Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1851-10-01

his mind, like emanations from the pit of
darkness, which needed but the influence Of
his wife 10 quicken into substantial evil
SO II was with Ahab: he too sought to
wizards. and them that had evil spirits; ':and
did sell himself TO work wick edness in the
sight Of The Lord, whom Jezebel his wife
stirred up" In the grand crime of each, the
murder of Nabolh and Of Duncan, the par
allel is minute and unbroken. Macbeth,
who was only Thane, coveted "the golden
round of sovereignty" Ahab, who already
king, had no need 10 desire crown, was
disquieted for a neighbor's vineyard; proof
by the way, how little it is the intrinsic
worth Of an object which regulates the de-
sires of an unsanctifed heart. Both would
wrongly win; yet in the first instance
"would not play false - one took his dis
Iappointmen, in sullen silence, The other was
almost persuaded to rest satisfied as Glamis
and Cawdor. Then appear the master spi-
rits. Lady Macbeth then taunts her hesi-
ating Thane, and with the hardihood OF
guilt withou, fear, developes the purpose
which he has desired without conceiving.
cart thou afeard
10 be the same in thine own act and valor,
As thou art in desire' Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem st the ornament of life,
And live coward in thine own esteem!
Letting dare not, wait upon woud'
Macbeth. If we should fail
Lady NJ. We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we IL not fail. When Duncan is asleep,
(Whereto the rather shall his days hard journey
Soundly invite him, his two chamberlains
VIII | with wine and waSSail ca oonvinca
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a perfume, and the receipt of reason
limbeck only. When in the swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie, as in death,
What, cannot and you perform upon
The unguarded Duncan What not put upon
His spungy officers who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell;"
Precisely in this spirit does Jezebel address
Ahab :-"Dost thou now govern the king
dom of Israel Arise, and ca, bread, aud
let thine heart be merry. will give thee
the vineyard Of Naboth, the Jezreeile. So
she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and seal
ed them with his seal, and sent the letters
unto the elders, and to the noblest that were
in the city, dwelling with n aboth and she
wrote in the letters, saying Proclaim fast,
and set Naboth on high among the people.
and set two men, sons Of Beial, before him,
and bear witness against him, saying, Thou
didst blaspheme God and the king: and then
carry him out and stone him. that he may
die" The two monrachs resemble each
other in their closing scenes. As dangers
increase, and the hope Of repulsing his enc
mics diminlshes. Macbeth clngs with des-
perate faith to the words of those who opal
~,
Ahab, seduced by false prophets, goes up
against Ramoth Gilead, where destruction
awaits him. The frenzy with which the
former receives the messengers who bring
,dings of the enemy's approach, cores
ponds with The hatred the latter expresses
for Micaiah, the true prophet, "who did not
prophecy good concerning him, but evil"
Ahab and Macbeth resembles each other al
so in the brave spirit which flashes forth
just before the end of life last ray Of
kingliness in one, aud burst of old knight
ly feeling in the other.
Mach Ill not Weld
To kiss the ground before young Macom's feet
And to be baited by the rabble's curse,
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
And though opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet will try the last.
"And Ahab said TO his chsrot-man, Turn
thine hand that thou mayest carry me out
Of the host, for ] am wounded. And the
battle increased that day, howbeit, the king
of Israel stayed himself up in his chariot a.
rganst the Syrans till The evening aud a
bout the time of the sun-se,ing he died"
Their queens also die in a resembling spi-
rlt; one having "painted her face aud tired
her head,' is killed with scoffing on her
lips; the other expires without one 'com-
punc,uous visiling," which might prove that
remembrance al last awoke remorse.
Lord Byron's descriptive apostrophe to
Rome, as SHE Niobe of "childless
and crownless in her voiceless woe,n ga
marble Wilderness" and a clone mother of
dead empires" this is in its primary IDEA OF
a decayed kingdom personiied as a woman
forsaken and gr;eved in spiri',o but an elo-
quent paraphrase Of the opening Of lamenta-
,ions "How doth the city sit solitary ,ha.
was full Of people how is she become as
widow, she that was great among nations,
and princess among the provinces, how is
she become tributary she weepeth sore in
The night. and her tears are on her cheeks :
among all her lovers, she hath none to
comfort her; all her friends have dealt
neacherousIy with her: they are become
her enemies"
Again. ! know you greatly admire the
same poel's "Ode to Napoleon" Do so );
but admire also Isaah's Ode to the fall Of
Sennaoherib, the Napoleon of Babylon and
observe, too, that independent Of general
resemblance throughout in point of struc-
lure, Lord Byron's first and finest stanza is
altogether derived from the prophet.
IT'S ,past-but yesterday king