thee?

Macb.

All.

Seek to know no more. Macb. I will be satisfied: deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know:-Why sinks that cauldron ? and what noise" is this? [Hautboys. 1 Witch. Show! 2 Witch. Show! 3 Witch.

Show!

All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; Come like shadows, so depart.

Eight Kings appear, and pass over the Stage in order; the last with a Glass in his Hand; BANQuo following.

Mach. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down!

Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs :-And thy hair, 1 'Had I three ears, I'd hear thee.' This singular expression probably means no more than I will listen to thee with all attention."

2 For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth." So Holinshed: And surely hereupon he had put Macduff to death, but that a certeine witch, whom he had in great trust, had told him, that he should never be slaine with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the castle of Dunsinane. This prophecy put all fear out of his heart.

3 The round is that part of a crown which encircles the head: the top is the ornament which rises above it. 4 The present accent of Dunsinane is right. In every subsequent instance the accent is misplaced.

5. e. command it to serve him like a soldier impressed.

6 Rebellious head. The old copy reads dead; the emendation is Theobald's.

eyes!

What! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ??

10

Another yet?-A seventh ?--I'll see no more:-
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass,"
Which shows me many more; and some I see,
That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry ;'
For the blood-bolter'de Banquo smiles upon me,
Horrible sight!-Now, I see, 'tis true;
And points at them for his.-What, is this so?
1 Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so:-But why
Stands Macbeth thus amazedly ?--
Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprights,13
And show the best of our delights;
I'll charm the air to give a sound,
While you perform your antique11 round:
That this great king may kindly say,
Our duties did his welcome pay.

Music. The Witches dance, and vanish. Macb. Where are they? Gone ?---Let this per nicious hour

Stand aye accursed in the calendar!-
Come in, without there!

No, indeed, my lord. Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride; And damn'd all those that trust them!---I did hear The galloping of horse: Who was't came by? Len. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word, Macduff is fled to England. Macb.

Fled to England?

Len. Ay, my good lord.
Macb. Time, thou anticipat'st1' my dread ex
ploits :

The flighty purpose never is o'ertook,
Unless the deed go with it: From this moment
The very firstlings of my heart shall be
The firstlings of my hand. And even now

To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:

The castle of Macduff I will surprise;

Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
That trace16 him in his line. No boasting like a
fool:

This deed I'll do, before this purpose cool:

said they do answer either by voice, or else set before their eyes in glasses, chrystal stones, &c. the pictures or images of the persons or things sought for.:

11 That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry.' This was intended as a compliment to James the First: he first united the two islands and the three kingdoms under one head, whose house too was said to be descended from Banquo, who is therefore represented not only as innocent, but as a noble character; whereas, according to history, he was confederate with Macbeth in the murder of Duncan.

12 In Warwickshire, when a horse, sheep, or other animal, perspires much, and any of the hair or wool, in consequence of such perspiration, or any redundant humour, becomes matted into tufts with grime and sweat, he is said to be boltered; and whenever the blood issues out and coagulates, forming the locks into hard clotted bunches, the beast is said to be blood-boltered. When a

8 Show his eyes, and grieve his heart. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart-1 Samuel, ii. 33.

9 i. e. the dissolution of nature. were formerly synonymous.

Crack and crash

10 This method of juggling prophecy is referred to in Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 9:

and like a prophet

Looks in a glass, and shows me future evils. In an extract from the Penal Laws against witches, it is

ther with blood, his head is said to be boltered [pronounced baltered.] The word baltereth is used in this sense by Philemon Holland in his Translation of Pliny's Natural History, 1601, b. xii. c. xvii. p. 370. It is there. fore applicable to Banquo, who had twenty trenched gashes on his head.'

13 i. e. spirits. It should seem that spirits was almost always pronounced sprights or sprites by Shakspeare's contemporaries.

14 Antique was the old spelling for antic.

15 i.e. preventest them, by taking away the opportunity 16 i. e. follow, succeed in it.

But no more sights!---Where are these gentlemen? | Come, bring me where they are. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Fife. A Room in Macduff's Castle. Enter LADY MACDUFF, her Son, and Rosse. L. Macd. What had he done, to make him fly the land?

Rosse. You must have patience, madam. L. Macd. He had none; His flight was madness: When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors.1

Rosse.

You know not, Whether it was his wisdom, or his fear.

L. Mach. Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes,

His mansion, and his titles, in a place
From whence himself does fly? He loves us not;
He wants the natural touch2:-for the poor wren,
The most diminutive of birds, will fight,

Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.
All is the fear, and nothing is the love;
As little is the wisdom, where the flight
So runs against all reason.
Rosse.

