"The murder being known, Duncan's two so selves they, being fled, were supposed guilty "Then was Macbeth crowned King, and then kings but be no king himself, he contrived * 1 that he rode. The night, being at supper wr Banquo should have come), he began to speak did, standing up to drink a carouse to him, t1. And he, turning about to sit down again, sa" passion of fear and fury, uttering many word murdered, they suspected Macbeth. "Then Macduff fled to England, to the at Dunston Anyse overthrew Macbeth. I Macduff's wife and children, and after, in t "Observe, also, how Macbeth's queen do all, and the doctor noted her words." The historical incidents of this Boethius, first printed at Paris, in 17 dialect, and published in 1541. : Chronicler's relation of the story some portion of the poet's preter. has no longer supporters. "T.... about 1613. (See the Illustrati 66 KING. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath [Excunt. SCENE III.-A Heath. Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 1 WITCH. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 WITCH. Killing swine. 3 WITCH. Sister, where thou? 1 WITCH. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd:Give me, quoth I: c Saint Colmes'-inch, -] Inch or inse is Erse and Irish for island, and Colmes'-inch, now Inchcomb, is a small island in the Frith of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it, dedicated to St. Columb. See note by Steevens ad I. in the Variorum edition. Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon cries. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger: b But in a sieve I'll thither sail,(1) nd, like a rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. 2 WITCH. I'll give thee a wind. 1 WITCH. Thou art kind. 3 WITCH. And I another. 1 WITCH. I myself have all the other; And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know I will drain him dry as hay: 2 WITCH. Show me, show me. 3 WITCH. A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come. [Drum without. ALL. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about: Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make up nine:-- Enter MACBETH and BANQUO. MACB. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. BAN. How far is 't call'd to Forres? *-What are these, So wither'd, and so wild in their attire; (*) Old text, Soris. a Aroint thee, witch!] It is strange that although the word "aroint," supposed to signify avount! away! begone! occurs again in Shakespeare, King Lear," Act III. Sc. 4,-"Aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!" no example of its employment by any other writer has yet been discovered. From this circumstance it has been supposed by some commentators to be only a misprint for anoint, a term consistent enough with the vulgar belief which represents witches sailing through the air on their infernal missions by the aid of unguents. Others have ingeniously suggested that "aroint thee" may be a corruption of a rowan-tree, i.e. the mountain ash; a tree, time out of mind, believed to be of such sovereign efficacy against the spells of witchcraft, that any one armed with a slip of it may bid defiance to the machinations of a whole troop of evil spirits. We make no question, however, that "aroint" is the genuine word: it was not likely to be thrice misprinted. And besides, there is a North-country proverb, "Rynt ye witch! quoth Bessie Locket to her mother," which seems to have been formed upon the exclamation in the text. b Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:] Sir W. That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her chappy finger laying MACB. Speak, if you can ;—what are you ? 1 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis ! 2 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 3 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. BAN. Good sir, why do you start; and seem to By Sinel's death, I know I am thane of Glamis; C. Trevelyan has noted that in Hakluyt's Voyages there are several letters and journals of a voyage made to Aleppo in the ship Tiger, of London, in the year 1583. C- forbid:] Forespoken, bewitched, d The weird sisters,-] Weird (in the old text weyward) from the Saxon wyrd=fatum, signifies prophetie,or fatal. Holinshed, whom Shakespeare follows, speaking of the witches who met Macbeth, says, "But afterwards the common opinion was that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphes or fairies." And yet your heards forbid me to interpret That you are so.] e Witches, according to the popular belief, were always bearded So, in "The Honest Man's Fortune," Act II. Sc. 1, " and the women that Come to us, for disguises must wear beards; And that's, they say, a token of a witch." f - fantastical,—] Visionary; illusions of the fantasy, |