The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-15
M.acRETH.

than shakespeare HSdNy Nilldlllj Nldo-
 beth. Under the spell of the great
 tragedian, we have all followed the
 story of the regicide, the usurper, the
 ruthless tyrant to the final entrance of
 MacDuff with the usurper's cursed
 head" on a pike. We are familiar with
 the confiding, venerable, hngly Duncan
 the ghost of Banquo is as real to us
 as 1t was to the diseased imagination
 of Macbeth, we forgive and sympathize
 with the demented queen as she means
 that all the perfumes of Arabia would
 not purge her hand from the "smell of
 blood" and we feel throb of satisfac-
 tion as the sword of MacDuff completes
 the work of retribution by ending the
 career of the tyrant, and yet by some
 strange perversity we regret that mod
 ern research proves that Macbeth was
 neither usurper nor tyrant, but just
 and able ruler, who in consonance with
 his time hesitated not to draw the
 sword either to get his Town or to hold
 it; and that his wife-a scion of that
 royal race that an eminent instructor
 recently traced to the royal line of Jul
 dah-was not goaded by ambition to
 deeds so interruptions, but on the con-
 trary was woman of piety, who did
 much for religion and learning.
 The family to which Macbeth be-
 longed first appears in written history in the person of his grandfather Ruaid-
 hri, Mormaer or petty king of the great province of Moray in northern Scot land. There is little known of Ruaid- hri, He left two Sons, Maelbrigdi and Finlaec, Maelbrigdi, who succeeded his father, was defeated and slain by the Norsemen about 9SO. He also left two sons, Maelcolaim and Gilcomgan. In accordance with the alternating rule of succession then in vogue among the Gaels and known as the law of Tanis try Maelbrigdi was succeeded by his brother Finlaec In 1920 Finlaec was by his nephews, Maelcolaim and Gilcomgan, who intended to con fine the normaership to themselves and families to the exclusion of Fin Iaec's son Maelbaethe
 At this time Malcolm II. was king of Scotland, and he had issue only two the elder was married to Cronan, abbot of Dunkeld and mor- maer of Athole, the other to Sigurd, the Earl of Orkney. The eld- est son of Cronan was Duncan. the only son of Sigurd by Malcolm's daugh- ter was Thorfin.
 The succession to the Scottish throne was by the same alternating law that guided that to the fnormaer- ships, and the collateral royal line was represented by boy and girl, the of King Kenneth Mac Duff. This girl-Gruoch by name-be- | ,ame the wife of Gilcomgan, who on the ieath of his brother Mailcolaim became | normaer of Moray: issue of this union | me son, Lulaoh;c The mormaership be- | onged by right to Maelbrathe, or, as he | s better known, Macbeth, the son of | Finlaec, and he succeeded both in ac- turing it and averaging the murder of | is father by having Gilcomgan and [ fifty of his followers surrounded and | ,urnt. Soon afterward he married | 1ruoch the widow of his cousin, and | .dopted her son Lulach. In the mean ime the King Malcolm, in order to lear the path to the throne for his fa- -orite grandson Duncan, caused the
 eath of Gruoch's brother: thus mak- hg Macbeth on account of his mar iage, the representative of the line of Kenneth MacDuff. MalcQlm died in O34, and in accordance with his plans Duncan ascended the Scottish throne. his prince was young, inexperienced nd totally unable to control the vari- us races he was called upon to rule. lis short reign of six years was a. sue ession of disastrous wars. eliminating l the great battle with his cousin 'hortin, fought in August, 104O, at 'urghead on the south shore of the Mo ay Firth. Tn this fight the Scottish orces were routed and Duncan was orne wounded from the field to the ut of a blacksmith. That night the young king was mur- cred, Macbeth undoubtedly being the lstigator if not the perpetrator of the eed. Duncan's widow, with her two oys, fled to her kinsman, Siward, the 'anish earl of Northumbria, and Mac eth assumed the sovereignty of Scot lnd.
 The burning of Gilcomgan and the filing of King Duncan were surely arbarous deeds, but Gilcomgan mur- cred Macbeth's father and meant to )b himself of his inheritance, and
 hile Duncan personally may have cen innocent. he was elevated to the lrone by the murder of Gruoch's rother; in both cases Macbeth or his Lmily were the first injured. That acbeth was not the tyrant he is rep
 scented to be is certain, St. Berchan fers to him. The liberal king will possess Fortrenn; 2 he red one was fair, yellow, tall easant was the youth to me; enteous was Alban east and west uring the reign of the fierce red one" And his hold upon the people of Sco- l either from his personal character 7
 from the hereditary claims of his !. fife is proved by the futility of an ef- Tt by Abbot Cronan in 1045 to place e heir of Duncan on the throne. In 30 Macbeth seems to have made a pill image to Rome. for we read of him3l en as freely distributing silver nong the poor of that city. For fourteen years-with the excep- % Aha.s |