(ey Thomas De Quincey 1785-1859 ‘The son of a wealthy Manchester merchant, Thomas De Quincey was ‘extraordinarily gifted and sensitive, an individual of vast knowledge. By the age of fifteen he could read, write, and speak Greek “as though it were hhis native tongue.” At the age of seventeen, unhappy with himself and his life at school, he ran away to London, living in poverty while continuing his close reading of the English poets and keeping a diary, which he later drew on for his autobiographical writings. Following a reconciliation with his family, he attended Oxford, where he studied German literature and philosophy as well as English literature. A brilliant but erratic student, he left Oxford in 1808 without a degree because he could not face the ‘motional ordeal of the oral examination. ‘An ardent admirer of both Wordsworth and Coleridge, whom he had met in 1807, De Quincey moved to the Lake District, took a home near Wordsworth, and began a close relationship with those Romantic poets living in the area. De Quincey was among the first to recognize the importance of Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads, and he became an enthusiastic advocate of Romantic literature. After having been warmly accepted by Coleridge, De Quincey anonymously arranged for him to receive a gift of money. By this time De Quincey, like Coleridge, had become addicted to opium to relieve the pains of neuralgia and other ailments, some acquired during his earlier period of hardship in London. In 1821, part of the Confessions of an English Opium-Eater was published in periodical form and, in the following year, in its entirety. Considered De Quincey’s masterpiece, the book sold extremely well and was praised for its authentic detail and imaginative prose style. For the remainder of his life De Quincey was a prolific contributor of essays on personal, polit- ical, socal, critical, historical, and éven philosophical subjects to various periodicals. De Quincey moved to Edinburgh in middle age and remained there until his death on December 8, 1859. In his commentary on the poetry of Pope, De Quinecy drew a distinction between “the literature of knowl- edge” and “the literature of power”: “The function of the first is to teach; the function of the second is to move; the first is a rudder; the second, an ar or sail.” De Quincey’s best work belongs to the literature of power. The following essay by De Quincey, originally written as a magazine article, considers the scene in Shakespeare's play in which Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are startled by a loud knocking just after they have mur- dered King Duncan, This occurs in Act Two, at the end of scene 2 and the beginning of scene 3. The essay isa famous example of critical impres- sionism, in which the emphasis is on the writer’s impressions and emo- tional responses to the subject under discussion, rather than on a rigorously developed logical argument. De Quincey 485On the Knocking Gate in Macbeth ‘Thomas De Quincey rom my boyish days I had always felt a great perplexity on one point in Macbeth. Tt was this: the knocking at the gate which succeeds to the murder of Duncan produced to my feelings an effect for which I never could account. The effect was that it reflected back upon the murderer a peculiar awfulness and a depth of solemnity; yet, however obstinately I endeavored with my understanding 10 comprehend this, for ‘many years [never could see wohy itshould produce such an effect. Here I pause for one moment, to exhort the reader never to pay any attention to his understanding! when it stands in opposition to any other faculty of his mind. The mere understanding, however useful and indispensable, is the meanest faculty in the human mind, and the most to be distrusted; and yet the great majority of people trust to nothing else—which. ray do for ordinary life, but not for philosophical purposes. Of this out of ten thousand instances that I might produce I will cite one. Ask of any ‘person whatsoever who is not previously prepared for the demand by a knowledge of perspective to