I' the fhipman's card. I will drain him dry, as hay: «And then from every port they blow, "From all the points that feamen know." Weary Mr. Steevens objects, that " though the witch from her power over the winds might justly enough fay that she had all the points and quarters from whence they blow, fhe could not with any degree of propriety declare that he had the ports to which they were directed." I am always forry to differ from fo judicious a commentator; but I own this objection does not appear to me of fufficient weight to induce me to disturb the text. The witch in fact neither poffeffed the winds nor the ports; though she is fuppofed to have had power over the one, and confequently over the other alfo; and therefore, I think, the may with as much propriety be faid to bave the ports, to or from which the winds blow, as the winds themfelves. Whoever can drive a fhip into or out of a port, may poetically be faid to have, or command, the port. Points probably ftruck Mr. Pope, because that word feems to corre fpond more precifely with the following line; but the fuppofing that Shakspeare always aimed at being totus teres atque rotundus, has been, in my apprehenfion, the fource of much error. I may likewife add that the form of the letter r, ufed in the Mfs. of our author's time, is fo fingular, that it is almost impoffible to be mistaken for in. MALONE. The word very is ufed here (as in a thousand inftances which might be brought) to exprefs the declaration more emphatically. STEEVENS. - the fhipman's card.] The card is the paper on which the winda are marked under the pilot's needle. STEEVENS. 8 dry as bay:] So, Spenfer, in his Faery Queen, b. iii. 1. 9: 9 He shall live a man forbid :] i. e. as one under a curse, an interdidion. So, afterwards in this play: "By his own interdiction ftands accurs'd." So among the Romans, an outlaw's fentence was, aqua & ignis interdictio; i. e. he was forbid the ufe of water and fire, which imply'd the neceffity of banishment. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald has very justly explained forbid by accurfed, but without giving any reafon of his interpretation. To bid is originally i pray, as in this Saxon fragment: He ir pir bit bote, &c. Weary fev'n-nights, nine times nine, As to forbid therefore implies to probibit, in oppofition to the word bid in its prefent fenfe, it fignifies by the fame kind of oppofition to curse, when it is derived from the fame word in its primitive meaning. JOHNSON. 1 Shall be dwindle, &c.] This mifchief was fuppofed to be put in execution by means of a waxen figure, which reprefented the perfon who was to be confumed by flow degrees. So Holinfhed, fpeaking of the witchcraft practised to destroy king Duffe: found one of the witches roafting upon a wooden broch an image of wax at the fire, resembling in each feature the king's perfon," &c. for as the image did waste afore the fire, fo did the bodie of the king break forth in fweat. And as for the words of the inchantment, they ferved to keep him ftill waking from fleepe," &c. This may ferve to explain the foregoing paffage : "Sleep fhall neither night nor day, "Hang upon his penthouse lid." STEEVENS. Stowe in his Annals, 1605, p. 1275, after giving a particular account of the caufes of "the ftrange fickness and death" of Ferdinando Earl of Derby, on the 16th of April 1594, adds "A true report of such reasons and conjectures as caused many learned men to suppose him to be bewitched." "The 10th of April about midnight was founde in his bedchamber by one Mafter Halfall, an image of wax and haire, like unto the haire of his honour's head, twisted through the belly thereof, from the navel to the fecrets. This image was fpotted, as the fame mafter Halfall reported unto Mafter Smith, one of his Secretaries, a daie before any pain grew, and fpots appeared upon his fides and belly. This image was haftily caft into the fire by Mafter Halfall, before it was viewed, because he thought, by burning thereof, as he faid, he fhould relieve his lord from witchcraft, and burne the witch who fo much tormented his lord; but it fell out contrary to his love and affection, for after the melting thereof he more and more declined. Sir Edward Felton, who with other Justices examined certainė witches, reporteth, that one of them being bidden to faie the Lord's prayer, faid it well, but being conjured, in the name of Jefus, that, if the had bewitched his honour, the should not be able to faie the fame, she could never repeat that petition, Forgive us our trespasses, no, although it was repeated unto her." I have transcribed this passage not only as illustrative of the text, but as a fpecimen of the abfurd notions entertained relative to witchcraft, a very few years before Macbeth was written. MALONE. Though Though his bark cannot be loft, 2. Witch. Shew me, fhew 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. All. The weird fifters, hand in hand3, Posters of the sea and land, 2. Though bis bark cannot be loft, [Drum within. Yet it fhall be tempeft-toft.] So, in Newes from Scotland, &c. a pamphlet already quoted:" Againe it is confeffed, that the faid christened cat was the caufe of the Kinges Majefties fhippe, at bis comming fortbe of Denmarke, bad a contrarie winde to the reft of bis fhippes then being in his companie, which thing was moft ftraunge and true, as the Kinges Majestie acknowledgeth, for when the rest of the fhippes had a faire and good winde, then was the wind contrarie and altogether against his Majeftie. And further the fayde witch declared, that his Majestie had never come fafely from the fea, if his faith had not prevayled above their ententions." To this circumftance perhaps our author's allufion is fufficiently plain. STEEVENS. 