arms of the Danes." Inch or Infhe, in the Irish and Erfe lan

guages, fignifies an ifland *. Vid. Lhynd's Arch.

In the concluding Scene of the first Act of this inimitable drama, Macbeth is reprefented as faying in a foliloquy

66

if the affaffination

"Could trammel up the confequence, and catch
"With his furceafe, fuccefs :".

Dr. Johnfon pleads for a tranfpofition, and would give fuccefs the precedence of furceafe, and, moreover, would fubftitute its for his. With this alteration he understands the paffage thus

if its fuccefs would enfure its furceafe-if being once done fuccefsfully, without detection, it could fix a period to all vengeance and enquiry-I would then venture on the deed, &c.

Mr. Steevens appears to be fatisfied with this explanation of the paffage, and gives his fanction to the alteration of his into its, by informing his readers that they are convertible terms. For our part, we fee no difficulty in the paffage as it ftands at prefent, and are utterly averfe to all tranfpofitions and alterations, unless abfolutely neceffary to clear up fome obfcurity, otherwise infcrutable or warranted by good authority, or very clear analogy. "With his furceafe"-appears to us to mean fimply. and literally the death of Duncan-which event Macbeth was at that moment meditating. He and his are used in the fame foliloquy, without any mention of the royal name: and in the abruptne's with which it begins, and the manner in which Macbeth fpeaks of his gueft, the poet difcovers his vast knowledge of the moft fecret workings of the human heart, when it is full of fome great but mifchievous conceptions to which it wishes, and yet hefitates to give expreffion even in fecret.

In a note on the word Waffel, made ufe of by Lady Macbeth in this laft fcene, Mr. Steevens obferves, that it was anciently called was haile, and was an annual cuftom, according to Selden, obferved in the country on the vigil of the new year, and had its beginning, as fome fay, from the words which Ronix, daughter of Hengift, ufed, when she drank to Vortigernloverd king, was haile. He answered her by direction of an interpreter-Drine-heile.'-Waffel is a note of health-wishing, and is fupposed to be a corruption of wish-heil.

On this word we beg leave to remark, that in the western counties, the custom of waffel is ftill preferved amongst the country people, with fome particular ceremonies: not indeed on the

I-Colme-kill (called by Bede Hy, and by other writers Iona) is mentioned alfo in this tragedy. Vid. A&t II. Sc. ult. The body of Duncan is reported to be

carried to Colmes' kill,
"The facred ftorehouse of his, predeceffors,
"And guardian of their bones."

eve of the new year, but on the eve of Twelfth-day. The waffel-bowl, as it is ftill called, is filled with ale or cyder, into which is thrown a toaft with spice and fugar, and the first libation is made to the apple-trees. They are fprinkled with the liquor while a fong is fung by the fuperftitious ruftics, expreffive of their wishes and hopes of a plentiful feafon. In towns the boys parade the streets on the eve of Twelfth day, and fing the waffel-fong. It may be obferved that they make use of the old Saxon word, was-heil, without any alteration, either of its original meaning or manner of pronunciation. It begins, "Was heil, was-heil all o'er the town," &c. i. e. we wish health to all the inhabitants.

In the Archaeologia there is a particular account of an ancient chimney-piece, on which the waffel-bowl is carved, ornamented with leaves of the apple-tree. The gentleman who communicated his remarks on this remain of antiquity, conjectures that the leaves were emblematical of the good cyder which generally filled the bowl. We rather think they referred to the custom of carrying the bowl into the orchards to sprinkle the trees with the liquor it contained, whether it were cyder or ale. Macbeth fays to the Ghoft

"If trembling I inhabit, then protest me

"The baby of a girl."

Mr. Pope alters the word to inhibit, and Dr. Warburton adopts the alteration. Dr. Johnfon difapproves of this correction, and proposes to read

"I evade it.".

Mr. Steevens prefers Mr. Pope's emendation, and reads the line thus:

"If trembling I inhibit thee, pro:eft me."

To inhibit is to forbid. It is more than once made use of by Shakspeare.

