Duncan, King of Scotland: Malcolm, his Sons. Macbeth, } Generals of the King's army, Banquo, Macduff, Siward, Earl of Northumberland, General of the English forces: Young Siward, his Son. Seyton, an Officer attending on Macbeth. Son to Macduff. An English Doctor. A Scotch Doctor. A Soldier. A Porter. An old Man. Lady Macbeth. Lady Macduff. Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth. Hecate, and three Witches. Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Meffengers. The Ghoft of Banquo, and several 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 caftle. MACBETH'. ACT I. SCENE I. An open place. Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches 2. 1. Witch. When fhall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 2. Witch. 1 Malcolm II. king of Scotland, had two daughters. The eldest was married to Crynin, the father of Duncan, Thane of the Ifles, and western parts of Scotland; and on the death of Malcolm, without male iffue, Duncan fucceeded to the throne. Malcolm's fecond daughter was married to Sinel, Thane of Glamis, the father of Macbeth. Duncan, who married the daughter of Siward, Earl of Northumberland, was murdered by his coulin germain, Macbeth, in the caftle of Inverness, according to Buchanan, in the year 1040; according to Hector Boethius, in 1945. Boethius, whofe hiftory of Scotland was firft printed in feventeen books, at Paris, in 1526, thus defcribes the event which forms the bafis of the tragedy before us: "Makbeth, be perfuafion of his wyfe, gaderit his friendis to ane counfall at Invernes, quhare kyng Duncane happennit to be for ye tyme. And because he fand fufficient opportunitie, be fupport of Banqubo and otheris his friendis, he flew kyng Duncane, the vii zeir of his regne." After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth" come with ane gret power to Scone, and tuk the crowne." Chroniclis of Scotland, tranflated by John Bellenden, folio, 1541. Macbeth was himself flain by Macduff in the year 1061, according to Boethius; according to Buchanan, in 1057; at which time King Edward the Confeffor poffeffed the throne of England. Holinfhed copied the hiftory 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 fome of the king's revenues, which he had collected, and being dangerously wounded in the affray, the perfons concerned in this outrage were fummoned to appear at a certain day. But they flew the ferjeant at arms who fummoned them, and chofe one MACDOWALD as their captain. Macdowald fpeedily collected a confiderable body of $ 3 forces 2. Witch. When the hurly-burly's done, When the battle's loft and won 3: 3. Witch. 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, firft 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 last year of Duncan's reign, Sueno king of Norway, landed a powerful army in Fife, for the purpofe of invading Scotland. Duncan immediately aflembled an army to oppofe him, and gave the command of two divifions of it to Macbeth and Banquo, putting himfe'f at the head of a third. Sueno was fuccefsful in one battle, but in a fecond was routed; and after a great flaughter 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 Mac. dowald and the invafion of Sueno, our author has woven thefe two actions together, and immediately after Sueno's defeat the prefent play commences. It is remarkable that Buchanan has pointed out Macbeth's history as a fubject for the stage. Multa bic fabulofe quidam noftrorum affingunt; fed, quia theatris aut Milefiis fabulis funt aptiora quam biftoria, 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. I. MALONE. 2 Enter three Witches.] In order to make a true eftimate of the abi lities and merit of a writer, it is always neceffary to examine the genius of his age, and the opinions of his contemporaries. A poet who should now make the whole action of his tragedy depend upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by the affittance of fupernatural agents, would be cenfured as tranfgreffing the bounds of probability, be banished from the theatre to the nursery, and condemned to write fairy tales inftead of tragedies; but a furvey of the notions that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that Shakspeare was in no danger of such cenfures, fince he only turned the fyftem that was then univerfally 3 When the battle's loft and won :] i. e. the battle, in which Macbeth was then engaged. WARBURTON. 3. Witch. That will be ere the fet of fun. 1. Witcb. Where the place? 