Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/329

 9 th S. II. OCT. 22, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

321

LONDON, SATVEDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1898.

CONTENTS. -No. 43.

NOTES : ' Macbeth,' 321 Book Terms, 322" Verify your references "Callings of Various Persons Shakspeare and Keats Spanish Kinswoman of William the Conqueror, 324 Dryasdust Ambresbury In Memory of a Horse- Pictures taken on the Spot A Descendant of Swift A " Chestnut" A Clerical Myth, 325 Clerical Knights Harlequin " Cutting his stick" Stephen de Cavendish The Domesday " Mansio," 326 Swift's Vanessa, 327.

QUERIES : Royal Naval Club Name of Book Bellars Jamshyd and Kaikobid Collector's Mark F. Cashin, 327 Danish Pronunciation T. Metcalfe Bench Mark Palk's Strait Army Lists Trafalgar Chapel Dr. Ward " Chuza " W. R. Scott Edward Light, 328 Byard's Leap Mistletoe Rev. Dr. Parkburst Keltic Personal Names River Parret Monastic Orders, 329.

REPLIES -.Letters of Junius, 329 Syntax of a Preface, 330 Canons Hall Hamlake, 331" Cross" vice " Kris" " Huckler" Episcopal Families Horace Walpole, 332 Cedar Trees French Village Names, 333 Holborn Im- provements Pattens Rifled Firearms Conversation of Shakspeare" Who sups with the devil," &c., 334" After- think "' Othello '' Hue and Cry ' " Nice fellows " ' Marriage Registers of St. Dnnstan's ' Rose Castle

August! "Lapsus Calami Zachary Macaulay, 337 The Organ ClarindaB. R. Haydon, 338.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' New English Dictionary,' Vol. IV. Foxcroft's ' Life and Letters of Sir G. Savile, Marquis of Halifax' The Holy Bible.

Notices to Correspondents.

SPURIOUS PASSAGES IN 'MACBETH.'

OWING to the imperfect form in which it has come down to us, ' Macbeth ' is a play in which the critics have been ready to discover passages of doubtful authorship. In a task of this sort it is very easy for the zeal of the poet's defender to outrun his discretion, but there are two scenes, at least, which can be demonstrated almost with certainty not to be by Shakespeare at all.

The first of these is the second scene oi Act I., and the reasons for considering it spurious may be arranged under heads, as follows :

1. The language and the metre. The latter is very ragged, and the former very much in the King Carnbyses vein. The mutilatior might possibly be ascribed to the editors anc the printers. But it would be difficult to explain why they should have concentratec all their spite upon this one scene, for no other in the play is so hacked about. And aparl from this the whole style of the scene remain a formidable objection. Is it conceivable (to take but a single instance) that Shakespeare at that period of his development when he was capable of writing 'Macbeth,' could have written the account of Macdonwald's death as it stands in this scene ?

2. It is inconsistent with scene iii. of the ame act. In the first place, either there must have been two battles going on at once those spoken of by the Sergeant and Rosse espectively), and the King of Norway must lave been present at both ; or if these two iccounts refer to the same engagement, a meaning which it is difficult to get out of the ,ext, the Sergeant must have travelled all the y from Fife to Forres before iris wounds stopped bleeding. Secondly, if we are to jelieve what we are told in scene ii., Mac- >eth's references in scene iii. to 'the Thane of Cawdor's being alive and prosperous are utterly absurd. These speeches are some- /irnes ascribed to hypocrisy, but it seems mpossible to suppose that Macbeth would Banquo, and afterwards of Rosse and Angus, all of whom knew him to have been fighting against a rebellion of which Cawdor was a eader. Whereas if scene ii. is rejected all inconsistency at once disappears ; for in scene iii. Angus proceeds to tell Macbeth, as something previously unknown, that Cawdor was in some way leagued with the rebels, but how or to what extent is even yet not fully revealed ; but in scene ii. the treason of Cawdor is spoken of as a matter of course, and as something openly known to everybody.
 * hus speak of Cawdor in the presence of

3. The clumsy and unnatural device of making a wounded soldier the messenger from the field of battle seems altogether- unworthy of Shakespeare.

4. There is a very good reason why such a scene as this should have been inserted after the poet's time namely, to prevent the two witch scenes from coming together. Shakespeare's intention probably was that the short opening scene should (as its con- cluding line tends to show) be supposed to take place in the air, whereas the second witch scene undoubtedly takes place on earth, on the "blasted heath." It seems likely, then, that the author meant the first scene to be gone through in the gallery above the stage to represent the witches hovering through the fog and filthy air and that when it was concluded they should descend at once to the stage proper representing the heath without any intervening scene; and that after his death or retirement this arrange- ment was either not understood or found to be inconvenient in practice, and accordingly some poetaster was employed to write in a scene.

Another scene in 'Macbeth' which there is good reason for believing to be of non- Shakespearean authorship is Act III. sc. v. ;