b ALL. Paddock calls: &c.] The folio prints these lines as if spoken in chorus by the three witches; but the distribution commonly adopted by modern editors, "2 Witch. Paddock calls:-anon. All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air," is certainly preferable. The dialogue throughout, with the exception of the two lines, "I come, Graymalkin!" and "Paddock calls-anon!" was probably intended to be sung or chaunted. e This is the sergeant,-] Sergeants were not formerly the noncommissioned officers now so called, but a guard specially appointed to attend the person of the king; and, as Minsheu says, "to arrest Traytors or great men, that doe, or are like to contemne messengers of ordinarie condition, and to attend the Lord High Steward of England, sitting in judgement upon any Traytor, and such like." d And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, &c.] The old text has, "damned Quarry," &c.; but the fact that quarrel, a Enter Ross.* Ross. God save the king! KING. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? Norway himself, with terrible numbers, (*) Old text, Enter Rosse and Angus. most appropriate word, occurs in the corresponding passage of Holinshed, is almost certain proof that the latter term is the genuine reading:-"Out of the westerne Iles there came unto him [Makdowald] a great multitude of people, offering themselves to assist him in that rebellious quarell."-History of Scotland. e Which ne'er shook hands, &c.] "Which" has been altered, and perhaps rightly, to And. fdireful thunders break; &c.] The word break is wanting in the folio 1623, and was supplied by Pope out of the subsequent folios, which read, "breaking." g As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks; &c.] Johnson interprets this, "cannon charged with double thunders;" and observes truly that cracks was a word of such emphasis and dignity, that in this play the writer terms the general dissolution of nature the crack of doom. h that seems to speak things strange.] Johnson proposed, "that teems to speak things strange ;" and Mr. Collier's annotator, with characteristic vapidity, "that comes to speak," &c; but compare, Scene 5, "Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown'd withal." i with terrible numbers,-] Pope's transposition, "numbers terrible," is, prosodically, an improvement. Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon cries. But in a sieve I'll thither sail,(1) And, like a rat without a tail, 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 I will drain him dry as hay: 2 WITCH. Show me, show me. 3 WITCH. A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come. d [Drum without. ALL. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about: Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make up nine:- Enter MACBETH and BANQUO. MACB. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. BAN. How far is 't call'd to Forres ?*-What are these, So wither'd, and so wild in their attire; (*) Old text, Soris. a Aroint thee, witch!] It is strange that although the word "aroint," supposed to signify avaunt! away! begone! occurs again in Shakespeare, "King Lear," Act III. Sc. 4,-"Aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!" no example of its employment by any other writer has yet been discovered. From this circumstance it has been supposed by some commentators to be only a misprint for anoint, a term consistent enough with the vulgar belief which represents witches sailing through the air on their infernal missions by the aid of unguents. Others have ingeniously suggested that "aroint thee" may be a corruption of a rowan-tree, i.e. the mountain ash; a tree, time out of mind, believed to be of such sovereign efficacy against the spells of witchcraft, that any one armed with a slip of it may bid defiance to the machinations of a whole troop of evil spirits. We make no question, however, that "aroint" is the genuine word: it was not likely to be thrice misprinted. And besides, there is a North-country proverb, "Rynt ye witch quoth Bessie Locket to her mother," which seems to have been formed upon the exclamation in the text. b Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger:] Sir W. That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her chappy finger laying MACB. Speak, if you can ;-what are you : 2 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 3 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. BAN. 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 and which will not, which grain will say grow, Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear 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: By Sinel's death, I know I am thane of Glamis; C. Trevelyan has noted that in Hakluyt's Voyages there are several letters and journals of a voyage made to Aleppo in the ship Tiger. of London, in the year 1583. eforbid:] Forespoken, bewitched. d The weird sisters.-] Weird (in the old text wayward) from the Saxon wyrd=fatum, signifies prophetic.or fatal. Holinshed, whom Shakespeare follows, speaking of the witches who met Macbeth, says, " But afterwards the common opinion was tha these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphes or fairies." And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.] Witches, according to the popular belief, were always bearded* So, in The Honest Man's Fortune," Act II. Sc. 1, and the women that Come to us, for disguises must wear beards; And that's, they say, a token of a witch." f - fantastical,—] Visionary; illusions of the fantasy. |