2. Witch. univerfally admitted, to his advantage, and was far from overburthening the credulity of his audience. The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not strictly the fame, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in moft, by the learned them. felves. The phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently, in proportion as the darkness of ignorance has been more grofs; but it cannot be shown, that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been fufficient to drive them out of the world. The time in which this kind of credulity was at its height, feems to have been that of the holy war, in which the Chriftians imputed all their defeats to enchantments or diabolical oppofition, as they afcribed their fuccefs to the affiftance of their military faints; and the learned Dr. Warburton appears to believe (Suppl. to the Introduction to Don Quixote) that the first accounts of enchantments were brought into this part of the world by thofe who returned from their eastern expeditions. But there is always fome diftance between the birth and maturity of folly as of wickednefs: this opinion had long exifted, though perhaps the application of it had in no foregoing age been fo frequent, nor the reception fo general. Olympiodorus, in Photius's extracts, tells us of one Libanius, who practifed this kind of military magick, and having promifed χώρις ὁπλιτῶν κατὰ EucCapoov Everyεiv, to perform great things against the Barbarians without foldiers, was, at the instances of the emprefs Placidia, put to death, when he was about to have given proofs of his abilities. The empress fhewed fome kindness in her anger, by cutting him off at a time fo convenient for his reputation. But a more remarkable proof of the antiquity of this notion may be found in St. Chryfoftom's book de Sacerdotio, which exhibits a fcene of enchantments not exceeded by any romance of the middle age: he fuppofes a fpectator overlooking a field of battle attended by one that points out all the various objects of horrour, the engines of deftruction, and the arts of laughter. Δεικνύτο δὲ ἔτι παρὰ τοῖς ἐναντίοις και πετομένες ίππες διά τικς μαγγανείας, καί ἱπλίτας δὲ ἀέος φερομένας, καὶ πάσαν γοητείας δύναμιν καὶ ἰδέαν. Let him then proceed to few bim in the oppo fite armies borfes flying by enchantment, armed men transported through the air, and every power and form of magick. Whether St. Chryfoftom believed that fuch performances were really to be feen in a day of battle, or only endeavoured to enliven his defcription, by adopting the notions of the vulgar, it is equally certain, that fuch notions were in his time received, and that therefore they were not imported from the Saracens in a later age; the wars with the Saracens however gave occafion to their propagation, not only as bigotry naturally difcovers prodigies, but as the fcene of action was removed to a great distance. $ 4 The 2. Witch. Upon the heath: 3. Witch. There to meet with Macbeth". 1.Witch. The Reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian, and though day was gradually encreafing upon us, the goblins of witchcraft ftill continued to hover in the twilight. In the time of queen Elizabeth was the remarkable trial of the witches of Warbois, whofe conviction is ftill commemorated in an annual fermon at Huntingdon. But in the reign of king James, in which this tragedy was written, many circumtances concurred to propagate and confirm this opinion. The king, who was much celebrated for his knowledge, had, before his arrival in England, not only examined in perfon a woman accused of witchcraft, but had given a very formal account of the practices and illufions of evil fpirits, the compacts of witches, the ceremonies ufed by them, the manner of detecting them, and the juftice of punishing them, in his dialogues of Damonologie, written in the Scottish dialect, and published at Edinburgh. This book was, foon after his acceffion, reprinted at London, and as the ready way to gain king James's favour was to flatter his fpeculations, the fyftem of Damonologie was immediately adopted by all who defired either to gain preferment or not to lofe it. Thus the doctrine of witchcraft was very powerfully inculcated; and as the greatest part of mankind have no other reafon for their opinions than that they are in fashion, it cannot be doubted but this perfuafion made a rapid progrefs, fince vanity and credulity co-operated in its favour. The infection foon reached the parliament, who, in the first year of king James, made a law, by which it was enacted, chap. xii. That "if any perfon fhall ufe any invocation or conjuration of any evil or wicked fpirit; 2. or fhall confult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any evil or curfed fpirit to or for any intent or purpofe; 3. or take up any dead man, woman, or child, out of the grave,-or the fkin, bone, or any part of the dead perfon, to be employed or used in any manner of witchcraft, forcery, charm, or enchantment; 4. or shall ufe, practise or exercise any fort of witchcraft, forcery, charm, or enchantment; 5. whereby any perfon fhall be deftroyed, killed, wafted, confumed, pined, or lamed in any part of the body; 6. That every fuch perfon being convicted fhall fuffer death." This law was repealed in our own time. Thus, in the time of Shakspeare, was the doctrine of witchcraft at once established by law and by the fashion, and it became not only unpolite, but criminal, to doubt it; and as prodigies are always feen in proportion as they are expected, witches were every day difcovered, and multiplied so fast in some places, that bishop Hall mentions a village in Lancashire, 4 There to meet with Macbeth.] There is here ufed as a diffyllable. MALONE |