i Were they not forced with those that should be ours, We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat them backward home. What is that noise? [A cry within, of women. Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears : The time has been, my senses would have cooled To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir As life were in 't: I have supped full with hor rors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me. - Wherefore was that cry? Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead. Mach. She should have died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word.To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. That was not born of woman? Such a one Am I to fear, or none. Enter Young SIWARD. Yo. Siw. What is thy name? Macb. Thou 'lt be afraid to hear it. Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a hotter name Than any is in hell. Macb. My name's Macbeth. Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pro nounce a title More hateful to mine ear. Macb. No, nor more fearful. They say, he parted well, and paid his score: So God be with him! - Here comes newer comfort. Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's head on a pole. Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands The usurper's curséd head: the time is free: Hail, king of Scotland! [Flourish. Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of time Before we reckon with your several loves, And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland [Flourish. Exeunt. NOTES. "When the hurlyburly's done." -Act I., Scene 1. Peacham, in his "GARDEN OF ELOQUENCE," elevates the now vulgar phrase "hurlyburly" into one of the ornaments of language:"Onomatopeia: when we invent, devise, feign, and make a name intimating the sound of that it signifieth; as hurlyburly, for an uproar and tumultuous stir." "IST WITCH. I come, Graymalkin. Here, it is probable, we should suppose one familiar calling with the voice of a cat, and another with the croaking of a toad. "Of kernes and gallowglasses is supplied."-Act I., Scene 2. Barnaby Riche, in his "NEW IRISH PROGNOSTICATION," describes the troops here mentioned:-"The galloglas succeedeth the horseman, and he is commonly armed with a seull, a shirt of mail, and a galloglas axe." The kernes, he denounces as "the very dross and scum of the country; a generation of villains not fit to live." "Till he disbursed, at St. Colmés' inch."-Act I., Scene 2. Colmes' inch, now called Inchcomb, is a small island, lying in the frith of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it, dedicated to St. Columb; called by Camden, Inch Colm, or the Isle of Columba. Inch, or inche, in the Irish and Erse languages, signifies an island. Holinshed thus relates the circumstance alluded to in the play: "The Danes that escaped, and got once to their ships, obtained of Macbeth, for a great sum of gold, that such of their friends as were slain might be buried in St. Colmes' inch. In memory whereof, many old sepultures are yet in the said inch there to be seen, graven with the arms of the Danes." The rebellion of Macdonwald, and the invasion by Sweno, were not, in reality, contemporaneous events. The facts are these:-During the reign of Duncan, Banquo having been plundered, by the people of Lochaber, of some of the king's revenue, and being dangerously wounded in the affray, the parties concerned in the outrage were summoned to appear at a certain day. This led to the formidable rebellion headed by Macdonwald, which was finally suppressed by Macbeth and Banquo. It was at a subsequent period, in the last year of Duncan's reign, that Sweno, King of Norway, invaded Scotland. Duncan's successful generals were again employed. Sweno won the first battle, but was routed in the second with great slaughter, and escaped to Norway with very few followers. Shakspere has effectively woven these two incidents together; and immediately after the defeat of Sweno, the action of the play commences. "But in a sieve I'll thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail."-Act I., Scene 3. In a book "declaring the damnable life of Doctor Fian," is the following passage:--"All they (the witches) together went to sea, each one in a riddle or sieve; and went in the same very substantially, with flagons of wine, making merry and drinking by the way, in the same riddles or sieves." "It was imagined," says Steevens, "that, though a witch could assume the form of any animal she pleased, the tail would still be wanting. This deficiency has been thus accounted for though the hands and feet might, by an easy change, be converted into the four paws of a beast, still there was no part about a woman which corresponded to the length of tail common to almost all our four-footed animals." "I'll give thee a wind."-Act I., Scene 3. This was making a present of what was usually sold. In "SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT," we find :"In Ireland and in Denmark both, Witches for gold will sell a man a wind, "Weary seven nights, nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine." -Act I., Scene 3. This mischief was supposed to be effected by means of a waxen figure, which represented the person who was to be consumed by slow degrees. "The weird sisters, hand in hand."-Act I., Scene 3. Weird signifies prophetic. Gawin Douglas, in his translation of "VIRGIL," renders the Parcæ (or Fates) by the term weird sisters. -" What are these, So withered, and so wild in their attire?"-Act I., Scene 3. The circumstances attending this encounter of Macbeth and Banquo with the Witches are minutely detailed by Holinshed. Shakspere has followed the stream of the colloquy, but greatly enriched it with poetic ornament. "By Sinel's death, I know I am thane of Cawdor." Act I., Scene 3. Sinel, according to Holinshed, was the name of Macbeth's father. "Or have we eaten of the insane root, That takes the reason prisoner?"-Act I., Scene 3. This alludes to the qualities anciently ascribed to hemlock. In Greene's "NEVER TOO LATE." 1616, we have "You gazed against the sun, and so blemished your sight; or else you have eaten of the roots of hemlock, that makes men's eyes conceit unseen objects." " Function Is smothered in surmise; and nothing is, Dr. Johnson has thus explained this obscure passage:"All powers of action are opposed and crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future." "We will establish our estate upon Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter, Cumberland was, at the time in question, held by Scotland of the crown of England, as a fief. Prince of Cumberland was the title borne by the declared successor to the throne of Scotland. A short extract from Holinshed 1, |