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.