MACBETH. LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE. IN this um chess tragedy Shakspeare has closely adhered to historical fact, excepting that Banque, out of com pliment to his descendant James I. is excluded from all participation in the murder of Duncan. In the reign of Charles II. the songs of the witches were set to music by the celebrated Matthew Lock, and the play regarded as a semi-opera. The ghosts and witches, though admirably pourtrayed, have been censured as an insult to common sense; and cautions have been held out to the young and uninformed against imbibing the absurd principles of fatalism which are seemingly countenanced in many parts of this piece. But in the time of Shakspeare, the doctrine of witchcraft was at once established by law and by fashion, and it became not only unpolite, but criminal, to doubt it.---King James himself in his dialogues of Demonologie, re-printed in London soon after his succession, has speculated deeply on the illusions of spirits, the compact of witches, &c.; and our dramatist only turned to his advantage a system universally admitted. In representation, some un interesting scenes are omitted; many of the witches' dialogues adapted to beautiful music, and a song or two, probably written by Sir W. Davenant, added to the parts. Betterton, amidst many bad alterations, hit upon the plan of making the witches deliver all the prophecies, by which a deal of the trap-work is avoided, and Garrick substituted some excellent passages to be uttered by Macbeth, whilst expiring, in lieu of the disgusting exposure of his head by Macduff. The neatest criticism upon the play, and the most concise record of its historical facts, are contained in the following extract from a standard publication: "Macbeth flourished in Scotland about the middle of the tenth century. At this period Duncan was king, a mild and humane prince, but not at all possessed of the genius requisite for governing a country so turbulent, and so infested by the intrigues and animosities of the great Macbeth, a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the crown. Not contented with curbing the king's authority, carried still further his mad ambition; he murdered Duncan at Inverness, and then seized upon the throne. Fearing lest his ill-gotten power should be stripped from him. he chased Malcolm Kenmore, the son and heir, into England, and put to death Mac Gill and Banquo, the two most powerful men in his dominions. Macduff next becoming the object of his suspicion, he escaped into England; but the inhuman usurper wreaked his vengeance on his wife and children, whom he caused to be cruelly butchered. Siward, whose daughter was married to Duncan, embraced, by Edward's orders, the protection of his distressed family. He marched an army into Scotland, and having defeated and killed Macbeth in battle, he restored Malcolm to the throne of his ancestors. The tragedy founded upon the history of Macbeth, though contrary to the rules of the drama, contains an infinity of beauties with respect to language, character, passion, and incident; and is thought to be one of the very best pieces of the very best masters in this kind of writing that the world ever produced. The danger of ambition is well described, and the passions are directed to their true ends, so that it is not only admirable as a poem, but one of the most moral pieces existing." SCENE, in the end of the fourth act, lies in England; through the rest of the play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's Castle. ACT I. SCENE 1-An open Place. Thunder and Lightning. Enter three WITCHES. 1 Witch, When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 2 Witch. When the hurly burly's done, When the battle's lost and won: • Tumult. 3 Witch. That will be ere set of sun. 1 Witch. Where the place ? 2 Witch. Upon the heath: 3 Witch. There to meet Macbeth. I Witch. I come, Graymalkin ! Fair is foul, and foul is fair : [WITCHES vanish, SCENE II-A Camp near Fores. Act 1 Curbing his lavish spirit: And, to conclude, Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MAL- Dun. What bloody man is that? He can re- 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. Doubtfully it stood; As two spent swimmers, that do cling together, (Worthy to be a rebel; for to that The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm upon him,) from the western isles, Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Carv'd out his passage, till he fac'd the slave; Till he unseain'd him from the nave to the chaps, Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Discomfort swells. mark: Mark, king of Scotland, No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd, heels; But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, Dun. Dismay'd not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? Sold. Yes; As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion. Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: 1 cannot tell : But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. Dun. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds; They smack of honour both :-Go, get him surgeons. [Exit SOLDIER, attended. Enter ROSSE. Who comes here? Mal. The worthy thane of Rosse. That seems to speak things strange. Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane ? Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky, Norway himself, with terrible numbers, They were light and heavy armed troops. Make another Golgotha as memorable as the first. Dun. Great happiness! Rosse. That now Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall Our bosom interest :-Go, pronounce his death, Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath Woll. SCENE III-A Heath.-Thunder. Enter the three WITCHES. 1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 Witch. Killing swine. 3 Witch. Sister, where thou? 1 Witch. A Sailor's wife had chesnuts in her Aud mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd :— Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o'the And, like a rat without a tail, 2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 1 Witch. Thou art kind. 3 Witch. And I another. 1 Witch. I myself have all the other; will drain him dry as hay: Weary sev'n-nights, nine times nine, 2 Witch. Show me, show me. 1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd, as homeward he did come. 3 Witch. A drum, a drum; Macbeth doth come. [Tiger : [Drum within. So wither'd and so wild in their attire: By each at once her choppy finger laying Mucb. Speak, if you can ;-What are you? A small island in the Frith of Edinburgh. † Avaunt, begone. the three hand-maids of Odin. 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, | In which addition, hail, most worthy thane! thane of Cawdor! For it is thine. 