being called, accompanied by the four bishops and others of her counsel,
and a great company of ladies and gentlewomen following her; and after
her obeisance, sadly and with great gravity, she appealed from them to
the court of Rome."--_See Hall and Cavendish's Life of Wolsey._
The account which Hume gives of this scene is very elegant; but after
the affecting _naivete_ of the old chroniclers, it is very cold and
unsatisfactory.
[103] "The queen answered the Duke of Suffolk very highly and
obstinately, with many high words: and suddenly, in a fury she departed
from him into her privy chamber."--_Vide Hall's Chronicle_.
[104] _Vide_ Cavendish's Life of Wolsey.
[105] Winter's Tale, act iii. scene 2.
[106] I have constantly abstained from considering any of these
characters with a reference to the theatre; yet I cannot help remarking,
that if Mrs. Siddons, who excelled equally in Hermione and Katherine,
and threw such majesty of demeanor, such power, such picturesque effect,
into both, could likewise feel and convey the infinite contrast between
the ideal grace, the classical repose and imaginative charm thrown round
Hermione, and the matter-of-fact, artless, prosaic nature of Katherine;
between the poetical grandeur of the former, and the moral dignity of
the latter,--then she certainly exceeded all that I could have imagined
possible, even to _her_ wonderful powers.
[107] This affecting passage is thus rendered by Shakspeare:--
Nay, forsooth, my friends,
They that must weigh out my afflictions--
They that my trust must grow to, live not here--
They are, as all my other comforts, far hence,
In mine own country, lords.
_Henry VIII._ _act_ iii. _sc._ 1
[108] Dr. Johnson is of opinion, that this scene "is above any other
part of Shakspeare's tragedies, and perhaps above any scene of any other
poet, tender and pathetic; without gods, or furies, or poisons, or
precipices; without the help of romantic circumstances; without
improbable sallies of poetical lamentation, and without any throes of
tumultuous misery."
I have already observed, that in judging of Shakspeare's characters as
of persons we meet in real life, we are swayed unconsciously by our own
habits and feelings, and our preference governed, more or less, by our
individual prejudices or sympathies. Thus, Dr. Johnson, who has not a
word to bestow on Imogen, and who has treated poor Juliet as if she had
been in truth "the very beadle to an amorous sigh," does full justice to
the character of Katherine, because the logical turn of his mind, his
vigorous intellect, and his austere integrity, enabled him to appreciate
its peculiar beauties: and, accordingly, we find that he gives it, not
only unqualified, but almost exclusive admiration: he goes so far as to
assert, that in this play the genius of Shakspeare comes in and goes out
with Katherine.
[109] It will be remembered, that in early youth Anna Bullen was
betrothed to Lord Henry Percy, who was passionately in love with her.
Wolsey, to serve the king's purposes, broke off this match, and forced
Percy into an unwilling marriage with Lady Mary Talbot. "The stout Earl
of Northumberland," who arrested Wolsey at York, was this very Percy; he
was chosen for his mission by the interference of Anna Bullen--a piece
of vengeance truly feminine in its mixture of sentiment and
spitefulness; and every way characteristic of the individual woman.
[110] The king is said to have wept on reading this letter, and her body
being interred at Peterbro', in the monastery, for honor of her memory
it was preserved at the dissolution, and erected into a bishop's
see.--_Herbert's Life of Henry VIII._
[111] Written, (as the commentators suppose,) not by Shakspeare, but by
Ben Jonson.
[112] Mrs. Siddons left among her papers an analysis of the character of
Lady Macbeth, which I have never seen: but I have heard her say, that
after playing the part for thirty years, she never read it without
discovering in it something new. She had an idea that Lady Macbeth must
from her Celtic origin have been a small, fair, blue-eyed woman.
Bonduca, Fredegonde, Brunehault, and other Amazons of the gothic ages
were of this complexion; yet I cannot help fancying Lady Macbeth dark,
like Black Agnes of Douglas--a sort of Lady Macbeth in her way.
[113] In her impersonation of the part of Lady Macbeth, Mrs. Siddons
adopted successively three different intonations in giving the words _we
fail_. At first a quick contemptuous interrogation--"_we fail?_"
Afterwards with the note of admiration--_we fail!_ and an accent of
indignant astonishment, laying the principal emphasis on the word
_we_--_we_ fail! Lastly, she fixed on what I am convinced is the true
reading--we fail. with the simple period, modulating her voice to a
deep, low, resolute tone, which settled the issue at once--as though she
had said, "if we fail, why then we fail, and all is over." This is
consistent with the dark fatalism of the character and the sense of the
line following, and the effect was sublime, almost awful.
[114] _Metaphysical_ is here used in the sense of spiritual or
preternatural.
[115] Mrs. Siddons, I believe, had an idea that Lady Macbeth beheld the
spectre of Banquo in the supper scene, and that her self-control and
presence of mind enabled her to surmount her consciousness of the
ghastly presence. This would be superhuman, and I do not see that either
the character or the text bear out this supposition.
[116] Cumberland.
[117] Professor Richardson.
[118] Foster's Essays.
[119] See Dr. Channing's remarks on Satan, in his essay "On the
Character and Writings of Milton."--_Works_, p 181.
[120] The vision of Clytemnestra the night before she is murdered, in
which she dreams that she has given birth to a dragon, and that, in
laying it to her bosom, it draws blood instead of milk, has been greatly
admired; but I suppose that those who most admire it would not place it
in comparison with Lady Macbeth's sleeping scene. Lady Ashton, in the
Bride of Lammermoor, is a domestic Lady Macbeth; but the development
being in the narrative, not the dramatic form, it follows hence that we
have a masterly portrait, not a complete individual: and the relief of
poetry and sympathy being wanting, the detestation she inspires is so
unmixed as to be almost intolerable: consequently the character,
considered in relation to the other personages of the story, is perfect;
but abstractedly, it is imperfect; a basso relievo--not a statue.
[121] Attributed to Seneca.
[122] A comparison has already been made in an article in the
"Reflector." It will be seen on a reference to that very masterly Essay,
that I differ from the author in his conception of Lady Macbeth's
character.
[123] Appollonius Rhodius.--_Vide_ Elton's Specimens of the Classic
Poets.
THE END.
Books by Mrs. Anna Jameson
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN: MORAL, POETICAL, AND HISTORICAL.
THE DIARY OF AN ENNUYEE.
MEMOIRS OF THE LOVES OF THE POETS. Biographical Sketches of Women
celebrated in Ancient and Modern Poetry.
STUDIES, STORIES, AND MEMOIRS.
SKETCHES OF ART, LITERATURE, AND CHARACTER. With a Steel Engraving of
Raphael's Madonna del San Sisto.
MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS (Cimabue to Bassano).
LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA as represented in the Fine Arts.
SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART. In two volumes.
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS as represented in the Fine Arts. Forming
the Second Series of Sacred and Legendary Art.
Each volume, 16mo, $1.25; the ten volumes, in box, $12.50; half calf,
$25.00; tree calf, $35.00.
* * * * *
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., _Publishers_, BOSTON AND NEW YORK.
End of Project Gutenberg's Characteristics of Women, by Anna Jameson