THE ARDEN SHAKESPEARE GENERAL EDITOR: W. J. CRAIG 1899-1906: R. H. CASE, 1909
MACBETH
\^iY^
THE WORKS
OF
SHAKESPEARE
MACBETH
EDITED BY HENRY CUNINGHAM
?
METHUKN AND CO. I/ri).
86 ESSEX STREET: STRAND LONDON
Second Edition
First Published Second Edition
February 23rd igi2 January ^9^7
,vr .<^.
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PAGE
Introduction :
(i) Prefatory vii
(ii) General xiii
Macbeth i
Appendix 153
INTRODUCTION
I. Prefatory
The Editor is not responsible for the text of this play as printed in this edition. The text, he is informed, is substanti- ally that of Delius as edited by the late W. J. Craig in his " Little Quarto Shakespeare," first published in 1905. It is admitted by all competent scholars that the text of Mac- beth has been more or less vitiated by the interpolations or additions of some dramatist other than Shakespeare ; and that the only real question is as to the extent of these inter- polations ; but hardly any editor has had the courage of his convictions by venturing to express, in the only adequate way in which it can be done, these convictions in his printed text. Of recent English (including American) editors, Mr. E. K. Chambers and Mr. Mark Harvey Liddell {Macbeth, 1903) are, I think, the only exceptions ; the latter in a somewhat hesitat- ing way ; while the same remark applies to a recent German editor, Hermann Conrad (1907). But at any rate these editors have, in a measure, indicated their views in the text itself by means of brackets, obeli, or other perfectly usual and allowable methods. The segregation of the spurious work of other dramatists from the authentic text of Shakespeare is all the more important and necessary in view of the enormous output of editions during the past twenty years, and also in view of the fact that there is no subject of Shakespearian study more important or more difficult than the ascertainment and settle- ment, so far as this is, humanly speaking, possible, of his text. " As our knowledge grows," say the editors of The Cambridge Shakespeare in their preface (vol. ix. p. xxi, 1893), "so also our admiration and our pleasure in the study increase, dashed only by a growing sense of the textual imperfections and
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viii MACBETH
uncertainties which stand between the author and his readers. For, besides the recognised difficulties, we are convinced that there are many passages, still easily scanned and construed, and therefore not generally suspected of corruption, whicTi nevertheless have not been printed exactly as they were first written^ Some ruder hand has effaced the touch of the masier." It is greatly to be regretted therefore that the want of courage already referred to should mar the excellence of so many otherwise reputable editions ; and to no play of Shakespeare does this remark apply with so much cogency as to Macbeth. For example, the so-called "Clarendon" editors {i.e. the editors of the Cambridge Shakespeare), in their well-known and excellent edition of this play (1869) were of opinion that many scenes and passages were not written by Shakespeare, but they failed to substantiate this view by any indications in their text. The unthinking reader who never perhaps looks at an introduction or note, is allowed by editors and publishers to go on reading the adulterating trash as if it sprang from Shakespeare's lawful parentage. Slavish admiration for the Folio cannot go much further ; and it makes one almost despair of ever seeing an authentic and unadulterated text of the plays.
These remarks apply with peculiar force to Macbeth. For example, there is not a single scholar of any repute, with the exception perhaps of Mr. A. W. jyerity, who would now at- tempt to defend the authenticity oF Act III. scene v. J^ or, in fact, the iiitroduction of the absurd and superfluous character of Hecate. Yet what do we find in every page of dramatis personcB, on every stage where Macbeth is played ? We find Hecate admitted as an authentic character, we find her playing K her supererogatory part, sponsored by the interpolator of the J so-called " witch scenes " — whether Middleton, or Rowley, /> or Wilkins, Why should these pantomimic characters of "witches" continue to disfigure this noble tragedy? Shake- \ speare's ministers of fate and supernatural aid are weird sisters, I not "witches." In no single authentic passage of the play does he refer to a " witch," with the sole exception of his refer- ence to "witches' mummy " in IV. i. 23. And, as mentioned in the general introduction, the references to " witchcraft celebrating pale Hecate's offerings" (ll. i. 51) and "black
INTRODUCTION ix
Hecate's summons" (ill. ii. 41) are merely references to night. They have nothing to do with the scheme of the tragedy.
The question of theextent of the interpolations in Macbeth^ has been fully dealt with in the general introduction. Put- ting the matter briefly here, this editor is of opinion that the spurious portions are, in Act I. scenes i., ii., and iii. 1-37 {i.e. I the first 118 lines of the play) ; in Act III. scene v. ; and in Act IV. scene i. 39-43 and 125-132, — in all about 167 lines; and that these interpolations are only concerned with the " weird sister ' scenes. He is further of opinion that the only adequate means of* emphasising these views is to indicate spurious passages by the use of brackets or obeli, as is in fact done by every competent scholar, both in classical and modern texts ; or by the use of smaller type, if not indeed preferably by both methods. Another point occurs in connection with Shakespeare's weird sisters as opposed to the conventional "witches." Shakespeare's authentic tragedy is concerned with his weird sisters alone, and therefore the " witches7 should be deleted from the dramatis personce. For example, I. iii. 48-69 should be printed in the text as follows : —
1 Sister. " All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of Glamis ! " (48)
2 Sister. " All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor I "
3 Sister. " All hail, Macbeth I that shalt be king hereafter I " (50) Ban. " Good Sir, . . . Your favours nor your hate."
1 Sister. " Hail I " (62)
2 Sister. " Hail ! "
3 Sister. " Hail I "
1 Sister. " Lesser than Macbeth and greater ! " (65)
2 Sister. " Not so happy yet much happier ! "
3 Sister. " Thou shall get kings, though thou be none : " All. " So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo,
Banquo and Macbeth, all hail I " (69)
The last two lines should undoubtedly be assigned to a// the sisters, and not to the " 3 witch " and " i witch " as in the text adopted in this edition. This view is of course quite "revolutionary" in the minds of all adherents of a "conserva- tive " text. Let any reader ask himself if it is really so. Is Shakespeare's text altered ? Not a jot. And that is all we are concerned with. If any authority be wanted for such a change, reference may be made to Act I. scene i. where the
X MACBETH
changes made in the Folio have been universally accepted. It is well known that little or no reliance is to be placed_on stage 1 1 directions, or names of characters ; and alterations have been -^/l made in these by almost every editor since Rowe^^ 1709). Similarly, in the great incantation scene in Act IV. alterations of the like character should be made. These are mentioned in their places in the notes, but they cannot adequately be brought home to the mind of the reader unless he has the altered text before him. And this important question is con- cerned with specific points of difificulty in the Folio text occur- ring in respect of words corrupted, misprinted or omitted ; land the equally important matter of the re-arrangement of faultily printed lines. The Editor has attempted to deal with these in their places in the notes ; but the only adequate method of dealing with them is by setting them out in the text itself. A few of these may be mentioned in this place by way of illustration — (I) Emendations, etc, : {a) Corrections of the text : IV. ii. 22, '■ Each way amoved" ; IV. iii. 136, ''the 7 \ grace of Goodness Betide,'' etc.; V. iii. 5, " consequence" ; V. iii. 44, 7 " sluff" ; V. iv. 10, " sitting down." {b) Words or letters added ' to or removed from the text : I. iv. 35, " sons [and] kinsmen " ; I. v. 40, "Come you [ill] spirits " ; I. vi. 30, "continue [in] our graces" ; II. iii. 80, " Banquo, [up] !" ; II. iii. 125, " where[out] our fate " ; III. ii. 16, "[become] disjoint, . . . suffer [dissolu- tion] " ; IV. ii. 23, "[It] shall not be long"; IV. iii. 44, "of goodly thousands [ten]"; IV. iii. 218, "all [my children]"; V. V. 32, "Well say [it], Sir"; V. vii. 89, "[Hail!]." (11) Re-arrangement of faultily printed lines : I. iii. 7, 8, " Her husband's to Aleppo gone. Master o' the Tiger " (in two lines); II. iii. 107, 108, "they stared . . . them " ; II. iii. 126-8, " Let us away . . . foot of motion " ; III. i. 45, " Sirrah . . . men our pleasure?"; III. ii. 16, 17, " But let . . . [dissolu- tion]" ; III. iii. 9-11, "Then it is he . . . Are in the court"; III. iv. 4-6, " And play . . . Her welcome " ; III. vi. 29, 30, " Thither Macduffs gone To pray," etc. ; III. vi. 39-40, "Sent he To Macduff," etc. ; IV. i. 124, "And points ... is this so?"; IV. iii. 15-17, "Something ... an angry god"; IV. iii. 238, " the powers above put on Their instruments " ; V. v. 29, "Thou comest . . . Thy story quickly."
INTRODUCTION xi
When a word is of necessity introduced into the text to supply something which is missing in the scansion of a line, its inclusion in brackets or its printing in italics or both is quite sufficient to put the reader on his guard as to its occur- rence or omission in the text of the Folio. And this is entirely the modem practice. For example, it is quite common in Churton Collins's edition of Greene's works (Clarendon Press, 1905), see vol I. p. 100, line 725, in the play of Alphonsus, where Collins, following Walker, restores, in his text, the lost word " the," but is careful to enclose it in brackets : " And giue thee that [the] which thou well hast wonne " ; re- marking that the reading "is certainly supported by the fourth line of the speech, and I therefore introduce it into the text." See also page I2i, line 1433, where he adopts in his text Dyce's reading, Turkie-[land]. It is needless to multiply examples or to offer further comment. One might only be told that Collins was a rash and incompetent editor.
References to plays of Shakespeare other than the present play are to the well-known Globe edition, on the ground of its general acceptance for purposes of reference.
A note or comment well written in the first instance tends to become permanent and need not be repeated in another form. In his notes the Editor has striven to give honour to whom honour is due and to acknowledge indebtedness to pre- vious editors and commentators. It is too much the custom to " convey " from the great eighteenth century editors without any acknowledgment of the debt.
For the "aesthetic appreciation" of the leading characters in Macbeth the Editor is greatly indebted to Dr. A. C. Bradley's admirable volume, Shakespearean Tragedy (1904). No more valuable contribution to the study of the great tragedies has ever been published in either hemisphere. The Editor is in- debted to Mr. W. J. Lawrence of Dublin for his communica- tion of a valuable and interesting paper, published by him in the German periodical Anglia, on Lock's (or Purcell's) music to Macbeth ; and he regrets that space will not permit of at least a summary of the paper in the general introduc- tion.
Lastly, the Editor is indebted to the General Editor, Pro-
xii MACBETH
fessor Case, for many useful notes and suggestions, some of which he has been able to incorporate in the notes ; and in particular for the note on "breeched with gore," 11. iii. 119, which he states was sent to him by the late W, J. Craig, editor of the Oxford Shakespeare, and formerly general editor of the Arden Shakespeare.
INTRODUCTION
II. General
The Tragedie of Macbeth appears to have been first printed in the Folio of 1623, being then entered in the books of the Stationers' Company as follows : " Nov, 8, 1623. Mr. Blounte and Isaak Jaggard.] Mr. William Shakespeere's Comedyes, Histories, and Tragedyes, soe many of the said Copies as are not formerly entered to other men. viz. . . . Mackbeth." In the Folio it occupies twenty-one pages, vis. 131 to 151 inclu- sive, in the division assigned to the Tragedies, coming after Julius Ccssar and before Hamlet. The Folio indicates the acts and scenes throughout, but not the dramatis personce, which were first given by Rowe in modern form, although " The Persons' names" were prefixed to Davenant's version of 1674.
It is, unfortunately, somewhat carelessly printed, especially as regards the metrical arrangernent. It may have been printed fromBTctation and from a stage transcript, which, sometime subsequently to its first production in 1606, had certainly been re-handled~By another dramatist ; and this transcript may have suffered from the wear and tear incidental to frequent perform- ances by the King's company of players between the date of Shakespeare's retirement from London, perhaps in 161 1, and the printing of the Folio in 1623. Traces of the blunders and irregularities caused by an imperfect printers' copy of some kind are especially noticeable in the second scene of Act in. In this respect I do not refer in particular to the interpolated matter which masquerades as the second scene of Act I.
Incidentally, in respect of the production of the Folio, it may be remarked that a great deal of misconception seems to exist as to the duty performed by Shakespeare's " friends and fellows," John Heminge and Henry Condell. We are forever
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xiv MACBETH
indebted to them for such share as they did take in its pro- duction ; and we need not reproach their memory with the failure to perform a duty which they did not undertake. They were not editors as modern editors are. Speaking of the plays in their dedication of the Folio to the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery, they expressly say: "We have but collected them . . . we cannot go beyond our own powers." And in their well-known Address To the Great Variety of Readers, they state, "But it is not our province who onely gather his works, and give them you, to praise him." Heminge and Condell .therefore beyond question conceived their duty to be done when they had obtained all the available " copy," whether in the form of MSS., quartos, transcripts, or players' parts of Shakespeare's plays from the archives of the King's company, or other sources, and entrusted them to the undertakers or promoters of the Folio, "Wm. Jaggard (and Isaac Jaggard), Ed. Blount, I. Smithweeke and W. Aspley," at whose "charges" it was printed in 1623, and who were responsible for the printing and "overseeing," which, in the case oi Macbeth and other plays, were so carelessly performed. Such as it was, the dutyof pfess^orfection was doubtless apportioned amongst the promoters, and this may account, in part at least, for the unequal amount of care and capacity shown in the printing of ,the various plays. Be this as it may, the settlement of the ; authentic text of Macbeth is a matter of very great difficulty, and one factor in this is the absence of any antecedent copy, ' which, as in the case of many other plays printed in quarto form before the idate of the Folio, could be used for purposes of comparison. Nevertheless I think the difficulty is not so entirely insuperable as would at first sight appear.
The most important question, and one of surpassing interest, in relation_t:o_the text of Macbeth is the question of its altera- tion or interpolation after the MS. left Shakespeare's hand. It is now almost universally admitted that the play has been to some extent re-handled, but to what extent and by whom are points on which there_ha^_ jDeeii__and^ is grea^^ opinion.
In the text as we have it in the Folio, there is a certain foundation of fact for the theory that the interpolator of Mac- beth was Thomas Middleton,(gLj'5 70-1 621), a dramatist partly
INTRODUCTION xv
contemporaneous w[th Shakespeare, of whom he^ was. a_Jre- quent imitator. His work is distinguished by much inequality, tjut also by touches of " strange and sudden powerJ.' Middle- ton is placed by such an experienced critic as Saintsbury (see his Elizabethan Literature, 1888), at any rate in respect of his first class work, in the front rank of dramatists immediately 7 second to Shakespeare himself. He wrote for^the King's company (/.^. the company to which Shakespeare belonged), between 161 4 and 1624 or thereabouts ; and he is the author, ) amongst ojher plays^lX^g ,1^^'^^/^ . which is generally supposed I to have been written about 161^ and the MS. of which was I only discovered by Steevens in 1779. In this play occur two songs referred to by their first lines in the stage directions of Macbeth, viz. at III. v. 33, " Come away, come away ;" and at IV. i. 43, " Black spirits and white." These songs are found in full in The Witch, III. iii. 39 and V. ii. 60 (ed. Bullen) re- spectively ; and the inference is almost irresistible that Middle^" ton had been employed by the players to adapt Shakespeare's textjn_some small measure to the changing taste of the time, and that he had eked out his work with these songs from his own_£lay. The songs had evidently thenceforth become part of the stage version of Macbeth, as they were also included by Sir William Davenant in his extraordinary recast of the play in 1674. Confirmation is lent to this theory by the fact that The Witch contains several other point^^jres^mblance__to Macbeth, points the significance of which need not,, of course, be too strongly insisted on, although of much significance w^hen read in connection with the other facts of the case. Compare, for instance, the remark of Hecate in The Witch, I. ii. 180, "I know he loves me not," with Macbeth, III. v. 13 (a scene which is now universally recognised as interpolated), " Loves for his own ends not for you " ;
The Witch, iv. iii. 17 :
" For the maid servants and the girls o' th' house, I spic'd them lately with a drowsy posset,"
with Macbeth, 11. ii. 6 : " I've drugg'd their possets " ;
The Witch, v. ii. 85 :
" Hec. Come, my sweet sister, let the air strike our time,"
with the interpolated passage of Macbeth, iv. i. 129 : b
xvi MACBETH
" I'll charm the air to give a sound While you perform your antique round " ; ~
The Witch, iv. iii. 47 : " the innocence of sleep," with Macbeth, 11. ii. 35 : ** the innocent sleep " ;
The Witch, iv. iii. 78 : "there's no such thing," with the same expression in Macbeth, 11. i. 47 ;
The Witch, v. i. 16 : " I'll rip thee down from neck to navel," with the interpolated i. ii. 22 :
" Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps " ;
The Witch, in. ii. 145 :
"Why shak'st thy head so, and look'st so pale and poorly?"
with Macbeth, 11, ii. 64: " To wear a heart so white " ; and 1. 71 : " Be not lost so poorly in your thoughts " ;
The Witch, in. iii. 33 : " I'm for aloft," with Macbeth (interpolated) iii. v. 20 : "I am for the air" ;
The Witch, in. iii. 62 : '^ Malkin my sweet spirit and I," with Macbeth i. i. 8 : "I come, Graymalkin " ; and The Witch, v. ii. (stage direction), " A caldron in the centre," with Macbeth, iv. i. (stage direction): " In the middle, a boiling cauldron."
These coincidences^of expression, many of them no doubt simply "conveyed," together ■vvith other traces of similarl^^, are enough to emphasise the strong probability that the dramatist of T/te Witck was the person who had a hand in the adaptation 0/ Madmjth. The view of Steevens that Shake- speare was indebted to Middleton is utterly inadmissible and need not be discussed. It is enough to make the bare state- ment that after his earliest efiforts in refashioning English historical plays, Shakespeare was never indebted, at any rate beyond the outline of a plot or story, to any other writer or dramatist of his time for collaboration or other help in his plays. What may have liappened to some of his later plays, such as Macbeth, Tinion, Pericles and Cymbeline, after the MSS. left his hand and he retired from active participation in the work of the stage, is quite another matter. Besides, the most casual perusal of The Witch is sufficient to show its immeasur- able inferiority to Shakespeare's great tragedy.
It is also possible, though far from being so probable, that
the interpolator may have been William Rowley or George
Wilkins, and whether or not using Middleton's material.
Wilkins. who flourished about 1607, was associated as a
■^ playwright with the King's company, and was mainly employed
^
INTRODUCTION xvii
by them in revising old plays. There is little doubt that he (possibly in association with Rowley) is responsible for the gross scenes in Pericles. Rowley (i 585-1642) we know col- laborated with Middleton in A Fair Quarrel (1614), and with him and other playwrights in many other plays. His verse is distinguished for its harshness, irregularity and extravagance, but occasionally for much pathos and dignity.
The earlier editors and commentators appear generally to have accepted the authenticity of the text of Macbeth as it is found in the Folio ; but even at the beginning of the nine- teenth century indications are not wanting of shrewd opinions and conjectures as to the presence of interpolated matter. For instance, Seymour in his Remarks (1805), speaking of the very first scene, says : " The witches here seem jto be { introduced for no other purpose than to tell us they are to / meet again ; and as I cannot discover any advantage resulting ; from such anticipation, but, on the contrary, think it injurious, ) ■^' I cohcTucJe the scene is not genuine" (vol. i. p. 72). Again, ^ ?, referring to Act i. scene iii. : " As Macbeth is the great object ? of the witches, all that we hear of the sailor and his wife is rather ludicrous and impertinent than solemn and material ; I strongly suspect it is spurious " (p. 175). In truth, tha£.^is noeffective answer to these " remarks."
More recent authorities have advanced opinions as to the extent of these interpolations which opposing critics have styled "revolutionary," For example, the Clarendon editors (Clarke and Wright), in the Introduction to their edition of Macbeth, 1 869, reject the following passages or lines : I. ii. ; I. iii. 1-37 ; II. i. 61 ; II. iii. 1-46 ; III. v. ; IV. i. 39-47, 125- 132 ; IV. iii. 140-159; V. iii. ; V. v. 47-50 ; V. vii. 61, 62, 64-105 ; and Fleay in his Shakespeare Manual, 1876, was of opinion that even longer portions were to be condemned ; but in his Life and Work of Shakespeare, 1880, he appears to have very considerably modified these views and to reject only III. v. and IV. i. 39-43. Chambers, in his edition of Macbeth, suspects, and therefore rightly brackets. III. v. and IV. i. 39-43 and 125- 132. Dr. A. C. Bradley in his Shakespearean Tragedy, 1904, p. 466, seems to assume that "almost the whole of Macbeth ijis genuine," thgugh he leaves his opinion in great measure jiunsupported and relies on the arguments of Chambers. Two
(
I
xviii MACBETH
passages, however, seem to him "open to serious doubt," viz. III. v., and IV. i. 39-43.
