HEC. Have I not reason, beldams, as you are,
Saucy, and overbold? How did you dare
To trade and traffick with Macbeth,

In riddles, and affairs of death;
And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or fhow the glory of our art?

And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward fon,
Spiteful, and wrathful; who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for you."

"Plutoe's blew fire, and Hecat's tree,
"With magick spells fo compass thee."

7 - for a wayward fon,

Dr. Fauftus. MALONE.

Spiteful, and wrathful; who, as others do,

Loves for his own ends, not for you.] Inequality of measure, (the first of thefe lines being a foot longer than the fecond) together with the unneceffary and weak comparifon-as others do, incline me to regard the paffage before us as both maimed and interpolated, Perhaps it originally ran thus:

for a wayward fon,

A fpiteful and a wrathful, who

Loves for his own ends, not for you.

But the repetition of the article a being cafually omitted by fome tranfcriber for the theatre, the verfe became too fhort, and a fresh conclufion to it was fupplied by the amanuenfis, who overlooked the legitimate rhyme who, when he copied the play for publication.

If it be neceffary to exemplify the particular phrafeology introduced by way of amendment, a paffage in the Witch by Middleton, will fufficiently answer that purpose:

What death is't you defire for Almachildes?—

A fudden, and a fubtle.

See alfo

In this inftance, the repeated article a is alfo placed before two adjectives referring to a fubftantive in the preceding line. The Pafton Letters, Vol. IV. p. 155: " Pray God send us a good world and a peaceable." Again, in our author's King Henry IV: "A good portly man, i'faith, and a corpulent."

Again, in an ancient MS. entitled The boke of huntyng, that is cleped mayfter of game: "It [the Boar] is a prowde beeft, a feers, and a perilous." STEEVENS.

But make amends now: Get you gone,
And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i'the morning; thither he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your veffels, and your spells, provide,
Your charms, and every thing beside :
I am for the air; this night I'll spend
Unto a difmal-fatal end."

Great business must be wrought ere noon;
Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vaporous drop profound; *
I'll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that, diftill'd by magick flights,3
Shall raife fuch artificial fprights,
As, by the strength of their illufion,
Shall draw him on to his confufion:

8 the pit of Acheron-] Shakspeare feems to have thought it allowable to beftow the name of Acheron on any fountain, lake, or pit, through which there was vulgarly fuppofed to be a communication between this and the infernal world. The true original Acheron was a river in Greece; and yet Virgil gives this name to his lake in the valley of Amsanctus in Italy. STEEVENS.

9 Unto a difmal-fatal end.] The old copy violates the metre by needlefs addition:

Unto a difmal and a fatal end.

I read difmal-fatal. Shakspeare, as Mr. Tyrwhitt obferves in a note on King Richard III. is fond of these compound epithets, in which the first adjective is to be confidered as an adverb. So, in that play we meet with childish-foolish, fenfeless-obftinate, and mortalfaring. STEEVENS.

2 vaporous drop profound;] That is, a drop that has profound, deep, or hidden qualities. JOHNSON.

This vaporous drop feems to have been meant for the fame as the virus lunare of the ancients, being a foam which the moon was fuppofed to fhed on particular herbs, or other objects, when Atrongly folicited by enchantment. Lucan introduces Erictho ufing it. 1.6:

66

et virus large lunare miniftrat." STEEVENS. 3 flights,] Arts; fubtle practices. JOHNSON.

He shall spurn fate, fcorn death, and bear
His hopes 'bove wifdom, grace, and fear:
And you all know, fecurity

Is mortals' chiefeft enemy.

SONG. [within.] Come away, come away,* &c. Hark, I am call'd; my little fpirit, see, Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.

[Exit.

1. WITCH. Come, let's make hafte; fhe'll foon be back again.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Fores. A Room in the Palace.

Enter LENOX, and another Lord."

