SHAKESPEARE CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 2202, 14 May 1896, Page 53

SHAKESPEARE CLUB.

Appropriately enough, Thursday being the 23rd April and, according to the printed programme, the 332 nd anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, though this is a point upon which the orator of the evening seemed doubtful, one of the periodical publio appearanoes of the Dunedin Shakespeare Club was made in the Choral Hall last evening, upon which occasion selections from " Macbeth " were road by the members. The selections were perhaps rather long, but it would undoubtedly have been difficult to have maintained the connection in the plot if they had been much shorter. The hall was well filled, and the chair was occupied by Mr A. Wilsou, president of the club. Toe President remarked that once more wo had reached the day of the patron sainl; of England. This year the club had invittd Mr M J. S. Mackenzie to deliver the address. He would not perpetrate such a piece of folly as to introduce Mr Mackenzie to the meeting. They knew that Mr Mackenzie never spoke on politics or literature without saying what was well worth listening to and what was really instructive, and he thought he cculd assure Mr Mackenzie on their behalf that they would be an appreciative and sympathetic audieoce. Mr Scobie Mackenzie said : Some of you will no doubt be surprised to see me here to night, for, a? yon know, I have not been in any way ident fled with or even a member of the Shakespeare Club ; and I do assure you it w&s after very gteat hesitation I accepted the honour which your president has thrust upon me of addressing you to-night. I have been in the habit of reading his own luminous and thoughtful addresses on Shakespearean subjects, and I have felt very strongly — feel very strongly now — that they are not of the kind that invite anyone to come after him who is not a Shakespearean scholar. To be that I make no pretensions whatever. Then it is oppressive to reflect that my audience ia entirely made up of Shakespearean students. For me to address ycu on Shakespeare is as if a youDg j fre»hman Bhould call the professors of his university together and deliver to them lectures on their own special subjects.— (Laughter.) This, I understand, is your general meeting. It is the anniversary of Sh»ke«peare'« j death just 280 years ago, and, as is genera'ly supposed, the anniversary of his birth also. It is curious that there should bo any doubt about it. I don't know whether any of you have the feeling, but I am often consc : ous of a sense of 'exasperation that while we can have a minute knowledge of the men who were or who appeared to be great in Shakespeare's age, about Shakespeare himself, who sits enthroned in lonely grandeur as the first of created beings, a solitary figure, endowed with an extraordinary union of all the rarest intellectual gifts vouchsafed to man — I say it is exasperating to think that about him we know absolutely nothing at all. Thiak of all the complete and life-like biographies that are pouring out of the press at the present time. We get a record of the boyhood of the individuals, their college life, the struggles of their early manhood, their diaries, their letters, their conversations ; we know the books they read, the style in which they read them, the hours and the methods of their study ; we get photographs of them, taken it may be at all the different phases of their lives. Fancy if by any miraculous chance we could get hold of a book which could give us a fiftieth part of the information about Shakespeare we are now getting about common-place people ! What a cry there would be for it from every minute corner of the civilised world — from countries and continents the very existence of which were unknown in Shakespeare's time I The copyright of that book would be of more value than a Johannesburg mine. But, as a matter of sober fact, all that we practically lenow about Shakespeare is that he lived, that he went for a few years to school like other boys, that he married early, that he was mixed up a good deal with theatres, that he wrote stupendous plays, which were not in his day recognised as stupendous, that he sued a man in the Stratford court for £1 15s lOd— (laughter ), — that he bought some land and houses, and that he died I assure you that our knowledge of his life could be confined to a single page of an ordinary book. The action he brought for the recovery of £1 15s lOd was for some malt he had sold, and from the date of the action he must h*ve been engaged at the time on his great tragedies of " Lear " and " Ofchello." To me the fact enormously adds to the mystery of his being. Of course, we have the internal evidence of his | playp for some knowledge of him. We know, for instance, that among his bo^ks he must have had a copy of Holinshed's " Chronicle," Plutarch's "Lives," Belleforest's "Hundred Tragedies," some translated foreign plays, and probably Chapman's " Homer." <-Chapmftn was a contemporary. From Holinehed he got his material for " Macbeth." Although Shakespeare took the raw material wholesale and turned it into pure gold in the crucible of his own brain, there is abundant evidence to show that a mere