Mal. But I have none; the King-becoming graces, I have no relish of them, but abound Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I fhould Uproar the univerfal peace, confound All unity on earth. Macd. Oh Scotland! Scotland! Mal. If fuch a one be fit to govern, speak ☀ I am as I have spoken. Macd. Fit to govern? No, not to live. Oh, nation miferable, By his own interdiction ftands accurft, Dy'd every day fhe liv'd. Oh, fare thee well! Have banish'd me from Scotland. Oh, my breaft Mal. Macduff, this noble paffion, Wip'd the black fcruples; reconcil'd my thoughts A At no time broke my faith, would not betray No lefs in truth, than life: my firft falfe-fpeaking. Now we'll together, and the chance of goodness Enter a Doctor. Mal. Well; more anon. pray you; Comes the King forth, E. Doct. Ay, Sir; there are a crew of wretched fouls, That stay his cure; their malady convinces The great affay of art. But at his touch, Such fanctity hath heaven given his hand, They prefently amend. Mal. I thank you, Doctor. Macd. What's the difeafe he means? [Exit A moft miraculous work in this good King, То The healing benediction.] Mr. Warburton acutely obferv'd to me upon this paffage, that as, it must be own'd, Shakespeare is often guilty of moft ftrange abfurdities; fo, on the other hand, in this inftance he has artfully avoided one. He had a mind to hint, that the cure of the evil was to defcend to the fucceffors in the royal line. But the confeffor was the firft, who pretended to this gift: How then could it be at that time generally spoken of, that the gift was to be, beredi To the fucceeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. With this ftrange virtue, And fundry bleffings hang about his throne, Enter Roffe. Macd. See, who comes here! Mal. My countryman; but yet I know him not. Macd. My ever-gentle coufin, welcome hither. Mal. I know him now. Good God betimes remove The means that makes us ftrangers! Roffe. Sir, Amen. Macd. Stands Scotland where it did ? Almoft afraid to know itself. It cannot Be call'd our mother, but our grave; where nothing, But who knows nothing, is once feen to smile: Where fighs and groans, and fhrieks that rend the air, Are made, not mark'd; where violent forrow feems A modern ecftafy: the dead-man's knell' Is there scarce afk'd, for whom; and good mens lives Expire before the flowers in their caps; Dying, or ere they ficken. Macd. Oh, relation Too nice, and yet too true! Mal. What's the newest grief? Roffe. That of an hour's age doth hifs the speaker, Each minute teems a new one. Macd. How does my wife? Roffe. Why, well. Macd. And all my children? Macd. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace? tary ?This he has folv'd by infinuating, that Edward had a heavenly gift of prophecy; by which he was inform'd, the cure should remain in his pofterity. 'Tis certain, he was refolv'd to throw in the tradition as a compliment to K. James I. who was very fond of practiting this fuperftition; and, I doubt not, had great faith in the fanctity of his hand upon this occafion. Roffe Roffe. No; they were well at peace, when I did leave 'em. Which was to my belief witness'd the rather, Mal. Be't their comfort We're coming thither: gracious England hath (39) That Chriftendom gives out. Roffe. 'Would, I could answer This comfort with the like! But I have words, (39) -gracious England bath Lent us good Siward, and ten thousand men.] This Siward was Earl of Northumberland; and an approv'd old foldier. But it was not for this reafon alone, probably, that Edward the confeffor appointed him his General against Macbeth: but because the Earl, by his daughter, was nearly link'd with Malcolm's family. We find Malcolm afterwards calling him uncle. It may not be difpleafing to the curious if I fubjoin a pedigree, which will at one view fhew Siward's relation to Malcolm, and Macbeth's to the Scotch crown. Malcome II. So that Duncan and Macbeth were fifters' children: and Siward was Balcolm's grandfather by the mother's fide, The The gen'ral caufe? or is it a fee-grief, Roffe. No mind, that's honeft, But in it fhares fome woe; though the main part Macd. If it be mine, Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. Roffe. Let not your ears defpife my tongue for ever, Which fhall poffefs them with the heaviest sound, That ever yet they heard. Macd. Hum! I guess at it. Roffe. Your caftle is furpriz'd, your wife and babes Savagely flaughter'd; to relate the manner, Were on the quarry of thefe murder'd deer To add the death of you. Mal. Merciful heav'n! What, man! ne'er pull your Give forrow words; the grief, Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, Macd. My children too! hat upon your brows; that does not speak,, and bids it break. Roffe. Wife, children, fervants, all that could be found. Macd. And I must be from thence! my wife kill'd too! Koffe. I've faid. Mal. Be comforted. Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge, (4c) (40) Let's make us med cines of our great revenge, To cure the deadly grief. To Old Macd. He has no children.----] This may appear at firft fight very abrupt, and foreign to the fentiment we muft fuppofe the Speaker then agitated with. But, on examination, we fhall have reafon to confefs it an inftance of our author's great knowledge of nature. Hobbes has obferv'd, that we always think in a chain, and that our. ideas are concatenated one with another. We fhall find this obfervation very, true in the inftance before us. Macduff's thoughts are all employ'd now on revenge: He first confiders the manner of it: and, in his firft tranfports, nothing appears fo fuitable as retaliation: but this brings him to reflect, that he can't have it here, for that Macheth had no children: on which he breaks out into this forrowful refiction. Mr. Warburton. We muft, indeed, acknowledge this fentiment to have its fource fram the reflection of an intended revenge; or from an other reAction purely of tenderness, that if Macbeth had had any children he |