It appears that at this time twenty-two unfortunate men and women, chiefly the latter, suffered in Aberdeen and its neighbourhood. Such a tremendous sacrifice to superstition would in itself be worthy of special notice here; but it becomes the more so from a probability which appears that Shakspeare must have been acquainted with the details of these trials. It will be found that the chief of his company, Lawrence Fletcher, was in Aberdeen with a party of comedians in October 1601. That Shakspeare was of the party is not certain; but there is no fact to militate against the probability that he was. Mr Charles Knight[223] has shewn that in these trials there occur many things which strongly recall passages in the witch-scenes of _Macbeth_--as if those scenes had been written by one who had thoroughly studied the dittays against Janet Wishart and her associates. Nearly all of those women--and it is very much a special feature of this group of cases--had laid heavy disease on those whom they held at ill-will, causing them to suffer fearful pains, and their strength to decay. ‘He shall live a man forbid: Weary seven nights nine times nine, He shall dwindle, peak, and pine.’ [Sidenote: 1597.] Such are the dread words of the _Macbeth_ hags. We see that the Aberdeen witches had power over the winds; so had those of Macbeth. Banquo says to the weird sisters: ‘If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow, and which will not, Speak then to me.’ This, it must be acknowledged, is wonderfully like a suggestion to the imagination from such a fact as that of Janet Wishart’s vaticinations among the growing corn. The witch-dance at the Fish Cross is much like those under the guidance of Hecate; and Wishart’s dealing with the malefactor’s corpse at the gallows on the Links, might well furnish a hint for the incantations over the caldron. ‘Grease that’s sweaten From the murderer’s gibbet, throw Into the flame.’ And perhaps even the humble cantrip of Marjory Mutch with William Smith’s oxen, might suggest the fine passage descriptive of the conduct of Duncan’s horses at his death; when they ‘Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would Make war with mankind.’ ‘If it be not,’ says Mr Knight, in concluding this curious speculation, ‘to inquire too curiously, may we not trace one of the most striking passages in _Othello_ to the humble source of an Aberdeen superstition?’ “That handkerchief Did an Egyptian to my mother give; She was a charmer, and could almost read The thoughts of people: she told her, while she kept it, ’Twould make her amiable, and subdue my father Entirely to her love.” [Sidenote: 1597.]