SCENE I. Fores. A Room in the Palace. Enter Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature

5 And to that,' i. e. in addition to. 6 For defiled.

7The common enemy of man.' Shakspeare repeats the phrase in Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4:- Defy the devil: consider, he's an enemy to mankind. The phrase was common among his contemporaries; the word fiend, Johnson remarks, signifies enemy.

8To the utterance.' This phrase, which is found in writers who preceded Shakspeare, is borrowed from the French; se battre a l'outrance, to fight desperately or to extremity, even to death. The sense therefore is:

Both of you

Know, Banquo was your enemy. 2 Mur.

True, my lord. Macb. So is he mine: and in such bloody distance,1

That every minute of his being thrusts
Against my near'st of life: And though I could
With bare-fac'd power sweep him from my sight,
And bid my will avouch it; yet I must not,
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
Whom I myself struck down: and thence it is,
That I to your assistance do make love;
Masking the business from the common eye,
For sundry weighty reasons.

2 Mur.

Perform what you command us.

1 Mur.

We shall, my lord,

Though our lives

Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within
this hour at most,

I will advise you where to plant yourselves:
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,
The moment on't: for't must be done to-night,
And something from the palace; always thought,
That I require a clearness: And with him
(To leave no rubs, nor botches, in the work,)
Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
Whose absence is no less material to me
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;
I'll come to you anon.

2 Mur.
We are resolv'd my lord.
Mach. I'll call upon you straight; abide within.
It is concluded:-)
-Banquo, thy soul's flight,
If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. The same. Another Room. Enter
LADY MACBETH, and a Servant.

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court?
Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.
Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his
leisure

For a few words.

1 Bloody distance' is mortal enmity.

Serv. Madam, I will.
Lady M.

(Eril.

Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content:
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy,
Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy.
Enter MACBETH.

How now, my lord? why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making?
Using those thoughts, which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.

Macb. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'dit;
She'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth."
But let the frame of things disjoint,

Both the worlds suffer,

Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecstacy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well:

Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further!

Lady M. Come on, gentle my lord;
Sleek o'er your rugged looks; be bright and jovial
Among your guests to-night.

So shall I, love;

Mach.
And so,
I pray, be you: let your remembrance
Apply to Banquo: present him eminence, both
With eye and tongue : unsafe, the while, that we
Must lave our honours in these flattering streams;
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are."
Lady M.
You must leave this.
Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.
Lady M. But in them nature's copy's not eterne.
Mach. There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund: Ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight; ere, to black Hecate's sum-

Makes wing to the rooky wood: 14

confirms this explanation. Many of Shakspeare's al

2 i. e. the exact time when you may look out or lie in lusions are to legal customs. wait for him.

That I require a clearness."

11 That is, the beetle borne along the air by its shards or scaly wings. Steevens had the merit of first showing that shard or sherd was the ancient word for a scale of

'Always remembering that I must stand clear of sus- outward covering, a case or sheath; as appears from the picion."

4 Sorriest, most melancholy.

following passage cited by him from Gower's Confessio
Amantis, 6. vi. fol. 139:-

"She sigh, her thought a dragon tho,
Whose sherdes shynen as the sonne."

5 The first folio reads peuce; the second folio place.
6 Ecstacy, in its general sense, signifies any violent
emotion or alienation of the mind. The old dictionaries And again in book v. speaking of a serpent:-
render it a trance, a dampe, a crampe.

7 Remembrance is here employed as a quadrisyl. lable.

& Present him eminence, do him the highest honour. 9 The sense of this passage (though clouded by meta. phor, and perhaps by omission) appears to be as fol lows:It is a sign that our royalty is unsafe, when it must descend to flattery, and stoop to dissimulation.' The present arrangement of the text is by Malone.

10 Ritson has justly observed, that Nature's copy' alludes to copyhold tenure, in which the tenant holds an estate for life, having nothing but the copy of the rolls of his lord's court to show for it. A life-hold tenure may well be said to be not eternal. The subsequent speech of Macbeth, in which he says,

Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond.›

'He was so sherded all about,
It held all edge-tool without.

