Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small][merged small]

43. That man may question. permitted to hold converse, or (Johnson).

45. Should.

"Are ye any beings with which man is of whom it is lawful to ask questions ?"

See Gr. 323, and cf. i. 2. 46 above.

46. Beards. St. quotes B. and F., Honest Man's Fortune, ii. 1 :

"And the women that

Come to us, for disguises must wear beards;

And that's, they say, a token of a witch."

Cf. also M. W. iv. 2. 202: "I think the 'oman is a witch indeed; I like not when a 'oman has a great peard."

48. Glamis. "In Scotland, always pronounced as a monosyllable, with the open sound of the first vowel, as in alms" (Seymour).

Glamis, or Glammis, is a village about twenty-five miles north-east of Perth, in a very beautiful situation.* Near by is Glamis Castle, " perhaps the finest and most picturesque of the Scottish castles now inhabited." In its present form, it dates back only to the 17th century, though portions of it are much older. The original castle was frequently used as a residence by the Scottish kings, especially by Alexander II. in 1263-64. Robert II. gave it to John Lyon, who had married his daughter, but in 1537 it reverted to the Crown, and James V. occupied it for some time. Sir Walter Scott says: "I was only nineteen or twenty years old when I happened to pass a night in this magnificent old baronial castle. The hoary old pile contains much in its appearance, and in the traditions connected with it, impressive to the imagination. It was the scene of the murder of a Scottish king of great antiquity; not indeed the gracious Duncan, with whom the name naturally associates it, but Malcolm II. It contains also a curious monument of the peril of feudal times, being a secret chamber, the entrance to which, by the law or custom of the family, must only be known to three persons at once-the Earl of Strathmore, his heir-apparent, and any third person whom they may take into their confidence. The extreme antiquity of the building is vouched by the immense thickness of the walls, and the wild and straggling arrangement of the accommodation within doors. I was conducted to my apartment in a distant corner of the building; and I must own that, as I heard door after door shut, after my conductor had retired, I began to consider myself too far from the living and somewhat too near the dead."

In front of the manse at Glamis is an ancient sculptured obelisk (see cut, p. 150) called "King Malcolm's Gravestone," and here tradition says he was buried.

51. Coleridge comments on this speech and the context as follows: "But O! how truly Shakespearian is the opening of Macbeth's character given in the unpossessedness 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 Macbeth's mind, rendered temptable by previous dalliance of the fancy with ambitious thoughts:

*See cut on p. 8; and for Glamis Castle, views on p. 9 (from a sketch by Creswick, made about 1840) and p. 46.

'Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair?'

And then, again, still unintroitive, addresses the witches:

'I' the name of truth,

Are ye fantastical, or that indeed

Which outwardly ye show?'

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 :

Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more;'

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. Compare his eagerness -the keen eye with which he has pursued the witches' evanishing" Speak, I charge you,'

with the easily satisfied mind of the self-uninterested Banquo : 'The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd?'

and then Macbeth's earnest reply

'Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted

As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd!'

Is it too minute to notice the appropriateness of the simile 'as breath,' etc., in a cold climate?

Still again Banquo goes on wondering, like any common spectator : 'Were such things here as we do speak about?'

while Macbeth persists in recurring to the self-concerning:

'Your children shall be kings.

Banquo. You shall be king.

Macbeth. And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?"

So surely is the guilt in its germ anterior to the supposed cause and immediate temptation! Before he can cool, the confirmation of the tempting half of the prophecy arrives, and the concatenating tendency of the imagination is fostered by the sudden coincidence:

'Glamis, and thane of Cawdor!

The greatest is behind.'

Oppose this to Banquo's simple surprise :

'What, can the devil speak true?"

53. Fantastical. "That is, creatures of fantasy, or imagination" (Johnson). The word occurs in Holinshed's account of this interview with the weird sisters (see p. 141). Cf. line 139 below, and Rich. II. i. 3. 299. 54. Show. Appear. See on i. 2. 15. On ye followed by you, see Gr.

236.

55. “There is here a skilful reference to the thrice repeated 'Hail' of L

the witches. 'Thane of Glamis' he was; that is the 'present grace;' but Thane of Cawdor' was only predicted; this is the 'noble having;' the prospect of royalty is only hope, of royal hope (Hunter).

[ocr errors]

56. Having. Possession, estate. Cf. M. W. iii. 2. 73: "The gentleman is of no having ;" T. of A. ii. 2. 153:

"The greatest of your having lacks a half
To pay your present debts."

See also Hen. VIII. ii. 3. 23 and iii. 2. 159.

57. That. On the omission of so, see Gr. 283, and cf. i. 2. 58 above. 60. Who neither beg, etc. Who neither beg your favours nor fear your hate. Cf. ii. 3. 45 below. The C. P. ed. quotes W. T. iii. 2. 164:

"Though I with death and with

Reward did threaten and encourage him."

65. Lesser. Still sometimes used as an adjective, but never adverbially, as in T. and C. ii. 2. 8: “Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I." See also v. 2. 13 below.