suggestion was enough for him to work upon at any time. Thera are soma precious scraps dropped by his contemporaries, or by men of the immediately succeeding age, from which we may gather that, unlike most men of genius, he was a quick, intuitive, and facile worker, who bad small occasion to scorn delights and live laborious days. Amongst all his other gifts he must have had an intuition for the dramatic so subtle and so quick as to put a pesilive gulf between him and all mankind. His very nimbleness was considered derogatory to genius. Saiwu9l Butler, the author of "Hudibras," who was 16 yeara old when Shakespeare died, compares the great poet unfavourably with B n Jonson because Jonson strove to do with rauca labour what Shakespeare did by intuition. "The same we may observe," he says, "of Jouson and Shakespeare, for he that is able to think long and judge well will be sure to find out bettor things than another can hit upon suddenly, though of more quick and ready parts; which is commonly but chance, and the other wit and judgment." Nimble as was his own wit, it is pretty olear that the author of " Hudibraa " was himself a laborious writer, and was wholly nnable to understand the lightning flash of inspiration by which Shakespeare saw into the very heart of things, and was enabled, as someone quaintly puts it, to "go oat of himself" in order to j animate other beinge. Butler concluded that it must be «• chance" to "hit upon a thing suddenly." Thomas Fuller, the quaint author of the "Worthies of England," who was only eig v 't when Shakespeare died, but who had no doubt all the fresh traditions of the great men of Elizabeth's time, saya much the same thing, with however somewhat more appreciation of the gifts of Shakespeare. He tells us that Ben Jonßon's parts "were not so ready to run of themselves as to answer the spur, so that it may truly be said of him that he had an elaborate wit wrought out by his own industry." Shakespeare he compares to a Cornish diamond, whioh requires no polish from a. lapidary, but cornea smooth and pointed from the earth, itself,

j " so that nature itself was all the art that wai ' used upon him." " Many," he says, " were the wit combats betwixt him and Ben Jonson, which two I behold like a. Spanish great galleon and an English man-of-war. Master Jonson, like the former, w&s built far higher in learning ; solid but slow in his performances. Sbaliespeare, like An English man-of-war, lesser in balk bat lighter in sailing, could turn wi'h all tides and take advantage of all winds by the quickness of his wit and invention." It took a hundred years or more before the profundity of Shakespeare began to ba recognised as his marvellous fertility and quickness of invention were recognised. The ulter barrenness of all our knowledge of him is curiously shown by the eagerness with which we fasten on the solitary rein&rk made by his contemporary Qreene about him. Greene was jealous of Bhakespep.ro even in the early portion of Shakespeare's career, as well the poor fellow might be. He warns his brother dramatists to trust, not to actors, because there is among them "an upstart crow beautified with our features [that is, of course, plagiarising from them}, who, with his tyger's heart wrapt in a playtr's hide, supposes ho can bombast out a blank verse with the best of you, and being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shakesceno in a country." Greene died shortly afterwards, and Henry Chottle, who was Greene's editor, thus apologises for bio illnatured remarks about Shakespeare :— " I em as sorry as if the orighiaU fiulte had been my faulte, because my eelfe have scene his (Shakespeare's) demeanour no less civill than he excelent in the qualitie he professes ; besides divers of worship have reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious graca in writting, that approves his art." This is curiously faint praise, considering that Shakespeare had written, besides "Venus and Adonis," which he called "the first heir of his invention," at least hjlf a dozen plays, though none of the great ones of a later period. I don't think - there can be any room for doubt that Shakespeare died without, the least euapicion entering his mind that he had rendered himself immortal. His astounding carelessness as to the fate of his work can only be explained en that assumption. He wrote them carefully and "without a blot," as bis first editors declare. But he wrote them for the little Globe Theatre, he never corrected or printed them, he betrayed no concern about them, allowed other and inferior men to have a hand in them, and never gave the least indication of what was his and what was not. Beyond a doubt there are a number of interpolations in " Macbeth." Hin age, too, accepted him as an ingenious and delightful playwright, and as a rather superior poet of the amatory order. The next age displayed very little more discernment. The great tragedy you are about to represent to-night was turned into an opera, "The Tempest " iuto a burlesque, and " Borneo and Juliet" was altered to give it a happy conclusion. It would seem as if Shakespeare thought himself degraded by his occupation as a playwright. In one of his sonnets he chides Fortune