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pense . the same may be said of the different magazines which have been published in the colony . " Shortly after we came to Canada , a magazine was started in Toronto , called the Canadian Literary ' Magazine , edited by Mr . Kent , a gentleman of considerable talent ; and his list of contributors embraced some of the cleverest men in the colony . This periodical , though a very fair specimen of that species of literature , and under the immediate patronage of the Lieutenant-Governor , Sir John Colborne , only reached its third number , and died for want of support . " Another monthly , bearing the same title , minus the Literary , Was issued the same year ; but being inferior in every respect to its predecessor , it never reached a third number .
" A long time elapsed between the disappearauce of these unfortunate attempts at a national periodical and the appearance of the Montreal Literary Garland , -which was published at the most exciting period of Canadian history , on the eve iof her memorable rebellion , which proved so fatal to its instigators , and of such incalculable benefit to the colony . " For twelve years the Literary Garland obtained a wide circulation in the colony , and might still have continued to support its character as a popular monthly periodical , had it not been done to death by Harper ' s Magazine and the international .
" These American monthlies , got up in the first style , handsomely illustrated , and composed of the best articles , selected from European and American magazines , are sold at such a low rate , that one or the other is to be found in almost every decent house in the province . It was utterly impossible for a colonial magazine to compete with them ; for , like the boy mentioned by St . Pierre , they enjoyed the advantage of stealing the brooms ready made . " It is greatly to the credit of the country that for so many years she supported a publication like the Garland , and much to be regretted that a truly Canadian publication should be put to silence by a host of foreign magazines , which were by no means superior in literary merit . The lAterary Garland languished during the years 1850 and 1851 , and finally expired in the December of the latter . " Again : —
" In 1848 , Mr . Moodie and myself undertook the joint editorship of a chqap monthly magazine published in Belleville , under the title of the Victoria Magazine . This periodical was issued at the low price of five shillings per annum , and was chiefly intended as a periodical for the people . It had a good circulation , for the brief period of its existence , which only lasted until the end of the year , when the failure of its proprietor , who was engaged in several literary speculations , put a atop to its further progress . Our subscription list contained eight hundred names : all of these subscribers had paid their twelvemonth ' s subscriptions in advance , and Mr . W- must have been a considerable gainer by the publication , although we received nothing for our trouble . The greater portion of the articles , and all the reviews and notices of new works , were written by us . Had we been able to purchase the magazine ,, and carry it on as our own property , I feel very little doubt of its success .
" Whilst conducting this periodical , we had many opportunities of judging of the literary taste and capacity of the public , from the articles that we were constantly receiving for insertion . We had some clever contributions offered to us for the magazine , but they werp all , with a very few exceptions , from persons born and educated in the mother country , and could scarcely be ranked under the head of Canadian talent . It was our earnest desire to encourage as much as possible nativeborn authors , and to make our magazine a medium through which they might gain the attention of the public ; and we were not a little disappointed , that the few articles we received from Canadian writers , were not of a character to interest our readers . The Canadian people are more practical than imaginative . Romantic tales and poetry would meet with less favour in their eyes , than a good political article from their newspapers . The former they scarcely understand , the latter is a matter of general interest to the community . Yet there are few countries in the world which possess so many natural advantages , and present more striking subjects to fire the genius of the poet , and guide the pencil of the painter .
" Beautiful—most beautiful in her rugged grandeur is this vast country . Howawful is the sublime solitude of her pathless woods ! what eloquent thoughts flow Wnt of the deep silence that broods over them ! We feel as if wo stood alone in the presence of God , and naturo lay at His feet in speechless adoration . " Has Canada no poet to describe tho glories of his parent land—no painter , that can delineate her matchless scenery of land and wave ? Are her children dumb and blind , that they leave to strangers tho task of singing her praise ? " Tho standard literature of Canada must be looked for in her newspapers . Yet tho most gifted editors of these numerous journals are chiefly Old Country men . The editor of a clever Canadian paper is on tho high road to oflicc and preferment ; but ho must bo a party man , and go the whole hog , or he cannot long enioy tho patronage and favour of the public .
