rds. Macbeth's visit to
the Witches takes place the next day (III. iv. 132). At the end of this
visit (IV. i.) he hears of Macduff's flight to England, and determines
to have Macduff's wife and children slaughtered without delay; and this
is the subject of the next scene (IV. ii.). No great interval, then, can
be supposed between this scene and the next, where Macduff, arrived at
the English court, hears what has happened at his castle. At the end of
that scene (IV. iii. 237) Malcolm says that 'Macbeth is ripe for
shaking, and the powers above put on their instruments': and the events
of Act V. evidently follow with little delay, and occupy but a short
time. Holinshed's Macbeth appears to have reigned seventeen years:
Shakespeare's may perhaps be allowed as many weeks.

But, naturally, Shakespeare creates some difficulties through wishing to
produce different impressions in different parts of the play. The main
effect is that of fiery speed, and it would be impossible to imagine the
torment of Macbeth's mind lasting through a number of years, even if
Shakespeare had been willing to allow him years of outward success.
Hence the brevity of the action. On the other hand time is wanted for
the degeneration of his character hinted at in IV. iii. 57 f., for the
development of his tyranny, for his attempts to entrap Malcolm (_ib._
117 f.), and perhaps for the deepening of his feeling that his life had
passed into the sere and yellow leaf. Shakespeare, as we have seen,
scarcely provides time for all this, but at certain points he produces
an impression that a longer time has elapsed than he has provided for,
and he puts most of the indications of this longer time into a scene
(IV. iii.) which by its quietness contrasts strongly with almost all the
rest of the play.

2. There is no unmistakable indication of the ages of the two principal
characters; but the question, though of no great importance, has an
interest. I believe most readers imagine Macbeth as a man between forty
and fifty, and his wife as younger but not young. In many cases this
impression is doubtless due to the custom of the theatre (which, if it
can be shown to go back far, should have much weight), but it is shared
by readers who have never seen the play performed, and is then
presumably due to a number of slight influences probably incapable of
complete analysis. Such readers would say, 'The hero and heroine do not
speak like young people, nor like old ones';