The above passage is interrupted by the announcement of the approach of Duncan.  Observe Lady Macbeth’s behaviour upon receiving it.  She immediately determines upon what is to be done, and all without (are we to suppose?) in any way consulting, or being aware of, the wishes or inclinations of her husband!  Observe too, that neither does she appear to regard the witches’ prophecies as anything more than an invitation, and holding forth of “metaphysical aid” to the carrying out of an independent project.  That this should be the case in both instances vastly strengthens the argument legitimately deducible from each.

At the conclusion of the passage which called for the last remark, Macbeth, after a long and eventful period of absence, let it be recollected, enters to a wife who, we will for a moment suppose, is completely ignorant of the character of her husband’s recent cogitations.  These are the first words which pass between them,

  “Macbeth.  My dearest love,
  Duncan comes here to-night.

  L.  Macbeth.  And when goes hence?

  Macbeth.  To-morrow, as he purposes.

L.  Macbeth.  Oh! never Shall sun that morrow see!  Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters:—­to beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue:  look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it.  He that’s coming Must be provided for; and you shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch, Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

  Macbeth.  We will speak further.”

Are these words those which would naturally arise from the situation at present, by common consent, attributed to the speakers of them?  That is to say a situation in which each speaker is totally ignorant of the sentiments pre-existent in the mind of the other.  Are the words, “we will speak further,” those which might in nature form the whole and sole reply made by a man to his wife’s completely unexpected anticipation of his own fearful purposes?  If not, if few or none of these lines, thus interpreted, will satisfy the reader’s feeling for common truth, does not the view which we have adopted invest them with new light, and improved, or perfected meaning?

The next scene represents the arrival of Duncan at Inverness, and contains nothing which bears either way upon the point in question.  Proceeding, therefore, to the seventh and last scene of the first act we come to what we cannot but consider to be proof positive of the opinion under examination.  We shall transcribe at length the portion of this scene containing that proof; having first reminded the reader that a few hours at most can have elapsed between the arrival of Macbeth, and the period at which the words, now to be quoted, are uttered.