Chapter III (8)

_Macbeth._ Infected be the air whereon they ride;
And damn'd all those that trust them!--I did hear
The galloping of horse: Who was't came by?

_Lenox._ _'Tis two or three, my Lord, that bring you word_,
MACDUFF IS FLED TO ENGLAND.

_Macbeth._ FLED TO ENGLAND?"

For an Usurper and Tyrant, his Majesty is singularly ill-informed about the movements of his most dangerous Thanes! But Lenox, I think, must have been not a little surprised at that moment to find that, so far from the _exasperated_ Tyrant having "_prepared for some attempt of war_" with England--he had not till then positively known that Macduff had fled! I pause, as a man pauses who has no more to say--not for a reply. But to be sure, Talboys will reply to anything--and were I to say that the Moon is made of green cheese, he would say--yellow--

TALBOYS.

If of weeping Parmesan, then I--of the "cheese without a tear"--Double Gloster.

NORTH.

The whole Dialogue between Lenox and the Lord is _miraculous_. It abounds with knowledge of events that had not happened--and _could not_ have happened--on the showing of Shakspeare himself; but I do not believe that there is another man now alive who knows that Lenox and the "other Lord" are caught up and strangled in that _noose of Time_. Did the Poet? You would think, from the way they go on, that one ground of war, one motive of Macduff's going, is the murder of Banquo--perpetrated since he is gone off!

TALBOYS.

Eh?

NORTH.

Gentlemen, I have given you a specimen or two of Shakspeare's way of dealing with Time--and I can elicit no reply. You are one and all dumbfoundered. What will you be--where will you be--when I--

BULLER.

Have announced "all my astounding discoveries!" and where, also, will be poor Shakspeare--where his Critics?

NORTH.

Friends, Countrymen, and Romans, lend me your ears! A dazzling spell is upon us that veils from our apprehension all incompatibilities--all impossibilities--for he dips the Swan-quill in Power--and Power is that which you must accept from him, and so to the utter oblivion, while we read or behold, of them all. To go to work with such inquiries is to try to articulate thunder. What do I intend? That Shakspeare is only to be _thus_ criticised? Apollo forbid--forbid the Nine! I intend Prologomena to the Criticism of Shakspeare. I intend mowing and burning the brambles before ploughing the soil. I intend showing where we must not look for the Art and the Genius of Shakspeare, as a step to discovering where we must. I suspect--I know--that Criticism has oscillated from one extreme to another, in the mind of the country--from denying all art, to acknowledging consummated art, and no flaw. I would find the true Point. Stamped and staring upon the front of these Tragedies is a conflict. He, the Poet, beholds Life--he, the Poet, is on the Stage. The littleness of the Globe Theatre mixes with the greatness of human affairs. You think of the Green-room and the Scene-shifters. I think that when we have stripped away the disguises and incumbrances of the Power, we shall see, naked, and strong, and beautiful, the statue moulded by Jupiter.

_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._

Transcriber's Notes:

Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical and spelling errors were corrected.

Italics markup is denoted by _underscores_.

Bold markup is denoted by =equals=.

Rendered the cypher on p. 559 as Gs over numerals.

Added anchor for unanchored footnote on p. 567.