I am of^opinion that the spurious passages are the folJiiw- ing, viz. I. i. ; I. ii. ; I. jii. 1-37 C^hat is to say the first 118
Uines of the play — its figurehead, so to speak, as we find it in
^the Folio) ; III, v. ; and ivj^35:;43 and_i25-i32,^n all about 167 lines. I quite agree with Seymour's remark, already quoted, as to the dubious character of Act I. scene i. Long familiarity with this scene need not blind us to the fact that it does not rise above the ordinary Elizabethan level. Further, the references to " Graymalkin " and " Paddock " would appear to be simply " conveyed " from the great incantation scene, IV. i. ; and the line " Fair is foul, and foul is fair " merely reproduces the opening line of the authentic play, viz. I. iii- 38, Macbeth's utterance on his first appearancej_" bq foul and fair a day I have not seeq." But if the scene be genuine, it is probable that Shakespeare intended it to be transacted from the balcony above the stage, so as to represent the weird sisters hovering in the air, preparatory to their sudden appear- ance to Macbeth and Banquo in scene iii. line 39. I thinly it is merely fanciful to say, with Spalding {Elizabethan Demon- ology, p. 102), that "this first scene is the fag-end of a witches'
I sabbath, which, if fully represented, would bear a strong re- - I semblance to the scene at the commencement of the Fourth 'i Act." Spalding is much more to the point when he says that "a long scene on the subject would be tedious and unmeaning at the commencement of the play." The short answer to the idea that the first scene is the " fag-end of a witches' sabbath," is that this was nothing to Shakespeare's dramatic purpose, which was simply and solely the announcement of the proph^ies by the weird sisters, as we find them in scene iii. •
As to I. ii.^and^ iii. 1-32, I am in entire accord with the Clarendon editors in their belief that these scenes were not
Ij written by Shakespeare. In respect to scene ii. they very aptly remark : " Making all allowance for corruption of text, the slovenly metre is not like Shakespeare's work, even when he is most careless. The bombastic phraseology of the sergeant Js^not like^ Shakespeare's language even when he is most_bombastic. What is said of the Thane of Cawdor, lines / 54, 55, is inconsistent with what follows in scene iii. lines 72^
INTRODUCTION xix
y$ and 112 s^ We may add that Shakespeare's good sense wouIS^ harHTy have tq]erated the absurdity of sending a severely wounded soldier to carry the news of a victory," With every word of the above, and chiefly for the reasons assigned, I am in entire agreement ; and I think that even stronger arguments against the genuineness of these scenes might easily be adduced.
It was decidedly no part^ jof Shakespeare's scheme to m- large on Macbeth's victories against Sueno and^lacdoiraiaJd ; and scene ii. of the Folio is in fact nothing but an amplification,
iand an amplification by the interpolator from Shakespeare's own authority, Holinshed, of scene iii. 90 sqq., where Ross and Angus announce to Macbeth the kjngls reception of the new&_,oX his success and of his title or "addition," viz. the thaneship of Cawdor. It is very significant that in line 50 Duncan reads of Macbeth's " venture in the rebels' fight." The posts "come as thick as hail. What dramatic necessity was there for the absurd and ridiculous device of a verbal report by the "bleeding captaine" (or sergeant)? I am quite aware that "reads" in this passage may have, as it frequently had in Elizabethan English, the inferential sense of guessing or surmising ; but having regard to the expression in I. iii. 100, t^^ poured them down before him," the ordinary sense seems lessential. It is quite impossible also to get over or explain the gross and staring inconsistency, staggering as it does even Mr. E. K. Chambers, between what is said of the Thane of Caw3or in lines 54, gg, and what follows in the autheiitic portion of scene iii. lines 72, 73 and 112 sgq. Dr. Johnson's remarks hereon are unanswerable, and well deserve to be quoted at length. He says : " The incongruity of all the passages in which the Thane of Cawdor is mentioned is very remarkable. Ross and Angus bring the king an account of the battle, and inform him that Norway, assisted by the Thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict. It appears that Cawdor was taken prisoner, for in the same scene the king commands his present death. Yet though Cawdor was thus taken by Macbeth, in arms against his king, when Macbeth is saluted, in scene iii., Thane of Cawdor, by the witches, he asks, 'How of Cawdor? the Thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman,' and in the next line considers the promises that he should be Cawdor
XX MACBETH
, and king as equally unlikely to be accomplished. How can : Macbeth be ignorant of the state of the thane whom he has jjust defeated and taken prisoner, or call him a prosperous \gentleman who has forfeited his title and life by open rebellion? I He cannot be supposed to dissemble, because nobody is present but Banquo, who was equally acquainted with Cawdor's treason. However, in the next scene his ignorance still con- \ tinues ; and when Ross and Angus present him with his new \ title, he cries out, ' The Thane of Cawdor lives, Why do you { dress,' etc. Ross and Angus, who were the messengers that J informed the king of the assistance given by Cawdor to the j invader, having lost, as well as Macbeth, all memory of what •y^ they had so lately seen and related, make this answer, * Who was the thane . . . have overthrown him' (see I. iii. 1 09-11 6). Neither Rpss^knew what he had just reported, nor Macbeth what he had just done. This seems not to be one of the faults that are to be imputed to transcribers, since, though the incon- sistency of Ross and Angus might be removed by supposing that their names were erroneously inserted, and that only Ross brought an account of the battle, and only Angus was sent to Macbeth, yet the forgetfulness of Macbeth cannot be palliated, since what he says cannot have been spoken by any other." Indeed, to be quite perfect in this common-sense criticism, Dr. Johnson had only to add that Shakespeare was not re- sponsible for this gross and careless piece of incongruity. When scene ii. is rejected, all inconsistency disappears. Even Mr. E. K. Chambers (i^af(^^//^, "Warwick Shakespeare ") admits the inconsistency and thinks that " confusion is more likely to ff^ be due to compression than to interpolation." But why assume "compression"? There is no ground for such as- n sumption, and still less for the view, which is supported by ^ critics like Brandes and Craig, that the play has been much " cut down " or that " many scenes are wanting."
Dr. Bradley {Shakespearean Tragedy, 1904, p. 467, note AA) carefully considers this question of compression ; and he thinks it not improbable that Macbeth, as we have it, is slightly shorter than the play Shakespeare wrote. (l) His first ground is that we have no quarto, and that generally where we have a quarto or quartos we find them longer than the Folio text. No doubt, but this argument is merely negative, and the sub-
INTRODUCTION xxi
ject of Macbeth simply did not admit of more lengthy treat- ment than Shakespeare has allotted to it. In fact, all the evidence, particularly with respect to the interpolations of the " witch scenes," goes to show that the play was expanded and not compressed. (2) Secondly, he thinks there are perhaps a few signs of omission in our text (over and above the plentiful signs of corruption), and he gives as an example the passage ^I. iv. 33-43, where, after thanking Macbeth and Banquo for ^ their victories, Duncan proceeds, by a rapid transition, to name Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland ; and he thinks the matter, ^"considering its importance," is disposed of very briefly. But surely, at this stage of the action, the elevation of Malcolm is of comparatively small importance except as furnishing an additional motive or incentive to Macbeth to commit a murder which he had already pondered if not determined on. The matter of primary importance for Shakespeare's purpose is the announcement by the weird sisters of Macbeth's elevation. And besides, Shakespeare himself disposes of the point, very briefly, but sufficiently, when he makes Macbeth say (I. iv. 48- 50)-
"That is a step
On which I must fall down or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies."
Moreover, a very similar transition occurs at the end of the play, vis. in V. vii. 92-94, where Malcolm "names" the, first Earls of Scotland. (3) Dr. Bradley also instances the P striking abruptness and brevity of the sentence in which Duncan invites himself to Macbeth's castle ; but he himself supplies the most effective answers to any argument in favour of omissions when he remarks hereon that Shakes- peare may have determined to sacrifice everything possible to the effect of rapidity in the first act; that there is no internal evidence of the_omiss[on_of anything essentiaLto the plot ; that FojraaiT^^who saw^ the. play jni 610 mentions in his MS. Book qfJPiaies.and Notes thereof^ nothing which we do not find in our play ; and that it is only in the first part of the play (the rest being full enough) that such omissions could occur. And he also very aptly remarks that anyone who wanted to cut the play down would have
xxii MACBETH
operated, say, on Macbeth's talk with Banquo's murderers, or on III. vi. or on the very long dialogue of Malcolm and Mac- duff, instead of reducing the most exciting part of the drama. If I may say so, I entirely agree with Dr. Bradley in his view that the play was always an extremely short one ; and, as above mentioned, I think it was certainly shorter than the inter- polated version as it stands in the Folio. Further, Dr. Bradley thinks it possible, as Malone thought, and rightly, that the V play was not composed originally for the public stage, but for some private, perhaps royal, occasion, when time was limited ; the presence of the passage about touching for the evil (IV. iii. 140 sqq^ supporting this idea; that some of the scenes {e.g. the " witch scenes " ^ and the battle scenes) would take longer to perform than ordinary scenes of mere dialogue and action ; and that a play like Macbeth, written in a kind of fever heat from beginning to end, offering very little relief by ^ means of humorous or pathetic scenes, ought to be short and would be unbearable if it lasted so long as Hamlet or Lear. And Dr. Bradley might, in my opinion, have added another argument, and probably not the least effective, viz. that the / subject, simple in itself, did not admit of more lengthy treat- ment. Strong proof of this appears in the construction of the fourth act, which is unduly lengthened in scenes ii. and iii. ; ' and even in Act III. itself. The scenes (iv. ii., iii.) seem to have been composed with evident effort, as if Shakespeare felt the necessity ©f stretching out his material to the ordinary length of a five-act tragedy, and found lack of dramatic material, which was certainly wanting in his authority, Holinshed. Hence his introduction in Act V. of the famous " sleep-walking scene " of Lady Macbeth, and the magni- cently irrelevant soliloquies of the great protagonist himself. But in truth this idea of compression is entirely gratuitous, and no solid~g^round can be adduced in support of it. Shake- speare would not be guilty of "compression" if it militated against clearness. What dramatic necessity could there be for "compression" in a play which was obviously found too i short for public representation ; and, in the players' opinion at any rate, had to be enlarged by the botching work of an
'This is only applicable to Act iv. scene i.
INTRODUCTION xxiii
interpolator? Nor is it a case of "explanatory links dropping out," as Professor Herford (Introduction to Macbeth, p. 152) puts it, but distinctly a case ofexcrescent links dropping in; it points by no means to "compression," but to gross and care- less interpolation ; even though the interpolation be the work of a competent dramatist like Middleton, who was quite capable of adding any number of "Shakespearian touches," if he so willed, and took sufficient pains, in dealing with the work of Shakespeare.
With regard to the metre of Act I. scene ii., no adequate reason can be assigned for the existence of the numerous/ faulty lines which deface it except sheer hasty and careless! workmanship on the part of the interpolator ; for the printers of the Folio could not, I am convinced, have blundered so abominably in such a short scene. What other unadulterated play of Shakespeare shows the like at its very commencement? Besides, why should the printers have gone out of their way to wreak a corruptive vengeance on this particular scene? Scene ii. of Act III. is also corrupt in its text. But there we have /merely verbal omissions, due, beyond doubt, only to some .defect in the "copy." As for the phraseology, the mere comparison jjf the bombastic and extravagant language with the impressiy^_aiid dignified_authentic opening of the play^at the entrance of Macbeth and Banquo, iii. 38 sqq.., ought to be sufficient to convince any reader or hearer whose ear is not too indurated or elongated for the adequate comprehension of /Shakespeare's blank verse, that Shakespeare's hand never rested here. Are we to believe for one moment that the turgid bombast of lines 9-23, for example, immediately pre- ceded the absolutely perfect and splendid versification of the speeches of Macbeth and Banquo, and the latter'sin particular, in scene iii. ? —
" My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal."
If so, the first act, as we find it in the Folio, was begun by ''Shakespeare drunk and continued by Shakespeare sober. Can \it be believed that the mighty poet, at the height of his powers jand in the perfection of his dramatic workmanship, started this
xxiv MACBETH
vimmortal work with the "swelling bombast" and bloody ^imagery of scene ii,,^ and followed this up with the trivial, f ludicrous and dramatically impertinent " episode of the ("sailor's wife," only to cast them aside in the succeeding
polemn and impressive dialogue between Macbeth and Banquo and the weird sisters? The truth of the matter is that the interpolator, be he Middleton or Rowley or Wilkins, had formed no adequate idea of the great conception of the weird
'' sisters. The opening lines {i.e. 1-37) of scene iii., as they stand
1 in the Folio, are dragged in for the purpose of exploiting a
Ij" witch scene" and of displaying some of the usual powers attributed to " witches." Not that some of these lines are not admirable lines in themselves, e.g. lines 19-26. As Professor Herford (Introduction, p. 151) puts it, "verses otherwise
' stamped with genius jostle rudely with every canon of metre, and the magnificent and inexhaustible poetry forces its way through
rdaring anomalies of speech." Exactly; only the verses are not Shakespeare's and the anomalies are not Shakespeare's. It seems to be forgotten by some commentators that Middleton,
, or in fact almost any other Elizabethan dramatist, was quite capable of attaining to their level, and even of surpassing it. The nervous and incisive diction to be found, for instance, in the chief scenes of Middleton's Changelings will serve to uphold the justice of this opinion. The minglingjDf different metres too in this spurious part of scene iii. is not^in^hakespeare's ^ ( manner ; and having regard to the first entry of Macbeth and Banquo, some of the expressions and stage directjons are clumsily introduced. For example, line 30 mentions a drum. It is quite clear that, as Holinshed also states (" they went sporting by the way togither, without other companie save only themselves"), Macbeth and Banquo were, on their entry, journeying on horseback alone and unattended. They did not "Enter," as usual, "with drum and colours." (Compare V. V. init^. They simply " Enter." In the face of Forman's account it is idle to say that Shakespeare himself may have "^1 introduced the "drum." I doubt if he was responsible for any of the stage directions of the Folio, which would naturally be
iThe schoolboy epithet of " bluggj-," which has been applied to some recent romances of "slaughter grim and great," exactly expresses the reeking atmosphere of this scene.
INTRODUCTION xxv
left by him to the stage management ; and some of which no doubt were introduced subject to his advice. Again, line 37 speaks of "the charm." No "charm" was necessary here, and Shakespeare never intended any : the idea of a " charm " and the number "thrice" being transparently conveyed by the interpolator from IV. i. in the effort to give a touch of reality to a "witch scene."
As to II. iii. 1-22, commonly called "the Porter's scene," I see no valid reason for rejecting it. Coleridge's well-known criticism has not been generally accepted, and rightly so. He says : "This low soliloquy of the Porter and his few speeches afterwards I believe to have been written for the mob by some other hand, perhaps with Shakespeare's consent ; and that, finding it take, he with the remaining ink of a pen otherwise employed just interpolated the words ' I '11 devil-porter it . . . everlasting bonfire.' Of the rest, not one syllable has the ever-present being of Shakespeare." On this Professor Raleigh remarks {Shakespeare, 1907, p. 5): "This is the very ecstasy of criticism, and sends us back to the cool and manly utter- ances of Dryden, Johnson, and Pope with a heightened sense of the value of moderation and candour." The Clarendon editors consider this scene to have been interpolated by Middleton, and they think it to be "strangely out of place amidst the tragic horrors which surround it." But the porter undoubtedly belongs to the family of Shakespeare's "fools," though not j)erhaps to the highest class. It would seem as if the supreme playwright in h[m felt the vital necessity of some adequate relief from the awful tension of the murder scene, that he acted up to this necessity and composed the scene, hurriedly perhapsj and, whjlsJLCpncedjn^ something to the "groundlings," with a keen anxiety to get oa with the main action of the play7~ None the less too did the practical playwright in him feel the dramatic necessity of allowing time for Macbeth to retire, change his dress and recover hisj composure. The scene has been so adequately defended by' De Quincey in his famous essay On the Knocking at the Gate\ in Macbeth {Works, 1863, vol. xiii. p. 192), and also by Hales in his Notes and Essays on Shakespeare, 1884, that it is un- necessary and almost impossible to adduce any new argument in support of its authenticity.
xxvi MACBETH
It may be well, however, to remind the reader of the five points submitted by the latter essayist " as to whether the porter is not, after all, a genuine offspring of Shakespeare's art." (i) The porter's speech is an integral part of the play. (2) It is necessary as a relief to the surrounding horror. (3) It is necessary according to the law of contrast elsewhere obeyed. (4) The speech we have is dramatically relevant. (5) Its style and language are Shakespearian.
Act III. scene v. and Act iv. scene i. 39-43 and 125-132 are universally condemned as spurious, and justly so. It has already been mentioned that these scenes contain^tage direc- tions fo£jtwo songs which are found in The Witch and in Davenantjsj/ersion of 1674 ; they can be eliminated from the text without leaving the least trace of their presence ; and above all, they contain lines and sentiments utterly alien to and^ in- congruous witji die atmosphere of the two great scenes of the weird sisters (l. iii. and IV. i,)^ Shakespeare had no needXox the utterly superfluous character of Hecate in the working out of his simple conception of Macbeth's temptation and ultimate ruin by the instrumentality of the weird sisters. " The instru- ments of darkness " tell Macbeth truths in the third scene of Act I. only to betray him in deepest consequence in the great first scene of Act IV., and this is the whole scope and purport of the tragedy. What had " a wayward son, spiteful and wrath- ful " loving " for his own ends " to do with the brave general of Duncan? Why should Shakespeare's dignified sisters dance " like elves and fairies in a ring"? Again, if the "charm" were " firm and good " (1. 38), why should further enchantment be necessary? (1. 43). Why should Macbeth's "sprites" want " cheering up " by the performance of an " antic round " ? (1. 130). Finally, the iambic rhythm of these passages is not in accord with the trochaic movement of the remaining (and authentic) portions of Act IV. scene i.
I see no reason for suspecting, with the Clarendon editors, what is commonly called the "king's evil" scene, IV. iii. 140- I 59. The vocabulary, the style, and the rhythm are absolute Shakespeare ; and the inclusion of the passage is exactly what we should expect from the author of the magnificent compli- ment to Elizabeth in A Midsummer Night's Dream, in a drama like Macbeth, written, beyond doubt, for production at Court,
INTRODUCTION xxvii
and by a player of the King's company. 1 believe the passage was part of the original draft of the play, written specially for a Court representation, and if this were not so and it were afterwards added, then I believe it was added by Shakespeare himself
Nor is it necessary to suspect anything in Act v. I can- not find, as the Clarendon editors do, any " singular weak- ness" in V. V. 47-50, although perhaps Shakespeare himself might, on a revision, have struck out the lines. Nor do I find, as the same editors do, that the last forty lines^ of the play show a hand other than Shakespeare's. No reliance is to Be
/placed on the evidence of a stage direction; and the double A stage directions '' Exeunt fighting — Enter fighting, and Mac-
\beth slain" prove nothing more than that the stage arrange- \jments of this act, whether contemplated by the dramatist or
j not, may have been modified from time to time by stage
' managers before the printing of the Folio in 1623. In V. vii. 61, 62, the words "Before my body I throw my warlike shield " certainly do contain a suggestion of bombast, at least to modern ears, but I think not necessarily so to Elizabethans ; and the true explanation of their presence may be that which is suggested in the notes ad loc.
" Shakespeare," say the Clarendon editors, " who has inspired his audience with pity for Lady Macbeth, and made them feel that her guilt has been almost absolved by the
. terrible retribution which followed, would not have disturbed
/this feeling by calling her a 'fiend-like queen' (v. vii. 99);
/ nor would he have drawn away the veil which with his fine tact he had dropt over her fate by telling us that she had taken off her life by 'self and violent hands' (100). But surely Malcolm's conception of Lady Macbeth no more expresses the conception which Shakespeare intended to con- vey to his hearers than, for example, Roderigo's abuse of Othello as ' thick-lips ' {Othello, I. i. 66) conveys the concep- tion of Othello as a pure negro instead of an Arab or Mauretanian."
Such are the arguments in support of the theory of the interpolation of Shakespeare's work. Neither Heminge nor Condell, nor the promoters, nor, least of all, the printers of the Folio, would be concerned to interfere with or in any way
X.
xxviii MACBETH
to re-edit the MS. in 1623, or to question the authenticity of . any part as not being the work of Shakespeare. The MS. I would simply be set up as it stood ; and if so, and I submit \that it is quite impossible that it should be otherwise, then we jshall not be far wrong in assuming, in exact accordance with ?"orman's account, that the authentic play begins at I. iii. 38. The simple explanation of the introduction of the antecedent scenes of 118 lines would seem to be that after the play be- :ame popular, it was discovered that the " characters " of the ^ ^ Weird sisters might be exploited to more advantage for specta- cular purposes ; and that when the interpolator was entrusted by the King's company with the re-handling of the play his chief aim was to expand Shakespeare's weird sister scenes jJ^' ' " and to lower their tone to the comprehension of the grosser public appetite for spectacle and sensation. It was not diffi- cult for him to prefix the first 37 lines of scene iii. as it stands in the Folio ; but in doing so he destroyed the solemnity and umpressiveness of Shakespeare's own opening lines by the lintroduction of the ludicrous and impertinent episode of the "sailor" and his "wife." In order to work in another "witch scene," or rather, perhaps, to divide his introductory " witch scene " into two parts, the interpolator referred to the only ,authority, Holinshed (just as Shakespeare had done) ; and there, and in Shakespeare's own account by Ross and Angus, ^ he found enough material for the amplification of scene ii, jwhich he sandwiched in, so to speak, between scenes i. and iii. In exactly similar fashionht introduced another " witch scene" {viz. III. V.) before scene vi. of Act III., so as to lead up to the great cauldron scene of Act IV.; scene vi. necessarily coming between to separate them. It is a striking fact that the interpolator does not presume to interfere with any other part of the play — certainly not with the great scenes in which Macbeth and Lady Macbeth appear, or with the later scenes ^,^ of Act IV., or with Act v. His interpolations are introduced ^:^, solely with reference to the two scenes in zvhich the weird sisters ^appear.
