Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)
Oh, my God, there has been such nonsense written about her that reading it causes me to fly into a rage, like John Bolton, or the Looney-Tunes Tasmanian Devil (©, whom the hirsute Ambassador Bolton somewhat resembles).
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| Tasmanian Devil | | Ambassador Bolton |
Here are what some of the experts have to say, Harold Bloom first:
"Their mutual lust is also a lust for the throne, a desire that is their Nietzschean revenge against time and time's irrefutable declaration: "It was." Shakespeare did not care to clarify the Macbeths' childlessness. Lady Macbeth speaks of having nursed a child, presumably her own but now dead; we are not told that Macbeth is her second husband, but we may take him to be that. He urges her to bring forth men children only, in admiration of her "manly" resolve, yet pragmatically they seem to expect no heirs of their own union . . . " Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: the Invention of the Human, p. 522
And here's a footnote from the Arden Second Series edition, edited by Kenneth Muir:
"I have given suck": This raises the unprofitable question of how many children had Lady Macbeth? Wilson wisely quotes Eckermann, Conversations, 18 April 1827: "Whether this be true or not does not appear; but the lady says it, and she must say it, in order to give emphasis to her speech." There is no reason to think that Shakespeare was referring to Lady Macbeth's child by her first husband, who is not mentioned by Holinshed. Compare [Duncan's line, "He has no children."]. --Arden Macbeth footnote 54, p. 42.
Gentlemen, you have ignored the most important fact of the play. And Shakespeare didn't hide it. It's in the text. However, to save scholars the trouble of reading the play:
1. Lady Macbeth (with her husband, Macbeth) had one child.
2. The child was a boy.
3. The child died very soon after its birth.
4. Out of her grief, the Lady went crazy. If she talked to you, you'd think she was sane. But no.
DIRECTORS: Lady Macbeth should be young, beautiful and sexy. Those of you who think the ideal Lady is Jame Doody Bench, please rethink. ("Or else!" he muttered.)
I will be more tedious when I have more time.
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