3 The weird fifters, band in band,] The old copy has-weyward, probably in confequence of the tranfcriber's being deceived by his ear. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. The following paffage in Bellenden's Translation of Hector Boethius, fully fupports the emendation : "Be aventure Makbeth and Banquho were paffand to Fores, quhair kyng Duncane hapnit to be for y tyme, and met be ye gait thre wemen clothit in elrage and uncouth weid. Thay wer jugit be the pepill to be weird fifteris." So alfo Holinfhed. "Weird fifters,” (fays the Gloffarift to Gawin Douglas,) "Parca.It comes certainly from the Anglo-Saxon pýnd fatum, fortuna, eventus. pуnde FATA, PARCA. Francice Urdi, &c.-And thefe again most probably from the B. and Teutonick werden, Anglo-Saxon peorthen, &c. fieri, fore, effe; because fate or destiny muft neceffarily come to pafs." MALONE. Weird comes from the Anglo-Saxon pynd, and is used as a substantive fignifying a prophecy by the tranflator of Heor Boethius in the year 1541, as well as for the Deftinies by Chaucer and Holinfhed. "Of the weirdis gewyn to Makbetb and Banqbuo," is the argument of one of the chapters. Gawin Douglas, in his tranflation of Virgil, calls the Parce the weird fifters. The other method of fpelling was merely a blunder of the tranfcriber or printer. STEEVENS. T 3 Thus Thus do go about, about; Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, Enter MACBETH and BANQUO. Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. Ban. How far is't call'd to Fores ?-What are thefe, So wither'd, and fo wild in their attire ; That look not like the inhabitants o'the earth, And yet are on't?-Live you? or are you aught 6 Upon her fkinny lips :-You fhould be women, Macb. Speak, if you can ;-What are you? 1. Witch. All hail, Macbeth?! hail to thee, thane of Glamis ! 2. Witch. 4 How far is't call'd to Fores ?] The king at this time refided at Fores, a town in Murray, not far from Inverness. "It fortuned, (lays Holinfhed) as Mackbeth and Banquo journeyed towards Fores, where the king then lay, they went fporting by the way, without other company, fave only themselves, when fuddenly in the midft of a laund, there met them three women in ftrange and wild apparell, refembling creatures of the elder world," &c. STEEVENS. The old copy reads-Soris. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 5 That man may question ?] Are ye any beings with which man is permitted to hold converse, or of whom it is lawful to ask questions? JOHNSON. 6your beards] Witches were fuppofed always to have hair on their chins. So, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635: "Some women have beards, marry they are half witches." STEEVENS. 7 All bail, Macbeth!] It hath lately been repeated from Mr Guthrie's Effay upon English Tragedy, that the portrait of Macbeth's wife is copied from Buchanan, whofe fpirit, as well as words, is tranflated into the play of Shakspeare: and it had fignified nothing to have pored only on Holinthed for facts."-" Animus etiam, per fe ferox, prope quotidianis conviciis uxoris (quæ omnium confiliorum ei erat confcia) ftimulabatur."-This is the whole, that Buchanan fays of the lady, and truly I see no more spirit in the Scotch, than in the English chronicler. 2. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor?! chronicler. "The wordes of the three weird fifters alfo greatly encoùraged him [to the murder of Duncan], but fpecially his wife lay fore upon him to attempt the thing, as the that was very ambitious, brenning in unquenchable defire to beare the name of a queene." Edit. 1577, P. 244. This part of Holinfhed is an abridgment of Johne Bellenden's tranflation of the noble clerk, Heor Boece, imprinted at Edingburgh, in fol. 1541. I will give the paffage as it is found there. His wyfe impacient of lang tary (as all wemen ar) fpecially quhare they are defirus of ony purpos, gaif hym gret artation to purfew the thrid weird, yat fche might be ane quene, calland hym oft-tymis febyl cowart and nocht defyrus of honouris, fen he durft not affailze the thing with manheid and curage, quhilk is offerit to hym be beniuolence of fortoun. Howbeit findry otheris hes affailzeit fic thinges afore with maift terribyl jeopardyis, quhen thay 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 ftory from Buchanan. According to bim, the weird fifters falute Macbeth: "Una Angufi Thanum, altera Moraviæ, tertia Regem :"-Thane of Angus, and of Murray, &c. but according to Holinfhed, immediately from Bellenden, as it ftands in Shakspeare: "The first of them spake and fayde, All hayle Makbeth Thane of Glammis,-the fecond 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 bail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis ! 2. Witch. All bail, Macketb! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 3. Witch. All bail, Macbeth! that fhalt be king bereafter ! 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 certain 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 caftell of Dunfinane." p. 244. And the scene between Malcolm and Macduff in the fourth act is almoft literally taken from the Chronicle. FARMER. 8 -thane of Glamis !] The thanefhip of Glamis was the ancient inheritance of Macbeth's family. The caftle where they lived is still standing, and was lately the magnificent refidence of the earl of Strathmore. See a particular description of it in Mr. Gray's letter to Dr. Wharton, dated from Glames Caftle. STEEVENS. 8 -thane of Cawdor!] Dr. Johnson obferves in his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, that part of Calder caffle, from which Macbeth drew his fecond title, is ftill remaining. STEEVENS, |