This, I submit, is a clear and definite account of the inter- polator's probable method of procedure, and entirely substan- \ tiates the theory that Shakespeare's own play was not interfered V I with to any greater extent than was necessary for the immedi-
*^
INTRODUCTION xxix
ate purpose in hand, i.e. to render Macbeth a more spectacular- and therefore a more popular draw by the extension and amplification of the scenes originally allotted by Shakespeare j ^
to his weird sisters. This purpose was effected by the simple | -<^ expedient of prefixing a " witch scene " to each of the two ' ^ scenes in which (and in which only) the "weird sisters" ap- / pear. Even the hint for the dances of "the witches" in the J interpolated lines 39-47 and 125-132 of Act IV. scene i. is ob- tained from Shakespeare's own words, " Round about the cauldron go " (line 4). Shakespeare, I am convinced, never intended this " round " of his weird sisters to be anything but slow, dignified, and impressive ; the interpolator degraded it ' into the "antic" performance of " elves and fairies in a ring." Leaving textual matters for the moment the next important question relating to the play is the date of its composition. The date of the Folio imprint is, of course, no index to the date of composition or of first production on the stage. This is now almost universally assigned, and beyond doubt cor- rectly, to the year 1606. It is well known that Shakespeare's sole authority for the chief events of the tragedy was The Chronicles of English and Scottish History compiled by Raphael Holinshed, and first published in 1577. A second edition, which Shakespeare probably used, was published in 1587. Apart from this, the first actual reference in Shake- speare's own time to the subject appears to be an entry in the Stationers' Register, dated August 27, 1 596, of Thomas Millington being "likewyse fyned at ijs vjd for printinge of a ballad conVciAxyo. to order . . , Md. the ballad entituled The taming of a shrew. Also one other Ballad of Macdobeth." It is possible, therefore, that this entry may refer to an older interlude or drama of some kind on the subject of Macbeth ; but probably it was merely a kind of simple story or interlude accompanied by dances, perhaps in the manner of the interludes in Greene's King James the Fourth. The comedian Kempe, in his Nine dales Wonder, 1600, an account of his morris dance to Norwich (ed. Dyce, Camd. Soc, 1840, p. 21), has a some- what obscure reference to this " ballad " subject : " I met a proper vpright yovth, onely for a little stooping in the shoulders, all hart to the heele, a penny Poet, whose first mak- ing was the miserable stoln story of Macdoel or Macdobeth or
XXX MACBETH
Macsomewhat, for I am sure a Mac it was though I never had the maw to see it " ; and he proceeds to advise its author to " leave writing these beastly ballets, make not good wenches prophetesses for little or no profit." The expression " to see it" would seem to refer to a public representation of some kind, and the mention of "good wenches" as "prophetesses" to the weird sisters of the tragedy. But it was beyond question the accession of James I. in 1603 which directed the attention of the purveyors of stage plays to Scottish affairs. Farmer, in his Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare (3rd ed. p, 56, 1 789), was the first, I believe, to refer to King James's visit to Ox- ford in 1605, when he was met and addressed on his entry by three students of St. John's College, who alternately accosted him, reciting Latin verses evidently founded on the predictions of the weird sisters relating to Macbeth and Banquo, and thence to infer that Shakespeare may have got the hint for his play from that source.J Versions of this interlude are given (i) by Sir Isaac Wake, the diplomatist, in his Rex Platonicus (Oxford, 1607), a description in Latin of the king's entertain- ment at Oxford in 1605, referred to by Farmer in his Essay ; (2) in a MS. account of the visit in the Museum (MSS. Baker, 7044) ; and (3) in Anthony Nixon's Oxford Triumph, 40 1605.
It is quite within the bounds of probability that the news of this Oxford interlude should have reached the ears of the King's company, and that Shakespeare should have been induced to take up the subject of Macbeth for the theme of a tragedy. Malone reminds us that in July, 1606, the King of Denmark came to England on a visit to his sister Queen Anne, a visit which was the occasion of many court festivities, and that perhaps during this visit Macbeth was first exhibited. I think this is extremely probable, and that Shakespeare wrote the play under pressure of time and for a special court per- formance, availing himself of the opportunity of introducing his allusions to the Scottish king's descent from the latter's alleged ancestor Banquo, and also introducing what is usually termed the "king's evil" scene (IV. iii. 140-159).
Malone (see the Variorum of 1821, vol. ii. p. 407) also adduces various "notes of time," as he calls them, occurring in Act II. scene iii., which appear to him strongly to confirm the date 1606. {a) The expression " Here 's a farmer that hanged
INTRODUCTION xxxi
himself in the expectation of plenty" (1. 4) would seem to refer to the abundant harvest of that year, " The price of wheat," says Malone, referring to the audit books of Eton College, " was lower in that year than it was for thirteen years afterwards, being 33s. the quarter. In the preceding year (1605), as well as in the subsequent year (1607) it was 2s. a quarter dearer. In 1608 wheat was sold at Windsor market for 56s. 8d. a quarter; and in 1609 for 50s. In 1606 barley and malt were considerably cheaper than in the two years subsequent." {b) The expression in 1. 9, " Faith here 's an equivocator that could swear," etc., beyond question alludes to the doctrine of equivocation avowed by Henry Garnet, superior of the order of Jesuits in England on his trial for the gunpowder treason on the 28th of March, 1606, which must have attracted universal public attention, and to his " swearing on both the scales against either scale," i.e. directly contradict- ing himself on oath. Malone might also have referred to the later prophecies of the weird sisters in Act IV., which Macbeth in his desperation characterises (V. v. 43) as " the equivocation of the fiend That lies like truth " ; and also to the dialogue between Lady Macduff and her son (iv. ii. 46), "What is a traitor? . . . and must be hanged." (c) Again, the phrase " here 's an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose," in 1. 14, points, as Warburton remarked, to the fact that the French hose were then very short and strait, and that a tailor must be a master of his trade who could steal anything from them. French fashions were quickly adopted in England. Compare Hamlet, I. iii. 72 : " For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they" in France of the best rank and station," etc. — and the following passage in Anthony Nixon's Black Year, 1606, shows that this fashion had been then adopted : " Gentlemen this year shall be much wronged by their taylers, for their consciences are now much larger than ever they were, for where they were wont to steale but half a yard of brood cloth in making up a payre of breeches, now they do largely nicke their customers in the lace too, and take more than enough for the new fashions sake, besides their old ones." Further, the celebrated passage in IV. i. 121 : "That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry," as Warburton pointed out, was intended as a compliment to King James the
xxxii MACBETH
First, who first united the two islands and the three kingdoms under one head. See the note ad loc. cit. for the style and title assumed by James after October 24, 1604. The mention of an event of such importance would lose no point in 1606. The so-called "king's evil" scene, IV, iii. 140-159, is a direct and unabashed compliment to King James, and was beyond question written and inserted by Shakespeare himself, though it is merely excrescent on the action of the play. It is possible that Shakespeare, in speaking of " the succeeding royalty," may have remembered the passage in Camden's Remaines, 1605 (quoted by Chalmers), " that admirable gift hereditary to the anointed princes of this realm in curing the king's evil."
Such are the chief references antecedent to 1606 which have mainly induced critics and commentators to assign the composition of Macbeth to that year. But certafn references in subsequent years are also of importance in confirming that date.
William Warner (1558?- 1609) added an account of the Historie of Macbeth to the new edition of his Albion s England (first published in 1586) which appeared late in 1606. It is hardly possible to ascertain definitely whether this addition was made subsequently or previously to the appearance of Macbeth — I think it was subsequently because it is much more probable that Warner had seen the play than that Shakespeare had read the new edition — but in either event, the production oi Macbeth and the 1606 edition of Warner's work lie extremely close together.
In the comedy of The Puritaine ay The Widdow of Watling Sireete, 1607, in which Marston, and not Middleton, must have had no inconsiderable hand, amongst other parodies and imita- tions of this and other plays of Shakespeare, there is a clear reference, first pointed out by Farmer, in IV. iii. 89, to the ghost of Banquo, when Sir Godfrey Plus says of one of the characters. Corporal Oath, masquerading as a "corpes" in a coffin, " and in stead of a lester, weele ha the ghost ith white sheete sit at vpper end a' th Table." This is probably the earliest reference to Shakespeare's play after its production.
Malone also mentions certain other indications of date, vis. (i) the following lines in the Tragedy of Ccesar and Pom- pey, or CcBsar's Revenge, 1607 : —
INTRODUCTION xxxiii
'* Why, think you, lords, that 'tis ambition's spur That pricketh Caesar to these high attempts ? " —
as a probable imitation of Macbeth's soliloquy in I. vii. 25-27 ; and (2) two passages in the life of Antony in North's Plutarch, which he has introduced into Macbeth, viz. in I. iii. 84, and III. i. 55 ; [a) at p. 932 (ed. 1631) : " In the end they \i.e. the Roman soldiers in Parthia] were compelled to Hue of hearbs and roots, but they found few of them that men do commonly eate of, and were enforced to taft of them that were neuer eaten before: among the which, there was one that killed them, and made them out of their wits. For he that had once eaten of it, his memory went from him, and he knew no manner of thing, but onely bufied himfelf in digging and hurl- ing of ftones from one place to another " ; (^) at page 926 (ed. 1631): "With Antonius there was a Soothfayer or Aftronomer of ^Egypt, that could caft a figure, and iudge of mens natiuities, to tell them what fhould happen to them. He either to pleafe Cleopatra, or elfe for that he found it fo by his art, told Antonius plainly, that his fortune (which of it felfe was excellent good, and very great), was altogether blemiflied and obfcured by Ccesars fortune : and therefore he counfelled him vtterly to leaue his company and to get him as far from him as he could. For thy Demon, faid he, (that is to fay, the good angell and Spirit that keepeth thee) is afraid of his ; and being couragious and high when he is alone, becometh fearfull and timorous when he cometh neare vnto the other." From these passages it may with reason be inferred that Shakespeare was engaged in reading the life of Antony in North's Plutarch shortly before the composition of Macbeth.
Daniel seems to imitate Macbeth, I. v. 64, and III. ii. 27, in a passage in the 8th book of his Civil Wars, 1609 : —
" He draws a traverse 'twixt his grievances, Looks like the time ; his eye made not report Of what he felt within ; . . . Wore a clean face upon a cloudy heart.''
Next, we have the well-known and oft-quoted account by Dr. Simon Forman of the performance of Macbeth, witnessed by him at the Globe Theatre in April, 16 10. This was cer- tainly Shakespeare's play, as the points of similarity between it and this account of Forman's are too striking to leave room
xxxiv MACBETH
for any intelligible doubt on the matter. Forman was a quack physician of Lambeth who {inter alia) practised as an astrologer and fortune-teller, but eventually succeeded in ob- taining a licence to practise physic from Cambridge University, and died in 1611. He left, among other MSS., a record of certain plays which he had seen acted, styled The Booke of Plaies and Notes therof per formans for Common Pollicie, i.e. as affording useful lessons in the common affairs of life, now preserved in the Bodleian Library (Ashmolean MSS. 208). His account of Macbeth is as follows : —
" In Mackbeth at the glod [i.e. glob], i6jo, the 20 of Aprill, ther was to be obserued, firste, howe mackbeth and Bancko, 2 noble vaen of Scotland, Ridinge thorowe a wod, the[r] stode before them 3 women feiries or Nimphes, And saluted Mackbeth, sayinge 3 tyms vnto him, haille mackbeth, king of Codon ; for thou shalt be a kinge, but shall 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 king^j-, yet be no kinge. And so they departed & cam to the courte of Scotland to Dunkin king of Scot^j-, and yt was in the dais of Edward the Confessor. And Dunkin bad them both kindly wellcome. And made Mackbeth forth with Prince of Northumberland, and sent him hom to his own castell, and appointed mackbeth to prouid for him, for he wold Sup with him the next dai at night, & did soe. And macke- beth contrived to kull Dumkin, & thorowe the persuasion of his wife did that night Murder the kinge in his own Castell, beinge his gueste. And ther were many prodigies seen that night & the dai before. And when MackBeth had murdered the kinge, the blod on his hand^i" could not be washed of by any means, nor from his wiues hand^j, \whic]\ handled the bloddi daggers in hiding them, By which means they became both moch amazed and affronted, the murder being knowen, Dunkins 2 sonns fled, the on to England, the [other to] Walles, to saue them selues. They beinge fled, they were supposed guilty ot the murder of their father, which was nothinge so. Then was Mackbeth crowned kinge, and then he for feare of Banko, his old companion, that he should beget king^j- but be no kinge him selfe, he contriued the death of Banko, and caused him to be Murdred on the way as he Rode,
INTRODUCTION xxxv
The next night, being at supper wzth his noble men whom he had bid to a feaste to the w^;che also Bamco should haue com, he began to speake of Noble Banco, and to wish that he wer then And as he thus did, standing vp to drincke a Carouse to him, the ghoste of Banco came and sate down in his cheier be-hind him. And he turninge About to sit down A-gain sawe the goste of banco, which fronted him so, that he fell in-to a great passion of fear and fury, Vtteringe mamy [many] word^i- about his murder, by w>^/ch, when they hard that Banco was Murdred they Suspected Mackbet.
" Then MackDove fled to England to the king^j- sonn. And soe they Raised an Army, And cam into Scotland, and at dunston Anyse overthrue mackbet. In the meam [mean] tyme whille macdouee was in England, Mackbet slewe Mackdoues wife & children, and after in the battelle mackdoue slewe mackbet.
" Obserue Also howe Mackbet^j- quen did Rise in the night in her slepe, & walke and talked and confessed all, & the docter noted her wordes."
The year 1610 is therefore the extreme limit of date in which the play could possibly have been produced for the first time. The Clarendon editors are of opinion (Introduction to Macbeth, 1869, p. vii) that "in all probability it was then a new play, otherwise he [Forman] would scarcely have been at the pains to make an elaborate summary of its plot." But having regard to the facts already stated, and particularly to the above-mentioned reference to The Puritan, 1607, this opinion cannot be supported. It may, indeed, in 16 10 have been a comparatively new play, not yet witnessed by Forman, assuming that it was originally produced, as was almost cer- tainly the case, at a Court performance in 1606, and between that date and 1610 " neuer stal'd with the Stage, neuer clapper- clawd with the palmes of the vulger." (Compare the preface to Troilus and Cressida, 1609.) Besides, even if it had been pro- duced on the public stage long prior to 161 o, Forman, with every opportunity of seeing the play before that date, for many reasons may not have troubled to do so.
Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burni?ig Pestle, 161 1, V. i. 23-26, seems to contain another clear allusion to Banquo's ghost : —
xxxvi MACBETH
" When thou art at thy table with thy friends, Merry in heart, and filled with swelling wine, I '11 come in midst of all thy pride and mirth. Invisible to all men but thyself " ;
and Steevens points out Webster's imitation of Macbeth, V, i. in his Vittoria Corombona, 1612, V. i. : —
" Here's a white hand, Can blood so soon be washed ? "
The cumulative force of the above-mentioned references enables us with reasonable assurance to assign the composition of Macbeth to the year 1 606; and in all probability to the summer or early autumn of that year.
The evidence of style and versification points to the same conclusion. It is impossible within the limits of this Intro- duction to furnish any argument on the tests which are usually applied to determine the date of any particular play : it need only be stated that with regard to the four great tragedies which admittedly come near each other in point of time, Hamlet, Othello, Lear, and Macbeth, the chief tests usually applied, viz. (a) the speech-ending test, (b) the overflow test, and (t) the light and weak-ending test, entirely confirm the evidence from all other sources that Macbeth was the last com- posed of the four, and that the style is transitional between these and the latest plays, beginning with Antony and Cleo- patra.
As already remarked, Shakespeare's sole authority for the chief events of the tragedy was the well-known Chronicles of English and Scottish History compiled by Raphael Holinshed and first published in 1577. A second edition was published in 1587, with a more modernised text and containing addi- tional passages. This latter was probably the edition used by Shakespeare (see the Preface to Boswell-Stone's extracts). His narrative of Macbeth is taken from the twelfth book of the Scotorum Historiae o{ YiQCtor Boece (1465-1536), Principal of King's College, Aberdeen, a "history" which comprised much that is fabulous as well as historical, and much that is taken from Fordun, who flourished in the last quarter of the 14th century, and wrote a Chronica Gentis Scotoruni (see Skene's edition, 1871). Shakespeare did not find much to alter in Holinshed's story of Macbeth, but he did not treat it
INTRODUCTION xxxvii
as historical, nor does he restrict himself to following in con- tinuous fashion the narrative of the Chronicle, In particular, for the murder of Duncan he adopts in many of its details and incidents Holinshed's narrative of the murder of King Dufife by Donwald, who had conceived a hatred against the king, owing to the execution of some of Donwald's kinsmen for participation in sorcery against the king, and whose wife counselled him to the murder. In this part of the Chronicle also Shakespeare found warrant for Duncan's presence as a guest in Macbeth's castle ; Lady Macbeth's instigation of the murder ; the king's drunken chamberlains and their slaughter by Macbeth ; and the suspicions caused by his over-acted horror on the discovery of the crime. Shakespeare also prob- ably got the hint for Macbeth's remorse from still another part of the Chronicle, namely the story of King Kenneth III., who had secretly poisoned his nephew Malcolm. After the murder of Duncan and the flight of Malcolm and Donalbain, the Chronicler represents Macbeth as an able and vigorous ruler for the space of ten years out of the seventeen during which his I reign lasted; whilst he enacted many "wholesome laws and statutes." This, of course, dramatic exigencies forbade ^ Shakespeare to enter into. Holinshed goes on to narrate how Macbeth's guilty conscience urges him on to the murder of Banquo and his son. Nothing prospers with Macbeth after this murder; "every man began to doubt his own life." Macbeth causes the thanes of each shire to superintend the building of his new castle of Dunsinane, Macduff refuses to attend and resolves to go to England and invite Malcolm to claim the crown. Macduff's meeting with him is freely para- phrased by Shakespeare in the long scene iii. of Act iv. Fjip the digression commonly called the "king's evil" scene (IV. iii. 140-159) Shakespeare probably turned to Holinshed's \y^ first volume, the History of England, where an account of Edward the Confessor's miraculous gifts is to be found. Many of the succeeding passages illustrate the last act oi Macbeth, of course with the exception of the sleep-walking scene, which is wholly Shakespeare's invention. So, too, is the dialogue on the entry of Duncan into Macbeth's castle, the dagger scene, the Porter's scene, Macbeth's dialogue with the murderers, the banquet scene with its introduction of Banquo's ghost, the
xxxviii MACBETH
great incantation scene of Act IV., the conversation between Lady Macduff and her son, the wonderful speeches of Macbeth to the doctor, and to Seyton on the death of the queen during his last despairing stand against Malcolm and Macduff The extracts from the Chronicles bearing on the plot of Macbeth may be found reprinted in almost t.\Qry school edition of the play ; and there are many specific references to Holinshed to be found in the notes on particular passages of the play.
With regard to the construction and general characteristics of the tragedy, the construction is outlined with great boldness and simplicity. The first three acts are the natural outcome of Macbeth's first encounter with the weird sisters ; the last two are the like outcome of the second and chief meeting with them, viz. in the great incantation scene of Act IV. Thus the play naturally divides itself into two parts, each prefaced by an appearance of the weird sisters, (i) the temptation of Macbeth with the fatal "consequence" of the murders of Duncan and Banquo, (2) his confirmation in the "bloody bold and resolute " course which ends in his final doom. Hence the supreme importance of the supernatural element.
As in Hamlet, it is the fascination of the supernatural which explains in some measure the popularity of Macbeth, and raises the play to the height of dramatic sublimity. But this tragedy has in addition its own characteristics. It is much the shortest of the tragedies, as Hamlet is the longest. In its language we find those elements of compression, energy, rapi- dity, ruggedness, and even violence which are, speaking gener- ally, absent from Hamlet. The two great characters are drawn on an almost superhuman scale. What one critic has aptly called "the solemn majesty of the ghost," in Hajnlet, appearing in armour and standing silent in the moonlight at Elsinore is exchanged for the weird sisters, shapes of horror dimly seen in storm and tempest, or revealed by the glare of the cauldron fire in their dark cavern. It is exchanged for the ghastly ^ face of the " blood-boltered " Banquo, smiling on his murderer and pointing in triumph at his successor kings. The action V of the play is almost fiery in its speed, hurrying on through the five brief scenes of the first Act to the great crisis of the murder of Duncan at the beginning of Act II. ; then, with gathering force to the murder of Banquo in Act III. ; and only
INTRODUCTION xxxix
pausing at the peaceful Court of Edward the Confessor to return to the final scenes which seal the doom of Macbeth. As already remarked, the play is the shortest of the great tragedies ; but it does not give us any impression or feeling of brevity, but rather one of concentrated speed. As we peruse it or see it acted we almost feel as if the greyness of a Scottish moor and the mist and darkness of the Scottish atmosphere had settled down on the scenes. Most of these — at any rate most of the effective dramatic scenes — take place at night or in the dark. The fateful vision of the air-drawn dagger, the murder of Duncan, the murder of Banquo, the famous sleep- walking scene all take place at night. Lady Macbeth is fearful of the darkness and has light by her continually. When she speaks of the place of anticipated torment for her guilty and tortured soul, she uses the fearful expression, "Hell is murky." The weird sisters appear to Macbeth first in thunder and mist (I. iii.), and secondly in the gloom of a dark cavern (IV. i.). When the murder of Duncan is accomplished and the next day arrives, its light is " strangled " and darkness entombs the face of the earth. On the other hand, the darkness is not unrelieved. The play gives us also an impression of colour, but this is the colour of blood. The ideas and imagery of blood seem facing us continually. Putting aside the absurd episode of the "bleeding sergeant" and his gory romance of Macbeth's prowess in battle, we have Lady Macbeth praying the ill spirits to make thick her blood and stop up the access of remorse. We have the daggers of Duncan's unfortunate grooms " unmannerly breeched with gore " ; their faces smeared ; the skin of the murdered king "laced" with his blood; the murderer of Banquo appearing at the door of the banquet room with "blood upon his face"; we have Banquo the "blood- boltered " ; we have Macbeth gazing on his bloody hands and Lady Macbeth ceaselessly rubbing hers to escape the smell of blood. And finally, as an eminent critic has put it, the most horrible lines in the whole tragedy are those of her shuddering and tortured cry: "Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" It is, says Dr. Bradley, " as if the poet saw the whole story through an ensanguined misj:, and as if it stained the very blackness of the night." But the most potent agency in connection with the atmos-
xl MACBETH
phere of the tragedy is the influence of the weird sister scenes on the imagination, and I think Shakespeare so intended it. We have now to deal with his conception of the weird sisters, as the primary supernatural machinery of the tragedy. Shakespeare never throughout the whole course of the tragedy calls these, his beings of " metaphysical aid," by the term "witches."^ Throughout they are dignified, impressive, sexless beings, ministers of fate and the supernatural powers ; just as he read of them in Holinshed as "women," "sisters," "weird sisters" and "ye Goddesses of destinie or els some Nimphes or Feiries endewed [al. indued] with knowledge of prophesie by their Nicromanticall science": and just as Holinshed found them in Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, vi. i8. 17-26 {circ. 1424): —
He thowcht, quhile he wes swa sythand,
He sawe thre Wemen by gangend ;
And ]5ai Wemen J^an thowcht he
Thre Werd Systrys mast lyk to be.
