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F a n t a s i z i n g I n f a n t i c i d e : L a d yM a c b e t h a n d t h e M u r d e r i n g M o t h e r

i n E a r l y M o d e r n E n g l a n dStephanie Chamberlain

Stephanie Ch amberlain is associ-a t e professor of English atSoutheast Missouri State

University, Cape Girardeau. Herwork on early modern women's

issues appears in DomesticArrangements in Early

Modern Engtand, ed. KariBoyd McBride (2002).

Sooner murder an infant in its cradlethan nurse unacted desires (WilliamBlake)!

Lady Macbeth's reference to motherhoodand infanticide near the end of act one ofMacbeth remains one of the more enigmatic moments in all of Shakespeare's drama.Fearing Macbeth's wavering commitment totheir succession scheme. Lady Macbethdeclares that she would have "dashed thebrains out" (1.7.58)^ of an infant to realize anotherwise unachievable goal. Scholars havetraditionally read this as well as her earlier"unsex me here" (1.5.39) invocation as evi-

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S t e p h a n i e C h a m b e r l a i n 73

I would argue, conditioned on maternity, an ambiguous, conflicted status inearly modern England. Indeed, the images of nursing and infanticide thatframe Lady Macbeth's act one fantasy invoke a maternal agency, momentar-ily empowering the achievement of an illegitimate political goal.Tha t m others could un derm ine patrilineal outcomes, in fact, con tributedto a generalized cultural anxiety about women's roles in the transmission ofpatrilineage. That patrilineage could be irreparably altered through maritalinfidelity, nursing, and infanticide rendered maternal agency a social andpolitical concern. Lady Macbeth's act one fantasy reveals much, in fact, aboutthe early modern anxiety surrounding mothers' roles in the perpetuation ofpatrilineage. In the case of this wom an who would be queen. Lady M acbeth'sengineered murder of Duncan engenders the unlawful succession of a bas-tardized Macbeth, altering, in turn, the patrilineal as well as political orderwithin the world of the play.

That motherhood was viewed as problematic in early modern Englandmay be evinced in conduct literature of t h e period addressing the subject ofgood mothering.3 A s Frances Dolan notes, "the fear of, fascination with, andhostility toward maternal power in early modern EngHsh culture motivatedattempts to understand and control, even repudiate it [ . . . ] " (2000, 283).While on the one hand mothers were praised for a selfless devotion to theirchildren, they were hkewise condemned for harming the innocents entrust-ed to their care. As Dym pna Callaghan notes, "wom en were persecuted asmothers: as bad old mothers for witchcraft, and as bad young mothers forinfanticide" (1992, 367). Naomi Miller observes that "mothers and otherfemale caregivers appear as both objects and agents of sacrifice in early mod-ern texts and images, sometimes represented as madonna and monster aton ce" (2000, 7). Susan Frye concludes that the maternal role has historicallybeen an "unstab le" one , that the struggle to "imagine a 'self'" rendered moth-erhood a confused, anxiety-producing state in early modern England (2000,2 2 9 ) . Chris topher Newstead 's An apology for w omen: or women's defence (1620)illustrates well the conflicting attitudes toward motherhood. On the onehand, he argues that "there is no ingratitude comparable to that which iscom mitted against the m other" (Aughterson 1995,116). For as he notes,"w ehave of them principally our essence; secondly our nourishment; thirdly oureducation" (116).Yet Newstead likewise registers a highly discernable anxi-ety about the dangers of m aternal agency. For while, as he notes, "educing ,

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7 4 C o l l e g e L i te r a t u r e 3 2 . 3 [S u m m e r 2 0 0 5 ]

Telemachus being asked, if it were true that Ulysses was his father? Answered,my mother saith he was" (116).'* W hi le N ew stead 's treatise op en ly praises thevirtues of mothers as well as the social and familial debt owed them, it like-wise points to early m od er n conc erns abou t ma ternal agency. Th at earlymodern fathers lacked the same assurances regarding their children's paterni-ty adde d to already existing anxieties. Because m oth ers w ere responsible forthe identification of their children's fathers, they necessarily impacted patri-l ineage in early m od er n Eng land.

Maternal agency could undermine the patr ihneal process even as i tappeared to s upp ort i t. Th is is especially evide nt in the p ractice of nursing .While much of the conduct l i terature f i rom the early modern period praisesthe mother who opts to nurse rather than farm her infant out to a poten-tially detrimental wet-nurse, there existed a parallel thread that representedm other 's m ilk as a potent ial source of co rru pt io n. Jua n LuisVives's Educationof a Christian W oman (1524) expresses conflicting views toward breastfeed-ing. W hile he praises "t he wise and g ene rous p aren t of all things that s up -pl ied [ . .. ] abu ndan t and w hole som e no uris hm en t for the sustenance of thechild" (2000 , 269), i t is less the m ilk than the nurse th at proves nur tur ing tothe child. Fears that breast milk could be tainted through bodily disease orethnic im puri ty as wel l as eco nom ic privat ion are well do cu m en ted . AsR ob er t Cleaver and Joh n D od note ,

