It would be wholly unsuitable to a work which professed to illustrate the writings of Shakespeare only, to enter at large into this branch of the popular superstitions of northern Europe it is in itself a subject for a volume, and a very curious work it would undoubtedly be, in which the notions which have prevailed respecting the beings going under the generic name of witches were classified and compared, and each species traced to its origin, just as such a work would be on the fairy-mythology of which we have so much in Shakespeare. But the margins of an edition of Shakespeare are not the place for the results of such curious and learned inquiry. It is sufficient to point out, as the commentators have already done, that Shakespeare found in Hollinshead, and might have found elsewhere, or that he learned it from the exhibition at Saint John's, that there was a story in the romance history of Scotland of the three prophetesses, sybils, witches, or, as he calls them, the wayward sisters, meeting the two thanes, and predicting the great things to happen to them, and then to shew that this was in consistency with the popular belief.

One question, however, arises, of some moment to the right understanding of this play, which the commentators appear to have left undetermined; and this is-What was the number of the wayward sisters? Were they three only; or was the number unlimited? and has Shakespeare introduced us to more than three, besides Hecate, the Queen or mother of all?

Now, the facts are these:-The play opens with three witches only. At their interview with Macbeth and Banquo there are three only. In the fifth scene of the third act when Hecate is first introduced, there are only three. At the opening of the fourth act, we find the three around their cauldron, when after a while occurs this stage-direction"Enter Hecate, and the other three witches." What other

three? We have had no witches so far, except the three to whom Hecate enters: and when Macbeth enters, and he calls upon them to shew him his destiny, it is manifest that it is the same three witches whom we have had from the beginning who declare his fortune to him, and no other; so that if three strange witches enter with Hecate they are mutes, and, moreover, have nothing to do. On the whole I have no doubt that there has been all along an error in the stage-direction, and that, as the Poet left it, it ought to be no more than this-" Enter Hecate."

No doubt there was no limit to the number of persons called witches. Every parish in Scotland might have had one or more than one. But the wayward sisters, who are the witches of this play, were only three; corresponding to the fates of another mythology. Mr. Hole regards them as the Northern Parcæ, and finds them in Scandinavian mythology, known by the names of Urda, Valdandi, and Skulda, who presided over the past, the present, and the future. (See his Arthur; or, The Northern Enchantment, 8vo. 1789. p. xi. and 7.)

In the regulation of this play, it appears to me that this is far from being the only instance in which the stage-directions, including under the term the name prefixed to certain speeches, are grievously corrupted.

In the remarks upon particular passages to which we now proceed several instances will occur. The criticism may sometimes be thought bold. I only say, Strike, but hear me! or, rather peruse the scenes in the light in which I shall place them. It is a point quite notorious that the stage-directions throughout the folios are very carelessly given, and have often been silently corrected by the later editors. So carelessly have they been given, that we have sometimes the actor's name instead of that of the character.

With these observations premised, I begin the miscellaneous remarks with proposing a new regulation of the opening scene in the play.

.

ALL.-Fair is foul and foul is fair.

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Now we have the three times three of the witches at Saint John's; and we may perceive also a correspondency with the

Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again to make up nine.

1. 2. SOLDier.

Of KERNES and GALLOW-GLASSES is supplied.

Enough it may be thought has been said on these Kernes and Gallow-glasses, but the two following quotations seem to give a clearer account of them than we find at present in the notes:

Coyne and liveri is this; there will come a Kerne or Galliglas, whiche be the Irish soldiers, to lie in the churl's house; whiles he is there he wil be master of the house, he wil not only have meat, but money also allowed him, and at his departure the best things he shall see in the churl's house, be it linnen, cloth, a shirt, mantle, or such like. Thus is the churl eaten up, so that if dearth fall in the country where he dwelleth, he should be the first starved, not being master of his own.

