¹ Mr. William Jaggard describes an anonymous play published in 1662 as “an imitation of Macbeth.” (Shakespeare Bibliography, p, 676.) It is the first in a collection entitled “Gratiae Theatrales, or A Choice Ternary of English Plays, Composed upon especial occasions by several ingenious persons; viz. Thorny-Abbey, or The London Maid; a Tragedy by T. W. The Marriage Broker, or The Pander, A Comedy; by M. W. M. A. Grim the Collier of Croydon, or The Devil and his Dame; with the Devil and St. Duns tan: a Comedy, by I. T. Never before published: but now printed at the request of sundry ingenious friends. London. Printed by R. D. and are to be sold at the sign of the Black Bear in S. Paul's Church-yard. 1662.” Langbaine (Momus Triumphans, p. 28) lists these plays but gets his notes mixed; his comment on The Marriage Broker obviously belongs to Thorny-Abbey. Some prefatory verses in the Gratiae Theatrales refer to the plays as

“…. unposted yet, nor with applause

Or acted here or there ….

Nor need you doubt, in this our Comick Age,

Welcome acceptance for them from the Stage ….

This I'll dare to foretell, although no Seer

That Thorny-Abbey will out-date King Lear.“

I have found no evidence that Thorny-Abbey was ever acted, and there seems to be little warrant for regarding it as an imitation of Macbeth. A king is murdered by his host, who is urged to the deed by his wife. The motive, however, is not ambition, but the imperative need of covering up oppression of the people, whose cause the good king has espoused. Moreover, the murder and its consequences are of minor importance in the plot of the play. The chief interest lies in the seduction of old Thorny's daughter by the king's brother, who afterwards succeeds to the throne and marries her.

² J. Q. Adams, The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert, p. 138.

³ It was entered in the Term Catalogue for July, 1674 (Arber's ed., I, 179)

⁴ Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, ed. Knight, p. 33.

⁵ Genest, Some Account of the English Stage, I, 139.

⁶ Professor Odell (in his valuable and delightful Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving, I, 36) doubts this because the publication of the play after its production at Dorset Garden suggests that much of the machinery may have been added at that time for the larger stage. But the publication (in 1674) was not directly after the performance. As I shall show, it was probably occasioned by the appearance of an unauthorized quarto in 1673. It is likely enough that after the removal of the Duke's company to Dorset Garden the mechanical features of their performance of Macbeth were further elaborated; The state of the text, however, is in my opinion quite another matter.

⁷ H. B. Wheatley (Pepys' Diary, IV, 264, n. 1) assumes this to be D'Avenant's version.

⁸ The other entries throw no light on the question.

⁹ This is the conclusion of Mr. William Archer. See his “Macbeth on the Stage,” English Illustrated Magazine, VI, 234 (Dec., 1888).

¹⁰ This was Nathaniel Lee, the dramatist, whose ill success as an actor, as well as that of Otway and of Downes himself, the old prompter describes with gusto.

¹¹ He was the leading villain of his day.

¹² Waldron's note in the 1789 ed. of Downes's Roscius Anglicanus, p. 43 The lamented Mr. Archer justifies the bifurcation of Banquo, in the following terms: “Hamlet's father naturally appeared to his son 'in his habit as he lived, but Banquo shaking his gory locks at Macbeth should certainly be repulsive rather than 'majestical.' We should be shown the horrid vision of his victim as it appears to the murderer's heated imagination. The elegant Smith probably declined to 'bedabble his face with gore.'” (Eng. Ill. Mag., VI, 234).

¹³ Cibber's Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 161 ff.

¹⁴ We know more about performances at this time than earlier because they were often advertised in the Daily Courant.

¹⁵ In D'Avenant's version Lennox is a more important part than in the original.

¹⁶ Genest. II, 394.

¹⁷ Genest, II, 447.

¹⁸ Montague Summers, Shakespeare Adaptations, p. xxxv ff. Mr. Jaggard's great Bibliography entertains the same error. (William Jaggard, Shakespeare Bibliography, p. 381).

¹⁹ There were at least two issues in 1674, one for P. Chetwin, the other for A. Clark. Whether these contain minor variations I cannot say, not having thought it worth while to collate them carefully. They appear to be identical.

²⁰ W. J. Lawrence, The Elizabethan Playhouse [First Series], p. 211, n. 2.

²¹ Since this paper was written I have examined copies of this quarto in the British Museum and in the Bodleian.

²² H. H. Furness, New Variorum Ed., vol. II (Revised Ed., 1903), pp. vii-viii.

²³ He means Quarto 1, using Mr. Lawrence's nomenclature. The choice of Betterton's name is quite unwarrantable.

²⁴ That is, Mr. Lawrence's Quarto 2, of 1674.

²⁵ Macbeth, New Var. Ed., 1873.

²⁶ Macbeth, New Var. Ed., Revised Ed., 1903.

²⁷ The whole song appears as follows in Q 1674, pp. 26-7 :

“1 Witch. Speak, Sister, speak; is the Deed done?

2 Witch. Long ago, long ago:

Above twelve glasses since have run.

3 Witch. Ill deeds are seldom slow;

Nor single: following crimes on former wait.

The worst of creatures fastest propagate.

Many more murders must this one ensue,

As if in death were propagation too.

2 Witch. He will.

1 Witch. He shall.

3 Witch. He must spill much more bloud;

And become worse, to make his Title good.

