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ton’s piece preceded that of Shakſpeare; the latter, it ſhould ſeem, thinking it unneceſſary to ſet down verſes which were
“ they’re now all at reſt,
“ And Gaſper there and all:—Liſt!—faſt aſleepe;
“ He cryes it hither.—I muſt diſeaſe you ſtraight, Sir:
“ For the maide-ſervants, and the girles o’ th’ houſe,
“ I ſpic’d them lately with a drowſie poſſet,
“ They will not hear in haſte.”
And Franciſca, like lady Macbeth, is watching late at night to encourage the perpetration of a murder.
The expreſſion which Shakeſpeare has put into the mouth of Macbeth, when he is ſufficiently recollected to perceive that the dagger and the blood on it, were the creations of his own fancy, “ There’s no ſuch thing”is likewiſe appropriated to Franciſca, when ſhe undeceives her brother, whoſe imagination had been equally abuſed.
From the inſtances already produced, perhaps the reader would allow, that if Middleton’s piece preceded Shakeſpeare’s, the originality of the magic introduced by the latter, might be fairly queſtioned; for our author (who as actor, and manager, had acceſs to unpubliſhed dramatic performances) has ſo often condeſcended to receive hints from his contemporaries, that our ſuſpicion of his having been a copyiſt in the preſent inſtance, might not be without foundation. Nay, perhaps, a time may arrive, in which it will become evident from books and manuſcripts yet undiſcovered and unexamined, that Shakeſpeare never attempted a play on any argument, till the effect of the ſame ſtory, or at leaſt the ruling incidents in it, had been already tried on the ſtage, and familiarized to his audience. Let it be remembered, in ſupport of this conjecture, that dramatic pieces on the following ſubjects,—viz. King John, King Richard II. and III. King Henry IV. and V. King Henry VIII. King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Meaſure for Meaſure, the Merchant of Venice, the Taming of a Shrew, and the Comedy of Errors,—had appeared before thoſe of Shakeſpeare, and that he has taken ſomewhat from all of them that we have hitherto ſeen. I muſt obſerve at the ſame time, that Middleton, in his other dramas, is found to have borrowed little from the ſentiments, and nothing from the fables of his predeceſſors. He is known to have written in concert with Jonſon, Fletcher, Maſinger, and Rowley; but appears to have been unacquainted, or at leaſt unconnected, with Shakeſpeare.
It is true that the date of The Witch cannot be aſcertained. The author, however, in his dedication (to the truelie worthie and generouſly affected Thomas Holmes Eſquire) obſerves, that he recovered this ignorant-ill-fated labour of his (from the play-houſe, I ſuppoſe) not without much difficultie. Witches (continues he) are, ipso
