pounds? I was told you were nephew of Lady Doldrum; and Lady Doldrum is grandmother of Lady Jane Preston; and Mr. Preston is a minister, who can do us a world of good. I knew that they had sent you venison, and the deuce knows what; and when I saw Lady Jane at my party shake you by the hand, and speak to you so kindly, I took all Abednego's tales for gospel. That was the reason you got the place, mark you, and not on account of your miserable three thousand pounds. Well, sir, a fortnight after you was with us at Fulham, I met Preston in the House, and made a merit of having given the place to his cousin. Confound the insolent 6 scoundrel!' said he; he my cousin. I suppose you take all old Doldrum's stories for true? Why, man, it's her mania; she never is introduced to a man but she finds out a cousinship, and would not fail, of course, with that cur of a Titmarsh!' 'Well,' said I, laughing,' that cur has got a good place in consequence, and the matter can't be mended.' So you see," continued our director, you were indebted for your place not to your aunt's money, but "that "But MY AUNT'S DIAMOND-PIN!" "Lucky rascal!" said Brough, poking me in the side, and going out of the way. And lucky, in faith, I thought I was. OF MACBETH. BY AN APPRENTICE OF THE LAW. PART III. SOURCES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLAY. In considering the subject-matter of this paper, it is well to keep steadily in view that Macbeth was in point of fact a warrior, a legislator, and in every respect the wisest, greatest, and best monarch that ever sat upon the Scottish throne; that he enjoyed one of the longest reigns; and that under his auspices Scotland was blessed with seventeen years of peace and plenty-the only long period of prosperity the country knew before its union with England. Be it remembered, too, that such was the strength, such the security of Macbeth's government, and such the resources of a country in his day, which was afterwards upbraided by Jean de Vienne, grand-admiral of France, as incapable from its poverty of supporting enemy to conquer or friend to defend it, that the king was enabled to make a pilgrimage to Rome, and excite the admiration of a contemporary historian (Marianus Scotus) by the large amount of his alms to the poor. The only stain upon his memory is the alleged murder of his predecessor; and whether this should be affixed is extremely doubtful,* even from the authorities known to Holinshed. We, however, from other sources, arrive at the fact that Duncan was not murdered by Macbeth, but fell in battle against him. But suppose it to be true that he did murder Duncan, it would be wrong to conclude from this one act of criminality that he must be either a bad king, or habitually a bad man. Princes in the days of Macbeth were rarely suffered, either in Scotland or in kindred Ireland, to yield their breath to time and mortal custoni, but were with scarcely an exception done to death privily, or else in the battle-field by some powerful rival. Macbeth at last shared the common fate. He was defeated in battle by an English force, supported by a large fleet which supplied it with provisions; and he was slain in the melée. His son afterwards fell in like manner. These are the historic facts. But was Shakspeare acquainted with them? It is, perhaps, impossible to determine. I see no reason, however, even if you do exclude Boethius and Buchanan, why Shakspeare should not be presumed as well to have read Wyntoun's "ancient and authentic chronicle," as the multitude of old cookery books and worthless ballads and romances, for a familiarity with which his commentators give him such lavish credit. Whether he had read Wyntoun, however, or Buchanan, who gives the same account of "the supernatural soliciting" on the part of the weird sisters as being communicated to the mind of Macbeth in a dream, it is perfectly certain that the outline of the story was taken from the more picturesque materials supplied by Hector Boethius. Holinshed derived his materials for Macbeth's story from Boethius. He, however, enlarged much upon his original, and embellished what he did take with many additional fictions. Shakspeare, it is clear, was a loving and diligent student of Holinshed; and he derived not alone the incidents of Macbeth, but a vast variety of suggestions for scenes and passages in the play from the chronicles of Scotland, with which from first to last he was familiarly acquainted. For this tragedy alone he has put divers portions of them relating to different monarchs under contribution. Hector Boethius has related his fiction respecting Macbeth with such succinctness and point that it would make a much better argument for Shakspeare's drama than any which has been yet prefixed to it. And Shakspeare, without referring to Boethius in the original, might have found the passages either in Cardan's work, or in a little volume published in 1596, and of a character, Boethius uses the doubtful phrase, "Occiso rege Duncano." By occiso might be conveyed that he was slain in fight, quite as well as that he was murdered. it must be acknowledged, very likely to have attracted Shakspeare's attention, if it be only conceded he had Latin" enough to read it. It is entitled Magica de Spectris et Apparitionibus, de Vaticiniis, Divinationibus, &c. &c. I will now give the extract, and subjoin a translation with references to the play: "Machabæus, Amitinus Regis Scotia Duncani, et Banquho Stuart Forres, vir strenuus, per silvas proficiscentes ad regem, obviam tres habuere mulieres inso. lita facie. Quarum una inquit: Salve, Machabæe, thane Glamis! hoc nomen dignitatis erat quam nuper acceperat. Altera verò inquit: Salve, Caldarie thane !' Tertio verò: Salve, Machabæe, olim rex future!' Tum Banquho: Et vos,' inquit, quæcunque estis, parum propitiæ videmini, quæ huic præter optimos magistratus, etiam regnum defertis, nec mihi quicquam.' Ad ea, quæ prima fuerat respondit: Imò tibi longè majora quam huic nunciamus. Nam hic quidam regnabit, verum infausto exitu, neminem post se ex suis posteris regem relicturus: at tu longa nepotum serie, quæ regnum obtinebit (licet tu rex futurus non sis) relicta decedes.' His dictis, è conspectu se proripuerunt. Vana primò visa sunt hæc; sed ubi Machabæus Caldarius primum (id nomen dignitatis apud Scotos), inde rex factus est præter spem, occiso Rege Duncano, cui erant filii duo, memor ostenti, conatus est Banquhonem et unicum ejus filium Fleanchem, ad