1 One of Shakspeare's favourite morals is—that criminality reduces the brave and pufillanimous to a level. Every puny whipfter gets my fword, exclaims Othello, for why should honour outlive honefly? Where I could not be honeft, fays Albany, I was never valiant; Iachimo imputes his want of manhood to the heaviness and guilt within his bofom; Hamlet afferts that confcience does make cowards of us all and Imogen tells Pifanio he may be valiant in a better cause, but now he seems a coward. The late Dodor Johnson, than whom no man was better acquainted with general nature, in his Įrene has alfo obferved of a once faithful Baffa, "How guilt, when harbour'd in the conscious breast, "See Cali, dread of kings, and pride of armies, "Had ftretch'd the fiery boafter in his grave." or Who then can fuppofe that Shakspeare would have exhibited his Macbeth with encreafing guilt, but undiminished bravery? wonder that our hero, "Whose pefter'd fenfes do recoil and start, "When all that is within him does condemn fhould have loft the magnanimity he difplayed in a righteous cause, "How is't with me, when every noile appals me?" Between the courage of Richard and Macbeth, however, no comparison in favour of the latter can be supported. Richard was fo thoroughly defigned for a daring, impious, and obdurate charader, that even his birth was attended by prodigies, and his perfon armed with ability to do the earliest mifchief of which infancy is capable. Macbeth, on the contrary, till deceived by the illufions of witchcraft, and depraved by the fuggeftions of his wife, was a religious, temperate, and blameless character. The vices of the were originally woven into his heart;, thofe of the other, were only applied to the surface of his difpofition. They can fcarce be faid to have penetrated quite into its fubftance, for while there was fhame, there might have been reformation. one, The precautions of Richard concerning the armour he was to wear in the next day's battle, his preparations for the onset, and his orders after it is begun, are equally characteristic of a calm and intrepid foldier, who poffeffes the wisdom that appeared fo formidable to Macbeth, and guided Banquo's valour to act in fafety. But Macbeth appears in confufion from the moment his cafle is invested, iffues no diftin& or material dire&ions, prematurely calls for his Y armour, as irrefolutely throws it off again, and is more intent on felf-crimination, than the repulfe of the befiegers, or the difpofition of the troops who are to defend his fortrefs. But it is ufelefs to dwell on particulars fo much more exadly enumerated by Mr. Whately. The truth is, that the mind of Richard, unimpregnated by original morality, and uninfluenced by the laws of Heaven, is harraffed by no subsequent remorse. Repente fuit turpiffimus. Even the depreffion he feels from preteruatural objects, is speedily taken off. In fpite of ominous vifions he fallies forth, and feeks his competitor in the throat of death. Macbeth, though he had long abandoned the practice of goodness, had not fo far forgot its accustomed influence, but that a virtuous adversary whom he had injured, is as painful to his fight, as the spectre in a former fcene, and equally blafts the refolution he was willing to think he had ftill poffeffed. His confcience (as Hamlet fays of the poifon) overcrows his Spirit, and all his enterprizes are ficklied over by the pale caft of thought. The curfe that attends on him is, virtutem videre, & intabefcere relictâ. Had Richard once been a feeling and confcientious charader, when his end drew nigh, he might also have betrayed evidences of timidity -- "there fadly fumming what he had, and loft;" and if Macbeth originally had been a hardened villain, no terrors might have obtruded themselves on his clofe of life. Qualis ab incepto procefferat. In short, Macbeth is timid iu fpite of all his boafting, as long as he thinks timidity can afford refources; nor does he exhibit a fpecimen of determined intrepidity, till the completion of the prophecy, and the challenge of Macduff, have taught him that life is no longer tenable. Five counterfeit Richmonds are in by Richard, who, before his fall, has enacted wonders bevond the common ability of man. The prowess of Macbeth is confined to the fingle conqueft of Siward, a novice in the art of war Neither are the truly brave ever difgraced by unneceffary deeds of cruelty. The victims of Richard therefore are merely fuch as obftructed his progrefs to the crown, or betrayed the confi dence he had reposed in their affurances of fidelity. Macbeth, with a favage wantonnefs that would have difhonoured a Scythian female, cuts off a whole defenceless family, though the father of it was the only reasonable object of his fear. Can it be a queftion-then which of these two perfonages would manifeft the most determined valour in the field? Shall we hesitate to beftow the palm of courage on the fteady unrepenting Yorkift, in whofe bofom ideas of hereditary greatness, and confidence resulting from fuccefs, had fed the flame of glory, and who dies in combat for a crown which had been the early object of his ambition? and fhall we allot the fame wreath to the wavering self-convicted Thane, who, educated without hope of royalty, had been fuggefted into greatnefs, and yet, at laft, would forego, it all to fecure himself by flight, but that flight is become an impoflibility? To conclude, a picture of confcience encroaching on fortitude, of magnanimity once animated by virtue, and afterwards extinguifhed by guilt, was what Shakspeare meant to display in the character and conduct of Macbeth. STEEVENS. "Fa Macbeth was certainly one of Shakspeare's lateft productious, and it might poffibly have been fuggefted to him by a little performance on the fame fubject at Oxford, before king James, 1605, I will transcribe my notice of it from Wake's Rex Platonicus: bulæ anfam dedit antiqua de regiâ profapiâ hiftoriola apud ScotoBritannos celebrata, quæ narrat tres olim Sibyllas occurriffe duobus Scotia proceribus, Macbetho & Banchoni, & illum prædixiffe regem futurum, fed regem nullum geniturum; hunc regem non futurum, fed reges geniturum multos. Vaticinii veritatem rerum eventus comprobavit. Banchonis enim. è flirpe potentiffimus Jacobus