• SHAKESPEARE STUDY PROGRAMS
THE -TRAGEDIES-
CHARLOTTE PORTER & HELEN A. CLARKE
Authors of "The Comedies"
Editors of the "Pembroke Shakespeare"
the "First Folio Shakespeare"
Poet Lore, etc.
BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER
TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED
Copyright, 1914, by Richard G. Badger All Rights Reserved
THE GORHAM PRESS, BOSTON, U. S. A.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
HA
The Shakespeare Study Programs appeared originally in Poet Lore. They have met with marked favor, and have been reprinted as the back numbers went out of print. The steady demand for these programs prompts the present issue in book-form. Several new programs have been added, and those reprinted have been revised. The Macbeth Program is reprinted by permission of The American Book Co. from "Shakespeare Studies: Mac- beth," by the present authors.
The references in this volume are to the "First Folio Edition" of Shakespeare, edited by Charlotte Porter.
385701
"Criticism is the endeavor to find, to know, to love, to recommend not only the best, but all the good that has been known and thought and written in the world. . . . It shows how to grasp and how to enjoy; . . . it helps the ear to listen when the horns of England blow."
— GEORGE SAINTSBURY, "History of Criticism."
CONTENTS
PAGE
The Tragedie of Antonie and Cleopatra 9
The Tragedie of Coriolanus 21
The Tragedie of Cymbeline 33
The Tragedie of Hamlet 44
The Tragedie of Julius Caesar 65
The Tragedie of King Lear 74
The Tragedie of Macbeth {.
The Tragedie of Othello 132
The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet
SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
THE TRAGEDIE OF ANTONIE AND CLEOPATRA
THE STORY OF ACT I
Topic: — For Paper, Classwork, or Private Study. — Fulvia versus Cleopatra.
Hints : — Tell the Story of Act I. showing how Fulvia's efforts against Cleopatra's hold on Anthony originate the incidents presented. Notice how often Cleopatra speaks of Fulvia; also, how Fulvia's "garboils," as Anthony calls the wars stirred up by her, and then her death, constitute the starting-point of the dramatic action. Anthony going to Rome, and his marriage there with Octavia are the events that flow out of this and occasion the closer con- nection with Cassar, at first, and with Cleopatra, later. She becomes more intent on securing Anthony because of the threatened separation, and so the pull between the two initiates the conflict and the tragedy of the play.
Points: — For Study or Short Replies. — I. The mean- ing of reneges (pronounced in two syllables). Compare the use of this word in Whist for refusing to follow suit. 2. What is meant by the "triple Pillar?" (I. i. 19) 3. To what does Charmian refer — (I. ii. 31). A child "to whom Herode of Jewry may do Homage"? Is this an allusion to a current event or is it an anachronism ? 4. The Nile and its importance to Egypt. 5. Isis and the Religion of Egypt. 6. Sextus Pompeius as the inadequate
9
io SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
representative of the old Republican spirit of Rome. 7. Philo and Enobarbus as representative of current public opinion in Rome (See Introduction to "Anthonie and Cleopatra" in First Folio Edition). 8. "The Coursers heire" which "hath yet but life." (I. ii. 217). To what common superstition does this refer? 9. Of what sort was the "Inke and Paper" of Cleopatra's day?
Queries for Discussion: — Why is Cleopatra apprehen- sive? And how does the imagery apply? Does Anthony love Fulvia? Is Cleopatra right in calling Anthony's at- titude at this time "excellent dissembling" ? Is he not yet wholly hers? Does he know himself? Has ambition a stronger hold upon him now than Love ? What does Cleo- patra mean by the "one word" she wants to say, but does not? (I. iii. 108-119). Is it a ruse or real? (See In- troduction as above).
THE STORY OF ACT II
Topic: — Octavia versus Cleopatra.
Hints: — Is Octavia like Fulvia an active factor in pre- cipitating the action, or is she merely a tool in the hands of Caesar? Note how the influence of Cleopatra makes itself felt throughout the act. In II. i. Pompey hopes Cleo- patra will keep Anthony in Egypt. In II. ii. (although her name is mentioned but once), she is in the minds of all present. If it had not been for her, would Caesar and Anthony have had any quarrel to make up? Show what light the politics of Rome shed on this question, and what light Shakespeare sheds upon it.
ANTONIE AND CLEOPATRA n
Is Caesar really sorry that Anthony is under Cleopatra's influence or is he through his friends, Agrippa and Me- cenas, manoeuvring to make capital for himself out of it? Note the opinion of Enobarbus anent the sealing of the friendship between Anthony and Caesar, by the marriage with Octavia; also, how Mecenas, Caesar's friend, leads Enobarbus on to talk of Cleopatra, until in an innocent way he says, "Now, Anthony must leave her utterly," and gets just the assurance he wants from Enobarbus.
In II. iii. Anthony, while expressing devotion to Octav- ia, has his thoughts bent on Cleopatra. Do you think that the Soothsayer read Anthony's mind, or had he been in- structed by Cleopatra to influence Anthony to return to her?
II. iv. seems to be introduced merely as a sort of cur- tain between scenes iii and v. Or what do you think about this? Consult the Note on the setting of these scenes on Shakespeare's stage in First Folio Edition, pp.
I74-5-
Notice in II. v. Cleopatra's rage and chagrin at the news of the marriage, and how unconscious she is at the time that she is the centre round which not only Anthony's but the whole civilized world's destiny revolves.
In II. vi. and vii. the quarrel with Pompey is disposed of and the feast on Pompey's galley takes place, but that Cleopatra is in their minds is proved by the way the talk keeps drifting towards Egypt. Enobarbus, too, declares to Menas that Anthony will return to her. Is this intro- duced for the sake of hinting at how the plot is going? If so, is it merely a bit of romantic art, or is it true and
12 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
natural? Which of the leaders: i. e. Anthony, Caesar, Pompey, — show the most strength and policy in II. vi. vii ?
Points: — i. Why is Cleopatra called "Egypt's wid- ow"? 2. Where was the Cydnus? 3. "Tended her i' th' eyes, and made her bends adornings." (II. ii. 243-244). — Does the pronoun "her" refer to Cleopatra or to the Barge? What do "eyes" and "bends" mean? (Cf. Plut- arch and see Note, First Folio Edition). 4. "Julius Caesar, who at Phillippi the good Brutus ghosted." (II. vi. 17). To what does this refer? 5. "Pyramisi." — "Pyramus" was used in Shakespeare's day, yet it is perhaps used here to show that Lepidus was getting drunk. 6. What do you think?
Queries for Discussion: — Did Caesar make friends with Anthony, and bring about his alliance with Octavia from interested or disinterested motives? What part do Pom- pey and Lepidus take in the plot? Does the Play need them? Could they be eliminated advantageously?
THE STORY OF ACT III
Topic. — Cleopatra's Supremacy and its Consequences.
Hints : — Of what use is HI. i. in advancing the action ? Note in III. ii. how Caesar anticipates the result of his sis- ter's marriage. Was he really fond of her?
How long historically was it that Anthony remained with Octavia? How does the play correspond with that? Does it give an effect of a short time?
What impression of Cleopatra's character do you get from the scene with the messenger? (See also former
ANTONIE AND CLEOPATRA 13
messenger scene.) In III. iv. during Anthony's talk with Octavia are there any signs that he was meaning to hie him to his "Egyptian dish again" ? Why does Enobarbus say, " 'T will be naught" (III. v. 24.)
Is Caesar's concern that Octavia should come with cere- mony a sign of his respect for her, or a sign of his aristo- cratic notions? Or is it merely hypocritical? What do you think is the secret of Cleopatra's charm for Anthony? (See "Comradeship of Cleopatra and Anthony," Poet-lore, Vol. IV., p. 217, April, 1892.) Why do you think Cleo- patra fled? Was it fright?
Points: — I. Which of the incidents narrated in this act are historical ? 2. Discuss the meaning of obsolete words and customs throughout the play. 3. Explain difficult and elliptical passages throughout the play, such as "Grates me, the summe" (I. i. 28) and Cleopatra's speech (III. xiii. 190-199).
Queries for Discussion: — Was Cleopatra to blame for Anthony's flight? Does she justify herself when she says she "little thought he would have followed"? Was Eno- barbus right in III. vii. 4-22 or Cleopatra? If he was, how reconcile III. xiii. 5-14? Does it follow that men and women in such a case of joint leadership, cannot work together effectively?
THE STORY OF ACT IV
Topic. — Anthony at Bay.
Hints:— Compare IV. i. and IV. ii. for the light they throw on the character of Anthony and Caesar. Are they
14 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
of any other use than to reveal character? What events are there in them ?
The strain of fate in the play : The significance in this respect of Shakespeare's unimportant scenes; e. g. Char- mian's fortune, the sooth-sayer's warning, and scene iii of this Act. Why does Shakespeare make Anthony use such extravagant language ? ( See scenes v. iv. vii, etc. )
Is the Anthony of this Play a direct development of the Anthony of 'Julius Caesar'? And what evidence is there from both Plays that a critical moment was likely to spur Anthony's abilities ? Is there a marked development in the quality of the love of both Anthony and Cleopatra? Fur- nivall says that Anthony's seeming "impulse towards good in the marriage with Octavia lasts but for a time," etc. As his only impulse in making the match was policy could it fairly be called an impulse towards good?
Points: — i. Can anything excuse the mixed metaphors of scene xii. "The hearts that [spaniel'd] me at heels," dis- candie, etc. "Whose bosome was my crownet." 2. Ex- plain the later allusions: "The shirt of Nessus," and "More mad than Telamon," (IV. xiii. 51; xiv. 3). What do 'No more but in a Woman' and 'the high Ro- man Fashion' mean? (IV. xv. 93, and 107). Compare and discuss the explanation given in Notes on these lines in First Folio Edition).
Queries for Discussion. — Was Anthony's moral error his marriage with Octavia instead of fealty to Cleopatra? Is Anthony's constancy to Cleopatra his best point or his worst? Account for the fine dramatic effect of his sud- den—"Fall not a teare I say," etc., (III. xi. 78), and "I
ANTONIE AND CLEOPATRA 15
come, my Queen. . \ . Stay for me," etc. (IV. xiv. 6 1 ). Is the beauty in these that so instinctively moves the heart, good dramatically but wrong morally ? ( See Selected Criticism in First Folio Edition, also the Introduction.)
THE STORY OF ACT V
Topic. — Cleopatra's Choice.
Hints: — Is it love for Anthony which causes Cleo- patra to decide on death? Is it her distaste to being car- ried in Caesar's triumph at Rome ?
Has Shakespeare drawn his Cleopatra as more lovable than Plutarch's or less? Is the charm which Cleopatra exerts upon all who come in contact with her in the play borne out by her actions as Shakespeare has represented them? How does the poet contrive to convince us that she was fascinating?
Is Anthony's suspicion of her treachery quite uncalled for? What evidence is there that Shakespeare meant to show her hesitating betwen a lower course and a courage- ous path to loyalty and death? What can be said to ex- plain or excuse the last trick she plays on Anthony? — that of her alleged death. Note the devotion of her attend- ants, her effect on Dolabella, etc., as evidence of her queen- liness of nature as well as of manner.
How old was the Cleopatra of history? How old was Shakespeare's Cleopatra? Are her words that she was "wrinkled deep in time" to be taken literally? What do you think of the saying: "Her death like her love, her jealousy, her life is notoriously studied, calculated, pre-
16 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
pared, planned; even death made an enjoyment — pain- lessly the asp sucks"? Or is this true? Her death, her love, her jealousy, and her life, though full of simulation, had a core of genuine nobility. Much of her insincerity was assumed, so long as Anthony was alive, to suit her woman's purposes, and her desire for perfect love, and, at the last to trick Caesar's vigilance, so that she could have a chance to die in the "high Roman fashion." She was never in doubt herself as to her own love for An- thony, nor, when the time came, of her course with Caesar. As for the asp it was her best means' of death and loyalty to Anthony.
Points:— i. What was the "Monument"? (See 'Plut- arch's Lives.') 2. The tombs of Egypt and Egyptian modes of burial. Who built the pyramids? Give the dif- ferent theories held as to their use. 3. "His voice was propertied As all the tuned Spheres." (V. ii. 103.) This refers to the "music of the spheres." (See in "Merchant of Venice." First Folio Edition Notes on v. i. 71 and 72.) What are some of the ideas concerning it? (See article on 'The Music of the Spheres' in Music Review, Novem- ber '93.) 4. "And I shall see Some squeaking Cleopatra Boy my greatnesse" (V. ii. 264.) Who acted the wom- en's parts in Shakespeare's day? Does this allusion in general suit as well for the Roman or Alexandrian stage? Did Shakespeare, however, only mean a "local hit"?
Query for Discussion. — Did Cleopatra love Anthony or her power over him?
ANTONIE AND CLEOPATRA 17
VI. CHARACTER STUDIES
Topic.— The Triumvirs Contrasted.
Hints : — LEPIDUS : his weakness and lack of intelligence and conceit illustrated. Show how his speeches are dictated by fear of the other two triumvirs?
ANTHONY : his democratic tendencies ; his personal mag- netism. Collect all traces of these throughout the play. Notice his friendship for Pompey, the representative of the republican party, and the greater influence over him of Anthony than of Caesar.
Why is Ventidius introduced in the play? Notice that Plutarch speaks of him as the only "mean man" (i. e. not of high family) in command, and that he was put there through favor of Anthony. Discuss especially (I. i. 66) : "Wee'll wander through the streets, and note The quali- ties of people;" (I. iv. 22) : to sit and keepe the Tipling with a Slave." Are Anthony's democratic tendencies founded on principle or easy-going habits? Caesar said Anthony was "th' abstracts of all faults That all men fol- low." Can dependence be put upon Caesar's opinion of him? Contrast his final opinion of him at the end of the play. Compare with the opinions of Cleopatra and Eno- barbus. Which shows the finer spirit in the making up of their quarrel, Caesar or Anthony? Examples of his personal prowess and generosity? Is it estimable or de- spicable in Anthony that he was a lover of men at the ex- pense of his dignity, a lover of Cleopatra at the cost of a Kingdom.
CAESAR: his pushing traits, his coolness and domineer-
i8 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
ing qualities as opposed to Anthony's warmth and com- panionableness. His disgust at the Banquet, his wariness, his always alert cunning. Collect instances throughout the play. (I. iv. 39). Everie houre . . shalt thou have report," (III. vi. 34, 69) : "I have eyes upon him," etc. "'Tis done already and the Messenger gone," and so on. His friends: What is the basis of the loyalty of Agrippa and Mecenas? Is it the bond of party? From whom proceed the active events of the play, Anthony or Caesar ?
Queries for Discussion: — Did Caesar overthrow An- thony, because of superior valor or strategy? Did he con- quer because of the Imperialistic idea he represented and for which the Roman world was ripe?
VII. ARTISTRY
Topic. — The Dramatic Significance of Enobarbus.
Hints: — Prof. Corson says Enobarbus is as good as a chorus, the whole situation of things and their successive stages can be read in his speeches. Prove this by selection showing his keensightedness and his dramatic usefulness. Is there, however, a limit to the dependence to be proper- ly placed upon the views Enobarbus expresses? That limit should be based upon his own character and insight. Can it be supposed that he presents Shakespeare's views? Is it politic for him as a friend of Anthony's to talk as freely as he does to Mecenas, Agrippa, and Menas? Did Enobarbus do well or ill in deserting Anthony's falling fortunes? If well, why was he so unhappy over it? Here he is not merely a dramatic exponent of the evil
ANTONIE AND CLEOPATRA 19
crisis in Anthony's fortunes but an individual with a con- science which has a moral bearing on the conflict of the play between Love and Ambition.
Topic. — The Workmanship of the Play.
Hints: — Show how Shakespeare has developed from mere hints in Plutarch whole passages and scenes in the play; e. g., the meeting between Caesar and Anthony in Act II.; the feast on Pompey's galley; the meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra as given by Enobarbus to Agrippa etc. Show how Shakespeare's additional touches impart an imaginative glow to the whole picture.
Do these alterations from Plutarch throw light on the characters in a way to advance the action or to enhance the poetry? Find as many examples as possible of these two kinds of expansion, the dramatic and the poetic. What parts of Plutarch has Shakespeare left out and what is the effect of such omissions.
What links of literary connection are there between 'Julius Caesar' and 'Anthony and Cleopatra' ? Were they written consecutively? Dowden says, in his 'Shakespeare Primer,' that while the events of Roman history closely connect the two plays "yet Shakespeare allowed a number of years to pass before he seems to have thought of his second Roman play" ; and this, he thinks, may mean that "the historical connection was now a connection too ex- ternal and material to carry him on from subject to sub- ject as it had sufficed to do while he was engaged upon his series of English Historical Plays . . . Dramas now written upon subjects taken from history become not chronicles but tragedies. The moral interest was su-
20 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
preme." The spiritual material dealt with by Shake- speare's imagination in "Julius Caesar" lay wide apart from that which forms the centre of "Anthony and Cleo- patra." Are the mixed metaphors of the Play, and the condensed and elliptical passages signs of carelessness of workmanship ?
Queries for Discussion: — Does the devotion to charac- ter development in the Play dwarf its historical interest? If it gives an impression of a world for a stage can any of the artistic means be traced by which this is effected?
THE TRAGEDIE OF CORIOLANUS THE STORY OF ACT I
Topic. — For Paper, Classwork, or private Study. Co- riolanus as Soldier : Premonitions of his final failure.
Hints : — Observe the attitude of the citizens toward him at the beginning of the Play; — the conflict between their admiration of him for the soldierly deeds he does for his country, and their dislike of him for his haughtiness. Do the demands of the people for corn at their own rates seem justifiable as Shakespeare presents the case? Are the criticisms by Martius (afterward called Coriolanus) of the people's changeableness deserved? If they are, can any apology for this characteristic in them be made? Ob- ' serve how the Tribunes make use of his unpopularity to » detract from his qualities as a soldier. What light do you get upon his soldierly qualities from the attitude of his enemy Auffidius ? At the beginning of the play one of the citizens remarked that Coriolanus does all his fighting not for his country, but to please his mother (I. i. 39). In the scene between Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria, does the talk of Volumnia give in any way the impression that she might have been instrumental in developing her son's delight in war? The remainder of the Act is occupied with showing forth the military prowess of the hero. Ob- serve the hatred mingled with respect of the two sworn enemies, Auffidius and Coriolanus. Is there anything in
21
22 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
their attitude toward each other to hint in the slightest degree of the friendship which afterwards exists between them?
Observe the contrast, after the victory has been won, be- tween the warlike mood of Coriolanus and his mood of contempt for the praise he receives. Is this simply modesty or is there a streak in his nature which is at odds with his genius for war. Note his tenderness for the man who had housed him. (I. ix. 98-103.)
Queries for Discussion: — Is it contrary to the majesty of Tragedy, as one critic has said, to bring a mob on the stage ?
THE STORY OF ACT II
Topic, — Coriolanus as Candidate: Conspiracy of the Tribunes helped by the Nature of Coriolanus.
Hints: — Considering that Menenius knows the atti- tude of the people and the Tribunes toward Coriolanus, does he show himself a very politic friend in his remarks to Sicinius and Brutus in the first Scene of this Act? Observe the effect of the triumphant entry of Coriolanus upon Menenius and his own family; upon the Tribunes; upon the nobles; and even the disgruntled people? Just how do they each take it? In the conversation of the officers (Scene ii) are there not some good criticisms upon Coriolanus's way of treating the people; e. g. "Now, to seeme to affect the mallice and the displeasure of the Peo- ple, is as bad, as that which he dislikes, to flatter them for their love." (II. ii. 17-24).
THE TRAGEDIE OF CORIOLANUS 23
In the scene in the Capitol, does one feel admiration for Coriolanus's dislike of public praise, or irritation that he should have expressed it in so unmannerly a fashion. In spite of his not having made the right sort of impression upon the Senate, and in spite of the remarks by Brutus intended to weaken his cause, and finally in spite of his brusque way of treating the people, do you think Corio- lanus might have gained the censorship if it had not been that Brutus and Sicinius fomented the disaffection of the people by making the most of the unpopular aspects of his character? Observe that Coriolanus is not without favor among the people, showing that his integrity of character does, after all, make an impression.
Query for Discussion : — Can one be a true leader of the people without entering into sympathy with their point of view?
THE STORY OF ACT III
Topic.— Coriolanus as "A Foe to the Public Weale:" the Individual versus the Democracy.
Hints: — Are the criticisms in this Act of Coriolanus against the actions of the people justified? Has he any perception of the fact that allowances should be made for the shortcomings of the uneducated? Is there any indication that he is more incensed at the Tribunes than at the people? Does he show that his sympathies are with a paternal form of government as opposed to a dema- gogue-led democracy. What justification can be made for the Tribunes? Are they right when they say (III. i.
24 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
192) that Coriolanus has spoken like a traitor, and should answer as traitors do? Compare with the analysis of his character given by Menenius (III. i. 3i3-3!9) '•
"His nature is too noble for the World : He would not flatter Neptune for his Trident Or Jove, for's power to Thunder; his Heart's his
Mouth :
What his Brest forges, that his Tongue must vent, And being angry, does forget that ever He heard the Name of Death."
What do you think of Volumnia's arguments when she is trying to persuade Coriolanus to adopt a different tone toward the people? In this scene between the moth- er and son which one do you feel in the end has the no- bler nature? There can be no question as to which had the wiser policy with conditions such as they were, but is a wise policy always the noblest? Was Coriolanus right in doing what his mother wished him to do against his own convictions? Is it any wonder that under these circumstances, Coriolanus succeeded no better than be- fore, or do you think he would have succeeded had not Sicinius cleverly aroused his temper by accusing him of being a traitor? (III. iii. 85-88) :
"We charge you that you have contriv'd to take From Rome all season 'd Office, and to winde Your self into a power tyrannicall, For which you are a Traitor to the people."
THE TRAGEDIE OF CORIOLANUS 25
Queries for Discussion: — According to one critic there is a lack of poetic justice in the play. For example, the Tribunes should have been punished for their faults in banishing Coriolanus, and for procuring this sentence by indirect methods, by exasperating and inflaming the Peo- ple by artifices and insinuations, etc. Were they left un- punished ? Is poetic justice a necessary element of a play?
THE STORY OF ACT IV
Topic. — Coriolanus the Avenger: the Democracy tamed.
Hints : — Notice the touch of doubt in the minds of the Tribunes as to the wisdom of their course in banishing Coriolanus as soon as he is gone. They try to avoid Volumnia and when forced to meet her, attempt apolo- gies by wishing Coriolanus (IV. ii. 4042) "had continued to his Country as he began, and not unknit himself The Noble Knot he made,"
Stung by Volumnia's lashing tongue, they try to make out that she has lost her wits. Does this fear of the consequences of their own action continue ? What do you think of Coriolanus's next step — joining the enemy and making war against Rome? Was there any possibility but this for a banished soldier and nobleman in such a civ- ilization? Observe the attitude of his old friends, Co- minius and Menenius in the matter; also, that of the people. How does the character of Coriolanus affect his relations with Auffidius? Why should the Volscian sol- diers adore him, when the citizens of his own city so hated him?
