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SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, general of the English

forces.

Young SIWARD, his son.

SEYTON, an officer attending on Macbeth.

Son to Macduff.

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Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth.

HECATE, and three Witches.*

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and Messengers.

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.

As the play now stands, in Act IV. sc. i. three other witches make their ar pearance. See note the

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МАСВЕТН.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.—An open race. Thunder and Lightning. En

ter three Witches.

1 Witch.

WHEN shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

2 Witch. When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won :'

3 Witch. That will be ere set of sun.

1 Witch. Where the place?

2 Witch. Upon the heath:

3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin!

All. Paddock calls :-Anon.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

[Witches vanish.

SCENE II.

A Camp near Fores. Alarum within.

Enter King DUN

CAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with Attendants,

meeting a bleeding Soldier.

Dun. What bloody man is that?. He can report,

As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

WARBURTON.

[1] ie the battle in which Macheth was then engaged. [2] 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 ob serves, that to understand this passage, we should suppose one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad. STEEVENS.

(3) According to the late Dr. Goldsmith, and some other naturalists, a frog is called a paddock in the North. In Shakespeare, however, it certainly means a Lad. The representation of St. James in the witches' house (one of the set of prints taken from the painter called Helic Breugel, 1565,) exhibits witches flying Up and down the chimney on brooms: and before the fire sit grimalkin and paddock, i. e. a cat, and a fond, with several haboous. There is a cauldron boiling, with a' witch bear it cutting out the tongue of a snake, as an ingredient for the charm. STEEVENS.

The newest state.

Mal. This is the sergeant,

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

Sol. Doubtfully it stood;

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together, And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald (Worthy to be a rebel; for, to that,

The multiplying villanies of nature

Do swarm upon him,) from the western isles
Of Kernes and Gallowglasses is supplied;"
And fortune on his damned quarrel smiling,

Show'd like a rebel's whore: But all's too weak:
For brave Macbeth, (well he deserves that name,)
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smok'd with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion,

Carv'd out his passage, till he fac'd the slave;
And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to th' chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
Sol. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break;

[4] Whether supplied of, for supplied from or with, was a kind of Grecism of Shakespeare's expression; or whether of be a corruption of the editors, who took Kernes and Gallowglasses, which were only light and heavy armed foot, to be the names of two of the western islands, I don't know. WARBURTON.

Of and with are indiscriminately used by our ancient writers. STEEVENS. [5] We seldom hear of such terrible cross blows given and received but by giants and miscreants in Amadis de Gaule. Besides it must be a strange awkward stroke that could rip him upwards from the navel to the chaps. But Shakespeare certainly wrote:

-he unseam'd him from the nape to the chaps,

i. e. cut his skull in two; which might be done by a Highlander's sword. This was a reasonable blow, and very naturally expressed, on supposing it given when the head of the wearied combatant was reclining downwards at the latter end of a long duel. For the nape is the hinder part of the neck, where the vertebra join to the bone of the skull. The word unseamed likewise becomes very proper, and alludes to the suture which goes across the crown of the head in that direction called the sutura sagittalis: and which consequently, must be opened by such a stroke.

WARBURTON.

[6] The thought is expressed with some obscurity, but the plain meaning is this: "As the same quarter, whence the blessing of day-light arises, sometimes sends us, by a dreadful reverse, the calamities of storms and tempests; so the glorious event of Macbeth's victory, which promised us the comforts of peace, was immediately succeeded by the alarming news of the Norweyan invasion."

STEEVENS.

So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to come,
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd,

Compell'd these skipping Kernes to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,

With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

Dun. Dismay'd not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo ?
Sol. Yes;

As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion.

If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks;
So they

Doubly 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.

Dun. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds; They smack of honour both :-Go, get him surgeons.

-Who comes here?

Enter ROSSE.

[Exit Soldier, attended.

Mal. The worthy thane of Rosse.

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should

he look,

That seems to speak things strange.

Rosse. God save the king!

Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?

Rosse. From Fife, great king,

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,

And fan our people cold.

Norway himself, with terrible numbers,

Assisted by that most disloyal traitor

The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict:

Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,'

Confronted him with self-comparisons,

[8] i. e. or make another Golgotha, which should be celebrated and delivered down to posterity, with as frequent mention as the first. HEATH.

[9] The banners may be poetically described as waving in mockery or defiance of the sky. STEEVENS.

[1] Lapt in proof, is, defended by armour of proof. STEEVENS.
[2] i. e. gave him as good as he brought, shew'd he was his equal.

WARBURTON.

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