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fenceless family, though the father of it was the only reasonable object of his fear.—Can it be a question then, which of these two personages would manifest the most determined valour in the field? Shall we hesitate to bestow the palm of courage on the steady unrepenting Yorkist, in whose bosom ideas of hereditary greatness, and confidence resulting from success, had fed the flame of glory, and who dies in combat for a crown which had been the early object of his ambition? and shall we allot the same wreath to the wavering self-convicted Thane, who, educated without hope of royalty, had been suggested into greatness, and yet, at last, would forego it all to secure himself by flight, but that flight is become an impossibility?

To conclude; a picture of conscience encroaching on fortitude, of magnanimity once animated by virtue, and afterwards extinguished by guilt, was what Shakspeare meant to display in the character and conduct of Macbeth. STEEVENS.

Macbeth was certainly one of Shakspeare's latest productions, and it might possibly have been suggested to him by a little performance on the same subject at Oxford, before King James, 1605. I will transcribe my notice of it from Wake's Rex Platonicus : "Fabulæ ansam dedit antiqua de regiâ prosapiâ historiola apud Scoto-Britannos celebrata, quæ narrat tres olim Sibyllas occurrisse duobus Scotiæ proceribus, Macbetho et Banchoni, et illum prædixisse regem futurum, sed regem nullum geniturum; hunc regem non futurum, sed reges geniturum multos. Vaticinii veritatem rerum eventus comprobavit. Banchonis enim è stirpe potentissimus Jacobus oriundus." P. 29.

Since I made the observation here quoted, I have been repeatedly told, that I unwittingly make Shakspeare learned, at least in Latin, as this must have been the language of the performance before King James. One might, perhaps, have plausibly said, that he probably picked up the story at second-hand; but mere accident has thrown a pamphlet in my way, intitled The Oxford Triumph, by one Anthony Nixon, 1605, which explains the whole matter: "This performance," says Antony, "was first in Latine to the king, then in English to the queene and young prince :" and, as he goes on to tell us, "the conceipt thereof the kinge did very much applaude." It is likely that the friendly letter, which we are informed King James once wrote to Shakspeare, was on this occasion. FARMER.

Dr. Johnson used often to mention an acquaintance of his, who was for ever boasting what great things he would do, could he but meet with Ascham's Toxophilus *, at a time when Ascham's

*

Ascham's Toxophilus,] Mr. Malone is somewhat mistaken in his account of Dr. Johnson's pleasantry, which originated from an observation made by Mr. Theobald in 1733, and repeated

pieces had not been collected, and were very rarely to be found. At length Toxophilus was procured, but-nothing was done. The interlude performed at Oxford in 1605, by the students of Saint John's college, was, for a while, so far my Toxophilus, as to excite my curiosity very strongly on the subject. Whether Shakspeare, in the composition of this noble tragedy, was at all indebted to any preceding performance, through the medium of translation, or in any other way, appeared to me well worth ascertaining. The British Museum was examined in vain. Mr. Warton very obligingly made a strict search at St. John's college, but no traces of this literary performance could there be found. At length chance threw into my hands the very verses that were spoken in 1605, by three young gentlemen of that college; and, being thus at last obtained, "that no man" (to use the words of Dr. Johnson) "may ever want them more," I will here transcribe them.

There is some difficulty in reconciling the different accounts of this entertainment. The author of Rex Platonicus says, "Tres adolescentes concinno Sibyllarum habitu induti, è collegio [Divi Johannis] prodeuntes, et carmina lepida alternatim canentes, regi se tres esse Sibyllas profitentur, quæ Banchoni olim sobolis imperia prædixerant, &c. Deinde tribus principibus suaves felicitatum triplicitates triplicatis carminum vicibus succinentes,-principes ingeniosa fictiuncula delectatos dimittunt."