26 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
Queries for Discussion: — Is Coriolanus in any way ahead of his times ?
THE STORY OF ACT V
Topic. — Coriolanus the human: Finally overwhelmed because of his own tenderness.
Hints: — Is Coriolanus right in not listening to the pleadings of his old friends from Rome? While he might be justified in avenging his wrongs, would it not be a higher course to show mercy when he had seemingly every- thing in his own hands. Was he influenced in his action by his promises to Auffidius? He had no consciousness, had he ? that Auffidius was planning a blow against him.
When he at last gives in to the entreaties and argu- ments of his mother is it more because of her emotional in- fluence over him than because he is convinced of the fact that he should exercise mercy? Was Auffidius justified, from his point of view, in pronouncing Coriolanus a traitor? Was it weak in Coriolanus to be so led by his mother? or does it show a most lovable side of his na- ture? What do you think of the action of Auffidius in having him treacherously murdered from a political point of view? As Coriolanus had made peace with Rome and gone back on his agreement with Auffidius, was there any surety that he might not later take up arms against his rival again, especially if Volumnia should want him to do it?
Queries for Discussion :— Is the final annihilation of Coriolanus due to the flaws inherent in his own character or to the conditions under which he lived?
THE TRAGEDIE OF CORIOLANUS 27
THE ART OF THE PLAY
i
Topic. — Comparison of the Play with its source in Plutarch's "Life of Coriolanus."
Hints: — Note what incidents told in the history are used by Shakespeare, and how he has developed them. Also, what incidents he has left out, and show reason why he has done so. What is the general effect of his changes from Plutarch? Do they have to do with strengthening of plot chiefly, or with the intensifying of the political situation, the development of character or with all of these. (North's translation of Plutarch's Lives may be consulted, or this Play in the First Folio Edition of Shakespeare. See Sources and Literary Notes giving parallel extracts).
Query for Discussion: — Upon what does this play de- pend chiefly for its interest — plot, situation, or the por- trayal of character?
Topic. — Literary Style and Allusions.
Hints : — Is it one of Shakespeare's earlier or later plays? (Consult "Date of Composition" in First Folio Shake- speare). Are there many variations in the texts of the early editions? Has the text been much altered by editors and commentators and have the alterations been on the whole at all necessary? (Consult "Early Editions" Notes and Variorum Readings in First Folio Shakespeare). How does this play compare with "Julius Caesar" in the char- acter of its allusions? Are they more, or less, typically English? How may these two plays be compared as to the number of phrases needing a gloss to make them compre-
28 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
hensible? In whose speeches do you find the most poetic and beautiful language, in whose, the least? How does it compare with "Julius Caesar" in this respect? (Literary Illustrations in First Folio Shakespeare may be consulted).
CHARACTER IN ACTION
Topic. — The Men and Women in the play.
Hints: — Are there any signs of development in the character of Coriolanus, or is he a man of impulse, with two or three well defined moods from one to the other of which he passes? If this is so, what are the moods, and what causes him to change from one to another? Are there any signs of his being a man of intellectual or moral convictions? Comparing his two friends, Cominius and Menenius, with his two enemies, the Tribunes of the peo- ple, should you say that his friends express any better argu- ments for being on his side than his enemies do for being against him? Is Auffidius a more barbaric type of man than Coriolanus? How are the characters of Volumnia and Virgilia contrasted? Is Volumnia a typical Roman mother? How had her influence upon Coriolanus been exercised? Compare the citizens in this play with those in "Julius Caesar" and point out what characteristics they have in common. Observe the remarks of all the minor characters and show what light they throw upon the chief actors in the drama, and what effect, if any, they have upon the action.
Topic. — A Comparative Study — Comparison of Ibsen's Dr. Stockman with Coriolanus. (See Introduction to
THE TRAGEDIE OF CORIOLANUS 29
"Coriolanus" in First Folio Shakespeare).
Hints: — Give brief sketch of Ibsen's play "The Ene- my of the People" of which Dr. Stockman is the hero. Give the salient points in the situation in both plays and show how far they parallel each other. Show how much more ethical Dr. Stockman's stand is than that of Corio- lanus. Is this due entirely to the difference in the condi- tions or to something inherently different in the natures of the two men. The leaders of the compact majority are much more complex than the Tribunes of the people : Why is this so? Has Mrs. Stockman any of the quali- ties of the Roman matron ? The lesson of the Ibsen play is that no man is strong until he can stand alone, is this the lesson of the Shakespeare play? Was Coriolanus really more an enemy of the people than Dr. Stockman?
Queries for Discussion: — Is it true that Sicinius and Brutus, like the Burgomaster and Aslaksen in Ibsen's play, are, rather than their inflexible opponents, — a Dr. Stock- man or a Coriolanus — the serious foes that choke the moral growth of a competent and genuine democracy and delay the ripening of that ideal human fruit of the social culture of the ages and races? (See pp. ix and x of In- troduction, First Folio Shakespeare).
MOOT POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
I. The anger of the people against Coriolanus was just, for he thought so well of his own actions as to believe that even the Rights, Customs, and Privileges of his Coun- try where his due for his valor and success. (After Gildon,
30 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
see "Selected Criticism" First Folio Shakespeare, p. 284).
II. "Faction is a Monster that often makes the slaughter 'twas designed for; and as often turns its fury on those that hatch't it. The moral therefore" of the play is "to recommend submission and adherence to established law." (Extract from N. Tate, see same, p. 283).
III. The Good must never fail to prosper, and the Bad must be always punished: Otherwise the incidents, and particularly the Catastrophe which is the grand final incident, are liable to be imparted to Chance rather than to Almighty Conduct and Sovereign Justice. The want of the impartial distribution of Justice makes the "Co- riolanus" of Shakespeare to be without Moral." (John Dennis, see p. 286).
IV. Was Shakespeare justified in introducing the Ro- man people who rose in vindication of their just rights as a mere rabble? (After John Dennis, see p. 288-289).
V. The tragedy of Coriolanus is one of the most amusing of our author's performances. (Samuel John- son, see p. 290). What do you think?
VI. Coriolanus is a store house of political common- places in which the arguments for and against aristocracy or democracy, on the privileges of the few and the claims of the many, on liberty and slavery, power and the abuse of it, peace and war, are very ably handled with the spirit of a poet and the acuteness of a philosopher, the whole dramatic moral being that those who have little shall have less, and those that have much shall take all the others have left. (After Hazlitt. See pp. 291-292). Do you feel this is a good summing up of the play?
THE TRAGEDIE OF CORIOLANUS 31
VII. This play illustrates the wonderfully philosophic impartiality of Shakespeare's politics. (Coleridge, see p. 292).
VIII. Is it probable that Shakespeare wrote this play as a warning against the danger to be apprehended from the growing power of the people? (After Wright, see p. 295).
IX. The play of "Coriolanus" is a mine of insults to the people. ( Tolstoy, see p. 295 ) .
X. Volumnia is a woman whose understanding is by no means ordinary but which extends no further than the customary point of woman's sense — to do mischief. (Mrs. Inchbald, see p. 291). Is this the best that can be said for Volumnia?
XI. In the part of Coriolanus, human nature, in the likeness of a stubborn school boy, is so exquisitely deline- ated, that every mental trait of the one can be discerned in the propensities of the other, so as forcibly to call to the recollection, that children are the originals of men. (Mrs. Inchbald, see p. 291).
XII. The People is conceived as the fulcrum of power by Shakespeare, through his own peculiar artistic arrange- ment of the tragic action in "Coriolanus" as in "Julius Caesar." The leverage, moreover, upon this fulcrum, being unrighteously put in the intervening hands of self- interested and envious political wire-pullers, the Hero of Rome and the Roman People are played off against each other, through their mutual shortcomings and enmity, to their mutual disadvantage, and almost to the ruin of Rome. (p. xiv of Introduction).
General summary of the conclusions reached as to
32 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
which of these opinions may be harmonized with the play, which should be discarded as altogether wrong, and which should be accepted as showing the clearest insight in re- gard to it?
THE TRAGEDIE OF CYMBELINE THE STORY OF ACT I
Topic. — For Paper, Classwork or Private Study — The Schemes of the Queen and lachimo.
Hints: — Show how the story of Act I consists in the attempts made first by the Queen and then by lachimo to part Imogen and Posthumus, the loyal wife and husband. Note the use of the talk of the first and second gentleman in telling all it is important to know of events prior to the opening of the play. What are these prior events? Does this scene throw light on any character or only on events? From whom are our suspicions of the Queen gathered ? I. i. and ii. convey impressions of the contempti- ble nature of Cloten and the graceful devotion of Imogen to her husband, which make the union of the Queen's son and the Princess impossible, and which yet it is the prov- ince of the plot to attempt to accomplish, so that by these scenes curiosity is whetted to know the issue of the most important scenes of this act, — i*. e. scenes iv. and vi. Why is scene v. an important one? What seem to be lachimo's motives, as shown in scene iv. for working Posthumus up to laying the wager? How is his action explicable of giv- ing up the ring he had vowed should remain "while sense can keepe it on"? Notice the valuble bit of self-descrip- tion Posthumus lets slip when he says he "rather shun'd to go even" with what he heard than "to be guided" by it.
33
34 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
Shakespeare shows the wager to be the consequence of a revived boast first made in younger days, instead of newly broached by a bridegroom just exiled from his wife. Does this make it seem less dishonoring to Posthumus? It is a comparatively modern feeling to resent a husband's testing his wife's virtue or fidelity. (See The Ballad of the "Nut Brown Mayd" as a specimen of such ideals, or compare modern dislike of such ordeals with the old time popularity of "Patient Griselda" see Chaucer's ver- sion of the story in "The Clerk's Tale"). Notice, too, that when lachimo tells Imogen tales of her husband's unfaith- fulness and makes love to her himself, he is able to excuse himself by the plea that he is only trying her loyalty out of friendship to Posthumus. She pardons him and is ready to be snared in his next trap because this does not seem to her unnatural.
Query for Discussion: — Is there any excuse for Post- humus's bet with lachimo ?
THE STORY OF ACT II.
i
Topic. — lachimo's Success and Cloten's Repulse.
Hints: — In Act II. the evil influences of the drama have full play and seem to be closing around Imogen. Note that the only one thoroughly to sympathize with her position is the second lord, and he is aware of only half of the mischief brewing. Faithfulness to her husband, candor to Cloten, the kindly spirit shown in her willing- ness to take charge of lachimo's chest are not yet to tri- umph. Her good traits only serve to whet her persecu-
THE TRAGEDIE OF CYMBELINE 35
tors' appetites for mischief, and actually to help them. Cloten is effectually repulsed by her frankness in her pref- erence of her husband's ' 'meanest garment," but she thus wounds his self-love so deeply as to change his politic woo- ing into a wicked passion, which in the next act he lays a plan to gratify. So, also, through her graciousness in do- ing lachimo a favor as her husband's friend, she is herself the instrument of her own undoing. Is there much choice between Cloten and lachimo? Which should you judge from this act had naturally the more depraved nature? Note that Cloten engages music to penetrate to Imogen because he has been advised she likes it, while he does not seem to have any appreciation of it. On the other hand, lachimo shows considerable sensibility to beauty, if not to goodness. The reader can only wonder that the man who could talk as he did when in Imogen's chamber could be villain enough to steal her bracelet from her arm. Is this in character? Does Shakespeare make all his people talk too well? How long did it take lachimo to note the room, steal the bracelet, and get back into the chest? What are the defects and excellences of the Play as to the arrangement of time? See the "Duration of the Action" also Daniel's Time Analysis in the "First Folio Shake- speare."
Queries for Discussion: — Is it natural that Imogen should not connect the loss of her bracelet with lachimo's visit ?
Was Posthumus too easily convinced of Imogen's guilt? Was it lachimo's clever acting or his evidence that worked on Posthumus?
36 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
THE STORY OF ACT III
Topic. — Posthumus joins the Evil Forces against Imo- gen. The Advent of New Powers for Good.
Hints: — The effect is shown of lachimo's success in making Posthumus a worse enemy to himself than any one else could be. This act introduces also another fac- tor of the plot, — the Roman embassy, which leads to the war and serves to introduce the King's lost sons who are to befriend Imogen. It also serves to bring lachimo to England ; to reconcile the King and Posthumus, etc. The details and cross effects of these new strands in the plot may be traced out fully in the last Act; but here it is to be noted that the embassy is not irrelevant, it foreshadows something of importance. What may be gathered from III. i. of the sway of the Queen and her son? Notice in III. ii. the pathetic effect of Imogen's joy and child-like talk over the letter which is really a trap. Is it natural that Pisanio should judge more accurately of Posthumus than his wife does? Compare his first exclamations in III. ii. on receiving this letter with Imogen's outburst in III. iv. when she reads the same letter. What reason is there for putting in scene iii. between scenes ii. and iv? In putting scene v. between iv. and vi. All through Act III. the scenes alternate, giving a broken effect as to time and place. See how this aids the illusion needed that the journey of Pisanio and Imogen has been taken, and that uncertain and troubled events are in progress and new influences at hand. This is in marked contrast with Act IV., where there is much bustle but all in the same place
THE TRAGEDIE OF CYMBELINE 37
and the events occur in direct sequence. Is there any evi- dence that Pisanio doubted Imogen before he saw how she took the accusation ? Why is Imogen so ready to obey ? Is it that she considers it her duty; or that she is helpless and there is nothing else to do until she finds that Pisanio is her friend? — or is she crushed with unhappiness and feels nothing endurable but death? How can her readi- ness to have Pisanio accomplish her husband's will be reconciled with her eagerness to adopt Pisanio's plan of dis- guise? Compare her sayings, — though those who are be- trayed "feel the Treason sharpely yet the Traitor Stands in worse case of woe," — and "I greeve myselfe To thinke . . how thy memory will be pang'd by me," with Hermione's expressions under similar misjudgment in "The Winters Tale." Imogen supposes her husband has misread her willingness to disobey her father and hold to him, as an act of passion rather than of devotion. The height of her ideal of love is marked in what she says of her marriage, "It is no act of common passage, but A straine of Rarenesse." Is it not inconsistent with Pisanio's loyalty and his care of Imogen that he should betray her by giving Cloten the letter and Posthumus's clothes? Could an underling in a Court do otherwise than Pisanio did ? Is this whole episode of Cloten's going to seek Imogen in her husband's garments a weak part in the Play? Is it necessary to bring Cloten to his death? Is it a concession to the taste of the day that craved some clownish and brutal fooling? Belarius's stealing the King's children, "Thinking to bar him of succession" be- cause the King had seized his lands is spoken of as a mat-
38 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
ter of course. How would it be looked on now? Did Shakespeare borrow this from Holinshed ? It enabled him to make a contrast between town and country life and to show the aspiration for knowledge and experience stirring in the minds of the young princes. What else? Is the worship of the sun Shakespeare makes Arviragus and Guiderius observe true to the customs of early Britons ?
Queries for Discussion: — Is it consistent with a noble character, such as we are led to think Posthumus had, to send a letter of affection to his wife the object of which is to decoy her to her death? Is the episode of Cloten's quest of Imogen a good way to get rid of him and in character ?
THE STORY OF ACT IV
Topic. — Cloten and the Queen Foiled.
Hints: — In Act IV. good influences gain the ascen- dency. Cloten gets his just deserts at the hands of Imo- gen's natural protectors, — her brothers, — but not in any such clumsy fashion as in directly protecting her from assault by him. It is brought about naturally through the innate badness of Cloten, whose character is so mean that it could not fail to range the nobility of the brothers in opposition to it whenever they should come in contact. Do these two brothers have anywhere a direct influence on the development of the plot ? In this Act are they unconscious agents of good? Note the immediate affection felt by the brothers for Imogen indicating their relationship. Is it more natural to suppose this immediate affection the
THE TRAGEDIE OF CYMBELINE 39
result of blood-ties, as Shakespeare seems to think (IV. ii. 36-37)» or is it simply the recognition by one fine nature of another? Trace through the Acts all mention of the Queen's box of poison. Does the Queen mean to poison Imogen? See what Cornelius says in Act V. about this. Act IV. is remarkable for its variety of action. The war- like and gentle aspects of the brothers are shown in con- trast. After the savage scene of the killing of Cloten, comes the sad poetic scene of Fidele's burial. Is its beauty marred by the bringing in of Cloten again, or does it serve only to enhance the brothers' noble qualities? Imo- gen awakens then, a little beside herself from the effects of the sleeping potion. Does this explain her mistaking Cloten for Posthumus? The next scene then introduces the Roman soldiery, and Imogen enters the service of Lucius, which she had really set out to do, but in the mean time her cause for doing so, as far as she knows, has been removed, for she thinks Posthumus dead. This being so, why should she not have returned to her cave-dwellers? Is Imogen entirely at the mercy of circumstances? Does she ever initiate any of the steps in her career? In IV. iii. the effect on the Queen of Cloten's disappearance is shown. Cymbeline is at a loss how to act with the Queen and her son both away. He has fallen so low as to be completely under their control, and incapable of doing anything on his own responsibility. The contrast between his puerility and the determination of his sons to risk all and join the army, in the next Scene, is marked. Belarius thinks it their princely blood asserting itself; but did they inherit their promptness to action from their father? — Perhaps
40 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
from their mother? — Or is the idea conventional rather than true?
Queries for Discussion: — Does Imogen's mistaking of Cloten and Posthumus place her in a light unworthy of her purity and dignity? Does not every one revolt at the idea of her embracing the dead body of the man she loathed? Does the action of the scene gain anything by it? Is it a blot on the beauty of the play? Is it merely repugnant ? Or is it a daringly significant stroke of irony in Art, when considered as embodying an enaction of Imogen's words (II. iii. 151-155) so insulting to Cloten and arousing him to an impotent revenge. (See the In- troduction to the First Folio Edition of this Play).
THE STORY OF ACT V.
Topic.— The Triumph of Good Influences.
Hints: — In the story of Act V the denouement of the play is given. First, Posthumus's contrition and desperate desire for death is shown ; then the battle, which is the oc- casion for the bravery with which the King's lost sons and their foster-father, and Posthumus, above all others, distinguish themselves; then the strange dream is ex- plained, and the oracular message and all the various threads of incident are knit into one. Show how all this takes place, and how Imogen is the central means of reconciliation. What of the philosophy of the scene of Posthumus with the gaoler? What do you think of Posthumus's forgiving Imogen and of his repentance for blaming and punishing her? Notice the nature of his
THE TRAGEDIE OF CYMBELINE 41
prayer to the gods in V. iv. The vision that follows this prayer has been called not Shakespeare's by various edi- tors and critics, but what plea can you make for it? Is it in any respect necessary to the plot ? Are there similar scenes in other late Plays of Shakespeare? (See 'The Tempest,' — the mask of Hymen; 'Winter's Tale,' — the mask-like "interlude" of Time and the dance of Satyrs; Is there a likelihood that these were concessions on Shake- speare's part to the tastes of the Court where he had be- come popular?
Do you think the King's weakness honorable to him in so far as it is founded on his genuine love for the Queen? Notice his trust in her as shown in V. v. Possibly Imo- gen's loyalty is an inherited trait. Why should it be con- sidered a defect in the King anci a merit in her?
Queries for Discussion: — What part, if any, does the dream of Posthumus play in the action? Is there any way of explaining the fact that Cymbeline and Posthumus the father and husband of Imogen, did not recognize her tintil Pisanio — the servant — told them who she was?
VI. LITERARY AND ESTHETIC ILLUSTRATIONS
Topic.— The Sources of the Plot.
Hints: — In 'Cymbeline,' two sources have been drawn upon, Holinshed, from whom Shakespeare took the names of Cymbeline and his two sons, and a few historical hints in regard to the relations existing between Rome and Bri- tain ; and the 'Decameron' of Boccaccio, in which a story, like that of the wager and Imogen, forms the ninth novel
42 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
of the second day. The chief incidents of the story are also to be found in a French miracle-play of the Middle Ages, and also in the old French romances, — 'Le Roman de la Violette,' and 'Le Roman du Comte de Poitiers.' (See Sources in First Folio Edition). The lachimo of the miracle-play, Beringier, says to Ostes, the Posthumus of that play, when proposing to wager: — "I tell you truly that I boast that I know no woman living, but if I might speak to her twice, at the third time I might have all my desire." Compare with lachimo's saying, I. v. Again, in the French play, Berengier, trying to work on the jeal- ousy of Denise, tells her, "I come from Rome, where I left your lord, who does not value you the stalk of a cherry; he is connected with a girl for whom he has so strong a regard that he knows not how to part from her." Compare with lachimo's report of Posthumus. No cor- responding inducement is to be met with in the Italian novel. Show in 'Cymbeline,' the incidents occurring in the Sources which Shakespeare left unchanged.
Topic. — The Changes and Original Additions made by Shakespeare.
Hints: — From the meagre account in Holinshed, Shake- speare has developed a stirring historical background for the play. Note that Holinshed says that although our his- tories affirm that both Cymbeline and his father Theo- mantius lived at peace with the Romans and continued to pay tribute to them as agreed, the Roman writers declare that after Caesar's death the Britons refused to do so. Shakespeare seizes the latter alternative as being the more dramatic and better suited to the development of his plot.
THE TRAGEDIE OF CYMBELINE 43
Note that from being a historical peg merely, Shakespeare converts Cymbeline into a genuine man with complex rela- tions with the world, and having not only his Roman af- fairs to look after but complicated domestic relations with three children, a second wife, and stepson. Having placed him amid this family group, it is necessary to individual- ize each. His daughter he fashions after an Italian model, and so introduces a new set of relations for her. The Queen he naturally makes ambitious for her son, as heir, etc., and the King's sons he arranges to have stolen away and grow up in the country, introducing thus the pleas- ant contrast of court and outdoor life. Note that in Boc- caccio the villain is admitted to the lady's chamber by a faithless woman-servant (this is the case with all the other versions, too), but Shakespeare does not involve any ser- vant in the scheme of lachimo. He seems to wish to give the impression that no one about Imogen could be guilty of harming her. This is also shown more fully by the fact that Pisanio never has the least intention of carrying out the command of his master to kill her, while in Boccaccio the servant only desists on the lady's entreaties. Note, also, that while Imogen begs Pisanio to kill her, the lady in the Italian novel begs for life. Which would be the most praiseworthy action from an ideal point of view, and which seems the finer from the point of view of the times?
