There’s been an interesting discussion arising from my post “Voice and Voices in Shakespeare“. I’d like particularly to draw attention to Kevin O’Brien’s eloquent contribution to that discussion. I am, however, posting my own shorter contribution to the discussion, hoping it will serve as an appetizer leading people to the full discussion. Here it is:

Perhaps I should not have employed the word “rant”, though beautiful poetry can certainly be ranted, every bit as much as it can alliterate etc. The world is full of examples of the greatest rhetorical skills being employed to rant.

It is of course a matter for the director of each new production of Macbeth to decide how these lines are to be delivered, whether as angst-ridden words of introspective nihilistic despair (the delivery that you evidently prefer) or as an insane rant against the world and its meaninglessness.

In any event, and most importantly, we seem to agree that Macbeth’s words are not Shakespeare’s but are the consequence of the cautionary denouement of the plot. In short, Macbeth is wrong and Shakespeare is right to show us that he’s wrong. This is clearly in harmony with what one would expect from a Catholic poet.