My dearest coz',

I pray you, school yourself: But, for your husband,
He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows
The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much
further:

But cruel are the times, when we are traitors,
And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumour
From what we fear, yet know not what we fear ;+
But float upon a wild and violent sea,

Each way, and move.---I take my leave of you:
Shall not be long but I'll be here again :
Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward
To what they were before. ---My pretty cousin,
Blessing upon you!

L. Macd. Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless.
Rosse. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer,
It would be my disgrace, and your discomfort :
I take my leave at once.
[Exit Rosse.
L. Macd.
Sirrah, your father's dead;
And what will you do now? How will you live?
Son. As birds do, mother.
L. Macd.
What, with worms and flies?
Son. With what I get, I mean; and so do they.
L. Macd. Poor bird! thou'dst never fear the net,
nor lime,

The pit-fall, nor the gin.

Son. And must they all be hanged, that swear

and lie?
L. Macd. Every one.

Son. Who must hang them?

L. Macd. Why, the honest men.

Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools: for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men, and hang up them.

L. Macd. Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father?

Son. If he were dead, you'd weep for him: f you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father.

L. Macd. Poor prattler! how thou talk'st.
Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you
known,

Though in your state of honour I am perfect.
I doubt, some danger does approach you nearly:
If you will take a homely man's advice,
Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.
To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage;
To do worse to you, were fell cruelty,
Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve
you!

I dare abide no longer. L. Macd.

[Exit Messerger Whither should I fly But I remember now

I have done no harm.
I am in this earthly world; where, to do harm,
Is often laudable; to do good, sometime,
Accounted dangerous folly: Why then, alas!
Do I put up that womanly defence,
To say, I have done no harm?What are these
faces?

Run away, I pray you.

He has killed me, mother;

a father?

Let us rather

yet i' faith,

Like syllable of dolour.
Mal.
What I believe, I'll wail;
What know, believe; and, what I can redress,
As I shall find the time to friend,1o I will.
What
you have spoke, it may be so, perchance.
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
Was once thought honest: you have lov'd him well;

5 Sirrah was not in our author's time a term of reproach, but sometimes used by masters to servants, pa

6 i. e. I am perfectly acquainted with your rank. 7 Shag-ear'd villain." It has been suggested th we should read shag-hair'd, an abusive epithet freque in our old plays. Hair being formerly spelt heart, thô corruption would easily arise.

9 Birthdom, for the place of our birth, our native land. 10 i. e. befriend.

something

You may deserve of him through me; and wisdom
To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb,
To appease an angry god.

Macd. I am not treacherous.
Mal.

But Macbeth is.

A good and virtuous nature may recoil,

In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon;

That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose:
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell:
Though all things foul would wear the brows of
grace,

Yet grace must still look so."
Macd.
I have lost my hopes.
Mal. Perchance, even there, where I did find
my doubts.

Why in that rawness left you wife and child,
(Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,)
Without leave-taking ?-I pray you,
Let not my jealousies be your dishonours,
But mine own safeties:-You may be rightly just,
Whatever I shall think.

Macd.

Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dares not check thee!-wear thou thy

wrongs;

I speak not as in absolute fear of you.
I think our country sinks beneath the yoke:
It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds: I think, withal,
There would be hands uplifted in my right:
And here, from gracious England, have I offer
Of goodly thousands: But, for all this,
When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head,
Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country
Shall have more vices than it had before;
More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever,
By him that shall succeed.
Macd.

What should he be?
Mal. It is myself I mean: in whom I know
All the particulars of vice so grafted,
That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth
Will seem as pure as snow; and the poor
Esteem him as a lamb, being compar'd
With my confineless harms.

Macd.

state

Not in the legions

Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damn'd
In evils, to top Macbeth.

Mal.
I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden,' malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name: But there's no bottom, none,
In my voluptuousness; your wives, your daughters,
Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up

1 You may deserve of him through ine.' The old copy reads discerne. The emendation was made by Theobald. In the subsequent part of the line something is wanted to complete the sense. There is no verb to which wisdom can refer. Steevens conjectured that the line might originally have run thus :but something

2

You may deserve through me; and wisdom is it
To offer,' &c.

A good and virtuous nature may recoil
In an imperial charge.'

A good mind may recede from goodness in the execution of a royal commission.

3 This is not very clear. Johnson has thus attempted to explain it: 'My suspicions cannot injure you, if you be virtuous, by supposing that a traitor may put on your virtuous appearance.. I do not say that your virtuous appearance proves you a traitor; for virtue must wear its proper form, though that form be counterfeited by villainy.

4 To affeer is a law term, signifying to assess or reduce to certainty. The meaning therefore may be :'The title is confirmed to the usurper. My interpretation of the passage is this: Bleed, bleed,

Macd.

