Murdering Mother

Fantasizing Infanticide: Lady Macbeth and the Murdering Mother in Early Modern England
Author(s): Stephanie Chamberlain

Source: College Literature, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Summer, 2005), pp. 72-91
Published by: College Literature
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25115288
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FantasizingInfanticide:
Lady
Mother
MacbethandtheMurdering
inEarly
ModernEngland
Chamberlain
Stephanie
is associ
Chamberlain
Stephanie
Sooner
ate professor of English at

Southeast
University,
work
Cape
on
issues
Missouri
State
Girardeau.
Her
early modern
appears
England,
Boyd McBride
in Early
ed. Kari
(2002).
infant
unacted
in
desires
its
cradle
(William
Blake)1
to motherhood
reference
near the end of act one of
remains one of the more
enig
Macbeths
Lady
and infanticide
Macbeth
inDomestic
Arrangements
Modern
women's
an
murder
nurse
than
matic moments
in all of Shakespeare's drama.

to
commitment
wavering
Fearing Macbeths
their
succession
Macbeth
scheme,
Lady
declares
that
brains out"
otherwise
she would
have
"clashed
the
of an infant to realize an
(1.7.58)2
unachievable
read
traditionally
"unsex me here"
goal.
this as well
Scholars
as her
have
earlier
as evi
invocation
(1.5.39)
to
seize a
of Lady Macbeths
attempt
to
masculine
further Macbeths
power
politi
her husband's femi
cal goals. To overcome
a
assumes
nized
reticence,
Lady Macbeth
dence
she will prove unable to support.

masculinity
she clearly seeks power, such power is,
While
StephanieChamberlain 73
an ambiguous,
on maternity,
status in
conflicted
argue, conditioned
of
modern
and
infanticide
that
the
Indeed,
images
nursing
early
England.
Iwould
frame
Lady
one
act
Macbeth's
fantasy
invoke
a maternal
momentar
agency,
of an illegitimate political goal.

ily empowering
in fact, contributed
That mothers
could undermine
patrilineal outcomes,
to a generalized
women's
in
the
transmission of
cultural anxiety about
roles
could be irreparably altered through marital
patrilineage. That patrilineage
the achievement
and infanticide
rendered maternal
agency a social and
nursing,
one
concern.
act
in fact, about
reveals
Macbeths
much,
Lady
fantasy
political
in
mothers'
roles
the
of
the early modern
anxiety surrounding
perpetuation
In the case of this woman who would be queen, Lady Macbeth's
patrilineage.
infidelity,
succession of a bas
of Duncan
the unlawful
engineered murder
engenders
as
as political order
in
the
well
tardized Macbeth,
turn,
altering,
patrilineal
the world of the play.
within
was viewed
as problematic
in early modern
That motherhood
England
in conduct
of the period addressing the subject of

"the fear of, fascination with, and
notes,
good mothering.3
in
modern
toward
maternal
power
early
hostility
English culture motivated
even
to
it [ . . . ]" (2000, 283).
understand
and
control,
attempts
repudiate
on
one
were
a
to their
the
While
hand mothers
selfless devotion
praised for
may
be evinced
literature
As Frances Dolan
children, they were likewise

ed to their care. As Dympna
as bad old mothers
mothers:
infanticide"
female
ern
(1992,
caregivers
texts
and
for harming
the innocents entrust
were persecuted
as
"women
notes,
Callaghan
and as bad young mothers
for
for witchcraft,
condemned
367). Naomi
appear
images,
as both
sometimes
Miller
objects
observes
and
represented
agents
that "mothers
of
in
sacrifice
as madonna
and
and other
early
mod
monster
at
once"
that the maternal

role has historically
(2000, 7). Susan Frye concludes
been an "unstable" one, that the struggle to "imagine a 'self'" rendered moth
state in early modern
erhood a confused, anxiety-producing
(2000,
England
An
Newstead's
229). Christopher
apology for women: or women's defence (1620)
attitudes
toward motherhood.
illustrates well
the conflicting
On
the one
to
is
that
which
hand, he argues that "there is no ingratitude
comparable
as
committed
For
the
mother"
he
notes,"we
1995,116).
against
(Aughterson
our essence; secondly our nourishment;
have of them principally
thirdly our
education"
likewise registers a highly discernable
anxi
(116).Yet Newstead
as he notes, "educing,
ety about the dangers of maternal
agency. For while,
are the threefold
cords that should tie each child to

a
on the unde
was conditioned
mother's
love
(116),
assurance
as
of her child's matrilineal
niable
Newstead
fur
identity. Indeed,
ther observes, "two reasons may be given why they [mothers] do most affect
their children. First because
they are certain they are theirs. Wherefore
education
and affection
the love of itsmother"
74
32.3 [Summer
2005]
CollegeLiterature
being asked, if itwere true that Ulysses was his father? Answered,
Newstead's
treatise openly praises the
my mother saith he was" (116).4 While
as well as the social and familial debt owed them, it like
virtues of mothers
to early modern
concerns
wise points
about maternal
agency. That early
modern
fathers lacked the same assurances regarding their children's paterni
Telemachus
ty added to already existing anxieties. Because mothers were responsible for

the identification
of their children's fathers, they necessarily
impacted patri
in
modern
lineage
early
England.5
even as it
the patrilineal
agency could undermine
process
to
support it. This is especially evident in the practice of nursing.
appeared
While much of the conduct
literature from the early modern
period praises
the mother who opts to nurse rather than farm her infant out to a poten
there existed a parallel thread that represented
tially detrimental wet-nurse,
source of corruption. Juan LuisVives's Education
mother's milk as a potential
Maternal
of a Christian Woman
he praises
ing.While
views toward breastfeed

