Cam. My lord, your forrow was too fore laid on ; I'll fill your grave up: ftir; nay, come away ; Which fixteen winters cannot blow away; So many fummers, dry: frarce any joy Pol. Dear my brother, Let him, that was the caufe of this, have power Paul. Indeed, my lord, Bequeath to death your numbneís, for from him Start not; her actions fhall be holy, as, You kill her double: Nay, prefent your hand : Cam. She hangs about his neck; If the pertain to life, let her fpeak too. Pol. Ay, and make't manifeft where the has liv'd, Paul. That the is living, Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already-Or how ftol'n from the dead? Pol. Mafterly done: The very life feems warm upon her lip. [veins For this affliction has a t: fte as fwect Paul. Good my lord, forbear: Were it but told you, fhould be hooted at [Prefenting Perdita, who kneels to Hermione. Her. You gods, look down, And from your facred vials pour your graces Thy father's court? for thou fhalt hear, that 1,— Paul. There's time enough for that; Will wing me to fome wither'd bough; and there Leo. O peace, Paulina ; Thou thould it a hufband take by my confent, And made between's by vows. Thou haft found mine; But how, is to be question'd: for I faw her, That e'er I put between your holy looks [Exeunt omnes. MACBETH. ANGUS, Lady MACDUFF. CATHNESS, FLEANCE, Son to Banquo. A Scotch Doctor. A Captain. A Porter. An old Man. Lady MACBETH. Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth. Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers. The Ghost of Banquo, and feveral other Apparitions. SCENE, in the end of the fourth Act, lies in England; through the rest of the play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's Cafile. 3 Witch. SCENE ACT I. I. HEN fhall we three meet again 3 Witch. That will be ere th' fet of fun. 1 Witch. Where the place? 2 Witch. Upon the heath: 3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 1 Witch. I come, Gray-malkin! All. Paddock calls:-Anon Fair is foul, and foul is fair 2: Hover through the fog and filthy air. SCEN E II. 'Gaint my captivity: Hail, brave friend! Cap. Doubtful it flood; As two fpent fwimmers, that do cling together, The multiplying villanies of nature Do fwarm upon him) from the western ifles Like valour's minion, carved out his paffage, And ne'er fhook hands, nor bade farewel to him, Alarum within. Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Do-Till he unfeam'd him from the nave 3 to the chops, nalbain, Lenox, with Attendants, meeting a bleed-And fix'd his head upon our battlements. ing Captain. King. What bloody man is that? He can report, Mal. This is the ferjeant, Who like a good and hardy foldier fought King. Oh, valiant coufin! worthy gentleman! Cap. As whence the fun 'gins his reflexion 4, Shipwrecking ftorms and direful thunders break; So from that fpring, whence comfort feem'd to come, Difcomfort fwells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark: No fooner juftice had, with valour arm'd, 1 Mr. Upton obferves, that to understand this paffage, we fhould fuppofe one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad. 2 i. e. we make these fudden changes 3 Warburton thinks we fhould read, from the nape to the chops; i. e. cut his skull of the weather. in two. 4 i. e. the caft. Compell'd Who comes here? Mal. The worthy thane of Roffe. 3 Witch. Sifter, where thou? I Witch. A failor's wife had chefnuts in her lap, And mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht :-Give me, quoth I. Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed 6 ronyon 7 cries. 2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 3 Witch. And I another. 1 Witch. I myself have all the other; And the very points they blow, 8 All the quarters that they know I will drain him dry as hay: Len. What a hafte looks through his eyes! So Though his bark cannot be loft, fhould he look, That feems to fpeak things ftrange. Roffe. God fave the king! King. Whence cam it thou, worthy thane? Where the Norweyan banners flout 2 the sky, Norway himfelf, with terrible numbers, The thane of Cawdor, began a ditmal conflict: King. Great happiness! Yet it fhall be tempest-toft. Look what I have. 2 Witch. Shew me, fhew me. 1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd, as homeward he did come. [Drumwithir, 3 Witch. A drum, a drum; Macbeth doth come. All. The weird fifters 10, hand in hand, Thus do go about, about; Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, Enter Macbeth and Banque. Mac. So foul and fair a day I have not feen. [thele, So wither'd, and fo wild in their attire; Sweno, the Norways' king, craves compofition; King. No more that thane of Cawdor fhall de-Upon her skinny lips :-You should be women, Our bofom intereft:-Go, pronounce his prefent And yet your beards 12 forbid me to interpret And with his former title greet Macbeth. [death, That you are fo. Roffe. I'll fee it done. King. What he hath loft, noble Macbeth hath Mach. Speak, if you can ;--What are you? 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane Ban. Good fir, why do you ftart; and feem to 1 Memorize, for make memorable. 2 To flout is to mock or infult. brought, fhew'd he was his equal. 3 i. e. gave him as good as he 4 Colme's inch, now called Inchcomb, a fmall ifland lying in the Firth of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it, dedicated to St. Columb; called by Camden Inch Colm, or the fe of Columba. 5 Areint, or avaunt, be gone. 6 The weird fifter here alludes to the poverty of the woman who had called her witch, as not being able to procure better provifion than Yumps and other offals. 7 i. e. fcabby or mangy woman; from rogneux, royne, fcurf, trae exact points. 