Do all the changes introduced by Shakespeare in the plot borrowed from Boccaccio tend to the softening and hu- manizing of the characters? Do they make the love of Imogen and Posthumus more ideal, and themselves more real?
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET THE STORY OF ACT I
Topic. — For Paper, Classwork or Private Study : — The Threefold Plot.
Hints : — Hamlet is informed by his father's ghost of the crime of his Uncle and the fault of his Mother. The King tries to strengthen his position in the Kingdom. Polonius and Laertes interfere between the love of Ham- let and Ophelia. Notice that the belief in ghosts is not so absolute that doubts are not expressed in regard to it. In what different ways are these doubts expressed? And how are they all finally satisfied? (See Act III). Can there be any explanation of the fact that the ghost is an objective phantasm in the first Act seen by several people, while in the third Act it is more like an hallucination, for though Hamlet sees it, his mother does not?
In what ways do both the King and Queen show that they secretly feel the need of strengthening their position as much as possible ? Observe how concerned they are that Hamlet still continues to grieve for his father and how they try to argue him out of it Notice how the King as well as ingratiating Hamlet and Laertes arranges to secure peace in outside affairs also. Does there seem to have been the slightest suspicion in any ones mind that he had murdered the former King before the Ghost an- nounces it to Hamlet? Did Hamlet himself suspect it?
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET 45
Was the advice of Laertes and Polonius to Ophelia good advice? Did it show penetration on their part to warn Ophelia lest Hamlet should be insincere? Were the mo- tives of Laertes sincere? Was Polonius simply trimming because he was not sure what the final attitude of the King might be toward Hamlet? Observe that Hamlet warns Horatio that he may see fit to put on an "Anticke disposition." (I. v. 188). Can you conjecture at this stage of the play any reason why he should adopt the course of pretending madness?
Query for Discussion: — The ghost calls for revenge, but specifies no particular mode of revenge. Hamlet nat- urally supposes the meaning to be payment in kind, — 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' Is this from Ham- let's own moral point of view right ?
THE STORY OF ACT II
Topic. — Hamlet's "Anticke Disposition" and its Con- sequences.
Hints: — Has the opening of the first scene in this Act any part to play in the development of the action, or is it merely for the sake of showing up the character of Polo- nius. From Ophelia's account of Hamlet's visit to her would you gather that he was merely playing at madness in order to have that report spread in regard to him, or should you think that his faith in womanhood had been so shattered by his mother's actions that his suspicions as to Ophelia's sincerity had been awakened ? Do you think he was aware that Ophelia's change of manner toward
46 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
him was the result of influences brought to bear upon her ? Whatever may have been Hamlet's intentions in acting this way toward Ophelia, what use does Polonius make of it? Is the King's concern over Hamlet's transforma- tion, as he calls it, an expression of sympathy for Ham- let or an expression of .fear for the safety of his own position? How does the King's policy in this Act bring about a strengthening of his position ? Does it seem, dur- ing the rest of this Act, as if Hamlet were, by his insane way of acting fairly playing into the King's hands? Do you think the King and Queen really believe him insane, or have they caught at the idea as a means of getting rid of Hamlet? Does Hamlet gain as much as he loses by pretending madness? By this means he is able cleverly to "size" up all the people in the court, especially the King and prove wholly to his own satisfaction what a perfidious wretch he is; on the other hand he is working for his own destruction. As his purpose is to kill the King, as soon as a favorable opportunity arises, would this make any difference to him? If the King had really believed Hamlet mad would he have taken the course he did to get rid of him? In that case Hamlet's only safety lay in making the King believe he really was mad. Was it wise in him to let Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into the secret by telling them that his Uncle Father and Aunt Mother are deceived, that he is "but mad North, North-West: when the Winde is Southerly, I know a Hawke from a Handsaw" (See II. ii. 405-409) ? Do they make any use of this knowledge when reporting to the King their en- counter with Hamlet (III. i.)? Is the scene with the
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET 47
pliyers longer than it need be for the purposes of the action ? Is it useful, however, like the opening scene with Polonius in throwing light upon some aspects of Ham- let's character? If this is so, what are they? and what mood is induced in him by listening to the recitations of the players? Is he altogether just to himself in this speech? How does he intend to use the players in the furtherance of his designs upon the King? Is he to be commended for awaiting confirmation of the Ghost's story before taking his revenge?
Query for Discussion : — Does Hamlet expect to find an opportunity to carry into effect his purpose against the King during the acting of the play, should he be con- vinced by it of his guilt?
STORY OF ACT III.
Topic. — The King brought to Bay.
Hints: — In this Act Hamlet's movements against the King, and the King's movements against Hamlet finally clash. Is the account Rosencrantz and Guildenstern give of their interview with Hamlet trustworthy or do they try to tell the King what they know he wants to hear? Does the talk of Hamlet to Ophelia in this act impress you as being purposely intended to make her think him insane, or rather as that of a man in a wholly disillusion- ized mood, who, for the time being, feels that his emo- tions are snuffed out? The effect it makes upon Ophelia, who has been told he is mad, is that he has verily lost his wits. Besides, she knows no reason for the change in his
48 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
attitude toward her, and if she did, would not understand how the complete shattering of Hamlet's ideals — his ideals for his mother and for all, of loyalty and loftiness in love, and his horror at his uncle's crime, would, for the time being, at least, completely benumb his emotional nature. Upon the King, who knows there is good reason for such a mood, and who evidently fears Hamlet may be cognizant of the truth, the interview has a very different effect. His conclusion is that what Hamlet said was not like madness. He thinks there is something on Hamlet's mind, and fears he may be contemplating some action which will affect the royal safety. — (See III. i. 174 et seq.) If Hamlet had known the King and Polonius were listening, do you think he would have talked differently to Ophelia. Polonius still thinks that all that is the matter with Hamlet is neglected Love. Is he anxious now, that a match may be made be- tween Hamlet and Ophelia? If so, why has he changed?
Observe in the scene in which the play is prepared the lights that are thrown upon Hamlet's character: his inter- est in acting, his attitude toward his friend Horatio, his plans to have the play confirm the guilt of his uncle, etc.
Does Hamlet consistently act the part of a mad-man during the progress of the play? Notice all his remarks, and show whether they are calculated to confirm the King in his fear that Hamlet knows too much, or wheth- er they would simply be added proof in the King's mind of his madness. Contrast his manner toward Horatio with that toward Guildenstern and Rozencranz. Was the King's loss of control wise? Should you not think that every one's suspicions would be aroused by it? Ros-
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET 49
encranz, Guildenstern, and Polonius either do not com- prehend the situation or are too much creatures of the King to be affected by it. The King acts immediately and arranges for Hamlet's deportation to England, mak- ing the most of the supposition that Hamlet is mad. On the other hand Hamlet hp6 a good chance to kill the King, and does not take/ft. Do you think his reasons for not taking this favorable opportunity jgpod ? What light does Hamlet's interview wifn his rh'other throw upon his mental state ? What use ^joes his mother make of this interview ? \
Query for Discussion : — Was, the scheme of catching the consciences of the King and^ueen by means of the play altogether a wise one sinc<< it fully arouses their sus- picions that Hamlet knpws'of thejr guilt ?x /Would Ham- let care whether it tyas wise or not? ^
Sr •'' -., t
STORY OF ACT IV A
>'i
Topic. — The Dead Pqlonius. +
Hints: — Show how thejdeath of Polonius affects the ac- tion in this Act. The departure 0f"Hamlet for England is* hastened, and the King decides u^pn stronger measures with regard to him. Note in what way all this is done. How is Hamlet affected by the delay in his revenge ? Whafc' is the effect upon Ophelia of her -father's^ death ? The effect upon Laertes? What determined action is taken by Hamlet, and how do the King and Laertes arrange^ to meet it? Observe how all the lines' of the ^ragetTy^ are intensified during the progress of this Act, encling finally
50 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
with the death of Ophelia, and with the death of Hamlet so predetermined that there can be no possibility of his escape this time. Contrast the causes of Hamlet's delay in compassing the King's death with the causes that debar the King. Observe in each case whether these are partly due to their natures and partly due to external interference.
Query for Discussion : — Do the delays in this Act seem like artificial means for developing the plot, or are they just such things as occur in life, in the clash of indi- vidual natures with conditions?
STORY OF ACT V
Topic. — The Final Clash of Treachery and Righteous Wrath.
Hints: — Does the meeting at the grave of Ophelia throw any further light upon Hamlet's attitude toward Ophelia? Does he seem here to fall into wild speech in order to cover his genuine agitation at the death of Ophelia, his genuine feeling revealing that his love for Ophelia had been deeper and truer than that of which any of the others were capable? Or was his rage at Laertes partly caused by the fact that his conscience stung him on account of his treatment of Ophelia? How did Hamlet counteract the plot of the King to have him killed in England? Does Hamlet go to the fencing match with Laertes fully conscious that it is only another scheme to bring about his death ? He speaks about a misgiving in his heart (V. ii. 167). Is he thinking of his own death or the deed he is about to do in killing the King? Is he
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET 51
afraid that he may fail to accomplish his purpose? Ob- serve he would not drink the refreshing cup offered him by the King, why? Is it probable he suspected Laertes' dagger was poisoned, and in the scuffle made a point of getting it from Laertes? Can it be said that either good v or evil triumph in this play? The King at last realizes his desires in the killing of Hamlet by the underhanded means with which he always worked. On the other hand Hamlet, at last wreaks his vengeance on the King. If he had done this in the first place all the other deaths would have been prevented. But it is as useless to talk about what might have been as it would be in life, for given these two natures at war with each other, one trying to seek treacherous means for the destruction of the other, some method which will not subject him to popular criti- cism; the other bent upon public vengeance, yet either temperamentally unfitted for the task, or so handicapped that he must stealthily seek his chance and await the ac- tion, the psychological moment could not be otherwise than it is. The right moment does not arrive for Ham- let until his passion is set on fire by coming face to face, with the perfidy of the King. Would it have been pos- sible to such a nature as Hamlet's to lay a plan and kill the King in cold blood ? Observe_±haLjeyery. time he acts \ it is under stress of immediate provocation. Her substi- tutes instructions for the death of Guildenstern wfien"Hr reads dispatches arranging his own death. He kills Po- lonius when he finds himself spied upon, thinking it is the King; he declares his love for Ophelia when stung to it by jealousy of Laertes' brotherly love; he kills the King
52 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
when he finds he has tried to poison him.
Query for Discussion: — Whatever the impressions re- ceived from the play of "Hamlet" all betray the presence in the character of Hamlet of a combination of fierceness and subtlety. (See Introduction to "Hamlet," First Folio
Shakespeare).
i
THE SOURCES OF THE PLAY
Topic. — Shakespeare's Use of His Material.
Hints : — Give an account of the incidents in Belief orest used by the Poet, and point out his additions and differ- entiations from his source, and show in what ways his treatment has strengthened the dramatic and character interest of the play. (The First Folio "Hamlet" gives under Sources all the incidents used by Shakespeare. The translation from Belleforest into English, "The Hystorie of Hamlet," may be found complete in the Furness Variorum Shakespeare. )
PUBLISHING OF THE PLAY
Topic. — Relation of the Date to the Early Editions.
Hints : — How is the date of the play ascertained ? Is the date assigned to the play less or more authentic than that of other plays? How long was it written before it was published? How many early Quartos were there, and what are their points of difference? What great differ- ences are there between the Quartos and the First Folio? (See in First Folio Shakespeare, Date of Composition,
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET 53
Early Editions, Variorum Readings, and additions in brackets to the text from the Quartos).
CHARACTER STUDIES
1. Topic. — Hamlet and his Critics.
Hints : — Give first as derived from the study of the Play so far, your own opinion as to the sanity of Hamlet, ex- plaining your reasons. Upon the question is Hamlet's Insanity real or feigned, many opinions have been ex- pressed, among them the following: Drake (1817) wrote: "Hamlet occasionally suffers the poignancy of his feelings and the agitation of his mind to break in upon his plan, when, heedless of what was to be the ostensible foun- dation of his derangement, his love for Ophelia, he per- mits his indignation to point, and upon one occasion almost unmasked, toward the guilt of his uncle. In every other instance he personates insanity with a skill which indicates the highest order of genius, and imposes upon all but the King, whose conscience, perpetually on the watch, soon enables him to detect the inconsistencies and the drift of his nephew."
George Farren (1829) : "It is not maintained in this essay that Hamlet was uniformly deranged, or that his malady disqualified him altogether for the exercise of his reason, but that he was liable to paroxysms of mental dis- order. . . All Hamlet's words and actions before he resolves to feign insanity may be considered as those of a free agent, and it is by these that we are to decide whether or not he has from the start a perfectly healthy mind.
54 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
Now, before he had any suspicion of his father's murder, and of course before he intends to feign insanity, we find him deliberating on suicide, and intolerant of life — sure indications of mental disease. Whenever Hamlet is alone the true state of his mind reveals itself in melancholy soliloquies." Isn't the assumption of the role of a mad- man, the writer asks, under the circumstances, a clear act of insanity? So far from aiding his design, it was the very way to thwart it, as, in fact, it did.
Blackwoods (1839): "One very manifest purpose of adopting the disguise of feigned madness was to obtain access to the King in some moment of unguarded privacy. . . . The rambling of a maniac over all parts of the palace, and at all hours, would excite no suspicion; and thus an opportunity might be afforded of striking the fatal blow. . . . The mimic cry of madness was but the excess of that levity and wildness which naturally sprang from his impatient and overwrought spirit. It afforded some scope to those disquieted feelings which it served to conceal. The feint of madness covered all, — even the sarcasm, and disgust, and turbulence, which it freed in some measure from an intolerable restraint."
W. W. Lloyd (1856): "Whatever energy in action, therefore, is manifested by Hamlet is in the form of pas- sionate outburst, or reply to sudden provocation, or the impulse of the moment, and his liability to such accesses of excitement appears to have been increased by the ex- citement of the apparition, — itself, from another point of view a consequence of the excitability, till it carries his mind over the balance that gives fair claims to sane com-
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET 55
posure."
Dr. Buckwill (1859): "This conduct to Ophelia is a mixture of feigned madness, of the selfishness of passion blasted by the cursed blight of fate, of harshness which he Assumes to protect himself from an affection which he feels hostile to the present purpose of his life, and of that degree of real unsoundness, his unfeigned 'weakness and melancholy,' which is the subsoil of his mind. . . . Hamlet is not slow to confess his melancholy, and indeed it is the peculiarity of this mental state, that those suffer- ing from it seldom or never attempt to conceal it. A man will conceal his delusions, will deny and veil the ex- citement of mania, but the melancholiac is almost always readily confidential on the subject of his feelings. When the crisis has come, and the King's guilt has been unken- nelled and Hamlet is again left alone with Horatio, be- fore whom he would not feign, his real excitement borders so closely upon the wildest antics of the madness he has put on in craft, that there is little left to distinguish be- tween the two."
Dr. Conolly (1863) : "It certainly appears to me that the intention to feign was soon forgotten, or could not steadily be maintained, in consequence of a real mental infirmity; that it subsequently recurred to Hamlet's thoughts only in circumstances not productive of much emotion, but became quite unthought of in every scene in which his feelings were strongly acted upon, and that in such scenes a real and lamentable mental disorder swept all trivial considerations away."
Dr. Kellogg (1860) : "After the disappearance of the
56 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
Ghost, the first words Hamlet utters give the clew to his mental and physical state, and it is quite evident that the cord, which has been stretched to its utmost tension, here snaps suddenly, and the consequences are immediately ap- parent, and are evinced throughout his whole subsequent career. Here enters the pathological element into his mind and disposition, and the working of the leaven of disease is soon apparent, for it changes completely and for- ever his whole character. Up to this time we see no weak- ness, no vacillation, no want of energy, no infirmity of pur- pose. After this, all these characteristics are irrevocably lost, and though some faculties of his great spirit seem com- paratively untouched, others are completely paralyzed."
Richard Grant White (1870) : "In the consideration of Hamlet's case nothing should be kept more clearly in mind than that from the time we hear of him until his death he was perfectly sane, andT'man ?rf>4iery clear and quick intellectual perceptions^ one perfectly responsible for his every act and every word; that is, as responsible as a man can be who is constitutionally irresolute, purposeless and procrastinating. They have done him wrong who have called him undecided. His penetration was like light; his decision like the Fates, he merely left undone."
James Russell Lowell (1870) : "The question of Ham- let's madness has been much discussed and variously de- cided. High medical authority has pronounced, as usual, on both sides of the question. But the induction has been drawn from too narrow premises, being based on a mere diagnosis of the case, and not on the appreciation of the character in its completeness. . . Hamlet, among all
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET 57
the characters of Shakespeare is the most eminently a meta-physician and psychologist. He is a close observer, continually analyzing his own nature and that of others, letting fall his little drops of acid irony on all who come near him, to make them show what they are made of. Even Ophelia is not too sacred, Osric not too contempti- ble for experiment. If such a man assumed madness, he would play his part perfectly. If Shakespeare, himself, without going mad, could so observe and remember all the abnormal symptoms as to be able to reproduce them in Hamlet, why should it be beyond the power of Hamlet to reproduce them in himself? If you deprive Hamlet of reason, there is no truly tragic motive left. He would be a fit subject for Bedlam, but not for the stage. We might have pathology enough but no pathos. Ajax first becomes tragic when he recovers his wits. If Hamlet is irresponsible the whole play is a chaos. That he is not so might be proved by evidence enough were it not labor thrown away."
Dr. Omnius (1876): "There are children who are born musicians, whom a single false note irritates: from their earliest year they have the sense of harmony, not a discord escapes them, and they cannot comprehend how there should be others differently organized, in whom the sense of harmony is wanting. Others again are born with an exquisite sense of color and form, and everything at variance with their art wounds and repels them. Ham- let is one of these artistic natures. He is an artist of the moral sense. Born with a feeling the most delicate for whatever is virtuous and noble, he is enamored with loy-
58 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
alty and truth, as the musician is with harmony, and the sculptor with ideal forms; our vices and our weaknesses shock him ; to him they are monstrosities."
"In the lost play Hamlet's feigned madness bore a com- ic aspect in certain of those scenes which, as they appear in the modern Hamlet, strike us as most deeply tragic. If we consider the manifold consequences of the growth of the play through the successive versions, a few, at least of the inconsistencies will be accounted for."
Queries for Discussion: — Are there any inconsistencies in Hamlet's speech or action which cannot be accounted for upon the supposition that Hamlet was feigning mad- ness ? Among the foregoing criticisms how many of them can be harmonized into one complete view of the various aspects of Hamlet's character?
2. Topic. — The Queen and Ophelia.
Hints : — Do the women in the play take any initial part in the action ? They represent two weak types of woman- hood; one weak and with what would to-day be called degenerate tendencies; the other weak and innately good. Does the Queen in her interview with Hamlet show any real possibilities of regeneration in character, or is she merely frightened by the fact that Hamlet knows of her husband's guilt? Was she an active or only a passive party to the murder of Hamlet's Father? Does she really believe Hamlet is mad as she tells the King after her inter- view, or is she anxious to get rid of Hamlet, at any cost? Is there any indication that she lets the King know that Hamlet is really cognizant of his guilt?
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET 59
Was the Queen Hamlet's friend, from the scene where he spake daggers to her and used none, on to the last? Does her conscience from then on reproach her? What signs of it does the action afford ? Shakespeare makes her the first dramatic agent of the final clearing up of the plot, by causing her to drink the poison and thus warn Hamlet of the King's foul play. Discuss the fitness of this use of the Queen also her last speech: "Oh my deere Ham- let, the drinke, the drinke, I am poyson'd."
Was Ophelia in any way to blame for following the advice of her brother and her Father. Having been told that Hamlet was mad could a simple girl have imagined anything else than that he was mad when he acted toward her as he did ? Even if she had been a more penetrating woman, could she have helped the situation in any way? Hamlet for the time being, was too much disillusionized and perturbed to have profited even by full sympathy and comprehension. His mood was such that any woman would have been justified in thinking that he had merely been playing with her.
Is the depth of Ophelia's affectional nature proved by the fact that she could not stand the strain of Hamlet's change of attitude toward her, and her Father's death?
Queries for Discussion: — The Queen was Ophelia's worst enemy because through her degeneracy she brought about conditions which made it impossible for Ophelia's fine nature to blossom as it would in a happy environment.
Is the worst aspect of such guilt as that of the King and Queen the fact of its psychological reaction upon their own natures or its disillusionizing effect upon such honorable
60 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
natures as Hamlet's; its crime against the body of Ham- let's Father, or its crime against the normal fulfillment of Ophelia's destiny as the wife of Hamlet?
Why did the Queen drink the poison'd cup? Was it an unconscious act? Did she guess the truth, punish her- self, save and warn Hamlet, and at V. ii. 268, call him to her in order to say farewell ?
3. Topic. — Types of men portrayed in the Play.
Hints: — How would you characterize these types? The King is ambitious, unprincipled and hypocritical : has he any good points? Would it be possible for a man to commit the crime he committed and yet have the affection- ate disposition which he shows toward the Queen and the kindliness he evinces towards everybody else? He has a trace of conscience; would he have righted things if he could ? What one step could he have taken to prevent the tragedies of the play? Since he took steps only to protect himself at any cost, can it be said that his conscience amounted to much?
Is Hamlet's characterization of Polonius as an "old fool" all that can be said for him ?
Contrast his opinion of Polonius with his opinion of Horatio. Is Horatio's friendship in any way an active one ? Is his passivity in the action due to his temperament, to the fact that his position was so humble a one that he could not be active? Is Hamlet's fondness for him largely due to his separateness from the intrigues of the court? Must he not have had an innate sincerity and loyal- ty aside from all conditions so to have won the esteem of
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET 61
Hamlet? What are Laertes' good points? and in what ways does he show weakness? Are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern so much creatures of the king that they have no minds of their own ? Are there any other minor char- acters whose individuality is marked?
Are all the characters insignificant and simple in their make-up by the side of Hamlet? Just what are the rea- sons why he is so different and so superior to them all?
Queries for Discussion: — Are all the characters in the play simply foils for the complete revealing of Hamlet's nature?
If this is the case, why should the criticisms upon Ham- let's character be so variable ?
THE ORIGINAL MATERIAL
Topic. — Literary Factors of the Play.
Hints: — What are the sources of the play? In what way does it resemble the old story of Amleth? (Extracts from Belleforest's story of Amleth may be found in the First Folio Shakespeare, also full information about Sources).
In what ways does the version of 1604 differ from that of 1603? What interesting points are there in connection with the early editions? What is the general character of the allusions in the play ? Are there many Elizabethan turns of expression? (See Literary Illustrations). Are opinions agreed as to the duration of the action? Upon what circumstances does the decision in regard to the date of the play depend? (See First Folio Shakespeare).
