ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a famous crux in Shakespeare, the meaning of the reference to pity as a “naked new-born babe, / Striding the blast” in the soliloquy by Macbeth. The babe, naked and new-born, the most helpless of all things, the cherubim, innocent and beautiful, call out the pity and the love by which Macbeth is judged. Macbeth's meditation on the murder of Duncan squarely differentiates Macbeth and Duncan as icons of cruelty and compassion, respectively. But Macbeth's description of Duncan as “meek” raises questions about the nature of his virtues that might be clarified only beyond the lines of the play. Macbeth's words follow the guidance of practitioners of the appeal to pity in its detailed and painful description of Duncan's slain body, stabbed and gashed and defiled by his blood-soaked murderers. From Shakespeare's earliest works to the Romances, the presence of infants and small children fosters a nearly universal response of pity and compassion.