J»e fyrst he hard say gangand by,
Lo yhondyr \^ Thayne of Crombawchty.
]?e tol^ir Woman sayd agayne,
Of Moraye yhondyre I se \z Thayne.
■jje )>ryd ]?an sayd, " I se ]?e Kyng."
Al \'\% he herd in hys dremyng.
Shakespeare's weird sisters are essentially and wholly distinct from Middleton's " witches " or those of any other contempo- rary dramatist. But for his dramatic purposes he thought fit to endow them with such external resemblance to the witches of vulgar imagination as to be readily appreciated by his theatrical audiences. The hint for this he also found in Holinshed. After the death of Banquo, Macbeth is warned by "certeine wizzards in whose words he put great confidence, (for that the prophesie had happened so right which the three faries or Weird Sisters had declared vnto him) how that he ought to take heed of Makdufife" (Hoi. II. Hist. Scot. 174). He becomes careless of compassing Macduff's death when "a certeine witch, whom hee had in great trust had told him that he should neuer be slaine with man born of anie woman, nor
^"Witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings" (ri. i. 51) ; and "black Hecate's summons" (ni. ii. 41) are merely references to night, and have nothing to do with the scheme of the tragedy.
INTRODUCTION xli
vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the castell of Dunsinane" {ibid.). Shakespeare utilised this hint to the full : but nevertheless it cannot be too strongly insisted on that his supernatural beings are not " witches." They are the " weird sisters " in I. v. 8 (Macbeth's letter) ; II. i. 20 ; III iv. 133; IV. i. 136; •' weird women " in III. i. 2; and "the sisters," simply, in III. i. 56, — all exactly as he found in Holinshed. It is quite immaterial that they may be or are called "witches," or are merely labelled with numbers in the stage directions of the Folio.
This may have been by Shakespeare's own direction, or it may not ; I think not : but in any case it does not affect his text. He therein describes the sisters as wild in their attire, of withered feature and unearthly appearance, bearded, and with chappy \i.e. wrinkled] fingers and skinny lips (I. iii. 40, 41, 44, 45, 46). They have power to vanish into the air (l. iii, 79 ; V. 5; IV. i. 133). They are prophetesses and can look into the future (l. iii. 59, 78) ; and have more in them than mortal knowledge (I. v. 2) ; they are the instruments of dark- ness (I. iii. 124); of fate and metaphysical \i.e. supernatural] aid (I. V. 29) ; and are thus able to raise apparitions — their " master spirits " (IV. i. 6-^) ; the spirits that know all mortal consequence (V. iii. 4); the fiends that lie like truth (v. v. 43); the juggling fiends (v. vii. 48). On the other hand Shake- speare bestows on them some of those characteristic powers and attributes of mortal " witches " which were part of the demon- ology of his time. They have as " familiars " the cat, the hedge- pig and the somewhat mysterious " Harpie " (IV. i. i, 2, 3). They raise a "charm" from ghastly ingredients in a cauldron (IV. i. passim) ; one of which is witches' mummy (which would seem to imply that mere earthly witches were creatures of a lower grade) ; they ride on the air (IV. i. 138); they can untie the winds, raise waves, lay corn, blow down trees and overturn castles and palaces (iv. i. 52-57). These may be assumed to be the attributes of the sisters as we find them in Shakespeare's authentic text. But the cauldron and its ingredients, no less than the bestowal of these witch-like powers and attributes, formed a necessary concession to the rising taste for melodra- matic and spectacular incidents : it was not in itself essential to the raising of the apparitions which lured Macbeth on to his
xlii MACBETH
doom — Shakespeare, in a word, to quote Professor Herford (Introduction to Macbeth, p. i6i), "has blended the character- istics of all three [the weird sisters, the wizards and the certain witch of Holinshed] in his weird-sister witches . . . who speak a language which admits the extremes of sublimity and gross- ness, of mystic suggestion and realistic detail, the wild ele- mental poetry of wind and storm, and the recondite lore of the foul and noisome potencies of matter. The hideous imagin- ings of popular and academic demonology, so busily promoted by the king, are drawn upon without reserve ; but we see them through an enchanted atmosphere." If, then, we realise that these supernatural agents of the tragedy are only " witches " in so far as Shakespeare has endowed them for his dramatic pur- poses with certain characteristics of the demonology of his time, and that the sovereign factor in his conception is that of ministers of fate and supernatural aid, and that hence they should be uniformly styled " weird sisters," as we find them in the play, and never "witches," we shall have nearly arrived at the true conception of these characters as Shakespeare drew them. They are not, as Fleay and other critics have supposed, allied to the Norns of Scandinavian mythology. Nor did Shakespeare, as Spalding, in h.\s Elizabethan Demonology-, 1880, has attempted to show, replace Holinshed's weird sisters or Goddesses of Destiny by the witches of common superstition, merely to endow them with command over the elements. They are creatures existing on a higher plane ; and, again to quote Herford, " in the elemental poetry of wind and storm."
Supernatural agency in Macbeth and its effect ©ii.lhe ultimate fate of Macbeth himself is not entirely confined to the weird sisters. The appearance of Banquo's ghost in Act III. has given rise to certain interesting discussions (i) as to whether two ghosts are seen, viz. that of Banquo and that of Duncan ; and (2) whether Banquo's ghost should be repre- sented bodily or be regarded as a mere hallucination on the part of Macbeth. '^'"■*- " —•-""" -
(i) Seymour in his Remarks, etc. (1805) appears to have been the first to think that two ghosts are seen, Duncan's first, and afterwards that of Banquo ; and chiefly on the ground that no new terror or "augmented perturbation" was
INTRODUCTION xliii
to be produced by the re-appearance of the same object in the same scene. Knight was strongly incHned to think that to make the ghost of Banquo return a second time at the mo- ment when Macbeth wishes for the presence of Banquo is not in the highest style of art. Hunter also inclined to the opinion of those who thought that the ghosts of both Duncan and Banquo appeared at the banquet. But the preponderance of fact and sound opinion is in favour of Banquo's ghost alone. Forman, as we have seen, speaks with no uncertain sound in his Book of Plays. "The next night, being at supper with his noble men whom he had bid to a feaste to the whiche also Bamco should have com. . . . the ghoste of Banco came and sate down in his cheier be-hind him. And he turninge A-bout to sit down Again sawe the goste of banco." For- man makes no mention of the ghost of Duncan. Collier thought that the opinion that the second ghost was that of Duncan and not that of Banquo was not founded on a correct interpretation of the text. Dyce {Remarks, p. 197) is em- phatic on the point : "It is certain," he says, " that the stage directions which are found in the early editions of plays were designed solely for the insti uction of the actors, not for the benefit of the readers ; and consequently, if Shakespeare had intended the ghost of Duncan to appear as well as the ghost of Banquo, he would no doubt have carefully distinguished them in the stage directions, and not have risked the possi- bility of the wrong ghost being sent on by the prompter. Secondly, it is certain that when Dr. Forman saw Macbeth acted at the Globe, the ghost of Duncan did not appear." And Grant White is equally emphatic : "That this first ghost is Banquo s is beyond a doubt ; and that the second is also his, seems almost equally clear from like considerations of Mac- beth's mental preoccupation with the recent murder, and the appearance of the ghost again upon a renewed bravadoing attempt to forestall suspicion by the complimentary mention of Banquo's name. To all which must be added Dr. Forman's testimony." I am not aware that the ghost of Duncan has ever been represented on the stage. (2) As to the actual repre- sentation of Banquo's ghost : we have already had Forman's evidence. No less emphatic is the stage direction of the Folio for what it is worth, ''Enter the ghost of Banquo and sits
xliv MACBETH
in Macbeth' s place'' The poet Campbell considered that the idea of omitting the ghost of Banquo " was a mere crotchet, and a pernicious departure from the ancient custom. There was no rationality in depriving the spectator of a sight of Banquo's ghost merely because the company at Macbeth's table are not supposed to see it. . . . The stage-spectre of a dagger would be ludicrous ; but not so is the stage-spectre of a man appearing to his murderer. Superstition sanctions the latter representation." Knight well remarks : " It is a piece of consummate art that Macbeth should see his own chair occupied by the vision of him whose presence he has just affected to desire." And Professor Wilson: "What could the audience have understood to be happening, without other direction of their thoughts than the terrified Macbeth's be- wildered words? He never mentions Banquo's name — and nobody then sitting there then knew that Banquo had been murdered. . . . Shakespeare and his audience had no difficulty ■ about one person's seeing what another does not — or one's not seeing, rather, that which another does ... no difficulty about the bodily representation of Thoughts — the inward by the outward." And the practice of all recent distinguished actors such as Macready, Booth, Phelps, Irving and Tree would seem to give countenance to the theory that Shake- speare intended the actual representation of Banquo's ghost. ^1'^ In this tragedy the supreme dramatic energy is concen- y^ trated upon the two great protagonists, who in their sublimity and importance dwarf all the other characters. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have this element of sublimity ; and both, in spite of the horrors for which they are responsible, inspire us with awe, and even to some extent with pity. Both have the same passion of ambition, and to that extent they are alike. Both are born to rule, and both are of proud and dominating temper. Their thoughts and aims are habitually of place and power — " solely of sovereign sway and masterdom," as Lady Macbeth puts it. Their ambition is not divided. They support and love one another, and they suffer together — almost to the end, even when they drift somewhat apart.
But the contrast between them, as drawn by the master dramatist, is almost as striking as the resemblance. When, for example, the murder of King Duncan is projected, it pro-
INTRODUCTION xlv
duces quite different effects on Macbeth and his wife. Then Lady Macbeth overshadows her husband, though afterwards she retires into the background, and Macbeth himself be- comes the leading figure in the drama.
In considering Macbeth's character, in the first place it is absolutely wrong to look upon him as a half-hearted cowardly criminal, just as it is equally wrong to consider Lady Macbeth as wholly an unsexed " fiend." A striking characteristic of Macbeth is his undoubted courage, — what man dares he dares, i.e. in regard to all manifest and open dangers. We imagine him as a great warrior, rough and masterful, a man who inspires fear and admiration. He is not of a noble nature, like Hamlet or Brutus or Othello, but he has a strong sense of honour and the value of a good name. By temperament he is, as above remarked, exceedingly ambitious, and this feature in him is greatly strengthened by the influence of his wife. There is in him besides a much more vivid peculiarity, and when we appreciate this, I believe we have the key to Shakespeare's conception of his character. He is bold, he is ambitious, he is a man of action, but he is also, within limits, a man of imagination. Through his vivid imagination he is kept in touch with supernatural impressions, and is liable to super- natural fears. His better nature incorporates itself in images which alarm and terrify instead of speaking to him in the language of moral ideas and commands. These promptings of his better self — his " better part " as Shakespeare himself perhaps would say — seem to Lady Macbeth the creations of nervous fear, and are sometimes, as Coleridge said, referred by Macbeth himself to the dread of vengeance or the restlessness f insecurity. As we see in his soliloquies, his consciousness
J dwells chiefly among considerations of outward success and ' failure, while his inner being is convulsed by conscience. Hence he is unable to understand himself, just as Lady ) Macbeth is unable to understand him ; and he is equally mis- |40'^-' *. [ understood by actors and critics who represent him as a cold- ' \>y«ui^V' ^^ \ blooded, calculating, pitiless coward who shrinks from crime aL <^^ \ because it is dangerous and suffers afterwards because he is v'^"
\ unsafe. In reality his courage is immense; he rushes from {-<*^^
Vcrime to crime, though his soul always conjures up shapes of terror and warns him that he is giving his " eternal jewel "
Ld
c
xlvi MACBETH
to the common enemy of man. Macbeth's imagination is excitable and intense, but it is narrow. It is not the noble and universal meditative imagination of Hamlet. The only things which stimulate his imagination are the thrills of sudden startling and supernatural fear. Manifest dangers leave him unmoved. What really appals him is the image of his own guilty heart or bloody deed, and by this he is wholly possessed. ^ Look at the "horrid image" of Duncan's murder which un- ^ fixes his mind, and causes his hair to stand on end. This "was not for fear of any consequences, nor because the deed was bloody. What holds him back is the hideous vileness of the deed as depicted by the power of his own imagination. Similarly, when the deed is done, he is mad with horror, but not the horror of detection. He has to be prompted to wash his hands, and get on his night-gown. What he thinks of is that he could not say " Amen," because his vivid imagination pictured his parched throat as the swift and immediate judg- ment of heaven on the crime. On the other hand, when his imagination is at rest, he is practical and self-controlled ; for example, when in Act III. scene i. he skilfully obtains from Ban quo the information necessary for the latter's murder.
After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth's character seems to harden, and we have no hope of his redemption. He is in blood stepped in too far. But the heart-sickness which comes f^om the perception of his crime is not his habitual state. This C appears from two considerations. The consciousness of his Jguilt is stronger than the consciousness of failure, and it keeps him in a perpetual agony of restlessness. He canfiot sleep. In the search for oblivion he must have ceaseless action. Next, his ambition, his love of power, are much too strong in him to permit him to resign the pride of place for which he has " put rancours in the vessel of his peace." As an eminent critic has said, "The will to live is mighty in him." The forces which impelled him to aim at the crown now re-assert themselves, and he faces the world, desperate, undaunted, never acknow- ledging defeat. He will see the whole universe in ruins first, and he challenges fate to do her worst. It is this frame of mind and soul which decides him on the murder of Banquo. The fear is the fear of Banquo and the promise of his kingdom to Banquo's issue. The dead man will not haunt him perhaps
('
INTRODUCTION xlvii
if the deed is done by other hands ; it is done, and all the horror of Duncan's murder returns in the banquet scene. But this horror has now less power, and Macbeth has more will. He faces the image of terror, and when it is gone, he is "a ttian again." His hardening conscience is now quite seared, he cannot turn back, and he himself goes to seek the weird sisters. He must beware Macduff, but he suspects no double meaning in their words, and he will not spare Macduff or any of his kin. Nothing but savage destruction will quiet his inward fever, and he proceeds to murder Mac- duffs innocent wife and children. He becomes an open tyrant, and his country sinks beneath his yoke. And yet he^, never quite loses some measure of our sympathy. This per- \ haps arises from our admiration of the sublime courage of the \ born soldier, with which, when cheated of his last hope, he faces earth and hell and heaven.
Just as the first half of Macbeth is greater and more in- '' tensely interesting than the second, so in that first half is Lady Macbeth the greatest and most commanding personality. In fact, she is the most awe-inspiring figure in the whole gallery , of Shakespeare's mighty creations. As we have already seen, ^ic ■she has many qualities in common with her husband; but she is sharply distinguished from him in the main by her inflexi- bility of will, which seems in her to dominate all morality, ~ -^ij^-y feeling and conscience alike. She links will to deed : there is I no line of demarcation between them. She immediately as- V~S-^ 'k isumes the direction of affairs when her victorious husband » \
returns, and impels him to the deed of murder by the sheer ^ force of her will and her over-mastering self-control. Con- V»^v
sequences, which have such meaning for Macbeth himself, -have none for her, and her undaunted courage sweeps him off his feet. She is to " bring forth men children only." Even after the horror of Duncan's murder, after the appearance of Banquo's ghost, her self-control is unimpaired. From beginning to end, although she makes slips in acting her part, as e.g. in not showing any natural feeling in her remark to Banquo after the discovery, " What, in our house ? " she never complains, she stands by her husband till the end, but never asks his help : she is self-sufficient, self-centred, self-controlled, like the great author of her creation himself She never by word or look
xlviii MACBETH
betrays her husband, even if she unconsciously says too much
in her sleep-walking scene. Yet even in the earlier part of the
tragedy, we can detect certain traces of feminine weakness and
human feeling which perhaps account for her final breakdown.
X Her over-mastering force of will was exerted to overcome not
) only her husband's reluctance, but also some inward resistance
Y; iri herself This is clear from her impatient utterance of the
famous lines : " Had he not resembled My father as he slept,
I 'd done it " ; and she had to nerve herself with wine in order
to produce the necessary courage to go through her part. In
the utterance of the dreadful lines " I have given suck . . .
had I so sworn as you have done to this" (l. vii. 54-59)) ^^^'^d
whilst we imagine her voice rising to the height of an hysterical
scream, as Mrs. Siddons is indeed reported to have given the
i passage, we can still detect the unconquerable will overpower-
' ing the weakness of the woman.
F~As compared with Macbeth she has little or no imagina- tion. At the most terrible crises of the action things remain for her exactly as they were. Her mind is merely realistic and matter of fact. For instance, the chance that the old king would sleep sound after his journey to Inverness for her is simply a fortunate circumstance, for Macbeth it is attended with thoughts of horror. The weird sisters do not strike her imagination in the least, except perhaps as factors in the execution of her fixed purpose in attaining to place and power. Sympathy in Nature with her purpose is not for her : unlike Macbeth, she would never think of bidding the solid earth not hear "her steps which way they walk." The noises in the castle before and during the murder for her are simple facts and are referred to their true sources. The knocking at the gate merely comes from the " south entry." The blood on Macbeth's hands merely suggests the sharp taunt that she " shames to wear a heart so white " : the blood is only a " filthy witness." Many well-known passages show her practical and matter-of-fact mind : none more so than the ghastly and realistic " Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him ? " It has been aptly remarked that it is this want of imagination which in the end is fatal to Lady Macbeth, because she does not foresee the inward consequences which at once reveal themselves in her husband, and afterwards
fU
INTRODUCTION xUx
in herself. Consequently her character develops on lines con- trary to those which we have followed in the character of Mac- beth. When the murder is done, the discovery of its hideousness, as she sees it in the faces of the guests, comes to her with the shock of a sudden disclosure, her woman's nature gives way, and begins to sag. Her " tenement of clay " is " o'er-informed." The first hint of this seems to be indicated f) by Shakespeare when she faints and is carried out. Incident- ally, I am of opinion that she is meant really to faint, though many authorities hold to the contrary. She never expected to take part in the gross reality of the murder, she never ex- pected to be obliged to carry back the daggers, to see the bloody corpse of the old king and to smear the faces of the grooms. But Macbeth's agony had alarmed her, and she was compelled to complete his unfinished task. She has gone through the ordeal of the discovery, she realises the horror and suspicion excited by the murder, which she had before refused to do ; and it seems perfectly natural that, being a woman, the inevitable reaction should come, and overtasked nature give way.
When later on we find her as queen, the pride of place has gone. She is utterly disillusioned and weary with want of sleep. She has thrown away all and gained nothing ; " the stem of her being seems to be cut through," as one eminent writer has put it.
Macbeth now steps into the foreground, and she retires. Her powerful will is still there, but it is only in the banquet scene that she makes any effort to exercise it ; in that grave emergency her strength and ascendancy return, as by a tour de force, to prevent Macbeth betraying himself, and she succeeds in turning him from this at least. But this is her final effort and she retires from the action. We only learn from her piti- ful words in the sleep-walking scene that she has even heard of the vilest crime of all, the slaughter of the innocent Lady Macdufifand her children. That pitiful cry, "The Thane of Fife had a wife, where is she now? " shows that Lady Macbeth is still a woman ; it shows that as a woman she can still feel for a murdered woman ; it is, as Professor Wilson has nobly put it, "a touch of nature from Shakespeare's profound and pitiful heart." Lady Macbeth is now alone in her misery,
fVC^
1 MxiCBETH
drifting apart from her husband, sinking slowly down to the inevitable end. She cannot bear darkness and she " has light by her continually." Her nature, not her unbending will, gives way ; and it quite accords with her character that her own hand cuts short the agony of her life.
From the banquet scene till the end we involuntarily think of her less as the instigator of murder than as a woman with \ much that is grand in her nature and much that is piteous. % Strange as the statement may appear, and it is no new idea, 0 C she is, according to her lights, a perfect wife. She gives her husband of her best. She admires him and thinks him a great man for whom the kingdom is the only proper sphere. She despises what she thinks is his weakness, but she never despises him. Her ambition, both for him and for herself, was fatal to him ; much more so than the prophecies of the weird sisters ; but even when she instigated him to murder, she believed that she was helping him to do what he only lacked the nerve to attempt.
MACBETH
Noblemen of Scotland.
DRAMATIS PERSONS
Duncan, King of Scotland. Malcolm, \ „. _
DONALBAIN,/^^^'^^'^^-
Macbeth, 1 , ^ , .,. , ,
Banquo, ] Generals of t lie King s Army.
Macduff, Lenox,
ROSSE,
Menteth,
Angus,
Cathness,
Fleance, Son to Banquo.
SiWARD, Earl of Nortiiumberland, General of the English Forces.
Young Siward, his Son.
Seyton, an Officer attending on Macbeth.
Boy, Son to Macduff.
An English Doctor.
A Scotch Doctor.
