That this great king may kindly say, Our duties did his welcome pay. (Music. The Witches dance, and vanish.) Mac. Where are they? Gone?-Let this pernicious hour, Come in, without there! Len. Enter LENOX. What's your grace's will? Mac. Saw you the weird sisters? Len. No, indeed, my lord. Mac. Infected be the air whereon they ride; And damn'd all those that trust them!—I did hear The galloping of horse; who was 't came by? Len. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word, Mac. Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits: The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it: From this moment, The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: This castle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool; But no more sights !4—Where are these gentlemen ? (Exeunt.) 3 "Apparition of a bloody child."—The idea of a "bloody child," and of his being more potent than the armed head, and one of the masters of the witches, is very dreadful. So is that of the child crowned, with a tree in his hand. They impersonate, it is true, certain results of the war, the destruction of Macduff's children, and the succession of Banquo's; but the imagination does not make these reflections at first; and the dreadfulness still remains, of potent demons speaking in the shapes of children. 4" But no more sights."—What a world of horrors is in this little familiar phrase! THE QUARREL OF OBERON AND TITANIA. A FAIRY DRAMA. I have ventured to give the extract this title, because it not only contains the whole story of the fairy part of the Midsummer Night's Dream, but by the omission of a few lines, and the transposition of one small passage (for which I beg the reader's indulgence), it actually forms a separate little play. It is nearly such in the greater play; and its isolation was easily, and not at all injuriously effected, by the separation of the Weaver from his brother mechanicals. Enter OBERON at one door with his train; and TITANIA at another with hers. Ober. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. Tit. What! jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence; I have forsworn his bed and company. Ober. Tarry, rash wanton; am not I thy lord? To give their bed joy and prosperity? Ober. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night From Perigenia, whom he ravished? And make him with fair Æglé break his faith, With Ariadne, and Antiope? Tit. These are the forgeries of jealousy: To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, By their increase, now knows not which is which From our debate, from our dissension: We are their parents and original. Ober. Do you amend it then: it lies in you: Why should Titian cross her Oberon ? I do but beg a little changeling boy, To be my henchman,t Nine men's morris.-A "ustic game, played with stones upon lines cut in the ground. t Henchman-Page. The fairy land buys not the child of me. To fetch me trifles and return again, Ober. How long within this wood intend you stay? If you will patiently dance in our round, And see our moonlight revels, go with us; If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. Ober. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. away: [Exeunt TITANIA and her train. Ober. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove, Till I torment thee for this injury. My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou remember'st Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back, Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song; And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, Ober. That very night I saw (but thou couldst not), Flying between the cold moon and the earth, Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took At a fair vestal, throned by the west;* And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, * At a fair vestal, throned by the west.-An allusion to Queen Elizabeth. See in the Rev. Mr. Halpin's remarks on this passage, published by the Shakspeare Society, a most ingenious speculation on the hidden mean. ing of it, as a bit of secret court history. As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts: In maiden meditation, fancy free. Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell; It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white; now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it Love-in-idleness.* Fetch me that flower: the herb I showed thee once: Will make or man or woman madly dote Fetch me this herb: and be thou here again, Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth, Some, war with rear mice for their leathern wings, Then to your offices, and let me rest. *Love-in-idleness.-The heart's-ease |