Kent. Nor no man else, all's cheerless, dark, | And thou no breath at all 10 thou wilt com and deadly. no more, Your eldest daughters have fore-doom'd them-Never, never, never, never, never! selves, Enter an OFFICER. Off. Edmund is dead, my lord. Alb. That's but a trifle here. [it is You lords, and noble friends, know our intent. The wages of their virtue, and all foes Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, Edg. He faints !-My lord, my lord,- Kent. Vex not his ghost: O let him pass. he hates him, That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer. Edg. O he is gone, indeed. Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur'd so long: He but usurp'd his life. Alb. Bear them from hence.-Our present business Is general woe. Friends of my soul, you twain Alb. The weight of this sad time we must obey ; Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne most: we, that are young, Shall never see so much, nor live so long. [Exeunt, with a dead March. • Die. MACBETH. LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE. IN this me chess tragedy Shakspeare has closely adhered to historical fact, excepting that Banque, out of com pliment to his descendant James 1. is excluded from all participation in the murder of Duncan. In the reign of Charles II. the songs of the witches were set to music by the celebrated Matthew Lock, and the play regarded as a semi-opera. The ghosts and witches, though admirably pourtrayed, have been censured as an insult to common sense; and cautions have been held out to the young and uninformed against imbibing the absurd principles of fatalism which are seemingly countenanced in many parts of this piece. But in the time of Shakspeare, the doctrine of witchcraft was at once established by law and by fashion, and it became not only unpolite, but criminal, to doubt it.---King James himself in his dialogues of Damonologie, re-printed in Lon don soon after his succession, has speculated deeply on the illusions of spirits, the compact of witches, &c.; and our dramatist only turned to his advantage a system universally admitted. In representation, some un interesting scenes are omitted; many of the witches' dialogues adapted to beautiful music, and a song or two, probably written by Sir W. Davenant, added to the parts. Betterton, amidst many bad alterations, hit upon the plan of making the witches deliver all the prophecies, by which a deal of the trap-work is avoided, and Garrick substituted some excellent passages to be uttered by Macbeth, whilst expiring, in lieu of the disgust ing exposure of his head by Macduff. The neatest criticism upon the play, and the most concise record of its historical facts, are contained in the following extract from a standard publication: "Macbeth flourished in Scotland about the middle of the tenth century. At this period Duncan was king, a mild and humane prince, but not at all possessed of the genius requisite for governing a country so turbulent, and so infested by the intrigues and animosities of the great Macbeth, a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the crown. Not contented with curbing the king's authority, carried still further his mad ambition; he murdered Duncan at luverness, and then seized upon the throne. Fearing lest his ill-gotten power should be stripped from him. he chased Malcolm Kenmore, the son and heir, into England, and put to death Mac Gill and Banquo, the two most powerful men in his dominions. Macduff next becoming the object of his suspicion, he escaped into England; but the inhuman usurper wreaked his vengeance on his wife and children, whom he caused to be cruelly butchered. Siward, whose daughter was married to Duncan, embraced, by Edward's orders, the protection of his distressed family. He marched an army into Scotland, and having defeated and killed Macbeth in battle, be restored Malcolm to the throne of his ancestors. The tragedy founded upon the history of Macbeth, though contrary to the rules of the drama, contains an infinity of beauties with respect to language, character, passion, and incident; and is thought to be one of the very best pieces of the very best masters in this kind of writing that the world ever produced. The danger of ambition is well described, and the passious are directed to their true ends, so that it is not only admirable as a poem, but one of the most moral pieces existing." SCENE, in the end of the fourth act, lies in England; through the rest of the play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's Castle. ACT I. SCENE 1.-An open Place. Thunder and Lightning. Enter three WITCHES. 1 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 wou: • Tumult. 3 Witch. That will be ere set of sun. 1 Witch. Where the place ? 2 Witch. Upon the heath: 3 Witch. There to ineet Macbeth. 1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin ! Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air. [WITCHES vanish. SCENE II-A Jamp near Fores. Confronted him with self-comparisons, Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MAL- Dun. What bloody man is that? He can re- As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt Mal. This is the sergeant, Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought Sold. Doubtfully 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 villanies of nature Do swarm upon him,) from the western isles, Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Carv'd out his passage, till he fac'd the slave; Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark: Who comes here? Mal. The worthy thane of Rosse. Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! That seems to speak things strange. Dun. Whence cam'st thon, worthy thane ? Where the Norweyan banuers flout** the sky, Norway himself, with terrible numbers, They were light and heavy armed troops. ↑ Cause. 1 The opposite to comfort. Truth. Cannons were not invented until some centuries after this period. Make another Golgotha as memorable as the first. Dun. Great happiness! Rosse. That now Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall Our bosom interest :-Go, pronounce his death, Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath SCENE III-A Heath.-Thunder. Enter the three WITCHES. 1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 3 Witch. Sister, where thou? 1 Witch. A Sailor's wife had chesnuts in her And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd:- Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed rouyout cries. [Tiger : Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o'the 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; will drain him dry as hay: 2 Witch. Show me, show me. 1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd, as homeward he did come. 3 Witch. A drum, a drum; Macbeth doth come. [Drum within. All. The weird sisters, ¶ hand in hand, Thus do go about, about; Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, Enter MACBETH and BANQUo. So wither'd and so wild in their attire: By each at once her choppy finger laying Mucb. Speak, if you can ;-What are you? |