Here the stage-direction of the folio is "Enter Hecat, and the other three Witches" but, beyond all doubt, it means nothing more than that Hecate joins the three Witches already on the stage. - Various dramas, written long after Macbeth, afford examples of stage-directions worded in the same unintelligible style. E. g. Cowley's Cutter of Coleman Street opens with a soliloquy by Trueman Junior: his father presently joins him, and the stage-direction is, “Enter Trueman Senior, AND TRUEMAN JUN." Again, the second act of that play commences with a soliloquy by Aurelia; and when Jane joins her we find "Enter AURELIA, Jane."

P. 46. (82)

"Music and song, 'Black spirits,' &c."

This song is found entire in Middleton's Witch, act v. sc. 2,-Works, vol. iii. p. 328, ed. Dyce. The two first lines of it (and whether or not more was introduced into Macbeth on our old stage is uncertain) are,

"Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray,

Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may !"

According to Steevens, "the song was, in all probability, a traditional one;" and Mr. Collier, more confidently, says, "Doubtless it does not belong to Middleton more than to Shakespeare; but it was inserted in both dramas because it was appropriate :" but qy ?-See note 69.

"Mr. Collier's annotator proposes to read 'bleaded corn; and, although the impropriety of the alteration has been clearly shown, Mr. Collier has not hesitated to substitute it for the genuine word. Had he turned to Chap. iv. Book i. of 'Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft,'-a work the poet was undoubtedly well read in,-he would have found, among other actions imputed to witches, that they can transferre corn in the blade from one place to another.' And from the article on Husbandry in Comenius, Janua Linguarum, 1673, he might have learned that 'As soon as standing corn shoots up to a blade, it is in danger of scathe by a tempest.'" STAUNTON.

So Theobald.-The folio has "Natures Germaine,"-with which compare its spelling in King Lear, act iii. sc. 2;

"Cracke Natures mould, all germaines spill at once

That makes ingratefull Man."—

(On the present passage a critic, quoted by Mr. Halliwell, has the following nonsensical remarks; "The lection of the ancient text has been modernly altered into germins, or seeds, to the annihilation of its true meaning, and the unspeakable depreciation of its force. Nature's german (or germaine, as it was formerly written) are nature's kindred, or those who stand in the relation of brotherhood to one another; that is, mankind in general. The treasure of nature's german is, therefore, the treasure, the best of the human race," &c. &c.)

"Rebellion's head, rise never,"

P. 48. (85) The folio has "Rebellious dead, rise neuer.”—Theobald printed "Rebellious head," &c.; i.e., he says, "let Rebellion never make head against me till," &c.—But Hanmer's reading, "Rebellion's head," &c. (which Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector also gives), is evidently the right one; though Capell (Notes, &c. vol. ii. P. iii. p. 22) gravely assures us that it "impairs harmony, and ruins poetry," &c. (In Richard II. act iii. sc. 2, the old eds., with the exception of the two earliest quartos, have the misprint "Shall falter vnder foule rebellious armes.")

“Read ‘your high-plac'd Macbeth.' See Walker's Crit. Exam, &c. Art. xlvi.” W. N. LETTSOM.

The modern alteration "air" certainly receives some support from a passage in The Winter's Tale, act v. sc. 1;

Here the two Ms. Correctors-Mr. Collier's and Mr. Singer's-alter "sights" to "flights;" and the same alteration occurred to Mr. Grant White (Shakespeare's Scholar, &c. p. 105).-" The Ms. Corrector proposes flights; and not without some show of reason. Macbeth has just been informed that Macduff has fled to England, and the escape has evidently discomposed him, as placing beyond his reach his most deadly enemy. Accordingly he is supposed by the Ms. Corrector to exclaim, 'No more flights! I must take care that no more of that party escape me.' But, on the other hand, Macbeth, a minute before, has been inveighing against the witches. He says,

'Infected be the air whereon they ride,

And damn'd all those that trust them!'

So that 'But no more sights' may mean, I will have no more dealings with these infernal hags [who have just been showing him a succession of sights, -apparitions; the last of which drew from him the exclamation, "Horrible sight!"]. The word 'But' seems to be out of place in connection with 'flights-and therefore we pronounce in favour of the old reading." Blackwood's Magazine for Oct. 1853, p. 461. In my opinion the word "But" makes not a little against the new lection.-1865. Mr. Grant White, in his edition of Shakespeare, prints "But no more sprites,"-most unhappily, I

think.

Hanmer prints "And do not know't ourselves;" and so Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector.

P. 53. (92)

"thou shag-hair'd villain !”

