3 3 WITCH. That will be ere set of fun.3 1 WITCH. Where the place ? 2 WITCH. Upon the heath : 3 WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth.4 ere Set of fun.] The old copy unnecessarily and ere the fet of fun. STEEVENS. harshly reads * There to meet with Macbeth.] Thus the old copy. Mr. Pope, and, after him, other editors: There I go to meet Macbeth. The infertion, however, seems to be injudicious. To meet with Macbeth was the final drift of all the Witches in going to the heath, and not the particular business or motive of any one of them in diftinction from the rest; as the interpolated words, I go, in the mouth of the third Witch, would most certainly imply. Somewhat, however, (as the verse is evidently imperfect,) must have been left out by the tranfcriber or printer. Mr. Capell has therefore proposed to remedy this defect, by reading There to meet with brave Macbeth. But furely, to beings intent only on mischief, a foldier's bravery, in an honest cause, would have been no subject of encomium. Mr. Malone (omitting all previous remarks, &c. on this pafsage) assures us, that" There is here used as a dissyllable." I wish he had supported his affertion by some example. Those, however, who can speak the line thus regulated, and suppose they are reciting a verse, may profit by the direction they have received. The pronoun "their," having two vowels together, may be split into two fyllables; but the adverb "there" can only be used as a monosyllable, unless pronounced as if it were written "the-re," a licence in which even Chaucer has not indulged himself. It was convenient for Shakspeare's introductory scene, that his first Witch should appear uninftructed in her mission. Had she not required information, the audience must have remained ignorant of what it was necessary for them to know. Her speeches, therefore, proceed in the form of interrogatories; but, all on a sudden, an answer is given to a question which had not been asked. Here seems to be a chasm, which I shall attempt 1 WITCH. I come, Graymalkin !5 ALL. Paddock calls: - Anon.6 to fupply by the introduction of a fingle pronoun, and by diftributing the hitherto mutilated line among the three speakers : 3 Witch. There to meet with 1 Witch. 2 Witch. Whom? Macbeth, Diftinct replies have now been afforded to the three neceffary enquiries-When-Where-and Whom the Witches were to meet. Their conference receives no injury from my infertion and arrangement. On the contrary, the dialogue becomes more regular and consistent, as each of the hags will now have spoken thrice (a magical number) before they join in utterance of the concluding words, which relate only to themselves. should add that, in the two prior instances, it is also the second Witch who furnishes decisive and material answers; and that I would give the words " I come, Graymalkin!" to the third. By afsistance from fuch of our author's plays as had been published in quarto, we have often detected more important errors in the folio 1623, which, unluckily, supplies the most ancient copy of Macbeth, STEEVENS. 5 -Graymalkin!] 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 observes, that, to understand this passage, we should fuppofe one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad. Again, in Newes from Scotland, &c. (a pamphlet of which the reader will find the entire title in a future note on this play): "Moreover she confessed, that at the time when his majestie was in Denmarke, shee beeing accompanied with the parties before specially mentioned, tooke a cat and chriftened it, and afterward bound to each part of that cat the cheefeft part of a dead man, and several joyntes of his bodie, and that in the night following the faid cat was convayed into the middeft of the sea by all these witches sayling in their riddles or cives as is aforesaid, and so left the said cat right before the towne of Leith in Scotland. This donne, there did arise such a tempeft in the sea, as a greater hath not bene seene," &c. STEEVENS. • Paddock calls:-&c.] This, with the two following lines, is given in the folio to the three Witches. Some preceding editors have appropriated the first of them to the second Witch. Fair is foul, and foul is fair: 7 [Witches vanish. According to the late Dr. Goldsmith, and some other naturalifts, a frog is called a paddock in the North; as in the following instance, in Cæfar and Pompey, by Chapman, 1607; "Paddockes, todes, and watersnakes." Again, in Wyntownis Cronykil, B. I. c. xiii. 55: "As ask, or eddyre, tade, or pade." In Shakspeare, however, it certainly means a toad. The representation of St. James in the witches' house (one of the set of prints taken from the painter called Hellish Breugel, 1566,) exhibits witches flying up and down the chimney on brooms; and before the fire fit grimalkin and paddock, i. e. a cat, and a toad, with several baboons. There is a cauldron boiling, with a witch near it, cutting out the tongue of a snake, as an ingredient for the charm. A representation somewhat fimilar likewife occurs in Newes from Scotland, &c. a pamphlet already quoted. STEEVENS. "Some say, they [witches] can keepe devils and spirits, in the likeness of todes and cats." Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, [1584] Book I. c. iv. TOLLET. 1 Fair is foul, and foul is fair:] i. e. we make these sudden changes of the weather. And Macbeth, speaking of this day, foon after says: So foul and fair a day I have not seen. WARBURTON. The common idea of witches has always been, that they had absolute power over the weather, and could raise storms of any kind, or allay them, as they pleased. In conformity to this notion, Macbeth addresses them, in the fourth Act: Though you untie the winds, &c. STEEVENS. I believe the meaning is, that to us, perverse and malignant as we are, fair is foul, and foul is fair. JOHNSON. This expression seems to have been proverbial. Spenser has it in the 4th Book of the Fairy Queen : Then fair grew foul, and foul grew fair in fight." SCENE II. A Camp near Fores. Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Soldier, Duy. What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state. MAL. This is the fergeant, Who, like a good and hardy foldier, fought 'Gainst my captivity:-Hail, brave friend! This is the sergeant,) Holinshed is the best interpreter of Shakspeare in his historical plays; for he not only takes his facts from him, but often his very words and expreffions. That hiftorian, in his account of Macdowald's rebellion, mentions, that on the first appearance of a mutinous spirit among the people, the king sent a fergeant at arms into the country, to bring up the chief offenders to answer the charge preferred againft them; but they, instead of obeying, misused the messenger with fundry reproaches, and finally flew him. This fergeant at arms is certainly the origin of the bleeding fergeant introduced on the prefent occafion. Shakspeare just caught the name from Holinshed, but the rest of the story not suiting his purpose, he does not adhere to it. The stage-direction of entrance, where the bleeding captain is mentioned, was probably the work of the player editors, and not of the poet. Sergeant, however, (as the ingenious compiler of the Gloffary to A. of Wyntown's Cronykil observes,) is " a degree in military service now unknown." "Of fergeandys thare and knychtis kene "He gat a gret cumpany." B. VIII. ch. xxvi. v. 396. The fame word occurs again in the fourth Poem of Lawrence Minot, p. 19: "He hasted him to the swin, with fergantes snell, "To mete with the Normandes that fals war and fell." According to M. le Grand, (says Mr. Ritson) fergeants were a fort of gens d'armes. STEEVENS. Say to the king the knowledge of the broil, SOLD. (Worthy to be a rebel; for, to that, Doubtfully it flood ;) Mr. Pope, who introduced the epithet long, to assist the metre, and reads Doubtful long it ftood, has thereby injured the sense. If the comparison was meant to coincide in all eircumstances, the struggle could not be long. I read Doubtfully it ftood; The old copy has-Doubtfull-fo that my addition confifts of but a fingle letter. STEEVENS. 1 - Macdonwald-] Thus the old copy. According to Holinshed we should read-Macdowald. STEEVENS. So also the Scottish Chronicles. However, it is poffible that Shakspeare might have preferred the name that has been fubstituted, as better founding. It appears from a subsequent scene that he had attentively read Holinshed's account of the murder of King Duff, by Donwald, Lieutenant of the caftle of Fores; in confequence of which he might, either from inadvertence, or choice, have here written-Macdonwald. 2 MALONE. to that, &c.] i. e. in addition to that. So, in Troilus and Cressida, Act I. se. i: "The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength, " Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant." The foldier who describes Macdonwald, seems to mean, that, in addition to his affumed character of rebel, he abounds with the numerous enormities to which man, in his natural state, is liable. STEEVENS. 3-from the western isles Of Kernes and Gallowglasses is supplied;] Whether fupplied of, for supplied from or with, was a kind of Grecism of Shakipeare's expreffion; or whether of be a corruption of the |