Shakespeare's Passage
For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.
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Paraphrase
For brave Macbeth--surely he deserves that title of 'brave'--
challenging fortune, with his sword swinging,
and hot from all the killing,
As though he was the darling of Valour itself,
cut a path right through the enemy troops
Until he faced Macdonwald;
And he did not leave,
Until he had cut him from his navel to his cheeks,
And placed his head on the top of our fort wall.
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"Aristotle says this concerning the hero, or protagonist, of tragic drama, and Shakespeare's practice at every point supports him: —