Perhaps there is, after all, no neceffity for any alteration. We know the licence of our Author with refpect to his ufe of words. Scarcely a page but affords fome inftance or other of his giving a turn to words very different from that to which they had been accuftomed by writers more attentive to the rules of grammatical phrafeology. May not inhabit mean the fame as harbour or give habitation to? If fo, the fenfe is obvious at first fight, and trembling is not to be understood as a participle, but as a fubftantive.

"Augurs, and underfood relations, have

"By magot-pies, and choughs and rooks brought forth"The fecret'it man of blood."

By relation Dr. Johnson understands the connection of effects with causes.

The old copy has the paffage thus:

"Augures, and understood relations," &c.

• Perhaps

Perhaps (fays Mr. Steevens) we fhould read auguries, i. e. prognoftications by means of omens. Thefe, together with the connection of effects with caufes, being understood, have been inftrumental in divulging the moft fecret murders.' This undoubtedly is the general fenfe of the paffage. But we doubt whether Shakspeare by relations meant the connection between caufe and effect, which our learned Editors fuppofe or that by the expreffion he fhewed fuch profound knowledge of antiquity,' as Dr. Warburton imagines he fees in it. Underflood relations may mean no more than accounts of things difcovered by magot pies, &c. and fo well underflood and interpreted as to be the means of bringing the moft fecret and difguised murderer to public infamy and punishment. To effect this fenfe, there must be a flight, but no unnatural tranfpofition of the words. Auguries and relations by magot-pies, &c. understood, have brought forth the fecret'ft man of blood.'

The complaifance of our poet to King James hath been often noticed. In this tragedy the power of curing the King's Evil is fpoken of as hereditary in the house of Banquo, from whence that monarch traced his defcent. On the paffage which immediately refers to this power, Mr. Steevens hath the following note: The ingenious Editor of the Household Book of the Fifth E. of Northumb. very acutely obferves," that the miraculous gift of curing the evil was left to be claimed by the Stuarts. Our ancient Plantagenets were humbly content to cure the cramp."

At the end of the first part of Henry IV. we have fome curious obfervations, by Mr. Tollet, on the ancient Morris Dancers. Thefe obfervations are accompanied with a plate (of which they are in a great measure explanatory) reprefenting an antient window at Mr. Tollet's houfe, in which the figures, attitudes, and dreffes, of the feveral dancers are delineated with great accuracy and elegance.

In a note on the celebrated exclamation of Richard, in the tragedy which goes by his name.

Dr. Farmer obferves,

"A horie! a horfe! my kingdom for a horfe!"that Burbage, the alter Rofcius of Camden, was the original Richard, as we may learn from a paffage in the poems of Bp. Corbet, who introduces his hoft at Bolworth defcribing the battle:

"But when he would have faid King Richard died,

"And cail'd a horse! a borfe! he Barbage cried."

In the prologue to Henry VIII. there is a paffage which lays much stress on the truth of the enfuing reprefentation. This circumftance hath led Mr. Tyrrwhitt to conjecture (and we: think with great appearance of probability) that this play of Henry VIII, is the very play mentioned by Sir Henry Wotton

[In his letter of July 2, 1613. Reliq. Wotton. p. 425.] of a new play, acted by the King's players, at the Bank's Side, called All is True; reprefenting fome principal pieces of the reign of Henry VIII. The extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majefly, with which that play was fet forth, and the particular incident of certain cannons shot off at the King's entry to a masque at the Cardinal Wolfey's houfe (by which the theatre was set on fire and burnt to the ground) are ftrictly applicable to the play before us. Mr. Chamberlaine, in Winwood's Memorials, vol. iii. p. 469, mentions the burning of the Globe, or Play-house, on the Bank Side, on St. Peter's-Day, 1613, which, fays he, fell out by a peale of chambers, that I know not on what occafion were to be used in the play. Ben Jonfon, in his Execration upon Vulcan, fays, they were two poor chambers. [See the stage direction in the play of Henry VIII. a little before the King's entrance, viz. " Drum and trumpet-chambers discharged.] The Continuator of Stowe's Chronicle, relating the fame incident (p. 1003.) fays exprefsly, that it happened at the play of Henry VIII.

