[andensande]

The conclusions of the article seem a bit far-fetched to me, and seem to ignore the rhetorical style of poetry and theatre at the time. One of the examples the author gives (where they missed a contracted instance of "the"):

> [...] Look like th' innocent flower,/But be the serpent under ’t.

It is still acceptable in modern English to say something like

> Seem like the innocent flower, but be as the serpent underneath it.

Certainly not casual, everyday speech -- but using a rhetorical strategy of referring to an archetypal innocent flower, or an archetypal serpent. I think it's an enormous stretch to claim that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth had a specific innocent flower in mind when they were speaking.