SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, General of the English Forces.

YOUNG SIWARD, his Son.

SEYTON, an Officer attending Macbeth.

Son to Macduff.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, 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.

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.

FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again,

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurlyburly 's done,

When the battle's lost and won.

That will be ere the set of sun.

3 Witch.

1 Witch.

Where the place?

2 Witch.

Upon the heath.

3 Witch.

There to meet with Macbeth.

1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin!

SCENE II.A Camp near Forres.

Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier.

Duncan. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

Malcolm.

This is the sergeant,

Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought
'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
Say to the King thy knowledge of the broil,
As thou did'st leave it.

Soldier.

Doubtful it stood;

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 villainies of nature

Do swarm upon him) from the Western Isles
Of kernes and gallowglasses is suppli'd ;
And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,

1 Some have supposed this scene too bombastic to be Shakespeare's, but it is distinctly in the style of his scenes containing minor characters. (R) [Forres] Forres lies on the Moray Frith on the eastern shore of Scotland, about twenty-five miles from Inverness. The region around Inverness is the Macbeth country. [Soldier] The folio, Captaine. Shakespeare found a sergeant sent as a messenger, though upon a different errand, in the earlier part of Holinshed's relation of Macbeth's story. (w)

3 sergeant, a trisyllable metrically. So minion, 1. 19. In 1. 18 execution has five syllables.

thy. The folio [followed by recent editors], the.

Macdonwald. So the folio. Holinshed has Macdowald.

10 for to that, because. (w) to that, to that end (Rolfe). (R)

13

Of, with. kernes, foot-soldiers armed with javelins. gallowglasses, heavy-armed Irish cavalry. Cf. 2 Henry VI, IV. ix. 26 and Richard II, II. i. 156. (R)

14 quarrel, [cause of quarrel]. The folio, quarry. Johnson's sug

Shew'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak;
For brave Macbeth, (well he deserves that name,)
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smok'd with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion, carv'd out his passage,
Till he fac'd the slave;

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to th' chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sold. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break,
So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to come,
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark :
No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd,
Compell'd these skipping kernes to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

Dun.

Dismay'd not this

Yes;

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo ?

Sold.

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks;
gestion based on Holinshed is
generally adopted.

19 minion, favourite. (R)
21 Which, who. There seems
to be some doubt as to the ante-
cedent, but it is almost certainly
Macbeth, 1. 16, and not the word
immediately preceding, slave, i. e.
Macdonwald, for the fact of Mac-
beth's overcoming Macdonwald
is clear. Some editors follow
VOL. XIII-9

Capell and substitute and for which, but this seems to be unnecessary. (R)

22 from the nave to th' chaps, i. e. from the navel to the mouth or head. (R)

26 break. The first folio omits break; the second has breaking. Pope's emendation.

36 sooth, truth. (R)
37 cracks, charges. (R)

So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,

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 and ANGUS.

Who comes here?

Mal.

The worthy Thane of Rosse.

Lenox. What a haste looks through his eyes!
So should he look that seems to speak things strange.

Rosse.

Dun.

God save the King!

Whence cam'st thou, worthy Thane ?

Rosse. From Fife, great King;

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky

And fan our people cold.

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,

Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,

The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict';
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,

Except, unless. (R)

40 memorize, make memorable. Golgotha. Cf. Matthew, xxvii. 33. (R)

45 Enter Rosse and Angus. So the folio. Only Rosse speaks or is spoken to. But in I. iii. 100 Rosse and Angus execute the commission given in this [scene], and the latter says, We are sent. (w)

50 flout the sky, insult the Scottish sky and people. (R)

52 Norway, the country named instead of the King. Cf. 1. 61, the Norways' King. (R)

54 Cawdor, some fifteen miles from Inverness. (R)

55 Bellona's bridegroom. Mars, i. e. Macbeth. lapp'd in proof, wrapped in armour tested and found capable of great resistance. (R)

56 Confronted him with selfcomparisons, i. e. gave him as good as he sent. (R)