to almost the last day of his life, a prophecy of similar exaltation makes no impression; who puts aside the whole suggestion as one coming from 'the instruments of darkness;' who prays that his heart may be kept, even in sleep, from evil thoughts; whose simple loyalty futilizes all solicitations to treason even before they are made; and who, at last, is mercifully removed by the murderer's sword, just when otherwise he might have followed the example of MACBETH, and plunged into a vortex of conspiracy and crime.

Thus admirably is the main action aided by the secondary characters, as we have seen it to be by the secondary events. With regard to the language of the tragedy, the careful reader will notice the absence, at least from the passages of movement and passion, of almost all difficulties and obscurity. It may well be so; for such searching scrutinies of nature make the whole world kin; and interpreters are not needed. The simplicity and unity of its development make it a favourite, as Gervinus remarks, with nations of other than the Teutonic stock; while we must acknowledge, as he says, ‘its unique pre-eminence in the splendour of poetic and picturesque diction, and in the living representation of persons, times, and places.' 'It completely takes the local tone,' he continues, 'from the highlands of Scotland; where everything appears tinged with superstition and with tangible intercommunion with the supernatural world; and full of prognostics of the moral life through signs in the animate and inanimate kingdom; where, in conformity with this, men are credulous in belief and excitable in fancy; where they speak, like popular orators of the Gaelic race, with strong expressions, with highly poetical language, and with unusual imagery.'

It will follow from these remarks that a most vehement protest ought to be made against any attempt (and many such have been made on the stage) to alter the tone and character of the play. Schiller, in his German translation

of it, omits the murder of the MACDUFFS, and brings out the PORTER in Act ii. Sc. 3, to sing a somewhat childish morning hymn. The one alteration destroys the motive of MACDUFF's deadly enmity, and the other sweeps away the atmosphere of barbarism which is so essential to the true feeling of the play. Even now there are sometimes traces on the stage of Davenant's comic arrangement of the witch passages; and the action is, we believe, regularly interrupted by Matthew Locke's music (which some people admire) set to words from Middleton's 'Witch.' To what age or generation this corruption is to be originally attributed is one of the most vexed questions of criticism. The Cambridge editors are strongly in favour of the opinion that Shakspere's vast tolerance allowed insertions into his own play even when first represented; or even that he worked in concert with Middleton, sometimes rewriting or retouching his scenes, sometimes adopting them as they stood. Thus it is supposed that the Hecate scenes and some others originated. And the supposition is in harmony with the apparently slight estimation of his own labours, which made Shakspere leave so many of his works to be gathered from the most haphazard and incorrect copies. But, however this may be, our own generation, which has restored the massive splendours of Israel in Egypt' to their original and unbroken sequence, ought surely to deal no less respectfully with the masterpieces of Shakespere's genius, and to insist that their effect shall not be marred, either by buffoonery in the mode of acting, or by interpolations which interrupt and deform the grand proportions of the original.

RUGBY, Sept. 1872.

SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, general of the Eng

lish forces.

Young SIWARD, son to the Earl of Northumberland.
SEYTON, an officer attending on Macbeth.

Son to Macduff.

An English Doctor.

A Scotch Doctor.

A Soldier.

A Porter.

An old Man.

LADY MACBETH.

LADY MACDUFF.

Gentlewoman, attending on Lady Macbeth.

HECATE.

Three Witches.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers. The Ghost of Banquo, and other Apparitions.

SCENE: In the end of Act IV. in England; through the rest of the Play in Scotland.

For convenience of reference, the numbering of the lines is

that of the Globe edition.

MACBETH

АСТ І.

SCENE I.-An open place.

Thunder and Lightning.

Enter three WITCHES.

FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

SECOND WITCH. When the hurlyburly's done,

When the battle's lost and won:

THIRD WITCH. That will be ere the set of sun.

FIRST WITCH. Where the place?

SECOND WITCH.

Upon the heath:

THIRD WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth.

FIRST WITCH. I come, Graymalkin !

ALL. Paddock calls :-Anon.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair :

IO

Hover through the fog and filthy air. [WITCHES vanish.

I When shall we three meet again? Our present orgies being ended, and all the mischief immediately possible being done, when shall we have fine witch-weather for our next meeting?

3 The hurlyburly. The weather will be fierce enough by the time the battle is over. The word is an 'onomatopoeia,' to express uproar and tumultuous stir,' and is used in the Utopia, "Who be bolder stomaked to bring all in a hurlie-burlie than they that have nothing to lose?" Cotgrave gives it as a rendering of the French 'grabuge' (compare Manzoni's Azzecca-garbuglia).

8, 9 Graymalkin. Paddock. The witches are supposed to be summoned by familiar spirits in the form of cats and toads. They answer 'anon,' as a waiter in a tavern does when called (1 Hen. IV. ii. 4). See also the explanation of this word and of Malkin (Marykin) in the Glossary to 'Coriolanus.'

II Fair is foul. Fair weather is foul for us, foul weather fair.