(1524) expresses conflicting
"the wise and generous parent of all things that sup
and wholesome
nourishment
for the sustenance of the
plied [...] abundant

to
child" (2000, 269), it is less the milk than the nurse that proves nurturing
or
milk
child.
Fears
the
that breast
could be tainted through bodily disease
as economic
are well
as well
ethnic
documented.
As
impurity
privation
Robert
and John Dod
Cleaver
if the nurse
Now
or
must
that
needs
needs
the
must
of
be
or hath
in her mind,
note,
an euill
as she
some
the
complexion,
hidden
disease,
take part with
her. And
of
the mind
temperature
it be,
that
if the
nurse
take thereafter. (Cleaver and Dod
is affected
in her
sucking
of her
child
if that be
true which
followes
the
be
of
naughty
the
nature,
do
learned
of
constitution
the
body,
breast
the
child
say,
body,
must
1630)
to the OED, "complexion"

in the early modern
According
period pertained
not only to the bodily disposition,
i.e., the balance of the four humors, but
or "habit of mind." Rachel
also to the temperament
Trubowitz
concludes
to gen
ties between nurse and child thus had the potential
to
transmission
of
and
the
strangers,
strangeness
interrupt
genealogical
a
name
so
to tarnish
and disrupt the hereditary
family's good
identity, and
and titles [. . .]" (2000, 85). Indeed, as Vives
transmission
of properties
that the wet nurse suckles the child
observes, because "it is not uncommon
that "the affective
erate
some feeling of annoyance"

the child
and with
(2000, 269-70),
reluctantly
to nurture it. Even amother's
reluctance
suffers at the hands of a figure meant
to nurse could be construed as patrilineal
the
interference, for in consigning
child
to a wet-nurse,
practice Keith Wrightson
she conceivably
has termed
diminished
"infanticidal
its chances
nursing"
of survival?a
(1975,16).
While
modern
nursing
as did many early

speaks against the practice of wet-nursing,
on
comments
the
likewise
he
behaviorists,
danger any
potential
to the child. The overriding
represent
figure could theoretically
Vives
is that
here
assumption
only
a mother,
care for her child. As Vives
and
a virtuous
one
at
that,
ade
could
"the very sight of her child dispels

she smiles happily
cheerfulness
and
gladness
at her breast" (2000,270).
Elizabeth Clinton's
notes,
quately
any clouds of sadness, and with
to see her child sucking eagerly
addresses several "annoy
The Countess of Lincoln's Nursery
(1622), however,
an
from nursing. As she
dissuaded many
ances" which
early modern mother
to
that it is noysome
that it [nursing] is troublesome;
notes, "it is obiected,
ones clothes; that itmakes one looke old, &c."While wet-nurses
were, for the
a
at
and
thus
economic
distinct
admittedly not the
part,
disadvantage
con
one
must
the degree of nurturance
likewise question
best caregivers,
most
If she like the hypo

through a resentful nursing mother.
"suckles the child reluctantly," as appeared to be the case
her milk, like that of Lady
with a good many early modern
nursing mothers,
to
turn
the innocent entrusted
well
could
Macbeth,
"gall" (1.5.46), harming
ceivably available
thetical wet-nurse
to her
care.
crime better exemplifies

cultural fears
Perhaps no other early modern
a
crime
both
than
does
about maternal
infanticide,
person and
agency
against
one
as
in
sin
medieval
Treated
through ecclesi
punishable
England,
lineage.
a
been deemed
modern
had
astical penance, infanticide, by the early
period,
offense, one punishable
(Sokol and Sokol 2000, 233).
by hanging
'the
infanticide?to
become
Stone has suggested that "deliberate
a solution adopted by only the
deliberate butcher of her own bowels'?was
most desperate of pregnant mothers"
(1979,297). More
recently, Susan Staub
criminal
Lawrence
"their crimes out of their

committed
eco
utter
Out of
desperation, whether
or emotional,
killed
their babies
infanticidal mothers
nomic
purportedly
of a society less con
rather than face the wrath, disdain, even indifference
infanticidal mothers
argues that most
sense of duty asmothers"
(2000,335).
about
cerned
posed
infant murder
to the economic
well-being.
infanticide
Just how prevalent

open to discussion. Although
numerous
admitting
England)
tury.6 That
than
the problems
was
such mothers
had
always
in the early modern

period remains
assize rolls record
and Jacobean
Elizabethan
cases of suspected infant murder,

social and legal historians
(while
the infanticidal rate in early modern
the difficulty of determining
cen
of the seventeenth
suggest it had decreased by the beginning
as a problem within
society,
early modern
English
to
it.
1624
reforms
enacted
The
evident
however, appears
given legal
punish
it a criminal offense to "secretly bury or conceal the
Infanticide Act made
children" (cited in Fletcher
death of their [lewd women's]
1995,277). While
it continued
76
32.3 [Summer
2005]
CollegeLiterature
the rationale
behind
such a law seems
infants?such
newly-born
an
enactment
evident?to
remains
prevent
curious
the murder
if, as B. J. Sokol
of
and
small
Mary Sokol suggest, the rate of infanticide had shrunk to a "vanishingly
level of about 3 per 100,000" by 1610 (2000, 236).7 Indeed, if infanticide
were
event in the early seventeenth
such an uncommon
century, the 1624
seem superfluous. While
there is no way of accurately determin
rate
in
it appears likely that it
of
modern
the
infanticide
ing
early
England,
cases
as
well as those left unprose
could well have been higher. Unreported
cuted would have significantly
increased these rates.8
Act would
the cultur
My purpose here is less to correct statistics than to examine
an early modern
al fears and anxieties infanticide produced within
England
statutes
of patrilineal
suggests, "the infanticide
rights. As Dolan
protective
rather than accurately
capacity for violence
their
the
behavior"
Indeed,
(1994, 131).
language of the act pro
describing
some
I
into
cultural
motivations
the
would
vides,
argue,
governing
insight
to
For
of
while
law.
the
designed
punish "lewd,"
development
ostensibly
the law likewise speaks, Iwould
unmarried women,
argue, to early modern
articulated
fears about women's
if secretive interference
in the
fears of concealment,
of an obtrusive,
most
cases
of
of
transmission.9
recorded
infanticide
While
process
patrilineal
involved
babies, such actions likewise interfered at least philo
illegitimate
the perceived
authority of patriarchal society as a whole. As
sophically with
seem, to an infanticide epidemic, but
such, the 1624 act points less, itwould
cultural
rather to an attempt to control the potential

"maternal subjectivity
concludes,
aries expand to include?even
consume?the
As Dolan
A
sampling
of the assize records
from
threat of maternal
is threatening
when
agency itself.
its bound
(1994, 148).
offspring"
I provides
the reign of Elizabeth
is
infanticide. What
surrounding
insight into the cultural anxiety

against early modern
perhaps most striking about these recorded indictments
are their graphic, arguably gratuitous
of maternal
vio
mothers
depictions
valuable
case of Anne
is illustrative. On May 4, 1593,

