Horror: The 100 Best Books Read Free Page A

insanity and death. With the gods in retreat, and the idea of purgatorial judgments less acceptable to the modern mind than new adventures after death as dust and spirit, all imaginative accounts of that journey become essential reading. In their diversity lies testament to the richness of our literature's heritage. In their experiencing, a sense of how the human perspective changes. And in their wisdom -- who knows? -- a guide to how we, adventurers in the forbidden magic of our genre , may behave when the last Act is upon us. -- CLIVE BARKER
    2: [1606] WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - The Tragedy of Macbeth

    Scotland. Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, a loyal subject of King Duncan, meets three Witches on a blasted heath. They prophesy that he will become Thane of Cawdor and then king, and that his comrade Banquo will sire a line of kings. Macbeth is immediately made Thane of Cawdor by Duncan, and is inspired -- partly by the witches, partly by his wife, partly by his own ambition -- to plot the murder of Duncan. He becomes king, but tries to prove the witches false by murdering Banquo and thus ensuring his own family will succeed him. Visiting the witches again, he receives further prophecies that suggest he is invincible -- he cannot be killed by a man born of woman, and he will not be unthroned unless Birnam Wood marches upon Dunsinane castle. However, while his wife is driven mad by guilt, Macbeth sees each of the further prophecies come true -- Banquo's sons escape him to become the ancestors of James I of England (recently crowned when the play was being written), his enemies use the cut-down trees of Birnam as shields when they advance on the castle, and he faces in battle Macduff, who was born by Caesarian.
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    A really serious crime, in the long run, leads to temporal retribution and possible damnation. I have tried to use such a theme many times personally, and though I am no Shakespearean scholar, I believe that one must realize how grave the Macbeths' crimes were. In Shakespeare's day, regicide was regarded as the worst crime of all, as the king or queen was God's consort on Earth. Duncan was also a good ruler who
    "Hath borne his faculties so meek, Hath been so clear in his great office That his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against The deep damnation of his taking-off."
    Macbeth was assured by the witches that he need fear nothing unless Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane and he was opposed by a man not born of woman. The witches were equivocators and this point is explained by the drunken porter at the castle gate: "Lechery, it provokes and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with Lechery: it makes him, and it mars him . . ." By the witches' own forecast, Banquo was ordained the father of a line of kings and this prediction is repeated after his murder, so Macbeth sees his original crime as fruitless, and he and Lady Macbeth are driven mad by guilt. His wife commits suicide and he accepts the news briefly. "She should have died hereafter. There would have been time for such a word . . ." Only at the very end, when the witches' falsehood is finally revealed, does Macbeth come to terms with reality and realise the truth.
    "Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane And though opposed being by no woman born Yet will I try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, And damned be he who first cries 'huld, enough'."
    According to Aristotle, the word "tragedy" means "arousing pity and terror". The play succeeds in both respects. To my mind, Macbeth 's plot makes the play one of the best thrillers in our language and to this is added some of the finest poetry ever written. A truly magnificent feast. -- JOHN BLACKBURN
    3: [1612] JOHN WEBSTER - The White Devil

    The White Divel, or, The Tragedy of Paulo Giordano Urfini, Duke of Brachiano, with The Life and Death of Vittoria Corombona the famous Venetian Curtizan