ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a rough metaphysic which emerges from a consideration of Shakespear's plays as imitations of life. Two groups must be contrasted: first, plays of the hate-theme, that is: Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, Othello, King Lear, Timon of Athens; second, plays analysing evil in the human mind: the Brutus-theme in Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Macbeth. The chapter provides some general remarks to clarify the points at issue with reference to the Macbeth evil. Macbeth is a repetition of the Angelo-theme in Measure for Measure. The stories show similar rhythms of original surprise and self-conflict in the hero, a swift and overpowering victory of temptation, a resultant agony of loneliness, guilt, and fear, followed by a rapid excess of crime, culminating in an open condemnation and failure which brings peace. The Macbeth experience is essentially one beyond the actual, beyond all natural laws.
