i

But it had been easy to have checked Mr. Upton's exultation, by obferving, that Bargulus does not appear in the quarto. Which also is the case with some fragments of Latin verses, in the different parts of this doubtful performance.

It is scarcely worth mentioning, that two or three more Latin passages, which are met with in our author, are immediately transcribed from the story or chronicle before him. Thus, in Henry V. whose right to the kingdom of France is copiously demonstrated by the Archbishop:

There is no bar

To make against your highness' claim to France,
But this which they produce from Pharamond:
In terram Salicam mulieres nè succedant;
No woman shall fucceed in Salike land:
Which Salike land the French unjustly gloze
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar,
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,
That the land Salike lies in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elve, &c.

Archbishop Chichelie, says Holinshed, "did much inueie against the surmised and false fained law Salike, which the Frenchmen alledge euer against the kings of England in barre of their just title to the crowne of France. The very words of that supposed law are these, In terram Salicam mulieres ne fuccedant, that is to saie, Into the Salike land let not women fucceed; which the French gloffers expound to be the realm of France, and that this law was made by king Pharamond: whereas yet their owne authors affirme, that the land Salike is in Germanie, betweene the rivers of Elbe and Sala," &c. P. 545.

It hath lately been repeated from Mr. Guthrie's Effay upon English Tragedy, that the portrait of Macbeth's wife is copied from Buchanan, "whose spirit, as well as words, is translated into the play of Shakspeare: and it had fignified nothing to have pored only on Holinshed for facts." --" Animus etiam, per se ferox, prope quotidianis conviciis uxoris (quæ omnium confiliorum ei erat conscia) stimulabatur."-This is the whole, that Buchanan says of the lady; and truly I see no more spirit in the Scotch, than in the English chronicler. "The wordes of the three weird sisters also greatly encouraged him, [to the murder of Duncan) but specially his wife. lay fore upon him to attempt the thing, as she that was very ambitious, brenning in unquenchable defire to beare the name of a queene." Edit. 1577, p. 244.

This part of Holinshed is an abridgment of Johne Bellenden's translation of the noble clerk, Hector Boece, imprinted at Edinburgh, in fol. 1541. I will give the paffage as it is found there. "His wyfe impacient of lang tary (as all wemen are) specially quhare they ar defirus of ony purpos, gaif hym gret artation to pursew the thrid weird, that sche micht be ane quene, calland hym oft tymis febyl cowart and nocht desyrus of honouris, sen he durst not affailze the thing with manheid and curage, quhilk is offerit to hym be beniuolence of fortoun. Howbeit sindry otheris hes assailziet fic thinges afore with maist terribyl jeopardyis, quhen they had not fic fickernes to fucceid in the end of thair lauboris as he had." P. ¥73

But we can demonstrate, that Shakspeare had not the story from Buchanan. According to him, the weirdsisters salute Macbeth, "Una Angufiæ Thamum, altera Moraviæ, tertia regem."--Thane of Angus, and of Murray, &c. but according to Holinshed, immediately from

from Bellenden, as it stands in Shakspeare: "The first
of them fpake and fayde, All hayle Makbeth, thane of
Glammis, the second of them faid, Hayle Makbeth,
thane of Cawder; but the third fayde, All hayle Mak-
beth, 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 so fatally depended. "He had learned
of certain wysards, how that he ought to take heede of
Macduffe;--and surely hereupon had he put Macduffe
to death, but a certaine witch whom he had in great
trust, had tolde, that he should neuer be flain with man
born of any woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Ber-
nane came to the castell 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 possibly have been suggested to him by a little performance on the same subject at Oxford, before king James, 1605. I will transcribe my notice of it from Wake's Rex Platonicus: "Fabulæ ansam dedit antiqua de Regiâ prosapiâ historiola apud ScotoBritannos celebrata, quæ narrat tres olim Sibyllas occurrisse duobus Scotiæ proceribus, Macbetho & Banchoni, & illum prædixisse Regem futurum, fed Regem nullum geniturum; hunc Regem non futurum, fed Reges geniturum multos. Vaticinii veritatem rerum eventus comprobavit. Banchonis enim è stirpe potentissimus Jacobus oriundus." P. 29.

A stronger argument hath been brought from the plot of Hamlet. Dr. Grey and Mr. Whalley affure us, that

1

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 Hystorie 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 history exists, it is almost impossible that any poet unacquainted with the Latin language (supposing his perceptive faculties to have been ever so acute,) could have caught the characteristical madness of Hamlet, described by Saxa 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 observation:-" It was not without cause, and juste occafion, that my gestures, countenances and words seeme to proceed from a madman, and that I defire to haue all men esteeme mee wholy depriued of fence and reasonable understanding, bycause I am well assured, 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 treasons,) will not spare to faue himfelfe with the like crueltie, in the blood, and flesh of the loyns of his brother, by him massacred: and therefore it is better for me to fayne madnesse then to use my right fences as nature hath bestowed them upon me. The bright shining clearnes therof I am forced to hide vnder this shadow of dissimulation, as the sun doth hir beams vnder some great cloud, when the wether in fummer time ouercasteth: the face of a mad man, ferueth to couer my gallant countenance, and the gestures of a fool are fit for me, to the end that guiding my felf wifely ther

in

in I may preferue my life for the Danes and the memory of my late deceased father, for that the desire of reuenging his death is so ingrauen in my heart, that if I dye not shortly, I hope to take such and so great vengeance, that these countryes shall for euer speake thereof. Neuertheless I must stay the time, meanes, and occafion, left by making ouer great hast, I be now the cause of mine own sodaine ruine and ouerthrow, and by that meanes, end, before I beginne to effect my hearts defire: hee that hath to doe with a wicked, disloyall, cruell, and discourteous man, must vse craft, and politike inuentions, such as fine witte can best imagine, not to discouer his interprise: for seeing that by force I cannot affect my defire, reason alloweth me by dissimulation, subtiltie, and secret practises to proceed therein."

But to put the matter out of all question, my communicative friend above mentioned, Mr. Capell, (for why should I not give myself the credit of his name?) hath been fortunate enough to procure from the collection of the duke of Newcastle, a complete copy of the Hystorie of Hamblet, which proves to be a tranflation from the French of Belleforest; and he tells me, that all the chief incidents of the play, and all the capital characters are there in embryo, after a rude and barbarous manner: sentiments indeed there are none, that Shakspeare could borrow; nor any expression 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 scarcely conceivable, how industrioufly the puritanical zeal of the last age exerted itself in destroying, amongst better things, the innocent amusements of the former. Numberless Tales and Poems are alluded to in old books, which are now perhaps no where to be found.

Mr.