**The following Songs are found in Sir William D'Avenant's alteration of this play, printed in 1674. The first and second of them were, I believe, written by him, being introduced at the end of the second Act, in a scene of which he undoubtedly was the author. Of the other song, which is sung in the third Act, the first words (Come away) are in the original copy of Macbeth, and the whole is found at length in Middleton's play, entitled The Witch, which has been lately printed from a manuscript in the collection of Major Pearson. Whether this song was written by Shakspeare, and omitted, like many others, in the printed copy cannot now be ascertained. MALONE.

ACT II.

FIRST SONG BY THE WITCHES.

1 Witch. Speak, sister, speak; is the deed done? 2 Witch. Long ago, long ago:

Above twelve glasses since have run.

3 Witch. Ill deeds are seldom slow;

Nor single following crimes on former wait
The worst of creatures fastest propagate.
Many more murders must this one ensue,
As if in death were propagation too.
2 Witch. He will-

1 Witch. He shall

3 Witch. He must spill much more blood; And become worse, to make his title good. 1 Witch. Now let's dance.

2 Witch. Agreed.

3 Witch. Agreed..

4 Witch. Agreed.

Chor. We should rejoice when good kings bleed. When cattle die, about we go;

What then, when monarchs perish, should we do?,

SECOND SONG.

Let's have a dance upon the heath;
We gain more life by Duncan's death.
Sometimes like brinded cats we shew,
Having no musick but our mew:

Sometimes we dance in some old mill,
Upon the hopper, stones, and wheel,
To some old saw, or bardish rhyme,
Where still the mill-clack does keep time.
Sometimes about an hollow tree,
Around, around, around dance we:
Thither the chirping cricket comes,
And beetle, singing drowsy hums:
Sometimes we dance o'er fens and furze,
To howls of wolves, and barks of curs:
And when with none of those we meet,
We dance to the echoes of our feet.
At the night-raven's dismal voice,
Whilst others tremble, we rejoice;
And nimbly, nimbly dance we still,
To the echoes from an hollow hill.

ACT III.

SCENE V. HECATE and the Three WITCHES.

MUSICK AND SONG.

[Within.] Hecate, Hecate, Hecate! O come away! Hec. Hark, I am call'd, my little spirit, see,

Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.

[Exeunt.

[Within.] Come away, Hecate, Hecate! O come away! Hec. I come, I come, with all the speed I may, With all the speed I may.

Where's Stadling?

2. Here. [within.]

Hec. Where's Puckle?

3. Here; [within.]

And Hopper too, and Helway too.

We want but you, we want but you:

Come away,

make up

the count.

Hec. I will but 'noint, and then I mount:

I will but 'noint, &c.

[Within.] Here comes down one to fetch his dues,

[A Machine with Malkin in it descends.

A kiss, a coll, a sip of blood;

And why thou stay'st so long, I muse,
Since the air's so sweet and good.

Hec. O, art thou come? What news?
[Within.] All goes fair for our delight:
Either come, or else refuse.

Hec. Now I'm furnish'd for the flight;

[Hecate places herself in the Machine.

Now I go, and now I fly,
Malkin, my sweet spirit, and I.
O, what a dainty pleasure's this,
To sail i'the air,

While the moon shines fair;

To sing, to toy, to dance, and kiss!
Over woods, high rocks, and mountains;
Over hills, and misty fountains;
Over steeples, towers, and turrets,
We fly by night 'mongst troops of spirits.
No ring of bells to our ears sounds,
No howls of wolves, nor yelps of hounds;
No, not the noise of water's breach,

Nor cannons' throat our height can reach. [Hecate ascends. 1 Witch. Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again. 2 Witch. But whilst she moves through the foggy air,

Let's to the cave, and our dire charms prepare.

[Exeunt.

VOL. IV.

KING JOHN.*

KING JOHN.] The troublesome Reign of King John was written in two parts, by W. Shakspeare and W. Rowley, and printed 1611. But the present play is entirely different, and infinitely superior to it. POPE.

The edition of 1611 has no mention of Rowley, nor in the account of Rowley's works is any mention made of his conjunction with Shakspeare in any play. King John was reprinted, in two parts, in 1622. The first edition that I have found of this play, in its present form, is that of 1623, in folio. The edition of 1591 I have not seen. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson mistakes, when he says there is no mention, in Rowley's works, of any conjunction with Shakspeare. The Birth of Merlin is ascribed to them jointly, though I cannot believe Shakspeare had any thing to do with it. Mr. Capell is equally mistaken, when he says (Pref. p. 15) that Rowley is called his partner in the title-page of The Merry Devil of Ed

monton.

There must have been some tradition, however erroneous, upon which Mr. Pope's account was founded. I make no doubt that Rowley wrote the first King John; and, when Shakspeare's play was called for, and could not be procured from the players, a piratical bookseller reprinted the old one, with W. Sh. in the title-page. FARMER.

The elder play of King John was first published in 1591. Shakspeare has preserved the greatest part of the conduct of it, as well as some of the lines. The number of quotations from Horace, and similar scraps of learning scattered over this motley piece, ascertain it to have been the work of a scholar. It contains likewise a quantity of rhyming Latin, and ballad-metre ; and in a scene where the Bastard is represented as plundering a monastery, there are strokes of humour, which seem, from their particular turn, to have been most evidently produced by another hand than that of our author.

Of this historical drama there is a subsequent edition in 1611, printed for John Helme, whose name appears before none of the genuine pieces of Shakspeare. I admitted this play some years ago as our author's own, among the twenty which I published from the old editions; but a more careful perusal of it, and a further conviction of his custom of borrowing plots, sentiments, &c. disposes me to recede from that opinion.

STEEVENS.

A play entitled The troublesome Raigne of John King of England, in two parts, was printed in 1591, without the writer's name. It was written, I believe, either by Robert Greene, or George Peele; and certainly preceded this of our author. Mr. Pope, who is very inaccurate in matters of this kind, says that the former was printed in 1611, as written by W. Shakspeare and W. Rowley.