Now if the nurse be of a n euill com plexion, as she is affected in her body,or in her mind, or hath some hidden disease, the child sucking of her breastmust needs take part with h e r . And if that be true which the learned do say,that the temperature of the mind followes the constitution of the body,needs must it be, that if the nurse be of a naughty nature, the child musttake thereafter. (Cleaver and Dod 1630)According to the O ED , "co m plex ion" in the early mo de rn pe r iod per ta ined

not only to the bodily disposition, i .e. , the balance of the four humors, butalso to the tem pera m ent or "habi t of m ind." Ra ch el Tru bow itz concludesthat "the affective t ies between nurse and child thus had the potential to gen-erate strangeness and strangers, to inte rru pt the genealogical transmission ofidentity, and so to tarnish a family's good name and disrupt the hereditarytransmission of prop erties and titles [. . . ] " (200 0, 85). Ind ee d, as Vivesobserves, because "it is no t un c o m m o n that the wet nurse suckles the child

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S t e p h a n i e C h a m b e r la i n 75

W hile Vives speaks against the practice of wet-nursing , a s did many earlymodern behaviorists, he likewise comments on the potential danger anynursing figure could theoretically represent to th e child. The overridingassumption here is that only a mother, and a virtuous one at that, could ade-quately care for her child. A s Vives notes, "the very sight of her child dispelsany clouds of sadness, and with gladness and cheerfulness she smiles happilyto see her child sucking eagerly at her breast" (2000,270). Elizabeth Clinton'sThe Countess of Lincoln's Nursery (1622), however, addresses several "annoy-ances" which dissuaded many an early modern mother from nursing. A s shenotes, "it is obiected, that it [nursing] is troublesome; that it is noysome toones clothes; that it makes one looke old, &c."While wet-nurses were, for themost part, at a distinct economic disadvantage and thus admittedly not thebest caregivers, one must likewise question the degree of nurturance con-ceivably available through a resentful nursing mother. If she hke the hypo-thetical wet-nurse "suckles the child reluctantly," as appeared to be the casewith a good many early m odern nursing m others, her m ilk, like that of LadyMacbeth, could w ell turn to "gall" (1.5.46), harm ing the inno cent entrustedto her care.

Perhaps no other early modern crime better exemplifies cultural fearsabout m aternal agency than does infanticide, a crime against both person andlineage. Treated as sin in medieval England, one punishable through ecclesi-astical penance, infanticide, by the early modern period, had been deemed acriminal offense, one punishable by hanging (Sokol and Sokol 2000, 233).Lawrence Stone has suggested that "deliberate infanticideto become 'thedeliberate butcher of her own bowels'was a solution adopted by only themost desperate of pregnant mothers" (1979,297). More recently, Susan Staubargues that most infanticidal mothers committed "their crimes out of theirsense of du ty a s m others" (2000,335). O ut of utter desperation, whether eco -nomic or emotional, infanticidal mothers purportedly killed their babiesrather than face the wrath, disdain, even indifference of a society less con-cerned about infant murder than the problems such mothers had alwaysposed to the economic well-being.

Just how prevalent infanticide was in the early modern period remainsopen to discussion. Although Elizabethan and Jacobean assize rolls recordnumerous cases of suspected infant murder, social and legal historians (whileadmitting the difficulty of determining the infanticidal rate in early modern

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76 College Literature 32.3 [Summer 2005]

t h e ra t i o n a le b e h i n d s u c h a l a w s e e m s e v i d e n t t o p r e v e n t t h e m u r d e r o fn e w l y - b o r n i n f a n t s s u c h a n e n a c t m e n t r e m a i n s c u r i o u s if, as B . J . S o k o l a n dM a r y S o k o l su g g e s t, t h e r a t e o f i n f a n t i c i d e h a d sh r u n k t o a " v a n i sh i n g l y sm a l ll e v el o f a b o u t 3 p e r 1 0 0 ,0 0 0 " b y 1 6 1 0 ( 2 0 0 0 , 2 3 6 ) . ^ I n d e e d , i f i n f a n t i c i d ew e r e s u c h a n u n c o m m o n e v e n t i n t b e e a rl y s e v e n t e e n t h c e n t u r y , t h e 1 6 2 4A c t w o u l d s e e m s u p e r f l u o u s . W h i l e t h e r e is n o w a y o f a c c u r a t e l y d e t e r m i n -i n g t h e r a t e o f i n f a n t i c i d e i n e a rl y m o d e r n E n g l a n d , i t a p p e a r s l ik e l y t h a t i tc o u l d w e l l h a v e b e e n h i g h e r . U n r e p o r t e d c a se s a s w e l l as t h o se le ft u n p r o s e -c u t e d w o u l d h a v e s i g n i f i c a n d y i n c r e a se d t h e se r a t e s . ^

