"The

the Scotch, than in the English chronicler. wordes of the three weird fifters alfo greatly encouraged him, [to the murder of Duncan] but fpecially his wife lay fore upon him to attempt the thing, as fhe that was very ambitious, brenning in unquenchable defire to beare the name of a queene. Edit. 1577, P. 244.

This part of Holinfhed is an abridgement of Johne Bellenden's tranflation of the noble clerk, Hector Boece, imprinted at Edingburgh, in fol. 1541. I will give the paffage as it is found there. "His wyfe impacient of lang tary (as all wemen ar) fpecially quhare they ar defirus of ony purpos, gaif hym gret artation to purfew the thrid weird, that fche micht be ane quene, calland hym oft tymis febyl cowart and nocht defyrus of honouris, fen he durft not affailze the thing with manheid and curage, quhilk is offerit to hym be beniuolence of fortoun. Howbeit findry otheris hes affailzeit fic thinges afore with maift terribyl jeopardy is, quhen they had not fic fickernes to fucceid in the end of thair lauboris as he had." P. 173.

But we can demonftrate, that Shak fpeare had not the story from Buchanan. According to him, the weird-fifters falute Macbeth, "Una Angufiæ Thamum, altera Moraviæ, tertia regem.". -Thane of Angus, and of Murray, &c. but according to Holinthed, immediately from Bellenden, as it flands in Shakspeare: "The first of them fpake and fayde, All hayle Makbeth, thane of Glammis,-the fecond of them faid, Hayle Makbeth, thane of Cawder; but the third fayde, All hayie Makbeth, that hereafter shall be king of Scotland." P. 243.

"1. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis !

2.

Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of

Cawdor!

3. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!"

Here too our poet found the equivocal predictions, on which his hero fo fatally depended." He had learned of certain wyfards, how that he ought to take heede of Macduffe; and furely hereupon had he put Macduffe to death, but a certaine witch whom he had in great truft, had tolde, that he fhould neuer be flain with man born of any woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the caftell of Dunfinane." P. 244. And the scene between Malcolm and Macduff in the fourth act is almost literally taken from the Chronicle.

Macbeth was certainly one of Shakspeare's latest productions, and it might poffibly have been fuggefted to him by a little performance on the fame fubject at Oxford, before King James, 1605. I will transcribe my notice of it from Wake's Rex Platonicus: "Fabulæ anfam dedit antiqua de Regiâ profapiâ hiftoriola apud Scoto-Britannos celebrata, quæ narrat tres olim Sibyllas occurriffe duobus Scotia proceribus, Macbetho & Banchoni, & illum prædixiffe Regem futurum, fed Regem nullum geniturum; hunc Regem non futurum, fed Reges geniturum multos. Vaticinii veritatem rerum eventus comprobavit. Banchonis enim è ftirpe potentiffimus Jacobus oriundus." P. 29.

Aftronger argument hath been brought from the plot of Hamlet. Dr. Grey and Mr. Whalley affure us, that for this, Shakspeare must have read Saxo Grammaticus in Latin, for no tranflation hath been made into any modern language. But the truth is, he did not take it from Saxo at all; a novel called The Hyftorie of Hamblet, was his original: a fragment of which, in black letter, I have been favoured

with by a very curious and intelligent gentleman, to whom the lovers of Shakspeare will fome time or other owe great obligations.

It hath indeed been faid, that " IF fuch an biftory exifts, it is almoft impoffible that any poet unacquainted with the Latin language (fuppofing his perceptive faculties to have been ever fo acute,) could have caught the characteristical madness of Hamlet, described by Saxo Grammaticus, fo happily as it is delineated by Shakspeare.