Lynsted of Lynsted
it into a
female
child by throwing
her
newly-born
allegedly
account is
is striking in this otherwise
formulaic
seethinge furnace."10 What
seems designed
to inflame the jury rendering
the word "seethinge," which
lence. The
Anne
"killed
to the OED,
in the early modern
"seethinge"
period
to intense heat, but to "intense and ceaseless inner agita
state which would
tion" as well. In the case of Anne Lynsted, the emotional
to mirror a "seethinge"
fur
infant ismade
enable the murder of a newborn
justice. According
referred not only
nace. The
case of Elizabeth
is equally graphic. On the 20

Brown of Lenham
to
is
have
she
1593,
"ripped open the stomach of her
reported
a
tore out its entrails."11 Of the
with
and
male
knife
child
newly-born
records I have examined, perhaps none is represented as more cruelly calcu
of March
of Richmond.
On
Chaundler
the 20 of
lating than the case of Margaret
son
November
murdered
her
newborn
1591, Margaret
purportedly
by stuff
a
a
"the
child's
with
earth
and
from
mouth
bone
left it
and
ing
goose's leg
in a ditch, where
it died on the following]
detailed
day."12While
were
to
deemed
describe
the horrific
necessary
descriptions
undoubtedly
nature of these crimes, many
likewise appear to go well beyond mere factu
al accounts. Moreover,
while
the assize records make no specific mention
of
grovelling
the mothers'
modern
mental
value
emotional
infanticidal
take sadistic delight in butchering

in the assize records
represented
beings, who
dal mothers
would
states at the time of the crimes, they nonetheless

attach
would murder
their children. Many
early
as monstrous
in fact, represent these women
accounts,
to those who
dash
lightly
Importantly,
have motivated
out
the dire
the brains
social
of
Indeed, the infantici

are all Lady Macbeths,
who
to their care.
the babes entrusted
and economic
babies.
appear to
fail to enter into the
circumstances
which
cases of infanticide
many purported
record.
Aside
from
the
mother's
public
legal status, usually identified as "spin
no
the
records
circumstances which may
ster,"
extenuating
provide virtually
to commit the crime of infanticide. In so doing, these
have led these women
accounts
Iwould
anxieties about
communicate,
argue, existing early modern
the inherent dangers of maternal
agency both to helpless children as well as
to a patrilineal
for its perpetuation. As Susan
system dependent
upon women
Staub concludes, "the murdering mother
embodies both her society's expec
tations and its anxieties
about motherhood
to be at
by showing motherhood
once
and destructive"
(2000, 345).
empowering
While
assize records from the reign of Elizabeth
I represent infanticide
as a crime of unmarried
women,
(and conceivably
poor)
they fail to account
for the more generalized
this crime against person and
cultural misgivings
line produced within
early modern
England. That anxiety about maternal
agency
crossed
class,
and
economic,
marital
lines
can
be
seen
in
the
case
of
Anne
infamous rise and fall earlier in the sixteenth century

Boleyn, whose
to incite political discussion
continued
the Elizabethan
throughout
period.
to
of
into
Elizabeth's
called
rule
was,
course,
right
question when Henry bas
on charges of adultery and witch
tardized her following Anne's conviction
that the charges against her were politically

it is likewise evident that Anne's failure to produce a living, male
motivated,
heir led to her conviction
and execution. What
interests me is not whether
this
there is little doubt
craft.While
of Henry VIII was, in fact, guilty of the crime of high treason but
what the charges reveal about early modern
fears of maternal
agency.
in Anne's
incident
short, contentious
Perhaps the most damning
reign
was the stillborn, premature birth of a male
child in January of 1536. The
second wife
stillbirth, which
reportedly
occurred
after fifteen weeks
of pregnancy,
was
78
32.3 [Summer
2005]
CollegeLiterature
the result being that Anne
widely
interpreted as a sign of demonic possession,
was declared responsible for the premature death of this heir to the king.13
abnor
Miscarriages
during the first trimester often occur from conception
mass
or
tissue
otherwise
malities, frequently
resulting in undefined
severely
fetuses. Given
that this miscarriage
occurred
fairly early in the
to
it
Anne
is
that
birth
what
would
have
been consid
pregnancy,
gave
likely
in
modern
ered a monstrous
That
the
official
reports
being
early
Europe.14
of deformity
is not surprising given that
of this stillbirth made no mention
malformed
the aborted
folk were
deformed
son. As Retha Warnicke

fetus was Henry's
notes, "early modern
most
about
facets
of
about
childbirth,
many
ignorant
especially
as
existence
whose
of
God's
fetuses,
way
they interpreted
punish
fetus were deformed, Henry's

reaction to her
ing sinful parents. If Anne's
sense by the standards of his society" (1999, 20). Moreover,
as David
made
mean
has
"monstrous
births
but
observed,
many
Cressy
might
things,
they
were accustomed
to
could not be allowed to mean nothing. Contemporaries
a hierarchy of plots and sub-plots,
a range of possible meanings,
considering
in which
natural law, divinity, and human
intertwined"
(2000,
corruption
were
a
and stillbirths
fact of Ufe given the
36). Indeed, while miscarriages
as signs of
they were often interpreted
or
one
committed
both
parents.
by
disapproval
of Aragon's many miscarriages
and stillbirths, for example, were
Catherine
to the couple's violation
of divine law (Warnicke 1999,
attributed by Henry
the stillbirth of a male
child would
be
18). In the case of Anne, however,
state of early modern
divine
interpreted
gynecology,
for wickedness
as maternal
as the head
of
malfeasance.
a schismatic
church,
Warnicke
Henry
has noted
could
to himself that he had sired this fetus. He would

himself
against
his
enemies'
belief
discovered, was divine punishment

was
transferred
having
had
to Anne,
sexual
who
relations
was
with
that
the
aborted
never
that
have
fetus,
even
admitted
also have wanted
to defend
were
if its existence
for his activities. The blame for its birth

subsequently
five men
after
convicted
enticing
and
them
executed
with
for
witch
like activities. (Warnicke 1999, 20-21)

