Makduff wyth hym hand in hand.

Dis Kyng Edward of Ingland

F 133 a Gawe hym hys Lewe, and hys gud wyll,

34.5

And past oure Forth, doun strawcht to Tay,

Wp pat Wattyre pe hey way

To pe Brynnane to-gyddyr hále.

Dare þai båd, and tvk cownsale.
Syne pai herd, pat Makbeth aye
In fantown Fretis had gret Fay,
And trowth had in swylk Fantasy,
Be þat he trowyd stedfastly,
Nevyre dyscumfyt for to be,
Qwhill wyth hys Eyne he suld se
De Wode browcht of Brynnane
To be hill of Dwnsynane.

Of pat Wode [pare] ilka man
In-til hys hand a busk tuk þan:
Of all hys Ost wes ná man fré,
Dan in his hand a busk bare he:

And til Dwnsynane alsa fast
Agayne pis Makbeth þai past,
For pai thowcht wytht swylk a wyle
Dis Makbeth for til begyle.

360

365

370

875

L. 357.] The word "doun," taken in here from the Cotton MS.instead of "syne" in the Royal, affords us a tolerable plan of the route of Malcolm and his Northumbrian allies; which, as far as Perth, seems to be the same that Agricola, and all the other invaders of Scotland after him, have pursued. After passing the Forth, probably at the first ford above Stirling, they marched down the coast of Fife, no doubt taking Kennauchy, the seat of Macduff, in their way, where they would be joined by the forces of Fife: thence they proceeded, gathering strength as they went, attended and supported (like Agricola) by the shipping, which the Northumbrians of that age had in abundance, ["valida classé," says Sim. Dun.col. 187, describing this expedition,] and turned west along the north coast of Fife, the shipping being then stationed in the river and firth of Tay. Macbeth appears to have retreated before them to the north part of the kingdom, where, probably, his interest was strongest. D. MACPHERSON.

Makbeth turnyd hym agayne,

And sayd, Lurdane, pow prykys in wayne,

390

For pow may noucht be he, I trowe,

'Dat to dede sall sla me nowe.

De Knycht sayd, I wes nevyr borne ;

F 153 b Bot of my Modyre Wáme wes schorne.

Now sall pi Tresowne here tak end;

For to pi Fadyre I sall þé send.'

Dus Makbeth slwe þai pan

In-to pe Wode of Lunfanan :

And þat wyth pame frá þine pai bare

And his Hewyd pai strak off pare;

Til Kynkardyn, quhare pe Kyng

Tylle pare gayne-come made bydyng.

Of þat slawchter ar pire wers

In Latyne wryttyne to rehers;

395

400

405

Rex Macabeda decem Scotie septemque fit annis,

In cujus regno fertile tempus erat:

Hunc in Lunfanan truncavit morte crudeli
Duncani natus, nomine Malcolimus.

410

L. 398.] This appears to be historic truth. But Boyse thought it did not make so good a story, as that Macbeth should be slain by Macduff, whom he therefore works up to a proper temper of revenge, by previously sending Macbeth to murder his wife and children. All this has a very fine effect in romance, or upon the stage. D. MACPHERSON.

From the non-appearance of Banquo in this ancient and authentick Chronicle, it is evident that his character, and consequently that of Fleance, were the fictions of Hector Boece, who seems to have been more ambitious of furnishing picturesque incidents for the use of playwrights, than of exhibiting sober facts on which historians could rely. The phantoms of a dream,* in the present instance, he has embodied, and

gives to airy nothing

"A local habitation and a name.'

Nor is he solicitous only to reinforce creation. In thinning the ranks of it he is equally expert; for as often as lavish slaughters are necessary to his purpose, he has unscrupulously supplied them from his own imagination." I laud him," however, "I praise him," (as Falstaff says,) for the tragedy of Macbeth, perhaps, might not have been so successfully raised out of the less dramatick materials of his predecessor Wyntown. The want of such an essential agent as Banquo, indeed, could scarce have operated more disadvantageously in respect to Shakspeare, than it certainly has in regard to the royal object of his flattery; for, henceforward, what prop can be found for the pretended ancestry of James the First? or what plea for Isaac Wake's most courtly deduction from the supposed prophecy of the Weird Sisters?" Vaticinii veritatem rerum eventus comprobavit; Banquonis enim e stirpe potentissimus Jacobus oriundus." See Rex Platonicus, &c. 1605. STEEVens.

* Lord Hailes, on the contrary, in a note on his Annals of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 3, charges Buchanan with having softened the appearance of the Witches into a dream of the same tendency; whereas he has only brought this story back to the probability of its original, as related by Wyntown.

STEEVENS.

KING JOHN.*