not follow that he knew he was repeating them; or that, if he did, he remembered the sense they had previously borne ; or that, if he did remember it, he might not use them now in another sense.
I do not think the suggestions that the Ghost on its first appearance is Banquo's, and on its second Duncan's, or vice versa, are worth discussion. But the question whether Shakespeare meant the Ghost to be real or a mere hallucination, has some interest, and I have not seen it fully examined.
The following reasons may be given for the hallucination view :
(1) We remember that Macbeth has already seen one hallucination, that of the dagger; and if we failed to remember it Lady Macbeth would remind us of it here:
This is the very painting of your fear;
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
Led you to Duncan.
(2) The Ghost seems to be created by Macbeth's imagination; for his words,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
with Macbeth, III. ii. 22 f.:
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.
In writing IV. i. Shakespeare can hardly have failed to remember the conjuring of the Spirit, and the ambiguous oracles, in 2 Henry VI. I. iv. The 'Hyrcan tiger' of Macbeth III. iv. 101, which is also alluded to in Hamlet, appears first in 3 Henry VI. 1. iv. 155. Cf. Richard III. II. i. 92, 'Nearer in bloody thoughts, but not in blood,' with Macbeth II. iii. 146, 'the near in blood, the nearer bloody'; Richard III. IV. ii. 64, 'But I am in So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin,' with Macbeth III. iv. 136, ‘I am in blood stepp'd in so far,' etc. These are but a few instances. (It makes no difference whether Shakespeare was author or reviser of Titus and Henry VI.).
describe it, and they echo what the murderer had said to him
Safe in a ditch he bides
With twenty trenched gashes on his head.
(3) It vanishes the second time on his making a violent effort and asserting its unreality:
This is not quite so the first time, but then too its disappearance follows on his defying it:
Why what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
So, apparently, the dagger vanishes when he exclaims, 'There's no such thing!'
(4) At the end of the scene Macbeth himself seems to regard it as an illusion:
My strange and self-abuse
Is the initiate fear that wants hard use.
(5) It does not speak, like the Ghost in Hamlet even on its last appearance, and like the Ghost in Julius Caesar.
(6) It is visible only to Macbeth.
I should attach no weight to (6) taken alone (see p. 140). Of (3) it may be remarked that Brutus himself seems to attribute the vanishing of Caesar's Ghost to his taking courage: 'now I have taken heart thou vanishest:' yet he certainly holds it to be real. It may also be remarked on (5) that Caesar's Ghost says nothing that Brutus' own forebodings might not have conjured up. And further it may be asked why, if the Ghost of Banquo was meant for an illusion, it was represented on the stage, as the stage-directions and Forman's account show it to have been.
On the whole, and with some doubt, I think that Shakespeare (1) meant the judicious to take the Ghost for an hallucination, but (2) knew that the bulk of the audience would take it for a reality. And I am more sure of (2) than of (1).
The titles of plays are in italics. So are the numbers of the pages containing the
main discussion of a character. The titles of the Notes are not repeated in the
Index.
defects in, 71-78.
Arthur, 294.
As You Like It, 71, 267, 390.
Atmosphere in tragedy, 333.
Banquo, 343, 379-86.
Barbara, the maid, 175.
Battle-scene, 62, 451, 469; in King
Lear, 255, Note X.
Beast and man, in King Lear, 266-8;
in Timon, 453.
Bernhardt, Mme., 379.
Biblical ideas, in King Lear, 328.
Bombast, 73, 75-6, 389, Note F.
Brandes, G., 379, 393.
Brutus, 7, 14, 22, 27, 32, 81-2, 101,
364.
Cassio, 211-3, 238-9, 433-4.
Catastrophe, humour before, 61-2;
battle-scenes in, 62; false hope
before, 63; extended, 62; in
Antony and Coriolanus, 83-4. See
Hamlet, etc.
Character, and plot, 12; is destiny,
13; tragic, 19-23.
Children, in the plays, 293-5.
Cleopatra, 7, 20, 84, 178, 208.
Coleridge, 104-5, 107, 109, 127, 165,
200, 201, 209, 223, 226, 228, 249,
343, 353, 362, 389, 391, 392, 397,
412, 413.
Comedy, 15, 41.
Conflict, tragic, 16-9; originates in
evil, 34; oscillating movement in,
50; crisis in, 51-5; descending
movement of, 55-62.
Conscience. See Hamlet.
Cordelia, 29, 32, 203-6, 250, 290,
314, 315-26, Note W.
Coriolanus, 3, 9, 43, 394-5; crisis, 53;
hero off stage, 57; counter-stroke,
58; humour, 61; passion, 82;
catastrophe, 83-4; versification,
Note BB.
Coriolanus, 20, 29, 83-4, 196.
Cornwall, 298-9.
Crisis. See Conflict.
Curtain, no front, in Shakespeare's
theatre, 185, 458.
Cymbeline, 7, 21, 72, 80, Note BB;
Queen in, 300.
Desdemona, 32, 165, 179, 193, 197,
201-6, 323, 433, 437-9.
