In Shakespeare's Macbeth, what does this mean: "Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? hath it slept since? And wakes it now..."?What...

In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, the
following quote is spoken by Lady Macbeth:

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"Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dressed
yourself? hath it slept since? / And wakes it now, to look so green and pale / At what
it did so freely?" (I, vii,
36-40)

After the witches'
predictions have proven true—when Macbeth unexpectedly becomes the Thane of Cawdor—the
rest of the prediction ("...that shalt be king hereafter," I, iii, 50) begins to eat not
only at Macbeth's mind, but also at his wife's. Lady Macbeth is a
conniving and ambitious woman: she wants to be queen, and at the beginning of the play,
she has no qualms about what they need to do between them to make
it happen.

At the beginning of the scene, we see the last
vestiges of Macbeth as he was at the start of the play: the heroic, valiant and loyal
servant of Duncan. He has had time to think of their plans to murder Duncan (the king),
while the older man visits with them. He tells his
wife:

We will
proceed no further in this business:
He hath honor'd me of late, and I
have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would
be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon. (lines
31-35)

Macbeth is having
second thoughts. He loves Duncan. Duncan is his King; and Duncan is his cousin. [The man
is also enjoying Macbeth's hospitality, and it was a long-standing rule of war that if
someone came under your roof—even an enemy (which Duncan is not), his (or her) safety
was guaranteed. Only a man without honor would do his guest harm.]
In addition, Macbeth reasons, Duncan has recently rewarded him, and he has been praised
by many people for his actions in battle. While all this is still new, he does not wish
to do away with it so quickly, but enjoy it.

Lady Macbeth
knows how to manipulate her husband. She belittles him and questions his courage and his
manhood. She responds to his desire to wait, saying:

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Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dress'd
yourself? Hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale

At what it did so
freely?

Lady Macbeth is
asking him what drunken state of mind (likened to casually putting on clothing) was he
in when he agreed to commit the murder? And since that time, has his drunkenness worn
off, making him sick (green) from a hangover so that in the light of day, with a clearer
mind, he cannot follow through?

She suggests with the image
of clothing that Macbeth is "infirm of purpose," unable to commit himself; he changes
his mind like people change their clothes. She is insulting him for his
inconstancy.

She then pulls the "love"
card:

From
this time
Such I account thy love. (lines
38-39)

Basically she says,
well from now on, I know how much you really love me. (She is
bitingly sarcastic, and she makes his desire to maintain his ethical base a
choice: do it your way, or show me you love
me.)

The use of the clothing imagery is given to allow Lady
Macbeth to argue with her husband that he was never serious about
their plan if he can change his mind as quickly, easily and thoughtlessly as one changes
his/her clothes