Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant. Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state.1 Mal. This is the sergeant,2 Who like a good and hardy soldier fought As two spent swimmers, that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald — Worthy to be a rebel, for, to that,3 The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm upon him from the Western Isles 1 "The newest state" is the latest condition. 2 Sergeants, in ancient times, were not the petty officers now so called; but men performing one kind of feudal military service, in rank next to esquires. 8 To that end, or for that purpose; namely, to make him a rebel. 4 Of, here, has the force of with, the two words being often used indiscriminately. Touching the men here referred to, Holinshed has the following: "Out of Ireland in hope of the spoile came no small number of Kernes and Galloglasses, offering gladlie to serve under him, whither it should please him to lead them." Barnabe Rich thus describes them in his New Irish Prognostication: "The Galloglas succeedeth the Horseman, and he is commonly armed with a scull, a shirt of maile, and a galloglasThe Kernes of Ireland are next in request, the very drosse and scum of the countrey, a generation of villaines not worthy to live." axe. And Fortune, on his damnèd quarrel 5 smiling, Like valour's minion, Carved out his passage till he faced the slave; And ne'er shook hands,7 nor bade farewell to him, Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 5 Quarrel was often used for cause. So in Bacon's essay Of Marriage and Single Life: "Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses; so as a man may have a quarrel to marry when he will." See, also, the quotation from Holinshed in scene 4, note 9. 6 Here, "is supplied" and is too weak" are instances of the present with the sense of the perfect, and mixed up rather irregularly with preterite forms. 7 To shake hands with a thing, as the phrase was formerly used, is to take leave of it. So Sir Thomas Browne, in his Religio Medici, 1643: “I have shaken hands with delight in my warm blood and canicular days; I perceive I do anticipate the vices of age;" &c. 8 Nave for navel, probably. Such a sword-stroke upwards seems rather odd, but queer things have often happened in mortal combats. So in Nash's Dido, Queen of Carthage, 1594: "Then from the navel to the throat at once he ript old Priam." Also in Shadwell's Libertine, 1676: “I will rip you from the navel to the chin." 9 Reflection is here put, apparently, for radiance or light. So that the place "whence the Sun gives his reflection" is the heavens or the sky. See Critical Notes. But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, Dun. Dismay'd not this Yes; Our captains,11 Macbeth and Banquo? Serg. 13 As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. I cannot tell : But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds; They smack of honour both. -Go get him surgeons. [Exit Sergeant, attended. Enter Ross. Who comes here? Mal. The worthy Thane of Ross. Len. What haste 15 looks through his eyes! So should he look 10 That is, arms gleaming with unstained brightness; fresh.—Surveying vantage is watching his opportunity. 11 Here captains was probably meant to be a trisyllable, as if it were spelt capitains. We have the word used repeatedly so. 12 Sooth is truth. So, originally, sooth-sayer was truth-speaker. 13 Overcharged with double cracks is, as we should say, loaded with double charges; crack being put for that which makes the crack. 14 To memorize is to make famous or memorable. Except is here equivalent to unless. 'Unless they meant to make the spot as famous as Golgotha, I cannot tell what they meant." 15 We should say, "What a haste." So in Julius Cæsar, i. 3: "Cassius, what night is this!" That seems 16 to speak things strange. Ross. God save the King ! Dun. Whence camest thou, worthy thane? From Fife, great King; Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor, The Thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict; Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, Dun. Ross. Great happiness! that 21 now 16 It appears that to seem was sometimes used with the exact sense of to will or to mean. So, afterwards, in scene 5: "Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crown'd withal." " 17 "The banners, proudly reared aloft and fluttering in the wind, seemed to mock or insult the sky,-‘laughing banners'; while the sight of them struck chills of dread and dismay into our men." Flout and fan for flouted and fanned; instances of what is called "the historic present." See note 6. 18"Lapp'd in proof" is covered with impenetrable armour, or armour of proof," as it is called. — Bellona was the old Roman goddess of war; the companion and, as some thought, the sister of Mars. Steevens laughed at the Poet's ignorance in making her the wife of Mars; whereas he plainly makes her the bride of Macbeth. 19 Caparisons for arms, offensive and defensive; the trappings and furniture of personal fighting. Here, as often, self is equivalent to self-same. So that the meaning is, Macbeth confronted the rebel Cawdor with just such arms as Cawdor himself had. It was Scot against Scot. See Critical Notes. 20 That is, checking or repressing his reckless or prodigal daring. 21 That was continually used with the force of so that, or insomuch that. - Composition for armistice or terms of peace; as in the phrase to compound a quarrel. Sweno, the Norways' King, craves composition; Dun. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest: And with his former title greet Macbeth. Ross. I'll see it done. Dun. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. I Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 Witch. Killing swine. 3 Witch. Sister, where thou? I Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd. quoth I: Give me, Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon2 cries. And, like a rat without a tail,3 22 Colme's is here a dissyllable. Colme's Inch, now called Inchcomb, is a small island, lying in the Firth of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it dedicated to St. Columb. Inch or inse, in Erse, signifies an island. 1 Aroint thee! is an old exorcism against witches; meaning, apparently, away! stand off! or be gone! The etymology of the word is uncertain. 2 Ronyon is said to be from ronger, French, which signifies to gnaw or corrode. It thus carries the sense of scurvy or mangy.- Rump-fed is, probably, fed on broken meats or the refuse of wealthy tables. Some, however, take it to mean pampered; fed on the best pieces. 8 Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584, says it was believed that witches "could sail in an egg-shell, a cockle or muscle-shell through and |