Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger : But in a sieve I'll thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail, 7 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. 1 Witch. I myself have all the other; And the very ports they blow, ***All the quarters that they know 2 Witch. Show me, show me. Wreck'd, as homeward he did come. Macbeth doth come. [Drum within. office. Redemption not punishment is the subject of the piece. "Rynt you, witch, quoth Besse Locket to her mother," is a north country proverb. STEEV. [5] i. e. Scabby or mangy woman. Fr.rogneux, royne, scurf. STEEV. The chief cooks in noblemen's families, colleges, 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 sc.ne, 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, which are considered as the refuse of the tables of others. COLEPEPER. [6] Reginald Scott, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584, says it was believed har witches "could sail in an egg shell, a cockle or muscle shell, through and under the tempestuous seas."""" STEEV. [7] It should be remembered. (as it was the belief of the times,) that though a witch could assume the form of any animal she pleased. the tail would still be wanting The reason given y some old writers, for this deficiency, is, that hough the hands and feet, by an easy change, might be con. verted into the four paws of a beast, there was still no part about a woman which corresponded with the length of tail common to almost all four-footed creatures. STEEV. [8] i. e. as one under a curse, an interdiction So, among the Romans, an outlaw's sentence ws Aqua & Ignis interdictio; i. e. he was forbid the use of water and fire, which implied the necessity of banishment. THEO. [9] This mischief was supposed to be put in execution by means of a waxen figure, which represented the person who was to be consumed by slow degrees. STEEV. 32* VOL. III. All. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, Peace! the charm's wound up. Enter MACBETH and BANQUO. So wither'd, and so wild in their attire; That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, Macb. Speak, if you can ;- What are you? Glamis! 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king here- [1] These weird sisters were the Fates of the northern nations; the three hand-maids of Odin. "Hæ nominantur Valkyriæ, quas quodvis ad prælium Odinus mittit Hæ viros morti destinant, et victoriam gubernant. Ganna, et R ta, et Parcarum minima Skulida: per aera et maria equitant semper ad morita os eligen os; et cædes în potestare habent." Bartholinus de Causis contempræ à Danis adhuc Gentilibus mortis It is for this reason that Shakspeare m kes them thre; and calls them, Posters of the sea and land; and intent only upon death and mischief. However to give this part of his work the more dignity, he intermixes, with this Northern, the Greek and Roman superstitions; and puts Hecate at the head of their enchantments, And to make it still more familiar to the common audience (which was always his point,) he adds, for another ingredient, a sufficient quantity of our ow country superstitions concerning witches; their beards, their cats, and th ir boomsticks So that his witch-scenes are like the charm they prepare in on of them; where the ingredients are gathered from every te ing shocking in the natural world, as here, from very thing absurd in the moral. B as extravagant as all this is, the play has had the power to charm and bewitch every audience, from that time to this. WARBURTON. The Valkyriæ or Valkyriur, were not barely three in number. The learned criti might have found, in Bartholinus, not only Gunna Rota, et Skulda, but also, Scogule, Hilda, Gondula, and Geiroscogula. Bartholinus adds, that their number is yet greater, according to other writers who speak of them. They wer the cupbearers of Odin. and conductors of the dead. They were distinguished by their elegance of forms: and it would be as just to compare youth and beauty with age and deformity, as the Valkyriæ of the North with the Witches of Shakspeare.. STEEV. Things that do sound so fair ? - I'the name of truth, Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace, and great prediction That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not: And say, which grain will grow, and which will not; Your favours, nor your hate. 1 Witch. Hail! 2 Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! 1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So, all hail, Macbeth, and Banquo! 1 Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail! Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more : Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about? Macb. Your children shall be kings. Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so? Enter ROSSE and ANGUS. Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, The news of thy success: and when he reads [2] By fantastical. he means creatures of fantasy or imagination: the question is, Are these real beings before us or are we deceived by illusions of fancy? JOHNS [3] The father of Mach th. POPE [3] Shakspeare alludes to the qualities anciently ascribed to hemlock. STEEV Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, Ang. We are sent, To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, Ban. What, can the devil speak true? Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives; Why do you dress me In borrow'd robes ? Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet; Macb. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: Ban. That, trusted home, 6 [5] Meaning that the news came as thick as a tale can travel with the post JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson's explanation is perfectly justifiable. As thick, in ancient language, signified as fast. To speak thick, in our author, does not therefore mean, to have a cloudy indistinct utterance, but to deliver words with rapidity. STEEY [6] i e. entirely, thoroughly relied on. [7] Enkindle, for stimulate you to seek. STEEV. content, Win us with honest trifles, to betray us Silenc'd vits Cousins, a word, I pray you. same du Macb. Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act & -This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill; cannot be good :-If ill, it defence, , thanks; Why hath it given me earnest of success, Are less than horrible imaginings : But what is not. 2 Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir. Ban. New honours come upon him Like our strange garments; cleave not to their mould, Macb. Come what come may; Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 3 wrought [8] Swelling is used in the same sense in the prologue to K. Henry V: -princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene." [9] i. e. fixed, firmly placed. STEEV. STEEV. [1] The single state of man seems to be used by Shakspeare for an individ ual, in oppositon to a commonwealth, or conjunct body. JOHNSON. [2] All powers of action are oppressed and crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that, which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. JOHNS. [3] "By this, I confess I do not, with his two last commentators, imagine is meant either the tautology of time and the hour, or an allusion to time painted with an hour-glass, or an exhortation to time to hasten forward, but rather to say tempus et hora, time and occasion, will carry the thing through, and bring it to some determined point and end, let its nature be what it will." This note is taken from an Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakspeare, &c. by Mrs Monta gu, STEEV. |