What Three Things Did the Witches Tell Macbeth When He Visits Them Again
MacbethDelight see the lesser of the folio for full explanatory notes and helpful resources.
Next: Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 2 _____ Explanatory Notes for Act 4, Scene 1 From Macbeth. Ed. Thomas Marc Parrott. New York: American Book Co. (Line numbers have been altered.) _____ The interest in this human action centres around Macbeth's relation to Macduff, who has been already pointed out equally his sole opponent among the Scottish nobles. In the start scene, Macbeth is warned against him by proper name and resolves to put him to death; in the second, assassins, who have come too late to find him in his castle, massacre by Macbeth's orders his entire household; in the third we detect him in England stirring up Malcolm to state of war against the tyrant, receiving the terrible news of the slaughter of his wife and children, and vowing revenge upon their murderer. We see less of Macbeth in this act than in any other, but we see plenty to show us how, by this time, he has wholly given himself over to evil. The departure between the Macbeth whom the witches waylaid and the Macbeth who seeks them out has been already pointed out. Fifty-fifty more than terrible is the difference between the Macbeth who was "too full o' the milk of man kindness to catch the nearest way," and the Macbeth who orders the massacre of Macduff's wife and children. The wanton cruelty of this criminal offence, past which Macbeth has absolutely zilch to gain, marks the everyman point of his fall. At the shut of the act, we join with Macduff in thinking of him as "this fiend of Scotland," and expect forward eagerly to the penalization that is most to be meted out to him. It volition be shown after on with what fine art the poet contrives to regain for him a certain portion of our sympathy. The witches who know that Macbeth is coming to consult them are revealed in a cave preparing their enchantments. We may suppose that the caldron with all its horrible ingredients was necessary to think the apparitions which the witches mean to prove Macbeth. The student should note carefully the forms and utterances of these apparitions, and consider in what way their words confirm Macbeth in his evil purposes, and embolden him against repentance. The speeches of the witches are thrown into the same trochaic metre that they have employed on their one-time appearances. The divergence betwixt this and the light iambic metre in which Hecate speaks, is one of the primary reasons for rejecting that character every bit the interpolation of some other poet than Shakespeare. Delight click hither for detailed explanatory notes for the Witches' Chants (4.i.1-47) and analysis. l. conjure, adjure. The accent is on the first syllable. The whole oral communication is very characteristic of the desperate recklessness of Macbeth. He is determined to have an respond from the witches, no matter what storms their enchantments raise, and no matter what devastation of life and property results. 50. profess, make claim to know. 53. yesty, frothy, like yeast. 54. navigation, ships. 55. bladed corn, corn in the green ear. 55. lodged, beaten down. 57. pyramids, towers, or steeples. 59. germens, seeds of life. 63. our masters, the evil spirits, whom the witches serve and who presently have shape as the three apparitions. 64. eaten. According to an former Scotch law a sow who ate her pigs was to be stoned to expiry as a monster. 65. ix farrow, litter of 9. 67. high or low, corking spirit or small-scale. 68. deftly, fitly. 68. The "armed," i.e. helmeted, head represents Macbeth's own head which was destined to be cut off by Macduff. The bloody child represents Macduff, who had been ripped from his mother'southward womb. Note the curtained meaning in the witch's statement that this apparition is more potent than the outset. 74. harp'd, touched. 78. Had I ... hear thee, if I had more than ears than I take, I'd listen to you with all of them; a figurative fashion of saying that Macbeth is listening with eager attention. 83. double, used here as an adverb. 84. take a bail of fate. "Fate" is probably used here in the sense of "Decease." Macbeth intends to kill Macduff, and by and so doing he volition obtain a "bond," a sure pledge, from Decease that Macduff will never damage him. Thus he will be doubly sure, first by the prediction only uttered, next by Macduff'due south death. 