inwardly attempered to their purposes. Surely every one who
reads that scene, with his thoughts about him, and having him-
self fairly in hand, must catch at least some glimpses of this huge
discrepancy : still I felt bound to presume that the Poet's great
and wonderful art had some way of reconciling it.

Again, in the second scene of Act i., it was long ago apparent,
that either Shakespeare assumed a style not properly his own, or
else that another hand than Shakespeare's held the pen. But,
for the peculiarity here displayed, Coleridge gave a plausible, if
not a sufficient reason. '* The style," says he, ** and rhythm of
the Captain's speeches in the second scene should be illustrated
by reference to the interlude in Hamlet^ in which the epic is sub-
stituted for the tragic, in order to make the latter be felt as the
real-life diction." In this explanation of the matter I rested, as
perhaps some others did. But surely the two cases are not par-
allel at all : there is no such occasion here for a change of style
as there is m Hamlet: there, it is a play within a play; here,
nothing of the kind.

At length, in the year 1869, Mr. \V. G. Clark and Mr. W. A.
Wright, the learned Editors of the ** Clarendon Press Series,"
led off in a new solution of the difficulty. I propose, first, to re-
produce, partiy in their own words, so much of their theory, and



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



SHAKESPEARE AND MIDDLETON. 1 71

of their arguments in support thereof, as I concur in ; my lim-
ited space not well affording room for the whole of it. Before
doing this, however, I must advert briefly to another matter.

In the Introduction I have spoken of the peculiar relation
which has long been known to subsist between Shakespeare's
Macbeth and The Witch of Thomas Middle ton. That relation
was discovered in manner as follows. In the original copy of
Macbeth, Act iii., scene 5, we have the stage-direction, ^^ Music,
and a Song'"''; and then, two lines after, another stage-direction,
^^ Sing within. Come away, come away, 6^r." Again, in Act
iv., scene i, we have the stage-direction, ''''Music, and a Song,
Black Spirits, 6r*^." Thus in both places the songs are merely
indicated, not printed. — In 1674, Sir William Davenant pub-
lished an altered version of the tragedy, giving both songs in
full, but making no sign as to the source of them ; so that they
were supposed to be his own composition. So the matter stood
till 1779, when the manuscript of Middleton's play. The Witch,
was discovered by George Steevens ; and there both songs were
found, in nearly the same words as Davenant had given them.
From this it was easily gathered why the songs were not printed
at length in the folio of 1623. Macbeth was of course there
printed from a playhouse manuscript ; and those songs were pre-
sumed to be so well known to the actors of the play in the form
it then had, that a bare indication of them was enough.

The date of Middle ton's play has not been ascertained, nor
have we any means of ascertaining it. The forecited particulars
infer, of course, that The Witch must have been written some
time before Macbeth acquired the form in which it has come down
to us. On the other hand, besides the particulars specified
above, Clark and Wright point out various resemblances both of
thought and language in the two plays, — resemblances much too
close and literal to be merely accidental. So that one of the
authors must have borrowed from the other. Now, several of
these resemblances occur in those parts of the tragedy which
are unquestionably Shakespeare's, and which bear the clearest
tokens of his mintage. It is, on the face of the thing, nowise



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



172 MACBETH.

likely that Shakespeare would have borrowed from Middleton :
but, Middleton's connection with the tragedy being established,
nothing is more likely than that he may have borrowed from
Shakespeare. The natural conclusion therefore is, that Macbeth
was* well known, and its very language familiar, to Middleton be-
fore he wrote The Witch, or while he was writing it. Here, then,
we have a contradiction, or seeming contradiction ; which, how-
ever, is easily cleared up by supposing the original form of the
tragedy to have been in being before The Witch was written, and
that the tragedy received its present form after the writing of The
Witch,

Middleton's play was doubtless highly popular on the stage for
a time : the witchcraft-scenes especially yield ample food for a
transient popularity. Finding that his representation of old-
woman witches pleased the popular taste and took well with the
multitude, he would naturally crave to repeat or prolong the
thing with some variation. In Shakespeare's tragedy he may
well have seen a cheap and ready way of catering still further to
the popular taste. Upon the supposal of his having taken Mac-
beth in hand with this view, we can easily perceive strong induce-
ments for him to assimilate, as far as might be, the sublime and
unique creations of Shakespeare's imagination to the commonplace
and vulgar offspring of his own fancy, which he had found so
profitable.

