It is held by many to prove that she was not a woman but a fiend. It proves the reverse. I infer from it that she does need their help--and, what is more, _that she gets it_. Nothing so dreadful, in the whole range of Man's Tragic Drama, as that Murder. But I see Seward is growing pale--we know his infirmity--and for the present shun it. SEWARD. Thank you, sir. NORTH. I may, however, ask a question about Banquo's Ghost. SEWARD. Well--well--do so. TALBOYS. You put the question to me, sir? I am inclined to think, sir, that no real Ghost sits on the Stool--but that Shakspeare meant it as with the Daggers. On the Stage he appears--that is an abuse. NORTH. Not so sure of that, Talboys. TALBOYS. Had Macbeth himself continued to believe that the first-seen Ghost was a real Ghost, he would not, could not have ventured so soon after its disappearance to say again, "And to our dear friend Banquo." He does say it--and then again diseased imagination assails him at the rash words. Lady Macbeth reasons with him again, and he finally is persuaded that the Ghost, both times, had been but brain-sick creations. "My strange and self-abuse Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use:-- I am but young in deed." BULLER. That certainly looks as if he did then know he had been deceived. But perhaps he only censures himself for being too much agitated by a real ghost. TALBOYS. That won't do. NORTH. But go back, my dear Talboys, to the first enacting of the Play. What could the audience have understood to be happening, without other direction of their thoughts than the terrified Macbeth's bewildered words? He never mentions Banquo's name--and recollect that nobody sitting there then knew that Banquo had been murdered. The dagger is not in point. Then the spectators heard him say, "Is this a dagger that I see before me?" And if no dagger was there, they could at once see that 'twas phantasy. TALBOYS. Something in that. BULLER. A settler. NORTH. I entirely separate the two questions--first, how did the Manager of the Globe Theatre have the King's Seat at the Feast filled; and second, what does the highest poetical Canon deliver. I speak now, but to the first. Now, here the rule is--"the audience _must understand, and at once_, what that which they see and hear means"--that Rule must govern the art of the drama in the Manager's practice. You allow that, Talboys? TALBOYS. I do. BULLER. Rash--Talboys--rash: he's getting you into a net. NORTH. That is not my way, Buller. Well, then, suppose Macbeth acted for the first time to an audience, who are to establish it for a stock-play or to _damn it_. Would the Manager commit the whole power of a scene which is perhaps the most--singly--effective of the whole Play-- BULLER. No--no--not the most effective of the whole Play-- NORTH.