In a MS. letter of Thomas Lorkin to Sir Thomas Puckering, dated London, this laft of June 1613, this fame fact is thus related. "No longer fince, than yesterday, while Burbage his company were acting at the Globe the play of Henry VIII. and there fhooting of certain chambers in way of triumph, the fire catched, &c. &c. MS. Harl. 7002.'

[Mr. Steevens obferves, that they were called chambers, because they were mere chambers to lodge powder. It is the technical term for the cavity in ordnance which holds the combustibles.] A paffage in Coriolanus that had hitherto much puzzled the critics, is at length decifively explained, by Mr. Steevens.

"Why in this woolvish gown fhould I ftand here, &c." Dr. Johnson explains it thus- rough, hirfute gown.' Mr. Steevens, on confulting the old copy, was furprised to find, that it was woolvifh tongue.' He conjectures with good reafon, that tongue was mifprinted for toge- the Roman toga. For, as Mr. Malone remarks, the very fame mistake of the printer happened in Othello, where we met with tongued inftead of "toged confuls." Befides, as he farther obferves, the old copy hath in and not with, which is a strong proof that the original word was not tongue.' But what shall we make of the epithet woolvish? Luckily Mr. Steevens hath hit on its precife meaning, in an old black letter book, entitled a "Merye Jeft of a man called Howleglas." The hero of this merry jelt binds himself to a taylor. He is set to work about a garment, "Then said the "maifter, I ment that you should have made up the ruffet 66 gown, for a husbandman's gown is here called a wolfe." By a woolvish toge or gown, Shakspeare might have meant

Coriolanus,

Coriolanus, to compare the drefs of a Roman candidate to the coarfe frock of a ploughman, who expofed himself to folicit the votes of his fellow ruftics.'

In the fame play Menenius the friend of Coriolanus fays,

"Do not cry, havock, where you should but hunt

"With modeft warrant."

In this paffage, Mr. Tyrrwhitt obferves, that to cry havock, feems originally to have been a sporting phrafe from hafoc, which, in Saxon, fignifies a hawk. It was afterwards used in war. So in K. John,

-Cry, havock, kings."

And in Julius Cæfar,

Cry, havock, and let flip the dogs of war."

It feems to have been the fignal for general flaughter, and is exprefsly forbidden in the Ordinances des Batailles. 9 R. II. Art. 10. "Item, que nul foit fi hardy de crier havock, fur peine d'avoir la teft coupe."

This expreffion, cry havock, reminds us of a fimilar paffage in the concluding fcene of Hamlet.

"This quarry cries on havock

6

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads-" cries out havock!" Dr. Johnfon obferves, that to cry on was to exclaim against. I fuppofe (fays he) when unfair sportsmen deftroyed more quarry or game than was reasonable, the cenfure was to cry havock.' This interpretation muft undoubtedly be erroneous, if Mr. Tyrrwhitt's note, mentioned above, is allowed to have any weight. And, indeed, the obvious fenfe of every other paffage, where this expreffion is made ufe of, confutes Dr. Johnfon's fuppofition. We are furprifed, that fo accurate a critic as Mr. Steevens fhould have fuffered Dr. Johnfon's note to pafs uncorrected. From his filence a perfon might be ready to infer his approbation.

The paffage ftrikes us in this light. When Fortinbras be holds the flaughter which had been made of fo many noble perfonages, the fcenes of a bloody hunt rush on his imagination. To flaughtered game (called quarry, in old books of hunting and falconry) he compared the victims of that merciless hunter, death. Viewing them, he exclaims:

"This quarry cries, i. e. repeats, or cries in my ear, the bloody fignal by which they fell as hunted game to the hounds of death- "On! Havock!"

It may not be altogether unworthy of obfervation, that the terms commonly made ufe of in fome parts of England by the gentlemen of the field to encourage the dogs, feems to have been derived from this antient fignal of purfuit." Hoik! Havoik!"

We would, with pleasure, give further fpecimens of the excellence and value of this new edition of Shakspeare, but we have already, perhaps, extended this article too far.

ART.

B....k.