Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, I cannot tell :— But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. DUN. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds; They smack of honour both :-Go, get him fur[Exit Soldier, attended. geons. The irregularity of the metre, however, induces me to believe our author wrote they were As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks, For this thought, however, Shakspeare might have been in debted to Caxton's Recuyel, &c. The batayll was sharp, than the grekes dowblid and redowblid their firokes," &c. STEEVENS. • Or memorize another Golgotha,] That is, or make another Golgotha, which should be celebrated and delivered down to pofterity, with as frequent mention as the first. HEATH. The word memorize, which some suppose to have been coined by Shakspeare, is ufed by Spenfer, in a fonnet to Lord Buckhurst, prefixed to his Paftorals, 1579: "In vaine I thinke, right honourable lord, The word is likewise used by Drayton; and by Chapman, in his tranflation of the fecond Book of Homer, 1598: which let thy thoughts be fure to memorize.” Again, in the third Iliad: and Clymene, whom fame "Hath, for her fair eyes, memoriz'd.” And again, in a copy of verfes prefixed to Sir Arthur Gorges's tranflation of Lucan, 1614: "Of them whofe acts they mean to memorize." STEEVENS. Enter RossE.7 Who comes here? 8 MAL. The worthy thane of Roffe. LEN. What a hafte looks through his eyes! So fhould he look, That seems to speak things ftrange.9 7 Enter Roffe.] The old copy-Enter Roffe and Angus : but as only the name of Roffe is fpoken to, or speaks any thing in the remaining part of this fcene, and as Duncan expresses himself in the fingular number, "Whence cam'ft thou, worthy thane?" Angus may be confidered as a fuperfluous character. Had his prefent appearance been defigned, the King would naturally have taken fome notice of him. STBEVENS. It is clear, from a fubfequent paffage, that the entry of Angus was here defigned; for in scene iii. he again enters with Roffe, and fays, "To give thee from our royal master thanks." MALONE, Becaufe Roffe and Angus accompany each other in a subsequent fcene, does it follow that they make their entrance together on the prefent occafion? STEEVENS, 8 Who comes here?] The latter word is here employed as a diffyllable. MALONE. Mr. Malone has already directed us to read-There-as a diffyllable, but without fupporting his direction by one example of fuch a practice. I fufpect that the poet wrote Who is't comes here? or -But who comes here? So Should he look, STEEVENS. That feems to Speak things strange.] The meaning of this paffage, as it now ftands, is, fo fhould he look, that looks as if he told things ftrange. But Roffe neither yet told strange things, nor could look as if he told them. Lenox only conjectured from his air that he had ftrange things to tell, and therefore undoubtedly said: What a hafte looks through his eyes! So fhould he look, that teems to speak things strange. He looks like one that is big with fomething of importance; a metaphor fo natural that it is every day used in common difcourfe. JOHNSON. Mr. M. Mafon obferves, that the meaning of Lenox is, So fhould he look, who feems as if he had ftrange things to Speak." The following paffage in The Tempest seems to afford no unapt comment upon this: 66 pr'ythee, fay on: "The fetting of thine eye and cheek, proclaim Again, in King Richard II: "Men judge by the complexion of the sky, &c. My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say." STEEVENS. That feems to speak things strange.] i. e. that feems about to speak ftrange things. Our author himself furnishes us with the best comment on this paffage. In Antony and Cleopatra we meet with nearly the fame idea: "The business of this man looks out of him." MALONE. I flout the sky,] The banners may be poetically defcribed as waving in mockery or defiance of the tky. So, in King Edward III. 1599: "And new replenish'd pendants cuff the air, "And beat the wind, that for their gaudiness The fenfe of the paffage, however, collectively taken, is this: Where the triumphant flutter of the Norweyan ftandards ventilates or cools the foldiers who had been heated through their efforts to fecure fuch numerous trophies of victory. Again, in King John: STEEVENS. Mocking the air, with colours idly spread." This paffage has perhaps been misunderstood. The meaning feems to be, not that the Norweyan banners proudly infulted And fan our people cold.2 Norway himself, with terrible numbers, The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict: Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainft arm, the fky; but that, the standards being taken by Duncan's forces, and fixed in the ground, the colours idly flapped about, ferving only to cool the conquerors, inftead of being proudly displayed by their former poffeffors. The line in King John, therefore, is the most perfect comment on this. MALONE. And fan our people cold.] In all probability, fome words that rendered this a complete verfe have been omitted; a loss more frequently to be deplored in the prefent tragedy, than perhaps in any other of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. 3 Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof,] This paffage may be added to the many others, which show how little Shakspeare knew of ancient mythology. HENLEY. Our author might have been influenced by Holinshed, who, p. 567, speaking of King Henry V. fays: "He declared that the goddeffe of battell, called Bellona," &c. &c. Shakspeare, therefore, haftily concluded that the Goddess of War was wife to the God of it; or might have been misled by Chapman's verfion of a line in the 5th Iliad of Homer: 66 Mars himself, match'd with his female mate, "The dread Bellona: Lapt in proof, is, defended by armour of proof. STEEVENS. * Confronted him with felf-comparisons,] By him, in this verfe, is meant Norway; as the plain conftruction of the English requires. And the affiftance the thane of Cawdor had given Norway, was underhand; (which Roffe and Angus, indeed, had difcovered, but was unknown to Macbeth ;) Cawdor being in the court all this while, as appears from Angus's speech to Macbeth, when he meets him to falute him with the title, and infinuates his crime to be lining the rebel with hidden help and 'vantage. with felf-comparifons,] i. e. gave him as good as he brought, fhew'd he was his equal. WARBURTON. DUN. Great happiness! ROSSE. That now Sweno, the Norways' king,5 craves compofition; Ten thousand dollars to our general use. DUN. No more that thane of Cawdor fhall deceive Our bosom interest:-Go, pronounce his death," 5 That now Sweno, the Norways' king,] The prefent irregularity of metre induces me to believe that-Sweno was only a marginal reference, injudiciously thrust into the text; and that the line originally stood thus: That now the Norways' king craves compofition. Could it have been neceffary for Roffe to tell Duncan the name of his old enemy, the king of Norway? STEEVENS. 6 ·Saint Colmes' inch,] Colmes' is to be confidered as a diffyllable. Colmes'-inch, now called Inchcomb, is a small island lying in the Firth of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it, dedicated to St. Columb; called by Camden Inch Colm, or The Ile of Columba. Some of the modern editors, without authority, read Saint Colmes'-kill fle: but very erroneously; for Colmes' Inch, and Colm-kill, are two different islands; the former lying on the eastern coaft, near the place where the Danes were defeated; the latter in the western feas, being the famous Iona, one of the Hebrides. Holinfhed thus relates the whole circumstance: "The Danes that efcaped, and got once to their fhips, obteined of Makbeth for a great fumme of gold, that fuch of their friends as were flaine, might be buried in Saint Colmes' Inch. In memorie whereof many old fepultures are yet in the said Inch, there to be feene graven with the armes of the Danes." Inch, or Infhe, in the Irish and Erfe languages, fignifies an island. See Lhuyd's Archeologia. STEEVENS. 7 pronounce his death,] The old copy, injuriously to metre, reads pronounce his prefent death. STEEVENS. |