1 Witch. Now let's dance.

2 Witch. Agreed.

3 Witch. Agreed.

4 Witch. Agreed.

Chorus. We shou'd rejoyce when good Kings bleed.

When cattel die, about we go,

What then, when Monarchs perish, should we do?“

²⁸ In Q 1673, that is; in Q 1674 it is a few lines farther on in the same scene.

²⁹ Macbeth, New Var. Ed., 1873.

³⁰ Macbeth, New Var. Ed., Revised Ed., 1903.

³¹ The entire song is as follows (Q 1674, p. 27) :

“Let's have a dance upon the Heath;

We gain more life by Duncan's death.

Sometimes like brinded Cats we shew,

Having no musick but our mew.

Sometimes we dance in some old mill,

Upon the hopper, stones, and wheel.

To some old saw, or Bardish Rhime,

Where still the Mill-clack does keep time.

Sometimes about an hollow tree,

A round, a round, a round dance we.

Thither the chirping Cricket comes,

And Beetle, singing drowsie hums.

Sometimes we dance o're Fens and Furs,

To howls of wolves, and barks of curs.

And when with none of those we meet,

We dance to th' ecchoes of our feet.

At the night-Raven's dismal voice,

Whilst others tremble, we rejoyce;

And nimbly, nimbly dance we still

To th' ecchoes from an hollow Hill.“

³² Macbeth, New Var. Ed., 1873.

³³ Macbeth, New Var. Ed., Revised Ed., 1903. For Furness's 525 read 528-9.

³⁴ This song is taken, with a dozen verbal alterations, from Middleton's The Witch (ed. Bullen, V, 416), Act III, Scene iii, lines 39-74. It had probably been used in Macbeth as early as before the publication of the First Folio. It appears in Q 1674 on pages 44-5.

³⁶ Furness, New Var. (Revised) Ed. of Macbeth, pp. vii-viii.

⁸⁶ These are not recorded in Dr. Furness's textual notes, since he did not recognize the difference between Q 1673 and Q 1674 until he had made some progress in collation.

³⁷ The text first cited is in each case the reading of 1673, and second that of F 1, both as given by Furness.

³⁸ See my “Hamlet under the Restoration,” Pub. Mod. Lang. Ass'n Am., XXXVIII, 770-791 (Dec., 1923).

³⁹ H. T. Hall (Shakespeare's Plays: The Separate Editions of, with the Alterations Done by Various Hands, p. 43) asserts that D'Avenant altered the play in 1672. This was four years after D'Avenant died.

⁴⁰ Mr. Lawrence doubts the existence of a quarto of 1687 (Elizabethan Playhouse I, 212 n. 1), but there is a copy so dated in the Boston Public Library.

⁴¹ Dryden, Preface to Troilas and Cressida, ed. 1679, sig. a 3 verso.

⁴² D'Avenant failed to observe that Lady Macbeth has reached the middle of the letter before she enters.

⁴³ Weber approves of this excision, which he attributes to D'Avenant‘s desire to condense the action. Weber here, as elsewhere in his dissertation, forgets the influence of the canons on D'Avenant‘s methods. The excision of the Porter was directly required by the principle of strict separation. (G. Weber, Davenant's Macbeth im Verkältnis zu Shakespeare's gleichnamiger Tragödie, Rostock, 1903, p. 65.)

⁴⁴ Fairness compels the admission that if we must have couplets this is in excellent vein; at least it is eminently actable.

⁴⁵ Bullen's ed. of Middleton, V, 416 ff. Weber (pp. 64 ff) points out that D'Avenant has shifted this scene with the preceding in order to close the act on these “wunderhübscher Hexengesänge.” Shakespeare's ending of the act is undeniably weak—that is, if we are to assume that the Elizabethans knocked off for a cigarette four times during the course of a performance.

⁴⁶ Kilbourne remarks that it is no wonder Seyton finally rebels against D'Avenant's Macbeth—he has been given so much extra work in this version. (F. W. Kilbourne, Alterations and Adaptations of Shakespeare, p. 150.)

⁴⁷ Williams says the reason for this change is inexplicable, but it seems fairly obvious: D'Avenant here exhibits a certain deference to the unities of time and place. (J. D. E. Williams, Sir William Davenant's [Literary] Relation to Shakespeare, p. 45.)

⁴⁸ Weber (p. 69) asserts that the scene is in one respect an improvement: at least the reappearance of the two sons to avenge their murdered sires is justifiable dramatically.

⁴⁹ Victims, vict'ries (?).

⁵⁰ In each case, unless the contrary is stated, the text first quoted is that of Q 1674. The words replaced are quoted from the First Folio as given by Furness. Weber (p. 15) concludes that the source of Q 1674 is all but certainly F 1.

⁵¹ Lord Morley has praised this line as “the most melting and melodious single verse in all the exercises of our English tongue.” It seemed otherwise to D'Avenant.

⁵² “The Empress of Morocco. A Farce. Acted by His Majesties Servants. London …. 1674.”

⁵³ On page 22 there is a silly burlesque of Hamlet's ranting speech to Laertes at Ophelia's grave.

⁵⁴ See Odell, Shakespeare from*** Betterton to Irving, I, 30.

⁵⁵ This beautiful lyric has been set to musi with great success by Horatio Parker, Old English Songs, Op. 47.