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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:
If you can look into the feeds of time,

And fay, which grain will grow, and which will not;
Speak then to me, who neither beg, nor fear,
Your favours, nor your hate.

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,
"Merely phantaftical?"

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 :
-My having is not much;

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"I'll make divifion of my prefent store:
"Hold; there is half my coffer."

Again, in the old metrical romance of Syr Bewys of Hampton, bl. L no date:

8

By

"And when he heareth this tydinge,

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STEEVENS.

"He will go theder with great having."
Sinel's death, -] The father of Macbeth. POPE.

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.
Ban. You fhall be king.

Mach. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not fo?
Ban. To the self-fame tune, and words.

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:

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STEEVENS.

they lay that hold upon thy fenfes,
As thou hadft fnuft up hemlock.'
His wonders and his profes do contend,
Which should be thine, or bis:]

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,
He finds thee in the ftout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afraid of what thyfelf didft make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale,
Came poft with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And pour'd them down before him.
Ang. We are fent,

To give thee, from our royal mafter, thanks;
Only to herald thee into his fight,

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;
But under heavy judgment bears that life,
Which he deferves to lofe. Whether he was

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:

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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
With hidden help and vantage; or that with both
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;
But treafons capital, confefs'd, and prov'd,
Have overthrown him.

Macb. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor:

The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains.
Do you not hope your children fhall be kings,
When thofe that gave the thane of Cawdor to me,
Promis'd no lefs to them?

Ban. That, trufted home 4,

5 Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Befides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis ftrange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,

The inftruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honeft trifles, to betray us

In deepest confequence.-Coufins, a word I pray you.
Mach. Two truths are told,

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,
Why hath it given me earnest of fuccefs,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor

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.

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If good, why do I yield to that fuggeftion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my feated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:

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,
"So th' apprehenfion of approaching ill

"Seems greater than itself, whilft fears are lying.

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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.

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Is fmother'd in jurmife; and nothing is,
But what is not.]

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.

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