which are to befall him; but finding no satisfaction from his own thoughts, he grows impatient of reflection, and resolves to wait the close without harassing himself with conjectures, -Come what come may. But to shorten the pain of suspense, he calls upon time in the usual style of ardent desire, to quicken his motion, Time! on! He then comforts himself with the reflection that all his perplexity must have an end, -The hour runs thro' the roughest day. This conjecture is supported by the passage in the letter to his lady, in which he says, They referred me to the coming on of time, with Hail King that shall be. NOTE IX.-SCENE VI. Malcolm. Nothing in his life Which the next transcriber observing to be NOTE XII.-SCENE VII. As the word ow'd affords here no sense but such as is forced and unnatural, it cannot be doubted that it was originally written, The That which cries, "thus thou must do if thou have it, dearest thing he own'd; a reading which needs And that," &c. neither defence nor explication. -Our duties Are to your throne and state, children and servants, As the object of Macbeth's desire is here introduced speaking of itself, it is necessary to read, This expression signifies not the thoughts of mortals, but murtherous, deadly, or destructive designs. So in Act 5th. Hold fast the mortal sword. And in another place, With twenty mortal murthers. --Nor keep pace between Th' effect and it. The intent of Lady Macbeth, evidently is to wish that no womanish tenderness, or conscien tious remorse, may hinder her purpose from proceeding to effect; but neither this, nor indeed any other sense, is expressed by the present reading, and therefore it cannot be doubted that Shakspeare wrote differently, perhaps thus: That no compunctious visitings of nature This topic, which has been always employed with too much success, is used in this scene with peculiar propriety, to a soldier by a woman. Courage is the distinguishing virtue of a soldier, and the reproach of cowardice cannot be borne by any man from a woman, without great impatience. To keep pace between, may signify to pass between, to intervene. Pace is on many occasions a favourite of Shakspeare. This phrase is indeed not usual in this sense, but was it not its She then urges the oaths by which he had novelty that gave occasion to the present corrup-bound himself to murder Duncan, another art of tion? sophistry by which men have sometimes deluded their consciences, and persuaded themselves that what would be criminal in others, is virtuous in them; this argument Shakspeare, whose plan obliged him to make Macbeth yield, has not confuted, though he might easily have shown that a former obligation could not be vacated by a latter. NOTE XV.-SCENE VIII. King. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air, Banquo. This guest of summer, The temple-haunting Martlet, does approve, NOTE XVI.-SCENE X. The arguments by which Lady Macbeth per. suades her husband to commit the murder, afford a proof of Shakspeare's knowledge of human nature. She urges the excellence and dignity of courage, a glittering idea which has dazzled mankind from age to age, and animated sometimes the housebreaker, and sometimes the conqueror: but this sophism Macbeth has for ever destroyed by distinguishing true from false fortitude, in a line and a half; of which it may almost be said, that they ought to bestow immor tality on the author, though all his other productions had been lost. In this short scene, I propose a slight altera-dares not wet her foot, tion to be made, by substituting site for seat, as, the ancient word for situation; and sense for senses, as more agreeable to the measure; for which reason likewise I have endeavoured to adjust this passage, Those who have perused books printed at the time of the first editions of Shakspeare, know that greater alterations than these are necessary almost in every page, even where it is not to be doubted that the copy was correct. I dare do all that may become a man, NOTE XVII. Letting I dare not, wait upon I would, The adage alluded to is, The cat loves fish, but Catus amat pisces, sed non vult tingere plantas. NOTE XVIII. Will I with wine and wassel so convince To convince, is in Shakspeare to over-power or subdue, as in this play, Their malady convinces The great assay of art. NOTE XIX. Who shall bear the guilt Quell is murder, manquellers being in the old language the term for which murderers is now used. NOTE XX.-ACT II SCENE II. Now o'er one half the world (1) Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse Whose howl's his watch) thus with his stealthy pace, (1) Now o'er one half the world Nature seems dead. That is, over our hemisphere all action and motion seem to have ceased. This image, which is, perhaps, the most striking that poetry can produce, has been adopted by Dryden in his "Conquest of Mexico." All things are hush'd as nature's self lay dead, The mountains seem to nod their drowsy head: The little birds in dreams their songs repeat, And sleeping flowers beneath the night-dews sweat. Even lust and envy sleep! These lines, though so well known, I have transcribed, that the contrast between them and this passage of Shakspeare may be more accurately observed. Night is described by two great poets, but one discribes a night of quiet, the other of perturbation. In the night of Dryden, all the disturbers of the world are laid asleep; in that of Shakspeare, nothing but sorcery, lust, and murder is awake. He that reads Dryden, finds himself lulled with serenity, and disposed to solitude and contemplation. He that peruses Shakspeare, looks round alarmed, and starts to find himself alone. One is the night of a lover, the other that of a murderer. so different from strides, that it has been in all ages represented to be, as Milton expresses it, Smooth sliding without step This hemistic will afford the true reading of this place, which is, I think, to be corrected thus: (2) -Wither'd murder, Thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing sides tow'rd his design, Moves like a ghost. This was the reading of this passage in all the editions before that of Mr. Pope, who for sides, inserted in the text strides, which Mr. Theobald has tacitly copied from him, though a more proper alteration might perhaps have been made. A ravishing stride is an action of violence, impetuosity, and tumult, like that of a savage rushing on his prey; whereas the poet is here attempting to exhibit an image of secrecy and caution, of anxious circumspection and guilty timidity, the stealthy pace of a ravisher creeping into the chamber of a virgin, and of an assassin approaching the bed of him whom he proposes to murder, without awaking him; these he describes as moving like ghosts, whose progression is And wither'd murder With Tarquin ravishing, slides tow'rd his design, Tarquin is in this place the general name of a ravisher, and the sense is, Now is the time in which every one is asleep, but those who are employed in wickedness, the witch who is sacrificing to Hecate, and the ravisher and the murderer, who, like me, are stealing upon their prey. When the reading is thus adjusted, he wishes with great propriety, in the following lines, that the earth may not hear his steps. (3) And take the present horror from the time That now suits with it. I believe every one that has attentively read this dreadful soliloquy is disappointed at the conclusion, which, if not wholly unintelligible, is at least obscure, nor can be explained into any sense worthy of the author. I shall therefore propose a slight alteration. --Thou sound and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my where-about, And talk-the present horror of the time !