Curbing his lavish spirit. To conclude, King. Great happiness! Roffe. Now Sweno, Norway's King, craves composition: Nor would we deign him burial of his men, 'Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes-kill-ifle Ten thousand dollars, to our gen'ral use. King. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom int'rest. Go, pronounce his death; Roffe. I'll fee it done. King. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to the Heath. Thunder. Enter the three Witches. Witch. W Here haft thou been, fister? 2 Witch. Killing swine. 3 Witch. Sifter, where thou ? I Witch. A failor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, And mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht. Give me, quoth I. Aroint thee, witch!-the rump-fed ronyon cries. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' th' Tyger: But in a fieve I'll thither fail, And like a rat without a tail, I'll do I'll do and I'll do. 2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 1 Witch. Thou art kind. 3 Witch. And I another. 1 Witch. I myself have all the other, And the very points they blow; N 1 He He shall live a man forbid; (6) 2 Witch. Shew me, shew me. Wrackt as homeward he did come. 3 Witch. A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come! [Drum within. All. The Weird sisters, hand in hand, (7) Pofters (6) He shall live a man forbid : i.e. as under a curse, an Interdiction. So afterwards, in this play; By his own interdiction stands accurs'd. So, among the Romans, an outlaw's sentence was aquæ & ignis interdictio. i. e. He was forbid the use of water and fire: which imply'd the neceffity of banishment. (7) The weyward fifters, hand in hand,] The Witches are here speaking of themselves; and it is worth an enquiry why they should stile themselves the weyward, or wayward sisters. This word in its general acceptation fignifies, perverfe, froward, moody, obstinate, untractable, &c, and is every where so used by our Shakespeare. To content ourselves with two or three instances; Tawo Gent. of Verona. Fy, fy, how quayward is this foolish love, And, which is worst. All you have done Love's Labour left. Macbeth. It is improbable, the Witches would adopt this epithet to themselves, in any of these senses; and therefore we are to look a little further for the poet's word and meaning. When I had the first suspicion of our author being corrupt in this place, it brought to my mind the following passage in CHAUCER's Troilus and Cresseide, lib. iii. v. 618. But O fortune, executrice of wierdes. Which word the gloffaries expound to us by fates or destinies. I was foon confirm'd in my fufpicion, upon happening to dip into Heylin's Cofmography, where he makes a short recital of the story of Macbeth and Banquo. These two (fays be) travelling together thro' a forest, were met by three Faries, Witches, Wierds, the Scots call them, &c. I presently recollected, that this story must be recorded at more length by Holingshead; with whom I thought it was very probable that Pofters 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. Enter Macbeth and Banquo, with Soldiers and other Attendants. Mach. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' earth, Mach. Speak, if you can; what are you ? Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! 2Witch.All-hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Carwdor! 3 Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! that shalt be King hereafter. Ban. Good Sir, why do you start, and feem to fear Things that do sound so fair? I' th' name of truth, Are ye fantastical, or that indeed [To the Witches. that our author had traded for the materials of his tragedy: and therefore confirmation was to be fetch'd from this fountain. Accordingly, looking into his history of Scotland, I found the writer very prolix and express, from Hector Boethius, in this remarkable story; and in p. 170. speaking of these Witches, he uses this expression. But afterwards the common opinion was, that these women were either the weird sisters, that is, as ye would say, the goddesses of destiny, &c. Again, a little lower; The words of the three weird fifters also, (of whom before ye have heard) greatly encouraged him thereunto. And, in several other paragraphs there, this word is repeated. I believe, by this time, it is plain beyond a doubt, that the word wayward has obtain'd in Macbeth, where the Witches are spoken of, from the ignorance of the copyists, who were not acquainted with the Scotch term and that in every paffage, where there is any relation to these Witches or Wizards, my emendation must be embraced, and we must read weird, Which outwardly ye shew? my noble partner That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not. And fay, which grain will grow and which will not; Your favours, nor your hate. I Witch. Hail! 2 Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! I Witch. Leffer than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none; So, all-hail, Macbeth and Banquo! 1 Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all-hail! Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more ; By Sinel's death, I know, I'm Thane of Glamis'; But how, of Cawdor? the Thane of Cawdor lives, A profp'rous gentleman; and, to be King, Stands not within the profpect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence You owe this strange intelligence? or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way, With fuch prophetick greeting ?-speak, I charge you. [Witches vanish. Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has; And these are of them: whither are they vanish'd? Mach. Into the air: and what feem'd corporal Melted, as breath, into the wind, Would they had staid! Ban. Weresuch things here, as we do speak about? (8) (8) Were fuch things here, as we do speak about ? Or bave we eaten of the infane root, Or That takes the reason prisoner ?] The infane root, viz. the root which makes infane; as in HORACE Pallida Mors; nempè, quæ facit pallidos. This sentence, I conceive, is not so well understood, as I would have every part of Shakespeare be, by his audience and readers. So foon as the Witches vanish from the fight of Macbeth and Banquo, and leave them in doubt whether they had really feen such Appari Or have we eaten of the infane root, Mach. Your children shall be Kings. Ban. You shall be King. Macb. And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not fo? Ban. To th' self fame tune, and words; who's here? Enter Rofle and Angus. Roffe. The King hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, tions, or whether their eyes were not deceiv'd by some illufion; Banquo immediately starts the question, Were fuch things bere, &c. I was fure, from a long observation of Shakespeare's accuracy, that he alluded here to some particular circumstance in the history, which, I hoped, I should find explain'd in Holingshead. But I found myfelf deceived in this expectation. This furnishes a proper occafion, therefore, to remark our author's fignal diligence; and happiness at applying whatever he met with, that could have any relation to his subject. Hector Boethius, who gives us an account of Sueno's army being intoxicated by a preparation put upon them by their fubtle enemy, informs us; that there is a plant, which grows in great quantity in Scotland, call'd Solatrum Amentiale; that its berries are purple, or rather black, when full ripe; and have a quality of laying to Heep; or of driving into madness, if a more than ordinary quantity of them be taken. This passage of Boethius, I dare say, our poet had an eye to: and, I think, it fairly accounts for his mention of the infane root. Diofcorides lib. iv. c. 74. Περὶ Στρύχνε μανικό, attributes the fame properties to it. Its claffical name, I observe, is Solanum ; but the shopmen agree to call it Solatrum. This, prepar'd in medicine, (as Theophraftus tells us, and Pliny from him ;) has a peculiar effect of filling the patient's head with odd images and fancies: and particularly that of seeing spirits: an effect, which, I am perfuaded, was no fecret to our author. Bochart and Salmafius have both been copious upon the description and qualities of this plant. N 3 And |