Salvini closed his short visit to Edinburgh by a performance of _Macbeth_.

It was, perhaps, from a sentiment of local colour that he chose to play the Scottish usurper for the first time before Scotsmen; and the audience were not insensible of the privilege.

Few things, indeed, can move a stronger interest than to see a great creation taking shape for the first time.

If it is not purely artistic, the sentiment is surely human.

And the thought that you are before all the world, and have the start of so many others as eager as yourself, at least keeps you in a more unbearable suspense before the curtain rises, if it does not enhance the delight with which you follow the performance and see the actor 'bend up each corporal agent' to realise a masterpiece of a few hours' duration.