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'll drain him dry as hay: Sleep shall, neither night nor day, Weary sev'n-nights, nine times nine, 2 Witch. Show me, show me. 1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come. 3 Witch. A drum! a drum! Macbeth doth come. All. The weird sisters, hand in hand2, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about: Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make up nine. [Drum within. Enter MACBETH and BANQUo. Mach. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. Ban. How far is't call'd to Fores?-What are these, So wither'd, and so wild in their attire, 2 The WEIRD sisters, hand in hand,] All authorities agree that "weird" (spelt weyward in the folio, 1623) is of Saxon origin, viz. from wyrd, which has the same meaning as the Latin fatum: "weird" is therefore fatal. In the ballad of "The Birth of St. George," in Percy's " Reliques," vol. iii. p. 275, edit. 1812, we meet with the expression of "The weird lady of the woods;" and the same word occurs twice in the old Scottish drama of " Philotus," printed in 1603 and 1612, and reprinted in 1835 for the Bannatyne Club, by John Whitefoord Mackenzie, Esq. As Steevens remarks, Gawin Douglas, in his translation of the Eneid, calls the Parca "the weird sisters." That look not like th' inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her chappy finger laying Upon her skinny lips :-You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so. Macb. Speak, if you can.-What are you? 1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis ! 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter. Ban. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair?-I' the name of truth, Are ye fantastical3, or that indeed Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not. And say which grain will grow, and which will not, 1 Witch. Hail! 2 Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! 1 Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So, all hail, Macbeth, and Banquo! 1 Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail! 3 Are ye FANTASTICAL,] i. e. Creatures of fantasy or imagination. In Holinshed it is stated, that Macbeth and Banquo at first reputed the appearance of the witches "some vain, fantastical illusion." Mach. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. By Sinel's death, I know, I am thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman; and to be king Stands not within the prospect of belief, Say, from whence No more than to be Cawdor. Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, That takes the reason prisoner? Macb. Your children shall be kings. You shall be king. Mach. And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so? Ban. To the self-same tune, and words. Who's here? Enter ROSSE and ANGUS. Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, Which should be thine, or his. Silenc'd with that, 5 4 eaten on the INSANE ROOT,] The "insane root" is hemlock or henbane. As thick as TALE, CAME post with post ;] The old copies read, "Can post with post," which Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, Ang. We are sent, To give thee from our royal master thanks; Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me from him call thee thane of Cawdor: In which addition, hail, most worthy thane, For it is thine. Ban. What! can the devil speak true? Mach. The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me In borrow'd robes? Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet; But under heavy judgment bears that life Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was com bin'd With those of Norway, or did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage, or that with both Macb. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains.— Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me, Promis'd no less to them? Ban. That, trusted home, But 'tis strange: Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, seems a misprint. The meaning is evident, when we take tale in the sense, not of a narrative, but of an enumeration, from the Sax. telan, to count. Johnson explains the passage correctly in these words :-" Posts arrived as fast as they could be counted." Rowe read, "as thick as hail," which may be considered a needless alteration of the text; but it is to be observed, nevertheless, that Southern, in his copy of the folio, 1685, the property of Mr. Holgate, made the same change in manuscript. And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths; In deepest consequence.- Macb. Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme. I thank you, gentlemen.— Cannot be ill; cannot be good :--if ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, But what is not. Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt. Mach. If chance will have me king, why, chance Without my stir. Ban. may crown me, New honours come upon him, Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould, But with the aid of use. Macb. Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Mach. Give your favour: my dull brain wrought was With things forgotten.-Kind gentlemen, your pains The leaf to read them.-Let us toward the king.— |