Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner That he seems rapt withal'; to me you speak not: And say, which grain will grow, and which will not; 1 WITCH. Hail! 2 WITCH. Hail! 3 WITCH. Hail! cording to the veritie, but according to the appearance." The same expression occurs in All's Lost by Lust, 1633, by Rowley : or is that thing, 66 "Which would supply the place of soul in thee, Shakspeare, however, took the word from Holinshed, who in his account of the witches, says: "This was reputed at first but some vain fantastical illusion by Macbeth and Banquo." The word occurs afterwards in this play: STEEVENS. "My thought, whose murder's but fantastical." So, in Massinger's Maid of Honour : 66 How he stares, and feels his legs, "As yet uncertain whether it can be "True or fantastical." Boswell. Of noble HAVING,] Having is estate, possession, fortune. So, in Twelfth-Night: 66 my having is not much; "I'll make division of my present store: Again, in the ancient metrical romance of Syr Bevys of Hampton, bl. 1. no date : "And when he heareth this tydinge, "He will go theder with great having." See also note on The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III. Sc. II. STEEVENS. 7 That he seems RAPT withal;] Rapt is rapturously affected, extra se raplus. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, iv. ix. 6: That, with the sweetness of her rare delight, "The prince half rapt, began on her to dote." 66 Again, in Cymbeline: 66 What, dear sir, thus raps you?" STEEVENS. 1 WITCH. Lesser 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 am thane of Glamis ; No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetick greeting ?-Speak, I charge [Witches vanish. you. BAN. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them: of them :-Whither are they. vanish'd ? MACB. Into the air; and what seem'd corporal, melted As breath into the wind.-'Would they had staid ! BAN. Were such things here, as we do speak about? 8 By Sinel's death,] The father of Macbeth. POPE. His true name, which however appears, but perhaps only typographically, corrupted to Synele in Hector Boethius, from whom, by means of his old Scottish translator, it came to the knowledge of Holinshed, was Finleg. Both Finlay and Macbeath are common surnames in Scotland at this moment. RITSON. Synele for Finleg, seems a very extraordinary typographical corruption. The late Dr. Beattie conjectured that the real name of the family was Sinane, and that Dunsinane, or the hill of Sinane, from thence derived its appellation. Boswell. 9-blasted heath-] Thus, after Shakspeare, Milton, Paradise Lost, b. i. 615: 66 66 their stately growth though bare Stands on the blasted heath." STEEVENS. Or have we eaten of the insane root', 1 MACB. Your children shall be kings. BAN. You shall be king. MACB. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so? eaten of the INSANE ROOT,] The insane root is the root which makes insane. THEOBALD. The old copies read-" on the insane root.” REED. Shakspeare alludes to the qualities anciently ascribed to hemlock. So, in Greene's Never too Late, 1616: "You gaz'd against and so blemished your sight; or else you have eaten of the roots of hemlock, that makes men's eyes conceit unseen objects.” Again, in Ben Jonson's Sejanus: the sun, 66 they lay that hold upon thy senses, "As thou hadst snuft up hemlock." STEEVENS. This quality was anciently attributed to other roots, besides hemlock. In Buchanan's History of Scotland, b. vii. Duncan King of Scotland destroys the invading army of Sueno King of Norway, by sending him provisions steeped in nightshade, solanum somniferum, which is fully described, and this property mentioned: "Vis fructui, radici, ac maximè semini somnifera, et quæ in amentiam si largius sumantur agat." Shakspeare may have also recollected a passage in North's translation of Plutarch. In the Life of Antony, (which our author must have diligently read,) the Roman soldiers, while employed in the Parthian war, are said to have suffered great distress for want of provisions. "In the ende (says Plutarch) they were compelled to live of herbs and rootes, but they found few of them that men do commonly eate of, and were enforced to taste of them that were never eaten before; among the which there was one that killed them, and made them out of their wits; for he that had once eaten of it, his memorye was gone from him, and he knew no manner of thing, but only busied himself in digging and hurling of stones from one place to another, as though it had been a matter of great waight, and to be done with all possible speede." MALONE. There is another book which has been shown to have been also read, and even studied, by the poet, and wherein, it is presumed, he actually found the name of the above root. This will appear from the following passage: "Henbane .... is called Insana, mad, for the use thereof is perillous; for if it be eate or dronke, it breedeth madnesse, or slow lykenesse of sleepe. Therefore this hearb is called commonly Mirilidium, for it taketh away wit and reason." Batman Uppon Bartholome de propriet. rerum, lib. xvii. ch. 87. DOUCE. BAN. To the self-same tune, and words. Who's here ? Enter Rosse and ANGUS. ROSSE. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, Which should be thine, or his: Silenc'd with that2, 2 His wonders and his praises do contend, Which should be thine, or his, &c.] i. e. private admiration of your deeds, and a desire to do them public justice by commendation, contend in his mind for pre-eminence,-Or,-There is a contest in his mind whether he should indulge his desire of publishing to the world the commendations due to your heroism, or whether he should remain in silent admiration of what no words could celebrate in proportion to its desert. Mr. M. Mason would read wonder, not wonders; for, says he, "I believe the word wonder, in the sense of admiration, has no plural." In modern language it certainly has none; yet I cannot help thinking that, in the present instance, plural was opposed to plural by Shakspeare. STEEVENS. "Silenc'd with that." i. e. wrapp'd in silent wonder at the deeds performed by Macbeth, &c. MALONE. 3 As thick as TALE,] Meaning, that the news came as thick as a tale can travel with the post. Or we may read, perhaps, yet better: As thick as tale, "Came post with post That is, posts arrived as fast as they could be counted. JOHNSON. "Tidings, as swiftly as the post could run, Mr. Rowe reads-" as thick as hail. STEEVENS. The old copy reads-Can post. The emendation is Mr. Rowe's. Dr. Johnson's explanation would be less exceptionable, if the old copy had-As quick as tale." Thick applies but ill to tale, and seems rather to favour Mr. Rowe's emendation. Came post with post; and every one did bear ANG. We are sent, To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; Not pay thee. 4 ROSSE. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor: In which addition, hail, most worthy thane! For it is thine. BAN. What, can the devil speak true? MACB. The thane of Cawdor lives; Why do you dress me In borrow'd robes? ANG. Who was the thane, lives yet; "As thick as hail," as an anonymous correspondent observes to me, is an expression in the old play of King John, 1591: breathe out damned orisons, "As thick as hail-stones 'fore the spring's approach." The emendation of the word can is supported by a passage in King Henry IV. Part II. : "And there are twenty weak and wearied posts, "Come from the north." MALONE. Dr. Johnson's explanation is perfectly justifiable. As thick, in ancient language, signified as fast. To speak thick, in our author, does not therefore mean, to have a cloudy indistinct utterance, but to deliver words with rapidity. So, in Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. II. : 66 66 say, and speak thick, (Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing Again, in King Henry IV. Part II. Act II. Sc. III. : "For those that could speak low and tardily, "Would turn, &c.-To seem like him." Thick therefore is not less applicable to tale, the old reading, than to hail, the alteration of Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS. 4 To herald thee, &c.] The old copy redundantly reads—Only to herald thee, &c. STEEVENS. |