Thunder. An Apparition of a Child crowned, with a Tree in his Hand, rises. That rises like the issue of a king; And wears upon his baby brow the round All. Listen, but speak not to❜t. App. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are; Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him. Macb. 25 [Descends. That will never be; Rebellious head 27, rise never, till the wood 24 The round is that part of a crown which encircles the head: the top is the ornament which rises above it. 25 The present accent of Dunsinane is right. In every subsequent instance the accent is misplaced. Thus in Hervey's Life of King Robert Bruce, 1729, which Ritson thinks a good authority 'Whose deeds let Birnam and Dunsinnan tell, When Canmore battled and the villain fell.' Andrew of Wyntoun uses both accents. Prophecies of apparent impossibilities were common in Scotland; such as the removal of one place to another, &c. Thus Sir D. Lindsay: Quhen the Bas and the Isle of May Beis set upon the Mount Sinay, Be liftit to Northumberland.' 26 i. e. command it to serve him like a soldier impressed. 27 Rebellious head. The old copy reads dead; the emendation is Theobald's. Can tell so much), shall Banquo's issue ever All. Seek to know no more. Macb. I will be satisfied: deny me this, And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know :Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise 28 is this? [Hautboys. 1 Witch. Show! 2 Witch. Show! 3 Witch. Show! All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart 29; Come like shadows, so depart. Eight Kings appear, and pass over the Stage in order; the last with a Glass in his Hand; BANQUO following. Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs :-And thy hair, Why do you show me this ?-A fourth ?—Start, eyes! What! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom 30? Another yet?-A seventh?—I'll see no more: And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass 31, 28 Noise in our old poets is often literally synonymous for music. Vide a note on the Second Part of King Henry IV. Act ii. Sc. 4. 29 Show his eyes, and grieve his heart.' And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart.'-1 Samuel, ii. 33. 30 i. e. the dissolution of nature. Crack and crash were formerly synonymous. 31 This method of juggling prophecy is referred to in Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 8: and like a prophet Looks in a glass, and shows me future evils.' In an extract from the Penal Laws against witches, it is said they do answer either by voice, or else set before their eyes in glasses chrystal stones, &c. the pictures or images of the per and some I see, Which shows me many more; For the blood-bolter'd 33 Banquo smiles upon me, 1 Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so:-But why I'll charm the air to give a sound, [Musick. The Witches dance, and vanish. sons or things sought for.' Spenser has given a circumstantial account of the glass which Merlin made for King Ryence.— Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 2. A mirror of the same kind was presented to Cambuscan, in the Squire's Tale of Chaucer: and we are told that a certaine philosopher did the like to Pompey, the which shewed him in a glasse the order of his enemies march.' —Boisteau's Theatrum Mundi, translated by John Alday, b. l. no date. 32 That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry.' This was intended as a compliment to James the First: he first united the two islands and the three kingdoms under one head, whose house too was said to be descended from Banquo, who is therefore represented not only as innocent, but as a noble character; whereas, according to history, he was confederate with Macbeth in the murder of Duncan. 33 In Warwickshire, when a horse, sheep, or other animal, perspires much, and any of the hair or wool, in consequence of such perspiration, or any redundant humour, becomes matted into tufts with grime and sweat, he is said to be boltered; and whenever the blood issues out and coagulates, forming the locks into hard clotted bunches, the beast is said to be blood-boltered. When a boy has a broken head, so that his hair is matted together with blood, his head is said to be boltered [pronounced baltered]. The word baltereth is used in this sense by Philemon Holland in his Translation of Pliny's Natural History, 1601, b. xii. c. xvii. p. 370. It is therefore applicable to Banquo, who had 'twenty trenched gashes on his head.' 34 i. e. spirits. It should seem that spirits was almost always pronounced sprights or sprites by Shakspeare's cotemporaries. 35 Antique was the old spelling for antick. VOL. IV. C C Macb. Where are they? Gone?-Let this per nicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar!— Come in, without there! Macb. Came they not by you? Len. No, indeed, my lord. Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride; And damn'd all those that trust them!-I did hear The galloping of horse: Who was't came by? Len. "Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word, Macduff is fled to England. Macb. Len. Ay, my good lord. Fled to England? Macb. Time, thou anticipat'st 36 my dread exploits : The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it: From this moment, The firstlings of my hand. And even now To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: The castle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o'the sword But no more sights!-Where are these gentlemen ? [Exeunt. 36 i. e. preventest them, by taking away the opportunity. 37 i. e. follow, succeed in it. SCENE II. Fife. A Room in Macduff's Castle. Enter LADY MACDUFF, her Son, and ROSSE. L. Macd. What had he done, to make him fly the land? He had none; Rosse. You must have patience, madam. L. Macd. His flight was madness: When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors 1. Rosse. You know not, Whether it was his wisdom, or his fear. L. Macd. Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion, and his titles, in a place From whence himself does fly? He loves us not; As little is the wisdom, where the flight Rosse. But cruel are the times, when we are traitors, 1 'Our fears do make us traitors.' Our flight is considered as evidence of our treason. 2 Natural touch, natural affection. 3 The fits o' the season should appear to be the violent disorders of the season, its convulsions: as we still say figuratively the temper of the times. So in Coriolanus : The violent fit o' th' times craves it as physic.' |