Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 001.djvu/454
Jachimo should have been the victor in his combat with Posthumous; for he ought to have been braver than his adversary, in the same proportion as a vain mischievous liar is still less atrociously a wretch than an ungrateful murderer. Mr Steevens concludes: 'Who then can suppose that Shakspeare would have exhibited his Macbeth with increasing guilt, but undiminished bravery?' Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 297.
"The only answer to this dogmatical question is,—Every body;—that is, every body who can read the play, and understand what he reads. Mr Steevens knew that Shakspeare, skilfully preparing us for the mournful change we are about to witness in Macbeth, paints in deep colours the irregular fury of his actions, and the remorse that preys on his heart; he knew, that the blood-stained monster
'Cannot buckle his distemper'd cause
Within the belt of rule;'[1]—
that he feels
'His secret murders sticking on his hands;'[2]
and that the poet finishes this terrific picture of self-condemnation and abhorrence, by adding:—
His pester'd senses do recoil and start,
When all that is within him doth condemn
Itself for being there:'[3]—
"But the learned Editor quite forgets that, in the same scene, good care is taken that the tyrant shall not so far forfeit all claim to our esteem, as to fall into contempt, and be entirely odious to our sight. His original valour remains undiminished, and buoys him up with wild vehemence in this total wreck of his affairs: in spite of us, he commands our admiration, when we see him—hated, abandoned, overwhelmed by calamity, public and domestic, still persist, unshrinking, to brave his enemies, and manfully prepare against the siege with which their combined armies threaten him in his almost un-garrisoned fortress:—
Cath. 'Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies;'[4]—
And the English general presently after says to him:—
Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure
Our sitting down before it.'[5]}}}}
"In the first speech which we hear from the mouth of Macbeth in his reverse of fortune, Shakspeare still continues to show an anxiety that, though we detest the tyrant for his cruelties, we should yet respect him for his courage:—
{{block center|{{smaller block|<poem>:Macb. 'Bring me no more reports; let them fly all;
Till Birnam-wood remove to Dunsinane,
I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequents, pronounc'd me thus:
Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power on thee.[6]—Then fly, false Thanes,
And mingle with the English epicures:
The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear,
Shall never sagg with doubt, nor shake with fear!'"[7]
But the moral effect of this play seems very little connected with the courage or personal valour of Macbeth; it is produced by the delineation which the poet has given of the progress of his criminal ambition; to warn us against the first deviation from rectitude, the first yielding to temptations arising from our self-interest or desire of advancement, if our road to such objects lies through crime and inhumanity; to
- ↑ Macbeth, Act V. Scene II.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid. Act V. Scene IV.
- ↑ 'Mr Steevens' edition has, for an obvious cause, been used in the quotations from Shakspeare from this Essay: It is time, however, to protest, in the strongest terms, against the unwarrantable liberties he continually takes with his author. If Heminge and Condell were, in fairness, chargeable with all the faults which Mr Steevens, their unsparing censor, industriously lays to their account, still they have not done Shakspeare all the injury he would receive, if the interpolations, omissions, and transpositions, of the edition of 1803 should ever be permitted to form the text of his works. This gentleman certainly had many of the talents and acquirements expected in a good editor of our poet; but still he wanted more than one of the most requisite of them. Mr Steevens had no ear for the colloquial metre of our old dramatists: it is not possible, on any other supposition, to account for his whimsical desire, and the pains he takes, to fetter the enchanting freedom of Shakspeare's numbers, and compel them into the heroic march and measured cadence of epic versification. The native wood notes wild, that could delight the cultivated ear of Milton, must not be modulated anew, to indulge the fastidiousness of those who read verses by their fingers.'
- ↑ Macbeth, Act V. Scene III.