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Macbeth. Thus Shakspeare fuses into one, three events, which took 

 place at three distinct periods — the defeat of Macbeth, his death, and 

 the accession of Malcolm. He also attributes to Lady Macbeth the 

 idea of the " murder" of Duncan ; yet she stood to him in the relation 

 of grand-aunt, had no children of her own, and at the time of his death, 

 making due allowance for the early marriages of the period, cannot have 

 been less than sixty years of age. Duncan is represented as a man of 

 mature years, and his sons grown men ; yet Duncan, we know, was still 

 young, and seventeen years afterwards his eldest son was only a mar- 

 riageable young man. In mixing up modem ideas with ancient ones, 

 the dramatist also represents the chiefs or nobles as being called by their 

 respective titles, Glammis, Lennox, Rosse, &c., though we know that 

 the custom did not originate till long after. Each man was called 

 by his own name, and his title superadded, as Macduff Thane of Fife, 

 Siward Earl of Northumberland. 



* * 51= f >!< * 



Two points, totally distinct, are often confounded by ordinary readers 

 — the truth to nature and the truth in fact. Sir Walter Scott's " Ivanhoe," 

 " Waverley," or " Rob Roy," is true in the former sense, and this is all that 

 we expect. No one dreams of trying any such work by the standard of 

 actual history. In this sense, too, Shakspeare 's play of " Macbeth" is 

 true, some few portions excepted ; that is to say, the events might have 

 occurred. But when we ask, Did they occur ? there is but one honest 

 answer — "They did not." Posterity has given to the work of the 

 dramatist, through ignorance or veneration, a degree of importance which 

 he himself would never have claimed for it; and, therefore, it has 

 become necessary to state what history has recently brought to light. 

 A venerable lady has been " unsexed" and pictured as a demon ; though 

 no sufficient motive actually existed, and human feeling was on the 

 other side. Macbeth himself has come down to us as a man whose 

 heart was black with treason, and his hands red with blood ; yet, in 

 religion, equity, peacefulness, and moderation, he stands almost alone 

 in those turbulent times. We have wronged him long enough, for his 

 name in our household words and proverbial phrases is connected with 

 honid cruelty ; let us do tardy justice to his memory, and write his 

 character in the language which truth and honour dictate. We do not 

 question the poet's right to paint the Macbeth of popular romance in 

 colours more revolting than those of any of the inmates of Pandemo- 

 nium ; but, we claim, with great respect, the right to distinguish the 

 Macbeth of true history — the valiant chieftain and the wise sovereign, 

 the hero without fear and without reproach. 



