322
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. n. OCT. 22,
and in conjunction with this two passages in
Act IV. sc. i. may be treated as doubtful.
These are lines 39-47, i.e., from "Enter
Hecate" to the end of the song "Black
spirits," and lines 125-32, i.e., from "Ay,
sir, all this is so," to "Witches dance and
vanish."
In the first place, all these passages are in iambic metre, whereas the witches elsewhere in the play always speak in trochaic lines. There is no apparent reason for the sudden change of metre in the two passages in Act IV. sc. i., nor in the former of them for the equally sudden change back again to trochees as soon as the song is finished.
Secondly, the substance of the passages does not harmonize with the rest of the supernatural element in the play. It is far more in accordance with the character of the witches of Middleton, and of those of ordinary popular belief. Each of the pas- sages contains a feature which was likely to be popular on the stage ; one of them a witch dance, and each of the others a song, both of which songs are to be found in Middleton's 'Witch.'
Scene v. of Act III. in no way assists the action of the play, but merely delays it, introduces a new and unnecessary character, and contains a suggestion that the witches are doing their part for love of Macbeth an idea absolutely repulsive when we consider the general scheme of Shakespeare's play, but quite in accordance with ideas to be found in that of Middleton. In fact, this scene serves no purpose except that of introducing the song "(Jome away." As regards Act IV. sc. i. the introduction of Hecate is quite objectless After the entrance of Macbeth she neither speaks nor takes part in the action. This ' suggests that her one speech is an interpola- tion, probably inserted to harmonize with a former interpolation (Act III. sc. v.), and to introduce the song " Black spirits."
In the same way lines 125-32 may have been inserted to lead up to the witch dance. The idea of the witches dancing in order to " cheer up " Macbeth seems scarcely Shake- spearean. And if these two speeches are integral parts of the scene, why are they written in a different metre from the rest of it?
The most probable explanation of all three passages seems to be that when it was found that grotesque scenes with dances and similar antics, such as occur in Middleton's play, were popular with the spectators, two songs from ' The Witch ' and a dance were introduced into 'Macbeth' in order to provide semi-comic relief. And the author, whoever
he was, who was employed (presumably after
Shakespeare's retirement) to write passages
to lead up to these "new and attractive
features," borrowed the name of Hecate and
some of his ideas from Middleton, as well as
the two songs.
Finally, if Act III. sc. v. were rejected an nconsistency in the play as it stands at present might be smoothed away. In Act III. sc. vi. the nameless " Lord " says :
Thither [i. e., to England] Macduff Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid To wake W orthumberland and warlike Siward.
And this report
Hath so exasperate the king that he Prepares for some attempt of war.
Now as the play stands this scene takes place before Act IV. sc. i., at the end of which Atacbeth hears, for the first time, of Macduff 's flight; and he does not learn of the pro- posed expedition till after the end of the same scene. It would be more natural, then, that Act III. sc. vi. should come after Act IV. sc. i., and it may be that it originally did so, but was shifted to its present place when Act III. sc. v. was inserted, in order to pre- vent the two witch scenes from coming together (Act III. sc. v. and Act IV. sc. i.), a necessary precaution when there were no changes of scene, and no intervals between
the scenes.
G. CROSSE.
BOOK TERMS.
(See 8 th S. ix. 341 ; x. 400.)
IN continuing my observations on technical bibliographical words, I assume that the reader has read my previous notes.
Antonym : Anonym. These words have now got into the 'Historical English Dic- tionary,' and from that will probably be copied into others. The word antonym means a book with an author's name ; anonym a book without an author's name, or, as it had to be expressed before I in- troduced the word anonym, an " anonymous book," as distinguished from a pseudonymous book, which has "a fictitious name or designa- tion, thus giving some indication as to the author." Anonymous was commonly used formerly for any book that had not the author's name on the title, or, even if it had a name, and the writer knew it was fictitious, he would have called it anonymous. In the present day a bibliographer who did this would be pitied for the want of accu- racy in his ideas. I sincerely hope that any new editions of dictionaries will keep up the distinction, and not describe the words as synonymous, as they always have
