58. That now. On the omission of so, see Gr. 283. Cf. i. 7. 8; ii. 2. 7; ii. 2. 23; iv. 3. 6; iv. 3. 82. 59. Norways'. Norwegians'. See Gr. 433. Composition. Terms of peace. Cf. M. for M. i. 2. 2: "If the duke with the other dukes come not to composition with the king of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the king." 61. Saint Colme's Inch. The Island of St. Columba, now Inchcolm, an islet in the Firth of Forth, about two miles south of Aberdour. Here are the remains of a monastery founded in 1123 by Alexander II., who had been driven on the island by stress of weather. There is also an oratory of rude construction, probably as old as the 9th century. St. Columba is said to have resided here for a time; but the island must not be confounded with Colmes-kill, Icolmkill, or Iona, the Island of St. Columba, on the west coast of Scotland, where "the gracious Duncan " (see ii. 4. 33 below) was laid beside his royal predecessors. Inch (the Gaelic inis, island) is found in the names of many Scotch islands, as Inchkeith, Inchkenneth, Inchmurrin, Inchcruin, Clairinch, Torrinch, Bucinch, etc. 62. Dollars. Of course, an anachronism (as the C. P. ed. points out), the thaler, or dollar, having been first coined about 1518, in the Valley of St. Joachim, Bohemia. Thaler is probably derived from thal, valley. 64. Bosom interest. "Close and intimate affection" (C. P. ed.). Cf. M. of V. iii. 4. 17: "bosom lover." Schmidt explains interest here as= concern, advantage. On the measure, see Gr. 501. 80: Present. Immediate. Cf. 7. C. ii. 2. 5: "Go bid the priests do present sacrifice;" 2 Hen. IV. iv. 3. "To York, to present execution." So presently instantly; as in M. of V. i. I. 183: "Go presently inquire." See another example in the next note below. SCENE III.-2. "Witches seem to have been most suspected of malice against swine. Dr. Harsnet observes that, about that time, a sow could not be sick of the measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with witchcraft" (Johnson). Steevens cites A Detection of Damnable Driftes practized by Three Witches, etc. (1579): she came on a tyme to the house of one Robert Lathburie, . . . who, dislyking her dealyng, sent her home emptie; but presently after her departure, his hogges fell sicke and died, to the number of twentie." 66 5. Give me. For the omission of the direct object, cf. R. and J. iv. 1. 121: “Give me, give me !" 6. Aroint thee. Cf. Lear, iii. 4. 129: "Aroint thee, witch, aroint thee !" The meaning is evidently "Away with thee!" but the derivation of aroint has been much disputed. Several authorities state that "Rynt thee!" or "Roint thee!" is still used in Cheshire, chiefly by milkmaids in bidding a cow get out of the way. See Nares and Wb. In an old drawing representing the "Harrowing of Hell," Christ is in the act of releasing various souls from the mouth of the pit, while the appointed custodian appears to be blowing a horn as a signal of alarm; above his head is the legend, "Out out aroynt." The 3d and 4th folios have Anoynt," which Johnson approved as consistent with the common 66 account of witches, who are related to perform many supernatural acts by means of unguents, and particularly to fly to their hellish festivals." Rump-fed. According to Colepepper this means fed on offal (kidneys, rumps, and other scraps being among the low perquisites of the kitchen given away to the poor); but more likely it means well-fed: "she fed on best joints, I hungry and begging for a chestnut" (Moberly). Nares (endorsed by Schmidt) thinks it means “ fat-rumped." Ronyon. "A scabby or mangy woman." again in M. W. iv. 2. 195. See Wb. The word is used 7. Aleppo. From this place there was a large caravan trade to Ispahan, Bussora, and Damascus. In Hakluyt's Voyages (1589) there are accounts of a voyage made to Aleppo by the ship Tiger of London, in 1583. Cf. T. N. v. 1. 65: "And this is he that did the Tiger board." 8. A sieve. A favourite craft with witches. Sir W. Davenant says, in his Albovine (1629): "He sits like a witch sailing in a sieve." Steevens quotes Newes from Scotland, or the damnable Life of Dr. Fian, a notable Sorcerer, etc., wherein it is told how sundry witches "went to sea, each one in a riddle or cive." 9. Without a tail. It was believed that a witch could take the form of any animal, but that the tail would be wanting. According to Sir F. Madden, one distinctive mark of a werwolf, or human being changed to a wolf, was the absence of a tail. 10. I'll do. "She threatens, in the shape of a rat, to gnaw through the hull of the Tiger and make her spring a leak" (C. P. ed.). II. Steevens remarks that this free gift of a wind is to be considered as an act of sisterly friendship, for witches were supposed to sell them. Cf. Sumner's Last Will and Testament (1600): "in Ireland and Denmark both, Witches for gold will sell a man a wind, Which, in the corner of a napkin wrap'd, Shall blow him safe unto what coast he will." The C. P. ed. quotes Drayton, Moon-Calf, line 865: 14. Other. "She could sell winds to any one that would They rose or scantled, as his sails would drive, See Gr. 12. 15. And the very ports they blow. That is, to which they blow. Johnson wished to read "various" for very, and Pope "points" for ports. The C. P. editors think that "orts" for ports "seems still more probable." 17. The shipman's card. The card of the compass. Some explain it as chart. Halliwell quotes The Loyal Subject: = "The card of goodness in your minds, that shews ye When ye sail false; the needle touch'd with honour, That through the blackest storms still points at happiness," etc. Cf. also Pope, Essay on Man, ii. 108: "On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card, but passion is the gale." For shipman, cf. T. and C. v. 2. 