1

Then I'll fit down: give me fome wine, fill full-
I drink to th' general joy of the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we mifs;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirft,
And all to all.

Lords. Our duties, and the pledge.

[The Ghoft rifes again. Macb. Avaunt, and quit my fight! let the earth hide

thee! (26)

Thy bones are marrowlefs, thy blood is cold;

Thou haft no speculation in those eyes,
Which thou doft glare with.

Lady. Think of this, good Peers,
But as a thing of custom; 'tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Mach. What man dare, I dare:

Approach thou like the rugged Ruffian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or Hyrcanian tyger,

Take any fhape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: Or, be alive again,
And dare me to the defert with thy fword;
If trembling I inhibit, then protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mock'ry, hence! why, fo,-being gone,
[The Ghoft vanishes.
I am a man again: pray you, fit ftill. [The Lords rife.
Lady. You have difplac'd the mirth, broke the good
With most admir'd disorder.
[meeting

Macb. Can fuch things be,

And overcome us like a fummer's cloud,

Without our special wonder? You make me ftrange

Ev'n to the difpofition that I owe,

When now I think, you can behold fuch fights,
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,

(26) Avaunt, and quit my fight! let the earth hide thee!] i. e. As thou art a dead thing, the earth, thy grave, ought to overwhelm and cover thee from human fight. Thus Io (in the Prometheus chain'd, by Efcbylus) in her frenzy fancying that the faw the apparition of Argus, complains that the earth does not hide him tho' dead.

ῶν εἰδὲ κατθανόνια γαῖα κεύθεια

When

When mine is blanch'd with fear.

Roffe. What fights, my Lord?

Lady. I pray you, fpeak not; he grows worfe and worfe j Question enrages him at once, good-night.

Stand not upon the order of your going,

But go at once.

Len. Good-night, and better health

Attend his Majefty!

Lady. Good-night to all.

[Exeunt Lords

Macb. It will have blood, they fay; blood will have blood: Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak; Augurs, that underflood relations, have (27)

By mag-pies, and by choughs, and rooks brought forth The fecret'ft man of blood. What is the night?

Lady. Almoft at odds with morning, which is which. Macb. How fay'it thou, that Macduff denies his perfon, At our great bidding?

Lady. Did you fend to him, Sir?

Mach. I hear it by the way; but I will send :

(27) Augurs, that underflood relations, barve

By mag-pies, and by choughs, and rooks, brought forth The fecret' ft man of blood.] Confcience, as we may learn from Plutarchy has fometimes fupply'd the office of augury in this point. One Beffus, he tells us, who had a long time before murder'd his father, going to fup at a friend's houfe, fuddenly with his fpear pull'd down a fwallow's neft, and kill'd all the young ones. The company enquiring into the reafon of his cruelty, Don't you hear, fays he, bow they falfely accufe me of having kill'd my father? Vid. Plutarchum de Sera Numinis Vindicta. As remarkable a ftory is recorded by him, in another tract, upon which the Greeks founded their proverb, Ana yepavo. Ibycus the poet being furpriz'd by robbers in a defart, as they were about to kill him, call'd out to a flock of cranes, that flew over his head, to bear witnefs of his murder. Thefe murderers fome time afterwards fitting in the theatre, and feeing a flight of cranes, faid in triumph to one another; bebold, Ibycus's avengers! The words being overheard, the robbers were apprehended, rack'd upon fufpicion, and brought to a confeffion of the murder. And thus, as Aufonius says,

Ibycus ut periit, vindex fuit altivolans grus.

Monfieur Le Fevre, in his lives of the Greek poets, has concluded with remarking on Ibycus, that as he liv'd a Poet, fo he dy'd a Prophet.