A Soldier.
A Porter.
An Old Man.
Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macduff.
Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth.
Hecate, and three Witches.
Lords, Gentkfnen, Officers, Soldiers, Afurderers, Attendants,
and Messengers.
The Ghost of Banquo, and other Apparitions.
Scene : In the end of the Fourth Act, in England ; through the rest of the play, in Scotland.
MACBETH
ACT I
SCENE I. — An open place. Thunder and lightning. Enter three WiTCHES.
1 Witch. When shall we three meet again,
In thunder, Hghtning, or in rain ?
2 Witch. When the hurlyburly 's done,
When the battle's lost and won.
I. again,^ againe ? F i ; again Hanmer. 2. or] and Hanmer, Capell.
Scene /. . . . Enter three Witches.] This scene is probably spurious. No dramatic interest or object is gained by its introduction. The dignity and im- pressiveness of the opening tragedy is fully secured by the sudden appearance of the weird sisters at i. iii. 39. The references to " Graymalkin " and " Pad- dock " are simply " conveyed " from the great scene, iv. i. ; and the oft-quoted line II, " Fair is foul, and foul is fair," merely reproduces and distorts the open- ing remark of Macbeth, i. iii. 38. See the Introduction hereon.
I. again,] There is little reason for changing, with Hanmer, the punctua- tion of the Folio. The idea of the pas- sage would seem to be, When shall we meet again ? When we do meet, shall it be in such disturbance of the elements as the present ? Hanmer also reads " and " for the or of the Folio in line 2, no doubt on the ground that there could not be a question as to which of the three the sisters should meet in ; but the point is of the smallest import- ance.
3. hurlyburly] uproar, tumult, con- fusion ; especially the tumult of sedition or insurrection. Cotgrave's French Dictionary (161 1) gives, " Grabuge : f.
A great coyle, Stirre, garboyle, ttir- moyle, hurly-burly.''' We find in Halle's Chronicle (1548), Henry VIIL, 231 a, " In this tyme of insurrection, and in the rage of horley barley.'' And in Golding's Ovid, ix. 510 (ed. Rouse, 1904), " and through this part all love of theyrs seditiously increast A hurly- burly " (of the gods). In the Variorum of 1821 Henderson quotes Henry PeachiLm's Garden of Eloquence, 1577: " Onomatopeia, when we invent, de- vise, fayne, and make a name intim- ating the sound of that it signifieth, as hurly burly for an uprore and tumultu- ous stirre." See the article in the Oxford Diet. The word occurs in Mar- lowe and Nashe'sDJefo, Queen of Carth- age, IV. i. 10 : —
" I think it was the devils' revelling
night, There was such hurly-burly in
the heavens." And Shakespeare himself uses it as an adjective in 1 Henry IV. v. i. 78 : " hurlyburly innovation." The simple " hurly " occurs in King John, iii. iv. 169, " Methinks I see the hurly all on foot"; and 2 Henry IV. in. i. 25, " that with the hurly death itself awakes."
4
MACBETH
[act I.
WtUh. That will be ere the set of sun. 5
Witch. Where the place?
Witch. Upon the heath.
Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.
Witch. I come, Graymalkin ! All. Paddock calls. — Anon ! —
Fair is foul, and foul is fair: lO
Hover through the fog and filthy air. {Exeunt.
SCENE II. — A camp near Fores.
Alarum within. Enter KiNG DuNCAN, MALCOLM, DONAL- BAIN, Lenox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain.
Dun. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state,
5. the\oxa. Pope. 7. to meet with Macbeth] I go to meet Macbeth Pope; to meet with great Macbeth Ca.peU. g-io. Paddock . . . /asK] two lines, Pope; one line, Ff. g, calls. — Anon! — ] Rowe and Capeli, substantially; calls anon : Ff.
ScE^rB II.
Duncan'] Capeli; King F i. Captaine] Ff ; Sergeant Camb. Edd.
f
8. Graymalkin /] or Grimalkin, a grey cat ; with the toad, a common witches' "familiar." Compare the " brinded cat " of iv. i. i. " Malkin " is a diminutive of Mary. " Upton ob- serves," says Steevens, " that to under- stand this passage we should suppose one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad."
9. Paddock] a toad. The Promp- torititn Parvulorum (ed. Way, 1843-65), p. 376, has " Paddok, toode, Bufo." The word is still found in provincial English. In Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft (ed. 1584), bk. i. ch. iv., we find " Some say they can keepe diuels and spirits in the likenesse of todes and cats." But Cotgrave's Diet, seems to regard the word as equivalent to grenouille, a frog, and not to crapand, a toad. And this appears to have been the usage in the North of England, at any rate. Furness, Jr., New Variorum Macbeth (ed. 2), quotes from Topsell, History of Serpents (1608, p. 187, 1658, p. 725), referring to the " Padock or crooked back Frog" — "It is not alto- gether mute, for in time of perrill . . .
they have a cr3'ing voyce, which I have often times prooved by experience."
10. Fair . . . fair :] Farmer pointed out the proverbial character of this phrase, and quoted Spenser's Faerie Queene, iv. viii. 32 : " Then faire grew foule, and foule grew faire in sight." Shakespeare had certainly read the Faerie Queene; and as he had used the phrase at the authentic opening of his play, viz. i. iii. 38, it was easy for the interpolator to "convey" it into the first scene. Marlowe has the expression in his Tamhurlaine, Part I. line 1917 (ed. Tucker Brooke, IQ09) : " Faire is too foule an epithite for thee."
Scene n.
This scene is most certainly spurious. The arguments for this view will be found in the Introduction.
The Folio in its stage-direction has " Enter King . . . meeting a bleeding Captaine — no doubt the " Sergeant " of line 3.
3. sergeant] Steevens says, " Holin- shed mentions, in his account (Hist. Scot. ii. 168 b, ed. Boswell-Stone, p. 19), of Makdowald's rebellion that the King
iK
V
w
,1^'
^
^\^
.vr
SC. II.]
MACBETH
Mai. This is the sergeant,
Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought 'Gainst my captivity. — Hail, brave friend ! Say to the king the knowledge of the broil, As thou didst leave it.
Cap. Doubtful it stood ;
As two spent swimmers, that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald (Worthy to be a rebel, for to that The multiplying villainies of nature Do swarm upon him) from the western isles Of Kernes and Gallowglasses is supplied ;
10
7. Doubtful] Doubtful long Pope ; Doubtfully Steevens {1793). 10. for
to that] for, to that, Capell. 13. Gallowglasses] Gallozti grosses F i.
sent a Sergeant at arms to bring up the chief offenders to answer the charges preferred against them, but the latter misused and slew the messenger. Shakespeare just caught the name from Holinshed, but disregarded the rest of the story." With the exception of the material fact that it is the interpolator — generally supposed to be Middleton — and not Shakespeare who is respon- sible for the " bleeding Sergeant," or "bleeding Captaine," Steevens is possibly correct.
3, 5, 7. If it were worth while trying to emend the imperfect metre, the con- jectures of Pope, Hanmer, Steevens, and Walker are perhaps as good as any.
5. my captivity] It is difficult to un- derstand what is meant by this, unless on the theory of a careless blunder of the interpolator of the scene. It may have been suggested by a reference in Holinshed (Hist. Scot. ii. 168, Boswell- Stone, p. 20) to Makdowald who "by meere force tooke their Captaine Mal- colme, and after the end of the battell smote off his head." But this is not King Duncan's son, and it refers to an earlier phase of the revolt. Case thinks it means " resisted (or helped to defeat) an attempt to take me prisoner."
6. broil] Compare 1 Henry IV. i. i. 3: "new broils"; and Othello, 1. iii. 87 : "feats of broil and battle."
7-23. This passage can only be char- acterised as a corrupt piece of bombast, Vthe metre of which it would be useless to attempt to improve.
7-9. Doubtful . . . art] We may
compare Kyd's Spanish Tragedie, i. ii. 63 (ed. Boas, igoi) : —
"In all this turmcyle three long houres and more, The victory to neither part in- clinde."
9. Macdonwald] Holinshed's form is Makdowald. See note to line 5 ajite.
13. Kernes and Gallowglasses] See Holinshed {Hist, Scot. ii. i6S, Boswell- Stone, p. 20). The " kern " was a light-armed Irish foot-soldier; one of the poorer class among the "wild Irish," from whom such soldiers were drawn. The word is also used in a collective sense as a troop or band of foot-soldiers : see Spenser's View of the State of Ireland, 1596 (ed. Collier, vol. V. p. 361), "with a terrible yell . . . which is the very image of the Irish hubbub, which their kerne use at their first encounter." "Gallowglasses" were Irish horsemen armed with very sharp axes. The Oxford Diet, de- fines the gallowglass as " one of a par- ticular class of soldiers or retainers formerly retained by Irish chiefs," and quotes State Papers Henry VIII. (c. 1515) ii. 5, "500 sperys, 500 gallow- glasseis, and 1000 kerne." Coke, Inst. iv. 358, defines " Gallowglasses, equites triarii qui securibus utuntur acutissimis. Kernes sunt pedites qui jaculis utuntur." Both words occur in 2 Henry VI, liv. ix. 26, "A puissant and a mighty power Of gallowglasses and stout kerns " ; " kerns " occurs in this play, i. ii. 30 and v. vii. 17 ; also in 2 Henry VI. iii. i. 310, 361, 367 ; and
6
MACBETH
[act I.
'V
v.^'
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show'd like a rebel's whore : but all 's too weak ; For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name), Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Which smok'd with bloody execution, Like valour's minion, carv'd out his passage, Till he fac'd the slave ; Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, And fix'd his head upon our battlements. Dun. O valiant cousin ! worthy gentleman !
14. quarrel] Hanmer (Warburton and Johnson); quarry Ff. 21. Which ne^er] (nev'r) F i; Who ne'er Pope; And ne'er Capell. 22. nave] nape
Hanmer (Warburton). chaps] Reed (1803) ; chops Ff.
20
Richard II, 11. i. 156. Richard Stani- hurst in his Introduction to Holinshed's Irish Historie (p. 45 a), speaking of the diverse degrees of the " reteiners " of the Irish nobles, says: "Of the third degree is the kerne, who is an ordinarie souldier, vsing for weapon his fword and target, and sometimes his peece, being commonHe so good markmen as they will come within a score of a great castell. Kerne fignifieth (as noble men of deepe judgement informed me) a fhower of hell, because they are taken for no better than for rakehels, or the diuels black gard, by reason of the ftinking fturre they keepe, wheresoeuer they be.
" The fourth degree is a gallowglasse, vsing a kind of pollax for his weapon. These men are commonlie weieward rather by profeffion than by nature, firm of countenance, tall of stature, big of lim, burlie of body, well and ftronglie timbered, cheeflie feeding on beefe, porke and butter."
14. quarrel] This, the emendation of Hanmer, inasmuch as it occurs in the corresponding passage in Holinshed, and is much more appropriate to the context, may be regarded as certain. But Thiselton, in support of " quarry," compares Midsummer Nighfs Dream, II. ii. 150 : " And you sat smiling at his cruel prey " ; and thinks that " it is merely an instance of the word denot- ing the result or object of an action coming to be used for the action it- self" ; and he explains it as meaning "carnage" {Notes and Queries, gth series, iii. 223 ; v. 62). He also thinks it is in keeping with the epithet " mer-
ciless " as applied to Macdonwald. The Clar. Edd. point out that Fairfax, in his translation of Tasso s Gerusa- lemtne Liberata, entitled Godfrey of Bulloigne, or Jerusalem Delivered, uses " quarry " [bk. xi. st. 28 ; bk. xviii. St. 58] as well as "quarrel" [bk. vii. St. 103 ; bk. XX. St. 65] for the square- headed bolt of a cross-bow. The Folio printers, therefore, may readily have printed quarrel as quarry,
21. shook hands] "As the text stands," say the Clar. Edd., "the mean- ing is, Macdonwald did not take leave of, nor bid farewell to his antagonist, till Macbeth had slain him " ; and for " shake hands " in this sense they com- pare Lyly's Euphues (ed. Arber, 75), " You haue made so large profer of your seruice, and so faire promises of lidelitye, that were I not ouer charie of mine honestie, you woulde inueigle me to shake hands with chastetie." But the text here is worthlessly corrupt, if not indeed carelessly composed in the first instance. See Introduction.
22. nave] navel, but not so used else- where. The words were probably con- fused in Elizabethan 1 English. See Massinger's Parliament of Love, 11. iii. : " His body be the navel to the wheel," etc. Hanmer's "nape" is quite un- convincing, and the bombast of the passage is probably a reminiscence of Marlowe and Nashe's Dido, Queen of Carthage, 11. i. 256 (quoted by Steevens) : —
" Then from the navell to the throat at once He ript old Priam." 24. cousin] Macbeth and King Dun-
sc. II.] MACBETH 7
Cap. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection, 25
Shipvvracking storms and direful thunders break, So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to come, Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark : No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd, Compell'd these skipping Kernes to trust their heels, 30 But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage. With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men, Began a fresh assault.
Dun. Dismay'd not this
Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo ?
Cap. 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 memorise another Golgotha,
26. Shipwracking] Ff. thunders break,] Pope ; thunders ; F i ; thunders breaking Yi 2-^, 28. Discomfort swells'] Discomforts well'd Johnson (Thirlby conj.) ; Discomfort wells Capell. 33, 34. Dismay'd . . . Banquo ?] verse in Pope; prose in Ff. 34. Macbeth] brave Macbeth Hanmer. 34, 35. Yes ;
. . . lion] so in Pope; two lines in Ff, viz. : Yes . . . Eagles and Or . . . Lyon 37. overcharg'd with] overcharg'd; with Theobald. 38. So </[«y] a separate line in Steevens and Camb. Edd. Begins 1. 39 in Ff.
can, it will be remembered, were both ous authentic passages in Shakespeare,
grandsons of King Malcolm. See note and in no one of these is if other than
on I. iv. 58 post. a dissyllable. The faulty line is only
26. break] Pope's emendation for on a par with others in this interpolated
the omitted word in the Folio seems to scene.
be commonly accepted, and is perhaps 37. overcharg'd ivith . . . cracks] This
as good as any which can be suggested, is indeed "an awkward phrase," as the
See the note on 1. vii. 25 post. Clar. Edd. remark, and we may be
31. surveying vantage] Compare quite certain that Shakespeare is not
Richard III. v. iii. 15 : " Let us survey the author of it.
the vantage of the field." The mean- 39. Doubly redoubled] With this
ing resembles that of "peruse " in such may be compared — in fact, I believe it
expressions as •' Out, some light horse- to be "conveyed" from — Richard II.
men, and peruse their wings " (J Henry i. iii. 80 : —
VI. IV. ii. 43). " And let thy blows doubly re-
33, 34. Duncan's speech is printed doubled, as prose in the Folio. The Clar. Edd. Fall like amazing thunder," etc. think that " the verse may be made But the phrase was common enough regular by pronouncing ' captains ' with the Elizabethans. Spenser, e.g., ' capi tains,' as in 3 Henry VI. iv. vii. has it in the Faerie Queeue, 11. vi. 30: 30: 'A wise stout captain, and soon "And doubling all his powers, re- persuaded.'" Possibly; but the line doubled every stroke." • in 3 Henry VI. is in all probability the 41. memorise . . . Golgotha] "mem- work of Greene and not of Shakespeare, orised" occurs only in Henry VIII. The word " captain " occurs in numer- ill. ii. 52, a scene which is probably
8
MACBETH
[act
I cannot tell —
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. Dun. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds :
They smack of honour both. — Go, get him surgeons. 45
l^Exit Captain, attended.
Enter ROSSE.
Who comes here? Mai. The worthy thane of Rosse.
Len. What a haste looks through his eyes !
So should he look that seems to speak things strange. Rosse. God save the king !
Dmi. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane ?
Rosse. From Fife, great king, 50
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
42. tell — ] Rowe ; tell : Ff. 46. Who] But who Pope ; Who is 't Steevens conji here ?] here now ? Keightley. Enter Rosse] . . . and Angus (after line 45) Ff ; (after strange in line 48) Dyce. 47-9. What . . . king .'] as in
Ff; in Hanmer two lines ending look king ! 47. a haste] F i ; haste Rowe.
48. seems] teems Johnson conj. ; comes Collier (ed. 2).
Fletcher's (or Massinger's) work; and
"Golgotha" only in Richard II. iv. i.
144. Middleton, the probable and
generally accepted interpolator of the
pseudo-Shakespearian scenes in Mac-
\beth, was working for the King's com-
/pany of players from 1613 to 1623 or
]so ; and, as Henry VIII. under the
■ title of All is True, was produced in
1613, he may have taken the word
from that play.
45. Enter Rosse] The stage-direction of the Folio adds and Angus, and I see no reason for leaving out Angus as many editors do, on the ground that Ross alone is addressed by Duncan. Donalbain is on tlie stage and he does not speak at all. It must be remem- bered (as Liddell, Macbeth, ad loc, well points out) that the stage-direction "Enter," etc., means, "begins to take part in the action, and not necessarily in the dialogue." The strong proba- bility is that the interpolator of this scene was careless and indifferent as to whether Angus was " superfluous " or not. Steevens says, " As Ross alone is addressed, or is mentioned, in this scene and as Duncan expresses himself in the singular number, as in line 49, Angus may be considered as a super- fluous character. Had his present appearance been designed, the King would naturally have taken some notice of him." As pointed out in the Intro-
duction, this is only another argument against the authenticity of the scene.
47. looks through] Compare iii. i. 127 post.
48. seems] There is no sufficient war-' rant for altering the Folio reading, though Johnson remarks : " Shake- speare undoubtedly said teems, i.e. like one big with something of importance." Probably the meaning is simply, " holds himself out," " puts himself forward," "is about to speak things strange," " whose appearance corresponds with the strangeness of his message." Compare i. v. 30 post; and 1 Henry
IV. in. ii. 162: "How now, good Blunt, thy looks are full of speed."
51. flout] mock. Compare Mid- summer Night's Dream, iii. ii. 327: " Why will you suffer her to flout me thus ? " Malone quotes King John,
V. i. 72 : " Mocking the air with col- ours idly spread " ; and explains : " The meaning seems to be, not that the Norwegian banners proudly insulted the sky ; but that, the standards being taken by Duncan's forces, and fixed in the ground, the colours idly flapped about, serving only to cool the con- querors, instead of being proudly dis- played by their former possessors." But "flout the sky," as the Clar. Edd. aptly remark, " seems better suited to the banners of a triumphant or defiant host."
sc. a.]
MACBETH
9
:1
And fan our people cold.
Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,
The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict ; 55
/ Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, ' Confronted him with self-comparisons.
Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm.
Curbing his lavish spirit : and, to conclude,
The victory fell on us ; — Dun. Great happiness ! 60
Rosse. That now
Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition ;
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch '
Ten thousand dollars to our general use. 65
58. point, rebellious ami] Ff; point rebellious, arm Theobald.
54. traitor^ According to Holinshed (ii. 171 a) " the thane of Cawdor " was " condemned at Fores of treason against the King committed " ; but Holinshed makes no mention of his having assisted the Norwegian invaders. The inter- polator here merely expanded the hint which he obtained from i. iii. iii-u6 post.
56. Bellona's bridegroom] Appar- ently Macbeth, as representing the god of war. But Shakespeare knew that " the fire-eyed maid of smoky war " (J Henry IV. iv. i. 114^ was not a bride. It is highly improoable that he co]^d have written this inconsistent passage. Chapman, in his fifth book of the Iliad, speaks of Bellona as the mate of Mars, not, perhaps, necessarily implying that she was his bride.
56. lapp'd in proof] i.e. clad in armour of proof — approved or tested. Compare Richard III. 11. i. 115 : —
" how he did lap me Even in his own garments."
57. Confronted . . . self-comparisons] that is, faced him with equal courage and skill; " gave him a Roland for his Oliver," as Craig says.
59. lavish] i.e. in insolence. Com- pare 2 Henry IV. iv. iv. 63 (the King speaking of the Prince) : —
" When rage and hot blood are his counsellors, When means and lavish manners meet together." 61. That ttow] A not infrequent con- struction with the dramatists. Com-
pare I. vii. 8, II. ii. 7, II. ii. 23, iv. iii. 6, 82 post.
62, Sweno] " The irregularity of the metre induces me," says Steevens, "to^ believe that Sweno was only a marginal^ reference, thrust into the text, and that the line originally read ' That now the Norways' king craves composition.' Could it have been necessary for Rosse to tell Duncan the name of his old enemy, the King of Norway ? " The ir- r regularity of metre,no less than the men- * tion of Sweno, is merely due to the haste and carelessness of the interpolator.
64. Saint Colme's inch] Steevens says, " Colmes' is here a dissyllable. Colmes'-ynch, now called Inchcomb, is a small island lying in the Frith of Edinburgh, with an Abbey upon it, dedicated to St. Columb, called by Camden Inch Cohn, or The Isle of Columba. Some e-ditors, without au- thority, read ' Saint Colmes'-kill Isle,' but very erroneously, for Colmes' Inch and Colm-Kill are two different islands, the former lying on the eastern coast, near the place where the Danes were defeated, the latter in the western seas, being the famous lona, one of the Hebrides." Compare Holinshed (Hts^ Scot. ii. 170 b, Boswell-Stone, p. 22) : " They that escaped and got once to their ships, obteined of Makbeth for a great summe of gold, that such of their friends as were slaine at this last bicker- ing, might be buried in saint Colmes Inch."
65. dollars] The Clar. Edd. remind
10
MACBETH
[act I.
Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our bosom interest. — Go, pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.
Rosse. I '11 see it done.
Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. 70
\_Exeunt.
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 mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd : " Give me," quoth I : — 5
" Aroint thee, witch ! " the rump-fed ronyon cries.
