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Affifted by that most disloyal traitor

The Thane of Cawdor, 'gan a small conflict:
'Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lap'd in proof, (5)
Confronted him with felf-comparisons,

Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit. To conclude,

The victory fell on us.

King. Great happiness!

[pofition:

Roffe. Now Sweno, Norway's King, craves comNor would we deign him burial of his men 'Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes-kill-ifle, Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

[ceive

King. No more that Thane of Cawdor fhall deOur bofom interest. Go, pronounce his death; And with his former title greet Macbeth. Roffe. I'll fee it done.

King. What he hath loft, noble Macbeth hath

won.

SCENE changes to the Heath.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

1 Witch. Where haft thou been, sister?

[Exeunt.

and contraft of expreffion are . ft, which my pointing reftores. The fenfe is, Norway, who was in himself terrible by his own numbers, when aflifted by Cawdor became yet more terrible.

(s) Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof, Confronted him with felf-comparisons,

Point againft point, rebellious arm'gainst arm,

Curbing his lavish fpirit.] Here again we are to quarrel with the tranfpofition of an innocent comma; which how ever becomes dangerous to fenfe, when in the hands either of a careless or ignorant editor. Let us fee who is it that brings this rebellious arm? Why, it is Bellona's bridegroom: and who is he, but Macbeth? We can never believe our Author meant any thing like this. My regulation of the pointing reftores the true meaning; that the loyal Macbeth confronted the disloyal Cawdor, arm to arm.

2 Witch. Killing fwine.

3

Witch. Sifter, where thou?

I Witch. A failor's wife had chefnuts in her lap, And mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht. Give me, quoth 1.

Aroint thee, witch!-the rump-fed ronyon cries. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, matter o' the Tyger: But in a fieve I'll thither fail, 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 points they blow,
All the quarters that they know,
I the fhip-man's card.-

I will drain him dry as hay;
Sleep fhall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-houfe lid;
He fhall live a man forbid; (6)
Weary fev'n-nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
Though his bark cannot be loft,
Yet it fhall be tempeft-roft.
Look, what I have.

2 Witch. Shew me, fhew me.

I Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb,

Wreck'd as homeward he did come. [Drum within. 3 Witch. A drum, a drum!

Macbeth doth come!

(6) He fhall live a man forbid : i. e. as under a curfe, an interdiction. So, afterwards, in this play;

By his own interdiction stands accurfed.

So, among the Romans, an outlaw's fentence was aquæ et ignis interdictio. i. e. He was forbid the ufe of water and fire which implied the neceffity of banishment.

All. The weird fifters, hand in hand, (7) Posters of the fea and land,

(7) The wayward fifters, hand in hand,] The witches are. here fpeaking of themfelves; and it is worth an inquiry why they fhould ftyle themselves the weywar, or wayward filter. This word in its general acceptation fignifies, perverse, fro ward, moody, obftinate, untractable, &c. and is every where fo ufed by our Shakespeare. To content ourselves with two ge three inftances;

Fy, fy, how wayward is this foolish love,

That like a tefty baby, &c. Two Gentlemen of Verona.
This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy.

Love's Labour's Loft

And, which is worfe, all you have done

Is but for a wayward fon. Macbeth. Ris improbable the witches would adopt this epithet to themselves, in any of these fenfes; and therefore we are to look a little farther for the Poet's word and meaning. WhenI had the first fufpicion of our Author being corrupt in this. place, it brought to my mind the following paffage in Chaucer's Troilus and Creffeide, lib. iii v 618.

But, O fortune, executrice of wierdes.

Which word the gloffaries expound to us by fates or deftinies. I was foon confirmed in my fufpicion, upon happening to dip into Heylin's Cofmography, where he makes a short recital of the ftory of Macbeth and Banquo:

Thefe two (fays he) travelling together through a foreft, were met by three fairies, witches, wierds, the Scots call them, &c.

I prefently recollected, that this story must be recorded at more length by Holingfhead; with whom i thought it was very probable that our Author had traded for the materials of his tragedy: and therefore confirmation was to be fetch. ed from this fountain. Accordingly, looking into his hiftory of Scotland. I found the writer very prolix and exprefs, from Hector Boethius, in this remarkable story; and in p. 170. fpeaking of these witches, he uses this expreffion :

But afterwards the common opinion was, that these women were either the weird fifters, that is, as ye would fay, the goddeffes of deftiny, &c. Again, a little lower;

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The words of the three weird fifters alfo, (of whom before

ye have heard) greatly encouraged him thereunto.

And, in feveral other paragraphs there, this word is reVOL. IX.

B

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, with Soldiers and other Attendants.

Mach. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. Ban. How far is't call'd to Forris?

So wither'd, and fo wild in their attire,

what are

[thefe,

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you, or are you aught
That man may queftion? You feem to understand
By each at once her choppy finger laying [me,
Upon her fkinny lips.-You fhould be women;
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are fo.

Mach. Speak, if you can; what are you?

1 Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis !

2 Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

3 Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! that fhalt be King hereafter.

Ban. Good Sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do found fo fair? I' the name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed [To the Witches. Which outwardly ye fhew? My noble partner You greet with prefent grace, and great prediction

peated I believe, by this time, it is plain beyond a doubt, that the word wayward has obtained in Macbeth, where the witches are spoken of, from the ignorance of the copyists, who were not acquainted with the Scotch term: and that in every paffage, where there is any relation to these witches or wizards, my emendation must be embraced, and ze must read weird.

Of noble having, and of royal hope,

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

And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear, Your favours, nor your hate.

1 Witch. Hail!

2 Witch. Hail!

3

Witch. Hail !

Witch. Leffer than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not fo happy, yet much happier. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get Kings, though thou be So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

1 Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all-hail!

[none;

Macb. Stay, you imperfe& fpeakers, tell me more:
By Sinel's death, I know, I'm Thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the Thane of Cawdor lives
A profperous gentleman; and to be King,
Stands not within the profpect of belief,

No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blafted heath you stop our way
With fuch prophetic greeting--Ipeak. 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 feemed corporal Melted, as breath, into the wind.

Would they had staid!

Ban. Were fuch things here as we do speak about? (8)

(8) Were fuch things here as we do speak about?

Or have we eaten of the infane root,

That takes the reafon prifoner? The infane root, viz. the root which makes infane; as in Horace pallida mors; empe, que facit pallidos.This fentence, I conceive, is not to well un

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