Ban. How far is't call'd to Fores??-What are these, So wither'd, and fo wild in their attire; That look not like the inhabitants o'the earth, That man may queftion? You feem to understand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips :-You should be women, ftantive fignifying a prophecy by the tranflator of Hector Boethius in the year 1541, as well as for the Deftinies by Chaucer and Holinfhed. Of the weirdis gevyn to Makbeth and Banqbuo, is the argument of one of the chapters. Gawin Douglas, in his tranflation of Virgil, calls the Parce the weird fifters; and in Ane verie excellent and delectabill Treatife intitulit PHILOTUS, qubairin, we may perfave the greit inconveniences that fallis out in the Mariage betweene Age and Zouth, Edinburgh, 1605, the word appears again : "How dois the quheill of fortune go, 92 Again: "Quhat wickit wierd has wrocht our wo. "Quhat neidis Philotus to think ill, "Or zit his wierd to warie ?" The other method of spelling was merely a blunder of the tran fcriber or printer. The Valkyria, or Valkyriur, were not barely three in number. The learned critic might have found in Bartholinus, not only Gunna, Rota, et Skullda, but alfo Scogula, Hilda, Gondula, and Geirofcogula. Bartholinus adds that their number is yet greater, according to other writers who speak of them. They were the cup-bearers of Odin, and conductors of the dead. They were diftinguished by the elegance of their forms, and it would be as just to compare youth and beauty with age and deformity, as the Valky rice of the North with the Witches of Shakespeare. STEEVENS. ? How far is't call'd to Fores?]. The king at this time refided at Fores, a town in Murray, not far from Inverness. "It fortuned, (fays Holinfhed) as Macbeth and Banquo journeyed towards Fores, where the king then lay, they went fporting by the way, without other company, fave only themfelves, when fuddenly in the midft of a laund, there met them three women in strange and wild apparell, resembling creatures of the elder world, &c." STEEVENS. • That man may question?] Are ye any beings with which man is permitted to hold converse, or of whom it is lawful to ask questions? JOHNSON. And And yet your beards 2 forbid me to interpret Mach. Speak, if you can ;-What are you? 1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis + ! 2 Witch., -your beards -1 Witches were fuppofed always to have hair on their chins. So, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635: 66 Some women have beards, marry they are halfwitches." STEEVENS. It hath lately been repeated from Mr. Guthrie's Effay upon English Tragedy, that the portrait of Macbeth's wife is copied from Buchanan, "whofe fpirit, as well as words, is tranflated into the play of Shakespeare: and it had fignified nothing to have pored only on Holinfhed for facts." Animus etiam, per fe ferox, prope quotidianis conviciis uxoris (quæ omnium confiliorum ei erat confcia) ftimulabatur."This is the whole, that Buchanan fays of the Lady, and truly I fee no more fpirit in the Scotch, than in the English chronicler. The wordes of the three weird fifters alfo greatly encouraged him [to the mur der of Duncan], but fpecially his wife lay fore upon him to attempt the thing, as the that was very ambitious, brenning in unquenchable defire to beare the name of a queene.' Edit. 1577, P. 244 This part of Holinfhed is an abridgment of Johne Bellenden's tranflation of the noble clerk, Hector Boece, imprinted at Edingburgh, in fol. 1541. I will give the paffage as it is found there.. "His wyfe impacient of lang tary (as all wemen ar) fpecially quhare they are defirus of ony purpos, gaif hym gret artation to purfew the third weird, that fche micht be ane quene, calland hym oft tymis febyl cowart and nocht defyrus of honouris, fen he durft not affailze the thing with manheid and curage, quhilk is offerit to hym be beniuolence of fortoun. Howbeit findry otheris hes affailzeit fic thinges afore with maift terribyl jeopardyis, quhen thay had not fic fickernes to fucceid in the end of thair laubouris as he had." p. 173. But we can demonftrate, that Shakespeare had not the story from Buchanan. According to him, the weird fifters falute Macbeth: "Una Angufiæ Thanum, altera Moraviæ, tertia Regem.". Thane of Angus, and of Murray, &c. but according to Holinfhed, immediately from Bellenden, as it ftands in Shakespeare : "The first of them fpake and fayde, All hayle Makbeth Thane of Glammis, the fecond of them fayde, Hayle Makbeth Thane of 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor 5! 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that fhalt be king hereafter. Ban. Good fir, why do you ftart; and feem to fear Things that do found fo fair?-I'the name of truth, Are ye fantaftical, or that indeed Which of Cawder; but the third fayde, All hayle Makbeth, that hereaf ter shall be king of Scotland." p. 243. 