To those at all booked in the usages of the Elizabethan stage,
it is well known that stock plays, as they are called, belonging to
the theatrical companies, and laid up in their archives, were often
taken in hand, overhauled, altered, improved, and brought out
afresh, either as new plays or as old plays with new attractions.
It is as certain as any thing of the kind well can be, that Shake-
speare himself exercised his hand more or less in thus recasting
and amending old stock plays ; and such, no doubt, was the
genesis of the Second and Third Parts oi King Henry the Sixth,
of The Taming of the Shrew, of Pericles, and perhaps some
others, as we now have them in the Poet's works. It is also well
known that his manuscripts were owned by the theatrical com-



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



SHAKESPEARE AND MIDDLETON. 1 73

pany of which he was a member ; and that they remained in the
company's hands, as their property, both during his life and after
his death. What, then, is more likely than that some of his
plays may in turn have been subjected to the same process which
he had himself used on the workmanship of others, though not
indeed with the same result? And so, I have no doubt, it was.
The thing was quite too common for any scruples to spring up
about it. — I may as well add, here, that Middleton died in 1627,
eleven years after the death of Shakespeare ; and that he con-
tinued to write more or less for the stage till near the close of his
life.

The matter, I believe, is now ready for something to be heard
from Clark and Wright. — ** If we were certain," say they, ** that
the whole of Macbeth^ as we now read it, came from Shakespeare's
hand, we should be justified in concluding from the data before
us, that Middleton, who was probably junior and certainly infe-
rior to Shakespeare, consciously or unconsciously imitated the
great master. But we are persuaded that there are parts of Mac-
beth which Shakespeare did not write ; and the style of these
seems to us to resemble that of Middleton. It would be very un-
critical to pick out of Shakespeare's works all that seems inferior
to the rest, and to assign it to somebody else. At his worst, he
is still Shakespeare ; and, though the least * mannered ' of all
poets, he has always a manner which cannot well be mistaken.
In the parts of Macbeth of which we speak we find no trace of
his manner. But to come to particulars. We believe that the
second scene of the first Act was not written by Shakespeare.
Making all allowance for corruption of text, the slovenly metre is
not like Shakespeare's work, even when he is most careless.
The bombastic phraseology of the Sergeant is not like Shake-
speare's language, even when he is most bombastic."

The writers then go on to allege the fact, for such it is, that
in one point this scene is strangely inconsistent with what is said
in the following scene. For Ross, in giving Duncan an account
of the battle, here represents the Thane of Cawdor as having



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



174 MACBETH.

fought on the side of the invaders, till Macbeth ♦* confronted
him with self caparisons, point against point rebellious " ; where-
as in the next scene we have Macbeth speaking as if he knew
nothing whatever of Cawdor's treason : ** The Thane of Cawdor
lives, a prosperous gentleman." Angus, also, who enters along
with Ross, in the third scene, speaks of Cawdor thus . ** Whether
he was combined with those of Norway, or did line the rebel
with hidden help and vantage, I know not ; but treasons capital,
confessed and proved, have overthrown him." To be sure,
Shakespeare has, not seldom, slight lapses of memory, or what
seem such ; but that he would have penned so glaring a contra-
diction as this amounts to, who can believe ?

Nevertheless the writers in question admit that the second
scene has a few lines which taste strongly of Shakespeare ; such
as, ** The multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him" ;
and, ** Confronted him with self caparisons, point against point
rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, curbing his lavish spirit." To these
I should certainly add ** Where the Norweyan banners flout the
sky, and fan our people cold " ; which is to me distinctly Shake-
spearian.

The opening part, also, of the third scene, down to the en-
trance of Macbeth and Banquo, they rule off from Shakespeare.
Here, again, I fully agree with them : for, besides that the style
is not at all like Shakespeare's, I have a deeper reason in that, as
before observed, his conception of the Weird Sisters is overlaid
and strangled with discordant and irrelevant matter. How much
out of keeping this is with Shakespeare's delineation of charac-
ter, need not be said. Therewithal the dramatic flow and cur-
rent, it seems to me, would be far better without this part of the
scene.