But in a manuscript account of the king's visit to Oxford in 1605, in the Museum, (MSS. Baker, 7044,) this interlude is thus described: "This being done, he [the king] rode on untill he came unto St. John's college, where coming against the gate, three young youths, in habit and attire like Nymphes, confronted him, representing England, Scotland, and Ireland; and talking dialogue-wise each to other of their state, at last concluded, yielding up themselves to his gracious government." With this A. Nixon's account, in The Oxford Triumph, quarto, 1605, in some measure agrees, though it differs in a very material point;

by him in 1740. See his note on Much Ado About Nothing, in his 8vo. edition of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 410; and his duodecimo, vol. ii. p. 12: " - and had I the convenience of consulting Ascham's Toxophilus, I might probably grow better acquainted with his history:" i. e. that of Adam Bell, the celebrated archer.

Mr. Theobald was certainly no diligent inquirer after ancient books, or was much out of luck, if, in the course of ten years, he could not procure the treatise he wanted, which was always sufficiently common. I have abundant reason to remember the foregoing circumstance, having often stood the push of my late coadjutor's merriment, on the same score; for he never heard me lament the scarcity of any old pamphlet, from which I expected to derive information, but he instantly roared out—“ Sir, remember Tib and his Toxophilus." STEEVENS.

for, if his relation is to be credited, these young men did not alternately recite verses, but pronounced three distinct orations: "This finished, his Majestie passed along till hee came before Saint John's college, when three little boyes, coming foorth of a castle made all of ivie, drest like three nymphes, (the conceipt whereof the king did very much applaude,) delivered three orations, first in Latine to the king, then in English to the queene and young prince; which being ended, his majestie proceeded towards the east gate of the citie, where the townesmen againe delivered to him another speech in English."

From these discordant accounts one might be led to suppose, that there were six actors on this occasion, three of whom personated the Sybills, or rather the Weird Sisters, and addressed the royal visitors in Latin, and that the other three represented England, Scotland, and Ireland, and spoke only in English. I believe, however, that there were but three young men employed; and after reciting the following Latin lines, (which prove that the weird sisters and the representatives of England, Scotland, and Ireland, were the same persons,) they might, perhaps, have pronounced some English verses of a similar import, for the entertainment of the queen and the princes.

To the Latin play of Vertumnus, written by Dr. Matthew Gwynne, which was acted before the king by some of the students of St. John's college on a subsequent day, we are indebted for the long-sought-for interlude, performed at St. John's gate; for Dr. Gwynne, who was the author of this interlude also, has annexed it to his Vertumnus, printed in 4to. in 1607:

"Ad regis introitum, e Joannersi Collegio extra portam urbis borealem sito, tres quasi Sibyllæ, sic (ut e sylva) salutarunt. "1. Fatidicas olim fama est cecinisse sorores

"Imperium sine fine tuæ, rex inclyte, stirpis.

66

Banquonem agnovit generosa Loquabria Thanum;
"Nec tibi, Banquo, tuis sed sceptra nepotibus illæ
"Immortalibus immortalia vaticinatæ :

"In saltum, ut lateas, dum Banquo recedis ab aula.
"Tres eadem pariter canimus tibi fata tuisque,
"Dum spectande tuis, e saltu accedis ad urbem ;
"Teque salutamus: Salve, cui Scotia servit ;

"2. Anglia cui, salve. 3. Cui servit Hibernia, salve.
"1. Gallia cui titulos, terras dant cætera, salve.

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2. Quem divisa prius colit una Britannia, salve.

"3. Summe Monarcha Britannice, Hibernice, Gallice,

salve.

"1. Anna, parens regum, soror, uxor, filia, salve.
"2. Salve, Henrice hæres, princeps pulcherrime, salve.
"3. Dux Carole, et perbelle Polonice regule, salve.
"1. Nec metas fatis, nec tempora ponimus istis ;
"Quin orbis regno, famæ sint terminus astra:
"Canutum referas regno quadruplice clarum ;

Major avis, æquande tuis diademate solis.
"Nec serimus cædes, nec bella, nec anxia corda ;
"Nec furor in nobis ; sed agente calescimus illo
"Numine, quo Thomas Whitus per somnia motus,
"Londinenses eques, musis hæc tecta dicavit.
Musis? imo Deo, tutelarique Joanni.

