And yet re on't? Live you? or are you aught Macb. Speak, if you can;-What are you? 1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis10! 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king whereafter. Sww.youts ons parkow Ban. Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair?-I' the name of truth, Are ye fantasticall, or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner You greet with present grace, and great prediction Of noble having12, and of royal hope, That he seems rapt13 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! 2 Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! 1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 4 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So, all hail, Macbeth, and Banquo! 10 The thaneship of Glamis was the ancient inheritance o Macbeth's family. The castle where they lived is still standing, and was lately the magnificent residence of the earl of Strathmo Wharton. Gray has given a particular description of it in a Letter to ie. creatures of fantasy or imagination. 12 Estate, fortune. 13 Rapt is rapturously affected; extra se raptus. 1 Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all haÐ Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: By Sinel's14 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 [Witches vanish. you. Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them:-Whither are they vanish'd? Macb. Into the air; and what seem'd 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 root15, You shall be king. Macb. Your children shall be kings. 14 Sinel. The late Dr. Beattie conjectured that the real name of this family was Sinane, and that Dunsinane, or the hill of Sinane from thence derived' its name. 15 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." The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains.-Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me, Promis'd no less to them?e lede #1 Ban. Cousins, a word, I pray you.back* As happy prologues to the swelling act21 d Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.-- Cannot be ill; cannot be good:-If ill, My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, 19 i. c. entirely, thoroughly relied on. 20 Enkindle means 'encourage you to expect the crown." similar expression occurs in As You Like It, Act i. Sc. 1: --nothing remains, but that I kindle the boy thither.' 21 As happy prologues to the swelling act." in the pro Shakes so my single26 state of man, that function Is smother'd in surmise27; and nothing is, But what is not28. Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir. Ban. New honours come upon him Like our strange garments; cleave not to their mould, But with the aid of use. Macb. Come what come may; Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Macb. Give me your favour29:-my dull brain was wrought ' With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.→ Ban. [Exeunt. 26 By his single state of man, Macbeth means his simple condition of human nature. Single soul, for a simple or weak guileless person, was the phraseology of the poet's time. Simplicity and singleness were synonymous. The powers of action are oppressed by conjecture. 29 But what is not. Shakspeare has something like this sentiment in The Merchant of Venice: 'Where every something, being blent together, Turns to a wild of nothing." Again, in King Richard II. : is nought but shadows Of 29 Favour is countenance, good will, and not pardon as it has been here interpreted. Vide Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2. 30 The interim having weigh'd it. The interim is probably here used adverbially-You having weighed it in the interim." |