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Presented  to  the 

LIBRARY  of  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 

by 


IAN  FLANN 


MiiUiau;  t.  fciiuoubson. 


ENGLISH    CLASSICS 


MACBETH 

CLARK    AND     WRIGHT 


EoiiDon 
MACMILLAN    AND   CO. 


PUBLISHERS    TO    THE    UNIVERSITY   OF 


SHAKESPEARE 

SELECT    PLAYS 

MACBETH 


EDITED  BY 

W.  G.  CLARK,  M.A. 

Fellotu    of    Trinity    College,     Carnbyidge,     and    Pi<blic    Orator 
AND 

W.     A.    WRIGHT,    M.A. 

Librarian  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge 


(©xfortr 

AT   THE    CLARENDON    PRESS 
M.DCCC.LXXIV 

\_All  rights  reserved  1 


PREFACE. 

Macbeth  was  printed  for  the  first  time  in  the  folio  of 
1623,  where  it  comes  between  Julius  Cssar  and  Hamlet, 
and  occupies  pages  131-151.  It  is  divided  throughout  into 
acts  and  scenes.  The  text,  though  not  so  corrupt  as  that  of 
some  other  plays — Coriolanus  for  example — is  yet  in  many 
places  very  faulty,  especially  as  regards  the  division  of  the 
lines.  Probably  it  was  printed  from  a  transcript  of  the 
author's  MS.,  which  was  in  great  part  not  copied  from  the 
original  but  written  to  dictation.  This  is  confirmed  by  the 
fact  that  several  of  the  most  palpable  blunders  are  blunders 
of  the  ear  and  not  of  the  eye.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  we  have 
great  reason  to  join  in  the  regret  expressed  by  the  editors  of 
the  first  folio,  that  the  author  did  not  live  to  '  oversee '  his 
own  works  before  they  were  committed  to  the  press. 

With  regard  to  the  time  at  which  Macbeth  was  written, 
if  we  had  the  evidence  of  style  alone  to  guide  us,  we  should 
assign  it  to  a  period  when  Shakespeare  had  attained  the  full 
perfection  of  his  powers.  From  the  vision  of  the  eight  kings, 
iv.  I.  120, 

'  Some  I  see 
That  twofold  balls  and  treble  sceptres  carry,' 

we  learn  further  that  it  was  produced  after  the  union  of 
the  two  kingdoms  under  James  I.  We  do  not  agree  with 
some  critics  in  thinking  that  this  allusion  necessarily  implies 
that  the  play  was  produced  immediately  after  that  king's 
accession,  because  an  event  of  such  great  moment  and  such 
permanent  consequences  would  long  continue  to  be  present 
to  the  minds  of  men.     In  act  ii.  sc.  3,  in  the  Porter's  speech, 

b 


VI  PREFACE. 

Malone  believed  that  the  mention  of  the  equivocator  'who 
committed  treason  enough  for  God's  sake  '  was  suggested  by 
the  trial  of  Garnett  the  Jesuit,  in  March  1606,  for  participa- 
tion in  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  and  that  of  the  'farmer  who 
hanged  himself  on  the  expectation  of  plenty,'  by  the  scarcity 
of  corn  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year.  The  latter  reference 
would  be  quite  as  apposite  if  we  supposed  it  to  be  made  to 
the  abundant  harvest  of  any  other  year,  and  the  Jesuit  doc- 
trine of  equivocation  was  at  all  times  so  favourite  a  theme 
of  invective  with  Protestant  preachers,  that  it  could  not  but 
be  familiar  to  the  public,  who  in  those  days  frequented  the 
pulpit  as  assiduously  as  the  stage. 

We  have  however  a  more  precise  indication  in  the  Journal 
of  Dr.  Simon  Forman  (privately  printed  by  Mr.  Halliwell, 
from  a  manuscript  in  the  Ashmolean  Museum),  who  writes 
as  follows : — 

'  In  Macbeth,  at  the  Globe,  16 10,  the  20th  of  April,  Satur- 
day, there  was  to  be  observed  first  how  Macbeth  and  Banquo 
two  noblemen  of  Scotland,  riding  through  a  wood,  there 
stood  before  them  three  women,  i"airies  or  nymphs,  and  sa- 
luted Macbeth,  saying  three  times  unto  him,  Hail,  Macbeth, 
king  of  Codor,  for  thou  shall  be  a  king,  but  shall  beget  no 
kings,  &c.  Then  said  Banquo,  What,  all  to  Macbeth  and 
nothing  to  me  ?  Yes,  said  the  nymphs,  Hail,  to  thee, 
Banquo ;  thou  shall  beget  kings,  yet  be  no  king.  And  so 
they  departed,  and  came  to  the  Court  of  Scotland,  to  Duncan 
king  of  Scots,  and  it  was  in  the  days  of  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor. And  Duncan  bade  them  both  kindly  welcome,  and 
made  Macbeth  [sic]  forthwith  Prince  of  Northumberland, 
and  sent  him  home  to  his  own  castle,  and  appointed  Macbeth 
to  provide  for  him,  for  he  would  sup  with  him  the  next  day 
at  night,  and  did  so.  And  Macbeth  contrived  to  kill  Duncan, 
and  through  the  persuasion  of  his  wife  did  that  night  murder 
the  king  in  his  own  castle,  being  his  guest.  And  there  were 
many  prodigies  seen  that  night  and  the  day  before.  And 
when  Macbeth  had  murdered  the  king,  the  blood  on  his 
hands  could  not  be  washed  off  by  any  means,  nor  from  his 


PREFACE.  vii 

wife's  hands,  which  handled  the  bloody  daggers  in  hiding 
them,  by  which  means  they  became  both  much  amazed  and 
affronted.  The  murder  being  known,  Duncan's  two  sons  fled, 
the  one  to  England,  the  [other  to]  Wales,  to  save  themselves  ; 
they  being  fled,  they  were  supposed  guilty  of  the  murder 
of  their  father,  which  was  nothing  so.  Then  was  Macbeth 
crowned  king,  and  then  he  for  fear  of  Banquo,  his  old  com- 
panion, that  he  should  beget  kings  but  be  no  king  himself, 
he  contrived  the  death  of  Banquo,  and  caused  him  to  be 
murdered  on  the  way  as  he  rode.  The  next  night,  being  at 
supper  with  his  noblemen,  whom  he  had  bid  to  a  feast,  to 
the  which  also  Banquo  should  have  come,  he  began  to  speak 
of  noble  Banquo,  and  to  wish  that  he  were  there.  And  as  he 
thus  did,  standing  up  to  drink  a  carouse  to  him,  the  ghost  of 
Banquo  came  and  sat  down  in  his  chair  behind  him.  And 
he,  turning  about  to  sit  down  again,  saw  the  ghost  of  Banquo 
which  fronted  him  so,  that  he  fell  in  a  great  passion  of  fear 
and  fury,  uttering  many  words  about  his  murder,  by  which, 
when  they  heard  that  Banquo  was  murdered,  they  suspected 
Macbeth.  Then  Macduff  fled  to  England  to  the  king's  son, 
and  so  they  raised  an  army  and  came  into  Scotland,  and  at 
Dunscenanyse  overthrew  Macbeth.  In  the  mean  time, 
while  Macduff  was  in  England,  Macbeth  slew  Macduff's  wife 
and  children,  and  after,  in  the  battle,  Macduff  slew  Macbeth. 
Observe  also  how  Macbeth's  queen  did  rise  in  the  night  in 
her  sleep,  and  walked,  and  talked  and  confessed  all,  and  the 
Doctor  noted  her  words.' 

We  have  given  the  foregoing  passage  with  modern  spelling 
and  punctuation.  We  learn  from  it  that  Dr.  Forman  saw 
Macbeth  for  the  first  time  on  April  20,  1610.  In  all  pro- 
bability it  was  then  a  new  play,  otherwise  he  would  scarcely 
have  been  at  the  pains  to  make  an  elaborate  summary  of  its 
plot.  And  in  those  days  the  demand  for  and  the  supply  of 
new  plays  were  so  great,  that  even  the  most  popular  play  had 
not  such  a  'run'  nor  was  so  frequently  '  revived'  as  at  present. 
Besides,  as  we  have  shown,  there  is  nothing  to  justify  the  in- 
ference, still  less  to  prove,  that  Macbeth  was  produced  at  an 

b  2 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

earlier  date.  In  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Knight  of  the 
Burning  Pestle,  a  burlesque  produced  in  i6ii,we  find  an 
obvious  allusion  to  the  ghost  of  Banquo.  Jasper,  one  of  the 
characters,  enters  '  with  his  face  mealed,'  as  his  own  ghost. 
He  says  to  Venturewell,  v.  i.  (vol.  ii.  p.  216,  ed.  Dyce), — 

'  When  thou  art  at  thy  table  with  th}'  friends, 
Merry  in  heart  and  fill'd  with  swelling  wine, 
I'll  come  in  midst  of  all  thy  pride  and  mirth, 
Invisible  to  all  men  but  thyself.'  * 

This  supports  the  inference  that  Macbeth  was  in  161 1  a  new 
play,  and  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  the  audience. 

We  now  turn  to  a  question  of  greater  interest — whether 
any  other  dramatist  besides  Shakespeare  had  a  hand  in  the 
composition  'of  Macbeth.  In  the  folio,  iii.  5.  33,  is  a  stage 
direction,  '  Musicke  and  a  Song,'  and  two  lines  below,  '  Sing 
ivithin.  Come  aiuay,  come  away,  &c.'  In  iv.  i.  43  is  another 
stage-direction,  '  Musicke  and  a  Song.  Blacke  Spirits,  &f .' 
Davenant,  in  his  alteration  of  Macbeth,  published  1673,  sup- 
plied these  '  et  ceteras,'  as  we  have  mentioned  in  our  Notes, 
by  words  which  were  supposed  to  be  his  own  till  they  were 
found  in  Thomas  Middleton's  play  of  The  Witch,  which 
was  discovered  in  MS.  by  Steevens,  in  1779.  This  play  con- 
tains many  other  points  of  resemblance  to  Macbeth,  as  for 
instance  (p.  268,  ed.  Dyce),  Hecate  says  of  Sebastian,  who 
has  come  to  seek  her  aid,  '  I  know  he  loves  me  not.'  Com- 
pare IMacbeth,  iii.  5.  13. 

In  p.  314:— 

'  For  the  maid  servants  and  the  girls  o'  th'  house 
I  spiced  them  lately  with  a  drowsy  posset.' 

Compare  Macbeth,  ii.  2.  5,  6. 
In  p.  329  : — 

'  Hec.  Come  my  sweet  sisters ;  let  the  air  strike  our  tune.' 

Compare  Macbeth,  iv.  i.  129. 

To  these  may  be  "added  'the  innocence  of  sleep,'  p.  316, 
and  '  there 's  no  such  thing,'  p.  317,  which  remind  us  of 
Macbeth,  ii.  2.  36,  and  ii.  i.  47.  In  p.  319,  the  words  'I'll 
rip  thee  down  from  neck  to  navel,'  recall  Macbeth,  i.  2.  22. 


PREFACE.  ix 

There  are  other  passages  in  Middleton's  play  which  sound 
like  faint  echoes  of  Shakespeare,  and  there  is  a  strong  general 
likeness  between  the  witches  of  the  two  dramas,  notwith- 
standing that  the  Hecate  of  the  one  is  a  spirit,  of  the  other 
an  old  woman. 

Steevens,  perhaps  influenced  unconsciously  by  a  desire  to 
exalt  the  importance  of  his  discovery,  maintained  that  Shake- 
speare had  copied  from  Middleton,  a  view  which  JNIalone  at 
first  acquiesced  in,  but  subsequently  controverted.  Indeed, 
given  two  works,  one  of  transcendent  excellence,  the  other 
of  very  inferior  merit,  it  is  much  more  probable  that  the  latter 
should  be  plagiarised  from  the  former  than  vice  versa,  if 
plagiarism  there  be. 

We  have  no  means  of  ascertaining  the  date  of  Middleton's 
play.  We  know  that  he  survived  Shakespeare  eleven  years, 
but  that  he  had  acquired  a  reputation  as  early  as  1600,  be- 
cause in  England's  Parnassus,  published  in  that  year,  a  poem 
is  by  mistake  attributed  to  him.  (See  Dyce's  account  of 
Middleton,  prefixed  to  his  edition  of  his  works.) 

If  we  were  certain  that  the  whole  of  Macbeth,  as  we  now 
read  it,  came  from  Shakespeare's  hand,  we  should  be  justified 
in  concluding  from  the  data  before  us,  that  Middleton,  who 
was  probably  junior  and  certainly  inferior  to  Shakespeare, 
consciously  or  unconsciously  imitated  the  great  master.  But 
we  are  persuaded  that  there  are  parts  of  Macbeth  which 
Shakespeare  did  not  write,  and  the  style  of  these  seems  to 
us  to  resemble  that  of  Middleton.  It  would  be  very  un- 
critical to  pick  out  of  Shakespeare's  works  all  that  seems 
inferior  to  the  rest,  and  to  assign  it  to  somebody  else.  At  his 
worst  he  is  still  Shakespeare;  and  though  the  least  'man- 
nered' of  all  poets,  he  has  always  a  manner  which  cannot  well 
be  mistaken.  In  the  parts  of  Macbeth  of  which  we  speak 
we  find  no  trace  of  this  manner.  But  to  come  to  particulars. 
We  believe  that  the  second  scene  of  the  first  act  was  not 
written  by  Shakespeare.  Making  all  allowance  for  corruption 
of  text,  the  slovenly  metre  is  not  like  Shakespeare's  work, 
even  when  he  is  most  careless.     The  bombastic  phraseology 


X  PREFACE. 

of  the  sergeant  is  not  like  Shakespeare's  language  even  when 
he  is  most  bombastic.  What  is  said  of  the  thane  of  Cawdor, 
lines  52,  53,  is  inconsistent  with  what  follows  in  scene  3,  lines 
72,  73,  and  112  sqq.  We  may  add  that  Shakespeare's  good 
sense  would  hardly  have  tolerated  the  absurdity  of  sending  a 
severely  wounded  soldier  to  carry  the  news  of  a  victory. 

In  the  first  thirty-seven  lines  of  the  next  scene,  powerful  as 
some  of  them  are,  especially  18-23,  we  do  not  recognise 
Shakespeare's  hand ;  and  surely  he  never  penned  the  feeble 
'tag,'  ii.  I.  61, 

'  Words  to  the  heat  of  deeds  too  cold  breath  gives.' 

Of  the  commencement  of  the  third  scene  of  the  second  act, 
Coleridge  said  long  ago  :  '  This  low  soliloquy  of  the  Porter, 
and  his  few  speeches  afterwards,  I  believe  to  have  been 
written  for  the  mob  by  some  other  hand.'  (Lectures  on 
Shakespeare,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  249.) 

If  the  fifth  scene  of  act  iii.  had  occurred  in  a  drama  not 
attributed  to  Shakespeare,  no  one  would  have  discovered  in  it 
any  trace  of  Shakespeare's  manner. 

The  rich  vocabulary,  prodigal  fancy,  and  terse  diction  dis- 
played in  iv.  I.  1-38,  show  the  hand  of  a  master,  and  make  us 
hesitate  in  ascribing  the  passage  to  any  one  but  the  master 
himself.  There  is,  however,  a  conspicuous  falling-ofF  in  lines 
39-47,  after  the  entrance  of  Hecate. 

In  iii.  5.  13  it  is  said  that  Macbeth  '  loves  for  his  own  ends, 
not  for  you  ;'  but  in  the  play  there  is  no  hint  of  his  pretending 
love  to  the  witches.  On  the  contrary  he  does  not  disguise 
his  hatred.  '  You  secret,  black,  and  midnight  hags  I'  he  calls 
them.  Similarly,  lines  125-132  of  the  last-mentioned  scene, 
beginning 

'  Ay,  sir,  all  this  is  so'     .     .     . 

and  ending 

'  That  this  great  king  may  kindly  say 
Our  duties  did  his  welcome  pay,' 

cannot  be  Shakespeare's. 

In  iv.  3,  lines  140-159,  which  relate  to  the  touching  for  the 


PREFACE.  XI 

evil,  were  probably  interpolated  previous  to  a  representation 
at  Court. 

We  have  doubts  about  the  second  scene  of  act  v. 

In  V,  5,  lines  47-50, 

'  If  this  which  he  avouches  does  appear, 
There  is  no  flying  hence  nor  tarrying  here. 
I  'gin  to  be  aweary  of  the  sun, 
And  wish  the  estate  o'  the  world  were  now  undone,' 

are  singularly  weak,  and  read  like  an  unskilful  imitation  of 
other  passages,  where  Macbeth's  desperation  is  interrupted  by 
fits  of  despondency.  How  much  better  the  sense  is  without 
them ! 

'  Arm,  arm,  and  out  ! 

Ring  the  alarum-bell !    Blow,  wind !    come,  wrack  ! 

At  least  we'll  die  with  harness  on  our  back.' 

In  V.  8.  32,  33,  the  words, 

'  Before  my  body 
I  throw  my  warlike  shield,' 

are  also,  we  think,  interpolated. 

Finally,  the  last  forty  lines  of  the  play  show  evident  traces 
of  another  hand  than  Shakespeare's.  The  double  stage  direc- 
tion, 'Exeunt,  fighting'' — 'Enter  fighting,  and  Macbeth  slaine,^ 
proves  that  some  alteration  had  been  made  in  the  conclusion 
of  the  piece.  Shakespeare,  who  has  inspired  his  audience  with 
pity  for  Lady  Macbeth,  and  made  them  feel  that  her  guilt  has 
been  almost  absolved  by  the  terrible  retribution  which  fol- 
lowed, would  not  have  disturbed  this  feeling  by  calling  her  a 
'  fiend-like  queen ' ;  nor  would  he  have  drawn  away  the  veil 
which  with  his  fine  tact  he  had  dropt  over  her  fate,  by  telling 
us  that  she  had  taken  off  her  life  '  by  self  and  violent  hands.' 

We  know  that  it  is  not  easy  to  convince  readers  that  such 
and  such  passages  are  not  in  Shakespeare's  manner,  because 
their  notion  of  Shakespeare's  manner  is  partly  based  on  the 
assumption  that  these  very  passages  are  by  Shakespeare.  As- 
suming, however,  that  we  have  proved  our  case  so  far,  how 
are  we  to  account  for  the  intrusion  of  this  second  and  in- 
ferior hand  ?    The  first  hypothesis  which  presents  itself  is  that 


XU  PREFACE. 

Shakespeare  wrote  the  play  in  conjunction  with  Middleton  or 
another  as  '  collaborateur.'  We  know  that  this  was  a  very 
common  practice  with  the  dramatists  of  his  time.  It  is  gene- 
rally admitted  that  he  assisted  Fletcher  in  the  composition 
of  The  Two  Noble  Kinsmen  ;  and  Mr.  Spedding  has  shown, 
conclusively  as  we  think,  that  Fletcher  assisted  him  in  the 
composition  of  Henry  VIII. 

We  might  suppose,  therefore,  that  after  drawing  out  the 
scheme  of  Macbeth,  Shakespeare  reserved  to  himself  all  the 
scenes  in  which  Macbeth  or  Lady  Macbeth  appeared,  and  left 
the  rest  to  his  assistant.  We  must  further  suppose  that  he 
largely  retouched,  and  even  rewrote  in  places,  this  assistant's 
work,  and  that  in  his  own  work  his  good  nature  occasionally 
tolerated  insertions  by  the  other.  But,  then,  how  did  it 
happen  that  he  left  the  inconsistencies  and  extravagances  of 
the  second  scene  of  act  i.  uncorrected  ? 

On  the  whole  we  incline  to  think  that  the  play  was  inter- 
polated after  Shakespeare's  death,  or  at  least  after  he  had 
withdrawn  from  all  connection  with  the  theatre.  The  inter- 
polator was,  not  improbably,  Thomas  Middleton ;  who,  to 
please  the  'groundlings,"  expanded  the  parts  originally  as- 
signed by  Shakespeare  to  the  weird  sisters,  and  also  intro- 
duced a  new  character,  Hecate.  The  signal  inferiority  of 
her  speeches  is  thus  accounted  for. 

If  we  may  trust  Simon  Forman's  account  of  the  play^  it 
originally  began  with  the  scene  in  v\'hich  Macbeth  and  Banquo 
appear.  Their  conversation,  which  acquainted  the  audience 
with  the  battle  which  had  just  occurred,  was  probably  cut  out 
and  its  place  supplied  by  the  narrative  of  the  '  bleeding  ser- 
geant,' in  which  some  of  Shakespeare's  lines  may  have  been 
incorporated,  as  (ii)  'The  multiplying  villanies  of  nature,' 

and  (55-57)  '  Confronted  him lavish  spirit.'     The 

twelve  lines  which  now  make  the  first  scene,  and  which  from 

*  On  this  point,  however,  we  must  not  lay  too  much  stress.  Forman 
omits  all  mention  of  Macbeth's  second  interview  with  the  witches, 
iv.  I.  48-124,  which  is  unquestionably  Shakespeare's  work.  And  he  may 
have  arrived  at  the  theatre  a  few  minutes  late. 


PREFACE.  Xlll 

long  familiarity  we  regard  as  a  necessary  introduction  to  the 
play,  are  not  unworthy  of  Shakespeare,  but  on  the  other  hand 
do  not  rise  above  the  level  which  is  reached  by  IMiddleton 
and  others  of  his  contemporaries  in  their  happier  moments. 

When  King  James  visited  Oxford  in  1605,  a  Latin  play  or 
interlude,  on  the  subject  of  Macbeth,  was  performed  in  his 
presence.  This,  Farmer  thinks,  may  have  suggested  the  sub- 
ject to  Shakespeare.  Doubtless  Holinshed  supplied  to  the 
Oxford  dramatist,  as  to  Shakespeare,  the  materials  for  his 
work,  and  in  both  cases  a  subject  was  chosen  from  Scottish 
history  with  the  view  of  interesting  the  Scottish  monarch. 
Shakespeare's  play  would  be  none  the  less  popular  for  repre- 
senting the  rightful  heir  restored  to  his  throne  by  a  victorious 
English  army. 

The  single  authority  consulted  by  Shakespeare  for  this,  as 
for  all  other  plays  connected  with  the  histories  of  England 
and  Scotland,  was  Holinshed's  Chronicle.  The  details  of 
Duncan's  murder  are  evidently  borrowed  from  Holinshed's 
account  of  the  murder  of  King  Duffe  by  Donwald,  which  we 
give  here  at  length,  together  with  the  narrative  of  his  pining 
away  under  the  influence  of  witchcraft,  as  it  may  serve  to 
illustrate  some  of  the  expressions  in  the  witch  scenes  of  the 
play.  The  reforms  commenced  by  the  king  had  caused  great 
discontent  among  the  nobles. 

'  In  the  meane  time  the  king  fell  into  a  languishing  disease, 
not  so  greeuous  as  strange,  for  that  none  of  his  Phisitions 
coulde  perceyue  what  to  make  of  it.  For  there  was  seene  in 
him  no  token,  that  either  choler,  melancolie,  flegme,  or  any 
other  vicious  humor  did  any  thing  abounde,  whereby  his  body 
should  be  brought  into  such  a  decay  &  consumption  (so  as 
there  remayned  vnneth'-  any  thing  vpon  him  saue  skin  & 
bone  :)  &  sithence  it  appeared  manifestly  by  all  outward 
signes  &  tokens,  that  natural  moisture  did  nothing  faile  in  ye 
vital  sprits  :  his  colour  also  was  freshe  &  fayre  to  behold, 
with  such  liuelinesse   of  lookes,  that  more  was   not  to   be 

-  scarcely,  hardly. 


XIV  PREFACE. 

wished  for :  he  had  also  a  temperate  desire  &  appetite  to  his 
meate  &  drinke,  but  yet  could  he  not  sleepe  in  the  night  time 
by  any  prouocations  that  could  be  deuised,  but  still  fell  into 
exceeding  svveates,  which  by  no  meanes  might  be  restreyned. 
The  Physitions  perceyuing  all  theyr  medicines  to  wante  the 
effect,  yet  to  put  him  in  some  comfort  of  help,  declared  vnto 
him  that  they  would  sende  for  some  cunning  Phisitions  into 
foraine  parties,  who  haply  being  inured  with  such  kind  of 
diseases,  should  easily  cure  him,  namely  so  soone  as  the  spring 
of  the  yeare  was  once  come,  whiche  of  it  self  should  help 

much  thervnto But  about  that   present  time   there 

was  a  murmuring  amongst  the  people,  how  the  king  was 
vexed  with  no  naturall  sicknesse,  but  by  sorcery  and  Magicall 
arte,  practised  by  a  sort  of  Witches  dwelling  in  a  towne  of 
Murrayland,  called  Fores.  Wherevpon  albeit,  the  Authour 
of  this  secrete  talke  was  not  knowen,  yet  being  brought  to 
the  kings  eare,  it  caused  him  to  sende  foorthwith  certaine 
wittie  persons  thither  to  enquyre  of  the  truth.  They  that 
were  thus  sent,  dissembling  the  cause  of  theyr  iourney,  were 
receyued  in  the  darke  of  the  night  into  the  castell  of  Fores 
by  the  lieutenant  of  the  same,  called  Donwald,  who  con- 
tinuing faithful  to  the  king,  had  kepte  that  castell  agaynst  the 
rebelles  to  the  kings  vse.  Vnto  him  therefore  these  messen- 
gers declared  the  cause  of  theyr  comming,  requiring  his  ayde 
for  the  accomplishment  of  the  kings  pleasure.  The  souldiers 
whiche  lay  there  in  garison  had  an  inkeling  that  there  was 
some  such  mater  in  hand  as  was  talked  of  amongst  the  people, 
by  reason  that  one  of  them  kept  as  concubine  a  yong  woman 
which  was  doughter  to  one  of  y**  witches  as  his  paramour, 
who  told  him  the  whole  maner  vsed  by  hir  mother  &  other 
hir  companions,  with  y'^  intent  also,  which  was  to  make  away 
the  king.  The  souldier  hauing  learned  this  of  his  leman,  told 
the  same  to  his  fellowes,  who  made  reporte  therof  to  Done- 
wald,  &  he  shewed  it  to  the  kings  messengers,  &  therwith 
sent  for  the  yong  damosell  which  the  souldier  kept,  as  then 
being  within  the  castell,  &  caused  hir  vpon  streyt  examination 
to  confesse  the  whole   mater  as   she   had   scene  &   knew : 


PREFACE.  XV 

whervpon  learning  by  hir  confession  in  what  house  in  the 
towne  it  was  where  they  wrought  theyr  mischeeuous  misterie, 
he  sent  foorth  souldiers,  about  the  midst  of  the  night,  who 
breaking  into  y«  house,  found  one  of  the  Witches  rosting  vpon 
a  woodden  broche  an  image  of  waxe  at  the  fire,  resembling 
in  ech  feature  the  kings  person,  made  &  deuised  as  is  to  be 
thought,  by  craft  &  arte  of  the  Deuill :  an  other  of  them  sat 
reciting  certain  words  of  enchauntment,  &  still  basted  the 
image  with  a  certaine  licour  very  busily.  The  souldiers 
finding  them  occupied  in  this  wise,  tooke  them  togither  with 
the  image,  &  led  them  into  the  castell,  where  being  streitly 
examined  for  what  purpose  they  went  about  such  maner  of 
enchantment,  they  answered,  to  the  end  to  make  away  y^ 
king:  for  as  y^  image  did  wast  afore  the  fire,  so  did  the 
bodie  of  the  king  breake  forth  in  sweate.  And  as  for  the 
wordes  of  enchauntment,  they  serued  to  keepe  him  still 
waking  from  sleepe,  so  that  as  the  waxe  euer  melted,  so  did 
the  kings  flesh :  by  which  meanes  it  should  haue  come  to 
passe,  that  when  y^  waxe  were  once  cleane  consumed,  the 
death  of  the  king  should  immediatly  follow.  So  were  they 
taught  by  euill  sprites,  &  hyred  to  worke  the  feat  by  the 
nobles  of  Murrayland.  The  standers  by  that  herd  such  an 
abhominable  tale  told  by  these  Witches,  streight  wayes  brake 
the  image,  &  caused  ye  Witches  (according  as  they  had  well 
deserued)  to  bee  burnt  to  death.  It  was  sayd  that  the  king, 
at  the  very  same  time  that  these  things  were  a  doyng  within 
the  castell  of  Fores,  was  deliuered  of  his  languor,  and  slepte 
that  night  without  any  sweate  breaking  forth  vpon  him  at  all, 
and  the  next  day  being  restored  to  his  strength,  was  able  to 
do  any  maner  of  thmg  that  lay  in  man  to  do,  as  though  he 
had  not  bene  sicke  before  any  thing  at  all.  But  how  soeuer 
it  came  to  passe,  truth  it  is  that  when  he  was  restored  to  his 
perfect  health,  he  gathered  a  power  of  men,  and  with  the 
same  went  into  Murrayland  against  the  rebels  there,  and 
chasing  them  from  thence,  he  pursued  them  into  Rosse,  & 
from  Rosse  into  Cathnese,  where  apprehending  them,  he 
brought  them  backe  vnto  Fores,  and  there  caused  them  to 


XVI  PREFACE. 

be  hanged  vpon  gallowes  and  gybettes.     Amongst  them  there 
were  also  certaine  yong  Gentlemen  right  beautifuU  and  goodly 
personages,  being  neare  of  kinne  vnto  Donewald  captaine  of 
the  Castell,  and  had  bene  perswaded  to  be  partakers  with  the 
other  rebelles  more  through  the  fraudulent  counsell  of  diuers 
wicked  persons  than  of  theyr  owne  accorde  :    Wherevpon 
the  foresayde  Donewald  lamenting  theyr  case,  made  earnest 
labour  and  suyte  to  the  king  to  haue  begged  theyr  pardon, 
but  hauing  a  playne  deniall,  he  conceyued  suche  an  inwarde 
malice  towardes  the  king,  (though  he  shewed  it  not  outwardly 
at   the   firste)  that  the  same  continued  still  boyling  in  his 
stomake,  and  ceased  not,  till  through  setting  on  of  his  wife 
and  in  reuenge  of  suche  vnthankefulnesse,  he  founde  meanes 
to  murder  the  king  within    the  foresayd   Castell   of  Fores 
where  he  vsed  to  soiourne,  for  the  king  beyng  in  that  coun- 
trey,  was  accustomed  to  lie  most  commonly  within  the  same 
castel,  hauing  a  speciall  trust  in  Donewald,  as  a  man  whom 
he  neuer  suspected  :  but  Donwald  not  forgetting  the  reproche 
whiche  his  linage  had  susteyned  by  the  execution  of  those  his 
kinsmen,  whome  the  king  for  a  spectacle  to  the  people  had 
caused  to  be  hanged,  could  not  but  shew  manifest  tokens  ot 
great  griefe  at  home  amongst  his  familie :  which   his  wife 
perceyuing,  ceassed  not  to  trauayle  with  him,  till  she  vnder- 
stood  what   the   cause  was  of  his  displeasure.     Whiche   at 
length  when  she  had  learned  by  his  owne  relation,  she  as 
one  that  bare  no  lesse  malice  in  hyr  harte  towardes  the  king, 
for  the  like  cause  on  hyr  behalfe  than  hir  husband  did  for  his 
freendes,  counselled  him  (sith  the  king  oftentimes  vsed  to 
lodge  in  his  house  without  any  garde  aboute  him,  other  than 
the  garyson  of  the  castell,  whiche  was  wholy  at  his  com- 
maundement)  to  make  him  away,  and  shewed  him  the  meanes 
whereby  he  might  soonest  accomplishe  it.     Donwalde  thus 
being  the  more  kindled  in  wrath  by  the  woordes  of  his  wife, 
determined   to   follow   hyr   aduise    in   the   execution   of   so 
haynous  an  acte.     Wherevpon  deuising  with  himselfe  tor  a 
while,  whiche  way  he  might  best  accomplishe  his  cursed  in- 
tention, at  length  he  gate  oportunitie  and  sped  his  purpose 


PREFACE.  xvii 

as  followeth.  It  chaunced,  that  the  king  vpon  the  day  before 
he  purposed  to  departe  forth  of  the  Castell,  was  long  in  his 
oratorie  at  his  prayers,  and  there  continued  till  it  was  late 
in  the  night,  at  the  last  comming  foorth  he  called  suche  afore 
him,  as  had  faithfully  serued  him  in  pursute  and  apprehention 
of  the  rebelles,  and  giuing  them  hartie  thankes,  he  bestowed 
sundry  honorable  giftes  amongst  them,  of  the  which  number 
Donwald  was  one,  as  he  that  had  bene  euer  accompted 
a  moste  faithfull  seruaunt  to  the  king.  At  length  hauing 
talked  with  them  a  long  time,  he  got  him  into  his  pryuie 
chamber,  only  with  two  of  his  chamberlaynes,  who  hauing 
brought  him  to  bedde  came  foorth  againe,  and  then  fell  to 
banqueting  with  Donewald  and  his  wife,  who  had  prepared 
diuers  delicate  dishes,  and  sundry  sorts  of  drinke  for  theyr 
arere  supper^  or  collation,  whereat  they  sat  vp  so  long,  till 
they  had  charged  theyr  stomakes  with  suche  full  gorges,  that 
theyr  heades  were  no  sooner  got  to  the  pyllow,  but  a  sleepe 
they  were  so  fast,  that  a  man  might  haue  remoued  the 
chamber  ouer  them,  rather  than  to  haue  awaked  them  out  of 
theyr  drunken  sleepe.  Then  Donewalde  though  he  abhorred 
the  act  greatly  in  his  harte,  yet  through  instigation  of  his  wife, 
he  called  foure  of  his  seruants  vnto  him  (whom  he  had  made 
priuie  to  his  wicked  intent  before,  and  framed  to  his  purpose 
with  large  giftes)  and  now  declaring  vnto  them,  after  what 
sorte  they  should  worke  the  feate,  they  gladly  obeyed  his 
instructions,  and  speedely  going  about  the  murder,  they  enter 
the  chamber  (in  which  the  king  lay)  a  litle  before  cockes 
crow,  where  they  secretely  cut  his  throte  as  he  lay  sleeping, 
without  any  buskling*  at  all :  and  immediatly  by  a  posterne 
gate  they  caried  foorth  the  dead  body  into  the  fieldes,  and 
throwing  it  vpon  an  horse  there  prouided  ready  for  that 
purpose,  they  conuey  it  vnto  a  place,  distant  aboute  twoo 
myles  from  the  castell,  where  they  stayed,  and  gat  certayne 
labourers  to  helpe  them  to  turne  the  course  of  a  litle  riuer 


Literally,  an  after-supper ;  a  late  meal  after  the  usual  supper, 
bustling. 


xviii  PREFACE. 

running  through  the  fieldes  there,  and  digging  a  deepe  hole 
in  the  chanell,  they  burie  the  body  in  the  same,  ramming 
it  vp  with  stones  and  grauel  so  closely,  that  setting  the  water 
into  the  right  course  agayne,  no  man  coulde  perceyue  that 
any  thing  had  bene  newly  digged  there.  This  they  did  by 
order  appointed  them  by  Donewald  as  is  reported,  for  that 
the  bodie  shoulde  not  be  founde,  and  by  bleeding  (when 
Donewald  shoulde  be  present)  declare  him  to  be  giltie  of 
the  murder.  For  that  suche  an  opinion  men  haue,  that  the 
dead  corps  of  any  man  being  slayne,  will  bleede  abundantly 
if  the  murderer  be  present :  but  for  what  consideration  soeuer 
they  buried  him  there,  they  had  no  sooner  finished  the  worke, 
but  that  they  slew  them,  whose  help  they  vsed  herein,  and 
streightwayes  therevpon  fledde  into  Orkney. 

*  Donewald  aboute  the  time  that  the  murder  was  a  doing, 
got  him  amongst  them  that  kepte  the  watch,  and  so  con- 
tinewed  in  companie  with  them  al  the  residue  of  the  night. 
But  in  the  morning  when  the  noyse  was  reysed  in  the  kings 
chamber  how  the  king  was  slaine,  his  body  conueyed  away, 
and  the  bed  all  berayed^  with  bloud,  he  with  the  watche  ran 
thither  as  though  he  had  knowen  nothing  of  the  mater,  and 
breaking  into  the  chamber,  and  finding  cakes  of  bloud  in  the 
bed  &  on  the  floore  about  the  sides  of  it,  he  foorthwith  slewe 
the  chamberlaynes,  as  giltie  of  that  haynous  murder,  and 
then  like  a  madde  man  running  to  and  fro,  hee  ransacked 
euery  corner  within  the  castell,  as  though  it  had  bene  to 
haue  seene  if  he  might  haue  founde  either  the  body  or  any 
of  y^  murtherers  hid  in  any  pryuie  place :  but  at  length 
comming  to  the  posterne  gate,  &  finding  it  open,  he  bur- 
dened the  chamberlaines  whom  he  had  slaine  with  al  the 
fault,  they  hauing  the  keyes  of  the  gates  committed  to  their 
keeping  al  the  night,  and  therefore  it  could  not  be  otherwise 
(sayde  he)  but  that  they  were  of  counsel  in  the  committing 
of  that  moste  detestable  murder.  Finally  suche  was  his  ouer 
earnest  diligence  in  the  inquisition  and  triall  of  the  often- 

'  smeared. 


PREFACE.  xix 

dours  herein,  that  some  of  the  Lordes  began  to  misiike  the 
mater,  and  to  smell  foorth  shrewed  tokens,  that  he  shoulde 
not  be  altogither  cleare  himselfe  :  but  for  so  much  as  they 
were  in  that  countrey,  where  hee  had  the  whole  rule,  what 
by  reason  of  his  frendes  and  authoritie  togither,  they  doubted 
to  vtter  what  they  thought  till  time  and  place  shoulde  better 
serue  therevnto,  and  herevpon  got  them  away  euery  man  to 
his  home.  For  the  space  of  .vj.  moneths  togither  after  this 
haynous  murder  thus  committed,  there  appeared  no  sunne 
by  day,  nor  Moone  by  night  in  any  parte  of  the  realme,  but 
stil  was  the  skie  couered  with  continual  clowdes,  and  some- 
times suche  outragious  wmdes  arose  with  lightnings  and  tem- 
pestes,  that  the  people  were  in  great  feare  of  present  de- 
struction.' (History  of  Scotland,  pp.  206-209,  ed.  1577.) 

The  sentence  last  quoted  is  clearly  the  origin  of  what  Ross 
says  in  act  ii.  scene  4  : 

'  By  the  clock,  'tis  day, 
And  yet  dark  night  strangles  the  travelling  lamp,'  &c. 

The  other  natural  portents  mentioned  in  the  same  scene  are 
borrowed  from  Holinshed's  account  of  those  which  followed 
the  murder  of  King  Duffe.  '  Monstrous  sightes  also  that  were 
scene  within  the  Scottishe  kingdome  that  yeare  were  these, 
horses  in  Lothian  being  of  singuler  beautie  and  swiftnesse, 
did  eate  their  owne  flesh,  &  would  in  no  wise  taste  any  other 
meate.  In  Angus  there  was  a  gentlewoman  brought  forth  a 
childe  without  eyes,  nose,  hande,  or  foote.  There  was  a 
Spathauke  also  strangled  by  an  Owle.'  (p.  210.)  These  cir- 
cumstances have  been  interwoven  by  the  dramatist  with 
Holinshed's  account  of  Macbeth  and  Duncan,  from  which 
we  now  give  all  the  passages  which  have  any  bearing  upon 
the  play. 

'After  Malcolme  succeeded  his  Nephew  Duncan,  the  sonne 
of  his  doughter  Beatrice :  for  Malcolme  had  two  daughters, 
ye  one  which  was  this  Beatrice,  being  giuen  in  mariage  vnto 
one  Abbanath  Crinen,  a  man  of  great  nobilitie,  and  Thane  of 
the  Isles  and  west  partes  of  Scotlande,  bare  of  that  mariage 
the  foresayd  Duncan :    The  other  called  Doada,  was  maried 


XX  PREFACE. 

vnto  Synell  the  Thane  of  Glammis,  by  whom  she  had  issue 
one  Makbeth  a  valiant  gentleman,  and  one  that  if  he  had 
not  bene  somewhat  cruell  of  nature,  might  haue  bene  thought 
most  worthie  the  gouernnient  of  a  realme.  On  the  other 
parte,  Duncan  was  so  softe  and  gentle  of  nature,  that  the 
people  wished  the  inclinations  &  maners  of  these  two  cousines 
to  haue  bene  so  tempered  and  enterchaungeably  bestowed 
betwixt  them,  that  where  the  one  had  to  much  of  clemencie, 
and  the  other  of  crueltie,  the  meane  vertue  betwixt  these 
twoo  extremities,  might  haue  reygned  by  indifferent  particion 
in  them  bothe,  so  shoulde  Duncan  haue  proued  a  worthy 
king,  and  Makbeth  an  excellent  captaine. 

'  The  beginning  of  Duncanes  reigne  was  very  quiet  & 
peaceable,  without  any  notable  trouble,  but  after  it  was  per- 
ceyued  how  negligent  he  was  in  punishing  offenders,  many 
misruled  persons  tooke  occasion  thereof  to  trouble  the  peace 
and  quiet  state  of  the  common  wealth,  by  seditious  commo- 
tions whiche  firste  had  theyr  beginnings  in  this  wise. 

'  Banquho  the  Thane  of  Lochquhaber,  of  whom  the  house 
of  the  Stewardes  is  discended,  the  whiche  by  order  of  lynage 
hath  nowe  for  a  long  time  enioyed  the  crowne  of  Scotlande, 
euen  till  these  our  dayes,  as  he  gathered  the  iinaunces  due  to 
the  king,  and  further  punished  somewhat  sharpely  suche  as 
were  notorious  offenders,  being  assayled  by  a  number  of 
rebelles  inhabiting  in  that  countrey,  and  spoyled  of  the 
money  and  all  other  things,  had  muche  ado  to  get  away  with 
life  after  he  had  receyued  sundry  grieuous  woundes  amongst 
them.  Yet  escaping  theyr  handes  after  he  was  somewhat 
recouered  of  his  hurtes  and  was  able  to  ride,  he  repayred 
to  the  courte,  where  making  his  complaint  to  the  king  in 
most  earnest  wise,  he  purchased  at  length  that  the  offenders 
were  sente  for  by  a  Sergeant  at  armes,  to  appeare  to  make 
aunswere  vnto  suche  mater  as  shoulde  be  layde  to  theyr 
charge,  but  they  augmenting  theyr  mischeeuous  acte  wath 
a  more  wicked  deede,  after  they  had  misused  the  messenger 
with  sundry  kindes  of  reproches,  they  finally  slew  him  also. 

'  Then    doubting    not   but    for   suche    contemptuous    de- 


PREFACE.  XXI 

meanour  agaynst  the  kings  regall  authoritie,  they  shoulde 
be  inuaded  with  all  the  power  the  king  coulde  make,  Mak- 
dowalde  one  of  great  estimation  amongst  them  making  first 
a  confederacie  with  his  nearest  frendes  and  kinsmen,  tooke 
vpon  him  to  be  chiefe  captayne  of  all  suche  rebelles,  as 
woulde  stande  against  the  king,  in  maintenance  of  theyr 
grieuous  offences  lately  committed  against  him.  Many  slan- 
derous wordes  also,  &  rayling  taunts  this  JVIakdowald  vttered 
against  his  prince,  calling  him  a  faynt  harted  milkesop,  more 
meete  to  gouerne  a  sort  of  idle  monkes  in  some  cloyster, 
than  to  haue  y^  rule  of  suche  valiant  and  hardy  men  of  warre 
as  the  Scottes  were. 

'  He  vsed  also  suche  subtile  perswasions  and  forged  allure- 
ments, that  in  a  small  time  he  had  got  togither  a  mightie 
power  of  men  :  for  out  of  the  westerne  Isles,  there  came  vnto 
him  a  great  multitude  of  people,  offering  themselues  to  assist 
him  in  that  rebellious  quarell,  and  out  of  Ireland  in  hope  of 
the  spoyle  came  no  small  number  of  Kernes  &  Galloglasses 
offering  gladly  to  serue  vnder  him,  whither  it  shoulde  please 
him  to  lead  them.  Makdowald  thus  hauing  a  mightie  puys- 
sance  about  him,  encountred  with  suche  of  the  kings  people 
as  were  sent  against  him  into  Lochquhabir,  and  discomfiting 
them,  by  fine  force  tooke  theyr  captaine  Malcolme,  and  after 
the  end  of  the  batayle  smoote  of  his  head. 

'  This  ouerthrow  beyng  notified  to  the  king,  did  put  him 
in  wonderfull  feare,  by  reason  of  his  small  skill  in  warlyke 
affayres.  Calling  therfore  his  nobles  to  a  counsell,  willed 
them  of  their  best  aduise  for  the  subduing  of  Makdowald 
and  other  the  rebelles. 

'  Here  in  sundry  heades  (as  it  euer  happeneth)  being 
sundry  opinions,  whiche  they  \-ttered  according  to  euery  man 
his  skill,  at  length  Makbeth  speaking  muche  against  the  kings 
softnesse,  &  ouer  muche  slacknesse  in  punishing  offenders, 
whereby  they  had  such  time  to  assemble  togither,  he  pro- 
mised notwithstanding,  if  the  charge  were  committed  vnto 
him  and  to  Banquho,  so  to  order  the  mater,  that  the  rebelles 
should  be  shortly  vanquished  and  quite  put  downe,  and  that 


XXU  PREFACE. 

not  so  much  as  one  of  them  shoulde  be  founde  to   make 
resistance  within  the  countrey. 

'  And  euen  so  ca'me  it  to  passe  :  for  being  sente  foorth 
with  a  newe  power,  at  his  entring  into  Lochquhaber,  the 
fame  of  his  comming  put  y^  enimies  in  suche  feare,  that  a 
great  number  of  them  stale  secretely  away  from  theyr  cap- 
taine  Makdowald,  who  neuerthelesse  enforsed  thereto,  gaue 
batayle  vnto  INIakbeth,  with  the  residue  whiche  remained 
with  him,  but  being  ouercome  and  fleing  for  refuge  into 
a  castell  (within  the  whiche  hys  wyfe  and  chyldren  were 
enclosed,)  at  length  when  he  saw  he  coulde  neyther  defend 
the  hold  any  longer  against  his  enimies,  nor  yet  vpon  sur- 
render be  suffered  to  depart  with  lyfe  saued,  he  first  slew  his 
wife  &  children,  and  lastly  himselfe,  least  if  he  had  yeelded 
simply,  he  shoulde  haue  bene  executed  in  most  cruell  wise 
for  an  example  to  other. 

'  Makbeth  entring  into  the  castel  by  the  gates,  as  then  set 
open,  founde  the  carcase  of  Makdowald  lying  dead  there 
amongst  the  residue  of  the  slaine  bodies,  whiche  when  he 
behelde,  remitting  no  peece  of  his  cruell  nature  with  that 
pitifull  sight,  he  caused  the  head  to  be  cut  off,  and  set  vpon 
a  pooles  ende,  &  so  sent  it  as  a  present  to  the  king  who  as 
then  lay  at  Bertha. 

'  The  headlesse  trunk  e  he  commaunded  to  be  hong  vp 
vpon  an  high  payre  of  gallowes.  Them  of  the  Westerne  Isles, 
suyng  for  pardon  in  that  they  had  ayded  Makdowald  in  his 
trayterous  enterpryse,  he  fined  at  great  summes  of  money : 
and  those  whom  he  tooke  in  Lochquhabir,  being  come  thither 
to  beare  armure  agaynst  the  king,  he  put  to  execution. 

'  Herevpon  the  Hand  men  conceyued  a  deadly  grudge 
towards  him,  calling  him  a  couenant  breaker,  a  bloudy  tyrant, 
and  a  cruell  murtherer  of  them,  whom  the  kings  mercie  had 
pardoned.  With  whiche  reprochfuU  woordes  Makbeth  being 
kindled  in  wrathful!  yre  against  them,  had  passed  ouer  with 
an  army  into  the  Isles,  to  haue  taken  reuenge  vpon  them  for 
theyr  liberal!  talke,  had  he  not  bene  otherwayes  perswaded 
by  some  of  his  frendes,  and  partely  pacified  by  giftes  pre- 


PREFACE.  Xxiii 

sented  vnto  him  on  the  behalfe  of  the  Ilandmen,  seeking  to 
auoyde  his  displeasure. 

'  Thus  was  iustice  and  lawe  restored  againe  to  the  old 
accustomed  course  by  the  diligent  meanes  of  Makbeth.  Im- 
mediatly  wherevpon  worde  came  that  Sueno  king  of  Norway 
Avas  arriued  in  Fyfe  with  a  puysant  army  to  subdue  the  whole 
realme  of  Scotland.' 

Here  follows  a  short  digression  about  Sueno  and  his  three 
sons,  and  the  division  of  England  between  Canute  and  Ed- 
mund Ironside.     The  narrative  *hen  proceeds  : — 

*  The  crueltie  of  this  Sueno  was  suche,  that  he  neyiiher 
spared  man,  woman,  nor  childe,  of  what  age,  condition  or 
degree  so  euer  they  were,  whereof  when  king  Duncane  was 
certified,  hee  set  all  slouthfull  and  lingering  delayes  aparte, 
and  began  to  assemble  an  army  in  moste  speedy  wise,  like  a 
right  valiant  Captayne :  for  oftentimes  it  happeneth,  that  a 
dull  cowarde,  and  slouthfull  person  constrayned  by  necessitie, 
becommeth  right  hardie  and  actiue.  Therefore  when  his 
whole  power  was  come  togither,  he  deuided  the  same  with 
three  batayles  ®,  The  firste  was  led  by  Makbeth,  the  seconde 
by  Banquho,  and  the  king  himselfe  gouerned  in  the  mayne 
batayle  or  middlewarde,  wherein  were  appoynted  to  attende 
his  person  the  moste  parte  of  all  the  residue  of  the  Scottishe 
nobilitie. 

'  The  army  of  Scottishmen  beyng  thus  ordered,  came  vnto 
Culros,  where  encountring  with  the  enimies,  after  a  sore  and 
cruell  foughten  batayle,  Sueno  remayned  victorious,  and  Mal- 
colme  with  his  Scottes  discomfited.  Howbeit  the  Danes 
were  so  broken  by  this  batayle,  that  they  were  not  able  to 
make  long  chase  on  theyr  enimies,  but  kepte  themselues 
all  night  in  order  of  batayle,  for  doubte  least  y^  Scots  as- 
sembling togither  againe,  might  haue  set  vpon  them  at  some 
aduantage. 

'  On  the  morrow  when  the  fieldes  were  discouered,  and 
that  it  was  perceyued  how  no  enimies  were  to  be  founde 

*"  See  note  on  v.  6.  4. 
C  2 


xaiv  preface. 

abroade,  they  gathered  the  spoyle,  whiche  they  deuided 
amongst  them,  according  to  the  lavve  of  armes. 

'  Then  was  it  ordeyned  by  commaundement  of  Sueno,  that 
no  Souldier  shoulde  hurte  either  man,  woman,  or  childe, 
excepte  suche  as  were  founde  with  weapon  in  hande  ready 
to  make  resistance,  for  he  hoped  now  to  conquere  the  realme 
without  further  bloudshed. 

'  But  when  knowledge  was  giuen  how  Duncan^  was  fled 
to  the  castell  of  Bertha,  and  that  IMakbeth  was  gathering 
a  new  power  to  withstand  the  incursions  of  the  Danes,  Sueno 
raised  his  tentes  and  comming  to  the  sayd  castell  layde  a 
strong  siege  rounde  about  it.  Duncan  e  seyng  himselfe  thus 
enuironned  by  his  enimies,  sent  a  secrete  message  by  councell 
of  Banquho  vnto  Makbeth,  commaunding  him  to  abide  at 
Inche  cuthill,  till  hee  hearde  from  him  some  other  newes. 

•  In  the  meane  time  Duncane  fell  in  fayned  communication 
with  Sueno  as  though  he  would  haue  yeelded  vp  the  Castell 
into  his  handes  vnder  certaine  conditions,  and  this  did  he 
to  driue  time,  and  to  put  his  enimies  out  of  all  suspition  of 
any  enterpryse  ment  against  them,  till  all  things  were  brought 
to  passe  that  might  serue  for  the  purpose. 

'  At  length  when  they  were  fallen  at  a  poynt''  for  rendring 
vp  the  holde,  Duncane  offered  to  sende  foorth  of  the  castell 
into  the  campe  greate  prouision  of  vitayles  to  refresh  the 
army,  whiche  offer  was  gladly  accepted  of  the  Danes  for  that 
they  had  bene  in  greate  penurie  of  sustenaunce  many  dayes 
before. 

'  The  Scots  herevpon  tooke  the  iuyce  of  Mekilwort  beries^, 
&  mixed  the  same  in  theyr  ale  and  bread,  sending  it  thus 
spiced  and  confectioned  in  great  abundance  vnto  their  eni- 
mies. 

'  They  reioysing  that  they  had  got  meate  and  drinke  suffi- 

'  See  note  on  iv.  3.  135. 

'^  Hector  Boece  calls  it  Solatrum  amentiale.  that  is,  deadly  nightshade; 
of  which  Gerarde  in  his  Herball  writes, '  This  kinde  of  Nightshade  causeth 
sleepe,  troubleth  the  minde,  bringeth  madnes  if  a  fewe  of  the  berries 
be  inwardly  taken.'     Perhaps  this  is  the  '  insane  root'  of  i.  3.  84, 


PREFACE.  XXV 

cient  to  satisfie  theyr  bellies,  fell  to  eating  and  drinking  after 
such  greedy  wise,  that  it  seemed  they  stroue  who  might 
deuoure  &  swallow  vp  most,  till  the  operation  of  the  beries 
spred  in  suche  sorte  through  all  the  partes  of  their  bodies, 
that  they  were  in  the  ende  brought  into  a  fast  dead  sleepe, 
that  in  maner  it  was  vnpossible  to  awake  them. 

*  Then  foorthwith  Duncane  sent  vnto  Makbeth,  commaund- 
ing  him  with  all  diligence  to  come  and  set  vpon  the  enimies, 
being  in  easie  pointe  to  be  ouercome. 

'  Makbeth  making  no  delay  came  with  his  people  to  the 
place,  where  his  enimies  were  lodged,  &  first  killing  the 
watche,  afterwards  entred  the  campe,  and  made  suche 
slaughter  on  all  sides  without  any  resistance,  that  it  was  a 
wonderfull  mater  to  behold,  for  the  Danes  were  so  heauy  of 
sleepe,  that  the  most  parte  of  them  were  slayne  &  neuer 
styrred :  other  that  were  awakened  eyther  by  the  noyse  or 
otherwayes  foorth,  were  so  amazed  and  dyzzie  headed  vpon 
their  wakening,  that  they  were  not  able  to  make  any  defence, 
so  that  of  the  whole  numbers  there  escaped  no  moe  but  onely 
Sueno  himselfe  and  tenne  other  persons,  by  whose  help  he 
got  to  his  shippes  lying  at  rode  in  the  mouth  of  Tay. 

*The  most  parte  of  the  maryners,  when  they  heard  what 
plentie  of  meate  and  drinke  the  Scottes  had  sente  vnto  the 
campe,  came  from  the  sea  thyther  to  bee  partakers  thereof, 
and  so  were  slayne  amongst  theyr  fellowes:  by  meanes 
whereof  when  Sueno  perceyued  howe  through  lacke  of 
maryners  he  shoulde  not  be  able  to  conuey  away  his  nauie, 
hee  furnished  one  shippe  throughly  with  suche  as  were  lefte," 
and  in  the  same  sayled  backe  into  Norway,  cursing  the 
tyme  that  hee  set  forewarde  on  this  infortunate  iourney. 

'  The  other  shippes  whiche  hee  lefte  behinde  him  within 
three  dayes  after  his  departure  from  thence,  were  tossed  so 
togyther  by  violence  of  an  East  winde,  that  beatyng  and 
russhyng  one  agaynst  an  other  they  suncke  there,  and  lie  in 
the  same  place  euen  vnto  these  dayes,  to  the  greate  daunger 
of  other  suche  shippes  as  come  on  that  coaste,  for  being 
couered  with   the   floudde   when   the   tide   commes,   at   the 


XXVI  PREFACE. 

ebbyng  againe  of  the  same,  some  parte  of  them  appeare 
aboue  water. 

'  The  place  where  y^  Danish  vessels  were  thus  lost,  is  yet 
cleped  Drownelow  sandes.-  This  ouerthrow  receiued  in 
maner  aforesaid  by  Sueno,  was  right  displeasant  to  him  and 
his  people,  as  shoulde  appeare  in  that  it  was  a  custome  many 
yeares  after,  that  no  Knightes  were  made  in  Norway,  excepte 
they  were  firste  sworne  to  reuenge  the  slaughter  of  theyr 
countreymen  and  frendes  thus  slayne  in  Scotland. 

'  The  Scottes  hauing  wonne  so  notable  a  victory,  after  they 
had  gathered  and  diuided  the  spoyle  of  the  lielde,  caused 
solemne  processions  to  be  made  in  all  places  of  the  realme, 
and  thankes  to  be  giuen  to  almightie  God,  that  had  sent  them 
so  fayre  a  day  ouer  their  enimies. 

'  But  whylest  the  people  were  thus  at  theyr  processions, 
woorde  was  brought  that  a  newe  fieete  of  Danes  was  arriued 
at  Kingcorne,  sent  thyther  by  Canute  king  of  England  in 
reuenge  of  his  brother  Suenoes  ouerthrow. 

'  To  resist  these  enimies,  whiche  were  already  landed,  and 
busie  in  spoiling  the  countrey,  Makbeth  and  Banquho  were 
sente  with  the  kings  authoritie,  who  hauing  with  them  a  con- 
uenient  power,  encountred  the  enimies,  slewe  parte  of  them, 
and  chased  the  other  to  their  shippes.  They  that  escaped  and 
got  once  to  theyr  shippes,  obtayned  of  Makbeth  for  a  great 
summe  of  golde,  that  suche  of  theyr  freendes  as  were  slaine 
at  this  last  bickering*  might  be  buried  in  Saint  Colmes  Inche. 
In  memorie  whereof,  many  olde  Sepultures  are  yet  in  the 
sayde  Inche,  there  to  be  scene  grauen  with  the  amies  of  the 
Danes,  as  the  maner  of  burying  noble  men  still  is,  and  hereto- 
fore hath  bene  vsed. 

'A  peace  was  also  concluded  at  the  same  time  betwixte 
the  Danes  and  Scottishmen,  ratified  as  some  haue  wryten 
in  this  wise.  That  from  thence  foorth  the  Danes  shoulde 
neuer  come  into  Scotlande  to  make  any  warres  agaynst  the 
Scottes  by  any  maner  of  meanes. 

^  conflict. 


PREFACE.  XXVn 

'  And  these  were  the  warres  that  Duncane  had  with  forrayne 
enimies  in  the  seventh  yeare  of  his  reygne. 

Act  I.  Scene  III.  '  Shortly  after  happened  a  straunge  and 
vncouth  wonder,  whiche  afterwarde  was  the  cause  of  muche 
trouble  in  the  realme  of  Scotlande  as  ye  shall  after  heare.  It 
fortuned  as  IMakbeth  &  Banquho  iourneyed  towarde  Fores, 
where  the  king  as  then  lay,  they  went  sporting  by  the  way 
togither  without  other  companie,  saue  only  themselues,  pass- 
ing through  the  woodes  and  fieldes,  when  sodenly  in  the 
middes  of  a  launde^",  there  met  them  .iij.  women  in  straunge 
&  ferly^^  apparell,  resembling  creatures  of  an  elder  worlde, 
whom  when  they  attentiuely  behelde,  wondering  much  at  the 
sight.  The  first  of  them  spake  &  sayde:  All  hayle  Makbeth 
Thane  of  Glammis  (for  he  had  lately  entred  into  that  dignitie 
and  office  by  the  deatn  of  his  father  Synel.)  The  .ij.  of  them 
said :  Hayle  IMakbeth  Thane  of  Cawder :  but  the  third 
sayde:  All  Hayle  Makbeth  that  hereafter  shall  be  king  of 
Scotland. 

'  Then  Banquho,  what  maner  of  women  (saith  he)  are  you, 
that  seeme  so  litle  fauourable  vnto  me,  where  as  to  my  fellow 
here,  besides  highe  offices,  yee  assigne  also  the  kingdome, 
appointyng  foorth  nothing  for  me  at  all  ?  Yes  sayth  the  firste 
of  them,  wee  promise  greater  benefites  vnto  thee,  than  vnto 
him,  for  he  shall  reygne  in  deede,  but  with  an  vnluckie  ende  : 
neyther  shall  he  leaue  any  issue  behinde  him  to  succeede  in 
his  place,  where  *-  contrarily  thou  in  deede  shalt  not  reygne  at 
all,  but  of  thee  those  shall  be  borne  whiche  shall  gouerne  the 
Scottishe  kingdome  by  long  order  of  continuall  discent. 
Herewith  the  foresayde  women  vanished  immediatly  out  of 
theyr  sight.  This  was  reputed  at  the  first  but  some  vayne 
fantasticall  illusion  by  Makbeth  and  Banquho,  in  so  muche 
that  Banquho  woulde  call  Makbeth  in  ieste  kyng  of  Scotland, 
and  ]\Iakbeth  againe  would  call  him  in  sporte  likewise,  the 
father  of  many  kings.  But  afterwards  the  common  opinion 
was,  that  these  women  were  eyther  the  weird  sisters,  that  is 

"  lawn.  ^^  woaderful.  ^  whereas. 


XXVlll  PREFACE. 

(as  ye  would  say)  y^  Goddesses  of  destinie,  or  els  some 
Nimphes'  or  Feiries,  endewed  with  knowledge  of  prophesie 
by  their  Nicromanticall  science,  bicause  euery  thing  came 
to  passe  as  they  had  spoken. 

*  For  shortly  after,  the  Thane  of  Cawder  being  condemned 
at  Fores  of  treason  against  the  king  committed,  his  landes, 
liuings  and  offices  were  giuen  of  the  kings  iiberalitie  vnto 
Makbeth. 

*  The  same  night  after,  at  supper  Banquho  iested  with 
him  and  sayde,  now  Makbeth  thou  haste  obtayned  those 
things  which  the  twoo  former  sisters  prophesied,  there  re- 
mayneth  onely  for  thee  to  purchase  '^  that  which  the  third 
sayd  should  come  to  passe. 

'  Wherevpon  Makbeth  reuoluing  the  thing  in  his  minde, 
began  euen  then  to  deuise  howe  he  mighte  attayhe  to  the 
kingdome :  but  yet  hee  thought  with  himselfe  that  he  must  tary 
a  time,  whiche  shoulde  aduaunce  him  thereto  (by  the  diuine 
prouidence)  as  it  had  come  to  passe  in  his  former  preferment. 

Act  I.  Scene  IV.  '  But  shortely  after  it  chaunced  that 
king  Duncane  hauing  two  sonnes  by  his  wife  which  was 
the  daughter  of  Sywarde  Earle  of  Northumberland,  he 
made  the  elder  of  them  cleped  "  Malcolme  prince  of  Cum- 
berlande,  as  it  were  thereby  to  appoint  him  his  successor 
in  the  kingdome,  immediatly  after  his  deceasse. 

'  Makbeth  sore  troubled  herewith,  for  that  he  sawe  by  this 
meanes  his  hope  sore  hindered,  (where  "*  by  the  olde  lawes 
of  the  realme,  the  ordinance  was,  that  if  he  that  shoulde 
succeede  were  not  of  able  age  to  take  the  charge  vpon 
himselfe,  he  that  was  nexte  of  bloud  vnto  him,  shoulde  be 
admitted)  he  beganne  to  take  counsell  howe  he  might  vsurpe 
the  kingdome  by  force,  hauing  a  iuste  quarell  so  to  do  (as 
he  tooke  the  mater,)  for  that  Duncane  did  what  in  him 
lay  to  defraude  him  of  all  maner  of  title  and  clayme,  whiche 
hee  mighte  in  tyme  to  come,  pretende  vnto  the  crowne. 

'  The  woordes  of  the  three  weird  sisters  also,  (of  whome 

•■^  acquire.  "  called.  ^  whereas. 


PREFACE.  xxix 

before  ye  haue  heard)  greatly  encouraged  him  herevnto, 
but  specially  his  wife  lay  sore  vpon  him  to  attempt  the 
thing,  as  she  that  was  very  ambitious  brenning  '"  in  vn- 
quenchable  desire  to  beare  the  name  of  a  Queene. 

'  At  length  therefore  communicating  his  purposed  intent 
with  his  trustie  frendes,  amongst  whom  Banquho  was  the 
chiefest,  vpon  confidence  of  theyr  promised  ayde,  he  slewe 
the  king  at  Enuernes,  (or  as  some  say  at  Botgosuane,)  in 
the  .vj.  yeare  of  his  reygne. 

'  Then  hauing  a  companie  about  him  of  such  as  he  had 
made  priuie  to  his  enterpryce,  he  caused  himselfe  to  be 
proclaymed  king,  and  foorthwith  went  vnto  Scone,  where 
by  common  consent,  he  receyued  the  inuesture  "  of  the 
kingdome  according  to  the  accustomed  maner, 

'  The  bodie  of  Duncane  was  firste  conueyed  vnto  Elgyne, 
and  there  buried  in  kingly  wise,  but  afterwardes  it  was 
remoued  and  conueyed  vnto  Colmekill,  and  there  layd  in 
a  sepulture  ^'^  amongst  his  predecessours  in  the  yeare  after 
the  birth  of  our  Sauiour  .1040. 

'  Malcolme  Cammore  and  Donald  Bane  the  sonnes  of  king 
Duncane,  for  feare  of  theyr  liues  (whiche  they  might  well 
know  yt  Makbeth  would  seeke  to  bring  to  end  for  his  more 
sure  confirmacion  in  the  astate)  fled  into  Cumberland,  where 
Malcolme  remained  til  time  that  S.  Edward  ye  sonne  of 
king  Etheldred  recouered  the  dominion  of  England  from 
the  Danish  power,  the  whiche  Edward  receuyed  IMalcolme 
by  way  of  moste  freendly  entertaynement,  but  Donald  passed 
ouer  into  Ireland,  where  he  was  tenderly  cherished  by  the 
king  of  that  lande. 

*  Makbeth  after  the  departure  thus  of  Duncanes  sonnes 
vsed  great  liberalitie  towardes  the  nobles  of  the  realme, 
thereby  to  winne  their  fauour,  &  when  he  saw  that  no 
man  went  about  to  trouble  him,  he  set  his  whole  intention  ^^ 
to    maintayne    iustice,   and   to    punishe    all    enormities   and 

^®  burning.  ''  investiture. 

^'  sepulchre.  ^'^  intent,  endeavour. 


XXX  PREFACE. 

abuses,  whiche  had  chaunced  through  the  feeble  and  slouth- 
full  administration  of  Duncane.'  (pp.  239-245.) 

The  narrative  proceeds  to  relate  the  good  government 
of  Macbeth  and  his  just  laws.  Among  other  acts  of  re- 
tribution recorded  is  his  putting  to  death  for  sedition  the 
thane  of  Ross,  who  in  the  play  appears  in  the  second  and 
third  scenes  of  the  fourth  act  and  in  the  very  last  scene 
of  all. 

Act  III.  Scenes  I,  II,  III.  'These  and  the  like  com- 
mendable lawes,  IMakbeth  caused  to  be  put  as  then  in  vse, 
gouerning  the  realme  for  the  space  of  tenne  yeares  in  equall 
iustice.  But  this  was  but  a  counterfayte  zeale  of  equitie 
shewed  by  him,  partely  against  his  naturall  inclination  to 
purchase  thereby  the  fauour  of  the  people. 

'  Shortly  after,  he  beganne  to  shewe  what  he  was,  in  steede 
of  equitie  practising  crueltie.  For  the  pricke  of  conscience 
(as  it  chaunceth  euer  in  tyrantes,  and  suche  as  attayne  to  any 
astate  by  vnrightuous  meanes)  caused  him  euer  to  feare, 
least  he  should  be  serued  of  the  same  cuppe,  as  he  had 
ministred  to  his  predecessour. 

'  The  woordes  also  of  the  three  vveird  sisters,  wold  not  out 
of  his  mind,  which  as  they  promised  him  the  kingdome,  so 
lykewise  did  they  promise  it  at  the  same  time,  vnto  the 
posteritie  of  Banquho.  He  willed  therefore  the  same  Ban- 
quho  with  his  sonne  named  Fleaunce,  to  come  to  a  supper 
that  he  had  prepared  for  them,  which  was  in  deede,  as  he 
had  deuised,  present  death  at  the  handes  of  certaine  mur- 
therers,  whome  he  hyred  to  execute  that  deede,  appoynting 
them  to  meete  with  the  same  Banquho  and  his  sonne  without 
the  palayce  as  they  returned  to  theyr  lodgings,  and  there  to 
slea  them,  so  that  he  woulde  not  haue  his  house  slaundered, 
but  that  in  time  to  come  he  might  cleare  himselfe,  if  any 
thing  were  layde  to  his  charge  \'pon  any  suspition  that  might 
arise. 

'  It  chaunced  yet,  by  the  benefite  of  the  darke  night,  that 
though  the  father  were  slaine,  the  son  yet  by  the  helpe  of 
almightie  God  reseruing  him  to  better  fortune,  escaped  that 


PREFACE.  XXXI 

daunger,  &  afterwardes  hauing  some  inckling  by  the  admon- 
ition of  some  frendes  which  he  had  in  the  courte,  howe  his 
life  was  sought  no  lesse  then  his  fathers,  who  was  slayne  not 
by  chaunce  medley  (as  by  the  handling  of  the  mater  INIakbeth 
would  haue  had  it  to  appeare,)  but  euen  vpon  a  prepensed*' 
deuise,  wherevpon  to  auoyde  further  perill  he  fledde  into 
Wales.'     (p.  246.) 

Holinshed  at  some  length  now  traces  the  descent  of  the 
royal  family  of  Scotland  from  Banquo.  The  following  sum- 
mary will  be  sufficient  for  our  purpose.  Fleance,  who  had 
fled  into  Wales,  had  by  the  daughter  of  the  prince  of  that 
country  a  son  Walter,  who  ultimately  returned  to  Scotland 
in  the  suite  of  Queen  Margaret  and  became  Lord  Steward. 
Walter's  son  Alane  went  to  the  Holy  Land  in  the  first 
crusade  with  Godfrey  of  Boulogne  and  Robert  Duke  of  Nor- 
mandy. Alane  Steward  had  issue  Alexander,  the  founder 
of  the  Abbey  of  Paisley.  Alexander  had  several  sons,  one  of 
whom,  Walter,  distinguished  himself  at  the  battle  of  Largs 
and  became  the  ancestor  of  the  earls  of  Lennox  and  Darnley  : 
another,  John,  was  the  father  of  Walter  Steward,  who 
*  maried  Mariorie  Bruce  daughter  to  king  Robert  Bruce,  by 
whom  he  had  issue  king  Robert  the  second  of  that  name.' 
(p.  247.)     After  this  digression  the  chronicler  proceeds : — 

Aet  IV.  Scenes  I,  II,  III.  'But  to  returne  vnto  Mak- 
beth,  in  continuying  the  history,  and  to  beginne  where  I  left,  ye 
shal  vnderstand,  that  after  the  contriued  slaughter  of  Banquho, 
nothing  prospered  with  the  foresayde  Makbeth :  for  in  maner 
euery  man  began  to  doubt  his  o\vne  life,  and  durst  vnneth'^^ 
appeare  in  the  kings  presence,  &  euen  as  there  were  many 
that  stoode  in  feare  of  him,  so  likewise  stoode  he  in  feare 
of  many,  in  such  sorte  that  he  began  to  make  those  away 
by  one  surmised  cauillation-'  or  other,  whom  he  thought  most 
able  to  worke  him  any  displeasure. 

'  At  length  he  found  suche  sweetenesse  by  putting  his  nobles 

'"  preconceived,  predetermined.  ^^  See  note  2. 

^  imaginary  quibble. 


XXXU  PREFACE. 

thus  to  death,  that  his  earnest  thyrst  after  bloud  in  this 
behalfe,  might  in  nowise  be  satisfied :  for  ye  must  consider 
he  wanne  double  profite  (as  he  thought)  hereby :  for  firste 
they  were  ridde  out  of  the  way  whome  he  feared,  and  then 
agayne  his  coffers  were  enriched  by  their  goodes,  whiche 
were  forfeyted  to  his  vse,  whereby  he  m.ight  the  better 
mainteyne  a  garde  of  armed  men  about  him  to  defend  his 
person  from  iniurie  of  them  whom  he  had  in  any  suspition. 

'  Further  to  the  ende  he  might  the  more  sickerly'^'  oppresse 
his  subiectes  with  all  tyranlike  MTongs,  hee  buylded  a  strong 
Castell  on  the  top  of  an  high  hill  cleped  Dunsinnane  situate 
in  Gowry,  ten  myles  from  Perth,  on  such  a  proude  height, 
that  standing  there  aloft,  a  man  might  behold  welneare  all 
the  countreys  of  Angus,  Fife,  Stermond,  &  Ernedale,  as  it 
Vv'ere  lying  vnderneth  him.  This  castell  then  being  founded 
on  the  top  of  that  high  hill,  put  the  realme  to  great  charges-* 
before  it  was  fynished,  for  al  the  stuffe  necessarie  to  the 
building,  could  not  be  brought  vp  without  much  toyle  and 
businesse. 

'  But  Makbeth  beeing  once  determined  to  haue  the  worke 
go  forwarde,  caused  the  Thanes  of  eche  shire  within  the 
Realme,  to  come  and  helpe  towardes  that  building,  eche  man 
hys  course  about. 

'At  the  last  when  the  turne  fell  vnto  Makduffe  Thane  of 
Fife  to  buylde  his  part,  he  sent  workmen  with  all  needfull 
prouision,  and  commaunded  them  to  shew  suche  diligence 
in  euery  behalfe,  that  no  occasion  might  bee  giuen  for  the 
king  to  finde  fault  with  him,  in  that  he  came  not  himselfe 
as  other  had  done,  which  he  refused  to  do  for  doubt  least 
the  king  bearing  him  (as  he  partly  vnderstoode)  no  great 
good  will,  woulde  lay  violent  handes  \'pon  him,  as  he  had  done 
vppon  dyuerse  other. 

'  Shortly  after,  Makbeth  comming  to  behold  howe  the 
worke  went  forwarde,  and  bycause  hee  found  not  Makduffe 
there,  he  was  sore  offended,  and  sayde,  I  perceyue  this  man 

^  safely.  ^*  expense. 


PREFACE.  XXXlll 

will  neuer  obey  my  commaundements,  till  he  be  rydden  with 
a  snaffle,  but  I  shal  prouide  well  ynough  for  him.  Neither 
could  he  afterwards  abide  to  looke  vpon  the  sayde  MakdufFe, 
eyther  for  that  he  thought  his  puissance  ouer  great,  either 
els  for  that  he  had  learned  of  certain  wysardes,  in  whose 
wordes  he  put  great  confidence,  (for  that  the  prophecie  had 
happened  so  right,  whiche  the  three  Fayries  or  weird  sisters 
had  declared  vnto  him)  how  that  he  ought  to  take  heede  of 
Makduflfe,  who  in  tymes  to  come  should  seeke  to  destroy 
him. 

'  And  surely  herevpon  had  he  put  MakdufFe  to  death,  but 
that  a  certaine  witch  whom  he  had  in  great  trust,  had  told 
that  he  should  neuer  be  slain  with  man  borne  of  any  woman, 
nor  vanquished  till  the  wood  of  Bernane,  came  to  the  Castell 
of  Dunsinnane. 

'  By  this  prophecie  Makbeth  put  all  feare  out  of  his  heart, 
supposing  hee  might  doe  what  hee  would,  without  any  feare 
to  be  punished  for  the  same,  for  by  the  one  prophesie  he 
beleeued  it  was  vnpossible  for  any  man  to  vanquish  him,  and 
by  the  other  vnpossible  to  slea  him. 

'  This  vaine  hope  caused  him  to  doe  manye  outragious 
things,  to  the  grieuous  oppression  of  his  subiects. 

'  At  length  Rlakduffe  to  auoyde  perill  of  lyfe,  purposed  with 
himselfe  to  passe  into  Englande,  to  procure  Malcolme  Cam- 
more  to  clayme  the  crowne  of  Scotlande.  But  this  was  not 
so  secretly  deuised  by  MakdufFe,  but  that  Makbeth  had 
knowledge  giuen  him  thereof,  for  kings  (as  is  sayde,)  haue 
sharpe  sight  like  vnto  Linx,  and  long  eares  like  vnto  Midas. 
For  Makbeth  had  in  euery  noble  mans  house,  one  slie  fellow 
or  other  in  fee  with  him,  to  reueale  all  that  was  sayd  or  done 
within  the  same,  by  which  slight  he  oppressed  the  moste  parte 
of  the  Nobles  of  hys  Realme. 

'  Immediately  then,  being  aduertised  whereabout  MakdufFe 
went,  he  came,  hastily  wyth  a  great  power  into  Fife,  and 
forthwith  besieged  the  Castell  where  Makduffe  dwelled, 
trusting  to  haue  found  him  therin. 

'  They  that  kept  the  house,  without  any  resistance  opened 


XXXIV  PREFACE. 

the  gates,  and  suffred  him  to  enter,  mistrusting  none  euil). 
But  neuerthelesse  Makbeth  most  cruelly  caused  the  wife  and 
children  of  MakdufFe,  with  all  other  whom  he  found  in  that 
castell,  to  be  slaine. 

*  Also  he  confiscate  the  goodes  of  Makduffe,  proclaymed 
him  traytor,  and  confined  him  out  of  al  the  partes  of  his 
realme,  but  Makduffe  was  alreadie  escaped  out  of  daunger 
and  gotten  into  England  vnto  Malcolme  Canmore,  to  trie 
what  purchas  he  might  make  by  meanes  of  his  support  to 
reuenge  the  slaughter  so  cruelly  executed  on  his  wife,  his 
children,  and  other  friends. 

'At  his  comming  vnto  Malcolme,  he  declared  into  what 
great  miserie  the  estate  of  Scotlande  was  brought,  by  the 
detestable  cruelties  exercysed  by  the  tyranne  Makbeth,  hauing 
committed  many  horrible  slaughters  and  murthers,  both  as 
well  of  the  nobles  as  commons,  for  the  which  he  was  hated 
right  mortally  of  all  his  liege  people,  desiring  nothing  more 
than  to  be  deliuered  of  that  intollerable  and  moste  heauie 
yoke  of  thraldome,  whiche  they  susteyned  at  suche  a  caytifes 
handes. 

'  Malcolme  hearing  Makduffes  words  which  he  vttred  in 
right  lamentable  sort,  for  pure  compassion  and  very  ruth  that 
pearced  his  sorowfull  hart,  bewayling  the  miserable  state  of 
his  country,  he  fetched  a  deepe  sigh,  which  Makduffe  per- 
ceyuing,  began  to  fall  most  earnestly  in  hande  wyth  him,  to 
enterpriser^  the  deliuering  of  the  Scottishe  people  out  of  the 
hands  of  so  cruell  and  bloudie  a  tyrant,  as  Rlakbeth  by  too 
many  plaine  experiments  did  shew  himselfe  to  be,  which  was 
an  easie  matter  for  him  to  bring  to  passe,  considering  not 
only  the  good  tytle  he  had,  but  also  the  earnest  desire  of  the 
people  to  haue  some  occasion  ministred,  whereby  they  might 
be  reuenged  of  those  notable  iniuries,  which  they  dayly  sus- 
teyned by  the  outragious  crueltie  of  JMakbeths  misgouernance. 

'  Though  Malcolme  was  right  sorowfull  for  the  oppression 
of  his  Countreymen  the  Scottes,  in  maner  as  IMakduffe  had 

'^^  attempt. 


PREFACE.  XXXV 

declared,  yet  doubting  whether  he  were  come  as  one  that 
ment  vnfaynedly  as  hee  spake,  or  else  as  sent  from  Makbeth 
to  betray  him,  he  thought  to  haue  some  further  triall,  and 
therevpon  dissembling  his  minde  at  the  first,  he  answered  as 
followeth. 

'  I  am  truly  right  sorie  for  the  miserie  chaunced  to  my 
Countrey  of  Scotlande,  but  though  I  haue  neuer  so  great 
affection  to  relieue  y^  same,  yet  by  reason  of  certaine  in- 
curable vyces,  whiche  raigne  in  me,  I  am  nothing  meete 
thereto :  First  suche  immoderate  lust  and  voluptuous  sen- 
sualitie  (the  abhominable  fountaine  of  all  vyces)  foloweth  me, 
that  if  I  were  made  king  of  Scots,  I  shoulde  seeke  to  deflower 
your  Maydes  and  matrones  in  such  wise,  that  mine  intem- 
perancie  shoulde  bee  more  importable  vnto  you,  than  the 
bloudie  tyrannic  of  Makbeth  now  is. 

'  Hereunto  Makduffe  answered :  this  surely  is  a  very  euill 
fault,  for  many  noble  Princes  and  Kings  haue  lost  both  lyues 
and  Kingdomes  for  the  same,  neuerthelesse  there  are  women 
ynowe  in  Scotlande,  and  therefore  follow  my  counsell,  make 
thy  selfe  king,  and  I  shall  conuey  the  matter  so  wisely,  that 
thou  shalt  be  so  satisfied  at  thy  pleasure  in  suche  secrete  wise, 
that  no  man  shall  be  aware  therof. 

'  Then  saide  Malcolme,  I  am  also  the  moste  auaritious 
creature  on  the  earth,  so  that  if  I  were  king,  I  should  seeke 
so  many  wayes  to  get  lands  and  goodes,  that  I  woulde  slea 
the  most  part  of  all  the  nobles  of  Scotland  by  surmised  accu- 
sations, to  the  end  I  might  enioy  their  lands,  goods,  and 
possessions,  &  therfore  to  shew  you  what  mischief  may  ensue 
on  you  through  mine  vnsatiable  couetise,^'^  I  will  rehearse 
vnto  you  a  fable. 

'There  was  a  Foxe  hauing  a  sore  place  on  him  ouerset^'' 
with  a  swarme  of  flies  that  continually  sucked  out  hir  bloud, 
and  when  one  that  came  by  and  saw  this  maner  demaunded 
whether  she  woulde  haue  the  flies  dryuen  besyde  hir,  she 
answered  no :   For  if  these  flies  that  are  alreadie  full,  and 

^5  covetousness.  ^  overcome,  oppressed. 


XXXvi  PREFACE. 

by  reason  thereof  sucke  not  very  egerly,  should  be  chased 
away,  other  that  are  emptie  and  felly '•^^  an  hungred,  shoulde 
light  in  theyr  places,  and  suck  out  the  residue  of  my  bloud 
farre  more  to  my  grieuance  than  these,  which  now  being 
satisfied  doe  not  much  annoy  me.  Therefore  sayth  Mal- 
colme,  suffer  me  to  remaine  where  I  am,  least  if  I  attaine  to 
the  regiment  of  your  realme,  mine  inquenchable  auarice 
may  proue  such,  that  ye  would  thinke  the  displeasures  which 
now  grieue  you,  should  seeme  easie  in  respect  of  the  vn- 
measurable  outrage,  whiche  might  ensue  through  my  comming 
amongst  you. 

'  IMakduffe  to  this  made  answere,  how  it  was  a  farre  worse 
fault  than  the  other,  for  auarice  is  the  roote  of  all  mischiefe, 
and  for  that  crime  the  most  part  of  our  kings  haue  bene 
slain  &  brought  to  their  finall  ende.  Yet  notwithstanding 
follow  my  counsel,  and  take  vpon  thee  the  crowne,  there  is 
golde  and  riches  inough  in  Scotlande  to  satisfie  thy  greedie 
desire. 

