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what to all of us must, under any circumstances, be a work of art, however glorious, was to her almost a reality. It was the isolation of the scene, demanded by her own attempt to conceive the character of Lady Macbeth, which made it so terrible to Mrs. Siddons. The reader has to regard it as a part of a great whole, which combines and harmonises with all around it; for which he is adequately prepared by what has gone before; and which,-even if we look at it as a picture which represents only that one portion of the action, has still its own repose, its own harmony of colouring, its own chiaroscuro,—is to be seen under a natural light. There was a preternatural light upon it when Mrs. Siddons saw it as she has described.

The leading characteristic of this glorious tragedy is, without doubt, that which constitutes the essential difference between a work of the highest genius and a work of mediocrity. Without power-by which we here especially mean the ability to produce strong excitement by the display of scenes of horror-no poet of the highest order was ever made; but this alone does not make such a poet. If he is called upon to present such scenes, they must, even in their most striking forms, be associated with the beautiful. The pre-eminence of his art in this particular can alone prevent them affecting the imagination beyond the limits of pleasurable emotion. To keep within these limits, and yet to preserve all the energy which results from the power of dealing with the terrible apart from the beautiful, belongs to few that the world has seen to Shakspere it belongs surpassingly.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

DUNCAN, King of Scotland.
Appears, Act I. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 6.
MALCOLM, Son to Duncan.

Appears, Act I. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 6.

sc. 3.

Act II. sc. 3. Act IV.

sc. 3. Act V. sc. 4; sc. 6; sc. 7.

DONALBAIN, Son to Duncan.

Appears, Act I. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 6. Act II. sc. 3.
MACBETH, general of the King's army.

Appears, Act I. sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 5; sc. 7. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2; Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 3; sc. 5; sc. 7.

BANQUO, general of the King's army.
Appears, Act I. sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 6. Act II. sc. 1.
Act III. sc. 1; sc. 3.

MACDUFF, a nobleman of Scotland.

Appears, Act I. sc. 6. Act II. sc. 3; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 3. Act V. sc. 4; sc. 6; sc. 7.

LENOX, a nobleman of Scotland.

Appears, Act 1. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 6. Act II. sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 4; sc. 6. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 7.

Rosse, a nobleman of Scotland.

Appears, Act I. sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 6. Act II. sc. 4. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4. Act V. sc. 7.

MENTETH, a nobleman of Scotland.
Appears, Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 7.

ANGUS, a nobleman of Scotland.

Appears, Act I. sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 6. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 7.
CATHNESS, a nobleman of Scotland.
Appears, Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 7.

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SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces.

Appears, Act V. sc. 4; sc. 6; sc. 7.

Young SIWARD, son to the Earl of Northumberland.
Appears, Act V. sc. 4; sc. 7.

SEYTON, an officer attending on Macbeth.
Appears, Act V. sc. 3; sc. 5.

Son to Macduff.
Appears, Act IV. sc. 2.
An English Doctor.
Appears, Act IV. sc. 3.

A Scotch Doctor.
Appears, Act V. sc. 1; sc. 3.
A Soldier.
Appears, Act I. sc. 2.
A Porter.
Appears, Act II. sc. 3.

An old Man.
Appears, Act II. sc. 4.

LADY MACBETH.

Appears, Act I. sc. 5; sc. 6; sc. 7. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4. Act V. sc. 1.

LADY MACDuff.
Appears, Act IV. sc. 2.

Gentlewoman, attending on Lady Macbeth.
Appears, Act V. sc. 1.

HECATE.

Appears, Act III. sc. 5.

Three Witches.

Appear, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 5. Act IV. sc. 1. Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers. The Ghost of Banquo, and other Apparitions.

SCENE, IN THE END OF ACT IV. IN ENGLAND; THROUGH THE REST OF THE PLAY IN SCOTLAND.

МАСВЕТН.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-An open Place. Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches.

1 Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurlyburly's a done, When the battle 's lost and won:

3 Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 1 Witch. Where the place?

2 Witch.

Upon the heath : 3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.

1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin! b

All. Paddock calls:-Anon.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air. [Witches vanish.

SCENE II.-A Camp near Forres. Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier.

Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

a Hurlyburly. In Peacham's Garden of Eloquence,' 1577, this word is given as an example of that ornament of language which consists in " a name intimating the sound of that it signifieth, as hurlyburly, for an uproar and tumultuous stir." b Graymalkin is a cat; Paddock, a toad.

This is the sergeant,

Mal.
Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought
'Gainst my captivity :-Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil,
As thou didst leave it.

Sold.

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together,
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald
(Worthy to be a rebel; for, to that,
The multiplying villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him) from the western isles
Ofa kernes and gallowglasses is supplied:
And fortune, on his damned quarry smiling,
Show'd like a rebel's whore: But all 's too weak:
For brave Macbeth, (well he deserves that name,)
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smok'd with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion, carv'd out his passage,
Till he fac'd the slave;

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sold. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break;c
So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to come,
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd,

a Of is here used in the sense of with.

b Quarry. So the original. The common reading, on the emendation of Johnson, is quarrel. We conceive that the original word is that used by Shakspere; the "damned quarry" being the doomed army of kernes and gallowglasses, who, although fortune deceitfully smiled on them, fled before the sword of Macbeth, and became his quarry-his prey.

The word break is not in the original. The second folio adds breaking. Some verb is wanting; and the reading of the second folio is some sort of authority for the introduction of break.

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