No. XV. ON THE CHARACTERS OF MACBETH AND RICHARD CONCLUDED. MACBETH now approaches towards his catastrophe. The heir of the crown is in arms, and he must defend valiantly what he has usurped villainously. His natural valour does not suffice for this trial: he resorts to the witches; he conjures them to give answer to what he shall ask, and he again runs into all those pleonasms of speech which I before remarked. The predictions he extorts from the apparitions are so couched as to seem favourable to him; at the same time that they correspond with events which afterwards prove fatal. The management of this incident has so close a resemblance to what the poet Claudian has done in the instance of Ruffinus's vision the night before his massacre, that I am tempted to insert the passage: Ecce videt diras alludere protinus umbras, Quas dedit ipse neci; quarum quæ clarior una A ghastly vision in the dead of night Of mangled, murder'd ghosts appal his sight; That ends thy labours, and dispels thy fears: Confiding in his auguries, Macbeth now prepares for battle: by the first of these he is assured -That none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. By the second prediction he is told Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until Great Birnam-wood to Dunsinane's high bill These he calls sweet boadments! and concludes To sleep in spite of thunder. This play is so replete with excellences, that it would exceed all bounds if I were to notice every one; I pass over, therefore, that incomparable scene between Macbeth, the physician, and Seyton, in which the agitations of his mind are so wonderfully expressed; and, without pausing for the death of Lady Macbeth, I conduct the reader to that crisis, when the messenger has announced the ominous approach of Birnam-wood.-A burst of fury, an exclamation seconded by a blow, is the first natural explosion of a soul so stung with scorpions as Macbeth's. The sudden gust is no sooner discharged than nature speaks her own language; and the still voice of conscience, like reason in the midst of madness, murmurs forth these mournful words : I pall in resolution, and begin To doubt the equivocation of the fiend, With what an exquisite feeling has this darling son of nature here thrown in this touching, this pathetic sentence, amidst the very whirl and eddy of conflicting passions! Here is a study for dramatic poets; this is a string for an actor's skill to touch; this will discourse sweet music to the human heart, with which it is finely unisoned when struck with the hand of a master. The next step brings us to the last scene of Macbeth's dramatic existence. Flushed with the blood of Siward, he is encountered by Macduff, who crosses him like his evil genius. Macbeth cries out Of all men else I have avoided thee. To the last moment of character the faithful poet supports him. He breaks off from single combat, and in the tremendous pause, so beautifully contrived to hang suspense and terror on the moral scene of his exit, the tyrant driven to bay, and panting with the heat and struggle of the fight, vauntingly exclaims- MACE. As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air MACD. With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed: Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; I bear a charmed life, which must not yield Despair thy charm! And let the angel, whom thou still hast serv'd, MACB. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so ! There sinks the spirit of Macbeth— -Behold! where stands Th' usurper's cursed head! How completely does this coincide with the passage already quoted! -Occulto fallitur ille Omine, nec CAPITIS FIXI præsagia sentit. It cannot but be a subject of considerable regret, that the supernatural machinery of this sublime drama is so inadequately represented on the stage. "Much," I have remarked in another work, "of the dread, solemnity, and awe which is experienced in reading this play, from the intervention of the witches, is lost in its representation, owing to the injudicious custom of bringing them too forward on the scene; where, appearing little better than a group of old women, the effect intended by the poet is not only destroyed, but reversed. Their dignity and grandeur must arise, as evil beings gifted with superhuman powers, from the undefined nature both of their agency and of their external forms. Were they indistinctly seen, though audible, at a distance, and, as it were, through a hazy twilight, celebrating their orgies, and with shadowy and gigantic shape flitting between the pale blue Let us now approach the tent of Richard. It is matter of admiration to observe how many incidents the poet has collected in a small compass, to set the military character of his chief personage in a brilliant point of view. A succession of scouts and messengers report a variety of intelligence, all which, though generally of the most alarming nature, he meets not only with his natural gallantry, but sometimes with pleasantry and a certain archness and repartee, which is peculiar to him throughout the drama. It is not only a curious, but delightful task to examine by what subtle and almost imperceptible touches Shakspeare contrives to set such marks upon his characters, as give them the most living likenesses that can be conceived. In this, above all other poets that ever existed, he is a study and a model of perfection. The great distinguishing passions every poet may describe; but Shakspeare gives you their humours, their minutest foibles, those little starts and caprices, which nothing but the most intimate familiarity brings to light. Other authors write characters like historians; he, like the bosom friend of the person he describes. The flames of their cauldron and the eager eye of the spectator, sufficient latitude would be given to the imagination, and the finest drama of our author would receive, in the theatre, that deep tone of supernatural horror with which it is felt to be so highly imbued in the solitude of the closet."-Shakspeare and his Times, vol ii. p. 488. |