A Hanmer proposed to read "and in rain," to prevent that misconception of the question which might arise from the use of or. The Witches invariably meet under a disturbance of the elements; and this is clear enough without any change of the original text.

b Hurlyburly. In Peacham's Garden of Eloquence,' 1577, this word is given as an example of that ornament of language which consists in "a name intimating the sound of that it signifieth, as hurlyburly, for an uproar and tumultuous stir." Todd finds the word in a collection of Scottish proverbs, and therefore decides upon the propriety of its use by the Scottish witch. This is unnecessary; for, although it might belong to both languages, Spenser had used it in our own; and it had the peculiar recommendation of the quality described by Peacham for its introduction in a lvrical composition.

We have here the commencement of that system of

1 Witch. Where the place? 2 Witch.

Upon the heath:

tampering with the metre of Shakspere in this great tragedy, which universally prevailed till the reign of the variorum critics had ceased to be considered as firmly established and beyond the reach of assault. When we saw an edition of Shakspere bearing the name of Thomas Campbell as editor, and found that the text of that edition was a literal reprint from the text of Steevens, and that consequently the loppingsoff and patchings-on, the transpositions, the substitutions, of a man without an ear were circulated with the imprimatur of one of the most elegant of our poets, we conld not but see what a fearful weed bad taste is.-how prolific in its growth, how difficult to be eradicated. These remarks apply not so much to the particular instance before us as to the whole principle upon which the metre of this play has been regulated. We admit that it will not do serviiely to follow the original in every instance where the commencement and close of a line are so arranged that it becomes prosaic; but on the other hand we contend that the desire to get rid of hemistichs, without regard to the nature of the dialogue, and so to alter the metrical arrangement of a series of lines, is to disfigure, instead of to amend, the poet. It is a matter of sincere gratification to the present editor, that five-and-twenty years have produced a marked alteration in the principles of criticism applied to the text of Shakspere. The line before us reads, in the original,

"That will be ere the set of sun."

Steevens strikes out the as harsh and unnecessary. Any one

"There to meet with-Whom?-Macbeth." Malone has, however, here succeeded in retaining the original line, by persuading himself and others that there is a dissyllable.

a Graymalkin is a cat; Paddock, a toad.

h Doubtful. So the original. The common reading, doubtfully. "My addition," says Steevens, "consists but of a single letter."

Of is here used in the sense of with.

d Quarry. So the original. The common reading, on the emendation of Hanmer, is quarrel. We conceive that the original word is that used by Shakspere. In Coriolanus we have,

I'd make a quarry
With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high
As I could pick my lance."

It is in the same sense, we believe, that the soldier uses the word quarry: the "damned quarry" being the doomed army of kernes and gallowglasses, who, although fortune deceitfully smiled on them, fled before the sword of Macbeth, and became his quarry-his prey.

For brave Macbeth, (well he deserves that name,)
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smok'd with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion, carv'd out his passage,
Till he faced the slave;"

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.

Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Sold. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break;b

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 kernes to trust their heels,

But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men, Began a fresh assault.

Dun. Dismay'd not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Sold. Yes: As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion.

If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks;
So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the
foe:

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,

So should he look that seems to speak things strange.

Rosse. God save the king!

Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?
Rosse. From Fife, great king,

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

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor

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 ;-

Dun.

Rosse. That now

Great happiness!

a Bellona's bridegroom is here undoubtedly Macbeth; but Henley and Steevens, fancying that the God of War was meant, chuckle over Shakspere's ignorance in not knowing that Mars was not the husband of Bellona

b This is the original punctuation, which we think, with Tieck, is better than

"Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm." e Without the slightest ceremony Steevens omits the emphatic word present, as injurious to metre."

d Aroint thee.- See King Lear; Illustration of Act III., Scene IV.

Ronyon. See As You Like It; Note on Act 11., Scene 11.

2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind.

