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 This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the 
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THE TRAGEDIE OF 
 
 MACBETH. 
 
 <iA3u5 Trimus. Scana Trima. 
 
 Jhmitt ttid Li^bntm^. SMirlbnciyitcbti, 
 
 niJlwcihietoiMtagJirt? 
 In Thundcr.LighioingjOr in Raine? 
 
 >. When ibeHurlcy-builey"« done. 
 When the Batliiles loR.ina wonne. 
 ;. That wil[beerc>thcfctofSaODe. 
 I VVhaellieplice? 
 t. Vpon ihe Heith. 
 ), There ID meel with Af<cfol». 
 1 } come,OrtT-M''kf. 
 
 jiU. ;>0i^M^CKltsanon;faireisrot]Ie,aQdfouIciifatre, 
 Hoaer through the foggc ind fUthie ayrc. Exeaat, 
 
 Scena Secunda. 
 
 jildTUm wahtm, Emtrr King lJHMlcam4t Dtntl* 
 
 tatstfLtaax^wnb muntUtij, mittiitg 
 
 A bUldsa^ Caf taint. 
 
 Kill, Whii bIoo(!y man u that 7 he can repoil^ 
 Al fcemeth by hif pllgbt,ortheKcuoI( 
 The neweft ftate. 
 
 M*lw This u the Serleant* 
 Who like a good and hardie Soul Jier roueht 
 'GainnfflyCaptiuitie ; Hailcbraue friend ;| 
 Say to the King.the knowledge of the Broylo, 
 Aithoudidft leaueit. 
 
 Cjf. DoubifiiUilRooi), 
 Al two fpeni Swimmers.thac doe ding logethn* 
 And choake their An : The mercilcfic iUcdiirmU 
 (Wonhie to be a Rcbell, for ro that 
 TTie muhiplying Villanics of Nature 
 Doe fwarme vpon him) from the Wcftcrne Iflei 
 Of Kernes andGaUowgro(rei is fupply'd. 
 And Fortune on hii damned Quarry fmiling, 
 Shew-d like a Rcbclli Whore : but aU'i too wcake : 
 Ftr brauc Macielb(vicU hee deferuei that Name) 
 DifdayningFortune.wlthhiibtandilbt Steele, 
 Which fiTioak'd with bloody ncniiion 
 (Like Valours Minion) caru'd out hu paffagt. 
 Till hee fac'd the Slaue : 
 
 Which neu'r(hookehands,nor bad Eirwell to him. 
 Till he vnfcim'd him from the Naue toth'Chops, 
 And (ix'd bis Head vpon out Batclemcou* 
 
 Kinj. O valiant Coufin.wonhyGcntlemaiu 
 
 CAf. As whence the Sunnc 'gins hii refleaioo, 
 Shipwracktng Stormes.and dirdfull Thunders : 
 So from that Spring,whence comfort feem'd to come« 
 Difcomfort fwcUs: Marke King of Scatlaiid,aiaikCj 
 No fooner luflice had.with Valour arra'd, 
 Compelrd thefe skipping Kernes to ttufl tbeil faeelcs. 
 But iheNotw'eyan Lord.furueying vantage. 
 With furbufht Armcfjaad new fupplyes of tuen, 
 Beganafirlhanauli. 
 
 Xirg. Oifmay'd not this out Ci^u'mei fJHacklb tnd 
 "Bim^ach f 
 
 Caf. Yes,is Sparrowei,EagTes; 
 Or the Hare, the Lyon: 
 If 1 fay fooih, I mufl report they were 
 As Cannons ouer-charg'd with double Craclll, 
 So they doubly redoubled ftroakes vptm the Foe J 
 Except they meant to bathe in reeking Wounds, 
 Or memorize another Gc/£cihii, 
 \ cannot tell : but I am falnc, 
 MyGafbcscry forhelpe. 
 
 Kiitg. So well thy words become ihee,«tliywoirai3j. 
 They fniack of Honor both: GoegeihimSurgeolu, 
 
 £rttr Rijfi tnd Afina. 
 Who comes here? 
 
 M^. TheworihyTtmeof KoOe, 
 
 Xnsi-. WhatahartelookcstlitoughHieyes? 
 So Ihould he looke,that fcemes to fpcake things flnflge, 
 
 Rtjfi. God faue the King. 
 
 Kt/ig. Whence caoj'ftthou.worthyTT'tfflff 
 
 Rofe. From Fife, great King, 
 Where the Norweyan Banners Bowt the Skic, 
 And fanne our people cold. 
 7V*r]»jyhimfcIfe,wiih terrible numbers, 
 Adilled by thir mofi diQoyaU Tray tor. 
 The Thmi of Cawdor.bcgan a difmall Conflift, 
 Till that 'Bctlena'i Bridcgroomc,l3pt in proofc. 
 Confronted himwiihfelfe.comparifons. 
 Point againll Point,rcbeUious Armc 'gainft Ansfj 
 Curbing his buiOi fprcit : and to conclude, 
 TheViaoriefellonvs. 
 
 Kmg. Grear happiocffc 
 
 Ro(ft. Thatnow,Jffc/rff,theNotwayeiKlng, 
 Craues compoBtion : 
 
 Nor would vje dcignc him buriall ofhis mm. 
 Till he disbuTfed,ac Saint ^o/mc/ynch. 
 Ten thoufand DoUacs'.to our genciall vfe. 
 King Noj 
 
 Facsimile (reduced) of the First Page of Macbeth, 
 First Folio 
 
THENEWHUDSON 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
 
 THETRAGEDYOF 
 MACBETH 
 
 INTRODUCTrON.4N> NOTES BY 
 
 HENRYNORMAN 
 HUDSON,LLD-1^ 
 
 EDITED AND REVISED BY 
 
 EBENE'Z'ER CHARITON 
 BLACK LLD- (GLASGOW) 
 
 Wrm THE COOPERATTON OF 
 
 ANDREW JACKS ON 
 GEORGE UTT-D-CMILRSD 
 
 2rS^ 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON 
 AILANXA. DALLAS COLUNtBUi SAN f BANCISOO 
 
ENTERED AT STATIONERS HALL 
 COPYRIGHT, 1935, BY AGNES KNOX BLACK 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY 
 GINN AND COMPANY 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 639.9 
 
 XBit atfjtnscnm Jf^vtis 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
 PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The text of this edition of Macbeth is based upon a 
 collation of the seventeenth century Folios, the Globe edi- 
 tion, and that of Delius. As compared with the text of the 
 earlier editions of the Hudson Shakespeare, it is conservative. 
 Exclusive of changes in spelling, punctuation, and stage 
 directions, very few emendations by eighteenth century and 
 nineteenth century editors have been adopted ; and these, 
 with every variation from the First Folio, are indicated in the 
 textual notes. These notes are printed immediately below 
 the text so that a reader or student may see at a glance the 
 evidence in the case of a disputed reading and have some 
 definite understanding of the reasons for those differences in 
 the text of Shakespeare which frequently surprise and very 
 often annoy. A consideration of the more poetical, or the 
 more dramatically effective, of two variant readings will often 
 lead to rich results in awakening a spirit of discriminating 
 interpretation and in developing true creative criticism. In 
 no sense is this a textual variorum edition. The variants 
 given are only those of importance and high authority. 
 Q The spelling and the punctuation of the text are mod- 
 \Kern, except in the case of verb terminations in -ed, which, 
 ^when the e is silent, are printed with the apostrophe in its 
 yjplace. This is the general usage in the First Folio. Modern 
 rt> iii 
 
iv PREFACE 
 
 spelling has to a certain extent been followed in the 
 text variants ; but the original spelling has been retained 
 wherever its peculiarities have been the basis for impor- 
 tant textual criticism and emendation. 
 
 With the exception of the position of the textual variants, 
 the plan of this edition is similar to that of the earlier edi- 
 tions of the Hudson Shakespeare. It is impossible to specify 
 the various instances of revision and rearrangement in the 
 matter of the Introduction and the interpretative notes, but 
 the endeavor has been to retain all that gave the Hudson 
 Shakespeare its unique place and to add the results of what 
 seems vital and permanent in later inquiry and research. 
 
 While it is important that the principle of suum ciiique 
 be attended to so far as is possible in matters of research 
 and scholarship, it is becoming more and more difficult to 
 give every man his own in Shakespearian annotation. The 
 amount of material accumulated is so great that the identity- 
 origin of much important comment and suggestion is either 
 wholly lost or so crushed out of shape as to be beyond 
 recognition. Instructive significance perhaps attaches to 
 this in editing the works of one who quietly made so much 
 of materials gathered by others. But the list of authorities 
 given on page Ixxi will indicate the chief source of much 
 that has gone to enrich the value of this edition. Espe- 
 cial acknowledgment is here made of the obligations to 
 Dr. William Aldis Wright and Dr. Horace Howard Furness, 
 whose work in Shakespearian criticism, research, and col- 
 lating, has made all subsequent editors and investigators 
 their eternal bondmen. 
 
PREFACE V 
 
 With regard to the general plan of this edition, Professor 
 W. P. Trent, of Columbia University, has offered valuable 
 suggestions and given important advice ; and to Mr. M. 
 Grant Daniell's patience, accuracy, and judgment this volume 
 owes both its freedom from many a blunder and its possession 
 of a carefully arranged index. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Page 
 
 I. Sources ix 
 
 The Main Story ix 
 
 The Macbeth of History ix 
 
 The Macbeth of Legend x 
 
 John of Fordun x 
 
 Andrew of Wyntoun xi 
 
 Boece xii 
 
 Bellenden xii 
 
 Stewart xiii 
 
 HoLiNSHED xiii 
 
 Buchanan xvii 
 
 Earlier Plays xviii 
 
 Witch Lore xx 
 
 The Moving Wood xxiii 
 
 Macduff's Birth xxiv 
 
 Was Shakespeare ever in Scotland? . . . xxv 
 
 II. Date of Composition xxvi 
 
 External Evidence xxvi 
 
 Internal Evidence xxviii 
 
 III. Early Editions xxix 
 
 Folios xxix 
 
 The Quartos of 1673 and 1674 xxx 
 
 Rowe's Editions xxxi 
 
 IV. Shakespeare and Middleton xxxi 
 
 V. Versification and Diction xxxiii 
 
 Blank Verse xxxiii 
 
 Rhyme xxxv 
 
 Prose xxxvi 
 
 vii 
 
Viu CONTENTS 
 
 Pagp 
 
 VI. Dramatic Structure xxxviii 
 
 Analysis by Act and Scene xxxix 
 
 VII. Management of Time and Place xliv 
 
 VIII. The Characters xlv 
 
 The Weird Sisters xlv 
 
 The Weird Sisters and Macbeth xlix 
 
 Macbeth and Banquo Hi 
 
 Macbeth liv 
 
 Lady Macbeth Ivii 
 
 IX. General Characteristics Ixiv 
 
 X. Stage History Ixvi 
 
 The Seventeenth Century Ixvi 
 
 The Eighteenth Century Ixviii 
 
 The Nineteenth Century Ixix 
 
 Authorities (with Abbreviations) Ixxi 
 
 Chronological Chart Ixxii 
 
 Distribution of Characters Ixxvi 
 
 THE TEXT 
 
 Act I . 3 
 
 Act II 42 
 
 Act III 67 
 
 Act IV ' 97 
 
 Act V 128 
 
 INDEX 
 
 I. Words and Phrases 153 
 
 II. Quotations from Holinshed 159 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Facsimile, First Page of Macbeth, First Folio . Frontispiece 
 
 Macbeth Meets the Weird Sisters (from Holinshed) xlv 
 
 Macbeth's Investitxtre (from Holinshed) xiv 
 
 Title-Page, Holinshed's Description of Scotland . xvi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Note. In citations from Shakespeare's plays and nondramatic 
 poems the numbering has reference to the Globe edition, except in 
 the case of this play, where the reference is to this edition. 
 
 I. SOURCES 
 
 TJhe latal consequence of the intervention of malignant 
 supernatural powers in human affairs has fascinated the 
 deepest minds in all ages and in all lands. It is the theme 
 of Greek tragedy ; it is the germ idea of the Faust legend ; 
 it is the essential element in Paradise Lost. The story of 
 Macbeth, as we have it in Shakespeare, belongs to that great 
 cycle of temptation themes which, developing naturally from 
 the story of the fall in the Genesis narrative, became in the 
 Middle Ages the legend of the man who sells his soul to the 
 devil in exchange for fortune, power, or universal knowledge. 
 
 The Main Story 
 
 the macbeth of history 
 
 "Modern research -^ has established that the Macbeth of 
 history was, for his time, a worthy and beneficent monarch, 
 thoroughly deserving the title of " the liberal king " given to 
 
 ^ Cf. Freeman's The History of the Norman ConqiLest, 1867-1879; 
 Skene's Celtic Scotland, 1876-1S80 ; Professor Hume Brown's The 
 History of Scotland (Cambridge Historical Series) ; Robertson's Scot- 
 land under her Early Kings. 
 
X THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 him by St. Berchan. He appears first in trustworthy annals ^ 
 as the hereditary ' mormaor,' or high steward, of Moray, 
 accompanying his grandfather, Malcolm II, on a mission of 
 homage to Cnut, king of England, in 1031. His seventeen 
 years' reign (1040- 105 7) was marked by unprecedented 
 order and prosperity ; and, as Buchanan states in his Rerum 
 Scoticarum Historia, first printed in 1582, he applied his 
 mind to make good and useful laws, a thing almost wholly 
 neglected by former kings. From this eleventh century 
 king of Scotland the influence of mediaeval story-telling and 
 the wilful falsification of historical material for political pur- 
 poses have created the Macbeth of myth and legend. " With 
 the Scottish historians who followed the War of Independ- 
 ence it was a prime concern to produce an unbroken line 
 of Scottish kings stretching to the fathers of the human 
 race. As an interloper in this series Macbeth was a monster 
 whose origin and whose actions must alike have been cqil- 
 ^trary to nature." — Hume Brov/n. 
 
 THE MACBETH OF LEGEND 
 
 I. John of Fordun's Chronica. The earliest extant version 
 of the Macbeth legend is in the Chronica Gentis Scotorum 
 (sometimes called the Scotichronicon^ of which it forms the 
 first part), written in Latin by John of Fordun (often called 
 John Fordun), a secular priest and canon of the cathedral 
 church of Aberdeen, who died about the year 1385. This 
 
 1 In the earliest records the name is spelled ' Mealbea^e,' ' Mac- 
 beo'Se,' ' Machetad,' ' Machbet.' In Dalrj'mple's version, " in Scot- 
 tish," of Leslie's Historie of Scotland, printed in 1 578, the name is given 
 as ' Machabie.' In Boece the Latin form of the name is ' Maccabseus.' 
 
 2 Edited (with a translation) by Skene, Edinburgh, 1871-1872. 
 
INTRODUCTION Xi 
 
 chantry priest did for Scottish history and story what Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth more than two hundred years earlier had done 
 for the mythical history of Britain and the Arthurian story in 
 his Historia Regum Britannice. Both gathered the floating 
 legends and stories, facts and fables, and compacted then? 
 into "something like a chronological system," thus starting 
 them on their literary career. 
 
 2. Andrew of Wyntoun' s Orygynale Cronykil. About the 
 year 1424 Andrew (Androwe, Andro) of Wyntoun (often 
 called Andrew Wyntoun), a canon of St. Andrews who be- 
 came prior of St. Serf's Inch in Lochleven, resolved to draw 
 up a Cronykil out " off Latine in tyll Ynglys sawe," ^ as he 
 puts it. He prefixed the adjective ' Orygynale ' because the 
 Cronykil went back to the beginnings of men and angels. 
 In the octosyllabic couplets of the Orygynale Cronykil is 
 the earliest form of the prophecy of the Weird Sisters. This 
 is the famous passage : 
 
 A nycht he thowcht in hys dremying, 
 
 That syttand he wes besyd the kyng 
 
 At a sete in hwntyng, swa 
 
 In till a leysh had grewhundys twa : 
 
 He thowcht quhile he wes swa syttand 
 
 He sawe thre wemen by gangand ; 
 
 And thai wemen than thowcht he 
 
 Thre werd Systrys mast lyk to be. 
 
 The fyist he hard say gangand by, 
 
 ' Lo, yhondyr the Thayne off Crumbawchty I ' 
 
 The tothir woman sayd agane, 
 
 'Of Morave yhondre I se the Thayne ! ' 
 
 The thryd than sayd, ' I se the Kyng ! ' 
 
 1 into English speech. Until well into the sixteenth century the Low- 
 land Scots, though they called themselves ' Scottis ' and their country 
 'Scotland,' called their language 'Ynglys,' ' Inglisch,' or ' Inglis.' 
 
xii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Here, it is to be noted, the temptation of Macbeth by the 
 Weird Sisters takes place in a dream. This version of the 
 story is followed by the skeptical and rationalistic Buchanan. 
 
 3. Boece's Histories. In 15 26-1 52 7 was printed the Sco- 
 torum Histories of Hector Boece (Boetius, Boyis, Boyce), 
 the first principal of King's College, Aberdeen. This Latin 
 redaction added new epic and dramatic elements to the 
 Macbeth legend. The meeting of Macbeth and three, women 
 
 ^supposedJojDe the Weird^Sisters is now described as axLartual^ 
 occurrence on the road to Forres, and the story begins to 
 take the definite shape familiar to readers of Holinshed and 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 4. Bellenden^s Cro?iiklis. Under the title Croniklis of 
 Scotland a very free translation of Boece's work into vigor- 
 ous Scottish prose was made about the year 1533 by John 
 Bellenden (Ballantyne), archdeacon of Moray and canon of 
 Ross. In Bellenden's version in the vernacular, first printed 
 in 1536,^ the description of the temptation scene is pithy 
 and dramatic : 
 
 Nocht lang eftir, hapnit ane uncouth and wounderfull thing, be 
 quhilk foUowit sone ane gret alteration in the realme. Be aventure, 
 Makbeth and Banquho wer passing to Fores, quhair King Uuncane 
 hapnit to be for the time, and met be the gait thre wemen, clothit 
 in elrage and uncouth weid. They were jugit be the pepill to be 
 weird sisteris. The first of thaim said to Makbeth: 'Hale, Thane 
 of Glammis ! ' The secound said : ' Hale, Thane of Cawder ! ' and 
 the thrid said: ' Hale, King of Scotland 1 ' 
 
 Bellenden rehearses Lady Macbeth's complicity in the plot 
 to murder Duncan with much greater detail than is found 
 in either earlier or later versions of the legend. 
 
 1 Edited by Maitland, Edinburgh, 182 1. Reprinted in Collier's 
 Shakespeare^ s Library. 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 5. Stewarf s Cronikle. In 1535 appeared a Scottish met- 
 rical version of Bellenden's Croniklis, purporting to be by 
 William Stewart ^ and made at the command of Margaret 
 Tudor, Queen of Scotland, for her son James V. Though 
 this Cronikle was not printed till after Shakespeare's day, it is 
 perfectly possible that he may have had access to it through 
 the friendly relations between James VI and the " King's 
 Company " of players, to which Shakespeare belonged. Signi- 
 ficant verbal resemblances make this not only possible but 
 not at all improbable. 
 
 6. Holinshed's Chronicles. As the numerous extracts in 
 the notes to the text in this edition of Macbeth will show, 
 Shakespeare derived the great body of his story material from 
 the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, of Raphael 
 Holinshed (Holynshed, Hollingshead,Hollinshead), first pub- 
 lished in two folio volumes in 1 5 7 7 , and again in 1 586-1587, 
 "newHe augmented and continued."^ In this second edi- 
 tion are many significant changes in the text, and it is 
 interesting to note that on the title-page The description and 
 historie of Ireland precedes The description and historic of 
 Scotland. The first edition has a great many quaint wood- 
 cuts inserted in the text,^ and two of these are here repro- 
 duced in facsimile, with some lines of the text. Figure i 
 represents the meeting of Macbeth and the " .iij women in 
 straunge & ferly apparell, resembling creatures of an elder 
 
 1 Edited by Turnbull (Rolls Series), 3 vols., 1858. 
 
 2 In W. G. Boswell-Stone's Shakspere's Holinshed are given all 
 the portions of the Chronicles which are of special interest to the 
 Shakespeare student. 
 
 3 These woodcuts were omitted in the second edition, and many 
 passages of the original text were cancelled by order of the Privy 
 Council "as disagreeable to Queen Elizabeth." 
 
-iflnj*as?ttmff)ttiJpDE3IncI)t,tl)n:eto be tl)ittifapDE:ini^aple99aliW1>§@Sfeaaftrt 
 U^nmtDttt) t^t eamt of m S?am3,as jo njaUbe femgof Stotlanu. 
 
 tjBtgcanmtDWtittf 
 
 ^pm Eanqulio, toliat mantr of toomm 50 in InSplace.toljtrEcontracaptljoain BrtDefljalt 
 PwSHit) ace JOB, tf)at fienu Co title Eiuoatablt not rcppe at all, tut of tbee fSofc fflaH I)£ bojnt 
 
 Fig. I 
 
 fi^altolme pjinte of (JnmtwisnDe, as tr mnt ftnt, l;t ttr tputB tlje fnutdiitt of tfcc smstwim 
 tjcrdjp to appoint tiim IrtS fucceflo? in. tfje Sing- accojtjlns to tljt accuttomED manre. 
 
 "STteboDiEofDuntawtoaBfitatcmncjeO ttie&jnnegof kmgDuncaiiE.fcjftanoftjis 
 tmo (ElKnfe,cffi)f1j£tt bumorn ansJpinJlft, llufsftDtjtOjEttiepnnsottticnawttf ^9^"*^ 
 
 Fig. 2 
 
INTRODUCTION XV 
 
 worlde "; Figure 2 represents Macbeth receiving the "inues- 
 ture of the kingdome according to the accustomed maner." 
 
 In the special title prefixed to The Description of Scot- 
 land m the edition of 1586-1587, given in facsimile on the 
 following page (Figure 3), Holinshed's indebtedness to Boece 
 and to Bellenden is clearly set forth. This is the edition 
 undoubtedly used by Shakespeare,^ and it is not improbable 
 that the mention of these authorities would stimulate him to 
 read them at first hand. 
 
 While the dramatist follows closely Holinshed's account 
 of the reigns of Duncan and Macbeth, he transfers to the 
 murder of Duncan such details as the drugging of the grooms, 
 the portents, the tempest, etc., from the narrative of the 
 murder of Duffe, Lady Macbeth's great-grandfather. Addi- 
 tional details taken from other parts of the Chronicles and 
 woven into the plot of the play are the story of young 
 Siward's death and the description of the English king's 
 touching to cure * the evil.' Furness, too, has pointed out 
 that the hint for the ' voice ' which cried " Sleep no more ! " 
 (II, ii, 35) probably came from the voice that Kenneth, who 
 had poisoned his nephew Malcolm, heard : 
 
 And (as the fame goeth) it chanced that a voice was heard as he 
 was in bed in the night time to take his rest, vttering vnto him these 
 or the hke woords in effect : " Thinke not Kenneth that the wicked 
 slaughter of Malcolme Duffe by thee contriued, is kept secret from 
 the knowledge of the eternall God." . . . The king with this voice 
 being stricken into great dread and terror, passed that night without 
 anie sleepe comming in his eies. 
 
 ^ For example, ' ferly,' in the description of the dress of the Weird 
 Sisters in the first edition, is changed to ' wild ' in the second, as in 
 Macbeth I, iii, 40. Boswell-Stone gives other proofs of this kind. 
 
Of: 
 
 ife 
 
 15 8 y. 
 
 THE 
 
 DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF SCOTLAND, 
 
 Written at the firft hy Hcftor Boe- 
 
 tiuf in Latmcy andaftcrmardtrari' 
 
 flated into the Scotifh /jjsech by 
 
 John Bellendtn Archdeaon of 
 
 liiutey . and now fiaal* 
 
 iHiifhEnlUlhlj 
 
 R.a 
 
 Wherevpon is inferred the 
 
 hijlorie of Scotland , conteining 
 
 the beginning, increafcprocecding, 
 
 continuivjce ,a[is ,and goueriumtnt of 
 
 the Scotifh nation, from the originall 
 
 thereofvntotheyt&re tsjt,gashf' 
 
 red 2nd written in Engli(h by /y- 
 
 fhuS iitl[m4b,44:ini conti. 
 
 inuedfroni 1571, tor 
 
 l;8;,bych. 
 
 the 
 
 kmm 
 
 Cwnfr'iuilemKegU 
 Miicjtttit. 
 
 Fig. 3 
 
INTRODUCTION . xvii 
 
 (In this connection see Buchanan's account of the con- 
 science-stricken king quoted below.) 
 
 Notable changes in Shakespeare's use of the material 
 furnished by Holinshed are the idealization of the character 
 of Banquo and the simplification and compression of the 
 action in the interests of dramatic economy. Above all, 
 and most significant of all, the drama throbs with a passion 
 and a moral energy of which Holinshed's Chronicles^ with 
 all their infusion of enchantment and the supernatural, have 
 not the slightest trace. 
 
 7. Btichanari's Historia. In 1582 was printed in Edin- 
 burgh the Rerinn Scoticarum Hisioria of George Buchanan, 
 the famous tutor of James I and one of Scotland's most illus- 
 trious scholars. Of this work there was no version in Eng- 
 lish until after Shakespeare's death, but there was naturally 
 much discussion of it in London after James ascended the 
 English throne, and Shakespeare must have been acquainted 
 with the book to a greater or less extent. At the close of 
 the Macbeth narrative, Buchanan, whose attitude towards 
 the supernatural is, as already indicated, uncompromisingly 
 rationalistic, has this very significant sentence : " Certain of 
 our writers here relate many things which I omit, as they 
 seem fitter for stage representations or Milesian stories than 
 for sober history {theatris atit Milesiis fabulis sunt aptiora 
 quam historiae)'' M. H. Liddell points out that the descrip- 
 tion of Kenneth's awakened conscience in Buchanan's His- 
 toria gives us " the picture of Macbeth's torture almost 
 exactly as Shakespeare conceived it": 
 
 His Mind being disquieted with the Guilt of his Offence, suffered 
 him to enjoy no sincere or sohd Mirth ; but in the Day he was vexed 
 with the corroding Thoughts of that foul Wickedness, which would 
 
xviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 always force themselves into his Mind, and in the Night terrible 
 Apparitions disturbed his Rest. At last, a Voice was heard from 
 Heaven, either a true one, as some think ; or else, such an one, as 
 his disquieted Mind suggested (as it commonly happens to guilty 
 Consciences), speaking to him in his Bed.^ 
 
 8. Earlier Plays. There is clear evidence that within a 
 few years of the production of Gorboduc, the first English 
 tragedy, Scottish legendary history was attracting the atten- 
 tion of dramatists as a quarry from which to take effective 
 material. Under the influence of the passion for chronicle 
 histories, and plays founded on romantic legend, a Tragedie 
 of the King of Scottes came into existence as early as 1568 ; 
 about 1590 Robert Greene produced The Scottish Historie 
 of James IV, slaine at Flodden, intermixed with a pleas- 
 ant Comedie, presented by Oboram King of Fayeries^ ; and 
 Henslowe in his Diary, under April 27, 1602, refers to a 
 play called Malcolme, King of Scottes. But dealing with the 
 Macbeth legend are two works of special interest in this con- 
 nection : (i) Macdobeth, probably dramatic and certainly 
 anterior to Shakespeare's play, and (2) a Latin Dramatic 
 Dialogue given before King James at Oxford, probably 
 anterior. 
 
 (i) Macdobeth. In 77/.? Stationers^ Registers under the 
 date August 27, 1596, is a reference to a "Ballad of 
 
 1 This translation is from the English version of Buchanan's His- 
 tory 0/ Scotland, published in Edinburgh, 1751. In The Anatomy of 
 Melancholy, Burton quotes this passage from Buchanan. 
 
 2 The fact that this play (in the writing of which, according to 
 Fleay, Lodge collaborated with Greene) seems really founded on 
 the Italian romance of Astatio and Arrenopia in Giraldi Cinthio's 
 Gli Hecatommithi, 1565, does not affect the argument regarding 
 the growing popularity of Scottish themes for dramatic treatment. 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 Macdobeth," and the same entry refers to " the ballad en- 
 tituled The taming of a shrew." Collier held that if The 
 Taming of the Shrew, which is known to be a play, was 
 recorded as a ballad, Macdobeth was probably of the same 
 character, and he sought to identify it with the "miserable 
 stolne story" referred to by Will Kemp, a famous actor of 
 clowns' parts, in his Kempes nine daies wonder, printed in 
 1600. In searching for a ballad-maker who had written an 
 unauthorized account of some of his morrice-dancing adven- 
 tures, Kemp says : 
 
 I met a proper vpright youth, onely for a little stooping in the 
 shoulders : all hart to the heele, a penny Poet whose first making 
 was the miserable stolne story of Macdoel, or Macdobeth, or Mac- 
 somewhat : for I am sure a Mac it was, though I never had the 
 maw to see it. 
 
 " Here the words * to see it ' seem to show that the piece 
 had been publicly represented, and that it was not merely a 
 printed ' ballad.' Kemp, as a highly popular actor, would 
 most naturally refer to dramatic performances." — Collier. 
 
 {2) A Latin Dramatic Dialogue. In his Essay on the 
 Learning of Shakespeare (London, 1767) Farmer held that 
 Macbeth was possibly suggested by " a little performance 
 on the same subject at Oxford, before King James." This 
 ' performance ' was a dialogue in Latin, dealing with the 
 prediction of the " prophetic sisters " (fatidicas sorores) 
 as to Banquo and Macbeth, arranged by the students of 
 St. John's College, Oxford, on the occasion of the royal 
 visit to the university in August, 1605. This dialogue,^ 
 
 1 The Latin text is given in the Appendix to Furness's A New 
 Variorum. Macbeth. 
 
XX THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 written by Dr. Mathew Gwynne, was found by Malone 
 bound up with Gwynne's Latin play Veriumnus, and the 
 opening Hnes, spoken by three students dressed to repre- 
 sent Sibyls, " the conceipt whereof the King did very much 
 applaude," ^ have certainly an interesting resemblance to the 
 Witches' prophecy in Shakespeare's play. 
 
 Witch Lore 
 
 In sorting the materials out of which the Weird Sisters 
 weave their incantations, and in gathering the ingredients 
 which they compound into their hell-broth so as to " make 
 the gruel thick and slab," Shakespeare drew upon the popu- 
 lar belief of his time. Into the coarse and realistic mixture 
 he infused magic elements of that mystic symbolism which 
 JS- Ihe -spirit of 4he Fates of the classical mythology and 
 of the Norns of the Scandinavian — that mystic symbolism 
 which already had so strangely idealized certain develop- 
 ments of witch lore in the old Hebrew story (/ Samuel, 
 xxviii) of Saul's visit to the witch of Endor and the 
 reading of the future through a rising from the dead in a 
 midnight cave. 
 
 I . Scofs Discoverie of Witchcraft. As the quotations in 
 the notes to the text of the play indicate, many minor de- 
 tails of the witch business in Macbeth seem to have been 
 derived from The Discoverie of Witchcraft^ 1584, an extraor- 
 dinary impeachment of the witchcraft superstition by Regi- 
 nald Scot, a Kentish man who, after years of study at Oxford, 
 returned to his native county and gave himself to gardening 
 
 1 A. Nixon's The Oxford Triumph, 1605. 
 
 2 Edited by B. Nicholson, London, 1886. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 and hop-growing.^ The Discoverie of Witchcraft is a frank 
 and able exposure of the absurdities of the popular belief, 
 but the value of his book to-day is in the detailed account 
 of the processes of sorcery and the minutiae of witch lore. 
 The scope of the work is indicated in the original title : 
 
 The discoverie of witchcraft wherein the lewde dealing of witches 
 and witchmongers is notablie detected, the knaverie of conjurors, 
 the impietie of inchantors, the folUe of soothsayers, the impudent 
 falsehood of cousenors,^ the infidelitie of atheists, the pestilent 
 practices of Pythonists, the curiositie of figure-casters, the vanitie 
 of dreamers, the beggarlie art of Alcumystrie, the abhomination 
 of idolatrie, the horrible art of poisoning, the vertue and power of 
 naturall magike, and all the conveiances of Legierdemaine and jug- 
 gling are deciphered, and many other things opened which have long 
 lien hidden, howbeit verie necessarie to be knowne, 
 
 2. King James's DcBmonologie. In 1597 King James, a 
 born arguer and reveler in ' counterblasts,' issued his Dce- 
 monologie, in Fortne of a Dialogue as a reply to Scot and 
 other skeptics. Here, too, are interesting details of the ways 
 and methods of witches, as this extract from the preface 
 indicates : 
 
 The fearefull abounding at this time in this Countrey of these 
 detestable slaues of the Diuel, the Witches or enchaunters, hath 
 mooued me ... to resolue the doubting hearts of many; both that 
 such assaults of Satan are most certainely practised, and that the 
 instruments thereof merits most seuerely to be punished : against 
 the damnable opinions of two principally in our aage, whereof the 
 one called Scot, an Englishman, is not ashamed in publike Print to 
 deny that there can be such a thing as Witch-craft. . . . And for to 
 
 ^ He is said to have introduced hop-growing into England. His 
 treatise on the subject. The Hoppe-Garden, first published in 1574, 
 was thrice reprinted before 1580. 
 
 2 cozeners, impostors. Cf. The Winter's Tale, IV, iv, 256; King 
 Lear, IV, vi, 167. 
 
xxii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 make this Treatise the more pleasant and facill, I haue put it in form 
 of a Dialogue, which I have diuided into three Bookes : The first 
 speaking of Magie in generall, and Necromancie in speciall : The 
 second, of Sorcerie and Witch-craft ; and the third containes a dis- 
 course of all these kinds of spirits and Spectres that appeares and 
 troubles persons. 
 
 3. Nezves from Scotland. In 1591 there appeared in 
 Scotland a book called Newes from Scotland, in which are 
 graphically told the doings of certain Scottish witches and 
 " supposts of Sathan " who met " on the see ... in riddles or 
 selves ... to sink the schip . . . att the Kingis returning 
 fra Denmark." That was in 1589, when James was bring- 
 ing home his Danish bride. This little book was republished 
 in London in 1604, when the king's statute to suppress 
 witchcraft was enacted. Steevens ^ connects the Scottish 
 witch lore in this book with such passages in Macbeth as 
 I, iii, 10— II, 25-29, but in Scot's Discoverie and James's 
 Dceinonologie the power of witches to raise storms by sea 
 and land is fully recognized, 
 
 4. Gelding s Ovid. Arthur Golding's translation of Ovid's 
 Metamorphoses, begun in 1565 and completed in 1575, is 
 the probable source of much of Shakespeare's knowledge of 
 classical mythology. "Golding's rendering of Ovid had been 
 one of Shakespeare's best-loved books in youth." — Sidney 
 Lee. In it we have Hecate recognized as the goddess of 
 witches : 
 
 She went me to an Altar that was dedicate of olde 
 
 To Persys daughter Hecate (of whom the Witches holde 
 
 As of their Goddesse) standing in a thicke and secrete wood . . . 
 
 And thou, three-headed Hecate, who knowest best the way 
 
 To compasse this our great attempt, and art our chiefest stay. 
 
 1 Cf. T. A. Spalding's Elizabethan Demonology, London, 1880. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxiii 
 
 The Moving Wood 
 
 The incidfiat-^oljhe^moYing^ wo^d belongs to the folk- 
 lore of both Semitic and Indo-European peoples.'^ In Wyn- 
 toun's Cronykil the ' flyttand Wod ' is expressly referred to 
 as traditional. It is adumbrated in the Hebrew story of 
 David's conquest of the Philistines following the sound and 
 appearance as of armies moving along the tops of the mul- 
 berry trees in the valley of Rephaim. In Poet-Lore, May, 
 1890, Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr., gives an Arabic version of the 
 story ; and Halliwell-Phillipps transcribes a variant in an 
 old romance life of Alexander the Great. A vigorous form 
 of the story is in a broadside ballad purporting to be by 
 Thomas Deloney who died about 1600. It tells of the way 
 in which "the valiant courage and policie of the Kentish- 
 men" enabled them to use the jigidce ,o|_tbej3aojdng, wgod 
 to foLoe William the Conqueror to recognizejheir rights : 
 
 For when they spied his approch 
 
 In place where they did stand, 
 Then march'd forth they to hem him in, 
 
 Each man with bough in hand. 
 
 So that unto the Conqueror's sight, 
 
 Amazed as he stood, 
 They seem'd to be a walking grove. 
 
 Or els a moouing wood. 
 
 The shape of men he could not see. 
 
 The boughs did hide them so. 
 And how his heart did quake for fear 
 
 To see a forest go. 
 
 1 Some of the variants are given in Porter and Clarke's Shelve- 
 spears Studies : Macbeth. 
 
xxiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Simrock ^ has shown how closely several of the Macbeth 
 incidents, including this of the moving wood, correspond to 
 the traditionary story of King Griinewald : 
 
 A King had an only daughter, who possessed wondrous gifts. 
 Now, once upon a time there came his enemy, a King named Griine- 
 wald, and besieged him in his castle, and, as the siege lasted long, 
 the daughter kept continually encouraging her father in the castle. 
 This lasted till May-day. Then all of a sudden the daughter saw the 
 hostile army approach with green boughs : then fear and anguish fell 
 on her, for she knew that all was lost, and said to her father, " Father, 
 you must yield, or die ; I see the green-wood drawing nigh." ^ 
 
 Simrock claims that the legend of the moving forest 
 originated in the German religious custom of May festivals 
 and summer welcomings. 
 
 Macduff's Birth 
 
 Simrock has also pointed out that the connection between 
 an untimely birth and heroic strength and prowess as shown 
 in the Witch's prophecy that " none of woman born Shall 
 harm Macbeth" (IV, i, 80-81), and that Macduff satisfied 
 this grim condition (V, viii, 15-16), is also a bit of Teutonic 
 folk-lore, Sigurd's ancestor, Wolsung, having been a child of 
 sorrow of this kind. Such a belief is latent in all the Aryan 
 mythologies and is common to-day among the peasantry of 
 many European countries. Macbeth's death at the hand of 
 a foe not born of woman is alluded to in Wyntoun's Cronykil, 
 but Shakespeare undoubtedly took his version from Hol- 
 inshed's Chronicles, where we read : " But Makduffe . . . 
 answered (with his naked swoord in his hand) saieng : It is 
 
 1 K. Simrock's Die Qitellen des Shakespeare, Hildburghausen, 1870. 
 
 2 This is the translation given in Fumess. 
 
INTRODUCTION XXV 
 
 true Makbeth ... I am even he that thy wizzards have told 
 thee of, who was never born of my mother, but ripped out 
 of her wombe." 
 
 Was Shakespeare ever in Scotland? 
 
 Whether Shakespeare visited Scotland has been the sub- 
 ject of much discussion. Knight, Fleay, and other scholars 
 maintain that he did, and that Macbeth derives much of its 
 ' local colour ' and peculiar power from the fact that the 
 dramatist was describing what he had seen with his own 
 eyes. Thus, and thus alone, it has been claimed, could he 
 have caught so marvellously both the letter and the spirit 
 of old Highland romance. The internal evidence based on 
 such accuracy of local description and allusion as is found in 
 I, vi, 1-6, is strengthened by such strong external evidence 
 as the visits of English actors to Scotland during the time of 
 Shakespeare's connection with the stage. On October 22, 
 1 60 1, the freedom of the city of Aberdeen was conferred 
 on Lawrence Fletcher, " Comedian to His Majestie," and 
 under a Privy Seal dated May 17, 1603, license ^ was granted 
 to this Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard 
 Burbage, and other members of the old Lord Chamber- 
 lain's company as " the King's Men," to perform stage plays 
 "within their now usual house called the Globe," and else- 
 where in the kingdom. 
 
 Fleay ^ held that Shakespeare was in the company that 
 went to Scotland in 1601, and that when the company was 
 at Aberdeen he wrote a version of Macbeth for performance 
 before the king there, in the winter following the Gowry 
 
 ^ The license is given in full in Collier's Anttals of the Stage. 
 ' The Life and Work of Shakespeare, London, 1886. 
 
xxvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 conspiracy. This he revised and enlarged after his interest 
 had been awakened in the subject again by the dramatic dia- 
 logue given by the Oxford students in 1605. Fleay's theory 
 is interesting and suggestive, but of course inconclusive. 
 
 II. DATE OF COMPOSITION 
 
 The date of composition of Macbeth falls within April 20, 
 16 10, the later time limit {terminus ante queni), and 1603, 
 the earlier time limit {terminus post quern). The weight of 
 evidence favors 1 605-1 606. 
 
 External Evidence 
 
 I. Formah's Diary. In determining the date of compo- 
 sition, the most famous bit of external evidence gives a 
 definite terminus ante quern. This is Dr. Simon Forman's 
 account of a performance of Macbeth attended by him at 
 the Globe theatre on April 20, 1610. Forman was an Eliza- 
 bethan physician, astrologer, and dabbler in the black art, 
 and in The Booke of Plaies and Notes therof per Formans 
 for Common Pollicie^ a little manuscript volume discovered 
 in the Ashmolean Museum in 1836, he gives a minute and 
 particular account of the plot and leading incidents of the 
 drama. Forman's description begins as follows : 
 
 In Mackbeth at the glob, i6jo, the 20 of Aprill, ther was to be 
 obserued, firste, howe Mackbeth and Bancko, 2 noble men of Scot- 
 land, Ridinge thorowe a wod, the[r] stode before them 3 women 
 feiries or Nimphes, And saluted Mackbeth, sayinge, 3 tyms vnto him, 
 haille mackbeth, king of Codon ; for thou shalt be a kinge, but shalt 
 
 ^ for guidance in the ordinary affairs of life. Fumivall's reprint 
 of The Booke of Plaies is given in the Appendix to Transactions of the 
 New Shakspere Society, 1875-1876. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxvii 
 
 beget No kinge, &c. then said Bancko, what all to mackbeth And 
 nothing to me. Yes, said the nimphes, haille to thee Banko, thou 
 shalt beget kinges, yet be no kinge. And so they departed & cam 
 to the courte of Scotland to Dunkin king of Scotes, and yt was in 
 the dais of Edward the Confessor. 
 
 2. The Puritan. Forman's lengthy and detailed notice 
 of Macbeth has been regarded as evidence that the tragedy 
 was then fresh from Shakespeare's hand, and was in its first 
 course of performance. But this is to mistake Forman's pur- 
 pose in making his Notes. Besides, there are unmistakable 
 allusions to Macbeth earlier than 1610. In The Puritan, or 
 The Widow of Watling Street, printed in 1607, there is a 
 vei'y pointed reference to Banquo's Ghost : *' Instead of a 
 ie..ter we '11 ha' the ghost i' th' white sheet sit at upper end 
 o' th' table." ^ 
 
 3. Marston's Sophonisba. Professor Bradley, in his Shake- 
 spearean Tragedy, points out a number of parallels between 
 Macbeth and Marston's Sophonisba {The Wonder of Women, 
 or The Trajedie of Sophonisba), printed in 1606 — parallels 
 so marked as to be conclusive that Marston was familiar with 
 Shakespeare's play. In Marston's other plays are obvious 
 reminiscences of Shakespeare. 
 
 4. Warner's Albion's England. In the 1606 edition of 
 Warner's Albion's England (the first edition appeared in 
 1586), a Historie of Macbeth is added, probably in conse- 
 quence of the popularity of Shakespeare's play. 
 
 5. Latin Dramatic Dialogue. In summing up external 
 evidence for the date of Macbeth some weight is due to 
 the Latin dramatic dialogue given before the king at Ox- 
 ford in 1605, as described above. 
 
 ^ The often-quoted similar passage in The Knight of the Burning 
 Pestle, 161 1, has no direct bearing upon the date of Macbeth. 
 
xxviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Internal Evidence 
 
 The terminus post queni is generally agreed upon by inter- 
 nal evidence as 1603, the date of the accession of James I. 
 
 I. Allusions within the Play, (i) The specific reference 
 to the union of the two crowns, IV, i, 1 20-1 21. (2) The 
 description of touching for 'the evil,' IV, iii, 141-159. 
 (3) The dramatic use of witchcraft, a subject of intense 
 interest to the king. (4) Allusions in the Porter's speech. 
 The references to " the equivocator," II, iii, 8-1 1, and " the 
 farmer that hang'd himself on the expectation of plenty," II, 
 iii, 4-5, are usually quoted as pointing to 1606 as the date 
 of composition. The " equivocator ' ' passage, especially when 
 taken in connection with IV, ii, 45-50, and V, v, 43, is re- 
 garded by some as a reference to the trial of Henry Garnet 
 (note, page 54, line 8). Too much has been made of the 
 " farmer " allusion, even though special research has shown 
 that there was an unusually abundant harvest in 1606. As 
 a matter of fact, the jest seems to have been common in 
 Elizabethan London .and is found m Ben Jonson's Every 
 Man Out of His Humour, published in 1599 (see note, 
 page 53, lines 4-5). Another common Elizabethan jest 
 that has been dragged into the date of composition discus- 
 sion is that of the " tailor . . . stealing out of a French hose." 
 In this connection it is well to remember that the Porter's 
 speech is regarded by many editors as a later interpolation 
 (see below, Shakespeare and Middleton). (5) "The fatal 
 bellman." In a letter published in The Athenceum, Septem- 
 ber 13, 1902, Professor Hales points out that the surmise 
 of the editors of the Clarendon Press Shakespeare that the 
 full significance of the expression " the fatal bellman, Which 
 
INTRODUCTION xxix 
 
 gives the stern'st good-night," II, ii, 3-4, lay in its " allusion 
 to a certain Newgate custom " of Shakespeare's day, is 
 probably correct. In 1605 Robert Dow, a merchant tailor 
 of London, gave a sum of money to provide for, or fee, a 
 bellman who should deliver at the prison of Newgate "a 
 most pious and aweful admonition" to condemned criminals 
 the night before they suffered. 
 
 2. Style and Diction. While certain passages in Macbeth 
 are in Shakespeare's greatest, richest, and most idiomatic 
 style, and taken by themselves might justify placing the com- 
 position of the play as near as possible to the terminus ante 
 quem, the strict application of the various verse and diction 
 tests ^ (see Versification and Diction) would make the date 
 of composition as early as the main body of the external 
 evidence and that drawn from the allusions within the play 
 allow. 
 
 III. EARLY EDITIONS 
 
 Folios 
 
 On November 8, 1623, Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard 
 obtained formal license to print "Mr, William Shakespeere's 
 Comedyes, Histories, and Tragedyes, soe many of the said 
 copies as are not formerly entered to other men." This is 
 the description-entry in The Stationers' Registers of what 
 is now known as the First Folio (1623), designated in the 
 textual notes of this edition Fj. Macbeth is one of the six- 
 teen plays " not formerly entered," and it was first printed, 
 
 1 There is an excellent summary of these tests in Dowden's Shak- 
 spere Primer. See also Ward's History of English Dramatic Liter- 
 aturey Vol. II, pages 47-51. 
 
XXX THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 so far as is known, in this famous volume. While, as to 
 language, it is not one of the worst printed of the plays, the 
 peculiar nature of the errors and corruptions has given rise 
 to an unusual amount of textual criticism and led to those 
 interesting theories of the original version of the play which 
 are discussed elsewhere in this Introduction and in the notes 
 attached to the text. " Probably it was printed from a tran- 
 script of the author's MS., which was in great part not copied 
 from the original but written to dictation. This is confirmed 
 by the fact that several of the most palpable blunders are 
 blunders of the ear and not of the eye." — Clar. Macbeth 
 occupies pages 131 to 151 in the division of the Folio de- 
 voted to Tragedies, and it stands there httw^tn Julius Ccesar 
 and Hamlet. The running title is The Tragedie of Macbeth. 
 It is one of the seventeen plays in the First Folio in which 
 is indicated the division into acts and scenes. 
 
 The Second Folio, F2 (1632), olTers an unusual number 
 of changes in the text of Macbeth as compared with that of 
 other plays. The more important of these are given in the 
 textual notes of this edition. This Second Folio text is 
 repeated with few changes, except in the way of slightly 
 modernized spelling, in the Third Folio, F3 (1663, 1664), 
 and in the Fourth Folio, F4 (1685). 
 
 Quartos of 1673 and 1674 
 
 In 1673 appeared a Quarto edition of Macbeth purport- 
 ing to be as " acted at the Dukes Theatre." With the ex- 
 ception of songs added and changes in the witch scenes, 
 this Quarto is a reprint from the First Folio. Furness has 
 suggested calling it ' Betterton's Version,' after Thomas 
 Betterton, whom Pepys regarded as the best actor in the 
 
INTRODUCTION xxxi 
 
 world. In the following year appeared a Quarto with this 
 title-page : ' Macbeth, | A | Tragedy. | With all the | 
 Alterations, | Amendments, | Additions, | And | New 
 Songs. | As Ws now Acted at the Dukes Theatre. | LON- 
 DON, I Printed for P. Chetwtn, and are to be Sold | by 
 most Booksellers, 1674.' This is now known as the 
 ' D'Avenant Quarto.' It gives Sir William D'Avenant's 
 post-Restoration revision of the play, and in it are printed 
 now in full both Thomas Middleton's famous witch songs, 
 " Come away, come away," and " Black spirits and white." 
 Under the title * The Persons Names ' it contained the first 
 list of dramatis personae. 
 
 Rowe's Editions 
 
 The first critical editor of Shakespeare's plays was Nicholas 
 Rowe, poet laureate to George I. His first edition was issued 
 in 1 709 in six octavo volumes. In this edition Rowe, an ex- 
 perienced playwright, marked the entrances and exits of the 
 characters and introduced many stage directions. A second 
 edition in eight volumes was published in 17 14. Rowe fol- 
 lowed very closely the text of the Fourth Folio, but mod- 
 ernized spelling, punctuation, and occasionally grammar. 
 