Every small town in tho provinco has its rivul newspapers : and many posHos * three or four ^ that pay their own way , and unord a comfortable living to their proprietors . These papers vary in price from seven shillings and sixpence per annum to twenty shillings , and tho postage to the most distant town in tho colony does not exceed a halfpenny . A really good newspupor enjoyn a wide circulation , not only in its own district , but all over the colony . A Canadian newspaper is a strange mMange of politics , roligion , abuse , and general information . It contains , in a condensed form , all tho news of the Old and tho Now World , and informs its roudcrs of what is passing on the great globe , from tho North Polo to tho gold mines of Australia and California . So much matter Uuh to be contained in so small a space , that no room remains for dulnesH , and should a spare column occur , it is always llllcd up by the droll sayings and doings ofbrother Jonathitn , or clevor extracts and reviows of now works just issued from tho ever-teeming American press . Thcro in no restraint upon the freedom of tho press ) i n Cuuada . Men speak thoir thoughts boldly uhd freely . Ay , and print them too , and often run mad in tho exuberance of their liberty , if you may judge of
their sanity by the intemperate language used in those local journals . " The Canadian cannot tret on without Iuh newspaper any more than an Amori - can could without his tobacco . Tho New York Albion , and tho Tribune , Edited by Horace Greeley , havo likewise a wide circulation in Canada , and there is a host of temperance papers and religious magazines published in the Province" Every largo town has its Mechanics' Institute and debating Hocioties , which tend generally to foster a lovo of literature , and draw out tho mental rfl « orirce * of tho community . Men of education deliver lectures gratia at thoso institutes , arid are suro to obtain a good audience . "
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MACBETH : AND HOW THE KEANS PERFORMED IT . I should like to write an essay on Macbeth , but journalistic necessities compel me to confine myself to the two leading characters , and of them to speak only in hints . Macbeth himself admits of two different conceptions . He may be ref ) resented as " bloody , bold , and resolute "—a border chieftain in a turbuent and incult period—a man of the dark ages , rushing onwards With reckless impetuosity—murdering his royal host—seizing the crown , and accomplishing his coup oVdtat without respect of persons . In this view , all the metaphysical meshes which entangle him would be but the excuses of his conscience , or the instruments used to serve his purpose ; they would be to him what " Socialism" and " saving society" were to that
more ignoble usurper who snatched a crown in 1852 . I do not think this the Shakspearian Macbeth ; but I think it is a conception of the character which might be very dramatic and effective . The other and the truer conception would represent a wild , rude , heroic nature , hurried by his passions into crime , but great even in crime—severed from the rectilinear path of honour by the horrible suggestions of the witches coming upon , him in the flush and exaltation of victory , and playing on his active Imagination , making him its slave . For Macbeth is distinctively a lold soldier , and a man of most impressible imagination . He is intensely superstitious : in those days all men were , but the imaginative were so to an inordinate degree . He sees a dagger in the air ; he hears the sleeper say , " Macbeth doth murder sleep ; Macbeth shall sleep no more . " He tells us how
" The time has been my senses Would have cool'd To hear a night-shriek ; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise louse and stir As life were in't . " ( By the way , is " fell of hair" the correct phrase , and what can it mean ? Mayone not suggest " fall of hair "—i . e ., the hair which naturally falls on his shoulders would rise up in horror . ) So that when the witches prophesy that he shall be king , he is moved deeply , his active imagination shaping
possibilities" My thought , whose murder yet is but fantastical , Shakes so my single state of man , that function Is smothered in surmise . " But JBanquo , to whom the greatness of a line of kings is promised , is not moved at all , disbelieves , in fact , the diabolical suggestion . Thus we see Macbeth is represented as more imaginative than the common run of men . He ia good , too ; full of the milk of human kindness . He would be great , is not without ambition , but is without the illness which should attend it .
He desires highly , but would win holily . He has a moral conscience . And here lies the tragedy . He is no common murderer ; he is criminal because great temptations overcome great struggles ; the tragic ¦ collision of antagonistic principles—Ambition and Conscience—take him from the records of vulgar crime , and raise him into a character fitly employed by-Art . One might enlarge here upon the manner in which Shakspeare ' s own intense reflectiveness is allowed to shine through his various creations . He cannot even take this wild , feudal chief , without making him nearly as metaphysical as Hamlet . I hint this view , and pass on .
All through the play we see him . as one made irresolute by conscience , but resolute and terrible in act—when roused to action—because his nature is that of a brave onrushing soldier . His hands once reddened by murder , he pursues with vigour the murderer's career . He is bold , even in the very face of his superstition . What though Birriam wood he come to Dunsinane , and what though MacdujjThc not of woman born , the soJdior fights like a desperate man , defiant of the metaphysical terrors that shake him ! Doea Charles Kean represent either of these characters ? IJo does not . Ho cannot bo said to take any view of the character afc all ; he tries to embody the various feelings of each situation ; taking , however , the literal and
unintelligent interpretation , so that almost every phase of the character is falsified . We see neither the gallant soldier , nor the imaginative man . His boaring is neither warrior-like nor reflective . The wondrous touches with which Shakapearo illuminates the character are all slurred over by him . When the witches accost him , his only expression of " metaphysical inlluence " is to stand still with his eyes fixed and liin mouth open , in the way you know . T \ w Jluclualinr / emotions which Macbeth must , be undergoing all that time are expressed by njixcd stare . And the profound art of Shakspoare , shown in Macbeth ' * tentative appeals to Banquo- ^ avoiding all
mention of what tho witches promised him , yet trying to get ill , Jianque s thoughts by alluding to ' lianqtios children—these touches , which an actor of intelligence could not , one would think , I'ail to make impressive , art * passed over by Charlos Kean , sis if they were ordinary lines of the text . As a palpable illustration of his unintelligent reading of the char acter , let me refer to what I have before called his Literal interpretation ( it is of that kind which always suppose that the word " tears" must beuttered in a tearful voice ) . In the famous dagger soliloquy , will it be oroditnd that ho does not rise to a crescendo of horrible amazement at the
words— " Thou innrshall ' at mo tho way which 1 was going !" but at the superfluous fuct that" Such an instrument I wuh to uho j " and again he fliefl into a paroxysm of horror at seeing " on its blade and dudgeon gouts of blood . Now , considering that he has alread y determined on murdering Duncan , and the dngg-or has marshalled him the wajr , tho horror at grouts of blood is ludicrous ; tho horror is the parent , nM the child of this blood ; it precedes , it dooa not auccood it . Let mo cm
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F « B » wak * 19 , 1853 . J THS LEADEl 189
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 19, 1853, page 189, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1974/page/21/
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