62 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
MOOT POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
I. After learning the cause of his father's death, why does not Hamlet instantly go and murder the murderer? He is not wanting in will, and certainly not in strength, as his thrust at Polonius, his fight with Laertes, and his soliloquies show. (Herder).
II. This enigmatical work resembles those irrational equations, in which a fraction of unknown magnitude al- ways remains, that will in no manner admit of solution. (Schlegel). If this is true how is it true?
III. Why has not Shakespeare made Horatio a person of high intellectual ability? Because it would have distorted the whole piece. (Horn). What do you think?
IV. I see in Polonius a real statesman. Discreet, politic, keen sighted, ready at the council board, cunning upon occasion. He had been valued by the deceased King, and is now indispensable to his successor. (Tieck). Can any- thing be said for this point or view?
V. Hamlet had seduced Ophelia, and she saw not what she had lost until, by the murder of her father, the loss became irreparable. Happily for her virtue, the etiquette of piety, the policy of morality came to her aid. She loses both her wits and her life, and knows not why. (Boerne). By what possible contortion of the events in the play could such a theory as this be supported ?
VI. The explanation of the piece is apparent if we keep in mind the ghostly back ground. Hamlet, like Macbeth, is encompassed by a ghostly world, only it is not so glar- ingly so in Hamlet's case ; the catastrophe is hence brought
THE TRAGEDIE OF HAMLET 63
about by ghostly agency. The notorious exchange of rapiers, by which Hamlet is forced, just before his death, to fulfill his work, appears to be the work of spirits; the punishing, and at the same time, guiding hand is thrust in to bring on the end, as in the planetary system the force of physical law rules with an iron necessity, although the event is accomplished apparently by accident. (Mar- quard). Is there anything to indicate supernatural agency in the exchange of rapiers ? The supernatural works only through Hamlet. What is the reason of this?
VII. Is the ghost really as lofty a personage as he has often been described? . . . Instead of beginning with the business on hand, his murder, he tells first of his torments in hell, and manifests the greatest pleasure in giving a great poetical picture therefor. He is bent upon making a regular climax, and ending \rith the greatest horror, his murder by a brother. But this is a fault. The terrible thing about a ghost is, that it appears and speaks ; what it does and says, were it never so horrible, is childish in comparison. (Boerne). Would you argue in opposi- tion to this that for a man of Hamlet's philosophical and sceptical nature an ordinary ghost would have no terrors? Was it not the cumulative effect of the Ghost's speech that brought him to such a pitch of excitement?
VIII. The mystery of the supernatural goes deepening on more and more powerfully through the whole first act, but after the ghost appears and speaks, the piece no longer advances in interest, and with the first act ends also all effective power. . . . The faults, which become visi- ble from the second act on, are the following. The tragic
64 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
center of the whole action lies behind us, and what, else- where in Shakespeare's works is wont to affect us so irre- sistibly, instead of growing upon us, is here rather pre- supposed. The dramatic knot of the piece is the mur- dered father of the hero. After the Ghost has related the fearful story nothing more remains for the stage. ( Moriz Rapp.) Is a sufficient answer to this contained in the following remarks: Hamlet is the tragedy of the intel- lect. Hence it is that, next to 'Faust/ Hamlet is the profoundest, boldest, most characteristic tragedy that has ever been written, because its hero succumbs not through that which otherwise is well named human weakness, but through that which one must perforce call human strength. (Edouard Cans).
THE TRAGEDIE OF JULIUS CAESAR ACT I. BROODING CONSPIRACY.
Topic. — For Paper, Classwork or Private Study — The Entanglement of Brutus in the Conspiracy.
Hints : — Show how the story of this act is the progress of the conspiracy, and how important a part in it is the project to make Brutus join in the conspiracy; why it is considered important, and by what means it is effected. (See Rolfe's second article on 'Julius Caesar' in Poet-lore, Vol. V., p. 424, Aug.-Sept., '93). In showing the rela- tion of this to the plot, indicate how the conspiracy is the spring from which all the rest of the play takes its start. Who is the leader of the conspirators, Brutus or Cassius? Should you say, judging by this act, that Antony had an important part to play? Note what it is that he does and its results.
Points for Study, or Short Replies:— I. ("Being Me- chanicall) . . . signe of Your Profession" — what does this mean? Give instances of other sumptuary laws then or in later times. 2. How was a Roman triumph cele- brated? 3. What was the feast of Lupercal? 4. "That you have no such Mirrors, as will turne," etc. What sort of mirrors did the Romans have? Is there any probability that such Mirrors, as are here meant were magic mirrors ? What were these? 5. To what story of the origin of Rome does Cassius refer? (I. ii. 127.) (See Virgil's
65
66 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
6. "There was a Brutus once." What is the story of the elder Brutus? 7. Compare Casca's story of Caesar and the Crown with Plutarch's in his life of Antonius. (See 'Plutarch's Lives,' preferably North's Plutarch. 8. The prodigies Casca relates, their historical truth, and the cur- rent belief in omens. 9. Pompey's theatre. Describe the Roman theatres. (See 'Life of the Greeks and Romans.') 10. The old ideas about "the thunder stone." (See "First Folio Shakespeare.")
Query for Discussion : — Is it pride of ancestry or repub- licanism that leads Brutus to join the conspirators?
ACT II. BRUTUS' WEIGHT IN THE SCALE; CAESAR'S HESITATION
Topic. — The Conspiracy of Caesar's Friends.
Hints : — Tell the story of this act, noting that it shows the action poised as if on a pivot able to turn either way. On one side are the conspirators intriguing and anxious lest their designs leak out ; on the other, Caesar's wife and the Soothsayers fearful of harm to Caesar, and doing what they can to prevent it, but powerless before the trick of Decius and Caesar's own bravado. Trace the parts of all in the result.
Points:— i. "First of March." Compare with I. ii. 24, III. i. 6. What was the Roman method of calculating time? 2. "That Unicornes," etc. (See Notes "First Fo- lio Shakespeare.) 4. How did the Romans measure the hours? When was the first clock invented ? 5. What con- nection had the soothsayers with the Roman popular re- ligion ?
THE TRAGEDIE OF JULIUS CAESAR 67
Query for Discussion: — Does the leniency of Brutus arise from a merciful feeling or from his lack of foresight as to the consequences of his deed ?
ACT III. THE CONSUMMATION OF THE CONSPIRACY
Topic.— Caesar's Death.
Hints: — Compare Shakespeare's story of the deed with Plutarch's. What elements of strength and weakness do the conspirators show? Trace all the hints given in this act of the opposition the deed has awakened. How does Antony's soliloquy in Act III., i. foreshadow his speech in Scene ii. and his future action ? Is Shakespeare's portrait of the Roman people true or prejudiced? Note that both Brutus and Antony make their appeals to the people and that Shakespeare represents the people as ignorant and fic- kle. Was Shakespeare a conservative politically? (See on this point remarks on Shakespeare's Conservatism in 'Julius Caesar' in "Dramatic Motive in Browning's 'Strafford,' " in Poet-lore, Vol. V., p. 520, Oct., '93.)
Points: — . "Caesar doth never wrong without just cause" is said to be the original reading, which Ben Jon- son called absurd, of "Know Caesar doth not wrong," etc. Frame a plea for this Shakespearian "absurdity," defend- ing it by citing similar paradoxes in the plays (see 'Gen- tle Will, our Fellow,' Poet-lore, Vol. V., April, '93.) 2. Who was Ate? 3. Of what use is Scene iii. in the play? Did Shakespeare get it from Plutarch ? Would it be bet- ter left out ? Have we here detected him in idly imitating his original or not? What is the stage usage about it?
68 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
What can be argued from its being "cut"?
Query for Discussion: — Which was the more premedi- tated and artful speech, — Brutus's or Antony's?
ACTS IV. AND V. COUNTER INFLUENCES PREVAIL
Topic. — The Thickening Misfortunes of Brutus.
Hints: — In the latter part of Act III. the tide against Caesar shows signs of turning against Brutus. Show how in Acts IV. and V. events bear more and more heavily upon him. Do you think Shakespeare meant us to sympa- thize with Brutus or to find his misfortunes a retribution ? (See 'The Supernatural in Shakespeare/ III. in 'Julius Caesar/ Vol. V., Poet-lore, p. 625, Dec,, '93 ; also Rolfe's third paper on 'Julius Caesar/ Poet-lore, Vol. VI., p. u, Jan., '94.)
Points: — i. Lucius Pella. What does history tell of him? 2. Antony's and Caesar's Will: contrast between Antony's first and last mention of it. 3. "Pluto's mine." Explain the allusion. (See First Folio Shakespeare). 4. Shakespeare's Ghosts: Caesar's shade compared with oth- er Shakespearian ghosts. (See 'The Supernatural in Shakespeare.' Three papers in Poet-lore, Vol. V., 1893.) 5. "Hibla bees." What are they? 6. Epicurus. What was his philosophy? 7. The geography of the play: Masses, Sardis, Philippi, etc. 8. The Stoics: Their Doc- trines and Practice. 9. Books in the time of Brutus. What were they like? (See 'Life of the Greeks and Ro- mans.')
Query for Discussion: — Are Cassius and Antony or Brutus and Caesar the main actors in this drama?
THE TRAGEDIE OF JULIUS CAESAR 69 V. CHARACTER STUDIES
1. Topic. — Caesar and Antony.
Hints : — Caesar as Shakespeare's hero. Cite other refer- ences to Caesar in Shakespeare. Does the Caesar of the play agree in character with the other references made to him in Shakespeare? Is the character of Caesar in this play consistent throughout it? Does Caesar excite less sympathy at the beginning of the play than at the end? Why, in spite of his superstition, does Caesar decide to go to the Capitol? Was Caesar's pre-eminence good for the world of his day ? Was he really more in sympathy with • the populace than Brutus? (See Mommsen's 'History of Rome' or Froude's 'Caesar ;' also, remarks on Shakespeare's Conservatism, before quoted, Poet-lore, Oct., '93.) Note the development of Antony in the championship of Caesar. The Relations of Antony with the Rabble compared with those of Brutus. Why does Antony succeed with the peo- ple better than Brutus does? Notice signs of his com- radship with his soldiers, etc., in 'Antony and Cleopatra.'
Query for Discussion: — Does Shakespeare fail to make Caesar imperial ? (See Poet-lore, Vol. IV., p. 152, March, '92; also 'Is Shakespeare's Caesar Ignoble?' Vol. IV., p. 191, April, '92; and 'Julius Caesar.' Three papers. Vol. V., pp. 169, 424, April and Aug-Sept., 93, and Vol VI., p. u, Jan., '94.)
2. Topic.— "The Noblest Roman of them All," Brutus. Hints: — Show either that this description of Brutus is
true or false. Notice him in his various relations with the
70 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
other characters of the play, — as a husband, friend, con- spirator, party-leader, general, philosopher. Does his life conform to his ideas as a Stoic? Notice the way he took his wife's dea^; how he met his own. Was Cassius as .(disinterested in his motives as Brutus? Is he a thorough friend to Brutus, or does he use him for his own ends?
Query for Discussion: — Was Brutus justified in strik- ing down his friend for Rome's sake? (Compare with Pym's action in Browning's ' Straff ord.' See Poet-lore for Comparative Studies of 'Caesar' and 'Strafford.' Vol. II., p. 214, April, '90; Vol. IV., p. 148, March, '92; Vol. V., p. 5i5, Oct., '93.)
3. Topic.— The Women of the Play.
Hints : — Have they any direct influence on the progress of events? Any indirect influence? Which of the two wives is more helpful to her husband? Is Portia one of Shakespeare's noblest women? Why?
4. Topic. — The Minor Characters.
Hints : — The "honest Casca :" Does he deserve his title ' according to the play? The clever flatterer: Decius Bru- ^tus. What idea do you get of him in the few lines de- voted to him? Cicero and his policy: Does the secrecy rof his sympathy with the conspirators show wisdom or meanness? What originality does Shakespeare's portrait of him evince? (On this point see Rolfe's third paper on 'Julius Caesar,' Poet-lore, Vol. VI., p. II, Jan., '94.) The Tribunes: Their origin and office. Compare those in this play with those in 'Coriolanus.' Is Shakespeare
THE TRAGEDIE OF JULIUS CAESAR 71
right in representing them as more democratic than the people themselves? The young Octavius Caesar in this play considered as foreshadowing his later career as shown in 'Anthony and Cleopatra.' (See 'Antony and Octav- ius,' Poet-lore f Vol. II., p. 516, Oct., '90.) Pompey, the great character outside the play, and his career as the necessary forerunner of Caesar's imperialism.
Query for Discussion: — Are there any useless charac- ters in this drama, or do they each have a part to play in the development of the plot?
VI. DRAMATIC MOTIVE
Topic. — Dramatic Motive in 'Julius Caesar.' Hints: — Is the play a mere adaptation of Plutarch's 'Lives of Caesar and Brutus,' as some critics have said? What is its drift? Is its motive envy opposed to ambition, friendship to patriotism, republicanism to the spirit of the time? (See 'Dramatic Motive in Shakespeare,' Poet-lore, Vol. VI., also articles before mentioned.) Is Csesar om Brutus the hero of the play? In what characters ar* its elements of conflict represented ?
Query for Discussion: — Is 'Juliu^ Caesar' better fitted for stage presentation or for reading? ' •„•
MOOT POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
I. Shakespeare has been blamed for not having called this work "Marcus Brutus." But if Brutus is the hero of the play, Caesar, his power, his death — this is the sub-
72 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
ject." (H. Gomont). Since Caesar's principles triumphed in the end might he also be called the hero of the play ?
II. It is the spirit of Caesar, not his bodily presence sub- ject to all the ills of flesh and fortune which is the dom- inant power of the tragedy; against this — the spirit ot Caesar — Brutus fought; but Brutus who forever errs in practical politics, succeeded only in striking down Caesar's body; he who had been weak now rises as pure spirit, strong and terrible, and avenges himself upon the con- spirators. (Dowden). Is any argument against this view possible ?
III. If the empire had depended only upon the genius of a man, Brutus would have been able in killing Caesar, to save the republic; but the empire had its roots in the might of events. (Stapfer). Is assassination under any conditions likely to prove a good first step toward better conditions ?
IV. The portrait of Portia, like that of Brutus is al- ready in history a picture complete, finished, wherein poetry might enrich the colors, but could not perfect the design in any essential lines. (Stapfer). Do you feel this to be true ?
V. [In Portia] I find that he is a little behind his model and that he has not reproduced all her beauties of which some are apparently peculiar to a narrative style and rebel against translation into the language of Drama: Does this sufficiently account for the differences between Plut- arch's and Shakespeare's Portia?
VI. The scene between Brutus and Portia, where she endeavors to extort the secret of the conspiracy from him,
THE TRAGEDIE OF JULIUS CAESAR 73
is conceived in the most heroical spirit, and his burst of tenderness is justified by her whole behavior. Portia's breathless impatience to learn the event of the conspiracy, in the dialogue with Lucius, is full of passion. The in- terest which Portia takes in Brutus and that which Cal- purnia takes in the fate of Caesar are discriminated with the nicest precision. (Hazlitt) Does this appreciation of Portia show a better insight into Shakespeare's portrayal of her character than the last?
VII. The solidest result of Mommsen's .monumental investigations in Roman history is, let us venture to say, the affirmation that the closest friend and ally the Roman populace had at that time was Caesar, and not the patri- cian senatorial party, calling itself the lovers of liberty, but really representing the losing cause of class power. This fact Shakespeare shows, not theoretically and explicitly, of course, but dramatically, in character, dialogue and ac- tion. (Introduction to "First Folio" Caesar). Is this claim- ing too much for Shakespeare's historical penetration?
VIII. Mr. Hudson believes that he can detect a "re- fined and subtile irony" diffusing itself through the tex- ture of the play; that Brutus, a shallow idealist, should outshine the greatest practical genius he ever saw can have no other than ironical significance? Is it a simple mat- ter to show the faultiness of this criticism?
THE TRAGEDIE OF KING LEAR
The severe simplicity of the Greek tragedy of Father- hood as told in the ^dipus dramas, renders more striking in contrast the complexity and mass of the great Northern tragedy of Fatherhood, as told in 'Lear.' Consideration of the dramatic skill employed in the development and fu- sion of the double plot, and in the effective grouping of its various types of character, is the more needed for the comprehension and appreciation of its artistic beauty.
The main steps of the dramatic action, and the inter- weaving of the two plots, are first to be noticed, as the story unfolds from act to act. Next come the main points in the grouping of the characters.
THE STORY OF ACT I
Topic. — For Paper Classwork or Private Study.
The Double Plot:— Lear's Test and Edmund's Scheme.
Notice that the play opens on a double plot, the mo- tives of which are similar, yet diverse enough, and which enhance each other. The first few words of Kent and Gloster reveal the whole story of Lear's intended partition of his kingdom, and directly Edmund is introduced and the circumstances which have embittered his pride and will lead him to seek supremacy are set forth clearly, though with touches that seem merely casual. Show how all the incidents of this act unfold from this brief prologue. First, Lear's test of his daughter's love is developed and
74
THE TRAGEDIE OF KING LEAR 75
its consequences wrought out: the cutting off of Cordelia, the banishment of Kent; then, in the next scene, Ed- mund's plot against Edgar is elaborated; and thereupon, out of the King's trust in Goneril's false profession the in- cidents of scenes iii., iv., and v. flow. Is Lear's treatment by Regan and Goneril foreshadowed in this first scene?
Points: — i. Probable date of the play, and reasons for it. 2. What does Regan mean by the 'most precious square of sense' ? 3. Give an account of astrology in Shakespeare's day. 4. What was the office and dress of a fool? Was the habit of having a court jester as old as the time of Lear? 5. Explanation of all difficult' allusions in the act.
Queries for Discussion: — Did Cordelia see disaster ahead for her father from the first? And if so, is she therefore to blame for not being more tractable?
THE STORY OF ACT II
Topic. — Double Effects: — Edgar proscribed, Lear shut out.
Summarize the events of Act II, and show how they fol- low two lines of the plots which gradually become inter- twisted, beginning in sc. i. of this act with Edmund's de- signs to embroil Edgar with one or other of the Dukes, or to prejudice them against him, and so on, as events permit. Is the quarrel of Kent and Oswald a necessary part of the play? What does it effect? Is Regan harder than Goneril? Would she have been less hard if Goneril had not prompted her action? Why does Shakespeare make Cornwall so much harsher than Albany? How would it have worked to have made Albany the more violent
76 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
against the King? Would the dramatic effect have been as good? When does Lear's mind first show signs of breaking ? Of what use to the story's progress are Curan's few words at the beginning of this act. Compare these with the conversation of Kent and 'gentleman' in Act III. Are Albany and Gloster to blame in not taking Lear's part more strongly ?
Points: — i. Give the meaning of the obsolete words gasted, jakes, unbolted, intrinse, renege, etc. 2. Collect and explain the allusions in this act referring to Eliza- bethan ways of living, such as Kent's epithets for Oswald (which, it may be noted, are not quite in place for a play of the time of King Joash of the Bible). 3. What was Sarum and Camelot? 4. The custom of Bedlam Beg- gars. 5. Examine the indications given as to time in scenes ii. and iv. How long after Kent's arrival before he was set in the stocks, and how long did he stay? 6. What are the sources of the play ? ( See Notes 'First Folio Edition' of 'Lear.')
Query for Discussion: — Which has the more reason to proscribe one child and favor another, — Gloster or Lear?
THE STORY OF ACT III
Topic.— The Storm, Promise of Deliverance. Ed- mund's Plot deepens.
Describe in brief the events and the general effect as a whole of Act III. The first scene deepens the feeling of a coming division amongst themselves of Lear's oppressors, already anticipated in the preceding Act. It strengthens the hope, also suggested in the foregoing Act, that Cordelia
THE TRAGEDIE OF KING LEAR 77
is on the way to champion Lear's cause. This faint ray of light only serves to make more visible the tempestuous darkness of Lear's sufferings ; and even the hardships of the storm scene are surpassed in cruelty, not in dignity, by the effects of Edmund's designs against his father. These designs, too, it must be noticed, threaten the earlier hope of rescue, and leave despair poised at the end of the Act be- tween horror and recklessness. Show how this double culmination of agony is the necessary result of the double plot.
Points: — i. When did Merlin prophesy, and why does the Fool say, 'I live before his time'? 2. Collect and explain the allusions to popular fables and ballads in this act, pelican, pillicock, 'suum non, nonny,' 'Child Row- land,' etc. (Note Browning's use of the line about Childe Roland in his poem of the same name.) 3. Edgar's fiends, 'Malin,' 'Modo,' etc. (See also his own explanation, IV., ii., and M. D. Conway's 'Demons of the Shadow' or any History of the Devil.)
Query for Discussion : — Is the tragic in scene vii. 'urged beyond the outermost mark of the dramatic,' as Coleridge says, or is such physical horror the only possible effect that would not make an anticlimax after the outbreak of Lear's madness?
THE STORY OF ACT IV
Topic.— The Plot Unified. Good and Bad Powers at Contest.
What are the events of Act IV.? Describe its climax- scene, so far as emotion is concerned, — the meeting of Lear
78 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
and Cordelia. What is Kent's part in bringing this about? How do Cordelia's thanks exhibit her character? Show how by the blindness of Gloster and Cornwall's sudden punishment Edgar and Edmund are pushed to the front on opposite sides; Albany is roused, also, to play a more active part, wherein, though bound to repulse the French invasion, his success will befriend Lear. On the other hand, again, this pushes Goneril on to greater enmity and to plans for herself and Edmund which bring out Regan's ferocity ; so that both the sisters, while working with Os- wald and Edmund against Gloster, Lear, and Cordelia, are working also against each other. Edgar's defense of his father against Oswald leads to the exposure of Goneril and to what little respite from misery the next Act can boast. Note that this fourth Act ends with the double plot made in effect through Edgar's championing one side against Edmund, who stands for the other.
Query for Discussion: — Which of the events narrated in Act IV. is most important in its effect upon Act V. ?
THE STORY OF ACT V
Topic. — The Solution: Death punishes and releases.
Show how the Act opens just before the battle, and that, as Shakespeare makes it go against Cordelia, it does not provide a solution of the plot, and how, unless the sis- ters' evil-doing is to be rewarded, some other power must be brought in to direct events. The tournament is to set- tle what the battle left open; and Edgar's victory over Edmund, and the division, for Edmund's sake, between the sisters, are the means to effect the poetic justice Death
THE TRAGEDIE OF KING LEAR 79
deals by punishing the sisters and the traitor, and releasing Lear from his suffering. Notice also that this expedient of Shakespeare's, making the tournament instead of the historical battle the point of the plot, identifies the two interests of the two houses, Lear's and Gloster's, and brings the issue for all to one head. The real tragedy is for the most loyal persons, — Cordelia, the Fool, Kent, and Edgar.
