armour, as irrefolutely throws it off again, and is more intent on felf-crimination, than the repulfe of the befiegers, or the difpofition of the troops who are to defend his fortrefs. But it is useless to dwell on particulars fo much more exactly enumerated by Mr. Whately. The truth is, that the mind of Richard, unimpregnated by original morality, and uninfluenced by the laws of Heaven, is harraffed by no fubfequent remorfe. Repente fuit turpiffimus. Even the depreffion he feels from preternatural objects, is fpeedily taken off. In fpite of ominous vifions he fallies forth, and feeks his competitor in the throat of death. Macbeth, though he had long abandoned the practice of goodness, had not fo far forgot its accuftomed influence, but that a virtuous adverfary whom he had injured, is as painful to his fight as the fpectre in a former fcene, and equally blafts the refolution he was willing to think he had ftill poffeffed. His confcience (as Hamlet fays of the poifon) overcrows his fpirit, and all his enterprizes are ficklied over by the pale caft of thought. The curfe that attends on him is, virtutem videre, et intabefcere relicta. Had Richard once been a feeling and confcientious character, when his end drew nigh, he might also have betrayed evidences of timidity-" there fadly fumming what he had, and loft;" and if Macbeth originally had been a hardened villain, no terrors might have obtruded themfelves on his clofe of life. Qualis ab incepto procefferat. In fhort, Macbeth is timid in fpite of all his boafting, as long as he thinks timidity can afford refources; nor does he exhibit a fpecimen of determined intrepidity, till the completion of the prophecy, and the challenge of Macduff, have taught him that life is no longer tenable. Five counterfeit Richmonds are flain by Richard, who, before his fall, has enacted wonders beyond the common ability of man. The prowefs of Macbeth is confined to the fingle conqueft of Siward, a novice in the art of war. Neither are the truly brave ever difgraced by unneceffary deeds of cruelty. The victims of Richard therefore are merely fuch as obstructed his progrefs to the crown, or betrayed the confidence he had repofed in their affurances of fidelity. Macbeth, with a favage wantonnefs that would have dishonoured a Scythian female, cuts off a whole defenceless family, though the father of it was the only reasonable object of his fear. Can it be a queftion then which of thefe two perfonages would manifeft the moft determined valour in the field? Shall we hesitate to bestow the palm of courage on the fteady unrepenting Yorkit, in whofe bofom ideas of hereditary greatnefs, and confidence refulting from fuccefs, had fed the flame of glory, and who dies in combat for a crown which had been the early object of his ambition? and fhall we allot the fame wreath to the wavering felf-convicted Thane, who, educated without hope of royalty, had been fuggefted into greatnefs, and yet, at lait, would forego it all to fecure himself by flight, but that flight is become an impoffibility? To conclude, a picture of confcience 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 lateft productions, and it might poffibly have been fuggefted to him by a little performance on the fame fubject at Oxford, before king James, 1605, I will transcribe my notice of it from Wake's Rex Platonicus: "Fabulæ anfam dedit antiqua de regiâ profapiâ hiftoriola apud ScotoBritannos celebrata, quæ narrat tres olim Sibyllas occurriffe duobus Scotia proceribus, Macbetho & Banchoni, & illum prædixiffe regem futurum, fed regem nullum geniturum; hunc regem non futurum, fed reges geniturum multos. Vaticinii veritatem rerum eventus comprobavit. Banchonis enim è ftirpe potentiffimus Jacobus oriundus." p. 29. Since I made the obfervation here quoted, I have been repeatedly told, that I unwittingly make Shakspeare learned at leaft in Latin, as this must have been the language of the performance before king James. One might perhaps have plaufibly faid, that he probably picked up the ftory at fecond-hand; but mere accident has thrown an old pamphlet in my way, intitled The Oxford Triumph, by one Anthony Nixon, 1605, which explains the whole matter: " This performance, fays Antony, was firft 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 occafion. FARMER. Dr. Johnfon ufed often to mention an acquaintance of his, who was for ever boafting what great things he would do, could he but meet with Afcham's Toxophilus,* at a time when Afcham's pieces - Afcham's Toxophilus,] Mr. Malone is fomewhat mistaken in his account of Dr. Johnson's pleasantry, which originated from an obfervation made by Mr. Theobald in 1733, and repeated by him in 1744. See his note on Much ado about nothing in his Svo. edition of Shakspeare, Vol. I. p. 410; and his duo lecimo, Vol. II. p. 12. "and had I the convenience of confulting Afcbam'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 courfe of ten years he could not procure the treatise he wanted, which was always fufficiently common. I have abundant reafon to remember the foregoing circumstance, having often stood the push of my late coadjutor's merriment on the fame fcore; for he never heard me lament the scarcity of any old pamphlet from which I expected to derive information, but he inftantly roared out- Sir, remember Tib and his Toxophilus." STEEVENS, 