Thus, in the time of Shakespeare, was the doctrine of witchcraft at once established by law and by the fashion, and it became not only unpolite, but criminal, to doubt it; and as prodigies are always seen in proportion as they are expected, witches were every day discovered, and multiplied so fast in some places, that bishop Hall mentions a village in Lancashire, where their number was greater than that of the houses[2]. The Jesuits and Sectaries took advantage of this universal errour, and endeavoured to promote the interest of their parties by pretended cures of persons afflicted by evil spirits; but they were detected and exposed by the clergy of the established church.
Upon this general infatuation Shakespeare might be easily allowed to found a play, especially since he has followed with great exactness such histories as were then thought true; nor can it be doubted that the scenes of enchantment, however they may now be ridiculed, were both by himself and his audience thought awful and affecting[3].
--The merciless Macdonal,--from the western isles Of _Kernes_ and _Gallowglasses_ was supply'd; And fortune on his damned _quarry_ smiling, Shew'd like a rebel's whore.--
_Kernes_ are light-armed, and _Gallowglasses_ heavy-armed soldiers. The word _quarry_ has no sense that is properly applicable in this place, and, therefore, it is necessary to read,
And fortune on his damned _quarrel_ smiling.
_Quarrel_ was formerly used for _cause_, or for _the occasion of a quarrel_, and is to be found in that sense in Hollingshed's account of the story of Macbeth, who, upon the creation of the prince of Cumberland, thought, says the historian, that he had _a just quarrel_ to endeavour after the crown. The sense, therefore, is, _fortune smiling on his execrable cause, &c_.
If I say sooth, I must report, they were As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks. So they redoubled strokes upon the foe.
Mr. Theobald has endeavoured to improve the sense of this passage by altering the punctuation thus:
--They were As cannons overcharg'd; with double cracks So they redoubled strokes.--
He declares, with some degree of exultation, that he has no idea of _a cannon charged with double cracks_; but, surely, the great author will not gain much by an alteration which makes him say of a hero, that he _redoubles strokes with double cracks_, an expression not more loudly to be applauded, or more easily pardoned, than that which is rejected in its favour. That a _cannon is charged with thunder_ or _with double thunders_ may be written, not only without nonsense, but with elegance: and nothing else is here meant by _cracks_, which in the time of this writer was a word of such emphasis and dignity, that in this play he terms the general dissolution of nature the _crack of doom_.