Disillusionment, in tragedies, 175.
Dog, the, Shakespeare and, 268.
Don John, 110, 210.
Double action in King Lear, 255-6,
262.
Dowden, E., 82, 105, 330, 408.
Dragging, 57-8, 64.
Drunkenness, invective against, 238.
Edgar, 305-7, 453, 465.
Edmund, 210, 245, 253, 300-3, Notes
P, Q. See Iago.
Emilia, 2146, 237, 239-42, Note P.
Emotional tension, variations of,
48-9.
Evil, origin of conflict, 34; negative,
35; in earlier and later tragedies,
82-3; poetic portrayal of, 207-8;
aspects of, specially impressive to
Shakespeare, 232-3; in King Lear,
298, 303-4, 327; in Tempest, 328-
30; in Macbeth, 331, 386.
Exposition, 41-7.
Fate, Fatality, 10, 26-30, 45, 59, 177,
181, 287, 340-6.
Fleay, F. G., 419, 424, 445, 467, 479.
Fool in King Lear, the, 258, 311-5,
322, 447, Note V.
Fools, Shakespeare's, 310.
Forman, Dr., 468, 493.
Fortinbras, 90.
Fortune, 9, 10.
Freytag, G., 40, 63.
Furness, H. H., 199, 200.
Garnet and equivocation, 397, 470-1.
Ghost, Banquo's, 332, 335, 338, 361,
Note FF.
Ghost, Caesar's, Note FF.
Ghost in Hamlet, 97, 100, 118, 120,
125, 126, 134, 136, 138-40, 173-4.
Ghosts, not hallucinations because
appearing only to one in a com-
pany, 140.
Gloster, 272, 293-6, 447.
Gnomic speeches, 74, 453.
Goethe, 101, 127, 165, 208.
Hamlet, exposition, 43-7; conflict,
17, 47, 50-1; crisis and counter-
stroke, 52, 58-60, 136-7; dragging,
57; humour, and false hope, before
catastrophe, 61, 63; obscurities, 73;
undramatic passages, 72, 74; place
among tragedies, 80-8; position of
hero, 89-92; not simply tragedy of
thought, 82, 113, 127; in the Ro-
mantic Revival, 92, 127-8; lapse of
time in, 129, 141; accident, 15,
143, 173; religious ideas, 144-5,
147-8, 172-4; player's speech, 389-
90, Note F; grave-digger, 395-6;
last scene, 256. See Notes A to HI,
and BB.
Hamlet, only tragic character in play,
90; contrasted with Laertes and
Fortinbras, 90, 106; failure of early
criticism of, 91; supposed unintell-
igible, 93-4; external view, 94-7;
'conscience' view, 97-101; senti-
mental view, 101-4; Schlegel-Cole-
ridge view, 104-8, 116, 123, 126-
7; temperament, 109-10; moral
idealism, 110-3; reflective genius,
113-5; connection of this with in-
action, 115-7; origin of melan-
choly, 117-20; its nature and
effects, 120-7, 103, 158; its diminu-
tion, 143-4; his 'insanity,' 121-2,
421; in Act II. 129-31, 155-6; in
III. i. 131-3, 157, 421; in play-
scene, 133-4; spares King, 134-6,
100, 439; with Queen, 136-8; kills
Polonius, 136-7, 104; with Ghost,
138-40; leaving Denmark, 140-1;
state after return, 143-5, 421; in
grave-yard, 145-6, 153, 158, 421-2;
in catastrophe, 102, 146-8, 151,
420-1; and Ophelia, 103, 112, 119,
145-6, 152-9, 402, 420-1; letter to
Ophelia, 150, 403; trick of repeti
tion, 148-9; word-play and humour,
149-52, 411; aesthetic feeling, 133,
415; and Iago, 208, 217, 222,
226; other references, 9, 14, 20,
22, 28, 316, 353, Notes A to H.
Goneril, 245, 299-300, 331, 370, 447-8.
Greek tragedy, 7, 16, 30, 33, 182,
276-9, 282.
Greene, 409.
Hales, J. W., 397.
Hanmer, 91.
Hazlitt, 209, 223, 228, 231, 243, 248.
Hecate, 342, Note Z.
Hegel, 16, 348.
2 Henry VI., 492.
3 Henry VI., 222, 418, 490, 492.
Henry VIII., 80, 472, 479.
Heredity, 30, 266, 303.
Hero, tragic, 7; of 'high degree,' 9-
11; contributes to catastrophe, 12;
nature of, 19-23, 37; error of, 21,
34; unlucky, 28; place of, in con-
struction, 53-55; absence of, from
stage, 57; in earlier and later plays,
81-2, 176; in King Lear, 280; feel-
ing at death of, 147-8, 174, 198,
324.
Heywood, 140, 419.
Historical tragedies, 3, 53, 71.
Homer, 348.
Horatio, 99, 112, 310, Notes A, B, C.
Humour, constructional use of, 61;
Hamlet's, 149-52; in Othello, 177;
in Macbeth, 395.