 IV. SHAKESPEARE AND MIDDLETON 
 
 In the First Folio, Macbeth, III, v, after line 2>Zf is the 
 stage direction, Musicke, and a Song, and after line 35 
 another stage direction. Sing within. Cotne away, come 
 away, &'c. Again, in IV, i, after line 43, is the stage direc- 
 tion, Musicke and a Song. Blacke Spirits, ^'c. In the 
 D'Avenant Quarto, where, as mentioned above, both songs 
 
xxxii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 are given in fuU,^ there is no sign as to the source of them, 
 and for long they were supposed to be D'Avenant's own 
 composition. About the year 1778 (Malone gives the date 
 as 1779) Steevens is said to have found in "the collection 
 of the late Thomas Pearson, esq." a manuscript play called 
 The Witch, written by Thomas Middleton, one of Shake- 
 speare's younger contemporaries and a well-known dramatist 
 of the early seventeenth century. In The Witch are both 
 songs in almost the same form as D'Avenant had given 
 them, and it may be easily surmised why the songs were 
 not printed in full in the First Folio. Macbeth was of course 
 there printed from a playhouse manuscript ; and these songs, 
 which had formed a popular and catching part of Middle- 
 ton's otherwise unsuccessful play, were introduced by the 
 actors into Macbeth, and were presumed to be so well 
 known to the actors of the play in the form it then had 
 that a bare indication of them was enough.^ 
 
 The date of Middleton's play has not been ascertained.' 
 Various resemblances both of thought and language in the 
 two plays — resemblances much too close and literal to be 
 merely accidental — show that one of the authors must have 
 borrowed from the other. Several of these resemblances 
 
 1 See also notes, (i) page 92, lines 33, 35 ; (2) page 99, line 43. 
 
 2 A. H. Bullen, in his Introduction to Middleton's Works, defends 
 the Shakespearian authorship of the songs, but thinks they were 
 probably added to and expanded by Middleton. 
 
 2 Fleay conjectures that The Witch was composed in 1622, after 
 Middleton began to write for the King's Men (Shakespeare's old 
 company, see page xxv) at the Blackfriars theatre, by whom, accord- 
 ing to the title-page of the manuscript, the play was first produced. 
 The King's Men went to the Blackfriars in 161 3, and Middleton 
 wrote for the company from 161 5 to 1624. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxxiii 
 
 occur in those parts of Macbeth which are unquestionably 
 Shakespeare's and bear the clearest tokens of his mintage. 
 Steevens, in the enthusiasm over Middleton which followed 
 his find, held that Shakespeare borrowed from The Witch, 
 but it is now clear that, whatever may be the exact date, 
 Middleton wrote his play after the appearance of Macbeth ; 
 besides, in other plays he unmistakably imitates Shakespeare. 
 The theory of collaboration is untenable. The views of those 
 who hold the ' interpolation ' theory may be summarized 
 thus : Middleton's own play being unsuccessful, as he admits, 
 except probably in the lyrical passages, he was employed 
 by the Blackfriars management to add to Shakespeare's suc- 
 cessful play and develop the musical and spectacular fea- 
 tures to suit the growing popular demand for this sort of 
 thing. Of these 'interpolated' passages, the most important 
 are: I, ii; iii, 1-37; II, iii (Porter's part); III, v; IV, i, 
 39-47» 125-132; iii, 140-159; V, ii ; v, 47-50; viii, 
 32-33> 35-75- "This theory of interpolation must be 
 considered as in a high degree doubtful." — Dowden. 
 
 V. VERSIFICATION AND DICTION 
 
 Blank Verse 
 
 The greater part of Macbeth is in blank verse — the un- 
 rhymed, iambic five-stress (decasyllabic) verse, or iambic 
 pentameter, introduced into England from Italy by Henry 
 Howard, Earl of Surrey, about 1540, and used by him in a 
 translation of the second and fourth books of Vergil's ^neid. 
 Nicholas Grimald {TotteVs Miscellany, 1557) employed the 
 measure for the first time in English original poetry, and 
 its roots began to strike deep into British soil and absorb 
 
xxxiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 substance. It is peculiarly significant that Sackville and 
 Norton should have used it as the measure of Gorboduc, 
 the first English tragedy (performed by " the Gentlemen of 
 the Inner Temple " on January i8, 1561, and first printed in 
 1565), About the time when Shakespeare arrived in London 
 the infinite possibilities of blank verse as a vehicle for 
 dramatic poetry and passion were being shown by Kyd and 
 above all by Marlowe. Blank verse as used by Shakespeare 
 is really an epitome of the development of the measure in 
 connection with the English drama. In his earlier plays the 
 blank verse is often similar to that of Gorboduc. The tend- 
 ency is to adhere to the syllable-counting principle, to make 
 the line the unit, the sentence and phrase coinciding with 
 the line (end-stopped verse), and to use five perfect iambic 
 feet to the line. In plays of the middle period, such as The 
 Merchant of Venice and As You Like It, written between 
 1596 and 1600, the blank verse is more like that of Kyd 
 and Marlowe, with less monotonous regularity in the struc- 
 ture and an increasing tendency to carry on the sense from 
 one line to another without a syntactical or rhetorical pause 
 at the end of the line (run-on verse, enjambement'). Redun- 
 dant syllables now abound and the melody is richer and 
 fuller. In Shakespeare's later plays the blank verse breaks 
 away from bondage to formal line limits, and sweeps all 
 along with it in freedom, power, and organic unity. 
 
 Macbeth has a greater number of regular five-stress (pen- 
 tameter) unrhymed lines ^ than is usual in a later play ; but 
 
 1 For perfect examples of such normal lines see I, ii, i ; iii, -^^s \ 
 II, i, 35. The play contains 28 Alexandrines, 21 light endings, 78 
 feminine mid-line syllables, and 97 short lines. There are only 2 weak 
 endings. 
 
INTRODUCTION XXXV 
 
 Stress modifications of all kinds, Alexandrines, light endings, 
 feminine mid-line syllables, and other variations and devia- 
 tions from the norm give to the verse, with all its singular 
 compactness of idiomatic expression, a rich music and a 
 superb movement, epical as well as dramatic.^ 
 
 Rhyme 
 
 1. Couplets. Macbeth has io8 lines of rhymed pentam- 
 eter verse (rhymed couplets), an unusually large number 
 for a later play and one that contains only 2108 lines.' 
 Rhyme-tags, or couplets at the end of scenes and acts (see 
 Abbott, § 515), are especially numerous. " In this play more 
 scenes end with tags than in any other play in Shakespeare ; 
 the number of tag-rhymes is also greater than in any other 
 play, including his very earliest." — Fleay. Those who be- 
 lieve in the Middleton influence read Middleton's heavy 
 hand in this extraordinary prevalence of rhymed couplets. 
 
 2. Witch Scenes. The dominant measure in the speeches 
 of the Weird Sisters is four-stress (tetrameter) trochaic verse 
 catalectic — a rhythm often adopted by Shakespeare. Cf. 
 Orlando's verses in praise of Rosalind, and Touchstone's 
 ' false gallop ' in As You Like It; Autolycus's song in The 
 Winter'' s Tale, IV, iv, 220, etc. But in Macbeth the trochaic 
 movement in the tetrameter is freer than in any other 
 Shakespeare play, being varied by the introduction of three- 
 stress lines, of iambic five-stresses, and very frequently of 
 inversions of stress. The speeches of Hecate and the 
 
 1 Cf. J. A. Symonds's Blank Verse, page 58. 
 
 2 Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare's plays, with the excep- 
 tion of The Comedy of Errors (177S lines) and TJue Tempest (2065 
 lines). 
 
xxxvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 First Witch in III, v, and in IV, i, 39-43, 125-132, are in 
 iambic verse, and this fact has been used to strengthen the 
 arguments against the Shakespearian authorship of these 
 passages. 
 
 Prose 
 
 In the development of the Enghsh drama the use of prose 
 as a vehicle of expression entitled to equal rights with verse 
 was due to Lyly. He was the first to use prose with power and 
 distinction in original plays, and did memorable service in 
 preparing the way for Shakespeare's achievement. Interest- 
 ing attempts have been made to explain Shakespeare's dis- 
 tinctive use of verse and prose; and of recent years there has 
 been much discussion of the question " whether we are jus- 
 tified in supposing that Shakespeare was guided by any fixed 
 principle in his employment of verse and prose, or whether 
 he merely employed them, as fancy suggested, for the sake 
 of variety and relief." ^ It is a significant fact that in many 
 of his earlier plays there is little or no prose, and that the 
 proportion of prose to blank verse increases with the de- 
 crease of rhyme. In Macbeth four kinds of prose may be 
 distinguished: (i) The prose of formal documents, as in 
 Macbeth's letter to Lady Macbeth (I, v). In Shakespeare 
 prose is the usual medium for letters, proclamations, and 
 other formal documents. (2) The prose of 'low life' and 
 the speech of comic characters, as in the Porter scene (II, iii). 
 
 1 Professor J. Churton Collins's Shakespeare as a Prose Writer. 
 See Delius's Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen {Shakespeare Jahr- 
 buch, V, 227-273); Janssen's Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen; 
 Professor Hiram Corson's An Introduction to the Study of Shake- 
 speare^ pp. 83-98. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxxvii 
 
 This is a development of the humorous prose found, for 
 example, in Greene's comedies that deal with country life. 
 (3) The colloquial prose of simple dialogue, as in the talk 
 between Lady Macduff and her little boy (IV, ii), and in the 
 conversation of the Doctor and the Gentlewoman (V, i). In 
 both these passages, as in the Porter scene, the prose dic- 
 tion gives temporary emotional relief and prepares for the 
 heightening of the dramatic pitch in the scenes which imme- 
 diately follow. (4) The prose of abnormal mentality, as in 
 the sleep-walking scene (V, i). It is an interesting fact that 
 Shakespeare should so often make persons whose state of 
 mind is abnormal, or seemingly so, speak in prose. ^ " The 
 idea underlying this custom of Shakespeare's evidently is 
 that the regular rhythm of verse would be inappropriate 
 where the mind is supposed to have lost its balance and to 
 be at the mercy of chance impressions coming from without 
 (as sometimes with Lear) or of ideas emerging from its un- 
 conscious depths and pursuing one another across its passive 
 surface. The somnambulism of Lady Macbeth is such a 
 condition. . . . This language (i.e. Lady Macbeth's in prose) 
 stands in strong contrast with that of Macbeth in the sur- 
 rounding scenes, full of a feverish and almost furious excite- 
 ment, and seems to express a far more desolating misery." 
 — A. C. Bradley. In previous editions of Hudson's Shake- 
 speare the suggestion was made that the matter in the sleep- 
 walking scene is too sublime, too austerely grand, to admit 
 of anything so artificial as the measured language of verse, 
 even though the verse were Shakespeare's ; and that the poet, 
 as from an instinct of genius, saw or felt that any attempt 
 
 1 Cf. Hamlet, II, ii, 171-221 ; IV, v, 172-186; Lear, III, iv, 51- 
 64, etc. 
 
xxxviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 to heighten the effect by any such arts or charms of delivery 
 would unbrace and impair it. Is prose then, after all, a 
 higher form of speech than verse? 
 
 VI. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE 
 
 In regularity of construction and in symmetrical develop- 
 ment of plot, Macbeth and Julius Ccesar are unsurpassed 
 among Shakespeare's plays. The individual act-structure in 
 both plays is as compact and effective as the structure of 
 the drama as a whole. ^ Neither play has a complicating 
 underplot ; every incident and every speech is inextricably 
 bound up with the central personality. In both plays the set- 
 ting of scenery and the accessories of supernatural phenom- 
 ena harmonize subtly with incident and characterization. 
 
 Macbeth is a romantic tragedy in which is represented a 
 conflict between an individual, or, as in this play, two per- 
 sons acting together as one protagonist, and certain forces 
 which environ, antagonize, and overwhelm. In such a drama 
 are five essential elements: (i) the exposition or intro- 
 duction; (2) the complication or rising action; (3) the 
 climax or turning point ; (4) the resolution or falling action ; 
 and (5) the catastrophe or conclusion.^ In Macbeth, as in 
 Shakespeare's other plays, the organic elements in the action 
 do not correspond exactly to the mechanical division into 
 acts. The exposition is contained in the first two scenes ; 
 
 1 Macbeth, IV, iii, and Julius Casar, IV, iii, have been" censured 
 for being too episodical, but the 'suspensive plot' theory is surely 
 sufficient justification. 
 
 2 Cf. Freytag's Technik des Dramas, Leipzig. A useful little book 
 on the subject is Elisabeth Woodbridge's The Drama ; its Law and 
 its Technique. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxxix 
 
 the complication begins with the meeting of Macbeth and 
 the Weird Sisters and continues until the climax is reached 
 in the murder of Banquo in the third scene of the third act. 
 The beginning of the resolution is usually in the closest 
 union with the climax, and the announcement by the Third 
 Murderer that Fleance has escaped is incorporated with the 
 Banquo murder scene. From the escape of Fleance, on 
 through the banquet scene, the arousing of Macduff, and the 
 retreat to Dunsinane, the fortunes of Macbeth and Lady 
 Macbeth fall to the catastrophe. 
 
 Analysis by Act and Scene ^ 
 
 I. The Exposition, or Introduction (Tying of the Knot) 
 
 Act I, Scene i. The Witches are introduced in a desert place to the 
 accompaniment of a storm in the physical world. The key-note of 
 high tragic drama is struck at once. Like a prologue this brief scene 
 foreshadows the moral and cosmic significance of an impending 
 struggle in which Macbeth is involved (line 7). 
 
 Act /, Scene it. Interest in Macbeth before he appears is deepened 
 by narratives of his personal courage and military prowess. His 
 success in battle with rebellion and invasion wins the favor of the 
 king, who bestows on him in absence the title forfeited by the 
 treacherous thane of Cawdor. This gift becomes an impulse towards 
 Macbeth's own criminal ' enterprise ' (cf. I, vii, 48) and carries with 
 it a foreboding of his own treason (cf. I, iii, 116-117). 
 
 Act /, Scene iii, 1-47. With the introduction of Macbeth the dra- 
 matic exposition is complete. For the significance of Macbeth's 
 first words, see note, line 38. 
 
 ^ " It must be understood that a play can be analyzed into very 
 different schemes of plot. It must not be thought that one of these 
 schemes is right and the rest wrong ; but the schemes will be better 
 or worse in proportion as — while of course representing correctly 
 the facts of the play — they bring out more or less of what ministers 
 to our sense of design." — Moulton. 
 
Xl THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 II. The Complication, Rising Action, or Growth (Tying of 
 THE Knot) 
 
 Act /, Scene Hi, 47-1^6. The greetings of the Witches furnish the 
 exciting force of the drama, and the compHcation, or rising action, 
 begins. The 'supernatural soliciting' (line 130) stimulates the guilty 
 brooding of Macbeth ; he mutters to himself of ' horrible imagin- 
 ings ' (line 138) and murder; and this, the temptation scene, closes 
 with his determination to seek the king. 
 
 Act I, Scene iv. The king's announcement that Malcolm will be 
 his successor determines in a general way Macbeth's 'black and 
 deep desires' (line 51). The king resolves to honor Macbeth by a 
 visit to his castle. The way is prepared for a line of action by 
 Macbeth and for the introduction of Lady Macbeth. The king's 
 graciousness and trust are in ironical contrast to Macbeth's dark 
 hopes and sinister designs (cf. note, lines 13-14). 
 
 Act /, Scene v. In her quivering ambition for her husband's advance- 
 ment, Lady Macbeth sees in the king's visit a chance "to catch the 
 nearest way" (line 16). She starts Macbeth's treacherous purposes 
 into a course of immediate action, and 'this night's great business' 
 (line 66) is outlined ominously. The nervous tension of her soliloquy 
 (lines 36-42) prepares for the effects of the reaction as revealed in V,i. 
 
 Act /, Scene vi. Dramatic irony and the irony of situation (cf. 
 note, L iv, 13-14) prevail in this brief scene (cf. notes, lines 1-3, 20). 
 The castle, with its air .of peace and security, is a death trap; the 
 gracious mistress is an instigator of treason and murder. 
 
 Act /, Sce7ie vii. Macbeth's soliloquy, with its vision of the evil 
 consequences of the bloody deed, foreshadows all that comes in the 
 falling action of the play. His faltering calls forth the energy and 
 spirit of Lady Macbeth, who nerves him to the deed. 
 
 Act II, Scene i. The scene opens in an atmosphere of agitation 
 and dread. Banquo's anxiety expresses itself in short, tense sen- 
 tences relating to the time of night (cf. Hamlet, I, i, 1-14). In a few 
 words with Macbeth he shows that his suspicions are awakened. 
 Left alone, Macbeth has a vision of a bloody dagger, and then the 
 bell, Lady Macbeth's signal for the murder, sounds. 
 
 Act II, Scene ii. As often in Greek tragedy, the murder is not 
 presented on the stage, but it is suggested with all the accessories of 
 
INTRODUCTION xli 
 
 horror in Lady Macbeth's soliloquy and her comments to Macbeth 
 when he returns. Her strength of mind and her self-control come 
 not from heartlessness but from a will steeled to help her husband. 
 Before the scene closes the guilty pair are startled by a knocking at 
 the gate ; and it is dramatically effective that one of the men knock- 
 ing is the destined instrument of vengeance (cf. note, line 57). 
 
 Act II, Scene in. The humorous soliloquy in prose with which 
 the scene opens is a notable example of dramatic contrast. The 
 realism and verisimilitude suggest how abnormal the conditions are 
 through which the action has been passing. In the mechanism of 
 stage production this interlude allows Macbeth and Lady Macbeth 
 time to prepare for the discovery of the murder. When Macduff 
 raises the alarm, Macbeth rushes in and rashly murders the drugged 
 grooms, who were to be charged with the king's death, and thus he 
 ruins the original plan made by Lady Macbeth. She swoons when 
 she hears what he has done (cf. note, line 112). The king's sons 
 suspect Macbeth and take refuge in flight. 
 
 Act II, Scene iv. After the rush of tragic incident this calm scene 
 gives relief and perspective. In quiet talk, as in a Chorus speech, 
 the immediate after effects of the occurrences are revealed. The 
 flight of the king's sons has put " upon them suspicion of the deed " 
 (lines 26-27); Macbeth has "gone to Scone to be invested" (lines 
 31-32) as king. 
 
 Act III, Scene i. In an opening soliloquy Banquo makes clear the 
 menace he is to Macbeth and thus motives his own death. He holds 
 the threads which connect Macbeth with the murder of Duncan ; 
 the Witches prophesied that his own offspring should sit on the 
 throne. Macbeth reveals his uneasiness, and, to end the torture of 
 suspense, hastily arranges for the ' taking off' of Banquo and his son. 
 
 Act HI, Scene ii. Lady Macbeth begins to feel remorse. "Nought 's 
 had, all 's spent " (line 4) is a note of deepest melancholy. Her hus- 
 band is less with her than before; the copartnership of guilt is 
 breaking up. She conceals her feelings when Macbeth appears, 
 flushed with his new scheme of murder. He hints of a ' deed of 
 dreadful note ' (line 44) that is to be done that night. This half 
 confidence enables her to play her part in the crisis of the banquet 
 scene. 
 
xlii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 III. The Climax, Crisis, or Turning Point (the Knot Tied) 
 
 Act III, Scene Hi, 1-18. Banquo is murdered, and this murder 
 marks the height of Macbeth's success. From the entrance of the 
 exciting force in his interview with the Witches until now the action 
 has been a steady rise for him in power and reach. 
 
 IV. The Resolution, Falling Action, or Consequence (the 
 
 Untying of the Knot) 
 
 Act III, Scene Hi, ig-22. With the escape of Fleance begins the 
 falling action of the drama. Though he is not used again as an agent, 
 his escape symbolizes the turn of Macbeth's fortune. Macbeth's 
 doom now darkens down, scene by scene, to the denouement. 
 
 Act III, Scene iv. ' That Fleance is scap'd ' is told to Macbeth 
 as the banquet scene opens. He is uneasy, and for him at the feast 
 the apparition of murdered Banquo becomes the handwriting on the 
 wall. Superstitious terrors entangle him ; he " will tomorrow ... to 
 the weird sisters" (lines 133-134). Macduff's absence from the 
 banquet is referred to as significant. 
 
 Act III, Scene v. In the rising action Macbeth entered into al- 
 liance with the Witches and profited by their patronage ; in the fall- 
 ing action, under Hecate, they contrive his ruin. 
 
 Act III, Scene vi. This quiet side-scene, like a Chorus speech 
 (of. II, iv), supplies comment and bridges an interval of time. Mac- 
 beth's conduct as king is making him suspected and detested in 
 Scotland. Macduff has fled to England. 
 
 Act IV, Scene i. Macbeth meets the Witches for the second time. 
 As before, they act as an exciting force. The repetition suggests the 
 inevitableness of destiny. The suggestions and ambiguous oracles 
 of the Witches first soothe Macbeth and then irritate him. His 
 rapid moral deterioration is shown in the purposeless savagery of 
 his scheme to massacre Macduff's wife and family. 
 
 Act IV, Scene ii. The scene has dramatic relief in the sweetness, 
 humor, and pathos of the dialogue between Lady Macduff and her 
 little son. The domestic calm is broken in on by the murderers. 
 This wanton crime becomes the exciting cause of the dramatic 
 catastrophe. It causes revolt in Scotland ; it awakes Malcolm and 
 Macduff to immediate revenge. 
 
INTRODUCTION xliii 
 
 Act IV, Scene Hi. This long scene has been censured for its 
 ' dragging ' tendency ; but the slow movement represents the steady 
 gathering of the forces, moral and material, which are about to over- 
 whelm Macbeth. It marks the pause before the storm. When the 
 news of his loss comes to Macduff, the emotion of tenderness and 
 pathos, touched in the preceding scene, is intensified. For an ex- 
 planation of the seemingly irrelevant passage on ' the evil,' see note, 
 lines 146-159. 
 
 Act V, Scene i. Lady Macbeth's brooding remorse (cf. Ill, ii) has 
 deepened into the melancholy of a disordered brain. In her delirium 
 she reproduces the murder of Duncan, and though she has drifted 
 apart from her husband into a solitude of guilty fears, she mingles 
 his actions with her own, as she lays bare her soul. Her memories 
 and imaginings are eating away her life ; her death ' by self and 
 violent hands ' (V, viii, 70) is foreshadowed. 
 
 Act V, Scene ii. The action of the drama now oscillates between 
 the opposing forces and Macbeth. In this scene the Scottish nobles 
 and their followers gather to join Malcolm and the English army. 
 They "march towards Birnam " (line 31). 
 
 Act F, Scene Hi. Macbeth learns of the forces arrayed against him, 
 and he is told that Lady Macbeth is ill. As he expresses his sense of 
 utter loneliness, he awakens the pity due to a hero of tragedy, without 
 disturbance of the principles of justice and moral retribution. Then 
 his old personal courage blazes up in the presence of pressing danger. 
 
 V. Denouement, Catastrophe, or Conclusion (the Knot Untied) 
 
 Act V, Scejie iv. As the Scottish and English soldiers march 
 through Birnam wood, they lop boughs and carry them to confuse 
 the enemy. Thus begins the fulfilment of a prediction deemed by 
 Macbeth impossible (IV, i, 92-100). 
 
 Act V, Scene v. Macbeth learns that Birnam wood is moving to 
 Dunsinane, and ' the cry of women ' (line 8) tells him that Lady 
 Macbeth is dead. Again the pathos and the poetry of his intensely 
 human cry awaken pity without interfering with the rigorous re- 
 quirements of moral law. 
 
 Act V, Scene vi. This prelude to the battle reveals the spirit of 
 the opposing forces. Battle representations were popular in the 
 
xliv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Elizabethan theatre, and the stage conditions account in great meas- 
 ure for such short, typical scenes as this and the two which follow. 
 
 Act V, Scene vii. Macbeth, with hope in the prediction that " none 
 of woman born shall harm " him (IV, i, 8o-8i), fights bravely against 
 desperate odds (cf. note, line 2). 
 
 Act V, Scene viii. Despising a temptation to commit suicide, 
 Macbeth fights on. The discovery that he has been tricked a second 
 time by an ambiguous oracle of the 'juggling fiends' (line 19), and 
 that they have paltered with him ' in a double sense ' (line 20), un- 
 nerves him for a moment, but he recovers himself and goes to his 
 doom with a speech that rings of heroic freedom and satisfies the 
 demands of high tragedy. 
 
 VII. MANAGEMENT OF TIME AND PLACE 
 
 The historic succession of events comprised in Macbeth 
 covers nearly twenty years. This period includes the time 
 of " the warres that Duncane had with forrayne enemies in 
 the seventh yeare of his raigne," the year of Duncan's death 
 and Macbeth's coronation, and the seventeen years of Mac- 
 beth's reign from his accession in 1040 to his defeat and 
 death in 1057 at the hands of Malcolm, "probably in open 
 fight at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire." — Hume Brown. 
 These historic happenings are represented in the stage action 
 as the occurrences of nine days, separated by uncertain in- 
 tervals of time of not more than a few months at most ; ^ 
 but, as we read or listen, it seems all only a matter of a few 
 hours. In the second scene of the first act four battles 
 recorded by Holinshed are rolled into one. Everywhere 
 
 1 P. A. Daniel's time-analysis is: ist day, I, i-iii. 2d day, I, iv- 
 vii. 3d day, II, i-iv. Interval of about two w^eeks. 4th day. III, 
 i-v. (Ill, vi, an impossible time.) 5th day, IV, i. 6th day, IV, ii. 
 Interval (Ross's journey to England). 7th day, IV, iii ; V, i. Interval 
 (Malcolm's return to Scotland). 8th day, V, ii-iii. 9th day, V, iv-viii. 
 
INTRODUCTION xlv 
 
 there is similar compression and dramatic economy. So 
 with place; the scene may shift from Forres to Inverness, 
 from Macduff's castle to England, and from England to 
 Dunsinane and the north again, but the unity and the con- 
 tinuity of perfect verisimilitude are secured in a convincing, 
 effective plot. The genius of the great dramatist breaks 
 down the barriers of mere locality. With him the years are 
 as one day ; he is in the divine secret of time and of space. 
 
 VIII. THE CHARACTERS 
 
 The Weird Sisters ^ 
 
 " The Weird Sisters," says Coleridge, " are as true a crea- 
 tion of Shakespeare's as his Ariel and Caliban, — fates, furies, 
 and materializing witches being the elements. They are 
 wholly different from any representation of witches in the 
 contemporary writers, and yet presented a sufficient ex- 
 ternal resemblance to the creatures of vulgar prejudice to 
 act immediately on the audience." Charles Lamb, also, 
 referring to the witches of Rowley and of Dekker says : 
 " They are the plain, traditional, old-woman witches of our 
 ancestors, — poor, deformed, and ignorant, the terror of 
 villages, — themselves amenable to a justice. That should 
 be a hardy sheriff, with the power of the county at his heels, 
 that should lay hands on the Weird Sisters. They are of 
 another jurisdiction." 
 
 1 An interesting analysis of the Weird Sisters is in Professor Tol- 
 tnan's ' Studies in Macbeth ' in The Views about Hamlet and other 
 Essays. There he says, "Strangely enough the word 'weird' has 
 come into modern English entirely from its use in Macbeth.^* Cf. 
 note, page 13, line 32, 
 
xlvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 The old witches of superstition were foul, ugly, mischie- 
 vous beings, generally actuated by vulgar envy or hate ; not 
 so much wicked as mean, and more apt to excite disgust 
 than to inspire terror or awe ; who could inflict injury, but 
 not guilt ; and could work men's temporal ruin, but not win 
 them to work their own spiritual ruin. The Weird Sisters 
 are cast in quite another mould, and are beholden to those 
 old witches for little if anything more than the drapery of 
 the representation. Resembling old women, save that they 
 have long beards, they bubble up in human shape, but own 
 no human relations ; are without age, or sex, or kin ; with- 
 out birth or death ; passionless and motiveless. A combi- 
 nation of the terrible and the grotesque, unlike the Furies of 
 the Greek drama they are petrific, not to the senses, but to 
 the thoughts. At first, indeed, on merely looking at them, 
 we can scarce help laughing, so uncouth and grotesque is 
 their appearance ; but afterwards, on looking into them, we 
 find them terrible beyond description : and the more we 
 look, the more terrible do they become, the blood almost 
 curdling in our veins as, dancing, and singing their infernal 
 glees over embryo murders, they unfold to our thoughts the 
 cold, passionless, inexhaustible malignity and deformity of 
 their nature. Towards Macbeth they have nothing of per- 
 sonal hatred or revenge ; their malice is of a higher strain, 
 and savors as little of any such human ranklings as the 
 thunderstorms and elemental perturbations amidst which 
 they come and go. Coleridge describes their character as 
 " consisting in the imaginative disconnected from the good " ; 
 but with all their essential wickedness, the Weird Sisters 
 have nothing gross or vulgar or sensual about them. " Fair 
 is foul, and foul is fair," to them, by constitution of nature; 
 
INTRODUCTION xlvii 
 
 darkness is their light, storms their sunshine, tumults, 
 terrors, hideous rites, and Satanic liturgies their religion. 
 They are indeed the very purity of sin incarnate ; the vestal 
 virgins, so to speak, of hell; in whom everything is re- 
 versed ; whose ascent is downwards ; whose proper eucharist 
 is a sacrament of evil ; and the law of whose being is viola- 
 tion of law ! 
 
 But is there anything of permanent truth in the matter 
 of the Weird Sisters? and, if so, what? These are ques- 
 tions that may fairly claim to be considered in any attempt 
 to interpret the drama. 
 
 Probably no form of superstition ever prevailed to much 
 extent but that it had a ground and principle of truth. 
 The old system of witchcraft was an embodiment of some 
 natural law, a local and temporary outgrowth from some- 
 thing as general and permanent as human nature. Our 
 moral being must breathe; and therefore, in default of 
 other provision, it puts forth some such arrangement of 
 breathing-organs spontaneously, just as a tree puts forth 
 leaves. The point of art then, in the case before us, was to 
 raise and transfigure the literal into the symbolical ; to take 
 the body, so brittle and perishable in itself, and endow it 
 with immortality; which could be done only by filling and 
 animating it with the efficacy of imperishable truth. Accord- 
 ingly Shakespeare took enough of current and traditionary 
 matter to enlist old credulity in behalf of agents suited to 
 his peculiar purpose ; he represented to the age its own 
 thoughts, and at the same time informed that representation 
 with a moral significance suited to all ages alike. In The 
 Witch of Middleton we have the literal form of a transient 
 .superstition ; in Macbeth that form is made the transparent 
 
xlviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 vehicle of a truth coeval and coextensive with the workings 
 of human guilt. In their literal character the Weird Sisters 
 answer to something that was, and is not ; in their symbol- 
 ical character they answer to something that was, and is, 
 and will abide ; for they represent the mysterious action and 
 reaction between the evil mind and external nature. 
 
 For the external world serves in some sort as a looking- 
 glass wherein we behold the image of our inner man ; and 
 the evil suggestions, which seem to us written in the face or 
 speaking from the mouth of outward objects and occasions, 
 are in reality but projections from our own evil hearts. In 
 a moral sense, the world around us only gives us back our- 
 selves ; its aspect is but a reflection of what we bring to it; 
 so that, if the things we look on seem inviting us to crime, 
 it is only because our depraved lusts and most frail affections 
 construe their innocent meanings into wicked invitations. 
 
 In the spirit and virtue of this principle the Weird Sis- 
 ters symbolize the inward moral history of each and every 
 man ; and therefore they may be expected to live in the 
 faith of reason so long as the present moral order or 
 disorder of things shall last. They may be aptly enough 
 described as poetical or mythical impersonations of evil 
 influences. They body forth in living forms the fearful 
 echo which the natural world gives back to the evil that 
 speaks out from the human heart. And the secret of their 
 power over Macbeth lies mainly in that they present to him 
 his embryo wishes and half-formed thoughts. At one time 
 they harp his fear aright, at another his hope, — and this, 
 too, before his hope and fear have distinctly reported them- 
 selves in his consciousness, — and, by thus harping them, 
 nurse them into purpose and draw them into act ; as men 
 
INTRODUCTION ' xlix 
 
 often know they would something, yet know not clearly 
 what they would, till an articulation of it, or what seems 
 such, comes to them from without. For so we are naturally 
 made conscious of what is within us by the shadow it casts 
 in the light of occasion ; and therefore it is that trials and op- 
 portunities have such an effect in revealing us to ourselves. 
 
 The Weird Sisters and Macbeth 
 
 The office of the Weird Sisters is not so much to deprave 
 as to develop the characters whereon they act. They do 
 not create the evil heart ; they only untie the evil hands. 
 They put nothing into Macbeth's mind, but merely draw 
 out what was already there ; breathing fructification upon 
 his indwelling germs of sin, and thus acting as mediators 
 between the secret upspringing purpose and the final ac- 
 complishment of crime. He was already minded to act as 
 he does, only something was needed to " trammel up the 
 consequence "; which, in his apprehension, is just what the 
 Weird Sisters do. 
 
 Accordingly it well appears in the course of the play 
 that the thought of murdering Duncan is by no means new 
 to Macbeth. As the Scottish crown was elective in a cer- 
 tain line, Macbeth's claim to it was legally as good as Dun- 
 can's till the vote was declared ; while his consciousness of 
 superior fitness for the office might naturally have filled him 
 with high expectations. At all events, it is plain enough 
 that he has more than dallied with the purpose of retriev- 
 ing that disappointment by crime ; he has entertained it 
 seriously, and has had talks with his wife about it, she no 
 doubt encouraging him in it with all her fiery vehemence 
 of spirit. In his boldness of imagination he was even then 
 
1 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 ready to make an opportunity for the deed; and it is a 
 profound stroke of nature that, when the opportunity makes 
 itself to his hands, its effect is to unman him. This is evi- 
 dent from his wife's stinging reproaches when at last his 
 resolution falters and breaks down : " Was the hope drunk 
 wherein you dress'd yourself?" (I, vii, 35-36) — "When 
 you durst do it, then you were a man" (I, vii, 49); and, 
 " Nor time nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would 
 make both" (I, vii, 51-52). These plainly refer to conver- 
 sations they have had on the subject. 
 
 So that in the salutation of the Weird Sisters Macbeth 
 just meets with an external temptation to that which he 
 has been inwardly tempted or instigated to before. Yet he 
 cannot all at once rest secure in the thoughts which at that 
 prophetic greeting spring up within him; and therefore it 
 is that he " burns in desire to question them further." Fears 
 and scruples as to the consequence still shake him ; a gen- 
 eral pledge of security is not enough ; he craves to know 
 further how and whence the means of safety are to come, 
 his faith in the Weird promise not being strong enough at 
 first to silence the warnings of experience, reenforced as 
 these are by the instinctive apprehensions of conscience : 
 
 But in these cases 
 We still have judgment here, that we but teach 
 Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 
 To plague th' inventor: this even-handed justice 
 Commends th' ingredients of our poison'd chalice 
 To our own lips. [I, vii, 7-12.] 
 
 It is wisely ordered that the Weird Sisters meet Macbeth 
 " in the day of success," when the exultations of victory 
 would naturally prompt such a mind as his to catch at 
 
INTRODUCTION li 
 
 ambitious hopes. And " the early birth-date of his guilt " 
 appears in that, on hearing the first Weird salutation, he is 
 instantly seized with a kind of mental delirium. This comes 
 out in what Banquo says : 
 
 Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear 
 
 Things that do sound so fair ? — I' the name of truth, 
 
 Are ye fantastical, or that indeed 
 
 Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner 
 
 You greet with present grace and great prediction 
 
 Of noble having and of royal hope, 
 
 That he seems rapt withal ; to me you speak not. 
 
 If you can look into the seeds of time. 
 
 And say which grain will grow and which will not, 
 
 Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear 
 
 Your favours nor your hate. [I, iii, 51-61.] 
 
 Macbeth's behavior as here indicated is profoundly 
 symptomatic of his moral predispositions. It is a full reve- 
 lation of his criminal aptitudes that so startles and surprises 
 him into a rapture of meditation. The Weird greeting is as 
 a spark to a magazine of wickedness in him, and he is at 
 once seized with a trance of terror at the result : 
 
 Between the acting of a dreadful thing 
 And the first motion, all the interim is 
 Like a phantasma or a hideous dream: 
 The Genius and the mortal instruments 
 Are then in council ; and the state of a man, 
 Like to a little kingdom, suffers then 
 The nature of an insurrection. 
 
 \ Julius CcEsar^ II, i, 63-69.] 
 
 " So surely," says Coleridge, " is the guilt in its germ an- 
 terior to the supposed cause and immediate temptation." 
 Whether the Weird Sisters "look into the seeds of time" or 
 
lii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 not, they manifestly look into the seeds of Macbeth's char- 
 acter ; and they drop just the right stuff on them to make 
 them sprout, as is evident from the fact that they instantly 
 do sprout. And it was their insight of the unhatched eggs 
 of evil within him, that drew them to him. It seems then 
 clear that in Shakespeare's idea Macbeth already had the 
 will, and that what he wanted further was but an earnest 
 and assurance of success. The ordering of things so as to 
 meet that want, and the tracing of the mental processes 
 and the subtle workings of evil consequent thereon, — this 
 it is that renders the drama such a paragon of ethical mean- 
 ing organized into art. The Weird Sisters rightly strike the 
 key-note and lead off the terrible chorus, because they em- 
 body and realize to us, and even to the hero himself, that 
 secret preparation of evil within him out of which the whole 
 action proceeds. In their fantastical and unearthly aspect, 
 awakening mingled emotions of terror and mirth ; in theii 
 mysterious reserve and oracular brevity of speech, so fitted 
 at once to sharpen curiosity and awe down skepticism ; in 
 the circumstances' of their prophetic greeting, — a blasted 
 heath, with the elements wrangling over it, as if Nature were 
 at odds with herself, and in love with desolation ; — in all 
 this we may discern a peculiar aptness to generate, even in 
 strong minds, a belief in what they utter. 
 
 Macbeth and Banquo 
 
 The contrast in the behavior of Macbeth and Banquo 
 after the interview with the Weird Sisters is deeply signifi- 
 cant. Belief takes hold of them both alike, for aught that 
 appears. Yet, while Macbeth is beside himself with excite- 
 ment, and transported with guilty thoughts and imaginations. 
 
INTRODUCTION liii 
 
 Banquo remains calm, unexcited, and perfectly self-poised. 
 His intellectual forces are indeed stimulated by the preter- 
 natural address, but stimulated only to moralize the occasion 
 and to draw arguments in support of his better mind. He 
 hears the speakers with simple wonder ; shows no interest 
 in them but that of an honest and rational curiosity ; his 
 mind is absorbed in the matter before him ; and because 
 he sees nothing of himself in them, and has no germs of 
 wickedness for them' to work upon, therefore he " neither 
 begs nor fears their favours nor their hate." Macbeth, on 
 the contrary, as we have seen, goes off in a trance or medi- 
 tation, and loses what is before him in a stress of introver- 
 sion : roused from this, he is eager and impatient to have 
 them speak further, and his heart leaps forth to catch their 
 words ; and again, when his ear is saluted with a partial ful- 
 filment of their promise, a still more violent fit of abstraction 
 seizes him, his very senses being palsied by the horrid sug- 
 gestion which at once charms and terrifies him, and which 
 makes him shudder simply because it reveals an answering 
 spirit and purpose within him. That which so entrances 
 and appalls him is but the image of his moral self, as he be- 
 holds it in the mirror of his newly-awakened consciousness. 
 It is indeed a fearful transpiration of character ! 
 
 Macbeth himself never thinks of making the Weird Sisters 
 anywise responsible for what he does. The workings of his 
 mind throughout manifestly infer that he feels just as free 
 in his actions as if no supernatural soliciting had come near 
 him. He therefore never offers to soothe his conscience or 
 satisfy his reason on the score of his being under any fatal 
 charm or fascination of evil. For, in truth, the promise of 
 the throne is no more an instigation to murder for it than a 
 
liv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 promise of wealth in like sort would be to steal. To a truly 
 honest man, such a promise, in so far as he believed it, 
 would preclude the motives to theft. His thought would be, 
 "Wealth is coming; I have but to work, and let it come." 
 If, however, he were already a thief at heart, and kept from 
 stealing only by fear of the consequences, he would be apt 
 to construe the promise of wealth into a promise of impunity 
 in theft, — which just marks the difference between Banquo 
 and Macbeth. What with the one precludes the motive to 
 crime, with the other itself becomes the motive to crime. 
 
 Banquo's moral reason, indeed, grows more vigilant and 
 discerning for the temptations laid before him ; his virtue, 
 instead of being staggered by them, is rendered more circum- 
 spective and firm ; he disarms or repels them by prayer ; and 
 the more they press upon him, the more he prays for help 
 against them. For so we find that the having merely dreamed 
 of the Weird Sisters moves him to exclaim, " Merciful powers. 
 Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to 
 in repose ! " (II, i, 7-9). And when Macbeth, on hearing of 
 the dream, tries to. draw him into his counsels, telling him 
 "it shall make honour for him," he gives the prompt reply : 
 
 So I lose none 
 In seeking to augment it, but still keep 
 My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear, 
 I shall be counsell'd. [II, i, 26-29.] 
 
 Nothing could better approve his firmness of moral tone. 
 
 Macbeth 
 
 Macbeth's falterings and misgivings spring from the 
 peculiar structure of his intellect as inflamed with the poison 
 of meditated guilt. His understanding and imagination rush 
 
INTRODUCTION Iv 
 
 into irregular, convulsive action ; conscience being indeed 
 the main cause of that action, yet hiding itself in the agi- 
 tations of mind which it stirs up. Thus a strange, fearful 
 hallucination, all begotten of guilt, takes possession of him. 
 Hence his long and fatal course of self-delusion. He has 
 done the greatest possible violence to his moral nature, and 
 thereby " put rancours in the vessel of his peace " ; but the 
 agonies thence resulting he still misderives from external 
 causes, and keeps mistranslating them into the warnings of 
 prudence, the forecastings of reason, and the threatenings 
 of danger. His strong and excitable imagination, set on fire 
 of conscience, fascinates and spellbinds his other faculties, 
 and so gives objectiveness to its internal workings. His 
 moral forces even usurp his eyes and ears, turning them into 
 "miraculous organs," so that he cannot choose but see and 
 hear things that are not ; as in case of " the air-drawn dag- 
 ger " which leads him to Duncan, and the cry that haunts 
 him, "Sleep no more ! Macbeth does murder sleep." Thus 
 his conscience, instead of acting directly in the form of 
 remorse, comes to act through imaginary terrors, which in 
 turn react on his conscience, as fire is made hotter by the 
 current of air which itself generates. 
 
 It is probably from oversight of this that some have set 
 Macbeth down as a timid, cautious, remorseless villain, with- 
 held from crime only by a shrinking, selfish apprehensive- 
 ness. He does indeed seem strangely dead to the guilt, and 
 morbidly alive to the dangers, of his enterprise ; free from 
 remorses of conscience, and filled with imaginary fears ; 
 but whence his uncontrollable irritability of imagination? 
 how comes it that his mind so swarms with horrible imagin- 
 ings, but that his imagination itself is set on fire of hell? 
 
Ivi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Such "paintings of fear," it scarce need be said, are not the 
 offspring of a mind in which the moral sense is weak or 
 dead ; rather they attest a peculiar strength and quickness 
 in that sense. Call it insanity, if you will; but it is an in- 
 sanity full of moral inspiration. And what a lesson does it 
 read us of the secret possibilities of evil, ay, and of punish- 
 ment too, wrapped up in the moral constitution of man ! 
 
 It is a natural result of an imagination so redundant and 
 excitable as Macbeth's that the agonies of remorse should 
 project and embody themselves in imaginary terrors, and so 
 spur him on to further crimes for security against those terrors. 
 To give himself peace, he must still keep using his dagger; 
 and yet every thrust he makes with it stabs a new wound in 
 his own soul. Such is the dreadful madness which guilt en- 
 genders in him ! His moral forces, indeed, turn to a down- 
 right fury and venom of infatuation, insomuch that he boldly 
 enters the lists against the very powers in which he trusted. 
 
 All this comes out in his interview with Lady Macbeth on 
 the eve of Banquo's murder : 
 
 We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it: 
 
 She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice 
 
 Remains in danger of her former tooth. 
 
 But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer. 
 
 Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep 
 
 In the affliction of these terrible dreams 
 
 That shake us nightly : better be with the dead, 
 
 Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace, 
 
 Than on the torture of the mind to lie 
 
 In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave; 
 
 After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; 
 
 Treason has done his worst : nor steel, nor poison, 
 
 Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing. 
 
 Can touch him further. [Ill, ii, 13-26.] 
 
INTRODUCTION Ivii 
 
 Here we see that crime has filled his mind with scorpions, 
 and still he thinks of no way to clear them out but by crime. 
 And the thought of Duncan instantly charms him into a 
 feverish brooding over the dangers which he seems to have 
 invited against himself by murdering him. And it is well 
 worth noting how, in this speech, as in several others, he 
 goes on kindling more and more with his theme, till he fairly 
 loses himself in a trance of moral and imaginative thought. 
 The inward burnings of guilt act as a sort of inspiration to 
 him. For the preternatural illumination of mind, which so 
 often transports him, marks the insurgent stress of moral 
 forces. 
 
 Lady Macbeth 
 
 In the structure and working of her mind and moral 
 frame. Lady Macbeth is the opposite of her husband, ahd 
 therefore all the fitter to countervail his infirmity of purpose; 
 that is, she differs from him in just the right way to supple- 
 ment him. Of a firm, sharp, wiry, matter-of-fact intellect, 
 doubly charged with energy of will, she has little in common 
 with him save a red-hot ambition : hence, while the Weird 
 disclosures act on her will just as on his, and she jumps 
 forthwith into the same purpose, the effect on her mind is 
 wholly different. Without his irritability of understanding 
 and imagination, she is therefore subject to no such involun- 
 tary transports of thought. Accordingly she never loses her- 
 self in any raptures of meditation ; no illusions born of guilty 
 fear get the mastery of her ; at least, not when her will is in 
 exercise : in her waking moments her senses .are always 
 so thoroughly in her keeping that she hears and sees things 
 just as they are. As conscience draws no visions before her 
 
Iviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 eyes, and shapes no voices in her hearing, so, while he 
 is shaken and quite unmanned with fantastical terrors, she 
 rerriaifre~extenialTy calm, collected, and cool. Her- presence 
 of mind indeed seems firmest when his trances of illusion 
 run]^Kigh'est ; so that, instead of beihg^t alTihfected^with his 
 agitations, her forces then move in the aptest order to re- 
 cover him from them. Which shows that her sympathy with 
 his ambition, intense as it is, has no power to make her sym- 
 pathize with his mental workings. It may almost be said, 
 indeed, that what stimulates his imagination stifles hers. 
 
 There was strong dramatic reason why Lady Macbeth 
 should have such a mind and temper as to be moved and 
 impressed, when awake, by nothing but facts. She ought 
 to be, as indeed she is, so constituted that the evil which 
 has struck its roots so deep within never comes back to her 
 in the elements and aspects of nature, either to mature the 
 guilty purpose or to obstruct the guilty act. It is remark- 
 able that she does not once recur to the Weird Sisters, nor 
 make any use of their salutations ; they seem to have no 
 weight with her, but for the impression they have wrought 
 on her husband. That this impression may grow to the 
 desired effect, she refrains from meddling with it, and seeks 
 only to fortify it with impressions of another sort. And what 
 could better approve her shrewdness and tact than that, in- 
 stead of overstraining this one motive, and so weakening it, 
 she thus lets it alone and labors to strengthen it by mixing 
 others with it? For in truth the Weird Sisters represent, 
 in most appalling sort, the wickedness of the purpose they 
 suggest : so that Macbeth's fears as well as his hopes are 
 stimulated, and his fears even more than his hopes, by the 
 recollection of their greetings : the instant he reverts to 
 
INTRODUCTION lix 
 
 them, his imagination springs into action, — an organ of 
 which ambition works the bellows indeed, but conscience 
 still governs the stops and keys. The very thought of them, 
 indeed, seems to put him at once under a fascination of 
 terror. All this does not escape his wife ; who therefore 
 judges it best rather to draw his thoughts off from that 
 matter, and fix them on other inducements. He had 
 thought of the murder, when as yet he could see no oppor- 
 tunities for doing it. When those opportunities come, they 
 are the arguments that tell with her ; and she therefore 
 makes it her business to urge them upon him, invoking his 
 former manhood withal, to redintegrate and shame him out 
 of his present weakness : 
 
 Nor time nor place 
 Did then adhere, and yet you would make both : 
 They have made themselves, and that their fitness now 
 Does unmake you. [I, vii, 51-54.] 
 
 Coleridge justly remarks upon her adroit boldness in first 
 pressing those very considerations which most stagger her 
 husband's purpose. That Duncan has cast himself unre- 
 servedly on their loyalty and hospitality, this she puts forth 
 as the strongest argument for murdering him ! An awful 
 stroke of character indeed, and therefore awful, because 
 natural. By thus anticipating his greatest drawbacks, and 
 urging them as the chief incentives, she forecloses all debate. 
 Which is just what she wants ; for she knows full well that 
 the thing will not stand the tests of reason a moment : it 
 must be done first, and discussed afterwards. And through- 
 out this wrestling-match she surveys the whole ground, and 
 darts upon the strongest points with the quickness and sure- 
 ness of instinct ; the sharpness of the exigency being to her 
 
Ix THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 a sort of practical inspiration. The finishing stroke in this 
 part of the work is when, her husband's resolution being all 
 in a totter, she boldly cuts the sinews of retreat, casting the 
 thing into a personal controversy and making it a theme of 
 domestic war : 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Art thou afeard 
 
 To be the same in thine own act and valour 
 As thou art in desire ? Wouldst thou have that 
 Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, 
 And live a coward in thine own esteem, 
 Letting ' I dare not ' wait upon ' I would,' 
 Like the poor cat i' the adage ? 
 
