2 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 4 very ambitious, brenning in unquenchable defire to beare the name of a queene." Edit. 1577, p. 244. This part of Holinshed is an abridgement of Johne Bellenden's tranflation 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 defirus of ony purpos, gaif hym gret artation to persew the third weird, that sche micht be ane quene, calland hym oft tymis febyl cowart and nocht desyrus of honouris, sen he durft not affailze the thing with manheid and curage, qubilk is offerit to hym be beniuolence of fortoun. Howbeit findry otheris hes affailzeit fic thinges afore with maist terribyl jeopardyis, quhen they had not fic fickernes to fucceid in the end of thair laubouris as he had." p. 173. But we can demonftrate, that Shakspeare had not the story from Buchanan. According to him, the weird fifters falute Macbeth: "Una Angufiæ Thanum, altera Moraviæ, tertia Regem." Thane of Angus, and of Murray, &c. but according to Holinthed, immediately from Bellenden, as it stands in Shakspeare: "The first of them spake and fayde, All hayle Makbeth Thane of Glammis, -the second of them fayde, Hayle Makbeth Thane of Cawder; but the third fayde, 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 fo fatally depended: He had learned of certaine wyfards, how that he ought to take heede of Macduffe: and furely hereupon had he put Macduffe to death, but a certaine witch, whom he had in great truft, had tolde, that he should neuer be flain with man borne of any woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the castell of Dunfinane." 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, falve. MALONE. 3 -thane of Glamis!) The thaneship of Glamis was the ancient inheritance of Macbeth's family. The castle where they lived is ftill standing, and was lately the magnificent refidence 3 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. BAN. Good fir, why do you start; and seem to fear Things that do found 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. 4 STEEVENS, -thane of Cawdor!] Dr. Johnson observes, in his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, that part of Calder Caftle, from which Macbeth drew his second title, is still remaining. In one of his Letters, Vol. I. p. 122, he takes notice of the fame 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. 5 Are ye fantastical,) By fantastical is not meant, according to the common fignification, creatures of his own brain; for he could not be so extravagant to ask such a question: but it is used for fupernatural, Spiritual. WARBURTON. By fantafiical, he means creatures of fantasy or imagination: the question is, Are these real beings before us, or are we deceived by illufions 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 Alls lost by Luft, 1633, by Rowley: or is that thing, "Which would fupply the place of foul in thee, Shakspeare, however, took the word from Holinshed, who in his account of the witches, says: "This was reputed at first but fome vain fantastical illusion by Macbeth and Banquo." STEEVENS. • Of noble having,] Having is eftate, poffeffion, fortune, So, in Twelfth-Night: That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not: If you can look into the feeds of time, And fay, 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. Leffer 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. fc. ii. STEEVENS. That he seems rapt withal;] Rapt is rapturously affected, extra fe raptus. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, IV. ix. 6: Again, in Cymbeline : "What, dear fir, 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 tranflator, it came to the knowledge of Holinshed, was Finleg. Both Finlay and Mасbeath are common furnames in Scotland at this moment. RITSON. But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, you. BAN. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them :- Whither are they vanifh'd? MACB. Into the air; and what feem'd corporal, melted As breath into the wind.-'Would they had ftaid! BAN. Were fuch things here, as we do speak about? Or have we eaten of the infane root,1 9 -blasted heath-] Thus, after Shakspeare, Milton, Paradise Lost, B. I. 615: their stately growth though bare -eaten of the insane root,) The insane root is the root which makes infane. THEOBALD. The old copies read" on the insane root." REED. Shakspeare alludes to the qualities anciently afcribed to hemlock. So, in Greene's Never too late, 1616: "You gaz'd against the fun, and so blemished your fight; or else you have eaten of the roots of hemlock, that makes men's eyes conceit unseen objects." Again, in Ben Jonfon's Sejanus: "they lay that hold upon thy fenfes, "As thou hadit snuft up hemlock." STEEVENS. The commentators have given themselves much trouble to afcertain the name of this root, but its name was, I believe, unknown to Shakspeare, as it is to his readers; Sir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch having probably furnished him with the only knowledge he had of its qualities, without specifying its name. In the Life of Antony, (which our author muit have diligently read,) the Roman soldiers, while employed in the MACB. Your children shall be kings. BAN. You shall be king. MACB. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not fo? BAN. To the self-fame tune, and words. Who's here? Enter ROSSE and ANGUS. ROSSE. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, The news of thy fuccess: and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, His wonders and his praises do contend, Which should be thine, or his: Silenc'd with that,2 Parthian war, are said to have fuffered great distress for want of provifions. "In the ende (says Plutarch) they were compelled to live of herbs and rootes, but they found few of them that men do commonly eate of, and were enforced to taste of them that were never eaten before; among the which there was one that killed them, and made them out of their wits; for he that had once eaten of it, his memorye was gone from him, and he knew no manner of thing, but only busied himself in digging and hurling of stones from one place to another, as though it had been a matter of great waight, and to be done with all poffible speede." MALONE. 2 His wonders and his praises do contend, Which should be thine, or his: &c.] i. e. private admiration of your deeds, and a defire to do them public juftice by commendation, contend in his mind for pre-eminence. Or, — There is a conteft in his mind whether he should indulge his defire of publishing to the world the commendations due to your heroifm, or whether he should remain in filent admiration of what no words could celebrate in proportion to its defert. Mr. M. Mason would read wonder, not wonders; for, fays he, "I believe the word wonder, in the sense of admiration, has no plural." In modern language it certainly has none; yet I cannot help thinking that, in the present instance, plural was opposed to plural by Shakspeare. STEEVENS. Silenc'd with that,] i. e. wrapped in filent wonder at the deeds performed by Macbeth, &c. MALONE. |