The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-02-04

(trom which latter name the appella-
ton of an old Scottish town and
modern canal, Lord Of the Isles, and
father of Duncan, married the eldest
daughter of Malcolm the Second,
sKinglof Scotland. Sinel, Thane Of
sGlamis and father Of Macbeth, mar
ried the second daughter of the same
king, giving to that family claim to
the throne approaching that Of Cryn:
in. On the deatf Of Malcolm with
out male issue, Duncan ascended the
throne, marrying the sister of Siward,
Earl of Northumberland. Macbeth
was one Of his principal warriors
indeed his leading commander,-
crushed for him the rebellion of Mac
donwald (progenitor of the Macdon-
aids, afterward successfully and con-
tinuously Lords Of the 1sles), and de-
feated sueno, King of; Norway, in a
bloody battle in Fife. Within a
few months following, Macbeth, rails,
ed to ambition by his successes in
arms and his rival claim to the crown,
killed Duncan in Inverness Castle,
usurped the throne, and was later
slain by Macduf:: Thane of Life,
the succession eventually y passing to
the descendant of Banquo ..(vho is
not mentioned by the chronicle az
murdered lu by ;M,acbeth),. Malcolm,
son Of Fleance. .'
Such is the received story, upon
which Shkspearesfounded ~,1nques-
tionably the greatest Of his tragedies,
commencing the action Immediately
after the defeat ofsueno by Macbeth,
and blending, for some OF his purpos-
es, that essay in arms and the SUBJ
jugation Of the earlier rebel Machdon-
:wald. Throughout the tragedy the
moving spirit, however, is Lady Mac
beth, whose cruel ambition, goading
on her husband to crimes halfhallow-
ed by her evident tender love for
and pride in him, supplies one of the
strangest and most absorbing studies
in all literature-infnitely more
fascinating, however horrible, than
the character of the ambitious but hes
itating thane. Without Lady Mac
beth, the great tragedy would be rob-
bed Of more than half its vitality;
and such a Lady Macbeth, otherwise
eircumstanced than she is, and lack
ing the single redeeming trait Of
love which sought honors for her
husband more than for herself, would
be SIMPLY horrible and repulsive.
And yet this Lady Macbeth IS entirely
thing Of &akspeare's o,vp creatie n
is not only not named IN the chroni-
Gle, bit could not haze been n. that or
IN tradition, from the fact that she ',eve,'
existed !
Had Macbeth, then, no wife? ? Up
to q certain time, and that time in
vsolying much Of the tragedy, he had
none. At a period. following the
death. Of Duncan, he indeed became
possessed Of one, so burdened with
crime as few women have come to
the arms Of the most guilty husband.
for (the illusions of John de Fordun,
Of the fourteenth century, have now
been fully explained by the discov-
cry of the account Of Lampert Of
Aries, of the twelfth the woman who
assisted, in whatever degree, at the
murder of Duncan in. his own (not
Macbeth's) castle of Inverness, about
the middle of the eleventh century,
| was the wife of Duncan and conse-
quently the Queen of Scotland, who
thereafter married the partner of her
crime, of whom she may or may not
have been the temptress,-share
with him in his brief career of, royal
ty (the space disputed), and died very
nearly at the same time when the
sword Of Macduff (who did not lose
wife and children at Macbeth's hands,
put an end to the usurpation. Un.
fortunately for the possibilities of ex-
actitude, neither De: Fordun, in his
ambiguous allusions, Lampert, in his
clear and succinct statements, nor the
records, bearing On the same subject,
still existing: T and SO easily read by
the light IF: The Others in the council
chamber at Edinburgh unfortunate.
" none non Of these give any clew to the
family Of the inurderous and twice.
welded queen; but, following: the
laws Of probability, and taking into
consideration the fact that in none 'o1
those, records is any allusion made
to q marriage of Duncan other than
his first already named, with the sister
of. siward, Earl Of Northumberland;
the conclusion becomes an Irresistible
one that she was not Scottish by blood
but belonged *. that family Of knowr
violence in temper as we'll as undaunt
j ed bravery and power in arms, hav