The Man Shakespeare by Frank Harris
page 39 of 447 (08%)
page 39 of 447 (08%)
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"Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pityful day, And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale." No other motive for murder is possible to Shakespeare-Macbeth but fear. Banquo is murdered, but still Macbeth cries: "I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears." The scene with the ghost of Banquo follows, where-in Macbeth again shows the nervous imaginative Hamlet nature. His next speech is mere reflection, and again Hamlet might have framed it: "the time has been That when the brains were out the man would die And there an end": ... But while fear may be an adequate motive for Banquo's murder, it can hardly explain the murder of Macduff's wife and children. Shakespeare feels this, too, and therefore finds other reasons natural enough; but the first of these reasons, "his own good," is not especially characteristic of Macbeth, and the second, while perhaps characteristic, is absurdly inadequate: men don't murder out of tediousness: "For mine own good All causes shall give way: I am in blood[1] |
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