One drop would save my soul, half a drop—Ah, my Christ!
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!
Yet will I call on Him: Oh, spare me, Lucifer!
Where is it now? ’tis gone: And see where God
Stretcheth out His arm, and bends His ireful brows;
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God.”[150:1]
More examples of such hallucinations in moments of great stress might be quoted. It will best serve our purpose if we consider
one typical case (Frank, in “The Witch of Edmonton,”) and afterwards discuss a case of special interest—that of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Frank Thorney, in “The Witch of Edmonton,” has married one Winifred, but is forced into a bigamous marriage with Susan, whom he afterwards murders, without letting any suspicion fall on himself. He is tormented on his sick-bed by phantoms indistinguishable from realities, more particularly by the ghost of Susan, and at last reveals to Winifred the awful truth.