e, or for a resting-place, but for a throne, is surely
royally ambitious, a queen more than anything else. Mrs. Siddons's
conception of Lady Macbeth is very beautiful, and I was
particularly struck by her imagination of her outward woman: the
deep blue eyes, the fair hair and fair skin of the northern woman
(though, by the by, Lady Macbeth is a Highlander--I suppose a Celt;
and they are a dark race); the frail feminine form and delicate
character of beauty, which, united to that undaunted mettle which
her husband pays homage to in her, constituted a complex spell, at
once soft and strong, sweet and powerful, and seemed to me a very
original idea. My aunt makes a curious suggestion, supported only
by her own conviction, for which, however, she demonstrates no
grounds, that in the banquet scene Lady Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost
at the same time Macbeth does. It is very presumptuous in me to
differ from her who has made such a wonderful study of this part,
but it seems to me that this would make Lady Macbeth all but
superhuman; and in the scene with her husband that precedes the
banquet, Macbeth's words to her give me to understand that she is
entirely innocent of the knowledge even of his crime.

_Monday, 12th._--Went to the theater to rehearse "Francis I." Miss
Tree and Mr. Bennett will act their parts admirably, I think....
When I got home got ready my things for the theater, and went over
my part. The play was "Much Ado about Nothing," and I played as ill
as usual. The house was pretty good.

[Here occurs an interruption of some weeks in my journal.]

My friend, Miss S----, came and paid me a long visit, during which my
play of "Francis I." and Knowles's play of "The Hunchback" were
produced, and it was finally settled that Covent Garden should be let to
the French manager and entrepreneur, Laporte, and that my father and
myself should leave England, and go for two years to America.

[The success of "Francis I." was one of entirely indulgent forbearance
on the part of the public. An historical play, written by a girl of
seventeen, and acted in it by the authoress at one and twenty, was, not
unnaturally, a subject of some curiosity; and, as such, it filled the
house for a few nights. Its entire want of real merit, of course, made
it impossible that it should do anything more; and, after a few
representati