SIWARD, earl of Northumberland, general of the English

forces.

Young SIWARD, his son.

SEYTON, an officer attending on Macbeth.

Son to Macduff,

An English Doctor. A Scotch Doctor.

A Soldier.

A Porter. An old Man.

Lady MACBETH.

Lady MACDUFf.

Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth.

HECATE, and three Witches.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers; Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers.

The Ghost of Banquo, and several other Apparitions.

Scene, in the end of the fourth act, lies in ENGLAND; through the rest of the play in SCOTLAND; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's castle.

MACBETH.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-An open place.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches. 1 Witch. WHEN shall we three meet again, In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won :

3 Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 1 Witch. Where the place?

2 Witch.

Upon the heath:

3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin!b All. Paddock calls:-Anon.Fair is foul, and foul is fair:c

་

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[Witches vanish.

SCENE II.

A Camp near Fores.

Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOx, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier.

Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

a

hurlyburly-] i. e. A tumultuous storm. This word is recommended for its expression by Henry Peacham, who in the year 1577 wrote a book called "The Garden of Eloquence."-HENDERSON.

b

Graymalkin!] To understand this passage, we should suppose one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad, which in the north is called paddock.-UPTON.

c Fair is foul, and foul is fair:] I believe the meaning is, that to us, perverse and malignant as we are, fair is foul, and foul is fair.-JOHNSON.

This is the sergeant,

Mal.
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.

Sold.

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,d
The multiplying villainies of nature

Do swarm upon him,) from the western isles
Of Kernes and Gallowglasses is supplied ;*
And fortune on his damned quarryf 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 smok'd with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion,

Carv'd out his passage, till he fac❜d the slave;
And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
An fix'd his head upon our battlements.

e

Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sold. As whence the sun 'gins his reflexion"

to that, &c.] i. e. To that end.

Kernes and Gallowglasses-] Kernes and Gallowglasses are light and heavy armed foot, "Hinc conjecturæ vigorem etiam adjiciunt arma quædam Hibernica, Gallicis antiquis similia, jacula nimirum peditum levis armaturæ quos Kernos vocant, nec non secures et lorica ferreæ peditum illorum gravioris armaturæ, quos Galloglassios appellant." Warai Antiq. Hiber. cap. vi.—WAR

BURTON.

f quarry-] This is the old reading, which the modern editors have all changed to quarrel. Quarry means the harvest of the spoil, which Macdonwald was reaping in the field of battle. The word is used in the same sense in the following lines:

"These ancient arms bestow

Which as a quarry on the soil'd earth lay,
Seiz'd on by conquest as a glorious prey."

Drayton's Bar. Wars, can. ii.-B. STRUTT. g -from the nave to the chaps,] This extraordinary method of destroying an enemy is frequently mentioned in Dido Queen of Carthage, by Thomas Nash, 1594:

"Then from the navel to the throat at once
He ript old Priam."-STEEVENS.

h As whence the sun 'gins his reflexion-] The thought is expressed with some obscurity, but the plain meaning is this: As the same quarter, whence the blessing of day-light arises, sometimes sends us, by a dreadful reverse, the calamities of storms and

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 Kernes to trust their heels:
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,

With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

Dun.

Dismay'd not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? Sold.

Yes;

As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion.
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks;k
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; They smack of honour both :-Go, get him surgeons. [Exit Soldier, attended.

Enter RossE.

Who comes here?

Mal.

The worthy Thane of Rosse.

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should

he look,

That seems to speak things strange.

Rosse.

God save the king!

From Fife, great king,

Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?
Rosse.

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,'

tempests; so the glorious event of Macbeth's victory, which promised us the comforts of peace, was immediately succeeded by the Norweyan invasion.-STEEVENS.

captains,] It is observed by Mr. Douce, that this word was most probably pronounced capitains, as it is most frequently in Spencer.

k

1

cracks ;] Charges; a metonomy of the effect for the cause.-HEATH. flout the sky,] The banners may be poetically described as waving in mockery or defiance of the sky. The sense of the passage, however, collectively taken, is this: Where the triumphant flutter of the Norweyan standards ventilates

And fan our people cold.

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that disloyal traitor

The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict:
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,m
Confronted him with self-caparisons,"

Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit: And, to conclude,
The victory fell on us;-

Dun.

Rosse. That now

Great happiness!

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition;

Nor would we deign him burial of his men,

Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes' inch,"

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive

Our bosom interest:-Go, pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Rosse. I'll see it done.

Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.

[Exeunt.

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 chesnuts in her lap,

And mounch'd and mounch'd, and mounch'd :- Give me,

quoth I:

or cools the soldiers who had been heated through their efforts to secure such numerous trophies of victory.-STEEVENS.

m Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,] Lupt in proof, is, defended by armour of proof.-STEEVENS. Bellona's bridegroom, means, Macbeth.

self-caparisons,] i. e. Shewed he was his equal.—WARBURTON.

Saint Colmes' inch,] Colmes' inch, now called Inchcomb, is a small island lying in the Frith of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it, dedicated to St. Columb; called by Camden, Inch Colm, or The Isle of Columba. Inch, or Inche, in the Irish and Erse languages, signifies an island.—STEEVENS.