ted, like many others, in the printed copy, cannot now be ascertained. MALONE. ACT II. FIRST SONG BY THE WITCHES. 3. Witch. Ill deeds are feldom flow; 1. Witch. He fhall 3. Witch. He muft fpill 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 fhould rejoice when good kings bleed. What then, when monarchs perish, should we do? SECOND SONG. Let's have a dance upon the heath; [Exeunt. [Within.] Hecate, Hecate, Hecate! O come away! [Within.] Come away, Hecate, Hecate! O come away! Where's Stadling? 2. Here. [within.] 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 defcends.t A kifs, a coll, a fip of blood; And why thou ftay'ft fo long, I mufe, Hec. O, art thou come? What news? Hec. Now I'm furnish'd for the flight; [Hecate places herself in the Machine. Now I go, and now I fly, While the moon shines fair; To fing, to toy, to dance and kifs! Over woods, high rocks, and mountains; *And Hopper too, and Helway too.] In The Witch, thefe perfonages are called Hoppo and Hellwayne. MALONE. This ftage-direction I have added. In The Witch there is here the following marginal note: "A fpirit like a cat defcends." In Sir W. D'Avenant's alteration of Macbeth, printed in 1674, this fong, as well as all the reft of the piece, is printed very incorrectly. I have endeavoured to diftribute the different parts of the fong before us, as, I imagine, the author intended. MALONE. Over bills, &c.] In The Witch, inftead of this line we find : Over feas, our mistrefs' fountains. MALONE. Over fteeples, towers, and turrets, [Hecate afcends. 1. Witch. Come, let's make hafte; fhe'll foon be back again. 2. Witch. But whilft she moves through the foggy air, Let's to the cave, and our dire charms prepare. [Exeunt. Notes omitted (on account of length) in their proper places. [See p. 396. ] bis trvo chamberlains Will I with wine and waffel fo convince, &c. When we have mark'd with blood thofe fleepy two Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers, That they have don't?] In the original Scottish History by Boethius, and in Holinfhed's Chronicle, we are merely told that Macbeth flew Duncan at Invernefs. No particulars whatsoever are mentioned. The circumftance of making Duncan's chamberlains drunk, and laying the guilt of his murder upon them, as well as fome other circumstances, our author has taken from the hiftory of Duffe, king of Scotland, who was murdered by Donwald, Captain of the castle of Fores, about eighty years before Duncan afcended the throne. The fact is thus told by Holinfhed, in p. 150 of his Scottish Hiftory (the hiftory of the reign of Duncan commences in p. 168): "Donwald, not forgetting the reproach which his linage had fufteined by the execution of thofe his kinfmen, whom the king for a fpectacle to the people had caused to be hanged, could not but fhew manifeft tokens of great griefe at home amongst his familie: which his wife perceiving, ceafed not to travell with him till fhe understood what the caufe was of his difpleasure. Which at length when the had learned by his owne relation, fhe, as one that bare no leffe malice in hir heart, for the like caufe on his behalfe, than hir hufband did for his friends, counfelled him, (fith the king ufed oftentimes to lodge in his house without anie gard about him other than the garrifon of the caftle, [of Fores,] which was wholie at his commandement) to make him awaie, and fhowed him the meanes whereby he might fooneft accomplish it. Donwald, thus being the more kindled in wrath by the words of his wife, determined to follow hir advice in the execution of fo heinous an act. Whereupon devifing with himfelfe for a while, which way hee might beft accomplish his curfed intent, at length gat opportunitie, and fped his purpofe as followeth. It chanced that the king upon the daie before he purposed to depart foorth of the caftell, was long in his oratorie at his praiers, and there continued till it was late in the night. At the laft, comming foorth, he called fuch afore him as had faithfullie ferved him in purfute and apprehenfion of the rebels, and giving them heartie thanks be befowed jundrie honourable gifts amongst them, of the which number Donwald was one, as he that had been ever accounted a most faithful fervant to the king. At length, having talked with them a long time he got him into his privie chamber, onlie with two of his chamberlains, who having brought him to bed, came foorth againe, and then fell to banketting