'  Then  sayde  Malcolme  againe,  I  am  furthermore  inclined 
to  dissimulation,  telling  of  leasings-''  and  all  other  kinds  of 
deceyt,  so  that  I  naturally  reioyce  in  nothing  so  muche  as 
to  betray  and  deceyue  suche,  as  put  any  trust  or  confidence 
in  my  wordes.  Then  sith  there  is  nothing  that  more  be- 
commeth  a  prince  than  constancie,  veritie,  truth,  and  iustice, 
with  the  other  laudable  felowship  of  those  faire  and  noble 
vertues  which  are  comprehended  onely  in  soothfastnesse^", 
&  that  lying  vtterly  ouerthroweth  ye  same,  you  see  how 
vnable  I  am  to  gouerne  any  prouince  or  region :  and  ther- 
fore  sith  you  haue  remedies  to  cloke  and  hide  al  the  rest 
of  my  other  vices,  I  pray  you  find  shift  to  cloke  this  vice 
amongst  the  residue. 

'  Then  sayd  Makduffe :  this  yet  is  the  worst  of  all,  and 
there  I  leaue  thee,  and  therefore  say,  oh  ye  vnhappie  & 
miserable  Scottishmen,  which  are  thus  scourged  with  so  many 
and  sundrie  calamities,  eche  one  aboue  other.     Ye  haue  one 

"  fiercely.  -»  lies  ""  truthfulness. 


PREFACE.  XXXVn 

cursed  and  wicked  tyrant  that  novve  raignes  ouer  you,  with- 
out any  right  or  tytle,  oppressing  you  with  his  most  bloudie 
crueltie :  This  other  that  hath  the  right  to  the  crowne,  is 
so  replete  with  the  iinconstant  behauiour  and  manifest  vices 
of  English  men,  that  he  is  nothing  worthie  to  enioy  it :  for 
by  his  owne  confession  he  is  not  onely  auaritious,  and  giuen 
to  vnsatiable  lust,  but  so  false  a  traytour  withall,  that  no 
trust  is  to  be  had  to  any  worde  he  speaketh,  Adue  Scotlande, 
for  now  I  account  my  selfe  a  banished  man  for  euer  v/ithout 
comfort  or  consolation ;  and  with  those  words  the  teares 
trickled  down  his  cheekes  right  abundantly. 

'  At  the  last  when  hee  was  readie  to  depart,  Malcolme 
tooke  him  by  the  sleeue,  and  sayde,  Be  of  good  comfort 
Makduffe,  for  I  haue  none  of  these  vices  before  remembred, 
but  haue  iested  with  thee  in  this  maner,  only  to  proue  thy 
mind:  for  diuerse  tymes  heretofore,  hath  Makbeth  sought 
by  this  maner  of  meanes  to  bring  me  into  his  handes,  but 
the  more  slow  I  haue  shewed  my  self  to  condiscend  to  thy 
motion  and  request,  the  more  diligence  shall  I  vse  in  ac- 
complishing the  same. 

'  Incontinently  hereupon  they  embraced  eche  other,  and 
promising  to  bee  faythfull  the  one  to  the  other,  they  fell  in 
consultation,  howe  they  might  best  prouide  for  al  their  busi- 
nesse,  to  bring  the  same  to  good  effect. 

'  Soone  after  Makduffe  repayring  to  the  borders  of  Scot- 
lande, addressed  his  letters  with  secrete  dispatch  vnto  the 
nobles  of  the  realme,  declaring  howe  Malcolme  was  con- 
federate w^th  him,  to  come  hastily  into  Scotlande  to  clayme 
the  crowne,  and  therefore  he  requyred  them,  sith  he  was 
right  inheritor  thereto,  to  assist  him  with  their  powers  to 
recouer  the  same  out  of  the  hands  of  the  wrongi'ull  vsurper. 

'  In  the  meane  time,  Malcolme  purchased  such  fauour  at 
king  Edwards  handes,  that  old  Sywarde  Earle  of  Northum- 
berlande,  was  appoynted  with  ten  thousande  men  to  go  with 
him  into  Scotland,  to  support  him  in  this  enterprise,  for 
recouerie  of  his  right. 

Act  V.  Scenes  II,  III.     '  After  these  newes  were  spred 
d 


XXXVlll  PREFACE. 

abrode  in  Scotland,  the  nobles  drew  into  two  seuerall  fac- 
tions, the  one  taking  part  with  Malibeth,  and  the  other  with 
Malcolme. 

'  Hereupon  ensued  oftentymes  sundrie  bickerings,  and  di- 
uerse  light  skirmishes,  for  those  that  were  of  Malcolmes  side, 
woulde  not  ieoparde  to  ioyne  with  theyr  enimies  in  a  pight"^ 
field,  tyll  his  comming  out  of  England  to  their  support.  But 
after  that  Makbeth  perceiued  his  enimies  power  to  encrease, 
by  suche  ayde  as  came  to  them  forth  of  England  with  his 
aduersarie  Malcolme,  he  reculed"^  backe  into  Fife,  there  pur- 
posing to  abide  in  campe  fortified,  at  the  Castell  of  Dun- 
sinane,  and  to  fight  with  his  enimies,  if  they  ment  to  pursue 
him,  howbeit  some  of  his  friends  aduysed  him,  that  it  should 
be  best  for  him,  eyther  to  make  some  agreement  with  Mal- 
colme, or  else  to  flee  with  all  speed  into  the  lies,  and  to  take 
his  treasure  with  him,  to  the  ende  he  might  wage^''  sundrie 
great  Princes  of  the  realme  to  take  his  part,  and  retaync 
straungers,  in  whom  he  might  better  trust  than  in  his  ownc 
subiectes,  which  stale  dayly  from  him :  but  he  had  suche 
confidence  in  his  prophecies,  that  he  beleeued  he  shoulde 
neuer  be  vanquished,  till  Byrnane  wood  were  brought  to 
Dunsinnane,  nor  yet  to  be  slaine  with  anye  man,  that  should 
be  or  was  borne  of  any  woman. 

Act  V.  Scene  IV.  '  Malcolme  folowing  hastily  after 
Makbeth,  came  the  night  before  the  battaile  vnto  Byrnan 
wood,  and  when  his  armie  had  rested  a  while  there  to  re- 
freshe  them,  hee  commaunded  euerye  man  to  get  a  bough 
of  some  tree  or  ether  of  that  wood  in  his  hand,  as  bigge 
as  he  might  beare,  and  to  march  forth  therwith  in  such 
wise,  that  on  the  next  morow  they  might  come  closely  and 
without  sight  in  thys  manner  within  viewe  of  hys  enimies. 

Act  V.  Scenes  V,  VI,  VII,  VIII.  '  On  the  morow  when 
Makbeth  beheld  them  comming  in  this  sort,  hee  first  mar- 
ueyled  what  the  matter  ment,  but  in  the  end  remembred 
himselfe,  that  the  prophecie  which  he  had  hearde  long  before 

^'  pitched.  ^^  retreated,  retired.  ''  hire. 


PREFACE.  XXXIX 

that  time,  of  the  comming  of  Byrnane  wood  to  Dunsinnane 
Castell,  was  likely  to  bee  now  fulfilled.  Neuerthelesse,  he 
brought  his  men  in  order  of  battell,  and  exhorted  them  to 
doe  valiantly,  howbeit  his  enimies  had  scarcely  cast  from 
them  their  boughes,  when  Makbeth  perceiuing  their  numbers 
betook  him  streight  to  flight,  whom  Makduffe  pursued  with 
great  hatred  euen  till  he  came  vnto  Lunfannain,  where  Mak- 
beth perceiuing  that  Makduffe  was  hard  at  his  back,  leapt 
beside  his  horse,  saying,  thou  traytor,  what  meaneth  it  that 
thou  shouldest  thus  in  vaine  follow  me  that  am  not  appoynted 
to  be  slain  by  any  creature  that  is  borne  of  a  woman,  come 
on  therefore,  and  receyue  thy  rewarde  which  thou  hast  de- 
serued  for  thy  paynes,  and  therewithall  he  lyfted  vp  his 
sworde  thinking  to  haue  slaine  him.  But  IVIakdufTe  quickly 
auoyding  from  his  horse,  ere  he  came  at  him,  answered  (with 
his  naked  sworde  in  his  hande)  saying :  it  is  true  Makbeth, 
and  now  shall  thine  insatiable  crueltie  haue  an  ende,  for  I 
am  euen  he  that  thy  wysards  haue  tolde  the  of,  who  was 
neuer  borne  of  my  mother,  but  ripped  out  of  hir  wombe : 
therewithall  he  stept  vnto  him,  &  slue  him  in  the  place. 
Then  cutting  his  heade  from  the  shoulders,  hee  set  it  vpon 
a  poll,  and  brought  it  vnto  Malcolme.  This  was  the  end  of 
Makbeth,  after  he  had  raigned  .xvij.  yeares  ouer  the  Scot- 
tishmen. 

'In  the  beginning  of  his  raigne  he  accomplished  many 
worthie  actes,  right  profitable  to  the  common  wealth,  (as  ye 
haue  heard)  but  afterwarde  by  illusion  of  the  diuell,  he  de- 
famed the  same  with  most  terrible  crueltie. 

'He  was  slaine  in  the  yeare  of  the  incarnation  1057.  and 
in  the  .xvj.  yeare  of  king  Edwardes  raigne  ouer  the  English 
men. 

'  Malcolme  Cammore  thus  recouering  the  realme  (as  ye 
haue  hearde)  by  support  of  king  Edward,  in  the  .xvj.  yeare 
of  the  same  Edwards  raign,  he  was  crowned  at  Scone  the 
.XXV.  day  of  April,  in  the  yeare  of  our  Lorde.  1057. 

'  Immediately  after  his  coronation,  he  called  a  Parliament 
at  Forfair,  in  the  which  he  rewarded  them  with  landes  and 

d  2 


xl  PREFACE. 

liuings  that  had  assisted  him  agaynst  Makbeth,  aduauncing 
them  to  fees  and  offices  as  he  saw  cause,  and  commaunded 
that  specially  those  that  bare  the  surname  of  any  office  or 
landes,  shoulde  haue  and  enioye  the  same. 

'  He  created  many  Earles,  Lordes,  Barons,  and  Knightes. 

'  Many  of  them  that  before  were  Thanes,  were  at  this  time 
made  Earles,  as  Fife,  Menteth,  Atholl,  Leuenox,  Murray, 
Gathnes,  Rosse,  and  Angus.  These  were  the  first  Earles 
that  haue  beene  heard  of  amongest  the  Scottishe  men,  (as 
theyr  hystories  make  mention.)'  (pp.  248-252.) 

To  these  quotations  from  the  History  of  Scotland  may  be 
added  one  from  Holinshed's  History  of  England,  which  fur- 
nished the  dramatist  with  the  incident  of  the  death  of  young 
Siward.  We  shall  then  have  before  us  all  the  materials  out 
of  which  the  play  was  constructed.  Young  Siward,  or 
Siward's  son,  is  called  by  John  Brompton,  the  abbot  of 
Jervaulx,  Osbernus  Bulax.  (Twysden's  Decern  Scriptores, 
col.  946.) 

'About  the  thirtenth  yeare  of  King  Edwardes  raigne  (as 
some  write,)  or  rather  about  the  nineteenth  or  twentith  yere 
as  should  appeare  by  the  Scottishe  Writers,  Siward  the  noble 
Earle  of  Northumberlande  with  a  great  power  of  Horsemenne 
went  into  Scotland,  and  in  battel]  put  to  flight  Mackbeth 
that  had  vsurped  the  Crowne  of  Scotland,  and  that  done, 
placed  Malcolme  surnanied  Camoyr,  the  son  of  Duncane, 
sometime  King  of  Scotlande,  in  the  gouernement  of  that 
Realme,  who  afterward  slew  the  sayd  Macbeth,  and  then 
raigned  in  quiet.  Some  of  our  Englishe  writers  say,  that 
this  Malcolme  was  K.  of  Cumberlande,  but  other  reporte 
him  to  be  sonne  to  the  K.  of  Cumberland.  But  heere 
is  to  be  noted,  that  if  Mackbeth  raigned  till  the  yere  .1061. 
and  was  then  slayne  by  Malcolme,  Earle  Siwarde  was  not 
at  that  battaile,  for  as  our  writers  do  testifie,  he  died  in  the 
yere  .1055.  whiche  was  in  the  yeare  next  after  (as  the  same 
writers  affirme)  that  hee  vanquished  Mackbeth  in  fight,  &  slew 
many  thousands  of  Scottes,  &  all  those  Normans  which  as  ye 
haue  heard,  were  withdrawen  into  Scotlande,  when  they  were 


PREFACE.  xli 

driuen  out  of  England.  It  is  recorded  also,  that  in  the 
foresaid  battayle,  in  which  Earle  Siwarde  vanquished  the 
Scottes,  one  of  Siwards  sonnes  chaunced  to  be  s'ayne, 
whereof,  though  the  father  had  good  cause  to  be  sorowfull, 
yet  when  he  heard  that  he  dyed  of  a  wound  which  hee  had 
receyued  in  fighting  stoutely  in  the  forepart  of  his  body,  and 
that  with  his  face  towarde  the  enimie,  hee  greatly  reioyced 
thereat,  to  heare  that  he  died  so  manfully.  But  here  is  to 
be  noted,  y'^  not  now,  but  a  little  before,  (as  Henry  Hunt, 
saith,)  ye  Earle  Siward,  wente  into  Scotlande  himselfe  in 
person,  hee  sent  his  sonne  with  an  army  to  conquere  y*^  land, 
whose  hap  was  ther  to  be  slaine  :  and  when  his  father  heard 
ye  newes,  he  demaunded  whether  he  receiued  the  wound 
wherof  he  died,  in  ye  fore  parte  of  the  body,  or  in  the  hinder 
part :  and  when  it  was  tolde  him  y*  he  receyued  it  in  the 
foreparte,  I  reioyce  (saith  he)  euen  with  all  my  harte,  for 
I  woulde  not  wishe  eyther  to  my  sonne  nor  to  my  selfe,  any 
other  kind  of  death.'  (p.  275.) 

It  is  unnecessary  to  point  out  the  deviations  made  in  the 
drama  from  the  original  story  as  told  by  Holinshed.  It  is 
sufficient  to  give  the  sources  of  Shakespeare's  information. 
Their  historical  value  may  deserve  a  brief  discussion.  Holins- 
hed's  narrative  is  entirely  taken  from  the  twelfth  book  of  the 
Scotorum  Historiae  of  Hector  Boece,  or  Boyce  (1465-1536), 
the  first  Principal  of  Kings'  College,  Aberdeen,  a  work  in 
which  history  is  largely  mixed  with  fable.  It  was  translated 
into  Scotch  by  John  Bellenden,  archdeacon  of  Moray,  and 
there  is  reason  to  think  that  Holinshed  consulted  this  trans- 
lation. The  name  Macbeth  itself  may  even  have  been  taken 
from  Bellenden,  as  a  rendering  of  the  '  Maccabaeus'  of  Boece, 
and  from  the  same  source  may  have  been  derived  the  trans- 
lation of  '  solatrum  amentiale '  by  *  mekilwort.'  Be  this  as  it 
may,  Holinshed  is  Shakespeare's  authority,  Hector  Boece  is 
Holinshed's,  and  Boece  follows  Fordun,  adding  to  him,  how- 
ever, very  freely.  With  the  exception  of  Duncan's  murder, 
in  which  Macbeth  was  concerned  either  as  principal  or  ac- 
cessory, and  the  character  of  Lady  Macbeth,  there  is  hardly 


xlii  PREFACE, 

any  point  in  which  the  drama  coincides  with  the  real  history. 
The  rebellion  of  Macdonwald  and  the  invasion  of  Sueno  during 
the  reign  of  Duncan  are  fables ;  Banquo  and  Fleance  the 
ancestors  of  the  Stuarts  are  the  inventions  of  the  chronicler. 
Lady  Macbeth,  whose  name  was  Gruoch,  was  the  grand- 
daughter of  Kenneth  IV.,  who  was  slain  at  the  battle  of 
Monivaird  by  Malcolm  II.  Her  first  husband,  Gilcomgain, 
the  maormor  of  Moray,  was  burnt  in  his  castle  with  fifty  of 
his  friends.  Her  only  brother  was  slain  by  Malcolm's  orders. 
There  were  reasons  therefore  why  she  should  cherish  ven- 
geance against  Duncan,  the  grandson  of  Malcolm.  She  took 
as  her  second  husband  Macbeth,  the  maormor  of  Ross,  who 
during  the  minority  of  her  son  Lulach,  became  maormor  of 
Moray.  The  rebellion  of  Torfin,  Earl  of  Caithness,  another 
grandson  of  Malcolm's,  appears  to  have  been  the  original 
of  the  revolt  of  Macdonwald,  and  Duncan  was  on  his  way 
to  punish  it  when  he  fell  a  victim  to  treachery  at  Bothgownan 
near  Elgin,  in  the  territory  of  Gruoch  and  Macbeth.  Mac- 
beth on  his  side  had  motives  for  revenge.  His  father  Finlegh, 
or  Finley,  maormor  of  Ross,  had  been  slain  in  a  conflict  with 
Malcolm  II.  in  1020.  In  Wyntown's  Cronykil  of  Scotland 
an  entirely  different  version  is  given.  Duncan  is  there  the 
uncle  of  Macbeth  who  is  thane  of  Cromarty,  and  Gruoch 
is  Duncan's  wife,  who  after  the  murder  of  her  husband 
marries  Macbeth.  Malcolm  is  the  illegitimate  son  of  Duncan 
by  a  miller's  daughter,  and  a  supernatural  parentage  is  in- 
vented for  Macbeth  himself.  It  13  in  Wyntown  that  we  first 
meet  with  the  weird  sisters,  who  however  only  manifest 
themselves  to  Macbeth  and  spur  his  ambition  in  a  dream. 
According  to  the  same  chronicler,  the  absence  of  Macduff 
from  the  feast  was  one  of  the  causes  which  provoked  Macbeth 
against  him.  It  is  worth  observing  that  there  is  nothing  of 
this  kind  in  the  narrative  of  Holinshed.  The  battle  of  Dun- 
sinnan  did  not  decide  the  fate  of  INIacbeth.  He  was  defeated 
there  in  the  year  1054,  but  it  was  not  till  two  years  after- 
wards that  he  met  with  his  death  at  Lumphanan  by  the  hands 
of  Macduff,  Dec.  5, 1056.     (Chalmers,  Caledonia,  i.  404-410.) 


PREFACE.  xliii 

In  Wyntown  the  avenging  hand  is  not  that  of  Macduff  but 
of  a  nameless  knight.  Through  this  maze  of  tradition  and 
fable  it  is  difficult  to  thread  one's  way.  The  single  point 
upon  which  historians  agree  is  that  the  reign  of  Macbeth 
was  one  of  remarkable  prosperity  and  vigorous  government. 

With  regard  to  Duncan,  we  may  add  a  few  details  of  his 
real  history  as  told  by  Mr.  Robertson  (Scotland  under  her 
Early  Kings,  vol.  i.  chap.  5).  He  was  the  son  of  Bethoc  or 
Beatrice,  daughter  of  Malcolm,  and  Crinan,  Abbot  of  Dun- 
keld.  In  1030  he  succeeded  his  grandfather.  He  laid  siege 
to  Durham  in  1040,  but  was  repulsed  with  severe  loss,  and 
his  attempt  to  reduce  Thorfin  to  subjection  was  attended 
with  the  same  disastrous  consequences.  '  The  double  failure 
in  Northumberland  and  Moray  hastening  the  catastrophe  of 
the  youthful  king,  he  was  assassinated  "  in  the  Smith's  bothy," 
near  Elgin,  not  far  from  the  scene  of  his  latest  battle,  the 
Mormaor  Macbeth  being  the  undoubted  author  of  his  death.' 

Mr.  Robertson  adds  in  a  note; — '  Slain  "a  duce  suo,"  writes 
Marianus.  Tighernach  adds  immaturd  atate,  contrary  to  all 
modern  ideas  of  Duncan.  Marianus  was  born  in  1028,  Tigher- 
nach was  his  senior ;  their  authority,  therefore,  at  this  period 
as  contemporaries,  is  very  great.  Bothgonuanan  means  "the 
Smith's  bothy,"  and  under  this  word  may  lurk  some  long- 
forgotten  tradition  of  the  real  circumstances  of  Duncan's 
murder.  The  vision  of  a  weary  fugitive,  a  deserted  king, 
rises  before  the  mind's  eye,  recalling  "  Beaton's  Mill"  and  the 
fate  of  James  the  Third.' 

Our  references  to  other  plays  of  Shakespeare  are  made  to 
the  Globe  Edition,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Notes  to  The 
Merchant  of  Venice  and  Richard  II.,  separately  edited  for  the 
present  series. 

W.  G.  C. 
W.  A.  W. 


MACBETH. 


DRAMATIS    PERSONS. 


Duncan,  king  of  Scotland. 
Malcolm,     l  ^j 

DOXALBAIN.  J      ^  ^ 

BaI^QU™'  }  ee"e'-='ls  °f  *e  king's  army. 

Macduff,     -i 

Lexnox, 

i^icxF-AcTTtr      ;•  noblemen  of  Scotland. 
jMENTEITH, 

Angus,  I 

Caithness,  J 

FLEANCE,  son  to  Banquo. 

SlWARD,  Earl  of  Northumberland,  general 

of  the  Enjjlish  forces. 
Voung  SIWARD,  his  son. 
Seyton,  an  officer  attending  on  Macbeth. 
Boy,  son  to  Macduff. 


An  English  Doctor. 
A  Scotch  Doctor. 
A  Soldier. 
A  Porter. 
An  Old  Man. 

Lady  Macbeth. 
Lady  Macduff. 
Gentlewoman  attending 

Hecate. 
Three  "Witches. 
Apparitions. 

Lords.  Gentlemen,  Officers.  Soldiers,  Mu 
derers,  Attendants,  and  Messengers. 

Scene:  Scotland:  EH^land. 


Lady  Macbeth. 


ACT  L 


SCEKE   I.     A  desert  place. 
Thunder  and  Itghtyiing.    Enter  three  Witches. 

First  Witch.     V.'hen  shall  we  three  meet  again 
In  thunder,  lightning,  or  in  rain? 

Second  Witch.     When  the  hurlyburly 's  done, 
\\'hen  the  battle 's  lost  and  won. 

Third  Witch.     That  will  be  ere  the  set  of  sun. 

First  Witch.     Where  the  place  ? 

Second  Witch.  Upon  the  heath. 

Third  Witch.     There  to  meet  with  Macbeth. 

First  Witch.     I  come,  Graymalkin ! 

Second  Witch.     Paddock  calls. 

Third  Witch.     Anon. 


MACBETH. 


All.     Fair  is  foul,  and  foul  is  fair: 
Hover  through  the  fog  and  filthy  air.  {Exeunt. 


Scene  II.     A  camp  near  Forres. 

Alarum    ivithin.       Enter    DuNCAN,     MALCOLM,    DONALBAIN, 
Lennox,  <with  Attendants,  meeting  a   bleeding  Sergeant. 

Dmican.     What  bloody  man  is  that  ?    He  can  report, 
As  seemeth  by  his  plight,  of  the  revolt 
The  nevi'est  state. 

Malcolm.  This  is  the  sergeant 

Who  like  a  good  and  hardy  soldier  fought 
'Gainst  my  captivity.     Hail,  brave  friend  ! 
Say  to  the  king  the  knowledge  of  the  broil 
As  thou  didst  leave  it. 

Sergeant.  Doubtful  it  stood  ; 

As  two  spent  svi'immers,  that  do  cling  together 
And  choke  their  art.     The  merciless  Macdonwald — 
Worthy  to  be  a  rebel,  for  to  that  lo 

The  multiplying  villanies  of  nature 
Do  swarm  upon  him— from  the  western  isles 
Of  kerns  and  gaUowglasses  is  supplied; 
And  fortune,  on  his  damned  quarrel  smiling, 
Show'd  like  a  rebel's  whore :   but  all 's  too  weak  : 
For  brave  Macbeth— well  he  deserves  that  name — 
Disdaining  fortune,  with  his  brandish'd  steel, 
Which  smoked  with  bloody  execution, 
Like  valour's  minion  carved  out  his  passage 
Till  he  faced  the  slave;  20 

Which  ne'er  shook  hands,  nor  bade  farewell  to  him, 
Till  he  unseam'd  him  from  the  nave  to  the  chaps, 
And  fix'd  his  head  upon  our  battlements. 

Duncan.     O  valiant  cousin  !   worthy  gentleman  ! 

Sergeant.     As  whence  the  sun  'gins  his  reflection 
Shipwrecking  storms  and  direful  thunders  break, 


ACT  I.      SCENE   II.  3 

So  from  that  spring  whence  comfort  seem'd  to  come 

Discomfort  swells.     Mark,  king  of  Scotland,  mark : 

No  sooner  justice  had  with  valour  arm'd 

Compell'd  these  skipping  kerns  to  trust  their  heels,  30 

But  the  Norweyan  lord,  surveying  vantage, 

With  furbish'd  arms  and  new  supplies  of  men 

Began  a  fresh  assault. 

Duncan.  Dismay'd  not  this 

Our  captains,  Macbeth  and  Banquo  ? 

Sergeant.  Yes ; 

As  sparrows  eagles,  or  the  hare  the  lion. 
If  I  say  sooth,  I  must  report  they  were 
As  cannons  overcharged  with  double  cracks,  so  they 
Doubly  redoubled  strokes  upon  the  foe: 
Except  they  meant  to  bathe  in  reeking  wounds, 
Or  memorize  another  Golgotha,  40 

I  cannot  tell — 
But  I  am  faint,  my  gashes  cry  for  help. 

Duncan.     So  well  thy  words  become  thee  as  thy  wounds ; 
They  smack  of  honour  both.     Go  get  him  surgeons. 

\_Exit  Sergeant,  attended. 
Who  comes  here  ? 


Enter  Ross. 

Malcolm.  The  worthy  thane  of  Ross. 

Letinox.     What    a    haste    looks    through    his    eyes !      So 
should  he  look 
That  seems  to  speak  things  strange. 
Ross.  God  save  the  king ! 

Duncan.     Whence  earnest  thou,  worthy  thane  ? 

Ross.  From  Fife,  great  king; 

Where  the  Norweyan  banners  flout  the  sky 
And  fan  our  people  cold.     Norway  himself,  50 

With  terrible  numbers, 
Assisted  by  that  most  disloyal  traitor 
B  2 


4  MACBETH. 

The  thane  of  Cawdor,  began  a  dismal  conflict ; 
Till  that  Bellona's  bridegroom,  lapp'd  in  proof, 
Confronted  him  with  self-comparisons. 
Point  against  point  rebellious,  arm  'gainst  arm, 
Curbing  his  lavish  spirit :   and,  to  conclude, 
The  victory  fell  on  us. 

Duncan.  Great  happiness ! 

Ross.  That  now 

Svveno,  the  Norways'  king,  craves  composition ; 
Nor  would  we  deign  him  burial  of  his  men  60 

Till  he  disbursed  at  Saint  Colme's  Inch 
Ten  thousand  dollars  to  our  general  use. 

Duncan.     No  more  that  thane  of  Cawdor  shall  deceive 
Our  bosom  interest :   go  pronounce  his  present  death. 
And  with  his  former  title  greet  Macbeth. 

Ross.     I'll  see  it  done. 

Duncan.     What  he  hath  lost  noble  Macbeth  hath  won. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene   III.     -^  beatb  near  Forres. 

Thunder.     Enter  the  three  Witches. 

First  Witch.     Where  hast  thou  been,  sister? 

Second  Witch.     Killing  swine. 

Third  Witch.     Sister,  where  thou? 

First  Wtich.     A  sailor's  wife  had  chestnuts  in  her  lap, 
And   munch'd,    and    munch'd,    and    munch'd.      '  Give    me,' 

quoth  I : 
'Aroint  thee,  witch !'   the  rump-fed  ronyon  cries. 
Her  husband 's  to  Aleppo  gone,  master  o'  the  Tiger : 
But  in  a  sieve  I'll  thither  sail, 
And,  like  a  rat  without  a  tail, 
I'll  do,  I'll  do,  and'  I'll  do.  10 

Second  Witch.     I'll  give  thee  a  wind. 

First  Witch.     Thou'rt  kind. 

Third  Witch.     And  I   another. 


ACT  i.       SCENE  III.  5 

First  Witch.     I  myself  have  all  the  other, 
And  the  very  ports  they  blow, 
All  the  quarters  that  they  know 
r  the  shipman's  card. 
I  will  drain  him  dry  as  hay : 
Sleep  shall  neither  night  nor  day 

Hang  upon  his  pent-house  lid ;  20 

He  shall  live  a  man  forbid : 
Weary  se'nnights  nine  times  nine 
Shall  he  dwindle,  peak  and  pine : 
Though  his  bark  cannot  be  lost. 
Yet  it  shall  be  tempest-tost. 
Look  what  I  have. 

Second  Witch.     Show  me,  show  me. 

First  Witch.     Here  I  have  a  pilot's  thumb, 
Wreck'd  as  homeward  he  did  come.  [Drum  nuithin. 

Third  Witch.     A  drum,  a  drum  !  30 

Macbeth  doth  come. 

All.     The  weird  sisters,  hand  in  hand, 
Posters  of  the  sea  and  land. 
Thus  do  go  about,  about : 
Thrice  to  thine  and  thrice  to  mine 
And  thrice  again,  to  make  up  nine. 
Peace  !  the  charm 's  wound  up. 

Enter  MACBETH  and  BanQUO. 

Macbeth.     So  foul  and  fair  a  day  I  have  not  seen. 

Banquo.     How  far  is't  call'd  to  Forres  ?    What  are  these 
So  wither'd  and  so  wild  in  their  attire,  40 

That  look  not  like  the  inhabitants  o'  the  earth. 
And  yet  are  on't  ?     Live  you  .^    or  are  you  aught 
That  man  may  question  ?     You  seem  to  understand  me. 
By  eacli  at  once  her  choppy  finger  laying 
Upon  Rer  skinny  lips :  you  should  be  women. 
And  yet  your  beards  forbid  me  to  interpret 
That  you  are  so. 


O  MACBETH. 

Macbeth.  Speak,  if  you  can  :   what  are  you  ? 

First  W.     AH  hail,  Macbeth  !  hail  to  thee,  thane  of  Glamis  ! 

Sec.  W.     All  hail,  Macbeth  !  hail  to  thee,  thane  of  Cawdor ! 

T:hird  W.     All  hail,  Macbeth,  that  shalt  be  king  hereafter ! 

Banquo.     Good  sir,  why  do  you  start,  and  seem  to  fear 
Things  that  do  sound  so  fair?     I'  the  name  of  truth,       52 
Are  ye  fantastical,  or  that  indeed 
Which  outwardly  ye  show?     My  noble  partner 
You  greet  with  present  grace  and  great  prediction 
Of  noble  having  and  of  royal  hope, 
That  he  seems  rapt  withal :   to  me  you  speak  not. 
If  you  can  look  into  the  seeds  of  time, 
And  say  which  grain  will  grow  and  which  will  not. 
Speak  then  to  me,  who  neither  beg  nor  fear  60 

Your  favours  nor  your  hate. 

First  Witch.     Hail! 

Second  Witch.     Hail! 

"Ihird  Witch.     Hail ! 

First  Witch.     Lesser  than  Macbeth,  and  greater. 

Second  Witch.     Not  so  happy,  yet  much  happier. 

Third  Witch.     Thou  shalt  get  kings,  though  thou  be  none : 
So  all  hail,  Macbeth  and  Banquo  ! 

First  Witch.     Banquo  and  Macbeth,  all  hail ! 

Macbeth.     Stay,  you  imperfect  speakers,  tell  me  more  :  70 
By  Sinel's  death  I  know  I  am  thane  of  Glamis; 
But  how  of  Cawdor  ?   the  thane  of  Cawdor  lives, 
A  prosperous  gentleman ;    and  to  be  king 
Stands  not  within  the  prospect  of  belief. 
No  more  than  to  be  Cawdor.     Say  from  whence 
You  owe  this  strange  intelligence  ?    or  why 
Upon  this  blasted  heath  you  stop  our  way 
With  such  prophetic  greeting  ?     Speak,  I  charge  you. 

\Witches  vanish. 

Banquo.     The  earth  hath  bubbles  as  the  water  has. 
And  these  are  of  them.     Whither  are  they  vanish'd  ?       80 


ACT  I.      SCENE  in.  7 

Macbeth.     Into  the  air;  and  what  seem'd  corporal  melted 
As  breath  into  the  wind.     Would  they  had  stay'd ! 

Banqno.     Were  such  things  here  as  we  do  speak  about  ? 
Or  have  we  eaten  on  the  insane  root 
That  takes  the  reason  prisoner  ? 

Macbeth.     Your  children  shall  be  kings. 

Banquo,  You  shall  be  king. 

Macbeth.     And  thane  of  Cawdor  too  :   went  it  not  so  ? 

Banquo.    To  the  selfsame  tune  and  %vords.    Who's  here? 

Enter   Ross  and  AXGUS. 

Ross.     The  king  hath  happily  received,  Macbeth, 
The  news  of  thy  success ;  and  when  he  reads  90 

Thy  personal  venture  in  the  rebels'  fight, 
His  wonders  and  his  praises  do  contend 
Which  should  be  thine  or  his :    silenced  with  that, 
In  viewing  o'er  the  rest  o'  the  selfsame  day, 
He  finds  thee  in  the  stout  Norweyan  ranks. 
Nothing  afeard  of  what  thyself  didst  make, 
Strange  images  of  death.     As  thick  as  hail 
Came  post  with  post ;   and  every  one  did  bear 
Thy  praises  in  his  kingdom's  great  defence. 
And  pour'd  them  down  before  him. 

Angus.  We  are  sent  100 

To  give  thee  from  our  royal  master  thanks  ; 
Only  to  herald  thee  into  his  sight. 
Not  pay  thee. 

Ross.     And  for  an  earnest  of  a  greater  honour. 
He  bade  me,  from  him,  call  thee  thane  of  Cawdor : 
In  which  addition,  hail,  most  worthy  thane  ! 
For  it  is  thine. 

Banquo.  What,  can  the  devil  speak  true  ? 

Macbeth.    The  thane  of  Cawdor  lives  :  why  do  you  dress  m.c 
In  borrow'd  robes? 

Angus.  Who  was  the  thane  lives  yet, 

But  under  heavy  judgement  bears  that  life  no 

Which  he  deserves  to  lose.     Whether  he  was  combined 


8  MACBETH. 

With  those  of  Norway,  or  did  line  the  rebel 
With  hidden  help  and  vantage,  or  that  with  both 
He  labour'd  in  his  country's  wreck,   I   know  not ; 
But  treasons  capital,  confess'd  and  proved, 
Have  overthrown  him. 

Macbeth.  [^side]  Glamis,  and  thane  of  Cawdor ! 

The  greatest  is  behind.     [To  Ross  and  y^/igiis.]     Thanks  for 

your  pains. 
[To  Banquo.]  Do  you  not  hope  your  children  shall  be  kings, 
When  those  that  gave  the  thane  of  Cawdor  to  me 
Promised  no  less  to  them? 

Banquo.  That  trusted  home  120 

Might  yet  enkindle  you  unto  the  crown, 
Besides  the  thane  of  Cawdor.     But  'tis  strange : 
And  oftentimes,  to  win  us  to  our  harm. 
The  instruments  of  darkness  tell  us  truths, 
Win  us  with  honest  trifles,  to  betray  's 
In  deepest  consequence. 
Cousins,  a  word,  I  pray  you. 

Macbeth.  [Aside']  Two  truths  are  told, 

Ag  happy  prologues  to  the  swelling  act 
Of  the  imperial  theme. — I  thank  you,  gentlemen. 
[Aside]  This  supernatural  soliciting  130 

Cannot  be  ill,  cannot  be  good :    if  ill. 
Why  hath  it  given  me  earnest  of  success. 
Commencing  in  a  truth  ?    I  am  thane  of  Cawdor : 
If  good,  why  do  I  yield  to  that  suggestion 
Whose  horrid  image  doth  unfix  my  hair 
And  make  my  seated  heart  knock  at  my  ribs, 
Against  the  use  of  nature  ?    Present  fears 
Are  less  than  horrible  imaginings : 
My  thought,  whose  murder  yet  is  but  fantastical, 
Shakes  so  my  single  state  of  man  that  function  140 

Is  smother'd  in  surmise,  and  nothing  is 
But  what  is  not. 

Banquo.  Look  how  our  partner  's  rapt. 

Macbeth.     [Aside]   If  chance  will  have  me  king,  why,  chance 
Without  my  stir.  [may  crown  me, 


ACT  I.      SCENE  IV.  9 

Banquo.  New  honours  come  upon  him, 

Like  our  strange  garments,  cleave  not  to  their  mould 
But  with  the  aid  of  use. 

Macbeth.  \^Aside\  Come  what  come  may. 

Time  and  ^the  hour  runs  through  the  roughest  day. 

Banquo.     Worthy  Macbeth,  we  stay  upon  your  leisure. 

Macbeth.     Give  me  your  favour :  my  dull  brain  was  wrought 
With  things  forgotten.     Kind  gentlemen,  your  pains         150 
Are  register'd  where  every  day  I  turn 
The  leaf  to  read  them.     Let  us  toward  the  king. 
Think  upon  what  hath  chanced,  and  at  more  time, 
The  interim  having  weigh'd  it,  let  us  speak 
Our  free  hearts  each  to  other. 

Banquo.  Very  gladly. 

Macbeth.     Till  then,  enough.     Come,  friends.         \Exeiint. 


Scene  IV.     Forres.     The  palace. 

Flourish.     Enter  DuNCAN,  ]NL\LCOLM,  DONALBAIN,  LENNOX, 

and  Attendants. 
I 

Duncan.     Is  execution  done  on  Cawdor?     Are  not 
Those  in  commission  yet  return'd  ? 

Malcolm.  My  liege. 

They  are  not  yet  come  back.     But  I  have  spoke 
With  one  that  saw  him  die :    who  did  report 
That  very  frankly  he  confess'd  his  treasons. 
Implored  your  highness'  pardon  and  set  forth 
A  deep  repentance :    nothing  in  his  life 
Became  him  like  the  leaving  it ;    he  died 
As  one  that  had  been  studied  in  his  death 
To  throw  away  the  dearest  thing  he  owed  10 

As  'twere  a  careless  trifle. 

Duncan.  There  's  no  ail 

To  find  the  mind's  construction  in  the  face : 
He  was  a  gentleman  on  whom  I  built 
An  absolute  trust. 


lO 


MACBETH. 


Enter  Macbeth,  Baxquo,  Ross,  and  Axgus. 

O  worthiest  cousin  ! 
The  sin  of  my  ingratitude  even  now 
Was  heavy  on  me  :   thou  art  so  far  before 
That  sv/iftest  wing  of  recompense  is  slow 
To  overtake  thee.     Would  thou  hadst  less  deserved, 
That  the  proportion  both  of  thanks  and  payment 
Might  have  been  mine  !    only  I  have  left  to  say, 
More  is  thy  due  than  more  than  all  can  pay. 

Macbeth.     The  service  and  the  loyalty  I  owe, 
In  doing  it,  pays  itself.     Your  highness'  part 
Is  to  receive  our  duties :  and  our  duties 
Are  to  your  throne  and  state,  children  and  servants ; 
Which  do  but  what  they  should,  by  doing  every  thing 
Safe  toward  your  love  and  honour. 

Duncan.  Welcome  hither: 

I  have  begun  to  plant  thee,  and  will  labour 
To  make  thee  full  of  growing.     Noble  Banquo, 
That  hast  no  less  deserved,  nor  must  be  known 
No  less  to  have  done  so :    let  me  infold  thee 
And  hold  thee  to  my  heart. 

Banquo.  There  if  I  grow. 

The  harvest  is  your  own. 

Duncan.  My  plenteous  joys, 

Wanton  in  fulness,  seek  to  hide  themselves 
In  drops  of  sorrow.     Sons,  kinsmen,  thanes, 
And  you  whose  places  are  the  nearest,  know 
We  will  establish  our  estate  upon 
Our  eldest,  Malcolm,  whom  we  name  hereafter 
The  Prince  of  Cumberland :    which  honour  must 
Not  unaccompanied  invest  him  only. 
But  signs  of  nobleness,  like  stars,  shall  shine 
On  all  deserv'ers.     From  hence  to  Inverness, 
And  bind  us  further  to  you. 

Macbeth.     The  rest  is  labour,  which  is  not  used  for  you ; 
I'll  be  myself  the  harbinger  and  make  joyful 


30 


40 


ACT  I.      SCENE    V.  II 

The  hearing  of  my  wife  with  your  approach ; 
So  humbly  take  my  leave. 

Duncan.  My  worthy  Cawdor  ! 

Macbeth.  \Aside\  The  Prince  of  Cumberland  !  that  is  a  step 
On  which  I  must  fall  down,  or  else  o'erleap, 
For  in  my  way  it  lies.     Stars,  hide  your  fires ;  50 

Let  not  light  see  my  black  and  deep  desires  : 
The  eye  wink  at  the  hand  ;   yet  let  that  be 
Which  the  eye  fears,  when  it  is  done,  to  see.  \Exit. 

Duncan.     True,  worthy  Banquo  ;   he  is  full  so  valiant, 
And  in  his  commendations  I  am  fed  ; 
It  is  a  banquet  to  me.     Let 's  after  him. 
Whose  care  is  gone  before  to  bid  us  welcome  : 
It  is  a  peerless  kinsman.  ^Flourish.  Exeunt. 


Scene  V.     Inverness.     Macbeth's  castle. 

Enter  Lady  Macbeth,  reading  a  letter. 

Lady  Macbeth.  'They  met  me  in  the  day  of  success : 
and  I  have  learned  by  the  perfectest  report,  they  have  more 
in  them  than  mortal  knowledge.  When  I  burned  in  desire  to 
question  them  further,  they  made  themselves  air,  into  which 
they  vanished.  Whiles  I  stood  rapt  in  the  wonder  of  it, 
came  missives  from  the  king,  who  all-hailed  me  "Thane  of 
Cawdor" ;  by  which  title,  before,  these  weird  sisters  saluted 
me,  and  referred  me  to  the  coming  on  of  time,  with  "Hail, 
king  that  shalt  be  !"  This  have  I  thought  good  to  deliver 
thee,  my  dearest  partner  of  greatness,  that  thou  mightst  not 
lose  the  dues  of  rejoicing,  by  being  ignorant  of  what  greatness 
is  promised  thee.  Lay  it  to  thy  heart,  and  farewell.' 
Glamis  thou  art,  and  Cawdor,  and  slialt  be  13 

What  thou  art  promised  :   yet  do  I  fear  thy  nature  ; 
It  is  too  full  o'  the  milk  of  human  kindness 
To  catch  the  nearest  way :   thou  wouldst  be  great ; 
Art  not  without  ambition,  but  without 
The  illness  should  attend  it :   what  thou  wouldst  highly, 


12  MACBETH. 

That  wouldst  thou  holily ;    wouldst  not  play  false, 

And  yet  wouldst  wrongly  win  :   thou'ldst  have,  great  Glamis, 

That  which  cries  '  Thus  thou  must  do,  if  thou  have  it ' ; 

And  that  which  rather  thou  dost  fear  to  do  22 

Than  wishest  should  be  undone.     Hie  thee  hither, 

That  I  may  pour  my  spirits  in  thine  ear ; 

And  chastise  with  the  valour  of  my  tongue 

All  that  impedes  thee  from  the  golden  round 

Which  fate  and  metaphysical  aid  doth  seeni 

To  have  thee  crown'd  withal. 

Enter  a  Messenger. 

What  is  your  tidings  ? 

Messenger.     The  king  comes  here  to-night. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Thou'rt  mad  to  say  it : 

Is  not  thy  m.aster  with  him  ?  who,  were't  so,  30 

Would  have  inform'd  for  preparation. 

Messenger.     So  please  you,  it  is  true  :  our  thane  is  coming  : 
One  of  my  fellows  had  the  speed  of  him. 
Who,  almost  dead  for  breath,  had  scarcely  more 
Than  would  make  up  his  message. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Give  him  tending  ; 

He  brings  great  news.  \_Exit  Messenger. 

The  raven  himself  is  hoarse 
That  croaks  the  fatal  entrance  of  Duncan 
Under  my  battlements.     Come,  you  spirits 
That  tend  on  mortal  thoughts,  unsex  me  here. 
And  fill  me  from  the  crown  to  the  toe  top-full  40 

Of  direst  cruelty !  make  thick  my  blood ; 
Stop  up  the  access  and  passage  to  remorse, 
That  no  compunctious  visitings  of  nature 
Shake  my  fell  purpose,  nor  keep  peace  between 
The  effect  and  it !     Come  to  my  woman's  breasts, 
And  take  my  milk  for  gall,  you  murdering  ministers. 
Wherever  in  your  sightless  substances 
You  wait  on  nature's  mischief!     Come,  thick  night, 
And  pall  thee  in  the  dunnest  smoke  of  hell, 


ACT  I.      SCENE    VI.  1 3 

That  my  keen  knife  see  not  the  wound  it  makes,  50 

Nor  heaven  peep  through  the  blanket  of  the  dark, 
To  cry  'Hold,  hold!' 

Enter  MACBETH. 

Great  Glamis  !  worthy  Cawdor ! 
Greater  than  both,  by  the  all-hail  hereafter ! 
Thy  letters  have  transported  me  beyond 
This  ignorant  present,  and  I  feel  now 
The  future  in  the  instant. 

Macbeth.  IMy  dearest  love, 

Duncan  comes  here  to-night. 

Lady  Macbeth.  And  when  goes  hence  ? 

Macbeth.     To-morrow,  as  he  purposes. 

Lady  Macbeth.  O,  never 

Shall  sun  that  morrow  see  ! 

Your  face,  my  thane,  is  as  a  book  where  men  60 

May  read  strange  matters.     To  beguile  the  time, 
Look  like  the  time ;   bear  welcome  in  your  eye, 
Your  hand,  your  tongue :    look  like  the  innocent  flower. 
But  be  the  serpent  under  't.     He  that 's  coming 
Must  be  provided  for :    and  you  shall  put 
This  night's  great  business  into  my  dispatch  ; 
Which  shall  to  all  our  nights  and  days  to  come 
Give  solely  sovereign  sway  and  masterdom. 

Macbeth.     We  will  speak  further. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Only  look  up  clear  ; 

To  alter  favour  ever  is  to  fear :  70 

Leave  all  the  rest  to  me.  \Exeunt. 

Scene  VL     Before  Macbeth's  castle. 
Hautboys  and  torches.     Enter  DUNCAN,  MALC0L3I,  DONALBAIX. 

Banquo,  Lexxox,  Macduff,  Ross,  Angus,  and  Attend- 
ants. 
Duncan.     This  castle  hath  a  pleasant  seat ;   the  air 

Nimbly  and  sweetly  recommends  itself 

Unto  our  gentle  senses. 


14  MACBETH. 

Banquo.  This  guest  of  summer, 

The  temple-haunting  martlet,  does  approve 
By  his  loved  mansionry  that  the  heaven's  breath 
Smells  wooingly  here :    no  jutty,  frieze, 
Buttress,  nor  coign  of  vantage,  but  this  bird 
Hath  made  his  pendent  bed  and  proci-eant  cradle  : 
Where  they  most  breed  and  haunt,  I  have  observed 
The  air  is  delicate. 

Enter  Lady  Macbeth. 

Duncan,  See,  see,  our  honour'd  hostess!        lo 

The  love  that  follows  us  sometime  is  our  trouble, 
Which  still  we  thank  as  love.     Herein  I  teach  you 
How  you  shall  bid  God  'ild  us  for  your  pains 
And  thank  us  for  your  trouble. 

Lady  Macbeth.  All  our  service 

In  every  point  twice  done  and  then  done  double 
Were  poor  and  single  business  to  contend 
Against  those  honours  deep  and  broad  wherewith 
Your  majesty  loads  our  house  :    for  those  of  old, 
And  the  late  dignities  heap'd  up  to  them, 
We  rest  your  hermits, 

Duncan.  Where 's  the  thane  of  Cawdor .' 

We  coursed  him  at  the  heels,  and  had  a  purpose  21 

To  be  his  purveyor :   but  he  rides  well ; 
And  his  great  love,  sharp  as  his  spur,  hath  holp  him 
To  his  home  before  us.     Fair  and  noble  hostess, 
We  are  your  guest  to-night. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Your  servants  ever 

Have  theirs,  themselves,  and  what  is  theirs,  in  compt. 
To  make  their  audit  at  your  highness'  pleasure, 
Still  to  return  your  own. 

Duncan.  Give  me  your  hand ; 

Conduct  me  to  mine  host :   we  love  him  highly. 
And  shall  continue  our  graces  towards  him.  30 

By  your  leave,  hostess.  \^Extiint. 


AQT  I.      SCENE    VII. 


Scene  VII.     Macbeth'' s  castle. 

Hautboys  and  torches.  Enter  a  Sewer,  and  divers  Servants 
-zvitb  dishes  and  service,  and  pass  o'ver  the  stage.  Then 
enter  MACBETH. 

Macbeth.     If  it  were  done  when  'tis  done,  then  'twere  well 
It  were  done  quickly  :    if  the  assassination 
Could  trammel  up  the  consequence,  and  catch 
With  his  surcease  success ;    that  but  this  blow 
Might  be  the  be-all  and  the  end-all  here. 
But  here,  upon  this  bank  and  shoal  of  time, 
We  'Id  jump  the  life  to  come.     But  in  these  cases 
We  still  have  judgement  here ;   that  we  but  teach 
Bloody  instructions,  which  being  taught  return 
To  plague  the  inventor:    this  even-handed  justice  lo 

Commends  the  ingredients  of  our  poison'd  chalice 
To  our  own  lips.     He  's  here  in  double  trust ; 
First,  as  I  am  his  kinsman  and  his  subject. 
Strong  both  against  the  deed ;   then,  as  his  host, 
Who  should  against  his  murderer  shut  the  door, 
Not  bear  the  knife  myself.     Besides,  this  Duncan 
Hath  borne  his  faculties  so  meek,  hath  been 
So  clear  in  his  great  office,  that  his  virtues 
Will  plead  like  angels  trumpet-tongued  against 
The  deep  damnation  of  his  taking-off;  20 

And  pity,  like  a  naked  new-born  babe, 
Striding  the  blast,  or  heaven's  cherubim,  horsed 
Upon  the  sightless  couriers  of  the  air. 
Shall  blow  the  horrid  deed  in  every  eye, 
That  tears  shall  drown  the  wind.     I  have  no  spur 
To  prick  the  sides  of  my  intent,  but  only 
Vaulting  ambition,  which  o'erleaps  itself 
And  fails  on  the  other. 

Enter  Lady  I\Iacbeth. 

How  now  !  what  news  ? 


1 6  MACBETH. 

Lady  Macbeth.     He  has  almost  supp'd  :  why  have  you  left 
the  chamber  ? 

Macbeth.     Hath  he  ask'd  for  me? 

Lady  Macbeth.  Know  you  not  he  has  ?     30 

Macbeth.     We  will  proceed  no  further  in  this  business : 
He  hath  honour'd  me  of  late  ;   and  I  have  bought 
Golden  opinions  from  all  sorts  of  people, 
Which  would  be  worn  now  in  their  newest  gloss, 
Not  cast  aside  so  soon. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Was  the  hope  drunk 

Wherein  you  dress'd  yourself  ?   hath  it  slept  since  ? 
And  wakes  it  now,  to  look  so  green  and  pale 
At  what  it  did  so  freely?     From  this  time 
Such  I  account  thy  love.     Art  thou  afeard 
To  be  the  same  in  thine  own  act  and  valour  40 

As  thou  art  in  desire  ?     Wouldst  thou  have  that 
Which  thou  esteem'st  the  ornament  of  life. 
And  live  a  coward  in  thine  own  esteem. 
Letting  'I  dare  not'  wait  upon  'I  would,' 
Like  the  poor  cat  i'  the  adage  ? 

Macbeth.  Prithee,  peace : 

I  dare  do  all  that  may  become  a  man  ; 
Who  dares  do  more  is  none. 

Lady  Macbeth.  What  beast  vvas't  then 

That  made  you  break  this  enterprise  to  me  ? 
When  you  durst  do  it,  then  you  were  a  man ; 
And,  to  be  more  than  what  you  were,  you  would  50 

Be  so  much  more  the  man.     Nor  time  nor  place 
Did  then  adhere,  and  yet  you  would  make  both : 
They  have  made  themselves,  and  that  their  fitness  now 
Does  unmake  you.     I  have  given  suck,  and  know 
How  tender  'tis  to  love  the  babe  that  milks  me : 
I  would,  while  it  was  smiling  in  my  face. 
Have  pluck'd  my  nipple  from  his  boneless  gums 
And  dash'd  the  brains  out,  had  I  so  sworn  as  you 
Have  done  to  this. 


ACT  II.      SCENE  I.  17 

Macbeth.  If  we  should  fail? 

Lady  Macbeth.  We  fail! 

But  screw  your  courage  to  the  sticking-place,  60 

And  we'll  not  fail.     When  Duncan  is  asleep — 
Whereto  the  rather  shall  his  day's  hard  journey 
Soundly  invite  him — his  two  chamberlains 
Will  I  with  wine  and  wassail  so  convince 
That  memory,  the  warder  of  the  brain, 
Shall  be  a  fume,  and  the  receipt  of  reason 
A  limbec  only :   when  in  swinish  sleep 
Their  drenched  natures  lie  as  in  a  death, 
What  cannot  you  and  I  perform  upon 
The  unguarded  Duncan  ?   what  not  put  upon  70 

His  spongy  officers,  who  shall  bear  the  guilt 
Of  our  great  quell  ? 

Macbeth.  Bring  forth  men-children  only ; 

For  thy  undaunted  mettle  should  compose 
Nothing  but  males.     Will  it  not  be  received. 
When  we  have  mark'd  with  blood  those  sleepy  two 
Of  his  own  chamber  and  used  their  very  daggers. 
That  they  have  done't? 

Lady  Macbeth.  Who  dares  receive  it  other, 

As  we  shall  make  our  griefs  and,  clamour  roar 
Upon  his  death  ? 

Macbeth.  I  am  settled,  and  bend  up 

Each  corporal  agent  to  this  terrible  feat.  80 

Away,  and  mock  the  time  with  fairest  show: 
False  face  must  hide  what  the  false  heart  doth  know. 

^Exeunt. 


ACT     II. 

Scene  I.     Court  of  Macbeth' s  castle. 

Enter  BanQUO,  and  Fleance  bearing  a  torch  before  him. 

Banquo.     How  goes  the  night,  boy  ? 

Flea7ice.     The  moon  is  down ;  I  have  not  heard  the  clock. 


10  MACBETH. 

Banquo.     And  she  goes  down  at  twelve. 

Fleance.  I  take't,  'tis  later,  sir. 

Banq.  Hold,  take  my  sword.  There  's  husbandry,  in  heaven; 
Their  candles  are  all  out.     Take  thee  that  too. 
A  heavy  summons  lies  like  lead  upon  me, 
And  yet  I  would  not  sleep :    merciful  powers. 
Restrain  in  me  the  cursed  thoughts  that  nature 
Gives  way  to  in  repose ! 

Enter  IMacbeth,  and  a  Servant  rjjith  a  torch. 

Give  me  my  sword. 
Who 's  there  ?  i  o 

Macbeth.     A  friend. 

Banquo.     What,  sir,  not  yet  at  rest .'    The  king 's  a-bed : 
He  hath  been  in  unusual  pleasure,  and 
Sent  forth  great  largess  to  your  offices. 

This  diamond  he  greets  your  wife  withal,  i'--..        ,    '"/^  f/^ 
By  the  name  of  most  kind  hostess;    and  shut  up    '         ^^ 
In  measureless  content. 

Macbeth.  Being  unprepared. 

Our  will  became  the  servant  to  defect ; 
Which  else  should  free  have  wrought. 

Banquo.  All 's  well. 

I  dreamt  last  night  of  the  three  weird  sisters :  20 

To  you  they  have  show'd  some  truth. 

Macbeth.  I  think  not  of  them  : 

Yet,  when  we  can  entreat  an  hour  to  serve. 
We  would  spend  it  in  some  words  upon  that  business, 
If  you  would  grant  the  time. 

Banquo.  At  your  kind'st  leisure. 

Macbeth.     If  you  shall  cleave  to  my  consent,  when  'tis,. 
It  shall  make  honour  for  you. 

Banquo.  So  I  lose  none 

In  seeking  to  augment  it,  but  still  keep 
My  bosom  franchised  and  allegiance  clear, 
1  shall  be  counsell'd. 


i| 


ACT  II.      SCENE   I.  19 

Macbeth.  Good  repose  the  while  ! 

Banquo.     Thanks,  sir:   the  like  to  you!  30 

[^Exeunt  Banquo  and  Fleance. 

Macbeth.     Go  bid  thy  mistress,  when  my  drink  is  ready, 
She  strike  upon  the  bell.    Get  thee  to  bed.     \Exit  Servant. 
Is  this  a  dagger  which  I  see  before  me, 
The  handle  toward  my  hand  ?     Come,  let  me  clutch  thee. 
I  have  thee  not,  and  yet  I  see  thee  still. 
Art  thou  not,  fatal  vision,  sensible 
To  feeling  as  to  sight  ?   or  art  thou  but 
A  dagger  of  the  mind,  a  false  creation. 
Proceeding  from  the  heat-oppressed  brain  ? 
I  see  thee  yet,  in  form  as  palpable  40 

As  this  which  now  I  draw. 

Thou  marshall'st  me  the  way  that  I  was  going ; 
And  such  an  instrument  I  was  to  use. 
Mine  eyes  are  made  the  fools  o'  the  other  senses, 
Or  else  worth  all  the  rest :    I  see  thee  still ; 
And  on  thy  blade  and  dudgeon  gouts  of  blood, 
Which  was  not  so  before.     There's  no  such  thing: 
It  is  the  bloody  business  which  informs 
Thus  to  mine  eyes.     Now  o'er  the  one  half-world 
Nature  seems  dead,  and  wicked  dreams  abuse  50 

The  curtain'd  sleep  ;    witchcraft  celebrates 
Pale  Hecate's  offerings,  and  wither'd  murder, 
Alarum'd  by  his  sentinel  the  wolf, 
Whose  howl 's  his  watch,  thus  with  his  stealthy  pace, 
With  Tarquin's  ravishing  strides,  towards  his  design 
Moves  hke  a  ghost.     Thou  sure  and  iirm-set  earth. 
Hear  not  my  steps,  which  way  they  walk,  for  fear 
Thy  very  stones  prate  of  my  whereabout, 
And  take  the  present  horror  from  the  time. 
Which  now  suits  with  it.     Whiles  I  threat  he  lives :        60 
Words  to  the  heat  of  deeds  too  cool  breath  gives. 

\_A  bell  rings. 
I  go,  and  it  is  done ;  the  bell  invites  me. 
Hear  it  not,  Duncan ;   for  it  is  a  knell 
That  summons  thee  to  heaven  or  to  hell.  [Exit, 

c  2 


20  MACBETH. 

Scene  II.     77je  same. 
Enter  Lady  Macbeth. 

Lady  Macbeth.    That  which  hath  made  them  drunk  hath 
made  me  bold ; 
What  hath  quench'd  them  hath  given  me  fire.    Hark  !  Peace  i 
It  was  the  owl  that  shriek'd,  the  fatal  bellman, 
Which  gives  the  stern'st  good-night.     He  is  about  it : 
The  doors  are  open,  and  the  surfeited  grooms 
Do   mock  their  charge  with   snores :    I  have  drugg'd  their 

possets, 
That  death  and  nature  do  contend  about  them, 
Whether  they  Hve  or  die. 

Macbeth.     [Within.]  Who  's  there  ?    what,  ho  ! 

Lady  Macbeth.     Alack,  I  am  afraid  they  have  awaked, 
And  'tis  not  done.     The  attempt  and  not  the  deed  lo 

Confounds  us.     Hark !    I  laid  their  daggers  ready ; 
He  could  not  miss  'em.     Had  he  not  resembled 
My  father  as  he  slept,  I  had  done't. 

Enter  MACBETH. 

My  husband ! 

Macb.    I  have  done  the  deed.    Didst  thou  not  hear  a  noise? 

Ladj  M.     I  heard  the  owl  scream  *and  the  crickets  cry. 
Did  not  you  speak  ? 

Macbeth.  When  ? 

Lady  Macbeth.  Now. 

Macbeth.  As  I  descended  ? 

Lady  Macbeth.      Ay. 

Macbeth.     Hark ! 
Who  lies  i'  the  second  cliamber  ? 

Lady  Macbeth.  Donalbain. 

Macbeth.     This  is  a  sorry  sight.     [Looking  on  his  hands.  20 

Lady  Macbeth.     A  foolish  thought,  to  say  a  sorry  sight. 


ACT  II.      SCENE   II.  21 

Macbeth.  There 's  one  did  laugh  in 's  sleep,  and  one  cried 
'Murder!' 
That  they  did  wake  each  other :    I  stood  and  heard  them : 
But  they  did  say  their  prayers,  and  address'd  them 
Again  to  sleep. 

Lady  Macbeth.     There  are  two  lodged  together. 

Macbeth.   One  cried  'God  bless  us  !'  and  'Amen'  the  other ; 
As  they  had  seen  me  with  these  hangman's  hands: 
Listening  their  fear,  I  could  not  say  'Amen,' 
When  they  did  say  '  God  bless  us  ! ' 

Lady  Macbeth.     Consider  it  not  so  deeply.  30 

Macbeth.    But  wherefore  could  not  I  pronounce  'Amen'? 
I  had  most  need  of  blessing,  and  'Amen' 
Stuck  in  my  throat. 

Lady  Macbeth.  These  deeds  must  not  be  thought 

After  these  ways;    so,  it  will  make  us  mad. 

Macb.     INIethought  I  heard  a  voice  cry  '  Sleep  no  more  ! 
Macbeth  doth  murder  sleep,'  the  innocent  sleep, 
Sleep  that  knits  up  the  ravell'd  sleave  of  care, 
The  death  of  each  day's  life,  sore  labour's  bath, 
Balm  of  hurt  minds,  great  nature's  second  course. 
Chief  nourisher  in  life's  feast, — 

Lady  Macbeth.  What  do  you  mean  ?         40 

Macbeth.     Still  it  cried  '  Sleep  no  more  !'  to  all  the  house  : 
'Glamis  hath  murder'd  sleep,  and  therefore  Cawdor 
Shall  sleep  no  more  ;    Macbeth  shall  sleep  no  more.' 

Lady  M.  Who  was  it  that  thus  cried  ?    Why,  worthy  th^.ne, 
You  do  unbend  your  noble  strength,  to  think 
So  brainsickly  of  things.     Go  get  some  water. 
And  wash  this  filthy  witness  from  your  hand. 
Why  did  you  bring  these  daggers  from  the  place  ? 
They  must  lie  there  :   go  carry  them,  and  smear 
The  sleepy  grooms  with  blood. 

Macbeth.  I'll  go  no  more :  50 

1  am  afraid  to  think  what  I  have  done ; 
Look  cn't  again  I  dare  not. 


2  2  MACBETH. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Infirm  of  purpose  ! 

Give  me  the  daggers :   the  sleeping  and  the  dead 
Are  but  as  pictures :    'tis  the  eye  of  childhood 
That  fears  a  painted  devil.     If  he  do  bleed, 
I'll  gild  the  faces  of  the  grooms  withal; 
For  it  must  seem  their  guilt.  {^Exit.     Knocking  ixjithin. 

Macbeth.  Whence  is  that  knocking  ? 

How  is't  with  me,  when  every  noise  appals  me  ? 
What  hands  are  here  ?   ha !   they  pluck  out  mine  eyes. 
Will  all  great  Neptune's  ocean  wash  this  blood  60 

Clean  from  my  hand  ?     No  ;    this  my  hand  will  rather 
The  multitudinous  seas  incarnadine, 
IVIaking  the  green  one  red. 

Re-enter  Lady  Macbeth. 

Lady  Macbeth.    My  hands  are  of  your  colour  ;  but  I  shame 
To  wear  a  heart  so  white.  {^Knocking  ivithin.]  I  hear  a  knocking 
At  the  south  entry :   retire  we  to  our  chamber : 
A  little  water  clears  us  of  this  deed : 
How  easy  is  it,  then  !     Your  constancy 
Hath  left  you  unattended.     [^Knocking  'ivithin.^  Hark !  more 

knocking. 
Get  on  your  nightgown,  lest  occasion  call  us  70 

And  show  us  to  be  watchers.     Be  not  lost 
So  poorly  in  your  thoughts. 

Macbeth.     To  know  my  deed,  'twere  best  not  know  myself. 

\Knocking  ivithin. 
Wake  Duncan  with  thy  knocking  !    I  would  thou  couldst ! 

[^Exeunt. 

Scene  III.     The  same. 

Knocking  ivithin.     Enter  a  Porter. 

Porter.  Here 's  a  knocking  indeed  !  If  a  man  were  porter 
of  hell-gate,  he  should  have  old  turning  the  key.  [Knocking 
ivithin.']  Knock,  knock,  knock !  Who  's  there,  i'  the  name 
of  Beelzebub  ?    Here 's  a  farmer,  that  hanged  himself  on  the 


ACT  II.      SCENE   III.  23 

expectation  of  plenty :  come  in  time  ;  have  napkins  enow 
about  you ;  here  you  '11  sweat  for 't.  \K710cking  iuithin.\ 
Knock,  knock!  Who's  there,  in  the  other  devil's  name? 
Faith,  here 's  an  equivocator,  that  could  swear  in  both  the 
scales  against  either  scale;  who  committed  treason  enough 
for  God's  sake,  yet  could  not  equivocate  to  heaven :  O 
come  in,  equivocator.  [Knocking  ivitbin.]  Knock,  knock, 
'  knock !  Who 's  there  ?  Faith,  here 's  an  English  tailor 
come  hither,  for  stealing  out  of  a  French  hose  :  come  in, 
tailor;  here  you  may  roast  your  goose.  [Knockif2g  ivithin-l 
Knock,  knock ;  never  at  quiet !  What  are  you  ?  But  this 
place  is  too  cold  for  hell.  I'll  devil-porter  it  no  further : 
I  had  thought  to  have  let  in  some  of  all  professions,  that 
go  the  primrose  way  to  the  everlasting  bonfire.  [Knocking 
within-l     Anon,  anon !     I  pray  you,  remember  the  porter. 

[Opens  the  gate. 

Enter  MaCDUFF  and  LENNOX. 

Macduff.     Was  it  so  late,  friend,  ere  you  went  to  bed, 
That  you  do  lie  so  late  ?        ,  21 

Porter.     Faith,  sir,  we  were  carousing  till  the  second  cock. 
Macduff.     Is  thy  master  stirring? 

Enter  MACBETH. 

Our  knocking  has  awaked  him  ;    here  he  comes. 

Lennox.     Good  morrow,  noble  sir. 

Macbeth.  Good  morrow,  both. 

Macduff.     Is  the  king  stirring,  worthy  thane  ? 

Macbeth.  Not  yet. 

Macduff.     He  did  command  me  to  call  timely  on  him : 
I  have  almost  slipp'd  the  hour. 

Macbeth.  I'll  bring  you  to  him. 

Macduff.     I  know  this  is  a  joyful  trouble  to  you ; 
But  yet  'tis  one.  30 


^  MACBETH. 

r.ftte  ItV''-''' ''''-'''' '^  ^'y^^^^ 

FoT'lff     r    •    ,^'""^^^-^0  bold  to  call, 
^or    tis  my  limited  service. 

i^««.A..     Goes  the  king  hence  to-day? 

Macbeth.  Tj     J  . 

T  ^,  "^  °oes :  he  did  appoint  so. 

n        T'     ^^^  "'^^^  ^^^  been  unruly;   where  we  lav 
Our  chmineys  were  blown  down,  and,  as  thev Mv 
Lamentings  heard  i'  th^  d.     .  ^      ^' 

And  nrr.1  •  ,         "^'  '^'"^"^^  screams  'of  death. 

And  prophesymg  with  accents  terrible 
Ot  dn-e  combustion  and  confused  events 
New  hatch'd  to  the  M^oeful  time:    the  obscure  bird 
aamou,.d  the  livelong  night:   some  say    the  ear  ^  '° 

Was  feverous  and  did  shake. 

Macbeth.  ,-t- 

Iwas  a  rough  night. 

A  !lZ:\o\l  '°"'  -■"'-'■ranee  cannot  parallel 

Re-enter  Macduff 

^«^f#-     O  horror,  horror,  horror  l' Tongue  nor  heart 
Cannot  conceive  nor  name  thee! 
Macbeth.  \ 
Lennox.   J  What 's  the  matter .' 

J^^^duJ     Confusion  now  hath  made  his  masterpiece- 
Most  sacrilegious  murder  hath  broke  ope  ' 

The  Lord's  anointed  temple,  and  stole  thence 
The  life  o'  the  building. 

Macbeth.  What  is 't  you  say?   the  life  ?    50 

Lennox.     Mean  you  his  majesty? 

M^cduf.     Approach  the  chamber,  and  destroy  your  si<^ht 
With  a  new  Gorgon:   do  not  bid  me  speak- 
See,  and  then  speak  yourselves.   [Exeunt  MacLh  and  Lennox. 
p-       ^,        ,  Awake,  awake! 

King  the  alarum-bell.     Murder  and  treason  • 
iJanquo  and  Donalbain  !  Malcolm  !  awake  ' 
Shake  off  this  downy  sleep,  death's  counterfeit, 
And  look  on  death  itself!  up,  up,  and  see 


ACT  IT.      SCENE   III.  25 

The  great  doom's  image !  Malcolm  !  Banquo  ! 

As  from  your  graves  rise  up,  and  walk  like  sprites,  60 

To  countenance  this  horror.     Ring  the  bell.         [Be/l  rings. 

Enter  Lady  Macbeth. 

La^Iy  Macbeth.     What 's  the  business. 
That  such  a  hideous  trumpet  calls  to  parley 
The  sleepers  of  the  house  ?  speak,  speak ! 

Macduff.  O  gentle  lady, 

'Tis  not  for  you  to  hear  what  I  can  speak  : 
The  repetition,  in  a  woman's  ear. 
Would  murder  as  it  fell. 

Enter  Banquo. 

O  Banquo,  Banquo ! 
Our  royal  master 's  murder'd. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Woe,  alas ! 

What,  in  our  house? 

Banquo.  Too  cruel  any  where. 

Dear  Duff,  I  prithee,  contradict  thyself,  70 

And  say  it  is  not  so. 

Re-enter  MACBETH  and  LENNOX. 

Macbeth.     Had  I  but  died  an  hour  before  this  chance, 
I  had  lived  a  blessed  time ;   for  from  this  instant 
There 's  nothing  serious  in  mortality : 
All  is  but  toys :  renown  and  grace  is  dead ; 
The  wine  of  life  is  drawn,  and  the  mere  lees 
Is  left  this  vault  to  brag  of. 

Enter  MalCOLJI  and  DONALBAIN. 

Donalbain.     What  is  amiss  ? 

Macbeth.  You  are,  and  do  not  know 't : 

The  spring,  the  head,  the  fountain  of  your  blood 
Is  stopped ;   the  very  source  of  it  is  stopp'd.  80 


26  MACBETH. 

Macduff.     Your  royal  father  's  murder'd. 

Malcolm.  O,  by  whom  ? 

Lennox.     Those  of  his  chamber,  as  it  seem'd,  had  done 't : 
Their  hands  and  faces  were  all  badged  with  blood ; 
So  were  their  daggers,  which  unwiped  we  found 
Upon  their  pillows : 

They  stared,  and  were  distracted ;   no  man's  life 
Was  to  be  trusted  with  them. 

Macbeth.     O,  yet  I  do  repent  me  of  my  fury, 
That  I  did  kill  them. 

Macduff.  Wherefore  did  you  so  ? 

Macbeth.  Who  can  be  wise,  amazed,  temperate  and  furious. 
Loyal  and  neutral,  in  a  moment  ?     No  man  :  9 1 

The  expedition  of  my  violent  love 
Outrun  the  pauser  reason.     Here  lay  Duncan, 
His  silver  skin  laced  with  his  golden  blood, 
And  his  gash'd  stabs  look'd  like  a  breach  in  nature 
For  ruin's  wasteful  entrance :  there,  the  murderers, 
Steep'd  in  the  colours  of  their  trade,  their  daggers 
Unmannerly  breech'd  with  gore :  who  could  refrain, 
That  had  a  heart  to  love,  and  in  that  heart 
Courage  to  make 's  love  knovv'n  ? 

Lady  Macbeth.  Help  me  hence,  ho!     100 

Macdiff.     Look  to  the  lady. 

Malcolm.      \^Aside  to  Don.]  Why  do  we  hold  our  tongues, 
That  most  may  claim  this  argument  for  ours  ? 

Don.     [Jjide  to  Mai.]  What  should  be  spoken  here,  where 
our  fate 
Hid  in  an  auger-hole,  may  rush,  and  seize  us  ? 
Let 's  away ; 
Our  tears  are  not  yet  brew'd. 

Malcolm.     [Aside  to  Don.]         Nor  our  strong  sorrow 
Upon  the  foot  of  motion. 

Banquo.  Look  to  the  lady : 

[Lady  Macbeth  is  carried  out. 
And  when  we  have  our  naked  frailties  hid, 


ACT  II.      SCENE   IV.  1"] 

That  suffer  in  exposure,  let  us  meet, 

And  question  this  most  bloody  piece  of  work,  no 

To  know  it  further.     Fears  and  scruples  shake  us: 

In  the  gre.at  hand  of  God  I  stand,  and  thence 

Against  the  undivulged  pretence  I  fight 

Of  treasonous  malice. 

Macduff.  And  so  do  I. 

All.  ^  So  all. 

Macbeth.     Let 's  briefly  put  on  manly  readiness. 
And  meet  i'  the  hail  together. 

All.  Well  contented. 

\Exeiint  all  but  Malcolm  and  Donalhain. 

Malcolm.  What  will  you  do?   Let's  not  consort  with  them: 
To  show  an  unfelt  sorrow  is  an  otTice 
Which  the  false  man  does  easy.     I'll  to  England. 

Donalbain.     To  Ireland,  I;   our  separated  fortune         120 
Shall  keep  us  both  the  safer :   where  we  are, 
There 's  daggers  in  men's  smiles :    the  near  in  blood. 
The  nearer  bloody. 

Malcolm.  This  murderous  shaft  that's  shot 

Hath  not  yet  lighted,  and  our  safest  way 
Is  to  avoid  the  aim.     Therefore,  to  horse ; 
And  let  us  not  be  dainty  of  leave-taking. 
But  shift  away :   there 's  warrant  in  that  theft 
Which  steals  itself  when  there's  no  mercy  left.        {Exeutit. 


SCEXE  IV.     Outside  Macbeth' s  castle. 
Enter  Ross  and  an  old  INIan. 

Old  Man.     Threescore  and  ten  I  can  remember  well: 
Within  the  volume  of  which  time  I  have  seen 
Hours  dreadful  and  things  strange  ;   but  this  sore  night 
Hath  trifled  former  knowings. 

B.OSS.  Ah,  good  father, 

Thou  seest,  the  heavens,  as  troubled  with  man's  act 
Threaten  his  bloody  stage :  by  the  clock  'tis  day. 


28  MACBETH. 

And  yet  dark  night  strangles  the  travelling  lamp : 

Is't  night's  predominance,  or  the  day's  shame, 

That  darkness  does  the  face  of  earth  entomb, 

When  living  light  should  kiss  it  ?  '• 


Old  Man.  'Tis  unnatural,  lo 

Even  like  the  deed  that's  done.     On  Tuesday  last, 
A  falcon,  towering  in  her  pride  of  place. 
Was  by  a  mousing  owl  hawk'd  at  and  kill'd. 

Ross.     And  Duncan's   horses — a   thing   most   strange   and 
certain — 
Beauteous  and  swift,  the  minions  of  their  race, 
Turn'd  wild  in  nature,  broke  their  stalls,  flung  out, 
Contending  'gainst  obedience,  as  they  would  make 
War  with  mankind. 

Old  Man.  'Tis  said  they  eat  each  other. 

Ross.     They  did  so,  to  the  amazement  of  mine  eyes 
That  look'd  upon  't. 

Enter  jMacUUFF. 

Here  comes  the  good  ]\Iacduff.     20 
How  goes  the  world,  sir,  now  ? 

Macduff.  Why,  see  you  not  ? 

Ross.     Is't  known  who  did  this  more  than  bloody  deed? 

Macduff.    Those  that  INIacbeth  hath  slain. 

Ross.  Alas,  the  day  ! 

What  good  could  they  pretend  ? 

Macduff.  They  were  suborn'd  : 

IMalcolm  and  Donalbain,  the  king's  two  sons, 
Are  stol'n  away  and  fled,  which  puts  upon  them 
Suspicion  of  the  deed. 

Ross.  'Gainst  nature  still : 

Thriftless  ambition,  that  wilt  ravin  up 
Thine  own  life's  means  !     Then  'tis  most  like 
The  sovereignty  will  fall  upon  Macbeth.  30 

Macduff.     He  is  already  named,  and  gone  to  Scone 
To  be  invested. 


ACT  III.      SCENE  I.  29 

Rojj.  Where  is  Duncan's  body  ? 

Macduff.     Carried  to  Colme-kill, 
The  sacred  storehouse  of  his  predecessors 
And  guardian  of  their  bones. 

Ross.  Will  you  to  Scone  ? 

Macduff.     No,  cousin,  I'll  to  Fife. 

Ross.  Well,  I  will  thither. 

Macduff.     Well,  may  you  see  things  well  done  there  :  adieu  ! 
Lest  our  old  robes  sit  easier  than  our  new ! 

Ross.     Farewell,  father.  39 

Old  Man.     God's  benison  go  with  you,  and  with  those 
That  would  make  good  of  bad,  and  friends  of  foes  ! 

\Exeunt. 

ACT  III. 

Scene  I.     Forres.     The  palace. 

Enter  Banquo. 

Banquo.     Thou  hast  it  now  :    king,  Cawdor,  Glamis,  all. 
As  the  weird  women  promised,  and,  I  fear, 
Thou  play'dst  most  foully  for 't :  yet  it  was  said 
It  should  not  stand  in  thy  posterity. 
But  that  myself  should  be  the  root  and  father 
Of  many  kings.     If  there  come  truth  from  them — 
As  upon  thee,  Macbeth,  their  speeches  shine — 
Why,  by  the  verities  on  thee  made  good. 
May  they  not  be  my  oracles  as  well 
And  set  me  up  in  hope?     But  hush!   no  more.  10 

Sennet  sounded.     Enter  Macbeth,  as  king ;    Lady  Macbeth, 
as  queen ;  LENNOX,  Ross,  Lords,  Ladies,  and  Attendants. 

Macbeth.     Here's  our  chief  guest. 

Lady  Macbeth.  If  he  had  been  forgotten. 

It  had  been  as  a  gap  in  our  great  feast, 
And  all-thing  unbecoming. 


30  MACBETH. 

Macbeth.     To-night  we  hold  a  solemn  supper,  sir, 
And  I  '11  request  your  presence. 

Banquo.  Let  your  highness 

Command  upon  me ;   to  the  which  my  duties 
Are  with  a  most  indissoluble  tie 
For  ever  knit. 

Macbeth.  Ride  you  this  afternoon  ? 

Banquo.     Ay,  my  good  lord.  19 

Macbeth.     We  should  have  else  desired  your  good  advice. 
Which  still  hath  been  both  grave  and  prosperous. 
In  this  day's  council;   but  we'll  take  to-morrow. 
Is't  far  you  ride? 

Banquo.     As  far,  my  lord,  as  will  fill  up  the  time 
'Twixt  this  and  supper :   go  not  my  horse  the  better, 
I  must  become  a  borrower  of  the  night 
For  a  dark  hour  or  twain. 

Macbeth.  Fail  not  our  feast. 

Banquo.     My  lord,  I  will  not. 

Macbeth.     We  hear  our  bloody  cousins  are  bestow'd 
In  England  and  in  Ireland,  not  confessing  30 

Their  cruel  parricide,  filling  their  hearers 
With  strange  invention  :   but  of  that  to-morrow, 
When  therewithal  we  shall  have  cause  of  state 
Craving  us  jointly.     Hie  you  to  horse:    adieu, 
Till  you  return  at  night.     Goes  Fleance  with  you? 

Banquo.     Ay,  my  good  lord :    our  time  does  call  upon 's. 

Macbeth.     I  wish  your  horses  swift  and  sure  of  foot ; 
And  so  I  do  commend  you  to  their  backs. 
Farewell.  \Exit  Banquo. 

Let  every  man  be  master  of  his  time  40 

Till  seven  at  night :  to  make  society 
The  sweeter  welcome,  we  will  keep  ourself 
Till  supper-time  alone :  while  then,  God  be  with  you ! 

[Exeunt  all  but  Macbeth  and  an  Attendant. 
Sirrah,  a  word  with  you  :    attend  those  men 
Our  pleasure  ? 


ACT  III.      SCENE   I.  31 

Attendant.     They  are,  my  lord,  without  the  palace  gate. 

Macbeth.     Bring  them  before  us.  \^Exit  Attendant. 

To  be  thus  is  nothing; 
But  to  be  safely  thus.     Our  fears  in  Banquo 
Stick  deep ;    and  in  his  royalty  of  nature 
Reigns  that  which  would  be  fear'd:    'tis  much  he  dares,  50 
And,  to  that  dauntless  temper  of  his  mind. 
He  hath  a  wisdom  that  doth  guide  his  valour 
To-  act  in  safety.     There  is  none  but  he 
Whose  being  I  do  fear :   and  under  him 
My  Genius  is  rebuked,  as  it  is  said 
IMark  Antony's  was  by  Gaesar.     He  chid  the  sisters, 
When  first  they  put  the  name  of  king  upon  me. 
And  bade  them  speak  to  him  :   then  prophet-like 
They  hail'd  him  father  to  a  line  of  kings: 
Upon  my  head  they  placed  a  fruitless  crown,  60 

And  put  a  barren  sceptre  in  my  gripe, 
Thence  to  be  wrench'd  with  an  unlineal  hand, 
No  son  of  mine  succeeding.     If't  be  so, 
For  Banquo's  issue  have  I  filed  ray  mind; 
For  them  the  gracious  Duncan  have  I  murder'd ; 
Put  rancours  in  the  vessel  of  my  peace 
Only  for  them  ;    and  mine  eternal  jewel 
Given  to  the  common  enemy  of  man, 
To  make  them  kings,  the  seed  of  Banquo  kings : 
Rather  than  so,  come,  fate,  into  the  list,  70 

And  champion  me  to  the  utterance  !     Who 's  there  ? 

Re-enter  Attendant,  rjjith  t^o  Murderers. 

Now  go  to  the  door,  and  stay  there  till  v>'e  call. 

l^Exit  Attendant. 
Was  it  not  yesterday  we  spoke  together? 

First  Murderer.     It  was,  so  please  your  highness. 

Macbeth.  Well  then,  now 

Have  you  consider'd  of  my  speeches  ?     Know 
That  it  was  he  in  the  times  past  which  held  you 


3^  MACBETH. 

So  under  fortune,  which  you  thought  had  been 

Our  innocent  self:    this  I   made  good  to  you 

In  our  last  conference,  pass'd  in  probation  with  you,        79 

How  you  were  borne  in  hand,  how  cross'd,  the  instruments, 

Who  wrought  with  them,  and  all  things  else  that  might 

To  half  a  soul  and  to  a  notion  crazed 

Say  'Thus  did  Banquo.' 

First  Murderer.  You  made  it  known  to  us. 

