Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849

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.

notes

1

Prison Report 1848, p. 73.

2

In 1848, the number committed for serious offences was 73,770.

3

See the "Increase of Crime, and Imprisonment, and Transportation," Blackwood's Magazine, May and July 1844, vol. lv. p. 532, and vol. lvi. p. 1.

4

Table showing the number of commitments for serious offences in the undermentioned years in England, Scotland, and Ireland: —

5

Brougham's Colonial Policy, i. 61, 62.

6

Cunningham's New South Wales, i. 262.

7

Table showing the annual exports of British manufactures to the undermentioned Colonies, from 1828 to 1846.

8

It now (1849) exceeds 200,000 souls.

9

Colonial Magazine, i. 431, 433.

10

While we write these lines, the following advertisement, which appeared in the Times of Oct. 10, will illustrate this vital difference: —

"Emigration. – The undersigned are prepared to forward intending emigrants to every colony now open for colonisation, at the following rates of passage-money: – To Sydney, £15; Melbourne, £15; Adelaide, £15; Swan River, £20; Van Diemen's Land, £20; New Zealand, £18; Cape of Good Hope, £10; Natal, £10; California, £25; New York, £2, 10s.; Philadelphia, £2, 10s.; New Orleans, £3. – Harrison & Co. —11 Union Street, Birmingham."

11

Emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland to Australia and New Zealand: —

– Porter's Parliamentary Tables, 1846, p. 236.

12

Sentenced to be transported —

13

At the rate of £7, 14s. a-head – the present rate in Australia.

14

Viz.: – 1847, 258,000; 1848, 248,000; 1849, understood to be still larger. —Parliamentary Reports.

15

See Dublin University Magazine, October 1849, p. 372.

16

For the benefit of the uninitiated, assistant-deputy-paymaster-general; A. A. D. P. M. G., acting-assistant-deputy-paymaster-general; a long title, but not so long, by four syllables, as that of the letter-carrier of a certain German war-office – Ober-kriegsversammlungrathsverhandlungpapieraufhebergehülfe.

17

A clearer day has dispelled the marvels, which showed themselves in heaven above and in earth beneath, when twilight and superstition went hand in hand. Horace's