lay, the witches equivocate with Macbeth when they tell him that he cannot be killed by man "of woman born." That sounds like it means that Macbeth cannot be killed by any man, but he is killed by Macduff, who wasn't "born," but from his mother's womb "untimely ripped.") After the equivocator is let into hell, there's an English tailor who steals cloth by making his customer's pants smaller than he should. Finally, the Porter just gets tired of himself and opens the gate. We may be a bit tired of him, too. We might say that by showing minor sinners coming to hell-gate, the scene highlights the hellish sinfulness of Macbeth's murder of King Duncan. However, this is hardly something that we're likely to think of as we're wondering who's knocking, and whether the Porter is ever going to get around to opening the gate. Another way to explain the passage is to call it comic relief. The problem with this is that the jokes are all of the "you-had-to-be-there" variety. For example, if you were an Elizabethan Englishman and had a bad experience with a tailor who had sold you baggy pants instead of the extra-baggy ones you really wanted, you might laugh at the tailor joke. Then again, you might not, because there were as many tailor jokes then as there are lawyer jokes now. Stage directors generally understand that the audience is unlikely to get the jokes, so they often give the Porter supposedly funny stuff to do, such as peeing, or talking in an accent so thick that you can't understand a word. The result is generally just boring. Or worse than boring. We've seen all the blood on Macbeth's hands, and then on Lady Macbeth's hands, and we've heard the knocking at the gate, and we're wondering if they're going to get caught, but then comes this cursed Porter with his dumb jokes. Enter Macduff and Lennox:Ironically, when the Porter finally does open the gate, he has the cheek to beg a tip, saying, "I pray you, remember the porter" (2.3.21). It doe...
