Thy goary locks at me.

Roffe. Gentlemen, rife; his Highness is not well.
Lady. Sit, worthy friends, my lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep feat.
The Fit is momentary, on a thought

He will again be well. If much you note him,
You shall offend him, and extend his paffion;
Feed, and regard him not. — Are you a man?

[To Macb. afide.

Mach. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on That, Which might appall the Devil.

Lady. O proper ftuff!

This is the very Painting of your fear;

This is the air-drawn-dagger, which, you faid,
Led you to Duncan. Oh, these flaws and starts
(Impoftors to true fear,) would well become
A woman's story at a winter's fire,

Authoriz❜d by her grandam. Shame it felf!
Why do you make fuch faces? when all's done,
You look but on a stool.

Macb. Pr'ythee, fee there!

Behold! look! loe! how fay you?

[afide.

[Pointing to the Ghost. Why, what care I! if thou canst nod, speak too. If Charnel-houses and our Graves must send Thofe, that we bury, back; our Monuments Shall be the maws of kites.

[The Ghost vanishes.

Lady. What? quite unmann'd in folly?
Mach. If I ftand here, I faw him.

Lady. Fie, for shame!

Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i'th' olden time, Ere humane Statute purg'd the gen'ral weal; (25) Ay, and fince too, Murthers have been perform'd Too terrible for th' ear: the times have been,

(25) Ere humane Statute purg'd the gentle Weal.] Thus all the Edi tions: but Mr. Warburton very juftly advis'd, as I have reform'd the Text, gen'ral Weal: "And it is a very fine Periphrafis (fays He) to fignify, ere "civil Societies were inftituted. For the early Murthers, recorded in "Scripture, are here alluded to: and Macbeth's apologizing for Murther "from the Antiquity of the Example is very natural."

That,

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again

With twenty mortal Murthers on their crowns,
And push us from our ftools; this is more ftrange
Than fuch a murther is.

Lady. My worthy lord,

Your noble friends do lack you.
Mach. I do forget.

Do not mufe at me, my moft worthy friends,

I have a strange Infirmity, which is nothing

To thofe that know me. Come, Love and Health to all!
Then I'll fit down: give me fome wine, fill full

I drink to th' general joy of the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we mifs;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirft,
And all to all.

Lords. Our Duties, and the Pledge.

[The Ghoft rifes again.

Mach. Avaunt, and quit my fight! Let the earth hide

thee! (26)

Thy bones are marrowlefs, thy blood is cold;

Thou haft no fpeculation in those eyes,

Which thou doft glare with.

Lady. Think of this, good Peers,
But as a thing of cuftom; 'tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Mach. What man dare, I dare:

Approach Thou like the rugged Ruffian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or Hyrcanian tyger,
Take any fhape but That, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: Or, be alive again,
And dare me to the Defert with thy fword;
If trembling I inhibit, then protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible fhadow!

(26) Avaunt, and quit my Sight! Let the Earth hide thee!] i. e. As thou art a dead Thing, the Earth, thy Grave, ought to overwhelm and cover thee from humane Sight. Thus lo (in the Prometheus chain'd, by Æfchylus) in her Frenzy fanfying that the faw the Apparition of Argus, complains that the Earth does not hide him tho dead.

· Ον ἐδὲ κατθανόντα γαῖα κεύθει

Unreal

Unreal mock'ry, hence! Why, fo,

I am a man again: pray you, fit ftill.

-being gone,
[The Ghost vanishes.
[The Lords rife.

Lady. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good

Meeting

With moft admir'd diforder.

Macb. Can fuch things be,

And overcome us like a Summer's cloud,

Without our special wonder? You make me ftrange

Ev'n to the difpofition that I owe,

When now I think, you can behold fuch fights;
And keep the natural Ruby of your Cheeks,
When mine is blanch'd with fear.

Reffe. What fights, my lord?

Lady. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and
worfe;

Question enrages him: at once, good night.
Stand not upon the Order of your Going,

But go at once.

Len. Good night, and better health

Attend his Majesty!

Lady. Good night, to all.

[Exeunt Lords.

Mach. It will have blood, they fay; blood will have

blood:

Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak ;
Augurs, that understood relations, have (27)

VOL. V.