67. bosom interest] bosom trust Capell conj. Go] om. Capell conj.
Scene in.
5. Give .../;] so in Pope; a separate line in Ff. 6. Aroint thee,]
Aroynt thee, F i.
us that " a great anachronism is in- ) volved in the mention of dollars here. The dollar was first coined about 1518, in the Valley of St. Joachim, in Bo- hemia, whence its name, ' Joachim's- thaler ' ; ' thaler,' ' ' dollar.' " But Shakespeare is not responsible on this occasion.
Scene hi.
Scene in.] The initial thirty-seven lines of this scene are undoubtedly interpolated. See the Introduction.
2. Killing swine] Steevens quotes from A Detection of Damnable Driftes practized by Three witches etc, ar- raigned at Chehnisforde in Essex, 1579 : " Item, also she came on a tyme to the house of one Robert Lathburie . . . etc. who, dislyking her dealyng sent her home emptie ; but presently after her departure, his hogges fell sicke and died, to the number of twentie."
6. Aroint thee] Obviously taken by the interpolator of this part of scene iii. from King Lear, in. iv. 129 : " and aroint thee, witch, aroint thee " ; the only other passage where the word seems to occur. The Oxford Diet, states that the origin of the word is
unknown, though it has been the sub- ject of numerous conjectures. Ray, in his North Country Words, 1691, thus explains : " Ryntye, by your leave, stand handsomly"; as "'i?rn^ you, witch,' quoth Bessie Locket to her mother; Proverb: Cheshire." Thores- by, Letter to Ray, 1703 {Yorkshire Words), has " Ryndta, used to cows to make them give way and stand in their stalls." " This proverbial saying," re- marks Halliwell, Diet, of Archaic and Provincial Words, " positively con- nects rynt with aroint, and Wilbraham informs us that ' rynt thee ' is an ex- pression used by milkmaids to a cow when she has been milked, tb bid her get out of the way, which is more likely to be correct than Ray's explanation." I see no reason to doubt the validity of Halliwell's explanation. Douce, Illus- trations of Shakespeare (1807), vol. i. p. 371, (1839), p. 228, thinks that the word signifies away I run ! and that it is of Saxon origin : " the glossaries supply ryjie for running ; and in the old Icelandic, runka signifies to agitate, to move." The word may have some relation to the north-country and Scot- tish word runt, a term applied in con-
SC. III.]
MACBETH
11
Her husband 's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger But in a sieve I 'II thither sail, And like a rat without a tail ;
tempt to an old woman : " an old runt, vettila"; and "vetu\a, an old wotnan^' (Coles's Latin and English Dictionary, 1679).
6. rump-fedl According to Steevens this means "fed on offals," rumps having been formerly among the low perquisites of the kitchen, which were sold or given away to the poor. Com- pare "bean-fed," Midsummer Night's Dream, 11. i. 4;. Steevens quotes The Book of St. Albans (among the " proper terms used in kepyng of Haukes"), " The hauke tyreth upon rumps. '^ In Ben Jonson's Staple of News, 11. i., we find:—
"And then remember meat for my
two dogs ; Fat flaps of mutton, kidneys, rumps
of veal. Good plenteous scraps." And in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at Several Weapons, 11. iv. 35 : —
" To size your belly out with shoulder
fees, With kidnies, rumps, and cues of
single beer." Nares, Glossary, understands the ex- pression to mean "fat-bottomed; fed or fattened in the rump." " It is true," he says, " that fat- flaps, kidneys, rumps, and other scraps were among the lo-v^ perquisites of the kitchen ; . . . but in such an allusion there would have been little reason to prefer rumps; scrap- fed would be more natural, and kidney-fed, or flap-fed, equal. But fat-rumped conveys a picture of the person men- tioned which the others would not in any degree." Dyce in ihis Glossary mentions an ingenious explanation sug- gested to him. "Can rump-fed mean ' nut-fed ' ? The sailor's wife was eat- ing chestnuts. In Kilian's Dictionary is ' Rompe. Nux myristica vilior, cassa, inanis.' " The Clar. Edd. think it may mean, " Fed on the best joints, pam- pered " ; but if so, the sailor's wife would hardly be called a " ronyon." Our choice seems to lie between the explanations of Steevens and Nares, and having regard to the passages quoted from Jonson and Beaumont and Fletcher, that of Steevens seems far preferable.
6. ronyoti] a mangy, scabby creature. Cotgrave has " Rongneux, scabbie, mangie, scurvie." Compare Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. ii. 195 (Ford to FalstafT) : " You witch, you hag, you baggage, you polecat, you ronyon ! " ; and As You Like It, 11. ii. 8, " the rojw- ish clown."
7-10. Her husband's . . . Vll do] This passage must have been intended by the interpolator for an independent stanza; "Master o' the Tiger" con- stituting a separate line, and " Tiger " ^ forming a rude assonance with the last " I'll do " of line 11, emphasis be- ing laid on "I'll." "The Tiger" is the name of a ship in Twelfth Night, V. i. 65. Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. ii. pp. 247, 251, gives an account of a voyage by Ralph Fitch and others in a ship called The Tiger, to Tripoli, and thence by caravan to Aleppo, in 1583. In the Calendar of Domestic State Papers, 1547-1580, vol. 33, 53,gt^te 13th April, 1564, mention is made of the ship Tiger, apparently a Spanish vessel. Craig refers to Thomas Cates's account of Sir Francis Drake's Second Voyage (1585). " Master Christopher Carleil, the Lieutenant-General, Captain of the Tiger " (see Payne, Voyages of Eliza- bethan Seamen, p. 227). Londoners in all probability had seen a ship or ships of this name at Greenwich or Deptford.
8. sieve] Several quotations are given by Steevens in the Variorum of 1821 as to the powers of witches in this re- spect. The Greek proverb, eirl pnrovs TvKeiv, to go to sea in a sieve, stood for a hazardous or impossible enterprise. Furness, Jr., in his revised edition of the New Variorum Macbeth, quotes Dyer's Folk-Lore of Shakespeare, 1884, p. 34 : " The sieve, as a symbol of the clouds, has been regarded among all nations ot the Aryan stock as the mythical vehicle used by witches, and other elfish beings, in their excursions over land and sea."
9. tail] Steevens mentions it as the belief of the times, that though a witch could assume the form of any animal she pleased, the tail would still be wanting, and that the reason given by some old writers for such a deficiency
12
MACBETH
[act I.
I '11 do, I '11 do, and I '11 do.
2 Witch, I '11 give thee a wind. I Witch. Th' art kind.
3 Witch. And I another.
I Witch. I myself have all the other ; And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know r the shipman's card.
10
15
12. TA'ori] Ff ; r/»OM Vf Capell. 15. verylvariotis ]ohn%on con], ports] points Pope. 17. card] card to show Collier (ed. 2).
was, that though the hands and feet by an easy change might be converted into the four paws of a beast, there was still no part about a woman which corresponded with the length of tail common to almost all our four-footed creatures.
10. I'll do] "She threatens in the shape of a rat to gnaw through the hull of the Tiger and make her spring a leak " (Clar. Edd.). It may well be, however, as Paton in his Few Notes on Macbeth, 1877, ingeniously suggests, that the fiendish vindictiveness of the witch only extended to the destruction of the ship's rudder, so that she would be tossed about for ' nine times nine se'nnights,' and to the loss of her pilot's thumb (line 28 post).
11. a wind] There are many passages in the old writers illustrative of the sell- ing of winds by witches : e.g., see Giles Fletcher, The Russe Common- wealth, 1591 (quoted by Hunter), as to the Laplanders giving winds " good to their friends and contrary to others whom they mean to hurt, by tying ot certain knots upon a rope (somewhat like to the tale of Eolus his wind-bag)." See also Nashe, Terrors of the Night, 1594 (ed. Grosart, p. 241 ; ed. McKerrow, i- P- 359) • " Farre cheaper maye you buy a winde amongst them [witches] than you can buy wind or faire words in the Court. Three knots in a thred, or an odde [? olde] grandams blessing in the corner of a napkin, will carrie you all the world ouer." Also his Will Summers Last Will and Testa- ment, 1600 (ed. McKerrow, vol. iii. 11. 1219 1222) : —
" For, as in Ireland and in Den- mar ke both Witches for gold will sell a man a winde,
Which, in the corner of a napkin
wrapt, Shall blow him safe unto what coast he will." See also Drayton's Moon-Calf, 865 : — " She could sell winds to anyone that would Buy them for money." And also the note on " Lapland Sor- cerers " by the Editor in The Comedy of Errors, iv. iii. ir, present series, 1907, and the quotations from the other dramatists therein mentioned.
14. the other] i.e. the others. See Philippians ii. 3.
15. very . . . blow] i.e. the exact ports the winds blow upon — ^the verb without a preposition, as in Love's Labour's Lost, iv. iii. log : " Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow."
17. Shipman's card] " The mariner's compass. Probably the paper on which the points of the wind are marked " (Nares' Glossary). Compare Drayton, Barons Warres, iii. 15 : " Not now to learne his compasse by the carde." According to Hunter, New Illustrations of Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 167 (quoting Hakluyt's Virginia Richly Valued, 1609, and Sir H. Main- waring's Seaman's Dictionary, 1670) : " Not the card of the mariners' com- pass, but what we now call a chart." And Coles's Latin arid English Dic- tionary, 1679, gives : " A Sea-card, Sea- map, Charta marina, tabula hydro- graphica." Dyce quotes Sylvester's Dm Bartas, The Triumph of Faith, 1641 (p. 256) : —
"Sure, if my Card andiCompasse
doe not fail,
Ware neer the Port";
the original being " Mon Quadrant et
ma Carte marine." Malone's note on
Hamlet, v. i. 149, " we must speak by
SC. III.]
MACBETH
13
I '11 drain him dry as hay : Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid ; He shall live a man forbid. Weary sev'n-nights nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine : Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tost. Look what I have.
2 Witch. Show me, show me.
I Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wrack'd, as homeward he did come.
3 Witch. A drum ! a drum !
Macbeth doth come. All. The weird sisters, hand in hand,
20
25
[Drum within. 30
18. 7 7/] I will Pope ; He F i. 22. sev'n-nights'] Seii'nights Ff ; se'nnighis most mod. Edd. 29. wrack'd] wrack t Ff; wreck t Theobald (ed. 2). 32. weird] wey ward Ff; weird Theohald', w ey ar d Keightley.
the card," viz. "we must speak with the same precision and accuracy as is observed in marking the true distances of coasts, the heights, courses, etc., in a sea-chart," would seem to favour the meaning of sea-chart, and not that of compass. Probably the word had both meanings.
20. penthouse lict] metaphorically, of the eyelid, which slopes like the roof of a penthouse. The word is a corruption of the French appeniis, an appendage to a house. Malone quotes Dekker's GuPs Home Book (p. 79, ed. Grosart; p. 33, ed. McKerrow): " The two eyes are the glasse windowes at which light disperses itselfe into every roome, having goodly penthouses of haire to overshaddow them " ; and Drayton's David and Goliath, line 373:—
" His brows like two steep pent- houses hung down Over his eyelids."
21. forbid] " as under a curse, an in- terdiction " : Theobald.
23. dwindle] See Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, bk. xii. c. 16 : 'M charme teaching how to hurt whom you list with images of wax, etc.'" Waxen figures were stuck with needles or melted before a slow fire ; and as the figure wasted, so wasted the person in- tended to be harmed. See Richard III, III. iv. 70: —
" See how I am bewitch'd; behold mine arm Is, like a blasted sapling, withered up." It is possible the passage in Holinshed, p. 1496, describing the bewitchment ot King Duff, was used by the interpolator of this part of sc. iii., also Webster, Duchess of Malfi, iv. i. : —
" It wastes me more, Than were't my picture, fashion'd
out of wax. Stuck with a magical needle, and then buried," etc. 23. peak] with the same meaning, i.e. of becoming emaciated, occurs in Hamlet, 11. ii. 594. Craig quotes Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Good Htisbandrie (1573) : —
"And as poor silie henne, long
wanting cocke to guide.
Soon droopes and shortly then be-
ginnes to peak e aside."
32. weird] Apparently a form of the
Middle English "werd," meaning
fate, destiny. " The word is v^Titten
wayward [and weyard, iv. i. 136] in
the original to mark that it consists of
two syllables," feays Knight; see e.g. 11.
i. 20 ; and Grant White remarks on
this point, that it should be pronounced
wayrd and not weird, as it usually is.
"Wayward sisters," says Liddell, and
not "weird sisters," was the phrase by
which these creatures were known in
14
MACBETH
[act I.
Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about : Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make up nine. Peace ! — the charm 's wound up.
35
Enter MACBETH and Banquo.
Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Ban. How far is 't call'd to Fores ? — What are these, So wither'd and so wild in their attire. That look not like th' inhabitants o' the earth,
39. Fores\ Forts Pope; Soris Ff.
40
England in the seventeenth century : e.g. Th. Heyvvood, The Late Witches of Lancashire (1633): "You look like one of the Scottish wayward sisters." " It can scarcely be therefore a mere mistake for ' weird,' as Theobald and modern editors suppose. Such a term as ' wayward sisters,' the gloomy sis- ters, the grim sisters, presents a not uncommon association of ideas. . . . In view of these facts, and Shake- speare's use of the word as a dissyllable, the Folio spelling weyward and weyard is retained." But the simple answer to this is that to Shakespeare the sis- ters are as he found them in Holinshed, the iveird sisters, the sisters of destiny, the " thre Werd Systrys" of Wyn- toun, and nothing else.
35, 36. Thrice . . . nine] Odd num- bers, and especially multiples of three and nine, were affected by witches. Compare iv. i. 2 post. The Clar. Edd. instance Ovid. Metam. xiv. 58, and vii. 189-191, which are thus rendered by Shakespeare's favourite, Golding : — " And thrice nine times with witch- ing mouth fhe foftly mumbling,
reeds A charme right darke of vncouth
words " (ed. 1593, p. 167 ; ed. Rouse, 1904, 1. 65), '* The ftarres alonly faire and bright
did in the welken shine To which' fhe lifting up her handes
did thrife hir selfe encline : And thrife with water of the brooke
hir haire befprinkled shee : And gafping thrife fhe opte her
mouth " (ed. 1593, p. 81 ; ed. Rouse, 1904, 1. 254).
38. So foul . . . dayl We have at length reached the opening of the authentic text of Shakespeare. The expression "So foul, etc." simply means a day of changeable weather. Elwin, Shakespeare Restored, 1853, thinks it means " Foul with regard to^ the weather y and/a?> with reference to ) his victory " ; and Delius (who takes the hint) that it refers to the varying fortunes of the day of battle (" Schlachtengliick des Tages "), but these interpretations seem fanciful and are derived, as I suspect, from " the day of success," i. v. i. The line is un- doubtedly the source of the concluding"" lines of the interpolated first scene. See the Introduction hereon. —
39. Fores] The Folio "Soris" is a conspicuous example of the careless printing of this play, the compositor here probably working from dictation. Holinshed mentions the appearance of the weird sisters to Macbeth and Ban- quo as having taken place when they were on the road to join the king at Forres (Hist. Scot. ii. 1706) : " Shortlie after happened a ftrange and vncouth woonder, which afterward was the caufe of much trouble in the realme of Scotland, as ye shall after heare. It fortuned as Makbeth and Banquho iournied towards Fores, where-the king then laie, they went fporting by the waie togither without other companie, faue onelie themfe'ues, paffing thorough the woods and fields, when fuddenlie in the middeft of a laund, there met them three women in ftrange and wild apparell, refembling creatures of elder world. ..."
SC. III.]
MACBETH
15
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. Macb. Speak, if you can : — what are you ?
1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of Glamis !
2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor !
3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! that shalt be king hereafter. 50 Ban. Good Sir, why do you start, and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? — I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner
You greet with present grace, and great prediction
Of noble having, and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal : to me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time,
55
44
choppy] choppie F i ; chappy Collier. 57. rapt] Pope; wrapt Ff.
43. question ?] meaning, Are you tolerant of human questions and will- ing to answer ? Or, as Johnson thought, Are ye any beings with which man is permitted to hold converse, or of whom it is lawful to ask questions?
44. chuppy] i.e. wrinkled, full of chops : seems to have been spelt either "choppy" or "chappy." Compare Lucrece, 1452 : " Her cheeks with chaps and wrinkles were disguised " ; where some of the Quartos read chops. Cotgrave's Diet., 1611, has " Fendu : gaping, chappie."
46. beards] We are reminded of the Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. ii. 202 : " Evans. By yea and no, I think the 'oman is a witch indeed. I like not when a 'oman has a great peard."
48. Glcimis] The Scottish pronuncia- tion is monosyllabic, but to Shakespeare the word was undoubtedly a dissyllable, as appears from i. v. 15, 54, 11. ii. 41, and III. i. i. Steevens says, " the thaneship of Glamis was the ancient inheritance of Macbeth's family. The castle where they lived is still standing, and was lately the magnificent resid- ence of the Earl of Strathmore. See a particular description of it in Gray's letter to Dr. Wharton dated from G I antes Castle."
53. fantastical] imaginary, creatures
of phantasy. Shakespeare no doubt got the word from HoHnshed, 1706 : " Here- with the aforefaid women vanifhed im- mediatUe out of their fight. This was reputed at the firft but some vaine fantafticall illufion by Makbeth and Banquho." Craig compares Reginald Scot, Discoverie of Witchcraft, iii. 19, " For as Augustine and Isidore sale . . . these prestigious things which are wrought by witches are fantasticall."
55. present grace] Hunter says, " There is here a skilful reference to the thrice repeated ' Hail ' of the witches. ' Thane of Glamis ' he was ; that is the ' present grace ' ; but- Thane of Cawdor ' was only predicted ; this is the ' noble having ' ; the prospect of royalty is only ' hope,' ' of royal hope.' "
56. having] " That is, estate, posses- sion, fortune" (Steevens). Compare Twelfth Night, iii. iv. 379 : " My hav- ing is not much " ; and Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. ii. 73 : " The gentleman is of no having."
57. rapt] " That is, extra se raptus " (Steevens). Compare 142 post. The Clar. Edd. point out that the first Folio is by no means consistent in the spelling of this word. For instance, in Timon, I. i. 21, it has "rapt"; but, without doubt, the inconsistency was due to confusion.
16 MACBETH [act i.
And say which grain will grow, and which will not, Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear, 60
Your favours nor your hate.
1 Witck. Hail!
2 Wz'Uk Hail !
3 WiUk 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 ! Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. TO
By Sinel's death, I know, I am thane of Glamis ; .
But how of Cawdor ? the thane of Cawdor lives^^M. »:»^'.*- 1^-"
A prosperous gentleman ; and to be king u'ij "''• ^"^y
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence 7 5
You owe this strange intelligence ? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting ? — Speak, 1 charge you.
[ Witches vanish. Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has.
And these are of them. — Whither are they vanish'd ? 80 Macb. Into the air ; and what seem'd corporal, melted
As breath into the wind. — 'Would they had stay'd !
71. SineVs\ Finleg's Ritson conj. 78. With . . . yoii\ so in Pope; two lines Ff. 8i, 82. Into . . . stayed l'\ so in Capell; three lines ending respec- tively cor/o^a//, winde. stayed. Ff.
68, 69. So all . . . hail /] These had issue one Makbeth a valiant Gentle- lines should be assigned to all the man." Holinshed's form must have Weird Sisters, and not to the " Third been a mistake for, or a corruption of, Witch " and " First Witch." The Fynell or Finel.
change in the order of names was no 72, 73. the thane . . . gentleman']
doubt intended to avoid any show of This part of Macbeth's speech, as well
preference. We may compare Haw /ic^ as lines 112 5^^., is quite inconsistent
n. ii. 23, 24, where the King says: with the statement in i. ii. 54, 55. This
" Thanks, Rosencrantz and gi.ntle touches the question of interpolation
Guildenstern " ; and the Queen follows which is discussed in the Introduction,
him with " Thanks, Guildenstern and y^. prospect of belief] r^nge oi belief.
gentle Rosencrantz." Compare Twelfth Night, in. iv. 90:
71. Snze/'i] Shakespeare got the name "the full prospect of my hopes."
from Holinshed, 1686: "After Mai- 76. owe] own, as often in Shake-
colme fucceeded his Nephew Duncane, speare.
the Sonne of his doughter Beatrice : for 81. corporal] corporeal, a form
Malcolme had two daughters, ye one which Sfiakespeare never uses, but
which was this Beatrice . . . Tht other, "corporal " very frequently. Similarly,
called Doada, was maried viito Synell in Hamlet, in. iv. 118, we have "the
\he Thane of Glammis, by whom she incorporal air."
SC. III.]
MACBETH
17
Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about,
Or have we eaten on the insane root,
That takes the reason prisoner ? 85
Macb. Your children shall be kings.
Ban. You shall be king.
Macb. And thane of Cawdor too ; went it not so ? Ban. To the selfsame tune, and words. Who 's here?
Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.
Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth,
The news of thy success ; and when he reads 90
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
88. Who 'j] But who is Hanmer. rebels Johnson.
84. on] Frequent in Shakespeare. Compare v. i. 6i ; Julius Ccesar, i. ii. 71 : " And not be jealous on me " ; and Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. i. 266: " More fond on her than she upon her love."
84. the insane root] i.e. which produces insanity. It is not easy to discover what plant Shakespeare hdd in mind, whether hemlock or henbane, or the deadly nightshade. Steevens thinks that Shakespeare alludes to the qualities anciently ascribed to hemlock, and he quotes Greene's Never Too Late, c. 1590 [ed. Grosart, p. 195], "you have eaten of the roots of hemlock, that makes men's eyes conceit unseen ob- jects " ; also Jonson's Sejanus [iii. ii.]:-
" They lay that hold upon thy senses.
