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 Shakespeare 
 Macbeth 
 
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 THURBER 
 
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 ALLYN AND BACON 
 
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 Book, 
 
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gDljr gcaftcmu S rrtrg of Encjiislj Classirs 
 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Macbeth 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 SAMUEL THURBER 
 
 
 
 MAY 4 1896/ 
 
 % 
 
 Boston 
 
 ALLYN AND BACON 
 
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.A*T<r 
 
 Copyright, 1S96, by 
 SAMUEL THURBER 
 
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 Typography by Rockwell & Churchill, Boston, Mass. 
 Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The longer I teach English literature, the clearer grows 
 my conviction that what young students of this subject 
 need is guidance and stimulus to self-help rather than 
 large supplies of direct information. Hence I have 
 always disapproved, — and I disapprove to-day more 
 strongly than ever, — of the practice of appending to 
 English texts full elucidations of the difficulties that may 
 check a reader's progress. Eor I believe that for a reader 
 to have his progress checked, and to find himself reduced 
 to the necessity of thinking, investigating, comparing 
 and remembering, is educationally a most wholesome 
 and desirable consummation. A recitation abounding in 
 prompt and correct answers, furnished forth from the 
 stores of the memory, is a thing to be guarded against : 
 its smoothness is a delusion and a snare. The matter in 
 hand is to receive light from many sources. The peda- 
 gogic art consists in focusing upon a point as many rays 
 as a score or two of vigorous and prepared minds can give 
 out from their stores of discoveries and conjectures. 
 
 In accordance with these convictions I have prepared 
 this edition of Macbeth. Conceding so much to custom 
 and convenience, I have called by the name of notes a 
 body of matter which I have added to the text of the play : 
 but it will be seen that these notes are, strictly, not notes 
 at all in the conventional sense, but rather queries; not 
 giving answers, but calling for them ; prompting to vigi- 
 
 (iii) 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 lance, rather than begetting heedlessness by making vigi- 
 lance unnecessary. Long habituation to information- 
 giving notes fosters that feeling of security which is 
 mortals' chiefest enemy. The habit of querying and 
 responding to queries issues in scholarship. The scholar 
 knows how to go to work. He has begun to feel at home 
 in literature. He has learned to carry his difficulty in 
 his mind for a season, knowing that its solution is sure. 
 
 My notes therefore are queries ; with here and there a 
 conventional note to set forth a point I deemed too remote 
 from the range of search possible to youth. I have 
 printed here a considerable number of the questions I 
 would ask, and the topics for exploration I would assign, 
 on the play of Macbeth. By no means, however, would 
 I be understood as having exhausted, — or come any- 
 where near exhausting, — the stock of possible class-room 
 questioning on this play. It will be easy to think of 
 knotty Shakespearian problems much more perplexing 
 than any I have broached. I may say, however, that I 
 have meant, by my queries, to indicate how far it seems 
 to me in high schools desirable to push the discussion of 
 Shakespearian difficulties. The scope of possible query- 
 ing among the easier subjects is of course practically 
 unlimited. 
 
 To facilitate juvenile research in Shakespeare, the first 
 requisite is free access to the Globe edition of the poet's 
 works. The school should possess Globes enough for the 
 pupils to use without restriction, some carrying the books 
 home at night, and others finding their chance in the 
 study hours. The Crowell Globe Shakespeare is not a 
 handsome book, but it is cheap. The Macmillan Globe 
 costs twice as much and is all of twice as good. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 It will be seen that I have laid emphasis on the study 
 of Shakespeare's rhythm. The study of English metric 
 has been, in secondary education, most grievously neg- 
 lected. I find that an ear for rhythm, even in communi- 
 ties reputed highly cultivated, and especially devoted to 
 music, is almost non-existent. Multitudes of girls play 
 the piano : but hardly one in a hundred reads verse. 
 Multitudes sing : but the speaking voice has run wild, 
 and rarely betrays literary culture. This is a defect in 
 our education which I do not perceive that our pedagog- 
 ical theorists recognize or care about. 
 
 But whatever may be the case in educational theory, 
 in literary study it is to be said that vocal expression, 
 the faculty of surrender to verse movement, the power to 
 modulate the voice in harmony with the artistic presen- 
 tation of emotion, is an element of culture of the very 
 first importance. Notes and queries will be of but slight 
 avail in the teaching of the art of vocal expression. 
 Nothing will suffice here but the skill of the teacher in 
 opening to responsive minds the secrets of poetic mean- 
 ing, and in setting the living example with his own voice. 
 
 What seemed feasible in printed note or query I have, 
 within the limited scope of my plan, undertaken to do. 
 The Shakespearian verse is normally iambic with five 
 accents. Departures from this norm, except in the con- 
 fessed short lines, are rare, unless the poet has an obvious 
 dramatic purpose to subserve by a change of rhythm. 
 Thus there has been frequent occasion for calling atten- 
 tion to peculiarities of the Shakespearian verse manage- 
 ment, and, occasionally, for warning against misplacement 
 of emphasis, or against conceiving a speech wrongly as 
 regards its tone. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Pupils genuinely interested in a play will naturally 
 desire to distribute roles, commit the parts to memory, 
 and enact scenes. For this exercise opportunity should 
 be given to the fullest possible extent. If young people 
 are expected to resort to laboratories and perform experi- 
 ments in physics and chemistry, by precisely equal rights 
 and for similar purposes they should mount the stage and 
 assume the Shakespearian characters. The one proced- 
 ure is as serious, as genuine, as deeply related to culture, 
 as the other. The prepossession by which we regard a 
 chemical experiment as serious business, and a histrionic 
 experiment as merely amusing, worthy only of an hour 
 after the school session is over, is an unfounded prejudice 
 which must be overcome before we can begin to have 
 great improvement in reading in our schools. 
 
 To aid in some measure the assignment of parts, I have 
 given at the end of the book a list of the persons of the 
 drama, with the scenes in which they appear. 
 
 As all high school pupils study some foreign language, 
 ancient or modern, and a few are studying Old English, 
 I have considered it right to give, on occasion, a note or a 
 query of a purely philological nature. Pupils like, very 
 reasonably, to apply to any subject the knowledge they 
 have gained in some other subject. When their Latin, 
 their German, or their French will throw light on a 
 Shakespearian word or phrase, they should turn aside 
 from questions purely dramatic, to discuss a point of phi- 
 lology. It is strange how some Shakespearians have 
 dreaded the study of the poet's language, as if this study 
 threw a blight upon appreciation of his literary art. 
 Some Latin and French being taken for granted, the best 
 preparation for the study of Shakespeare is an acquaint- 
 
PREFACE. VI 1 
 
 ance with the pre-Elizabethan language and literature ; 
 and though high school pupils will seldom have this 
 knowledge, the teacher certainly always should. 
 
 Macbeth is usually read early in the school course, and 
 classes occupied with this tragedy will ordinarily have 
 read only one or two other plays. Where this is the case, 
 it will be unprofitable to undertake much comparative 
 study of plays with plays, or to enter largely upon con- 
 sideration of the development of the poet's language and 
 versification in the successive stages of his career. These 
 subjects are extremely interesting, but in their very 
 nature imply the possession of more data of knowledge 
 than the beginner can possibly command. The habit of 
 reading without understanding, or of accepting results 
 without having followed the processes by which the 
 results were reached, is not to be commended. 
 
 The main thing in dealing with a play of Shakespeare 
 in school is to induce pupils to read it forcibly and sym- 
 pathetically ; to enable them to perceive and appreciate 
 the development of character in the chief personages, and 
 to describe this development in appropriate terms ; to 
 teach them to note the collisions of passions and interests, 
 and the effects of these collisions on human careers ; to 
 let them repeat the majestic language till it sinks indel- 
 ibly into the memory ; to lead them to study the poet's 
 unapproachable diction till they come to feel, at least in 
 some slight degree, what is the inexpressible and elusive 
 secret of poetry itself. 
 
 Samuel Thurber. 
 
 Girls' High School, 
 
 Boston, March, 1896. 
 
MACBETH. 
 
 DRAMATIS 
 
 Duncan, king of Scotland. 
 
 Malcolm, i , . 
 
 -. ) his sous. 
 
 DONALBAIN, ) 
 
 Macbeth, i generals of the 
 
 Banquo, \ army. 
 
 Macduff, ^ 
 
 Lennox, 
 
 Ross, 
 
 Menteith, 
 
 Angus, 
 
 Caithness,, 
 
 Fleance, son to Banquo. 
 
 Siward, Earl of Northumberland, gen- 
 eral of the English forces. 
 
 Young Siward, his son. 
 
 Setton, an officer attending on Mac- 
 beth. 
 
 Boy, son to Macduff. 
 
 kinar't 
 
 noblemen of Scotland. 
 
 PERSONS. 
 
 An English Doctor. 
 A Scotch Doctor. 
 A Soldier. 
 A Porter. 
 An Old Man. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. 
 Lady Macduff. 
 
 Gentlewoman attending on Lady Mac- 
 beth. 
 
 Hecate. 
 
 Three Witches. 
 
 Apparitions. 
 
 Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, 
 Murderers, Attendants, and Messen- 
 gers. 
 
 Scene : Scotland ; England. 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 Scene I. A desert place. 
 Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches. 
 
 First Witch. When shall we three meet again 
 In thunder, lightning, or in rain ? 
 
 Sec. Witch. When the hurlyburly 's done, 
 When the battle ? s lost and won. 
 
 Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 
 
 First Witch. Where the place ? 
 
 Sec. Witch. Upon the heath. 
 
 Third Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 
 
 First Witch. I come, Graymalkin ! 
 
z MACBETH. 
 
 Sec. Witch. Paddock calls. 
 
 Third Witch. Anon. 10 
 
 All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair : 
 Hover through the fog and filthy air. \Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. A camp near Forres. 
 Alarum within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donal- 
 
 bain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding 
 
 Sergeant. 
 
 Dun. What bloody man is that ? He can report, 
 As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt 
 The newest state. 
 
 Mai. This is the sergeant 
 
 Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 
 'G-ainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend ! 
 Say to the king the knowledge of the broil 
 As thou didst leave it. 
 
 Ser. 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 10 
 
 The multiplying villanies of nature 
 Do swarm upon him — from the western isles 
 Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied ; 
 And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, 
 Showed like a rebel's whore : but all 's too weak : 
 For brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name — 
 Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, 
 Which smoked with bloody execution, 
 Like valor's minion carved out his passage 
 Till he faced the slave ; 20 
 
 Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, 
 
ACT I. SCENE II. 3 
 
 Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chaps, 
 And fixed his head upon our battlements. 
 
 Dun. valiant cousin ! worthy gentleman ! 
 
 Ser. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 
 Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break, 
 So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come 
 Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark : 
 No sooner justice had with valor armed 
 Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 30 
 But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage, 
 With furbished arms and new supplies of men 
 Began a fresh assault. 
 
 ■Dun. Dismayed not this 
 
 Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo ? 
 
 Ser. Yes ; 
 
 As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 
 If I say sooth, I must report they were 
 As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they 
 Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe : 
 Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, 
 Or memorize another Golgotha, 40 
 
 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 honor both. G-o get him surgeons. 
 
 [Exit Sergeant, attended. 
 Who comes here ? 
 
 Enter B-oss. 
 
 Mai. The worthy thane of Ross. 
 
 Len. What a haste looks through his eyes ! 
 So should he look 
 That seems to speak things strange. 
 
4 MACBETH. 
 
 Boss. God save the king ! 
 
 Dun. Whence earnest thou, worthy thane ? 
 
 Boss. From Fife, great king ; 
 
 Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 
 And fan our people cold. Norway himself, 50 
 
 With terrible numbers, 
 Assisted by that most disloyal traitor 
 The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict ; 
 Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapped 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. Great happiness ! 
 
 Boss. That now 
 
 Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition ; 
 Nor would we deign him burial of his men 60 
 
 Till he disbursed at St. Colme's inch 
 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. 
 
 Boss. I '11 see it done. 
 
 Dun. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. 
 
 \_Exeunt. 
 Scene III. A heath near Forres. 
 
 Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 
 First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister ? 
 Sec. Witch. Killing swine. 
 Third Witch. Sister, where thou ? 
 First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her 
 lap, 
 
ACT I. SCENE III. 5 
 
 And munched, and munched, and munched : — ( Give 
 
 me,' quoth I : 
 ' Aroint thee, witch ! ' the rump-fed ronyon cries. 
 Her husband 's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger : 
 But in a sieve I '11 thither sail, 
 And, like a rat without a tail, 
 I '11 do, I '11 do, and I '11 do. 10 
 
 Sec. Witch. I '11 give thee a wind. 
 
 First Witch. Thou 'rt kind. 
 
 Third Witch. And I another. 
 
 First Witch. I myself have all the other, 
 And the very ports they blow, 
 All the quarters that they know 
 I' the shipman's card. 
 I will drain him dry as hay : 
 Sleep shall neither night nor day 
 
 Hang upon his pent-house lid ; 20 
 
 He shall live a man forbid : 
 Weary se'nnights nine times nine 
 Shall he dwindle, peak and pine : 
 Though his bark cannot be lost, 
 Yet it shall be tempest-tost. 
 Look what I have. 
 
 Sec. Witch. Show me, show me. 
 
 First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, 
 Wrecked as homeward he did come. [Drum within. 
 
 Third Witch. A drum, a drum! 30 
 
 Macbeth doth come. 
 
 All. The weircl sisters, hand in hand, 
 Posters of the sea and land, 
 Thus do go about, about : 
 Thrice to thine and thrice to mine 
 
6 MACBETH. 
 
 And thrice again, to make up nine. 
 Peace ! the charm 's wound up. 
 
 Enter Macbeth and Banquo. 
 
 Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. 
 
 Ban. How far is 't called to Forres ? What are these 
 So withered and so wild in their attire, 40 
 
 That look not like the 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 ? 
 
 First Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of 
 Glamis ! 
 
 Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of 
 Cawdor ! 
 
 Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king 
 hereafter ! 50 
 
 Ban. Good sir, why do you start ; and seem to fear 
 Things that do sound so fair ? I' the name of truth, 
 Are ye fantastical, or that indeed 
 Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner 
 You greet with present grace and great prediction 
 Of noble having and of royal hope, 
 That he seems rapt withal : to me you speak not. 
 If you can look into the seeds of time, 
 And say which grain will grow and which will not, 
 Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 60 
 
 Your favors nor your hate. 
 
ACT I. SCENE III. 7 
 
 First Witch. Hail! 
 
 Sec Witch. Hail! 
 
 Third Witch. Hail! 
 
 First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 
 
 Sec. Witch. Not so happy, yet nruch happier. 
 
 Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be 
 none : 
 So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo ! 
 
 First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail ! 
 
 Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me 
 more : 70 
 
 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, 
 No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence 
 You owe this strange intelligence ? or why 
 Upon this blasted heath you stop our way 
 With such prophetic greeting ? Speak, I charge you. 
 
 [ Witches vanish. 
 
 Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, 
 And these are of them. Whither are they vanished ? 80 
 
 Macb. Into the air ; and what seemed corporal melted 
 As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed ! 
 
 Ban, Were such things here as we do speak about ? 
 Or have we eaten on the insane root 
 That takes the reason prisoner ? 
 
 Macb. Your children shall be kings. 
 
 Ban. You shall be king. 
 
 Macb. And thane of Cawdor too : went it not so ? 
 
 Ban. To the selfsame tune and words. Who 's here ? 
 
8 MACBETH. 
 
 Enter Ross and Angus. 
 
 Boss. The king hath happily received, Macbeth, 
 The news of thy success ; and when he reads 90 
 
 Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, 
 His wonders and his praises do contend 
 Which should be thine or his : silenced with that, 
 In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, 
 He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, 
 Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, 
 Strange images of death. As thick as hail 
 Came post with post ; and every one did bear 
 Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, 
 And poured them down before him. 
 
 Ang. We are sent 100 
 
 To give thee from our royal master thanks ; 
 Only to herald thee into his sight, 
 Not pay thee. 
 
 Ross. And, for an earnest of a greater honor, 
 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 ? 
 
 Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives : why do you dress 
 me 
 In borrowed robes ? 
 
 Ang. Who was the thane lives yet ; 
 
 But under heavy judgment bears that life no 
 
 Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined 
 With those of Norway, or did line the rebel 
 With hidden help and vantage, or that with both 
 He labored in his country's wreck, I know not ; 
 
ACT I. SCENE III. 9 
 
 But treasons capital, confessed and proved, 
 Have overthrown him. 
 
 Much. [Aside] G-lamis, and thane of Cawdor ! 
 The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus'] Thanks 
 
 for your pains. 
 [To Ban.] Do you not hope your children shall be kings, 
 When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me 
 Promised no less to them ? 
 
 Ban. That trusted home 120 
 
 Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, 
 Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 't is strange : 
 And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, 
 The instruments of darkness tell us truths, 
 Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's 
 In deepest consequence. 
 Cousins, a word, I pray you. 
 
 Macb. [Aside] Two truths are told, 
 
 As happy prologues to the swelling act 
 Of the imperial theme. — I thank you, gentlemen. 
 [Aside] This supernatural soliciting 130 
 
 Cannot be ill, cannot be good : if ill, 
 Why hath it given me earnest of success, 
 Commencing in a truth ? I am thane of Cawdor : 
 If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 
 Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair 
 And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, 
 Against the use of nature ? Present fears 
 Are less than horrible imaginings : 
 My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, 
 Shakes so my single state of man that function 140 
 
 Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is 
 But what is not. 
 
10 MACBETH. 
 
 Ban. Look, how our partner 's rapt. 
 
 Macb. [Aside] If chance will have me king, why, 
 chance may crown me, 
 Without my stir. 
 
 Ban. New honors come upon him, 
 
 Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould 
 But with the aid of use. 
 
 Macb. [Aside] Come what come may, 
 
 Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 
 
 Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. 
 
 Macb. Give me your favor : my dull brain was 
 wrought 
 With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains 150 
 Are registered where every day I turn 
 The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king. 
 Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time, 
 The interim having weighed it, let us speak 
 Our free hearts each to other. 
 
 Ban. Very gladly. 
 
 Macb. Till then, enough. Come, friends. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene IV. Forres. The palace. 
 
 Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, 
 Lennox, and Attendants. 
 
 Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor ? Are not 
 Those in commission yet returned ? 
 
 Mai. My liege, 
 
 They are not yet come back. But I have spoke 
 With one that saw him die : who did report 
 That very frankly he confessed his treasons, 
 Implored your highness' pardon and set forth 
 A deep repentance : nothing in his life 
 
ACT I. SCENE IV. 11 
 
 Became him like the leaving it ; he died 
 
 As one that had been studied in his death 
 
 To throw away the dearest thing he owed, 10 
 
 As 't were a careless trifle. 
 
 Dun. There 's no art 
 
 To find the mind's construction in the face : 
 He was a gentleman on whom I built 
 An absolute trust. 
 
 Enter Macbeth, BAnquo, Koss, and Angus. 
 
 worthiest cousin ! 
 The sin of my ingratitude even now 
 Was heavy on me : thou art so far before 
 That swiftest wing of recompense is slow 
 To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, 
 That the proportion both of thanks and payment 
 Might have been mine ! only I have left to say, 20 
 
 More is thy due than more than all can pay. 
 
 Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe, 
 In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part 
 Is to receive our duties ; and our duties 
 Are to your throne, and state children and servants, 
 Which do but what they should, by doing every thing 
 Safe toward your love and honor. 
 
 Dun. Welcome hither : 
 
 I have begun to plant thee, and will labor 
 To make thee full of growing. Noble Ban quo, 
 That hast no less deserved, nor must be known 30 
 
 No less to have done so, let me infold thee 
 And hold thee to my heart. 
 
 Ban. There if I grow, 
 
 The harvest is your own. 
 
12 MACBETH. 
 
 Dim. My plenteous joys, 
 
 Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves 
 In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, 
 And you whose places are the nearest, know 
 We will establish our estate upon 
 Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter 
 The Prince of Cumberland ; which honor must 
 Not unaccompanied invest him only, 40 
 
 But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine 
 On all deservers. From hence to Inverness, 
 And bind us further to you. 
 
 Marb. The rest is labor, which is not used for you : 
 I '11 be myself the harbinger and make joyful 
 The hearing of my wife with your approach ; 
 So humbly take my leave. 
 
 Dun. My worthy Cawdor ! 
 
 Macb. [Aside] The Prince of Cumberland ! that is 
 a step 
 On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, 
 For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires ; 50 
 
 Let not light see my black and deep desires : 
 The eye wink at the hand ; yet let that be, 
 Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [Exit. 
 
 Dun. True, worthy Banquo ; he is full so valiant, 
 And in his commendations I am fed ; 
 It is a banquet to me. Let 's after him, 
 Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome : 
 It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt. 
 
ACT I. SCENE V. 13 
 
 Scene V. Inverness. Macbeth 1 s castle. 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter. 
 
 Lady M. < They met me in the clay of success ; and I 
 have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in 
 them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire 
 to question them further, they made themselves air, into 
 which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder 
 of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me 
 " Thane of Cawdor ; " by which title, before, these 
 weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming 
 on of time, with " Hail, king that shalt be ! " This have 
 I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of 
 greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoic- 
 ing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised 
 thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.' 
 
 Glands thou art, and Cawdor ; and shalt be 
 
 What thou art promised : yet do I fear thy nature ; 
 
 It is too full o' the milk of human kindness 
 
 To catch the nearest way : thou wouldst be great ; 
 
 Art not without ambition, but without 20 
 
 The illness should attend it : what thou wouldst highly, 
 
 That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst not play false, 
 
 And yet wouldst wrongly win : thou 'ldst have, great 
 
 Glamis, 
 That which cries ' Thus thou must do, if thou have it ; 
 And that which rather thou dost fear to do 
 Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither, 
 That I may pour my spirits in thine ear ; 
 And chastise with the valor of my tongue 
 All that impedes thee from the golden round, 
 
14 MACBETH. 
 
 Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem 30 
 
 To have thee crowned withal. 
 
 Enter a Messenger. 
 
