'Would, he were here! to all, and him, we thirst, And all to all 12. Lords. Our duties, and the pledge. Macb. Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Lady M. Think of this, good peers, But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other; Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, my firm nerves Shall never tremble: Or, be alive again, And dare me to the desert with thy sword: If trembling I inhabit 15 then, protest me The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! [Ghost disappears. 12 That is we desire to drink' all good wishes to all. 13 Thou hast no speculation in those eyes.' Bullokar in his Expositor, 1616, explains Speculation, the inward knowledge, or beholding of a thing.' Thus in the 115th Psalm :-' eyes have they, but see not.' 14 Hyrcan for Hyrcanian was the mode of expression at that time. 15 Pope changed inhabit, the reading of the old copy, to inhibit, and Steevens altered then to thee, so that in the late editions this line runs : 'If trembling I inhibit thee, protest me To inhibit is to forbid, a meaning which will not suit with the Unreal mockery, hence!--Why, so;-being gone, I am a man again.-'Pray you, sit still. Lady M. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting, With most admir'd disorder. Macb. Can such things be, And overcome 16 us like a summer's cloud, Without our special wonder? You make me strange Even to the disposition that I owe 17, When now I think, you can behold such sights 18, And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, When mine are blanch'd with fear. Rosse. What sights, my lord? Lady M. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse; Question enrages him: at once, good night: Stand not upon the order of your going, Macb. It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood; Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak; Augures 19, and understood relations have, By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth The secret'st man of blood.—What is the night? 16 Overcome us,' pass over us without wonder, as a casual summer's cloud passes, unregarded. 17 i. e. possess. 18 You strike me with amazement, make me scarce know myself, now when I think that you can behold such sights unmoved, &c.' 19 i. e. auguries, divinations; formerly spelt augures, as appears by Florio in voce augurio. By understood relations, pro Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which. Macb. How say'st thou 20, that Macduff denies his person, At our great bidding? Lady M. sir? Did you send to him, Macb. I hear it by the way; but I will send: There's not a one of them, but in his house I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow, (And betimes I will), to the weird sisters: More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, By the worst means, the worst: for mine own good, All causes shall give way: I am in blood Stept in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er: Strange things I have in head, that will to hand; Which must be acted, ere they may be scann'd 21. bably, connected circumstances relating to the crime are meant. I am inclined to think that the passage should be pointed thus: 'Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth In all the modern editions we have it erroneously augurs. Magotpie is the original name of the magpie: stories, such as Shakspeare alludes to, are to be found in Lupton's Thousand Notable Things, and in Goulart's Admirable Histories.' 20 i. e. what say'st thou to this circumstance? Thus in Macbeth's address to his wife on the first appearance of Banquo's ghost:behold! look! lo! how say you?' So again in Othello, when the Duke is informed that the Turkish fleet was making for Rhodes, which he supposed to have been bound for Cyprus, he says: How say you by this change?' Again in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Speed says, But, Launce, how say'st thou, that my master is become a notable lover?' 21 i. e. examined nicely. 22 of all natures, Lady M. You lack the season' sleep. Macb. Come, we'll to sleep: My strange and self-abuse Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use: We are yet but young in deed 23. SCENE V. The Heath. [Exeunt. Thunder. Enter HECATE1, meeting the three Witches. 1 Witch. Why, how now, Hecate? angerly. Hecate? you look Hec. Have I not reason, beldams, as you are, Saucy, and overbold? How did you dare 22 You lack the season of all nature's sleep.' Johnson explains this, You want sleep, which seasons or gives the relish to all natures.' Indiget somni vitæ condimenti. So in All's Well that Ends Well: "Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in.' It has, however, been suggested that the meaning is, 'You stand in need of the time or season of sleep which all natures require.' I incline to the last interpretation. 23 The editions previous to Theobald's read :— 'We're but young indeed.' The initiate fear is the fear that always attends the first initiation into guilt, before the mind becomes callous and insensible by hard use or frequent repetition of it. 1 Shakspeare has been unjustly censured for introducing Hecate among the vulgar witches, and consequently for confounding ancient with modern superstitions. But the poet has elsewhere shown himself well acquainted with the classical connexion which this deity had with witchcraft. Reginald Scot, in his Discovery, mentions it as the common opinion of all writers, that witches were supposed to have nightly meetings with Herodias and the Pagan gods,' and that in the night time they ride abroad with Diana, the goddess of the Pagans,' &c. Their dame or chief leader seems always to have been an old Pagan, as the Ladie Sibylla, Minerva, or Diana.' In Middleton's Witch, Hecate is the name of one of his witches, and she has a son a low buffoon. In Jonson's Sad Sheperd, Act ii. Sc. 3, Maudlin the witch calls Hecate the mistress of witches, Our dame Hecate.' Shakspeare no doubt knew that Diana was the name by which the goddess was invoked in modern times, but has preferred her To trade and traffick with Macbeth, have done And I, the mistress of Meet me i' the morning; thither he Great business must be wrought ere noon: There hangs a vaporous drop profound; former appellation. Our great poet is not alone in the illegitimate pronunciation of Hecate as a dissyllable. Marlowe, who was a scholar, has also thus used it in his Dr. Faustus:'Pluto's blew fire and Hecat's tree With magick spells encompass thee.' Jonson also, in the passage above cited, and even Milton, in his Comus, have taken the same liberty: Stay thy cloudy ebon chair Wherein thou rid'st with Hecat, and befriend us,' &c. 2 Steevens remarks that Shakspeare's mythological knowledge on this occasion appears to have deserted him; for as Hecate is only one of three names belonging to the same goddess, she could not properly be employed in one character to catch a drop that fell from her in another. In a Midsummer Night's Dream, however, the poet was sufficiently aware of her threefold capacity:fairies, that do run By the triple Hecat's team.' The vaporous drop profound seems to have been meant for the |