Macbeth.     I  did  so,  and  went  further,  which  is  now 
Our  point  of  second  meeting.     Do  you  find 
Your  patience  so  predominant  in  your  nature 
That  you  can  let  this  go  ?     Are  you  so  gospell'd 
To  pray  for  this  good  man  and  for  his  issue, 
Whose  heavy  hand  hath  bow'd  you  to  the  grave 
And  beggar'd  yours  for  ever.' 

First  Murderer.  We  are  men,  my  liege.      90 

Macbeth.     Ay,  in  the  catalogue  ye  go  for  men ; 
As  hounds  and  greyhounds,  mongrels,  spaniels,  curs, 
Shoughs,  water-rugs  and  demi-wolves,  are  clept 
All  by  the  name  of  dogs :   the  valued  file 
Distinguishes  the  swift,  the  slow,  the  subtle, 
The  housekeeper,  the  hunter,  every  one 
According  to  the  gift  which  bounteous  nature 
Hath  in  him  closed,  whereby  he  does  receive 
Particular  addition,  from  the  bill 

That  writes  them  all  alike:   and  so  of  men.  100 

Now  if  you  have  a  station  in  the  file, 
Not  i'  the  worst  rank  of  manhood,  say't ; 
And  I  will  put  that  business  in  your  bosoms, 
Whose  execution  takes  your  enemy  off. 
Grapples  you  to  the  heart  and  love  of  us. 
Who  wear  our  health  but  sickly  in  his  life. 
Which  in  his  death  were  perfect. 

Second  Murderer.  I  am  one,  my  liege, 

Whom  the  vile  blows  and  buffets  of  the  world 
Have  so  incensed  that  I  am  reckless  what 
I  do  to  spite  the  world. 


ACT  III.      SCENE  I.  33 

First  Murderer.  And  I  another  no 

So  weary  with  disasters,  tugg'd  with  fortune, 
That  I  would  set  my  life  on  any  chance. 
To  mend  it  or  be  rid  on't. 

Macbeth.  Both  of  you 

Know  Banquo  was  your  enemy. 

Both  Murderers.  True,  my  lord. 

Macbeth.     So  is  he  mine,  and  in  such  bloody  distance 
That  every  minute  of  his  being  thrusts 
Against  my  near'st  of  life  :    and  though  I  could 
Nvith  barefaced  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,  120 

Whose  loves  I  may  not  drop,  but  wail  his  fall 
Who  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. 

Second  Murderer.  We  shall,  my  lord, 

Perform  what  you  command  us. 

First  Murderer.  Though  our  lives — 

Macbeth.   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,  1 30 

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. 

Both  Murderers.  We  are  resolved,  my  lord. 

Macbeth.     I'll  call  upon  you  straight :   abide  within. 

\_Exeunt  Murderers. 


34  MACBETH. 

It  is  concluded  :  Banquo,  thy  soul's  flight,  1 40 

If  it  find  heaven,  must  find  it  out  to-night.  \Exit. 


Scene  II.     The  palace. 
Enter  Lady  Macbeth  and  a  Servant. 

Lady  Macbeth.     Is  Banquo  gone  from  court  ? 

Servant.     Ay,  madam,  but  returns  again  to-night. 

Lady  Macbeth.     Say  to  the  king,  I  would  attend  his  leisure 
For  a  few  words.  * 

Servant.  Madam,   I  will.  \Exit. 

Lady  Macbeth.  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         10 

With  them  they  think  on  ?   Things  without  all  remedy 

Should  be  without  regard  :   what 's  done  is  done. 

Macbeth.     We  have  scotch'd  the  snake,  not  kill'd  it : 
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  peace,  have  sent  to  peace,  20 

Than  on  the  torture  of  the  mind  to  lie 
In  restless  ecstasy.     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. 


i 


ACT  III.      SCENE  IT.  35 

Lady  Macbeth.  Come  on  ; 

Gentle  my  lord,  sleek  o'er  your  rugged  looks ; 
Be  bright  and  jovial  among  your  guests  to-night. 

Macbeth.     So  shall  I,  love ;   and  so,  I  pray,  be  you : 
Let  your  remembrance  apply  to  Ban  quo  ;  30 

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  visards  to  our  hearts, 
Disguising  what  they  are. 

Lady  Macbeth.  You  must  leave  this. 

Macbeth.     O,  full  of  scorpions  is  my  mind,  dear  wife  ! 
Thou  know'st  that  Banquo,  and  his  Fieance,  lives. 

Lady  Macbeth.     But  in  them  nature's  copy  's  not  eterne. 

Macbeth.     There  's  comfort  yet ;   they  are  assailable  ; 
Then  be  thou  jocund :   ere  the  bat  hath  flown  40 

His  cloister'd  flight,  ere  to  black  Hecate's  summons 
The  shard-borne  beetle  with  his  drowsy  hums 
Hath  rung  night's  yawning  peal,  there  shall  be  done 
A  deed  of  dreadful  note. 

Lady  Macbeth.  What's  to  be  done? 

Macbeth.     Be  innocent  of  the  knowledge,  dearest  chuck, 
Till  thou  applaud  the  deed.     Come,  seeling  night, 
Scarf  up  the  tender  eye  of  pitiful  day, 
And  with  thy  bloody  and  invisible  hand 
Cancel  and  tear  to  pieces  that  great  bond 
Which  keeps  me  pale  !     Light  thickens,  and  the  crovv      50 
Makes  wing  to  the  rooky  wood : 
Good  things  of  day  begin  to  droop  and  drowse ; 
Whiles  night's  black  agents  to  their  preys  do  rouse. 
Thou  marvell'st  at  my  words :   but  hold  thee  still : 
Things  bad  begun  make  strong  themselves  by  ill. 
So,  prithee,  go  with  me.  [Exeunt. 


D  3 


35  MACBETH. 

Scene  III.     J  pari  near  the  palace. 
Enter  three  Murderers. 

First  Murd.     But  who  did  bid  thee  join  with  us  ? 

Third  Murderer.  Macbeth. 

Sec.  Murd.     He  needs  not  our  mistrust,  since  he  delivers 
Our  offices  and  what  we  have  to  do 
To  the  direction  just. 

First  Murderer.  Then  stand  with  us. 

The  west  yet  glimmers  with  some  streaks  of  day : 
Now  spurs  the  lated  traveller  apace 
To  gain  the  timely  inn,  and  near  approaches 
The  subject  of  our  watch. 

Third  Murderer.  Hark  !  I  hear  horses. 

Banquo.     [H^ithin.]  Give  us  a  light  there,  ho ! 

Second  Murderer.  Then  'tis  he :    the  rest 

That  are  within  the  note  of  expectation  lo 

Already  are  i'  the  court. 

First  Murderer.  His  horses  go  about. 

Third  Murderer.     Almost  a  mile  :   but  he  does  usually, 
So  all  men  do,  from  hence  to  the  palace  gate 
Make  it  their  walk. 

Second  Murderer.       A  light,  a  light ! 

Enter  BanQUO,  and  FlEANCE  with  a  torch. 

Third  Murderer.  'Tis  he. 

First  Murderer.     Stand  to  't. 

Banquo.     It  will  be  rain  to  night. 

First  Murderer.  Let  it  come  down, 

[They  set  upon  Banquo. 
Banquo.     O,  treachery !     Fly,  good  Fleance,  fly,  fly,  fly  ! 
Thou  mayst  revenge.     O  slave  !  [Dies.     Fleance  escapes. 

Third  Murderer.     Who  did  strike  out  the  light  ? 
First  Murderer.  Was 't  not  the  way  ? 


ACT  III.      SCENE  IV.  37 

Third  Miird.     There  's  but  one  down  ;  the  son  is  fled. 
Second  Murderer.  We  have  lost 

Best  half  of  our  affair.  21 

First  Murd.     Well,  let 's  away,  and  say  how  much  is  done. 

\^Exeu?2t. 

Scene  IV.     Hall  in  the  palace. 

A   banquet  prepared.     Enter    MACBETH,   Lady    MacBETH, 
Ross,  Lennox,  Lords,  and  Attendants. 

Macbeth.     You  know  your  own  degrees  ;  sit  down  :   at  first 
And  last  the  hearty  welcome. 

Lords.  Thanks  to  your  majesty. 

Macbeth.     Ourself  will  mingle  with  society 
And  play  the  humble  host. 
Our  hostess  keeps  her  state,  but  in  best  time 
We  will  require  her  welcome. 

Lady  Macbeth.     Pronounce  it  for  me,  sir,  to  all  our  friends ; 
For  my  heart  speaks  they  are  welcome. 

First  Murderer  appears  at  the  door. 

Macbeth.    See,  they  encounter  thee  with  their  hearts'  thanks. 
Both  sides  are  even:    here  I'll  sit  i'  the  midst:  lo 

Be  large  in  mirth ;   anon  we'll  drink  a  measure 
The  table  round.  ^Approaching  the  door.}  There's  blood  upon 
thy  face. 

Murderer.     'Tis  Banquo's  then. 

Macbeth.     'Tis  better  thee  without  than  he  within. 
Is  he  dispatch'd  ? 

Murderer.     My  lord,  his  throat  is  cut ;  that  I  did  for  him. 

Macb.  Thou  art  the  best  o'  the  cut-throats :    yet  he  's  good 
That  did  the  like  for  Fleance  :    if  thou  didst  it, 
Thou  art  the  nonpareil. 

Murderer.  Most  royal  sir, 

Fleance  is  'scaped.  20 


38  MACBETH. 

Macbeth.  [Aside.']  Then  comes  my  fit  again :  I  had  else  been 
Whole  as  the  marble,  founded  as  the  rock,  [perfect, 

As  broad  and  general  as  the  casing  air : 
But  now  I  am  cabin'd,  cribb'd,  confined,  bound  in 
To  saucy  doubts  and  fears. — But  Banquo  's  safe  ? 

Murderer.     Ay,  my  good  lord:   safe  in  a  ditch  he  bides, 
With  twenty  trenched  gashes  on  his  head. 
The  least  a  death  to  nature. 

Macbeth.  Thanks  for  that. 

[Jside.]  There  the  grown  serpent  lies ;  the  worm  that 's  fled 
Hath  nature  that  in  lime  will  venom  breed,  30 

No  teeth  for  the  present. — Get  thee  gone :    to-morrow 
We'll  hear  ourselves  again.  [Exit  Murderer. 

Lady  Macbeth.  My  royal  lord. 

You  do  not  give  the  cheer;   the  feast  is  sold 
That  is  not  often  vouch'd,  while  'tis  a-making, 
'Tis  given  with  welcome :   to  feed  were  best  at  home ; 
From  thence  the  sauce  to  meat  is  ceremony ; 
Meeting  were  bare  without  it. 

Macbeth.  Sv/eet  remembrancer ! 

Now  good  digestion  wait  on  appetite, 
And  health  on  both ! 

Lennox.  May't  please  your  highness  sit. 

^he  Ghost  of  Banquo  enters,  and  sits  in  Macbeth'' s  place. 

Macbeth.     Here  had  we  now  our  country's  honour  roofd. 
Were  the  graced  person  of  our  Banquo  present ;  4 1 

Who  may  I  rather  challenge  for  unkindness 
Than  pity  for  mischance  ! 

Ross.  His  absence,  sir. 

Lays  blame  upon  his  promise.     Please 't  your  highness 
To  grace  us  with  your  royal  company. 

Macbeth.     The  table's  full. 

Lennox.  >  Here  is  a  place  reserved,  sir. 

Macbeth.     Where  ? 

Lemiox.     Here,  my  good  lord.   What  is't  that  moves  your 
highness  ? 


ACT  III.      SCENE  IV.  39 

Macbeth.     Which  of  you  have  done  this  ? 

Lords.  What,  my  good  lord? 

Macbeth.     Thou  canst  not  say  I  did  it :    never  shake   50 
Thy  gory  locks  at  me. 

Ross.    Gentlemen,  rise :  his  highness  is  not  well. 

Lady  Macbeth.     Sit,  worthy  friends:  my  lord  is  often  thus. 
And  hath  been  from  his  youth :   pray  you,  keep  seat ; 
The  fit  is  momentary ;  upon  a  thought 
He  will  again  be  well :  if  much  you  note  him. 
You  shall  offend  him  and  extend  his  passion : 
Feed,  and  regard  him  not.     Are  you  a  man  ? 

Macbeth.     Ay,  and  a  bold  one,  that  dare  look  on  that 
Which  might  appal  the  devil. 

Lady  Macbeth.  O  proper  stufT!  60 

This  is  the  very  painting  of  your  fear: 
This  is  the  air-drawn  dagger  which,  you  said. 
Led  you  to  Duncan.     O,  these  flaws  and  starts, 
Impostors  to  true  fear,  would  well  become 
A  woman's  story  at  a  winter's  fire, 
Authorized  by  her  grandam.     Shame  itself! 
Why  do  you  make  such  faces?    When  all's  done, 
You  look  but  on  a  stool. 

Macb.    Prithee,  see  there !  behold!  look!  lo!  how  say  you? 
Why,  what  care  I  ?     If  thou  canst  nod,  speak  too. 
If  charnel-houses  and  our  graves  must  send  71 

Those  that  we  bury  back,  our  monuments 
Shall  be  the  maws  of  kites.  [Ghost  'vanishes. 

Lady  Macbeth.  What,  quite  unmann'd  in  folly? 

Macbeth.     If  I  stand  here,  I  saw  him. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Fie,  for  shame! 

Macbeth.     Blood  hath  been  shed  ere  now,  i'  the  olden  time, 
Ere  humane  statute  purged  the  gentle  weal ; 
Ay,  and  since  too,  murders  have  been  perform'd 
Too  terrible  for  the  ear:   the  time  has  been, 
That,  when  the  brains  were  out,  the  man  would  die, 
And  there  an  end;  but  now  they  rise  again,  80 


40  MACBETH. 

With  twenty  mortal  murders  on  their  crowns, 
And  push  us  from  our  stools :   this  is  more  strange 
Than  such  a  murder  is. 

Lady  Macbeth.  My  worthy  lord, 

Your  noble  friends  do  lack  you. 

Macbeth.  I   do  forget. 

Do  not  muse  at  me,  my  most  worthy  friends ; 
I  have  a  strange  infirmity,  which  is  nothing 
To  those  that  know  me.     Come,  love  and  health  to  all ; 
Then  I'll  sit  down.     Give  me  some  wine,  fill  full.  j. 

I  drink  to  the  general  joy  o'  the  whole  table,  11  i 

And  to  our  dear  friend  Banquo,  whom  we  miss ;  90 

Would  he  were  here  !    to  all  and  him  we  thirst, 
And  all  to  all. 

Lords.  Our  duties,  and  the  pledge. 

Re-enter  Ghost. 

Macb.  Avaunt !  and  quit  my  sight !  let  the  earth  hide  thee  ! 
Thy  bones  are  marrowless,  thy  blood  is  cold ; 
Thou  hast  no  speculation  in  those  eyes 
Which  thou  dost  glare  with. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Think  of  this,  good  peers, 

But  as  a  thing  of  custom  :   'tis  no  other ; 
Only  it  spoils  the  pleasure  of  the  time. 

Macbeth.     What  man  dare,  1  dare : 
Approach  thou  like  the  rugged  Russian  bear,  100 

The  arm'd  rhinoceros,  or  the  Hyrcan  tiger; 
Take  any  shape  but  that,  and  my  firm  nerves 
Shall  never  tremble:    or  be  alive  again, 
And  dare  me  to  the  desert  with  thy  sword; 
If  trembling  I  inhabit  then,  protest  me 
The  baby  of  a  girl.     Hence,  horrible  shadow! 
Unreal  mockery,  hence  !  \Ghost  -vanishes. 

Why,  so :  being  gone, 
I  am  a  man  again.     Pray  you,  sit  still. 

Lady  Macbeth.     You  have  displaced  the  mirth,  broke  the 
good  meeting, 
With  most  admired  disorder. 


ACT  III.      SCENE  IV.  4I 

Macbeth.  Can  such  things  be,  no 

And  overcome  us  like  a  summer's  cloud, 
Without  our  special  wonder?     You  make  me  strange 
Even  to  the  disposition  that  I  owe, 
When  now  I  think  you  can  behold  such  sights, 
And  keep  the  natural  ruby  of  your  cheeks. 
When  mine  is  blanch'd  with  fear. 

Ross.  What  sights,  my  lord? 

Lady  M,  I  pray  you,  speak  not ;  he  grows  worse  and  worse ; 
Question  enrages  him.     At  once,  good  night : 
Stand  not  upon  the  order  of  your  going, 
But  go  at  once. 

Lennox.  Good  night;  and  better  health  120 

Attend  his  miajesty! 

Lady  Macbeth.  A  kind  good  night  to  all ! 

{Exeunt  all  but  Macbeth  and  Lady  Macbeth. 

Macbeth.  It  will  have  blood  :  they  say  blood  will  have  blood: 
Stones  have  been  known  to  move  and  trees  to  speak; 
Augures  and  understood  relations  have 
By  maggot-pies  and  choughs  and  rooks  brought  forth 
The  secret'st  man  of  blood.     What  is  the  night  ? 

Lady  M.     Almost  at  odds  with  morning,  which  is  v.hich. 

Macbeth.     How  say'st  thou,  that  Macduff  denies  his  person 
At  our  great  bidding  ? 

Lady  Macbeth.  Did  you  send  to  him,  sir? 

Macbeth.     I  hear  it  by  the  way,   but  I  will  send:        130 
There 's  not  a  one  of  them  but  in  his  house 
I  keep  a  servant  fee'd.     I  will  to-morrow, 
And  betimes  I  will,  to  the  weird  sisters  : 
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 
Stepp'd  in  so  far  that,  should  I  wade  no  more, 
Returning  were  as  tedious  as  go  o'er  : 
Strange  things  I  have  in  head  that  will  to  hand. 
Which  must  be  acted  ere  they  may  be  scann'd.  140 


4Z  MACBETH. 

Lady  Macbeth.     You  lack  the  season  of  all  natures,  sleep. 

Macbeth.     Come,  we  'II  to  sleep.    INIy  strange  and  self-abuse 
Is  the  initiate  fear  that  wants  hard  use  : 
We  are  yet  but  young  in  deed.  \Exeunt. 

Scene  V.     A  heath. 
•Thunder.     Enter  the  three  Witches,  meeting  H  EC  ATE. 

First  Witch.     Why,  how  now,  Hecate !  you  look  angerly. 

Hecate.     Have  I  not  reason,  beldams  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  lo 

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  '11  spend  20 

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  'II  catch  it  ere  it  come  to  ground : 
And  that,  distill'd  by  magic  sleights, 
Shall  raise  such  artificial  sprites 
As  by  the  strength  of  their  illusion 
Shall  draw  him  on  to  his  confusion : 


ACT  III.      SCENE    VI.  43 

He  shall  spurn  fate,  scorn  death,  and  bear  30 

His  hopes  'bove  wisdom,  grace  and  fear: 
And  you  all  know  security 
Is  mortals'  chiefest  enemy. 

[Music  and  a  song  nvitbin : '  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  Witcb.     Come,  let 's  make  haste ;  she  '11  soon  be  back 

again.  [Exemt. 


Scene  VI.     Forres.     The  palace. 

Enter  Lennox  and  another  Lord. 

Lennox.     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  walk'd  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 !  10 

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 't.     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 
What  'twere  to  kill  a  father;    so  should  Fleance.  20 

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


44  MACBETH. 

Lord.  The  son  of  Duncan, 

From  whom  this  tyrant  holds  the  due  of  birth, 
Lives  in  the  Enghsh  court,  and  is  received 
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  30 

To  wake  Northumberland  and  warlike  Siward ; 
That  by  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. 

Lennox.  Sent  he  to  IMacduff? 

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.' 

Lenfiox.  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 
Under  a  hand  accursed  ! 

Lord.  I'll  send  my  prayers  with  him. 

[Exeunt. 


i 


ACT  IV.      SCENE   I.  45 

ACT  IV. 

Scene  I.     yl  cavern.     In  the  middle,  a  boiling  cauldron. 
Thunder.     Enter  the  three  Witches. 

First  Witch.     Thrice  the  brinded  cat  hath  mew'd. 

Second  Witch.     Thrice  and  once  the  hedge-pig  whined. 

Third  Witch.     Harpier  cries  '  'Tis  time,  'tis  time.' 

First  Witch.     Round  about  the  cauldron  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  ;  10 

Fire  burn  and  cauldron  bubble. 

Second  Witch.     Fillet  of  a  fenny  snake, 
In  the  cauldron  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  howlet's  wing. 
For  a  charm  of  powerful  trouble, 
Like  a  hell-broth  boil  and  bubble. 

All.     Double,  double  toil  and  trouble  ;  20 

Fire  burn  and  cauldron  bubble. 

Third  Witch.     Scale  of  dragon,  tooth  of  wolf. 
Witches'  mummy,  maw  and  gulf 
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, 

Finger  of  birth-strangled  babe  3^ 

Ditch-deliver'd  by  a  drab, 
IMake  the  gruel  thick  and  slab: 


46  MACBETH. 

Add  thereto  a  tiger's  chaudron, 
For  the  ingredients  of  our  cauldron. 

All.     Double,  double  toil  and  trouble  ; 
Fire  burn  and  cauldron  bubble. 

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

Enter  Hecate  to  the  other  three  Witches. 
Hecate.     O,  well  done  !    I  commend  your  pains ; 
And  every  one  shall  share  i'  the  gains :  40 

And  now  about  the  cauldron  sing, 
Like  elves  and  fairies  in  a  ring, 
Enchanting  all  that  you  put  in. 

YMusic  and  a  song:  'Black  spirits,'  &c.     Hecate  retires. 
Second  Witch.     By  the  pricking  of  my  thumbs, 
Something  wicked  this  way  comes. 
Open,  locks. 
Whoever  knocks ! 

E)iter  Macbeth. 

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

All.  A  deed  without  a  name. 

Macbeth.     I  conjure  you,  by  that  which  you  profess,     50 
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  lodged  and  trees  blown  down ; 
Though  castles  topple  on  their  warders'  heads ; 
Though  palaces  and  pyramids  do  slope 
Their  heads  to  their  foundations ;  though  the  treasure 
Of  nature's  germens  tumble  all  together. 
Even  till  destruction  sicken ;    answer  me  60 

To  what  I  ask  you. 

First  Witch.  Speak. 

Second  Witch.  Demand. 

Third  Witch.  We  '11  answer. 


ACT  IV.      SCENE  I.  47 

First  W.  Say,  if  thou'dst  rather  hear  it  from  our  mouths, 
Or  from  our  masters  ? 

Macbeth.  Call  'em ;  let  me  see  'em. 

First  U'ltch.     Pour  in  sow's  blood,  that  hath  eaten 
Her  nine  farrow ;    grease  that 's  sweaten 
From  the  murderer's  gibbet  throw 
Into  the  flame. 

All.  Come,  high  or  low ; 

Thyself  and  office  deftly  show ! 

Thunder.     First  Apparition :  an  armed  Head. 

Macbeth.     Tell  me,  thou  unknown  power, — 

First  Witch.  He  knows  thy  thought : 

Hear  his  speech,  but  say  thou  nought.  70 

First  App.  Macbeth!  IMacbeth!  Macbeth!  beware  Macduff; 
Beware  the  thane  of  Fife.     Dismiss  me  :  enough.     \Descends. 

Macbeth.  Whate'er  thou  art,  for  thy  good  caution  thanks ; 
Thou  hast  harp'd  my  fear  aright :   but  one  word  more, — , 

First  Witch.  He  will  not  be  commanded :  here 's  another, 
More  potent  than  the  first. 

Thunder.     Second  Apparition  :  a  bloody  Child. 

Second  Apparition.     Macbeth  !  Macbeth  !  Macbeth ! 

Macbeth.     Had  I  three  ears,  I  'Id  hear  thee. 

Second  App.    Be  bloody,  bold,  and  resolute  ;  laugh  to  scorn 
The  power  of  man,  for  none  of  woman  born 
Shall  harm  IMacbeth.  [Descends. 

Macbeth.     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 ; 
That  I  may  tell  pale-hearted  fear  it  lies. 
And  sleep  in  spite  of  thunder. 

Thunder.     Third  Apparition :  a  Child  cro-juned,  with  a  tree 
in  his  hand. 

What  is  this, 
That  rises  like  the  issue  of  a  king, 


48  MACBETH. 

And  wears  upon  his  baby-brow  the  round 
And  top  of  sovereignty  ? 

All.  Listen,  but  speak  not  to't. 

Third  App.     Be  Uon-mettled,  proud,  and  take  no  care 
Who  chafes,  who  frets,  or  where  conspirers  are  : 
Macbeth  shall  never  vanquish'd  be  until  91 

Great  Birnam  wood  to  high  Dunsinane  hill 
Shall  come  against  him.  [Descends. 

Macbeth.  That  will  never  be: 

Who  can  impress  the  forest,  bid  the  tree 
Unfix  his  earth-bound  root  ?     Sweet  bodements  .'  good  ! 
Rebellion's  head,  rise  never,  till  the  wood 
Of  Birnam  rise,  and  our  high-placed  Macbeth 
Shall  live  the  lease  of  nature,  pay  his  breath 
To  time  and  mortal  custom.     Yet  my  heart  100 

Throbs  to  know  one  thing :  tell  me,  if  your  art 
Can  tell  so  much  :   shall  Banquo's  issue  ever 
Reign  in  this  kingdom? 

All.  Seek  to  know  no  more. 

Macbeth.     I  will  be  satisfied:   deny  me  this, 

And  an  eternal  curse  fall  on  you !     Let  me  know. 

Why  sinks  that  cauldron  ?   and  what  noise  is  this  ? 

[Hautboys. 
First  Witch.     Show! 

Second  Witch.     Show  ! 

Third  Witch.     Show  ! 

All.     Show  his  eyes,  and  grieve  his  heart;  no 

Come  like  shadows,  so  depart ! 

A  shoiv  of  eight  Kings,  the   last  <with  a  glass    in  his  hand; 
Banquo''s  Ghost  folloquing. 

Macbeth.     Thou  art  too  like  the  spirit  of  Banquo ;  down  ! 
Thy  crown  does  sear  mine  eye-balls.     And  thy  hair. 
Thou  other  gold-bound  brow,  is  like  the  first. 
A  third  is  like  the  former.     Filthy  hags ! 
Why  do  you  show  me  this  ?     A  fourth !     Start,  eyes  I 


ACT  IV.      SCENE   I.  49 

What,  will  the  line  stretch  out  to  the  crack  of  doom? 
Another  yet !     A  seventh  !     I  '11  see  no  more  : 
And  yet  the  eighth  appears,  who  bears  a  glass 
Which  shows  me  many  more;   and  some  I  see  120 

That  two-fold  balls  and  treble  sceptres  carry : 
Horrible  sight !     Now  I  see  'tis  true  ; 
For  the  blood-bolter'd  Banquo  smiles  upon  me, 
And  points  at  them  for  his.  YApparitions  'vanish. 

What,  is  this  so  ? 

First  fVitch.     Ay,  sir,  all  this  is  so :  but  why 
Stands  Macbeth  thus  amazedly  ? 
Come,  sisters,  cheer  we  up  his  sprites, 
And  show  the  best  of  our  delights : 
I'll  charm  the  air  to  give  a  sound. 

While  you  perform  your  antic  round,  130 

That  this  great  king  may  kindly  say, 
Our  duties  did  his  welcome  pay. 

\^Music.     The  Witches  dance,  and  then  vanish,  ivith  Hecate. 

Macbeth.  Where  are  they  ?  Gone  ?  Let  this  pernicious  hour 
Stand  aye  accursed  in  the  calendar  ! 
Come  in,  without  there ! 

Enter  Lennox. 

Leyviox.  What 's  your  grace's  will  ? 

Macbeth.  Saw  you  the  weird  sisters .' 

Lennox.  No  my  lord. 

Macbeth.  Came  they  not  by  you  .'' 

Lennox.  '  No  indeed,  my  lord. 

Macbeth.  Infected  be  the  air  whereon  they  ride ; 
And  damn'd  all  those  that  trust  them  !  I  did  hear 
The  galloping  of  horse:  who  was't  came  by?  140 

Lennox.     'Tis  two  or  three,  my  lord,  that  bring  you  word 
Macduff  is  fled  to  England. 

Macbeth.  Fled  to  England  ! 

Lennox.     Ay,  my  good  lord. 


50  MACBETH. 

Macbeth.  [Aside.]  Time,  thou  anticipatest  my  dread  exploits : 
The  flighty  purpose  never  is  o'ertook 
Unless  the  deed  go  with  it :   from  this  moment 
The  very  firstlings  of  my  heart  shall  be 
The  firstlings  of  my  hand.     And  even  now, 
To  crown  my  thoughts  with  acts,  be  it  thought  and  done : 
The  castle  of  Macduff  I  will  surprise;  150 

Seize  upon  Fife ;  give  to  the  edge  o'  the  sword 
His  wife,  his  babes,  and  all  unfortunate  souls 
That  trace  him  in  his  line.     No  boasting  like  a  fool ; 
This  deed  I  '11  do  before  this  purpose  cool. 
But  no  more  sights  ! — Where  are  these  gentlemen  ? 
Come,  bring  me  where  they  are.  [Exeunt. 


Scene   II.     Fife.     Macduff's  castle. 
Enter  LadY   Macduff,  her  Son,  and  Ross. 

Lady  Macduff.  What  had  he  done,  to  make  him  fly  the  land? 

Ross.     You  must  have  patience,  madam. 

Lady  Macduff.  He  had  none : 

His  flight  was  madness :    when  our  actions  do  not, 
Our  fears  do  make  us  traitors. 

Ross.  You  know  not 

Whether  it  was  his  wisdom  or  his  fear. 

Lady  Macduff.  Wisdom  !  to  leave  his  wife,  to  leave  his  babes, 
His  mansion  and  his  titles  in  a  place 
From  whence  himself  docs  fly  ?     He  loves  us  not ; 
He  wants  the  natural  touch:    for  the  poor  wren, 
The  most  diminutive  of  birds,  will  fight,  10 

Her  young  ones  in  her  nest,  against  the  owl. 
All  is  the  fear  and  nothing  is  the  love ; 
As  little  is  the  wisdom,  where  the  flight 
So  runs  against  all  reason. 

Ross.  My  dearest  coz, 

I  pray  you,  school  yourself:   but  for  your  husband, 
He  is  noble,  wise,  judicious,  and  best  knows 


ACT  IV.      SCENE  II,  51 

The  fits  o'  the  season.     I  dare  not  speak  much  further; 

But  cruel  are  the  times,  when  we  are  traitors 

And  do  not  know  ourselves;  when  we  hold  rumour 

From  what  we  fear,  yet  know  not  what  we  fear,  20 

But  float  upon  a  wild  and  violent  sea 

Each  way  and  move.     I  take  my  leave  of  you : 

Shall  not  be  long  but  I'll  be   here  again : 

Things  at  the  worst  will  cease,  or  else  climb  upward 

To  what  they  were  before.     My  pretty  cousin, 

Blessing  upon  you! 

Lady  Macduff.     Father'd  he  is,  and  yet  he  's  fatherless. 

Ross.     I  am  so  much  a  fool,  should  I  stay  longer, 
It  would  be  my  disgrace  and  your  discomfort : 
I  take  my  leave  at  once.  \^Exit. 

Lady  Macduff.  Sirrah,  your  father  's  dead  :     30 

And  what  will  you  do  now  ?     How  will  you  live  ? 

Son.     As  birds  do,  mother. 

Lady  Macdiff.  What,  with  worms  and  flies? 

Son.     With  what  I  get,  I  mean ;   and  so  do  they. 

Lady  M.  Poor  bird  !  thou  'Idst  never  fear  the  net  nor  lime. 
The  pitfall  nor  the  gin. 

Son.     Why  should   I,  mother  ?     Poor  birds  they  are  not 
set  for. 
IMy  father  is  not  dead,  for  all  your  saying. 

Lady  M.     Yes,  he  is   dead  :  how  wilt  thou  do  for  a  father  ? 

Son.     Nay,  how  will  you  do  for  a  husband? 

Lady  Macdiff.     Why,  I  can  buy  me  twenty  at  any  market. 

Son.     Then  you'll  buy  'em  to  sell  again.  41 

Lady  M.  Thou  speak'st  with  all  thy  wit,  and  yet,  i'  faith, 
With  wit  enough  for  thee. 

Son.     Was  my  father  a  traitor,  mother  ? 

Lady  Macduff.     Ay,  that  he  was. 

Son.     What  is  a  traitor  ? 

Lady  Macduff.     Why,  one  that  swears  and  lies. 

Son.     And  be  all  traitors  that  do  so? 
E  2 


53  MACBETH. 

Lady  Macduff.  Every  one  that  does  so  is  a  traitor,  and 
must  be  hanged.  50 

Son.     And  must  they  all  be  hanged  that  swear  and  lie  ? 

Lady  Macduff.     Every  one. 

Son.     Who  must  hang  them  ? 

Lady  Macduff.     Why,  the  honest  men. 

Son.  Then  the  liars  and  swearers  are  fools,  for  there 
are  liars  and  swearers  enow  to  beat  the  honest  men  and 
hang  up  them. 

Lady  Macduff.  Now,  God  help  thee,  poor  monkey  !  But 
how  wilt  thou  do  for  a  father?  59 

Son.  If  he  were  dead,  you  'Id  weep  for  him :  if  you 
would  not,  it  were  a  good  sign  that  I  should  quickly  have 
a  new  father. 

Lady  Macduff.     Poor  prattler,  how  thou  talk'st ! 

Enter  a  Messenger. 

Messenger.     Bless  you,  fair  dame  !    I  am  not  to  you  known, 
Though  in  your  state  of  honour  I  am  perfect. 
I  doubt  some  danger  does  approach  you  nearly: 
If  you  will  take  a  homely  man's  advice, 
Be  not  found  here ;    hence,  with  your  little  ones. 
To  fright  you  thus,  methinks  I  am  too  savage ; 
To  do  worse  to  you  were  fell  cruelty,  70 

Which  is  too  nigh  your  person.     Heaven  preserve  you ! 
I  dare  abide  no  longer.  \Exit. 

Lady  Macduff.  Whither  should  I  fly  ? 

I  have  done  no  harm.     But  I  remember  now 
I  am  in  this  earthly  world,  where  to  do  harm 
Is  often  laudable,  to  do  good  sometime 
Accounted  dangerous  folly  :   why  then,  alas. 
Do  I  put  up  that  womanly  defence. 
To  say  I  have  done  no  harm  ? 

Enter  Murderers. 

What  are  these  faces? 


ACT  IV.      SCENE   III. 


5^ 


First  Murderer.  Where  is  your  husband  ? 

Lady  Macduff.  I  hope,  in  no  place  so  unsanctified  So 
Where  such  as  thou  mayst  find  him. 

First  Murderer.  He's  a  traitor. 

Son.     Thou  liest,  thou  shag-hair'd  villain ! 

First  Murderer.  What,  you  egg ! 

[S tabbing  him. 
Young  fry  of  treachery  ! 

Son.  He  has  kill'd  me,  mother : 

Run  away,  I  pray  you !  [Z)/Vj. 

[^Exit  Lady  Macduff,  crying  'Murder!' 
Exeunt  Murderers,  follonving  her. 


Scene  III.     England.     Before  the  King^s  palace. 
Enter  MALCOLM  and  Macduff. 

Malcolm.     Let  us  seek  out  some  desolate  s'nade,  and  there 
Weep  our  sad  bosoms  empty. 

Macduff.  Let  us  rather 

Hold  fast  the  mortal  sword,  and  like  good  men 
Bestride  our  down-fall'n  birthdom :  each  new  morn 
New  widows  howl,  new  orphans  cry,  new  sorrows 
Strike  heaven  on  the  face,  that  it  resounds 
As  if  it  felt  with  Scotland  and  yell'd  out 
Like  syllable  of  dolour. 

Malcolm.  What  I  believe,  I'll  wail, 

What  know,  believe  ;  and  what  I  can  redress. 
As  I  shall  find  the  time  to  friend,  I  will.  lo 

What  you  have  spoke,  it  may  be  so  perchance. 
This  tyrant,  whose  sole  name  blisters  our  tongues, 
Was  once  thought  honest :    you  have  loved  him  well ; 
He  hath  not  touch'd  you  yet.    I  am  young;  but  something 
You  may  deserve  of  him  through  me,  and  wisdom 
To  offer  up  a  weak  poor  innocent  lamb 
To  appease  an  angry  god. 

Macduff.     I  am  not  treacherous.         • 


54  MACBETH. 

Malcolm.  But  Macbeth  is. 

A  good  and  virtuous  nature  may  recoil 
In  an  imperial  charge.     But  I  shall  crave  your  pardon  ;    20 
That  which  you  are  my  thoughts  cannot  transpose  : 
Angels  are  bright  still,  though  the  brightest  fell : 
Though  all  things  foul  would  wear  the  brows  of  grace, 
Yet  grace  must  still  look  so. 

Macduff.  I  have  lost  my  hopes. 

Malcolm.  Perchance  even  there  where  !  did  find  my  doubts. 
Why  in  that  rawness  left  you  wife  and  child. 
Those  precious  motives,  those  strong  knots  of  love, 
Without  leave-taking  ?    I  pray  you, 
Let  not  my  jealousies  be  your  dishonours. 
But  mine  own  safeties.     You  may  be  rightly  just,  30 

Whatever  I  shall  think. 

Macduff.  Bleed,  bleed,  poor  country ! 

Great  tyranny  !    lay  thou  thy  basis  sure, 
For  goodness  dare  not  check  thee :  wear  thou  thy  wrongs ; 
The  title  is  affeer'd.     Fare  thee  well,  lord: 
I  would  not  be  the  villain  that  thou  think'st 
For  the  whole  space  that 's  in  the  tyrant's  grasp. 
And  the  rich  East  to  boot. 

Malcolm.  Be  not  offended  : 

I  speak  not  as  in  absolute  fear  of  you. 
I  think  our  country  sinks  beneath  the  yoke ; 
It  weeps,  it  bleeds,  and  each  new  day  a  gash  40 

Is  added  to  her  wounds:   I  think  withal 
There  would  be  hands  uplifted  in  my  right ; 
And  here  from  gracious  England  have  I  offer 
Of  goodly  thousands :    but  for  all  this. 
When  I  shall  tread  upon  the  tyrant's  head, 
Or  wear  it  on  my  sword,  yet  my  poor  country 
Shall  have  more  vices  than  it  had  before, 
More  suffer  and  more  sundry  ways  than  ever, 
By  him  that  shall  succeed. 

Macduff.  What  should  he  be  ? 


ACT  IV.      SCENE   III.  ^5 

Malcolm.     It  is  myself  I  mean :   in  whom  I  know  50 

All  the  particulars  of  vice  so  grafted 
That,  when  they  shall  be  open'd,  black  Macbeth 
Will  seem  as  pure  as  snow,  and  the  poor  state 
Esteem  him  as  a  lamb,  being  compared 
With  my  confineless  harms. 

Macduff.  Not  in  the  legions 

Of  horrid  hell  can  come  a  devil  more  damn'd 
In  evils  to  top  Macbeth, 

Malcolm.  I  grant  him  bloody, 

Luxurious,  avaricious,  false,  deceitful. 
Sudden,  malicious,  smacking  of  every  sin 
That  has  a  name  :  but  there  's  no  bottom,  none,  60 

In  my  voluptuousness:  your  wives,  your  daughters, 
Your  matrons  and  your  maids,  could  not  iiU  up 
The  cistern  of  my  lust,  and  my  desire 
All  continent  impediments  would  o'erbear 
That  did  oppose  my  will :  better  Macbeth 
Than  such  an  one  to  reign. 

Macduff.  Boundless  intemperance 

In  nature  is  a  tyranny  ;  it  hath  been 
The  untimely  emptying  of  the  happy  throne 
And  fall  of  many  kings.     But  fear  not  yet 
To  take  upon  you  what  is  yours  :   you  may  70 

Convey  your  pleasures  in  a  spacious  plenty, 
And  yet  seem  cold,  the  time  you  may  so  hoodwink: 
We  have  willing  dames  enough ;  there  cannot  be 
That  vulture  in  you,  to  devour  so  many 
As  will  to  greatness  dedicate  themselves. 
Finding  it  so  inclined. 

Malcolm.  With  this  there  grows 

In  my  most  ill-composed  affection  such 
A  stanchless  avarice  that,  were  I  king, 
I  should  cut  oif  the  nobles  for  their  lands, 
Desire  his  jewels  and  this  other's  house :  80 

And  my  more-having  would  be  as  a  sauce 
To  make  me  hunger  more,  that  I  should  forge 


^6  MACBETH. 

Quarrels  unjust  against  the  good  and  loyal, 
Destroying  them  for  wealth. 

Macduff.  This  avarice 

Sticks  deeper,  grows  with  more  pernicious  root 
Than  summer-seeming  lust,  and  it  hath  been 
The  sword  of  our  slain  kings :  yet  do  not  fear ; 
Scotland  hath  foisons  to  fill  up  your  will, 
Of  your  mere  own :    all  these  are  portable, 
With  other  graces  weigh'd.  90 

Malcolm.     But  I  have  none :  the  king-becoming  graces. 
As  justice,  verity,  temperance,  stableness. 
Bounty,  perseverance,  mercy,  lowliness. 
Devotion,  patience,  courage,  fortitude, 
I  have  no  relish  of  them,  but  abound 
In  the  division  of  each  several  crime. 
Acting  it  many  ways.     Nay,  had  I  power,  I  should 
Pour  the  sweet  milk  of  concord  into  hell, 
Uproar  the  universal  peace,  confound 
All  unity  on  earth. 

Macduff.  O  Scotland,  Scotland !  1 00 

Malcolm.     If  such  a  one  be  fit  to  govern,  speak  : 
I  am  as  I  have  spoken. 

Macduff.  Fit  to  govern  ! 

No,  not  to  live.     O  nation  miserable. 
With  an  untitled  tyrant  bloody-scepter'd. 
When  shalt  thou  see  thy  wholesome  days  again. 
Since  that  the  truest  issue  of  thy  throne 
By  his  own  interdiction  stands  accursed. 
And  does  blaspheme  his  breed  ?     Thy  royal  father 
Was  a  most  sainted  king :   the  queen  that  bore  thee, 
Oftener  upon  her  knees  than  on  her  feet,  no 

Died  every  day  she  lived.     Fare  thee  well ! 
These  evils  thou  repeat'st  upon  thyself 
Have  banish'd  me  from  Scotland,     O  my  breast. 
Thy  hope  ends  here  ! 

Malcolm.  Macduff,  this  noble  passion, 

Child  of  integrity,  hath  from  my  soul  I 


ACT  IV.      SCENE   III.  ^J 

Wiped  the  black   scruples,  reconciled  my  thoughts 

To  thy  good  truth  and  honour.     Devilish  Macbeth 

By  many  of  these  trains  hath  sought  to  win  me 

Into  his  power,  and  modest  wisdom  plucks  me 

From  over-credulous  haste:   but  God  above  120 

Deal  between  thee  and  me !  for  even  now 

1  put  myself  to  thy  direction,  and 

Unspeak  mine  own  detraction,  here  abjure 

The  taints  and  blames  I  laid  upon  myself, 

For  strangers  to  my  nature.     I  am  yet 

Unknown  to  woman,  never  was  forsworn, 

Scarcely  have  coveted  what  was  mine  own. 

At  no  time  broke  my  faith,  Vv'ould  not  betray 

The  devil  to  his  fellow,  and  delight 

No  less  in  truth  than  life:  my  first  false  speaking  130 

Was  this  upon  myself :  what  I  am  truly, 

Is  thine  and  my  poor  country's  to  command : 

Whither  indeed,  before  thy  here-approach, 

Old  Siward,  with  ten  thousand  warlike  men. 

Already  at  a  point,  was  setting  forth. 

Now  we  '11  together ;    and  the  chance  of  goodness 

Be  like  our  warranted  quarrel !     Why  are  you  silent  ? 

Macduff.     Such  welcome  and  unwelcome  things  at  once 
'Tis  hard  to  reconcile. 

Enter  a  Doctor. 

Malcohn.     Well ;    more   anon.     Comes  the    king   forth,  I 
pray  you?  140 

Doctor.     Ay,  sir ;  there  are  a  crew  of  wretched  souls 
That  stay  his  cure :   their  malady  convinces 
The  great  assay  of  art ;   but  at  his  touch, 
Such  sanctity  hath  heaven  given  his  hand. 
They  presently  amend. 

Malcolm.  I  thank  you,  doctor.  \Exit  Doctor. 

Macduff.     What 's  the  disease  he  means  ? 

Malcolm.  'Tis  call'd  the  evil : 

A  most  miraculous  work  in  this  good  king  ; 


5S 


MACBETH. 


I 


Which  often,  since  my  here-remain  in  England, 

I  have  seen  him  do.     How  he  solicits  heaven, 

Himself  best  knows :  but  strangely-visited  people, 

All  swoln  and  ulcerous,  pitiful  to  the  eye, 

The  mere  despair  of  surgery,  he  cures, 

Hanging  a  golden  stamp  about  their  necks. 

Put  on  with  holy  prayers:   and  'tis  spoken. 

To  the  succeeding  royalty  he  leaves 

The  healing  benediction.     With  this  strange  virtue. 

He  hath  a  heavenly  gift  of  prophecy. 

And  sundry  blessings  hang  about  his  throne 

That  speak  him  full  of  grace. 


150 


Entei-  Ross. 

Macduff.  See,  who  comes  here  ? 

Malcolm.     My  countryman  ;  but  yet  I  know  him  not.     160 

Macduff.     My  ever-gentle  cousin,  welcome  hither. 

Malcolm.     I  know  him  now.     Good  God,  betimes  remove 
The  means  that  makes  us  strangers ! 

Ross.  Sir,  amen. 

Macduff.     Stands  Scotland  where  it  did? 

Ross.  Alas,  poor  country  1 

Almost  afraid  to  know  itself.     It  cannot 
Be  call'd  our  mother,  but  our  grave ;   where  nothing. 
But  who  knows  nothing,  is  once  seen  to  smile ; 
Where  sighs  and  groans  and  shrieks  that  rend  the  air 
Are  made,  not  mark'd ;   where  violent  sorrow  seems 
A  modern  ecstasy:   the  dead  man's  knell  170 

Is  there  scarce  ask'd  for  who  ;    and  good  men's  lives 
Expire  before  the  flowers  in  their  caps. 
Dying  or  ere  they  sicken. 

Macduff.  O,  relation 

Too  nice,  and  yet  too  true  ! 

Malcolm.  What's  the  newest  grief? 

Ross.     That  of  an  hour's  age  doth  hiss  the  speaker; 
Each  minute  teems  a  new  one. 


ACT  IV.      SCENE   III.  59 

Macduff.  How  does  my  wife  ? 

Ross.     Why,  well. 

Macduff.  And  all  my  children  ? 

Ross.  Well  too, 

Macduff.     The  tyrant  has  not  batter'd  at  their  peace  ? 

Ross.     No  ;  they  were  well  at  peace  when  I  did  leave  'em. 

Macduff.     Be  not  a  niggard  of  your  speech :  how  goes 't  ? 

Ross.     When  J   came  hither  to  transport  the  tidings,  18 1 
Which  I  have  heavily  borne,  there  ran  a  rumour 
Of  many  worthy  fellows  that  were  out ; 
Which  was  to  my  belief  witness'd  the  rather, 
For  that  I  saw  the  tyrant's  power  a-foot : 
Now  is  the  time  of  help ;   your  eye  in  Scotland 
Would  create  soldiers,  make  cur  women  fight, 
To  doff  their  dire  distresses. 

Malcolm.  Be 't  their  comfort 

We  are  coming  thither  :  gracious  England  hath 
Lent  us  good  Siward  and  ten  thousand  men;  190 

An  older  and  a  better  soldier  none 
That  Christendom  gives  out. 

Ross.  Would  I  could  answer 

This  comfort  with  the  like !     But  I  have  words 
That  would  be  howl'd  out  in  the  desert  air. 
Where  hearing  should  not  latch  them. 

Macduff.  What  concern  they? 

The  general  cause  ?  or  is  it  a  fee-grief 
Due  to  some  single  breast .' 

Ross.  No  mind  that 's  honest 

But  in  it  shares  some  woe ;   though  the  main  part 
Pertains  to  you  alone. 

Macduff.  If  it  be  mine, 

Keep  it  not  from  me,  quickly  let  me  have  it.  200 

Ross.     Let  not  your  ears  despise  my  tongue  for  ever, 
Which  shall  possess  them  with  the  heaviest  sound 
That  ever  yet  they  heard. 

Macduff.  Hum !  I  guess  at  it. 


6o  MACBETH. 

Ross.     Your  castle  is  surprised ;    your  wife  and  babes 
Savagely  slaughter'd :   to  relate  the  manner, 
Were,  on  the  quarry  of  these  murder'd  deer. 
To  add  the  death  of  you. 

Malcolm.  Merciful  heaven ! 

What,  man  !  ne'er  pull  your  hat  upon  your  brows ; 
Give  sorrow  words:   the  grief  that  does  not  speak 
Whispers  the  o'er- fraught  heart  and  bids  it  break.  210 

Macduff.     My  children  too? 

Ross.  Wife,  children,  servants,  all 

That  could  be  found. 

Macduff.  And  I  must  be  from  thence ! 

My  wife  kill'd  too  ? 

Ross.  I  have  said. 

Malcolm.  Be  comforted: 

Let's  make  us  medicines  of  our  great  revenge, 
To  cure  this  deadly  grief. 

Macduff.     He  has  no  children.     All  my  pretty  ones .'' 
Did  you  say  all?     O  hell-kite!     All? 
What,  all  my  pretty  chickens  and  their  dam 
At  one  fell  swoop  ? 

Malcolm.     Dispute  it  like  a  man. 

Macduff.  I  shall  do  so ;  220 

But  I  must  also  feel  it  as  a  man: 
I  cannot  but  remember  such  things  were, 
That  were  most  precious  to  me.     Did  heaven  look  on, 
And  would  not  take  their  part?     Sinful  Macduff, 
They  were  all  struck  for  thee  !   naught  that  I  am. 
Not  for  their  own  demerits,  but  for  mine. 
Fell  slaughter  on  their  souls.     Heaven  rest  them  now ! 

Malcolm.     Be  this  the  whetstone  of  your  sword :  let  grief 
Convert  to  anger ;   blunt  not  the  heart,  enrage  it. 

Macduff.     O,  I  could  play  the  woman  with  mine  eyes,     230 
And  braggart  with  my  tongue  !     But,  gentle  heavens, 
Cut  short  all  interm.ission  ;  front  to  front 
Bring  thou  this  fiend  of  Scotland  and  myself; 


ACT   V.      SCENE   I.  6 1 

Within  my  sword's  length  set  him  ;    if  he  'scape, 
Heaven  forgive  him  too ! 

Malcolm.  This  tune  goes  manly. 

Come,  go  we  to  the  king ;   our  power  is  ready ; 
Our  lack  is  nothing  but  our  leave.     Macbeth 
Is  ripe  for  shaking,  and  the  powers  above 
Put  on  their  instruments.     Receive  what  cheer  you  may  : 
The  night  is  long  that  never  finds  the  day.  240 

\_Exeunt, 

ACT  V. 

Scene  I.     Dimsmane.      Ante-room  in  the  castle. 
Etiter  a  Doctor  of  Physic  and  a  Waiting-Gentlewoman. 

Doctor.  I  have  two  nights  watched  with  you,  but  can 
perceive  no  truth  in  your  report.  When  was  it  she  last 
walked  ? 

Gentle'wonian.  Since  his  majesty  went  into  the  field,  I 
have  seen  her  rise  from  her  bed,  throw  her  nightgown  upon 
her,  unlock  her  closet,  take  forth  paper,  fold  it,  write 
upon 't,  read  it,  afterwards  seal  it,  and  again  return  to  bed ; 
yet  all  this  while  in  a  most  fast  sleep.  8 

Doctor.  A  great  perturbation  in  nature,  to  receive  at 
once  the  benefit  of  sleep  and  do  the  effects  of  watching ! 
In  th!s  slumbery  agitation,  besides  her  walking  and  other 
actual  performances,  what,  at  any  time,  have  you  heard 
her  say  ? 

Gentlewoman.  That,  sir,  which  I  will  not  report  after 
her. 

Doctor.     You  may  to  me,  and  'tis  most  meet  you  should. 

Gentleivoman.  Neither  to  you  nor  any  one,  having  no 
witness  to  confirm  my  speech. 

Enter  Lady  Macbeth,  qjjith  a  taper. 

Lo  you,   here    she    comes !    This    is  her    very   guise ;   and, 
upon  my  life,  fast  asleep.     Observe  her ;  stand  close.        20 


6a  MACBETH. 

Doctor.     How  came  she  by  that  light  ? 

Gentlewoman.  Why,  it  stood  by  her :  she  has  light  by 
her  continually ;   'tis  her  command. 

Doctor.     You  see,  her  eyes  are  open. 

Gentle'woman.     Ay,  but  their  sense  is  shut. 

Doctor.  What  is  it  she  does  now  ?  Look,  how  she  rubs 
her  hands. 

Gentlewoman.  It  is  an  accustomed  action  with  her,  to 
seem  thus  washing  her  hands :  I  have  known  her  continue 
in  this  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  30 

Lady  Macbeth.     Yet  here 's  a  spot. 

Doctor.  Hark  !  she  speaks :  I  will  set  down  what  comes 
from  her,  to  satisfy  my  remembrance  the  more  strongly. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Out,  damned  spot !  out,  I  say  ! — One  : 
two :  why,  then  'tis  time  to  do 't. — Hell  is  murky  ! — Fie, 
my  lord,  fie !  a  soldier,  and  afeard  ?  What  need  we  fear 
who  knows  it,  when  none  can  call  our  power  to  account  ? — 
Yet  who  would  have  thought  the  old  man  to  have  had  so 
much  blood  in  him  ? 

Doctor.     Do  you  mark  that  ?  40 

Lady  Macbeth.  The  thane  of  Fife  had  a  wife  :  where  is 
she  now  ? — What,  will  these  hands  ne'er  be  clean  ? — No 
more  o'  that,  my  lord,  no  mere  o'  that :  you  mar  all  with 
this  starting. 

Doctor.  Go  to,  go  to  ;  you  have  known  what  you  should 
not. 

Gentlewoman.  She  has  spoke  what  she  should  not,  I  am 
sure  of  that :   heaven  knows  what  she  has  known. 

Lady  Macbeth.  Here 's  the  smell  of  the  blood  still :  all 
the  perfumes  of  Arabia  will  not  sweeten  this  little  hand. 
Oh,  oh,  oh  !  51 

Doctor.  What  a  sigh  is  there !  The  heart  is  sorely 
charged. 

Gentleivoman.  I  would  not  have  such  a  heart  in  my 
bosom  for  the  dignity  of  the  whole  body. 

Doctor.    Well,  well,  well, — 


ACT   V.      SCENE   IT.  63 

Gentleivoman.     Pray  God  it  be,  sir. 

Doctor.  This  disease  is  beyond  my  practice  :  yet  I  have 
known  those  which  have  walked  in  their  sleep  who  have 
died  holily  in  their  beds.  60 

Lady  Macbeth.  Wash  your  hands,  put  on  your  nightgown ; 
look  not  so  pale. — I  tell  you  yet  again,  Banquo's  buried ; 
he  cannot  come  out  on's  grave. 

Doctor.     Even  so  ? 

Lady  Macbeth.  To  bed,  to  bed !  there 's  knocking  at  the 
gate  :  come,  come,  come,  come,  give  me  your  hand.  What 's 
done  cannot  be  undone.     To  bed,  to  bed,  to  bed  !      [Exit. 

Doctor.     Will  she  go  now  to  bed  ? 

Gentlenvoman.     Directly. 

Doctor.     Foul  whisperings  are  abroad  :  unnatural  deeds 
Do  breed  unnatural  troubles :   infected  minds  7 1 

To  their  deaf  pillows  will  discharge  their  secrets : 
More  needs  she  the  divine  than  the  physician. 
God,  God  forgive  us  all !     Look  after  her ; 
Remove  from  her  the  means  of  all  annoyance, 
And  still  keep  eyes  upon  her.     So,  good  night : 
My  mind  she  has  mated,  and  amazed  my  sight. 
I  think,  but  dare  not  speak. 

Gentlewoman.  Good  night,  good  doctor. 

\Exeunt. 

Scene  II.     The  country  near  Dunsinane. 

Drums  and  colours.     Enter    Menteith,  CAITHNESS,  ANGUS, 
Lennox,  and  Soldiers. 

Menteith.     The  English  power  is  near,  led  on  by  Malcolm, 
His  uncle  Siv/ard  and  the  good  Macduff: 
Revenges  burn  in  them ;   for  their  dear  causes 
Would  to  the  bleeding  and  the  grim  alarm 
Excite  the  mortified  man. 

Angus.  Near  Birnam  wood 

Shall  we  well  meet  them :   that  way  are  they  coming. 

Caithness.     Who  knows  if  Donalbain  be  with  his  brother  ? 


64 


MACBETH. 


Lennox.     For  certain,  sir,  he  is  not :    I  have  a  file 
Of  all  the  gentry:   there  is  Siward's  son, 
And  many  unrough  youths,  that  even  now  lo 

Protest  their  first  of  manhood. 

Menteith.  What  does  the  tyrant  ? 

Caithness.     Great  Dunsinane  he  strongly  fortifies : 
Some  say  he's  mad;   others  that  lesser  hate  him 
Do  call  it  valiant  fury:  but,  for  certain, 
He  cannot  buckle  his  distemper'd  cause 
Within  the  belt  of  rule. 

Angus.  Now  does  he  feel 

His  secret  murders  sticking  on  his  hands  ; 
Now  minutely  revolts  upbraid  his  faith-breach ; 
Those  he  commands  move  only  in  command. 
Nothing  in  love:    now  does  he  feel  his  title  20 

Hang  loose  about  him,  like  a  giant's  robe 
Upon  a  dwarfish  thief. 

Menteith.  Who  then  shall  blame 

His  pester'd  senses  to  recoil  and  start. 
When  all  that  is  within  him  does  condemn 
Itself  for  being  there? 

Caithness.  Well,  march  we  on, 

To  give  obedience  where  'tis  truly  owed: 
Meet  we  the  medicine  of  the  sickly  weal. 
And  with  him  pour  we  in  our  country's  purge 
Each  drop  of  us. 

Lennox.  Or  so  much  as  it  needs. 

To  dew  the  sovereign  flower  and  drown  the  weeds.         30 
Make  we  our  march  towards  Birnam.       [^Exeunt,  marchiyig. 


Scene  HI.     Dunsinane.     A  room  in  the  castle. 

Enter  MACBETH,  Doctor,  and  Attendants. 

Macbeth.     Bring  me  no  more  reports ;    let  them  fly  all 
Till  Birnam  wood  remove  to  Dunsinane, 
I  cannot  taint  with  fear.     \Miat  's  the  boy  INIalcolm  1 


ACT   V.      SCENE   II T.  6^ 

Was  he  not  born  of  woman  ?    The  spirits  that  know 

All  mortal  consequences  have  pronounced  me  thus  : 

'  Fear  not,  Macbeth ;   no  man  that 's  born  of  woman 

Shall  e'er  have  power  upon  thee.'     Then  fly,  false  thanes, 

And  mingle  with  the  English  epicures : 

The  mind  I  sway  by  and  the  heart  I  bear 

Shall  never  sag  with  doubt  nor  shake  with  fear.  lo 

Enter  a  Servant. 
The  devil  damn  thee  black,  thou  cream-faced  loon  ! 
Where  got'st  thou  that  goose  look  ? 

Ser'va?it.     There  is  ten  thousand — 

Macbeth.  Geese,  villain  ? 

Servant.  Soldiers,  sir. 

Macbeth.     Go  prick  thy  face,  and  over-red  thy  fear, 
Thou  lily-liver'd  boy.     What  soldiers,  patch  ? 
Death  of  thy  soul !   those  linen  cheeks  of  thine 
Are  counsellors  to  fear.     What  soldiers,  whey-face  ? 

Servant.     The  English  force,  so  please  you. 

Macbeth.     Take  thy  face  hence.  [Exit  Servant. 

Seyton  !— I  am  sick  at  heart, 
When  I  behold — Seyton,  I  say! — This  push  20 

Will  cheer  me  ever,  or  disseat  me  now. 
I  have  lived  long  enough :    my  way  of  life 
Is  fall'n  into  the  sear,  the  yellow  leaf; 
And  that  which  should  accompany  old  age. 
As  honour,  love,  obedience,  troops  of  friends, 
I  must  not  look  to  have;  but,  in  their  stead. 
Curses,  not  loud  but  deep,  mouth-honour,  breath. 
Which  the  poor  heart  would  fain  deny,  and  dare  not. 
Seyton ! 

Enter  SEYTON. 

Seyton.     What 's  your  gracious  pleasure  ? 

Macbeth.  What  news  more  ?       30 

Seyton.     All  is  confirm'd,  my  lord,  which  was  reported. 

Macbeth.     I  '11  fight  till  from  my  bones  my  flesh  be  hack'd. 
Give  me  my  armour. 

F 


66  MACBETH. 

Seyton.  'Tis  not  needed  yet. 

Macbeth.     I  '11  put  it  on. 
Send  out  moe  horses ;   skirr  the  country  round ; 
Hang  those  that  talk  of  fear.     Give  me  mine  armour. 
How  does  your  patient,  doctor  ? 

Doctor.  Not  so  sick,  my  lord. 

As  she  is  troubled  with  thick-coming  fancies, 
That  keep  her  from  her  rest. 

Macbeth.  Cure  her  of  that. 

Canst  thou  not  minister  to  a  mind  diseased,  4.0 

Pluck  from  the  memory  a  rooted  sorrow, 
Raze  out  the  written  troubles  of  the  brain. 
And  with  some  sweet  oblivious  antidote 
Cleanse  the  stuffd  bosom  of  that  perilous  stuff 
Which  weighs  upon  the  heart? 

Doctor.  Therein  the  patient 

Must  minister  to  himself. 

Macbeth.     Throw  physic  to  the  dogs,  I  '11  none  of  it. 
Come,  put  mine  armour  on ;   give  me  my  staff". 
Seyton,  send  out.     Doctor,  the  thanes  fly  from  me. 
Come,  sir,  dispatch.     If  thou  couldst,  doctor,  cast  50 

The  water  of  my  land,  find  her  disease. 
And  purge  it  to  a  sound  and  pristine  health, 
I  would  applaud  thee  to  the  very  echo. 
That  should  applaud  again.     Pull't  off,  I  say. 
What  rhubarb,  senna,  or  what  purgative  drug, 
Would  scour  these  English  hence?    Hear'st  thou  of  them? 

Doctor.     Ay,  my  good  lord ;    your  royal  preparation 
Makes  us  hear  something. 

Macbeth.  Bring  it  after  me. 

I  will  not  be  afraid  of  death  and  bane 
Till  Birnam  forest  come  to  Dunsinane.  60 

Doctor.    [Aside.]  Were  I  from  Dunsinane  away  and  clear. 
Profit  again  should  hardly  draw  me  here.  [Exeunt. 


ACT   V.      SCENE  IV.  67 


Scene  IV.     Country  near  Birnam  nvood. 

Drum  and  colours.  Enter  MALCOLM,  old  SlWARD  and  his 
Son,  Macduff,  Menteith,  Caithness,  Angus,  Lennox, 
Ross,  and  Soldiers,  marching. 

Malcolm.     Cousins,  I  hope  the  days  are  near  at  hand 
That  chambers  will  be  safe. 

Menteith.  We  doubt  it  nothing. 

Siward.     What  wood  is  this  before  us  ? 

Menteith.  The  wood  of  Birnam. 

Malcolm.     Let  every  soldier  hew  him  down  a  bough 
And  bear  't  before  him  :    thereby  shall  we  shadow 
The  numbers  of  our  host,  and  make  discovery 
Err  in  report  of  us. 

Soldiers.  It  shall  be  done. 

Siward.     We  learn  no  other  but  the  confident  tyrant 
Keeps  still  in  Dunsinane,  and  will  endure 
Our  setting  down  before  't. 

Malcolm.  'Tis  his  main  hope:  10 

For  where  there  is  advantage  to  be  given. 
Both  more  and  less  have  given  him  the  revolt, 
And  none  serve  with  him  but  constrained  things 
Whose  hearts  are  absent  too. 

Macduff.  Let  our  just  censures 

Attend  the  true  event,  and  put  we  on 
Industrious  soldiership. 

Siward.  The  time  approaches 

That  will  with  due  decision  make  us  know 
What  we  shall  say  we  have  and  what  we  owe. 
Thoughts  speculative  their  unsure  hopes  relate, 
But  certain  issue  strokes  must  arbitrate :  20 

Towards  which  advance  the  war.  \_E.\eunt,  marching. 


F   3 


68  '  MACBETH. 


Scene  V.     Dunsinane.     Within  the  castle.  m     •* 


Enter  MACBETH,  Seyton,  and  Soldiers,  wuith 
drum  and  colours. 

Macbeth.     Hang  out  our  banners  on  the  outward  walls ; 
The  cry  is  still  '  They  come ' :  our  castle's  strength 
Will  laugh  a  siege  to  scorn  :    here  let  them  lie 
Till  famine  and  the  ague  eat  them  up: 
Were  they  not  forced  with  those  that  should  be  ours, 
We  might  have  met  them  dareful,  beard  to  beard, 
And  beat  them  backward  home.       [^  cry  of  nuomen  luithin. 

What  is  that  noise  ? 

Seyton.     It  is  the  cry  of  women,  my  good  lord.         [Exit. 

Macbeth.     I  have  almost  forgot  the  taste  of  fears: 
The  time  has  been,  my  senses  would  have  cool'd  lo 

To  hear  a  night-shriek,  and  my  fell  of  hair 
Would  at  a  dismal  treatise  rouse  and  stir 
As  life  were  in't:    I  have  supp'd  full  with  horrors; 
Direness,  familiar  to  my  slaughterous  thoughts. 
Cannot  once  start  me. 

Re-enter  SEYTON. 

Wherefore  was  that  cry  ? 

Seyton.     The  queen,  my  lord,  is  dead. 

Macbeth.     She  should  have  died  hereafter ; 
There  would  have  been  a  time  for  such  a  word. 
To-morrow,  and  to-morrow,  and  to-morrow, 
Creeps  in  this  petty  pace  from  day  to  day  20 

To  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time. 
And  all  our  yesterdays  have  lighted  fools 
The  way  to  dusty  death.     Out,  out,  brief  candle! 
Life's  but  a  walking  shadow,  a  poor  player 
That  struts  and  frets  his  hour  upon  the  stage 
And  then  is  heard  no  more :    it  is  a  tale 
Told  by  an  idiot,  full  of  sound  and  fury, 
Signifying  nothing. 


ACT   V.      SCENE    VI.  69 

Enter  a  Messenger. 

Thou  comest  to  use  thy  tongue;  thy  story  quickly. 

Messenger.     Gracious  my  lord,  30 

I  should  report  that  which  I  say  I  saw, 
But  know  not  how  to  do  it. 

Macbeth.  Well,  say,  sir. 

Messenger.     As  I  did  stand  my  watch  upon  the  hill, 
I  look'd  toward  Birnam,  and  anon,  methought, 
The  wood  began  to  move. 

Macbeth.  Liar  and  slave ! 

Messenger.     Let  me  endure  your  wrath,  if 't  be  not  so : 
Within  this  three  mile  may  you  see  it  coming ; 
I  say,  a  moving  grove. 

Macbeth.  If  thou  speak'st  fixlse, 

Upon  the  next  tree  shalt  thou  hang  alive 
Till  famine  cling  thee  :    if  thy  speech  be  sooth,  40 

I  care  not  if  thou  dost  for  me  as  much. 
I  pull  in  resolution  and  begin 
To  doubt  the  equivocation  of  the  fiend 
That  lies  like  truth :    '  Fear  not,  till  Birnam  wood 
Do  come  to  Dunsinane : '    and  now  a  wood 
Comes  toward  Dunsinane.     Arm,  arm,  and  out ! 
If  this  which  he  avouches  does  appear. 
There  is  nor  flying  hence  nor  tarrying  here. 
I  'gin  to  be  aweary  of  the  sun. 

And  wish  the  estate  o'  the  world  were  now  undone.         50 
Ring  the  alarum-bell !    Blow,  wind  !  come,  wrack  ! 
At  least  we'll  die  with  harness  on  our  back.  [Exeunt. 

Scene  VI.     Dunsinane.     Before  the  castle. 

Drum  and  colours.     Enter  MALCOLM,  old  SlWARD,  Macduff, 
and  their  Army,  <ivith  boughs. 

Malcolm.  Now  near  enough  :  your  leavy  screens  throw  down. 
And  show  like  those  you  are.     You,  worthy  uncle, 


70  MACBETH. 

Shall  witli  my  cousin,  your  right-noble  son, 
Lead  our  first  battle :  worthy  Macduff  and  we 
Shall  take  upon  's  what  else  remains  to  do, 
According  to  our  order. 

Siivard.  Fare  you  well. 

Do  we  but  find  the  tyrant's  power  to-night, 
Let  us  be  beaten,  if  we  cannot  fight. 

Macd.  Make  all  our  trumpets  speak ;  give  them  all  breath, 
Those  clamorous  harbingers  of  blood  and  death.      {Exeunt. 

Scene  VIL     Another  part  of  the  field. 
Alarums.     Enter  MACBETH. 

Macbeth.     They  have  tied  me  to  a  stake ;    I  cannot  fly, 
But,  bear-like,  I  must  fight  the  course.     What's  he 
That  was  not  born  of  woman  ?    Such  a  one 
Am  I  to  fear,  or  none. 

Enter  young  SlWARD. 

Young  Skjj.     What  is  thy  name  ? 

Macbeth.  Thou  'It  be  afraid  to  hear  it. 

Toung  Sicd).   No ;  though  thou  call'st  thyself  a  hotter  name 
Than  any  is  in  hell. 

Macbeth.  My  name  's  Macbeth. 

Toung  Si-zu.   The  devil  himself  could  not  pronounce  a  title 
More  hateful  to  mine  ear. 

Macbeth.  No,  nor  more  fearful.  9 

Toitng  Slav.     Thou  liest,  abhorred  tyrant ;  with  my  sword 
I  '11  prove  the  lie  thou  speak'st. 

\They  fight,  and  young  Sinvard  is  slain. 

Macbeth.  Thou  wast  born  of  woman. 

But  swords  I  smile  at,  weapons  laugh  to  scorn, 
Brandish'd  by  man  that 's  of  a  woman  born.  \Exit. 

Alarums.     Enter  MacDUFF. 
Macdufi".      That  way  the  noise  is.    Tyrant,  show  thy  face  ! 
If  thou  be'st  slain  and  with  no  stroke  of  mine, 


ACT   V.      SCENE   VIII.  7 1 

My  wife  and  children's  ghosts  will  haunt  me  still. 

I  cannot  strike  at  wretched  kerns,  whose  arms 

Are  hired  to  bear  their  staves:   either  thou,  Macbeth, 

Or  else  my  sword  with  an  unbatter'd  edge 

I  sheathe  again  undeeded.     There  thou  shouldst  be ;         20 

By  this  great  clatter,  one  of  greatest  note 

Seems  bruited.     Let  me  find  him,  fortune ! 

And  more  I  beg  not.  \^Exit.     Alarums. 

Enter  MALCOLM  and  old  SlWARD. 

Siavard.  This  way,  my  lord;  the  castle's  gently  render'd: 
The  tyrant's  people  on  both  sides  do  fight ; 
The  noble  thanes  do  bravely  in  the  war; 
The  day  almost  itself  professes  yours, 
And  little  is  to  do. 

Malcolm.  We  have  met  with  foes 

That  strike  beside  us. 

Sizuard.  Enter,  sir,  the  castle. 

[Exeunt.     Alarum. 

Scene  VIII.     Another  part  of  the  field. 
Enter  MACBETH. 

Macbeth.     Why  should  I  play  the  Roman  fool,  and  die 
On  mine  own  sword  ?   whiles  I  see  lives,  the  gashes 
Do  better  upon  them. 

Enter  Macduff. 

Macduff.  Turn,  hell-hound,  turn  ! 

Macbeth.  Of  all  men  else  I  have  avoided  thee : 
But  get  thee  back ;  my  soul  is  too  much  charged 
With  blood  of  thine  already. 

Macduff.  I  have  no  words : 

My  voice  is  in  my  sword  :   thou  bloodier  villain 
Than  terms  can  give  thee  out!  ^hey  fight. 

Macbeth.  Thou  losest  labour: 

As  easy  mayst  thou  the  intrenchant  air 


73  MACBETH. 

With  thy  keen  sword  impress  as  make  me  bleed:  lo 

Let  fall  thy  blade  on  vulnerable  crests;  \ 

I  bear  a  charmed  life,  which  must  not  yield  j     l 

To  one  of  woman  born. 

Macduff.  Despair  thy  charm  ; 

And  let  the  angel  whom  thou  still  hast  served 
Tell  thee,  Macduff  was  from  his  mother's  womb 
Untimely  ripp'd. 

Macbeth.     Accursed  be  that  tongue  that  tells  me  so. 
For  it  hath  cow'd  my  better  part  of  man  ! 
And  be  these  juggling  fiends  no  more  believed, 
That  palter  with  us  in  a  double  sense;  20 

That  keep  the  word  of  promise  to  our  ear. 
And  break  it  to  our  hope.     I'll  not  fight  with  thee. 

Macduff.     Then  yield  thee,  coward, 
And  live  to  be  the  show  and  gaze  o'  the  time: 
We'll  have  thee,  as  our  rarer  monsters  are, 
Painted  upon  a  pole,  and  underwrit, 
'Here  may  you  see  the  tyrant.' 

Macbeth.  I  will  not  yield, 

To  kiss  the  ground  before  young  Malcolm's  feet 
And  to  be  baited  with  the  rabble's  curse. 
Though  Birnam  wood  be  come  to  Dunsinane,  30 

And  thou  opposed,  being  of  no  woman  born. 
Yet  I  will  try  the  last.     Before  my  body 
I  throv;  my  warlike  shield.     Lay  on,  Macduff, 
And  damn'd  be  him  that  first  cries  '  Hold,  enough ! ' 

S^Exeunt,  fighting.     Alarums. 


Retreat.     Flourish.     Enter,  with  drum  and  colours,  Malcolm, 
old  SlWARD,  Ross,  the  other  Thanes,  and  Soldiers. 

Malcolm.  I  would  the  friends  we  miss  were  safe  arrived. 

Siivard.  Some  must  go  off:    and  yet,  by  these  I  see. 

So  great  a  day  as  this  is  cheaply  bought. 

Malcolm.  Macduff  is  missing,  and  your  noble  son. 


ACT   V.      SCENE    VIII.  73 

Ross.     Your  son,  my  lord,  has  paid  a  soldier's  debt : 
He  only  lived  but  till  he  was  a  man  ;  40 

The  which  no  sooner  had  his  prowess  confirm'd 
In  the  unshrinking  station  where  he  fought, 
But  like  a  man  he  died, 

Sizvard.  Then  he  is  dead  ? 

Ross.     Ay,  and  brought  off  the  field  :   your  cause  of  sorrow 
Must  not  be  measured  by  his  worth,  for  then 
It  hath  no  end. 

Skjjard.  Had  he  his  huils  before  ? 

Ross.     Ay,  on  the  front. 

Sinvard.  Why  then,  God's  soldier  be  he ! 

Had  I  as  many  sons  as  I  have  hairs, 
I  would  not  wish  them  to  a  fairer  death : 
And  so  his  knell  is  knoll'd. 

Malcolm.  He 's  worth  more  sorrow,     50 

And  that  I'll  spend  for  him. 

Siivard.  He  's  worth  no  more  : 

They  say  he  parted  well  and  paid  his  score : 
And  so  God  be  with  him  !     Here  comes  newer  comfort. 

Re-enter  MacDUFF,  avith  Macbeth's  head. 

Macduff".  Hail,  king !  for  so  thou  art :  behold,  where  stands 
The  usurper's  cursed  head :   the  time  is  free : 
I  see  thee  compass'd  with  thy  kingdom's  pearl, 
That  speak  my  salutation  in  their  minds ; 
Whose  voices  I  desire  aloud  with  mine : 
Hail,  King  of  Scotland  ! 

^//.  Hail,  King  of  Scotland  !     [F/ourisb. 

Malcolm.     We  shall  not  spend  a  large  expense  of  time 
Before  we  reckon  with  your  several  loves,  61 

And  make  us  even  with  you.     My  thanes  and  kinsmen, 
Henceforth  be  earls,  the  first  that  ever  Scotland 
In  such  an  honour  named.     What's  more  to  do, 
Which  would  be  planted  newly  with  the  time. 
As  calling  home  our  exiled  friends  abroad 


74 


MACBETH. 


That  fled  the  snares  of  watchful  tyranny ; 

Producing  forth  the  cruel  ministers 

Of  this  dead  butcher  and  his  fiend-like  queen, 

Who,  as  'tis  thought,  by  self  and  violent  hands  70 

Took  off  her  life  ;   this,  and  what  needful  else 

That  calls  upon  us,  by  the  grace  of  Grace 

We  will  perform  in  measure,  time  and  place: 

So,  thanks  to  all  at  once  and  to  each  one, 

Whom  we  invite  to  see  us  crown'd  at  Scone. 

[Flouris/j,     Exeunt. 


><=<t><|>=< 


NOTES. 

ACT     I. 

Scene  I. 

1.  The  folios  put  a  note  of  interrogation  after  'again.'  Hanmer  re- 
moved it. 

2.  hurlyburly.  We  find  in  Cotgrave,  'Grahnge:  f.  A  great  coyle,  stirre, 
garboyle,  turmoyle,  hurlyburly.'  Shakespeare  uses  the  word  as  an  adjective 
I  Henry  IV.  v.  i.  78,  'hurlyburly  innovation.'  It  is  formed  by  onomatopcea 
from  'hurly,'  which  is  also  found  in  our  author,  1  Henry  IV.  iii.  i.  25  : 

'  That  with  the  hurly  death  itself  awakes.' 
So  King  John,  iii.  4.  169  : 

'  Methinks  I  see  this  hurly  all  on  foot.' 
'Hurly'  is  probably  connected  with  the  French  hurler,  to  howl  or  yell. 
The  French  word  hurliiberlu  meaning  'harum  scarum,'  is  given  by  Littre  as 
of  unknown  etymology.  For  many  other  examples  of  onomatopoea  in 
English  see  Wheatley's  Dictionary  of  Reduplicated  Words,  in  the  Transactions 
of  the  Philological  Society,  1865.  Familiar  instances  are  'hugger-mugger,' 
'  helter-skelter,'  '  tittle-tattle,'  all  used  by  Shakespeare.  Probably  the 
modern  '  hullabaloo'  is  a  corruption  of  '  hurlyburly.'  In  speaking  of  Wat 
Tyler's  rebellion,  Holinshed  (vol.  ii.  p.  1030)  says:  'But  euery  where  else 
the  commons  kept  such  like  stur,  so  that  it  was  rightly  called  the  hurling 
time,  there  were  such  hurly  burlyes  kept  in  euery  place,  to  y^  great  daunger 
of  ouerthrowing  the  whole  state  of  all  good  gouernment  in  this  land.'  And  in 
Dido  Queen  of  Carthage,  written  by  Marlowe  and  Nash  (p.  265,  ed.  Dyce, 
1858), 

'I  think  it  was  the  Devil's  revelling  night. 
There  was  such  hurly  burly  in  the  heavens.' 

3.  Graymalkin,  otherwise  spelt  Grimalkin,  means  a  grey  cat.  'Malkin' 
is  a  diminutive  of  '  Mary.'  '  Maukin,'  the  same  word,  is  still  used  in  Scotland 
for  a  hare.  The  cat  was  supposed  to  be  the  form  most  commonly  assumed 
by  the  familiar  spirits  of  witches.     Compare  iv.  i.  I  of  this  play  : 

'  Thrice  the  brinded  cat  hath  mew'd.' 
5.  the  set  o/suji.     Compare  Richard  III.  v.  3.  19  : 

'  The  weary  sun  hath  made  a  golden  set.' 
We  still  use  'set'  as  a  substantive  in  the  compound  '  sunset.'  ■ 
9.  Paddock,  a  toad.     See  Hamlet,  iii.  4.  190  : 

'  For  who,  that 's  but  a  queen,  fair,  sober,  wise, 
Would  from  a  paddock,  from  a  bat,  a  gib, 
Such  dear  concernings  hide  ?  ' 


76  NOTES.  [act  I. 

So  in  Scot's  Discovery  of  Witchcraft,  published  in  1584:  'Some  say  they 
[i.  e.  witches]  can  keepe  divels  and  spirits  in  the  Hkentsse  of  todes  and  cats.' 
Bk.  i.  ch.  iv.  In  Cumberland  'toad-stools'  are  still  called  'paddock-stools.' 
Cotgrave  gives  the  word  as  equivalent  to  grenonille,  a  frog,  and  not  to 
crapaud,  a  toad  ;  and  Chapman,  in  his  Caesar  and  Pompey,  speaks  of  'Pad- 
dockes,  and  todes  and  watersnakes.'  Massinger  also  seems  to  use  it  for  frog 
in  A  Very  Woman,  iii.  I.  In  Anglo-Saxon  a  toad  is  pad  or  pada.  Minsheu 
gives  also  '  Padde  '  = '  Bufo.'  '  Paddock  '  is  in  its  origin  a  diminutive  from 
'  pad,'  as  '  hillock  '  from  '  hill.' 

There  is  some  doubt  as  to  the  proper  distribution  of  the  dialogue  here. 
The  folios  give  the  passage  thus:  'All.  Padock  calls  anon  :  faire  is  foule. . . . 
ayre,'  which  can  scarcely  be  right,  either  in  distribution  or  punctuation. 

10.  Anon,  immediately.     See  1  Henry  IV.  ii.  i.  5  : 

'  First  Carrier.    What,  ostler  ? 
Osder.    Anon,  anon.' 

11.  The  witches,  whose  moral  sense  is  thoroughly  perverted,  who  choose 
the  devil  for  their  master  and  do  evil  instead  of  good,  love  storm  and  rain 
as  others  love  sunshine  and  calm. 

Scene  II. 

A  camp  near  Forres.  This  is  Capell's  designation  of  the  place  of  Scene  II. 
Rowe  gave  'A  Palace';  Theobald  'The  Palace  at  Forres.'  The  folios 
have  no  indication  of  the  place  of  each  scene  either  in  this  or  any  other 
play.  Holinshed  mentions  the  appearance  of  the  weird  sisters  to  Macbeth 
as  having  taken  place  as  he  was  on  the  road  to  join  the  king  at  Forres. 
See  i.  3.  39. 

In  the  stage  direction  the  folios  have  '  a  bleeding  captaine,'  but  he  is  called 
a  '  sergeant'  in  the  third  line  of  the  scene.  The  word  '  sergeant'  is  derived 
from  the  French  sergent,  Italian  sergente,  and  they  from  Lat.  serviens.  So 
we  have  g  for  v  in  pioggia,  abrcger,  alleggiare,  alleger,  &c.  It  originally 
meant  a  common  foot-soldier.  If 'sergeant'  were  pronounced  as  a  trisyllable 
the  metre  of  the  line  would  be  regular.  But  throughout  this  scene  the  mea- 
sure is  extremely  irregular,  owing  doubtless  in  many  cases  to  corruption  of 
the  text. 

5.  Here  again  the  metre  is  imperfect. 

6.  Say  to  the  king  the  hiowledge,  tell  the  king  what  you  know.  Sidney 
Walker  proposed  to  read  '  thy  knowledge';   but  this  is  not  necessary. 

lb.  broil  would  not  now  be  used  of  a  great  battle.     The  word  has  de- 
generated in  meaning  since  Shakespeare's  time.     Compare  Othello,  i.  3.  87  : 
'  And  little  of  this  great  world  can  I  speak, 
More  than  pertains  to  feats  of  broil  and  battle.' 
See  also  i  Henry  IV.  i.  i.  3. 

