New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-11-02

cultivated mi adj high gentleman in facti will only
lust hint csdcs Mt the many passages Of thoughtful
reHectioa and poecal Imagination that bhiskespeare
has PIT into his mouth such as .. ....
And Pity like naked nc " born n, pane
Horsed on the sightlsss couriers OF the air, &c;"
the picture Of the murdered Duncan;
"His silver skin laced with his golden blood;'
and several passages IN the fifth act that place Macbeth
before us as of highly pictorial imagination and
poetic fancy and cultivated habits OF thought and ex
presson All these, think, tend to show that Shake
speare did not design paint Macbeth. whom he calls
"Belona's bridegroom"-a grand epitheti-as rude,
unpublished soldier but quito tho REVERSE and SO de-
signedly play him feudal lord of high breeding.
The second objection Of your yery able critic is to my
rendering the Dagger Soliloqny without any express
of wild fear absorbing terror ut the supernatural
apparon. MY theory is that Macbeth Is not so over
by terror to require the actor to trembe vo
enty, Toll out his tongue and make his knees knock
together. These old stage tricks easily executed,
but to my mind honOred In the breach than the
observance. Macbeth Is merely startled, at nrs' py
the sight or imagined sight OF "the air-drawn dagger
aud little thrown of his self-possess1on that ne
is quite able TO- and does examine II and reason on us
intangiby and turns 1t over and over In MS nina 'i
he comes to the logical conclusion that there Is no
such thing" and that Ia hallucnatlon OF MS o'er
wrought brain and guilty conscience:
1t is the bloody business that informs thus to mine
eyes"
IT Macbeth were paralyzed with fear at the spec
trail sight he would be incapable OF logically ques-
tioning and reducing it to It's real character Lastly
Won impute 1t to me my prevailing fault that
seem to possess my passion and not to he possessed
by It," Sir, very high authority no less tnah 'he
great master himself has laid 1t down that the actor
in the very torrents. tempest and wbrlwlnd OF his
passion must acquire and beget temperance that may
give II smoothness That is he must not allow MS pas
WITH i'm hut
late it by art and ud gmen fact that he shall possess
his passion and not possess him that he to rule
IL and not be ruled by it, 30 as mot 10 overs'ep inc
modesty OF nature" That, Sir has been ever my aim
and while shall the honor to appear before the
public ever will be. thank you for the kind and com
piimentary tone of your notice. and beg to put the
above points in the frendest and best spiric am
Sir, your ob'dt servant, GEO. VANDENHoff
Eetc- York. Oct. 90, 1874.
THAT the actor who undertakes to personate
Macbeth should give the macbeth of Shakespeare,
and not the Macbeth of history has frequently been
urged in this journal-which, indeed, has many
times set forth that, general doctrine, the actor
who goes behind the poetry of Shakespeare, and
draws his light and guidance from even the prose
works which Shakespeare is known, or believed.
to have consulted-or from any source other than
the text-makes mistake, sacrifices the TRUTH and
lowers the tone of Shakespearean art. Mr.. Vanden-
hOf has misunderstood the intention Oh our WoIus'
if he supposes us to be at variance with him on this
point He has Misunderstood also, the reference to
his tone Of polished culture and bland modern
refinement" as not being consonant with Macbeth.
Mr. Vandenhoff is, of course, right to interpret
Macbeth as courteous and noble. We have strongly
commended him for his beautiful fidelity to the
Shakespearean ideal. But there Is, or was, about
Mr.. Vandenhoff. as Macbeth, on the occasion to
which reference is made air of the polished lee
turer-a tone of the learned literary gentle
man of this present period-and this seemed
bemish. Finally. it is only needful to remind Mr..
Vandenhoff that the same great master who said
that an actor ought to acquire temperance in the
whirwind of his passion, Also in the same sentence
implied that whirlwind of passion might first be
needfu in order to make the temperance necessary.
To the smoohness of Mr.. Vandenbof's art there can
be no objection We do not wish him to loll out his
tongue or knock his knees together. But if, in the
third act of Macbeth" he were once to create
the impression that a great and irresistible
tempest and torrent of feeling had caught his intel
lect and swept his whole being before It, he would
increase even the great admiration with which we
regard and shall always remember his fine acting.