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be more: By Sinel's death 5 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 Yon owe this strange intelligence? or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting ?-Speak, I charge [WITCHES vanish. Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, [nish'd? And these are of them :-Whither are they vaMacb. Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted you. As breath into the wind.- 'Would they staid ! had Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about; Or have we eaten of the insane root, That takes the reason prisoner? Macb. Your children shall be kings. Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it Enter ROSSE and ANGUS. Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, The news of thy success; and when he reads In viewing o'er the rest o'the self-same day, Ang. We are sent, To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater ho Ban. What, can the devil speak true? Mucb. The thane of Cawdor lives: Why do you dress me In borrow'd robes ? Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet; He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not; Macb. Glamis and thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind. Thanks for your pains. Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to Promis'd no less to them? Ban. That trusted home, [me, Might yet enkindle+ you unto the crown, Macb. Two truths are told, Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir. Ban. New honours come upon him Like our strange garments; cleave not to the mould, But with the aid of use. Macb. Come what come may; Time and the hour + runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Macb. Give me your favour: -my dull brain was wrought [pains With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your Are register'd where every day I turn The leaf to read them.-Let us toward the [time, Think upon what hath chanc'd; and, at more The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other. king; Ban. Very gladly. Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. SCENE IV.-Fores.-A Room in the Palace. Those in commission yet return'd? • Title. 4 Stimulate. Glamis is still standing, and is the magnificent resi dence of Earl Strathmore. Firmly fixed. oppressed by conjecture. tunity. 1: l'aren. Encitement. Temptation. **The powers of action arə Time and oppor To find the mind's construction in the face: + Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSER, and ANGUS. To overtake thee. "Would thou badst less deserv'd; 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. Mach. 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. Dun. Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour Ban. There if I grow, Dun. My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you: I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful Dun. My worthy Cawdor! Mach. The prince of Cumberland !-That is a step, On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap, [Exit. Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant ; || And in his commendations, I am fed ; SCENE V.-Inverness.-A Room in Enter Lady MACBETH, reading a letter. [report, they have more in them than mortał knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves -air, into which they vanished. Whites I stood rapt in the wonder of it, cure missiLES? from the king, who all-kailed 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 mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and fareweli. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; aud shalt be What thou art promis'd :-Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o'the milk of human kindness, To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great; Art not without ambition; but without The illness should attend it. What thou would'st highly, [false, That would'st thou holily; would'st not play And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'd'st have great Glamis, [have it; That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou That I may pour my spirits in thine ear; you That tend on mortal thought, unsex me here ; Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell! That my keen knife + see not the wound it makes; Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the Enter MACBETH Greater than both, by the all-bail hereafter! Lady M. They met me in the day of suc-The future in the instant. cess; and I have learned by the perfectest • The best intelligence. Messengers. Supernatural. I Murderous. mantle." ད Pity., 1 Diadem. 4+ Knife ancientl 11 I e. Beyond the meant a sword or dogger. present time, which is secording to the process of ma turu iguurant of the future. Mecb. My dearest love, Duncan comes here to-night. Lady M. And when goes hence ↑ Lady M. Oh ! never Shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men May read strange matters :-To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, But be the serpent under it. He that's coming [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The same.-Before the Castle. Dun. This castle bath a pleasant seat; the air Ban. This guest of summer, breath Sinells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, buttress, nade His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, the air Enter Lady MACBETH. Dun. See, see! our honour'd hostess : The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as lo e. Herein I teach you, How you shall bid God yield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble. Lady M. All our service In every point twice done, and then done double, Were poor and single business, to contend Your majesty loads our house: For those of old, Dun. Where's the th ne of Cawdor? We cours' him at the heels, and had a purpose And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath bolp him To his home before us: Fair and noble hostess, Lady M. Your servants ever Have their's, themselves, and what is their's, in To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, Dun. Give me your hand: Conduct me to mine host; we love him highly, SCENE VII.-The same.-A Room in the Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over Macb. If it were done, when 'tis done, then Could trammel up the consequence, and ca'ch, We still have judgment here; that we but teach tice can Commends the That tears shall drown the wind.-1 have n10 To prick the sides of my intent, but only Lady M. He has almost supp'd; Why hav Macb. Hath he ask'd for me? business: Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Lady M. Was the hope drunk, Wherein you dress'd yourself? bath it slept And wakes it now, to look so green and pale that dare do all that may become a man; Lady M. What beast was it then, would Be so much more the man. They have made themselves, and that their fit. ness now [Exeunt. Does unmake you |