For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous
It was for Malcolm and Donalbain,

To kill their gracious father? Damned fact!
How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight,
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear,

That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep?
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;
For, 'twould have angered any heart alive,
To hear the men deny it. So that, I say,
He has borne all things well; and I do think,
That, had he Duncan's sons under his key,

(As, an't please Heaven, he shall not,) they should find
What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance.
But peace!-for from broad words, and 'cause he

failed

His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear,
Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell
Where he bestows himself?

Lord.

The son of Duncan,

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,
Lives in the English court; and is received
Of the most pious Edward with such grace,
That the malevolence of fortune nothing
Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff
Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid
To wake Northumberland, and warlike Siward;
That, by the help of these, (with Him above
To ratify the work,) we may again

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights;
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives;
Do faithful homage, and receive free honors,
All which we pine for now. And this report
Hath so exasperate3 the king, that he
Prepares for some attempt of war.

1 "Who cannot want the thought," &c. The sense requires "who can want the thought;" but it is probably a lapse of the Poet's pen. 2 It has been shown that free sometimes meant pure, chaste, consequently unspotted, which may be its meaning here. Free also meant noble. 3 Exasperate, for exasperated.

Len.

Sent he to Macduff?

Lord. He did; and with an absolute, Sir, not I,
The cloudy messenger turns me his back,
And hums; as who should say, You'll rue the time
That clogs me with this answer.

Len.
And that well might
Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel
Fly to the court of England, and unfold
His message ere he come; that a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering country
Under a hand accursed!

Lord. I'll send my prayers with him!

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron,

Enter the three Witches.

1 Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.

2 Witch.

Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whined. 3 Witch. Harper cries:-'Tis time, 'tis time. 1 Witch. Round about the caldron go; In the poisoned entrails throw.Toad, that under coldest1 stone, Days and nights hast thirty-one Sweltered venom, sleeping got, Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!

2

All. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and, caldron, bubble.

1 "Coldest stone." The old copy reads "cold stone;" the emendation is Steevens's. Mr. Boswell thinks that the alteration was unnecessary. 2 Sweltered. This word is employed to signify that the animal was moistened with its own cold exudations.

2 Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake:
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's' sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

All. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and, caldron, bubble.

3 Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf;
Witch's mummy; maw and gulf 2

3

Of the ravined salt-sea shark;

Root of hemlock, digged i' the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat; and slips of yew,
Slivered in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe,
Ditch-delivered by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chawdron,5
For the ingredients of our caldron.

All. Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire, burn; and, caldron, bubble.

2 Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good.

1 The blind-worm is the slow-worm. 2 Gulf, the throat.

3 To ravin, according to Minshew, is to devour, to eat greedily. Ravined, therefore, may be glutted with prey; unless, with Malone, we suppose that Shakspeare used ravined for ravenous, the passive participle for the adjective. In Horman's Vulgaria, 1519, occurs "Thou art a ravenar of delycatis."

4 Sliver is a common word in the north, where it means to cut a piece or slice.

5 i. e. entrails; a word formerly in common use in books of cookery, in one of which, printed in 1597, is a receipt to make a pudding of a calf's chawdron.

Enter HECATE and the other three Witches.

Hec. O, well done! I commend your pains; And every one shall share i' the gains.

And now about the caldron sing,

Like elves and fairies in a ring,

Enchanting all that you put in.

SONG.1

Black spirits and white,
Red spirits and gray;
Mingle, mingle, mingle,

You that mingle may.

2 Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs,2
Something wicked this way comes.-
Open, locks, whoever knocks.

Enter МАСВЕТН.

Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight

What is't

All.

hags? you do?

A deed without a name.

Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, (Howe'er you come to know it,) answer me. Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches; though the yesty waves Confound and swallow navigation up;

Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down; Though castles topple on their warders' heads; Though palaces, and pyramids, do slope

1 "Black spirits and white." The original edition of this play only contains the two first words of this song; the entire stanza is found in The Witch, by Middleton, and is there called "A charme Song about a Vessel."

2 "By the pricking of my thumbs." It is a very ancient superstition, that all sudden pains of the body, and other sensations which could not naturally be accounted for, were presages of somewhat that was shortly to happen.

Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
Of nature's germins' tumble all together,
Even till destruction sicken,-answer me

1 Witch. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our

mouths,

Or from our masters'?

Macb.

Call them; let me see them.

1 Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; grease, that's sweaten From the murderer's gibbet, throw

Into the flame.

All.

Come, high, or low;

Thyself and office deftly show.

Thunder. An Apparition of an armed Head rises.3

Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power,

1 Witch.

He knows thy thought;

Hear his speech, but say thou nought.
App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!

Macduff;

Macbeth! beware

Beware the thane of Fife.-Dismiss me.-Enough.

[Descends.

Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution,

thanks;

Thou hast harped my fear aright.-But one word

more;

1 Witch. He will not be commanded.

another,

More potent than the first.

1 Germins, seeds which have begun to sprout or germinate.

2 Deftly is adroitly, dexterously.

Here's

3 The armed head represents, symbolically, Macbeth's head cut off and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child is Macduff, untimely ripped from his mother's womb. The child, with a crown on his head and a bough in his hand, is the royal Malcolm, who ordered his soldiers to hew them down a bough, and bear it before them to Dunsinane.

4 Harped, touched on a passion as a harper touches a string.