[Eight Kings now appear in order. Macb. What! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom? Another yet? A seventh? I'll see no more: And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass, Macb. Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits: Unless the deed go with it." Surely, this poetry was written to illustrate this philosophy, and that, too, by one who understood, that it belonged to the nature of dramatic poetry to illustrate it very well; for, as Sir Philip Sidney had said, "the Poet is the Monarch of all sciences": at bottom, the Philosopher and the Poet are one. In the tragedy of Henry VIII., there is another vision, in which another of this author's modes of affecting the imagination is exhibited and equally well illustrated. Compare the following passages: "955. The body passive and to be wrought upon, (I mean not of the imaginant,) is better wrought upon, as hath been partly touched, at some times than others: as if you should prescribe a servant about a sick person, whom you have possessed, that his master shall recover, when his master is fast asleep, to use such a root, or such a root. For imagination is like to work better upon sleeping men than men awake; as we shall show when we handle dreams. . . . It is certain that potions, or things taken into the body; incenses and perfumes taken at the nostrils; and ointments of some parts do naturally work upon the imagination of him that taketh them." . . The second is the exposition of natural dreams, which discovereth the state of the body by the imaginations of the mind."— Nat. Hist. 514. "Act IV. Sc. 2.- Kimbolton. [Enter KATHERINE, Dowager, sick; led between GRIFFITH and PATIENCE.] O, Griffith, sick to death: . . . I have not long to trouble thee. - Good Griffith, On that celestial harmony I go to. [Sad and solemn music. Grif. She is asleep: Good wench, let 's sit down quiet, The Vision. Enter, solemnly tripping one after another, six Personages, clad in white robes, wearing on their heads garlands of bays, and golden vizards on their faces; branches of bays, or palm, in their hands. They first congée unto her, and then dance; and at certain changes, the first two hold a spare garland over her head; at which the other four make reverend courtesies; then, the two that held the garland deliver the same to the other next two, who observe the same order in their changes, and holding the garland over her head. Which done, they deliver the same garland to the last two, who likewise observe the same order; at which (as it were by inspiration) she makes in her sleep signs of rejoicing, and holdeth up her hands to Heaven: and so in their dancing, they vanish, carrying the garland with them. The music continues. Kath. Spirits of peace, where are ye? Are ye all gone, Grif. Madam, we are here. It is not you I call for. None, madam, Saw ye none enter since I slept? Grif. Kath. No? Saw you not, even now, a blessed troop Invite me to a banquet, whose bright faces Cast thousand beams upon me like the sun? They promis'd me eternal happiness, And brought me garlands, Griffith, which I feel I am not worthy yet to wear: I shall Assuredly. Grif. I am most joyful, madam, such good dreams And so, the end turns upon dreams as in the extracts from Bacon. Here, as in many other instances, the similitude is more in the idea and matter than in the language; and that similitude is just such as would be most likely to occur, if we suppose the author to have been engaged, at the same time, upon a scientific study of the same subjects. There should be strong resemblance without absolute identity; and that we have, in the sick person, attended by a servant, in a weak and passive state of body and somewhat exalted state of mind, dwelling on the celestial harmonies, the vision producing the effect on the imagination by the influence of the garlands and dancing, perfumes taken at the nostrils, and the tripping performances, as carefully directed; not roots, this time, but branches of bays, or palm; the imagination more easily worked upon, sleeping than awake; and the conclusion, in both cases, running upon dreams that possess the fancy. It is certain that Bacon was at work upon this portion of the great Instauration, and kindred topics were in his mind, during the period in which these particular plays were produced. And it may be said to be true, generally, (what is one of the most convincing kinds of proof,) that the most striking parallel passages found in any prose work of his, the date of which can be approximately fixed, are more especially confined to one or two plays, which must have been written, and were, in fact, produced, at about the same time at which that particular work may have been, or was in fact written, though not published until some years afterwards, as is true in some instances. Still another example may be cited from the "Macbeth." Compare the words and topics of the following sentences, which are to be found within the compass of two or three pages in the Natural History, touching "the secret virtue of sympathy and antipathy," with the witches' incantation in the opening of the fourth act, thus:— "There be many things that work upon the spirits of man by secret sympathy and antipathy: . tail of a dog or cat; . . . the flesh of the hedge-hog is said to be a great drier ": "1 Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. 2 W. Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whin'd. 3 W. Harpier cries, -'T is time, 't is time." "The blood-stone good for bleeding at the nose, by astriction and cooling of the spirits. Query, if the stone taken out of the toad's head be not of the like virtue; for the toad loveth shade and coolness: - for that being poisonous themselves, they draw the venom to them from the spirits": 1 Nat. Hist., § 964-998; Works, (Boston), V. 149–157. "1 Witch. Round about the cauldron go: All. Double, double toil and trouble; "The writers of natural magic commend the wearing of the spoil of a snake; . . . The writers of natural magic do attribute much to the virtues that come from the parts of living creatures; so as they be taken from them, the creatures remaining still alive; as if the creatures still living did infuse some immateriate virtue and vigour into the part severed": "2 W. Fillet of a fenny snake In the cauldron boil and bake: Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble. All. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." "The trochisk of vipers,-... the guts or skin of a wolf, a beast of great edacity; - Mummy hath great force in staunching of blood; white of an egg, or blood, mingled with salt water, -.. the for all life hath a sympathy with salt,- rings of sea-horse teeth,-. henbane, hemlock. The ointment that witches use is reported to be made of the fat of children digged out of their graves, the moss upon the skull of a dead man unburied. So to procure easy travails of women, . . . the toad-stone likewise helpeth." "Pius Quintus, at the very time when that memorable victory was won by the Christians against the Turks, at the naval battle of Lepanto, being then hearing of causes in the consistory, brake off suddenly, and said to those about him, It is now more time we should give thanks to God for the great victory he has granted us against the Turks: it is true that victory had a sympathy with his spirit; for it was merely his work to conclude that league. It may be that revelation was divine: but what shall we say then to a number of examples amongst the Grecians and Romans? where the people being in theatres at plays, have had news of victories and overthrows some few days before any messenger could come." — Essay. "3 W. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf; Witches' mummy; maw and gulf Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark; Root of hemlock, digg'd i' th' dark; Liver of blaspheming Jew; Make the gruel thick and slab: For the ingredients of our cauldron. All. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." "The heart of an ape is said to make dreams also. . . . The skin of a sheep devoured by a wolf moveth itching; . . . by working upon the spirit of some that cometh to the witch": "2 W. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. So, in the "As You Like It," we have these lines: "Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." Act II. Sc. 1. And certainly, it is not possible to doubt that this charm was compounded, concocted, and constructed out of this same quarry of materials; nor is it at all probable, if not quite impossible, that William Shakespeare could ever have had access to it. § 6. PARALLELISMS. These parallelisms in topics and whole passages, in subject, idea, and language, may furnish the most effective and satisfactory kind of proof; for it is evidence that appeals to the most common standard of judgment. Higher and more general grounds of argument may be still more conclusive to minds that are able to appreciate them. To all such any further exhibition of this kind of evidence might seem to be superfluous; but the demonstration must be made as |