M y p u r p o se h e r e is le ss t o c o r r e c t s ta ti st ic s t b a n t o e x a m i n e t h e c u l t u r -a l fe ars a n d a n x ie t i es in f a n t i c id e p r o d u c e d w i t h i n a n e a rl y m o d e r n E n g l a n dp r o t e c t i v e o f p a t r i l i n e a l r i g h t s . A s D o l a n su g g e s t s, " t b e i n f a n t i c i d e s t a t u te sa r t i c u l a t e d f e a r s a b o u t w o m e n ' s c a p a c i t y f o r v i o l e n c e r a t h e r t h a n a c c u r a t e l yd e s c r i b i n g t h e i r b e h a v i o r " ( 1 9 9 4 , 1 3 1 ) . I n d e e d , t h e l a n g u a g e o f t h e a c t p r o -v i d e s , I w o u l d a r g u e , s o m e i n s ig h t i n t o c u lt u r a l m o t i v a t i o n s g o v e r n i n g t h ed e v e l o p m e n t o f t h e la w . F o r w h i l e o s t e n s ib l y d e s i g n e d t o p u n i s h " l e w d , "u n m a r r i e d w o m e n , t b e law^ l ik e w i s e s p ea k s , I w o u l d a r g u e , t o e a rl y m o d e r nc u l t u r a l f ea rs o f c o n c e a l m e n t , o f a n o b t r u s i v e , i f s e c r e ti v e i n t e r f e r e n c e i n t h ep r o c e s s o f p a t r i l i n e a l tr a n sm i s s i o n .^ W h i l e m o s t r e c o r d e d c a se s o f i n f a n t i c i d einvo lved i l l eg i t ima te bab ies , suc h ac t ions l ikewise in te r f e re d a t l eas t p h i l o -so p h i c a l l y w i t h t h e p e r c e i v e d a u t h o r i t y o f p a t r i a r c h a l so c i e t y a s a w h o l e . A ssu c h , t h e 1 6 2 4 a c t p o i n t s le s s, i t w o u l d s e e m , t o a n i n f a n t i c i d e e p i d e m i c , b u tr a t h e r t o a n a t t e m p t t o c o n t r o l t h e p o t e n t i a l t h r e a t o f m a t e r n a l a g e n c y itself.A s D o l a n c o n c l u d e s , " m a t e r n a l s u b j e c ti v it y is t h r e a t e n i n g w h e n its b o u n d -a ri es e x p a n d t o i n c l u d e e v e n c o n s u m e t b e o ff s p ri n g " ( 1 9 9 4 , 1 4 8 ) .

A sam pl in g o f th e ass ize r eco rds f rom th e r e ign o f E l i z ab e th I p rov ide sv a l u a b l e i n s i g h t i n t o t h e c u l t u r a l a n x i e t y su r r o u n d i n g i n f a n t i c i d e . W h a t isp e r h a p s m o s t s t r i k i n g a b o u t tb e s e r e c o r d e d i n d i c t m e n t s a g a in s t e a rl y m o d e r nm o t h e r s a r e t h e i r g r a p h i c , a r g u a b l y g r a t u i t o u s d e p i c t i o n s o f m a t e r n a l v i o -l e n c e . T b e c a se o f A n n e L y n s t e d o f L y n s t e d is i ll u s tr a ti v e . O n M a y 4 , 1 5 9 3 ,A n n e a l l e g e d ly " k i l l e d h e r n e w l y - b o r n f e m a l e c h i l d b y th ro w ^ in g i t i n t o ase e t h i n g e f u r n a c e . " l * 'W b a t is s t r i k i n g i n t h i s o t h e r w i se f o r m u l a i c a c c o u n t ist b e w o r d " s e e t h i n g e , " w h i c h s e e m s d e s i g n e d t o i n fl a m e t h e j u r y r e n d e r i n gj u s t ic e . A c c o r d i n g t o th e O E D , " s e e t b i n g e " i n t h e e a rl y m o d e r n p e r i o dr e f e r r e d n o t o n l y t o i n t e n se b e a t , b u t t o " i n t e n se a n d c ea sel es s i n n e r a g i t a -t i o n " as w e l l . I n t b e c as e o f A n n e L y n s t e d , t h e e m o t i o n a l s ta te w h i c h w o u l d

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lating than the case of Margaret Chaundler of Richmond. On the 20 ofNovember 1 5 9 1 , Margaret purportedly murdered her newborn son by stuff-ing "the child's mouth witb earth and a bone from a goose's leg and left itgrovelling in a ditch, where it died on the follow[ing] day."'2-\^hile detaileddescriptions were undoubtedly deemed necessary to describe the horrificnature of these crimes, many likewise appear to go well beyond mere factu-al accounts. Moreover, while the assize records make no specific mention ofthe mothers' mental states at the time of the crimes, they nonetheless attachemotional value to those who would murder their children. Many earlymodern infanticidal accounts, in fact, represent tbese women as monstrousbeings, who take sadistic delight in butchering babies. Indeed, the infantici-dal mothers represented in the assize records are all Lady Macbetbs, whowould lightly dash out the brains of tbe babes entrusted to their care.Importantly, the dire social and economic circumstances which appear tohave motivated many purported cases of infanticide fail to enter into thepublic record. Aside from the mothers legal status, usually identified a s "spin-ster," the records provide virtually no extenuating circumstances which mayhave led these women to commit the crime of infanticide. In so doing, theseaccounts communicate, I would argue, existing early modern anxieties abouttbe inherent dangers of m aternal agency both to helpless children as w^ell asto a patrilineal system dependen t upon wom en for its perp etua tion. As SusanStaub concludes, "the murdering mother embodies both her society's exp ec-tations and its anxieties about m otherhood by showing m otherhood to be atonce empowering and destructive" (2000, 345).

