3. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king here

after.

Ban. Good fir, why do you ftart; and seem to fear
Things that do found fo fair?-I'the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed

Which outwardly ye fhew? My noble partner
You greet with prefent grace, and great prediction
Of noble having', and of royal hope,

That he feems rapt withal; to me you speak not:
If you can look into the feeds of time,

And fay, which grain will grow, and which will not;
Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear,

Your favours, nor your hate.

1. Witch. Hail! 2. Witch. Hail!

3. Witch. Hail!

1. Witch. Leffer than Macbeth, and greater. 2. Witch. Not fo happy, yet much happier.

3. Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So, all hail, Macbeth, and Banquo!

1. Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail!

Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: By Sinel's death, I know, I am thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, A profperous gentleman; and, to be king, Stands not within the profpect of belief,

No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence

Are ye fantastical,] By fantaftical, he means creatures of fantafy or imagination: the question is, Are these real beings before us, or are we deceived by illufions of fancy? JOHNSON.

Shakspeare took the word from Holinfhed, who in his account of the witches, fays, "This was reputed at first but some vain fantastical illufion by Macbeth and Banquo." STEEVENS.

1 Of noble having,] Having is estate, poffeffion, fortune. So, in Twelfth Night:

66- My baving is not much;

"I'll make divifion of my prefent ftore :

"Hold; there is half my coffer." STEEVENS.

See Vol. I. p. 253, n. 5; and Vol. II. p. 316, n. 6. MALONE. 2 By Sinel's death,] The father of Macbeth. POPE.

You

1

You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blafted heath you stop our way

With fuch prophetick greeting?-Speak, I charge you.
[Witches vanish.

Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them :-Whither are they vanish'd?
Macb. Into the air; and what feem'd corporal melted
As breath into the wind.-'Would they had staid!

Ban. Were fuch things here, as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the infane root 3,

That takes the reafon prisoner?

Macb. Your children fhall be kings.

Ban. You shall be king.

Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not fo?
Ban. To the felf-fame tune, and words.

Enter RossE, and ANGUS.

Who's here?

Roffe. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth,
The news of thy fuccefs: and when he reads

3 — eaten on the infane root,] The infane root is the root which makes infane. THEOBALD.

The commentators have given themselves much trouble to ascertain the name of this root, but its name was, I believe, unknown to Shak fpeare, as it is to his readers; Sir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch, having probably furnished him with the only knowledge he had of its qualities, without fpecifying its name. In the Life of Antony, (which our author must have diligently read,) the Roman foldiers, while employed in the Parthian war, are faid to have fuffered great diftrefs for want of provifions. "In the ende (fays Plutarch) they were compelled to live of herbs and rootes, but they found few of them that men do commonly eate of, and were enforced to taste of them that were never eaten before; among the which there was one that killed them, and made them out of their wits; for he that had once eaten of it, his memorye was gone from him, and be knew no manner of thing, but 'only bufied himself in digging and hurling of stones from one place to another, as though it had been a matter of great waight, and to be done with all poffible fpeede." MALONE.

Shakspeare alludes to the qualities anciently afcribed to hemlock. So, in Greene's Never too late, 1616: "You gazed against the fun, and fo blemished your fight; or else you have eaten of the roots of bemlock, that makes men's eyes conceit unfeen objects." STEEVENS.

Thy

Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend,

Which fhould be thine, or his+: Silenc'd with that,
In viewing o'er the reft o' the self-fame day,.
He finds thee in the ftout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyfelf didft make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale,
Came poft with poft; and every one did bear
Thy praifes in his kingdom's great defence,
And pour'd them down before him.
Ang. We are fent,

To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
Only to herald thee into his fight,

Not pay thee.

Roffe. And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, moft worthy thane!
For it is thine.

4 His wonders and his praifes do contend,

Which should be thine, or bis ;] i. e. private admiration of your deeds, and a defire to do them publick juftice by commendation, contend in his mind for pre-eminence.-Or,-There is a conteft in his mind whether he should indulge his defire of publishing to the world the commendations due to your heroifm, or whether he should remain in filent admiration of what no words could celebrate in proportion to its defert. STEEVENS.

5 Silenc'd with that,] i. e. wrapp'd in filent wonder at the deeds performed by Macbeth, &c. MALONE.

- As thick as tale,

Came poft with poft;] That is, pofts arrived as faft as they could be counted. JOHNSON.

So, in K. Henry VI. P. III. A&II. fc. i:

Tidings, as fwiftly as the pofts could run,

"Were brought," &c. STEEVENS.

