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MACBETH, it is probable, was the last-written of the four great tragedies, and immediately precededAntony and Cleopatra.(note 1, p 331. In that play Shakespeares final style appears for the first timecompletely formed, and the transition to this style is oft more decidedly visible in Macbeth than inKing Lear .Yet in certain respects Macbeth rec all(prenominal)s Hamlet rather than Othello or King Lear. In theheroes of both(prenominal) plays the passage from thought to a critical resolution and action is difficult, and excitesthe keenest interest. In neither play, as in Othello and King Lear, is painful pathos one of the master(prenominal)effects. Evil, again, though it shows in Macbeth a prodigious energy, is not the icy or stonyinhumanity of lago or Goneril and, as in Hamlet, it is pursued by remorse. Finally, Shakespeare nolonger restricts the action to purely human agencies, as in the two preceding tragedies portents oncemore fill the heavens, ghosts rise from their graves, an unearthly light flickers approximately the head of thedoomed man. The special popularity of Hamlet and Macbeth is due in part to some of these commoncharacteristics, notably to the fascination of the supernatural, the absence seizure of the spectacle of extremeundeserved suffering, the absence of characters which horrify and repel and yet are destitute ofgrandeur. The reader who looks unwillingly at lago gazes at Lady Macbeth in awe, because though sheis dreadful she is also sublime. The undivided tragedy is sublime.In this, however, and in other respects, Macbeth makes an impression quite different from that ofHamlet. The dimensions of the principal characters, the rate of movement in the action, the supernaturaleffect, the style, the versification, are an changed and they are all changed in much the samemanner. In many parts of Macbeth there is in the language a peculiar compression, pregnancy, energy,even violence the harmonious aggrandize and even flow, often conspicuous in H amlet, have almostdisappeared. The chief characters, built on a scale at least as commodious as that of Othello, seem to attain attimes an almost superhuman stature. The diction has in places a huge and rugged grandeur, whichdegenerates here and there into tumidity.The severe majesty of the royal Ghost in Hamlet, appearing in armour and standing silent in themoonlight, is exchanged for shapes of horror, dimly seen in the murky pass around or revealed by the glare ofthe cauldron fire in a dark cavern, or for the ghastly face of Banquo badged with blood and staring