7.  Doubtful  it  stood.  For  the  metre's  sake  Pope  read  '  Doubtful  long  it 
stood';    Steevens,  1793,  '  Doubtfully  it  stood.' 

8.  The  construction  here  is  abrupt,  though  the  sense  is  clear  enough. 
Warburton  read: 

'As  to  spent  swimmers  .  .  .  .' 
And  Mr.  Keightley  supposes  that  a  line  has  dropped  out. 


sc.  2.]  MACBETH.  77 

9.  choke  their  art,  i.  e.  drown  each  other  by  rendering  their  skill  in 
swimming  useless.  'Choke'  was  anciently  used  of  suffocation  b}'  water  as 
well  as  by  other  means.  See  Mark  v.  13  :  'The  herd  ran  violently  down  a 
steep  place  into  the  sea  ....  and  were  choked  in  the  sea.' 

Ih.  Macdoiiwald.  So  the  first  folio.  The  other  folios  have  '  Macdonnell.' 
He  is  called  by  Holiiished  '  Macdowald.' 

10.  to  that,  to  that  end. 

13.  Of,  altered  by  Hanmer  to  'With.'  He  and  other  editors,  Pope 
especially,  thought  themselves  justified  in  changing  whatever  was  not 
sanctioned  by  the  usage  of  their  own  day.  Compare  Bacon's  Advancement 
of  Learning,  Bk.  ii.  22.  §  15  :  'He  is  invested  of  a  precedent  disposition.' 
We  should  now  say  'invested  with.' 

lb.  kerns  and  galloivglasses.     This  is  from  Holinshed.   Kerns  were  light- 
armed  troops,  having  only  darts,  daggers  or  knives ;  the  gallowglasses  had 
helmet,  coat  of  mail,  long  sword  and  axe.     See  our  note  on  Richard  11.  ii.  I. 
156.     The  two  are  mentioned  together  in  2  Henry  VI.  iv.  9.  26: 
'A  puissant  and  a  mighty  power 
Of  gallowglasses  and  stout  kerns.' 

14.  quarrel.  This  is  an  cinendation  first  adopted  in  the  text  by  Hanmer, 
and  suggested  independently  by  Warburton  and  Johnson.  The  folios  have 
'  quarry,'  which  Knight  retains,  explaining  '  damned  quarry'  to  mean  '  doomed 
prey';  i.  e.  the  army  of  Macdonwald,  on  which  fortune  smiled  deceitfully 
while  betraying  them,  like  Delilah,  to  their  enemies.  Fairfax,  in  his  Trans- 
lation of  Tasso's  Gerusalemme  Liberata,  uses  '  quarry'  as  well  as  '  quarrel,'  for 
the  square-headed  bolt  of  a  cross  bow.  The  word  'quarrel'  occurs  in  Holin- 
shed's  account,  and  is  doubtless  the  right  word  here. 

15.  Show'd,  appeared.     See  Merchant  of  Venice,  iv.  1.  196: 

'  And  earthly  power  doth  then  show  likest  God's 
When  mercy  seasons  justice.' 
See  also  i.  3.  54  of  this  play. 

lb.  all 's  too  weak.  We  should  have  expected  '  all  was  too  weak.'  The 
abbreviation  's  for  'was'  is  not  used  elsewhere  by  Shakespeare,  nor  does 
the  use  of  the  historic  present,  preceded  and  foUov/ed  by  past  tenses,  seem 
at  all  probable.     Pope  cut  the  knot  by  reading  '  all  too  weak.' 

19.  7ninion,  i.  e.  niignon,  darling.     See  Tempest,  iv.  I.  98  : 

'  Mars's  hot  minion  is  return'd  again,' 
and  King  John,  ii.  i.  392  : 

'  Fortune  shall  cull  forth 
Out  of  one  side  her  happy  minion.' 
So  Fairfax,  Tasso,  Bk.  ix.  st.  81  : 

'  A  gentle  page 
The  soldan's  minion,  darling  and  delight.' 
And  Bacon's  Advancement  of  Learning,  Bk.  i.4.  §  4;  'Adonis,  Venus'  minion.' 

20.  21.  Till  he  faced  the  slave;  Which  ne'er,  &c.  There  is  some  in- 
curable corruption  of  the  text  here.  For  '  Which'  Pope  reads  '  Who,'  Capell 
'And.' 

21.  For  shook  hands,  Mr.  J.  Bullock  suggests  '  slack'd  hand.'  As  the  text 
stands,  the  meaning  is,  Macdonwald  did  not  take  leave  of,  nor  bid  farewell 
to,  his  antagonist  till  Macbeth  had  slain  him.     For  '  shake  hands'   in  this 


7o  NOTES.  [act  1. 

sense,  compare  Lyly's  Euphues,  p.  75,  ed.  Arber :  '  You  haue  made  so  large 
profer  of  your  seruice,  and  so  faire  promises  of  fidelytie,  that  were  I  not 
ouer  charie  of  mine  honestie,  you  woulde  inueigle  me  to  shake  handes  with 
chastitie'.  But  it  is  probable  that  some  words  are  omitted,  and  that  '  Mac- 
beth' is  the  antecedent  to  '  Which.'  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  that 
by  Shakespeare  and  his  contemporaries  '  which'  is  frequently  used  with 
a  masculine  or  feminine  antecedent. 

22.  nave  is,  so  far  as  we  know,  not  found  in  any  other  passage  for 
'  navel.'  Though  the  two  words  are  etymologically  connected,  their  dis- 
tinctive difference  of  meaning  seems  to  have  been  preserved  from  very  early 
times,  nafii  being  Anglo-Saxon  for  the  one  and  riafel  for  the  other. 
Hanmer,  on  V/arburton's  suggestion,  read  'nape'  for  'nave';  but  a  passage 
quoted  by  Steevens,  from  Dido  Queen  of  Carthage,  gives  great  support 
to  the  old  reading  : 

'  Then  from  the  navel  to  the  throat  at  once 
He  ript  old  Priam.'  (Act  ii.  p.  258,  ed.  Dyce,  1858.) 

24.  Cousin.  Macbeth  and  Duncan  were  first  cousins,  being  both  grand- 
sons of  King  Malcolm. 

25.  As  thunder  and  storm  sometimes  come  from  the  East,  the  quarter 
from  which  men  expect  the  sunrise,  so  out  of  victory  a  new  danger  springs. 

lb.  'gins,  begins.     See  v.  5.  49. 

27.  spring,  source. 

28.  Discomfort  swells.  So  the  folios.  Pope  reads  '  Discomfort  sweli'd  ' ; 
Johnson,  '  Discomforts  well'd';  Capell,  '  Discomfort  wells.'  'Swells'  seems 
the  best  word,  indicating  that,  instead  of  a  fertilizing  stream,  a  desolating 
flood  had  poured  from  the  spring. 

30.  skipping  is  an  epithet  appropriate  enough  to  the  rapid  movements  of 
the  light-armed  kerns. 

31.  Norweyan.  So  the  folio.  The  spelling  is  the  same  i.  3.  95.  In 
Holinshed  it  is  '  Norwaygian.' 

31.  surveying  vantage.  We  have  the  same  phrase,  in  a  somewhat 
different  sense,  in  Richard  III.  v.  3.  15  : 

'  Let  us  survey  the  vantage  of  the  field.' 
In  the  present  passage  '  surveying'  must  be  equivalent  to  '  perceiving.' 

33,  34.  This  speech  of  Duncan's  is  printed  as  prose  in  the  folio.  The  verse 
may  be  made  regular  by  pronouncing  '  captains'  '  capitains,'  as  in  3  Henry  VI. 
iv.  7.  30: 

'  A  wise  stout  captain,  and  soon  persuaded.' 
Sidney  Walker  proposed  '  Our  captains  twain.' 

36.  sooth,  truth.    So  v.  5.  40,  and  Henry  V.  iii.  6.  151,  '  To  say  the  sooth.' 

37.  So  they  in  the  folios  begins  the  next  line.  It  seems  more  harmonious 
to  make  it  end  line  37.     In  either  case  we  must  have  an  Alexandrine. 

37.  overcharged  with  cracks  is  an  awkward  phrase,  such  as  gramma- 
rians dignify  with  the  title  metonymy.  The  effect  is  put  for  the  cause, 
'  cracks'  for  '  charges.' 

58.  Compare  Richard  II.  i.  3.  80 : 

'  And  let  thy  blows,  doubly  redoubled. 
Fall  like  amazing  ihunder  on  the  casque 
Of  thy  adverse  pernicious  enemy.' 


sc.  2.]  MACBETH.  79 

40.  memorize,  render  famous.     Compare  Henry  VIII.  iii.  2.  52  : 

'  From  her 
Will  fall  some  blessing  to  this  land,  which  shall 
In  it  be  memorized.' 
lb.  Golgotha.     See  Mark  xv.  22.     Here  it   means  a  battle-field  strewn 
with  the  skulls  of  the  dead. 

41.  tell—.  Rowe  first  marked  by  a  dash  that  the  sense  is  left  imperfect. 
The  folios  have  a  colon. 

42.  So  well.  We  should  say  '  As  well.'  Compare  Cymbeline,  i.  4.  3  :  '  Ex- 
pected to  prove  so  worthy  as  since  he  hath  been  allowed  the  name  of.' 

44.  Exit  Sergeant,  attended.     There  is  no  stage-direction  here  in  the  folio. 

45.  Who.     Pope  reads  '  But  who.' 

lb.  thane,  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  \)e?en,  literally,  a  servant,  and  then 
technically,  the  king's  servant,  defined  to  be  '  an  Anglo-Saxon  nobleman, 
inferior  in  rank  to  an  eorl  and  ealdorman'  (Bosworth).  Ultimately  the 
rank  of  thegn  become  equivalent  to  tliat  of  eorl. 

46.  Compare  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  v.  1.50: 

'  The  business  of  this  man  looks  out  of  him.' 
And  in  the  present  play  iii.  i.  127  : 

'  Your  spirits  shine  through  you.' 

47.  That  seems  to  speak  things  strange,  whose  appearance  corresponds 
with  the  strangeness  of  his  message.  Com.pare  i.  5.  27  of  this  play.  For 
'  seems'  various  conjectures  have  been  made,  as  '  teems,'  '  comes,'  '  seeks,' 
•deems';  but  no  change  is  required.  For  the  general  sense  compare 
Richard  II.  iii.  2.  194: 

'  Men  judge  by  the  complexion  of  the  sky 
The  state  and  inclination  of  the  day : 
So  may  you  by  my  dull  and  heavy  eye. 
My  tongue  hath  but  a  heavier  tale  to  say.' 
45.  JIo2et,  mock.     See  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  iii.  2.  327  : 
'  Why  will  you  suffer  her  to  flout  me  thus  ?' 
Perhaps  Gray  had  this  passage  in  this  mind  when  he  wrote  : 
'  Ruin  seize  thee,  ruthless  king. 
Confusion  on  thy  banners  wait. 
Though  fann'd  by  conquest's  crimson  wing 
They  mock  the  air  with  idle  state.' 
Malone  says,  quoting  King  John,  v.  I.  72, 

'  Mocking  the  air  with  colours  idly  spread,' 
'  The  meaning  seems  to  be,  not  that  the  Norweyan  banners  proudlv  insulted 
the  sky ;  but  that,  the  standards  being  taken  by  Duncan's  forces,  and  fixed  in 
the  ground,  the  colours  idly  flapped  about,  serving  only  to  cool  the  conque- 
rors, instead  of  being  proudly  displayed  by  their  former  possessors.'  But 
'flout  the  sky'  seems  better  suited  to  the  banners  of  a  triumphant  or 
defiant  host.     Mr,  Keightley  reads : 

'  Where  the  Norweyan  banners 
Did  flout  the  sky  and  fan  our  people  cold.' 
50.  The  folio  reads 

'  Norway  himself  with  terrible  numbers  ' 
as  one  line.     Pope  reads  '  with  numbers  terrible.'     The  arrangement  in  the 


8o  NOTES.  [act  I. 

text  was  suggested  by  Sidney  Walker.     It  is  however  impossible  to  reduce 
many  lines  of  this  scene  to  regularity  without  making  unwarrantable  changes. 

53.  The  thane  of  Cawdor  was,  according  to  Holinshed  (i.  244),  'con- 
demned at  Fores  of  treason  against  the  king  committed,'  ijut  nothing  is 
there  said  of  his  having  assisted  the  Norwegian  invaders. 

54.  Bellofia's  bridegroom,  i.e.  Macbeth.  The  phrase  was  perhaps  sug- 
gested to  the  writer  by  an  imperfect  recollection  of  Virgil's  illneid,  iii.  319  : 
'  Et  Bellona  manet  te  promiba.' 

lb.  lapp'd,  enfolded,  wrapped,  clad.     See  Richard  III.  ii.  i.  115  : 
'  How  he  did  lap  me 
Even  in  his  own  garments.' 
lb.  proof,   armour    of  proof,    armour   proved    and   tested.     See  Romeo 
and  Juliet,  i.  I.  216  : 

'And  in  strong  proof  of  chastity  well-arm'd,' 
and  Richard  II.  i.  3.  73  '• 

'  Add  proof  unto  mine  armour  with  thy  prayers.' 

55.  Confronted  him  with  self  comparisons,  met  the  king  of  Norway  in 
personal  conflict  to  prove  which  combatant  was  the  better  man. 

56.  This  line  is  punctuated  as  in  Theobald's  edition.     The  folios  have 

'  Point  against  Point,  rebellious  Arme  'gainst  Arme.' 
If  the  old    punctuation   be   right,   '  rebellious,'  being  applied  to  the  arm  of 
the  loyal  combatant,  must  be  taken  to  mean  '  opposing,  resisting  assault.' 
But  '  rebel '  and  its  derivatives  are  used  by  our  author  almost  invariably  in  a 
bad  sense,  as  they  are  used  now. 

57.  lavish,  prodigal,  unbounded  in  the  indulgence  of  passion,  insolent. 
'  A  lavish  spirit '  corresponds  nearly  to  the  Greek  Kopos.  Compare 
2  Henry  IV.  iv.  4.  62  : 

'  For  when  his  headstrong  riot  hath  no  curb 
When  rage  and  hot  blood  are  his  counsellors, 
When  means  and  lavish  manners  meet  together.' 

58.  Thai,  so  that.     See  i.  7.  8  ;  iv.  3.  6. 

59.  Sweno.  There  is  near  Forres  a  remarkable  monument  with  runic 
inscriptions,  popularly  called  '  Sweno's  stone,'  and  supposed  to  commemorate 
the  defeat  of  the  Norwegians. 

lb.  the  Norways'  must  be  here  put  for  '  the  Norwegians'.'  But  perhaps 
we  should  read  'the  Norway  king.'  So  in  Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  v.  st.  57, 
Gernando  is  called  '  the  Norway  prince.' 

lb.  composition,  terms  of  peace.     See  Coriolanus,  iii.  1.3: 
'  And  that  it  was  which  caused 
Our  swifter  composition.' 

61.  Saint  Colme's  Inch,  i.e.  the  Island  of  Saint  Columba,  now  Inchcolm. 
lies  in  the  Firth  of  Forth  near  the  Fife  shore.  It  is  about  half  a  mile  long 
by  one  third  of  a  mile  broad  where  widest.  It  is  said  to  have  been  the 
residence  of  St.  Columba  in  the  sixth  century,  and  on  it  are  the  remains  of  a 
monastery.  A  description  of  it  is  given  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society 
of  Antiquaries  of  Scotland,  vol.  ii.  pp.  489-528. 

62.  Ten  thousand  dollars.  Holinshed  does  not  specify  the  amount.  He 
only  says  '  a  great  sum  of  gold.'  A  great  anachronism  is  involved  in  the 
mention  of  dollars  here.     The  dollar  was  first  coined  about   1518,  in  the 


sc.  3.]  MACBETH.  81 

Valley  of  St.  Joachim,  in  Bohemia,  whence  its  name,   '  Joachim's-ihaler ' ; 
'  thaler,' '  dollar.' 

64.  bosom  interest,  close  and  intimate  aiTeclion.    Compare  The  Merchant  ot" 
Venice,  iii.  4. 17:  '  Being  the  bosom  lover  of  my  lord,'  i.e.  being  his  intimate 
friend.     And  King  Lear,  iv.  5-26:  '1  know  you  are  of  her  bosom,'  i.e.  in 
her  confidence.     '  Interest '  means  the  due  part  or  share  which  a  friend  has 
in  the  affections  of  another.     Compare  Cymbeline,  i.  3.  30  : 
'  The  shes  of  Italy  should  not  betray 
Mine  interest  and  his  honour.' 
The  meaning  of  the  word  is  further  illustrated  by  the  use  of  the  verb  in 
King  Lear,  i.  i.  87 : 

'  To  whose  young  love 
The  wines  of  France  and  milk  of  Burgundy 
Strive  to  be  interess'd.' 
lb.  present,  mstani.     So  'presently'  is  used  for  '  instantly,'  in  conformity 
with  its  derivation,  from  which  our  m.odern  use  of  the  word  departs.    S.o  'by 
and  by,'  which  first  meant  '  immediately,'  has  now  come  to  mean  'after  an 
interval.'     See    Matthew    xiii.    21:    'By    and    by    he    is    offended'   (evBvs 
aKavSaXi^eTai)  and  Luke  xxi.  9  :  'The  end  is  not  by  and  by'  {ovk  evOeajs 
TO  Tt'Xos).     For  'present,'  see  Measure  for  Measure,  iv.  2.  233  : 

'  I  will  give  him  a  present  shrift.' 
And  2  Henry  IV.  iv.  3.  So  : 

'  To  York,  to  present  execution.' 
For  '  presently,'  see  Matthew  xxvi.  53. 

Scene  III. 

2.  Stcevens  quo'es  the  following  from  A  Detection  of  Damnable  Driftes 
practized  by  Three  Witches,  &c.  arraigned  at  Chelmisforde  in  Essex,  1579  ; 
'  Item,  also  she  came  on  a  tyme  to  the  house  of  one  Robert  Lathburie  .... 
who  diflyking  her  dealyng,  sent  her  home  emptie ;  but  presently  after  her 
departure,  his  hogges  fell  sicke  and  died,  to  the  number  of  twentie.' 

5.  'Munch'  was  spelt  in  Shakespeare's  time  'munch'  and  '  mounch ' 
indifferently.  It  means  'to  chew  with  closed  hps,'  and  is  used  in  Scotland 
in  the  sense  of  '  mumbling  with  toothless  gums,'  as  old  peo[  le  do  their  food. 
It  is  derived  probably  from  the  French  manger,  Latin  jnandi/care. 

lb.  Give  me,  that  is,  give  me  some,  or  give  it  me.  Compare  Romeo 
and  Juliet,  iv.  I.  121  : 

'  Give  me,  give  me  !  O,  tell  me  not  of  fear  ! ' 

lb.  q7toth,  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  cwcei^an.  to  say,  speak,  of  which  the 
first  and  third  persons  singular  preterite  are  cw<e'S. 

6.  Aroint  thee.  This  phrase  is  used  again  by  Shakespeare,  King  Lear, 
iii.  4.  I  29  :  '  Aroint  thee,  witch,  aroint  thee.'  '  Runt'  is  applied  in  Scotland 
and  in  Suffolk  to  an  obstinate  old  cow  or  ill-conditioned  woman,  and 
'  Rynt  thee '  is  used  by  milkmaids  in  Cheshire  to  a  cow,  when  she 
has  been  milked,  to  bid  her  get  out  of  the  way.  Ray  in  his  Collection 
of  English  Words  gives  '  Ry?it  ye :  By  your  leave,  stand  handsomly. 
As  Rynt  you  witch,  quoth  Besse  Locket  to  her  mother.  Proverb, 
Chesh.'     It    is    by    some    connected    with    the    adverb   '  aroume,'   meaning 


83  NOTES.  [act  I. 

'abroad,'  found  in  Chnucer,  House  of  Fame,  Bk.  ii.  32  : 

'  That  I  a-roume  was  in  the  field.' 
Other    derivations    are   from   the  Latin    averrimco ,    the    Italian  rogna,    a 
cutaneous  disease,  &c. 

lb.  rump-fed,  surely  not,  as  some  commentators  assert,  '  fed  on  offal,' 
but  rather  fed  on  the  best  joints,  pampered. 

Ih.  roiiyon.  This  is  probably  derived  from  an  old  French  word  rognon 
(not  rognon,  kidney)  formed  from  rogue,  scabies.  The  word  is  used,  ap- 
plied there  to  a  supposed  old  woman,  in  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor  iv.  2.  195. 
The  adjective  'roynish,'  apparently  connected  with  the  same  root,  is  found  in 
As  You  Like  It,  ii.  2    8 :  '  The  roynish  clown.' 

7.  An  account  is  given  in  Hackluyt's  Voyages,  vol.  ii.  pp.  247,  251,  of  a 
voyage  by  Ralph  Fitch  and  others  in  a  ship  called  the  Tiger,  to  "Tripolis, 
whence  they  went  by  caravan  to  Aleppo,  in  the  year  15S3.  In  the 
Calendar  of  Domestic  State  Papers  (1547-1580)  vol.  xxxiii.  53,  under  date 
April"  13,  1564,  mention  is  made  of  the  ship  Tiger,  apparently  a  Spanish 
vessel.  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  in  his  journal,  1628,  mentions  a  ship  called  '  the 
Tyger  of  London,  going  for  Scanderone,'  p.  45  (Camden  Society)  Shake- 
speare has  elsewhere  given  this  name  to  a  ship;  Twelfth  Night,  v.  I.  65. 

8.  Steevens  quotes  from  the  Life  of  Doctor  Fian,  'a  notable  sorcerer' 
burnt  at  Edinburgh,  Jan.  1 59 1,  how  that  he  and  a  number  of  witches 
'  together  went  to  sea,  each  one  in  a  riddle  or  cive.'  In  Greek,  iirl  p'nrovs 
irXfiv,  '  to  go  to  sea  in  a  sieve,'  was  a  proverbial  expression  for  an  enterprise 
of  extreme  hazard  or  impossible  of  achievement. 

9.  Steevens  says  that  though  a  witch  could  assume  the  form  of  any 
animal  at  pleasure,  the  tail  was  always  wanting.  One  distinctive  mark,  says 
Sir  F.  Madden,  of  a  werwolf,  or  human  being  changed  into  a  wolf,  was  the 
absence  of  a  tail. 

10.  I'll  do.  She  threatens  in  the  shape  of  a  rat  to  gnaw  through  the 
hull  of  the  Tiger  and  make  her  spring  a  leak. 

11.  Witches  were  believed  to  have  the  power  of  selling,  or  giving,  winds. 
See  Drayton's  Moon-Calf,  line  865  : 

'  She  could  sell  winds  to  any  one  that  would 
Buy  them  for  money,  forcing  them  to  hold 
What  time  she  listed,  tie  them  in  a  thread, 
Which  ever  as  the  seafarer  undid. 
They  rose  or  scantled,  as  his  sails  would  drive. 
To  the  same  port  whereas  he  would  arrive.' 

14.  all  the  other,  all  the  others.  See  the  Authorized  Version,  Philippians 
ii.  3  :  '  Let  each  esteem  other  better  than  themselves.' 

15.  And  the  very  ports  they  blow,  and  I  have  under  my  control  the  actual 
ports  upon  which  the  winds  blow.  For  '  blow'  thus  used  without  a  preposi- 
tion to  govern  the  objective  noun,  see  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  iv.  3.  109 : 

'  Air,  quoth  he,  thy  cheeks  may  blow.' 
Pope  read  'points'  for  'ports,'  and  Johnson  proposed  'various'  for  'very.' 
'Orts'  for  'ports'  seems  still  more  probable.     '  Ort,'  the  same  word  as  the 
German,  is  found  as  '  art'  in  the  North  of  England  and  '  airi'  in  Scotland  : 
'  Of  all  the  airts  the  wind  doth  blaw 
I  dearly  lo'e  the  west.' 


sc.  3.]  MACBETH.  83 

17.  The  shipman's  card,  the  circular  card  on  which  the  thirtj'-two  points 
of  the  couipass  are  marked,  and  on  which  the  needle  is  fixed.  The  box 
containing  it  is  placed  in  the  binnacle  in  sight  of  the  man  at  the  helm. 
Hence  Spenser,  Fairy  Queen,  ii.  '].  6  : 

'  Upon  his  card  and  compass  firmes  his  eye, 
The  maysters  of  his  long  experiment.' 
And  Pope,  Essay  on  Man,  ii.  108  : 

'  On  life's  vast  ocean  diversely  we  sail, 
Reason  the  card,  but  passion  is  the  gale.' 
20.   ■pent-house  lid.    Malone  quotes  Decker :   '  The  two  eyes  are  the  glasse 
windowes  at  which  light  disperses  itselfe  into  every  roome,  having  goodly 
penthouses  of  haire  to  overshadd  w  them.'  Gull's  Horn-Book,  p.  79  of  the 
Reprint,  1812.     So  Drayton,  David  and  Goliah,  line  373  : 

'  His  brows  like  two  steep  penthouses  hung  down 
Over  his  eyelids.' 
In  our  passage  the  eyelid  is  so  called  without  any  reference  to  the  eyebrow, 
simply  because  it  slopes  like  the  roof  of  a  pent-house  or  lean-to.  '  Pent- 
house' is  a  corruption  of  the  French  appentis,  an  appendage  to  a  house,  an 
out-house.  So  we  have  '  cray-fish '  from  ecrevisse,  and  '  causeway '  from 
chaussee.  It  is  used  in  the  sense  of  the  Latin  testudo,  in  Fairfax's  Tasso, 
Bk.  xi.  St.  33  : 

'  And  o'er  their  heads  an  iron  penthouse  vast 
They  built  by  joining  many  a  shield  and  targe.' 
11.  a  man  forbid,  forbidden  to  associate  with  his  fellow-men,  under  a  curse. 
22,  23.  This  idea  was  probably  suggested  to  Shakespeare  by  the  passage 
from  Holinshed,  p.  207,  quoted  in  our  Preface. 

22.  se'nnights,  seven-nights,  weeks. 

23.  peak,  grow  sharp-featured,  thin.  Witches  were  supposed  to  make 
waxen  figures  of  those  they  intended  to  harm,  which  they  stuck  through 
with  pins  or  melted  before  a  slow  fire.  Then  as  the  figure  wasted,  so  the 
person  it  represented  wasted  away  also.  Thus  Webster  in  his  Duchess  of 
Malfi,  iv.  1.  p.  85,  ed.  Dyce,  1857  : 

'  It  wastes  me  more 
Than  were't  my  picture,  fashion'd  out  of  wax. 
Stuck  with  a  magical  needle,  and  then  buried 
In  some  foul  dunghill.' 
See  also  Richard  III.  iii.  4.  70.     We  have  the  word  'peak'  in  Hamlet,  ii. 
2.  594  : 

'  Yet  I, 
A  dull  and  muddy-mettled  rascal,  peak, 
Like  John-a-dreanis,  unpregnant  of  my  cause, 
And  can  say  nothing.' 
32.   Weird,  Theobald's  emendation  for  the  '  weyward'  of  the  folios,  comes 
from   the  Anglo-Saxon  ivyrd,    fate.      '  The   weird   sisters'  were    not    mere 
mortal    witches,    but    Goddesses    of  Destiny,    as    Holinshed    says.     Gawin 
Douglas  in  his  translation  of  the  .ff.neid,  renders  Parcae  by  '  the  weird  sisters.' 
Chaucer  uses  '  weirds'  in  the  plural : 

'  But  O  Fortune,  executrice  of  wierdes,' 
Troilus  and  Creseide,  Bk.  iii.  618.     'Weird'  is  given  in  Jamieson's  Scottish 

G  2 


84 


NOTES.  [act  1. 


Dictionary  as  a  verb,  to  determine  or  assign  as  one's  fate,  also  to  predict. 
He  gives  also  '  weirdly,'  i.  e.  happy,  and  '  weirdless,'  i.  e.  unhappy. 

33.  Posters,  couriers,  able  to  post  or  ride  at  full  speed  over  sea  and  land. 

34.  The  witches  here  take  hold  of  hands  and  dance  round  in  a  ring  nine 
times,  three  rounds  for  each  witch,  as  a  charm  for  the  furtherance  of  her 
purposes.  iVIultiples  of  three  and  nine  were  specially  affected  by  witches, 
ancient  and  modern.     See  Ovid,  Metam.  xiv.  58: 

'  Ter  novies  carmen  magico  demurmurat  ore,' 
and  vii.  189-191  : 

'  Ter  se  convertit ;  ter  sumptis  flumine  crinem 
Irroravit  aquis  ;  ternis  ululatibus  ora 
Solvit.' 
Compare  the  note  on  iv.  i.  2,  of  this  play. 

38.  So  foul  and  fair  a  day,  a  day  changing  so  suddenly  from  fine  to 
stormy,  the  storm  being  the  work  of  witchcraft.  Delius  interprets  '  day'  to 
mean  the  day  of  battle,  whose  wavering  fortune  Macbeth  had  recently 
experienced. 

39.  Forres.  The  folios  have  '  Soris.'  Forres  is  near  the  Moray  Frith,  about 
half-way  between  Elgin  and  Nairn. 

43.  question.     So  Hamlet,  i.  i.  45  :  'Question  it,  Horatio.' 

44.  choppy.  The  word  was  spelt  indifferently  '  chappy'  and  '  choppy.' 
So  also  '  chopt'  and  '  chapt.'     Here  the  first  folio  has  '  choppie.' 

45.  you  should  be,  your  general  appearance  makes  me  suppose  you  are. 
See  v.  7-  20. 

46.  Mr.  Staunton  aptly  quotes  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Honest  Man's 
Fortune,  ii.  I : 

'  And  the  women  that 
Come  to  us,  for  disguises  must  wear  beards ; 
And  that 's,  they  say,  a  token  of  a  witch.' 
See  also  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  iv.  2.  202  : 

'  Evans.  By  yea  and  no,  I  think  the  'oman  is  a  witch  indeed  :  I  like  not 
when  a  'oman  has  a  great  peard.' 

53.  fantastical,  imaginary.  The  word  is  used  by  Holinshed.  See  line 
139  of  this  scene;  and  compare  Richard  II.  i.  3.  299  : 

'  Or  wallow  naked  in  December  snow 
By  thinking  on  fantastic  summer's  heat.' 

54.  show.     See  note  on  i.  I.  15. 

55.  56.  The  distribution  of  phrases  in  these  two  lines,  'present  grace' 
referring  to  '  noble  having,'  and  '  great  prediction'  to  '  royal  hope,'  is  paralleled 
in  lines  60,  61.     See  note  on  that  passage. 

56.  having.  Compare  Twelfth  Night,  iii.  4.  379  :  '  My  having  is  not 
much,'  and  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  iii.  2.73:'  'The  gentleman  is  of  no 
having.'  In  iv.  3.  81  of  this  play,  where  we  read  'my  more-having,'  so 
hyphened  in  the  folio,  '  having'  is  not  a  substantive. 

57.  rapt.  Spelt  by  the  folios  '  wrapt.'  The  first  folio  is  by  no  means 
consistent  in  the  spelling  of  this  word.  For  instance,  in  Timon  of  Athens 
i.  I.  19,  it  has  '  rapt.'  Of  course,  from  its  etymology,  rapcre,  raptus,  it  should 
be  spelt  '  rapt,'  but  the  wrong  spelling  was  used  even  by  Locke  (as  quoted 
by  Johnson). 


sc.  3.]  MACBETH.  85 

lb.  withal.  See  our  note,  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  iv.  I. '408,  and  com- 
pare i.  5.  31,  and  ii.  i.  15,  of  this  play. 

60,  61.  Who  neither  beg  your  favours  nor  fear  your  hate.  For  the 
construction  see  Winter's  Tale,  iii.  2.  164,  165  : 

'  Though  I  with  death  and  with 
Reward  did  threaten  and  encourage  him.' 
And  compare  ii.  3.  69,  70  of  this  play. 
65.  Leaser.     See  Richard  II.  ii.  i.  95: 

'  Thy  death-bed  is  no  lesser  than  thy  land.' 
And  see  also  the  note  on  v.  2.  13  of  this  plav. 

71.  Sitiel  was  Macbeth's  father's  name,  according  to  Holinshed.  Ritson 
thought  it  a  corruption  for  Finleg  (i.e.  Finlay),  and  Beattie  held  that  it 
ought  to  be  written  '  Sinane.'  In  Fordun's  Scotichronicon,  Bk.  iv.  c.  44, 
Macbeth  is  called  '  Machabeus  filius  Finele.' 

72,  73-  What  is  said  in  these  lines  seems  inconsistent  with  the  statement 
in  i.  2.  32,  53.     See  our  remarks  in  the  Preface. 

74.  Comes  not  within  the  range  of  credibility.  'The  eye  of  honour,' 
The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  I.  137,  is  a  somewhat  similar  phrase.  Compare 
also  '  scope  of  nature,'  King  John,  iii.  4.  154. 

76.  owe,  own,  possess.     Compare  Richard  II.  iv.  i.  185: 
'  Like  a  deep  well 
That  owes  two  buckets  filling  one  another.' 

80.  And  these  are  0/  them.  For  an  instance  of  the  preposition  'of 
thus  used,  partitively,  see  Bacon's  Esfaj's,  Of  Atheism,  p.  65.  ed.  Wright  : 
'  You  shall  have  of  them,  that  will  sufJer  for  Atheisme,  and  not  recant.' 

81.  corporal,  corporeal.  Shakespeare  always  uses  the  form  'corporal,' 
as  in  this  play,  i.  7.  80.     Milton  has  both  forms,  as  in  Par.  Lost,  iv.  585  : 

'  To  exclude 
Spiritual  substance  with  corporeal  bar.' 
And  in  Samson  Agonistes,  616  : 

'Though  void  of  corporal  sense.' 
In  Par.  Lost,  v.  413,  the  original  edition,  1667,  has  '  corporeal  *  where  clearly 
we  should  read  'corporal  :* 

'  And  corporeal  to  incorporeal  turn.' 
Shakespeare  has  '  incorporal '  once,  viz.  in  Hamlet,  iii.  4.  118  : 
'  That  you  do  bend  your  eye  on  vacancy 
And  with  the  incorporal  air  do  hold  discourse.' 
He  never  uses  '  incorporeal.' 

84.  on.  So  the  three  earlier  folios.  The  fourth  folio,  which  most 
editors  have  followed,  substituted  'of.'  'On'  is  frequently  used  by  Shake- 
speare where  we  should  say  'of.'  See  v.  I.  63,  and  compare  Julius  Cfesar, 
i.  2.  71  : 

'  And  not  be  jealous  on  me,  gentle  Brutus  '; 
and  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  ii.  1.  266  : 

'  More  fond  on  her  than  she  upon  her  love.' 

lb.  the  insane  root,  the  root  which  produces  insanity.     Steevens   supposes 

this  to  be  the  root  of  hemlock,  and  quotes  Greene's  Never  Too  Late,  1616, 

'You  gaz'd  against  the  sun  and  so  blemished  your  sight;  or  else  you  have 

eaten  of  the  roots  of  hemlock,  that  makes  men's  eyes  conceit  unseen  objects.' 


86  NOTES.  [act  I. 

Root  of  hemlock  is  one  of  the  ingredients  of  the  witches'  cauldron,  iv.  i. 
25.  Douce  interprets  'henbane,'  quoting  Batman  Uppon  Bartholome  de 
Proprietatibus  Rerum,  lib.  xvii.  ch.  87  :  '  Henbane  . .  is  called  Insana,  mad,  for 
the  vse  thereof  is  perillous :  for  if  it  be  eate  or  dronke,  it  breedeth  mad- 
nesse  . .  it  taketh  awaye  wit  and  reason.'  Malone  refers  to  Plutarch's  Life  of 
Antony,  which,  as  we  know,  Shakespeare  had  read  in  North's  Translation, 
where  it  is  said  that  the  Roman  soldiers  in  the  Parthian  war  were  compelled 
to  live  on  roots,  one  of  which  '  made  them  out  of  their  wits.' 

88.  Hanmer  completed  the  line  by  reading  '  but  who  is  here?'  for  '  who's 
here  ? ' 

91.  rebels'.  There  is  no  apostrophe  in  the  folios.  Some  editors  read 
•rebel's,'  supposing  'the  rebel's  fight'  to  mean  Macbeth's  personal  combat 
with  Macdonwald. 

93.  His  wonders  and  his  praises  do  contend  Which  should  be  thine 
or  his.  '  Thine'  refers  to  'praises,'  'his'  to  'wonders,'  and  the  meaning  is: 
There  is  a  conflict  in  the  king's  mind  between  his  astonishment  at  the 
achievement  and  his  admiration  of  the  achiever;  he  knows  not  how  suffi- 
ciently to  express  his  own  wonder  and  to  praise  Macbeth,  so  that  he  is  reduced 
to  silence. 

lb.  that,  the  mental  conflict  just  described. 

96.  Nothing,  used  adverbially,  as  in  v.  4.  2.  Compare  'something,'  iii. 
I.  131,  and  'all-thing,'  iii.  i.  13. 

lb.  afeard,  afraid.     See  i.  7.  39: 

'  Art  thou  afeard 
To  be  the  same  in  thine  own  act  and  valour 
As  thou  art  in  desire?' 
And  again  v.  i.  36. 

97,  98.  As  thick  as  hail  Came  post.  This  is  Rowe's  emendation.  The 
folios  read  'As  thick  as  tale  Can  post,' &c.  Johnson,  retaining  'came,' 
restored  'tale,'  and  interpreted  the  sentence  thus:  the  posts  arrived  as 
fast  as  they  could  be  counted.  But  '  thick  as  hail '  is  an  expression  of  com- 
mon occurrence,  while  for  '  thick  as  tale'  no  parallel  instance  can  be  given. 

100.  se?tt.  Hunter  conjectured  'not  sent';  but  the  sense  is  quite  clear  as 
the  text  stands,  for  thanks  are  not  payment,  and  Angus's  speech  thus  suits 
much  better  with  the  one  which  follows. 

104.  earnest,  pledge;  literally,  money  given  in  advance  as  a  pledge  for  the 
payment  of  more.  See  i.  3  132,  and  King  Lear,  i.  4.  104  :  'There's  earnest 
of  thy  service.'  Cotgrave  (Fr.  Diet.)  gives,  'Arres.  Earnest;  money  giuen 
for  the  conclusion,  or  striking  vp,  of  a  bargaine.'  The  '  earnest  penny '  is 
still  given  in  the  North  of  England  on  the  hiring  of  servants. 

106.  addition,  title.     Cowel  (Law  Diet.  s.  v.)  says  that  it  signifies  '  a  title 
given  to  a  man  besides  his  Christian  and  surname,  shewing  his  estate,  degree, 
mystery,  trade,  place  of  dwelling,  &c.'     Compare  Coriolanus,  i.  9.  66  : 
'  Caius  Marcius  Coriolanus  !     Bear 
The  addition  nobly  ever  !' 
And  Henry  V.  v.  2.  467. 

109.  Who,  he  who;  used  by  Shakespeare  either  definitely  as  in  this  pas- 
sage, or  indefinite]}'  as  in  Othello,  iii.  3.  157  : 

'  Who  steals  my  purse,  steals  trash.' 


sc.  3-]  MACBETH.  8  J 

111-II4.  Here  again  is  a  discrepancy  with  what  had  been  said  of 
Cawdor  in  the  second  scene. 

111.  Whether,  like  '  either'  and  '  neither,'  frequently  counts  for  no  more 
than  a  monosylir-ble  in  the  verse.  Even  so  the  line  is  redundant,  as  are  so 
many  when  a  new  sentence  begins  in  the  middle. 

112.  line,  strengthen,  support.     Compare  i  Henry  IV.  ii.  3.  87  : 

■  I  fear  my  brother  Mortimer  doth  stir 
About  his  title,  and  hath  sent  for  you 
To  line  his  enterprise.' 
And  Henry  V.  ii.  4.  7  : 

'  To  line  and  new  repair  our  towns  of  war 
With  men  of  courage  and  with  means  defendant.' 
The  word  is  applied  by  a  natural  metaphor  to  the  seconding  or  backing  up 
of  an  enterprise. 

lb.  the  rebel,  that  is,  Macdonwald. 

113.  With  hidden  help  and  vantage,  giving  him  secret  assistance  and 
affording  him  a  favourable  opportunity  for  his  operations.  For  'vantage' 
see  i.  2.  31,  and  Measure  for  Measure,  iv.  6.  II. 

119.  the  thatie  of  Cawdor,  that  is,  the  title  of  thane  of  Cawdor,  as  in 
line  122. 

120.  trusted  home,  trusted  to  the  uttermost,  thoroughly.  See  Measure 
for  Measure,  iv.  3.  148  :  '  Accuse  him  home  and  home.'  And  Cymbeline, 
iv.  2.  328 :  '  That  confirms  it  home.'     And  All 's  Well  that   Ends  Well, 

V-  3-  4  : 

'But  your  son, 
As  mad  in  folly,  lack'd  the  sense  to  know 
Her  estimation  home.' 

121.  etiliindle  yon  unto,  incite  you  to  hope  for. 

128.  Shakespeare  borrows  here,  as  he  frequently  does,  the  language  cf 
the  stage.     Compare  ii.  4.  5,  6: 

'  Thou  seest,  the  heavens,  as  troubled  with  man's  act. 
Threaten  his  bloody  stage.' 

134.  suggestion,  prompting,  temptation.     Compare  Tempest,  iv.  I.  26  : 

'  The  strong'st  suggestion 
Our  worser  genius  can.' 

135.  tinjix  my  hair,  stir  my  hair  from  its  position,  make  it  stand  on  end. 
Compare  for  this  effect  of  fear,  Tempest,  i.  2.  213: 

'  With  hair  up-staring, — then  like  re«ds  not  hair.' 
And  Hamlet,  iii.  4.  121  : 

'  Your  bedded  hair,  like  life  in  excrements, 
Starts  up  and  stands  an  end.' 
See  also  2  Henry  VI.  iii.  2.  318  : 

'  Mine  hair  be  fix'd  on  end,  as  one  distract,' 
where  it  is  a  sign  of  madness, 

136.  sealed,  firmly  fixed  or  settled.     See  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  vi.  644: 

'  From  their  foundations  loosening  to  and  fro 
Thev  pluck'd  the  seated  hills.' 

137.  138.  The  presence  of  actual  danger  moves  one  less  than  the  terrible 
forebodings  of  the  imagination.     This  general  truth  Macbeth  applies  to  his 


88  NOTES.  [acti. 

own  case.     For  '  fear'  in  the  sense  of  '  object  of  fear,'  compare  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream,  v.  i.  21  : 

'  Or  in  the  night,  imagining  some  fear, 
How  easy  is  a  bush  supposed  a  bear  !' 
And  2  Henry  IV.  iv.  5.  1^6: 

'  All  these  bold  fears 
Thou  see'st  with  peril  I  have  answered.' 

139.  This  conception  of  mine  which  involves  but  an  imaginary  murder. 
For  '  fantastical'  see  note  on  i.  3.  5;;. 

140.  my  single  state  of  man.  Man  is  compared  to  a  kingdom  or  state, 
which  may  be  described  as  'single,'  when  all  fjiculties  are  at  one,  or  act  in 
unison,  undistracted  by  conflicting  emotions.     See  Julius  Caesar,  ii.  I.  63-69  : 

'  Between  the  acting  of  a  dreadful  thing 
And  the  first  motion,  all  the  interim  is 
Like  a  phantasma,  or  a  hideous  dream  : 
The  Genius  and  the  mortal  instruments 
Are  then  in  council ;   and  the  state  of  man, 
Like  to  a  little  kingdom,  suffers  then 
The  nature  of  an  insurrection.' 
Or  is  'single'  used  in  a  depreciatory  sense,  as  in  i.  6.  16  ?  where  see  note. 

Ih.  function,    the  active  exercise    of  the  faculties,    which  are    so    over- 
whelmed by  the  speculations  of  thought,  that  Macbeth  lives  for  the  moment 
in  an  imaginary  world.     For  '  surmise,'  see  Titus  Andronicus,  ii.  3.  219  : 
'  Aaron  is  gone  ;  and  my  compassionate  heart 
Will  not  permit  mine  eyes  once  to  behold 
The  thing  whereat  it  trembles  by  surmise.' 
142.  rapt.     See  note  on  i.  3.  57. 

144.  stir,  moving.     See  Richard  W.  ii.  3.  51  : 

'  What  stir 
'  Keeps  good  old  York  there  with  his  men  of  war?' 
Ih.  come,  i.  e.  which  have  come. 

145.  onr  strange  garments,  garments  that  are  strange  to  us. 

147.  Time  and  the  hour  runs,  &c.  For  the  construction,  compare 
iii.  2.  37,  and  Richard  IL  ii.  i.  25S  : 

'  Reproach  and  dissolution  hangeth  over  him.' 
'  Time  and  the  hour,'  in  the  sense  of  time  with  its  successive  incidents  or  in 
its  measured  course,  forms  but  one  idea.    The  expression  seems  to  have  been 
proverbial.     Another  form  of  it  is, 

'  Be  the  day  weary,  be  the  day  long, 
At  length  it  ringeth  to  evensong.' 

148.  slay  upon,  await.     Compare  Measure  for  Measure,  iv.  I.  47: 

'  I  have  a  servant  comes  with  me  along. 
That  stays  upon  me.' 
And  All's  Well  that  Ends.  Well,  iii.  5.  48 : 

'  I  thank  you,  and  will  stay  upon  your  leisure.' 

149.  Give  me  your  favour,  give  me  your  indulgence,  excuse  me.  Comp. 
Tempest,  iv.  I.  204  : 

'  Good  my  lord,  give  me  thy  favour  still.' 
And  Henry  VHL  i.  I.  168  :  'Pray,  give  me  favour,  sir.' 


sc.  4]  MA  C  B  E  T  H.  89 

lb.  my  dull  brain  &c.     Macbeth  tries  to  divert  attention  from  his  ab- 
straction,  b}'  conveying   the   impression  that  he   had    been   occupied  with 
painful  efforts  to  recall  something  which  he  had  forgotten. 
lb.  wrought,  agitated.     Compare  Othello,  v.  2.  345  : 
'  But  being  wrought 
Perplex'd  in  the  extreme.' 
151.  That  is,  in  the  tablets   of  his  memory,   like   the  iMrnxovts  5(\toi 
(ppcvuiy  (Aesch.  Prom.  789).     Compare  Hamlet,  i.  5.  98  : 
'  Yea,  from  the  table  of  my  memory 
I'll  wipe  away  all  trivial  fond  records.' 
153-155.   Think  .    .    .  other.     These  words  are  addressed  to  Banquo. 

153.  at  more  time,  i.  e.  at  more  leisure. 

154.  The  interim  having  weighed  it,  having  estimated  the  occurrence  at 
its  true  value.     The  '  interim,'  or  intervening  time,  is  here  personified. 

lb.  speak  Our  free  hearts,  speak  our  hearts  freely. 

Scene  IV. 

1.  Are.     So  the  second  and  later  folios.     The  first  has  '  Or.' 

2.  Those  in  commission,  those  charged  with  the  execution. 

3.  spoke,  spoken  ;  a  frequent  form  for  the  participle,  in  use  as  late  as  the 
last  century.  So  '  broke,'  for  'broken.'  See  note  on  Richard  II.  iii.  I.  13. 
Compare  Richard  II.  i.  I.  77  : 

'  What  I  have  spoke,  or  thou  canst  worse  devise.' 
6.  set  forth,  exhibited. 

9.  studied.  The  expression  is  borrowed  from  the  language  of  the  stage. 
Compare  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  2.  205  : 

'  Like  one  well  studied  in  a  sad  ostent 
To  please  his  grandam.' 

10.  owed.      See  note  on  i.  3.  76. 

11.  a  careless  trifle,  a  trifle  for  which  he  did  not  care,  an  uncared-for  trifle. 
II,  12.  Compare  for  the  sentiment  Euripides,  Medea,  516-520  : 

bj  Zev,  Ti  Irj  xpvaov  fikv  os  Ki^aijX'jS  77, 

TfKfjript'  avOpwnoLOiv  unraaas  aatprj, 

dvSpaiv  5'  iiTw  XPV  ''"'-'''  i^clkov  5i(L&ivai, 

ov5f IS  -xapaKTrip  tfj-nfcpvice  auinari, 
14.  Duncan's  reflections  on  the  conduct  of  Cawdor  are  suddenly  inter- 
rupted by  the  entrance  of  one  whose  face  gave  as  little  indication  of  the 
construction  of  his  mind,  upon  whom  he  had  built  as  absolute  a  trust  and  who 
was  about  to  requite  that  trust  by  an  act  of  still  more  signal  and  more  fatal 
treacher}'.  This  is  an  admirable  stroke  of  dramatic  art. 
17,  18.  slotu  To  overtake,  that  is,  too  slow  to  overtake. 

19.  the  proportion,  the  due  proportion,  as  in  Troilus  and  Cressida,  i.  3.  87  : 

'  The  heavens  themselves,  the  planets  and  this  centre, 
Observe  degree,  priority  and  place, 
Insisture,  course,  proportion,  season,  form, 
Office  and  custom,  in  all  line  of  order.' 

20.  Might  have  been  mine,  might  have  been  in  my  power  to  give. 

21.  more  than  all,  i.e.  more  than  all  I  have. 


90  NOTES,  [act  I. 

2  2,  23.  The  service  .  .  .  itself.  The  loyal  service  which  I  owe  recompenses 
itself  in  the  very  performance.  The  singular  is  used  as  in  i.  3.  147,  'service 
and  loyalty'  representing  but  one  idea. 

27.  Safe  toward  your  love  and  honottr,  with  a  sure  regard  to  your  love 
and  honour.  Blackstone  proposed  to  read  '  you'  for  '  your,'  and  interpreted 
the  clause  '  by  doing  everything  with  a  saving  of  their  love  and  honour 
toward  you  '     '  Safe'  is  used  provincially  for  '  sure,  certain.' 

28.  Compare  All 's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  ii.  3.  163  : 

'  It  is  in  us  to  plant  thine  honour  where 
We  please  to  have  it  grow.' 
And  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  The  Island  Princess,  iii.  I  : 

'  So  is  my   study  still  to  plant  thy  person.' 
30,  31.  nor  must  be  known  No  less.     We  should  now  say  'and  must  be  no 
less  known.'     For  instances  of  this   double  negative,  which  is  of  frequent 
occurrence,  see  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  iii.  4.  11  : 

'  I  never  did   repent  for  doing  good, 
Nor  shall  not   now.' 
32.  grow  is  here   used   in   the  double  sense  of  'to  cling  close'  and  'to 
increase.'     For  the  former  compare  Henry  VIII.  v.  v  5°  "• 

'  Peace,  plenty,  love,  truth,  terror, 
That  were  the  servants  to  this  chosen  infant. 
Shall  then  be  his,   and  like  a  vine  grow  to  him.' 
For  the  other  sense  of'  grow,'  see  the  quotation  in  the  note  on  line  28,  above. 
33-35.  My  plenteotts  joys  .   .   .  sorrow.     Compare  for  the  same  thought 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  iii.  2.  102-104: 

'  Back,  foolish  tears,   back  to  your  native  spring ; 
Your  tributary  drops  belong  to  woe, 
Which  you,  mistaking,  ofier  up  to  joy.' 
And  Winter's  Tale,  v.  2.  47-50:   'There  might  you  have  beheld  one  joy 
crown  another,  so  and  in   such  manner  that  it  seemed  sorrow  wept  to  take 
leave  of  them,  for  their  joy  waded  in  tears.' 

37.  establiih  our  estate,  settle  the  succession  to  the  throne.  See  the 
quotation  from  Holinshed   in  the  Preface. 

39.  Cumberland  was  at  that  time  held  by  Scotland  of  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land as  a  fief.  The  district  called  by  this  name  included,  besides  the  counties 
of  Cumberland  and  Westmoreland,  Northern  Strathclyde. 

42.  hiverness.  Spelt  in  the  folios,  as  in  Holinshed,  '  Envernes.' 
45.  harbinger,  an  officer  of  the  royal  household,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
ride  in  advance  of  the  king  and  procure  lodgings  for  him  and  his  attendants 
on  their  arrival  at  any  place.  It  is  a  corruption  of  herberger.  Cotgrave 
(Fr.  Diet.)  gives  '  Mareschal  du  corps  du  Rov.  The  Kings  chiefe  Harbinger.' 
In  the  sense  of  '  herald,'  or  '  forerunner,'  it  occurs  in  this  play  (v.  6.  10), 
where  trumpets  are  called 

'  Those   clamorous  harbingers  of  blood  and  death.' 
48.    Malcolm's   promotion   was  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  Macbeth's  de- 
signs upon  the  crown. 

50.  Macbeth  apparently  appeals  to  the  stars  because  he  is  contemplating 
night  as  the  time  for  the  perpetration  of  the  deed.  There  is  nothing  to 
indicate  that  this  scene  took  place  at  night. 


sc.  5.]  MACBETH.  9 1 

52.  let  that  be,  that  is,  let  that  take  place.  Delius  supposes  'the  eye'  to 
be  the  subject  to  '  let,'  which  he  understands  in  the  sense  of  '  permit.' 

54.  During  the  preceding  soliloquy  Duncan  has  been  conversing  with 
Banquo  on  Macbeth's  merits. 

55.  /  am  fed.     Compare  Winter's  Tale,  i.  2.  91  : 

'  Cram  's  with  praise  and  make  's 
As  fat  as  tame  things.' 

56.  banquet,  as  Archbishop  Trench  has  pointed  out  (Select  Glossary), 
'  used  generally  to  be  restrained  to  the  lighter  and  ornamental  dessert  or 
confection  with  wine,  which  followed  the  more  substantial  repast,'  whether 
dinner  or  supper.  But  in  this  passage  the  sense  is  not  so  restricted.  For  a 
similar  sentiment,  see  Winter's  Tale,  iv.  4.  529  : 

'  It  is  my  father's  music 
To  speak  your  deeds.' 
58.  There  is  a  touch  of  affectionate  familiarity  in  the  phrase  '  It  is.' 


Scene  V. 

For  the  stage  direction  the  folios  have  '  Enter  Macbeths  Wife  alone  with 
a  Letter.'  She  reads  the  letter,  not  now  for  the  first  time.  Lady  Macbeth's 
name  was  Gruoch.  It  is  found  in  a  charter  granted  to  the  Culdees  of  Loch 
Leven  by  Macbeth  and  his  wife.  She  is  there  called  '  Gruoch  filia  Bodhe.' 
'Bodhe'  was  son  of  Kenneth  IV,  a  former  king  of  Scotland.  In  the  same 
charter  (printed  for  the  Bannatyne  Club)  Macbeth  is  called  '  Machbet  filius 
Finlach.'  A  genealogical  tree,  showing  the  descent  of  Macbeth  and  his  wife 
from  Malcolm  I,  is  given  by  Mr.  G.  R.  French  in  his  Shakespeareana 
Genealogica,  p.  2S5. 

2.  the  perfectest  report,  the  most  accurate  intelligence,  i.  e.  my  own 
experience.  What  the  '  imperfect  speakers,'  i.  3.  70,  had  promised  was 
fulfilled  by  the  result. 

5.  Whiles,  'while'  and  'whilst'  are  used  indifferently  by  Shakespeare.  The 
first  has  frequently  been  altered  by  editors  to  one  of  the  forms  still  in  use. 
See  JuHus  Caesar,  i.  2.  209  : 

'  Such  men  as  he  be  never  at  heart's  ease 
Whiles  they  behold  a  greater  than  themselves.' 
lb.  rapt.     See  note  on  i.  3.  57. 

lb.  the  wonder  of  it.  In  Othello,  iv.  I.  207  we  have  a  similar  use  of  the 
preposition,  '  But  yet  the  pity  of  it,  lago  !' 

6.  missives,  messengers.     See  Antony  and  Cleopatia,  ii.  2.  74  : 

'  Did  pocket  up  my  letters,  and  with  taunts 
Did  gibe  my  missive  out  of  audience.' 
In   Cotgrave  the   French  missive   is    given    in  the  sense    of  lettre    missive, 
according  to  the  usual  sense  of  the  English  derivative. 

lb.  all-hailed.  The  word  is  thus  hyphened  in  the  first  folio.  The  later 
folios  write  '  all  hail'd'  as  separate  words.  The  first  is  doubtless  right. 
Florio  (Ital.  Diet.)  gives :  '  Salutare,  to  salute,  to  greet,  to  alhaile  ' 

9.  deliver,  report.  See  Twelfth  Night,  i.  5.  222  :  'Sure  you  have  some 
hideous  matter  to  deliver,  when  the  courtesy  of  it  is  so  fearful.' 


92  NOTES.  [act  I. 

10.  the  dues  of  rejoicing.  Lady  Macbeth,  as  his  partner,  had  a  right  to 
share  in  his  joy. 

14.  fear.     Compare  Measure  for  Measure,  iii.  i.  74• 

'  O,  I  do  fear  thee,  Claudio,  and  I  quake 
Lest  thou  a  feverous  Hfe  shouldst  entertain 
And  six   or  seven  winters  more  respect 
Than  a  perpetual  honour.' 

15.  the  milli  of  human  kindness.     Compare  Kins;  Lear,  i.  4.  364: 

'  This  milky  gentleness  and  course  of  yours.' 
And  Macbeth,  iv.  3.  9S  :  '  1  he  sweet  milk  of  concord.' 

18.  illness,  evil.  The  word  is  not  used  elsewhere  by  Shakespeare  in  this 
sense. 

lb.   shoidd,  i.  e.  which  should.     For  one  among  the  multitude  of  instances 
of  this  construction,  see  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  I.  175:  - 
'  I  have  a   mind  presages  me  such  thrift.' 

20-23.  This  passage  is  variously  read  and  punctuated  by  ed'tors,  scfme 
placing  the  words  '  Thus... undone'  in  inverted  commas,  others  only  '  Thus... 
have  it.'  In  this  point  the  folios  give  us  no  help.  With  any  punctuation  the 
sense  is  extremely  obscure,  and  we  are  inclined  to  think  that  the  true  reading 
has  been  hopelessly  corrupted  by  the  copyist  or  printer.  With  the  former 
punctuation,  the  nearest  approach  to  a  meaning  which  can  be  attained  is 
this  : — Thou  wouldst  have  the  crown  which  cries  '  Thus  thou  must  do  if 
thou  wouldst  be  king,  and  [thou  must  do]  that  which  rather,  &c.'  But  this 
interpretation  seems  to  require  '  wouldst  have  it'  for  '  have  it,'  or,  at  least,  as 
Johnson  proposed,  '  have  me,'  in  line  22.  Delius  suggests  that  by  the  words 
'  that  which  cries'  Shakespeare  meant  a  murderous  instinct  in  the  mind ;  but, 
if  so,  'thou'ldst  have'  must  be  used  in  the  sense  of  'thou  shouldst  have.' 
This  is  quite  in  accordance  with  Shakespeare's  usage,  but  is  not  probable  in 
this  case,  where  '  wouldst'  has  just  preceded,  four  times  over,  in  the  other 
sense.  If  we  put  only  the  words  '  Thus  .  .  .  have  it'  in  inverted  commas,  we 
may  interpret :  Thou  wouldst  have  Duncan's  murder,  which  cries  '  Thus  thou 
must  do  if  thou  wouldst  have  the  crown,'  and  which  thou  rather,  &c. 

25.  chastise,  used  b}'  Shakespeare  with  the  accent  on  the  first  syllable. 
Compare  Richard  11.  ii.  3.  104.  The  only  exception,  and  that  somewhat 
doubtful,  is  in  Tempest,  v.  I.  263. 

26.  the  golden  round.     Compare  iv.  I.  88: 

'  And  wears  upon  his  baby  brow  the  round 
And  top  of  sovereignty.' 

27.  metaphysical,  supernatural.  In  Minsheu's  Spanish  Dictionary,  1599, 
we  have  '  Metafisica,  things  supernaturall,  the  metaphisickes ';  and  in  Florio's 
World  of  Wordes,  printed  in  the  preceding  year,  '  Metafisico,  one  that  pro- 
fesseth  things  supernaturall.'  Delius  quotes  from  The  Puritan,  1607,  Act  ii. 
Sc.  i.  '  Metaphysically  and  by  a  supernatural  intelligence.' 

lb.  doth.  For  the  singular  verb  with  double  nominative,  see  note  on 
i.  3.  147. 

lb.  seem.     Compare  i.  2.  47. 

28.  withal.  See  note  on  i.  3.  57,  and  compare  also  our  note  on  The 
Merchant  of  Venice,  iv.  i.  408. 

lb.  tidings.     Used    sometimes   as   singular   and   sometimes    as  plural,   as 


sc.  5.]  MACBETH.  93 

Antony  and  Cleopatra,  iv.  14.  112,  '  with  this  tidings,'  and  As  You  Like  It, 
V.  4.  159:  'That  bring  these  tidings';  so  we  have  'this  news'  or  'these  news.' 

29.  Lady  Macbeth,  thrown  off  her  guard  by  the  suddenness  of  the 
announcement,  which  gives  an  opportunity  for  the  immediate  execution  of 
the  crime  she  has  been  meditating,  breaks  out  into  an  exclamation  of  great 
violence,  for  which,  recovering  herself,  she  wishes  to  account. 

31.  '  Inform'  is  used  absolutely  here,  as  in  ii.  I.  48.  It  is  found  without 
the  object  of  the  person  in  Richard  II.  ii.  i.  -242:  'What  they  will 
inform,'  and  Coriolanus,  i.  6.  42  :   '  He  did  inform  the  truth.' 

lb.  for  preparation,  for  preparation's  sake. 

33.  One  of  my  fellow-servants  outstripped  his  master.  The  phrase  '  had 
the  speed  of  him'  is  remarkable. 

34.  dead  for  breath,  i.  e.  dead  for  want  of  breath.  Thus  the  news  is 
delivered  in  accents  which  befit  its  real  character.  To  Lady  Macbeth's 
guilty  mind  all  is  ominous. 

35.  tending,  attendance.    Used  as  a  substantive  here  only  in  Shakespeare. 

36.  Lady  Macbeth  compares  the  messenger,  hoarse  for  lack  of  breath,  to 
a  raven  whose  croaking  was  held  to  be  prophetic  of  disaster.  This  we 
think  the  natural  interpretation  of  the  words,  though  it  is  rejected  by  some 
commentators. 

37.  entrance.  To  be  pronounced  as  a  trisyllable.  This  additional  syl- 
lable is  very  frequently  required  for  the  metre  in  words  where  a  liquid  follows 
a  mute,  as,  e.  g.  iii.  6.  8 ;  Romeo  and  Juliet,  i.  4.  8  : 

'  Nor  no  without  book  prologue   faintly  spoke 
After  the  prompter,  for  our  entrance.' 
Twelfth  Night,  i.  i.  32: 

'  A  brother's  dead  love  which  she  would  keep  fresh 
And  lasting  in  her  sad  remembrance,' 
and  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  i.  3.  84 : 

'  O,  how  this  spring  of  love  resembleth 
The  uncertain  glory  of  an  April  day.' 
.^8.  The  verse  is  incomplete,  but  we  must  suppose  that  the  speaker  pauses 
before  her  invocation  of  the  spirits.     This  seems  indeed  natural,  and  neces- 
sary for  the  due  emphasis  of  the  justly-famous  passage  which  follows. 

39.  mortal,  deadly,  or  murderous.     See  iii.  4.  81,  and  iv.  3.  3. 

40.  top-full,  full  to  the  brim.     Compare  King  John,  iii.  4.  ito: 

'  Now  that  their  souls  are  top-full  of  offence.' 
42.  access  is  always  accented  by  Shakespeare  on  the  second  syllable,  ex- 
cept in  Hamlet,  ii.  I.  no. 

lb.  remorse,  relenting,  used  anciently  to  signify  repentance  not  only  for  a 
deed  done,  but  for  a  thought  conceived.  See  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  iv. 
I.  20  : 

'  Thou'lt  show  thy  mercy  and  remorse  more  strange 
Than  is  thy  strange  apparent  cruelty.' 
43-45.  That  no  natural  feelings  of  pity  may  intervene  between  my  cruel 
purpose  and  its  effect,  may  stop  the  meditated  blow.  '  Compunctious'  is 
only  used  in  this  passage  by  Shakespeare,  and  '  compunction'  not  at  all. 
'Compunct'  is  used  in  Wicklif's  translation  of  the  Bible,  Acts  ii  37,  and 
'  compuncture'  by  Jeremy  Taylor, 


94  NOTES.  [act  I. 

44.  Jieep  peace.  Steevens  quotes  from  Romeus  and  Juliet,  1562  (Collier, 
Shakespeare's  Library,  ii.  54\  which  was  used  by  Shakespeare  for  his  play  : 

'In  absence  of  her  knight  the  lady  no  way  could 
Kepe  trewse  betwene  her  greefes  and  her.' 

45.  it.  The  two  first  folios  read  '  hit.' 

46.  take  my  7nilk  for  gall,  use  my  milk  as  if  it  were  gall,  turn  all  that  is 
kindly  in  me  into  bitterness. 

47.  sightless  substances,  invisible  forms.  Compare  i.  7.  23.  In  King  John, 
iii.  I.  44,  sightless  means  '  unsightly,'  but  the  sense  is  not  suitable  here.  So 
we  have  in  Measure  for  Measure,  iii.  I.  124,  'the  viewless  winds.'  Some- 
what similar  is  the  use  of  'careless,'  i.  4.  II,  in  this  play.  As  'sightless'  is 
that  which  cannot  be  seen,  so  'careless'  is  that  which  is  not  cared  for. 

48.  wait  on  nature's  mischief,  are  ready  to  abet  any  evil  done  through- 
out the  world. 

lb.   Come,  thick  night.    Compare  this  with  what  Macbeth  has  said,  i.  4.  50. 

49.  pall  is  used,  in  this  sense,  here  only  by  Shakespeare. 

lb.  A  writer  in  The  Rambler  (No.  168)  objected  to  the  epithet  'dun'  as 
being  mean.  But  Milton,  as  Steevens  remarked,  was  of  a  different  opinion. 
See  Par.  Lost,  iii.  7  : 

'  Satan  there 
Coasting  the  wall  of  heaven  on  this  side  night 
In  the  dun  air  sublime.' 
To  our  ears,  '  dun'  no  longer  sounds  mean.      As  Horace   says,  Ars  Poet. 
70,  71 : 

'  Multa  renascentur  quae  jam  cecidere,  cadentque 
Quae  nunc  sunt  in  honore  vocabula,  si  volet  usus.' 
51.  blanket,  from  the  French  hlarichet.  'The  blanket  of  the  dark'  is  the 
covering  of  the  sleeping  world.     We  have  a  somewhat  similar  e.xpression  in 
Drayton,  Barons'  Wars,  Bk.  iii.  line  129  : 

*  The  .sullen  night  had  her  black  curtain  spread.' 
In  the  original  form  of  the  poem,  as  it  appeared  under  the  title  of  Mortimer- 
iados  (1596)  sig.  F  verso,  this  line  stood  thus : 

'  The  sullen  night  in  mistie  rugge  is  wrapp'd.' 
Again,  for  homeliness  of  expression  we  may  compare  another  passage  of  the 
same,  sig.  C  2  recto : 

'  As  when  we  see  the  spring-begetting  Sunne, 
In  heauens  black  night-gowne  couered  from  our  sight;' 
and  in  the  same  author's  Polyolbion,  xxvi.  403  : 

'  Thick  vapours  that  like  rugs  still  hang  the  troubled  air.' 
Coleridge,  offended  by  the  homeliness  of  the  phrase,  proposed  to  read  '  blank 
height'  for  '  blanket,'  but  this  seems  to  suit  ill  wilh  '  peep  through,'  and  not 
to  accord  with  the  thoughts  and  language  of  the  speaker. 

53.  the  all-hail  hereafter.  Lady  Macbeth  speaks  as  if  she  had  heard  the 
words  as  spoken  by  the  witch,  i.  3.  50,  and  not  merely  read  them  as  reported 
in  her  husband's  letter,  i.  5.  10. 

55-  (his  ignorant  present,  is  this  present  time,  which  ordinarily  is  blind  to 
the  future.  Pope,  for  the  sake  of  the  metre, "wrote  '  present  time.'  For 
'present'  see  Tempest,  i.  I.  25  :  '  If  you  can  command  these  elements  to 
silence  and  work  the  peace  of  the  present.' 


sc.  \n.]  MACBETH.  95 

^f\  in  the  instant,  in  the  present  moment.  We  have  the  same  phrase  in 
Roiiieo  and  Juliet,  i.  I.  I15  : 

'  In  the  instant  came 
The  fiery  Tybalt  with  his  sword  prepared.' 

60.  is  as  a  booh.     Compare  Romeo  and  Juliet,  i.  3.  81  : 

'  Read  o'er  the  volume  of  young  Paris'  face. 
And  iind  delight  writ  there  with  beauty's  pen.' 

61.  begvile  the  time,  not  wile  away  the  time — though  Shakespeare  else- 
where uses  the  phrase  in  this  sense,  as  Twelfth  Night,  iii.  3.  41 — but  delude  all 
observers.     Compare  i.  7.  81  : 

'  Away,  and  mock  the  time  with  fairest  show.' 
And  in  Richard  III.  v.  3.  92,  Derby  says, 

'I,  as  I  may — that  which  I  would  I  cannot — 
With  best  advantage  will  deceive  the  time.' 

62.  Look  like  the  time.  Steevens  quotes  Daniel's  Civil  Wars,  Book  viii. 
[line  709]  : 

'  He  drawes  a  Trauerse  'twixt  his  greeuances  : 
Lookes  like  the  time  :  his  eye  made  not  report 
Of  what  he  ftlt  within.' 

63.  64.  Compare  Richard  II.  iii.  2.  19  : 

'  And  when  they  from  thy  bosom  pluck  a  flower, 
Guard  it,  I  pray  thee,  with  a  lurking  adder.' 
And  see  also  2  Henry  VI.  iii.  I.  228: 

'  The  snake  roll'd  in  a  flowering  bank.' 
65,  66.  put.  .  . .  into  tny  dispatch,  put  into  my  hands  to  dispatch. 
70.  Change  of  countenance  is  ever  a  symptom  of  fear.     Lady  Macbeth 
detects  more  than  irresolution  in  her  husband's  last  speech,  '  We  will  talk 
further.'     Compare  King  Lear,  iii.  1.  43,  where  the  gentleman  whom  Kent 
urges  to  join  the  French  invaders  replies,   'I  will    talk  further  with    you;' 
Kent  says,  '  No,  do  not.'      So  the  old  forniula  for  refusing  the  royal  assent 
was,  '  Le  roi  s'avisera.'     For  '  favour,'  see  Richard  II.  iv.  i.  168  : 
'  Yet  I  well  remember 
The  favours  of  these  men.' 


Scene  VI. 

I.  seat.  Compare  Bacon's  Essays,  xlv.  Of  Building,  sub  init.  '  Hee  that 
builds  a  faire  House,  upon  an  ill  Seat,  committeth  Himself  to  Prison.' 

3.  01/r  gentle  senses,  i.  e.  our  senses  which  are  soothed  by  the  brisk,  sweet 
air.  The  same  construction,  in  which  the  action  of  the  verb  is  expressed 
by  applying  an  epithet  to  the  object,  is  found  in  iii.  4.  76.  See  the  note  on 
that  passage.  There  seems  no  need  to  adopt  Johnson's  suggestion,  '  our  gentle 
sense,'  still  less  to  read  with  Warburton,  '  our  general  sense.' 

4.  martlet.  This  is  Rowe's  emendation  for  '  Barlet,'  the  reading  of  the 
folios.     Compare  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  9.  28  : 

'  Like  the  martlet. 
Builds  in  the  weather  on  the  outward  wall.' 


95 


NOTES.  [act 


It  is  called  '  guest  of  summer'  as  being  a  migratory  bird.     Compare  Timon 
of  Athens,  iii.  6.  31. 

lb.  approve,  prove.     See  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  iii.  2.  79  : 
'  What  damned  error,  but  some  sober  brow- 
Will  bless  it  and  approve  it  with  a  text?' 

5.  mansionry.  This  is  Theobald's  spelling  for  the  '  Mansonry*  of  the 
folios.  Pope  in  his  second  edition  read  'm.isonry.'  'Mansionry,'  i.e  abode, 
is  not  found  elsewhere.  Staunton  conjectures  'love-mansionry '  for  'loved 
mansionry.' 

6.  jutty,  the  same  word  as  'jetty,'  a  projection.  Cotgrave  has  'Soupendue, 
f.  A  penthouse  ;  iuttie,  or  part  of  a  building  that  iuttieth  beyond,  or  leaneth 
ouer,  the  rest.'  The  folios  read  'jutty  frieze'  without  a  comma  between,  as 
if  '  jutty  '  were  an  adjective.  It  is  not  however  found  as  an  adjective,  though 
it  occurs  both  as  a  substantive  and  as  a  verb.  For  the  latter,  see  the 
passage  just  quoted  from  Cotgrave,  and  Henry  V.  iii.  I.  13  : 

'  O'erhang  and  jutty  his  confounded  base.' 
The  line  is  imperfect.     Probably  seme  word  like  '  cornice  '  has  dropped  out 
after  'jutt}'.' 

7.  coign,  corner,  from  the  French  coin,  formerly  spilt  'coing.'  Compare 
Coriolanus,  v,  4  I  :  'See  you  yon  coign  o'  the  capitol,  yon  corner-stone?' 
'  Coign  of  vantage'  is  of  course  a  corner  convenient  for  building  a  nest. 

9.  most.  So  Rowe.  The  folios  have  '  must.'  Mr.  Collier,  from  his  '  MS. 
Corrector,'  reads  '  much.' 

II.  follows  vs,  waits  upon,  attends  us. 

lb.  sometime,  i.  e.  sometimes.  The  two  forms  are  used  indifferently  by 
Shakespeare.  In  many  cases  editors  have  altered  the  original  reading 
where  it  contradicted  the  modern  distinctiori  between  the  words.  See  iv.  2. 
75,  and  note. 

13.  God  'ild  us.  A  corruption  of  'God  yield  us,'  i.e.  'God  reward  us.' 
Compare  As  You  Like  It,  v.  4.  56  :  '  God  'ild  you,  sir,'  and  Antony  and 
Cleopatra,  iv.  2.  33:  '  Th.e  Gods  yield  you  for  't.'  Duncan  means  that  it 
is  his  love  which  causes  liis  hostess  trouble,  and  which,  as  love,  demands  her 
thanks.  The  phrase  occurs  repeatedly  as  '  God  dild  ye  '  in  The  History 
of  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  1600,  one  of  the  plays  falsely  assigned  to  Shake- 
speare in  the  third  folio,  1 664. 

16.  single,  simple,  weak.  ,  Compare  Coriolanus,  ii.  1.  40:  'I  know  you 
can  do  very  little  alone  ;  for  your  helps  are  many,  or  else  your  actions  would 
grow  wondrous  single';  and  Tempest,  i.  2.  432:  'A  single  thing  as  I  am 
now.'     See  i.  3.  140,  of  this  play. 

16,  17.  to  contend  Agaimt,  is  to  vie  with,  to  rival,  as  gratitude  should 
rival  favours  conferred. 

19.  to  them,  in  addition  to  them.  Compare  iii.  I.  51,  and  Troilus  and 
Cressida,  i.  i.  7: 

'  The  Greeks  are  strong  and  skilful  to  their  strength. 
Fierce  to  their  skill,  and  to  their  fierceness  valiant.' 

20.  hermits,  beadsmen,  bound  to  pray  for  their  benefactors.  Compare 
Titus  Andronicus,  iii.  2.  41  : 

'  As  begging  hermits  in  their  holy  prayers.' 
22.  purveyor.    Cotgrave  gives  '  Pourvoyeur:  m.  A  prouidor,  a  purucyor.' 


sc.  7-]  MACBETH.  97 

He  was  sent  before  to  provide  food  for  the  king  and  suite  as  the  harbinger 
provided  lodging.  See  Covvel,  Law  Interpreter,  s.vv.  'Pourveyor  '  and  '  Har- 
binger.'    The  accent  is  here  on  the  first  syllable. 

25.  bolp.      We  have  this  form,  Richard  II.  v.  5.  62. 

2  3.  in  compt,  accountable,  subject  to  account.  Your  servants  hold  their 
children  and  servants,  themselves  and  their  property,  accountable.  Ste 
Timon  of  Athens,  ii.  i.  35  : 

'  Take  the  bonds  along  with  you. 
And  have  the  dates  in  compt,' 
i.  e.  keep  an  account  of  the  dates. 

2S.  return,  render. 

30.  To  scan  this  line  we  must  pronounce  '  our '  as  a  dissyllable  and 
'towards  '  as  a  monosyllable.     Instances  of  each  are  common. 

31.  By  your  leave,  hostess.  Here  Duncan  gives  his  hand  to  Lady  Mac- 
beth and  leads  her  into  the  castle. 


Scene   VII. 

Enter  a  Sewer.  'Sewer'  is  derived  from  the  French  essayeur,  and  meant 
originally  one  who  tasted  of  each  dish  to  prove  that  there  was  no  poison  iu 
it.  Afterwards  it  was  applied  to  the  chief  servant  Vv'ho  directed  the  placing 
of  the  dishes  upon  the  table.  In  Palsgrave,  Eclaircissement  de  la  Langue 
Francaise,  we  have  the  verb  thus  :  '  I  sewe  at  meate,  Je  toite.'  So  again  in 
Ilolinshed,  vol.  ii.  p.  II  29,  col.  2,  'the  Esquier  that  was  accustomed,  to  sew 
and  take  the  assay  before  Kyng  Richarde.'  Some  have  supposed  'sewer'  to 
be  derived  from  escuyer.  What  is  included  in  the  word  '  service  '  may  be 
illustrated  by  the  following  stage-direction  from  Heywood's  A  Woman  Killed 
with  Kindness:  '  Enter  Butler  and  Jenkin  with  a  table-cloth,  bread,  trenchers 
and  salt.' 

3.  trammel  vp,  entangle  as  in  a  net.  Cotgrave  gives  '  Tramail :  m.  A 
Trammell,  or  net  for  Partridges,'  and  again  '  Traineller.  To  tranmiel  for 
Larkes.'     The  idea  is  followed  up  by  the  word  '  catch.' 

4.  surcease.  The  etymological  connection  of  this  word  with  '  cease'  is  appa- 
rent Oiil)',  not  real.  '  Ceise'  is  derived  from  cesser,  but  '  surcease'  from  siinis, 
and  that  from  sursioir.  '  Surcease'  is  a  legal  term  meaning  the  arrest  or  stop- 
page of  a  suit,  or  superseding  a  jurisdiction.  As  a  substantive  it  is  found  here 
only  in  Shakespeare.  He  twice  uses  the  verb  '  surcease,'  both  times  in  the 
sense  of 'cease.'  The  general  sense  of  the  passage  has  been  much  disputed, 
so.Tie  taking  'his'  in  line  4  to  refer  to  'assassination,'  others  to  Duncan. 
Johnson  proposed  to  invert  the  words,  and  read  '  With  his  success,  surcease.' 
Staunton  interprets  'success'  to  mean  merely  'sequel,'  a  sense  which  the 
word  had  (though  comparatively  rarely)  in  Shakespeare's  time.  We  are 
inclined  to  agree  with  Elwin  that  'his'  refers  to  'consequence,'  and  that 
Macbcth's  meaning  is  :  '  If  the  murder  could  prevent  its  consequence,  r.nd  by 
the  arrest  of  that  consequence  secure  success.'  In  this  case  'his'  would  be 
used,  as  it  so  often  is,  in  reference  to  a  neuter  noun.  Compare,  e.  g.,  Romeo 
and  Juliet,  iv.  i.  97  : 

'  For  no  pulse 
Shall  keep  his  native  progress,  but  surcease.' 


98 


NOTES.  [act  I. 


6.  B2/t  here,  only  here,  in  this  life  only. 

lb.  shoal.  This  is  Theobald's  emendation  for  the  folio  reading  '  schoole,' 
the  same  word  differently  spelt.  Human  life  is  compared  to  a  narrow  strip 
of  land  in  an  ocean  : 

'  A  narrow  isthmus  'twixt  two  boundless  seas, 
The  past,  the  future,  two  eternities.'     (Moore.) 
Tieck,  retaining  'school,'  takes  'bank'  in  the  sense  of  bench  and  supposes 
the  speaker  to  be   comparing  this  life  to  school-time  as  a  preparation  for 
the  life  to  come.      He  thinks  that  the  same  train  of  thought  is  indicated  in 
'  teach'  and  '  taught,'  lines  8  and  9. 

7.  jump,  risk,  hazard.  See  Cymbeline,  v.  4.  1S8  :  'Jump  the  after  inquiry 
on  your  own  peril.' 

8.  that,  so  that.     See  i.  2.  58 ;  iv.  3.  6. 

10.  this,  omitted  by  Pope  for  the  metre's  sake.  Mason  would  read  'thus ': 
indeed  it  is  popularly  so  quoted. 

11.  Commends,  offers,  presents.  Pope  audaciously  altered  it  to  '  Returns.' 
Compare  All 's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  v.  1.  31  : 

'  Since  you  are  like  to  see  the  king  before  me. 
Commend  the  paper  to  his  gracious  hand.' 
Ih.  ingredients.     So  Pope  and  all  editors  since  his  time.    The  folios,  both 
here  and  iv.  I.  34,  have  '  ingredience,'  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  Shakespeare 
so  wrote  the  word,  using  it  in  the  sense  of  '  compound,'  '  mixture.' 

I'j,  facilities,  powers,  prerogatives  of  ofSce.  The  Greek  equivalent  is 
fipoi.  The  word  is  stil!  used  in  the  old  sense  in  Ecclesiastical  Law.  See 
Henry  VIH.  i.  2.  73,  where  Wolsey  says : 

'If  I  am 
Traduced  by  ignorant  tongues,  which  neither  know 
My  faculties  nor  person.' 
Ih.  meeli,  meekly.     Shakespeare  frequently  uses  the  adjective  where  we 
should  use  the  adverb. 

18.  clear,  guiltless.  See  Merry  V/ives  of  Windsor,  iii.  3.  123:  'If  you 
know  yourself  clear,  why,  I  am  glad  of  it.' 

20.  taking  off.     So  iii.  I.  104,  and  King  Lear,  v.  I.  65  : 
'  Let  her  who  would  he  rid  of  him  devise 
His  speedy  taking  off.' 
Similarly  in  v.  8.  36,  to  'go  oft"'  is  a  euphemism  for  to  'be  killed.' 

