MRS. 8IDDONS AS QUEEN KATHARINE, 

 MRS. BEVERLEY, AND LADY RANDOLPH. 1 



THE late Professor Bell's notes on Mrs. Siddons as Lady Mac- 

 beth were received with an interest which more than justifies 

 the publication of his remarks on the part of Katharine, as 

 played by the great actress. No other part played by Mrs. 

 Siddons was annotated by Professor Bell in the thorough man- 

 ner adopted by him when witnessing her Lady Macbeth and 

 Queen Katharine. He left, however, some notes on her Mrs. 

 Beverley and Lady Randolph, concerning which a few words may 

 be said before speaking of Shakespeare's play. 



Home's ' Douglas,' though known to all by name, is so little 

 read that a sketch of the plot is necessary to make Professor 

 Bell's remarks intelligible to the general reader. Lady Ran- 

 dolph was secretly married in early youth to one of a family at 

 feud with her own, a Douglas, who was killed in battle three 

 weeks after the marriage. The widow bore a son, but this 

 infant, whose birth had been concealed, disappeared with his 

 nurse, and his mother believes him to be dead. He, young 

 Norval of the Grampian Hills, was however saved, and has been 

 brought up in ignorance of his birth. Lady Randolph did not 

 inform her second husband, Lord Randolph, of her first marriage, 

 and explained her continual melancholy by attributing it to 

 grief for the death of a brother. At the period when the play 

 begins, young Norval is fortunate enough to save the life of his 

 stepfather, Lord Randolph, who introduces him to his unknown 

 mother and promotes him to an honourable command. In the 

 course of the play the mother recognises her son, and makes 

 herself known to him. The intimacy which results enables 



1 From Macmillan's Magazine, April 1882. 



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