MACBETH. FIRST printed in the folio of 1623.-Dr. Simon Forman in his Ms. Diary (Mus. Ashmol. Oxon.) has given an elaborate account of this tragedy, which he saw "at the Globe, 1610, the 20th of April, Saturday." Malone thinks that it was originally performed in 1606, because in act ii. sc. 1, the Porter says, "Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty," and "here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven,"the former passage, he conceives, alluding to the state of the corn-market in 1606, the latter to Garnet's avowed equivocation and gross perjury at his trial (for the Gunpowder Treason) on March 28th of that year. See Life of Shakespeare, p. 407 sqq. Mr. Collier believes that Macbeth was not a new play when Forman saw it acted, because "the words, 'some I see That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry,' would have had little point, if we suppose them to have been delivered after the king who bore the balls and sceptres had been more than seven years on the throne. James was proclaimed King of Great Britain and Ireland on the 24th of October 1604; and we may perhaps conclude that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in the year 1605, and that it was first acted at the Globe, when it was opened for the summer season, in the spring of 1606.” Introd. to Macbeth.— Farmer conjectures, very improbably, that the tragedy might have been suggested to Shakespeare by an interlude which was played at Oxford before King James in 1605 see the notes appended to Macbeth in the Variorum Shakespeare.-Holinshed, it is plain, furnished all the materials for Macbeth. SIWARD, earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces. Young SIWARD, his son. SEYTON, an officer attending on Macbeth. Boy, son to Macduff. An English Doctor. A Scotch Doctor. A Sergeant. A Porter. An Old Man. Lady MACBETH. Lady MACDUFF. Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth. Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers. Hecate. Three Witches. SCENE-in the end of the fourth act in England; through the rest of the play in Scotland. МАСВЕТН. ACT I. SCENE I. An open place. Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches. First Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? Sec. Witch. When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won. Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. First Witch. Where the place? Sec. Witch. Upon the heath. Third Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. First Witch. I come, Graymalkin! Sec. Witch. Paddock calls :-anon! All. Fair is foul, (2) and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A camp near Forres. Alarums within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant. Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought 'Gainst my captivity.-Hail, brave friend! Say to the king thy knowledge of the broil(3) As thou didst leave it. As two spent swimmers, that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald Worthy to be a rebel, for, to that, The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm upon him-from the western isles And fortune, on his damnèd quarrel smiling, Like valour's minion, Carv'd out his passage till he fac'd the slave; Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, Yes; Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo ?(9) Serg. As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. If I say sooth, I must report they were Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: |