NEN Gallery

SCENE I. A desert place.
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches
First Witch
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch
When the hurlyburly's done, (note 2)
When the battle's lost and won.

Third Witch
That will be ere the set of sun.

First Witch
Where the place?

Second Witch
Upon the heath.

Third Witch
There to meet with Macbeth.

First Witch
I come, Graymalkin! (note 3)

Second Witch
Paddock calls. (note 4)

Third Witch
Anon.

ALL
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Exeunt

1) The first known printed copy of MACBETH is the one in the 1623 Folio; and there exists record of its performance in the MS; diary: of Dr. Forman, preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Dr. Forman gives a circumstantial detail of the performance in his diary "In Macbeth, at the Globe, 1610, the 20th of April, Saturday, there was to be observed first, how Macbeth and Banquo, two noblemen of Scotland riding through a wood, there stood before them three women." &c. It is probable, however, that at the period of this performance, "Macbeth" had been written for some time past and had been acted many times; because the words uttered during the vision of the eight kings, in Act IV. Sc.1
" Some I see
That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry " containing a direct allusion to the union of the three kingdoms of Great Britain by the accession of James I. to the throne of England, give reason to suppose that they were written at a time more nearly subsequent to the epoch when that union took place. James became King of England by the death of Elizabeth, 24th March 1603, and made his entry into London on the 7th of May; the date of his proclamation was the 24th of October 1604. But previous to his proclamation - indeed but a few days after he had entered London - he had already conferred a favour on the theatrical company of which Shakespeare was a member; having on the 17th of May 1603, granted a patent authorising the actors therein mentioned to perform plays not only at the Globe Theatre, Bankside, but in any part of the kingdom; and, furthermore, taking them into his royal pay and patronage, and calling them "the king's servants." It is presumable, therefore, that the compliment of taking a story from Scottish history for his subject, and of introducing the above acceptable allusion was a piece of homage paid by the dramatist to King James soon after his becoming monarch of the united realm. Malone attempted to prove that "Macbeth" was written in 1606; grounding his argument upon two passages in the Porter's speech in Act II Sc. 3 - "Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty;' and "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." The former passage was supposed by Malone to refer to the known cheapness of corn in the year 1606; and the latter, to refer to the advocacy of equivocation by Henry Garnet, superior of the order of Jesuits, on the occasion of his trial for being concerned in the Gunpowder Plot, which took place also in 1606. The deduction is ingenious; but we cannot think that it goes far towards establishing the exact date at which this tragedy was written, for the reasons that will be found given at greater length in Note 32, Act II However this may be, there seems to be certainty in placing the date of writing "Macbeth" between 1603 and 1610; with every probability that it was soon after the former-named year. Holinshed's " Chronicle" was the historical authority taken by Shakespeare for the incidents of this grandly-poetical drama; and it is most interesting to observe the admirable manner in which he has adopted, selected, arranged, and blended materials in producing one of his noblest works. He has taken a story from the most primitive and simple times, yet has treated it with refinement of composition that elevates the subject, while in nowise injuring the characteristic plainness of the epoch; a story of a murder, a regicide, yet coloured with a rich harmony of painting that glows in gorgeous poetic tints, though nowise embellishing or palliating vice; a story of a sordid witch-superstition, yet exalted into the region of imagination by touches of fancy that still spare no detail of squalor; a story of a chieftain and chieftainess in an era of rudest intellectual cultivation, yet endued with force of character, intelligence, ambition, that make them objects of profoundest moral and metaphysical speculation, while detracting nothing from their naturalness and appropriateness as beings who lived at that rude period. A marvel at once of simplest fitness and loftiest
(2) The hurlyburly 's done. Henry Peacham, in his "Garden of Eloquence," 1577, explains the word "hurlyburly" to mean 'an uprore and tumultuous stirre' - in More's "Utopia," translated by Ralphe Robinson, 1551, we find - "All this busy preparance to war", whereby so many nations for his Bake should be brought into a troublesome hurleyburley, when all his coffers were emptied, his treasures wasted, and his people destroyed" and in Holinshed - "There were such hurlie burlies kept in every place, to the great danger of overthrowing the whole state of all government in this land."
(3) Graymalkin, An old name for a cat; as "paddock" was for a toad. In Scot's "Discoverie of Witchcraft" (1584), there is a passage that serves to illustrate the one in the text - "Some say, they [witches] can keepe devils and spirits, in the likeness of toads and cats."
(4) Paddock calls: - anon! Pope assigned these words to the Second Witch, making the remainder, "Fair is foul," &c., to be spoken by the three witches in concert; and certainly there seems great probability that only the concluding couplet was intended to be said by them all, as a kind of chorus.

