Sometimes about an hollow tree, [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE V. Hecate and the Three Witches. Musick and Song. [Within.] Hecate, Hecate, Hecate! O come away! Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. [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 *. * And HOPPER too, and HELWAY too.] In The Witch, these personages are called Hoppo and Hellwayne. MALONE. Helway." The name of this witch, perhaps, originates from the leader of a train of frolicksome apparitions, supposed to exist in Normandy, ann. 1091. He is called by Ordericus Vitalis (1. viii. p. 695,) Herlechin. In the continuation of The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, (verse 8,) he is changed to-Hurlewayne. In the French Romance of Richard sans peur, he becomesHellequin. Hence, I suppose, according to the chances of spelling, pronunciation, &c. are derived the Helwin and Helwayne of Middleton, and, eventually, the Helway of Sir William D'Avenant. -See Mr. Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, vol. v. pp. 270, 271, in voc. MEINIE. We want but you, we want but Come you: away, make up the count. 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, 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, While the moon shines fair; To sing, to toy, to dance, and kiss! We fly by night 'mongst troops of spirits. It may also be observed, (trivial as the remark appears,) that here we have not only Herlechinus, but the familia Herlechini, which, with sufficient singularity, still subsists on the Italian stage and our own. It is needless to mention, that the bills at our country fairs continue to promise entertainment from the exertions of Mr. Punch and his merry family." As the work of Ord. Vital, who died in 1143, is known to exhibit the name of Harlequin, it will not readily be allowed that his theatrical namesake was obliged, for the same title, to an invention of Francis I. in ridicule of his enemy, Charles le Quint, who was born in 1500, and left the world in 1558. See Johnson's Dictionary, in voc. HARLEQUIN. STEEVENS. This stage direction I have added. In The Witch there is the following marginal note: "A spirit like a cat descends." In Sir W. D'Avenant's alteration of Macbeth, printed in 1674, this song, as well as all the rest of the piece, is printed very incorrectly. I have endeavoured to distribute the different parts of the song before us, as, I imagine, the author intended. MALONE. ተ "Over hills," &c. In The Witch, instead of this line, we find: "Over seas, our mistress' fountains." MALONE. No ring of bells to our ears sounds, 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. Notes omitted (on account of length) in their proper places. [See p. 85.] his two chamberlains "Will I with wine and wassel so convince, &c. "When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy 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 Holinshed's Chronicle, we are merely told that Macbeth slew Duncan at Inverness. No particulars whatsoever are mentioned. The circumstance of making Duncan's chamberlains drunk, and laying the guilt of his murder upon them, as well as some other circumstances, our author has taken from the history of Duffe, king of Scotland, who was murdered by Donwald, Captain of the castle of Fores, about eighty years before Duncan ascended the throne. The fact is thus told by Holinshed, in p. 150 of his Scottish History, [208, edit. 1577.] (the history of the reign of Duncan commences in p. 168: [239, edit. 1577.]) "Donwald, not forgetting the reproach which his linage had susteined by the execution of those his kinsmen, whom the king for a spectacle to the people had caused to be hanged, could not but shew manifest tokens of great griefe at home amongst his familie: which his wife perceiving, ceased not to travell with him till she understood what the cause was of his displeasure. Which at length when she had learned by his owne relation, she, as one that bare no lesse malice in hir heart, for the like cause on his behalfe, than hir husband did for his friends, counselled him (sith the king used oftentimes to lodge in his house without anie gard about him other than the garrison of the castle, [of Fores,] which was wholie at his commandement) to make him awaie, and showed him the meanes whereby he might soonest 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 so heinous an act. Whereupon devising with himselfe for a while, which way hee might best accomplish his cursed intent, at length gat opportunitie, and sped his purpose as followeth. It chanced that the king upon the daie before he purposed to depart foorth of the castell, was long in his oratorie at his praiers, and there continued till it was late in the night. At the last, comming foorth, he called such afore him as had faithfullie served him in pursute and apprehension of the rebels, and giving them heartie thanks he bestowed sundrie honourable gifts amongst them, of the which number Donwald was one, as he that had been ever accounted a most faithful servant 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 sundrie sorts of drinks for their reare supper or collation, whereat they sate up so long, till they had charged their stomachs with such full gorges, that their heads were no sooner got to the pillow, but asleepe they were so fast, that a man might have removed the chamber over them, sooner than to have awaked them out of their drunken sleepe. "Then Donwald, though he abhorred the act greatlie in heart, yet through instigation of his wife, he called foure of his servants unto him, (whom he had made privie to his wicked intent before, and framed to his purpose with large gifts,) and now declaring unto them, after what sort they should worke the feat, they gladlie obeyed his instructions, and speedilie going about the murther, they enter the chamber in which the king laie, a little before cocks crow, where they secretlie cut his throte as he lay sleeping, without any buskling at all: and immediately by a posterne gate they carried foorth the dead bodie into the fields, and throwing it upon a horse there provided for that purpose, they convey it unto a place about two miles distant from the castell. "Donwald, about the time that the murther was in dooing, got him amongst them that kept the watch, and so continued to companie with them all the residue of the night. But in the morning when the noise was raised in the kings chamber, how the king was slaine, 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 sides of it, he forthwith slew the chamberlains, as guiltie of that heinous murther, and then like a madman running to and fro, he ransacked everie corner within the castell, as thoogh it had beene to have seene if he might have found either the bodie, or any of the mur therers hid in anie privie place: but at length comming to the posterne gate, and finding it open, he burdened the chamberleins, whom he had slaine, with all the fault, they having the keyes of the gates committed to their keeping all the night, and therefore it could not be otherwise (said he) but that they were of counsell in the committing of that most detestable murther. "Finallie, such was his over-earnest diligence in the severe inquisition and trial of the offenders heerein, that some of the lords began to mislike the matter, and to smell foorth shrewd tokens that he should not be altogether cleare himselfe. But for so much as they were in that countrie where he had the whole rule, what by reason of his friends and authoritie together, they doubted to utter what they thought, till time and place should better serve thereunto, and hereupon got them awaie everie man to his home." MALONE. See p. 114, n. 2.] After the horrour and agitation of this scene, the reader may, perhaps, not be displeased to pause for a few minutes. The consummate art which Shakspeare has displayed in the preparation for the murder of Duncan, and during the commission of the dreadful act, cannot but strike every intelligent reader. An ingenious writer, however, whose comparative view of Macbeth and Richard III. has just reached my hands, has developed some of the more minute traits of the character of Macbeth, particularly in the present and subsequent scene, with such acuteness of observation, that I am tempted to transcribe such of his remarks as relate to the subject now before us, though I do not entirely agree with him. After having proved, by a deduction of many particulars, that the towering ambition of Richard is of a very different colour from that of Macbeth, whose weaker desires seem only to aim at pre-eminence of place, not of dominion, het adds: "Upon the same principle a distinction still stronger is made in the article of courage, though both are possessed of it even to an eminent degree; but in Richard it is intrepidity, and in Macbeth no more than resolution: in him it proceeds from exertion, not from nature; in enterprize he betrays a degree of fear, though he is able, when occasion requires, to stifle and subdue it. When he and his wife are concerting the murder, his doubt, we should fail?' is a difficulty raised by an apprehension, and as soon as that is removed by the contrivance of Lady Macbeth, to make the officers drunk and lay the crime upon them, he runs with violence into the other extreme of confidence, and cries out, with a rapture unusual to him, Bring forth men children only, &c. Will it not be receiv'd 'When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two if |