While assize records fi'om the reign of Elizabeth I represent infanticideas a crime of unmarried (and conceivably poor) women, they fail to accountfor the more generalized cultural misgivings this crime against person andline produced within early m odern England. Tha t anxiety about maternalagency crossed class, economic, and marital lines can be seen in the case ofAnne Boleyn, whose infamous rise and fall earlier in the sixteenth centurycontinued to incite political discussion throughout the Elizabethan period.Elizabeth's right to rule w a s , of course, called into question w hen Henry bas-tardized her following Anne's conviction on charges of adultery and witch-craft. W hile there is little doubt that the charges against her were politically-motivated, it is likewise evident that Anne's failure to produce a living, maleheir led to her conviction and execution. W hat interests m e is not w hether tbis

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widely interp reted as a sign of dem onic possession, the result being that Annewas declared responsible for the premature death of this heir to the king. Miscarriages during the first trimester often occur from conception abnormalities, frequently resulting in undefined tissue mass or otherwise severelymalformed fetuses. Given that this miscarriage occurred fairly early in thpregnancy, it is likely that Anne gave birth to w hat would have been considered a monstrous being in early modern Europe.''* Th at the official reportof this stillbirth made no mention of deformity is not surprising given thathe aborted fetus was Henry's s o n . A s Retha W arnicke notes, "early m odernfolk were ignorant about many facets of childbirth, most especially aboudeformed fetuses, whose existence they interpreted as God's way of punishing sinful parents. If Anne's fetus were deformed, H enry 's reaction to hemade sense by the standards of his society" (1999, 20). Moreover, as DavidCressy has observed, "monstrous births might mean many things, but theycould not be allowed to mean nothing. Con temporaries were accustomed toconsidering a range of possible meanings, a hierarchy of plots and sub-plotsin which natural law, divinity, and human corruption intertwined" (20003 6 ) . Indeed, while miscarriages and stillbirths were a fact of life given thestate of early modern gynecology, they were often interpreted as signs odivine disapproval for wickedness committed by one or both parentsCatherine of Aragon's many miscarriages and stillbirths, for example, wereattributed by Henry to the couple's violation of divine law (Warnicke 19991 8 ) . In the case of Anne, however, the stillbirth of a male child would beinterpreted as maternal malfeasance. Warnicke has no ted that

as the head of a schismatic church, Henry could never have admitted evento himself that he had sired this fetus. He w ould also have wanted to defendhimself against his enem ies' belief that the aborted fetus, if its existence werediscovered, was divine punishment for his activities. The blame for its birthwas transferred to Anne, who was subsequently convicted and executed forhaving had sexual relations with five men after enticing them with witch-like activities. (Warnicke 1999, 20-21)

W hat ultimately emerges from Anne's miscarriage provides evidence, I wouldargue, of cultural anxiety about the dangers of women's roles in patrilinealtransmission. W hile Henry was dependent upon A nne to bear the male heihe so desperately desired, he likewise remained vulnerable, as the stillbirth

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the man" (Klein 1992, 1 8 3 ) . Anne's maternal agency, in the end, supercededany generative authority this king might have possessed.Perhaps no other Shakespearean character better represents the threat of

maternal agency than does Lady Macbeth, one whose studied cruelty nur-tures social and political chaos. As Janet Adelman has noted, "in Macbeth,maternal power is given its m ost v irulent sway [. . . ] " (1992, 123). LadyMacbeth's invocation to evil in act one illustrates well the inherent dangersof motherhood to the patrilineal order. Upon hearing of the witches'prophecy, she declares: " [. . .] C om e, you spirits / Th at tend on mortalthoughts, unsex me here, / and fill me from the crown to the toe top-fliU /Of direst cruelty" (1.5.38-40). Critics have traditionally read this scene as anattempt by Lady Macbeth to seize a mascuhne authority perceived necessaryto the achievement of her political goals. Mark Thornton Burnett, forinstance, argues that Macbeth explores "the attempts of a woman to reahzeherself b y using the dominant discourses of patriarchy as she lacks an effec-tively powerful counter-language" (1993,2). Joan Larsen Klein likewise sug-gests that Lady Macbeth seeks an unattainable masculine authority, observ-ing that "as long as she lives. Lady Macbeth is never unsexed in the only wayshe wanted to be unsexedable to act with the cruelty she ignorandy andperversely identified with male strength" (1980, 250). Even Adelman, whoargues for a competing female authority, tends to structure Lady Macbeth'sinvocation in terms of defined gender boundaries which maintain a cultur-ally constructed masculine/feminine dichotomy. As she argues, "dangerousfemale presences like Love, Nature, Mother are given embodiment in LadyMacbeth and the witches" and it therefore becomes the responsibility of menlike M acbeth "to escape their dominion over [them ]" (1987, 93).This sen ti-ment is echoed by Dympna Callaghan, who suggests that "in Macbeth, thekingdom of darkness is unequivocally female, unequivocally matriarchal, andthe fantasy of incipient rebellion of demonic forces is crucial to the mainte-nance of the godly rule it is supposed to overthrow" (1992,358-59). I wouldargue, however, that Lady Macbeth's "unsex m e h ere" speech tends to decon -struct gender categories, unfixing the rigid cultural distinctions as well asattributes which define male and female. In the world of Macbeth, for exam-p l e , masculine power is expressed through the use of physical force. Indeed,Macbeth's strength as well as his valor is directly linked to the batdefield, is,in fact, based upon his ability to carve his enemy "from the nave to th ' chops"

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alternative gender identity, one which wiU allow her to slip free of the em o-tional as well as cultural constraints governing women. That she immediately invokes a maternal image, "come to my woman's breasts / And take mymilk for gall, you murd'ring ministers" (1.5.45-46), speaks, I would argue, tothe desire for an authority at once both powerful and ambiguous in earlymodern England.