As thou hadst snuft up hemlock." Compare the " root of hemlock," iv. i. 25 post. Malone remarks that in Plu- tarch's Life of Antony (North's trans- lation, which Shakespeare " must have diligently read ") the Roman soldiers are said to have been " enforced," through want of provisions, in the Parthian War, " to tast of rootes that were never eaten before; among the which there was one that killed them, and made them out of their wits. For he that had once eaten of it, his memory e went from him, and he knew no manner of thing, but only busied himself in digging and hurling of stones from one place to another," etc. (ed. 1595, p. 990; ed. 1631, p. 932). Douce Illust. (1807, i. 372; 1839, p. 229) quotes Batman Vppon Bartholome; De
2
91. rebels'] Theobald (ed. 2) ; rebels Ff ;
propri etatihus rerum, xvii. c. 87 : "Henbane . . . is called /wsana, mad, for the use thereof is perillous, for if it be eate or dronke, it breedeth madnesse, or slow lykenesse of sleepe. Therefore this hearb is called commonly Miri- lidium, for it taketh away wit and reason." The Clar. Edd. (Preface, p. xxiv) think that " the juyce of Mekil- wort beries " referred to by Holinshed, Hist. Scot. ii. ijoa, and which Hector Boece calls Solatrum amentiale, that is, deadly nightshade, of which Gerarde in his Herball writes : " This kinde of Nightshade causeth sleepe, troubleth the minde, bringeth madnes if a fewe of the berries be inwardly taken," may be the insane root; and either this or the passage in Plutarch is what Shake- speare had in mind. Nor would he be unmindful of Golding's Ovid, xv. 350 (ed. Rouse, 1904) : —
" Or of the lake of Aethyop, which if a man doo drink
He eyther ronneth mad, or else with woondrous drouzinesse
Forgoeth quyght his memorie." 88. Enter Rosse] French, Shakespear- eana Genealogica, 1869, p. 293, says: " This title really belonged to Macbeth, who, long before the action of the play begins, was Thane, or more properly, Maormor of Ross, by the death of his father, Finley." The " Mormaor " (which is the correct form) in ancient Scotland was the high steward of a province, "riki," or district; and the title of earl was substituted for it when feudalism made its way across the border.
91. rcbels']l!hQ reading r^ie/'s would
18 MACBETH [act i.
His wonders and his praises do contend,
Which should be thine, or his. Silenc'd with that,
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 hail,
Came post with post ; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence.
And pour'd them down before him.
Ano; We are sent, 100
To give thee from our royal master thanks ; Only to herald thee into his sight. Not pay thee.
Rosse. 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.
Ban. What ! can the devil speak true ?
Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives : why do you dress me In borrow'd robes ?
97, 98. hail Came] Rowe; tale Can Ff ; tale, Came Steevens (Johnson conj.) 102, 103. Only . . . pay thee] one line, Singer. io8, 109. zvhy . . . robes?] ac\\n Capell; one line Ff.
refer to Macbeth's personal encounter tained the Folio " tale," and explained,
with "the merciless Macdonwald" in " posts arrived as fast as they could be
scene ii., which Shakespeare certainly counted." But as Dyce shows, no such
did not write. expression as " thick as tale " is ever
92, 93. His wonders . . . or his] employed by any writer, whilst " thick Halliwell thus explains: "the King's ashair'isofthecommonestoccurrtnce, wonder and commendation of jour and he instances, amongst other pas- deeds are so nearly balanced, they con- sages from writers of the time, Dray- tend whether the latter should be pro- ton's Battaile of Agincourt, ed. 1627, minently thine, or the wonder remain p. 20: "Out of the towne came quarries with him to the exclusion of any other [bolts] thick ashaile " ; and Harington's thought." The Clar. Edd. explain, Orlando Furioso, xv'u 51 (i^gi) : "The " 1 here is a conflict in the King's mind English archers shoot as thick as between his astonishment at the haile."
achievement and his admiration of the 98. Came] " Ran," the conjecture of
achiever; he knows not how sufificiently Delius, is adopted by Liddell, who says,
to express his own wonder and to praise " ' run ' is common in connection with
Macbeth, so that he is reduced to sil- ' post,' messenger, and involves only
ence." And Liddell : " Contend which one misprint, while 'came' involves
should take the form of praise due to three."
Macbeth's prowess, and which should 104. earnest] Cotgrave's Diet, has
take the form of wonder affecting Dun- " Arres. Earneft; many giuen for the con-
can at Macbeth's miraculous escape elusion, or striking vp, of a bargaine.'^
from danger." 106. addition] "a Title given to a
93. that] " the mental conflict just Man over and above his Christian and described" (Clar. Edd.). Sirname, shewing his Estate, Degree,
97. thick as hail] Rowe's emendation Mystery, Trade, Place of dwelling, etc." is generally accepted. Johnson re- (Blount, Law Diet. (1670)).
sc. III.] MACBETH 19
Ang. 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 wrack, I know not ;
But treasons capital, confess'd and prov'd, 1 1 5
Have overthrown him.
Macb. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor :
The greatest is behind. — Thanks for your pains. — Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me Promis'd no less to them ? o^^
Ban. That, trusted home, lti>^i20 '
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange : And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, 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.
Macb. [Aside] Two truths are told,
/ As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme. — I thank you, gentlemen. — [Aside.'] This supernatural soliciting 1 30
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 :
111-114. Whether . . . know not;] so in Malone; five lines in Ff, ending respectively loose. Norway, helpe, laboured not : iii. Whether] Whe^r Malone. 114. wmc^JFf, Craig; Ml /-^jf A Theobald (ed. 2). 131, 132. if ill, . . . success,] so Rowe ; If ill ? and one line Ff.
111. H^Aic/t ... cowjfeJH'rf] The scan- de cuve: thoroughly, fully, largely, sion of this line is difficult. " Whether " home." In this sense in many passages is of course monosyllabic, as frequently in Shakespeare. E.g. see Cymbeline, in the plays, and "combined" maybe in. v. 92: —
accented on the first syllable, though it " Satisfy me home
is not so found. What is become of her."
111-114. Whether . . . tiot] Note the 121. enkindle] arouse, fire, stimulate,
discrepancy between this and what has But Coleridge — rather fancifully per-
been said of Cawdor in the interpolated haps — remarks : " I doubt whether this
second scene. See Introduction. has not another sense than that of
112. line] fall into line with, streng- stimulating ; I mean of kind and kin, then. Compare 1 Henry IV. u. iii. 87 : as when rabbits are said to kindle."
♦' to line his enterprise " ; and Hetiry V. 128. the swelling act] Steevens com-
II. iv. 7: "to line and new repair our pares " the swelling act " of Henry V.
towns of war," etc. Prologue, 4. 120. home] Cotgrave has " A fonds
20
MACBETH
[act I.
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, 135
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature ? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man, that function 140
Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is,'
But what is not. Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt.
Macb. [Aside.] If chance_will_have me_jdiig, why, chance may crown me, — -
Without jny stir. Ban. New honours come upon him,
135. hair] Rowe; Heire F i. 139. 7nHrder] Steevens (1778); Murther Ff. 140-142. Shakes . . . «oi] so in Pope; three lines Ff, ending respectively wan, surmise, not. 143. If . . . crown me,'] so Rowe; two lines Ff. 144, 145. honours . . . him, . . . garments,] Honors come vpon htm Like our strange Gar- ments,Fi; honours, come upon him, Like . . . garments Theoh!dd; hoHOurs cotne upon him Like . garments ; Capell.
137. fears] objects of fear. Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, v. i. 21 : "Or in the night, imagining some fear^'; 2 Henry IV. iv. v. 196: — "All these hold fears Thou see'st with peril I have an- swered."
139. whose . . .fantastical] in which murder is still in the realm of imagina- tion.
140. single state of man] Steevens observes that " double and single anciently signified strong and weak, when applied to liquors and to other ob- jects. In this sense the former would be employed by lago in Othello, 1. ii. 14 : —
" a voice potential As double as the Duke's." And the jlatter by the Chief Justice, addressing Falstaff, in 2 Henry IV. 1. ii. 207 : " Is not your witsingle ? " The "single state " of Macbeth may there- fore mean his weak and debile state of mind. The Clar. Edd. remark : " Man is compared to a kingdom or state which may be described as ' single ' when all faculties are at one, or act in unison, undisturbed by conflicting emo- tions." Compare i. vi. 16 ; and, for the affinity of sentiment, the celebrated passage in JnHus Ccesar, 11. i. 63-69 : — "Between the acting of a dreadful thing . . , and the state of man Like to a little kingdom," etc.
Also King john, iv. ii. 246: "This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath."
140. function] The intellectual activ- ity which is revealed in outward con- duct : but the word is applied to action in general, whether physical or mental. Compare Hamlet, 11. ii. 582 : —
" A broken voice and his whole/M«c- tion suiting With forms to his conceit." " All powers of action are oppressed and crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no percep- tion, being intent wholly on that which has no existence " (Johnson).
142. 7wt] Steevens compares a senti- ment somewhat like this in Merchant of Venice, in. ii. 184, and in Richard II. II. ii. 23: "So surely," says Coleridge, " is the guilt in its germ anterior to the supposed cause and immediate tempta- tion ! Before he can cool, the confirma- tion of the tempting half of the prophecy arrives, and the concatenating tendency of the imagination is fostered by the coincidence. . . . Every word of his soliloquy shows the early birth-date of his guilt."
142. rapt] See line 57 ante. 144. come] Probably the participle, not the finite verb.
sc. IV.] MACBETH (^j>
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould, 145 But with the aid of use.
Macb, [Aside.] Come what come may, >'
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. f
Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
Macb. Give me your favour : my dull brain was wrought
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains 150 Are register'd where every day I turn I
The leaf to read them. — Let us toward the king. — Think upon what hath chanc'd ; and at more time, The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other.
Ban. Very gladly. 1 5 5
Macb. Till then, enough. — Come, friends. [Exeunt.
SCENE IV. — Fores. A room in the palace.
Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, Lenox,
and Attendants.
Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet return'd ?
146. {Aside.'\ Hanmer ; om. Ff. 149-153. Give . . . time,] so in Pope; seven lines Ff, ending respectively favour forgotten registred, leafe, them vpon time, 154. The] /' th'' Steevens conj. ; In the Keightley. Interim] in italics F I. 156. Till . . . friends] so Pope ; two lines Ff.
Scene iv. I. Is . . . not] so Capell; Is , . . Cawdor.^ one line Ff. Are] Ff 2, 3, 4; Or F I.
147. Time and the hour] Dyce in his personified ; it Is represented as a cool Few Notes, etc. 1853, p. 119, remarks: impartial judge; asfhe panser Reason.'" " This expression is not infrequent in Malone believes it is used adverbially. Italian : ' Ma perch' e' fugge il tempo e The word is here printed in the Folio cosi Vara, La nostra storia ci convien with a capital letter and in italics, as seguire ' (Pulci, Morgante Maggiore, c. in Julius Cctsar, 11. i. 64 ; the Folio XV.). ' Ferminsi in un momento il tempo printers doubtless considering it an im- e I' ore' (Michelagnolo, Sonit. xix.)." portant word, or perhaps finding it so Grant White, Words and their Uses, written in the original MS. or stage 1871, p. 237, says: "Time and the copy. In many of the other passages hour in this passage is merely an equiva- (about eleven) in which the word occurs, lent of time and tide — the time and tide it is not so printed.
that wait for no man. Time and oppor-
tunity, time and tide, run through the CiCENE iv.
roughest day." I prefer to think that Scene iv.] The elevation of Mal-
" runs" has here a transitive force, i.e. colm (lines 37-39) made him direct heir
runs the roughest day through — to its to the crown, and placed an effective
termination ; but Shakespeare may have barrier between Macbeth and the throne.
intended it to be intransitive, with the He has now a strong motive for immedi-
simple meaning of proceeding through ate action against Duncan (line 48).
the day. i. Arc] The Folio "or" is usually
149. wrought] agitated. Compare treated as a misprint; but if "or" is
Othello, V. ii. 345. correct, it is not difficult to supply the
154. The interim] Steevens says : verb from the context.
" This intervening portion of time is 2. in commission] The well-known
22 MACBETH [act i.
Mai. My liege,
They are not yet come back ; but I have spoke With one that saw him die : who did report, That very frankly he confess'd his treasons, 5
Implor'd your highness' pardon, and set forth A deep repentance. Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it : he died As one that had been studied in his death. To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd, 10
As 't were a careless trifle.
Dun. X^^^^ '^ 'lO-.^rt
To find the mind's construction inl:he face : He'was^a^^ntl^m'ah'oh whom I Built ATTaBsorute trust — "" ~'
Enter MACBETH, Banquo, RossE, and ANGUS.
O worthiest cousin ! The sin of m}' ingratitude even now 15
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before, That swiftest wing of recompense is slow To overtake thee : 'would thou hadst less deserv'd, That the proportion both of thanks and payment Might have been mine ! only I have left to say, 20
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
2-8. My liege, , . . died] so Pope; seven lines Ff, ending respectively back, die: hee Pardon, Repentance : him, dy^de, 9, 10. studied in his death. To] studied, in his death. To Keightley; studied in his death To Dyce (ed. 2). 17. That] The Jennens. wing] F i ; wind Rowe.
legal term, in the exercise of delegated North's Plutarch, Julius Casar (1593),
authority. Compare 5 //ewry IV. in. p. 759: "he was excellently vk'ell
ii, 97 : " It is my cousin Silence, in studied. So that doubtlesse he was
commission with me " ; i.e. as a justice, counted the second man for eloquence
4. die] Steevens here remarks : " The in his time."
behaviour o{th& thane of Cawdor cox- 11-14. There's no art . . . trust]
responds in almost every circumstance This celebrated passage has been al-
with that of the unfortunate Earl of most universally recognised, and justly
Essex, as related by Stowe, p. 793. so, as a consummate stroke of dramatic
His asking the Queen's forgiveness, art. Malone refers to the 93rd Sonnet
his confession, repentance, and concern for a contrary sentiment :
about behaving with propriety on the " In many looks the false heart's
scaffold, are minutely described." But history
this seems fanciful. Shakespeare in Is writ in moods, and frowns, and
all probability sympathised with Essex, wrinkles strange."
and did not regard him as a traitor. 19. proportion] due proportion or
9. studied] " His own profession relation, as in Troilus and Cressida, i.
furnished Shakespeare with this phrase, iii. 87: "proportion, season, form.
To be ' studied ' in a part, or to have Office and custom " ; or, possibly, the
studied it, is yet the technical term of larger share or portion,
the theatre," says Malone. Compare 20. mine !] i.e. in my power to give.
sc. IV.] MACBETH 23
Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part Is to receive our duties : and our duties Are to your throne and state, children and servants ; 25 , Which do but what they should, by doing everything \Safe toward your love and honour. Dun. Welcome hither :
ii I have begun to plant thee, and will labour ; To make thee full of growing. — Noble Banquo, That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known 30
No less to have done so, let me infold thee, And hold thee to my heart. Ban. There if I grow,
The harvest is your own. Dun. My plenteous joys.
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow.— Sons, kinsmen, thanes, 35
23-27. YoiiY . . . honour] so Pope ; five lines Ff, ending respectively Duties : State, should, Loue Honor. 25. throne and state, children and] Throne, and State, Children, and Ff. 27. Safe] Shap'd Hanmer ; Fiefd Warburton ; Fiefs Id. conj. ; Serves Heath conj. ; Saf'd Malone conj. ; Slaves Kinnear conj. ; So/« Orson conj. your] you Blzckstone con], love] Life Waihuiton. 30. That] Thou Pope. nor] and Rovve.
27. Safe . . . honour] "with a sure cowardice of his own conscience dis- regard to your love and honour," " safe " closes itself."
being used provinciaily for "sure," 28. to plant] Compare All's Well
"certain," say the Clar. Edd. Macbeth that Ends Well, 11. iii. 163 : " It is in
no doubt refers to his late victorious us to plant thine honour where we
effort in defence of Duncan's throne please to have it grow."
against enemies who would have de- 33-35. My . . . sorrow] For the
prived him of the love and honour of sentiment compare Romeo and yuliet,
his subjects. Perhaps, however, the ad- iii. ii. 102-104; Mtich Ado About No-
jectival and adverbial uses blend in the thing, i. i. 26-29 ; and Winter's Tale,
word, and the meaning may be: by per- v. ii. 49-50. Malone quotes from
forming every duty w/io//}' or ^K^?>^/;/ to- Lucan (ix. 1038): —
ward (with regard to) your love and .. lacrymas non sponte cadentes
honour, t.e our affection and respect Effudit, gemitusque expressit pec-
for you (salvus = '6\os). Coleridge, ^^^^ j^°jq
iVo^fi and L^c^nm {1849), p. 245, says: ^^^ ^u^^j manifesta potens ab-
" Here m contrast with Duncan s scondere mentis
' plenteous joys,' Macbeth has nothing Qaudia, quam lacrymis."
but the commonplaces of loyalty, in
which he hides himself with ' our As there was no English translation of
duties.' Note the exceeding effort of Lucan before 1614, unless Shakespeare
Macbeth's addresses to the king, his had read and imitated the passage,
reasoning on his allegiance, and then which is extremely unlikely, we are
especially, when a new difficulty, the driven to believe, and no doubt the fact
designation of a successor, suggests a is, that Shakespeare's sentiment is a
new crime. This, however, seems the mere coincidence.
first distinct notion as to the plan of 35. Sons . . . thanes] It is extremely
realising his wishes; and here, there- probable that an "and" coupling
fore, with great propriety, Macbeth's "sons" and "kinsmen" was inadver-
-r
24 MACBETH [act i.
And you whose places are the nearest, know,
We will establish our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm ; whom we name hereafter
The Prince of Cumberland : which honour must
Not, unaccompanied, invest him only, 40
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. — From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you. Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you :
I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful 45
The hearing of my wife with your approach ;
So, humbly take my leave. Dun. My worthy Cawdor !
Macb. [Aside.] The Prince of Cumberland ! — That is a step ? On which I mtTst fall down, or else o'erleap, ^ -C^*
\For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires ! ^ f<* 50 / Let not light see my black and deep desires ; ^'^Jo^
The eye wink at the hand ; yet let that be.
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. Hc^? [Exif. Dun. True, worthy Banquo : he is full so valiant, 'h^^ cC/*^'^*-* •^*-
And in his commendations I am fed ; 55
It is a banquet to me. Let us after him,
42. In'verness\ Pope; Envernes, Ff. 45. harbinger] Rowe; Herbenger,
Ff I, 2, 3 ; Harbenger F 4. 51. not light] no light Hanmer; not Night
Warburton.
tentiy omitted by the Folio printers ; and the mark of his designation. Cumber- its introduction would do no violence land was at that time held by Scotland to the text, for the following reasons : of the crown of England as a fief." (i) Shakespeare probably coupled 45. harbinger] an officer of the "sons" with "kinsmen," blood rela- household whose duty it was to provide tions, just as he has coupled " thanes" lodgings for the king. " Mareschal du and " you whose," etc. (2) We have corps du Roy : The Kings Chiefe Har- exact warrant for the "and" in v. vii. linger^'': Cotgrave. (Compare v. vi. ga post: "My thanes and kinsmen." 10 post). The word is found in differ- Only the longest and toughest critical ent forms in Early and Middle English, ear could ever dream ot holding that e.g. "herbergere," "herbenger," etc. "sorrow" could be lengthened into a Compare Chaucer, Man of Law's Tale, trisyllable. 899 : " The fame is born . . . by her-
37. establish our estate] settle the bergeonrs that wenten him biforn," and
succession. The word "estate" be- Palsgrave, Lfsc/amss<-mf«< (1530) 2286,
trays a distinctly legal flavour. See has: ^^Hzrhtxgf^r, f currier du roy."
Holinshed, Hist. Scot. ii. 170, Bos- 50. Stars] The Clar. Edd. remark,
well-Stone, p. 25. " Macbeth apparently appeals to the
39. The Prince of Cumberland] stars because he is contemplatmg night
Steevens says, " The crown of Scot- as the time for the perpetration of the
land was originally not hereditary, deed. There is nothing to indicate
When a successor was declared in the that this scene took place at night."
life-time of a king, as was often the 52. The eye . . . hand] i.e. be shut
case, the title of Prince of Cumberland so as not to see the deed executed,
was immediately bestowed on him as 56. banquet] i.e. what we nov call
sc. v.] MACBETH 25
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome :
It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt.
SCENE V. — Inverness. A room in MacBETH's castle.
Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter.
Lady M, *' They met me in the day of success ; and I have learnt by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles 1 stood rapt 5 in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me, ' Thane of Cawdor ' ; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with ' Hail, king that shalt be ! ' This have I thought good to deliver' thee, 10 m^;;dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell." Glamis thou art, and Cawdor ; and shalt be 15
8. weird] weyward Ff; weird Theobald; wayward Rowe ; weyard Keight- ley. 12. lose] loose F i. the dues] thy dues Capell conj.
dessert — a slight refection, consisting allie his wife lay sore vpon him to of cakes, sweetmeats and fruit, and attempt the thing, as fhe that was verie generally served in a room to which ambitious, burning in vnquenchable the guests removed after dinner, a defire to beare the name of a queene." practice not uncommon in the Inns of Shakespeare found these in the ante- Court at the present day, at least on cedent story of the murder of King Duff, "call" nights. I think Shakespeare one of Duncan's predecessors, intends this restricted sense here, just i. success] seems to be used here, as as in Taming of the Shrew, v. ii. 9, in i. iii. 90, in the modern sense ; but its when Lucentio says : — ordinary sense in Shakespeare's time, at
" My banquet is to close our stom- least when not qualified by an epithet,
achs up like " good," " vile," etc., was " issue,"
After our great good cheer." " sequel," " consequence " of a thing.
