common.  The following, quoted by Charles Knight in his biography of Shakspere, might almost have suggested the simile in the last-mentioned lines.  Johnnet Wischert is “indicted for passing to the green growing corn in May, twenty-two years since or thereby, sitting thereupon tymous in the morning before the sun-rising, and being there found and demanded what she was doing, thou[1] answered, I shall tell thee; I have been peeling the blades of the corn.  I find it will be a dear year, the blade of the corn grows withersones [contrary to the course of the sun], and when it grows sonegatis about [with the course of the sun] it will be good cheap year."[2] The following is another apt illustration of the power, which has been translated from the unwieldy Lowland Scotch account of the trial of Bessie Roy in 1590.  The Dittay charged her thus:  “You are indicted and accused that whereas, when you were dwelling with William King in Barra, about twelve years ago, or thereabouts, and having gone into the field to pluck lint with other women, in their presence made a compass in the earth, and a hole in the midst thereof; and afterwards, by thy conjurations thou causedst a great worm to come up first out of the said hole, and creep over the compass; and next a little worm came forth, which crept over also; and last [thou] causedst a great worm to come forth, which could not pass over the compass, but fell down and died.  Which enchantment and witchcraft thou interpretedst in this form:  that the first great worm that crept over the compass was the goodman William King, who should live; and the little worm was a child in the goodwife’s womb, who was unknown to any one to be with child, and that the child should live; and, thirdly, the last great worm thou interpretedst to be the goodwife, who should die:  which came to pass after thy speaking."[3] Surely there could hardly be plainer instances of looking “into the seeds of time, and saying which grain will grow, and which will not,” than these.

[Footnote 1:  Sic.]

[Footnote 2:  p. 438.]

[Footnote 3:  Pitcairn, I. ii. 207.  Cf. also Ibid. pp. 212, 213, and 231, where the crime is described as “foreknowledge.”]

96.  Perhaps this is the most convenient place for pointing out the full meaning of the first scene of “Macbeth,” and its necessary connection with the rest of the play.  It is, in fact, the fag-end of a witches’ sabbath, which, if fully represented, would bear a strong resemblance to the scene at the commencement of the fourth act.  But a long scene on such a subject would be tedious and unmeaning at the commencement of the play.  The audience is therefore left to assume that the witches have met, performed their conjurations, obtained from the evil spirits the information concerning Macbeth’s career that they desired to obtain, and perhaps have been commanded by the fiends to perform the mission they subsequently carry through.  All that is needed for the dramatic effect is a slight hint of probable diabolical interference, and that Macbeth is to be the special object of it; and this is done in as artistic a manner as is perhaps imaginable.  In the first scene they obtain their information; in the second they utter their prediction.  Every minute detail of these scenes is based upon the broad, recognized facts of witchcraft.