MACBETH. LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE. IN this uw chass tragedy Shakspeare has closely adhered to historical fact, excepting that Banquo, out of com pliment to his descendant James I. is excluded from all participation in the murder of Duncan. In the reign of Charles II. the songs of the witches were set to music by the celebrated Matthew Lock, and the play regarded as a semi-opera. The ghosts and witches, though admirably pourtrayed, have been censured as an insult to common sense; and cautions have been held out to the young and uninformed against imbibing the absurd principles of fatalism which are seemingly countenanced in many parts of this piece. But in the time of Shakspeare, the doctrine of witchcraft was at once established by law and by fashion, and it became not ouly unpolite, but criminal, to doubt it.---King James himself in his dialogues of Damonologie, re-printed in London soon after his succession, has speculated deeply on the illusions of spirits, the compact of witches, &c. ; and our dramatist only turned to his advantage a system universally admitted. In representation, some un interesting scenes are omitted; many of the witches' dialogues adapted to beautiful music, and a song or two, probably written by Sir W. Davenant, added to the parts. Betterton, amidst many bad alterations, hit upon the plan of making the witches deliver all the prophecies, by which a deal of the trap-work is avoided, and Garrick substituted some excellent passages to be uttered by Macbeth, whilst expiring, in lieu of the disgust. ing exposure of his head by Macduff. The neatest criticism upon the play, and the most concise record of its historical facts, are contained in the following extract from a standard publication: “Macbeth flourished in Scotland about the middle of the tenth century. At this period Duncan was king, a mild and humane prince, but not at all possessed of the genius requisite for governing a country so turbulent, and so infested by the in trigues and animosities of the great Macbeth, a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the crown. Not contented with curbing the king's authority, carried still further his mad ambition; he murdered Duncan at Inverness, and then seized upon the throne. Fearing lest his ill-gotten power should be stripped from him. he chased Malcolm Kenmore, the son and heir, into England, and put to death Mac Gill and Banquo, the two most powerful men in his donunions. Macduff, next becoming the object of his suspicion, e escaped into England; but the inhuman usurper wreaked his vengeance on his wife and children, whom he caused to be cruelly butchered. Siward, whose daughter was married to Duncan, embraced, by Edward's orders, the protection of his distressed family. He marched an army into Scotland, and having defeated and killed Macbeth in battle, he restored Malcolm to the throne of his ancestors. The tragedy founded upon the history of Macbeth, though contrary to the rules of the drama, contains an infinity of beauties with respect to language, character, passion, and incident; and is thought to be one of the very best pieces of the very best masters in this kind of writing that the world ever produced. The danger of ambition is well described, and the passions are directed to their true ends, so that it is not only admirable as a poem, but one of the most moral pieces existing." SCENE, in the end of the fourth act, lies in England; through the rest of the play, in Scotland; and, chiefly, at Macbeth's Castle. ACT I. SCENE 1.-An open Place. Thunder and Lightning. Enter three WITCHES. 1 Witch. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 2 Witch. When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won: • Tumult. 3 Witch. That will be ere set of sun. 1 Witch. Where the place? 2 Witch. Upon the heath: 3 Witch. There to meet Macbeth. 1 Witch. I come, Graymalkin J [WITCHES vanish, SCENE 11.-A Camp near Fores. Confronted him with self-comparisons, Alarum within. Enter King DUNCAN, MAL- Dun. What bloody man is that? He can re- As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt Mal. This is the sergeant, Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought Sold. Doubtfully it stood; As two spent swimmers, that do cling together, And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald (Worthy to be a rebel; for to that The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm upon him,) from the western isles, Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Carv'd out his passage, till he fac'd the slave; Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark: No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd, heels; But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, Dun. Dismay'd not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? Sold. Yes; As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion. Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: I cannot tell: But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. wounds; They smack of honour both :-Go, get him surgeons. [Exit SOLDIER, attended. Who comes here? Enter Rosse. Mal. The worthy thane of Rosse. That seems to speak things strange. Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? Where the Norweyan banners flout ** the sky, Norway himself, with terrible numbers, The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict: Dun. Great happiness! Rosse. That now Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall Our bosom interest :-Go, pronounce his death, Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. SCENE III-A Heath.-Thunder. Enter the three WITCHES. 1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 3 Witch. Sister, where thou? 1 Witch. A Sailor's wife had chesnuts in her And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd :- Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o'the And, like a rat without a tail, 2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 3 Witch. And I another. 1 Witch. I myself have all the other; I will drain him dry as hay: 2 Witch. Show me, show me. 1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd, as homeward he did come. [Drum within. 