Very luckily, our fragment gives us a part of Hamlet's speech to his mother, which fufficiently replies to this obfervation:-" It was not without cause, and jufte occafion, that my geftures, countenances and words feeme to proceed from a madman, and that I defire to haue all men esteeme mee wholy depriued of fence and reafonable underftanding, bycause I am well affured, that he that hath made no confcience to kill his owne brother, (accustomed to murthers, and allured with defire of gouernement without controll in his treafons,) will not fpare to faue himfelfe with the like crueltie, in the blood, and flesh of the loyns of his brother, by him maffacred: and therefore it is better for me to fayne madneffe then to use my right fences as nature hath bestowed them upon me. The bright fhining clearnes therof I am forced to hide vnder this fhadow of diffimulation, as the fun doth hir beams vnder fome great cloud, when the wether in fummer time ouercafteth: the face of a mad man, ferueth to couer my gallant countenance, and the geftures

7 Falfitatis enim (Hamlethus) alienus haberi cupidus, ita aftutiam veriloquio permifcebat, ut nec dictis veracitas deeffet, nec acuminis modus verorum judicio proderetur." This is quoted, as it had been before, in Mr. Guthrie's Effay on Tragedy, with a jmall variation from the Original. See edit. fol. 1644, P. 50.

of a fool are fit for me, to the end that guiding my felf wifely therin I may preferue my life for the Danes and the memory of my late deceafed father, for that the defire of reuenging his death is fo ingrauen in my heart, that if I dye not fhortly, I hope to take fuch and fo great vengeance, that thefe countryes fhall for euer fpcake thereof. Neuertheless I muft ftay the time, meanes, and occafion, left by making ouer great haft, I be now the caufe of mine own fodaine ruine and ouerthrow, and by that meanes, end, before I beginne to effect my hearts defire: hee that hath to doe with a wicked, difloyall, cruell, and difcourteous man, muft vfe craft, and politike inuentions, fuch as fine witte can beft imagine, not to difcouer his interprife for feeing that by force I cannot affect my defire, reafon alloweth me by diffimulation, fubtiltie, and fecret practifes to proceed therein."

But to put the matter out of all queftion, my communicative friend, above-mentioned, Mr. Capell, (for why fhould I not give my felf the credit of his name?) hath been fortunate enough to procure from the collection of the Duke of Newcastle, a complete copy of the Hyflorie of Hamblet, which proves to be a tranflation from the French of Belleforeft; and he tells me, that "all the chief incidents of the play, and all the capital characters are there in eml ryo, after a rude and barbarous manner: fentiments indeed there are none, that Shakspeare could borrow; nor any expreffion but one, which is, where Hamlet kills Polonius behind the arras: in doing which he is made to cry out as in the play, "a rat, a rat!"-So much for Saxo Grammaticus!

It is fcarcely conceivable, how induftriously the puritanical zeal of the laft age exerted itfelf in deftroying, amongit better things, the innocent amufc

ments of the former. Numberlefs Tales and Poems are alluded to in old books, which are now perhaps no where to be found. Mr. Capell informs me, (and he is in thefe matters, the most able of all men to give information,) that our author appears to have been beholden to fome novels, which he hath yet only feen in French or Italian: but he adds, " to fay they are not in fome English dress, profaic or metrical, and perhaps with circumstances nearer to his ftories, is what I will not take upon me to do: nor indeed is what I believe; but rather the contrary, and that time and accident will bring fome of them to light, if not all."

W. Painter, at the conclufion of the fecond Tome of his Palace of Pleafure, 1567, advertises the reader, "bicaufe fodaynly (contrary to expectation) this volume is rifen to a greater heape of leaues, I doe omit for this prefent time fundry nouels of mery deuife, referuing the fame to be joyned with the reft of an other part, wherein fhall fucceede the remnant of Bandello, fpecially futch (fuffrable) as the learned French man François de Belle foreft hath felected, and the choyfeft done in the Italian. Some also out of Erizzo, Ser Giouanni Florentino, Parabofco, Cynthio, Straparole, Sanfouino, and the beft liked out of the Queene of Nauarre, and other authors. Take thefe in good part, with thofe that haue and fhall come forth."-But I am not able to find that a third Tome was ever publifhed: and it is very probable, that the intereft of his book fellers, and more efpecially the prevailing mode of the time, might lead him afterward to print his fundry novels feparately. If this were the cafe, it is no wonder, that fuch fugitive pieces are recovered with difficulty; when the two Tomes, which Tom. Rawlinson would have called jufla volumina, are almost annihilated. Mr. Ames, who fearched after books of