for condemning him to such an occupation :— Thence comes it that my name receives a brand ; And almost thence mv nature is subdued To what it woiks in, like the dyer's hand. ! You will note the drani't-lilce facility of the fine metaphor. If Shakespeare could reappear - on the earth at this moment he would be struck 3umb with amazement at the fuss the whole world was making over him. Here I may just mention that we may not be done with discoveries about Shakespeare yet. A foreign Shakespearean scholar named Stefansson recently wrote an "article in the " Contemporary Review " to prove that Shakespeare, as a youth of 21, visited Denmark in 1586 with' a company of English players, and spent three months playing befora the Danish Courb at Elsinore, the scene of " Hamlet." Stofansson's case is a strong presumptive one. It is a known fact that the players did go to Denmark (the Earl of Leicester's company), that two of Shakespeare's relatives (the Ardens) and another Stratford man were among them, that Shakespeare left Stratford about the same time, and that afterwards when he became known he was a member of the same company. I do not know whether it was by accident or design that you canoe to choose "Macbeth" for your principal meeting of the year, but there can be no question it is very appropriate to it. The play is one of the greatest, many competent critics consider it the very greatess, of the great tragedies. I found in conversation the other day that there was a vague belief in the minds of persons more or less conversant with Shakespeare that "Macbeth "was a historical play. As a matter of fact, the only kernel of history in the play iB that King Duncan was murdered by or at the iusfcigation of Macbeth ; that Macbeth was martied to a most ambitious woman — a widow cloatly allied to the family of the king, as was Macbeth himself ; and that the pair- usurped the throne. Shakespeare got. two different stories out of Holinshed, and skilfully mixed them up together to .make his tragedy. The name of the spot where Duncan was murdered implies that it w&s a blacksmith's or, perhaps, an armourer's shop, or it 'may have been his hut. Whether Macbeth murdered him with his own hand or employed someone to do the deed, as Shakespeare represents him doing in the case of Bwqao and Fleance, is not known. Banquo acd Fleance are themselves as much mjths m Hecate and the witches. In that rude age — the middle of the eleventh century — there were no castles in the north of Scotland with battlements, dungeons, and courtyard*. Wherever Macbeth's castle was it would be a rude structure of wood perched on the top of a hill, with stakes and earthworks for protection — a sort of favourable specimen of a Maori pa : » few degrees stronger and better perhaps. One does not gather from the play of " Macbeth" how long Macbeth enjoyed the fruits of his crime, but it might easily be only a few months. As a matter of historical fact, and about the only one on which all the old chronicles agree, he reigned for 17 years, and the period was, for the times, a remarkably prosperous one for Sootland. Curiously enough Macbeth ■eemi to have been distinguished for his justice as well as his vigour, and Duncan, whom he murdered, appears to have been rather a weak and inefficient prince. The battle on Dunsinane Hill did not really decide Macbsth's fate. It was a couple or three years afterwards that Malcolm C&nmore regained his father's crown. Shakespeare did not pretend to be an antiquary. His one grand object was, as he said himself, to " hold the mirror ap to Nature." He was a unique creative genius, and when he finished his creations they were beings who thought, sp'>ke, and acted exactly as in flesh and blood tnuj would think, speak, and act. Even when he created supernatural beings like Ariel and the weird sisters, or a creature like Caliban, half man and half beast, he never for an instant allows them to say or do anything bat what would be absolutely natural onca their existence is admitted. The ore&tion of the weird sisters is a marvellous performance. In the hands of any other dramatist they would have been simply human hags, and consequently more or less ridiculous and grotesque. In Middleton's play of " The Witch," from which at one time

h was thought that Shakespeare had borrowed the idea, they are simply bags. Shakespeare* witches are really terrible beings. On the stags they are groterqne because they must bs human, old and ugly. In the play you noveff laugh at them. Shakespeare brings them before the imagination with a single stroke. We fancy Banquo, startled in the middle of a conversation, is brought to a sudden stand, and laying his hand on Maobeth'a shoulder eajs, pointing to the apparition — What are these, So withoved and so wild in thoir attire, That look not like the inhabitants o' the eartlt And yet are on 't ? We get scarce any description of them aflet" wards. They reveal thennelves in terrible fashion over their incarifotioue, their ipacches, and their acts. They are bodiless, shapeless, and sexless, as some critic has remarked; and they vauish as they enne, leaving the travellers uucertain for the momant whether the apparition was a reality or whether they themselves