8 i. e. the 9 i. e. as one under a curfe, an interdiction. 10 Weird is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word fignifying a prophecy. The weird fifters here mean the Fates or Definies of the 1 i. c. may hold converfe with. 12 Witches were fuppofed always to have northern nations. hair on their chins. Things that do found so fair?—I' the name of truth, Only to herald thee into his fight, Are ye fantaftical', or that indeed Which outwardly ye thew? My noble partner I Witch. Hail! 2 Witch. Hail! 1 Witch. Leifer than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not fo happy, yet much happier. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! [none: Not pay thee. Roffe. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, Ban. What, can the devil speak true? [drefs me Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet; Macb. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: The greateft is behind.-Thanks for your pains- 1 Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail! Mac. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: By Sinel's 3 death, I know, I am thane of Glamis ; But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, A profperous gentleman; and, to be king, Stands not within the profpect of belief, Ban. That, trusted home 6, No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence Might yet enkindle 7 you unto the crown, You owe this ftrange intelligence? or why Befides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis ftrange: Upon this blafted heath you stop our way And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, With fuch prophetick greeting ?---Speak, I charge The inftruments of darknefs tell us truths; [you. [Witches vanish. Win us with honeft trifles, to betray us Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, In deepest confequence.-Coufius, a word, I pray And there are of them :-Whither are they va- Mach. Two truths are told, you. nith'd? [melted As happy prologues to the swelling act Macb. Into the air; and what feem'd corporal, Of the imperial theme.--I thank you, gentlemen.→→ As breath into the wind.-Would they had staid! This fupernatural foliciting 8 Ban. Were fuch things here, as we do fpeak Cannot be ill; cannot be good:--If ill, Or have we eaten of the infane root 4, That takes the reafon prifoner? Mach. Your children thall be kings. Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went [about? Why hath it given me earnest of fuccefs, [fo? it not Who's My thought, whofe murder yet is but fantastical, Enter Roffe and Angus. 1 i. e. creatures of fantafy or imagination. 2 Having, we have before obferved, is eftate, pof feffion, fortune. 3 The father of Macbeth. 4 Shakspeare here alludes to the qualities anciently afcribed to hemlock. 5 That is, pofts arrived as fast as they could be counted. as far as it will go. 7 Enkindle, for to ftimulate you to feek. 8 Warburton thinks foliciting is here put for information; while Johnfon rather thinks it means incitement. 9 Meaning, now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no exilence.' 19 i. c. was worked, agitated. With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains The prince of Cumberland: which honour muft They are not yet come back. But I have fpoke King. There's no art, To find the mind's conftruction in the face: Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Roffe, and Angus. Macb. The fervice and the loyalty I owe, King. Welcome hither: Not, unaccompanied, inveft him only, [you: Macb. The reft is labour, which is not us'd for King. My worthy Cawdor! [step, Mach. The prince of Cumberland 4!-That is a It is a banquet to me. Let us after him, Enter Macbeth's Wife alone, with a Letter. Lady." They met me in the day of fuc"cefs; and I have learned by the perfecteft re<< port 5, they have more in them than mortal "knowledge. When I burnt in defire to queftion "them further, they made themfelves-air, into which they vanifh'd. Whiles I ftood rapt in the "wonder of it, came miffives from the king, who all-hail'd me, Thane of Cawdor; by which title, "before, thefe weird fifters faluted me, and re"ferr'd me to the coming on of time, with, Hail, "king that fhalt be! This have I thought good to "deliver thee, my deareft partner of greatness; "that thou might'ft not lofe the dues of rejoicing, "by being ignorant of what greatness is promis'd "thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewel." Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and fhalt be [ture; What thou art promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy naevery It is too full o' the milk of human kindness, [thing To catch the nearest way: Thou would't be great; Art not without ambition; but without [highly, I have begun to plant thee, and will labour Ban. There if I grow, King. My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, feek to hide themfelves The illnefs fhould attend it. What thou would'ft That which cries, Thus thru must do, if thou have it; That is, inftructed in the art of dying. 2 i. e. the frame or difpofition of the mind, whether it is determined to good or ill. 3 i. e. We do but perform our duty when we contract all our views to your fervice. + Mr. Steevens obferves, that the crown of Scotland was originally not hereditary. When a fucceífor was declared in the life-time of a King (as was often the cafe), the title of Prince of Cumberland was immediately beftowed on him as the mark of his defignation. Cumberland was at that time held by Scotland of the crown of England, as a fief." 5 i. e. By the belt intelligence. 6. e. the diadem. 7. Metaphyfical is here put for fupernatural. Enter |