Referring to the fifth scene of Act iii., they observe that, if
this scene ** had occurred in a drama not attributed to Shakespeare,
no one would have discovered in it any trace of Shakespeare's
manner." This is putting it very softiy : for, besides that a new
personage, Hecate, is here introduced without any apparent cause,
the style and versification taste even less of Shakespeare than in



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



SHAKESPEARE AND MIDDLETON. 1 75

the forecited portion of i., 3 ; and the whole scene is, in point
of dramatic order and sequence, a sheer incumbrance, serving no
purpose but to untune the harmony of the action.

Again, touching the cauldron-scene. Act iv., scene i, they
speak as follows: **The rich vocabulary, prodigal fancy, and .
terse diction displayed in the first thirty-eight lines, show the
hand of a master, and make us hesitate in ascribing the passage
to any one but the master himself. There is, however, a con-
spicuous falling off in the eight lines after the entrance of Hecate."
And of the last eight lines before the Witches vanish, beginning
with ** Ay, sir, all this is so," they say that these ** cannot be
Shakespeare's."

To all this I heartily subscribe ; and thus, to my mind the
Poet stands acquitted of all the choral passages ; which, it seems
to me, only blemish the proper dramatic austerity of the play, how-
ever they may add to its attractiveness as a popular performance.
Nor do I believe it ever entered into Shakespeare's head to ** un-
bend the noble strength " of this great tragedy with any such
mellifluous intervals.

Besides the forecited passages, the same writers point out sev-
eral ** rhyming tags," and shorter passages, which they justly rule
off from Shakespeare as interpolations. As these are distin-
guished in this edition by Italic type, they need not be specified
here. The writers then add the following : —

** Finally, the last forty lines of the play show evident traces
of another hand than Shakespeare's. The double stage-direc-
tion, ^ Exeunt fighting. "^ — '' Enter fighting, and Macbeth slain,''
proves that some alteration had been made in the conclusion of
the piece. Shakespeare, who has inspired his audience with pity
for Lady Macbeth, and made them feel that her guilt has been
almost absolved by the terrible retribution which followed, would
not have disturbed this feeling by calling her a * fiend-like queen ' ;
nor would he have drawn away the veil which with his fine tact
he had dropped over her fate, by telling us that she had taken
off her life * by self and violent hands.' "

In reference, again, to the opening of the play, these writers



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



1 76 MACBETH.

pronounce as follows: **The twelve lines which now make the
first scene, and which, from long familiarity, we regard as a
necessary introduction to the play, are not unworthy of Shake-
speare ; but, on the other hand, do not rise above the level which
is reached by Middleton and others of his contemporaries in
their happier moments."

As remarked in the Introduction, the opening of Forman's ac-
count looks as if the play did not then begin with the scene in
question. Nothing, however, can be soundly inferred from this.
He may have chosen to begin his account with what struck him
with peculiar force ; or, as Clark and Wright observe, ** he may
have arrived at the theatre a few minutes late." For my part, I
have scarce any doubt that the first scene is Shakespeare's, all
except the two lines which I print in Italic type, and in which the
Weird Sisters are made to talk just like vulgar witches. For, as
the entire course of the action turns on the agency of the Weird
Sisters, it were in strict keeping with the Poet's usual manner to
begin by thus striking the key-note of the whole play.

I must add, that the Clarendon Editors fiirther rule off, as
interpolations, the soliloquy and dialogue of the Porter, in Act ii.,
scene i, and also the passage about "touching for the evil," in
iv., 3. Here, however, I dissent from them altogether.

The theory whereby they account for the condition in which
Macbeth has reached us is propounded as follows : ** On the
whole, we incline to think that the play was interpolated after
Shakespeare's death, or at least after he had withdrawn from all
connection with the theatre. The interpolator was, not improb-
ably, Thomas Middleton ; who, to please the * groundlings,' ex-
panded the parts originally assigned by Shakespeare to the Weird
Sisters, and also introduced a new character, Hecate. The sig-
nal inferiority of her speeches is thus accounted for."