1 Witch. Th' art kind.

3 Witch. And I another.

1 Witch. I myself have all the other;
And the very ports they slow,
All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card.

I'll drain him dry as hay:a
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid:
Weary sev'n-nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-toss'd.
Look what I have.

2 Witch. Show me, show me. 1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thunb, Wrack'd, as homeward he did come.

3 Witch. A drum, a drum: Macbeth doth come.

[Drum within.

b Weird.-There can be no doubt that this term is derived from the Anglo-Saxon wyrd, word spoken; and in the same way that the word fate is anything spoken, weird and fatal are synonymous, and equally applicable to such mysterious beings as Macbeth's witches. We cannot therefore agree with Tieck that the word is wayward-wilful. He says that it is written wayward in the original; but this is not so: it is written weyward, which Steevens says is a blunder of the transcriber or printer. We doubt this; for the word is thus written weyward, to mark that it consists of two syllabies, For example, in the second act, Banquo says—

"I dreamt last night of the three weyward sisters." But it is also written weyard:

"As the weyard women promis'd, and I fear." Here the word is one syllable, by elision, When the poet uses the word wayward in the sense of wilful, the editors of the original do not confound the words. Thus, in the third act, Hecate says

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

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.

Marb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Ban. How far is 't call'd to Forres ?-What
are these,

So wither'd and so wild in their attire;
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 under-
stand me,

By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips :-You should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.

Mach. Speak, if you can;-What are you?
1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee,
thane of Glamis !

2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee,
thane of Cawdor!

3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter.

Ban. Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear

Things that do sound so fair?-I' the name of truth,

Are ye fantastical," or that indeed

Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace, and great predic

tion

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 which grain will grow, and which will
say,
not,

Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear,
Your favours nor your hate.

1 Witch. Hail!

2 Witch. Hail!

3 Witch. Hail!

1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:

So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

1 Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail! Mach. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me

more:

By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis;

Fantastical-belonging to fantasy-imaginary.

[SCENE III

And these are of them: Whither are they vanish'd?

Mach. Into the air: and what seem'd corporal, melted

As breath into the wind.-'Would they had staid!

Ban. Were such things here as we do speak about?

Or have we eaten on the insane root,"
That takes the reason prisoner?

Macb. Your children shall be kings.
Ban.
You shall be king.
Mach. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not
so?

Ban. To the self-same tune and words. Who's here?

Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.

Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth,

The news of thy success: and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend,
Which should be thine, or his : Silenc'd with that,
In viewing o'er the rest o' the self-same 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.
Ang.

We are sent, To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; Only to herald thee into his sight, not pay thee.

a On.-The modern editors substitute of; but why should we reject an ancient idiom in our rage for modernising? b Henbane is called insana in an old book of medicine, which Shakspere might have consulted.

c The passage stands thus in the original:-
"He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afraid of what thyself did make,
Strange images of death, as thick as Tale
Can post with post."

We venture to adopt the reading of Rowe; principally because the expression "as thick as hail" was rendered familiar by poetical use: Spenser has

"As thick as hail forth poured from the sky." And Drayton,

"Out of the town come quarries thick as hail."

This supernatural soliciting

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 murther yet is but fantastical,

Shakes so my single state of man, that function
Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is
But what is not.
Ban.

Look, how our partner 's rapt.

a We follow the metrical arrangement of the original;not a perfect one, certainly.

My liege,

Mal.
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;
Implor'd 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 ow'd,
As 'twere a careless trifle."

Dun.
There's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin!

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS. The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before, That swiftest wing of recompense is slow To overtake thee. 'Would thou hadst less deserv'd;

a To get rid of the two hemistichs these five lines are made four in modern editions

b The metrical arrangement of this speech is decidedly improved in the modern text; but the improvement is not, as in the cases where we have rejected changes, produced by the determination to effect an absurd uniformit.. The same remark applies to Macbeth's answer to the king.