 Macbeth. Prithee, peace : 
 
 I dare do all that may become a man ; 
 Who dares do more is none. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. What beast was 't, then, 
 
 That made you break this enterprise to me ? 
 
 [I, vii, 39-48.] 
 
 The virtues and affections of^theJiusbaild_3J£-Jiaw drawn 
 up againsT~ffi5'^nscience of the man. For, to be scornied^ 
 and baife3~'a5~ar-eowaTd"T)y the wblnairiie loves, and by 
 whom he is loved, "is~the"""test' tiling a soldier can ^tear : 
 death is~Trothing--t©-4t;"Macbeth, accordingly, goes about 
 th.e_.deed,"'afid~~goes-throU'gh it, with an assumed ferocity 
 caught ^romTiis^ wife^ ~ 
 
 Nor is that ferocity native to her own breast : surely, on 
 her part too, it is assumed ; for though in her intense over- 
 heat of expectant passion it is temporarily fused into her 
 character, it is disengaged and thrown off as soon as that 
 heat passes away, — as men, in the ardor of successful effort, 
 sometimes pass for a while into a character which they un- 
 dertake to play. Lady Macbeth begins with acting a part 
 
INTRODUCTION Ixi 
 
 which is really foreign to her, but which, notwithstanding, 
 such is her energy of will, she braves out to issues so over- 
 whelming that her husband and many others believe it 
 to be her own. Take, for example, the speech beginning, 
 " I have given suck, and know how tender 't is to love the 
 babe that milks me." Mrs. Siddons used to utter the clos- 
 ing words of that speech in a scream, as though scared from 
 her propriety by the audacity of her own tongue. It is not 
 hard to conceive how a spasmodic action of fear might lend 
 to such a woman as Lady Macbeth an appearance of super- 
 human or inhuman boldness. At all events, it seems clear 
 enough that in this case her fierce vehemence of purpose 
 rasps her woman's feelings to the quick ; and the pang 
 thence resulting might well utter itself in a scream. 
 
 L ^dy Ma cbeth is. indeed a great bad woman, whom we 
 fear and pity; but neither so great nor so bad as is com- 
 monly supposedT~SKe has closely ^studied her husband, and 
 penetrated far into the heart of his mystery, yet she knows 
 him rather as he is^ to her than as he is in himself : hence 
 in describing his character sheliiterprets'TieF'own. She has 
 indeed the ambition to wish herself unsexed, but not the 
 power to ~unsex herself except in words. For, though she 
 invokestHF^^ufderirig ministers " to " come to her woman's 
 bEea;Sts^and_take her milk for gall," still she cannot make 
 them come, and her milk, in spite of her invocation, con- 
 tinues to be milk. Verplanck describes her as " a woman of 
 high intellect, bold spirit, and lofty desires, who is mastered 
 by a fiery thirst of power, and that for her husband as well 
 as herself." 
 
 Two characters, however, may easily be made out for 
 Lady Macbeth, according as we lay the chief stress on what 
 
Ixii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 she says or what she does. No one can fail to remark that 
 the anticipation raised by her earlier speeches is by no 
 means sustained in her subsequent acts. When she looks 
 upon the face of the sleeping Duncan, and sees the mur- 
 derous thought passing, as it were, into a fact before her, 
 a gush of womanly feeling or of native tenderness suddenly 
 stays her hand. " Had he not resembled My father as he 
 slept, I had done 't " (II, ii, 12-13). That such a real or 
 fancied resemblance should thus rise up and unsinew her 
 purpose in the moment of action, is a rare touch of nature 
 indeed, and shows that conscience works even more effec- 
 tually through the feelings in her case than through the im- 
 agination in that of her husband. And the difference of 
 imagination and feeling in this point is, that the one acts 
 most at a distance, the other on the spot. The towering 
 audacity of her earlier speeches arises, at least in part, from 
 an overstrained endeavor to school herself into a firmness 
 and fierceness of which she feels the want. 
 
 Her whole after course favors this view. For instance, 
 when she hears from Macbeth how he has murdered the 
 two grooms also, she sinks down at the tale. That is not a 
 counterfeit swoon. The thing takes her by surprise, and 
 her iron-ribbed self-control for once gives way. The an- 
 nouncement of Duncan's murder had no such effect upon 
 her, for she was prepared for that ; and that was when she 
 would have counterfeited fainting, if at all. So bold of 
 tongue, she could indeed say, " the sleeping and the dead 
 Are but as pictures ; 'tis the eye of childhood That fears a 
 painted devil" (II, ii, 53-55); but the sequel proves her 
 to have been better than she was aware. In truth, she has 
 undertaken too much : in her efforts to screw her own and 
 
INTRODUCTION Ixiii 
 
 her husband's courage to the sticking-place, there was ex- 
 erted a force of will which answered the end indeed, but at 
 the same time flawed the core of her being. 
 
 Accordingly she gives no waking sign of the dreadful work 
 that is doing within : the unmitigable corrodings of her rooted 
 sorrow, even when busiest in destruction, do not once betray 
 her, except when her self-rule is dissolved in sleep. But the 
 truth comes out, with an awful mingling of pathos and ter- 
 ror, in the scene where her conscience, sleepless amidst the 
 sleep of nature, nay, most restless even then when all other 
 cares are at rest, drives her forth, open -eyed yet sightless, to 
 sigh and groan over spots on her hands that are visible to 
 none but herself, nor even to herself save when she is blind 
 to everything else, — a living automaton worked by the ago- 
 nies of rem_orse ! How perfectly her senses are then domi- 
 nated by the conscience is shown with supreme eflfect in 
 "Here's the smell of blood still"; which has been aptly 
 noted as the only instance in modern times where the sense 
 of smell has been successfully employed in high tragic ex- 
 pression.^ An awful mystery, too, hangs over her death. 
 We know not, the poet himself seems not to know, whether 
 the gnawings of the undying worm drive her to suicidal vio- 
 lence, or themselves cut asunder the cords of her life : all 
 we know is, that the death of her body springs somehow 
 from the inextinguishable life and the immedicable wound 
 of her soul. What a history of her woman's heart is written 
 in her thus sinking, sinking away where imagination shrinks 
 from following her, under the violence of an invisible yet un- 
 mistakable disease, which still sharpens its inflictions and at 
 the same time quickens her sensibilities ! 
 
 ^ See quotation from Verplanck illustrating V, i, 48-49. 
 
Ixiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Lady Macbeth dies before her husband. This is one of 
 the most judicious points of the drama. Her death touches 
 Macbeth in the only spot where he seems to retain the feel- 
 ings of a man, and draws from him some deeply-solemn, 
 soothing, elegiac tones : 
 
 Macbeth. Wherefore was that cry? 
 
 Seyton. The queen, my lord, is dead. 
 
 Macbeth. She should have died hereafter; 
 There would have been a time for such a word. 
 To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
 Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
 To the last syllable of recorded time; 
 And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
 The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle I 
 Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player 
 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 
 And then is heard no more. It is a tale 
 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. 
 Signifying nothing. [V, v, 15-28.] 
 
 IX. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 Dr. Johnson observes, with singular infelicity, that this play 
 "has no nice discriminations of character." In respect of 
 characterization, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are equalled 
 only by Shakespeare's other masterpieces, — by Shylock, 
 Hamlet, Lear, and lago ; while the Weird Sisters, so seem- 
 ingly akin (though whether as mothers or sisters or daugh- 
 ters we cannot tell) to the thunderstorms that come and go 
 with them, occupy the summit of his preternatural creations. 
 Nevertheless, it must be owned that the grandeur of the 
 dramatic combination somewhat overshadows the individual 
 characters; insomuch that something of special effort is 
 
INTRODUCTION Ixv 
 
 required to keep the delicate limning of the agents from 
 being lost sight of in the magnitude, the manifold unity and 
 thought-like rapidity of the action. 
 
 The style of this great drama is pitched in the same high 
 tragic key as the action. Throughout we have an explo- 
 sion, as of purpose into act, so also of thought into speech, 
 both literally kindling with their own swiftness. No sooner 
 thought than said, no sooner said than done, is the law of 
 the piece. Therewithal thoughts and images come crowd- 
 ing and jostling each other in such quick succession as to 
 prevent a full utterance. Nowhere is there greater concen- 
 tration of expression. The least touching of the ear sends 
 vibrations through all the chambers of the mind. Hence 
 the large, manifold suggestiveness which lurks in the words : 
 they seem instinct with something which the speakers can- 
 not stay to unfold. And between these invitations to lin- 
 ger, and the continual drawings onward, the reader's mind 
 is kindled to an almost preternatural activity. All which 
 might at length grow wearisome, but that the play is 
 throughout a conflict of antagonist elements and opposite 
 extremes, which are so managed as to brace up the interest 
 on every side : so that the effect of the whole is to refresh, 
 not exhaust the powers, the mind being sustained in its 
 long and lofty flight by the wings that grow forth as of their 
 own accord from its superadded life. The lyrical element, 
 instead of being interspersed here and there in the form of 
 musical lulls and pauses, is thoroughly interfused with the 
 dramatic ; while the ethical sense underlies them both, and 
 is forced up through them by their own pressure. The whole 
 drama, indeed, may be described as a tempest set to music. 
 
Ixvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 X. STAGE HISTORY 
 
 The strong dramatic interest of Macbeth has made its 
 popularity as an acting play among Shakespeare's tragedies 
 almost as great as that of Hamlet. The red shadow of 
 murder and the gloom of disaster hang over it from first 
 to last ; with the exception of the opening of the scene after 
 the murder of Duncan, there is an almost total lack of comic 
 relief; but the vigorous style, the rapid action, the play- 
 wright's structural methods, the spectacular stage effects, 
 and the superb opportunity afforded for the interpretation 
 of a notable heroine as well as for that of a great hero, 
 have made it a strong favorite with actors and audiences. 
 
 The Seventeenth Century 
 
 The evidence for the date of composition (see pages xxvi- 
 xxvii) attests the popularity of the play before Shakespeare's 
 death, and the theory of interpolations by Middle ton (see 
 pages xxxi-xxxiii) would indicate that with or without alter- 
 ations it held the stage up to the time of the closing of the 
 theatres. Richard Burbage (Burbidge, Burbadge), the famous 
 member of the company to which Shakespeare belonged, 
 was undoubtedly the first stage Macbeth. Though short 
 and stout, he had a musical voice, and Overbury speaks of 
 " his full and significant action of body." In the theatre of 
 the Restoration, in such adaptations as are represented by 
 the Quartos of 1673 and 1674 (see page xxx), it was one 
 of the most popular of the Shakespearian revivals, Thomas 
 Betterton, the great Shakespeare actor of the time, taking 
 the leading part and Mrs. Betterton playing Lady Macbeth. 
 
INTRODUCTION Ixvii 
 
 Pepys has eight distinct references to performances at " the 
 Duke's house " (the theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields) between 
 1666 and 1669. The description under the date, January 7, 
 1667, is significant : " To the Duke's house and saw Macbeth, 
 which though I saw it lately, yet appears a most excellent 
 play in all respects, but especially in divertisement, though 
 it be a deep tragedy; which is a strange perfection in a 
 tragedy, it being most proper here and suitable." The " di- 
 vertisement " probably has reference to such " alterations, 
 amendments, additions, and new songs " as are mentioned 
 on the title-page of the D'Avenant Quarto (see page xxxi). 
 After the opening of the theatres methods of opera were 
 applied to some of Shakespeare's plays, and none suffered 
 more in this respect than Macbeth and The Tempest. The 
 accompanying music to Macbeth is now known to have been 
 by Matthew Locke (Lock), one of the earliest English com- 
 posers to write for the stage.^ Among other changes and 
 deformations in D'Avenant's version^ are the abbreviation 
 of the blank verse speeches, the use of rhymed heroics in 
 the dialogue between Macduff and his wife, and the moderni- 
 zation of the diction. The matter of the Witches offered an 
 opportunity for display too good to be neglected, and the 
 Weird Sisters as conceived by Shakespeare, with their 
 solemn suggestion of the Destinies of the Greek and Roman 
 mythology and the Noms of the Scandinavian, gave place 
 to semi-comic furies, now flying and now participating in 
 spectacular dances. 
 
 1 A controversy has raged over the authorship of the original 
 Macbeth music, some claiming that Purcell wrote it. As a matter of 
 fact the music appeared when Purcell was only fourteen years old. 
 
 2 See Furness's A New Variorum. Macbeth, pages 507-543. 
 
Ixviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 The Eighteenth Century 
 
 The D'Avenant version was popular on the stage until 
 Garrick appeared as Macbeth at Drury Lane in 1744. Gar- 
 rick professed to give ^'•Macbeth as written by Shakespeare," 
 and though he retained the operatic business in the Witch 
 scenes and Locke's music, he was on the whole faithful to 
 the original text except at the close of the play. In Garrick's 
 version Macbeth is represented on the stage to the last, and 
 he dies with this most un-Shakespearian speech on his lips : * 
 
 'T is done ! the scene of life will quickly close. 
 Ambition's vain delusive dreams are fled, 
 And now I wake to darkness, guilt, and horror. — 
 I cannot rise : — I dare not ask for mercy — 
 It is too late ; hell drags me down ; — I sink, 
 I sink ; — my soul is lost for ever ! Oh ! — Oh ! 
 
 In Garrick's later revivals Lady Macbeth was played by 
 Mrs. Pritchard, one of the great interpreters of the part in 
 the traditions of the stage. 
 
 Garrick played Macbeth in scarlet coat, gold lace and pow- 
 dered tiewig, the full court dress of the time of George II. 
 It had been suggested to him that he should appear in 
 Highland costume, but he replied naively : " You forget 
 that the Pretender was here only thirty years ago, and, egad I 
 I should be pelted off the stage with orange-peel." 
 
 The first time ^ that a stage Macbeth appeared in tartan 
 and kilt was when " rough honest old " Macklin took the 
 
 1 This arrangement with these added lines was continued in 
 Kemble's version of the play. 
 
 2 Steevens pointed out that in IV, iii, 160, there may be an indica- 
 tion that appropriate Scottish dress was used in Shakespeare's day. 
 
INTRODUCTION Ixix 
 
 part at Covent Garden in 1773. All the characters were 
 in Scottish costumes, and one of his detractors described 
 Macklin as an " old Scotch piper stumping along at the head 
 of his army." In his later revivals he abandoned the High- 
 land dress and acted the part in conventional costume. 
 
 On April 21, 1794, a notable performance took place at 
 the opening of new Drury Lane, when John Philip Kemble 
 played Macbeth, his sister, Mrs. Siddons, acted Lady Mac- 
 beth, and the younger brother, Charles Kemble, appeared 
 as Malcolm. Kemble was singularly impressive in the banquet 
 scene, and this was the first time that it was given without 
 a visible ghost.^ " Mrs. Siddons," writes Doran, " imagined 
 Lady Macbeth, the heroine of the most tragic of tragedies, 
 to be a delicate blonde, who ruled by her intellect, and sub- 
 dued by her beauty, but with whom no one feeling of com- 
 mon general nature was congenial, a woman prompt for 
 wickedness, but swiftly possessed by remorse." 
 
 The Nineteenth Century 
 
 Kemble's Macbeth with its dignity and poetry dominated 
 the stage until Edmund Kean appeared in the part, Novem- 
 ber 5, 18 14. Kean was peculiarly effective in the murder 
 scene. " As a lesson of common humanity," says Hazlitt, 
 " it was heart-rending. The hesitation, the bewildered look, 
 the coming to himself when he sees his hands bloody ; the 
 manner in which his voice clung to his throat and choked 
 his utterance ; his agony and tears ; the force of nature 
 overcome by passion — beggared description." To Kean 
 
 ^ Macready, Booth, and Irving followed Kemble in this ; Edmund 
 Kean, Forrest, and Charles Kean adhered to the old tradition of a 
 visible ghost. 
 
Ixx THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 belongs the credit of having swept away the last of the 
 comic business that had clung to the Witch scenes from the 
 time of the Restoration. From his day to the beginning of 
 the twentieth century the stage history of Macbeth is a history 
 of noteworthy performances by the great actors of the mod- 
 em world. Macready, Forrest, Phelps, Charles Kean, Booth, 
 Irving, and Salvini are names that will ever be associated 
 with the title role ; and Helen Faucit (Lady Martin), Ellen 
 Terry, and Charlotte-Cushman have widened in a remarkable 
 and varied way the conception of what is involved in the 
 dramatic interpretation of the heroine. 
 
AUTHORITIES 
 (With the more important abbreviations used in the notes) 
 
 Fi = First Folio, 1623. 
 Fa = Second Folio, 1632. 
 Fs = Third Folio, 1664. 
 F4 = Fourth FoHo, 1685. 
 Ff = all the seventeenth century Folios. 
 D'Avenant = D'Avenant's version, 1674. 
 Rowe = Rowe's editions, 1709, 171 4. 
 Pope = Pope's editions, 1723, 1728. 
 Theobald = Theobald's editions, 1733, 1740. 
 Hanmer = Hanmer's edition, 1744. 
 Johnson = Johnson's edition, 1765. 
 Capell = Capell's edition, 1768. 
 Malone = Malone's edition, 1790. 
 Steevens = Steevens's edition, 1793. 
 
 Globe = Globe edition (Clark and Wright), 1864. 
 Clar = Clarendon Press (second) edition (Clark and Wright), 
 
 1869. 
 Dyce = Dyce's (third) edition, 1875. 
 Delius = Delius's (fifth) edition, 1882. 
 Camb = Cambridge (third) edition (W. A. Wright), 1891. 
 Libby = M. F. Libby's Some Nezv Azotes on Macbeth, 1893. 
 Manly = J. M. Manly's edition, Longmans' English Classics, 
 
 1896. 
 Verity = A. W. Verity's edition, Pitt Press, 1902. 
 Fumess = H. H. Furness's A New Variorum. Macbeth (revised 
 
 edition), 1903. 
 Liddell = M. H. Liddell's edition, Doubleday, Page & Co., 1903. 
 Herford = C. H. Herford's The Eversley Shakespeare, 1903. 
 Abbott = E. A. Abbott's A Shakespearian Grammar. 
 Cotgrave = Cotgrave's Dictionarie of the French and English 
 
 Tongues, 161 1. 
 Schmidt = Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon. 
 Skeat = Skeat's An Etymological Dictionary. 
 Murray = A Netv English Dictionary ( The Oxford Dictionary"). 
 Century — The Century Dictionary. 
 Holinshed = Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Ireland 
 and Scotland {second edition), 1 586-1587. 
 Scot = Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584. 
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 Ixxv 
 
DISTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERS 
 
 In this analysis are shown the acts and scenes in which the char- 
 acters (see Dramatis Personae, page 2) appear, with the number of 
 speeches and lines given to each. 
 
 Note. Parts of lines are counted as whole lines. 
 
 
 
 NO. OF 
 
 NO. OF 
 
 
 
 no. of 
 
 NO. OF 
 
 
 
 SPEECHES 
 
 LINES 
 
 
 
 speeches 
 
 LINES 
 
 Macbeth 
 
 I, iii 
 
 •3 
 
 SO 
 
 Banquo 
 
 I, iii 
 
 12 
 
 42 
 
 
 I, iv 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 
 I, iv 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 
 I, V 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 
 I, vi 
 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 
 I, vii 
 
 7 
 
 48 
 
 
 II, i 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 
 II, i 
 
 6 
 
 45 
 
 
 II, iii 
 
 2 
 
 II 
 
 
 II, ii 
 
 14 
 
 39 
 
 
 III, i 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 
 II, ui 
 
 13 
 
 33 
 
 
 III, iii 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 
 Ill.i 
 III, ii 
 
 15 
 5 
 
 114 
 41 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 III 
 
 
 III,iv 
 
 IV, i 
 
 V, iu 
 V, V 
 V, vi 
 V, viii 
 
 25 
 16 
 10 
 6 
 5 
 _S 
 
 no 
 75 
 55 
 44 
 10 
 26 
 
 Lennox 
 
 I, ii 
 
 II, iii 
 III,iv 
 III,vi 
 
 IV, i 
 
 V, ii 
 
 I 
 7 
 4 
 3 
 S 
 2 
 
 2 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 'I 
 7 
 
 
 
 146 
 
 710 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 72 
 
 Malcolm 
 
 I, ii 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I, iv 
 
 I 
 
 10 
 
 Duncan 
 
 I, ii 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 
 II, iii 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 
 I, iv 
 
 6 
 
 36 
 
 
 IV, iii 
 
 23 
 
 139 
 
 
 I, vi 
 
 4 
 
 18 
 
 
 V, iv 
 
 3 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 68 
 
 
 V, vi 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V, vii 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 ScotchDoctor 
 
 V, i 
 
 15 
 
 34 
 
 
 V, viii 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 
 V, iu 
 
 __4 
 
 _? 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 208 
 
 
 
 •9 
 
 43 
 
 Macduff 
 
 II, iii 
 II, iv 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 37 
 14 
 
 Porter 
 
 II, iii 
 
 3 
 
 24 
 
 
 IV, iii 
 
 V, iv 
 
 28 
 
 I 
 
 91 
 3 
 
 Captain 
 
 I,ii 
 
 3 
 
 35 
 
 
 V, vi 
 V, vii 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 2 
 10 
 
 I Murderer 
 
 III, i 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 
 V, viii 
 
 s 
 
 19 
 
 
 III, iii 
 
 7 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 III,iv 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 176 
 
 
 IV, ii 
 
 _3 
 
 Ross 
 
 I,ii 
 I, iii 
 
 4 
 2 
 
 18 
 16 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 32 
 
 
 II, iv 
 
 10 
 
 26 
 
 Old Siward 
 
 V, iv 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 
 III,iv 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 
 V, vi 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 
 IV, ii 
 
 4 
 
 19 
 
 
 V, vii 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 
 IV, iii 
 
 13 
 
 41 
 
 
 V, viii 
 
 _5 
 
 II 
 
 
 V, viii 
 
 39 
 
 _9 
 134 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 30 
 
 Ixxvi 
 
DISTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERS 
 
 Ixxvii 
 
 
 
 NO. OF 
 
 NO. OF 
 
 
 
 no. of 
 
 NO. OF 
 
 
 
 SPEECHES 
 
 LINES 
 
 
 
 speeches 
 
 LINES 
 
 Ali (Witches) 
 
 L i 
 I, ui 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 English ) 
 Doctor ) 
 
 IV, iii 
 
 I 
 
 S 
 
 
 IV, i 
 
 8 
 
 JI 
 
 Seyton 
 
 V, iii 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 22 
 
 
 V, V 
 
 3 
 
 s 
 
 3 
 
 All (Lords) 
 
 II, Hi 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 V, viij 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 2 Apparition 
 
 IV, i 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 I Apparition 
 
 IV, i 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 Lord 
 
 Ill.vi 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fleance 
 
 II, i 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 Lords 
 
 Ill.iv 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Attendant 
 
 III, i 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Messenger 
 
 I, V 
 
 IV, u 
 
 2 
 I 
 
 S 
 9 
 
 Lady ) 
 Macbeth ) 
 
 I, V 
 
 I, vi 
 
 6 
 
 68 
 
 
 V, V 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 
 2 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I, vii 
 
 6 
 
 43 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 23 
 
 
 II, ii 
 
 14 
 
 46 
 
 Angus 
 
 I,iii 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 
 II, iii 
 III,i 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 18 
 
 
 V, ii 
 
 2 
 
 _9 
 
 
 III,ii 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 21 
 
 
 III,iv 
 V, i 
 
 14 
 6 
 
 40 
 20 
 
 Son 
 
 IV, ii 
 
 14 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 59 
 
 25s 
 
 2 Murderer 
 
 III, i 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 I Witch 
 
 I, i 
 
 3 
 9 
 
 2^ 
 
 
 III, iii 
 
 4 
 
 _? 
 
 
 I, iii 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 17 
 
 
 III, V 
 
 IV, i 
 
 2 
 
 _9 
 
 3 
 27 
 
 Mbnteith 
 
 V, ii 
 V, iv 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 lO 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 61 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 2 Witch 
 
 I, i 
 I, iii 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 6 
 
 Old Man 
 
 II. iv 
 
 4 
 
 II 
 
 
 IV, i 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 Caithness 
 
 V, ii 
 
 3 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 26 
 
 DONALBAIN 
 
 II, iii 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 3 Witch 
 
 I,i 
 I, iii 
 
 2 
 6 
 
 2 
 S 
 
 3 Murderer 
 
 III, iii 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 
 IV, i 
 
 _4 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 26 
 
 Young Siward 
 
 V, vii 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lady Macduff 
 
 IV, ii 
 
 19 
 
 41 
 
 Servant 
 
 Ill.ii 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V,iii 
 
 _3 
 
 _3 
 
 Hecate 
 
 III, V 
 
 IV, i 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 34 
 _S 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 39 
 
 3 Apparition 
 
 IV, i 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gentlewoman 
 
 V, i 
 
 II 
 
 23 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF 
 MACBETH 
 
DRAMATIS PERSONiEi 
 
 his sons. 
 
 noblemen of Scot- 
 land. 
 
 DuNCAN,2 King of Scotland. 
 
 Malcolm, 
 
 donalbain, 
 
 Macbeth, ) generals of the 
 
 B»f NQUO,3 ) King's army. 
 
 Macduff, 
 
 LENNOX, 
 
 I^oss, 
 Menteith, 
 
 Angus, 
 
 Caithness,*, 
 
 Fleance, son to Banquo. 
 
 SlWARD, earl of Northumberland, 
 
 general of the English forces. 
 Young SiWARD, his son. 
 Seyton, an officer attending on 
 
 Macbeth. 
 
 Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, 
 
 and Messengers. 
 
 Scene: Scotland; England. 
 
 Boy, son to Macduff. 
 An English Doctor. 
 A Scotch Doctor. 
 A Captain. 
 A Porter. 
 An Old Man. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. 
 Lady Macduff. 
 Gentlewoman^ attending on 
 
 Lady Macbeth. 
 Hecate. 
 Three Witches. 
 Apparitions. 
 
 1 In D'Avenant's version of the play (1674) '^ a list of 'The Persons 
 Names,' but Rowe was the first editor to give the Dramatis Personse in 
 essentially the modern form. Capell expanded Rowe's list. That given here 
 is substantially Dyce's. 
 
 2 The names of all the leading characters are from Holinshed. 
 
 8 Banquo. The name and title as given by Holinshed is 'Banquho the 
 thane of Lochquhaber.' For an interesting discussion of the pronunciation, 
 see Furness. 
 
 ■* " Malcolme . . . created manie earles. . . , Manie of them that before 
 were thanes, were at this time made earles, as Fife, Menteth, Atholl, Leuenox, 
 Murrey, Cathnes, Rosse, ? d Angus. These were the first earles that haue 
 beene heard of amongst the Scotishmen." — Holinshed, 
 
 ^ Gentlewoman . . . Capell | Gentlewomen . . . Rowe. 
 
ACT I 
 
 Scene I. A desert 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. 
 
 3 Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 5 
 
 1 Witch. Where the place? 
 
 2 Witch. Upon the heath. 
 
 3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 
 
 A desert place Camb | Ff omit. i. again Hanmer 1 againe? Ff. 
 
 ACT I. Scene I. The division into acts and scenes in this edi- 
 tion is that given with Latin nomenclature in the First Folio, except 
 in the case of the fifth act, where Scena Septiina of the Folio is sub- 
 divided into scenes vii and viii. 
 
 A desert place. Line 6 indicates that this is not 'the heath.' 
 
 Enter three Witches. " The true reason for the first appearance 
 of the Witches is to strike the key-note of the character of the whole 
 drama." — Coleridge. 
 
 1-2. The question concerns time, not weather. 'Or' emphasizes 
 the difference in the three elements. " In Stormes of Haile, or 
 Snowe, Wind, Tempest, or Lightning, is accounted amongst magi- 
 cians, a Tyme for Conjuring at an easie rate." — Scot. 
 
 3. hurlyburly : tumult. This onomatopoetic word was used in a 
 dignified sense in the sixteenth century. See Murray. 
 
 7. A strong pause after ' meet ' heightens the metrical effect. 
 
 3 
 
4 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 I Witch. I come, Graymalkin. 
 
 All. Paddock calls : — Anon ! 
 
 Fair is foul, and foul is fair ; lo 
 
 Hover through the fog and filthy air. 
 
 g. All. Paddock calls: — Anon! | 9-10. Paddock . . . fair; | one line 
 
 AIL Padock calls anon : Ff. in Ff. 
 
 8. Graymalkin : gray cat, cat. In Scotland ' malkin ' (' mawkin ') 
 is ' hare.* Cf. ' puss ' for ' hare ' in sportsmen's slang. In the old 
 witchcraft lore witches are represented as having attendants, called 
 familiars, in the guise of animals. " They can keep the Divils and 
 Spirits in the likenesse of Todes and Cats." — Scot. 
 
 9-10. Some modern editors, including Clark and Wright (Clar, 
 Globe), follow Hunter's conjecture and distribute the dialogue 
 among the witches thus : " 2 Witch. Paddock calls. 3 Witch. 
 Anon. All. Fair is foul," etc. In the D'Avenant version the 
 arrangement is that of the Folios. This probably indicates the 
 stage tradition. — Paddock: toad. The word (often pronounced 
 ' padda,' cf. Middle English padde, Icelandic paddd) is still used in 
 Scotland and provincial England for 'frog.' In the Western High- 
 lands 'padock' is the name sometimes given to a malevolent spirit. 
 — Anon: immediately. The usual inn-waiter's reply to a call. Cf. 
 / Henry IV, II, iv, '36, 72, 109, etc. Here the toad serving as 
 familiar is supposed to make a sign for the witches to leave, and 
 ' Anon ! ' is the reply. — Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Cf . Spenser, 
 The Faerie Qiieene, I, ii, 38. Farmer also quotes Spenser's " Then 
 faire grew foule and foule grew faire," to show the proverbial char- 
 acter of this phrase. But the expression probably signifies the moral 
 confusion or inversion which the witches represent. 
 
 II. filthy: murky. See Murray. Gloom is the background of 
 the play. 
 
SCENE II MACBETH 5 
 
 Scene 1 1. A camp near Forres 
 
 Alarum within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, 
 Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain 
 
 Duncan. What bloody man is that? He can report, 
 As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt 
 The newest state. 
 
 Malcolm. This is the sergeant 
 
 Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 
 'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend ! 5 
 
 Say to the king thy knowledge of the broil 
 As thou didst leave it. 
 
 Captain. Doubtful 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 10 
 
 A camp . . . Capell i Ff omit. — 5. Hail | Haile Fi | Haile: haile 
 
 Duncan, Capell | King Ff. — bleed- F2 I Haile, haile F3F4. 
 m^ Captain Ff | bleeding Sergeant 7. Captain | Cap. Ff | Sergeant 
 
 Globe Dyce Camb. Globe Dyce Camb. 
 
 I. Duncan | King Ff (so else- g. Macdonwald Fi | Macdonnell 
 
 where). F-2F8F4. 
 
 Scene II. This scene is regarded by many modem editors as 
 not Shakespeare's. The reasons given are slovenly diction, bom- 
 bastic style, alleged inconsistencies, and the absurdity of sending 
 news of victory by a wounded soldier. Daniel notes that the ser- 
 geant was not formally sent but was merely a straggler. 
 
 3. sergeant. Probably trisyllabic. In the fourteenth century ser- 
 geants held lands by tenure of military service. " The offendors 
 were sent for by a sergeant at armes." — Holinshed. 
 
 5. Hail. Probably dissyllabic, but see Abbott, §§ 480-482. 
 
 9. Macdonwald. " Manie slanderous words also, and railing tants 
 this Macdowald vttered against his prince." — Holinshed. 
 , TO. to that: to that end, for that purpose. See Abbott, § 186. 
 
6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act I 
 
 The multiplying villainies of nature 
 
 Do swarm upon him — from the western isles 
 
 Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied ; 
 
 And fortune, on his damned quarry smiling, 
 
 Show'd like a rebel's whore ; but all 's too weak; 15 
 
 For brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name — 
 
 Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, 
 
 Which smok'd with bloody execution. 
 
 Like valour's minion carv'd out his passage 
 
 Till he fac'd the slave ; 20 
 
 13. gallowglasses Steevens | Gal- 14. quarry | Quarry Ff | quarrel 
 
 lowgrosses Fi 1 Gallow glasses F2F3 Hanmer (Warburton Johnson conj.) 
 F4. — is Ff I was Pope. Globe Camb. 
 
 13. Of: with. See Abbott, § 171. — kerns: light-armed Erse infan- 
 try. Cf. Richard II, II, i, 156. See Skeat. — gallowglasses: heavy- 
 armed Erse infantry. Cf. 2 Henry VI, IV, ix, 26. See Murray. "For 
 out of the westeme lies there came vnto him a great multitude of 
 people, offering themselves to assist him in that rebellious quarell, 
 and out of Ireland in hope of the spoile came no small number 
 of Kernes and Galloglasses, offering gladlie to serve vnder him, 
 whither it should please him to lead them." — Holinshed. 
 
 14. damned quarry : doomed prey. ' His ' may refer to ' fortune ' 
 or to ' Macdonwald.' The Warburton -Johnson suggestion that 
 'quarrel' (cf. 'rebellious quarell' in the quotation from Hohnshed 
 just given) should be read here is adopted by most modem editors. 
 In IV, iii, 206, ' quarry ' means ' heap of slain.' Cf. Coriolanus, I, i, 
 202. Other EHzabethan writers use 'quarry ' in the sense of ' square- 
 headed bolt of a crossbow.' 
 
 15. all '3. Unless this be a contraction of ' all was,' it is an exam- 
 ple of mixing up historical present and past tenses. Pope omitted 
 's, interpreting 'all too weak.' Cf. 'is supplied,' line 13. 
 
 18. execution. The termination ' -ion ' is frequently pronounced 
 as two syllables at the end of a line, and occasionally in the middle 
 of a line. See Abbott, § 479. 
 
 19. minion : favorite. In a good sense, as in z Henry IV, I, i, 83. 
 
SCENE II MACBETH 7 
 
 Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, 
 Till he unseam'd him from the nave to th' chops. 
 And fix'd his head upon our battlements. 
 
 Duncan. O valiant cousin ! worthy gentleman ! 
 
 Captain. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 25 
 
 Shipwrecking storms and direful thtmders, 
 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, 30 
 
 91. ne'er Knight | nev'r F1F2F3 I Ff. — thunders, 1 Thunders : Fi | 
 never F4. — bade Steevens | bad Ff . Thunders breaking F2F8F4 | thun- 
 
 a6. Shipwrecking | Shipwracking ders break Pope Camb. 
 
 21. Which. The antecedent is Macbeth. See Abbott, § 265. — 
 shook hands. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ' to shake 
 hands with' a thing was a picturesque phrase for 'to leave.' "I have 
 shaken hands with delight in my warm blood and canicular days ; I 
 perceive I do anticipate the vices of age." — Browne, Religio Medici. 
 But there may be an allusion to the formal handshaking before a duel. 
 " The shaking of handes was with sharp weapons." — ?>\ixi&^ , Arcadia. 
 
 22. nave: navel. Hanmer read 'nape,' as 'nave ' occurs nowhere 
 else, and such a sword-stroke as that described seems ridiculous. 
 Steevens quotes from Nash's Dido, Queen of Carthage (1594), II, 
 256 : " Then from the navel to the throat at once He ripp'd old 
 Priam." — chops : jaws. Another form of ' chaps.' 
 
 23. " Makbeth entring into the castell by the gates . . . found the 
 carcasse of Makdowald lieng dead ... he caused the head to be 
 cut off, and set upon a pole's end (and so sent it as a present to the 
 king). . . . The headlesse trunke he commanded to be hoong up 
 upon an high paire of gallowes." — Holinshed. 
 
 25-28. As from the east, the region of quiet dawn and fair prom- 
 ise, come fiercest storms, so from a victory that brought joy spring 
 fresh dangers and alarms. — There seems no valid reason for adding 
 ' break ' to line 26, as many editors do, for with ideas of motion the 
 verb is often omitted, and the irregular verse is characteristic of 
 Macbeth and onomatopoetically effective. See Liddell. 
 
8 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, 
 With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men, 
 Began a fresh assault. 
 
 Duncan. Dismay'd not this 
 
 Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? 
 
 Captain. Yes ; 
 
 As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 35 
 
 If I say sooth, I must report they were 
 As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks ; 
 So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe: 
 Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, 
 Or memorize another Golgotha, 40 
 
 I cannot tell — 
 But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. 
 
 3a. furbish'd | furbusht Ff. 38. So they | separate line in 
 
 33-34. Dismay'd . . .Banquo Pope Steevens Camb. 
 I one line in Ff. 42. I . . . help Rowe | two lines in 
 
 34-35. Yes . . . lion Pope | two Ff, first ending faint, 
 lines in Ff, ending eagles, lion. 
 
 31. surveying vantage : perceiving a favorable opportunity. " Im- 
 mediatlie whereupon woord came that Sueno king of Norway was 
 arrived in Fife with a puissant armie, to subdue the whole realme of 
 Scotland." — Holinshed. 
 
 34. captains. Probably trisyllabic. ' Capitains ' is a common six- 
 teenth century form of the word. This pronunciation is still heard 
 in dialect. Cf. j Henry VI, IV, vii, 30. 
 
 36. sooth : truth. ' Sooth ' (Middle English ' soth,' Anglo-Saxon 
 sS&) is both adjective and substantive, the adjectival sense being the 
 older. The root idea is 'being.' See Skeat. 
 
 37. By a well-known figure of speech, ' crack ' is here put for that 
 which makes the 'crack.' Cf. A7itony and Cleopatra, V, i, 14, 15. 
 
 3(>-4i. Unless they meant to bathe in reeking wounds and make 
 the place as memorable as Golgotha, I cannot tell what they in- 
 tended. Golgotha, " the place of a skull " {^Matthew, xxvii, i'^ ; 
 Mark, XV, 22), i.e. of slaughter, is here referred to. 
 
SCENE 11 MACBETH 9 
 
 Duncan. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds ; 
 They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons. 
 
 \_Exii Captain, attended~\ 
 
 Enter Ross and Angus 
 Who comes here? 
 
 Malcolm. The worthy thane of Ross. 45 
 
 Lennox. What a haste looks through his eyes ! So should 
 he look 
 That seems to speak things strange. 
 
 Ross. God save the king ! 
 
 Duncan. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? 
 
 Ross. From Fife, great king ; 
 
 Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 
 And fan our people cold. 50 
 
 Norway himself, with terrible numbers, 
 Assisted by that most disloyal traitor, 
 The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict ; 
 Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, 
 
 44. \Exit . . . I Ff omit. 46-47. So . . . strange Hanmer | 
 
 46. a haste Fi 1 hast F2F3F4. one line in Ff. 
 
 45. Enter Ross and Angus. This is the First Folio stage direc- 
 tion. Most modem editors omit ' and Angus,' as Angus does not 
 speak and is not addressed. But in the next scene Ross and Angus 
 together bring to Macbeth the news of his promotion. 
 
 47. seems to: is about to. "'Seem' in Early English often con- 
 notes an immediate or near futurity." — Liddell. The D'Avenant 
 version reads ' comes.' Johnson suggested ' teems.' 
 
 49-50. The Norwegian banners proudly reared aloft and fluttering 
 in the wind seemed to mock or insult the Scottish sky, and the sight 
 of them struck chills of dismay into our countrymen. ' Flout ' and 
 •fan ' are examples of the historic present. See note, line 15. 
 
 54. Bellona's bridegroom. Steevens sneered at Shakespeare's igno- 
 rance in making Bellona, the old Roman goddess of war (belluni)^ 
 
lO THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 Confronted him with self-comparisons, 55 
 
 Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm, 
 Curbing his lavish spirit ; and, to conclude, 
 The victory fell on us. 
 
 Duncan. Great happiness ! 
 
 Ross. That now 
 
 Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition ; 
 Nor would we deign him burial of his men 60 
 
 Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme's inch, 
 Ten thousand dollars to our general use. 
 
 Duncan. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive 
 
 58-59. That ...composition 61. Colme's inch | Colmes ynch 
 
 Steevens | two lines in Ff, the first Fi | Colmes-hill F2F3F4 I Colmes- 
 one ending king. kill-isle Pope. 
 
 the wife of Mars, but Shakespeare poetically makes her the bride of 
 Macbeth. — lapp'd in proof: clad in impenetrable armor. Cf. 'armed 
 in proof in Richard III, V, iii, 219. 
 
 55. Met him in every respect upon equal terms. 
 
 56. The punctuation is that of the First Folio. Many editors put 
 the comma after ' rebellious.' " If the old punctuation be right, ' re- 
 bellious,' being applied to the arm of the loyal combatant, must be 
 taken to mean 'opposing, resisting assault.' " — Clar. 
 
 57. Curbing his lavish spirit : checking his reckless daring. 
 
 58. That : so that. ' That ' often expresses result. See Abbott, 
 § 283. ' That ' is an overworked word in Elizabethan English. 
 
 59. composition : terms of peace. Cf. the phrase ' composed a 
 quarrel.' Cf. Measure f 07- Measure, I, ii, 2. 
 
 61. Saint Colme's inch : the island of Inchcolm. It is in the Firth 
 of Forth and on it was a monastery dedicated to St. Columba. ' Inch ' 
 is from the Gaelic innis, 'island,' or 'land by a river.' "They . . . 
 obteined of Makbeth for a great summe of gold, that such of their 
 friends as were slaine at this last bickering, might be buried in saint 
 Colmes Inch." — Holinshed. 
 
 62. A characteristic Shakespearian anachronism. Dollars were 
 first coined in the sixteenth century. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 1 1 
 
 Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, 
 And with his former title greet Macbeth. 65 
 
 Ross. I '11 see it done. 
 
 Duncan. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. 
 
 \_Exeunf\ 
 
 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? 
 
 I Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap. 
 And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd. * Give me,' 
 quoth I : 5 
 
 'Aroint thee, witch ! ' the rump-fed ronyon cries. 
 Her husband 's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger : 
 But in a sieve I '11 thither sail, 
 
 A heath Capell 1 A heath near . . . I | separate line in Ff Globe. 
 Forres Globe | Ff omit. 6. Aroint | Aroynt F1F2 I Anoynt 
 
 5. munch'd | mouncht Ff. — Give F3F4. 
 
 2. " Finallie she said she would be even with me : and soone after 
 my child, my cow, my sow . . . died, or was strangelie taken." — Scot. 
 
 6. 'Aroint thee!' is probably an old exorcism against witches. 
 Cf. Ki7ig Lear, III, iv, 129. The etymology is uncertain. — rump-fed. 
 Either 'offal-fed' or 'pampered.' — ronyon: mangy creature. A gen- 
 eral term of abuse. See Century. So in The Merry Wives of Windsor, 
 IV, ii, 195. Cf. 'roynish clown,' As Yoti Like Lt, II, ii, 8. 
 
 7. Tiger. A common name for a ship. Cf. Twelfth Night, V, i, 65. 
 In Hakluyt's Voyages is an account of a ship of this name that went 
 to Tripolis with cargo for Aleppo in 1583. 
 
 8. Witches were believed to go to sea in sieves. " They can go in 
 and out at awger holes, and saile in an egge shelle, a cockle or mus- 
 cle shell, through and under the tempestuous seas." — Scot. 
 
12 
 
 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT I 
 
 And, like a rat without a tail, 
 I '11 do, I '11 do, and I '11 do. 
 
 2 Witch. I '11 give thee a wind. 
 I Witch. Thou 'rt kind. 
 
 3 Witch. And I another. 
 
 I Witch. I myself have all the other ; 
 
 And the very points they blow, 
 All the quarters that they know 
 r the shipman's card. 
 I '11 drain him dry as hay. 
 Sleep shall neither night nor day 
 Hang upon his pent-house lid ; 
 He shall live a man forbid : 
 Weary se'nnights nine times nine 
 Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine ; 
 
 zo 
 
 15 
 
 la. Thou 'rt Capell | Th' art Ff. 
 18, I'll I He Fi I I will Pope. 
 
 32. se'nnights | Seu'nights Ff | 
 seven-nights Steevens. 
 
 9. Whatever animal form the witch might assume, there would 
 always be some defect. Cf. the ' devil's limp,' ' the cloven foot,' etc. 
 
 10. do : work him mischief. The vagueness adds impressiveness. 
 11-12. 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. 
 17. shipman's card. Either the mariner's compass, i.e. the circular 
 card marked with the points of the compass, or a 'chart' showing 
 the points of the compass. 
 
 20. pent-house lid : eyelid. A ' pent-house ' is a shed or ' lean-to * 
 sloping down from a main building. Drayton and Tennyson use 
 ' pent-house ' to describe the eyebrow. 
 
 21. forbid. Either ' under a curse,' or ' excommunicated.' 
 
 22. se'nnights : seven-nights, weeks. Cf. 'fortnight' (for 'fourteen- 
 night '). ' Sennet ' (sennit) is still heard in English dialect. 
 
 23. peak: grow thin. Usually in the expression 'peak and pine.' 
 See Murray. Holinshed, describing the means used for destroying 
 King Duff, says that the witches were found " rosting ... an image 
 
SCENE III 
 
 MACBETH 
 
 Though his bark cannot be lost. 
 
 Yet it shall be tempest-tost. 25 
 
 Look what I have, 
 
 2 Witch. Show me, show me. 
 
 I Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, 
 
 Wreck'd as homeward he did come. 
 
 \_Drum within^ 
 
 3 Witch. A drum, a drum ! 30 
 
 Macbeth doth come. 
 All. The weird sisters, hand in hand. 
 
 Posters of the sea and land, 
 Thus do go about, about : 
 Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, 35 
 
 And thrice again, to make up nine. 
 Peace ! the charm 's wound up. 
 
 ag. Wreck'd I Wrackt Ff. 
 
 3a. weird Theobald | wayward Ff. 
 
 of wax at the fier, resembling in each feature the kings person . . . 
 so that as the wax euer melted so did the kings flesh." 
 
 32. weird. The Folios spell the word ' weyward,' but Holinshed 
 has ' weird ' : " These women were either the weird sisters, that is 
 (as ye would say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs 
 or feiries indued with knowledge of prophesie by their necroman- 
 tical science, bicause euery thing came to passe as they had spoken." 
 Probably the Folio spelling represents a southern pronunciation of 
 the word. According to Skeat ' weird ' as an adjective here means 
 ' subservient to destiny.' The Anglo-Saxon luyrd means 'fate,' ' des- 
 tiny,' also one of the Noms, or Fates. Gavin Douglas translates 
 Parcae in the ALneid, III, 379, by 'weird sisteris.' 
 
 33. Posters : messengers, rapid travelers. Cf. ' post-haste.' 
 
 36. Here the witches perform a sort of incantation by joining 
 hands a::d dancing round in a ring, three rounds for each. Odd num- 
 bers and multiples of odd numbers, especially three and nine, were 
 thought to have great magical power in thus winding up a charm. 
 
14 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act I 
 
 Enter Macbeth and Banquo 
 
 Macbeth. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. 
 
 Banquo. How far is 't call'd to Forres? What are these 
 So wither'd, and so wild in their attire, 40 
 
 That look not like th' inhabitants o' the earth, 
 And yet are on 't ? Live you ? or are you aught 
 That man may question? You seem to understand me, 
 By each at once her choppy finger laying 
 Upon her skinny lips : you should be women, 45 
 
 And yet your beards forbid me to interpret 
 That you are so. 
 
 Macbeth, Speak, if you can : what are you? 
 
 1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of 
 
 Glamis ! 
 
 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of 
 
 Cawdor ! 
 
 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shall be king here- 
 
 after ! 50 
 
 38. Scene IV Pope 39. Forres | Foris Pope | Soris Ff. 
 
 38. Macbeth's first words may refer only to the symbolical sun- 
 shine and storm of the day, or to a day fouled with storm but bright- 
 ened with victory. Dowden reads here a deeper meaning: "Observe 
 that the last words of the witches in the opening scene of the play 
 are the first words which Macbeth himself utters : ' Fair is foul, and 
 foul is fair.' Shakespeare intimates by this that, although Macbeth 
 has not yet set eyes upon these hags, the connection is already estab- 
 lished between his soul and them. Their spells have already wrought 
 upon his blood." 
 
 40. " Three women in strange and wild apparell." — Holinshed. 
 
 48-50. "The first of them spake and said: 'All haile Makbeth, 
 thane of Glammis ' (for he had latelie entered into that dignitie and 
 office by the death of his father Sinell). The second of them said : 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 1 5 
 
 Banquo. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear 
 Things that do sound so fair? — I' the name of truth, 
 Are ye fantastical, or that indeed 
 Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner 
 You greet with present grace and great prediction 55 
 
 Of noble having and of royal hope, 
 That he seems rapt withal ; to me you speak not. 
 If you can look into the seeds of time, 
 And say which grain will grow and which will not, 
 
 57. rapt Pope | wrapt Ff. 
 
 ' Haile Makbeth thane of Cawder.' But the third said: 'All haile 
 Makbeth that heereafter shalt be king of Scotland.' " — Holinshed. 
 
 53. fantastical: imaginary. Cf. line 139; Richard II, I, iii, 299. 
 Holinshed has " vaine fantasticall illusion." 
 
 55. An example of 'respective construction.' 'Present grace' re- 
 fers to ' noble having ' (i.e. ' possession ') and ' great prediction ' to 
 'royal hope.' Similarly in lines 60-61, 'beg' refers to 'favours' 
 and 'fear ' to 'hate.' 
 