 What is yonr tidings ? 
 
 Mess. The king comes here to-night. 
 
 Lady M. Thou 'rt mad to say it : 
 
 Is not thy master with him ? who, were 't so ; 
 Would have informed for preparation. 
 
 Mess. So please you, it is true : our thane is coming : 
 One of my fellows had the speed of him, 
 Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more 
 Than would make up his message. 
 
 Lady M. Give him tending ; 
 
 He brings great news. [Exit Messenger. 
 
 The raven himself is hoarse 
 That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 40 
 
 Under my battlements. Come, you spirits 
 That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, 
 And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full 
 Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood ; 
 Stop up the access and passage to remorse, 
 That no compunctious visitings of nature 
 Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between 
 The effect and it ! Come to my woman's breasts, 
 And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, 
 Wherever in your sightless substances 50 
 
 You wait on nature's mischief ! Come, thick night, 
 And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, 
 That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, 
 Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, 
 To cry < Hold, hold ! ' 
 
ACT I. SCENE VI. 15 
 
 Enter Macbeth. 
 
 Great Glamis ! worthy Cawdor ! 
 Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! 
 Thy letters have transported rne beyond 
 This ignorant present, and I feel now 
 The future in the instant. 
 
 Macb. My dearest love, 
 
 Duncan comes here to-night. 
 
 Lady M. And when goes hence ? 60 
 
 Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes. 
 
 Lady M. 0, never 
 
 Shall sun that morrow see ! 
 Your face, my thane, is as a book where men 
 May read strange matters. To beguile the time, 
 Look like the time ; bear welcome in your eye, 
 Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent flower, 
 But be the serpent under 't. He that 's coming 
 Must be provided for : and you shall put 
 This night's great business into my dispatch ; 
 Which shall to all our nights and days to come 70 
 
 Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. 
 
 Macb. We will speak further. 
 
 Lady M. Only look up clear ; 
 
 To alter favor ever is to fear : 
 Leave all the rest to me. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene VI. Before Macbeth' s castle. 
 Hautboys and torches. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Don- 
 
 albain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, 
 
 and Attendants. 
 
 Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat ; the air 
 Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 
 Unto our gentle senses. 
 
16 MACBETH. 
 
 Ban. This guest of summer, 
 
 The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 
 By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath 
 Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, 
 Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
 Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 
 Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 
 The air is delicate. 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth. 
 
 Dun. See, see, our honored hostess ! 10 
 
 The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, 
 Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you 
 How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains, 
 And thank us for your trouble. 
 
 Lady M. All our service 
 
 In every point twice done and then done double 
 Were poor and single business to contend 
 Against those honors deep and broad wherewith 
 Your majesty loads our house : for those of old, 
 And the late dignities heaped up to them, 
 We rest your hermits. 
 
 Dun. Where ? s the thane of Cawdor ? 20 
 
 We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose 
 To be his purveyor : but he rides well ; 
 And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him 
 To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, 
 We are your guests to-night. 
 
 Lady M. Your servants ever 
 
 Have theirs, themselves and what is theirs, in compt, 
 To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, 
 Still to return your own. 
 
ACT I. SCENE VII. 17 
 
 Dun. G-ive me your hand ; 
 
 Conduct me to mine host : we love him highly, 
 And shall continue our graces towards him. 30 
 
 By your leave, hostess. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene VII. Macbeth's castle. 
 Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Ser- 
 vants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. 
 Then enter Macbeth. 
 
 Macb. If it were done when 't is done, then 't were 
 well 
 It were done quickly : if the assassination 
 Could trammel up the consequence, and catch 
 With his surcease success ; that but this blow 
 Might be the be-all and the end-all here, 
 But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, 
 We 'Id jump the life to come. But in these cases 
 We still have judgment here ; that we but teach 
 Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 
 To plague the inventor : this even-handed justice 
 Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice 
 To our own lips. He 's here in double trust ; 
 First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, 
 Strong both against the deed ; then, as his host, 
 Who should against his murderer shut the door, 
 Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan 
 Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
 So clear in his great office, that his virtues 
 Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against 
 The deep damnation of his taking-off ; 20 
 
 And pity, like a naked new-born babe, 
 Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed 
 
18 MACBETH. 
 
 Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 
 
 Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 
 
 That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur 
 
 To prick the sides of my intent, but only 
 
 Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself 
 
 And falls on the other. 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth. 
 
 How now ! what news ? 
 
 Lady M. He has almost supped : why have you left 
 the chamber ? 
 
 Macb. Hath he asked for me ? 
 
 Lady M. Know you not he has ? 30 
 
 Macb. We will proceed no further in this business : 
 He hath honored me of late ; and I have bought 
 Golden opinions from all sorts of people, 
 Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, 
 Not cast aside so soon. 
 
 Lady M. Was the hope drunk 
 
 Wherein you dressed yourself ? hath it slept since ? 
 And wakes it now, to look so green and pale 
 At what it did so freely ? From this time 
 Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard 
 To be the same in thine own act and valor 40 
 
 As thou art in desire ? Wouldst thou have that 
 Which thou esteem' st the ornament of life, 
 And live a coward in thine own esteem, 
 Letting < I dare not ' wait upon * I would/ 
 Like the poor cat i' the adage ? 
 
 Macb. Prithee, peace : 
 
 I dare do all that may become a man j 
 Who dares do more is none. 
 
ACT I SCENE VII. 19 
 
 Lady M. What beast was 't, then, 
 
 That made you break this enterprise to me ? 
 When you durst do it, then you were a man ; 
 And, to be more than what you were, you would 50 
 
 Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place 
 Did then adhere, and yet you would make both : 
 They have made themselves, and that their fitness now 
 Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know 
 How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me : 
 I would, while it was smiling in my face, 
 Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, 
 And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you 
 Have done to this. 
 
 Mad). If we should fail ? 
 
 Lady. M. We fail ! 
 
 But screw your courage to the sticking-place, 60 
 
 And we '11 not fail. When Duncan is asleep — 
 Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey 
 Soundly invite him — his two chamberlains 
 Will I with wine and wassail so convince 
 That memory, the warder of the brain, 
 Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason 
 A limbeck only : when in swinish sleep 
 Their drenched natures lie as in a death, 
 What cannot you and I perform upon 
 The unguarded Duncan ? what not put upon *70 
 
 His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt 
 Of our great quell ? 
 
 Macb. Bring forth men-children only ; 
 
 For thy undaunted mettle should compose 
 Nothing but males. Will it not be received, 
 When we have marked with blood those sleepy two 
 
20 MACBETH. 
 
 Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, 
 That they have done 't ? 
 
 Lady M. Who dares receive it other, 
 
 As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar 
 Upon his death ? 
 
 Macb. I am settled, and bend up 
 
 Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. 80 
 
 Away, and mock the time with fairest show : 
 False face must hide what the false heart doth know. 
 
 \Exeunt. 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 Scene I. Court of Macbeth's castle. 
 
 Enter Banquo, and Fleance bearing a torch before 
 
 It 'on . 
 
 Ban. How goes the night, boy ? 
 
 Fie. The moon is down 5 I have not heard the clock. 
 
 Ban. And she goes down at twelve. 
 
 Fie. I take 't, 't is later, sir. 
 
 Ban. Hold, take my sword. There 's husbandry in 
 heaven ; 
 Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. 
 A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, 
 And yet I would not sleep : merciful powers, 
 Eestrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature 
 Gives way to in repose ! 
 
 Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch. 
 
 Give me my sword. 
 Who 's there ? 10 
 
 Macb. A friend. 
 Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest ? The king 's a-bed : 
 
ACT II. SCENE I. 21 
 
 He hath been in unusual pleasure, and 
 
 Sent forth great largess to your offices. 
 
 This diamond he greets your wife withal, 
 
 By the name of most kind hostess ; and shut up 
 
 In measureless content. 
 
 Macb. Being unprepared, 
 
 Our will became the servant to defect ; 
 Which else should free have wrought. 
 
 Ban. All 's well. 
 
 I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters : 20 
 
 To you they have showed some truth. 
 
 Macb. I think not of them : 
 
 Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, 
 We would spend it in some words upon that business, 
 If you would grant the time. 
 
 Ban. At your kind'st leisure. 
 
 Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 't is, 
 It shall make honor for you. 
 
 Ban. So I lose none 
 
 In seeking to augment it, but still keep 
 My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, 
 I shall be counselled. 
 
 Macb. Good repose the while ! 
 
 Ban. Thanks, sir : the like to you ! 30 
 
 \_Exeu7it Banquo and Fleance. 
 
 Macb. G-o bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, 
 She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 
 
 [Exit Servant. 
 Is this a dagger which I see before me, 
 The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch 
 
 thee. 
 I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. 
 
22 MACBETH. 
 
 Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible 
 
 To feeling as to sight ? or art thou but 
 
 A dagger of the mind, a false creation, 
 
 Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain ? 
 
 I see thee yet, in form as palpable 40 
 
 As this which now I draw. 
 
 Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going ; 
 
 And such an instrument I was to use. 
 
 Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, 
 
 Or else worth all the rest ; I see thee still, 
 
 And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, 
 
 Which was not so before. There 's no such thing : 
 
 It is the bloody business which informs 
 
 Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half -world 
 
 Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 50 
 
 The curtained sleep ; witchcraft celebrates 
 
 Pale Hecate's offerings, and withered murder, 
 
 Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf, 
 
 Whose howl 's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, 
 
 With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design 
 
 Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, 
 
 Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 
 
 Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, 
 
 And take the present horror from the time, 
 
 Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives : 60 
 
 Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. 
 
 \_A bell rings. 
 I go, and it is done ; the bell invites me. 
 Hear it not, Duncan ; for it is a knell 
 That summons thee to heaven or to hell. \_Exit. 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 23 
 
 Scene II. The same. 
 Enter Lady Macbeth. 
 
 Lady M. That which hath made them drunk hath 
 made me bold ; 
 What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark ! 
 
 Peace ! 
 It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, 
 Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it : 
 The doors are open ; and the surfeited grooms 
 Do mock their charge with snores : I have drugged their 
 
 possets. 
 That death and nature do contend about them, 
 Whether they live or die. 
 
 Macb. [ Within'] Who 's there ? what, ho ! 
 
 Lady M. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, 10 
 And 't is not done. The attempt and not the deed 
 Confounds us. Hark ! I laid their daggers ready ; 
 He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled 
 My father as he slept, I had done 't. 
 
 Enter Macbeth. 
 
 My husband ! 
 Macb. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a 
 
 noise ? 
 Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets 
 
 cry. 
 Did not you speak ? 
 
 Macb. When ? 
 
 Lady M. Now. 
 
 Macb. As I descended? 
 
 Lady M. Ay. 
 
24 MACBETH. 
 
 Macb. Hark ! 
 Who lies i' the second chamber ? 
 
 Lady M. Donalbain. 20 
 
 Macb. This is a sorry sight. 
 
 [Looking on his hands. 
 
 Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. 
 
 Macb. There 's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried 
 1 Murder ! ' 
 That they did wake each other : I stood and heard them : 
 But they did say their prayers, and addressed them 
 Again to sleep. 
 
 Lady M. There are two lodged together. 
 
 Macb. One cried < God bless us ! ' and i Amen ' the 
 other ; 
 As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. 
 Listening their fear, I could not say ' Amen/ 
 When they did say ' God bless us ! ' 
 
 Lady M. Consider it not so deeply. 30 
 
 Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce ' Amen ' ? 
 I had most need of blessing, and < Amen ? 
 Stuck in my throat. 
 
 Lady M. These deeds must not be thought 
 After these ways ; so, it will make us mad. 
 
 Macb. Methought I heard a voice cry i Sleep no 
 more ! 
 Macbeth does murder sleep/ the innocent sleep, 
 Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care, 
 The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, 
 Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, 
 Chief nourisher in life's feast, — 
 
 Lady M. What do you mean ? 40 
 
 Macb. Still it cried ' Sleep no more ! ' to all the house : 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 25 
 
 ' G-lamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor 
 Shall sleep no more ; Macbeth shall sleep no more.' 
 
 Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, 
 worthy thane, 
 You do unbend your noble strength, to think 
 So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, 
 And wash this filthy witness from your hand. 
 Why did you bring these daggers from the place ? 
 They must lie there : go carry them ; and smear 
 The sleepy grooms with blood. 
 
 Mad). I '11 go no more : 50 
 
 I am afraid to think what I have done ; 
 Look on 't again I dare not. 
 
 Lady M. Infirm of purpose ! 
 
 Give me the daggers : the sleeping and the dead 
 Are but as pictures : 't is the eye of childhood 
 That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, 
 I '11 gild the faces of the grooms withal ; 
 For it must seem their guilt. [Exit. Knocking within. 
 
 Macb. Whence is that knocking ? 
 
 How is 't with me, when every noise appals me ? 
 What hands are here ? ha ! they pluck out mine eyes. 
 Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 60 
 
 Clean from my hand ? No, this my hand will rather 
 The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
 Making the green one red. 
 
 ■Re-enter Lady Macbeth. 
 
 Lady M. My hands are of your color ; but I shame 
 To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.'] I hear 
 
 a knocking 
 At the south entry : retire we to our chamber : 
 
26 MACBETH. 
 
 A little water clears us of this deed : 
 
 How easy is it, then ! Your constancy 
 
 Hath left you unattended. [Knocking within.'] Hark ! 
 
 more knocking. 
 Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us, 70 
 
 And show us to be watchers. Be not lost 
 So poorly in your thoughts. 
 
 Macb. To know my deed, 't were best not know my- 
 self. [Knocking within. 
 Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou 
 couldst ! [Exeunt. 
 Scene III. The same. 
 Knocking within. Enter a Porter. 
 
 Porter. Here 's a knocking indeed ! If a man were 
 porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. 
 [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's 
 there, i' the name of Beelzebub ? Here 's a farmer, that 
 hanged himself on the expectation of plenty : come in 
 time ; have napkins enow about you ; here you '11 sweat 
 for 't. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock ! Who "s 
 there, in the other devil's name ? Faith, here 's an equiv- 
 ocator, that could swear in both the scales against either 
 scale ; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet 
 could not equivocate to heaven : 0, come in, equivocator. 
 [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's 
 there ? Faith, here 's an English tailor come hither, for 
 stealing out of a French hose : come in, tailor ; here you 
 may roast your goose. [Knocking within.] Knock, 
 knock ; never at quiet ! What are you ? But this place 
 is too cold for hell. I '11 devil-porter it no further : I 
 had thought to have let in some of all professions that 
 
ACT II. SCENE III. 27 
 
 go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. [Knock- 
 ing within.^ Anon, anon ! I pray yon, remember the 
 porter. [Ojiens the gate. 
 
 Enter Macduff and Lennox. 
 
 Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere yon went to bed, 
 That yon do lie so late ? 
 
 Port. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second 
 cock. 
 
 Macd. Is thy master stirring ? 
 
 Enter Macbeth. 
 
 Onr knocking has awaked him ; here he comes. 
 
 Leu. Good morrow, noble sir. 
 
 Maeb. Good morrow, both. 
 
 Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane ? 
 
 Maeb. Not yet. 50 
 
 Macd. He did command me to call timely on him : 
 I have almost slipped the hour. 
 
 Maeb. I '11 bring you to him. 
 
 Macd. I know this is a joyful trouble to you 5 
 But yet 't is one. 
 
 Maeb. The labor we delight in physics pain. 
 
 This is the door. 
 
 Macd. I '11 make so bold to call, 
 
 For 'tis my limited service. [Exit. 
 
 Len. Goes the king hence to-day ? 
 
 Maeb. He does : he did appoint so. 
 
 Len. The night has been unruly : where we lay, 
 Our chimneys were blown down ; and, as they say, 60 
 Lamentings heard i' the air ; strange screams of death, 
 And prophesying with accents terrible 
 
28 MACBETH. 
 
 Of dire combustion and confused events 
 New hatched to the woeful time : the obscure bird 
 Clamored the livelong night : some say, the earth 
 Was feverous and did shake. 
 
 Macb. ? T was a rough night. 
 
 Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel 
 A fellow to it. 
 
 Re-enter Macduff. 
 
 Macd. horror, horror, horror ! Tongue nor heart 
 Cannot conceive nor name thee ! 
 
 ¥ acb ' [ What >s the matter ? 70 
 
 Len. ) 
 
 Macd. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece ! 
 Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope 
 The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 
 The life o' the building ! 
 
 Macb. What is 't you say ? the life ? 
 
 Len. Mean you his majesty ? 
 
 Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight 
 With a new Gorgon : do not bid me speak ; 
 See, and then speak yourselves. 
 
 [Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox. 
 Awake, awake ! 
 Eing the alarum-bell. Murder and treason ! 
 Banquo and Donalbain ! Malcolm ! awake ! 80 
 
 Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, 
 And look on death itself ! up, up, and see 
 The great doom's image ! Malcolm ! Banquo ! 
 As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, 
 To countenance this horror ! Eing the bell. 
 
 \_Bell rings. 
 
ACT II. SCENE III. 29 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth. 
 
 Lady M. What \s the business, 
 That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley 
 The sleepers of the house ? speak, speak ! 
 
 Maed. gentle lady, 
 
 'T is not for you to hear what I can speak ; 
 The repetition, in a woman's ear, 90 
 
 Would murder as it fell. 
 
 Enter Banquo. 
 
 Banquo, Banquo, 
 Our royal master 's murdered ! 
 
 Lady M. Woe, alas ! 
 
 What, in our house ? 
 
 Ban. Too cruel any where. 
 
 Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, 
 And say it is not so. 
 
 He-enter Macbeth and Lennox with Ross. 
 
 Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, 
 I had lived a blessed time ; for, from this instant, 
 There ? s nothing serious in mortality : 
 All is but toys : renown and grace is dead ; 
 The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees 100 
 
 Is left this vault to brag of. 
 
 Enter Malcolm and Donalbain. 
 
 Don. What is amiss ? 
 
 Macb. You are, and do not know f t : 
 
 The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood 
 Is stopped ; the very source of it is stopped. 
 
 Maed. Your royal father 's murdered. 
 
30 MACBETH. 
 
 Mai. 0, by whom ? 
 
 Len. Those of his chamber, as it seemed, had 
 done 't : 
 Their hands and faces were all badged with blood ; 
 So were their daggers, which unwiped we found 
 Upon their pillows : 
 
 They stared, and were distracted ; no man's life no 
 
 Was to be trusted with them. 
 
 Macb. 0, yet I do repent me of my fury, 
 That I did kill them. 
 
 Macd. Wherefore did you so ? 
 
 Macb. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and 
 furious, 
 Loyal and neutral, in a moment ? No man : 
 The expedition of my violent love 
 Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, 
 His silver skin laced with his golden blood ; 
 And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature 
 For ruin's wasteful entrance : there, the murderers, 120 
 Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers 
 Unmannerly breeched with gore : who could refrain, 
 That had a heart to love, and in that heart 
 Courage to make 's love known ? 
 
 Lady M. Help me hence, ho ! 
 
 Macd. Look to the lady. 
 
 Mai. [Aside to Do)i.~] Why do we hold our tongues, 
 That most may claim this argument for ours ? 
 
 Don. [Aside to Mai.'] What should be spoken here, 
 where our fate, 
 Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us ? 
 Let 's away 5 
 Our tears are not yet brewed. 
 
ACT II. SCENE III. 31 
 
 Mai. [Aside to Don.'] Nor our strong sorrow 130 
 Upon the foot of motion. 
 
 Ban. ■ Look to the lady : 
 
 [Lady Macbeth is carried out. 
 And when we have our naked frailties hid, 
 That suffer in exposure, let us meet, 
 And question this most bloody piece of work, 
 To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us : 
 In the great hand of God I stand ; and thence 
 Against the undivulged pretence I fight 
 Of treasonous malice. 
 
 Macd. And so do I. 
 
 All. So all. 
 
 Macb. Let 's briefly put on manly readiness, 
 And meet i' the hall together. 
 
 All. Well contented. 140 
 
 [Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain. 
 
 Mai. What will you do ? Let 's not consort with 
 them : 
 To show an unfelt sorrow is an office 
 Which the false man does easy. I '11 to England. 
 
 Don. To Ireland, I ; our separated fortune 
 Shall keep us both the safer : where we are, 
 There 's daggers in men's smiles : the near in blood, 
 The nearer bloody. 
 
 Mai. This murderous shaft that 's shot 
 
 Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way 
 Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse ; 
 And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, 150 
 
 But shift away : there 's warrant in that theft 
 Which steals itself, when there 's no mercy left. 
 
 [Exeunt. 
 
82 MACBETH. 
 
 Scene IV. Outside Macbeth' s castle. 
 Enter Ross and an old Man. 
 
 Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember we\l : 
 Within the volume of which time I have seen 
 Hours dreadful and things strange ; but this sore night 
 Hath trifled former knowings. 
 
 Ross. Ah, good father, 
 
 Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, 
 Threaten his bloody stage : by the clock, 't is day, 
 And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp : 
 Is 't night's predominance, or the day's shame, 
 That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 
 When living light should kiss it ? 
 
 Old M. 'T is unnatural, 10 
 
 Even like the deed that 's done. On Tuesday last, 
 A falcon, towering in her pride of place, 
 Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed. 
 
 Boss. And Duncan's horses — a thing most strange 
 and certain — 
 Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, 
 Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, 
 Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make 
 War with mankind. 
 
 Old M. 'T is said they eat each other. 
 
 Ross. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes 
 That looked upon 't. Here comes the good Macduff. 20 
 
 Enter Macduff. 
 
 How goes the world, sir, now ? 
 
 Macd. Why, see you not ? 
 
 Ross. Is 't known who did this more than bloody 
 deed ? 
 
ACT II. SCENE IV. 33 
 
 Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. 
 
 Boss. Alas, the day ! 
 
 What good could they pretend ? 
 
 Macd. They were suborned : 
 
 Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons, 
 Are stolen away and fled ; which puts upon them 
 Suspicion of the deed. 
 
 Ross. 'Gainst nature still ! 
 
 Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up 
 Thine own life's means ! Then 't is most like 
 The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. 30 
 
 Macd. He is already named, and gone to Scone 
 To be invested. 
 
