Our innocent self: this I made good to you
In our last conference, past in probation with you;
How you were borne in hand; how crost,” etc.
And again,
“are you so gospell’d
To pray for this good man, and for his issue,
Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave,
And beggared yours forever?”
What dark tale of oppression is connected with these vague disclosures we cannot tell; but the character of Banquo acquits him of having been the tyrant. These men have been, in some way or other, so trampled on that they are both rendered desperate, and Macbeth, who knows it so well, and whom, it seems, they had always considered the cause of their misfortunes, is most likely so in reality.
As to what I have said at the commencement of these papers respecting the want of a just appreciation of the poet on the part of his commentators—take Dr. Johnson, for example, on Macbeth. He begins with a defence of the introduction of supernatural machinery into the tragedy. This proves distrust of Shakspeare, as the transcendent genius he is now annually becoming in the estimation of every one. Hear the learned essayist descanting upon the dramatist as if he knew more of the art than the master. It is like the old Hungarian officer’s celebrated critique on Napoleon’s manœuvres.