1828 ] [ 377 ] 



THE EARLY ENGLISH DRAMA : 

 No. II. 



THE WITCH. 



THERE are accidental circumstances connected with the Witch of 

 Thomas Middleton, that would alone give it peculiar claims upon our 

 attention, even if it were without those poetical and dramatic merits 

 which in fact it possesses. It is unquestionably the source from whence 

 Shakspeare has drawn one of the finest inspirations of his genius : it 

 includes that wild chaos, out of which he has created a little world of 

 poetic power and wonder. The great general mass of the " reading 

 public" (and it is to them especially that we would be understood to 

 address these papers on our " Early Drama") are perhaps little aware 

 that Shakspeare is neither the original inventor of the Weird Sisters irt 

 Macbeth, nor even the adopter of them, from the vague traditions, or 

 still more vague superstitions of the country, in connexion with which 

 we find them placed in his noble drama. The truth is, that, long previous 

 to the writing, or probably to the conception of that drama, the wild en- 

 chantresses who perform so extraordinary a part in it, already existed in the 

 play which we have chosen for the subject of our present paper : they 

 existed there under the same forms, bore the same names, and exercised 

 the same natures they even acted, and made others act, with a view to 

 the same purposes, and used occasionally the very same language. In 

 short, all that Shakspeare has done for the Witches in Macbeth (but 

 what an ' e all !") is, to give them " a local habitation," and to invest them 

 with a power, a grandeur, and a consistency of moral purpose, which 

 have changed them, from a hideous and incoherent dream, into a high 

 and passionate reality a reality of the imagination only, it is true but 

 assuredly not the less real and impressive on that account. We shall, 

 if our limits permit, endeavour to prove this to the reader before we 

 close the present article. In the mean time we must add, that the above 

 was not our only or even chief reason for choosing the Witch of Middleton 

 as a subject for abstract and examination. In fact, the intrinsic merits 

 of the witch part of this drama are little or nothing ; and if they were a 

 thousand-fold more than they are, they would all be counteracted and 

 destroyed by the horrible and nameless brutalities into which the execu- 

 tion of this portion of his play has lead the author. Its merit consists in 

 having given rise to one of the finest existing displays of poetical power, 

 directed and held in order by the most perfect judgment that was ever 

 yet allied to such a power : for if there still remain a doubt as to the 

 supremacy of Shakspeare' s judgment, it can only be in the minds of those 

 who have never duly considered any one of his works. The judgment 

 displayed in the particular instance before us though relating to a small 

 portion of one work alone is in fact quite sufficient to decide the ques- 

 tion; for where a particular quality of mind like the judgment is 

 once exercised, consistently and consecutively, with a view to an express 

 end, and it achieves that end, there it must exist. The inference is, that, 

 wherever what is called judgment appears to be absent from the works of 

 Shakspeare, be sure it is either from a want of time, or of inclination to 

 exercise it, or from an advised determination to sacrifice it to other 

 objects : which latter case, by-the-by, is but another exercise of the judg- 

 ment since judgment is neither more nor less than the power of creating 



M.M. New Series VoL.V. No. 28. 3 C 



