Page:The Psychology of Shakespeare.pdf/32

Rh “For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind; For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd ; Put rancours in the vessel of my peace Only for them ; and mine eternal jewel Given to the common enemy of man, To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings Rather than so, come, Fate, into the list, And champion me to the utterance "

Strange inconsistency! He yields to Fate when its decrees jump with his own desires; but when the tide turns he resolves to breast its irresistible wave.

One is inclined, how

ever, to the belief, that the first reason assigned for Banquo's death was the most potent, that “there is none but he whose being I do fear.” Macbeth had no children, and the descent of the crown could not touch his feelings or interests. When he learns that Fleance has escaped, he feels “bound in to saucy doubts and fears;” but, on the whole, he treats the escape as

a light matter, and as the cause of future danger to himself, rather than of anxiety respecting the succession. How awful is the retribution which the Nemesis of con

science works upon the guilty pair; and that before they have cause to dread any earthly retribution. Duncan's sons are fugitives in foreign lands. The peers gather freely round the court of the new king. Suspicions have indeed arisen in the mind of Banquo, but he breathes them only to himself, and commends his indissoluble duties to the king.

All

without seems fair; but within 7 Listen to the deep sound of melancholy surging from the heart of the lady : “Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content: 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy,

Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy.” From these sad lonely thoughts she rouses herself to chide her lord for permitting similar thoughts to be expressed legibly on his more sensitive organization. C