* Hume. Ay; What else? fear you not her courage. *Boling. I have heard her reported to be a woman * of an invincible spirit: But it shall be convenient, mas*ter Hume, that you be by her aloft, while we be busy * below; and so, I pray you, go in God's name, and leave *us. [exit Hume] Mother Jourdain, be you prostrate, and grovel on the earth :-* John Southwell, read you ; * and let us to our work. Enter Duchess, above. *Duch. Well said, my masters; and welcome all. To *this geer; the sooner the better. *Boling. Patience, good lady; wizards know their times: Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night, writers it means to lay spirits, but in these plays it invariably. means to raise them. So, in Julius Caesar, Ligarius says— "Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjur'd up "My mortified spirit." M. Mason. 9 Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night,] The silent of the night is a classical expression, and means an interlunar night.Amica silentia lune. So, Pliny, Inter omnes verò convenit, utilissimè in coitu ejus sterni, quem diem alii interlunii, alii silentis lunæ appellant. Lib. XVI, cap. 39. In imitation of this language, Milton says: "The sun to me is dark, "When she deserts the night, "Hid in her vacant interlunar cave." Warburton. I believe this display of learning might have been spared. Silent, though an adjective, is used by Shakspeare as a substantive. So, in The Tempest, the vast of night is used for the greatest part of it. The old quarto reads, the silence of the night. The variation between the copies is worth notice: "Bolingbrooke makes a circle. "Bol. Dark night, dread night, the silence of the night, "Wherein the furies mask in hellish troops, "Send up, I charge you, from Cocytus' lake "The spirit Ascalon to come to me; "To pierce the bowels of this centrick earth, 66 Ascalon, ascend, ascend!" na speech already quoted from the quarto, Eleanor says, they have “ —————— cast their spells in silence of the night.” And in the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date, is the same expression: "Who taught the nyghtyngall to recorde besyly The time of night when Troy was set on fire; The time when screech-owls cry, and ban-dogs howl,1 ‹ And spirits walk, and ghosts break up their graves, That time best fits the work we have in hand. • Madam, sit you, and fear not; whom we raise, We will make fast within a hallow'd verge. [Here they perform the ceremonies appertaining, and make the circle; Bolingbroke, or Southwell, reads, Conjuro te, &c. It thunders and lightens terribly ; then the spirit riseth. *Spir. Adsum. *M. Jourd. Asmath, * By the eternal God, whose name and power *Thou tremblest at, answer that I shall ask; * For, till thou speak, thou shalt not pass from hence. *Spir. Ask what thou wilt:-That I had said and done! Again, in The Faithful Shepherdess of Fletcher: "Through still silence of the night, "Guided by the glow-worm's light." Steevens. Steevens's explanation of this passage is evidently right; and Warburton's observations on it, though long, learned, and laborious, are nothing to the purpose. Bolingbroke does not talk of the silence of the moon, but of the silence of the night; nor is he describing the time of the month, but the hour of the night. M. Mason. 1 ban-dogs howl,] I was unacquainted with the etymology of this word, till it was pointed out to me by an ingenious correspondent in the Supplement to The Gentleman's Magazine, for 1789, who signs himself D. T. "Shakspeare's ban-dog (says he) is simply a village-dog, or mastiff, which was formerly called a band-dog, per syncopen, bandog." In support of this opinion he quotes Caius de canibus Britannicis: "Hoc genus canis, etiam catenarium, à catena vel ligamento, qua ad januas interdiu detinetur, ne lædat, et tamen latratu terreat, appellatur -Rusticos, shepherds' dogs, mastives, and bandogs, nominavimus." Steevens. Ban-dog is surely a corruption of band-dog; or rather the first d is suppressed here, as in other compound words. Cole, in his Dict. 1679, renders ban-dog, canis catenatus. Malone. 2 That I had said and done!] It was anciently believed that spirits, who were raised by incantations, remained above ground, and answered questions with reluctance. See both Lucan and Statius. Steevens. So the Apparition says in Macbeth : "Dismiss me.-Enough!" The words "That I had said and done!" are not in the old play. Malone. Boling. First, of the king. What shall of him become?3 [Reading out of a paper. Spir. The duke yet lives, that Henry shall depose; But him outlive, and die a violent death. [As the Spirit speaks, SOUTH. writes the answer. Boling. What fate awaits the duke of Suffolk? Spir. By water shall he die, and take his end. Boling. What shall befall the duke of Somerset? Spir. Let him shun castles; Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains, Than where castles mounted stand.4 • Have done, for more I hardly can endure. Boling. Descend to darkness, and the burning lake : False fiend, avoid!5 3 [Thunder and lightning. Spirit descends. What shall of him become?] Here is another proof of what has been already