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Is The Porter Scene Interpolation

[1] The porter scene in Macbeth has been a subject of debate among critics as to whether it is an authentic part of the play or an interpolation. [2] The scene features a drunken porter joking that he is the porter of Hell gate, admitting various sinners. [3] De Quincey's famous essay argues that the scene is indispensable, as it stimulates the audience's response to Macbeth and creates a break between the ordinary world and Macbeth's world after the murder.

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Sourav Nag
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292 views

Is The Porter Scene Interpolation

[1] The porter scene in Macbeth has been a subject of debate among critics as to whether it is an authentic part of the play or an interpolation. [2] The scene features a drunken porter joking that he is the porter of Hell gate, admitting various sinners. [3] De Quincey's famous essay argues that the scene is indispensable, as it stimulates the audience's response to Macbeth and creates a break between the ordinary world and Macbeth's world after the murder.

Uploaded by

Sourav Nag
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Is the porter scene interpolation?

Deviating notably from the classical convention of tragedy Shakespeare and the Elizabethan dramatists introduce brief comic episodes amidst or after some tension packed scenes tightly woven with the actual plot. These comic episodes, tantalizingly the comic relief was almost universal in Elizabethan drama. However Shakespeare has popularized comic relief to a large extent. Grave diggers in Hamlet [Act 5 scene 1], the Falstaff scenes in HenryIV, the roles of Mercutio and the old nurse in Romeo and Juliet and porter scene in Macbeth are the most popular comical interludes. There is a bouquet of hot critical confusions and vacillating debate regarding the scene as some of the critics, Coleridge included, question the authenticity of the scene and consider it to be an interpolation. The scene begins immediately after the regicide and before the revelation of the same. A drunk, maudlin sentimental porter , ironically soliloquizes, considering him self to be the devil porter of Hell.

If a man were porter of Hell gate he should have old turning the key.
He opens the imaginary locks and allows the sinners to enter into the symbolic Hades. In the name of Beelzebub he admits a farmer who has hanged himself out of frustration as bumper harvest does not satisfy his lust. Next an equivocator, in the name of Lucifer enters supposedly. The man is thrown hell wards for his equivocation Oh! Come in equivocator. The porter again finds more knocking and in his alcoholic trance again allows an English tailor to come in. The tailor is damned as he has failed in his attempt to pilfer some clothes from tight garments. The porter finally gives up his trance and abandons his service as devil porter of the Hell----I will devil porter it no further. The scene is stigmatized as an interpolation only because it is in prose and the language is not very polished or euphemistic. But De Quincys famous essay On the knocking at the Gate in Macbeth dwarfs all the challenging critics. In this essay he has immensely praised Shakespeare and considering the scene to be an indispensible part of the play because the scene works to stimulate response toward the murderer as the sympathy of audience must be on the side of Macbeth.

The knocking at the gate is heard and it makes known audibly that the reaction has commen ced.
Actually the porter scene works as a gulf to create a breach between the ordinary world and the Macbeth`s world at the time of murder, so that appearance of devil in Macbeth may become invisible. Symbolically the scene is necessary. Macbeth`s castle and the door yard are called hellish by the porter in his trance but actually M acbeth`s castle has turned into a murky Hades after the heinous regicide. Not only the castle but also Macbeth has turned into an infernal person. De Quincy has judged the scene as an interlude helping to measure the action with the help of a reaction which resumes immediately after the knocking at the gate. Dramatically the scene is important. The performers playing Macbeth and lady Macbeth should have some time to have their bloody hands washed to be only the watchers at the time of the revelation of the murder. History proves the authenticity of the scene as the bumper harvest, complications in the gun power plot and English fascination for French hose offer chronological data to the crimes committed by the farmer, equivocator and the tailor. The equivocator may have some reference with Jesuit Garnet. In The Merchant of Venice Portia asserts the English fondness for French hose. Even in The Duchess of Malfi there is the mention of the English tailor`s habit of stealing out of clothes. Finally, the expression the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire has some Shakespearean ringtone. In Hamlet Ophelia passes a similar type of expression:

But good my brother Do not as some ungracious pastors show me the steep and thorny way to heaven While light puffed and reckless libertine Himself the primrose path of dalliance tread.
(The Merchant of Venice)

The scene is considered as an interpolation by Pope, Coleridge and Clerk. But it is as genuine as the sun, as grave as the floating river, and as philosophical as the shadow.

Sourav Nag(A.T. Bishnupur High School)

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