172; also 1 Kings, ix. 27 and Acts, xxvii. 27, 30. 20. Pent-house lid. Malone cites Decker, Gull's Horne-Booke: "The two eyes are the glasse windowes, at which light disperses itself into every roome, having goodlie pent-houses of haire to overshaddow them." Cf. also Drayton, David and Goliath: 21. Forbid. "His brows, like two steep pent-houses, hung down Under a ban, or accursed. 22, 23. Probably suggested by Holinshed's account of the bewitching of King Duffe (see p. 133). 32. Weird. The folios have "weyward." Theo. substituted weird, which is Holinshed's word. "The weird sisters" is Gawin Douglas's translation of Virgil's "Parcae." For the derivation of weird, see Wb. For the dissyllabic pronunciation of the word, see Gr. 485; and cf. ii. I. 20, iii. 4. 133, and iv. 1. 136. 33. Posters. 'Speedy travellers" (Schmidt). 34. As the C. P. editors remark, the witches here take hold of hands and dance round in a ring nine times, three rounds for each witch, as a charm for the furtherance of their purposes. Multiples of three and nine were specially affected by witches, ancient and modern. See Ovid, Met. xiv. 58: "Ter novies carmen magico demurmurat ore;" and vii. 189-191: "Ter se convertit; ter sumptis flumine crinem 38. Foul and fair. Perhaps referring to the sudden change in the weather, brought about by witchcraft; perhaps, as Elwin explains it, "foul with regard to the weather, and fair with reference to his victory." According to Delius (quoted by Furness), “Macbeth enters engaged in talking with Banquo about the varying fortune of the day of battle which they had just experienced." 39. Forres. Forres is on the southern shore of the Moray Frith, about twenty-five miles from Inverness. At its western extremity there is a height commanding the river, the level country to the south, and the town. Here are the ruins of an ancient castle, a stronghold of the Earls of Moray. Some believe that it was the residence of Duncan, and afterwards of Macbeth, when the court was at Forres. Not far distant is the famous "blasted heath," of which Knight says: "There is not a more dreary piece of moorland to be found in all Scotland. It is without tree or shrub. A few patches of oats are visible here and there, and the eye reposes on a fir plantation at one extremity; but all around is bleak and brown, made up of peat and bog water, white stones and bushes of furze. The desolation of the scene in stormy weather, or when the twilight fogs are trailing over the pathless heath or settling down upon the pools, must be indescribable." 43. That man may question. permitted to hold converse, or (Johnson). "Are ye any beings with which man is of whom it is lawful to ask questions ?" 45. Should. See Gr. 323, and cf. i. 2. 46 above. 46. Beards. St. quotes B. and F., Honest Man's Fortune, ii. 1 : "And the women that Come to us, for disguises must wear beards; And that's, they say, a token of a witch." Cf. also M. W. iv. 2. 202: “I think the 'oman is a witch indeed; I like not when a 'oman has a great peard." 48. Glamis. "In Scotland, always pronounced as a monosyllable, with the open sound of the first vowel, as in alms" (Seymour). Glamis, or Glammis, is a village about twenty-five miles north-east of Perth, in a very beautiful situation.* Near by is Glamis Castle, " perhaps the finest and most picturesque of the Scottish castles now inhabited.” In its present form, it dates back only to the 17th century, though portions of it are much older. The original castle was frequently used as a residence by the Scottish kings, especially by Alexander II. in 1263-64. Robert II. gave it to John Lyon, who had married his daughter, but in 1537 it reverted to the Crown, and James V. occupied it for some time. Sir Walter Scott says: "I was only nineteen or twenty years old when I happened to pass a night in this magnificent old baronial castle. The hoary old pile contains much in its appearance, and in the traditions connected with it, impressive to the imagination. It was the scene of the murder of a Scottish king of great antiquity; not indeed the gracious Duncan, with whom the name naturally associates it, but Malcolm II. It contains also a curious monument of the peril of feudal times, being a secret chamber, the entrance to which, by the law or custom of the family, must only be known to three persons at once-the Earl of Strathmore, his heir-apparent, and any third person whom they may take into their confidence. The extreme antiquity of the building is vouched by the immense thickness of the walls, and the wild and straggling arrangement of the accommodation within doors. I was conducted to my apartment in a distant corner of the building; and I must own that, as I heard door after door shut, after my conductor had retired, I began to consider myself too far from the living and somewhat too near the dead." In front of the manse at Glamis is an ancient sculptured obelisk (see cut, p. 150) called "King Malcolm's Gravestone," and here tradition says he was buried. 51. Coleridge comments on this speech and the context as follows: "But O! how truly Shakespearian is the opening of Macbeth's character given in the unpossessedness of Banquo's mind, wholly present to the present object—an unsullied, unscarified mirror! And how strictly true to nature it is that Banquo, and not Macbeth himself, directs our notice to the effect produced on Macbeth's mind, rendered temptable by previous dalliance of the fancy with ambitious thoughts: *See cut on p. 8; and for Glamis Castle, views on p. 9 (from a sketch by Creswick, made about 1840) and p. 46. |