Sec. 164 Malice. "Ban. Fears and scruples shake us: In the great hand of God I stand; and, thence, 3 Malice is the doing of a wrongful or illegal act, intentionally, without just cause or excuse. Malice is not, necessarily, confined, to the specific intention of doing an injury to a particular person but it extends to an evil design and wicked notion against someone at the time of committing the crime. Hence, Banquo fights against the "undivulg'd pretence of treasonous malice," meaning that the design is to get rid of all who stand in the way of the ambitions of Macbeth, and against this evil intention, he, as but one of the objectionable objects of his malice, must fight. Suffolk resents the charge of murdering Gloster, in 2' Henry VI, as follows: "Suff.. Why, Warwick, who should do the duke to death, Myself, and Beaufort, had him in protection; And we, I hope sir, are no murderers." (Act III, Scene II.) Warwick thus upbraids Suffolk, in 2' Henry VI: "War. But that the guilt of murder bucklers thee, And I should rob the deathsman of his fee, Quitting thee thereby of ten thousand shames, And that my sovereign's presence makes me mild, I would, false murderous coward, on thy knee, Make thee beg pardon for thy passed speech, And say, it was thy mother that thou meant'st, That thou thyself wast born in bastardy: And, after all this fearful homage done, Give thee thy hire and send thy soul to hell." (Act III, Scene II.) Queen Margaret, on the death of her son, in 3' Henry VI, said: "Q. Mar. What's worse than murder, that I may name it?" (Act V, Scene V.) 1 Macbeth, Act II, Scene III. 21 Chitty, Criminal Law, 242. Bacon, Max. Reg. 15. In King Richard II, the following occurs between King Richard and the Duke of Lancaster: "K. Rich. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him. If he appeal the duke on ancient malice; Or worthily, as good a subject should. On some known ground of treachery in him? Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that argument, On some apparent danger seen in him, Aim'd at your highness; no inveterate malice." (Act I, Scene I.) In 2' Henry IV, Falstaff replies to the Chief Justice: "Fal. all the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age shapes them, are not worth a gooseberry." (Act I, Scene II.) Warwick, in 1' Henry VI, said of the Bishop of Winchester: "War. An uproar, I dare warrant, begun through malice of the bishop's men." (Act III, Scene I.) King Henry VI, thus upbraids the Bishop of Winchester, for refusing the olive branch of peace offered by Gloster: "K. Hen. Fie, uncle Beaufort, I have heard you preach that malice was a great and grievous sin." (Act III, Scene I.) Gloster tells the Bishop of Winchester, in 1' Henry VI: (Act III, Scene I.) Speaking of the Cardinal, in 2' Henry VI, Gloster said: "Glo. Churchman so hot? good uncle hide such malice; with such holiness can you do it." (Act II, Scene I.) Gloster, after his arrest, tells the king, in 2' Henry VI: "Glo... Beaufort's red sparkling eyes blab his heart's malice, And Suffolk's cloudy brow, his stormy hate." (Act III, Scene I.) The wicked Margaret is made to say, in 2' Henry VI, referring to the trial of Gloster, whom she had conspired to have murdered: "Q, Mar. God forbid any malice should prevail, that faultless should condemn a nobleman." (Act III, Scene II.) Edward tells Warwick, in 3' Henry VI: "K. Edw. Though fortune's malice overthrows my state, My mind exceeds the compass of her wheel." (Act IV, Scene III.) Replying to the request of the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk to deliver himself to their custody, Cardinal Wolsey said, in Henry VIII: "Wol. Till I find more than a will, or words, to do it, (I mean, your malice,) I know, officious lords, I dare and must deny it. Now I feel of what coarse metal ye are molded,-envy. Follow your envious courses, men of malice." (Act III, Scene II.) "Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife: Thou know'st that Banquo and his Fleance lives. Lady M. But in them nature's copy's not eterne." This has reference to the common law copyhold estate or tenure. That is, the copy, or lease by which they hold their lives, by nature, has its certain time of termination and is not to be eternal. A copyhold estate was originally an estate at the will of the lord of the manor, agreeable to custom, evidenced by entries on the roll of the courts baron.2 The tenure of the tenant of such an estate was by copy of court roll, hence the term, copyholder.3 Sec. 166. Single ownership.- The general cause? or is it a fee-grief, Fee, is used in the sense of ownership, and is meant to convey the idea of a several or single right or ownership rather than such ownership in common. A grief due to the commission of some public calamity would be one which affected the public or general weal, as distinguished from that of an individual's welfare, hence the distinction noted, in Macduff's question. Cranmer, in King Henry VIII, tells his peers: "Cran. Men, that make Envy, and crooked malice, nourishment, dare bite the best." (Act V, Scene II.) 1 Macbeth, Act III, Scene II. 22 Bl. Comm. 95. 2 Bl. Comm. 95; Tiedeman, R. P. (3'ed.) 19, 23. 4 Macbeth, Act IV, Scene III. By reference to Holinshed's and Buchanan's history of Scotland, it will be seen that the Poet, in Macbeth, has adhered strictly, in plot and scope of the play to the traditions of history. In giving the interview between Malcolm and Macduff, at the English Court, the text of the play, in part uses the same language as that of history and the conversation is presented in the same order. CHAPTER XVI. "KING JOHN." Sec. 167. Controversy-Judgment on. 168. Descent to eldest son. 169. Bastard's right to inheritance. 170. Child begot when father not infra quatuor maria. 172. Testamentary disposition, disinheriting bastard. Sec. 167. Controversy-Judgment on. "Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy, Come from the country to be judged by you, That ere I heard: Shall I produce the men?"i A controversy is any dispute arising between two or more persons and the word is frequently used to apply to an issue over questions of law, to be submitted to one of authority for a decision. The word is not so broad as the word case, which applies to suits of a criminal as well as a civil nature, so the term is used here in regard to an issue over property rights." Sec. 168. Descent to eldest son. "K. John. What art thou? Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge. The seeming surprise of the king, that the younger son should be the heir of the father, if they came from one mother, is because of the rule of the English law, which devolved the estate of the parent upon the eldest son.2 This was the rule of primogeniture, which gave the first born the estate of the parent.3 Sec. 169. Bastard's right of inheritance.— "Bast. Most certain of one mother, mighty king, Eli. Out on thee, rude man: thou dost shame thy mother, And wound her honour with this diffidence. Bast. I, madam? no, I have no reason for it; That is my brother's plea and none of mine; The which, if he can prove, 'a pops me out At least from fair five hundred pounds a year; Heaven guard my mother's honour and my land. K. John. A good blunt fellow:-Why, being younger born, Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance? Bast. I know not why, except to get the land. 1 King John, Act I, Scene I. 22 Bl. Comm. 214, 215. 3 Tiedeman, R. P. (3' ed.) Sec. 474. |