I have said, in a former paragraph, that Macbeth had been guilty before, in _deeds_ as well as _thoughts_. Let any one read the scene between him and the two murderers and he will feel at once the conviction that Macbeth himself has been guilty of those oppressive cruelties which he there lays upon Banquo. “know That it was _he_, in the times past, _which held you_ _So under fortune; which you thought had been_ _Our innocent self_: this I made good to you In our last conference, past in probation with you; How _you were borne in hand_; how crost,” _etc._ And again, “are you so gospell’d To pray for this good man, and for his issue, Whose _heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave_, And _beggared yours forever_?” What dark tale of oppression is connected with these vague disclosures we cannot tell; but the character of Banquo acquits him of having been the tyrant. These men have been, in some way or other, so trampled on that they are both rendered desperate, and Macbeth, who _knows it so well_, and whom, it seems, they had always considered the cause of their misfortunes, is most likely so in reality. As to what I have said at the commencement of these papers respecting the want of a just appreciation of the poet on the part of his commentators—take Dr. Johnson, for example, on Macbeth. He begins with _a defence_ of the introduction of supernatural machinery into the tragedy. This proves _distrust_ of Shakspeare, as the transcendent genius he is now annually becoming in the estimation of every one. Hear the learned essayist descanting upon the dramatist as if he knew more of the art than the master. It is like the old Hungarian officer’s celebrated critique on Napoleon’s manœuvres. “In order,” says Johnson, “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 cotemporaries. A poet who should 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.”