"Ille Deo charum et curam, prope prætereuntem
"Ire salutatum, Christi precursor, ad ædem

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Christi pergentem, jussit. Dictâ ergo salute

"Perge, tuo aspectu sit læta Academia, perge." MAlone. As that singular curiosity, The Witch, printed by Mr. Reed, and distributed only among his friends, cannot fall in the way of every curious and inquisitive reader of Shakspeare, I am induced to subjoin such portions of it (though some of them are already glanced at) as might have suggested the idea on which our author founded his unrivalled scene of enchantment, in the fourth Act of the present tragedy.

Let it not be supposed, however, that such coincidences ought any way to diminish the fame of Shakspeare, whose additions and adoptions have, in every instance, manifested the richness of his own fancy, and the power of his own judgment.

The lyrick part, indeed, of the second of these extracts, has already appeared in my note, under the article Macbeth, in Mr. Malone's Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, vol. ii. and is repeated here only for the sake of juxtaposition, and because its adjuncts (to borrow a phrase from Lady Macbeth) would have been "bare without it.". The whole is given with its antiquated spelling, corrected from the original MS.

STEEVENS.

ACT I. SCENE II.

Enter Heccat; and other Witches (with Properties, and Habitts fitting.)

Hec. Titty, and Tiffin, Suckin

And Pidgen, Liard, and Robin!

White spiritts, black spiritts, gray spiritts, redd speritts;
Devill-Toad, Devill-Ram, Devill-Catt, and Devill-Dam.

Why Hoppo and Stadlin, Hellwin and Prickle!

Stad. Here, sweating at the vessel.

Hec. Boyle it well.

Hop. It gallops now.

Hec. Are the flames blew enough?

Or I shall use a little seeten more?

Stad. The nipps of Fayries upon maides white hipps, Are not more perfect azure.

Hec. Tend it carefully.

Send Stadlin to me with a brazen dish,

That I may fall to work upon theis serpents,
And squieze 'em ready for the second howre.
Why, when?

Stad. Heere's Stadlin, and the dish.

Hec. There take this un-baptized brat : Boile it well preserve the fat:

You know 'tis pretious to transfer

Our 'noynted flesh into the aire,

In moone-light nights, ore steeple-topps,

Mountains, and pine-trees, that like pricks, or stopps, Seeme to our height: high towres, and roofes of princes, Like wrinckles in the earth: whole provinces

Appeare to our sight then, ev'n leeke

A russet-moale upon some ladies cheeke.

When hundred leagues in aire we feast and sing,

Daunce, kisse, and coll, use every thing:

What yong-man can we wish to pleasure us

But we enjoy him in an Incubus ?

Thou know'st it Stadlin?

Stad. Usually that's don.

Hect. Last night thou got'st the Maior of Whelplies son, I knew him by his black cloake lyn'd with yallow;

I thinck thou hast spoild the youth: hee's but seaventeene. I'll have him the next mounting: away, in.

Goe feed the vessell for the second howre.

Stad. Where be the magicall herbes ?

Hec. They're downe his throate.

His mouth cramb'd full; his eares, and nosthrills stufft.

I thrust in Eleoselinum, lately

Aconitum, frondes populeus, and soote,

You may see that, he looks so black i' th' mouth :

Then Sium, Acharum, Vulgaro too

Dentaphillon, the blood of a flitter-mowse,

Solanum somnificum et oleum.

Stad. Then ther's all Heccat?

Hec. Is the hart of wax

Stuck full of magique needles?

Stad. 'Tis don Heccat.

Hec. And is the Farmer's picture, and his wives,

Lay'd downe to th' fire yet?

Stad. They are a roasting both too.

Hec. Good;

Then their marrowes are a melting subtelly,

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