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Discomforts well'd. Mark, King of Scotland, mark: No fooner juftice had, with valour arm'd, Compell❜d these skipping Kermes to truft their heels; But the Norweyan lord, furveying 'vantage, With furbisht arms and new fupplies of men Began a fresh affault,

King. Difmay'd not this

Our Captains, Macbeth and Banquo ?
Cap. Yes,

As fparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion.
If I fay footh, I must report, they were

8

* As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks,

the true reading is 'gins; the other reading not fixing it to that quarter. For the Sun may give its reflection in any part of its course above the horizon; but it can begin it only in one. The Oxford Editor, however, fticks to the other reading, gives and fays, that, by the Sun's giving bis reflection, is meant the rainbow, the frongest and most remarkable reflection of any the Sun gives. He appears by this to have as good a hand at reforming our phyfics as our poetry. This is a difcovery, that shipwrecking ftorms proceed from the rainbow. But he was mifled by his want of fkill in Shakespeare's phrafeology, who, by the fun's reflection, means only the Sun's light. But while he is intent on making his author fpeak correctly, he flips himself. The rainbow is no more a reflection of the Sun than a tune is a fiddle. And, tho' it be the most remarkable ef. fect of reflected light, yet it is not the frongest. WARBURTON. There are not two readings: both the old folios have 'gins.

So

over

7 DISCOMFORT quell'd.] Shakespear without questionwrote DISCOMFIT, i. e. rout, throw, from the Latin, disconficius. And that was the cafe, at the firft onfet, till Macbeth turned the fortune of the day. WARD.

Difcomfort is right, being the natural oppofite to comfort. Well'd, for flowed, is Thirlby's emendation. The common copies have, difcomfort fwell d.

As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks,

So they reaouble Arokes upon the

foe:] Mr. The bald has endeavoured to improve the fenfe of this paffage by altering the punctuation thus:

--they were

As canons overcharg'd, with double cracks

So they redoubled frokes He declares, with fome degree, of exultation, that he has no idea of a cannon charged with double crack; but furely the great authour will not gain much by an alteration which makes him fay of a hero, that he redoubles ftrokes with double cracks, an exBb 4 preffion

So they redoubled ftrokes upon the foe.

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, ? Or memorize another Golgotha,

I cannot tell——————

But I am faint, my gafhes cry for help.

King. So well thy words become thee, as thy

wounds;

They fmack of honour both, Go, get

Enter Roffe and Angus,

But who comes here?

Mal. The worthy Thane of Roffe.

him furgeons.

Len. What hafte looks through his eyes?

So fhould he look, that feems to fpeak things ftrange.

preffion not more loudly to be applauded, or more easily pardoned than that which is rejected in its favour. That a cannon is charged with thunder or with double thunders may be written, not only without nonfenfe, but with elegance, and nothing else is here meant by cracks, which in the time of this writer was a word of fuch emphafis and dignity, that in this play he terms the general diffolution of nature the crack of doom.

The old copy reads,
They doubly redoubled frokes.

As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks.] Double is here ufed for great, and not for He ufes double in this, fenfe in other places, as in Love's Labour Loft,

100.

I underflood you not, my griefs are double.

See note on the word in Othello. A&t 1. Scene 4. WA VARBURTON.

9 Or memorize another Gol gotha,] Memorize, for make

memorable.

WARBURTON.

So fhould be look, that seems

to speak things ftrange.] The meaning of this paffage, as it now flands, is, fo fhould be look, that looks as if he told things frange. But Roffe neither yet told ftrange things, nor could look as if he told them; Lenox only conjectured from his air that he had ftrange things to tell, and therefore undoubtedly faid, What hafte looks thro' his eyes? So fhould be look, that teems to

Speak things frange. He looks like one that is big with fomething of importance a metaphor fo natural that it is every day ufed in common difcourfe.

So fhould be look, that seems to Speak things frange.] i. e. that feems as if he would fpeak. WARBURTON. Roffe

Roffe. God fave the King!

King. Whence cam'ft thou, worthy Thane ?
Roffe. From Fife, great King,

Where the Norweyan banners

And fan our people cold.

flout the fky,

Norway, himself, with numbers terrible,
Affifted by that most difloyal traitor

The Thane of Cawdor, 'gan a difmal conflict,
'Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof,
3 Confronted him with felf-comparisons,
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish fpirit. To conclude,
The victory fell on us.

King. Great happiness !

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.

2 flout the fky. To flout is to dafh any thing in another'sface, WARBURTON, 3 Confronted HIM with felfcomparijons, ] The difloyal Cardor, fays Mr. Theobald. Then comes another, and fays, aftrange forgetfulness in Sbake/peare, when Macbeth had taken this Thane of Cawdor prifoner, not to know that he was fallen into the King's difpleafure for rebellion. But this is only blunder upon blunder. The truth is, by him, in this verfe, ismeant Norway: as the plain conftruction of the English requires. And the affistance the Thane of

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SCENE III.

Changes to the Heath.

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1 Witch.

Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

W

HERE haft thou been, fifter?
2 Witch. Killing fwine.

3 Witch. Sifter, where thou?

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. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, mafter o' th' Tyger: But in a fieve I'll thither fail, And like a rat without a tail, I'll do I'll do-and I'll do. 2 Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 1 Witch. Thou art kind.

3

Witch. And I another.

1 Witch. I myself have all the other.

5 Aroint thee] Aroint, or avaunt, be gone. POPE. Aroint thee, witch!] In one of the folio editions the reading is Anoint thee, in a fenfe very confiftent with the common accounts of witches, who are related to perform many fupernatural acts by the means of unguents, and particularly to fly through the air to the places where they meet at their hellish feftivals. In this fenfe, anoint thee, witch, will mean, away, witch, to your infernal affembly. This reading I was inclined to

favour, because I had met with the word aroint in no other authour; till looking into Hearne's collections I found it in a very old drawing, that he has published, in which St. Patrick is reprefent ed vifiting hell, and putting the devils into great confufion by his prefence, of whom one that is driving the damned before him with a prong, has a label iffuing out of his mouth with thefe words, OUT OUT ARONGT, of which the laft is evidently the fame with aroint, and used in the fame fenfe as in this paffage.

And

And the very points they blow;
All the quarters that they know,
I' th' fhip-man's card.—
I will drain him dry as hay,
Sleep fhall neither night nor day,
Hang upon his pent-houfe lid;
7 He fhall live a man forbid;
Weary fev'n nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine;
Though his bark cannot be loft,
Yet it fhall be tempeft-toft.
Look, what I have.

2 Witch. Shew me, fhew me.

I Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb,

Wreckt as homeward he did come !

3 Witch. A drum, a drum!

Macbeth doth come!

[Drum within.

All. The weyward fifters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land,

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