I Witch. SCENE III. Changes to the Heath. Thunder. Enter the three Witches. W WHERE haft thou been, fifter? 3 Witch. Sifter, where thou? I Witch. A failor's wife had chefnuts in her lap, And mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht. Give me, quoth I. 5 Aroint thee, witch!-the rump-fed ronyon cries. 2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 1 Witch. I myself have all the other. 5 Aroint thee-] Aroint, or avaunt, be gone. POPE. Aroint the, witch!] In one of the folio editions the reading is Anoint thee, in a fenfe very confiftent with the common accounts of witches, who are related to perform many fupernatural acts by the means of unguents, and particularly to fly through the air to the places where they meet at their hellish feftivals. In this fenfe, andint thee, witch, will mean, away, avitch, to your infernal aflembly. This reading I was inclined to favour, because I had met with the word aroint in no other authour; till looking into Hearne's collections I found it in a very old drawing, that he has published, in which St Patrick is reprefented vifiting hell, and putting the devils into great confufion by his prefence, of whom one that is driving the damned before him with a prong, has a label iffuing out of his mouth with thele words, OUT OUT ARONGT, of which the laft is evidently the fame with areint, and ufed in the fame fenfe as in this paffage. And And the very points they blow; All the quarters that they know, I' th' fhip-man's card. lid; I will drain him dry as hay, 2 Witch. Shew me, shew me. 1 Witch. Here I haye a pilot's thumb, Wreckt as homeward he did come. 3 Witch. A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come! 8 [Drum within. All. The weyward fifters, hand in hand, Pofters of the fea and land, 6 And the very points they blow. As the word very is here of no other ufe than to fill up the verfe, it is likely that Shakespeare wrote various, which might be eafily mistaken for very, being either negligently read, haftily pronounced, or imperfectly heard. 1 He shall live a man forbid ;] i. e. as one under a Curse, an Interdict.on. So afterwards in this Play, By his own interdiction ftands accurs'd. Thus Mr. Theobald has very juftly explained forbid by accurfed, but without giving any reason of his interpretation. To tid is originally to pray, as in this Saxon fragment. pe is pir þbit mends. As to forbid therefore implies to prohibit, in oppofition to the word bid in its prefent fenfe, it fignifies by the fame kind of oppofition to curfe, when it is derived from the fame word in its primitive meaning. The weyward fiflers, and in hand,] The Witches are So among the Romans an Outlaw's Sentence was, Aquæ & Igmis interdictio; i. e. He was forbid the Ufe of Water and Fire, which imply'd the Neceffity of here fpeaking of themselves: Banishment. THEOBALD. and it is worth an Enquiry why they 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. they should file themselves the weyward, or wayward Sifters. This Word, in its general Acceptation, fignifies, perverfe, froward, moody, obftinate, untractable, &c. and is every where fo ufed by our Shakespear. To content ourselves with two or three inftances. Fy, fy, bo fcolife love, That, like a tefty babe, &c. wayward is this Two Gent. of Verona. This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy. Love's Labour Loft. And which is worst, all you've done is but for a wayward fon. It is improbable the Witches would adopt this Epithet to themselves, in any of thefe Senfes, and therefore we are to look a little farther for the Poet's Word and Meaning. When I had the firft Sufpicion of our Author being corrupt in this Place, it brought to my Mind the following Paffage in Chaucer's Troilus and Creffeide, 1.b. iii. v. 618. But O Fortune, executrice of Which Word the Gloffaries expound to us by Fates, or Def tinies. I was foon confirmed in my Sufpicion, upon happening to dip into Heylin's Cofmography, where he makes a fhort Recital of the Story of Macbeth and Banquo. 8 SCENE These two, fays he, travelling together through a Foreft, were met by three Fairies, Witches, Wierds. The Scots call them, &c. I prefently recollected, that this Story must be recorded at more Length by Hollingshead, with whom, I thought, it was very probable, that our Author had traded for the Materials of his Tragedy, and therefore Confirmation was to be fetched from this Fountain. Accordingly, looking into his Hiftory of Scotland, I found the Writer very prolix and exprefs, from Heor Boethius, in this remarkable Story; and, p. 170. fpeaking of thefe Witches, he uses this Expreffion, But afterwards the common Opinion was, That thefe Women were either the weird Sifters; that is, as ye would fay, the Goddeffes of Destiny, &c. Again, a little lower ; The Words of the three weird Sifters alfo (of whom before ye have beard) greatly encouraged Enter Macbeth and Banquo, with Soldiers, and other attendants. Mac. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. fage, where there is any Relation to these Witches or Wizards, my Emendation must be embraced, and we must read weird. THEOBALD. The weyward fflers, band in band,] Mr. Theobald had found out who these weyward fifters were; but obferved they were called, in his authentic Holing head, Weird fifiers; and so would needs have weyward a corruption of the text, becaufe it fignifies perverfe, froward, &c. and it is improbable (he fays) that the witches should adopt this epithet to themselves. It was hard that when he knew so much, he should not know a little more; that weyward had anciently the very fame fenfe, as weird; and was, indeed, the very fame word differently fpelt; having acquired its later fignification from the quality and temper of thefe imaginary witches. But this is being a critic like him who had difcovered that there were two Hercules's; and yet did not know that he had two next-door neighbours of one and the fame name. As to thefe weyward filters, they were the Fates of the northern nations; the three hand-maids of Odin. Ha nomi nantur Valkyriæ, quas quodvis ad Prælium Odinus mittit. He viros morti deftinant, & vi&oriam gubernant. Gunna, & Rota, & Parcarum minima Skullda ; per aëra maria equitant femper ad morituros eligendos; & cædes in poteftate habent. Bartholinus de Caufis contemptæ à Danis ad huc Gentilibus mortis. It is for this reafon that Shakespear makes them three; and calls them, Poflers of the fea and land; and intent only upon death and mifchief. However, to give this part of his work the more dignity, he intermixes, with this northern, the Greek and Roman fuperftitions; and puts Hecate at the head of their enchantments. And to make it ftill more familiar to the common audience (which was always his point) he adds, for another ingredient, a fufficient quantity of our own country fuperftitions concerning witches; their beards, their cats, and their broomsticks. So that his witchfcenes are like the harm they prepare in one of them; where the ingredients are gathered from every thing fbecking in the natural world; as here, from every thing abfurd in the mal. But as So wither'd, and fo wild in their attire, ? That man may queftion? You feem to understand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips.-You fhould be women, 1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Glamis ! What are you? Hail to thee, Thane of 2 Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that fhalt be King hereafter. Ban. Good Sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do found fo fair? I' th' name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or That indeed [To the Witches. That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not. And say, which Grain will grow and which will not; |