The folio has "thou shagge-ear'd Villaine,”—“ear'd" being a corruption of "hear'd," which is an old spelling of "hair'd:" so in King John the folio has "vn-heard" for "unhair'd;" see note 124, vol. iv. p. 96.-Of the many examples which might be adduced of "hear" for "hair," I subjoin, "But now in dust his beard bedaubd, his hear with blood is clonge."

Phaer's Virgil's Eneidos, Book ii, sig. C vii. ed. 1584. "We straight his burning hear gan shake, all trembling dead for dreede.” Id, sig. D v.

P. 53. (93)

"our down-fall'n birthdom :"

The folio has "our downfall Birthdome."

P. 54. (94)

"You may deserve of him through me; and wisdom
To offer up"

So Theobald.—The folio has "You may discerne of him," &c.—Hanmer prints

but I see no objection to “and wisdom," an elliptical expression for “and

it is wisdom."

"But I shall crave your pardon ;"

P. 54. (95) Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. i. p. 77) would read “But 'crave your pardon” (the earlier modern alteration being "I crave your pardon"); and, in the next speech of Malcolm, he would alter "I pray you" to "Pray you?" but the latter line seems to be faulty, not from the redundant "I,” but from the omission of some word or words.

66

"Corrected in the third folio [to 'dares']." MALONE.

The folio has "The title," &c.: but Malone's alteration of "The” to “Thy” is hardly to be doubted. Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector makes the same change.

66

Warburton reads "summer-teeming ;" Blackstone proposes summer-seeding;" and Mr. Staunton "summer-seaming.”

"Read 'Uproot."" W. N. LETTSOM.-I believe the old reading is right.

P. 56. (100) In my former edition I printed, with the folio, "Died every day she liv'd," at the bidding of Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 139), who, considering "Fare" to be used here as a dissyllable, observes, "Certainly not 'lired; Shakespeare would as soon have made 'died' a dissyllable." But the late Mr. W. W. Williams (see The Parthenon for Nov. 1, 1862, p. 849) has since shown that Walker is wrong, by the following quotation from Julius Caesar, act iii. sc. 1;

"Died every day she lived. Fare thee well!"

"Thou art the ruins of the noblest man

That ever lived in the tide of times."

The folio has "they heere approach."-Corrected in the second folio.

Has been altered, most improperly, to "All ready at a point."

P. 60. (103)

Perhaps ".

vol. ii. p. 15.

"Did you say all?-O hell-kite !—All ?"

O vulture! hell-kite! - All?" Walker's Crit. Exam, &c.

which I should have retained, under the idea that, since we have before had "heaven" used as a plural (see note 10, vol. iv. p. 184), we might here accept “heavens” as a singular,—were it not that in Macduff's preceding

speech we have “hearen look on” and “heaven rest them now," and at the conclusion of the present speech "Heaven forgive him too!"

The folio has "This time goes manly;" which is retained by Mr. Knight. "Gifford," he says, "has shown, in a note on Massinger, that the two words were once synonymous, in a musical acceptation; and that time was the more ancient and common term." Who, except Mr. Knight, will suppose that Gifford would have defended the reading "time" in such a passage as this?

"A misprint, probably, for 'Good God,” says Mr. Staunton, not being aware that such was Hanmer's reading.

P. 63. (107)

"He cannot buckle his distemper'd course"

So Walker (Crit. Exam, &c. vol. i. p. 302) and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector. -The folio has " his distemper'd cause," &c. (A critic in Blackwood's Magazine for Oct. 1853, p. 461, says that "'cause' fits the place perfectly well, if taken for his affairs generally, his whole system of procedure." But will the context allow us to take it in that sense?) The words "course" and "cause" are often confounded by printers: see note 162, vol. vi. p. 378.

P. 64. (108)

"This push

Will chair me ever, or dis-seat me now."

The folio has "Will cheere me euer, or dis-eate me now." (The second folio 66 —— or disease me now.")-That "cheere" is a mistake for "chaire," I should have felt confident, even if I had never known that the latter word was substituted both by Percy and by Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector. (Chair, in the sense of throne, was very common. So in our author's King Richard III. act v. sc. 3,

"A base foul stone, made precious by the foil
Of England's chair, where he is falsely set."

So too in Peele's David and Bethsabe,

"The man of Israel that hath rul'd as king,
Or rather as the tyrant of the land,
Bolstering his hateful head upon the throne
That God unworthily hath bless'd him with,
Shall now, I hope, lay it as low as hell,
And be depos'd from his detested chair."

Works, p. 478, ed. Dyce, 1861.)—

Mr. Halliwell, who retains the old reading "cheer," remarks (taking “push” in its literal sense) that "a push does not usually chair a person, though it may disseat him." Does Mr. Halliwell, then, think that "a push usually cheers a person"?