Download File

A DRAMATIC CRITIC
and will, the solid force of nature, which
might be exhibited without suppressing
Macbeth's vivacity, nervousness, and ima-
ginative sensitiveness, suffered a total
eclipse.
Such a scheme of the character may be
defended on one line of reasoning and sup-
ported by citations here and there from
the text of the tragedy. But an unpre-
judiced critic will surmise that the causa
causans of what must be pronounced an
inadequate and un-Shakespearean concep-
tion is in the operation of the actor's sub-
consciousness of limitations which dis-
qualify him for the portrayal of the part
on a more robust plan. Precedents and
parallels are common of like mental pro-
cesses in other actors and, indeed, in
artists in all the arts. There is seldom any
insincerity in such cases: the " sub " which
modifies the consciousness clears the theo-
rist of the charge of untruthfulness; he is
really not aware that his knowledge of his
[ 234 ]