with Donwald and his wife, who had prepared diverse delicate dishes, and fundrie forts of drinks for their reare fupper or collation, whereat they fate up fo long, till they had charged their ftomachs with fuch full gorges, that their heads were no fooner got to the pillow, but afleepe they were fo faft, that a man might have removed the chamber over them, foouer than to have awaked them out of their drunken fleepe. Then Donwald, though he abhorred the act greatlie in heart, yet through inftigation of his wife, he called foure of his fervants unto him, (whom he had made privie to his wicked intent before, and framed to his purpofe with large gifts,) and now declaring unto them, after what fort they fhould worke the feat, they gladlie obeyed his inftructions, and speedilie going about the murther, they enter the chamber in which the king laie, a little before cocks crow, where they fecretlie cut his throte as he lay fleeping, without anie bufkling at all: and immediately by a pofterne gate they carried foorth the dead bodie into the fields, and throwing it upon a horfe there provided for that purpofe, they convey it unto a place about two miles diftant from the caftell. Donwald, about the time that the murther was in dooing, got him amongst them that kept the watch, and fo continued to companie with them all the refidue of the night. But in the morning when the noife was raifed in the kings chamber, how the king was flaine, his bodie conveied awaie, and the bed all bewraied with bloud, he with the watch ran thither, as though he had known nothing of the matter; and breaking into the chamber, and finding cakes of bloud in the bed, and on the floore about the fides of it, he forthwith flew the chamberlains, as guiltie of that heinous murther, and then like a madman running to and fro, he ranfacked everie corner within the caftell, as though it had beene to have feene if he might have found either the bodie, or any of the murtherers hid in anie privie place: but at length comming to the pofterne gate, and finding it open, he burdened the chamberleins, whom he had flaine, with all the fault, they having the keyes of the gates committed to their keeping all the night, and therefore it could not be otherwife (faid he) but that they were of counfell in the committing of that most deteftable murther. Finallie, fuch was his over-earneft diligence in the fevere inquifition and trial of the offenders heerein, that fome of the lords began to miflike the matter, and to smell foorth fhrewd tokens that he should not be altogether cleare himfelfe. But for fo much as they were in that countrie where he had the whole rule, what by reafon of his friends and authoritie together, they doubted to utter what they thought, till time and place fhould better ferve thereunto, and hereupon got them awaie everie man to his home." MALONE. Add, at the conclufion of Mr. Malone's note, p. 411.] I believe, however, a line has been loft after the words " ftealthy pace." Our author did not, I imagine, mean to make the murderer a ravisher likewife. In the parallel paffage in The Rape of Lucrece, they are diftinct perfons: "While LUST and MURDER wake, to ftain and kill.” Perhaps the line which I fuppofe to have been loft, was of this import: and wither'd MURDER, Alarum'd by his fentinel, the wolf, Whofe howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace Enters the portal; while night-waking LUST, With Tarquin's ravishing fides, towards his defign So, in The Spanish Tragedy: "At midnight "When man, and bird, and beast, are all at rest, "Save those that watch for rape and blodie murder,” There is reafon to believe that many of the difficulties in Shak fpeare's plays arife from lines and half lines having been omitted, by the compofitor's eye paffing haftily over them. Of this kind of negligence there is a remarkable inftance in the prefent play, as printed in the folio, 1632, where the following paffage is thus exhibited: 66 that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return. "To plague the ingredience of our poifon'd chalice "To our own lips.' If this mistake had happened in the firft copy, and had been continued in the fubfequent impreffions, what diligence or fagacity could have reftored the paffage to sense? In the folio, 1623, it is right, except that the word ingredients is there alfo mif- fpelt: which, being taught, return "To plague the inventor. This even-handed juftice |