In 1876, the Rev. Frederick G. Fleay put forth a highly instruc-
tive volume entitled Shakespeare Manual, Mr. Fleay takes up
the question where the Clarendon Editors left it, and handles it
throughout with admirable learning and candour. He accepts all



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



SHAKESPEARE AND MIDDLETON. 1 77

their forecited conclusions, except that touching the Porter's
soliloquy and dialogue, but insists on pushing the argument much
further. First, he excludes the whole of the first scene, which,
as before shown, Clark and Wright do not. Second, he rules off
the second scene, as Clark and Wright also do ; but thinks, and
rightly, I have no doubt, that ** in all probability this scene re-
places one of Shakespeare's " ; a few of his lines being perhaps
retained, and worked in with the inferior matter. He concurs
with Clark and Wright also about the third scene, down to the
entrance of Macbeth and Banquo. And he takes the same
course touching all the Hecate matter, both in iii., 5, and in iv.,
I . I must here quote, with slight abbreviation, what he says of
this matter : ** This un-Shakespearian Hecate does not use Shake-
pearian language : there is not a line in her part that is not in
Middle ton's worst style ; her metre is a jumble of tens and eights,
(iambic, not trochaic like Shakespeare's short lines,) a sure sign
of inferior work; and, what is of most importance, she is not of
the least use in the play in any way : the only effect she produces
is, that the three Fate-goddesses, who in the introduction of the
play were already brought down to ordinary witches, are lowered
still further to witches of an inferior grade, with a mistress who
* contrives their charms,' and is jealous if any * trafficking ' goes
on in which she does not bear her part. She and her songs are
all alike not only of the earth earthy, but of the mud muddy.
They are the sediment of Middle ton's puddle, not the sparkling
foam of the living waters of Shakespeare."

But Mr. Fleay's distinctive position is in reference to the caul-
dron business in iv., i. ** What," he asks, "are the witches"
of that scene? ** are they the * Weird Sisters,' feiries, nymphs, or
goddesses? or are they ordinary witches or wizards, and entirely
distinct from the three mysterious beings in i., 3? I hold the
latter view." He then goes on to admit that the first thirty-eight
lines of iv., i, down to the entrance of Hecate, are greatly supe-
rior to the thirty-seven lines of i., 3, before the entrance of Mac-
beth and Banquo. And he fully agrees with Clark and Wright,
that the former are Shakespeare's ; but says he ** cannot identify



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



1 78 MACBETH.

these witches with the Nornae" of i., 3, after the entrance of
Macbeth and Banquo. ** The witches," says he, ** in iv., i, are
just like Middleton's witches, only superior in quality. They are
clearly the originals from whom his imitations were taken. Their
charms are of the sort popularly believed in. Their powers are
to untie the winds, lodge com, create storms, raise spirits ; but
of themselves they have not the prophetic knowledge of the
Weird Sisters, the all-knowers of Past, Present, Future: they
must get their knowledge from their masters y or call them up to
communicate it themselves."

Thus he does not allow the Witches of that scene to be the
Weird Sisters at all, or to have any thing in common with them.
Nevertheless he candidly refers to two passages where they are
clearly identified with the Weird Sisters : one near the close of
iii., 4, where Macbeth himself says, ** I will to-morrow, ay, and
betimes I will, to th' Weird Sisters"; the other in iv., i, just
after the Witches vanish, where Macbeth asks Lennox, ** Saw you
the Weird Sisters ? " And he frankly admits that both these pas-
sages are Shakespeare's. He then adds the following: **If my
theory be true, those two passages must be explained. This is a
real difficulty, and I cannot satisfactorily solve it at present. I can
only conjecture that Shakespeare made a slip, or intended Mac-
beth to make one." Professor Dowden aptly searches the core of
Mr. Fleay's position by observing, ** It is hardly perhaps a sound
method of criticism to invent a hypothesis, which creates an in-
soluble difficulty."

But is there any way of feirly accounting for the altered lan-
guage and methods used in the cauldron business, without dis-
possessing the Weird Sisters of their proper character? Let us
see.

The Weird Sisters of course have their, religion ; though, to be
sure, that religion is altogether Satanic. For so essential is
religion of some kind to all social life and being, that even the
society of Hell cannot subsist without it. Now, every religion,
whether human or Satanic, has, and must have, a liturgy and
ritual of some sort, as its organs of action and expression. The



