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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,
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
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 crowned at Scone.
[Flourish. Exeunt.

ANYJAN

NOTES.

"When the hurlyburly's done."-Act I., Scene 1. Peacham, in his "GARDEN OF ELOQUENCE," elevates the now vulgar phrase "hurlyburly" into one of the ornaments of language:-"Onomatopeia: when we invent, devise, feign, and make a name intimating the sound of that it signifieth; as burlyburly, for an uproar and tumultuous stir."

1ST WITCH. I come, Graymalkin.

ALL. Paddock calls."-Act I., Scene 1.

Here, it is probable, we should suppose one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad.

"Of kernes and gallowglasses is supplied."-Act I., Scene 2.

Barnaby Riche, in his "NEW IRISH PROGNOSTICATION," describes the troops here mentioned :-"The galloglas succeedeth the horseman, and he is commonly armed with a seull, a shirt of mail, and a galloglas axe." The kernes, he denounces as "the very dross and scum of the country; a generation of villains not fit to live."

"Till he disburséd, at St. Colmés' inch."-Act I., Scene 2. Colmes' inch, now called Inchcomb, is a small island, lying in the frith of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it, dedicated to St. Columb; called by Camden, Inch Colm, or the Isle of Columba. Inch, or inche, in the Irish and Erse languages, signifies an island. Holinshed thus relates the circumstance alluded to in the play: "The Danes that escaped, and got once to their ships, obtained of Macbeth, for a great sum of gold, that such of their friends as were slain might be buried in St. Colmes' inch. In memory whereof, many old sepultures are yet in the said inch there to be seen, graven with the arms of the Danes."

The rebellion of Macdonwald, and the invasion by Sweno, were not, in reality, contemporaneous events. The facts are these:-During the reign of Duncan, Banquo having been plundered, by the people of Lochaber, of some of the king's revenue, and being dangerously wounded in the affray, the parties concerned in the outrage were summoned to appear at a certain day. This led to the formidable rebellion headed by Macdonwald, which was finally suppressed by Macbeth and Banquo. It was at a subsequent period, in the last year of Duncan's reign, that Sweno, King of Norway, invaded Scotland. Duncan's successful generals were again employed. Sweno won the first battle, but was routed in the second with great slaughter, and escaped to Norway with very few followers.-Shakspere has effectively woven these two incidents together; and immediately after the defeat of Sweno, the action of the play

commences.

"But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail."-Act I., Scene 3.

In a book "declaring the damnable life of Doctor Fian," is the following passage:-" All they (the witches) together went to sea, each one in a riddle or sieve; and went in the same very substantially, with flagons of wine, making merry and drinking by the way, in the same riddles or sieves."

"It was imagined," says Steevens, "that, though a witch could assume the form of any animal she pleased, the tail

would still be wanting. This deficiency has been thus accounted for: though the hands and feet might, by an easy change, be converted into the four paws of a beast, still there was no part about a woman which corresponded to the length of tail common to almost all our four-footed animals."

"I'll give thee a wind."-Act I., Scene 3.

This was making a present of what was usually sold. In "SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT," we find :"In Ireland and in Denmark both, Witches for gold will sell a man a wind, Which, in the corner of a napkin wrapped, Shall blow him safe unto what coast he will."

"Weary seven nights, nine times nine,

Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine."-Act I., Scene 3.

This mischief was supposed to be effected by means of a waxen figure, which represented the person who was to be consumed by slow degrees.

"The weird sisters, hand in hand."-Act I., Scene 3. Weird signifies prophetic. Gawin Douglas, in his translation of "VIRGIL," renders the Parcæ (or Fates) by the term weird sisters.

"What are these,

So withered, and so wild in their attire ?"-Act I., Scene 3. The circumstances attending this encounter of Macbeth and Banquo with the Witches are minutely detailed by Holinshed. Shakspere has followed the stream of the colloquy, but greatly enriched it with poetic ornament.

