6 *Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak; *Like valour's minion *Carved out his passage till he faced the slave; And ne'er shook hands,7 nor bade farewell to him, *Till he unseam'd him from the nave to th' chops,8 *And fix'd his head upon our battlements. *Dun. O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman! *Serg. As whence the Sun gives his reflection 9 *Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break; *So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come *Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark : *No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd, *Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, *But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, *With furbish'd arms 10 and new supplies of men, *Began a fresh assault. *Dun. " Dismay'd not this Here, "is supplied" and is too weak" are instances of the present with the sense of the perfect, and mixed up irregularly with preterite forms. 7 To shake hands with a thing, as the phrase was formerly used, is to take leave of it. So Sir Thomas Browne, in his Religio Medici, 1643: "I have shaken hands with delight in my warm blood and canicular days; I perceive I do anticipate the vices of age; " &c. 8 Nave for navel, probably. Such a sword-stroke upwards seems rather odd, but queer things have often happened in mortal combats. So in Nash's Dido, Queen of Carthage, 1594: "Then from the navel to the throat at once he ript old Priam." Also in Shadwell's Libertine, 1676: "I will rip you from the navel to the chin." 9 Reflection is here put, apparently, for radiance or light. So that the place "whence the Sun gives his reflection" is the heavens or the sky. See Critical Notes. 10 That is, arms gleaming with unstained brightness; fresh. - Surveying vantage is watching his opportunity. *Our captains,11 Macbeth and Banquo? *Serg. As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. *If I say sooth, I must report they were Yes; 12 *As cannons overcharged with double cracks ; *I cannot tell. *But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. *Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds; *They smack of honour both. - Go get him surgeons. *Who comes here? *Mal. [Exit Sergeant, attended. *Enter Ross. The worthy Thane of Ross. *Len. What haste 14 looks through his eyes! So should he look *That seems 15 to speak things strange. *Ross. God save the King! *Dun. Whence camest thou, worthy thane? *Ross. From Fife, great King; Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky, And fan our people cold.16 *Norway himself, 11 Here captains was probably meant to be a trisyllable, as if it were spelt capitains. We have the word used repeatedly so. 12 Overcharged with double cracks is, as we should say, loaded with double charges; crack being put for that which makes the crack. 13 To memorize is to make famous or memorable. Except is here equivalent to unless. "Unless they meant to make the spot as famous as Golgotha, I cannot tell what they meant." 14 We should say, "What a haste." See vol. xiv. page 29, note 13. 15 It appears that to seem was sometimes used with the exact sense of to will or to mean. So, afterwards, in scene 5: "Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crown'd withal." 16 "The banners, proudly reared aloft and fluttering in the wind, seemed *With terrible numbers, *Assisted by that most disloyal traitor, *The Thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict; Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, *The victory fell on us; *Dun. *Ross. Great happiness! that 20 now *Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; *Nor would we deign him burial of his men *Till he disbursèd, at Saint Colme's-inch,21 *Ten thousand dollars to our general use. *Dun. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive *Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, *And with his former title greet Macbeth. *Ross. I'll see it done. to mock or insult the sky,-'laughing banners'; while the sight of them struck chills of dread and dismay into our men." Flout and fan for flouted and fanned; instances of what is called "the historic present." See note 6. 17" Lapp'd in proof" is covered with impenetrable armour, or armour of proof," as it is called. — Bellona was the old Roman goddess of war; the companion and, as some thought, the sister of Mars. Steevens laughed at the Poet's ignorance in making her the wife of Mars; whereas he plainly makes her the bride of Macbeth. 18 Caparisons for arms, offensive and defensive; the trappings and furniture of personal fighting. Here, as often, self is equivalent to self-same. So that the meaning is, Macbeth confronted the rebel Cawdor with just such arms as Cawdor himself had. It was Scot against Scot. See Critical Notes. 19 That is, checking or repressing his reckless or prodigal daring. 20 That was continually used with the force of so that, or insomuch that. — Composition for armistice or terms of peace; as in the phrase to compound a quarrel. 21 Colme's is here a dissyllable. Colme's Inch, now called Inchcomb, is a small island, lying in the Firth of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it dedicated to St. Columb. Inch or inse, in Erse, signifies an island. *Dun. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Heath. Thunder. Enter the three Witches. *1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? *2 Witch. Killing swine. *3 Witch. Sister, where thou? 1 Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, *And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd. quoth I: Give me, *Aroint thee,' witch! the rump-fed ronyon2 cries. 1 Aroint thee! is an old exorcism against witches; meaning, apparently, away! stand off! or be gone! The etymology of the word is uncertain. 2 Ronyon is said to be from ronger, French, which signifies to gnaw or corrode. It thus carries the sense of scurvy or mangy. — Rump-fed is, probably, fed on broken meats or the refuse of wealthy tables. Some, however, take it to mean pampered; fed on the best pieces. & Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584, says it was believed that witches "could sail in an egg-shell, a cockle or muscle-shell through and under the tempestuous seas." And in the Life of Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer: "All they together went to sea, each one in a riddle or cive, and went in the same very substantially, with flaggons of wine making merrie, and drinking by the way in the same riddles or cives."- It was the belief of the times that, though a witch could assume the form of any animal she pleased, the tail would still be wanting. 11 4 I'll do is a threat of gnawing a hole through the hull of the ship so as to make her spring a-leak. This free gift of a wind is to be taken as an act of sisterly kindness; witches being thought to have the power of selling winds. *3 Witch. And I another. *1 Witch. I myself have all the other; And the very points they blow, *All the quarters that they know *I will drain him dry as hay: *2 Witch. Show me, show me. *1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, *3 Witch. A drum, a drum! *Macbeth doth come. [Drum within. *All. The Weird Sisters, 10 hand in hand, 6 The seaman's chart, which shows all the points of the compass, as we call them, marked down in the radii of a circle. 7" Penthouse lid" is eyelid protected as by a penthouse roof. So in Drayton's David and Goliath: His brows like two steep penthouses hung down over his eyelids." 8 To live forbid is to live under a curse or an interdict; pursued by an evil fate. Sev'n-night is a week. 9 To peak is to grow thin. This was supposed to be wrought by means of a waxen figure. Holinshed, describing the means used for destroying King Duff, says that the witches were found roasting an image of him before the fire; and that, as the image wasted, the King's body broke forth in sweat, while the words of enchantment kept him from sleep. 10 Weird is from the Saxon wyrd, and means the same as the Latin fatum; so that weird sisters is the fatal sisters, or the sisters of fate. Gawin Douglas, in his translation of Virgil, renders Parce by weird sisters. Which agrees well with Holinshed in the passage which the Poet no doubt had in |