cœnam invitatos, occidere; occiso patre, tenebrarum suffragio filius evasit. Tandem a Malcolmo, tertio Duncani filio, Machabæus occisus est ; et post multas stirpes, regnum in familiam et pronepotes Banquhonis Stuart apud, cujus stirpis puella adhuc manet, translatum est." Macbeth, cousin-german of Duncan, king of Scotland, and Banquo Stuart, a man of signal courage, journeying through the woods to the king at Forres, † met on their way three women of strange appearance. Of whom one says, All hail, Macbeth, thane of Glamis!" This was the name of a dignity which he bad lately received. But the second says, * Cardan. lib. 16, cap. 93, ex Hectore Boëthio. This town of Forres and the neighbouring district are very famous in the Scottish chronicles, as scenes for the celebration of witchcraft. Witches and wizards seem to have abounded there. The witches who were practising against the life of King Duff were caught in the fact at Forres. "By Sinel's death I know I am Thane of Glamis." It is to be presumed that Macbeth's father had but recently died, and that the intelligence had been conveyed express to his successor, and was not generally known : "1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis ! 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter! Banquo. Thou hast it now, king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, Thou play'dst most foully for't." The invitation to supper- the murder of Banquo- the escape of Fleauce, are all given circumstantially. It remained for Shakspeare's genius to add the banquetscene. It is evident, from the doubt and difference of opinion as to who Malcolm was, whether eldest of two or youngest of three sons of Duncan, legitimate or illegitimate, as well as from the fact of Banquo and Fleance being fictitious characters, that the genealogy of the Stuarts is rather more decidedly fabulous than such things usually are. "All hail, Thane of Calder!" and the third, "All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!" Then Banquo: "And you," quoth he, "whoever you are, seem little propitious, who to him, besides the loftiest places, present even the kingdom, and to me, the whilst, nothing." To these she who was the first maketh answer, Yea, to thee far greater tidings do we announce than unto him. For he, indeed, will reign, but to an unlucky end, being to leave after him no one of his descend. ants a king; but you, although you may not be a king yourself, will depart having left a long line of descendants which shall obtain the kingdom." Having said this, they snatched themselves away from sight. These originally seemed idle ; ‡ but when Macbeth was made first Calder (which with the Scots is the name of a dignity), and afterwards beyond expect. ation king (King Duncan, who had two sons, being slain), mindful of the prophetic vision, he endeavoured to kill Banquo and bis only son, Fleance, whom he had invited to supper. The father was struck dead; but the son, aided by the darkness, escaped. At length Macbeth was killed by Malcolm, a third son of Duncan's; and after many races, the kingdom came into the family and posterity of Banquo Stuart, of whose stock there is a girl yet remaining. Holinshed, as has been observed, added and embellished considerably. As an example of this, the opening of the story may well serve. Besides the statement of sundry particulars from the chronicler's own imagination, we have the simple "obviam tres habuere mulieres insolita facie' expanded into this picturesque passage: "When suddenly, in the midst of a laund, there met them three wo men, in strange and ferly apparell, resembling creatures of an elder world." Much reason, however, have we to rejoice in the discursive fancy of the fine old chronicler. Shakspeare has been indebted to divers portions of his history for materials. IIe has availed himself in great part of the circumstances attending and the prodigies which followed the murder of King Duffe. He also caught from Holinshed suggestions as to the bearing and instigations of Macbeth's wife. He has done little more than turn the conversation between Macduff and Malcolm into blank verse; but upon this his genius raised that soul-searching and most terrible scene, in which Rosse well declares "But I have words That would be howl'd out in the desert air, Where hearing should not latch & them." He also adopted many of Holinshed's antique words, against which some of the commentators raised ignorant objections; and he caught suggestions, perhaps, for some of his noblest passages from facts related in the chronicles. It is not difficult to suppose that, while writing for Macbeth, "Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!" he had in his mind what is related of Kenneth, who was pure in person, and "clear in his great office" of all except the taking off his predecessor, Malcolm Duffe. "For so cometh it to pass that such as are pricked in conscience for any secret offence com Shakspeare's publisher erroneously spells the title "Cawdor;" but the pronunciation in either case is the same. Part of Calder castle was still standing when Dr. Johnson visited the Western Isles of Scotland. + Macbeth writes:" When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished." (As in the vision of Sylla, to which I referred in Part II.) Holinshed paraphrases "vana" by "fantastical illusions." Shakspeare avails himself of the word. Banquo says, "Are ye fantastical?" § Steevens says, in respect of this correct reading "latch" from the old copy, two things, from both of which I venture to differ. First, that " to latch any thing is to lay hold of it;" second, that "to latch (in the north country dialect) signifies the same as to catch." Now, in my opinion, to latch never means more than to put under latch, and figuratively, to secure. It is the ancient phrase, which has been superseded by the modern "under lock and key;" as the old latch for keeping close the door has been superseded, except in Irish cabins, by the modern lock and key. In the several passages from old writers which Steevens quotes in support of his first assertion, latch properly bears the interpretation I have assigned to it. In the passage from Shakspeare, "latch" suggests the notion of civilised as contradistinguished from savage life. The words were to be howled out in the desert air-not spoken within the precincts of human habitations or heard-and so secured under the latch of human ears to be conveyed to the mind of man. |