Boundless intemperance

Mal.

With this, there grows,

Of

Macd.

your mere own: All these are portable,10 With other graces weigh'd.

Mal. But I have none: The king-becoming graces,

As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
I have no relish of them; but abound
In the division of each several crime,

Acting in many ways. Nay, had I power, I should
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.

No, not to live.-O nation miserable,

With an untitled' tyrant bloody-sceptred,
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again?
Since that the truest issue of thy throne
By his own interdiction stands accurs'd,
And does blaspheme his breed?-Thy royal father
Was a most sainted king; the queen, that bore thee,
Oftener upon her knees than on her feet,
Died every day she lived.12 Fare thee well!
These evils, thou repeat'st upon thyself,
Have banish'd me from Scotland.-O, my breast,
Thy hope ends here!

Mal. Macduff, this noble passion, Child of integrity, hath from my soul Wip'd the black scruples, reconcil'd my thoughts poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, for goodness dares not check thee! Then addressing Malcolm, Macduff says, Wear thou thy wrongs,--the title to thy crown is now confirmed-' to the usurper, he would probably have added, but that he interrupts himself with angry impatience, at being suspected of traitorous double-dealing.

6 Luxurious, lascivious. 7 Sudden, passionate. 8 Sir W. Blackstone proposed to read summer-seeding, which was adopted by Steevens: but there appears no reason for change. The meaning of the epithet may be, 'Just as hot as summer. In Donue's Poems, Malone has pointed out its opposite-winter-seeming. 9 Foysons, plenty.

10 Portable answers exactly to a phrase now in use.
Such failings may be borne with, or are bearable.
11 With an untitled tyrant.' Thus in Chaucer's
Manciple's Tale :-

'Right so betwix a titleles tiraunt
And an outlawe.:

12 Died every day she lived.' The expression is derived from the Sacred Writings:-I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus, I die daily.

SCENE I. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle. Enter a Doctor of Physic, and a Waiting Gentlewoman.

Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?

Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.

Doct. A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching. In this slumbry agitation, besides her walking, and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?

Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her. Doct. You may, to me; and 'tis most meet you

should.

Gent. Neither to you, nor any one; having no witness to confirm my speech.

1 At one fell swoop. Swoop, from the verb to swoop or sweep, is the descent of a bird of prey on his quarry

2 i. e. contend with your present sorrow like a man. 3 All intermission, all pause, all intervening time. 4 The old copy reads time. The emendation is Rowe's

5 i. e encourage, thrust us their instruments forward against the tyrant.

6Ay, but their sense is shut. The old copy reads Ay, but their sense are shut. Malone has quoted other instances of the same inaccurate grammar, according to modern notions, from Julius Cæsar :

Doct. How came sne by that light? Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command.

Doct. You see her eyes are open.

Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut.

Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.

Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.

Lady M. Yet here's a spot.

Doct. Hark, she speaks: I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say!-One: Two: Why, then 'tis time to do't:-Hell is murky !-Fye, my lord, fye! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account ?-Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? Doct. Do you mark that?

Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife: Where is she now ?- -What, will these hands ne'er be clean ?-No more o' that, my lord, no more o'that: you mar all with this starting,"

Doct. Go to, go to: you have known what you should not.

Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: Heaven knows what she has known. Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little

hand. Oh! oh! oh!

Doct. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.

Gent. I would not nave such a heart in my bosoin, for all the dignity of the whole body. Doct. Well, well, well,

Gent. 'Pray God, it be, sir.

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice: Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds.

Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale:-I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out of his grave.. Doct. Even so?

Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; What's done, cannot be undone: To bed, to bed, to bed. [Exit LADY MACBETH. Doct. Will she go now to bed? Gent. Directly.

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad; Unnatural

deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
More needs she the divine, than the physician.--
God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her :--So, good night:
My mind she has mated, and amaz'd my sight:
I think, but dare not speak.
Gent.
Good night, good doctor.
[Exeunt.

9

In so profound abysm I throw all care
Of others' voices, that my adder's sense
To critick and to flatterer stopped are.'

7 Lady Macbeth, in her dream, imagines herself talk. ing to her husband, who (she supposes) had just said Hell is murky (i. e. hell is a disinal place to go to ia consequence of such a dead,) and repeats his words in contempt of his cowardice. Hellis marky!-Fye, my lord, fye! a soldier, and afeard? This explanation 13 by Steevens, and appears to me very judicions.

8 You mar all with this starting? She is here again alluding to the terrors of Macbeth when the Ghort broke in on the festivity of the banquet.

found, dismay, or make afraid.