12 i. e. blinding: to seel up the eyes of a hawk was to
close them by sewing the eyelids together.
13 So in Cymbeline:-

'Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray.'
14 By the expression, light thickens, Shakspeare
means that it is growing dark. Thus, in Fletcher's
Faithful Shepherdess :-

'Fold your flocks up, for the air 'Gins to thicken, and the sun Already his great course hath run.' Spenser, in the Shepherd's Calendar, has:the welkin thicks apace.' Notwithstanding Mr. Steevens's ingenious attempts to explain the rooky wood otherwise, it surely means no

1 Mur.

His horses go about.

3 Mur. Almost a mile: but he does usually, So all men do, from hence to the palace gate

Fleance is 'scap'd.

Macb. Then comes my fit again: I had else been
perfect;

Whole as the marble, founded as the rock;
As broad and general as the casing air:
But now, I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?
Mur. Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,
With twenty trenched' gashes on his head;
The least a death to nature.
Macb.
Thanks for that:-
There the grown serpent lies; the worm, that's fled,
Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
No teeth for the present.-Get thee gone; to-

morrow

We'll hear ourselves again. [Exit Murderer. Lady M. My royal lord, You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold, That is not often vouch'd while 'tis a making, Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, a Servant with a Tis given with welcome: To feed were best at

Make it their walk.

2 Mur.

3 Mur.

Torch preceding them.

1 Mur. Stand to't.
Ban. It will be rain to-night.
1 Mur.

Let it come down. [Assaults BANQUO. Ban. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly,

fy;

Thou may'st revenge.__ O slave!

[Dies. Fleance and Servant escape.3 3 Mur. Who did strike out the light?

1 Mur.

Was't not the way?

3 Mur. There's but one down: the son is fled. 2 Mur. We have lost best half of our affair.

1 Mur. Well, let's away, and say how much is Lays blame upon his promise. Please it your highdone.

SCENE IV. A Room of State in the Palace. A
Banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH, LADY
MACBETH, ROSSE, LENOX, Lords, and Attend-

Macb. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' Banquo, who was equally concerned with Macbeth in

thanks:

the murder of Duncan, as innocent of that crime.
4At first and last.' Johnson, with great plausibility,
proposes to read, To first and last.'

thing more than the wood inhabited by rooks. The poet has shown himself a close observer of nature, in mark-A ing the return of these birds to their nest-trees when the day is drawing to a close.

iSee note on King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 1.

2 i. e. they who are set down in the list of guests, and expected to supper.

3 Fleance, after the assassination of his father, fled into Wales, where, by the daughter of the prince of that country, he had a son named Walter, who afterwards became Lord High Steward of Scotland, and from thence assumed the name of Sir Walter Steward. From him, in a direct line, King James I. was descended; in compliment to whom Shakspeare has chosen to describe

5 Keeps her state,' continues in her chair of state state was a royal chair with a canopy over it. 6Tis better thee without than he within,' that is, am better pleased that the blood of Banquo should be o.. thy face than in his body. He is put for him.

7 With twenty trenched gashes on his head. From the French trancher, to cut.

8 Macbeth betrays himself by an overacted regard for Banquo, of whose absence from the feast he affects to complain, that he may not be suspected of knowing the cause, though at the same time he very unguardedly drops an allusion to that cause. May I seems to imply here a wish, not an assertion.

9 i. e. as speedily as thought can be exerted.

Macb. How say'st thou,14 that Macduff denies
his person,
At our great bidding?
Lady M.

Did you send to hum, sir?
Mach. I hear it by the way; but I will send:
There's not a one of them, but in his hease
I keep a servant fee'd. I will, to-morrow,
(And betimes I will,) to the weird siers:
More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
By the worst means, the worst: for mine own good,
All causes shall give way: I am in blood

Think of this, good peers, Stept in so far, that, should I wade no more,

Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use:-
We are yet but young in deed.3
[Exeunt.
SCENE V. The Heath. Thunder. Enter HE-
CATE, meeting the three Witches.