— That now suits with it- Macbeth has, in the foregoing lines, disturbed his imagination by enumerating all the terrors of the night; at length he is wrought up to a degree of frenzy, that makes him afraid of some supernatural discovery of his design, and calls out to the stones not to betray him, not to declare where he walks, nor to talk.-As he is going to say of what, he discovers the absurdity of his suspicion, and pauses, but is again overwhelmed by his guilt, and concludes that such are the horrors of the present night, that the stones may be expected to cry out against him. 316 Lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of death, -Prophesying with accents terrible, NOTE XXII. " $ Each of these words might easily be confounded with that which I have substituted for it by a hand not exact, a casual blot, or a negli gent inspection. Mr. Pope has endeavoured to improve one of these lines by substituting goary blood for golden These lines I think should be rather regulated blood, but it may easily be admitted, that he who could on such an occasion talk of lacing the A prophecy of an event new-hatch'd, seems to be Up! up! and see The great doom's image, Malcolm, Banquo, The second line might have been so easily completed, that it cannot be supposed to have been left imperfect by the author, who probably wrote, Malcolm! Banquo! rise! As from your graves rise up.— Many other emendations of the same kind might be made, without any greater deviation from the printed copies, than is found in each of them from the rest. NOTE XXIII.. Macbeth. Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature, An unmannerly dagger, and a dagger breech'd, or as in some editions, breach'd with gore, are expressions not easily to be understood, nor can it be imagined that Shakspeare would reproach the murderer of his king only with want of manThere are undoubtedly two faults in this passage, which I have endeavoured to take away by reading ners. Daggers Unmanly drench'd with gore. It is not improbable, that Shakspeare put these forced and unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth, as a mark of artifice and dissimulation, to show the difference between the studied language of hypocrisy, and the natural outcries of sudden passion. This whole speech, considered in this light, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists entirely of antitheses NOTE XXIV.- -ACT III. SCENE II., Macbeth. Our fears in Banquo Reigns that which would be fear'd. 'Tis much he And to that dauntless temper of his mind, Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, (1)- --As it is said, Though I would not often assume the critic's privilege, of being confident where certainty cannot be obtained, nor indulge myself too far I cannot but propose the rejection of this pasin departing from the established reading; yet sage, which I believe was an insertion of some player, that, having so much learning as to discover to what Shakspeare alluded, was not willing that his audience should be less knowing than himself, and has therefore weakened the author's sense by the intrusion of a remote and I saw drench'd with the king's blood the fatal daggers, not only instruments of murder, but evi-useless image into a speech bursting from a man dences of cowardice. wholly possessed with his own present condition, This passage will be best explained by translating it into the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it is borrowed. Que la destinée se rende en lice, et qu'elle me donne un defi a l'outrance. A challenge or a combat a l'outrance, to extremity, was a fixed term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odium internecinum, an intention to de stroy each other, in opposition to trials of skill at festivals, or on other occasions, where the contest was only for reputation or a prize. The sense therefore is, Let fate that has fore-doomed the exaltation of the sons of Banquo, enter the lists against me, with the utmost animosity, in defence of its own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the danger. NOTE XXV. Macbeth. Ay, in the catalogue, ye go for men,` As hounds and grey-hounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Shoughs, water-ruggs, and demi-wolves are clept All by the name of dogs. Though this is not the most sparkling passage in the play, and though the name of a dog is of no great importance, yet it may not be improper to remark, that there is no such species of dogs as shoughs mentioned by Caius de Canibus Britannicis, or any other writer that has fallen into my hands, nor is the word to be found in any dictionary which I have examined. I therefore imagined that it is falsely printed for slouths, a kind of slow hound bred in the southern parts of England, but was informed by a lady, that it is more probably used, either by mistake, or according to the orthography of that time, for shocks. NOTE XXVI. Macbeth. In this hour at most, I will advise you where to plant yourselves, Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' th' time, The moment on't, for 't must be done to night, And something from the palace : What is meant by the spy of the time, it will be found difficult to explain; and therefore sense will be cheaply gained by a slight alteration.Macbeth is assuring the assassins that they shall not want directions to find Banquo, and therefore says, I will Acquaint you with a perfect spy o' th' time. Accordingly a third murderer joins them afterwards at the place of action. Perfect is well instructed, or well informed, as in this play. Though in your state of honour I am perfect. Though I am well acquainted with your quality and rank. NOTE XXVII.-SCENE IV. 2d Murderer. He needs not to mistrust, since he delivers Our offices and what we have to do, Mr. Theobald has endeavoured unsuccessfully but the punctuation. The meaning of this abrupt to amend this passage, in which nothing is faulty dialogue is this: The perfect spy, mentioned by Macbeth in the foregoing scene, has, before they which were promised at the time of their enter upon the stage, given them the directions agree ment; and therefore one of the murderers ob serves, that since he has given them such exact information, he needs not doubt of their performThen, by way of exhortation to his associates, he cries out, ance. To the direction just. Now nothing remains but that we conform exactly to Macbeth's directions. NOTE XXVIII. SCENE V. Macbeth. You know your own degrees, sit down: At first and last the hearty welcome. |
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