himself flain by Macduff in the year 1061, according to Boethius; according to Buchanan, in 1057; at which time King Edward the Confeffor polleffed the throne of England. Holinthed copied the biory of Boethius, and on Holinfhed's relation Shakspeare formed his play. In the reign of Duncan, Banquo having been plundered by the people of Lochaber of some of the king's revenues, which he had collected, and being dangeroully wounded in the affray, the perfons concerned in this outrage were fummoned to appear at a certain day. But they flew the fergeant at arms who fummoned them, and chofe one MACDOWALD as their captain. Macdowald speedily collected a coufiderable body of forces from Ireland and the Western Ifles, and in one action gained a victory over the king's army. In this battle Malcolm, a Scottish nobleman, who was (fays Boethius) "Lieutenant to Duncan in Lochaber, was flain. Afterwards Macbeth and Banquo were appointed to the command of the army; and Macdowald being obliged to take refuge in a caftle in Lochaber, first flew his wife and children, and then himself. Macbeth on entering the caftle finding his dead body, ordered his head to be cut off, and carried to the king, at the caftle of Bertha, and his body to be hung on a high tree. At a fubfequent period, in the laft year of Duncan's reign, Sueno king of Norway, landed powerful army in Fife, for the purpose of invading Scotland. Duncan immediately affembled an army to oppofe him, and gave the command of two divifions of it to Macbeth and Banquo, putting himself at the head of a third. Sueno was fuccefsful in one battle, but in a fecond was routed; and after a great laughter of his troops he escaped with ten perfons only, and fled back to Norway. Though there was an interval of time between the rebellion of Macdowald and the invafion of Sueno, our author has woven these two adions together, and immediately after Sueno's defeat the prefent play commences. Macbeth's history quidam noftrorum It is remarkable that Buchanan has pointed out as a fubje& for the ftage. "Multa hic fabulofe affingunt; fed, quia theatris aut Milefiis fabulis funt aptiora quam hiftoria, ea omitto. RERUM SCOT. HIST. L. VII. But there was no tranflation of Buchanan's work till after our author's death. This tragedy was written, I believe, in the year 1606. See the notes at the end; and An attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's. plays, Vol. II. MALONE. Fleance, Son to Banquo. Siward, Earl of Northumberland, General of the English forces: Young Siward, his Son. Seyton, an Officer attending on Macbeth. An English Dodor. A Scotch Doctor. A Soldier. A Porter. An old Man. Lady Macbeth.* Lady Macduff. Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth. Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, The Ghost of Banquo, and feveral other Apparitions. SCENE, in the end of the fourth act, lies in England; through the rest of the play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's castle. Lady Macbeth.] Her name was Gruach. See Lord Hailes's Annals of Scotland, II. 332. RITSON. 1 MACBETH. ACT I. SCENE I An open place. Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches. 1. WITCH. When fhall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 2. WITCH. When the hurlyburly's done,3 When the battle's loft and won:4 3 hurlyburly's] However mean this word may feem to modern ears, it came recommended to Shakspeare by the authority of Henry Peacham, who in the year 1577 published a book profeffing to treat of the ornaments of language. It is called the Garden of Eloquence, and has this paffage. "Onomatopeia, when we invent, devise, fayne, and make a name imitating the fownd of that it fignifyeth, as turliburly, for an uprore and tumultuous firre." HENDERSON. So, in a tranflation of Herodian, 12mo. 1635, p. 26: Again, p. 324 : there was a mighty hurlyburly in the campe," &c. great hurliburlies being in all parts of the empire," &c. REED. When the battle's loft and won:] i. e. the battle, in which Mabeth was then engaged. WARBURTON. Si, in King Richard III: while we reafon here, "A royal battle might be won and loft." So alfo Speed, fpeaking of the battle of Towton: "- by which only fratagem, as it was conftantly averred, the battle and day was loft and won." Chronicle, 161L, MALONE. 1 3. WITCH, That will be ere set of fun.5 1. WITCH. Where the place? 2. WITCH. Upon the heath: 3. WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth." reads ere fet of fun. ] The old copy unneceffarily and harshly ere the fet of fun. There to meet with Macbeth.] and, after him, other editors: There I go to meet Macbeth. STEEVENS. Mr. Pope, The infertion, however, feems to be injudicious. To meet with Macbeth was the final drift of all the witches in going to the heath, and not the particular bulinefs or motive of any one of them in diftinction from the reft; as the interpolated words, I go, in the mouth of the third witch, would moft certainly imply. Somewhat, however (as the verfe is evidently imperfed) mift have been left out by the tranfcriber or printer. Mr. Capell has therefore propofed to remedy this defect, by reading There to meet with brave Macbeth. But furely, to beings intent only on mifchief, a foldier's bravery in an honeft caufe, would have been no fubject of en comium. Mr. Malone (omitting all previous remarks, &c. on this paffage) affures us that - There is here ufed as a diffyllable." I with he had fupported his affertion by fome example. Those however who can speak the line thus regulated, and fuppofe they are reciting a verfe, may profit by the direction they have received. The pronoun "their," having two vowels together, may be fplit into two fyllables; but the adverb "there can only be ufed as a monofyllable, unless pronounced as if it were writen "the-re," a licence in which even Chaucer has not indulged himself. It was convenient for Shakspeare's introductory fcene, that his firft witch fhould appear uninftructed in her miflion. Had he not required information, the audience muft have remained ignorait of what it was neceffary for them to know. Her fpeeches therfore proceed in the form of interrogatories; but, all on a fudder, an anfwer is given to a queftion which had not been asked. Here feems to be a chasm which I fhall attempt to supply by the introdudion of a single pronoun, and by diftributing the hitherto mutilated line, among the three fpeakers: Diftin& replies have now been afforded to the three neceffary enquiries When-Where-and Whom the witches were to meet. Their conference receives no injury from my infertion and arrangement. On the contrary, the dialogue becomes more regular and confiftent, as each of the hags will now have spoken thrice, (a magical number) before they join in utterance of the concluding words which relate only to themfelves.-I fhould add, that, in the two prior inftances, it is alfo the fecond witch who furnishes decifive and material anfwers; and that I would give the words" I tome, Graymalkin!" to the third. By affiftance from fuch of our author's plays as had been published in quarto, we have often detected more important errors in the folio 1623, which, unluckily, fupplies the most ancient copy of Macbeth. STEEVENS. 7 Graymalkin! From a little black-letter book, entitled, Beware the Cat, 1584. I find it was permitted to a Witch to take on her a calles body nine times. Mr. Upton obferves, that,, to un derland this paffage, we thould fuppofe one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad. Again, in Newes from Scotland, &c. (a pamphlet of which the reader will find the entire title in a future note on this play): "Moreover the confeffed, that at the time when his majeftie was in Deamarke, fhee beeing accompanied with the parties before fpecially mentioned, tooke a cat and chriftened it, and afterward bound to each part of that cat the cheefeft parte of a dead man, and feveral joyntes of his bodie, and that in the night following the faid cat was convayed into the middeft of the fea by all thefe witches fayling in their riddles or cives as is aforefaid, and fo left the faid cat right before the towne of Leith in Scotland. This doone, there did arife fuch a tempeft in the fea, as a greater hath not bene ftene," &c. STEEVENS. 8 Paddock calls:-&c.] This, with the two following lines, is given in the folio to the three Witches. Some preceding edi tors have appropriated the first of them to the second Witch. According to the late Dr. Goldsmith, aud some other naturalifts, a frog is called a paddock in the North; as in the following inftance in Cefar and Pompey, by Chapman, 1607: -Paddoches; todes, and waterfnakes." |