Shakespearian acting, no less than of Shakespearian criticism. How much our national reputation is concerned in a more intelligent cultivation of the latter, it is needless now to contend, as the fact is universally admitted. But the degree in which the current state of Shakespearian acting constantly operates, for good or for evil, in illustration or in perversion, upon the reader and the literary critic of Shakespeare, seems less generally understood. Yet this operation is not the less certain, nor is it difficult to assign its cause. The intense depth and subtlety of meaning-the boundless pregnancy of indication-the "too much conceiving," as Milton says-which is found in the written text, renders the thorough understanding of it the more dependent on the truth of theatrical interpretation. The case of the Macbeth' illustrates this dependence most remarkably. It would surely have been impossible that one critic after another should have perpetuated so false an interpretation of the great dramatist's meaning as we have shown them to have given, had they not come to the consideration of his text prepossessed by the perverted stage impressions of their youth. P. S. DECEMBER 21ST, 1846. We regret to find that, up to this time, no endeavour has been made to revive, on the London stage, the true 'Macbeth' of Shakespeare. On the contrary, the whole mass of corruptions above exposed, is still retained in performance, even by actors and managers assuming high credit with the public as restorers of Shakespeare. At the same time, they continue to announce the corrupted play, not very honestly, as "Shakespeare's tragedy," and to be supported by theatrical critics in this manifestly wilful perversion. The more, however, that we feel it our duty to point out this pertinaciously wholesale violation of Shakespeare's work, the more we owe it to Miss Faucit, to acknowledge distinctly the originality and truth which, in courageous prosecution of her art under all theatrical disadvantages, we find her to have im parted to the personation of the heroine. Those lamentable circumstances of our metropolitan stage which, for the last three years, have left our greatest Shakespearian actress without a theatre in which to appear before a London public, compel us to refer to the journals of Paris, Edinburgh, and Dublin; at each of which capitals she has repeatedly performed this character, in her successive engagements during the period in question. Their concurrent evidence plainly shews-what our examination of Shakespeare's work, and our observation of the actress, led us to anticipate,-that her possession of that essentially feminine person which we have seen Mrs. Siddons herself contending for as Shakespeare's own idea of Lady Macbeth,-together with that energy of intellect and of will, which this personation equally demands,-have enabled her to interpret the character with a convincing truth of nature and of feeling, more awfully thrilling than the imposing but less natural, and therefore less impressive grandeur of Mrs. Siddons's representation. Her performance, in short, would seem to have exhibited to her audiencenot the "fiend" that Mrs. Siddons presented to her most ardent admirers-but the far more interesting picture of a naturally generous woman, depraved by her very self-devotion to the ambitious purpose of a merely selfish man. The best wish, therefore, that we can cherish for the restoration of Shakespeare in this particular piece, is, that Miss Faucit may speedily find, in our metropolis, a stage and a manager equally capable and willing with herself, to return to Shakespeare, to nature, and to everlasting truth. See, more particularly, 'The Scotsman,' and 'The Dublin Evening Mail,' Nov. 4th, 1846, describing Miss Faucit's performance of Lady Macbeth on the preceding Monday, Nov. 2nd,-repeated a few days after. Since then (on Monday, Dec. 14th) she has acted The Lady Constance on the Dublin stage; and a judicious and wellwritten article has appeared in 'The Freeman's Journal' of Dec. 18th, indicating the points of resemblance and of contrast between this character and that of Lady Macbeth. Regarding the latter, the writer takes occasion to quote from a correspondent whom he designates as one of the greatest ornaments of Irish literature," and who avows himself to be a cautious and deliberate convert from the Siddonian interpretation of the character. We regret our want of space to give his most interesting account of the new and convincing impressions made upon him by this performance, and especially as to the fearful truth of remorseful broken-heartedness displayed in the sleep-walking scene. V. CHARACTERS IN AS YOU LIKE IT.' 1.-ROSALIND AND ORLANDO, BEFORE THEIR MEETING IN THE FOREST. [July 13th, 1844.] THE business of the As You Like It,' is chiefly to dally with the innocence of love, Like the old age. It is especially the play of youthful courtship between two beings of ideal beauty and excellence, in whom the sympathetic part of love predominates over the selfish-affection over passion. No wonder, then, that Shakespeare, so alive to the superior generosity and delicacy of affection in the feminine breast, should have made the heroine of this piece its most conspicuous personage, to the full and various developement of whose moral qualities, as well as her peculiar personal and intellectual attractions, all else in the drama is subservient or subordinate. On a former occasion, we have shown that Cymbeline' is, in the main, the drama of Imogen; and for the like reason, as will appear from our subsequent examination, the As You Like It' might not unaptly be called the play of Rosalind. * 6 6 Of all the sweet feminine names compounded from Rosa, that of Rosa-linda seems to be the most elegant, * See "Characters in Cymbeline,”-pp. 42 to 108 of this volume. and therefore most befitting that particular character of ideal beauty which the dramatist here assigns to his imaginary princess. In Shakespeare's time, the Spanish language and literature were ascendant in Europe, and were much more familiarly heard and read about the English court, than in the present day. Few readers may now be aware that Rosalinda is, in truth, a Spanish name-the adjective lindo or linda having no complete synonyme in English, but expressing beauty in the more exalted, combined with the more ordinary sensemeaning, in short, exquisitely graceful, beautiful, and sweet. The analogy will at once be seen, which the image of the graceful rose bears to the exquisite spirit of Rosalind, no less than to her buoyant figure in all its blooming charms. Orlando's verses on the subject are not a lover's idealization of some real-life charmer— they but describe the dramatist's own ideal conception. Who that reads them, but could fancy Shakespeare himself speaking, with his forest of Arden, his noble exiles, and his heroine, before him? Helen's cheek, but not her heart; Sad Lucretia's modesty. Thus Rosalind of many parts By heavenly synod was devis'd; To have the touches dearest priz❜d. "Cleopatra's majesty" recalls to us the tallness of figure which the dramatist has made an essential characteristic of this personage-with a view, amongst other things, to that peculiar male disguise which he designed her to assume, and under which he seems to have intended that she should exhibit to us a complete impersonation of the inmost soul, the most ethereal and exquisite spirit of the piece-that blended ideal of the forest and the pastoral life, which lends to this drama so original and peculiar a charm. To her cousin's proposal that, for security in their wanderings, they shall put themselves in mean attire, and discolour their faces, Rosalind replies: Were it not better, Because that I am more than common tall, A boar-spear in my hand: and (in my heart That do outface it with their semblances. Two things regarding this passage demand attention from the histrionic student of this part, no less than from the reader or auditor;-first, the true nature of the feelings which prompt the heroine to assume the masculine garb at all; and, secondly, the precise character of the particular disguise which she adopts. The manner in which more than one of her modern representatives on the stage have demeaned themselves under this habit, would justify Shakespeare's Rosalind in saying to them, as she does on one occasion to her friend Celia, "Dost thou think, though I am capa 1 |