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P. 19. (37)

"And dash'd the brains out, had 1 so sworn as you

Have done to this."

"Is 'And dash'd the brains out' English? Read And dash'd the brains on't out,' &c., and arrange with the folio [which has

'And dasht the Braines out, had I so sworne

As you haue done to this']." W. N. LETTSOM.

P. 19. (38)

"We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail."

Here the punctuation of the folio is "We faile ?" which Mr. Collier retains, observing that "perhaps we may take it as some evidence of the ancient mode of delivering these two words interrogatively." But he forgets that in the folio the interrogation-point is frequently equivalent to an exclamationpoint. Mr. Knight gives the pointing which Steevens had suggested, “We fail." He remarks; "the quiet self-possession of the punctuation we have adopted appears preferable to the original We fail?" Now, any kind of admission on the part of Lady Macbeth that the attempt might prove unsuccessful is surely quite inconsistent with all that she has previously said, and all that she afterwards says, in the present scene. Her contemptuous exclamation "We fail!" is designed to check the very idea of failure as it rises in her husband's mind.

1865. In the second edition of his Shakespeare, 1858, Mr. Collier writes thus; "The Rev. Mr. Dyce, who is generally hyper-emphatic upon punctuation (the importance of which nobody disputes), strangely informs us here that there is in reality no difference' between a note of interrogation and a mark of admiration. He makes a difference between them in works he has himself edited-and rightly: at the end of his own notes he often places a mark of admiration, and at the end of the notes of rival critics a note of interrogation. See particularly the first play in his Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. i. pp. 58, 93, &c. What can he mean, too, by not putting a note of admiration after 'Oh God' in 'The Scornful Lady' (iii. 106), and by putting one after' Lazarillo, thou art happy,' in 'The Woman-Hater' (i. 36)? Every editor, however careful, and Mr. Dyce is one of the most so, is liable to such mistakes. In the instance before us, we purposely place a note of interrogation after 'We fail,' following the precedent of old copies, and thinking it right to adhere to the practice."

Mr. Collier does not state fairly what I said about the pointing of the present passage. My words were; "Though Mr. Collier makes a distinction between Malone's punctuation and his own, there is in reality no difference: whether the words be pointed 'We fail!' or 'We fail?' (and I much prefer the former method), they can only be understood as an impatient and contemptuous repetition of Macbeth's' We fail," "—(Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's editions of Shakespeare, p. 190),-in which quotation I am confident that the unprejudiced reader will discover nothing "strange."

Mr. Collier goes on to ask, "What I can mean by not putting a note of admiration after Oh God,' in the following passage of The Scornful Lady?"

"Mar. For God's sake, sir, be private in this business; You have undone me else. Oh, God, what have I done?"

My answer is that to have put a note of admiration after "Oh, God," would have been what printers call stiff punctuation;-the hemistich is half exclamatory, half interrogatory, and the interrogation-point at the end of the line is sufficient. Next, Mr. Collier wishes to know "why I put a note of admiration after ‘Lazarillo, thou art happy,' in this passage of The WomanHater?"

"Laz. Lazarillo, thou art happy! thy carriage hath begot love, and that love hath brought forth fruits," &c. &c.

and I reply, that I did so (as, I believe, the preceding editors had done) to indicate the excessive self-gratulation of the speaker.

66

So much for what Mr. Collier terms my mistakes" in punctuation;"every editor is liable to such mistakes"! (Here unquestionably the note of admiration finds its proper place.)

P. 20. (39)

66

"Enter BANQUO, preceded by FLEANCE with a torch."

The wording of the folio is "Enter Banquo, and Fleance, with a Torch before him;" and though, in the stage-directions of old plays, "a Torch” sometimes means a torch-bearer (as "a Trumpet" means a trumpeter), I agree with Mr. Collier that the usual modern alteration here, "Enter Banquo and Fleance, and a Servant, with a torch before them," ought to be rejected. Mr. Collier observes, "Fleance carried the torch before his father. When Macbeth [presently] enters with a servant, the 'servant with a torch' is expressly mentioned in the stage-direction of the folios, and Macbeth has to send a necessary message by him to Lady Macbeth—' Go, bid thy mistress,' &c."

P. 21. (40)

"Sent forth great largess to your officers:

This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up

In measureless content."

The folio has ". to your Offices," &c.; a sheer misprint, though defended by Steevens, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Collier.- Malone observes; "Mr. Steevens, who has introduced so many arbitrary alterations of Shakespeare's text, has here endeavoured to restore a palpable misprint from the old copy: 'officers' means servants in this passage. So before, p. 20,

'what not put upon

His spongy officers,'

i.e. his chamberlains. So also in The Taming of the Shrew, vol. iii. p. 150, 'Is supper ready, &c., the serving-men in their new fustian, their white stockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on?'" (Here the second folio has " - and shut it up," &c.; which, to my surprise, Mr. Hunter (New Illust. of Shakespeare, ii. 182) brings forward as the true lection, understanding "shut it up" to mean-shut up the diamond in its case.) 1865. Mr. W. N. Lettsom would read ". as shut up," &c.