22.  cherubim.  This  reading,  first  proposed  byjennens.is  received  by  most 
modern  editors.  The  folios  have  '  cherubin,'  which  Shakespeare  uses  in 
several  other  places,  but  always  in  the  singular,  as  e.  g.  Othello,  iv.  2.  63  : 

'  Patience,  thou  young  and  rose-lipp'd  cherubin.' 
But  in  this  passage  the  plural  is  unquestionably  required  by  the  sense.  To 
read  '  cherubins,'  which  is  the  form  always  found  in  Coverdale's  Bible,  or 
'  cherubims,'  that  of  the  Authorized  Version,  would  make  the  verse,  already 
too  full  of  sibilants,  almost  intolerable  to  the  ear.  The  only  objection  to 
'cherubim'  is  that  Shakespeare  was  not  likely  to  know  that  this  was  the 
proper  Hebrew  plural.  The  idea  was  probably  suggested  by  Psalms  xviii.  10, 
'  He  rode  upon  the  cherubins  and  did  fly ;  he  came  flying  upon  the  wings  of 
the  wind.'  (^Prayer  Book  Version.)  For  the  same  idea,  compare  Romeo  and 
Juliet,  ii.  2.  2S-31  : 


sc.  7]  MACBE  T  H,  99 

'A  winged  messenger  of  heaven 

\Vhen  he  bestrides  the  lazy-pacing  clouds, 
And  sails  upon  the  bosom  of  the  air.' 
23.  sigh/less,  invisible.     See  i.  5.  47. 
25.  tears  shall  drown  the  wind.     See  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iv.  4.  55  : 

'  Where  are  my  tears?  Rain,  to  lay  this  wind.' 
25-28.  Macbeth  says  that  he  has  nothing  to  goad  him  on  to  the  deed, — 
nothing  to  stimulate  his  flagging  purpose,  like  the  private  wrongs  which  he 
urges  upon  the  murderers  of  Banquo, — but  mere  ambition,  which  is  like 
one  who,  instead  of  leaping  into  the  saddle,  leaps  too  far  and  falls  on  the 
other  side.  The  passage  supplies  a  good  example  of  confusion  of  metaphors. 
If  the  sentence  be  complete,  '  the  other '  must  be  taken  to  mean  '  the  other 
side,'  a  not  unnatural  ellipsis,  but  one  for  which  we  can  adduce  no  example. 
Hanmer  reads  '  on  the  other  side,'  which  makes  both  sense  and  metre  com- 
plete.    Rowe  prints  '  on  th'  other ,*  as  if  the  sentence  were  interrupted 

by  the  entrance  of  Lady  Macbeth.  Mason  conjectured  '  on  the  rider,'  and 
Baile)"^  '  on  the  earth.'  For  '  itself  in  the  previous  line  Singleton  guessed 
'  its  sell,'  i.  e.  '  its  saddle.'  The  word  '  sell '  occurs  frequently  in  Fairfax's 
Tasso,  as  e.  g.  Bk.  vi.  st.  32  : 

'  That  he  nor  shook  nor  stagger'd  in  his  sell.' 

32.  bought,  purchased,  acquired.     See  Richard  II.  i.  3.  282  : 

'  Go,  say  I  sent  thee  forth  to  purchase  honour,' 
and  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  9.  43  : 

'  O  that  estates,  degrees,  and  offices 
Were  not  derived  corruptly,  and  that  clear  honour 
Were  purchased  by  the  merit  of  the  wearer  !' 

33.  Golden  opinions.  See  As  You  Like  It,  i.  I.  6:  'Report  speaks 
goldenly  of  his  profit.' 

34.  luojtld.  We  say  'should'  in  this  sense,  as  in  iv.  3.  23,  194,  of  this 
play,  and  in  Bacon,  Essay  xxxiii.  Of  Plantations,  'Making  of  bay  salt,  if  the 
climate  be  proper  for  it,  would  be  put  in  experience.'  See  our  note  on 
Richard  II.  iv.  I.  232,  233. 

35»  36.  Compare  King  John,  iv.  2.  116,  117: 

'  O,  where  hath  our  intelligence  been  drunk  ? 
Where  hath  it  slept?' 
39.  afeard.     See  i.  3.  96. 

45.  the  adage.  Given  thus  in  Heywood's  Proverbs,  1562  (p.  28,  ed. 
Spenser  Soc.)  :  '  The  cat  would  eate  fyshe,  and  would  not  wet  her  feete.' 
There  is  a  form  of  the  same  proverb  in  Low  Latin  : 

'  Catus  amat  pisces,  sed  non  vult  tingere  plantas.' 
47.  do  more.  So  Rowe.  The  folio  has  '  no  more.*  Mr.  Hunter  would 
retain  '  no  more'  and  make  Lady  Macbeth  say  '  Who  dares  no  more  is  none.' 
But  '  then,'  which  follows,  seems  more  appropriate  to  the  first  clause  of  an 
indignant  lemonstrance,  if  we  adopt  Rowe's  emendation.  Compare  Measure 
for  Measure,  ii.  4.  134,  135  :  '  Be  that  3'ou  are. 

That  is,  a  woman  :  if  you  be  more,  you're  none.' 
lb.  beast  is  of  course  used  in  opposition  to  '  man,'  spoken  of  by  Macbeth. 
Mr.  Collier's  MS.  Corrector's  '  boast'  is  utterly  inadmissible. 


300  NO  T  E  S.  [act  I. 

48.  hrealt,  disclose,  communicate.  Compare  Much  Ado  about  Nothing, 
i.  I.  311  ; 

'  And  I  will  break  with  her  and  with  her  father.' 
And  again  in  line  328  : 

'  Then  after  to  her  father  will  I  break.' 
52.  adhere,  i.e.   'cohere,'  which  Pope  inserted   in  the  text.     Compare 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  ii.  i.  62  :  '  But  they  do  no  more  adhere  and  keep 
place  together  than  the  hundredth  psalm  to  the  tune  of  Green  Sleeves.'     See 
also  Twelfth  Night,  iii.  4.  !:6. 

58.  the  brains.  We  should  now  say  '  its  brains,'  but  '  the'  is  found  not 
unfrequently  for  the  possessive  pronoun.  Compare  the  version  of  Lev.  xxv.  5 
in  the  Bishops"  Bible  :  '  That  which  groweth  of  the  owne  accord  of  thv  harvest, 
thou  shah  not  reape.'  And  Bacon,  Advancement  of  Learning,  i.  4.  §  I  :  '  For 
we  see  that  it  is  the  manner  of  men  to  scandalize  and  deprave  that  which 
retaineth  the  state  and  virtue.' 

59.  We  fail !  The  folio  prints  '  We  faile  ?'  the  note  of  interrogation  being 
used  as  it  frequently  is  for  a  note  of  exclamation  :  Lady  Macbeth  refuses  to 
entertain  the  idea  of  failure.  Capell  puts  a  full  stop  at  '  fail,'  but  this  would 
give  a  sense  not  calculated  to  strengthen  Macbeth's  wavering  purpose. 

60.  But,  only. 

lb.  screiu  your  courage  to  the  sticMng-place,  that  is,  to  the  point  at  which 
it  will  remain  firm.  The  metaphor  is  from  some  engine  or  mechanical  con- 
trivance.     A  similar  figure  is  found  in  Coriolanus,  i.  8.  1 1  : 

'  Wrench  up  thy  power  to  the  highest.' 
And  again,  Twelfth  Night,  v.  i.  125,  126  : 

'  And  that  I  partly  know  the  instrument 
That  screws  me  from  my  true  place  in  3'our  favour.' 
Compare  also  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iii.  3.  22-25  ■ 

'  But  this  Antenor, 
I  know,  is  such  a  wrest  in  their  afliiairs 
That  their  negotiations  all  must  slack, 
Wanting  his  manage.' 
As  a  '  wrest'  is  an  instrument  for  tuning  a  harp,  this  last-quoted  passage  lends 
some  probability  to  Steevens's  interpretation  of  the  metaphor  before  us,  that 
it  is  derived  '  from  the  screwing  up  the  chords  of  string  instruments  to  their 
proper  degree  of  tension.' 

63  The  two  chamberlains  are  borrowed  from  the  account  given  by 
Holinshed  of  the  murder  of  King  Duff  by  Donwald  and  his  wife  eighty  years 
before  Duncan's  time  (p.   208).     See  the  Preface. 

64.  tvassail,  derived  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  waes  hael,  'be  of  health.'  This, 
according  to  Geoft'rey  of  Monmouth,  was  the  salutation  used  by  Rowena  to 
Vortigern  in  preseating  a  cup  of  wine.  (The  story  is  also  told  in  A'erstegan, 
A  Restitution  of  Decayed  Intelligence,  &c.  p.  127,  ed.  1605.)  The  King 
was  instructed  to  reply  '  Drinc  hael.'  Hence  '  wassail'  came  to  mean  drinking 
of  healths,  revelry,  and  afterwards  'drink'  itself     Here  it  means  '  revelry.' 

lb.  convince,  i.  e.  '  overpower,'  from  the  Latin  convincere.  Compare  iv. 
\  142  •• 

'  Their  malady  convinces 
The  great  assay  of  art.' 


sc.  7.]  MA  CB  ETH.  lOI 

So  in  Hall's  Chronicle,  Richard  III.  fol.  33  a,  '  Whyle  the  two  forwardes  thus 
mortallye  fought,  eche  entending  to  vanquish  and  conuince  the  other.' 

65-67.  By  the  old  anatomists  (Vigo,  fol.  6  b.  ed.  15S6)  the  brain  was 
divided  into  three  ventricles,  in  the  hindermost  of  which  ihey  placed  the 
memory.  That  this  division  was  not  unknown  to  Shakespeare  we  learn 
from  Love's  Labour  's  Lost,  iv.  2.  70,  '  A  foolish,  extravagant  spirit,  full  of 
forms,  figures,  shapes,  objects,  ideas,  apprehensions,  motions,  revolutions : 
these  are  begot  in  the  ventricle  of  memory.'  The  third  ventricle  is 
the  cerebellum,  by  which  the  brain  is  connected  with  the  spinal  marrow 
and  the  rest  of  the  body :  the  memory  is  posted  in  the  certbellum  like 
a  warder  or  sentinel  to  warn  the  reason  against  attack.  When  the  memory 
is  converted  by  intoxication  into  a  mere  fume  (compare  The  Tempest,  v. 
I.  67: 

'  The  ignorant  fumes  that  mantle 
Their  clearer  reason,') 
then  it  fills  the  brain  itself,  the  receipt  or  receptacle  of  reason,  which  thus 
becomes  like  an  alembic  or  cap  of  a  still.    For  '  fume'  compare  Cymbeline, 
iv.  2.  301  : 

'  A  bolt  of  nothing,  shot  at  nothing. 
Which  the  brain  makes  of  fumes.' 
And  Dryden's  Aurengzebe  : 

'  Power  like  new  wine  does  your  weak  brain  surprise, 
And  its  mad  fumes  in  hot  discourses  rise.' 
See  also  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  ii.  i.  24: 

'  Tie  up  the  libertine  in  a  field  of  feasts, 
Keep  his  brain  fuming.' 

66.  receipt,  receptacle.  See  Matthew  ix.  9,  '  sitting  at  the  receipt  of 
custom,'  and  Bacon,  Essay  xlvi.  '  Fountaines  I  intend  to  be  of  two  natures : 
the  one,  that  sprinckleth  or  spouteth  water;  the  other  a  faire  receipt  of 
water.' 

67.  limbec  is  derived  by  popular  corruption  from  '  alembic,'  a  word  adopted 
from  the  language  of  the  Arabian  alchtmis.s  of  Spain  into  all  the  languages 
of  Europe.  The  word  is  formed  from  al,  the  Arabic  definite  article,  and  the 
Greek  ay.^i^,  used  by  Dioscorides  in  the  sense  of  the  cap  of  a  still,  into 
which  the  fumes  rise  before  they  pass  into  the  condensing  vessel.  The 
ancient  form  is  now  superseded.  A  figure  of  it  may  be  seen  in  Chambers's 
Encyclopasdia,  art.  Alembic.  The  word  '  limbec '  is  used  by  Milton,  Paradise 
Lost,  iii.  605,  and  by  Fairfax,  Tasso,  Bk.  iv.  st.  75  : 

'  This  streaming  nectar  fell, 
'Still'd  through  the  limbeck  of  her  diamond  eyes.' 
The  Italian  form  is  limbico. 

68.  a  death.  The  indefinite  article  may  be  used  here  because  it  is  only 
a  kind  of  death,  a  sleep,  which  is  meant.  Compare  Winter's  Tale,  iv.  2.  3  : 
'  'Tis  a  sickness  denying  thee  anything ;  a  death  to  grant  this.' 

70.  put  upon,  attribute  to  falsely.     Compare  Twelfth  Night,  v.  I.  70: 

'  But  in  conclusion  put  strange  speech  upon  me.' 

71.  spongy.  Compare  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  2.  108,  '  I  will  do  any- 
thing, Nerissa,  ere  I'll  be  married  to  a  sponge.' 

72.  quell,  as  a  substantive,  is  found  only  here.    It  means  '  murder.'    'Quell' 


I03  NOTES.  [act  ii. 

as  a  verb  is  more  frequent.     It  is  used  in  the  old  sense,  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream,  v.  i.  292  : 

'  Quail,  crush,  conclude,  and  quell.' 
It  is  derived  from  the  same  root  as  '  kill,'  viz.  the  Anglo-Saxon  cwellan,  of 
which  the  corresponding  noun  is  cwal.     We  have  the  word  '  man-queller' 
in  2  Henry  IV.  ii.  I.  58.     The  same  compound  is  used  by  Wiclif  for  '  execu- 
tioner,' in  translating  Mark  vi.  27,  and  for  '  murderer,'  Acts  xxviii.  4. 

73.  mettle.  This  is  the  same  word  as  '  metal,' and  in  the  old  editions  they 
are  spelt  indifferently  in  either  sense.  In  modern  times  the  former  spelling  is 
reserved  to  the  word  in  its  metaphorical  meaning,  the  latter  when  it  is  used 
in  the  natural  sensie,  but  the  two  are  sometimes  so  near  together  that  it  is 
difficult  to  distinguish  between  them.     Compare  Richard  III.  iv.  4.  302  : 

'  They  are  as  children  but  one  step  below. 
Even  of  your  mettle,  of  your  very  blood.' 

74.  received,  admitted,  accepted  as  a  truth.   Compare  Henry  VIII.  ii.  1. 1 25  : 

'  This  from  a  dying  man  receive  as  certain.' 
And  Measure  for  Measure,  i.  3.  i6: 

'  For  so  I  have  strew'd  it  in  the  common  ear. 
And  so  it  is  received.' 

77.  other,  otherwise.     Compare  Othello,  iv.  2.  13: 

'  If  you  think  other. 
Remove  your  thought.' 

78.  As,  seeing  that.  We  should  be  inclined  to  take  'other  as'  in  the 
sense  of  '  otherwise  than  as,'  if  we  could  find  an  example  to  justify  it. 

79.  settled,  resolved.     See  Henry  VIII.  iii.  2.  22. 

80.  Each  corporal  agent,  every  faculty  of  the  body.  Compare  Henry  V. 
ui.  I.  16  : 

'  Hold  hard  the  breath,  and  bend  up  every  spirit 
To  his  full  height.' 
'  Bend  up'  is  of  course  suggested  by  the  stringing  of  a  bow. 

81.  mock  the  time.     Compare  i.  5.  61. 


ACT    II. 
Scene  I. 

4.  husbandry,  economy.     Compare  Timon  of  Athens,  ii.  2.  164: 

'  If  you  suspect  my  husbandry.' 
And  Troilus  and  Cressida,  i.  2.  7-     '  Husbandry,'  like  '  economy,'  has  first  the 
sense  of  careful  management,  and  then  of  thrift. 

5.  Their.     Note  the  plural,  and  compare  Richard  II.  i.  2.  7  : 

'  Put  we  our  quarrel  to  the  will  of  heaven  : 
Who,  when  they  see  the  hours  ripe  on  earth. 
Will  rain  hot  vengeance  on  offenders'  heads.' 
See  also  Richard  II.  iii.  3.  17,  19;  Hamlet,  iii.  4.  173;  Othello,  iv.  2.  47. 
In  Richard  III.  iv.  4.  71,  72,  we  have  the  plural  pronoun  used  with  '  hell  ': 

'  Hell's  black  intelligencer. 
Only  reserved  their  factor.' 


sc.  I.]  MACBETH.  IO3 

Ih.  Compare  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  v.   i.  220: 

'  By  these  blessed  candles  of  the  night.' 
And  Romeo  and  JuHet,  iii.  5.9: 

'  Night's  candles  are  burnt  out.' 
And  Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  ix.  st.  10 : 

'  When  heaven's  small  candles  next  shall  shine.' 
The  original  Italian  has  merely  '  Di  Notte.' 

lb.  Take  thee  that  too.  Banquo  hands  to  Fleance  something  else,  a 
sword-belt  or  dagger,  not  lest  he  might  be  tempted  to  use  them  (as  Ehvin 
says),  but  because  in  a  friend's  house  he  was  perfectly  secure. 

6.  A  heavy  &innino?is.  The  adjective  is  used  here  much  as  the  adverb 
'  soundly,'  i.  7.  63.     Compare  Tempest,  ii.  I.  194: 

'  Alo?i.  I  wish  mine  eves 

Would,  with  themselves,  shut  up  my  thoughts  :  I  find 
They  are  inclined  to  do  so. 

Seb.  Please  you,  sir, 

Do  not  omit  the  heavy  offer  of  it.' 
7-9.  Banquo  says  afterwards,  line  20, 

'  I  dreamt  last  night  of  the  three  weird  sisters,' 
and  the  cursed  thoughts  from  which  he  prays  to  be  delivered  are  doubtless  the 
temptings  of  ambition.  Banquo's  character  is  made  in  every  way  a  contrast 
to  that  of  Macbeth  ;  he  prays  to  be  delivered  from  entertaining  even  in 
dreams  the  plans  which  Macbeth  was  plotting  to  execute.  Compare  Lucrece, 
line  167. 

14.  largess.     Compare  Richard  II.  i.  4.  44. 

lb.  offices,  the  part  of  the  castle  appropriated  to  the  domestics.  There  is 
no  need  to  adopt  Rowe's  emendation,  '  officers.'  We  have  the  same  word  in 
Richard  II.  i.  2.  69,  '  unpeopled  offices,'  where  the  desolation  of  the  Castle  of 
Flashy  is  spoken  of. 

15.  withal.     See  note,  i.  3.  57. 

16.  There  is  probably  some  omission  here,  because,  if  '  shut'  be  a  parti- 
ciple, the  transition  is  strangely  abrupt.  Hanmer  read  '  and  's  shut  up,' 
which  does  not  mend  the  matter  much.  If  we  take  'shut'  as  the  preterite, 
we  require  some  other  word  to  complete  the  sense,  as  '  shut  up  all,'  or  '  shut 
up  the  day.'    'Shut  up'  may  however,  like  'concluded,' be  used  intransitively. 

19.  Which.  The  antecedent  is  of  course  'will.'  Macbeth  means:  If  we 
had  been  warned  of  Duncan's  coming,  our  will  would  have  had  free  scope 
in  giving  him  entertainment,  but  it  has  now  been  fettered  by  want  of  pre- 
paration. 

lb.  Hanmer  read  '  All 's  very  well,'  to  complete  the  metre. 

22.  When  we  can  prevail  upon  an  hour  of  your  time  to  be  at  our  service. 
Macbeth's  language  is  here  that  of  exaggerated  courtesy,  which  to  the 
audience  who  are  in  the  secret  maiks  his  treachery  the  more  strongly.  Now 
that  the  crown  is  within  his  grasp  he  seems  to  adopt  the  royal  'we'  by  anti- 
cipation. 

25.  If  you  shall  adhere  to  my  party,  then,  when  the  result  is  attained,  it 
shall  make  honour  for  you.  '  When  'tis'  probably  means  'when  that  business 
(line  23)  is  effected.'  If 'consent'  be  the  right  reading,  it  may  be  explained 
either   as  above,  or  as  '  the  plan  I  have  formed.'     Delius  interprets  '  my 


I04  NOTES.  [act  II. 

consent '   as   'an    understanding    with    me.'     Capell    conjectured    '  ascent ' ; 
Malone,  'content';  Grant  White,  'consort.' 

28.  My  bosom  franchisee!,  i.e.  free,  as  the  context  explains,  from  any 
obh'gations  inconsistent  with  allegiance  to  the  king.  Compare  Henry  V. 
ii.  2.  4: 

'  As  if  allegiance  in  their  bosoms  sat.' 
And  Richard  II.  ii.  3.  98. 

lb.  clear,  unstained.     See  i.  7.  18. 

29.  shall,  as  in  iii.  4.  57.  We  should  now  use  '  will.'  Compare  i.  7.  61, 
where,  conversely,  'we  '11'  is  found  where  one  would  now  say  'we  shall.' 

31.  my  drink.  A  posset  commonly  drunk  just  before  going  to  bed. 
Compare  line  6  of  the  next  scene,  and  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  v.  5.  180  : 
'  Thou  shalt  eat  a  posset  to-night  at  my  house.' 

32.  She  strike.  '  That  she  strike'  or  '  strike' would  have  been  the  natural 
construction  after  '  bid.'  '  She  strike'  would  not  have  been  used  but  for  the 
intervening  parenthesis. 

36.  sensible,  capable  of  being  perceived  by  the  senses.  Johnson  gives  as 
an  example  of  this  meaning  from  Hooker :  '  By  reason  man  attaineth  unto 
the  knowledge  of  things  that  are  and  are  not  sensible.'  It  does  not  appear 
to  be  used  by  Shakespeare  elsewhere  in  this  objective  sense. 

44,  45.  Either  the  sight  alone  is  deluded  while  the  other  senses  judge 
correctly,  or  else  the  sight  alone  apprehends  a  reality  which  the  others  fail  to 
perceive. 

46.  dudgeoti,  the  handle  of  a  dagger.  Gerarde  in  his  Herball,  ed.  1597, 
p.  1225,  speaking  of  the  root  cf  the  box-tree,  says  '  Turners  and  cutlers,  if 
I  mistake  not  the  matter,  do  call  this  woode  dudgeon,  whence  they  make 
dudgeon  hafted  daggers.'  In  the  will  of  John  Amell,  dated  1473,  quoted  in 
Arnold's  Chronicle,  p.  245,  ed.  1811,  he  bequeaths  to  his  cousin  and  name- 
sake '  all  my  stuf  beyng  in  my  shoppe,  that  is  to  saye,  yuery,  dogeon  [i.  e. 
dudgeon],  horn,  mapyll,  and  the  toel  y'  belongeth  to  my  crafte,  as  saues, 
anfeldis,  hameres,  rapis,  fills,  and  other  to  werke  wythal.'  But  the  dagger 
itself  is  also  called  '  dudgeon,'  and  the  only  plausible  derivations  yet  sug- 
gested are  (l)  the  German  degen,  a  sword,  or,  still  better  (2),  dolchen,  a 
dagger.  Cotgrave  (Fr.  Diet.)  gives  '  Dague  h,  roelles.  A  Scottish  dagger; 
or  Dudgeon  haft  dagger.' 

lb.  gonts,  drops,  from  the  French  gontte,  and,  according  to  stage-tradition, 
so  pronounced.  Steevens  quotes  from  The  Art  of  Good  Lyving,  1503,  'AH 
herbys  shall  sweyt  read  goutys  of  water  as  blood.'  And  'gowtyth'  tor 
'  droppeth'  occurs  in  an  Old  English  MS.  (Halliwell,  Archaic  and  Prov. 
Diet.  s.  v.).    '  Gutty,'  from  the  same  root,  is  also  used  in  English  heraldry. 

48.  informs,  gives  information.      Compare  i.  5.  31. 

49.  the  one  half-world,  that  is,  half  the  world.  Compare  I  Henry  IV.  iv. 
I.  136  :  '  This  one  half  year,'  that  is,  this  half  year. 

50.  abuse,  deceive.      See  note  on  iii.  4.  142. 

51.  This  line  wants  a  syllable.  Rowe  adopted  Davenant's  addition,  'now 
witchcraft,'  and  Steevens,  perhaps  rightly,  guessed  'sleeper'  for  'sleep.' 

52.  Hecate  is  to  be  pronounced  as  a  dissyllable.  Compare  King  Lear, 
i.  I.  112  : 

'  The  mysteries  of  Hecate,  and  the  night  ;* 


sc.  i]  MACBETH.  105 

anJ  Hamlet,  iii.  2.  269;  and  iii.  2.  41,  iii.  5.  I,  of  this  play.  'Hecate's 
oircr'ngs'  are  offerings  made  to  Hecate.  They  were  made  with  certain  rites, 
hence  the  use  of  the  word  '  celebrate.'  See  King  Lear,  ii.  I.  41,  and  compare 
act  iii.  scene  5  of  the  present  play. 

53.  Alarum' d.  We  have  this  participle  in  King  Lear,  ii.  I.  55  :  '  JMy 
best  alarum'd  spirits.'  '  Alarum'  is  formed  from  the  French  alarme,  Italian 
alarma,  a  new  syllable  being  introduced  between  the  two  liquids.  The 
original  word  was  doubtless  Italian,  aW  arrne.  Shakespeare  uses  the  three 
forms,  '  alarum,'  '  larum,'  and  '  alarm.'      Compare  v.  2.  4. 

54.  Whose  hcwVs  his  watch,  who  marks  the  periods  of  his  night-watch  by 
howling,  as  the  sentinel  by  a  cry. 

5v  Tarqiiin's  ravishing  strides.  This  is  Pope's  emendation.  Compare 
Lucrece,  line  363  : 

'  Into  the  chamber  wickedly  he  stalks.' 
The  folios  here  read  '  sides,'  which  is  adopted   by  Knight,      He  objects  with 
Johnson  that  'stride'  is  an  action  of  violence,  impetuosity,  and  tumult,  like 
that  of  a  savage  rushing  on  his  prey.    But  it  is  not  so  in  Richard  II.  i.  3.  26S  ; 
'  Every  tedious  stride  I  make 
Will  but  remember  me  what  a  deal  of  world 
I  wander  from  the  jewels  that  I  love.' 
The  adjective  is  transferred,  poetically,  from  '  Tarquin'  to  '  strides,'  as  'heavy' 
in  line  6  of  this  scene. 

57.  7ny  steps,  which  way  they  walh.  For  this  construction,  so  common 
in  Greek,  compare  King  Lear,  i.  I.  272:  'I  know  you,  what  you  are.' 
See  also  Mark  i.  24  ;  Luke  iv.  34.  The  reading  of  the  text  is  Rowe's 
emendation  for  '  my  steps,  which  ihey  may  walk,'  the  reading  of  the  folios, 

58.  Jhe  very  stones  prate.  Compare  Luke  xix  40,  '  The  stones  would  im- 
mediately cry  out.'  To  Macbeth's  guilty  and  fearful  conscience  his  own 
footfall  is  interpreted  thus.      Compare  Lucrece,  302-306: 

'  The  locks  between  her  chamber  and  his  will, 
Each  one  by  him  enforced  retires  his  ward  ; 
But,  as  they  open,  thev  all  rate  his  ill. 
Which  drives  the  creeping  thief  to  some  regard  ; 
The  threshold  grates  the  door  to  have  him  heard.' 
Ih.  my  whereabout.     So   '  where'    is   used   as  a    substantive,  King  Lear, 
i.  1.  264  : 

'Thou  losest  here  a  better  where  to  find.' 
And  '  why'  and  '  wherefore,'  Comedy  of  Errors,  ii.  2.45:    '  They  say,  every 
why  hath  a  wherefore.' 

^().  the  present  horror,  the  silence  which  then  prevailed,  suiting  the  time 
in  which  so  horrible  a  deed  was  to  be  done. 

60.  Whiles.     See  i.  5.  6. 

lb.  threat,  threaten.  Used  in  King  John,  iii.  I.  347,  'No  more  than 
he  that  threats,'  and  Richard  II.  iii.  3.  90. 

61.  Words  .  .  .  gives.  In  this  constn-ction  there  was  nothing  which  would 
offend  the  ear  of  Shakespeare's  contemporaries.  There  is  here  a  dcuble 
reason  for  it :  first,  the  exigency  of  the  rhyme  ;  and  secondly,  the  occurrence, 
between  the  nominative  and  verb,  of  two  singular  nouns,  to  which,  as  it  were, 
the  verb  is  attracted.    See  our  note  on  Richard  II.  ii.  i.  158.    But  a  general 


Io5  NOTES.  [act  II. 

sentiment,  a  truism  indeed,  seems  feeble  on  such  an  occasion.     Perhaps  the 
line  is  an  interpolation. 

Scene  II. 

I.  Lady  Macbeth  had  had  recourse  to  wine  in  order  to  support  her 
courage.     Her  prayer  to  be  '  unsexed'  had  been  heard. 

3,  4.  the  fatal  bellman.  Which  gives  the  sleni'st  good-night.  The  full  signi- 
ficance of  this  passage,  which  seems  hitherto  to  have  escaped  the  notice  of 
commentators,  may  be  best  shewn   by  comparing  the  following  lines  from 
Webster's  Duchess  of  Malfi,  act  iv.  sc.  2,  where  Bosola  tells  the  Duchess : 
'  I  am  the  common  bellman, 
That  usually  is  sent  to  condemn'd  persons 
The  night  before  they  suffer.' 
Here,  of  course,  Duncan  is  the  condemned  person.      Compare  also  Spenser's 
Fairy  Queen,  v.  6.  27,  where   the  cock  is  called  '  the  native  belman  of  the 
night.'     The  owl  is  again  mentioned,  line  15,  and  in  I  Henry  VI.  iv.  2.  15  : 
'  Thou  ominous  and  fearful  owl  of  death.' 

5.  grooms,  menial  servants  of  any  kind.  In  Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  xiv.  St.  49, 
'  grooms'  are  servants  waiting  at  table,  fninistri  in  the  original : 

'  A  hundred  grooms,  quick,  diligent,  and  neat.' 
This  more  general  sense  of  the  word  is  still  traceable  in  the  phrase  '  groom 
of  the  chambers.'  The  word  is  supposed  to  be  derived  by  a  curious  corruption 
from  guma,  a  'man,'  in  Anglo-Saxon,  whence  also  'bridegroom,'  from 
hryd-ginna.  But  there  is  in  Dutch  ^ grom,  a  stripling,  a  groom'  (Hexham's 
Dictionary),  as  also  gromr  in  Icelandic,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  form  wts 
used  also  in  Anglo-Saxon,  though  not  found  in  any  extant  literature. 

6.  possets.  Malone  quotes  the  following  from  Randle  Holme's  Academy 
of  Armoury,  Bk.  iii.  p.  84,  1 688,  '  Posset  is  hot  milk  poured  on  ale  or  sack, 
having  sugar,  grated  bisket,  eggs,  with  other  ingredients  boiled  in  it,  which 
goes  all  to  a  curd.'     See  note  on  ii.  i.  31. 

7.  That,  so  that.     See  i.  2.  58,  i.  7.  25,  and  ii.  2.  23. 

8.  Macbeth  fancies  that  he  hears  some  noise  (see  line  14)  and  in  his 
nervous  excitement  has  not  sufficient  control  over  himstlf  to  keep  silence. 
The  word  'within'  was  added  by  Steevens.  The  folios  make  Macbeth  enter 
before  speaking,  but  it  is  clear  that  Lady  Macbeth  is  alone  while  speaking 
the  following  lines. 

10,  II.  To  attempt  and  not  to  succeed  v/ould  ruin  us.  For  '  confound,' 
see  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  iii.  2.  278  : 

'  So  keen  and  greedy  to  confound  a  man.' 

12, 13.  This  touch  of  remorse,  awakened  by  the  recollection  of  her  father, 
whom  she  had  loved  in  the  da3's  of  her  early  innocence,  is  well  introduced, 
to  make  us  feel  that  she  is  a  woman  still  and  not  a  monster. 

20.  a  sorry  sight,  a  sad  sight.  '  Sorry,'  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  sdrig,  is 
frequently  attributed  to  inanimate  things,  as  in  2  Henry  VI.  i.  4.  79.  'A  sorry 
breakfast.'  The  stage  direction  '  looking  on  his  hands'  is  not  in  the  folios. 
It  was  added  by  Pope.     See  line  27. 

24.  address'd  them,  prepared  themselves.  Compare  The  Merchant  of 
Venice,  ii.  9.  19  :  '  And  so  have  I  address'd  me.' 


sc.  2  ]  MACBETH.  lOJ 

27.  As,  as  if.     Compare  King  Lear,  iii.  4.  15  : 

'  Is  it  not  as  this  mouth  should  te;;r  this  hand 
For  lifting  food  to  't?'' 
And  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  iii.  13.  85  :  'As  it  r.iin'd  kisses.' 

lb.  hangman,  executioner.  Compare  The  IMerchant  of  Venice,  iv.  I. 
125  :  •  The  hangman's  axe.' 

■28.  Listening.  This  verb  is  used  transitively,  Julius  Caesar,  iv.  I.  41  : 
'  Listen  great  things.' 

lb.  /ear,  expression  of  fear,  cry  of  alarm. 

32.  thought.     Hanmer  read  '  thought  on,'  perhaps  rightly. 

34-39.  From  the  printing  of  the  folios  it  is  impossible  to  say  where  the 
'voice'  was  to  end,  there  being  no  inverted  commas  or  other  such  device 
used  in  them.  Rowe  and  Pope  left  the  passage  equally  ambiguous.  Hanmer 
printed  all  in  italics  to  '  feast,'  attributing  the  whole  to  the  '  voice.'  Johnson 
first  gave  the  arrangement  m  the  text.  It  seems  more  natural  to  suppose 
that  'the  innocent  sleep,  &c.' is  a  comment  made  by  Macbeth  upon  the 
words  he  imagined  he  had  heard. 

36.  raveU'd,  tangled.  Compare  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  iii.  2.  52 
(where  the  verb  is  neuter)  : 

'  Therefore  as  you  unwind  her  love  from  him. 
Lest  it  should  ravel  and  be  good  to  none, 
You  must  provide  to  bottom  it  on  me.' 
To  '  ravel  out'  is  to  unravel,  as  in  Richard  II.  iv.  I.  228. 

lb.  ileave,  or  sleave-silk,  is  the  same  as  floss-silk.  Cotgrave  has  '  Foye 
fiosche.  Sleaue  silke.*  Florio  has  '  Bauella,  any  kind  of  sleaue  or  raw  silke,' 
and  '  Bauellare  :  to  rauell  as  raw  silke.'  Compare  Troilus  and  Cressida,  v. 
I.  35:  '.'ihou  idle  immaterial  skein  of  sleave-silk,' where  the  quarto  has 
'  sleive,'  the  folio  '  sleyd.'  Wedgwood  says  that  it  is  doubtful  '  whether  the 
radical  meaning  of  the  word  is  "  ravelled,  tangled,"  or  whether  it  signifies  that 
which  has  to  be  unravelled  or  separated  ;  from  Anglo-Saxon  tlifan,  to  cleave 
or  split.' 

lb.  Pope  put  this  line  in  the  margin,  doubtless  taking  '  sleave'  in  the 
sense  of  our  '  sleeve,'  and  thinking  that  the  metaphor  was  too  homely  for 
the  occasion. 

lb.  With  the  general  sense  of  the  whole  passage  compare  Ovid,  Metam. 
xi.  624,  625,  where  the  poet  addresses  '  somnus'  : 

'  Pax  animi,  quem  cura  fugit,  qui  corda  diurnis 
Fessa  ministeriis  mulces  reparasque  labori.' 
And  Seneca,  Hercules  Furens,  106S  sqq. 

37.  death.  Warburton  altered  this  to  '  birth,'  unnecessarily.  Compare 
Tempest,  iv.  i.  157  : 

'  Our  little  life 
Is  rounded  with  a  sleep.' 
39.  nourisher.    Steevens  quotes  from  Chaucer's  Squire's  Tale  (Cant.  Tales, 
line  10661), 

'  The  norice  of  digestioun,  the  sleep.' 
41,  42.  Here  again  the  printing  of  the  folios  is  no  guide  as  to  the  words 
of  the  '  voice.'     Johnson  supposed  that  the  voice  only  said  '  Glamis  hath 
niurder'd  sleep,'  the  rest  being  Macbeth's  own  comment.    As  the  '  voice' 


IC8  NOTES.  [act  II. 

itself  is  after  all  but  the  cry  of  conscience,  it  is  not  easy  to  separate  the  one 
from  the  other. 

45.  braiiisicMy,  madly.  The  ad-^erb  is  not  found  elsewhere  in  Shake- 
speare. The  adjective  is  however  found  five  times.  See  2  Henry  VI.  v. 
I.  165: 

'  Thou  mad  misleader  of  thy  brain-sick  son.' 

45,  46.  These  words  recur  to  the  mind  of  Lady  Macbeth  when  she  walks 
in  her  sleep,  v.  I.  61,  '  Wash  your  hands ;  put  on  your  nightgov;n  ;  look  not 
so  pale.' 

46.  witness,  evidence.  Used  now  only  of  the  person  who  gives  evidence. 
Compare  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  3.  100  : 

'  An  evil  soul  producing  holy  witness 
Is  like  a  villain  with  a  smiling  cheek.' 
53,  54.  "'tis  the  eye  of  childhood  Thatfiiars  a  painted  devil.     So  in  Webster, 
The  White  Devil,  p.  22,  ed.  Dyce,  1857,  Vittoria  says: 

'  Terrify  babes,  my  lord,  with  pain'.ed  devils.' 

55.  gild.     Used  of  blood  in  King  John,  ii.  I.  316  : 

'  Their  armours,  that  march'd  hence  so  silver-bright, 
Hither  return  all  gilt  with  Frenchmen's  blood.' 

56.  guilt.  By  making  Lady  Macbeth  jest,  the  author  doubtless  intended  to 
enhance  the  horror  of  the  scene.  A  play  of  fancy  here  is  like  a  gleam  of 
ghastly  sunshine  striking  across  a  stormy  landscape,  as  in  some  piciures  of 
Ruysdael.     Compare,  for  the  pun,  2  Henry  IV.  iv.  5.  129: 

'  England  shall  double  gild  his  treble  guilt.' 
6r.   Tlje  multitudinous  seas.    Shakespeare  may  have  had  in  mind  a  passnge 
from  Haywood's  Robert  Earl  of  Huntiugt'on  (1601),  quoted  by  Steevens : 

'  The  multitudes  of  seas  dyed  red  with  blood.' 
'  Multitudinous'  can  have  no  reference  here  to  the  multitudes  of  creatures 
which  inhabit  the  sea. 

lb.  incarnadine.  The  word  Incarnadin  is  found  both  as  a  substantive 
and  adjective  in  Cotgrave's  French  Dictionary,  and  is  trarslated  'carnation.' 
Tlie  Italian  is  incarnadi>to,  and  the  meaning  '  flesh  colour.'  '  Incarnadine,' 
we  believe,  is  not  found  either  as  a  verb,  substantive,  or  adjective  ir.  any 
English  author  earlier  than,  or  contemporary  with,  Shakespeare.  It  is  used 
as  a  verb  by  Carew,  Obsequies  to  the  Lady  Anne  Hay  : 

'  Incarnadine 
Thy  rosy  cheek.' 
Carew  very  likely  had  this  passage  in  his  mind. 

62.  Making  the  green  one  red,  converting  the  green  into  one  unifcrm  red. 
We  should  have  thought  it  unnecessary  to  make  a  note  on  this  passage,  if 
some  editors  following  the  early  folios,  had  not  printed  it  thus  :  '  Making 
the  green  one,  red,'  which  yields  a  tame,  not  to  say  ludicrous,  sense ;  (with 
Rowe  they  had  read  '  sea,'  for  '  seas,'  in  the  previous  line).     Johnson  seems 

to  have  misunderstood  it,  for  he  printed  '  green,  one  red ,'  as  if  the 

sentence  were  interrupted  by  Lady  Macbeth's  speech.  For  the  phrase 
'  one  red,'  compare  Hamlet,  ii.  2.  471)  :  '  Now  is  he  total  gules.'  A;id,  for 
the  general  sense.  The  Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  v.  i  : 

'  Thou  mighty  one,  that  with  thy  power  hast  turn'd 
Green  Neptune  into  purple.' 


sc.  3-]  MACBETH.  IO9 

63.  shame,  am  ashamed.     See  Winter's  Tale,  ii.  i.  91  : 

'  One  that  knows 
What  she  should  shame  to  know  herself.' 

64.  a  heart  so  ivhile.     Compare  iv.  I.  85,  '  pale-hearted  fear.' 
67.  constancy,  firmness.     See  Julius  Caesar,  ii.  i.  299: 

'  I  have  made  strong  proof  of  my  constancy, 
Giving  myself  a  voluntary  wound.' 
Your  constancy  which  used  to  attend  you  has  left  you. 

69.  nightgown,  as  we  should  say,  a  dressing-gown,  which  one  hastily 
summoned  from  bed  would  put  on.  Their  being  fully  clothed  would  prove 
that  they  had  not  been  in  bed  at  all. 

71.  poorly,  meanly,  unworthily.     Compare  Richard  II.  iii.  3.  12S  : 

We  do  debase  ourselves,  cousin,  do  we  not. 
To  look  so  poorly  and  to  speak  so  fair  ? ' 
And  King  Lear,  iv.  I.  10  :  '  My  father  poorly  led.' 

72.  Macbeth  answers  to  his  wife's  reproach,  that  he  is  lost  in  his  thoughts, 
and  therefore  unable  to  take  the  steps  which  circumstances  required,  '  If  I 
must  look  my  deed  in  the  face,  it  were  better  for  me  to  lose  consciousness 
altogether.'  An  easier  sense  might  be  arrived  at  by  a  slight  change  in 
punctuation  :  '  To  know  my  deed  ?  'Twere  best  not  know  myself.' 


Scene  III. 
The  commencement  of  this  scene,  down  to  'Is  thy  master  stirring?' 
line  22,  was  put  in  the  margin  by  Pope,  who  thought  it  either  spurious  or 
unworthy  of  its  author.  Coleridge  also  was  convinced  that  the  Porter's 
speech  was  the  production  of  some  player,  wliich  Shakespeare  tolerated, 
and,  reading  it  over,  inserted  '  the  primrose  way  to  the  everlasting  bonfire.* 
Probably  Coleridge  would  not  have  made  even  this  exception  unless  he  had 
remembered  Hamlet,  i.  ^.  50, 

'  The  primrose  path  of  dalliance.' 
To  us  this  comic  scene,  not  of  a  high  class  of  comedy  at  best,  seems  strangely 
out  of  place  amidst  the  tragic  horrors  which  surround  it,  and  is  quite  ditFcrent 
in  effect  from  the  comic  passages  which  Shakespeare  has  introduced  into 
other  tragedies.     See  our  remarks  in  the  Preface. 

•2.  old,  used  by  Shakespeare  as  a  colloquial  intensive,  as  in  The  Merchant 
of  Venice,  iv.  2.  16  : 

'  We  shall  have  old  swearing.' 
5.  The  expectation  of  plenty  brought  with  it  low  prices.     Compare  Hall's 
Satires,  iv.  6  (ed.  1597),  quoted  by  Malone  : 

Ech  Muck-worme  will  be  rich  with  lawlesse  gaine, 

Altho  he  smother  vp  mov/es  of  seuen  yeares  graine, 

And  hang'd  himself  when  come  grows  cheap  agai:;.' 

8.  equivocator.     Warburton  suggested  that  Shakespeare  here  had  in  his 

mind  the  equivocation  with  which  the  Jesuits  were  charged.     In  the  account 

of  the  proceedings  at  Garnet's  trial,  published  in  1606,  we  read  (sig.  V  3), 

'  Fourthly,  They  were  allowed  and  taught  by  the  lesuites,  to  equiuocate  vpon 

othe,  saluation  or  otherwise,  and  how  then  should  it  be  discouered  ?'    Malone 

founds  upon  this  an  argument  for  placing  the  composition  of  the  play  in  the 


no  NOTES.  [act  n. 

year  1606,  when  the  remembrance  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot  was  fresh  in  the 
minds  of  the  people. 

10.  co7ild  not  eqtiivocate  to  heaven,  could  not  get  to  heaven  by  equivocation. 

13.  a  French  hose.  Stubbes  in  his  Anatomie  of  Abuses  (fol.  23  b,  ed.  1585) 
says:  'The  Frenche  hose  are  of  two  diners  niakinges,  for  the  common 
Frenche  hose  (as  they  list  to  call  them)  containeth  length,  breadth,  and 
sidenesse  sufficient,  and  is  made  very  rounde.  The  other  contayueth  neyther 
length,  breadth,  nor  sidenesse  (being  not  past  a  quarter  of  a  yarde  side), 
whereof  some  be  paned,  cut  and  dravven  out  with  costi}'  ornamentes,  with 
Canions  annexed,  reaching  downe  beneath  their  knees.'  Warburton  supposes 
that  it  was  to  the  tighter  kind  of  hose  that  reference  is  here  made,  for  '  a  tailor 
must  be  a  master  of  his  trade  who  could  steal  anything  from  thence.'  But 
in  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  2.  80,  Shakespeare  clearly  speaks  of  the  larger 
kind,  the  '  round  hose'  which  the  Englishman  borrows  from  France,  and  it  is 
enough  to  suppose  that  the  tailor  merel}'  followed  the  practice  of  his  trade 
without  exhibiting  any  special  dexterity  in  stealing.  So  in  Henry  V.  iii.  7.  56  : 
•  you  rode,  like  a  kern  of  Ireland,  your  French  hose  off,  and  in  your  straight 
strossers,'  where  the  French  hose  are  wide  by  comparison.  The  joke  against 
tailors  is  an  old  one.  Scot  (Discovery  of  Witchcraft,  Book  vii.  ch.  12,  ed. 
1584)  says  of  Samuel's  apparition,  'Belike  he  had  a  new  mantell  made  him 
in  heauen:  and  yet  they  saie  Tailors  are  skantie  there,  for  that  their  con- 
sciences are  so  large  here.' 

14.  goose.  The  tailor's  smoothing  iron  is  so  called  because  its  handle  is 
like  the  neck  of  a  goose. 

15.  at  quiet,  at  rest,  quiet.  See  Judges  xviii.  27,  'a  people  that  were  at 
quiet  and  secure.'  Compare  'at  friend,'  Winter's  Tale,  v.  I.  140.  So  in 
Hamlet,  iv.  3.  46,  '  at  help'  is  used  with  the  force  of  an  adjective  : 

'  The  bark  is  ready,  and  the  wind  at  help.' 
18.  the  primrose  way.     Compare  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  iv.  5.  56  : 
'  They'll  be  for  the  flowery  way  that  leads  to  the  broad  gate  and  the  great 
fire,'  and  Hamlet,  i.  3.  50,  quoted  above. 

22.  the  second  cock,  about  three  in  the  morning.  Compare  Romeo  and 
Juliet,  iv.  4.  3  : 

'  The  second  cock  hath  crow'd. 
The  curfew  bell  hath  rung,  'tis  three  o'clock.' 

27.  timely,  betimes,  here  used  adverbially.     We  have  it  as  an  adjective, 

^"-  3-  7- 

28.  slipp'd  the  ho7ir,  let  the  hour  slip.     '  Slip'  is  used  transitively,  with  a 

person  for  the  object,  in  Cymbeline,  iv.  3.  22, 

'We'll  slip  you  for  a  season,' 
i.  e.  let  you  go. 

31.  physics  pain.     Compare  Cymbeline,  iii.  2.  34: 

'  Some  griefs  are  med'cinable ;  that  is  one  of  them, 
For  it  doth  physic  love.' 
The  general  sentiment  here  expressed  is  true,  whether  'pain'  be  understood 
in  its  more  common  sense  of  '  sutTering,'  or,  as  Macbeth  means  it,  of  'trouble.' 
See  also  Tempest,  iii.  I.  i  : 

'  There  be  some  sports  are  painful,  and  their  labour 
Delight  in  them  sets  ofi'.' 


sc.  3-]  MACBETH.  Ill 

32.  so  hold  to  call,  so  bold  as  to  call.  Compare  2  Henry  VI.  iv.  8.  4^' 
'  Dare  any  be  so  bold  to  sound  retreat  or  parley,  when  I  command  them  kill? 

33.  Ihniled,  specially  appointed.  It  must  be  supposed  that  Macduft"  was, 
as  we  should  say,  a  Lord  of  the  Bedchamber.  See  Measure  for  Measure, 
iv.  2.  176:  'Alack!  how  may  I  do  it,  having  the  hour  limited,  and  an 
express  command  under  penalty  to  deliver  his  head  in  the  view  of  Angelo  ? ' 
And  Timon  of  Athens,  iv.  3.  431  : 

'  For  there  is  boundless  theft 
In  limited  professions,' 
i.  e.   professions  under   special   restrictions,   like    the    church,   the    bar,   and 
medicine. 

38.  prophesying.  Here  used  as  a  verbal  noun.  The  word  'prophesy' 
in  this  place  has  its  ordinary  sense,  '  to  foretell.' 

_^9.  combustion,  conflagration,  used  metaphorically  for  '  social  confusion,' 
as  in  Henry  VIII.  v.  4.  51,  'for  kindling  such  a  combustion  in  the  state.' 
Cotgrave  has :  '  Combustion  :  f.  A  combustion,  .  .  .  also,  a  tumult ;  and 
hence ;  Entrer  en  combustion  avec.  To  make  a  stirre,  to  raise  an  vprore,  to 
keepe  an  old  coyle  against.'  Raleigh,  in  his  Discourse  of  War  in  General 
(Works,  viii.  p.  276,  ed.  1829),  says,  'Nevertheless,  the  Pope's  absolving  of 
Richard  Duke  of  York  from  that  honest  oath  which  he  had  given  .... 
brought  all  England  into  an  horrible  combustion.'  And  Milton,  Paradise 
Lost,  vi.  225,  uses  the  word  in  the  same  sense. 

39.  AO.  Johnson  conjectured  that  we  should  put  a  full  stop  after  'events' 
and  a  comma  after  '  time,'  as  if  it  were  the  obscure  bird  that  was  new- 
hatched.  But  the  following  passage  from  2  Henry  IV.  iii.  I.  80,  which 
bears  in  several  points  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  present  passage,  shews 
that  the  ordinary  punctuation  is  right : 

'  There  is  a  history  in  all  men's  lives, 
Figuring  the  nature  of  the  ti.mes  deceased  ; 
The  which  observed,  a  man  may  prophesy, 
With  a  near  aim,  of  the  main  chance  of  things 
As  yet  not  come  to  life,  which  in  their  seeds 
And  weak  beginnings  lie  intreasured. 
Such  things  become  the  hatch  and  brood  of  time.' 
'  Hatch'd  to  the  time'  may  either  be  used  like  '  born  to  the  time,'  i.  e.  '  the 
time's  brood,'  or  'hatched  to  suit  the  time,'  as  'to'  is  used,  Coriolanus, 
i.4.57: 

'  Thou  wast  a  soldier 
Even  to  Cato's  wish.' 

40.  For  'obscure'  Sidney  Walker  guessed  'obscene,'  but  it  is  quite  needless 
to  make  any  change.  '  The  obscure  bird'  is  the  bird  of  darkness,  the  owl, 
'  the  nightly  owl,'  as  it  is  called,  Titus  Andronicus,  ii.  3.  97.  Compare  note 
on  ii.  2.  3  of  this  play. 

42.  Compare  Coriolanus,  i.  4.  61  : 

'  Thou  niadest  thine  enemies  shake,  as  if  the  world 
Were  feverous  and  did  tremble.' 
We  have  'a  shaking  fever'  in  King  John,  ii.  I.  228.     'Feverous'  must  be 
understood  of  ague-fever,  much  more  common  in  old  times  than  now  when 
England  is  drained. 


112  NOTES.  [act  II. 

43,  parallel,  produce  or  cite,  as  a  parallel  case.  We  have  '  paragon ' 
similarly  used  as  a  verb  in  Othello,  ii.  I.  6c  : 

'  A  maid 
That  paragons  description  and  wild  fame.* 
45,  46.  The  meaning  is,  '  heart  cannot  conceive  nor  tongue  name  thee.' 
For  the  construction,  see  i.  3.  60.     Observe  the  omission  of  '  neither*  before 
'  tongue,'  and  the  accumulated  negatives,  '  nor,'  '  cannot,'  '  nor.' 

47.  Confusion,  destruction.    Similarly  personified  in  King  John,  iv.  3.  153  : 
'  Vast  confusion  waits, 
As  doth  a  raven  on  a  sick-fall'n  beast, 
The  imminent  decay  of  wrested  pomp.' 
4S.  broke.     See  note  on  i.  4.  3,  and  iii.  4.  109. 
lb.  ope,  open.     See  King  John,  ii.  I.  449  : 

'  The  mouth  of  passage  shall  v/e  f.ing  wide  ope.' 
49.  There  is  a  confusion  of  metaphor  here.     Reference  is  made  in  the 
same  clause  to  I  Samuel  xxiv.  10,  'I  will  not  put  forth  mine  hand  against 
my  lord,  for  he  is  the   Lord's   anointed;'  and  to  2  Corinthians  vi.  16,  'For 
ye  are  the  temple  of  the  living  God.' 

53.  Shakespeare  probably  derived  his  knowledge  of  the  Gorgon's  head 
from  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  Bk.  v.  189-210,  where  it  is  related  how  Perseus 
turned  his  enemies  to  stone  by  making  them  look  on  it.  There  is  an  allusion 
to  it  also  in  Troilus  and  Cressida,  v.  10.  18.: 

'  Go  into  Troy  and  sav  there  Hector's  dead  : 
There  is  a  word  will  Priam  turn  to  stone.' 
Webster,  The  White  Devil,  p.  21,  ed.  Dyce,  18  >  7,  refers  to  the  same  passage 
in  Ovid  : 

'  My  defence,  of  force,  like  Perseus,' 
Must  personate  masculine  virtue.' 
57.  sleep,  death's  counterfeit.    So  in  Lucrece,  402,  Sleep  is  called  '  the  map 
of  death,'  and  in  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  iii.  2.364:  'Death-counterfeit- 
ing sleep.' 

59.  The  f^reat  doom's  imags,  a  sight  as  terrible  as  the  Last  Judgement. 
Compare  King  Lear,  v.  3.  264: 

'  Kent.  Is  this  the  promised  end  ? 

Edg.     Or  image  of  that  horror  ?' 

60.  sprites.  Compare  iii.  5.  27,  and  iv.  I.  127,  where  the  word  means  the 
spirits  of  the  living  man. 

61.  countenance,  give  a  suitable  accompaniment  to.  Compare  Taming  of 
the  Shrew,  iv.  I.  loi  :  '  You  must  meet  my  master,  to  countenance  my 
mistress.' 

lb.  Ring  the  hell.  Theobald  omitted  these  words,  supposing  them  to  be 
a  repetition  of  the  stage  direction. 

63.   The  trumpet,  which  in  war  sounded  a  parley,  is  here  represented  by 
the  alarm  bell.     See  Henry  V.  iii.  2.  149. 
72.  Compare  Winter's  Tale,  iv.  4.  472  : 

'  If  I  might  die  within  this  hour,  I  have  lived 
To  die  when  I  desire.' 

74.  in  mortality.     In  this  mortal  life. 

75.  is  dead.    Hanmer  altered  '  is '  to  '  are.'    But  Shakespeare  very  frequently 


sc.  3.]  MACBETH.  II3 

uses  the  singular  verb  with  two  nominatives.     Compare  The  Merchant  of 
Venice,  ii.  9.  83  : 

'  Hanging  and  wiving  goes  by  destiny.' 
83.  hadged,  marked  as  with  a  badge.     Compare  2  Henry  VI.  iii.  2.  200  : 
'  Murder's  crimson  badge.' 

92.  expedition,  haste.     See  Richard  HI.  iv.  3.  54: 

'  Then  fiery  expedition  be  my  wing  ! ' 

93.  ontrnn.  Johnson  ahered  this  to  '  outran.'  Both  forms  of  the  preterite 
were,  and  are,  in  use. 

94.  laced.     Compare  Cymbeline,  ii.  •2.  22  : 

'  White  and  azure  laced 

With  blue  of  heaven's  own  tinct,' 

and  Romeo  and  Juliet,  iii.  15.  8  :         m.u  .         •         .      1 
-'  •^  '  What  envious  streaks 

Do  lace  the  severing  clouds  in  yonder  east ! ' 

98.    Unmannerly  breech'd.     The  insincerity  of  Macbeth's  lamentations  is 

marked  by  the  affectation  of  his  language.    Several  editors  and  commentators, 

offended  by  the  homeliness  of  the  image,  have  suggested  emendations,  as 

'Unmanly  reech'd,'  'Unmanly  drench'd,'  'Unmannerly  hatch'd,'  &c.    Johnson 

seems  to  take  'breech'd  with  gore'  as  meaning  'the  handle  stained  with 

gore,'  but  surely  the  blade  would  be  more  stained  still,  and  this,  we  doubt  not, 

is  really  meant.     Compare  Twelfth  Night,   iii.  4.  274:  'Strip  your  sword 

stark  naked.' 

100.   The  abbreviation  '  's,'  for  '  his,'  is  very  common  even  in  passages 

which  are  not  colloquial  or  familiar. 

101-107.  Malone  says  :  '  Mr.  V/hately  . .  .  justly  observes  that,  "  on  Lady 

Macbeth's  seeming  to  faint,  while  Banquo  and   Macduff  are  solicitous  about 

her,  Macbeth,  by  his  unconcern,  betrays  a  consciousness  that  the  fainting  is 

feigned."    I  may  add,  that  a  bold  and  hardened  villain  would,  from  a  refined 

policy,  have  assumed  the  appearance  of  being  alarmed  about  her,  lest  this 

very  imputation  should  arise  against  him  :    the   irresolute   Macbeth   is  not 

sufficiently  at  ease  to  act  such  a  part.'      (The  Mr.  Whately  here  mentioned 

was  an  uncle  of  the  late  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  who  re-edited  his  Remarks 

on  some  of  the  Characters  of  Shakespeare.)     Miss  Helen  Faucit  believes  that 

Lady  Macbeth  really  fainted  here,  her  overtaxed  energies  giving  way,  as  they 

do  after  the  banquet-scene.     On  the  stage  she  is  carried  out  by  her  women, 

who  appear  in  dishabille  as  having  been  hastily  summoned  from  their  beds. 

102.  argument,  subject,  theme  of  discourse.      Compare  Timon  of  Athens, 

'  So  it  may  prove  an  argument  of  laughter.' 
And  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  i.  24  : 

'  The  height  of  this  great  argument.' 

103,  104.  our  fate.  Hid  in  an  anger-hole.  The  place  is  so  full  of  murderous 
treachery  that,  observe  we  never  so  carefully,  we  may  overlook  the  minute 
hole  in  which  it  lurks.     Compare,  for  '  auger-hole,'  Coriolanus,  iv.  6.  87  : 

'  Your  franchises,  whereon  you  stood,  confined 
Into  an  auger's  bore.' 
106.  our  tears  are  not  yet  brew'd.     Compare  Titus  Andronicus,  iii.  2.  38; 
'  She  says  she  drinks  no  other  drink  but  tears, 
Brew'd  with  her  sorrow,  mesh'd  upon  her  cheeks.' 
I 


114  NOTES.  [act  11. 

107.  Sorrow  in  its  first  strength  is  motionless,  and  cannot  express  itself  in 
words  or  tears.     Compare  iv.  3.  209,  and  3  Henry  VI.  iii.  3.  22  : 

'And  give  my  tongue-tied  sorrows  leave  to  speak.' 

108,  109.  And  when  .  .  .  exposure.  Steevens  paraphrases  Shakespeare's 
poetry  thus  in  prose :  '  When  we  have  clothed  our  half  drest  bodies,  which 
mav  take  cold  from  being  exposed  to  the  air.'  All  the  characters  appeared 
on  the  scene  in  night-gowns,  with  bare  throats  and  legs. 

113.  pretence,  purpose,  design.     Compare  Coriolanus,  i.  2.  20: 
'  Nor  did  you  think  it  folly 
To  keep  your  great  pretences  veil'd  till  when 
They  needs  must  show  themselves.' 
See  also,  for  the  verb  '  pretend  '  in  the  sense  of  '  intend,  design,'  the  present 
play,  ii.  4.  24 : 

'  What  good  could  they  pretend  ?' 
115.  manly  readiness.  Here  the  phrase  means  first '  complete  armour,"  in 
contrast  to  the  '  naked  frailties  '  just  mentioned,  and  involves  also  the  corre- 
sponding habit  of  mind.  Compare  the  stage  direction  in  I  Henry  VI.  ii.  I.  38, 
'  The  French  leap  over  the  walls  in  their  shirts.  Enter,  several  ways,  the 
Bastard  of  Orleans,  Aleiicon,  and  Reignier,  half  ready  and  half  unready.' 
119.  easy,  easily.     So  Measure  for  Measure,  ii.  4.  126  : 

'  Ay,  as  the  glasses  where  they  view  themselves  ; 
Which  are  as  easy  broke  as  they  make  forms.' 
So  also  King  John,  iv.  3.  142  : 

'  How  easy  dost  thou  take  all  England  up !' 
And  similarly,  in  the  next  scene,  line  29,  '  like'  is  used  for  '  likely.' 

122.  There's  das^gers.  'There  is'  may  frequently  be  found  in  older 
writers  with  a  plural  noun,  like  tl  ^  a  in  French.  Compare  Othello,  i.  I.  172: 
'  Is  there  not  charms?'  Donalbain  suspects  all,  but  most  his  father's  cousin, 
Macbeth.     See  i.  2.  24. 

lb.  the  near  in  blood,  the  nearer  in  blood.  Compare  Richard  II.  v.  i.  88  : 
'  Better  far  off  than  near,  be  ne'er  the  near.' 
So  '  far'  is  used  for  the  comparative  '  farther,'  Winter's  Tale,  iv.  4.  442  :  '  Far 
than  Deucalion  off.'  For  other  examples,  see  Sidney  Walker's  Critical 
Examination,  vol.  i.  p.  189.  Compare,  for  the  sense,  Webster,  Appius  and 
Virginia,  v.  2 : 

'  Great  men's  misfortunes  thus  have  ever  stood, — 
They  touch  none  nearly,  but  their  nearest  blood.' 

123.  The  shaft  that  has  struck  Duncan  is  aimed  at  us  as  well;  it  is  still 
in  the  air,  and  will  strike  us  if  we  do  not  fly  to  avoid  it. 

126.  dainty  of  leave-taking,  particular  about  leave-taking. 

127.  In  the  word  '  shift'  quiet  or  stealthy  motion  is  implied,  as  in  As  You 
Like  It,  ii.  7. 157  : 

'  The  sixth  age  shifts 
Into  the  lean  and  slipper'd  pantaloon.' 
127,  128.  Those  thieves  are  justified  who  steal  away  themselves  when  it  is 
their  only  hope  of  safetyi     Compare  All 's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  ii.  i.  33  : 
'  Bertram.  I'll  steal  away. 

First  Lord.  There  's  honour  in  the  theft,' 


sc.  4-].  MA  C  B  E  TH.  1 15 


Scene  IV. 

3.  sore,  an  emphatic  word  meaning  both  sad  and  dreadful,  from  Anglo- 
Saxon  sdr,  grievous,  painful ;  connected  with  the  German  schwsr.  Com- 
pare Genesis  1.  lo,  'a  sore  lamentation';  Psalm  Ixxi.  20,  'sore  troubles.' 
As  an  adverb  it  is  very  common  in  our  Bible.  The  Scotch  sair  is  still  used 
in  much  the  same  sense  as  '  sore'  once  was  in  England. 

4.  trifled,  not  used  elsewhere  in  the  same  sense.  It  is  however  used  tran- 
sitively, but  with  a  different  meaning,  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  iv.  1.  29S  : 
*  We  trifle  time.'  Here  the  meaning  is :  This  grievous  night  has  made  all 
former  experiences  seem  trifles. 

Ih.  hiowings.    This  word  is  not  used  as  a  plural  elsewhere  by  Shakespeare, 
nor  apparently  in  the  concrete  sense,  as  here,  '  a  piece  of  knowledge.'     It 
means  '  knowledge'  or  '  experience'  in  Cynibeline,  ii.  3.  102  : 
'  One  of  your  great  knowing.' 

6.  his  bloody  stage.     See  note  on  i.  3.  128. 

7.  the  travelling  lamp.  The  first  and  second  folios  read  '  travailing  '  It 
was  corrected  in  the  third  folio  (1664).  Modern  us?.ge  has  assigned  a  sepa- 
rate spelling  to  each  signification  of  the  word,  which  in  Shakespeare's  time 
was  written  indifferently  either  way,  and  used  with  a  combination  of  both 
meanings.  Here  in  the  writer's  thoughts  '  travailing' or  '  travelling' meant 
'  painfully  struggling  on  his  way.'  Of  course  the  meanings  were  sometimes 
distinguished,  as  when  the  word  was  used  of  the  pains  of  labour,  or  of  a 
foreign  tour.     Compare  Ail's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  ii.  i.  167: 

'  Ere  twice  in  murk  and  occidental  damp 
Moist  Hesperus  hath  quench'd  his  sleepy  lamp.' 
The  author  no  doubt  derived  a  hint  from  what  Holinshed  says  of  the  phe- 
nomena which  appeared  after  the  murder  of  King  Duff.    See  the  passage  at 
length  in  the  Preface. 

8.  Is  night  triumphant  in  the  deed  of  darkness  that  has  been  done,  or  is 
day  ashamed  to  look  upon  it  ?  '  Predominance '  is  an  astrological  term.  See 
Troilus  and  Cressida,  ii  3.  i_^8 : 

'  And  underwrite  in  an  observing  kind 
His  humorous  predominance.' 
And  King  Lear,  i.  2. 134:   'Knaves,  thieves,  and  treachers  by  spherical  pre- 
dominance ;   drunkards,  liars,    and   adulterers   by  an   enforced  obedience  of 
pianetary  influence.'     Compare  also  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  viii.  160: 
'  Whether  the  sun,  predominant  in  heaven. 
Rise  on  the  earth,  or  earth  rise  on  the  sun.' 
12.  place  is  a  technical  term  in  falconry  for  the  pitch  attained  by  a  falcon 
before  swooping  down  on  its  prey.     So  Massinger,  The  Guardian,  i.  I  : 
'  Then,  for  an  evening  flight, 
A  tiercel  gentle,  which  I  call,  my  masters. 
As  he  were  sent  a  messenger  to  the  moon. 
In  such  a  place  flies,  as  he  seems  to  say, 
See  me,  or  see  me  not !  the  partridge  sprung, 
He  makes  his  stoop.' 
For  'towering,'  see  King  John,  v.  2.  149. 

1  2 


1 15  NOTES.  [act  II.  sc.  4. 

13.  As  the  'mousing  owl'  finds  his  ordinary  prey  on  the  ground,  the 
marvel  is  the  greater. 

14.  horses,  pronounced  as  a  monosyllable,  as  '  targes,'  Cymbeline,  v.  5.  5  : 

'  Stepp'd  before  targes  of  proof.' 
And  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  ii.  6.  40.     Though  it  is  printed  'horses'  in  the 
folio,  it  may  be  that  Shakespeare  wrote  '  horse,'  for  there  is  frequent  confusion 
in  the  plurals  of  nouns  ending  in  a  sibilant.    See,  for  instance,  The  Merchant 
of  Venice,  iv.  i.  255  : 

'  Are  there  balance  here  to  weigh 
The  flesh  ?' 
And  compare  v.  I.  25  of  this  play.     So  we  have  'horse'  for  the  genitive 
'horse's,'  King  John,  ii.  I.  289  : 

'  Saint  George,  that  swinged  the  dragon,  and  e'er  since 
Sits  on  his  horse  back  at  mine  hostess'  door.' 

15.  viinions  oj  their  race,  of  all  the  breed  of  horses  man's  special  darlings. 
Theobald  read  '  the  race,'  interpreted  by  Steevens  to  mean  the  race-course. 

16.  Turn'd  wild  in  nature,  were  changed  in  temper  and  disposition.  It 
was  not  a  passing  fit  of  ill  temper,  which  might  be  due  to  ordinary  causes. 

17.  as,  as  if.     See  ii.  2.  27. 

24.  pretend,  propose,  intend.  See  note  on  ii.  3.  113.  So  prelendre  is  used 
still  in  French,  without  the  implication  of  falsehood. 

28.  ravin  up.     We  have  'ravin  down'  in  Measure  for  Measure,  i.  2.  133  : 

'  Like  rats  that  ravin  down  their  proper  bane.' 
For  '  ravin'd,'  see  iv.  I.  24. 

29.  lilie,  likely.     See  Julius  Cxsar,  i.  2.  175  : 

'  Under  these  hard  conditions  as  this  time 
Is  like  to  lay  upon  us.' 
31.  Scone,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Perth.     The  stone  seat,  on  which 
the  ancient  Kings  of  Scotland  sate  at  their  investiture,  originally,  it  is  said, 
brought  from  lona,  was   carried   by  Edward   the  First  to  England,  and  is 
inclosed  in  the  coronation-chair  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

33.  Colme-Jiill.  According  to  Holinshed  the  body  was  carried  first  to  Elgin, 
afterwards  to  Colmekill  or  lona.  The  natives  still  call  their  island  Icolmkiil, 
'  the  cell  of  St.  Columba.'  Macbeth  himself  was,  according  to  tradition,  buried 
there  also.  The  site  of  the  burying-place  of  the  kings  of  Scotland — a  list 
which  closes  with  Macbeth — is  still  pointed  out  in  the  churchyard  south-west 
of  the  church. 

34.  storehouse,  here  used  for  sepulchre. 

36.  thither,  i.  e.  to  Scone.  The  verb  of  motion  is  frequently  omitted  in 
similar  phrases,  as  in  Richard  II.  i.  2.  73  : 

'  Desolate,  desolate,  will  I  hence  and  die.' 
38.  Lest.     There  is  an  ellipsis  here,  which  is  easily  supplied  by  the  sense 
of  the  preceding  line, 

'  May  you  see  things  well  done  there.' 
For  the  metaphor,  compare  i.  3.  1 45. 

40.  benison,  blessing.  The  word  is  benisson  in  French,  contracted  from 
'benediction.'     Compare  King  Lear,  iv  6.  220  : 

'  The  bounty  and  the  benison  of  heaven.' 
The  opposite  word  is  '  malison,'  not  however  found  in  Shakespeare. 


ACT  in.  SCI.]  MACBETH.  1 1 7 


ACT    III. 
Scene  I. 

4.  stand,  stay,  continue.     See  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  v.  1.417  : 

'  And  the  blots  of  Nature's  hand 

Shall  not  in  their  issue  stand.' 

7.  shine.  Because  they  prophesied  to  Macbeth  the  lustre  with  which  he 
is  now  invested. 

10.  Sennet.  Spelt  in  the  folios  '  senit.'  It  is  also  found  variously  written 
'  cynet,'  'signet,'  '  signate,'  and  'senate'  (Webster,  p.  6,  ed.  1857).  It  is  a 
technical  term  for  a  particular  set  of  notes  plaved  by  trumpets  or  cornets,  and 
different  from  a  '  flourish.'  '  Trumpet:  sound  a  flourish  and  then  a  sennet ' 
(Decker,  Satiromastix);  and  'The  cornets  sound  a  cynet'  (Marston,  Antonio's 
Revenge,  ii.  1.  init.).  The  word  does  not  occur  in  the  text  of  Shakespeare, 
and  its  derivation  is  doubtful. 

13.  all-thing.  So  written  in  the  first  folio.  The  second  has  '  all-things '; 
the  third  and  fourth  '  all  things.'  '  All-thing'  seems  to  be  used  as  an  adverb 
meaning  'in  everyway':  compare  'something,'  'nothing.'  In  Robert  of 
Gloucester,  p.  69  (ed.  Hearne),  '  alle  ];ing '  appears  to  be  used  for  '  alto- 
gether': 'As  wommon  dej)  hire  child  alle  ]<ing  mest.'  Again,  in  p.  48, 
where  Hearne  prints  'Ac  ])o  nolde  not  Cassibel,  ])at  heo  schulde  allyng  faile," 
Lord  Mostyn's  MS.  has  '  aljjynge,'  meaning  '  alt:  gether.' 

14.  solemn,  formal,  official.     See  Titus  Andronicus,  ii.  I.  112  : 

'  My  lord,  a  solemn  hunting  is  in  hand.' 

15.  Let.  Rowe  altered  this  to  '  Lay,'  and  Monck  Mason  proposed  'Set.' 
The  phrase  '  command  upon  me,'  for  '  lay  your  commands  upon  me,'  does 
not  seem  unnatural,  though  we  know  of  no  other  instance  in  which  it  is 
employed. 

16.  The  antecedent  to  'which'  is  the  idea  contained  in  the  preceding 
clause.     'Which'  is  frequently  used  with  the  definite  article. 

21.  still,  always,  constantly.  See  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  I.  17; 
i.  I.  136;  and  The  Tempest,  i.  2.  229. 

76.  grave,  well-weighed,  weighty.      So  Pericles,  v.  i.  184: 
'  Thou  art  a  grave  and  noble  counsellor,' 
where  'grave'  does  not  apply  to  the  aspect  or  manner.     So  Richard  III.  ii. 
3.20:  '  Enrich'd 

'  With  politic  grave  counsel.' 
lb.  prosperous,  followed  by  a  prosperous  issue.  , 

22.  xvs'll  take  to-morrow,  we'll  take  to-morrow  for  our  conversation  ;  an 
ellipsis  which  we  still  use  colloquially.  Malone  read  '  talk '  for  '  take,'  and 
Keightley  '  take  't.' 

25.  go  not  my  horse,  if  my  horse  go  not.  Compare  Richard  II.  ii.  I.  300  : 
'  Hold  out  my  horse,  and  I  will  first  be  there.' 

Ih.  the  better,  the  better,  considering  the  distance  he  has  to  go.  Stowe, 
in  his  Survey  of  London  (ed.  1618,  p.  I45,  misquoted  by  Malone),  says  of 
tilting  at  the  quintain,  '  hee  that  hit  it  full,  if  he  rid  not  the  faster,  had  a  sound 
blow  in  his  necke,  with  a  bagge  full  of  sand  hanged  on  the  other  end  ;'  where 
the  meaning  is,  '  if  he  rid  not  the  faster  because  he  had  hit  it  full,'  &c. 


Il8  NOTES,  [act  hi. 

27.  twain,  Anglo-Saxon  twegen,  nom.  and  ace.  masc.  The  fem.  and  neut. 
form  is  twa.  '  Twain  '  is  frequently  used  by  Shakespeare  and  in  the  Autho- 
rized Version.     See  for  example  Richard  II.  i.  I.  50,  and  St.  Matthew  v.  41. 

29.  are  beslow'd,  are  settled,  placed.  Compare  Olhello,  iii.  1.57,  and  iii. 
6.  24,  of  this  play. 

31.  parricide,  used  in  the  sense  of  parricidium  as  well  as  parricida.  The 
only  other  passage  in  Shakespeare  in  which  it  is  found  is  King  Lear,  ii.  i.  48, 
where  it  means  the  latter. 

3^  34.  When,  besides  the  question  of  Malcolm  and  Donalbain's  intrigues, 
we  shall  have  business  of  state  requiring  our  joint  attention. 

33.  cause,  a  subject  of  debate.  In  iv.  3.  196,  'the  general  cause'  means 
the  'public  interest,'  and  in  Troilus  and  Cressida,  v.  2.  1 4 3,  it  is  used  for 
'  dispute,'  '  argument' : 

'  O  madness  of  discourse, 
That  cause  sets  up  with  and  against  itself!' 

38.  I  do  commend  you  to  their  backs  is  said  jestingly,  with  an  affectation 
of  formality. 

41.  42.  The  punctuation  in  the  text  was  first  given  by  Theobald,  and 
doubtless  rightly,  for  it  is  solitude  which  gives  a  zest  to  society,  not  the  being 
master  of  one's  time.  Delius,  however,  keeps  the  punctuation  of  the  folios, 
which  put  a  comma  after  '  night,'  and  a  colon  after  '  welcome.' 

42.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  'welcome'  is  here  a  substantive,  or  an 
adjective  agreeing  with  '  society.'  We  have  the  former  construction  in  Timon 
of  Athens,  i.  2.  135  : 

'  Music,  make  their  welcome.' 
If  we  took  the  latter,  '  sweeter'  would  be  used  for  the  adverb  '  sweetlier,' 
more  sweetly. 

lb.  oursflf.     Macbeth  uses   the  royal  style,  as  in  line  78  of  this  scene. 

43.  while  then,  till  then.     Compare  Richard  II.  iv.  i.  269  : 

'  Read  o'er  this  paper  while  the  glass  doth  corae.* 
So  '  Whiles'  in  Twelfth  Night,  iv.  3.  29  : 

'  He  shall  conceal  it 
Whiles  you  are  willing  it  shall  come  to  note.' 
See  also  Richard  II.  i.  3.  122,  and  our  note  on  the  passage. 

47,  48.  To  be  thus  is  nothing ;  But  to  be  safely  thus.  To  reign  merely  is 
nothing  ;  but  to  reign  in  safety  [is  the  thing  to  be  desired].  Mr.  Staunton, 
however,  puts  only  a  comma  after  '  nothing,'  and  interprets,  '  To  be  a  king 
is  nothing,  unless  to  be  safely  one.' 

49.  royalty  of  nature,  royal,  or  kingly,  nature.  So  we  say  '  nobility  of 
nature.' 

51.  to,  in  addition  to.     See  i.  6.  19. 

55,  56.   Compare  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  ii.  3.  19  : 

'  irhy  demon,  that 's  thy  spirit  which  keeps  thee,  is 
Noble,  courageous,  high,  uiimatchable. 
Where  Czsar's  is  not ;  but  near  him  thy  angel 
Becomes  a  fear  as  being  o'erpower'd.' 
This  is  borrowed  from  North's  Plutarch,  Antouius  (p.  926,  lines  8-IO,  ed. 
1631") :  '  For  thy  demon,  said  he,  (that  is  to  say,  the  good  angell  and  spirit 
that  keepeth  thee)  is  afraid  of  his :  and  being  couragious  and  high  when  he 


sc.  I.]  MACBETH.  II9 

is  alone,  becommeth  fearful!  and  timorous  when  he  cometh  neare  vnto  the 
other.'     For  '  genius,'  see  Julius  Caesar,  ii.  I.  65  : 

'  The  genius  and  the  mortal  instruments 
Are  then  in  council.' 
62.  with  was  used  formerly  of  the  agent,  where  now  we  should  rather  say 
'  by.'    Compare  Winter's  Tale,  v.  2.  68  :   '  He  was  torn  to  pieces  with  a  bear.' 
We  confine  '  with  '  to  the  instrument,  and  still  say  '  with  a  hand,'  '  with  a 
sword' ;  but  not  '  with  a  man,'  '  with  a  bear.'    See  also  King  John,  ii.  i.  567  : 
'  Rounded  in  the  ear 
With  that  same  purpose-changer.' 
64.  Jiled,  defiled.     This  form  is  not  elsewhere  used  by  Shakespeare.     It  is 
found    however   frequently  in   other    authors,    as,    for    instance,  in  Spenser, 
Fairy  Queen,  iii.  I.  62  : 

'  She  lightly  lept  out  of  her  filed  bedd.' 
Compare  also  Holland's  Pliny,  xiv.  c.  19  :   '  If  the  grapes  have  been  filed  by 
any  ordure  or  dung  falne  from  above  thereupon.' 

66.  vessel,  derived  through  old  French  vaissel,  from  the  Latin  vasculum, 
vascellum.  Its  use  here  was  probably  suggested  by  St.  Paul's  words,  Romans 
ix.  22,  23. 

67.  Delius  interprets  'eternal  jewel'  to  mean  eternal  happiness.  But  does 
it  not  rather  mean  '  immortal  soul,'  which  Macbeth  has  sold  to  the  Evil  One  ? 
For  '  eternal'  in  this  sense  compare  King  John,  iii.  4.  18  : 

'  Holding  the  eternal  spirit  against  her  will 
In  the  vile  prison  of  afflicted  breath.' 

70.  list,  nowhere  else  used  in  the  singular  by  Shakespeare  except  in  the 
more  general  sense  of  '  boundary,'  as  Hamlet,  iv.  5.  99  : 

'  The  ocean  overpeering  of  his  list.' 
For  the  space  marked  out  for  a  combat  he  always  uses  '  lists.' 

71.  champion  me,  fight  with  me  in  single  combat.  This  seems  to  be  the 
only  known  passage  in  which  the  verb  is  used  in  this  sense. 

lb.  to  the  utterance.  Cotgrave  has  :  '  Combatre  ii  oiiltrance.  To  fight  at 
sharpe,  to  fight  it  out,  or  to  the  vttermost ;  not  to  spare  one  another  in 
fighting.'     Compare  Cymbeline,  iii.  i.  73: 

'  Behoves  me  keep  at  utterance,' 
i.  e.  defend   to  the  uttermost.     So  in  Holland's  Pliny,  ii.  26 :  '  Germanicus 
Caesar  exhibited  a  shew  of  sword-fencers  at  utterance.' 

lb.  The  two  '  murderers'  here  introduced  are  not  assassins  by  profession, 
as  is  clear  by  what  follows,  but  soldiers  whose  fortunes,  according  to  Macbeth, 
have  been  ruined  by  Banquo's  influence. 

79.  pass'd  in  probation  with  you,  I  proved  to  you  in  detail,  point  by  point. 
The  word  'passed' is  used  in  the  same  sense  as  in  the  phrase  'pass  in  review.' 
For  'probation,'  compare  Measure  for  Measure,  v.  1.  156  : 

'  What  he  with  his  oath 
And  all  probation  will  make  up  full  clear.' 

80.  borne  in  band,  kept  up  by  promises,  which,  it  is  implied,  were  never 
realized.     Compare  Hamlet,  ii.  2.  67  : 

'  Whereat  grieved 
That  so  his  sickness,  age,  and  impotence 
Was  falsely  borne  in  hand.' 


I20  NOTES.  [act  hi. 

See  also  Cymbeline,  V.  5.  43  ; 

'  Your  daughter,  whom  she  bore  in  hand  to  love.' 
So  Surrey,  Songs  and  Sonnets,  xviii.  line  53  : 

'  She  is  reversed  clean,  and  beareth  me  in  hand.' 
82.  notion,  understanding.     Compare  King  Lear,  i.  4.  248  : 
'  His  notion  weakens,  his  discernings 
Are  lethargied.' 

87.  gospell'd,  instructed  in  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel.  The  ret'erence  is 
especially  to  Matthew  v.  44 :  '  Pray  for  them  which  despitefully  use  you  and 
persecute  you.' 

88.  To  pray,  as  to  pray.     See  ii.  3.  32. 

93.  Shoughs  or  shocks,  dogs  with  shaggy  hair. 
lb.  water-rugs,  rough  water-dogs. 

lb.  demi-wolves,  like  the  Latin  lycisci,  a  cross  between  a  dog  and  a  wolf. 

lb.  clept.  The  folios  spell  '  dipt.'  The  word  '  clepe' was  becoming  obsolete 
in  Shakespeare's  time.  He  uses  it  however  in  Hamlet,  i.  4.19:  '  They  clepe 
us  drunkards.'  In  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  v.  1.  23,  it  is  used  by  Holofernes, 
'  he  clepeth  a  calf,  cauf.'  The  word  is  still  used  by  children  at  plav  in  the 
Eastern  counties :  they  speak  of  '  cleping  sides,'  i.  e.  calling  sides,  at  prisoners' 
base,  &c.     It  is  derived  from  Anglo-Saxon  cleopian. 

94.  the  valued  fde,  the  list  in  which  items  are  distinguished  according  to 
their  qualities,  not  a  mere  catalogue,  but  a  catalogue  raisonne.  For  '  tile,' 
see  iii.  1.  102,  and  v.  2.  8  ;  and  Measure  for  Measure,  iii.  2.  144:  '  The 
greater  file  of  the  subject  held  the  Duke  to  be  wise,'  i.  e.  the  upper  classes  or 
higher  ranks  held,  &c. 

q6.  houfelteeper,  guardian  of  the  house,  watch-dog.  In  Topsell's  History 
of  Beasts  (1658),  the  '  housekeeper'  is  enumerated  among  the  different  kinds 
of  dogs.     So  oiKovpos,  Aristophanes,  Vespae,  970. 

91).  addition.     Compare  i.  3.  106. 

lb.  from.  It  seems  more  natural  to  connect  '  from'  with  '  particular,* 
which  involves  the  idea  of  distinction,  than  with  '  distinguishes,'  line  95, 
which  is  used  absolutely  in  the  sense  of  '  defines.' 

99,  100.  the  bill  That  writes  them  all  alike,  is  the  same  as  the  general 
'  catalogue,'  line  92,  the  list  in  which  they  are  written  without  any  distinction. 

101.  file,  the  muster-roll,  as  in  All 's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  iv.  3.  189  :  'The 
muster -file,  rotten  and  sound,  upon  my  life  amounts  not  to  fifteen  thousand 
poll.'  The  use  of  the  word  '  file'  suggested  the  word  '  rank,'  so  frequently 
used  with  it  in  describing  soldiers  drawn  up  in  order. 

