Curbing his lavish fpirit. To conclude, The victory fell on us. Roffe. Now Sweno, Norway's King, craves compofition: Nor would we deign him burial of his men, 'Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes-kill-ifle Ten thousand dollars, to our gen'ral use. King. No more that Thane of Cawdor fhall deceive Our bofom int'reft. Go, pronounce his death; And with his former title greet Macbeth. Roffe. I'll fee it done. King. What he hath loft, noble Macbeth hath won. SCENE changes to the Heath. Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 1 Witch. W Here haft thou been, fifter? 2 Witch. Killing fwine. 3 Witch. Sifter, where thou? [Exeunt. I Witch. A failor's wife had chefnuts in her lap, And mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht. Give me, quoth I. Aroint thee, witch!-the rump-fed ronyon cries. 2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 3 Witch. And I another. 1 Witch. I myself have all the other, I will drain him dry as hay; N He He shall live a man forbid; (6) 2 Witch. Shew me, fhew me. 1 Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, Wrackt as homeward he did come. 3 Witch. A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come! [Drum within. All. The Weird fifters, hand in hand, (7) Pofters (6) He fhall live a man forbid :] i.e. as under a curse, an Interdiction. So afterwards, in this play; By his own interdiction ftands accurs'd. So, among the Romans, an outlaw's fentence was aquæ & ignis interdictio. i. e. He was forbid the ufe of water and fire: which imply'd the neceffity of banishment. (7) The weyward fifters, band in hand,] The Witches are here speaking of themfelves; and it is worth an enquiry why they should stile themselves the weyward, or wayward fifters. This word in its general acceptation fignifies, perverfe, froward, moody, obftinate, untra&table, &c, and is every where fo ufed by our Shakespeare. To content ourfelves with two or three inftances; Fy, fy, how wayward is this foolish love, And, which is worst. All you have done Love's Labour loft. Macbeth. It is improbable, the Witches would adopt this epithet to themselves, in any of thefe fenfes; and therefore we are to look a little further for the poet's word and meaning. When I had the first fufpicion of our author being corrupt in this place, it brought to my mind the following paffage in CHAUCER's Troilus and Creffeide, lib. iii. v. 618. But O fortune, executrice of wierdes. Which word the gloffaries expound to us by fates or deftinies. I was foon confirm'd in my fufpicion, upon happening to dip into Heylin's Cofmography, where he makes a fhort recital of the ftory of Macbeth and Banquo. Thefe two (fays be) travelling together thro' a foreft, were met by three Faries, Witches, Wierds, the Scots call them, &c. I prefently recollected, that this story must be recorded at more length by Holingfhead; with whom I thought it was very probable that Pofters of the fea and land, Thus do go about, about, Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, Enter Macbeth and Banquo, with Soldiers and other Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. Ban. How far is't call'd to Foris ?-what are these, So wither'd, and fo wild in their attire, That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' earth, And yet are on't? Live you, or are you aught That man may queftion? You feem to understand me, Upon her skinny lips;-You fhould be women; Macb. Speak, if you can; what are you? Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! 2Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! 3 Witch. All-hail, Macbeth! that shalt be King hereafter. Ban. Good Sir, why do you ftart, and feem to fear Things that do found fo fair? I' th' name of truth, Are fantastical, or that indeed [To the Witches. ye that our author had traded for the materials of his tragedy: and therefore confirmation was to be fetch'd from this fountain. Accordingly, looking into his hiftory of Scotland, I found the writer very prolix and exprefs, from Hector Boethius, in this remarkable ftory; and in p. 170. fpeaking of these Witches, he ufes this expreffion. But afterwards the common opinion was, that these women were either the weird fifters, that is, as ye would fay, the godd:ffes of deftiny, &c. Again, a little lower; The words of the three weird fifters alfo, (of whom before ye have heard) greatly encouraged him thereunto. And, in feveral other paragraphs there, this word is repeated. I believe, by this time, it is plain beyond a doubt, that the word wayward has obtain'd in Macbeth, where the Witches are spoken of, from the ignorance of the copyifts, who were not acquainted with the Scotch term and that in every paffage, where there is any relation to these Witches or Wizards, my emendation must be embraced, and we must read weird, Which outwardly ye shew? my noble partner That he feems rapt withal; to me you speak not. And fay, which grain will grow and which will not; I Witch. Hail! 2 Witch. Hail! 3 Witch. Hail! 1 Witch. Leffer than Macbeth, and greater. 2 Witch. Not fo happy, yet much happier. 3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none; So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! 1 Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all-hail! Mach. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more ; No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence With fuch prophetick greeting ?-fpeak, I charge you. Would they had staid! Ban. Were fuch things here, as we do fpeak about? (8) (8) Were fuch things here, as we do speak about? Or have we eaten of the infane root, Or That takes the reafon prifoner ?] The infane root, viz. the root which makes infane; as in HORACE Pallida Mors; nempè, quæ facit pallidos. This fentence, I conceive, is not fo well understood, as I would have every part of Shakespeare be, by his audience and readers. So foon as the Witches vanish from the fight of Macbeth and Banquo, and leave them in doubt whether they had really fecn fuch Appari Or have we eaten of the infane root, Mach. Your children fhall be Kings. Macb. And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not fo? Ban. To th' felf fame tune, and words; who's here? Enter Roffe and Angus. Silenc'd with that, Roffe. The King hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, tions, or whether their eyes were not deceiv'd by fome illufion; Banquo immediately starts the queftion, Were fuch things here, &c. I was fure, from a long obfervation of Shakespeare's accuracy, that he alluded here to fome particular circumftance in the history, which, I hoped, I fhould find explain'd in Holingfhead. But I found myfelf deceived in n this expectation. This furnishes a proper occafion, therefore, to remark our author's fignal diligence; and happiness at applying whatever he met with, that could have any relation to his fubje&t. Hector Boethius, who gives us an account of Sueno's army being intoxicated by a preparation put upon them by their fubtle enemy, informs us; that there is a plant, which grows in great quantity in Scotland, call'd Solatrum Amentiale; that its berries are purple, or rather black, when full ripe; and have a quality of laying to feep; or of driving into madness, if a more than ordinary quantity of them be taken. This paffage of Boethius, I dare fay, our poet had an eye to and, I think, it fairly accounts for his mention of the infane root. Diofcorides lib. iv. c. 74. IIɛpì Σrpúxve μavine, attributes the fame properties to it. Its claffical name, I obferve, is Solanum; but the shopmen agree to call it Solatrum. This, prepar'd in medicine, (as Theophraftus tells us, and Pliny from him;) has a peculiar effect of filling the patient's head with odd images and fancies: and particu larly that of feeing fpirits: an effect, which, I am perfuaded, was no fecret to our author. Bochart and Salmafius have both been copious upon the defcription and qualities of this plant. N 3 And |