Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849

"Upon the heath,
There to meet with Macbeth."

The Witches, then, are to meet with Macbeth on the heath on the Evening of the Battle?

NORTH.

It would seem so.

SEWARD.

They are "posters over sea and land" – and, like whiffs of lightning, can outsail and outride the sound of thunder. But Macbeth and Banquo must have had on their seven-league boots.

NORTH.

They must.

SEWARD.

"A drum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come."

Was he with the advanced guard of the Army?

NORTH.

Not unlikely – attended by his Staff. Generals, on such occasions, usually ride – but perhaps Macbeth and Banquo, being in kilts, preferred walking in their seven-league boots. Thomas Campbell has said, "When the drum of the Scottish Army is heard on the wild heath, and when I fancy it advancing with its bowmen in front, and its spears and banners in the distance, I am always disappointed with Macbeth's entrance at the head of a few kilted actors." The army may have been there – but they did not see the Weirds – nor, I believe, did the Weirds see them. With Macbeth and Banquo alone had they to do: we see no Army at that hour – we hear no drums – we are deaf even to the Great Highland Bagpipe, though He, you may be sure, was not dumb – all "plaided and plumed in their tartan array" the Highland Host ceased to be – like vanished shadows – at the first apparition of "those so withered and so wild in their attire" – not of the earth though on it, and alive somewhere till this day – while generations after generations of mere Fighting Men have been disbanded by dusty Death.

SEWARD.

I wish to know where and when had been the Fighting? The Norwegian – one Sweno, had come down very handsomely at Inchcolm with ten thousand dollars – a sum in those days equal to a million of money in Scotland —

NORTH.

Seward, speak on subjects you understand. What do you know, sir, of the value of money in those days in Scotland?

SEWARD.

But where had been all the Fighting? There would seem to have been two hurley-burleys.

NORTH.

I see your drift, Seward. Time and Place, through the First Scene of the First Act, are past finding out. It has been asked – Was Shakspeare ever in Scotland? Never. There is not one word in this Tragedy leading a Scotsman to think so – many showing he never had that happiness. Let him deal with our localities according to his own sovereign will and pleasure, as a prevailing Poet. But let no man point out his dealings with our localities as proofs of his having such knowledge of them as implies personal acquaintance with them gained by a longer or shorter visit in Scotland. The Fights at the beginning seem to be in Fife. The Soldier, there wounded, delivers his relation at the King's Camp before Forres. He has crawled, in half-an-hour, or an hour – or two hours – say seventy, eighty, or a hundred miles, or more – crossing the ridge of the Grampians. Rather smart. I do not know what you think here of Time; but I think that Space is here pretty well done for. The Time of the Action of Shakspeare's Plays has never yet, so far as I know, been, in any one Play, carefully investigated – never investigated at all; and I now announce to you Three – don't mention it – that I have made discoveries here that will astound the whole world, and demand a New Criticism of the entire Shakspearean Drama.

BULLER.

Let us have one now, I beseech you, sir.

NORTH.

Not now.

BULLER.

No sleep in the Tent till we have it, sir. I do dearly love astounding discoveries – and at this time of day, in astounding discovery in Shakspeare! May it not prove a Mare's Nest!

NORTH.

The Tragedy of Macbeth is a prodigious Tragedy, because in it the Chariot of Nemesis visibly rides in the lurid thunder-sky. Because in it the ill motions of a human soul, which Theologians account for by referring them all to suggestions of Beelzebub, are expounded in visible, mysterious, tangible, terrible shape and symbolisation by the Witches. It is great by the character and person, workings and sufferings, of Lady Macbeth – by the immense poetical power in doing the Witches – mingling for once in the world the Homely-Grotesque and the Sublime – extinguishing the Vulgar in the Sublime – by the bond, whatsoever it be, between Macbeth and his wife – by making us tolerate her and him —

BULLER.

Didn't I say that in my own way, sir? And didn't you reprove me for saying it, and order me out of the Tent?

NORTH.

And what of the Witches?

BULLER.

Had you not stopt me. I say now, sir, that nobody understands Shakspeare's Hecate. Who is She? Each of the Three Weirds is = one Witch + one of the Three Fates – therefore the union of two incompatible natures – more than in a Centaur. Oh! Sir! what a hand that was which bound the two into one – inseverably! There they are for ever as the Centaurs are. But the gross Witch prevails; which Shakspeare needed for securing belief, and he has it, full. Hecate, sir, comes in to balance the disproportion – she lifts into Mythology – and strengthens the mythological tincture. So does the "Pit of Acheron." That is classical. To the best of my remembrance, no mention of any such Pit in the Old or New Statistical Account of Scotland.

NORTH.

And, in the Incantation Scene, those Apparitions! Mysterious, ominous, picturesque – and self-willed. They are commanded by the Witches, but under a limitation. Their oracular power is their own. They are of unknown orders – as if for the occasion created in Hell.

North.

Talboys, are you asleep – or are you at Chess with your eyes shut?

TALBOYS.

At Chess with my eyes shut. I shall send off my move to my friend Stirling by first post. But my ears were open – and I ask – when did Macbeth first design the murder of Duncan? Does not everybody think – in the moment after the Witches have first accosted and left him? Does not – it may be asked – the whole moral significancy of the Witches disappear, unless the invasion of hell into Macbeth's bosom is first made by their presence and voices?

NORTH.

No. The whole moral significancy of the Witches only then appears, when we are assured that they address themselves only to those who already have been tampering with their conscience. "Good sir! why do you start, and seem to fear things that do sound so fair?" That question put to Macbeth by Banquo turns our eyes to his face – and we see Guilt. There was no start at "Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor," – but at the word "King" well might he start; for – eh?

TALBOYS.

We must look up the Scene.

NORTH.

No need for that. You have it by heart – recite it.

TALBOYS.

"Macbeth. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.