Cender ambiguity is, in fact, present from virtually the opening Hnes ofthe play as the witches collapse established boundaries. A s does the maternalwitchcraft represents an ambiguous gender status. This is evident duringBanquo's initial encounter with the witches where he observes: "You shouldbe women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so"(1.3.42-44). Physically, the witches challenge gender expectations; beardsbelong to men. Yet, the witches' ambiguity goes w ell beyond facial hair.Indeed, it is their self-assured authority more than their bizarre physicalappearance which destabilizes the patriarchal world of t h e play. N ot only dothey foresee the future, but the trio are effordessly adept at predicting, if notmanipulating Macbeth's behavior.Critics have long debated the role of the witches in Macbeth.While som

have viewed them as representatives of fate, others see them as demonicinstruments. Terry Eagleton has suggested that "they are poets, prophetessesand devotees of female cult, radical separatists w ho scorn male power and laybare the hollow sound and fury at its heart. Their words and bodies mockrigorous boundaries and make sport of fixed positions, unhinging receivedmeanings as they dance, dissolve and re-materialize" (1986, 3 ) . Whether onechooses to identify them as representatives of fate or of the dem onic, they areclearly the governing force within the play. At once both nurtur ing andharmful, the three force the proud Scottish warrior to confront the demon-ic within himself They are mothers pushing a reluctant son toward his des-tiny as well as fearful opponents who bide their time before bringingM acbeth do wn . W hile their supernatural co nnection no doubt enablessuch authority, as characters their gender is rendered ambiguous; they areat once both mascuhne and feminine, deconstructing, like Lady Macbeth,fixed categories.

Lady Macbeth's connection to the witches has, of course, long beennoted by Shakespearean scholars.^^ Frances Dolan, for example, groups Lady

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mirror the obscure gender identifications of the bearded witches" (1988,104).Yet, perhaps the most compelling connection between the witches andLady Macbeth can be seen in the early mo dern association of witchcraft withmotherhood. CaUaghan has observed that early modern witches "thoughoften old, celibate, and devoid of k i n , were imaged as the mother in an ideawhich has strong associations with the ancient fertility goddess under whoseauspices all procreative power was placed" (1992, 358). This image may betraced in M acbeth's reference to the witches as "secret, black, and midnighthags" (4.1.63). W hile, according to the OE D, the term hag came to refer toa woman who is frequently ugly, repulsive and old and who is aligned withSatan and Hell, the term's earliest usage may be found in the etymologicallyrelated hegge o r h e g , which refers to "an evil spirit, dem on, or infernal being ,in female form; applied in early use to the Furies, Harpies, etc. of Greco-Latin mythology." Shakespeare uses the term hag again in relation to Sycoraxin T h e Tempest. Speaking of t h e island's long-deceased witch, Prospero notes:"Then was this island/ Save for the son that she did litter here, / A freck-led whelp, hag-born not honoured with / A human shape" (1.2.283-286).Its usage here is interesting, for it directly links the concept of witch withm other: a linkage w hich proves significant in term s o(Macbeth's women.Thatearly modern witches were purportedly identified by the presence of anextra nipple or teat, which was used to nurse Satan's famihars, provides addi-tional linkage between witchcraft and motherhood. As Gail Kern Pasternotes, "not only do witches resemble lactating m others, but thanks to thewitchhunters' [of t h e seventeenth century] fetishistic attention to the witch'steat, lactating mothers come to resemble witches" (1993, 249). W hile thewitches do not explicitly function as mother figures within the play. LadyMacbeth clearly does, invoking the image of a lactating mother.

The issue of Lady Macbeth's maternal identity has, of course, long beenfodder for critical discussion. Beginning with L. C. Knight's, "How ManyChildren Hath Lady Macbeth" (1947),^'^ scholars have attempted to accountfor Lady Macbeth's enigmatic reference to motherhood in act o n e . Whethershe ever nursed children, however, is perhaps less important than how such arole would accommodate one intent on securing a husband's royal succession.When Macbeth registers hesitation about murdering Duncan, "we will pro-ceed no flarther in this business" (1.7.31), Lady Macbeth immediately appealsto the maternal, calling up a chilling image of infanticide. A s she declares:

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And dashed the brains out, had I so swornAs you have done to this. (1.7.54-59)

The juxtaposition of images here is quite striking. O n the o ne hand, we havethe loving image of a nurtu ring mother, one praised by Vives for her selflessdevotion to the child entrusted in her care. Indeed, the bond here is faindyreminiscent of Renaissance images of Madonna and child, lending a spiritu-alized quality to the state of m otherhood. This loving image, however, im m e-diately gives way to one of absolute horror, as a demonic mother butchersher yet-smiling infant. Here we are reminded of stylized representations ofthe murdering mother in the assize records. That this savagery surfaces at amoment of greatest intimacy between mother and child only adds to itsincomprehensible brutality. W hat is perhaps most revealing about LadyMacbeth's proudly defiant disclosure is how absolutely empowering such afantasized moment proves to one strugghng to break fi-ee firom the genderedconstraints that bind h e r . This is not to suggest that Lady Macbeth despisesthe child she murders in fantasy. On the contrary, her empowerment is cru-cially dependent upon a loving relationship with the one she will shortlyslaughter; it must be a blood sacrifice. That a mother could lovingly nurtureher infant one moment and spiU his brains the next underscores the uncer-tainties if not the dangers of unchecked maternal agency.

