THE WHITEWASHING OF LADY MACBETH.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2676, 28 July 1913, Page 8

THE WHITEWASHING OF LADY MACBETH.

A POSTHUMOUS ACQUITTAL. Spring is with us, and spring-clean-ing. An odor of paint ana whitewash pervades the air. Pans lias caught the contagion, for I’UTiiversite des aunales has betu whitewashing, and the subjects io lias chosen tor its vernal vigor have been two Shakespearean cliaracters. Last mouth tho Academician, M. Jean JRichepiu, was busy with Macbeth. In true masculine and Shakespearean manner he placed the onus of Duncan’s murder ou the shoulders of Macbeth’s wife, whom he depicted as a monster of ambition, cruelty, and crime, a veritable Gorgon. Now M. Henri-Roberc, a famous avocat takes tip the brush for the benefit of Lady Macbeth. The avocat’s performance was artistic and picturesque, all aglow with French gaiety and wit. He cited as witnesses on lus client’s behalf the barbarity of the times —the eleventh century —in which she. lived, the feud which for three generations had existed between her family and Duncan’s, and the King’s base ingratitude to her husband, his general, Macbeth, who had .liree times saved him out of his enemy's hand. Duncan had rewarded Macbeth's courage and loyalty _ by passing over his right—recognised by Scottish law—-to succeed Duncan on the throne in favor of the King’s own I,ttie son, whom minority legally debarred from the succession. These points ami many others Lady Macbeth's counsel obviously found in tho chronicles of Holinslud and Boethius. Here, too, he claimed to have discovered the fascinating and curiously modern portrait which he paints ol ins client: not as a Gorgon nor as a hard-featured masculine virago does he depict her, but as a graceful, delicate British woman, a seductive widow ot Saxon type, fair-haired, blue-eyed, line-featured, whose first husband hail been brutally slain by Duncan s grandfather, King Malcolm 11. this alluring widow Henri-Hobert arrays in becoming black and a long crepe veil, such as might be worn by a modern woman. Is it to Holitished or l<> Boethius that we are indebted tor this grace)ul and pathetic detail, so irresistible in its appeal to the fashionable ladies at I'l'nivorsito des Annales? At any rate, it is the choniclers who tell us that this beautiful, winsome woman, after her first husband's murder, lied from his castle, bearing with her her only child, a frail infant son. whom she adored, and to wdiom Shakespeare makes her allude in words of motherly tenderness. Her dedicate boy died during his mother’s flight. A year later her only brother was assassinated by order of King Malcolm. Then the lonely, childless widow took refuge in Ross. There her sorrowing beauty attracted the Governor, Macbeth. who married her. 1 g is needless to point out how widely Henri-Robert’s charming portrait of his client differs Imm Shakespeare’*. But it was on the authority of Shakespeare himself that the advocate proceeded to exonerate Lady Macbeth from the guilt of having first conceived the idea of murdering Duncan. Indeed, not oven Riehepin could deny that the crime originated in the witches’ prophecy made to Macbeth. Alone in her castle of Inverness, languishing in the traditional boredom of a mediieval chatelaine, one day, as she gazed through her narrow window. Lady Macbeth saw a mailed horseman spurring up the avenue in hot haste. Fie here tho famous letter from Macbeth tolling his wife how the witches had hailed him King of Scotland. Before the receipt of this letter not even Shakespeare would lead tis to suppose that any idea of murdering Duncan had over entered Lady Macbeth’s mind. The crime did not originate with her, neither did she commit it. When about to strike she was overcome with pity : —• Had ho not resembled My father as he slept, 1 had done ’t. And even if she herself had struck tho blow, in those days, pleaded lim advocate, what was it to Kill a king? Kings were made to he killed. The first king known to history was a lorlmiate soldier who made short work of an inconvenient predecessor. Philosophers have found one of the origins of kingship in the tradition connected with the mysterious Lake of M'euiq near Home. There of old the Driest ot Diana’s temple held office until hi.s successor came and murdered him. A. this point Hcnri-Robert made a hriet but eloquent digression: he referred to Bourget’s and Chateaubriand's pi-die descriptions of the rock-girt mountain Lake of Memi; he cited also Renan - drama, "Le I’retie de .Vmi": had he been addressing an English audience he would doubtless have alluded to Dr Fraver’s description of that ancient rite in the opening pages ol “Tin* Golden Bough.” If to kill a monarch was justifiable, then the character and history ol Dimcan were not such as to exempt him from tho usual Royal late; lie was an umbrageous tyrant, who.se weak, vacillating nature fitted him rather for the cloister than tho throne. If some Scottish Law Court ol the eleventh ceiilun had convicted Lady -Macbeth of ridding the world oi this bloodthirsty populate, what was the extreme penalty tine could have exacted from her? M. I ienri-Robert has discovered that in Hie Scottish code ol that clay the life o. the King of Scotland was valued at I HUH) cow.-, or ff.BltO shillings. Had Lady Macbeth, therefore. been found giiitlv, a line of 3.(M0 shillings would have been tho utmost penalty she could hj require.! to pay. Her recent judge, .\i. Riehepui, so the advocate reminded his heaters, had been still more hnicrii than mediieval Scottish law, for he had but condemned the criminal to receive a kiss. “I fear,’’ added I lenri-Rohert. "that Riehepin was inciting to crime. For he certainly ought not to have said to an audience ol women who adored him: ‘She is guilty. J condemn her to be kissed by me.’ ” The advocate’s posthumous acquittal of his fair client was received with rounds ot applause, which continued until after the lecturer had left the building.