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1 Witch. Where the place?

2 Witch. Upon the heath.

3 Witch. There I go to meet Macbeth.

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 molt by the learned themfelves. Thefe phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently, in proportion as the darknefs of ignorante has been more grofs; but it cannot be fhewn, 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 enchantinents or diabolical oppofition, as they afcribed their fuccefs to the affiance of their military faints; and the learned Dr. WarBurton af pears to believe (Suppl. to the Introduet on to Don Quixote) that the first accounts of enchant nents were brought into this part of the world by thofe

who returned from their caltern expeditions. But there is always fome diftance between the birth and maturity of folly as of wickdnefs this opinion had long exifled, though perhaps the application of it had in no foregoing age been fo frequent, nor

1 Witch.

the reception fo general. Olym piodorus, in Photius's extracts, tells us of one Libanius, who practifed this kind of military magic, and having promifed χώρις ὁπλιτῶν κατὰ βαρβάρων ἐνερ yev, to perform great things against the barbarians without feldiers, was, at the inftances of the Emperefs Placidia, put to Death, when he was about to have given proofs of his abilities. The Emperefs 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 exhi bits 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 horror, the engines of deftruction, and the arts of flaughter. Aro de ἔτι παρὰ τοῖς ἐναντίοις καὶ σπετομέ τες ίππες διά τινος μαγγανείας, καὶ ὁπλίτας δι μέζες φερομένες, καὶ πάτ την γοητείας δύναμιν καὶ ἰδέαν. Let him then proceed to show bim in the oppofite armies borjes flying by enchantment, armed men tranfported through the air, and every power and form of magic. Whether St. Chryfoftom believed that fuch performances were really to be feen in a day of battle, or only endeavoured to enliven his

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i Witch. I come, I come, Grimalkin.-
2 Witch. Padocke calls-anon!

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 tho' 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 remark. able trial of the witches of Warbois, whofe conviction is fill commemorated in an annual fermon at Huntingdon. But in the reign of King James, in which this tragedy was written, many circumftances 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 used by them, the manner of detecting them, and the juftice of punishing them, in his Dialogues of Demonologie, written in the Scottif dialect, and published at Edinburgh. This book was, foon

Al

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 Demonologie was immediately adopted by all who defired either to gain preferment or not to lofe it. Thus the doctrine of witchcraft was very powerfully incul cated; and as the greatest part of mankind have no other reafon are in fashion, it cannot be for their opinions than that they 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

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perfon fhall ufe any invocation "or conjuration of any evil or "wicked fpirit; 2. or shall con "fult, 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,

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or the fkin, bone, or any part of the dead perfon, to be employed or ufed in any man"ner of witchcraft, forcery, "charm, or enchantment; 4. "or fhall ufe, practife or exercife

any fort of witchcraft, forcery, charm, or enchantment; 5. whereby any perfon fhall "be deftroyed, killed, waited,

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confumed, pined, or lamed "in any part of the body; Bb 2 6. That

2

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[They rife from the ftage and fly away.

SCENE II.

Changes to the Palace at Foris.

Enter King, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lenox, with at tendants, meeting a bleeding Captain.

King. W

HAT bloody man is that? he can report,
As feemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

Mal. This is the Serjeant,

Who like a good and hardy foldier fought 'Gainft my captivity. Hail, brave friend!

6. That every fuch perfon being convicted fhall fuffer "death." This law was repealed in our time.

Thus, in the time of ShakeSpear, was the doctrine of witchcraft at once eftablished 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 bifhop Hall mentions a village in Lancashire, where their number was greater than that of the houses. The -jefuits and fectaries took advantage of this universal error, and endeavoured to promote the intereft of their parties by pretended cures of perfons afflicted by evil spirits; but they were deZ

tected and exposed by the clergy of the established church.

Upon this general infatuation Shakespeare might be easily allowed to found a play, especially fince he has followed with great exactness fuch hiftories as were then thought true; nor can it be doubted that the fcenes of enchantment, however they may now be ridiculed, were both by himself and his audience thought awful and affecting.

2 Fair is foul, and foul is fair.] i. e. We make these fudden changes of the weather. And Macbeth, fpeaking of this day, foon after fays,

So foul and fair a day I have not feen. WARBURTON. I believe the meaning is, that to us, perverfe and malignant as we-are, fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Say

1

Say to the King the knowledge of the broil,
As thou didst leave it.