 Ross. Where is Duncan's body ? 
 
 Macd. Carried to Colmekill, 
 The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, 
 And guardian of their bones. 
 
 Ross. Will you to Scone ? 
 
 Macd. No, cousin, I '11 to Fife. 
 
 Ross. Well, I will thither. 
 
 Macd. Well, may you see things well done there: 
 adieu ! 
 Lest our old robes sit easier than our new ! 
 
 Ross. Farewell, father. 
 
 Old M. God's benison go with you ; and with those 40 
 That would make good of bad, and friends of foes ! 
 
 \_Exeunt. 
 
34 MACBETH. 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Scene I. Forres. The palace. 
 Enter Banquo. 
 Ban. Thou hast it now : king, Cawdor, Glands, all, 
 As the weird women promised, and, I fear, 
 Thou playedst most foully for 't : yet it was said 
 It should not stand in thy posterity, 
 But that myself should be the root and father 
 Of many kings. If there come truth from them — 
 As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine — 
 Why, by the verities on thee made good, 
 May they not be my oracles as well, 
 And set me up in hope ? But hush ! no more. 10 
 
 Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth, as king, Lady Mac- 
 beth, as queen, Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and 
 Attendants. 
 
 Macb. Here J s our chief guest. 
 
 Lady M. If he had been forgotten, 
 
 It had been as a gap in our great feast, 
 And all-thing unbecoming. 
 
 Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, 
 And I '11 request your presence. 
 
 Ban. Let your highness 
 
 Command upon me ; to the which my duties 
 Are with a most indissoluble tie 
 For ever knit. 
 
 Macb. Hide you this afternoon ? 
 
 Ban. Ay, my good lord. 20 
 
 Macb. We should have else desired your good advice, 
 Which still hath been both grave and prosperous, 
 
ACT III. SCENE I. 35 
 
 In this day's council ; but we ? 11 take to-morrow. 
 Is ? t far you ride ? 
 
 Ban. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time 
 'Twixt this and supper : go not my horse the better, 
 I must become a borrower of the night 
 For a dark hour or twain. 
 
 Much. Fail not our feast. 
 
 Ban. My lord, I will not. 
 
 Macb. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestowed 30 
 In England and in Ireland, not confessing 
 Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers 
 With strange invention : but of that to-morrow, 
 When therewithal we shall have cause of state 
 Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse : adieu, 
 Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you ? 
 
 Ban. Ay, my good lord : our time does call upon 's. 
 
 Macb. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot • 
 And so I do commend you to their backs. 
 Farewell. [Exit Banquo. 40 
 
 Let every man be master of his time 
 Till seven at night : to make society 
 The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself 
 Till supper-time alone : while then, God be with you ! 
 
 [Exeunt all but Macbeth, and an attendant. 
 Sirrah, a word with you : attend those men 
 Our pleasure ? 
 
 Atten. They are, my lord, without the palace gate. 
 
 Macb. Bring them before us. [Exit Attendant. 
 
 To be thus is nothing j 
 But to be safely thus. — Our fears in Banquo 
 Stick deep ; and in his royalty of nature 50 
 
 Reigns that which would be feared : 't is much he dares ; 
 
36 MACBETH. 
 
 And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, 
 
 He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor 
 
 To act in safety. There is none but he 
 
 Whose being I do fear : and, under him, 
 
 My Genius is rebuked ; as, it is said, 
 
 Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters 
 
 When first they put the name of king upon me, 
 
 And bade them speak to him : then prophet-like 
 
 They hailed him father to a line of kings : 60 
 
 Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, 
 
 And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, 
 
 Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, 
 
 No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so, 
 
 For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind ; 
 
 For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered ; 
 
 Put rancors in the vessel of my peace 
 
 Only for them ; and mine eternal jewel 
 
 Given to the common enemy of man, 
 
 To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings ! 70 
 
 Bather than so, come fate into the list, 
 
 And champion me to the utterance ! Who 's there ? 
 
 Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. 
 
 Now go to the door, and stay there till we call. 
 
 \_Exit Attendant. 
 Was it not yesterday we spoke together ? 
 
 First Mur. It was, so nlease your highness. 
 
 Macb. Well then, now 
 
 Have you considered of my speeches ? Know 
 That it was he in the times past which held you 
 So under fortune, which you thought had been 
 Our innocent self : this I made good to you 
 
ACT III. SCENE I. 37 
 
 In our last conference, passed in probation with you, 80 
 How you were borne in hand, how crossed, the instru- 
 ments, 
 Who wrought with them, and all things else that might 
 To half a soul and to a notion crazed 
 Say ' Thus did Banquo.' 
 
 First Mur. You made it known to us. 
 
 Macb. I did so, and went further, which is now 
 Our point of second meeting. Do you find 
 Your patience so predominant in your nature 
 That you can let this go ? Are you so gospelled 
 To pray for this good man and for his issue, 
 Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave 90 
 
 And beggared yours for ever ? 
 
 First Mar. We are men, my liege. 
 
 Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; 
 As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
 Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept 
 All by the name of dogs : the valued file 
 Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, 
 The housekeeper, the hunter, every one 
 According to the gift which bounteous nature 
 Hath in him closed ; whereby he does receive 
 Particular addition, from the bill 100 
 
 That writes them all alike : and so of men. 
 Now, if you have a station in the file, 
 Not T the worst rank of manhood, say 't ; 
 And I will put that business in your bosoms, 
 Whose execution takes your enemy off, 
 Grapples you to the heart and love of us, 
 Who wear our health but sickly in his life, 
 Which in his death were perfect. 
 
38 MACBETH. 
 
 Sec. Mur. I am one, my liege, 
 
 Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world 
 Have so incensed that I am reckless what 110 
 
 I do to spite the world. 
 
 First Mur. And I another 
 
 So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune, 
 That I would set my life on any chance, 
 To mend it, or be rid on 't. 
 
 Macb. Both of you 
 
 Know Banquo was your enemy. 
 
 Both Mur. True, my lord. 
 
 Macb. So is he mine ; and in such bloody distance, 
 That every minute of his being thrusts 
 Against my near'st of life : and though I could 
 With barefaced power sweep him from my sight 
 And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, 120 
 
 For certain friends that are both his and mine, 
 Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall 
 Who I myself struck down ; and thence it is, 
 That I to your assistance do make love, 
 Masking the business from the common eye 
 For sundry weighty reasons. 
 
 Sec. Mur. We shall, my lord, 
 
 Perform what you command us. 
 
 First Mur. Though our lives — 
 
 Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within this 
 hour at most 
 I will advise you where to plant yourselves ; 
 Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time, 130 
 
 The moment on 't ; for 't must be done to-night, 
 And something from the palace ; always thought 
 That I require a clearness : and with him — 
 
ACT III. SCENE II. 39 
 
 To leave no rubs nor blotches in the work — 
 Fleance his son, that keeps him company, 
 Whose absence is no less material to me 
 Than is his father's, must embrace the fate 
 Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart : 
 I '11 come to you anon. 
 
 Both Mm-. We are resolved, my lord. 
 
 Macb. I '11 call upon you straight : abide within. 140 
 
 \_Exeunt Murderers. 
 It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's flight, 
 If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. [Exit. 
 
 Scene II. The palace. 
 Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant. 
 
 Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court ? 
 
 Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night. 
 
 Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure 
 For a few words. 
 
 Serv. Madam, I will. [Exit. 
 
 Lady M. Nought 's had, all 's spent, 
 
 Where our desire is got without content : 
 'T is safer to be that which we destroy 
 Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. 
 
 Enter Macbeth. 
 
 How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone, 
 
 Of sorriest fancies your companions making, 
 
 Using those thoughts which should indeed have died 10 
 
 With them they think on ? Things without all remedy 
 
 Should be without regard : what 's done is done. 
 
 Macb. We have scotched the snake, not killed it : 
 She '11 close and be herself, whilst our poor malice 
 
40 MACBETH. 
 
 Eemains in danger of her former tooth. 
 
 But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, 
 
 Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep 
 
 In the affliction of these terrible dreams 
 
 That shake us nightly : better be with the dead, 
 
 Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, 20 
 
 Than on the torture of the mind to lie 
 
 In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave ; 
 
 After life's fitful fever he sleeps well ; 
 
 Treason has done his worst : nor steel, nor poison, 
 
 Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, 
 
 Can touch him further. 
 
 Lady M. Come on ; 
 
 Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks ; 
 Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night. 
 
 Macb. So shall I, love ; and so, I pray, be you : 
 Let your remembrance apply to Banquo ; 30 
 
 Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue : 
 Unsafe the while, that we 
 
 Must lave our honors in these flattering streams, 
 And make our faces vizards to our hearts, 
 Disguising what they are. 
 
 Lady M. You must leave this. 
 
 Macb. 0, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife ! 
 Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. 
 
 Lady M. But in them nature's copy 's not eterne. 
 
 Macb. There 's comfort yet ; they are assailable ; 
 Then be thou jocund : ere the bat hath flown 40 
 
 His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate's summons 
 The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums 
 Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 
 A deed of dreadful note. 
 
ACT III. SCENE III. 41 
 
 Lady M. What 's to be done ? 
 
 Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, 
 Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, 
 Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day ; 
 And with thy bloody and invisible hand 
 Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond 
 Which keeps me pale ! Light thickens ; and the crow 50 
 Makes wing to the rooky wood : 
 Good things of day begin to droop and drowse ; 
 Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse. 
 Thou marvell'st at my words : but hold thee still : 
 Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. 
 So, prithee, go with me. \_Exeunt. 
 
 Scene III. A park near the palace. 
 Enter three Murderers. 
 
 Fi7*st Mur. But who did bid thee join with us ? 
 
 Third Mur. Macbeth. 
 
 Sec. Mar. He needs not our mistrust, since he de- 
 livers 
 Our offices and what we have to do 
 To the direction just. 
 
 First Mur. Then stand with us. 
 
 The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day : 
 ISTow spurs the lated traveller apace 
 To gain the timely inn ; and near approaches 
 The subject of our watch. 
 
 Third Mur. Hark ! I hear horses. 
 
 Ban. [ Withiri] Give us a light there, ho ! 
 
 Sec. Mur. Then 't is he : the rest 
 
 That are within the note of expectation 10 
 
 Already are i' the court. 
 
42 MACBETH. 
 
 First Mur. His horses go about. 
 
 Third Mur. Almost a mile : but lie does usually, 
 So all men do, from hence to the palace gate 
 Make it their walk. 
 
 Sec. Mur. A light, a light ! 
 
 Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch. 
 
 Third Mur. 'T is he. 
 
 First Mur. Stand to *t. 
 
 Ban. It will rain to-night. 
 
 First Mur. Let it come down. 
 
 [They set upon Banquo. 
 
 Ban. 0, treachery ! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly ! 
 Thou mayst revenge. slave ! 
 
 [Dies. Fleance escapes. 
 
 Third Mur. Who did strike out the light ? 
 
 First Mur. Was 't not the way ? 
 
 Third Mur. There 's but one down ; the son is fled. 
 
 Sec. Mur. We have lost 20 
 
 Best half of our affair. 
 
 First Mur. Well, let 's away, and say how much is 
 done. \_Exeunt. 
 
 Scene IV. The same. Hall in the palace. 
 
 A banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, 
 B-oss, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants. 
 
 Macb. You know your own degrees ; sit down : at 
 first 
 And last the hearty welcome. 
 
 Lords. Thanks to your majesty. 
 
 Macb. Ourself will mingle with society, 
 And play the humble host. 
 
ACT III. SCENE IV. 43 
 
 Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time 
 We will require her welcome. 
 
 Lady M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends ; 
 For my heart speaks they are welcome. 
 
 First Murderer appears at the door. 
 
 Macb. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' 
 thanks. 
 Both sides are even : here I '11 sit i' the midst : 10 
 
 Be large in mirth ; anon we '11 drink a measure 
 The table round. [Approaching the door.~] There 's 
 blood upon thy face. 
 
 Mur. 'T is Banquo's then. 
 
 Macb. 'T is better thee without than he within. 
 Is he dispatched ? 
 
 Mur. My lord, his throat is cut ; that I did for him. 
 
 Macb. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats : yet he 's 
 good 
 That did the like for Fleance : if thou didst it, 
 Thou art the nonpareil. 
 
 Mur. Most royal sir, 
 
 Fleance is 'scaped. 20 
 
 Macb. Then comes my fit again : I had else been 
 perfect, 
 Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, 
 As broad and general as the casing air : 
 But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in 
 To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo 's safe ? 
 
 Mur. Ay, my good lord : safe in a ditch he bides, 
 With twenty trenched gashes on his head ; 
 The least a death to nature. 
 
 Macb. Thanks for that : 
 
44 MACBETH. 
 
 There the grown serpent lies ; the worm that 's fled 
 Hath nature that in time will venom breed, 30 
 
 No teeth for the present. Get thee gone : to-morrow 
 We '11 hear, ourselves, again. \Exit Murderer. 
 
 Lady M. My royal lord, 
 
 You do not give the cheer : the feast is sold 
 That is not often vouched, while 't is a-making, 
 'T is given with welcome : to feed were best at home ; 
 From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony : 
 Meeting were bare without it. 
 
 Macb. Sweet remembrancer ! 
 
 Now, good digestion wait on appetite, 
 And health on both ! 
 
 Len. May 't please your highness sit. 
 
 \_The Ghost of Banquo enters, and sits in Macbeth 7 s 
 place. 
 
 Macb. Here had we now our country's honor 
 roofed, 40 
 
 Were the graced person of our Banquo present ; 
 Who may I rather challenge for unkindness 
 Than pity for mischance ! 
 
 Boss. His absence, sir, 
 
 Lays blame upon his promise. Please 't your highness 
 To grace us with your royal company. 
 
 Macb. The table 's full. 
 
 Len. Here is a place reserved, sir. 
 
 Macb. Where ? 
 
 Len. Here, my good lord. What is 't that moves 
 your highness ? 
 
 Macb. Which of you have done this ? 
 
 Lords. What, my good lord ? 
 
ACT III. SCENE IV. 45 
 
 Mad). Thou canst not say I did it : never shake 50 
 Thy gory locks at me. 
 
 Boss. Gentlemen, rise ; his highness is not well. 
 Lady M. Sit, worthy friends : my lord is often thus, 
 And hath been from his youth : pray you, keep seat ; 
 The fit is momentary ; upon a thought 
 He will again be well : if much you note him, 
 You shall offend him and extend his passion : 
 Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man ? 
 
 Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that 
 Which might appal the devil. 
 
 Lad} i M. proper stuff ! 60 
 
 This is the very painting of your fear : 
 This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, 
 Led you to Duncan. 0, these flaws and starts, 
 Impostors to true fear, would well become 
 A woman's story at a winter's fire, 
 Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself ! 
 Why do you make such faces ? When all 's done, 
 You look but on a stool. 
 
 Macb. Prithee, see there ! behold ! look ! lo ! how 
 say you ? 
 Why, what care I ? If thou canst nod, speak too. 70 
 If charnel-houses and our graves must send 
 Those that we bury back, oar monuments 
 Shall be the maws of kites. [Ghost vanishes. 
 
 Lady M. What, quite unmanned in folly ? 
 Macb. If I stand here, I saw him. 
 Lady M. Fie, for shame ! 
 
 Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden 
 time, 
 Ere human statute purged the gentle weal ; 
 
46 MACBETH. 
 
 Ay, and since too, murders have been performed 
 Too terrible for the ear : the times have been, 
 That, when the brains were out, the man would die, 
 And there an end ; but now they rise again, 80 
 
 With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, 
 And push us from our stools : this is more strange 
 Than such a murder is. 
 
 Lady M. My worthy lord, 
 
 Your noble friends do lack you. 
 
 Macb. I do forget. 
 
 Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends ; 
 I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing 
 To those that know me. Come, love and health to all ; 
 Then I ? 11 sit down. Give me some wine ; fill full. 
 I drink to the general joy o' the whole table, 
 And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss ; 90 
 
 Would he were here ! to all, and him, we thirst, 
 And all to all. 
 
 Lords. Our duties, and the pledge. 
 
 Re-enter Ghost. 
 
 Macb. Avaunt ! and quit my sight ! let the earth hide 
 thee! 
 Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold ; 
 Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 
 Which thou dost glare with ! 
 
 Lady M. Think of this, good peers, 
 
 But as a thing of custom : 't is no other ; 
 Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. 
 
 Macb. What man dare, I dare : 
 Approach thou like the rugged Eussian bear, 100 
 
 The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger j 
 
ACT III. SCENE IV. 47 
 
 Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves 
 
 Shall never tremble : or be alive again, 
 
 And dare me to the desert with thy sword ; 
 
 If trembling I inhabit then, protest me 
 
 The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow ! 
 
 Unreal mockery, hence ! [Ghost vanishes. 
 
 Why, so : being gone, 
 I am a man again. Pray you, sit still. 
 
 Lady M. You have displaced the mirth, broke the 
 good meeting, 
 With most admired disorder. 
 
 Macb. Can such things be, 110 
 
 And overcome us like a summer's cloud, 
 Without our special wonder ? You make me strange 
 Even to the disposition that I owe, 
 When now I think you can behold such sights, 
 And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, 
 When mine is blanched with fear. 
 
 Boss. What sights, my lord ? 
 
 Lady M. I pray you, speak not ; he grows worse and 
 worse ; 
 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 120 
 
 Attend his majesty ! 
 
 Lady M. A kind good night to all ! 
 
 [Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady M. 
 
 Maeb. It will have blood ; they say, blood will have 
 blood : 
 Stones have been known to move and trees to speak j 
 Augurs and understood relations have 
 
48 MACBETH. 
 
 By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth 
 The secret' st man of blood. What is the night ? 
 
 Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is 
 which. 
 
 Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person 
 At our great bidding ? 
 
 Lady M. Did you send to him, sir ? 
 
 Macb. I hear it by the way ; but I will send : 130 
 
 There 's not a one of them but in his house 
 I keep a servant feed. I will to-morrow, 
 And betimes I will, to the weird sisters : 
 More shall they speak ; for now I am bent to know, 
 By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good, 
 All causes shall give way : I am in blood 
 Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, 
 Returning were as tedious as go o'er : 
 Strange things 1 have in head, that will to hand ; 
 Which must be acted ere they may be scanned. 140 
 
 Lady M. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. 
 
 Macb. Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self- 
 abuse 
 Is the initiate fear that wants hard use : 
 We are yet but young in deed. \_Exennt. 
 
 Scene V. A Heath. 
 Thunder. Enter the three Witches meeting Hecate. 
 First Witch. Why, how now, Hecate ! you look 
 
 angerly. 
 Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are, 
 Saucy and overbold ? How did you dare 
 To trade and traffic with Macbeth 
 In riddles and affairs of death ; 
 
ACT III. SCENE V. 49 
 
 And I, the mistress of your charms, 
 
 The close contriver of all harms, 
 
 Was never called to bear my part, 
 
 Or show the glory of our art ? 
 
 And, which is worse, all you have done 10 
 
 Hath been but for a wayward son, 
 
 Spiteful 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' the morning : thither he 
 
 Will come to know his destiny : 
 
 Your vessels and your spells provide, 
 
 Your charms and every thing beside. 
 
 I am for the air : this night I '11 spend 20 
 
 Unto a dismal and a fatal end : 
 
 Great business must be wrought ere noon : 
 
 Upon the corner of the moon 
 
 There hangs a vaporous drop profound ; 
 
 I '11 catch it ere it comes to ground : 
 
 And that distilled by magic sleights 
 
 Shall raise such artificial sprites 
 
 As by the strength of their illusion 
 
 Shall draw him on to his confusion : 
 
 He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear 30 
 
 His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear : 
 
 And you all know, security 
 
 Is mortals' chiefest enemy. • 
 
 [Musie and a song within : ' Come away, come away/ 
 &c. 
 Hark ! I am called ; my little spirit, see, 
 Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. \Exit. 
 
50 MACBETH. 
 
 First Witch. Come, let 's make haste ; she '11 soon be 
 back again. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene VI. Forres. The palace. 
 Enter Lennox and another Lord. 
 
 Len. My forme^- speeches have but hit your thoughts, 
 Which can interpret further : only, I say, 
 Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan 
 Was pitied of Macbeth : marry, he was dead : 
 And the right-valiant Banquo walked too late ; 
 Whom, you may say, if 't please you, Fleance killed, 
 For Fleance fled : men must not walk too late. 
 Who cannot want the thought how monstrous 
 It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain 
 To kill their gracious father ? damned fact ! 10 
 
 How it did grieve Macbeth ! did he not straight 
 In pious rage the two delinquents tear, 
 That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep ? 
 Was not that nobly done ? Ay, and wisely too ; 
 For 't would have angered any heart alive 
 To hear the men deny 't. So that, I say, 
 He has borne all things well : and I do think 
 That had he Duncan's sons under his key — 
 As, an 't please heaven, he shall not — they should find 
 What 't were to kill a father ; so should Fleance. 20 
 
 But, peace ! for from broad words and 'cause he failed 
 His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear 
 Macduff lives in disgrace : sir, can you tell 
 Where he bestows himself ? 
 
 Lord. The son of Duncan, 
 
 From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, 
 
ACT III. SCENE VI. 51 
 
 Lives in the English court, and is received 
 
 Of the most pious Edward with such grace 
 
 That the malevolence of fortune nothing 
 
 Takes from his high respect : thither Macduff 
 
 Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid 30 
 
 To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward : 
 
 That, by the help of these — with Him above 
 
 To ratify the work ■ — we may again 
 
 Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, 
 
 Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, 
 
 Do faithful homage and receive free honors : 
 
 All which we pine for now : and this report 
 
 Hath so exasperate the king that he 
 
 Prepares for some attempt of war. 
 
 Leu. Sent he to Macduff ? 
 
 Lord. He did : and with an absolute ' Sir, not 1/ 40 
 The cloudy messenger turns me his back, 
 And hums, as who should say * You '11 rue the time 
 That clogs me with this answer.' 
 