Iwould
emerges from Anne's miscarriage
ultimately
provides evidence,
roles in patrilineal
argue, of cultural anxiety about the dangers of women's
to bear the male heir
transmission. While
upon Anne
Henry was dependent
as the stillbirth
he
remained
likewise
he so desperately
desired,
vulnerable,
to
in the patrilineal project.15 As Henry
maternal
involvement
demonstrates,
the man be as principal
Eucharius
Roselin
(1545) concludes,
"although
What
to men)
the woman
and cause of the generation,
yet (no displeasure
confer and contribute much more, what to the increasement of the child
in her womb
and what to the nourishment
thereof after the birth, than doth
mover
doth
agency, in the end, superceded
183). Anne's maternal
this
have
any generative authority
king might
possessed.
character better represents the threat of
Perhaps no other Shakespearean
one whose
studied cruelty nur
maternal
agency than does Lady Macbeth,
the man"
tures
1992,
(Klein
and political
has noted, "in Macbeth,
chaos. As Janet Adelman
its most
is given
virulent
power
sway [. . .]" (1992, 123). Lady
to evil in act one illustrates well the inherent dangers
invocation
social
maternal
Macbeth's
to
of motherhood
the patrilineal
order. Upon
of the witches'
hearing
.
she declares: "[.
tend on mortal
you spirits / That
.] Come,
unsex me here, / and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full /
prophecy,
thoughts,
Critics have traditionally
Of direst cruelty" (1.5.38-40).
amasculine
to
seize
Macbeth
attempt by Lady
authority
to
the
achievement
instance, argues
herself by using
of her
that Macbeth
the dominant
read this scene as an
perceived necessary
for
Burnett,
goals. Mark Thornton
a
woman
to realize
explores "the attempts of
discourses of patriarchy as she lacks an effec
political
(1993, 2). Joan Larsen Klein likewise sug

tively powerful counter-language"
an
masculine
that
Macbeth
seeks
unattainable
gests
Lady
authority, observ
as
never
is
in the only way
she lives, Lady Macbeth
unsexed
ing that "as long
to be unsexed?able
to act with
the cruelty she ignorantly and
identified
with
male
perversely
strength" (1980, 250). Even Adelman, who
a
for
female
argues
competing
authority, tends to structure Lady Macbeth's
a cultur
invocation
in terms of defined gender boundaries which maintain
she wanted
ally constructed masculine/feminine

dichotomy. As she argues, "dangerous
are given embodiment
like Love, Nature, Mother
female presences
in Lady
Macbeth
and the witches"
and it therefore becomes
the responsibility
of men
like Macbeth
"to escape
their dominion
over
senti
(1987, 93).This
"in
the
that
Macbeth,
suggests
Callaghan,
by Dympna
is
of
darkness
and
female, unequivocally
matriarchal,
kingdom
unequivocally
the fantasy of incipient rebellion of demonic
forces is crucial to the mainte
nance of the godly rule it is supposed to overthrow"
Iwould
(1992,358-59).
ment
is echoed
[them]"
who
"unsex me here" speech tends to decon

argue, however, that Lady Macbeth's
struct gender categories,
as
as well
the
unfixing
rigid cultural distinctions
attributes which
define male and female. In the world of Macbeth, for exam
power is expressed through the use of physical force. Indeed,
ple, masculine
Macbeth's
is,
strength as well as his valor is directly linked to the battlefield,
in fact, based upon his ability to carve his enemy "from the nave to th' chops"
she may well fantasize killing an infant, Lady Macbeth
(1.2.22). Although
allow her to wield a dag
power which would
expressly rejects the masculine
even declaring
she makes a case for killing Duncan,
that "had he
ger.While
not
resembled
Macbeth
/ My
ultimately
father
as he
refuses masculine
slept,
I had
done't"
authority. What
(2.2.12-13),
Lady
she craves instead is an
80
32.3 [Summer
2005]
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alternative gender identity, one which will allow her to slip free of the emo
tional as well as cultural constraints governing women. That she immediate
breasts / And
ly invokes a maternal
image, "come to my woman's
milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers"
(1.5.45-46),
speaks, Iwould
at once both powerful
the desire for an authority
and ambiguous
modern
England.
take my
argue, to
in early
lines of
is, in fact, present from virtually the opening
ambiguity
the play as the witches
collapse established boundaries. As does the maternal,
an
status. This
is evident during
witchcraft
represents
ambiguous
gender
encounter
initial
with
witches
"You should
the
where
he
observes:
Banquo's
Gender
yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so"

the witches
beards
(1.3.42-44).
Physically,
challenge
gender
expectations;
men.
to
hair.
the
witches'
well
facial
Yet,
goes
beyond
ambiguity
belong
more
than
bizarre
their
Indeed, it is their self-assured
physical
authority
/ And
be women,
the patriarchal world of the play. Not only do

destabilizes
appearance which
if not
they foresee the future, but the trio are effortlessly adept at predicting,
s behavior.
Macbeth
manipulating
some
inMacbeth. While
Critics have long debated the role of the witches
have
viewed
them
as
representatives
of
fate,
others
see
them
as
demonic
has suggested that "they are poets, prophetesses

Terry Eagleton
scorn male power and lay
and devotees of female cult, radical separatists who
at
its heart. Their words
and bodies mock
sound and fury
bare the hollow
instruments.
rigorous
meanings
chooses
received
boundaries
and make
sport of fixed positions, unhinging
as they dance, dissolve and re-materialize"
one
Whether
(1986, 3).
to identify them as representatives
of fate or of the demonic,
they are
and
the play. At once both nurturing
force within
clearly the governing
to confront the demon
harmful, the three force the proud Scottish warrior
a
son toward his des
reluctant
ic within
himself. They are mothers
pushing
as
as
time
who
bide
their
before bringing
well
fearful
opponents
tiny
no doubt
connection
enables
their supernatural
Macbeth
down. While
is rendered
their gender
such authority, as characters
at once both masculine
and feminine,
deconstructing,
fixed categories.
ambiguous;
they are
like Lady Macbeth,
to the witches
connection
has, of course, long been
Lady Macbeths
scholars.16 Frances Dolan, for example, groups Lady
noted by Shakespearean
as catalytic agents who
incite Macbeths
ambition
with
the witches
Macbeth
uses
witches
female
As
characters?the
she
"Macbeth
observes,
(1994, 227).
into violent
translate that ambition
and Lady Macbeth?to
instill ambition,
as
on
cast
with vio
and
doubt
associated
ambition
and
thus
action,
agency
on top'
a
is
Vornan
Marcus
lence" (227). Leah
suggests that "Lady Macbeth
are allied with
the demonic
and
whose
sexual ambivalence
and dominance
of the bearded witches"
identifications
(1988,
gender
and
most
the witches
between
connection
the
104).Yet, perhaps
compelling
seen
can
with
association of witchcraft
in the early modern
be
Lady Macbeth
modern
witches
has
observed
that
motherhood.
"though
early
Callaghan
as
an idea
in
the
mother
often old, celibate, and devoid of kin, were
imaged
the obscure
mirror
the ancient fertility goddess under whose

