CRITICAL NOTES.

ACT I., SCENE 1.

Page 11. When shall we three meet again

In thunder, lightning, and in rain? So Hanmer. The This makes the three, thunder, expressed in full, being “either

original has “Lightning, or in raine." lightning, rain, alternative; the sense,

in thunder or in lightning or in rain." The context and the occasion apparently require the sense of those three words to be cumulative.

P. 12. I Witch. Where the place? 2 Witch.

Upon the heath.

3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. There is surely some corruption here; for Macbeth was evidently meant to rhyme with heath, but there needs another syllable to make it do so. And everywhere else, I think, Macbeth has the ictus on the second syllable. haps bold, brave, proud, or great should be supplied before the name.

P. 12. 1 Witch. I come, graymalkin.

Per

2 Witch. Paddock calls.- - Anon! All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.- So Pope. The original prints the last two speeches as one, with All prefixed. Dyce's remark is right, beyond question: "Surely it is evident that the author intended only the concluding couplet to be spoken in chorus." White prints "Anon!" as a separate speech, and prefixes to it "3 Witch." In a note he says, "The arrangement of the text seems to me to be required both by the succession of the thoughts, and by the ternary sequence of the dialogue of the Witches throughout all the scenes in which we see them at their incantations." Perhaps he is right. But I do not believe we have the scene as Shakespeare wrote it; and I am sure that the first two lines are not his. Probably Middleton threw out some of Shakespeare's gold, and thrust in some of his own dross.

ACT I., SCENE 2.

P. 13. Say to the King thy knowledge of the broil.-So Walker. The original has "Say to the King the knowledge."

P. 13. Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;

And Fortune, on his damnèd quarrel smiling,

Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak; &c. In the first of these lines, the original has Gallowgrosses. Corrected in the second folio. In the second line, the original has "damned quarry." The change of quarry to quarrel is made in Collier's second folio, but had been adopted by most of the editors before that volume was heard of. It is amply justified by Holinshed's account of the matter: "Out of the Western Isles there came unto him a great multitude of people, offering themselves to assist him in that rebellious quarrel." And later in the play we have "the chance of goodness be like our wa■ranted quarrel!" where "warranted quarrel" is just the opposite of "a amnèd quarrel." See, also, foot-note 5. For is, in the first line, Pope substitutes was, and also, in the third line, changes all's to all. Of this is done to redress the confusion of tenses. And Lettson “Read, with Pope, ‘was supplied': the corruption was caused just above." And again, "Read, with Pope, all too weak.”” have other like mixing of tenses in this scene. See foot-note 6.

course

says,

by Do

But we

P. 14. And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him. — The original reads "Which nev'r shooke hands." As Which begins the third line above, it doubtless crept in here by accidental repetition. Corrected by Capell.

P. 14. As whence the Sun gives his reflection

Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break;

So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come

Discomfort swells. So Pope. The word break is wanting in the original; which thus leaves both sense and metre defective. The second folio supplied breaking.-There has been some stumbling at swells here; I hardly know why: the meaning clearly is, grows big; just as a thunder-cloud often swells up rapidly into a huge, dark mass, where, a little before, the sky was full of comfort. Capell reads wells, which, to my sense, is nothing near so good. In the first line, the

original has 'gins instead of gives. Having never been able to understand the old text, I adopt Pope's reading. Heath comments as follows: "The fact, in this island at least, is, that storms and thunder do as frequently take their course from the North and West as from the East. The hurricanes always proceed from the North, and turn to the westward. But this was not the point Shakespeare had in view. He draws the similitude from a very common appearance; when a clear sky and bright sunshine are on a sudden overcast with dark clouds, which terminate in thunder and a short but very dangerous tempest, especially in the lochs and narrow, embarrassed seas of Scotland. It is evident therefore that we ought to prefer the other reading, 'As whence the Sun gives his reflection'; that is, As from a clear sky whence the light of the Sun is transmitted in its full brightness." - See foot

note 9.

P. 15. As cannons overcharged with double cracks;

So they redoubled strokes upon the foe.

So Pope. The original has "So they doubly redoubled stroakes"; doubly being probably interpolated by some player in order to prolong the jingle on double. At all events, both sense and verse plead against it. Walker thinks the word has no business in the text.

P. 15. What haste looks through his eyes! So the second folio. The first has "What a haste." But the Poet has many like exclamative phrases without the article, which here mars the verse. See foot

note 14.

P. 16. The Thane of Cawdor 'gan a dismal conflict;

Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,

Confronted him with self caparisons. — In the first of these lines, the original has began instead of 'gan, and in the third, "selfecomparisons." It is, I think, hardly possible to squeeze any fitting sense out of comparisons here. The common explanation takes him as referring to Norway; but this is plainly inconsistent with "Point gainst point rebellious." Self caparisons means that they were both armed in the self-same way. The correction is Mr. P. A. Daniel's. The folio has the same misprint again in Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 13: "I dare him therefore to lay his gay Comparisons a-part," &c. Here Pope reads caparisons, and rightly, beyond question. See footnote 18.

ACT I., SCENE 3.

P. 18. And the very points they blow,

All the quarters that they know

I' the shipman's card. So Pope. The original has ports instead of points. Davenant's alteration of the play has "From all the points that seamen know."

P. 19. How far is't call'd to Forres? - The original has Soris.

P. 20. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.

All three. So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! · The original makes the second of these lines a continuation of the preceding speech, and assigns the third to the first witch. But surely Lettsom is right in saying, "These two verses should be pronounced by 1, 2, 3, in chorus." It seems rather strange that the error should have waited so long to be corrected.

P. 21. His wonders and his praises do contend

What should be thine or his. The original has Which instead of What. Commentators have tugged mighty hard to wring a coherent and intelligible meaning out of the old reading, and I have tugged mighty hard to understand their explanations; but all the hard tugging has been in vain. As Which must needs refer to wonders and praises, I make bold to say that the passage so read cannot be approved to be either sense or English. With What, the passage yields a sense, at least, and, I think, a fitting one; though, to be sure, not of the clearest. See foot-note 20.

The origi

Came post with post; and every one did bear, &c.nal has Can instead of Came; an obvious error, which Rowe corrected. Some editors cannot stand tale here, and substitute hail. Dyce asks,

was such an expression as 'thick as tale' ever employed by any writer whatsoever?" To which it might be answered that Shakespeare seems to have used it here. Dyce also quotes from old writers divers instances of "as thick as hail"; which only shows that this was a commonplace hyperbole; whereas Shakespeare may have chosen to