Harsenet observes, that about that time a sow could not be ill of the measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with witchcraft. Toad, that under the cold stone Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. Toads have likewise long lain under the reproach of being by some means necessary to witchcraft, for which reason Shakespeare, in the first scene of this play, calls one of the spirits padocke or toad, and now takes care to put a toad first into the pot. When Vaninus was seized at Thoulouse, there was found at his lodgings ingens bufo vitro inclusus, a great toad shut in a vial, upon which those that prosecuted him veneficium exprobrabant, charged him, suppose, with witchcraft. I Fillet of a fenny snake In the cauldron boil and bake; The propriety of these ingredients may be known by consulting the books de Viribus Animalium and de Mirabilibus Mundi, ascribed to Albertus Magnus, in which the reader, who has time and credulity, may discover very wonderful secrets. Finger of birth-strangled babe, It has been already mentioned in the law against witches, that they are supposed to take up dead bodies to use in enchantments, which was confessed by the woman whom King James examined, and who had of a dead body, that was divided in one of their assemblies, two fingers for her share. It is observable, that Shakespeare, on this great occasion which involves the fate of a king, multiplies all the circumstances of horrour. The babe whose finger is used, must be strangled in its birth; the grease must not only be human, but must have dropped from a gibbet, the gibbet of a murderer: and even the sow whose blood is used, must have offended nature by devouring her own farrow. These are touches of judgment and genius. And now about the cauldron sing Blue spirits and white, Black spirits and grey, And in a former part, Weird sisters hand in hand Thus do go about, about, Thrice to mine, and thrice to thine, And thrice again to make up nine. These two passages I have brought together, because they both seem subject to the objection of too much levity for the solemnity of enchantment, and may both be shown, by one quotation from Camden's account of Ireland, to be founded upon a practice really observed by the uncivilized natives of that country. "When any one gets a fall, says the informer of Camden, he starts up, and turning three times to the right, digs a hole in the earth; for they imagine that there is a spirit in the ground; and if he falls sick in two or three days, they send one of their women that is skilled in that way to the place, where she says, I call thee from the east, west, north, and south, from the groves, the woods, the rivers, and the fens, from the fairies, red, black, white." There was likewise a book written before the time of Shakespeare, describing amongst other properties, the colours of spirits. Many other circumstances might be particularized, in which Shakespeare has shown his judgment and his knowledge. NOTE XXXVI. SCENE II. Macbeth. THOU art too like the spirit of Banquo, down, Thy crown does (1) sear my eye-balls, and thy (2) hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first, A third is like the former. (1) The expression of Macbeth, that the crown sears his eye-balls, is taken from the method formerly practised of destroying the sight of captives or competitors, by holding a burning bason before the eye, which dried up its humidity. (2) As Macbeth expected to see a train of kings, and was only enquiring from what race they would proceed, he could not be surprised that the hair of the second was bound with gold like that of the first; he was offended only that the second resembled the first, as the first resembled Banquo, and therefore said -And thy air Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. I WILL NOTE XXXVII. give to the edge o' th' sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls Both the sense and measure of the third line, which as it rhymes, ought, according to the practice of this author, to be regular, are at present injured by two superfluous syllables, which may easily be removed by reading -souls That trace his line-no boasting like a fool. NOTE XXXVIII. SCENE III. Rosse. DEAREST Cousin I pray you school yourself; but for your husband, The fits o' th' time, I dare not speak much farther, And do not know't ourselves: when we (1) hold rumour But float upon a wild and violent sea Each way, and (2) move. I'll take my leave of you; Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upwards. From what we fear, yet know not what we fear. The present reading seems to afford no sense; and therefore some critical experiments may be properly tried upon it, though, the verses being without any connexion, there is room for suspicion, that some intermediate lines are lost, and that the passage is therefore irretrievable. If it be supposed that the fault arises only from the corruption of some words, and that the traces of the true reading are still to be found, the passage may be changed thus: -When we bode ruin From what we fear, yet know not what we fear. Or in a sense very applicable to the occasion of the conference, When the bold running From what they fear, yet know not what they fear. (2) But float upon a wild and violent sea Each way, and move. That he who floats upon a rough sea must move is evident, too evident for Shakespeare so emphatically to assert. The line therefore is to be written thus: Each way, and move-I'll take my leave of you. Rosse is about to proceed, but finding himself overpowered by his tenderness, breaks off abruptly for which he makes a short apology and retires. NOTE XXXIX. SCENE IV. Malcolm. LET us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty. Macduff. Let us rather |