oriundus p. 29. Since I made the obfervation here quoted, I have been repeatedly told, that I unwittingly make Shakspeare learned at least in Latin, as this muft have been the language of the performance before king James. One might perhaps have, plaufibly faid, that he probably picked up the ftory at fecond-hand; but mere accident has thrown an old pamphlet in my way, intitled The Oxford Triumph, by one Anthony Nixon, 1605, which explains the whole matter: This performance, fays Antony, was first in Latine to the king, then in English to the queene and young prince:" and, as he goes on to tell us, "the conceipt thereof the kinge did very much applaude." It is likely that the friendly letter, which we are informed king James once wrote to Shakspeare, was on this occafion. FARMER. Dr. Johnfon used often to mention an acquaintance of his, who was for ever boafting what great things he would do, could he but meet with Afcham's Toxophilus, at a time when Afcham's pieces * Afcham's Toxophilus,) M. Malone is fomewhat miftaken in his acount of Dr. Johnfon's pleafantry, which originated from an obfervation made by Mr. Theobald in 1733, and repeated by him in 1744. See his note on Much ado about nothing in his 8vo. edition of Shakspeare, Vol. I. p. 410; and his duodecimo, Vol. II. p. 12. and had I the convenience of confulting Afcham's Toxophilus, I might probably grow better acquainted with his hiftory:" i, e. that of Adam Bell, the celebrated archer. 1 Mr. Theobald was certainly no diligent inquirer after ancient books, or was much out of luck, if in the courfe of ten years he could not procure the treatise he wanted, which was always fufficiently common. I have abundant reafon to remember the foregoing circumftance, having often ftood the pufh of my late coadjutor's merriment on the fame fcore; for he never heard me lament the fcarcity of any old pamphlet from which I expe&ed to derive information, but he instanty roared out" Sir, remember Tib and his Toxophilus." STEEVENS. 1 had not been collected, and were very rarely to be found. At length Toxophilus was procured, but-nothing was done. The Interlude performed at Oxford in 1605, by the ftudents of Saint John's college, was for a while fo far my Toxophilus, as to excite my curiofity very ftrongly on the fubje&. Whether Shakspeare in the compofition of this noble tragedy was at all indebted to any preceding performance, through the medium of tranflation, or in any other way, appeared to me well worth afcertaining. The British Museum was examined in vain. Mr. Warton very obligingly made a ftri&t search at St. John's college, but no traces of this literary performance could there be found. At length chance threw into my hands the very verfes that were spoken in 1605 by three young gentlemen of that college; and, being thus at laft obtained, "that no man" (to use the words of Dr. Johnson) may ever want them more," I will here tranfcribe them. There is fome difficulty in reconciling the different accounts of this entertainment. The author of Rex Platonicus fays, "Tres adolefcentes concinno Sibyllarum habitu induti, è collegio [Divi Johannis] prodeuntes, & carmina lepida alternatim canentes, regi fe tres effe Sibyllas profitentur, quæ Banchoni olim fobolis imperia prædixerant, &c. Deinde tribus principibus fuaves felicitatum triplicitates triplicatis carminum vicibus fuccinentes,—principes ingeniofa fictiuncula dele&tatos dimittunt." But in a manufcript account of the king's visit to Oxford in 1605, in the Museum, (Mfs. Baker, 7044,) this interlude is thus described: "This being done, he [the king] rode on untill he came unto St. John's college, where coming against the gate, three young youths, in habit and attire like Nymphes, confronted him, reprefenting England, Scotland, and Ireland; and talking dialogue-wife each to other of their ftate, at laft concluded, yielding up themselves to his gracious government." With this A. Nixon's account in The Oxford Triumph, quarto, 1605, in fome measure agrees, though it differs in a very material point; for, if his relation is to be credited, these young men did not alternately recite verses, but pronounced three diftin&t orations: "This finished, his Majeftie paffed along till hee came before Saint John's college, when three little boyes, coming foorth of a castle made all of ivie, dreft like three nymphes, (the conceipt whereof the king did very much applaude,) delivered three orations, firft in Latine to the king, then in English to the queene and young prince; which being ended his majeftie proceeded towards the caft gate of the citie, where the townesmen againe delivered unto him another speech in English." From these difcordant accounts one might be led to fuppofe, that there were fix actors on this occafion, three of whom perfonated the Sybills, or rather the Weird fifters, and addreffed the royal vifitors in Latin, and that the other three reprefented England, Scotland and Ireland, and spoke only in English. I believe how ever that there were but three young men employed; and after reciting the following Latin lines, (which prove that the weird fifters and the reprefentatives of England, Scotland, and Ireland were the fame perfons,) they might perhaps have pronounced fome Englifh verfes of a fimilar import, for the entertainment of the queen and the princes. To the Latin play of Vertumnus, written by Dr. Mathew Gwynne, which was acted before the king by fome of the ftudents of St. John's college on a fubfequent day, we are indebted for the longfought-for interlude performed at St. John's gate; for Dr. Gwynne, who was the author of this interlude alfo, has annexed it to his Vertumnus, printed in 4to. in 1607. "Ad regis introitum, e Joannenfi Collegio extra portam urbis borealem fito, tres quafi Sibyllæ, fic (ut e fylva) falutarunt. 1. Fatidicas olim fama eft ceciniffe forores Iu faltum, ut lateas, dum Banquo recedis ab aula. 2. Quem divifa prius colit una Britannia, falve. 3. Summe Monarcha Britannice, Hibernice, Gallice, falve. 1. ANNA, parens regum, foror, uxor, filia, falve. 2. Salve, HENRICE hæres, princeps pulcherrime, salve. 3. Dux CAROLE, & perbelle Polonice regule, falve. 1. Nec metas fatis, nec tempora ponimus iftis ; Nec ferimus cædes, nec bella, nec anxia corda; |