Dramatis Per forge.

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DUNCAN, King of Scotland.
Malcolm,

Sons to the King.
Donalbain,
Macbeth,

Generals of the King's Army
Banquo,
Lenox,
Macduff,
Rosse,

Noblemen of Scotland..
Menteeth,
Angus,
Cathness,
Fleance, Son to Banquo.
Siward, General of the E.iglish Forces. },
7oung Siward, his Son.
Seyton, an Officer attending on Macbethe.
Son to Macduff.
Dosor.

Lady Macbetha
Lady Macduff.
Gentlewomen, attending on Lady Macbeth.
Hecate, and three other Witches.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers and Attendants.

The Ghost of Banquo, and several other Apparitions.

SCENE, in the End of the fourth Act, lyes in Eng

land; through the rest of the Play, in Scotland; and chiefly at Macbeth's Caftle.

M AC B E

C Β Ε Τ Η.

W

HEN shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain ?

2 Wiích. When the hurly-burly's done, When the battle's lost and won. 3

Witch. That will be ere set of fun.
i Witch. Where the place?
2 Witch. Upon the heath.
3 Witch. There I go to meet Macbeth.
1 Witch. I come, I come, Grimalkin.
2 Witch. Padocke calls anon !

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair,
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[They rise from the stage, and fly away, SCENE changes to the Palace at Forris. Enter King, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with

Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain.
King. What bloody man is that ? he can report,
As feeineth by his plight, of the revolt
The newest state.

Mal. This is the Serjeant,
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought

'Gainst my captivity. Hail, hail, brave friend!
Say to the King the knowledge of the broil,
As thou didst leave it.

Cap. Doubtful long it stood:
As two spent swimmers that do cling together ,
And choak their art. The merciless Macdonel
(Worthy to be a rebel; for to that
The multiplying villainies of Nature
Do swarm upon him) western ifles
Of Kernes and Gallow-glasses was fupply'd;
And Fortune, on his dained quarry liniling,
Shew'd like a rebel's whore. But all too weak:
For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)
Disdaining fortune, with his brandith'd steel
Which smoak'd with bloody execution,..
Like valour's minion carved out his passage,
Till he had faced the slave;
Who ne'er shook hands nor bid farewel to him,
'Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chops,
And fixed his head upon our battlements.

King. Oh, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman !
Gap. As whence the sun gins his reflection, (1),
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break;

(1) As whence the sun 'gins his reficflion, Shipwrecking florms and direful thanders break;] Mr Pope has degraded this word 'gins, against the general authority of the copies, without any reaton alligned for fo doing; aod substituted gives in the room of it. But it will soon be obvious how far our Author's good observation and knowIedge of nature' goes to establish his own reading, 'gins. For the sense is this ;“ As fron the place from whence the “ fun begins his course, (viz. the east) thipwrecking furnis « proceed ; &c."--And it is fo in fact, that fornis generally come from the east. And it must be so in rcalon, bee cause the natural and conflant motion of the ocean is from cast to weft: and hecause the motion of the wind has the fame general direction. Præcipua et generalis (ventorum] Cauja eft ipfe Sol, qui igneo fuo jubare serem rarefacit et attenuat.

come,

So from that spring whence comfort seemed to (2) Discomfort swelld, Mark,King of Scotland, mark; No sooner justice had, with valour arm’d, Compelled these skipping Kernes to trust their heels; But the Norweyan Lord, surveying vantage,

One.

imprimis illum, in quem perperdiculares radios mittit, sive supre quem hæret. Acr enim rarefaftus multo majorem locum posluluto fude fit, ui aer u fole impulfios alium viinuri aerem magno impe111 protrudat; cumque Sol ab oriente in occidentem circiemrotetur, præcipuus ab eo aeris impulsus fiet verfus occidentem..-Quia plerumque ab aeris per solem rarefactione oritur, qui cum Euntinue feraiur ab oriente in occidentem, majori quogue impetu protruditur acr ab oriente in occidentem. Varenii geograpit. 1. i. c. 14. &c. 20, prop. 10. and 15.- - This being so, it is no wonder that forms should come most frequently, froin that quarter; or that they should be most violent, because here is a concurrence of the natural motions of wind and wave. This proves clearly, that the true reading is 'gins, i. e. begins : for the other reading does not fix it to that quarter : for the fun may give its reflection in any part of its course above the horizon; but it can begin it only in

Mr Warburtola (2) So from thot Spring, whence comfort seemed to come, Discomfort Swelled.] I have not disturbed the text here, as the fešte does not abfolutely require it; though Dr Thirlby prescribes a very ingenious and easy correction :

So from that spring, whence comfort feemed to come,

Discomforts welled. i. e. ftreamed, flowed forth : a word that peculiarly agrees with the metaphor of a spring. The original is Anglo-saxon, wenllian, scaturire ; which very well expresses the diffusion and scattering of water from its head. Chaucer has used the word in these acceptations:

For whiché might flie nò lengir. restrain
Her teris, thei ganin so up to well.

Truil. et Creff. 1. iv. V709. I can no more, but here out cast of all welfare abide the daie of my deth, or els to se the fight that might all my well ; age forrowes voide, and of the flode make an ebbe.

Tefiament of Lover

With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men
Began a fresh ailault.

King. Dismay'd not this
Our Captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Cap. Yes,
As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion.
If I say footh, I must report, they were
As cannons over-charged; with double cracks, (3}
So they redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,
I cannot tell
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.-- [wounds:

King. So well thy words become thee, as thy
They Imack of honour both. Go, get him surgeons.

Enter ROSSE and ANGUS. But who comes here?

Mal. The worthy Thane of Rosse.

Len. What haste looks through his eyes ?.
So should he look that seems to speak thin strange.

Rose. God save the King !
King. Whence cam'st thou, worthy Thane?.

Roje. From Fife, great King,
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,
And fan our people cold
Norway, himfelf with numbers terrible, (4)
(3)

I must report they were
As cannons overcharged with double cracks,] Cannons over-
charged with cracks' [ liave no idea of : iny pointing, I
think, gives the easy and natural sense. Macbeth and
Banquo were like cannons overcharged; why? because they
redoubled strokes on the foe with twice the fury and iinpe-
tuolity as before.

(4) Norway himself, with mimbers terrible,

Alified by that, &c.] Norway himself aflisted, &c. is a reade ing we owe to the editors, not to the Poct. That energy