explain this quote in detailNow o'er the one half-world/Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse/The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates/Pale...

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Now o'er the one
halfworld
Nature seems dead, and
wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd
sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale
Hecate's offerings, and wither'd
murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the
wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus
with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's
ravishing strides, towards his
design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure
and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps,
which way they walk, for fear
Thy very
stones prate of my whereabout,
And
take the present horror from the
time,
Which now suits with
it

These lines
constitute the concluding portion of Macbeth's soliloquy in act 2 scene 1, the speech
envisioning the air-drawn dagger. After the vision disappears, Macbeth reflects upon the
hushed-up midnight atmosphere as he walks secretly with his real dagger towards Duncan's
bed-chamber to execute the blue-print of murder.

One half
of the big world-the hemisphere in which the dark night rules-is plunged in the deep
silence of sleep. Nature seems dead in the sense that all living
things, including men, are immersed in the death-like sleep. Yet Macbeth, himself loaded
with the discomforts of guity ambition, imagines that the blessing of sleep is disturbed
by the wicked dreams. Cursed thoughts encroach into the
curtain-like cover of sleep. This is the darkest part of night most suitable for the
rites of witchcraft and such other black arts, the queen of the witches, Hecate,
presiding over those paraphernalia of evil. Visited by the witches on the heath and
motivated by their prophecies, Macbeth imagines witchcraft as associated with the night
and his murderous nocturnal mission.

Macbeth further
imagines the murderer, as he himself is going to be, in the likeness of the wizened
witches-wither'd murder. The howling wolf is imagined to be the
murderer's sentinel. The murderer walks in long silent strides that
resemble the movement of the rapacious Tarquin who invaded into the bed-chamber of the
Roman matron, Lucretia. The heinous crime of murder is thus equalled to the detestable
act of rape. But the exceedingly imaginative murderer as Macbeth is, he fears that that
his ghost-like steps would be detected by the sure and firm-set
earth. He therefore asks the earth and the underground stones not to hear the
sound of his strides. The fear of detection and retributive justice thus remain with the
secret murderer.