 57. That: so that. Cf. I, ii, 58. — withal: therewith, with it. Here 
 'withal' is an adverb (cf. German damit), not, as often in Shakespeare, 
 the emphatic form of 'with,' used after the object, generally a rela- 
 tive, at the end of a sentence. Macbeth's rapture or trance of 
 thought on this occasion is deeply significant of his moral predis- 
 positions. Coleridge remarks upon the passage as follows: 
 
 How truly Shakespearian is the opening of Macbeth's character given in 
 the zinpossessedness of Banquo's mind, wholly present to the present object ; 
 an unsullied, unscarified mirror ! And how strictly true to nature it is that 
 Banquo, and not Macbeth himself, directs our notice to the effect produced on 
 Machieth's mind, rendered temptable by previous dalliance of the fancy with 
 ambitious thoughts. . . . Banquo's questions are those of natural curiosity, 
 such as a girl would put after hearing a gipsy tell her school-fellow's fortune ; 
 — all perfectly general, or rather planless. But Macbeth, lost in thought, 
 raises himself to speech only by the witches being about to depart, . . . and 
 all that follows is reasoning on a problem already discussed in his mind, — 
 On a hope which he welcomes, and the doubts concerning the attainment of 
 which he wishes to have cleared up. 
 
l6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear 60 
 
 Your favours nor your hate. 
 
 1 Witch. Hail ! 
 
 2 Witch. Hail ! 
 
 3 Witch. Hail ! 
 
 1 Witch, Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 65 
 
 2 Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 
 
 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none : 
 So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo ! 
 
 I Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail ! 
 
 Macbeth. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more : 70 
 By Sin el's death 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 75 
 
 You owe this strange intelligence? or why 
 Upon this blasted heath you stop our way 
 With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you. 
 
 [Witches vam's/i'] 
 
 78. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 73. A prosperous gentleman. There is%eemingly a strange discrep- 
 ancy here. In the preceding scene, Macbeth is said to have met 
 Cawdor face to face in the ranks of Norway : he must therefore have 
 known him to be a rebel and traitor. 
 
 74. prospect of belief. Cf. ' prospect of his soul,' Much Ado about 
 AWhingf IV, i, 231 ; 'prospect of my hopes,' Twelfth Night, III, 
 iv, 90. "EHzabethan thinking was full of such metaphors for the 
 perceptive powers of the mind." — Liddell. 
 
 76. owe : have, possess. This, the original meaning of the word, is 
 common in Shakespeare, as in ICing John, II, i, 247-248. From 'to 
 possess another's property ' comes the meaning ' to be in debt for.' 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 17 
 
 Banquo. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, 
 And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd ? 80 
 
 Macbeth. Into the air ; and what seem'd corporal melted 
 As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd ! 
 
 Banquo. Were such things here as we do speak about? 
 Or have we eaten on the insane root 
 That takes the reason prisoner? 85 
 
 Macbeth. Your children shall be kings. 
 
 Banquo. You shall be king. 
 
 Macbeth. And thane of Cawdor too : went it not so ? 
 
 Banquo. To th' selfsame tune and words. Who's here? 
 
 Enter Ross and Angus 
 
 Ross. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, 
 The news of thy success : and, when he reads 90 
 
 Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, 
 His wonders and his praises do contend 
 Which should be thine or his : silenc'd with that, 
 
 81-82. Three lines in Ff, ending 89. Scene V Pope 
 
 corporal, wind, stay'd. 91. rebels' Theobald | rebels Ff. 
 
 84. on F1F2F3 I of F4. 
 
 81. corporal: corporeal. Shakespeare never uses the latter form. 
 
 84. on: of. Cf. 'on's' in V, i, 61. — the insane root. This is usu- 
 ally taken to mean hemlock or henbane, but it is probable that 
 Shakespeare had in mind this passage from North's Plutarch : 
 " They were compelled to live of herbs and roots . . . among the 
 which there was one that . . . made them out of their wits. For he 
 that had once eaten of it, his memory was gone from him." — The 
 Life of Marcus Antonius. With this causal use of 'insane,' cf. 'ob- 
 livious ' in V, iii, 43. For the pronunciation ' in'sane ' see Abbott, 
 § 492. Cf. 'ob'scure,' II, iii, 45. 
 
 92-93. The construction is involved (cf. ' respective construction,' 
 line 55), but the meaning seems to be, He knows not whether to 
 
l8 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act I 
 
 In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, 
 
 He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, 95 
 
 Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, 
 
 Strange images of death. As thick as tale 
 
 Came post with post ; and every one did bear 
 
 Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, 
 
 And pour'd them down before him. 
 
 Angus. We are sent 100 
 
 To give thee from our royal master thanks ; 
 Only to herald thee into his sight. 
 Not pay thee. 
 
 Ross. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, 
 He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor ; 105 
 In which addition, hail, most worthy thane ! 
 For it is thine. 
 
 97. tale Ff I hail Rowe Globe 102. herald F4 I harrold Fi | her- 
 Camb 1 bale Becket conj. raid F2F3. 
 
 98. Came Rowe | Can Ff | Ran 105. bade Theobald | bad Ff. 
 Delius conj. 
 
 express his own wonder at these achievements or to sound your 
 praises. 
 
 96. Nothing : not at all. This adverbial use is common in Shake- 
 speare. — afeard. The past participle of ' afear ' (Anglo-Saxon 
 d/a'ran) ; ' afraid ' is the participle of ' affray ' (Low Lat. ex-fridare). 
 See Murray. ' Afeard ' (' 'feard ') is still heard in dialect. 
 
 97. Strange images : unusual forms. This refers to the heaps of 
 slain. In 2 Hettry VI, I, iii, 179, is ' Image of pride '; in King Lear, 
 II, iv, 91, 'images of revolt.' Cf. 'picture of health.' — thick as tale: 
 fast as could be counted. "A phrase peculiarly Shakespearian in its 
 pregnant condensation . . . transformed into bald commonplace by 
 the substitution of 'thick as hail.' " — Churton Collins. 'Thick' for 
 'fast' occurs in 2 Henry IV, II, iii, 24; 'tell' for 'count' occurs 
 often. Cf. 'keep tally,' also 'tale ' in Exodus, v, 8. 
 
 106. addition : title. Something added to a man's name to show 
 his rank. Cf. Ill, i, 99; Hamlet, I, iv, 20. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 19 
 
 Banquo. [_Astde'] What, can the devil speak true? 
 
 Macbeth. The thane of Cawdor lives : why do you 
 dress me 
 In borrow'd robes? 
 
 Angus. Who was the thane lives yet ; 
 
 But under heavy judgment bears that life no 
 
 Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combin'd 
 With those of Norway, or did line the rebel 
 With hidden help and vantage, or that with both 
 He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not ; 
 But treasons capital, confess'd and prov'd, 115 
 
 Have overthrown him. 
 
 Macbeth. \_Aside'\ Glamis, and thane of Cawdor ! 
 
 The greatest is behind. \^To Ross a7id Angus] Thanks for 
 
 your pains. 
 [ To Banquo] Do you not hope your children shall be kings, 
 When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me 
 Promis'd no less to them? 
 
 Banquo. That trusted home 120 
 
 Might yet enkindle you unto the crown. 
 Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 't is strange ; 
 And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, 
 
 107, 116. [Aside] Ff omit. Malone | five lines in Ff, ending 
 
 108-109. why . . . robes Capell | loose, Norway, help, labour'd, not. 
 
 one line in Ff. 117. [To Ross . . .] Ff omit 
 
 111-114. Which . . . know not 118. [2"<7 Banquo] Ff. omit. 
 
 112. line : strengthen, reenforce. So in / Henry IV, II, iii, 86. 
 
 120. home: thoroughly. Cf. Measure for Measure, IV, iii, 148; 
 Cymbeline, III, v, 92 ; King Lear, III, iii, 13. 
 
 123-126. It is nowise likely that Shakespeare was a reader of 
 Livy, but in these lines, which give, as Professor Corson says, the 
 entire moral of the tragedy, is a striking resemblance to a passage in 
 Book xxviii, 42, 4 : "An Syphaci Numidisque credis ? satis sit semel 
 
20 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 The instruments of darkness tell us truths, 
 
 Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's 125 
 
 In deepest consequence. 
 
 Cousins, a word, I pray you. 
 
 Macbeth. \^Asu/e^ Two truths are told, 
 
 As happy prologues to the swelling act 
 Of the imperial theme. — I thank you, gentlemen. — 
 [^Astde'] This supernatural soliciting 130 
 
 Cannot be ill ; cannot be good : if ill, 
 Why hath it given me earnest of success, 
 Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor : 
 If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 
 Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair 135 
 
 And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, 
 Against the use of nature? Present fears 
 Are less than horrible imaginings. 
 My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, 
 Shakes so my single state of man that function 140 
 
 127, 130. [Aside] Ff omit. 135. hair Rowe | heire F1F2F3. 
 
 131-132. if . . . success I one line 140-142. that . . . not | two lines 
 
 in Ff. in Ff. 
 
 creditum : non semper temeritas est felix, et fraus fidem in parvis sibi 
 praestruit ut, quum operae pretium sit, cum mercede magna fallit." 
 
 128-129. The image is of the stage, with an august drama of kingly 
 state to be performed ; the inspiring prologue has been spoken, and 
 the glorious action is about to begin. — imperial theme: theme of 
 empire. Cf. 'sterile curse,' Julius Ccesar, I, ii, 9, and 'slanderous 
 loads, 'y?///«i' Casar, IV, i, 20. " In such phrases the adjective defines 
 the sphere or character of the noun." — A. W. Verity. 
 
 134. suggestion: temptation. Ci.Tke Tempest, II, i, 288. 
 
 137. use: custom. — fears: dangers, terrors. Effect for cause. 
 
 139-141. My thought, though it is only of a murder in imagination, 
 so disturbs my feeble human condition that the power of action is 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 21 
 
 Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is 
 But what is not. 
 
 Banquo. - Look, how our partner 's rapt. 
 
 Macbeth. [^Asidc^ If chance will have me king, why, 
 chance may crown me, 
 Without my stir. 
 
 Banquo. New honours come upon him, 
 
 Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould 145 
 But with the aid of use. 
 
 Macbeth. [_Aside'] Come what come may, 
 
 Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 
 
 Banquo. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. 
 
 142. Look . . . rapt | separate line 143. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 in Ff. 143, 146. [Aside] Ff omit. 
 
 lost in speculation. Shakespeare often uses ' single ' in the sense of 
 'weak,' as in I, vi, 16- Staunton quotes as a parallel passage Julius 
 C(zsar, II, i, 63-69, and interprets 'state' as 'kingdom.' 
 
 141-142. nothing is But what is not. Facts are lost sight of ; he 
 sees nothing but what is unreal, nothing but the spectres of his own 
 fancy. Macbeth's conscience here acts through his imagination, sets 
 it all on fire, and he is terror-stricken, and lost to the things before 
 him, as the elements of evil within him gather and fashion them- 
 selves into the wicked purpose. Of this wonderful development of 
 character Coleridge says: "So surely is the guilt in its germ ante- 
 rior to the supposed cause and immediate temptation." And again : 
 "Every word of his soliloquy shows the early birth-date of his guilt. 
 He wishes the end, but is irresolute as to the means ; conscience 
 distinctly warns him, and he lulls it imperfectly." 
 
 147. Time and the hour. A reduplicate phrase like ' time and tide,' 
 probably proverbial. ' II tempo e 1' ore ' occurs in one of Michel- 
 angelo's sonnets. The sense of the line in the text is thus explained 
 by Heath : " The advantage of time and of seizing the favourable 
 hour, whenever it shall present itself, will enable me to make my 
 way through all obstruction and opposition. Every one knows the 
 Spanish proverb, — ' Time and I against any two.' " 
 
22 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 Macbeth. Give me your favour : my dull brain was 
 wrought 
 
 With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains 150 
 
 Are register'd where every day I turn 
 
 The leaf to read them. L?t us toward the king. 
 
 Think upon what hath chanc'd ; and, at more time, 
 
 The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak 
 
 Our free hearts each to other. 
 
 Banquo. Very gladly. 155 
 
 Macbeth. Till then, enough. Come, friends. \_£xeuni^ 
 
 Scene IV. Forres. The palace 
 
 Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, 
 a7id Attendants 
 Duncan. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not 
 Those in commission yet return'd? 
 
 156. Two lines in Ff. i. Duncan Capell | King Ff (and 
 
 Scene IV | Scene VI Pope. throughout the scene). — Is . . . Caw- 
 
 Enter Duncan . . . Lennox | dor | one line in Ff. — Are Fi2F3F4| 
 
 Enter King, Lenox, Malcolme, Don- Or Fi. 
 
 albaine Ff. 
 
 149. favour : indulgence. — wrought : agitated, worked up. Cf. 
 The Winter's Tale, V, iii, 58. Macbeth puts forth a pretext to hide 
 the true cause of his trance of guilty thought. 
 
 151. register'd: noted on the table of memory. Cf. Hamlet, I, v, 98. 
 
 154. The interim having weigh'd it : the lapse of time having en- 
 abled us to see it in its true light. But Abbott, § 202, would construe 
 this as a case of the omission of the preposition in adverbial expres- 
 sions of time. 
 
 Scene IV. This scene takes place the day after the previous 
 scenes, which may be regarded as happening on one day. "The be- 
 haviour of the thane of Cawdor corresponds in almost every circum- 
 stance with that of the unfortunate Earl of Essex, as related by Stowe." 
 — Steevens. The execution of the Earl of Essex took place in 1601. 
 
SCENE IV MACBETH 23 
 
 Malcolm. My liege, 
 
 They are not yet come back. But I have spoke 
 With one that saw him die ; who did report 
 That very frankly he confess'd his treasons, 5 
 
 Implor'd your highness' pardon, and set forth 
 A deep repentance : nothing in his life 
 Became him like the leaving it ; he died 
 As one that had been studied in his death 
 To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd, 10 
 
 As 't were a careless trifle. 
 
 Duncan. There 's no art 
 
 To find the mind's construction in the face : 
 He was a gentleman on whom I built 
 An absolute trust. 
 
 Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and huGvs 
 
 O worthiest cousin ! 
 The sin of my ingratitude even now 15 
 
 Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before, 
 
 2-8. My . . . died | seven lines in repentance, him, died. 
 Ff, ending back, die, he, pardon, 10. ow'd Ff | own'd Warburton. 
 
 9. studied in his death : well instructed in the art of dying. 
 
 10. ow'd : owned. So in I, iii, 76. See note. 
 
 11. careless; uncared for. So 'sightless,'!, vii, 23. See Abbott, § 3. 
 13-14. Duncan's words spoken as Macbeth enters are often quoted 
 
 as a splendid example of that ' tragic irony ' (when a speaker uncon- 
 sciously uses words that have a double meaning to his hearers) which 
 pervades the whole of this scene. " Duncan's childlike spirit makes 
 a moment's pause of wonder at the act of treachery, and then flings 
 itself, like Gloucester in A'ing Lear, with still more absolute trust 
 and still more want of reflection, into the toils of a far deeper and 
 darker treason." — Moberly. 
 
24 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act I 
 
 That swiftest wing of recompense is slow 
 
 To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserv'd, 
 
 That the proportion both of thanks and payment 
 
 Might have been mine ! Only I have left to say, 20 
 
 More is thy due than more than all can pay. 
 
 Macbeth. 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 ; 25 
 
 Which do but what they should, by doing every thing 
 Safe toward your love and honour. 
 
 Duncan. Welcome hither : 
 
 I have begun to plant thee, and will labour 
 To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, 
 That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known 30 
 
 No less to have done so, let me infold thee 
 And hold thee to my heart. 
 
 23-27. Your . . . honour | five lines should, love, honour, 
 in Ff, ending receive our duties, state, 27. Safe Ff | Shap'd Hanmer. 
 
 19-20. That my return of thanks and payment might have been 
 in the right proportion to thy deserts, or in the due relation to them. 
 
 24-25. ' Duties' is here put, apparently, for the faculties and labors 
 of duty ; the meaning being. All our works and forces of duty are 
 children and servants to your throne and state. Hypocrisy and 
 hyperbole are apt to go together ; and so here Macbeth overacts 
 the part of loyalty, and tries how high he can strain up his expres- 
 sion of it. We have a parallel instance in Goneril's and Regan's 
 finely worded professions of love. Such high-pressure rhetoric is 
 the right vernacular of hollowness. 
 
 27. Safe toward your love and honour. One of the many condensed, 
 elliptical expressions in the play. The meaning may be, With a firm 
 and sure purpose to have you loved and honored ; or. So as to merit 
 and secure love and honor from you. It may mean both. 
 
SCENE IV MACBETH 2$ 
 
 Banquo. There if I grow, 
 
 The harvest is your own, 
 
 Duncan. My plenteous joys, 
 
 Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves 
 In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, 35 
 
 And you whose places are the nearest, know, 
 We will establish our estate upon 
 Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter 
 The Prince of Cumberland ; which honour must 
 Not unaccompanied invest him only, 40 
 
 But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine 
 On all deservers. From hence to Inverness, 
 And bind us further to you. 
 
 Macbeth. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you. 
 I '11 be myself the harbinger, and make joyful 45 
 
 35. kinsmen Fi 1 kinsman F2F3F4. 45. harbinger Rowe | Herbenger 
 
 42. Inverness Pope | Envernes Ff. F1F2F3 | Harbenger F4. 
 
 33-35. Qi. Much Ado about jVoiking, I, i, 22; Romeo and Juliet, 
 III, ii, 102-104 ; The Winter's Tale, V, ii, 50. — Wanton : unrestrained, 
 undisciplined (the original sense of the word). 
 
 38-39. " King Duncane, hauing two sonnes by his wife which was 
 the daughter of Siward earle of Northumberland, he made the elder 
 of them called Malcolme prince of Cumberland, as it were thereby 
 to appoint him his successor in the kingdome, immediatelie after 
 his deceasse. Mackbeth sore troubled herewith ... he began to take 
 counsell how he might vsurpe the kingdome by force, hauing a iust 
 quarell so to doo (as he tooke the matter) for that Duncane did 
 what in him lay to defraud him.." — Holinshed. 
 
 44. Even the repose, which is not taken for your sake or spent 
 in your service, is a labor to me. 
 
 45. harbinger : an officer who goes in advance to make provision 
 for the night's shelter. The Middle English form is herbergeojir and 
 is found in Chaucer, The Man 0/ Lawes Tale, 997: " herbergeours 
 that wenten him biforn." 
 
26 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 The hearing of my wife with your approach ; 
 So humbly take my leave. 
 
 Duncan. My worthy Cawdor ! 
 
 Macbeth. [Aside^ The Prince of Cumberland ! that is 
 a step 
 On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, 
 For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your <ires ; 50 
 
 Let not light see my black and deep desires ; 
 The eye wink at the hand ; yet let that be 
 Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [_Exit'] 
 
 Duncan. True, worthy Banquo ; he is full so valiant, 
 And in his commendations I am fed ; 55 
 
 It is a banquet to me. Let 's after him. 
 Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome. 
 It is a peerless kinsman. \_Flourish. Exeunt] 
 
 Scene V. Inverness. Macbeth 's castle 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth, alone, with a letter 
 
 Lady Macbeth. ^^Reads] They met me in the day of suc- 
 cess ; and I have learn'd by the perfect'st report, they have 
 
 48. \Aside\ Ff omit. Lady Macbeth 1 Macbeth's 
 
 Scene V I Scene VII Pope. — In- Wife Ff. 
 verness . . . castle \ Ff omit. i. L.\dy Macbeth | Lady Ff. 
 
 50. Stars, hide your fires. We are not to understand from this 
 that the present scene takes place at night. Macbeth is evidently 
 contemplating night as the time when the murder is to be done. 
 
 52. The eye wink at : Let the eye refuse to see. ' Wink at ' some- 
 times means 'encourage' or 'prompt,' but is used here literally. 
 
 54. True, worthy Banquo. Duncan and Banquo have been speak- 
 ing about Macbeth during his soliloquy. The beginning of Duncan's 
 speech refers to something Banquo has said in praise of Macbeth. 
 
SCENE V MACBETH 27 
 
 more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burn'd in desire 
 to question them further, they made themselves air, into which 
 they vanish'd. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came 
 missives from the King, who all-hail'd me 'Thane of Cawdor'; 
 by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and 
 referr'd 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 mightst not lose the dues of re- 
 joicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promis'd thee. 
 Lay it to thy heart, and farewell. 12 
 
 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 wouldst be great; 
 
 Art not without ambition, but without 
 
 The illness should attend it : what thou wouldst highly, 
 
 That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst not play false, 19 
 
 And yet wouldst wrongly win : thou 'Idst have, great Glamis, 
 
 20-21. And ... it Pope | three lines in Ff, ending win, cries, it. 
 
 6. missives : messengers. So in A7ito7ty and Cleopatra, II, ii, 74. 
 
 15. human kindness. "'Humankind' is still an expression for 
 human nature, and the sense of the passage . . . would be more 
 obvious if the whole phrase were printed as one word, not ' human 
 kindness' but ' humankind-ness': — that shrinking from what is not 
 natural. . . . ' Milk of humankind-ness ' suggests absence of hard- 
 ness but it equally connotes natural, inherited traditional feelings, 
 imbibed at the mother's breast." — R. G. Moulton. 
 
 18. illness : unscrupulousness. See Murray. " Macbeth is de- 
 scribed by Lady Macbeth so as at the same time to reveal her own 
 character. Could he have every thing he wanted, he would rather 
 have it innocently ; — ignorant, as, alas, how many of us are ! that 
 he who wishes a temporal end for itself does in truth will the means ; 
 and hence the danger of indulging fancies." — Coleridge. 
 
28 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 That which cries, ' Thus thou must do,' if thou have it; 21 
 
 And that which rather thou dost fear to do 
 
 Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, 
 
 That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, 
 
 And chastise with the valour of my tongue 25 
 
 All that impedes thee from the golden round 
 
 Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem 
 
 To have thee crown 'd withal. 
 
 Enter a Messenger 
 
 What is your tidings? 
 Messenger. The king comes here to-night. 
 Lady Macbeth. Thou 'rt mad to say it : 
 
 26. impedes thee | impeides thee 37. seem | seek Johnson conj. 
 
 Fi I thee hinders F2F3F4. 28. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 21-23. A passage involved and obscure. Does 'That which' of 
 line 21 refer to the crown personified, or to the murder of Duncan .-' 
 In the Folios are no inverted commas, and in some modem editions 
 (Clar) they are put at the end of line 21; in others (Globe Camb) 
 Pope is followed and they are put after ' undone.' In previous edi- 
 tions of Hudson's Shakespeare, 'An act which' was substituted for 
 'And that which' in line 22, 'that which' being supposed to have 
 crept in by mistake from the preceding line. If the crown is the 
 thing which Glamis would have, and if the crown is here repre- 
 sented as crying out to him "Thus thou must do, if thou have," 
 there appears no way of getting the sense but by substituting ' me ' 
 for 'it.' If we suppose only the words "Thus thou must do" to be 
 spoken by the crown, and the following words to be spoken by Lady 
 Macbeth in her own person, then 'it' is right ; and this is probably 
 the way the passage ought to be understood and printed. Johnson 
 saw the difficulty, and proposed to read " if thou have me." 
 
 26. golden round: crown. Cf. IV, i, 88; j'?/<r/?ar^//. Ill, ii, i6o-i6i. 
 
 27. metaphysical: supernatural. — seem. See note, I, ii, 47. 
 
SCENE V MACBETH 29 
 
 Is not thy master with him ? who, were 't so, 30 
 
 Would have inform'd for preparation. 
 
 Messenger. So please you, it is true ; our thane is coming. 
 One of my fellows had the speed of him, 
 Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more 
 Than would make up his message. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Give him tending; 35 
 
 He brings great news. [_£xty Messenger] 
 
 The raven himself is hoarse 
 That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
 Under my battlements. Come, you spirits 
 That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here ; 
 And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full 40 
 
 Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood ; 
 Stop up th' access and passage to remorse, 
 That no compunctious visitings of nature 
 Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between 
 
 36. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 36-38. The raven has made himself hoarse with croaking, or has 
 croaked so loud and long as to become hoarse, over the fatal en- 
 trance, etc. The ominousness of the raven's croak is implied else- 
 where in Shakespeare. Cf. Othello, IV, i, 21 ; Hamlet, III, ii, 264; 
 2 Henry VI, III, ii, 40. ' Entrance ' is here trisyllabic. See Abbott, 
 
 §477- 
 
 39. mortal: deadly. So in III, iv, 81 ; IV, iii, 3. 
 
 42. remorse : pity, compassion. So in As You Like It, I, iii, 72 ; 
 The Tempest, V, i, 76. 
 
 43. compunctious visitings of nature : natural feelings of compunc- 
 tion. A common Shakespearian construction. 
 
 44-45. keep peace between The effect and it : come as peacemaker 
 between the purpose and the effect. Another elliptical expression. In 
 previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare 'break' was substituted 
 for 'keep.' 
 
3© THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act I 
 
 The effect and it ! Come to my woman's breasts, 45 
 
 And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers. 
 
 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, 5° 
 
 Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, 
 
 To cry, ' Hold, hold ! ' 
 
 Enter Macbeth 
 
 Great Glamis ! worthy Cawdor ! 
 Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! 
 Thy letters have transported me beyond 
 
 45. it F3F4 I hit F1F2. 
 
 46. take my milk for gall. Either, Take away my milk and give 
 me gall instead (Johnson); or, Change my milk into gall by your 
 malignant power (Schmidt). In support of Schmidt's interpretation, 
 Manly quotes Merry Wives of Windsor, IV, iv, ■t^t^ ; Hamlet, I, i, 163; 
 King Lear, II, iv, 166; III, iv, 60. In her fiery thirst for power, Lady 
 Macbeth feels that her woman's heart is unequal to the calls of her 
 ambition, and she would fain exchange her " milk of human kind- 
 ness " for a fiercer infusion. 
 
 47. sightless: invisible. See note on 'careless,' I, iv, 11. 
 
 49. pall: shroud, wrap as in a pall (Lat. pallium, 'cloak'). — 
 dunnest smoke. Cf. Milton's "dun shades," Comus, 127; "dun air," 
 Paradise Lost, III, 72. 
 
 51. The metaphor of darkness being a blanket wrapped round 
 the world, so as to keep the Divine Eye from seeing the deed 
 which Lady Macbeth longs and expects to have done, is just such 
 as it was fitting for the boldest of poets to put into the mouth of 
 the boldest of women. But the expressions 'peep' and 'blanket' 
 have seemed undignified to many commentators, and some strange 
 substitutes have been suggested. Coleridge proposed ' blank height ' 
 for 'blanket' I In Romeo and Juliet, III, ii, 5, we have " Spread thy 
 
SCENE V MAC8ETH 3 1 
 
 This ignorant present, and I feel now 55 
 
 The future in the instant. 
 
 Macbeth. My dearest love, 
 
 Duncan comes here to-night. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. And when goes hence? 
 
 Macbeth. To-morrow, as he purposes. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. O, never 
 
 Shall sun that morrow see ! 
 
 Your face, my thane, is as a book where men 60 
 
 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 't. He that 's coming 
 Must be provided for ; and you shall put 65 
 
 This night's great business into my dispatch, 
 Which shall to all our nights and days to come 
 Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. 
 
 Macbeth. We will speak further. 
 
 61. matters. To . . . time, Theobald 1 matters, to . . . time. Ff. 
 
 close curtain, love-performing night." Cf. TAe Faerie Queene, I, iv, 
 44: "darkesome night displayd Her coleblack curtein." Malone 
 quotes from Drayton's Mortimeriados : " sullen night in mistie rugge 
 is wrapp'd." 
 
 56. instant: present. The enthusiasm of her newly-kindled expec- 
 tation quickens the dull present with the spirit of the future, and gives 
 to hope the life and substance of fruition. 
 
 59. Abbott, § 511, in a suggestive note on "single lines with two 
 or three accents interspersed amid the ordinary verses of five ac- 
 cents," says that in this broken line is indicated the way in which 
 Lady Macbeth pauses to watch the effect of her words. 
 
 62. ' Time ' is here put for its contents, or what occurs in time. It 
 is a time of full-hearted welcome and hospitality ; and such are the 
 looks which Macbeth is urged to counterfeit. 
 
32 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Only look up clear ; 
 
 To alter favour ever is to fear. 70 
 
 Leave all the rest to me. [Exetmt] 
 
 Scene VL Before Macbeth's castle 
 
 Hautboys and torches. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donal- 
 BAiN, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and 
 Attendants 
 
 Duncan. This castle hath a pleasant seat ; the air 
 Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 
 Unto our gentle senses. 
 
 Banquo. This guest of summer, 
 
 The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 
 
 Scene VI | Scene VIII Pope. — 1-2. the air . . . itself | one line 
 
 Before . , . castle \ Ff omit. — Etiter in Ff. 
 Duncan | Enter King Ff. 4. martlet Rowe | Barlet Ff. 
 
 70. favour : countenance. Lady Macbeth is here mad, or inspired, 
 with a kind of extemporized ferocity, so that she feels herself able 
 to perform without flinching the crime she has conceived, if her hus- 
 band will only keep his face from telling any tales of their purpose. 
 As Coleridge says, " Hers is the mock fortitude of a mind deluded by 
 ambition : she shames her husband with a superhuman audacity of 
 fancy which she cannot support, but sinks in the season of remorse, 
 and dies in suicidal agony." 
 
 1-3. The air, by its purity and sweetness, attempers our senses to 
 its own state, and so makes them gentle, or sweetens them into gen- 
 tleness. A proleptical form of speech. 
 
 The subject of this quiet and easy conversation gives that repose so neces- 
 sary to the mind after the tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and per- 
 fectly contrasts the scene of horror that immediately succeeds. . . . This also 
 is frequently the practice of Homer, who, from the midst of battles and hor- 
 rors, relieves and refreshes the mind of the reader, by introducing some quiet 
 rural image or picture of familiar domestic life. — Sir J. Reynolds. 
 
 4. approve : prove, make evident. So in 2 Corinthians, vii, 11. 
 
SCENE VI MACBETH 33 
 
 By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath 5 
 
 Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, 
 Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
 Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 
 Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd 
 The air is delicate. 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth 
 
 Duncan. See, see, our honour'd hostess 1 10 
 
 The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, 
 Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you 
 How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains, 
 And thank us for your trouble. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. All our service 
 
 In every point twice done and then done double 15 
 
 Were poor and single business to contend 
 Against those honours deep and broad wherewith 
 
 5. mansionry Theobald | Man- 13. God 'ild | God-eyld Ff. 
 sonry Ff | masonry Pope. 17-20. Against . . . hermits | four 
 
 9. most Rowe | must Ff. lines in Ff, ending broad, house, dig- 
 
 10. Enter . . . | Enter Lady Ff. nities, hermits. 
 
 6. jutty: projection. The Folios read 'jutty frieze.' See Murray. 
 
 7. coign of vantage : convenient comer. A ' coign ' (' quoin ') is ' a 
 projecting corner,' or 'a comer-stone at the exterior angle of a build- 
 ing.' So in Coriolanus, V, iv, i: " See you yon coign o' the Capitol, 
 yon corner-stone .'' " See Murray. 
 
 11. sometime: sometimes. Shakespeare and Milton use both 
 forms. 
 
 13. bid God 'ild : pray God repay. The kind-hearted monarch 
 means that his love is what puts him upon troubling them thus, and 
 therefore they will be grateful for the pains he causes them. ' God 
 'ild ' (' God 'ield,' ' God dild,' etc.) is a common Elizabethan corrup- 
 tion of ' God yield,' i.e. ' God reward.' 
 
 16. single : weak. Contrasted with ' double ' in preceding line. 
 
34 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 Your majesty loads our house : for those of old, 
 And the late dignities heap'd up to them, 
 We rest your hermits. 
 
 Duncan. Where 's the thane of Cawdor? 20 
 
 We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose 
 To be his purveyor : but he rides well, 
 And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him 
 To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess. 
 We are your guest to-night. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Your servants ever 25 
 
 Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, 
 To make their audit at your highness' pleasure. 
 Still to return your own. 
 
 Duncan. Give me your hand ; 
 
 Conduct me to mine host : we love him highly, 
 And shall continue our graces towards him. 30 
 
 By your leave, hostess. \_Exe2int] 
 
 20. We rest your hermits : we remain as beadsmen to pray for you. 
 " The lyrical movement with which this scene opens, and the free 
 and unengaged mind of Banquo, loving Nature, and rewarded in the 
 love itself, form a highly dramatic contrast with the laboured rhythm 
 and hypocritical over-much of Lady Macbeth's welcome, in which 
 you cannot detect a ray of personal feeling, but all is thrown upon 
 the 'dignities,' the general duty." — Coleridge. — thane of Cawdor. 
 " How gracious the mention here of Macbeth's new title, how 
 poignant the irony ! " — Verity. 
 
 22. purveyor : forerunner. Literally ' one sent in advance to pro- 
 vide (Fr. pourvoir) food.' The word is here accented on the first syl- 
 lable. Cf. 'harbinger,' I, iv, 45. 
 
 23. holp. The old preterite of ' help ' used as a past participle. 
 26. in compt : subject to account, reckoning. So in Othello,V ,\\, 
 
 273: " When we shall meet at compt," i.e. at the judgment-day. 
 
 31. By your leave. " Here Duncan gives his hand to Lady Mac- 
 beth, and leads her into the castle." — Clar. 
 
SCENE VII MACBETH 35 
 
 Scene VII. Macbeth's castle 
 
 Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, ajid divers Servants 
 luith dishes and service^ over the stage. Then enter 
 Macbeth 
 
 Macbeth. If it were done when 't is done, then 't were 
 well 
 It were done quickly : if th' assassination 
 Could trammel up the consequence, and catch 
 With his surcease success ; that but this blow 
 
 Scene VII | Scene IX Pope. — ^(J>'j ... Macbeth Ff. 
 Macbeth's castle \ Ff omit. — Haut- 1-2. well It | well, It Ff. 
 
 Sewer. An officer in a noble household whose duty was to arrange 
 the dishes on the table. Cf. "sewers and seneschals" in Pai-adise Lost, 
 IX, 38. 'Sewer' is not connected etymologically with Fr. essayen^; 
 'a taster,' but probably with Fr. asseoiir, ' one who sets the table.' 
 
 1-2. The punctuation is similar to that of the Folios. Some edi- 
 tors put a period, or colon, at the end of line i. The meaning is. If 
 all were done when the murder is done, or if the mere doing of the 
 deed were sure to finish the matter, then the quicker it were done 
 the better. Macbeth then goes on to amplify and intensify the same 
 thought in other language. 
 
 2-4. if th' assassination . . . success. That is. If the assassination 
 could foreclose or shut off all sequent issues, and end with itself. 
 'His' for 'its' refers undoubtedly to 'assassination.' So 'his' is com- 
 monly used in Elizabethan literature. 'To trammel up 'is 'to entan- 
 gle ' as in a net. So Spenser has the noun in The Faerie Qtieene, III, 
 ix, 20: " Her golden locks, that were in tramells gay Upbounden." 
 ' Surcease ' is properly a legal term, meaning the arrest or stay of a 
 suit. So in Bacon's essay Of Church Controversies : " It is more than 
 time that there were an end and surcease made of this immodest and 
 deformed manner of writing," etc. ' Success' probably has the sense 
 of 'sequel,' 'succession,' or 'succeeding events.' So that 'to catch 
 success ' is to arrest and stop off all further outcome, or all entail of 
 danger. 
 
36 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 Might be the be-all and the end-all here, 5 
 
 But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, 
 
 We 'd jump the life to come. But in these cases 
 
 We still have judgment here, that we but teach 
 
 Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 
 
 To plague th' inventor : this even-handed justice 10 
 
 Commends th' ingredients of our poison'd chalice 
 
 To our own lips. He 's here in double trust : 
 
 First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, 
 
 Strong both against the deed ; then, as his host, 
 
 Who should against his murderer shut the door, 15 
 
 Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan 
 
 Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
 
 So clear in his great ofifice, that his virtues 
 
 Will plead like angels, trumpet- tongu'd, against 
 
 The deep damnation of his taking-off ; 20 
 
 And pity, like a naked new-born babe 
 
 Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin hors'd 
 
 5. be-all Pope | be all Ff. — end- 6. shoal Theobald | Schools F1F2 
 allhereHanmer lendall. HeereFiFa. ] School F3F4 | shelve Warburton. 
 
 6. But : only. — bank and shoal. Theobald's brilliant emendation is 
 generally accepted by modern editors. The metaphor, bringing out 
 the contrast between the shallows of time and the abysses of eternity, 
 is thoroughly Shakespearian. For a defence of the Folio text, see 
 Fumess, Liddell, and Porter and Clarke's ' First Folio' Macbeth. 
 
 7. jump: risk, hazard. Cf. Cymbeline, V, iv, 188. In Atitony and 
 Cleopatra, III, viii, 6, 'jump' in this sense is a noun. 
 
 8. still: always. — that : so that. So in line 25. Cf. I, iii, 57. 
 
 17. faculties : honors, dignities, prerogatives. Cf . Henry VIII, I, 
 ii, "JT^. "The essential idea of 'faculty' is 'power of doing' (Lat. 
 facere, ' to do ') and a common meaning formerly was ' power, 
 liberty, right of doing.' " — Verity. 
 
 32. Cf. Psalms, xviii, 10: "he rode upon a cherub and did fly." 
 
SCENE VII MACBETH 37 
 
 Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 
 
 Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 
 
 That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur 25 
 
 To prick the sides of my intent, but only 
 
 Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself 
 
 And falls on th' other. 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth 
 
 How now ! what news? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. He has almost supp'd : why have you 
 left the chamber? 29 
 
 Macbeth. Hath he ask'd for me? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Know you not he has? 
 
 Macbeth. We will proceed no further in this business : 
 He hath honour'd me of late ; and I have bought 
 Golden opinions from all sorts of people. 
 Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, 
 Not cast aside so soon. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Was the hope drunk 35 
 
 Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? 
 
 23. couriers Pope | Curriors Ff. Rowe I th' other side. Hanmer. — 
 
 38. th' other. Ff | th' other — Scene X Pope. 
 
 23. sightless couriers of the air. Cf. 'viewless winds,' Measure for 
 Measure, III, i, 124; 'posting winds,' Cymbeline, III, iv, 38. 
 
 25. teeirs shall drown the wind. The metaphor is common in 
 Shakespeare. Cf. Troihis and Cressida, IV, iv, 55, and Lucrece, 
 1790. — I have no spur, etc. As Malone pointed out, this passage 
 contains two distinct metaphors. Both are taken from horsemanship, 
 and they follow naturally the figure in lines 22-23. 
 
 36. Though it seems natural to take 'dress'd' as carrying on the 
 metaphor in line 34, it here means something more. 'Dress' and 
 'address' are used by Elizabethan writers in the sense of 'prepare ' 
 
38 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 And wakes it now, to look so green and pale 
 
 At what it did so freely? From this time 
 
 Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard 
 
 To be the same in thine own act and valour 40 
 
 As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that 
 
 Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, 
 
 And live a coward in thine own esteem, 
 
 Letting ' I dare not ' wait upon ' I would,' 
 
 Like the poor cat i' the adage? 
 
 Macbeth. Prithee, peace : 45 
 
 I dare do all that may become a man ; 
 Who dares do more is none. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. What beast was 't, then, 
 
 That made you break this enterprise to me? 
 When you durst do it, then you were a man ; 
 And, to be more than what you were, you would 50 
 
 V 
 
 39. love Ff I liver Bailey conj. — 45. adage ?Capell | Addage. F1F2F3. 
 afeard | affear'd FiF-2F3 I afraid F*. 47. do Kowe | no Ff. 
 
 or 'make ready.' The meaning here may be, Was it a drunken man's 
 hope, in the strength of which you made yourself ready for the 
 killing of Duncan ? and does that hope now wake from its drunken 
 sleep, to shudder and turn pale at the preparation which it made so 
 freely ? In accordance with this explanation. Lady Macbeth's next 
 speech shows that at some former time Macbeth had been, or had 
 fancied himself, ready to make an opportunity for the murder. 
 42. ornament of life. The ' golden opinions ' of line 23- 
 45. The proverb is a common one. Probably the version Shake- 
 speare was familiar with is that in Heywood's Three Ht(72dred Epi- 
 grammes, 1562 : " The cat would eate fyshe, but she wyll not weate 
 her feete." 
 
 47. beast. The word is exceedingly well chosen here : it conveys 
 a stinging allusion to what Macbeth has just said. If you dare do 
 all that may become a man, then what beast was it that put this 
 enterprise into your head .-' 
 
SCENE VII MACBETH 39 
 
 Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place 
 
 Did then adhere, and yet you would make both : 
 
 They have made themselves, and that their fitness now 
 
 Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know 
 
 How tender 'tis to love the~babe that milks me; 55 
 
 I would, while it was smiling in my face, 
 
 Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, 
 
 And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you 
 
 Have done to this. 
 
 Macbeth. If we should fail ? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. We fail. 
 
 But screw your courage to the sticking-place, 60 
 
 And we '11 not fail. When Duncan is asleep — 
 Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey 
 
 58. In Ff the line ends with sworn. | should fail ? — Rowe | fail, — Theo- 
 — so Fi i but so F2FyF4. bald. — We fail. Capell | We faile ? 
 
 59. should fail? | should faile ? Ff Ff | We fail ! Rowe. 
 
 52. adhere : agree, consist with the purpose. This passage seems 
 to infer that the murdering of Duncan had been a theme of conver- 
 sation between Macbeth and his wife long before the weird saluta- 
 tion. He was then for making a time and place for the deed ; now 
 that they have made themselves to his hand, he is unmanned by them. 
 
 59. Probably the sense of this much-disputed passage is simply 
 this : If we should fail, why then, to be sure, we fail, and it is all 
 over with us. So long as there is any hope or prospect of success. 
 Lady Macbeth is for going ahead, and she has a mind to risk all and 
 lose all, rather than let slip any chance of being queen. And why 
 should she not be as ready to jump the present life in such a cause 
 as her husband is to " jump the life to come " ? 
 
 60. "A metaphor perhaps taken from the 'screwing-up' the 
 chords of string-instruments to their proper degree of tension, when 
 the peg remains fast in its 'sticking-place.'" — Steevens. "Lady 
 Macbeth is thinking of the cross-bow rack or gaffle, a small detach- 
 able winch to draw the string of the bow to its 'sticking-place,' the 
 action of which would naturally be connoted by ' screw.' " — Liddell. 
 
40 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 
 
 Soundly invite him — his two chamberlains 
 
 Will I with wine and wassail so convince, 
 
 That memory, the warder of the brain, 65 
 
 Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason 
 
 A limbeck only : when in swinish sleep 
 
 Their drenched natures lie as in a death, 
 
 What cannot you and I perform upon 
 
 Th' unguarded Duncan ? what not put upon 70 
 
 His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt 
 
 Of our great quell? 
 
 Macbeth. Bring forth men-children only ; 
 
 For thy undaunted mettle should compose 
 Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv'd, 
 When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two 75 
 
 68. lie Pope 1 lyes Fi | lye F2FsF4. 
 
 63-64. " He got him into his priuie chamber, onelie with two of 
 his chamberlains . . . till they had charged their stomachs with such 
 foul gorges, that their heads were no sooner got to the pillow, but 
 asleepe they were so fast, that a man might haue remooued the cham- 
 ber ouer them, soonei" than to haue awaked them out of their droonken 
 sleepe." — Holinshed. — wassail: carousing. See Skeat. — convince: 
 overcome. Cf. IV, iii, 142. 
 
 65-67. " By the old anatomists the brain was divided into three 
 ventricles, in the hindermost of which they placed the memory. 
 That this division was not unknown to Shakespeare we learn from 
 Love's Labour'' s Lost, IV, ii, 70. . . . When the memory is converted 
 by intoxication into a mere fume (cf. The Tempest, V, i, 67), then it fills 
 the brain itself, the receipt or receptacle of reason, which thus becomes 
 like the alembic or cap of a still." — Clar. — limbeck: alembic. 
 
 71. spongy: drunken. Cf. The Merchant of Vetiice, I, ii, 107 : " I 
 will do any thing, Nerissa, ere I '11 be married to a sponge." 
 
 72. quell: slaying, slaughter. Cf. 'manqueller,' i.e. ' murderer,' in 
 2 Henry IV, II, i, 58. From the same root as 'kill' (Anglo-Saxon 
 cw^llan). 
 
SCENE VII MACBETH 4 1 
 
 Of his own chamber and us'd their very daggers, 
 That they have done 't ? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Who dares receive it other, 
 
 As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar 
 Upon his death? 
 
 Macbeth. I am settled, and bend up 
 
 Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. 80 
 
 Away, and mock the time with fairest show ; 
 False face must hide what the false heart doth know. 
 
 \_Exeunt] 
 
 77. other : otherwise. So in V, iv, 8 ; King John, V, ii, 58. 
 
 79. bend up. Cf. 'bend up every spirit,' in Henry V, III, i, 16. 
 The figure is from stringing a bow, and this strengthens Professor 
 Liddell's interpretation of line 60. 
 
ACT II 
 
 Scene I. Inverness. Court of yiKC'&Y.TYiS castle 
 
 Enter Banquo, ajid Fleance with a torch before him 
 
 Banquo. How goes the night, boy? 
 
 Fleance. The moon is down ; I have not heard the clock. 
 
 Banquo. And she goes down at twelve. 
 
 Fleance. I take 't, 't is later, sir. 
 
 Banquo. Hold, take my sword. There 's husbandry in 
 heaven ; 
 Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. 5 
 
 A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, 
 And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers, 
 Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature 
 Gives way to in repose ! 
 
 Inverness . . . castle Dyce 1 Ff 7-10. In the Ff lines end sleep, 
 
 omit. thoughts, repose, there. 
 
 4. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 4. husbandry: economy. If 'heaven' be taken as a collective 
 noun, the grammatical construction of ' their ' in the next line will 
 be normal. 
 
 5. candles. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, V, i, 220 ; Romeo and/uliet, 
 III,v, 9. — thee. See Abbott, § 212. — that. He hands Fleance some- 
 thing, a helmet, a shield, or a dagger. 
 
 7-9. From line 20 we learn that Banquo has been dreaming of 
 the weird sisters. He understands how their greeting may act as an 
 incentive to crime, and shrinks with horror from the poison of such 
 evil suggestions, and seeks refuge in prayer from the invasion of 
 
 42. 
 
SCENE I MACBETH 43 
 
 Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch 
 
 Give me my sword. 
 Who 's there? lo 
 
 Macbeth. A friend. 
 
 Banquo. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king 's a-bed : 
 He hath been in unusual pleasure, and 
 Sent forth great largess to your offices : 
 This diamond he greets your wife withal, 15 
 
 By the name of most kind hostess ; and shut up 
 In measureless content. 
 
 Macbeth. Being unprepar'd, 
 
 Our will became the servant to defect ; 
 Which else should free have wrought. 
 
 13. In Ff the line ends with i6. By . . . hostess | separate line 
 pleasure. in Ff. 
 
 guilty thoughts even in his sleep. His character stands in marked 
 contrast to that of Macbeth, whose mind is inviting wicked thoughts, 
 and catching eagerly at temptation, and revolving how he may work 
 the guilty suggestions through into act. 
 
 14. "Comming foorth, he called such afore him as had faithfullie 
 serued him in pursute and apprehension of the rebels, and giuing 
 them heartie thanks, he bestowed sundrie honourable gifts amongst 
 them, of the which number Donwald was one, as he that had been 
 euer accounted a most faithful seruant to the king." — Holinshed. 
 — offices : the apartments of those in charge of the various branches 
 of household work. ' Officers ' has been suggested as an emen- 
 dation, but no change is needed. 
 
 16. shut up. A difficult e.xpression. It may mean ' composed him- 
 self to rest'; or here maybe a participle in an elliptical construc- 
 tion, and the whole passage will mean, He is wrapped in a sense of 
 boundless satisfaction. 
 
 18. A man may be said to be the servant of that which he cannot 
 help : and Macbeth means that his will would have made ampler 
 preparation, but that it was fettered by want of time. 
 
44 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n 
 
 Banquo. All 's well. 
 
 I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters : 20 
 
 To you they have show'd some truth. 
 
 Macbeth. I think not of them ; 
 
 Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, 
 We would spend it in some words upon that business, 
 If you would grant the time. 
 
 Banquo. At your kind'st leisure. 
 
 Macbeth. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 't is. 
 It shall make honour for you. 
 
 Banquo. So I lose none 26 
 
 In seeking to augment it, but still keep 
 My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear, 
 I shall be counseled. 
 
 Macbeth. Good repose the while 1 
 
 Banquo. Thanks, sir : the like to you ! 30 
 
 \_Exeunt Banquo and Fleance] 
 
 Macbeth. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready. 
 She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. \_Exti Servant] 
 Is this a dagger which I see before me. 
 The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. 
 I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. 35 
 
 Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible 
 
 24. kind'st Fi I kindst Fa i kind z°.{Exeunt Banquo and 
 
 F3F4. Fleance] Exit Banquo Ff. 
 
 25-a6. when 'tis . . . you | one 31. Scene II Pope, 
 
 line in Ff. 3a. [Exit Servant] Exit Ff. 
 
 25-26. If you will join my party (i.e. what has my consent), -when 
 the time comes (or, when the result is gained), it shall make honor 
 for you. 'Consort,' 'contest,' 'ascent,' 'concept,' have all been sug- 
 gested as emendations of the obscure 'consent ' of the Folio text. 
 
 36. sensible: " perceptible through the bodily organs." — Century. 
 " Capable of being perceived through the senses." — Clar. 
 
