| OCR Text |
Show Tlic ilclics in Jlarlx-lh. The devi'frli suurstltlon under irblcb humlreita of mi-eraule o!J women wexe tortuicd anJ Uirucd i .,. anil to vrhldi even such men u Sir SlalUiew Hale, Sir TUoniM Brew'De, an J the pious fathers aaJ MTernora or New Etigland gave Uie3iservtS,anii which rased through the seventeenth century, took that, lt orst-'tJ!10 fron. the lreaiiseand tie ftatute o' James I. au J the I'un t tin doctrine that Oi3 Jei.!i code vhich declared 'Thou thalt not 3Vr a witch to live" w as a tart of ti,e law of the laud. TiU then the j belief ln witchcratt was uo i!ouM ualTersol, but men Jooked tin it Bach as they did on cuuutlen un- r expisiaeJ jxwe of nature, hich 1 were regarded with childish aue flrJlertllauaS85ethiOT: of special wiciedness. Wirards 'airil Pitches were punished either as heretics or fcr designing or iulliclin criminal injuries on man or beasts ss they were rr any oilier crime. m There is no rca ou for douiitinc that dhate-)eare lifce other (krople in hi own ujy, lnhi the ordinary beliefs on this jl'ject, as on that of tbixs. In the ptey of Heury yl" he shows this witchcraft mils Tu'jir forms; in tuatof Macbeth" hecnne-ts it wifi t'i'old X'jrth-ernlrgendsof X'jrth-ernlrgendsof thoe iirintevalnoA- of nature t! e Noi ns or Fates of Sanllnavian my lho!;y.aud slm It in it tu o-1. i J ai-,i"ct. Tm-re i a cont-nerJy, uliif.i must reman! unKtUeJ, a there is no saBi -11111 eviJeuce either way, uhet'ier 5Iiiiestvearu ennobled the wi elite of MidJIetou or Middlelou nn.'i valgarthe weird tirr of Shake tpeare. What we do know is that Shuiejpeare found the cutline fkethtsof these leln5v as well as the 't Macbeth and Duncan, in the pioiilc chronicle of Holld-hrd, asd Uiat be endowed them all u l til poetic life and fubstani-c. Aud we hive t ask again Are these cre- tious true to nature, if we look at them w It ll the ryes ,of llacbetli, as wo trlnl to tea the ghost w itli liam-letV liam-letV e et? The flay of 'Macbeth," in which the lott tikes us back into the legendary times of Seottldi Iii-toty, is emiuectlj a drama, or action, in which man's free "will ftilvts with Ills circumstances, lili fate or dotl-ny, dotl-ny, for the mastery. In some dreams thi conllict declare ib-lf in the court of the action Jn thit of "Macbeth" it U declared at the beginning. In the ujieniug Kene, which strikes I ho keynote oi the play, the oetreireeutkUi', Iuttie visible thae of the weird sisters, tboe mysterious and terrible lowers of nature which rrove wholly evil to the man w ho becomi t- their slave Instead of their miner. Like the adversary "of Jol-j "who came Irom Jrolng to and" fro In the earth, and from walking up and down on it they come, jesting over tea and laud, through the thunder, wind and rain, which s-em their .njT elements, to meet with MsUAtb. What their crran a U with him they do not say; but we feel that it is for cII. and that, like their counterparts, counter-parts, the Xorns of Northern legt-ud, they hold Ills dtstiny, past, present aud to come. p the second scene Macbeth ii described as the noble and worth man he as yet setm to be; andiiitlie next scene w e see hlji oontciufi u with, yet more an I more giving way, ti the guilty dreams of Ills ambition, while the tempters, who rtlUxt L-atk hi ou n thuuglilis aie shown to the spectators, though not yet to him, as the vulgar witches of pnu!ar superstition, lit rt-pri-MMiti-ties of fit- degradation Into whjch they will brin: him. if ha accepts their c.lTers of worldly" liuuors Qtiurtcrti Hemic. |
