There’s nothing serious in mortality:
All is but toys: renown and grace is dead;
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
– William Shakespeare
Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3. We see dramatic irony as Macbeth puts on a pretence to his audience of mourning for Duncan, the King he has just murdered. Using metaphors, he describes how life is meaningless and “but toys,” and how the “wine of life” is poured away with only the dregs remaining. The last two lines are a metaphor for blood. There is also a strong thread of guilt in Macbeth’s words, as if he knows he has lost his own soul and his life is now meaningless.