Billy Bragg - Milkman of human kindness (unembeddable video)
Lady Macbeth:
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature,
It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way.
Macbeth Act 1, scene 5, 15–18 To Lady Macbeth, the “milk of human kindness” is distasteful stuff—no self-respecting man has any use for it. Therefore, when we use the phrase to approve someone’s compassion, we reverse the original sentiment … As fluids go, Lady Macbeth is more inclined to murderous blood than nurturing milk. Later, goading the hesitant Macbeth, she insists that, if she had sworn to do it, she wouldn’t have hesitated to take her own baby “while it was smiling in my face” and to “Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,/ And dash’d the brains out.” A charming woman.
Also: Billy Bragg, know him.
