Stones have been known to move, and trees to 6 fpeak;" Augurs, and understood relations," have By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth I have followed Mr. Whalley's punctuation, instead of placing the femicolon after-say. 6 The fame words occur in The Battle of Alcazar, 1594: "Bloud will have bloud, foul murther fcape no fcourge." STEEVENS. and trees to fpeak ;] Alluding perhaps to the vocal tree which (See the third book of the Æneid) revealed the murder of Polydorus. STEEVENS. Augurs, and underflood relations, &c.] By the word relation is understood the connection of effects with caufes; to understand relations as an augur, is to know how thofe things relate to each other, which have no visible combination or dependence. JOHNSON. Shakspeare, in his licentious way, by relations, might only mean languages, i. e. the language of birds. WARBURTON. The old copy has the paffage thus: Augures, and understood relations, have By maggot-pies and choughs, &c. The modern editors have read: Augurs that understand relations, have Perhaps we fhould read, auguries, i. e. prognoftications by means of omens and prodigies. Thefe, together with the connection of effects with caufes, being underftood, (fays he) have been inftrumental in divulging the moft fecret murders. In Cotgrave's Dictionary, a magpie is called magatapie. So, in The Night-Raven, a Satirical Collection &c : "I neither tattle with iack-daw, "Or Maggot-pye on thatch'd house straw." Magot-pie is the original name of the bird; Magot being the familiar appellation given to pies, as we fay Robin to a redbreast, Tom to a titmoufe, Philip to a fparrow, &c. The modern mag is the abbreviation of the ancient Magot, a word which we had from the French. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens rightly reftores Magot-pies. In Minfhew's Guide to the Tongues, 1617, we meet with a maggatapic: and Middleton in his More Diffemblers befide Women, fays: "He calls her magot o pie." FARMER. The fecret'ft man of blood. What is the night? LADY M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which. MACB. How fay'st thou, that Macduff denies his perfon, At our great bidding?" LADY M. Did you fend to him, fir? MACB. I hear it by the way; but I will fend: 8 and choughs, and rooks, brought forth The fecret'ft man of blood.] The inquifitive reader will find fuch a ftory in Thomas Lupton's Thousand notable things &c. 4to. bl. 1. no date, p. 100; and in Goulart's Admirable Histories &c. p. 425. 4to. 1607, STEEVENS. 9 How fay'ft thou, &c.] Macbeth here afks a queftion, which the recollection of a moment enables him to anfwer. Of this forgetfulness, natural to a mind opprefs'd, there is a beautiful instance in the facred fong of Deborah and Barak: " She asked her wife women counfel; yea, fhe returned anfwer to herself." Mr. M. Mafon's interpretation of this paffage has, however, taught me diffidence of my own. He fuppofes, and not without fufficient reafon, that "what Macbeth means to fay, is this. What do you think of this circumftance, that Macduff denies to come at our great bidding? What do you infer from thence?-What is, your opinion of the matter?" So, in Othello, when the Duke is informed that the Turkish fleet was making for Rhodes, which he fuppofed to have been bound for Cyprus, he fays, "How fay you by this change?" That is, what do you think of it? In The Coxcomb Antonio fays to Maria, "Sweetheart, how fay you by this gentleman ? Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Speed fays "But Launce, how say'ft thou, that my mafter is become a notable lover?" Again, Macbeth, in his addrefs to his wife, on the first appearance of Banquo's ghoft, ufes the fame form of words: -behold! look! lo! how fay you?" The circumstance, however, on which this queftion is founded, took its rife from the old hiftory. Macbeth fent to Macduff to There's not a one of them, but in his houfe Strange things I have in head, that will to hand; affift in building the caftle of Dunfinane. Macduff fent workmen &c. but did not choose to truft his perfon in the tyrant's power. From that time he refolved on his death. STEEVENS. 