104.  takes  .  .  .   off.     See  i.  7.  20. 

105.  Grapples.     Compare  Hamlet,  i.  3.  63  : 

'  Grapple  them  to  thy  soul  with  hoops  of  steel.' 
107.  Pope  omitted  '  my  liege,'  for  the  sake  of  the  metre. 
III.  ttigg'd  with  fortune,  hardly  used  in  wrestling  with  fortune.     In  King 
John,  iv.  3.  146,  we  have  '  tug  and  scamble,'  and  in  Winter's  Tale,  iv.  4.  50S  . 
'  Let  myself  and  fortune 
Tug  for  the  time  to  come.* 
Warburton  altered  the  line  to 

'  So  weary  with  disastrous  tuggs  with  fortune.' 
113.  on,  for  '  of.'     Compare  i.  3.  84,  and  line  130  of  this  scene. 


sc.  I.]  MACBETH.  121 

115.  distance,  alienation,  hostility,  variance.  The  word  is  not  again  used 
b}'  the  poet  in  this  sense.  Bacon  uses  it,  Essays  xv.  p.  62  :  '  Generally,  the 
dividing  and  breaking  of -all  factions,  and  combinations  that  are  adverse  to 
the  state,  and  setting  them  at  distance,  or  at  least  distrust  amongst  themselves, 
is  not  one  of  the  worst  remedies.'  '  To  set  at  distance '  exactly  expresses 
the  Greek  StiaTavai,  as  used  in  Aristophanes,  Vespse,  41  :  tuv  brjfjiov  -qixaiv 
^ovXerai  Sucrravai.     We  still  speak  of  '  dis'ance  of  maimer.' 

116.  The  use  of  the  word  '  distance'  suggested  the  idea  of  a  single  combat, 
where  each  party  kept  his  distance.  We  have  the  same  train  of  thought  in 
'  near'st.' 

117.  my  near'st  of  life,  my  most  vital  parts.    Compare  Richard  II.  v.  i .  80  : 

'  Sent  back  like  Hallowmas  or  short 'st  of  day.' 
And  '  their  first  of  manhood,'  v.  2.  II,  of  the  present  play.     See  also  Measure 
for  Measure,  iii.  I.  17:   '  Thy  best  of  rest  is  sleep.'     So  Webster,  The  White 
Devil,  p  50.  ed.  Dyce,  1857  :  '  Defy  the  worst  of  fate.' 

119.  bid  my  will  avouch  it,  order  that  my  will  and  pleasure  be  accepted  as 
the  justification  of  the  deed.  'Avouch'  or  '  avow,'  is  from  the  French  avouer, 
and  the  Low  Latin  advocare,  '  to  claim  a  waif  or  stray,  to  claim  as  a  ward, 
to  take  under  one's  protection,'  hence,  '  to  maintain  the  justice  of  a  cause  or 
the  truth  of  a  statement.'  Compare  Measure  for  Measure,  iv.  2.  200  :  '  You 
will  think  you  have  made  no  offence,  if  the  Duke  avouch  the  justice  of  your 
dealing?  '     Compare  v.  5.  47. 

1 20.  For,  because  of.  More  frequently  used  in  this  sense  with  a  verb 
following,  than  with  a  noun.      But  see  Coriolanus,  ii.  2.  53  : 

'  Leave  nothing  out  for  length.' 

121.  Whose  loves.  We  should  say  '  whose  love.'  See  our  note  on  Richard  II. 
iv.  I.  315.     Compare  iii.  2.  53,  and  v.  8.  61. 

122.  Who.  Pope  here,  as  in  many  other  passages,  altered  'Who'  to 
'Whom.'  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  'who'  was  in  Shakespeare's  time  fre- 
quently used  for  the  objective  case,  as  it  still  is  colloquially.  See  notes  on 
The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  2.  21,  and  ii.  6.  30  :  '  For  who  love  I  so  much  ?' 
And  compare  The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  iii.  I.  200.  See  also  iii.  4.  42, 
and  iv.  3.  171,  of  the  present  play. 

125.  We  shall.  In  modem  English,  'we  will.'  Compare  iii.  2.  29;  iv. 
3.  220  ;  v.  8.60. 

127.  Compare  i.  2.  47,  and  Hamlet,  iii.  .\.  1 19  : 

'  Forth  at  your  eyes  your  spirits  wildly  peep.' 
lb.  Within.    Pope  read  '  In,'  and  Steevens  proposed  to  leave  out '  at  most.' 

128.  advise,  instruct.     See  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  iii.  I.  122  : 

'  Advise  me  where  I  may  have  such  a  ladder.' 

1 29.  If  the  text  be  right,  it  may  bear  one  of  two  meanings  :  first,  I  will 
acquaint  you  with  the  most  accurate  observation  of  the  time,  i.  e.  with  the 
result  of  the  most  accurate  observation;  or  secondly,  'the  spy  of  the  time' 
may  mean  the  man  who  in  the  beginning  of  scene  3  joins  them  by  Macbeth's 
orders,  and  'delivers  their  offices.'  But  we  have  no  examples  of  the  use  of  the 
word  '  spy'  in  the  former  sense,  and  according  to  the  second  interpretation 
we  should  rather  expect  '  a  perfect  spy'  than  '  the  perfect  spy';  and  so  indeed 
Johnson  conjectured  we  should  read.  'The  perfect' st  spy' might  also  be 
suggested,  or  possibly  '  the  perfect'st  ej'e,'  a  bold  metaphor,  not  alien  from 


122  NOTES.  [act  hi. 

Shakespeare's  manner.     Mr.  Collier's  MS.  Corrector  adopts  Johnson's  con- 
jecture, but  with  a  different  punctuation,  thus  : 

'  Acquaint  you,  with  a  perfect  spy,  o'  the  time,' 
that  is,  '  I  will  acquaint  you  with  the  time  by  means  of  a  perfect  spy,'  viz.  the 
third  murderer,  who  appears  in  scene  3.     For  '  spy,'  Mr.   Bailey  proposes 
'span.'     Steevens  takes  'acquaint  you'  as  the  imperative,  'acquaint  your- 
selves.' 

130.  on't  may  either  mean  '  of  the  time'  or  '  of  the  deed.' 

131.  something,  somewhat.     See  Winter's  Tale,  v.  3.  23: 

'Comes  it  not  something  near?' 
lb.  from,  away  from,  remote  from.     Compare  1  Henry  IV.  iii.  2.  31 : 
'  Quite  from  the  flight  of  all  thy  ancestors.' 
See  also  iv.  3.  212. 

131,  132.  always  thought  That  I  require  a  clearness,  it  being  always 
borne  in  mind  that  I  require  to  be  kept  clear  from  suspicion.  'Thought' 
here  is  the  participle  passive  put  absolutely. 

133.  rubs,  hindrances,  impediments,  roughnesses,  imperfections  in  the 
work.     See  King  John,  iii.  4.  128  : 

'  Shall  blow  each  dust,  each  straw,  each  little  rub, 
Out  of  the  path,' 
and  Richard  II.  iii.  4.  4  :    '  The  world  is  full  of  rubs.'     See  our  note  on  the 
last  passage. 

137.  Resolve  yourselves,  make  up  your  minds.    So  Winter's  Tale,  v.  3.  86 : 

'  Resolve  you 
For  more  amazement.' 
139.  straight,  straightway.     See  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  9.  I : 
'  Quick,  quick,  1  pray  thee ;  draw  the  curtain  straight.' 

Scene  II. 

3.  attend  his  leisure,  await  his  leisure.     Compare  iii.  I.  45. 

8.  keep  alone.     Compare  iii.  I.  43. 

9.  sorriest.     See  ii.  2.  20. 

10.  Using,  keeping  company  with,  entertaining  familiarly.  Compare 
Pericles,  i.  2.  3  : 

'  Why  should  this  change  of  thoughts, 
The  sad  companion,  dull -eyed  melancholy. 
Be  my  so  used  a  guest  as  not  an  hour 
In  the  day's  glorious  walk  or  peaceful  night, 
The  tomb  where  grief  should  sleep,  can  breed  me  quiet  ?' 
We  have  the  Greek  ■xprjaOat  and  the  Latin  uti  with  a  similar  meaning. 

1 1 .  without  all  remedy.  We  should  say  '  without  any  remedy'  or  '  beyond 
all  remedy.'  For  'without'  in  the  sense  of  'beyond,'  see  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream,  iv.  I.  150: 

'  Without  the  peril  of  the  Athenian  law.' 
This  metaphorical  sense  comes  immediately  from   that  of  '  outside  of*  as 
'without  the  city,'  'without  the  camp.'     For  'all'  compare  Spenser,  Hymn 
of  Heavenly  Love,  line  149  : 

'  Without  all  blemish  or  reproachful  blame.' 


sc.  2.]  MACBETH.  I23 

13.  scotch' d.  So  Theobald  corrected  the  '  scorch'd'  of  the  folios.  We 
have  the  word  in  Coriolanus,  iv.  5.  19S:  'He  scotched  him  and  notched 
him  like  a  carbonado.'  'Scorch'd'  is  said  to  be  derived  from  the  French 
escorcher,  to  strip  oif  the  bark  or  skin.  From  the  ne.xt  line  it  is  clear  that 
we  want  a  word  with  a  stronger  sense  here. 

14.  The  snake  is  spoken  of  as  feminine  in  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  ii. 
I.  255: 

'  And  there  the  snake  throws  her  enamell'd  skin.' 
lb.  poor,  feeble,  insutlicient.     Compare  i.  6.  16. 

15.  of  her  former  toolh,  must  mean  '  of  her  tooth  as  before,'  of  the  tooth 
she  had  in  her  former  state,  before  she  was  'scotched.' 

16.  frame  of  things,  the  ordered  universe,  the  '  cosmos.'  Compare 
I  Henry  IV.  iii.  i.  16 : 

'  At  my  birth 
The  frame  and  huge  foundation  of  the  earth 
Shaked  like  a  coward.' 
See  also  Hamlet,  ii.  2.  310:  'This  goodly  frame,  the  earth.' 

lb.  both  the  worlds,  the  terrestrial  and  celestial.      Compare  Hamlet,  iv.  5. 
134,  where  the  meaning  is  difterent,  viz.  '  this  world  and  the  next ;' 
'  I  dare  damnation.     To  this  point  I  stand, 
That  both  the  worlds  I  give  to  negligence, 
Let  come  what  comes.' 
Ih.  suffer,  i.  e.  perish.     Compare  The  Tempest,  i.  2.  6  : 
'  O,  I  have  suffer'd 
With  those  that  I  saw  suffer,' 
where  the  word  is  used  in  two  senses. 

18,  19.  Those  who  have  seen  Miss  Helen  Faucit  play  Lady  Macbeth  will 
remember  how  she  shuddered  at  the  mention  of  the  '  terrible  dreams,'  with 
which  she  too  was  shaken.  The  sleep-walking  scene,  v.  I,  was  doubtless  in 
the  poet's  mind  already. 

20.  to  gain  our  peace.  The  second  and  following  folios  read  '  to  gain 
our  place.'  Mr.  Keightley  reads  '  seat' ;  Mr.  Bailey  conjectures  '  pangs.' 
There  is  no  necessity  to  make  any  change.  For  the  first  '  peace'  compare 
iii.  1.  47,  48  : 

'  To  be  thus  is  nothing ; 
But  to  be  safely  thus' ; 
and  for  the  second,  iv.  3.  179  and  note. 

21.  The  '  torture  of  the  mind'  is  compared  to  the  rack  ;  hence  the  use  cf 
the  preposition  '  on.' 

22.  ecftasy  is  said  of  any  mental  disturbance,  whether  caused  by  joy  or 
grief.     Compare  iv.  3.  170,  and  Hamlet,  iii.  4.  138,  139. 

23.  A  'fitful  fever'  is  an  intermittent  fever.  Compare  Measure  for 
Measure,  iii.  i.  75  : 

'  Lest  thou  a  feverous  life  should'st  entertain.' 
25.  Malice  domestic,  such  as  the  treason  of  Macdonwald  ;   foreign   levy, 

such  as  the  invasion  of  Sweno. 

-27.   Gentle  my  lord.     So  we  have  '  Good  my  lord,'  frequently  ;  '  Dear  my 

lord,'  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iii.  3.  150;  'Poor  my  lord,'     Romeo  and  Juliet, 

iii.  2.  98  ;   '  Gracious  my  lord,'  v.  5.  30,  of  this  play. 


1 24  NOTES.  [act  III.        \ 

lb.  shell  o'er,  smooth  o'er.  'Sleek'  is  not  used  as  a  verb  eljewhere  in 
Shakespeare.     In  Milton's  Comus,  8S2,  we  have: 

'  Sleeking  her  soft  alluring  locks.' 
The  word,  verb  or  adjective,  is  almost  always  applied  to  the  hair. 

28.  jovial.  This  word  is  a  relic  of  the  old  belief  in  planetary  influence ; 
we  have  other  examples  in  'saturnine,' '  mercurial,'  'lunatic'  '  The  same  faith 
in  the  influence  of  the  stars  survives  in  "  disastrous,"  "  ill-starred."  "  ascen- 
dancy,' "  lord  of  the  ascendant,"  and  indeed  in  "  influence"  itself.'  (Trench, 
on  the  History  of  Words,  p.  126.)  Compare  Cymbehne,  v.  4.  105,  where 
Jupiter  says : 

'  Our  jovial  star  reign'd  at  his  birth.' 

29.  So  shall  I,  so  will  I.      Compare  iii.  I.  126. 

30.  remembrance;  to  be  pronounced  as  a  qu.-idrisyllable,  as  in  Twelfth 
Night,  i.  I.  32  : 

'  And  lasting  in  her  sad  remembrance.' 
See  i.  6.  37. 

lb.  apply,  attach  itself,  be  specially  devoted.  So  in  Bacon,  Essay  hi. 
p.  211,  'To  applv  ones  selfe  to  others,  is  good:  so  it  be  with  demon- 
stration, that  a  man  doth  it  upon  regard  and  not  upon  facilitie.'  Compaie 
also  Antony  aod  Cleopatra,  v.  2.  126: 

'  If  you  apply  yourself  to  our  intents. 
Which  towards  you  are  most  gentle,  you  shall  find 
A  benefit  in  this  change,' 
where  we  should  say  :   '  If  you  adapt  or  accommodate  yourself.' 

31.  Present  him  eminence,  show  that  you  place  him  in  the  highest  rank. 
Observe  that  Lady  Macbeth  as  yet  knows  nothing  of  her  husband's  designs 
against  Banquo's  life. 

32.  Unsafe  the  tvhile,  that  we.  This  line  is  imperfect  both  in  construction 
and  in  metre  :  something  has  doubtless  dropt  out,  and  perhaps  also  the  words 
Vi'hich  remain  are  corrupt.     Steevens'  suggestion  is  tame  : 

'  Unsafe  the  while  it  is  for  us,  that  we,'  &c. 
The  words  should  express  a  sense  both  of  insecurity  and  of  humiliation  in  the 
thought  of  the  arts  required  to  maintain  their  power. 

33.  must  lave  our  honours.  Must  keep  our  royal  dignities  unsullied  by 
flattering  Banquo  and  those  who  are  formidable  to  us. 

34.  vizard,  visard,  or  visor,  from  the  French  visiere,  the  front  part  of  a 
helmet  protecting  the  face  ;  hence,  a  mask.  Cotgrave  has  '  Masque,  masked, 
disguised,  wearing  a  visor.' 

35.  leave,  cease,  leave  oflF.  Compare  Richard  II.  v.  2.  4:  '  Where  did  I 
leave?' 

37.  lives.     We  should  say  '  live.'     See  note  on  i.  3.  147. 

38.  But  in  them  Nature's  copy's  not  eterne.  The  deed  by  which  man 
holds  life  of  Nature  gives  no  right  to  perpetual  tenure.  Nature  is  here  com- 
pared to  a  lord  of  the  manor  under  whom  men  hold  their  lives  by  copyhdd 
tenure.  '  Copyhold,  Temtra  per  copiam  rotiili  curia,  is  a  tenure  for  which 
the  tenant  hath  nothing  to  shew  but  the  copy  of  the  rolls  made  by  the  steward 
of  his  lord's  court.  .  .  .  Some  copyholds  are  fineable  at  will,  and  some 
certain :  that  which  is  fineable  at  will,  the  lord  taketh  at  his  pleasure.' 
(Cowel's  Law  Dictionary,  s.  v.)     Monck  Mason  takes  'Nature's  copy'  to 


sc.  2.]  MACBE  T  H.  I  25 

mean  the  human  form  divine.     Steevens  and  Elwin  agree  in  this  interpre- 
tation.    The  latter  quotes  Othello,  v.  2.  11  : 

'  Thou  cunning'st  pattern  of  excelling  Nature.' 
But  from  what  follows  in  line  49  it  would  seem  that  Shakespeare  made  here, 
as  in  so  many  other  passages,  a  reference  to  legal  phraseology.    Compare,  for 
instance,  Sonnet  xiii.  5  : 

'  So  should  that  beauty  which  you  hold  in  lease 
Find  no  determination.' 
And  see  also  iv.  I.  99,  of  this  play. 

lb.  eterne.  This  word  is  only  used  once  more  by  Shakespeare,  Hamlet, 
ii.  2.  512: 

'  On  Mars's  armour  forged  for  proof  eterne.' 
We  find  it  in  Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  ix.  st.  99  : 

For,  as  my  wrongs,  my  wrath  eterne  shall  be.' 

41.  cloister'd.     We  have  '  cloister'  as  a  verb  in  Richard  II.  v.  I.  23  : 

'  And  cloister  thee  in  some  religious  house.' 

42.  shard-borne.  'Shard'  is  derived  from  Anglo-Saxon  sceard,  a  Augment, 
generally  of  pottery,  hence  the  hard,  smooth  wing-case  of  the  beetle.  Compare 
Antony  and  Cleopatra,  iii.  2.  20  : 

'  They  are  his  shards  and  he  their  beetle,' 
i.  e.  Ctesar  and  Antony  are  the  wings  which  support  the  inert  Lepidus.    Com- 
pare also  Cymbeline,  iii.  3.  20  : 

'  And  often  to  our  comfort  shall  we  find 
The  sharded  beetle  in  a  safer  hold 
Than  is  the  full-wing'd  eagle.' 
Toilet,  reading  '  shard-born,'  interpreted  '  born  in  dung,'  which  is  unquestion- 
ably wrong,  though  '  shard'  means  '  dung '  in  some  dialects.     '  Sharebud,'  or 
'  sharnbud,'  a  provincial  name  for  '  beetle,'  is  probably  a  corruption  of  scara- 
bcBus.     Gower,  Confessio  Amantis,  vol.  iii.  p.  68,  ed.  Pauli,  uses  '  scherdes,' 
for  'dragon's  scales'; 

'  A  dragon  tho, 
Whose  scherdes  shinen  as  the  sonne.' 

43.  yawning  peal,  a  peal  which  lulls  or  summons  to  sleep.  Compare 
ii.  1.6: 

'  A  heavy  summons  lies  like  lead  upon  me.' 

44.  note,  notoriety.  See  v.  7.  21  :  '  one  of  greatest  note.'  There  is  perhaps 
in  this  passage  a  reference  to  the  original  meaning  of  the  word,  '  a  mark  or 
brand,'  so  that  'a  deed  of  dreadful  note'  may  signify  'a  deed  that  has  a 
dreadful  mark  set  upon  it.'     Compare  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  iv.  3.  125  : 

'  111,  to  example  ill, 
Would  from  my  forehead  wipe  a  perjured  note.' 

45.  chuck,  a  term  of  endearment,  which  Shakespeare  introduces  here  in 
grim  contrast  to  the  deed  upon  which  Macbeth's  thoughts  are  intent.  Com- 
pare Othello,  iv.  2.  24:  'Pray,  chuck,  come  hither,'  where  Othello  uses  the 
language  of  familiar  endearment  while  his  mind  is  racked  with  jealousy.  A 
similar  contrast  is  seen  in  the  dialogue  between  Polixenes  and  Manulius  in 
Winter's  Tale,  i.  2.  119-137. 

46.  seeling.  This  term  is  borrowed  from  the  language  of  falconry.  '  To 
seel'  is  I0  sew  or  close  up  the  eyes  of  a  hawk.    Cotgrave  gives  (Fr.  Diet. 


126  NOTES.  [act  III. 

s.v.)  '  Siller  les  yeux.  To  seele,  or  sow  vp,  the  eye-lids.'  Compare  Antony 
and  Cleopatra,  iii.  13.  1 12  :  'The  wise  gods  seel  our  eyes.'  'Seeling'  natu- 
rally suggests  '  eye'  in  the  next  line. 

47.  Scarf  up,  blindfold.     Compare  Romeo  and  Juliet,  i.  4.  4 : 
'  We'll  have  no  Cupid  hoodwink'd  with  a  scarf.' 

49.  Cancel,  &c.    Compare  Richard  III.  iv.  4.  77  : 

'  Cancel  his  bond  of  life,  dear  God,  I  pray.' 
And  Cymbeline,  v.  4.  27  : 

'  Take  this  life, 
And  cancel  these  cold  bonds.' 
Macbeth   keeps  up   the  same  legal  metaphor  which  his  wife  had   used  in 
line  38. 

50.  Light  thickens,  grows  dusk.    Compare  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  ii.  3.  27  : 

'  Thy  lustre  thickens, 
W'nen  he  shines  by.' 

51.  the  rooky  wood,  the  misty,  gloomy  wood.  In  the  Promptorium  Parvu- 
lorum  we  find,  '  Roky,  or  mysty.  Nebulosus,'  and  '  Roke,  myste.  Nebula.' 
The  word  was  no  doubt  suggested  to  Shakespeare  by  '  the  crow,'  which  he 
had  used  in  the  previo\is  hue.  'Roke'  is  still  found  iu  various  provincial 
dialects  for  'mist,  steam,  fog.'  Others  interpret  'rooky  wood'  as  the  wood 
frequented  by  rooks. 

52.  droivse,  become  drowsy.     Compare  i  Henry  IV.  iii.  2.  Si : 

'  But  rather  drowsed  and  hung  their  eyelids  down.' 

C3.   Whiles,  while.      See  ii.i.  60. 

lb.  their  preys,  their  several  preys,  the  prey  of  each.  Compare  for  this 
use  of  the  plural  iii.  i.  1 21,  and  v.  8.  61. 

lb.  rouse.     Used  as  an  intransitive  verb  in  v.  5.  12. 

54,  55.  Thou  .  .  .  ///.  This  couplet  reads  like  an  interpolation.  It  inter- 
rupts the  sense. 

Scene  III. 

2.  He  needs  not  our  mistrust,  that  is,  there  is  no  need  for  us  to  mistrust 
him.  The  stranger's  directions  to  the  two  murderers  exactly  corresponded 
with  Macbeth's  previous  instructions. 

6.  lated,  belated,  overtaken  by  night.  Compare  Antony  and  Cleopatra, 
iii.  II.  3  : 

'  I  am  so  lated  in  the  world,  that  I 
Have  lost  my  way  for  ever.' 

7.  timely,  welcome,  opportune.  Unless,  indeed,  we  take  it  as  a  poetical 
metathesis  for  '  to  gain  the  inn  timely,  or  betimes.' 

10.  within  the  note  of  expectation,  included  in  the  list  of  those  guests 
who  were  known  to  be  expected.  For  '  note'  in  this  sense,  see  Winter's  Tale, 
iv.  3.  49.  In  Romeo  and  Juliet,  i.  2.  34,  Capulet  delivers  such  a  'note  of  ex- 
pectation' to  his  servant. 

16.  Let  it  come  down.  Suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  the  murderers 
shower  their  blows  upon  Banquo. 


sc.  4.]      •  MACBETH.  1 27 

Scene  IV. 

I.  degrees,  ranks,  grades.     Compare  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  9.  41  : 
'  O  that  estates,  degrees,  and  offices 
Were  not  derived  corruptly.' 

1.  2.  atjirst  And  /as/,  that  is,  once  for  all.  Johnson  conjectured  '  To  first 
I'lJ  last.' 

2.  the  hearty  welcome,  the  welcome  which  is  an  essential  part  of  the  feast. 

3.  Oiinelf.     See  iii.  1.43. 

5.  her  slate,  the  chair  of  state  provided  for  her,  which  was  a  chair  or 
throne  with  a  canopy  over  it.  Compare  Twelfth  Night,  ii.  5.  50  :  '  sitting 
in  my  state  ';  and  I  Henry  IV.  ii.  4.  415  :  '  This  chair  shall  be  my  state.' 
The  'state'  was  originally  the  'canopy';  then,  the  chair  with  the  canopy 
over  it.'  Compare  Cotgrave  (Fr.  Diet.)  :  '  Dais,  or  Daiz.  A  cloth  of  Estate, 
Canopie,  or  Heauen,  that  stands  ouer  the  heads  of  Princes  thrones ;  also,  the 
whole  State,  or  seat  of  Estate.'  See  also  Bacon's  New  Atlantis  (Works,  iii. 
148,  ed.  Spedding)  :  'Over  the  chair  is  a  state,  made  round  or  oval,  and  it  is 
of  ivy.'  Steevens  quotes  from  Holinshed  (p.  805,  ed.  1587)  the  following 
apposite  passage  :  '  The  king  (Henry  VHI)  caused  the  queene  to  keepe  the 
estate,  and  then  sate  the  ambassadours  and  ladies,  as  they  were  marshalled  by 
the  K.,  who  would  not  sit,  but  walked  from  place  to  place  ;  making  cheare.' 

lb.  in  best  time,  at  the  most  suitable  time. 

6.  require  her  welcome,  ask  her  to  give  us  welcome.  'Require'  was 
formerly  used  in  the  simple  sense  of  '  to  ask,'  not  with  the  meaning  now 
attached  to  it  of  asking  as  a  right.  Compare  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  iii.  12.  12: 

'  Lord  of  his  fortunes  he  salutes  thee,  and 
Requires  to  live  in  Egypt, 
where  it  signifies  'to  ask'  as  a  favour.     See  also  the  Prayer-book  Version  of 
Psalm  xxxviii  16. 

8.  speaks,  says.     So  '  spoken'  for  '  said,'  in  iv.  3. 154. 
II.  large,  liberal,  unrestrained.    Compare  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  iii.  6.  93  : 
'  Antony,  most  large 
In  his  abominations.' 
76.  a  measure.     Compare  Othello,  ii.  3.  31:  'A  brace  of  Cyprus  gallants, 
that  would  fain  have  a  measure  to  the  health  of  black  Othello.' 

14.  'Tis  better  thee  without  than  he  within,  that  is,  it  is  better  outside  thee 
than  inside  him.  In  spite  of  the  defective  grammar,  this  must  be  the  meaning, 
or  there  would  be  no  point  in  the  antithesis.  For  a  similar  instance  of  loose 
construction,  see  Cymbeline,  ii.  3.  153  : 

'  I  hope  it  be  not  gone  to  tell  my  lord 
That  I  kiss  aught  but  he.' 
Johnson  however  explains  it,  '  It  is  better  that  Banquo's  blood  were  on  thy 
face,  than  he  in  this  room. 

19.  the  nonpareil.     So  in  Twelfth  Night,  i.  5.  273: 

'  Though  you  were  crown'd 
The  nonpareil  of  beauty.' 
We  have  '  a  nonpareil,'  Tempest,  iii.  2.  108  : 

'  He  himself 
Calls  her  a  nonpareil.' 


128  NOTES.  [act  in. 

21.  perfect.     Compare  iii.  i.  107. 

22.  founded.     This  word  is  rarely  used  without  a  preposition  following. 

23.  the  casing  air,  the  air  that  surrounds  and  encloses  all,  as  it  is  called  in 
Hamlet,  ii.  2.  31 1,  '  This  most  excellent  canopy,  the  air.'  Somewhat  similarly 
Othello,  V.  2.  220,  according  to  the  reading  of  the  quarto  : 

'  I'll  be  in  speaking  liberal  as  the  air.' 

24.  cabin'd.  The  verb  '  to  cabin'  is  found  in  Titus  Andronicus,  iv.  2.  179  : 
'  Cabin  in  a  cave.' 

lb.  cribb'd.  A  still  stronger  word  than  the  preceding,  which  explains  it,  and 
perhaps  suggested  it  to  the  author.  It  does  not,  we  believe,  occur  elsewhere. 
The  strength  of  Macbeth's  feeling  is  expressed  by  these  accumulated  synonyms. 

25.  Observe  the  preposition  '  To,'  used  as  if  the  word  '  prisoner'  had  pre- 
ceded. Or  is  it  that  the  'doubts  and  fears'  are  his  fellow-prisoners  not  his 
gaolers?     But  see  Richard  II.  ii.  3.  104: 

'  This  arm  of  mine, 
Now  prisoner  to  the  palsy.' 
lb.  saucy,  insolent,  importunate,  like  the  Latin  improbus.   Compare  Othello, 
i.  I.  129  : 

'  V/e  then  have  done  you  bold  and  saucy  wrongs.' 

26.  bides,  stays,  lies  still.    Compare  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  iv.  14.  131  : 

'  Bear  me,  good  friends,  where  Cleopatra  bides.' 

27.  trenched.     See  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  iii.  2.  7: 

'  This  weak  impress  of  love  is  as  a  figure 
Trenched  in  ice.' 

28.  nature,  used  as  nearly  equivalent  to  '  life,'  ii.  2.  7,  and  iii.  2.  38. 

29.  worm,  said  of  a  small  serpent  in  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  v.  2.  243  : 

'  Hast  thou  the  pretty  worm  of  Nilus  there 
That  kills  and  pains  not? 

32.  We'll  hear  ourselves  agai?i,  we  will  talk  with  one  another  again. 
Theobald  read  '  We'll  hear  't  ourselves  again';  and  Hanmer, '  We'll  hear  thee 
ourselves  again.'  Steevens  pointed  thus:  'We'll  hear,  ourselves  again,' i.  e. 
we  will  h  ar  you  when  we  have  again  recovered  our  self-possession  ;  but 
this  would  rather  require  '  ourself,'  as  indeed  Capell  proposed  to  read.  Dyce 
punctuated  '  We'll  hear,  ourselves,  again,'  and  we  followed  him  in  the  text 
of  the  Globe  edition.  But  the  expression  is  awkward  if  both  the  king  an4 
the  murderer  are  included  in  'ourselves';  if  by  'ourselves'  is  meant  Macbeth 
only,  we  require  '  ourself.' 

33.  the  cheer,  the  usual  welcome.  The  host  was  bound  to  encourage  his 
guests  to  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry.  For  '  the,'  compare  line  2  of  this  scene, 
'  the  hearty  welcome.' 

33-35.  If  during  the  feast  the  host  does  not  frequently  assure  his  guests 
that  he  gives  it  gladly,  it  is  like  a  feast  for  which  payment  is  expected. 

34.  vojicVd,  warranted,  solemnly  affirmed  :  originally  a  legal  term,  from 
Norman  French  voucher,  Latin  vocare.  See  Cowel's  Law  Dictionary  (Voucher) 
for  various  uses  of  the  term  in  law,  which  have  nothing  to  do  with  its  mean- 
ing in  the  present  passage.     Compare  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  i.  2.  5  : 

'  A  certainty,  vouch'd  from  our  cousin  Austria.' 
lb.  a-mahing.     The  prefix  'a,'  equivalent  to  'on'   in  Old  English,  and 
generally  supposed  to  be  a  corruption  of  it,  was  in  Shakespeare's  time,  much 


sc.  4-]  MA  CB  ET  H.  129 

more  rarely  used  than  in  earlier  days,  and  may  now  be  said  to  be  obsolete, 
except  in  certain  words,  as  '  a-hunting,"  'a-fishing'  (colloquial),  'asleep,' 
'  aground,'  '  afield,'  <S:c.     For  its  participial  use,  see  Richard  II.  ii.  I.  90  : 

'  Thou,  now  a-dying,  say'st  thou  flatterest  me.' 
See  also  2  Henry  IV.  ii.  4.  301  : 

'  Thou'lt  set  me  a-weeping.' 

35.  to  feed  .  .  .  mere  feeding  would  be  best  done  at  home. 

36.  From  thence,  away  from  home.    For  this  use  of  '  from,'  see  iii.  1.  132. 

36.  37.  ineat  .  .  .  Meeting.  No  play  upon  words  is  intended  here.  '  Meat' 
was  in  Shakespeare's  time  pronounced  '  mate.'  See  The  Two  Gentlemen  of 
Verona,  i.  2.  68,  69 : 

'  That  you  might  kill  your  stomach  on  your  meat 
And  not  upon  your  maid.' 

37.  remembrancer.     The  word  occurs  in  Cymbeline,  i.  5.  77. 

38.  39.  Compare  the  way  in  which  Wolsey  '  gives  the  cheer'  in  Henrv 
VIII.  i.  4.  62,  63  : 

'  A  good  digestion  to  you  all  :  and  once  more 
I  shower  a  welcome  on  ye ;  welcome  all.' 

39.  May' t  please  your  highness  sit.     So  we  have  in  Richard  III.  i.  2.  21 1  : 

'  That  it  would  please  thee  leave  these  sad  designs,' 
and  almost  the  same  words  as  here  in  Henry  VIII.  i.  4.  19  ; 
'  Sweet  ladies,  will  it  please  you  sit  ?' 

40.  We  should  now  have  all  that  is  most  honourable  in  our  country 
gathered  under  one  roof  were  Banquo  here. 

41.  graced,  gracious,  endued  with  graces.  Compare  the  sense  of  gulled,' 
i.  e.  guileful,  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice  iii.  2.  97  : 

'  Thus  ornament  is  but  the  guiled  shore 
To  a  most  dangerous  sea;' 
and  see  our  note  on  that  passage,  where  for  other  examples  reference  is  made 
to  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  iv.  I.  186,  '  blest';  and  I  Henry  IV.  i.  3.  183, 
'  disdained.'  We  have  '  graced'  in  much  the  same  sense  as  here  in  King 
Lear,  i.  4.  267,  '  A  graced  palace.'  It  is  however  possible  that  the  word 
in  the  present  case  may  mean  '  favoured,'  '  honoured,'  as  in  The  Two  Gentle- 
men of  Verona,  i.  3.  58  : 

'  How  well  beloved 
And  daily  graced  by  the  emperor.' 

42.  Who.     Pope  as  usual  changed  this  to  '  Whom.'     But  see  iii.  I.  122. 
42,  43.     I  hope  I  may  rather  have  occasion  to  accuse  him  of  unkjndness 

in  not  coming,  than  to  pity  him  for  any  misfortune  which  has  prevented  his 
coming. 

44.  Please't.     So  Troilus  and  Cressida,  ii.  3.  270: 

'  Please  it  our  great  general 
To  call  together  all  his  state  of  war.' 

47.  Where?  Macbeth,  who  up  to  this  time  has  not  looked  towards  his 
own  seat,  now  turns,  and  at  first  only  observes  that  there  is  no  place  vacant. 
His  gradual  recognition  of  the  ghost  is  very  finely  and  dramatically  expressed. 
The  ghost,  invisible  of  course  to  the  other  persons  on  the  stage,  had  entered 
and  taken  his  seat  during  Macbeth's  speech,  40-43.  The  stage  direction  in 
the  folios  follows  the  words  'without  it,'  line  37,  but  the  entry  of  characters 


1 3©  NOTES.  [act  hi. 

is  frequently  put  earlier  than  it  should  be,  as  in  the  acting  copy  it  was  meant 
as  a  direction  to  the  actors  to  be  ready. 

54.  heep  seat,  used  like  '  keep  house,'  '  keep  place,'  '  keep  pace,'  '  keep 
promise.' 

55.  upo?i  a  though/,  as  soon  as  one  can  think  a  thought.  So  we  have  in 
I  Henry  IV.  ii.  4.  241  :  'And  with  a  thought,  seven  of  the  eleven  I  paid.' 
See  also  Love's  Labour  's  Lost,  iv.  3.  330  :  '  As  swift  as  thought.' 

57.  Vo2i  shall,  you  will.     Compare  iii.  I.  125. 

.  lb.  extend  his  passion,  prolong  his  agitation.      'Passion'  is  used  of  any 
strong  emotion,  especially  when  outwardly  manifested.     Compare  iv.  3.  114. 

58.  Here  Lady  Macbeth  comes  close  to  her  husband,  and  speaks  so  as  not 
to  be  heard  by  the  guests,  '  Are  you  a  man  ?' 

60.  O  proper  stuff!  mere  or  absolute  nonsense,  rubbish.  We  have 
'  proper'  used  in  a  contemptuous  exclamation  in  Much  Ado  about  Nothing, 
i.  3.  54 :  'A  proper  squire  !'  and  iv.  I.  312,  of  that  play,  '  A  proper  saying  !' 
For  '  stuff'  see  Measure  for  Measure,  iii.  2.  5  : 

'  O  heavens,  what  stuff  is  here  !' 
and  I  Henry  IV.  iii.  i.  154: 

'  And  such  a  deal  of  skimble-skamble  stuff, 
As  puts  me  from  my  faith.' 

62.  air-drawn  continues  the  figure  suggested  by  the  word  'painting'  in 
the  previous  line. 

63.  flaws.  Flaw,  primarily  a  sudden  gust  of  wind,  is  used  metaphorically  for 
a  sudden  burst  of  passion.   We  have  it  in  the  former  sense  in  Hamlet  v.  I.  239: 

'  O,  that  that  earth,  which  kept  the  world  in  awe. 
Should  patch  a  wall  to  expel  the  winter's  flaw  !' 
In  2  Henry  VI.  iii.  I.  354,  it  is  used  for  civil  commotion  : 
'  Do  calm  the  fury  of  this  mad-bred  flaw.' 

64.  to,  compared  to.     See  I  Henry  VI.  iii.  2.  2:; : 

'  No  way  to  that,  for  weakness,  which  she  enter'd  ; ' 
and  Cymbeline,  iii.  3.  26  :  '  No  life  to  ours.' 

65.  Compare  Winter's  Tale,  ii.  i.  25: 

'  A  sad  tale  's  best  for  winter  :  I  have  one 
Of  sprites  and  goblins.' 

66.  Authorized,  sanctioned  by  the  authority  of,  warranted.  The  word  is 
used  in  the  sense  of  'justify'  in  Shakespeare's  Sonnets,  xxxv.  6  : 

'  Authorizing  thy  trespass  with  compare.' 
The  principal  accent  in  both  passages  is  on  the  second  syllable.      So  it  is 
also  in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Spanish  Curate,  i.  i  : 
'  One  quality  of  worth  or  virtue  in  him 
That  may  authorize  him  to  be  a  censurer 
Of  me  and  of  my  manners  ;' 
vi'here   'authorize'  is  equivalent  to  'warrant.'     The  word  is  not  found  in 
Milton's  poetical  works.     Dryden  uses  it  with  the  accent  either  on  the  first, 
or  second,  syllable. 

72,  73.  We  will  leave  the  dead  to  be  eaten  by  birds  of  prey.  Compare 
Spenser,  Fairy  Queen,  ii.  8.  16  : 

'  What  herce  or  steed  (said  he)  should  he  have  dight. 
But  be  entombed  in  the  raven  or  the  ki^ht?' 


sc.  4.]  M  A  C  B  E  T  H.  I31 

And  Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  xii.  st.  79  : 

'  Let  that  self  monster  me  in  pieces  rend, 
And  deep  entomb  me  in  his  hollow  chest.' 
'  Gorgias  Leontinus  called  vultures  "  living  sepulchres,"  "^vias  (fi^pvxoi  ratpot, 
for  which  he  incurred  the  censure  of  Longinus.'     Jortin. 

73.  maw,  stomach,  from  Anglo-Saxon  maga.  It  occurs  again  iv.  i.  23. 
See  also  King  John,  v.  "j.  37  : 

'  And  none  of  you  will  bid  the  winter  come 
To  thrust  his  icy  fingers  in  my  maw.' 
Milton  ends  one  of  his  most  famous  sonnets  (xi.  14)  with  the  word: 
'  Help  us  to  save  free  conscience  from  the  paw 
Of  hireling  wolves,  whose  gospel  is  their  maw.' 
lb.  Ghost  vanishes.     This  stage  direction  was  inserted  by  Rowe.     From 
what  follows  it  is  evidently  required. 

76.  humane.  So  spelt  in  the  folios.  Theobald,  in  his  second  edition, 
altered  it  to  '  human,'  which  has  been  generally  adopted.  The  two  mean- 
ings '  human'  and  '  humane'  (like  those  of  '  travel'  and  '  travail,'  see  ii.  4.  7) 
were  not  in  Shakespeare's  time  distinguished  by  a  different  spelling  and 
pronunciation.  In  both  cases  the  word  was  pronounced  by  Shakespeare 
with  the  accent  on  the  first  syllable.    See  for  instance  Coriolanus,  iii.  I.  337  : 

'  It  is  the  humane  way  :  the  other  course 
Will  prove  too  bloody.' 
There  seems  to  be  one  exception  in  Winter's  Tale,  iii.  2.  166.  In  Othello, 
ii.  I.  243,  it  occurs  in  prose.  Milton  observes  the  modern  distinction  in 
sense  and  pronunciation  between  '  human'  and  '  humane.'  There  are,  as 
might  be  expected,  some  passages  in  Shakespeare  where  it  is  difficult  to 
determine  which  of  the  two  senses  best  fits  the  word.  Indeed  both  might 
be  blended  in  the  mind  of  the  writer. 

lb.  purged  the  gentle  weal.   For  'purge,' see  v.  3.52,  and  Richard  II.  i.  1. 153; 

'  Let 's  purge  this  choler  without  letting  blood.' 
It  means  to  cleanse  of  disease,  restore  to  health. 

Gentle  is  here  to  be  taken,  as  grammarians  say,  proleptically :  'Ere  humane 
statute  purged  the  common  weal  and  made  it  gentle.'  Compare  for  the  same 
construction  i.  6.  3,  and  Richard  II.  ii.  3.  94.  "rheobald,  on  Warburton's  sug- 
gestion, read  '  gen'ral '  for  '  gentle,'  and  Seymour  guessed  '  ungentle.'  For 
'  weal,'  see  v.  2.  27.  The  word  was  used  by  Milton,  as  it  is  used  now,  only 
in  the  phrase  '  weal  and  woe.' 

77.  7nvrders.  Shedding  of  blood  became  murder  after  humane  statute  had 
defined  it  as  a  crime. 

78.  time  has.  The  first  folio  reads  '  times  has,'  the  second  and  later  folios, 
followed  by  nearly  all  edi'ors,  '  times  have.'  This,  like  all  corrections  made 
in  the  second  folio,  is  merely  a  conjectural  emendation.  What  we  have 
adopted  is  the  more  likely  correction. 

80.  there  an  end.     Compare  Richard  II.  v.  I.  6g  : 

'  My  guilt  be  on  my  head,  and  there  an  end.' 

81.  wiih  twenty  mortal  murders,  with  twenty  deadly  wounds.  See  lines 
27,  28  of  this  scene.      For  '  mortal,'  see  iv.  3.  3,  and  Richard  II.  iii.  2.  21 : 

'  Whose  double  tongue  may  with  a  mortal  touch 
Throw  death  upon  thy  sovereign's  enemies.' 
k:  2 


133  NOTES.  [act  hi. 

84.  lack.     Compare  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  ii.  2.  172  : 

'  Let  us,  Lepidus, 
Not  lack  your  company.' 
lb.  I  do  forget.     Pope,  intolerant  of  superfluous  syllables,  changed  this  to 
'I  forget.'     For  the  same  reason  he  struck  out  'come '  in  line  87. 

85.  muse,  wonder,  in  silent  amazement.     So  Richard  III.  i.  3.  305  : 

'  I  muse  why  she  's  at  liberty.' 

91,  92.  to  all  and  him  we  thirst.  And  all  to  all,  I  earnestly  desire  to  drink 
to  the  health  of  all  present  and  of  Banquo,  and  to  wish  all  good  wishes  to 
all.  See  Timon  of  Athens,  i.  2.  234 :  '  All  to  you.'  For  '  thirst,'  compare 
Julius  Caesar,  iv.  3.  160  : 

'  My  heart  is  thirsty  for  that  noble  pledge.' 
See  also  Henry  Vill.  i.  4.  38  : 

'  This,  to  confirm  my  welcome ; 
And  to  you  all,  good  health.' 

92.  Re-enter  Ghost.  The  folios  have  'Enter  Ghost'  after  line  88.  No 
doubt  the  Ghost  reappears  when  Macbeth  mentions  '  our  dear  friend  Banquo," 
but  is  not  immediately  perceived  by  the  king.  There  can  be  no  reason  for 
supposing  that  the  Ghost  is  that  of  Duncan,  as  some  have  supposed,  con- 
trary to  stage  tradition,  the  testimony  of  Simon  Forman  (quoted  in  our 
Preface),  and  the  natural  sense  of  the  context. 

95.  speculation.     Compare  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iii.  3.  109: 

'  Eye  to  eye  opposed 

Salutes  each  other  with  each  other's  form ; 

For  speculation  turns  not  to  itself 

Till  it  hath  travell'd  and  is  mirror'd  there 

Where  it  may  see  itself.' 
The  eyes  are  called  '  speculative  instruments'  in  Othello,  i.  3.  271.  Johnson, 
quoting  this  passage,  explains  '  speculation'  by  'the  power  of  sight';  but  it 
means  more  than  this — the  intelligence  of  which  the  eye  is  the  medium,  and 
which  is  perceived  in  the  eye  of  a  living  man.  So  the  eye  is  called  '  that 
most  pure  spirit  of  sense,'  in  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iii.  3.  106  ;  and  we  have  the 
haste  that  looks  through  the  eyes,  i.  2.  46  of  this  play,  and  a  similar  thought, 
iii.  1.  127.  See  also  i  Henry  VI.  ii.  4.  24,  and  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  v. 
2.  848  : 

'  The  window  of  my  heart,  mine  eye.' 

99.  Comp.are  i.  7.  46. 

100.  We  have  a  '  Russian  bear'  mentioned  in  Henry  V.  iii.  7.  154. 

loi.  ar?n'd,   cased  in  the  armour  of  an  impenetrable  hide.     The  word 
'armed'  is  used  both  of  defensive  armour  and  offensive  weapons. 
lb.  the  Hyrcan  tiger.     Compare  3  Henry  VI.  i.  4.  155  : 
'  More  inhuman,  more  inexorable, 
O,  ten  times  more,  than  tigers  of  Hyrcania.' 
And  Hamlet,  ii.  2.  472  : 

'  The  rugged  Pyrrhus,  like  the  Hyrcanian  beast.' 
Daniel,  in  his  Sonnets  (xix.)  published  in  1594,  speaks  of  '  Hyrcan  tigers'  and 
'ruthless  bears.'     'Hyrcanian  deserts'  are  mentioned  in  The  Merchant  (f 
Venice,  ii.  7-  41.     The  name  '  Hyrcania'  was  given  to  a  country  of  undefined 
limits,  south  of  the  Caspian,  which  was  also  called  the  Hyrcanian  Sea.     The 


EC.  4-]  MACBETH.  I33 

English  poets  probably  derived  their  ideas  of  Hyrcania  and  the  tigers  from 
Pliny,  Natural  History,  Bk.  viii.  c.  18,  but  through  some  other  medium  than 
Holland's  translation,  which  was  not  published  till  1601.  It  is  perhaps  worth 
notice  that  the  rhinoceros  is  mentioned  in  Holland's  Pliny  on  the  page  opposite 
to  that  in  which  he  speaks  of  '  tigers  bred  in  Hircania.' 

104.  Compare  Richard  H.  i.  i.  62-66  : 

'  Which  to  maintain  I  would  allow  him  odds, 
And  meet  him,  were  I  tied  to  run  afoot 
Even  to  the  frozen  ridges  of  the  Alps, 
Or  any  other  ground  inhabitable. 
Where  ever  Englishman  durst  set  his  foot.' 

105.  If  tremhling  I  inhabit  then,  protest  me  .  .  .  There  are  few  passages 
of  our  author  which  have  given  rise  ♦o  so  much  discussion  as  this.  The 
reading  and  punctuation  given  in  our  text  are  those  of  the  first  folio.  The 
second  and  later  folios  place  the  comma  after  '  inhabit,' 

'  If  trembling  I  inhabit,  then  protest  me  .  .  .' 
Pope  read ; 

'  If  trembling  I  inhibit,  then  protest  me,'  &c. 
Theobald  proposed : 

'  If  trembling  me  inhibit,  then  protest  me,'  &c. 
The  reading  of  most  modern  editors  is  the  alteration  of  Pope's  reading  sug- 
gested by  Steevens  and  adopted  by  Malone  : 

'  If  trembling  I  inhibit  thee,  protest  me,'  &c. 
Mr.  Bullock  proposes : 

'  If  trembling  I  unknight  me,  then  protest  me,'  &c. 
Another  conjecture,  first  published  in  the  Cambridge  Shakespeare,  is 

'  If  trembling  I  inherit,  then  protest  me,'  &c. 
where  'trembling'  must  be  taken  as  the  accusative  governed  by  'inherit.' 
But  this  seems  a  strange  expression,  notwithstanding  that  our  author  uses 
'  inherit,'  as  well  as  '  heir,'  in  a  more  general  sense  than  it  is  used  now-a-days. 
It  is  possible  after  all  that  the  reading  of  the  first  folio  may  be  right,  and 
'inhabit'  be  used  in  the  sense  of  'keep  at  home,'  'abide  under  a  roof  as 
contrasted  with  wandering  in  a  desert.  This  is  Home  Tooke's  interpretation, 
Diversions  of  Purley,  vol.  ii.  p.  53.  But  we  can  find  no  other  example  of 
this  sense.  Henley  says:  'Shakespeare  here  uses  the  verb  "inhabit"  in  a 
neutral  sense,  to  express  continuance  in  a  given  situation  ;  and  Milton  has 
employed  it  in  a  similar  manner : 

"  Meanwhile  inhabit  lax,  ye  powers  of  heaven."  ' 
[Paradise  Lost,  vii.  162.]    Retaining  '  inhabit,'  a  more  satisfactory  sense  would 
be  made  by  substituting  '  here'  for  '  then,'  an  easy  change : 

'  If  trembling  I  inhabit  jiere,  protest  me,'  &c. 

106.  The  baby  of  a  girl.  The  infant  of  a  very  young  mother  would  be 
likely  to  be  puny  and  weak.  Sidney  Walker  however  understands  '  baby' 
here  to  mean  '  doll,'  quoting  two  passages  from  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  and  refer- 
ring to  Ben  Jonson's  Bartholomew  Fair  passim ;  but  the  word  is  not  used 
elsewhere  in  this  sense  by  Shakespeare.  The  following  passage  from  Hamlet, 
i.  3.  lOl,  105,  tends  to  confirm  the  former  interpretation  :  '  You  speak  like  a 
green  girl.  .  .  .  think  yourself  a  baby.'  When  Sidney  Walker  laid  down  the 
following  limitation  :  ^ Babe  was  used  only   in   the  sense   of  infant;  baby 


134  NOTES.  [act  III. 

might   mean   either  infant  or  doll,'  he  forgot  this  passage  of  King  John, 
iii.  4.  58  : 

'  If  I  were  mad  I  should  forget  my  son, 
Or  madly  think  a  babe  of  clouts  were  he.' 
Florio  (Ital.  Diet.)  has  'Pupa,'  a  baby  or  puppet  like  a  girle.'      For  the 
meaning  of  '  proiest,'  see  note  on  v.  2.  11. 

107.  inoclfery,  mimicry,  because  the  Ghost  assumed  Banquo's  form.  So 
Troilus  and  Cressida,  iii.  3.  153  : 

'  A  rusty  mail 
In  monumental  mockery.' 
And  Richard  II.  iv.  i.  260  :  '  A  mockery  king  of  snow.' 

109.  displaced,  deranged. 

lb.  broke,  broken.  So  we  have  '  spoke,'  '  took,'  '  shook,'  '  writ,'  wrote,' 
and  many  other  instances,  in  which  the  preterite  and  participle  have  the 
same  form.  See  i.  4.  3  ;  v.  8.  26.  When  the  rhyme  requires  it,  in  Spenser 
and  Fairfax,  we  find  even  '  descend,'  '  forsake,'  '  know,'  and  so  forth,  used  for 
'  descended,'  '  forsaken,'  '  known.' 

110.  ac??nz>e(/, '  admirable,'  in  the  sense  in  which  we  find  the  word  used  in 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  v.  I.  27  :  '  strange  and  admirable.'  As  '  admired' 
is  found  here  in  the  sense  of  'worthy  of  wonder,'  so  we  have  'despised' 
for  '  despicable,'  Richard  II.  ii.  3.  95  ;  '  detested'  for  '  detestable,'  ii.  3.  109  ; 
'  una  voided '  for  'unavoidable,'  ii.  I.  268;  'unvalued'  for  'invaluable,' 
Richard  III.  i.4.  27. 

111.  overcome,  spread  over,  and  so,  overshadow.  Compare  Spenser's  Fairy 
Queen,  iii.  7.  4  : 

'  Till  at  length  she  came 
To  an  hilles  side,  which  did  to  her  bewray 
A  litle  valley  subject  to  the  same, 
All  coverd  with  thick  woodes  that  quite  it  overcame.' 
Thus  we  find  '  overgone,'  Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  viii.  st.  18  : 
'  So  was  the  place  with  darkness  oVergone.' 
113.  The  word  '  disposition'  is  used  by  Shakespeare  not  only  in  its  modern 
sense  of  settled  character,  1)60$,  but  also  in  the  sense  of  temporary  mood, 
and  in  this  latter  sense  we  think  it  is  used  here.      Compare  King  Lear, 
1.4.  241: 

'  Put  away 
These  dispositions,  that  of  late  transform  you 
From  what  you  rightly  are.' 
And  Hamlet,  i.  5.  172  : 

'  To  put  an  antic  disposition  on.' 
lb.  owe  is  of  course  used  in  the  sense  of  '  own,'  '  possess.'    For  instances  of 
this  very  common  usage,  see  i.  3,  76,  i.  4.  10,  and  Tempest,  iii.  i.  45  : 

'  The  noblest  grace  she  owed.' 
See  also  our  note  on  Richard  II.  iv.  I.  185.  The  general  sense  of  the  present 
passage  may  therefore  be  thus  expressed  :  '  You  make  me  a  stranger  even  to 
my  own  feelings,  unable  to  comprehend  the  motive  of  my  fear.'  He  is  not 
addressing  his  wife  alone,  but  the  whole  company.  He  is  particularly 
staggered  by  the  fact  that  every  one  except  himself  is  unmoved. 
116.  juine,  i.e.  the  ruby  of  my  cheeks. 


sc.  4-]  MACBETH.  I35 

119.  Stand  not  upon,  do  not  insist  upon  precedence.  We  still  say  '  Do  not 
stand  upon  ceremony.'     Compare  Richard  II.  iv.  I.  33  : 

'  If  that  thy  valour  stand  on  sympathy,' 
i.  e.  as  we  have  explained  it  in  the  note, '  If  your  valour  is  so  punctilious  as  to 
insist  upon  an  antagonist  of  similar  rank.'     See  also  3  Henry  VI.  iv.  "].  58  : 
'  \\'herefore  stand  you  on  nice  points?' 

122.  //,  the  bloody  deed  which  fills  Macbeth's  thoughts. 
lb.  In  the  folios  the  line  is  pointed  thus  : 

'  It  will  haue  blood  the}'  say : 
Blood  will  haue  blood.' 
And  this  is  retained  by  Delius.     Pope  made  the  alteration,  which  we  have 
adopted  because  'Blood  will   have   blood'  is  the  proverb  current   in  men's 
mouths  :  '  they  say.' 

123.  Stoneshave  been  hiown  to  tnove.  Probably  Shakespeare  is  here  alluding 
to  some  story  in  which  the  stones  covering  the  corpse  of  a  murdered  man 
were  said  to  have  moved  of  themselves  and  so  revealed  the  secret. 

lb.  and  trees  to  speak.  This,  as  Steevens  has  remarked,  probably  refers 
to  the  story  of  the  tree  which  revealed  to  .^neas  the  murder  of  Polydorus, 
Virgil,  /Eneid,  iii.  22.  599,  imitated  by  Tasso,  Ger.  Lib.  c.  xiii.  st.  41-43. 

124.  Augiires.  This  is  the  spelling  of  the  folios,  which  was  altered  by 
Theobald  to  'Augurs.'  In  Florio's  Italian  Dictionary,  1611,  the  word 
'  augure '  is  given  as  the  equivalent  both  for  augurio,  soothsaying,  and 
anguro,  a  soothsayer.  In  the  edition  of  1598  'augure'  is  onl)' given  as  the 
translation  of  augurio,  and  it  is  in  this  sense  that  it  is  used  here.  The  word 
occurs  nowhere  else  in  Shakespeare.  For  'augur'  in  our  modern  sense  he 
uses  '  augurer,'  Julius  Cvesar,  ii.  I.  200,  and  ii.  2.  37;  Coriolanus,  ii.  I.  I  ; 
Antony  and  Cleopatra,  iv.  12.  4,  and  v.  2.  337.  We  find  '  augure'  used  in  the 
sense  of  '  augur'  or  'augurer,'  in  Holland's  Pliny,  Bk.  viii.  c.  28,  which  was 
published  in  1601.  Rowe,  not  knowing  the  true  sense  of  '  augure '  in  the 
present  passage,  changed  the  text  to 

'Augures  that  understood  relations.' 
Warburton  made  a  further  change,  '  understand.' 

lb.  understood  relations.  By  the  word  'relation'  is  meant,  as  Johnson 
savs,  '  the  connection  of  effects  with  causes ;  to  understand  relations  as  an 
augur,  is  to  know  how  those  things  relate  to  each  other,  which  have  no 
visible  combination  or  dependence.'  Compare  the  expression  in  v.  3.  5,  '  all 
mortal  consequences.' 

125.  maggot-pies,  magpies.  Cotgrave  gives  'meggatapye'  as  one  equi- 
valent for  the  French  pie. 

lb.  chough,  mentioned  in  The  Tempest,  ii.  I.  265,  as  a  talking  bird  : 
'  I  myself  could  make 
A  chough  of  as  deep  chat.' 
Cotgrave  gives  'a  Cornish  chough;  or,  the  red-billd  Pvooke'  as  a  translation 
of  the  French  grole.     It  is  known  by  naturalists  as  Pyrrhocorax. 

126.  What  is  the  nights  An  unusual  expression  for  'What  is  the  time  of 
night?'  or  '  How  goes  the  night?'  which  we  have  had  in  this  play,  ii.  I.  I. 

127.  a/ ocfrfs,  contesting,  quarrelling.  The  phrase  is  frequent  in  Shakespeare, 
as  Romeo  and  Juliet,  i.  2.5;  King  I.ear,  i.  3.  5.  Lady  Macbeth,  worn  out 
by  the  effort  she  has  made  to  maintain  her  self-possession  in  the  presence  of 


135 


NOTES.  [act  III. 


her  guests,  answers  briefly  and  mournfully  to  her  husband's  questions,  adding 
no  word  of  comment,  much  less  of  reproach.  Thus  the  part  was  rendered 
by  Miss  Helen  Faucit,  one  of  the  best  of  all  modern  interpreters  of  Shake- 
speare. 

128.  How  say'st  thou,  that  .  .  .i.e.  What  do  you  think  of  Macduff's 
refusing  to  come  at  our  bidding  ? 

lb.  denies,  refuses.  See  Richard  II.  ii.  I.  204  :  '  Deny  his  offer'd  homage.' 
And  I  Henry  IV.  i.  3.  29  : 

'  My  liege,  I  did  deny  no  prisoners.' 

130.  by  the  way,  casually. 

131.  a  one.  Theobald,  offended  by  this  colloquial  phrase,  read,  with 
Davenant,  '  a  thane.'  Grant  White  read  '  a  man.'  We  still  say  '  never  a 
one,'  '  many  a  one,'  '  not  a  single  one.' 

131,  132.   This  is  suggested  by  Holinshed. 

133.  Pope,  for  the  sake  of  the  metre,  read  : 

'  Betimes  I  will  unto  the  weird  sisters,' 
and  in  the  next  line  '  I'm'  for  '  I  am.' 

134.  bent,  resolved,  determined.  Compare  Midsummer  Night's  Dream, 
iii.  2.  145  : 

'  I  see  you  all  are  bent 
To  set  against  me  for  your  merriment.' 
136,  137.  Compare  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  iii.  2.47-49: 
'  If  thou  hast  slain  Lysander  in  his  sleep. 
Being  o'er  shoes  in  blood,  plunge  in  the  deep, 
And  kill  me  too.' 
For  '  stepp'd  in,'  compare  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  i.  2.  83.    The  preposition 
'  in'  is  similarly  repeated,  Coriolanus,  ii.  1. 18  :  '  In  what  enormity  is  Marcius 
poor  in?' 

138.  For  regularity  of  construction  we  should  have  either  'To  return'  or 
'  going,'  which  indeed  Hanmer  put  in  his  text.  Steevens  remarks  that  this 
idea  has  been  borrowed  by  Dryden  in  his  CEdipus,  iv.  1  : 

'  I  have  already  pass'd 
The  middle  of  the  stream  ;  and  to  return 
Seems  greater  labour  than  to  venture  o'er.' 

140.  Which  must  be  put  in  action  before  people  have  an  opportunity  of 
examining  them.  We  have  the  word  'scann'd'  in  Hamlet,  iii.  3.  75,  in  the 
same  sense  as  here,  '  examined.' 

lb.  may  is  used  in  the  sense  of  '  can,'  as  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  3.  7: 
'  May  you  stead  me  ?' 

141.  You  lack  sleep,  which  preserves  all  men's  nature  from  decay. 

142.  self-abuse,  self-delusion.  The  verb  '  abuse'  is  used  for  delude,  deceive, 
in  Tempest,  v.  1.  112  : 

'  Some  enchanted  trifle  to  abuse  me.' 
We  have  the  substantive  in  the  sense  of  '  deception'  in  Henry  V.  ii.  chorus, 
line  32  :  'The  abuse  of  distance.'    Shakespeare  also  employs  the  word  in  the 
sense  of  '  ill-usage,'  and  in  that  of  '  railing  on,'  '  reviling.' 

143.  the  initiate  fear,  the  fear  which  attends  on  the  commencement  of  a 
career  of  guilt  before  the  criminal  is  hardened. 

144.  in  deed.     Theobald  was  the  first  to  make  this  necessary  correction. 


sc.  £.]  MACBETH.  1 37 

The  folios,  followed  by  Rowe  and  Pope,  have  '  indeed'  as  one  word.    Hanmer 
unnecessarily  changed  it  to  '  in  deeds.' 

Scene  V. 

Enter  the  three  Witches,  meeting  Hecate.  This  stage-direction  is  from 
the  folio.  Some  commentators  remark  that  it  is  odd  to  find  a  goddess  of 
classical  mythology  brought  in  among  the  creatures  of  northern  and  modern 
superstition.  The  incongruity,  however,  is  found  in  all  the  poets  of  the 
Renaissance.  Tasso,  Ger.  Lib.  c.  xiii.  sts.  6  and  lo,  makes  the  wizard 
Ismeno  invoke  the  '  citizens  of  Avernus  '  and  Pluto.  In  that  poem  the  Fury 
Alecto  is  as  busy  as  Tisiphone  in  the  j^neid.  As  far  back  as  the  fourth  century 
the  council  of  Ancyra  is  said  to  have  condemned  the  pretensions  of  witches, 
that  in  the  night-time  they  rode  abroad,  or  feasted  with  their  mistress,  who 
was  one  of  the  Pagan  goddesses,  Minerva,  Sibylla,  or  Diana,  or  else  Herodias. 
(Scot's  Discovery  of  Witchcraft,  Bk.  iii.  ch.  l6).  The  canons  which  con- 
tain this  condemnation  are  of  doubtful  authenticity.  They  are  printed  in 
Labbe's  Conciliorum  Collectio,  tom.  i.  col.  1798,  ed.  Paris,  1715.  Hecate  of 
course  is  only  another  name  for  Diana.  But  in  truth  witchcraft  is  no  modern 
invention.  Witches  were  believed  in  by  the  vulgar  in  the  time  of  Horace 
as  implicitly  as  in  the  time  of  Shakespeare.  And  the  belief  that  the  Pagan 
gods  were  really  existent  as  evil  demons  is  one  which  has  come  down  from 
the  very  earliest  ages  of  Christianity. 

I.  Hecate,  pronounced  as  a  dissyllable,  as  also  in  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream,  v.  2.  391  ; 

'  By  the  triple  Hecate's  team.' 
And  in  ii.  I.  52,  and  iii.  2.  41,  of  this  pliy.     The  only  passage  of  Shakespeare 
in  which  '  Hecate'  is  a  trisyllable  is  in  I  Henry  VI.  iii.  2.  64 : 

'  I  speak  not  to  that  railing  Hecate.' 
Even  Ben  Jonson  and  Milton  use  the  word  as  a  dissyllable. 
lb,  angerly,  angrily.      See  King  John,  iv  I.  82  : 

'  Nor  look  upon  the  iron  angerly.' 
7.  close,  secret.     Compare  1  Henry  IV.  ii.  3.  113: 
'  And  for  secrecy, 
No  lady  closer.' 
15.  The  author  might  think  himself  entitled  to  give  the  name  of  Acheron 
to  any  cave  or  pit,  even  in  Scotland,  communicating  with  the  infernal  regions. 
'  Acheron'  is  mentioned  in  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  iii.  2.  357,  and  Titus 
Andronicus,  iv.  3.  44.    It  is  associated  with  witchcraft  in  Milton's  Comus,  604  : 
'  But  for  that  damn'd  magician,  let  him  be  girt 
With  all  the  grisly  legions  that  troop 
Under  the  sooty  flag  of  Acheron.' 
And  in  Tasso,  Ger.  Lib.  c.  ix.  st.  59,  the  evil  spirits  are  bid  to  return  '  alle 
notti  d'Acheronte  oscure.' 

21.  Pope  corrected  the  metre  of  this  line  by  reading: 

'  Unto  a  dismal,  fatal  end.' 
24.  profound,  deep,  and  therefore  ready  to  fall.    Johnson  however  inter- 
prets '  a  drop  that  has  profound,  deep  or  hidden  qualities.'     Whatever  be  the 
meaning,  the  word  rhymes  to  '  ground,'  which  is  the  main  reason  for  its 


138 


NOTES.  [act  111. 


introduction  here.  Milton  is  fond  of  using  two  epithets,  one  preceding,  the 
other  following  the  noun;  as  'the  lowest  pit  profound,'  Translation  of 
Psalm  viii.  '  Ihe  "vaporous  drop"  seems  to  have  been  meant  for  the  same 
as  the  virus  Iwiare  of  the  ancients,  being  a  foam  which  the  moon  was 
supposed  to  shed  on  particular  herbs  or  other  objects,  when  strongly  solicited 
by  enchantment.  Lucan  introduces  Erictho  using  it,  Pharsalia,  Bk.  vi.  [666]. 
"  Et  virus  large  lunare  ministrat."  '        (Steevens). 

26.  sleights,  arts,  stratagems,  feats  of  cunning  or  dexterity.  The  word  is 
used  3  Henry  VI.  iv.  2.  20: 

'  As  Ulysses  and  stout  Diomede 
With  sleight  and  manhood  stole  to  Rhesus*  tents.' 
It  is  a  very  favourite  word  wnth  Fairfax.   See  his  Tasso,  Bk.  ii.  St.  28  ;  Bk.  iii. 
St.  19  ;  Bk.  iv.  st.  25,  87  ;  Bk.  v.  st.  64. 

27.  artificial,  made,  or  made  visible,  by  art.    So  Timon  of  Athens,  i.  i.  37: 

'  Artificial  strife 
Lives  in  these  touches,  livelier  than  life.' 
The  word  is  used  with  an  active  sense  in  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  iii.  2.  203: 
'  We,  Hermia,  like  two  artificial  gods. 
Have  with  our  needles  created  both  one  flower.' 
29.  confusion,  destruction.     See  ii.  3.  47,  and  note. 

32.  security,  carelessness.  Webster,  Duchess  of  Malfi,  v.  2,  has  the  follow- 
ing strong  metaphor : 

'  Security  some  men  call  the  suburbs  of  hell, 
Only  a  dead  wall  between.' 
See  our  notes  on  Richard  n.  ii.  I.  266 ;  iii.  2.  54;  and  v.  3.  43. 

33.  The  stage  direction  in  the  folio  rurs  thus :  '  Sing  within.  Come  away, 
come  away,  imc'  In  Davenant's  version  of  Macbeth,  published  1673,  a 
passage  of  some  forty  lines,  a  dialogue  in  rhymed  verse  between  Hecate  and 
other  spirits,  is  introduced.  This  was  supposed  to  be  his  own  composition, 
supplying  the  omission  in  Shakespeare's  text,  till  in  the  year  i779  Steevens 
discovered  the  MS.  play  of  The  Witch,  by  Thomas  Middleton,  in  which  the 
whole  passage  is  found.  See  what  we  have  said  on  this  subject  in  the 
Preface.  From  what  Hecate  sa3's,  '  Hark,  I  am  called,'  it  is  probable  that 
she  took  no  part  in  the  song,  which  perhaps  consisted  only  of  the  two  first 
lines  of  the  following  passage  from  Middleton.  We  give  it  according  to 
Dyce's  edition,  p.  303  : 

'  Song  above. 

Come  away,  come  away, 

Hecate,  Hecate,  come  away! 
liec.    I  come,  I  come,  1  come,  I  come 

With  all  the  speed  I  may 

With  all  the  speed  I  may 

Where's  Stadlin  ? 
Voice  above.  Here. 

Hec.    Where's  Puckle? 
Voice  above.  Here, 

And  Hoppo  too,  and  Hellwain  too ; 

We  lack  but  you,  we  lack  but  you ; 

Come  away,  make  up  the  count. 


sc.  6.]  MACBETH.  1 39 

Hec.    I  will  but  'noint  and  then  I  mount. 

\_A  spirit  like  a  cat  descends.^ 
Voice  above.  There  's  one  comes  down  to  fetch  his  dues, 

A  kiss,  a  coll,  a  sip  of  lilocd ; 

And  why  thou  stay'st  so  long 

I  muse,  I  muse, 

Since  the  air's  so  sweet  and  good. 
Hec.    O,  art  thou  come? 

What  nev/s,  what  news  ? 
Spirit.     All  goes  still  to  our  delight  : 

Either  come,  or  else 

Refuse,  refuse. 
Hec.     Now  I'm  furnish'd  foi  the  flight. 
Firestone.   Hark,  hark,  the  cat  sings  a  brave  treble 

in  her  own  language. 
Hec.   \goijig  ?//>]     Now  I  go,  now  I  fly, 

Malkin  my  sweet  spirit  and  I. 

O,  what  a  dainty  pleasure  'tis 

To  ride  in  the  air 

When  the  moon  shines  fair, 

And  sing  and  dance,  and  toy  and  kiss ! 

Over  woods,  high  rocks  and  mountains, 

Over  seas,  our  mistress'  fountains. 

Over  steep  towers  and  turrets. 

We  fly  by  night  'mongst  troops  of  spirits  : 

No  ring  of  bells  to  our  ears  sounds. 

No  howls  of  wolves,  no  yelps  of  hounds  ; 

No,  not  the  noise  of  water's  breach, 

Or  cannon's  throat  our  height  can  reach.' 
In  the  last  line  but  five,  Davenant  substituted  'steeples'  for  'steep,'  doubt- 
less rightly.     Possibly  he  found  it  in  the  MS.  of  Middleton  from  which  he 
copied. 


Sce?ie  VI. 

The  place  of  this  scene  is  uncertain.  Capell  first  put  '  Forres,'  which  will 
do  as  well  as  any  other.  Johnson  conjectured  that  for  '  another  lord'  we 
should  read  '  Angus.' 

2.  Your  thoughts  can  supply  the  meaning  which  my  speech  does  not 
express. 

3.  borne,  carried  on,  conducted.  So  line  17  of  this  scene,  and  Much  Ado 
about  Nothing,  ii.  3.  229:  'The  conference  was  sadly  borne,'  i.  e.  gravely 
conducted. 

4.  mar-ry,  a  corruption  of  Mary.     Compare  Richard  II.  i.  4.  1 6. 

8.  Who  cannot  want,  who  can  help  thinking.  The  sentence,  if  analysed, 
expresses  exactly  the  converse  of  that  which  is  its  obvious  meaning.  This 
construction   arises  from  a  confusion  of  thought  common  enough  when  a 


140  NOTES.  [act  hi. 

negative  is  expressed  or  implied,  and  is  so  frequent  in  Greek  as  to  be  almost 
sanctioned  by  usage.     Compare  e.  g.  Herodotus,  iv.  118:  t]K(i  yap  u  Iliparis 
ovSev  Tt  fxaWov  en'  rjfieas  t]  ov  kol  km  vfxeas,  and  Thucydides,  iii.  36,  dj^ov 
TO  ^oii\eviJ.a  TToXiv  oKrjV  SiacpOfipai  fidWov  fj  oil  tovs  cItiovs.     It  would  be 
easy  to  find  instances  in  all  English  writers  of  Shakespeare's  time.     Take  the 
following  from  his  own  works,  Winter's  Tale,  iii.  2.  55: 
'  I  ne'er  heard  yet 
That  any  of  these  bolder  vices  wanted 
Less  impudence  to  gainsay  what  they  did 
Than  to  perform  it  first.' 
Winter's  Tale,  i.  2.  260  : 

'  Whereof  the  execution  did  cry  out 
Against  the  non-performance.' 
King  Lear,  ii.  4.  140  : 

'  I  have  hope 
You  less  know  how  to  value  her  desert 
Than  she  to  scant  her  duty.' 
lb.  monstrous.     A  trisyllable.     See  note  i.  5.  37. 

10.  fact,  deed.     Compare  i  Henry  VI.  iv.  1.  30: 

'  To  say  the  truth,  this  fact  was  infamous.' 

11.  straight,  immediately.  See  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  9.  I  :  'Draw 
the  curtain  straight.' 

12.  tear,  comparing  Macbeth  to  a  lion  or  other  beast  of  prey.  But  the 
comparison  is  anything  but  apt.  We  suspect  that  this  passage  did  not  come 
from  the  hand  of  Shakespeare. 

13.  thralls,  bondsmen,  captives.  Used  thrice  elsewhere  by  Shakespeare  in 
his  dramas;   e.  g.  I  Henry  VI.  i.  2.  I17: 

'  Meantime  look  gracious  on  thy  prostrate  thrall.' 
Again  in  the  same  play,  ii.  3.  36,  and  in  Richard  III.  iv.  1.46.     The  word  in 
Anglo-Saxon  is  thrcel. 

14.  Pope  omitted  '  and.' 

15.  any  heart  alive,  the  heart  of  any  man  alive,  as  in  iii.  4.  141,  'all 
natures'  means  the  nature  of  all  men. 

1 7.   borne.     Compare  line  3  of  this  scene. 

ig.  an't.  So  Theobald.  The  folios  as  usual  have  '  and 't.'  The  spelling  '  an' 
is  used  to  avoid  ambiguity,  and  is  more  consistent  with  the  etymology  of  the 
word.  It  is  derived  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  iinnan,  to  grant,  concede,  just  as 
'if,'  i.e.  'gif,'  is  said  to  be  derived  from  gifan,  to  give.  See  our  notes  on 
The  Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  2.  53,  and  iv.  1.  44I  ;  and  Richard  II.  iv.  1.  49. 

2 1 .  from,  owing  to,  in  consequence  of. 

lb.  broad,  open,  plain-spoken.  Compare  Timon  of  Athens,  iii.  4.  64  : 
'  Who  can  speak  broader  than  he  that  has  no  house  to  put  his  head  in  ? 
Such  may  rail  against  great  buildings.' 

21,  22.  fair  d  His  presence.  An  elliptical  construction.  We  have  'fail' 
used  as  a  transitive  verb,  King  Lear,  ii.  4.  144: 

'  I  cannot  think  my  sister  in  the  least 
Would  fail  her  obligation;' 
and  in  this  play,  iii.  I.  2  :  '  Fail  not  our  feast.' 

24.  bestoivs  himself.     See  iii.  i.  29. 


sc.  6.]  MACBETH.  I4I 

25.  tyrant  is  here  used  not  in  our  modern  sense  but  in  that  of  '  usurper,' 
as  is  shown  by  the  following  passage,  3  Henry  VI.  iii.  3.  69-72  : 
'  For  how  can  tyrants  safely  govern  home, 
Unless  abroad  they  purchase  great  alliance  ? 
To  prove  him  tyrant  this  reason  may  suffice, 
That  Henry  hveth  still.' 
So   in  iv.  3.  67,  'a  tyranny'  means   'usurpation,'   as   interpreted   by   what 
follows. 

lb.  holds,  keeps,  withholds. 

27.  Of.     Used  as  in  line  4:  'Was  pitied  of  Macbeth.' 
lb.  the  most  pious  Edward,  Edward  the  Confessor. 

30.  upon  his  aid,  in  his  aid,  or  to  his  aid.  The  preposition  is  similarly 
used,  Richard  II.  iii.  2.  203  : 

'  And  all  your  southern  gentlemen  in  arms 
Upon  his  party.' 

35.  Free  from  our  feasts  and  banquets  bloody  knives.  This  seems  a  strange 
phrase.      Malone  proposed  a  transposition  : 

'  Our  feasts  and  banquets  free  foom  bloody  knives.' 
A  somewhat  similar  use  of  the  verb  '  to  free '  occurs  in  the  Epilogue  to  the 
Tempest,  line  18  : 

'  Prayer 
Which  pierces  so  that  it  assaults 
Mercy  itself  and  frees  all  faults.' 

36.  free    honours,    honours    such    as    freemen    receive    from    a    lawful 

38.  exasperate.  Verbs  derived  from  Latin  participial  forms  do  not  neces- 
sarily have  a  'd'  final  in  the  participle  passive,  a  licence  dictated  by  euphony 
to  avoid  the  recurrence  of  dental  sounds.     Compare  Troilus  and  Cressida,  v. 

I-  3+: 

'  Why  art  thou  then  exasperate?' 
So  Titus  Andronicus,  i.  i.  14  : 

'  The  imperial  seat  to  virtue  consecrate.' 
And  Measure  for  Measure,  ii.  2.  154: 

'  Whose  minds  are  dedicate 
To  nothing  temporal.' 
So  we  have  in  Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  viii.  st.  69  : 

'  By  this  false  hand,  contaminate  with  blood,' 
'contaminate'  for  'contaminated.'     This  licence  is  most  common  in  verbs 
derived  from  the  passive  participle  of  Latin  verbs  of  the  first  conjugation,  but 
it  is  not  confined  exclusively  to  them.     We  find  for  example  'neglect'  for 
'  neglected '  in  Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  viii.  St.  30 : 

'  He  will  not  that  this  body  lie  neglect.* 
The  same  usage  occasionally  obtains  in  other  verbs  ending  with  a  dental 
sound,  but  not  derived  from  a  Latin  participle,  as  e.  g.  '  commit'  for  'com- 
mitted,' Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  x.  st.  61  : 

'  To  take  revenge  for  sin  and  shameful  crime 
'Gainst  kind  commit  by  those  who  nould  repent,' 
i.  e.  who  would  not  repent. 

lb.  the  king.     So  Hanmer.     The  folios  have  '  their  king.' 


143  NOTES.  [act  IV. 

40.  absolute,  positive,  peremptory.     Compare  Coriolanus,  iii.  1.90: 

'  Mark  you 
His  absolute  "  shall  "  ?  ' 

41.  cloudy,  gloomy,  sullen.     See  i  Henry  IV.  iii.  2.  83: 

'  Such  aspect 
As  cloudy  men  use  to  their  adversaries.' 
lb.  turns  me  his  back.     '  Me'  here  is  a  kind  of  enclitic  adding  vivacity  to 
the  description.     Compare  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  i.  2.  8,  11. 
44.  Pope  read : 

'  Advise  him  to  a  care  to  hold  .  .   .' 
And  Steevens  conjectured : 

'  Advise  him  caution  and  to  hold   ..." 
48,  49.  suffering  country  Under  a  hand  accursed.     For  '  country  suffering 
under  .  .  .'     Compare  Richard  II.  iii.  2.  8  : 

'  As  a  long-parted  mother  with  her  child.* 
And  Timon  of  Athens,  iv.  2.  13  : 

'  A  dedicated  beggar  to  the  air.' 
And  see  v.  8.  66  of  the  present  play. 


ACT    IV. 


Scene  I. 

1.  irittded.  The  more  usual  form  of  this  word  is  'brindled,'  which  is  still 
used  in  several  provincial  dialects  with  the  sense  of  streaked,  or  party- 
coloured.  Milton,  Par.  Lost,  vii.  466,  speaks  of  the  '  brinded  mane'  of  the 
lion,  and  in  Comus,  443,  of '  the  brinded  lioness,'  evidently  using  the  word 
in  the  sense  of  tawny. 

2.  Thrice  and  once.  The  witch's  way  of  saying  '  four  times.'  Conjurors, 
like  other  people  who  are  no  conjurors,  believed  in  the  '  luck  of  odd 
numbers.' 

'  Witchcraft  loveth  numbers  odd.' 

Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  xiii.  st.  6. 

2.  hedge-pig,  hedge-hog,  as  the  animal  is  always  called  elsewhere  in 
Shakespeare. 

3.  Harpier.  Probably,  as  Steevens  says,  this  spirit's  name  is  a  corruption 
of  Harpy.  Nearly  the  same  corruption  is  found  in  Marlowe's  Tamburlaine,  the 
quarto  edition  of  1590  : 

'  And  like  a  harper  tires  upon  my  life.' 
The  error  is  corrected  in  the  octavo  edition  of  the  same  year.     See  Dyce's 
ed.  of  Marlowe's  works,  1858,  p.  19.     The  Hebrew  word  Habar,  '  incantare ' 
mentioned  in  Scot's  Discovery  of  Witchcraft,  xii.  I,  maybe  the  origin  of  the 
word. 

6.   Toad  that  under  cold  stone.     The  missing  syllable  of  this  verse  has 


sc.  I.]  MA  CBET  H.  I43 

been  conjecturally  supplied  in  various  ways.  Davenant  put '  mossy'  for  'cold  '; 
Rowe  'the  cold;'  Steevens  'coldest.'  Keightley  reads  'underneath'  for 
'  under.'  Perhaps  however  the  line  is  right  as  it  stands,  the  two  syllables 
'cold  stone'  when  slowly  pronounced  being  equivalent  to  three,  as  Tempest, 
iv.  I.  no : 

'  Earth's  increase,  foison  plenty,' 
and  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  ii.  I.  7  : 

'  Swifter  than  the  moon's  sphere.' 
76.  The  imagination  of  the  poets  contemporary  with  Shakespeare  ran  riot 
in  devising  loathsome  ingredients  for  witches'  messes.  Compare  Webster, 
Duchess  of  Malfi,  ii.  I,  p  67,  ed.  Dyce,  1857  '•  '  0"^  would  suspect  it  for  a 
shop  of  witchcraft,  to  find  in  it  the  fat  of  serpents,  spawn  of  snakes,  Jews' 
spittle,  &c.'  Lucan  perhaps  excels  them  all.  See  the  Pharsalia,  Bk.  vi. 
11.  6G7-681  : 

'  Hue  quidquid  fetu  genuit  Natura  sinistro 
Miscetur,'  &c. 
8.  The  word  'swelter'  is  generally  used  of  the  effect  of  heat.     Webster 
defines  it,   '  to  exude  like  sv/eat.'     Steevens  quotes  from  the  old  translation 
of  Boccaccio,  1620,  '  an  huge  and  mighty  toad  even  weltering  (as  it  were)  in 
a  hole  full  of  poison.' 