had but "eaten on the insane root tbat takes the reason prisoner." Holinshed describes Banquo as an accomplice of Macbeth in the murder of Duncan. Shakespeare rejects that — evidently to heighten the contrast with Macbeth. Both of them are brave soldiers, but Macbeth i« utterly corrupted from the moment he hears the fatal words : " Thou Bhalt be kiDg hereafter." Banquo remains loyal in spite of the prediction that he would himself be the father of kings, but we are made to see that he has to fight with the evil influence when he at a later period finely exclaims : Merciful powere, Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose. The loyalty of Banquo create? in tho mind a stronger impression of the weakness anl guilt of Macbeth. For the same reason Duncaa is portrayed a peculiarly benign and graciousprince to deepen the horror at Macbe h'.< crime, the "deep damnation of his taking off. 1 ' The noble character of Dancan, too, auppliei % motive for the irresolution of Macbeth, who i§ bold and faltering by turns, deolaring bluntly at one time that be would "go no further in this business," and then allowing his own. ambition and hia wife's upbraiding to " prick the sides of his intent." The character of Lady Macbeth is drawn with marvellous skill. Tha common notion of her hat been alwayo that of a stately, cold-blooded, unapproachable womtn. Mrs Siddons thought that she should be am&H, delicate, almost fragile, with pale features and ferret eyes, a womsn born for intrigue. She has much less imaginat'on than her husband, and consequently stionger nervaa. Macbeth breaks down under the ghastly horrors of his imagination, whioh conjures up spectres in bis waking hour*. Lady Macbeth maintains complete control over herself while she can exert her will. In her sleep the imagination is uppermost, driving her to move about in horror, striving frAntioally to remove the imagiaary bloodstains from her hand. Then she sucenraba altogether, while Macbeth, who began with weakness, puts on the armour of despair. The supreme art of Sbaketpeare is shown in the fact that though the pair commit a shocking crime there is no detestation of them in the ordinary cense. They p.re neither of them born criminal*), bat fall victims to their own ambition and an evil iufluenoe of fate. And th« terrible punishment they suffer under the workings of their own imaginations raises a sentiment of pity for them. They both "sup full with horrors," and both end by being " aweary of the Bun." When I, as a. young man, first took to reading " Macbeth," I somehow came to the coa* elusion that tho Thane of Ross informed, Maciiuff of the slaughter of his wife and' children in a somewhat brutal fashion, and that Macduff took tbe communication rather coolly. My own lack of discernment is now an amazement to ma. Boss tried in the first instance to speak of general subjects, but Macduff slowly awoke to the knowledge that there was something weighing on his mind, and he begs of him not to be "niggard of bis speech.? Then the terrible communication is made in the fewest words, whioh is after all the merciful way. The effect on the stricken man is powerfully revealed by the. quick interposition of young Malcolm :— Merciful Heaven 1 What, man ! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows ; Give hoitow words : the trief that does not speak Whi-pers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. The spectacle presented is that of a man pulling as it were the blinds down over the , windows of his soul so that no one should see the working of the agony within. Although he has been told bo plainly of the massacre, Macdoff incoherently asks — "My children, .too?" And again—" My wife killed, too ? " Tho attempt to comfort him with the thought of revenge only draws from him the despairing cry — " All my pretty ones ? Did you say all ? " Then follow what to me are perhaps the two most pathetic lines in tho English language :— • I cannot but remember such things were. That were mo3t precious to me. Let me say, ia conclusion, that you are engaged here in a splendid work of self-educa-tion. . For, after all, it must be an elevating thing to hold regular, int'mate, and intelligent converse with the mind of the man Jirho, by universal consent, was chosen out of all ages and all peoples to be the repository of God's supremest gifts. — (Applause.) The readings from "Macbeth" comprised selections from each of the five acts of the tragedy, and were given with considerable success. Mr Hanlon, to whom was entrusted the pait of the Thane of Cawdor, read his lines with fine effeot, and he wm well supported by Miss Alexander as Lady Macbeth. These two members bore the brunt of the reading, but Mr Burton as Banquo, Mr J. B. Webb as Malcolm, and Mr H. A. Webb as Macduff lent serviceable assisticcs ; and Mr Brngh, Mr Wathen, Mr Tonkinaon, Mr Moore, Mis Davey, Miis M'Carthy, Miss Young, and Miss Whinam were also inoluded in the cast. A violin solo by Miss Effie Yorston, who played the prayer from " Rienzi" (Wagner), and x vocal solo, "When night is darkest dawn is nearest " (Land), by Mius Lizzie Blacke, proved agreeable interludes in tho evening's programme.

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