The old copy reads-Can poft. The emendation is Mr. Rowe's. Dr. Johnson's explanation would be lefs exceptionable, if the old copy had-As quick as tale. Thick applies but ill to tale, and feems rather to favour Mr. Rowe's emendation, who reads-As thick as bail, &c. "As thick as hail," as an anonymous correspondent obferves to me, is an expreffion in the old play of King John, 1591:

- breathe out damned orifons,

“As thick as bail-stones 'fore the fpring's approach." MALONE

Ban.

Ban. What, can the devil speak true?

Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives; Why do you dress

me

In borrow'd robes ?

Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet;

But under heavy judgment bears that life,

Which he deferves to lofe. Whe'r he was combin'd
With thofe of Norway; or did line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage; or that with both
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;
But treafons capital, confefs'd, and prov'd,
Have overthrown him.

Macb. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor:

The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains.-
Do you not hope your children fhall be kings,
When thofe that gave the thane of Cawdor to me,
Promis'd no lefs to them?

Ban. That, trusted home,

Might

7 Whe'r be was combin'd-] Whether in our author's time was fometimes used and written as one fyllable, whe'r: So, in King Jobn:

"Now fhame upon you tube'r she does or no."

The word combin'd is in the old copy placed in the fubfequent line. The metre fhews that it belongs to the prefent line. Many inaccuracies of the fame kind are found in the only authentick ancient copy of this play. MALONE.

8 trusted home] i. e. carried as far as it will go; fuffered to prevail in its utmost extent of argument; confidentially received or admitted home into your bofom. STEEVENS.

The added word bome fhews clearly, in my apprehenfion, that our author wrote That tbrufted home. So, in a fubfequent fcene:

"That every minute of his being thrufts

"Against my nearest of life."

Thrufted is the regular participle from the verb to thrust, and though now not often used, was, I believe, common in the time of Shakspeare. So, in King Henry V:

"With cafted flough and fresh legerity."

Home means to the uttermoft. So, in the Winter's Tale :
all my forrows

66

"You have paid bome."

It may be observed, that "thrufted home" is an expreffion ufed at this day; but" trufted home," I believe, was never ufed at any period whatfoever. I have had frequent occafion to remark that many of the errors

in

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Befides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis ftrange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The inftruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honeft trifles, to betray us

In deepeft confequence.-Coufins, a word I pray you.
Mach. Two truths are told*,

As

in the old copies of our author's plays arofe from the tranfcriber's ear having deceived him. In Ireland where much of the pronunciation of the age of Queen Elizabeth is yet retained, the vulgar conftantly pronounce the word thrust as if it were written truff; and hence probably the error in the text.

Mr. Steevens's original explanation, "carried as far it will go," agrees with this reading, but cannot in my apprehenfion be drawn by any chymistry from that which is exhibited in the old copy: for who ever talked of confiding bome in a prediction. The change is fo very flight, and I am so thoroughly perfuaded that the reading propofed is the true one, that had it been fuggefted by any former editor, I fhould without hefitation have given it a place in the text. MALONE.

9 Might yet enkindle you-] Enkindle, for to ftimulate you to feek. WARBURTON.

Two truths are told, &c.] How the former of these truths has been fulfilled, we are yet to learn. Macbeth could not become Thane of Glamis, till after his father's decease, of which there is no mention throughout the play. If the Hag only foretold what Macbeth already understood to have happened, her words could scarcely claim rank as a prediction. STEEVENS.

From the Scottish translation of Boethius it fhould feem that Sinel, the father of Macbeth, died after Macbeth's having been met by the weird fifters. "Makbeth (fays the hiftorian) revolvyng all thingis, as they wer faid be the weird fifteris, began to covat ye croun. And zit he concludit to abide, quhil he faw ye tyme ganand thereto; fermelie belevyng yt ye thrid weird fuld cum as the first two did afore." This indeed is inconfiftent with our author's words, " By Sinel's death, I know, I am thane of Glamis;"-but Holinfhed, who was his guide, in ́ his abridgment of the hiftory of Boethius, has particularly mentioned that Sinel died before Macbeth met the weird fifters: we may therefore be fure that Shakspeare meant it to be understood that Macbeth had already acceded to his paternal title. Belenden only fays, "The first of thaim faid to Macbeth, Hale thane of Glammis. The secound faid," &c. But in Holinfhed the relation runs thus, conformably to the Latin original: "The first of them fpake and faid, All haile Mackbeth, thane of Glammis (for be bad latelie entered into that dignitie and office by the death of bis father Sinell). The fecond of them said,” &c.