Indeed, Lady Macbeth appeals to the maternal to deny the patrilineal.She would readily kill Macbeth's progeny to secure her husband's succession,but in killing the progeny she must likewise destroy his patrilineage, render-ing his short-lived reign a barren one. I think it important to ask not onlywhat Lady Macbeth's actions signify, bu t w hat the child represents. ThatMacbeth seems undisturbed by ber bold, horrifying declaration, insteadmerely inquiring, "if we should fail?" (1.7.59), argues a symbohc as well as ahteral reading of the child and of Lady Macbeth's fantasy. For while it is clearthat her actions are meant to signify a fierce resolve, I think it likewise clearthat the child as well as Lady Macbeth's brutal sacrifice represent far more. Ifthe hypothetical child she butchers in fantasy represents legitimacyand bylegitimacy I mean lawful successionthen Lady Macbeth must destroy it tofurther her usurpation project. As such, the child comes to representMacbeth's patrilineal future. While she does not, of course, hterally killMacbeth's heir. Lady Macbeth's infanticidal fantasy does directly manipulate

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And put a barren sceptre in my grip.Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal handNo son of mine succeeding [...]. (3.1.62-65)

Ironically, to succeed to the throne is not to further a failed patrilineal proj-ect. Macbeth is destined to look on as another man's progeny secures thefuture which is denied him. Adelman has observed that "[. . .]the playbecomes [. . .] a representation of primitive fears about male identity andautonomy itself, about those looming female presences who threaten to con-trol one's mind, to constitute one's very self, even at a distance" (1987,105).Although it is Macbeth who wields the fatal dagger which ends Duncan'sh f e , we cannot forget that it is Lady Macbeth's infanticidal fantasy promptedby the witches' prophecy which makes possible a succession rendered barrenthrough crass cruelty and emotional depravity. Burnett has suggested that inthe end Macbeth "is left with the empty symbols of royalty [...], broodingupon the imminent disappearance of h i s name" (1993, 5 ) . And it is that lossof name, of a protected patrilineal identity that proves so destructive to thisman who would be the father of kings. For what Lady Macbeth's fright-ening maternal agency renders is not a coveted line, but rather a barrenreign, one which quickly disintegrates when confronted by legitimatepolitical authority.

That Macbeth's succession is dependent upon the perpetuation of hispatrilineage becomes evident, in fact, from the opening moments of the play.Even before Duncan names Malcolm his successor, usurping Macbeth'snewly-made plans and setting in motion a king's murder, the witches proph-esy that it is Banquo's progeny who will be kings. Th at heirs are importantto political as well as social outcomes is thus only too apparent. A s MarjorieGarber has argued, "the play is as urgently concerned with dynasty, offspringand succession as any in Shakespeare" (1997, 154). Given this urgency, it isinteresting to note, however, how little textual attention is paid to the sub-ject of Macbeth's heir. Certainly Macbeth registers anxiety over a "barrensceptre."Yet this anxiety surfaces only after he is confronted with the chill-ing realization that his line will not succeed, that the horrendous crime hehas committed must prove for naught given his failure to perpetuate a line.Moreover, while the power and authority of kingship initially fuel his ambi-tions, M acbeth is forced to face the totality of the witches' prophecy, that

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8 4 C o l l e g e L i t e r a t u r e 3 2 . 3 [ S u m m e r 2 0 0 5 ]Patriarchal ident i ty in the early modern period was condit ioned upo

the perpetuation of the patril ineal line. Without an heir to continue the family nam e, l ineal identity w ou ld be lost. Shakespeare's "yo un g m an " sonnetargue again and again the importance of heirs to the preservation of thiidentity. As the speaker in S on ne t 1 observes.

From fairest creatures we desire increase.That thereby beauty's rose might never die.But as the riper should by time decease.His tender heir might bear his memory;But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,Making a famine where abundance lies.Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. (1.1-8)

T h e speaker cou ld well be speaking of M acb eth here, w h o sacrifices p atr il ineal "m em o ry " for a po w er w hic h proves bo th unstable and fleeting. AJo an Larsen Klein has argued, "h e exchanges his hope s for m en -ch ildre nborn to his wife for the grisly finger of a bir th-s t rangled babe and tormenting visions of the crowned chi ldren of other men" (1980, 2 4 3 ) . T he i m portance of an heir to Macbeth's increasingly elusive pohtical aspirationbecomes apparent only when he is confronted with fathers such as DuncanBanquo, and Macduff who have satisfied their patrilineal obligations. His lifeas weU as his ambitions ultimately prove barren, indeed.

