BOOKS.

All commentaries on Shakespeare will be relevant. No specific reading is suggested, because it is desired to emphasize the reading and re-reading of the plays designated in the titles of the lectures. It is specially helpful if several persons read together, taking separate characters, and comparing impressions of the whole.

LECTURE I.

MACBETH.

A Study of Moral Decline.

The conception of Macbeth's character rests upon the antithesis of the Practical and the Inner Life.

Each of us lives in two lives: the Outer life of action and intercourse with our fellow-men, Doing-the Inner life in which our energies are turned inwards upon our own selves, Being. [Avoid confusion with other antitheses; such as practical and intellectual, or worldly and religious.]

Macbeth is a type of the Practical Man, in this sense-with two very special limitations arising from the absence in him of the Inner life:

a He is powerless to endure Suspense.

b He has no defense of reflection against the Supernatural.

STAGES OF DEGENERATION.

Crime with Macbeth a matter of Struggle.

1. In the earliest revelation we have of Macbeth (I. vii. 47-59) his inner nature is already devoted to evil, but this is not yet realized in outer action. Contrast his fair fame in his world (I. ii and iv).

2. Contact with the supernatural (I. iii) shows him his guilty thoughts known—with the striking effect that he drops his purpose (143)—to take it up again when (I. iv) his practical sense sees all natural paths to the crown are cut off. 3. The king's sudden announcement of his visit brings Macbeth's general purpose to the crisis of a definite opportunity. (Compare I. v. 32 and 63.)

4. A second wavering is produced by a period of Suspense (note I. v. 69)-Macbeth misreads his irresolution, but the true source of it is revealed by the sudden change when (I. vii. 72) a practical scheme is revealed to him.

5. So the actual deed is done in a spirit of exultation-but he breaks down in a moment of Suspense caused by the waking of the sleepers (II. i and ii).

Crime with Macbeth a matter of Impulse.

With the appearance of the courtiers and the necessity for action Macbeth in an instant recovers control (II. iii)—but from a moment's Suspense (compare 112) he is led to his second murder.

Macbeth begins to feel the Fascination of crime.

Suspense (compare III. i. 30-35 with III. ii), assisted by pondering on the Supernatural (III. i. 59-72), leads Macbeth to his next crime, the murder of Banquo-a thing of elaborate contrivance, the details of which cause Macbeth pleasurable excitement (III. i from 73, and III. ii from 39).

Finally, from the ghost-shock onward, crime becomes with Macbeth a mania (III. iv. 139; IV. iii. 4, 164-176; V. ii. 13, etc.)-Suspense a chronic state (III. iv. 132-40; IV. i. 144, etc.) and his whole sensibility is swallowed up in the Supernatural, which has become his sole reality (compare V. iii. 22; V. v. 9-28).

TOPICS FOR THE CLASS.

1. Comparison of Macbeth (a) when in action, (b) in circumstances where action is impossible.

2. The psychology of Macbeth's attitude to the supernatural.

LECTURE II.

OTHELLO.

A Study of Plot.

Dramatic plot is best realized by applying the idea of pattern to human events. The older type of plot was a single story (like a design made of a single line); Shakespearean

and modern dramas unite in one plot many stories, or trains of events, or technically, "actions" (like a complex pattern in which several lines are interwoven).

In the play of Othello complete analysis counts eight of such separate actions, gradually brought together.

Three actions have been in operation before the commencement of the play.

1. Bianca's liaison with Cassio (appears in III. iv and IV. i). 2. Roderigo's pursuit of Desdemona (appears at I. i).

3. The True Love of Othello and Desdemona (they are married before I. i).

The play adds four Intrigues centering around Iago.

4. Against Roderigo: to get money out of him and get rid of him (V. i. 14).

5. Against Cassio: to get his place (I. i).

6. Against Cassio: to destroy him (V. i. 19; II. i. 316).

7. Against Othello: to make him the victim of his own jealousy (II. i. 304, etc.).

Of these No. 7 may be regarded as the Main Action, which, as it progresses, gradually draws all the rest into a common stream of tendency.

By I. iii. 400, No. 6 is merged in No. 7.

By II. i. 120 (compare II. iii. 53), Nos. 2, 4, and 5 are drawn in.
By II. iii. 319, No. 3 is added.

By III. iii. 321, etc., No. 1 is made to work in with the rest.

The common working of all these appears first in a preparatory stage (reflected in Iago's soliloquies: I. fin., II. i. fin., II. iii. 342)-then in the crescendoing passion of Acts III. and IV.—finally it culminates in the tragic accumulation of IV. iii. and V.-till the way is prepared for an eighth action. 8. Reaction: Nemesis on Iago (V. ii. from 126).

The Reaction, like the Main Action, assists in binding the rest together, as affecting Othello, Cassio, and Roderigo.

The general color of the plot is Intrigue: it brings out the interesting principle that villainy clouds the judgment as well as corrupts the heart (Iago has acted on the baseless belief of his wife's sin: after everything else has been provided against, her simple honesty ruins him).

TOPICS FOR THE CLASS.

1. Characters of the drama as illustrations of 'jealousy' [=suspicion] and its opposite.

2. The play as a study of Nemesis and Pathos.

LECTURE III.

JULIUS CÆSAR.

A Study of Character Contrasts.

A Shakespearean play is an inexhaustible storehouse of material for the discussion of character. In the present case the discussion may well start from the standpoint of the Practical and the Inner life. In the complex world of Roman life this might manifest itself in conflicting claims of Public and Private life, Policy and Friendship, the Cause and the Self.

Brutus: both lives evenly balanced (V. v. 73), but the Inner nature veiled by Stoicism. Thus his weight in affairs is greater than that of Cassius (I. iii. 157 and Conspiracy scenes).-For his softer side compare the scenes with Portia and the Page (II. i. 233, IV. iii. 239). Cæsar a colossal type of the Practical life, with the Inner nature undeveloped. Thus in the scenes of the play his personality appears under an eclipse: it is a crisis involving, not great qualities of action, but knowledge of his own and others' individuality-contrast it with the universal impression of him both before and after. Cassius: both Practical and Inner natures developed, but