2 Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake, All. Double, double toil and trouble; 3 Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf; 8 All. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble. 2 Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. 4 maw, and gulf,] The gulf is the swallow, the throat. 5 ravin'd salt sea-shark;] Ravin'd is glutted with prey. 6 Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;] Sliver is a common word in the North, where it means to cut a piece or a slice. 7 Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips :] These ingredients, in all probability, owed their introduction to the detestation in which the Turks were held, on account of the holy wars. So solicitous, indeed, were our neighbours, the French, (from whom most of our prejudices, as well as customs, are derived,) to keep this idea awake, that even in their military-sport of the quintain, their soldiers were accustomed to point their lances at the figure of a Saracen. STEEVENS. 8 Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,] Chaudron, i. e. entrails. Enter HECATE, and the other three Witches. Hec. O, well done! I commend your pains; And now about the cauldron sing, SONG. Black spirits and white, You that mingle may. 2 Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes: Open, locks, whoever knocks. Enter MACBETH. Mach. How now, you secret, black, and midnight What is't you hags? All. do? A deed without a name. Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, Though bladed corn be lodg'd' and trees blown down; castles topple on their warder's heads; Though Though palaces, and pyramids, do slope 9 ·yesty waves — that is, foaming, or frothy waves. Thou bladed corn be lodg'd,] Corn, prostrated by the wind, in modern language, is said to be lay'd; but lodg'd had anciently the same meaning. ? Though castles topple-] Topple is used for tumble. Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure Of nature's germins 3 tumble all together, Even till destruction sicken, answer me To what I ask you. 1 Witch. 2 Witch. 3 Witch. Speak. Demand. We'll answer. 1 Witch. Say, if thou'd'st rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters'? Macb. Call them, let me see them. 1 Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; grease, that's sweaten From the murderer's gibbet, throw Into the flame. All. Come, high, or low; Thyself, and office, deftly 4 show. Thunder. An Apparition of an armed Head rises." Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power, 1 Witch. He knows thy thought; Hear his speech, but say thou nought. App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Mac duff; Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me:- Enough. [Descends. Macb. What-e'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks; 3 Of nature's germins-] Germins are seeds which have begun to germinate or sprout. Germen, Lat. Germe, Fr. +deftly] i. e. with adroitness, dexterously. Deft is a North country word. An Apparition of an armed Head rises.] The armed head represents symbolically Macbeth's head cut off and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child is Macduff untimely ripped from his mother's womb. The child with a crown on his head, and a bough in his hand, is the royal Malcolm, who ordered his soldiers to hew them down a bough, and bear it before them to Dunsinane. 6 Thou hast harp'd my fear aright:-But one word 1 Witch. He will not be commanded: Here's an other, More potent than the first. Thunder. An Apparition of a bloody Child rises. App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Be bloody, bold, Macb. Had I three ears, I'd hear thee. App. And resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, [Descends. Macb. Then live, Macduff; What need I fear of thee? But yet, I'll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live; That I may tell pale-hearted fear, it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder. What is this, Thunder. An Apparition of a Child crowned, with a Tree in his Hand, rises. That rises like the issue of a king; And wears upon his baby brow the round And top of sovereignty? All. Listen, but speak not. † App. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. [Descends. 6 Thou hast harp'd-] To harp, is to touch on a passion as a harper touches a string. 66 speak not to't." MALONE. Macb. That will never be; Who can impress the forest;7 bid the tree Unfix his earth-bound root? sweet bodements! good! Of Birnam rise, and our high-plac'd Macbeth All. Seek to know no more. Macb. I will be satisfied: deny me this, 8 [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. Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down! Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls: - And thy hair, † Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first:— A third is like the former :- Filthy hags! Why do you show me this?-A fourth?-Start, eyes! What! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ? Another yet? A seventh? I'll see no more: 7 Who can impress the forest ;] i. e. who can command the forest to serve him like a soldier impressed. 8 what noise] Noise, in our ancient poets, is often literally synonymous for musick. ተ “And thy air,” —Malone. 9 to the crack of doom?] i. e. the dissolution of nature. Crack has now a mean signification. It was anciently employed in a more exalted sense. |