.

"_Lady Macbeth. Was the hope drunk,_
_Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since,_
_And wakes it now, to look so green and pale_
_At what it did so freely?_ From this time,
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? Would'st thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting, I dare not, wait upon, I would,
Like the poor cat in the adage?

_Macbeth_. Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.

_Lady Macbeth. What beast was't then_
_That made you break this enterprise to me?_
_When you durst do it, then you were a man,_
_And to be more than what you were you would_
_Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place_
_Did then adhere, and yet you would make both._
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from its boneless gums,
And dashed the brains out, _had I so sworn_
_As you have done to this_."

With respect to the above lines, let us observe that, the words, "nor
time nor place did then adhere," render it evident that they hold
reference to something which passed before Duncan had signified his
intention of visiting the castle of Macbeth. Consequently the words
of Lady Macbeth can have no reference to the previous communication
of any definite intention, on the part of her husband, to murder the
king; because, not long before, she professes herself aware that
Macbeth's nature is "too full of the milk of human kindness to catch
the nearest way;" indeed, she has every reason to suppose that she
herself has been the means of breaking that enterprise to _him_,
though, in truth, the crime had already, as we have seen, suggested
itself to his thought, "whose murder was as yet fantastical."

Again the whole tenor of this passage shows that it refers to verbal
communication between them. _But no such communication can have taken
place since Macbeth's rencontre with the witches_; for, besides that
he is, immediately after that recontre, conducted to the presence of
the king, who there signifies an intention of proceeding directly to
Macbeth's castle, such a communication would have rendered the
contents of the letter to Lady Macbeth