Macbeth reigned over Scotland from the year 1039 to 1056 -but what is all this to the purpose? The sternly magnificent creation of the poet stands before us independent of all these aids of fancy: she is Lady Macbeth as such she lives, she reigns, and is immortal in the world of imagination. She was the granddaughter of Kenneth the Fourth, killed in 1003, fighting against Malcolm the Second, the father of Duncan.
It appears that the real wife of Macbeth-she who lives only in the obscure record of an obscure age-bore the very unmusical appellation of Graoch, and was instigated to the murder of Duncan not only by ambition, but by motives of vengeance. I remember reading some critique, in which Lady Macbeth was styled the 'Scottish Queen' and methought the title, as applied to her, sounded like a vulgarism.
I doubt whether the epithet historical can properly apply to the character of Lady Macbeth for though the subject of the play be taken from history, we never think of her with any reference to historical associations, as we do with regard to Constance, Volumnia, Katherine of Arragon, and others. The following character study is reprinted from Shakespeare's Heroines.
