In his revelations, the accidental circumstances are to the individual character what the drapery of the antiquestatue is to the statue itself it is evident, that, though adapted to each other, and studied relatively, they were also studied separately. Society was not then one vast conventional masquerade of manners. As the classical times, when the garb did not make the man, were peculiarly favourable to the development and delineation of the human form, and have handed down to us the purest models of strength and grace, so the times in which Shakespeare lived were favourable to the vigorous delineation of natural character. What earthly title could add to her grandeur? What human record or attestation strengthen our impression of her reality?Ĭharacters in history move before us like a procession of figures in basso relievo: we see one side only, that which the artist chose to exhibit to us the rest is sunk in the block: the same characters in Shakespeare are like the statues cut out of the block, fashioned, finished, tangible in every part: we may consider them under every aspect, we may examine them on every side.

Macbeth reigned over Scotland from the year 1039 to 1056 -but what is all this to the purpose? The sternly magnificent creation of the poet stands before us independent of all these aids of fancy: she is Lady Macbeth as such she lives, she reigns, and is immortal in the world of imagination. She was the granddaughter of Kenneth the Fourth, killed in 1003, fighting against Malcolm the Second, the father of Duncan. It appears that the real wife of Macbeth-she who lives only in the obscure record of an obscure age-bore the very unmusical appellation of Graoch, and was instigated to the murder of Duncan not only by ambition, but by motives of vengeance. I remember reading some critique, in which Lady Macbeth was styled the 'Scottish Queen' and methought the title, as applied to her, sounded like a vulgarism.

I doubt whether the epithet historical can properly apply to the character of Lady Macbeth for though the subject of the play be taken from history, we never think of her with any reference to historical associations, as we do with regard to Constance, Volumnia, Katherine of Arragon, and others.

The following character study is reprinted from Shakespeare's Heroines.

Lady macbeth character traits