SCENE V.

The Heath.

Thunder. Enter the Three Witches, meeting HECATE.

1 Witch. Why, how now, Hecate ! you look angerly. Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are, Saucy, and overbold? How did you dare To trade and traffic 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 show the glory of our art? And, which is worse, all you have done Hath been but for a wayward son,

Spiteful, 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' the morning: thither he
Will come to know his destiny.
Your vessels, and your spells, provide,
Your charms, and every thing beside.
I am for the air; this night I'll spend
Unto a dismal and a fatal end:

Great business must be wrought ere noon.
Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
I'll catch it ere it come to ground :
And that, distill'd by magic sleights,
Shall raise such artificial sprites,
As by the strength of their illusion,
Shall draw him on to his confusion.

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear;
And, you all know, security

Is mortals' chiefest enemy.

Song. [Within.] Come away, come away, &c. Hark! I am call'd: my little spirit, see,

Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.

[Exit.

1 Witch. Come, let's make haste: she'll soon be

back again.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Fores. A Room in the Palace.

Enter LENOx and another Lord.

Len. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret farther: only, I say,

Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Dun

can

Was pitied of Macbeth :-marry, he was dead;
And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late;
Whom, you may say, if't please you, Fleance kill'd,
For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous
It was for Malcolm, and for Donalbain,

To kill their gracious father? damned fact !
How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight,
In pious rage the two delinquents tear,

That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep?
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely, too;
For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive,
To hear the men deny 't. So that, I say,
He has borne all things well; and I do think,
That had he Duncan's sons under his key,

(As, an't please heaven, he shall not) they should find

What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance.

But, peace!-for from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd
His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear,

Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell
Where he bestows himself?

Lord.

The son of Duncan',

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,
Lives in the English court; and is receiv'd
Of the most pious Edward with such grace,
That the malevolence of fortune nothing
Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff
Is gone, to pray the holy king upon his aid
To wake Northumberland, and warlike Siward;
That by the help of these, (with Him above
To ratify the work) we may again

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,
Do faithful homage, and receive free honours,
All which we pine for now. And this report
Hath so exasperate the king, that he
Prepares for some attempt of war.

Len.

Sent he to Macduff?

Lord. He did and with an absolute, "Sir, not I;" The cloudy messenger turns me his back,

And hums, as who should say, "You'll rue the time
That clogs me with this answer."

Len.
And that well might
Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel
Fly to the court of England, and unfold
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing
May soon return to this our suffering country
Under a hand accurs'd!

Lord.

I'll send my prayers with him!
[Exeunt.

7 The son of Duncan,] The old copies, sons, obviously wrong.
THE king,] i. e. Macbeth. The old copy has, their king,

8

ACT IV. SCENE I.

A dark Cave. In the middle, a Cauldron.

Thunder. Enter the Three Witches.

1 Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
2 Witch. Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whin'd.
3 Witch. Harper cries',-'Tis time, 'tis time.
1 Witch. Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.—
Toad, that under the cold stone',
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

All. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
2 Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake:
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

All. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

3 Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy; maw, and gulf

9 HARPER cries,] In all the old folios this name is spelt Harpier. It may be doubted whether it was not a misprint for Harpy, then spelt Harpie. In Marlowe's "Tamberlaine," 1590, Harpie is misprinted Harper.

1 Toad that under THE cold stone,] The line in the original copies is, “Toad, that under cold stone:" and laying only due and expressive emphasis upon "cold," it may be doubted whether the line be defective. Pope introduced "the" to complete the metre, and Mr. Amyot thinks that he was right. We unwillingly yield to authority on this point. Steevens read coldest for "cold;" but there seems no reason for preferring the superlative degree, and it is more likely that the definite article dropped out in the printing.

Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;

Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark ;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;

Gall of goat, and slips of yew,
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe,
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron",
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

All. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

2 Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood;
Then the charm is firm and good.

Enter HECATE, and other Witches3.

Hec. O, well done! I commend your pains,
And every one shall share i' the gains.

And now about the cauldron sing,
Like elves and fairies in a ring,

Enchanting all that you put in.
[Music and a Song.

"Black spirits," &c.

2 Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.Open, locks, whoever knocks.

2 Add thereto a tiger's CHAUDRON,] i. e. a tiger's entrails.

[Knocking.

Enter Hecate and other Witches.] The old stage-direction is, "Enter Hecate, and the other three Witches." What other three Witches" are intended does not appear: perhaps we ought to read only, "Enter Hecate, and other three Witches;" but that some addition was meant to the three Witches who had been engaged in the incantation is highly probable, if only for the purpose of the song which is given immediately afterwards.

Music and a Song. "Black spirits," &c.] The following, taken from "The Witch," by Thomas Middleton, (Works, by the Rev. A. Dyce, vol. iii. p. 328,) is probably the song intended:-

"Black spirits, and white,

Red spirits and grey;
Mingle, mingle, mingle,
You that mingle may."

Doubtless, it does not belong to Middleton more than to Shakespeare; but it was inserted in both dramas, because it was appropriate to the occasion.