MACBETH. This play was not published until 1623, though it was probably written several years before Shakespeare's death. A reference to it in 1610 by Dr. Simon Forman, the probable reference to the accession of James the First (1603) that brought about the union of two crowns, and the proportion of rhyme, blank verse and prose, point to 1605-06 as the prob able date. Because of ,its late publication the text is one of the most corrupt of Shakespeare's plays. It may have been taken down from the play as acted, or it may be a transcript of the author's manuscript which was in great part not copied from the original but written to dictation. Act 1, scene 2 and part of scene 3 may be an interpolation, but the Porter Scene, which was long considered to be the work of a collaborator, is nowjustified by reason of its dramatic contrast with the preceding scene and by the amazing felicity of such lines as, ugo the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.) With the exception of a few lines and scenes Mac beth is an example of amazing concentration it has neither underplot, nor, with the excep tion of the Porter Scene, such comic scenes as are found in nearly all of the other tragedies of Shakespeare. It is shorter by some thousand lines than any other tragedy and moves along with the swiftness of a tempest. The 20 years of history become nine days of dramatic time, and so swift is the passage of time that it seems but a few hours.
Shakespeare was indebted for the main events of the play to Holinshed's 'Chronicles of Scotland.> The character and the story of Macbeth, partly historical and partly legendary, were drawn largely from this source, but the witches were the creation of Shakespeare's genius from the shadowy creatures of a crude folklore, There is just enough of the popular conception of supernatural creatures of evil to satisfy the demands of the age in which he lived, but he informed this popular and some what vulgar superstition with a moral significance suited to all ages alike. These invisible un
earthly creatures do not create the evil in Mac beth's mind; they only serve to bring into life like reality the evil that is already there. They are an embodiment of the same forces as the thunder, lightning, rain — nature ured in tooth and — that constitute the background for the evil forces that are at play in this drama. While the minor characters of the play, and especially Banquo, are adequately presented, the interest centres in Macbeth and Lady Mac beth, who while• engaged in the same evil deeds yet reveal differences of temperament and char acter that afford the most significant dramatic contrasts. Lady Macbeth before the murder of Duncan displays firm, sharp, wiry, matter-of fact intellect and energy of will; she becomes for the time being possessed by one thought, one ambition. She has no imagination to represent for her • the inevitable consequences of the murder. As soon, however; as the deed is done, her womanly nature asserts itself ; her amazing self-control gives way, and remorse wells up in her conscience-tortured heart. She had denied the quality of, her sex, only to find that the woman was stronger than the queen or the wife. Macbeth, on the other hand, is possessed from the beginning by a vivid imagination that visualizes the deed itself and falters at its contemplation. Deeper and deeper he plunges into guilt until a sort of world-weariness and sick despair settle upon his brooding spirit. In words as eloquent as Shakespeare ever wrote he pronounces a requiem upon his wife and summarizes his pessimistic indictment of old age and of life; fife is to him but tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? He dies with the harness on his back, the intrepid soldier that he has always been, but with a sigh that pierces to the depths.