Thus do go about, about; 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 call'd to Fores? - What are these, 7 The Valkyriæ, or Valkyriur, were not barely three in number. The learned critic might have found, in Bartholinus, not only Gunna, Rota, et Skullda, but also, Scogula, Hilda, Gondula, and Geiroscogula. Bartholinus adds, that their number is yet greater, according to other writers who speak of them. They were the cupbearers of Odin, and conductors of the dead. They were distinguished by the elegance of their forms; and it would be as just to compare youth and beauty with age and deformity, as the Valkyriæ of the North with the Witches of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. The old copy has-weyward, probably in consequence of the transcriber's being deceived by his ear. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. The following passage in Bellenden's translation of Hector Boethius, fully supports the emendation: "Be aventure Makbeth and Banquho were passand to Fores, quhair kyng Duncane hapnit to be for ye tyme, and met be ye gait thre wemen clothit in elrage and uncouth weid. They wer jugit be the pepill to be weird sisters." So also. Holinshed. MALONE. 7 How far is't call'd to Fores?] The king at this time resided at Fores, a town in Murray, not far from Inverness. "It fortuned, (says Holinshed) as Macbeth and Banquo journeyed towards Fores, where the king then lay, they went sporting by the way, without other company, save only themselves, when suddenly in the midst of a laund there met them three women in straunge and ferly apparell, resembling creatures of an elder world," &c. STEEVENS. The old copy reads-Soris. Corrected by Mr. Pope. tomme et aliMALONE. So wither'd, and so wild in their attire; 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 beards1 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! 3 • That man may question?] Are ye any beings with which man is permitted to hold converse, or of whom it is lawful to ask questions. Johnson. 9 You should he women,] In Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Devill, 1592, there is an enumeration of spirits and their offices; and of certain watry spirits it is said: " by the help of Alynach a spirit of the West, they will raise stormes, cause earthquakes, rayne, haile or snow, in the clearest day that is; and if ever they appear to anie man, they come in women's apparell." HENDERSON. 1 - your beards-] Witches were supposed always to have hair on their chins. So, in Decker's Honest Whore, 1635: "Some women have beards, marry they are half witches." STEEVENS. * All hail, Macbeth!] It hath lately been repeated from Mr. Guthrie's Essay upon English Tragedy, that the portrait of Macbeth's wife is copied from Buchanan, "whose spirit, as well as words, is translated into the play of Shakspeare: and it had signifyed nothing to have pored only on Holinshed for facts."-Animus etiam, per se ferox, prope quotidianis conviciis uxoris (quæ omnium consiliorum ei erat conscia) stimulabatur." -This is the whole that Buchanan says of the Lady, and truly I see no more spirit in the Scotch, than in the English chronicler. "The wordes of the three weird sisters also greatly encouraged him [to the murder of Duncan,] but specially his wife lay sore upon him to attempt the thing, as she that was 2 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 4 very ambitious, brenning in unquenchable desire to beare the name of a queene." Edit. 1577, p. 244. This part of Holinshed is an abridgement of Johne Bellenden's translation of the Noble Clerk, Hector Boece, imprinted at Edinburgh, in fol. 1541. I will give the passage as it is found there. "His wyfe impacient of lang tary (as all wemen ar) specially quhare they are desirus of ony purpos, gaif hym gret artation to pursew the third weird, that sche micht be ane quene, calland hym oft tymis febyl cowart and nocht desyrus of honouris, sen he durst not assailze the thing with manheid and curage, quhilk is offerit to hym be beniuolence of fortoun. Howbeit sindry otheris hes assailzeit sic thinges afore with maist terribyl jeopardyis, quhen they had not sic sickernes to succeid in the end of thair laubouris as he had." p. 173, But we can demonstrate, that Shakspeare had not the story from Buchanan. According to him, the weird sisters salute Macbeth: "Una Angusiæ Thanum, altera Moraviæ, tertia Regem." Thane of Angus, and of Murray, &c. but according to Holinshed, immediately from Bellenden, as it stands in Shakspeare: "The first of them spake and sayde, All hayle Makbeth Thane of Glammis, the second of them sayde, Hayle Makbeth Thane of Cawder; but the third sayde, All hayle Makbeth, that hereafter shall be King of Scotland." p. 243. 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 shalt be king hereafter! Here too our poet found the equivocal predictions, on which his hero so fatally depended: "He had learned of certaine wysards, how that he ought to take heede of Macduffe:and surely hereupon had he put Macduffe to death, but a certaine witch, whom he had in great trust, had tolde, that he should neuer be slain with man borne of any woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the castell of Dunsinane." p. 244. And the scene between Malcolm and Macduff, in the fourth Act, is almost literally taken from the Chronicle. FARMER. All hail, Macbeth!] All hail is a corruption of al-hael, Saxon, i. e, ave, salve. MALONE. 3 -thane of Glamis!] 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 3 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. BAN. Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair? - I'the name of truth, of the Earl of Strathmore. See a particular description of it in Mr. Gray's Letter to Dr. Wharton, dated from Glames Castle. STEEVENS. thane of Cawdor!] Dr. Johnson observes, in his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, that part of Calder Castle, from which Macbeth drew his second title, is still remaining. In one of his Letters, Vol. I. p. 122, he takes notice of the same object: "There is one ancient tower with its battlements and winding stairs-the rest of the house is, though not modern, of later erection." STEEVENS. * Are ye fantastical,] By fantastical is not meant, according to the common signification, creatures of his own brain; for he could not be so extravagant to ask such a question : but it is used for supernatural, spiritual. WARBURTON. By fantastical, he means creatures of fantasy or imagination: the question is, Are these real beings before us, or are we deceived by illusions of fancy? Johnson. So, in Reginald Scott's Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584:"He affirmeth these transubstantiations to be but fantastical, not according to the veritie, but according to the appearance." The same expression occurs in All's lost by Lust, 1633, by Rowley: 66 or is that thing, "Which would supply the place of soul in thee, Shakspeare, however, took the word from Holinshed, who in his account of the witches, says: "This was reputed at first but some vain fantastical illusion by Macbeth and Banquo." STEEVENS. * Of noble having,] Having is estate, possession, fortune. So, in Twelfth-Night: 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; Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear, Your favours, nor your hate. 1 WITCH. Hail! horr 2 WITCH. Hail! 3 WITCH. Hail! 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's death, I know, I am thane of Glamis; "my having is not much; " I'll make division of my present store: "Hold; there is half my coffer." Again, in the ancient metrical romance of Syr Bevys of Hampton, bl. 1. no date: " And when he heareth this tydinge, " He will go theder with great having." See also note on The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III. sc. ii. STEEVENS. That he seems rapt withal ;] Rapt is rapturously affected, extra se raptus. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, IV. ix. 6: "What, dear sir, thus raps you?" STEEVENS. • By Sinel's death,] The father of Macbeth. POPE. His true name, which however appears, but perhaps only typographically, corrupted to Synele in Hector Boethius, from whom, by means of his old Scottish translator, it came to the knowledge of Holinshed, was Finleg. Both Finlay and Macbeath are common surnames in Scotland at this moment. |