LEN. My former fpeeches have but hit your thoughts,

Come away, come away, &c.] This entire fong I found in a MS. dramatic piece, entitled, "A Tragi-Coomodie called THE WITCH; long fince acted &c. written by Thomas Middleton." The Hecate of Shakspeare has faid—

"I am for the air," &c.

The Hecate of Middleton (who, like the former, is fummoned away by aerial fpirits) has the fame declaration in almost the fame words

Song.]

"I am for aloft" &c.

"Come away, come away:
"Heccat, Heccat, come away," &c.

}

in the aire.

See my note among Mr. Malone's Prolegomena, Article Macbeth, [Vol. I.] where other coincidences &c. are pointed out. STEEVENS.

s Enter Lenox, and another Lord.] As this tragedy, like the reft of Shakspeare's, is perhaps overftocked with perfonages, it is not eafy to allign a reafon why a nameless character fhould be introduced here, fince nothing is faid that might not with equal propriety have been put into the mouth of any other difaffected man.

Which can interpret further: only, I fay,

Things have been ftrangely borne: The gracious Duncan

Was pitied of Macbeth :-marry, he was dead :-
And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late;
Whom, you may fay, if it please you, Fleance
kill'd,

For Fleance fled. Men muft not walk too late.
Who cannot want the thought,' how monftrous'
It was for Malcolm, and for Donalbain,

To kill their gracious father? damned fact!
How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight,
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear,

That were the flaves of drink, and thralls of sleep?
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wifely too;
For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive,
To hear the men deny it. So that, I fay,
He has borne all things well: and I do think,
That, had he Duncan's fons under his key,
(As, an't please heaven, he shall not,) they should
find

What 'twere to kill a father; fo fhould Fleance. But, peace!-for from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd

His prefence at the tyrant's feaft, I hear,

I believe therefore that in the original copy it was written with a very common form of contraction Lenox and An. for which the tranfcriber, inftead of Lenox and Angus, fet down Lenox and another Lord. The author had indeed been more indebted to the tranfcriber's fidelity and diligence, had he committed no errors of greater importance. JOHNSON.

5 Who cannot want the thought,] The fenfe requires:

Who can want the thought

Yet, I believe, the text is not corrupt. Shakspeare is fometimes incorrect in these minutie. MALONE.

monstrous] This word is here ufed as a trifyllable.

MALONE.

Macduff lives in difgrace: Sir, can you tell
Where he beftows himself?

LORD.

The fon of Duncan,"
From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,
Lives in the English court; and is receiv'd
Of the most pious Edward with fuch grace,
That the malevolence of fortune nothing
Takes from his high refpect: Thither Macduff
Is gone to pray the holy king, on his aid 8
To wake Northumberland, and warlike Siward:
That, by the help of thefe, (with Him above
To ratify the work,) we may again

Give to our tables meat, fleep to our nights;
Free from our feafts and banquets bloody knives;
Do faithful homage, and receive free honours,*
All which we pine for now: And this report
Hath fo exasperate the king, that he

The fon of Duncan,] The old copy-fons. MALONE. Theobald corrected it. JOHNSON.

8 on his aid —] Old copy-upon. STEEVENS.

9 Free from our feafts and banquets bloody knives;] The conftruction is-Free our feafts and banquets from bloody knives. Perhaps the words are transposed, and the line originally flood:

Our feafts and banquets free from bloody knives. MALONE. Aukward tranfpofitions in ancient language are fo frequent, that the paffage before us might have pafied unfufpected, had there not been a poffibility that the compofitor's eye caught the word free from the line immediately following. We might read, fright, or fray (a verb commonly used by old writers) but any change perhaps is needlefs. STEEVENS.

2

and receive free honours,] Free may be either honours freely beflowed, not purchafed by crimes; or honours without flavery, without dread of a tyrant. JOHNSON.

3exafperate-] i. e. exafperated. So contaminate is ufed for contaminated in K. Henry V. STEEVENS.

4 the king,] i. e. Macbeth. The old copy has, lefs intelligibly, their. STEEVENS.