"By Sinel's death, I know I am thane of Cawdor." Act I., Scene 3. Sinel, according to Holinshed, was the name of Macbeth's father.

"Or have we eaten of the insane root,

That takes the reason prisoner?"-Act I., Scene 3. This alludes to the qualities anciently ascribed to hemlock. In Greene's "NEVER TOO LATE." 1616, we have "You gazed 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."

"Function

Is smothered in surmise; and nothing is,
But what is not."-Act I., Scene 3.

Dr. Johnson has thus explained this obscure passage:"All powers of action are opposed and crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future."

"We will establish our estate upon

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter, The Prince of Cumberland."-Act I., Scene 4. Cumberland was, at the time in question, held by Scotland of the crown of England, as a fief. Prince of Cumberland was the title borne by the declared successor to the throne of Scotland. A short extract from Holinshed

will explain the nature of Macbeth's uneasiness on this occasion :-" Duncan having two sons, he made the elder of them (called Malcolm) Prince of Cumberland, as it was thereby to appoint him his successor in his kingdom, immediately after his decease. Macbeth, sorely troubled therewith, for that he saw by this means his hope sore hindered (where, by the old laws of the realm, the ordinance was, that if he that should succeed was not able of age to take the charge upon himself, he that was next of blood unto him should be admitted), he began to take counsel how he might usurp the kingdom by force, having a just quarrel so to do (as he took the matter), for that Duncan did what in him lay to defraud him of all manner of title and claim which he might, in time to come, pretend to the crown."

"This castle hath a pleasant seat;" &c.-Act I., Scene 6. Sir Joshua Reynolds has written a few remarks on this beautiful passage, which exhibit true poetic feeling. "This short dialogue," says he, "between Duncan and Banquo, as they approach Macbeth's castle, has always appeared to me a striking instance of what in painting is termed repose. Their conversation naturally turns upon the beauty of its situation, and the pleasantness of the air; and Banquo, observing the martlets' nests in every recess of the cornice, remarks that, where these birds most breed and haunt, the air is delicate. The subject of this quiet and easy conversation gives that repose so necessary to the mind after the tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts the scene of horror that immediately succeeds. It seems as if Shakspere asked himself, What is a prince likely to say to his attendants on such an occasion?' Whereas the modern writers seem, on the contrary, to be always searching for new thoughts, such as would never occur to men in the situation represented. This also is frequently the practice of Homer, who, from the midst of battles and horrors, relieves and refreshes the mind of the reader, by introducing some quiet rural image, or picture of familiar domestic life."

In his "JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS," Dr. Johnson says (speaking of Inverness), "Here is a castle called the Castle of Macbeth, the walls of which are yet standing. It was no very capacious edifice, but stands upon a rock so high and steep, that I think it was once not accessible, but by the help of ladders or a bridge."

"Court within the Castle.-Enter BANQUO & FLEANCE," &c. Act II., Scene 1.

A graphic description of the supposed locality of this scene is given by Capell:-"A large court, surrounded all or in part by an open gallery; the gallery ascended into by stairs, open likewise; with addition of a college-like gateway, into which opens a porter's lodge-appears to have been the poet's idea of the place of this great action. The circumstances that mark it are scattered through three scenes in the latter, the hall (which moderns make the scene of this action) is appointed a place of second assembly, in terms that shew it plainly distinct from that assembled in then. Buildings of this description rose in ages of chivalry, when knights rode into their courts, and paid their devoirs to ladies, viewing of their tiltings and them from this open gallery. Fragments of some of them, over the mansions of noblemen, are still subsisting in London, changed to hotels or inns. Shakspere might see them much more entire, and take his notion from them."

"Merciful powers!

Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose."-Act II., Scene 1.

"It is apparent," says Steevens, "from what Banquo says afterwards, that he had been solicited in a dream to do something in consequence of the prophecy of the Witches, that his waking senses were shocked at; and Shakspere has finely contrasted his character with that of Macbeth. Ban

quo is praying against being tempted to encourage thoughts of guilt, even in his sleep; while Macbeth is hurrying into temptation, and revolving in his mind every scheme, however flagitious, that may assist him to complete his purpose. The one is unwilling to sleep, lest the same phantoms should assail his resolution again; while the other is depriving himself of rest through impatience to commit the murder."