3 Witch. A drum, a drum; All. The weird sisters, ¶ hand in hand, Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, Enter MACBETH and BANQUO. By each at once her choppy finger laying Macb. Speak, if you can ;-What are you? 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, | In which addition, hail, most worthy thane! thane of Cawdor! For it is thine. By Sinel's death ý I know I am thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman; and, to be king, Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence You owe this strange intelligence? or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting ?-Speak, I charge [WITCHES vanish. Ban. The earth bath bubbles, as the water has, [nish'd? And these are of them :-Whither are they vaMacb. Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted you. about; Or have we eaten of the insane root, Macb. Your children shall be kings. Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so? [here? Ban. To the self-same tune and words. Who's Enter ROSSE and ANGUS. Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, The news of thy success; and when he reads that, In viewing o'er the rest o'the self-same day, He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, Strange images of death. As thick as tale, T Came post 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 sent, To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; To herald thee into his sight, not pay thee. Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor: Ban. What, can the devil speak true? Much. The thane of Cawdor lives: Why do yon dress me In borrow'd robes ? Ang. Who was the thane, lives yet; He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not; Mach. Glamis and thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains. Do you not hope your children shall be kings, Ban. That trusted home, Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Macb. Two truths are told, Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir. Ban. New honours come upon him Like our strange garments; cleave not to the mould, But with the aid of use. Macb. Come what come may; Time and the hour + runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Macb. Give me your favour: ‡‡-my dull brain was wrought [pains With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your The leaf to read them.-Let us toward the Are register'd where every day I turn [time, Think upon what hath chanc'd; and, at more The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other. king; Mal. My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have spoke | knowledge. When I burned in desire t Dun. There's no art, To find the mind's construction in the face: † Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS. That the proportion both of thanks and payment Mach. The service and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part Is to receive our duties; and our duties Are to your throne and state, children, and servants, Which do but what they should, by doing every thing Safe toward your love and honour. Dun. Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour Ban. There if I grow, Dun. My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you: I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful Dun. My worthy Cawdor! Macb. The prince of Cumberland !-That is a step, On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap, [Exit. Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant ; And in his commendations, I am fed ; SCENE V.-Inverness.-A Room in MACBETH's Castle. Enter Lady MACBETH, reading a letter. report, they have more in them than morta, question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives ↑ from the king, who all-hailed me, Thane of Cawdor; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with Hail king that shalt be! This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promis'd :-Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o'the milk of human kindness, To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great; Art not without ambition; but without The illness should attend it. What thou would'st highly, [false, That would'st thou holily; would'st not play And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'd'st have great Glamis, [have it; That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou That I may pour my spirits in thine ear; That tend on mostal || thought, unsex me bere ; Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell! That my keen knife + see not the wound it makes; Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, Cawdor! To cry, Hold, Hold!--Great Glamis! worthy Enter MACBETH Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! Lady M. They met me in the day of suc-The future in the instant. cess; and I have learned by the perfectest The best intelligence. ↑ Messengers. Supernatural. **Wrap as in a mantle. meant a sword or dagger. Murderous. : Diadem. S Pity. + Knife actenti 11 I e. Beyond the present time, which is according to the process of ua I ture ignorant of the future. Mech. My dearest love, Duncan comes here to-night. Lady M. And when goes hence ? Macb. To-morrow,-as he purposes. Lady M. Oh! never Shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men May read strange matters :-To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it. He that's coming Macb. If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly: If the assassination We still have judgment here; that we but teach cail To our own lips. He's here in double trust: To prick the sides of my intent, but only Lady M. He has almost supp'd; Why have Lady M. Know you not, he has ? Mach. We will proceed no further in this He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bough: Lady M. Was the hope drunk, Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, I dare do all that may become a man; Lady M. What beast was it then, That made you break this enterprize to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man ; And, to be more than what you were, you would [place, Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor Did then adhere, and yet you would make both : They have made themselves, and that their fit. (know Does unmake you. I have given suck; and ness now |