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Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!

QUEEN. Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of custom: 't is no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
K. MACB. What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: or be alive again,
And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mockery, hence!-

Why, so ;-being gone,
I am a man again.-Pray you, sit still.

[Ghost disappears.

QUEEN. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting, With most admir'd disorder.

K. MACB.

Can such things be,

And overcome us like a summer's cloud,

Without our special wonder? You make me strange

Even to the disposition that I owe,

When now I think you can behold such sights,

And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,

When mine are* blanch'd with fear.

Ross.

What sights, my lord?

QUEEN. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;

Question enrages him: at once, good night:

Stand not upon the order of your going,

But go at once.

LEN.

Attend his majesty!

QUEEN.

Good night, and better health-120

A kind good night to all!

[Exeunt Lords and Attendants.

K. MACB. It will have blood they say! blood will have blood: Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;

b

Augurs, and understood relations, have

By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth
The secret'st man of blood.-What is the night?

QUEEN. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.

(*) Old text, is.

The baby of a girl.] Steevens altered the above, which is the old text, to,-" If trembling I inhibit thee," but we concur with Henley in thinking that "inhabit" is here used in a neutral sense, and that the original affords a better and more forcible meaning than the alteration,-"Dare me to an encounter in the desert, and if then trembling, I keep house, proclaim me," &c.

Augurs, and understood relations, &c.] So, unintelligibly, reads the folio. What the poet wrote we cannot doubt was,

"Augurs that understood relations," &c.

which D'Avenant turned to,

"Augurs well read in Languages of Birds," &c.

K. MACB. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person, At our great bidding?a

QUEEN.

Did you send to him, sir?

K. MACB. I hear it by the way; but I will send :
There's not a one of them, but in his house
I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow
(And betimes I will) to the weird sisters:

More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good,
All causes shall give way; I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er:

Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;

Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd.

QUEEN. You lack the season of all natures, sleep.

K. MACB. Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use:

We are yet but young in deed.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.-The Heath.

Thunder.

Enter HECATE, (2) meeting the three Witches.

1 WITCH. Why, how now, Hecate? you look angerly.

HEC. Have I not reason, beldams as you are,

Saucy, and over-bold? How did you dare

To trade and traffic with Macbeth,

In riddles and affairs of death;

And I, the mistress of your charms,

The close contriver of all harms,

Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art?

And, which is worse, all you have done,
Hath been but for a wayward son,

Spiteful and wrathful; who, as others do,

Loves for his own ends, not for you.

But make amends now: get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i' the morning; thither he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your vessels and your spells provide,
Your charms, and everything beside.

I am for the air; this night I'll spend - 2

Unto a dismal and a fatal end.

Great business must be wrought ere noon:

Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vaporous drop profound;

I'll catch it ere it come to ground;

How say'st thou, &c.] This has been interpreted, "What say you to the fact that Macduff refuses to appear upon our summons?"

17

the season-] The preservative.

And that, distill'd by magic slights,
Shall raise such artificial sprites,

As, by the strength of their illusion,
Shall draw him on to his confusion.
He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear:
And you all know, security

Is mortals' chiefest enemy.

SONG. [Without.] Come away, come away, &c. (3)

Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see,

Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.

[Exit.

1 WITCH. Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-Forres. A Room in the Palace.

Enter LENNOX, and another Lord.

LEN. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,
Which can interpret farther: only, I say,

Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan
Was pitied of Macbeth,-marry, he was dead:-
And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late.

Whom, you may say, if 't please you, Fleance kill'd,
For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late;

Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous

It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain

To kill their gracious father? damned fact!
How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight,
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear,

That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;
For 't would have anger'd any heart alive
To hear the men deny 't. So that, I say,
He has borne all things well: and I do think,
That had he Duncan's sons under his key,

(As, an 't please heaven, he shall not) they should find
What 't were to kill a father; so should Fleance.

But, peace!-for from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd
His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear,

Macduff lives in disgrace: sir, can you tell
Where he bestows himself?

* of Duncan,

LORD.
The son
From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,
Lives in the English court; and is receiv'd
Of the most pious Edward with such grace,
That the malevolence of fortune nothing

* Old text, Sonnes.

• Who cannot want the thought, &c.] The sense obviously requires us to read,"Who can want," &c. i.e., Who can be without, &c.; but, as Malone remarks, Shakespeare is sometimes incorrect in these minutiæ.

Takes from his high respect: thither Macduff

Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid-30
To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward:
That, by the help of these, (with Him above
To ratify the work) we may again

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights;
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives;
Do faithful homage, and receive free honours ;-
All which we pine for now: and this report
Hath so exasperate the king, that he
Prepares for some attempt of war.

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
That clogs me with this answer.

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
May soon return to this our suffering country
Under a hand accurs'd!

LORD.

I'll send my prayers with him!

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.-A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling.

Thunder.

Enter the three Witches.

1 WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. (1)
2 WITCH. Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
3 WITCH. Harpier cries:-'t is time! 't is time!
1 WITCH. Round about the caldron go;

In the poison'd entrails throw.

Toad, that under cold stone,a

Days and nights has thirty-one;

(*) Old text, their.

Toad, that under cold stone,-] The deficiency in this line has been variously supplied. D'Avenant has,

Pope,

Steevens,

"This Toad which under mossy stone," &c.

"Toad, that under the cold stone," &c.

"Toad, that under coldest stone," &c.

We ought probably to read, with Pope," the cold stone," or

a cold stone"

Swelter'd venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

3 WITCH. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf; Witches' mummy; maw and gulfa

Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,b
For the ingredients of our caldron.

30

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

2 WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

Enter HECATE.C

HEC. O, well done! I commend your pains;

And every one shall share i' the gains.
And now about the caldron sing
Like elves and fairies in a ring,

Enchanting all that you put in.

[Music and Song, "Black spirits," &c. (2)

[Exit.

[blocks in formation]

-gulf-] The throat, the swallow.

-chaudron,-] Entrails.

Enter HECATE.] The stage direction of the folio is, "Enter Hecat, and the other three Witches," but it is very unlikely that Shakespeare purposed any addition to the original triad. Nothing is more common in our early dramas than upon the entrance of each character on a scene, for the stage direction to recapitulate the personages already there, as if they had entered at the same time with the last comer.

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