صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

dulged his genius without reftraint; he ftood alone and fuper-eminent, and wanted no artificial fcaffold to raise him above the heads of his contemporaries; he was natural, lofty, carelefs, and daringly incorrect. Place the fame man in other times, amongst a people polished almoft into general equality, and he fhall begin to hefitate and retract his fallies; for in this refpect poetical are like military excurfions, and it makes a wide difference in the movements of a fkilful general, whether he is to fally into a country defended by well-disciplined troops, or only by an irregular mob of unarmed barbarians. Shakespear might vault his Pegasus without a rein; mountains might rife and feas roll in vain before him; Nature herself could neither ftop nor circumfcribe his ca

reer. The modern man of verfe mounts with the precaution of a riding-master, and prances round his little circle full-bitted and caparisoned in all the formality of a review. Whilft he is thus pacing and piaffering with every body's eyes upon him, his friends are calling out every now and then-" Seat yourself firm in the faddle! Hold your body straight! Keep your fpurs from his "fides

[ocr errors]

66

F 2

"fides for fear he fets a kicking! Have a

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

care he does not stumble; there lies

a stone, here runs a ditch; keep your

whip ftill, and depend upon your bit, if you have not a mind to break your "neck!"-On the other quarter his enemies are bawling out" How like a taylor that "fellow fits on horfeback! Look at his "feet, look at his arms! Set the curs upon "him; tie a cracker to his horfe's tail, and "make sport for the fpectators !"-All this while perhaps the poor devil could have performed paffably well, if it were not for the mobbing and hallooing about him: Whereas Shakespear mounts without fear, and starting in the jockey-phrase at score, cries out," Stand clear, ye fons of earth! or, ་་ by the beams of my father Apollo, I'll "ride over you, and trample you into "duft!"

No. LXIX.

Nil intentatum noftri liquere poetæ :

Nec minimum meruere decus, veftigia Graca
Aufi deferere, et celebrare domefiica falta.

(HORAT.)

THERE are two very striking characters delineated by our great dramatic poet, which I am defirous of bringing together under one review, and thefe are Macbeth and Richard the Third.

The parts, which these two perfons fuftain in their respective dramas, have a remarkable coincidence: Both are actuated by the fame guilty ambition in the opening of the story; both murder their lawful fovereign in the course of it; and both are defeated and flain in battle at the conclufion of it: Yet these two characters, under circumftances fo fimilar, are as ftrongly distinguished in every paffage of their dramatic life by the art of the poet, as any two men ever were by the hand of nature.

Let us contemplate them in the three following periods; viz. The premeditation of

[blocks in formation]

their crime; the perpetration of it; and the catastrophe of their death.

Duncan the reigning king of Scotland has two fons: Edward the fourth of England has alfo two fons; but these kings and their refpective heirs do not affect the ufurpers Macbeth and Richard in the fame degree, for the latter is a prince of the blood royal, brother to the king, and next in confanguinity to the throne after the death of his elder brother the Duke of Clarence: Macbeth on the contrary is not in the fucceffion

And to be king

Stands not within the profpect of belief.

His views therefore being further removed and more out of hope, a greater weight of circumftances should be thrown together to tempt and encourage him to an undertaking so much beyond the profpect of his belief. The art of the poet furnishes these circumstances, and the engine, which his invention employs, is of a preternatural and prodigious fort. He introduces in the very opening of his scene a troop of fybils or witches, who falute Macbeth with their divinations, and in three folemn prophetic gratulations hail him Thane

of

of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King hereafter!

By Sinel's death I know I'm Thane of Glamis ;
But how of Cawdor ?

One part of the prophecy therefore is true; the remaining promifes become more deferving of belief. This is one ftep in the ladder of his ambition, and mark how artfully the poet has laid it in his way: No time is loft; the wonderful machinery is not fuffered to ftand ftill, for behold a verification of the fecond prediction, and a courtier thus addreffes him from the king

And for an earnest of a greater honour,

He bade me from him call thee Thane of Cawdor.

The magic now works to his heart, and he cannot wait the departure of the royal meffenger before his admiration vents itself afide

Glamis, and thane of Cawdor!

The greateft is behind.

A fecond time he turns afide, and unable to repress the emotions, which this fecond conF 4 firmation

« السابقةمتابعة »