Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies. Samuel Johnson

had indeed been more indebted to the transcriber's fidelity and diligence had he committed no errors of greater importance.

      III.vi.36 (482,3) and receive free honours] [Free for grateful. WARBURTON.] How can free be grateful? It may be either honours freely bestowed, not purchased by crimes; or honours without slavery, without dread of a tyrant.

      IV.i (484,5) As this is the chief scene of enchantment in the play, it is proper in this place to observe, with how much judgment Shakespeare has selected all the circumstances of his infernal ceremonies, and how exactly he has conformed to common opinions and traditions:

      Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

      The usual form in which familiar spirits are reported to converse with witches, is that of a cat. A witch, who was tried about half a century before the time of Shakespeare, had a cat named Rutterkin, as the spirit of one of these witches was Grimalkin; and when any mischief was to be done she used to bid Rutterkin go and fly, but once when she would have sent Rutterkin to torment a daughter of the countess of Rutland, instead of going or flying, he only cried mew, from whence she discovered that the lady was out of his power, the power of witches being not universal, but limited, as Shakespeare has taken care to inculcate:

      Though his bark cannot be lost,

      Yet it shall be tempest-tost.

      The common afflictions which the malice of witches produced were melancholy, fits, and loss of flesh, which are threatened by one of Shakespeare's witches:

      Weary sev'n nights, nine times nine,

      Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.

      It was likewise their practice to destroy the cattle of their neighbours, and the farmers have to this day many ceremonies to secure their cows and other cattle from witchcraft; but they seem to have been most suspected of malice against swine. Shakespeare has accordingly made one of his witches declare that she has been killing swine, and Dr. Harsenet observes, that about that time, a sow could not be ill of the measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with witchcraft.

      Toad, that under the cold stone,

      Days and night has, thirty-one,

      Swelter'd venom sleeping got;

      Boil thou first i'the charm'd pot.

      Toads have likewise long lain under the reproach of being by some means accessory to witchcraft, for which reason Shakespeare, in the first scene of this play, calls one of the spirits Padocke or Toad, and now takes care to put a toad first into the pot. When Vaninus was seized at Theleuse, there was found at his lodgings ingens Bufo Vitro inclusus, a great toad shut in a vial, upon which those that prosecuted him, Veneficium exprebrabent, charged him, I suppose, with witchcraft.

      Fillet of fenny snake,

      In the cauldron boil and bakae:

      Eye of newt, and toe of frog;—

      For a charm, &c.

      The propriety of these ingredients may be known by consulting the books de Viribus Animalium and de Mirabilibus Mundi, ascribed to Albertus Magnus, in which the reader, who has time and credulity, may discover very wonderful secrets.

      Finger of birth-strangled babe,

      Ditch deliver'd by a drab;—

      It has been already mentioned in the law against witches, that they are supposed to take up dead bodies to use in enchantments, which was confessed by the woman whom king James examined, and who had of a dead body that was divided in one of their assemblies, two fingers for her share. It is observable that Shakespeare, on this great occasion, which involves the fate of a king, multiplies all the circumstanaces of horror. The babe, whose finger is used, must be strangled in its birth; the grease must not only be human, but must have dropped from a gibbet, the gibbet of a murderer; and even the sow, whose blood is used, must have offended nature by devouring her own farrow. These are touches of judgment and genius.

      And now about the cauldron sing—

      Black spirits and white,

      Blue spirits and grey,

      Mingle, mingle, mingle,

      You that mingle say.

      And in a former part,

      —weyward sisters, hand in hand,—

      Thus do go about, about.

      Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine.

      And thrice again to make up nine!

      These two passages I have brought together, because they both seem subject to the objection of too much levity for the solemnity of enchantment, and may both be shewn, by one quotation from Camden's account of Ireland, to be founded upon a practice really observed by the uncivilised natives of that country: "When any one gets a fall, says the informer of Camden, he starts up, and, turning three times to the right, digs a hole in the earth; for they imagine that there is a spirit in the ground, and if he falls sick in two or three days, they send one of their women that is skilled in that way to the place, where she says, I call thee from the east, west, north, and south, from the groves, the woods, the rivers, and the fens, from the fairies red, black, white." There was likewise a book written before the time of Shakespeare, describing, amongst other properties, the colours of spirits.

      Many other circumstances might be particularised, in which Shakespeare has shown his judgment and his knowledge.

      IV.i.53 (489,6) yesty waves] That is, foaming or frothy waves.

      IV.i.88 (491,1) the round/And top of sovereignty?] This round is that part of the crown that encircles the head. The top is the ornament that rises above it.

      IV.i.95 (492,3) Who can impress the forest] i.e. who can command the forest to serve him like a soldier impress'd. (1773)

      IV.i.97 (492,4) Rebellious head, rise never] Mr. Theobald, who first proposed this change ["head" for "dead"] rightly observes, that head means host, or power.

      —Douglas and the rebels met,

      A mighty and a fearful head they are.

      And again,

      His divisions—are in three heads.

      IV.i.113 (493,6) Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls] The expression of Macbeth, that the crown sears his eye-balls, is taken from the method formerly practised of destroying the sight of captives or competitors, by holding a burning bason before the eye, which dried up its humidity. Whence the Italian, abacinare, to blind.

      IV.i.113 (493,7) And thy air,/Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first:—/A third is like the former] In former editions,

      —and thy hair,

      Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first:—

      A third is like the former:—

      As Macbeth expected to see a train of kings, and was only enquiring from what race they would proceed, he could not be surprised that the hair of the second was bound with gold like that of the first; he was offended only that the second resembled the first, as the first resembled Banquo, and therefore said,

      —and thy air,

      Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.

      This Dr. Warburton has followed.

      IV.i.144 (495,2) Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits] To anticipate is here to prevent, by taking away the opportunity.

      IV.ii.9 (496,3) He wants the natural touch] Natural sensibility. He is not touched with natural affection.

      IV.ii.71 (498,7) To do worse to you, were fell cruelty] To do