evil, were probably interpolated previous to a representation at Court. We have doubts about the second scene of act v. In v. 5, lines 47-50, If this which he avouches does appear, There is no flying hence nor tarrying here. I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish the estate o' the world were now undone,' are singularly weak, and read like an unskilful imitation of other passages, where Macbeth's desperation is interrupted by fits of despondency. How much better the sense is without them! 'Arm, arm, and out! Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack! In v. 8. 32, 33, the words, Before my body I throw my warlike shield,' are also, we think, interpolated. Finally, the last forty lines of the play show evident traces of another hand than Shakespeare's. The double stage direction, 'Exeunt, fighting'-'Enter fighting, and Macbeth slaine,' proves that some alteration had been made in the conclusion of the piece. Shakespeare, who has inspired his audience with pity for Lady Macbeth, and made them feel that her guilt has been almost absolved by the terrible retribution which followed, would not have disturbed this feeling by calling her a 'fiend-like queen'; nor would he have drawn away the veil which with his fine tact he had dropt over her fate, by telling us that she had taken off her life ‘by self and violent hands.' We know that it is not easy to convince readers that such and such passages are not in Shakespeare's manner, because their notion of Shakespeare's manner is partly based on the assumption that these very passages are by Shakespeare. Assuming, however, that we have proved our case so far, how are we to account for the intrusion of this second and inferior hand? The first hypothesis which presents itself is that Shakespeare wrote the play in conjunction with Middleton or another as 'collaborateur.' We know that this was a very common practice with the dramatists of his time. It is generally admitted that he assisted Fletcher in the composition of The Two Noble Kinsmen; and Mr. Spedding has shown, conclusively as we think, that Fletcher assisted him in the composition of Henry VIII. We might suppose, therefore, that after drawing out the scheme of Macbeth, Shakespeare reserved to himself all the scenes in which Macbeth or Lady Macbeth appeared, and left the rest to his assistant. We must further suppose that he largely retouched, and even rewrote in places, this assistant's work, and that in his own work his good nature occasionally tolerated insertions by the other. But, then, how did it happen that he left the inconsistencies and extravagances of the second scene of act i. uncorrected? On the whole we incline to think that the play was interpolated after Shakespeare's death, or at least after he had withdrawn from all connection with the theatre. The interpolator was, not improbably, Thomas Middleton; who, to please the groundlings,' expanded the parts originally assigned by Shakespeare to the weird sisters, and also introduced a new character, Hecate. The signal inferiority of her speeches is thus accounted for. If we may trust Simon Forman's account of the play1, it originally began with the scene in which Macbeth and Banquo appear. Their conversation, which acquainted the audience with the battle which had just occurred, was probably cut out and its place supplied by the narrative of the 'bleeding sergeant,' in which some of Shakespeare's lines may have been incorporated, as (11) 'The multiplying villanies of nature,' and (55-57) 'Confronted him .. lavish spirit.' The twelve lines which now make the first scene, and which from 1 On this point, however, we must not lay too much stress. Forman omits all mention of Macbeth's second interview with the witches, iv. I. 48-124, which is unquestionably Shakespeare's work. And he may have arrived at the theatre a few minutes late. long familiarity we regard as a necessary introduction to the play, are not unworthy of Shakespeare, but on the other hand do not rise above the level which is reached by Middleton and others of his contemporaries in their happier moments. When King James visited Oxford in 1605, a Latin play or interlude, on the subject of Macbeth, was performed in his presence. This, Farmer thinks, may have suggested the subject to Shakespeare. Doubtless Holinshed supplied to the Oxford dramatist, as to Shakespeare, the materials for his work, and in both cases a subject was chosen from Scottish history with the view of interesting the Scottish monarch. Shakespeare's play would be none the less popular for representing the rightful heir restored to his throne by a victorious English army. The single authority consulted by Shakespeare for this, as for all other plays connected with the histories of England and Scotland, was Holinshed's Chronicle. The details of Duncan's murder are evidently borrowed from Holinshed's account of the murder of King Duffe by Donwald, which we give here at length, together with the narrative of his pining away under the influence of witchcraft, as it may serve to illustrate some of the expressions in the witch scenes of the play. The reforms commenced by the king had caused great discontent among the nobles. 