Duncan, King of Scotland: Donalbain, } his sons. Macbeth,} Generals of the King's army. Banquo, Macduff, Lenox, Rosse, Menteth, Lady Mac Lady Maid. Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth. Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers. The ghost of Banquo, and several other Apparitions. SCENE, in the end of the fourth act, lies in Englana; through the rest of the play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's castle. OBSERVATIONS ON THE FABLE AND COMPOSITION OF MACBETH. In order to make a true estimate of the abilities and merit of a writer, it is always necessary to examine the genius of his age, and the opinions of his contemporaries. A poet who shall now make the whole action of his tragedy depend upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by the assistance of supernatural agents, would be censured as transgressing the bounds of probability, be banished from the theatre to the nursery, and condemned to write fairy tales instead of tragedies; but a survey of the notions that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that Shakspeare was in no danger of such censures, since he only turned the system that was then universally admitted, to his advantage, and was far from overburdening the credulity of his audience. The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not strictly the same, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in most, by the learned themselves. The phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently, in proportion as the darkness of ignorance has been more gross; but it cannot be shown, that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been sufficient to drive them out of the world. The time in which this kind of credulity was at its height, seems to have been that of the holy war, in which the Christians imputed all their defeats to enchantments or diabolical b VOL. III |