Is the initiate fear 27 that wants hard use :
We're yet but young in deed.

[Exeunt.

Enter the three Witches, meeting HECATE.

I Witch. Why, how now, Hecate ! you look angerly.
Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are,

Saucy and overbold? How did you dare
To trade and traffic with Macbeth
In riddles and affairs of death;
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art?
And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spiteful and wrathful; who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you.
But make amends now: get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i' the morning: thither he
Will come to know his destiny :
Your vessels and your spells provide,
Your charms, and every thing beside.
I am for th' air; this night I'll spend
Unto a dismal and a fatal end:

Great business must be wrought ere noon :
Upon the corner of the Moon

27 The initiate fear is the fear that attends the first stages of guilt.— The and in this speech is redundant. The Poet continually uses abuse for delusion or deception. So, here, self-abuse is self-delusion. Macbeth now knows that the Banquo he has just seen was but a Banquo of the mind.

1 Close, here, is secret. Shakespeare often uses it so.

There hangs a vapourous drop profound; 2
I'll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that, distill'd by magic sleights,3
Shall raise such artificial sprites,

As, by the strength of their illusion,

Shall draw him on to his confusion:

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear;
And you all know security 4

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,
For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late.
Who can now want the thought, how monstrous
It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain
To kill their gracious father? damnèd fact !
How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight,
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear,

That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;
For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive
To hear the men deny't. So that, I say,

He has borne all things well: and I do think
That, had he Duncan's sons under his key,

As, an't please Heaven, he shall not, 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,
Lives in the English Court; and is received
Of the most pious Edward with such grace,
That the malevolence of fortune nothing
Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff
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?"

3 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;
Do faithful homage and receive free honours;
All which we pine for now: and this report
Hath so exasperate 4 the King, that he

Prepares for some attempt of war.

Len.

Sent he to Macduff?

Lord. He did: and with an absolute Sir, not I,
The cloudy messenger turns me his back,
And hums, as who should say,5 You'll rue the time
That clogs me with this answer.

Len.
And that well might
Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance
His wisdom can provide. Some holy Angel
Fly to the Court of England, and unfold
His message ere he come; that a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering country
Under a hand accursed !6

Lord.

I'll send my prayers with him!
[Exeunt.

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."

SCENE I.-A Cavern.

Thunder.

ACT IV.

In the Middle, a Boiling Cauldron.

Enter the three Witches.

I Witch. Thrice the brinded1 cat hath mew'd.
2 Witch. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
3 Witch. Harpy cries: - 'tis time, 'tis time.3
I Witch. Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.

Toad, that under the cold stone
Days and nights hast thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmèd pot.
All. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
2 Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,4

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.