SCENE I MACBETH 45 
 
 To feeling as to sight ? or art thou but 
 
 A dagger of the mind, a false creation, 
 
 Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? 
 
 I see thee yet, in form as palpable 40 
 
 As this which now I draw. 
 
 Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going ; 
 
 And such an instrument I was to use. 
 
 Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, 
 
 Or else worth all the rest : I see thee still ; 45 
 
 And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, 
 
 Which was not so before. There 's no such thing : 
 
 It is the bloody business which informs 
 
 Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world 
 
 Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 50 
 
 The curtain'd sleep ; witchcraft celebrates 
 
 Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder, 
 
 44-45. 'Senses' is here used with a double reference, (i) to the 
 bodily organs of sense, and (2) to the inward faculties of the mind. 
 Either his eyes are deceived by his imaginative forces in being made 
 to see that which is not, or else his other senses are at fault in not 
 being able to find the reality which his eyes behold. 
 
 46. dudgeon : haft, hilt. The name of a kind of wood (probably 
 boxwood) used by turners for the handles of knives, daggers, etc. 
 Then, by metonymy, the handle or the dagger itself. — gouts : large 
 drops. Fr. goutte ; Lat. gutta. 
 
 51. " The loss of an unstressed syllable after a caesural pause is 
 of common occurrence in English verse." — Liddell. But may not 
 'witchcraft' be trisyllabic here, ' witchc(e)raft,' in accordance with 
 the rule that 'r' and liquids in dissyllables are frequently pronounced 
 as though an extra vowel were introduced between them and the 
 preceding consonant. See Abbott, § 477. 
 
 51-52. celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings. That is. Makes offer- 
 ings or sacrifices to Hecate, who was the queen of Hades, the 
 patroness of all infernal arts, and of course the mistress of all who 
 
46 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n 
 
 Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, 
 
 Whose howl 's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, 
 
 With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design 55 
 
 Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, 
 
 Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 
 
 Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, 
 
 And take the present horror from the time, 
 
 Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives : 60 
 
 Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. 
 
 \_A bell rmgs~\ 
 I go, and it is done ; the bell invites me. 
 Hear it not Duncan ; for it is a knell 
 That summons thee to heaven or to hell. \Exif\ 
 
 55. strides Pope | sides Ff. sowr Fa I sour F4. 
 
 56. sure Capell I sowre F1F2 | 57. way they Rowe | they may Ff. 
 
 practised them; here called 'pale,' because, under the name of 
 Diana, she was identified with the moon. Cf. Childe Harold, II, 22 : 
 " beneath pale Hecat's blaze." The name is, properly, trisyllabic, 
 but Shakespeare always has it dissyllabic, except in i He7try VI, 
 III, ii, 64. 
 
 54. 'Watch' is here used probably for 'signal.' The figure is of 
 the wolf acting as the sentinel of murder, and his howl being the 
 signal to give warning of approaching danger. 
 
 55. Steevens points out that 'strides' (Pope's emendation for 
 'sides' in the Folio text) did not necessarily carry the idea of vio- 
 lence or noise, but was used by Elizabethan writers in a sense coher- 
 ent enough with ' stealthy pace ' : 
 
 They passing forth kept on their readie way. 
 With easie steps so soft as foot could stryde. 
 
 The Faerie Queette, IV, viii, 37. 
 58. Cf. Luke, xix, 40. 
 
 59-60. "Macbeth would have nothing break through the universal 
 silence that added such horror to the night, as suited well with the 
 bloody deed he was about to perform." — Steevens. 
 
SCENE II MACBETH 47 
 
 Scene II. The same 
 Enter Lady Macbeth 
 
 Lady Macbeth. That which hath made them drunk hath 
 
 made me bold ; 
 What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. Hark ! Peace ! 
 It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, 
 Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it : 
 The doors are open ; and the surfeited grooms 5 
 
 Do mock their charge with snores : I have drugg'd their 
 
 possets, 
 
 Scene II 1 Scene III Pope I Rowe shriek'd, good-night, open, charge, 
 continues scene. possets. 
 
 2-6. In Ff the lines end fire, 
 
 1-2. Lady Macbeth has fired her courage by drinking wine ; but, 
 ■while she is kindled by drink, the grooms are stupefied, " their 
 possets " having been drugged. 
 
 3. Shakespeare has more than one allusion to the supposed omi- 
 
 nousness of the owl's note. Cf. / Henry I'l, IV, ii, 15 ; Richard III, 
 
 IV,iv, 509; Liicrece, 16^. Cf. "fatal fowle ! As ravens, schrich-owles." 
 
 — Webster's 77/1? Duchess of Alalfi, IV, ii, 63-64. " For one will sale; 
 
 I had a dreame to-night, or a crowe croked upon my house, or an 
 
 owle flew by me and screeched (which augurie Lucius Silla tooke of 
 
 his death)." — Scot. — the fatal bellman. So in The Duchess of 
 
 Malfi, IV, ii, 1 79-181: 
 
 I am tlie common bellman, 
 
 That usually is sent to condemn'd persons 
 
 The night before they suffer. 
 
 Lady Macbeth of course regards Duncan as the condemned person 
 to whom the ' fatal bellman ' gives ' the stern'st good-night.' 
 
 6. " Posset is hot milk poured on ale or sack, having sugar, grated 
 bisket, and eggs, with other ingredients boiled in it, which all goes 
 to a curd." — Academy of Armourie (1688). " Get me three hundred 
 milch bats, to make possets to procure sleepe." — The Duchess of 
 Malfi, IV, ii, 116. 
 
48 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 
 
 That death and nature do contend about them, 
 Whether they live or die. 
 
 Enter Macbeth 
 
 Macbeth. Who 's there? what, ho ! 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Alack, I am afraid they have awak'd. 
 And 't is not done. Th' attempt and not the deed lo 
 
 Confounds us. Hark ! I laid their daggers ready ; 
 He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled 
 My father as he slept, I had done 't. My husband ! 
 
 Macbeth. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear 
 a noise? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. I heard the owl scream and the crickets 
 cry. 15 
 
 Did not you speak? 
 
 8. Enter Macbeth Ff | in Globe 13. My husband I separate line in Ff. 
 Camb after done 't, line 13. 14. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 7. That : so that. So in line 23. Cf. I, ii, 58 ; I, vii, 8. 
 
 8. Enter Macbeth. The Folio stage direction. " It may be that 
 on the Elizabethan stage Macbeth entered here, not to the stage 
 proper, but to the balcony above." — Manly. 
 
 lo-ii. The attempt without the deed destroys or ruins us. 
 
 12-13. This little touch of nature is one of Shakespeare's most 
 pregnant hints of character, and of itself should be enough to upset 
 the more common notion of Lady Macbeth. It tells us that, notwith- 
 standing her appalling invocation to the " murdering ministers," her 
 milk continues to be milk. And what a suggestive contrast it makes 
 to the terrible audacity of thought and speech she has just displayed ! 
 It is the tenderness of her woman's heart that causes her to see in 
 the sleeping king an image of her father. 
 
 15. Webster imitated this in The White Devil, V, iv, 91-94: 
 
 When scritch-howles croke upon the chimney tops. 
 
 And the strange cricket i' th' oven singes and hoppes • • • ^ 
 
 Be certaine then you of a corse shall heare. 
 
SCENE II MACBETH 49 
 
 Macbeth. When ? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Now. 
 
 Macbeth, As I descended? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Ay. 
 
 Macbeth. Hark ! 
 Who lies i' the second chamber? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Donalbain. 19 
 
 Macbeth. This is a sorry sight. [Looking on his hands\ 
 
 Lady Macbeth. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. 
 
 Macbeth. There 's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one 
 cried ' Murder ! ' 
 That they did wake each other : I stood and heard them : 
 But they did say their prayers, and address'd them 
 Again to sleep. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. There are two lodg'd together. 25 
 
 Macbeth. One cried 'God bless us !' and 'Amen' the 
 other, 
 As they had seen me with these hangman's hands : 
 Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,' 
 When they did say ' God bless us ! ' 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Consider it not so deeply. 30 
 
 Macbeth. But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen ' ? 
 I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen' 
 Stuck in my throat. 
 
 18-19. Harkl . 
 
 . . chamber? | 
 
 22-25. Lines in Ff end sleep, other, 
 
 one line in Ff. 
 
 
 prayers, sleep. 
 
 30. [Looking . 
 
 . 1 Ff omit. 
 
 32-33. I had . . . throat 1 one line in Ff. 
 
 24. address'd: prepared. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, II, ix, 19. 
 
 27. As: as if. See Abbott, § 107. — hangman's: executioner's. 
 
 28. The Folio punctuation. In previous editions of Hudson's 
 Shakespeare a comma closed the preceding line and a colon was put 
 after ' fear,' so that ' listening ' modified ' me ' and not ' I.' 
 
50 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 
 
 Lady Macbeth. These deeds must not be thought 
 
 After these ways : so, it will make us mad. 34 
 
 Macbeth. Methought I heard a voice cry ' Sleep no more ! 
 Macbeth does murder sleep,' — the innocent sleep. 
 Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, 
 The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath. 
 Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course. 
 Chief nourisher in life's feast, — 
 
 Lady Macbeth. What do you mean ? 40 
 
 Macbeth. Still it cried ' Sleep no more ! ' to all the house : 
 ' Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor 
 Shall sleep no more ; Macbeth shall sleep no more ! ' 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Who was it that thus cried? Why, 
 worthy thane. 
 You do unbend your noble strength, to think 45 
 
 So brainsickly of things. Go get some water. 
 And wash this filthy witness from your hand. 
 Why did you bring these daggers from the place? 
 
 35-36. ' Sleep . . . sleep' | marked 41. ' Sleep . . . more ' | marked as 
 
 as quotation by Johnson. quotation by Hanmer. 
 
 37. sleave Steevens | sleeve Ff. 42-43- ' Glamis . . . more ! ' | 
 
 marked as quotation by Hanmer. 
 
 35. "A voice was heard as he was in bed in the night time to take 
 his rest vttering unto him these or the hke woordes . . . The king 
 with this voice being striken into great dread and terror, passed 
 that night without anie sleepe comming in his eies." — Holinshed. 
 The Folio printing does not indicate where the words of the ' voice ' 
 end. Hanmer extended the quotation as far as ' Hfe's feast.' 
 
 37. ravell'd sleave: tangled skein of floss-silk. Cf. Troiius and 
 Cressida, V, i, 35 : " thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk." 
 
 39-40. In the second course at Elizabethan feasts were served the 
 most nourishing dishes. 
 
 45-46. to think So braiasickly : in thinking so crazily. The gerun- 
 dive use of the infinitive. See Abbott, § 356. 
 
SCENE II MACBETH 5 1 
 
 They must lie there : go carry them, and smear 
 The sleepy grooms with blood. 
 
 Macbeth. I '11 go no more : 50 
 
 I am afraid to think what I have done ; 
 Look on 't again I dare not. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Infirm of purpose ! 
 
 Give me the daggers : the sleeping and the dead 
 Are but as pictures ; 't is the eye of childhood 
 That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, 55 
 
 1 '11 gild the faces of the grooms withal ; 
 
 For it must seem their guilt. \_Exit. Knocking within'] 
 
 Macbeth. Whence is that knocking? 
 
 How is 't with me, when every noise appals me? 
 What hands are here? ha ! they pluck out mine eyes ! 
 Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 60 
 
 57. [Knocking . , . | Knocke . . . Ff. 
 
 52-55. With her firm self-control, this bold woman, when awake 
 was to be moved by nothing but facts : when her powers of self- 
 control were unknit by sleep, then was the time for her to see things 
 that were not, save in her own conscience. 
 
 56. gild. ' Red' is a common epithet for 'gold' in early English 
 literature, and 'golden blood' occurs in II, iii, 100. Qi. King John, 
 II, i, 316. "' Gild with blood 'was an expression not uncommon in 
 the sixteenth century." — Nares. — withal. See note, I, iii, 57. 
 
 57. guilt. The same quibble, also with tragic setting, occurs in 
 
 2 Flenry II', IV, v, 129-130 ; and Henry V, Pro!. II, 26. It is famous 
 in English literature from Marlowe to Hood. — Knockingwithin. For 
 the tragic significance of this, see De Quincey, " On the Knocking at 
 the Gate in Macbeth.'''' It is dramatically effective that one of the men 
 whose knocking startles the guilty pair is the destined instrument of 
 vengeance. "The knocking here seems to show that the opening of 
 the next scene always formed part of the play." — E. K. Chambers. 
 
 60-61. For parallel passages in Sophocles, Catullus, Lucretius, 
 and Seneca, see Furness. 
 
52 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 
 
 Clean from my hand ? No ; this my hand will rather 
 The multitudinous seas incarnadine, -- - 
 
 Making the green one red. 
 
 Re-enter Lady Macbeth 
 
 Lady Macbeth. My hands are of your colour, but I 
 
 shame 
 To wear a heart so white. \_K710cki71g within'\ I hear a 
 
 knocking 65 
 
 At the south entry : retire we to our chamber. 
 A little water clears us of this deed : 
 How easy is it, then ! Your constancy 
 Hath left you unattended. \_Knocking within] Hark ! more 
 
 knocking. 
 Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us, 70 
 
 And show us to be watchers. Be not lost 
 So poorly in your thoughts. 
 
 Macbeth. To know my deed, 'twere best not know 
 
 myself. \_Knocking withi7i\ 
 
 Wake Duncan with thy knocking ! I would thou couldst ! 
 
 \_Exeu7it'\ 
 
 63. green one red 1 Green one Red 65-69. Seven lines in Ff, ending 
 F4 I Greene one, Red F1F2F3. white, entry, chamber, deed, con- 
 
 64. Re-enter ... I Enter Ff. stancy, unattended, knocking. 
 
 65. 69, 73- [Knocking ■within'\ 73. Two lines in Ff. 
 Knocke Ff. 74. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 63. Some editors have followed the Folio punctuation. "Convert- 
 ing the green into one uniform red. The comma after 'one' yields 
 a tame, not to say ludicrous, sense." — Clar. Cf. Hamlei, II, ii, 479. 
 
 68-69. Your constancy Hath left you unattended : firmness, which 
 was once your attendant, has deserted you. 
 
 70 night-gown : dressing-robe. Usual sixteenth century meaning. 
 
 73. While thinking of what I have done, it were best I should be 
 lost to myself, or should not know myself as the doer of it. 
 
SCENE m MACBETH 53 
 
 Scene III. The satne 
 
 Enter a Porter. Knocking within 
 
 Porter. Here 's a knocking indeed ! If a man were 
 porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. 
 \^Knocki7ig'\ Knock, knock, knock ! Who 's there, i' the 
 name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hang'd himself 
 on the expectation of plenty. Come in time ; have napkins 
 
 Scene III I Scene IV Warburton 3, 6, etc. {Knocking] Knock Ff. 
 
 (Pope) I Rowe continues scene. — 4. Beelzebub | Belzebub Ff. 
 
 The same Capell | Ff omit. 
 
 Scene III. This, the famous " Porter's scene," has been regarded 
 by some critics, including Coleridge, as unauthentic. But it is thor- 
 oughly Shakespearian in conception and execution. Its broad 
 drollery serves as a proper foil to the antecedent horrors ; its very 
 discordance with the surrounding matter imparts an air of verisimili- 
 tude to the whole. " Looking at the scene as a practical dramatist, 
 I see that it is absolutely necessary to get Macbeth off the stage. A 
 motive must be contrived for this. That motive is at once supplied 
 by the sudden knocking." — Tom Taylor. 
 
 2. old : plenty of. A frequent intensive or augmentative in collo- 
 quial Elizabethan speech, and still heard in modern slang. Cf. The 
 Merchaftt of I'enice, IV, ii, 15 : " We shall have old swearing." 
 
 4. Beelzebub. Perhaps the Folio trisyllabic spelling should be re- 
 tained in the text as representing the popular pronunciation. The 
 Porter proceeds to hold a dialogue with several imaginary persons at 
 'hell-gate' who are supposed to be knocking for admission. Too much, 
 perhaps, has been made of supposed 'topical allusions' in this dialogue 
 for determining the date of composition of the play. See Introduction. 
 
 4-5. That a farmer v^-ho hoarded grain against a ' lean ' year should 
 hang himself when a year of plenty came seems to have been a 
 current Elizabethan jest. Hall and Ben Jonson both make use of it. 
 
 5. Come in time : an early arrival. — napkins. In Baret's Alvearie 
 we have " a napkin, or handkerchiefe, wherewith wee wipe away the 
 sweate." In Tindale's New Testament ' napkin ' is used to translate 
 VQvha,pLov, Lat. sudariurn. 
 
54 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act il 
 
 enough about you ; here you '11 sweat for 't. [^Xnocking'] 
 Knock, knock! Who's there, in the other devil's name? 
 Faith, here 's an equivocator that could swear in both the 
 scales against either scale ; who committed treason enough 
 for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, 
 come in, equivocator. \_Knocking] Knock, knock, knock ! 
 WTio's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither 
 for stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor; here 
 you may roast your goose. \_Knocking'\ Knock, knock; 
 never at quiet ! What are you? But this place is too cold 
 for hell. I '11 devil-porter it no further : I had thought to 
 have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way 
 
 8. Some editors, following Malone, find here a reference to 
 the trial of Henry Garnet in March, i6o6, in connection with the 
 Gunpowder Plot. At this trial the doctrine of 'equivocation' was 
 much discussed, but 'equivocation' was "at all times so favourite a 
 theme of invective with Protestant preachers that it could not but 
 be familiar to the public, who in those days frequented the pulpit 
 as assiduously as the stage." — Clar. Verity notes that "the alias 
 under which Garnet often passed was ' Mr. Farmer' ... so that the 
 transition (for the two must not be identified) from ' the farmer that 
 hang'd himself' to the 'equivocator ' was a sort of jest." 
 
 10. equivocate to heaven : win heaven by equivocating. 
 
 13. hose: trousers. "The joke consists in this, that, a French 
 hose being very short and strait, a tailor must be master of his trade 
 who could steal any thing from thence." — Warburton. Another 
 view is that the allusion is to a French fashion, which made the 
 hose very large and wide, and so with more cloth to be stolen. 
 
 14. A tailor's 'goose' is the heavy flatiron with which he smooths 
 and presses his work, so called because the handle bore some resem- 
 blance to the neck of a goose. The quibble is an ancient one. 
 
 17-18. the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. Cf. All's Well 
 that Ends Well, IV, v, 56 : " They '11 be for the flowery way that leads 
 to the broad gate and the great fire "; Hamlet, I, iii, 50 : " Himself 
 the primrose path of dalliance treads." "A bonfire at that date is 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 55 
 
 to the everlasting bonfire. [^Knocking'] Anon, anon ! I 
 pray you, remember the porter. \_0pe7is the gate'\ 
 
 Enter Macduff and Lennox 
 
 Macduff. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, 20 
 That you do lie so late ? 
 
 Porter. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock. 
 
 Macduff. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night. 
 
 Porter. That it did, sir, i' the very throat on me : but I 
 requited him for his lie ; and, I think, being too strong for 
 liim, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a 
 shift to cast him. 27 
 
 Enter Macbeth 
 
 Macduff. Is thy master stirring? 
 Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes. 
 Lennox. Good morrow, noble sir. 
 
 Macbeth. Good morrow, both. 
 
 Macduff. Is the king stirring, worthy thane? 
 Macbeth. Not yet. 
 
 19. {Opens . . . I Ff omit. 28. Scene IV Pope. 
 
 invariably given in Latin Dictionaries as equivalent to pyra or 
 rogus ; it was the fire for consuming the human body after death: 
 and the hell-fire differed from the earth-fire only in being everlast- 
 ing. This use of a word so remarkably descriptive in a double 
 meaning is intensely Shakespearian." — Fleay. See Murray. 
 22. the second cock. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, IV, iv, 3-4 : 
 
 The second cock hath crow'd, 
 The curfew bell hath rung, 't is three o'clock. 
 
 27. cast him. The quibble is between 'cast,' i.e. 'throw,' as a 
 wrestling term, and ' cast ' in the sense of ' ease my stomach of.' 
 
56 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n 
 
 Macduff. He did command me to call timely on him : 
 I have almost slipp'd the hour. 
 
 Macbeth. I '11 bring you to him. 
 
 Macduff. I know this is a joyful trouble to you ; 
 But yet 't is one. 35 
 
 Macbeth. The labour we delight in physics pain. 
 This is the door. 
 
 Macduff. I '11 make so bold to call, 
 
 For 't is my limited service. [itAvV] 
 
 Lennox. Goes the king hence to-day? 
 
 Macbeth. He does; — he did appoint so. 
 
 Lennox. The night has been unruly : where we lay, 40 
 Our chimneys were blown down ; and, as they say, 
 Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death, 
 And, prophesying with accents terrible 
 Of dire combustion and confus'd events 
 New hatch'd to th' woeful time, the obscure bird 45 
 
 Clamour'd the livelong night : some say, the earth 
 Was feverous and did shake. 
 
 Macbeth. ' 'T was a rough night. 
 
 37-38. Prose in Ff. 44. combustion Fi | combustions 
 
 38. [£xii] Exit Macduffe Ff. F2F8F4. 
 
 40-42. In Ff four lines, ending 45-47- New . . . shake | four lines 
 
 unruly, down, air, death. in Ff, ending time, night, feverous, 
 
 shake. 
 
 38. limited: appointed. Cf. Ti7non of Athens, IV, iii, 431. 
 
 39. Here we have a significant note of character. Macbeth catches 
 himself in the utterance of a falsehood, which is something at odds 
 with his nature and habitual feelings ; and he starts back into a mend- 
 ing of his speech, as from a spontaneous impulse to be true. 
 
 44. combustion. A common Elizabethan meaning was ' tumult.' 
 
 45. obscure : darkness-haunting. Cf. Julius Casar, I, iii, 26 ; Titus 
 Andronicus, II, iii, 97. ' Obscure ' as adjective is accented on the first 
 syllable in Shakespeare ; as verb, on the second. See Abbott, § 492. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 57 
 
 Lennox. My young remembrance cannot parallel 
 A fellow to it. 
 
 Re-enter Macduff 
 
 Macduff. O horror, horror, horror ! tongue nor heart 
 
 Cannot conceive nor name thee ! 
 
 Macbeth. ) ..., . . ^^ ^ 
 
 X What s the matter? 51 
 
 Lennox. J 
 
 Macduff. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece ! 
 Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope 
 The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 
 The life o' the building. 
 
 Macbeth. What is 't you say? the life? 55 
 
 Lennox. Mean you his majesty? 
 
 Macduff. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight 
 With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak ; 
 See, and then speak yourselves. 
 
 \_Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox] 
 Awake, awake ! 
 Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason ! 60 
 
 Banquo and Donalbain ! Malcolm ! awake ! 
 Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, 
 And look on death itself ! up, up, and see 
 
 50-51. tongue . . . thee | separate line in Ff. 
 
 52. Confusion: destruction. So in III, v, 29. 
 
 54. The Lord's anointed temple. Shakespeare here mixes in one 
 metaphor " Lord's anointed," / Samuel, xxiv, 10, and " temple of the 
 living God," 2 Corititkians, vi, 16. 
 
 57. Every one who looked on Medusa, one of the three Gorgons, 
 was turned to stone. Cf. Milton's Comits, 447-449: 
 What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield 
 That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, 
 Wherewith she f reezed her foes to congealed stone ? 
 
58 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT li 
 
 The great doom's image ! Malcolm ! Banquo ! 
 
 As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites 65 
 
 To countenance this horror. Ring the bell. \_BeU rings'] 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth 
 
 Lady Macbeth. What 's the business, 
 That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley 
 The sleepers of the house? speak, speak ! 
 
 Macduff, O gentle lady, 
 
 'T is not for you to hear what I can speak : 70 
 
 The repetition, in a woman's ear, 
 Would murder as it fell. 
 
 Enter Banquo 
 
 O Banquo, Banquo, 
 Our royal master 's murder'd ! 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Woe, alas ! 
 
 What, in our house? 
 
 Banquo. Too cruel anywhere. 
 
 Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, 75 
 
 And say it is not so. 
 
 65. sprites | sprights Ff. 67. Scene V Pope. 
 
 66. Ring the bell | Theobald 72-73. , . . murder'd I one line 
 omits. in Ff. 
 
 64. great doom's image: picture of the Judgment-day. Cf. 'image 
 of that horror ' in King Lear, V, iii, 264. " The strong medial pause 
 in the line indicates that Macduff waits a moment for their reply to 
 his summons." — Verity. 
 
 66. countenance : lend countenance to, be in keeping with. ' Ring 
 the bell ' is omitted by some editors, who regard it as a stage direction 
 that had crept into the Folio te.xt. 
 
 74. Lady Macbeth's first thought appears to be, that she and her 
 husband may be suspected of the murder. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 59 
 
 Re-enter Macbeth aiid Lennox, with Ross 
 
 Macbeth. Had I but died an hour before this chance, 
 I had Hv'd a blessed time ; for, from this instant. 
 There 's nothing serious in mortality : 
 
 All is but toys ; renown and grace is dead ; 80 
 
 The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees 
 Is left this vault to brag of. 
 
 Enter Malcolm and Donalbain 
 
 DoNALBAiN. What is amiss ? 
 
 Macbeth. You are, and do not know 't : 
 
 The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood 
 Is stopp'd, the very source of it is stopp'd. 85 
 
 Macduff. Your royal father 's murder'd. 
 
 Malcolm. O ! by whom ? 
 
 Lennox. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't : 
 Their hands and faces were all badg'd with b)ood ; 
 So were their daggers, which unwip'd we found 
 Upon their pillows ; 90 
 
 They star'd, and were distracted ; no man's life 
 Was to be trusted with them. 
 
 Macbeth. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, 
 That I did kill them. 
 
 Macduff. Wherefore did you so? 
 
 91-92. In Ff lines end distracted, them. 
 
 79. mortality : human life. So in King John, V, vii, 5. 
 
 81-82. Observe the fine links of association in 'wine' and 'vault'; 
 the latter having a double reference, to the wine-vault and to the 
 firmament over-arching the world of human life. 
 
 88. badg'd : marked as with a distinctive symbol. In 2 Henry VI, 
 III, ii, 200, occurs " Murder's crimson badge." 
 
6o THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 
 
 Macbeth. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate and 
 furious, 95 
 
 Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man : 
 The expedition of my violent love 
 Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, 
 His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood ; 
 And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature loo 
 
 For ruin's wasteful entrance ; there, the murderers, 
 Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers 
 Unmannerly breech'd with gore : who could refrain, 
 That had a heart to love, and in that heart 
 Courage to make 's love known? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Help me hence, ho ! 105 
 
 Macduff. Look to the lady. 
 
 Malcolm. [Aside to Donalbain] Why 
 
 do we hold our tongues, 
 That most may claim this argument for ours? 
 
 106, 108, HI. {.Aside . . . 1 Ff omit. 
 
 97. expedition : haste. This meaning survives in ' expeditiously.' 
 
 99. In Much Ado -About A'othifig, III, iv, ig, is " cloth of gold, 
 lac'd with silver." See note on II, ii, 56. " It is not improbable that 
 Shakespeare put these forced and unnatural metaphors into the 
 mouth of Macbeth as a mark of artifice and dissimulation, to show 
 the difference between the studied language of hypocrisy and the 
 natural outcries of sudden passion. The whole speech, so consid- 
 ered, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists entirely of 
 antithesis and metaphor." — Johnson. 
 
 loo-ioi. The image is of a besieging army making a breach in the 
 walls of a city, and thereby opening a way for general massacre and 
 pillage. 
 
 103. This probably means rudely covered, dressed, with blood. 
 " Language so forced is only appropriate in the mouth of a conscious 
 murderer dissembling guilt." — Abbott. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 6l 
 
 DoNALBAiN. [Aside to Malcolm] What should be spoken 
 here, where our fate, 
 Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us? 
 Let 's away. no 
 
 Our tears are not yet brew'd. 
 
 Malcolm. S^Aside to Donalbain] Nor our strong sorrow 
 Upon the foot of motion. 
 
 Banquo. Look to the lady ; 
 
 [Lady Macbeth is carried out\ 
 And when we have our naked frailties hid, 
 That suffer in exposure, let us meet 
 
 And question this most bloody piece of work, 115 
 
 To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us : 
 
 109-111. In Ff lines end here, hole, 112. [Lady Macbeth.,.] Rowe 
 
 away. I Ff omit. 
 
 108-110. Where there is no hiding-place so small but that murder 
 may be lurking therein, ready to spring upon us at any moment. 
 The Princes divine at once that their father has been murdered for 
 the crown, and that the .'^ame motive means death to themselves 
 as well. 
 
 112. Lady Macbeth is carried out. Some regard this swoon as 
 feigned, others as real. The question is very material in the deter- 
 mining of Lady Macbeth's character. If feigned, why was it not done 
 when the murder of Duncan was announced } The announcement of 
 these additional murders takes her by surprise ; she was not prepared 
 for it ; whereas in the other case she had, by her fearful energy of 
 will, steeled her nerves up to it beforehand. " For dreadful deeds 
 anticipated and resolved upon, she has strength ; but the surprise of 
 a novel horror, on which she has not counted, deprives her suddenly 
 of consciousness : when Macbeth announces his butchery of Duncan's 
 grooms, the lady swoons, — not in feigning but in fact, — and is borne 
 away insensible." — Dowden. 
 
 113. Banquo and the others who slept in the castle have rushed 
 forth undressed. This is what he refers to in 'our naked frailties.' 
 
62 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 
 
 In the great hand of God I stand, and thence 
 
 Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight 
 
 Of treasonous mahce. ^ ^ _^ 
 
 Macduff. And so do I. 
 
 All. So all. 
 
 Macbeth. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, 120 
 
 And meet i' the hall together. 
 
 All. Well contented. 
 
 \_Exeu7it all but Malcolm and Donalbain] 
 
 Malcolm. What will you do? Let's not consort with 
 them : 
 To show an unfelt sorrow is an office 
 Which the false man does easy. I '11 to England. 
 
 Donalbain. To Ireland I; our separated fortune 125 
 Shall keep us both the safer : where we are, 
 There 's daggers in men's smiles : the near in blood, 
 The nearer bloody. 
 
 121. \Exeunt all . . .\ Exeunt Ff. 125-128. To . . . bloody I in Ff 
 
 122. Two lines in Ff. lines end I, safer, smiles, bloody. 
 124. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 117-119. The natural construction is, 'and thence I fight against 
 the undivulg'd pretence of treasonous malice.' ' Pretence ' here means 
 'intention' or 'purpose.' A frequent usage. Cf. the verb, II, iv, 24. 
 
 120. briefly: quickly. So in Cymbeline, V, v, 106. — manly readi- 
 ness : man's equipment. The expression suggests preparation for 
 fight. It is in marked contrast to ' naked frailties.' 
 
 124. easy. In Elizabethan literature adjectives are often used as 
 adverbs. See Abbott, § i. — I'll to England. " Malcolme Cammore 
 and Donald Bane the sons of King Duncane, for feare of their Hues 
 . . . fled into Cumberland, where Malcolme remained . . . but Donald 
 passed over into Ireland." — Holinshed. 
 
 127. near : nearer. ' Near ' is really an old comparative, as may be 
 seen in Richard II, V, i, 88. Donalbain suspects Macbeth, who is 
 next in blood or of kin. 
 
SCENE IV MACBETH 63 
 
 Malcolm. This murderous shaft that 's shot 
 
 Hath not yet lighted ; and our safest way 
 Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse ; 130 
 
 And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, 
 But shift away: there 's warrant in that theft 
 Which steals itself, when there 's no mercy left. \_Exeunf'] 
 
 Scene IV. Outside Macbeth's castle 
 Enter Ross and an Old Man 
 
 Old Man. Threescore-and-ten I can remember well: 
 Within the volume of which time I have seen 
 Hours dreadful and things strange ; but this sore night 
 Hath trifl'd former knowings. 
 
 Ross. Ah, good father, 
 
 Thou see'st the heavens, as troubl'd with man's act, 5 
 
 Threatens his bloody stage : by th' clock 't is day, 
 And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. 
 Is 't night's predominance, or the day's shame 
 That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 
 When living light should kiss it? 
 
 Scene IV 1 Scene VI Pope. 7. travelling F3F4 I travailing 
 
 4. Ah Rowe I Ha Ff. F1F2. 
 
 125^130. Suspecting this murder to be the work of Macbeth, 
 Malcolm thinks it could have no purpose but what himself and his 
 brother equally stand in the way of; that the 'murderous shaft' 
 must pass through them to reach its mark. 
 
 4. trifl'd former knowings : made of no importance previous 
 experiences. 
 
 7. travelling lamp: the sun. Ci. i Henry IV, I, ii, 226. 
 
 8-10. " For the space of six monethes togither, after this heinous 
 murther was committed, there appeered no sunne by day, nor moone 
 
64 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 
 
 Old Man. 'T is unnatural, lo 
 
 Even like the deed that 's done. On Tuesday last, 
 A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place. 
 Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. 
 
 Ross. And Duncan's horses — a thing most strange and 
 certain — 
 Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, 15 
 
 Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, 
 Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make 
 War with mankind. 
 
 Old Man. 'T is said they eat each other. 
 
 Ross. They did so, to th' amazement of mine eyes, 
 That look'd upon 't. 
 
 Enter Macduff 
 
 Here comes the good Macduff. 20 
 How goes the world, sir, now? 
 
 14. Two lines in Ff. ig-20. Three lines in Ff, ending 
 17-18. First line in Ffendswould. so, upon 't, Macduff. 
 
 by night in anie part of the realme." — Holinshed. These and other 
 omens and signs are described by Holinshed in connection with the 
 murder of King Duff. 
 
 12-18. " Monstrous sights also that were seene within the Scotish 
 Kingdome that yeere were these, horsses in Louthian, being of sin- 
 gular beautie and swiftnesse, did eate their owne fleshe . . . There 
 was a sparhawke also strangled by an owle." — Holinshed. 
 
 12. tow'ring. A technical term of falconry to describe the spiral 
 soaring of a hawk to its ' place ' whence it swoops on the prey. Cf. 
 2 Henry VI, II, i, 10. The word is still used by gamekeepers. to de- 
 scribe the vertical ascent of a game-bird fatally wounded in the head. 
 
 13. mousing. "A very effective epithet, as contrasting the falcon, 
 in her pride of place, with a bird that is accustomed to seek its prey 
 on the ground." — Talbot. 
 
 15. minions : darlings, favorites. From Fr. mignon, ' dainty.' 
 
SCENE IV MACBETH 6$ 
 
 Macduff, Why, see you not? 
 
 Ross. Is 't known who did this more than bloody deed ? 
 
 Macduff. Those that Macbeth hath slain. 
 
 Ross. Alas, the day ! 
 
 What good could they pretend? 
 
 Macduff. They were suborn 'd : 
 
 Malcolm and Donalbain, the King's two sons, 25 
 
 Are stol'n away and fled ; which puts upon them 
 Suspicion of the deed. 
 
 Ross. 'Gainst nature still ! 
 
 Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up 
 Thine own life's means ! Then 't is most like 
 The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. 30 
 
 Macduff. He is already nam'd ; and gone to Scone 
 To be invested. 
 
 Ross. Where is Duncan's body? 
 
 Macduff. Carried to Colmekill, 
 The sacred storehouse of his predecessors. 
 And guardian of their bones. 
 
 Ross. Will you to Scone ? 35 
 
 Macduff. No, cousin, I '11 to Fife. 
 
 Ross. Well, I will thither. 
 
 28. ravin up : completely devour. Cf. ' kill them up,' As Vou Like 
 It, II, i, 62. 
 
 31-33. " He . . . foorthwith went vnto Scone where ... he receiued 
 the inuesture of the Kingdome. . . . The bodie of Duncane was . . . 
 remoued and conueied unto Colmekill, and there laid in a sepulture 
 amongst his predecessors." — Holinshed. Scone (pronounced skoon) 
 was the place of coronation of the Scottish kings. 'The stone of 
 destiny,' carried to Westminster by Edward I in 1296, was part of 
 the coronation chair. Colmekill (i.e. the cell of St. Columba) is the 
 modern lona. 
 
66 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 
 
 Macduff. Well, may you see things well done there, — 
 adieu ! — 
 Lest our old robes sit easier than our new ! _^ 
 
 Ross. Farewell, father. 
 
 Old Man. God's benison go with you; and with those 
 That would make good of bad, and friends of foes ! 41 
 
ACT III 
 
 Scene I. Forres. The palace 
 
 Enter Banquo 
 
 Banquo. Thou hast it now : king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, 
 As the weird women promis'd, and, I fear. 
 Thou play'dst most foully for 't : yet it was said 
 It should not stand in thy posterity. 
 
 But that myself should be the root and father 5 
 
 Of many kings. If there come truth from them, 
 As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine. 
 Why, by the verities on thee made good. 
 May they not be my oracles as well, 
 And set me up in hope ? But hush ! no more. 10 
 
 Sennet sounded. EjiterMxcBKYH, as king ; Lady Macbeth, 
 as queen ; Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, a«^ Attendants 
 
 Macbeth. Here 's our chief guest. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. If he had been forgotten, 
 
 Forres. The palace | Ff omit. ii. ... Lady Macbeth, aj^»<«^« 
 
 2. weird | weyard Fi | weyward . . . Attendants Globe | Lady Lenox, 
 F2F3F4. Rosse, Lords, and Attendants Ff. 
 
 7. As : inasmuch as. — speeches shine : predictions cast lustre. 
 
 II. Sennet. A peculiar set of notes played on the trumpet, 
 announcing the approach of royal personages. Sometimes spelled 
 'signate,' as though connected etymologically with 'signal.' Cf. 
 'signature ' in musical notation. 
 
 67 
 
68 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ill 
 
 It had been as a gap in our great feast, 
 And all-thing unbecoming. 
 
 Macbeth. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, 
 And I '11 request your presence. 
 
 Banquo. Let your highness 15 
 
 Command upon me ; to the which my duties 
 Are with a most indissoluble tie 
 For ever knit. 
 
 Macbeth. Ride you this afternoon? 
 
 Banquo. Ay, my good lord. 
 
 Macbeth. We should have else desir'd your good advice. 
 Which still hath been both grave and prosperous, 21 
 
 In this day's council ; but we '11 take to-morrow. 
 Is 't far you ride? 
 
 Banquo. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time 
 'Twixt this and supper : go not my horse the better, 25 
 I must become a borrower of the night 
 For a dark hour or twain. 
 
 Macbeth. Fail not our feast. 
 
 Banquo. My lord, I will not. 
 
 Macbeth. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd 
 In England and in Ireland, not confessing 30 
 
 Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers 
 With strange invention : but of that to-morrow, 
 
 13. all-thing : quite, altogether, entirely. See Murray. 
 
 14. solemn: official, formal. Cf. AlTs Well that Ends Well, II, 
 iii, 187. 
 
 15. In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare Rowe's reading 
 of ' Lay ' for ' Let ' was adopted because of ' upon ' in the next line. 
 But ' upon ' belongs to ' command ' rather than to ' me.' 
 
 21. still: always. — grave: weighty. — prosperous: turning out well. 
 25. go not my horse the better : if my horse go not fast enough. 
 
SCENE I MACBETH 69 
 
 When therewithal we shall have cause of state 
 
 Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse ; adieu, 
 
 TiU you return at night. Goes Fleance with you? 35 
 
 Banquo. Ay, my good lord : our time does call upon 's. 
 
 Macbeth. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot ; 
 And so I do commend you to their backs. 
 Farewell. \_Exii Banquo] 
 
 Let every man be master of his time 40 
 
 Till seven at night ; to make society 
 The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself 
 Till supper-time alone : while then, God be with you ! 
 
 \_Exeunt all but Macbeth and an Attendant] 
 Sirrah, a word with you : attend those men 
 Our pleasure? 45 
 
 Attendant. They are, my lord, without the palace-gate. 
 
 Macbeth. Bring them before us. S^Exit Attendant] 
 
 To be thus is nothing. 
 But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo 
 Stick deep ; and in his royalty of nature 
 Reigns that which would be fear'd. 'T is much he dares ; 50 
 
 34-35. Three lines in Ff, ending 44. Scene II Pope, 
 
 horse, night, you. 47. \^Exit Attendant] Exit 
 
 42-43. Three Hnes in Ff, ending Servant Ff. 
 
 welcome, alone, you. 47-50. Tobe. . .dares I Four lines 
 
 43. \Exeunt ... I Exeunt Lords Ff . in Ff, ending thus, deep, that, dares. 
 
 43. while: until. A common Elizabethan usage. Qi.Twelfth Alght, 
 IV, ill, 29. — God be with you. The full form of 'good-bye.' Some- 
 times written ' God-b'wy-ye,' or 'God buy you,' which is probably 
 the pronunciation here. 
 
 48. But: unless, except. The sentence means, To be on the 
 throne is nothing at all if I cannot be so in perfect security. — in : 
 on account of. Qi. Julius Casar, II, i, 190 : " There is no fear in him ; 
 let him not die." 
 
•JO THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act m 
 
 And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, 
 
 He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour 
 
 To act in safety. There is none but he -^ 
 
 Whose being I do fear ; and, under him, 
 
 My Genius is rebuk'd, as, it is said, 55 
 
 Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters, 
 
 When first they put the name of king upon me, 
 
 And bade them speak to him ; then prophet-like 
 
 They hail'd him father to a line of kings : 
 
 Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown, 60 
 
 And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, 
 
 Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand, 
 
 No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so, 
 
 For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind ; 
 
 For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd; 65 
 
 Put rancours in the vessel of my peace 
 
 Only for them; and mine eternal jewel 
 
 Given to the common enemy of man. 
 
 To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings ! 
 
 ^9. seed Pope | Seedes F1F2. 
 
 51. to: in addition to. Cf. King John, I, i, 144. 
 
 55-56. With this use of ' Genius ' cf. Troilus and Cressida, IV, 
 iv, 52 ; Julius Ccesar, II, i, 66. The ' Caesar' referred to is Octavius. 
 Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, II, iii, 15-22. "For thy demon, said he 
 (that is to say, the good angell and spirit that keepeth thee), is 
 afraid of his : and being couragious and high when he is alone, 
 becomraeth fearful! and timorous when he cometh near unto the 
 other." — Life of Marcus Antonius, North's Plutarch. 
 
 62. with an unlineal hand : by the hand of one not heir to me. 
 
 64. fil'd: defiled. Anglo-Saxon^^'^'^'') 'niake foul.' Whence 'foul,' 
 'filth,' etc. This use of ' file ' is still common in Scotland. 
 
 67. eternal jewel : immortal soul. Cf. Richard II, I, i, 180-181. 
 
SCENE I MACBETH 71 
 
 Rather than so, come, fate, into the list, 70 
 
 And champion me to th' utterance ! — Who 's there ? 
 
 Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers 
 
 Now go to th' door, and stay there till we call. — 
 
 \Exit Attendant] 
 Was it not yesterday we spoke together? 
 
 I Murderer. It was, so please your highness. 
 
 Macbeth. Well then, now 
 
 Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know 75 
 
 That it was he, in the times past, which held you 
 So under fortune ; which you thought had been 
 Our innocent self : this I made good to you 
 In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you, 
 How you were borne in hand, how cross'd, the instruments, 
 Who wrought with them, and all things else that might 81 
 To half a soul and to a notion craz'd 
 Say, ' Thus did Banquo.' 
 
 71. Two lines in Ff. 75-8i. Nine lines in Ff, ending 
 
 74. 1 Murderer | Murth. Ff. speeches, past, fortune, self, confer- 
 — now I Ff give to line 75. ence, you, cross'd, them, might. 
 
 71. champion me: fight against me. — to th' utterance: to the 
 extremity, to the death. It is the Fr. h oidrance, often written incor- 
 rectly h. routrance [otttre, Lat. ultra, ' beyond '). The meaning of the 
 passage is, Let Fate, that has decreed the throne to Banquo's 
 issue, enter the lists in support of its own decrees, I will fight 
 against it to the last extremity, whatever be the consequence. 
 
 79. pass'd in probation : went over the details of the proof. 
 
 80. borne in hand: deluded with false hopes (cf. Fr. maintenir, 
 from late Lat. ma7iutenere). — cross'd: thwarted. — instruments: 
 agents. The general meaning of the passage is that Banquo has 
 managed to hold up their hopes, while secretly preventing fruition; 
 thus using them as tools, and cheating them out of their pay. 
 
 82. notion: understanding, judgment. Cf. King Lear, I, iv, 248. 
 
72 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act m 
 
 I Murderer. You made it known to us. 
 
 Macbeth. I did so, and went further, which is now 
 Our point of second meeting. Do you find 85 
 
 Your patience so predominant in your nature 
 That you can let this go ? Are you so gospell'd, 
 To pray for this good man and for his issue, 
 Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave 
 And beggar'd yours for ever? 
 
 I Murderer. We are men, my liege. 90 
 
 Macbeth. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; 
 As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
 Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are clept 
 All by the name of dogs : the valued file 
 Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, 95 
 
 The housekeeper, the hunter, every one 
 According to the gift which bounteous nature 
 Hath in him clos'd ; whereby he does receive 
 Particular addition, from the bill 
 
 That writes them all alike ; and so of men. 100 
 
 Now, if you have a station in the file, 
 
 84-go. Nine lines in Ff, ending 93. Shoughs | Showghe s Ff I 
 
 so, now, meeting, predominant, go. Shocks Capell. — clept Capell | 
 man, hand, beggar'd, ever. dipt Ff. 
 
 87. so gospell'd: so filled with the spirit of the Gospel. 
 
 92-93. Cf. King Lear, III, vi, 71-73. — Shoughs: shock dog (so 
 called from its shaggy hair). — water-rugs : rough water dog (Swed- 
 ish rugg). — demi-wolves : mongrels bred between dogs and wolves. 
 — clept: called. Ci. Ham let, l,iv, i()\ Love's Labour ^s Lost, Y, 1,22- 
 In Love's Labour's Lost, I, i, 42, V, iii, 602, ' yclept ' is the form of the 
 participle. See Murray. 
 
 94. valued file: list where dogs are graded according to their worth. 
 
 96. housekeeper : watch-dog; one that 'keeps'('guards')thehouse. 
 
 99. addition : title of distinction. Cf. I, iii, 106. 
 
SCENE I MACBETH 73 
 
 Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say 't ; 
 
 And I will put that business in your bosoms, 
 
 Whose execution takes your enemy off, 
 
 Grapples you to the heart and love of us, 105 
 
 Who wear our health but sickly in his life, 
 
 Which in his death were perfect. 
 
 2 Murderer. I am one, my liege, 
 
 Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world 
 Hath so incens'd, that I am reckless what 
 I do to spite the world. 
 
 I Murderer. And I another no 
 
 So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune, 
 That I would set my life on any chance, 
 To mend it, or be rid on 't. 
 
 Macbeth. Both of you 
 
 Know Banquo was your enemy. 
 
 Both Murderers. True, my lord. 
 
 Macbeth. So is he mine; and in such bloody distance, 
 That every minute of his being thrusts 116 
 
 Against my near'st of life ; and though I could 
 With barefac'd power sweep him from my sight 
 
 109-110. Hath ... do Rowe | one one line in Ff. 
 line in Ff. 114. Both Murderers] A/'«rz'/i. 
 
 113-114. Both . . . enemy Rowe | Ff. 
 
 III. tugg'd with fortune : " buffeted by misfortune." — Liddell. 
 
 115. ' Distance ' ( Old P"r. distance, Lat. distantia, ' standing apart ') 
 originally meant ' discord,' ' dispute.' Here it probably is the fencing 
 term, meaning the definite interval of space to be observed betvreen 
 two antagonists. When men are in a hot mortal encounter with 
 swords, they stand at just the right distance apart for the bloodiest 
 strokes or thrusts. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, II, iv, 21. 
 
 117. near'st of life. Either ' most vital parts ' or ' inmost soul.' 
 
74 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT ill 
 
 And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, 
 
 For certain friends that are both his and mine, 120 
 
 Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall 
 
 Who I myself struck down ; and thence it is, 
 
 That I to your assistance do make love. 
 
 Masking the business from the common eye 
 
 For sundry weighty reasons. 
 
 2 Murderer. We shall, my lord, 125 
 
 Perform what you command us. 
 
 I Murderer. Though our lives — 
 
 Macbeth. Your spirits shine through you. Within this 
 hour at most 
 
 I will advise you where to plant yourselves ; 
 
 Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time, 
 
 127. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 119. avouch it : to take responsibility for the deed. 
 
 120. For : on account of. A common Elizabethan use. See Abbott, 
 150. 
 
 122. Who: whom. So in III, iv, 42. See Abbott, 274. 
 
 128. " He willed therefore the same Banquho with his sonne named 
 Fleance, to come to a. supper that he had prepared for them, which 
 was in deed, as he had deuised, present ^ death at the hands of cer- 
 teine murderers, whom he hired to execute that deed, appointing them 
 to meete with the same Banquho and his son without ^ the palace, as 
 they returned to their lodgings, and there to sleathem." — Holinshed. 
 
 129. A much-disputed passage. Johnson proposed 'a' for 'the,' 
 and made the line refer to the third murderer. More probably the 
 meaning is. Will furnish you with an exact and sure note or signal of 
 the time when to strike ; which is probably done by or through the 
 third murderer, who joins them just before the murder is done. The 
 success of the undertaking depends on the assault being rightly 
 timed. So that ' the perfect spy of the time ' may be ' the sure means 
 of spying or knowing the time.' 
 
 1 immediate. 2 outside. 
 
SCENE II MACBETH 75 
 
 The moment on 't; for 't must be done to-night, 130 
 
 And something from the palace ; always thought 
 
 That I require a clearness : and with him — 
 
 To leave no rubs nor botches in the work — 
 
 Fleance his son, that keeps him company, 
 
 Whose absence is no less material to me 135 
 
 Than is his father's, must embrace the fate 
 
 Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart; 
 
 I '11 come to you anon. 
 