suggested. In the quarto 1600, it is concerted between Mother Jourdain and Bolingbroke that he should frame a circle, &c. and that she should "fall prostrate to the ground," to "whisper with the devils below." (Southwell is not introduced in that piece.) Accordingly, as soon as the incantations begin, Bolingbroke reads the questions out of a paper, as here. But our poet has expressly said in the preceding part of this scene that Southwell was to read them. Here, however, he inadvertently follows his original as it lay before him, forgetting that consistently with what he had already written, he should have deviated from it. He has fallen into the same kind of inconsistency in Romeo and Juliet, by sometimes adhering to and sometimes deserting the poem on which he formed that tragedy. Malone. 4 Than where castles mounted stand.] I remember to have read this prophecy in some old Chronicle, where, I think, it ran thus: "Safer shall he be on sand, "Than where castles mounted stand:" at present I do not recollect where. Steevens. 5 False fiend, avoid!] Instead of this short speech at the dismission of the spirit, the old quarto gives us the following: "Then down, I say, unto the damned pool "Where Pluto in his fiery waggon sits, "Riding amidst the sing'd and parched smoaks, "The road of Dytas, by the river Styx; "There howle and burn for ever in those flames: “Rise, Jordane, rise, and stay thy charming spells : "Zounds! we are betray'd!" Dytas is written by mistake for Ditis, the genitive case of Dis, which is used instead of the nominative by more than one ancient author. Enter YORK and BUCKINGHAM, hastily, with their Guards, and Others. York. Lay hands upon these traitors, and their trash. 'Beldame, I think, we watch'd you at an inch.'What, madam, are you there? the king and commonweal 'Are deeply indebted for this piece of pains; My lord protector will, I doubt it not, 'See you well guerdon'd for these good deserts. *Duch. Not half so bad as thine to England's king, * Injurious duke; that threat'st where is no cause. *Buck. True, madam, none at all. What call you [Shewing her the papers. this? Away with them; let them be clapp'd up close, ‹ And kept asunder:-You, madam, shall with us:'Stafford, take her to thee. [Exit. Duch-from above. 'We'll see your trinkets here all forthcoming; All-Away! [Exeunt Guards, with South. Boling. &c. * York. Lord Buckingham, methinks, you watch'd her well: 6 *A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon! Now, pray, my lord, let's see the devil's writ. What have we here? The duke yet lives, that Henry shall depose; *Aio te, Eacida, Romanos vincere posse. Well, to the rest: Tell me, what fate awaits the duke of Suffolk? [Reads. So, in Thomas Drant's translation of the fifth Satire of Horace, 1567: "And by that meanes made manye soules lord Ditis hall Here again we have such a variation as never could have arisen from an imperfect transcript. Malone. 6 Lord Buckingham, methinks, &c.] This repetition of the prophecies, which is altogether unnecessary, after what the spectators had heard in the scene immediately preceding, is not to be found in the first edition of this play. Pope. They are not, it is true, found in this scene, but they are repeated in the subsequent scene, in which Buckingham brings an account of this proceeding to the king. This also is a variation that only could proceed from various authors. Malone. 7 Tell me, &c.] Yet these two words were not in the paper read by Bolingbroke, which York has now in his hand; nor are By water shall he die, and take his end.- Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains, * These oracles are hardily attain'd, * And hardly understood.8 The king is now in progress towards saint Albans, . With him, the husband of this lovely lady: Thither go these news, as fast as horse can carry them; 'A sorry breakfast for my lord protector. Buck. Your grace shall give me leave, my lord of York, To be the post, in hope of his reward. York. At your pleasure, my good lord.—Who's with' in there, ho! Enter a Servant. Invite my lords of Salisbury, and Warwick, To sup with me to-morrow night.-Away! [Exeunt. they in the original play. Here we have a species of inaccuracy peculiar to Shakspeare, of which he has been guilty in other places. See p. 129-30, where Gloster and Winchester read the same paper differently. Malone. 8 These oracles are hardily attain'd, And hardly understood.] The folio reads-hardly. Malone. Not only the lameness of the versification, but the imperfection of the sense too, made me suspect this passage to be corrupt. York, siezing the parties and their papers, says, he'll see the devil's writ; and finding the wizard's answers intricate and ambiguous, he makes this general comment upon such sort of intelligence, as I have restored the text: These oracles are hardily attain'd, And hardly understood. i. e. A great risque and hazard is run to obtain them; and yet, after these hardy steps taken, the informations are so perplexed that they are hardly to be understood. Theobald. The correction made by Mr. Theobald has been adopted by the subsequent editors. Malone. |