5

Thunder. Enter HECATE,5 meeting the three
Witches.

1. WITCH. Why, how now, Hecate? 6

angerly.

you look

Enter Hecate,] Shakspeare has been cenfured for introducing Hecate among the vulgar witches, and, confequently, for confounding ancient with modern fuperftitions. He has, however, authority for giving a mistress to the witches, Delrio Difquif. Mag. libii. quæft. 9. quotes a paffage of Apuleius, Lib. de Afino aureo: "de quadam Caupona, regina Sagarum. And adds further: -"ut 'fcias etiam tum quafdam ab iis hoc titulo honoratas. In confequence of this information, Ben Jonson, In his Masque of Queens, has introduced a character which he calls a Dame, who prefides at the meeting of the Witches:

"Sifters, flay; we want our dame."

The dame accordingly enters, invefted with marks of fuperiority, and the reft pay an implicit obedience to her commands.

Again, in a True examination and confeffion of Elizabeth Stile, alias Rockyngham, &c. 1579. bl. l. 12mo: "Further she saieth, that mother Seidre dwelling in the almes houfe, was the maiftres witche of all the refte, and the is now deade.

Shakspeare is therefore blameable only for calling his prefiding chara&er Hecate, as it might have been brought on with propriety under any other title whatever. STEEVENS.

Shakspeare seems to have been unjuftly cenfured for introducing Hecate among the modern witches. Scot's Difcovery of Witchcraft, B. II. c. ii. and c. xvi. and B. XII. c. iii. mentions it as the common opinion of all writers, that witches were fuppofed to have nightly meetings with Herodias, and the Pagan gods,' and that in the night-times they ride abroad with Diana, the goddess of the Pagans," &c. Their dame or chief leader feems always to have been an old Pagan, as "the ladie Sibylla, Minerva, or Diana." TOLLET.

Why, how now, Hecate?] Marlowe, though a scholar, has likewife ufed the word Hecate, as a diffyllable:

1

HEC. Have I not reafon, beldams, as you are,
Saucy, and overbold? How did you dare
To trade and traffick with Macbeth,
In riddles, and affairs of death;
And 1, the miftrefs of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or fhow the glory of our art?
And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward fon,

Spiteful, and wrathful; who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you.'

7

Plutoe's blew fire, and Hecat's tree,
"With magick fpells fo compass thee.

for a wayward fon,

Dr. Fauftus. MALONE.

Spiteful, and wrathful; who, as others do,

Loves for his own ends, not for you.] Inequality of measure, (the first of these lines being a foot longer than the fecond) together with the unneceffary and weak comparison as others do, incline me to regard the paffage before us as both maimed and interpolated. Perhaps it originally ran thus:

for a wayward son,

A fpiteful and a wrathful, who

Loves for his own ends, not for you.

But the repetition of the article a being cafually omitted by some transcriber for the theatre, the verfe became too fhort, and a fresh conclufion to it was fupplied by the amanuenfis, who overlooked the legitimate rhyme who, when he copied the play for publication.

If it be neceffary to exemplify the particular phrafeology introduced by way of amendment, a paffage in the Witch by Middleton, will fufficiently answer that purpose:

What death is't you défire for Almachildes?

A fudden, and a fubtle.

In this inftance, the repeated article a is also placed before two adjectives referring to a substantive in the preceding line. See also The Pafton Letters, Vol. IV. p. 155: " Pray God fend us a good world and a peaceable.' Again, in our author's King Henry IV: "A good portly man, i'faith, and a corpulent.

Again, in an ancient MS. entitled The boke of huntyng, that is cleped mayfter of game: "It [the Boar] is a prowde beeft, a feers, and a perilous. STELVENS.

But make amends now: Get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron

8

Meet me i'the morning; thither he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your veffels, and your fpells, provide,
Your charms, and every thing befide:
I am for the air; this night I'll spend
Unto a difmal-fatal end. "
Great bufinefs muft be wrought ere noon :
Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vaporous drop profound; '
I'll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that, diftill'd by magick flights,
Shall raife fuch artificial fprights,
As, by the ftrength of their illusion,
Shall draw him on to his confufion :

3

2

the pit of Acheron] Shakspeare feems to have thought it allowable to beflow the name of Acheron on any fountain, lake, or pit, through which there was vulgarly supposed to be a communication between this and the infernal world. The true original Acheron was a river in Greece; and yet Virgil gives this name to his lake in the valley of Amfan&us in Italy. STEEVENS.