 Both Murderers. We are resolv'd, my lord. 
 
 Macbeth. I '11 call upon you straight : abide within. 
 
 \_Exeu?it Murderers] 
 It is concluded ; Banquo, thy soul's flight, 140 
 
 If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. \_Exii'] 
 
 Scene II. The palace 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Is Banquo gone from court ? 
 Servant. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night. 
 
 138. Both Murderers I Murth. Ff. Scene II | Scene III Pope. 
 
 139. {Exeunt . . . | Ff omit. — The palace \ Ff omit. 
 
 141. \Exif\ Rowe | Exeunt Ff. Lady Macbeth | Macbeths 
 
 Lady Ff. 
 
 131-133. It being always borne in mind that I must stand clear of 
 blame or suspicion. " So that he would not have his house slaun- 
 dered, but that in time to come he might cleare himselfe." — Holin- 
 shed. — rubs : roughnesses, impediments. Cf. the bowling and golfing 
 term ' rub on the green.' The literal meaning is seen in Henry V, 
 II, ii, 188, " Every rub is smoothed on our way"; the figurative in 
 Hamlet, III, i, 65, "ay, there 's the rub." — botches. Murray suggests 
 that ' botch ' is probably an onomatopoetic word akin to ' patch.' 
 
^6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Say to the king, I would attend his 
 leisure 
 
 For a few words. 
 
 Servant. Madam, I will. \_Exif\ 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Nought 's had, all 's spent, 
 
 Where our desire is got without content : 5 
 
 'T is safer to be that which we destroy 
 
 Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. 
 
 Enter Macbeth 
 
 How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone, 
 
 Of sorriest fancies your companions making ; 
 
 Using those thoughts which should indeed have died lo 
 
 With them they think on? Things without all remedy 
 
 Should be without regard : what 's done is done. 
 
 Macbeth. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it : 
 She '11 close and be herself, whilst our poor malice 
 Remains in danger of her former tooth. 15 
 
 But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, 
 Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep 
 In the affliction of. these terrible dreams 
 
 13. scotch'd Theobald | scorch'd Ff. 16 Two lines in Ff. 
 
 II. without all : beyond any. ' Without ' is literally ' outside of.' 
 13. scotch'd : cut, slashed. " Made narrow incisions, as with a 
 « scutcher ' or riding whip." — Herford. See ' hop-scotch ' in Murray. 
 * Close ' in the next line shows this to be the meaning. Cf. Corio- 
 lamis, IV, V, 198: "he scotch'd him and he notch'd him like a car- 
 bonado," where ' carbonado ' means a piece of meat slashed across 
 for broiling. Liddell defends the Folio reading on the ground that 
 " ' scorch ' is a derivative verb from ' score ' and means ' to hack.' " 
 
 18-19. What 'these terrible dreams' are. is shown in Lady Mac- 
 beth's sleep-walking agonies. It is of her state of mind, not of his 
 own, that Macbeth is here thinking. " No witches have given her 
 
SCENE 11 MACBETH 77 
 
 That shake us nightly : better be with the dead, 
 
 Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, 20 
 
 Than on the torture of the mind to lie 
 
 In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave ; 
 
 After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; 
 
 Treason has done his worst : nor steel, nor poison, 
 
 Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, 25 
 
 Can touch him further. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Come on ; 
 
 Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks ; 
 Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night. 
 
 Macbeth. So shall I, love ; and so, I pray, be you : 
 Let your remembrance apply to Banquo ; 30 
 
 Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue : 
 
 20 peace Fi | place F2F8F4. 22. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 ' hail ' ; no airy dagger marshals her the way she is going ; nor is she 
 afterwards haunted by the terrible vision of Banquo's gory head. As 
 long as her will remains her own she can throw herself upon external 
 facts, and maintain herself in relation with the definite, actual sur- 
 roundings ; it is in her sleep, when the will is incapable of action, 
 that she is persecuted by the past which perpetually renews itself, 
 not in ghostly shapes, but by the imagined recurrence of real and 
 terrible incidents." — Dowden. 
 
 21. The reference is to the torture of the rack. Cf. The Merchant 
 of Venice, III, ii, 24-27. 
 
 22. ecstasy. In its general sense the word describes any violent 
 mental disturbance. Cf. The Tempest, III, iii, 108. 
 
 27. Gentle my lord. This common inversion is probably for 
 emphasis. 
 
 30. remembrance apply to: consideration attach itself to. 
 
 31. Present him eminence : treat him as eminent. In lines 30-31 
 the language is strained and obscure. Is Macbeth ironical, or is he 
 wishing to keep his wife ignorant and innocent of the new crime 
 on foot ? 
 
78 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act m 
 
 Unsafe the while, that we 
 
 Must lave our honours in these flattering streams, 
 
 And make our faces vizards to our hearts, -^ 
 
 Disguising what they are. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. You must leave this. 35 
 
 Macbeth. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife ! 
 Thou know'st that Banquo and his Fleance lives. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. But in them nature's copy 's not eterne. 
 
 Macbeth, There 's comfort yet ; they are assailable ; 
 Then be thou jocund : ere the bat hath flown 40 
 
 His cloister'd flight; ere to black Hecate's summons 
 The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums 
 Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 
 A deed of dreadful note. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. What 's to be done? 
 
 Macbeth. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, 
 
 32-33. In Ff lines end lave, 42. shard-borne F1F2 1 shard-born 
 
 streams. F3F4 | sharp-brow'd D'Avenant. 
 
 37. Fleance Rowe | Fleans F1F3 43-44- In Ff first line ends peal. 
 F4 I Feans Fa 
 
 32-35. The very fact of our being obliged thus to use the arts of 
 hypocrisy and dissimulation proves that we are not safe in our seats, 
 not secure in the tenure of our honors : we can retain them only by 
 making our life, even in social intercourse, a studied, continuous lie. 
 — flattering streams : streams of flattery. 
 
 38. copy. " Probably for ' copyhold,' a form of land tenure which 
 differed from freehold in being terminable." — Herford. 
 
 41. cloister'd. "The bats wheeling round the dim cloisters of 
 Queen's College, Cambridge, have frequently impressed on me the 
 singular propriety of this original epithet." — Steevens. 
 
 42. shard-borne: borne through the air on scaly wings. Cf. Antony 
 a?id Cleopatra, III, ii, 20 ; Cymbeline, III, iii, 20. Some editors follow 
 the spelling of the later Folios and interpret as ' bom in refuse.' 
 
 43. yawning : drowsy. — peal. The curfew bell is suggested. 
 45. chuck. A term of endearment. Cf. Othello, III, iv, 49. 
 
SCENE II MACBETH 79 
 
 Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, 46 
 
 Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, 
 
 And with thy bloody and invisible hand 
 
 Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond 
 
 Which keeps me pale ! Light thickens, and the crow 50 
 
 Makes wing to th' rooky wood : 
 
 Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, 
 
 Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse. 
 
 Thou marvell'st at my words, but hold thee still; 
 
 Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. 55 
 
 So, prithee, go with me. \^£xeunf'] 
 
 50-51. and the crow . . . wood | one line in Ff. 
 
 46. seeling night : night that closes up the eyes. ' Seeling ' is a 
 term of falconry often used figuratively in Elizabethan literature. 
 To tame hawks their eyelids were drawn together by a thread of 
 fine silk. Fr. ciller (siller)., Lat. ciliian. 
 
 49. that great bond. Probably, as Mr. E. K. Chambers suggests, 
 " the bond between destiny and the house of Banquo, made known in 
 the prophecy of the weird sisters." 
 
 50. Light thickens. Cf. ' lustre thickens' in Antotiy and Cleopatra, 
 II, iii, 27. So in Spenser, 77/1? Shepheards Calender, March, 1 15-1 16: 
 
 But see, the Welkin thicks apace. 
 And stouping Phebus steepes his face. 
 
 51. rooky: rook-haunted. 'Crow' and 'rook' were used of the 
 same bird, ' crow ' being generic and ' rook ' specific. " The passage 
 simply means, ' the rook hastens its evening flight to the wood where 
 its fellows are already assembled,' and to our mind 'the rooky wood ' 
 is a lively and natural picture." — Mitford (quoted by Fumess). But 
 some editors interpret 'rooky' as 'misty,' 'gloomy,' connecting it 
 etymologically with Anglo-Saxon rec, Dutch rook, German Ranch, 
 etc. Cf. Scottish and dialectic 'reek,' as in Coriolanus, III, iii, 121. 
 
 52. "A motto of the entire tragedy ... It is the tragedy of the 
 twilight and the setting-in of thick darkness." — Dowden. 
 
 53-55. A covert allusion to the exploit which Macbeth's murderers 
 are going about. He seems to want that his wife should suspect the 
 
8o THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act m 
 
 Scene III. A park 7iear the palace 
 Enter three Murderers 
 
 1 Murderer. But who did bid thee join with us? 
 
 3 Murderer. Macbeth. 
 
 2 Murderer. He needs not our mistrust; since he 
 
 delivers 
 Our offices, and what we have to do, 
 To the direction just. 
 
 I Murderer. Then stand with us. 
 
 The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day : 5 
 
 Now spurs the lated traveller apace 
 To gain the timely inn ; and near approaches 
 The subject of our watch. 
 
 3 Murderer. Hark ! I hear horses. 
 
 Scene III | Scene IV Pope | Scene II Rowe. — A park . . . | Ff omit. 
 
 new crime he has in hand, while he shrinks from telling her of it 
 distinctly. And the purpose of his dark hints is probably to prepare 
 her, as far as may be, for a further strain upon her moral forces, 
 which he sees to be already overstrained. For he fears that, if she 
 has full knowledge beforehand of the intended murder, she may 
 oppose it, and that if she has no suspicion of it the shock may be 
 loo much for her. 
 
 Enter three Murderers. See Fumess for a full statement of the 
 ingenious theory that Macbeth himself is the Third Murderer, ad- 
 vanced by Mr. A. P. Paton {Macbeth, Hamnet edition, 1877). A strong 
 point against this view is the way in which Macbeth is affected on 
 hearing of Fleance's escape (III, iv, 21). Mr. Libby holds that Ross 
 is the Third Murderer, and says that " because Shakespeare is deal- 
 ing with the spy-system, he refuses to give the name of this villain." 
 
 2. He needs not our mistrust: we need not mistrust him. 
 
 6. lated: belated. Not from 'belated,' but a participial adjective 
 in -ed from ' late.' Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, III, xi, 3. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 8 1 
 
 Banquo. [_lVt/htn'] Give us a light there, ho ! 
 
 2 Murderer. Then 't is he : the rest 
 That are within the note of expectation lo 
 Already are i' the court. 
 
 1 Murderer. His horses go about. 
 
 3 Murderer. Almost a mile : but he does usually, 
 So all men do, from hence to th' palace gate 
 
 Make it their walk. 
 
 Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch 
 
 2 Murderer. A light, a light ! 
 
 3 Murderer. 'T is he. 
 
 I Murderer. Stand to 't. 15 
 
 Banquo. It will be rain to-night. 
 
 I Murderer. Let it come down. 
 
 [ They set upon Banquo] 
 Banquo. O, treachery ! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly ! 
 Thou mayst revenge. O slave ! \_Dies. Fleance escapes'^ 
 
 16. \They set upon . . . | Ff omit. 18. \pies . . ,escapes\ Pope | Dies 
 
 17. ... fly! I two lines in Ff. Rowe | Ff omit. 
 
 10. note of expectation : list of those guests who are expected. 
 
 17-18. " It chanced yet by the benefit of the darke night, that 
 though the father were slaine, the sonne yet . . . escaped that dan- 
 ger: and afterwards hauing some inkeUng . . . how his life was 
 sought no lesse than his fathers, who was slaine not by chance- 
 medlie ^ (as by the handling of the matter Makbeth would have had 
 it to appeare) but euen vpon a prepensed 2 deuise : wherevpon to 
 auoid further perill he fled into Wales." — Holinshed. Doubtless 
 Shakespeare accepted the Stuart tradition that Fleance married a 
 daughter of the Prince of Wales and had a son who afterwards 
 became Lord High Steward of Scotland ; from thence he assumed 
 the name of Walter Steward (Stuart). " From him, in a direct line, 
 
 1 accident. 2 premeditated. 
 
82 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 
 
 3 Murderer. Who did strike out the light? 
 
 1 Murderer. Was 't not the way? 
 3 Murderer. There 's but one down ; the son is fled. 
 
 2 Murderer. We have lost 
 Best half of our affair. 21 
 
 I Murderer. Well, let 's away, and say how much is 
 done. [^xeuni^ 
 
 Scene IV. Hall in the palace 
 
 A banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, 
 Ross, Lennox, Lords, a7id Attendants 
 
 Macbeth. You know your own degrees ; sit down : at first 
 And last the hearty welcome. 
 
 Lords. Thanks to your majesty. 
 
 Macbeth. Ourself will mingle with society. 
 And play the humble host. 
 
 Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time S 
 
 We will require her welcome. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our 
 friends, 
 For my heart speaks they are welcome. 
 
 \_First Murderer appears at the door'\ 
 Macbeth. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' 
 thanks. 
 
 Scene IV | Scene V Pope | 5. best Fi | the best F2F3F4. 
 
 Scene III Rowe. — Hall in the ... I g. [First Murderer ... I Enter 
 
 Ff omit. first Murtherer Ff. 
 
 King James I was descended, in compliment to whom our author has 
 chosen to describe Banquo, who was equally concerned with Macbeth 
 in the murder of Duncan, as innocent of that crime." — Malone. 
 5. keeps her state : remains in her chair of state. 
 
SCENE IV MACBETH 83 
 
 Both sides are even : here I '11 sit 'i the midst. 10 
 
 Be large in mirth ; anon we '11 drink a measure 
 The table round. — [ Goes to the door\ There 's blood upon 
 thy face. 
 
 Murderer. 'T is Banquo's then. 
 
 Macbeth. 'T is better thee without than he within. 
 Is he dispatch'd? 15 
 
 Murderer. My lord, his throat is cut ; that I did for him. 
 
 Macbeth. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats ; yet he's 
 good 
 That did the like for Fleance : if thou didst it, 
 Thou art the nonpareil. 
 
 Murderer. Most royal sir, 
 
 Fleance is scap'd. 20 
 
 Macbeth. Then comes my fit again : I had else been 
 perfect, 
 Whole as the marble, founded as the rock; 
 As broad and general as the casing air : 
 But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in 
 To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe? 25 
 
 Murderer. Ay, my good lord ; safe in a ditch he bides. 
 With twenty trenched gashes on his head, 
 The least a death to nature. 
 
 Macbeth. Thanks for that. 
 
 There the grown serpent lies : the worm that 's fled 
 
 12. {Goes ... I Approaching the Ff lines end cut-throats, Fleance, 
 door Grant White Globe | Ff omit. nonpareil. 
 
 17-19. Thou . . . nonpareil | in 21. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 14. It is better on your face than in his veins. 
 
 19. nonpareil : one who has no equal. Cf . Twelfth Night, I, v, 273. 
 
 23. Having as full and free scope as the enveloping air. 
 
 29. worm : serpent. Cf. A Midsummer Night's Dream, III, ii, 71. 
 
•84 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 
 
 Hath nature that in time will venom breed, 30 
 
 No teeth for th' present. Get thee gone : to-morrow 
 
 We '11 hear 't, ourself, again. \_Exit Murderer] 
 
 Lady Macbeth. My royal lord, 
 
 You do not give the cheer : the feast is sold 
 That is not often vouch'd, while 't is a-making, 
 'Tis given with welcome : to feed were best at home; 35 
 From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony ; 
 Meeting were bare without it. 
 
 Enter the Ghost ^Banquo, and sits in Macbeth's //ar^ 
 
 Macbeth. Sweet remembrancer ! 
 
 Now, good digestion wait on appetite, 
 And health on both ! 
 
 Lennox. May 't please your highness sit. 
 
 Macbeth. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, 
 Were the grac'd person of our Banquo present; 41 
 
 Who may I rather challenge for unkindness 
 Than pity for mischance. • ■ • 
 
 Ross. His absence, sir, 
 
 Lays blame upon his promise. Please 't your highness 
 To grace us with your royal company. 45 
 
 Macbeth. The table 's full ! 
 
 Lennox Here is a place reserv'd, sir. 
 
 33-37. The feast is made or given for profit, not as a frank expres- 
 sion of kindness and good-will, if, during its course, it is not often 
 declared to be given with pleasure. If merely to feed were all, that 
 were best done at home. 
 
 37. Enter the Ghost . . . This is the stage direction of the Folios. 
 Modem editors place the entry of the Ghost after line 39, and dis- 
 cuss the question whether, upon the stage, the Ghost should ob- 
 jectively appear. See note, line 89. 
 
SCENE IV MACBETH 85 
 
 Macbeth. Whe r e ? 
 
 Lennox. Here, my good lord. What is 't that moves 
 your highness? 
 
 Macbeth. Which of you have done this? 
 
 Lords. What, my good lord? 
 
 Macbeth. Thou canst not say I did it : never shake 50 
 Thy gory locks at me. 
 
 Ross. Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not well. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Sit, worthy friends : my lord is often 
 thus. 
 And hath been from his youth : pray you, keep seat; 
 The fit is momentary ; upon a thought 55 
 
 He will again be well : if much you note him, 
 You shall offend him, and extend his passion : 
 Feed, and regard him not. \_Asii/e to Macbeth] Are you a 
 man? 
 
 Macbeth. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that 
 Which might appal the devil. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. \_Aside to Macbeth] O proper stuff ! 60 
 This is the very painting of your fear : 
 This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, - 
 
 Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts. 
 Impostors to true fear, would well become 
 A woman's story at a winter's fire, ■ 65 
 
 Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself ! 
 
 48. Two lines in Ff. 58, 60. \Aside . . . | Ff omit. 
 
 57. shall: will. — extend his passion : increase his agitation. 
 
 63. flaws: bursts of passion. Originally, 'gusts of wind.' Q.i. Cori- 
 olanus, V, iii, 74. See Murray. 
 
 64. to : compared with. A common use. Cf. /I'izw/i?/', I, ii, 139-140. 
 
 65. Cf. Richard II, V, i, 40-43 ; T/ie l-Vin/£r's Tale, II, i, 25-26. 
 
86 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 
 
 Why do you make such faces? When all 's done, 
 You look but on a stool. 
 
 Macbeth. Prithee, see there ! behold ! look ! lo ! how 
 say you? 
 Why, what care I ? If thou canst nod, speak too. 70 
 
 If charnel-houses and our graves must send 
 Those that we bury back, our monuments 
 Shall be the maws of kites. [Ghost vanishes'] 
 
 Lady Macbeth. \_Aside to Macbeth] What, quite un- 
 mann'd in folly? 
 
 Macbeth. If I stand here, I saw him ! 
 
 Lady Macbeth. \_Aside to Macbeth] Fie, for shame ! 
 
 Macbeth. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden 
 time, 75 
 
 Ere humane statute purg'd the gentle weal ; 
 Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd 
 Too terrible for the ear. The time has been. 
 That, when the brains were out, the man would die. 
 And there an end; but now they rise again, 80 
 
 With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, 
 And push us from our stools : this is more strange 
 Than such a murder is. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. My worthy lord, 
 
 Your noble friends do lack you. 
 
 69. Two lines in Ff. 73, 74. {Aside . . . | Ff omit. 
 
 73. [Ghost . . ] R o w e I E X i t 78. time has Camb I times has 
 
 Ghost F2F3F4 I Fi omits. Fi | times have F2F8F4. 
 
 72-73. monuments : tombs. — maws : stomachs. Cf. The Faerie 
 Queene, II, viii, 17 : " But be entombed in the raven or the kight." 
 
 76. Ere humane statute made the commonwealth gentle by purg- 
 ing and cleansing it from the wrongs and pollutions of barbarism. 
 'Gentle' is here used proleptically. 
 
SCENE IV MACBETH 8/ 
 
 Macbeth. I do forget. 
 
 Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends; 85 
 
 I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing 
 To those that know me. Come, love and health to all ; 
 Then I '11 sit down. Give me some wine, fill full. 
 
 Re-enter the Ghost 
 
 I drink to th' general joy o' the whole table. 
 
 And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss; 90 
 
 Would he were here ! to all and him we thirst. 
 
 And all to all. 
 
 Lords. Our duties, and the pledge. 
 
 Macbeth. Avaunt ! and quit my sight ! let the earth 
 hide thee ! 
 Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold ; 
 
 89. Re-enter . . . | Enter Ghost Ff. 
 
 85. muse: wonder. See Skeat. Cf. Khig Joh7i, III, i, 317. 
 
 89. Re-enter the Ghost. Much question has been made, whether 
 there be not two several ghosts in this scene ; some maintaining that 
 Duncan's enters here, and Banquo's before ; others, that Banquo's 
 enters here, and Duncan's before. The question is best disposed of 
 l)y referring to Forman {Diary, see Introduction), who, as he speaks 
 of Banquo's ghost, would doubtless have spoken of Duncan's, had 
 there been any such: 
 
 Next night, beinge at supper with his noble men whom he had bid to a 
 feaste to the which also Banco should have com, he began to speak of Noble 
 Banco, and to wish that he wer ther. And as he thus did, standing up to 
 drincke a Carouse to him, the ghoste of Banco came and sat down in his 
 cheier be-hind him. And he turning A-bout to sit down Again sawe the 
 goste of banco, which fronted him so, that he fell in-to a great passion of 
 fear and fury. 
 
 92. all to all : pledge all good wishes to all. An appropriate ges- 
 ture would bring out the full meaning here. 
 
88 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iu 
 
 Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 95 
 
 Which thou dost glare with ! 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Think of this, good peers, 
 
 But as a thing of custom : 't is no other ; 
 Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. . . 
 
 Macbeth. What man dare, I dare : 
 Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, 100 
 
 The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger ; 
 Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves 
 Shall never tremble : or be alive again, 
 And dare me to the desert with thy sword ; 
 If trembling I inhabit then, protest me 105 
 
 The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow ! 
 Unreal mockery, hence ! [Ghost vanishes'^ 
 
 Why, so : being gone, 
 I am a man again. Pray you, sit still. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the 
 good meeting, 
 With most admir'd disorder. 
 
 loi. the Hyrcan | th' Hircan F1F2. 107. [Ghost . . . | Exit F2F3F4 
 
 105. inhabit then Fi | inhabit, after shadow | Fi omits. — being 
 
 then F2F8F4 I inhibit, then Pope | gone FiF-2 I be gone F3F4. 
 
 inhibit thee Malone | inhabit tliere log-iio. broke . . . disorder | one 
 
 Delius conj. line in Ff. 
 
 95. speculation: power of vision. Cf. Othello, I, iii, 271. 
 
 loi. arm'd: armoured with his thick hide. — Hyrcan: Hyrcanian. 
 Cf. The Mercka?it of Venice, II, vii, 41 ; Hamlet, II, ii, 472. 
 
 104-106. " Dare me to the desert with thy sword ; if then I do not 
 meet thee there ; if trembling I stay in my castle, or any habitation ; 
 if I then hide my head, or dwell in any place through fear, protest 
 me the baby of a girl." — Home Tooke. Milton uses 'inhabit' in 
 a similar sense. Paradise Lost, VII, 162 : " Meanwhile inhabit lax, ye 
 powers of heaven." Some editors take 'inhabit' in the sense of 'put 
 on as a garment' (cf. Psalms, xxii, 3). — protest me : declare me to 
 
SCENE IV MACBETH 89 
 
 Macbeth. Can such things be, no 
 
 And overcome us like a summer's cloud, 
 Without our special wonder? You make me strange 
 Even to the disposition that I owe, 
 When now I think you can behold such sights. 
 And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, 115 
 
 When mine is blanch'd with fear. 
 
 Ross. What sights, my lord ? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. I pray you, speak not ; he grows worse 
 and worse ; 
 Question enrages him. At once, good night : 
 Stand not upon the order of your going, 
 But go at once. 
 
 Lennox. Good night; and better health 120 
 
 Attend his majesty ! 
 
 Lady Macbeth. A kind good night to all ! 
 
 \_Exevtit all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth] 
 
 Macbeth. It will have blood; they say blood will have 
 blood : 
 Stones have been known to move and trees to speak ; 
 
 114. When now Ff | Now when 121. [F.xemti . . . ] Dyce | Exit 
 
 Hanmer. Lords Ff. 
 
 116. sights Fi ] signes F2F3 | 122. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 signs F4. 
 
 be. — baby of a girl. ' Puny offspring ' and ' doll ' have been suggested 
 as the meaning here. Perhaps the expression simply means 'babyish 
 girl.' Cf. 'wonder of a man' for 'wonderful man.' 
 
 III. Pass over us as a casual summer cloud, unregarded. 
 
 113. disposition that I owe : the bent of character I possess. 'Dis- 
 position' is used by Shakespeare "not only in its modern sense of 
 settled character, ■^^05, but also in the sense of temporary viood, and 
 in this latter sense we think it is used here." — Clar. 
 
 119. Stay not to go out according to order of precedence. 
 
90 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 
 
 Augures and understood relations have 
 
 By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth 125 
 
 The secret'st man of blood. What is the night ? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Almost at odds with morning, which is 
 which. 
 
 Macbeth. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his 
 person 
 At our great bidding? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Did you send to him, sir? 
 
 Macbeth. I hear it by the way, but I will send : 130 
 
 There 's not a one of them but in his house 
 I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow, 
 And betimes I will, to the weird sisters : 
 More shall they speak ; for now I am bent to know. 
 By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good 135 
 All causes shall give way : I am in blood 
 Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more. 
 Returning were as tedious as go o'er : 
 
 134. Augures Ff | Augurs Theo 133. weird Theobald | weyard Fi 
 
 bald. I wizard F2F8F4. 
 
 124. Augures: auguries, divinations. — understood relations : knowl- 
 edge by the initiated of the secret relation between things and incidents. 
 
 125. magot-pies: magpies. — choughs. Ci. King Lear, I\,\\,i2. 
 129. By 'our great bidding' is meant, not any particular request 
 
 or order to Macduff, but the general invitation implied in the very 
 purpose of the banquet. Macbeth has heard of his refusal only 'by 
 the way,' that is, incidentally, or through a 'servant fee'd.' 
 
 131-132. He has paid spies lurking and prowling about in the fami- 
 lies of all the noblemen, and using the advantage of their place as 
 servants to get information for him. The meanest and hatefullest 
 practice of a jealous tyrant ! " Makbeth had in euery noble man's 
 house one she fellow or other in fee with him, to reueale all that was 
 said or doone within the same." — Holinshed. 
 
SCENE V MACBETH 91 
 
 Strange things I have in head that will to hand, 
 
 Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd. 140 
 
 Lady Macbeth. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. 
 
 Macbeth. Come, we '11 to sleep. My strange and self- 
 abuse 
 Is the initiate fear that wants hard use : 
 We are yet but young in deed. ^Exei4nt'\ 
 
 Scene V. A heath 
 Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate 
 
 I Witch. Why, how now, Hecate ! you look angerly. 
 
 Hecate. 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 ; 5 
 
 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 10 
 
 144. in deed Theobald | indeed Scene VI Scene VI Pope 1 
 
 Ff I in deeds Hanmer. Scene IV Rowe. — A heath \ Ff omit. 
 
 141. the season : seasoning, that which preserves from decay. 
 
 142-143. self-abuse Is the initiate fear: self-delusion is the fear of 
 the novice. Macbeth now knows that the Banquo he has just seen 
 was but a Banquo of the mind. 
 
 Scene V. This scene is usually regarded as an interpolation, its 
 witches being unlike those of the earlier scenes, and their relation to 
 Macbeth being different from what it was before. 
 
 I. angerly. "The 'ly' represents 'like.'" — Abbott, § 447. 
 
 7, close contriver: secret plotter. 'Close' often has this sense. 
 
92 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 
 
 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 15 
 
 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 th' air ; this night I 'II spend 20 
 
 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 '11 catch it ere it come to ground : 25 
 
 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 30 
 
 His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear ; 
 
 And you all know security 
 
 Is mortals' chiefest enemy. 
 
 \_AIusic, and a Song] 
 
 26. sleights I slights Ff. 27. raise Fi | rise F2. 
 
 24. vaporous drop. " The virus lunare of the ancients, a foam 
 which the moon was supposed to shed, when strongly solicited by 
 enchantment." — Steevens. — profound: having magic qualities. 
 
 32. security: over-confidence, presumption, carelessness. Of ten so. 
 
 33, 35. These are the stage directions of the Folios. The song re- 
 ferred to is found in Middleton's The Witch, III, iii, and, with some 
 
SCENE VI MACBETH 93 
 
 Hark ! I am call'd ; my little spirit, see, 
 
 Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. [_Exit] 
 
 [Sing within : 'Come away, come away,' etc.] 
 
 I Witch. Come, let 's make haste ; she '11 soon be back 
 
 again. \_Exeunf\ 
 
 Scene VI. Forres. The palace 
 
 Enter Lennox and another Lord 
 
 Lennox. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts. 
 Which can interpret farther : only, I say 
 Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan 
 
 36. Two lines in Ff. omit. — The palace Camb | Ff omit. 
 
 Scene VI | Scene VII Pope | i. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 Scene V Rowe. — Forres Capell | Ff 3. borne F1F2F3 I born F4. 
 
 changes, in the D'Avenant Quarto of Macbeth. Here is the whole 
 song, or musical dialogue, as it is in The Witch : 
 
 Soiig above. 
 
 Come away, come away, 
 
 Hecate, Hecate, come away ! 
 Hecate. I come, I come, I come, I come, 
 
 With all the speed I may. 
 
 With all the speed I may. 
 
 Where 's Stadlin ? 
 Voice above. Here. 
 Hecate. Where 's Puckle ? 
 
 Voice above. Here ; 
 
 And Hoppo too, and Hellwain too; 
 
 We lack but you, we lack but you : 
 
 Come away, make up the count. 
 Hecate. I will but 'noint, and then I mount. 
 
 \A Spirit like a cat descends\ 
 Voice above. There 's one come's down to fetch his dues, 
 
 A kiss, a coll, a sip of blood ; 
 
 And why thou stay'st so long, 
 I muse, I muse, 
 
 Since the air 's so sweet and good. 
 
94 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iii 
 
 Was pitied of Macbeth : marry, he was dead : 
 
 And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late ; 5 
 
 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 ! 10 
 
 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 't would have anger'd any heart alive 15 
 
 To hear the men deny 't. So that, I say, 
 
 Hecate. O, art thou come ? 
 
 What news, what news ? 
 Spirit. All goes still to our delight : 
 
 Either come, or else ' ■ • '.. ' ■ 
 
 Refuse, refuse. 
 Hecate. Now I 'm furnish'd for the flight. 
 
 Fire. Hark, hark ! the cat sings a brave treble in her own language. 
 
 Hecate, \going up\ Now I go, now I fly, 
 
 Malkin my sweet spirit and I. 
 
 O what a dainty pleasure 't is 
 
 To ride in the air 
 
 When the moon shines fair, 
 
 And sing and dance, and toy and kiss ! 
 
 Over woods, high rocks, and mountains, 
 
 Over seas, our mistress' fountains. 
 
 Over steep towers, and turrets. 
 
 We fly by night, 'mongst troops of spirits : 
 
 No ring of bells to our ears sounds. 
 
 No howls of wolves, no yelps of hounds ; 
 
 No, not the noise of water's breach. 
 
 Or cannon's throat our height can reach. 
 Voices above. No ring of bells, etc. 
 
 8. Who cannot want the thought : who can fail to think. 
 
 10. In Elizabethan English 'fact ' usually means an 'evil deed.' 
 
SCENE VI MACBETH 95 
 
 He has borne all things well : and I do think 
 
 That, had he Duncan's sons under his key — 
 
 As, and 't please heaven, he shall not — they should find 
 
 What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance. 20 
 
 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, 25 
 
 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 30 
 
 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, 35 
 
 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. 
 
 Lennox. Sent he to Macduff? 
 
 24. son Theobald I Sonnes Fi 38. exasperate Ff | exasperated Rowe. 
 
 F2F3 I Sons F4. — the king Hanmer | their king Ff. 
 
 19. and't: if it. 'And,' meaning 'if,' is now usually spelled 'an.' 
 21. from broad words : on account of free outspoken words. 
 38. exasperate: exasperated. So 'articulate' in i Henry IV, V, i, 
 72. See Abbott, § 342. 
 
96 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 
 
 Lord. He did : and with an absolute ' Sir, not I,' 40 
 The cloudy messenger turns me his back, 
 And hums, as who should say,V You '11 rue the time 
 That clogs me with this answer.' 
 
 Lennox. And that well might 
 
 Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance 
 His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel 45 
 
 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 i 
 
 Lord. I '11 send my prayers with him. 
 
 \_Exeunf\ 
 
 41. cloudy : frowning. 'Foreboding/ominous.' — Delius. — me. The 
 ethical dative; often used for emphasis. Ci. Julius desar, I, ii, 267. 
 
 42. as who : like one who. Cf. Tke Merchant of Venice, I, i, 93. 
 
 43. It appears, at the close of the third scene of this act, that 
 Macbeth did not give Macduff a special and direct invitation to the 
 banquet ; but his attendance was expected as a matter of course ; 
 and his failure to attend made him an object of distrust and suspi- 
 cion to the tyrant. Wp are to suppose that Macbeth learned, from 
 the paid spy and informer whom he kept in Macduff's house, that 
 the latter had declared he would not go to the feast. So that the 
 messenger here spoken of was probably not sent to invite Macduff, 
 but to call him to account for his non-attendance. 
 
 48-49. The order is, " our country suffering under a hand accurs'd." 
 
ACT IV 
 
 Scene I. A cavern. In the middle^ a boiling 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. Harpier cries; 'tis time, 'tis time. 
 I Witch. Round about the cauldron go ; 
 
 In the poison'd entrails throw. 5 
 
 Toad, that under cold stone 
 Days and nights has thirty-one 
 Swelter'd venom sleeping got, 
 Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. 
 
 act IV I Actus Quartus Fi | A cavern. In the middle . . . | Ff 
 
 Actus Quintus F2F8F4. omit. 
 
 1. brinded: brindled, dark browni streaked with black. See Murray. 
 
 2. The Folio punctuation adopted in the text is faithful to the 
 tradition that only odd numbers are magical. 'Thrice ' has reference 
 probably to the mewing of the 'brinded cat'; the 'hedge-pig' ('hedge- 
 hog') whining but once. Or 'thrice and once' maybe put for 'four' 
 to avoid the calling of unlucky even numbers. 
 
 3. Harpier. The name of one of the familiars. See note, I, i, 8. 
 Steevens suggested that the word is a misprint for ' harpy.' Harpier's 
 cry is the signal, showing that it is time to begin the mystic rites. 
 
 6. cold. To be so prolonged as to have the time of two syllables. 
 
 8. Swelter'd: sweated, exuded. — venom. "All manner of Toads, 
 both of the earth and of the water, are venomous." — Topsell, History 
 of Serpents, 1608. Cf. As You Like It, II, i, 13. , 
 
 97 
 
98 
 
 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 All. Double, double toil and trouble ; lo 
 
 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, 15 
 
 Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, 
 Lizard's leg and howlet's wing. 
 For a charm of powerful trouble. 
 Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 
 All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 20 
 
 Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 
 
 3 Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf. 
 
 Witches' mummy, maw and gulf 
 
 Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark ; 
 
 Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark, 25 
 
 Liver of blaspheming Jew, 
 
 Gall of goat, and slips of yew 
 
 16. fork : forked tongue. — blind-worm's sting. The harmless slow- 
 worm was regarded of old as poisonous. It is called " eyeless venom'd 
 worm" in Thnon of Athens, IV, iii, 182. Cf. A Midsummer Night's 
 Dream, II, ii, 9-12 : 
 
 You spotted snakes with double tongue, 
 
 Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen ; 
 Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong, 
 Come not near our fairy queen. 
 
 23. Mummy was much used as medicine ; a ' witch's,' of course, 
 had evil magic in it. "The Egyptian mummies, which Cambyses or 
 time hath spared, avarice now consumeth. Mummie is become mer- 
 chandise, Mizraim cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for balsams." 
 — Sir Thomas Browne, On Urn-burial. — gulf: that which swallows 
 up anything. Cf. The Shepheards Calender, September, 185-186: "A 
 wicked wolfe that with many a Lambe had glutted his gulfe." 
 
 24. ravin'd. Either ' ravenous ' or 'glutted with prey.' 
 
SCENE 1 MACBETH 99 
 
 Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse, 
 
 Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, 
 
 Finger of birth-strangled babe 30 
 
 Ditch-deliver'd by a drab. 
 
 Make the gruel thick and slab : 
 
 Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, 
 
 For th' ingredients of our cauldron. 
 
 All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 35 
 
 Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 
 
 2 Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, 
 
 Then the charm is firm and good. 
 
 Enter Hecate to the other three Witches 
 
 Hecate. O, well done ! I commend your pains ; 
 
 And every one shall share i' th' gains : 40 
 
 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,' etc.'\ 
 \_Exit Hecate] 
 
 39. Enter Hecate to . . . Globe 43. [Exit Hecate] Dyce | Hec- 
 
 Camb I Enter Hecat, and . . . Ff. ate retires Globe Camb | Ff omit. 
 
 28. A lunar eclipse was held to be fraught with evil magic of the 
 highest intensity. Cf. Paradise Lost, I, 597-598. 
 
 32. slab : viscous, slimy. Connected etymologically with Gaelic 
 slaib, 'mud.' Cf. 'slobbery' in Henry V, III, v, 13. 
 
 33. chaudron : entrails, especially as used for food. See Murray. 
 43. Music, and a Song. Here is the 'Song' as in Middleton's The 
 
 mtch, V, ii, 68-77 : 
 
 Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray, 
 Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may ! 
 
 Titty, Tiffin, 
 
 Keep it stiff in ; 
 
lOO THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 2 Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, 
 
 Something wicked this way comes : 45 
 
 Open, locks, 
 Whoever knocks ! 
 
 Enter Macbeth 
 
 Macbeth. How now, you secret, black, and midnight 
 hags ! 
 What is 't you do ? 
 
 All. a deed without a name. 
 
 Macbeth. I conjure you, by that which you profess, 50 
 Howe'er you come to know it, answer me : 
 Though you untie the winds and let them fight 
 Against the churches ; though the yesty waves 
 Confound and swallow navigation up ; 
 
 Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down ; 55 
 Though castles topple on their warders' heads ; 
 Though palaces and pyramids do slope 
 
 46-47. One line in Ff. 48. Scene II Pope. 
 
 Firedrake, Puckey, 
 
 Make it lucky ; 
 
 Liard, Robin, 
 
 You must bob in. 
 Round, around, around, about, about! 
 All ill come running in, all good keep out! 
 
 This is substantially as it is in the D'Avenant Quarto of Macbeth. 
 44. " It is a very ancient superstition that all sudden pains of the 
 
 body which could not naturally be accounted for were presages of 
 
 somewhat that was shortly to happen." — Steevens. 
 
 53 yesty: frothy, foamy. It is a variant form of 'yeasty.' 
 
 55. bladed: in the blade.— lodg'd: laid flat. Ci. Richard II, III, 
 
 iii, 162. The word in this sense is still in common use. 
 
SCENE I MACBETH lOI 
 
 Their heads to their foundations ; though the treasure 
 Of nature's germens tumble all together, 
 Even till destruction sicken ; answer me 60 
 
 To what I ask you. 
 
 1 Witch. Speak. 
 
 2 Witch. Demand. 
 
 3 Witch. We '11 answer. 
 
 I Witch. Say, if thou 'dst rather hear it from our mouths, 
 Or from our masters? 
 
 Macbeth. Call 'em, let me see 'em. 
 
 I Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten 
 
 Her nine farrow ; grease that 's sweaten 65 
 
 From the murderer's gibbet throw 
 
 Into the flame. 
 All. Come, high or low; 
 
 Thyself and office deftly show ! 
 
 Thunder. First Apparition, att armed Head 
 
 Macbeth. Tell me, thou unknown power, — 
 I Witch. He knows thy thought : 
 
 Hear his speech, but say thou nought. 70 
 
 59. nature's Pope 1 Natures Ff. — germens Theobald | germaine F1F2. 
 
 59. germens : seeds, germs. Cf. King Lear, III, ii, 8. 
 
 65. nine farrow: litter of nine pigs. 'Nine' was a magic number. 
 Cf. King Lear, III, iv, 1 26. — sweaten. An irregularly formed parti- 
 ciple. See Abbott, § 344. 
 
 69. an armed Head. A symbolical representation of Macbeth's 
 own head presented to Malcolm by Macduff. See V, viii, 53. 
 
 70. Silence was necessary during all incantations. Cf. The Tem- 
 pest, IV, i, 126; "Hush and be mute, Or else our spell is marr'd." 
 
102 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 I Apparition. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! beware 
 Macduff ; 
 Beware the thane of Fife. — Dismiss me : enough. 
 
 [^Descends"] 
 Macbeth. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, 
 thanks ; 
 Thou hast harp'd my fear aright : but one word more, — 
 
 1 Witch. He will not be commanded : here 's another, 
 More potent than the first. 76 
 
 Thunder. Second Apparition, a bloody Child 
 
 2 Apparition. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! 
 Macbeth. Had I three ears, I 'd hear thee. 
 
 2 Apparition. Be bloody, bold, and resolute ; laugh to 
 scorn 
 The power of man, for none of woman born 80 
 
 Shall harm Macbeth. \^Descends'\ 
 
 Macbeth. Then live, Macduff : what need I fear of thee ? 
 But yet I '11 make assurance double sure. 
 And take a bond of fate : thou shalt not live ; 
 That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, 85 
 
 And sleep in spite of thunder. 
 
 71. Two lines in Ff. 83. assurance 1 assurance : Ff. 
 79. Two lines in Ff. 86-87. One line Jn Ff. 
 
 72. Spirits thus evoked were supposed to be impatient of being 
 questioned. This line must be spoken with strong pauses. " The 
 rhythm is full of omen." — Liddell. 
 
 77. The second Apparition represents Macduff. See V, viii, 16. 
 
 78. The stress is on ' ears,' not on ' three.' Cf . the common ex- 
 pression, " To listen with all one's ears." 
 
 84. take a bond of fate : bind fate itself to the performance of the 
 promise. By killing Macduff he will make the promise irrevocable. 
 
SCENE I MACBETH 103 
 
 Thunder, Third Apparition, a Child crowned, with a 
 tree in his hand 
 
 What is this, 
 That rises like the issue of a king, 
 And wears upon his baby brow the round 
 And top of sovereignty? 
 
 All. Listen, but speak not to 't. 
 
 3 Apparition. Be Hon-mettl'd, proud; and take no care 
 Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are : 91 
 
 Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until 
 Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill 
 Shall come against him. \_Descends~\ 
 
 Macbeth. That will never be : 
 
 Who can impress the forest ; bid the tree 95 
 
 Unfix his earth-bound root ? Sweet bodements ! good ! 
 Rebellion's head, rise never till the wood 
 Of Birnam rise, and our high-plac'd Macbeth 
 
 90. lion-mettl'dlLyonmetledFf. 97 Rebellion's head Hanmerl Re- 
 
 93. Dunsinane | Dunsmane Fi. bellious dead Ff. 
 
 94. [Descends^Koyis Descend Ff. 98. Birnam F4 | Byrnan Fi. 
 
 86. The third Apparition represents 'royal Malcolm.' See V, iv, 4. 
 
 88-89. The ' round ' is that part of a crown which encircles the 
 head : the ' top ' is the ornament symbolical of sovereign power. 
 
 93. ' Dunsinane ' is here rightly accented on the penult ; elsewhere 
 iiY the play it is accented wrongly on the last syllable. Both pro- 
 nunciations occur in Wyntoun's Croiiykil (see Introduction). Pope 
 attempted to make the pronunciation here conformable to that in 
 the later scenes by reading ' Dunsinane's high.' "A certeine witch, 
 whom hee had in great trust, had told that he should neuer be slaine 
 with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till the wood of 
 Bernane came to the castell of Dunsinane." — Holinshed. 
 
 95. impress : force to serve as soldiers. Cf. / Henry IV, I, i, 21. 
 
I04 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath 
 
 To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart loo 
 
 Throbs to know one thing : tell me, if your art 
 
 Can tell so much : shall Banquo's issue ever 
 
 Reign in this kingdom ? 
 
 All. Seek to know no more. 
 
 Macbeth. I will be satisfied : deny me this, 
 And an eternal curse fall on you ! Let me know : 105 
 
 Why sinks that cauldron ? and what noise is this ? 
 
 \_Hautl?oys'\ 
 
 1 Witch. Show ! 
 
 2 Witch. Show ! 
 
 3 Witch. Show ! 
 
 All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; no 
 
 Come like shadows, so depart ! 
 
 A show 0/ eight Kings, the last zvith a glass in his hand ; 
 Banquo's Ghost following 
 
 Macbeth. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down ! 
 Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair, 
 Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first : 
 A third is like the former. Filthy hags ! 115 
 
 Why do you show me this? A fourth ! Start, eyes ! 
 What, will the line stretch out to th' crack of doom? 
 
 112. A show . . . ihe last . . . Ghost last, with a glasse in his hand Ff, 
 following \ A shew . . . and Banquo 113. hair | haire Ff | air Warburton. 
 
 99-100. Live the full time allotted and die a natural death. 
 
 112. The eight kings are supposed to be Robert II, Robert III, 
 and the six Jameses. Mary Stuart, daughter of James V, is passed 
 over, as the Witches' prediction had reference only to kings. 
 
 117. crack of doom. This now proverbial expression has been 
 taken to mean specifically either the thunder-peal announcing the 
 
SCENE I MACBETH 105 
 
 Another yet ! A seventh ! I '11 see no more : 
 
 And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass 
 
 Which shows me many more ; and some I see 120 
 
 That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry : 
 
 Horrible sight ! Now I see 't is true ; 
 
 For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me. 
 
 And points at them for his. What, is this so? 
 
 I Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so ; but why 125 
 
 Stands Macbeth thus amazedly? 
 Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, 
 And show the best of our delights : 
 I '11 charm the air to give a sound, 
 
 119. eighth F3F4 I eight F1F2. 
 
 Judgment-day or the blast of the last trumpet. Why should it not 
 connote both ? See Murray. 
 
 119. A magic glass, or charmed mirror, representing and revealing 
 future events, was and is a common method of divination. Cf. 
 Measure for Measure^ II, ii, 94-95. Such was the " brood mirour of 
 glas " which the "kii(g of Arabie and of Inde " sent to the " Tartre 
 Cambinskan " as told by Chaucer in The Squieres Tale. But the 
 most wonderful glass of this kind in literature is that which 
 
 The great Magitien Merlin had deviz'd, 
 
 By his deepe science and hell-dreaded might. 
 
 The Faerie Queene, III, ii, 18. 
 
 121. This line is usually regarded as a marked compliment to 
 James I. The two balls or globes probably symbolized the two inde- 
 pendent crowns of England and Scotland; the three sceptres, the 
 kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Scott, in Quentin 
 Durward, when Charles the Bold has Louis of France in his power, 
 makes Comines say to the King : " It is his (the Duke's) purpose to 
 close his ducal coronet with an imperial arch, and surmount it with 
 a globe, in emblem that his dominions are independent." 
 
 123. blood-bolter'd : having hair matted with blood. "The normal 
 forms of the word are ' baltered,' ' baultered.' " — Liddell. 
 
I06 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 While you perform your antic round; 130 
 
 That this great king may kindly say 
 Our duties did his welcome pay. 
 \_Mustc. The Witches dance, and vanish with Hecate] 
 Macbeth. Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious 
 hour 
 Stand aye accursed in the calendar ! 
 Come in, without there ! 
 
 Enter Lennox 
 
 Lennox. What 's your grace's will? 135 
 
 Macbeth. Saw you the weird sisters? 
 
 Lennox. No, my lord. 
 
 Macbeth. Came they not by you? 
 
 Lennox. No, indeed, my lord. 
 
 Macbeth. Infected be the air whereon they ride, 
 And damn'd all those that trust them ! I did hear 
 The galloping of horse : who was 't came by? 140 
 
 Lennox. 'T is two or three, my lord, that bring you word 
 Macduff is fled to England. 
 
 Macbeth. Fled to England ! 
 
 Lennox. Ay, my good lord. 
 
 130. antic I antick Theobald | an- 133. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 tique Ff. 136. weird | weyard Fi | wizard 
 
 132. -with Hecate | Ff omit. F2F8 I wizards F4. 
 
 130. antic : quaint. The same word as ' antique ' (' old-fashioned ' 
 and so ' quaint '). In Shakespeare the accent is invariably on the 
 first syllable. 
 
 138-139. Cf. Paradise Lost, II, 662-663. Milton's indebtedness to 
 Richard III and Macbeth is very marked. ' Macbeth ' is one of the 
 subjects from British history which he jotted down in 1639-1640 as 
 the theme of a possible poem. See Masson's Life of Milton, II, 115. 
 
SCENE II MACBETH 10/ 
 
 Macbeth. [^Ast'de'] Time, thou anticipat'st my dread 
 exploits : 
 The flighty purpose never is o'ertook 145 
 
 Unless the deed go with it : from this moment 
 The very firstlings of my heart shall be 
 The firstlings of my hand. And even now, 
 To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done : 
 The castle of Macduff I will surprise; 150 
 
 Seize upon Fife ; give to the edge o' the sword 
 His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls 
 That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool ; 
 This deed I '11 do before this purpose cool : 
 But no more sights ! Where are these gentlemen? 155 
 
 Come, bring me where they are. [^^xeuni'] 
 
 Scene II. Fz/e. Macduff's castle 
 Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross 
 
 Lady Macduff. What had he done, to make him fly the 
 
 land? 
 Ross. You must have patience, madam. 
 
