"?" or "!", what an enormuos difference...

last summer or so I bought a fantastic version of macbeth in a vintage bookshop
and now I had to buy the version by Reclam(for school) and spotted a difference.
in the New-Swan-Shakespear-version act 1 scene 7 line 59 it says "We fail!"
and in the Reclam-version act 1 scene 7 line 59 it says "We fail?"
that is after lady mcbeth had given her little speach about that baby... and her husband still hesitates and says "If we should fail, - "
and she answers.
now, to me it makes an enormous difference wether it says "We fail?" or "We fail!"
"We fail?" makes him a foolish child pondering about something that is very unlikely to happen and makes her superior to him.
"We fail!" makes them equal and loving partners either rising or falling togther.

that is why I like the "!" better..
but what do you think about it, which one do you like better and does anyone have the slightest notion as to how shakespear wrote and ment it?

I think in modern English we'd probably write it 'We fail?!' 'We fail!' does not necessarily mean that she is agreeing to support him- I believe it's an exclamation- basically she's saying 'How could you say we'll fail, you stupid man?' She's frustrated at his weakness.

I would like to think she sais "we fail!" to tell him that she's with him no matter what (if she does so because she means it or because she want's to sooth and persuade him is an other point of course) but perhaps I'm just too romantic:D

The following link supports 'We Fail!'

http://www.william-shakespeare.info/...xt-macbeth.htm
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/pl...cbeth_1_7.html
http://www.field-of-themes.com/shake...h1.htm#xref009

Now these could all be copied from the same place, but they are supported again by a 1951 print of the collins 'complete work of shakespeare' I think that which you hope may be that which is true. Perhaps the '?' is a typo :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by inbetween

I would like to think she sais "we fail!" to tell him that she's with him no matter what (if she does so because she means it or because she want's to sooth and persuade him is an other point of course) but perhaps I'm just too romantic:D

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Lady Macbeth has no intention of failing and she certainly wouldn't let Macbeth drag her down. I think he's frustrated that Macbeth lacks manliness and she has to make up for it.

Why not go to the original source, the Macbeth that appears in 1623 First Folio?
539:
Macb.
If we should faile?
540:
Lady.
We faile?

Interestingly, (well, to me anyway) I had a professor once point out another occurrence of the same phenomenon in the same play. In act II, scene II Lady Macbeth awaits the return of Macbeth upon the completion of the dastardly deed:

659:
Lady.
Alack, I am afraid they haue awak'd,
And 'tis not done: th' attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds vs: hearke: I lay'd their Daggers ready,
He could not misse 'em. Had he not resembled
My Father as he slept, I had don't.
My Husband?

Most modern editions have "My husband?" as "My husband!", which sort of changes the tenor of the scene. With the question mark, she is unsure as to the identity of the approaching figure, which might suggest a kind of vulnerability and possibly make Lady Macbeth, if but for a moment, a slightly more sympathetic character.