9 Unto a difmal-fatal end.] The old copy violates the metre by needlefs addition:

Unto a difmal and a fatal end.

I read — difmal-fatal. Shakspeare, as Mr. Tyrwhitt obferves in a note on King Richard III. is fond of these compound epithets, in which the firft adjective is to be confidered as an adverb. So, in that play we meet with childish-foolish, fenfeless-obftinate, and mortalfaring. STEEVens.

2

vaporous drop profound; ] That is, a drop that has profound, deep, or hidden qualities. JOHNSON.

This vaporous drop feems to have been meant for the fame as the virus lunare of the ancients, being a foam which the moon was fuppofed to fhed on particular herbs, or other objects, when ftrongly folicited by enchantment. Lucan introduces Ericho ufing

it. 1. 6:

66

virus large lunare miniflrat." STEEVENS. 3 -flights, ] Arts; subtle practices. JOHNSON.

He fhall fpurn fate, fcorn death, and bear
His hopes bove wisdom, grace, and fear:*
And you all know, fecurity

Is mortals' chiefeft enemy.

2

SONG. [within.] Come away, come away, &c.

1. WITCH. Come, let's make hafte; fhe'll foon

Hark, I am call'd; my little fpirit, fee,
Sits in a foggy cloud, and ftays for me.

be back again.

SCENE VI.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

Fores. A Room in the Palace,

Enter LENOX, and another Lord. 5

LEN. My former fpeeches have but hit your thoughts,

4 Come away, come away, &c.] This entire fong I found in a MS. dramatic piece, entitled, A Tragi-Coomodie called THE WITCH; long fince a&ted &c. written by Thomas Middleton." The Hecate of Shakspeare has faid

"I am for the air," &c.

The Hecate of Middleton (who, like the former, is fummoned away by aerial fpirits) has the fame declaration in almoft the fame words

"I am for aloft" &c.

Song.] "Come away, come away:

}

"Heccat, Heccat, come away," &c. in the aire. See my note among Mr. Malone's Prolegomena, Article Macbeth, [Vol. II.] where other coincidences &c. are pointed out. STEEVENS.

5 Enter Lenox, and another Lord.] As this tragedy, like the reft of Shakspeare's, is perhaps overflocked with personages, it is not eafy to affign a reason why a nameless chara&er (hould be introduced here, fince nothing is faid that might not with equal propriety have been put into the mouth of any other difaffected man.

Which can interpret further: only, I fay, Things have been strangely borne: The gracious Duncan

Was pitied of Macbeth:-marry, he was dead:And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late; Whom, you may say, if it please you, Fleance

kill'd,

5

. For Fleance fled. Men muft not walk too late. Who cannot want the thought, how monftrous It was for Malcolm, and for Donalbain,

6

To kill their gracious father? damned fact !
How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not ftraight,
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear,
That were the flaves of drink, and thralls of fleep?
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wifely too;
For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive,
To hear the men deny it. So that, I fay,
He has borne all things well: and I do think,
That, had he Duncan's fons under his key,
(As, an't please heaven, he shall not,) they fhould find
What 'twere to kill a father; fo fhould Fleance.
But, peace! for from broad words, and 'caufe he
fail'd

His prefence at the tyrant's feast, I hear,

I believe therefore that in the original copy it was written with a very common form of contraction Lenox and An for which the tranfcriber, inftead of Lenox and Angus, fet down Lenox and another Lord. The author had indeed been more indebted to the tranfcriber's fidelity and diligence, had he committed no errors of greater importance. JOHNSON.

5 Who cannot want the thought, ] The fenfe require's:

Who can want the thought

Yet, I believe, the text is not corrupt. Shakspeare is sometimes incorre& in these minutia. MALONE.

6 — monftrous] This word is here used as a trifyllable.

MALONE.