3 1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis! 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter! Here too our poet found the equivocal predictions, on which his hero fo fatally depended: " He had learned of certaine wyfards, how that he ought to take heede of Macduffe; -and furely hereupon had he put Macduffe to death, but a certaine witch whom he had in great truft, had tolde, that he should neuer be flain with man borne of any woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the caftell of Dunfinane." P. 244. And the fcene between Malcolm and Macduff in the fourth act is almost literally taken from the Chronicle. FARMER. 4 thane of Glamis!] The thanefhip of Glamis was the ancient inheritance of Macbeth's family. The castle where they lived is ftill ftanding, and was lately the magnificent refidence of the earl of Strathmore. See a particular defcription of it in Mr. Gray's letter to Dr. Wharton, dated from Glames Caftle. STEEVENS. 5 thane of Cawdor!] Dr. Johnson obferves in his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, that part of Calder caftle, from which Macbeth drew his fecond title, is ftill remaining. STEEVENS. 6 Are ye fantastical,-] By fantaftical is not meant, according to the common fignifica tion, creatures of his own brain; for he could not be fo extravagant to afk fuch a question: but it is ufed for fupernatural, fpiritual. WARBURTON. By fantastical, he means creatures of fantafy or imagination; the question is, Are these real beings before us, or are we deceived by illufions of fancy? JOHNSON. So, in Reginald Scott's Difcovery of Witchcraft, 1584: "He affirmeth thefe tranfubftantiations to be but fantaftical, not accor ding to the veritie, but according to the appearance." expreffion occurs in All's Loft by Luft, 1633, by Rowley: The fame or Which outwardly ye fhew? My noble partner You greet with prefent grace, and great prediction Of noble having', and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not: And fay, which grain will grow, and which will not; I Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! I Witch. Leffer than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not fo happy, yet much happier. 3 Witch. Thou fhalt get kings, though thou be none : So, all hail, Macbeth, and Banquo! 1 Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail! Mac. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more : 8 By Sinel's death, I know, I am thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, A profperous gentleman; and, to be king, Stands not within the profpect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence or is that thing, Which fhould fupply the place of foul in thee, "Merely phantaftical?" Shakespeare, however, took the word from Holinfhed, who in his account of the witches, fays; "This was reputed at first but fome vain fantaftical illufion by Macbeth and Banquo." STEEVENS. 7 Of noble having, Having is eftate, poffeffion, fortune. So, in Twelfth Night : "I'll make divifion of my prefent store: Again, in the old metrical romance of Syr Bewys of Hampton, bl. le no date : 8 "And when he heareth this tydinge, "He will go theder with great having." STEEVENS. By Sinel's death,] The father of Macbeth. POPE, You You owe this ftrange intelligence? or why you. With fuch prophetick greeting?-Speak, I charge [Witches vanish. Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them:-Whither are they vanish'd? Macb. Into the air; and what feem'd corporal, melted As breath into the wind.-'Would they had ftaid! Ban. Were fuch things here, as we do speak about? Or have we eaten of the infane root, That takes the reason prisoner? Mach. Your children fhall be kings. Mach. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not fo? Ban. To the felf-fame tune, and words. Who's here? Enter Roffe, and Angus. Roffe. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, The news of thy fuccefs and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebel's fight, His wonders and his praises do contend, Which should be thine, or his': Silenc'd with that, 9 eaten of the infane root,] In Mr. Theobald has a long and learned note on these words; and, after much puzzling, he at length proves from Hector Boethius, that this root was a berry. WARBURTON. -eaten of the infanc root,] Shakespeare alludes to the qualities anciently afcribed to hemlock. So, in Greene's Never too late, 1616: "You gaz'd against the fun, and fo blemished your fight; or else you have eaten of the roots of bemlock, that makes mens' eyes conceit unfeen objects," Again, in Ben Jonfon's Sejanus: i. e. STEEVENS. they lay that hold upon thy fenfes, private admiration of your deeds, and a defire to do them publick juftice by commendation, contend in his mind for pre eminence. |