The ordinarj' sense, however, is com- 2. the perfectest report] " the best
mon in Shakespeare. intelligence " (Johnson). " The most
58. kinsman] French, Shakespeareaiia accurate intelligence, i.e. my own ex-
Genealogica, 1869, p. 290, says that perience " (Clar. Edd.), unless indeed it
Duncan and Macbeth, as the sons of means the report made by Ross of the
two sisters, were first-cousins, whilst King's intention to invest Macbeth with
Duncan and Lady Macbeth were third- the thaneship of Cawdor.
cousins. Compare i. ii. 24 ante. 6. missives] messengers. Compare
„ Antony and Cleopatra, 11. ii. 74 : " Did
CBNE V. gibe my mmJT)« out of audience."
Enter Lady Macbeth] Lady Mac- 7. all-hailed] Florio, Worlde of
beth's share in the details of Duncan's Wordes, 1598, gives, " Salutare, to
murder is not related by Holinshed, greet, to salute, to recommend, to all-
who merely says (170&) ; " But speci- haile," etc.
26
MACBETH
[act I.
-\
What thou art promis'd. — Yet do I fear thy nature :
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness,
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great ;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it : what thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, 21
And yet wouldst wrongly win ; thou 'dst have, great
Glamis, That which cries, " Thus thou must do, if thou have it " ; And that which rather thou dost fear to do. Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, 25
17. human] Rowe; humane Ff; human kitidtiess] humankind-ness Moulton conj. 22, 23. And . . . it;] so Pope; three lines Ff, ending respectively
wimie. cryes,it; 23-25. "Thus thou . . . it" . . . undone] a.U in inveited commas, Pope; "This thou . . . have it" Hanmer; Capell (Thus Capell) ; "Thus thou must do" Hunter. 24. And that which] And that's what
Hanmer. 25. Hie] F 4; High Ff i, 2, 3.
17. the milk of human kindness] Compare for the metaphor, iv. iii. 98 post; Romeo and Juliet, iii. iii. 55: " Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy " ; and King Lear, i. iv. 364 : " This milky gentleness and course of yours." With respect to Shakespeare's use of the words kind, kindness, etc., it is essential to remember their radical signification, i.e. as meaning natural and nature. Moulton, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, 1893, therefore suggests that we should read " humankind " as meaning " human nature " ; " and that the sense of the whole passage would be more obvious if the whole phrase were printed as one word, not * human kindness ' but 'humankind-ness ' " — that shrinking from what is not natural, which is a marked feature of the practical nature. The other part of the clause, milk of humankind-ness, no doubt suggests absence of hardness : but it equally connotes natural inherited traditional feelings imbibed at the mother's breast." But the passages above noted certainly suggest that " milk " in Shake- speare's mind denoted an absence of hardness ; and humane, the Folio spell- ing, was the only spelling down to the end of the eighteenth century, when human was substituted in certain senses, leaving humane as a distinct word, with distinctive meanings. There is there- fore no reason for altering the text. Liddell remarks : " Shakespeare sums it up in the words • humane kindness '
— a strain of sentimentality, a touch of human sympathy that makes him kin with his victim. Like many a brave man he is both superstitious and senti- mental. He can shed blood relentlessly in the heat of battle and action, but cold-blooded murder he balks at."
20. illness] i.e. evilness, evil nature ; " evil " in Shakespeare being constantly contracted into "e'ill " or " ile."
22-25. thou'dst have . . . should be undone] The chief difficulty here is the settlement of the text, and the extent of the quotation. Pope was the first to place "Thus then . . . undone" in inverted commas ; and he has been followed, and I think rightly, by nearly all subsequent editors. Hanmer, Capell and Staunton end the quotation with II have it"; and Hunter {Illustrations, ii. 172) only marks " thus thou must do" as such. The change of thou in line 23 to thou'ldst seems quite essential to the meaning, which, I take it, is as follows : Thus thou must do [i.e. " pro- vide for " Duncan] if thou'ldst have it [i.e. the crown] ; A}id that which thou dost fear to do [i.e. the murder] rather than wishest should be undone [thou wouldst prefer to have already done]. Having regard to the phraseology ol lines 20, 22, 23 and 24 — the repeated occurrence of " wouldst " — it is difficult to resist the conviction that Shake- speare wrote thou'ldst (thou wouldst) have also in line 23 : and that the ig- norance or carelessness of the Folio
sc. v.j MACBETH 27
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem ^ ^
To have thee crown'd withal. — ^§OC ^'^
Enter a Messenger. (>^ ^
What is your tidings ? 30 Mess. The king comes here to-night. Lady M. Thou 'rt mad to say it.
Is not thy master with him ? who, were 't so.
Would have inform'd for preparation. Mess. So please you, it is true : our thane is coming ;
One of my fellows had the speed of him, 35
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message. Lady M. Give him tending :
He brings great news. [Exit Messenger.] The_raven luiliseif^ is hoarse,
That_croak5 the fat4_entraiice of Duncan
29. doth seem] doth seek Johnson conj. 38. He . . . hoarse] one line,
Rowe ; two lines, Ff.
printers is responsible for the change to Antony and Cleopatra, iv. xiv. 112:
thou have : unless indeed we are to '■ with this tidings." assume that the latter expression is 31-33- Thou'rt mad . . . preparation]
equivalent to thoii'ldst have. an effective dramatic stroke. Lady
27. chastise] The accent is on the first Macbeth, hearing that the King is about syllable, as in 1 Henry VI. i. v. 12 to put himself in her power, in replying (if that is Shakespeare's) ; Richard II. to the messenger, discloses what had 11. iii. 104 ; King John, u. i. 117 ; and, been passing in her own mind, and then possibly, Tempest, v. i. 263. seeks to reason him out of his natural
28. golden round] Compare iv. i. 83. surprise at her violent and unguarded
29. metaphysical] supernatural, exclamation.
above or beyond the laws of nature. 33. inform'd] an absolute usage here,
Compare Marlowe, Tamburlaine (Part as in 11. i. 48 ; where, however, the sense
II.), IV. ii. : — may be somewhat different.
" the essential form of marble 35. had the speed of] Compare Much
stone, Ado About Nothing, i. i. 142 : " I would
Tempered by science metaphysi- my horse had the speed of your tongue."
call." Tiie phrase is uncommon, and some-
Florio's Worlde of Wordes, 1598, gives : what resembles our modern " had the
" Metafisico, one that professeth things pull of him."
supernaturall "; and Minsheu'si'/'ajJwA 37. tending] Apparently this is the
Dictionary, 1599: " Metafisica, things only passage in the plays in which this
supernaturall, the metaphisickes." participle is used as a substantive.
29. seem] Compare i. ii. 48. 38-40. The raven . . . battlements]
30. tidings] singular or plural like The well-known superstition of the time "news." See As You Like It, v. iv. would seem to indicate that Shakespeare 159: "That bring these tidings " ; and here refers to the bird and not to the
28
MACBETH
[act r.
Under my battlements. Cora^j you spirits 40
That tend onmortal thoughts, unsex^ me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full OT direst cruelty ! rhake thick my blood. Stop up th' access and passage to remorse ;
40. Come, you spirits] Come, all you spirits Pope {D&venant) ; Come, Come, you spirits, Steevens (1793) ; Come, spirits of evil Keightley ; Come, you unseen spirits Kinnear conj.
messenger's " fellow " who brings the news. Reginald Scot, in his Discoverie of Witchcraft, ed. 1584, p. 170, says : [It is most impious] " to prognosticate that ghests approach to your house upon the chattering of pies or haggisters " ; "A continuall 1 messenger hee [the raven] is of dole and misfortune " : Nashe, Terrors of the Night, 1594 (ed. McKerrow, i. p. 346). Manly, in liis ed. of Macbeth, 1896, p. 102, says : "The approach of an ordinary guest might be announced by a magpie, but for such a visit as Duncan's the hoarse croaking of a raven would alone be appropriate. This is practically the opinion of Nicholson, the editor of Scot, who adds from W. Perkins, Witch- craft, 1613 : ' When a raven stands in a high place and looks a particular way, and cries, a corse comes thence soon.' " See also " a raven's note " in 2 Henry VI. III. ii. 40, and Othello, iv. i. 21 : — " As doth the raven o'er the infected house. Boding to all." And Brand, Popular Antiquities, iii. 210.
39. entrance] This word should be printed (in fact Capell prints it) in three syllables, as Shakespeare evidently wrote and pronounced it. The reten- tion of the e is very frequently required metri gratia, when a mute is followed by a liquid, as in ni. vi. 8 : " monster- ous " ; Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. iii. 84 : " resemble-eth " ; Romeo and yuliet, I. iv. 8: "enterance" ; Twelfth Night, I. i. 32 : " rememberance " ; etc.
40. Under . . . spirits] This line is distinctly incomplete as printed in the Folio ; and no untenable theory of a "pause," or other like theory, will account for the missing syllable. There is some force in the proposed repetition of " Come " (Steevens) ; and also in the reading of Pope, who fol- lows Davenant's version of 1674 (see Furness's Macbeth, revised ed. 1903, p. 512): "Come all you spirits." Darmesteter, Macbeth, Paris, 1881,
quotes from T. Hughes's Misfortunes of Arthur, 1587, i. ii. ed. Dodsley: — " Come, spiteful fiends, come heaps
of furies fell, Not one by one, but all at once!
my heart Raves not enough ; it likes me to
be filled With greater monsters yet." But the reading " ill spirits," which ought to be adopted in the text, is simple and to the point, and it fulfils all require- ments both of sense and metre. It is strongly supported by the following passages, viz. : Julius Casar, iv. iii. 289: "/// spirit, I would hold more talk with thee"; and Tempest, i. ii. 458 : " If the ill spirit have so fair a house " ; not to speak of " illness," line 20 supra. Malone quotes Nashe's Pierce Penilesse his Supplication to the Diuell, 1592 (ed. Grosart, p. 114 ; ed. McKerrow, i. p. 230), where he thinks " Shakespeare might have found a par- ticular description of these spirits and of their office " : " The Second kind of Diuels, which he most imployeth, are those Northerne Marcij, called the spirits of reuenge, & the authors of massacres, & seedesmen of mischiefe ; for they haue commission to incense men to rapines, sacriledge, theft, mur- ther, wrath, furie, and all manner of cruelties, & they commaund certaine of the Southern spirits (as slaues) to wayt vpon them, as also great Arioch, that is tearmed the spirite of reuenge." Compare the nine kinds of bad spirits mentioned by Burton, Anat. Melanch, I. ii. I, 2.
41. mortal] murderous, deadly. See III. iv. 81, and iv. iii. 3.
42. crown . . . toe]'BzxQ\.^5Alvearie has : " From the top to the toe, a capite ad calcem usque."
42. top-full] Compare King John, 111. iv. 180, " Now that their souls are top-full of offence."
44. remorse] compassion, tenderness. " Used anciently to signify repentance not only for a deed done but for a
sc. v.]
MACBETH
29
That no compunctious visitings of nature 45
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th' effect and it ! Come to my woman's breasts,
And j:ake my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
WEerever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, 50
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke orheTT,"
TEatlmy keeX knife see not thewound it makes.
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, " Hold, hold ! "—
46. peace] pace Travers (Johnson conj.) ; space Bailey conj. 48. for gall] with gall Keightley. 53. blanket] Ff; blank height ColeridgQ con].
thought conceived," say the Clar. Edd.,
who compare Merchant of Venice, iv.
i. 20: —
" Thou'lt show thy mercy and re- morse more strange Than is thy strange apparent cruelty."
See also Measure for Measure, v. i.
ico: '■ My sisterly remorse confutes
mine honour."
45. compunctious] used only in this passage by Shakespeare.
46. nor keep peace] i.e. and keep no peace (keep up strife) between my fell purpose and its accomplishment (so that the murder may be carried out). Steevens quotes The Tragicall Hystorie of Rome us and Juliet (1562, lines 1781 sqq.) :—
" In absence of her knight the lady no way could Kepe treu'se betwene her greefes and her."
48. take my milk for gall] i.e. take away my milk, as being gall, or take it and give me gall in exchange ; or, per- haps, infect my milk so as to turn it into gall. "Take" here has perhaps the sense of affecting with malignant influence, as in Hamlet, i. i. 163 : "No fairy takes " ; King Lear, 11. iv. 166 : " Strike her young bones. You taking airs, with lameness I " The word, either by itself or in combination, has many different shades of meaning in Shakespeare ; and it is quite possible that in this passage it is used simply for "receive." For the sentiment we may compare 1 Henry VI. v. iv. 27 (where the shepherd, her father, says to Pucelle) :—
" I would the milk Thy mother gave thee when thou
suck'dst her breast, Had been a little ratsbane for thy
sake I "
49. sightless stfbstances] perhaps "invisible forms." Compare the "sight- less couriers" of i. vii. 23; and "the viewless {i.e. invisible) winds " of Measure for Measure, iii. i. 124.
50. jiature's mischief} According to Johnson, this means "mischief done to nature, violation of nature's order com- mitted by wickedness " ; while the Clar. Edd. paraphrase "wait . . . mischief" by "are ready to abet any evil done throughout the world." Rather per- haps it may mean "attend on the mis- chief wrought by any natural phenome- non, such as storm, tempest, earthquake, etc."
51. dmtnest] an epithet criticised by Johnson (Rambler, no. 168) as " mean "; but apparently this criticism was after- wards recanted in his Dictionary. Compare Horace in the Ars Poetica, 70: "Multa renascentur quae jam cecidere . . . vocabula."
53. peep] Palsgrave, Lesclarcissement, gives : " I peke or prie, le pipe hors."
53. blanket] No more homely, perti- nent, or forcible metaphor could have been employed, and there are many similar expressions in the Elizabethan writers. Malone, e.g. quotes Drayton's Mortimeriados, 1596: "Thesullen night in mistie rugge is wrap'd " ; and he re- marks, not very aptly, " that 'blanket' was perhaps suggested by the coarse woollen curtain of Shakespeare's own theatre, through which, probably, while
30
MACBETH
[act I.
Enter MACBETH.
Great Glamis ! worthy Cawdor !
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! 5 5
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant. Macb. My dearest love,
Duncan comes here to-night. Lady M.
Macb. To-morrow, as he proposes Lady M. O ! never 60
Shall sun that morrow see !
Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
And when goes hence? O ! never
57. fresenf] present time Pope. feeV] feel e'en Hunter (and Lettsom) conj. 63. matters. To . , . time,'] Theobald ; matters, to . . . time. F i.
the house was yet but half lighted, he had himself often /e^/i^rf." And Halli- well follows this by saying " That the players did sometimes 'peep' through such a curtain appears from the Pro- logue to The Unfortunate Lovers, 1643." Coleridge's proposed reading, the blank height of the dark, if seriously proposed, may be at once dismissed as a piece of unfortunate mental aber- ration on the part of a great poet and critic. The Oxford Diet., however, gives no example of the usage of the word as "curtain"; and LiddelL sug- gests, rather fancifully perhaps, the " picture of a terror-stricken child peer- ing over the edge of his blanket into the awful gloom of night." The meta- phor, however, is quite simple, and can only refer to the blanket or coverlet spread by the dark {i.e. night) over the earth, and is only a variation of Juliet's "Spread thy close curtain, love per- forming night" (Romeo and Juliet, in.
ii. 5).
55. the all-hail] the kingly title. This is practically the expression used by the weird sisters in i. iii. 50, and in Macbsth's letter, i. v. 9 ante.
57. This ignorant present] this pre- sent which is ignorant of the future. " This has here the signification of the unknowing" ; says Johnson, " I feel by anticipation those future honours, of which, according to the process of nature, the present time would be ignor-
ant." Compare Winter's Tale, i. ii. 397 : " imprison't not in ignorant con- cealment"; and Tempest, i. i. 25: "If you can command these elements to silence and work the peace of the pre- sent."
57. and I feel now] Lettsom's con- jecture (see Dyce, ed. ii., iii. ad loc.), though in the fuller form even (which I had conjectured independently) should be adopted. Pope's present time is not euphonic. Walker, Shakespeare's Ver- sification, p. 157, well remarks, " I suspect a word has dropt out ; an acci- dent which seems to have happened not infrequently in the Folio Macbeth." If confirmation be needed, it will be found in v. ii. 10: "youths that even now protest," etc.
62. as a book] Compare Romeo and Juliet, I. iii. 81 : —
" Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face, And find delight writ there with beauty's pen."
63. beguile the time] not, " wile away the time " (though Shakespeare else- where, as in Twelfth Night, iii. iii. 41, uses the phrase in this sense, as the Clar. Edd. point out), but in the sense of deceive the world, delude all ob- servers. " The time," in the sense of the present age, i.e. men and things generally, is very frequent in Shake- speare. Compare i. vii. 81, and other passages in this play; and Richard III,
SC. VI.]
MACBETH
70
Look like the time ; bear welcome in your eye, \^
I Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under 't. He that 's coming 66
Must be provided for ; and you shall put
This night's great business into my dispatch ; \ Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. Macb. We will speak further. Lady M. Only look up clear ;
To alter favour ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me.
SCENE VI. — The same. Before the castle.
Hautboys and torches. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONAL- BAiN, Banquo, Lenox, Macduff, Rosse, Angus, and Attendants.
81 Jv
{^Exeunt. ^
Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat ; the air ^Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
\
72. to fear] and fear Theobald (ed. 2).
Scene vi. I, 2. the air . . . itself] so Rowe ; one line Ff.
"f^ ^-^ t'.NA^
V. iii. 9 : " With best advantage will
deceive the time." Steevens quotes
Daniel's Civil Wars, bk. viii. [709] : —
" He drawes a traverse 'twixt his
greeuances :
Lookes like the time : his eye made
not report Of what he felt within." 65-66. look like . . . under 't] See Chaucer, Squires Tale, 512 : —
" Right as a serpent hit hym under floures Til he may seen his tyme for to byte." And compare 2 Henry VI. in. i. 228 : " The snake roll'd in a flowering bank." Romeo and Juliet, in. ii. 73: "Oh serpent heart hid with a flowering face " ; and Richard II. in. ii. 19 : —
'•And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurk- ing adder." 67. provided for] The irony of this may be paralleled by J Henry VI. v. ii. 18 (where Charles says of the English army meaning to give battle) : " But we will presently provide for them."
71. speak further] The Clar Edd.
point out that the old formula for refus- ing the royal assent [to a bill in Parlia- ment] was " le roi s'avisera."
yz, favour] i.e. look, countenance; frequent in Shakespeare. " Lady Mac- beth," say the Clar. Edd., " detects more than irresolution in her husband's last speech."
Scene vi.
Nothing shows the immense prac- tical dramatic ability of Shakespeare more than the suggestion of the peace- ful stillness of evening in this scene, immediately preceding as it does that stormy interview between Macbeth and his wife which puts the seal on Duncan's murder.
Hautboys and torches] Used in Eliza- bethan English for the player of the instrument and the bearer of the torch, as well as for the instrument and the torch. Compare 11. i. init.
I. seat] Reid compares Bacon's Es- says, xlv. Of Building (line 6, ed. Singer, 1868) : " Hee that builds a faire House, upon an ill Seat, Committeth himself to Prison. Neither doe I reckon it an ill Seat only where the Aire is unwhole-
32
MACBETH
[act I.
Unto our gentle senses. Ban. This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath 5
Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
3. gentle sensei\ gentle sense Capell (Johnson conj.). 4. martlet] Rowe ; Barlet Ff ; Marlet Collier (MS.). 5. lov'd mansionry] love -mansionry Staun- ton conj. mansionry] Theoha.\d; mansonrjFi; masonry Fo'pe (ed. 2). 6-10. Steevens (1793) arranges in five lines, ending respectively buttress, made they air delicate. 6. jvooingly here :] wooingly : here is no Johnson conj. jutty, frieze] Steevens (1793) ; Intty frieze Ff; jutting frieze Pope.
some, but likewise where the Aire is unequal ; as you shall see many fine Seats set upon a Knap of Ground en- vironed with higher Hills round about it."
3. gentle senses] probably a proleptic construction, in which the epithet of the object is the result of the previous action. (Compare iii. iv. 76: "the gentle weal.") But it is not necessarily so, if Duncan means that his senses have already become " gentle " through age.
4. martlet] the swift ; often confused with the swallow and house-martin. As Steevens remarks, Rowe's emenda- tion of the Folio Barlet is supported by Merchant of Venice, 11. ix. 28 : —
" which like the martlet. Builds in the weather on the out- ward wall." The form " martlet" is apparently only an altered form of " martinet." Com- pare Turbervile'sFaj</coKm (1575), 134: " Young sparrowes marteletfes and other small byrdes."
4. approve] prove. Compare Mer- chatit of Venice, in. ii. 80 : " Will bless it and approve it with a text."
5. lov'd mansionry] Having regard to the " pendent bed and procreant cradle " of line 8, the argument for Staunton's conjecture, love-mansionry , is exceed- ingly strong. If Shakespeare meant merely to express the bird's affection for the particular situation of the nest, heprobably wrote /ozifrf, which is really equivalent to the present participle " loving " ; but the epithet seems tame when weighed against the compound, v/hich so expressly and clearly indicates the very motive of the bird's " man- sionry." "Mansionry" does not ap- pear to be found elsewhere in Shake-
speare; but " love " compounds are fre- quent enough, e.g. love-rhy?nes. Love's Labour 's Lost, in. i. 183, love-song, Romeo and jfuliet, n. iv. 15, love-juice. Midsummer Night's Dream, in. ii. 37, etc.
6. Smells . . . frieze] A word or two must have dropped out of this line ; and perhaps Johnson's conjecture does least violence to the text of the Folio, even though it slightly alters the punctuation. But I cannot help thinking that there was the word which Shakespeare wrote, and that it escaped