Certain New Elucidations of, Shakespeare 15 



Yet do I fear thy nature. 

 It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness 

 To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, 

 Art not without ambition, but without 

 The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, 

 That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst not play false, 

 And yet wouldst wrongly win. 



Macbeth, in other words, is a scrupulous self-seeker. He is not 

 so scrupulous as to eschew wrong-doing altogether. But he will 

 stop short of crime. He is thus wholly in character when he 

 interdicts further action agaiiist the life of Duncan. 



'And yet, I make Macbeth, after winning the moral credit of 

 this opposition, recede from his decision. I bring in forces that 

 thrust the motives just now so potent into the background. 

 Woman rules society continuously by her conservatism, but home 

 and husband occasionally by her radical insistences. It is in the 

 nature of compensation that the weaker sex, under certain condi- 

 tions, should outwill the stronger. So here, in spite of what 

 policy dictates, and loyalty, and pride, and self-respect, and the 

 sense of honor, and of duty to a kinsman and a guest, together 

 with the certain prospect of Scotland's commending the poisoned 

 chalice to his own lips, — against all his better judgment and in full 

 assurance of perdition, Macbeth yields to his wife's frenzied 

 resolution. He jumps the life to come, not because he dreads the 

 scorn and pain and discord that else must follow, but because 

 he loves. ' 



' Of course there must be steps in the procedure. I but let 

 Lady Macbeth use first her woman's logic, by which she would 

 make her darling hero out a coward. He knows it is not her 

 conviction, for he has heard her, — scores of time has heard her, 

 praise his daring. He realizes that she employs her taunts only 

 foT present victory, yet he lets them rouse him. He should in- 

 stead have found them humorous, amusing, — he should have 

 seemed at least imperturbable. But I have made Macbeth too 

 fond of his wife to essay strategy, or make light of even her half- 

 meant gibes. There can be no recourse or evasion now. When 

 a husband takes an issue like this seriously, but two ways lie 

 open, — compliance, or brutal, violent denial. But brutal, violent 



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