Cap. Doubtful long it stood,

As two spent swimmers that do cling together,
And choak their Art. The merciless Macdonal,
Worthy to be a Rebel; for to That
The multiplying villanies of nature

Do fwarm upon him, from the western isles
Of Kernes and Gallow-glaffes was fupply'd;
+ And fortune on his damned quarrel fmiling,
Shew'd like a rebel's whore. But all too weak;
For brave Macbeth, well he deferves that nanie,
Difdaining fortune, with his brandifht fteel,
Which finoak'd with bloody execution,

Lik Valour's Minion carved out his paffage,
'Till he fac'd the flave;

Who ne'er shook hands nor bid farewel to him, 'Till he unfeam'd him from the nave to th' chops, And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

3

--from the western ifles Of Kernes and Gallow-glaffes was fupply'd; ] Whether Supplied of, for Jupplied from or with, was a kind of Grecifm of Shakespear's expreffion; or whether of be a corruption of the editors, who took Kernes and Gallow-glaffes, which were only light and heavy armed Foot, to be the names of two of the weftern islands, I don't know. Hinc conjectura vigorem etiam adjiciunt arma quædam Hibernica, Gallicis antiquis fimilia, jacula nimirùm ·peditum levis armaturæ quos Ker3 nos vocant, nec non fecures lo

rica ferrea peditum illorum gravioris armaturæ, quos Galloglaffos appellant. Warai Antiq. Hiber. cap. 6. WARBURTON.

King.

4 In former editions:
And fortune on his damned

quarry Smiling.] Quarrel was formerly ufed for caufe, or for the occafion of a quarrel, and is to be found in that fenfe in Halling bead's account of the story of Macbeth, who, upon the creation of the prince of Cumberland, thought, says the histo rian, that he had a just quarrel to endeavour after the Crown. The fenfe therefore is, Fortune Jmiling on his execrable caufe, &c. Thisisfollowed by Dr.Warburton. 5 he unfeamed bim from the

nave to th' chops,] We feldom hear of fuch terrible cross blows given and received but by giants and mifcreants in Amadis de Gaule. Besides, it must be a Bb 3 strange

6

King. Oh, valiant Coufin! worthy Gentleman! Cap. As whence the fun 'gins his reflection, Shipwrecking ftorms and direful thunders break; So from that Spring, whence Comfort feem'd to come, Dif

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he unfeam'd him from the nape to the chops,

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-a jout death

Cars'd as bis life.

WARBURTON. As whence the fun 'GINS his

reflection,] Here are two readings in the copies, gives, and 'gins, i. e. begins. But the latter I think is the right, as founded on obfervation, that ftorms generally come from the eat. As from the place, fays he, whence the fun begins bis courfe, (viz. the east) shipwrecking forms proceed,

i. e. cut his skull in two; which might be done by a Highlander's fword. This was a reafonable blow, and very naturally expreffed, on fuppofing it given when the head of the wearied combatant was reclining downwards at the latter end of a long duel. For the nape is the hinder part of the neck, where the vero, Sc. For the natural and tebre join to the bone of the conftant motion of the ocean is kull. So in Coriolanus, from east to wcft; and the wind has the fame general direction. Præcipua generalis [ventorum] caufa eft ipfe Sol qui aërem rarefacit attenuat. Aër enim rarefactus multo majorem locum poftulat.

O! that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks. The word unfeamed, likewife, becomes very proper; and alludes to the future which goes crofs the crown of the head in that direction called the Jutura fagittalis; and which, confequently, must be opened by fuch a ftroke. It is remarkable, that Milton, who in his youth read and imitated our poet much, particularly in his Comus, was miled by this corrupt reading. For in the manufcript of that poem in Trinity-College Library, the following lines are read thus, Or drag him by the curles, and cleave his fcalpe Down to the hippes.

Inde fit ut Aër à fole impulfus alium vicinum aërem magno impetu protrudat ; cumque Sol ab Oriente in occidentem circumrotetur, præcipuus ab eo aëris impulfus het verfus occidentem. Varenii Geogr. l. 1. c. 14. prop. 10. See also Doctor Halley's Account of the Trade Winds of the Monfoens. This being fo, it is no wonder that forms fhould come moft frequently from that quarter; or that they should be most -violent, because there is a concurrence of the natural motions An evident imitation of this cor- of wind and wave. This proves

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