"I have drugged their possets."-Act II., Scene 2.

It was a general custom to eat possets just before bed time. Randle Holmes, in his "ACADEMY OF ARMORY," says, "Posset is hot milk poured on ale or sack, having sugar, grated biscuit, and eggs, with other ingredients, boiled in it, which goes all to a curd."

"Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I had done't."

Act II., Scene 2.

This "one touch of nature" in Lady Macbeth, has called forth some able remarks from Warburton.-"This," says he, "is very artful: for, as the poet has drawn the lady and her husband, it would be thought the act should have been done by her. It is likewise highly just: for though ambition had subdued in her all the sentiments of nature towards present objects, yet the likeness of one past, which she had always been accustomed to regard with reverence, made her unnatural passions for a moment give way to the sentiments of instinct and humanity."

"To know my deed, 't were best not know myself.”— Act II., Scene 2. While I have the thought or recollection of this deed, I were better lost to myself; had better not have the consciousness of who I am.

"Enter a Porter."-Act II., Scene 3.

In justification of Shakspere for introducing this comical Porter at such a moment, Steevens remarks, "that a glimpse of comedy was expected by our author's audience in the most serious drama; and where else could that merriment be so happily introduced?"

-"Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin laced with his golden blood."

Act II., Scene 3.

It is not improbable that Shakspere put these forced and unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth, as a mark of artifice and dissimulation, to shew the difference between the studied language of hypocrisy and the natural outcries of sudden passion. "This whole speech," observes Dr. Johnson, "so considered, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists entirely of antithesis and metaphor."

"ROSSE. Where is Duncan's body?¡ MACD. Carried to Colm-kill;

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors."

Act II., Scene 4.

This place (now called Icolm-kill) is the famous Iona, one of the Western Isles described by Dr. Johnson. Kill, in Erse, signifies a cell or chapel.

"Ruther than so, come fate into the list, And champion me to the utterance."

Act III., Scene 1.

The word utterance is of French origin: à l'outrance was a term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odium internecinum, an intention to destroy each other. The sense of the passage probably is:-Let fate, that has foredoomed the exaltation of the posterity of Banquo, enter the lists against me with the utmost animosity in defence of its own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the danger.

"FLEANCE and Servant escape."

Act III., Scene 3. Fleance, after the assassination of his father, fled to Wales, where, by the daughter of the prince of that country, he had a son named Walter, who became Lord Steward of Scotland, and thence assumed the name of Walter Steward (or Stuart). From him, in a direct line, descended James the First of England: în compliment to whom, Shakspere has chosen to describe Banquo, who was equally concerned with Macbeth in the murder of Duncan, as innocent of that crime.

"T is better thee without, than he within.”

Act III., Scene 4. The proper reading would probably be "him within."— That is, I am better pleased that Banquo's blood should be on thy face than in his body. Or we may follow the present reading, by supposing the latter part of the sentence to signify than he in this room."

"The feast is sold

That is not often vouched: while 'tis a making,
'Tis given with welcome."-Act III., Scene 4.

The meaning is, that which is not given freely and cheerfully, cannot properly be called a gift. It is like something which we are expected to pay for.

"O, these flaws and starts

(Impostors to true fear)."-Act III., Scene 4.

The phrase "impostors to true fear," has been a source of great embarrassment to the commentators. We conceive that the word "to," must be understood in the sense of "compared to," a species of ellipsis of which many instances might be adduced from Shakspere. In the "Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA," for instance, it is said of Love (act ii., scene 4), "there is no woe to his correction;" that is, compared to his correction. Lady Macbeth's meaning probably is, "True fear, the fear arising from real danger, is a rational thing; but your fears, originating solely in your own fancies, are mere impostors," and

-"Would well become

A woman's story, at a winter's fire,
Authorised by her grandam."