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P. 22. (41) "The curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates"

Here the folio omits " now," an insertion first made by Davenant (in his alteration of Macbeth), and which I greatly prefer to the reading recommended by Steevens, Ritson, Walker, and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector,— "The curtain'd sleeper; witchcraft celebrates;" for I agree with Mr. Grant White that "curtain'd sleeper" is somewhat detrimental to the poetic sense; and I cannot forget that Milton, with an eye to the present passage, has written,

P. 22. (42)

"steeds,

That draw the litter of close-curtain'd sleep." Comus, v. 554.

"With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Mores like a ghost.-Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear"

The folio has

"With Tarquins rauishing sides, towards his designe Moues like a Ghost. Thou sowre and firme-set Earth Heare not my steps, which they may walke, for feare." Here Pope altered "sides" to "strides," and proposed (in a note) the alteration of "sowre" to "sure:" Rowe altered "they may" to "way they." (The two last emendations are also made by Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector.)

"th' attempt, and not the deed,

Confounds us."

P. 22. (43) "This," says Mr. Hunter (New Illust. of Shakespeare, ii. 182), “is usually printed with a comma after 'attempt.' This is wrong. An unsuccessful attempt would produce to them infinite mischief-an attempt without the deed."-To me at least it is plain that here "the attempt" is put in strong opposition to "the deed," and that " Confounds" has no reference to future mischief, but solely to the perplexity and consternation of the moment.

P. 23. (44)

"As they had seen me, with these hangman's hands,

Listening their fear :"

"I agree with Rowe, Capell, Walker, and Grant White, that 'Listening their fear' should be taken with what goes before." W. N. LETTSOM.

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i.e. the bird that loves the dark.-Walker (Crit. Exam, &c. vol. ii. p. 244) would read "the obscene bird."

P. 27. (46) "The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!"

Mr. W. N. Lettsom proposes 66

66

Banquo! all!"-Hanmer did not scruple

to substitute "Donalbain" for " Banquo,"

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But Theobald saw that the words "Ring the bell" are a stage-direction: "in proof of this," he adds, "we may observe that the hemistich ending Macduff's speech, and that beginning Lady Macbeth's, make up a complete verse."-The players, as Malone remarks, having mistaken "Ring the Bell" for a portion of Macduff's speech, inserted the stage-direction "Bell rings."

"Re-enter MACBETH and LENNOX."

P. 27. (48) Here Mr. Collier observes; "The folio adds 'and Rosse' to this stage-direction; but Rosse has not been on the stage in this act, and he is employed in the next scene."-There seems an impropriety in his absence (as well as in that of Angus,-see p. 16) on the present occasion: but I do not see by what arrangement he can be introduced in this scene early enough to accompany Macbeth and Lennox to the chamber of the king.

P. 30. (49)

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"his bloody stage:"

"Perhaps this bloody stage.'" Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. ii. p. 224.

P. 30. (50)

“And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp :" Here Mr. Collier, misled by a correspondent, retains the old spelling". the trauailing Lampe."-Now, in this speech no mention is made of the sun till it is described as "the travelling lamp,”—the epithet "travelling" determining what "lamp" was intended: the instant, therefore, that "travelling" is changed to "travailing," the word "lamp" CEASES TO SIGNIFY THE SUN. That Shakespeare was not singular in applying the epithet travelling to the sun might be shown by many passages of our early poets: so in Drayton ;

"The Sunne that mounted the sterne Lions back,
Shall with the Fishes shortly diue the brack,

But still you keepe your station, which confines

You, nor regard him trauelling the Signes."

On his Ladies not Comming to London,-Elegies, p. 185, appended to The Battaile of Agincourt, &c. 1627.

And so too in a later poet;

"The travelling Sun sees gladly from on high," &c.

Cowley's Davideis, B. ii.,—Works, vol. i. p. 349, ed. 1707.

Even modern writers describe the sun as a traveller;

"I could not but offer up, in silence, on the altar of my heart, praise

and adoration to that sovereign and universal mind, who produced this glorious creature [the sun], as the bright image of his benignity, and makes it travel unweariedly round," &c. Amory's Life of Buncle, vol. ii. p. 178, ed. 1766.

I must add, that this "puerile idea," as Mr. Collier's correspondent terms it, is to be traced to Scripture,-Psalm xix. 5.

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i.e. horses.-The folio has "Horses."-Corrected by Walker, Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 254.

P. 30. (52) "Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth."

"We should arrange, I think,

'Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like the sov'reignty
Will fall upon Macbeth.'"

Walker's Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 291.

P. 31. (53)

"Let your highness

Command upon me;"

Altered by Rowe to

"Lay your highness'

Command upon me."

"The change was suggested by Sir W. D'Avenant's alteration of this play [which has

'Your majesty layes your command on me,

To which my duty is to obey']." MALONE.

So too Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector.-Mason proposes "Set your highness',” &c.

P. 32. (54)

Malone prints "talk."

P. 33. (54*)

"take"

"Cæsar's"

The folio has "Cæsar." But compare our author elsewhere on the same subject;

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