the poet, will not omit to read the whole of the Sonnets, and, indeed, we trust that the specimens here given, will induce our readers to acquaint themselves with those mysterious Sonnets in their entirety.

PART IV.

DRAMATIC READINGS.

PART IV.

DRAMATIC READINGS.

MACBETH'S TEMPER.

Yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness,

To catch the nearest way; thou wouldst be great;

Art not without ambition: but without

The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst

highly,

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,

And yet wouldst wrongly win.

Macbeth's disposition is doubtless not inaptly described in these words. Lady Macbeth is of a character, in some respects, widely different. Ambition and cruelty combine to render this woman a disgrace to humanity, Without any compunction, Lady Macbeth prompts her husband to deeds of blood and violence. When Macbeth had, to adopt his own language, 'bought golden opinions from all sorts of people' and was desirous to save the life of the good old King Duncan, on a remonstrance from his wife, who urges him, with her accustomed cunning and vehemence, to proceed, he replies:

I dare do all that may become a man,
Who dare do more, is none.

Happy indeed would it have been for Macbeth, had he acted on the noble sentiments thus expressed.

MACBETH'S IRRESOLUTION.

If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come. But, in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking off;
And pity, like a new-born babe,

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed