As this passage stands, not only the numbers | I drink to the general joy of the whole table, are very imperfect, but the sense, if any can be And to our dear friend Banquo whom we miss, found, weak and contemptible. The numbers Would he were here I to all, and him, we thirst will be improved by reading. Sit down at first, But for last, should then be written nert. lieve the true reading is, And all to all. Though this passage is, as it now stands, capable of more meanings than one, none of them are very satisfactory; and therefore I am inI be- clined to read it thus: You know your own degrees, sit down-To first And last the hearty welcome. All of whatever degree, from the highest to the lowest, may be assured that their visit is well received. NOTE XXIX. Macbeth. There's blood upon thy face. [To the murderer aside at the door. Murderer. 'Tis Banquo's then. Macbeth. 'Tis better thee without, than he within. To all, and him, we thirst, And hail to all. Macbeth, being about to salute his company with a bumper, declares that he includes Banquo, though absent, in this act of kindness, and wishes health to all. Hail or heil for health was in such continual use among the good-fellows of ancient times, that a drinker was called a was-heiler, or a wisher of health, and the liquor was termed was-heil, because health was so often wished over it. Thus in the lines of Hanvil the Monk, Jamque vagante scypho, discincto gutture was-heil The sense apparently requires that this pas-Ingeminant was-heil; labor est plus perdere vini sage should be read thus: 'Tis better thee without, than him within. That is, I am more pleased that the blood of Banquo should be on thy face, than in his body. NOTE XXX. Lady Macbeth. Proper stuff! This is the very painting of your fear: [Aside to Macbeth. This is the air-drawn dagger which you said Led you to Duncan. Oh, these flaws and starts Impostures to true fear, would well become A woman's story at a winter's fire, Authorised by her grandam. Shame itself! Why do you make such faces? When all's done You look but on a stool. As starts can neither with propriety nor sense be called impostures to true fear, something else was undoubtedly intended by the author, who perhaps wrote, These flaws and starts, These symptoms of terror and amazement might better become impostures true only to fear, might become a coward at the recital of such falsehoods as no man could credit, whose understanding was not weakened by his terrors; tales, told by woman over a fire on the authority of her grandam. a NOTE XXXI. Macbeth.--Love and health to all! Then I'll sit down: give me some wine, fill full Quum sitis.— These words were afterwards corrupted into wassail and wassailer. Then after a short pause, declares it as the general observation of mankind, that murderers cannot escape. --They say, blood will have blood. Murderers, when they have practised all human means of security, are detected by supernatural directions. Augurs, that understand relations, &c. By the word relation, is understood the connection of effects with causes; to understand relations as an augur, is to know how those things relate to each other which have no visible combination or dependence. man. As this tragedy, like the rest of Shakspeare's, is perhaps overstocked with personages, it is not easy to assign a reason why a nameless character should be introduced here, since nothing is said that might not with equal propriety have been put into the mouth of any other disaffected I believe, therefore, that in the original copy, it was written with a very common form of contraction, Lenox and An. for which the transcriber, instead of Lenox and Angus, set The author had down Lenor and another Lord. indeed been more indebted to the transcriber's fidelity and diligence, had he committed no errors of greater importance. NOTE XXXV.-ACT IV. SCENE I. As this is the chief scene of enchantment in the play, it is proper in this place to observe, with how much judgment Shakspeare has selected all the circumstances of his infernal ceremonies, and how exactly he has conformed to common opinions and traditions. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. The usual form in which familiar spirits are reported to converse with witches, is that of a cat. A witch who was tried about half a century before the time of Shakspeare, had a cat named Rutterkin, as the spirit of one of those witches was Grimalkin; and when any mischief was to be done, she used to bid Rutterkin go and fly but once when she would have sent Rutlerkin to torment a daughter of the Countess of Rutland, instead of going or flying, he only cried mew, from which she discovered that the lady was out of his power, the power of witches being not universal, but limited, as Shakspeare bas taken care to inculcate. Though bis bark cannot be lost, The common afflictions which the malice of witches produced were melancholy, fits, and loss of flesh, which are threatened by one of Shakspeare's witches. Weary sev'n nights nine times niue It was likewise their practice to destroy the cattle of their neighbours, and the farmers have to this day many ceremonies to secure their cows and other cattle from witchcraft; but they seem to have