About a century after the death of Edward the Confessor, William of Malmesbury compiled his "Chronicle of the Kings of England," and in this work is the earliest allusion to the subject. Holinshed has placed on record some interesting details respecting Edward the Confessor. "As it has been thought," says Holinshed, in writing of the king, "he was inspired with the gift of prophecy, and also to have the gift of healing infirmities and disease commonly called the king's evil, and left that virtue, as it were, a portion of inheritance to his successors, the kings of this realm." The first edition of the "Chronicle" was published in 1577, and from it Shakespeare drew much material for his historical dramas. There is an allusion to this singular superstition in _Macbeth_, which it will be interesting to reproduce. Malcolm and Macduff are in England, "in a room in the King's palace" (the palace of King Edward the Confessor):-- "_Malcolm._ Comes the King forth I pray you? _Doctor._ Aye, sir! There are a crew of wretched souls That stay his cure: their malady convinces The great assay of art; but at his touch-- Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand-- They presently amend. _Malcolm._ I thank you, Doctor. _Macduff._ What's the disease he means? _Malcolm._ 'Tis called the evil: A most miraculous work in this good King; Which often, since my here-remain in England, I've seen him do. How he solicits heaven, Himself best knows: but strangely visited people All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere despair of surgery, he cures, Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, And sundry blessings hang about his throne That speak him full of grace." History does not furnish any facts respecting touching by the four kings of the House of Normandy. It is generally believed that the Norman monarchs did not practise the rite. Henry II., the first of the Plantagenet line, emulated the Confessor. We know this fact from a record made by Peter of Blois, the royal chaplain, in which it is clearly stated that the king performed certain cures by touch. John of Gaddesden, in the days of Edward II., wrote a treatise in which he gave instructions for several modes of treatment for the disease, and if they failed, recommended the sufferers to seek cure by royal touch. Bradwardine, Archbishop of Canterbury, lived in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., and from his statements we learn that both kings kept up the observance.