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34. Macbeth, 1606.
From a book entided Rex Platonicus, cited by Dr. Farmer, we learn that king James, when he viſited Oxford in 1605, was addreſſed by three ſtudents of St. John’s college, who perſonated the three weird ſiſters, and recited a ſhort dramatick poem, founded on the prediction of thoſe ſybils, (as the author calls them) relative to Banquo and Macbeth.
Dr. Farmer is of opinion, that this little piece[1] preceded Shakſpeare’s play; a ſuppoſition which is ſtrengthened by the ſilence of the author of Rex Platonicus, who, if Macbeth had then appeared on the ſtage, would probably have mentioned ſomething of it. It ſhould be likewiſe remembered, that there ſubſiſted at that time a ſpirit of oppoſition and rivalſhip between the regular players and the academicks of the two univerſities; the latter of whom frequently acted plays both in Latin and Engliſh, and ſeem to have piqued themſelves on the ſuperiority of their exhibitions to thoſe of the eſtabliſhed theatres[2]. Wiſhing probably to manifeſt this ſuperiority to the royal pedant, it is not likely that they would chuſe for a collegiate interlude, a ſubject, which had already appeared on the public ſtage, with all the embelliſhments that the magick hand of Shakſpeare could beſtow.
This tragedy contains an alluſion to the union of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, under one ſovereign, and alſo to the cure of the king’s-evil by the royal touch[3]; but in what year that pretended power was
- ↑ In Rex Platonicus it is called Luſiuncula.
- ↑ Ab ejuſdem collegii alumnis (qui et cothurno tragico et ſocco comico principes ſemper habebantur) Vertumnus, comædia faceta, ad principes exhilarandos exhibetur. Rex Platonicus, p. 78.
Arcadiam reſtauratam Iſiacorum Arcadum lectiſſimi cecinerunt, unoque opere, principum omniumque ſpectantium animos immenſa et ultra fidem affecerunt voluptate; ſimulque patrios ludiones, etſi exercitatiſſimos, quantum interſit inter ſcenam mercenariam & eruditam docuerunt, Ib. p. 228. See alſo the lines quoted above from the Return from Parnaſſus, and Act IV. Sc. iii. of that piece, which was acted publickly at St. John’s college in Cambridge. - ↑ Macbeth, Act IV. Sc. i. ii.
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