All of whatever degree, from the higheft to the lowest, may be affured that their vifit is well received.

Macbeth.

NOTE XXIX.

THERE'S
HERE'S blood upon thy face.
[To the murtherer afide at the door.

Murderer. 'Tis Banquo's then.

Macbeth. 'Tis better thee without, than he within.

The fenfe apparently requires that this paffage fhould be read thus:

'Tis better thee without, than him within.

That is, I am more pleafed that the blood of Banquo fould be on thy face, than in his body.

NOTE XXX.

Lady Macbeth. PROPER stuff!

This is the very painting of your fear:

[Afide to Macbeth.

This is the air-drawn dagger which you faid

Led you to Duncan. Oh, thefe flaws and ftarts,
Impofiures to true fear, would well become
A woman's ftory at a winter's fire,

Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself!
Why do you make fuch faces? When all's done
You look but on a stool.

As farts can neither with propriety nor sense be called impoftures to true fear, fomething else was undoubtedly intended by the author, who perhaps wróte

Thofe flaws and starts,

Impoftures true to fear, would well become
A woman's ftory,-

These symptoms of terror and amazement might better become impoftors true only to fear, might become a coward at the recital of fuch falfhoods as no man could credit whofe understanding was not weakened by his terrors; tales, told by a woman over a fire on the authority of her grandam.

NOTE XXXI.

Macbeth.LOVE and health to all!

Then I'll fit down: give me fome wine, fill full-
I drink to th' general joy of the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo whom we mifs,
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,
And all to all.

Though this paffage is, as it now ftands, capable of more meanings than one, none of them are very fatisfactory; and therefore I am inclined to read it thus:

-To all, and him, we thirft,

And hail to all.

Macbeth.

Macbeth, being about to falute his company with a bumper, declares that he includes Banquo, though abfent, in this act of kindness, and wishes health to all. Hail or heil for health was in fuch continual ufe among the good-fellows of ancient times, that a drinker was called a was-heiler, or a wifher of health, and the liquor was termed was-heil, because health was fo often wished over it. Thus in the lines of Hanvil the Monk,

Famque vagante Scypho, difcincto gutture was-heil
Ingeminant was-heil: labor eft plus perdere vini
Quam fitis.

These words were afterwards corrupted into wafail and waffailer.

Macbeth.

NOTE XXXII.

CAN fuch things be,

And overcome us like a fummer's cloud

Without our special wonder? You make me ftrange
Even to the difpofition that I owe,

When now I think you can behold fuch fights,
And keep the natural ruby of your check,

When mine is blanched with fear.

This paffage, as it now ftands, is unintelligible, but may be restored to sense by a very flight alteration,

You make me strange

Ev'n to the difpofition that I know.

I 3

Though

Though I had before feen many inftances of your courage, yet it now appears in a degree altogether new. So that my long acquaintance with your difpofition does not hinder me from that aftonishment which novelty produces,

Ir

T will have blood, they fay blood will have blood, Stones have been known to move, and trees to

fpeak,

Augurs, that understood relations, have

By magpies, and by choughs, and rooks brought forth

The fecret'ft man of blood.

In this paffage the firft line lofes much of its force by the prefent punctuation. Macbeth having confidered the prodigy which has juft appeared, infers juftly from it, that the death of Duncan cannot país unpunished,

It will have blood,

Then after a fhort paufe, declares it as the general obfervation of mankind, that murderers cannot escape. They fay, blood will have blood.

Murderers, when they have practifed all human means of fecurity, are detected by fupernatural directions.

Augurs, that understand relations, &c.

By the word relation is understood the connection of effects with caufes; to understand relations as an augur is to know how those things relate to each other which have no vifible combination or dependence.

NOTE

any

Enter Lenox and another Lord.

As this tragedy like the reft of Shakespeare's is perhaps overstocked with perfonages, it is not easy to affign a reafon, why a nameless character fhould be introduced here, fince nothing is faid that might not with equal propriety have been put into the mouth of other difaffected man. I believe, therefore, that in the original copy, it was written with a very common form of contraction, Lenox and An. for which the tranfcriber instead of Lenox and Angus, fet down Lenox and another Lord. The author had indeed been more indebted to the transcriber's fidelity and diligence, had he committed no errors of greater importance.

NOTE XXXV.

ACTIV. SCENE I.

As this is the chief scene of enchantment in the play, it is proper in this place to obferve, with how much judgment Shakespeare has felected all the circumftances of his infernal ceremonies, and how exactly he has conformed to common opinions and traditions.

Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd,

The ufual form in which familiar fpirits are reported to converse with witches, is that of a cat. A witch,