Though caftles topple on their warders' heads; Their heads to their foundations; though the treafure Of nature's germins ' tumble all together, 1. WITCH. Say, if thou'dft rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters'? MACB. Call them, let me fee them. 1. WITCH.Pour in fow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; grease, 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, Act IV. sc. iii : "That I might pile up Charon's boat fo full, 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 Natures germaine. JOHNSON. all germins fpill at once "That make ungrateful man." Germins are feeds which have begun to germinate or sprout. Germen, Lat. 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. From the murderer's gibbet, throw Into the flame. ALL. Come, high, or low; Thyself, and office, deftly fhow." Thunder. An Apparition of an armed head rifes." MACB. Tell me, thou unknown power, I. WITCH. He knows thy thought; Hear his fpeech, but fay thou nought.8 APP. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; Beware the thane of Fife.'-Difmifs me :-Enough. 6 [defcends. deftly bow.] i. e. with adroitnefs, dexteroufly. So, in the fecond part of K. Edward IV. by Heywood, 1626: my mistress speaks deftly and truly.” Deft is a North Country word. So, in Richard Brome's Northern Lafs, 1633: He said I were a deft lafs." STEEVENS. 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 Poifon 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 fpirit in his ftead, to appear in the fifth place," &c. FARMER. 8 fay 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 Tempeft: be mute, or elfe our fpell is marr'd." STEEVENS. He had learned of certain ? Beware the thane of Fife.-] 66 MACB. What-e'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks; Thou haft harp'd my fear aright: 2-But one word more: 1. WITCH. He will not be commanded: Here's another, More potent than the first. 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 refolute : laugh to fcorn [defcends. MACB. Then live, Macduff; What need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make affurance double fure, And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live; wizzards, in whose 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:] To harp, is to touch on a paffion as a harper touches a ftring. So, in Coriolanus, A& II. fc. ult: 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 vanquifhed till the wood of Bernane came to the caftell of Dunfinane. 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, rises. That rifes like the iffue of a king; And wears upon his baby brow the round ALL. Liften, but speak 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 Dunfinane hill' Масв. 8 [defcends. That will never be: Who can imprefs the foreft; bid the tree And top of fovereignty?] The round is that part of the crown that encircles the head. The top is the ornament that rifes above it. JOHNSON. 6 Liften, but fpeak not.] The old copy, injuriously to measure, reads 7 Liften, but speak not to't. STEEVENS, -high Dunfinane hill-] The prefent quantity of Dunfinane is right. In every fubfequent inftance the accent is mifplaced. Thus, in Hervey's Life of King Robert Bruce, 1729 (a good authority): "The noble Weemyfs, Mc duff's immortal fon, "Mc duff! th' afferter of the Scottish throne; "When Canmore battled, and the villain* fell." RITSON. 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: "Quhen the Bas and the Ifle 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 forest to ferve him like a foldier imprefs'd. JOHNSON. 1 Unfix his earth-bound root? fweet bodements! good! ALL. Seek to know no more. MACB. I will be fatisfied: deny me this, 2 1. WITCH. Show! 2. WITCH. Show! 3. WITCH: ALL. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; 9 Rebellious head, rife never,] The old copy has-rebellious dead. MALONE. We should read-Rebellious head,—i. e. let rebellion never make head against me till a forest move, and I shall reign in safety. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald rightly obferves, that head means haft, or power: "That Douglas and the English rebels met ;— "A mighty and a fearful bead they are." K. Henry IV. P. I. Again, in King Henry VIII: My noble father, Henry of Buckingham, "Who first rais'd head against ufurping Richard." JOHNSON. This phrafe is not peculiar to Shakspeare: So, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: 66 -howling like a head of angry wolves." Again, in Look about You, 1600: 2 "Is, like a head of people, mutinous." STEEVENS. - what noife is this?] Noife, in our ancient poets, is often fiterally fynonymous for mufic. See a note on K. Henry IV. P. II. Act II. fc. iv. Thus alfo Spenfer, Faerie Queene, I. xii. 39: During which time there was a heavenly noife." See likewife the 47th Pfalm: "God is gone up with a merry woife, and the Lord with the found of the trump." STEEVENS, |