series of changes in "Macbeth" from the form in which V. THE WITCHES. On most problems suggested by the weird sisters, or witches, sufficient information is probably given in the notes. We may here confine ourselves to two, or three questions that have been raised. First, how does it happen that Hecate, the tri-form goddess of classic mythology, appears in modern witchcraft? Simply because she was in classic times the goddess of cross-roads and forks (where later the assemblies of witches were supposed to occur, and where suicides were buried with a stake through the heart), the mistress of darkness and the under-world, the patroness of sorcery, version Betterton's; Dr. Furness calls it Davenant's, and suggests that the 1673 be called Betterton's. Downes's account of the great success of Macbeth, and of the financial and spectacular success of Shadwell's Lancashire Witches, lends some support to my suggestion that if Davenant had had a copy of Middleton's Witch he would have staged it. Perhaps it may be allowable to correct here the story that at a performance of Macbeth in 1673 an actor named Harris, who performed Macduff, accidentally killed his fellow actor by piercing his eye, in the combat between Macbeth and Macduff. Thomas Isham entered this as a rumor in his diary, Aug. 20, 1673 (see Centurie of Prayse, 2d ed., p. 355); but the rumor was false. Downes (Roscius Angl., p. 21) tells us that the play was Davenant's The Man's the Master; the wounded man Mr. Cademan, who, however, was not killed, but maimed, and in consequence had received a pension "ever since 1673, being 35 years a goe." and as such probably continued to be known to the peoples of Latin civilization long after the other gods were forgotten; and because magic is the most retrospective of arts, seeking the old, deriving from its cult of the distant past much of the mystery that lends it effectiveness. Besides the note on II, i, 52, cf. Scot, "Discoverie of Witchcraft," ed. Nicholson, 131, 438; Delrio, "Disq. Magic.," 129, 254, 284; Jonson, "The Sad Shepherd, II, i, and the four other passages in Shakspere where Hecate is mentioned (see Schmidt, s. v.). Whether the weird sisters are the Fates, or Norns, has been the subject of much discussion; and some scholars cannot reconcile with this conception of them the incantations of IV, i, 1-38, which, along with the actions attributed to them in I, iii, 1-37, seem characteristic of mere vulgar witches. Mr. Spalding has pointed out that Holinshed's account of them is rather ambiguous; and nothing is more certain than that in the days when witchcraft flourished there were no hard and fast lines of division drawn between the different classes of spirits,1 or even between spirits and witches. In E. H. Meyer's "Germanische Mythologie" examples are given of confusions of every sort. Cf., e.g., § 174: "Finally the elves of Teutonic mythology often become witches. 'Delrio inferred from the description given by Hector Boece of the beings which addressed Macbeth and Banquo that they were sibyls or white nymphs, whom he identifies with the Parcæ; see the whole curious passage, Disq. Mag., p. 295. It is a delicate question whether, when Ben Jonson wrote his note (Masque of Queens, 1. 33) on the treatment of wax images, in which he mentions "the known story of King Duffe out of Hector Boëtius," he knew of Shakspere's use of that 'known story; "-so delicate a question, in fact, that I dared not bring it into the discussion of the date of the composition of Macbeth. 2 In Meyer's classification, "elves" includes all anthropomorphic nature-spirits (whether of earth, air, water, or forest), except giants. Like elves, witches cause tempests, hail, waterspouts; ride storm-clouds and whirlwinds; travel in sieves or on brooms; poison fountains; hurl the thunderbolt," etc. See also §§ 225, 226, 228, 231 on the Norns, and §§ 224, 225, 235 on their relations to the cloud-maidens. Meyer's book, it may be remarked, is a general index to the literature of the subject. Mr. Spalding attempted to show that Shakspere must have had Scotch witches in mind, and particularly those whose doings are recorded in "Newes from Scotland," a book published in 1591 about an attempt to "bewitch and drowne His Majestie [King James, then of Scotland only] in the sea." His argument is that the production of storms is not a function commonly ascribed to English witches. It would not be difficult to show that the production of storms is perhaps the commonest of charges against witches all over the world. Probably no treatise on witchcraft fails to mention it many times. It would be idle to collect references for so absolute a commonplace; I give those only which have recently attracted my attention Scot's "Discoverie," pp. 1, 7, 8, 26, 38, 43, 45, 47, 48, 142, 176, 178, 218, 441, 472, 509, 526; Delrio, "Disq. Mag.," 130, 135, 155, 158; Aubrey, "Miscellanies,” p. 141; Holinshed, v, 146, 223 (Scotch witches indeed); Jonson, "Masque of Queens," with notes. The case of Jonson's "Masque" is against Mr. Spalding's further effort to infer the dates of "Macbeth" and "The Witch" from the above argument; Jonson wrote in 1609, and, so far as his notes show, had no Scotch witches in mind when he described his witches as raising storms. VI. DURATION OF THE ACTION. The best time-analysis of the play is that of Mr. P. A. Daniel. His summary, with a few notes on certain points, follows: a "Time of the Play nine days represented on the stage, and intervals. "Day 1. Act I, sc. i to iii. [Cf. I, i, 5-7.] "Day 2. Act I, sc. iv to vii. [These scenes are bound together by I, iv, 42 ff. and I, vii, 62. "In II, i, 20, Banquo says: 'I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters;' this last night' must be supposed between scenes iii and iv of Act I: there is no other place where it could come in. The letter to Lady Macbeth, I, v, must also have been written and despatched then. But Ross and Angus enter with Macbeth and Banquo, I, iv, as if they had just arrived. Had they spent the night together on the way, or got together in the morning after a night at Forres ?] "Day 3. Act II, sc. i to iv. ["Scene iv is on the same day as the murder of Duncan; cf. II, iv, 3." But if that be true, then-to say nothing of the celerity indicated in II, iv, 31-33—some, at least, of the prodigies preceded the murder, II, iv, 11 ff.] "An interval, say a couple of weeks. A week or two -Professor Wilson; three weeks-Paton. ["Between II and III the long and dismal period of Macbeth's reign described in III, vi, IV, ii, iii, and elsewhere must have elapsed; cf. III, iv, 131 f., 136 ff. But cf. III, iv, 142-144, and the first words with which Banquo opens this Act would lead us to suppose that a few days at the utmost can have passed since the coronation at Scone."] "Day 4. Act III, sc. i to v. ["When sc. iv closes, it is almost morning of the fol lowing day; but sc. v must be put on the same day, although there is no point at which it can be introduced."]. "Act III, sc. vi. It is impossible to fix the time of this scene. Cf. III, iv, 130, with III, vi, 40; and III. vi, 37, with IV, i, 142. "Day 5. Act IV, sc. i. "Professor Wilson supposes an interval of certainly not more than two days between Days 5 and 6; Paton marks two days. No interval is required, in my opinion. "Day 6. Act IV, sc. ii. "An interval, for Ross to carry the news of Lady Macduff's murder to England. "Day 7. Act IV, sc. iii, Act V, sc. i. [Of course there is nothing to fix the sleep-walking scene upon the night of the day on which Ross reaches England; it is put there merely in order to make the number of "dramatic days" as few as possible, and because nothing prevents its being assigned to that day. I fancy that V, i, usually seems to spectators of the play considerably later than IV, iii.] "An interval. Malcolm's return to Scotland. "Day 8. Act V, ii, iii. ["We may fairly allow one day for these two scenes; although no special note of time is to be observed from here to the end of the play."] From the inconsistencies exhibited by this time-analysis many lovers of Shakspere have sought-and found— relief in an ingenious and amusing theory proposed by Professor John Wilson (Christopher North") in his |