murder of King Duff upon the story of Macbeth. But we still admit that the commentators might naturally look for some circumstance that should have impressed the history of the fortunes of Macbeth and Banquo more forcibly upon the imagination of Shakspere than the narrative of Holinshed. It was not the custom of the poet to adopt any story that was not in some degree familiar to his audience, either in their chroniclers, their elder dramatists, or in their novelists. Here was a story quite out of the range of the ordinary reading even of educated Englishmen. The wild romance of Scottish history had not as yet been popularized and elevated into poetry. The field was altogether untrodden. The memory of the patrict heroes of Scotland would not be acceptable to those who desired to see revived upon the stage their own "forefathers' valiant acts that had been long buried in rusty brass and worm-eaten books."* 'The Scottish History of James IV. slain at Flodden,' of Robert Greene, is altogether a romance, the materials for which can be traced in no Scottish history or tradition. The fable of that wild play has no reference to the death of James IV. at Flodden. It was the knowledge of these facts which probably led Dr. Farmer to the following notion of the origin of Macbeth: "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."† Dr. Farmer acquired his knowledge of this performance from a description in Wake's Rex Platonicus,' 1607, from which it appears that three young men, habited as sibyls, came forth from St. John's College, singing alternate verses, in which they professed themselves to be the three Sibyls who, according to the ancient history of Scotland, appeared to Macbeth and Banquo, predicting that one should be king, but should have no kingly issue, and that the other should not be king, but should be the father of many kings.' The actual verses of the little performance were subsequently found annexed to the Vertumnus of Dr. Gwynne, 1607. The whole interlude, as it is called, consists of twenty-nine lines, six of which only have any reference to Banquo, and none whatever to Macbeth. We must seek farther for the origin of Shakspere's Macbeth. A. Nixon, in his 'Oxford Triumphs,' 1605, says "The King did very much applaud the conceit of three little boys dressed like three nymphs." This is very limited applause. Hearing of this favourable reception," says Chalmers, Shakspeare determined to write his tragedy, knowing that he could readily find materials in Holinshed's Chronicle, his common magazine." If we believe that the materials of Holinshed were not sufficiently suggestive to the poet,-if we think that local associations might probably have first carried Shakspere to the story of Macbeth, more strikingly than a romantic narrative, mixed up with other legends as strongly seizing upon the imagination,—we may find upon Scottish ground some memories of an event which could not itself be safely dramatized (although even that was subsequently shown upon the stage), but which might have originated that train of thought which was finally to shape itself into the dramatic history of King Duncan's murder, under the influence of "fate and metaphysical aid."

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The Latin quotations from Wake may be consulted in Boswell's Malone, vol. xi., pp. 280, 281.

If Shakspere visited Perth in the autumn of 1601, he was in that city within fourteen months of the period when one of the most extraordinary tragedies in the tragic history of Scotland had been acted within its walls. With the details of this real tragedy Shakspere might have been familiar without a visit to Perth; for The Earle of Gowrie's Conspiracie against the Kingis Maiestie of Scotland, at Saint Johnstoun,* vpon Tuesday the fift of August, 1600,' was printed at London by Valentine Simmes (the printer of several of Shakspere's quarto plays) in the same year that the conspiracy took place. Whatever might have been the insinuations of the Presbyterian divines in Scotland, this authorized account could not have presented itself to an unprejudiced English mind except as a circumstantial, consistent, and true relation. The judicial evidence which has been collected and published in recent times sustains this narrative in all essential particulars. Place the poet in the High Gate [High Street] of Perth, looking upon the Castle of Gowrie; let the window be pointed out to him from which the King cried out "I am murdered;" let him enter the "Blak Turnpike," the secret stair which led to the "gallery chalmer" from which the cries proceeded;-let him, surrounded with the courtiers of James, listen to the details of terror which would be crowded into the description of such an event; and Scottish history might then be searched for some parallel of a king murdered by an ambitious subject. Let us see if there are any details in the Discourse of the vnnaturall and vile Conspiracie attempted against his Maiesties person, at Saint Johnstoun, upon the fift day of August, being Tuesday, 1600,' or in the judicial evidence before the court held in Perth on the 22nd of August of that year, or in the previous examinations at the King's Palace at Falkland,† which have any resemblance to the incidents in the tragedy of Mac

beth.

John Earl of Gowrie, and his brother Alexander, the Master of Ruthven, were two young noblemen of great popularity. They had travelled; they were accomplished in many branches of knowledge. Amongst the attempts to blacken the character of the unhappy Earl it was desired to be shown that he practised sorceries, and that he conversed with sorcerers. James Weimis, of Bogy, recounts the Earl's conversations with him upon mysterious subjects;-of serpents which could be made to stand still upon pronouncing a Hebrew word; of a necromancer in Italy with whom he had dealings; of a man whose hanging he predicted, and he was hanged; "and that this deponent counselled the Earl to beware with whom he did communicate such speeches, who answered that he would communicate them to none except great scholars." Master William Reid deposed to certain magical characters found in his lord's pocket after his death; that he always kept the characters about him; and that in his opinion it was for no good. Thus, then, we encounter at the onset something like the belief of Macbeth in matters beyond human reason. "I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge." According

* Saint Johnstoun was another name for Perth.

See Pitcairn's 'Criminal Trials,' vol. ii., p. 146 to p. 332.