 144, [Aside] Johnson | Ff omit. Lady Macduff Rowe I Mac- 
 
 ScENE II I Scene III Pope.— duffe's Wife Ff. 
 Fi/e . . . castle \ Ff omit. 
 
 144. anticipat'st : dost prevent. So in Sonnets, cxviii, 9. 
 
 145. flighty : swift to take flight. The original meaning. 
 
 155. sights : visions. As ' portents ' the word is used in Julius 
 CcEsar, I, iii, 138 ; II, ii, 16. Macbeth is greatly disturbed by what he 
 has seen in the cavern. 
 
 Scene II. " To omit this scene, as is usually the case on the 
 stage, is to present Macbeth's character in a far more favorable light 
 than Shakespeare intended, and to weaken the force of Macduff's 
 
I08 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 Lady Macduff. He had none ; 
 
 His flight was madness : when our actions do not, 
 Our fears do make us traitors. 
 
 Ross. You know not 
 
 Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. 5 
 
 Lady Macduff. Wisdom ! to leave his wife, to leave his 
 babes, 
 His mansion, and his titles, in a place 
 From whence himself does fly ! He loves us not; 
 He wants the natural touch : for the poor wren, 
 The most diminutive of birds, will fight, 10 
 
 Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. 
 All is the fear and nothing is the love ; 
 As little is the wisdom, where the flight 
 So runs against all reason. 
 
 Ross. My dearest coz, 
 
 I pray you, school yourself : but, for your husband, 15 
 
 He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows 
 The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much further : 
 But cruel are the times, when we are traitors 
 
 14. coz Rowe I Cooz F1F2 I Couz F3F4. 
 
 cry of agony, and Lady Macbeth's heart-piercing question in the 
 sleep-walking scene." — Bodenstedt. 
 
 4. make us: make us out to be. When our actions do not con- 
 vict us of being traitors, our fears do. Lady Macduff is apprehen- 
 sive that her husband's flight will be construed as proceeding from 
 guilty fear. 
 
 7. titles : possessions. The things to which he has a ' title.' 
 
 9. natural touch: natural affection, sensibility of nature. Cf. 'only 
 touch of love,' The Two Gentlemen of Verona, II, vii, 18 ; ' touch of 
 nature,' Troilus and Cressida, III, iii, 175. 
 
 17. fits 0' the season : exigencies, dangers, of the time. 
 
SCENE II MACBETH 109 
 
 And do not know ourselves ; when we hold rumour 
 
 From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, 20 
 
 But float upon a wild and violent sea 
 
 Each way and move. I take my leave of you; 
 
 Shall not be long but I '11 be here again. 
 
 Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward 
 
 To what they were before. My pretty cousin, 25 
 
 Blessing upon you ! 
 
 Lady Macduff. Father'd he is, and yet he 's fatherless. 
 
 Ross. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, 
 It would be my disgrace and your discomfort : 
 I take my leave at once. [_£xzf'] 
 
 Lady Macduff. Sirrah, your father 's dead : 30 
 
 And what will you do now? How will you live? 
 
 Son. As birds do, mother. 
 
 Lady Macduff. What, with worms and flies? 
 
 27. Two lines in Ff. ag. [Exii | Exit Rosse Ff. 
 
 19-20. Fear makes us credit rumor, yet we know not what to 
 fear, because ignorant when we offend. A condition wherein men 
 believe the more, because they fear, and fear the more, because they 
 cannot foresee the danger. 
 
 22. and move. An awkward expression. Upwards of twenty emen- 
 dations have been suggested (see Fumess and Clar), but the general 
 meaning is obvious. 'Move' may be either (i) a noun meaning 
 'direction,' or (2) a verb with the sense of ' are tossed about.' 
 
 24. The worse a disease becomes, the sooner there will be either 
 death or recovery. The very excess of an evil often starts a reaction, 
 and thence a return to a better state. 
 
 29. Disgrace myself and make you uncomfortable by weeping. 
 
 30. Sirrah. Often used as a form of address to inferiors, or to 
 young people. 
 
 32. Son. a peculiar pathos attaches to all Shakespeare's por- 
 traits of children. Cf. Prince Arthur in King John and Mamillius in 
 
no THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 Son. With what I get, I mean ; and so do they. 
 
 Lady Macduff. Poor bird ! thou 'dst never fear the net 
 
 nor lime, 
 The pitfall nor the gin. 35 
 
 Son. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not 
 
 set for. 
 My father is not dead, for all your saying. 
 
 Lady Macduff, Yes, he is dead : how wilt thou do for 
 
 a father? 
 Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband ? 
 Lady Macduff. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. 
 Son. Then you '11 buy 'em to sell again. 41 
 
 Lady Macduff. Thou speak'st with all thy wit; and yet 
 
 i' faith, 
 With wit enough for thee. 
 
 Son. Was my father a traitor, mother? 
 
 Lady Macduff. Ay, that he was. 45 
 
 Son. What is a traitor? 
 
 34> 36;? 38. Two lines in Ff. 42-43. and yet ... for thee | One 
 
 42. With all I withall Fi. line in Ff. 
 
 The Winter^s Tale. His own little boy Hamnet died in 1596. Web- 
 ster caught the spirit of this pathos in The White Devil in the scenes 
 between Brachiano and his little son Giovanni. " This scene, dread- 
 ful as it is, is still a relief, because a variety, because domestic, and 
 therefore soothing, as associated with the only real pleasures of life. 
 The conversation between Lady Macduff and her child heightens 
 the pathos, and is preparatory for the deep tragedy of their assas- 
 sination." — Coleridge. 
 
 36. Traps are not set for the poor but for the rich ; not for chil- 
 dren, but for important, grown-up men. 
 
 44. " The broken metre gradually merges into prose, here as in 
 II, iii, used by Shakespeare for purposes of dramatic relief." — 
 E. K. Chambers. 
 
SCENE II MACBETH III 
 
 Lady Macduff. Why, one that swears and lies. 
 
 Son. And be all traitors that do so? 
 
 Lady Macduff. Every one that does so is a traitor, and 
 must be hang'd. 50 
 
 Son. And must they all be hang'd that swear and lie? 
 
 Lady Macduff. Every one. 
 
 Son. Who must hang them? 
 
 Lady Macduff. Why, the honest men. 54 
 
 Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools ; for there are 
 liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men and hang 
 up them. 
 
 Lady Macduff. Now, God help thee, poor monkey ! But 
 how wilt thou do for a father ? 59 
 
 Son. If he were dead, you 'd weep for him : if you would 
 not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new 
 father. 
 
 Lady Macduff. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st ! 
 
 Enter a Messenger 
 
 Messenger. Bless you, fair dame ! I am not to you 
 known, 
 Though in your state of honour I am perfect. 65 
 
 49-50, 58-59. Two lines of verse 63. Lady Macduff | Wife Fi 
 
 in Ff. Pope printed as prose. FsF4 i Son F2. 
 
 64. "This messenger was one of the murderers employed by 
 Macbeth to exterminate Macduff's family ; but who, from emotions 
 of pity and remorse, had outstripped his companions, to give timely 
 •warning of their approach." — Heath. " This messenger may come 
 from Lady Macbeth." — Libby. " The messenger is a dramatic 
 device to represent Macbeth's murderous net closing around Lady 
 Macduff."— Liddell. 
 
 65. Perfectly acquainted with your honorable rank and character. 
 
112 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 I doubt some danger does approach you nearly : 
 
 If you will take a homely man's advice, 
 
 Be not found here; hence, with your little ones. -^ 
 
 To fright you thus, methinks I am too savage ; 
 
 To do worse to you were fell cruelty, 70 
 
 Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you ! 
 
 I dare abide no longer. \^Exif\ 
 
 Lady Macduff. Whither should I fly? 
 
 I have done no harm. But I remember now 
 I am in this earthly world; where to do harm 
 Is often laudable, to do good sometime 75 
 
 Accounted dangerous folly : why then, alas. 
 Do I put up that womanly defence. 
 To say I have done no harm ? — What are these faces ? 
 
 Enter Murderers 
 
 I Murderer. Where is your husband? 
 
 Lady Macduff. I hope, in no place so unsanctified 80 
 Where such as thou mayst find him. 
 
 I Murderer. He 's a traitor. 
 
 Son. Thou liest, thou shag-ear'd villain ! 
 
 I Murderer. \_Stabbing him~\ What, you egg ! 
 
 Young fry of treachery ! 
 
 Son. He has kill'd me, mother : 
 
 Run away, I pray you ! \_Dtes'] 
 
 \_Exit Lady Macduff, crying * Murder ! ' 
 Exeunt Murderers, following her'\ 
 
 78. Two lines in Ff. 84. {Dies\ Capell | Ff omit. — 
 
 83. \_Stabbinghim\^QV)^\Yiom\t. \Exit \ Exit crying Murther Ff. 
 
 82. shag-eeir'd : with shaggy, hairy ears. For this, the Folio reading, 
 Steevens suggested ' shag-hair'd.' Cf. z Henry VI, III, i, 367. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 113 
 
 Scene III. England. Before the King' s palace 
 Enter Malcolm and Macduff 
 
 Malcolm. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there 
 Weep our sad bosoms empty. 
 
 Macduff. Let us rather 
 
 Hold fast the mortal sword, and, like good men. 
 Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom. Each new morn 
 New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows 5 
 
 Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds 
 As if it felt with Scotland, and yell'd out 
 Like syllable of dolour. 
 
 Malcolm. What I believe, I '11 wail; 
 
 What know, believe ; and what I can redress, 
 As I shall find the time to friend, I will. 10 
 
 What you have spoke, it may be so perchance. 
 This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues. 
 Was once thought honest : you have lov'd him well ; 
 He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young ; but something 
 
 Scene III I Scene IV Pope. — 4. down-faH'n Globe | downfall 
 
 England . . . palace Dyce | Ff omit. F1F2F8. 
 
 4. Bestride : bravely defend. To stand over a fallen comrade and 
 defend him was a special bravery of friendship. Cf . i He7iry IV, V, i, 
 \22; 2 Henry IV, I, i, 207 ; Comedy of Errors, V, i, 192. — birthdom : 
 native land. Some take it in the sense of 'birthright.' 
 
 8. Like syllable of dolour: a similar cry of pain. 
 
 10. to friend : friendly, favorable. Cf. Julius Ccesar, III, i, 143. 
 
 14-16. You may see what sort of a man Macbeth is from my sad 
 experience, and learn from me the wise policy of offering up, etc 
 Most modem editors have accepted Theobald's change of the text. 
 But " ' deserve ' for ' discern ' makes nonsense out of the latter part 
 cf the passage. ' I am young,' which is in contrast to the thought 
 
114 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 You may discern of him through me, and wisdom 15 
 
 To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb 
 
 T' appease an angry god. — 
 
 Macduff. I am not treacherous. 
 
 Malcolm. But Macbeth is. 
 
 A good and virtuous nature may recoil 
 
 In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon ; 20 
 That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose : 
 Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell : 
 Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, 
 Yet grace must still look so. 
 
 Macduff. I have lost my hopes. 
 
 Malcolm. Perchance even there where I did find my 
 doubts. 25 
 
 15. discern F3F4 1 discerne F1F2I me, and Ff | me ; and Camb | me; 
 deserve Theobald Globe Camb. — 'tisHanmer. 
 
 25. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 which ' but ' introduces, is meaningless with ' But you deserve some- 
 thing through me.' The normal contrast with Malcolm's youth and 
 innocency would be a characteristic of age and experience ; this we 
 have if we take ' discern ' in its Elizabethan sense, ' to learn by dis- 
 cernment ' ; the word in this sense is usually followed by 'of.'" — 
 Liddell. In earlier editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, Theobald's 
 reading was adopted with this interpretation : You may purchase or 
 secure his favor by sacrificing me to his malice ; and to do so would 
 be an act of worldly wisdom on your part, as I have no power to 
 punish you for it. 
 
 19-20. May recede or fall away from goodness and virtue under 
 the temptations of a man so powerful to resent or to reward. 
 
 21. transpose : transform, change. Cf. A Midst(mt/ier AHghfs 
 Dream, I, i, 233. 
 
 i'>,-i^. Though all bad things should counterfeit the looks of 
 goodness, yet goodness must still wear its own looks. 
 
 25. Though Macduff claims to have fled his home to avoid the 
 tyrant's blow, he has left his wife and children in the tyrant's power. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 115 
 
 Why in that rawness left you wife and child, 
 
 Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, 
 
 Without leave-taking? I pray you, 
 
 Let not my jealousies be your dishonours, ' 
 
 But mine own safeties : you may be rightly just, 30 
 
 Whatever I shall think. 
 
 Macduff. Bleed, bleed, poor country ! 
 
 Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure. 
 For goodness dare not check thee ; wear thou thy wrongs ; 
 The title is affeer'd ! Fare thee well, lord : 
 I would not be the villain that thou think'st 35 
 
 For the whole space that 's in the tyrant's grasp, 
 And the rich East to boot. 
 
 Malcolm. Be not offended : 
 
 I speak not as in absolute fear of you. 
 I think our country sinks beneath the yoke ; 
 It weeps, it bleeds ; and each new day a gash 40 
 
 Is added to her wounds : I think withal 
 There would be hands uplifted in my right ; 
 
 33. dare F1F2 I dares F8F4. Malone. — affeer'd Hanmer | affear'd 
 
 34. The Ff I His Pope | Thy F1F2 I afear'd F3 I afeard F4. 
 
 This makes the prince distrust his purpose and suspect him of being 
 a secret agent of Macbeth. And so, when he says, " I have lost my 
 hopes," the prince replies, Perhaps the cause which has destroyed 
 your hopes is the very same that leads me to distrust you ; that is, 
 perhaps you have hoped to betray me, and this is just what I fear. 
 26. rawness: unprovided condition. Cf. Henry V, IV, i, 147. 
 
 33. wear thou thy wrongs. Does ' thou ' refer to ' country,' to 
 'tyranny,' or to Malcolm? 'Tyranny' is probably the object ad- 
 dressed, and the meaning will be. Enjoy the place and honors gained 
 by your wrong-doing. 
 
 34. The title is affeer'd: the title you put forward is confirmed. 
 
Il6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 And here from gracious England have I offer 
 
 Of goodly thousands : but, for ail this, 
 
 When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head, 45 
 
 Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country 
 
 Shall have more vices than it had before ; 
 
 More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever, 
 
 By him that shall succeed, 
 
 Macduff. What should he be? 
 
 Malcolm. It is myself I mean ; in whom I know 50 
 
 All the particulars of vice so grafted, 
 That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth 
 Will seem as pure as snow ; and the poor state 
 Esteem him as a lamb, being compar'd 
 With my confineless harms. 
 
 Macduff. Not in the legions 55 
 
 Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd 
 In evils to top Macbeth. 
 
 Malcolm. I grant him bloody, 
 
 Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful. 
 Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin 
 That has a name : but there 's no bottom, none, 60 
 
 In my voluptuousness ; your wives, your daughters, 
 Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up 
 The cistern of my lust, and my desire 
 
 59. smacking Fi | smoaking F2 63. cistern F3F4 I Cesterne FiFa. 
 
 F8F4. 
 
 43. gracious England : Edward the Confessor, then King of Eng- 
 land. Cf. King John, III, iv, 8, " bloody England into England." 
 
 55. confineless harms: boundless vices. Cf. Othello, III, iii, 173, 
 " But riches fineless is as poor as winter." 
 
 57. top : surpass. Cf. Kitig Lear, I, ii, 21 ; Coriolanus, II, i, 23. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH II7 
 
 All continent impediments would o'erbear, 
 
 That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth . 65 
 
 Than such an one to reign. 
 
 Macduff. Boundless intemperance 
 
 In nature is a tyranny , it hath been 
 Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne, 
 And fall of many kings. But fear not yet 
 To take upon you what is yours : you may 70 
 
 Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty, 
 And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink. 
 We have willing dames enough ; there cannot be 
 That vulture in you, to devour so many 
 As will to greatness dedicate themselves, 75 
 
 Finding it so inclin'd. 
 
 Malcolm. With this there grows, 
 
 In my most ill-compos'd affection such 
 A stanchless avarice that, were I king, 
 I should cut off the nobles for their lands, 
 Desire his jewels and this other's house : 80 
 
 And my more-having would be as a sauce 
 To make me hunger more, that I should forge 
 Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, 
 Destroying them for wealth. 
 
 Macduff. This avarice 
 
 Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root 85 
 
 Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been 
 
 86. -seeming Ff | -teeming Theobald | -seeding Steevens. 
 
 71. Convey: obtain in secrecy. Cf. Richard II, IV, i, 317. 
 80. his : one man's. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 54. 
 86. summer-seeming : summer-resembling. The passion that burns 
 awhile like summer and like summer passes away is contrasted with 
 
Il8 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 The sword of bur slain kings : yet do not fear ; 
 
 Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will 
 
 Of your mere own : all these are portable, 
 
 With other graces weigh'd. 90 
 
 Malcolm. But I have none : the king-becoming graces, 
 As justice, verity, temperance, stableness. 
 Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, 
 Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, 
 I have no relish of them ; but abound 95 
 
 In the division of each several crime. 
 Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should 
 Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, 
 Uproar the universal peace, confound 
 All unity on earth. 
 
 Macduff. O Scotland, Scotland ! 100 
 
 88. foisons 1 foysons F1F2 I poison F3F4. 
 
 the other passion, avarice, which grows stronger and stronger to 
 the end of life. Malone calls attention to "winter-seeming summer's 
 night " in Donne's Love's Alchemy. 
 
 87. Either (i) the sword that has slain our kings, or (2) the evil 
 that has caused our kings to be slain with the sword. " For that crime 
 the most part of our kings have been slaine and brought to their 
 final end." — Holinshed. 
 
 88. foisons : plenty, abundance. See Murray. Cf. Sonnets, liii, 9. 
 
 89. mere: absolutely. Cf.line 152. — portable: endurable. Ci.A'ing 
 Lear, III, vi, 115 : " How light and portable my pain seems now." 
 
 92. verity : honesty. Cf. As You Like It, III, iv, 25. — temperance : 
 restraint. Cf. Hamlet, III, ii, 8; Measure for Measure, III, ii, 251. 
 
 93. perseverance. Accented on second syllable. The Elizabethan 
 pronunciation. Similarly the verb 'persever' was accented on the 
 penult, rhyming with ' ever' in Spenser's Amoretti. 
 
 96. division: variation. A musical term. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, 
 III, v, 29, and ' ravishing division' in / He7iry IV, III, i, 211. 
 99. Uproar: fill with tumult. — confound: destroy. Cf. II, ii, 11. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 1 19 
 
 Malcolm. If such a one be fit to govern, speak : 
 I am as I have spoken. 
 
 Macduff. Fit to govern ! 
 
 No, not to live. O nation miserable. 
 With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter'd. 
 When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, 105 
 
 Since that the truest issue of thy throne 
 By his own interdiction stands accurs'd. 
 And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father 
 Was a most sainted king : the queen that bore thee, 
 Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, no 
 
 Died every day she liv'd. Fare thee well ! 
 These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself 
 Hath banish'd me from Scotland. O my breast. 
 Thy hope ends here ! 
 
 Malcolm. Macduff, this noble passion, 
 
 Child of integrity, hath from my soul 115 
 
 Wip'd the black scruples, reconcil'd my thoughts 
 To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth 
 By many of these trains hath sought to win me 
 
 102-103. One line in Ff. log. sainted king I Sainted-King 
 
 107. accurs'd | accurst F2F3F4 I F1F2F3 I Sainted King F4. 
 accust Fi. 113. Hath Ff I Have Rowe. 
 
 106. Since that. 'That' as a conjunctional affix. Cf. line 185. 
 See Abbott, § 287. 
 
 III. Cf. / Corinthians, xv, 31, "I die daily." "Every day of her 
 life was a preparation for death." — Clar. 
 
 118. trains : lures, devices of circumvention. " A technical term 
 both in hawking and hunting : in hawking, for the lure thrown out 
 to reclaim a falcon given to ramble . . . and in hunting, for the bait 
 trailed along the ground, and left exposed, to tempt the animal from 
 his lair or covert, and bring him fairly within the power of the lurk- 
 ing huntsman." — T. S. Baynes. 
 
120 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 Into his power ; and modest wisdom plucks me 
 
 From over-credulous haste ; but God above 120 
 
 Deal between thee and me ! for even now 
 
 I put myself to thy direction, and 
 
 Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure 
 
 The taints and blames I laid upon myself, 
 
 For strangers to my nature. I am yet 125 
 
 Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, 
 
 Scarcely have coveted what was mine own. 
 
 At no time broke my faith, would not betray 
 
 The devil to his fellow, and delight 
 
 No less in truth than life : my first false speaking 130 
 
 Was this upon myself. What I am truly, 
 
 Is thine and my poor country's to command ; 
 
 Whither, indeed, before thy here-approach, 
 
 Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men. 
 
 Already at a point, was setting forth : 135 
 
 Now we '11 together ; and the chance of goodness 
 
 Be like our warranted quarrel ! Why are you silent? 
 
 126. woman Fi | women F2F3F4. 135. Already Ff | All ready Rowe. 
 
 133. thy F2F3F4 I they Fi. —forth: | foorth: Fl | foorth ? F2. 
 
 128-129. If he would not betray the devil to his friend, much less 
 would he betray him to his enemy. 
 
 133. here-approach. Cf. 'here-remain,'line 14S. See Abbott, § 429. 
 
 134. " In the mean time, Malcolme purchased such fauor at King 
 Edwards hands, that old Siward earle of Northumberland, was ap- ' 
 pointed with ten thousand men to go with him into Scotland to 
 support him in this enterprise." — Holinshed. 
 
 135. at a point: ready, prepared. Cf. Hatnlet, I, ii, 200, "Armed 
 at point exactly, cap-a-pe"; King Lear, I, iv, 347. 
 
 136-137. May the chance for virtue to succeed be as good, as well 
 warranted, as our cause is just. For ' quarrel ' in the sense of ' cause ' 
 cf. 2 Henry IV, IV, v, 169. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 121 
 
 Macduff. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once 
 'Tis hard to reconcile. 
 
 Enter a Doctor 
 
 Malcolm. Well ; more anon. — Comes the king forth, I 
 pray you ? 1 40 
 
 Doctor. Ay, sir ; there are a crew of wretched souls 
 That stay his cure : their malady convinces 
 The great assay of art ; but at his touch, 
 Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand. 
 They presently amend. 
 
 Malcolm. I thank you, doctor. 145 
 
 \^Exit Doctor] 
 
 Macduff. What 's the disease he means ? 
 
 Malcolm. 'Tis call'd the evil : 
 
 A most miraculous work in this good king ; 
 Which often, since my here-remain in England, 
 I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, 
 Himself best knows : but strangely-visited people, 150 
 
 All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, 
 
 140. Scene V Pope. 
 
 142. convinces : overcomes. Cf. I, vii, 64. 
 
 143. assay : attempt, effort. See Murray. — art : professional skill. 
 146-159. This episode, really irrelevant to the action of the play, 
 
 is usually construed as a courtly compliment to James I, who was 
 always pleased to exercise the power of ' touching ' for the ' king's 
 evil,' as scrofula was called. The description of Edward the Con- 
 fessor is from Holinshed : " As hath bin thought he was enspired 
 with the gift of Prophecie, and also to haue hadde the gift of heal- 
 ing infirmities and diseases. Namely he vsed to help those that were 
 vexed with the disease, commonly called the Kyngs euill, and left 
 that vertue as it were a portion of inheritance vnto his successors 
 the Kyngs of this Realme." .. - ■' 
 
122 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 The mere despair of surgery, he cures, 
 
 Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 
 
 Put on with holy prayers : and 't is spoken, 
 
 To the succeeding royalty he leaves 155 
 
 The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, 
 
 He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, 
 
 And sundry blessings hang about his throne, 
 
 That speak him full of grace. 
 
 Enter Ross 
 
 Macduff. See, who comes here? 
 
 Malcolm. My countryman ; but yet I know him not. 160 
 
 Macduff. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither. 
 
 Malcolm. I know him now. Good God, betimes remove 
 The means that makes us strangers ! 
 
 Ross. Sir, amen. 
 
 Macduff. Stands Scotland where it did? 
 
 Ross. Alas, poor country, 
 
 Almost afraid to know itself ! It cannot 165 
 
 159. Scene VI Pope. 
 
 153. " Each person touched received a gold coin. Sir Thomas 
 Browne wrote sixty years later, ' The King's Purse knows that the 
 King's Evil grows more common.' " — Herford. In Shakespeare's 
 day the coin given (the ' evil-gold ') was an ' angel.' Cf. The Merchant 
 of Venice^ II, vii, 55-57 : 
 
 They have in England 
 A coin that bears the figure of an angel 
 Stamped in gold. 
 
 162-163. Malcolm at first distrusts Ross, just as he had before 
 distrusted Macduff : but he has given his confidence unreservedly to 
 Macduff, and now he has full faith in Ross as soon as he sees how 
 Macduff regards him. The passage is very delightful. — means: 
 cause. Either singular or plural in Elizabethan English. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 123 
 
 Be call'd our mother, but our grave : where nothing, 
 But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile ; 
 Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air, 
 Are made, not mark'd ; where violent sorrow seems 
 A modern ecstasy : the dead man's knell 170 
 
 Is there scarce ask'd for who ; and good men's lives 
 Expire before the flowers in their caps, 
 Dying or ere they sicken. 
 
 Macduff. O, relation 
 
 Too nice, and yet too true ! 
 
 Malcolm. What 's the newest grief ? 
 
 Ross. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker ; 175 
 Each minute teems a new one. 
 
 Macduff. How does my wife ? 
 
 Ross. Why, well. 
 
 Macduff. And all my children ? 
 
 Ross. Well too. 
 
 Macduff. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace ? 
 
 168. rend Rowe | rent Ff. 173. ere Ff | e'er Rowe. 
 
 170. dead man's Johnson | Dead- 173-174. 0, relation . . . too true 
 
 mans F1F2 I Dead-man's F3F4. 1 one line in Ff. 
 
 170. modern ecstasy : ordinary, common, disturbance of mind. 
 
 174. nice : particular, elaborate. Having too much an air of study 
 and art, and so not like tiie frank utterance of deep feeling. See 
 Murray. 
 
 175. That which is but an hour old seems out of date, and causes 
 the narrator to be denounced as tedious. 
 
 177-179. This use of 'well,' not as a mere equivoque, but as a 
 euphemism for 'dead,' is illustrated in Antony and Cleopatra, II, v, 
 
 31-33: 
 
 Messenger. First, madam, he is well. 
 
 Cleopatra. Why, there's more gold. 
 
 But, sirrah, mark, we use 
 To say the dead are well. ■ . 
 
124 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 Ross. No ; they were well at peace when I did leave 'em. 
 
 Macduff. Be not a niggard of your speech : how goes 't? 
 
 Ross. When I came hither to transport the tidings i8i 
 Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour 
 Of many worthy fellows that were out ; 
 Which was to my belief witness'd the rather, 
 For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot : 185 
 
 Now is the time of help ; your eye in Scotland 
 Would create soldiers, make our women fight, 
 To doff their dire distresses. " " . 
 
 Malcolm. Be 't their comfort 
 
 We are coming thither : gracious England hath 
 Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men; 190 
 
 An older and a better soldier none 
 That Christendom gives out. 
 
 Ross. Would I could answer 
 
 This comfort with the like ! But I have words 
 That would be howl'd out in the desert air. 
 Where hearing should not latch them. 
 
 Macduff. What concern they ? 
 
 195. they? Theobald I they, Ff. 
 
 183. out : in arms, in open revolt. " He was out wi' the Hieland- 
 nien in Montrose's time." — Sir Walter Scott, 'Wandering Willie's 
 Tale,' Redgau7itlet. What follows means that the ' rumour ' is con- 
 firmed by the fact that Macbeth has put his troops in motion. 
 
 188 doff : put away. ' Doff ' is from 'do off ' as ' don ' from ' do 
 on.' Cf. ' dup ' {^Hamlet, IV, v, 53) from ' do up.' 
 
 192. gives out : shows. This expression with this meaning occurs 
 often in Shakespeare. Cf. Twelfth Night, III, iv, 203; Othello, III, 
 iii, 209; The Winter's Tale, IV, iv, 149. 
 
 195. latch : catch. Cf. Sonnets, cxiil, 6. But ' latch ' in A Mid- 
 summer Nighfs Dream, III, ii, 36, is probably a different word, mean- 
 ing ' moisten.' See Murray under ' latch ' and ' leach.' 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 125 
 
 The general cause ? or is it a fee-grief 196 
 
 Due to some single breast? 
 
 Ross. No mind that 's honest 
 
 But in it shares some woe; though the main part 
 Pertains to you alone. 
 
 Macduff. If it be mine, 
 
 Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. 200 
 
 Ross. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, 
 Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound 
 That ever yet they heard. 
 
 Macduff. Hum ! I guess at it. 
 
 Ross. Your castle is surpris'd ; your wife and babes 
 Savagely slaughter'd : to relate the manner, 205 
 
 Were, on the quarry of these murder 'd deer, 
 To add the death of you. 
 
 Malcolm. Merciful heaven ! 
 
 What, man ! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows; 
 Give sorrow words : the grief that does not speak 
 Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. 210 
 
 Macduff. My children too ? 
 
 Ross. Wife, children, servants, all 
 
 That could be found. 
 
 Macduff. And I must be from thence ! 
 
 My wife kill'd too? 
 
 Ross. I have said. 
 
 Malcolm. Be comforted : 
 
 303. Hum ! Rowe I Humh : Ff | 211-213. Wife . . . too? I two lines 
 
 Humph ! Maione | Ha ! Hunter. in Ff, first ending found. 
 
 196. fee-grief : private, individual sorrow. "Agrief held 'infee'bya 
 
 single owner." — Herford. Anotherof the many legal terms in Macbeth. 
 
 3o6. quarry : heap of slain. See note, I, ii, 14. Cf. Hamlet, V, ii, 375. 
 
126 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 
 
 Let 's make us medicines of our great revenge, 
 
 To cure this deadly grief. 215 
 
 Macduff. He has no children. — All my pretty ones? 
 Did you say all? O hell-kite ! All? 
 What, all my pretty chickens and their dam 
 At one fell swoop? ; ; . _ 
 
 Malcolm. Dispute it like a man. 
 
 Macduff. I shall do so ; 220 
 
 But I must also feel it as a man : 
 I cannot but remember such things were, ■ y 
 
 That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on. 
 And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff, 
 They were all struck for thee ! naught that I am, 225 
 
 Not for their own demerits, but for mine. 
 Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now ! 
 
 Malcolm. Be this the whetstone of your sword : let grief 
 Convert to anger ; blunt not the heart, enrage it. 
 
 Macduff. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes, 230 
 And braggart with my tongue ! But, gentle heavens, 
 
 325. struck Rowe | strooke FiF2. 
 
 216. He has no children. This is most likely said of Malcolm, and 
 with reference to what he has just spoken, though it is commonly 
 taken as referring to Macbeth, and in the idea that, as he has no 
 children, there can be no adequate revenge upon him. But the true 
 meaning probably is, that if Malcolm were a father, he would know 
 that such a grief cannot be healed with the medicine of revenge. 
 Cf. King John, III, iv, 91. Besides, it would seem that Macbeth has 
 children, else why should he strain so hard to have the regal suc- 
 cession " stand in his posterity" .'' And Lady Macbeth knows "how 
 tender 't is to love the babe that milks me " (I, vii, 55). 
 
 220. Dispute it : strive against it, resist it. 
 
 325. naught: wicked, worthless. Not to be confounded with 
 'nought.' Cf. 'naughty' in The Merchant of Venice, V, i, 91. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 12/ 
 
 Cut short all intermission ; front to front 
 Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; 
 Within my sword's length set him ; if he scape, 
 Heaven forgive him too ! 
 
 Malcolm. This tune goes manly. 235 
 
 Come, go we to the king; our power is ready; 
 Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth 
 Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above 
 Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may : 
 The night is long that never finds the day. [_£xeunt'j 
 
 235. tune Rowe | time Ff. 
 
 235. The little word ' too ' is so used here as to intensify, in a very 
 remarkable manner, the sense of what precedes. Put him once 
 within the reach of my sword, and if I don't kill him, then I am as 
 bad as he, and may God forgive us both ! — tune. Liddell defends the 
 Folio reading here, but as has been often pointed out, ' time ' and 
 'tune' would be very easily confused in Elizabethan manuscript. — 
 manly. Adjectives ending in -ly are used as adverbs in Elizabethan 
 English without any change of form. 
 
 237. Nothing remains to be done but to take our leave. 
 
 239. Put on their instruments : set their agents to work. 
 
ACT V 
 
 Scene I. Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle 
 
 Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman 
 
 Doctor. I have two nights watch'd with you, but can per- 
 ceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walk'd? 
 
 Gentlewoman. Since his majesty went into the field, I 
 have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon 
 her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon 't, 
 read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed ; yet all 
 this while in a most fast sleep. 7 
 
 Doctor. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at 
 once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching ! 
 In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other 
 actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard 
 her say? 12 
 
 Dinisinaite Capell | Ff omit. — Ante-room iji the castle Globe | Ff omit. 
 
 3. went into the field. Steevens calls this one of Shakespeare's 
 oversights. In the preceding scene, Macbeth was said to have his 
 " power a-foot " (line 185) against " many worthy fellows that were 
 out" (line 183). Probably the coming of the English forces induced 
 him to withdraw his troops from the field and put them within the 
 strong fortress of Dunsinane. 
 
 4. night-gown: dressing-robe. Cf. II, ii, 70. 
 
 9. do the effects of watching : act as in her waking hours. Shake- 
 speare often uses 'effects' for 'actions.' Cf. King Lear, I, i, 188; 
 Hamlet, III, iv, 129. See Schmidt. 
 
 128 
 
SCENE I MACBETH 129 
 
 Gentlewoman. That, sir, which I will not report after her. 
 
 Doctor. You may to me ; and 't is most meet you should. 
 
 Gentlewoman. Neither to you nor any one; having no 
 
 witness to confirm my speech. 16 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper 
 
 Lo you, here she comes ! This is her very guise ; and, 
 upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her ; stand close. 
 
 Doctor. How came she by that light? 19 
 
 Gentlewoman. Why, it stood by her : she has light by 
 her continually; 'tis her command. 
 
 Doctor. You see, her eyes are open. 
 
 Gentlewoman. Ay, but their sense are shut. 
 
 Doctor. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs 
 her hands. 25 
 
 Gentlewoman. It is an accustom'd action with her, to 
 seem thus washing her hands ; I have known her continue 
 in this a quarter of an hour. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Yet here 's a spot. 29 
 
 17. Enter Lady Macbeth ... I 23. sense are Ff | sense is Rowe. 
 Enter Lady . . . Ff. 24-25. Ff print as verse. 
 
 14. " The speeches of the Doctor . . . have a certain cadence 
 verging on blank verse, without quite gUding into it." — DeUus. 
 
 18. stand close : keep concealed. Ci. Julius Casar, I, iii, 131. 
 
 20. Contrast this with her invocation, " Come, thick night. And 
 pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell," I, v, 48-49. So the "wash- 
 ing her hands ... a quarter of an hour" as compared with "A little 
 water clears us of this deed," II, ii, 67. 
 
 23. sense are. This, the Folio reading, is usually changed to 'sense 
 is,' the 'are' being regarded as a printer's repetition of 'are ' just 
 above. But 'sense' is a plural in Sonnets, CXII, 10. Cf. 'balance' 
 as a plural in The Mercha^it of Vefiice, IV, i, 255. See Abbott, § 471. 
 
I30 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 
 
 Doctor. Hark ! she speaks : I will set down what comes 
 from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Out, damned spot ! out, I say ! — One, 
 two ; why, then 't is time to do 't. — Hell is murky 1 — Fie, 
 my lord, fie ! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who 
 knows it, when none can call our power to account? — Yet 
 who would have thought the old man to have had so much 
 blood in him? 37 
 
 Doctor. Do you mark that? 
 
 Lady Macbeth. The thane of Fife had a wife ; where is 
 she now? — What, will these hands ne'er be clean? — No 
 more o' that, my lord, no more o' that : you mar all with 
 this starting. 42 
 
 Doctor. Go to, go to ; you have known what you 
 should not. 44 
 
 Gentlewoman. She has spoke what she should not, I am 
 sure of that : heaven knows what she has known. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Here 's the smell of the blood still : all 
 the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, 
 oh, oh ! • 49 
 
 35. account F3F4 I accompt F1F2. 47. the blood F1F2 I bloud F3F4 
 
 43-44. Ff print as two lines of verse. Rowe. 
 
 33. Hell is murky ! Some commentators, following Steevens, think 
 that Lady Macbeth imagines her husband to utter these words, and 
 repeats them after him as in ridicule or reproach of his fears. 
 
 41-42. She is alluding to the terrors of Macbeth on seeing the 
 Ghost of Banquo in the banquet scene, III, iv, 63. 
 
 47-48. Upon this passage, Verplanck, after remarking how fertile 
 the sense of smell is in the gentler charms of poetry, comments : 
 
 But the smell has never been successfully used as the means of impressing 
 the imagination with terror, pity, or any of the deeper emotions, except in 
 this dreadful sleepwalking of the guilty Queen, and in one parallel scene 
 of the Greek Drama, as wildly terrible as this. It is that passage of the 
 
SCENE I MACBETH I31 
 
 Doctor. What a sigh is there ! The heart is sorely 
 charg'd. 
 
 Gentlewoman. I would not have such a heart in my 
 bosom for the dignity of the whole body. 
 
 Doctor. Well, well, well, — 
 
 Gentlewoman. Pray God it be, sir. 55 
 
 Doctor. This disease is beyond my practice : yet I have 
 known those which have walk'd in their sleep who have died 
 holily in their beds. 58 
 
 Lady Macbeth. Wash your hands; put on your night- 
 gown ; look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo 's 
 buried ; he cannot come out on 's grave. 
 
 Doctor. Even so? 62 
 
 Lady Macbeth. To bed, to bed ; there 's knocking at 
 the gate : come, come, come, come, give me your hand : 
 what 's done cannot be undone : to bed, to bed, to bed. 
 
 Doctor. Will she go now to bed? 
 
 Gentlewoman. Directly. 67 
 
 53. the dignity F1F2 | dignity F3F4. 
 
 Agamemtton of yEschylus, wiiere the captive prophetess Cassandra, wrapt 
 in visionary inspiration, scents first the smell of blood, and then the vapours 
 of the tomb breathing from the palace of Atrides, as ominous of his approach- 
 ing murder. These two stand alone in poetry ; and Fuseli, in his Lectures, 
 informs us that when, in the kindred art of painting, it has been attempted 
 to produce tragic effect through the medium of ideas drawn from this ' squeam- 
 ish sense,' even Raphael and Poussin have failed, and excited disgust instead 
 of terror and compassion. He justly remarks that 'taste and smell,' as 
 sources of tragic emotion, seem scarcely admissible in art or in the theatre. 
 
 55. Does the Gentlewoman misunderstand the Doctor's " Well, 
 well, well," or does she mean this as a further hint how dreadful the 
 thing is ? At all events, this may be regarded as one of Shake- 
 speare's quiet, unobtrusive master-strokes of delineation. 
 
132 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 
 
 Doctor. Foul whisperings are abroad : unnatural deeds 
 Do breed unnatural troubles : infected minds 
 To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets : 70 
 
 More needs she the divine than the physician- 
 God, God forgive us all ! Look after her ; 
 Remove from her the means of all annoyance, 
 And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night : 
 My mind she has mated, and amaz'd my sight : 75 
 
 I think, but dare not speak. 
 
 Gentlewoman. Good night, good doctor. 
 
 Scene II. T/te country near Dunsinane 
 
 Drum and colours. Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, 
 Lennox, and Soldiers 
 
 Menteith. The English power is near, led on by 
 Malcolm, 
 His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff : 
 Revenges burn in them ; for their dear causes 
 Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm 
 Excite the mortified man. 
 
 Angus. Near Birnam wood 5 
 
 Shall we well meet them ; that way are they coming. 
 
 The country near Dunsinane Capell | Ff omit. 
 
 73. annoyance: doing violence to herself. Q.i. Richard II, \W,''a., id; 
 Troihis a7id Cressida, I, iii, 48. See Murray. This foreshadows the 
 " taking off" her life "by self and violent hands," V, viii, 70-71. 
 
 75. mated: bewildered. Still used in 'check-mated.' See Skeat. 
 
 4-5. Would rouse and impel even a hermit to the war, to the 
 signal for carnage and horror. By ' the mortified man ' is meant ' a 
 
SCENE II MACBETH 1 33 
 
 Caithness. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother ? 
 
 Lennox. For certain, sir, he is not : I have a file 
 Of all the gentry : there is Siward's son, 
 And many unrough youths, that even now 10 
 
 Protest their first of manhood. 
 
 Menteith. What does the tyrant? 
 
 Caithness. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies : 
 Some say he 's mad ; others, that lesser hate him, 
 Do call it valiant fury : but, for certain, 
 He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause 15 
 
 Within the belt of rule. 
 
 Angus. Now does he feel 
 
 His secret murders sticking on his hands ; 
 Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach ; 
 Those he commands move only in command. 
 Nothing in love : now does he feel his title 20 
 
 Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe 
 Upon a dwarfish thief. 
 
 10. unrough Theobald | vnruffe F1F2 I unruff FsFi, 
 
 religious man,' one who has mortified his passions, is dead to the 
 world. Cf. Loz'e's Labour^s Lost, I, i, 28-31. 
 
 8. file: list, catalogue. Cf. 'the valued file,' III, i, 94, loi. 
 
 10. unrough: beardless, smooth-faced. Cf. The Tempest, 11, \, 2^0. 
 
 11. Protest. Cf. Ill, iv, 105. — first of manhood. Cf. Ill, i, 117. 
 
 12. " But after that Makbeth perceiued his enimies power to in- 
 crease, by such aid as came to them foorth of England with his 
 aduersarie Malcolme, he recoiled backe into Fife, there purposing to 
 abide in campe fortified, at the castell of Dunsinane." — Holinshed. 
 
 15. He cannot keep his disorganized party within control. For 
 the metaphor, cf. Troilus and Cressida, II, ii, 30. In previous edi- 
 tions of Hudson's Shakespeare, Collier's emendation of 'course' 
 (i.e. ' course of action ') for ' cause ' was adopted. 
 
 i8. minutely : occurring every minute. Accent on first syllable. 
 
134 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 
 
 Menteith. Who then shall blame 
 
 His pester'd senses to recoil and start, 
 When all that is within him does condemn 
 Itself for being there ? 
 
 Caithness. Well, march we on, 25 
 
 To give obedience where 't is truly ow'd : 
 Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal ; 
 And with him pour we in our country's purge 
 Each drop of us. 
 
 Lennox. Or so much as it needs 
 
 To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. 30 
 
 Make we our march towards Birnam. \_Exeunt, marching] 
 
 Scene III, Dunsinane. A room in the castle 
 Enter Macbeth, the Doctor, and Attendants 
 
 Macbeth. Bring me no more reports ; let them fly all : 
 Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane 
 I cannot taint with fear. What 's the boy Malcolm? 
 
 27. medicine I Med'cine Ff | med'- Ditnsmane. A room in the castle 
 
 cin Hannier I medecin Steevens. Capell I Ff omit. 
 
 31. Birnam | Birnan Fi. 2. Birnam F3F4 | Byrnane Fi. 
 
 23. pester'd : troubled. Another word that has degenerated in 
 meaning. — to recoil and start. Infinitive used gerundively. 
 
 27. medicine. This undoubtedly refers to Malcolm, but is the 
 word to be taken as meaning 'physician' (Fr. medecin ; cf. All^s Well 
 that Ends Well, II, i, 75), or ' remedy,' as the next line seems to 
 suggest .'' Probably the word is used in the double sense here ; cf. 
 ' sovereign,' in line 30, in the sense of ' royal ' and ' powerful remedy.' 
 Malcolm was the lawful prince, and in the olden time the best 
 remedy for the evils of tyranny, or the greater evils of civil war, was 
 thought to be a king with a clear and unquestioned title. 
 
 3. taint : be infected. A transitive verb used intransitively. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 135 
 
 Was he not bom of woman ? The spirits that know 
 
 All mortal consequences have pronounc'd me thus : 5 
 
 * Fear not, Macbeth ; no man that 's bom of woman 
 
 Shall e'er have power upon thee.' Then fly, false thanes, 
 
 And mingle with the English epicures : 
 
 The mind I sway by and the heart I bear 
 
 Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. 10 
 
 Enter a Servant 
 
 The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd loon ! 
 Where got'st thou that goose look? 
 
 Servant. There is ten thousand — 
 
 Macbeth. Geese, villain? 
 
 Servant. Soldiers, sir. 
 
 Macbeth. Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, 
 Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch? 15 
 
 Death of thy soul ! those linen cheeks of thine 
 Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face? 
 
 II. loon F3 I Loone F1F2 I Lown F4. 12. goose look | Goose-looke Ff. 
 
 5. An Alexandrine verse. — me. Probably an ethical dative. 
 8. Cf. this passage from Holinshed: 
 
 For manie of the people abhorring the riotous manners and superfluous 
 gormandizing brought in among them by the Englyshemen were willing 
 inough to receive this Donald for their King . . . bicause he had beene 
 brought up in the lies, with old customes and maners of their ancient nation 
 without tast of the English Ulcerous delicates. 
 
 II. loon. This word of uncertain origin is still in common use in 
 Scotland and the north of England in the sense of 'lad' or 'loafer.' 
 In the sixteenth century it often meant 'a man of low birth,' as in 
 the phrase ' lord and loon '; cf. Pericles, IV, vi, 19. 
 
 15. lily-liver'd: cowardly. Falstaff in 2 Henry TV, IV, iii, iio- 
 114, says: "The second property of your excellent sherris is the 
 
136 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 
 
 Servant. The English force, so please you. 
 
 Macbeth. Take thy face hence. \_Exit Servant] 
 
 Seyton 1 — I am sick at heart, 
 When I behold — Seyton, I say ! — This push 20 
 
 Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. 
 I have liv'd long enough : my way of life 
 Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf ; 
 And that which should accompany old age, 
 As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, 25 
 
 I must not look to have ; but, in their stead, 
 Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, 
 Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not 
 Seyton ! 
 
 19. [£a:// Servant] Ff omit. chair Percy Dyce. — disseat Steevens 
 
 21. cheer F3r4 I cheere F1F2 I I dis-eate Fi | disease F2F3F4. 
 
 warming of the blood ; which, before cold and settled, left the liver 
 white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice." 
 Cf. The Merchant of Venice, III, ii, 86; King Lear, II, ii, 17; IV, 
 ii, 50. — patch: clown, fool. Cf. The Tempest, III, ii, 71. 
 
 21. One of the textual cruces. But the reading of the text makes 
 satisfactory sense, Will bring comfort to me for the rest of my life, 
 or will dethrone me now, once for all. Fumess would hyphenate the 
 ' disease ' of the later Folios, and interpret, Will bring at once per- 
 manent relief or affliction. In previous editions of Hudson's Shake- 
 speare, Percy's substitution of ' chair ' for ' cheer ' was adopted, with 
 the interpretation, Will seat me firmly on the throne, or else unseat 
 me utterly. 
 
 22. my way of life: the course of my life. Johnson suggested' May' 
 for 'way,' and, as a parallel, Clar quotes Richard II, III, iv, 48-49. 
 
 23. Cf. Sonnets, LXXIII, 1-4 : 
 
 That time of year thou may'st in me behold 
 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang 
 
 Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, 
 Bare, ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. 
 
SCENE III MACBETH 137 
 
 Enter Seyton 
 
 Seyton. What 's your gracious pleasure ? 
 
 Macbeth. What news more? 
 
 Seyton. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. 
 
 Macbeth. I '11 fight, till from my bones my flesh be 
 hack'd. 32 
 
 Give me my armour. 
 
 Seyton. 'T is not needed yet. 
 
 Macbeth. I '11 put it on. 
 Send out moe horses, skirr the country round ; 35 
 
 Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour. 
 How does your patient, doctor? 
 
 Doctor. Not so sick, my lord, 
 
 As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, 
 That keep her from her rest. 
 
 Macbeth. Cure her of that. 
 
 Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd, 40 
 
 Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow. 
 Raze out the written troubles of the brain, 
 And with some sweet oblivious antidote 
 
 32. be Fi I is F2F3F4. 39. Cure her F2F3F4 I Cure Fi. — 
 
 35. moe F1F2 I more F3F4. of F1F2 I from FsF4. 
 
 36. talk of Fi I stand in F2F3F4. 42. Raze F1F2 I Raise F3 I Rase F4. 
 
 35. moe : more. Middle and Elizabethan English ' mo ' or ' moe ' 
 (from Anglo-Saxon md) usually indicated number ; ' more ' (from 
 Anglo-Saxon mdra) had specific reference to size. — skirr: scour. 
 In Henry V, IV, vii, 64, the verb is used intransitively. 
 
 42. Delius notes that this figure occurs in Hamlet, I, v, 98-103. 
 
 43. oblivious : causing forgetfulness. Ci. Paradise Lost, 1,266-26t, 
 
 The associates and co-partners of our loss, 
 Lie thus astonished on the obhvious pool. 
 
138 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v 
 
 Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff 
 Which weighs upon the heart? 
 
 Doctor. Therein the patient 45 
 
 Must minister to himself. 
 
 Macbeth. Throw physic to the dogs, I '11 none of it. 
 Come, put mine armour on ; give me my staff. 
 Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. 
 Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast 50 
 
 The water of my land, find her disease, 
 And purge it to a sound and pristine health, 
 I would applaud thee to the very echo, 
 That should applaud again. Pull 't off, I say. 
 What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, 55 
 
 Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of them? 
 
