dered Duncan and destroyed his own peace of mind. He desires the death of Banquo and his only son Fleance, believing that the succession would then be secured to his own descendants. To accomplish this purpose he makes a great feast, particularly inviting Banquo and Fleance. But on their way to the dinner they are set upon by men in Macbeth's pay. Banquo is slain but Fleance escapes. The guests are all assembled except Banquo and the king, about to take his place at the table, when in comes Banquo's ghost. Although it is invisible to all but Macbeth, his fear and remarks break up the feast.

ACT IV

Macbeth consults the witches about the future. They call up apparitions; the first tells him to beware Macduff; the second, "Laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth"; the third, that he "shall never vanquished be until great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him.” He then asks plainly, "Shall Banquo's issue ever reign in this kingdom?" In reply he is shown the shadows of eight kings, followed by the ghost of Banquo, and is convinced that Banquo's descendants will reign. Joining his followers after his interview with the witches, he is greeted with the news that Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth surprises the castle of Macduff and kills Lady Macduff and her children.

ACT V

Lady Macbeth is unable to throw aside the thought of the murders she and her husband have or have had committed. They trouble her sleeping hours, and she rises from her bed in her sleep, walks the floor, tries to wash imaginary blood-spots from her hands, and talks aloud of the murders. Macbeth fortifies his castle of Dunsinane in preparation for an attack by Macduff, but, relying on the witches' promises, he tries to cast off his fears. Word is

brought him of Lady Macbeth's death, probably by her own hand, and almost at the same moment, a messenger announces that Birnam wood is coming toward the castle. This illusion of the moving wood was caused by each man of the attacking army lopping off a limb of a tree as he passed through Birnam wood to use as a covering for his advance. Macbeth, although his nerves are shaken by this materializing of the witch's threat, leads his men forth from the castle, saying, "At least we 'll die with harness on our back.” He meets Macduff and they fight till Macbeth remembers the words of the spirit, and he tells Macduff that his labor is in vain, for he, Macbeth, bears a charmed life which cannot yield to one born of woman. But his last hope is taken from him when Macduff replies, "Despair thy charm. Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped." The fight is continued and Macbeth is killed. Malcolm, son of Duncan, is proclaimed king of Scotland.

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

ACT FIRST

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?

1. Perhaps we should follow the punctuation of the Folio, and place a note of interrogation after "again.”—I. G.

3. "hurlyburly"; the original and sense of this word are thus given by Peacham in his Garden of Eloquence, 1577: "Onomatopeia, when we invent, devise, fayne, and make a name imitating the sound of that it signifyeth, as hurlyburly, for an uprore and tumultuous stirre." Thus also in Holinshed: "There were such hurlie burlies kept in every place, to the great danger of overthrowing the whole state of all government in this land." Of course the word here refers to the tumult of battle, not to the storm, the latter being their element.-The reason of this scene is thus stated by Coleridge: "In Macbeth the Poet's object was to raise the mind at once to the high tragic tone, that the audience might be ready for the precipitate consummation of guilt in the early part of the play. The true reason for the first appearance of the Witches is to strike the key note of the character of the whole drama, as is proved by their reappearance in the third scene, after such an order of the king's as establishes their supernatural power of information."-H. N. H.

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.

10

Hover through the fog and filthy air. [Exeunt.

SCENE II

A camp near Forres.

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

Exeunt. "The Weird Sisters," says Coleridge, "are as true a creation of Shakespeare's, as his Ariel and Caliban,-fates, furies, and materializing witches being the elements. They are wholly different from any representation of witches in the contemporary writers, and yet presented a sufficient external resemblance to the creatures of vulgar prejudice to act immediately on the audience. Their character consists in the imaginative disconnected from the good; they are the shadowy obscure and fearfully anomalous of physical nature, the lawless of human nature,-elemental avengers without sex or kin." Elsewhere he speaks of the "direful music, the wild wayward rhythm, and abrupt lyrics of the opening of Macbeth." Words scarcely less true to the Poet's, than the Poet's are to the characters.-H. N. H.

3. "sergeant"; sergeants, in ancient times, were not the petty officers now distinguished by that title; but men performing one kind of feudal military service, in rank next to esquires. In the stagedirection of the original this sergeant is called a captain.-H. N. H.