A Letter sent by J. B., gentleman, unto his very friend Master R. C., es

* "There to meet with Macbeth," in the original copies.

quire, wherein is contained a large discourse of the peopling and inhabiting the cuntry called Ardes, and other adjacent, in the North of Ireland, & taken in hand by Sir Thomas Smith, &c. 1572.

In latter times, as Ware, Antiq. c. 12, p. 57, judiciously remarks, their foot [speaking of the Scots of the Milesian race, the ancient inhabitants of Ireland] were of two sorts, the heavy and light-armed; the first were called Galloglachs, armed with a helmet and coat of mail, bound with iron rings, and wore a long sword. They fought also with a most keen axe, after the manner of the Gauls, mentioned by Marcellinus: their light-armed infantry called Keherns, fought with bearded javelins, and short daggers, named skeyns.—Dissertation on the Antient History of Ireland. Dublin, 1753, 8vo. p. 70.

I. 2. SOLDIER.

But all's too weak.

It should be " But all-to-weak," an old idiom expiring in the time of Shakespeare; that is, Fortune was all-to-weak, a connection which is lost in the present reading.

1. 3. FIRST WITCH. AROINT THEE, witch!

The difficulty here has been to find any parallel uses of this word. Yet such are to be found, though they are rare. There is a volume intitled, A brife accompt of moost wonderfulle and villanous rebellyon of the traytour Perkin, Perkun, or Peterkin Warbeck, Wabbeck, or Osbeck, against the royall grace King Henry the Seventhe. By Johanne Berchyl, Doctor of Physicke. The author relates that an officer of the Duchess of Burgundy bringing Perkin some information that was unpleasant, he rose in a fury and said, "Araunte thee, thou crokeing bird of eville, thou hast an ill-favoured vysage, and beest moste unwelcume to my syte, therforre gette thee gonne." I owe this to The Monthly Mirror for October, 1810. Authorities for Aroint are so rare, that any ought to be brought to light. I never saw Berchyl's book, which must be one of great rarity.

I. 3. SECOND WITCH.

I'll give thee a wind.

Shakespeare adheres to the Scandinavian notion.

Some say the sorcerers near the North Sea use to sell the wind to sailors in glasses, and it is so ever more among them that they will laugh as much at those that believe it not, as we would be [do] to hear one tell it.-Harington's Notes on the XXXVIIIth Book of Orlando Furioso.

For practice of witchcraft and sorcery, they [the Laplanders] pass all nations in the world. Though for the enchanting of ships that sail along their coasts (as I have heard it reported) and their giving of winds, good to their friends and contrary to other whom they mean to hurt, by tying of certain knots upon a rope (somewhat like to the tale of Eolus his wind-bag) is a very fable, devised (as may seem) by themselves, to terrify sailors from coming near their coast. Of the Russe Commonwealth, by Giles Fletcher, 1591, p. 77 b.

The way in which they proceeded is thus described by Heywood

The Finnes and Laplands are acquainted well

With such like spirits, and winds to merchants sell,
Making their covenant, when and how they please
They may with prosperous weather cross the seas.
As thus they in a handkerchief fast tie
Three knots unloose the first, and by and by
You find a gentle gale blow from the shore;

Open the second, it increaseth more,

To fill your sails. When you the third untie

Th' intemperate gusts grow vehement and high.

HIERARCHY OF THE BLESSED ANGELS, 1635, p. 506.

Lastly, Howell, in one of his letters, says, "In some of the Northern Countries 'tis as ordinary to buy and sell winds as it is to do wines in other parts, and hereof I could instance in some examples of my own knowledge."-Letters, 1647. Part III. p. 23.

The "shipman's card," which occurs in the subsequent speech of the First Witch, is not the card of the mariner's compass, but what we now call a chart. Thus in Hackluyt's Virginia Richly Valued, 1609, "John Danesco said that he had seen the sea-card, and that from the place where they were the coast ran east and west unto Rio de las Palmas, and