There's

There's not a Thane of them, but in his houfe (28)
I keep a fervant fee'd. I will to-morrow
(Betimes I will) unto the weird fifters:

More fhall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
By the worst means, the worst, for mine own good."
All caufes fhall give way; I am in blood

Stept in fo far, that, fhould I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er :

Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
Which must be acted, ere they may be scann'd.
Lady. You lack the feafon of all natures, fleep.
Macb. Come, we'll to fleep; my strange and self abuse
Is the initiate fear, that wants hard ufe:
We're yet but young in deed. (29)

[Exeunt

(28) There is not one of them,] Thus the modern editors. But, one of whom? Macbeth has juft faid, that he heard, Macduff meant to difobey his fummons: and he would immediately fubjoin, that there is not a man of Macduff's quality in the kingdom, but he has a fpy under his roof. This is understood, not exprefs'd, as the text as yet has stood. The old folia's gives us the paffage thus;

There's not a one of then

Here we again meet with a deprav'd reading; but it is fuch a one, as, I am perfuaded, has led me to the poet's true word and meaning.

There's not a Thane of them,

i. e. a nobleman: and fo the Peers of Scotland were all call'd, 'till Earls were created by Malcolm the fon of Duncan. The etymology of the word is to be found in Spelman's Saxon glossary, Wormius's Danish hiftory, Cafaubon de Lingua Saxonica, &c. And my emendation, I conceive, is fufficiently confirm'd by what Holingshead, from whom our author has extracted fo many particulars of history, exprefsly fays in proof of this circumftance. For Macbeth had in every nobleman's boufe one fly fellow or other, in fee with him; to reveal all that was faid or done, within the fame: by which flight he opprefs'd the mot part of the nobles of his realm.

(29) We're yet but young indeed.] If we tranfpofe these words, we fall find, they amount to no more than this, we are yet indeed but young. But this is far from comprizing either the poet's, or Macbeth's meaning. I read,-in deed, i. e. but little inur'd yet to acts of blood and cruelty: for time and practice harden villains in their trade, who are timorous 'till fo harden'd.

So Macbeth fays before:

Things bad begun ftrengthen themselves in ill. So, afterwards,

Direness,

SCENE changes to the Heath.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate.

1 Wit.

WHY, how now, Hecat', you look angerly?

Hec. Have I not reafon, beldams, as you are?

Saucy, and over-bold! how did you dare
To trade and traffick with Macbeth,
In riddles and affairs of death?
And I the miftrefs of your charms,
The clofe contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or fhew the glory of our art?

And which is worfe, all you have done
Hath been but for a weyward fon;

Spightful 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' th' morning: thither he
Will come, to know his destiny;
Your veffels and your fpells provide,
Your charms, and every thing befide.
I am for th' air: this night I'll spend
Upon a difmal, fatal end.

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

There hangs a vap'rous drop, profound;
I'll catch it ere it come to ground;
And that, diftill'd by magick flights,
Shall raife fuch artificial sprights,
As, by the ftrength of their illufion,
Shall draw him on to his confufion.
He shall spurn fate, fcorn death, and bear-
His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear:

Direness, familiar to my slaught'rous thoughts,

Cannot once ftart me.

So in 3d. Henry VI.

Made impudent with use of evil deeds.

And

And you all know, fecurity

Is mortals chiefest enemy.

[Mufick and a Song.

Hark, I am call'd; my little fpirit, fee,

Sits in the foggy cloud, and stays for me.

[Sing within. Come away, come away, &c. 1 Wit. Come, let's make hafte, fhe'll foon be back again. [Exeunt.

SCENE changes to a Chamber.

Len. M

Enter Lenox, and another Lord.

Y former fpeeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret farther; only, I fay, Things have been ftrangely 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't please you, Fleance kill'd,
For Fleance fled: men muft not walk too late.
Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous too
It was for Malcolm, and for Donalbain

To kill their gracious father? damned fact !
How did it grieve Macbeth? did he not straight
In pious rage the two delinquents tear,

That were the flaves of drink, and thralls of fleep?
Was not that nobly done? ay, wifely too;

For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive
To hear the men deny't. So that I fay,
He has borne all things well; and I do think,
That had he Duncan's fons under his key,

(As, an't please heav'n, he fhall not ;) they should find What 'twere to kill a father: fo fhould Fleance.

But peace! for from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd His prefence at the tyrant's feaft, I hear,

Macduff lives in difgrace. Sir, can you tell

Where he beftows himself?

Lord. The fon of Duncan, (30)

(30) The fons of Duncan

From

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth] I have set right this paffage against the authority of our unobferving editors. And the proofs of my emendation are obvious. In the first place, Macbeth could not