Macbeth resolves to get rid of Macduff, that 'he may sleep in spite
of thunder'; and cheers his wife on the doubtful intelligence of
Banquo's taking-off with the encouragement--'Then be thou jocund:
ere the bat has flown his cloistered flight; ere to black Hecate's
summons the shard-born beetle has rung night's yawning peal, there
shall be done--a deed of dreadful note.' In Lady Macbeth's speech,
'Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done't,' there is
murder and filial piety together, and in urging him to fulfil his
vengeance against the defenceless king, her thoughts spare the blood
neither of infants nor old age. The description of the Witches is
full of the same contradictory principle; they 'rejoice when good
kings bleed'; they are neither of the earth nor the air, but both;
'they should be women, but their beards forbid it'; they take all
the pains possible to lead Macbeth on to the height of his ambition,
only to betray him in deeper consequence, and after showing him all
the pomp of their art, discover their malignant delight in his
disappointed hopes, by that bitter taunt, 'Why stands Macbeth thus
amazedly?' We might multiply such instances everywhere.
The leading features in the character of Macbeth are striking
enough, and they form what may be thought at first only a bold,
rude, Gothic outline.
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