As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

Mal.

This is the sergeant,

Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought
'Gainst my captivity.-Hail, brave friend!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil,
As thou didst leave it.

Capt.

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

The multiplying villanies of nature

Do swarm upon him) from the western isles
Of kerns and galloyglasses is supplied ;3
And fortune, on his damned quarry1 smiling,
Show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak;
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, carved out his passage,
Till he fac'd the slave;

And ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

Dun. O, valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!

3 Of KERNES and GALLOWGLASSES is supplied ;] We have had kerns and gallowglasses mentioned in King Henry VI, Pt. II, act iv, sc. 9, p. 103.

♦ —damned QUARRY—] i. e., His army doomed, or condemned, to become the quarry, or prey, of his enemies. This is the intelligible reading of the old copies, although the Corr. fol. 1632 improperly substitutes quarrel for quarry.

Capt. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,
So from that spring, whence comfort seem'd to come,
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark :
No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd,

Compell'd these skipping kernes to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbish'd arms, and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.

Dun.

Dismay'd not this

Yes;

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo ?

Capt.

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.

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 memorise another Golgotha,

I cannot tell.—

But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds: They smack of honour both.-Go, get him surgeons. [Exit Captain, attended.

Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.5

Who comes here?
Mal.

The worthy thane of Rosse.

5 Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.] Rosse only speaks, and is spoken of and to; but they both enter, and subsequently execute the commission they had in charge from the king: comes, in the second line of our next page, is from the Corr. fol. 1632, instead of seems, the old and clearly erroneous reading.

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes!

So should he look that comes to speak things strange.

Rosse. God save the king!

Dun.

Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?

Rosse. From Fife, great king;

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,

And fan our people cold.

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,
Confronted him with self-comparisons,

Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit; and, to conclude,
The victory fell on us ;-

Dun.

Rosse. That now

Great happiness!

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition ;

Nor would we deign him burial of his men,

Till he disbursed at St. Colmes' Inch

Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest.-Go, pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.

Rosse. I'll see it done.

Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.

6

[Exeunt.

• Go, pronounce his PRESENT death,] It may seem strange that modern editors (such sticklers sometimes for the monotonous tensyllable line) did not here omit present: it might certainly be spared for the mere measure, but surely not for the emphasis of instant execution. The line, like many others, was purposely redundant.

SCENE III.A Heath.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister?

Second Witch. Killing swine.

Third Witch. Sister, where thou?

First Witch. A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd: Give me,

quoth I:

Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyons cries.

Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master of the Tiger;

But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail,

I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

Second Witch. I'll give thee a wind.

First Witch. Thou art kind.

Third Witch. And I another.

First Witch. I myself have all the other;

And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card to show.9
I will drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall, neither night nor day,
Hang upon his pent-house lid;

AROINT thee, witch !] The meaning of the word is quite obvious; viz., begone, or stand off; and it is still used in the north of England. 8-RONYON] i. e., Scabby, or mangy woman. Fr. rogneux, rogne, scurvy and scurf.

"I' the shipman's card TO SHOW.] The rhyme, certainly here intended, and required by the sense, is from the Corr. fol. 1632.

He shall live a man forbid.

Weary sev'n-nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-toss'd.

Look what I have.

Second Witch. Show me, show me.

First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wreck'd as homeward he did come.

Third Witch. A drum! a drum!

Macbeth doth come.

All. The weird1 sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about:

Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,

And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace!-the charm's wound up.

[Drum within.

Enter MACBETH and BANQUO, followed by Soldiers. Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Ban. How far is 't call'd to Forres?-What are these,

So wither'd, and so wild in their attire,

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 chappy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips :-you should be women,

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

1

-WEIRD sisters,] All authorities agree that weird (spelt weyward in the folio 1623), is of Saxon origin, viz., from wyrd, which has the same meaning as the Latin fatum : weird is fatal.