Like valour's minion, carv'd out his passage, Till he fac'd the slave; Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Compell'd these skipping kernes to trust their heels, Dun. Dismay'd not this our captains, Macbeth and 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; So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: 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. Who comes here? Mal. Enter Rosse. The worthy thane of Rosse. Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look that seems to speak things strange. Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky, Norway himself, with terrible numbers, The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict: Dun. Rosse. That now Great happiness! 1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap. And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd :-"Give me," quoth I: The word break is not in the original. The second folio adds breaking. Some verb is wanting; and the reading of the second folio is some sort of authority for the introduction of break, Beilona's bridegroom is here undoubtedly Macbeth. This is the original punctuation, which we think, with Tierk, is better than "Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm. "Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries. 2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 1 Witch. Th' art kind. 3 Witch. And I another. 1 Witch. I myself have all the other, I'll drain him dry as hay: 2 Witch. Show me, show me. 1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wrack'd, as homeward he did come. 3 Witch. A drum, a drum: Macbeth doth come. с 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, And thrice again, to make up nine: Peace!-the charm's wound up. [Drum within. Enter MACBETH and BANQUO. Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. So wither'd and so wild in their attire ; That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, Macb. Speak, if you can ;-What are you? 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane A Cawdor! 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. Ban. Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair?—I' the name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not: And say, which grain will grow, and which will not, 1 Witch. Hail! 2 Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! 1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happies. a Aroint thee.-See King Lear, Act III. Scene 4. b Ronyon.-See As You Like It, Act II, Scene 2. c Weird. There can be no doubt that this term is derive! from the Anglo-Saxon wyrd, word spoken; and in the sam way that the word fate is anything spoken, weird and futzi a synonymous, and equally applicable to such mysterious he as Macbeth's witches. d Fantastical-belonging to fantasy-imaginary 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none : So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! 1 Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail! No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, As breath into the wind.-'Would they had staid! Ban. Were such things here as we do speak about? Or have we eaten on the insane root,a That takes the reason prisoner? Macb. Your children shall be kings. Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.——— Cannot be ill; cannot be good:-If ill, My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical, Ban. Look, how our partner's rap. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir. Ban. New honours come upon him, Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould, My dull brain was wrought with things forgotten. Think upon what hath chanc'd; and, at more time, Ban. Very gladly. Maeb. The thane of Cawdor lives: Why do you Implor'd your highness' pardon; and set forth dress me In borrow'd robes? A deep repentance: nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; he died As one that had been studied in his death, To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd, As 't were a careless trifle. To find the mind's construction in the face: An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin! Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS. The sin of my ingratitude even now To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserv'd; : Dun. Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter My worthy Cawdor! Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you: I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach; So humbly take my leave. Dun. Macb. The prince of Cumberland!-That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap, [Aside. For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your tires! Let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be, Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter. Lady M. "They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all hailed me, Thane of Cawdor;' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with Hail, king that shalt be! This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by be ng ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell." Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy nature; To catch the nearest way: Thou wouldst be great; The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou have it: To have thee crown'd withal.—What is your tidings? Atten. The king comes here to-night. Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message. Lady M. Give him tending, He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men But be the serpent under it. He that's coming To alter favour ever is to fear: Only look up clear; SCENE VI. The same. Before the Castle. Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO Ban. Dun. Enter LADY MACBETH. See, see! our honour'd hostess Thou 'rt mad to say it: The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you, Is not thy master with him? who, wer 't so, Atten. So please you, it is true; our thane is coming: aif fear, compassion, or any other compunctious visitin stand between a cruel purpose and its realization, they may e said to keep peace between them, as one who interieres to tween a violent man and the object of his wrath keeps peace Enter LADY MACBETH. Lady M. He has almost supp'd: why bave you. left the chamber? Macb. Hath he ask'd for me? Lady M. Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Lady M. To be the same in thine own act and valour, Prithee, peace: What beast was 't then, Mach. If it were done, when 't is done, then 't were well Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place, It were done quickly: If the assassination с Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, We have restored the old familiar expression God-eyld, as suiting better with the playfulness of Duncan's speech than the God yield us of the modern text. There is great refinement in the sentiment of the passage, but the meaning is tolerably clear. The love which follows us is sometimes troublesome; so we give you trouble, but look you only at the love we bear to you, and so bless us and thank us. b Hermits-beadsmen-bound to pray for a benefactor. Shoal-in the original, schoole. Theobald corrected the word to shoal, "by which," says Steevens, our author means the shallow ford of life." We shall not disturb the received reading, which is unquestionably the safest. It has been proposed to read, instead of itself, its sell, its | saddle. However clever may be the notion, we can scarcely admit the necessity for the change of the original. A person (and vaulting ambition is personified) might be said to overleap himself, as well as overbalance himself, or overcharge himself, er overlabour himself, or overmeasure himself, or overreach himself. The word over in all these cases is used in the sense of too much. • After other Hanmer introduced side. The commentators say that the addition is unnecessary, inasmuch as the plural noun sides, occurs just before. But surely this notion is to uro Did then adhere, and yet you would make both: I would, while it was smiling in my face, If we should fail,——— We fail. Macb. Lady M. But screw your courage to the sticking place, And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep, (Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassel so convince, b That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A limbeck only: When in swinish sleep Their drenched natures lie, as in a deatli, What cannot you and I perform upon The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell d с Macb. Bring forth men-children only, For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv'd, When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers, That they have done 't? Lady M. Who dares receive it other As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar I am settled, and bend up [Exeunt. duce a jumble of the metaphor. Macbeth compares his intert to a courser I have no spur to urge him on. Unprepared I am about to vault into my seat, but I overleap myself and fall. It appears to us that the sentence is broken by the entrance of the messenger; that it is not complete in itself; and would not have been completed with side. a We find the adage in Heywood's Proverbs, 1556:-"The cat would eat fish and would not wet her feet." b Convince overpower. • Limbeck--alembic. 4 Quell murder. Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, and a Servant with a torch before them. Ban. How goes the night, boy? With Tarquin's ravishing sides, towards his design, Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. Which now suits with it.-Whiles I threat he lives: Their candles are all out.-Take thee that too. Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch. Who's there? Macb. A friend. I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. SCENE II.-The same. Enter LADY MACBETH. [A bell rings. [Ex. Lady M. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold: What hath quench'd them hath given me fire:- Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king 's a-bed: The fatal bellman which gives the stern'st good night. He hath been in unusual pleasure, and Sent forth great largess to your offices: By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up Ban. Thanks, sir; the like to you! [Exit BANQUO. Macb. Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. [Exit Serv. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling, as to sight? or art thou but As this which now I draw. Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going, Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er the one half world Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, He is about it: The doors are open; And the surfeited grooms do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd their possets, That death and nature do contend about them, Macb. [Within.] Who's there?-what, hoa! Lady M. Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd, And 't is not done :- the attempt, and not the deed, Confounds us :-Hark!-I laid their daggers ready, He could not miss them.-Had he not resembled My father as he slept I had done 't-My husband! Macb. I have done the deed :-Didst thou not hear a noise? Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the crickets cry Did not you speak? Macb. Lady M. Macb. Lady M. Ay. Macb. Hark! When? Now. As I descended? Consider it not so deeply, Mach. But wherefore could not I pronounce, amen! I had most need of blessing, and amen Stuck in my throat. Lady M. These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so, it will make us mad. Sides.-This is the word of the old copies; but Pope chang it to strides. A doubt arises whether this word is compatible with "stealthy pace." The word, in its usual acceptation, and looking at its etymology, does not convey the notion of stealthy and silent movement. Can we reconcile then the word with the context? Tieck contends that sides has been received as the seat of the passions, and is so here poetically used. |