been most suspected of malice against swine. Shakspeare has accordingly made one of his witches declare that she has been killing swine; and Dr. Harsenet observes, that about that time "a sow could not be ill of the measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with witchcraft." Toad, that under the cold stone Days and nights has forty-oue Swelter'd venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. Toads have likewise long lain under the reproach of being by some means necessary to witchcraft, for which reason Shakspeare, in the first scene of this play, calls one of the spirits padocke or toad, and now takes care to put a toad first into the pot. When Vaninus was seized at Thoulouse, there was found at his lodgings ingens bufo vitro inclusus, a great toad shut in a vial, upon which those that prosecuted him veneficium exprobrabant, charged him, I suppose, with witchcraft. Fillet of a fenny snake In the cauldron boil and bake; The propriety of these ingredients may be known by consulting the books de Viribus Animalium and de Mirabilibus Mundi, ascribed to Albertus Magnus, in which the reader, who has time and credulity, may discover very wonderful secrets. Finger of birth strangled babe, It has been already mentioned in the law against witches, that they are supposed to take up dead bodies to use in enchantments, which was confessed by the woman whom King James examined, and who had of a dead body, that was divided in one of their assemblies, two It is observable, that fingers for her share. Shakspeare, on this great occasion, which involves the fate of a king, multiplies all the circumstances of horror. The babe whose finger is used, must be strangled in its birth; the like that of the first; he was offended only that the second resembled the first, as the first resembled Banquo, and therefore said, -And thy air, These are touches of judgment and The other gold-bound brow, is like the first. And now about the cauldron sing Blue spirits and white, And in a former part, Weird sisters hand in hand Thus do go about, about, Thrice to mine, and thrice to thine, And thrice again to make up nine. I will-give to the edge o' th' sword Both the sense and measure of the third line, which as it rhymes, ought, according to the practice of this author, to be regular, are at present injured by two superfluous syllables, which may easily be removed by reading, -souls NOTE XXXVIII. Rosse. Dearest consin, mour These two passages I have brought together, That trace his line—no boasting like a fool. because they both seem subject to the objection of too much levity for the solemnity of enchantment, and may both be shown, by one quotation from Camden's account of Ireland, to be founded upon a practice really observed by the uncivilized natives of that country. "When any one gets a fall," says the informer of Camden, "he starts up, and turning three times to the right, digs a hole in the earth; for they imagine that there is a spirit in the ground; and if he falls sick in two or three days, they send one of their women that is skilled in that way to the place, where she says, I call thee from the east, west, north, and south, from the groves, the woods, the rivers, and the fens, from the fairies, red, black, white." There was likewise a book written before the time of Shakspeare, describing, amongst other properties, the colours of spirits. Many other circumstances might be particularized, in which Shakspeare has shown his judgment and his knowledge. NOTE XXXVI.-SCENE II. Macbeth. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo, down, Thy crown does (1) sear my eye-balls, and thy (2) Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first, (1) The expression of Macbeth, that the crown sears his eye-balls, is taken from the method formerly practised of destroying the sight of captives or competitors, by holding a burning bason before the eye, which dried up its humidity. (2) As Macbeth expected to see a train of kings, and was only inquiring from what race they would proceed, he could not be surprised that the hair of the second was bound with gold I pray you school yourself; but for your husband, (1) When we hold rumour The present reading seems to afford no sense; and therefore some critical experiments may be properly tried upon it, though, the verses being without any connection, there is room for suspicion, that some intermediate lines are lost, and that the passage is therefore irretrievable. If it be supposed that the fault arises only from the corruption of some words, and that the traces of the true reading are still to be found, the passage may be changed thus: -When we bode ruin From what we fear, yet know not what we fear. -When the bold running That he who floats upon a rough sea must move, is evident, too evident for Shakspeare so emphatically to assert. The line therefore is to be written thus: Each way, and move-I'll take my leave of yon. Rosse is about to proceed, but finding himself overpowered by his tenderness, breaks off abruptly, for which he makes a short apology and retires. NOTE XXXIX.