86. slumber in spite of thunder. Macbeth has already complained of his restless sleeplessness. It is natural to suppose that a stormy night, recalling to him the terrors of the nighttime in which he murdered Duncan, would all the same further enhance his distress. But he thinks that if he can get rid of his final fright by killing Macduff, he will exist able to rest over again. 86. The third bogeyman represents young Malcolm; the tree represents Birnam forest. 88, 89. round And acme, the crown and highest attainment. 93. Birnam wood, a woods twelve miles from Dunsinane. In this line "Dunsinane" is accented on the second syllable, elsewhere in the play on the outset. 95. impress, forcefulness into service. 96. bodements, predictions. 97. Rebellious head, an ground forces of rebels. 98. our high-placed Macbeth. The phrase seems rather awkward, coming from Macbeth himself. Possibly "our" has something of the force of the royal "We" in information technology. "High-placed" is thought by Dr. Liddell to refer to Macbeth's situation on Dunsinane hill. 99. the lease of nature the allotted span. 100. mortal custom, the custom of bloodshed, i.e. death. 106. noise, music. 111. Eight King, the eight sovereigns of the Scottish firm of Stuart, from Robert II to James VI, inclusive. Co-ordinate to Holinshed, this firm traced its descent back to Banquo. 118. I'll see, I wish to see. 119. a glass, a magic glass past ways of which 1 could foresee the time to come. The eighth king who bears the glass is James Half-dozen of Scotland, ruling in England as James I when this play was written. Shakespeare meant to pay him a compliment by declaring that many of his descendants should reign. The nowadays king of England is descended on the mother'south side from James I. 121. balls, the golden orb carried by the monarch at his coronation. James was twice crowned, once in Scotland, and once in England. 121. treble sceptres, indicating the official championship of the English monarchs from James I to George III, viz.: "King of Great Great britain, France, and Republic of ireland." 122. A syllable is wanting in the 3rd pes. Its identify is supplied by the interruption afterwards Macbeth's ejaculation, "Horrible sight!" 123. claret-bolter'd, with hair disordered with blood. 124. What, is this so? These words, and the following lines to 132, inclusive, are almost certainly interpolated. Macbeth has merely said, "I see 'tis true," and it is therefore out of keeping for him to inquire the witches, "is this so?" The metre of the witch's speech is like that of Hecate in iii. five, and different that which Shakespeare uses for the witches, and the suggestion of the witch that she and her sisters cheer up Macbeth by a dance, is too absurd to demand discussion. The passage is one of the spectacular interpolations with which the reviser sought to increment the drawing power of Macbeth. 132. Our duties ... pay, our dutiful service (shown in the trip the light fantastic toe) gave him a welcome; an bad-mannered and un-Shakespearean line. 134. Stand up ... calendar, became a day marked in the calendar as one of ill omen. 127. sprites, spirits. 130. caper, fantastic, grotesque. 135. Enter Lennox. Lennox, nosotros must imagine, had accompanied Macbeth on his visit to the witches, simply had been left outside the cave. At that place is a singled-out significance in the fact that the lord who, in the preceding scene, had called Macbeth a tyrant, appears hither as his confidential companion. In spite of his spies Macbeth did not know how his nobles hated him. 139. damn'd all those that trust them, Macbeth does not realize that he is pronouncing judgment on himself, for, in spite of the show of the kings, he still trusts in the predictions of the witches. 144. anticipatest, preventest. 145. flightly, fleeting. 147. firstlings, outset offsprings. 153. trace him in his line, his relatives. 155. sights, apparitions. 155. no more than sights. Macbeth has had more than than plenty of the witches and their apparitions. ________ How to cite the explanatory notes:________ More Resources |  More than to Explore Macbeth: The Complete Play with Annotations The Metre of Macbeth: Blank Verse and Rhymed Lines Macbeth Grapheme Introduction Metaphors in Macbeth (Biblical) Points to Ponder ... "[The Witches'] relation to the play as a whole is no less important than to Macbeth as an individual. These creatures, whose proper element is the storm, whose chariot is the whirl-wind, whose religion is to do the evil, form a fit setting for a drama in which the very ground rocks below one's feet, in which the whole activity is a stormy struggle between the powers of skillful and the powers of evil." N. B. Bowman. 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