It was far more convenient, for theatrical purposes, that Macbeth should end his career on the spot of his defeat, than effect his escape by flight "even till he came to Lunfannaine," and Shakspeare, therefore, therefore," tied him to the stake." History does not relate that Macbeth's death was marked by any extraordinary display of valour, but Shakspeare, with his usual attention to nature, closed the life of a soldier, whose courage once shone conspicuous in the field, with a desperate effort of manly valour.

The page of history represents Banquo as scarcely less guilty than the actual murderer of Duncan. Macbeth, having sometime contemplated the crime, at length "communicated his purposed intent with his trusty friends, among whom Banquo was the chiefest, and upon confidence of their promised aid, he slew the king." But Shakspeare carefully separates Banquo from all participation in the guilt of the usurper, and transforms him into a pattern of loyalty and virtue. Unlike Macbeth, he lends no eager ear to excitements to ambition proceeding from a polluted and suspicious source; nor is he se

"For from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear, Macduff lives in disgrace."

Act III. sc. 6.

duced by that apparent confirmation of the authority of the hags which the partial fulfilment of their predictions afforded, wisely reflecting that

"oftentimes, to win us to our harm,

The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us
In deepest consequence." *

When the same malignant power again tempts him by the suggestion of evil in his slumbers, his refuge is in prayer:

"Merciful powers!

Restrain me in the cursed thoughts, that nature
Gives way to in repose."+

On the eve of the execution of his cruel purpose, Macbeth himself assails him, and is silenced by a reply at once bespeaking his integrity as a man, and his loyalty as a subject.

"If you shall cleave to my consent,
It shall make honour for you.

Banquo.

when 'tis,

So I lose none,

In seeking to augment it, but still keep

My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear,

I shall be counsell'd."+

Integrity so incorruptible was naturally abhorrent from the blood-stained usurper, whose

* Act I. sc. 3.

+ Act II. sc. 1.

+ Ibid.

fear bore ample testimony to the virtue before

which he shrunk :

"In his royalty of nature

Reigns that which would be feared: 'Tis much he

dares ;

And to that dauntless temper of his mind,

He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety. There is none, but he

Whose being I do fear: and, under him,
My genius is rebuk'd; as it is said,
Mark Antony's was by Cæsar." *

This misrepresentation of the character of Banquo might be justified on the ground of the variety and contrast of character which it introduced into the play; but it is, perhaps, ascribable to a cause less obvious and defensible. It is historically true that, after the murder of Banquo, Fleance fled into Wales, where he found protection. He married; his son repaired to Scotland, and ultimately became Lord Steward of that country. From this grandson of Banquo the royal family of Scotland descended in a direct line. The tragedy of Macbeth was produced after the accession of the first monarch of the house of Steuart, to the English throne. Whatever might have been his motive, it was an elegant compliment of the poet to pourtray the ancestor of his

* Act III. sc. 1.

sovereign in the most amiable colours; and James could not but justly appreciate the more immediate personal flattery, -the prediction that a descendant of Banquo would "two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry.

No where are Shakspeare's matchless powers displayed with more grandeur than in his Lady Macbeth. The character is sketched in the Chronicle. Not only is Lady Macbeth there described as the stimulatress of her husband to his deed of blood, but boldly called a woman "very ambitious, burning in unquenchable desire to bear the name of queen." Thus much for the wife of Macbeth. But, in consulting the history of king Duffe, Shakspeare met with an additional inducement to assign his heroine an active participation in the crime of murder. It was the wife of Donwald who suggested the assassination of Duffe; it was she who devised "the means whereby he might soonest accomplish it;" and by her its consummation was effected, when her husband " greatly abhorred the act in his heart." +

These rude materials were wrought by Shakspeare into a character so sublime as to throw into the shade the finest works of the Greek

*Act IV. sc. 1.

+ Holinshed.

VOL. II.

M

tragic writers, those masters of the lofty and terrific. With a vigour peculiarly his own, he developed the ambition, courage, and cruelty which characterised the wife of Donwald and the historic Lady Macbeth. His fervid imagination supplied every thought which stamped these qualities on his heroine; and to him, alone, must be referred an exquisite trait of nature, which lightens, by a single ray, the black depravity of a mind otherwise dead to every softer feeling of humanity. With a caution provident against every possibility of failure, Lady Macbeth stole to the chamber of the sleeping Duncan and laid the daggers ready for her husband's use with the swiftness of the lightning's blast, the damned suggestion flashed across her mind -to do the deed herself:- she had done so;but, Duncan resembled her "father as he slept," and her murderous hand was stayed.

History does not record the fate of the usurper's queen the crimes of Donwald's wife were expiated by a public execution. Shakspeare assigned a more horrid termination to the career of Lady Macbeth, death, the effect of terror; but, unhappily, he has neglected to mark the gradations of her mind from its native fearlessness to that abject state: he plunges her, at once, from the full vigour of intellect and self-posses