-and strengthens the mythological tincture.

So does the

"Pit of Acheron." That is classical. To the best of my remembrance, no mention of any such Pit in the Old or New Statistical Account of Scotland.

North. And, in the incantation Scene, those Apparitions! Mysterious, ominous, picturesque-and self-willed. They are commanded by the Witches, but under a limitation. Their oracular power is their own. They are of unknown orders-as if for the occasion created in Hell.

North. Talboys, are you asleep-or are you at Chess with your eyes shut?

Talboys. At Chess with my eyes shut. I shall send off my move to my friend Stirling by first post. But my ears were open-and I ask-when did Macbeth first design the murder of Duncan? Does not everybody think-in the moment after the Witches have first accosted and left him? Does not-it may be asked-the whole moral significancy of the Witches disappear, unless the invasion of hell into Macbeth's bosom is first made by their presence and voices?

North. No. The whole moral significancy of the Witches only then appears, when we are assured that they address themselves only to those who already have been tampering with their conscience. "Good sir! why do you start, and seem to fear things that do sound so fair?" That question put to Macbeth by Banquo turns our eyes to his face-and we see Guilt. There was no start at "Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor,”—but at the word "King," well might he start; foreh?

Talboys. We must look up the Scene.

North. No need for that. You have it by heart-recite it. Talboys.

"Macbeth. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Banquo. How far is't called to Forres?-What are these,
So wither'd, and so wild in their attire;

That look not like the inhabitants of the earth,

And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her choppy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips :-You should be women,

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

Macbeth. Speak, if you can;—What are you?

1st Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis ! 2d Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 3d Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. Banquo. 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

You greet with present grace, and great prediction
Of noble having, and of royal hope,

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

And say which grain will grow, and which will not;
Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear
Your favors nor your hate.

1st Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

2d Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier.

3d Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:

So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo.

1st Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

Macbeth. 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 prosperous 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 prophetic greeting?-Speak, I charge you.

[Witches vanish.

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

Banquo. Were such things here, as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten of the insane root

That takes the reason prisoner.

Macbeth.

Banquo.

Your children shall be kings.

You shall he king.

Macbeth. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?
Banquo. To the self-same tune, and words."

North. Charles Kemble himself could not have given it more impressively.

Buller. You make him blush, sir.

North. Attend to that "start" of Macbeth, Talboys.

Talboys. He might well start on being told of a sudden, by such seers, that he was hereafter to be King of Scotland. North. There was more in the start than that, my lad, else Shakspeare would not have directed our eyes to it. I say again-it was the start of a murderer.

Talboys. And what if I say it was not? But I have the candor to confess, that I am not familiar with the starts of murderers so may possibly be mistaken.

North. Omit what intervenes-and give us the Soliloquy, Talboys. But before you do so, let me merely remind you that Macbeth's mind, from the little he says in the interim, is manifestly ruminating on something bad, ere he breaks out into Soliloquy.

Talboys.

"Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the Imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.—
This supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill-cannot be good:-If ill,

Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:

My thought whose murder is yet but fantastical
Shakes so my single state of man, that function
Is smothered in surmise; and nothing is,
But what is not."

North. Now, my dear Talboys, you will agree with me in thinking that this first great and pregnant, although brief soliloquy, stands for germ, type, and law of the whole Play, and of its criticism—and for clue to the labyrinth of the Thane's character. "Out of this wood do not desire to go." Out of it I do not expect soon to go. I regard William as a fair Poet and a reasonable Philosopher; but as a supereminent Play-wright. The First Soliloquy must speak the nature of Macbeth, else the Craftsman has no skill in his trade. A Soliloquy reveals. That is its function. Therein is the soul heard and seen discoursing with itself-within itself; and if you carry your eye through-up to the First Appearance of Lady Macbeth-this Soliloquy is distinctly the highest point of the Tragedy-the tragic acme—or dome-or pinnacle-therefore of power indefinite, infinite. On this rock I stand, a Colossus ready to be thrown down by-an Earthquake.

Buller. Pushed off by-a shove.

North. Not by a thousand Buller-power. Can you believe, Buller, that the word of the Third Witch, "that shalt be KING

HEREAFTER," Sows the murder in Macbeth's heart, and that it springs up, flowers, and fruits with such fearful rapidity?

Buller. Why-Yes and No.

North. Attend, Talboys, to the words "supernatural soliciting." What "supernatural soliciting" to evil is there here? Not a syllable had the Weird Sisters breathed about Murder. But now there is much soliloquizing-and Cawdor contemplates himself objectively-seen busy upon an elderly gentleman called Duncan-after a fashion that so frightens him subjectively—that Banquo cannot help whispering to Rosse and Angus

"See how our partner's rapt!"

Talboys. "My thought whose murder's yet fantastical." I agree with you, sir, in suspecting that he must have thought of the murder.

North. It is from no leaning towards the Weird Sisterswhom I never set eyes on but once, and then without interchanging a word, leapt momentarily out of this world into that pitch-pot of a pond in Glenco-it is, I say, from no leaning towards the Weird Sisters that I take this view of Macbeth's character. No "sublime flashes of generosity, magnanimity, tenderness, and every exalted quality that can dignify and adorn the human mind," do I ever suffer to pass by without approbation, when coruscating from the character of any welldisposed man, real or imaginary, however unaccountable at other times his conduct may appear to be; but Shakspeare, who knew Macbeth better than any has here assured us that he was in heart a murderer-for how long he does not specify —before he had ever seen a birse on any of the Weird Sisters' beards. But let's be canny. Talboys-pray, what is the meaning of the word "soliciting," "preternatural soliciting," in this Soliloquy?

of us,