has no bursts and swells of pathos, no outpours of tenderness, no sweet dews of hapless love. Lacking these, it lacks charm. The characters on whom the interest is concentrated are not the innocent sufferers, but the guilty workers of woe, and, if not outcasts from our sympathy in the woe they thereby bring upon themselves, they are far from making any demands upon our affection. Macbeth stands alone among Shakespeare's great productions as a picture of crime and retribution unrelieved by any softer features. Like some awful Alpine peak, girdled with glaciers and abysses, with no glimpses of flower-bespangled vales and pastures.-KIRKE, Atlantic Monthly, April, 1895. SIWARD, earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers SCENE: Scotland; England SYNOPSIS By J. ELLIS BURDICK ACT I The Thane of Cawdor, who has rebelled against his king, Duncan of Scotland, is defeated by Macbeth and Banquo, two Scottish generals. Three witches meet the victorious generals on their return from the battle and greet Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and he that shall be king of Scotland hereafter. To Banquo they promise that he shall be the father of kings, though he be not one himself. While Macbeth is still talking of these prophecies, messengers arrive from Duncan and address him by the king's order, and as a reward for his services, as Thane of Cawdor. As Macbeth is already Thane of Glamis, he begins to hope that he may one day be king of Scotland. He tells his desire to his wife and she plots the murder of Duncan, who comes on a visit to their castle. ACT II Macbeth, assisted by his wife, murders Duncan, laying the crime on the king's drunken guard. Malcolm and Donalbain, Duncan's sons, flee, the former to England and the latter to Ireland, and therefore they are believed to have suborned the servants to do the deed. Macbeth, as the next heir, is crowned king of Scotland at Scone. ACT III The three prophecies have been fulfilled for Macbeth and now he fears that what was promised Banquo may also come true, and that for Banquo's children has he mur |