By and by "He will drynke us fo dry "With the deuill of hel "We nead neuer feare "He wold fo brag and crake "That he wold than make Lyke a fier drake "And with a cole rake "Brufe them on a brake "And binde them to a ftake "And fet hel on fyre "At his owne defire "He is such a grym fyre!" Edit. 1568. Mr. Upton and fome other criticks have thought it very fcholar-like in Hamlet to fwear the Centinels on a sword: but this is for ever met with. For inftance, in the Paffus Primus of Pierce Plow man: "Dauid in his daies dubbed knightes, "And did hemfwere on her fword to ferue truth euer.” And in Hieronymo, the common butt of our author, and the wits of the time, fays Lorenzo to Pedringano, "Swear on this crofs, that what thou fayft is true- "This very word, whereon thou took'ft thine oath, We have therefore no occafion to go with Mr. Garrick as far as the French of Brantôme to illuftrate this ceremony: a gentleman, who will be always allowed the first commentator on Shakspeare, when he does not carry us beyond himself. Mr. Upton, however, in the next place, produces a paffage from Henry VI. whence he argues it to be very plain, that our author had not only read Cicero's Offices, but even more critically than many of the editors: 66 This villain here, Being captain of a pinnace, threatens more "Than Bargulus, the ftrong Illyrian pirate." So the wight, he obferves with great exultation, is named by Cicero in the editions of Shakspeare's time, "Bargulus Illyrius latro;" though the modern editors have chofen to call him Bardylis: " and thus I found it in two MSS."And thus he might have found it in two tranflations, before Shakspeare was born. Robert Whytinton, 1533, calls him, Bargulus a pirate upon the fee of Illiry;" and Nicholas Grimald, about twenty years afterward," Bargulus the Illyrian robber." But it had been eafy to have checked Mr. Upton's exultation, by obferving, that Bargulus does not appear in the quarto.-Which alfo is the cafe with fome fragments of Latin verfes, in the different parts of this doubtful performance. It is fcarcely worth mentioning, that two or three more Latin paffages, which are met with in our s Mr. Johnson's edit. Vol. VIII. p. 171. 6 I have met with a writer who tells us, that a translation of the Offices was printed by Caxton, in the year 1481: but fuch a book never exifted. It is a miftake for Tullius of old Age, printed with The Boke of Frendfbipe, by John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. I believe the former was tranflated by William Wyrceftre, alias Botoner. author, are immediately tranfcribed from the ftory or chronicle before him. Thus, in Henry V. whose right to the kingdom of France is copiously demonftrated by the Archbishop: There is no bar "To make againft your highnefs' claim to France, "Between the floods of Sala and of Elve," &c. Archbishop Chichelie, fays Holinfhed, "did much inueie against the furmifed and falfe fained law Salike, which the Frenchmen alledge euer against the kings of England in barre of their just title to the crowne of France. The very words of that fuppofed law are thefe, In terram Salicam mulieres nè fuccedant, that is to faie, Into the Salike land let not women fucceed; which the French gloffers expound to be the realm of France, and that this law was made by King Pharamond: whereas yet their owne authors affirme, that the land Salike is in Germanie, betweene the rivers of Elbe and Sala," &c. " &c. p. 545. It hath lately been repeated from Mr. Guthrie's Effay upon English Tragedy, that the portrait of Macbeth's wife is copied from Buchanan, "whose fpirit, as well as words, is tranflated into the play of Shakspeare: and it had fignified nothing to have pored only on Holinfhed for facts."" Animus etiam, per fe ferox, prope quotidianis conviciis uxoris (quæ omnium confiliorum ei erat conscia) ftimulabatur."-This is the whole, that Buchanan fays of the lady; and truly I fee no more Spirit in "The the Scotch, than in the English chronicler. wordes of the three weird fifters alfo greatly encouraged him, [to the murder of Duncan] but fpecially his wife lay fore upon him to attempt the thing, as fhe that was very ambitious, brenning in unquenchable defire to beare the name of a queene." Edit. 1577, p. 244. This part of Holinfhed is an abridgement of Johne Bellenden's tranflation of the noble clerk, Hector Boece, imprinted at Edingburgh, in fol. 1541. I will give the paffage as it is found there. "His wyfe impacient of lang tary (as all wemen ar) fpecially quhare they ar defirus of ony purpos, gaif hym gret artation to purfew the thrid weird, that sche micht be ane quene, calland hym oft tymis febyl cowart and nocht defyrus of honouris, fen he durft not affailze the thing with manheid and curage, quhilk is offerit to hym be beniuolence of fortoun. Howbeit findry otheris hes affailzeit fic thinges afore with maift terribyl jeopardyis, quhen they had not fic fickernes to fucceid in the end of thair lauboris as he had." P. 173. -Thane But we can demonftrate, that Shakspeare had not the story from Buchanan. According to him, the weird-fifters falute Macbeth, "Una Angufiæ Thamum, altera Moraviæ, tertia regem." of Angus, and of Murray, &c. but according to Holinfhed, immediately from Bellenden, as it ftands in Shakspeare: "The first of them fpake and fayde, All hayle Makbeth, thane of Glammis,-the fecond of them faid, Hayle Makbeth, thane of Cawder; but the third fayde, All hayle Makbeth, that hereafter fhall be king of Scotland." P. 243. "1. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis ! 2. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of 3. Cawdor! Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that fhalt be king hereafter!" Here too our poet found the equivocal predictions, on which his hero fo fatally depended. "He had learned of certain wyfards, how that he ought to take heede of Macduffe;and furely hereupon had he put Macduffe to death, but a certaine witch whom he had in great truft, had tolde, that he fhould neuer be flain with man born of any woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the caftell of Dunfinane." P. 244. And the scene between Malcolm and Macduff in the fourth act is almost literally taken from the Chronicle. Macbeth was certainly one of Shakspeare's latest 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 Scoto-Britannos 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. Aftronger argument hath been brought from the plot of Hamlet. Dr. Grey and Mr. Whalley affure us, that for this, Shakspeare must have read Saxo Grammaticus in Latin, for no translation hath been made into any modern language. But the truth is, he did not take it from Saxo at all; a novel called The Hyftorie of Hamblet, was his original: a fragment of which, in black letter, I have been favoured |