Points: — I. Describe the customs of lists and of single combats. 2. Does Lear's reference to the Fool in the third scene mean Cordelia or the Jester? State the evi- dence for and against its being Cordelia. 3. What is meant by 'good-years.' 4. How long does the play last? (See 'Duration of the Action,' 'First Folio Edition' of 'Lear,' and verify, making any criticisms that occur to you.)
Query for Discussion: — Did Shakespeare do 'wisely for his art and meaning in letting Father and Daughter lie in one grave'? Or is Cordelia sacrificed for Lear's sake?
CHARACTER STUDIES
I. Topic. — Fatherhood as represented in Lear and Gloster.
Should Lear be represented as senile and testy, or ma- jestic and wrathful? Were his defects native, or the re- sult of the royal habits of arbitrary command? Is the King excusable in his craving for expressions of love? Is it a sign of a fond old age? When does his mind first show
8o SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
sign of breaking? Is it ever really healed? Is Lear any more thoughtful of Cordelia or careful of her happiness than he ever was, after he meets her again and they are both taken prisoner? When he is full of the idea of the pleasure they will have together in prison, is he not quite forgetful that she could have any other love or interest? Trace the similar and the different characteristics of Lear and Gloster throughout the play. What characteristic faults of Lear's and what of Gloster's have brought about the evil which works against them and ends by punishing them? What traits of theirs make it easy for their un- dutiful children to play upon them? From absolute au- thority and arbitrary power Lear's trouble forces him to learn charity and forbearance; yet his original tendency continues, and his old passion struggles against all his new taught lessons of patience. Between passion and patience, 'between the two extremes [says D. J. Snider] his spirit will sway so fiercely as to shatter him physically and men- tally. The way of Charity leads him to sanity, the way of Revenge to madness. So he careens from one side to the other, and the outcome is insanity.' So, also, Glos- ter's trouble teaches him the evil of his own habit of mind and nature, as Lear's trouble taught him the evil of his fixed habit of tyranny. Gloster makes light of his own faults of self-indulgence, and, preferring not to hold him- self responsible, he excuses himself by attributing events to fate. His lack of will and self-government leads to a superstitious credulity, and is the instrument, in his son's hand, of his punishment and of his spiritual awakening. Gloster, who is spiritually blind, is made physically blind,
THE TRAGEDIE OF KING LEAR 81
and is enlightened through the mediation of his dutiful son (in Act IV. sc. vi.), appealing to the same supersti- tious credulity the undutiful son had turned against him. Why is it, asks Dowden, 'that Gloster, whose suffering is the retribution for past deeds, should be restored to spirit- ual calm and light and pass away in a rapture of min- gled gladness and grief, while Lear, a man more sinned against than sinning, should be robbed of the comfort of Cordelia's love . . . and expire in a paroxysm of un- productive anguish?' Is it because Gloster, weaker mind- ed as he is, yet accuses himself more relentlessly than Lear, and is the purer for it? Is it quite true, moreover, that Lear has little sin to expiate? What evidence does Glos- ter give that his sons are equally dear to him, as he claims ?
Queries for Discussion : — Do either of the fathers show unselfishness in their love of their children?
Is Lear's division of his kingdom a sacrifice for his daughters' sake?
2. Topic. — Daughterhood as represented by Goneril and Regan.
Is daughterhood represented by the false homage Gon- eril and Regan profess to Lear, or do even their profes- sions, in case they were sincere, show a wrong idea of the filial relation? Which is the cleverer of these two sisters? Which originated their courses of action? Material au- thority is all they either respect or desire. The homage commonly yielded to success, regardless of how it is reached, and the scorn paid to failure, regardless of a lofty
82 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
aim, is a sign of the prevalence of just such characters as Regan and Goneril in the world today. Why does Gon- eril despise Albany and prefer Edmund? Is Albany's weakness a result of Goneril's control of events? Is there any truth in Lear's saying that Regan's nature is more 'tender hearted' and her eyes more comforting than Gon- eril's? Regan's relations with Cornwall seem to be on a better footing than Goneril's with Albany; why is it? When did both begin to be especially interested in Ed- mund? Why did Goneril one way 'like it and another like it not' that Cornwall had died? Does Goneril kill herself from remorse or consciousness of defeat ?
3. Topic. — Daughterhood as represented by Cordelia.
Is Cordelia devoted to her own ideal of truth at the ex- pense of a proper womanly and filial regard for her father's welfare? Is she hard and stubborn? Or is she just and firm? Is she right in refusing to sacrifice her highest self-interest — the allegiance of her nature to the truth as she saw it — to any one's selfish demands? Was she or was Lear responsible for his banishment of her and thence for all the resulting evils? Does she show any greater regard for her father at the end of the play than at the beginning? Snider says that tenderness rather than truth should have been her pride, and he seems to blame her because she is 'ready to sacrifice her share of the king- dom, which might be the protection of her parent in the future, to what she deems truth and duty. So often, the obstinate adherence to a moral punctilio jeopardizes the greatest interests, even institutions.' What do you think of this? Do you consider the interests of institutions or the
THE TRAGEDIE OF KING LEAR 83
will of a parent more precious than individual morality? The same writer holds that Cordelia develops, that when she again appears her character is developed, the ground of the changing being France's wooing and the experience of love. Does Shakespeare show this, or is it a mere fancy of Mr. Snider's? What signs of love are there between France and Cordelia ? Is she unsisterly ? Why does Cor- delia ask when she and Lear are captured — 'Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters ?' Does she show any sign of considering that her own future lies apart from Lear's mischance and defeat? Does Lear take it for granted without reason that it is bound up with his?
4. Topic. — Sonship as represented by Edgar and Ed- mund.
Can Edmund's villainy be explained by his circum- stances ? Does his plot proceed from a proper hatred of in- justice? Does his good opinion of his brother Edgar re- flect credit upon himself or does it aggravate his guilt? Does his cool and conscious cleverness and lack of hypocrisy make his villainy more or less endurable? Is there any- thing good in his trickery with the sisters? Why does Shakespeare give him the credit for wishing to do one good deed ? Is it consistent ?
Show that Edgar's career is a development 'from blank innocence to a complete knowledge of the world.' Is Edgar's deception of his father that he has fallen from the cliff, probable? Is it excusable? Why did he not make himself known to his father sooner? Why did they not go to Dover to join Cordelia's army instead of playing their parts in the cliff episode? This is dramatic license, per-
84 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
haps.
Queries for Discussion: — i. Is it the disloyalty of Gon- eril and Regan that brings about their punishment, or their enmity to each other?
2. How far should one person hold himself morally re- sponsible for another? Should a daughter's responsibility go further than a father's?
3. Why has the poet made the battle turn against Lear (changing in this respect both from history and the old play) ? Is the change due to patriotism — i. e. the desire not to exhibit France as victorious over England — or to the double plot which is best resolved by showing Lear and Gloster alike defeated?
5. Topic. — The Loyalty of Albany and Kent.
Show how Loyalty is represented in the contrast of Albany with Kent. Which is more especially the King's friend? Which is more friend to the King? What re- gard does Lear show for each, and how does each return it? Is Albany in love with Goneril, or is he by nature as slow as Kent is quick? Trace Kent's part throughout the play. What evidence is there that Cordelia's interference at last on Lear's behalf was instigated by Kent? Or is it rather to be supposed that Kent is merely her agent? Does he do more harm than good by quarrelling with Oswald ?
Queries for Discussion:— i. Is Kent the ideal character of the play?
2. Is Albany's weakness — I. iv. — the real cause of Goneril's leadership and hence of her contempt for him and the disasters of the play?
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH ACT I — FORTUNE TEMPTS
Topic. — Macbeth's 'Day of Success.'
Hints: — Are there any surprises in 'Macbeth'? — that is, is any event so sudden that the idea of it is not intro- duced to foreshadow the actual fact?
Examine Act I. in the light of this query, noticing what the main line of the action is, and how it is led up to in anticipation.
In stage-setting alone — the "bogge and filthie ayre," the "Thunder and Lightning," — I. i. is at once significant of the nature of the Play. The general atmospheric im- pression produced makes cosmic nature itself a sympathetic image of the tragedy in general, and in particular of the pending battle about which the witches are talking, and of some vaguely felt issue hanging upon it for the man whom the witches are proposing to meet when the battle is decided. The whole scene is like a prologue bearing in it the mood of the action to follow, and suggesting broad- ly, also, the influence of environment and occasion on man, especially upon the man named — the hero of the drama — Macbeth.
In this little scene the Third Witch says the definite things. She declares that the battle will be decided at sunset. She names Macbeth as the one upon whom their agreement to meet centres. Is this an indication of some
8s
86 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
intention to give individual character to the witches? It may be held in mind for comparison with their later ap- pearances to see whether it is borne out or not. Is it, rather, simply a dramatic device for bringing out effective- ly the telltale points?
I. ii. is taken up with news of the battle which I. i. has already told us is in dispute. The news brought by the first messenger, the Serjeant, is incomplete: the mind is by his report only half relieved from the desperate state of struggling equilibrium which he paints with the turgid metaphors of a strong man straining every nerve to tell his exciting story, before he dies of the bloody gashes he has received but is ignoring.
It takes a second messenger, Rosse, to complete the ac- count of the revolt; and the breathlessness which marks the scene, quieted down with the surety of the success of the king's arms over the rebellion and invasion, is shifted to the second subject of suspense and interest, already singled out by the witches — to the man "disdayning For- tune,"—"brave Macbeth."
The event of this scene — the victory — is thus both fore- shadowed and left hanging in doubt from the first, and from Macbeth's relation to it comes a foreboding, also awakened by the witch scene, that new treason may grow.
The rally of the witches with Macbeth promised in the first scene is left to be taken up. All that was sinister in that appointment to meet him on the heath after the fate of the battle was decided, is developed in I. iii.
As regards the witches alone, it may be noticed that here again the third witch seems to be the one most intent
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 87
upon Macbeth. To her is given the climax in their greet- ing of him. She hails him with the title that makes him start. By the strange effect of that greeting upon him this scene is made ominous of an event to grow out of the only actual fact made known in the scene — namely the an- nouncement to Macbeth of his accession to the place of the Thane of Cawdor. Even this is not a new fact in it- self, but only as to its announcement to Macbeth. As a fact accomplished it belongs to the preceding scene.
What is the new event, then, of this scene which con- stitutes a fresh step in the plot and overshadows Act II. ? Is it external or psychological?
Contrast the effect of Rosse's announcement on Banquo and Macbeth. What light do their remarks throw on the situation ?
What are the events of I. iv. ? Is there nothing new externally except the announcement of the king that he be- queaths his crown to his eldest son? But this announce- ment brings out an inner eventfulness of far more import- ance. Macbeth's preconceived ambition that he has been brooding over and that the witches have newly roused, is suddenly revealed in its worst aspect by this setback. The clash of the king's announcement with his secretly cher- ished designs is like a glare of lightning to see him by at the instant when his mind is leaping to attain his heart's desire, at any cost, despite any obstacle. Of course, as the kinsman of the king and a powerful noble he might have acceded to the throne of Scotland (which was not then necessarily hereditary) without violence, if the king had not thus declared his intention to secure his son's succes-
88 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
sion. By this declaration, Macbeth's mind is driven to the general idea of foul play. But does it lead him to any immediate definite plan of action?
Is there any indication in this Scene that the king's next announcement of his intention to honor Macbeth by be- coming his guest at Inverness is seized upon by Macbeth as convenient for his ambitious purpose? Should the ac- tor of the part here show by implication that he is alive to it? Or must he be careful lest he overact here? Ought he to make this scene forebode the next, but without an- ticipating it so far as to interfere with the effectiveness of Lady Macbeth's first appearance?
In I. v. the king's visit to Inverness is brought out in all the horrible significance of its fitness to tempt and serve Macbeth's ambition. But it is brought out through the effect of the announcement on Lady Macbeth. Macbeth himself seems to have been so preoccupied with the appar- ent check to his ambition when Duncan announced Mal- colm as his heir that his mind failed to seize the "the neerest way" to the end he was even then driven to avow to himself. Was he less quick-witted and adroit than Lady Macbeth, although by no means dependent on her for evil aims and suggestions?
Is the measure of his dependence upon her shown in I. iv. and v. to be the debt of a bad intention upon intuition and mental grasp of the situation, i. e., on both insight and executive plan for the enterprise that will consummate the bad deed he intends ?
What does I. v. accomplish? Is any altogether fresh fact brought to light? Is Lady Macbeth herself its great
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 89
event? The scene summarizes all that has gone before, but unfolds its implications and points the drift of the ac- tion already in movement ; and it apparently does this, by making us see the whole sharply and definitely through Lady Macbeth's sensitive response to Macbeth's desires and her pitilessly clear logic upon the convenient oppor- tunity which events have shaped to suit them. Show in detail how the scene is made vividly ominous of the deed now breathlessly looming ahead of them.
The next scenes (I. vi. and vii) take on swiftly the necessary intervening action of small happenings — the king's arrival, the banquetting time, the details of the plan for the night. Macbeth's half-hearted withdrawal from his resolution is dextrously bound up with the ar- rangement of these details. He has not seen how to do safely and effectively what he wants done on that night, and he requires Lady Macbeth to screw him up again, not merely by heartening him, but by showing him a feasible and plausible method. Does it make him any the less re- sponsible for the plot? Does his executive weakness tempt her and elicit all her power for evil quite as much as her executive ability leads him on ?
How does the influence of the two on each other inten- sify the impression here of headlong action?
The faltering at the crucial moment of Macbeth as the instrument of the impending deed acts like a cold wind on the fire of Lady Macbeth's directing force to make it glow more fierily and powerfully. Her spiritual energy and practical ability in this way soon reacts upon Macbeth, who adds such body and momentum to their -plot that as
90 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
the scene closes the imagination of the audience or the reader rushes on irresistibly toward the foreshadowed murder.
Sum up the actual events of Act I., on the one side ; and, on the other, the subjective events, so to speak, and contrast their influence on the plot and their bearing on each other.
ACT II.— THE DBBD
Topic. — Fitness of Time and Place.
Hints : — From Banquo's remarks to Fleance at the open- ing of this Act, do you get the impression that he already suspects that Macbeth will use violent means to bring about the fulfilment of the witches' prophecy? Is he more afraid of what he may be tempted to do himself to help on the prophecy in his own behalf, or is he already fearful lest he and his son might also become the victims of Macbeth's ambition? Are his remarks to Macbeth about the king perfectly ingenious or is he trying Macbeth in order to dis- cover if possible his intentions toward the king? Are Mac- beth's replies made only with the intention of putting Banquo off the scent, or does he also intend to throw out a bribe to Banquo and insure his silence upon whatever may happen, when he promises "honor" to Banquo if he shall "cleave" to his "consent" ?
Would the audience be fooled by Macbeth in this scene if it were not in the secret? How has it been put in the secret? Since it is in the secret as to the intentions of Macbeth, what purpose does this scene and the dagger speech serve, unless it be to reveal the characters of the
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 91
actors by hints and previsions of what is going on within their minds? Does the fascination of this short scene de- pend largely upon the fact that it would be possible to in- terpret in more than one way the inner workings of these two men's minds? The dagger speech besides revealing Macbeth's mood tells the audience that the deed is about to be accomplished. What arrangements had Macbeth and Lady Macbeth made to insure its successful accomplish- ment as implied in the talk and action though not indi- cated directly?
After the murder in II. ii. do you get the impression that it is physical revulsion rather than moral horror at his deed that unnerves Macbeth? Does Lady Macbeth's strength appear in this scene to be due entirely to her greater heartlessness, or to a determination to counteract the effects of her husband's weakness, and to save the day for him?
Does the scene with the porter serve the double purpose of relieving the tense strain upon the nerves of the audi- ence, and of reminding them that the little petty events of life go on in their dull and even tenor while dark and terrible deeds are being accomplished? Or is it chiefly effective as a means for bringing home to the two guilty ones the fact that henceforth they will be outcast from that world which breaks in upon their crime so carelessly, yet so dull to the latent power of retribution which will one day be their undoing? By the end of this act has the consummation of the deed produced any moral effects for better or worse upon either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth? Or do we find them simply following a blind human im-
92 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
pulse to save themselves from detection ? Which of them overacts the most and why?
While the moral action of the play may be said to be in poise, now, (II. iii.) in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, with their ambition attained, the counter forces at once begin to make themselves apparent.
Point out what these are shown to be in Scenes iii. and iv. If Malcolm and Donalbane had not fled would the murder of Duncan have accomplished anything? Are there good and sufficient reasons why they should flee? Do they or any one else show suspicion of Macbeth? Is there anything to show that either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth had thought of the complications that might arise through Malcolm and Donalbane? — or that they had thought of the possibility that suspicion would point to them ? In point of fact did not circumstances to which they had given no thought help them in the attainment of their end just as much as their own deed? Is this a weakness in the con- struction of the plot, or is it supremely true to life ? Is a criminal likely to take in all the aspects of the deed he commits?
ACT III. — FATE CHALLENGED
Topic.— -The "barren Scepter."
Hints: The consequences of the deed done in Act
II. begin to unfold significantly in Act III. The first con- sequence shown is the effect upon Macbeth's mind when established as king, of the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo's descendants.
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 93
His hostile intention toward Banquo and Fleance ap- pears darkly, although significantly, first in III. i., openly in III. ii., and the result of his ill will is tersely, indeed spectacularly presented in III. iii. ; while the remaining scenes are again devoted to the consequences of this new deed. And these consequences are first shown in action, as before, on Macbeth's mind in III. iv., and then, III. v., in reflex influence on the trend of fate itself as repre- sented by the witches, and finally in III. vi., upon his sub- jects, as represented by the talk of Lenox about the flight of Fleance, the similar flight of Malcolm and Donalbane, and finally in the talk about Macduff as of one through whose daring fresh evil or good are pretended. These scenes foreshadow all that follows in fact or in anticipa- tion throughout the action of Act IV. as regards Macbeth the witches, and Macduff 's family; they also darkly sug- gest MacdufFs possible revenge.
Is the reflex action of Macbeth's deeds on fate itself, i. e., his proposition to call fate into the lists, to circum- vent prophecy and control destiny in his own interest, the important event of Act III.; or is its most important event Banquo's murder? If the actual fact of the murder and the attempt to kill Fleance has a less fundamental bearing on the progress of the action than the determina- tion of Macbeth's mind against them, is it to be concluded that Shakespeare virtually makes Macbeth's soul the real stage of the action, and so in this play closely approaches the method characteristic of the so-called "modern" psy- chological drama?
It might be argued that while Banquo's murder was not
94 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
so important to the action here, as Macbeth's attempt to circumvent fate by murdering him and Fleance, the escape of Fleance was the external fact of central importance. But it must be noticed that this fact is dramatically inef- fective. Nothing comes of it, Fleance is not heard of again, he bears no witness against Macbeth and no ven- geance comes through him. His escape is made a symbol instead of an instrument of Macbeth's failure to control fate by external means. And the main line of movement in the Play is therefore the launching of Macbeth in the Act into the full stream of the struggle between himself and the powers of fate which he has challenged.
Fate, on her side, in the person of Hecate, accepts the challenge in sc. v., where she appears as the commander of the witches and as one who has the power to lead their external jugglery with Macbeth into supernatural and prophetic realms of influence.
ACT IV— FATE DECEIVES
Topic.— Taking "a Bond of Fate."
Hints: — The Act opens with the witch scene that has already been prepared for in Act III by Hecate. The ap- pearance of the witches here may be compared with that in Act I as being far more gruesome and suggestive of evil. Then, they appeared simply as the announcers of Fate; now, they are joined by a sort of Nemesis in the per- son of Hecate, who not only knows the course of fate, but is also an active force for evil and takes delight in mis- leading Macbeth with dissembling visions, scaring him
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 95
with baneful prophecies, and leading him on in his path of evil.
Was not Macbeth on his first meeting with the witches a free agent, still able in spite of his ambitious aims to choose the right course? Now he has by his own actions sold himself to evil, and evil in the semblance of Hecate can lead him whither she will for his own utter undoing. Are the witches just as actively on the side of evil as He- cate, but without her controlling power?
At the beginning of this Act, then, we see the result of Macbeth's helping on his fate by evil means, namely, his fate has become one with evil, and just as when fate was favorable to him, he worked to bring about its prophecies now that it prophesies things unfavorable, he determines to defy it. Does the scene of the witches brewing the broth in the cauldron serve as a vivid symbol of the gath- ering powers of evil which will finally be the undoing of Macbeth ?
How are Macbeth's actions influenced by his last meet- ing with the witches ? Does it show lack of wisdom on his part so openly to avow his intention of putting MacdufFs wife and children to the sword, or does he imagine he will be considered justified because of MacdufFs defection, or is he determined to cow every one into subjection by openly showing his hand as a tyrant, or is he simply rendered reck- less by the double dealing of fate which assures him at the same time of personal security and yet warns him of Mac- duff?
Does the scene in which Macduff's wife and children are murdered have any bearing upon the development of
96 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
the dramatic motive? Observe that in it Macbeth 's cru- elty is presented in its most intensive form. Compare the three murder scenes, showing how the first is done out of sight of the audience, while the feelings of Macbeth before and after are shown very intimately to the audience. In the second one, the murder is shown directly, but the victims come upon the scene only momentarily and then disappear, while the feelings of Macbeth, though indicated, are not shown so intimately. In the third, the cruelty of the murder is emphasized through the audience being put in sympathy with the victims by a pathetic domestic scene, while the murderers appear simply as slaughterers. Of Macbeth's feelings, we see nothing; that is, Macbeth has been moved entirely without the range of the sympathy of the audience, and the victims have been brought within its range. The cruelty of the murder is still more empha- sized by the fact that the victims are not in any way di- rectly dangerous to Macbeth.
How can MacdufFs leaving his wife and children un- protected be explained? Is it simply demanded by the exigencies of the plot, or are there good and sufficient ac- tual reasons why it was necessary for him to take this step?
In IV. iii., the forces of retribution began to gather strength. Is anything gained by the doubts cast upon Macduff both by his wife and Malcolm ? Do they simply emphasize the extent of Macbeth's cruelty and machina- tions first, by showing that MacdufFs only possible hope was in fleeing to England for help, not only for Scotland but for the protection of his home, which he could no
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 97
longer defend single handed; second, by showing what plots Macbeth had laid in order to get Malcolm into his power ?
Does the entrance of the Doctor in this scene, and his talk about the curse effected by the pious Edward serve any purpose whatever in the plot? Do they symbolize or pre- figure England's intervention?
Taken as a whole may this scene be said to represent the quiet gathering of the forces that arc to overwhelm Macbeth, its slow movement like the sullen pause which precedes the outbreak of a storm, while, to carry the simile farther, the news of the murder of Macduff's wife and children, is the lightning flash that lets loose the storm in all its fury.
