And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late; Whom, you may say, if it please you, Fleance kill'd, It was for Malcolm, and for Donalbain, To kill their gracious father? damned fact ! That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep? (As, an't please heaven, he shall not,) they should find What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance. But, peace!-for from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd Macduff lives in disgrace: Sir, can you tell Lord. The son of Duncan, From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, Takes from his high respect: Thither Macduff is gone To wake Northumberland, and warlike Siward: Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights; Len. Sent he to Macduff? Lord. He did and with an absolute, Sir not I, : The cloudy messenger turns me his back, And hums; as who should say, You'll rue the time, Len. And that well might Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel Fly to the court of England, and unfold His message ere he come; that a swift blessing Lord. My prayers with him! [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I.-A dark Cave. ing. Thunder. In the middle a Cauldron boilEnter the three Witches.9 1 Witch. THRICE the brinded cat hath mew'd. 2 Witch. Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whin'd.' In the poison'd entrails throw.— [9] Scene 1.-As this is the chief scene of enchantment in the play, it is proper, in this place, to observe, with how much judgment Shakespeare has selected all the circumstances of his infernal ceremonies, and how exactly he has conformed to common opinions and traditions: "Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd." The usual form in which familiar spirits are reported to converse with witches, is that of a cat. A witch, who was tried about half a century before the time of Shakespeare, had a cat named Rutterkin, as the spirit of one of those witches was Grimalkin; and when any mischief was to be done, she used to bid Rutterkin go and fly. But once, when she would have sent Rutterkin to torment a daughter of the Countess of Rutland, instead of going or flying, he only cried mew, from whence she discovered that the lady was out of his power, the power of witches being not universal, but limited, as Shakespeare has taken care to inculcate : "Though his bark cannot be lost, "Yet it shall be tempest-tost." The common afflictions which the malice of witches produced, were melancholy, fits, and loss of flesh, which are threatened by one of Shakespeare's witches: "Weary sev'n nights, nine times nine, "Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine." It was likewise their practice to destroy the cattle of their neighbours, and the farmers have to this day many ceremonies to secure their cows and other cattle from witchcraft; but they seem to have been most suspected of malice against swine. Shakespeare has accordingly made one of his witches declare that she has been killing swine; and Dr. Harsnet observes, that, about that time," a son could not be ill of the measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with witchcraft." Toad, that under coldest stone, Boil thou first i' th' charmed pot! Toads have likewise long lain under the reproach of being by some means accessary to witchcraft, for which reason Shakespeare, in the first scene of this play, calls one of the spirits Paddock or Toad, and now takes care to put a toad first into the pot. When Vaninus was seized at Thoulouse, there was found at his lodgings ingens bufo vitro inclusus, a great toad shut in a vial, upon which those that prosecuted him Veneficium ex probrabant, charged him, I suppose, with witchcraft. Fillet of a fenny snake, "In the cauldron boil and bake: The propriety of these ingredients may be known by consulting the books De Viribus Animalium and De Mirabilibus Mundi, ascribed to Albertus Magnus, in which the reader, who has time and credulity, may discover very wonderful secrets. "Finger of birth-strangled babe, It has been already mentioned, in the law against witches, that they are supposed to take up dead bodies to use in enchantments, which was confessed by the woman whom King James examined; and who had of a dead body, that was divided in one of their assemblies, two fingers for her share. It is observable, that Shakespeare, on this great occasion, which involves the fate of a king, multiplies all the circumstances of horror. The babe, whose finger is used, must be strangled in its birth; the grease must not only be human, but must have dropped from a gibbet, the gibbet of a murderer; and even the sow, whose blood is used, must have offended nature by devouring her own farrow. These are touches of judgment and genius. "And now about the cauldron sing,- Black spirits and white, "Red spirits and grey, "Mingle, mingle, mingle, "You that mingle may." And, in a former part: weird sisters, hand in hand, "Thus do go about, about; "Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, "And thrice again, to make up nine." These two passages I have brought together, because they both seem subject to the objection of too much levity for the solemnity of enchantment, and may both be shown, by one quotation from Camden's account of Ireland, to be founded upon a practice really observed by the uncivilized natives of that country When any one gets a fall," says the informer of Camden, he starts 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, white." There was likewise a book written before the time of Shakespeare, describing, amongst other properties, the colours of spirits. Many other circumstances might be particularised, in which Shakespeare has shown his judgment and his knowledge. JOHNSON. [1] The urchin, or hedgehog, from its solitariness, the ugliness of its appearance, and from a popular opinion that it sucked or poisoned the udders of cows, was adopted into the demonologic system, and its shape was sometimes supposed to be assumed by mischievous elves. Hence it was one of the plagues of Caliban in The Tempest. T. WARTON. All Double, double toil and trouble; 2 Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake, 3 Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf; ; 2 Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. Enter HECATE, and the other three Witches." Hec. O, well done! I commend your pains; And every one shall share i' th' gains. And now about the cauldron sing, [2] The gulf is the swallow, the throat. Ravin'd is glutted with prey. Ravin is the ancient word for prey obtained by violence. STEEVENS. [3] These ingredients, in all probability, owed their introduction to the detestation in which the Turks were held on account of the holy wars. STEEVENS. [4] Chaudron, i. e. entrails; a word formerly in common use in the books of cookery. STEEVENS. [5] The insertion of these words (and the other three Witches) in the original copy, must be owing to a mistake. RITSON. Perhaps these additional Witches were brought on for the sake of the approaching dance. The original triad of hags was insufficient for the performance of the "ancient round" introduced in p. 59. STEEVENS. Like elves and fairies in a ring, SONG. Black spirits and white, 2 Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, Enter MACBeth. Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags? What is't you do? All. A deed without a name. Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, (Howe'er you come to know it,) answer me : Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches; though the yesty waves Confound and swallow navigation up; Though bladed corn be lodg'd,' and trees blown down ; Though castles topple on their warders' heads ;o Though palaces, and pyramids, do slope Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure Of nature's germins tumble all together,9 Even till destruction sicken, answer me To what I ask you. 1 Witch. Speak. 2 Witch. Demand. 3 Witch. We'll answer. 1 Witch. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters'? Macb. Call them, let me see them. 1 Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Into the flame. [6] Yesty waves-i. e. foaming or frothy waves. JOHNSON. [7] Corn, prostrated by the wind, in modern language, is said to be lay'd; but lodg'd had anciently the same meaning. [8] Topple is used for tumble. RITSON. STEEVENS. [9] Germins are seeds which have begun to germinate or sprout. Germen, Lat. Germe, Fr. STEEVENS. |