The same contempt of supernatural fears is expressed by this hardy woman, in the scene of the murder :

"The sleeping and the dead

Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil."

"You make me strange Even to the disposition that I owe." Act III., Scene 4. You prove to me that I am a stranger even to my own disposition, when I perceive that the very object which steals the colour from my cheek, permits it to remain in yours.

"Augurs, and understood relations."—Act III., Scene 4. By the word "relations," says Johnson, "is understocd the connexion 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."— The word "augurs" in the text, must (according to the suggestion of Mr. Singer), be understood in the sense of "auguries."

"How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person, At our great bidding?"-Act III., Scene 4. "How say'st thou?" signifies here, what do you say to the eircumstance? As in the "Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA," (act ii., scene 5): "How say'st thou, that my master is become a notable lover?"

"Enter HECATE, meeting the three Witches." Act III., Scene 5. Scott, in his "DISCOVERY OF WITCHCRAFT," mentions it as a common opinion that witches were supposed to have "nightly meetings with Herodias and the pagan gods;" and that "in the night-time they did ride abroad with Diana, goddess of the pagans." The word "Hecate," as a dissyllable, was introduced by Marlowe, in his "DOCTOR FAUSTUS."

"And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i' the morning."-Act III., Scene 5. "Shakspere," says Steevens, "seems to have thought it allowable to give the name of Acheron to any fountain, lake, or pit, through which there was vulgarly supposed to be any communication between this and the infernal world. The true original Acheron, was a river in Greece; and yet Virgil gives this name to his lake in the valley of Amsanctus, in Italy."

"Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vaporous drop profound."

Act III., Scene 5.

This "vaporous drop," seems to be of kin to the virus lunare of the ancients, being a foam which the moon was supposed to shed on particular herbs or other objects, when strongly solicited by enchantments. "Profound," signifies having deep or secret qualities.

"A dark Cave. In the middle, a Cauldron boiling. Thunder. "Enter the three Witches."-Act IV., Scene 1.

Various commentators have remarked on the judgment shewn by Shakspere in detailing the infernal ceremonies of this scene. A cat was the usual interlocutor between witches and familiar spirits. A witch, who was tried about fifty years before the poet's time, was said to have had a cat named Rutterkin; and when any mischief was to be done, she would bid Rutterkin "go and fly." The common afflictions attributed to the malice of witches, were melancholy, fits, and loss of flesh. They were supposed to be very malicious to swine; one of Shakspere's hags says she has been killing swine; and Dr. Harsnet observes that, in his time, "a sow could not be ill of the measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with witchcraft." Toads have long been reproached as the abettors of witchcraft. When Vannius was seized at Toulouse, there was found in his lodgings "a great toad, shut in a phial;" upon which, those that persecuted him denounced him as a wizard.

The ingredients of Shakspere's cauldron are selected according to the formularies prescribed in books of magic. Witches were supposed to take up bodies to use in enchantments. A passage from Camden explains and justifies our author in some other particulars:-" When any one gets a fall, he stands up, and turning three times to the right, digs a hole in the earth (for they imagine that there is a spirit in the ground); and if he falls sick in two or three days, they send one of their women that is skilled in that way, to the place, where she says, 'I call thee from the east, west, north, and south; from the groves, the woods, the rivers, and the fens; from the fairies, red, black, and white.'"

"Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips."-Act IV., Scene 1. These ingredients probably owed their introduction to the detestation in which the Saracens were held, on account of the Crusades.

"Black spirits and white," &c.-Act IV., Scene 1. The right of these four metrical lines to a place in the text is certainly equivocal. Steevens introduced them from Middleton's "WITCH," on the authority of the stage direction in the first folio, which stands thus:-"Music and a Song.

Black Spirits, &c." Malone, however, strongly contends that "THE WITCH" was written subsequently to "MACBETH." The lines themselves have been supposed, with great probability, to be merely of a traditional nature, the production of neither Middleton nor Shakspere.