E e

(27) Augurs, that underflood Relations, have

By Magpies, and by Choughs, and Rooks, brought forth

By

The fecret'ft Man of Blood.] Confcience, as we may learn from Plutarch, has fometimes fupply'd the Office of Augury in this Point. One Bef= fus, he tells us, who had a long Time before murther'd his Father, going to fup at a Friend's Houfe, fuddenly with his Spear pull'd down a Swallow's Neit, and kill'd all the Young Ones. The Company enquiring into the Reason of his Cruelty, Don't you hear, fays he, how they faljely accufe me of having kill'd my Father? Vid. Plutarchum de Sera Numinis Vindicta. As remarkable a Story is recorded by him, in another Tract, upon which the Greeks founded their Proverb, Aï '16úns igavos. bycus the Poet being furpriz'd by Robbers in a Defart, as they were about to kill him, call'd out to a Flock of Cranes, that flew over his Head, to bear Witness of his Murther. Thefe Murtherers fometime afterwards fitting in the Theatre, and feeing a Flight of Cranes, faid in Triumph.

ta

By mag-pies, and by choughs, and rooks brought forth The fecret'ft man of blood.-What is the night?

Lady. Almoft at odds with morning, which is which. Mach. How fay't thou, that Macduff denies his perfon, At our great bidding?

Lady. Did you fend to him, Sir?

Mach. I hear it by the way; but I will send :
There's not a Thane of them, but in his houfe (28)
I keep a fervant fee'd. I will to morrow
(Betimes I will) unto the weird fifters:

More fhall they fpeak; for now I'm bent to know,
By the worst means, the worft, for mine own good.
All caufes fhall give way; I am in blood
Stept in fo far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er :

Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
Which must be acted, ere they may be scann'd.

Lady. You lack the Seafon of all Nature's Sleep.
Macb. Come, we'll to fleep; my strange and self abuse

to one another; Behold, Ibycus's Avengers! The Words being overheard, the Robbers were apprehended, rack'd upon Sufpicion, and brought to a Confeffion of the Murther. And thus, as Aufonius fays,

Ibycus ut periit, vindex fuit altivolans Grus.

Monfieur. Le Feure, in his Lives of the Greek Poets, has concluded with remarking on Ibycus, that as he liv'd a Poet, fo, he dy'd a Prophet.

(28) There is not One of them,] Thus the modern Editors. But, One of Whom? Macbeth has juft faid, that he heard, Macduff meant to disobey his Summons and he would immediately fubjoin, that there is not a Man of Macduff's Quality in the Kingdom, but He has a Spy under his Roof. This is understood, not exprefs'd, as the Text as yet has stood. The old Folio's give us the Paffage thus ;

There's not a one of them.

Here we again meet with a deprav'd Reading; but it is such a One, as, I am perfwaded, has led me to the Poet's true Word and Meaning.

There's not à Thane of them,

i. e. a Nobleman: and so the Peers of Scotland were all call'd, till Earls were created by Malcolme the Son of Duncan. The Etymology of the Word is to be found in Spelman's Saxon Gloffary, Wormius's Danish Hiftory, Cafaubon de Lingua Saxonica, &c. And my Emendation, I conceive, is fufficiently confirm'd by what Holinghead, from whom our Author has extracted fo many Particulars of Hiftory, expreffly fays in proof of this Circumftance. For Macbeth had in every Nobleman's Houfe one fly Fellow or other, in fee with him; to reveal All that was faid or done, within the fame: by which Slight he oppress'd the most part of the Nobles of his Realm.

Is

Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use:
We're yet but young in Deed.

(29) [Exeunt.

SCENE changes to the Heath.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate.

i Wit.

Hec. Have I not reafon, Beldams, as you THY, how now, Hecat, you look angerly.

WH

are ?

Sawcy, and over-bold! how did you dare
To trade and traffick with Macbeth,
In riddles and affairs of death?
And I the mistress of your Charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never call'd to bear my part,
Or fhew the glory of our Art?
And which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a weyward for ;

Spightful and wrathful, who, as others do,
Loves for his own ends, not for

you.

But make amends now; get you gone,

And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i'th' morning: thither he
Will come, to know his destiny;
Your veffels and your spells provide,
Your Charms, and every thing befide.
I am for th' Air: this night I'll fpend
Unto a difmal, fatal end.

(29) We're yet but young indeed.] If we tranfpofe thefe Words, we shall find, they amount to no more than This, We are yet indeed but young. But this is far from comprizing either the Poet's, or Macbeth's, Meaning. I read, in Deed, i. e. but little inur'd yet to Acts of Blood and Cruelty for Time and Practice harden Villains in their Taade, who are timorous till fo harden'd. So Macbeth says before;

Things bad begun ftrengthen themselves in Ill.

So, afterwards,