Enter HECATE, meeting the three Witches.

FIRST WITCH. Why, how now, Hecate? you look angerly.

HEC. Have I not reason, beldams as you are, Saucy, and over-bold? How did you dare

To trade and traffic with Macbeth,

In riddles, and affairs of death;
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art?

And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward son,

Spiteful, and wrathful; who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you.

But make amends now: Get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i' the morning; thither he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your vessels, and your spells, provide,
Your charms, and everything beside:
I am for the air; this night I'll spend
Unto a dismal and a fatal end.

Great business must be wrought ere noon :
Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
I'll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that, distill'd by magic slights,
Shall raise such artificial sprites,
As, by the strength of their illusion,
Shall draw him on to his confusion :
He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear :
And you all know, security

ΙΟ

20

309

I Angerly for angerlike. The termination 'ly,' as in 'featly,' is an abridgment of like.'

24 A.

Stee

drop profound. Full of secret power. vens quotes Lucan, 6, 666 (virus large lunare ministrat ') to shew that the drop meant was one of foam or poison shed by the moon on particular herbs.

32 Security. In the strength of an illusion he shall lose all

Is mortals' chiefest enemy.

[SONG. Within "Come away, come away," &c.] Hark, I am call'd; my little spirit, see,

Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.

[Exit.

FIRST WITCH. Come, let's make haste: she 'll soon be back again.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-Forres. A Room in the Palace.

Enter LENOX, and another Lord.

LEN. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret farther: only, I say,

Things have been strangely borne: The gracious Duncan
Was pitied of Macbeth :-marry, he was dead :—
And the right-valiant Banquo walked too late :
Whom, you may say, if 't please you, Fleance kill'd,
For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late
Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous
It was for Malcolm, and for Donalbain,
To kill their gracious father—damned fact !
How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight,
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear,
That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep:
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;
For 't would have anger'd any heart alive
To hear the men deny it. So that, I say,

He has borne all things well: and I do think,

ΙΟ

fitfulness and misgivings, all looking backward and repentance, all forethought and fear. See Gervinus, vol. ii. page 186. 'Security' is the temper of Lamech in Gen. iv. 23, or of Shakspere's Richard the Third. Cp. Webster, Duchess of Malfi, v. 2: 'Security some men call the suburbs of hell, Only a dead wall between."

66

I Have but hit your thoughts. Were only intended to stir your thoughts.

3 Strangely borne. Strangely managed.

4 Marry, he was dead. The idea seems to be that Duncan and Banquo were both pitied by Macbeth, but somehow or other Duncan was slain and Banquo took a walk too late in the night.

8 Who cannot want the thought. For those who, like you and me, cannot avoid the thought that the princes could not, without being monsters, have killed their father, night walking may turn out dangerous. See the Append. on Shakspere's negatives.

That, had he Duncan's sons under his key,

(As, an 't please heaven, he shall not,) they should find What 't were to kill a father; so should Fleance.

But, peace!-for from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd
His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear,
Macduff lives in disgrace: Sir, can you tell
Where he bestows himself?

LORD.
The son of Duncan,
From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,
Lives in the English court; and is receiv'd
Of the most pious Edward with such grace,
That the malevolence of fortune nothing
Takes from his high respect : Thither Macduff
Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid
To wake Northumberland, and warlike Siward:
That, by the help of these, (with Him above
To ratify the work,) we may again

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights;
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives;
Do faithful homage, and receive free honours ;-
All which we pine for now: And this report
Hath so exasperate the king, that he

Prepares for some attempt of war.

LEN.

:

20

330

Sent he to Macduff?

LORD. He did and with an absolute, "Sir, not I," 40 The cloudy messenger turns me his back,

And hums; as who should say, "You 'll rue the time
That clogs me with this answer."

And that well might

LEN.
Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel
Fly to the court of England, and unfold

His message ere he come; that a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering country
Under a hand accurs'd!

LORD. I'll send my prayers with him! [Exeunt.

21 From broad words. Because of some bold expressions. 27 The most pious Edward. See Introduction.

40

With an absolute "Sir, not I." Receiving for an answer an absolute 'no.'

48 Suffering

under a hand accursed. Hyperbaton, as it stands in the text. So in Hen. VIII. iii. 1: "6 Bring me a constant woman to her husband," for 'a woman constant.'

ACT IV.

SCENE I.-A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling. Thunder.

Enter the three Witches.

FIRST WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. SECOND WITCH. Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whin'd. Third Witch. Harpier cries: 'Tis time, 't is time. FIRST WITCH. Round about the caldron go;

In the poison'd entrails throw.

Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!

ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire, burn: and, caldron, bubble.

SECOND WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake:

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,

IO

For a charm of powerful trouble;

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire, burn; and, caldron, bubble.

THIRD WITCH. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf; Witches' mummy; maw, and gulf,

20

3 Harpier cries. Some editors read 'harpy' (as the harpy is one of Ariel's forms in the Tempest). In any case the animals are familiar spirits, as in Act i. Sc. I, here employed in watching the caldron for their mistresses.

8 Sweltered venom sleeping got. Sweated forth the venom which it had contracted in its sleep-or (with the parts of speech different) contracted during its sleep a venom inhaled through its skin.'

6

14 A newt. This is said to be a corruption for an eft,' as conversely an eyas' is for 'a nias' ('nidiace,' nestling); and 'an adder' for 'a nadder' (Germ. 'Natter').

23 Mummy. The Cambridge editors quote Sir T. Browne to the effect that mummy powder was held to be a medicine against

Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;

Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;

Gall of goat, and slips of yew,
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,

25

For the ingredients of our caldron.

ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble;

35

Fire, burn; and, caldron, bubble.

SECOND WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good.

Enter HECATE, and the other three Witches.
HEC. O, well done! I commend your pains;
And every one shall share i' the gains,
And now about the caldron sing,

Like elves and fairies in a ring,

Enchanting all that you put in.

40

[Music and a Song.

SECOND WITCH. By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes :

Open, locks, whoever knocks.

Enter MACBETH.

MACB. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags. What is 't you do?

ALL.

A deed without a name.

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

50

all disorders. 'The Egyptian mummies which Cambyses spared, avarice now consumeth: Mizraim cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for balsams. Gulf. The swallow; connected with ' 'gulp.' 24 Ravined. Ravening. Cp. As You Like It, Act iii.

Sc. 3

"O knowledge, ill-inhabited!”

and the German 'er kam geritten, gekrochen,' &c.

26 Liver: whence comes his bile and spitefulness.

33 Chaudron. Entrails; as we have calves' chaudrons and chitterlings.'

52 Though you untie the winds, &c. you must bring all earth to wrack and ruin.

Even if to answer me