Page:On Shakespeare, or, What You Will, Furness, 1908.djvu/5

1908.] where fairies foot it featly, sits the lovely, young instructress, with her pupil, Caliban, at her feet? No need to ask whence Caliban drew the poesy which filled his dreams with voices so sweet that when he waked he cried to dream again.

But to return. Perhaps as striking a way as any other of illustrating concisely Shakespeare’s knowledge of human nature, and at the same time of showing the faultless consistency of his characters to their own individual nature, is to compare his varied treatment of the same theme. Take, for example, an instigation to murder, as disclosed in Hamlet, in Richard the Third, in Macbeth, and in King John If time permitted, it would be delightful to read these several passages to you. I can merely beg you to read them for yourselves and mark how absolutely true is each character to itself.

The mention of Macbeth and Hamlet reminds me that there is an interpretation of a passage in each of these plays which I would fain submit to your judgement.

There are two lines in Macbeth, to which I have never heard but one general interpretation, and this interpretation has always been to me not only most inartistic, but even revolting in the extreme. It is in the second Scene of the second Act, where Lady Macbeth enters with the words:

A hundred and thirty years ago Mrs. Griffith remarked that Shakespeare “seems to think that a woman could not be rendered completely wicked without some degree of intoxication.” Subsequent commentators have in general acquiesced in the effect of wine indicated by Mrs. Griffith, or avoided reference to the passage; this interpretation remains therefore the only one, as far as I know, and is not only so gross, but implies such a violation of all art in representing a heroine as intoxicated, that I will not listen to it. Rather any solution, however far-fetched, or feeble, or childish, than that Lady Macbeth, in that supreme hour, was sustained by drink. But may we not find, in the attendant circumstances, another explanation of her words? Duncan was sleeping beneath the roof of his own kinsman, not only a kinsman, but the most loyal and trusted of Thanes. Could king be more secure? Verily, with the knowledge of this security, might not vigilance,