has strong associations with
was
all
power
placed" (1992, 358). This image may be
procreative
auspices
as "secret, black, and midnight
s
to
the witches
reference
traced inMacbeth
to the OED,
the term hag came to refer to
according
hags" (4.1.63). While,
is aligned with
a woman who
is frequently ugly, repulsive and old and who
which
Satan and Hell, the term's earliest usage may

refers to "an evil
related hegge or heg, which
in female form; applied in early use to the
Latin mythology."
Shakespeare uses the term
in The Tempest. Speaking
"Then was this island?/
led whelp,
in the etymologically
spirit, demon, or infernal being,
etc. of Greco
Furies, Harpies,
be found
hag again in relation to Sycorax

of the island's long-deceased
witch, Prospero notes:
Save for the son that she did litter here, / A freck
honoured with / A human shape" (1.2.283-286).
hag-born?not
Its usage here is interesting, for it directly links the concept of witch with
a linkage which proves significant in terms o?Macbeth's women. That
mother:
were purportedly
of an
identified by the presence
witches
modern
early
nurse
to
was
or
Satan's
extra nipple
used
teat, which
familiars, provides addi
As Gail Kern Paster
and motherhood.
tional linkage between witchcraft
but thanks to the
resemble lactating mothers,
notes, "not only do witches
to the witch's
attention
fetishistic
the
seventeenth
witchhunters'
century]
[of
come
to
the
witches"
resemble
mothers
teat, lactating
(1993, 249). While
as
not
the
mother
within
do
function
witches
play, Lady
figures
explicitly
a lactating mother.
Macbeth
clearly does, invoking the image of
maternal
issue of Lady Macbeths
identity has, of course, long been
"How Many
with L. C. Knight's,
for critical discussion. Beginning
to account
have
scholars
Children Hath Lady Macbeth"
(1947),17
attempted
to
act
in
motherhood
one.Whether
reference
for Lady Macbeths
enigmatic
The
fodder
she ever nursed

role would
When
children,
accommodate
Macbeth
ceed no further
to the maternal,
[...]
How
Iwould,
I have
tender
while
however, is perhaps less important

one intent on securing a husband's
than how
such a
royal succession.
"we will pro
about
hesitation
Duncan,
murdering
registers
in this business" (1.7.31), Lady Macbeth
immediately
appeals
calling up a chilling image of infanticide. As she declares:
suck,
given
'tis to
it was
love
and
I know
the babe
smiling
that milks
in my
me.
face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
82
32.3 [Summer
2005]
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And
As
dashed
the brains
have
you
to
done
had
out,
this.
I so
sworn
(1.7.54-59)
of images here is quite striking. On the one hand, we have

one praised by Vives for her selfless
the loving image of a nurturing mother,
to the child entrusted
in her care. Indeed, the bond here is faintly
devotion
reminiscent
of Renaissance
and child, lending a spiritu
images of Madonna
to
state
This loving image, however, imme
the
of motherhood.
alized quality
The
juxtaposition
butchers
diately gives way to one of absolute horror, as a demonic mother
infant. Here we are reminded of stylized representations
of
her yet-smiling
in the assize records. That this savagery surfaces at a
the murdering
mother
moment
and child only adds to its
of greatest intimacy between mother
is perhaps most
about Lady
revealing
brutality. What
is how absolutely
defiant disclosure
such a
empowering
one
to
to
from
the
free
break
proves
gendered
struggling
incomprehensible
Macbeth's
proudly
fantasized moment
that bind her. This
constraints
the child
is not
in fantasy. On
the one
upon a loving relationship with
could
be a blood sacrifice. That amother
she murders
cially dependent
slaughter; itmust
to suggest that Lady Macbeth

the contrary, her empowerment
she will
despises
is cru
shortly
lovingly nurture
the next underscores
the uncer
infant one moment
and spill his brains

the dangers of unchecked maternal
agency.
to deny the patrilineal.
Indeed, Lady Macbeth
appeals to the maternal
She would
progeny to secure her husband's succession,
readily kill Macbeth's
render
she must likewise destroy his patrilineage,
but in killing the progeny
her
if not
tainties
to ask not only

reign a barren one. I think it important
ing his short-lived
the child represents. That
actions signify, but what
what Lady Macbeth's
seems undisturbed
instead
Macbeth
declaration,
by her bold, horrifying
a
as
we
well as a
should fail?" (1.7.59), argues
symbolic
inquiring, "if
merely
it is clear
literal reading of the child and of Lady Macbeth's
fantasy. For while
that her actions
to signify a fierce resolve, I think it likewise clear

as Lady Macbeth's
If
brutal sacrifice represent far more.
in fantasy represents legitimacy?and
child she butchers
by
are meant
that the child as well

the hypothetical
Imean
legitimacy
must
Lady Macbeth
comes
the
child
such,
project.
usurpation
she does not, of course,
future. While
patrilineal
Macbeth's
infanticidal
heir, Lady
fantasy does directly
Macbeth's
Macbeth's
succession?then
As
destroy it to
to represent
literally kill
manipulate
altering in turn the body politic. The hypothetical
child thus comes to represent the demise not only
the tyrannized world of
and political
legitimacy within
of Duncan,
of this would-be
the murder
murder
lawful
her
further
of Macbeth's
moral
the play, but that of his line itself. As Macbeth

