is foul, and foul is fair,' is a fit opening formula for such a play. Even where no supernatural cunning is concerned, the style shows an unusual inclination to the Sophoclean irony of innocent phrases covering sinister depths of meaning;-as in Ross's 'And, for an earnest of a greater honour, he bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor,' and Lady Macbeth's famous 'He that's coming must be provided for.' The entire atmosphere of Macbeth, as of no other tragedy, is oppressive with the sense of something subtly malignant as well as inexorably revengeful in the forces that rule the world; of a tragic irony in the ultimate scheme of things. But if we are permitted to read Shakespeare's mind in the ethical atmosphere of his work, we must allow that the oppression it suggests is not despair. Macbeth is allured, not compelled, to his crime; the 'supernatural soliciting ' is not a 'divine thrusting on'; he is not fate-ridden, nor irresponsible, nor the helpless sport of irresistible powers. He is no symbol of the destiny of man; and his desperate dismissal of life as 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,' expresses only the inevitable intellectual anarchy of one who has listened to a tale full of pitfalls for the intelligence and subtle underlying meanings, and interpreted it with the naïve simplicity of a child.

1 Cf. the strikingly-put, but I think overstated, remarks of

Prof. Barrett Wendell, W.
Shakspere, p. 305.

MACBETH

ACT I.

SCENE I. A desert place.

Thunder and lightning.

Enter three Witches.

First Witch. When shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Sec. Witch. When the hurlyburly's done,

When the battle 's lost and won.

Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun.

First Witch. Where the place?

Sec. Witch.

Upon the heath.

Third Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.

First Witch. I come, Graymalkin+

All. Paddock calls anon!

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air. [Exeunt.

8, 9. Graymalkin . . . Paddock; lit. gray-cat,' 'toad';

the attendant familiars of the

witches.

ΤΟ

Paddock still survives in provincial English from Cumberland to Sussex.

Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant.

Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report,

As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

Mal.
This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought
'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.

Ser.

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald-
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that

The multiplying villanies of nature

Do swarm upon him-from the western isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak:
For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;

ΤΟ

20

2 Henry VI. iv. 9. 26. The rebel Macdonwald is fighting with mercenaries.

19. minion, favourite (here with no suggestion of contempt).

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Ser As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,
So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to

come

Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had with valour arm'd

Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 30
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men
Began a fresh assault.

Dun.

Dismay'd not this

Yes;

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Ser.

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.

If I say sooth, I must report they were

As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they

Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,

I cannot tell

But I am faint; my gashes cry for help.

Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy

wounds;

10

starting-point for a fresh attack.' 37. cracks; the word describing the explosion is applied to the charge.

37. so they. Ff give these words at the beginning of v. 38. The two lines cannot be made into normal verse; but the present arrangement is less harsh to the ear.