Their drenched natures lie, as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th'ungnarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spungy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?"

gives her an opportunity to create an impression of reality in her own mind and that of the representative of Macbeth, greatly advantageous to the latter, in making his exclamation seem natural and really due to her, in the eyes of the audience

"Bring forth men children only!

For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males," &c.;

and, besides, it furnishes an animating stimulus to what is to follow in their next scene.

FOURTH SCENE.-ACT II., Scene 1.

Here, it may be supposed, she enters with the fearfully wild resolve and unnatural animation that follows the use of stimulating agents in excitable temperaments-that supernatural exaltation of confidence which looks like defiance of fate itself. With firm bold step, gliding through darkness, after having seen the effect of her death-mocking agents on her victims, noiseless and fearless as an immaterial being

"That, which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold; What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire :-"

and then, a sound, breaking upon the stillness of the dreadful

night, extorts from her compressed lips the seemingly nervous"Hark!" which is quickly hushed by a contemptuous

"Peace!

It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'st good-night”---

and on she goes to listen to the work of destruction

"He is about it;

The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with sores :"→

Alas, woman takes, indeed, no middle ground in good or ill! Can she even sport with the idea of the utter defencelessness of her venerable trusting victim at such a moment her ears, perhaps, filled with his death-moan?

"I have drugg'd their possets.

That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die."

This is a demon's recapitulation of its work-the demon of human will and ambition; but now comes her momentary punishment

"Alack! I am afraid they have awaked,

And 'tis not done ;--the attempt, and not the deed,”

(or the attempt uncompleted)

"Confounds us:"

her agony of suspense

Hark! I laid their daggers ready,

He could not miss them.-Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I had done 't l—”

as if her fear of Macbeth's nerve had made her regret having yielded to this scruple.

This subdues her courage a little; so that when Macbeth enters, agitation is observable in her manner.

"Consider it not so deeply,"

is uttered, as much to avouch her own aptitude to yield to the horror of the moment, as it is to restore him to equanimity; and of the the same nature is her protest

"These deeds must not be thought on

After these ways; so, it will make us mad."

But the very prolongation of his phantasy, which first appals her, restores her to courage :

"Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,

You do unbend your noble strength, to think

So brain-sickly of things;"

and then her presence of mind

"Go, get some water,

And wash this filthy witness from your hand.-
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?

They must lie there. Go, carry them; and smear

The sleepy grooms with blood,"

her contempt of his fear, and philosophical indifference to

horrors

"Infirm of purpose!

Give me the daggers: The sleeping, and the dead,
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood,

That fears a painted devil.-If he do bleed,

I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,

For it must seem their guilt,"

her unstaggering performance of her revolting task, her scornful return

"My hands are of your colour; but I shame

To wear a heart so white,"

with her ready measures to meet scrutiny and avert suspicion,

P

and her firm generalship of her stricken partner through all his extacy of terror

"Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us,

And show us to be watchers,"

make this scene a morceau for an actress.

FIFTH SCENE. ACT III., Scene 2.

In this Scene there is a partial suspension of energy, melancholy rumination on the little good of possession unaccompanied by the surety of good title

""Tis safer to be that which we destroy,

Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy;"

but her remonstrance to Macbeth is replete with the natural force of her mind :

"How now, my lord? why do you keep alone,

Of sorriest fancies your companions making,

Using those thoughts, which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without remedy

Should be without regard: what's done is done."

Altogether, this scene shows, that it is the fiend of her soul

Ambition, and not her whole soul, that is remorseless.

THE BANQUET SCENE.-ACT III., Scene 4.

Here she has a good scope for the display of her consummate powers of address and self-possession: first, courtesy

"My royal lord,

You do not give the cheer; the feast is sold

That is not often vouch'd while 'tis a-making,

'Tis given with welcome: to feed, were best at home;
From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;

Meeting were bare without it,"

showing her finished appreciation of the duty of the host; secondly, command

"Sit, worthy friends :-my lord is often thus,

And hath been from his youth: 'pray you, keep seat;

The fit is momentary, upon a thought

He will again be well: If much you note him,

You shall offend him, and extend his passion.

Feed, and regard him not;"

thirdly, stern remonstrance; and, lastly, sceptical mockery

"The air-drawn dagger, which, you said,

Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws, and starts
(Impostors to true fear) would well become

A woman's story, at a winter's fire,

Authorised by her grandam. Shame itself!

Why do you make such faces? when all's done,
You look but on a stool."

We cannot help pausing to remark on her conduct after the dismissal of the guests. An inferior, unloving woman would have overwhelmed him with reproaches, for his want of selfpossession in the presence of the assembled guests: but her displeasure and, indeed, her energies seem to have exhausted themselves in meeting the difficulties of the position in which Macbeth's guilt-stricken ravings placed her and himself:-when