ge it takes to kill two dazed and defenseless men, Lady Macbeth punctuates Macbeth's performance by calling out, "Help me hence, ho!" (2.3.118), and falls down in a faint. As Macduff and others tend to the lady, we see that Macbeth and his wife have not fooled everyone. Malcolm asks his brother why they aren't grieving as loudly as everyone else, and Donalbain says what they are both thinking: "What should be spoken here, where our fate, / Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?" (2.3.121-122). Now is not the time or place to express their grief, because they could be murdered at any minute. They need to get out of there as quickly as possible. Malcolm adds that when they do express their grief, their "strong sorrow" will be "Upon the foot of motion" (2.3.124-125). In other words, they will express their sorrow when they are able to do something about it, such as take revenge on their father's killer. Meanwhile, Banquo appears to be taking charge of the situation. He makes sure that someone carries away Lady Macbeth, and then proposes that the men hold a meeting "when we have our naked frailties hid, / That suffer in exposure" (2.3.126-127). This reminds us that everyone, except Macduff and Lennox, are in their nightclothes. They're not really "naked," but night in windy Scotland must be cold enough to make them feel frail and exposed. Banquo wants to discuss the murder, because they have all been shaken by "Fears and scruples" (2.3.129). "Scruples" are doubts and suspicions. Banquo will not just accept the idea that the murder was the work of two drunken grooms, and he assumes that no one else will, either. He says, "In the great hand of God I stand; and thence / Against the undivulged pretence I fight / Of treasonous malice" (2.3.130-132). An "undivulged pretence . . . of treasonous malice" is a secret conspiracy by the evil forces of treason. Of course everyone agrees to put on their clothes and come to the meeting that Banquo ...
