By comparing it with other characters of the
same author we shall perceive the absolute truth and identity which
is observed in the midst of the giddy whirl and rapid career of
events. Macbeth in Shakespeare no more loses his identity of
character in the fluctuations of fortune or the storm of passion,
than Macbeth in himself would have lost the identity of his person.
Thus he is as distinct a being from Richard III as it is possible to
imagine, though these two characters in common hands, and indeed in
the hands of any other poet, would have been a repetition of the
same general idea, more or less exaggerated. For both are tyrants,
usurpers, murderers, both aspiring and ambitious, both courageous,
cruel, treacherous. But Richard is cruel from nature and
constitution. Macbeth becomes so from accidental circumstances.
Richard is from his birth deformed in body and mind, and naturally
incapable of good. Macbeth is full of 'the milk of human kindness,
is frank, sociable, generous. He is tempted to the commission of
guilt by golden opportunities, by the instigations of his wife, and
by prophetic warnings. Fate and metaphysical aid conspire against
his virtue and his loyalty. Richard, on the contrary, needs no
prompter, but wades through a series of crimes to the height of his
ambition from the ungovernable violence of his temper and a reckless
love of mischief.
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