Enter HECATE and the other three Witches. Hec. O, well done! I commend your pains; And every one shall share i' the gains. And now about the caldron sing, Like elves and fairies in a ring, SONG.1 Black spirits and white, my thumbs,2 2 Witch. By the pricking of Something wicked this way comes. Open, locks, whoever knocks. Enter MACBETH. Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags? What is't you do? All. A deed without a name. Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down; 1 "Black spirits and white." The original edition of this play only contains the two first words of this song; the entire stanza is found in The Witch, by Middleton, and is there called "A charme Song about a Vessel." 2 "By the pricking of my thumbs." It is a very ancient superstition, that all sudden pains of the body, and other sensations which could not naturally be accounted for, were presages of somewhat that was shortly to happen. Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure 1 Witch. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters'? Macb. Call them; 'let me see them. 1 Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; grease, that's sweaten From the murderer's gibbet, throw Into the flame. All. Come, high, or low; Thyself and office deftly show. Thunder. An Apparition of an armed Head rises.3 Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power, 1 Witch. He knows thy thought; Hear his speech, but say thou nought. App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth beware Macduff; Beware the thane of Fife.-Dismiss me.-Enough. [Descends. Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks; 4 Thou hast harped my fear aright.-But one word more; 1 Witch. He will not be commanded. another, More potent than the first. 1 Germins, seeds which have begun to sprout or germinate. 2 Deftly is adroitly, dexterously. Here's 3 The armed head represents, symbolically, Macbeth's head cut off and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child is Macduff, untimely ripped from his mother's womb. The child, with a crown on his head and a bough in his hand, is the royal Malcolm, who ordered his soldiers to hew them down a bough, and bear it before them to Dunsinane. ↑ Harped, touched on a passion as a harper touches a string. Thunder. An Apparition of a bloody Child rises. App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Macb. Had I three ears, I'd hear thee. App. Be bloody, bold, And resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.1 [Descends. Macb. Then live, Macduff; what need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make assurance double sure,' And take a bond of fate. Thou shalt not live, And sleep in spite of thunder.-What is this, Thunder. An Apparition of a Child crowned, with a Tree in his Hand, rises. That rises like the issue of a king; And wears upon his baby brow the round All. Listen, but speak not to't. App. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care [Descends. That will never be; Macb. Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good! 1 "For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth." So Holinshed:"And surely hereupon he had put Macduff to death, but that a certeine witch, whom he had in great trust, had told him, that he should never be slaine with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the castle of Dunsinane. This prophecy put all fear out of his heart." 2 The round is that part of a crown which encircles the head: the top is the ornament which rises above it. 3 The present accent of Dunsinane is right. In every subsequent instance the accent is misplaced. 4 i. e. command it to serve him like a soldier impressed. 5 "Rebellious head." The old copy reads dead; the emendation is Theobald's. Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth All. Seek to know no more. Macb. I will be satisfied. Deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know: Why sinks that caldron ? and what noise is this? [Hautboys. 1 Witch. Show! 2 Witch. Show! 3 Witch. Show! All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; Come like shadows, so depart. Eight Kings appear, and pass over the stage in order; the last with a glass in his hand; BANQUO following. Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs ;—and thy hair, Why do you show me this?-A fourth ?-Start, eyes! 2 see, For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me, 1 "That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry." This was intended as a compliment to James the First: he first united the two islands and the three kingdoms under one head, whose house too was said to be deecended from Banquo, who is therefore represented not only as innocent, but as a noble character; whereas, according to history, he was confederate with Macbeth in the murder of Duncan. 2 In Warwickshire, when a horse, sheep, or other animal, perspires much, and any of the hair or wool, in consequence of such perspiration, or any redundant humor, becomes matted into tufts with grime and sweat, he is VOL. III 30 1 Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so.-But why [Music. The Witches dance, and vanish. Macb. Where are they? Gone?-Let this per nicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar! Come in, without there! your grace's will? No, my lord. No, indeed, my lord. Macb. Saw you the weird sisters? Macb. Came they not by you? Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride; Macduff is fled to England. Macb. Len. Ay, my good lord. Fled to England? Macb. Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits : The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it. From this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, said to be boltered; and whenever the blood issues out and coagulates, forming the locks into hard, clotted bunches, the beast is said to be bloodbollered. 1 i. e. spirits. It should seem that spirits was almost always pronounced sprights or sprites by Shakspeare's contemporaries. 2 Antique was the old spelling for antic. 3 i. e. preventest them, by taking away the opportunity. |