2. WITCH. By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes: -Open, locks, whoever knocks. Enter MACBETH. 2 MACB. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags? What is't you do? ALL. A deed without a name. MACB. I conjure you, by that which you profess, (Howe'er you come to know it,) answer me: Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches; though the yefty waves Confound and swallow navigation up; Though bladed corn be lodg'd, 4 and trees blown down; 3 The song was in all probability a traditional one. The colours of fpirits are often mentioned. So, in Monfieur Thomas, 1639: "Be thou black, or white, or green, Be thou heard, or to be seen." Perhaps, indeed, this musical scrap (which does not well accord with the ferious business of the scene) was introduced by the players, without the fuggeftion of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. Reginald Scot in his Difcovery of Withcraft, 1584, enumerating the different kinds of spirits, particularly mentions white, black, grey, and red spirits. See also a passage quoted from Camden, ante, p 181, n. 8. The modern editions, without authority, readBlae fpirits and grey. MALONE. By the prioking of my thumbs, &c. ] It is a very ancient fuperftition, that all fudden pains of the body, and other sensations which could not naturally be accounted for, were presages of somewhat that was shortly to happen. Hence Mr. Upton has explained a passage in The Miles Gloriofus of Plautus: "Timeo quod rerum gefferim hic, ita dorfus totus prurit." STEEVENS. 3 --yesty waves--] That is foaming or frothy waves. JOHNSON. 4 Though bladed corn be lodg'd,] So, in K. Richard II: Though castles topple 4 on their warders' heads; fure Of nature's germins tumble all together, To what I ask you. 1. WITCH. 2. WITCH. 3. WITCH. Speak. Demand. We'll answer. 1. WITCH. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters'? MACB. Call them, let me see them. 1. WITCH. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow; grease, that's sweaten Again, in King Henry VI. P. II: " Like to the summer corn by tempeft lodg'd." Corn, proftrated by the wind, in modern language, is said to be lay'd; but lodg'd had anciently, the fame meaning. RITSON. 4 Though castles topple -- Topple, is used for tumble. So, in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion, A& IV. fc. iii : "That I might pile up Charon's boat so full, "Until it topple o'er." Again, in Shirley's Gentleman of Venice: Again, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: 5 "The very principals did seem to rend, and all to topple." STEEVENS. Of nature's germins --) This was substituted by Theobald for Nature's germaine. JOHNSON. So, in K. Lear, A& III. fc. ii: 1 all germins spill at once " That make ungrateful man." Germins are seeds which have begun to germinate or sprout. Germen, Lat. Germe, Fr. Germe is a word used by Brown in his Vulgar Errors: "Whether it be not made out of the germe or treadle of the egg," &c. STEEVENS. 1 Thunder. An Apparition of an armed head rises." MACB. Tell me, thou unknown power, -1. WITCH. He knows thy thought; Hear his speech, but say thou nought. * Macduff; 9 Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me:- Enough. [defcends. deftly show.] i. e. with adroitness, dexterously. So, in the second 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 Lass, 1633: " He said I were a deft lass." STEEVENS. 7 An Apparition of an armed head rises. The armed head represents symbolically 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 soldiers to hew them down a bough, and bear it before them to Dunfinane. This observation I have adopted from Mr. Upton. STEEVENS. Lord Howard, in his Defensative against the Poison of supposed Prophecies, mentions, " a notable example of a conjuror, who represented (as it were, in dumb show) all the persons who should poffess the crown of France; and caused the king of Navarre, or rather a wicked spirit in his ftead, to appear in the fifth place," &c. FARMER. 8 --fay thou nought.) Silence was necessary during all incantations. So, in Dr. Faustus, 1604: " Your grace, demand no questions,- " But in dumb filence let them come and go." Again, in The Tempeft: be mute, or else our spell is marr'd." STEEVENS. 9 Beware the thane of Fife.-] - He had learned of certain MACB. What-e'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks; 2 Thou haft harp'd my fear aright: But one word 1. WITCH. He will not be commanded: Here's another, More potent than the first. Thunder. An Apparition of a bloody child rises. APP. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! MACB. Had I three ears, I'd hear thee. APP. Be bloody, bold, and resolute: laugh to scorn The power of man; for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. 3 [defcends. MACB. Then live, Macduff; What need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make assurance double sure, wizzards, in whose words he put great confidence, how that he ought to take heede of Macduff," &c. Holinshed. STEEVENS. 2 Thou hast harp'd my fear aright: paffion as a harper touches a string. fc. ult: To harp, is to touch on a "Harp on that fiill." STEEVENS. 3 Shall harm Macbeth.] So, Holinshed: "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 slaine with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the caftell of Dunsinane. This prophecie put all feare out of his heart." STEEVENS. 4 take a bond of fate :) In this scene 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, rifes. That rises like the issue of a king; And wears upon his baby brow the round And top of fovereignty?5 ALL. Liften, but speak not. APP. Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunfinane hill' And top of sovereignty?] The round is that part of the crown that encircles the head. The top is the ornament that rises above it. JOHNSON. 6 Liften, but speak not.) The old copy, injuriously to measure, reads 7 Liften, but speak not to't. -- high Dunfinane hill - ) The present quantity of Dunfinane is right. In every subsequent instance the accent is misplaced. Thus, in Hervey's Life of King Robert Bruce, 1729 (a good authority): "The noble Weemyss, Mc duff's immortal fon, "When Canmore battled, and the villain * fell." RITSON. Prophefies of apparent impossibilities were common in Scotland; fuch as the removal of one place to another. Under this popular prophetick formulary the present prediction may be ranked. In the same strain peculiar to his country, fays Sir David Lindsay: 66 Quhen the Bas and the Isle of May "Beis set upon the Mount Sinay, Quhen the Lowmound besyde Falkland "Be liftit to Northumberland." T. WARTON. • Who can impress the forest; i. e. who can command the foreft to serve him like a foldier impress'd. JOHNSON. + MC. beth. |
