He is never gay but in the prospect or in the
success of his villanies; Macbeth is full of horror at the thoughts
of the murder of Duncan, which he is with difficulty prevailed on to
commit, and of remorse after its perpetration. Richard has no
mixture of common humanity in his composition, no regard to kindred
or posterity, he owns no fellowship with others, he is 'himself
alone'. Macbeth is not destitute of feelings of sympathy, is
accessible to pity, is even made in some measure the dupe of his
uxoriousness, ranks the loss of friends, of the cordial love of his
followers, and of his good name, among the causes which have made
him weary of life, and regrets that he has ever seized the crown by
unjust means, since he cannot transmit it to his own posterity:
For Banquo's issue have I 'fil'd my mind--
For them the gracious Duncan have I murther'd,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings.
In the agitation of his thoughts, he envies those whom he has sent
to peace. 'Duncan is in his grave; after life's fitful fever he
sleeps well.' It is true, he becomes more callous as he plunges
deeper in guilt, 'direness is thus rendered familiar to his
slaughterous thoughts', and he in the end anticipates his wife in
the boldness and bloodiness of his enterprises, while she, for want
of the same stimulus of action, is 'troubled with thick-coming
fancies that rob her of her rest', goes mad and dies.
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