Adder's fork, and blind-worm's fting, All. Double, double, toil and trouble, 3 Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, All. Double, double, toil and trouble; 2 Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. Enter Hecate, and other three Witches. Hec. Oh! well done! I commend your pains, And now about the cauldron fing, Mufick and a Song. Black spirits and white, 2 Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs Something wicked this way comes: Open locks, whoever knocks. } } Enter Enter Macbeth. Macb. How now, you fecret, black, and midnight hags? What is't you do? All. A deed without a name. Mach. I conjure you, by that which you profefs, (How e'er you come to know it) anfwer me. Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches; though the yefty waves Confound and swallow navigation up; Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down, Though caftles topple on their warders heads Though palaces and pyramids do flope Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure To what I ask you. 1 Witch. Speak. 2 Witch. Demand. 3 Witch. We'll answer. Witch. Say, if th' hadit rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters ? Mach. Call 'em : let me fee 'em. 1 Witch. Pour in fow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; greafe, that's sweaten From the murd'rer's gibbet, throw Into the flame? All Come high or low: Thyfelf and office deftly show. Apparition of an armed head rifes. (33) Mach. Tell me, thou unknown power Of nature's germains tumble all together,] [Thunder, 1 Witch, Thus all the printed copies; and Mr. Pope has explain'd Germains by kindred but I have already prov'd in a note upon K. Lear, that we muft read, Ge: mins, i. e. Seeds. (33) Apparition of an armed head rises.- Apparition of a bloody child.- Apparition of a child crown'd, with a Tree in bis band,] I was at a lofs, why this particular apparatus and furniture was employ'd thefe three apparitions. I propos'd the question to my ingenious VOL. VI. P friend 1 Witch. He knows thy thought: Hear his fpeech, but fay thou nought. App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff! Beware the Thane of Fife-dismiss me- -enough. [Defcends. Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks. Thou'ft harp'd my fear aright. But one word more→→ 1 Witch. He will not be commanded; here's another More potent than the firft. Apparition of a bloody child rifes, App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! [Thunder. App. Be bloody, bold, and refolute; laugh to fcorn The power of man; for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. [Defcends. Macb. Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make affurance double fure, And take a bond of fate; thou shalt not live, That I may tell pale hearted fear, it lies; And fleep in fpight of thunder. [Thunders, Apparition of a child crowned, with a tree in his hand, rifes. What is this, That rifes like the iffue of a King, And wears upon his baby-brow the round Friend Mr. Warburton, and he gave me the following solution. "Did our author only use it for fhow, we should not, I think, quarrel " with him for it. But on examination you will find, that the Infignia of these three ghofts exactly answer to their speeches. The "first bids Macbeth beware of Macduff; this is therefore an armed bead, the emblem of caution, and circumfpection. The fecond ghoft encourages him to perfift in his bloody courfes; for none of "woman born fhall harm him. This ghoft has therefore the figure "of a bloody child: infinuating, that the height of barbarity is the "murder of children. The third ghost tells him, He fhould never be vanquish'd till Birnam-wood remov'd from its fituation: and conformably to the fubject of its fpeech, It has a branch in its hand and is crown'd; iniinuating, that he should wear the crown Still Birnam-wood remov'd." All All. Liften, but speak not. App. Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care, Great Birnam-wood to Dunfinane's high hill Macb. That will never be : Who can imprefs the foreft, bid the tree [Defcends. Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet boadments! good! (34) Rebellious dead, rife never till the wood Of Birnam rife, &c.] Thus all the impreffions, from the very begin ing, exhibit this paffage: but I cannot imagine what notion the editors could have of the dead being rebellious. It looks to me, as if they were content to believe the poet genuine, wherever he was myfterious beyond being understood. The emendation of one letter gives us clear fenfe, and the very thing which Macbeth_should be fuppos'd to fay here. We must restore Rebellious head rife never, i. e. Let rebellion never make head against me, till a forest move, and I fhall reign long enough in fafety. Shakespeare very frequently ufes this term to this purpofe; of which I'll fubjoin a few examples. I Henr. IV. Douglas and the English rebels met,, 2 Henr. IV. For his divifions, as the times do brawl, Are in three beads; one pow'r against the French, Again, in the ft. Henr. IV. We were inforc'd for fafety's fake to fly Out of your fight, and raise this present bead, Henr. VIII. My noble father, Henry of Buckingham, Who first rais'd bead againft ufurping Richard. Coriolanus. When Tarquin made a bead for Rome, he fought Reign in this kingdom? All, Seek to know no more. [The cauldron finks into the ground, Macb. I will be fatisfy'd. Deny me this, And an eternal curfe fall on you! let me know, Why finks that cauldron ? and what noife is this? [Hautboys. 1 Witch. Shew! 2 Witch. Shew! 3 Witch. Shew! All. Shew his eyes, and grieve his heart; Come like fhadows, fo depart. [Eight Kings appear and pass over in order, and (35) Banquo; the laft, with a glass in his hand. Macb. Thou art too like the fpirit of Banque; down! Why do you fhew me this ?-A fourth ?-Start eye! (35) Eight Kings appear, and pass over in order, and Banquo laff, with a glass in his band.] The editors could not help blundering even in this ftage-direction. For 'tis not Banquo, who brings the glafs; as is evident from the following speech: And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glafs That twofo'd balls, and treble fcepters carry, I have quoted the laft line, because it will not be amifs to obferve, that this fine play, 'tis probable, was not writ till after Q. Elizabeth's death. Thefe apparitions, tho' very properly fhewn with regard to Macbeth, yet are more artfully fo, when we confider the addrefs of the poet in complimenting K. James I. here upon his uniting Scot-Land to England: and when we confider too, that the family of the Stuarts are faid to be the direct descendants of Banquo. I Witch. |