'In the meane time the king fell into a languishing disease, not so greeuous as strange, for that none of his Phisitions coulde perceyue what to make of it. For there was seene in him no token, that either choler, melancolie, flegme, or any other vicious humor did any thing abounde, whereby his body should be brought into such a decay & consumption (so as there remayned vnneth2 any thing vpon him saue skin & bone :) & sithence it appeared manifestly by all outward signes & tokens, that natural moisture did nothing faile in ye vital sprits his colour also was freshe & fayre to behold, with such liuelinesse of lookes, that more was not to be 2 scarcely, hardly. wished for he had also a temperate desire & appetite to his meate & drinke, but yet could he not sleepe in the night time by any prouocations that could be deuised, but still fell into exceeding sweates, which by no meanes might be restreyned. The Physitions perceyuing all theyr medicines to wante the effect, yet to put him in some comfort of help, declared vnto him that they would sende for some cunning Phisitions into foraine parties, who haply being inured with such kind of diseases, should easily cure him, namely so soone as the spring of the yeare was once come, whiche of it self should help much thervnto. . . . . But about that present time there was a murmuring amongst the people, how the king was vexed with no naturall sicknesse, but by sorcery and Magicall arte, practised by a sort of Witches dwelling in a towne of Murrayland, called Fores. Wherevpon albeit, the Authour of this secrete talke was not knowen, yet being brought to the kings eare, it caused him to sende foorthwith certaine wittie persons thither to enquyre of the truth. They that were thus sent, dissembling the cause of theyr iourney, were receyued in the darke of the night into the castell of Fores by the lieutenant of the same, called Donwald, who continuing faithful to the king, had kepte that castell agaynst the rebelles to the kings vse. Vnto him therefore these messengers declared the cause of theyr comming, requiring his ayde for the accomplishment of the kings pleasure. The souldiers whiche lay there in garison had an inkeling that there was some such mater in hand as was talked of amongst the people, by reason that one of them kept as concubine a yong woman which was doughter to one of ye witches as his paramour, who told him the whole maner vsed by hir mother & other hir companions, with ye intent also, which was to make away the king. The souldier hauing learned this of his leman, told the same to his fellowes, who made reporte therof to Donewald, & he shewed it to the kings messengers, & therwith sent for the yong damosell which the souldier kept, as then being within the castell, & caused hir vpon streyt examination to confesse the whole mater as she had seene & knew: whervpon learning by hir confession in what house in the towne it was where they wrought theyr mischeeuous misterie, he sent foorth souldiers, about the midst of the night, who breaking into ye house, found one of the Witches rosting vpon a woodden broche an image of waxe at the fire, resembling in ech feature the kings person, made & deuised as is to be thought, by craft & arte of the Deuill: an other of them sat reciting certain words of enchauntment, & still basted the image with a certaine licour very busily. The souldiers finding them occupied in this wise, tooke them togither with the image, & led them into the castell, where being streitly examined for what purpose they went about such maner of enchantment, they answered, to the end to make away ye king for as ye image did wast afore the fire, so did the bodie of the king breake forth in sweate. And as for the wordes of enchauntment, they serued to keepe him still waking from sleepe, so that as the waxe euer melted, so did the kings flesh: by which meanes it should haue come to passe, that when ye waxe were once cleane consumed, the death of the king should immediatly follow. So were they taught by euill sprites, & hyred to worke the feat by the nobles of Murrayland. The standers by that herd such an abhominable tale told by these Witches, streight wayes brake the image, & caused ye Witches (according as they had well deserued) to bee burnt to death. It was sayd that the king, at the very same time that these things were a doyng within the castell of Fores, was deliuered of his languor, and slepte that night without any sweate breaking forth vpon him at all, and the next day being restored to his strength, was able to do any maner of thing that lay in man to do, as though he had not bene sicke before any thing at all. But how soeuer it came to passe, truth it is that when he was restored to his perfect health, he gathered a power of men, and with the same went into Murrayland against the rebels there, and chasing them from thence, he pursued them into Rosse, & from Rosse into Cathnese, where apprehending them, he brought them backe vnto Fores, and there caused them to |