...contrast our two visions neatly with reference to the life-image of babyhood. Lady Macbeth speaks: I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love...brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this. (Macbeth, i. vii. 54) Compare : Peace, peace ! Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, That sucks the...

...she invokes the spirits of murder to suck her breasts, and that in which she finally goads Macbeth : I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love...brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this. (i, vii, 54-9) Lady Macbeth is siren as well as fury. The tenderness of Macbeth for her is reciprocated;...

...of that "Nature" which impedes her ruthlessness. Lady Macbeth concludes with the boastful challenge I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love...brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this. (54-58) I say that this challenge is boastful because Lady Macbeth is not able to sustain it— she...

...followed by the most striking and most notorious instance of the image, in Lady Macbeth's infamous lines: I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love...me; I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done...

...her femininity. Her imagination is so extremely cruel precisely because her fantasy remains feminine: "I have given suck, and know / How tender 'tis to.../ I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums / And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you / Have...

...particular the once nurturing maternal is shown to be capable of perversion to a remarkable ferocity: I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love...me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done...

...Come to my woman's breasts. And take my milk for gall, you murth'ring ministers. (Act I, Scene 7): I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love...brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this. A single stirring of resistance seizes her before the deed is performed (Act II, Scene 2): Had he not...

...place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both. They have made themselves, and that their fimess now Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know How...milks me; I would while it was smiling in my face Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done...

...would 50 Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place, Did then adhere, and yet you would make both; They have made themselves, and that their fitness...know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me - 55 I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed...

...you would Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both: They have made themselves, and that their fitness...know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: 55 I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash'd...