His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel Lord. I'll send my prayers with him! [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. A dark Cave. In the middle, a Cauldron. Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 1 Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. 2 Witch. Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whin'd 3 Witch. Harper cries, "Tis time, 'tis time. 2 Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake, 1 So in the original. Pope would read, "under the cold stone;" Steevens, "under coldest stone;" the latter of which is commonly followed. There seems, indeed, no call for any discord here, such as comes by omitting a syllable from the verse, and perhaps something dropped out in the printing. Yet to our ear the extending of cold to the time of two syllables feels right enough. At all events, we stick to the original. H. In the cauldron boil and bake: Eye of newt, and toe of frog, 3 Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf; Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark; 2 Root of hemlock, digged i'the dark; Make the gruel thick and slab : For the ingredients of our cauldron. Gulf is throat; that H. 2 We have repeatedly seen that Shakespeare often uses the active and passive forms of certain words indiscriminately. So here, ravin'd for ravening or ravenous. which swallows or gulps down any thing. 3 That is, a tiger's entrails. In sorting the materials wherewith the Weird Sisters celebrate their infernal orgies, and compound their hell-broth," Shakespeare gathered and condensed the popular belief of his time. Ben Jonson, whose mind dwelt more in the circumstantial, and who spun his poetry much more out of the local and particular, made a grand showing from the same source in his Mask of Queens. But his powers did not permit, nor did his purpose require, him to select and dispose his materials so as to cause any thing like such an impression of ter ror. Shakespeare so weaves his incantations as to cast a spell upon the mind, and force its acquiescence in what he represents : explode as we may the witchcraft he describes, there is no explod ing the witchcraft of his description; the effect springing not so much from what he borrows as from his own ordering thereof. H. All. Double, double toil and trouble: Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. 2 Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood; Enter HECATE and other three Witches. Enter MACBETH. Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! What is't you do? All. A deed without a name. 5 Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, (Howe'er you come to know it,) answer me : Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches; though the yesty waves Confound and swallow navigation up; Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down; Though castles topple on their warders' heads; 4 This song also, like the former, was not given in the printed copy of the play, and has been supplied from Middleton's Witch, the manuscript of which was discovered towards the close of the last century. We give it here, not feeling authorized to print it in the text: "Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray; Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may." Probably both songs were taken from poetry of the drama." the traditional wizard H That is, foaming, frothy. Though palaces, and pyramids, do slope Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure Of nature's germins tumble all together, 6 Even till destruction sicken, answer me 1 Witch. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters'? Macb. Call 'em, let me see 'em. 1 Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; grease, that's sweaten Into the flame. All. Come high, or low; Thyself, and office, deftly show. Thunder. 1 Apparition, an armed Head. Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power,1 Witch. He knows thy thought: Hear his speech, but say thou nought." App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; Beware the thane of Fife.-Dismiss me. • Germens, seeds which have begun to sprout or germinate. Deftly is adroitly, dexterously. The armed head represents symbolically Macbeth's head cu off and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child is Macduff, untimely ripped from his mother's womb. The child, with a crown on his head and a bough in his hand, is the royal Malcolm, who ordered his soldiers to hew them down a bough, and bear it before them to Dunsinane. - Upton. So in The • Silence was necessary during all incantations Tempest: Be mute, or else our spell is marr'd.” 10 Spirits thas evoked were supposed to be impatient of being questioned. Mach. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks: Thou hast harp'd my fear aright. But one word more: Macb. Had I three ears, I'd hear thee." App. Be bloody, bold, and resolute: laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. [Descends. Macb. Then live, Macduff; what need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live; And sleep in spite of thunder. — What is this, Thunder. 3 Apparition, a Child crowned, with a That rises like the issue of a king, And wears upon his baby brow the round 12 And top of sovereignty ? 12 All. Listen, but speak not to't. App. Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until So the expression still in use: "I listened with all the ears had." H. 12 The round is that part of a crown which encircles the head the top is the ornament which rises above it. L |