ACT V. — FATE CONQUERS
Topic.— The "Bloody Head."
Hints : — Act V. brings home to Macbeth and his "part- ner of greatness" the triumph of the fate they themselves have given its power over them. This triumph is por- trayed as asserting itself first over Lady Macbeth, secretly, through its effect upon her mind.
How she has miscalculated her own strength to act ruthlessly is shown in V. i. She is revealed in the sleep- walking scene as one of that class of believers in evil whose error is most of all against human nature. The heart and brain she thought could be bent upon any design by her own will rebel through their own soundness and delicacy. Is it likely, judging by this scene alone, that her final
98 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
death by suicide is the end Shakespeare meant for her as the most characteristic and artistic consummation of her part?
Is the announcement of her death "by self and violent hands" (V. viii. 79) foreshadowed in this scene? What lines of V. i. give the hint ?
Does the drama show that her heart and her head have been equally distressed in secret, by the violence she has done to her capacity for goodness ? That is, does she reach the condition in which this scene unveils her, through her head, — by seeing, finally, how endless are the consequences of a violent deed, entailing ever new risks and chances of ruin for the sake of security in power? Or do you think, that she has reached remorse through her squeamish heart which has not been able to share in blood without an irresistible shrinking and physical horror that has swal- lowed up her command of her own consciousness ?
What light do the speeches which Shakespeare gives the "Gentlewoman" in her talk with the Doctor in this scene, throw upon Lady Macbeth *s character? Are they meant to reflect the view of normal womanhood ? Is Lady Mac- beth meant to appear by contrast with such a type, or as essentially of the same type ?
Is the anguish and death of Lady Macbeth necessary to the plot externally, either through its influence upon Mac- beth or upon his subjects by acquainting them with the foul play and rousing rebellion ? Or, is it necessary to the plot, internally, — as an element contributing to the consumma- tion of destiny and retribution ?
The powers of fate are shown in V. ii. as about to cen-
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 99
tre externally upon Macbeth and force a hard-fought retri- bution by actual deeds. Does V. iii. show that Macbeth is in any respect privately open, as Lady Macbeth was open, through a misgiving heart to the impending triumph of fate over him ? Is any such feeling of insecurity positive enough — external enough — to conquer his soul? His obduracy may be a sign of his obtuseness or of his super- stitious faith in the oracle. Which is it?
What effect is produced by the representation of Mac- beth in III. as being so irritated by the Doctor's answer to his question if medicine can help a "mind diseased"? Why is he so sensitive to the force of the Doctor's reply — that to such sorrows the patient must minister to him- self ? Does it suggest that Macbeth is cut by a haunting suspicion he wishes not to entertain — that his deliverance from his heart-sickness cannot be won by external aid ?
Does Macbeth's talk with the messenger as to the Eng- lish force reveal his grosser fears, his talk with the Doc- tor about Lady Macbeth, his finer ones?
Scene iv. brings one stage nearer the outward instru- ments fate is using, — Malcolm, Macduff, and the English army. How does this scene identify the advance of the army with the prophecy ?
Scene v. is made to show through its exposition of Mac- beth's alternately benumbed and desperate moods, both the imminence of his defeat and the stings of his own fore- bodings of the evil due him. Does he show his weakness most by his apathy or by his violence?
The last shreds of the mask Fate has worn in order to lure him on are cast aside in scenes vi. and vii. What is
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the bearing of the lines— "Why should I play the Roman Foole and dye On mine owne sword?" (V. viii. 2-3) Did he virtually, in an inner sense, die finally as a result of his own sword's thrust against another? In murdering Duncan, did he as good as kill himself, if he only knew it ? Would suicide have shown that his conscience had power over him to accuse him of killing another in order to gain an advantage for himself? Did Lady Macbeth's suicide show that hers had such power?
Is either his suicide, or Macduff's success in killing him, dramatically called for by the construction of the play? Which best suits it, and why?
Is the bringing in upon the stage of Macbeth's "bloody head" a necessary incident of the close of the play, be- cause it fulfills the oracle, or because it is a fitting end of Macbeth's story and a perfect sequel in its likeness and con- trast with the end of his "partner of greatness"?
MOOT POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
I. How far is the Action of the Play shaped by the Witches?
"The first thought of acceding to the throne is sug- gested and success in the attempt is promised to Macbeth by the witches; he is, therefore, represented as a man whose natural temper would have deterred him from such a design if he had not been immediately tempted and strongly impelled to it." (Whateley's "Remarks on Some Characters of Shakespeare," 1785).
"The power of the weird sisters is nowhere exhibited
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 101
as absolute, but always as relative. It is shown to depend upon what in a man's soul has affinities for that power. Where these affinities do not exist their power is naught." (Corson's "Introduction to Shakespeare," 1890).
Can these two opposite views be reconciled as the nat- ural results of an evolution of thought which at first re- garded temptation as from an anthropomorphic devil, and later as the prompting of a bad conscience ? Which is the point of view Shakespeare is likelier to have had ? Is it a mistake to suppose his mind confined to the level of most of his contemporaries?
OPPOSITE PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
1. Banquo's reception of the witches contrasts with Macbeth's and illustrates Corson's opinion.
2. Banquo stands in the same evil relation to the witches as Macbeth, and his position towards them, though different, is guilty.
II. Do the Witches ever really Prophesy? Or is the Plot only illustrated by their Revelations?
If their revelations are merely reflections of what is in Macbeth's mind, how can the apparition of the armed head (supposed to be the revolt against Macbeth) of the bloody child (the image of Macduff's birth), of the crowned child with the tree in its hand (prophetic of the "moving wood"), be explained?
But, in order to have sought, must not Macbeth first have needed the assurances the apparitions gave? Must
102 ; 'SHXki^P^ARE'S TRAGEDIES
he not have been led to apprehend defeat, by his bitterness iii being childless, and by his dread of Macduff and of the Prince of Cumberland, before he could be drawn on to "spurne Fate, scorne Death, and beare His hopes 'bove Wisdome, Grace, and Feare?" (III. v. 33.)
PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
1. Macbeth 's mind was not open enough to understand these apparitions; therefore he could not have prefigured them.
2. The apparitions are symbols of Macbeth's own po- tentiality; for it is his own dissevered head that bids him beware Macduff, still it is not Macduff of whom he must really beware, but himself; the bloody child declares that none of woman born shall harm him, still it was not Mac- duff's untimely birth that makes him dangerous to Mac- beth, but the wrongs he has himself done the thane of Fife; the crowned child with the tree warns him of his peril when Birnam wood shall come to Dunsinane, still it is not the "moving wood" but the murdered Duncan's son who brings Macbeth to his confusion. All these fore- shadowing are then really spectral shows of the actual facts and causes in Macbeth's character and deeds.
OPPOSITE PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
i. Macbeth's mind was not open enough to understand these apparitions; therefore he could not have prefigured them, and this proves that the witches are meant to be real, and that they not only illustrate but create the plot
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 103
2. The character of a man is his history, says Goethe. From such a conception of destiny the plot and structure of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' arise.
III. WAS BANQUO GUILTY?
"Banquo was as deep in the murder of the king, as some of the Scottish writers inform us* as Macbeth. But Shakespeare, with great art and address, deviates from the history. By these means his characters have the greater variety, and he at the same time pays a compliment to King James, who was lineally descended from Banquo." (Up- ton, "Critcal Remarks on Shakespeare," 1746.)
"Banquo appears to have been specially designed as a counter agency to the agency of the weird sisters . . . and as a support or encouragement to Macbeth's free agency if he chose to assert it." (Corson, "Introduction to Shakespeare," 1890.)
Does Banquo show his complicity with Macbeth by sub- mission to the oracle, or his innocence by his indifference to its promise? Why does Banquo give up his sword when he has 'cursed thoughts,' and cannot sleep, and has cause to fear — as he afterward says he does fear — that Macbeth will play 'most foully' ? Was this part of what Macbeth calls that 'wisdom that doth guide his valor to act in safety'? (III. i.) Why does Macduff refuse to go to Scone to see Macbeth crowned? Is he franker than Banquo ?
*For Shakespeare's Literary Material see Second Sec- tion "Shakespeare Studies — Macbeth" by the Authors.
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That Banquo was not guilty of intentional complicity with Macbeth in helping him to the throne is sufficiently shown by Macbeth's fear of him (III. i) ; but it must be remembered that the prophecy as to Banquo's issue would alone be enough to make Macbeth suspicious of him and account him an obstacle, even if he did not think him good ; and the caution and silence passively helping Macbeth's accession (though Banquo may have been merely biding the best time to unmask Duncan's murderer) show him to be not so 'unco' guid' as 'unco' canny.'
OPPOSITE PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
1. 'Banquo's sympathy with, nay, complicity in, the murder of Duncan is made perfectly clear. . . . The poet transforms Banquo's crime into one which consists in remaining silent, in refusing to act.' (Flathe, 'Shakes- peare in seiner Wirklichkeit,' Furness's Variorum. See also 'Banquo,' by Colin S. Buell, Poet-lore, Vol. XI. No. i.)
2. 'Banquo, as Macbeth admits, is noble, wise and brave. . . . The greater and happier fortune of Banquo did not consist alone or chiefly in the sovereignty that was to come to his descendants. . . . Moreover, to make Banquo bad would destroy the artistic balance of the drama. The royal pair of criminals, "magnificent in sin," need no iniquitous rivals near the infernal throne. Banquo is wanted on the other side.' ('Was Banquo Bad?' by W. J. Rolfe, Poet-lore, Vol. XI. No. 3.)
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 105 IV. WHY DOES LADY MACBETH FAINT?
'In II. iii. 115-122 . . . on Lady Macbeth's seem- ing to faint, while Banquo and Macduff are solicitous about her, Macbeth, by his unconcern, betrays a con- sciousness that the fainting is feigned.' (Whateley, 'Re- marks on Some Characters of Shakespeare,' 1785.)
'Most editors suppose this fainting fit to be a pretence, but I am convinced that Shakespeare meant it to be real. Various causes have cooperated to beget in Lady Macbeth a revulsion of feeling, which, from henceforth constantly increasing, drives her at last to self-destruction.' (Bo- denstedt, 'Macbeth,' 1867.)
'Macbeth was alone, facing the grooms still heavy with their drugged sleep, and knowing that in another mo- ment they would be aroused and telling their tale: the sense of crisis proves too much for him, and under an ungovernable impulse, he stabs them. He thus wrecks the whole scheme. How perfectly Lady Macbeth's plan would have served, if it had been left to itself, is shown by Lennox's account of ... the grooms. . . . Nothing, it is true, can be finer than the way in which Macbeth seeks to cover his mistake. . . . But .
. . his efforts are in vain, and at the end of his speech we feel that there has arisen in the company ... the indescribable effect known as a 'sensation' ; and we listen for some one to speak some word that shall be irrevocable. The crisis is acute, but Lady Macbeth comes to the rescue and faints! . . . there is at once a diversion.' (Moul- ton, 'Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist,' i!
106 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
'The dramatist had his reasons for causing Macbeth's hypocritically poetic description of the scene of the mur- der to be thus publicly delivered in the presence of her whose hands have had so large a share in giving it that particular aspect. It lends double force to this most characteristic trait of Macbeth's deportment, that he should not be moved, even by his lady's presence, from delivering his affectedly indignant description of that bloody spectacle, in terms which must so vividly recall to her mind's eye the sickening objects which his own moral cowardice had compelled her to gaze upon. His words draw from Lady Macbeth the instant exclamation, "Help me hence, ho!" ... It is remarkable that, upon her exclamation of distress, Macduff, and shortly after Banquo, cries out, "Look to the lady"; but that we find not the smallest sign of attention paid to her situation by Macbeth himself, who, arguing from his own character to hers, might regard it merely as a dexterous feigning on her part.' (Fletcher, 'Studies of Shakespeare,' 1847.)
Lady Macbeth's energy of mind and will give her her prompt remorse and piteous reaction of feeling. They give her also her early ascendency over her husband ; and his consciousness of this and emulation of her force of character bring about their reversal of position, of which her swoon and his daring, if not foolhardy act in this scene are signs. Note his repetitions of her earlier coun- sels,— her 'When you durst do it, then you were a man,' etc., I. vii. 47, and his 'Now, if you have a station in the file, Not in the worst rank of manhood,' etc. (III. i. 101 ), her 'Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 107
. . . as thou art in desire?' etc. (I. vii. 39-45), and his from hence 'The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand' (IV. i. 145-150); and find similar echoes. That Macbeth's hallucinations are wak- ing, and his wife's somnambulistic, indicates her greater self-control. Her command of her consciousness weak- ens only when she is physically unhinged, 'caught napping, as it were.
OPPOSITE PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
'Macbeth's remorse constitutes the element of horror in the play. Almost as much pity is felt for the murderer as for his victim. The true title of the tragedy might be crime, remorse, and expiation. Lady Macbeth alone ap- pears to stand outside the pale of morality. . . . All the great crimes in Shakespeare are inspired by wicked women ; men may execute, but cannot conceive them. The creature of sentiment is more depraved than the man of crime. ... In committing the murder Macbeth suc- cumbed to a strength of depravity superior to his own. This strength of depravity is the ardent imagination of his wife. . . . [His] is the weakness of a strong man opposed to the seductions of a perverted woman.' (Lamartine, 'Shakespeare et son Oeuvre,' 1865, quoted by Furness.)
'She is nothing of the kind. She is of a proud, ardent nature, a brave, consistent, loving woman, that derives her courageous consistency from the depths of her affection, absorbed in her husband's life and pursuits ; and after the
io8 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
first steps in crime sinks under the burden of guilt heaped upon her soul.' (F. A. Leo, 'Macbeth,' 1871, quoted by Furness.)
'The original choice for evil has for both been made by Macbeth. . . . The exact key to her character is given by regarding her as the antithesis of her husband, and an embodiment of the inner life and culture so mark- edly wanting in him. She has had the feminine lot of be- ing shut out from active life, and her genius and energy have been turned inwards; her soul — like her "little hand" — is not hardened for the working-day world, but is quick, delicate, sensitive.' (Moulton.)
V. How DID LADY MACBETH LOOK?
'Her whole appearance ought to be royal, as one for whose powerful features and majestic bearing the diadem is the befitting adornment. Her countenance ought to dis- play noble and energetic outlines, from whose every fea- ture mean desires are banished ; it should presage demoniac forces, with never a trace of moral ugliness nor aught re- pellent. The glittering eye betrays the restless, busy ardor of the disposition, while the finely chiselled lips and the nostrils must eloquently express scorn of moral oppo- sition and a determined purpose in crime. Her queenly bearing, as well as the nobility of all her movements, pro- claims her title to the highest earthly greatness and power. Lady Macbeth's looks ought to enchain, and yet, withal, chill us, for such features can awaken no human sympathy, and can only disclose the dominion of monstrous powers.'
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 109
(Rotscher, 'Shakespeare in seiner Character-bilden,' as quoted by Furness.)
'We figure Lady Macbeth to have been a tawny or brown blonde Rachel, with more beauty, with gray and cruel eyes, but with the same slight, dry configuration and constitution, instinct with determined nerve-power. . . . In Maclise's great painting of the banquet scene she is rep- resented as a woman of large and coarse development: a Scandinavian Amazon, the muscles of whose brawny arms could only have been developed to their great size by hard and frequent use; a woman of whose fists her husband might well be afraid. . . . Was Lady Macbeth such a being? Did the fierce fire of her soul animate the epicene bulk of a virago? Never! Lady Macbeth was a lady, beautiful and delicate, whose one vivid passion proves that her organization was instinct with nerve- force, unoppressed by weight of flesh. Probably she was small ; for it is the smaller sort of women whose emotional fire is the most fierce.' ('The Mad Folk of Shakespeare,' T. C. Bucknill, 1867.)
'Shakespeare gives us no hint as to her personal charms, except when he makes her describe her hand as "little." We may be sure that there were few "more thoroughbred or fairer fingers" in the land of Scotland than those of its queen, whose bearing in public towards Duncan, Banquo, and the nobles is marked by elegance and majesty ; and, in private, by affectionate anxiety for her sanguinary lord/ (Maginn, 'Shakespeare Papers,' 1860.)
In her 'are associated the subjugating power of intellect and the charms and graces of personal beauty. You will
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probably not agree with me as to the character of that beauty . . . it is of that character which I believe is generally allowed to be most captivating to the other sex, —fair, feminine, nay, perhaps, even fragile. . . . Vaulting ambition and intrepid daring rekindle in a mo- ment all the splendours of her dark blue eyes. . . . Her feminine nature, her delicate structure, ... are soon overwhelmed by the enormous pressure of her crimes. . . . Her frailer frame and keener feelings have now sunk under the struggle, — his robust and less sensitive con- stitution has not only resisted it, but bears him on to deep- er wickedness, and to experience the fatal fecundity of 'crime.' (Sarah Siddons, 'Remarks on the Character of Lady Macbeth,' in Campbell's 'Life of Mrs. Siddons.')
OPPOSITE PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
'She is ... a sort of sister of Milton's Lucifer, and, like him, we surely imagine her externally majestic and beautiful. Mrs. Siddons's idea of her having been a delicate and blonde beauty seems to me to be a pure ca- price. The public would have ill exchanged such a rep- resentative of Lady Macbeth for the dark locks and the eagle eyes of Mrs. Siddons.' (Campbell.)
'No one doubts that he has shown us in the spirit of Lady Macbeth that masculine firmness of will which he has made wanting in her husband. The strictest analogy, then, would lead him to complete the harmonizing con- trast of the two characters by enshrining this "undaunted mettle" of hers in a frame as exquisitely feminine as her
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH in
husband's is magnificently manly. This was requisite, also, in order to make her taunts of Macbeth's irresolution operate with the fullest intensity. Such sentiments from the lips of what is called a masculine looking or speaking woman have little moral energy compared with what they derive from the ardent utterance of a delicately feminine voice and nature. Mrs. Siddons, then, we believe, judged
more correctly in this matter than the public.' (Fletcher.)
i
VI. DID SHAKESPEARE WRITE THE PORTER SCENE?
'This low soliloquy of the porter, and his few speeches afterwards, I take to have been written for the mob by some other hand, perhaps with Shakespeare's consent; and that, finding it take, he with the remaining ink of a pen otherwise employed just interpolated the words, "I'll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire." Of the rest not one syllable has the ever-present being of Shakespeare.' (Coleridge, 'Notes and Lectures/ 1849.)
'Nevertheless, we cannot help thinking . . . it to have been not only his composition, but . . . natur- ally considered. ... It serves to lengthen dramatic time, and .... its repulsively coarse humor serves powerfully to contrast, yet harmonise, with the crime.' (M. and C. C. Clarke, 'Shakespeare.')
'Without this scene, Macbeth's dress cannot be shifted nor his hands washed. To give a rational space for the discharge of these actions was this scene thought of.'
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(Capell, 'Notes/ p. 13, I779-)
'A porter's speech is an integral part of the play ; it is necessary as a relief to the surrounding horror ; it is neces- sary according to the law of contrast elsewhere obeyed; the speech we have is dramatically relevant; its style and language are Shakespearian.' (J. W. Hales, in 'New Shakspere Society Transactions,' 1874.)
'The knocking at the gate . . . reflected back upon the murder a peculiar awfulness and a depth of solemnity
. . . the reaction has commenced; the human has made its reflux on the fiendish ; the pulses of life are be- ginning to beat again; and the re-establishment of the go- ings on of the world in which we live first makes us pro- foundly sensible of the awful parenthesis that had sus- pended them.' (De Quincey, 'Essays,' 1851.)
OPPOSITE PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
'To us this comic scene, not of a high class of comedy at best, seems strangely out of place amid the tragic hor- rors which surround it, and is quite different in effect from the comic passages which Shakespeare has intro- duced into other tragedies.' (Clarendon Press 'Shakes- peare.')
'Nothing more admirably fitted than this scene for the purpose of supplying the transition from one point to effect to another could be given ; and any critical censure of the poet for what he has done results from ignorance of his art. The true dramatist will estimate it at its worth/ •(J. A. Heraud, 'Shakespeare's Inner Life,' 1865, as quoted
THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH 113 by Furness.)
VII. THE THIRD MURDERER
'Macbeth was himself the third murderer; and this is apparent because, — first, although the banquet was to commence at seven, Macbeth did not go there till near midnight ; second, his entrance to the room and the appear- ance of the murderers are almost simultaneous; third, so dear to his heart was the success of this plot, that during the four or five hours before the banquet he must have been taken up with the intended murder some way or other. He could not have gone to the feast with the bare chance of the plot miscarrying; fourth, if there had been a third murderer sent to superintend the other two, he must have been Macbeth 's chief confidant, and as such in all proba- bility would have been the first to announce the result; fifth, the "twenty mortal murthers" was a needless and devilish kind of mutilation, not like the work of hirelings ; sixth, the third murderer repeated the precise instructions given to the other two, showed unusual intimacy with the exact locality, the habits of the visitors, etc., and seems to have struck down the light, probably to escape recogni- tion; seventh, there was a levity in Macbeth's manner with the murderer at the banquet which is quite explica- ble if he personally knew that Banquo was dead ; eighth, when the ghost rises, Macbeth asks those about him "which of them had done it," evidently to take suspicion off himself, and he says, in effect, to the ghost, "In yon black struggle you could never know me!" (Mr. Allan
ii4 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
Park Paton, in 'Notes and Queries/ September 11 and November 13, 1869.)
'The attendant was the third murderer. The stage di- rections are minute concerning one character not men- tioned in the Dramatis Persona*; and where such direc- tions are given by Shakespeare, I believe they are for a purpose, because he is generally careless in such matters and leaves them for the actors to carry out. Macbeth ut- ters what little he has to say to this attendant in tone of marked contempt — suggestive of his being some wretched creature entirely in his power, not an ordinary servant, but a tool. Such a servant in moral bondage to his mas- ter would be employed to watch without the palace gate for the two murderers, whose services he had, by Mac- beth's orders, secured. He need not have known the pre- cise object of their interview with Macbeth ; and I think it probable, from the action of the scene, that he was not told of it until after Macbeth's conversation (III. i.) with the two murderers, at the conclusion of which, I infer, he was commanded to watch them. The stage direction (III. i.) is, Exeunt all but Macbeth and an attendant; next is, Re-enter attendant with two murderers. Attend- ant then retires; but after Macbeth leaves them, as they go out by one door, he might follow by the other the at- tendant waiting there and instruct him. The exact fa- miliarity which the third murderer shows suggests the attendant, whose familiar knowledge may have been a reason for connecting him with the deed, if only by an afterthought, lest it fail without it. In the banquet scene, if the attendant stood by the first murderer after bringing
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him in, the interview would seem open, and such a con- versation could be better carried on under the eye of the whole company. Otherwise, the effect would be unman- ageable and absurd, instead of a thrilling horror.' (Henry Irving in Nineteenth Century for April, 1877, PP- 3^7- 330.)
