NOTES
I. i. 8. Witches were said to keep spirits in the likeness of toads and cats, as their 'familiars.' Gray-malkin is a pet name for a cat. Paddock means 'toad.' The familiar of the Third Witch is not named; but she hears him call, and answers.
I. ii. 15. The first part of this line means that fortune smiled upon him deceitfully for a while. The second part probably means that all Macdonwald's efforts are unavailing.
I. ii. 21. Which ne'er shook hands. The meaning is that Macbeth ne'er quitted Macdonwald till he had killed him.
I. ii. 25. reflection. This word is used in its literal sense of 'turning back.' The sun comes back across the equator in the spring, the season of equinoctial storms. The Sergeant puns on the word 'spring' in line 27.
I. ii. 41. memorize another Golgotha. 'Make memorable another place of slaughter as awful as that of the Crucifixion.'
I. ii. 46. Thane. A military title of nobility, almost equivalent to that of an English earl.
I. ii. 50. flout. Ross uses the present tense, though evidently referring to past time. The people were fanned cold with fear before Macbeth's arrival.
I. iii. 6. rump-fed ronyon. The precise meaning of this phrase is uncertain. Ronyon seems to be equivalent to 'hussy.' Rump-fed may mean 'fat in the rump.' If it means 'fed on rump-ends of meat,' it remains doubtful whether the witch regards the ronyon as pampered or as half-starved.
I. iii. 9, 10. When a witch changes herself into an animal, the animal is usually not perfectly formed. This witch apparently intends to gnaw the planks
