So they redoubled strokes upon the foe: I cannot tell But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. King. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds: They Imack of honour both. Go, get him surgeons. Enter Roffe and Angus. But who comes here? Mal. The worthy Thane of Reffe. Len. What haste looks through his eyes? So should he look, that seems to speak things strange. Roffe. God save the King! King. Whence cam'st thou, worthy Thane? Roffe. From Fife, great King, Norway, himself with numbers terrible, (4) charg'd; why? because they redoubled strokes on the foe with twice the fury, and impetuosity, as before. (4) Norquay himself, with numbers terrible, Aflifted by that, &c.] Norway hiraself assisted, &c. is a reading we owe to the editors, not to the poet. That energy and contrast of expreffion are lost, which my pointing restores. The sense is, Norway, who was in himself terrible by his own numbers, when affifted by Carudor, became yet more terrible. (5) 'Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof, Curbing bis lavish fpirit.) Here again we are to quarrel with the transposition of an innocent comma; which however becomes dangerous to sense, when in the hands either of a careless or ignorant editor. Let us fee who is it that brings this rebellious arm?. Why, it is Bellona's bridegroom: and who is he, but Macbeth. We can never believe, our author meant any thing like this. My regulation of the pointing reftores the true meaning; that the loyal Macterb confronted the disloyal Caudor, arm to aim. Curbing Curbing his lavish spirit. To conclude, The victory fell on us. King. Great happiness! Roffe. Now Sweno, Norway's King, craves composition: Nor would we deign him burial of his men, "Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes-kill-ifle Ten thousand dollars, to our gen'ral use. King. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom int'refst. Go, pronounce his death; And with his former title greet Macbeth. Roffe. I'll fee it done. King. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to the Heath. Thunder. 1 Witch W Enter the three Witches. Here haft thou been, sister ? 2 Witch. Killing swine. 3 Witch. Sifter, where thou ? 1 Witch. A failor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, And mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht. Give me, quoth I. Aroint thee, witch!-the rump-fed ronyon cries. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, mafter o' th' Tyger: But in a fieve I'll thither fail, And like a rat without a tail, 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. I Witch. I myself have all the other, And the very points they blow; N He He shall live a man forbid; (6) z Witch. Shew me, shew me. Wrackt as homeward he did come. Macbeth doth come! [Drum within. All. The Weird sisters, hand in hand, (7) Pofters (6) He shall live a man forbid:] i. e. as under a curse, an Interdistion. So, afterwards, in this play; By his own interdiction stands accurs'd. So, among the Romans, an outlaw's sentence was aquæ & ignis inter. dictio. i. e. He was forbid the use of water and fire: which imply'd the neceffity of banishment. (7) The weyward fifters, hand in hand,] The Witches are here speaking of themselves; and it is worth an enquiry why they should ftile themselves the weyward, or wayward fisters. This word in its general acceptation fignifies, perverfe, froward, moody, obftinate, untractable, &c. and is every where so used by our Shakespeare. To content ourselves with two or three instances; Two Gent. of Verona. Fy, fy, how wayward is this foolish love, And, which is worse. All you have done Love's Labour loft. Macbeth. It is improbable, the Witches would adopt this epithet to themselves, in any of these senses; and therefore we are to look a little farther for the poet's word and meaning. When I had the first suspicion of our author being corrupt in this place, it brought to my mind the following passage in CHAUCER'S Troilus and Creffeide. lib. iii. v. 618. But O fortune, executrice of wierdes. Which word the gloffaries expound to us by fates or destinies, I was foon confirm'd in my fufpicion, upon happening to dip into Heylin's Cofmography, where he makes a short recital of the story of Macbeth and Banquo. These two (fays be,) travelling together thro' a forest, were met by three Fairies, Witches, Wierds, the Scots call them, &c. I presently recollected, that this story must be recorded at more length by Holingshead; with whom I thought it was very probable Posters of the fea and land, that 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. Enter Macbeth and Banquo, with Soldiers ana otker Attendants. Mach. So foul and fair a day I have not feen. So wither'd, and so wild in their attire, That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' earth, Mach. Speak, if you can; what are you ? 1 Witch. All-hail, Mabeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! 2Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! 3 Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! that shalt he King hereafter. Ban. Good Sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do found so fair? I'th' name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed [To the Witches. that our author had traded for the materials of his tragedy: and therefore confirmation was to be fetch'd from this fountain. Accordingly, looking into his hiftory of Scotland, I found the writer very prolix and express, from Hector Boethius, in this remarkable story; and in p. 170. speaking of these Witches, he uses this expreffion. But afterwards the common opinion was, that these women were either the weird fifters, that is, as ye would say, the goddesses of destiny, &c. Again, a little lower; The words of the three weird sisters also, (of whom before ye have heard) greatly encouraged him thereunto. And, in several other paragraphs there, this word is repeated. I believe, by this time, it is plain beyond a doubt, that the word wayward has obtain'd in Macbeth, where the Witches are spoken of, from the ignorance of the copyifts, who were not acquainted with the Scotch term: and that in every passage, where there is any relation to these Witches or Wizards, my emendation must be embraced, and we must read weird. Which outwardly ye shew? my noble partner That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not. And fay, which grain will grow and which will not; 1 Witch. Hail! 2 Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! 1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get Kings, though thou be none; So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo ! 1 Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all-hail! Mach. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more; By Sinel's death, I know, I'm Thane of Glamis ; But how, of Cawdor? the Thane of Cawdor lives, A profp'rous gentleman; and, to be King, Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence You owe this strange intelligence? or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way, With such prophetick greeting?-speak, 1 charge you. [Witches vanish. Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has; And these are of them: whither are they vanish'd? Mach. Into the air: and what feem'd corporal Melted, as breath, into the wind,Would they had staid! Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about? (8) (8) Were fuch things bere, as we do speak about? Or Or have we eaten of the infane root, That takes the reason prisoner?] The infane root, viz. the root which makes infane; as in HORACE Pallida Mors; nempè, quæ facit pallidos.---This sentence, I conceive, is not so well understood, as I would have every part of Shakespeare be, by his audience and readers. So foon as the Witches vanish from the fight of Macbeth and Banquo, and leave them in doubt whether they had really seen fuch Appariti |