_ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis![4]
_2nd Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor![5]
_3rd Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! thou shall be king hereafter.[6]
This is so accurate a dramatization of the parallel passage in
Holinshed, and so entire in itself, that there is some temptation to ask
whether it was not so written at first, and the interpolated lines
subsequently inserted by the author. Whether this be so or not, the
question must be put--Why, in such a passage, did Shakspere insert three
lines of most striking description of the appearance of witches? Can any
other reason be suggested than that he had made up his mind to replace
the "goddesses of Destinie" by the witches, and had determined that
there should be no possibility of any doubt arising about it?
[Footnote 1: Three women in strange and wild apparel,]
[Footnote 2: resembling creatures of elder world,]
[Footnote 3: whome when they attentivelie beheld, woondering much at the
sight, the first of them spake and said;]
[Footnote 4: 'All haile, Makbeth, thane of Glammis' (for he had latelie
entered into that dignitie and office by the death of his father
Sinell).]
[Footnote 5: The second of them said; 'Haile, Makbeth, thane of
Cawder.']
[Footnote 6: But the third said; 'All haile, Makbeth, that heereafter
shalt be king of Scotland.
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