The purpose of the following Essay is to demonstrate the existence of
a very important error in the hitherto universally adopted
interpretation of the character of Macbeth. We shall prove that _a
design of illegitimately obtaining the crown of Scotland had been
conceived by Macbeth, and that it had been communicated by him to his
wife, prior to his first meeting with the witches, who are commonly
supposed to have suggested that design_.
Most persons when they commence the study of the great Shaksperian
dramas, already entertain concerning them a set of traditional
notions, generally originated by the representations, or
misrepresentations, of the theatre, afterwards to become strengthened
or confirmed by desultory reading and corroborative criticism. With
this class of persons it was our misfortune to rank, when we first
entered upon the _study_ of "Macbeth," fully believing that, in the
character of the hero, Shakspere intended to represent a man whose
general rectitude of soul is drawn on to ruin by the temptations of
supernatural agents; temptations which have the effect of eliciting
his latent ambition, and of misdirecting that ambition when it has
been thus elicited.
As long as we continued under this idea, the impression produced upon
us by "Macbeth" came far short of that sense of complete satisfaction
which we were accustomed to receive from every other of the higher
works of Shakspere.
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