Suggestive.
NORTH.
And if so, sufficient for the nonce. Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, seems to me to be the most that can be borne of one purely abhorrible. He is made disgusting besides—drunken and foul. Able he is—for he won the Queen by "witchcraft of his wit;" but he is made endurable by his diminished proportion in the Play—many others overpowering and hiding him.
BULLER.
Pardon me, sir, but I have occasionally felt, in course of this conversation, that you were seeking—in opposition to Payne Knight—to reduce Macbeth to a species of Claudius. I agree with you in thinking that Shakspeare would not give a Claudius so large a proportion of his drama. The pain would be predominant and insupportable.
NORTH.
I would fain hope you have misunderstood me, Buller.
BULLER.
Sometimes, sir, it is not easy for a plain man to know what you would be at.
NORTH.