_Macbeth._ Your children shall be kings. _Banquo._ You shall be king. _Macbeth._ And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so? _Banquo._ To the self-same tune, and words." NORTH. Charles Kemble himself could not have given it more impressively. BULLER. You make him blush, sir. NORTH. Attend to that "start" of Macbeth, Talboys. TALBOYS. He might well start on being told of a sudden, by such seers, that he was hereafter to be King of Scotland. NORTH. There was more in the start than that, my lad, else Shakspeare would not have so directed our eyes to it. I say again--it was the start--of a murderer. TALBOYS. And what if I say it was not? But I have the candour to confess, that I am not familiar with the starts of murderers--so may possibly be mistaken. NORTH. Omit what intervenes--and give us the Soliloquy, Talboys. But before you do so, let me merely remind you that Macbeth's mind, from the little he says in the interim, is manifestly ruminating on something bad, ere he breaks out into Soliloquy. TALBOYS. "Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme--I thank you, gentlemen.-- This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill--cannot be good:--If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor: If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, And make my seated heart knock at my ribs Against the use of nature? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings: My thought whose murder is yet but fantastical Shakes so my single state of man, that function Is smothered in surmise; and nothing is, But what is not." NORTH. Now, my dear Talboys, you will agree with me in thinking that this first great and pregnant, although brief soliloquy, stands for germ, type, and law of the whole Play, and of its criticism--and for clue to the labyrinth of the Thane's character. "Out of this wood do not desire to go." Out of it I do not expect soon to go. I regard William as a fair Poet and a reasonable Philosopher; but as a supereminent Play-wright. The First Soliloquy _must_ speak the nature of Macbeth, else the Craftsman has no skill in his trade. A Soliloquy _reveals_. That is its function. Therein is the soul heard and seen discoursing with itself--within itself; and if you carry your eye through--up to the First Appearance of Lady Macbeth--this Soliloquy is distinctly the highest point of the Tragedy--the tragic acme--or dome--or pinnacle--therefore of power indefinite, infinite. On this rock I stand, a Colossus ready to be thrown down by--an Earthquake. BULLER. Pushed off by--a shove. NORTH.