-SCENE IV. heaven [pro justicia divina,] answerable to the cause. But I am inclined to believe that Shakspeare wrote, And the chance, O goodness, Be like our warranted quarrel. This some of his transcribers wrote with a Malcolm. Let us seek out some desolate shade, small o, which another imagined to mean of and there Weep our sad bosoms empty. Macduff. Let us rather Hold fast the mortal sword: and like good men, He who can discover what is meant by him that earnestly exhorts him to bestride his downfal birthdoom, is at liberty to adhere to the present text; but those who are willing to confess that such counsel would to them be unintelligible, must endeavour to discover some reading less obscure. It is probable that Shakspeare wrote, Like good men Bestride our downfaln birthdom.―― The allusion is to a man from whom something valuable is about to be taken by violence, and who, that he may defend it without encumbrance, lays it on the ground and stands over it with his weapon in his hand. Our birthdom, or birthright, says he, lies on the ground, let us, like men who are to fight for what is dearest to them, not abandon it, but stand over it and defend it. This is a strong picture of obstinate resolution. Birthdom for birthright, is formed by the same analogy with masterdom in this play, signifying the privileges or rights of a master. Perhaps it might be birth-dame for mother; let us stand over our mother that lies bleeding on the ground. NOTE XL. Malcolm. Now we'll together, and the chance of goodness Be like our warranted quarrel. The chance of goodness, as it is commonly read, conveys no sense. If there be not some more important error in the passage, it should at least be pointed thus: And the chance, of goodness, That is, May the event be, of the goodness of If we adopt this reading, the sense will be, and O thou sovereign goodness to whom we now appeal, may our fortune answer to our cause. The impropriety of the expression advantage to be given, instead of advantage given, and the disagreeable repetition of the word given in the next line incline me to read, Where there is a vantage to be gone, Both more and less have given him the revolt. ន s It is a broken speech, in which only part of the thought is expressed, and may be paraphrased thus: The queen is dead. Macbeth. Her death should have been deferred to some more peaceful hour; had she lived longer, there would at length have been a time for the honours due to her as a queen, and that respect which I owe her for her fidelity and love. Such is the worldsuch is the condition of human life, that we always think to-morrow will be happier than to-day; but to-morrow and to-morrow steals over us unenjoyed and unregarded, and we still linger in the same expectation to the moment appointed for our end. All these days, which have thus passed away, have sent multitudes of fools to the grave who were engrossed by the same dream of future felicity, and, when life was departing from them, were like me reckoning on to-morrow. (2) To the last syllable of recorded time. Recorded time seems to signify the time fixed in the decrees of heaven for the period of life. The records of futurity is indeed no accurate expression, but as we only know transactions past or present, the language of men affords no term for the volumes of prescience, in which future events may be supposed to be written. NOTE XLV. Macbeth. If thou speak'st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive. To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend, That lies like truth. Fear not till Birnam wood I pull in resolution Though this is the reading of all the editions, yet as it is a phrase without either example, elegance, or propriety, it is surely better to read, I pall in resolution I languish in my constancy, my confidence begins to forsake me. It is scarcely necessary to observe how easily pall might be changed into pull by a negligent writer, or mistaken for it by an unskilful printer. NOTE XLVI.-SCENE VIII. Seyward. Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death: And so his knell is knoll'd. This incident is thus related from Henry of Huntingdon by Camden in his "Remains," from which our author probably copied it. When Seyward, the martial Earl of Northumberland, understood that his son, whom he had sent in service against the Scotchmen, was slain, he demanded whether his wound were in the fore part or hinder part of his body. When it was answered in the fore part, he replied," I am right glad; neither wish I any other death to me or mine." AFTER the foregoing pages were printed, the late edition of Shakspeare, ascribed to Sir Thomas Hanmer, fell into my bands; and it was therefore convenient for me to delay the publication of my remarks till I had examined whether they were not anticipated by similar observations, or precluded by better. I therefore read over this tragedy, but found that the editor's apprehension is of a cast so different from mine, that he appears to find no difficulty in most of those passages which I have represented as unintelligible, and has therefore passed smoothly over them, without any attempt to alter or explain them. Some of the lines with which I had been perplexed, have been indeed so fortunate as to attract his regard; and it is not without all the satisfaction which it is usual to express on such |