MACBETH. ACT I. SCENE I. An open Place. Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches. 1 Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 2 Witch. When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won: 3 Witch. That will be ere set of sun. 1 Witch. Where the place? 2 Witch. Upon the heath: 3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin!' All. Paddock calls:-Anon. Fair is foul, and foul is fair:2 Hover through the fog and filthy air. [Witches vanish. 1 ·Graymalkin!] To understand this passage, we should suppose one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad, which in the north is called paddock. 2 Fair is foul, and foul is fair:] I believe the meaning is, that to us, perverse and malignant as we are, fair is foul, and foul is fair. JOHNSON. SCENE II. A Camp near Fores. Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier. Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state. Mal. This is the sergeant, Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought 'Gainst my captivity:-Hail, brave friend! Say to the king the knowledge of the broil, As thou didst leave it. Sold. Doubtfully it stood; As two spent swimmers, that do cling together, 4 Do swarm upon him,) from the western isles 3 to that, &c.] i. e. in addition to that. * Of Kernes and Gallowglasses is supplied;] Kernes and Gallowglasses are light and heavy armed foot," Hinc conjecturæ vigorem etiam adjiciunt arma quædam Hibernica, Gallicis antiquis similia, jacula nimirum peditum levis armaturæ quos Kernos vocant, nec non secures & loricæ ferrea peditum illorum gravioris armaturæ, quos Galloglassios appellant." Warai Antiq. Hiber. cap. vi. And fortune, on his damned quarrel-] Quarrel was formerly used for cause, or for the occasion of a quarrel, and is to be found in that sense in Holinshed's account of the story of Macbeth, who, upon the creation of the Prince of Cumberland, thought, says the historian, that he had a just quarrel to endeavour after the crown. The sense therefore is, Fortune smiling on his execrable cause, &c. JOHNSON. Show'd like a rebel's whore: But all's too weak: For brave Macbeth, (well he deserves that name,) Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Which smok'd with bloody execution, Like valour's minion, Carv'd out his passage, till he fac'd the slave; And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, And fix'd his head upon our battlements. Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Sold. As whence the sun 'gins his reflexion Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break; So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to come, Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark: No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd, Compell'd these skipping Kernes to trust their heels; With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men, Dun. Dismay'd not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? Sold. Yes; As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion. Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: As whence the sun 'gins his reflexion-] The thought is expressed with some obscurity, but the plain meaning is this: As the same quarter, whence the blessing of day-light arises, sometimes sends us, by a dreadful reverse, the calamities of storms and tempests; so the glorious event of Macbeth's victory, which promised us the comforts of peace, was immediately succeeded by the alarming news of the Norweyan invasion. 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 sur[Exit Soldier, attended. geons. Enter RossE. Who comes here? Mal. The worthy thane of Rosse. Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look, That seems to speak things strange. Rosse. God save the king! From Fife, great king, Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky," Norway himself, with terrible numbers, The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict: Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, Dun. Rosse. That now Great happiness! 7 flout the sky,] The banners may be poetically described as waving in mockery or defiance of the sky. The sense of the passage, however, collectively taken, is this: Where the triumphant flutter of the Norweyan standards ventilates or cools the soldiers who had been heated through their efforts to secure such numerous trophies of victory. 8 Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,] This passage may be added to the many others, which show how little Shakspeare knew of ancient mythology. Lapt in proof, is, defended by armour of proof. Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest:-Go, pronounce his death, Rosse. I'll see it done. Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Thunder. A Heath. Enter the three Witches. 1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 Witch. Killing swine. 3 Witch. Sister, where thou? 1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd:Give me, quoth I: Aroint thee, witch the rump-fed ronyon' cries. Saint Colmes' inch,] Colmes' inch, now called Inchcomb, is a small island lying in the Firth of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it, dedicated to St. Columb; called by Camden Inch Colm, or The Isle of Columba. 1 Aroint thee, witch!] Aroint, or avaunt, be gone. POPE. 2 the rump-fed ronyon-] The chief cooks in noblemen's families, collèges, religious houses, hospitals, &c. anciently claimed the emoluments or kitchen fees of kidneys, fat, trotters, rumps, &c. which they sold to the poor. The weird sister in this scene, as an insult on the poverty of the woman who had called her witch, reproaches her poor abject state, as not being able to procure better provision than offals. Ronyon means scabby or mangy woman, Fr. rogneux. |