Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

It might now be expected that we should proceed to the ungrateful task of pointing out what a critic would blame in this tragedy. I have already observed that it is perhaps the most sublime and finished of Shakspeare's compositions; yet, were I to point out all its redundancies, puns, conceits, and other faults, which are commonly taken notice of in this author, I might fill some pages. Such a detail, however, would be trivial and impertinent. No person, who can relish its beauties, will be much offended with any thing of this kind in the course of perusing Othello. Its excellences are so bold and so striking, as to make the blemishes almost wholly vanish in the midst of their splendour. In a rude age, it is indeed even the mark of a rich and luxuriant mind to abound in faults, in the same manner that a strong and fertile soil produces most weeds:

What are the lays of artful Addison,

Coldly correct, to Shakspeare's warblings wild!

It is with much regret, however, we must observe that, after Shakspeare had supported, with

scene, while they excite and keep alive an eager interest and curiosity, shield him not from our abhorrence and condemnation."

And, in reference to the lights and shades which so admirably diversify this striking drama, I immediately afterwards remark, "Amid this whirlwind and commotion of hatred and revenge, the modest, the artless, the unsuspicious Desdemona, seems, in the soothing but transient influence which she exerts, like an evening star, that beams lovely, for a moment, on the dark heavings of the tempest, and then is lost for ever!"-Shakspeare and his Times, vol. ii. p. 531.

uniform propriety, one of the most difficult characters genius ever attempted, he should at last fall off, and put a trifling conceit in the mouth of the dying man:

OTн. I kiss'd thee e'er I kill'd thee-no way but this,

Killing myself to die upon a kiss.

It might also be objected to the contrivance of the plot, that Iago had not sufficient motives for the perpetration of so many horrid crimes; and this the sagacity of Shakspeare has foreseen, and with much address obviated. In the course of our observations, we have already noticed that he does not suppose Iago, in his first setting out, resolutely to plan the destruction of Desdemona and Cassio. The objects he had in view were to get possession of the wealth of Roderigo, and to be preferred in the place of Cassio; but seeing matters beginning to be embroiled around him, the firm and undaunted Iago will not stop short, whatever should be the consequence. By thus viewing his conduct, it will appear natural and probable. He wishes (as human nature ever must) to view himself even for a moment in the light of an honest

man :

And what's he then that says I play the villain, &c.
Act. 2. Sc. iv.

But the principal fault which we observe in this performance, is a want of consistency in supporting the upright and disinterested character Emilia. We can easily suppose, in the first place, that she might procure Desdemona's napkin for

her husband without seeming to concur with him, or even suspect his schemes; but when afterwards, in the tenth scene of the third act, she sees the improper use to which the napkin is applied, and the great distress which the loss of it occasioned to Desdemona, without so much as wishing to explain the misunderstanding, she is no more the open and virtuous Emilia, but a coadjutor with her dark and unfeeling husband. This is a remarkable violation of every appearance of probability, when we contrast it with her noble and spirited conduct afterwards. We are surprised to find a slip of so much magnitude from the clear and piercing judgment of Shakspeare, especially when we consider that it would have been very easily remedied by removing her during this interview.j

W. N.*

If we consider Shakspeare, as I am persuaded we must do, not intending to represent Emilia as by any means a perfectly correct character, this seeming inconsistency will immediately vanish. Of this opinion is Schlegel, who says: " to give still greater effect to the angelic purity of Desdemona, Shakspeare has, in Emilia, associated with her a companion of doubtful virtue. From the sinful levity of this woman, it is also conceivable that she should not confess the abstraction of the handkerchief, when Othello violently demands it back this would, otherwise, be the circumstance in the whole piece the most difficult to justify."-Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. ii. p. 192.

Anderson's Bee, vol. i. p. 176 ad p. 181.

No. IX.

CRITICISM ON THE CHARACTER AND TRAGEDY OF HAMLET.

CRITICISM, like every thing else, is subject to the prejudices of our education or of our country. National prejudice, indeed, is, of all deviations from justice, the most common and the most allowable; it is a near, though perhaps an illegitimate, relation of that patriotism which has been ranked among the first virtues of characters the most eminent and illustrious. To authors, however, of a rank so elevated as to aspire to universal fame, the partiality of their countrymen has been sometimes prejudicial; in proportion as they have unreasonably applauded, the critics of other countries, from a very common sort of feeling, have unreasonably censured; and there are few great writers, whom prejudice on either side may not, from a partial view of their works, find some ground for estimating at a rate much above or much below the standard of justice.

No author, perhaps, ever existed, of whom opinion has been so various as Shakspeare. Endowed with all the sublimity, and subject to all the irregularities of genius, his advocates have room for unbounded praise, and their opponents

for frequent blame. His departure from all the common rules which criticism, somewhat arbitrarily perhaps, has imposed, leaves no legal code by which the decision can be regulated; and in the feelings of different readers, the same passage may appear simple or mean, natural or preposterous, may excite admiration, or create disgust.

But it is not, I apprehend, from particular passages or incidents that Shakspeare is to be judged. Though his admirers frequently contend for beauty in the most distorted of the former, and probability in the most unaccountable of the latter; yet it must be owned that in both there are often gross defects which criticism cannot justify, though the situation of the poet, and the time in which he wrote, may easily excuse. But we are to look for the superiority of Shakspeare in the astonishing and almost supernatural powers of his invention, his absolute command over the passions, and his wonderful knowledge of nature. Of the structure of his stories, or the probability of his incidents, he is frequently careless,-these he took at random from the legendary tale, or the extravagant romance; but his intimate acquaintance with the human mind seldom or never forsakes him; and amidst the most fantastic and improbable situations, the persons of his drama speak in the language of the heart, and in the style of their characters.

Of all the characters of Shakspeare, that of Hamlet has been generally thought the most

« ElőzőTovább »