3. WITCH. That will be ere set of fun." 1. WITCH. Where the place? 2. WITCH. 3. reads Upon the heath: WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth." ere fet of fun.] The old copy unneceffarily and harshly ere the fet of fun. STEEVENS. 6 There to meet with Macbeth.] Thus the old copy. Mr. Pope, and, after him, other editors: There I go to meet Macbeth. The infertion, however, feems to be injudicious. To meet with Macbeth was the final drift of all the witches in going to the heath, and not the particular bufinefs or motive of any one of them in distinction from the reft; as the interpolated words, I go, in the mouth of the third witch, would moft certainly imply. Somewhat, however (as the verfe is evidently imperfect) muft have been left out by the tranfcriber or printer. Mr. Capell has therefore propofed to remedy this defect, by reading There to meet with brave Macbeth. But furely, to beings intent only on mifchief, a foldier's bravery in an honeft caufe, would have been no subject of encomium. Mr. Malone (omitting all previous remarks, &c. on this paffage) affures us that "There is here used as a diffyllable.' I wish he had fupported his affertion by fome example. Those however, who can speak the line thus regulated, and fuppofe they are reciting a verfe, may profit by the direction they have received. The pronoun" their," having two vowels together, may be fplit into two fyllables; but the adverb "there" can only be ufed as a monofyllable, unless pronounced as if it were written the-re," a licence in which even Chaucer has not indulged himself. It was convenient for Shakspeare's introductory fcene, that his first witch fhould appear uninftructed in her miffion. Had the not required information, the audience muft have remained ignorant of what it was neceffary for them to know. Her fpeeches therefore proceed in the form of interrogatories; but, all on a fudden, an anfwer is given to a queftion which had not been asked. Here feems to be a chafm which I fhall attempt to fupply by the intro duction of a fingle pronoun, and by diftributing the hitherto muti lated line, among the three fpeakers: 1. WITCH. I come, Graymalkin!' ALL. Paddock calls :-Anon.3 3. Witch. There to meet with 1. Witch. 2. Witch. Whom? Macbeth. Diftinct replies have now been afforded to the three necessary enquiries-When-Where-and Whom the witches were to meet. Their conference receives no injury from my infertion and arrangement. On the contrary, the dialogue becomes more regular and confiftent, as each of the hags will now have spoken thrice, (a magical number) before they join in utterance of the concluding words which relate only to themselves.-I should add, that, in the two prior inftances, it is also the second witch who furnishes decifive and material anfwers; and that I would give the words" I come, Graymalkin!" to the third. By affiftance from fuch of our author's plays as had been published in quarto, we have often detected more important errors in the folio 1623, which, unluckily, fupplies the most ancient copy of Macbeth. STEEVENS. 7-Graymalkin!] From a little black-letter book, entitled, Beware the Cat, 1584. I find it was permitted to a Witch to take on her a cattes body nine times. Mr. Upton obferves, that, to understand this paffage, we should fuppofe one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad. Again, in Newes from Scotland, &c. (a pamphlet of which the reader will find the entire title in a future note on this play): "Moreover the confeffed, that at the time when his majestie was in Denmarke, shee beeing accompanied with the parties before fpecially mentioned, tooke a cat and chriftened it, and afterward bound to each part of that cat the cheefet parte of a dead man, and feveral joyntes of his bodie, and that in the night following the faid cat was convayed into the middeft of the fea by all these witches fayling in their riddles or cives as is aforefaid, and fo left the faid cat right before the towne of Leith in Scotland. This doone, there did arife fuch a tempeft in the fea, as a greater hath not bene feene," &c. STEEVENS. 8 Paddock calls:-&c.] This, with the two following lines, is given in the folio to the three Witches. Some preceding editors have appropriated the firft of them to the second Witch. According to the late Dr. Goldfmith, and fome other naturalifts, a frog is called a paddock in the North; as in the following inftance in Cafar and Pompey, by Chapman, 1607: Paddockes, todes, and waterfnakes." Fair is foul, and foul is fair:" Hover through the fog and filthy air. [Witches vanish. In Shakspeare, however, it certainly means a toad, The reprefentation of St. James in the witches' houfe (one of the fet of prints taken from the painter called Hellish Breugel, 1566) exhibits witches flying up and down the chimney on brooms; and before the fire fit grimalkin and paddock, i. e. a cat and a toad, with several baboons. There is a cauldron boiling, with a witch near it, cutting out the tongue of a fnake, as an ingredient for the charm. A reprefentation fomewhat fimilar likewife occurs in Newes from Scotland, &c. a pamphlet already quoted. STEEVENS, Some fay, they [witches] can keepe devils and fpirits, in the likeness of todes and cats." Scot's Difcovery of Witchcraft, [1584.] Book I. c. iv. TOLLET. 