Certain Nezv Elucidations of Shakespeare 27 



tragedies of Shakespeare are provided, at the middle of the Third 

 Act, with an anticipative climax of this kind. This occurs in 

 Hamlet at the point, in the intercalated play, when the king rises, 

 lago inaugurates it in Othello by snatching Desdemona's hand- 

 kerchief from Emilia. Brutus supplies it for Julius Caesar 

 through consenting that Antony address the populace. Other 

 dramatists contrive a constructive climax, but do not force upon 

 audience or reader imaginative inferences concerning respective 

 outcomes. Shakespeare retains in general the same typical fea- 

 ture in the construction of his comedies. 



The drama of Macbeth ends in a manner opposite to, what we 

 had wished and hoped. This however does not make the work 

 a tragedy. That which finally happens is out of keeping with the 

 moral desert of the hero at the moment when we conceive for 

 him his future and crave to see it realized. His failure to make 

 his destiny square with his aims and possibilities is distressing to 

 us, and this reaction in our sympathies is thought of and spoken 

 of as ' tragic ' or ' tragical.' The substance and the effect of such 

 a history are alike called Tragedy. 



Shakespeare differs from other dramatists in forcing his audi- 

 ences and readers to conceive and covet a definite consummation, 

 as here in Macbeth, as early as the second scene or situation in the 

 First Act. In work from other hands, the consummation is often 

 not signified till near the end of the First Act, or is left shadowy 

 altogether. After hearing from Ross and the ' bleeding sergeant,' 

 in the present play, of Macbeth's amazing victory, we find our- 

 selves possessed by the desire that this master may achieve a 

 great career, and that Scotland, through him, may win a worthy 

 place among the nations. We are caught also by the prospect 

 that we ourselves may witness later some of the assured exploits 

 of this Bellona's bridegroom. 



In other tragedies of Shakespeare, the prefigured consumma- 

 tion is wholly ethical, and fails of fulfillment in a manner not in- 

 consistent with the earlier conditions of the plot. Our minds 

 experience a normal katharsis of anxiety and pity. In Hamlet 

 we nowhere repent our enthusiasm for the title character. 

 Othello does not deserve his fate, nor does Brutus, nor Antony, 



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