And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time,
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
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?

Macbeth, however, does not yield immediately, but rouses at these taunts. He answers in a noble and spirited man

ner

Pr'ythee, peace:

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

Dr Johnson says, that "these lines ought to bestow im"mortality on the author, though all his other productions "had been lost." We cannot entirely concur in this unqualified praise, in a moral point of view. We do not deny that the sentiment is noble, but it is not the highest moral sentiment. It is dictated by love of approbation, and not by conscientiousness, and hence it is the more conformable to the character of Macbeth. He does not say that he dares do all that is just and right and virtuous, but all that is becoming, all that is great, and noble, and glorious: not that which is approved by his own conscience, but that which is applauded and admired by men. We beg of our readers to observe this distinction; a distinction which passed unobserved by the acute mind of Johnson, but which is perfectly apparent to every one who is acquainted with phrenology.

But Lady Macbeth, as she has no compunctious visitings of conscience to restrain her evil intents, so neither is she turned aside from her purposes by any desire of vain-glory. She proceeds to turn this desire in him against itself. She attacks him on the point of consistency, and endeavours to impress him with the idea of the imbecility and utter silliness of a wavering and unsettled mind; and the disgrace of

retracting from a resolution to which he had sworn by all the sacred vows of heaven :—

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 than man. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both :
They've made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you.

This last taunt must have been felt by Macbeth with peculiar acuteness, because it just touches the weak point of his character. There are many who are exceedingly bold when the time for action is at a distance, but fall away when it approaches. Opportunity, which invigorates others, takes away from them the desire and almost the power of acting; and their courage requires the aid of example and the persuasion of spirits more determined than their own. These incentives the lady supplies as she can, and as could only be done by the boldest and most unfeeling of her sex. Provoked to the uttermost by her husband's want of resolution, she exclaims

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 his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as you
Have done to this.

Overcome by the superior energy of his wife's character, and ashamed to be outdone in courage by a woman, Macbeth has but one resource more. He wishes to shew the reasonableness of his hesitation, by adverting to the dangers attending the enterprise, and the ruin that would follow an unsuccessful These he but hints at in the few expressive

attempt. words,

If we should fail,

to which she contemptuously and impatiently replies

We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.

She has now brought him to the point she wishes-Conscientiousness, or the sense of right, has been long out of the question. The love of approbation has been neutralized by opposing the glory of courage, firmness, and consistency, and the shame of their opposites, to the simple reprobation due to crime; and all that now remains is a lurking portion of cautiousness, giving rise to the fear of discovery and failure. This she proceeds to remove by shewing him a plan by which their enterprise may be easily and safely accomplished, while, at the same time, their guilt may be concealed, and the blame of it transferred to the guards of the unfortunate and fated monarch:

When Duncan is asleep,

(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel so convince,
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?

This plan, proceeding from the superior readiness and invention of his wife, seems to delight Macbeth. It removes his only remaining scruple; and he yields thenceforth entirely to her wishes. He even seems to express admiration of her thorough going and intrepid spirit, in this apostrophe :—

Bring forth men-children only!

For thy undaunted mettle should conceive
Nothing but males.

But even to the last, his love of approbation and cautiousness, acting on defective conscientiousness, prompt the desire of avoiding the shame and danger of the crime, at the expense of ruin to others.

retracting from a resolution to which he had sworn by all the sacred vows of heaven :—

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 than man. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both :
They've made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you.

This last taunt must have been felt by Macbeth with peculiar acuteness, because it just touches the weak point of his character. There are many who are exceedingly bold when the time for action is at a distance, but fall away when it approaches. Opportunity, which invigorates others, takes away from them the desire and almost the power of acting; and their courage requires the aid of example and the persuasion of spirits more determined than their own. These incentives the lady supplies as she can, and as could only be done by the boldest and most unfeeling of her sex. Provoked to the uttermost by her husband's want of resolution, she exclaims

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 his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as you
Have done to this.

Overcome by the superior energy of his wife's character, and ashamed to be outdone in courage by a woman, Macbeth has but one resource more. He wishes to shew the reasonableness of his hesitation, by adverting to the dangers attending the enterprise, and the ruin that would follow an unsuccessful These he but hints at in the few expressive

attempt. words,

If we should fail,

to which she contemptuously and impatiently replies—

We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.

She has now brought him to the point she wishes-Conscientiousness, or the sense of right, has been long out of the question. The love of approbation has been neutralized by opposing the glory of courage, firmness, and consistency, and the shame of their opposites, to the simple reprobation due to crime; and all that now remains is a lurking portion of cautiousness, giving rise to the fear of discovery and failure. This she proceeds to remove by shewing him a plan by which their enterprise may be easily and safely accomplished, while, at the same time, their guilt may be concealed, and the blame of it transferred to the guards of the unfortunate and fated monarch:

When Duncan is asleep,

(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassel so convince,
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?

This plan, proceeding from the superior readiness and invention of his wife, seems to delight Macbeth. It removes his only remaining scruple; and he yields thenceforth entirely to her wishes. He even seems to express admiration of her thorough going and intrepid spirit, in this apostrophe :—

Bring forth men-children only!

For thy undaunted mettle should conceive
Nothing but males.

But even to the last, his love of approbation and cautiousness, acting on defective conscientiousness, prompt the desire of avoiding the shame and danger of the crime, at the expense of ruin to others.