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Macduff,

Roffe,

Menteeth,

Angus,

Cathness,

Fleance, Son to Banquo.

Siward, General of the English Forces.

Young Siward, his Son.

Siton, an Officer attending on Macbeth.

Son to Macduff.

Doctor.

Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macduff.

Gentlewomen, attending on Lady. Macbeth.

Hecate, and three other Witches.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers and Attendants.

The Ghost of Banquo, and several other Apparitions.

SCENE, in the End of the fourth Act, lies in England; through the rest of the Play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's Castle.

ين

MACBETH.

ACTI.

SCENE, an open Place.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter three Witches.

W

I WITCн.

HEN shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain ?

2 Witch. When the hurly-burly's done,

When the battle's lost and won.

3 Witch. That will be ere set of fun.

I Witch. Where the place?

2 Witch. Upon the heath.

3 Witch. There I go to meet Macbeth.

I Witch. I come, I come, Grimalkin.

2 Witch. Padocke calls-anon!

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair,

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[They rise from the stage, and fly arvay.

SCENE changes to the Palace at Foris.

Enter King, Malcolme, Donalbain, Lenox, with Atten dants, meeting a bleeding Captain.

Hat bloody man is that? he can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

King. W

The newest state.

Mal. Mal. This is the Serjeant,

Who like a good and hardy foldier fought
'Gainst my captivity. Hail, hail, brave friend!
Say to the King the knowledge of the broil,
As thou didst leave it.

Cap. Doubtful long it stood:

As two spent swimmers that do cling together,
And choak their art: the merciless Macdonel
(Worthy to be a Rebel; for to that
The multiplying villanies of nature
Do fwarm upon him) from the western isles
Of Kernes and Gallow-glasses was supply'd;
And fortune, on his damned quarry smiling,
Shew'd like a rebel's whore. But all too weak:
For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)
Disdaining fortune, with his brandisht steel
Which smoak'd with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage,
Till he had fac'd the flave;

Who ne'er shook hands nor bid farewel to him,
'Till he unfeam'd him from the nave to th' chops,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

King. Oh, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman !
Cap. As whence the fun 'gins his reflection,
Shipwracking storms, and direful thunders break; (1)

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(1) As whence the fun 'gins his refication, Shipwracking storms, and direful thunders break;] Mr. Pope has degraded this word, 'gins, against the general authority of the copies, without any reafon affign'd for so doing; and substituted, gives, in the room of it. But it will foon be obvious, how far our author's good obfervation and knowledge of nature goes to establish his own reading, 'gins. For the sense is this;-" As from the place, from whence "the fun begins his course, (viz. the East,) shipwrecking storms " proceed; &c." -And it is so in fact, that storms generally come from the East. And it must be so in reason, because the natural and conftant motion of the ocean is from East to West: and because the motion of the wind has the same general direction. Præcipua & generalis [Ventorum] caufa eft ipfe Sol, qui igneo fuo jubare aerem rarefacit & attenuat; imprimis illum, in quem perpendiculares radios mittit, five fupra quem bæret. Aer enim rarefactus multo majorem locum poftulat. Inde fit, ut aer a fole impulfus alium vicinum aerem magno impetu protrudat; cumque Sol ab Oriente in occidentem circumrotetur, præcipuus ab

So from that spring, whence comfort feem'd to come, (2)
Difcomfort fwell'd. Mark, King of Scotland, mark;
No fooner justice had, with valour arm'd,

Compell'd these skipping Kernes to trust their heels;
But the Norweyan Lord, surveying vantage,
With furbisht arms and new supplies of men
Began a fresh affault.

King. Difmay'd not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

Cap. Yes,

As sparrows, eagles; or the hare the lion.
If I fay footh, I must report, they were

As cannons overcharg'd; with double cracks, (3)

eo

So

aëris impulfus fiet versus occidentem. Quia plerumque ab aëris per Solem rarefactione oritur, qui cum continue feratur ab Oriente in oscidentem, majori quoque impetu protruditur aër ab Oriente in occidentem. Varenii Geograph. l. 1. c. 14, &c. 20. prop. 10. and 15.------This being so, it is no wonder that storms should come most frequently from that quarter; or that they should be most violent, because here is a concurrence of the natural motions of wind and wave. This proves clearly, that the true reading is 'gins, i. e. begins: for the other reading does not fix it to that quarter: for the fun may give its reflection in any part of its course above the horizon; but it can begin it only in one. Mr. Warburton.

(2) So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to come, Discomfort fwell'd.) I have not diflurb'd the text here, as the fenfe does not absolutely require it; tho' Dr. Thirlby prescribes a very ingenious and easy correction :

So from that spring, whence comfort feem'd to come,
Difcomforts well'd.

i. e. ftream'd, flow'd forth: a word that peculiarly agrees with the metaphor of a fpring. The original is Anglo-Saxon peallian, scaturire; which very well expresses the diffusion and scattering of water from its head. CHAUCER has used the word in these acceptations.

For whiché might the no lengir restrain

Her Terís, thei ganin so up to well.

Troil. & Creff. 1. iv. v. 709. I can no more, but here out cast of all welfare abide the daie of my deth, or els to se the fight that might all my wellynge forowes voide, Testament of Love.

and of the flode make an ebbe.

I must report they were

(3) As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks] Cannons overcharg'd with cracks I have no idea of: My pointing, I think, gives the easy and natural fenfe. Macbeth and Banquo were like cannons overchargd;

4

So they redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorize, another Golgotha,

I cannot tell

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

King. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds:

They smack of honour both. Go, get him surgeons.

Enter Roffe and Angus.

But who comes here?

Mal. The worthy Thane of Roffe.

Len. What hafte looks through his eyes?

So should he look, that seems to speak things strange.

Roffe. God fave the King!

King. Whence cam'st thou, worthy Thane?

Roffe. From Fife, great King,
Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,
And fan our people cold.

Norway, himself with numbers terrible, (4)
Affifted by that most disloyal traitor
The Thare of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict;
'Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof, (5)
Confronted him with self-comparisons,

Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,

charg'd; why? because they redoubled strokes on the foe with twice the fury and impetuofity, as before.

(4) Norway himself, with numbers terrible,

Affifted by that, &c.] Norway himself affifted, &c. is a reading we owe to the editors, not to the poet. That energy and contraft of expression are loft, which my pointing restores. The sense is, Norway, who was in himself terrible by his own numbers, when afsisted by Carwdor, became yet more terrible.

(5) 'Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof,
Confronted bim with self-comparisons,
Point against point, rebellious arm'gainst arm,

Curbing bis lavish spirit.) Here again we are to quarrel with the transposition of an innocent comma; which however becomes dangerous to sense, when in the hands either of a careless or ignorant editor. Let us fee who it is that brings this rebellious arm? Why, At is Bellona's bridegroom and who is he, but Macbeth. We can never believe, our author meant any thing like this. My regulation of the pointing restores the true meaning; that the loyal Macbetb onfronted the disloyal Cawdor, arm to arm.

Curbing

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