no less characteristically to his Ariel, is fo original, fo inimitable, that it is more like magic than invention, and his fairy poetry is as happy as it can be: It were a jest to compare Æfchylus's ghoft of Darius, or any ghost that ever walked, with the perturbed fpirit of Hamlet: Great and merited encomiums have also been paffed upon the weird fifters in that wonderful drama, and a decided preference given them over the famous Erichtho of Lucan: Preferable they doubtless are, if we contemplate them in their dramatic characters, and take into our account the grand and awful commiffion, which they bear in that scene of tragic terror; but of their poetical fuperiority, simply confidered, 1 have fome doubts; let me add to this, that when the learned commentator was instancing Lucan's Erichtho, it is matter of fome wonder with me, how he came to overlook Jonfon's witches in the Mafque of the Queens. As he has not however prevented me of the honour of bringing these two poetic champions together into the lifts, I will avail myself of the occafion, and leave it with the spectators to decide upon the contest. I will only, as their herald, give notice that the combatants are enchanters, and he that has no tafte for necromancy, nor any fcience in the terms of the art, has no right to give his voice upon the trial of fkill. SHAKESPEAR. ift Witch. Where has thou been, fister? A failor's wife had chefnuts in her lap, "And mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht-Give me, quoth I! "Aroint thee, witch, the rump-fed ronyon cries. "Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o'th' Tyger; "But in a fieve I'll thither fail, "And like a cat without a tail, "I'll do I'll do--I'll do. "2d Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 'દ 3d Witch. I myself have all the other, "And the very points they blow, "All the quarters that they know "I' th' fhipman's card. “ I will drain him dry as hay, Sleep fhall neither night nor day "Hang upon his pent-houfe lid; "He fhall live a man forbid; "Weary fev'n-nights nine times nine "Shall he dwindle, peak and pine; "Tho? "Tho' his bark cannot be loft, "2d Witch. Shew me, fhew me. 66 3d. - Here I have a pilot's thumb, "Wreckt as homeward he did come. ift Witch. A drum, a drum ! "Macbeth doth come. "All. The weird fifters hand in hand, "Pofters of the fea and land, "Thus do go about, about, "Thrice to thine and thrice to mine, "And thrice again to make up nine. "Peace! the charm's wound up.” JONSO N. "Dame. Well done, my hags "But first relate me what you have fought, "Where you have been and what you have brought. 66 "ift Hag. I have been all day looking after "A raven feeding upon a quarter ; "And foon as the turn'd her beak to the south, "I fnatcht this morfel out of her mouth. "2d Hag. I last night lay all alone "O' th' ground to hear the mandrake grone, "And pluckt him up, tho' he grew full low, "And as I had done the cock did crow. "6th Hag. I had a dagger; what did I with that? "Kill'd an infant, to have his fat; "A piper it got at a church-ale, "I bade him again blow wind in it's tail. "7th Hag. "7th Hag. A murderer yonder was hung in "chains, "The fun and the wind had flirunk his veins; "I bit off a finew, I clipt his hair, "I brought off his rags that danc'd in the air. "8th Hag. The fcrich-owl's eggs and the feathers "The blood of the frog, and the bone in his back, 66 9th Hag. And I ha' been plucking (plants among) "Hemlock, henbane, adder's tongue, 46 Night-fhade, moon-wort, libbard's-bane, "And twice by the dogs was like to be ta'en. "11th Hag. I went to the toad, breeds under the ❝ wall, “I charm'd him out, and he came at my call, "I fcratcht out the eyes of the owl before, "I tore the bat's wing-What wou'd you have more?" Dame. Yes, I have brought (to help our vows) Horned poppy, cypress boughs, The fig-tree wild, that grows on tombs, SHAKESPEAR's Charm. ift Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. Twice and once the hedge-pig whin'd. Harper cries, is time, 'tis time! "2d 3d « ist Round about the cauldron go, "In the poison'd entrails throw. "-Toad, --Toad, that under the cold stone "Days and nights has thirty-one "Swelter'd venom fleeping got, “Boil thou first i' th' charmed pot. "All. Double, double, toil and trouble, "Fire burn and cauldron bubble! "ad Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake "Eye of newt and toe of frog, "Wool of bat and tongue of dog, "All. Double, double, toil and trouble, "Fire burn and cauldron bubble! "3d Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, "Witch's mummy, maw and gulf "Of the ravening falt-sea shark, "Root of hemlock, digg'd i'th' dark; " Liver of blafpheming Jew, "Gall of goat, and flips of yew "Sliver'd in the moon's eclipfe, "Nofe of Turk and Tartar's lips, 64 Finger of birth strangled babe, "Ditch-deliver'd of a drab, "Make the gruel thick and flab; "Add thereto a tyger's chawdron "For th' ingredients of our cauldron. "All. Double, double, toil and trouble, "Fire burn and cauldron bubble! "ift Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood "Then the charm is firm and good." JONSON'S 1 |