Page:Wit, humor, and Shakspeare. Twelve essays (IA cu31924013161223).pdf/387

 *cept him when putting forth that one decisive hand-*grasp toward the crown. She fears his nature, because scruples hamper his unscrupulous ambition. They are not entirely, as she conceives them, the results of inborn mildness. He has a politic disposition which grows all the more considerate as he sees the widening of his popularity. He will proceed no farther against Duncan, because

"He hath honored me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon."

He discusses the project of murdering Banquo in the same way:—

"Though I could With bare-fac'd power sweep him from my sight, And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, For certain friends that are both his and mine, Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall, Whom I myself struck down."

His wife must needs have sore dealings with such a non-committal spirit:—

"Thou'd'st have, great Glamis, That which cries, 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it; And that which rather thou dost fear to do, Thou wishest should be undone.'"

He wants to win a game to which his hand does not entitle him; and the desire to win is as great as the dread of cheating.

This tainted mood of her beloved husband makes her almost frantic. Dreams satisfy her thirst as the mirage