The word 'new-born' occurs in five plays, but the phrase 'new-born babe' in verse-terminal position collocates with 'angels' and figures very similarly in Hamlet and Macbeth in soliloquies portraying the criminal's disturbed conscience:
67 O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
68 O limed soul, that struggling to be free
69 Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay,
70 Bow, stubborn knees, and heart, with strings of steel,
71 Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!
72 All may be well. (Ham.3.3.67-72)
Besides, this Duncan
17 Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
18 So clear in his great office, that his virtues
19 Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongu'd, against
20 The deep damnation of his taking-off;
21 And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
22 Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, hors'd
23 Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
24 Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
(Mac.1.7.16-24)
See also "disjoint."
18 September 1999