Queries for Discussion: — Why is a third murderer in- troduced? Was Macbeth the third murderer?
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VIII. Is HECATE UN-SHAKESPEARIAN?
'If the fifth scene of Act III. had occurred in a drama not attributed to Shakespeare, no one would have discov- ered in it any trace of Shakespeare's manner; IV. i. 125- 132 cannot be Shakespeare's.' (The Clarendon editors.)
'The witches discourse with one another like women of the very lowest class, to which witches were supposed to belong. . . . When they address Macbeth, their tone assumes the majestic solemnity by which oracles have in all times contrived to inspire mortals with reverential awe. We here see that the witches are merely instru- ments; they are governed by an invisible spirit, or the or- dering of such great and dreadful events would be above their sphere.' (Schlegel, 'Lectures.')
'The wonderful pace at which the play was plainly written — a feverish haste drives it on — will account for many weaknesses in detail.' (Furnivall.)
Macbeth remarks long before the scene in which He- cate appears that 'witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's of- ferings' (II. i. 52). He again refers to Hecate's powers
ii6 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
(III. ii. 41), 'ere to black Hecate's summons The shard- borne beetle with his drowsy hums Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note.' Do these references of Macbeth to Hecate militate against the supposition that the part of Hecate's is not Shake- speare's ?
'The Hecate of III. v. and IV. i. occurs nowhere else in Shakespeare. Even in this play the "pale Hecate" whose "offerings witchcraft celebrates," the black He- cate who summons the beetle to ring "night's yawning peal," is the classical Hecate, the mistress of the lower world, arbiter of departed souls, patroness of magic, the three-fold dreadful goddess: so she is in "Midsummer Night's Dream," in "Lear," in "Hamlet": ... in this play she is a common witch, as in Middleton's play (not a spirit, as the Cambridge editors say) ; the chief witch : who sails in the air indeed ; all witches do that ; but a witch: rightly described in the stage direction of the Folios), Enter Hecate and the other three witches' (Fleay, 'Shakespeare Manual,' 1878.)
It should here be observed that upon Hecate's first ap- pearance (III. v.) the stage direction of the Folio reads, Enter the three witches meeting Hecate, which furnishes quite as good an argument against Hecate's being a mere witch as the other stage direction does for it, since it might mean three witches besides those already on the stage. Steevens suggested the others might be brought in to join the coming dance. The Cambridge editors changed to Enter Hecate to the other three Witches. As there are frequently changes made by editors in the stage directions
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of the Plays, arguments based on them have to be taken with caution.
OPPOSITE PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
'This un-Shakespearian Hecate does not use Shake- spearian language : there is not a line in her part that is not in Middleton's worst style: her metre is a jumble of tens and eights (iambic not trochaic like Shakespeare's short lines), a sure sign of inferior work; and what is of the most importance, she is not of the least use in the play in any way: the only effect she produces is, that the three fate-goddesses, who in the introduction of the play were already brought down to ordinary witches, are lowered still further to witches of an inferior grade, with a mis- tress who "contrives their charms" and is jealous if any "trafficking" goes on in which she does not bear her part.' (Fleay.)
The part of Hecate is absolutely necessary in the de- velopment of the fatalistic side of the plot; as the Fates were subject to Zeus, so these witches were subject to Hecate, and were unable to fulfill the destiny of Macbeth without her aid. In the first scene they simply show the ordinary witch power of second sight, but in IV. i., in or- der to lead Macbeth to his further confusion, they must show him apparitions; this they could not do without the aid of magic and Hecate, the goddess who presided over magic and its practicers — the witches. Furthermore, the growing power of the evil influences over Macbeth is sym- bolized in Hecate's first appearance (III. iv.), when she
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expresses her determination to have her finger in the de- struction of this man who loves only for his own ends.
i
IX. DOES THB LANGUAGE IN MACBETH PROVE THAT MANY PASSAGES IN THE PLAY ARE NOT SHAKE- SPEARE'S?
Messieurs Clark and Wright 'are persuaded that there are parts which Shakespeare did not write': namely, I. ii., of which 'the slovenly metre is not like Shakespeare's work, even when he is most careless,' nor 'the bombastic phraseology of the Sergeant/ like 'Shakespeare's language even when he is most bombastic'; II. i. 1-37, and 'the feeble "tag," ' II. i. 61 ; II. iii. 1-23, 'the low soliloquy of the Porter'; III. v.; IV. i. 39-47, 125-132; V. v. 47-50, viii., 32-33; the last forty lines of the play. 'Shakespeare, who has inspired his audience with pity for Lady Macbeth, and made them feel that her guilt has been almost absolved by the terrible retribution which fol- lowed, would not have disturbed this feeling by calling her a "fiend-like queen" ; nor would he have drawn away the veil which, with his fine tact he had dropt over her fate, by telling us that she had taken off her life by "self and violent hands." ' (Clarendon Press Series, 1869.)
Singularly enough, this correction of 'Macbeth' is in all main points, from the clearing up of the 'slovenly metre' and 'bombastic phraseology' of the Sergeant, to the excision of the parts of the close of the play which indi- cate Macbeth 's resistance of suicide, and Lady Macbeth's seizure of it, precisely the correction D'Avenant's taste
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effected when he amended the play for action 'at the Duke's Theatre.' Is that play as printed in 1674 in these respects more Shakespearian than the 'Macbeth' of the First Folio, 1623; or does the fact that the taste of the Restoration and the criticism of these Victorian editors accord so perfectly upon these passages, conduce toward the conclusion that it is unwise to pronounce them un- Shakespearian ? Are the suicide passages such as suit the scheme of the play as a whole, and is the 'Roman death' a favorite allusion in Shakespeare? Do other objections occur to you?
The Clarendon Press editors, 'following the suggestion originally made by Steevens as to the resemblances be- tween "The Witch" and "Macbeth," ' conjecture that to Middleton these 'un- Shakespearian' passages are due, 'who to please the groundlings expanded the parts as- signed to the weird sisters and introduced Hecate.' Fleay, enlarging on the same thesis, wrote: —
'I now give my theory as to the composition of the play. It was written by Shakespeare during his third period ... its date was probably 1606 . . . at some time after this Middleton revised and abridged it. I agree with the Cambridge editors in saying not earlier than 1613. There is a decisive argument that he did so after he wrote the "Witch," namely, that he bor- rowed the songs from the latter play and repeats himself a good deal. It is to me very likely that he should repeat himself in "Macbeth," and somewhat improve on his original conception, as he has done in the corresponding passages; and yet be unable to do a couple of new songs,
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or to avoid the monotony of introducing Hecate in both plays (Hecate being a witch in both, remember) [not proven, remember]. I can quite understand a third rate man, who in all his work shows reminiscences of others and repetitions of Shakespeare, being unable to vary such conceptions as he formed on the subject. I believe that Middleton, having found the groundlings more taken with the witches, and the cauldron, and the visions in IV. i. than with the grander are displayed in the Fate goddesses of I. iii. determined to amalgamate these, and to give us plenty of them ... I believe also the extra fighting in the last scenes was inserted for the same reason. But finding that the magic and the singing and the fighting made the play too long ... he cut out large portions of the psychological Shakespeare work, in which, as far as quantity is concerned, this play is very deficient com- pared with the three other masterpieces of world-poetry, and left us the torso we now have . . . Middleton altered many scenes by inserting rhyme tags.'
'Who could exhaust the praise of this sublime work? Since "The Furies" of ^Eschylus, nothing so grand and terrible has ever been composed. The witches are not, it is true, divine Eumenides, and are not intended to be so; they are ignoble and vulgar instruments of hell. A Ger- man poet, therefore, very ill understood their meaning when he transformed them into mongrel beings, a mixture of fates, furies, and enchantresses, and clothed them with tragical dignity. Let no man lay hand on Shakespeare's works to change anything essential in them; he will be sure to punish himself. . . . Shakespeare's picture of
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the witches is truly magical: in short scenes where they enter, he has created for them a peculiar language, which, although composed of the usual elements, still seems to be a collection of formulae of incantation. The sound of the words, the accumulation of the rhymes, and the rhythmus of the verse, form, as it were, the hollow music of a dreary dance of witches. . . . The witches discourse with one another like women of the very lowest class, for this was the class to which witches were sup- posed to belong; when, however, they address Macbeth, their tone assumes more elevation ; their predictions, which they either themselves pronounce or allow their appari- tions to deliver, have all the obscure brevity, the majestic solemnity, by which oracles have in all times contrived to inspire mortals with reverential awe.
'We here see that the witches are merely instruments; they are governed by an invisible spirit, or the ordering of such great and terrible events would be above their sphere.' (Schlegel, 'Lectures on Art and Dramatic Lit- erature.')
'It exhibits throughout the hasty execution of a grand and clearly conceived design. But the haste is that of a master of his art, who, with conscious command of its resources, and in the frenzy of a grand inspiration, works out his composition to its minutest detail of essential form, leaving the work of surface finish for the occupation of cooler leisure. ... I am inclined to regard "Mac- beth" as, for the most part, a specimen of Shakespeare's unelaborated, if not unfinished, writing, in the maturity and highest vitality of his genius. It abounds in in-
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stances of extrcmcst compression and most daring ellipsis, while it exhibits in every scene a union of supreme dra- matic and poetic power, and in almost every line an im- perially irresponsible control of language. Hence, I think, its lack of completeness of versification in certain passages, and also some of the imperfection of the text, the thought in which the compositions were not always able to follow and apprehend/ (Richard Grant White.)
OPPOSITE PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
1. 'Macbeth,' in its present state, is an altered copy of the original drama, and the alterations were made by Middleton. (Fleay.)
2. 'It would be very uncritical to pick out of Shake- speare's works all that seems inferior to the rest, and to assign it to somebody else. At his worst he is still Shake- speare; and though the least "mannered" of all poets he has always a manner that cannot be mistaken.' (Cam- bridge editors.)
3. The similarities between The Witch* and 'Mac- beth' proves no more than that Shakespeare in this case, as in other provable cases (for examples see resemblances in the Plays to Holinshed, Plutarch, Greene, Chaucer, etc), made use of anything that suited his purpose, and the fact that the passages so similar in 'Macbeth' always show an improvement in diction and a purposefulness in relation to character or plot militates in favor of Shake- speare's having borrowed from Middleton, rather than that Middleton either improved Shakespeare or borrowed
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from him. ( Compare passages as given in 'Literary Illus- trations,' in this volume, Part VIII., with 'Macbeth.')
4. To say that Shakespeare's manner is always recog- nizable is to give almost divine powers to the critic, and is especially doubtful when the critic's standard of style is subjective, and as a thing apart, instead of dramatic, and a thing of relations to the subject.
X. NATURE IN 'MACBETH'
What correspondences are there in 'Macbeth' between Nature and Man?
'Action, life, passion — men and women — are nearly all in all throughout Shakespeare's works, external nature being used only as a foil to show off the lights and shades of the great drama of human existence. Shake- speare does not paint landscape at all, as we now under- stand that word, not even for his own dramatic purposes.' (Forsyth, quoted by Furness.)
'The literal significance of this speech (I. iii. 38) is that the day has been foul in respect to the weather and fair in respect to the battle. ... It intimates a re- lationship, noted by Coleridge, between Macbeth and the witches.' (Corson, p. 231.)
'So fair and foul a day I have not seen.' This and similar expressions bring out the relationship between hu- man and natural conditions. What evidence is there that it is connected with the forthcoming action when 'to be- guile the time' Macbeth is to 'look like the time . . . look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it?'
i24 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
Or, may it rather indicate that Macbeth, though pleased with the result of the battle, had a physical distaste for slaughter? What other signs are there of Macbeth's squeamishness ? Is it still likelier that Shakespeare uses nature imagery, and such expressions as Macbeth's about the weather, because they match the mood shown, and give the scene the right color? Compare Lady Macbeth's and Duncan's expressions (I. iv. 39 and vi. 1-9). At the same time they find in the same signs an opposite sig- nificance.
OPPOSITE PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
1. 'In no other play has Shakespeare so represented the natural world as reflecting the moral world.' (Corson.) Compare 'Lear,' 'Hamlet,' 'As You Like It.'
2. It is refining too much to suppose that Shakespeare, in his day, could have meant so much philosophically and morally, as such an interpretation of his use of Nature in this play would involve. Compare with the use of Na- ture by contemporaries of Shakespeare, and claim that the reflection of the moral world in Nature is modern.
XL THE SUPERNATURAL
Can the supernatural element in 'Macbeth' be ex- plained away?
It might be claimed by a modern interpreter of super- natural events that the witches were clairvoyants, who read Macbeth's mind and simply announced what they
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found in it ; that the air-drawn dagger and the ghost were both hallucinations arising from Macbeth's overwrought state of mind; that the visions the witches showed him, with Hecate's help, resulted from their hypnotizing him and making him see whatever they suggested.
If such interpretations would not have been possible to the knowledge of Shakespeare's time, must we suppose that what the poet intends to do in the play is deliberately to make use of the supernatural in the superstitions of the time to symbolize the powers outside of man working for his undoing, and in Macbeth the degeneration of a soul which responds to these evil powers?
Or is the whole supernatural paraphernalia meant to be an objective presentation of the degenerative forces inher- ent in Macbeth's mind and soul?
The action of Destiny in classic drama may be divided into two distinct phases: the oracular, — the revelation of destiny; the ironical, — the malignant mockery of destiny. Oracles are fulfilled in classic lore ( I ) by blind obedience, (2) by the agency of free will, or indifference, (3) in spite of opposition. . . . The three principal varie- ties ... all ... are illustrated in 'Macbeth.' . . . The rise of Macbeth, taken by itself, consists in an oracle and its fulfillment. . . . After his first ex- citement Macbeth resolves that he will have nothing to do with the temptation (I. iii. 143-146). ... So far . . . an ocular action of the second type; indifference and ignoring. But in the very next scene (I. iv. 48) he commits himself to the evil suggestion, and thus changes the type of action to the first variety, ... of obedi-
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ence. . . . In the latter half of the oracle, that Ban- quo was to get kings, originates through Macbeth's oppo- sition to it, that type in which Destiny is fulfilled by the agency of a will that has been opposing it. (See Moulton, 'Shakespeare's Dramatic Art,' chap, vi.)
If, as Moulton thinks, this play is an example of the fulfilling of Destiny, — first through indifference to the oracle of the witches, then through obedience to it, finally through the opposing of the will to it, — then the witches must be objective manifestations and not the visible signs simply of Macbeth's own nature.
On the other hand, it may be claimed that 'there is a Fate which shows like that of an old Greek tragedy, with its supernatural ministers and its oracles veiled in mystery. But through the Passion and the Fate there appears the Moral Proportion of the play. . . . Macbeth's am- bition for sovereignty and power, traced throughout the play, is found to be his fatal passion. . . . Macbeth is at first entirely a free agent ; he is the author of his own passion and responsible for his own fall. . . . Then, when Will is but a vassal to obey passion in every par- ticular, Macbeth is no longer a free agent; he is "pas- sion's slave." ... No longer capable of controlling himself, he must take his place with a lower order of cre- ation and be ruled. This is the fatalism of passion, — the awful truth which this drama so forcibly embodies; the truth that the moment inward liberty is gone, that which is without interferes to wrench from the individual his outward liberty.' (See Ella Adams Moore, 'Moral Pro- portion and Fatalism in Macbeth,' in Poet-lore, Vol. VII.,
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March, 1895.)
If the fatalism thus described is so prominently brought out by Shakespeare, must not the classic element of des- tiny and the supernatural be here employed more as the ethical symbols than as the actual factors of Macbeth's tragedy, no matter how concretely represented, as they must be in drama?
OPPOSITE PROPOSITIONS FOR DEBATE
1. The supernatural element is common to all litera- ture, because believed in as real and as the guiding force outside man. It is used as real in Shakespeare; and there is no reason to read more into it than appears, nor to sup- pose that he, in his day, used it with the modern skepticism which doubts its reality and imputes to it a psychical quality. Moreover, the witches are too completely char- acterized to be subjective f and the dramatic interest is enhanced by Macbeth's being a puppet of fate.
2. The supernatural element is used by Shakespeare in a peculiar way. It can only be thoroughly accounted for by supposing his manipulation of it here to be a remark- able anticipation of a point of view brought out more em- phatically and succinctly by George Meredith, that vir- tue of character comes 'when we cast off the scales of hope and fancy, and surrender our claims on made chance, when the wild particles of this universe consent to march as they are directed.' (See 'George Meredith on the source of Destiny,' by Emily Hooker, Poet-lore, Vol. XII. No. 2.)
i28 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
Moreover, the witches are not characterized to a degree that is inconsistent with both their dramatic presentation and their subordination to this inward destiny ; the inter- est of the play demands that Macbeth shall be a free agent; the irony of destiny is in 'Macbeth' allied to jus- tice ; and the play, as a whole, shows the approach toward agreement between the old idea of destiny and the modern idea of cause and effect.
XII. SHAKESPEARE'S ORIGINALITY
Queries for Discussion: — i. To what extent is the plot of 'Macbeth' built up out of Holinshed?
2. Does Shakespeare's witchcraft owe everything or nothing to Holinshed, Golding, and Scot?
3. What light is thrown upon Shakespeare's originality and style by a comparison of his 'Macbeth' with D'Ave- nant's version? What light, also, does it throw upon the change in public taste and criticism, that passages thought too extravagant and barbarous for the Restoration were a part of the Elizabethan text?
4. Is the divergence of the adaptation of 1674 (shown in scenes given here, Part VIII.) from the original 'Mac- beth' the natural result of a different conception of the plot and of the relations of the characters, of which the altered diction and the omissions, etc., are but the external signs?
5. Should this exemplification of the historic evolution of literary criticism caution us against decisions as to what is un-Shakespearian in 'Macbeth,' if they are based on
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later taste, especially (i) if such decisions are passed on scenes built on Holinshed; (2) if they agree in taste with the adaptation of 1674; (3) if they are unsupported by a study of the dramatic structure of the play as a whole ?
XIII. QUESTIONS IN CRITICISM
'Shakespeare's genius lay for comedy and humor. . . . Every one must be content to wear a fool's coat who comes to be dressed by him. ... In tragedy, he ap- pears quite out of his element; his brains are turn'd, he raves and rambles, without any coherence, any spark of reason, or any rule to control him or set bounds to his phrensy.' (Rymer, 'Short View of Tragedy,' 1693.)
'Shakespeare labouring with multiplicity of sublime ideas gives himself not time to be delivered of them by the rules of slow, endeavouring art, crowds various figures, metaphors upon metaphor, runs the hazard of far-fetched expression ; condescends not to grammatical niceties.' ( Up- on, 'Critical Observations on Shakespeare,' 1746, refer- ring here especially to Macbeth's soliloquy, I. vii. 16-28.)
'This play is deservedly celebrated for the propriety of its fictions, and the solemnity, grandeur, and variety of its action ; but it has no nice discrimination of character ; the events are too great to admit the influence of particular dispositions, and the course of the action necessarily de- termines the conduct of the agents. . . . Lady Mac- beth is merely detested . . . the courage of Macbeth preserves some esteem.' (Johnson, as quoted by Furness.)
'The less that women appear on the stage generally
i3o SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
the better is the story; and unmarried women are left entirely out in Shakespeare's best plays, as in "Macbeth," "Othello," "Julius Caesar,"1 (Upton.)
Are the witches to be supposed as married ? Scott says, in his 'Discoverie of Witchcraft,' with similar scorn of women in general and the unmarried and aged in particu- lar, and to the discredit of witchcraft on this account: 'See whether witches be not single, and of what credit, sexe, and age they are.'
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
On what ground are these criticisms justifiable? Were they true from certain points of view, or were they never true?
Is Lady Macbeth detested by all readers now, as Dr. Johnson said she was, or was this a feeling incident to his day?
Are readers now apt to agree with Upton that the play would be better if Lady Macbeth and the witches were left out? Are they likelier to consider the feminine ele- ment in Shakespeare's Dramatis Personae one of the signal signs of his excellence beyond his day, amounting, in fact, to a long step, on the stage, toward such an opinion as the following, of George Meredith?
'The higher the comedy, the more prominent the part they [women] enjoy in it. ... Where the veil is over women's faces, you cannot have society, without which the senses are barbarous.' ('An Essay on Comedy/ pp. 22, 53, 1897.)
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Do these critics utter sound strictures upon extrava- gance in Shakespeare's diction, irregularities in his design, or do they but make it clear to the modern eye that their critical powers were for a day, the subject of them for all time?
THE TRAGEDIE OF OTHELLO THE STORY OF ACT I
Topic. — For Paper, (Classwork, or Private Study) lago's Desdemona's Choice.
Hints: — Through what events does the action of the Play begin to take shape? Show that the main events of the Act are Cassio's appointment to the lieutenancy, Des- demona's elopement, and the Ottomite expedition, but that these are not so important in themselves to the move- ment of the plot as in their effect upon the characters. The effects of the appointment on lago, and of the elope- ment on Roderigo and Brabantio, for example, occupy the first scenes, and the main dramatic use of them seems to be to exhibit lago's malice. So also the news of the Ottomite Expedition, which brings about the scene in the Ducal Council Chamber, is the means by which the cir- cumstances and nature of Desdemona's love and choice are revealed. lago's malice promises to be of direct import- ance in shaping the coming tragedy. Desdemona's choice is the other more passive but equally necessary element of the plot. The first more active element will work upon the second. What signs are there in Act I. that Cassio and Roderigo, lying outside of these two elements of the story as they do, are to be woven into it through the interaction of these two main factors? Show how Ro- derigo is first made lago's instrument, and how it appears immediately in this Act that Cassio, and even Othello,
132
THE TRAGEDIE OF OTHELLO 133
will submit to the same mastery. Doubt of Desdemona's constancy in her choice is a necessary starting-point in lago's plan of action, not only for the accomplishment of his own ends, but also for his entanglement of both Roderigo and Othello. His task is to make them share his doubt of her. Why is lago right in his estimate of Othello, and wrong in his estimate of Desdemona? Was Desdemona's love for Othello likely to prove more, or less, lasting, because she saw Othello's "visage in his mind"? What light does it throw on lago, that he could not believe in such love ? And is this quality thus revealed the real cause of the Tragedy?
Topic. — i. "Strike on the Tinder, .... Give me a Taper." — What sort of matches were in use in Venetian and in Elizabethan days? 2. "What Drugges, what Charmes," etc. (I. iii. 109). Love potions and charms. — 3. "That I would all my Pilgrimage dilate." (176) Give an account of some of the discoveries of new and strange lands in Shakespeare's time. 4. A sketch of Venice. 5. "A voice potential As double as the Duke's." (I. ii. 15). — The power and position of a Venetian sena- tor.
