Duncan, King of Scotland. Malcolm, Donalbain, } Sons to the King. Fleance, Son to Banquo. Siward, General of the English forces, Young Siward, his fon. Seyton, an Officer attending on Macbeth, An English Doctor. A Scotch Doctor. A Captain. 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 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 caftle *. Of this play there is no edition more ancient than that of 1623, Moft of the notes which the prefent editor has fubjoined to this play, were published by him in a small pamphlet in 1745. JOHNSON. *I have taken a liberty with this tragedy, which might be practifed with almoft equal propriety in refpect of a few others; I mean, the retrenchment of fuch ftage-directions as are not fupplied by the oldest copy. Mr. Rowe had tricked out Macbeth, like many more of Shakespeare's plays, in all the foppery of the reign of queen Anne. Every change of fituation produced notice that the fcene lay in an anti-chamber, a royal apartment, or a palace; and even fome variations and starts of paffion were fet down in a man, ner no less oftentatious and unneceffary. STEEVENS, M A CBE T H. ACT I. SCENE I. Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches, 1 Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 2 Witch. * Enter three Witches.] In order to make a true estimate of the abilities 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 affistance of fupernatural agents, would be cenfured as tranfgreffing the bounds of probability, be banished from the theatre to the nurfery, and condemned to write fairy tales instead of tragedies; but a furvey of the notions that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that Shakespeare was in no danger of fuch cenfures, fince he only turned the fyftem that was then univerfally admitted, to his advantage, and was far from overburthening the credulity of his audience. The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not ftrictly the fame, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in most, by the learned themselves. The phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently, in proportion as the darknefs of ignorance has been more grofs; but it cannot be fhown, 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 ascribed their fuccefs to the affistance of their military faints; and the learned Dr. Warburton appears to believe (Suppl. to the Introduction to Don Quixote) that the firft accounts of enchantments were brought into this part of the world by those who returned from their eastern expeditions. But 2 Witch. When the hurly-burly's done, When the battle's loft and won: 3 Witch, But there is always fome diftance between the birth and maturity of folly as of wickednefs: this opinion had long existed, 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 magic, and having promifed χώρις ὁπλιτῶν κατὰ βαρβάρων ἐνεργεῖν, to perform great things against the Barbarians without foldiers, was, at the inftances 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 scene of enchantments not exceeded by any romance of the middle age: he fuppofes a spectator overlooking a field of battle attended by one that points out all the various objects of horror, the engines of destruction, and the arts of flaughter. Asinvúto de érţ παρὰ τοῖς ἐναντίοις καὶ πετομένες ἵππες διά τινος μαγγανείας, καὶ ὁπλίτας δι' αέρος φερομένες, καὶ πάσην γοητείας δύναμιν καὶ ἰδέαν. Let him then proceed to fhew him in the oppofite armies horfes flying by enchantment, armed men transported through the air, and every power and form of magic. Whether St. Chryfoftom believed that fuch performances were really to be seen 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. The Reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian, and though day was gradually encreafing upon us, the goblins of witchcraft still 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 circumstances concurred to propagate When the battle's loft and won: and i. e. the battle, in which Macbeth was then engaged. Thefe wayward fifters, as we may fee in a note on the third fcene of this act, were much concerned in battles. Ha nominantur Valkyria; quas quodvis ad prælium Odinus mittit, WARBURTON. C Witch. That will be ere th' set of fun. 2 Witch, and confirm this opinion. The king, who was much celebrated for his knowledge, had, before his arrival in England, not only examined in person a woman accused of witchcraft, but had given a very formal account of the practices and illufions of evil spirits, the compacts of witches, the ceremonies used by them, the manner of detecting them, and the juftice of punishing them, in his dialogues of Demonologie, 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 greateft 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 ufed in any manner of witchcraft, forcery, charm, or enchantment; 4. or fhall ufe, practise or exercife 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 Shakespeare, 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 fo faft in fome places, that bishop Hall mentions a village in Lancashire, where their number was greater than that of the houses. The jefuits and fectaries took advantage of this univerfal error, and endeavoured to promote the intereft of their parties by pretended cures of perfons afflicted by evil fpirits; but they were detected and expofed by the clergy of the established church. Upon this general infatuation Shakespeare might be eafily allowed to found a play, especially fince he has followed with great exactness 2 Witch. Upon the heath: 3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. I Witch. I come, Gray-malkin'! All. Paddock calls: Anon 4.-5 Fair is foul, and foul is fair : Hover through the fog and filthy air, SCENE exactnefs fuch hiftories as were then thought true; nor can it be doubted that the scenes of enchantment, however they may now be ridiculed, were both by himself and his audience thought awful and affecting. JOHNSON. 2 There to meet with Macbeth.] Thus the old copy. Mr. Pope, and after him other editors read: There I go to meet Macbeth. The infertion, however, feems to be injudicious. To meet with Macbeth was the general defign of all the witches in going to the heath, and not the particular bufinefs 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 most certainly imply. STEEVENS, 3 -Gray-malkin!. From a little black letter book, entitled, Beware the Cat, 1584, I find it was permitted to a Witch to take on her a cattes body nine times. Mr. Upton obferves, that to understand this paffage we fhould fuppofe one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad. STEEVENS. + Paddock calls: -Anon. -] This, as well as the two following lines, is given in the folio to the three Witches. Preceding editors have appropriated the first of them to the second Witch. According to the late Dr. Goldfmith, and fome other naturalifts, a frog is called a paddock in the North; as in the following instance in Caefar and Pompey, by Chapman, 1602: 66 Paddockes, todes, and waterfnakes." In Shakespeare, however, it certainly means a toad. The reprefentation of St. James in the witches' houfe (one of the fet of prints taken from the painter called Hellish Breugel, 1566) exhibits witches flying up and down the chimney on brooms; and before the fire fit grimalkin and paddock, i. e. a cat and a toad, with feveral baboons. There is a cauldron boiling, with a witch near it, cutting out the tongue of a fnake, as an ingredient for the charm. STEEVENS. 5 Fair is foul, and foul is fair:] |