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



SHAKESPEARE AND MIDDLETON. 1 79

Weird Sisters know, by supernatural ways, that Macbeth is burn-
ing to question them further, and that he has resolved to pay them
a visit. To instruct and inspire him in a suitable manner, they
arrange to hold a religious service in his presence and behalf.
And they fitly employ the language and ritual of witchcraft, as
being the only language and ritual which he can understand and
take the sense of: they adopt, for the occasion, the sacraments
of witchcraft, because these are the only sacraments whereby they
can impart to him the Satanic grace and efficacy which it is their
office to dispense. The language, however, and ritual ofwitch-
craft are in their use condensed and intensified to the highest de-
gree of potency and impressiveness. Thus their appalling infernal
liturgy is a special and necessary accommodation to the senses
and the mind of the person they are dealing with. It really
seems to me that tljey had no practicable way but to speak and
act in this instance just like witches, only a great deal more so.
But, in the Middleton scenes and parts of scenes, they are made
to speak and act just like common witches, to no purpose, and
without any occasion for it. This is, indeed, to disnature them,
to empty them of their selfhood, and turn them clean out of
themselves.

It may not be amiss to add, in this place, that Shakespeare
of course wrote his plays for the stage ; but then he also, in a
far deeper and higher sense, wrote them for the human mind.
And the divinity of his genius lies pre-eminently in this, that,
while he wished to make his workmanship attractive and fruitful
in the theatre, he could not choose but make it at the same time
potent and delectable in the inner courts of man's intelligent
and upward-reaching soul. But this latter service was a thing
that Middleton knew nothing of, and had not the heart to con-
ceive.

I return to Mr. Fleay. — To the few smaller interpolations
pointed out by the Clarendon Editors, he adds a considerable
number. These call for some notice. Clark and Wright make
particular mention of a passage in Act v., scene 5, as fol-
lows:—



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



l8o MACBETH.

Arm, arm, and out 1
If this whUh he avouches does appear^
There is nor fiying hence nor tarrying here,
I 'gin to be aweary of the Sun,
And wish th' estate o' the world were now undone, —
Ring the alarum bell I — Blow, wind ! come wrack !
At least we'll die with harness on our back.

And of the four lines here underscored they justly observe,
** How much better the sense is without them !" Let any one
read tfce passage without these lines, and surely he must see that
Shakespeare could not have written them. In like manner, Mr.
Fleay calls attention to the close of v., 6, where Macduff, whose
speech is everywhere else so simple, so manly, and so condensed,
is made to utter the following strutting and ambitious platitude :

Make all our trumpets speak ; give them all breath,
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.

The other passages pointed out by Mr. Fleay are as follows :
Act i., scene 4, the eight lines and a half beginning, ** The Prince
of Cumberland!" Also, ii., i, at the end, ** There's warrant in
that theft," &c. Also, ii., 2, tiie two couplets beginning, ** Well,
may you see things," and, ** God's benison go with you." Also,
iii., 4, the four and a half lines beginning, ** I am in blood." And
so the end of the scene, •* My strange and self-abuse," &c. Also,
iv., I, the four lines and two half-lines beginning, ** bid the tree."
And at the close of the scene, the line and a half, *• No boast-
ing," &c. AlsQ, v., I, last line but one of the scene, ** My mind
she has mated," &c. Also, v., 3, the two couplets at the close,
'* I will not be afraid," &c., and, '* Were I away from Dunsinane,"
&c. Also, the five and a half lines at the end of v., 4, ** The
time approaches," &c.

In all the forecited cases I accept Mr. Fleay's rulings, and ac-
cordingly print the passages in Italic type. I have also distin-
guished in the same way two passages on my own judgment, as
follows: Act i., scene 5, Lady Macbeth's speech at the end,
** Only look up clear," &c. ; and also, v., 3, the couplet begin-
ning, •• The mind I sway by." And there are several other pas-



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



SHAKESPEARE AND MIDDLETON. l8l

sages which I strongly suspect ought to be put on the same list ;
particularly the couplet, i., 5, ** Which shall to all our nights,"
&c. Perhaps, also, the couplet at the end of i., 7, ** Away, and
mock the time,'' &c. And perhaps the line and a half at the
close of v., 2, ** Or so much as it needs," &c. Again, in iii., 2,
the three and a half lines beginning, ** Nought's had, all's spent,""
taste strongly of another hand, and as if foisted in as a substitute
for something Shakespeare had written. Lastly, and especially,
the five lines and a half at the close of the same scene, beginning,
** Light thickens, and the crow makes wing." I am all but satis-
fied that this is not Shakespeare's; for it is not only flat and
feeble, but hardly consistent with what precedes ; and seems, in-