bitterly notes,
a
fruitless
head
crown,
Upon my
they [the witches] placed
And put a barren sceptre in my grip,
to be wrenched
Thence
No
son
of mine
with
succeeding
an unlineal hand
[...].
(3.1.62-65)
a failed patrilineal proj

secures the
to look on as another man's progeny
is destined
is denied him. Adelman
future which
has observed
that "[. . .]the play
.
becomes
of primitive
fears about male
[. .] a representation
identity and
to con
who
about
those
female
threaten
itself,
autonomy
presences
looming
even
a
to
at
constitute one's very self,
trol one's mind,
distance"
(1987,105).
Ironically,
ect. Macbeth
to succeed
to the throne
is not
to further
it isMacbeth
who wields
the fatal dagger which
ends Duncan's
Although
infanticidal fantasy prompted
life, we cannot forget that it is Lady Macbeth's
by the witches'
prophecy which makes possible a succession rendered barren
through crass cruelty and emotional
depravity. Burnett has suggested that in
the end Macbeth
"is left with
the empty symbols of royalty [...], brooding
of his name" (1993, 5). And it is that loss
upon the imminent disappearance
of name, of a protected
to this
patrilineal
identity that proves so destructive
man
who
would
of kings. For what Lady Macbeth's

fright
line, but rather a barren
agency renders is not a coveted
ening maternal
when
confronted
reign, one which
quickly
disintegrates
by legitimate
be
political
authority.
That Macbeth's
the father
is dependent
of his
upon the perpetuation
in
moments
from
the
of the play.
evident,
fact,
patrilineage
opening
names Malcolm
Even before Duncan
his successor, usurping Macbeth's
a king's murder,
the witches
plans and setting in motion
newly-made
proph
it
are important
is
that
who
will
be
That
heirs
esy
progeny
Banquo's
kings.
to political as well as social outcomes
is thus only too apparent. As Marjorie
Garber has argued, "the play is as urgently concerned with dynasty, offspring
succession
becomes
as any in Shakespeare"
this urgency, it is
(1997, 154). Given
to note, however, how little textual attention
is paid to the sub
interesting
heir. Certainly Macbeth
ject of Macbeth's
registers anxiety over a "barren
and succession
the chill
sceptre."Yet this anxiety surfaces only after he is confronted with
not
realization
that
his
line
will
that
the
crime he
horrendous
succeed,
ing
must
a line.
has committed
prove for naught given his failure to perpetuate
while
Moreover,
tions, Macbeth
the power and authority of kingship

initially fuel his ambi
is forced to face the totality of the witches'
that
prophecy,
not
will
be
As
Kahn
has
heirs,
Macbeth's,
Banquo's
kings.
Copp?lia
argued,
it is "fatherhood
that makes him [Macbeth] Banquo's
rival" (1981, 182).
it is the possession
of an heir which
elevates Banquo
above
Indeed,
Macbeth,
usurper
ensuring
is denied.
that
the patrilineal
future
of
this bloody
and barren
84 College
32.3[Summer
Literature
2005]
Patriarchal
the perpetuation
ily name, lineal
upon
identity in the early modern
period was conditioned
an heir to continue
line.Without
the fam
of the patrilineal
be lost. Shakespeare's
identity would
"young man" sonnets
again and again

identity. As the speaker
argue
From
fairest
creatures
That
thereby
beauty's
But
as the
His
tender heir might
But
thou,
riper
we
desire
rose
should
contracted
by
Thyself
a famine
of
this
increase.
never
might
time
die,
decease,
bear his memory;

to
thine
Feed'st thy light's flame with

Making
to the preservation
the importance
of heirs
1
in Sonnet
observes,
own
abundance
where
bright
eyes,
self-substantial fuel,
lies,
thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. (1.1-8)
sacrifices patri
here, who
speaker could well be speaking of Macbeth
for a power which
and fleeting. As
lineal "memory"
proves both unstable
his hopes for men-children
Joan Larsen Klein has argued, "he exchanges
babe and torment
born to his wife for the grisly finger of a birth-strangled
visions
of
crowned
of
other
men"
the
children
(1980, 243). The impor
ing
The
tance
of
an heir
to Macbeths
elusive political
increasingly
aspirations
he
is
with
fathers such as Duncan,
when
confronted
apparent only
and Macduff who have satisfied their patrilineal obligations. His life
Banquo,
as well as his ambitions ultimately prove barren, indeed.
over the fate of his ill
Whereas
Macbeth
registers
tardy concern
becomes
indifferent. When
informed patrilineage,
appears supremely
Lady Macbeth
of the child nursing at her breast,
she is not fantasizing
the brutal murder
she
the future of her husband as king. What
is busy plotting
Lady Macbeth
iswhat will become
line given the failure
of Macbeth's
fails to acknowledge
a living heir. Even after the bloody deed is done, even after her
to produce
seizes an unlawful
husband
throne, Lady Macbeth
expresses no concern for
As
Macbeth
Macbeth's
agonizes over his "barren
extinguished
patrilineage.
(3.2.14); she has, in
indifference
fleeting power. Her
an
a
to
of mother's
nega
understanding
potentially
For
what
the patrilineal process in early modern
England.
sceptre," his wife merely

sold Macbeth's
essence,
proves crucial, I believe,
cautions
"what's done
heir
a little,
for
is done"
tive impact upon

indifference
Lady Macbeth's
is itself another form of infanticide,

constitutes
nonexistent.
future
Macbeth's
By erasing the possibility
rendering
patrilineal
an
likewise blots from the cul
of
heir, i.e., lawful succession, Lady Macbeth
his death at the end of
tural memory
future traces of Macbeth's
lineage. With
act five, so too dies the tyranny her bloody
infanticidal fantasy fatally engen
dered. Indeed, the smiling babe she indifferendy plucks from her gall-filled
less than Macbeth's
breast comes to represent nothing
aborted patrilineal line.
It is perhaps no coincidence
that the one who will subdue Macbeth
is
of woman
"Macduff was from his mother's