9 There's not a one of them,] A one of them, however uncouth the phrafe, fignifies an individual. In Albumazar, 1614, the fame expreffion occurs: - Not a one thakes his tail, but I figh out a paffion." Theobald would read thane; and might have found his propofed emendation in Davenant's alteration of Macbeth, 1674. This avowal of the tyrant is authorized by Holinfhed: "He had in every nobleman's house one flie fellow or other in fee with him to reveale all," &c. STEEVENS. 2 (Betimes I will,) unto the weird fifters:] The ancient copy reads "And betimes I will to the weird fifters," They whofe ears are familiarized to difcord, may perhaps object to my omiffion of the firft word, and my supplement to the fifth. STEEVENS. 3 Hamlet: 66 be fcann'd.] To fcan is to examine nicely. Thus, in fo he goes to heaven, "And fo am I reveng'd: That would be fcann'd." STEEVENS. You lack the feason of all natures, fleep.] I take the meaning to be, you want fleep, which seasons, or gives the relish to, all nature. Indiget fomni vita condimenti." JOHNSON. This word is often used in this fenfe by our author. So, in All's Well that ends well: "'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her MACB. Come, we'll to fleep: My strange and felf-abufe Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use:— We are yet but young in deed.' [Exeunt. praife in." Again, in Much ado about Nothing, where, as in the prefent inftance, the word is used as a substantive: "And falt too little, which may feafon give "To her foul tainted flesh.” An anonymous correfpondent thinks the meaning is, " You ftand in need of the time or season of fleep, which all natures require." MALONE. 5 We are yet but young in deed.] The editions before Theobald read: We're but young indeed. JOHNSON. The meaning is not ill explained by a line in King Henry VI. P. III: We are not, Macbeth would fay, "Made impudent with use of evil deeds.” or, we are not yet (as Romeo expreffes it)" old murderers." Theobald's amendment may be countenanced by a paffage in Antony and Cleopatra: "Not in deed, madam, for I can do nothing." The initiate fear, is the fear that always attends the first initiation into guilt, before the mind becomes callous and infenfible by frequent repetition of it, or (as the poet fays) by hard ufe. STEEVENS. 5 SCENE V. The Heath. Thunder. Enter HECATE, meeting the three 1. WITCH. Why, how now, Hecate?" you look angerly. Enter Hecate,] Shakspeare has been cenfured for intraducing Hecate among the vulgar witches, and, confequently, for confounding ancient with modern fuperftitions. He has, however, authority for giving a mistress to the witches, Delrio Difquif. Mag. lib. ii. quæft. 9. quotes a paffage of Apuleius, Lib. de Afino aureo: "de quadam Caupona, regina Sagarum." And adds further:-" ut fcias etiam tum quafdam ab iis hoc titulo honoratas." In confcquence of this information, Ben Jonfon, in his Masque of Queens, has introduced a character which he calls a Dame, who prefides at the meeting of the Witches: "Sifters, ftay; we want our dame." The dame accordingly enters, invefted with marks of fuperiority, and the rest pay an implicit obedience to her commands. Again, in a True examination and confeffion of Elizabeth Stile, alias Rockingham, &c. 1579. bl. l. 12mo: Further the faieth, that mother Seidre dwelling in the almes houfe, was the maiftres witche of all the refte, and fhe is now deade." Shakspeare is therefore blameable only for calling his prefiding character Hecate, as it might have been brought on with propriety under any other title whatever. STEEVENS. Shakspeare feems to have been unjustly cenfured for introducing Hecate among the modern witches. Scot's Difcovery of Witchcraft, 66 B. III. c. ii. and c. xvi. and B. XII. c. iii. mentions it as the common opinion of all writers, that witches were fuppofed to have nightly meetings with Herodias, and the Pagan gods," and that in the night-times they ride abroad with Diana, the goddess of the Pagans," &c.—Their dame or chief leader feems always to have been an old Pagan, as "the ladie Sibylla, Minerva, or Diana." TOLLET. 6 Why, how now, Hecate?] Marlowe, though a fcholar, has likewife ufed the word Hecate, as a diffyllable; |