 Len. And that well might 
 
 Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance 
 His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel 
 Ely to the court of England and unfold 
 His message ere he come, that a swift blessing 
 May soon return to this our suffering country 
 Under a hand accursed ! 
 
 Lord. I '11 send my prayers with him. 
 
 [Exeunt. 
 
52 MACBETH. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 Scene I. A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. 
 Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 
 
 First Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed. 
 
 Sec. Witch. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined. 
 
 Third Witch. Harpier cries 'T is time, 't is time. 
 
 First Witch. Round about the cauldron go ; 
 In the poisoned entrails throw. 
 Toad, that under cold stone 
 Days and nights has thirty one 
 Sweltered venom sleeping got, 
 Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. 
 
 All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 10 
 
 Eire burn, and cauldron bubble. 
 
 Sec. Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake, 
 In the cauldron boil and bake 5 
 Eye of newt and toe of frog, 
 Wool of bat and tongue of dog, 
 Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, 
 Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, 
 Eor a charm of powerful trouble, 
 Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 
 
 All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 20 
 
 Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 
 
 Third Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, 
 Witches' mummy, maw and gulf 
 Of the ravined salt-sea shark, 
 Root of hemlock digged i' the dark, 
 Liver of blaspheming Jew, 
 Gall of goat, and slips of yew 
 Slivered in the moon's eclipse, 
 
ACT IV. SCENE I. 53 
 
 Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, 
 
 Finger of birth-strangled babe 30 
 
 Ditch-delivered by a drab, 
 
 Make the gruel thick and slab : 
 
 Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, 
 
 For the ingredients of our cauldron. 
 
 All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 
 Eire burn and cauldron bubble. 
 
 Sec. Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, 
 Then the charm is firm and good. 
 
 Enter Hecate to the other three Witches. 
 
 Hee. Oh, well done ! I commend your pains ; 
 And every one shall share i' the gains : 40 
 
 And now about the cauldron sing, 
 Live elves and fairies in a ring, 
 Enchanting all that you put in. 
 
 [Music and a song : ' Black spirits,' &c. 
 \_Hecate retires. 
 Sec. Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, 
 Something wicked this way comes. 
 Open, locks, 
 Whoever knocks. 
 
 Enter Macbeth. 
 
 Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight 
 hags ! 
 What is 't you do ? 
 
 All. A deed without a name. 
 
 Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, 50 
 Howe'er you come to know it, answer me : 
 Though you untie the winds and let them fight 
 
54 MACBETH. 
 
 Against the churches ; though the yesty waves 
 
 Confound and swallow navigation up ; 
 
 Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down ; 
 
 Though castles topple on their warders' heads ; 
 
 Though palaces and pyramids do slope 
 
 Their heads to their foundations ; though the treasure 
 
 Of nature's germens tumble all together, 
 
 Even till destruction sicken ; answer me 60 
 
 To what I ask you. 
 
 First Witch. Speak. 
 
 Sec. Witch. Demand. 
 
 Third Witch. We '11 answer. 
 
 First Witch. Say, if thou 'dst rather hear it from our 
 mouths, 
 Or from our masters ? 
 
 Macb. Call 'em ; let me see 'em. 
 
 First Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten 
 
 Her nine farrow ; grease that 's sweaten 
 
 From the murderer's gibbet throw 
 
 Into the flame. 
 
 All. Come, high or low ; 
 
 Thyself and office deftly show ! 
 
 Thunder. First Apparition : an armed Head. 
 Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power, — 
 First Witch. • He knows thy thought : 
 
 Hear his speech, but say thou nought. 70 
 
 First App. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! beware 
 Macduff ; 
 Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough. 
 
 [^Descends. 
 
 Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks ; 
 
 Thou hast harped my fear aright : but one word more, — 
 
ACT IV. SCENE I. 55 
 
 First Witch. He will not be commanded : here 's 
 another, 
 More potent than the first. 
 
 Thunder. Second Apparition : a bloody Child. 
 
 Sec. App. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! 
 
 Macb. Had I three ears, I 'Id hear thee. 
 
 Sec. App. Be bloody, bold, and resolute ; laugh to 
 scorn 
 The power of man, for none of woman born 80 
 
 Shall harm Macbeth. [Descends. 
 
 Macb. Then live, Macduff : what need I fear of thee ? 
 But yet I '11 make assurance double sure, 
 And take a bond of fate : thou shalt not live ; 
 That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, 
 And sleep in spite of thunder. 
 
 Thunder. Third Apparition: a Child crowned, with a 
 tree in his hand. 
 
 What is this 
 That rises like the issue of a king, 
 And wears upon his baby-brow the round 
 And top of sovereignty ? 
 
 All. Listen, but speak not to 't. 
 
 Third App. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no 
 care 90 
 
 Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are : 
 Macbeth shall never vanquished be until 
 Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill 
 Shall come against him. [Descends. 
 
 Macb. That will never be : 
 
 Who can impress the forest, bid the tree 
 Unfix his earth-bound root ? Sweet bodements ! good ! 
 
56 MACBETH. 
 
 Rebellion's head rise never till the wood 
 Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth 
 Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath 
 To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart 100 
 
 i Throbs to know one thing : tell me, if your art 
 Can tell so much :i shall Banquo's issue ever 
 Reign in this kingdom ? 
 
 All. Seek to know no more. 
 
 Macb. I will be satisfied : deny me this, 
 And an eternal curse fall on you ! Let me know. 
 Why sinks that cauldron ? and what noise is this ? 
 
 [Hautboys. 
 
 First Witch. Show ! 
 
 Sec. Witch. Show ! 
 
 Third Witch. Show! 
 
 All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart ; 110 
 
 Come like shadows, so depart ! 
 
 A shoiv of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his 
 hand ; Banquo's Ghost folloiving. 
 
 Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo ; down ! 
 Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. 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 ! 
 What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ? 
 Another yet ! A seventh ! I '11 see no more : 
 And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass 
 Which shows me many more ; and some I see 120 
 
 That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry : 
 Horrible sight ? Now, I see, 't is true ; 
 For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me, 
 
ACT IV. SCENE I. 57 
 
 And points at them for his. [Apparitions vanish.'] What, 
 
 is this so ? 
 First Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so : but why 
 Stands Macbeth thus amazedly ? 
 Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, 
 And show the best of our delights : 
 I '11 charm the air to give a sound, 
 
 While you perform your antic round ; 130 
 
 That this great king may kindly say, 
 Our duties did his welcome pay. 
 
 [Music. The Witches dance, and then vanish, with 
 Hecate. 
 Macb. Where are they ? Gone ? Let this pernicious 
 
 hour 
 Stand aye accursed in the calendar ! 
 Come in, without there ! 
 
 Enter Lennox. 
 
 Len. What 's your grace's will ? 
 
 Macb. Saw you the weird sisters ? 
 
 Len. No, my lord. 
 
 Macb. Came they not by you ? 
 
 Len. No, indeed, my lord. 
 
 Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride ; 
 And damned all those that trust them ! I did hear 
 The galloping of horse : who was 't came by ? 140 
 
 Len. 'T is two or three, my lord, that bring you word 
 Macduff is fled to England. 
 
 Macb. Fled to England ! 
 
 Len. Ay, my good lord. 
 
 Macb. Time, thou anticipatest my dread exploits : 
 The flighty purpose never is o'ertook 
 
58 MACBETH. 
 
 • 
 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 : 
 The castle of Macduff I will surprise ; 150 
 
 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 '11 do before this purpose cool. 
 But no more sights ! — Where are these gentlemen ? 
 Come, bring me where they are. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. Fife. Macduff's castle. 
 Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross. 
 
 L. Macd. What had he done, to make him fly the 
 land? 
 
 Ross. You must have patience, madam. 
 
 L. Macd. He had none : 
 
 His flight was madness : when our actions do not, 
 Our fears do make us traitors. 
 
 Boss. You know not 
 
 Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. 
 
 L. Macd. Wisdom ! to leave his wife, to leave his 
 babes, 
 His mansion and his titles in a place 
 From whence himself does fly ? He loves us not ; 
 He wants the natural touch : for the poor wren, 
 The most diminutive of birds, will fight, 10 
 
 Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. 
 All is the fear and nothing is the love ; 
 As little is the wisdom, where the flight 
 So runs against all reason. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE II. 59 
 
 Ross. My dearest coz, 
 
 I pray you, school yourself : but for your husband, 
 He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows 
 The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much further ; 
 But cruel are the times, when we are traitors 
 And do not know ourselves, when we hold rumor 
 From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, 20 
 
 But float upon a wild and violent sea 
 Each way and move. I take my leave of you : 
 Shall not be long but I '11 be here again : 
 Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward 
 To what they were before. My pretty cousin, 
 Blessing upon you ! 
 
 L. Macd. Fathered he is, and yet he 's fatherless. 
 
 Ross. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, 
 It would be my disgrace and your discomfort : 
 I take my leave at once. {Exit. 
 
 L. Macd. Sirrah, your father 's dead : 30 
 
 And what will you do now ? How will you live ? 
 
 Son. As birds do, mother. 
 
 L. Macd. What, with worms and flies ? 
 
 Son. With what I get, I mean ; and so do they. 
 
 L. Macd. Poor bird ! thou 'ldst never f ear the net nor 
 lime, 
 The pitfall nor the gin. 
 
 Son. Why should I, mother ? Poor birds they are 
 not set for. 
 My father is not dead, for all your saying. 
 
 L. Macd. Yes, he is dead : how wilt thou do for a 
 father ? 
 
 Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband ? 
 
 L. Macd. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. 40 
 
60 MACBETH. 
 
 Son. Then you '11 buy 'em to sell again. 
 
 L. Macd. Thou speak' st with all thy wit ; and yet, i f 
 faith, 
 With wit enough for thee. 
 
 Son. Was my father a traitor, mother ? 
 
 L. Macd. Ay, that he was. 
 
 Son. What is a traitor ? 
 
 L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies. 
 
 Son. And be all traitors that do so ? 
 
 L. Macd. Every one that does so is a traitor, and 
 must be hanged. 50 
 
 Son. And must they all be hanged that swear and lie ? 
 
 L. Macd. Every one. 
 
 Son. Who must hang them ? 
 
 L. Macd. Why, the honest men. 
 
 Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there 
 are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men and 
 hang up them. 
 
 L. Macd. Now, God help thee, poor monkey ! But 
 how wilt thou do for a father ? 60 
 
 Son. If he were dead, you 'Id weep for him : if you 
 would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have 
 a new father. 
 
 L. Macd. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st ! 
 
 Enter a Messenger. 
 
 Mess. Bless you, fair dame ! I am not to you known, 
 Though in your state of honor I am perfect. 
 I doubt some danger does approach you nearly : 
 If you will take a homely man's advice, 
 Be not found here ; hence, with your little ones. 
 To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage ; 70 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 61 
 
 To do worse to you were fell cruelty, 
 
 Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you ! 
 
 I dare abide no longer. [Exit. 
 
 L. Macd. Whither should I fly ? 
 
 I have done no harm. But I remember now 
 I am in this earthly world ; where to do harm 
 Is often laudable, to do good sometime 
 Accounted dangerous folly : why then, alas, 
 Do I put up that womanly defence, 
 To say I have done no harm ? 
 
 Enter Murderers. 
 
 What are these faces ? 
 First Mur. Where is your husband ? 80 
 
 L. Macd. I hope, in no place so unsanctified 
 Where such as thou may'st find him. 
 
 First Mur. He 's a traitor. 
 
 Son. Thou liest, thou shag-haired villain ! 
 First Mur. What, you egg I 
 
 [Stabbing him. 
 Young fry of treachery ! 
 
 Son. He has killed me, mother : 
 
 Run away, I pray you ! [Dies. 
 
 [Exit Lady Macduff, crying < Murder!' Exeunt 
 Murderers, following her. 
 
 Scene III. England. Before the King's palace. 
 Enter Malcolm and Macduff. 
 Mai. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there 
 Weep our sad bosoms empty. 
 
 Macd. Let us rather 
 
 Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men 
 Bestride our down-fallen birthdom : each new morn 
 
62 MACBETH. 
 
 New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows 
 Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds 
 As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out 
 Like syllable of dolor. 
 
 Mai. What I believe I '11 wail, 
 
 What know believe, and what I can redress, 
 As I shall find the time to friend, I will. 10 
 
 What yon have spoke, it may be so perchance. 
 This tyrant, whose sole name blisters onr tongues, 
 Was once thought honest : you have loved him well : 
 He hath not touched you yet. I am young : but some- 
 thing 
 You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom 
 To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb 
 To appease an angry god. 
 
 Macd. I am not treacherous. 
 
 Mai. But Macbeth is. 
 
 A good and virtuous nature may recoil 
 In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon ; 20 
 That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose : 
 Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell : 
 Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, 
 Yet grace must still look so. 
 
 Macd. I have lost my hopes. 
 
 Mai. Perchance even there where I did find my 
 doubts. 
 Why in that rawness left you wife and child, 
 Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, 
 Without leave-taking ? I pray you, 
 Let not my jealousies be your dishonors, 
 But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, 30 
 
 Whatever I shall think. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 63 
 
 Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country ! 
 
 Great tyranny ! lay thou thy basis sure, 
 For goodness dare not check thee : wear thou thy wrongs : 
 The title is affeered ! Fare thee well, lord : 
 I would not be the villain that thou think' st 
 For the whole space that 's in the tyrant's grasp, 
 And the rich East to boot. 
 
 Mai. Be not offended : 
 
 I speak not as in absolute fear of you. 
 I think our country sinks beneath the yoke ; 
 It weeps, it bleeds ; and each new day a gash 40 
 
 Is added to her wounds : I think withal 
 There would be hands uplifted in my right ; 
 And here from gracious England have I offer 
 Of goodly thousands : but, for all this, 
 When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head, 
 
 Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country 
 
 Shall have more vices than it had before, 
 
 More suffer and more sundry ways than ever, 
 
 By him that shall succeed. 
 
 Macd. What should he be ? 
 
 Mai. It is myself I mean : in whom I know 50 
 
 All the particulars of vice so grafted 
 
 That, when they shall be opened, black Macbeth 
 
 Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state 
 
 Esteem him as a lamb, being compared 
 
 With my confineless harms. 
 
 Macd. Not in the legions 
 
 Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned 
 
 In evils to top Macbeth. 
 
 Mai. I grant him bloody, 
 
 Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, 
 
64 MACBETH. 
 
 Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin 
 
 That lias a name : but there 's no bottom, none, 60 
 
 In my voluptuousness : and my desire 
 
 All continent impediments would o'erbear 
 
 That did oppose my will : better Macbeth 
 
 Than such an one to reign. 
 
 Macd. Boundless intemperance 
 
 In nature is a tyranny ; it hath been 
 The untimely emptying of the happy throne 
 And fall of many kings. But fear not yet 
 To take upon you what is yours : you may 70 
 
 Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty, 
 And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink. 
 
 Mai. With this there grows 
 
 In my most ill-composed affection such 
 A stanchless avarice that, were I king, 
 I should cut off the nobles for their lands, 
 Desire his jewels and this other's house : 80 
 
 And my more-having would be as a sauce 
 To make me hunger more ; that I should forge 
 Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, 
 Destroying them for wealth. 
 
 Maccl. This avarice 
 
 Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root 
 Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been 
 The sword of our slain kings : yet do not fear ; 
 Scotland hath f oisons to fill up your will, 
 Of your mere own : all these are portable, 
 With other graces weighed. 90 
 
 Mai. But I have none : the king-becoming graces, 
 As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, 
 Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 65 
 
 Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, 
 
 I have no relish of them, but abound 
 
 In the division of each several crime, 
 
 Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should 
 
 Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, 
 
 Uproar the universal peace, confound 
 
 All unity on earth. 
 
 Macd. Scotland, Scotland ! 100 
 
 Mai. If such a one be fit to govern, speak : 
 
 I am as I have spoken. 
 
 Macd. Fit to govern ! 
 
 No, not to live. nation miserable, 
 With an untitled tyrant bloody sceptered, 
 When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, 
 Since that the truest issue of thy throne 
 By his own interdiction stands accursed, 
 And does blaspheme his breed ? Thy royal father 
 Was a most sainted king : the queen that bore thee, 
 Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, 
 Died every day she lived. Fare thee well ! 
 These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself 
 Have banished me from Scotland. my breast, 
 
 Thy hope ends here ! 
 
 MaL Macduff, this noble passion, 
 
 Child of integrity, hath from thy soul 
 
 Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts 
 
 To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth 
 
 By many of these trains hath sought to win me 
 
 Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me 
 
 From over-credulous haste : but God above 120 
 
 Deal between thee and me ! for even now 
 
 I put myself to thy direction, and 
 
 110 
 
66 MACBETH. 
 
 Unspeak mine own detraction, here abjure 
 
 The taints and blames I laid upon myself, 
 
 For strangers to my nature. I am yet 
 
 Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, 
 
 Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, 
 
 At no time broke my faith, would not betray 
 
 The devil to his fellow and delight 
 
 No less in truth than life : my first false speaking 130 
 
 Was this upon myself : what I am truly, 
 
 Is thine and my poor country's to command : 
 
 Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, 
 
 Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men, 
 
 Already at a point, was setting forth. 
 
 Now we '11 together ; and the chance of goodness 
 
 Be like our warranted quarrel ! Why are you silent ? 
 
 Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once 
 'T is hard to reconcile. 
 
 Enter a Doctor. 
 
 Mai. Well ; more anon. — Comes the king forth, I 
 pray you ? 140 
 
 Doct. Ay, sir ; there are a crew of wretched souls 
 That stay his cure : their malady convinces 
 The great assay of art ; but at his touch — 
 Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand — 
 They presently amend. 
 
 Mai. I thank you, doctor. [Exit Doctor. 
 
 Macd. What 's the disease he means ? 
 
 Mai. 'T is called the evil : 
 
 A most miraculous work in this good king ; 
 Which often, since my here-remain in England, 
 I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 67 
 
 Himself best knows : but strangely-visited people, 150 
 
 All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, 
 
 The mere despair of surgery, he cures, 
 
 Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 
 
 Put on with holy prayers : and 't is spoken, 
 
 To the succeeding royalty he leaves 
 
 The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, 
 
 He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, 
 
 And sundry blessings hang about his throne, 
 
 That speak him full of grace. 
 
 Enter Ross. 
 
 Macd. See, who comes here ? 
 
 Mai. My countryman ; but yet I know him not. 160 
 
 Macd. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither. 
 
 Mai. I know him now. Good God, betimes remove 
 The means that makes us strangers ! 
 
 Boss. Sir, amen. 
 
 Macd. Stands Scotland where it did ? 
 
 Boss. Alas, poor country ! 
 
 Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot 
 Be called our mother, but our grave ; where nothing, 
 But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile ; 
 Where signs and groans and shrieks that rend the air 
 Are made, not marked ; where violent sorrow seems 
 A modern ecstasy : the dead man's knell 170 
 
 Is there scarce asked for who ; and good men's lives 
 Expire before the flowers in their caps, 
 Dying or ere they sicken. 
 
 Macd. 0, relation 
 
 Too nice, and yet too true ! 
 
 Mai. What 's the newest grief ? 
 
68 MACBETH. 
 
 Boss. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker ; 
 Each minute teems a new one. 
 
 Macd. How does my wife ? 
 
 Ross. Why, well. 
 
 Macd. And all my children ? 
 
 Ross. Well too. 
 
 Macd. The tyrant has not battered at their peace ? 
 
 Ross. No ; they were well at peace when I did leave 
 'em. 
 
 Macd. Be not a niggard of your speech: how goes 't ? 180 
 
 Ross. When I came hither to transport the tidings, 
 Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor 
 Of many worthy fellows that were out ; 
 Which was to my belief witnessed the rather, 
 For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot : 
 Now is the time of help ; your eye in Scotland 
 Would create soldiers, make our women fight, 
 To doff their dire distresses. 
 
 Mai. Be 't their comfort 
 
 We are coming thither : gracious England hath 
 Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men ; 190 
 
 An older and a better soldier none 
 That Christendom gives out. 
 
 Ross. Would I could answer 
 
 This comfort with the like ! But I have words 
 That would be howled out in the desert air, 
 Where hearing should not latch them. 
 
 Macd. What concern they ? 
 
 The general cause ? or is it a fee-grief 
 Due to some single breast ? 
 
 Ross. No mind that 's honest 
 
 But in it shares some woe ; though the main part 
 Pertains to vou alone. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 69 
 
 Macd. If it be mine, 
 
 Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. 200 
 
 Boss. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, 
 Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound 
 That ever yet they heard. 
 
 Macd. Hum ! I guess at it. 
 
 Boss. Your castle is surprised ; your wife and babes 
 Savagely slaughtered : to relate the manner, 
 Were, on the quarry of these murdered deer, 
 To add the death of you. 
 
 Mai. Merciful heaven ! 
 
 What, man ! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows ; 
 Give sorrow words : the grief that does not speak 
 Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. 210 
 
 Macd. My children too ? 
 
 Boss. Wife, children, servants, all 
 
 That could be found. 
 
 Macd. And I must be from thence ! 
 
 My wife killed too ? 
 
 Boss. I have said. 
 
 Mai. Be comforted : 
 
 Let 's make us medicines of our great revenge, 
 To cure this deadly grief. 
 
 Macd. He has no children. All my pretty ones ? 
 Did you say all ? hell-kite ! All ? 
 What, all my pretty chickens and their dam 
 At one fell swoop ? 
 
 Mai. Dispute it like a man. 
 
 Macd. I shall do so ; 220 
 
 But I must also feel it as a man. 
 I cannot but remember such things were, 
 That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on, 
 
70 MACBETH. 
 
 And would not take their part ? Sinful Macduff, 
 They were all struck for thee ! naught that I am, 
 Not for their own demerits, but for mine, 
 Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now ! 
 
 Mai. Be this the whetstone of your sword : let grief 
 Convert to anger ; blunt not the heart, enrage it. 
 
 Macd. 0, 1 could play the woman with mine eyes 230 
 And braggart with my tongue ! But, gentle heavens, 
 Cut short all intermission ; front to front 
 Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself ; 
 Within my sword's length set him ; if he 'scape, 
 Heaven forgive him too ! 
 
 Mai. This tune goes manly. 
 
 Come, go we to the king ; our power is ready ; 
 Our lack is nothing but our leave : Macbeth 
 Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above 
 Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may : 
 The night is long that never finds the day. 240 
 
 \_Exeu7it. 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 Scene I. Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle. 
 
 Enter a Doctor of Physic and a 
 Waiting-Gentlewoman. 
 
 Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can 
 perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last 
 walked ? 
 
 Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have 
 seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon 
 her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write 
 upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to 
 bed ; yet all this while in a most fast sleep. 9 
 
ACT V. SCENE I. 71 
 
 Doct. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at 
 once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching ! 
 In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other 
 actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard 
 her say ? 
 
 Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her. 
 
 Doct. You may to me : and 't is most meet you should. 
 
 Gent. Neither to you nor any one; having no wit- 
 ness to confirm my speech. 21 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper. 
 
 Lo you, here she comes ! This is her very guise ; and, 
 upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her ; stand close. 
 
 Doct. How came she by that light ? 
 
 Gent. Why, it stood by her : she has light by her 
 continually ; 't is her command. 
 
 Doct. You see, her eyes are open. 
 
 Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut. 
 
 Doct . What is it she does now ? Look, how she rubs 
 her hands. 31 
 
 Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem 
 thus washing her hands : I have known her continue in 
 this a quarter of an hour. 
 
 Lady M. Yet here 's a spot. 
 
 Doct. Hark ! she speaks : I. will set down what comes 
 from her, to satisfy my remembrance the moie strongly. 
 
 Lady M. Out, damned spot ! out, I say ! — One : two : 
 why, then, 't is time to do 't. — Hell is murky ! — Fie, my 
 lord, fie ! a soldier, and af eard ? What need we fear who 
 knows it, when none can call our power to account ? — 
 Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so 
 much blood in him. 
 
72 MACBETH. 
 
 Doct. Do you mark that ? 
 
 Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife : where is 
 she now ? — What, will these hands ne'er be clean ? — No 
 more o' that, my lord, no more o' that : you mar all with 
 this starting. 50 
 
 Doct. Go to, go to ; you have known what you should 
 not. 
 
 Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure 
 of that : heaven knows what she has known. 
 
 Lady M. Here 's the smell of the blood still : all the 
 perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. 
 Oh, oh, oh ! 
 
 Doct. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely 
 charged. 60 
 
 Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for 
 the dignity of the whole body. 
 Doct. Well, well, well, — 
 Gent. Pray God it be, sir. 
 
 Doct. This disease is beyond my practice : yet I have 
 known those which have walked in their sleep who have 
 died holily in their beds. 
 
 Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown ; 
 look not so pale. — I tell you yet again, Banquo 's buried ; 
 he cannot come out on's grave. 71 
 
 Doct. Even so ? 
 
 Lady M. To bed, to bed ! there 's knocking at the 
 gate : come, come, come, come, give me your hand. 
 What 's done cannot be undone. — To bed, to bed, to bed ! 
 
 [Exit. 
 Doct. Will she go now to bed ? 
 Gent. Directly. 
 Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad : unnatural deeds 
 
ACT V. SCENE II. 73 
 
 Do breed unnatural troubles : infected minds 80 
 
 To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets : 
 More needs she the divine than the physician. 
 God, God forgive us all ! Look after her ; 
 Eemove from her the means of all annoyance, 
 And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night : 
 My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. 
 I think, but dare not speak. 
 
 Gent. Good night, good doctor. 
 
 [Exeunt. 
 Scene II. The country near Diuisinane. 
 Drum and colors. Enter Menteith, Caithness, 
 
 Angus, Lennox, and Soldiers. 
 Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, 
 His uncle Siward and the good Macduff : 
 Eevenges burn in them ; for their dear causes 
 Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm 
 Excite the mortified man. 
 
 Ang. Near Birnam wood 
 
 Shall we well meet them ; that way are they coming. 
 Caith. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother ? 
 Len. For certain, sir, he is not : I have a file 
 Of all the gentry : there is Siward's son, 
 And many unrough youths that even now 10 
 
 Protest their first of manhood. 
 
 Ment - What does the tyrant ? 
 
 Caith. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies : 
 Some say he 's mad ; others that lesser hate him 
 Do call it valiant fury : but, for certain, 
 He cannot buckle his distempered cause 
 Within the belt of rule. 
 
74 MACBETH. 
 
 Ang. Now does he feel 
 
 His secret murders sticking on his hands ; 
 Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach ; 
 Those he commands move only in command, 
 Nothing in love : now does he feel his title 20 
 
 Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe 
 Upon a dwarfish thief. 
 
 Ment. Who then shall blame 
 
 His pestered senses to recoil and start, 
 When all that is within him does condemn 
 Itself for being there ? 
 
 Caith. Well, march we on, 
 
 To give obedience where 't is truly owed : 
 Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, 
 And with him pour we in our country's purge 
 Each drop of us. 
 
 Len. Or so much as it needs, 
 
 To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. 30 
 Make we our march towards Birnam. 
 
 \_Exeu7it, marching. 
 
 Scene III. Dunsinane. A room in the castle. 
 Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants. 
 Macb. Bring me no more reports ; let them fly all : 
 Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, 
 I cannot taint with fear. What 's the boy Malcolm ? 
 Was he not born of woman ? The spirits that know 
 All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus : 
 1 Fear not, Macbeth ; no man that 's born of woman 
 Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly, false 
 
 thanes, 
 And mingle with the English epicures : 
 
ACT V. SCENE III. 75 
 
 The mind I sway by and the heart I bear 
 Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. 10 
 
 Enter a Servant. 
 
 The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon ! 
 Where got'st thou that goose look ? 
 
 Serv. There is ten thousand — 
 
 Macb. Geese, villain ? 
 
 Serv. Soldiers, sir. 
 
 Macb. Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, 
 Thou lily-livered boy. What soldiers, patch ? 
 Death of thy soul ! those linen cheeks of thine 
 Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face ? 
 
 Serv. The English force, so please you. 
 
 Macb. Take thy face hence. [Exit Servant. 
 
 Seyton ! — I am sick at heart, 
 When I behold — Seyton, I say ! — This push 20 
 
 Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. 
 I have lived long enough : my way of life 
 Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf ; 
 And that which should accompany old age, 
 As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, 
 I must not look to have ; but, in their stead, 
 Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath, 
 Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. 
 Seyton ! 
 
 Enter Seyton. 
 
 Sey. What is your gracious pleasure ? 
 Macb. What news more ? 30 
 
 Sey. All is confirmed, my lord, which was reported. 
 Macb. I '11 fight till from my bones my flesh be 
 hacked. 
 Give me my armor. 
 
76 MACBETH. 
 
 Sey. 'T is not needed yet. 
 
 Macb. I '11 put it on. 
 
 Send out moe horses ; skirr the country round ; 
 Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor. 
 How does your patient, doctor ? 
 
 Doct. Not so sick, my lord, 
 
 As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, 
 That keep her from her rest. 
 
 Macb. Cure her of that. 
 
 Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, 40 
 
 Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 
 Raze out the written troubles of the brain 
 And with some sweet oblivious antidote 
 Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff 
 Which weighs upon the heart ? 
 
 Doct. Therein the patient 
 
 Must minister to himself. 
 
 Macb. Throw physic to the dogs ; I '11 none of it. 
 Come, put mine armor on ; give me my staff. 
 Sey ton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. 
 Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast 
 The water of my land, find her disease, 
 And purge it to a sound and pristine health, 
 I would applaud thee to the very echo, 
 That should applaud again. — Pull 't off, I say. — 
 What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, 
 Would scour these English hence ? Hear'st thou of 
 them? 
 
 Doct. Ay, my good lord ; your royal preparation 
 Makes us hear something. 
 
 Macb. Bring it after me. 
 
 I will not be afraid of death and bane, 
 Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. 60 
 
ACT V. SCENE IV. 77 
 
 Doct. [Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and 
 clear, 
 Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene IV. Country near Birnam wood. 
 Drum and colors. Enter Malcolm, old Siward and 
 
 his Son, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, 
 
 Lennox, Eoss, and Soldiers, marching. 
 
 Mai. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand 
 That chambers will be safe. 
 
 Ment. We doubt it nothing. 
 
 Siw. What wood is this before us ? 
 
 Ment. The wood of Birnam. 
 
 Mai. Let every soldier hew him down a bough 
 And bear ? t before him : thereby shall we shadow 
 The numbers of our host and make discovery 
 Err in report of us. 
 
 Soldiers. It shall be done. 
 
 Siw. We learn no other but the confident tyrant 
 Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure 
 Our setting down before 't. 
 
 Mai. 'T is his main hope : 10 
 
 For where there is advantage to be given, 
 Both more and less have given him the revolt, 
 And none serve with him but constrained things 
 Whose hearts are absent too. 
 
 Macd. Let our just censures 
 
 Attend the true event, and put we on 
 Industrious soldiership. 
 
 Siw. The time approaches 
 
 That will with due decision make us know 
 What we shall say we have and what we owe. 
 
78 MACBETH. 
 
 Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, 
 
 But certain issue strokes must arbitrate : 20 
 
 Towards which advance the war. [Exeunt, marching. 
 
 Scene Y. Dunsinane. Within the castle. 
 
 Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with drum and 
 
 colors. 
 
 Macb. Hang out our banners on the outward walls ; 
 The cry is still ' They come : ' our castle's strength 
 Will laugh a siege to scorn : here let them lie 
 Till famine and the ague eat them up : 
 Were they not forced with those that should be ours, 
 We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, 
 And beat them backward home. 
 
 [A cry of women within. 
 What is that noise ? 
 
 Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. [Exit. 
 
 Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears : 
 The time has been, my senses would have cooled 
 To 'hear a night-shriek ; and my fell of hair 11 
 
 Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir 
 As life were in 't : I have supped full with horrors ; 
 Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, 
 Cannot once start me. 
 
 Re-enter Seyton. 
 Wherefore was that cry ? 
 
 Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead. 
 
 Macb. She should have died hereafter ; 
 There should have been a time for such a word. 
 To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
 Creeps in this petty pace from day to day , 20 
 
ACT V. SCENE V. 79 
 
 To the last syllable of recorded time, 
 And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
 The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle ! 
 Life 's but a walking shadow, a poor player 
 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 
 And then is heard no more : it is a tale 
 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
 Signifying nothing. 
 
 Enter a Messenger. 
 Thou comest to use thy tongue ; thy story quickly. 
 
 Mess. Gracious my lord, 30 
 
 I should report that which I say I saw, 
 But know not how to do it. 
 
 Macb. Well, say, sir. 
 
 Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, 
 I looked toward Birnam, and anon, methought, 
 The wood began to move. 
 
 Macb. Liar and slave ! 
 
 Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so : 
 Within this three mile you may see it coming ; 
 I say, a moving grove. 
 
 Macb. If thou speak' st false, 
 
 Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, 
 Till famine cling thee : if thy speech be sooth, 
 I care not if thou dost for me as much. 
 I pull in resolution, and begin 
 To doubt the equivocation of the fiend 
 That lies like truth : < Fear not, till Birnam wood 
 Do come to Dunsinane : ' and now a wood 
 Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out ! 
 If this which he avouches does appear, 
 There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. 
 
 40 
 
80 MACBETH. 
 
 I gin to be aweary of the sun, 
 
 And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. 50 
 
 Ring the alarum-bell ! Blow, wind ! come, wrack ! 
 
 At least we '11 die with harness on our back. \_Exeunt. 
 
 Scene VI. Dunsinane. Before the castle. 
 
 Drum and colors. Enter Malcolm, old Siward, Mac- 
 duff, and their Army, with boughs. 
 Mai. Now near enough : your leafy screens throw 
 down, 
 And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle, 
 Shall, with my cousin, your right-noble son, 
 Lead our first battle : worthy Macduff and we 
 Shall take upon 's what else remains to do, 
 According to our order. 
 
 Shu. Fare you well. 
 
 Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, 
 Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight. 
 
 Macd. Make all our trumpets speak ; give them all 
 breath, 
 Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. 10 
 
 \_Exeunt. 
 
 Scene VII. Another part of the field. 
 Alarums. Enter Macbeth. 
 Macb. They have tied me to a stake ; I cannot fly, 
 But, bear-like, I must fight the course. What 's he 
 That was not born of woman ? Such a one 
 Am I to fear, or none. 
 
 Enter young Siward. 
 
 Yo. Siw. What is thy name ? 
 
 Macb. Thou 'It be afraid to hear it. 
 
ACT V. SCENE VII. 81 
 
 Yo. Siw. No ; though thou call'st thyself a hotter 
 name 
 Than any is in hell. 
 
 Macb. My name 's Macbeth. 
 
 Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce a 
 title 
 More hateful to mine ear. 
 
 Macb. No, nor more fearful. 
 
 Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my 
 sword 10 
 
 I '11 prove the lie thou speak'st. 
 
 \_T hey fight and young Siivavd is slain. 
 Macb. Thou wast born of woman. 
 
 But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, 
 Brandished by man that 's of a woman born. [Exit. 
 
 Alarums. Enter Macduff. 
 
 Macd. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy 
 face ! 
 If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, 
 My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still. 
 I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms 
 Are hired to bear their staves : either thou, Macbeth, 
 Or else my sword with an unbattered edge 
 I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be ; 20 
 By this great clatter, one of greatest note 
 Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune S 
 And more I beg not. [Exit. Alarums. 
 
 Enter Malcolm and old Siward. 
 Situ. This way, my lord ; the castle 's gently ren- 
 dered : 
 The tyrant's people on both sides do fight ; 
 
82 MACBETH. 
 
 The noble thanes do bravely in the war ; 
 The day almost itself professes yours, 
 And little is to do. 
 
 Mai. We have met with foes 
 
 That strike beside us. 
 
 Skv. Enter, sir, the castle. 
 
 [Exeunt. Alarums. 
 
 Scene VIII. Another part of the field. 
 
 Enter Macbeth. 
 
 Macb. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die 
 On mine own sword ? whiles I see lives, the gashes 
 Do better upon them. 
 
 Enter Macduff. 
 
 Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn ! 
 
 Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee : 
 But get thee back ; my soul is too much charged 
 With blood of thine already. 
 
 Macd. I have no words : 
 
 My voice is in my sword : thou bloodier villain 
 Than terms can give thee out ! [They fight. 
 
 Macb. Thou losest labor : 
 
 As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air 
 With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed : 10 
 
 Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests ; 
 I bear a charmed life, which must not yield 
 To one of woman born. 
 
 Macd. Despair thy charm ; 
 
 And let the angel whom thou still hast served 
 Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb 
 Untimely ripped. 
 
ACT V. SCENE VIII. 83 
 
 Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, 
 For it hath cowed my better part of man ! 
 And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 
 That palter with us in a double sense ; 20 
 
 That keep the word of promise to our ear, 
 And break it to our hope. I '11 not fight with thee. 
 
 Macd. Then yield thee, coward, 
 And live to be the show and gaze o' the time : 
 We '11 have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 
 Painted upon a pole, and underwrit, 
 < Here may you see the tyrant.' 
 
 Macb. I will not yield, 
 
 To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, 
 And to be baited with the rabble's curse. 
 Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, 30 
 
 And thou opposed, being of no woman born, 
 Yet I will try the last. Before my body 
 I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, 
 And damned be him that first cries ' Hold, enough ! ' 
 
 [Exeunt, fighting. Alarums. 
 Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colors, Mal- 
 colm, old Siward, Boss, the other Thanes, and Soldiers. 
 
 Mai. I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. 
 
 Siw. Some must go off : and yet, by these I see, 
 So great a day as this is cheaply bought. 
 
 Mai. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. 
 
 Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt : 
 He only lived but till he was a man ; 40 
 
 The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed 
 In the unshrinking station where he fought, 
 But like a man he died. 
 
 Siw. Then he is dead ? 
 
84 MACBETH. 
 
 Ross. Ay, and brought off the field : your cause of 
 sorrow 
 Must not be measured by his worth, for then 
 It hath no end. 
 
 Siw. Had he his hurts before ? 
 
 Ross. Ay, on the front. 
 
 Siw. Why then, God's soldier be he ! 
 
 Had I as many sons as I have hairs, 
 I would not wish them to a fairer death : 
 And so, his knell is knolled. 
 
 Mai. He 's worth more sorrow, 50 
 
 And that I '11 spend for him. 
 
 Siw. He 's worth no more : 
 
 They say he parted well, and paid his score : 
 And so, God be with him ! Here comes newer comfort. 
 Re-enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head. 
 
 Macd. Hail, king ! for so thou art : behold, where 
 stands 
 The usurper's cursed head : the time is free : 
 I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl, 
 That speak my salutation in their minds ; 
 Whose voices I desire aloud with mine : 
 Hail, King of Scotland ! 
 
 All. Hail, King of Scotland ! [Flourish. 
 
 Mai. We shall not spend a large expense of time 60 
 Before we reckon with your several loves, 
 And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, 
 Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland 
 In such an honor named. What 's more to do, 
 Which would be planted newly with the time, 
 As calling home our exiled friends abroad 
 That fled the snares of watchful tyranny ; 
 
ACT V. SCENE VIII. 85 
 
 Producing forth the cruel ministers 
 
 Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, 
 
 Who, as 't is thought, by self and violent hands 70 
 
 Took off her life ; this, and what needful else 
 
 That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, 
 
 We will perform in measure, time and place : 
 
 So, thanks to all at once and to each one, 
 
 Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone. 
 
 [Flourish. Exeunt. 
 
A list of the persons of the drama, with the scenes in which 
 they appear. 
 
 Duncan I, 2, 4, 6. 
 
 Malcolm I, 2, 4, 6; II, 3; III, 1, 2, 4; IV, 1; V, 3, 5, 7, 8. 
 
 Donalbain I, 2, 4, 6; II, 3. 
 
 Macbeth I, 3, 4, 5, 7; II, 1, 2, 3; III, 1, 2, 4; IV, 1 ; V, 3, 5, 7, 8. 
 
 Banquo I, 3, 4, 6; II, 1,3; III, 1,3. 
 
 Macduff I, 6; II, 3, 4; IV, 3; V, 4, 6, 7, 8. 
 
 Lennox I, 2, 4, 6; II, 3; III, 1, 4, 6; IV, 1 ; V, 2, 4. 
 
 Ross I, 2,3, 4, 6; II, 3, 4; III, 1,4; IV, 2,3,4, 8. 
 
 Menteith V, 2, 4. 
 
 Angus I, 3, 4, 6; V, 2, 4. 
 
 Caithness V, 2, 4. 
 
 Fleance II, 1 ; III, 3. 
 
 Siward V, 4, 6, 7, 8. 
 
 Young Siward V, 4, 7. 
 
 Seyton V, 3, 5. 
 
 Bot, son to Macduff . . . IV, 2. 
 An English Doctor .... IV, 3. 
 
 A Scotch Doctor V, 1, 3. 
 
 A sergeant I, 2. 
 
 A porter II, 3. 
 
 An old man II, 4. 
 
 Lady Macbeth I, 5, 6, 7; II, 2, 3; III, 1, 2, 4; V, 1. 
 
 Lady Macduff IV, 2. 
 
 Gentlewoman V, 1. 
 
 Hecate Ill, 5; IV, 1. 
 
 Three witches 1,1,3; III, 5; IV, 1. 
 
 Apparitions IV, 1. 
 
 Ghost of Banquo Ill, 4. 
 
 Lords ' Ill, 4. 
 
 A Lord Ill, 6. 
 
 Attendant Ill, 1.— V, 3. 
 
 A messenger I, 5. — IV, 2. — V, 5. 
 
 First murderer Ill, 1, 3, 4. 
 
 Second murderer Ill, 1, 3. 
 
 Third murderer Ill, 3. 
 
 Other murderers IV, 2. 
 
 (86) 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Macbeth belongs to the year 1606, or to the middle of the 
 second half of the period of Shakespeare's literary activity. 
 The plays to which it stands nearest in point of time are the 
 other great tragedies, — Othello, Lear, and Antony and Cleo- 
 patra. 
 
 The source of the plot is the history, or chronicle, of 
 Holinshed, a writer contemporary with the poet. Inquisitive 
 students will be interested to look up the story in Holinshed, 
 and to note the freedom with which Shakespeare has dealt with 
 the facts given him by his authority, and to what extent he has 
 mingled with them matter of his own invention. Those whose 
 curiosity leads them to investigate the sources of a number of 
 the plays, — as it is easy to do in Hazlitt's Shakespeare's 
 Library, — will find the general topic of the poet's indebted- 
 ness to other writers a profitable subject of discussion. 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 
 The metre of the scene may be regarded as ^consistently four-beat 
 iambic, with the initial light syllable frequently lacking. Then 
 verses 2 and 12, with the verse which the two half-lines numbered 
 8 and 9 may be considered to form, are regularly octosyllabic, 
 while the other verses begin with the accent and have but seven 
 syllables each. Meet in 7 may be expanded into two syllables (see 
 Ham. i, 3, 8) ; and hover in 12, instead of making a double light 
 beginning of the verse, is to be reduced to a single syllable, like 
 the words over and ever, which are often printed and spoken with 
 elision of the v. 
 
 (87) 
 
88 NOTES. 
 
 3. On the word hurlyburly compare 1 Hen. IV, v, 1, 78 ; 2 Hen. 
 IV, iii, 1, 25; John, iii, 4, 169. With what events of the play do 
 you connect hurlyburly and battle ? 
 
 11. Consider whether, in confusing fair and foul, the witches 
 are to be interpreted in the same way that Macbeth is, i, 3, 38. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 3. Consider the possibility of reading sergeant with three 
 syllables : so in line 5 make two syllables of hail, and in line 34 
 three syllables of captains (" capitains ") . Is it best to resort to 
 these expedients, or shall we let the blank verse halt? 
 
 7. The verse must be allowed to be one of only four accents. 
 Note that it has a pause in the middle. 
 
 13. Of kerns and gallow-glasses is supplied. See M. of V. 
 ii, 2, 24; v, 1, 297; Mac. iii, 6, 27. 
 
 18. The ending Hon here, and in 25, below, must be resolved 
 into two syllables. This peculiarity will need no further mention. 
 In line 57 a Avord of two syllables must be contracted into one. 
 
 30. Look up the other instances of the use of skipping, and 
 infer its meaning : — L. L. Lost, v, 2, 771 ; Mer. of Ven. ii, 2, 196 ; 
 T. Night, i, 5, 214; 1 Hen. IV, iii, 2, 60. 
 
 37. To bring the verse to the measure, reduce cannons to one 
 syllable, and overcharged to two : — as canrtns overcharged. Some 
 texts remove as they from the verse, and put these words in a short 
 line by themselves. 
 
 39. Comment on the adjective in this line and on the verb 
 in 18. 
 
 44. See in Cajsar, v, 5, 46, the noun which has developed from 
 smack by palatalization of the guttural, just as from break, bake, 
 speak, stick, make, wake, have developed breach, etc. So in 
 Prospero's Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar, aches 
 is a dissyllabic noun with palatal consonant ; while in the Nurse's 
 Lord, how my head aches ! what a head have II aches is a mono- 
 syllabic verb with the modern pronunciation. 
 
 45. thane, a word used 27 times in this play, but found nowhere 
 else in the poet's works. How may this fact be accounted for? 
 
 The line must be considered as lacking the initial light syllable. 
 
ACT I. SCENE III. 89 
 
 If you know German enough to call the first syllable by its German 
 name, Auftald, you will find the word convenient in discussing 
 metric peculiarities. 
 
 54. lapped, used here in the same sense as in Rich. Ill, ii, 1, 
 115, and in Cymbeline, v, 5, 360, is to be distinguished etymologi- 
 eally, as well as in meaning, from lap in line 4 of the next scene, 
 and from laps in Temp, ii, 1, 288. 
 
 58. To save the verse from the necessity of being read as an 
 alexandrine, consider Avhether the last two syllables of happiness 
 cannot be slurred in rapid pronunciation, just as if they formed a 
 double light ending. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 1-69. With regard to the metric form of the verse spoken by 
 the witches, describe its peculiarities as differing from the normal 
 verse of the dialogue. What dramatic purpose may Ave ascribe to 
 the poet in making the witch-scenes so different to the reader's ear 
 from the language of the human speakers? 
 
 20. pent-house lid. See L. L. Lost, iii, 1, 17. 
 
 23. dwindle, peak and pine. A good illustration of the way in 
 which a word of infrequent occurrence is often explained by collo- 
 cation with words more familiar. In Hamlet, ii, 2, 594, and Mer. 
 Wives, iii, 5, 71, peak is used figuratively. See also 1 Hen. IV, 
 iii, 3, 3. 
 
 32. The weird sisters. Observe as you read the play the differ- 
 ent designations applied by the various speakers to the witches, 
 and by the witches to each other. Are these supernatural beings 
 called by the same name in the stage directions and in the text? 
 
 The word weird is found nowhere in the poet's works besides 
 in this play. It is very apt to be misused by careless writers. 
 Consider its origin and true meaning. The word is also to be 
 considered, in each instance of its use, with reference to the num- 
 ber of its syllables. Scan this line, first as consisting of iambics 
 and then as consisting of trochees, and decide whether the iambic 
 or the trochaic effect is the better. 
 
 42. Live you? or are you aught That man may question? 
 Note that the second clause virtually repeats the first, and that the 
 
90 NOTES. 
 
 two clauses therefore constitute but one question. In line 53, 
 below, on the other hand, the two interrogative clauses are used 
 disjunctively ; that is, the second expresses the contrary of the 
 first. To read these questions properly you must understand this 
 distinction. 
 
 51. Is Macbeth's starting necessarily to be interpreted as indi- 
 cating consciousness of guilt? 
 
 53. Are ye fantastical, or that indeed Which outwardly ye 
 show ? The word fantastical here is sufficiently defined by the 
 following adversative question. See this word used again in the 
 same sense in line 139 of this scene. 
 
 57. On the meaning of rapt compare Macb. i, 3, 142; i, 5, 6; 
 Tempest, i, 2, 77; Timon, i, 1, 19. 
 
 60-61. On the construction compare Ham. iii, 1, 159. 
 
 72. Consider whether lines 72-76 are not inconsistent with 
 scene 2, lines 52-57. Recollect that the dramatists of Shake- 
 speare's day were accustomed to help each other in the production 
 of plays, and that Shakespeare at least had no pride of authorship 
 to make him jealous of other men's mingling their work with his. 
 From this looseness of structure in the plays, what may we infer 
 concerning the character of the public that the poet had in view? 
 
 76. Observe the Shakespearian use of the word owe, and com- 
 pare its earlier and its modern range of meaning. 
 
 84. What plant the poet had in mind cannot be definitely ascer- 
 tained. But he had just read in his Plutarch the following story 
 of what befell Marc Antony's soldiers in Parthia : — " They were 
 compelled to live of hearbes and rootes, but they found few of 
 them that men do commonly eate of, and were inforced to tast of 
 them that were never eaten before : among the which, there was 
 one that killed them, and made them out of their wits. For lie 
 that had once eaten of it, his memory was gone from him, and 
 knew no manner of thing, but only busied himselfe in digging and 
 hurling of stones from one place to another, as though it had been 
 a matter of great waight, and to be done with all possible speed. 
 All the campe over, men were busily stooping to the ground, dig- 
 ging and carying of stones from one place to another," etc., etc. 
 
 92-93. Name in usual forms of speech the emotions which 
 
ACT L SCENE IV. 91 
 
 contended in Duncan. Are these emotions such as by their nature 
 come into conflict with each other, or are they merely contending 
 for the supremacy? What is the final effect of this contention on 
 Duncan? 
 
 106. addition. So in Wives, ii, 2, 312; Ham. i, 4, 20; ii, 1, 
 48. 
 
 112. line, as in 1 Hen. IV, ii, 3, 80; Hen. V, ii, 4, 7. 
 
 120. home : as in Lear, iii, 3, 13 ; Hamlet, iii, 3, 29 ; Cymbe- 
 line, iii, 5, 92; and frequently elsewhere. 
 
 130-142. Comment on the general purpose, in plays, of solilo- 
 quies and asides. Show how this aside of Macbeth accomplishes 
 its purpose with reference to our understanding of motives, and 
 how it is made to enhance the impressiveness of the action. With 
 Macbeth's soliloquy compare that of Brutus, Jul. Cses. ii, 1, 63- 
 69. 
 
 140. Shakes so my single state of man. The word single is 
 perhaps used here simply as a term of disparagement or deprecia- 
 tion, as in i, 6, 16, this play; Cor. ii, 1, 40; Tempest, i, 2, 432. 
 On the expression state of man the best possible commentary will 
 be the other instances where the poet uses it, — Jul. Cses. ii, 1, 
 67 ; King Henry V, i, 2, 183. 
 
 144. What part of the verb is come ? 
 
 Scene 4. 
 
 8. the leaving it. Show -wherein this phrase is grammatically 
 incorrect. 
 
 9. studied in his death. Compare M. of V. ii, 2, 205. 
 
 26. everything safe toward your love and honor : — Every- 
 thing sure to express the love and honor which we bear you. So 
 paraphrased by Schmidt, who remarks that the passage is purposely 
 obscure and strained. 
 
 42, 44, 45. Describe the metric peculiarity which each of these 
 verses illustrates. 
 
 48-53. Compare Macbeth's aside with his speeches in the scene. 
 
 54-58. What are we to infer from Duncan's, — True, worthy 
 Banquo f Sum up, so far as is now possible, the character of 
 
92 NOTES. 
 
 Duncan. Describe his feelings towards Macbeth, and Macbeth's 
 feelings towards him. 
 
 Scene 5. 
 
 1-13. Why should letters that have to be introduced into the 
 dialogue of the plays be uniformly given in prose? Observe the 
 other uses to which prose is applied, and see if you can deduce 
 from isolated cases any principle that may have governed the poet 
 in the matter. 
 
 What may the present letter be considered as suggesting with 
 reference to the lapse of time in the preceding scenes? 
 
 16-74. Discuss the traits of character which Lady Macbeth 
 ascribes to her husband, and those which she reveals in herself. 
 
 Particularly to be noted is the elevation of the language, which, 
 though nowhere obscure, is infinitely removed from the common- 
 place of daily life. Consider whether a Shakespearian tragedy is 
 meant to be a transcript of conversations such as take place among 
 actual persons. For what purpose does the poet use language so 
 intensely figurative? What do you find to be the effect on your 
 OAvn mind of his manner of expression? 
 
 17, 21. In each of these lines note the extra light syllable in the 
 middle of the verse before a pause. 
 
 18. On the milk of human kindness, compare Mac. iv, 3, 93. 
 21. Illness cannot be explained from any other instance of 
 
 the word in the plays. But infer its meaning from Mac. ii, 3, 
 135 ; John, iv, 1, 7. 
 
 26. Expand the long vowel of hie into two syllables. 
 
 39-40. Compare these lines with 3-9 in the next scene. Lady 
 Macbeth's raven, — Banquo's martlet; what do these birds typify? 
 
 40. Pronounce entrance with three syllables, as if it were 
 enterance. 
 
 49. The line has a double light ending, and is not an alexan- 
 drine. 
 
 Scene 6. 
 
 1-9. Explain the dramatic purpose of the speeches of Duncan 
 and Banquo. Compare this entire scene with the previous one as 
 setting forth contrasts of character and temper. 
 
ACT I. SCENE VII. 93 
 
 10-14. Duncan's language is certainly tortuous. The course 
 of the thought seems to be as follows. — I have accustomed my- 
 self to receive with demonstrations of gratitude even those ex- 
 pressions of my subjects' good-will which really I found tedious 
 and troublesome. And now that I am troubling you with my 
 presence and that of my train, I commend to you my own exam- 
 ple, begging you to be thankful for my imposition of care upon 
 you, in view of the fact that even this annoyance I sincerely 
 intended as a token of love and honor. 
 
 13. God 'ild. See the phrase, with the verb contracted, as 
 here, Hamlet, iv, 5, 41, As You Like It, iii, 3, 76; v, 4, 56; and 
 with the verb in full ; Ant. and Cle. iv, 2, 33. The appparent 
 direct object of the verb in this sense is an original dative. 
 
 19. heaped up to them. For the meaning of to compare iii, 
 1, 52; Lucrece, 1589; John, i, 1, 144. 
 
 20. We rest your hermits. Recall Keats's 
 
 " Thou art my heaven, and I thine eremite." 
 26. in compt. Compare Merchant, iii, 2, 157. 
 
 Scene 7. 
 
 1-28. Point out the elements of consistency between the revela- 
 tions of character made by Macbeth in this soliloquy, and the 
 characterizations of him by his wife in scene 5. 
 
 16-20. Compare Oliver's confession of the good qualities in 
 Orlando, As You Like It, i, 1, 172-180. 
 
 45. The adage exists in various forms. It is among Hey wood's 
 Proverbs, 1566 : ' The cate would eate fishe, and would not wet her 
 feete.' 
 
 59. We fail ! In reading these words of Lady Macbeth, it be- 
 comes necessary to decide, or, at least, to discuss, the question, 
 whether they are meant to express indignant rejection of the idea 
 of failure, or simple fatalistic purpose calmly to accept the con- 
 sequences, if failure is to befall the enterprise. Which way of 
 reading seems the more natural ? Which do you like the better ? 
 
 64. convince : in the same sense as in iv, 3, 142, and in Cym- 
 beline, i, 4, 104. 
 
94 NOTES. 
 
 71. His spongy officers. Recall Portia's description of the 
 "young German," Mer. of Ven. i, 2. 
 
 77. The word other is frequently used by the poet in ways now 
 obsolete. With this instance compare Ham. i, 1, 108; Oth. iv, 
 2, 13. See also Mac. i, 3, 14; Lear, i, 4, 221. 
 
 79. Account for the change in Macbeth's mind that has taken 
 place between lines 31 and 79. 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 
 4-9. The possible meanings of Banquo's heavy summons, and 
 of his cursed thoughts, are most interesting subjects of discussion. 
 Is it to be surmised that Banquo too has been contemplating the 
 possibility of hastening by means of crime the consummation of 
 the witches' prophecy in behalf of his family? Note his confession 
 in line 20. Does anything in his subsequent conduct justify us in 
 supposing that at this time he suspects Macbeth's intentions? 
 What are the bearings, as regards this point, of his speech, 26-29? 
 Try to find that explanation of Banquo's perturbation which shall 
 be most consistent with the data furnished by the play. 
 
 5. Take thee that too. — See the same grammatical peculiarity, 
 Wint. Tale, iii, 3, 118; Much Ado, iv, 1, 24, and elsewhere. Is 
 thee to be regarded as a relic of the ancient dative, or as the result 
 of the tendency of the language to find, for close connection with 
 the imperative, a pronoun form that should be less emphatic than 
 thou? 
 
 For a hint of Banquo's meaning in these words, see Hamlet, v, 
 2, 152. 
 
 17. Shut up in measureless content. The meaning of the 
 expression cannot be determined by comparison with any similar 
 usage in the poet's works or elsewhere. Does shut up have refer- 
 ence to Duncan's shutting of his door for the night, or is it used 
 figuratively, with some such meaning as, — wrapped himself up ? 
 The question can be discussed, but not decided. 
 
ACT II. SCENES II., III. 95 
 
 31-G4. Note the circumstances that invite comparison between 
 Macbeth and Banquo. Banquo has with him his son, Macbeth has 
 a servant ; and each attendant carries a torch. Do they also dis- 
 miss these companions in similar fashion? Compare Banquo's, 
 " Take thee that too," with Macbeth's, " Is this a dagger which 
 I see before me?" 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 15-20. May it not be that these short speeches, being spoken, 
 as regards Macbeth himself, in extreme trepidation, are intended to 
 be lacking in coherence? 
 
 20-74. Do you discover in the scene any touch of natural kind- 
 ness in Lady Macbeth? Comment on Macbeth's series of meta- 
 phors, which is apparently going to be endless, and Lady Macbeth's 
 interruption of it with her, "What do you mean?" Be on the 
 watch for other instances of this exuberance of figurative speech 
 in Macbeth. As the previous scene contrasted Macbeth and 
 Banquo, so this contrasts what characters, and with what results? 
 
 28. Listening their fear. See Caesar, iv, 1, 41, and compare 
 2 Hen. IV, i, 1, 29. 
 
 37. The ravelled sleave of care. See the dictionary on sleave, 
 and compare Troi. and Cress, v, 1, 35. 
 
 63. Making the green one red. Be exceedingly careful in 
 finding the place for the pause in this passage. 
 
 67-G8. Your constancy Hath left you unattended. Consider 
 how the participle renders figurative an expression which without 
 it would have conveyed the same thought, but would have been 
 literal. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 1-4G. The porter-scene, though to an Elizabethan audience it 
 was by no means offensive, cannot be presented on the modern 
 stage. For what dramatic reasons is some such scene desirable ? 
 Consider Shakespeare's liking for strong contrasts, and his recogni- 
 tion of the necessity of effectually lowering the pitch of feeling 
 in his auditors when emotion has for some time been kept at a high 
 tension. 
 
96 NOTES. 
 
 The poet Schiller could not endure Shakespeare's Porter, but 
 created a very different one of his own for his German Macbeth. 
 The German porter sings beautiful verses in a lofty religious 
 strain. Schiller's porter-scene should, by those who read German, 
 by all means be looked up in the original; but Mr. Furness's 
 translation in his Variorum edition of the play will suffice for 
 those who must have it in English. Compare Schiller's porter 
 with Shakespeare's. Is the beauty of Schiller's verses relevant to 
 the question of their appropriateness in the play? Does the play, 
 as a whole, gain by the change made by Schiller? 
 
 1-2. If a man were porter of hell-gate. Are these words of 
 the porter merely wild and wanton, or may they be conceived as 
 shadowing the kind of gate at which he is actually porter? 
 
 2. old turning the key. The word old, used by the poet in 
 familiar style to amplify the essential meaning of a noun, or to 
 convey the idea of great quantity, is perhaps not yet, in colloquial 
 language, quite obsolete. See Merry Wives, i, 4, 5 ; Merchant, iv, 
 2, 15; Much Ado, v, 2, 98. See also note on modern, iv, 3, 170. 
 Note also Prospero's aged cramps, Temp, iv, 261. 
 
 6. napkins, as usually in Shakespeare. So in Hamlet, v, 2, 
 299. 
 
 16. at quiet: So in Judges, xviii, 27. 
 
 57. my limited service. See Meas. for Meas. iv, 2, 176; 
 John, v, 2, 123. 
 
 63. confused events New hatched to the woful time. Ex- 
 plain the bearing of these words of Lennox. 
 
 64. the obscure bird. Compare Jul. Cses. i, 3, 26. 
 74-75. See note on iii, 1, 18-20. 
 
 122. their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore. It is not 
 possible to find a parallel expression that shall satisfactorily ex- 
 plain this use of the word breeched. The most obvious interpre- 
 tation is, — covered as with breeches. 
 
 131. Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion. So 
 Publius, Jul. Cffis. iii, 1, 86, and Hermia, M. N. Dream, iii, 2, 344. 
 
 132. when we have our naked frailties hid. Understand in 
 the same way the words of Macbeth, line 139. 
 
 146-147. The near in blood, The nearer bloody. Both the 
 
ACT II. SCENE IV. ACT III. SCENE I 97 
 
 adverbs are obviously in the comparative. Ascertain which is the 
 primitive, and which the derived, form. See Rich. II, v, 1, 88 ; 
 iii, 2, 61; Wint. Tale, iv, 4, 412. 
 
 Scene 4-. 
 
 7. Comment on the metaphor. 
 
 10. Remember to avoid making an alexandrine wherever 
 possible. 
 
 10-20. Compare Jul. Caes. i, 3, 1-40. 
 
 14, 17. What metric peculiarity have these lines in common? 
 
 28. ravin up. Compare Meas. for Meas. i, 2, 133. 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 18-20. For ever knit. 
 
 Ride you this afternoon ? 
 Ay, my good lord. 
 
 A good instance of what Mr. Abbott calls an amphibious section, 
 — the first two groups constituting a perfect verse, and the last 
 two constituting another, while the middle group does duty in 
 both verses. Instances of the amphibious section have already 
 occurred in the play, and others will yet occur. 
 
 22. still, in a sense extremely frequent in the English of 
 Shakespeare's day. See Wint. Tale, iv, 4, 136 ; Hamlet, ii, 2, 42. 
 
 26. go not my horse the better, etc. Abbott, Shak. Gram., 
 suggests that Banquo regards his horse as racing with the night, so 
 that the better means, the better of the two. 
 
 Note the subjunctive verb and the inverted order of the clause. 
 See a condition similarly expressed in Merchant, iii, 2, 20 and 61 ; 
 John, iii, 3, 31. See also Scott's Last Minstrel, I, xxiii. Coleridge, 
 in the Piccolomini, ii, 1, has the sentence, — "Break one string, 
 A second is in readiness." 
 
 44. while then. While here appears strange in respect to its 
 meaning and the part of speech to which it belongs. Compare 
 Twelfth Night, iv, 3, 29. 
 
98 NOTES. 
 
 God be with you. As is usually the case with this phrase, it 
 has to be contracted in reading, whether contraction be indicated 
 in the type or not. See v, 8, 53. 
 
 55-57. Shakespeare had read in his North's Plutarch, life of 
 Marcus Antonius, the following account of the relations between 
 Octavius Caesar and Antony : — "In all manor of sports and 
 exercises, wherein they passed the time away the one with the 
 other : Antonius was ever inferior unto Caesar, and always lost, 
 which grieved him much. With Antonius there was a soothsayer 
 or astronomer of Egypt, that could cast a figure, and iudge of 
 mens nativities, to tell them what should happen to them. He, 
 either to please Cleopatra, or also for that he found it so by his 
 art; told Antonius plainely, that his fortune (which of it selfe was 
 excellent good, and very great) was altogether blemished and 
 obscured by Caesar's fortune : and therefore he counselled him 
 utterly to leave his company and to get him as far from him as he 
 could. For thy Demon, said he, (that is to say, the good angell 
 and spirit that keepeth thee) is affraid of his : and being coura- 
 gious and high when he is alone, becommeth feareful and timorous 
 when he cometh near unto the other. . . . Oftentimes when they 
 were disposed to see cockfight, or quails that were taught to fight 
 one with another; Caesar's cockes or quailes did ever overcome." 
 
 72. Determine whether utterance here, and in Cymbeline, iii, 
 1, 73, is, either in origin or in meaning, the same word as in 
 Hamlet, iii, 2, 378, and Caesar, iii, 2, 22G. 
 
 80. passed in probation. The meaning of probation is per- 
 fectly illustrated in Othello, iii, 3, 365. 
 
 81. borne in hand : so in Hamlet, ii, 2, 67. 
 
 92-101. What is the difference between a catalogue and a 
 valued file? Comment on the voice of valued. See v, 2, 8. 
 
 92-108. Describe the artifices by which Macbeth seeks to instil 
 into the murderers a feeling of personal vengeance against his 
 victim. 
 
 121. For certain friends that are both his and mine, 
 Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall 
 Who I myself struck down. 
 Consider whether the verbs wail and struck refer to acts that have 
 
ACT III. SCENES II, III., IV. 99 
 
 taken place or to acts that arc only imagined. The mood of these 
 verbs will depend on the nature of the acts which they describe. 
 If their mood is the indicative, do they not make Macbeth reveal 
 to the murderers his own assassination of Duncan? Schiller 
 translates struck by schluge. For had better be regarded as a 
 preposition, with the same meaning as in Cads, iii, 2, 14 : then 
 wail is in the first person, with the sense, I should have to wail. 
 
 133. I require a clearness. Does he mean that he shall require 
 clear proof of Banquo's death, or that he requires, in any event, to 
 be kept clear from suspicion of the crime? 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 13. We have scotched the snake. See Coriolanus, iv, 5, 198. 
 
 22. In restless ecstasy. Give the Shakespearian definitions of 
 the word ecstasy, after noting its meaning in this passage, in 
 Hamlet, iii, 4, 138, 139; iii, 1, 1G8 ; Tempest, iii, 3, 108, and 
 then in Merchant, iii, 2, 112. 
 
 30. Compare, as to metre, i, 5, 40. 
 
 32. In consequence of obvious defect in the text, the passage 
 cannot be construed, though its meaning is clear. 
 
 42. The shard-borne beetle. See Ant. and Cleo. iii, 2, 19; 
 Cymbeline, iii, 3, 20. Is the poet's entomology satisfactory ? 
 
 Has Macbeth taken his wife into his confidence in planning the 
 murder of Banquo ? Would Lady Macbeth's account of her hus- 
 band, i, 5, 16-31, be an adequate description of him at the present 
 moment ? Describe his mood as revealed in this scene. 
 
 Scene 3, 
 
 1. Can the presence of a third murderer be accounted for on 
 any other supposition than that it was Macbeth himself ? What 
 motives would have brought him there ? Do the time-indications 
 offer any objections to this view of the case? 
 
 Scene 4. 
 
 2. Avoid giving the line; six accents. As you deal with welcome 
 here, so deal with it in line 35 ; and as you deal with majesty 
 
100 NOTES. 
 
 here, so deal with it again in line 121. Similarly, line 37 is to be 
 scanned with five accents, — not with six. 
 
 14. 'Tis better thee without than he within. An instance of 
 confusion of cases due to phonetic similarity. See this subject 
 interestingly discussed by Henry Sweet, New English Grammar. 
 
 22. Of what aspect of marble could the poet have been thinking, 
 that he should use it as the type of wholeness? 
 
 35. to feed were best at home. But see line 59. Compare 
 Hamlet, iv, 4, 35; As You Like It, i, 1, 20; Tempest, iii, 3, 49. 
 Did feed have the same connotations to Shakespeare that it has to 
 us ? 
 
 Give a paraphrase of this speech of Lady Macbeth. 
 
 46. The table 's full. With the ghost of Banquo compare the 
 Hamlet ghost of Act I and that of Act III. 
 
 58. Are you a man? Are the words addressed by Lady Mac- 
 beth to her husband from this point to line 121 heard by the rest of 
 the company? 
 
 64. Impostors to true fear: to in the same sense as in Hen. 
 VIII, v, 4, 9; Tempest, i, 2, 480; Hamlet, i, 2, 140; Paradise 
 Lost, vi, 668. 
 
 GQ. Authorized by her grandam. See the only other instance 
 of Shakespeare's use of authorized, in Passionate Pilgrim, 104. 
 From these two passages settle the accent of the word, and note 
 whether in the two cases it has the same meaning. 
 
 67. When all's done. Compare M. N. Dream, iii, 1, 16; 
 Twelfth Night, ii, 3, 31. 
 
 72. our monuments shall be the maws of kites. See the 
 Faerie Queene, II, viii, 16. 
 
 85. Do not muse at me. Examine other constructions of the 
 verb muse, and sum up the poet's usage : Tempest, iii, 3, 36 ; Two 
 Gent, i, 3, 64; ii, 1, 176. 
 
 105. If trembling I inhabit them. So all the folios agree that 
 we shall read the passage. The most nearly literal meaning of it 
 would seem to be, — If, when dared to the desert, I through fear 
 remain at home. Various changes of reading have been proposed, 
 and may be seen in the Cambridge edition and in Furness. 
 
 124. Augurs and understood relations. An obscure passage, 
 
ACT III. SCENES V., VI. 101 
 
 whose meaning plainly is : — augurs, — or soothsayers, — who 
 understand the relations of things, — or the mysteries of nature. 
 
 142. See note on y, 8, 70. 
 
 142-144. The simple language of the last line suffieiently ex- 
 plains the somewhat complicated expressions of the two preceding 
 ones. 
 
 Scene 5. 
 
 1-36. Compare, metrically, the language of Hecate here and in 
 iv, 1, 39-43, with the incantation verses of the witches, iv, 1, 1- 
 38. How many syllables has Hecate ? 
 
 32. Define security as used here. 
 
 Discuss the purpose of the scene. How has it affected the inter- 
 est of the spectators in the fate of the hero of the tragedy? 
 
 Scene 6. 
 
 1-24. Describe the tone of Lennox's speech. 
 
 8. Who cannot want the thought how monstrous, etc. 
 Devise readings which shall make the line express its obvious 
 meaning without deranging its rhythm. Compare Mer. of Ven. v, 
 1, 203-20G. What metric defect is there in the line as it stands, 
 and how can this defect be remedied? 
 
 35. Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives. Ke- 
 construct the line by changing the order of the words without hurt- 
 ing the rhythm. So some editors venture to print it. 
 
 38. Hath so exasperate the king. See 1 Hen. IV, v, 1, 72; 
 Troi. and Cres. i, 3, 125; Merch. v, 1, 11; Rich. Ill, iii, 7, 127. 
 Infer from these instances a principle of Shakespearian usage. 
 
 41. turns me his back. See the same construction, Merchant, 
 i, 3, 85; Meas. for Meas. ii, 1, 121; Jul. Cses. i, 2, 267; iii, 3, 
 20. 
 
 What new and all-important interest is introduced with this 
 scene into the play? 
 
102 NOTES. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 
 1-3. Note the animals to which the witches appeal as their 
 attendants or familiars, and recall the similar references by two of 
 the witches in Act I, Scene 1. — Harpier cannot be understood. 
 It is usual to think of it as meaning harpy. 
 
 6. What is lacking to the verse, and how can the defect be 
 supplied ? 
 
 II. See Two Gent, i, 2, 30; Merchant, ii, 9, G3 ; Jul. Caes. 
 iii, 1, 171. 
 
 24. ravined may mean simply ravenous, by a confusion of 
 voice common in Shakespearian English ; or it may mean, glutted 
 with prey. 
 
 50. With this line compare Two Gent, ii, 7, 2 ; Meas. for Meas. 
 v, 1, 48 ; Othello, i, 3, 105 ; Ham. v, 1, 279, and infer Shakespeare's 
 usage of the two pronunciations of conjure. 
 
 52-60. Express in brief phrase the gist of all these though 
 clauses. 
 
 78. Had I three ears, I 'Id hear thee. Schiller has it, — Had 
 I three ears, thou wouldst fill them. In what tone does Macbeth 
 utter these words? Where does he get his Avhimsey of three ears ? 
 
 84. From what range of human interests are the figures in this 
 line and in 99 taken? Refer to iii, 2, 49. Find other instances 
 in the plays of metaphors drawn from the same source. 
 
 III. Come like shadows, so depart. Come is evidently used 
 as in i, 3, 144. 
 
 On the subject of prophesying by means of a glass, see Meas. 
 for Meas. ii, 2, 95. 
 
 122. What word in the line can best be expanded to fill the 
 measure? 
 
 Reckon up the several metrically distinct forms in which the 
 language of the scene is cast, considering the kind of rhythm, — as 
 to whether it is iambic or trochaic, — the number of accents to the 
 verse, and the presence or the absence of ryme. Are the speeches 
 
ACT IV. SCENES II., III. 103 
 
 of the witches consistently in the same verse-form, either in this 
 scene, or in the play at large? 
 
 What change in Macbeth's feelings and purposes have the events 
 of the scene produced ? Explain the prophecies made by the 
 witches in their bearings upon history. The play belongs to the 
 year 1G00. What motives did the poet therefore find in contemp- 
 orary interest for letting his witches make such prophecies ? 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 22. Each way and move. The expression seems singularly 
 inept, but there is no help for it. Devise various ways of making 
 the passage read satisfactorily Avithout hurting the verse. 
 
 65-66. An instance of a clause in itself somewhat obscure made 
 perfectly clear by its connection. 
 
 70. How would this infinitive be expressed in modern usage? 
 Look up other instances of peculiar infinitives in the plays. See 
 Mac. v, 2, 23; Errors, v, 1, 25; Mac. ii, 2, 73; iii, 2, 19; Shrew, 
 iii, 2, 27; M. of V. i, 1, 154. 
 
 73. What other words similar in ending to whither have you 
 had occasion to treat in the same way that you must treat this word 
 here ? 
 
 Compare, as to their dramatic purpose, the little boy's prattle 
 with his mother, and the soliloquy of the porter at the time of the 
 murder of Duncan. How is the immense tragical effectiveness of 
 the scene produced ? 
 
 Note where the language of the dialogue quits the verse-form. 
 Does this change seem to you casual or designed ? Give your 
 reasons. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 4. bestride is here used in a purely figurative sense, without 
 any shade of its literal meaning, and signifies merely protect. The 
 figure is derived from the act of a warrior standing over the body 
 of a fallen friend to protect it from the enemy. See bestride in 
 its literal sense, Richard II, v, 5, 79, and Cymbeline, iv, 4, 38; 
 in its purely figurative sense again, 2 Henry IV, i, 1, 207; and in 
 
104 NOTES. 
 
 its passage from the literal sense to the figurative, Errors, v, 1, 
 192. The Greek verb a/x(j)i(3aivcj developed the same secondary 
 meaning, as in Iliad, i, 37. 
 
 8. yelled out like syllable of dolor. Careless readers, mis- 
 apprehending the sense, and unused to the adjective like standing 
 apart from its complement, are very apt to give to like in this pas- 
 sage the wrong inflection. See Winter's Tale, ii, 3, 189 ; Two 
 Gent, i, 3, 69; Othello, ii, 1, 16. See also Paradise Lost, i, 527, 
 and compare Comus, 634. 
 
 15. and wisdom To offer up, etc. What is it that is lacking to 
 the phrase ? Supply it. 
 
 19. may recoil in an imperial charge : may yield to such temp- 
 tation as a sovereign may offer ; — on the principle that every 
 man has his price. Be careful where you put the stress of inflec- 
 tion in this sentence. 
 
 56. How many syllables has devil in this instance ? Infer 
 Shakespeare's usage in regard to this word from the following 
 passages in this play: — i, 3, 107; ii, 2, 55; iii, 4,60; iv, 3, 129; 
 v, 3, 11; v, 7, 8. Look up Milton's practice: — P. L. i, 373; ii, 
 496 ; iii, 613 ; iv, 502 ; iv, 846 ; ix, 188 ; x, 878. 
 
 62. All continent impediments. On the meaning of continent 
 compare L. L. Lost, i, 1, 262; Ant. and Cleo. iv, 14, 40. 
 
 80. Desire his jewels and this other's house. Describe this 
 peculiar use of the pronoun. See the same idiom in Merch. of 
 Ven. iv, 1, 54, 55; Sonnet xxix, 6. 
 
 89. portable : so in Lear, iii, 6, 115. 
 
 93. On the accent of perseverance compare Troi. and Ores, iii, 
 3, 150; Hamlet, i, 2, 92; Dream, iii, 2, 237. 
 
 97. The line may be read with six accents, or it may be reduced 
 within the five-accent measure. How would you so reduce it ? 
 
 135. At a point. See Coriol. v, 4, 64; Ham. i, 2, 200; Lear, 
 i, 4, 347. 
 
 142. On the royal custom of touching for the king's evil see 
 Macaulay's History, Chap, xiv, and the references he there gives 
 to other sources of information. 
 
 The Shakespearian meaning of presently it is always necessary 
 to bear in mind. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 105 
 
 170. A modern ecstasy. In ii, 3, 2, we saw old used familiarly 
 to amplify the moaning of a noun. Here, on the other hand, we 
 have modem used seriously as a disparaging and belittling epithet. 
 This is its invariable use in Shakespeare. See As You Like It, 
 ii, 7, 150; All's Well, ii, 3,2. It will be found to mean, — com- 
 monplace, trivial, trite. 
 
 Ecstasy here stands for a degree of mental excitement much 
 below its wonted pitch of meaning in Shakespearian usage. See 
 note on iii, 2, 22. 
 
 173. The or in the expression or ere must not be confounded 
 with the disjunctive particle or, which, though having the same 
 spelling, has a very different origin and history. The or in or ere 
 is one of the forms into which the Old English aer, meaning before, 
 developed in the Middle English period, and which is represented 
 in Modern English by the first syllable of early, by the form ere, 
 and by the superlative erst. The simple or, meaning before, is 
 frequent in Chaucer, as in Duchesse, 228, — 
 
 For I ne might, for bote ne bale, 
 Slepe, or I had red this tale, 
 
 and is clearly used at least once by Shakespeare, Cymbeline, ii, 4, 
 14. The combination or ever appears in the Bible, — Or ever the 
 silver cord be loosed, — and in Hamlet, i, 2, 183; and the combi- 
 nation or ere is in Shakespeare of more frequent occurrence. Dr. 
 Murray regards the ere, thus used in connection with or, as a form 
 of ever, the expression then being analogous to whenever, however, 
 etc. Another explanation of the ere, in or ere, makes it the modern 
 form of or itself, or ere thus being one Avord used twice in different 
 forms. In either case the expression means simply before. 
 
 177. Lookup the other places in the play where the word chil- 
 dren occurs, and see if it is to be pronounced anywhere else as it 
 must be here. 
 
 195. On the curious relation between the words latch and catch 
 see Murray's New Oxford Dictionary, under catch. 
 
 225. naught that I am. See Rom. and Jul. iii, 2, 87; Lear, 
 ii, 4, 136 ; Proverbs xx, 14. 
 
106 NOTES. 
 
 236. What verb-form that is lost to modern English do you find 
 here and in v, 2, 25, 27, 28? 
 
 240. Recall the very similar proverbial expression used earlier 
 in the play by Macbeth. 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 
 86. My mind she has mated. Remember that mate is two dis- 
 tinct words, differing widely in origin and meaning. See Shrew, 
 i, 1, 58; 2 Hen. VI, iii, 1, 265. 
 
 Can you give the poet's possible reasons for casting the dialogue 
 of this scene in prose, and then for bringing back to verse tlfe final 
 speech of the doctor ? Would you describe the tone of feeling in 
 this scene as being raised above, or as being depressed below, the 
 general level of the play ? 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 3. Revenges. Compare Mac. iii, 1, 122; Lear, iv, 6, 35; 
 Rich. Ill, iv, 1, 25; Pericles, i, 1, 74; Two Gent, i, 3, 48, 49; 
 Hen. VIII, iii, 1, 68. 
 
 5. Excite the mortified man. Mortified has in the language of 
 Shakespeare a meaning very different from its usual modern one. 
 Infer the Shakespearian meaning from Macduff's description of 
 Malcolm's mother, iv, 3, 109-111, and from the speeches of King, 
 Longaville, Dumain, and Biron, in Love's Labor's Lost, i, 1, 1-48. 
 See also Hen. V, i, 1, 26, and Merchant, i, 1, 82. The passage 
 must be read as if there were an even before the mortified. Ex- 
 press in a single word the essential idea of the metaphor, the 
 bleeding and the grim alarm. Why is the metaphor more effec- 
 tive than the single word ? 
 
 8. file. Recall another instance of the use of this word in the 
 same sense earlier in the play. Recall also a verb file with a wholly 
 different meaning. For a third file see Twelfth Night, iii, 3, 5. 
 
 15. He cannot buckle his distempered cause Within the belt 
 of rule. The passage becomes perfectly simple if we are entitled 
 
ACT V. SCENES III., IV. 107 
 
 to consider cause as meaning the collective body of partisans de- 
 fending a cause. But though the word is common in Shakespeare, 
 
 it is impossible to find another instance which this meaning will 
 suit. 
 
 10-17. murders sticking on his hands. Recall the other 
 instances in the play of the employment of this motive, and con- 
 sider it as to its dramatic effectiveness. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 11. loon, the same word as the one we find with a different 
 spelling, Othello, ii, 3, 95, and Pericles, iv, 6, 19. 
 
 15. patch. Remember the character which Shylock gives 
 Launcelot, and Puck's report to Oberon of the tricks he has played 
 on Bottom and Titania. 
 
 20-28. What does this speech suggest as to the time that has 
 been occupied by the events of the play? Have there been any 
 distinct points in the play, at which considerable portions of time 
 could be conceived as having elapsed ? 
 
 Name the traits of character in Macbeth which this speech 
 reveals. 
 
 35. moe horses. The form moe, or mo, from the Anglo Saxon 
 indeclinable ma, existed in Elizabethan English side by side with 
 more, from the declined comparative mora. The usage of Shake- 
 speare's time tended to distinguish the two forms in meaning, 
 making moe the comparative of many, and more the comparative 
 of much. Alexander Gill, Milton's schoolmaster at St. Paul's, in a 
 treatise on English grammar published in 1619, compared many 
 moe most, much more most. Shakespeare is consistent in his use 
 of moe. See Caesar, ii, 1, 72; Tempest, ii, 1, 133; M. of V. i, 
 1, 108; Coriol. ii, 3, 132. 
 
 Skirr. See the same word differently used, Hen. V, iv, 7, 64. 
 See also line 56 below. 
 
 Scene 4. 
 
 14-16. ShoAvhow the speech exhibits Macduff in strong contrast 
 to Macbeth, whose career is being wrecked by the security that the 
 witches, the instruments of darkness, have instilled in his mind. 
 
108 NOTES. 
 
 Scene 5. 
 
 1-28. Consider the subject of Macbeth's first speech, 1-7, and 
 his mood of mind in it. Then note the course of thought to which 
 he is led by hearing the cry of the women ; and finally observe 
 into what new channel his moralizings are turned by the announce- 
 ment of the death of the queen, and in what temper he proceeds 
 to speak. Do these speeches reveal to us the character of Macbeth 
 in any more pleasing and human aspect than that in which we have 
 hitherto seen it in the course of the play? 
 
 As the poet is notably loose in his use of the auxiliaries should 
 and would, Ave are justified in reading line 17 as if it were, — She 
 would bave died hereafter. With this piece of moralizing compare 
 the language of Brutus, Jul. Caes. iii, 1, 100, 101. 
 
 11. my fell of hair. The only instance in which the poet 
 applies the word fell to a human being ; but see As You Like It, 
 iii, 2, 55. 
 
 24. Allusions to the stage are frequent in the poet's works. 
 Recall two others in earlier parts of this play. 
 
 42. In the expression, I pull in resolution, to what part of 
 speech does in belong, and on what word must the chief accent of 
 the clause be placed ? From what action is the metaphor taken? 
 Why do the readings that have been suggested, — I pall or / pale, 
 in resolution, find favor with some editors? If we adopt either of 
 the readings, pall or pale, where will the accent have to be placed? 
 To what part of speech does in belong in that case? 
 
 51. The word alarum has an interesting origin. Consider its 
 relation to alarm. 
 
 Scene 6. 
 
 7. Make a collection of the various non-modern forms of con- 
 ditional and interrogative sentences that you may meet with. See, 
 e.g., besides this passage, ii, 1, 26; iii, 1, 26; iii, 1, 19. 
 
 Scene 7. 
 
 1-2. The expression was evidently a familiar one to frequenters 
 of the bear-garden. See Lear, iii, 7, 54. 
 
ACT V. SCENE VIII. 109 
 
 11. Evidently, not all contractions that must be made in the 
 reading are made obvious to the eye by the punctuation. Compare 
 this line Avith line 5 above. 
 
 18. Compare Jul. Caes. iv, 1, 23. 
 
 20. Compare As You Like It, i, 2, 25G. 
 
 28. Explain the paradox. 
 
 Scene 8. 
 
 1. Recall instances of such Roman fools. 
 
 9. the intrenchant air. Similarly, we have had sightless, i, 7, 
 23; careless, i, 4, 11; sensible, ii, 1, 36. What peculiarity have 
 these adjectives in common? Compare Jul. Caes. i, 3, 18. 
 
 34. damned be him. The Elizabethan public appears to have 
 been quite indifferent in the matter of cases, provided the language 
 remained clear. Do you see any metric difference between be him 
 in this instance and be he in line 47 below? 
 
 41. See note on v, 7, 11. 
 
 42. Comment on the phrase, unshrinking station. 
 50. Knolled. See As You Like It, ii, 7, 114. 
 
 53. See note on iii, 1, 44. 
 
 64. See note on iv, 2, 70. 
 
 70. By self and violent hands. Examine the following pas- 
 sages, and make the necessary inference regarding the word self: 
 Henry V, i, 1, 1 ; Errors, v, 1, 10; Cymb. i, 6, 122; Merchant, 
 i, 1, 148; Richard II, iii, 2, 166; Lear, iv, 3, 36. 
 
 Immediately upon finishing a thorough study of the play in 
 detail, it will be a good time to read it rapidly as a whole, in 
 order to view its parts more closely in relation with each 
 other, and to feel more profoundly, as a single impression, 
 its great dramatic movement. In connection with this second 
 reading, such questions as the following may be taken in 
 hand, either for oral discussion in the class, or as topics for 
 compositions by individual pupils : — 
 
 Is the play to be regarded as a tragedy of guilt or as a tragedy 
 
110 NOTES. 
 
 of fate ? Compare it in this respect with any other tragedies 
 you have read, as with Cossar, Hamlet, Lear, Othello. 
 
 Give in outline the career of Macbeth, showing the influ- 
 ences under which he changed from the Macbeth of the second 
 scene of Act I to the demon of the end of the play. 
 
 For what real elements of human life may we consider the 
 witches as standing ? Contrast their influence upon Macbeth 
 with their influence upon Banquo. What indications does 
 Banquo show that the witches have had any effect on him 
 at all? 
 
 Describe Macbeth as influenced by his wife and as sharing 
 with her the guilt of crime. Does her career show, equally 
 with his, an advance in criminality ? In what form do we see 
 retribution come to her ? 
 
 Portray, so far as the play furnishes the necessary data,, 
 the character of Duncan. What traits of character does the 
 play enable us to ascribe to Malcolm? 
 
 Compare the play of Macbeth with any other of the great 
 tragedies you may have read, — as Lear, Othello, Hamlet, 
 Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, — as regards rapidity of 
 movement, complication of plot, multiplicity of characters. 
 Note also the relative length of Macbeth. 
 
