Enter Macbeth.

Mach. How now, you fecret, black, and midnight hags?

What is't you do?

All. A deed without a name.

Mach. I conjure you, by that which you profefs, (Howe'er you come to know it) answer me: Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches; though the yefty waves Confound and fwallow navigation up;

Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown

down;

*1

Though caftles topple on their warders' heads;
Though palaces, and pyramids, do flope

Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
Of nature's germins tumble all together,

were prefages of fomewhat that was fhortly to happen. Hence Mr. Upton has explained a paffage in the Miles Gloriofus of Plautus: Timeo quod rerum gefferim hic, ita dorfus totus prurit.” STEEVENS.

-yefty waves} That is, foaming or frothy waves. JOHNSON.

Though caftles topple

Topple, is ufed for tumble. So, in Marlow's Luft's Dominion, act IV. fc. iii:

"That I might pile up Charon's boat fo full,
"Until it topple o'er."

Again, in Shirley's Gentleman of Venice:

66.

may be, his hafte hath toppled him

"Into the river."

Again, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609:

The very principals did feem to rend, and all to topple."

• Of nature's germins

-}

STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

This was fubftituted by Theobald for Nature's germaine.

So, in K. Lear, aft III. fc. ii:

66 -all germins fpill at once

"That make ungrateful man."

Germins are feeds which have begun to germinate or fprout. Germen, Lat. Germe, Fr. Germe is a word ufed by Brown in his Vulgar Errors: "Whether it be not made out of the germe or treadle of the egg &c." STEEVENS,

Even 'till deftruction ficken, answer me

To what I afk you.

I Witch. Speak.

2 Witch. Demand.

3

Witch. We'll anfwer.

I Witch. Say, if thou'dft rather hear it from our mouths,

Or from our mafters'?

Mach. Call them, let me fee them.

1 Witch. Pour in fow's blood, that hath eaten
Her nine farrow; grease, that's fweaten
From the murderer's gibbet, throw
Into the flame.

All. Come, high, or low;

Thyfelf, and office, deftly fhow 3.

1ft Apparition, an armed head.

Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power,

[Thunder.

i. e. with adroitnefs, dexteroufly. So, in the fecond part of K. Edward IV. by Heywood, 1626:

my miftrefs fpeaks deftly and truly." Deft is a North Country word. So, in Richard Brome's Northern Lafs, 1633:

4

66

He faid I were a deft lafs." STEEVENS. • Apparition of an armed head rifes.] The armed head reprefents fymbolically Macbeth's head cut off and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child is Macduff untimely ripp'd from his mother's womb. The child with a crown on his head, and a bough in his hand, is the royal Malcolm, who ordered his foldiers to hew them down bough, and bear it before them to Dunfinane. This obfervation I have adopted from Mr. Upton. STEEVENS. Lord Howard, in his Defenfative againft the Poifon of fuppofed Prophecies, mentions " notable example of a conjuror, who reprefented (as it were, in dumb fhow) all the perfons who should poffefs the crown of France; and caufed the king of Navarre, or rather a wicked spirit in his stead, to appear in the fifth place, &c." FARMER.

a

I Witch.

1 Witch. He knows thy thought; Hear his fpeech, but fay thou nought 5.

App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff;

Beware the thane of Fife.-Difmifs me :-Enough.

[Defcends. Mach. What-e'er thou art, for thy good caution,

thanks;

Thou haft harp'd my fear aright7:-But one word

more

1 Witch. He will not be commanded: Here's

2d Apparition, a bloody child.

App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!-
Macb. Had I three ears, I'd hear thee.

[Thunder

App. Be bloody, bold, and refolute: laugh to fcorn The power of man; for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth 8.

5

fay thou nought.]

[Defcends. Mach.

Silence was neceflary during all incantations. So, in Dr. Fauftus:

1604:

"Your grace demand no queftions-
"But in dumb filence let them come and

Again, in the Tempest:

-be mute, or elfe our fpell is marr'd." STEEVENS. 6 Beware the thane of Fife.

