Who can impress the forest; bid the tree Unfix his earth-bound root? sweet bodements! good! Of Birnam rise, and our high-plac'd Macbeth Mac. I will be satisfied; deny me this And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know :— (Descends.) (Hautboys.) All. Show his eyes and grieve his heart, Come like shadows, so depart. Eight Kings appear, and pass over the stage in order; the last with a glass in his hand; Banquo following. Mac. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs:—And thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow is like the first; A third is like the former ;-Filthy hags! Why do you show me this? a fourth? Start, eyes! Stands Macbeth thus amazedly? Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, ་ 366 That this great king may kindly say, Our duties did his welcome pay. (Music. The Witches dance, and vanish.) Mac. Where are they? Gone?-Let this pernicious hour, Come in, without there! Len. Enter LENOX. What's your grace's will? Mac. Saw you the weird sisters? Len. No, indeed, my lord. Mac. Infected be the air whereon they ride; And damn'd all those that trust them!-I did hear The galloping of horse; who was 't came by? Len. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word, Mac. Len. Ay, my good lord. Fled to England? Mac. Time, thou anticipat❜st my dread exploits : The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it: From this moment, The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done : This castle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool; This deed I'll do before this purpose cool; But no more sights !4—Where are these gentlemen? (Exeunt.) Apparition of a bloody child."-The idea of a "bloody child," and of his being more potent than the armed head, and one of the masters of the witches, is very dreadful. So is that of the child crowned, with a tree in his hand. They impersonate, it is true, certain results of the war, the destruction of Macduff's children, and the succession of Banquo's; but the imagination does not make these reflections at first; and the dreadfulness still remains, of potent demons speaking in the shapes of children. 4" But no more sights.”—What a world of horrors is in this little familiar phrase! THE QUARREL OF OBERON AND TITANIA. A FAIRY DRAMA. I have ventured to give the extract this title, because it not only contains the whole story of the fairy part of the Midsummer Night's Dream, but by the omission of a few lines, and the transposition of one small passage (for which I beg the reader's indulgence), it actually forms a separate little play. It is nearly such in the greater play; and its isolation was easily, and not at all injuriously effected, by the separation of the Weaver from his brother mechanicals. Enter OBERON at one door with his train; and TITANIA at another with hers. Ober. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. Tit. What! jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence; I have forsworn his bed and company. Ober. Tarry, rash wanton; am not I thy lord? To give their bed joy and prosperity? Ober. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, Knowing I know thy love to Theseus ? Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night From Perigenia, whom he ravished? And make him with fair Æglé break his faith, With Ariadne, and Antiope? Tit. These are the forgeries of jealousy: To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, By their increase, now knows not which is which: From our debate, from our dissension: We are their parents and original. Ober. Do you amend it then: it lies in you: Why should Titian cross her Oberon? I do but beg a little changeling boy, To be my henchman,† » Nine men's morris.-A rustic game, played with stones upon lines cut in the ground. t Henchman-Page. The fairy land buys not the child of me. To fetch me trifles and return again, Ober. How long within this wood intend you stay? If you will patiently dance in our round, If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. [Exeunt TITANIA and her train. Till I torment thee for this injury. My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou remember'st Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back, Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song; And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, Ober. That very night I saw (but thou couldst not), Flying between the cold moon and the earth, Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took At a fair vestal, throned by the west;* And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, * At a fair vestal, throned by the west.-An allusion to Queen Elizabeth. See in the Rev. Mr. Halpin's remarks on this passage, published by the Shakspeare Society, a most ingenious speculation on the hidden meaning of it, as a bit of secret court history. |