SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, General of the Eng Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Ate tendants, and Messengers. The Ghost of Banquo, and other Apparitions. SCENE, in the end of the fourth Act, in England. through the rest of the Play, in Scotland. THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. ACT I. SCENE I. An open Place. Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches. 1 Witch. WHEN shall we three meet again, 3 Witch. That will be ere the set of sun." 2 Witch. Upon the heath : 3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. The origin and sense of this word are thus given by Peacham in his Garden of Eloquence, 1577: "Onomatopeia, when we invent, devise, fayne, and make a name imitating the sound of that it signifyeth, as hurlyburly, for an uprore and tumultuous stirre.” Thus also in Holinshed: "There were such hurlie burlies kept in every place, to the great danger of overthrowing the whole state of all government in this land." Of course the word here refers to the tumult of battle, not to the storm, the latter being their element.- The reason of this scene is thus stated by Coleridge : "In Macbeth the Poet's object was to raise the mind at once to the high tragic tone, that the audience might be ready for the pre cipitate consummation of guilt in the early part of the play. The truc reason for the first appearance of the Witches is to strike the key note of the character of the whole drama, as is proved by their reappearance in the third scene, after such an order of the king's as establishes their supernatural power of information." H. So in the original. The is commonly, but very injuriously left out of modern editions. H Fair is foul, and foul is fair : Hover through the fog and filthy air.' [Witches vanish. SCENE II. A Camp near Fores. Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, Donal BAIN, LENOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier. Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state. Mal. This is the sergeant,' Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought Sold. Doubtful it stood; 3 Paddock was an old name for toad, graymalkin for cat, and these animals were supposed to be the familiars of witches. Toadstools were anciently called paddock-stools. H. 4.6 The Weird Sisters," says Coleridge, "are as true a creation of Shakespeare's, as his Ariel and Caliban, — fates, furies, and materializing witches being the elements. They are wholly different from any representation of witches in the contemporary writers, and yet presented a sufficient external resemblance to the creatures of vulgar prejudice to act immediately on the audience. Their character consists in the imaginative disconnected from the good; they are the shadowy obscure and fearfully anomalous of physical nature, the lawless of human nature, elemental avengers without sex or kin." Elsewhere he speaks of the "direful music, the wild wayward rhythm, and abrupt lyrics of the opening of Macbeth." Words scarcely less true to the Poct's, than the Poet's are to the characters. H. Sergeants, in ancient times, were not the petty officers now distinguished by that title; but men performing one kind of feudal military service, in rank next to esquires. In the stage-direction of the original this sergeant is called a captain. As two spent swimmers, that do cling together, And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald (Worthy to be a rebel, for to that The multiplying villanies of nature But all's too weak: Like valour's minion, carv'd out his passage, And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! 2 Of here bears the sense of with, the two words being then used indiscriminately. Thus in Holinshed: "Out of Ireland in hope of the spoile caine no small number of Kernes and Galloglasses, offering gladlie toerve under him, whither it should please him to lead them." Barnabe Rich thus describes them in his New Irish Prognostication: "The Galloglas succeedeth the Horseman, and he is commonly armed with a scull, a shirt of maile, and a Galloglas-axe. The Kernes of Ireland are next in request, the very drosse and scum of the countrey, a generation of villaines not worthy to live. These are they that are ready to run out with every rebel, and these are the very hags of hell, fit for nothing but the gallows." H. 3 That is, seemed as in love with him, in order to betray him to ruin. Quarry is that which is hunted or chased, the prey. Thus in Coriolanus, Act i. sc. 1: Would the nobility lay aside their ruth, And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high And in Bullokar's English Expositor: "A quarry among hunters signifieth the reward given to hounds after they have hunted, or the venison which is taken by hunting.". Damned is doomed fated to destruction. H. Sold. As whence the sun 'gius his reflection Compell'd these skipping Kernes to trust their heels Dun. Dismay d not this Yes; As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks: I cannot tell. But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. Dun. So well thy words become thee, as thy Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look that seems to speak things strange. 4 To memorize is to make memorable. The style," says Coleridge, "and rhythm of the Captain's speeches in the second scene should be illustrated by reference to the interlude in Hamlet, in which the epic is substituted for the tragic, in order to maks the latter be felt as the real life diction." H |