But make amends now: Get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i' the morning; thither hø
Will come to know his destiny.

Your vessels, and your spells, provide,
Your charms, and every thing beside :
I am for the air; this night I'll spend
Unto a dismal-fatal end."

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

There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
I'll catch it ere it come to ground:

the pit of Acheron -] Shakspeare seems to have thought it allowable to bestow the name of Acheron on any fountain, lake, or pit, through which there was vulgarly supposed to be a communication between this and the infernal world. The true original Acheron was a river in Greece; and yet Virgil gives this name to his lake in the valley of Amsanctus in Italy. Steevens.

7 Unto a dismal-fatal end.] The old copy violates the metre by needless addition:

Unto a dismal and a fatal end.

I read-dismal fatal. Shakspeare, as Mr. Tyrwhitt observes, in a note on King Richard III, is fond of these compound epithets, in which the first adjective is to be considered as an adverb. So, in that play, we meet with childish-foolish, senseless-obstinate, and mortal-staring. And, in King John, we have stubborn-bard. Steevens.

• Upon the corner of the moon &c.] Shakspeare's mytholo gical knowledge, on this occasion, appears to have deserted him; for as Hecate is only one of three names belonging to the same goddess, she could not properly be employed in one charecter to catch a drop that fell from her in another. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, however, our poet was sufficiently aware of her three-fold capacity:

fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecat's team,

9 vaporous drop profound;] That is, a drop that has profound, deep, or bidden qualities. "Johnson.

This vaporous drop seems to have been meant for 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 enchantment, Lucan introduces Ericthp using it. L. VI:

et virus large lunare ministrat." Steevens,

And that, distill'd by magick slights,1
Shall raise such artificial sprights,
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

Is mortals' chiefest enemy.

SONG. [within] Come away, come away, &c..

Hark, I am call'd; my little spirit, see,

Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.

[Exit.

1 Witch. Come, let 's make haste; she 'll soon be

back again.

SCENE VI.

Fores. A Room in the Palace.

Enter LENOX, and another Lord.3

[Exeunt.

Len. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts

3 slights,] Arts; subtle practices. Johnson.

2 Come away, come away, &c.] This entire song I found in a MS. dramatic piece, entitled "A Tragi-Coomodie called THE WITCH; long since acted &c. written by Thomas, Middleton.

The Hecate of Shakspeare has said—

"I am for the air," &c.

The Hecate of Middleton (who, like the former, is summoned away by aerial spirits) has the same declaration in almost the same words

Song.]

"I am for aloft" &c.

"Come away, come away:
"Heccat, Heccat, come away," &c.

}

in the airé. Steevens.

• Enter Lenox, and another Lord.] As this tragedy, like the rest of Shakspeare's, is perhaps overstocked with personages, it is not easy to assign a reason why a nameless character should be introduced here, since nothing is said that might not with equal propriety have been put into the mouth of any other disaffected man. I believe, therefore, that in the original copy it was written with a very common form of contraction, Lenox and An. for which the transcriber, instead of Lenox and Angus, get down, Lenox and another Lord. The author had, indeed, been more indebted to the transcriber's fidelity and diligence, had he committed no errors of greater importance. Johnson.

Which can interpret further: only, I say,

Things have been strangely borne: The gracious

Duncan

Was pitied of Macbeth :-marry, he was dead :—
And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late;
Whom, you may say, if it please you, Fleance kill'd,
For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous
It was for Malcolm, and for Donalbain,

To kill their gracious father? damned 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 it. 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 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 receiv'd
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, on his aid

▲ Who cannot want the thought,] The sense requires: Who can want the thought,

Yet, I believe, the text is not corrupt. Shakspeare is sometimes incorrect in these minutia. Malone.

5 ——— monstrous-] This word is here used as a trisyllable. Malone.

So, in Chapman's version of the 9th book of Homer's Odyssey: "A man in shape, immane and monsterous." Steevens.

• The son of Duncan,] The old copy-sons. Malónè. Theobald corrected it. Johnson

7

on bis aid—] Old copy-upon. Steevens.

To wake Northumberland, and warlike Siward:
That, by the help of these, (with Him above
To ratify the work) we may again

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights;
Free 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 exasperate1 the king, that he
Prepares for some attempt of war.3

Sent he to Macduff?

Len.
Lord. He did: and with an absolute, Sir, not I,
The cloudy messenger turns me his back,

And hums; as who should say,

That clogs me with this answer.

Len.

You'il rue the time

And that well might

Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance

Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives;] The construction is-Free our feasts and banquets from bloody knives. Perhaps the words are transposed, and the line originally stood: Our feasts and banquets free from bloody knives. Malone. Aukward transpositions in ancient language are so frequent, that the passage before us might have passed unsuspected, had there not been a possibility that the compositor's eye caught the word free from the line immediately following. We might read, fright, or fray, (a verb coramonly used by old writers) but any change, perhaps, is needless. Steevens.

9 and receive free bono.rs,] Free may be either honours freely bestowed, not purchased by crimes; or honours without slavery, without dread of a tyrant. Johnson.

1 exasperate - i. e. exasperated. So contaminate is used for contaminated in King Henry V. Steevens.

. the king,] i. e. Macbeth. The old copy has, less intelligibly-their. Steevens.

Their refers to the son of Duncan, and Macduff Sir T. Hanmer reads, unnecessarily, I think, the king. Malore.

3 Prepares for some attempt of war.] The singularity of this expression, with the apparent redundancy of the metre, aimost persuade me to follow Sir T. Hanmer, by the omission of the two last words. Steevens.

▲ Advise bim to a caution,] Sir T. Hanmer, to add smoothness to the versification, reads—to a care.

I suspect, however, the words—to a, are interpolations, designed to render an elliptical expression more clear, according to some player's apprehension. Perhaps the lines originally stood thus:

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 accurs'd!5

Lord.

My prayers with him!6

[Exeunt.

ACT IV..... SCENE 1.7.

A dark Cave. In the middle, a Cauldron boiling.

Thunder.

Enter the Three Witches.

1 Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

And that well might

Advise him caution, and to hold what distance
His wisdom can provide. Steevens.

5 — to this our suffering country
Under a band accurs'd!]

The construction is,-to our

country suffering under a hand accursed. Malone.

My prayers with him!] defiance of measure, reads

The old copy, frigidly, and in

I'll send my prayers with him.

I am aware, that for this, and similar rejections, I shall be ensured by those who are disinclined to venture out of the track of the old stage-waggon, though it may occasionally conduct them into a slough. It may soon, therefore, be discovered, that numerous beauties are resident in the discarded wordsI send; and that as frequently as the vulgarism-on, has been displaced to make room for—of, a diamond has been exchanged for a pebble.-For my own sake, however, let me add, that, throughout the present tragedy, no such liberties have been exercised, without the previous approbation of Dr. Farmer, who fully concurs with me in supposing the irregularities of Shakspeare's text to be oftener occasioned by interpolations, than by omissions. Steevens.

7 Scene I] As this is the chief scene of enchantment in the Play, it is proper, in this place, to observe, with how much judgment Shakspeare has selected all the circumstances of his infernal ceremonies, and how exactly he has conformed to commen opinions and traditions:

"Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd."