THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES FROM THE LIBRARY OF ELI SOBEL rr- r L- t ' I . THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH. Kutai>4.llsanon:faireisfoule..3ndfouitisfaire, Houet ihroughthefoggeindfilthieayre. Exmt. Scena Secunda. um waha. Enter King iJMilcomi, Vnit- ttendants, mtttijtg Ki*. What bloody man is that r he cin rcpott, Ai feemeth by his plight.of die Rcuoli The neweft ftatc. Mtd. ThismheSerieant, Who likea good and bardie Souldier fougVt Cainft my Capiiuiiie : Haile braue friend , Say^ to the King.thc knowledge of the Bioyio. Aithoudidfl leaueit. Op. Doubifull it flood. And choake their Act : The mciMcKcTO^dairlU (Worlhie to be a Rebcll, for to that 'The multiplying ViUaniei of Nature Doe fwaime tpon him) from the Weftcrne Ifles Of Kernes andGiHovrgroiTci is fopply'd, ShewM like a Rebelli Whore root all's too weiVe: For brauc /Mro-ino (well her deferues thit Nime) DifdayningFortune.nlthhisbnndKhtStcele, Which fmoak'd with bloody ereninon (Like Valours Minion; caru'd out his p adage, Till hec fac'd the Slaue: Which neu'r fbooke handv.nor bad faroell to him, Till he vnfeam'd him from the Naue toth 1 Chops, And fix'd his Head rpon out Battlernenu. C*f. As whence the Sunne 'gins his teflcftion. Shipwracking Stonnes,nd direfoll Thunders : Difcomfort fwells?Marke KingofScotland,iDarkt, No fooner Mice had.with Valoui arm'd. Compeird thefc skipping Kernes to null their heelcs. But theNorweyan Lord.furueying vantage. Wiih furbnflit Armes,and new fupplyes of men, Begin afrediaiTault. Ctf. Yes.asSparrovKi.Eagles; Or the Hare, tl.el.yon: 111 fay footh, I mutt report they Jf ert As Cannons ouer- Except they meant to bithe in rceLing Wounds, Icannoi tell : butlamfaint, MyGatTiescryfoihelpe. fj. So well thy wordsbecomethee,a5tnyVTOHDd9, They Iraack of Hoaoi both : Goeget him Surgcoru. ittfr Rejje Mutt Af?m. Who comes here ? Mil. ThewonhyTiaxofRoSc. LtK. What a haHc lookes through Mi eye? So fhould he looke.thjt fceuics to fpcale thingt ttnogc Koff,. God fauc the King. K,g. Whence cja>'ftthou.worthy7lar > Ktff. From Fiffe, great Kiog, Where the Norweyan Barmen flow! the Slie, And fanne our people colj. AfnUedbytlmmoftdinoyillTraytor, The Tint of Cawdor.bcgan a diCmatl Conflift, Till that Itllnfi Bridegroome.lapl in proofc. Confronted himwith fclfe-coaipatifoni, Point againd Point.rebellioul Anne 'gainft Arme, Curbing his Uuifh {pirn : and toconclude, TheV,aoriefellonl. Kmf. Great happinelTe. Keffi. Thatnow.JwOTii.theNorwiyesKing, Craues compoBtion : Nor would we deigne him banal! of his me:i, Till he disburfed , at Saint ftlma ynch, Ten thoufand Dollars'.io our generall ife. FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF THE FIRST PAGE OF MACBETH, FIRST FOLIO THENEWHUDSON SHAKESPEARE THETRAGEDYOF MACBETH HENRYNORMAN HUDSON, LI/D- EDITED AND REVISED BY EBENE-ZER CHARITON BLACK LLD- (GLASGOW) WITH THE COOPERATION OF ANDREW JACKS OK GEORGE HTH GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON NEWTORK CHICACX) LONDON ATLANTA. DALLAS COLUMBUS SAN FBANCISCD ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY GINN AND COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 73 '-3 fltbtngum CINN AND COMPANY PRO- PRIETORS BOSTON U.S.A. SRLF URL PREFACE The text of this edition of Macbeth is based upon a collation of the seventeenth century Folios, the Globe edi- tion, and that of Delius. As compared with the text of the earlier editions of the Hudson Shakespeare, it is conservative. Exclusive of changes in spelling, punctuation, and stage directions, very few emendations by eighteenth century and nineteenth century editors have been adopted ; and these, with every variation from the First Folio, are indicated in the textual notes. These notes are printed immediately below the text so that a reader or student may see at a glance the evidence in the case of a disputed reading and have some definite understanding of the reasons for those differences in the text of Shakespeare which frequently surprise and very often annoy. A consideration of the more poetical, or the more dramatically effective, of two variant readings will often lead to rich results in awakening a spirit of discriminating interpretation and in developing true creative criticism. In no sense is this a textual variorum edition. The variants given are only those of importance and high authority. The spelling and the punctuation of the text are mod- ern, except in the case of verb terminations in -ed, which, when the e is silent, are printed with the apostrophe in its place. This is the general usage in the First Folio. Modern iv PREFACE spelling has to a certain extent been followed in the text variants ; but the original spelling has been retained wherever its peculiarities have been the basis for impor- tant textual criticism and emendation. With the exception of the position of the textual variants, the plan of this edition is similar to that of the earlier edi- tions of the Hudson Shakespeare. It is impossible to specify the various instances of revision and rearrangement in the matter of the Introduction and the interpretative notes, but the endeavor has been to retain all that gave the Hudson Shakespeare its unique place and to add the results of what seems vital and permanent in later inquiry and research. While it is important that the principle of siium cuique be attended to so far as is possible in matters of research and scholarship, it is becoming more and more difficult to give every man his own in Shakespearian annotation. The amount of material accumulated is so great that the identity- origin of much important comment and suggestion is either wholly lost or so crushed out of shape as to be beyond recognition. Instructive significance perhaps attaches to this in editing the works of one who quietly made so much of materials gathered by others. But the list of authorities given on page Ixxi will indicate the chief source of much that has gone to enrich the value of this edition. Espe- cial acknowledgment is here made of the obligations to Dr. William Aldis Wright and Dr. Horace Howard Furness, whose work in Shakespearian criticism, research, and col- lating, has made all subsequent editors and investigators their eternal bondmen. PREFACE V With regard to the general plan of this edition, Professor W. P. Trent, of Columbia University, has offered valuable suggestions and given important advice ; and to Mr. M. Grant Daniell's patience, accuracy, and judgment this volume owes both its freedom from many a blunder and its possession of a carefully arranged index. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PAGE I. SOURCES . ix THE MAIN STORY ix THE MACBETH OF HISTORY ix THE MACBETH OF LEGEND x JOHN OK FORDUN x ANDREW OF WYNTOUN xi BOECE xii BELLENDEN xii STEWART xiii HOLINSHED xiii BUCHANAN xvii EARLIER PLAYS xviii WITCH LORE xx THE MOVING WOOD xxiii MACDUFF'S BIRTH xxiv WAS SHAKESPEARE EVER IN SCOTLAND? . . . xxv II. DATE OF COMPOSITION xxvi EXTERNAL EVIDENCE xxvi INTERNAL EVIDENCE xxviii III. EARLY EDITIONS xxi* FOLIOS xxix THE QUARTOS OF 1673 AND '674 xxx ROWE'S EDITIONS xxxi IV. SHAKESPEARE AND MIDDLETON xxxi V. VERSIFICATION AND DICTION xxxiii BLANK VERSE xxxiii RHYME xxxv PROSE xxxvi vii Viii CONTENTS PAGE VI. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE xxxviii ANALYSIS BY ACT AND SCENE xxxix VII. MANAGEMENT OF TIME AND PLACE xliv VIII. THE CHARACTERS xlv THE WEIRD SISTERS xlv THE WEIRD SISTERS AND MACBETH xlix MACBETH AND BANQUO Hi MACBETH liv LADY MACBETH Ivii IX. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS , Ixiv X. STAGE HISTORY Ixvi THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY Ixvi THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Ixviii THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Ixix AUTHORITIES (WITH ABBREVIATIONS) Ixxi CHRONOLOGICAL CHART Ixxii DISTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERS Ixxvi THE TEXT ACT I 3 ACT II 42 ACT III 67 ACT IV 97 ACT V 128 INDEX I. WORDS AND PHRASES .... 153 II. QUOTATIONS FROM HOLINSHED 159 ILLUSTRATIONS FACSIMILE, FIRST PAGE OF MACBETH, FIRST FOLIO . Frontispiece MACBETH MEETS THE WEIRD SISTERS (FROM HOLINSHED) xiv MACBETH'S INVESTITURE (FROM HOLINSHED) xiv TITLE-PAGE, HOLINSHED'S DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND . . xvi INTRODUCTION NOTE. In citations from Shakespeare's plays and nondramatic poems the numbering has reference to the Globe edition, except in the case of this play, where the reference is to this edition. I. SOURCES The fatal consequence of the intervention of malignant supernatural powers in human affairs has fascinated the deepest minds in all ages and in all lands. It is the theme of Greek tragedy ; it is the germ idea of the Faust legend ; it is the essential element in Paradise Lost, The story of Macbeth, as we have it in Shakespeare, belongs to that great cycle of temptation themes which, developing naturally from the story of the fall in the Genesis narrative, became in the Middle Ages the legend of the man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for fortune, power, or universal knowledge. THE MAIN STORY THE MACBETH OF HISTORY Modern research 1 has established that the Macbeth of history was, for his time, a worthy and beneficent monarch, thoroughly deserving the title of " the liberal king " given to 1 Cf. Freeman's The History of the Norman Conquest, 1867-1879; Skene's Celtic Scotland, 1876-1880 ; Professor Hume Brown's The History of Scotland (Cambridge Historical Series) ; Robertson's Scot- land under her Early Kings. x THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE him by St. Berchan. He appears first in trustworthy annals * as the hereditary ' mormaor,' or high steward, of Moray, accompanying his grandfather, Malcolm II, on a mission of homage to Cnut, king of England, in 1031. His seventeen years' reign (1040-1057) was marked by unprecedented order and prosperity ; and, as Buchanan states in his Rerum Scoticarum Historia, first printed in 1582, he applied his mind to make good and useful laws, a thing almost wholly neglected by former kings. From this eleventh century king of Scotland the influence of mediaeval story-telling and the wilful falsification of historical material for political pur- poses have created the Macbeth of myth and legend. " With the Scottish historians who followed the War of Independ- ence it was a prime concern to produce an unbroken line of Scottish kings stretching to the fathers of the human race. As an interloper in this series Macbeth was a monster whose origin and whose actions must alike have been con- trary to nature." Hume Brown. THE MACBETH OF LEGEND i . John ofFordurfs Chronica. The earliest extant version of the Macbeth legend is in the Chronica Gentis Scotorum (sometimes called the Scotichronicon? of which it forms the first part), written in Latin by John of Fordun (often called John Fordun), a secular priest and canon of the cathedral church of Aberdeen, who died about the year 1385. This 1 Tn the earliest records the name is spelled ' Mealbeafte,' ' Mac- beofte,' ' Machetad,' ' Machbet.' In Dalrymple's version, " in Scot- tish," of Leslie's Historic of Scotland, printed in 1 578, the name is given as ' Machabie.' In Boece the Latin form of the name is ' Maccabaeus.' 2 Edited (with a translation) by Skene, Edinburgh, 1871-1872. INTRODUCTION Xl chantry priest did for Scottish history and story what Geoffrey of Monmouth more than two hundred years earlier had done for the mythical history of Britain and the Arthurian story in his Historia Regutn Britannia. Both gathered the floating legends and stories, facts and fables, and compacted them into " something like a chronological system," thus starting them on their literary career. 2. Andrew of Wyntoun' s Orygynale Cronykil. About the year 1424 Andrew (Androwe, Andro) of Wyntoun (often called Andrew Wyntoun), a canon of St. Andrews who be- came prior of St. Serf's Inch in Lochleven, resolved to draw up a Cronykil out "off Latine in tyll Ynglys sawe," 1 as he puts it. He prefixed the adjective ' Orygynale ' because the Cronykil went back to the beginnings of men and angels. In the octosyllabic couplets of the Orygynale Cronykil is the earliest form of the prophecy of the Weird Sisters. This is the famous passage : A nycht he thowcht in hys dremying, That syttand he wes besyd the kyng At a sete in hwntyng, swa In till a leysh had grewhundys twa : He thowcht quhile he wes swa syttand He sawe thre wemen by gangand ; And thai wemen than thowcht he Thre werd Systrys mast lyk to be. The fyrst he hard say gangand by, ' Lo, yhondyr the Thayne off Crumbawchty I ' The tothir woman sayd agane, ' Of Morave yhondre I se the Thayne ! ' The thryd than sayd, ' I se the Kyng ! ' 1 into English speech. Untilwell into the sixteenth century the Low- land Scots, though they called themselves Scottis ' and their country 'Scotland,' called their language ' Ynglys,' ' Inglisch,' or Inglis.' xii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE Here, it is to be noted, the temptation of Macbeth by the Weird Sisters takes place in a dream. This version of the story is followed by the skeptical and rationalistic Buchanan. 3. Boece's Historic. In 15261527 was printed the Sco- torum Histories, of Hector Boece (Boetius, Boyis, Boyce). the first principal of King's College, Aberdeen. This Latin redaction added new epic and dramatic elements to the Macbeth legend. The meeting of Macbeth and three women supposed to be the Weird Sisters is now described as an actual occurrence on the road to Forres, and the story begins to take the definite shape familiar to readers of Holinshed and Shakespeare. 4. Bellenderfs Croniklis. Under the title Croniklis of Scotland a very free translation of Boece's work into vigor- ous Scottish prose was made aboi't the year 1533 by John Bellenden (Ballantyne), archdeacon of Moray and canon of Ross. In Bellenden's version in the vernacular, first printed in I536, 1 the description of the temptation scene is pithy and dramatic : Nocht lang eftir, hapnit ane uncouth and wounderfull thing, be quhilk followit sone ane gret alteration in the realme. Be aventura, Makbeth and Banquho wer passing to Fores, quhair King Duncane hapnit to be for the time, and met be the gait thre wemen, clothit in elrage and uncouth weid. They were jugit be the pepill to be weird sisteris. The first of thaim said to Makbeth: 'Hale, Thane of Glammis ! ' The secound said : ' Hale, Thane of Cawder ! ' and the thrid said : ' Hale, King of Scotland ! ' Bellenden rehearses Lady Macbeth's complicity in the plot to murder Duncan with much greater detail than is found in either earlier or later versions of the legend. 1 Edited by Maitland, Edinburgh, 1821. Reprin-ted in Collier's Shakespeare ' s Library. INTRODUCTION xiii 5. Stewart* s Cronikle. In 1535 appeared a Scottish met- rical version of Bellenden's Cronik/is, purporting to be by William Stewart 1 and made at the command of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland, for her son James V. Though this Cronikle was not printed till after Shakespeare's day, it is perfectly possible that he may have had access to it through the friendly relations between James VI and the " King's Company " of players, to which Shakespeare belonged. Signi- ficant verbal resemblances make this not only possible but not at all improbable. 6. Holinshed's Chronicles. As the numerous extracts in the notes to the text in this edition of Macbeth will show, Shakespeare derived the great body of his story material from the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, of Raphael Holinshed(Holynshed,Hollingshead,Hollinshead), first pub- lished in two folio volumes in 15 77, and again in 1586-1587, "newlie augmented and continued." 2 In this second edi- tion are many significant changes in the text, and it is interesting to note that on the title-page The description and historic of Ireland precedes Tlie description and historie of Scotland. The first edition has a great many quaint wood- cuts inserted in the text, 8 and two of these are here repro- duced in facsimile, with some lines of the text. Figure i represents the meeting of Macbeth and the " .iij women in straunge & ferly apparell, resembling creatures of an elder 1 Edited by Turnbull (Rolls Series), 3 vols., 1858. 2 In \V. G. Boswell-Stone's Shaksperis Holinshed are given all the portions of the Chronicles which are of special interest to the Shakespeare student. 8 These woodcuts were omitted in the second edition, and many passages of the original text were cancelled by order of the Privy Council " as disagreeable to Queen Elizabeth." .j ait trt totbt fapot^ncbt, men to te twra fapoe : an *?apU flpiktatfr^tf feoafM t gtanmtoffij tit emvt of tbt ffianw, w ;o lljanbeMtigdf&cotlano. Itai Banqutjo, total niantt of toomrn 50 w tn8 placemen contrarilptljoa in WDt (Hall (tlil)attpou,tl)atttEnulb Iitlt feuontablt not rtygntat dI,tatofflwftoftffiaBhbMM FIG. i 2?alcoliiu pjmrt of CnmbnUnoe, as u turn lent, ht ntE^uco tbe tnuetlurt of tlje Kin^Dem tljctcbp to appoint tjlmljiufiucdlaj in ttielrtng* acwoingtotdeaccuflomtDtnanct. ^bcboDie of SDnneanc toau Mi conntpco tbe fcnnw of King jeuncanr, Ewfrare of tw -\onlitbtt butlffltn anojptoift, UutsaDljtclJEtDEpmigtjttticIlknrtD^seaaW* FIG. 2 INTRODUCTION XV worlde "; Figure 2 represents Macbeth receiving the " inues- ture of the kingdome according to the accustomed maner." In the special title prefixed to The Description of Scot- land v& the edition of 1586-1587, given in facsimile on the following page (Figure 3), Holinshed's indebtedness to Boece and to Bellenden is clearly set forth. This is the edition undoubtedly used by Shakespeare, 1 and it is not improbable that the mention of these authorities would stimulate him to read them at first hand. While the dramatist follows closely Holinshed's account of the reigns of Duncan and Macbeth, he transfers to the murder of Duncan such details as the drugging of the grooms, the portents, the tempest, etc., from the narrative of the murder of Duffe, Lady Macbeth's great-grandfather. Addi- tional details taken from other parts of the Chronicles and woven into the plot of the play are the story of young Siward's death and the description of the English king's touching to cure ' the evil.' Furness, too, has pointed out that the hint for the ' voice ' which cried " Sleep no more ! " (II, ii, 35) probably came from the voice that Kenneth, who had poisoned his nephew Malcolm, heard : And (as the fame goeth) it chanced that a voice was heard as he was in bed in the night time to take his rest, vttering vnto him these or the like woords in effect : " Thinke not Kenneth that the wicked slaughter of Malcolme Duffe by thee contriued, is kept secret from the knowledge of the eternall God." . . . The king with this voice being stricken into great dread and terror, passed that night without anie sleepe comming in his eies. 1 For example, ' ferly,' in the description of the dress of the Weird Sisters in the first edition, is changed to ' wild ' in the second, as in Macbeth I, iii, 40. Boswell-Stone gives other proofs of this kind. DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND, Written ac die firft b Hc^or Boe- flated into the Scocifh fpeech by Inhn Bflleiuun Ar elide tun tf Murrey , and DOW final. Wherevpon is inferred the biftorie of Scotland , contdmng the beginning, incrcafe.procecding, continuance ,*8s ,nd gaucrncmcnt of the Scotifh nation, from the original! ttiereofvntithcjetrc i sjt,gM ted and written in Englim by ft- _ eontt nucd from I 5 7 i , to tjSj.byo. then. INTRODUCTION xvii (In this connection see Buchanan's account of the con- science-stricken king quoted below.) Notable changes in Shakespeare's use of the material furnished by Holinshed are the idealization of the character of Banquo and the simplification and compression of the action in the interests of dramatic economy. Above all, and most significant of all, the drama throbs with a passion and a moral energy of which Holinshed's Chronicles, with all their infusion of enchantment and the supernatural, have not the slightest trace. 7. Buchanan's Historia. In 1582 was printed in Edin- burgh the Rerum Scoticarum Historia of George Buchanan, the famous tutor of James I and one of Scotland's most illus- trious scholars. Of this work there was no version in Eng- lish until after Shakespeare's death, but there was naturally much discussion of it in London after James ascended the English throne, and Shakespeare must have been acquainted with the book to a greater or less extent. At the close of the Macbeth narrative, Buchanan, whose attitude towards the supernatural is, as already indicated, uncompromisingly rationalistic, has this very significant sentence : " Certain of our writers here relate many things which I omit, as they seem fitter for stage representations or Milesian stories than for sober history (theatris aut Milesiis fabulis sunt aptiora quant historiae}." M. H. Liddell points out that the descrip- tion of Kenneth's awakened conscience in Buchanan's His- toria gives us " the picture of Macbeth's torture almost exactly as Shakespeare conceived it " : His Mind being disquieted with the Guilt of his Offence, suffered him to enjoy no sincere or solid Mirth ; but in the Day he was vexed with the corroding Thoughts of that foul Wickedness, which would xviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE always force themselves into his Mind, and in the Night terrible Apparitions disturbed his Rest. At last, a Voice was heard from Heaven, either a true one, as some think ; or else, such an one, as his disquieted Mind suggested (as it commonly happens to guilty Consciences), speaking to him in his Bed. 1 8. Earlier Plays. There is clear evidence that within a few years of the production of Gorboduc, the first English tragedy, Scottish legendary history was attracting the atten- tion of dramatists as a quarry from which to take effective material. Under the influence of the passion for chronicle histories, and plays founded on romantic legend, a Tragedie of the King of Scottes came into existence as early as 1568; about 1590 Robert Greene produced The Scottish Historic of James IV, slaine at Flodden, intermixed with a pleas- ant Comedie, presented by Oboram King of Fayeries 2 ; and Henslowe in his Diary, under April 27, 1602, refers to a play called Malcolme, King of Scottes. But dealing with the Macbeth legend are two works of special interest in this con- nection : (i) Macdobeth, probably dramatic and certainly anterior to Shakespeare's play, and (2) a Latin Dramatic Dialogue given before King James at Oxford, probably anterior. (i) Macdobeth. In The Stationers' 1 Registers under the date August 27, 1596, is a reference to a "Ballad of 1 This translation is from the English version of Buchanan's His- tory of Scotland, published in Edinburgh, 1751. In The Anatomy of Melancholy, Burton quotes this passage from Buchanan. 2 The fact that this play (in the writing of which, according to Fleay, Lodge collaborated with Greene) seems really founded on the Italian romance of Astatio and Arrenopia in Giraldi Cinthio's Gli Hecatommithi, 1565, does not affect the argument regarding the growing popularity of Scottish themes for dramatic treatment. INTRODUCTION xix Macdobeth," and the same entry refers to " the ballad en- tituled The taming of a shrew." Collier held that if The Taming of the Shrew, which is known to be a play, was recorded as a ballad, Macdobeth was probably of the same character, and he sought to identify it with the " miserable stolne story " referred to by Will Kemp, a famous actor of clowns' parts, in his Kempes nine daies wonder, printed in 1600. In searching for a ballad-maker who had written an unauthorized account of some of his morrice-dancing adven- tures, Kemp says : I met a proper vpright youth, onely for a little stooping in the shoulders : all hart to the heele, a penny Poet whose first making was the miserable stolne story of Macdoel, or Macdobeth, or Mac- somewhat : for I am sure a Mac it was, though I never had the maw to see it. " Here the words ' to see it ' seem to show that the piece had been publicly represented, and that it was not merely a printed ' ballad.' Kemp, as a highly popular actor, would most naturally refer to dramatic performances." Collier. (2) A Latin Dramatic Dialogue. In his Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare (London, 1767) Farmer held that Macbeth was possibly suggested by "a little performance on the same subject at Oxford, before King James." This ' performance ' was a dialogue in Latin, dealing with the prediction of the " prophetic sisters " (fatidicas sorores} as to Banquo and Macbeth, arranged by the students of St. John's College, Oxford, on the occasion of the royal visit to the university in August, 1605. This dialogue, 1 1 The Latin text is given in the Appendix to Furness's A New Variorum. Macbeth. XX THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE written by Dr. Mathew Gwynne, was found by Malone bound up with Gwynne's Latin play Vertumnus, and the opening lines, spoken by three students dressed to repre- sent Sibyls, " the conceipt whereof the King did very much applaude," l have certainly an interesting resemblance to the Witches' prophecy in Shakespeare's play. WITCH LORE In sorting the materials out of which the Weird Sisters weave their incantations, and in gathering the ingredients which they compound into their hell-broth so as to " make the gruel thick and slab," Shakespeare drew upon the popu- lar belief of his time. Into the coarse and realistic mixture he infused magic elements of that mystic symbolism which is the spirit of the Fates of the classical mythology and of the Norns of the Scandinavian that mystic symbolism which already had so strangely idealized certain develop- ments of witch lore in the old Hebrew story (/ Samuel^ xxviii) of Saul's visit to the witch of Endor and the reading of the future through a rising from the dead in a midnight cave. i. Scofs Discoverie of Witchcraft. As the quotations in the notes to the text of the play indicate, many minor de- tails of the witch business in Macbeth seem to have been derived from The Discoverie of Witchcraft? 1 584, an extraor- "dinary impeachment of the witchcraft superstition by Regi- nald Scot, a Kentish man who, after years of study at Oxford, returned to his native county and gave himself to gardening 1 A. Nixon's The Oxford Triumph, 1605. 2 Edited by B. Nicholson, London, 1886. INTRODUCTION xxi and hop-growing. 1 The Discoveric of Witchcraft is a frank and able exposure of the absurdities of the popular belief, but the value of his book to-day is in the detailed account of the processes of sorcery and the minutiae of witch lore. The scope of the work is indicated in the original title : The discoverie of witchcraft wherein the lewde dealing of witches and witchmongers is notablie detected, the knaverie of conjurors, the impietie of inchantors, the follie of soothsayers, the impudent falsehood of cousenors, 2 the infidelitie of atheists, the pestilent practices of Pythonists, the curiositie of figure-casters, the vanitie o.f dreamers, the beggarlie art of Alcumystrie, the abhomination of ;dolatrie, the horrible art of poisoning, the vertue and power of natuiall magike, and all the conveiances of Legierdemaine and jug- gling are deciphered, and many other things opened which have long lien hidden, howbeit verie necessarie to be knowne. 2. King fames 1 s Damonologie. In 1597 King James, a born arguer and reveler in ' counterblasts,' issued his DCR- monologie, in Forme of a Dialogue as a reply to Scot and other skeptics. Here, too, are interesting details of the ways and methods of witches, as this extract from the preface indicates : The fearefull abounding at this time in this Countrey of these detestable slaues of the Diuel, the Witches or enchaunters, hath mooued me ... to resolue the doubting hearts of many; both that such assaults of Satan are most certainely practised, and that the instruments thereof merits most seuerely to be punished : against the damnable opinions of two principally in our aage, whereof the one called Scot, an Englishman, is not ashamed in publike Print to deny that there can be such a thing as Witch-craft. . . . And for to 1 He is said to have introduced hop-growing into England. His treatise on the subject, The Hcppe-Garden, first published in 1574, was thrice reprinted before 1580. 2 cozeners, impostors Cf. The Winter's Tale, IV, iv, 256; King Lear, IV, vi, 167. xxii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE make this Treatise the more pleasant and facill, I haue put it in form of a Dialogue, which I have diuided into three Bookes : The first speaking of Magie in generall, and Necromancie in speciall : The second, of Sorcerie and Witch-craft ; and the third containes a dis- course of all these kinds of spirits and Spectres that appeares and troubles persons. 3. Neives from Scotland. In 1591 there appeared in Scotland a book called Newes from Scotland, in which are graphically told the doings of certain Scottish witches and " supposts of Sathan " who met " on the see ... in riddles or seives ... to sink the schip . . . att the Kingis returning fra Denmark." That was in 1589, when James was bring- ing home his Danish bride. This little book was republished in London in 1604, when the king's statute to suppress witchcraft was enacted. Steevens * connects the Scottish witch lore in this book with such passages in Macbeth as I, iii, 10 n, 25-29, but in Scot's Discoverie and James's Dtzmonologie the power of witches to raise storms by sea and land is fully recognized. 4. Gelding's Chid. Arthur Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, begun in 1565 and completed in 1575, is the probable source of much of Shakespeare's knowledge of classical mythology. "Golding's rendering of Ovid had been one of Shakespeare's best-loved books in youth." Sidney Lee. In it we have Hecate recognized as the goddess of witches : She went me to an Altar that was dedicate of olde To Persys daughter Hecate (of whom the Witches holde As of their Goddesse) standing in a thicke and secrete wood . . . And thou, three-headed Hecate, who knowest best the way To compasse this our great attempt, and art our chiefest stay. 1 Cf. T. A. Spalding's Elizabethan Demonology, London, 1880. INTRODUCTION xxiii THE MOVING WOOD The incident of the moving wood belongs to the folk- lore of both Semitic and Indo-European peoples. 1 In Wyn- toun's Cronykil the ' flyttand Wod ' is expressly referred to as traditional. It is adumbrated in the Hebrew story of David's conquest of the Philistines following the sound and appearance as of armies moving along the tops of the mul- berry trees in the valley of Rephaim. In Poet-Lore, May, 1890, Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr., gives an Arabic version of the story ; and Halliwell-Phillipps transcribes a variant in an old romance life of Alexander the Great. A vigorous form of the story is in a broadside ballad purporting to be by Thomas Deloney who died about 1600. It tells of the way in which " the valiant courage and policie of the Kentish- men " enabled them to use the device of the moving wood to force William the Conqueror to recognize their rights : For when they spied his approch In place where they did stand, Then march'd forth they to hem him in, Each man with bough in hand. So that unto the Conqueror's sight, Amazed as he stood, They seem'd to be a walking grove, Or els a moouing wood. The shape of men he could not see, The boughs did hide them so, And how his heart did quake for fear To see a forest go. 1 Some of the variants are given in Porter and Clarke's Shake- sfeare Studies : Macbeth. xxiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE Simrock 1 has shown how closely several of the Macbeth incidents, including this of the moving wood, correspond to the traditionary story of King Griinewald : A King had an only daughter, who possessed wondrous gifts. Now, once upon a time there came his enemy, a King named Griine- wald, and besieged him in his castle, and, as the siege lasted long, the daughter kept continually encouraging her father in the castle. This lasted till May-day. Then all of a sudden the daughter saw the hostile army approach with green boughs : then fear and anguish fell on her, for she knew that all was lost, and said to her father, " Father, you must yield, or die ; I see the green-wood drawing nigh." 2 Simrock claims that the legend of the moving forest originated in the German religious custom of May festivals and summer welcomings. MACDUFF'S BIRTH Simrock has also pointed out that the connection between an untimely birth and heroic strength and prowess as shown in the Witch's prophecy that " none of womap born Shall harm Macbeth" (IV, i, 80-8 1), and that Macduff satisfied this grim condition (V, viii, 15-16), is also a bit of Teutonic folk-lore, Sigurd's ancestor, Wolsung, having been a child of sorrow of this kind. Such a belief is latent in all the Aryan mythologies and is common to-day among the peasantry of many European countries. Macbeth's death at the hand of a foe not born of woman is alluded to in Wyntoun's Cronykil, but Shakespeare undoubtedly took his version from Hol- inshed's Chronicles, where we read : " But Makduffe . . . answered (with his naked swoord in his hand) saieng : It is 1 K. Simrock's Die Qnellen des Shakespeare, Hildburghausen, 1870 8 This is the translation given in Furness. INTRODUCTION XXV true Makbeth ... I am even he that thy wizzards have told thee of, who was never born of my mother, but ripped out of her wombe." WAS SHAKESPEARE EVER IN SCOTLAND? Whether Shakespeare visited Scotland has been the sub- ject of much discussion. Knight, Fleay, and other scholars maintain that he did, and that Macbeth derives much of its ' local colour ' and peculiar power from the fact that the dramatist was describing what he had seen with his own eyes. Thus, and thus alone, it has been claimed, could he have caught so marvellously both the letter and the spirit of old Highland romance. The internal evidence based on such accuracy of local description and allusion as is found in I, vi, 1-6, is strengthened by such strong external evidence as the visits of English actors to Scotland during the time of Shakespeare's connection with the stage. On October 22, 1 60 1, the freedom of the city of Aberdeen was conferred on Lawrence Fletcher, " Comedian to His Majestic," and under a Privy Seal dated May 17, 1603, license 1 was granted to this Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, and other members of the old Lord Chamber- lain's company as " the King's Men," to perform stage plays " within their now usual house called the Globe," and else- where in the kingdom. Fleay 2 held that Shakespeare was in the company that went to Scotland in 1601, and that when the company was at Aberdeen he wrote a version of Macbeth for performance before the king there, in the winter following the Gowry 1 The license is given in full in Collier's Annals of the Stage. 2 The Life and Work of Shakespeare, London, 1886. xxvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE conspiracy. This he revised and enlarged after his interest had been awakened in the subject again by the dramatic dia- logue given by the Oxford students in 1605. Fleay's theory is interesting and suggestive, but of course inconclusive. II. DATE OF COMPOSITION The date of composition of Macbeth falls within April 20, 1610, the later time limit (terminus ante quern), and 1603, the earlier time limit (terminus post quern). The weight of evidence favors 16051606. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE r. Formats Diary. In determining the date of compo- sition, the most famous bit of external evidence gives a definite terminus ante quern. This is Dr. Simon Forman's account of a performance of Macbeth attended by him at the Globe theatre on April 20, 1610. Forman was an Eliza- bethan physician, astrologer, and dabbler in the black art, and in The Booke of Plaies and Notes the r of per Formans for Common Pollicie* a little manuscript volume discovered in the Ashmolean Museum in 1836, he gives a minute and particular account of the plot and leading incidents of the drama. Forman's description begins as follows : In Mackbeth at the glob, i6jo, the 20 of Aprill, ther was to be obserued, firste, howe Mackbeth and Bancko, 2 noble men of Scot- land, Ridinge thorowe a wod, the[r] stode before them 3 women feiries or Nimphes, And saluted Mackbeth, sayinge, 3 tyms vnto him, hailie mackbeth, king of Codon ; for thou shall be a kinge, but shalt 1 for guidance in the ordinary affairs of life. Furnivall's reprint of The Booke of Plaies is given in the Appendix to Transactions oftht New Shakspere Society, 1875-1876. INTRODUCTION xxvii beget No kinge, &c. then said Bancko, what all to mackbeth And nothing to me. Yes, said the nimphes, haille to thee Banko, thou shalt beget kinges, yet be no kinge. And so they departed & cam to the courte of Scotland to Dunkin king of Scotes, and yt was in the dais of Edward the Confessor. 2. The Puritan. Forman's lengthy and detailed notice of Macbeth has been regarded as evidence that the tragedy was then fresh from Shakespeare's hand, and was in its first course of performance. But this is to mistake Forman's pur- pose in making his Notes. Besides, there are unmistakable allusions to Macbeth earlier than 1610. In The Puritan, or Tht Widow of Watling Street, printed in 1607, there is a very pointed reference to Banquo's Ghost : " Instead of a jester we '11 ha' the ghost i' th' white sheet sit at upper end o' th' table." 1 3. Marston's Sophonisba. Professor Bradley, in his Shake- spearian Tragedy, points out a number of parallels between Macbeth and Marston's Sophonisba (The Wonder of Women, or The Trajedie of Sophonisba), printed in 1606 parallels so marked as to be conclusive that Marston was familiar with Shakespeare's play. In Marston's other plays are obvious reminiscences of Shakespeare. 4. Warner's Albion's England. In the 1606 edition of Warner's Albion's England (the first edition appeared in 1586), a Historic of Macbeth is added, probably in conse- quence of the popularity of Shakespeare's play. 5. Latin Dramatic Dialogue. In summing up external evidence for the date of Macbeth some weight is due to the Latin dramatic dialogue given before the king at Ox- ford in 1605, as described above. 1 The often-quoted similar passage in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, 1611, has no direct bearing upon the date of Macbeth. xxviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE INTERNAL EVIDENCE The terminus post quern is generally agreed upon by inter- nal evidence as 1603, the date of the accession of James I. i. Allusions within the Play, (i) The specific reference to the union of the two crowns, IV, i, 120-121. (2) The description of touching for 'the evil,' IV, iii, 141159. (3) The dramatic use of witchcraft, a subject of intense interest to the king. (4) Allusions in the Porter's speech. The references to " the equivocator," II, iii, 8 1 1, and " the farmer that hang'd himself on the expectation of plenty," II, iii, 4-5, are usually quoted as pointing to 1606 as the date of composition. The " equivocator ' ' passage, especially when taken in connection with IV, ii, 45-50, and V, v, 43, is re- garded by some as a reference to the trial of Henry Garnet (note, page 54, line 8). Too much has been made of the " farmer " allusion, even though special research has shown that there was an unusually abundant harvest in 1606. As a matter of fact, the jest seems to have been common in Elizabethan London and is found in Ben Jonson's Every Man Out of His Humour, published in 1599 (see note, page 53, lines 4-5). Another common Elizabethan jest that has been dragged into the date of composition discus- sion is that of the " tailor . . . stealing out of a French hose." In this connection it is well to remember that the Porter's speech is regarded by many editors as a later interpolation (see below, Shakespeare and Middleton). (5) "The fatal bellman." In a letter published in The Athenceum, Septem- ber 13, 1902, Professor Hales points out that the surmise of the editors of the Clarendon Press Shakespeare that the full significance of the expression " the fatal bellman, Which INTRODUCTION xxix gives the stern'st good-night," II, ii, 3-4, lay in its " allusion to a certain Newgate custom " of Shakespeare's day, is probably correct. In 1605 Robert Dow, a merchant tailor of London, gave a sum of money to provide for, or fee, a bellman who should deliver at the prison of Newgate " a most pious and aweful admonition" to condemned criminals the night before they suffered. 2. Style and Diction. While certain passages in Macbeth are in Shakespeare's greatest, richest, and most idiomatic style, and taken by themselves might justify placing the com- position of the play as near as possible to the terminus ante quern, the strict application of the various verse and diction tests * (see Versification and Diction) would make the date of composition as early as the main body of the external evidence and that drawn from the allusions within the play allow. III. EARLY EDITIONS FOLIOS On November 8, 1623, Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard obtained formal license to print "Mr. William Shakespeere's Comedyes, Histories, and Tragedyes, soe many of the said copies as are not formerly entered to other men." This is the description-entry in TJie Stationers 1 Registers of what is now known as the First Folio (1623), designated in the textual notes of this edition F!. Macbeth is one of the six- teen plays "not formerly entered," and it was first printed, 1 There is an excellent summary of these tests in Dowden's Shak- spere Primer. See also Ward's History of English Dramatic Liter- ature, Vol. II, pages 47-51. xxx THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE so far as is known, in this famous volume. While, as to language, it is not one of the worst printed of the plays, the peculiar nature of the errors and corruptions has given rise to an unusual amount of textual criticism and led to those interesting theories of the original version of the play which are discussed elsewhere in this Introduction and in the notes attached to the text. " Probably it was printed from a tran- script of the author's MS., which was in great part not copied from the original but written to dictation. This is confirmed by the fact that several of the most palpable blunders are blunders of the ear and not of the eye." Clar. Macbeth occupies pages 131 to 151 in the division of the Folio de- voted to Tragedies, and it stands there between Julius Ccesar and Hamlet. The running title is The Tragedie of Macbeth. It is one of the seventeen plays in the First Folio in which is indicated the division into acts and scenes. The Second Folio, F 2 (1632), offers an unusual number of changes in the text of Macbeth as compared with that of other plays. The more important of these are given in the textual notes of this edition. This Second Folio text is repeated with few changes, except in the way of slightly modernized spelling, in the Third Folio, F 3 (1663, 1664), and in the Fourth Folio, F 4 (1685). QUARTOS OF 1673 AND 1674 In 1673 appeared a Quarto edition of Macbeth purport- ing to be as "acted at the Dukes Theatre." With the ex- ception of songs added and changes in the witch scenes, this Quarto is a reprint from the First Folio. Furness has suggested calling it ' Betterton's Version,' after Thomas Betterton, whom Pepys regarded as the best actor in the INTRODUCTION xxxi world. In the following year appeared a Quarto with this title-page : ' MACBETH, | A | TRAGEDY. | With all the | ALTERATIONS, | AMENDMENTS, | ADDITIONS, | AND | NEW SONGS. | As it's now Acted at the Dukes Theatre. | LON- DON, | Printed for P. Chetwin, and are to be Sold | by most Booksellers, 1674.' This is now known as the ' D'Avenant Quarto.' It gives Sir William D'Avenant's post-Restoration revision of the play, and in it are printed now in full both Thomas Middleton's famous witch songs, " Come away, come away," and " Black spirits and white." Under the title ' The Persons Names ' it contained the first list of dramatis personae. ROWE'S EDITIONS The first critical editor of Shakespeare's plays was Nicholas Rowe, poet laureate to George I. His first edition was issued in 1 709 in six octavo volumes. In this edition Rowe, an ex- perienced playwright, marked the entrances and exits of the characters and introduced many stage directions. A second edition in eight volumes was published in 1714. Rowe fol- lowed very closely the text of the Fourth Folio, but mod- ernized spelling, punctuation, and occasionally grammar. IV. SHAKESPEARE AND MIDDLETON In the First Folio, Macbeth, III, v, after line 33, is the stage direction, Musicke, and a Song, and after line 35 another stage direction, Sing within. Come away, come away, &v. Again, in IV, i, after line 43, is the stage direc- tion, Musicke and a Song. Blacke Spirits, &c. In the D'Avenant Quarto, where, as mentioned above, both songs xxxii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE are given in full, 1 there is no sign as to the source of them, and for long they were supposed to be D'Avenant's own composition. About the year 1778 (Malone gives the date as 1779) Steevens is said to have found in "the collection of the late Thomas Pearson, esq." a manuscript play called The Witch, written by Thomas Middleton, one of Shake- speare's younger contemporaries and a well-known dramatist of the early seventeenth century. In The Witch are both songs in almost the same form as D'Avenant had given them, and it may be easily surmised why the songs were not printed in full in the First Folio. Macbeth was of course there printed from a playhouse manuscript ; and these songs, which had formed a popular and catching part of Middle- ton's otherwise unsuccessful play, were introduced by the actors into Macbeth, and were presumed to be so well known to the actors of the play in the form it then had that a bare indication of them was enough. 2 The date of Middleton's play has not been ascertained. 8 Various resemblances both of thought and language in the two plays resemblances much too close and literal to be merely accidental show that one of the authors must have borrowed from the other. Several of these resemblances 1 See also notes, (i) page 92, lines 33, 35; (2) page 99, line 43. 2 A. H. Bullen, in his Introduction to Middleton's Works, defend? the Shakespearian authorship of the songs, but thinks they were probably added to and expanded by Middleton. 3 Fleay conjectures that The Witch was composed in 1622, after Middleton began to write for the King's Men (Shakespeare's old company, see page xxv) at the Blackfriars theatre, by whom, accord- ing to the title-page of the manuscript, the play was first produced. The King's Men went to the Blackfriars in 1613, and Middleton wrote for the company from 1615 to 1624. INTRODUCTION xxxiii occur in those parts of Macbeth which are unquestionably Shakespeare's and bear the clearest tokens of his mintage. Steevens, in the enthusiasm over Middleton which followed his find, held that Shakespeare borrowed from The Witch, but it is now clear that, whatever may be the exact date, Middleton wrote his play after the appearance of Macbeth ; besides, in other plays he unmistakably imitates Shakespeare. The theory of collaboration is untenable. The views of those who hold the ' interpolation ' theory may be summarized thus : Middleton's own play being unsuccessful, as he admits, except probably in the lyrical passages, he was employed by the Blackfriars management to add to Shakespeare's suc- cessful play and develop the musical and spectacular fea- tures to suit the growing popular demand for this sort of thing. Of these ' interpolated' passages, the most important are: I, ii; iii, 1-37; II, iii (Porter's part); III, v; IV, i, 39-47. 125-132; iii, 140-159; V, ii; v, 47~5; viii, 3 2 ~33> 3S~75- "This theory of interpolation must be considered as in a high degree doubtful." Dowden. V. VERSIFICATION AND DICTION BLANK VERSE The greater part of Macbeth is in blank verse the un- rhymed, iambic five-stress (decasyllabic) verse, or iambic pentameter, introduced into England from Italy by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, about 1540, and used by him in a translation of the second and fourth books of Vergil's ALneid. Nicholas Grimald (Totters Miscellany, 1557) employed the measure for the first time in English original poetry, and its roots began to strike deep into British soil and absorb xxxiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE substance. It is peculiarly significant that Sackville and Norton should have used it as the measure of Gorboduc, the first English tragedy (performed by " the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple " on January 18, 1561, and first printed in 1565). About the time when Shakespeare arrived in London the infinite possibilities of blank verse as a vehicle for dramatic poetry and passion were being shown by Kyd and above all by Marlowe. Blank verse as used by Shakespeare is really an epitome of the development of the measure in connection with the English drama. In his earlier plays the blank verse is often similar to that of Gorboduc. The tend- ency is to adhere to the syllable-counting principle, to make the line the unit, the sentence and phrase coinciding with the line (end-stopped verse), and to use five perfect iambic feet to the line. In plays of the middle period, such as The Merchant of Venice and As You Like It, written between 1596 and 1600, the blank verse is more like that of Kyd and Marlowe, with less monotonous regularity in the struc- ture and an increasing tendency to carry on the sense from one line to another without a syntactical or rhetorical pause at the end of the line (run-on verse, enjambemenf). Redun- dant syllables now abound and the melody is richer and fuller. In Shakespeare's later plays the blank verse breaks away from bondage to formal line limits, and sweeps all along with it in freedom, power, and organic unity. Macbeth has a greater number of regular five-stress (pen- tameter) unrhymed lines l than is usual in a later play ; but 1 For perfect examples of such normal lines see I, ii, I ; iii, 38 ; II, i, 35. The play contains 28 Alexandrines, 21 light endings, 78 feminine mid-line syllables, and 97 short lines. There are only 2 weak endings. INTRODUCTION xxxv stress modifications of all kinds, Alexandrines, light endings, feminine mid-line syllables, and other variations and devia- tions from the norm give to the verse, with all its singular compactness of idiomatic expression, a rich music and a superb movement, epical as well as dramatic. 1 RHYME 1. Couplets. Macbeth has 108 lines of rhymed pentam- eter verse (rhymed couplets), an unusually large number for a later play and one that contains only 2108 lines. 3 Rhyme-tags, or couplets at the end of scenes and acts (see Abbott, 5 1 5), are especially numerous. " In this play more scenes end with tags than in any other play in Shakespeare ; the number of tag-rhymes is also greater than in any other play, including his very earliest." Fleay. Those who be- lieve in the Middleton influence read Middleton's heavy hand in this extraordinary prevalence of rhymed couplets. 2. Witch Scenes. The dominant measure in the speeches of the Weird Sisters is four-stress (tetrameter) trochaic verse catalectic a rhythm often adopted by Shakespeare. Cf. Orlando's verses in praise of Rosalind, and Touchstone's ' false gallop ' in As You Like It; Autolycus's song in The Winter's Tale, IV, iv, 220, etc. But in Macbeth the trochaic movement in the tetrameter is freer than in any other Shakespeare play, being varied by the introduction of three- stress lines, of iambic five-stresses, and very frequently of inversions of stress. The speeches of Hecate and the i 1 Cf. J. A. Symonds's Blank Verse, page 58. 2 Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare's plays, with the excep- tion of The Comedy of Errors (1778 lines) and The Tempest (2065 lines). xxxvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE First Witch in III, v, and in IV, i, 39-43, 125-132, are in iambic verse, and this fact has been used to strengthen the arguments against the Shakespearian authorship of these passages. PROSE In the development of the English drama the use of prose as a vehicle of expression entitled to equal rights with verse was due to Lyly. He was the first to use prose with power and distinction in original plays, and did memorable service in preparing the way for Shakespeare's achievement. Interest- ing attempts have been made to explain Shakespeare's dis- tinctive use of verse and prose; and of recent years there has been much discussion of the question "whether we are jus- tified in supposing that Shakespeare was guided by any fixed principle in his employment of verse and prose, or whether he merely employed them, as fancy suggested, for the sake of variety and relief." l It is a significant fact that in many of his earlier plays there is little or no prose, and that the proportion of prose to blank verse increases with the de- crease of rhyme. In Macbeth four kinds of prose may be distinguished: (i) The prose of formal documents, as in Macbeth's letter to Lady Macbeth (I, v). In Shakespeare prose is the usual medium for letters, proclamations, and other formal documents. (2) The prose of 'low life' and the speech of comic characters, as in the Porter scene (II, iii). 1 Professor J. Churton Collins's Shakespeare as a Prose Writer. See Delius's Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen (Shakespeare Jahr- buch, V, 227-273) ; Janssen's Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen; Professor Hiram Corson's An Introduction to the Study of Shake Speare, pp. 83-98. INTRODUCTION xxxvii This is a development of the humorous prose found, foi example, in Greene's comedies that deal with country life. (3) The colloquial prose of simple dialogue, as in the talk between Lady Macduff and her little boy (IV, ii), and in the conversation of the Doctor and the Gentlewoman (V, i). In both these passages, as in the Porter scene, the prose dic- tion gives temporary emotional relief and prepares for the heightening of the dramatic pitch in the scenes which imme- diately follow. (4) The prose of abnormal mentality, as in the sleep-walking scene (V, i). It is an interesting fact that Shakespeare should so often make persons whose state of mind is abnormal, or seemingly so, speak in prose. 1 "The idea underlying this custom of Shakespeare's evidently is that the regular rhythm of verse would be inappropriate where the mind is supposed to have lost its balance and to be at the mercy of chance impressions coming from without (as sometimes with Lear) or of ideas emerging from its un- conscious depths and pursuing one another across its passive surface. The somnambulism of Lady Macbeth is such a condition. . . . This language (i.e. Lady Macbeth's in prose) stands in strong contrast with that of Macbeth in the sur- rounding scenes, full of a feverish and almost furious excite- ment, and .seems to express a far more desolating misery." A. C. Bradley. In previous editions of Hudson's Shake- speare the suggestion was made that the matter in the sleep- walking scene is too sublime, too austerely grand, to admit of anything so artificial as the measured language of verse, even though the verse were Shakespeare's ; and that the poet, as from an instinct of genius, saw or felt that any attempt 1 Cf. Hamlet, II, ii, 171-221 ; IV, v, 172-186; Lear, III, iv, 51- 64, etc. xxxviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE to heighten the effect by any such arts or charms of deliver} would unbrace and impair it. Is prose then, after all, a higher form of speech than verse? VI. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE In regularity of construction and in symmetrical develop ment of plot, Macbeth and Julius Cczsar are unsurpassed among Shakespeare's plays. The individual act-structure in both plays is as compact and effective as the structure of the drama as a whole. 1 Neither play has a complicating underplot ; every incident and every speech is inextricably bound up with the central personality. In both plays the set- ting of scenery and the accessories of supernatural phenom- ena harmonize subtly with incident and characterization. Macbeth is a romantic tragedy in which is represented a conflict between an individual, or, as in this play, two per- sons acting together as one protagonist, and certain forces which environ, antagonize, and overwhelm. In such a drama are five essential elements : (i) the exposition or intro- duction; (2) the complication or rising action; (3) the climax or turning point ; (4) the resolution or falling action ; and (5) the catastrophe or conclusion. 2 In Macbeth, as in Shakespeare's other plays, the organic elements in the action do not correspond exactly to the mechanical division into acts. The exposition is contained in the first two scenes ; 1 Macbeth, IV, iii, and Julius C&sar, IV, iii, have been censured for being too episodical, but the ' suspensive plot ' theory is surely sufficient justification. 2 Cf. Freytag's Technik des Dramas, Leipzig. A useful little book on the subject is Elisabeth Woodbridge's The Drama ; its Law and its Technique. INTRODUCTION xxxix the complication begins with the meeting of Macbeth and the Weird Sisters and continues until the climax is reached in the murder of Banquo in the third scene of the third act The beginning of the resolution is usually in the closest union with the climax, and the announcement by the Third Murderer that Fleance has escaped is incorporated with the Banquo murder scene. From the escape of Fleance, on through the banquet scene, the arousing of Macduff, and the retreat to Dunsinane, the fortunes of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth fall to the catastrophe. ANALYSIS BY ACT AND SCENE l I. THE EXPOSITION, OR INTRODUCTION (TYING OF THE KNOT) Act /, Scene i. The Witches are introduced in a desert place to the accompaniment of a storm in the physical world. The key-note of high tragic drama is struck at once. Like a prologue this brief scene foreshadows the moral and cosmic significance of an impending struggle in which Macbeth is involved (line 7). Act /, Scene it. Interest in Macbeth before he appears is deepened by narratives of his personal courage and military prowess. His success in battle with rebellion and invasion wins the favor of the king, who bestows on him in absence the title forfeited by the treacherous thane of Cawdor. This gift becomes an impulse towards Macbeth's own criminal ' enterprise ' (cf. I, vii, 48) and carries with it a foreboding of his own treason (cf. I, iii, 116-117). Act f, Scene iii, 1-47. With the introduction of Macbeth the dra- matic exposition is complete. For the significance of Macbeth's first words, see note, line 38. 1 " It must be understood that a play can be analyzed into very different schemes of plot. It must not be thought that one of these schemes is right and the rest wrong ; but the schemes will be better or worse in proportion as while of course representing correctly the facts of the play they bring out more or less of what ministers to our sense of design." Moulton. xl THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE II. THE COMPLICATION, RISING ACTION, OR GROWTH (TYING OF THE KNOT) Act I, Scene in, 47-156. The greetings of the Witches furnish the exciting force of the drama, and the complication, or rising action, begins. The 'supernatural soliciting' (line 130) stimulates the guilty brooding of Macbeth ; he mutters to himself of ' horrible imagin- ings ' (line 138) and murder; and this, the temptation scene, closes with his determination to seek the king. Act /, Scene iv. The king's announcement that Malcolm will be his successor determines in a general way Macbeth's ' black and deep desires' (line 51). The king resolves to honor Macbeth by a visit to his castle. The w*ay is prepared for a line of action by Macbeth and for the introduction of Lady Macbeth. The king's graciousness and trust are in ironical contrast to Macbeth's dark hopes and sinister designs (cf. note, lines 1314). Act I, Scene v. In her quivering ambition for her husband's advance- ment, Lady Macbeth sees in the king's visit a chance "to catch the nearest way" (line 16). She starts Macbeth's treacherous purposes into a course of immediate action, and 'this night's great business' (line 66) is outlined ominously. The nervous tension of her soliloquy (lines3o-42) prepares for the effects of the reaction as revealed in V,i. Act I, Scene vi. Dramatic irony and the irony of situation (cf. note, I, iv, 13-14) prevail in this brief scene (cf. notes, lines 1-3, 20). The castle, with its air of peace and security, is a death trap; the gracious mistress is an instigator of treason and murder. Act I, Scene vii. Macbeth's soliloquy, with its vision of the evil consequences of the bloody deed, foreshadows all that comes in the falling action of the play. His faltering calls forth the energy and spirit of Lady Macbeth, who nerves him to the deed. Act II, Scene i. The scene opens in an atmosphere of agitation and dread. Banquo's anxiety expresses itself irt short, tense sen- tences relating to the time of night (cf. Hamlet, I, i, 1-14). In a few words with Macbeth he shows that his suspicions are awakened. Left alone, Macbeth has a vision of a bloody dagger, and then the bell, Lady Macbeth's signal for the murder, sounds. Act II, Scene it. As often in Greek tragedy, the murder is not presented on the stage, but it is suggested with all the accessories of INTRODUCTION xli horror in Lady Macbeth's soliloquy and her comments to Macbeth when he returns. Her strength of mind and her self-control come not from heartlessness but from a will steeled to help her husband. Before the scene closes the guilty pair are startled by a knocking at the gate ; and it is dramatically effective that one of the men knock- ing is the destined instrument of vengeance (cf. note, line 57). Act II, Scene Hi. The humorous soliloquy in prose with which the scene opens is a notable example of dramatic contrast. The realism and verisimilitude suggest how abnormal the conditions are through which the action has been passing. In the mechanism of stage production this interlude allows Macbeth and Lady Macbeth time to prepare for the discovery of the murder. When Macduff raises the alarm, Macbeth rushes in and rashly murders the drugged grooms, who were to be charged with the king's death, and thus he ruins the original plan made by Lady Macbeth. She swoons when she hears what he has done (cf. note, line 112). The king's sons suspect Macbeth and take refuge in flight. A 1 *is a "S n .j O H* 3 fl o .9 E> u o I I rt BRITISH AND FOREIGN LITERAT & O | Sackville and Nort Gorboduc printed Udall's Roister Doi printed? The Bishops Bi La Taille's Sai Furieux. R.Grafl Chronicle Camoens' OS Lusii (The Lusiads) Tasso's Aminta Mirror for Magistr (third edition) Gammer Gurto Needle. Goldi Ovid (complete) The Paradise of Da Devices. Gascoif Steel Glass Holinshed's Chroni Srj 2 E m |J | OLOGIC^ irs (see note) > < 5 iJ ?, rt "rt^'rt->2N >& x 6 ^ o ^ rt ffi S PEARE ||.flstllllls U Q. j-j ^^ &i tl w ^ ^ o rt E *Z W "o OJ (J rs a i- o c N i~ ifi 1 E W c "5 M E o 3 J3 H -^ U 2 u-c"~ 1 i; o W 2 "3 E 9 _ *S u "3 rt "S c "- S| 1 _g 'rt *"* ^ -. (4 a c ^ ~ cu rt "S rt O i2 c s K U W M 5 V *^ C a] u" ej " V *- V w q - 1 o u 3 r o "sf S N K - M fa e M 5 1 in a ft g. S E M Ixxii Union of Utrecht. Tasso put in confine- ment at Ferrara 1" S/5 > xjg si e g fj M Dutch Declaration of Independence Accademia della Crusca founded Sir Humphrey Gilbert drowned William the Silent assassinated. Ivan the Terrible died Ronsard died Sir Philip Sidney killed 3 b 1 la O O w Iw i 1 M 8 11 Q 2 pi "o g_e Battle of Ivry Herrick born Gosson's School Of Abase. North's Plu- tarch. Lyly's Buphues (pt. i). Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar < J gS 3 J ti *5 u M) .B'"3 Jj C .S S o K S 1 o o u -o W s Q H 1 "" g M * M OO 00 ^ ^loS .do About ng (1600) Like It M s A O 5 o'" 8 T3-t-> -0 agi r~ pll .. T3* 1 ^ fllj s>* .< sr' -5 o l a 3 o N a> < Twelft c to I bi jiul - .5 a V M 1 t "jS S g c-S rt J, rt og j E o '3 a O " '*j 5 O, [*5 < w fe | BIOGRAPHY ; Po Greene's attai Groatsworth of ^ c c-2 S'i Ss^ 4J w ^ 3 V V Valuable contemi references to Si speare Son Hamnetdied. ily applied for c( arms Purchased New Stratford Shakespeare acl Jonson's Every in His Humour Part proprietor of Theatre. Coat-ol gran ted. The Pat ate Pilgrim Won a London la' K a S Ol *& & % 8! Q M 1? R M ^? to M 10 M M M V) M S Ixxiv fr? x TJ i - e w A u V y ~ W 3 K s^l 3-0 > M M 5 c 'o UjJ 5 1 JD b E J3 $ .S coa C"5 The Essex plot. Ri between London and boy actors Bodleian Li bi founded Queen Elizabeth Millenary Petilio Hampton Court Cc ence Gunpowder plot. Thomas Browne Lylydied. Corn born Settlement of Ja town Milton born. Qu founded Separatists (Pilgl in Leyden Henry IV (Nav assassinated Gustavus Adolp King of Sweden Globe Theatre bui Cervantes died, mont died. Baffi plores Baffin's Harvey lectured < circulation of the i o to 3 y-. ig| 3 1 ?? S o I "c ft Jonson's Poetaster Dekker's Sati mastix Jonson's Sejanus Marlowe's Fa us (1588-1589) Don Quixote (pt. i) Chapman's Monsi D' Olive Dekker and Webs Westward Ho 1 lf| "0 O 1 Q- Strachey's Wracke Redemption King James Bible (A Bellarmine'sPuiSS* du Pape Drayton's Polyolbii Captain John Smi New England. F edition of Jons Poems. D'Aubig Lei Tragiques (I x^ a a ^ g a S 5? 5 4 Julius Cae Hamlet (i Othello Macbeth King Lear Timon of A Antony Cleopatn Coriolanut a a o 1 73 to 1^ s H g. en C- eo to n< his sons. DONALBAIN, ) MACBETH, ) generals of the BANQUO, 3 ) King's army. MACDUFF, LENNOX, Ross, MENTEITH, ANGUS, CAITHNESS,* _ FLEANCE, son to Banqua SIWARD, earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces. Young SIWARD, his son. SEYTON, an officer attending on Macbeth. noblemen of Scot- land. Boy, son to Macduff. An English Doctor. A Scotch Doctor. A Captain. A Porter. An Old Man. Lady MACBETH. Lady MACDUFF. Gentlewoman 6 attending on Lady Macbeth. HECATE. Three Witches. Apparitions. Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers. SCENE: Scotland; England 1 In D'Avenant's version of the play (1674) ' s a I' 5 * f ' The Persons Names,' but Rowe was the first editor to give the Dramatis Personae in essentially the modern form. Capell expanded Rowe's list. That given here is substantially Dyce's. 2 The names of all the leading characters are from Holinshed. 8 BANQUO. The name and title as given by Holinshed is ' Banquho the thane of Lochquhaber.' For an interesting discussion of the pronunciation, see Furness. 4 " Malcolme . . . created manie earles. . . . Manie of them that before were thanes, were at this time made earles, as Fife, Menteth, Atholl, Leuenox, Murrey, Cathnes, Rosse, and Angus. These were the first earles that haue beene heard of amongst the Scotishmen." Holinshed. 5 Gentlewoman . . . Capell | Gentlewomen . . . Rowe. 2 ACT I SCENE I. A desert place Thunder and lightning. Enter three WITCHES 1 WITCH. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain ? 2 WITCH. When the hurlyburly 's done, When the battle 's lost and won. 3 WITCH. That will be ere the set of sun. 5 1 WITCH. Where the place? 2 WITCH. Upon the heath. 3 WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth. A desert place Camb | Ff omit. i. again Hanmer | againe? Ff. ACT I. SCENE I. The division into acts and scenes in this edi- tion is that given with Latin nomenclature in the First Folio, except in the case of the fifth act, where Scena Septima of the Folio is sub- divided into scenes vii and viii. A desert place. Line 6 indicates that this is not ' the heath.' Enter three WITCHES. " The true reason for the first appearance of the Witches is to strike the key-note of the character of the whole drama." Coleridge. 1-2. The question concerns time, not weather. 'Or' emphasizes the difference in the three elements. "In Stormes of Haile, or Snowe, Wind, Tempest, or Lightning, is accounted amongst magi- cians, a Tyme for Conjuring at an easie rate." Scot. 3. hurlyburly : tumult. This onomatopoetic word was used in a dignified sense in the sixteenth century. See Murray. 7. A strong pause after ' meet ' heightens the metrical effect. 3 4 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT i i WITCH. I come, Graymalkin. ALL. Paddock calls : Anon ! .Fair is foul, and foul is fair; "-f 10 Hover through the fog and filthy air. \_Exeun t~\ 9. ALL. Paddock calls: Anon! I 9-10. Paddock . . . fair: | one line All. Padock calls anon : Ff. in Ff. 8. Graymalkin : gray cat, cat. In Scotland ' malkin ' (' mawkin ') is ' hare.' Cf. ' puss ' for ' hare ' in sportsmen's slang. In the old witchcraft lore witches are represented as having attendants, called familiars, in the guise of animals. " They can keep the Divils and Spirits in the likenesse of Todes and Cats." Scot. 9-10. Some modern editors, including Clark and Wright (Clar, Globe), follow Hunter's conjecture and distribute the dialogue among the witches thus : " 2 WITCH. Paddock calls. 3 WITCH. Anon. ALL. Fair is foul," etc. In the D'Avenant version the arrangement is that of the Folios. This probably indicates the stage tradition. Paddock : toad. The word (often pronounced 'padda,' cf. Middle English fadde, Icelandic padda) is still used in Scotland and provincial England for 'frog.' In the Western High- lands 'padock' is the name sometimes given to a malevolent spirit. Anon : immediately. The usual inn-waiter's reply to a call. Cf. i Henry IV, II, iv, 36, 72, 109, etc. Here the toad serving as familiar is supposed to make a sign for the witches to leave, and ' Anon ! ' is the reply. Fair ia foul, and foul is fair. Cf . Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I, ii, 38. Farmer also quotes Spenser's "Then faire grew foule and foule grew faire," to show the proverbial char- acter of this phrase. But the expression probably signifies the moral confusion or inversion which the witches represent. ii. filthy: murky. See Murray. Gloom is the background oi the play. SCENE II MACBETH 5 SCENE II. A camp near Forres Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding CAPTAIN DUNCAN. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt* The newest state. MALCOLM. This is the sergeant Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend ! 5 Say to the king thy knowledge of the broil As thou didst leave it. CAPTAIN. 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 A camp . . . Capell I Ff omit. 5. Hail | Haile Fi | Haile : haile DUNCAN, Capell | King Ff. bleed- Fa I Haile, haile FsF*. ing CAPTAIN Ff | bleeding Sergeant 7. CAPTAIN | Cap. Ff | Sergeant Globe Dyce Camb. Globe Dyce Camb. i. DUNCAN | King Ff (so else- 9. Macdonwald Fi | Macdonnell where). SCENE II. This scene is regarded by many modern editors as not Shakespeare's. The reasons given are slovenly diction, bom- bastic style, alleged inconsistencies, and the absurdity of sending news of victory by a wounded soldier. Daniel notes that the ser- geant was not formally sent but was merely a straggler. 3. sergeant. Probably trisyllabic. In the fourteenth century ser- geants held lands by tenure of military service. " The offenders were sent for by a sergeant at armes." Holinshed. 5. Hail. Probably dissyllabic, but see Abbott, 480-482. 9. Macdonwald. " Manie slanderous words also, and railing tants this Macdowald vttered against his prince." Holinshed. 10. to that: to that end, for that purpose. See Abbott, 186 6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT I The multiplying villainies of nature Do swarm upon him from the western isles Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied ; And fortune, on his damned quarry smiling, Show'd like a rebel's whore : but all 's too weak; 15 For brave Macbeth well he deserves that name Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Which smok'd with bloody execution, Like valour's minion carv'd out his passage Till he fac'd the slave ; 20 13. gallowglasses Steevens | Gal- 14. quarry | Quarry Ff | quarrel lowgrosses Fi | Gallow glasses FzFa Hanmer (Warburton Johnson conj.) F4. is Ff | was Pope. Globe Camb. 13. Of: with. See Abbott, 171. kerns: light-armed Erse infan try. Cf. Richard If, II, i, 156. See Skeat. gallowglasses: heavy- armed Erse infantry. Cf. 2 Henry VI, IV, ix, 26. See Murray. "For out of the westerne lies there came vnto him a great multitude of people, offering themselves to assist him hi that rebellious quarell, and out of Ireland in hope of the spoile came no small number of Kernes and Galloglasses, offering gladlie to serve vnder him, whither it should please him to lead them." Holinshed. 14. damned quarry: doomed prey. 'His' may refer to 'fortune' or to ' Macdonwald.' The Warburton -Johnson suggestion that 'quarrel' (cf. 'rebellious quarell' in the quotation from Holinshed just given) should be read here is adopted by most modern editors. In IV, iii, 206, 'quarry' means 'heap of slain.' Cf. Corwlanus, I, i, 202. Other Elizabethan writers use 'quarry' in the sense of ' square- headed bolt of a crossbow.' 15. all 's. Unless this be a contraction of ' all was.' it is an exam- ple of mixing up historical present and past tenses. Pope omitted 's, interpreting 'all too weak.' Cf. 'is supplied,' line 13. 18. execution. The termination ' -ion ' is frequently pronounced as two syllables at the end of a line, and occasionally in the middle of a line. See Abbott, 479. 19. minion . favorite. In a good sense, as in / Henry IV, I, i, 83. SCENE II MACBETH 7 Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam'd him from the nave to th' chops, And fix'd his head upon our battlements. DUNCAN. O valiant cousin ! worthy gentleman ! CAPTAIN. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 25 Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders, So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark : No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd, Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 30 ai. ne'er Knight | nev'rFiFzFs I Ff. thunders, | Thunders : Fi 1 never F4. bade Steevens I bad Ff. Thunders breaking FaFsF* | thun- 26. Shipwrecking | Shipwracking ders break Pope Camb. 21. Which. The antecedent is Macbeth. See Abbott, 265. shook hands. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ' to shake hands with' a thing was a picturesque phrase for 'to leave.' "I have shaken hands with delight in my warm blood and canicular days ; I perceive I do anticipate the vices of age." Browne, Keligio Medici. But there may be an allusion to the formal handshaking before a duel. " The shaking of handes was with sharp weapons." Sidney, A rcadia. 22. nave : navel. Hanmer read ' nape,' as ' nave ' occurs nowhere else, and such a sword-stroke as that described seems ridiculous. Steevens quotes from Nash's Dido, Queen of Carthage (1594), II, 256 : " Then from the navel to the throat at once He ripp'd old Priam." chops: jaws. Another form of 'chaps.' 23. " Makbeth entring into the castell by the gates . . . found the carcasse of Makdowald lieng dead ... he caused the head to be cut off, and set upon a pole's end (and so sent it as a present to the king). . . . The headlesse trunke he commanded to be hoong up upon an high paire of gallowes." Holinshed. 25-28. As from the east, the region of quiet dawn and fair prom- ise, come fiercest storms, so from a victory that brought joy spring fresh dangers and alarms. There seems no valid reason for adding ' break ' to line 26, as many editors do, for with ideas of motion the verb is often omitted, and the irregular verse is characteristic of Macbeth and onomatopoetically effective. See Liddell. 8 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT I But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men, Began a fresh assault. DUNCAN. Dismay'd not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? CAPTAIN. Yes ;, As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 35 If I say sooth, I must report they were As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks ; So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe : Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, Or memorize another Golgotha, 40 I cannot tell But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. 33. furbish'd | furbusht Ff. 38. So they | separate line in 33-34. Dismay'd Banquo Pope Steevens Camb. I one line in Ff. 42. I ... help Rowe | two lines in 34-35. Yes . . . lion Pope | two Ff, first ending faint, lines in Ff, ending eagles, lion. 31. surveying vantage : perceiving a favorable opportunity. " Inv mediatlie whereupon woord came that Sueno king of Norway was arrived in Fife with a puissant armie, to subdue the whole realme of Scotland." Holinshed. 34. captains. Probably trisyllabic. ' Capitains ' is a common six- teenth century form of the word. This pronunciation is still heard in dialect. Cf. j Henry Vf, IV, vii, 30. 36. sooth : truth. ' Sooth ' (Middle English ' soth,' Anglo-Saxon sift) is both adjective and substantive, the adjectival sense being the older. The root idea is ' being." See Skeat. 37. By a well-known figure of speech, ' crack ' is here put for that which makes the 'crack.' Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, V, i, 14, 15. 39-41. Unless they meant to bathe in reeking wounds and make the place as memorable as Golgotha, I cannot tell what they in- tended. Golgotha, " the place of a skull " (Matthew, xxvii, 33 : Mark, xv, 22), i.e. of slaughter, is here referred to. SCENE n MACBETH 9 DUNCAN. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds ; They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons. [Exit CAPTAIN, attended] Enter Ross and ANGUS Who comes here? Irf"^ MALCOLM. The worthy thane__of Ross. ~| 45 LENNOX. What a haste looks through his eyes ! So should he look That seems to speak things strange. Ross. God save the king ! DUNCAN. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? Ross. From Fife, great king ; Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold. 50 Norway himself, with terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor, The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict ; Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, 44. [Exit . . . | Ff omit. 46-47- So ... strange Hanmei | 46. a haste Fi I hast FaFaF^ one line in Ff. 45. Enter Ross and ANGUS. This is the First Folio stage direc- tion. Most modem editors omit 'and Angus,' as Angus does not speak and is not addressed. But in the next scene Ross and Angus together bring to Macbeth the news of his promotion. 47. seems to : is about to. " ' Seem ' in Early English often con- notes an immediate or near futurity." Liddell. The D'Avenant version reads ' comes.' Johnson suggested ' teems.' 49-50. The Norwegian banners proudly reared aloft and fluttering in the wind seemed to mock or insult the Scottish sky, and the sight of them struck chills of dismay into our countrymen. 'Flout' and 'fan' are examples of the historic present. See note, line 15. 54. Bellona's bridegroom. Steevens sneered at Shakespeare's igno- rance in making Bellona, the old Roman goddess of war (M/ttm), 10 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT 1 Confronted him with self-comparisons, 55 Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm, Curbing his lavish spirit ; and, to conclude, The victory fell on us. DUNCAN. Great happiness ! Ross. That now Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition ; Nor would we deign him burial of his men 60 Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme's inch, Ten thousand dollars to our general use. DUNCAN. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive 58-59. That . . . composition 61. Colme's inch | Colmes ynch Steevens | two lines in Ff, the first FI | Colmes-hill F2FaF4 | Colmes- one ending king. kill-isle Pope. the wife of Mars, but Shakespeare poetically makes her the bride of Macbeth. lapp'd in proof : clad in impenetrable armor. Cf. 'armed in proof ' in Richard III, V, iii, 219. 55. Met him in every respect upon equal terms. 56. The punctuation is that of the First Folio. Many editors put the comma after ' rebellious.' " If the old punctuation be right, ' re- bellious,' being applied to the arm of the loyal combatant, must be taken to mean 'opposing, resisting assault.' " Clai. 57. Curbing his lavish spirit : checking his reckless daring. 58. That : so that. ' That ' often expresses result. See Abbott, 283. ' That ' is an overworked word in Elizabethan English. 59. composition : terms of peace. Cf . the phrase ' composed a quarrel.' Cf. Measure for Measure, I, ii, 2. 61. Saint Colme's inch: the island of Inchcolm. It is in the Firth of Forth and on it was a monastery dedicated to St. Columba. ' Inch ' is from the Gaelic innt's, 'island,' or 'land by a river.' "They . . . obteined of Makbeth for a <;reat summe of gold, that such of their friends as were slaine at this last bickering, might be buried in saint Colmes Inch." Holinshed. 62. A characteristic Shakespearian anachronism. Dollars were first coined in the sixteenth century. SCENE in MACBETH 1 1 Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth. 65 Ross. I '11 see it done. DUNCAN. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. \_Exeun f\ SCENE III. A heath Thunder. Enter the three WITCHES 1 WITCH. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 WITCH. Killing swine. 3 WITCH. Sister, where thou? i WITCH. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd. ' Give me,' quoth 1 : 5 '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, A heath Capell | A heath near . . . I | separate line in Ff Globe. Forres Globe | Ff omit. 6. Aroint | Aroynt FiFa I Anoynt 5. munch'd 1 mouncht Ff. Give FF4. 2. " Finallie she said she would be even with me : and soone after my child, my cow, my sow . . . died, or was strangelie taken." Scot. 6. 'Aroint thee!' is probably an old exorcism against witches. Cf. King Lear, III, iv, 129. The etymology is uncertain. rump-fed. Either 'offal-fed' or 'pampered.' ronyon: mangy creature. A gen- eral term of abuse. See Century. So in The Merry Wives of Windsor, IV, ii, 195. Cf. 'roynish clown,' As You Like It, II, ii, 8. 7. Tiger. A common name for a ship. Cf. Twelfth A'ight, V, i, 65. In Hakluyt's Voyages is an account of a ship of this name that went to Tripolis with cargo for Aleppo in 1583. 8. Witches were believed to go to sea in sieves. " They can go in and out at awger holes, and saile in an egge shelle, a cockle or mus- cle shell, through and under the tempestuous seas." Scot. 12 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT i And, like a rat without a tail, I '11 do, I '11 do, and I '11 do. 2 WITCH. I '11 give thee a wind, i WITCH. Thou 'rt kind. 3 WITCH. And I another. i WITCH. I myself have all the other ; And the very points they blow, All the quarters that they know I' the shipman's card. I '11 drain him dry as hay. Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his pent-house lid ; He shall live a man forbid : Weary se'nnights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine : 10 20 12. Thou 'rt Capell | Th'art Ff. 18. I'll | He Fi | I will Pope. 22. se'nnights | Seu'nights Ff | seven-nights Steevens. 9. Whatever animal form the witch might assume, there would always be some defect. Cf . the ' devil's limp,' ' the cloven foot,' etc. 10. do : work him mischief. The vagueness adds impressiveness. H-I2. This free gift of a wind is to be taken as an act of sisterly kindness, witches being thought to have the power of selling winds. 17. shipman's card. Either the mariner's compass, i.e. the circular card marked with the points of the compass, or a ' chart ' showing the points of the compass. 20. pent-house lid : eyelid. A ' pent-house ' is a shed or ' lean-to ' sloping down from a main building. Drayton and Tennyson use 'pent-house' to describe the eyebrow. 21. forbid. Either 'under a curse,' or 'excommunicated.' 22. se'nnights: seven-nights, weeks. Cf. 'fortnight ' (for 'fourteen- night '). ' Sennet ' (sennit) is still heard in English dialect. 23. peak : grow thin. Usually in the expression ' peak and pine.' See Murray. Holinshed, describing the means used for destroying King Duff, says that the witches were found " resting ... an image SCKNE III MACBETH Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tost. 25 Look what I have. 2 WITCH. Show me, show me. i WITCH. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come. [Drum within'] 3 WITCH. A drum, a drum ! 30 Macbeth doth come. ALL. The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about : Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, 35 And thrice again, to make up nine. Peace ! the charm 's wound up. 39. Wreck'd | Wrackt Ff. 32. weird Theobald | weyward Ff. of wax at the fier, resembling in each feature the kings person . . . so that as the wax euer melted so did the kings flesh." 32. weird. The Folios spell the word ' weyward,' but Holinshed has ' weird ' : " These women were either the weird sisters, that is> (as ye would say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries indued with knowledge of prophesie by their necroman- tical science, bicause euery thing came to passe as they had spoken." Probably the Folio spelling represents a southern pronunciation of the word. According to Skeat ' weird ' as an adjective here means ' subservient to destiny.' The Anglo-Saxon ivyrd means 'fate,' ' des- tiny,' also one of the Norns, or Fates. Gavin Douglas translates Parcae in the sEneid, III, 379, by 'weird sisteris.' 33. Posters: messengers, rapid travelers. Cf. 'post-haste.' 36. Here the witches perform a sort of incantation by joining hands and dancing round in a ring, three rounds for each. Odd num- bers and multiples of odd numbers, especially three and nine, were thought to have great magical power in thus winding up a charm. 14 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT i Enter MACBETH and BANQUO MACBETH. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. BANQUO. How far is 't call'd to Forres? What are these So wither'd, and so wild in their attire, 40 That look not like th' inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on 't? Live you? or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips : you should be women, 45 And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so. MACBETH. Speak, if you can : what are you? 1 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of Glamis ! 2 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor ! 3 WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, that shall be king here- after ! 50 38. Scene IV Pope 39. Forres | Foris Pope | Soris Ff. 38. Macbeth's first words may refer only to the symbolical sun- shine and storm of the day, or to a day fouled with storm but bright- ened with victory. Dowden reads here a deeper meaning: "Observe that the last words of the witches in the opening scene of the play are the first words which Macbeth himself utters : ' Fair is foul, and foul is fair.' Shakespeare intimates by this that, although Macbeth has not yet set eyes upon these hags, the connection is already estab- lished between his soul and them. Their spells have already wrought upon his blood." 40. " Three women in strange and wild apparell." Holinshed. 48-50. " The first of them spake and said : ' All haile Makbeth, thane of Glammis ' (for he had latelie entered into that dignitie and office by the death of his father Sinell). The second of them said: SCENE ill MACBETH 15 BANQUO. 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 55 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, 57. rapt Pope | wrapt Ff. ' Haile Makbeth thane of Cawder.' But the third said : ' All haile Makbeth that heereafter shalt be king of Scotland.' " Holinshed 53. fantastical: imaginary. Cf. line 139; Richard II, I, iii, 299. Holinshed has "vaine fantasticall illusion." 55. An example of 'respective construction.' 'Present grace' re- fers to ' noble having ' (i.e. ' possession ') and ' great prediction ' to 'royal hope.' Similarly in lines 60 61, 'beg' refers to 'favours' and ' fear ' to ' hate.' 57. That: so that. Cf. I, ii, 58. withal: therewith, with it. Here ' withal ' is an adverb (cf . German damif), not, as often in Shakespeare, the emphatic form of 'with,' used after the object, generally a rela- tive, at the end of a sentence. Macbeth's rapture or trance of thought on this occasion is deeply significant of his moral predis- positions. Coleridge remarks upon the passage as follows: How truly Shakespearian is the opening of Macbeth's character given in the itnpossessedness of Banquo's mind, wholly present to the present object ; an unsullied, unscarified mirror! And how strictly true to nature it is that Banquo, and not Macbeth himself, directs our notice to the effect produced on Macbeth's mind, rendered temptable by previous dalliance of the fancy with ambitious thoughts. . . . Banquo's questions are those of natural curiosity, such as a girl would put after hearing a gipsy tell her school-fellow's fortune ; all perfectly general, or rather planless. But Macbeth, lost in thought, raises himself to speech only by the witches being about to depart. . . . and all that follows is reasoning on a problem already discussed in his mind, on a hope \\hich he welcomes, and the doubts concerning the attainment of which he wishes to have cleared up. 16 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT I Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor iear 60 Your favours nor your hate. 1 WITCH. Hail ! 2 WITCH. Hail ! 3 WITCH. Hail ! 1 WITCH. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 65 2 WITCH. Not so happy, yet much happier. 3 WITCH. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none : So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo ! i WITCH. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail ! MACBETH. 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 75 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'] 78. Two lines in Ff. 73. A prosperous gentleman. There is seemingly a strange discrep- ancy here. In the preceding scene, Macbeth is said to have met Cawdor face to face in the ranks of Norway : he must therefore have known him to be a rebel and traitor. 74. prospect of belief. Cf. 'prospect of his soul,' Much Ado about A r othing, IV, i, 231; 'prospect of my hopes,' Twelfth Night, III, iv, 90. " Elizabethan thinking was full of such metaphors for the perceptive powers of the mind." Liddell. 76. owe : have, possess. This, the original meaning of the word, is common in Shakespeare, as in King John, II, i, 247-248. From 'to possess another's property ' comes the meaning ' to be in debt for.' SCENE in MACBETH 17 BANQUO. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd ? 80 MACBETH. Into the air ; and what seem'd corporal melted As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd ! BANQUO. Were such things here as we do speak about? Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner? 85 MACBETH. Your children shall be kings. BANQUO. You shall be king. MACBETH. And thane of Cawdor too : went it not so? BANQUO. To th' selfsame tune and words. Who 's here ? Enter Ross and ANGUS Ross. The king hath happily receiv'd, 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 : silenc'd with that, 81-82. Three lines in Ff, ending 89. Scene V Pope corporal, wind, stay'd. 91. rebels' Theobald | rebels Ff. 84. on FiFaFs I of F4. 81. corporal : corporeal. Shakespeare never uses the latter form. 84. on : of. Cf. 'on's ' in V, i, 61. the insane root. This is usu- ally taken to mean hemlock or henbane, but it is probable that Shakespeare had in mind this passage from North's Plutarch : " They were compelled to live of herbs and roots . . . among the which there was one that . . . made them out of their wits. For he that had once eaten of it, his memory was gone from him." The Life of Marcus Antonius. With this causal use of 'insane,' cf. 'ob- livious ' in V, iii, 43. For the pronunciation ' in'sane ' see Abbott, 492. Cf. ' ob'scure,' II, iii, 45. 92-93. The construction is involved (cf. ' respective construction,' line 55), but the meaning seems to be, He knows not whether to 18 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT I In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, 95 Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as tale Came post with post ; and every one did bear Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, And pour'd them down before him. ANGUS. 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 honour, He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor ; 105 In which addition, hail, most worthy thane ! For it is thine. 97. tale Ff | hail Rowe Globe 102. herald F4 I harrold FI | her- Camb | bale Becket conj. raid F2Fs. 98. Came Rowe | Can Ff | Ran 105. bade Theobald | bad Ff. Delius conj. express his own wonder at these achievements or to sound your praises. 96. Nothing : not at all. This adverbial use is common in Shake- speare. afeard. The past participle of ' afear ' (Anglo-Saxon dftz'rati) ; ' afraid ' is the participle of ' affray ' (Low Lat. ex-fridare). See Murray. ' Afeard ' (' 'feard ') is still heard in dialect. 97. Strange images : unusual forms. This refers to the heaps of slain. In 2 Henry VI, I, iii, 179, is ' Image of pride '; in King Lear, II, iv, 91, ' images of revolt.' Cf. ' picture of health.' thick as tale : fast as could be counted. "A phrase peculiarly Shakespearian in its pregnant condensation . . . transformed into bald commonplace by the substitution of 'thick as hail.' " Churton Collins. 'Thick' for 'fast' occurs in 2 Henry IV, II, iii, 24; 'tell' for 'count' occurs often. Cf. ' keep tally,' also ' tale ' in Exodus, v, 8. 106. addition : title. Something added to a man's name to show his rank. Cf. Ill, i, 99 ; Hamlet, I, iv, 20. SCENE HI MACBETH ig BANQUO. [Aside] What, can the devil speak true? MACBETH. The thane of Cawdor lives : why do you dress me In borrow'd robes? ANGUS. Who was the thane lives yet ; But under heavy judgment bears that life no Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combin'd With those of Norway, or did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage, or that with both He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not ; But treasons capital, confess'd and prov'd, 115 Have overthrown him. MACBETH. \_Asidi\ Glamis, and thane of Cawdor ! The greatest is behind. \To Ross and ANGUS] Thanks for your pains. [ To BANQUO] Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me Promis'd no less to them? BANQUO. 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, 107, 116. [Aside] Ff omit. Malone | five lines in Ff, ending 108-109. why . . . robes Capell | loose, Norway, help, labour'd, not. one line in Ff. 117. [To Ross . . .] Ff omit. 111-114. Which . . . know not 118. [TV BANQUO] Ff. omit. 112. line: strengthen, reenforce. So in i Henry IV, II, iii, 86. 120. home: thoroughly. Cf. Measure for Measure, IV, iii, 148; Cymbeline, III, v, 92; King Lear, III, iii, 13. 123-126. It is nowise likely that Shakespeare was a reader of Livy, but in these lines, which give, as Professor Corson says, the entire moral of the tragedy, is a striking resemblance to a passage in Book xxviii, 42, 4 : "An Syphaci Numidisque credis ? satis sit semel 20 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT l The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's 125 In deepest consequence. Cousins, a word, I pray you. MACBETH. \_Asidi\ 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 ij5 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 140 127, 130. [Aside] Ff omit. 135. hair Rowe | heire 131-132. if ... success | one line 140-142. that . . . not | two lines in Ff. in Ff. creditum : non semper temeritas est felix, et fraus fidem in parvis sibi praestruit ut, quum operae pretium sit, cum mercede magna fallit." 128-129. The image is of the stage, with an august drama of kingly state to be performed ; the inspiring prologue has been spoken, and the glorious action is about to begin. imperial theme: theme of empire. Cf. 'sterile curse,' Julius Ctrsar, I, ii, 9, and 'slanderous loads, ''Julius C.\Exeunt BANQUO and FaF4. FLEANCE] Exit Banquo Ff. 25-26. when 'tis . . . you | one 31. Scene II Pope. line in Ff. 33. [Exit Servant] Exit Ff. 25-26. If you will join my party (i.e. what has my consent), when the time comes (or, when the result is gained), it shall make honor for you. ' Consort,' ' contest,' ' ascent,' ' concept,' have all been sug- gested as emendations of the obscure 'consent ' of the Folio text. 36. sensible: " perceptible through the bodily organs." Century. 'Capable of being perceived through the senses."^- Clar. SCENE I MACBETH 45 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 ; 45 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 curtain'd sleep ; witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder, 44-45. 'Senses' is here used with a double reference, (i) to the bodilj organs of sense, and (2) to the inward faculties of the mind. Either his eyes are deceived by his imaginative forces in being made to see that which is not, or else his other senses are at fault in not being able to find the reality which his eyes behold. 46. dudgeon : haft, hilt. The name of a kind of wood (probably boxwood) used by turners for the handles of knives, daggers, etc. Then, by metonymy, the handle or the dagger itself. gouts : large drops. Fr. goutte ; Lat. gutta. 51. " The loss of an unstressed syllable after a caesural pause is of common occurrence in English verse." Liddell. But may not 'witchcraft' be trisyllabic here, ' witchc(e)raft,' in accordance with the rule that 'r' and liquids in dissyllables are frequently pronounced as though an extra vowel were introduced between them and the preceding consonant. See Abbott, 477. 51-52. celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings. That is, Makes offer- ings or sacrifices to Hecate, who was the queen of Hades, the patroness of all infernal arts, and of course the mistress of all who 46 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT n Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl 's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design 55 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] 55. strides Pope ] sides Ff. sowr Fa | sour F4. 56. sure Capell | sowre FiFa | 57. way they Rowe | they may Ff. practised them; here called 'pale,' because, under the name of Diana, she was identified with the moon. Cf. Childe Harold, II, 22 : " beneath pale Hecat's blaze." The name is, properly, trisyllabic, but Shakespeare always has it dissyllabic, except in / Henry VI, III, ii, 64. 54. 'Watch' is here used probably for 'signal.' The figure is of the wolf acting as the sentinel of murder, and his howl being the signal to give warning of approaching danger. 55. Steevens points out that 'strides' (Pope's emendation for ' sides ' in the Folio text) did not necessarily carry the idea of vio- lence or noise, but was used by Elizabethan writers in a sense coher- ent enough with ' stealthy pace ' : They passing forth kept on their readie way, With easie steps so soft as foot could stryde. The Faerie Queene, IV, viii, 37. 58. Cf. Luke, xix, 40. 5o. "Macbeth would have nothing break through the universal silence that added such horror to the night, as suited well with the bloody deed he was about to perform." Steevens. SCENE H MACBETH 47 SCENE II. The same Enter LADY MACBETH LADY MACBETH. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold ; What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. Hark ! Peace ! It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it : The doors are open ; and the surfeited grooms 5 Do mock their charge with snores : I have drugg'd their possets, SCENE II | Scene III Pope | Rowe shriek'd, good-night, open, charge, continues scene. possets. 2-6. In Ff the lines end flre, 1-2. Lady Macbeth has fired her courage by drinking wine ; but, while she is kindled by drink, the grooms are stupefied, " their possets " having been drugged. 3. Shakespeare has more than one allusion to the supposed omi- nousness of the owl's note. Cf. / Henry VI, IV, ii, 15 ; Richard III, IV, Iv, 509; Lucrece,i6$. Cf. "fatal fowle ! As ravens, schrich-owles." Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, IV, ii, 63-64. " For one will saie ; I had a dreame to-night, or a crowe croked upon my house, or an owle flew by me and screeched (which augurie Lucius Silla tooke of his death)." Scot. the fatal bellman. So in The Duchess of Malfi, IV, ii, 179-181 : I am the common bellman, That usually is sent to condemn'd persons The night before they suffer. Lady Macbeth of course regards Duncan as the condemned person to whom the ' fatal bellman ' gives ' the stern'st good-night.' 6. " Posset is hot milk poured on ale or sack, having sugar, grated bisket, and eggs, with other ingredients boiled in it, which all goes to a curd." Academy of Armourie (1688). " Get me three hundred milch bats, to make possets to procure sleepe." The Duchess ct Malfi, IV, ii, 1 1 6. 48 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT 11 That death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live or die. Enter MACBETH MACBETH. Who's there? what, ho ! LADY MACBETH. Alack, I am afraid they have awak'd, And 't is not done. Th' attempt and not the deed 10 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. My husband ! MACBETH. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? LADY MACBETH. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. 15 Did not you speak? 8. Enter MACBETH Ff 1 in Globe 13. My husband | separate line in Ff. Camb after done 't, line 13. 14. Two lines in Ff. 7. That : so that. So in line 23. Cf. I, ii, 58 ; I, vii, 8. 8. Enter MACBETH. The Folio stage direction. " It may be that on the Elizabethan stage Macbeth entered here, not to the stage proper, but to the balcony above." Manly. lO-ii. The attempt without the deed destroys or ruins us. 1213. This little touch of nature is one of Shakespeare's most pregnant hints of character, and of itself should be enough to upset the more common notion of Lady Macbeth. It tells us that, notwith- standing her appalling invocation to the " murdering ministers," her milk continues to be milk. And what a suggestive contrast it makes to the terrible audacity of thought and speech she has just displayed ! It is the tenderness of her woman's heart that causes her to see in the sleeping king an image of her father. 15. Webster imitated this in The White Devil, V, iv, 91-94 : When scritch-howles croke upon the chimney tops, And the strange cricket i' th' oven singes and hoppes . . . Be certaine then you of a corse shall heare. SCENE II MACBETH 49 MACBETH. When? LADY MACBETH. Now. MACBETH. As I descended? LADY MACBETH. Ay. MACBETH. Hark ! Who lies i' the second chamber? LADY MACBETH. Donalbain. 19 MACBETH. This is a sorry sight. [Looking on his hands] LADY MACBETH. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. MACBETH. There 's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried ' Murder ! ' That they did wake each other : I stood and heard them : But they did say their prayers, and address'd them Again to sleep. LADY MACBETH. There are two lodg'd together. 25 MACBETH. One cried 'God bless us !' and '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 MACBETH. Consider it not so deeply. 30 MACBETH. But wherefore could not I pronounce ' Amen ' ? I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen' Stuck in my throat. 18-19. Hark! . . . chamber? | 22-25. Lines in Ff end sleep, other, one line in Ff. prayers, sleep. 20. [Looking . . . | Ff omit. 32-33- I had . . . throat | one line in Ff. 24. address'd: prepared. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, II, ix, 19. 27. As: as if. See Abbott, 107. hangman's: executioner's. 28. The Folio punctuation. In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare a comma closed the preceding line and a colon was put after ' fear,' so that ' listening ' modified ' me ' and not ' I.' 50 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT n LADY MACBETH. These deeds must not be thought After these ways : so, it will make us mad. 34 MACBETH. Methought I heard a voice cry ' Sleep no more ! Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast, LADY MACBETH. What do you mean? 40 MACBETH. Still it cried ' Sleep no more ! ' to all the house : ' Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more ; Macbeth shall sleep no more ! ' LADY MACBETH. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, You do unbend your noble strength, to think 45 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? 35-36. 'Sleep . . . sleep* 1 marked 41. 'Sleep . . . more' | marked as as quotation by Johnson. quotation by Hanmer. 37. sleave Steevens | sleeve Ff. 42-43- ' Glamis . . . more ! ' | marked as quotation by Hanmer. 35. " A voice was heard as he was in bed in the night time to take his rest vttering unto him these or the like woordes . . . The king with this voice being striken into great dread and terror, passed that night without anie sleepe comming in his eies." Holinshed. The Folio printing does not indicate where the words of the ' voice ' end. Hanmer extended the quotation as far as ' life's feast.' 37. ravell'd sleave : tangled skein of floss-silk. Cf. Troilus and Crcssida, V, i, 35 : " thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk." 39-40. In the second course at Elizabethan feasts were served the most nourishing dishes. 45-46. to think So brainsickly : in thinking so crazily. The gerun- dive use of the infinitive. See Abbott, 356. SCENE II MACBETH 51 They must lie there : go carry them, and smear The sleepy grooms with blood. MACBETH. I '11 go no more : 50 I am afraid to think what I have done ; Look on 't again I dare not. LADY MACBETH. 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, 55 1 '11 gild the faces of the grooms withal ; For it must seem their guilt. [Exit. Knocking within] MACBETH. 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 57. [Knocking . . . | Knocke . . . Ff. 52-55. With her firm self-control, this bold woman, when awake was to be moved by nothing but facts : when her powers of self- control were unknit by sleep, then was the time for her to see things that were not, save in her own conscience. 56- gild. ' Red ' is a common epithet for ' gold ' in early English literature, and 'golden blood' occurs in II, iii, 100. Cf. King John, II, i, 316. "'Gild with blood 'was an expression not uncommon in the sixteenth century." Nares. withal. See note, I, iii, 57. 57. guilt. The same quibble, also with tragic setting, occurs in 2 Henry IV, IV, v, 129-130 ; and Henry V, Prol. II, 26. It is famous in English literature from Marlowe to Hood. Knocking within. For the tragic significance of this, see De Quincey, " On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth." It is dramatically effective that one of the mer* whose knocking startles the guilty pair is the destined instrument of vengeance. "The knocking here seems to show that the opening of the next scene always formed part of the play." E. K. Chambers. 6o-<5i. For parallel passages in Sophocles, Catullus, Lucretius, and Seneca, see Furness. THE NEW HWTS3ffl9/-3HAKESPEAREn Clean from ioydKi6xi ,M-sr;Jtshissinp^iaibTHlbiiatheaR vadT The multitudinous seas incarniaidiiufe/iJiw amooig v leaking the graanaonei*e .-iWhoo'siJjbgrps: i 's/airfarnauivi6h^f ;e*pec,taJtienioDplentyi ; ^jon .'ji-jon'A .i\\'Vj^-.\7v .3?o;.>3 luoy Jgot vurn JJOY . , SCENE III | Scene rv Warburtont 3, 6, &c.. [Knocking] Knock Ft '' nul on ji loJioq-Iivoh fi' I .Hod 10) YftScKCKiHlIt[ THils.ttj^e'fartiQua ":Prs ; IkhA'eiff discdrdance with tlie surrounding nutter imparts ;m air of verisinuli' tude to the \vhole. " Looking at tlie scene as u practical dramatist, I see that it is absolutely necessary to ^et Macbeth -otf the stage. A motive mast be contrived fur this. That motive is at once Supplied by.'tbftSiiddBn!ka0cking;;'!-rVTQj:Tayl r 6B3ja s.-iJ z \lzuoubi, SM KB 2. old : plentt of. Aifre^irervt 'mteniv,x>raugjantatiV*. in collo- qiiial KHrabetlian speuchv, aud st ill heard in nuxlvru ulang. Cf . 7/48hal^ hay^iold sWeajrit^-IVgned 4. Beelzebub. Perhaps ;theJFolia brisyllafcic speHii%xhrt^d be re- tainediin. the text as representing the popular pronuociatkwt. rThe Porter pi oceeds to hold a dialogne \vith st'veral imapnau' persons. sit 'iheB-gate ' wixOTajre'si^peee'ditabekDoekingior admission. Too much, perhaps, has been made of supposed 'topical allusions' in this'dialogue fordetermiaing; thedateof con\poitionof thephy. See Intnrnkiction. 4-5. That a fanner who hoarded grain apainst a 'lean' vei/ should hanyjiiansBlfs'whfeaiijai/year! of - plentyi came serinra^to.ihaawifeqe/ada current EliiabetfcaiE^asti' ! >Wa4\iadrBen'Jon8ori' both 1 make use ot it. 5. Come in time 3 an $ailyrJnTreairf4-atapkin&; hi JB^ttfe Ah-farii tehntjeril 1 a napkin, at handkerchief e, -wherewith *8e wipe away' tH sweate." In finidale.VN*^ Testament 'napkin'is Used to translate , smfaridnt.' ".tbjesi.* t 54 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT u enough about you ; here you '11 sweat for 't. [Knocking^ Knock, knock! Who's there, in the other devil's name? Faith, here 's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale ; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator. \_Knocking\ 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\ 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 go the primrose way 8. Some editors, following Malone, find here a reference to the trial of Henry Garnet in March, 1606, in connection with the Gunpowder Plot. At this trial the doctrine of 'equivocation' was much discussed, but ' equivocation ' was " at all times so favourite a theme of invective with Protestant preachers that it could not but be familiar to the public, who in those days frequented the pulpit as assiduously as the stage." Clar. Verity notes that "the alias under which Garnet often passed was ' Mr. Farmer ' ... so that the transition (for the two must not be identified) from ' the farmer that hang'd himself to the 'equivocator ' was a sort of jest." 10. equivocate to heaven : win heaven by equivocating. 13. hose: trousers. "The joke consists in this, that, a French hose being very short and strait, a tailor must be master of his trade who could steal any thing from thence." Warburton. Another view is that the allusion is to a French fashion, which made the hose very large and wide, and so with more cloth to be stolen. 14. A tailor's 'goose' is the heavy flatiron with which he smooths and presses his work, so called because the handle bore some resem- blance to the neck of a goose. The quibble is an ancient one. 17-18. the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. Cf. All's Well that Ends Well, IV, v, 56 : " They '11 be for the flowery way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire "; Hamlet, I, iii, 50 : " Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads." "A bonfire at that date is SCENE in MACBETH 55 to the everlasting bonfire. [Knocking] Anon, anon ! I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate~\ Enter MACDUFF and LENNOX MACDUFF. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, 20 That you do lie so late? PORTER. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock. MACDUFF. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night. PORTER. That it did, sir, i' the very throat on me : but I requited him for his lie ; and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him. 27 Enter MACBETH MACDUFF. Is thy master stirring? Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes. LENNOX. Good morrow, noble sir. MACBETH. Good morrow, both. MACDUFF. Is the king stirring, worthy thane? MACBETH. Not yet. 19. \0pens . . . | Ff omit. 28. Scene IV Pope. invariably given in Latin Dictionaries as equivalent to pyra or rog us ; it was the fire for consuming the human body after death : and the hell-fire differed from the earth-fire only in being everlast- ing. This use of a word so remarkably descriptive in a double meaning is intensely Shakespearian." Fleay. See Murray. 22. the second cock. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, IV, iv, 3-4 : The second cock hath crow'd, The curfew bell hath rung, 't is three o'clock. 27. cast him. The quibble is between 'cast,' i.e. 'throw,' as a wrestling term, and 'cast ' in the sense of ' ease my stomach of.' J0 THE NEW HUO5Gf$/SfiAKESPEARBU A W'*i5 htih p: 'd the MACBETH. I '11 bring you to him. MACDUFF. I kribW i thi'9-M'a' ; JoyrMr6 A iSbTie?1:o you ; o't 313 .Lnahi ,9Jr,J 03 ji 2fi W .wuaoAl MACBETH. The labour we delights in, ^fhj-s^ g^.j% ov j ,-; yu ,ie ^ d 1 . _ S LENNOX. The night has been unruly : whe^ w,e Our chimneys were blown down ; and, as they say, Lamentings heard i' th^ W, 'S^/ange A screams of death, And, prophesying with acprvt^ten^n vr i t 2 i .T-i'a:v.t^ Of dire combusii,Q ( n,a^d.p^i[fus r '^, r eAfer4J;s //rj gxif i gallon;! ::;O New hatch'd to th' woeful ^igg f ,th^)9b^u Clafn^ur'4-,-the,JiT|4oi^g night : some say, the Was feverou^r^^h^Jcegri ,-;-;;, gn ^ 9r i, K 'T was a rough 37-38. Prose in Ff. 44. combustion FI | combustions 38. [Exit] Eaqt M'rf(MifeFf.Sj FoF 3 F 4 . .Jimo iH . 40-42. In Ff four lines, ending 45-47- New . . . shake | four lines shake. -,38..1iiBittpd:.H,appoihtfldi-; :( Cf;-7is;;Mdz^i^z%ms^I^ Hi^'ijac' an? j 39* .jiHere we -haf^ a: significant norte of character, MacbethtiC&lche^' himself iu/theL&tteBatica'of a falsehood,' ^hiiii ; is something- aj)odds~: with his natur^ ayid'haMlual feelings ; and ^starfofoabktiKe)< friend- ing of his speech., as from a spontaneous impulse to be true. 44. combustion. A, commqn. Elizabethan mea^iji^jig^/vyas 'tumult.' 45. obscure: darkness-haunting. Cf. Julius dcsar, I, iii. 26; Titus syllabi^ in'Shafcfefepar^.4s Wffc^tftt the SCENE iiiflASHP.MMAHMACBEO'HH W3VI HHT LENNOX. 7tfy;youhg remembrance'^rannoCcpabalWiS cA fellow ^oatJj^ja silil ;ilcw bns ,qu 3n eavjng iuo\ mort zA .Ibd rift*- .O8_Jpaei j: VJK8 bnA Shake off this downy sleep, death s counterfeit, And look onv]d:eath iteeUd up, up, and^SetJnjnq? esmtj* .?? 9.1 ;I sno b'isMtfm ... .CT-^T biK'iosrfT llsd ">Ai gaifl .da 50-51. tongue .V .^hee | separate line in Ff. living God," 2 Corinthians, vi, 16. 8VWbqxoan: ?l>ev^wsB;.3iaMdpt8wq5krate and luort rus bsrb Jucf I bsH .HTSHDAM 95 Loyal udjpQfBpyB a^orr^pt?^ p^j , fi , /vi , bfifl l The expedition of my.y^^v^ gwo|l38 p ,,,, g , 9wrfT j^utrun the pau5(fo^^&^*f&ty,,^cai^ oj , ud gi [IA His silver skin^^^^js^d^^g^^, lo 3( ,- lff i ^t''' r is n ) df'i ! nipfobat51e : 'tnat Shakespeare, pat thdse forced an$ UnnathraHm^aphWr^tih'to^ l ^ e mouth of Macbeth as a mark of artifice an<} j dj$aprftiij.tji<>t>, fo sfeoiw the difference Between , the studied, language of hypocrisy an4' the natural outcries of sudden passion. The whole speech, so consid- ered, is a remark^Je in.^ncg.pf judgrnejit,.as jt_9onsists entirely of antithesis and metaphor." Johnson. 100-101. The image is of atesieging?armymafcingi;.'bfeaeh in" the walls of a eitjf, and thereby opening * way 'fdr.'g^neraVrriassatre'and pillage. 103. This probably means rftdalycrOTferfedjdreseedi with blood. " Language soi forcefd i^ofnly appropriate irt Chfecmouth murderer dissembling guJ^t.'* Abbott.' ^ SCEHK nflflA3jAl/ That suffer in exposure, let us meet And question this mosfotxfoocrjf: piece afcwtix&pu nc vo .{? n^ To know ittttH%niurde;r may be lurking therein, ready to spring upon us at any moment. their -ifefche* 'has been murdereAfoi thif- tHe : santd : motive means death to; the-mdelves as well. t.:- Some, regard tFis^HWoort as l. Ihk question 1 * is "tery^nraceiiat'm the -tktet- D)iming,6f Lady Macbeih'a^baracter^ Jf ffeig^ed^'whjf was irnot d6ne wbewthfr-Hwrdef of Darvfcaa'Aasxanrioanced ? The anm?&iwemto of %kse additionai HraFders>take8'berby aurp'risfc^she was not preparwd for it; whereas in theiatfidr-jriase she'iad, b}'iiier fearful ervergy of wit steeled; her newes^arp) lontrbefbrehand/ "F.6r:ireadal iefeds tFength ; "baVthe Surprise of r, oanYhkjj.sheihafe not cdunted*- deiprivBJilhiefwiddenJy WafnmcshisbHtchery of.Duncan's grooms, the lady swoons, nbt.iafei^iiiftg biitiivfactv ! -^-andis.berne forth undressed. This is what he refers to ini^aufc^rmkfed fraihiers.' 62 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT H In the great hand of God I stand, and thence Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight Of treasonous malice. MACDUFF. And so do I. ALL. So all. MACBETH. Let 's briefly put on manly readiness, 120 And meet i' the hall together. ALL. Well contented. \_Exeunt all but MALCOLM and DONALBAIN] MALCOLM. 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. DONALBAIN. To Ireland I: our separated fortune 125 Shall keep us both the safer : where we are, There 's daggers in men's smiles : the near in blood, The nearer bloody. 121. [Exeunt all . . . \ Exeunt Ff. 125-128. To ... bloody I in Ff 122. Two lines in Ff. lines end I, safer, smiles, bloody. 124. Two lines in Ff. 117-119. The natural construction is, ' and thence I fight against the undivulg'd pretence of treasonous malice.' ' Pretence ' here means 'intention' or 'purpose.' A frequent usage. Cf. the verb, II, iv, 24. 120. briefly: quickly. So in Cymbeline, V, v, 106. manly readi- ness: man's equipment. The expression suggests preparation for fight. It is in marked contrast to 'naked frailties.' 124. easy. In Elizabethan literature adjectives are often used as adverbs. See Abbott, i. I'll to England. " Malcolme Cammore and Donald Bane the sons of King Duncane, for feare of their Hues . . . fled into Cumberland, where Malcolme remained . . . but Donald passed over into Ireland." Holinshed. 127. near : nearer. ' Near ' is really an old comparative, as may be seen in Richard //, V, i, 88. Donalbain suspects Macbeth, who is next in blood or of kin. SCENE iv MACBETH 63 MALCOLM. This murderous shaft that 's shoi Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse ; 130 And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, But shift away : there 's warrant in that theft Which steals itself, when there 's no mercy left. \_Exeunf\ SCENE IV. Outside MACBETH 's castie Enter Ross and an OLD MAN OLD MAN. Threescore-and-ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time I have seen Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifl'd former knowings. Ross. Ah, good father, Thou see'st the heavens, as troubl'd with man's act, 5 Threatens his bloody stage : by th' 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? SCENE IV I Scene VI Pope. 7. travelling FgF* | travailing 4. Ah Rowe | Ha Ff. 129-130. Suspecting this murder to be the work of Macbeth, Malcolm thinks it could have no purpose but what himself and his brother equally stand in the way of ; that the ' murderous shaft ' must pass through them to reach its mark. 4. trifl'd former knowings : made of no importance previous experiences. 7. travelling lamp: the sun. Cf. r Henry II', I, ii, 226. 8-10. " For the space of six monethes togither, after this heinous murther was committed, there appeered no sunne by day, nor moone THE NEW HUDSON/ .SHAKESPEAREri _ '. JsriJ ibrfa guoiabiom'lfiiTunnatural^ioo.'iAJ' 10 Even like the deed>:that?SHion& IOn Tb&sdstf? lat;on ri.'jsK Aialcon, tow'ring in:hen pride G"pl&ce,m:x odi biovc oi c; Was by a mousing ,Q\rL-laawfc'jd:;at andikiH'cU Jo a su 1ali zfjs9Jj cij\nU Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, 15 Turn'd wild m ^f^^^^^^f^f^ Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make War with mankinil ujQ s^o \r\s> r.r.oH *r^K?s. Ross. They f ,$d,sp, tq th; arr^^rne^t.^.mineg^ye^^iv/ Thatlpok'^upon^,^ ^ n1)s , sflirfj bne Mbiwib en-oH Enter MigJtJtWP^ lOirnui b'flhJ H .oao^ were comes tne gooa f iviacaurf How 14. Two 17-18. First line in F/ ends w,ould, so, upon 't, Macduff . ^rnjsns & /x;o 3fl) 10 ( eoi7a;rno:t:>tq by night in anie j>art pf ^h^jr.eajnj.e,.'^ jHplipshe^ 3;&-rryreirfKtn' omens and signs are describecTby HQljnsbed in cqnaection with the murder of King Duff. 12-18. " Monstrous sights also that were scene within the Scotish K5ndt>me frMt 1 yer^ i! ^ei these, horsses^ih 1 L6utn : ia.n,.beirigl)f' 'sin- gular beautie and swiftnesse, 'did eate their owne fleshe . . . There i tenn of i faloohfy.to.! describe.' the, spical , its j'/plflce'' whence ; it .siwbops^.on,'tke>preyJ;(Cfi 2 Henry VI, II, i, 10. .TtetweidriSiStilLused. by g^mekBepersi ttx de<- 13. mousing. "A very effective epithet, as contrasting-.lhe;fekpn\ in her pride"X> placfe,," vUbha bif d fiKit .is;.aced$to9dl ijnsHekrJte ;Ti*il?Pti -. -i.'a.-.' n f.'ir io s.)jqc= sii. 1 io'i '' .01--? na: darliugsr favorites. ; Fnom Fit. yttigvum, ' Itow zgairfj 332 Why*rfle Ross. Is't known who did this more than- blowtjs deed? MACDUFF. Thdsr jhat/MacbetteibAihj^aaodoi bio iwo laaJ Ross. .T3dJBl ,Ib-AiM3thaJ# ! b | Enter Hecat, and . . . Ff. ate retires Globe Camb | Ff omit. 28. A lunar eclipse was held to be fraught with evil magic of the highest intensity. Cf. Paradise Lost, I, 597-598. 32. slab : viscous, slimy. Connected etymologically with Gaelic slaib, 'mud.' Cf. 'slobbery' in Henry V, III, v, 13. 33. chaudron: entrails, especially as used for food. See Murray. 43. Music, and a Song. Here is the 'Song 'as in Middleton's Tht Witch, V, ii, 68-77 : Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray, Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may I Titty, Tiffin, Keep it stiff in ; tOO THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT IV 2 WITCH. By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes : 45 Open, locks, Whoever knocks ! Enter MACBETH MACBETH. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags ! What is 't you do ? ALL. A deed without a name. MACBETH. 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 Against the churches ; though the yesty waves Confound and swallow navigation up ; Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down ; 55 Though castles topple on their warders' heads ; Though palaces and pyramids do slope 46-47. One line in Ff. 48. Scene II Pope. Firedrake, Puckey, Make it lucky ; Liard, Robin, You must bob in. Round, around, around, about, about ! All ill come running in, all good keep out v . This is substantially as it is in the D'Avenant Quarto of Macbeth. 44. " It is a very ancient superstition that all sudden pains of the body which could not naturally be accounted for were presages of somewhat that was shortly to happen." Steevens. 53 yesty : frothy, foamy. It is a variant form of 'yeasty.' 55. bladed: in the blade. lodg'd: laid flat. Cf. Richard //, IIL iii, 162. The word in this sense is still in common use. SCENE i MACBETH IOI 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. 1 WITCH. Speak. 2 WITCH. Demand. 3 WITCH. We '11 answer. i WITCH. Say, if thou 'dst rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters? MACBETH. Call 'em, let me see 'em. i WITCH. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow ; grease that 's sweaten 65 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 MACBETH. Tell me, thou unknown power, i WITCH. He knows thy thought : Hear his speech, but say thou nought. 70 59. nature's Pope \ Natures Ff. germens Theobald | germaine FiFa. 59. germens : seeds, germs. Cf. King Lear, III, ii, 8. 65. nine farrow : litter of nine pigs. ' Nine ' was a magic number. Cf. King Lear, III, iv, 126. sweaten. An irregularly formed parti- ciple. See Abbott, 344. 69. an armed Head. A symbolical representation of Macbeth's own head presented to Malcolm by Macduff. See V, viii. 53. 70. Silence was necessary during all incantations. Cf. The Tem- pest, IV, i, 126: "Hush and be mute, Or else our spell is marr'd. ' 102 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT iv i APPARITION. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! beware Macduff ; Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me : enough. \_Descends~\ MACBETH. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks ; Thou hast harp'd my fear aright : but one word more, 1 WITCH. He will not be commanded : here 's another, More potent than the first. 76 Thunder. Second APPARITION, a bloody Child 2 APPARITION. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! MACBETH. Had I three ears, I 'd hear thee. 2 APPARITION. Be bloody, bold, and resolute ; laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born 80 Shall harm Macbeth. [Descends] MACBETH. 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, 85 And sleep in spite of thunder. 71. Two lines in Ff. 83. assurance I assurance: Ff. 79. Two lines in Ff. 86-87. One line in Ff. 72. Spirits thus evoked were supposed to be impatient of being questioned. This line must be spoken with strong pauses. " The rhythm is full of omen." Liddell. 77. The second Apparition represents Macduff. See V, viii, 16. 78. The stress is on ' ears,' not on ' three.' Cf. the common ex- pression, " To listen with all one's ears." 84. take a bond of fate : bind fate itself to the performance of the promise. By killing Macduff he will make the promise irrevocable. SCENE i MACBETH 103 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. 3 APPARITION. Be lion-mettl'd, proud ; and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are : 91 Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. [Descends] MACBETH. That will never be : Who can impress the forest; bid the tree 95 Unfix his earth-bound root ? Sweet bodements ! good ! Rebellion's head, rise never till the wood Of Birnam rise, and our high-plac'd Macbeth 90. lion-mettl'd | Lyon metled Ff. 97 Rebellion's head Hanmer | Re 93. Dunsinane I Dunsmane l'i. bellious dead Ff. 94. [Descends] Rowel Descend Ff. 98. Birnam F4 I Byrnan Fi. 86. The third Apparition represents 'royal Malcolm.' See V, iv, 4. 88-89. The 'round' is that part of a crown which encircles the head : the ' top ' is the ornament symbolical of sovereign power. 93. ' Dunsinane ' is here rightly accented on the penult ; elsewhere in the play it is accented wrongly on the last syllable. Both pro- nunciations occur in Wyntoun's Cronykil (see Introduction). Pope attempted to make the pronunciation here conformable to that in the later scenes by reading ' Dunsinane's high." "A certeine witch, whom hee had in great trust, had told that he should neuer be slaine with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the castell of Dunsinane." Holinshed. 95. impress : force to serve as soldiers. Cf. / Henry IV, I, i, 21. 104 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT IV Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart 100 Throbs to know one thing : tell me, if your art Can tell so much : shall Banquo's issue ever Reign in this kingdom ? ALL. Seek to know no more. MACBETH. I will be satisfied : deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you ! Let me know : 105 Why sinks that cauldron ? and what noise is this ? \_Hautboys~\ 1 WITCH. Show ! 2 WITCH. Show ! 3 WITCH. Show ! ALL. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; no Come like shadows, so depart ! A show of eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; BANQUO'S Ghost following MACBETH. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo ; down i Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first : A third is like the former. Filthy hags ! 115 Why do you show me this ? A fourth ! Start, eyes ! What, will the line stretch out to th' crack of doom? 112. A show . . . the last , . . Ghost last, with a glasse in his hand Ff. following \ A shew . . . and Banquo 113. hair | haire Ff | air Warburton. 99-100. Live the full time allotted and die a natural death. 112. The eight kings are supposed to be Robert II, Robert III, and the six Jameses. Mary Stuart, daughter of James V, is passed over, as the Witches' prediction had reference only to kings. 117. crack of doom. This now proverbial expression has been taken to mean specifically either the thunder-peal announcing the SCENE I MACBETH 105 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 twofold balls and treble sceptres carry : Horrible sight ! Now I see 't is true ; For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me, And points at them for his. What, is this so? i WITCH. Ay, sir, all this is so; but why 125 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, 119. eighth FsF* | eight FiFi Judgment-day or the blast of the last trumpet. Why should it not connote both ? See Murray. 119. A magic glass, or charmed mirror, representing and revealing future events, was and is a common method of divination. Cf. Measure for Measure, II, ii, 94-95. Such was the "brood mirour of glas " which the "king of Arabic and of Inde " sent to the " Tartre Cambinskan " as told by Chaucer in The Squieres Tale. But the most wonderful glass of this kind in literature is that which The great Magitien Merlin had deviz'd, By his deepe science and hell-dreaded might. The Faerie Queene, III, ii, 18. 121. This line is usually regarded as a marked compliment to James I. The two balls or globes probably symbolized the two inde- pendent crowns of England and Scotland; the three sceptres, the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Scott, in Quentin Durward, when Charles the Bold has Louis of France in his power, makes Comines say to the King : " It is his (the Duke's) purpose to close his ducal coronet with an imperial arch, and surmount it with a globe, in emblem that his dominions are independent." 123. blood-bolter'd : having hair matted with blood. " The normal forms of the word are 'baltered,' 'baultered.' " Liddell. 106 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT rv 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 -vanish with HECATE] MACBETH. Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar ! Come in, without there ! Enter LENNOX LENNOX. What 's your grace's will? 135 MACBETH, Saw you the weird sisters? LENNOX. No, my lord. MACBETH. Came they not by you? LENNOX. No, indeed, my lord. MACBETH. Infected be the air whereon they ride, And damn'd all those that trust them ! I did hear The galloping of horse : who was 't came by? 140 LENNOX. 'T is two or three, my lord, that bring you word Macduff is fled to England. MACBETH. Fled to England ! LENNOX. Ay, my good lord. 130. antic | antick Theobald | an- 133. Two lines in Ff. tique Ff. 136. weird | weyard Fi | wizard 133. -with HECATE | Ff omit. FaFa | wizards F4. 130. antic : quaint. The same word as ' antique ' (' old-fashioned ' and so ' quaint '). In Shakespeare the accent is invariably on the first syllable. 138-139. Cf. Paradise Lost, II, 662-663. Milton's indebtedness to Richard III and Macbeth is very marked. ' Macbeth ' is one of the subjects from British history which he jotted down in 1639-1640 as the theme of a possible poem. See Masson's Life of Milton, II, 115. SCENE it MACBETH 107 MACBETH. \_Aside~\ Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits : The flighty purpose never is o'ertook 145 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 ; 1 50 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? 155 Come, bring me where they are. \_Exeunt~\ SCENE II. Fife. MACDUFF'S castle Enter LADY MACDUFF, her SON, and Ross LADY MACDUFF. What had he done, to make him fly the land? Ross. You must have patience, madam. 144. [Aside] Johnson | Ff omit. LADY MACDUFF Rowe | Mac SCENE II | Scene III Pope. duffe's Wife Ff. Fife . . . castle \ Ff omit. 144. anticipat'st : dost prevent. So in Sonnets, cxvm, 9. 145. flighty : swift to take flight. The original meaning. 155. sights: visions. As 'portents' the word is used in Julius Ctesar, I, iii, 138 ; II, ii, 16. Macbeth is greatly disturbed by what he has seen in the cavern. SCENE II. " To omit this scene, as is usually the case on the stage, is to present Macbeth's character in a far more favorable light than Shakespeare intended, and to weaken ths force of MacdufT's 108 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT iv LADY MACDUFF. He had none ; His flight was madness : when our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors. Ross. You know not Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. 5 LADY MACDUFF. 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. Ross. My dearest coz, I pray you, school yourself : but, for your husband, 15 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 14. coz Rowe | Cooz FiFa I Couz FsF. cry of agony, and Lady Macbeth's heart-piercing question in the sleep-walking scene." Bodenstedt. 4. make us: make us out to be. When our actions do not con- vict us of being traitors, our fears do. Lady Macduff is apprehen- sive that her husband's flight will be construed as proceeding from guilty fear. 7. titles : possessions. The things to which he has a ' title.' 9. natural touch: natural affection, sensibility of nature. Cf. ' only touch of love,' The Tiuo Gentlemen of Verona, II, vii, 18 ; ' touch of nature,' Troilus and CressiJa, III, iii, 175. 17. fits o' the season : exigencies, dangers, of the time. SCENE II MACBETH 109 And do not know ourselves ; when we hold rumour 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, 25 Blessing upon you ! LADY MACDUFF. Father'd 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. [_xif] LADY MACDUFF. Sirrah, your father "s dead : 30 And what will you do now? How will you live? SON. As birds do, mother. LADY MACDUFF. What, with worms and flies? 97. T-vo lines in Ff. 29. [Exit \ Exit Rosse Ff. 19-20. Fear makes us credit rumor, yet we know not what to fear, because ignorant when we offend. A condition wherein men believe the more, because they fear, and fear the more, because they cannot foresee the danger. 22. and move. An awkward expression. Upwards of twenty emen- dations have been suggested (see Furness and Clar), but the general meaning is obvious. 'Move' may be either (i) a noun meaning 'direction,' or (?) a verb with the sense of ' are tossed about.' 24. The worse a disease becomes, the sooner there will be either death or recovery. The very excess of an evil often starts a reaction, and thence a return to a better state. 29. Disgrace myself and make you uncomfortable by weeping. 30. Sirrah. Often used as a form of address to inferiors, or to young people. 32. SON. A peculiar pathos attaches to all Shakespeare's por- traits of children. Cf. Prince Arthur in King John and Mamillius in 110 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT iv SON. With what I get, I mean ; and so do they. LADY MACDUFF. Poor bird ! thou 'dst never fear the net nor lime, The pitfall nor the gin. 35 SON. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for. My father is not dead, for all your saying. LADY MACDUFF. Yes, he is dead : how wilt thou do for a father? SON. Nay, how will you do for a husband ? LADY MACDUFF. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. SON. Then you '11 buy 'em to sell again. 41 LADY MACDUFF. Thou speak'st with all thy wit; and yet i' faith, With wit enough for thee. SON. Was my father a traitor, mother? LADY MACDUFF. Ay, that he was, 45 SON. What is a traitor? 34, 36, 38. Two lines in Ff. 43-43- and yet ... for thee | One 42. with all | withall FI. line in Ff. The Winter's Tale. His own little boy Hamnet died in 1 596. Web- ster caught the spirit of this pathos in The White Devil in the scenes between Brachiano and his little son Giovanni. " This scene, dread- ful as it is, is still a relief, because a variety, because domestic, and therefore soothing, as associated with the only real pleasures of life. The conversation between Lady Macduff and her child heightens the pathos, and is preparatory for the deep tragedy of their assas- sination." Coleridge. 36. Traps are not set for the poor but for the rich ; not for chil- dren, but for important, grown-up men. 44. " The broken metre gradually merges into prose, here as in II, iii, used by Shakespeare for purposes of dramatic relief." F K Chambers SCENE II MACBETH 1 1 1 LADY MACDUFF. Why, one that swears and lies. SON. And be all traitors that do so? LADY MACDUFF. Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hang'd. 50 SON. And must they all be hang'd that swear and lie? LADY MACDUFF. Every one. SON. Who must hang them ? LADY MACDUFF. Why, the honest men. 54 SON. Then the liars and swearers are fools ; for there are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men and hang up them. LADY MACDUFF. Now, God help thee, poor monkey ! But how wilt thou do for a father? 59 SON. If he were dead, you 'd weep for him : if you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father. LADY MACDUFF. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st ! Enter a MESSENGER MESSENGER. Bless you, fair dame ! I am not to you known, Though in your state of honour I am perfect. 65 49-50, 58-59. Two lines of verse 63. LADY MACDUFF | Wife Fi in Ff. Pope printed as prose. FsF< | Son Fa. 64. "This messenger was one of the murderers employed by Macbeth to exterminate Macduff's family ; but who, from emotions of pity and remorse, had outstripped his companions, to give timely warning of their approach." Heath. " This messenger may come from Lady Macbeth." Libby. " The messenger is a dramatic device to represent Macbeth's murderous net closing around Lady Macduff." Liddell. 65. Perfectly acquainted with your honorable rank and character. 112 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT iv 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 ; To do worse to you were fell cruelty, 70 Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you ! I dare abide no longer. [Exit] LADY MACDUFF. 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 75 Accounted dangerous folly : why then, alas, Do I put up that womanly defence, To say I have done no harm ? What are these faces ? Enter MURDERERS i MURDERER. Where is your husband? LADY MACDUFF. I hope, in no place so unsanctified 80 Where such as thou mayst find him. i MURDERER. He 's a traitor. SON. Thou liest, thou shag-ear'd villain ! i MURDERER. [Stabbing him~\ What, you egg ! Young fry of treachery ! SON. He has kill'd me, mother : Run away, I pray you ! \_Dies\ \_Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying ' Murder ! ' Exeunt MURDERERS, following her\ 78. Two lines in Ff. 84. [Dies] Capell | Ff omit. 82. [Stabbing hint] Rowel Ff omit. [Exit \ Exit crying Murther Ff. 82. shag-ear'd : with shaggy, hairy ears. For this, the Folio reading. Steeve.ns suggested 'shag-hair'd.' Cf. 2 Henry VI, III, i, 367. SCENE in MACBETH 113 SCENE III. England. Before the King s palace Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF MALCOLM. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty. MACDUFF. Let us rather Hold fast the mortal sword, and, like good men, Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom. Each new morn New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows 5 Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds As if it felt with Scotland, and yell'd out Like syllable of dolour. MALCOLM. 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 you have spoke, it may be so perchance. This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, Was once thought honest : you have lov'd him well ; He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young ; but something SCENE III ! Scene IV Pope. 4. down-fall'n Globe | downfall England . . . palace Dyce | Ff omit. 4. Bestride : bravely defend. To stand over a fallen comrade and defend him was a special bravery of friendship. Cf. / Henry 7K, V, i, 1 22 ; 2 Henry fV, I, i, 207 ; Comedy of Errors, V, i, 192. birthdom : native land. Some take it in the sense of 'birthright.' 8. Like syllable of dolour: a similar cry of pain. 10. to friend: friendly, favorable. Cf. Julius Casar, III, i, 143. 14-16. You may see what sort of a man Macbeth is from my sad experience, and learn from me the wise policy of offering up, etc. Most modern editors have accepted Theobald's change of the text. But " ' deserve ' for 'discern ' makes nonsense out of the latter part of the passage. ' I am young,' which is in contrast to the thought 114 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT IV You may discern of him through me, and wisdom 15 To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb T' appease an angry god. MACDUFF. I am not treacherous. MALCOLM. 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. MACDUFF. I have lost my hopes. MALCOLM. Perchance even there where I did find my doubts. 25 15. discern FaF4 | discerne FiF2 1 me, and Ff | me ; and Camb | me ; deserve Theobald Globe Camb. 't is Hanmer. 35. Two lines in Ff. which ' but ' introduces, is meaningless with ' But you deserve some- thing through me.' The normal contrast with Malcolm's youth and innocency would be a characteristic of age and experience ; this we have if we take ' discern ' in its Elizabethan sense, ' to learn by dis- cernment '; the word in this sense is usually followed by 'of.'" Liddell. In earlier editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, Theobald's reading was adopted with this interpretation : You may purchase or secure his favor by sacrificing me to his malice ; and to do so would be an act of worldly wisdom on your part, as I have no power to punish you for it. 19-20. May recede or fall away from goodness and virtue under the temptations of a man so powerful to resent or to reward. 21. transpose : transform, change. Cf. A Midsummer Night's Dream, I, i, 233. 23-24. Though all bad things should counterfeit the looks of goodness, yet goodness must still wear its own looks. 25. Though Macduff claims to have fled his home to avoid the tyrant's blow, he has left his wife and children in the tyrant's power. SCENE in MACBETH 115 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 dishonours, But mine own safeties : you may be rightly just, 30 Whatever I shall think. MACDUFF. Bleed, bleed, poor country ! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dare not check thee ; wear thou thy wrongs ; The title is affeer'd ! Fare thee well, lord : I would not be the villain that thou think'st 35 For the whole space that 's in the tyrant's grasp, And the rich East to boot. MALCOLM. Be not offended : [ 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 ; 33. dare FiFs I dares FsF4. Malone. affeer'd Hanmer | affear'd 34. The Ff | His Pope | Thy FiFa I afear'd Fa I afeard F4. This makes the prince distrust his purpose and suspect him of being a secret agent of Macbeth. And so, when he says, " I have lost my hopes," the prince replies, Perhaps the cause which has destroyed your hopes is the very same that leads me to distrust you ; that is, perhaps you have hoped to betray me, and this is just what I fear. 26. rawness: unprovided condition. Cf. Henry V, IV, i, 147. 33. wear thou thy wrongs. Does ' thou ' refer to ' country,' to- 'tyranny,' or to Malcolm? 'Tyranny' is probably the object ad- dressed, and the meaning will be, Enjoy the place and honors gained by your wrong-doing. 34. The title is affeer'd : the title you put forward is confirmed. Il6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT n And here from gracious England have I offer Of goodly thousands : but, for all this, When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head, 45 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. MACDUFF. What should he be? MALCOLM. It is myself I mean ; in whom I know 50 All the particulars of vice so grafted, That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth Will seem as pure as snow ; and the poor state Esteem him as a lamb, being compar'd With my confineless harms. MACDUFF. Not in the legions 55 Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd In evils to top Macbeth. MALCOLM. I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name : but there 's no bottom, none, 60 In my voluptuousness ; your wives, your daughters, Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up The cistern of my lust, and my desire 59. smacking Fi | smoaking Fa 63. cistern FsF4 | Cesterne FiF-2. F 8 F4. 43. gracious England : Edward the Confessor, then King of Eng- land. Cf. King John, III, iv, 8, " bloody England into England." 55. confineless harms: boundless vices. Cf. Othello, III, iii, 173, " But riches fineless is as poor as winter." 57. top : surpass. Cf. King Lear, I, ii, 21 ; Coriolanus, II, i, 23. SCENE m MACBETH 117 All continent impediments would o'erbear, That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth 65 Than such an one to reign. MACDUFF. Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny ; it hath been Th' 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. We have willing dames enough ; there cannot be That vulture in you, to devour so many As will to greatness dedicate themselves, 75 Finding it so inclin'd. MALCOLM. With this there grows, In my most ill-compos'd 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. MACDUFF. This avarice Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root 85 Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been 86. -seeming Ff I -teeming Theobald | -seeding Steevens. 71. Convey: obtain in secrecy. Cf. Richard 77, IV, i, 317. 80. his : one man's. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 54. 86. summer-seeming : summer-resembling. The passion that burns awhile like summer and like summer passes away is contrasted with 118 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT iv The sword of our slain kings : yet do not fear ; Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will Of your mere own : all these are portable, With other graces weigh'd. 90 MALCOLM. But I have none : the king-becoming graces, As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no relish of them ; but abound 95 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. MACDUFF. O Scotland, Scotland ! 100 88. foisons | foysons FiFa I poison FsF4. the other passion, avarice, which grows stronger and stronger to the end of life. Malone calls attention to "winter-seeming summer's night " in Donne's Love's Alchemy. 87. Either (i) the sword that has slain our kings, or (2) the evil that has caused our kings to be slain with the sword. " For that crime the most part of our kings have been slaine and brought to their final end." Holinshed. 88. foisons: plenty, abundance. See Murray. Cf. Sonnets, LIII, 9. 89. mere : absolutely. Cf. line 152. portable: endurable. Heaven forgive him too ! MALCOLM. This tune goes manly. 235 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. \_Exeunt~\ 335. tmc Rowe | time Ff. 235. The little word ' too ' is so used here as to intensify, in a very remarkable manner, the sense of what precedes. Put him once within the reach of my sword, and if I don't kill him, then I am as bad as he, and may God forgive us both ! tune. Liddell defends the Folio reading here, but as has been often pointed out, ' time ' and 'tune' would be very easily confused in Elizabethan manuscript. manly. Adjectives ending in -ly are used as adverbs in Elizabethan English without any change of form. 237. Nothing remains to be done but to take our leave. 239. Put on their instruments : set their agents to work. ACT V SCENE I. Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle Enter a DOCTOR of Physic and a WAITING-GENTLEWOMAN DOCTOR. I have two nights watch'd with you, but can per- ceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walk'd ? GENTLEWOMAN. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown 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. 7 DOCTOR. 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? 12 Dunsinane Capell | Ff omit. Ante-room in the castle Globe 1 Ff omit. 3. went into the field. Steevens calls this one of Shakespeare's oversights. In the preceding scene, Macbeth was said to have his " power a-foot " (line 185) against " many worthy fellows that were oat" (line 183). Probably the coming of the English forces induced him to withdraw his troops from the field and put them within the strong fortress of Dunsinane. 4. night-gown : dressing-robe. Cf. II, ii, 70. 9. do the effects of watching : act as in her waking hours. Shake- speare often uses 'effects' for 'actions.' Cf. King Lear, I, i, 188; Hamlet, III, iv, 129. See Schmidt. 128 SCENE I MACBETH 129 GENTLEWOMAN. That, sir, which I will not report after her. DOCTOR. You may to me ; and 't is most meet you should. GENTLEWOMAN. Neither to you nor any one ; having no witness to confirm my speech. 16 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. DOCTOR. How came she by that light? 19 GENTLEWOMAN. Why, it stood by her : she has light by her continually; 'tis her command. DOCTOR. You see, her eyes are open. GENTLEWOMAN. Ay, but their sense are shut. DOCTOR. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands. 25 GENTLEWOMAN. It is an accustom'd action with her, to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour. LADY MACBETH. Yet here 's a spot. 29 17. Enter LADY MACBETH . . . | 33. sense are Ff I sense is Rowe. Enter Lady . . . Ff. 24-35- Ff print as verse. 14. " The speeches of the Doctor . . . have a certain cadence verging on blank -verse, without quite gliding into it." Delius. 18. stand close : keep concealed. Cf. Juliu s Ccesar, I, iii, 131. 20. Contrast this with her invocation, " Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell," I, v, 48-49. So the " wash- ing her hands ... a quarter of an hour" as compared with "A little water clears us of this deed," II, ii, 67. 23. sense are. This, the Folio reading, is usually changed to 'sense is,' the 'are ' being regarded as a printer's repetition of 'are ' just above. But 'sense' is a plural in Sonnets, cxii, 10. Cf. 'balance 1 as a plural in The Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 255. See Abbott, 471. 130 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v DOCTOR. Hark ! she speaks : I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. LADY MACBETH. 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 card? 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? 37 DOCTOR. Do you mark that? LADY MACBETH. 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. 42 DOCTOR. Go to, go to ; you have known what you should not. 44 GENTLEWOMAN. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that : heaven knows what she has known. LADY MACBETH. Here 's the smell of the blood still : all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh ! 49 35. account FsF4 I accompt FiFa. 47. the blood FiFa I bloud FsF4 43-44. Ff print as two lines of verse. Rowe. 33. Hell is murky ! Some commentators, following Steevens, think that Lady Macbeth imagines her husband to utter these words, and repeats them after him as in ridicule or reproach of his fears. 41-42. She is alluding to the terrors of Macbeth on seeing the Ghost of Banquo in the banquet scene, III, iv, 63. 47-48. Upon this passage, Verplanck, after remarking how fertile the sense of smell is in the gentler charms of poetry, comments : But the smell has never been successfully used as the means of impressing the imagination with terror, pity, or any of the deeper emotions, except in this dreadful sleep-walking of the guilty Queen, and in one parallel scene of the Greek Drama, as wildly terrible as this. It is that passage of the SCENE I MACBETH 131 DOCTOR. What a sigh is there ! The heart is sorely charg'd. GENTLEWOMAN. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body. DOCTOR. Well, well, well, GENTLEWOMAN. Pray God it be, sir. 55 DOCTOR. This disease is beyond my practice : yet I have known those which have walk'd in their sleep who have died holily in their beds. 58 LADY MACBETH. Wash your hands ; put on your night- gown ; look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo 's buried ; he cannot come out on 's grave. DOCTOR. Even so? 62 LADY MACBETH. 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. [JSxif] DOCTOR. Will she go now to bed? GENTLEWOMAN. Directly. 67 53. the dignity FiFa | dignity FsF4. Agamemnon of jEschylus, where the captive prophetess Cassandra, wrapt in visionary inspiration, scents first the smell of blood, and then the vapours of the tomb breathing from the palace of Atrides, as ominous of his approach- ing murder. These two stand alone in poetry ; and Fuseli, in his Lectures, informs us that when, in the kindred art of painting, it has been attempted to produce tragic effect through the medium of ideas drawn from this ' squeam- ish sense,' even Raphael and Poussin have failed, and excited disgust instead of terror and compassion. He justly remarks that 'taste and smell,' as sources of tragic emotion, seem scarcely admissible in art or in the theatre. 55. Does the Gentlewoman misunderstand the Doctor's " Well, well, well," or does she mean this as a further hint how dreadful the thing is ? At all events, this may be regarded as one of Shake- speare's quiet, unobtrusive master-strokes of delineation. 132 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v DOCTOR. Foul whisperings are abroad : unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles : infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets : 70 More needs she the divine than the physician. God, God forgive us all ! Look after her ; Remove from her the means of all annoyance, And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night : My mind she has mated, and amaz'd my sight : 75 I think, but dare not speak. GENTLEWOMAN. Good night, good doctor. \_Exeunf\ SCENE II. The country near Dunsinane Drum and colours. Enter MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, and Soldiers MENTEITH. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff : Revenges burn in them ; for their dear causes Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm Excite the mortified man. ANGUS. Near Birnam wood 5 Shall we well meet them ; that way are they coming. The country near Dunsinane Capell | Ff omit. 73, annoyance: doing violence to herself. CLl?tcAardfJ,TH,ii,i6; Troilus and Cressida, I, iii, 48. See Murray. This foreshadows the " taking off" her life "by self and violent hands," V, viii, 70-71. 75. mated: bewildered. Still used in 'check-mated.' See Skeat. 4-5. Would rouse and impel even a hermit to the war, to the signal for carnage and horror. By ' the mortified man ' is meant ' a SCENE II MACBETH 133 CAITHNESS. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother ? LENNOX. 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. MENTEITH. What does the tyrant? CAITHNESS. 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 distemper'd cause 15 Within the belt of rule. ANGUS. 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. 10. unrough Theobald | vnruffe FiFa I unruff FgF*. religious man,' one who has mortified his passions, is dead to the world. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, I, i, 28-31. 8. file: list, catalogue. Cf. 'the valued file,' III, i, 94, 101. 10. unrough: beardless, smooth-faced. Cf. The Tempest, II, i, 250. 11. Protest. Cf. Ill, iv, 105. first of manhood. Cf. Ill, i, 117. 13. " But after that Makbeth perceiued his enimies power to in- crease, by such aid as came to them foorth of England with his aduersarie Malcolme, he recoiled backe into Fife, there purposing to abide in campe fortified, at the castell of Dunsinane." Holinshed. 15. He cannot keep his disorganized party within control. For the metaphor, cf. Troilus and Cressida, II, ii, 30. In previous edi- tions of Hudson's Shakespeare, Collier's emendation of ' course ' (i.e. 'course of action') for 'cause' was adopted. 18. minutely : occurring every minute. Accent on first syllable. 134 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v MENTEITH. Who then shall blame His pester'd senses to recoil and start, When all that is within him does condemn Itself for being there ? CAITHNESS. Well, march we on, 25 To give obedience where 't is truly ow'd : Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal ; And with him pour we in our country's purge Each drop of us. LENNOX. Or so much as it needs To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. 30 Make we our march towards Birnam. [Exeunt, marching\ SCENE III. Dunsinane. A room, in the castle Enter MACBETH, the DOCTOR, and Attendants MACBETH. 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? 27. medicine I Med'cineFf | med'- Dunsinane. A room in the castle cin Hanmer | medecin Steevens. Capell I Ff omit. 31. Birnam | Birnan FI. 2. Birnam FgF4 I Byrnane Fi. 23. pester'd : troubled. Another word that has degenerated in meaning. to recoil and start. Infinitive used gerundively. 27. medicine. This undoubtedly refers to Malcolm, but is the word to be taken as meaning 'physician' (Fr. medecin ; cf. Airs Well that Ends Well, II, i, 75), or ' remedy,' as the next line seems to suggest ? Probably the word is used in the double sense here ; cf. ' sovereign,' in line 30, in the sense of ' royal ' and ' powerful remedy.' Malcolm was the lawful prince, and in the olden time the best remedy for the evils of tyranny, or the greater evils of civil war, was thought to be a king with a clear and unquestioned title. 3. taint : be infected. A transitive verb used intransitively. SCENE in MACBETH 135 Was he not born of woman ? The spirits that know All mortal consequences have pronounc'd me thus : 5 ' 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 : 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-fac'd loon ! Where got'st thou that goose look? SERVANT. There is ten thousand MACBETH. Geese, villain ? SERVANT. Soldiers, sir. MACBETH. Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver 'd boy. What soldiers, patch? 15 Death of thy soul ! those linen cheeks of thine Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face? xx. loon Fa 1 Loone FiFa | Lown F4. 12. goose look | Goose-looke Ff. 5. An Alexandrine verse. me. Probably an ethical dative. 8. Cf. this passage from Holinshed : For manie of the people abhorring the riotous manners and superfluous gormandizing brought in among them by the Englyshemen were willing inough to receive this Donald for their King . . . bicause he had beene brought up in the lies, with old customes and maners of their ancient nation without tast of the English likerous delicates. n. loon. This word of uncertain origin is still in common use in Scotland and the north of England in the sense of 'lad' or 'loafer.' In the sixteenth century it often meant 'a man of low birth,' as in the phrase ' lord and loon '; cf. Pericles, IV, vi, 19. 15. lily-liver'd : cowardly. Falstaff in 2 Henry IV, IV, iii, no- 114, says: "The second property of your excellent sherris is the 136 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v SERVANT. The English force, so please you. MACBETH. 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 liv'd long enough : my way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf ; And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, 25 I must not look to have ; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. Seyton ! 19. {Exit SERVANT] Ff omit. chair Percy Dyce. disseat Steevens M. cheer FaF4 I cheere FiF2 I I dis-eate Fi | disease warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice." Cf. The Merchant of Venice, III, ii, 86; King Lear, II, ii, 17; IV, ii, 50. patch: clown, fool. Cf. The Tempest, III, ii, 71. 21. One of the textual cruces. But the reading of the text makes satisfactory sense, Will bring comfort to me for the rest of my life, or will dethrone me now, once for all. Furness would hyphenate the ' disease ' of the later Folios, and interpret, Will bring at once per- manent relief or affliction. In previous editions of Hudson's Shake- speare, Percy's substitution of ' chair ' for ' cheer ' was adopted, with the interpretation, Will seat me firmly on the throne, or else unseat me utterly. 22. my way of life : the course of my life. Johnson suggested ' May ' for 'way,' and, as a parallel, Clar quotes Richard II, III, iv, 48-40 23. Cf. Sonnets, Lxxiil, 1-4: That time of year thou may'st in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare, ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. SCENE in MACBETH 137 Enter SEYTON SEYTON. What 's your gracious pleasure? MACBETH. What news more? SEYTON. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. MACBETH. I '11 fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd. 32 Give me my armour. SEYTON. 'T is not needed yet. MACBETH. I '11 put it on. Send out moe horses, skirr the country round ; 35 Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour. How does your patient, doctor? DOCTOR. Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, That keep her from her rest. MACBETH. Cure her of that. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd, 40 Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious antidote 32. be Fi | is F2FsF4. 39. Cure her FzFsF* | Cure Fi -- 35. moe FiFa | more FsP<. of FiFa I from FsF*. 36. talk of Fi | stand in FaFsF^ 42. Raze FiFa I Raise Fa I Rase F<. 35. mo : more. Middle and Elizabethan English ' mo ' or ' moe ' (from Anglo-Saxon ma) usually indicated number ; ' more ' (from Anglo-Saxon mdra) had specific reference to size. skirr : scour. In Henry V, IV, vii, 64, the verb is used intransitively. 42. Delius notes that this figure occurs in Hamlet, I, v, 98-103. 43. oblivious : causing forgetfulness. Ci. Paradise Lost, 1,266-267: The associates and co-partners of our loss, Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool. 138 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v Cleanse the stuff d bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart? DOCTOR. Therein the patient 45 Must minister to himself. MACBETH. Throw physic to the dogs, I '11 none of it. Come, put mine armour on ; give me my staff. Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast 50 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, 55 Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of them? DOCTOR. Ay, my good lord ; your royal preparation Makes us hear something. MACBETH. Bring it after me. J will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. 60 DOCTOR. [Aside~\ Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exennt~\ 44. stuff'd | stufft Fi | stuft Fa 55. senna F4 I Cyme Fi | Caeny FsF-j I full Pope. stuff FsF* | stuff e FaFa I clysme Badham conj. | sene FiFa I grief Collier. Wellesley conj. | sirrah Bullochconj. 46. to Fi | unto F2FsF4. 60. Birnam | Birnane Fi. 48. mine FiF2Fs | my F"4. 61. [Aside] Hanmer | Ff omit. 44. stuff'd . . . stuff. Such a repetition is thoroughly Shakespearian. 48. staff. Either 'general's baton' (Clar) or 'lance' (Schmidt). 50. Come, sir, dispatch. Spoken to the armorer. cast : inspect. 54. Pull 't off. To the armorer. The " Bring it after me " of line 58 has reference to this piece of armor just ordered to be pulled off. These orders, so effective in stage representation, show Macbeth's agitation and impatience. SCENE iv MACBETH 139 SCENE IV. Country near Birnam wood Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, old SIWARD and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTEITH, CAITHNESS, ANGUS, LENNOX, Ross, and SOLDIERS, marching MALCOLM. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe. MENTEITH. We doubt it nothing. SIWARD. What wood is this before us ? MENTEITH. The wood of Birnam. MALCOLM. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, And bear 't before him : thereby shall we shadow 5 The numbers of our host, and make discovery Err in report of us. SOLDIERS. It shall be done. SIWARD. We learn no other but the confident tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our sitting down before 't. MALCOLM. 'T is his main hope : 10 Country near . . . Globe | Ff omit. 2. chambers will be safe. This refers, probably, to the spies and informers whom Macbeth keeps in the noblemen's houses, prowling about their private chambers, and listening at their key-holes. Or it may have reference simply to Duncan's murder. 4-5. Holinshed thus describes the incident : Malcome following hastilie after Makbeth, came the night before the battell vnto Birnane wood, and when his armie had rested a while there to refresh them, he commanded every man to get a bough of some tree or other of that wood in his hand, as big as he might beare, and to march foorth therewith in such wise, that on the next morrow they might come closelie and without sight in this manner within viewe of his enimies. 140 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v 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. MACDUFF. Let our just censures Attend the true event, and put we on 15 Industrious soldiership. SIWARD. The time approaches That will with due decision make us know What we shall say we have and what we owe. Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, But certain issue strokes must arbitrate ; 20 Towards which advance the war. \_Excunt, marching] SCENE V. Dunsinane. The castle Enter MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers, with drum and colours MACBETH. 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 11. given Ff | gone Capell | got Dunsinane. T fie castle \ Steevensconj.|takenKeightley(Ched- i. banners on the outward walls ; worth conj.) | ta'en Walker Dyce. | Banners on the outward walls, Ff 14-15. just censures Attend Fi | | banners ! on the outward walls best Censures Before FzFsF^ Keightky. n. Various substitutes for ' given ' have been proposed. Prob- ably ' to them ' should be supplied after ' given.' 12. more and less : high and low, nobles and commons. 14-15. Let our judgments wait for the actual result, the issue of the contest, in order that they may be just. A proleptical form of speech. 18. What we have as rights and what are our duties. 19-20. There is no use speculating or talking about it ; nothing but fighting will settle the matter. SCENE v MACBETH 141 Tfll famine and the ague eat them up. Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours, 5 We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat them backward home. [A cry of women within'} What is that noise ? SEYTON. It is the cry of women, my good lord. \_Exit\ MACBETH. I have almost forgot the taste of fears : The time has been, my senses would have cool'd 10 To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in 't : I have supp'd full with horrors ; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me. Re-enter SEYTON Wherefore was that cry? 15 SEYTON. The queen, my lord, is dead. MACBETH. She should have died hereafter; There would 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 8. [Exit] Dyce | Ff omit. 10. cool'd Ff | quail'd Collier. 5. forc'd : strengthened, reenforced. This sense of ' force ' was common in the sixteenth century. Collier suggested 'farced,' i.e. 'stuffed.' Cf. 'forcemeat,' corruption of 'farce-meat.' 11. To hear : at hearing. Infinitive used gerundively. fell. The original meaning of ' fell ' is ' skin ' or ' hide ' of an animal, and thus Shakespeare uses the word in King Lear, V, iii, 24. 12. dismal: tragic. Cf. I, ii, 53. treatise: story. Cf. Muc h Ado About Nothing, I, i, 317 ; Venus and Adonis, 774. 17-19. If she had not died now, she would have died hereafter; the time would have come when such intelligence had to be spoken. 142 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v 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 25 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 com'st to use thy tongue ; thy story quickly. MESSENGER. Gracious my lord, 30 I should report that which I say I saw, But know not how to do 't. MACBETH. Well, say, sir. MESSENGER. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, The wood began to move. MACBETH. Liar and slave ! 35 MESSENGER. Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so : Within this three mile may you see it coming ; I say, a moving grove. 23. dusty Fi ! study F-2FsF4 Rowe 30. Gracious my Fi | My gracious Pope Capell | dusky Hanmer (Theo- FaFsF^ bald con j.). 37. may you FiFa I youmayFaF.!. 21. recorded time : the record of time. A proleptical expression. 24-28. To these lines Coleridge prefixes this note : Now all is inward with him; he has no more prudential prospective reasonings. His wife, the only being who could have had any seat in his affections, dies : he puts on despondency, the final heart-armour of the wretched, and would fain think every thing shadowy and unsubstantial ; as indeed all things are to those who cannot regard them as symbols of goodness. SCENE v MACBETH 143 MACBETH. If thou speak'st false, Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee : if thy speech be sooth, 40 I care not if thou dost for me as much. I pull in' resolution, and begin To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend That lies like truth : ' Fear not, till Birnam wood Do come to Dunsinane ' ; and now a wood 45 Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out ! If this which he avouches does appear, There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. I 'gin to be a- weary of the sun, 43. pull Ff I pall Johnson conj. 48. nor flying FiFa I no flying FsF*. 40. cling : wither, shrivel. See Murray. sooth: truth. See Skeat. 42. In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare Johnson's con- jecture 'pall in* was adopted in place of the 'pull in' of the Folios. 'Pull in' may be interpreted as either (i) 'check,' 'restrain,' the probable meaning here ; or (2) ' draw back." Cf. Fletcher's Sea Voyage, III, i: "All my spirits, As if they had heard my passing-bell go for me, Pull in their powers and give me up to destiny." 46-52. Dowden thus sums up his character study of Macbeth : The soul of Macbeth never quite disappears into the blackness of dark- ness: He is a cloud without water carried about of v/inds; a tree whose fruit withers, but not even to the last plucked up by the roots. For the dull ferocity of Macbeth is joyless. All his life has gone irretrievably astray, and he is aware of this. His suspicion becomes uncontrollable; his reign is a reign of terror; and, as he drops deeper and deeper into the solitude and the gloom, his sense of error and misfortune, futile and unproductive as that sense is, increases. . . . Finally his sensibility has grown so dull that even the intelligence of his wife's death the death of her who had been bound to him by such close communion in crime hardly moves him, and seems little more than one additional incident in the weary, meaningless tale of human life. . . . Macbeth remembers that he once knew there was such a thing as human goodness. He stands a haggard shadow against the hand's- breadth of pale sky which yields us sufficient light to see him. 144 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v And wish th' 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. [JExeunf] SCENE VI. Dunsinane. Before the castle Drum and colours. Enter MALCOLM, old SIWARD, MACDUFF, and their Army, with boughs MALCOLM. Now near enough ; your leavy 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, 5 According to our order. SIWARD. Fare you well. Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight. MACDUFF. Make all our trumpets speak ; give them all breath, 9 Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt] \Alarums continued^ Dunsinane. Before the castle \ Ff omit. i. Two lines in Ff. 52. harness : armor. So ' hamess'd ' in Troilus &nd Cressida, I, ii, 8. Cf. ' joints of the harness,' i Kings, xxii, 34. i. 'Leavy' is the earlier and more normal form of 'leafy.' Ci.Afuck Ado About Nothing, II, iii, 75 ; Pericles, V, i, 51. ' Leavy labyrinth' occurs in Milton's Comus, line 278, as originally printed. 4. first battle : foreguard, vanguard. Cf. Julius Ctzsar, V, i, 4, 16. Holinshed uses 'battle' in the sense of ' battalions' : " When his whole power was come together, he divided the same into three battels." SCENE vii MACBETH 145 SCENE VII. Another part of the field Enter MACBETH MACBETH. 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 YOUNG SIWARD. What is thy name ? MACBETH. Thou 'It be afraid to hear it. YOUNG SIWARD. No ; though thou call'st thyself a hotter name 6 Than any is in hell. MACBETH. My name 's Macbeth. YOUNG SIWARD. The devil himself could not pronounce a title More hateful to mine ear. MACBETH. No, nor more fearful. SCENE VII | Scena Septima Ff | Another part of the field Globe | Ff Rowe Pope continue the scene. omit. 2. the course. This was a phrase of bear-baiting, where the bear was tied to a stake, and then the dogs set upon him; the poor bear could not run, and so had no way but to fight it out. Cf. King Lear, III, vii, 54 ; Julius Casar, IV, i, 48. The end of Macbeth is savage, and almost brutal, a death without honour or loveliness. He fights now, not like ' Bellona's bridegroom lapp'd in proof,' but with a wild and animal clinging to life. His followers desert him ; he feels himself taken in a trap. The powers of evil in which he had trusted turn against him and betray him. His courage becomes a desperate rage. We are in pain until the horrible necessity is accomplished. Dowden. 146 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v YOUNG SIWARD. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant ; with my sword 10 I '11 prove the lie thou speak'st. \They fight, and young SIWARD is slain~\ MACBETH. Thou wast born of woman. But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, Brandish'd by man that 's of a woman born. [Exit] Alarums. Enter MACDUFF MACDUFF. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face ! If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine, 15 My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still. I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms Are hir'd to bear their staves : either thou, Macbeth, Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge, I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be ; 20 By this great clatter, one of greatest note Seems bruitea. Let me find him, fortune ! And more I beg not. [Exit. Alarums^ Enter MALCOLM and old SIWARD SIWARD. This way, my lord. The castle 's gently render'd : The tyrant's people on both sides do fight; 25 The noble thanes do bravely in the war ; The day almost itself professes yours, And little is to do. 22. bruited : noised abroad. Cf. Hamlet, I, ii, 127 \ i Henry VI, IT, iii, 68. See Murray. Wherever Macbeth goes, he has a strong guard or escort attending him; and the clattering of so many feet and swords would indicate his approach. SCENE vin MACBETH 147 MALCOLM. We have met with foes That strike beside us. SIWARD. Enter, sir, the castle. 29 [Exeunt. Alarum} SCENE VIII. Another part of the field Enter MACBETH MACBETH. 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 MACDUFF. Turn, hell-hound, turn ! MACBETH. Of all men else I have avoided thee : But get thee back ; my soul is too much charg'd 5 With blood of thine already. MACDUFF. I have no words, SCENE VIII Dyce | Scene VII fart of the field Globe | Ff omit. Pope | Ff continue scene. Another a. whiles Ff | whilst Rowe. 29. That strike beside us : who take pains not to hit us, who only sham as they fight against us, for their hearts are on our side. Cf. 3 Henry VI, II, i, 129-132. i. Brutus, Cassius, and Antony, in Shakespeare's great Roman plays, commit suicide. Cf. Julius C&sar, V, iii, 89, where Titinius, as he kills himself, says, " This is a Roman's part." In the same play, V, i, 101-103, Brutus, referring to the suicide of Marcus Cato, says: Even by the rule of that philosophy By which I did blame Cato for the death Which he did give himself. 3-3. While I see living foes, it is better to be exercising my sword upon them than upon myself. 148 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v My voice is in my sword ; thou bloodier villain Than terms can give thee out ! \They fighf\ MACBETH. Thou losest labour : 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. MACDUFF. Despair thy charm ; And let the angel whom thou still hast serv'd Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb 15 Untimely ripp'd. MACBETH. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cow'd my better part of man ! And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd, 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. MACDUFF. Then yield thee, coward, And live to be the show and gaze o' the time : We '11 have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 25 8. [ They fight} Malone | Fight : Alarum Ff. 9. intrenchant: indivisible. 'To trench' is 'to cut.' Cf. ' the air invulnerable,' Hamlet, I, i, 145. For active participles in a passive sense, see Abbott, 372. 12. charmed : secured against human assault by the might of magic spells. Cf. Cymbeline, V, iii, 68-69. 20. palter : equivocate. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, III, xi, 62-63. 25-27. An advertising practice of the time. Cf. Much Ado About Nothing, I, i, 267 ; The Tempest, II, ii, 28-34. " Therewithal he slept unto him and slue him. Then cutting his head from his shoulders he set it upon a pole and brought it unto Malcolm." Holinshed. SCENE viii MACBETH 149 Painted upon a pole, and underwrit, ' Here may you see* the tyrant.' MACBETH. 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 oppos'd, being of no woman born, Yet I will try the last : before my body I throw my warlike shield : lay on, Macduff ; And damn'd be him that first cries, ' Hold, enough ! ' \_Excunt, fighting. Alarums] Retreat. Flourish. Enter with drum and colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD, Ross, the other Thanes, and Soldiers MALCOLM. I would the friends we miss were safe arriv'd. SIWARD. Some must go off ; and yet, by these I see, 36 So great a day as this is cheaply bought. MALCOLM. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt : He only liv'd but till he was a man ; 40 The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd In the unshrinking station where he fought, But like a man he died. 34. After Alarums Ff have Enter 35. Scene VIII Pope. Retreat. Fighting, and Macbeth slaine. \ Retreat, and Ff. 34. him. " Perhaps ' let,' or some such word, was implied." Abbott, 208. " To cry ' hold ' " was an authoritative way of sepa- rating combatants, according to the old military rules and regu- lations. Cf. I, v, 52. 36. go off. A not unusual Elizabethan euphemism for ' die.' 42. unshrinking station : the place where he unshrinking fought 150 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v SIWARD. Then he is dead? Ross. Ay, and brought off the field : your cause of sorrow Must not be measur'd by his worth, for then 45 It hath no end. SIWARD. Had he his hurts before? Ross. Ay, on the front. SIWARD. 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 knoll'd. MALCOLM. He 's worth more sorrow, 50 And that I '11 spend for him. SIWARD. 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 MACDUFF. Hail, king ! for so thou art : behold, where stands Th' usurper's cursed head : the time is free. 55 54. Two lines in Ff. 47. This Spartan bearing is thus described by Holinshed : When his father heard the newes, he demanded whether he receiued the wound whereof he died, in the forepart of the bodie, or in the hinder part : and when it was told him that he receiued it in the forepart : I reioise (saith he) euen with all my heart, for I would not wish either to my sonne nor to myselfe any other kind of death. 52. parted : departed. So " a parted ... at the turning o' the tide," Henry V, II, iii, 12. score : reckoning. The allusion is to a traveler taking leave of an inn. The old inn accounts were commonly kept either by marking down the items with chalk on a board, or by cutting, 'scoring,' notches on a stick. SCENE viii MACBETH 151 I see thee compass'd 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] MALCOLM. We shall not spend a large expense of time Before we reckon with your several loves, 61 And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honour nam'd. What 's more to do, Which would be planted newly with the time, 65 As calling home our exil'd friends abroad That fled the snares of watchful tyranny ; Producing forth the cruel ministers Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, 56. peart FsF4 I Pearle FiFa I peers Rowe. 56. pearl : choicest ornament. ' Pearl ' is here a collective noun and is used as such by Milton. The metaphor describing the worthi- est nobles is a string of pearls encircling the neck, or the head, of royalty. The expression seems to have been a not unusual one. In Dunbar's The Thrissill and the Rose, 1 503, we have : Welcome to be our princes of honour, Our perle, our plesans, and our paramour. 62-75. The matter of Malcolm's last speech is in this passage from Holinshed : Malcolme Cammore thus recouering the relme (as ye haue heard) by sup- port of king Edward, in the 16 yeere of the same Edwards reigne, he was crowned at Scone the 25 day of Aprill, in the yeere of our Lord 1057. Immediatlie after his coronation he called a parlement at Forfair, in the which he rewarded them with lands and liuings that had assisted him against Makbeth, aduancing them to fees and offices as he saw cause, & commanded that speciallie those that bare the surname of anie offices or lands, should haue and inioy the same. He created manie earles, lords, barons, and knights. 152 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v 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 crown'd at Scone. 75 \_Flourish, Exeunt] 75. Exeunt \ Exeunt omnes Ff. Manie of them that before were thanes, were at this time made earles, as Fife, Menteth, Atholl, Leuenox, Murrey, Cathnes, Rosse, and Angus. These were the first earles that haue beene heard of amongst the Scotishmen, (as their histories doo make mention) . 70. self : own. 'Self ' is here used as an adjective. Cf. Ill, iv, 142. 71. For the ellipsis of 'there be ' after ' else,' see Abbott, 286. 72. grace of Grace. " This is an expression that Shakespeare is fond of." Malone. Cf. Two Gentlemen of Verona, III, i, 146 ; All's Well that Ends Well, II, i, 163. 74-75. " There can be little doubt that the actor, in speaking these lines, addressed the audience rather than the dramatis persona, and made this utterance of thanks serve as a sort of epilogue." Manly INDEX I. WORDS AND PHRASES This Index includes the most important words, phrases, etc., explained in the notes. The figures in heavy-faced type refer to the pages ; those in plain type, to the lines containing what is explained. acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time: 74 129. Act I, Scene II, au- thenticity of : 5 i . Act III, Scene V: an interpolation: 91 l. Act IV, Scene II, omis- sion of: 107. addition: 18 106,7299. address'd: 49 24. adhere : 39 52. adjectives as adverbs: 62 124. afeard: 18 96. affeer'd: 115 34. air nimbly and sweetly, etc.: 32 1-3. Alexandrine verse : 135 5. all hail, Macbeth: 14 48-50. all '8 : 6 15. all things foul, etc. : 114 23-24. all to all: 87 92. all-thing: 68 13. and't: 95 19. angerly: 91 l. annoyance: 132 73. anon: 4 9. antic: 106 130. anticipat'st: 107 144. approve : 32 4. arm'd : 88 101. armed head: 101 69. aroint thee : 1 1 6. art: 121143. as (as if) : 49 27. as (inasmuch as) : 67 7. as who : 96 42. assay : 121 143. at a point: 120 135. attempt and not the deed: 48 10. auger-hole: 61 109. augures: 90 124. avouch it: 74 119. baby of a girl: 88 106. badg'd: 59 88. bank: 36 6. banners flout the sky, etc. : 9 49. Banquo (pronuncia- tion) : 2, note 3. beast: 38 47. Beelzebub: 53 4. Bellona's bridegroom : 9 54. bend up : 41 79. bestride: 113 4. betray the devil to his fellow: 120 128. Birnam wood: 139 4-5. birthdom: 113 4. bladed: 100 55. '53 blanket of the dark: 3051. blind-worm: 98 16. blood-bolter'd : 105 123. bond of fate: 102 84. borne in hand: 71 80. botches : 75 133. brainsickly: 50 46. breach in nature: 60100. briefly: 62 120. brinded: 97 l. broken line: 31 59. broken metre: 110 44. bruited: 146 22. buckle his distemper'd cause, etc. : 133 15-16. but (only) : 36 6. but (unless) : 69 48. by your leave: 34 31. cadence in the doctor's speeches : 129 14. candles : 42 5. captains (trisyllabic) : 834. careless: 23 n. casing air: 83 23. cast: 55 27. cast (inspect) : 13850. celebrates pale Hecate's offerings : 45 51. chambers will be safe : 1392. 154 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE champion me: 71 71. chance of goodness, etc.: 120 136-137. charmed life: 148 12. chaudron: 99 33. cheer. . . disseat: 136 21. chops : 7 22. choughs : 90 125. chuck: 78 45. cleave to my consent: 44 25. clept: 72 93. cling: 143 40. clogs me with this answer : 96 43. cloister'd: 78 41. close contriver: 91 7. cloudy: 96 41. coign of vantage: 33 7. cold (as dissyllabic) : 97 6. Colmekill: 65 33. combustion: 56 44. come, sir, dispatch : 138 50. come in time : 5 3 5. composition : 10 59. compt: 34 26. compunctious visitings of nature: 29 43. confineless harms : 1 1 6 55. confound : 1 1 8 99. confronted him with self-comparisons: 10 55. confusion: 57 52. constancy hath left you unattended: 52 68- 69. convey: 117 71. convince: 40 64, 121 142. copy: 78 38. corporal: 17 81. countenance: 58 66. crack: 8 37. crack of doom : 1 04 117. cross'd: 71 80. curbing his lavish spir- it: 1057. damn'dbehim: 14934. damned quarry: 6 14. darkness . . . entomb: 63 9. demi-wolves : 72 93. desert place : 3 i. died every day she liv'd: 119 111. discern: 114 15. dismal: 141 12. dismiss me : 1 02 72. disposition: 89 113. dispute it: 126 220. distance: 73 115. division: 118 96. division into acts and scenes: 3 1. do (work mischief) : 12 10. do the effects of watch- ing : 128 9. doff: 124 188. dollars: 10 62. Dowden's estimate of Macbeth: 14346-52. dress'd: 37 36. dudgeon: 45 46. dunnest smoke : 30 49. Dunsinane: 103 93, 133 12. duties : 24 24. Earl of Essex : 22 i. earls created: 2,note4- easy (adv.) : 62 124. ecstasy: 77 22. eight kings: 104 112. eminence: 77 31. English epicures : 135 8. enter the Ghost: 8437. enter three murderers : 80 i. entrance (trisyllabic) : 29 37. equivocate to heaven: 54 10. equivocation: 54s. ere humane statute: 8676. eternal jewel: 70 67. ethical dative: 135 5. everlasting bonfire : 5 4 17-18. exasperate : 95 38. expedition: 60 97. extend his passion: 85 57. fact: 94 10. faculties: 36 17. fair is foul, etc. : 4 10. falcon . . . owl: 64 12- 13. fantastical: 15 53. farmer that hang'd himself, etc.: 534-5. farrow: 101 65. fatal bellman : 47 3. favour: 22 149, 32 70. fears (dangers): 20 137. feast is sold, etc. : 84 33-37. fee-grief: 125 196. fell: 141 11. fight the course : 1 45 2. file (list) : 133 8. fil'd: 70 64. filthy: 4 11. first battle: 144 4. first of manhood: 133 11. fits o' the season: 108 17. fix'd his head upon our battlements: 7 23. flattering streams: 78 33. INDEX 155 flaws : 85 63. Fleance: 81 18. flighty: 107 145. f oisons: 118 88. for (on account of) : 74 120. forbid: 12 21. forc'd: 141 5. fork: 98 16. from broad words : 95 21. gallowglasses : 6 13. genius : 70 55. gentle my lord : 77 27. germens: 101 59. gild: 51 56. give me the daggers . . . devil: 51 53-55. give thee a wind: 12 11. given: 140 11. gives out : 124 192. glass (mirror) : 105 119. go not my horse the better: 68 25. go off (die) : 149 36. God be with you: 69 43. God 'ild : 33 in. golden round: 28 26. golden stamp: 122 i:,:t. Golgotha: 8 40. good things of day, etc.: 79 52. goose : 54 14. gorgon: 57 57. gospelPd: 7287. gouts : 45 46. grace of Grace : 152 72. gracious England : 1 1 6 43. grave: 68 21. Graymalkin: 4 8. great doom's image : 58 64. great largess: 48 14. guilt: 51 57. gulf: 98 23. had he not resembled my father: 48 12-13. hail (dissyllabic) : 5 5. hangman : 49 27. happy prologues : 20 128. harbinger: 25 45. harness: 144 52. Harpier: 97 3. he did appoint so: 56 39. he has no children : 126 216. heaven's cherubin : 36 22. Hecate: 45 52. hell is murky: 130 33. here-approach : 120 133. hermits : 34 20. his (one man's): 117 80. his wonders and his praises do contend : 17 92. historical present : 6 15, 9 49. hold, enough! 149 34. holp : 34 23. home (thoroughly) : 19 120. horses . . . turn'd wild : 64 14-16. hose: 54 13. housekeeper: 72 96. human kindness: 27 15. hurlyburly: 8 3. husbandry: 42 4. Hyrcan: 88 101. I have no spur: 37 25. I '11 to England: 62 124. if it were done, etc.: 35 1-2. if th' assassination . . . success : 35 24. if we should fail : 39 59. illness: 27 18. imperial theme : 20 129. impress: 103 95. in (on account of): 69 48. infinitive used gerun- dively:5045, 13423, 141 11. inhabit: 88 HI;,. initiate (adj.): 91 143. insane: 17 84. instant: 31 56. instruments : 7 1 80. interim having weigh'd it: 22 154. intrenchant: 148 9. -ion (two syllables) : 6 is. jump: 36 7. just censures attend: 140 14-15. jutty: 33 6. keep peace . . . and it : 29 44-45. keeps her state: 82 5. kerns: 6 13. killing swine: 11 2. king's evil: 121 146- 159. knocking within : 51 57. knowings: 63 4. lac'd with his golden blood : 60 99. lack is nothing but our leave: 127 237. Lady Macbeth is car- ried out: 61 112. lapp'd in proof: 9 54. latch: 124 195. lated : 80 6. lease of nature, etc.: 104 99-100. 156 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE leavy: 144 l. let ... command: 6815. life 's but a walking shadow, etc.: 142 24-28. light by her continu- ally: 129 20. light thickens: 79 50. like the poor cat i' the adage: 38 45. lily-liver 'd: 135 15. limbeck: 40 67. limited: 56 38. line (strengthen): 19 112. lodg'd: 100 55. loon: 135 11. Lord's anointedtemple: 57 54. loss of syllable after pause : 45 51. Macdonwald: 5 9. magot-pies: 90 125. make our faces vizards to our hearts : 7 8 34. make us : 108 4. making the green one red: 52 63. Malcolm, Prince of Cumberland: 25 38. Malcolm's last speech: 151 62-75. manly: 127 235. manly readiness : 62 120. mated: 132 75. maws: 86 73. me (eth. dat): 96 41, 135 5. means: 122 163. medicine: 134 27. meet, pause after : 8 7. memory . . . shall be a fume : 40 65-66. mere: 118 89. messenger: 111 64. metaphysical: 28 27. methought I heard a voice cry: 50 35. Middleton's The Witch: 92 33, 99 43. Milton's indebtedness : 106 138-139. minion: 6 19. minions: 64 15. minutely: 133 18. missives: 27 6. mistrust: 80 2. modern ecstasy: 123 170. moe: 137 35. monuments: 86 72. moon's eclipse : 99 28. more and less: 140 12. mortal: 29 39. mortality: 59 79. mortified man: 132 5. mousing: 64 13. move : 109 22. mummy: 98 23. muse: 87 85. music and a song: 92 33, 99 43. my disgrace, etc. : 109 29. naked frailties : 61 113. napkins : 5 3 5. natural touch: 108 9. naught: 126 225. nave (navel) : 7 22. near (nearer): 62 127. near'st of life: 73 117. nice: 123 174. night-gown: 52 70, 128 4. nonpareil: 83 19. note of expectation: 81 10. nothing (adverbial) : 18 96. nothing is but what is not: 21 141. notion: 71 82. oblivious: 137 43. obscure: 56 45. of (with) : 6 13. offices: 43 14. old: 53 2. on (of) : 17 84. ornament of life: 38 42. other (otherwise): 41 77. our great bidding : 90 129. out: 124 183. overcome: 89 ill. owe (have) : 16 76, 23 10. owl scream and the crickets cry: 48 is. owl ... the fatal bell- man: 47 3. paddock: 4 9. pall : 30 49. palter: 148 20. parted: 150 52. pass'd in probation : 71 79. patch: 135 15. peak : 12 23. peal: 78 43. pearl: 151 56. pent-house lid: 12 20. perfect: 111 65. perseverance: 118 93. pester'd: 134 23. play the Roman fool: 147 l. plenteous joys: 25 33. point: 120 135. point, rebellious: 10 56. poor birds: 110 36. portable: 118 89. Porter's scene: 53 i. posset: 47 6. posters: 13 33. present him eminence : 77 31. INDEX 157 pretence : 62 118. pricking of my thumbs : 100 44. primrose way, etc. : 54 17-18. profound: 92 24. proportion both of thanks and : 24 19. prospect of belief: 16 74. prosperous: 68 21. prosperous gentleman: 1673. protest: 88 105, 133 11. pull in: 143 42. pull 'toff: 138 54. purveyor : 34 22. put on their instru- ments: 127 239. quarrel (cause): 120 137. quarry: 6 14, 125 206. quell: 40 72. rat without a tail: 12 9. ravell'd sleave: 50 37. raven himself is hoarse: 29 36. ravin up: 65 28. ravin'd: 98 24. rawness: 115 26. raze out . . . troubles of the brain: 137 42. recoil (fall off ): 114 19. recorded time: 14221. re-enter the Ghost: 87 89. register'd: 22 151. remembrance apply to : 77 30. remorse: 29 42. remove the means . . . strangers: 122 162- 163. require a clearness: 75 132. respective construc- tion: 15 55. rest is labour: 25 44. restrain in me the cursed thoughts : 42 8. ronyon: 11 6. rooky: 79 51. round and top: 103 88- 89. rubs: 75 133. rumour from what we fear, etc.: 109 19-20. rump-fed: 11 6. safe toward your love and honour : 24 27. safest way : 63 129. Saint Colme's inch: 10 61. say thou nought: 101 70. Scone: 65 31. score: 150 52. scotch'd: 76 13. screw your courage to the sticking-place : 39 60. sear, the yellow leaf: 136 23. season : 91 141. second apparition : 102 77. second cock: 55 22. second course: 50 39. security: 92 32. seeling night: 79 46. seems to (is about to) : 9 47, 28 27. self: 152 70. self-abuse: 91 142. sennet: 67 n. se'nnights: 12 22. sense are: 129 23. senses: 45 44. sensible : 44 36 sergeant: 5 3. servant fee'd: 90 131. servant to defect: 43 18. sewer: 35 i. shag-ear 'd: 112 82. shall (will): 85 57. shard-borne: 78 42. she should have died hereafter: 141 17. shipman's card: 12 17. shoal: 36 6. shook hands: 7 21. shoughs: 72 93. shut up: 43 16 sieve: 11 8. sightless: 3047, 3723. sights (visions): 107 155. since that: 119 106. single (weak): 20 140, 33 16. sirrah: 109 30. Si ward: 120 134. Siward's Spartan bear- ing: 150 47. skirr: 137 35. slab : 99 32. smell of blood : 1 30 47. so fair and foul a day : 14 38. solemn: 68 1 1. sometime: 33 11. son: 109 32. sooth: 8 36, 143 40. speculation : 8 8 95. speeches shine: 67 7. spongy: 40 71. spy o' the time : 74 129. staff: 138 48. stand close: 129 18. stand not, etc. : 89 119. stars, hide your fires: 26 50. still (always): 36 8, 6821. 158 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE stones prate of, etc.: 46 58. strange images : 1 8 97. strides : 46 55. strike beside us : 147 29. Studied in his death: 23 9. Stuff 'd. . . stuff: 138 44. success : 35 4. suggestion: 20 134. summer-seeming: 117 86. surcease: 35 4. surveying vantage : 8 31. sweaten: 101 65. swelter'd: 97 8. sword of our slain kings: 118 87. syllable of dolour : 1 1 3 8. taint: 134 3. take my milk for gall : 30 46. tale: 18 97. tears shall drown the wind: 37 25. temperance: 118 92. terrible dreams: 76 18. thane of Cawdor: 34 20. that (conjunctional affix): 119 106. that (so that): 10 58, 15 57, 36 8, 48 7. that great bond : 7949. that of an hour's age, etc.: 123 175. that which cries . . . have it : 28 21. that which hath made them drunk: 47 l. thee without than him within: 83 14. there where I did find my doubts: 114 25. thick as tale: 18 97. things at the worst, etc.: 109 24. things bad begun, etc. : 7955. third apparition: 103 86. thoughts speculative, etc.: 140 19-20. three ears: 102 78. thrice: 13 36, 97 2. Tiger (name of ship) : 11 7. time: 31 62. time and hour: 21 147. title is affeer'd: 11534. titles: 108 7. to (compared with) : 85 64. to (in addition to): 70 51. to alter favour . . . fear: 32 70. to friend: 113 10. to hear: 141 n. to know my deed, 'twere best, etc.: 52 73. to that : 5 10. to th' utterance: 71 71. to write: 124 6. too: 127 235. top: 116 57. torture of the mind: 77 21. touch: 108 9. tow'ring: 64 12. tragic irony: 23 13. trains: 119 118. transitive verb used in- transitively : 134s. transpose: 114 21. travelling lamp: 63 7. treatise: 141 12. trifl'd : 63 4. true, worthy Banqao: 26 54. tugg'd with fortune: 73 in. tune : 127 235. twofold balls, etc.: 105 121. understood relations : 90 124. unlineal hand: 70 62. unmannerly breached with gore: 60 103. unrough: 133 10. unshrinking station : 14942. uproar: 118 99. use (custom) : 20 137. valued file: 72 94. vaporous drop: 92 24. venom : 97 8. verb omitted with ideas of motion : 7 26. verity : 1 1 8 92. want the thought : 94 8. wanton: 25 34. was the hope drunk: 3736. wassail: 40 64. watch: 46 54. water rugs: 72 93. way of life : 1 36 22. wear thou thy wrongs : 115 33. weird: 13 32. we '11 have thee . . . painted upon a pole : 148 25-27. well: 123 177. well, well, well, etc. ; 131 54-55. went into the field: 1283. what, in our house? 58 74. INDEX 159 what needful else (there be): 152 71. when shall we three meet again, etc. : 3 1-2. which (who): 7 21. while (until) : 69 43. whiles I see lives, etc. : 147 2-3. who (whom) : 74 122. willall great Neptune's ocean, etc.: 51 60-61. wine of life : 59 81. wink at : 26 52. witchcraft (trisyllabic): 45 51. witches, first appear- ance of: 3 l. withal: 15 57, 51 56. without all: 76 n. woman's story . . . fire : 85 65. worm (serpent): 8329. wrought: 22 149. yawning: 78 43. yesty: 100 53. you mar all, etc.: 130 41-42. II. QUOTATIONS FROM HOLINSHED all hail, Macbeth: 14 48. Banquo summoned to the feast: 74 128. Birnam wood: 139 4- 5. chamberlains . . . con- vince: 40 63-64. Duncan buried: 65 33- 34. Duncan makes Malcolm Prince of Cumber- land : 25 38-39. Duncan sent forth great largess: 43 14. dwindle, peak and pine : 12 23. earls created by Mal- colm: 2, note 4. Edward the Confessor and the king's evil: 121 146-159. English epicures: 135 8. Fleance escapes : 81 is. kerns and gallow- glasses: 6 13. Macbeth employs spies: 90 131-132. Macbeth hears a voice : 5035. Macbeth invested at Scone: 65 31-32. Macbeth plansfor clear- ing himself: 75 1:11. Macbeth retires to Dunsinane: 133 12. Macbeth 's head: 148 25-27. Macdonwald : 5 9; his headless trunk: 7 23. Malcolm crowned ; cre- ates many earls : 151 62. Malcolm flees into Eng- land: 62 124. monstrous sights seen: 64 12-18. night's predominance: 63 8. Norweyan lord: 8 31. Saint Colme's inch: 10 61. sergeant: 5 3. Siward hears of his son's death: 150 47. Siward sent to support Malcolm: 120 134. sword of our slain kings: 118 87. weird sisters : 1 3 32. wild in their attire : 14 40. witch's prophecy: 103 92-91 -sffis&sasa&s, --JsfeSS^"- A 001 297881