On: Tema del Traidor y del Heroe

"From these circular labyrinths he saved a curious proof, a proof that will later amaze him in other more inextricable and heterogeneous labyrinths: certain words of a wanderer who conversed with Fergus Kilpatrick the day of his death, were prefigured by Shakespeare in the tragedy of Macbeth."*

*Borges writes of a historical murder solved by the great grandson of the victim. Literary and historical coincidences become the evidence on which the case turns, as Borges creates a crucible in which fictions mimic reality and vice versa, interweaving and inter-penetrating diverse fields of esotericism, literature, and history. The exact passage from Macbeth becomes clear with the passage below:

"Kilpatrick was ended in a theater, but he also made a theater of the entire city, and the actors were legion, and the drama crowed by his death covered many days and many nights."*

*An indirect invocation of perhaps the most famous (and most cynical) articulation of a popular Renaissance trope: life as theater. The contrast highlights the differences of context and vision apparent in the two - Shakespeare's metaphor personifies multifaceted existence into one actor, indicating perhaps an anthropomorphic vision or that the line's speaker referred only to his own life. In Borges' version, the metaphor is populated, the stage is a city, and defying Shakespeare's "hour", the drama extends through time. The lines from Macbeth -

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And his heard no more.

**I apologize for the clumsy translations.