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ON THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF SHAKSPEARE.
But his anger at her deception and abandonment of home Wasblind in iis paroxysm, and coarse in iis denouncement. It Casther sortii to stame. The parties are Witnesses to it Whom Ahelias eVery ground to fear. The conspiracy Hready laid againsther spoliess fame is strengthened, and Roderigo hopes. Thehatred whicli long has rankled toWards the bridegroom hero is sed and counselled, and Iago plois. There is littio dolabi thattho jealous temperament of that nobie-minded spouse has caughta momentary susceptibility of doubi, a latent spark, though heinstant eousty checks it, and Othello Deis the possibility, Dominaiden artifice, of matronly desection. But for that cruel saying, Roderigo might have renounced his guilly pursuit, Iago might never have compassed his Vengeance through this solii dilemma, and Othollo might have broathed his fareweli os trusi, and aTance, and assured love, in Desdemona's artus. It is a taint onali. It salis like a father's curse. It is the one evit suggestionwhicli pollutos the whole. I litile understand the actor's uri, but I should think that he ought, at the found of these ominΟUS Words, to depict the pang of the sudden thought they have Ahotthrough his imagination, and express, as by a gleam, theentrance of that thought, Whicli is speedily repelled,
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She says With a compunction rather than an irony :
And then a stili more tender recollection OVercomeS her, a mollierio Whom She has never made referetice but once, and that in her
sudden violence, scattered them into the ruins os a magnificent desolation. - Romeo and Juliet are speciat favolarites With tho many, and , of coua se, With the young. But the tragic part is
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not the best; and the classical reader xvili prefer, to ali the horrors in the tomb of the Capuleis, the loves of Antigone and Haemon in their sepulchral cave. The County Paris, litile thought os, is the most nobie personage of the scene: his bearing is generous, his love sincere, his grief hearl-broken. Helias no deception With Which to charge himself. His assectionalWVS ingenuous -Weeping elegiac tears over his buriod brido, -claiming of his rival and destroyer a place beside her in tho
si, adsed her, and entilles him to the fullest share in the wos and sympathy of that heaped death. The drama of Julius Caesar has been met by many objections. It is thought a mis-nomer, and that Brutus is the hero. But it may bo justi fiod in
that ali depends iapon the character and sate of Caesar, thoughso sinali a part of the action has transpired oro lis salis. Thodialogues of the mob are severely condemned. But it is for-gotten, leaving to just criticism some of the laolisti quibblos, that the language and the conduci of these rude assemblugesare very important helpS to the tragedy, 8hoWing the ignorance and sokleness of the mass upon Which the leaders of the colanter conspiracies played, and the issues of those revolutions depended. There is one apparent contradiction Whicli is supposed lo injuretho truth of Brutus. With the public despalchos he has received the account os Portia's death. He bears it in the spiritos his stoicism, and only reveais it to his friend. To Μessala he appears ignorant of it, and even dentes to have received thoinformation. He is noW sitiing in a councit of War, during themidnight whicli precedes the batile of Philippi, and he willknow no private grief. He Will neither teli his widoworhood, nor the cruei proscription of his friend8, to the harassed army. It may be suppression, it is falsehood, but it is of the character of the courage Whicli disinterestedly concenis the pain it endures. It is the nervo whicli Will not shrink. It is to save Othors thatit velis the inly consuming agony. We offer not the eXcuse Ofour principies: the stern character is fully supported on iis own. It may be, too, that he is supposed to Warrant the deception,
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hecause his information is private, though it accompanted the public news. He might deem that he was not required to be themourner besore others, untii the faci obtainsed iis legitimato publicity.-The Mercliant of Venice is parti-tragic. And Ionly keep it in VieW for a moment, to notice two indications of the autho 's skill . The publican Was the taX-gatherer in Judea under the Roman power. Association with these exactors was deemed most dishonour te. The Israelite felt the ulmost abhorretice of them. They drained his wealth. They indicated his yoke. His vocabulary contained no Word more contemptuousand Ioathing. Therofore Shyloch thus venis his thoughis onseeing Antonio :
Portia, in her beautiful Eulogium on the quality of mercy, resis iis obligations chiefly here :
Eut not so cursortly Will we dismiss the Μacbeth, probablythe most extraordinary Work of genius, and assuredly of dramatic genius, the Worid has ever feen. A seW observations maytend to illustrate and confirm the enthusiasm Whicli it inspires. That need not be repeated Whicli every commentator has noticed, and whicli every reader of the tragedy knows. But One or tWoremarks may be ventured whicli are presumed not to be alto-gether trite.
The sirst shali regard the great morat principis Uponwhicli the drama is constructed. This is generalty mistahen. The hero is held to bo an object of missortune. We pity his alli, ut inevitabis fate. Ηe is supposed to bo impelled froin Without.
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This is compotent evidence that it Was not infernal suggestionwhicli instigato 1 him, that hindled him to tho crown. ' Andoqualty clear is it that his Win is not the temptress. For should any imagine that he has not mu sed ii untii his return to his castis, and his interview With her besore the arrival of tho king, we have but to remember his oWn language immediately after
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familiar to the liope Whicli is noW chimed With, and propheti- catly confirmed. From his delight, his abstraction, it is notne W, but it has received a Warrant it never possessed besore. TC the witches he may say that to
The Very manner proves that he has long ruminated ii, and his agitation arises only froin the supernatural prestige os his dosti Dy.
-- His face is as a book where men may read Strange matters.
Thoro is an intimation Whicli SubserVes our argument, though we advance it less confidently than What has been Hready alloged, becauso the date of the business is not quite plain. Μacdusr has always been the object of distike and distriast to thousurper. Ηe has hom the first suspected the treacherous and bloody actor though clothed in regal robes. He has invoked
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Dented his person to the tyrant's feast.
We ask, When 8 Instantly on the murder, Μalcoim and his brother hastinen to the Englisti and Irish couris. These trains ' must have, then, preceded Duncan's death. But is they preceded that, they must have anticipaled the searsul divination. Ηe has almed to get the heir-apparent under his influence, and then into his grasp. He has contrived every part of the plot. He is intent upon the ruin os the entire dynasty. He Would, theresere, have
Wo may account for his absence by supposing either that he hasbeen secretly destroyed by some train,' though the oldor brothor has not heard of it, owing to the distance of the scene,
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The author, theresere, obviousty meant that Μacbethdrow to himself these excitemonis, that thsy found in him a susceptibility and readiness for compliance, that he tempted thetemptationi And What a sitiing and solemn lesson, as Weli asnatural and horribie example, are set besore usi The hagsmight have prophesied in vain, had not Μacbeth prepared his
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yet floWing blood, to stain the faces of his attendanis. She has
it no remorse. The monster is far more ravening than hermate. Ηe in the mean while, though conScience-Strichen, PUr-Sues his reeking crueity. The nexi secret he will not discloso even to her. He is not weary of blood-shed, though scared by iis spectre, and halanted by iis voice. And it may not have been mari ed, with What anguisti ho visioris to himself that fleeplessness of guill With Which he has been threatened, so tria ea prediction of those stern vigils of an evit conscience respectingwhich he after ards complains. The peculiari ty consisis in his stripping Dom hi in titie after titte, as though oach had brought doWn upon him this curse. Thus divested, ho loolis iapon his naked self, and Deis that the curse clings to him stili. What adescription l What a searching, ali embracing, doom l
Tho malison is fulsit sed as though the palpebra of the o werocul aWay, and the life Were fretted into one irritation. His sevor
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ever burns. His frame eVer Writhes. His conscience, stili mostdisquiet, tosses to and Do.