/ Untimely
womb
Such a revelation decisively under
ripped" (5.8.15-16).
cuts the power of the maternal,
ultimate
arming Macduff
against Macbeth's
some
warrants
assault.
Macduff's
violent
birth
discus
unusual,
ly powerless
con
as
as
sion in light of the play's representation
of maternal
well
its
agency
"none
born"
(4.1.80). Rather,
a last
sections in early modern
England were considered
as Jacques Guillemeau
(1635) notes, "that thereby the child
and receive
Blumenfeld-Kosinski
baptism." As Renate
tainment. Caesarean
resort, performed,
be saved,
observes, "the child
may
as 'not of woman
indeed be considered
born,' or
was
a
woman
not
the
newborn
child
the
of
but
[for]
living
of a corpse" (1990, 1). Given
the lack of
early modern
surgical methods,
anesthesia, as well as post-surgical
infection, Caesareans were normally per
formed only on women
had already died during
who
labor.18 Eucharius
even
could
'unborn'...
Roselin's
committed
of the Caesarean
description
on the mother:
If it chance that the woman

then
places,
shall
it be meet
so that
the
to
child
emphasizes
the post-mortem
violence
in her labor die and the child having life in it,
keep
open
may
be
by
the woman's
that means
mouth
both
and
receive
also
and
the nether
also
expel
air and breath which otherwise might be stopped, to the destruction of the
child. And then to turn her on her left side and there to cut her open and
so to take out the child. (Klein 1992,197)
Striking here is the obvious effort taken to preserve the life of the yet unborn
to ensure
and "nether places" are opened wide
child. The mother's mouth
that the child has an adequate air supply while
the surgeon begins carving
is deemed
up the maternal
body.19 That the mother
already dead does little
to alleviate the inherent brutality of the scene. What Roselin's
description
is cut apart to free
conjures up are images of blood sacrifice as the mother
we choose to call
the potentially
viable life trapped within her body. Whether
or rescue depends
the early modern
Caesarean matricide
crucially on the
is a factor. That such a procedure
degree to which
patrilineal preservation
would most
in the case of bastard birth
likely have not been performed
reveals much
about the governing motivation
for early modern
Caesarean
a
sections. Indeed, the Caesarean
birth represents, I would
argue,
conquest
over the maternal
otherwise
threatens to consume
the precious
body which
In so doing, it likewise comes to represent the preservation
of the
itself.
patrilineage
The issue of matricide
has special significance
inMacbeth, a play which
at
resolves patrilineal
crisis through
the
times violent
deaths of mothers.
offspring.
86
32.3 [Summer
2005]
CollegeLiterature
a play strug
in general seems problematic within
Indeed, the fate of mothers
with
the
survival.
Duncan's
is
issue
of
wife
gling
long dead, con
patrilineal
a
care
sons
to
as
the
and
of her
father
has
signing
Janet Adelman
king who,
to his
"the source of all nurturance,
the children
noted, becomes
planting
throne and making
them grow" (1992,132). Macduff,
of course, owes his life
to the surgeon who
grasp,
literally rips him from his mother's
"suffocating"
to borrow again from Adelman.
It is he, not Macbeth,
who
leads "a charmed
as a result of escaping
life" (5.10.12)
wise strangle him. Macduff's
mother
a maternal
control which
life, if you will, into a dying Scotland. Upon

violent murders, Macduff
initially registers
my
other
is not, of course, the only maternal

fig
line. Lady Macduff, Macduff's
sad, aban
ure killed off to protect a threatened

the play to motivate Macduff
doned wife, is also killed within
to
action
kind of
defeat the murderous Macbeth:
necessary
. . All
.
must
into taking the

to breathe new
learning of his wife and children's

a stunned, immobilized
disbelief:
ones?
pretty
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?

What,
allmy pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop? (4.3.217-220)

it is true that Macduff
his wife and children to seek support

a
to action. Only
incitement
for Scotland,
their deaths constitute
necessary
reminds this grieving husband and father that he must "dis
when Malcolm
find the strength to
pute it [their deaths] as a man"
(4.3.221) does Macduff
confront Macbeth
and save, if not his own fine, that of the royal patrilineage.
While
abandons
In many
there is, of course, Lady Macbeth.
respects her violent
an
terror
at
of
constitutes jus
death
the conclusion
reign of
equally violent
strife should per
is the author of such social and political
tice. That she who
now suicidal hands seems appropriate given her
ish at her own blood-stained,
Then
in Duncan's
death as well as inMacbeth's
cataclysmic fall from
Macbeth
sullied
hands
render
That
these
grace.
Lady
incapable of redemp
own
her
tion appears appropriate given
calculated brutality against family
and state. In many respects the death of this infanticidal mother
helps bring
of Duncan's
scattered progeny, enabling, in turn, the
about the re-unification
involvement
that heirs of the ill-fated Banquo will be

prophecy
death preserves Ufe even as her own slips away.
kings. As such, Lady Macbeth's
in early modern
of infanticide
Punishment
for those convicted
England
a convicted
was most
Yet
whether
often accomplished
through hanging.
mother
faced this dire sentence depended
upon her demeanor
during the
fulfillment
trial. Marilyn
of the witches'
Francus
notes
ratives of female weaknesses,

acquitted
[...]"
(1997,134).
that
early
modern
"women
who
presented
nar
virtue were
fallibility, and repentant

"the rebellious
infanticidal mother
Conversely,
ignorance,
her agency nor her identity and because she could not be
and passivity, she was
by the female narrative of ignorance
of guilt tacit or
silenced by death" (Francus 1997, 134). Indeed, confessions
to an early modern
anxious
otherwise
control
about
yielded
patriarchy
renounced
neither
accommodated
mothers'
in the transmission
roles
unable
unrepentant,
secure Macbeth's
either
unlawful
of patrilineage. That Lady Macbeth

dies
clean the murderous
hands that helped
succession nor to yield the agency which
enabled
to wash
speaks to a guilt which

either
death, unmourned
cannot
her crime
be absolved. Her solitary, anti-cli

or his society, becomes
Macbeth
apt
by
Macbeth's
infanticidal
for
the
havoc
Lady
punishment
fantasy wreaks upon
the social and political order. Janet Adelman
has observed
that "the play that
the terrible threat of destructive maternal
power [ ... ]
begins by unleashing
ends by consolidating
male power"
maternal
(1992, 122). The demonized
mactic
enables the murder

agency which
a
revitalized, if altered political
by
eal
as the descendents
throne
usurped
is by play's end supplanted