SCENE II. A camp near Forres.
Alarum within. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, with Attendants,
meeting a bleeding Sergeant (note 5)
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!
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.

Sergeant
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 (note 6)
The multiplying villanies of nature
Do swarm upon him--from the western isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; (note 7)
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, (note 8)
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 smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave;
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, (note 9)
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

DUNCAN
O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!

Sergeant
As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break, (note 10)
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,
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?

Sergeant
Yes;
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. (note 11)
If I say sooth, I must report they were (note 12)
As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they (note 13)
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
Or memorise another Golgotha, (note 14)
I cannot tell.
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.

DUNCAN
So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;
They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons.

Exit Sergeant, attended
Who comes here?

Enter ROSS
MALCOLM
The worthy thane of Ross.

LENNOX
What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
That seems to speak things strange. (note 15)

ROSS
God save the king!

DUNCAN
Whence camest thou, worthy thane?

ROSS
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, (notes 16, 17)
Confronted him with self-comparisons, (note 18)
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
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch (note 19)
Ten thousand dollars to our general use.

DUNCAN
No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive
Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,
And with his former title greet Macbeth.

ROSS
I'll see it done.

DUNCAN
What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.

Exeunt


(5) Sergeant. A term formerly not implying the subaltern officer now so called; but a man performing a special feudal military service, in rank next to an esquire.
(6) For, to that. This has been explained by some to mean 'for, in addition to that;, while others affirm that "for, to that" means no more than 'for that,' or 'cause that.' We think it more probable that here " for, to that " is an elliptical phrase, expressing 'for, to that end,' 'for, to that purpose,' or 'for, as tending naturally to that effect.'
(7) Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied. "Of" is here used for 'with'.
(8) Fortune, on his damned quarry smiling. "Quarry" has been changed to 'quarrel' in this passage by Hanmer and others; but inasmuch as Shakespeare elsewhere uses the word "damned" to express 'doomed' or 'condemned,' and as "quarry" meant a heap of slaughtered game, we take the passage to signify - 'Fortune, smiling temporary encouragement upon Macdonwald's herd of fellows doomed to become a heap of slaughtered creatures. 'The fact that "quarry" also signified the offal portion of the venison just killed which was thrown to the hounds, contributes to confirm our belief that here the original word "quarry" is what the poet wrote; because it is as if, by implication, he called them 'a heap of carrion.' That Shakespeare has these largely inclusive epithets, and that he employs boldly poetical expressions of anticipative signification, we have shown in several instances. (9) Which ne'er shook hands. "Which" is here used for 'who,' and refers to Macbeth, not to the "slave;" in Shakespeare's mode of allowing a relatively-used pronoun sometimes to refer to the not immediately preceding antecedent.
(10) Direful thunders break. The First Folio omits the needful verb at the conclusion of this line; the Second Folio prints , breaking; and Pope gave "break" as the probably right word, which we adopt.
(11) As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. " Dismay'd," in the previous speech, gives 'dismay' before "eagles," and 'dismays,' before "the lion," to be elliptically understood.
(12) If I say sooth. ' If I speak the truth.'
(13) Cracks. Here used for 'reports,' 'explosions.' This is one of the many small and familiar words to which Shakespeare gives dignity and force by his mode of using them. In the present play he uses the word "crack" again with even more strong and even solemn effect.
(14) Memorise. ' Make memorable, 'commemorate.'
(15) That seems to speak things strange. 'That seems about to speak strange things,' that appears to be on the eve of announcing strange tidings.'
(16) Bellona's bridegroom. " Bellona " is the goddess of war; and Rosse calls Macbeth her "bridegroom," as a poetically-honouring title.
(17) Lapp'd in proof. 'Encased in armour of proof.'
(18) Confronted him with self-ccmparisons. ' Met him with competitive strokes of the self-same force as those he gave,' 'dealt him blows of equal might to his own.'
(19) Colmes-inch. Now called 'Inch-comb.' It is a small island in the Firth of Forth, with an abbey upon it dedicated to St. Columb. "Inch," or 'inse,' in Erse, means 'island.'