 Doctor. Ay, my good lord ; your royal preparation 
 Makes us hear something. 
 
 Macbeth. Bring it after me. 
 
 I will not be afraid of death and bane, 
 Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. 60 
 
 Doctor. \^As2de'\ Were I from Dunsinane away and clear. 
 Profit again should hardly draw me here. [_£xeunf^ 
 
 44. stuff'd I stufft Fi I stuft F2 55. senna F4 I Cyme Fi | Cseny 
 
 F3F4 I full Pope.— stuff F3F4 I stuffe F2F3 | clysme Badham conj. | sene 
 
 F1F2 I grief Collier. Wellesley conj. | sirrah Bulloch conj. 
 
 46. to Fi I unto F2F3F4. 60. Birnam | Birnane Fi. 
 
 48. mine FiFzFs I my F4. 61. [Aside] Hanmer | Ff omit. 
 
 44. stuff'd . . . stuff. Such a repetition is thoroughly Shakespearian. 
 
 48. staff. Either 'general's baton' (Clar) or 'lance' (Schmidt). 
 
 50. Come, sir, dispatch. Spoken to the armorer. — cast: inspect. 
 
 54. PuU't off. To the armorer. The " Bring it after me " of line 58 
 has reference to this piece of armor just ordered to be pulled off. 
 These orders, so effective in stage representation, show Macbeth's 
 agitation and impatience. 
 
SCENE IV MACBETH 1 39 
 
 Scene IV. Country near Bimant wood 
 
 Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, old Siward and his 
 Son, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, 
 Ross, and Soldiers, marching 
 
 Malcolm. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand 
 That chambers will be safe. 
 
 Menteith. We doubt it nothing. 
 
 Siward. What wood is this before us ? 
 
 Menteith. The wood of Birnam. 
 
 Malcolm. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, 
 And bear 't before him : thereby shall we shadow 5 
 
 The numbers of our host, and make discovery 
 Err in report of us. 
 
 Soldiers. It shall be done. 
 
 Siward. We learn no other but the confident tyrant 
 Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure 
 Our sitting down before 't. 
 
 Malcolm. 'T is his main hope : 10 
 
 Cou7itry near . . . Globe | Ff omit. 
 
 2. chambers will be safe. This refers, probably, to the spies and 
 informers whom Macbeth keeps in the noblemen's houses, prowling 
 about their private chambers, and listening at their key-holes. Or it 
 may have reference simply to Duncan's murder. 
 
 4-5. Holinshed thus describes the incident : 
 
 Malcome following hastilie after Makbeth, came the night before the 
 battel! vnto Birnane wood, and when his armie had rested a while there to 
 refresh them, he commanded every man to get a bough of some tree or other 
 of that wood in his hand, as big as he might beare, and to march foorth 
 therewith in such wise, that on the next morrow they might come closelie 
 and without sight in this manner within viewe of his enimies. 
 
140 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE ACT v 
 
 For, where there is advantage to be given, 
 Both more and less have given him the revolt, 
 And none serve with him but constrained things, 
 Whose hearts are absent too. 
 
 Macduff. Let our just censures 
 
 Attend the true event, and put we on 15 
 
 Industrious soldiership. 
 
 SiwARD. The time approaches 
 
 That will with due decision make us know 
 What we shall say we have and what we owe. 
 Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate. 
 But certain issue strokes must arbitrate ; 20 
 
 Towards which advance the war. [^Exeunt, marching] 
 
 Scene V. Dunsinane. The castle 
 
 Enter Macbeth, Seyton, <2?z^ Soldiers, with drum and colours 
 
 Macbeth. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; 
 The cry is still, ' They come.' Our castle's strength 
 Will laugh a siege to scorn ; here let them lie 
 
 II. given Ff I gone Capell | got Dii7isinane. The castle\Ylox(At. 
 
 Steavensconj.|takenKeightley(Ched- i. banners on the outward walls ; 
 
 worth conj.) | ta'en Walker Dyce. | Banners on the outward walls, Ff 
 
 14-15. just censures Attend Fi| i banners! on the outward walls 
 
 best Censures Before F2F3F4. Keightley. 
 
 11. Various substitutes for ' given ' have been proposed. Prob- 
 ably 'to til em ' should be supplied after 'given.' 
 
 12. more and less: high and low, nobles and commons. 
 
 14-15. Let our j udgments wait for the actual result, the issue of the 
 contest, in order that they may be just. A proleptical form of speech. 
 
 18. What we have as rights and what are our duties. 
 
 19-20. There is no use speculating or talking about it ; nothing 
 but fighting will settle the matter. 
 
SCENE V MACBETH 141 
 
 Till famine and the ague eat them up. 
 
 Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours, 5 
 
 We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, 
 
 And beat them backward home. [_A cry of wofnen within'\ 
 
 What is that noise ? 
 Seyton. It is the cry of women, my good lord, [^.r//] 
 Macbeth. I have almost forgot the taste of fears : 
 
 The time has been, my senses would have cool'd 10 
 
 To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair 
 
 Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir 
 
 As life were in 't : I have supp'd full with horrors ; 
 
 Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, 
 
 Cannot once start me. 
 
 Re-e7iter Sevton 
 
 Wherefore was that cry? 15 
 
 Sevton. The queen, my lord, is dead. 
 
 Macbeth. She should have died hereafter; 
 There would have been a time for such a word. 
 To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow. 
 Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 20 
 
 8. \Exii\ Dyce | Ff omit. 10. cool'd Ff | quail'd Collier. 
 
 5. forc'd: strengthened, reenforced. This sense of 'force' was 
 common in the sixteenth century. Collier suggested 'farced,' i.e. 
 'stuffed.' Cf. 'forcemeat,' corruption of 'farce-meat.' 
 
 11. To hear : at hearing. Infinitive used gerundively. — fell. The 
 original meaning of ' fell ' is ' skin ' or ' hide ' of an animal, and thus 
 Shakespeare uses the word in King Lear, V, iii, 24. 
 
 12. dismal: tragic. Cf. I, ii, 53. — treatise: story. Ci. Much Ado 
 About N'othing, I, i, 317 ; Vettus aiid Adonis, 774. 
 
 17-19. If she had not died now, she would have died hereafter; 
 the time would have come when such intelligence had to be spoken. 
 
142 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 
 
 To the last syllable of recorded time ; 
 
 And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
 
 The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle ! 
 
 Life 's but a walking shadow ; a poor player 
 
 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 25 
 
 And then is heard no more. It is a tale 
 
 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
 
 Signifying nothing. 
 
 Enter a Messenger 
 
 Thou com'st to use thy tongue ; thy story quickly. 
 
 Messenger. Gracious my lord, 30 
 
 I should report that which I say I saw, 
 But know not how to do 't. 
 
 Macbeth. Well, say, sir. 
 
 Messenger. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, 
 I look'd toward Bimam, and anon, methought, 
 The wood began to move. 
 
 Macbeth. Liar and slave ! 35 
 
 Messenger. Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so : 
 Within this three mile may you see it coming ; 
 I say, a moving grove. 
 
 23. dusty Fi I study F2F3F4 Rowe 30. Gracious my Fi | My gracious 
 
 Pope Capell | dusky Hanmer (Theo- F2F3F4. 
 bald conj.). 37. may you F1F2 I you may F3F4. 
 
 21. recorded time : the record of time. A proleptical expression. 
 24-28. To these hnes Coleridge prefixes this note : 
 
 Now all is inward with him; he has no more prudential prospective 
 reasonings. His wife, the only being who could have had any seat in his 
 affections, dies : he puts on despondency,' the final heart-armour of the 
 wretched, and would fain think every thing shadowy and unsubstantial ; as 
 indeed all things are to those who cannot regard them as symbols of goodness 
 
SCENE V MACBETH I43 
 
 Macbeth. If thou speak'st false, 
 
 Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive, 
 Till famine cling thee : if thy speech be sooth, 40 
 
 I care not if thou dost for me as much. 
 I pull in resolution, and begin 
 To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend 
 That lies like truth : ' Fear not, till Birnam wood 
 Do come to Dunsinane ' ; and now a wood 45 
 
 Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out ! 
 If this which he avouches does appear, 
 There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. 
 I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun, 
 
 4a. pull Ff 1 pall Johnson conj. 48. nor flying F1F2 I no flying F3F4. 
 
 40. cling : wither, shrivel. See Murray. — sooth: truth. See Skeat. 
 
 43. In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare Johnson's con- 
 jecture 'pall in' was adopted in place of the 'pull in' of the Folios. 
 'Pull in' may be interpreted as either (i) 'check,' 'restrain,' the 
 probable meaning here ; or (2) ' draw back.' Cf. Fletcher's Sea 
 Voyage, III, i: "All my spirits, As if they had heard my passing-bell 
 go for me, Pull in their powers and give me up to destiny." 
 
 46-52. Dowden thus sums up his character study of Macbeth : 
 
 The soul of Macbeth never quite disappears into the blackness of dark- 
 ness. He is a cloud without water carried about of winds ; a tree whose fruit 
 withers, but not even to the last plucked up by the roots. For the dull 
 ferocity of Macbeth is joyless. All his life has gone irretrievably astray, and 
 he is aware of this. His suspicion becomes uncontrollable; his reign is a 
 reign of terror; and, as he drops deeper and deeper into the solitude and the 
 gloom, his sense of error and misfortune, futile and unproductive as that 
 sense is, increases. . . . Finally his sensibility has grov/n so dull that even 
 the intelligence of his wife's death — the death of her who had been bound 
 to him by such close communion in crime — hardly moves him, and seems 
 little more than one additional incident in the weary, meaningless tale of 
 human life. . . . Macbeth remembers that he once knew there was such a 
 thing as human goodness. He stands a haggard shadow against the hand's- 
 breadth of pale sky which yields us sufficient light to see him. 
 
144 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 
 
 And wish th' estate o' the world were now undone. 50 
 
 Ring the alarum-bell ! Blow, wind ! come, wrack ! 
 
 At least we '11 die with harness on our back. [^Exeunt"] 
 
 Scene VI. Dunsinane. Before the castle 
 
 Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, old Siward, Macduff, 
 and their Army, with boughs 
 
 Malcolm. Now near enough ; your leavy screens throw 
 down. 
 And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle, 
 Shall, with my cousin, your right noble son, 
 Lead our first battle : worthy Macdufif and we 
 Shall take upon 's what else remains to do, 5 
 
 According to our order. 
 
 Siward. Fare you well. 
 
 Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, 
 Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight. 
 
 Macduff. Make all our trumpets speak ; give them all 
 
 breath, 9 
 
 Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. \_Exeunt'\ 
 
 \Alarums continued^ 
 
 Dunsinane. Before the castle \ Ff omit. i. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 52. hcirness : armor. So ' hamess'd ' in Troilns afid Cressida, 
 I, ii, 8. Cf. 'joints of the harness,' / Kings, xxii, 34. 
 
 I. ' Leavy' is the earUer and more normal form of 'leafy.' Ci.Muck 
 Ado About Nothijig, II, iii, 75 ; Pericles, V, i, 51. ' Leavy labyrinth* 
 occurs in Milton's Comus, line 2 78, as originally printed. 
 
 4. first battle : foreguard, vanguard. Qi. Jtilius Ccesar, V, i, 4, 16. 
 Holinshed uses 'battle' in the sense of 'battalions': "When his whole 
 power was come together, he divided the same into three battels." 
 
SCENE VII MACBETH 145 
 
 Scene VII. Another part of the field 
 
 Enter Macbeth 
 
 Macbeth. They have tied me to a stake ; I cannot fly, 
 But, bear-like, I must fight the course. What 's he 
 That was not born of woman ? Such a one 
 Am I to fear, or none. 
 
 Enter young Siward 
 
 Young Siward. What is thy name? 
 
 Macbeth. Thou 'It be afraid to hear it. 
 
 Young Siward. No ; though thou call'st thyself a hotter 
 name 6 
 
 Than any is in hell. 
 
 Macbeth. My name 's Macbeth. 
 
 Young Siward. The devil himself could not pronounce 
 a title 
 More hateful to mine ear. 
 
 Macbeth. No, nor more fearful. 
 
 Scene VII I Scena Septima Ff | Another pat-t of the field Globe | Ff 
 Rowe Pope continue the scene. — omit. 
 
 2. the course. This was a phrase of bear-baiting, where the bear 
 was tied to a stake, and then the dogs set upon him; the poor bear 
 could not run, and so had no way but to fight it out. Cf. King Lear, 
 III, vii, 54 ; Julius Ctrsar, IV, i, 48. 
 
 The end of Macbeth is savage, and almost brutal, — a death without 
 honour or loveliness. He fights now, not like ' Bellona's bridegroom lapp'd 
 in proof,' but with a wild and animal clinging to life. His followers desert 
 him ; he feels himself taken in a trap. The powers of evil in which he had 
 trusted turn against him and betray him. His courage becomes a desperate 
 rage. We are in pain until the horrible necessity is accomplished. — Dowden. 
 
146 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 
 
 Young Siward. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my 
 sword 10 
 
 I '11 prove the lie thou speak'st. 
 
 [_They Jight, and young Siward is slain'] 
 Macbeth. Thou wast born of woman. 
 
 But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, 
 Brandish'd by man that 's of a woman born. [^Exit] 
 
 Alarums. Enter Macduff 
 
 Macduff. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy 
 face ! 
 If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine, 15 
 
 My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still. 
 I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms 
 Are hir'd to bear their staves : either thou, Macbeth, 
 Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge, 
 I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be ; 20 
 
 By this great clatter, one of greatest note 
 Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune ! 
 And more I beg not. \^Exit. Alarums] 
 
 Enter Malcolm and old Siward 
 
 Siward. This way, my lord. The castle 's gently render'd : 
 The tyrant's people on both sides do fight; 25 
 
 The noble thanes do bravely in the war; 
 The day almost itself professes yours, 
 And little is to do. 
 
 22. bruited : noised abroad. Cf. Hamlet, I, ii, 127 ; / Henry VI, II, 
 iii, 68. See Murray. Wherever Macbeth goes, he has a strong guard 
 or escort attending him; and the clattering of so many feet and 
 swords would indicate his approach. 
 
SCENE VIII MACBETH I47 
 
 Malcolm. We have met with foes 
 
 That strike beside us. 
 
 SiWARD. Enter, sir, the castle. 29 
 
 [_Exeunt. Alarum'] 
 
 Scene VIII. Another part of the field 
 
 Efiter Macbeth 
 
 Macbeth. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die 
 On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the gashes 
 Do better upon them. 
 
 Enter Macduff 
 
 Macduff. Turn, hell-hound, turn ! 
 
 Macbeth. Of all men else I have avoided thee : 
 But get thee back ; my soul is too much charg'd 5 
 
 With blood of thine already. 
 
 Macduff. I have no words, 
 
 Scene VIII Dyce 1 Scene VII J>art of the field Globe I Ff omit. 
 Pope I Ff continue scene. — Another 2. whiles Ff | whilst Rowe. 
 
 29. That strike beside us : who take pains not to hit us, who 
 only sham as they fight against us, for their hearts are on our side. 
 Cf. J Hein-y VI, II, i, 129-132. 
 
 I. Brutus, Cassius, and Antony, in Shakespeare's great Roman 
 plays, commit suicide. Qi. Julius Ccesar, V, iii, 89, where Titinius, as 
 he kills himself, says, " This is a Roman's part." In the same play, 
 V, i, 101-103, Brutus, referring to the suicide of Marcus Cato, says: 
 
 Even by the rule of that philosophy 
 
 By which I did blame Cato for the death 
 
 Which he did give himself. 
 
 2-3. While I see living foes, it is better to be exercising my sword 
 upon them than upon myself. 
 
148 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 
 
 My voice is in my sword ; thou bloodier villain 
 
 Than terms can give thee out ! \They Jight\ 
 
 Macbeth, Thou losest labour : 
 
 As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air 
 With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed : lo 
 
 Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests ; 
 I bear a charmed life, which must not yield 
 To one of woman born. 
 
 Macduff. Despair thy charm ; 
 
 And let the angel whom thou still hast serv'd 
 Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb 15 
 
 Untimely ripp'd. 
 
 Macbeth. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, 
 For it hath cow'd my better part of man ! 
 And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd, 
 That palter with us in a double sense ; 20 
 
 That keep the word of promise to our ear, 
 And break it to our hope. I '11 not fight with thee. 
 
 Macduff. Then yield thee, coward, 
 And live to be the show and gaze o' the time : 
 We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 25 
 
 8. [Theyjight] Malone | Fight: Alarum Ff. 
 
 9. intrenchant : indivisible. ' To trench 'is 'to cut.' Cf. ' the air 
 invulnerable,' Hatnlet, I, i, 145. For active participles in a passive 
 sense, see Abbott, § 372. 
 
 12. charmed : secured against human assault by the might of 
 magic spells. Cf. Cymbeiitie, V, iii, 68-69. 
 
 20. palter; equivocate. Cf. Antojty and Cleopatra, III, xi, 62-63. 
 
 25-27. An advertising practice of the time. Cf. Much Ado About 
 Nothing, I, i, 267 ; The Tempest, II, ii, 28-34. " Therewithal he stept 
 unto him and slue him. Then cutting his head from his shoulders 
 he set it upon a pole and brought it unto Malcolm." — Holinshed. 
 
SCENE VIII MACBETH I49 
 
 Painted upon a pole, and undervvrit, 
 ' Here may you see the tyrant.' 
 
 Macbeth. I will not yield, 
 
 To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, 
 And to be baited with the rabble's curse. 
 Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, 30 
 
 And thou oppos'd, being of no woman born. 
 Yet I will try the last : before my body 
 I throw my warlike shield : lay on, Macduff; 
 And damn'd be him that first cries, ' Hold, enough ! ' 
 
 [ Exeunt, Jighiing. AIaru?ns~\ 
 
 Retreat. Flourish. Enter with drum and co/ours, Malcolm, 
 old SiWARD, Ross, the other Thanes, atid Soldiers 
 
 Malcolm. I would the friends we miss were safe arriv'd. 
 
 SiWARD, Some must go off ; and yet, by these I see, 36 
 So great a day as this is cheaply bought. 
 
 Malcolm. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. 
 
 Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt : 
 He only liv'd but till he was a man ; 40 
 
 The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd 
 In the unshrinking station where he fought, 
 But like a man he died. 
 
 34. After Alarums Ff have Enter 35. Scene VIII Pope. — Retreat. 
 
 Fighting, and Macbetli slainc. \ Retreat, and Ff. 
 
 34. him. " Perhaps ' let,' or some such word, was implied." — 
 Abbott, § 208. — " To cry ' hold ' " was an authoritative way of sepa- 
 rating combatants, according to the old military rules and regu- 
 lations. Cf. I, V, 52. 
 
 36. go off. A not unusual Elizabethan euphemism for ' die.' 
 
 42. unshrinking station: the place where he unshrinking fought. 
 
I50 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 
 
 SiWARD. Then he is dead? 
 
 Ross. Ay, and brought off the field : your cause of sorrow 
 Must not be measur'd by his worth, for then 45 
 
 It hath no end. 
 
 SiWARD. Had he his hurts before? 
 
 Ross. Ay, on the front. 
 
 SiWARD. Why then, God's soldier be he ! 
 
 Had I as many sons as I have hairs, 
 I would not wish them to a fairer death : 
 And so his knell is knoU'd. 
 
 Malcolm. He 's worth more sorrow, 50 
 
 And that I '11 spend for him. 
 
 SiWARD. He 's worth no more : 
 
 They say he parted well, and paid his score ; 
 And so God be with him ! Here comes newer comfort. 
 
 Re-etiter Macduff, with Macbeth's head 
 
 Macduff. Hail, king ! for so thou art : behold, where 
 stands 
 Th' usurper's cursed head : the time is free. 55 
 
 54. Two lines in Ff. 
 
 47. This Spartan bearing is thus described by Holinshed : 
 
 When his father heard the newes, he demanded whether he receiued the 
 wound whereof he died, in the forepart of the bodie, or in the hinder part : 
 and when it was told him that he receiued it in the forepart : I reioise (saith 
 he) euen with all my heart, for I would not wish either to my sonne nor to 
 myselfe any other kind of death. 
 
 52. parted : departed. So " a parted ... at the turning o' the tide," 
 He}uy V, II, iii, 12. — score : reckoning. The allusion is to a traveler 
 taking leave of an inn. The old inn accounts were commonly kept 
 either by marking down the items with chalk on a board, or by 
 cutting, 'scoring,' notches on a stick. 
 
SCENE VIII MACBETH 151 
 
 I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, 
 That speak my salutation in their minds ; 
 Whose voices I desire aloud with mine : 
 Hail, King of Scotland ! 
 
 All. Hail, King of Scotland ! \_F/ourtsh'] 
 
 Malcolm. We shall not spend a large expense of time 
 Before we reckon with your several loves, 61 
 
 And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, 
 Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland 
 In such an honour nam'd. What 's more to do, 
 Which would be planted newly with the time, 65 
 
 As calling home our exil'd friends abroad 
 That fled the snares of watchful tyranny ; 
 Producing forth the cruel ministers 
 Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, 
 
 56. pearl F3F4 I Pearle F1F2 I peers Rowe. 
 
 56. pearl : choicest ornament. ' Pearl ' is here a collective noun 
 and is used as such by Milton. The metaphor describing the worthi- 
 est nobles is a string of pearls encircling the neck, or the head, of 
 royalty. The expression seems to have been a not unusual one. In 
 Dunbar's The Thrissill and the Rose, 1503, we have: 
 
 Welcome to be our princes of honour, 
 Our perle, our plesans, and our paramour. 
 
 62-75. '^^^ matter of Malcolm's last speech is in this passage 
 from Holinshed : 
 
 Malcolme Cammore thus recouering the relme (as ye haue heard) by sup- 
 port of king Edward, in the 16 yeere of the same Edwards reigne, he was 
 crowned at Scone the 25 day of April], in the yeere of our Lord 1057. 
 Immediatlie after his coronation he called a parlement at Forfair, in the 
 which he rewarded them with lands and linings that had assisted him against 
 Makbeth, aduancing them to fees and offices as he saw cause, & commanded 
 that speciallie those that bare the surname of anie offices or lands, shov.ld 
 haue and inioy the same. He created manie earles, lords, barons, and knights. 
 
152 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 
 
 Who, as 't is thought, by self and violent hands 70 
 
 Took off her life; this, and what needful else — ~ 
 That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, 
 We will perform in measure, time, and place : 
 So, thanks to all at once and to each one, 
 Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone. 75 
 
 \_Flourish. Exeunt^ 
 
 75. Exeunt \ Exeunt omnes Ff. 
 
 Manie of them that before were thanes, were at this time made earles, as 
 Fife, Menteth, Atholl, Leuenox, Murrey, Cathnes, Rosse, and Angus. These 
 were the first earles that haue Iseene heard of amongst the Scotishmen, (as 
 their histories doo make mention). 
 
 70. self: own. 'Self' is here used as an adjective. Cf. HI, iv, 142. 
 
 71. For the ellipsis of ' there be ' after ' else,' see Abbott, § 286. 
 
 72. grace of Grace. " This is an expression that Shakespeare is 
 fond of." — Malone. Cf. Tivo Gentlemen of l^crona^ IH, i, 146 ; AWs 
 Well that E?tds Well, II, i, 163. 
 
 74-75. " There can be little doubt that the actor, in speaking these 
 lines, addressed the audience rather than the d7-amatis personcr, and 
 made this utterance of thanks serve as a sort of epilogue." — Manly. 
 
INDEX 
 
 I. WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 This Index includes the most important words, phrases, etc., explained in 
 the notes. The figures in heavy-faced type refer to the pages ; those in plain 
 type, to the lines containing what is explained. 
 
 acquaint you with the 
 perfect spy o' the 
 time: 74 \-29. 
 
 Act I, Scene II, au- 
 thenticity of: 5 1. 
 
 Act III, Scene V: an 
 interpolation- 91 i. 
 
 Act IV, Scene IT, omis- 
 sion of: 107. 
 
 addition: 18 106,72 99. 
 
 address'd: 49 24. 
 
 adhere: 39 53. 
 
 adjectives as adverbs : 
 62 124. 
 
 afeard: 18 96. 
 
 affeer'd: 115 34. 
 
 air nimbly and sweetly, 
 etc.: 32 1-3. 
 
 Alexandrine verse : 135 
 5. 
 
 all hail, Macbeth: 14 
 48-50. 
 
 all's: 6 15. 
 
 all things foul, etc. : 
 114 23-24. 
 
 all to all: 87 92. 
 
 all-thing: 68 13. 
 
 and't: 95 19. 
 
 angerly: 91 ]. 
 
 annoyance: 132 73. 
 
 anon: 4 9. 
 
 antic: 106 i3n. 
 
 anticipat'st: 107 144. 
 
 approve : 32 4. 
 
 arm'd : 88 101. 
 
 armed head: 101 69. 
 
 aroint thee: lie. 
 
 art: 121 143. 
 
 as (as if) : 49 27. 
 
 as (inasmuch as) : 67 7. 
 
 as who: 96 42. 
 
 assay : 121 143. 
 
 at a point: 120 135. 
 
 attempt and not the 
 deed: 48 10. 
 
 auger-hole: 61 109. 
 
 augures: 90 124. 
 
 avouch it: 74 11 9. 
 
 baby of a girl: 88 106. 
 
 badg'd: 59 88. 
 
 bank: 36 6. 
 
 banners flout the sky, 
 etc. : 9 49. 
 
 Banquo (pronuncia- 
 tion) : 2, note 3. 
 
 beast: 38 47. 
 
 Beelzebub: 53 4. 
 
 Bellona's bridegroom : 
 9 54. 
 
 bend up : 41 79. 
 
 bestride : 113 4. 
 
 betray the devil to his 
 fellow: 120 128. 
 
 Birnam wood: 139 4-5. 
 
 birthdom: 113 4. 
 
 bladed : 100 55. 
 
 I S3 
 
 blanket of the dark: 
 
 30 51. 
 blind-worm: 98 16. 
 blood-bolter'd : 105 123. 
 bond of fate: 102 84. 
 borne in hand: 71 80. 
 botches : 75 133. 
 brainsickly: 50 40. 
 breach in nature: 60 100. 
 briefly: 62 120. 
 brinded: 97 1. 
 broken line: 31 59. 
 broken metre: 110 14. 
 bruited: 146 22. 
 buckle his distemper'd 
 
 cause, etc. : 133 
 
 15-16. 
 but (only) : 36 6. 
 but (unless) : 69 48. 
 by your leave: 34 31. 
 cadence in the doctor's 
 
 speeches : 129 14. 
 candles : 42 5. 
 captains (trisyllabic) : 
 
 8 34. 
 careless: 23 11. 
 casing air: 83 23. 
 cast: 55 27. 
 cast (inspect) : 138 50. 
 celebrates pale Hecate's 
 
 offerings: 45 51. 
 chambers will be safe ; 
 
 139 2. 
 
154 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 champion me: 71 71. 
 chance of goodness, etc.: 
 
 120 ]36-137. 
 charmed life : 148 12. 
 chaudron: 99 33. 
 cheer . . . disseat: 136 
 
 21. 
 chops : 7 29. 
 choughs: 90 125. 
 chuck: 78 45. 
 cleave to my consent; 
 
 44 25. 
 clept: 72 93. 
 cling: 143 40. 
 clogs me with this 
 
 answer : 96 43. 
 cloister'd: 78 41. 
 close contriver: 91 7. 
 cloudy: 96 41. 
 coign of vantage : 33 7. 
 cold (as dissyllabic) : 
 
 97 6. 
 Colmekill: 65 33. 
 combustion: 56 44. 
 come, sir, dispatch : 
 
 138 50. 
 come in time: 53 5. 
 composition : 10 59. 
 compt: 34 26. 
 compunctious visitings 
 
 of nature: 29 43. 
 confineless harms : 1 1 6 
 
 5:' . 
 confound : 1 1 8 99. 
 confronted him with 
 
 self-comparisons: 10 
 
 55. 
 confusion: 57 52. 
 constancy hath left you 
 
 unattended: 52 68- 
 
 69. 
 convey: 117 71. 
 convince: 40 64, 121 
 
 142. 
 copy: 78 38. 
 CMrporal: 17 81. 
 
 countenance: 58 66. 
 
 crack: 8 37. 
 
 crack of doom : 1 4 1 1 7. 
 
 cross'd: 71 80. 
 
 curbing his lavish spir- 
 it: 10 57. 
 
 damn'dbehim: 149 34. 
 
 damned quarry: 6 14. 
 
 darkness . . . entomb: 
 63 9. 
 
 demi-wolves: 72 93. 
 
 desert place : 3 1. 
 
 died every day she 
 liv'd: 119 111. 
 
 discern: 114 15. 
 
 dismal: 141 12. 
 
 dismiss me: 102 72. 
 
 disposition: 89 113. 
 
 dispute it: 126 220. 
 
 distance: 73 115. 
 
 division: 118 96. 
 
 division into acts and 
 scenes: 3 1. 
 
 do (work mischief) : 
 12 10. 
 
 do the effects of watch- 
 ing : 128 9. 
 
 doff: 124 188. 
 
 dollars: 10 62. 
 
 Dowden's estimate of 
 Macbeth: 143 46-52. 
 
 dress'd: 37 36. 
 
 dudgeon: 45 46. 
 
 dunnest smoke : 30 49. 
 
 Dunsinane: 103 93, 
 133 12. 
 
 duties: 24 24. 
 
 Earl of Essex: 22 1. 
 
 earls created: 2,note4. 
 
 easy (adv.): 62 124. 
 
 ecstasy: 77 22. 
 
 eight kings: 104 112. 
 
 eminence: 77 31. 
 
 English epicures : 135 
 8. 
 
 enter the Ghost : 84 37. 
 
 enter three murderers : 
 
 80 1. 
 entrance (trisyllabic) : 
 
 29 37. 
 equivocate to heaven: 
 
 64 10. 
 equivocation : 54 8. 
 ere humane statute : 
 
 86 76. 
 eternal jewel: 70 67. 
 ethical dative: 135 5. 
 everlasting bonfire : 54 
 
 17-18. 
 exasperate: 95 38. 
 expedition: 60 97. 
 extend his passion: 85 
 
 57. 
 fact: 94 10. 
 faculties: 36 17. 
 fair is foul, etc. : 4 10. 
 falcon . . . owl: 64 12- 
 
 13. 
 fantastical: 15 53. 
 farmer that hang'd 
 
 himself, etc.: 53 4-5. 
 farrow: 101 65. 
 fatal bellman : 47 3. 
 favour: 22 149, 32 70. 
 fears (dangers): 20 137. 
 feast is sold, etc.: 84 
 
 33-37. 
 fee-grief: 125 196. 
 fell: 141 11. 
 fight the course : 1 45 2. 
 file (list): 133 8. 
 fil'd: 70 64. 
 filthy: 4 11. 
 first battle: 144 4. 
 first of manhood: 133 
 
 II. 
 fits 0' the season: 108 
 
 17. 
 fix'd his head upon our 
 
 battlements: 7 23. 
 flattering streams; 78 
 
 33. 
 
INDEX 
 
 155 
 
 flaws : 85 63. 
 Fleance: 81 is. 
 flighty: 107 145. 
 foisons: 118 88. 
 for (on account of) : 
 
 '74 120. 
 forbid: 12 21. 
 forc'd: 141 5. 
 fork: 98 16. 
 from broad words : 95 
 
 21. 
 gallowglasses : 6 13. 
 genius : 70 .5.5. 
 gentle my lord : 77 27. 
 germens: 101 59. 
 gild: 51 56. 
 give me the daggers 
 
 . . . devil: 51 53-55. 
 give thee a wind: 12 
 
 11. 
 given: 140 u. 
 gives out : 124 192. 
 glass (mirror) : 105 
 
 119. 
 go not my horse the 
 
 better: 68 25. 
 go off (die) : 149 36. 
 God be with you: 69 
 
 43. 
 God 'ild : 33 13. 
 golden round: 28 26. 
 golden stamp: 122 153. 
 Golgotha: 8 40. 
 good things of day, etc. : 
 
 79 52. 
 goose : 54 14. 
 gorgon : 57 57. 
 gospell'd: 72 87. 
 gouts : 45 46. 
 grace of Grace : 152 72. 
 gracious England : 1 1 6 
 
 43. 
 grave: 68 21. 
 Graymalkin: 4 8. 
 great doom's image : 
 
 58 64. 
 
 great largess: 43 14. 
 
 guilt : 5 1 57. 
 
 gulf: 98 23. 
 
 had he not resembled 
 
 my father: 48 12-13. 
 hail (dissyllabic) : 5 5. 
 hangman : 49 27. 
 happy prologues : 20 
 
 128. 
 harbinger: 25 45. 
 harness: 144 52. 
 Harpier: 97 3. 
 he did appoint so: 56 
 
 39. 
 he has no children : 1 2 6 
 
 216. 
 heaven's cherubin : 36 
 
 22. 
 Hecate: 45 52. 
 hell is murky: 130 33. 
 here-approach : 120 
 
 133. 
 hermits : 34 20. 
 his (one man's): 117 
 
 80. 
 his wonders and his 
 
 praises do contend: 
 
 17 ;)2. 
 historical present : 6 
 
 15, 9 49. 
 hold, enough! 149 34. 
 holp : 34 23. 
 home (thoroughly) : 
 
 19 120. 
 horses . . . turn'd wild : 
 
 64 14-16. 
 hose: 54 13. 
 housekeeper: 72 96. 
 human kindness: 27 15. 
 hurlyburly: 3 3. 
 husbandry: 42 4. 
 Hyrcan: 88 101. 
 I have no spur: 37 25. 
 I '11 to England: 62 124. 
 if it were done, etc. : 
 
 35 1-2. 
 
 if th' assassination . . . 
 
 success: 35 2-4. 
 if we should fail : 39 59. 
 illness: 27 I8. 
 imperial theme : 20 
 
 129. 
 impress: 103 95. 
 in (on account of) : 
 
 69 48. 
 infinitive used gerun- 
 
 dively: 50 45, 13423, 
 
 141 11. 
 inhabit: 88 105. 
 initiate (adj.) : 91 143. 
 insane: 17 84. 
 instant: 31 56. 
 instruments: 71 80. 
 interim having weigh'd 
 
 it: 22 1.54. 
 intrenchant: 148 9. 
 -ion (two syllables) : 
 
 6 18. 
 jump: 36 7. 
 juot censures attend: 
 
 140 14-15. 
 jutty: 33 6. 
 keep peace . . . and 
 
 it : 29 44-45. 
 keeps her state: 82 5. 
 kerns: 6 13. 
 killing swine: 11 2. 
 king's evil: 121 146- 
 
 159. 
 knocking within : 5157. 
 knowings : 63 4. 
 lac'd with his golden 
 
 blood: 60 99. 
 lack is nothing but our 
 
 leave: 127 237. 
 Lady Macbeth is car- 
 ried out: 61 112. 
 lapp'd in proof: 9 51. 
 latch: 124 195. 
 lated: 80 6. 
 lease of nature, etc.; 
 
 104 99-100. 
 
156 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 leavy: 144 1. 
 
 let . . . command: 6815. 
 
 life 's but a walking 
 
 shadow, etc. : 142 
 
 24-28. 
 light by her continu- 
 ally: 129 20. 
 light thickens: 79 50. 
 like the poor cat i' the 
 
 adage: 38 45. 
 lily-liver'd: 135 15. 
 limbeck: 40 67. 
 limited: 56 38. 
 line (strengthen) : 19 
 
 J12. 
 lodg'd: 100 5.5. 
 loon: 135 11. 
 Lord's anointedtemple: 
 
 57 .54. 
 loss of syllable after 
 
 pause : 45 51. 
 Macdonwald: 5 9. 
 magot-pies: 80 125. 
 make our faces vizards 
 
 to our hearts : 7 8 34. 
 make us : 108 4. 
 making the green one 
 
 red: 52 63. 
 Malcolm, Prince of 
 
 Cumberland: 25 38. 
 Malcolm's last speech: 
 
 151 62-75. 
 manly: 127 235. 
 manly readiness : 62 
 
 120. 
 mated: 132 75. 
 maws: 86 73. 
 me (eth. dat.): 96 41, 
 
 135 5. 
 means: 122 163. 
 medicine: 134 27. 
 meet, pause after: 3 7. 
 memory . . . shall be a 
 
 fume: 40 65-66. 
 mere: 118 89. 
 messenger: 111 64. 
 
 metaphysical: 28 27. 
 methought I heard a 
 
 voice cry: 50 35. 
 Middleton's The Witch: 
 
 92 33, 99 43. 
 Milton's indebtedness: 
 
 106 138-139. 
 minion: 6 19. 
 minions: 64 15. 
 minutely: 133 I8. 
 missives: 27 6. 
 mistrust: 80 2. 
 modern ecstasy: 123 
 
 170. 
 moe: 137 35. 
 monuments: 8672. 
 moon's eclipse : 99 28. 
 more and less: 140 12. 
 mortal: 29 39. 
 mortality: 59 79. 
 mortified man: 132 5. 
 mousing: 64 13. 
 move : 109 22. 
 mummy: 98 23. 
 muse: 87 85. 
 music and a song: 92 
 
 .33, 99 43. 
 my disgrace, etc. : 109 
 , 29. 
 
 naked frailties : 61 113. 
 napkins : 53 5. 
 natural touch: 108 9. 
 naught: 126 225. 
 nave (navel) : 7 22. 
 near (nearer): 62 127. 
 near'st of life: 73 117. 
 nice: 123 174. 
 night-gown: 52 70, 
 
 128 4. 
 nonpareil: 83 19. 
 note of expectation: 81 
 
 10. 
 nothing (adverbial) : 
 
 18 95. 
 nothing is but what is 
 
 not: 21 141. 
 
 notion: 71 82. 
 oblivious: 137 43. 
 obscure: 56 45. 
 of (with) : 6 13. 
 offices: 43 14. 
 old: 53 2. 
 on (of) : 17 84. 
 ornament of life: 38 42 
 other (otherwise) : 41 
 
 77. 
 our great bidding : 90 
 
 129. 
 out: 124 183. 
 overcome: 89 ill. 
 ov/e (have): 1676, 23i0. 
 owl scream and the 
 
 crickets cry: 48 15. 
 owl . . . the fatal bell- 
 man: 47 3. 
 paddock: 4 9. 
 pall : 30 49. 
 palter: 148 20. 
 parted: 150 52. 
 pass'd in probation : 7 1 
 
 79. 
 patch: 135 15. 
 peak : 12 23. 
 peal: 78 43. 
 pearl: 151 .56. 
 pent-house lid: 12 20. 
 perfect: 111 65. 
 perseverance: 118 93. 
 pester'd: 134 23. 
 play the Roman fool: 
 
 147 1. 
 plenteous joys: 25 33. 
 point: 120 135. 
 point, rebellious: 10 
 
 56. 
 poor birds: 110 36. 
 portable: 118 89. 
 Porter's scene: 53 1. 
 posset: 47 6. 
 posters: 13 33. 
 present him eminence : 
 
 77 31. 
 
INDEX 
 
 157 
 
 pretence : 62 118. 
 pricking of my thumbs : 
 
 100 44. 
 primrose way, etc. : 54 
 
 17-18. 
 profound: 92 24. 
 proportion both of 
 
 thanks and: 24 19. 
 prospect of belief: 16 
 
 74. 
 prosperous: 68 21. 
 prosperous gentleman: 
 
 16 73. 
 protest: 88 105, 133 11. 
 pull in: 143 13. 
 pull't off: 138 54. 
 purveyor: 34 22. 
 put on their instru- 
 ments: 127 239. 
 quarrel (cause): 120 
 
 137. 
 quarry: 6 14, 125 206. 
 quell: 40 72. 
 rat without a tail : 1 2 
 
 9. 
 ravell'd sleave: 50 37. 
 raven himself is hoarse: 
 
 29 36. 
 ravin up: 65 28. 
 ravin'd: 98 24. 
 rawness: 115 26. 
 raze out . . . troubles of 
 
 the brain: 137 42. 
 recoil (fall off ) : 114 19. 
 recorded time : 1 42 a I . 
 re-enter the Ghost : 87 
 
 89. 
 register'd: 22 151. 
 remembrance apply to: 
 
 77 30. 
 remorse: 29 42. 
 remove the means . . . 
 
 strangers: 122 162- 
 
 163. 
 require a clearness: 75 
 
 132. 
 
 respective construc- 
 tion: 15 55. 
 rest is labour: 25 44. 
 restrain in me the 
 
 cursed thoughts : 42 
 
 8. 
 ronyon: 11 6. 
 rooky: 79 .51. 
 round and top: 103 88- 
 
 89. 
 rubs: 75 133. 
 rumour from what we 
 
 fear, etc.: 109 19-20. 
 rump-fed: lie. 
 safe toward your love 
 
 and honour : 24 27. 
 safest way: 63 129. 
 Saint Colme's inch : 1 
 
 61. 
 say thou nought : 101 
 
 70. 
 Scone: 65 31. 
 score: 150 .=i2. 
 scotch'd: 76 13. 
 screw your courage to 
 
 the sticking-place : 
 
 39 60. 
 sear, the yellow leaf: 
 
 136 23. 
 season : 91 141. 
 second apparition: 102 
 
 second cock: 55 22. 
 second course : 50 39. 
 security: 92 .32. 
 seeling night: 79 46. 
 seems to (i.s about to) : 
 
 9 47, 28 27. 
 self: 152 70. 
 self-abuse: 91 142. 
 sennet: 67 11. 
 se'nnights: 12 22. 
 sense are: 129 23. 
 senses: 45 44. 
 sensible : 44 36. 
 sergeant: 5 3. 
 
 servant fee'd: 90 13I. 
 servant to defect: 43 
 
 18. 
 sewer: 35 1. 
 shag-ear'd: 112 82. 
 shall (will): 85 57. 
 shard-borne: 78 42. 
 she should have died 
 
 hereafter: 141 17. 
 shipman's card: 12 17. 
 shoal: 36 6. 
 shook hands: 7 21. 
 shoughs: 72 93. 
 shut up: 43 16. 
 sieve: 11 8. 
 sightless: 30 47, 37 23. 
 sights (visions): 107 
 
 155. 
 since that: 119 1O6. 
 single (weak): 20 140, 
 
 33 16. 
 sirrah: 109 30. 
 Siward: 120 134. 
 Siward's Spartan bear- 
 ing : 150 47. 
 skirr: 137 35. 
 slab : 99 32. 
 smell of blood: 130 47. 
 so fair and foul a day: 
 
 14 38. 
 solemn: 68 14. 
 sometime: 33 11. 
 son: 109 32. 
 sooth: 8 36, 143 40. 
 speculation: 88 95. 
 speeches shine: 67 7. 
 spongy: 40 71. 
 spy 0' the time : 74 129. 
 staff: 138 48. 
 stand close: 129 18. 
 stand not, etc. : 89 
 
 119. 
 stars, hide your fires : 
 
 26 50. 
 still (always): 36 8, 
 
 68 21. 
 
158 
 
 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
 
 stones prate of, etc.: 
 
 46 58. 
 strange images : 18 97. 
 strides : 46 55. 
 strike beside us : 147 
 
 29. 
 studied in his death: 
 
 23 9. 
 stuff'd. . .stuff: 138 
 
 44. 
 success : 35 4. 
 suggestion: 20 134. 
 summer-seeming: 117 
 
 86. 
 surcease: 35 4. 
 surveying vantage : 8 
 
 31. 
 sweaten: 101 65. 
 swelter'd: 97 8. 
 sword of our slain 
 
 kings: 118 87. 
 syllable of dolour : 1 1 3 
 
 8. 
 taint: 134 3. 
 take my milk for gall : 
 
 30 46. 
 tale: 18 97. 
 tears shall drown the 
 
 wind: 37 25. 
 temperance: 118 92. 
 terrible dreams: 76 is. 
 thane of Cawdor: 34 
 
 20. 
 that (conjunctional 
 
 affi.x): 119 106. 
 that (so that): 10 58, 
 
 15 57, 36 8, 48 7. 
 that great bond : 79 49. 
 that of an hour's age, 
 
 etc.: 123 175. 
 that which cries . . . 
 
 have it : 28 21. 
 that which hath made 
 
 them drunk: 47 ]. 
 thee without than him 
 
 within: 83 14. 
 
 there where I did find 
 
 my doubts: 114 25. 
 thick as tale: 18 97. 
 things at the worst, 
 
 etc.: 109 24. 
 things bad begun, etc. : 
 
 79 55. 
 third apparition: 103 
 
 86. 
 thoughts speculative, 
 
 etc.: 140 19-20. 
 three ears: 102 78. 
 thrice: 13 36, 97 2. 
 Tiger (name of ship) : 
 
 11 7. 
 time: 31 62. 
 time and hour: 21 147. 
 title is affeer'd: 115 34. 
 titles: 108 7. 
 to (compared with): 
 
 85 64. 
 to (in addition to): 70 
 
 51. 
 to alter favour . . . 
 
 fear: 32 70. 
 to friend: 113 10. 
 to hear: 141 ii. 
 to know my deed, 
 • 'twere best, etc.: 52 
 
 73. 
 to that: 5 10. 
 to th' utterance : 71 71. 
 to write: 124 6. 
 too: 127 235. 
 top: 116 57. 
 torture of the mind: 
 
 77 21. 
 touch: 108 9. 
 tow'ring: 64 12. 
 tragic irony: 23 13. 
 trains: 119 118. 
 transitive verb used in- 
 transitively : 134 3. 
 transpose: 114 21. 
 travelling lamp: 63 7. 
 treatise: 141 12. 
 
 trifl'd : 63 4. 
 
 true, worthy Bacquo: 
 
 26 54. 
 tugg'd with fortune: 
 
 73 111. 
 tune : 127 235. 
 twofold balls, etc.: 105 
 
 121. 
 understood relations : 
 
 90 124. 
 unlineal hand: 70 62. 
 unmannerly breached 
 
 with gore: 60 103. 
 unrough: 133 10. 
 unshrinking station : 
 
 149 42. 
 uproar: 118 99. 
 use (custom) : 20 137. 
 valued file: 72 94. 
 vaporous drop: 92 24. 
 venom: 97 8. 
 verb omitted with ideas 
 
 of motion : 7 26. 
 verity : 1 1 8 92. 
 want the thought : 94 
 
 8. 
 wanton: 25 34. 
 was the hope drunk: 
 
 37 36. 
 wassail: 40 64. 
 watch: 46 54. 
 water rugs: 72 93. 
 way of life: 136 22. 
 wear thou thy wrongs : 
 
 115 33. 
 weird: 13 32. 
 we '11 have thee . . . 
 
 painted upon a pole : 
 
 148 2.5-27. 
 well: 123 177. 
 well, well, well, etc. : 
 
 131 54-55. 
 went into the field: 
 
 128 3. 
 what, in our house? 
 
 58 74. 
 
INDEX 
 
 159 
 
 what needful else 
 
 (there be): 152 
 
 71. 
 when shall we three 
 
 meet again, etc.: 3 
 
 1-2. 
 which (who): 7 21. 
 while (until) : 69 43. 
 whiles I see lives, etc. : 
 
 147 2-3. 
 
 who (whom): 74 122. 
 
 willall greatNeptune's 
 ocean, etc.: 51 60-61. 
 
 wine of life : 59 81. 
 
 wink at : 26 52. 
 
 witchcraft (trisyllabic): 
 45 51. 
 
 witches, first appear- 
 ance of: 3 1. 
 
 withal: 15 57, 51 56. 
 
 without all: 76 11. 
 woman's story . . . fire : 
 
 85 65. 
 worm (serpent): 83 29. 
 wrought: 22 149. 
 yawning: 78 43. 
 yesty: 100 53. 
 you mar all, etc.: 130 
 
 41-42. 
 
 II. QUOTATIONS FROM HOLINSHED 
 
 all hail, Macbeth: 14 
 
 48. 
 
 Banquo summoned to 
 the feast: 74 128. 
 
 Birnam wood: 139 4- 
 5. 
 
 chamberlains . . . con- 
 vince: 40 63-64. 
 
 Duncan buried: 65 33- 
 34. 
 
 Duncan makes Malcolm 
 Prince of Cumber- 
 land: 25 38-39. 
 
 Duncan sent forth great 
 largess: 43 14. 
 
 dwindle, peak and pine : 
 12 23. 
 
 earls created by Mal- 
 colm : 2, note 4. 
 
 Edward the Confessor 
 and the king's evil: 
 121 146-159. 
 
 English epicures: 135 
 8. 
 
 Fleance escapes: 81 18. 
 
 kerns and gallow- 
 glasses: 6 13. 
 
 Macbeth employs 
 spies: 90 131-132. 
 
 Macbeth hears a voice : 
 50 35. 
 
 Macbeth invested at 
 Scone: 65 31-32. 
 
 Macbethplans for clear- 
 ing himself: 75 131. 
 
 Macbeth retires to 
 Dunsinane: 133 12. 
 
 Macbeth's head: 148 
 25-27. 
 
 Macdonwald : 5 9; his 
 headless trunk: 7 23. 
 
 Malcolm crowned; cre- 
 ates many earls: 
 151 62. 
 
 Malcolm flees into Eng- 
 land: 62 124. 
 monstrous sights seen: 
 
 64 12-18. 
 night's predominance: 
 
 63 8. 
 Norweyan lord: 8 31. 
 Saint Colme's inch: 10 
 
 Cl. 
 sergeant: 5 3. 
 Siward hears of his 
 
 son's death: 150 47. 
 Siward sent to support 
 
 Malcolm: 120 134. 
 sword of our slain 
 
 kings: 118 87. 
 weird sisters: 13 32. 
 wild in their attire: 14 
 
 40. 
 
 witch's prophecy: 103 
 92-93. 
 
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