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

And it can dwell on moonlight glimmer,
On evening shades and loneliness,
| And while the sky grows dim and DINNER,
I Feel no untold and strange Distress
Only deeper impulse given
By lonely hour and darkened room,
Tosolemn thoughts that soar to heaven,
Seeking the life and world to come
SECRET FACTS. IN HISTORY.
Who was the Real Lady Macbeth9 ri
Little is known of the real person
alities of the characters moving
through Skakspeare's most powerful
tragedy 'Macbeth," by the average
Of readers and spectators Of the play
except e.muoh as is conveyed by:
the play itself; or the notes appended
to it by one or another of the drama
lists many commentators. And it
may be said that the tragedy does
not hold place in the public mind, as
historical one, in the same sense as
"Henry w." " or. :.:King John," but.
rather takes rank with the mythical
"Hamlet," and yet more mythical
"Othello," of neither of which can
the leading persons intended to be
represented, be discovered with any
certainty, while their locations are
doubtful or general. 1t is the fact,
meanwhile, known to a certain pro-
portion of the reading world, but un-
known to others, that "Macbeth" is
SO truly historical as to deserve rank
in that regard with the other plays of
that class, while it holds place in6n-
itely in advance of them in intensity
of interest and wealth of imagination.
| A certain proportion of the travelled
world are also aware that the location
of the old Castle of Inverness, and
some of the ruins of that very an
tique stronghold in which the scene of
Duncan's murder is laid, are still to
be seen ct Z short distance from the
town Of the same name, on the wood
cd highland shore Of the Ness and
even more are aware, from travel
books and personal observations, that
a portrait of Macbeth, as King Of
Scotland, is among the number filling
the long line of the great chamber in
Holyrood House at Edinburgh, made
doubly famous by, Scott as i. the scene
Of the Hunters's Balls of Charles Ed!
ward Stuart during his brief occu-
pancy of that palace in 1745. Even
certain portion, though fewer, have
made themselves acquainted with the
fact, that portraits Of Duncan, and Of
Malcolm Ceanmore (or Canmore),
son of Fleance and consequently
grandson Of Banquo, are to be found
in the same connection, with the face
of Duncan looking far more danger
Gus and violent even than that Of
Macbeth, suggesting that bis murder
in sleep may have been very wise
precaution, as such a man would have
been found difficult to deal with in
his waking hours. There is, of course,
a certain amount of discredit thrown
upon the authenticity of all these
portraits, which have the fault of run
ming back too far, and with too little
interruption, to command confidence; !;
but one may certainly be taken as
we'll as another, and they have the
merit Of least supplying some no
| ton of what the: actors in those tragic
scenes were believed to have been,
by persons Of their own race long pre-
ceding our time, and in possession Of
rude pictures and legends to guide
them in their representations.
The supposed era of macbeth" is
within the eleventh century, when the
darkness enveloping all the history
Of Europe had begun to give way be-
fore the light, however Pickering and
doubtful, poured in by chivalry and
its marvellous later development, the
Crusades. At about the time Of the
tragic occurrences involved, 1045 to
1866, Harold, the last of the Saxon
kings of England, was enjoying that
brief time Of repose before his great
and crowning misfortune and VIII
liam, Duke of Normandy, was train
ing himself, through many tolls and
privations, for the great work
which he was SO soon to undertake
and accomplish, in the conquest Of
England by the Norman arms. AT
a period so comparatively late, there
could not have been any dearth Of
absolute records of all the affairs in.
volved, touching, As they did, the
welfare Of the whole Scottish mon
archy, consolidated into one, and
made strength in the succeeding
history of the world, by Kenneth IT.,
some two hundred years before.
Where, then, are those records !? and
why can not they be authoritatively
referred to, as can those of England
or France at corresponding period I
The answer is to be found in the mel.
ancholy quarrel between Bruce and
Balliol, the intervention of Edward
4 Of England, and the burning BY
that monarch Of. most Of the record.
Of the kingdom, which he believed
that be e had reduced to 70 be thencefortl
~ province Of his own. Fortunately