ldier with the news of a victory. I cannot reject this scene for these
reasons. The question of metre and style is one of judgment; and the one
seems to me not more irregular and careless, and the other not more
tumid, than Shakespeare is in passages undoubtedly of his writing; while
there is a certain flavor of language in the scene and a certain roll of
the words upon the tongue which are his peculiar traits and tricks of
style. The point as to the wounded soldier seems to me a manifest
misapprehension. He is not sent as a messenger. Nothing in the text or
in the stage directions of the original edition gives even color to such
an opinion. The first two scenes of this act prepare one's mind for the
tragedy and lay out its action; and they do so, as far as design is
concerned, with great skill. The first short scene announces the
supernatural character of the agencies at work; the next tells us of the
personages who are to figure in the action and the position in which
they are placed. In the second scene King Duncan and his suite, marching
toward the scene of conflict, and so near it that they are within
ear-shot, if not arrow-shot, _meet_ a wounded officer. He is not sent to
them. He is merely retiring from the field severely wounded--so severely
that he cannot remain long uncared for. The stage direction of the folio
is "Alarum within," which means (as will be found by examining other
plays) that the sound of drums, trumpets, and the conflict of arms is
heard. Then, "Enter King, etc., etc., _meeting_ a bleeding Captaine."
The King, then, does not greet or regard him as a messenger, but
exclaims, "What bloody man is that?" and adds, "He _can_ report, as
_seemeth by his plight_, the condition of the revolt." Plainly this is
no messenger, but a mere wounded officer who leaves the field because,
as he says, his "gashes cry for help."

In Act IV., Sc. 1, this speech of the First Witch after the "Show of
Eight Kings," is plainly not Shakespeare's:

Ay, sir, all this is so; but why
Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?
Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites,
And show the best of our delights.
I'll charm the air to give a sound,
While you perform your antic round,
That this great king may kindly say
Our duties did his welcome pay.

This is condemned by the Cambridge editors, and I agree entirely with
them. Moreover it seems to be manifestly from the same hand as Hecate's
speech (Act III., Sc. 5), previo