But when Shakespeare says "Tongue nor heart cannot conceive" (an interesting double negative), he is taking "conceive" out of a gestation context and putting it into its other meaning--to understand. The notion of the organs or senses not being able to understand is a rich biblical concept, suggested first of all by Paul, whose words rely on OT language. For example, in speaking to the Corinthinans, Paul says:

"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived..." (I Cor 2:9).

This passage itself seems to rely on Is 64:4: "From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen..." The biblical double repetition and negation, of reference to sensual incredulity or inexperience seemingly can easily stand behind Malcolm's first words.

The Destruction of Israel's Temple

But even more to the point is the grief-stricken language of Ps.79 to express the forlorn sadness at the violation of Israels' holy place. Listen to the words and "see" the murder of Duncan as you read them.

"O God, the nations have come into your inheritance,
they have defiled your holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the bodies of your servants
to the birds of the air for food,
the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.
They have poured out their blood like water all around
Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them" (Ps. 79:1-3).

The line in the middle ("birds of the air for food") brings into fresh relief the bird symbolism of Macbeth ("The raven himself is hoarse,/ That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan"--1.5.38-39; "It was the owl that shrieke'd, the fatal bellman,/ Which gives the stern'st good-night"--2.2.3-4). What is at stake in both the biblical and Macbeth images is the notion of violation, of death, of sad or horrified violation of something sacred. Macbeth has "sacrilegious" Murther entering in "the Lord's anointed Temple," while the Psalmist has the "nations" who "defiled your holy temple."

But if Duncan is not the "anointed Temple," to what might that phrase refer? What might the "place" be? Two suggestions come to mind. Perhaps the "place" is Macbeth's castle, sanctified by the guest-host relationship. Murder has come into the sacred sphere of the loyal relationship of thane to King. One of the reasons Macbeth hesitates to murder Duncan is because the King is his guest. Again, the "anointed Temple," by a slightly bigger stretch, might be the Kingdom itself. Murder, then, stalks the Kingdom and claimed the King as its biggest "catch."

Stealing the Life

But Malcolm's speech continues. Not only has there been the violation by breaking open the Temple doors, so to speak, but the "life" of the building has been stolen. This, surely, is not a biblical picture. Never is the ark of the covenant or anything else that might be in the Holy of Holies directly called the "life of the building," but the idea is not absent from some of Israel's reflections. The Book of Lamentations, ignored today in almost all religious contexts because of its unremitting gloom and sadness (even as it breaks forth at times into hopeful words), puts together some words that provide a helpful context for understanding Malcolm. After lamenting the fact of being pursued and chased by the ravishing foe, the author says:

"The Lord's anointed, the breath of our life, was taken in their pits--
the one of whom we said, 'Under his shadow
we shall live among the nations'" (Lam. 4:20).

Here the pictures of anointing and stealing come together in the context of a broader lamentation for the people's fate. Where the raven was hoarse who croaked the fatal entrance under Lady Macbeth's "battlements," the people of Israel were protected when they were under the "shadow" of the Lord's anointed. Now that anointed has been taken away, stolen, carried away, raped.

Conclusion

The words that tumble from Malcolm's lips are those of horror and unspeakable anguish. The immediate vision "freezes" a person. "Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight/ With a new Gorgon" (2.23.70-71). In contrast, the words of Israel are of studied lament, of grief unstoppable, of those whose tears have flowed freely: "By the rivers of Babylon--there we ssat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps" (Ps. 137:1-2). "How lonely sits the city that once was full of poeple! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal" (Lam. 1:1). It is almost as if the Book of Lamentations is a sort of "bridge" between Malcolm's horrific uttering and Macbeth's complex words of loss a few lines later (2.3.89-94). But that is the subject of the next essay.

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