The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1890-09-21
WITCHES OF MACBETH.
ORIGIN AND CHARACTER Or
SHAKESPERE'S HAGS.

s,atute of James the First Relating To
witches--shakesper Beiiefin "i'c"'-
The witches of Macbeth Taken From
Middleton.
The devilish superstition under when
hundreds of miserable old women were
tortured and burned alive, and to when
AVIAN such men as Sir Matthew Hale,
Cir Thomas Browne, and the plous
f,tbers and Governors of New England
gave themselves, and which rageu
throuoh the seventeenth century took
that. its worst, shape from the treatise
and the statute of James l. and the fu-
r;tan doctrine that the Jewish code
which declared Thou shalt not suher
q witch to live was a part OF the law OF
tho land. Til then the belief ID
,v;tcbcraft was no doubt universal,
hut men looked on 1t much as
they did on countless unexplained pow
ers Of nature, which were regarded
9Th childish awe rather than as some
thing of special welcomes. WIZARDS
and witches were punished either
as heretics or for designing or ipfict
ing criminal injuries on man or DeaS'7
a, they were for any other crlme'
There is no reason for doubling tnit
Shakespere. like other people IN his
own dav. held the ordinary beliefs on
this subject. as on that Of ghosts. 10
the plays of Henry VI" he shows this
witchcraft in its vulgar forms; IN tnat
of Macbeth he connects II with lne
old northern legends of those primeval
mowers of nature, the Nords, or rates
If Scandinavian mythology. and shows
II in its twofold aspect. There -
controversy, which must remain unset
tied. as there is no suincient evidence
either way: whether Shakespeare en-
nobled the witches of Middleton or
Middleton made vulgar the weird SIS
ters of Shakespeare. What we do
know il. that SHAKESPEARE found the
outline sketches of these beings, as well
"a those of Macbeth and Duncan, 10
the mosaic chronicle OF Holinshed. and
that ne endowed them all with poetic
life and substance. And we have to
AL, again: Are these creations true to
nature. if we look at them with the
eyes of Macbeth, as we tried to see the
ghost with Hamlet's eyest
The play Of Macbeth, in which the
poet takes us back into the legendary
times of Scottish history, is eminently a
drama. or action. in which man IS free
will strives with his circumstances his
fate or destiny. for the mastery. 10
some dramas this conflict declares itself
IN the course of the action: in that OF
Macbeth it is declared at the beginning.
In tie opening scene, which strikes
the keynote of the play, the poet repre-
sents to us in the visible shape OF the
Weird Sisters, those mysterious and
terrible powers of nature which prove
wholly evil to the man who becomes
their slave instead of their master
Like the adversary of Job, who came
from going to and fro in the EARTH
and from walking up and down
in il. they come, posting over
sea and land. through the thun-
der. wind. and rain, which seem
their prOper elements, TO meet with
Macbeth. What their errand Is win
him they do not say; but we feel that
it is Tor evil. and that like their coun-
terparts. the Norns of northern legend
they hold his destiny, past present
and to come. In the second scene Mac.
beth is described as the noble and
worthy man he as yet seems to be; ana
in the next scene we see him contend
ing with, yet more aud more giving
way to. the guilty dreams of his amDI-
ton. while the tempters. who reflect
back his own thoughts, are shown to
the spectators. though not yet to him.
as the vulgar witches of popular super
stition. fit representatives of the degra-
dation into which they will bring MN.
if he accepts their offers OF worldly
honors.-The Quarterly Review.