It is fcarcely worth mentioning, that two or three more Latin paffages, which are met with in our. author, are immediately tranfcribed from the ftory or chronicle before him. Thus in Henry V. whofe right to the kingdom of France is copioufly demonftrated by the Archbishop:

“To make against your highnefs' claim to France,
"But this which they produce from Pharamond:
"In terram Saliçam mulieres nè fuccedant;
"No woman fhall fucceed in Salike land:
"Which Salike land the French unjustly gloze
"To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.

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"Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,

That the land Salike lies in Germany,

Between the floods of Sala and of Elve," &c. Archbishop Chichelie, fays Holinfhed, "did much inucie against the furmifed and falfe fained law Salike, which the Frenchmen alledge euer against the kings of England in barre of their juft title to the crowne of France. The very words of that fuppofed law are thefe, In terram Salicam mulieres nè fuccedant, that is to faie, Into the Salike land let not women fucceed; which the French gloffers expound to be the realm of France, and that this law was made by King Pharamond: whereas yet their owne authors affirme, that the land Salike is in Germanie, 'betweene the rivers of Elbe and Sala," &c. p. 545.

It hath lately been repeated from Mr. Guthrie's Effay upon English Tragedy, that the portrait of Macbeth's wife is copied from Buchanan, "whofe fpirit, as well as words, is tranflated into the play of Shakspeare: and it had fignified nothing to have VOL. II.

X

pored only on Holinfhed for facts."-" Animus etiam, per fe ferox, prope quotidianis conviciis uxoris (quæ omnium confiliorum ei erat conscia) ftimulabatur."-This is the whole, that Buchanan fays of the lady, and truly I fee no more fpirit in the Scotch, than in the English chronicler. "The wordes of the three weird fifters alfo greatly encouraged him, [to the murder of Duncan] but fpecially his wife lay fore upon him to attempt the thing, as fhe that was very ambitious, brenning in unquenchable defire to beare the name of a queene.” Edit. 1577. p. 244.

This part of Holinfhed is an abridgement of Johne Bellenden's tranflation of the noble clerk, Hector Boece, imprinted at Edinburgh, in fol. 1541. I will give the paffage at it is found there. "His wyfe impacient of lang tary (as all wemen ar) fpecially quhare they ar defirus of ony purpos, gaif hym gret artation to purfew the third weird, that fche micht be ane quene, calland hym oft tymis febyl cowart and nocht defyrus of honouris, fen he durft not affailze the thing with manheid and curage, quhilk is offerit to hym be beniuolence of fortoun. Howbeit findry otheris hes affailzeit fic thinges a fore with maist terribyl jeopardyis, quhen they had not fic fickernes to fucceid in the end of thair lauboris as he had." P. 173.

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But we can demonftrate, that Shakspeare had not the ftory from Buchanan. According to him, the weird-fifters falute Macbeth, "Una Angufiæ Thamum, altera Moraviæ, tertia regem.' --Thane of Angus, and of Murray, &c. but according to Holinfhed, immediately from Bellenden, as it ftands in Shakspeare: "The firft of them spake and fayde,

All hayle Makbeth, thane of Glammis,-the fecond of them said, Hayle Makbeth, thane of Cawder; but the third fayde, All hayle Makbeth, that hereafter fhall be king of Scotland." P. 243.

1. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis !

2. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!

"3. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that fhalt be king here

after!

Here too our poet found the equivocal predictions, on which his hero fo fatally depended. He had learned of certain wyfards, how that he ought to take heede of Macduffe ;--and furely hereupon had he put Macduffe to death, but a certaine witch whom he had in great truft, had tolde, that he fhould neuer be flain with man born of any woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the caftell of Dunfinane." P. 244. And the scene between Malcolm and Macduff in the fourth act is almoft literally taken from the Chronicle.

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Macbeth was certainly one of Shakspeare's latest productions, and it might poffibly have been fuggefted to him by a little performance on the fame fubject at Oxford, before King James, 1605. will transcribe my notice of it from Wake's Rex Platonicus: "Fabulæ anfam dedit antiqua de Regiâ profapiâ hiftoriola apud Scoto-Britannos celebrata, quæ narrat tres olim Sibyllas occurriffe duobus Scotia proceribus, Macbetho & Banchoni, & illum prædixiffe Regem futurum, fed Regem nullum geniturum; hunc Regem non futurum, fed Reges geniturum multos. Vaticinii veritatem rerum

eventus comprobavit. Banchonis enim è ftirpe potentiffimus Jacobus oriundus." P. 29.

A ftronger argument hath been brought from the plot of Hamlet. Dr. Grey and Mr. Whalley affure us, that for this, Shakspeare must have read Saxo Grammaticus in Latin, for no tranflation hath been made into any modern language. But the truth is, he did not take it from Saxo at all; a novel called The Hyftorie of Hamblet, was his original: a fragment of which, in black letter, I have been favoured with by a very curious and intelligent gentleman, to whom the lovers of Shakspeare will fome time or other owe great obligations.

It hath indeed been faid, that "IF fuch an hiftory exifts, it is almoft impoffible that any poet unacquainted with the Latin language (fuppofing his perceptive faculties to have been ever fo acute,) could have caught the characteristical madness of Hamlet, defcribed by Saxo Grammaticus' fo happily as it is delineated by Shakspeare.

Very luckily, our fragment gives us a part of Hamlet's fpeech to his mother, which fufficiently replies to this obfervation:-"It was not without caufe, and jufte occafion, that my geftures, countenances and words feeme to proceed from a madmán, and that I defire to haue all men efteème mee wholy depriued of fence and reasonable underftanding, bycause I am well affured, that he that hath

7 Falfitatis enim (Hamlethus) alienus haberi cupidus, ita aftutiam veriloquio permifcebat, ut nec dictis veracitas deeffet, nec acuminis modus verorum judicio proderetur." This is quoted, as it had been before, in Mr. Guthrie's Effay on Tragedy, with a fmall variation from the Original. See edit. fol. 1644. p. 50.

made no confcience to kill his owne brother, (ac-
cuftomed to murthers, and allured with defire of
gouernement without controll in his treafons,) will
not spare to faue himselfe with the like crueltie, in
the blood, and flesh of the loyns of his brother, by
him maffacred: and therefore it is better for me
to fayne madneffe then to use my right fences as
nature hath bestowed them upon me.
The bright
fhining clearnes therof I am forced to hide vnder
this fhadow of diffimulation, as the fun doth hir
beams vnder fome great cloud, when the wether in
fummer time ouercafteth: the face of a mad man,
ferueth to couer my gallant countenance, and the
geftures of a fool are fit for me, to the end that
guiding my felf wifely therin I may preferue my
life for the Danes and the memory of my late de-
ceafed father, for that the defire of reuenging his
death is fo ingrauen in my heart, that if I dye not
fhortly, I hope to take fuch and fo great vengeance,
that these countryes fhall for euer fpeake thereof.
Neuertheless I muft ftay the time, meanes, and
occafion, left by making ouer great haft, I be now
the cause of mine own fodaine ruine and ouer-
throw, and by that meanes, end, before I beginne
to effect my hearts defire: hee that hath to doe with
a wicked, difloyall, cruell, and difcourteous man,
muft vse craft, and politike inuentions, fuch as fine
witte can beft imagine, not to discouer his inter-
prife: for feeing that by force I cannot affect my
defire, reafon alloweth me by diffimulation,. fub-
tiltie, and fecret practises to proceed therein."

But to put the matter out of all queflion, my communicative friend, above-mentioned, Mr. Capell, (for why fhould I not give myfelf the credit