"An apparition of an armed Head rises."-Act IV., Scene 1.

It has been suggested by Mr. Upton, that the armed head represents, symbolically, Macbeth's head cut off, and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child is Macduff, untimely ripped from his mother's womb. The child with a crown on his head, and a bough in his hand, is the royal Malcolm, who ordered his soldiers to hew down each a bough, and bear it before them to Dunsinane.

"And wears upon his baby brow the round
And top of sovereignty.”—Act IV., Scene 1.

The round is that part of the crown which encircles the head; the top is the ornament that rises above it.

persons

"And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass Which shews me many more; and some I see That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry." Act IV., Scene 1. Magicians professed to have the power of shewing future events by means of a charmed glass, or mirror. In an extract from the penal laws against witches, it is said, "They do answer either by voice, or else do set before their eyes, in glasses, crystal-stones, &c., the pictures or images of or things sought for." Spenser has given a circumstantial account of the glass which Merlin made for King Ryence. A mirror of the same kind was presented to Cambuscan, in "THE SQUIRE'S TALE" of Chaucer; and in Alday's translation of Boisteau's "THEATRUM MUNDI," it is said, "A certain philosopher did the like to Pompey, the which shewed him in a glass the order of his enemies' march." The allusion, in the above extract, to the "twofold balls and treble sceptres" is a compliment to James the First, who first united the two islands and three kingdoms under one head.

-"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," &c. Act IV., Scene 3. This miraculous power of curing the "king's evil," was claimed for seven centuries by the monarchs of England. In Laneham's account of the Entertainments of Kenilworth, given to Queen Elizabeth, it is said:" And also, by her highness' accustomed mercy and charity, nine cured of the painful and dangerous disease called the king's evil; for that kings and queens of this realm, without other medicine (save only by handling and prayer), only do it." The practice was continued so late as Queen Anne's time; Dr. Johnson, when an infant, was touched for the evil by that princess.

The golden stamp, alluded to in the text, was the coin called an angel, value ten shillings.

"He has no children."-Act IV., Scene 3.

This is not said of Macbeth, who had children, but of Malcolm, who, having none, supposes a father can be so easily comforted.

"Hell is murky."—Act V., Scene 1.

In this great scene, Lady Macbeth is acting over again the circumstances attending the murder of Duncan. Steevens conceives her to be here addressing Macbeth, who, she supposes, has just said "Hell is murky!" (hell is a dismal place to go to in consequence of such a deed); she repeats his words in contempt :-"Hell is murky!'-Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard?"

"What we shall say we have, and what we owe.”

Act V., Scene 4. Meaning, when we are governed by legal kings, we shall know the limits of their claim; shall know what we have of our own, and what they have a right to take from us.

"She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word."

Act V., Scene 5.

"Macbeth may mean," says Johnson, "that there would have been a more convenient time for such a word-for such intelligence and so falls into the following reflection:— 'To-morrow,'" &c.

"To the last syllable of recorded time."—Act V., Scene 5.

Recorded time seems to signify the time fixed in the decrees of heaven, for the period of life. The phrase may, however, be used in the sense of recording or recordable time.

"I bear a charmed life."-Act V., Scene 7.

"In the days of chivalry," says Steevens, "the champions' arms being ceremoniously blessed, each took an oath that he used no charmed weapons. Macbeth, according to the law of arms, or perhaps only in allusion to this custom, tells Macduff of the security he had in the prediction of the spirit."

"Had I as many sons as I have hairs,

I would not wish them to a fairer death: And so his knell is knolled.”—Act V., Scene 7. This incident is thus related from Henry of Huntingdon, by Camden, in his "REMAINS:"-" When Siward, the martial Earl of Northumberland, understood that his son, whom he had sent in service against the Scotchmen, was slain, he demanded whether his wounds were in the fore part or hinder part of his body. When it was answered, in the fore part, he replied, I am right glad; neither wish I any other death to me or mine.'"

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