He had learned of certaine wizzards, in whofe words he put great confidence, how that he ought to take heede of Macduf, &c. Holinfhed. STEEVENS.

7 Thou haft harp'd my fear aright:

-]

To harp, is to touch on a paffion as a harper touches a string. So, in Coriolanus, act II. fc. ult.

Harp on that ftill." STEEVENS.

8 Shall harm Macbeth.]

So, Holinfhed:" And furely hereupon he had put Macduff to death, but that a certeine witch, whoin he had in great truff, had told him, that he should never be flaine with man borne of

Macb. Then live, Macduff; What need I fear of

thee?

But yet I'll make affurance double fure,
And take a bond of fate: thou fhalt not live;
That I may tell pale-hearted fear, it lies,
And fleep in fpight of thunder.-What is this,

[Thunder.

3d Apparition, a child crowned, with a tree in his hand. That rifes like the iffue of a king;

And wears upon his baby brow 9 the round
And top of fovereignty?

All. Liften, but speak not to't.

App. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where confpirers are: Macbeth fhall never vanquifh'd be, until

I

Great Birnam wood to high Dunfinane hill
Shall come against him.

Mach. That will never be :

Who can imprefs the foreft; bid the tree

[Defcends:

Unfix his earth-bound root? fweet bodements! good! 3 Rebellious head, rife never, 'till the wood

Of

anie woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the caftell of Dunfinane. This prophecie put all feare out of his heart." STEEVENS.

the round

And top of fovereignty?]

This round is that part of the crown that encircles the head. The top is the ornament that rises above it. JOHNSON.

1

The folio reads;

-Dunfinane's high hill]

-high Dunfinanc hill

and I have followed it. STEEVENS.

2 Who can impress the foreft;

i. e. who can command the foreft to ferve him like a foldier imprefs'd. JOHNSON.

3 Rebellious dead, rise never,

-]

We should read: Rebellious head,- i. e. let rebellion never get to a head and be fuccefsful till-and then

VOL. IV.

WARBURTON.

Mr.

1

Of Birnam rife, and our high-plac'd Macbeth
Shall live the leafe of nature, pay his breath
To time, and mortal custom.-Yet my heart
Throbs to know one thing; Tell me, (if your are
Can tell fo much) fhall Banquo's iffue ever
Reign in this kingdom?

All. Seek to know no more.

Mach. I will be fatisfy'd: deny me this,.

And an eternal curfe fall on you! let me know :-
Why finks that cauldron ? and what noife is this?
[Hautboys.
I Witch. Shew! 2 Witch. Shew! 3 Witch. Shew!
All. Shew his eyes, and grieve his heart;
Come like fhadows, fo depart.

[+A fhew of eight kings, and Banquo; the laft with
a glafs in his hand.

Macb. Thou art too like the fpirit of Banquo;

down!

6

5 Thy crown does fear mine eye-balls: And thy air,

Thou

Mr. Theobald, who first proposed this change, rightly observes, that head means hoft, or power.

66

Douglas and the rebels met,

"A mighty and a fearful bead they are.”

And again:

"His divifions- are in three beads. JOHNSON.

Again, in the Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601; -howling like a head of angry wolves."

66

Again, in Look about You, 1600:

"Is, like a bead of people, mutinous." STEEVENS. -eight kings.] "It is reported that Voltaire often laughs at the tragedy of Macbeth, for having a legion of ghofts in it. One fhould imagine he either had not learned English, or had forgot his Latin; for the fpirits of Banquo's line are no more ghofts, than the representations of the Julian race in the Æneid; and there is no ghost but Banquo's throughout the play." Effay on the Genius and Writings of Shakespeare, &c. by Mrs. Montague. STEEVENS.

5 Thy crown does fear mine eye-balls: -] The expreffion of Macbeth, that the crown fears his eye-balls, is taken from the method formerly practifed of destroying the fight of captives or competitors, by holding a burning bafon before the

eye,