usurp the kingdom by force, having a just quarrel so to do (as he took the matter), for that Duncan did what in him lay to defraud him of all manner of title and claim which he might, in time to come, pretend unto the crown.'

"Macb. The Prince of Cumberland! That is a

step

On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,

For in my way it lies."

We have now the heroine and great support of the piece, Lady Macbeth. In this part of his story, Shakspeare follows Holinshed and Boethius, who improve upon the ancient Chronicle. Andrew Wyntown assigns to the wife of Macbeth no part in the murder of Duncan, nor indeed assigns any wife to him at the time of that wicked action. The wife of Macbeth is, in the Chronicle, the widow of Duncan, and does not appear until after the murder of her first husband.

And he took Dame Gruach, his uncle's wife, and lived with her, deeming her both wife and queen, as she had been before to his uncle while he was reigning, for he paid little attention to the degrees of affinity."

* Hol., 269. See Malone's note, showing that Holinshed copied from Boece and Buchanan.-Bosw., 57. † Act i. Sc. 5.

Holinshed's version is assuredly much the best for a dramatic purpose.

"The words of the three weird sisters greatly encouraged him hereunto, but specially his wife, lay ore upon him to attempt the thing, as she that was very ambitious, having an unquenchable desire to bear the name of a queen."

This enables Shakspeare to paint his splendid picture of female ambition, and its effects, in inspiring masculine courage into the soul of a woman. Her invocations are almost horrible :

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here;
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall. You murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come thick night,
And pall thee in the deepest smoke of hell!

That my keen knife see not the wound it makes;
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, Hold, hold!"

* Hol., 269.

And her injunction to her husband, to conceal his purpose under a mask of kindness, is beautifully expressed ;

"Look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under it."

Yet, considering that this was the first time of her mentioning the murderous project to her husband, and that she could not be aware of the thoughts that had occupied his mind, this conversation may appear rather brief. The deficiency is soon supplied, and taken all together, the soliloquies of the two guilty parties and their inter-communings are perfect.

'Macb. If it were done, when it is done, then
'twere well

It were done quickly. If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease, success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time
We'd jump the life to come.-

-But in these cases,

that we but teach

We still have judgment here;
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust :
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead, like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking off:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd
Upon the sightless coursers of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other."

He communicates the result of this self-debate to his wife.

"Macb. We will proceed no further in this busi

ness :

He hath honour'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.

Lady M. 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?

Such I account thy love.

From this time

Art thou afraid

To be the same in thine own act and valour,

As thou art in desire? Would'st thou have that,
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,

And live a coward in thine own esteem?

Letting I dare not, wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage?
Macb. Pr'ythee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man,
Who dares do more, is none.

Lady M. What beast was it then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man:
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both :
They've made themselves, and that their fitness now
Doth unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me :
I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have pluck'd my nipple from its boneless gums, And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as you Have done to this."

This is horribly powerful, but it is not quite borne out by what has passed. Although it is true, as Mrs. Jameson observes,* that an imagining of the murder did come across the mind of Macbeth before his wife communicated her project, yet it is not correctly said either that he

* ii. 305.