had given a very formal account of the practices and illusions of evil fpirits, the compacts of witches, the ceremonies used by them, the manner of detecting them, and the justice of punishing them, in his dialogues of Dæmonologie, written in the Scottish dialect, and published at Edinburgh. This book was, foon after his fucceffion, reprinted at London, and as the ready way to gain king James's favour was to flatter his fpeculations, the system of Dæmonologie was immediately adopted by all who defired either to gain preferment or not to lose it. Thus the doctrine of witchcraft was very powerfully inculcated; and as the greatest part of mankind have no other reafon for their opinions than that they are in fashion, it cannot be doubted but this perfuafion made a rapid progrefs, fince vanity and credulity co-operated in its faThe infection foon reached the parliament, who, in the first year of king James, made a law, by which it was enacted, chap. xii. That "if any perfon fhall use any invocation or conjuration of any evil or wicked fpirit; 2. or shall confult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any evil or cursed spirit to or for any intent or purpofe; 3. or take up any dead man, woman, or child, out of the grave,-or the skin, bone, or any part of the dead perfon, to be employed or used in any manner of witchcraft, forcery, charm, or enchantment; 4. or fhall ufe, practise, or exercife any fort of witchcraft, forcery, charm, or enchantment; 5. whereby any person shall be destroyed, killed, wafted, confumed, pined, or lamed in any part of the body; 6. That every fuch perfon being convicted shall fuffer death." This law was repealed in our own time.

vour.

Thus, in the time of Shakspeare, was the doctrine of witchcraft at once established by law and by the fashion, and it became not only unpolite, but criminal, to doubt it; and as prodigies are always feen in proportion as they are expected, witches were every day discovered, and multiplied fo faft in fome places, that bishop Hall mentions a village in Lancashire, where their number was greater than that of the houfes. The jefuits and fectaries took advantage of this univerfal error, and endeavoured to promote the interest of their parties by pretended cures of perfons afflicted by evil fpirits; but they were detected and exposed by the clergy of the established church.

Upon this general infatuation Shakspeare might be easily

allowed

allowed to found a play, especially fince he has followed with great exactness such hiftories as were then thought true; nor can it be doubted that the scenes of enchantment, however they may now be ridiculed, were both by himself and his audience thought awful and affecting.

JOHNSON.

In the concluding paragraph of Dr. Johnfon's admirable introduction to this play, he seems apprehenfive that the fame of Shakfpeare's magic may be endangered by modern ridicule. I fhall not hesitate, however, to predict its fecurity, till our national taste is wholly corrupted, and we no longer deferve the first of all dramatic enjoyments; for fuch, in my opinion at least, is the tragedy of Macbeth. STEEVENS.

Malcolm II. king of Scotland, had two daughters. The eldest was married to Crynin, the father of Duncan, Thane of the Ifles, and western parts of Scotland; and on the death of Malcolm, without male iffue, Duncan fucceeded to the throne. Malcolm's fecond daughter was married to Sinel, Thane of Glamis, the father of Macbeth. Duncan, who married the daughter of Siward, Earl of Northumberland, was murdered by his coufin german, Macbeth, in the caftle of Invernefs, according to Buchanan, in the year 1040; according to Hector Boethius, in 1045. Boethius, whose hiftory of Scotland was first printed in seventeen books, at Paris, in 1526, thus describes the event which forms the basis of the tragedy before us : "Makbeth, be perfuafion of his wyfe, gaderit his friendis to ane counfall at Invernes, quhare kyng Duncane happennit to be for ye tyme. And because he fand fufficient opportunitie, be fupport of Banquho and otheris his friendis, he flew kyng Duncane, the vii zeir of his regne." After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth "come with ane gret power to Scone, and tuk the crowne." Chroniclis of Scotland, translated by John Bellenden, folio, 1541. Macbeth was himself flain by Macduff in the year 1061, according to Boethius; according to Buchanan, in 1057; at which time king Edward the Confeffor poffeffed the throne of England. Holinfhed copied the history of Boethius, and on Holinihed's relation Shakspeare formed his play.

In the reign of Duncan, Banquo having been plundered by the people of Lochabar of fome of the king's revenues, which he had collected, and being dangerously wounded in the affray, the per

fons

fons concerned in this outrage were fummoned to appear at a certain day. But they flew the ferjeant at arms who fummoned them, and chofe one MACDOWALD as their captain. Macdowald speedily collected a confiderable body of forces from Ireland and the Western Isles, and in one action gained a victory over the king's army. In this battle, Malcolm, a Scottish nobleman, who was (fays Boethius) "Lieutenant to Duncan in Lochabar," was flain. Afterwards Macbeth and Banquo were appointed to the command of the army; and Macdowald being obliged to take refuge in a castle in Lochabar, first flew his wife and children, and then himself. Macbeth on entering the castle finding his dead body, ordered his head to be cut off, and carried to the king, at the castle of Bertha, and his body to be hung on a high tree.

At a subsequent period, in the last year of Duncan's reign, Sueno king of Norway, landed a powerful army in Fife, for the purpose of invading Scotland. Duncan immediately affembled an army to oppofe him, and gave the command of two divifions of it to Macbeth and Banquo, putting himself at the head of a third. Sueno was fuccefsful in one battle, but in a second was routed; and after a great flaughter of his troops he escaped with ten perfons only, and fled back to Norway. Though there was an interval of time between the rebellion of Macdowald and the invasion of Sueno, our author has woven these two actions together, and immediately after Sueno's defeat the prefent play com

mences.

It is remarkable that Buchanan has pointed out Macbeth's hiftory as a subject for the stage. "Multa hic fabulofe quidam noftrorum affingunt; fed, quia theatris aut Milefiis fabulis funt aptiora quam hiftoriæ, ea, omitto. RERUM SCOT. HIST. L. VII. But there was no translation of Buchanan's work till after our author's death.

This tragedy was written, I believe, in the year 1606.

MALONE.

SIWARD, earl of Northumberland, general of the English

forces:

Young SIWARD, his fon.

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, and three Witches.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Meffengers.

The Ghoft of Banquo, and feveral other Apparitions.

SCENE, in the end of the fourth act, lies in England; through the rest of the play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's caftle.

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