The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-04-12

the first OF them, We promise greater bene-
fits unto thee than unto him, for he shall
reign indeed, but with an unlucky end:
neither shall he leave any issue behind him
to succeed In his place: where. oontrarily.
thou, indeed, shall not reign at all. but Of
thee those shall be born which shall govern
the Scottish kingdom by long order OF con-
tiSuh descent. Herewith tho Aforesaid
women vanished Immediately out OF their
sight. This was reputed ct the nrst but
some vain, fantsstical illusion by Macbeth
and Banquo, insomuch that Banouo would
call Macbeth In lest, King Of Scotland. and
Macbeth would call him again In sport, ne
father Of many kings. But afterward the
common opinion was that these womep.
were either the weird sisters chat Is, IA 70
would say), the goddesses OF destiny. or else
some nymphs or fairies imbued with knowl-
edge Of prophecy by their necromantical
science, because everything came 10 pass
a. they had spoken. For shortly after. the
then Thane Of Ciwdor. being condemned at
Forcs Of treason against the King COM
mitted, his lands. livings and Offices were
given Of the Kings iberality 10 Macbeth
The wb le OF Holinsheds story Of Mac
beth W be found r produced BY Mr.. Fur
ness In an appendix II is worth reading,
u only to observe ho-- closely Shakespeare
followed it. Birnam food 10 brought .
Dunsinane, and Mach h Is slain In singio
combat by Macduff. A a matter Of his
torical fact, the reign Of Macbeth was one Of
remarkable prosperity and vigorous govern
ment. His name Ion. remained popular In
Scotland, and men OF great consequence
held II an honor to bear II. There seems
to be no doubt that Duncan was slain by
Macbeth. but the latter and his wife were
prompted by revenge, though, perhaps, also
by. ambition. Macbeth's father had been
killed by Duncan's grandfather. who also
and her first husband. the Prince o! Moray.
In the interesting paper on German trans
lations which Is included In this volume, Mr..
Furness points out that the first considers
bic attempt to turn Shakeep0are into Ger
man was made by wieiand In 1853. There
had been. indeed. various TRANSACTIONS Of
separate plays, but Wieland's twenty
two dramas first gave Germany an idea
Of the extent and variety Of the original.
The translator followed Wsrburtons text,
and did not attempt a uniformly metrioal
beth he was completely gravelled. Twelve
years later appeared the prose translation
Of all the dramas by EschenburR. Mr.. Fur
ness notes that his Macbeth has. 10 COM
mon with other prose foundations. the adj
vantage Oh ndNluk c8CI uOtul0k W mo
rhythm; It was the basis Of Schiller's
metricsl version. produced some thirty
years later. In the incarnation Of the
,, witches, In the first scene OF the fourth act,
he mistook .baboon' for baby. and
hs ,ss b. xe g. Nss
was adopted not only by. Schiller but by
three other German translators. Just be-
fore Eschenburg's version there appeared.
In i77s, at Vienna play entitled Macbeth:
a tragedy in five acts. The opening scene
murder, and we learn that Banquo cooper
ated with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth In the
assassination. Ultimately, Lady. Macbeth.
In a At Of insanity killed her husband. In
am one F, j. Fischer adapted for the Ger:
on the ground that the public. desired 70 SO
this tragedy Of Shakespeare with a. few
alterations as Hamlet" Duncan did not
appear In It. Seven years later was pro-
duced Burgers translation Of the play
which was In prose, with the exception OF
the scenes with the witches. Here. again.
Duncan does not appear In person. Schil-
ler's translation, based as We have seen, on
Eschenburg's prose version. was published
In 1901. II seems e MT, Furness that ne
fatal 70 Sohiller's translation - work Of
art Neither u there anything supernatural
and hellish about the witches. except In the
stage directions. The next TRANSLATION
after Schiller's was by Heinrich voss this
appeared In 1910; It is. We are told, more
literal than Schiller's.
In 1924 appeared . free translstion Of
Shakespeare by ono Meyer; four editions
Of II were sold In q single year. One or
two. Of it's absurdities are reproduced IN
the death Of both Macbeth and Aacdun
Malcolm and Ross enter. and, after covering
the corpses with their country's nag. they
are Joined. by old siward. preceded BY his
Tssim:ntsl band playing God n! ssys the cs
all Shakespeare's dramas by Bendar, and,
In the following year, Spiker translated
Macbeth So did L.achmann, . few year,
later Kaufmann's version OF Macbeth.
which appeared in 1880, - proaaomosd 6y
light, with the exception OF Schiller's, and
much superior to the latter In point OF
iiteralness. In 1888 the great translation
Of Shakespeare by Schlegel and Tieck was
oomplsted By the o. the si inos
then not a year has elapsed that has not
brought some contribution from the Ger
mans to Shakespearean literature. Within
the last Ave years three remarkable trans
ssxs q n and ME Tss esn 1sr
sion thoroughly revised and corrected by
eminent scholars. OF the English edition
OF Shakespeare, with German notes by
Delius, We are assured by Mr.. Furness, that
no GATOR, EnRlbn OF ocTulhu, Oeu eitSso
TO overlook Il. II seems, however, that,
even In his last edition, Delius falls into
one or two errors hard to account for In
view Of his generally excellent knowledge
OF English: In the fourth act OF the play
where Macbeth, horror-stricken at the show
OF kings, says: Start, eyes,. Delius ex-
planned in 1895 that 'Macbeth could gaze
no longer, and. therefore, bade his eyes
start away from the sight In his last
edition Delius repeated this note word for
word. but added the saving clause 'or
from their sockets To give an idea OF
the difficulty which Germans have to con-
tend with In translating certain passages
in Shakespeare. Mr.. Funes exhibits no
fewer than twenty-one different versions
OF the lines
Double double toll and trouble,
Pire burn and cauldron bubble
For the word cauldron the German lsD-
e,iare appears 70 have no equivalent.
Tie stays history Of m icbeth' begins
with the Restoration. On Nov. 8. 1884.
Pepys writes: ITO the Dukes House fLin-
coIn'e Inn Fisldsl TO see Macbeth, pretty
! good play, but admirably acted Again.
! on Dec IS, 1865, he notes: TO the Dukes
| House, and there saw Macbeth most
excellently acted, and . most excellent
| play for variety Only ten days later
Pepys once more took his way to the Dukes
House and saw Macbeth. which. though
1 ant