iousness, however awakened, of the
energy which resides in mind; and many a virtuous man has borrowed new
strength from the force, constancy, and dauntless courage of evil
agents."[119]

This is true; and might he not have added, that many a powerful and
gifted spirit has learnt humility and self-government, from beholding
how far the energy which resides in mind may be degraded and perverted?

* * * * *

In general, when a woman is introduced into a tragedy to be the
presiding genius of evil in herself, or the cause of evil to others, she
is either too feebly or too darkly portrayed; either crime is heaped on
crime, and horror on horror, till our sympathy is lost in incredulity,
or the stimulus is sought in unnatural or impossible situations, or in
situations that ought to be impossible, (as in the Myrrha or the Cenci,)
or the character is enfeebled by a mixture of degrading propensities and
sexual weakness, as in Vittoria Corombona. But Lady Macbeth, though so
supremely wicked, and so consistently feminine, is still kept aloof from
all base alloy. When Shakspeare created a female character purely
detestable, he made her an accessory, never a principal. Thus Regan and
Goneril are two powerful sketches of selfishness, cruelty, and
ingratitude; we abhor them whenever we see or think of them, but we
think very little about them, except as necessary to the action of the
drama. They are to cause the madness of Lear, and to call forth the
filial devotion of Cordelia, and their depravity is forgotten in its
effects. A comparison has been made between Lady Macbeth and the Greek
Clytemnestra in the Agamemnon of Eschylus. The Clytemnestra of
Sophocles is something more in Shakspeare's spirit, for she is something
less impudently atrocious; but, considered as a woman and an individual,
would any one compare this shameless adulteress, cruel murderess, and
unnatural mother, with Lady Macbeth? Lady Macbeth herself would
certainly shrink from the approximation.[120]

The Electra of Sophocles comes nearer to Lady Macbeth as a poetical
conception, with this strong distinction, that she commands more respect
and esteem, and less sympathy. The murder in which she participates is
ordained by the oracle--is an act of justice, and therefore less a
murder than a sacrifice. Electra is drawn with magnificent simplicity
and intensity of feeling and purpose, but there is a want of light, and
shade, and relief.