On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    this ? because , think you , the passages were given powerfully and passionately—in so characteristic and so masterly a style ? Do not deceive yourself . These two speeches have hitherto been used as appeals to a favourite Bullisrn—a swagger of

    independence and patriotism . And all the family have clapped their hands in laudation of John ^ s boldness and energy , and their own : if they had looked beneath the surface they might have seen that of this patriotism , &c . there is not a breath in King John ' s composition , but that would have spoiled the ear-tickling , which would be a pity .

    Mr . Macready threw into his manner and expression , the irritation of an aggrieved selfishness—his ire was birthed in a sense of encroachment on his privilege to tithe and toll—Shakspeare understood kings as well as he did Pandulfs , and knaves in humbler garb . There is no patriotism in this affair , and King John , at that time , felt himself strong enough to swagger and defy ; he

    spoke in the confidence of strength , not of honesty : there was no great risk just then , and he spoke his feelings ; those feelings were the engendering of his own individual interests . Macready had the honesty and courage to relinquish a clap-trap in favour of truth ; and , as times go , reader , that , let me tell you , is a bold thing to do .

    ' The king is moved , and answers not to this / These words are nothing as they stand alone on the page , and that alone is the prescribed fashion of speaking them in the playhouses . The ' point' would be of such refined texture that the audience would not take it : the effort , the labour to make it a

    point would be lost—unrewarded by a * round ; ' let the passage , therefore , go for nothing , or as a mere stepping-stone in the dialogue , a rung in the ladder which would be overlooked by the spectators , however firmly the foot fixed upon it , or paused in trial of its strength , while the ascendant looked around , ere he advanced higher . Mr . Macready did so fix his foot and pause

    upon it ; you saw that he was feeling its strength , while the eye glanced at the direction of the ladder and at surrounding objects-Without metaphor to speak , he threw into that line a complication of intelligence , each particle of which was palpable . The crushed tone of the voice was responsive of the apprehension that Philip would bend under PandulFs priestly thunder , and so break the recently formed alliance : the consequence to himself ,

    and the rage , mingling with the already anticipated threats of revenge , were working at the same moment in his thoughts , and in the same moment were expressed ; the inquisitive and reproachful glance of the eye , affirmed the colour of the voice to be nature ' s true tint , and though the spectator had been ignorant of the coming events , and of the author ' text , he , from that moment saw , that if Philip did break with him at that interview , John

    Untitled Article

    King John . 117

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1834, page 117, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2630/page/33/