of night and death. If things in nature stands for things in human life, King Duncan was the falcon, and Macbeth the owl. Even worse, King Duncan's horses, "Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, / Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, / Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make / War with mankind." (2.4.15-18) A "minion" is someone's favorite. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were King Duncan's minions. The King showered them with honors and gifts, but they turned wild and made war on their master. In the end, the horses ate each other. At their ends, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will be eaten up from inside. Macbeth will fall into despair and Lady Macbeth will go mad from thinking about King Duncan's blood. Enter Macduff: As Ross and the Old Man are marveling at the fact that King Duncan's horses ate one another, Macduff appears. Ross greets Macduff in most ordinary way, saying "How goes the world, sir, now?" Macduff's reply is edgy: "Why, see you not? (2.4.21). In Macduff's place we might say "What do you think?" or "Just take a look around you." After all, a good king has just been murdered. Ross then asks who did the murder. This is probably not an innocent question. Both Macduff and Ross heard Macbeth explain that he killed King Duncan's grooms because they killed the King. Just the fact that Ross asks the question seems to show that he thinks that maybe Macbeth's explanation doesn't hold water. Macduff repeats the official line: King Duncan was killed by his grooms, who were bribed by Malcolm and Donalbain, whose guilt is shown by the fact that they ran away. Ross exclaims "'Gainst nature still!" He adds an outburst against "Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up / Thine own life's means!" (2.4.27-29). Ross means that what Malcolm and Donalbain are said to have done was not only unnatural, it was stupid, because in killing their father, they killed everything he could have given them. That is, if they di...