Whereas Macbeth registers tardy concern over the fate of his i l linform ed patrilineage. Lady M acb eth appears supremely indifferent. W h e nshe is not fantasizing the brutal murder of the child nursing at her breastLady M acb eth is busy plo tting th e future of he r husba nd as king . W h at shfails to acknowledge is what will become of Macbeth's Hne given the failureto produce a living heir. Even after the bloody deed is done, even after hehu sba nd seizes an unlaw^ful thro ne . Lady M ac be th expresses n o c on ce rn foM acbeth's e xtinguished patril ineage. As M acb eth agonizes over his "ba rrensceptre," his wife merely cautions "what 's done is done" (3.2.14); she has, inessence, sold M acb eth's heir for a little, fleeting p ow er. H er indifferenceproves crucial, I beheve, to an understanding of a mother 's potent ial ly negative impact upon the patril ineal process in early modern England. For wha

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dered. Indeed, the smiling babe she indifferently plucks from her gall-filledbreast comes to represent nothing less than Macbeth's aborted patrilineal line.It is perhaps no coincidence that the one who wiU subdue Macbeth is"none of woman born" (4.1.80). Rather, "Macduff was from his mother'swomb / Untimely ripped" (5.8.15-16). Such a revelation decisively under-cuts the power of t h e maternal, arming Macduff against Macbeth's ultimate-ly powerless assault. Macduff's unusual, violent birth warrants some discus-sion in light of the play's representation of maternal agency as well as its con-tainment. Caesarean sections in early modern England were considered a lastresort, performed, as Jacques Guillemeau (1635) notes ,"that thereby the childmay be saved, and receive baptism." As Re na te Blumenfeld-Kosinskiobserves, "the child could indeed be considered as 'not of woman born,' oreven 'unborn'... [for] the newborn was the child not of a living woman butof a corpse" (1990, 1). Given early modern surgical methods, the lack ofanesthesia, as well as post-surgical infection, Caesareans were normally per-formed only on women who had already died during labor.^^ EuchariusRoselin's description of the Caesarean emphasizes the post-mortem violencecommitted on the mother:

If it chance that the woman in her labor die and the child having life in it,then shall it be meet to keep open the woman's mouth and also the netherplaces, so that the child may be by that means both receive and also expelair and breath which otherwise might be stopped, to the destruction of thechild. A n d then to turn her on her left side and there to cut her open andso to take out the child. (Klein 1992,197)

Striking here is the obvious effort taken to preserve the hfe of the yet un bornchild. The mother's m outh and "nether places" are opened wide to ensurethat the child has an adequate air supply while the surgeon begins carvingup the maternal body.^^ That the mother is deemed already dead does Httleto alleviate the inherent brutality of the scene. W hat Roselin's descriptionconjures up are images of blood sacrifice as the mother is cut apart to freethe potentially viable life trapped w ithin her body. W hethe r w e choose to callthe early modern Caesarean matricide or rescue depends crucially on thedegree to w hich patrihneal preservation is a factor. Th at such a procedurewould most hkely have not been performed in the case of bastard birthreveals much about the governing motivation for early modern Caesareansections. Indeed, the Caesarean birth represents, I would argue, a conquest

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8 6 C o l l e g e L i te r a t u r e 3 2 . 3 [S u m m e r 2 0 0 5 ]

Indeed, the fate of mothers in general seems problematic w ithin a play struggling with the issue of patrihneal survival. Duncan's wife is long dead, consigning the care of her sons to a father and king who, a s Janet Adelman hasnoted, becomes "the source of all nurturance, planting the children to histhrone and making them grow " (1992,132). Macduff, of course, owes his Hfeto the surgeon who hterally rips him from his mother's "suffocating" grasp,to borrow again from Adelman. It is he, not Macbeth, who leads "a charmedlife" (5.10.12) as a result of escaping a maternal control which must otherwise strangle him . Macduff's mothe r is not, of course, the only m aternal figure killed off to protect a threatened h n e . Lady Macduff, Macduff's s a d , aban-doned wife, is also killed within the play to m otivate M acduff into taking thekind of action necessary to defeat the murderous Macbeth: to breathe newlife, if you w ill, into a dying Scotland. U pon learning of his wife and children'violent murders, Macduff initially registers a stunned, immobihzed disbelief:. . . AH my pretty ones?

Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?What, all my pretty chickens and their damAt one feU swoop? (4.3.217-220)

While it is true that Macduff abandons his wife and children to seek supportfor Scotland, their deaths constitute a necessary incitement to action. Onlywhen Malcolm reminds this grieving husband and father that he must "dis-pute it [their deaths] as a man" (4.3.221) does Macduff find the strength toconfront Macbeth and save, if not his own hne, that of t h e royal patrilineageThen there is, of course. Lady Macbeth. In many respects her violentdeath at the conclusion of an equaUy violent reign of terror constitutes jus-

tice. That she w ho is the author of such social and pohtical strife should p er-ish at her own b lood-stained, now suicidal hands seems appropriate given herinvolvement in Duncan's death as well as in Macbeth's cataclysmic fall fromgrace. That these sullied hands render Lady Macbeth incapable of redemp-tion appears appropriate given her own calculated brutality against familyand state. In many respects the death of this infanticidal mother helps bringabout the re-unification of Duncan's scattered progeny, enabling, in turn , thefulfillment of the w itches' prophecy that heirs of the ill-fated Banquo wiU bekings. As such. Lady Macbeth's death preserves life even as her own slips away

