Lady Macbeth is quite a small part really, though. I think we remember 'great' Lady Macbeths simply because there are so few big Shakespearian roles for women. And I think Shakespeare would have been surprised by the way the role has been approached, since he wrote it for a teenage boy. Really I think being an actress was a pretty ghastly job until recently: there were far fewer roles for them than for the men, and even fewer really strong parts.