n esteem;
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage?

MACBETH.

Pr'ythee, peace
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more, is none.

LADY MACBETH.

What beast was it 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 were smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as you
Have done to this.

MACBETH.

If we should fail.--

LADY MACBETH.

We fail.[113]
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.

Again, in the murdering scene, the obdurate inflexibility of purpose
with which she drives on Macbeth to the execution of their project, and
her masculine indifference to blood and death, would inspire unmitigated
disgust and horror, but for the involuntary consciousness that it is
produced rather by the exertion of a strong power over herself, than by
absolute depravity of disposition and ferocity of temper. This
impression of her character is brought home at once to our very hearts
with the most profound knowledge of the springs of nature within us, the
most subtle mastery over their various operations, and a feeling of
dramatic effect not less wonderful. The very passages in which Lady
Macbeth displays the most savage and relentless determination, are so
worded as to fill the mind with the idea of sex, and place the _woman_
before us in all her dearest attributes, at once softening and refining
the horror, and rendering it more intense. Thus, when she reproaches her
husband for his weakness--

From this time,
Such I account thy love!

Again,

Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, ye murdering ministers,
That no compunctions visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpo