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Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict;
Till that Bellona's bridegroom,' lapped in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,2

Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit; and, to conclude,
The victory fell on us;

Dun.

Rosse. That now

Great happiness!

Sweno,3 the Norway's king, craves composition;
Nor would we deign him burial of his men,
Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes' Inch,4

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest.-Go, pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Rosse. I'll see it done.

Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.

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?

[Exeunt.

1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,

1 By Bellona's bridegroom Shakspeare means Macbeth. Lapped in proof is defended by armor of proof.

2 "Confronted him with self-comparisons." By him is meant Norway, and by self-comparisons is meant that he gave him as good as he brought, showed that he was his equal.

3 It appears probable, as Steevens suggests, that Sweno was only a marginal reference, which has crept into the text by mistake, and that the line originally stood—

"That now the Norway's king craves composition."

It was surely not necessary for Rosse to tell Duncan the name of his old enemy, the king of Norway.

4 Čolmes' is here a dissyllable. Colmes' Inch, now called Inchcomb, is a small island, lying in the Firth of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it dedicated to St. Columb. Inch or inse, in Erse, signifies an island.

And mounched, and mounched, and mounched. Give me, quoth I;

Aroint thee,1 witch! the rump-fed ronyon 2 cries.

Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger;

But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

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;

And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card.3

I will drain him dry as hay;
Sleep shall, neither night nor day,
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid; 4
Weary sev'n-nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine;
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.
Look what I have.

2 Witch. Show me, show me.

1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wrecked, as homeward he did come.

3 Witch. A drum, a drum ;

Macbeth doth come.

All. The weird sisters,5 hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land,

[Drum within.

1 The etymology of this imprecation is yet to seek. Rynt ye, for out with ye! stand off! is still used in Cheshire, where there is also a proverbial saying," Rynt ye, witch, quoth Besse Locket to her mother." The French have a phrase of somewhat similar sound and import-" Arry-avant, away there, ho!"-Mr. Douce thinks that "aroint thee" will be found to have a Saxon origin.

2 "Rump-fed ronyon," a mangy woman, fed on offals.

3 i. e. the sailor's chart; carte-marine.

4 Forbid, i. e. forespoken, unhappy, charmed or bewitched. A forbodin fellow (Scotice) still signifies an unhappy one.

5 The old copy has weyward, evidently by mistake. Weird, from the Saxon, a witch, Shakspeare found in Holinshed. Gawin Douglas, in his translation of Virgil, renders the Parca by weird sisters.

Thus do go about, about;

Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace!-the charm's wound up.

Enter MACBETH and Banquo.

Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Ban. How far is't called to Fores?-What are

these,

So withered, and so wild in their attire;

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand

me,

By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That

you are so.

Macb. Speak, if you can ;-what are you?

1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of

Glamis ! 1

2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of

Cawdor!

3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king here

after.

Ban. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair?-I' the name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed

2

Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace, and great prediction
Of noble having, and of royal hope,

That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time,

And say, which grain will grow, and which will not,

1 The thaneship of Glamis was the ancient inheritance of Macbeth's family. The castle where they lived is still standing, and was lately the magnificent residence of the earl of Strathmore. Gray has given a particular description of it in a Letter to Dr. Wharton.

2 i. e. creatures of fantasy or imagination.

Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear,
Your favors, nor your hate.

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1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none; So, all hail Macbeth, and Banquo!

1 Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail!

Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers; tell me more.
By Sinel's1 death, 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
You owe this strange intelligence! or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting?-Speak, I charge you.
[Witches vanish.

Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them.-Whither are they vanished? Macb. Into the air; and what seemed corporal,

melted

As breath into the wind.-'Would they had staid!
Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten of the insane root,2

That takes the reason prisoner?

Macb. Your children shall be kings.
Ban.
You shall be king.
Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?
Ban. To the self-same tune, and words. Who's
here?

1 "Sinel." The late Dr. Beattie conjectured that the real name of this family was Sinane, and that Dunsinane, or the hill of Sinane, thence derived its name.

2 The insane root was probably henbane. In Batman's Commentary on Bartholome de Propriet. Rerum, a book with which Shakspeare was familiar, is the following passage: "Henbane is called insana, mad, for the use thereof is perillous; for if it be eate or dronke it breedeth madnesse, or slow lykenesse of sleepe. Therefore this hearb is called, commonly, mirilidium, for it taketh away wit and reason."

Enter Rosse and ANGUS.

Rosse. The king hath happily received, Macbeth,
The news of thy success; and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend,

Which should be thine, or his : Silenced with that,1
In viewing o'er the rest o' the self-same day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale,2
Came3 post
post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And poured them down before him.
Ang.
We are sent,
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks
Only to herald thee into his sight, not pay thee.

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Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honor,
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor;
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!
For it is thine.

Ban.

What, can the devil speak true? Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you

dress me

In borrowed robes?

Ang.

Who was the thane, lives yet,

But under heavy judgment bears that life

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined

With those of Norway, or did line the rebel

With hidden help and vantage; or that with both
He labored in his country's wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confessed, and proved,
Have overthrown him.

1 i. e. admiration of your deeds, and a desire to do them justice by public commendation, contend in his mind for preeminence: he is silenced with wonder.

2 i. e. posts arrived as fast as they could be counted. Dr. Johnson explains the passage thus:-"The news came as thick as a tale can travel with the post." Mr. Reeves reads "thick as hail."

3" Came post." The old copy reads can. Rowe made the emendation.

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