9 Fair is foul, and foul is fair:] i. e. we make these fudden changes of the weather. And Macbeth, fpeaking of this day, foon after fays: So foul and fair a day I have not feen. WARBURTON. The common idea of witches has always been, that they had abfolute power over the weather, and could raise storms of any kind, or allay them, as they pleafed. In conformity to this notion, Macbeth addreffes them in the fourth act: Though you untie the winds, &c. STEEVENS. I believe the meaning is, that to us, perverfe and malignant as we are, fair is foul, and foul is fair. JOHNSON. This expreffion feems to have been proverbial. Spenfer has it in the 4th book of the Faery Queen: Then fair grew foul, and foul grew fair in fight." FARMER SCENE II. A Camp near Fores. Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier. DUN. What bloody man is that? He can report, As feemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state. MAL. This is the fergeant,* Who, like a good and hardy foldier, fought 'Gainft my captivity:-Hail, brave friend! Say to the king the knowledge of the broil, As thou didst leave it. SOLD. Doubtfully it ftood; ' This is the fergeant,] Holinfhed is the best interpreter of Shakfpeare in his hiftorical plays; for he not only takes his facts from him, but often his very words and expreffions. That hiftorian, in his account of Macdowald's rebellion, mentions, that on the first appearance of a mutinous fpirit among the people, the king fent a fergeant at arms into the country, to bring up the chief offenders to anfwer the charge preferred against them; but they, instead of obeying, mifufed the messenger with fundry reproaches, and finally flew him. This fergeant at arms is certainly the origin of the bleeding fergeant introduced on the prefent occafion. Shakspeare just caught the name from Holinfhed, but the rest of the ftory not fuiting his purpofe, he does not adhere to it. The ftage-direction of entrance, where the bleeding captain is mentioned, was probably the work of the player editors, and not of the poet. STEEVENS. 3 Doubtfully it flood;] Mr. Pope, who introduced the epithet long, to affift the metre, and reads-Doubtful long it flood,-has thereby injured the fenfe. If the comparison was meant to coincide in all circumstances, the ftruggle could not be long. I read Doubtfully it ftood; 4 As two spent swimmers, that do cling together, And choke their art. The mercilefs Macdonwald + (Worthy to be a rebel; for, to that,' The multiplying villainies of nature Do fwarm upon him,) from the western ifles The old copy has-Doubtfull-so that my addition confists of but a fingle letter. STEEVENS. 4 - Macdonwald. -] Thus the old copy. According to Holinfhed we should read—Macdowald. STEEVENS. So alfo the Scottish Chronicles. However, it is poffible that Shakspeare might have preferred the name that has been substituted, as better founding. It appears from a subsequent scene that he had attentively read Holinfhed's account of the murder of king Duff, by Donwald, Lieutenant of the caftle of Fores; in confequence of which he might, either from inadvertence or choice, have here written-Macdonwald. MALONE. 5 to that, &c.] i. e. in addition to that. So, in Troilus and Creffida, A&t I. fc. i: "The Greeks are ftrong, and fkilful to their ftrength, "Fierce to their skill, and to their fiercenefs valiant." The foldier who defcribes Macdonwald, feems to mean, that, in addition to his affumed character of rebel, be abounds with the nume rous enormities to which man, in his natural flate, is liable. - from the western ifles STEEVENS. Of Kernes and Gallowglaffes is fupplied;] Whether Supplied of, for fupplied from or with, was a kind of Grecifm of Shakspeare's expreffion; or whether of be a corruption of the editors, who took Kernes and Gallowglaffes, which were only light and heavy armed foot, to be the names of two of the western islands, I don't know. Hinc conjectura vigorem etiam adjiciunt arma quædam Hibernica, Gallicis antiquis fimilia, jacula nimirum peditum levis armaturæ Kernos vocant, nec non fecures & lorica ferrea peditum illorum gravioris armature, quos Galloglaffios appellant. Warai Antiq. Hiber. сар. vi. WARBURTON. quos Of and with are indifcriminately used by our ancient wri ters. So, in The Spanish Tragedy: "Perform'd of pleasure by your fon the prince." |