2. WITCH. By the pricking of my thumbs," Something wicked this way comes:―― Open, locks, whoever knocks. Enter MACBETH. MACB. How now, you fecret, black, and midnight. hags? What is't you do? ALL. A deed without a name. 3 MACB. I conjure you, by that which you profess, (Howe'er you come to know it,) anfwer me: Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Again the churches; though the yefty waves Confound and fwallow navigation up; Though bladed corn be lodg'd, 4 and trees blown down; The fong was in all probability a traditional one. The colours of fpirits are often mentioned. So, in Monfieur Thomas, 1659: Be thou black, or white, or green, Be thou heard, or to be feen." Perhaps, indeed, this mufical fcrap (which does not well accord with the ferious bufinefs of the fcene) was introduced by the players, without the fuggeftion of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. Reginald Scot in his Difcovery of Withcraft, 1584, enumerating the different kinds of fpirits, particularly mentions white, black, grey, and red spirits. See also a paffage quoted from Camden, ante, p. 181, n. 8. The modern editions, without authority, read— Blas fpirits and grey. MALONE. By the pricking of my thumbs, &c.] It is a very ancient fuperftition, that all fudden pains of the body, and other fenfations which could not naturally be accounted for, were prefages of fomewhat that was fhortly to happen. Hence Mr. Upton has explained a paffage in The Miles Gloriofus of Plautus: " Timeo quod rerum gefferim hic, ita dorfus totus prurit." STEEVENS. 3 ·yefty waves- That is foaming or frothy waves. JOHNSON. 4 Though bladed corn be lodg'd, ] So, in K. Richard II: 1 4 Though caftles topple on their warders' heads; fure Of nature's germins 5 tumble all together, 1. WITCH. Say, if thou'dft rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters'? МАСВ. Call them, let me fee them. 1. WITCH. Pour in fow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; greafe, that's sweaten Again, in King Henry VI. P. II: "Like to the fummer corn by tempeft lodg'd." Corn, proftrated by the wind, in modern language, is faid to be lay'd; but lodg'd had anciently, the fame meaning. RITSON. 4 Though caffles topple――] Topple, is used for tumble. So, in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion, A& IV. fc. iii : "That I might pile up Charon's boat so full, "Until it topple o'er." Again, in Shirley's Gentleman of Venice: may be, his hafte hath toppled him "Into the river." Again, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: "The very principals did feem to rend, and all to topple." STEEVENS. 5 Of nature's germins. ] This was fubftituted by Theobald for Nature's germaine. JOHNSON. So, in K. Lear, A& III. fc. ii: men, all germins fpill at once "That make ungrateful man." Germins are feeds which have begun to germinate or fprout. GerLat. Germe, Fr. Germe is a word ufed by Brown in his Vulgar Errors: "Whether it be not made out of the germe or treadle of the egg," &c. STEEVENS. 1 From the murderer's gibbet, throw Into the flame. ALL. Come, high, or low; 6 Thyfelf, and office, deftly fhow. " Thunder. An Apparition of an armed head rifes." MACB. Tell me, thou unknown power,- 1. WITCH. He knows thy thought; Hear his fpeech, but say thou nought. 8 APP. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; Beware the thane of Fife.9-Difmifs me :-Enough. [ defcends. 6 deftly how. i. e. with adroitness, dexterously. So, in the fecond part of K. Edward IV. by Heywood, 1626: 66 my miftress speaks deftly and truly." Deft is a North Country word. So, in Richard Brome's Northern Lafs, 1633: 7 An Apparition of an armed head rifes. ] The armed head represents fymbolically Macbeth's head cut off and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child is Macduff untimely ripp'd 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 foldiers to hew them down a bough, and bear it before them to Dunfinane. This obfervation I have adopted from Mr. Upton. STEEVens. Lord Howard, in his Defenfative against the Poison of supposed Prophecies, mentions, “a notable example of a conjuror, who reprefented (as it were, in dumb fhow) all the perfons who fhould poffefs the crown of France; and caufed the king of Navarre, or rather a wicked spirit in his ftead, to appear in the fifth place," &c. FARMER. 8 - Say thou nought.] Silence was neceffary during all incantations. So, in Dr. Fauftus, 1604: "Your grace, demand no queftions, "But in dumb filence let them come and go." Again, in The Tempest: ་་ be mute, or else our spell is marr'd." STEEVENS. 9 Beware the thane of Fife.-] 66 He had learned of certain MACB. What-e'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks; Thou haft harp'd my fear aright: 2-But one word' 1. WITCH. He will not be commanded: Here's another, More potent than the firft. Thunder. An Apparition of a bloody child rifes. App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!- MACB. Had I three ears, I'd hear thee. APP. Be bloody, bold, and resolute : laugh to scorn The power of man; for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. 3 [defcends. MACB. Then live, Macduff; What need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make affurance double fure, wizzards, in whofe words he put great confidence, how that he ought to take heede of Macduff," &c. Holinfhed. STEEVENS. 2 Thou haft harp'd my fear aright:] paffion as a harper touches a ftring. fc. ult: "Harp on that fill." STEEVENS. To harp, is to touch on a 3 Shall harm Macbeth. ] So, Holinfhed: "And furely hereupon he had put Macduff to death, but that a certeine witch, whom he had in great truft, had told him, that he should never be flaine with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the caftell of Dunsinane. This prophecie put all feare out of his heart. STEEVENS. 4 take a bond of fate:] In this fcene the attorney has more than once degraded the poet; for presently we have the lease of nature." STEEVENS. Thunder. An Apparition of a child crowned, with a tree in his hand, rifes. That rifes like the iffue of a king; And wears upon his baby brow the round ALL. 6 Liften, but fpeak not. APP. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where confpirers are: Macbeth fhall never vanquifh'd be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill' Shall come against him. MACB. 8 [defcends. That will never be: Who can impress the foreft; bid the tree And top of fovereignty?] The round is that part of the crown that encircles the head. it. JOHNSON. Liflen, but speak not.] The old copy, injuriously to measure, reads 7 Liften, but fpeak not to't. STEEVENS. high Dunfinane hill] The prefent quantity of Dunfinane is right. In every subsequent inftance the accent is misplaced. Thus, in Hervey's Life of King Robert Bruce, 1729 (a good authority): fell." RITSON. "The noble Weemyfs, Mc duff's immortal fon, "Mc duff! th' afferter of the Scottish throne; "Whose deeds let Birnam and Dunfinnan tell, "When Canmore battled, and the villain Prophefies of apparent impoffibilities were common in Scotland; fuch as the removal of one place to another. Under this popular prophetick formulary the prefent prediction may be ranked. In the fame ftrain peculiar to his country, fays Sir David Lindsay: 66 Quhen the Bas and the Isle of May "Beis fet upon the Mount Sinay, "Quhen the Lowmound befyde Falkland "Be liftit to Northumberland." T. WARTON. Who can imprefs the foreft; } i. e. who can command the foreft to ferve him like a foldier imprefs'd. JOHNSON. + MC. beth. |