ng and corroborative criticism. With
this class of persons it was our misfortune to rank, when we first
entered upon the _study_ of "Macbeth," fully believing that, in the
character of the hero, Shakspere intended to represent a man whose
general rectitude of soul is drawn on to ruin by the temptations of
supernatural agents; temptations which have the effect of eliciting
his latent ambition, and of misdirecting that ambition when it has
been thus elicited.

As long as we continued under this idea, the impression produced upon
us by "Macbeth" came far short of that sense of complete satisfaction
which we were accustomed to receive from every other of the higher
works of Shakspere. But, upon deeper study, the view now proposed
suggested itself, and seemed to render every thing as it should be.
We say that this view suggested _itself_, because it did not arise
directly from any one of the numerous passages which can be quoted in
its support; it originated in a general feeling of what seemed to be
wanting to the completion of the entire effect; a circumstance which
has been stated at length from the persuasion that it is of itself no
mean presumption in favour of the opinion which it is the aim of this
paper to establish.

Let us proceed to examine the validity of a position, which, if it
deserves any attention at all, may certainly claim an investigation
more than usually minute. We shall commence by giving an analysis of
the first Act, wherein will be considered, successively, every
passage which may appear to bear either way upon the point in
question.

The inferences which we believe to be deducible from the first scene
can be profitably employed only in conjunction with those to be
discovered in the third. Our analysis must, therefore, be entered
upon by an attempt to ascertain the true character of the impressions
which it was the desire of Shakspere to convey by the second.

This scene is almost exclusively occupied with the narrations of the
"bleeding Soldier," and of _Rosse_. These narrations are constructed
with the express purpose of vividly setting forth the personal valour
of Duncan's generals, "Macbeth and Banquo." Let us consider what is
the _maximum_ worth which the words of Shakspere will, at this period
of the play, allow us to attribute to the moral character of the
hero:--a point, let it be observed, of first-rate importance to the
present argument. We find Macbeth, in this scene, designated by
va