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 ftudents of Saint John's college, was for a while fo far my Toxophilus, as to excite my curiofity very ftrongly on the fubject. Whether Shakspeare in the compofition of this noble tragedy was at all indebted to any preceding performance, through the medium of tranflation, or in any other way, appeared to me well worth afcertaining. The British Museum was examined in vain. Mr. Warton very obligingly made a ftrict fearch 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 verfes 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 tranfcribe them. There is fome difficulty in reconciling the different accounts of this entertainment. The author of Rex Platonicus fays, "Tres adolefcentes concinno Sibyllarum habitu induti, è collegio [Divi Johannis] prodeuntes, et carmina lepida alternatim canentes, regi fe tres effe Sibyllas profitentur, quæ Banchoni olim fobolis imperia prædixerant, &c. Deinde tribus principibus fuaves felicitatum triplicitates triplicatis carminum vicibus fuccinentes,-principes ingeniofa fictiuncula delectatos dimittunt." But in a manufcript account of the king's vifit to Oxford in 1605, in the Museum, (Mfs. Baker, 7044,) this interlude is thus defcribed: "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, reprefenting England, Scotland, and Ireland; and talking dialogue-wife each to other of their ftate, at laft concluded, yielding up themfelves to his gracious government." With this A. Nixon's account in The Oxford Triumph, quarto, 1605, in fome measure agrees, though it differs in a very material point; for, if his relation is to be credited, thefe young men did not alternately recite verfes, but pronounced three diftinct orations: "This finished, his Majeftie paffed along till hee came before Saint John's college, when three little boyes, coming foorth of a castle made all of ivie, dreft like three nymphes, (the conceipt whereof the king did very much applaude,) delivered three orations, firft in Latine to the king, then in English to the queene and young prince; which being ended his majeftie proceeded towards the eaft gate of the citie, where the townefmen againe delivered unto him another fpeech in English." From thefe difcordant accounts one might be led to fuppofe, that there were fix actors on this occafion, three of whom perfonated the Sybills, or rather the Weird fifters, and addressed the royal vifitors in Latin, and that the other three reprefented England, Scotland and Ireland, and spoke only in English. I believe how ever that there were but three young men employed; and after reciting the following Latin lines, (which prove that the weird fifters and the reprefentatives of England, Scotland, and Ireland were the fame perfons,) they might perhaps have pronounced fome Englifh verfes of a fimilar import, for the entertainment of the queen and the princes. To the Latin play of Vertumnus, written by Dr. Mathew Gwynne, which was acted before the king by fome of the ftudents of St. John's college on a fubfequent day, we are indebted for the longfought-for interlude performed at St. John's gate; for Dr. Gwynne, who was the author of this interlude alfo, has annexed it to his Vertumnus, printed in 4to. in 1607. "Ad regis introitum, e Joannenfi Collegio extra portam urbis borealem fito, tres quafi Sibyllæ, fic (ut e fylva) falutarunt. 1. Fatidicas olim fama eft ceciniffe forores Imperium fine fine tuæ, rex inclyte, ftirpis. In faltum, ut lateas, dum Banquo recedis ab aula. 2. Anglia cui, falve. 3. Cui fervit Hibernia, falve. 1. Gallia cui titulos, terras dant cætera, falve. 2. Quem divifa prius colit una Britannia, falve. 3. Summe Monarcha Britannice, Hibernice, Gallice, falve. 1. ANNA, parens regum, foror, uxor, filia, falve. 2. Salve, HENRICE hæres, princeps pulcherrime, falve. 3. Dux CAROLE, et perbelle Polonice regule, falve. Nec ferimus cædes, nec bella, nec anxia corda; Ille Deo charum et curam, prope prætereuntem Chrifti pergentem, juffit. Dictâ ergo falute Perge, tuo afpectu fit læta Academia, perge." MALONE, As that fingular curiofity, The Witch, printed by Mr. Reed, and diftributed only among his friends, cannot fall in the way of every curious and inquifitive reader of Shakspeare, I am induced to fubjoin fuch portions of it (though fome of them are already glanced at) as might have fuggefted the idea on which our author founded his unrivalled fcene of enchantment in the fourth act of the prefent tragedy. The lyrick part indeed of the fecond of these extracts has already appeared in my note under the article Macbeth, in Mr. Malone's Attempt &c. Vol. I; and is repeated here only for the fake of juxtapofition, and because its adjuncts (to borrow a phrafe from Lady Macbeth) would have been" bare without it." The whole is given with its antiquated spelling, corrected from the original MS. ACT I. SCENE II. STEEVENS. Enter HECCAT; and other Witches (with Properties, and Habitts fitting.) Hec. Titty, and Tiffin, Suckin And Pidgen, Liard, and Robin! White fpirits, black spiritts, gray spiritts, redd fperitts; Why Hoppo and Stadlin, Hellwin and Prickle! Stad. Here, fweating at the vessel. Hec. Boyle it well. Hop. It gallops now. Hec. Are the flames blew enough? Or fhall I ufe a little feeten 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 ferpents, Stad. Heere's Stadlin, and the dish. |