1 Witch. Why, how now, Hecate? you look
angerly.

Hec. Have I not reason, beldames, as you are,
Saucy, and overbold? 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 every thing 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 sprights,
As, by the strength of their illusion,
Shall draw him on to his confusion:

6

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear:
And all know, security

you

Is mortal's 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. 1 Witch. Come, let's make haste she'll ; soon be back again. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Fores. A Room in the Palace. Enter LENOX and another Lord.

Things have been strangely borne: The gracious
Duncan

Was pitied of Macbeth :-marry, he was dead:-
And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late;
Whom you may say, if it please you, Fleance
kill'd,

For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous
To kill their gracious father? damned fact!
It was for Malcolm, and Dona!bain,
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, 'twould 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,
That, had he Duncan's sons under his key,
(As, an't please heaven, he shall not,) they should

find

Lord.
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

10

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights;
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives;'
Do faithful homage, and receive free honours,1
All which we pine for now: And this report
Hath so exasperate" the king, that he
Prepares for some attempt of war.

Len.
Sent he to Macduff?
Lord. He did: and with an absolute, Sir, not I,
The cloudy messenger turns me his back,
And hums; as who should say, You'll rue the time
That clogs me with this answer.
Len.
And that well might
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

Len. My former speeches have but hit your Under a hand accurs'd !12

thoughts,

Which can interpret further: only, I say,

1 i. e. examined nicely.

2 'You lack the season of all natures, sleep.' Johnson explains this, You want sleep, which seasons or gives the relish to all natures. Indiget somni vitæ condimenti. So in All's Well that Ends Well: Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in.' It has, however, been suggested that the meaning is, 'You stand in need of the time or season of sleep which all natures require.' I incline to the last interpretation. 3 The editions previous to Theobald's read:'We're but young indeed.'

The initiate fear is the fear that always attends the first Initiation into guilt, before the mind becomes callous and insensible by hard use or frequent repetition of it.

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

longing to the same goddess, she could not properly be employed in one character to catch a drop that fell from her in another. In a Midsummer Night's Dream, however, the poet was sufficiently aware of her threefold capacity :

fairies, that do run

By the triple Hecat's team.' The vaporous drop profound seems to have been meant for the same as the virus lunare of the ancients, being a foam which the moon was supposed to shed on particu lar herbs, or other objects, when strongly solicited by enchantment.

6 Slights are arts, subtle practices.

7 This song is to be found entire in The Witch, by Middleton.

9 Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives.' The construction is:- Free our feasts and banquets from bloody knives.'

4 Shakspeare has been unjustly censured for introdu- 8 Who cannot want the thought;' &c. The sense cing Hecate among the vulgar witches, and consequent-requires who can want the thought; but it is probably ly for confounding ancient with modern superstitions. a lapse of the poet's pen. But the poet has elsewhere shown himself well acquainted with the classical connexion which this deity had with witchcraft. Reginald Scot, in his discovery, mentions it as the common opinion of all writers, that witches were supposed to have nightly meetings with Herodias and the Pagan gods,' and that in the night time they ride abroad with Diana, the goddess of the Pagans, &c. Their dame or chief leader seems always to have been an old Pagan, as the Ladie Sibylla, Minerva, or Diana.'

5 Steevens remarks that Shakspeare's mythological knowledge on this occasion appears to have deserted him; for as Hecate is only one of the three names be

10 Johnson says, 'Free may be either honours freely bestowed, not purchased by crimes; or honours without slavery, without dread of a tyrant.' I have shown in a note on Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 4. that free meant pure, chaste, consequently unspotted, which may be its meaning here. Free also meant noble. See note on the Second Part of King Henry VI. Act iii. Sc. 1. 11 Exasperate, for exasperated.

12 The construction is, to this our country, suffering under a hand accursed.'