 Make a list of the birds mentioned in this play, and describe 
 the several purposes which these mentions are made to sub- 
 serve. 
 
 Select several of the most impressive figures of speech you 
 find in the play, and comment upon them, to show the reasons 
 of their effectiveness. 
 
 Make a study of Shakespeare's diction, showing some of the 
 causes of its marvellous power. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 The Academy Series of English Classics 
 
 Substantially bound in boards, and issued at a uniform price of 20 cents. 
 
 THE works selected for this series are such as have gained a 
 conspicuous and enduring place in literature ; nothing is 
 admitted either trivial in character or ephemeral in interest. 
 
 Each volume is edited by a teacher of reputation, whose name 
 is a guaranty of sound and judicious annotation. 
 
 It is the aim of the Notes to furnish assistance only where it 
 is absolutely needed, and, in general, to permit the author to be 
 his own interpreter. 
 
 All the works in the Series (excepting Webster's Reply to 
 Hayne) are printed without mutilation or abridgment. 
 
 Though in typography, in paper, and in mechanical execution, 
 the books reach the highest standard, each volume, containing 
 from 80 to 140 pages, is published at a uniform price of twenty 
 cents. 
 
 The following is a list of the books that have already appeared. 
 Other volumes are in preparation, and will be announced in due 
 time. 
 
 Arnold. Essays in Criticism. Edited by Susan S. Sheridan. 
 
 Burke. Conciliation with the Colonies. Edited by Professor C. B. 
 
 Bradley. 
 Webster. Reply to Hayne. Edited by Professor C. B. Bradley. 
 
 Addison. De Coverley Papers. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
 Carlyle. Essay on Burns. Edited by Henry W. Boynton. 
 
 MACAULAY. Essay on Addison. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
 Essay on Chatham. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
 Essay on Clive. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
 Essay on Milton. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
 Essay on Johnson. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
 Essay on Warren Hastings. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 Shakespeare. Julius Caesar. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
 Macbeth. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 Orations and Arguments 
 
 Edited by Professor C. B. Bradley, University of California. i2mo, 
 cloth, 385 pages. Price, #1.00. 
 
 The following speeches are contained in the book : — 
 
 Burke: Webster: 
 
 On Conciliation with the Col- The Reply to Hayne. 
 
 onies, and Speech before the Elec- Macaulay- 
 
 tors at Bristol. _ , " , 
 
 „ On the Reform Bill of 18^2. 
 
 Chatham: „ J 
 
 _ . . . „ . Calhoun: 
 
 On American Affairs. n , * 
 
 _. On the Slavery Ouestion. 
 
 Erskine: _ ~ 
 
 T n c* 1 a i r* Seward: 
 
 In the Stockdale Case. _ i , T .,,«„. 
 
 _ On the Irrepressible Conflict. 
 
 Lincoln : _ 
 
 The Gettysburg Address. 
 
 IN making this selection, the test applied to each speech was 
 that it should be in itself memorable, attaining its distinc- 
 tion through the essential qualities of nobility and force of ideas, 
 and that it should be, in topic, so related to the great thoughts, 
 memories, or problems of our own time as to have for us still an 
 inherent and vital interest. 
 
 The speeches thus chosen have been printed from the best 
 available texts, without change, save that the spelling has been 
 made uniform throughout, and that three of the speeches — 
 those of Webster, Calhoun, and Seward — have been shortened 
 somewhat by the omission of matters of merely temporal or 
 local interest. The omitted portions have been summarized for 
 the reader, whenever they bear upon the main argument. 
 
 The Notes aim to furnish the reader with whatever help is 
 necessary to the proper appreciation of the speeches ; to avoid 
 bewildering him with mere subtleties and display of erudition ; 
 and to encourage in him habits of self-help and familiarity with 
 sources of information. 
 
 A special feature of this part of the work is a sketch of the 
 English Constitution and Government, intended as a general 
 introduction to the English speeches. 
 
 The collection includes material enough to permit of a varied 
 selection for the use of successive classes in the schools. 
 
ENGLISH. 3 
 
 Professor J. M. Hart, Cornell University: Bradley's Orations and Argu- 
 ments is a good book. I am glad to have it, and shall take pleasure in 
 recommending its use. The thought of bringing together a few of the 
 best speeches by the best Englishmen and Americans, in a volume of 
 moderate size, is an excellent one. The selection is judicious, and as 
 representative as the limits permit. The annotation seems to me to be 
 sound. I am especially pleased with the general notes on the English 
 Constitution and Government. They ought to clear up a good many 
 puzzles and obscurities for the students. 
 
 Professor T. W. Hunt, College of New Jersey, Princeton: It is a book that 
 will be of practical service in the sphere of argumentation and forensic 
 address. The notes add much to its value. 
 
 Professor J. H. Penniman, University of Pennsylvania: It seems to be an 
 excellent book, and will prove a great aid to teachers of rhetoric and com- 
 position. The literary side of oratory is prominently set forth by the 
 selections chosen. 
 
 Byron Groce, Boston Latin School: It is a remarkably fine book; fine in 
 selection, in editing, in print, paper, and form. I wish I might have 
 copies for one of my classes. I long ago publicly urged that a larger 
 selection of orations be given in our literature courses, which, though 
 perhaps not too literary, certainly needed the variety such selections as 
 these you publish will give. 
 
 Wilson Farrand, Newark Academy, N.J.: The book is admirable in every 
 way — selection of speeches, annotation, and mechanical execution. The 
 special excellence of the notes seems to me to be in their historical sugges- 
 tiveness, and the special value of the book in its connecting literary and 
 historical study. 
 
 E. H. Lewis, University of Chicago: The principles on which these selec- 
 tions have been made are thoroughly sound. The notes are adequate, but 
 not too full. The book is a most available and useful one. 
 
 Professor Edward E. Hale, Jr., Iowa State University, Iowa City: I have 
 read the larger part of it with great pleasure. I think it will serve its 
 purpose very well, for the selections are excellent, and so are the notes. 
 The book supplies good material which cannot easily be found else- 
 where in so compact a form, and which ought to be a great help to many 
 teachers. 
 
 Professor H. N. Snyder, Wofford College, Spartanburg, S.C.: These judi- 
 cious selections, and helpful and interesting notes, make an exceedingly 
 useful book. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 Studies in English Composition 
 
 By Harriet C. Keeler, High School, Cleveland. Ohio, and Emma 
 C. Davis, Cleveland, Ohio. i2mo, cloth, 210 pages. Price, 80 cents. 
 
 THIS book is the outgrowth of experience in teaching compo- 
 sition, and the lessons which it contains have all borne the 
 actual test of the class-room. Intended to meet the wants of 
 those schools which have composition as a weekly exercise in 
 their course of study, it contains an orderly succession of topics 
 adapted to the age and development of high school pupils, to- 
 gether with such lessons in language and rhetoric as are of con- 
 stant application in class exercises. 
 
 The authors believe that too much attention cannot be given 
 to supplying young writers with good models, which not only 
 indicate what is expected, and serve as an ideal toward which 
 to work, but stimulate and encourage the learner in his first 
 efforts. For this reason numerous examples of good writing 
 have been given, and many more have been suggested. 
 
 The primal idea of the book is that the pupil learns to write 
 by writing; and therefore that it is of more importance to get 
 him to write than to prevent his making mistakes in writing. 
 Consequently, the pupil is set to writing at the very outset ; the 
 idea of producing something is kept constantly uppermost, and 
 the function of criticism is reserved until after something has 
 been done which may be criticised. 
 
 J. W. Stearns, Professor of Pedagogy, University of Wisconsin: It strikes 
 me that the author of your " Studies in English Composition " touches 
 the gravest defect in school composition work when she writes in her pref- 
 ace : "One may as well grasp a sea-anemone, and expect it to show its 
 beauty, as ask a child to write from his own experience when he expects 
 every sentence to be dislocated in order to be improved." In order to 
 improve the beauty of the body, we drive out the soul in our extreme for- 
 mal criticisms of school compositions. She has made a book which 
 teaches children to write by getting them to write often and freely ; and if 
 used with the spirit which has presided over the making of it, it will prove 
 a most effective instrument for the reform of school composition work. 
 
 Albert G. Owen, Superintendent, Aft on, Iowa: It is an excellent text. I 
 am highly pleased with it. The best of the kind I have yet seen. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 Introduction to Theme=Writing 
 
 By J. B. Fletcher, Harvard University, and Professor G. R. Car- 
 penter, Columbia College. i6mo, cloth, 136 pages. Price, 60 cents. 
 
 THE lectures that form the basis of this book were delivered 
 by Mr. Fletcher before the Freshman class at Harvard Col- 
 lege in the spring of 1893. These have been rearranged, with ad- 
 ditional matter by Professor Carpenter. The result is a text-book 
 for students who have completed the introductory course in rhet- 
 oric usually prescribed at the beginning of the Freshman year. 
 
 The fundamental idea of the book is that in practising any of 
 the various kinds of composition the student must decide : — 
 
 1. Just what treatment will be most appropriate to the sub- 
 ject-matter in general. 
 
 2. What treatment will most clearly bring out his own indi- 
 vidual ideas or impressions of this matter. 
 
 3. What treatment will make this subject most clear to the 
 particular class of readers or hearers which he has in mind. 
 
 Letter-writing, Translation, Description, Criticism, Exposi- 
 tion, and Argument are each treated in a clear and concise 
 manner, and exercises on each subject are freely introduced. 
 
 Selections from Carlyle 
 
 Edited by Henry W. Boynton, Instructor in English in Phillips 
 Academy, Andover, Mass. i2mo, cloth, 283 pages. Price, 75 cents. 
 
 THIS volume includes material adequate for the elementary 
 study of Carlyle in his earliest and most fruitful period. 
 It contains the Essays on Burns, on History, on Bos well's Life 
 of Johnson, and selections from Heroes and Hero-Worship. 
 
 The Notes are planned in the main to give aid rather than 
 information or opinion, and by frequent quotation of illustrative 
 passages to make the author his own interpreter. 
 
 The Essay on Burns, with the Notes belonging to it, is 
 reprinted to form one of the volumes of the Academy Classics 
 Series, advertised on page 1 of this catalogue. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 DeQufncey's Essays on Style, Rhetoric, 
 and Language 
 
 Edited by Professor Fred N. Scott, University of Michigan. i2mo, 
 276 pages. Price, 60 cents. 
 
 THE essays selected are those which deal directly with the 
 theory of literature. The appendix contains such passages 
 from DeQuincey's other writings as will be of most assistance 
 to the student. The introduction and notes are intended to 
 re-enforce, not to forestall, research. 
 
 Principles of Success in Literature 
 
 By George Henry Lewes. Edited with Introduction and Notes by 
 Professor Fred N. Scott. i2mo, 159 pages. Price, 50 cents. 
 
 THE object of reprinting this admirable little treatise on lit- 
 erature is to make it available for classes in rhetoric and 
 literary criticism. Scarcely any other work will be found so 
 thoroughly sound in principles, and so suggestive and inspiring. 
 The value of the present edition is greatly increased by the 
 excellent introduction by Professor Scott, and by a full index, 
 which adds much to its convenience. 
 
 Professor 0. B. Clarke, Indiana University, Bloomington : Your reprint of 
 Lewes's articles on " The Principles of Success in Literature " puts an- 
 other sharp and serviceable tool into the hands of the teacher and student 
 of the art of composition. Professor Scott, as well as yourselves, deserves 
 the thanks of all who care for truth and force in working. 
 
 Spencer's Philosophy of Style # Wright's 
 Essay on Style 
 
 Edited by Professor Fred N. Scott. 121110, 92 pages. Price, 45 cents. 
 
 THE plan has been followed of providing a biographical and 
 critical introduction, an index, and a few notes, — the latter 
 designed to provoke discussion or to furnish clews for further 
 investigation. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 Paragraph- Writing 
 
 By Professor F. N. Scott, University of Michigan, and Professor J. 
 V. Denney, Ohio State University. i2mo, 304 pages. Price, #1.00. 
 
 I^HE principles embodied in this work were developed and put 
 in practice by its authors at the University of Michigan sev- 
 eral years ago. Its aim is to make the paragraph the basis of a 
 method of composition, and to present all the important facts of 
 rhetoric in their application to it. 
 
 In Part I. the nature and laws of the paragraph are presented ; 
 the structure and function of the isolated paragraph are dis- 
 cussed, and considerable space is devoted to related paragraphs ; 
 that is, those which are combined into essays. 
 
 Part II. is a chapter on the theory of the paragraph intended 
 for teachers and advanced students. 
 
 Part III. contains copious material for class work, selected 
 paragraphs, suggestions to teachers, lists of subjects for composi- 
 tions & (about two thousand), and helpful references of many kinds. 
 
 The Revised Edition contains a chapter on the Rhetoric of the 
 Paragraph, in which will be found applications of the paragraph- 
 idea to the sentence, and to the constituent parts of the sentence, 
 so far as these demand especial notice. The new material thus 
 provided supplies, in the form of principles and illustrations, as 
 much additional theory as the student of Elementary Rhetoric 
 needs to master and apply, in order to improve the details of 
 his paragraphs in unity, clearness, and force. 
 
 Professor J. M. Hart, Cornell University : The style of the writers is ad- 
 mirable for clearness and correctness They have produced an uncom- 
 monly sensible text-book. ... For college work it will be hard to beat. 
 I know of no other book at all comparable to it for freshman drill. 
 
 Professor Charles Mills Gayley, University of California: Paragraph- 
 Writing is the best thing of its kind, — the only systematic and exhaustive 
 effort to present a cardinal feature of rhetorical training to the educational 
 world. 
 
 The Dial, March, 1894 : Paragraph-Writing is one of the really practical 
 
 books on Enelish composition A book that successfully illustrate? 
 
 the three articles of the rhetorician's creed, — theory, example, and practice. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 From Milton to Tennyson 
 
 Masterpieces of English Poetry. Edited by L. Du Pont Syle, Uni- 
 versity of California. i2mo, cloth, 480 pages. Price, $1. 00. 
 
 IN this work the editor has endeavored to bring together within 
 the compass of a moderate-sized volume as much narrative, 
 descriptive, and lyric verse as a student may reasonably be re- 
 quired to read critically for entrance to college. From the 
 nineteen poets represented, only such masterpieces have been 
 selected as are within the range of the understanding and the 
 sympathy of the high school student. Each masterpiece is 
 given complete, except for pedagogical reasons in the cases of 
 Thomson, Cowper, Byron, and Browning. Exigencies of space 
 have compelled the editor reluctantly to omit Scott from this 
 volume. The copyright laws, of course, exclude American poets 
 from the scope of this work. 
 
 The low price of the book, together with its strong and attrac- 
 tive binding, make it especially desirable for those teachers who 
 read with their classes even a small part of the poems it contains. 
 
 President D. S. Jordan, Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Cat.: I have re- 
 ceived the copy of Mr. Syle's book, " From Milton to Tennyson," and have 
 looked it over with a great deal of interest. It seems to be an excellent 
 work for the purpose. The selections seem well adapted to high school 
 use, and the notes are wisely chosen and well stated. 
 
 Professor Henry A. Beers, Yale University: The notes are helpful and 
 suggestive. What is more, — and what is unusual in text-book annota- 
 tions, — they are interesting and make very good reading ; not at all school- 
 masterish, but really literary in their taste and discernment of nice points. 
 
 Professor Elmer E. Wentworth, Vassar College: It is a most attractive 
 book in appearance outward and inward, the selections satisfactory and 
 just, the notes excellent. In schools where less time is given than in ours, 
 no other book known to me, me judiee, will be so good. I wish to com- 
 mend the notes again. 
 
 Wm. E. Griffis, Ithaca, NY. • The whole work shows independent research 
 as well as refined taste and a repose of judgment tnat is admirable. The 
 selected pieces are not overburdened with critical notes, while the sugges- 
 tions for comparison and criticism, to be made by the student himself, are 
 very valuable. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 
 
 Miss Isabel Graves, Wcllesley College, Wellesley, Mass.: I am pleased 
 with the appearance of the book, and find that the selection of masterpieces 
 gives the desired variety. The notes are fortunately directed against 
 some prejudices, and must prove suggestive. 
 
 W. E. Sargent, Hebron Academy, Hebron, Me.: The book is a gem — just 
 enough selections, and the very best ones of each author. 
 
 F. A. Tupper, Principal of High School. Qnincy, Mass.: Mr. Syle's "From 
 Milton to Tennyson" is a most admirable book in conception and execu- 
 tion. The selections, both of authors and of poems, evince true poetic 
 feeling and rare taste. The sketches, notes, and bibliography everywhere 
 bear marks of sound and scientific teaching power. The book is adapted 
 not only to schools and colleges, but also to the library and the home. I 
 feel indebted to the editor of this book, and in expressing my approval, 
 1 am making only a slight return for the profit derived from the volume. 
 
 Professor Edward S. Parsons, Colorado College: I find the book extremely 
 valuable for the wisdom of its selections ; for its comprehensive, yet care- 
 fully chosen bibliography ; and for its pointed and entertaining style. 
 
 The following 
 
 MILTON, by the 
 DRYDEN . . . 
 
 poets are represented : — 
 
 POPE . . . 
 
 THOMSON . 
 
 JOHNSON . 
 
 GRAY . . . 
 GOLDSMITH 
 
 COWPER . 
 
 BURNS . . 
 
 COLERIDGE 
 BYRON . . 
 
 KEATS . . 
 SHELLEY 
 
 WORDSWORTH 
 
 MACAULAY 
 CLOUGH . . 
 
 ARNOLD . . 
 BROWNING 
 TENNYSON 
 
 L'Allegro, II Penseroso, Lycidas, and a Selection from the 
 
 Sonnets. 
 Epistle to Congreve, Alexander's Feast, Character of a Good 
 
 Parson. 
 Epistles to Mr. Jervas, to Lord Burlington, and to Augustus. 
 Winter. 
 
 Vanity of Human Wishes. 
 
 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, and The Bard. 
 Deserted Village. 
 Winter Morning's Walk. 
 Cotter's Saturday Night, Tarn O'Shanter, and a Selection 
 
 from the Songs. 
 Ancient Mariner. 
 Isles of Greece and Selections from Childe Harold, Manfred, 
 
 and the Hebrew Melodies. 
 Eve of St. Agnes, Ode to a Nightingale, Sonnet on Chapman's 
 
 Homer. 
 Euganean Hills, The Cloud, The Skylark, and the Two 
 
 Sonnets on the Nile. 
 Laodamia, The Highland Girl,Tintern Abbey, The Cuckoo, 
 
 The Ode to a Skylark, The Milton Sonnet, The Ode to 
 
 Duty, and the Ode on the Intimations of Immortality. 
 Horatius. 
 
 Two Ships, the Prologue to the Mari Magno, and The Law- 
 yer's First Tale. 
 Scholar-Gypsy and the Forsaken Merman. 
 Transcript from Euripides (Balaustion's Adventure). 
 OZnone, the Morte D'Arthur, The Miller's Daughter, and a 
 
 Selection from the Songs. 
 
10 ENGLISH. 
 
 Select Essays of Macaulay 
 
 Edited by Samuel Thurber, Girls' High School, Boston. i2mo, 
 205 pages ; cloth, 70 cents ; boards, 50 cents. 
 
 THIS selection comprises the essays on Milton, Bun van,' 
 Johnson, Goldsmith, and Madame D'Arblay, thus giv- 
 ing illustrations both of Macaulay's earlier and of his later 
 style. It aims to put into the hands of high school pupils speci- 
 mens of English prose that shall be eminently interesting to 
 read and study in class, and which shall serve as models of clear 
 and vigorous writing. 
 
 The subjects of the essays are such as to bring them into 
 close relation with the study of general English literature. 
 
 The annotation is intended to serve as a guide and stimulus to 
 research rather than as a substitute for research. The notes, 
 therefore, are few in number. Only when an allusion of Macau- 
 lay is decidedly difficult to verify does the editor give the result 
 of his own investigations. In all other cases he leads the pupil 
 to make investigation for himself, believing that a good method 
 in English, as in other studies, should leave as much free play 
 as possible to the activity of the learner. 
 
 Historical Essays of Macaulay 
 
 Edited by Samuel Thurber. i2mo, cloth, 394 pages. Price, 80 cents. 
 
 THIS selection includes the essays on Lord Give, Warren 
 Hastings, and both those on the Earl of Chatham. The 
 text in each case is given entire. A map of India, giving the 
 location of places named in the essays, is included. 
 
 The notes are intended to help the pupil to help himself. 
 They do not attempt to take the place of dictionary, encyclo- 
 paedia, and such histories as are within the reach of ordinary 
 students in academies or high schools. When an allusion is not 
 easily understood, a note briefly explains it, or at least indicates 
 where an explanation may be found. In other cases the pupil 
 is expected to rely on his own efforts, and on such assistance as 
 his teacher may think wise to give. 
 
£be Scabemp Series 
 
 OF 
 
 English Classics 
 
 Uniform with this Volume. Price 20 Cents. 
 
 Burke. 
 
 On Conciliation with the Colonies. 
 
 C. I< Bradley, 
 
 Webster. 
 
 Reply to Hayne. 
 
 C. B. Bradley. 
 
 Addison. 
 
 De Coverley Papers. 
 
 S. Thurber. 
 
 Carlyle. 
 
 Essay on Burns. 
 
 H. W. Boynton. 
 
 Macaulay 
 
 Essay on Addison. 
 Essay on Milton. 
 Essay on Johnson. 
 Essay on Chatham. 
 Essay on Clive. 
 Essay on Warren Hastings. 
 
 S. Thurber. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Julius Caesar. 
 Macbeth. 
 Merchant of Venice. 
 
 
 Matthew Af no 
 
 ld. Essays in Criticism. 
 
 S. S. Sheridan. 
 
 *' 
 
 Other volumes in preparation. 
 
 
 ALLYN and BACON, Publishers, 
 
 172, Tremont St., BOSTON. 355, Wabash Ave., CHICAGO. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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