A Latin treatise was published at Edinburgh, in 1601, De execrabili et nefanda fratrym Rvvenorvm in serenissimi Scotorum Regis caput Conjuratione,' which learuedly dwells upon the

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to the narrative of the Gowrie Conspiracy, Alexander Ruthven met the King as he was going out of his palace at Falkland, and earnestly solicited him to go to Perth, to examine a man who had discovered a treasure. The King reluctantly consented, but at last did consent. Ruthven then directed 'Andrew Henderson, Chamberlain to the said Earl, to ride in all haste to the Earl, commanding him that he should not spare for spilling of his horse, and that he' should advertise the Earl that he hoped to move his Majesty to come thither." Compare this with the fifth scene of Macbeth :

Macbeth precedes Duncan. Alexander Ruthven goes before James. The Duke of Lennox says, "After that Master Alexander had come a certain space with his Highness, he rode away and galloped to Perth before the rest of the company towards his brother's lodgings, of purpose, as the deponent believes, to advertise the Earl of Gowrie of his Majesty's coming there." So Macbeth: Duncan comes here to-night." When Macbeth receives the prophecy of the weird sisters he is so absorbed with

"That suggestion

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature,"

that Banquo exclaims

"Look, how our partner's rapt!"

King James thought Alexander Ruthven "somewhat beside himself," and noticed his raised and uncouth staring and continued pensiveness." The description of the banquet with which Gowrie receives the King,-sorry cheer,

charge against Gowrie of tampering with supernatural aid, and which in one passage bears a still more remarkable resemblanee to the original promptings of Macbeth's ambition :-" Quis est enim in noscitandis adolescentum nostri ævi ingenijs adeo peregrinus, qui non continuo subodoretur Govvrium hæreditaria ea scabie prava curiositatis prurientem, atque in patris ac aui mores institutaque euntem, consuluisse Magum hunc, quæ sors maneret eum, aut quo fato esset periturus: et veteratoris spiritus astu (ita vt fit) ambigua aliqua responsione fucum illi factum." This is the very sentiment of Macbeth :-

"And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd,

That palter with us in a double sense;

That keep the word of promise to our car,
And break it to our hope."

according to his Majesty, excused upon the suddenness of his coming-is very remarkable: " His Majesty being set down to his dinner, the said Earl stood very pensive, and with a dejected countenance, at the end of his Majesty's table, oft rounding [whispering] over his shoulder, one while to one of his servants, and another while to another; and oft-times went out and in to the chamber." Very similar to this is the situation expressed by the original stage direction in Macbeth: "Enter a Sewer, and divers servants with dishes and service over the stage. Then enter Macbeth." We can imagine Gowrie, on one of the occasions when he went out and in to the chamber, thinking the very thoughts which Macbeth thinks aloud when he has left the King:

"If it were done, when 't is done, then 't were well

It were done quickly."

We can fancy the Master of Ruthven seeking his brother, (the favourite of the people of Perth,) as Lady Macbeth sought her husband :—

"Lady M. He has almost supp'd: Why have you left the chamber?
Macb. Hath he ask'd for me?

Lady M,

Know you not he has?

Macb. We will proceed no further in this business:
He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people."

King James is led by Master Alexander "up a turnpike, and through two or three chambers, the said Master Alexander ever locking behind him every door as he passed." Then comes the attempt at assassination. The circumstances in Macbeth are of course essentially different; but the ambition which prompted the murder of Duncan, and the attempt upon James, are identical. The King is held to have said while he was in the death grip of the Master of Ruthven, "Albeit ye bereave me of my life, ye will nought be King of Scotland, for I have both sons and daughters." So

"We will establish our estate upon

Our eldest Malcolm."

It is a singular characteristic of the Gowrie tragedy that the chief conspirators, the Earl of Gowrie and the Master of Ruthven, were put to death in so sudden a way that the real circumstances of the case must always be involved in some doubt. The evidence is not wholly satisfactory. The Duke of Lennox, who was the chief witness of credit, says of himself, the Earl of Mar, and their company, that "Notwithstanding long forcing with hammers, they got nought entry at the said chamber until after the Earl of Gowrie and his brother were both slain. And at their first entry they saw the Earl of Gowrie lying dead in the chamber, Master Alexander Ruthven being slain and taken down the stair before their entry." The official account says that Sir John Ramsey, finding the turnpike-door open (not the regular entrance, but one that led direct from the street), entered the chamber where the King and the Master "who was no sooner were struggling. He struck the traitor with his dagger, shot out at the door but he was met by Sir Thomas Erskine and Sir Hugh

The Earl of Gowrie followed stricken dead with a stroke

Herries, who there upon the stair ended him." these servants of the King; and then the Earl was through the heart which the said Sir John Ramsey gave him." Sir Thomas Erskine and Sir John Ramsey confirm this account. The people of Perth believed that the Earl of Gowrie, their Provost, was unjustly slain; and their cry was, "Bloody butchers, traitors, murderers, ye shall all die! give us forth our Provost ! Woe worth ye greencoats, woe worth this day for ever! Traitors and thieves that have slain the Earl of Gowrie!" The slaying of the two brothers gave rise to the belief that "the King was a doer, and not a sufferer."* It was this belief that moved the people of Perth to utter "most irreverent and undutiful speeches against his Majesty," even though the Earl was denounced as "a studier of magic, and a conjurer of devils." Macbeth has furnished the excuse for such a sudden slaying of the brothers :—

The people of Perth, however, became reconciled to James. On the 15th of April, 1601, The King's Majesty came to Perth, and was made burgess at the

Galloway's Discourse before the King.