Hunter, J., 199, 338.
Iago, and evil, 207, 232-3; false
views of, 208-11, 223-7; danger of
accepting his own evidence, 211-2,
222-5; how he appeared to others,
213-5; and to Emilia, 215-6, 439-
40; inferences hence, 217-8; further
analysis, 218-22; source of his
action, 222-31; his tragedy, 218,
222, 232; not merely evil, 233-5;
nor of supreme intellect, 236;
cause of failure, 236-7; and Ed-
mund, 245, 300-1, 464; and Hamlet,
208, 217, 222, 226; other references,
21, 28, 32, 192, 193, 196, 364,
Notes L, M, P, Q.
Improbability, not always a defect,
69; in King Lear, 249, 256-7.
Inconsistencies, 73; real or supposed,
in Hamlet, 408; in Othello, Note
I; in King Lear, 256, Note T; in
Macbeth, Notes CC, EE.
Ingram, Prof., 478.
Insanity in tragedy, 13; Ophelia's,
164-5, 399; Lear's, 288-90.
Intrigue in tragedy, 12, 67, 179.
Irony, 182, 338.
Isabella, 316, 317, 321.
Jameson, Mrs., 165, 204, 379.
Jealousy in Othello, 178, 194, Note L.
Job, II.
Johnson, 31, 91, 294, 298, 304, 377,
Jonson, 69, 282, 389.
Juliet, 7, 204, 210.
Julius Caesar, 3, 7, 9, 33, 34, 479;
conflict, 17-8; exposition, 43-5;
crisis, 52; dragging, 57; counter-
stroke, 58; quarrel-scene, 60-1;
battle-scenes, 62; and Hamlet,
80-2; style, 85-6.
Justice in tragedy, idea of, 31-33, 279,
318.
Kent, 307-10, 314, 321, 447, Note W.
King Claudius, 28, 102, 133, 137,
142, 168-72, 402, 422.
King John, 394, 490-1.
King Lear, exposition, 44, 46-7;
conflict, 17, 53-4; scenes of high
and low tension, 49; dragging, 57;
false hope before catastrophe, 63;
battle-scene, 62, 456-8; soliloquy
in, 72, 222; place among tragedies,
82, 88, see Tate; Tate's, 243-4; two-
fold character, 244-6; not wholly
dramatic, 247; opening scene, 71,
249-51, 258, 319-21, 447; blinding
of Gloster, 185, 251; catastrophe,
250-4, 271, 290-3, 309, 322-6;
structural defects, 254-6; improta
bilities, etc., 256-8; vagueness of
locality, 259-60; poetic value of
defects, 261; double action, 262;
characterisation, 263; tendency to
symbolism, 264-5; idea of mon-
strosity, 265-6; beast and man,
266-8; storm-scenes, 269-70, 286-7,
315; question of government of
world, in, 271-3; supposed pessi-
mism, 273-9, 284-5, 303-4, 322-30;
accident and fatality, 15, 250-4,
287-8; intrigue in, 179; evil in,
298, 303-4; preaching patience,
330; and Othello, 176-7, 179, 181,
244-5, 441-3; and Timon, 245-7,
310, 326-7, 443-5; other refer-
ences, 8, 10, 61, 181, Notes R to
Y, and BB.
König, G., Note BB.
Koppel, R., 306, 450, 453, 462.
Laertes, 90, 111, 142, 422.
Lamb, 202, 243, 248, 253, 255, 269,
343.
Language, Shakespeare's, defects of,
73, 75, 416.
Lear, 13, 14, 20, 28, 29, 32, 249-51,
280-93, 293-5, Note W.
Leontes, 21, 194.
Macbeth, exposition, 43, 45-6; con-
flict, 17-9, 48, 52; crisis, 59, 60;
pathos and humour, 61, 391, 395-7;
battle-scenes, 62; extended cata-
strophe, 64; defects in construc-
tion, 57, 71; place among tragedies,
82, 87-8, Note BB; religious ideas,
172-4; atmosphere of, 333; effects
of darkness, 333-4, colour, 334-6,
storm, 336-7, supernatural, etc.,
337-8, irony, 338-40; Witches,
340-9, 362, 379-86; imagery, 336,
357; minor characters, 387; sim-
plicity, 388; Senecan effect, 389-90;
bombast, 389, 417; prose, 388,
397-400; relief-scenes, 391; sleep-
walking scene, 378, 398, 400;
references to Gunpowder Plot, 397,
470-1; all genuine? 388, 391, 395-7,
Note Z; and Hamlet, 331-2; and
Richard III., 338, 390, 395, 492;
other references, 7, 8, 386, and
Notes Z to FF.
Macbeth, 13, 14, 20, 22, 28, 32, 63,
172, 343-5, 349-65, 380, 383, 386,
Notes CC, EE.
Macbeth, Lady, 13, 28, 32, 349-50,
358, 364, 366-79, 398-400, Notes
CC, DD.
Macduff, 387, 391-2, 490-1.
Macduff, Lady, 61, 387, 391-2.
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