Which outwardly ye fhew? My noble partner You greet with prefent grace, and great prediction Of noble having", and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal; to me you speak not: And fay, which grain will grow, and which will not; I Witch. Hail! 2 Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! 1 Witch. Leffer than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not fo happy, yet much happier. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So, all hail, Macbeth, and Banquo! I Witch. Banquo, and Macbeth, all hail! Mac. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: 8 By Sinel's death, I know, I am thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, A profperous gentleman; and, to be king, Stands not within the profpect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence or is that thing, "Which should fupply the place of foul in thee, Shakespeare, however, took the word from Holinfhed, who in his account of the witches, fays; "This was reputed at firft but some vain fantaftical illufion by Macbeth and Banquo." STEEVENS. 7 Of noble having, -] Having is eftate, poffeffion, fortune. So, in Twelfth Night : 66 "I'll make divifion of my prefent store: Again, in the old metrical romance of Syr Bewys of Hampton, bl. L no date: 8 By "And when he heareth this tydinge, STEEVENS. "He will go theder with great having." You You owe this ftrange intelligence? or why pon this blafted heath you ftop our way U you. With fuch prophetick greeting?-Speak, I charge [Witches vanish. Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And thefe are of them :-Whither are they vanish'd? Mach. Into the air; and what feem'd corporal, melted As breath into the wind. Would they had ftaid! Ban. Were fuch things here, as we do speak about? Or have we eaten of the infane root, That takes the reafon prifoner? Macb. Your children fhall be kings. Mach. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not fo? here? Enter Roffe, and Angus. Who's Roffe. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, The news of thy fuccefs: and when he reads Thy perfonal venture in the rebel's fight, His wonders and his praises do contend, Which should be thine, or his': Silenc'd with that, 9 -eaten of the infane root,] In Mr. Theobald has a long and learned note on these words; and, after much puzzling, he at length proves from Hector Boethius, that this root was a berry. WARBURTON. eaten of the infane root,] Shakespeare alludes to the qualities anciently afcribed to hemlock. So, in Greene's Never too late, 1616: "You gaz'd against the fun, and fo blemished your fight; or else you have eaten of the roots of hemlock, that makes mens eyes conceit unfeen objects.". Again, in Ben Jonfon's Sejanus: 66 STEEVENS. they lay that hold upon thy fenfes, i. e. private admiration of your deeds, and a defire to do them publick juffice by commendation, contend in his mind for pre eminence. In viewing o'er the reft o' the self-fame day, To give thee, from our royal mafter, thanks; Not pay thee. Roffe. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor: In which addition, hail, moft worthy thane! For it is thine. Ban. What, can the devil speak true? Macb The thane of Cawdor lives; Why do you drefs me In borrow'd robes? Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet; eminence.-Or-There is a conteft in his mind whether he should indulge his defire of publishing to the world the commendations due to your heroifm, or whether he should remain in filent admiration of what no words could celebrate in proportion to its defert. STEEVENS. 2 As thick as hail,] Was Mr. Pope's correction. The old copy has: -As thick as tale Can poft with post: which perhaps is not amifs, meaning that the news came as thick as a tale can travel with the poft. Or we may read, perhaps yet better: -As thick as tale Came poft with post; That is, pofts arrived as fast as they could be counted. JOHNSON. So, in K. Hen. VI. P. III. act II. fc. i: 66 Tidings, as fwiftly as the pofts could run, "Were brought, &c." STEEVENS. VOL. IV. Hh Com Combin'd' with Norway; or did line the rebel Macb. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains. Ban. That, trufted home 4, 5 Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, The inftruments of darkness tell us truths; In deepest confequence.-Coufins, a word I pray you. 6 As happy prologues to the fwelling act Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.→ 7 This fupernatural folliciting Cannot be ill; cannot be good:-If ill, 3 with Norway; The folio reads: with thofe of Norway. STEEVENS. 4-trufied home,] i. e. carried as far as it will go. STEEVENS, 5 Might yet enkindle you] Enkindle, for to ftimulate you to feek. WARBURton. 6 favelling act] Swelling is ufed in the fame fense in the prologue to Hen. V : (6 princes to act, "And monarchs to behold the fwelling fcene." STEEVENS This fupernatural folliciting] Solliciting for information. WARBURTON. Solliciting is rather, in my opinion, incitement than information. JOHNSON. S If good, why do I yield to that fuggeftion My thought, whofe murder yet is but fantaftical, Shakes fo my 'fingle state of man, that * function 8 why do I yield] 2 Yield, not for confent, but for to be fubdued by. WARBURTON. To yield is, fimply, to give way to. JOHNSON. 9 Prefent fears Are less than horrible imaginings :] Macbeth, while he is projecting the murder, is thrown into the most agonizing affright at the profpect of it: which foon recovering from, thus he reasons on the nature of his diforder. But imaginings are fo far from being more or less than prefent fears, that they are the fame things under different words. Shakespeare certainly wrote: -Prefent feats Are less than horrible imaginings: i.e. when I come to execute this murder, I fhali find it much less dreadful than my frighted imagination now prefents it to me. A confideration drawn from the nature of the imagination. WARBURTON. Prefent fears are fears of things prefent, which Macbeth declares, and every man has found, to be lefs than the imagination prefents them while the objects are yet diftant. Fears is right. JOHNSON. So, in the Tragedie of Crefus, 1604, by lord Sterline: "For as the fhadow feems more monftrous ftill, "Than doth the fubftance whence it hath the being, "Seems greater than itself, whilft fears are lying. man,] -fingle fiate of man, STEEVENS. The fingle ftate of man feems to be used by Shakespeare for an individual, in oppofition to a commonwealth, or conjunct body. Is fmother'd in jurmife; and nothing is, JOHNSON. All powers of action are oppreffed and crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is prefent to me but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. Hh 2 JOHNSON. Is |