66. Happy. Fortunate; like the Latin felix. Cf. Lear, iv. 6. 230. 67. Get. Beget; but not a contraction of that word. See Wb. and note on i. 2. 25 above.

71. Sinel. The father of Macbeth, according to Holinshed. Ritson says his true name was Finleg (Finley); Dr. Beattie conjectured that it was Sinane, and that Dunsinane (the hill of Sinane) was derived from it.

72. Johnson asks: "How can Macbeth be ignorant of the state of the thane whom he has just defeated and taken prisoner (see i. 2. 50 fol.), or call him a prosperous gentleman who has forfeited his title and life by open rebellion? He cannot be supposed to dissemble, because nobody is present but Banquo, who was equally acquainted with Cawdor's

treason?"

76. Owe. Own, have. Cf. Rich. II. iv. 1. 184: "That owes two buckets;" and see note in our ed.

80. Of them. Cf. A. W. ii. 5. 50: "I have kept of them tame;" W. T. iv. 4. 217: "You have of these pedlars," etc.

81. Corporal. Corporeal. S. never uses corporeal or incorporeal. He has incorporal in Ham. iii. 4. 118: "the incorporal air."

Elwin (quoted by Furness) says: "The emphasis should be laid on 'seem'd,' and the division of ideas is at corporal,' and there the rest should be made by the speaker; for the mind dwells first on the seeming immateriality, and then turns to the antithesis of invisibility. Melted' consequently belongs to the second line, which is uttered in accents of wonder, and with a rapidity illustrative of the act it describes."

[ocr errors]

84. On. Cf. J. C. i. 2. 71: "jealous on me;" M. of V. ii. 6. 67: "glad on't;" and see note, Mer. p. 143, or Gr. 138, 181.

The insane root is an example of "prolepsis ;" insane-making insane. Steevens thinks that hemlock is meant, and quotes Greene, Never too Late (1616): "you have eaten of the roots of hemlock, that makes men's eyes conceit unseen objects.' Root of hemlock" is one of the ingredients of the witches' cauldron, iv. I. 25. Douce cites Batman, Uppon Bartholome de Prop. Rerum: "Henbane... is called insana, mad, for

66

the use thereof is perillous, for if it be eate or dronke, it breedeth madnesse, or slow lyknesse of sleepe." The C. P. editors suggest that it may be the deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), of which Gerard, in his Herball, says: "This kinde of Nightshade causeth sleepe, troubleth the minde, bringeth madnes, if a few of the berries be inwardly taken." Beisley (Shakespeare's Garden) says: "It is difficult to decide what plant S. meant. John Bauhin, in his Historia Plantarum, says: 'Hyoscyamus was called herba insana."

89. Ross. Some editors print the name Rosse; but as French (Shakespeareana Genealogica) points out, that is "an Irish dignity," and should not be confounded with this Scottish title, which "really belonged to Macbeth, who, long before the action of the play begins, was Thane, or more properly, Maormor of Ross by the death of his father, Finley."

91. Rebels'. The folios have "rebels." Delius and some other editors print "rebel's," taking "personal venture to refer to Macbeth's single combat with Macdonald.

92, 93. "Thine refers to praises, his to wonders, and the meaning is: There is a conflict in the king's mind between his astonishment at the achievement and his admiration of the achiever; he knows not how sufficiently to express his own wonder and to praise Macbeth, so that he is reduced to silence. That refers to the mental conflict just described" (C. P. ed.).

"His wonder, which is his own, contends with his praise, which is yours" (Moberly).

Silenc'd with that is explained by Malone, "wrapped in silent wonder at the deeds performed by Macbeth;" by Moberly, "when he had done speaking of that;" by J. Hunter, "leaving that unsettled."

96. Nothing afeard. On nothing used adverbially, see Gr. 55. S. uses afeara 32 times and afraid 44 times (including the poems as well as the plays).

""

97. As thick as tale. The folio reading is "as thick as Tale Can post with post," etc. Rowe changed this to "as thick as hail Came post,' etc. Johnson restored "tale," retaining "Came," and explained the passage, "posts arrived as fast as they could be counted." Sr., Coll., W., St., and H. follow Johnson; most of the other editors adopt Rowe's emendation in full. W. remarks: "To say that men arrived as thick as tale, i. e. as fast as they could be told, is an admissible hyperbole; to say that men arrived as thick as hail, i. e. as close together as hailstones in a storm, is equally absurd and extravagant. The expression, as thick as hail,' is never applied, either in common talk or in literature, I believe, except to inanimate objects which fall or fly, or have fallen or flown, with unsuccessive multitudinous rapidity." This latter point seems to have been overlooked by those who dwell on the fact that "thick as hail" is often used by the old writers. It must be admitted, on the other hand, that no parallel instance of "thick as tale" is to be found. The question is a very close one. If both readings were conjectural we should be inclined to adopt "hail;" but as "tale" is in the folio, and may possibly be right, we allow it to stand in the text.

100. Sent. Hunter conjectured "not sent;" but the sense is quite

« PreviousContinue »