the "juice of cursed hebenon"; how the strange appearance of
the late King's body, which "an instant tetter" had barked about
with "vile and loathsome crust," was explained to the multitude
we are left to imagine. There is no real evidence to show that
Queen Gertrude was her lover's accomplice in her husband's
murder. If that had been so, she would no doubt have been of
considerable assistance to Claudius in the preparation of the
crime. But in the absence of more definite proof we must assume
Claudius' murder of his brother to have been a solitary
achievement, skilfully carried out by one whose genial good-
fellowship and convivial habits gave the lie to any suggestion of
criminality. Whatever may have been his inward feelings of
remorse or self-reproach, Claudius masked them successfully from
the eyes of all. Hamlet's instinctive dislike of his uncle was
not shared by the members of the Danish court. The "witchcraft
of his wit," his "traitorous gifts," were powerful aids to
Claudius, not only in the seduction of his sister-in-law, but the
perpetration of secret murder.

The case of the murder of King Duncan of Scotland by Macbeth and
his wife belongs to a different class of crime. It is a striking
example of dual crime, four instances of which are given towards
the end of this book. An Italian advocate, Scipio Sighele, has
devoted a monograph to the subject of dual crime, in which he
examines a number of cases in which two persons have jointly
committed heinous crimes.[3] He finds that in couples of this
kind there is usually an incubus and a succubus, the one who
suggests the crime, the other on whom the suggestion works until
he or she becomes the accomplice or instrument of the stronger
will; "the one playing the Mephistophelian part of tempter,