Query for Discussion : — Is it apparent in Act I. that the love of Desdemona and Othello holds within itself the promise of a violent future? Or does lago's malice alone threaten it with evil?
THE STORY OF ACT II
Topic — lago's Net.
Hints : — Tell the story of lago's stratagem to implicate
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Cassio in disorder and disgrace. Note the double mean- ing of much of the dialogue considered as adding to the diversion of the audience and enabling it to find pleasure of an intellectual and satiric sort, in the evil machinations of lago. For example, where lago says to Cassio, "I thinke you thinke I love you," and Cassio replies, "I have well approved it," (II. iii. 325-327) the apparent and the real sense present an amusing contrast, and also advance the action. While pleasure of this sort lightens the trag- edy and interests one from the maker's point of view in the weaving of the plot, does it make one sympathize at all with lago? Discuss the importance of the drunken scene and its effect on the whole play.
Points: — i. Collect and explain unusual words in Act II. as "trash," "equinox," etc. 2. "He'll watch the horo- loge a double set." — Describe a horologe. 3. The songs introduced in Act II. and their music. See Percy's 'Rel- iques English Poetry.') 4. Venice and Cyprus and their historical connection.
Queries for Discussion:— i. Can it be shown from this Act that Shakespeare was averse to drinking? 2. How may such an opinion be upheld by passages in other Plays ? (See Mrs. Stopes's 'The Bacon-Shakspere Question An- swered,' which finds curious difference between Shake- speare and Bacon on the subject of liquors.) What is meant by lago's "Divinitie of hell"? (II. iii. 351-379) making use of the evil possibilities he divines in people to work upon them; or making use of their good traits to bad ends? or what is the master secret of all his turning of bad into worse and good into evil ?
THE TRAGEDIE OF OTHELLO 135 THE STORY OF ACT III
Topic. — Othello Enmeshed.
Hints: — Show what parts of lago's trap are newly originated in this Act, and what parts are further devel- oped. Is Desdemona's loyal and faithful nature still a factor in his schemes ? Show how her quality of perform- ing "to the last Article" when she vows a friendship (III. iii. 27) helps lago. What other quality assists him? Does she lack moral courage ? Is she wanting in self-assertion ? In knowledge of others? Collect all instances of these qualities and trace their effect on the action. How much does lago's ability to convince Othello depend upon his (lago's) good repute? How many people praise lago in the course of the play? Trace Emilia's share in lago's plan to ensnare Othello. Show how far Othello's own nature is responsible for lago's success. What is the climax of this act? How is that climax made prominent?
Points: — i. Was Othello fond of music? Collect and compare references bearing on this question. What ap- propriateness would there be in making him like or dis- like music? 2. Reconcile Cassio's inquiry as to whom Othello had married, I. ii. 64, with III. iii. 88. 3- Ex- plain the imagery and meaning of III. iii. 304. — "If I do prove her Haggard," etc. 4. Reconcile the two different stories Othello tells about the handkerchief. 5. Explain allusions,— "the Ponticke Sea," (III. iii. 16) "dyde in Mummey," (III. iv. 88) etc.
Queries for Discussion :— Which is the strongest ele- ment of lago's success in ensnaring Othello, — his evil
i36 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
mind, his cunning tongue, or his accumulation of circum- stantial evidence? Or is it Cassio's weakness; Desde- mona's duplicity, or else her purity ; Othello's jealous na- ture, or else his race humility?
THE STORY OF ACT IV
Topic. — Venice Interposes.
Hints: — In telling the story of Act IV. observe how all the new matter introduced in this Act which refers to lago's schemes is merely confirmatory of them and does not materially advance the action, the deaths of Cassio and Desdemona having been already determined upon. Show what the occurrences of Act IV. do effect, and what it is that Shakespeare accomplishes by the introduction of Lodovico's embassy. Does this interposition of Venice, commanding as it does Othello's return and deputing Cas- sio in his stead, seem to promise the frustration of peril from Desdemona and Cassio? Or does it in fact precipi- tate the resolution of lago and of his dupe to act against their victims the very same night? Show Shakespeare's clever double use of it in both these ways, and how it both delays and precipitates the action. Notice the effect of the embassy upon Othello in arousing his suspicion that Desdemona and Venice are in league with Cassio and against him. Trace its effect also in exciting his pub- lic outbreak against his wife. Does Desdemona guess from the first, or only later how Othello will construe Lodovico's embassy? What is its effect upon lago and Roderigo? Observe how Desdemona seeks to disarm
THE TRAGEDIE OF OTHELLO 137
Othello's suspicions as to her part in the mission of Lodo- vico. Consider the closing scene of Act IV. as ominous of the catastrophe to be brought about in the following act, and also as inducing the right spirit of apprehensive dread and pity in the audience.
Points:— i. Origin of the Willow Song and old and new examples of its music. For two musical settings, see Poet Lore, Vol. I, p. 39, and p. 175. 2. Explain allu- sions to Crocodile's tears, (IV. i. 273) ; Time's "slow, and moving finger" (IV. ii. 65) ; "Mauritania" (IV. ii. 257). etc.
Queries for Discussion: — i. Why are the most circum- stantial arguments in Othello's suspicion of his wife given in Act IV. when he is already convinced of her infidelity? 2. Was "the Moore" a Negro?
ACT V
Topic. — lago's Schemes Succeed and Fail.
Hints : — V. i. shows lago performing in his peculiar, in- direct manner his share in Othello's vengeance as agreed upon between them. It depicts him, moreover, as work- ing out a special scheme of his own against Roderigo and Bianca. Discuss his motives and means in these under- plots, and the use of them in the play. Do they help the action? Or show character? How is this first scene linked to the next (V. ii), wherein Othello carries out his part of the agreement with lago against Desdemona? Is it shown to have any effect on Othello's action? Why did Othello resolve to strangle Desdemona? Was it his own idea? Compare V. i. 44, with V. ii. 5> etc. Did
i38 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
she guess the truth when she cried, "O, my fear inter- prets," etc? If so, why did she not explain at once? Why does she cry out when she hears later that Cassio is not killed? Notice how Emilia, as well as Desdemona, guesses the truth, now. What purpose could Shakespeare have had in killing off Brabantio, — is it to preclude any possible misunderstanding of Othello's recall to Venice as issuing from Desdemona's father? Notice that Othello's hearsay and circumstantial evidence as to the handkerchief is brought forward in justification of his act to others. Is it a defect in the denouement that the overheard inter- view with Bianca is never explained? What best serves to convince Othello that he has been gulled, — Emilia's statement that she stole the handkerchief at lago's wish, lago's own conduct, or his wife's dying testimony?
Points: — I. Costume of the Play. 2. Of what race was lago, what signs of it, what appropriateness in mak- ing him so ? 3. Why is the Turk spoken of as a "circum- cised dog"? 4. Was it legal and customary in Venetian days for a husband to execute his wife for infidelity ? How was it in Elizabethan England?
Queries for Discussion: — i. Is lago or Othello the truly tragic figure of the play?
2. How can Desdemona's reviving and her last words (V. ii. 147-156) be accounted for? When Othello finally declared that he would not have her "linger in paine" (V. ii. iii) what did he do? Did he stab her at "so, so?" (See Notes, also Introduction, in First Folio Edition).
3. Is lago destitute of Conscience? (See 'lago's Con- science' in Poet-lore, Vol. V. Apr. '93.)
THE TRAGEDIE OF OTHELLO 139 VI. CHARACTER STUDIES
1. Topic.— A Study of Othello as Husband.
Hints : — Compare with Leontes in 'The Winter's Tale* and Posthumus in 'Cymbeline.' Observe all differences and likenesses in the circumstances and the incitation to jealousy of the three husbands. Which wife gives the most excuse to suspicion? Which husband is the least tyranni- cal? The husband whose jealousy was the least defensi- ble— Leontes — is the only one to make any show of legal procedure. How would you explain that fact? Is it due to Leontes' superiority over Othello that this is so; to Hermione's rank as an Emperor's daughter; or to the cir- cumstance that the story on which 'The Winter's Tale is founded belongs to a stage of civilization less arbitrary in its treatment of woman? Scepticism as to the worth of a woman and of her capacity to love might be shown to be the source of the tragedy in the three plays. What are the main differences in the modes of the tempters, lago and lachimo, in gaining an ascendency over their dupes? Consider the play of 'Othello' as consisting in the struggle of a masculine and egoistic will, represented by lago, for the supremacy over a feminine and altruistic passivity, represented by Desdemona, the stage of the struggle being the heart of Othello.
Queries for Discussion: — i. Is Othello's jealousy such as belongs peculiarly to the representation of a Moor? or is it not intended to have any special racial quality?
2. Why does Shakespeare make him kill himself? (See Sources).
140 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
2. Topic. — Emilia: her Inferiority and Superiority to her Mistress.
Hints: — Consider whether the contrast usually drawn between the "white-souled Desdemona" and the "gross- thoughted, mercenary, lax-principled Emilia" is quite ac- curate. Warrant may be found for it on the one side, and, on the other side, excuse for Emilia can be found also, although it is not often brought forward. Is her action throughout the Play toward her husband better than her speech in IV. iii. 8091 ? Is it possible that Des- demona's meekness under injustice exasperated her, aroused her own sense of justice and of revolt against marital supremacy? Are Emilia and Othello guilty of the relations with each other of which lago speaks ? Does she guess lago's hand in her mistress's troubles before she understands lago's use of the handkerchief which she stole for him, V. 2. 270-287, etc. Her loyalty to Desdemona at the expense of her husband argues her disinterestedness and nobility. Can you imagine Desdemona equally faith- ful to another woman or to justice at Othello's expense?
Queries for Discussion: — i. Does ^Emilia's impersonal action at the close of the play mark her as a more experi- enced type of woman than Desdemona ? What light upon Shakespeare's view and use of ^Emilia is thrown by the changes he made from Cinthio as to the handkerchief incident and the exposure of lago? (See Sources and Notes on III. iii. 341, 347 in First Folio Edition). Did Desdemona, with her last breath lie? (See Introduction to "Othello" in First Folio Edition).
THE TRAGEDIE OF ROMEO AND JULIET THE STORY OF ACT I
Topic. — For Paper, Classwork, or Private Study. — The Family Feud: the Prince's Decree; the Meeting of the Lovers.
Hints: — Observe that the foundation for the tragedy is laid in the "ancient quarrell" of the Capulets and Mon- tagues. Show how it is exhibited in the opening scene as no dead issue. The action is arranged to bring it out as a social fact having all the depth of a rooted antipathy and all the inflammableness shown in the fresh brawl. The heads of the rival houses are instantly ready to be drawn into a street squabble flaring up between mere servants on no pretext at all. The fact that this quarrelsomeness is of old date, and that three such "civil! Broyles" have recent- ly disturbed the peace of Verona, is an important factor in the dramatic action. Show how this comes out in the decree of the Prince.
Under what circumstances is Romeo introduced ? Is it significant that he, as his Mother first makes clear, was not at this fray, and on his first appearance shows his dis- like of it? What does Shakespeare accomplish by introduc- ing his hero as in love with Rosaline? Consider this ques- tion, first, in its effect upon the dramatic action (e. g. it causes him to go to the Banquet where he meets Juliet) : and, second, in its effect upon the presentation of his char- acter.
Show how in Scenes ii. and iii. another match for the 141
142 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
heroine is sketched as impending, so that Juliet as well as Romeo seems to be separated not alone by the family feud but also by the desire or prospect of other connections. Observe that the Banquet, which next takes place in the story, is meant by Capulet and Paris to further their plans for Juliet, and by Romeo himself to be an occasion for meeting Rosaline. Is all this well calculated or not to enhance the final event of Act I. — the meeting of the lov- ers ? What tokens of the fatality of the lovers' meeting are brought out? Are all the principal characters introduced in the course of this one Act? How far are their personal peculiarities made clear?
Queries for Discussion: — i. Which is the most poten- tial event in Act I? The brawl and the family hatred it shows? The decree of the Prince? The courtship of Countie Paris? The meeting of the Lovers? Why? 2. How are all the other events linked to that one, so as to give it dominance? 3. Why has the Poet made the lov- ers' hand-clasp so significant? Is true love, love at first sight?
THE STORY OF ACT II
Topic. — The Marriage.
Hints: — Indicate the main events of Act II as they occur in each Scene; showing how they flow out of the foregoing Act, also which events bring fresh forces and new matter into the dramatic action. What new light is thrown on each of the characters already introduced ? Do any entirely new characters appear ? What importance to such is promised? Do you like Romeo better in this Act
TRAGEDIE OF ROMEO AND JULIET 143
than in Act I? Why? How is it that Juliet's traits show so clearly from the first? Is she less influenced than Ro- meo is by the developing power of the emotion seizing them ? How are the other characters, Benvolio, Mercutio, the Friar, the Nurse and Tybalt linked to the central characters and the absorbing event of the Act — their marriage? Is Mercutio's talk dramatically useless? Is that of the Nurse, or the Friar? Notice that the second main event of this Act for the plot unfolding by means of it — Tybalt's challenge, is not made prominent, and that its dramatic importance, which develops in the Act fol- lowing, is not clear? Is this a mistake? Or is it judi- cious? and if so, why should it loom up menacingly but vaguely? And why should the marriage so entirely ab- sorb this Act?
Queries for Discussion: — i. Is it natural for Romeo to talk so lightly and briskly with Mercutio just after so in- tense a love scene? Does it discredit his earnestness as a lover, or is his quick-wit a sign of his tension and an out- let for his excitement?
2. Are the Nurse and the Friar to blame equally, for yielding to the wishes of the lovers so readily?
3. Is the Friar's talk on his first appearance (II. iii. 1-32) irrelevant and his moralizing soliloquy a needless delaying of the action, or has it a symbolic bearing upon the essence of the Play?
THE STORY OF ACT III
Topic. — Tybalt's death and Romeo's Banishment. Hints:— The ancient feud antf Tybalt's challenge which
144 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
is its instrument, arc in this Act brought into violent clash with the lovers. By whose intervention is this af- fected? Discuss this arrangement by Shakespeare. It makes Romeo almost as guiltless as he possibly could be made of quarrelsomeness or any unmindfulness of the claim upon him of his newly made Bride's kindred; yet it puts him in a position where truth to the time and to the high spirit of the character demands of Romeo the sudden action he regrets too late. See the Sources in the First Folio Edition, p. 125, for the incident of Mercutio's "cold hand," and discuss the suggestiveness of this for the act, as the only prototype of this peculiar arrangement, by which Romeo refuses to fight with Tybalt and is only drawn into it by Mercutio's intervention and death. Is Romeo's banishment just? Did Benvolio bear witness well? Capulet's wife plays at this point a vindictive part. What is its use toward the plot? Is it in character for a woman? Does it suit with what is hitherto shown of her? Does it lead you to expect some hard and unlovely traits to come? Compare with the few words given to Lady Montague.
Queries for Discussion :— i. Does Juliet yield too eas- ily? 2. How far should individual desire and welfare in- sist upon fulfilment when it clashes with social or family desire and welfare? 3. Suppose Romeo had been less sincere; would Juliet be any the less right, although un- happier, in her sincerity? 4. Is Romeo right in refusing Tybalt's challenge and leaving Mercutio to die for him?
TRAGEDIE OF ROMEO AND JULIET 145 THE STORY OF ACT IV
i
Topic. — Love and the Friar versus the Father and the Feud.
Hints: — The postponed courtship of Paris now con- fronts Juliet. Since it now only is put in action, and only at this point appears in the original story (see Sources, First Folio Edition, p. 127) was it superfluous to give room to it earlier? Although the marriage is a new and sudden project for Juliet, it is by this means shown to be an old idea for her father. Juliet's deception of her mother by her pretended grief for Tybalt has some influence. Show how all this assists in setting the family at cross purposes with the daughter, and drives them further and further apart. The desertion of Juliet by the Nurse, the absolute loneliness of the young Bride, and the influence of this upon her action are the next steps in the plot to be traced ; also how this leads to the Friar's plan of retrieval.
Queries for Discussion: — i. Are Juliet's parents hard and unnatural? Are they merely, from their point of view, acting for the good of an incomprehensible daugh- ter ? 2. Is Juliet's deception of them and of Paris neces- sary? Is the Friar's? Why did he think it necessary? 3. Does the grief of the Father and Mother sound real? Does the Nurse's grief seem to parody theirs? and if so, was this intentional, do you think? Was it Shakespeare's drift, perchance, to show their essential lack of sympathy with their own child? 4. What was the dramatic or stage object of the episode of Peter and the musicians? (IV. v. 105-146).
I46 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
THE STORY OF ACT V
(
Topic. — Love Frustrated yet Powerful.
Hints: — Notice that at the close of Act IV there is a close also in the progression of the plot. There is no spec- ial reason to doubt the Friar or his beneficent scheme to unite the lovers and heal the family feud By their union. Suspense holds sway. Is that in itself suspicious? Aside from the Prologue, are there any slightest indications that a hitch in the Friar's plan is coming? In what then does the story of Act V consist? i. e. What are its new events ? And what fresh trains of action are set up by them ? The hitch in the Friar's plan is made clearly ominous in Scene ii. But observe that in Scene i. something even more po- tential for tragedy is represented. From whose mood and act does this spring ? Discuss Romeo's presentiment of wel- fare (V. i. 1-12), and its dramatic effectiveness at this halt in the movement of events. Notice that it is right and true to all appearances, and in fact, inwardly, too, yet seems mockingly wrong when the news from Verona comes. It is then made wrong by Romeo's action when he denies the auspicious stars that seemed to favor him. The irony is presented of a good influence, bound to prevail in the end, in a spiritual sense, that seems to trick him com- pletely, and yet only suffers the petty crossing of an acci- dent— the miscarriage of the Friar's letter, until Romeo doubts and denies the favorable influence. Why does Shakespeare introduce the fight between Romeo and Par- is? How does it bring Peter into the events leading to the solution of the plot? What does it make him do?
TRAGEDIE OF ROMEO AND JULIET 147
Docs it accomplish anything else? What does Romeo mean by addressing the dead body of Paris as "Death lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd." (V. iii. 90.) At what point in his last speech does Shakespeare designate that Romeo drank the poison? (Note that the stage-di- rection "Drinks" was inserted by Theobald, and that the modernized text follows the fourth Quarto in the omis- sion of 11. 111-114, against the authority of the Folio and the best early Quarto, i. e. the second. See the First Folio Edition of the Play for the facts, as it gives the orig- inal Folio text, all later interpolations between brackets, and at the foot of each page the main changes in of the modernized text and their authority, and discusses this scene in the Introduction, pp. xv-xix). What difference in rashness does the action of the lovers in slaying them- selves show? Is the end true to human nature in that the fathers with touched hearts, forgive when it is too late, what they would unrelentingly have opposed earlier; and what better principle of action may be drawn than that which they followed?
Queries for Discussion: — i. Discuss Brooke's moral (as expressed in the Preface to his Poem quoted in First Folio Edition, p. 12 1) in comparison with the inference Shakespeare leads you to draw of the spiritual might of love over hatred. How do you know that Shakespeare agrees or disagrees with Brooke? 2. If Romeo had been more patient would this tragedy have turned into a play with a happy ending? Would it have been in character? Would you like him better? 3. Was the death of the faithful lovers required to appease the family feud, but not requisite to test or perfect the lovers themselves?
i48 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES CHARACTER STUDIES
1. Topic. — Juliet's Mother and her Nurse.
Hints : — Discuss the class types presented in these guar- dians of the young girl. What is shown of Lady Capulet from her relation to her husband? Was she Juliet's own mother? Was she much younger than her husband? Is the Nurse more truly Juliet's mother than her mother is ? Does Juliet's confidence in her Nurse show that she was a better guardian for her? Is helpfulness possible to anyone in times of crucial personal decision, or is loneliness and self-help the condition of spiritual ripening?
2. Topic. — The Fathers and the Feud.
Hints: — Show the historical truth of the quarrelsome brawling background of mis love story to mediaeval con- ditions in Italy. Compare the pictures of the time simi- larly given in D'Annunzio's "Francesca" and Brown- ing's "Sordello." Illustrate how completely Shakespeare has made his fathers typical embodiments of this militant condition of the noble families of the Middle Ages; and also in what various ways he has individualized his types, so that Capulet and Montague also stand out as persons. Has he characterized either one more than the other, and if so, why? Would it serve the effectiveness of his whole picture to do so? Have we in modern times among men only a similar spirit of rivalry, and a militancy with other weapons than sword and dagger? Is such a spirit as inimitable to ideal fatherhood and family sympathy now as then? The relation of their dependents to the feudal
TRAGEDIE OF ROMEO AND JULIET 149
chiefs : does loyalty under such conditions tend to develop good qualities in servants and allies?
3. Topic.— The Lovers.
Hints: — How do Romeo and Juliet offset and supple- ment each other in nature? What ties of similarity are added to their differences? Do you like one better than the other? If so, why? How do the lovers develop each the other's higher nature? Is it good or bad to take a passion so intensely, and to make a fate of love? Was it good for them? Is this Tragedy more satisfying to the spirit than a happy ending could have been?
\ THE WORKMANSHIP
Topic. — The Lyric and the Dramatic Elements.
Hints: — Is Character portrayal the strongest element in this Drama or is Plot more noticeable, powerful, and ab- sorbing ? Compare with other plays of the earlier or cur- rent periods of Shakespeare's authorship in these respects, and state your conclusions, or take a single play, where Love is also the main interest, such as "Love's Labour's Lost" or "A Midsommer Nights Dreame," and make any comparisons the matter seems to you to yield. Com- pare with either of these as to lyric elements, and con- trast with a much later Play e. g. "The Tempest." Bring out the rhyme-scheme and strict metrical form of such passage as the Lovers meeting (I. v. 102-123), noticing that the dialogue composes into a little Sonnet on a Kiss. The love scene of Act III, similarly begins with a pro-
150 SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
logue by Juliet (III. ii. 2-32) called by early Italian poets a "Serena" or Evening Song. It is rounded out with an "Alba," or Morning Song (III. v. 18-37)- Con- trast with the singing and symmetrical quality of such passages the lively flavor of acenality breaking in with the entrance of the Nurse and her stealthy warning 11. 39-42, and later still the change of tone on the part of the lyric lovers themselves (5066). There are other such con- trasts of lyric and colloquially dramatic dialogue in this Play. Observe them, and notice what the nature of their effect is. Do they make "Romeo and Juliet" seem a little artificial in comparison with such vivid actualities as that of the Nurse's speech and the character it sets before you ? (I. iii. 16-55) Have they in this particular piece a pecu- liar fitness and piquancy that is part of its Charm? Do they betray Shakespeare's own youthfulness, or his wise age, in an artistic sense, that he has so blended his poetic and dramatic gifts?
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