of patrilineage
Malcolm
succeeds to his father's
authority.
of Banquo's
line eye their future patrilin
succession.
Notes
1William
Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell."
2All
Shakespeare citations are from The Norton Shakespeare.
3
See, for example, Juan Luis Vives's The Education of a Christian Woman: A
Sixteenth-Century Manual (1524); Eucharius Roeslin, The Birth ofMankind, otherwise
named The Woman's Book (1545), in Joan Larsen Klein, Daughters, Wives andWidows:
Writings byMen aboutWomen andMarriage inEngland, i 500- i 640;Thomas Tusser, The
Points ofHousewifery (1580), in Klein, Daughters, Wives andWidows; Thomas Becon,
The book of matrimony (1564), in Kate Aughterson, Renaissance Woman: Constructions of
Femininity in England; Elizabeth Clinton, The Countess of Lincoln's Nursery (1622);
Christopher Hooke, The Childbirth (1590); Robert Cleaver and John Dod, A Godly
Form of Household Government: For the Ordering of Private Families, according to the
Direction of God's Word (1630);William Gouge, Of Domesticall Duties. Eight Treatises
(1622); and Dorothy Leigh, The Mother's Blessing (1616).
4 Even
women's
shamed
the
the
roles
before
cuckold's
fear
commonplace
in patrilineal
of
the
community
that
but
horns,
that
can
cuckolding
transmission.
led
they must
Indeed,
so many
ultimately
be
it's not
traced
to a concern
about
the fear of being

only
men
to steer clear of
early modern
call as their
own
anything
their
wives brought forth.

5This is
readily apparent in the case of unwed mothers, who while in labor,
were often bullied by midwives
into revealing fathers' identities.While
such manda
tory
name
ceivably
identification
resulted
early modern
was
in a form
a means
of
by which
empowerment
childbirth, see Cressy
to reduce
for mothers.
the
For
roll, it also
poor
a
discussion
good
(1997).
con
of
88
32.3 [Summer
2005]
CollegeLiterature
6
See, for example, Sokol and Sokol (2000), Stone (1979), Erickson
(1993),
(1975).
Cressy, (2000), Ingram (1987), andWrightson,
7 See also Laslett
(1983).
8 See
Jankowski (1992). Married women, as Jankowski has noted, were less like
ly
to be
for
prosecuted
murder newborn
9
Natasha
than were
infanticide
there was
that because
no
to
need
unmarried
the
women,
there would
pregnancy,
disguise
rationale
be
being
reason
to
less
infants (44).
were more
to
notes
that while
"women
vulnerable
punishment
.
was
to doubt
in a way
that
open
[.
.] because
paternity
always
bastard-bearing
was
was
not"
such
likewise
(2002,
183),
upon
maternity
punishment
dependent
a threat
status. While
to the
unmarried
mothers
of the lower
social
class constituted
Korda
for
economic
of
well-being
threatened patrilineage.
notes
Korda
Measure,
the
those
community,
In her discussion
that
she violates
the middle
of
and
classes
upper
of Shakespeare's Juliet from Measure for
the
trust
cultural
'jewel' of her patrimony" (2002,181).

10The
queen's justices met atMaidstone
in having
"thrown
away
the
in July of 1593 to hear this case (1979,
#2074).
11Calendar Assize
Records, #2082.
of
12Calendar Assize
Records, #2279.
of
13 For a full account of this
stillbirth, see Fraser (1994).
14Charles
(1875-77) makes mention of the stillbirth.
Wriothesley
15 See Warnicke
(1989). Warnicke
that "Henry
suggests
considered
miscarriage
or stillbirth an ill omen for his kingdom aswell as for his dynasty" (176).
16
See, for example Adelman
(1987), Callaghan
(1992), Marcus
(1988),
Newman
and
(1991),
Stallybrass (1982).
17
While L. C. Knight's provocatively titled essay does not deal with the issue of
maternal
Macbeth's
Lady
within
text. The
the
I would
scheme,
within
specter
argue,
it does
history,
of patrilineage
one
constitutes
18 See Blumenfeld-Kosinki
Caesarean
intriguing
its impact
the more
of
about
absences
questions
on Macbeth's
succession
absent
interesting
presences
has
noted,
if they believed
are reports of early modern
(1990). There
mothers
sections.
male
Normally,
Kosinki
and
text.
the
surviving
19
raise
surgeons
midwives
however,
performed
were
Caesarean
also
expected
sections.
to
As
perform
Blumenfeld
this procedure
that the fetus could still be alive (1990, 2).
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Murdering Mother

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Fantasizing Infanticide: Lady Macbeth and the Murdering Mother in Early Modern England

Author(s): Stephanie Chamberlain

ate professor of English at

in all of Shakespeare's drama.

she will prove unable to support.

of an illegitimate political goal.

of the period addressing the subject of

children, they were likewise

that the maternal

cords that should tie each child to

the love of itsmother"

ty added to already existing anxieties. Because mothers were responsible for

views toward breastfeed

plied [...] abundant

and John Dod

take part with

take thereafter. (Cleaver and Dod

to the OED, "complexion"

some feeling of annoyance"

practice Keith Wrightson

as did many early

care for her child. As Vives

"the very sight of her child dispels

If she like the hypo

crime better exemplifies

"their crimes out of their

Just how prevalent

in the early modern

cases of suspected infant murder,

such a law seems

fears about women's

rather to an attempt to control the potential

of the assize records

insight into the cultural anxiety

is illustrative. On May 4, 1593,

is equally graphic. On the 20

take sadistic delight in butchering

states at the time of the crimes, they nonetheless

Indeed, the infantici

infamous rise and fall earlier in the sixteenth century

that the charges against her were politically

after fifteen weeks

son. As Retha Warnicke

fetus were deformed, Henry's

to himself that he had sired this fetus. He would

discovered, was divine punishment

also have wanted

for his activities. The blame for its birth

like activities. (Warnicke 1999, 20-21)

read this scene as an

(1993, 2). Joan Larsen Klein likewise sug

ally constructed masculine/feminine

"unsex me here" speech tends to decon

yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so"

the patriarchal world of the play. Not only do

has suggested that "they are poets, prophetesses

the ancient fertility goddess under whose

Satan and Hell, the term's earliest usage may

hag again in relation to Sycorax

she ever nursed

however, is perhaps less important

Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums