Chapter 35

——————————— "What are these,So wither'd, and so wild in their attire;That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aughtThat man may question? You seem to understand me,By each at once her choppy finger layingUpon her skinny lips:—Macb.Speak, I charge you.Banq.The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,And these are of them:—Whither are they vanish'd?Macb.Into the air; and what seem'd corporal, meltedAs breath into the wind."

——————————— "What are these,

So wither'd, and so wild in their attire;

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,

And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught

That man may question? You seem to understand me,

By each at once her choppy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips:—

Macb.Speak, I charge you.

Banq.The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,And these are of them:—Whither are they vanish'd?

Banq.The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them:—Whither are they vanish'd?

Macb.Into the air; and what seem'd corporal, meltedAs breath into the wind."

Macb.Into the air; and what seem'd corporal, melted

As breath into the wind."

Even when unattended by any human witnesses, when supporting the dialogue merely among themselves, Shakspeare has placed in the mouths of these agents imagery and diction of a cast so peculiar and mysterious, as to render them objects of alarm and fear, emotions incompatible with any tendency towards the ludicrous. But when, wheeling round the magic cauldron, in the gloomy recesses of their cave, they commence their incantations, chanting in tones wild and unearthly, and heard only during the intervals of a thunder-storm, their metrical charm, while flashes of subterranean fire obscurely light their haggard features, their language seems to breathe of hell, and we shrink back, as from beings at war with all that is good. Yet is the impression capable of augmentation, and is felt to have attained its acmé of sublimity and horror, when, in reply to the question of Macbeth,

"How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags?What is't you do?"

"How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags?

What is't you do?"

they reply,—

"A deed without a name."

Much, however, of the dread, solemnity, and awe which is experienced in reading this play, from the intervention of the witches, is lost in its representation on the stage, owing to the injudicious custom of bringing them too forward on the scene; where, appearing little better than a group of old women, the effect intended by the poet is not only destroyed, but reversed. Their dignity and grandeur must arise, as evil beings gifted with superhuman powers, from theundefined nature both of their agency and of their external forms. Were they indistinctly seen, though audible, at a distance, and, as it were, through a hazy twilight, celebrating their orgies, and with shadowy and gigantic shape flitting between the pale blue flames of their cauldron and the eager eye of the spectator, sufficient latitude would be given to the imagination, and the finest drama of our author would receive in the theatre that deep tone of supernatural horror with which it is felt to be so highly imbued in the solitude of the closet.

FOOTNOTES:

[419:A]Chalmers's Supplemental Apology, p. 357.

[420:A]Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 362."For he is but a bastard to the time,That doth not smack of observation," &c.

[420:A]Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 362.

"For he is but a bastard to the time,That doth not smack of observation," &c.

"For he is but a bastard to the time,

That doth not smack of observation," &c.

[420:B]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 413. Act iii. sc. 1.

[421:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. pp. 451. 454-456. Act iii. sc. 4.

[422:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 447. note 9.

[423:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 290.

[423:B]"Of all the characters of Shakspeare," remarks Mr. Felton, "none more resemble his best female advocate (Mrs. Montagu) than the Countess of Rousillon."—Imperfect Hints, part i. p. 65.

[424:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. pp. 248, 249. Act i. sc. 3.

[425:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. pp. 313. 315. Act iii. sc. 2.

[426:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. pp. 336. 338, 339. Act ii. sc. 2.

[427:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. pp. 341, 342. Act ii. sc. 2.

[427:B]Ibid. vol. xii. pp. 438-441. Act iv. sc. 1.

[428:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 456. note 5.

[428:B]Ibid. p. 366. et seq. Act iii. sc. 1.

[428:C]Ibid. p. 378. Act iii. sc. 3.

[428:D]Ibid. p. 404. et seq. 459. et seq.

[430:A]Supplemental Apology, p. 381.

[430:B]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 185.

[430:C]It is most probable that Shakspeare derived his materials from a version of Belleforest, who copied Bandello. The story forms the 22d tale of the first part of Bandello, and the 18th history of the 3d volume of Belleforest.

[431:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 182.

[431:B]Schlegel on Dramatic Literature, vol. ii. p. 166.

[434:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. pp. 43, 44. Act ii. sc. 1.

[434:B]Ibid. p. 59. Act ii. sc. 5.

[434:C]Ibid. p. 76, 77. Act ii. sc. 7.

[435:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 66.

[435:B]Epistle Dedicatory toThe Comical Gallant, 1702.

[435:C]Supplemental Apology, pp. 320. 345.

[435:D]Royal and Noble Authors, apud Park, vol. i. p. 82.

[436:A]Supplemental Apology, p. 345.

[437:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 127.

[438:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iii. p. 391.

[438:B]Ibid. vol. ii. p. 319.

[441:A]Life of Chaucer, vol. i. pp. 509-512. 8vo. edit.

[442:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. pp. 312. 316.

[442:B]Supplemental Apology, p. 446. et seq.

[443:A]The Works of Ben Jonson, by W. Gifford, Esq. 9 vols. 8vo. 1816. vol. i. p. cclxxii.

[444:A]MS. Harl. 7002.—Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 6.

[445:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 317.

[445:B]Reliq. Wotton. p. 425.

[445:C]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 312.

[446:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. p. 3.

[446:B]Ibid. vol. ii. pp. 355, 356.

[446:C]Ibid. vol. xix. p. 2.

[446:D]Supplemental Apology, p. 391.

[447:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 354.

[447:B]Supplemental Apology, p. 394.

[447:C]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. p. 214. note.

[449:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. pp. 125-127.

[449:B]I conceive that by "dangerous nature" in this passage, is meant a nature, from acute sensibility and sudden misfortune, liable to be overpowered, to be thrown off its poize, and to suffer from mental derangement.

[449:C]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. pp. 182, 183.

[451:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. pp. 159-165. Act iv. sc. 3.

[451:B]Ibid. vol. xix. p. 166.

[452:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xix. p. 179.

[452:B]Supplemental Apology, pp. 411, 412.

[454:A]History of Fiction, vol. ii. 1st edit. pp. 367, 368.—See Mr. Douce's enumeration of the sources whence the plot of this play might have been extracted, in his Illustrations, vol. i. p. 152. et seq.

[455:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 298, 299. Act iii. sc. 1.

[456:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. pp. 303-306. Act iii. sc. 1.

[456:B]Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 132., where several passages, which may have suggested the imagery in Claudio's description, are quoted.

[456:C]Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. ii. p. 169.

[458:A]Supplemental Apology, pp. 417, 418.

[458:B]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 127.

[459:A]For these consult not only the Variorum edition of Shakspeare, but Mr. Chalmers's Supplemental Apology, and Mr. Douce's Illustrations. See also the story of Lear, from Caxton's Chronicle of 1480, extracted by Mr. Dibdin, in the British Bibliographer, vol. ii. p. 578.

[459:B]Warton tells us, that Perceforest was originally a metrical romance, and written about the year 1220. See his History of Poetry, vol. i. p. 464.

[462:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. p. 381. Act i. sc. 5.

[462:B]Ibid. vol. xvii. p. 441. Act ii. sc. 4.

[463:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. pp. 459-461. Act iii. sc. 4.

[464:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. pp. 445, 446. Act iii. sc. 1.

[464:B]Ibid. p. 456. Act iii. sc. 2.

[464:C]Ibid. p. 463. Act iii. sc. 4.

[466:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xvii. pp. 564-567. Act iv. sc. 7.

[466:B]Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 649.

[467:A]Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. ii. p. 183.

[468:A]Letters of Anna Seward, vol. iii. p. 246.

[470:A]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. x. pp. 110, 111, 112. 114.

[472:A]Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. i. pp. 352, 353.

[473:A]Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. i. pp. 95, 96.

[474:A]Monthly Review, vol. lxxxi. p. 119, 120.

[475:A]Strype's Annals of Reformation, vol. i. p. 8. The apprehension expressed at the close of this quotation, was realised some years afterwards, when a Mrs. Dier was accused of conjuration and witchcraft, because the Queen had been "under excessive anguishby pains of her teeth: insomuch that she took no rest for divers nights."—Vide Strype's Annals, vol. iv. p. 7.

[475:B]Epistle to Sir Roger Manwood, p. 1.

[475:C]Discoverie of Witchcraft, chap. i. pp. 1, 2.

[475:D]Ibid. p. 4.

[475:E]Discourse of Divels and Spirits, p. 543.; annexed to the Discoverie of Witchcraft.

[476:A]Gossip.

[476:B]These extracts are taken from a pamphlet entitled, "Newes from Scotland," reprinted in the Gent. Magazine, vol. xlix. p. 449. See also Gent. Magazine, vol. vii. p. 556.

[477:A]See Nashe's Lenten Stuff, 1599, as quoted by Mr. Reed, in his Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 5. note.

[477:B]King James's Works, as published by James, Bishop of Winton, folio, 1616, p. 91.

[478:A]This act against witches was not repealed until the year 1736, being the ninth of George the Second!

[480:A]Discoverie of Witchcraft, book i. chap. 3. pp. 7-9.

[480:B]Todd's Spenser, vol. iv. pp. 480, 481. Faerie Queene, book iii. canto 7. stanza 6. and note.

[482:A]Discoverie of Witchcraft, book i. chap. 4. pp. 9-11.

[482:B]James's Works, by Winton, p. 116.

[483:A]James's Works, by Winton, p. 117.

[485:A]Discoverie of Witchcraft, book iii. chap. 1, 2. pp. 40-42.

[485:B]Works apud Winton, pp. 112, 113.

[486:A]King James's Works apud Winton, pp. 111. 135, 136.

[486:B]Among these we find the mighty name of Bacon; this great man attributing, in the Tenth Century of his Natural History, the achievements and the confessions of witches and wizards to the effects of a morbid imagination.

[487:A]To the traditions of Boethius and Holinshed, we may add a modern authority in the person of Sir John Sinclair, who tells us that "In Macbeth's time, Witchcraft was very prevalent in Scotland, and two of the most famous witches in the kingdom lived on each hand of Macbeth, one at Collace, the other not far from Dunsinnan House, at a place called the Cape. Macbeth applied to them for advice, and by their counsel built a lofty Castle upon the top of an adjoining hill, since called Dunsinnan. The moor where the Witches met, which is in the parish of St. Martin's, is yet pointed out by the country-people, and there is a stone still preserved which is calledthe Witches Stone."—Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xx. p. 242.

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