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MACBETH.

ACT I. SCENE I.

An open Place.

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.

1 Witch. When shall we three meet again,

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurlyburly's done', When the battle's lost and won.

3 Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 1 Witch. Where the place?

2 Witch.

Upon the heath:

3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.

1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin!

All. Paddock calls:-Anon.

1 When the HURLY BURLY's done,] "Hurlyburly" generally means tumultuous uproar it occurs in the unique poem by John Drout, "The Pityful Historie o Two Loving Italians," 1570:

"Then hurly burly did begin,

great rumors straight was raysde."

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A few years afterwards “ hurlyburly was used on the stage in the interlude of "Appius and Virginia," by R. B., 1575, Sign. E:

"Thus in hurly burly from pillar to poste

Poore Haphazard daily was toste."

In "The Garden of Eloquence," by H. P., 1577, it is explained, “hurlyburly, an uprore, and tumultuous stirre." In G. Whetstone's "Censure of a Loyal Subject," 1587, we read, "Andrea and Viscounte were both slaine in the hurley burley of the people." Sign. E 3.

2 PADDOCK calls :] "Paddock" is the old word for a toad, supposed to be one of the familiars of the Witches, like the cat, Graymalkin, in the preceding line. In the Townley Miracle-play called "Lazarus," we meet with this line, "And ees out of your hede thus-gate shalle paddokes pyke." VOL. V.

C C

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[Witches vanish.

Alarum within.

SCENE II.

A Camp near Fores.

Enter King DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain'. Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

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Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought
'Gainst my captivity.-Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil,
As thou didst leave it.

Capt.

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald
(Worthy to be a rebel, for to that'

The multiplying villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him) from the western isles

Of Kernes and Gallowglasses is supplied';

And fortune, on his damned quarry smiling,

3 - a bleeding CAPTAIN.] This "Soldier," as he is called in modern editions, is a Captain in the stage-direction of the old copies; but by the dialogue it appears that he was a Sergeant. Sergeant seems formerly to have been a considerably higher rank in arms than at present.

(Worthy to be a rebel, for to that] i. e. "Because the multiplying villainies," &c. Mr. Singer takes credit for restoring the punctuation of the folio, 1623,-"I follow the punctuation of the first folio." If he had examined "the first folio," he would have seen that his punctuation differs from it, and that our's represents it truly. It is however here a matter of little moment.

5 Of KERNES and GALLOWGLASSES is supplied;] We have had "Gallowglasses and stout Irish Kernes" spoken of in "Henry VI., Part II.," Vol. iv. p. 93: we need add nothing here to our former note.

6 damned QUARRY] i. e. His army doomed, or damned, to become the ་་ quarry," or prey, of his enemies. This is the reading of all the old copies, which has been deserted by most editors, although giving an obvious and striking meaning, much more forcible than quarrel, which, at Johnson's instance, they substituted for "quarry." It is also amended to quarrel in the corr. fo. 1632, the old annotator, or the actor whose word he repeated, perhaps, not understanding “quarry " so applied. Respecting " quarry," see Vol. iv. p. 607.

Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak;
For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name),
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smok'd with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion, carv'd out his passage,
Till he fac'd the slave;

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Dun. Oh, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Capt. As whence the sun 'gins his reflexion
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break',
So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to come,
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd,

Compell'd these skipping Kernes to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

Dun.

Dismay'd not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Yes;

Capt.
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks;
So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize another Golgotha,

I cannot tell.—

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

Dun. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds: They smack of honour both.-Go, get him surgeons.

[Exit Captain, attended.

Enter ROSSE and ANGUS".

Who comes here ?
Mal.

The worthy thane of Rosse.

1 and direful thunders BREAK,] In the folio, 1623, the line ends at "thunders," and being obviously defective, the folio, 1632, inserted breaking; but the present tense, and not the participle, is wanted, and it is found in the margin of the corr. fo. 1632: Pope also printed "break."

Enter Rosse and Angus.] Rosse only speaks, and is spoken of and to; but they both enter, and subsequently execute the commission they had in charge from

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes!

So should he look that comes to speak things strange'.
Rosse. God save the king!

Dun.

Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?

Rosse. From Fife, great king;

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
And fan our people cold.

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,

The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,

Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude,

The victory fell on us;

Dun.

Rosse. That now

Great happiness!

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition;

Nor would we deign him burial of his men,

Till he disbursed at Saint Colmes' Inch1

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive

Our bosom interest.-Go, pronounce his present death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Rosse. I'll see it done.

Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.

[Exeunt.

Thunder.

SCENE III.

A Heath.

Enter the three Witches.

1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister?

2 Witch. Killing swine.

the king. Modern editors (Mr. Singer, like our former impression, excepted) omit Angus, although his name is found in every old stage-direction.

" So should he look that COMEs to speak things strange.] "Comes" is from the corr. fo. 1632, and it is there substituted for seems, for which it was a misprint seems is hardly intelligible unless we suppose it to mean seems to come. Saint COLMES' INCH,] Colmes'-inch, now called Inchcomb (says Steevens), is a small island, lying in the Firth of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it dedicated to St. Columb; called by Camden Inch Colm, or The Isle of Columbo.

1—

3 Witch. Sister, where thou?

1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap,

And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd: "Give me," quoth I:

"Aroint thee, witch'!" the rump-fed ronyon3 cries.

Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger*;
But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind.
1 Witch. Thou art kind.

3 Witch. And I another.

1 Witch. I myself have all the other;
And the very ports they blow,
All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card to show'.
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall, neither night nor day,
Hang upon his pent-house lid;
He shall live a man forbid.

Weary sev'n-nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-toss'd.-
Look what I have.

2 Witch. Show me, show me.

1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come.

[Drum within.

2 "AROINT thee, witch!"] The meaning of the word is quite obvious; viz. begone, or stand off, and it is still used in the Craven district, and generally in the north of England, as well as in Cheshire. In some places it has assumed the form of rynt, but it is the same word. Various conjectures have been indulged respecting its etymology, and we meet with "aroint," used in the same way, in 'King Lear,” A. iii. sc. 4, " Aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!"

3 ronyon] i. e. Scabby or mangy woman. Fr. rogneux, royne, scurf. In "As You Like It," Vol. ii. p. 372, the adjective roynish is employed, which has the same etymology as "ronyon."

Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger;] In Hakluyt's "Voyages," 1589 and 1599, are printed several letters and journals of a voyage to Aleppo in the ship Tiger of London: it took place in 1583. For this note we are indebted to Sir W. C. Trevelyan, Bart., who observes that Shakespeare may from thence have derived the name of the place, as well as of the ship.

5 I' the shipman's card TO SHOW.] "To show" is obtained from the corr. fo. 1632: the line is imperfect, ending with "card," and we may feel sure that we thus recover two words Shakespeare wrote, but which had dropped out in the press.

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