"The murder being known, Duncan's two sons fled, the one to England, [the other to] Wales, to save themselves: they, being fled, were supposed guilty of the murder of their father, which was nothing so. "Then was Macbeth crowned King, and then he, for fear of Banquo, his old companion, that he should beget kings but be no king himself, he contrived the death of Banquo, and caused him to be murdered on the way that he rode. The night, being at supper with his noblemen, whom he had bid to a feast (to the which also Banquo should have come), he began to speak of noble Banquo, and to wish that he were there. And as he thus did, standing up to drink a carouse to him, the ghost of Banquo came and sat down in his chair behind him. And he, turning about to sit down again, saw the ghost of Banquo, which fronted him, so that he fell in a great passion of fear and fury, uttering many words about his murder, by which, when they heard that Banquo was murdered, they suspected Macbeth. "Then Macduff fled to England, to the King's son, and so they raised an army and came to Scotland, and at Dunston Anyse overthrew Macbeth. In the mean time, while Macduff was in England, Macbeth slew Macduff's wife and children, and after, in the battle, Macduff slew Macbeth. "Observe, also, how Macbeth's queen did rise in the night in her sleep and walk, and talked and confessed all, and the doctor noted her words." The historical incidents of this great tragedy are contained in the Scotorum Historiæ of Boethius, first printed at Paris, in 1526, and afterwards translated by Bellenden into the Scottish dialect, and published in 1541. From the latter it was copied by Holinshed, and on that Chronicler's relation of the story Shakespeare based his play. The opinion once prevalent, that some portion of the poet's preternatural machinery was borrowed from Middleton's "Witch," has no longer supporters. "The Witch" is now generally thought to have been written about 1613. (See the Illustrative Comments at the end of the Play.) Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers. The Ghost of Banquo, and other Apparitions. SCENE, -In the end of Act IV. in ENGLAND; through the rest of the Play, in SCOTLAND. As two spent swimmers, that do cling together Carv'd out his passage till he fac'd the slave; There to meet with Macbeth.] Pope, to remedy the defective verse, reads, "There I go to meet Macbeth;" Capell, "There to meet with great Macbeth;" and Steevens, b ALL. Paddock calls: &c.] The folio prints these lines as if spoken in chorus by the three witches; but the distribution commonly adopted by modern editors, "2 Witch. Paddock calls:-anon. All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air," is certainly preferable. The dialogue throughout, with the exception of the two lines, "I come, Graymalkin!" and "Paddock calls-anon!" was probably intended to be sung or chaunted. c This is the sergeant,- Sergeants were not formerly the noncommissioned officers now so called, but a guard specially appointed to attend the person of the king; and, as Minsheu says, "to arrest Traytors or great men, that doe, or are like to contemne messengers of ordinarie condition, and to attend the Lord High Steward of England, sitting in judgement upon any Traytor, and such like." d And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, &c.] The old text has, "damned Quarry," &c.; but the fact that quarrel, a Ross. God save the king! KING. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky, Norway himself, with terrible numbers,i (*) Old text, Enter Rosse and Angus. most appropriate word, occurs in the corresponding passage of Holinshed, is almost certain proof that the latter term is the genuine reading:-"Out of the westerne Iles there came unto him [Makdowald] a great multitude of people, offering themselves to assist him in that rebellious quarell."-History of Scotland, e Which ne'er shook hands, &c.] "Which" has been altered, and perhaps rightly, to And. fdireful thunders break; &c.] The word break is wanting in the folio 1623, and was supplied by Pope out of the subsequent folios, which read, "breaking." 8 As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks; &c.] Johnson interprets this, "cannon charged with double thunders:" and observes truly that cracks was a word of such emphasis and dignity, that in this play the writer terms the general dissolution of nature the crack of doom. h that seems to speak things strange.] Johnson proposed, "that teems to speak things strange ;" and Mr. Collier's annotator, with characteristic vapidity, "that comes to speak," &c; but compare, Scene 5, "Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown'd withal." i with terrible numbers,-] Pope's transposition, "numbers terrible," is, prosodically, an improvement. Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon cries. But in a sieve I'll thither sail,(1) I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. 2 WITCH. I'll give thee a wind. 1 WITCH. Thou art kind. 3 WITCH. And I another. 1 WITCH. I myself have all the other; And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know I will drain him dry as hay: 2 WITCH. Show me, show me. 1 WITCH. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come. 3 WITCH. A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come. [Drum without. ALL. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about: Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, Enter MACBETH and BANquo. MACB. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. BAN. How far is 't call'd to Forres ? *-What are these, So wither'd, and so wild in their attire; (*) Old text, Soris. a Aroint thee, witch!] It is strange that although the word "aroint," supposed to signify avaunt! away! begone! occurs again in Shakespeare, "King Lear," Act III. Sc. 4,-" Aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!" no example of its employment by any other writer has yet been discovered. From this circumstance it has been supposed by some commentators to be only a misprint for anoint, a term consistent enough with the vulgar belief which represents witches sailing through the air on their infernal missions by the aid of unguents. Others have ingeniously suggested that "aroint thee" may be a corruption of a rowan-tree, i.e. the mountain ash; a tree, time out of mind, believed to be of such sovereign efficacy against the spells of witchcraft, that any one armed with a slip of it may bid defiance to the machinations of a whole troop of evil spirits. We make no question, however, that "aroint" is the genuine word: it was not likely to be thrice misprinted. And besides, there is a North-country proverb, "Rynt ye witch! quoth Bessie Locket to her mother," which seems to have been formed upon the exclamation in the text. b Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:] Sir W. By Sinel's death, I know I am thane of Glamis; A prosperous gentleman; and to be king C. Trevelyan has noted that in Hakluyt's Voyages there are several letters and journals of a voyage made to Aleppo in the ship Tiger, of London, in the year 1583. eforbid:] Forespoken, bewitched. d The weird sisters.-] Weird (in the old text weyward) from the Saxon wyrd=fatum, signifies prophetic.or fatal. Holinshed, whom Shakespeare follows, speaking of the witches who met Macbeth, says, "- But afterwards the common opinion was that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphes or fairies." And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.] Witches, according to the popular belief, were always bearded So, in "The Honest Man's Fortune," Act II. Sc. 1, " and the women that Come to us, for disguises must wear beards; ffantastical,—] Visionary; illusions of the fantasy. |