Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks; Thou hast harp'd21 my fear aright:-But one word more: 1 Witch. He will not be commanded: Here's another, More potent than the first. Thunder. An Apparition of a bloody Child rises. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! App. Macb. Had I three ears, I'd hear thee22. App. Be bloody, bold, And resolute: laugh to scorn the power of man, For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth23. [Descends. Macb. Then live, Macduff; What need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make assurance double sure, Thunder. 3 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 Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are; 21 Harp'd, touched on a passion as a harper touches a string. 22 Had I three ears, I'd hear thee.' This singular expression probably means no more than I will listen to thee with all attention.' 23 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 phrophecy put all fear out of his heart." 24 The round is that part of a crown which encircles the head: the top is the ornament which rises above it. Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until Macb. [Descends. That will never be; Who can impress the forest26; bid the tree Unfix his earth-bound root? sweet bodements! fallin's Rebellious head27, rise never, till the wood 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 cauldron? and what noise28 is this? [Hautboys. 1 Witch. Show! 2 Witch. Show! 3 Witch. Show! All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart29; Come like shadows, so depart. 25 The present accent of Dunsinane is right. In every subsequent instance the accent is misplaced. Thus in Hervey's Life of King Robert Bruce, 1729, which Ritson thinks a good authority: 'Whose deeds let Birnam and Dunsinnan tell, Andrew of Wyntoun uses both accents. Prophecies of apparent impossibilities were common in Scotland; such as the removal of one place to another, &c. Thus Sir D. Lindsay : 'Quhen the Bas and the Isle of May Beis set upon the Mount Sinay, Quhen the Lowmound besides Falkland 26 i. e. command it to serve him like a soldier impressed. 27 Rebellious head. The old copy reads dead; the emendation is Theobald's. 28 Noise in our old poets is often literally synonymous for music. Vide a note on the Second Part of King Henry IV. Act ii. Sc. 4. 29 Show his eyes, and grieve his heart." And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart.-1 Samuel, ii. 33. A show of eight Kings and Banque, last with a glass in his hand 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, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first:A third is like the former:-Filthy hags! Why do you show me this?-A fourth?-Start, eyes! What! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom30 ? Another yet?-A seventh?-I'll see no more :— For the blood-bolter'd33 Banquo smiles upon me, 30 i. e. the dissolution of nature. merly synonymous. Crack and crash were for 31 This method of juggling prophecy is referred to in Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 8: ———and like a prophet Looks in a glass, and shows me future evils.' In an extract from the Penal Laws against witches, it is said 'they do answer either by voice, or else set before their eyes in glasses chrystal stones, &c. the picture or images of the persons or things sought for. Spenser has given a circumstantial account of the glass which Merlin made for King Ryence.-Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 2. A mirror of the same kind was presented to Cambuscan, in the Squire's Tale of Chaucer: and we are told that 'a certaine philosopher did the like to Pompey, the which shewed him in a glasse the order of his enemics march.-Boisteau's Theatrum Mundi, translated by John Alday, b. l. no date. 32 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 descended 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. 33 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 humour, becomes matted into tufts with grime and sweat, he is said to be boltered; and whenever the blood issues out and coagulates, forming the locks 1 Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so:-But why Stands Macbeth thus amazedly? Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprights34, antle While you perform your antique35 round: Our duties did his welcome pay. [Music. The Witches dance, and vanish. Macb. Where are they? Gone?-Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar! – Come in, without there! Len. Enter LENOX. What's your grace's will? No, my lord. Macb. Saw you the weird sisters? Macb. Came they not by you? Len. Macduff is fled to England. Macb. Len. Ay, my good lord. Fled to England? Macb. Time, thou anticipat'st36 my dread exploits: The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it: From this moment, into hard clotted bunches, the beast is said to be blood-boltered. When a boy has a broken head, so that his hair is matted together with blood, his head is said to be boltered [pronounced baltered]. The word baltereth is used in this sense by Philemon Holland in his Translation of Pliny's Natural History, 1601, b. xii. c. xvii. p. 370. It is therefore applicable to Banquo, who had 'twenty trenched gashes on his head.' 34 i. e. spirits. It should seem that spirits was almost always pronounced sprights or sprites by Shakspeare's cotemporaries. 35 Antique was the old spelling for antick. 36 i. e. preventest them, by taking away the opportunity. The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: The castle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o'the sword [Exeunt. SCENE II. Fife. A Room in Macduff's Castle. Enter LADY MACDUFF, her Son, and Rosse. L. Macd. What had he done, to make him fly the land? Rosse. You must have patience, madam. L. Macd. He had none; His flight was madness: When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors1. Rosse. You know not, Whether it was his wisdom, or his fear. L. Macd. Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion, and his titles, in a place From whence himself does fly? He loves us not; Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. Rosse. My dearest coz', I pray you, school yourself: But, for your husband, 37 i. e. follow, succeed in it. 1 Our fears do make us traitors. Our flight is considered as evidence of our treason. 2 Natural touch, natural affection. |