There hangs a vapourous drop profound; 2 As, by the strength of their illusion, Shall draw him on to his confusion: He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear Is mortals' chiefest enemy. [Music and a Song within: Come away, come away, &c.5 Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see, Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. [Exit. I Witch. Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. - Forres. A Room in the Palace. Enter LENNOX and another Lord. Len. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret further: only I say Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth: marry,1 he was dead: 2 Profound here signifies having deep or secret qualities. The vapourous drop seems to have been the same as the virus lunare of the ancients, being a foam which the Moon was supposed to shed on particular herbs, or other objects, when strongly solicited by enchantments. 3 Sleights is arts, or subtle practices; as in the common phrase, “sleight of hand." 4 Security in the Latin sense of over-confidence or presumption. Both the noun and the adjective are often used thus. 5 For the rest of the song used here, see Critical Notes. 1 Marry was much used as a general intensive, and has the force of indeed, forsooth, or to be sure. See Hamlet, page 72, note 24. And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late; Whom, you may say, if 't please you, Fleance kill'd, Who can now want the thought, how monstrous To kill their gracious father? damnèd fact ! That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep? He has borne all things well: and I do think they should find What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance. But, peace! for from broad 3 words, and 'cause he fail'd His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell Where he bestows himself? Lord. The son of Duncan, From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, Is gone to pray the holy King, upon his aid To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward; That by the help of these, with Him above 2 An old form of speech, meaning "be without the thought," or lack it. We should say, "Who can help thinking?" 8 Broad, here, is plain, outright, free-spoken. To ratify the work, we may again Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights; Keep from our feasts and banquets bloody knives; Prepares for some attempt of war. Len. Sent he to Macduff? Lord. He did: and with an absolute Sir, not I, And hums, as who should say,5 You'll rue the time Len. Lord. I'll send my prayers with him! 4 Exasperate for exasperated. The Poet has many such shortened preterites; as consecrate, contaminate, dedicate. 5 "As who should say " is equivalent to as if he were saying. A frequent usage. Cloudy is angry, frowning. In "turns me his back," me is redundant. Often so. It appears, at the close of scene 4, that Macbeth did not give Macduff a special and direct invitation to the banquet; but his attendance was expected as a matter of course; and his failure to attend made him an object of distrust and suspicion to the tyrant. We are to suppose that Macbeth learned, from the paid spy and informer whom he kept in Macduff's house, that the latter had declared he would not go to the feast. So that the messenger here spoken of was probably not sent to invite Macduff, but to call him to account for his non-attendance. See page 117, notes 24 and 25. 6 The order is, "our country suffering under a hand accursed." ACT IV. A Cavern. In the Middle, a Boiling Cauldron. I Witch. Thrice the brinded1 cat hath mew'd. 2 Witch. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined. In the cauldron boil and bake; Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, 1 Brinded is but an old form of brindled. The colour, as I used to hea it applied to cats and cows, was a dark brown streaked with black. 2 Thrice and once is put for four, because, on such occasions, the calling of even numbers was thought unlucky. 3 Harpy's cry is the signal, showing that it is time to begin their work. Harpy is of course a familiar. See page 48, note 2. 4 Fork is put for forked tongue. The adder's tongue was thought to have a poisonous sting.- Blind-worm is the slowworm. Called "eyeless venom'd worm" in Timon of Athens, iv. 3. For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 3 Witch. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf; 5 Probably meaning the mummy of an old Egyptian witch embalmed. Honest mummy was much used as medicine; and a witch's of course had evil magic in it. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Hydriotaphia, has the following: "The Egyptian mummy, which Cambyses or time hath spared, avarice now consumeth. Mummy is become merchandise, Mizraim cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for balsams." 6 Ravin'd for ravening or ravenous; the passive form with the active sense.. - Maw is stomach. Gulf is gullet or throat; that which swallows or gulps down any thing. 7 Any poisonous root was thought to become more poisonous if dug on a dark night. See Hamlet, page 144, note 39. 8 A lunar eclipse was held to be fraught with evil magic of the highest intensity. So in Paradise Lost, i. 597: "The Moon in dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds on half the nations." 9 Chaudron is entrails.- Slab is glutinous or slabby; what, in making soft soap, used to be called ropy.-"The Weird Sisters of our dramatist," says Professor Dowden, " may take their place beside the terrible old women of Michael Angelo, who spin the destinies of man. Shakespeare is no more afraid than Michael Angelo of being vulgar. And thus he fearlessly |