You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way

With such prophetick greeting? - Speak, I charge you.

[Witches vanish.

Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them: Whither are they vanish'd? Macb. Into the air: and what seem'd corporal, melted As breath into the wind.-'Would they had staid!

Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about? Or have we eaten of the insane root *, That takes the reason prisoner ?

Macb. Your children shall be kings.

Ban.

You shall be king.

Mach. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?

Ban. To the self-same tune, and words.

Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.

Who's here?

Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth,
The news of thy success: and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend,

Which should be thine, or his: Silenc'd with that',
In viewing o'er the rest o'the self-same day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale,

4

eaten of the insane root,] The insane root is the root which makes insane, and which the commentators have not discovered.

* His wonders and his praises do contend,

Which should be thine, or his: &c.] i. e. private admiration of your deeds, and a desire to do them public justice by commendation, contend in his mind for pre-eminence. Or, - There is a contest in his mind whether he should indulge his desire of publishing to the world the commendations due to your heroism, or whether he should remain in silent admiration of what no words could celebrate in proportion to its desert.

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- As thick as tale,] Meaning, that the news came as thick as a tale can travel with the post.

Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,

And pour'd them down before him.

Ang.

We are sent,

To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
To herald * thee into his sight, not pay thee.

Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!

For it is thine.

Ban.

What, can the devil speak true?

Mach. The thane of Cawdor lives; Why do you dress

me

In borrow'd robes?
Ang.

Who was the thane, lives yet;

But under heavy judgment bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was +
Combin'd with 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,

Have overthrown him.

Macb.

Glamis, and thane of Cawdor:

The greatest is behind.--Thanks for your pains.-
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?

Ban.

That, trusted home',

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,

Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange :

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* "Only to herald," &c. - MALONE.

+ Mr. Malone reads,

"Whether he was combin'd

"With those of Norway," &c.

-trusted home,] i. e. entirely, thoroughly relied on, or

perhaps we should read thrusted home.

* Might yet enkindle you - Enkindle, for to stimulate you to seek.

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;

Win us with honest trifles, to betray us

In deepest consequence.

Cousins, a word, I pray you.

Mach.

Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme. I thank you, gentlemen.

This supernatural soliciting1

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,
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
Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is,
But what is not *.

Two truths are told, &c.] How the former of these truths has been fulfilled, we are yet to learn. Macbeth could not become thane of Glamis, till after his father's decease, of which there is no mention throughout the play. If the hag only announced what Macbeth already understood to have happened, her words could scarcely claim rank as a prediction.

2

3

This supernatural soliciting-] Soliciting for information.

WARBURTON.

Soliciting is rather, in my opinion, incitement, than information.

JOHNSON.

seated -] i. e. fixed, firmly placed.

- single state of man,] Dr. Johnson says, that the single state of man seems to be used by Shakspeare for an individual, in opposition to a commonwealth, or conjunct body. But Mr. Steevens thinks that the single state of Macbeth may signify his weak and debile state of mind.

Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is,

But what is not.] All powers of action are oppressed and

Ban.

Look, how our partner's rapt.

Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance may

crown me,

Without my stir.
Ban.

New honours come upon him

Like our strange garments; cleave not to their mould,

But with the aid of use.

Macb.

Come what come may; Time and the hour runs through the roughest day'. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Mach. Give me your favour:-my dull brain was

wrought

With things forgotten". Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are register'd where every day I turn

The leaf to read them. - Let 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.

Ban.

Very gladly.

Mach. Till then, enough. -Come, friends.

[Exeunt.

crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. Johnson.

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.] i. e. time and occasion will carry the thing through, and bring it to some determined point and end, let its nature be what it will.

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Mrs. MONTAGUE,

my dull brain was wrought-] My head was worked, agitated, put into commotion.

SCENE IV.

Fores. A Room in the Palace.

Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN,
LENOX, and Attendants.

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not

Those in commission yet return'd?

Mal.

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;
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,

As 'twere a careless trifle.

To find the mind's construction in the face :

He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust. - worthiest cousin !

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS.

The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before,
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,
More is thy due than more than all can pay