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renounced neither her agency nor her identity and because she could not heaccommodated hy the female narrative of ignorance and passivity, she wassilenced by death" (Francus 1997, 134). Indeed, confessions of guilt tacit orotherwise yielded control to an early modern patriarchy anxious aboutm oth ers ' roles in the transmission of patrilineage. That Lady Macbeth diesunrepentant, unable either to wash clean the murderous hands that helpedsecure M acheth's unlawful succession nor to yield the agency which enabledher crime speaks to a guilt which cannot be absolved. Her solitary, anti-cH-mactic death, unmourned either by Macbeth or his society, becomes aptpunishment for the havoc Lady Macheth's infanticidal fantasy wreaks uponthe social and political order. Janet Adelman has observed that "the play thatbegins by unleashing the terrihle threat of destructive maternal power [ ... ]ends hy consohdating male pow er" (1992, 122). The demonized maternalagency which enables the murder of patrilineage is by play's end supplantedby a revitalized, if altered political authority. Malcolm succeeds to his father'susurped throne as the descendents of Banquo's line eye their future patrilin-eal succession.

N o t e s^ W il liam Blake, "T he M arr iage of Heaven and H el l ."2 AU Shakesp eare citation s are from 77ie Norton Shakespeare.^ See, for exa m ple, Ju an Luis Vives's The Education of a Christian Woman: A

Sixteenth-Century Manual (1524); Eucha r ius Ro esl in , The Birth of Mankind, othenvisenamed The Woman's Book (1545), in Joan Larsen Klein, Daughters, Wives and Widows:Writings by Men about Women and Marriage in England, J 50 0- M 40 ;T ho m as Tusser, TTiePoints of Housewifery (1580), in Klein, Daughters, Wives and Widows; Thomns Be c o n ,The book of matrimony (1564), in Kate Aughterson, Renaissance Woman: Constructions ofFemininity in England; Elizabeth Cl in ton, The Countess of Lincoln's Nursery (1622);Ch r i s t o p h e r H o o k e , The Childbirth (1590); R ob er t Cleaver and Jo hn Dod,A GodlyForm of Household Governm ent: For the Ordering of Private Families, according to theDirection of God's W ord (1630); W il liam Go uge , Of Domesticall Duties. Eight Treatises(1622); and D oro thy Leigh, The Mother's Blessing (1616).

"* Even the commonplace fear of cuckolding can be t raced to a concern aboutwomen's roles in patrilineal transmission. Indeed, it 's not only the fear of beingshamed before the community that led so many early modern men to steer clear ofthe cuckold 's ho rns , but that they must ul t imately call as their ow n a nything theirwives brought forth.

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6 See, for example, Sokol and Sokol (2000), Stone (1979), Erickson (1993)Cressy, (2000), Ingram (1987), and W rightson , (1975).7 See also Laslett (1983).^ S e e Jankowski (1992). Married women, as Jankowski has noted, were less likely to be prosecuted for infanticide than were unmarried women, the rationale beingthat because there was no need to disguise pregnancy, there would be less reason tomurder newborn infants (44).^ Natasha Korda notes that while "women were more vulnerable to punishmentfor bastard-bearing [. . .] because paternity was always open to doubt in a way thatmaternity was not" (2002, 183), such punishment was likewise dependent uponsocial status. W hile u nm arried mothers of the lower class constituted a threat to the

economic well-being of the community, those of the middle and upper classesthreatened patrilineage. In her discussion of Shakespeare's Juliet from Measure foMeasure, Korda notes that she violates the cultural trust in having "thrown away th'jewel' of her p atrimony" (2002,181).

^' 'The queen's justices met at Maidstone in July of 1 5 9 3 to hear this case (1979#2074)." Calendar of Assize Records, #2082.12 Calendar of Assize Records, #2279.13 For a full account of this stillbirth, see Fraser (1994).1'* Charles Wriothesley (1875-77) makes men tion of the stillbirth.15 See Warnicke (1989). Warnicke suggests that "Hen ry considered a miscarriageor stillbirth an ill omen for his kingdom as well as for his dynasty" (176).16 See, for example Adelman (1987), Callaghan (1992), Marcus (1988),Newman (1991), and Stallybrass (1982).1'While L. C. Knight's provocatively titled essay does not deal with the issue ofLady Macbeth's maternal history, it does raise intriguing questions about absenceswithin the text. The specter of patrilineage and its impact on Macbeth's succession

scheme, I would argue, constitutes one of the more interesting absent presenceswithin the text.1^ See Blumenfeld-Kosinki (1990). There are reports of early m ode rn motherssurviving Caesarean sections.1^ Norm ally, male surgeons performed Caesarean sections. As Blum enfeld-Kosinki has noted, however, midwives were also expected to perform this procedureif they believed that the fetus could sdll be alive (1990, 2).

W o r k s C i t e dAbrams, M . H. , ed . 1993. The Norton Anthology o f English Literature. 7th ed.Vol. 2. N e w

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. 1992. Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare's Plays,Ham let fo T he Tempest . N ew York: Rou t led ge.

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Cleaver, R ob er t , and Joh n D od . 1630. A Godly Form of Household Government.STC 5387.5.

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Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.Dolan, Frances E. 1994. Dangerous Fam iliars: Representations of Dom estic Crime in

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England." In Maternal Measures: Figuring Caregiving in the Early Modern Period, ed.N aom i J . Mi l le r and Na om i Yavheh .Aldersho t :Ashga te .Eagleton, Terry. 1986. William Shakespeare. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Er ickson, Am y Louise . 1993. Women and Property in Early Modern England. N ew York:

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