LENNOX Sent he to MacDuff?
LORD He did; and, with an absolute ‘Sir, not I’,
The cloudy messenger turns me his back,
And ‘Hmm’s, as who should say ‘You’ll rue the time
That clogs me with this answer.’
LENNOX And that well might
Advise him to a caution, t’hold what distance
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel
Fly to the court of England and unfold
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering country,
Under a hand accursed.
LORD I’ll send my prayers with him.
Exeunt (3.6.39-49)
Lennox wants one more detail confirmed: did Macbeth definitely invite Macduff to the feast? He did, and Macduff was emphatic in declining the invitation with an absolute ‘Sir, not I’. There’s a neat little vignette of the messenger, cloudy because he’s sulky or unwilling, scowling, who turns his back, prepares to leave (not exactly politely), hmmming, embarrassed or anxious, sucking his teeth, clicking his tongue, as who should say, as if he were saying, you’ll rue the time that clogs me with this answer. You’ll regret this, this insult to the king in refusing his hospitality, perhaps also with the implication that bearing this message back to Macbeth will be a clog, a burden, and that he, the messenger, may well suffer when he delivers this unwelcome response back to Macbeth. (Is Macbeth the play which is most interested in nameless servants and household officials, rather than courtiers, their lack of agency, their small acts of defiance? In Antony and Cleopatra, ‘shooting the messenger’ will be exploited for comic effect, comic for everyone except the messenger, that is.)
It’s just as well that Macduff’s gone away, then, suggests Lennox; he clearly needs to watch his back, be careful, and that encounter, the messenger’s response, well might advise him to a caution, t’hold what distance his wisdom can provide. And Lennox imagines some holy angel following Macduff to England, to speed his mission and also to tell him to be very, very careful, that a swift blessing may soon return to this our suffering country, under a hand accursed. Macduff, and the English, will be on the side of the angels against Macbeth, while Scotland suffers under a hand accursed, the tyranny of Macbeth, now implicitly imagined as fiendish, satanic, the work of the devil. (It won’t be an angel who eventually goes to Macduff in England, and the news conveyed to him will be terrible, but that’s in the future.) I’ll send my prayers with him, agrees the anonymous lord. A terrified fight-back against Macbeth is, it seems, tentatively beginning, and that’s the end of act 3.