17.  Adder's  fork,  the  double  or  forked  tongue  of  the  adder.  Compare 
Measure  for  Measure,  iii.  I.  16; 

'  For  thou  dost  fear  the  soft  and  tender  fork 
Of  a  poor  worm,' 
where  '  worm'  is  used  generally.     Compare  also  Midsummer  Night's  Dream 
ii.  2.  II,    where    newt,    blindworm,    &c.,    are    mentioned    together.     The 
blindworm  is  the  same  as  the  slowworm.    Compare  Drayton,  Noah's  Flood, 
line  481  : 

'  The  small-eyed  slowworm  held  of  many  blind.' 
A  Suffolk  proverb  runs  somehow  thus  : 

'  If  the  viper  could  hear  and  the  slowworm  could  see, 
Then  England  from  serpents  would  never  be  free.' 
The    blindworm    is    called  in   Timon    of   Athens,  iv.  3.  1S2,  the    'eyeless 
venom'd  worm.' 

18.  howlet's,  the  spelling  of  the  folios,  altered  by  Pope  to  'owlet's.'  In 
Holland's  translation  of  Pliny,  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  the  tenth  book  is 
'Of  Owles,  or  Howlets';  and  Cotgrave  (Fr.  Diet.)  gives  'Hulotte;  f.  A 
Madgehowlet,'  and  '  Huette;  f.  An  Howlet,  or  the  little  Horne-Owle.' 

23.  vuanmy  was  used  as  a  medicine  both  long  before  and  long  after  our 
author's  time.  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  in  his  Fragment  on  Mummies,  tells  us 
that  Francis  the  First  always  carried  mummy  with  him  as  a  panacea  against 
all  disorders.  Some  used  it  for  epilepsy,  some  for  gout,  some  used  it  as  a 
stiptic.  He  goes  oii :  '  The  common  opinion  of  the  virtues  of  mummy  bred 
great  consumption  thereof,  and  princes  and  great  men  contended  for  this 
.strange  panacea,  wherein  Jews  dealt  largely  manufacturing  mummies  from 
dead  carcases  and  giving  them  the  names  of  kings,  while  specifics  were 
compounded  from  crosses  and  gibbet  leavings.'  The  same  author,  in  his 
Hydriotaphia  (ch.  v.)  says:  '  The  Egyptian  mummies  which  Cambyses  spared, 
avarice  now  consumeth.      Mummy  is  become  merchandize,  Mizraim  cures 


144  NOTES.  [act  IV. 

wounds,  and  Pharaoh  is  sold  for  balsams.'     In  Webster,  The  White  Devil, 
i.  I,  we  find  :  '  Your  followers 

Have  swallowed  you  like  mummia,  and,  being  sick. 
With  such  unnatural  and  horrid  physic, 
Vomit  you  up  i'  the  kennel.' 
lb.  maw,  stomach.     See  iii.  4.  73.     The  word  is  used  by  Webster,  The 
White  Devil,  p  23,  ed.  Dyce,  1857: 

'  Die  with  these  pills  in  your  most  cursed  maw.' 
lb.  gulf,  in  the  sense  of  arm  of  the  sea,  is  derived  from  the  French  golfe, 
Italian  golfo,  and  connected  with  the  Greek  koXttos  :  but  in  the  sense  of 
whirlpool  or  swallowing  eddy,  it  is  connected  with  the  Dutch  gulpen,  our 
'  gulp,'  to  swallow,  and  with  the  old  Dutch  golpe,  a  whirlpool.  So  Wedg- 
wood. '  Gulf  with  the  latter  derivation,  is  applied  also  to  the  stomach  of 
voracious  animals.     Delius  translates  it  here  '  Schlund.' 

■24.  ravin  d,  gorged  with  prey.     This  participle  does  not  occur  again  in 
Shakespeare.     Pope   read  '  ravening,'    and    Rann   adopted   Monck   Mason's 
conjecture  'ravin,'  which  occurs  in  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  iii.  2.  120; 
'  The  ravin  lion  when  he  roar'd 
With  sharp  constraint  of  hunger.' 
The  word  'ravined'   is  found   in   the  sense  of  'greedily  eaten'  in  Phineas 
Fletcher's  Locusts,  1627,  quoted  by  Steevens  [Canto  iii.  st.  18]: 
'  Whom  that  Greeke  leopard  no  sooner  spi'de, 
But  slue,  devour'd,  and  fiU'd  his  empty  maw  : 
But  with  his  raven'd  prey  his  bowells  broke ; 
So  into  foure  divides  his  brazen  yoke.' 
The  verb  '  ravin  up,'  to  devour  eagerly,  is  used  by  Shakespeare  in  this  play, 
ii.  4.  28;  and  'ravin  down,'  Measure  for  Measure,  i.  2.  123. 

25.  digg'd.    We  have  this  form  of  the  participle  in  I  Henry  IV.  i.  3.  60 ; 
'  It  was  great  pity,  so  it  was, 
This  villanous  saltpetre  should  be  digg'd 
Out  of  the  bowels  of  the  harmless  earth.' 
We  have  the  preterite  of  the  same  form  in  Richard  II.  iii.  3.  169  : 
'  Two  kinsmen  digg'd  their  graves  with  weeping  eyes.' 
28.  Sliver'd,  slipped  ofT.     The  word  would  only  be  used  of  a  slip  or  twig, 
not  of  a  large  bough.     It  is  used  with  '  disbranch'  in  King  Lear,  iv.  2.  34  : 
'  She  that  herself  will  sliver  and  disbranch 
From  her  material  sap.' 
The  noun  '  sliver,'  a  twig,  is  used  in  Hamlet,  iv.  7.  1  74  :    'An  envious  sliver 
broke.' 

lb.  the  moon's  eclipse  was  a  most  unlucky   time  for  lawful   enterprises, 
and  therefore  suitable  for  evil  designs.    Compare  Milton,  Par.  Lost,  i.  597  : 
'  As  when  the  sun  new-risen 
Looks  through  the  horizontal  misty  air 
Shorn  of  his  beams,  or  from  behind  the  moon 
In  dim  eclipse  disastrous  twilight  sheds 
On  half  the  nations.' 
And  in  Lycidas,  he  says  of  the  unlucky  ship  that  was  wrecked,  line  lOI, 
'  It  was  that  fatal  and  perfidious  barque 
Built  in  the  eclipse.' 


sc.  i]  MACBETH.  I45 

32.  slab,  thick,  slimy.  The  same  word  is  found  as  a  substantive,  meaning 
mud  or  slime.  There  is  also  '  slabber,'  a  verb,  to  soil.  Another  form  of  the 
adjective  is  '  slabby.'  We  find  no  other  example  of  the  adjective  '  slab.' 
Etyrnologically  it  is  doubtless  related  to  '  slobbery,'  which  we  find  in  Henry  V. 
iii.  5.  13  :     'A  slobbery  and  a  dirty  farm.' 

33.  chaudrott,  entrails.  Probably,  like  the  German  Kaldunen,  with 
which  it  is  connected,  '  chaudron*  is  a  plural  noun  and  should  be  spelt 
'  chaudren.'  It  is  spelt  '  chaldern'  in  Cotgrave,  who  gives  '  calves  chaldern ' 
as  a  translation  of  Praise.  We  find  however  'chaudrons,'  or  'chaldrons,' 
in  one  of  Middleton's  plays,  vol.  iii.  p.  55,  ed.  Dyce,  1840;  '  calves'  chal- 
drons and  chitterlings.' 

34.  ingredients.  Kowe.  The  folios  have  '  ingredience.'  See  note  on  i.  7. 
II.     Milton  has  'ingredients,'  Paradise  J,ost,  xi.  417. 

43.  Music  and  a  song :  Black  spirits,  Ct'c.  This  is  verbatim  the  stage- 
direction  of  the  folio.  Rowe,  following  Davenant's  version,  printed  the 
stanza  thus ; 

'  Black  spirits  and  white, 

Blue  spirits  and  gray. 

Mingle,  mingle,  mingle, 

You  that  mingle  rhay.' 

Davenant  took  this  from  Middleton's  Witch  (vol.  ii.  p.  328,  ed.  Dyce,  1S40), 

substituting  '  Blue'  for  '  Red'  in  the  second  line. 

50.  conjure  seems  to  be  used  by  Shakespeare  always  with  the  accent  on 
the  first  syllable,  except  in  two  instances,  Romeo  and  Juliet,  ii.  I.  26,  and 
Othello,  i.  3.  105.  In  both  these  passages  Shakespeare  says  'conjure' 
where  we  should  say  'conjure.'  In  all  other  cases  he  uses  '  conjure' whether 
he  means  (l)  'adjure,'  (2)  '  conspire/  or  (3)  '  use  magic  arts.' 

53.  yesty,  foaming,  frothing  like  yeast.  The  word  occurs  in  Hamlet,  v. 
2.  198,  in  the  sense  of  '  frothy.' 

55.  bladed  corn,  corn  in  the  blade,  before  it  is  in  the  ear.     The  epithet 
is  used  with  'grass,'  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  i.  I.  21 1  : 
'  Decking  with  liquid  pearl  the  bladed  grass.' 
Collier,  following  his  MS.  Corrector,  reads  '  bleaded  corn,'  that  is,  ripe  corn. 
Mr.  Staunton  refers  very  appositely  to  Scot's  Discovery  of  Witchcraft  (Bk.  i. 
ch.  4)  first  published  in  1584,  and  doubtless  well  known  to  Shakespeare  :  'And 
first  Quid  affirmeth,  that  they  can  raise  and  suppresse  lightening  and  thunder, 
raine  and  haile,  clouds  and  winds,  tempests  and  earthquakes.     Others  doo 
write,  that  they  can  pull  downe  the  moone  and  the  starres  .  .  .  Some  that 
they  can  transferre  come  in  the  blade  from  one  place  to  another.' 
lb.  lodged,  laid.     Compare  Richard  II.  iii.  3.  162  : 

'  We'll  make  foul  weather  with  despised  tears ; 
Our  sighs  and  they  shall  lodge  the  summer  com.' 
And  2  Henry  VI.  iii.  2.  176: 

'  Like  to  the  summer's  corn  by  tempest  lodged.' 
57,  58.  slope  Their  heads,  a  very  unusual  construction.    The  word  'slope' 
does  not  occur  elsewhere  in  Shakespeare's  dramas  either  as  substantive  or 
verb. 

59.  germens.  The  first  and  second  folios  read  '  germaine ';  the  third  and 
fourth  '  germain.'     Pope  corrected  it  to  '  germains ';  Theobald  to  '  germins.' 

L 


14(5  NOTES.  [act  IV. 

The  word  occurs  in  King  Lear,  iii.  2  8 : 

'  Crack  nature's  moulds  all  germens  spill  at  once 
That  make  ungrateful  man  ! ' 
where  it  is  spelt  '  germaincs'  or  '  germains  '  in  all  the  old  editions.     The 
meaning  of  course  is  '  fruitful  seeds,'  and,  as  Mr.  R.  G.  White  says,  the  word 
is  here  used  in  the  largest  figurative  sense.     Mr.  Halliwell  reads  '  german,' 
interpreting  it  '  kindred.'     For  the  sense,  compare  Winter's  Tale,  iv.  4.  490  : 
'Let  nature  crush  the  sides  o'  the  earth  together 
And  mar  the  seeds  within  ! ' 
Tb.  tmnhle  is  here  the  subjunctive,  like  'be  lodged'  in  1.  55. 
60.  Even   till   destruction   sicken.     Destruction    is    here    personified,   and 
supposed  to  be  surfeited  with  ravage.     For  this  sense  of '  sicken,'  compare 
Twelfth  Night,  i.  i.  3: 

'  Give  me  excess  of  it,  that,  surfeiting. 
The  appetite  may  sicken,  and  so  die.' 
A  somewhat  similar  personification  is  found  in  the  dirge  which  Collins  wrote 
for  Cymbeline : 

'  Beloved  till  life  can  charm  no  more. 
And  mourn'd  till  Pity's  self  be  dead.' 
62.  tho7t  'dst.     So  Capell,  in  accordance  with  modern  usage.     The  folios 
and  earlier  editors  read  '  th'  hadst.' 

65.  nine  farrow,  farrow,  or  litter,  of  nine.  The  word  'farrow'  comes 
from  the  Anglo-Saxon /enri,  a  little  pig,  or  litter  of  pigs.  'To  farrow'  is  still 
in  use,  meaning  'to  bring  forth  pigs.'  The  substantive  is  found  in  Holland's 
Pliny,  Bk.  viii.  c.  51  :  '  One  sow  may  bring  at  one  farrow  twentie  pigges.' 
Ih.  sweaten.  A  form  of  the  participle  rot  found  elsewhere. 
68.  deftly.  'Deft,'  apt,  fit,  is  connected  with  Anglo-Saxon  gedceftan, 
p.p.  gedafl,  to  be  fit,  ready,  prepared. 

lb.  The  '  armed  head  '  which  rises  from  the  cauldron,  represents,  as  Upton 
first  remarked  in  his  'Critical  Observations,'  1746,  Macbeth's  own  head, 
which  Macduff  cuts  off  after  slaying  him  in  fight  (v.  8.  53).  This  gives 
additional  force  to  the  words  '  He  knows  thy  thought.' 

74.  harfd  my  fear  aright,  struck,  as  it  were,  the  key-note  of  my  fear. 
76.  The  '  bloody  child  '  represents  Macduff,  '  from  his  mother's  womb  un- 
timely ripp'd'  (v.  8.   14,    15).      Observe,  too,  that  the  second  apparition, 
Macduff,  is  '  more  potent  than  the  first,'  Macbeth. 

82.  what  need  I  fear  of  thee  ?  what  fear  need  I  have  of  thee  ? 

84.  take  a  bond  of  fate.  Macbeth  has  just  been  assured  that  Macduff, 
whom  he  supposes  to  be  comprised  among  those  '  of  woman  born,'  shall  r.ot 
harm  him.  By  slaying  Macduff  he  will  bind  fate  to  perform  the  promise, 
he  will  put  it  out  of  fate's  power  to  break  the  promise,  '  referring,'  says 
Mr.  Rushton  (Shakespeare  a  Lawyer,  p.  20),  '  not  to  a  single,  but  to  a  con- 
ditional bond,  under  or  by  virtue  of  which,  when  forfeited,  double  the  prin- 
cipal sum  was  recoverable.'  In  iii.  2.  49  the  same  figure  is  used  with  a 
different  application. 

85.  pale-hearted  fear .     Compare  ii.  2.  64,  and  v.  3.  15. 

86.  The  '  child  crowned,  with  a  tree  in  his  hand,"  represents  Malcolm,  who. 
as  he  advances  to  the  reconquest  of  his  kingdom,  bids  every  soldier  bear  a 
bough  before  him  (v.  4.  4). 


sc.  1.]  MA  C  B  E  TH.  147 

88,  89.  the  round  And  top  of  sovereignty,  a  stately  periphrasis,  suggested 
by,  rather  than  descriptive  of,  a  closed  crown,  and  including  in  its  poetic 
vagueness  much  more  than  the  mere  symbol  of  royalty. 

93.  Birnam  is  a  high  hill  near  Dunkeld,  twelve  miles  W.N.W.  of  Dun- 
sinnan,  which  is  seven  miles  N.E.  of  Perth.  On  the  top  of  the  latter  hill  are 
the  remains  of  an  ancient  fortress,  popularly  called  Macbeth's  Castle. 

lb.  Dunsinane.  Now  spelt  '  Dunsinnan.'  This  is  the  only  passage  in  the 
play  where  the  word  is  accented  on  the  second  syllable,  in  accordance  with 
the  local  pronunciation.     Pope  read  '  Dunsinane's  high  hill.' 

95.  impress,  press  into  his  service.  The  substantive  '  impress'  is  used  in 
this  sense,  Hamlet,  i.  i,  75  : 

*  Why  such  impress  of  ship-wrights  ?' 

96.  hodetnents,  prophecies.  So  the  w  ord  is  used  in  Troilus  and  Cressida 
of  the  prophecies  of  Cassandra,  v.  3.  80  : 

'  This  foolish,  dreaming,  superstitious  girl 
Makes  all  these  bodements.' 

97.  Rebellion's  head.  This  is  Theobald's  conjecture,  first  adopted  into  the 
text  by  Hanmer.  The  folios  have  '  Rebellious  dead.'  Theobald  in  his  own 
text  inserted  Warburton's  conjecture,  '  Rebellious  head.'  What  meaning 
Rowe  and  Pope  assigned  to  the  folio  reading,  which  they  retained,  does 
not  appear.     Johnson  quotes  I  Henry  IV.  iii.  2.  167  : 

'  A  mighty  and  a  fearful  head  they  are,' 
where  the  rebels  are  spoken  of;  and,  more  appositely,  Henry VHI.  ii.  I.  108  : 

'  Who  first  raised  head  against  usurping  Richard.' 
Compare  also  l  Henry  IV.  iv.  I.  80;  iv.  3.  103,  and  Hamlet,  iv.  5.  loi.  In 
the  present  passage,  the  expression  'Rebellion's  head'  or  'Rebellious  head' 
(whichever  be  the  true  reading)  is  suggested  to  Macbeth  by  the  apparition  of 
the  armed  head,  which  he  misinterprets,  as  he  misinterpreted  the  prophecies 
of  the  others. 

98.  our.  Sidney  Walker  proposed  '  your.'  In  either  case  the  words  seem 
strange  in  Macbeth's  mouth. 

99.  the  lease  of  tiatiire.     See  note  on  iii.  2.  38. 

III.  'A  show'  was  the  technical  word  used  in  theatres  for  processions,  &c. 
in  which  the  actors  did  not  speak  ;  '  dumb  show,'  as  we  say. 

Tb.  eight  Kings.  Banquo,  according  to  Holinshed,  who  gives  the  lineage 
at  length,  was  the  ancestor  of  the  Stuart  family,  the  first  of  whom,  being 
grandson  by  the  mother's  side  of  Robert  Bruce,  ascended  the  throne  in  1371, 
under  the  title  of  Robert  the  Second.  Robert  the  Third  and  the  six  Jameses 
make  up  the  eight  kings.  In  the  glass  are  shown  the  many  more  kings  of 
the  same  race,  who,  as  the  poet  predicts,  were  to  succeed  the  then  King  James 
in  the  sovereignty  of  the  three  kingdoms.  Mary  Stuart  is  left  out  of  the 
show.  In  the  folios  the  stage-direction  runs  thus  :  '  A  show  of  eight  Kings, 
and  Banquo  last,  with  a  glasse  in  his  hand.'  Hanmer  altered  it,  and  rightly, 
because  it  is  clear  from  lines  1 19,  120  that  it  was  the  eighth  king  that  bore 
the  glass,  not  Banquo. 

116.  Start,  start  from  your  sockets,  so  that  I  may  be  spared  the  horror  of 
the  vision. 

117.  the  crack  of  doom,  the  thunder-peal  announcing  the  Last  Judgement. 
'  Crack,'  the  verb,  is  used  of  thunder  in  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  i.  2.  96; 

L  2 


148 


NOTES.  [act  IV. 


and  the  substantive  in  Titus  Andronicus,  ii.  i.  3  : 

'  Secure  of  thunder's  crack  or  Hghtning  flash.' 
121.  The   'two-fold  balls'  here  mentioned  probably  refer  to  the  double 
coronation  of  James,  at  Scone  and  at  Westminster.     The  three  sceptres  of 
course  symbolize  the  three  kingdoms,  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland. 
12  2.  For  '  Now  '  Pope  reads  '  Nay  now,'  to  complete  the  hne. 
123.  blood-bolter' d.     Malone    says  that  '  boltered '  is   a   provincial  term 
well   known    in  Warwickshire.     '  When  a   horse,  sheep,   or   other   animal, 
perspires  much,  and  any  of  the  hair,  or  wool .  .  .  becomes  matted  in  tufts  with 
grime  and  sweat,  he  is  said  to  be   "  boltered ;"    and   whenever  the  blood 
issues  out  and  coagulates,  forming  the  locks  into  hard  clotted  bunches,  the 
beast  is  said  to  be  "  blood-boltered." '     Banquo,  therefore,  both   here  and 
at  the  banquet,  ought  to  be  represented  with  his  hair  clotted  with  blood. 
The  murderer,  when  he  informs  Macbeth  of  his  having  executed  his  commis- 
sion, says  (iii.  4.  27) : 

'  Safe  in  a  ditch  he  bides. 
With  twenty  trenched  gashes  on  his  head ;  ' 
The  least  a  death  to  nature.' 
And  Macbeth  himself  exclaims  (_iii.  4.  51)  : 

'  Thou  canst  not  say  I  did  it ;  never  shake 
Thy  gory  locks  at  me.' 
The  word,  with  slight  difference  of  spelling,  is  used  by  Holland,  himself 
living  at  Coventry,  in  his  translation  of  Pliny,  xii.  1 7,  speaking  of  a  goat's 
beard :  '  Now  by  reason  of  dust  getting  among,  it  balteretb  and  cluttereth 
into  knobs  and  bals.'      This  passage  was  first  pointed  out  by  Steevens. 

126.  amazedly,  in  blank  perplexity,  as  if  paralysed  by  astonishment. 
Compare  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  iv.  i.  143: 

'  My  lord,  I  shall  reply  amazedly, 
Half  sleep,  half  waking.' 

127.  sprites.     See  ii.  3.  60. 

130.  antic,  spelt,  as  usual,  'antique'  in  the  folios.  Its  modern  sense  of 
'  grotesque '  is  probably  derived  from  the  remains  of  ancient  sculpture  rudely 
imitated  and  caricatured  by  mediaeval  artists,  and  from  the  figures  in  Masques 
and  Antimasques  dressed  in  ancient  costume,  particularly  satyrs  and  the  like. 
But  it  acquired  a  much  wider  application.     In  Twelfth  Night,  ii.  4.  3  : 

•  That  old  and  antique  song  we  heard  last  night,' 
the  word  means  old-fashioned,  quaint.     Sometimes  it  means  simply  ancient, 
as  Hamlet,  ii.  2.  491  : 

'  His  antique  sword. 
Rebellious  to  command,  lies  where  it  falls.' 
Whatever  be  its  signification,  and  however  it  be  spelt,  it  is  always  accented 
by  Shakespeare  on  the  first  syllable. 

lb.  Steevens  says :  '  These  ideas  as  well  as  a  foregoing  one, 
"  The  weird  sisters  hand  in  hand"  [i.  3.  32], 
might  have  been  adapted  from  a  poem  entitled  Churchyard's  Dreame,  1593  • 
"  All  hand  in  hand  they  traced  on 
A  tricksie  ancient  round  ; 
And  soone  as  shadowes  were  they  gone, 
And  might  no  more  be  found."  ' 


sc.  2.]  MACBETH.  149 

144-T55.  Titne  .  .  .  sights!  This  speech  of  course  Is  spoken  by  Macbeth 
to  himself.     Lennox  is  supposed  not  to  overhear  it. 

144.  anticipaiest,  preventestt.  So  contrariwise  we  have  '  prevent '  used  in 
old  authors  where  we  should  say  '  anticipate.' 

145.  flighfy,  fleeting,  swiftly  passing.  The  word  is  not  used  by  our 
author  elsewhere.  For  the  general  sense,  compare  All 's  Well  that  Ends 
Well,  V.  3.  40  : 

'  For  we  are  old,  and  on  our  quick'st  decrees 
The  inaudible  and  noiseless  foot  of  Time 
Steals  ere  we  can  effect  them.' 
Ih.   oertooli.      See  note   on  iii.  4.   109.     This  form  of  the  participle  is 
found   in  Hamlet,  ii.   I.  58.     'O'erta'en'  is  used  in   All's  Well  that  Ends 
Well,  iii.  4.  24. 

147.  firstlings,  earliest  offspring.  In  Troilus  and  Cressida,  Prologue  27, 
it  is  used  metaphorically  for  the  earliest  incidents : 

'  The  vaunt  and  firstlings  of  those  broils.' 
Here  it  is  for  the  first  conceptions  of  the  heart  and  the  first  acts  of  the  hand. 
153.  As  this  line  has   one  foot   too  much,  Johnson  proposed  to   read: 
'  That  trace  his  line,'  which  Steevens  adopted. 

Ih.  trace  him  in  his  line.  '  Trace '  is  used  in  the  sense  of  '  follow  in 
another's  track,'  as  here,  in  Hamlet,  v.  2.  125  :  '  His  semblable  is  his  mirror ; 
and  who  else  would  trace  him,  his  umbrage,  nothing  more.'  So  in 
I  Henry  IV.  iii.  i.  47  : 

'  And  bring  him  out  that  is  but  woman's  son 
Can  trace  me  in  the  tedious  ways  of  art.' 
155.  sights.  Mr.  Collier  follows  his   MS.  Corrector  in  reading  'flights.' 
Mr.  R.  G.  White  reads  '  sprites.'    To  us  the  text  seems  unquestionably  right. 


Scene  II. 

The  scene  of  the  murder  of  Lady  Macduff  and  her  children  is  traditionally 
placed  at  Dunne-marle  Castle,  Culross,  Perthshire. 

7.  his  titles,  all  that  lie  had  a  title  to  ;  not  merely  the  designations  of  his 
rank. 

9.   natural  touch,  natural  sensibility,  or  feeling.  Compare  Tempest,  v.  i.  21  : 
'  Hast  thou,  which  art  but  air,  a  touch,  a  feeling 
Of  their  afflictions?' 
And  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  ii.  7.  18: 

'  Didst  thou  but  know  the  inly  touch  of  love.' 
The  word  is  used  in  a  different  sense  in  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iii.  3.  175  : 
'  One  touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin.' 
II.  Her  young  ones  in  her  nest,  i.  e.  when  her  young  ones  are  in  her  nest. 
15-  fo*"  your  husband,  i.e.  as  for  your  husband.     Compare  2  Henry  IV. 
i.  I.  198 : 

'  But,  for  their  spirits  and  souls. 
This  word,  rebellion,  it  had  froze  them  up 
As  fish  are  in  a  pond.' 
17.   The  fits  0'  the  season,  the  critical  conjunctures  of  the  time.    The  figure 


150  NOTES.  [act  IV. 

is  taken  from  the  fits  of  an  intermittent  fever.     It  occurs  again  in  Corio- 
lanus,  iii.  2.  33  : 

'  The  violent  fit  o'  the  time  craves  it  as  physic 
For  the  whole  state.' 

18,  19.  uben  tve  are  traitors  And  do  not  know  ourselves,  when  we  are 
held  to  be  traitors  and  are  yet  unconscious  of  guilt. 

19,  20.  ivhe?i  we  hold  rumour  From  what  we  fear,  &c.  It  is  uncertain 
whether  this  very  difficult  expression  means  '  when  we  interpret  rumour  in 
accordance  with  our  fear,'  or  '  when  our  reputation  is  derived  from  actions 
which  our  fear  dictates,'  as  Lady  Macduff  has  said  in  lines  3,  4 : 

'  When  our  actions  do  not. 
Our  fears  do  make  us  traitors.' 
Others  would  give  to  '  hold  '  the  sense  of  '  receive,'  '  beheve.'     A  somewhat 
similar  passage  is  found  in  King  John,  iv.  2.  145  : 
'  I  find  the  people  strangely  fantasied  ; 
Possess'd  with  rumours,  full  of  idle  dreams, 
Not  knowing  what  they  fear,  but  full  of  fear.' 
'  From '  is  used  for  '  in  consequence  of  in  iii.  6.  21  :  '  From  broad  words.' 

22.  Each  way  and  i7iove.  Theobald  conjectured  that  we  should  read, 
'  Each  way  and  wave  ' ;  Capell, '  And  move  each  way  ' ;  Johnson, '  Each  way, 
and  move  ' ;  Steevens,  '  And  each  way  move ' ;  and  Dr.  Ingleby,  '  Which  way 
we  move.'  The  passage,  as  it  stands,  is  equally  obscure  whether  we  take 
'  move '  as  a  verb  or  a  substantive,  and  no  one  of  the  emendations  suggested 
seems  to  us  satisfactory.  The  following,  which  we  put  forward  with  some  con- 
fidence, yields,  by  the  change  of  two  letters  only,  a  good  and  forcible  sense  : 
'  Each  way,  and  none.'  That  is,  we  are  floating  in  every  direction  upon  a  vio- 
lent sea  of  uncertainty,  and  yet  make  no  way.  We  have  a  similar  antithesis. 
The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  2.  65  (Globe  ed.):  '  He  is  every  man  in  no  man.' 

23.  Shall  not.  Sec,  i.e.  I  shall  not,  &c.     Hanmer  read  'I  shall.' 

29.  I  should  disgrace  my  manhood  by  weeping,  and  distress  you.  Com- 
pare Henry  V.  iv.  6.  30  : 

'  But  I  had  not  so  much  of  man  in  me. 
And  all  my  mother  came  into  mine  eyes, 
And  gave  me  up  to  tears.' 

30.  Sirrah,  used  to  an  inferior,  iii.  i.  44,  and  here  playfully  to  the  child  ; 
as  Leontes,  in  Winter's  Tale,  i.  2.  135,  calls  Mamihus  'sir  page.'  Compare 
2  Henry  IV.  i.  2.  I ;  and  I  Henry  VI.  i.  4.  i. 

32.  with  luorms,  on  worms.     Compare  Richard  II.  iii.  2.  175  ^ 
'  I  live  with  bread  like  you.' 
and  I  Henry  IV.  iii.  1.  162  : 

'  I  had  rather  live 
With  cheese  and  garlic  in  a  windmill.' 
See  also  v.  5.  13  of  this  play,  and  note. 

34.  lime,  birdlime.  Compare  The  Tempest,  iv.  i.  246 :  '  Monster,  come, 
put  some  lime  upon  your  fingers,  and  away  with  the  rest.' 

35.  gin,  snare,  trap.  Compare  Twelfth  Night,  ii.  5.  92  :  '  Now  is  the  wood- 
cock near  the  gin.'  And  Ps.  cxl.  5  :  '  They  have  set  gins  for  me.'  The 
word  is  derived  from  the  Lat.  ingenium,  whence  'engine,'  anything  wrought 
with  skill. 


sc.  2.]  MACBETH.  151 

36.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  word  '  they'  refers  to  the  various  traps 
just  mentioned,  reading  '  Poor  birds '  as  the  objective  case  following  •  set  for,' 
or  whether  it  is  a  repetition  of  '  Poor  birds,'  taken  as  a  nominative,  as  in  iv. 
3.  II,  'What  you  have  spoke,  it  .  .  .'  In  either  case  the  emphasis  is  on 
'  Poor,'  and  the  meaning  is  that  in  Hfe  traps  are  set  not  for  the  poor  but  for 
the  rich.  The  boy's  precocious  intelligence  enhances  the  pity  of  his  early 
death. 

47.  iwears  and  lies,  swears  allegiance  and  perjures  himself.  The  boy, 
lines  51,  56-58,  uses  '  Hars'  and  '  swearers'  in  the  ordinary  sense. 

50.  Traitors  were  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered. 

56.  enozv,  used  with  plural  nouns,  as  '  enough'  with  singular.  For  the  latter 
see  1.  43.     Compare  also  ii.  3.  7,  and  note. 

57.  bang  up  them.     So  Romeo  and  Juliet,  iv.  2.  41  : 

'  Go  thou  to  Juliet,  help  to  deck  up  her.' 
And  Richard  II.  i.  3.  131  : 

'  With  rival-hating  envy  set  on  you 
To  wake  our  peace.' 
i.  e.  set  you  on. 

65.  Though  I  am  well  acquainted  with  your  rank  and  condition.  For 
the  expression  'state  of  honour,'  compare  Richard  III.  iii.  7.  120  : 

'  Your  state  of  fortune  and  your  due  of  birth.' 
And  for  '  perfect,'  Winter's  Tale,  iii.  3.  I  : 

'  Thou  art  perfect  then,  our  ship  hath  touch'd  upon 
The  deserts  of  Bohemia.' 
And  I  Henry  IV.  iii.  i.  203 : 

'  That  pretty  Welsh 
Which  thou  pour'st  down  from  these  iwelling  heavens 
I  am  too  perfect  in.' 

66.  /  doubt,  I  fear.     See  King  John,    iv.  I.  19  : 

'  But  that  I  doubt 
My  uncle  practises  more  harm  to  me.' 
See  also  Richard  II.  iii.  4.  6g,  and  our  note  on  that  passage. 

69.  frigbt,  frighten,  atTright.     Frequent  in  Shakespeare,  e.  g.  Richard  II. 

'•3-137:  . 

'  Might  from  our  quiet  confines  fright  fair  peace.* 

70.  He  would  '  do  worse'  to  her  if  he  refrained  from  warning  her  of  the 
approaching  danger.  For  '  worse'  Hanmer  and  Capell  read  '  le:s,'  Warburton 
'  worship.' 

lb.  fell.  This  word  is  said  to  have  a  Celtic  origin.  It  is  fello  in  Italian, 
fel  in  Old  French  and  Provencal.  Florio  gives,  in  his  Italian  Dictionary, 
^  Fello,  fell,  cruel,  moodie,  inexorable,  fellonious,  murderous.'  Hence  'fellone,' 
a  felon.     Compare  Twelfth  Night,  i.  i.  22  : 

'  And  my  desires,  like  fell  and  cruel  hounds. 
E'er  since  pursue  me.' 
75.  sofnethne  and  '  sometimes'  are  used  indifferently  by  Shakespeare,  with 
either  signification,  not  distinguished  as  in  our  time.     Compare  i.  6.  11,  and 
Richard  II.  i.  2.  54 :  '  Thy  sometimes  brother's  wife.'     Again,  in  Richard  II. 
iv.  I.  169 : 

'  Did  they  not  sometime  cry  "  all  hail !"  to  me?' 


152  NOTES.  [act  IV. 

82.  shag-hair'' d.   This  is  Steevens's  conjectural  emendation  for  '  shag-ear'd,' 
which  is  the  reading  of  the  folio,  and  it  is  a  more  suitable  epithet  for  the 
stage  murderer,  whose  features  are  almost  concealed  under  his  shock  of  wild 
hair.     We  have  the  same  epithet  in  2  Henry  VI.  iii.  I.  367 : 
'  Like  a  shag-hair'd  crafty  kern.' 

lb.  you  egg!  Compare  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  v.  i.  78,  where  Costard 
calls  little  Moth  '  thou  pigeon-egg  of  discretion.'  Thersites,  in  Troilus  and 
Cressida,  v.  1.  41,  applies  to  Patroclus  the  term  '  finch-egg,'  expressive  of  his 
utter  insignificance,  moral  smallness.  He  had  just  spoken  of  '  such  waterflies, 
diminutives  of  nature.' 

84.  fry.  A  change  of  metaphor,  suggested  by  the  preceding  '  egg.'  Com- 
pare Pericles,  ii.  I.  34  :  '  A'  [i.  e.  the  whale]  plays  and  tumbles,  driving  the 
poor  fry  before  him,  and  at  last  devours  them  all  at  a  mouthful.' 


Scene  HI. 

Before  the  King's  palace.  So  Dyce.  Former  editors  generally  gave  '  A 
room  in  the  King's  Palace.'  The  words  in  line  140,  'Comes  the  king/orth, 
I  pray  you?'  seem  to  support  the  change.  As  usual  there  is  no  indication  of 
place  in  the  folio.  The  scene  which  follows  is  grounded  on  Holinshed. 
See  the  passage  printed  at  length  in  the  Preface.  The  poet  no  doubt  felt 
that  it  was  needed  to  supplement  the  meagre  parts  assigned  to  Malcolm  and 
Macduff. 

3.  mortal,  deadly.     See  King  John,  iii.  i.  259  : 

'  France,  thou  mayst  hold  a  serpent  by  the  tongue, 
The  chafed  lion  by  the  mortal  paw, 
A  fasting  tiger  safer  by  the  tooth. 
Than  keep  in  peace  that  hand  which  thou  dost  hold.' 
lb.  good  men,  brave  men.     See  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iv.  5.  197  '• 
'  I  knew  thy  grandsire, 
And  once  fought  with  him :  he  was  a  soldier  good.' 

4.  birthdom,  spelt  '  birthdome '  in  the  folios,  whence  Johnson  conjectured 
'birth-dame.'  Pope  printed  'birth-doom.'  'Birthdom'  is  formed  on  the 
analogy  of '  kingdom,'  'earldom,'  'masterdom,'  i.  5.  68,  with  this  difference 
that  '  king,'  '  earl,'  '  master,'  designate  persons,  and  '  birth '  a  condition, 
the  termination  '  -dom'  is  connected  with  '  doom,'  and  '  kingdom'  signifies  the 
extent  of  a  king's  jurisdiction.  It  loses  its  original  force  when  joined  to 
adjectives,  as  in  '  freedom,'  '  wisdom,'  &c.,  and  is  then  equivalent  to  the 
German  -heit,  in  Weisheit.  Freiheit,  our  '-hood.'  'Birthdom'  here  does  not. 
as  we  think,  signify  '  birthright,'  but  '  the  land  of  our  birth,'  now  struck 
down  and  prostrate  beneath  the  usurper's  feet.  Compare  2  Henry  IV.  i.  I. 
207,  where  the  Archbishop  of  York,  urging  the  people  to  deliver  their  country 
from  Henry's  tyranny, 

'  Tells  them  he  doth  bestride  a  bleeding  land, 
Gasping  for  life  under  great  Bolingbroke.' 


sc.  3.]  MACBETH.  1  ^^ 

6.  Strike  heaven  on  /he  face.  A  somewhat  similar  hj'perbole  occurs  in  The 
Tempest,  i.  2.  4  : 

'  But  that  the  sea,  mounting  to  the  welkin'^  cheek. 
Dashes  the  fire  out.' 
Again,  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  7.  45  : 

'  The  watery  kingdom,  whose  ambitious  head 
Spits  in  the  face  of  heaven.' 
We  have  also  '  the  face  of  heaven  '  in  Richard  III.  iv.  4.  239  ;  '  the  cloudy 
cheeks  of  heaven'  in  Richard  II.  iii.  3.  57.     The  sun  is  called  '  the  eye  of 
heaven'  in  i.  3.  275,  and  '  the  searching  eye  of  heaven'  in  iii.  2.  37,  of  the 
same  play. 

lb.  that.     Compare  i.  2.  58  ;  i.  7-  8- 

8.  syllable.  Pope  changed  this  to  '  syl'ables,'  unnecessarily.  A  single  cry, 
the  expression  of  grief  of  each  new  widow  and  orphan  is  in  each  case  re- 
echoed by  heaven. 

lb.  dolour,  frequently  used  by  Shakespeare.    See,  for  example,  Richard  II. 

'•  3-  257: 

'  To  breathe  the  abundant  dolour  of  the  heart.' 

10.  As  I  shall  fiiid  the  time  to  friend.  Compare  Julius  Caesar,  iii. 
I.  143: 

'  I  know  that  we  shall  have  him  well  to  friend,' 
and  All 's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  v.  3.  182  : 

'  Sir,  for  my  thoughts,  you  have  them  ill  to  friend 
Till  your  deeds  gain  them.' 
For  the  construction  see  The  Tempest,  iii.  3.  54: 

'  Destiny 
That  hath  to  instrument  this  lower  world.' 
So  we  find  frequently  in  the  Bible  '  to  wife '  with  the  verbs  '  have,'  give,' 
'  take,'  &c.     The  verb  is  used  in  Henry  V.  iv.  5.  17  : 

'  Disorder,  that  hath  spoil'd  us,  friend  us  now  !' 
The  phrase  '  at  friend '  occurs  in  V/inter's  Tale,  v.  I.  140  : 
'  Give  you  all  greetings  that  a  king,  at  friend. 
Can  send  his  brother.' 

11.  What  you  have  spoke,  it.     So  Richard  II.  v.  5,  18  : 

'  Thoughts  tending  to  ambition,  they  do  plot.' 
And  King  John,  v.  7.  60  :  '  Heaven,  he  knows.'    And  2  Henry  IV.  i.  i.  199  : 
'  This  word,  rebellion,  it  had  froze  them  up.' 

12.  ivhose  sole  7ia77ie,vi\\os^  mere  name,  whose  name  alone.  So  in  Comedy 
of  Errors,  iii.  2-  64:  'My  sole  earth's  heaven,'  where  'sole'  really  qualifies 
'  heaven,'  not  '  earth,'  which  it  immediately  precedes.  Compare  the  phrase 
in  the  Collect  for  the  Seventh  Sunday  after  Trinity  :  '  of  whose  only  gift  it 
cometh,'  &c. 

lb.  blisters  our  tongues.     Compare  Romeo  and  Juliet,  iii.  2.  90: 
'  Blister'd  be  thy  tongue 
For  such  a  wish  !' 
Compare  also  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  v.  2.  335  ;  and  Winter's  Tale,  ii.  2.  33. 
The  very  name  of  the  tyrant,  once  thought  honest  and  proved  to  be  so 
much  the  contrary,  blisters  the  tongue  that  utters  it  as  if  it  were  in  itself  a 
lie. 


154  NOTES.  [act  IV. 

15.  decerve.  This  is  Theobald's  certain  emendation  for  the  folio  reading 
'  discerne.' 

lb.  and  wisdom.  There  is  certainly  some  corruption  of  the  text  here. 
Hanmer  read  '  'tis'  for  '  and.'  Steevens  proposed  '  and  wisdom  is  it,'  omitting 
the  previous  words,  '  of  him.'  Staunton  suggests  'and  wisdom  bids';  Lettsom, 
'and  wisdom  Would  offer.'     Perhaps  a  whole  line  has  dropped  out. 

19.  recoil.  Here  used,  not  in  its  usual  sense  of  rebounding  on  the  removal 
of  pressure,  but  meaning  to  yield,  give  way,  swerve.  So  also  in  v.  2.  23. 
Compare  Cymbehne,  i.  6.  128: 

'  Be  revenged  ; 
Or  she  that  bore  you  was  no  queen,  and  you 
Recoil  from  your  great  stock.' 
Perhaps  Shakespeare  had  in  his  mind  the  recoil  of  a  gun,  which  suggested  the 
use  of  the  word  '  charge,'  though  with  a  diiferent  signification.     Compare 
1  Henry  VI.  iii.  2.  331 : 

'  And  these  dread  curses,  like  the  sun  'gainst  glass. 
Or  like  an  overcharged  gun,  recoil 
And  turn  the  force  of  them  upon  thyself.' 
The  general  sense  of  the  present  passage  is,  'A  virtuous  nature  may  give  way 
under  the  weight  of  a  king's  command.'     '  Imperial '  is  frequently  used  for 
'  royal,'  as  i.  3.  129,  and  in  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  ii.  i.  163,  Elizabeth 
is  alluded  to  as  '  the  imperial  votaress.' 

21.  transpose,  invert,  change.     This  word  is  only  used  by  Shakespeare  in 
one  other  passage,  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  i.  I.  233  : 
'  Things  base  and  vile,  holding  no  quantity, 
Love  can  transpose  to  form  and  dignity.' 

23.  would,  for  '  should.'     See  i.  7-  34.  and  note. 

24.  look  so,  i.  e.  look  gracious,  like  herself.  Compare  Measure  for  Measure, 
ii.  I.  297 : 

'  Mercy  is  not  itself  that  oft  looks  so,* 
i.  e.  looks  like  mercy. 

lb.  I  have  lost  my  hopes.  Macduff  had  hoped  that  he  should  be  received 
by  Malcolm  with  full  confidence.  Failing  this,  all  his  hopes  of  a  successful 
enterprise  against  the  tyrant  are  gone.  Malcolm  replies:  'Your  disappoint- 
ment is  due  to  your  own  conduct  in  leavmg  your  wife  and  children,  which 
has  given  rise  to  distrust  in  my  mind.' 

26.  rawness,  haste,  unpreparedness.  Compare  Henry  V.  iv.  I.  147  : 
'  children  rawly  left,'  i.  e.  children  hastily  left.     So  Tenn_vson  : 

'  Raw  haste,  half  sister  to  dela}'.' 

27.  motives,  frequently  applied  by  Shakespeare  to  persons,  as  in  Timon  of 
Athens,  v.  4.27: 

'  Nor  are  they  living 
Who  were  the  motives  that  you  first  went  out.' 
So  also  All 's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  iv.  4.  20. 

34.  The  title.  Pope  read  '  His  title,'  and  Malone  '  Thy  title.'  No  change 
is  required. 

76.  ajfeer'd.  This  spelling  was  first  given  by  Steevens,  1/93.  on  the 
suggestion  of  Heath,  "rhe  first  and  second  folios  have  'affear'd';  the  third 
'  afcar'd : '  the  fourth  '  afeard.'     Some  editors  have  taken  this  in  the  sense 


sc.  3.]  MACBETH.  I55 

of  '  afraid';  but  no  satisfactory  interpretation  can  be  thus  arrived  at,  even  if 
we  read  with  Malone,  '  Thy  title,'  and  suppose  the  words  to  be  addressed  to 
Malcolm.  Sidney  Walker  conjectured  '  assur'd'  or  '  affirm'd,'  quite  unneces- 
sarily. '  Affeer'd'  bears  the  sense  of  '  confirmed.'  In  Cowel's  Law  Dictionary, 
s.v.  we  read:  '  Affeerers  may  probably  be  derived  from  the  French  qffier, 
that  is,  ctffirmare,  confirmare,  and  signifies  in  the  common  law  such  as  are 
appointed  in  Court-Leets,  upon  oath,  to  set  the  fines  on  such  as  have  com- 
mitted faults  arbitrarily  punishable,  and  have  no  express  penalty  appointed  by 
the  statute.'  '  To  afifeer,'  says  Ritson,  himself  a  lawyer,  '  is  to  assess,  or  re- 
duce to  certainty.' 

37.  to  hoot,  in  addition.     So  2  Henry  IV.  iii.  I.  29  : 
'  With  all  appliances  and  means  to  boot.' 
'  Boot'   comes   from   Anglo-Saxon  bat,  profit,   advantage.     The  impersonal 
verb  '  it  boots,' '  it  boots  not,'  is  frequent  in  Shakespeare.    For  the  substantive, 
see  Richard  II.  i.  i.  164,  and  I  Henry  VI.  iv.  6.  52. 

43.  gracious  England,  i.  e.  King  Edward.  Compare  King  John,  ii. 
1.52: 

•  What  England  says,  say  briefly,  gentle  lord. 
So  Prospero  says  of  himself.  Tempest,  v.  i.  86  :  '  As  I  was  sometime  Milan.' 

48.  more  situdry,  more  various. 

52.  opend,  i.  e.  like  buds. 

55.  coajineless,  boundless.  A  word  not  found  elsewhere.  '  Harms'  is  used 
either,  as  here,  for  injuries  inflicted,'  or  for  injuries  received,  as  Richard  III. 
ii.  2.  103  : 

'  But  none  can  cure  their  harms  by  wailing  them.' 

57.  top,  excel,  overtop,  surpass,  as  King  Lear,  i.  2.  21  : 

'  Edmund  the  base 
Shall  top  the  legitimate.' 

58.  Luxurious,  always,  as  here,  used  by  Shakespeare  in  the  sense  of 
luxurious  in  patristic  Latin,  and  the  French  htxurieux,  i.  e.  the  adjective 
corresponding  to  luxure,  not  luxe.  This  sense  of  the  word  is  now  obsolete. 
In  the  modern  sense  we  find  it  as  early  as  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  and  in 
Milton  it  has  always  either  the  modern  sense  or  that  of  '  luxuriant.' 

59.  Sudden,  violent,  passionate.     See  2  Henry  IV.  iv.  4.  34  : 

'  As  humorous  as  winter,  and  as  sudden 
As  flaws  congealed  in  the  spring  of  day.' 
64.  continent,   restraining.      Compare   Love's   Labour's   Lost,   i.  1.262: 
'  Contrary  to  thy  established  proclaimed  edict  and  continent  canon.'     In  King 
Lear,  iii.  2.  58,  the  word  is  found  as  a  substantive  : 

'  Rive  your  concealing  continents.' 
And  in  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  ii.  I.  92, 

'  Have  every  pelting  river  made  so  proud 
That  they  have  overborne  their  continents,' 
we  have  the  same  figure  which  is  used  in  the  present  passage. 

66.  Steevens,  for  the  sake  of  the  metre,  proposed  to  leave  out '  Boundless.' 
But  when  a  line  is  divided  between  two  speakers,  it  frequently  is  in  defect  or 
excess. 

66,  67.  Boundless  intemperance  Tn  nature  is  a  tyranny.  Delius  takes  the 
clauie  thus :  '  Boundless  intemperance  is  a  tyranny  in  nature.'     If  the  words 


15^ 


NO  T  E  S.  [act  IV. 


are  to  be  construed  in  this  order,  we  should  interpet  them  thus :  '  intemperance 
is  of  the  nature  of  a  tyranny,'  remembering  Julius  Cssar,  ii.  i.  69 

'  The  state  of  man, 
Like  to  a  little  kingdom,  suffers  then 
The  nature  of  an  insurrection.' 
Or  vvq  may  join  '  intemperance  in  nature,'  and  interpret '  want  of  control  over 
the  natural  appetites.*    The  former  seems  preferable.    In  any  case  '  tyranny ' 
here  means  '  usurpation,'  in  consequence  of  which  the  rightful  king  loses  his 
throne.     See  our  note  on  iii.  6.  25. 

69.  yef,  notwithstanding.     Compare  2  Henry  IV.  iii.  i.  41  : 
'  It  is  but  as  a  body  yet  distemper 'd  ;' 
where  we  should  have  said  '  yet  but '  or  '  but  yet.' 

71.  Convey,  conduct,  direct.  It  is  used  in  the  s-ime  sense,  King  Lear, 
i.  2.  109:  'I  will  seek  him,  sir,  presently ;  conve}'  the  business  as  I  ^hall 
find  means,  and  acquaint  you  withal.'  Mr.  Collier's  MS.  Corrector  altered  the 
word  to  the  common  place  '  Enjoy.'  Something  of  secrecy  and  contrivance 
is  implied  in  '  convey.' 

72.  the  time  you  may  so  hoodwink,  you  may  thus  blind  your  contemporaries 
to  your  faults.  We  have  'the  time'  in  the  same  sen^e,  i.  5.  61.  For  'hood- 
wink,' compare  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  iii.  6.  26:  'We  will  bind  and 
hoodwink  him.'     Johnson,  in  his  Dictionary,  s.  v.  from  Ben  Jonson  : 

'  So  have  1  seen  at  Christmas  sports  one  lost 
And  hoodwink'd,  for  a  man  embrace  a  post ;' 
where  the  reference  is  to  the  game  of  '  hoodman  blind,'  our  '  blindman's  buff.' 
Perhaps  it  was  originally  a  term  of  falconry,  the  hawks  being  hooded  in  the 
intervals  of  sport.     In  Latham's  Falconry,  published   ]6i5,  1618,  'to  hood' 
is  the  term  used  for  the  blinding,  '  to  unhood,'  for  the  unblinding. 

77.  ill-coviposed,  compounded  of  evil  qualities.  We  have  the  opposite  in 
Troilus  and  Cressida,  iv.  4.  79  ; 

'  The  Grecian  youths  are  full  of  quality ; 
They  're  loving,  well  composed  with  gifts  of  nature.' 
Ih.  affection,  disposition,  inclination.     Compare  The  Merchant  of  Venice, 
i.  2.  41  :  '  According  to  my  description,  level  at  my  affection.' 

78.  stanchless,  insatiate,  insatiable. 

80.  his  jeiuels,  that  is,  one  man's  jewels.     Compare  Sonnet,  xxix.  6  : 
'  Featured  like  him,  like  him  with  friends  possess'd ' ; 
v.'here  'him  .  .  .  him'  are  equivalent  to  'one  .  .  .  another.'     Compare  also 
The  Merchant  of  Venice,  iv.  i.  54  (Globe  ed.). 

^2.  forge,  fabricate.     Compare  Richard  II.  iv.  I.  40: 
'  And  I  will  turn  thy  falsehood  to  thy  heart. 
Where  it  was  forged,  with  my  rapier's  point.' 
86.    summer -seeming,   befitting,    or    locking    like,   summer.      Avarice  is 
compared  to  a  plant  which  strikes  its  roots  deep  and  lasts  through  every 
season ;  lust  to  an  annual  which  flourishes  in  summer  and  then  dies.     Theo- 
bald read  '  summer-teeming,'  and  Heath  conjectured  '  summer-seeding,'  but 
there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  necessity  for  altering  the  text.     Donne,  in 
his  Love's  Alchymy,  uses  the  compound  '  winter-seeming ' : 
'  So,  lovers  dreame  a  rich  and  long  delight. 
But  get  a  winter-seeming  summers  night.' 


sc.  3.]  MACBETH.  T57 

88.  foisons,  plenty ;  unusual  in  the  plural.  The  singular  occurs  in  The 
Tempest,  iv.  i.  110: 

'  Earth's  increase,  foison  plenty, 
Barns  and  garners  never  empty.' 
The  word  is  used  still  in  the  south  of  England  for  the  juice  of  grass,  and  in 
Scotland  for  the  sap  of  a  tree.     It  is  the  French  foison,  derived  from  the 
Low  Latin  fusio. 

8g.  of  your  mere  own,  of  what  is  absolutely  your  own.  Compare  The 
Merchant  of  Venice,  iii.  2.  265  : 

'  I  have  engaged  myself  to  a  dear  friend. 
Engaged  my  friend  to  his  mere  enemy.' 
See  also  line  152  of  the  present  scene. 

lb.  portable,  endurable.     Compare  King  Lear,  iii.  6.  115  : 

'  How  light  and  portable  my  pain  seems  now.' 
90.   With  other  graces  weighed.     Compensated   by  other  graces  in   the 
judgement  of  your  subjects. 

gz.  verity,  truthfulness,  veracity.  Compare  As  You  Like  It,  iii.  4.  25  : 
'  But  for  his  verity  in  love,  I  do  think  him  as  concave  as  a  covered  goblet  or 
a  worm-eaten  nut.' 

lb.  temperance,  self-restraint,  used  in  a  wider  sense  than  at  present,  just  as 
the  opposite,  '  intemperance,'  was  applied  to  immoderate  and  unrestrained 
indulgence  of  any  propensities.     Compare  Henry  VIII.  i.  I.  124  : 
'  What,  are  you  chafed  ? 
Ask  God  for  temperance.' 
93.  perseverance,  accentuated  on  the  second  syllable.     Compare  Troilus 
and  Cressida,  iii.  3.  150,  where  however  the  line  wants  a  foot ; 
'  Perseverance,  dear  my  lord, 
Keeps  honour  bright.' 
'  Persever '  in  Shakespeare  has  always  the  accent  on  the  second  syllable.    See 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  iii.  2.  237  : 

'  Ay,  do,  persever,  counterfeit  sad  looks.' 
95.  relish,  smack,  flavour.    Compare  what  Malcolm  says  of  himself  above, 
line  59  :  '  Smacking  of  every  sin 

That  has  a  name.' 
For  'relish'  in  this  sense  see  Hamlet,  iii.  3.  92  : 

'  Some  act 
That  hath  no  relish  of  salvation  in  't.' 
Compare  the  use  of  sapere  in   Latin,   as   e.  g.   Perslus,    Sat.  i.  Li  ;  '  Cum 
sapimus  patruos.' 

98.  the  sweet  milh  of  concord.     Compare  i.  5.  18. 

99.  Uproar,  i.  e.  disturb  by  uproar,  break  by  the  clamour  of  war.  Com- 
pare the  German  avfr'uhreti.  We  have  no  example  of  this  verb  elsewhere. 
'  Uprear,'  '  uptear,'  and  '  uproot,'  have  been  suggested  as  emendations. 

loi.  such  a  one.  In  line  66  we  have  printed  '  such  an  one,'  following  the 
folio  in  both  instances. 

105.  thy  wholesome  days,  thy  days  of  health.  '  Wholesome '  is  used  for 
'  healthy'  in  Hamlet,  iii.  4.  65  : 

'  Like  a  mildew'd  ear, 
Blasting  his  wholesome  brother.' 


158 


NO  T  E  S.  [act  :v. 


io8.  blaspheme,  slander;  the  original  sense  of  the  word.  Bacon,  in  his 
Advancement  of  Learning,  i.  ■2.  §  9,  uses  '  blasphemy '  in  the  sense  of 
'slander':  'And  as  to  the  judgement  of  Cato  the  Censor,  he  was  well 
punished  for  his  blasphemy  against  learning.'  And  in  the  Prayer-book 
Version  of  Ps.  cxix.  42,  we  find  '  blasphemers  '  for  '  slanderers.' 

111.  Died  every  day  she  lived.  Every  day  of  her  life  was  a  preparation 
for  death  ;  referring  probably  to  I  Cor.  xv.  31,  'I  die  daily.' 

112,  The  vices  which  in  succession  you  charge  upon  yourself. 

118.  trains,  artifices,  devices,  lures.  Cotgrave  (Fr.  Diet.)  gives  '  Traine  : 
...  a  plot,  practise,  conspiracie,  deuise  ;'  and  '  Trainer :  to  weaue  ;  also, 
to  plot,  contriue,  practise,  conspire,  deuise.'  Compare  I  Henry  IV.  v.  2.  2I  : 
'We  did  train  him  on.'     And  Comedy  of  Errors,  iii.  2.  45  : 

'  O,  train  me  not,  sweet  mermaid,  with  thy  note.' 
l^S.   Unspeak  mine  own  detraction,  withdraw  the  slander  I  have  uttered 
against  myself.     Compare  'unsay,'  Richard  II.  iv.  i.  9  : 

'  I  know  your  daring  tongue 
Scorns  to  unsay  what  once  it  hath  deliver'd. 
'  Unkiss '  occurs  in  Richard  II.  v.  I.  74: 

'  Let  me  unkiss  the  oath  'twixt  thee  and  me.' 
So  also  '  uncurse '  is  found  in  Richard  II.  iii.  2.  137- 
123.  For  strangers.     We  should  say  'as  strangers.' 

1 26.  forsworn,  perjured.     The  particle  '  for,'  like  the  German  ver,  has 
a  negative  force  here,  as  in  the  words  'forbid,'  'fordo,'  'forgo,'  'forget,' 
*  forswear,'  '  forspent,'  '  forspoke  ' ;  it  has  an  intensive  force,  as  the  German 
ver  also  has,  in  the  words  '  forbear,'  '  forgive.' 
131.  tipon.     See  line  112. 

133.  here-approach.  We  have  a  similar  compound  '  here-remain,' line  14S. 

134.  Old  Siward,  son  of  Beorn,  Earl  of  Northumberland,  rendered  great 
service  to  King  Edward  in  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  of  Earl  Godwin 
and  his  sons,  1053.  According  to  Holinshed,  p.  244,  col.  I,  who  follows 
Hector  Boece,  fol.  249  b.,  ed.  1574,  Duncan  married  a  daughter  of  Siward. 
Fordun  calls  her  '  consanguinea.'  It  is  remarkable  that  Shakespeare,  who 
seems  to  have  had  no  other  guide  than  Holinshed,  on  this  point  deserts  him, 
for  in  V.  2.  2  he  calls  Siward  Malcolm's  uncle.  It  is  true  that  '  nephew  ' 
was  often  used  like  '  nepos,'  in  the  sense  of  grandson,  but  we  know  of  no 
instance  in  which  'uncle'  is  used  for  'grandfather.' 

135.  Already.  So  the  folios.  Rowe,  followed  by  most  editors,  read  '  All 
ready.'     Either  makes  good  sense. 

lb.  at  a  point,  resolved,  prepared.  For  this  somewhat  rare  phrase  com- 
pare Foxe's  Acts  and  Monuments,  p.  2092,  ed.  1570:  'The  Register  there 
sittyng  b}',  beyng  v/eery,  belyke,  of  taryiug.  or  els  perceauyng  the  constant 
Martyrs  to  be  at  a  point,  called  vpon  the  chauncelour  in  hast  to  rid  them 
out  of  the  way,  and  to  make  an  end.'  So  also  in  Bunyan's  Life,  quoted  by 
Mr.  Wilton  Rix,  East  Anglian  Nonconformity,  Notes,  p.  vii. :  'When  they 
saw  that  I  was  at  a  point  and  would  not  be  moved  nor  persuaded,  Mr.  Foster 
told  the  justice  that  then  he  must  send  me  away  to  prison.'  Compare  Mat- 
thew's (1537)  translation  of  Is.  xxviii,  15  ;  '  Tush,  death  and  we  are  at  a 
poynte,  and  as  for  hell,  we  haue  made  a  condvcion  w_vth  it ;'  where  it  is 
used  in  the  sense  of  '  agreed.'     Florio  (Ital.  Diet.  s.  v.  Punto)  gives,  '  Essere 


sc.  3]  MACBETH.  I59 

in  punto,  to  be  In  a  readinesse,  to  be  at  a  point.'     '  At  point,'  without  the 
article,  is  more  common,  as  King  Lear,  i.  4.  347  : 

'  'Tis  politic  and  safe  to  let  him  keep 
At  point  a  hundred  knights.' 
And  in  the  same  play,  iii.  I.  33  : 

'  Are  at  point 
To  show  their  open  banner.' 
So  we  have  '  armed  at  point,'  Hamlet,  i.  2.  200.     Malone  quotes  '  io  point ' 
from  Spenser  [Fairy  Queen,  i.  2.  12]  : 

'  A  faithlesse  Sarazin,  all  armde  to  point.' 
136,  137.  the  chance  of  goodness  Be  like  our  warranted  q7jarrel.  The 
meaning  seems  to  be,  '  May  the  chance  of  success  be  as  certain  as  the  justice 
of  our  quarrel.'  The  sense  of  the  word  '  goodness '  is  limited  by  the  pre- 
ceding '  chance.'  Without  this,  '  goodness '  by  itself  could  not  have  this 
meaning.  It  is  somewhat  similarly  limited  and  defined  by  the  word  '  night  * 
in  Othello,  i.  2.  35  : 

'  The  goodness  of  the  night  upon  you,  friends  !' 
And  by  'bliss,'  Measure  for  Measure,  iii.  2.  227:  'Bliss  and  goodness  on 
you,  father.'  Delius  takes  '  cnance  of  goodness  '  to  be  a  kind  of  •  hendiadys,' 
meaning  'good  issue,'  as  in  Othello,  iv.  2.  54,  'time  of  scorn'  means 
'  scornful  time';  in  King  Lear,  i.  4.  306,  'brow  of  youth'  means  'youthful 
brow,'  and  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  8.  42,  'mind  of  love'  means 
'  loving  mind.'  For  '  the  chance  of  goodness '  Hanmer  read  '  our  chance,  in 
goodness';  Johnson  conjectured  'the  chance,  O  goodness';  and  Bailey  'th' 
chance  of  good  success.'  For  '  Be  like  '  Staunton  reads  '  Belike  '  as  one  word, 
and  Bailey  suggests  '  Betide.' 

warranted  means  '  justified,'  '  assured.'  Compare  All 's  Well  that  Ends 
Well,  ii.  5.  5  : 

'  La/en.  You  have  it  from  his  own  deliverance. 
Bertram.  And  by  other  warranted  testimony.' 

142.  slay  his  cure,  await  his  healing  touch.  We  have  '  stay'  with  an 
accusative  following  in  Richard  II.  i.  3.  4  : 

'  The  Duke  of  Norfolk,  sprightfully  and  bold. 
Stays  but  the  summons  of  the  appellant's  trumpet.' 
lb.  convinces,  overpowers.     See  i.  7.  64,  and  note. 

143.  The  great  assay  0/ art,  the  utmost  efforts  of  skilled  physicians  to 
cure  it.  The  author,  in  using  this  phrase,  was  doubtless  thinking  of  an  '  assay 
of  arms.'  In  Othello,  i.  3.  18, '  assay  of  reason  '  rather  refers  to  the  assaying 
or  testing  of  metals. 

145.  presently,  immediatelv,  instantly.  Compare  The  Merchant  of  Venice, 
i.  I.  183: 

'  Go,  presently  inquire,  and  so  will  I, 
Where  money  is.' 
:l46.  the  evil,  the  king's  evil,  scrofula.  The  reference,  which  has  nothing 
to  CO  with  the  progress  of  the  drama,  is  introduced  obviously  in  com- 
pliment to  King  James,  who  fancied  himself  endowed  with  the  Confessor's 
powers.  The  writer  found  authority  for  the  passage  in  Holinshed,  vol.  i. 
p.  279,  col.  2:  'As  hath  bin  thought  he  was  enspired  with  the  gift  of 
Prophecie,  and  also  to  haue  hadde  the  gift  of  healing  infirmities  and  diseases. 


1 6o  NOTES.  [act  IV. 

Namely,  he  vsed  to  help  those  that  were  vexed  with  the  disease,  commonly 
called  the  Kyngs  euill,  and  left  that  vertue  as  it  were  a  portion  of  inherit- 
ance vnto  his  successors  the  Kyngs  of  this  Realme.'  Edward's  miraculous 
powers  were  believed  in  by  his  contemporaries,  or  at  least  soon  after  his 
death,  and  expressly  recognised  by  Pope  Alexander  III.  who  canonized  him. 
The  power  of  healing  was  claimed  for  his  successors  early  in  the  twelfth 
century,  for  it  is  controverted  by  William  of  Malmesbury,  and  asserted  later 
in  the  same  century  by  Peter  of  Blois,  who  held  a  high  office  in  the  Royal 
Household  (See  Freeman's  Norman  Conquest,  vol.  ii.  pp.527,  528).  The 
same  power  was  claimed  for  the  kings  of  France,  and  was  supposed  to  be 
conferred  by  the  unction  of  the  '  Sainte  Ampoule '  on  their  coronation. 
William  Tooker,  D.D.,  in  his  'Charisma  sen  Donum  Sanationis,'  1597, 
while  claiming  the  power  for  his  own  sovereign,  Elizabeth,  concedes  it  also 
to  the  Most  Christian  King ;  but  Andre  Laurent,  physician  to  Henry  IV.  of 
France,  taxes  the  English  sovereigns  with  imposture.  His  book  is  entitled, 
'  De  Mirabili  strumas  sanandi  vi  solis  Gallias  Regibus  Christianissiniis  divinitus 
concessa,'  &c.  1609.  The  Roman  Catholic  subjects  of  Elizabeth,  perhaps 
out  of  patriotism,  conceded  to  her  the  possession  of  this  one  virtue,  though 
they  were  somewhat  staggered  to  find  that  she  possessed  it  quite  as  much 
after  the  P^pal  excommunication  as  before.  James  the  First's  practice  of 
touching  for  the  evil  is  mentioned  several  times  in  Nichols'  Progresses,  e.  g. 
vol.  iii.  pp.  264,  273.  Charles  I.  when  at  York,  touched  seventy  persons  in 
one  day.  Charles  II.  also  touched  when  an  exile  at  Bruges,  omitting 
perhaps,  for  sufficient  reason,  the  gift  of  the  coin.  He  practised  with  signal 
success  after  his  restoration.  One  of  Dr.  Johnson's  earliest  recollections  was 
the  being  taken  to  be  touched  by  Queen  Anne  in  1712  (Boswell,  vol.  i. 
p.  38).  Even  Swift  seems  to  have  believed  in  the  efficacy  of  the  cure 
(Works,  ed.  Scott,  ii.  252).  The  Whigs  did  not  claim  the  power  for  the 
Hanoverian  sovereigns,  though  they  highly  resented  Carte's  claiming  it  for 
the  Pretender  in  his  History  of  England. 

148.  my  here-re7nain.     Compare  '  here-approach,'  line  133. 

149.  solicits.  The  word  '  solicit '  has  occasionally  the  sense  of  prevailing 
by  entreaty  or  prayer,  like  litare  in  Latin.     Compare  Richard  II.  i.  2.  2  : 

'  Alas,  the  part  I  had  in  Woodstock's  blood 
Doth  more  solicit  me  than  your  exclaims.' 
I  :;o.  stra?igely-visited,  afflicted  with  strange  diseases.    Compare  1  Henry  IV. 
iv.  I.  26  : 

'  I  would  the  state  of  time  had  first  been  whole 
Ere  he  by  sickness  had  been  visited.' 

152.  mere.     See  line  89,  and  note. 

153.  There  is  no  warrant  in  Holinshed  for  the  statement  that  the  Confessor 
hung  a  golden  coin  or  stamp  about  the  necks  of  the  patients.  This  was, 
however,  a  custom  which  prevailed  in  later  days.  Previously  to  Charles  II's 
time  some  current  coin,  as  an  angel,  was  used  for  the  purpose,  but  in  Charles's 
reign  a  special  medal  was  struck  and  called  a  '  touch-piece.'  The  identical 
touch-piece  which  Queen  Anne  hung  round  the  neck  of  Dr.  Johnson  is 
preserved  in  the  British  Museum. 

lb.  stamp  means  the  same  as  '  stamped  coin,'  Winter's  Tale,  iv.  4.  747- 

154.  '  The  form  of  prayer  used  in  touching  for  the  evil,  originally  printed 


sc.  3.]  MA  CBE  T  H.  161 

on  a  separate  sheet,  was  inserted  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  in  16S4.' 
(Chambers's  Book  of  Days.)     It  was  left  out  in  1719. 

lb.  spoken,  commonly  said.     Compare  iii.  4.  8. 

159.  speak,  bespeak,  proclaim,  vouch.  So  The  Tempest,  ii.  i.  207  :  '  The 
occasion  speaks  thee.' 

16.^.  Hanmer,  to  mend  the  grammar,  changed  '  makes'  to  'make.'  But 
see  Comedy  of  Errors,  i.  i.  76:  'Other  means  was  none.'  And  Timon  of 
Athens,  v.  2.  230  : 

'  Strain  what  other  means  is  left  unto  us.' 
We   still  say  '  this  means,'  '  a   means.'     The   latter   occurs   Winter's   Tale, 
iv.  4.  S65. 

167.  once,  ever,  at  any  time.     Compare  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  v.  2.  50  : 
'  If  idle  talk  will  once  be  necessary, 
I'll  not  sleep  neither.' 

16S.  rend.  The  folios  have  '  rent,'  which  was  used  indifferently  with 
'  rend,'  as  the  present  tense  of  the  verb.     So  also  '  girt'  and  '  gird.' 

170.  A  modern  ecstasy.  For  'modern,'  i.e.  ordinary,  common -place, 
compare  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  ii.  5.  2  :  '  to  make  modern  and  familiar, 
things  supernatural  and  causeless.'     And  Romeo  and  Juliet,  iii.  2.  120  : 

'  Which  modem  lamentation  might  have  moved.' 
And  As  You  Like  It,  ii.  7.  156 : 

'  Full  of  wise  saws  and  modem  instances.' 
'  Ecstasy'  is  used  for  a  fainting-fit  resulting  from  mental  anguish,  in  Othello, 
iv.  I.  So,  and  generally  for  any  violent  emotion  of  the  mind,  and  in  Hamlet, 
iii.  4.  138,  for  actual  madness.  We  have  had  the  word  in  this  play,  iii.  2.  22. 
In  the  present  passage  the  emphasis  must  be  on  '  modern,'  as  '  ecstasy'  is  not 
antithetical  to  '  violent   or  '  sorrow.' 

171.  asVd,  enquired  about. 

lb.  for  who.     Pope  read  '  for  whom?  '     Compare  King  John,  v.  6.  32  : 
'  Who  didst  thou  leave  to  tend  his  majesty  ?' 
See  iii.  I.  123  of  this  play,  and  note. 

1 71-173.  Good  men  are  struck  down  when  in  full  health,  dying  before 
the  flowers  in  their  caps  have  time  to  wither. 

173.  or  ere,  a  common  pleonasm.     Compare  The  Tempest,  i.  2.  11: 

'  I  would 
Have  sunk  the  sea  within  the  earth  or  ere 
It  should  the  good  ship  so  have  swallow'd  and 
The  fraughting  souls  within  her.' 
Ih.  relation,  tale,  narrative.     So  in  The  Tempest,  v.  I.  164  : 
'  For  'tis  a  chronicle  of  day  by  day, 
Not  a  relation  for  a  breakfast.' 

1 74.  nice  seems  here  to  mean  '  fancifully  minute,' '  set  forth  in  fastidiously 
chosen  terms.'  It  is  used  in  a  similar  sense  in  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iv. 
5-250: 

'  Think'st  thou  to  catch  my  life  so  pleasantly 
As  to  prenominate  in  nice  conjecture 
Where  thou  wilt  hit  me  dead  ?' 
176.  teems.  This  verb  is  found  with  an  objective  case  following  in  Henry  V. 
V.  2.  51: 


1 6a  NOTES.  [activ. 

The  even  mead  .... 

Conceives  by  idleness,  and  nothing  teems 

But  hateful  docks.' 

177.  well.     Compare  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  ii.  5.  33  : 

'  We  use 
To  say  the  dead  are  well.' 
lb.  children.     Here  a  trisyllable. 

178,  179.  We  find  the  same  sad  play  upon  the  double  meanings  of  '  peace' 
in  Richard  II.  iii.  2.  127,  128  : 

'  Richard.  I  warrant  they  have  made  peace  with  Bolingbroke. 
Scroop.     Peace  have  they  made  with  him  indeed,  my  lord.' 

180.  niggard 0/ your  speech.    So  Hamlet,  iii.  i.  13  :  '  Niggard  of  question.' 

181.  to  transport,  to  convey.     Compare  Richard  H.  ii.  3.  81  : 

'  I  shall  not  need  transport  my  words  by  you.' 
And  King  Lear,  iv.  5.  20 :  * 

'  Might  not  you 
Transport  her  purposes  by  word?' 

182.  heavily,  sadly.     See  Richard  III.  i.  4.  i  : 

'  Why  looks  your  grace  so  heavily  to-day?' 
1S3.  oitt,  in  the  field,  in  open  insurrection.    Compare  Richard  II.  i.  4.  38  : 
'  Nov/  for  the  rebels  which  stand  out  in  Ireland 
Expedient  manage  must  be  made,  my  lord.' 
The  surviving  followers  of  Charles  Edward  were  long  spoken  of  in  Scotland 
as  men  who  had  been  '  out  in  the  '45.' 

185.  For  thai,  because.     We  have  '  for  because,'  Richard  II.  v.  5.  3  : 
'  And  for  because  the  world  is  populous.' 
We  have  '  for'  alone,  meaning  '  because,'  in  line  22  of  the  same  scene  : 
'  And,  for  they  cannot,  die  in  their  own  pride.' 
lb.  power,  force,  army.     Of  frequent  occurrence  in  Shakespeare,  as  e.  g. 
line  236  of  this  scene,  and  Richard  II.  iii.  2.  I43  : 

'  Where  is  the  Duke  my  father  with  his  power  ?' 
The  word  is  also  used  in  the  same  sense  in  the  plural. 

lb.  a-foot.  Used  of  an  army  in  the  field,  as  2  Henry  IV.  iv.  4.  9  :  '  These 
rebels  now  afoot.' 

188.  doff,  i.  e.  do  olT.  So  we  have  'don'  from  'do  on,'  '  dup,'  'do  up,' 
i.  e.  open.     For  '  dofiT  see  i  Henry  IV.  v.  I.  12  : 

'  And  made  us  doff  our  easy  robes  of  peace.' 
This  is  the  only  passage  in  Shakespeare  where  '  doff'  is  used  metaphorically, 
except  Romeo  and  Juliet,  ii.  2.47:  '  Doff  thy  name.' 

189.  gracio7ts  England,  i.  e.  King  Edward,  as  in  line  43. 

191,  192.  There  is  none  that  Christendom  proclaims  an  older  and  better 
joldier  than  Siward.  For  '  gives  out'  see  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  ii.  i . 
216:  'It  is  the  base,  though  bitter,  disposition  of  Beatrice  that  puts  the 
world  into  her  person,  and  so  gives  me  out.' 

194.  would.  Compare  line  23  of  this  scene. 

195.  latch.  A  word  now  obsolete,  meaning  'catch,'  which  Rowe  substi- 
tuted for  it  in  the  text.  The  nouns  '  latch'  (of  a  door)  and  '  latchet'  (of  a 
.<;hoe)  are  doubtless  to  be  referred  to  the  same  root.  Nares  gives  this  sense 
to  the  verb  '  latch'   in   Midsummer  Night's   Dream,  iii.  2.  36,  but    this  is 


EC.  3.]  MACBETH.  1 63 

doubtful.     '  Latch'  has  however  the  sense  of  '  catch'  in  Spenser's  Shepherd's 
Calendar  ;  March,  94  : 

'  Tho  pumie  stones  I  hastly  hent. 

And  threw ;  but  nought  availed  : 
He  was  so  wimble  and  so  wight, 
From  bough  to  bough  he  lepped  light. 
And  oft  the  pumies  latched.' 
In  Suffolk  a  '  latch  pan '  is  a  dripping-pan. 

196.  a  fee-grief ,  a  grief  that  has  a  single  owner.  'Fee,'  derived  by 
Cowel,  Law  Diet.  s.  v.,  from  '  fief,'  ultimately  comes  to  signify  the  property 
itself,  and  '  fee  simple'  is  the  tenure  conferring  the  highest  rights  of  owner- 
ship.    We  have  '  fee-farm'  in  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iii.  2.  54. 

197.  No  mind.  With  negative  sentences  we  frequently  observe  an  ellipsis 
of  '  there  is'  or  some  equivalent  words.     Compare  line  191. 

198.  shares  some  woe,  has  some  woe  for  its  share.  Compare  Richard  III. 
V.  3.  268 : 

'  The  gain  of  my  attempt 

The  least  of  you  shall  share  his  part  thereof.' 

203.  possess  them  with.     Compare  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  i.  3.  no: 

'  I  will  possess  him  with  yellowness,'  i.  e.  fill  him  with  jealousy.     See  also 

Henry  V.   iv.   I.   114.      We  have   the  word   'possess'd'   in   the   sense  of 

'  informed,'    in    Webster,    Appius    and   Virginia,   i.  3.    p.   152,    ed.    Dyce, 

1857: 

'  Virginius,  we  would  have  you  thus  possess'd.' 
206.  quarry,  the  game  killed  either  in  hunting  or  hawking.     Compare 
Coriolanus,  i.  i.  202  : 

'  Would  the  nobility  lay  aside  their  ruth. 
And  let  me  use  my  sword,  I  'Id  make  a  quarry 
With  thousands  of  these  quarter'd  slaves,  as  high 
As  I  could  pick  my  lance.' 

209,  210.  Webster  has  a  similar  thought  in  The  White  Devil,  p.  15,  ed. 
Dyce,  1857 : 

'  Poor  heart,  break  : 
These  are  the  killing  griefs  which  dare  not  speak.' 
In  Webster  we  miss  the  exquisite  felicity  of  language,  the  tender  pathos  of 
Shakespeare.      Steevens  quotes   also  a  line  from  Seneca,  Hippolytus,  607, 
'  Curae  leves  loquuntur,  ingentes  stupent.' 

210.  Whispers.  We  have  '  whisper' used  without  a  preposition  following. 
Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  iii.  1.4:  'Whisper  her  ear.' 

lb.  o'er-fraiighf,  overloaded. 

212.  And  I  must  be  from  thence!  To  think  that  I  was  compelled  to  be 
away.     For  'from'  in  this  strong  sense,  compare  iii.  i.  131. 

216.  He  has  no  children.  Macbeth  has  no  children,  therefore  my  utmost 
revenge  must  fall  short  of  the  injury  he  has  inflicted  upon  me.  The  words 
would  be  tame  if  applied  to  Malcolm,  as  Malone  takes  them,  though  with 
this  interpretation  they  may  be  paralleled  by  the  speech  of  Constance  in  King 
John,  iii.  i,  91 : 

'  He  talks  to  me  that  never  had  a  son.' 

217-219.  0  hell-kite!  .  .  .swoop?   Pope,  thinking  apparently  that  the 

M    2 


l54  NOTES.  [act  IV.  sc.  3. 

image  was   too  homely   for  the  occasion,  transferred  these  words   to   the 
margin. 

•219.  At  one  fell  swoop.  Compare  Webster,  The  White  Devil,  p.  5,  ed. 
Dyce,i857: 

'  If  she  [i.  e.  Fortune]  give  aught,  she  deals  it  in  small  parcels. 
That  she  may  take  away  all  at  one  swoop.' 
220.  Dispute  it,  strive  against  your  sorrow. 
lb.  shall.  See  iii.  i.  125,  and  v.  8.  60. 

225.  naught,  a  strong  expression  for  anything  vile,  worthless,  bad.  See 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  iii.  2.  87  : 

'  All  foisworn,  all  naught,  all  dissemblers.' 
227.  rest  them,  give  them  rest.     We  have  '  rest'  used  as  a  transitive  verb 
also  in  As  You  Like  It,  v.  i.  65  :  '  God  rest  you  merry,  sir.' 
229.  Convert.  Used  intransitively  in  Richard  II.  v.  3.  64: 

'  The  overflow  of  good  converts  to  bad.' 
232.  intermission,  delay,  interruption.    Compare  our  note  on  The  Merchant 
of  Venice,  iii.  2.  199  (201  Globe  ed.) : 

'  You  loved,  I  loved,  for  intermission^ 
No  more  pertains  to  me,  my  lord,  than  you.' 
So  in  all  likelihood  the  passage  should  be  punctuated.     If  with  the  earlier 
editions  we  put  a  stop  at  '  intermission,'  we  should  have  to  interpret  it  as 
'  pastime,'  a  sense  which  it  does  not  bear  in  any  other  passage.     Compare 
King  Lear,  ii.  4.  33  : 

'  Deliver'd  letters,  spite  of  intermission.' 
235.  Probably  the  original  MS.  had  '  May  God'  or  '  Then  God,'  or  '  God, 
God'  as  in  v.  I.  74i  which  was  changed  in  the  actor's  copy  to  'Heaven' 
for  fear  of  incurring  the  penalties  provided  by  the  Act  of  Parliament  against 
profanity  on  the  stage.  The  Act  is  printed  in  our  notes  to  The  Merchant  of 
Venice,  i.  2.  99.      It  was  passed  in  the  third  year  of  James  I. 

lb.  tune.  This  was  Rowe's  emendation  in  his  second  edition  for  '  time,' 
the  reading  of  the  folios.      These  two  words  are  easily  mistaken. 

lb.  manly.  In  adjectives  which  end  in  '  ly,'  the  familiar  termination  of  the 
adverb,  we  find  the  adjective  form  frequently  used  for  the  latter,  as  in  Hamlet, 
i.  2.  202  : 

'  Goes  slow  and  stately  by  them.' 
So  also  in  the  Liturgy,  '  godly  and  quietly  governed.' 

237.   Our  lack  is  nothing  but  our  leave,  the  only  thing  we  require  is  to 
take  our  leave  of  the  king. 
239.   An  Alexandrine. 

lb.  Put  on  their  instruments,  set  men,  their  instruments,  to  the  work. 
The  phrase  '  to  put  upon'  is  found  in  a  similar  sense  in  Measure  for  Measure, 
ii.  1.  280 : 

'  They  do  you  wrong  to  put  you  so  oft  upon  't,' 
i.  e.  to  make  you  serve  the  office  of  constable. 


ACTv.  sc.  I.]  MACBETH.  165 


ACT  V. 

Scene  J. 

4.  Ross,  iv.  3.  185,  mentioned  that  he  had  seen  '  the  tyrant's  power  a-foot.' 
AVe  must  suppose  that  Macbeth  had  taken  the  field  to  suppress  the  native 
rebels  who  were  'out,'  iv.  3.  183,  and  that  the  arrival  of  their  English  auxi- 
liaries had  compelled  him  to  retire  to  his  castle  at  Dunsinane. 

5.  nightgown,  dressing-gown.     See  ii.  2.  69  ;  v.  i.  61. 

10.  effects,  practical  manifestations,  acts.     Compare  King  Lear,  ii.  4.  1S2: 

'  Thou  better  know'st 
The  offices  of  nature,  bond  of  childhood, 
Effects  of  courtesy,  dues  of  gratitude.' 
lb.  watching,  waking.     So  Romeo  and  Juliet,  iv.  4.  8  : 
'  You  '11  be  sick  to-morrow 
For  this  night's  watching.' 
So  also  Holland's  Pliny,  xiv.  18 :  '  It  is  reported,  that  the  Thasiens  doe  make 
two  kinds  of  wine  of  contrary  operations  :   the  one  procureth   sleepe,  the 
other  causeth  watching.'     In  the  first  line  of  this  scene  the  word  is  used 
in  our  modern  sense. 

