a that Lady Macbeth must
from her Celtic origin have been a small, fair, blue-eyed woman.
Bonduca, Fredegonde, Brunehault, and other Amazons of the gothic ages
were of this complexion; yet I cannot help fancying Lady Macbeth dark,
like Black Agnes of Douglas--a sort of Lady Macbeth in her way.

[113] In her impersonation of the part of Lady Macbeth, Mrs. Siddons
adopted successively three different intonations in giving the words _we
fail_. At first a quick contemptuous interrogation--"_we fail?_"
Afterwards with the note of admiration--_we fail!_ and an accent of
indignant astonishment, laying the principal emphasis on the word
_we_--_we_ fail! Lastly, she fixed on what I am convinced is the true
reading--we fail. with the simple period, modulating her voice to a
deep, low, resolute tone, which settled the issue at once--as though she
had said, "if we fail, why then we fail, and all is over." This is
consistent with the dark fatalism of the character and the sense of the
line following, and the effect was sublime, almost awful.

[114] _Metaphysical_ is here used in the sense of spiritual or
preternatural.

[115] Mrs. Siddons, I believe, had an idea that Lady Macbeth beheld the
spectre of Banquo in the supper scene, and that her self-control and
presence of mind enabled her to surmount her consciousness of the
ghastly presence. This would be superhuman, and I do not see that either
the character or the text bear out this supposition.

[116] Cumberland.

[117] Professor Richardson.

[118] Foster's Essays.

[119] See Dr. Channing's remarks on Satan, in his essay "On the
Character and Writings of Milton."--_Works_, p 181.

[120] The vision of Clytemnestra the night before she is murdered, in
which she dreams that she has given birth to a dragon, and that, in
laying it to her bosom, it draws blood instead of milk, has been greatly
admired; but I suppose that those who most admire it would not place it
in comparison with Lady Macbeth's sleeping scene. Lady Ashton, in the
Bride of Lammermoor, is a domestic Lady Macbeth; but the development
being in the narrative, not the dramatic form, it follows hence that we
have a masterly portrait, not a complete individual: and the relief of
poetry and sympathy being wanting, the detestation she inspires is so
unmixed as to be almost intolerable: consequently the character,
considered in relation to the other personages of the story, is perfect;
but abstractedly, it is imperfec