For the curtain now is rising, and I hear a deafening roar.

Not a word hath Macbeth spoken; he can only bow in token

Of the homage all unbroken. Then the Croaker spoke once more:

“Truly this Macbeth reminds me of a figure seen before

Over many a snuff-shop-door.”

And the Croaker, never flitting, still was sitting, his brows knitting,

Growling oft at Irving’s action, voice, and costume that he wore,

And his eyes had all the seeming of a croaker who was dreaming

Of Macready, Kemble, Kean, and Young, in palmy days of yore;

And the last words that he muttered, as he passed the circle-door,