ABSTRACT
Mrs. Siddons had played Lady Macbeth in the provincial theatres many years before she attempted the character in London. This chapter presents some remarks of Mrs. Siddons on the character of Lady Macbeth. It reflections are a combination, respectable in energy and strength of mind, and captivating in feminine loveliness, that could have composed a charm of such potency as to fascinate the mind of a hero so dauntless, a character so amiable, so honourable as Macbeth, - to seduce him to brave all the dangers of the present and all the terrors of a future world; and they are constrained, even whilst people abhor his crimes, to pity the infatuated victim of such a thraldom. Having impiously delivered herself up to the excitements of hell, the pitifulness of heaven itself is withdrawn from her, and she is abandoned to the guidance of the demons whom she has invoked.
