The Sun. — 1829-12-12 (London, England)

PART, HISTORY-SCOTLAND-BY SIR WALTER SCOTT  Malcolm died peaceably in 1033, and was succeeded by "The gracious Duncan," the same who fell by the ponial d of Macbeth. On reading these names every reader must feel as if brought from darkness into the blaze of noonday ; so familiar are we with the personages whom we last named, and so clearly and distinctly we recall the events in which they are int erested, in comparison with any doubtful and misty views which we can form of the twilight times before and after that fortunate period. But we must not be blinded by our poetical enthusiasm, nor add more than due importance to legends, because they have been woven into the most striking tale of ambition and remorse that ever struck awe into a human bosom. The genius of Shakspeare having found the tale of Macbeth in the Scottish Chronicles of Hollins-, bed, adorned it with a lustre similar to that with which a level beam of the sun often invests some fragment of glass, which, though shining at a 'distance with the lustre of a diamond, is by a near investigation discovered to be of no worth or estimation.  Duncan, by his mother Beatrice, a grandson of Malcolm 11., succeeded to the throne on his grandfather's death, in 1033 ; he reigned only six years. Macbeth, his near relation, also a grandchild of Malcolm 11., though by the mother's side, was stirred up by ambition to co►►test the throne with the possessor. The lady of Macbeth also, whose real name was Graoch, had deadly injuries to avenge, on the reigning Prince. She was the grand-daugher of Kenneth IV., killed in 1003, fighting against Malcolm 11. ; and other causes for revenge animated the mind of her who has been since painted as the sternest of women. The old sm4alist add some instigations of a supernatural kind to the influence of a vindictive woman over an ambitious husband. Three women, of more than human stature and beauty, appeared to Macbeth in a dream, or vision, and hailed him successively by the titles of Thane of Cromarty, Thane of Moray, which the King afterwards bestowed on him, and finally by that of King of Scots ; this dream, it 1; said, inspired him with the seductive hopes o well expressed in the drama. Macbeth broke no law of hospitality in his attempt on Duncan's life. He attacked and ble w the king at a place called Bothgowan, or the Smith's House, near Elgin, in 1039, and not, as has been supposed, in his own castle of Inverness. The act was bloody, as was the complexion of the times ; but in v y truth, the claim of Macbeth to the throne, i.,:cording to the rule of Scottish succession►, was bet ter than that of Duncan. As a king, the tyrant so much exclaimed against was, in reality, a firm, just, and equitable prince. Apprehensions of danger from a party which Malcolm, the eldest son of the slaughtered Duncan, had set on foot in Northumberland, and still maintained in Scotland, seems in. process of time,  to have soured the tember of Macbeth, and rendered bim formidable to his nobility. Against MacdufF, in particular, the powerful Maormor of Fife, he had uttered some threats which occa• sioned that chief to fly from the Court of Scotia nd. Urged by this new counsellor, Siward, the Danish Earl of Northumberland, invaded Scotland in the year 1054, displaying his banner in behalf of the banished Malcolm. Macbeth engaged the foe in the neighbourhood of his celebrated castle of Dunsinane. He was defeated, but escaped horn the battle, and was slain at Lumpkauanan in 1056. Very slight observation will enable us to re' collect how much this simple statement differs from that of the drama, though the plot of the latter is consistent enough with the inaccurate historians from whom Shakspeare drew his materials. It might be added, that early authorities shew us no such persons as Banquo and his son Fleance, nor have we reason to think that the latter ever fled further from Macbeth than across the flat scene, according to the stage direction. Neither were Banquo or his son ancestors of the house of Stuart.  All these things are now known ; but the mind retains pertinaciously the impression made by the impositions of genius. While the works of Shakspeare are read, and the English language subsists, History may say what she will, but the general reader will only recollect Macbeth as a sacrilegious usurper, and Richard as a deformed murderer.  Macbeth left a son, named Luach, which is translated fat:rus, or the simple. After a few months' struggle, he was defeated and slain at Essic, in Strath-Bogic.