11.  slumbery.     A  word  not  used  elsewhere  by  Shakespeare. 

12.  actual  performances.     Compare  Othello,  iv.  2.  153: 

'  Either  in  discourse  of  thought  or  actual  deed,' 
where  '  actual  deed '  is  opposed  to  thinking,  as  in  this  passage  '  actual  per- 
formances '  to  speaking. 

19.  Lo  you.     '  Lo  '  doubtless  is  a  corruption  of  '  look.' 

20.  close,  in  concealment.     So  Julius  Caesar,  i.  3.  131  : 

'  Stand  close  awhile,  for  here  comes  one  in  haste.' 
Compare  the  note  on  iii.  5.  7,  of  this  play. 

25.  their  sense  is  shut.  This  is  Rowe's  emendation.  The  folios  have 
'  their  sense  are  shut,'  and  Sidney  Walker  would  read  '  their  sense'  are  shut.' 
He  refers  to  Sonnet,  cxii.  10 : 

'  That  my  adder's  sense 
To  critic  and  to  flatterer  stopped  are,' 
where  also  he  would  indicate  the  plural  by  an  apostrophe.     Compare  The 
IMerchant  of  Venice,  v.  I.  I36  : 

'  You  should  in  all  sense  be  much  bound  to  him.' 
In  nouns  which  end  in  a  sibilant  the  singular  form  frequently  does  duty  for  the 
plural  also  (see  our  note  on  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  iv.  I.  251),  so  that '  sense  ' 
might  here  stand  for  '  senses,'  and  the  plural  might  be  used  as  designating 
a  property  common  to  the  two  eyes.  Compare  Richard  II.  iv.  I.  315,  and 
our  note  on  the  passage.  But  it  is  at  least  equally  probable  that  '  are '  is  an 
error  of  the  transcriber,  whose  ear  was  misled  by  the  plural-sounding  noun, 
or  his  eye  caught  by  the  'are'  of  the  preceding  line.  See  however  ii.  4.  14, 
and  our  note. 

35.  Hell  is  murky.  Steevens  says:  'She  certainly  imagines  herself  here 
talking  to  Macbeth,  who  (^she  supposes)  has  just  said,  "  Hell  is  murky  " 
(i.e.  hell  is  a  dismal  place  to  go  to  in  consequence  of  such  a  deed),  and 
repeats  his  words  in  contempt  of  his   cowardice.'     We  do  iiot  agree  with 


l66  NOTES.  [act  V. 

him.  Her  recollections  of  the  deed  and  its  motives  alternate  with  recollec- 
tions of  her  subsequent  remorse  and  dread  of  future  punishment.  So  in  the 
following  speeches  her  thoughts  wander  from  Lady  Macduff's  fate  back  to 
the  night  of  Duncan's  murder,  then  on  to  the  banquet  scene,  then  recur  to 
the  first  fatal  crime,  and  so  on. 

36.  afeard.  See  i.  3.  96.  Rowe,  as  usual,  changed  it  to  '  afraid.'  In 
his  time  the  expression  had  ceased  to  be  used  except  colloquially. 

42.  What,  will  these  hands  neer  he  clean^  Perhaps  Webster  was  thinking 
of  this  passage  when  he  made  Cornelia  in  her  madness  say : 

'  Here's  a  white  hand  : 
Can  blood  be  so  soon  wash'd  out  ? ' 
(The  White  Devil,  p.  45,  ed.  Dyce,  1857.)     Certainly  he  had  Hamlet,  iv.  5. 
1 75,  in  his  mind  when  he  made  Cornelia  say,  a  few  lines  before ; 
'  There's  rosemary  for  you  ; — and  rue  for  you ; — 
Heart' s-ease  for  you.' 

43,  44.  You  mar  all  with  this  starting.  She  is  acting  over  again  her  part  in 
the  fourth  scene  of  act  iii.     See  particularly  lines  60-68. 

45.  Go  to,  go  to.  An  exclamation  implying  reproach  and  scorn.  Com- 
pare Hamlet,  i.  3.  I12  : 

'  Ay,  fashion  you  may  call  it ;  go  to,  go  to.' 
See  also  St.  James  iv.  13,  v.  i.     Elsewhere  it  implies  encouragement  to  set 
about  some  work,  like  the  French  allons.     See  Genesis,  xi.  3,  4,  7. 
47.  spoke.     See  note  on  i.  4.  3. 

52,  53.  sorely  charged,  heavily  burdened,  '  o'erfraught.'  'Sore,'  like  the 
Germ,  schwer,  A.  S.  sar,  is  here  used  in  its  original  sense,  as  in  Richard  II. 
ii.  I.  265  : 

'  We  see  the  wind  sit  sore  upon  our  sails.' 
See  note  on  ii.  4.  3.     We  have  an  expression  identical  in  meaning  with  that 
in  the  text,  Henry  V.  i.  2.  283 : 

'  His  soul 
Shall  stand  sore  charged  for  the  wasteful  vengeance 
That  shall  fly  with  them.' 
55.  the  dignity  of  the  whole  body,  i.  e.  of  course,  the  queenly  rank  of  the 
lady  herself. 

57.  Pray  God  it  he,  i.e.  be  well. 

59.  those  which.  '  Which '  is  frequent  with  a  personal  antecedent,  mascu- 
line or  feminine. 

61.  nightgown.     See  ii.  2.  69;  v.  I.  5. 

63.  on's.  See  King  Lear,  i.  4.  114:  'Why,  this  fellow  has  banished  two 
en's  daughters.'  Compare  '  on't,'  i.  3.  42;  iii.  i.  113,  130.  So  'on'  for 
'  of,'  i.  3.  84. 

75.  the  means  of  all  annoyance,  all  means  by  which  she  might  do  her- 
self harm.  '  Annoyance '  was  used  in  a  stronger  sense  than  it  is  now.  Com- 
pare King  John,  v.  2.  150  : 

'  And  like  an  eagle  o'er  his  aery  towers, 
To  souse  annoyance  that  comes  near  his  nest.' 
So  also  'annoy,'  Richard  III.  v.  3.  156. 

77.  mated,  deadened,  bewildered.  Cotgrave  (Fr.  Diet.)  has:  'Mater.  To 
mate,  or  giue  a  mate  vnto ;  to  dead,  amate,  quell,  subdue,  oucrcome.'     The 


sc.  2]  MA  CBET  H.  l6 


word,  originally  used  at  chess,  from  the  Arabic  shcib  mat,  '  the  king  is  dead,' 
whence  our  '  check-mate,'  became  common  in  one  form  or  other  in  almost 
all  European  languages.  Our  author  uses  it  several  times;  e.g.  Comedy  of 
Errors,  v.  i.  2S1 : 

'  I  think  you  are  all  mated  or  stark  mad.' 
See  Bacon,  Essay  xv.  p.  58:  'Besides,  in  great  oppressions,  the  same  things, 
that  provoke  the  patience,  doe  withall  mate  the  courage.'  '  Mate,'  to  match, 
is  of  Teutonic  origin.  Both  senses  of  the  word  are  played  upon.  Comedy  of 
Errors,  iii.  2.  54:  'Not  mad,  but  mated.'  We  have  the  form  '  amated '  m 
Fairfax's  Tasso,  Bk.  xi.  st.  12: 

'  Upon  the  walls  the  Pagans  old  and  young 
Stood  hush'd  and  still,  amated  and  amazed.' 


Scene  IT. 

1.  power.     See  iv.  3.  1S5. 

2.  His  uncle  Siwavd.     See  note,  iv.  3.  134. 

3.  Revenges.  Used  in  the  plural  frequently  by  Shakespeare,  whether 
meaning  feeling  or  act.     For  the  former,  see  Timon  of  Athens,  v.  4.  32  : 

'  If  thy  revenges  hunger  for  that  food 
Which  nature  loathes.' 
For  the  latter,  v.  4.  37,  of  the  same  play : 

'  For  those  that  were,  it  is  not  square  to  take 
On  those  that  are,  revenges.' 
We  have  other  similar  plurals,  as  '  rages,'  '  loves,'  Timon  of  Athens,  v.  4. 
16,  17.     See  also  'loves,'  v.  8.  61  of  the  present  play. 

lb.  their  dear  causes,  the  causes  which  respectively  touch  each  so  nearly, 
the  murder  of  Malcolm's  father  and  of  MacdufFs  wife  and  children.  For 
'  dear '  in  this  sense,  compare  Richard  III.  ii.  2.  77  : 

'  Was  never  widow  had  so  dear  a  loss.' 
And  King  John,  i.  I.  257: 

'  Thou  art  the  issue  of  my  dear  offence.' 
And  see  our  note  on  Richard  II.  i.  3.  151. 

4.  alarm,  call  to  arms.     Compare  Hamlet,  iii.  4.  120: 

'  And,  as  the  sleeping  soldiers  in  the  alarm. 
Your  bedded  hair,  like  life  in  excrements. 
Starts  up,  and  stands  an  end.' 
And  Troilus  and  Cressida,  i.  3.  171  : 

'  Arming  to  answer  in  a  night  alarm.' 
See  also  the  note  on  '  alarum'd,'  ii.  I.  53.     For  the  epithet  'bleeding,'  com- 
pare Richard  II.  iii.  3.  94: 

'  The  purple  testament  of  bleeding  war.' 
But  it  is  more  startling  to  find  it  joined  with  '  alarm,'  which  is  only  the  prelude 
to  battle.     The  whole  of  the  line  '  Would  ....  alarm '  was  omitted  by  mis- 
take in  the  second  and  following  folios. 

f.  the  mortified  man.  Theobald  explained  this  to  mean  'the  man  who 
has  abandoned  himself  to  despair,  who  has  no  courage  or  resolution  left ;' 
but  Warburton  suggested  a  more  probable  meaning,  '  a  religious ;  one  who 
has  subdued  his  passions,  is  dead  to  the  world,  has  abandoned  it  and  all  the 


l68  NOTES.  ACT  V. 

affairs  of  it;  an  ascetic'  This  is  the  explanation  commonly  received,  and 
Johnson  (Diet.  s.  v.)  quotes  the  passage  to  illustrate  the  sense  he  gives  to 
'  mortify,'  viz.  '  to  macerate  or  harass,  in  order  to  reduce  the  body  to  com- 
pliance with  the  mind.'  We  have  the  word  in  this  sense,  Love's  Labour  's 
Lost,  i.  I.  28  : 

'  Dumain  is  mortified : 
The  grosser  manner  of  these  world's  delights 
He  throws  upon  the  gross  world's  baser  slaves.' 
Compare  also  King  Lear,  ii.  3,  15,  where  'mortified'  means  '  deadened  with 
cold  and  hunger.'     But  in  the  present  passage  such  a  sense  seems  scarcely 
forcible   enough.     May   it  not   mean   'the  dead  man'?   'mortified'  in  the 
literal  sense.    So  Erasmus,  on  the  Creed,  Eng.  tr.  fol.  8ia :  '  Christ  was  mor- 
tified and  killed  in  dede  as  touchynge  to  his  fleshe  :  but  was  quickened  in 
spirite.'      I;a  the  following,  Henry  V.  i.  i.  26,  'mortified,'  though  figuratively 
applied,  does  not  mean  '  subdued  by  a  course  of  asceticism  :' 
'  The  breath  no  sooner  left  his  father's  body. 
But  that  his  wildness,  mortified  in  him, 
Seem'd  to  die  too. 
Both  senses  are  combined  in  Julius  Caesar,  ii.  i.  324  ; 
'  I  here  discard  my  sickness  .... 
Thou,  like  an  exorcist,  hast  conjured  up 
My  mortified  spirit.' 
If  '  the  mortified  man'  really  means  'the  dead,'  the  word  'bleeding'  in  the 
former  line  may  have  been  suggested  by  the  well-known  superstition  that  the 
corpse  of  a  murdered  man  bled  afresh  in  the  presence  of  the  murderer.     It  is 
true  that  this   interpretation   gives  an   extravagant   sense,  but   we   have  to 
choose  between   extravagance   and  feebleness.     The   passage,  indeed,  as  it 
stands  in  the  text,  does  not  read  like  Shakespeare's. 
8.  Jile,  list,  or  muster-roll.      See  note,  iii.  i.  94. 

10.  tinrough,    unbearded.     Not   used    elsewhere    by    Shakespeare.     But 
compare  King  John,  v.  2.  133  : 

'  This  unhair'd  sauciness  and  boyish  troops,' 
where  '  unhair'd'  is  Theobald's  excellent  emendation  for  the  '  unheard'  of  the 
folios.     And  The  Tempest,  ii.  i.  250: 

'  Till  new-born  chins 
Be  rough  and  razorable.' 

11.  protest,  proclaim,  display  publicly.   Compare  Much  Ado  about  Nothing, 
V.  I.  149  : 

'  Do  me  right,  or  I  will  protest  your  cowardice.' 
And  see  iii.  4.  105  of  the  present  play. 

lb.  their  first  of  manhood.     Compare  'my  near'st  of  life,'  iii.  I.  117- 
13.  lesser.     Here  an  adverb.    We  have  had  it  as  an  adjective,  i.3.  65.    St 
we  find  '  worser '  an  adverb,  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  ii.  5.  90  : 

'  I  cannot  hate  thee  worser  than  I  do.' 
As  an  adjective.  The  Tenipest,  iv.  i.  27  :  '  Our  worser  genius.' 

15.  We  have  the  same  metaphor  in  Troilus  and  Cressida,  ii.  2.  30  : 
'  And  buckle  in  a  waist  most  fathomless 
With  spans  and  inches  so  diminutive 
As  fears  and  reasons.' 


sc.  2.]  n  A  C  B  E  T  H.  169 

The  '  distemper'd  cause '  is  the  disorganized  party,  the  disordered  body  over 
which  he  rules.  Ins'.ead  of  being  like  '  a  well-girt  man,'  fv^covos  dvrjp,  full 
of  vigour,  his  state  is  like  one  in  dropsy.  We  have  the  same  metaphor  more 
elaborated  in  2  Henry  IV.  iii.  i.  38  sqq. : 

'  King.    Then  you  perceive  the  body  of  our  kingdom 

How  foul  it  is ;  what  rank  diseases  grow. 

And  with  what  danger,  near  the  heart  of  it. 
War.     It  is  but  as  a  body  yet  distemper'd;'  &c. 
Instead  of  '  cause,'  Sidney  Walker,  and,  independently  of  him,  Mr.  Collier's 
P.iS.  Corrector,  suggested  '  course,'  which  has  been  adopted  both  by  Mr. 
Singer  and  Mr.  Dyce. 

18.  mimitely  revolts,  revolts  occurring  every  minute.  This  adjective  is  not 
again  used  by  Shakespeare. 

lb.  ttpbraid,  frequently  used  with  accusative  of  things  as  well  as  of  persons. 
Compare  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iii.  2.  T98  :  'Upbraid  my  falsehood.'  And 
Twelfth  Night,  iii.  4.  3S5  : 

'  As  to  upbraid  you  with  those  kindnesses 
That  I  have  done  for  you.' 
Ih.  faith-hreach.    Not  again  found  in  Shakespeare.     Macbeth's  treasonable 
usurpation   of  Duncan's  office,  to  whom   he  was   bound  in  fealty,  is  now 
tacitly  upbraided  by  his  own  lieges,  who  revolt  from  him. 

19.  in  command.     For  this  use  of  '  in,'  compare  iv.  3.  20. 
20-22.  The  same  figure  is  employed,  i.  3.  145. 

22,  23.  blame  .  .  .  to  recoil.  We  have  'blame'  with  the  same  construc- 
tion, The  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  iii.  2.  27  : 

'  I  cannot  blame  thee  now  to  weep.' 

23.  pester' d,  hampered,  troubled,  embarrassed.  Cotgrave  (Tr.  Diet.)  gives  : 
'  Etnpestrer.  To  pester,  intricate,  intangle,  trouble,  incomber.'  The  first 
sense  of  the  word  appears  to  be  '  to  hobble  a  horse,  or  other  animal,  to  prevent 
it  straying.'     So  Milton,  Comus,  7  : 

'  Confined  and  pester'd  in  this  pinfold  here.' 
Hence  used  of  any  continuous  annoyance. 
lb.  recoil.     See  iv.  3.  19,  and  note. 

27.  medicine.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  '  medicine'  is  here  to  be  taken 
in  its  modern  sense,  as  the  following  line  inclines  us  to  believe,  or  according 
to  most  commentators,  in  the  sense  of  '  physician,'  like  the  French  medecin. 
The  word  occurs  in  this  sense  applied  to  Helena  in  All's  Well  that  Ends  Weil, 
ii.  I.  75: 

'  Lafeu.  I  have  seen  a  medicine 

whose  simple  touch 

Is  powerful  to  araise  King  Pepin,  nay. 
To  give  great  Charlemaia  a  pen  in  's  hand 
And  write  to  her  a  love-line. 
King.  What  "  her  "  is  this  ? 

Lafeu.  Why,  Doctor  She.' 
And  in  Winter's  Tale,  iv.  4.  598,  Florizel  calls  Camillo  the  'medicine  of  our 
house.'     Florio,  Worlde  of  Wordes,  has  :   '  Medico  :  a  medicine,  a  phisition, 
a  leach.'    Minsheu  (Spanish  Diet.),  1599,  and  Cotgrave,  161 1,  only  recognise 


1 70  NOTES.  [act  V. 

'medicine'  in  the  modern  sense.     In   the  present   passage   it   is  of  course 
Malcolm  who  is  called  '  the  medicine  of  the  sickly  weal.' 

27-29.  For  '  sickly  weal'  and  the  metaphor  in  1.  28,  compare  iii.  4.  76. 

30.  dew,  bedew.     The  verb  'dew'  is  found  2  Henry  VI.  iii.  2.  340: 
'  Give  me  thy  hand, 
That  I  may  dew  it  with  my  mournful  tears.' 

lb.  sovereign.  Two  ideas  are  suggested  by  the  use  of  this  epithet,  royal 
or  supreme,  and  powerfully  remedial,  the  latter  continuing  the  metaphor  of 
lines  27-29.  For  the  latter,  compare  Coriolanus,  ii.  1.  127:  'The  most 
sovereign  prescription  in  Galen.' 

Scene  III. 

I.  let  them  fly  all,  let  all  the  thanes  fly  from  me, 

3.  taint,  be  infected.  Compare  Twelfth  Night,  iii.  4.  145  :  'Lest  the  device 
take  air  and  taint.'  The  word  is  rarely  used,  as  in  these  two  passages,  in- 
transitively, but  there  is  no  ground  for  suspecting  the  genuineness  of  the  text, 
nor  for  adopting  Sidney  Walker's  conjecture,  '  I  cannot /rt/«?  v/ith  fear.'  We 
have  something  of  the  same  metaphor  in  3  Henry  VI.  iii.  i.  40: 
'  And  Nero  will  be  tainted  with  remorse.' 

5.  all  mortal  consequences,  all  that  will  befall  men  in  the  future,  all  the 
results  of  the  present  circumstances  which  surround  men. 

lb.  me  here  may  either  be  dative  or  accusative,  and  the  sense  either  '  The 
spirits  have  pronounced  thus  in  my  case,'  or  '  The  spirits  have  pronounced 
me  to  be  thus  circumstanced.' 

7.  have  power  upon.    Compare  The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  iii.  i.  23S  : 

•  No  more  ;  unless  the  next  word  that  thou  speak'st 
Have  some  malignant  power  upon  my  life.' 

8.  the  English  epicures.  Gluttony  was  a  common  charge  brought  by  the 
Scotch  against  their  wealthier  neighbours.  '  The  English  pock-puddings'  is 
a  phrase  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  Waverley  novels.  The  English  too 
brought  similar  charges  against  their  continental  neighbours.  Delius  quotes 
from  the  drama  of  Edward  III.  falsely  attributed  to  Shakespeare  : 

'  Those  ever-bibbing  epicures. 
Those  frothy  Dutchmen,  puff'd  with  double  beer.' 

9.  The  mind  I  sway  by.  The  mind  by  which  my  movements  are  directed, 
as  in  Twelfth  Night,  ii.  4.  32  : 

'  So  sways  she  level  in  her  husband's  heart.' 
The  other  interpretation, '  The  mind  by  which  I  bear  rule,'  is  not  impossible. 
lb.  bear.     Compare  King  Lear,  iv.  2.  51  : 

'  Milk-liver'd  man ! 
That  bear'st  a  cheek  for  blows,  a  head  for  wrongs.' 

10.  sag,  hang  heavily,  droop.  Mr.  Halliwell,  Diet,  of  Archaic  and  Pro- 
vincial Words,  quotes  from  Pierce  Pennilesfe,  1592  [sig.  A  2,  verso]:  '  Sir  Row- 
land Russet-coat  their  dad,  goes  sagging  euery  day  in  his  round  gascoynes  cf 
white  cotton.'  Mr.  Atkinson,  in  his  Glossary,  mentions  '  sag '  as  being  sti':l 
in  use  in  Cleveland,  Yorkshire.  Forby,  in  his  Vocabulary  of  East  Antlia, 
gives  :  '  Sag,  v.  to  fail  or  give  way  from  weakness  in  itself,  or  overloaded  ;  as 
the  bars  of  a   gate,  beams,  rafters,  cr  the  like.     It   is  used  figuratively  in 


sc.  3.]  31 A  C  B  E  T  H.  171 

Macbeth.  We  also  use  it  figuratively.  Of  a  man  who  droops  in  the  decline 
of  lite,  we  say  "  he  begins  to  sag." '  We  have  heard  a  railway  porter  apply 
it  to  the  leathern  top  of  a  carriage  weighed  down  with  luggage. 

II.  loon.  In  the  fourth  folio,  1685,  the  word  is  changed  to  'lown.'  The 
former  corresponds  to  the  Scottish  and  Northern  pronunciation,  the  latter  to 
the  Southern.  It  is  spelt  '  lown,'  or  '  lowne,'  in  Othello,  ii.  3.  95,  and  Pericles, 
iv.  6.  19. 

13.  There  if.  Changed  by  Rowe  to  '  There  are.'  See  note  on  ii.  3. 122, 
and  compare  Richard  II.  iii.  4.  168  : 

'  There  lies 
Two  kinsmen  digg'd  their  graves  with  weeping  eyes.' 
lb.  Coriolanus,  i.  4.  34,  thus  reproaches  his  men  : 

'  You  souls  of  geese. 
That  bear  the  shapes  of  men,  how  have  you  run 
From  slaves  that  apes  would  beat!' 

15.  lily-liver'd.  So  King  Lear,  ii.  2.  18  :  'A  lily-livered,  action-taking 
knave.' 

lb.  patch.  So  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  iii.  2.  9  :  'A  crew  of  patches,' 
and  Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  5.  45,  '  The  patch  is  kind  enough.'  Florio  gives ; 
'  Pazzo,  a  foole,  a  patch,  a  mad-man,'  and  this  seems  the  most  probable  deriv- 
ation of  the  word.  Some  however  derive  it  from  the  patched  or  motley  coat 
of  the  jester,  and  this  derivation  seems  to  be  supported  by  a  passage  in  Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream,  iv.  I.  237,  where  Bottom  says :  '  Man  is  but  a 
patched  fool.' 

16.  linen  cheeks.     So  we  have  in  Henry  V.  ii.  2.  74 : 

'  Look  ye,  how  they  change  ! 
Their  cheeks  are  paper.' 

17.  are  counsellors  to  fear,  are  fear's  counsellors,  i.  e.  suggest  fear  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  behold  them. 

20.  This  push,  this  assault,  this  attack  now  made  upon  me.  So  Julius 
Caesar,  v.  2.  5  : 

'  And  sudden  push  gives  them  the  overthrow.' 

21.  The  first  folio  reads  : 

'  Will  cheere  me  euer,  or  dis-eate  me  now.' 
The  second  folio  substitutes '  disease'  for  '  dis-eate.'   Steevens  first  put  'disseat ' 
in  the  text,  following  a  conjecture  of  Capell's.    Mr.  Dyce  adopts  a  suggestion 
of  Bishop  Percy,  '  chair'   for  '  cheer.'     The  antithesis  would  doubtless  be 
more  satisfactory  if  we  followed  the  later  folios,  and  read ; 

'  Will  cheer  me  ever  or  disease  me  now,' 
or  if,  with  Mr.  Dyce,  we  read : 

'  Will  chair  me  ever  or  disseat  me  now.' 
But  '  disease'  seems  to  be  too  feeble  a  word  for  the  required  sense,  and 
'  chair,'  which  is  nowhere  used  by  Shakespeare  as  a  verb,  would  signify  rather 
'to  place  in  a  chair'  than  'to  keep  in  a  chair,'  which  is  what  we  want.  The 
difficulty  in  the  text,  retaining  '  cheer,'  is  still  greater,  because  the  antithesis 
is  imperfect,  and  it  seems  strange,  after  speaking  of  a  push  as  '  cheering'  one, 
to  recur  to  its  literal  sense.  We  have,  however,  left  '  cheer'  in  the  text,  in 
accordance  with  our  rule  not  to  make  any  change  where  the  existing  reading 
is  not  quite  impossible  and  the  proposed  emendations  not  quite  satisfactory. 


172  NOTES.  [act  V. 

22.  For  '  way,'  Johnson  conjectured  '  May,'  which  Steevens  adopted 
in  his  edition  of  177S,  and  so  the  passage  is  popularly  quoted.  Very 
probably  Shakespeare  wrote  '  May,'  but  we  have  not  inserted  it  in  the  text, 
remembering  with  what  careless  profusion  our  poet  heaps  metaphor  on  meta- 
phor. This  mixture  of  metaphors,  however,  is  not  justified  by  quoting,  as 
the  commentators  do,  passages  from  Shakespeare  and  other  authors,  to  prove 
that '  way  of  life'  is  a  mere  periphrasis  for  '  life.'  The  objection  to  it  is, 
that  it  is  immediately  followed  by  another  and  different  metaphor.  If  we 
were  to  read  '  May'  we  should  have  a  sense  exactly  parallel  to  a  passage 
in  Richard  II.  iii.  4.  48,  49 : 

'  He  that  hath  suffer'd  this  disorder'd  spring 
Hath  now  himself  met  with  the  fall  of  leaf.' 
Sidney  Walker,  whose   knowledge  and  taste  were  excellent  guides,  had  no 
doubt  that  we  ought  to  read  '  May.' 
28.  deny,  refuse.      See  iii.  4.  128. 

35.  nioe.  So  the  first  and  second  folios  ;  altered  in  the  third  to  'more. 
Shakespeare  used  both  forms.  See  Richard  II.  ii.  I.  239,  and  The  Merchant 
of  Venice,  i.  i.  108. 

lb.  shirr,  scour.  Rapid,  hurried  movement  is  implied.  We  have  the  same 
word  used  intransitively,  Henry  V.  iv.  7.  64  : 

'  We  will  come  to  them, 
And  make  them  skirr  away.' 
In  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Bonduca,  i.  i  : 

'  The  light  shadows 
That  in  a  thought  scur  o'er  the  fields  of  corn,' 
we  have  the  same  word  differently  spelt. 

39.  Cure  her.  So  the  second  folio.  The  first  omits  '  her.'  Perhaps  the 
author  wrote  '  Make  cure  of  that.' 

42.  We  have  the  same  iagure  in  Hamlet,  i.  5.  lO.q  : 

'  Within  the  book  and  volume  of  my  brain.' 

43.  oblivious,  causing  forgetfulness,  like  obliviosus  in  Latin  : 

'  Oblivioso  levia  Massico 
Ciboria  exple.'     (Horace,  Odes,  ii.  7.  21.) 
Am.ong  the  meanings   which    Cotgrave  gives   to   the   French  oblivietix,  is 
'  causing  forgetfulnesse.' 

44.  stuff'd  .  .  .  stuff.  This  can  hardly  be  right.  One  or  other  of  these 
words  must  be  due  to  a  mistake  of  transcriber  or  printer.  Pope  read  '  full' 
for  '  stuff'd.'  Others  have  conjectured  '  foul,'  '  clogg'd,'  '  fraught,'  '  press'd.' 
Others,  retaining  '  stuff'd,'  would  alter  '  stuff '  to  '  grief,'  or  '  matter,'  or 
'  slough,'  or  '  freight.' 

46.  /'//  none  of  it.  The  omission  of  the  verb  adds  to  the  emphasis  of  the 
phrase.  So  Proverbs,  i.  25  :  '  But  ye  have  set  at  nought  all  my  counsel,  and 
would  none  of  my  reproof.' 

48.  staff,  the  general's  baton. 

50.  Come,  sir,  dispatch.  These  words  are  addressed  to  the  attendant  wlio 
is  buckling  on  the  armour.  The  agitation  of  the  speaker's  mind  is  marked 
by  his  turning  from  one  to  the  other.  No  sooner  is  the  armour  put  on  than 
he  bids  the  man  pull  it  off,  line  54,  and  then  line  58,  orders  it  to  be  brought 
after  him. 


sc.  4']  -^-^^  C  B  E  T  H  173 

52.  Compare  iii.  4.  76. 

55.  senna.  The  first  folio  has  'cyme';  the  second  and  third  'caeny'; 
the" fourth  'senna.'  As  Mr.  Dyce  says,  the  '  cyme'  of  the  first  folt©  was  doubt- 
less a  misprint  for  '  cynne,'  one  of  the  many  ways  of  spelling  '  senna.'  hi 
Cotgrave  it  is  spelt  '  sene'  and  '  senne,'  and  defined  to  be  '  a  little  purgative 
shrub  or  plant.'  By  '  caeny,'  the  editor  of  the  second  folio  meant  the  same 
thing.  In  Lyte's  New  Herbal,  1595,  p.  437,  is  a  chapter  headed  '  Of  Sene.' 
In  it  he  says  the  '  leaues  of  sena  .  .  .  secure  away  fleume  and  choler,  especially 
blacke  choler  and  melancholie.' 

58.  it,  i.e.  some  part  of  the  armour. 

59.  bane.  Here  used  in  the  general  sense  of  '  harm,'  '  evil,'  '  ruin.'  More 
frequently  found  in  the  special  sense  of  '  poison.' 

Scene  IV. 

2.   That,  loosely  used  as  a  relative  for  '  in  which.' 

lb.  chambers  will  be  safe.  As  we  say  '  every  man's  house  will  be  his 
castle.'     For  'chambers'  see  King  John,  v.  2.  147  : 

'Shall  that  victorious  hand  be  feebled  here. 
That  in  your  chambers  gave  you  chastisement,' 
i.e.  which  pursued  you  into  your  very  houses  and  punished  you  there. 
Ih.  nothing.     See  i.  3.  96. 

5.  shadow,  and  so  conceal. 

6.  discovery,  reconnoitering,  the  report  of  scouts.     Compare  King  Lear, 

V.  1.53: 

'  Here  is  the  guess  of  their  true  strength  and  forces 
By  diligent  discovery.' 

8.  For  '  other'  followed  by  '  but,'  see  Hamlet,  ii.  2.  56 : 

'  I  doubt  it  is  no  other  but  the  main.' 
lb.  but,  but  that.     So  Coriolanus,  i.  2.  18: 

'  We  never  yet  made  doubt  but  Rome  was  ready 
To  answer  us.' 

9,  TO.  endure  Our  setting  down,  stand  a  regular  siege  from  us.  For 
'  set '  where  we  should  say  '  sit,'  used  intransitively,  see  Coriolanus,  i.  2.  28  : 

'  Let  us  alone  to  guard  Corioli  : 
If  they  set  down  before  's,'  &c. 
II,  12.  This  passage,  as  it  stands,  is   not  capable  of  any  satisfactory  ex- 
planation.   Capell's  reading,  which  nearly  coincides  with  Johnson's  conjecture, 
is  as  follows ; 

'  For  where  there  is  advantage  to  be  gone 
Both  more  and  less,'  &c. 
But  we  should  have  expected  '  was '  rather  than  '  is,'  unless  indeed,  '  where ' 
be  taken  in  the  sense  of  '  wherever.'     The  meaning  is,  '  where  they  had 
a  favourable  opportunity  for  deserting.'      Steevens  conjectured : 

'  Where  there  is  advantage  to  be  got,' 
which    Mr.    Collier's    MS.    Corrector     adopted,    changing     only    '  got '    to 
'  gotten.'     Lord  Chedworth  guessed  '  taken,'  and  Sidney  Walker  '  ta'en,'  for 
'  given.'     But  we  rather  incline  to  think  that  the  word  '  given  '  would  not 
have  been  used  in  the  second  line,  if  it  had  not  been  already  used  in  the 


174  NOTES.  [actv. 

first,  a  play  upon  words  very  much  in  our  author's  manner.     Perhaps  the 
first  line  should  stand  thus : 

'  For  where  there  is  advantage  given  to  flee,' 
or,  '  For  where  there  is  advantage  to  'em  given.' 

12.  more  and  less,  great  and  small.     See  2  Henry  IV.  i.  i.  209  : 
'  And  more  and  less  do  flock  to  follow  him.' 

14,  15.  Let  our  just  censures  Attend  the  true  event.  The  meaning  of  this 
obscurely  worded  sentence  must  be :  In  order  that  our  opinions  may  be  just, 
let  them  await  the  event  which  will  test  their  truth.  The  editor  of  the 
second  folio  introduced  here  a  strange  conjectural  emendation  which  is 
more  obscure  than  the  original : 

'  Let  our  best  censures 
Before  the  true  event.' 
Rowe  changed  '  let '  to  '  set ' : 

'  Set  our  best  censures 
Before  the  true  event,' 
which  gives  indeed  a  sense,  but  scarcely  that  which  is  required. 

15.  the  true  event,  the  actual  result,  whose  certainty  is  contrasted  with  the 
vagueness  of  the  information  received,  insufficient,  as  MacduflF  says,  for  form- 
ing a  just  judgement. 

15,  16.  To  'put  on  soldiership'  is  a  metaphor  suggested  by  the  putting 
on  of  armour.     Compare  ii.  ^.  115. 

18.  owe  is  here  used  in  the  ordinary  modern  sense,  opposed  to  '  have.'  Si  ward 
says  that  the  issue  of  a  decisive  battle  will  enable  them  to  balance  their 
accounts,  as  it  were. 

19.  relate,  give  utterance  to,  tell. 

20.  arbitrate  elsewhere  in  Shakespeare  is  followed  by  an  accusative  indi- 
cating not  the  'issue'  but  the  quarrel,  as  Richard  II.  i.  i.  50,  200,  and  King 
John,  i.  I.  38. 

Scene  V. 

5.  forced,  strengthened,  reinforced.  In  Troilus  and  Cressida,  v.  i.  64, 
'  Wit  larded  with  malice  and  malice  forced  with  wit,'  the  word  is  used,  as 
'  farced  '  elsewhere,  in  a  culinary  sense. 

6.  darefid  does  not  occur  again  in  Shakespeare. 

8.  Exit.  This  was  inserted  b}'  Dyce.  The  folio  has  no  stage  direction 
here,  nor  at  line  15,  where  Dyce,  whom  we  have  followed,  put  'Re-enter 
Seyton.'  Perhaps  Seyton  should  not  leave  the  stage,  but  an  attendant  should 
come  and  whisper  the  news  of  the  Queen's  death  to  him. 

10.  cool'd.  Malone  and  Collier  think  '  cool'd '  too  feeble  a  word  for  the 
sense  required ;  the  former  proposes  '  coil'd,'  i.e.  recoiled,  the  latter  '  quail'd.' 
But  'cool '  is  sometimes  found  in  a  sense  stronger  than  that  which  it  bears 
in  modern  language,  as  King  John,  ii.  1.  479 : 

'  Lest  aeal,  now  melted  by  the  windy  breath 
Of  soft  petitions,  pity  and  remorse, 
Cool  and  congeal  again  to  what  it  was.' 
11.'  To  hear  a  night-shriek.    Delius  supposes  that  he  refers  especially  to  the 
night  of  Duncan's  murder,  ii.  2.  5S  : 

'  How  is't  with  me  when  every  noise  appals  me?' 


sc.  5.]  MACBET  H.  J  75 

But  the  following  words  seem  to  imply  that  he  is  referring  to  still  earlier 
<I?.ys,  when  his  feelings  were  unblunted  and  his  conscience  unburdened 
with  guilt. 

lb.  my  fell  of  hair,  the  skin  with  the  hair  on.  Cotgrave  has,  '  Peau  : 
a  skin  :  fell,  hide,  or  pelt.'  Florio  (Ital.  Diet.)  gives :  '  Velio,  a  fleece,  a  fell 
or  skin  that  hath  wooll  on.'  We  find  the  word  in  King  Lear,  v.  3.  24  :  '  flesh 
and  fell.'     It  is  still  extant  in  the  word  '  fell-monger.' 

12.  treatise,  story,  as  in  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  i.  i.  317  : 

'  But  lest  my  liking  might  too  sudden  seem, 
I  would  have  salved  it  with  a  longer  treatise.' 
lb.  roiise,  intransitive,  as  in  iii.  2.  53. 

13.  As,  as  if.     Compare  King  Lear,  iii.  4.  15  : 

'  Is  it  not  as  this  mouth  should  tear  this  hand 
For  lifting  food  to  't  ? ' 
For  the  sense  of  the  passage  compare  Hamlet,  iii.  4.  121  : 
'  Your  bedded  hair,  like  life  in  excrements, 
Starts  up,  and  stands  an  end.' 
lb.  siipp'dfull  with  horrors.     '  With  '  here  must  be  joined  in  construction 
not  to   'full'   but   'supp'd.'     It  is  used   as   in  iv.   2.  32,  where  see  note. 
Compare  also  Measure  for  Measure,  iv.  3.  159:  'I  am  fain  to  dine  and  sup 
with  water  and  bran.' 

15.  once.     See  iv.  3.  167,  and  note. 

lb.  start,  startle.  So  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  v.  3.  232:  'Every 
feather  starts  you.' 

17.  The  complete  calnmess  and  apparent  indifference  with  which  Macbeth 
receives  the  news  of  his  wife's  death  prove  that  his  crimes  and  desperation 
had  made  him  as  incapable  of  feeling  grief  as  fear. 

18.  for  such  a  word,  such  a  phrase  as  '  the  Queen  is  dead.'  Compare 
Richard  II.  i.  3.  152  : 

'  The  hopeless  word  of  "  never  to  re'.urn." ' 
20.  Creeps.     Capell  proposed  to  read  '  Creep,'  but  Shakespeare  frequently 
uses  the  singular  verb  with  more  than  one  nominative  (see  our  note   on 
i.  3.  147,  of  this  play),  and  in  this  particular  case  the  singular  seems  more 
suitable  to  the  sense,  '  each  to-morrow  creeps,*  &c. 

22.  fools.  Hunter  suggests  '  foules,'  i.  e.  crowds.  But  Macbeth  is  misan- 
thropist enough  to  call  all  mankind  '  fools.' 

23.  dusty.  So  the  first  folio.  The  subsequent  folios,  by  a  curious  error, 
have  '  study.'  Hanmer  adopted  Theobald's  very  plausible  conjecture,  'dusky,' 
which  keeps  up  the  m.etaphor.  But  'dusky'  seems  too  feeble  an  epithet  to 
describe  the  darkness  of  the  grave,  and  we  should  moreover,  as  we  have 
before  said,  be  very  chary  of  making  alterations  in  the  text  on  account  of 
any  apparent  confusion  of  metaphor.  The  epithet  '  dusty '  is  suggested  by 
such  familiar  phrases  as  '  the  dust  of  death,'  '  dust  to  dust,'  &c.  The  poet 
laureate  was  probably  thinking  of  this  passage  when  he  wrote  : 

'  The  dusty  crypt 
Of  bygone  forms  and  faces.' 
24-26.  Other  references  to  the  stage  may  be  found,  i.  3.  J  28,  and  ii.  4.  i,6, 
of  this  play.    Compare  also  Troilus  and  Cressida,  i.  3.  153  :  '  Like  a  strutting 
player.' 


176  NOTES.  [act  V. 

25.  frets,  chafes.  Used,  as  here,  intransitively  in  3  Henry  VI.  i.  4.  91  : 
'Stamp,  rave,  and  fret,'  where  the  word  is  also  applied  to  the  simulated 
passion  of  an  actor. 

30.  Gracious  my  lord.     See  note,  iii.  2.  27. 

33.  stand  tity  watch.  '  Watch'  is  here  used  as  a  cognate  accusative.  'As 
I  stood  and  kept  my  watch.'  We  still  say  '  to  stand  sentinel,'  '  to  stand 
guard,'  and  also  '  to  stand  one's  ground.' 

37.  this  three  mile.  We  have  the  singular  pronoun  used  with  a  numeral, 
even  when  the  substantive  which  follows  is  put  in  the  plural,  as  i  Henry  IV. 
iii.  3.  54  :  'this  two  and  thirty  years.'  For  the  singular  '  mile,' see  Much 
Ado  about  Nothing,  ii.  3.  17  :  'I  have  known  when  he  would  have  walked 
ten  mile  afoot  to  see  a  good  armour.' 

40.  cling,  wither,  shrivel,  from  Anglo-Saxon  cUngan,  generally  used  as  an 
intransitive  verb.      Compare  Vision  of  Piers  Ploughman,  901 1  : 
'  Or  whan  thou  clomsest  for  cold 
Or  clyngest  for  drye.' 
Miege  (Fr.  Diet.  16S8)  has, '  Clung  with  hunger,  maigre,  sec,  elance,  comme 
une  personne  afFamee;'  and  '  To  clung,  as  wood  will  do  being  laid  up  after 
it  is  cut,  secher,  devenir  sec'      Moor,  in  his  Suffolk  Words,  gives  ;  '  Clung  ; 
shrunk,   dried,   shrivelled ;    said   of  apples,  turnips,   carrots,'  &c.     Compare 
Atkinson's  Glossary  of  the  Cleveland  Dialect,  s.  v.  '  Clung.' 

lb.  sooth,  truth,  true.     See  i.  2.  36. 

42.  pidl  in,  check,  rein  in.  Compare  Fletcher's  Sea  Voyage  [Act  iii.  Sc.  i], 
quoted  by  Monck  Mason  : 

'  All  my  spirits. 
As  if  they  had  heard  my  passing-bell  go  for  me. 
Pull  in  their  powers  and  give  me  up  to  destiny.' 
Johnson  proposed  to  read  'I  pall  in  resolution.'     This,  or  '  I  pale  in  resolu- 
tion,' better  expresses  the  required  sense,  involuntary  loss  of  heart  and  hope. 
Besides,  as  the  text  stands,  we  must  emphasize  '  in,'  conirary  to  the  rhythai 
of  the  verse. 

47.  avouches,  guarantees  as  true.  This,  the  more  usual  sense  of  the 
word,  comes  easily  from  its  original  signification,  for  which  see  note  on 
iii.  1. 119. 

49.  'gin,  begin.     See  i.  2.  25. 

lb.  aweary.  So  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  2.  2  :  '  My  little  body  is  aweary 
of  this  great  world.'  A  writer  in  Notes  and  Queries  has  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  there  is  a  reference  to  this  passage  in  Sir  Thomas  Browne's 
Religio  Medici,  part  i.  §  41  :  '  Methinks  I  have  outlived  myself,  and  begin 
to  be  weary  of  the  sun.' 

50.  the  estate  of  the  world,  the  world's  settled  order.  Pope  read  '  state  ' 
for  '  estate,'  which  means  the  same  thing.  Compare  '  state  of  man,'  in 
i.  3.  140. 

51.  wrach  is  almost  always  spelt  with  an  '  a'  in  the  old  editions,  as  doubt- 
less it  was  pronounced.  Ini.  3.  114,  the  word  is  spelt  '  wracke '  in  the 
first  folio. 

52.  harness,  armour.  So  i  Kings  xxii.  34 :  'A  certain  man  drew  a  bow 
at  a  venture,  and  smote  the  kin?  of  Israel  between  the  joints  of  the  harness.' 


sc.  7.]  iMA  C  B  E  TH.  177 


Scene  VI. 

1.  leavy.  So  the  folios.  We  have  '  leavy '  rhyming  to  '  heavy  '  in  Much 
Ado  about  Nothing,  ii.  3.  75.     So  Cotgrave,  '  feuillu  :  leauie.' 

2.  show,  appear.     See  i.  3.  54. 

lb.  uncle.     See  note  on  iv.  3.  134. 

4.  battle,  division  of  an  army  in  order  of  battle.  Sometimes  used  of  a 
whole  army  in  order  of  battle,  as  in  King  John,  iv.  2.  78  : 

'  Like  heralds  'twixt  two  dreadful  battles  set,' 
and  I  Henry  IV.  iv.  I.  129  : 

'  What  may  the  king's  whole  battle  reach  unto  ?' 
Compare  Julius  Caesar,  v.  3.  108  : 

'  Labeo  and  Flavius,  set  our  battles  on.' 

5.  upon  's,  upon  us.     See  i.  3.  125. 
10.  harbingers.     See  note  on  i.  4.  45. 

Scene  VII. 

2.  bear-like  I  must  fight  the  course.  Compare  King  Lear,  iii.  "J.  54 ; 
'  I  am  tied  to  the  stake,  and  I  must  stand  the  course.'  Steevens  quotes  from 
The  Antipodes,  by  Brome,  1638  :  '  Also  you  shall  see  two  ten-dog  courses  at 
the  great  bear.'  Bear-baiting  was  a  favourite  amusement  with  our  ancestors. 
The  bear  was  tied  to  a  stake  and  baited  with  dogs,  a  certain  number  at  a 
time.  Each  of  these  attacks  was  technically  termed  a  '  course.'  There  is  a 
description  of  this  sport  in  Strutt's  Sports  and  Pastimes,  Bk.  iii.  ch.  6. 

7.  Thati  any  is,  i.  e.  than  any  which  is.  Compare  The  Merchant  of 
Venice,  i.  i.  175  : 

'  I  have  a  mind  presages  me  such  thrift ; ' 
and  Measure  for  Measure,  v.  i.  67 : 

'  To  make  the  truth  appear  where  it  seems  hid. 
And  hide  the  false  seems  true.' 
See  our  notes  on  Richard  IL  ii.  1.  173 ;  iv.  I.  334.     Among  modern  poets. 
Browning   is   particularly  fond  of  omitting   the  relative.     Indeed  it  is  still 
frequently  omitted  by  all  writers  when  a  new  nominative  is  introduced  to 
govern  the  following  verb. 

17.  herns.  See  i.  2.13.  The  word  is  here  applied  to  the  common  soldiers 
of  Macbeth's  army. 

18.  staves,  spear-shafts.     See  Richard  III.  v.  3.  341  : 

'  Amaze  the  welkin  with  your  broken  staves.* 
lb.   either  is  to  be  pronounced  here,  as  frequently,  in  the  time  of  a  mono- 
syllable.    Compare  Richard  III.  i.  2.  64  : 

'  Either  heaven  with  lightning  strike  the  murderer  dead.' 
So  '  neither,'  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  I.  178  : 

'  Neither  have  I  money  nor  commodity.' 
lb.  thou.    This  word  is  not  in  grammatical  construction.    We  must  supply 
some  words  like  '  must  be  my  antagonist.' 

20.  undeeded,  not  marked  by  any  feat  of  arms.  This  word  is  not  found 
elsewhere,  at  least  not  in  Shakespeare. 


178 


NOTES.  [act  v. 


lb.  There  thou  shouldst  be.  He  infers  from  the  noise  he  hears  that  Macbeth 
must  be  there.  For  '  should,'  see  i.  3.  45.  '  There'  must  be  pronounced 
with  emphasis. 

21.  clatter.  Not  used  elsewhere  by  Shakespeare.  '  Macbeth' is  particularly 
remarkable  for  the  number  of  these  dva^  Xeyofifva. 

22.  bridted,  announced,  reported.     Compare  Hamlet,  i.  2.  127  ; 

'  And  the  king's  rouse  the  heavens  shall  bruit  again, 
Re-speaking  earthly  thunder.' 
The  word  is  derived  from  the  French  bruit,  which  was  adopted  both  as  noun 
and  verb  into  English. 

lb.  To  complete  the  imperfect  line,  Steevens  suggested  '  bruited  there,'  or 
•  but  find.' 

24.  gently,  quietly,  without  a  struggle. 

27.  itself  professes,  professes  itself.     There  is  a  similar  inversion,  v.  8.  8,  g. 
29.   That  strike  beside  us,  i.e.  deliberately  miss  us.     Compare  3  Henry  VI. 
ii.  I.  129  sqq. : 

'  Their  weapons  like  to  lightning  came  and  went ; 
Our  soldiers',  like  the  night-owl's  lazy  flight. 
Or  like  an  idle  thresher  with  a  flail,   . 
Fell  gently  down,  as  if  they  struck  their  friends.' 


Scene  VIII. 

The  scene  is  continued  in  the  folios. 

1.  the  Roman  fool.  Referring  either  to  Cato  or  to  Brutus,  or  to  both. 
Compare  Julius  Csesar,  v.  I.  loi  : 

'  Brutus.  Even  by  the  rule  of  that  philosophy 
By  which  I  did  blame  Cato  for  the  death 
Which  he  did  give  himself.' 

2.  whiles.  See  ii.  i.  60. 
5.  charged.  See  v.  i.  53. 

9.  intrenchant,  which  cannot  be  cut.  The  active  form  is  used  with  a 
passive  sense.  '  Intrenchant'  does  not  occur  again  in  Shakespeare,  and 
'trenchant'  only  in  one  passage,  Timon  of  Athens,  iv.  3.  1 1 5,  and  then  in 
its  natural  active  signification,  '  trenchant  sword.'  For  the  sense  compare 
Hamlet,  iv.  I.  44,  'the  woundless  air,'  and  1.  i.  146,  of  the  same  play, 
'  For  it  is,  as  the  air,  invulnerable.' 

13.  Despair  thy  charm.  We  find  'despair'  used  thus  for  'despair  of  in 
the  last  line  of  Ben  Jonson's  commendatory  verses  prefixed  to  the  first 
folio  edition  of  Shakespeare's  plays  : 

'  Shine  forth,  thou  Starre  of  Poets,  and  with  rage. 
Or  influence,  chide,  or  cheere  the  drooping  stage ; 
Which,  since  thy  flight  from  hence,  hath  mourn'd  like  night, 
And  despaires  day,  but  for  thy  volumes  light.' 

14.  angel,  of  course  used  here  in  a  bad  sense.  Compare  2  Henry  IV.  i.  2. 
186,  where  the  Chief  Justice  calls  FalstaflF  the  Prince's  'ill  angel,'  or  evil 
genius.  Compare  also  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  ii.  3.  21,  where  'thy  angel'  or 
'  demon'  is  explained  as  '  thy  spirit  which  keeps  thee.' 


sc.  8.]  MA  C  B  E  T  H.  179 

lb.  still,  constantly.     See  note  on  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  i.  136. 
18.  7ny  better  part  0/ man,  the  better  part  of  my  manhood. 

20.  palter,  equivocate.     See  Julius  Caesar,  ii.  I.  126: 

'What  other  bond 
Than  secret  Romans,  that  have  spoke  the  word, 
And  will  not  palter?' 
We  have  'palter  with  us'  Troilus  and  Cressida,  ii.  3.  244.     Cotgrave  gives 
■  haggle'  and  '  dodge'    as  the  equivalents   of  '  palter,'   and  under  the  word 
'  Harceler'  we  find  '  to  haggle,  hucke,  dodge,  or  paulter  long  in  the  buying 
of  a  commoditie.'     The  derivation  of  the  word  is  uncertain  :  '  paltry'  comes 
from  it. 

21.  22.  There  are  many  well-known  examples  in  history,  or  rather  in 
story,  of  men  deceived  by  the  double  sense  of  oracles  and  prophecies,  as 
Croesus,  Epaminondas,  Pyrrhus,  our  Henry  IV.  &c. 

22.  Sidney  Walker  proposes,  perhaps  rightly,  to  read  '  I  will'  for  '  I  'U'  and 
to  take  '  I  will  ....  coward'  as  one  line. 

24.  gaze,  gazing-stock,  spectacle. 

26.  Painted  7ipon  a  pole,  i.  e.  painted  on  a  cloth  suspended  on  a  pole,  as  in 
front  of  a  wild-beast  show.     Benedick  makes  a  somewhat  similar  jest,  Much 
Ado  about  Nothing,  i.  i.  267.      And   in   Antony  and  Cleopatra,  iv.  12.  36, 
Antony  in  his  rage  bids  the  queen  follow  Caesar's  triumph  : 
'  Most  monster-like  be  shown 
For  poor'st  diminutives,  for  doits.' 

lb.  jmderwrit.    See  notes  on  i.  4.  3,  and  iii.  4.  109. 

34.   him.    Pope  read  '  he.'     Shakespeare  probably  wrote  the  former. 

lb.  Hold.  Compare  i.  5.  52.  The  cry  of  the  heralds  'Ho!  ho!'  com- 
manding the  cessation  of  a  combat  (see  our  Preface  to  Richard  II.  p.  xii. 
line  21)  is  probably  corrupted  from  'Hold  Hold,'  as  '  lo'  from  'look.'  If  a 
combatant  cried  'hold,'  he  of  course  implied  that  he  yielded. 

lb.  The  stage-direction  in  the  folios  here  is  :  '  Exeunt  fighting.  Alarums,' 
and  then  in  a  new  line  '  Enter  Fighting,  and  Macbeth  slaine.'  The  latter 
part  is  inconsistent  with  what  follows,  line  53,  where  we  have  the  stage- 
direction  '  Enter  Macduffe ;  with  Macbeths  head.'  This  points  to  some 
variations  in  the  mode  of  concluding  the  play.  In  all  likelihood  Shake- 
speare's part  in  the  play  ended  here.  In  modern  times  we  believe  it  is  the 
practice  for  Macduff  to  kill  Macbeth  on  the  stage. 

36.  go  off,  a  singular  euphemism  for  'die.'  We  have  'parted'  in  the 
<;ame  sense,  line  52,  where  see  note.  Similarly  to  '  take  off'  is  used  for  'to 
kill'  in  iii.  i.  104. 

40.  only  .  .  .  but.  For  an  instance  of  this  pleonasm  see  Bacon's  Advance- 
ment of  Learning,  ii.  17.  §  9:  'For  those  whose  conceits  are  seated  in 
popular  opinions,  need  only  but  to  prove  or  dispute.'  For  '  but  only'  see 
Richard  II.  ii.  I.  158,  and  our  note  on  the  passage. 

41.  This  is  a  limping  line  unless  we  can  pronounce  'prowess'  as  a  mono- 
syllable. It  is  used  in  two  other  passages  of  Shakespeare,  in  both  as  a  dis- 
syllable. 

42.  the  unshrinking  station,  the  post  from  which  he  did  not  flinch. 

44.  ca7ise  of  sorrow  is  here  a  pleonasm  for  sorrow.  ^Course  of  sorrow' 
is  a  not  improbable  conjecture. 


1 8o  NOTES.  ACT  V.  sc.  8. 

49.  wish  tbem  to  .  .  .  We  have  the  same  construction  in  The  Taming  of 
the  Shrew,  i.  2.  60: 

'  And  wish  thee  to  a  shrewd  ill-favour'd  wife.' 
And  so,  line  64  of  the  same  scene :    '  I'll  not  wish  thee  to  her.' 

52.  parted.  Compare  Henry  V.  ii.  3.  12  :  '  A'  parted  even  just  between 
twelve  and  one.'  So,  in  the  same  passage,  Mrs.  Quickly,  uses  '  went  away' 
with  like  meaning. 

lb.  paid  his  score.  So  '  paid  a  soldier's  debt,'  line  39.  This  account  of 
the  death  of  Siward's  son  is  taken,  not  like  the  rest  of  the  incidents  of  the 
play  from  Holinshed's  Historj-  of  Scotland,  but  from  the  same  writer's  History 
of  England,  p.  275.     See  the  passage  quoted  in  the  Preface. 

54.  55.  where  stands  The  usurper's  cursed  held.  Holinshed  says  that 
Macduff  set  the  head  upon  a  pole  and  brought  it  to  Malcolm.  (History  of 
Scotland,  p.  251,  col.  2.) 

55.  the  titne,  used  in  the  same  sense  as  in  i.  5.  61,  iv.  3.  72. 

56.  pearl  may  be  used  generically,  as  well  as  to  express  a  single  specimen. 
So  in  Henry  V.  iv.  i.  279  : 

'  The  intertissued  robe  of  gold  and  pearl.' 
There  is  no  need  therefore  to  change  it  to  '  pearls,'  still  less  to  adopt  Rowe's 
correction  'peers.'  Florio,  dedicating  his  World  of  Words,  1598,  to  Lord 
Southampton  addresses  him  thus :  '  Brave  Earle,  bright  Pearle  of  Peeres.' 
Perhaps  in  the  passage  in  the  text  '  pearl'  is  suggested  by  the  row  of  pearls 
which  usually  encircled  a  crown, 

59.  Steevens  made  the  line  run  smoothly  by  reading  in  the  second  half, 
'  King  of  Scotland,  hail  !' 

60.  shall.    See  iii.  I.  1 25. 

lb.  For  '  expense'  Steevens  guessed  '  extent.'  But  there  is  no  reason  to 
suspect  any  corruption.  The  verb  governs  a  cognate  accusative,  as  in  Num- 
bers, xxiii.  10  :  '  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous.'  Similarly  we  have, 
Richard  IL  iv.  i.  232  :  '  To  read  a  lecture  of  them.' 

61.  yottr  several  loves,  the  love  which  each  of  you  bears  to  me.  For 
plurals  of  this  kind  see  note  v.  2.  3. 

65.  would.    See  note,  i.  7-  34- 

66.  exiled  frie?ids  abroad,  i.  e.  friends  exiled  abroad.    Compare  iii.  6.  48,  49. 

70.  self  and  violent  hands.  So  in  Richard  II.  iii.  2.  166  : 

'  Infusing  him  with  self  and  vain  conceit.' 
See  our  note  on  the  passage. 

71.  Took  off  her  life.   So  i.  7.  20,  and  iii.  I.  104. 

72.  the  grace  of  Grace.  Compare  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  ii.  i.  163  : 

'  The  great'st  Grace  lending  grace.' 
75.  Scone.  See  note  on  ii.  4.  31. 


August,  1875. 


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Ovid.  Selections  for  the  use  of  Schools.  With  Introduc- 
tions and  Notes,  and  an  Appendix  on  the  Roman  Calendar.  By  W.  Ramsay, 
M.A.  Edited  by  G.  G.  Ramsay,  M.  A.,  Professor  of  Humanity,  Glasgow.  Second 
Edition.    Ext.  fcap.  8vo.  cloth,  ^s.  6d. 

Persius.  The  Satires.  With  a  Translation  and  Com- 
mentary. By  John  Conington,  M.A.,  late  Corpus  Professor  of  Latin  in  the 
University  of  Oxford.    Edited  by  H.  Nettleship,  M.A.    Svo.  cloth, 'js.Cd. 

Pliny.     Select  Letters  (for  Schools).     With  Notes.     By  the 

late  C.  E.  Prichard,  M. A.,  formerly  Fellow  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  and 
E.  R.  Bernard,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford.  Extra  fcap.  8vo. 
cloth,  3J. 

Tacitus.     The  Annals.     Books  I — VI.     With  Essays  and 

Notes.     By  T.  F.  Dallin,  M.  A.,  Tutor  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford.    Preparing. 

Fragments  and  Specimens  of  Early  Latin.  With  Intro- 
duction and  Notes.  By  John  Wordsworth,  M.A.,  Tutor  of  Brasenose  College, 
Oxford.     Demy  8vo.  cloth,  iSj", 

The  Koman  Poets  of  the  Augustan  Age.     By  William 

Young  Sellar,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Humanity  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 
Preparing. 


Republic.      By   the    same 
By  Theodore  Aufrecht, 


The   Roman    Poets   of  the 

Editor.     Preparing. 

The  Ancient  Languages  of  Italy. 

Phil.  Doct.     Preparing. 

Selections  from  the  less  known  Latin  Poets,     By  North 

Finder,  M.A.     Demy  8vo.  cloth,  15J. 

Passages  for  Translation  into  Latin.     For  the  use  of 

Passmen  and  others.     Selected  by  J.  Y.  Sargent,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Magdalen 
College,  Ox.''i)rd.     Third  Edition.     Ext.  fcap.  8vo.  cloth,  zs.  6d. 


IT.   METTTAL  AND  MORAL  PHILOSOPHY. 
The  Elements  of  Deductive  Logic,  designed  mainly  for 

the  use  of  Junior  Students  in  the  Universities.  By  T.  Fowler,  M.A.,  Fellow 
and  Tutor  of  Lincoln  College.  Oxford.  Fi/th  Edition,  with  a  Collection  of 
Examples.    Ext.  fcap.  8vo.  cloth,  ^s.  6d. 

The  Elements  of  Inductive  Logic,  designed  mainly  for 

the  use  of  Students  in  the  Universities.  By  the  same  Author.  Second  Edition. 
Ext.  fcap.  8vo.  cloth,  6s. 


Clarendon  Press  Series. 


Selections  from  Berkeley.  With  an  Introduction  and  Notes. 

For  the  use  of  Students  in  the  Universities.  By  Alexander  Campbell  Fraser, 
LL. D.,  Professor  of  Logic  and  Metaphysics  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 
Crown  8vo.  cloth,  -js.  6d. 

A  Manual  of  Political  Economy,  for  the  use  of  Schools. 

By  J.  E.  Thorold  Rogers,  M.A.,  formerly  Professor  of  Political  Economy, 
Oxford,     S€C<nid  Edttioji.     Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  4J.  ^d. 

The  Principles  of  Morals.  By  J.  M.  Wilson,  B.D.,  Presi- 
dent of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  and  T.  Fowler,  M.A.,  Professor  of 
Logic,  Oxford.     In  the  Press. 


III.    MATHEMATICS,  &G. 

Figures  made  Easy :  a  first  Arithmetic  Book.  (Intro- 
ductory to  'The  Scholar's  Arithmetic.')  By  Lewis  Hensley,  ^LA.,  formerly 
Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.     Crown  Svo.  cloth,  6d. 

Answers  to   the   Examples    in    Figures   made   Easy. 

By  the  same  Author.    Crown  Svo.  cloth,  is. 

The  Scholar's  Arithmetic.     By  the  same  Author.     Crown 

8vo.  cloth,  4S.  6d. 

The  Scholar's  Algebra.    By  the  same  Author.    In  the  Press. 
Book-keeping.     By  R.  G.  C.  Hamilton,  Financial  Assistant 

Secretary  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  John  Ball  (of  the  Firm  of  Quilter,  Ball, 
&  Co.).  Co-Examiners  in  Book-keepmg  for  the  Society  of  Arts.  I\^e7u  and 
€Jllar<red  Edition.     Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  lunp  clothe  2S. 

A  Coiirse  of  Lectures  on  Pure  Geometry.     By  Henry  J. 

Stephen  Smith,  M.A.,  F.R.S..  Fellow  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  and  Savilian 
Professor  of  Geometry-  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 

Acoustics.     By  W.  F.  Donkin,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  Savilian  Pro- 

fessor  of  Astronomy,  Oxford.     Crown  Svo.  clothe  ys.  6d. 

A  Treatise  on  Electricity  and  Magnetism.     By  J.  Clerk 

Maxwell,  M.A.,F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Experimental  Physics  in  the  University 
of  Cambridge.     2  vols.     Demy  Svo.  cioih,  \t.  iis.  6d. 

An  Elementary  Treatise  on  the  same  subject.     By  the 

same  Author.    Preparing. 

IV,    HISTORY. 

A  Constitutional  History  of  England.  By  W.Stubbs,M.A., 

Resjms  Professor  of  Modern  History,  Oxford.    Vol.  I.    Crown  Svo.  f/oWz,  izj. 
Vol.  II.     In  the  Press. 

Select   Charters   and   other   Illustrations    of  English 

Constitutional  History  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  reign  of  Edward  I. 
By  the  same  Author.    Second  Edition.     Crown  Svo.  cloth,  Zs.  6d. 


10 


Clarendon  Press  Series. 


Genealogical  Tables  illustrative  of  Modern   History. 

By  H.  B. , George,  M.A.     Ne7ii  Edition,  Revised  and  Corrected.     Small   4to. 

cloth,  I2J. 

A   History   of  France,  down   to   the   year    1453.     With 

numerous  Maps,  Plans,  and  Tables.     By  G.  W.  Kitchin,  M.A.,  formerly  Censor 
of  Christ  Church.    Crown  8vo.  cloth,  los.  td. 

A  Manual  of  Ancient  History.     By  George  Rawlinson, 

M.A.,  Camden  Professor  of  Ancient  History,  Oxford.     Demy  8vo.  cloth,  i^. 

A  History  of  Germany  and  of  the  Empire,  down  to  the 

close  of  the   Middle  Ages.     By  J.  Bryce,  D.C.L.,  Regius  Professor  of  Civil 
Law,  Oxford. 

A  History  of  Germany,  from  the  Reforaiation.     By  Adol- 

phus  W.  Ward,  M.A.,  Professor  of  History,  Owens  College,  Manchester. 

A  History  of  Britisli  India.     By  S.  J.  Owen,  M.A.,  Tutor 

and  Reader  in  Law  and  Modern  History,  Christ  Church. 

A  History  of  Greece.     By  E.  A.  Freeman,  M.A.,  formerly 

Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford. 


By   the   same 


V.   LA'W. 
Elements  of  LaAW  considered  with  reference  to  Principles 

of  General  Jurisprudence.  By  William  Markby,  M.  A.,  Judge  of  the  High 
Court  of  Judicature,  Calcutta.     Second  Editiojt.     Crown  8vo.  cloth,  6s.  td. 

A    Supplement    to    Elements    of   Law. 

Author.     In  the  Press, 

An  Introduction  to  the  History  of  the  Law  of  Keal 

Property,  with  Original  Authorities.  By  Kenelm  E.  Digby,  M.  A.,  formerly 
FeUow  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford.     Crown  Svo.  cloth,  -js.  6d. 

Gaii  Institutionum  Juris  Civilis  Commentarii  Q,uatuor; 

or.  Elements  of  Roman  Law  by  Gains.  With  a  Translation  and  Commentary. 
By  Edward  Poste,  M.  A.,  Barrister-at-Law,  and  Fellow  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford. 
Second  Edition.     Svo.  cloth,  iSj". 

The  Institutes  of  Justinian,  edited  as  a  Recension  of  the 

Institutes  of  Gaius.  By  Thomas  Erskine  Holland,  B.C.L.,  Chichele  Professor 
of  International  Law  and  Diplomacy,  and  formerly  Fellow  of  Exeter  College, 
Oxford.  Extra  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  %s. 

The  Elements  of  Jurisprudence.     By  the  same  Editor. 
Select  Titles  from  the  Digest  of  Justinian.     By  T.  E. 

Holland,  B.C.L.,  Chichele  Professor  of  International  Law  and  Diplomacy,  and 
formerly  Fellow  of  Exeter  College.  Oxford,  and  C.  L.  Shadwell,  B.C.L., 
Fellow  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford,    /k  Parts. 

Part   I.     Introductory  Titles.     Svo.  sewed,  2s.  6d. 
Part  II.     Family  Law.    Svo.  sewed,  is. 


VI.    PHYSICAL    SCIENCE. 


vatury  work.     M'ith  224  illustrations  ■< 
,  F.K.A.S.,  Barrister-at-Law.    Demy£ 


Descriptive    Astronomy.     A  Handbook  for  the  General 

Reader,  and  also  for  practical  Obse 
numerous  tables.  By  G.  F.  Chamber: 
S56  pp.,  clotkf  il.  IS. 

Chemistry   for   Students.     By  A.  W,   Williamson,   Phil. 

Doc,  F.R  S.,  Professor  of  Chemistry,   University  CoUeg^e,   London.    A  new 
Edition^  with  Solutions.     Ext.  leap.  8vo.  cloth,  ^s.  6d. 

A  Treatise  on  Heat,  with  numerous  Woodcuts  and  Dia- 
grams. By  Balfour  Stewart,  LL.  D.,  F.  R.S.,  Professor  of  Physics,  Owens 
College,  Manchester.     Second  Edition,     Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  js.  6d. 

Perms  of  Animal  Life.     By  G.  Rolleston.  M.D.,  F.R.S., 

Linacre   Professor   of  Physiology,  Oxford.     Illustrated  by   Descriptions  aftd 
Drawings  of  Dissections.     Demy  Svo.  cioih,  i6s. 

Exercises  in   Practical   Chemistry.     By   A.    G.  Vernon 

Harcourt,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  Senior  Student  of  Christ  Church,  and  Lee's  Reader 
in  Chemistry  ;  and  H.  G.  Madan,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford. 

Series    I.  Qualitative  Exercises.    Second  Edition,     Crown  Svo.  cloth,  ys.  6d. 

Series  II.  Quantitative  Exercises. 

Geology   of  Oxford   and   the  Valley  of  the   Thames. 

By  John  Phillips,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Geology,  Oxford.  Svo.  ciot/i,  li.  is. 

Crystallography.     By  M.  H.  N.   Story-Maskelyne,  M.A., 

Professor  of  Mineralogy,  Oxford  ;  and  Deputy  Keeper  in  the  Department  of 
Minerals,  British  Museum. 

Physiological  Physics.  By  G.  Griffith,  M.A.,  Jesus  Col- 
lege, Oxford  Assistant  Secretary  to  the  British  Association,  and  Natural 
Science  Master  at  Harrow  SchooL 


VII.  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE  AND  LITERATURE. 
A  First  Heading  Book.     By  Marie  Eichens  of  Beilin  ;  and 

edited  by  Anne  J.  Clough.     Ext  fcap.  Svo.  stiff  covers,  ^i. 

Oxford    Reading    Book,    Part   I.     For    Little   Children. 

Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  stiff  covers,  6d. 

Oxford    Reading    Book,    Part  II. 

Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  St  ff  covers,  6d. 

On  the  Principles   of  Grammar. 

Head  Master  of  Uppingham  School.     Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  i,s.  bd. 

Grammatical  Analysis,  designed  to  serve  as  an  Exercise 

and  Composition  Book  in  the  English  Language.    By  E.  Thring,  M.A.,  Head 
Master  of  Uppingham  School.     Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  y.  (yd. 

An  English  Grammar    and  Beading  Book,  for  Lower 

Forms  in  Classical  Schools.      By  O.  W.  Tancock,  M.A.,  Assistant  Master  of 
Sherborne  SchooL    Second  Edition.    Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  c/o^';,  3^-.  6ar. 


For  Junior   Classes. 
By  E.  Thring,  M.A., 


12 


Clarendon  Press  Series. 


Specimens  of  Early  English.     A  New  and  Revised  Edi- 
tion.    With  Introduction,  Notes,  and  Glossarial  Index.     By  R.  Morris,  LL.D. 
and  W.  W.  Skeat.  M.A. 
Part  I.    Ill  the  Press. 

Part  II.  From  Robert  of  Gloucester  to  Gower  (A.D.  1298  to  A.D.  1393).     Ext. 
fcap.  8vo.  ciolh,  js.  6d. 

Specimens  of  English.  Literature,  from  the  '  Ploughmans 

Crede'  to  the  'Shepheardes  Calender'  (A.D.  1394  toA.U.  1579).  With  Intro- 
duction, Notes,  and  Glossarial  Index.  By  W.  W.  Skeat,  M.A.  Ext.  fcap.  8vo. 
cloth,  qs.  dd. 

The  Vision  of  "William  concerning  Piers  the  Plowman, 

by  William  Lanjjland.  Edited,  with  Notes,  by  W.  W.  Skeat,  M.A.,  formerly 
Fellow  of  Christ's  College,  Cambridge.  Second  Edition.  Ext.  fcap.  8vo.  cloth, 
4^-.  bd. 

Chaucer.      The   Prioresses   Tale ;    Sire  Thopas ;    The 

Menkes  Tale  ;  The  Clerkes  Tale  ;  The  Squieres  Tale,  &c.  Edited  by  W.  W. 
Skeat,  M.A.,  Editor  of  Piers  the  Plowman.     Ext.  fcap.  8vo.  cloth,  4^.  td. 

Shakespeare.    Hamlet.    Edited  by  W.  G.  Clark,  M.A.,  and 

W.  Aldis  Wright,  M.A.,  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  stiff 
covers,  3S. 

Shakespeare.    The  Tempest.    Edited  by  W.  Aldis  Wright, 

M.A.     Extra  fcap.  Svo.  stiff  covers,  is.  6d. 

Shakespeare.    King  Lear.    By  the  same  Editor.  In  the  Press. 
Milton.    Areopagitica.    With  Introduction  and  Notes.    By 

J.  W.  Hales,  M.  A. ,  formerly  Fellow  of  Christ's  College,  Cambridge.  Extra  fcap, 
Svo.  cloth,  ss. 

Addison.   Selections  from  Papers  in  the  Spectator.  With 

Notes.     By  T.  Arnold,  M.  A.,  University  College,    /n  the  Press. 

The  Philology   of  the  English   Tongue.     By  J.  Earle, 

M.  A.,  formerly  Fellow  of  Oriel  College,  and  Professor  of  Anglo-Saxon,  Oxford. 
Second  Edition.     Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  doth,  js.  6d, 

Typical  Selections  from  the  best  English  Authors  from  the 

Sixteenth  to  the  Nineteenth  Century,  (to  serve  as  a  higher  Reading  Book,)  with 
Introductory  Notices  and  Notes,  being  a  Contribution  towards  a  History  of 
English  Literature.     Ext,  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  4s.  6d. 

Specimens  of  Lo'wland  Scotch  and  Northern  English. 

By  J.  A.  H.  Murray.     Preparing. 

See  also  XII.  below  for  other  English  Classics. 


VIIL  FRENCH  LANGUAGE  AND  LITERATURE. 


Brachet's  Historical  Grammar  of  the  French  Language. 

Translated  by  G.  W.  Kitchin,  M.  A.  Second  Edition.  Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  y.  6d. 


Clarendon  Press  Series.  1 3 


An  Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  French  Language,  with 

a  Preface  on  the  Principles  of  French  Etymoloijy.  By  A.  Brachet.  Translated 
by  G.  W.  Kitchin,  M.A.     Crown  8vo.  cloth,  zas.  bii. 

Corneille's  Cinna,  and  Moli^re's  Les  Femmes  Savantes. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  Gustave  Masson.  Ext.  fcap.  Svo. 
cloth,  2S.  6d. 

Kacine's  Andromaque,  and  Corneille's  Le  Menteur.     With 

Louis  Racine's  Life  of  his  Father.  By  the  same  Editor.  Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth. 
IS.  td. 

Moliere's  Les  Fourberies  de  Scapin,  and  Baeine's  Athalie. 

With  Voltaire's  Life  of  Molifere.  By  the  same  Editor.  Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth, 
2S.  6d. 

Selections  from  the  Correspondence  of  Madame  de  Sevign6 

and  her  chief  Contemporaries.  Intended  more  especially  for  Girls'  Schools. 
By  the  same  Editor.     Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  y. 

Voyage  autour  de  ma  Chambre,  by  Xavier  de  Maistre ; 

Ourika,  by  Mad.-^ME  de  Duras;  La  Dot  de  Suzette  by  FlEVEE  ;  Les  Ju- 
meaux  de  I'Hotel  Corneille,  by  EDMOND  ABOUT  ;  Mesnventures  dun  Ecolier 
by  RODOLPHE  TOPFFER.    By  the  same  Editor.    Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  2S.  6a, 

Kegnard's   Le   Joueur,   and   Brueys    and   Palaprat's   Le 

Grondeur.  With  Notes.  By  the  same  Editor.  Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  2J-.  6cl. 
Just  Published. 

Louis  XIV  and  his  Contemporaries ;  being  extracts  from 

the  Memoirs  of  the  Cardinal  de  Retz,  Mademoiselle  de  Montpensier,  Madame 
de  Motteville,  and  Saint-Simon.  With  biographical  Notices,  Notes,  Historical 
Tables,  and  Genealogical  Lists.    By  the  same  Editor.    In  the  Press. 


IX.  GEHMAH"  LANGUAGE  AND  LITERATITBE. 
Goethe's  Egmont.     With  a  Life  of  Goethe,  &c.     By  C.  A. 

Euchheim.  Phil.  Doc.  Professor  in  King's  College,  London;  sometime  Exa- 
miner to  the  University  of  London.     Extra  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  -^s. 

Schiller's  Wilhelm  Tell.  With  a  Life  of  Schiller ;  an  histo- 
rical and  critical  Introduction,  Arguments,  and  a  complete  Commentary.  By 
the  same  Editor.     Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  jr.  td. 

Lessing's  Minna  von  Barnhelm.    A  Comedy.   With  a  Life 

of  Lessing,  Critical  Analysis,  Complete  Commentary,  &c.   By  the  same  Editor. 
Ext.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  ^s.  td. 

Goethe's    Iphigenie    auf  Tauris.      A   Drama.      With   a 

Critical  Introduction,  Arguments  to  the  Acts,  and  a  complete  Commentary. 
By  the  same  Editor.    In  Preparation. 

Selections  from  the  Poems  of  Schiller  and  Goethe.    By 

the  same  Editor.     I?i  Preparation. 

Becker's    (K.  F.)    Friedrich    der   Grosse.       By   the    same 

Editor.     In  Preparation. 

Egmont's  Leben  und  Tod,  and  Belagerung  von  Ant- 

wcrpen  by  Schiller.     By  the  same  Editor.     In  Preparation. 


14 


Clarendon  Press  Series. 


X.  ART,  &c. 
A  Handbook   of  Pictorial  Art.     By  R.  St.  J.  Tynvhitt, 

M.  A.,  formerly  Student  and  Tutor  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford.  With  coloured 
Illustrations,  Photographs,  and  a  chapter  on  Perspective  by  A.  Macdonald. 
Secotid  Edition.    8vo.  half  morocco,  i8j. 

A  Treatise  on  Harmony.      By  Sir  F.  A.  Gore  Ouseley, 

Bart.,  M.A.,  Mus.  Doc,  Professor  of  Music  in  the  University  of  Oxford.  4to. 
clothf  loj. 

A  Treatise   on  Counterpoint,  Canon,  and  Fugue,  based 

upon  that  of  Cherubini.     By  the  same  Author.     4to.  cloih,  i6s. 

A  Treatise  on  Form  in  Music,  and  General  Compo- 
sition.    By  the  same  Author.    In  the  Press. 

A    Music   Primer   for  Schools.     By  J.  Troutbeck,  M.A., 

and  K.  F.  Dale,  M.A.,  B.  Mus.     Crown  Svo.  cloth.  2S.  6d. 

The  Cultivation  of  tlie  Speaking  Voice.  By  John  Hullah. 

Second  Edition.     Extra  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  2S.  64. 


XI.   MISCELLANEOUS. 


Text-Book    of    Botany,    Morphological    and    Physio- 

lotpcal.  By  Dr.  Julius  Sachs,  Professor  of  Botany  in  the  University  of  "Wiirzburj^. 
Translated  by  A.  W.  Bennett,  M.A.,  Lecturer  on  Botany,  St.  Thomas's 
Hospital,  assisted  by  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dy;r,  M.A.,  Ch.  Ch.,  O-xford.  Royal 
Svo.  hal/morocco,  -^is.  6d.     ^ust  Published. 

Dante.     Selections  from  the  Inferno.    With  Introduction 

and  Notes.  By  H.  B.  Cotterill,  B.A.,  Assistant  Master  in  Haiieybury  College. 
Extra  fcap.  Svo.  cloth.  4J-.  td. 

Tasso.     La  Gerusalemme  Liberata.     Cantos  I,  II.     By 

the  same  Editor.    Nearly  ready. 

A  Treatise  on  the  Use  of  the  Tenses  in  Hebrew.     By 

S.  R.  Driver,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  New  College.     Extra  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  6s.  6d. 

Outlines  of  Textual  Criticism  applied  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment. By  C.  E.  Hammond,  M.A.,  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Exeter  College, 
Oxford.     Extra  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  ss.  6d. 

The  Modern  Greek  Language  in  its  relation  to  Ancient 

Greek.  By  E.  M.  Geldart,  B.A.,  formerly  Scholar  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 
Extr.  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  4s.  6d. 

A  System  of  Physical  Education  :  Theoretical  and  Prac- 
tical. By  Archibald  Maclaren,  The  Gymnasium,  Oxford.  Extra  fcap.  Svo. 
cMh,  js.  6d. 


Clarendon  Press  Series. 


15 


XII.    A    SERIES    OF    ENGLISH    CLASSICS, 

Designed  to  meet  the  ivants  of  Students  in  English  Lite- 
rature:  under  the  superintetidenee  of  the  Rev.  J.  S. 
Brewer,  M.A.,  of  Queen's  College  Oxford,  and  Professor 
of  English  Literature  at  King's  College,  London. 

It  is  especially  hoped  that  this  Series  may  prove  useful  to 
Ladies'  Schools  and  Middle  Class  Schools ;  in  ^vhich  Eyjglish 
Literature  must  ahvays  be  a  leading  subject  of  instruction. 


A  General  Introduction  to  the  Series.     By  Professor 

Brewer,  M.A. 

1.  Chaucer.     The  Prologue  to  the  Canterbury  Tales ;   The 

Knightes  Tale;  The  Nonne  Prestes  Tale.  Edited  by  R.  Morris  Editor  for 
the  Early  English  Text  Society,  &c.,  &c.  Fourth  Edition.  Extra  fcap.  8vo. 
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2.  Spenser's  Faery  Queene.     Books  I  and  II.     Designed 

chiefly  for  the  use  of  Schools.  With  Introduction,  Notes,  and  Glossary.  By 
G.  W.   Kitchin,   M.A.,  formerly  Censor  of  Christ  Church. 

Book  I.      fifth  Edition.    Extra  fcap.  8vo.  cloth,  2S.  6d. 

Book  11.     Third  Edition.     Extra  fcap.  Svo.  c/i?^/«,  2J.  ec?, 

3.  Hooker.    Ecclesiastical  Polity,  Book  I.    Edited  by  R.  W. 

Church,  M.A.,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  formerly  Fellow  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford. 
Second  Edition.     Extra  fcap.  8vo.  cloth,  zs. 

4.  Shakespeare.     Select   Plays.      Edited  by  W.  G.  Clark, 

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Trinity  College,  Cambridge.     Extra  fcap.  Svo.  stiff  covers. 

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II.  Richard  the  Second.    \s.  bd. 

III.  Macbeth,    xs.  6d. 


Bacon. 

I.  Advancement  of  Learning.     Edited  by  W.  Aldis  Wright,  M.A.      Scccnd 

Edition.     Extra  fcap.  Svo.  cloth,  4J.  td. 

II.  The  Essays.    With  Introduction  and  Notes.     By  J.  R.  Thursfield,  M.A., 

Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Jesus  College,  Oxford. 


i6 


Clarendon  Press  Series. 


6.  Milton.     Poems.     Edited  by  R.  C.  Browne,  M.A.,  and 

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cloth,  dr.  6d. 

Sold  separately.  Vol.  I.  4J-.,  Vol.  II.  3J-. 

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Astraea  Redux;  Annus  Miiabilis;  Absalom  and  Achitophel ;  Religio  Laici  ; 
The  Hind  and  the  Panther.  Edited  by  W.  D.  Christie,  M.A.,  Trinity  College, 
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8.  Bunyan,      The   Pilgrim's  Progress;    Grace  Abounding. 

Edited  by  E.  Venables,  M.A.,  Canon  of  Lincoln.    /«  the  Press. 

9.  Pope.    With  Introduction  and  Notes.    By  Mark  Pattison, 

B.D.,  Rector  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford. 

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II.  Satires  and  Epistles.    Second  Edition.    Extra  fcap.  Svo.  stiff  covers,  2S. 

10.  Johnson.  Rasselas;  Lives  of  Pope  and  Dryden.    Edited 

by  T.  Arnold,  M.A.,  University  College.    Preparing. 

11.  Burke.     Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  E.  J. 

Payne,  .M.A.,  Fellow  of  University  College,  Oxford. 

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