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Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note.

Lady M.

What's to be done?

Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling 9 night, Skarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;

And, with thy bloody and invisible hand,
Cancel, and tear to pieces, that great bond
Which keeps me pale 10!-Light thickens; and the

crow

Makes wing to the rooky wood 11:

12

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; Whiles night's black agents to their do preys rouse Thou marvell'st at my words; but hold thee still; Things, bad begun, make strong themselves by ill: So, pr'ythee, go with me. [Exeunt.

9 i. e. blinding; to seel up the eyes of a hawk was to close them by sewing the eyelids together.

10 So in Cymbeline:—

"Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray.'

11 By the expression, light thickens, Shakspeare means that it is growing dark. Thus in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess:'Fold your flocks up, for the air

'Gins to thicken, and the sun

Already his great course hath run.'

Spenser in the Shepherd's Calendar has :

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Notwithstanding Mr. Steevens's ingenious attempts to explain the rooky wood otherwise; it surely means nothing more than the wood inhabited by rooks. The poet has shown himself a close observer of nature in marking the return of these birds to their nest trees when the day is drawing to a close. Virgil has a very natural description of the same circumstance:

E pastu decedens agmine magno

Corvorum increpuit densis exercitus alis.'

12 See note on King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 1.

SCENE III. The same.

A Park or Lawn, with a Gate leading to the Palace.

Enter three Murderers.

1 Mur. But who did bid thee join with us?

3 Mur.

Macbeth.

2 Mur. He needs not our mistrust; since he de

livers

Our offices, and what we have to do,

To the direction just.

1 Mur.

Then stand with us.

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day: the lated traveller apace,

spurs

Now
To gain the timely inn; and near approaches

The subject of our watch.

3 Mur.

Ban. [Within.] Give us a light there, ho! 2 Mur.

Hark! I hear horses.

Then it is he; the rest

His horses go about.

That are within the note of expectation1,
Already are i'the court.

1 Mur.

3 Mur. Almost a mile: but he does usually, So all men do, from hence to the palace gate Make it their walk.

Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, a Servant with a Torch preceding them.

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'i. e. they who are set down in the list of guests, and ex

pected to supper.

Ban. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly; Thou may'st revenge. O slave!

[Dies. Fleance and Servant escape 2.

3 Mur. Who did strike out the light?

Was't not the way?

1 Mur. 3 Mur. There's but one down: the son is fled. 2 Mur. We have lost best half of our affair. 1 Mur. Well, let's away, and say how much is done.

SCENE IV. A Room of State in the Palace. A Banquet prepared.

Enter MACBETH, LADY MACBETH, ROSSE, LeNOX, Lords, and Attendants.

Macb. You know your own degrees, sit down:

at first1

And last, the hearty welcome.

Lords.

Thanks to your majesty.

Macb. Ourself will mingle with society,

And play the humble host.

Our hostess keeps her state; but, in best time,
We will require her welcome.

Lady M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;

For my heart speaks, they are welcome.

2 Fleance, after the assassination of his father, fled into Wales, where, by the daughter of the prince of that country, he had a son named Walter, who afterwards became Lord High Steward of Scotland, and from thence assumed the name of Sir Walter Steward. From him, in a direct line, King James I. was descended; in compliment to whom Shakspeare has chosen to describe Banquo, who was equally concerned with Macbeth in the murder of Duncan, as innocent of that crime.

1 At first and last.' Johnson with great plausibility proposes to read To first and last.'

26

Keeps her state,' continues in her chair of state. A state was a royal chair with a canopy over it.

Enter first Murderer, to the door.

Macb. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks:

Both sides are even: Here I'll sit i' the midst:
Be large in mirth; anon, we'll drink a measure
The table round.-There's blood upon thy face.
Mur. 'Tis Banquo's then.

Macb. 'Tis better thee without, than he within 3. Is he despatch'd?

Mur. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him. Macb. Thou art the best o'the cut-throats: Yet

he's good,

That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,
Thou art the nonpareil.

Mur.

Fleance is 'scap'd.

Most royal sir,

Macb. Then comes my fit again: I had else been

perfect;

Whole as the marble, founded as the rock;

As broad, and general, as the casing air:

But now,
I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?
Mur. Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,
With twenty trenched gashes on his head;
The least a death to nature.

Macb.

Thanks for that:

There the grown serpent lies; the worm, that's fled,

3 "Tis better he without than thee within,' that is, I am better pleased that the blood of Banquo should be on thy face than in his body. He is put for him.

4. With twenty trenched gashes on his head.' From the French trancher, to cut. So in Arden of Feversham :Is deeply trenched on my blushing brow.'

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

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like a figure

Trenched in ice.'

Hath nature that in time will venom breed,

No teeth for the present.-Get thee gone; to-morrow We'll hear ourselves again.

Lady M.

[Exit Murderer.

My royal lord,

You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold,
That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a making,
"Tis given with welcome: To feed were best at home;
From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;
Meeting were bare without it.

Macb.

Sweet remembrancer!

Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both!

Len.

May it please your highness sit? [The Ghost of BANQUO rises, and sits in MACBETH'S place.

Macb. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,

Were the grac'd person of our Banquo present;
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness,
Than pity for mischance5!

Rosse.

His absence, sir,

Lays blame upon his promise. Please it your high

ness

To grace us with your royal company?

Macb. The table's full.

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5 Macbeth betrays himself by an overacted regard for Banquo, of whose absence from the feast he affects to complain, that he may not be suspected of knowing the cause, though at the same time he very unguardedly drops an allusion to that cause. May I seems to imply here a wish, not an assertion.

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