30 shakspeare's writings. 



the other. Macbeth yearns for " honour, love, obe- 

 dience, troops of friends : '* Richard disclaims all 

 sympathy with his kind, and desires, that, since the 

 heavens have made his body deformed, " hell may 

 crook his mind to answer it."' He is a kind of pet 

 scoundrel — gallant in the field from a love of sport — 

 discontented in the hour of peace as having nothing 

 therein to do, except to " spy his shadow in the sun 

 and descant on his own deformity : '' denied all in- 

 nocent opportunity for open display ; and, therefore, 

 bent on an abundance of secret mischief. He deter- 

 mines, that his villainy shall, at least, equal the alti- 

 tude of his especial ugliness ; and there is something 

 highly amusing in the childish captiousness with 

 which he determines on being a thorough rogue : — 

 not so much to answer any great end, as to spite 

 heaven for having given him a hump on his back 

 and a lump on his leg. But, while Richard lays 

 much stress upon the irregularity of his personal 

 outline, we cannot but rest assured of his more radical 

 rascality. He seeks the most absurd pretensions for 

 a quarrel with nature. The dogs bark, and he im- 

 mediately supposes they bark at him. He declares 

 that nothing in the world seems to favor him, and he 

 is therefore determined to favor nothing — to fear no- 

 thing — to care for nothing except himself — and to 

 convince the world, that if his person be unlovely, 

 his power shall be irresistible. 

 He is described as 



"The foul defacer of God's handy work, 

 And excellent grand tyrant of the earth ; 



Hell's black intelligencer 



Only reserved as factor to buy souls 

 And send them thither — " 



The nature of Macbeth is sensitive and yielding ; 

 that of the other impenetrable and determinate. 

 Macbeth had remained honourable but for the witches 

 and his wife. Had Richard married Lady Macbeth, 

 he would have, possibly, decapitated her as a very 

 iniquitous woman — certainly he had never been hen- 



