As happy prologues to the fwelling act Cannot be ill; cannot be good :-If ill, by the death of his father Sinell.) The second of them said," &c. Still, however, the objection made by Mr. Steevens remains in its full force; for fince he knew that " by Sinel's death he was thane of Glamis," how can this falutation be confidered as prophetic? Or why should he afterwards say, with admiration, "GLAMIS, and thane of Cawdor;" &c? Perhaps we may suppose that the father of Macbeth died so recently before his interview with the weirds, that the news of it had not yet got abroad; in which cafe, though Macbeth himself knew it, he might confider their giving him the title of Thane of Glamis as a proof of fupernatural intelligence. I suspect our author was led to use the expreffions which have occafioned the present note, by the following words of Holinshed: "The fame night after, at supper, Banquo jested with him, and faid, Now Mackbeth, thou hast obteined those things which the Two former fisters PROPHESIED : there remaineth onelie for thee to purchase that which the third faid should come to paffe." MALONE. 9-fwelling act] Swelling is used in the fame sense in the prologue to King Henry V: " -princes to act, " And monarchs to behold the swelling scene." STEEVENS. * This Supernatural foliciting-] Soliciting for information. WARBURTON. Soliciting is rather, in my opinion, incitement, than information. JOHNSON. 2 -Suggestion-] i. e. temptation. So, in All's well that ends well: "A filthy officer he is in those suggestions for the young earl." STEEVENS. 3 Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,] So Macbeth says, in the latter part of this play: A And make my feated 4 heart knock at my ribs, "And my fell of hair "Would, at a dismal treatise, rouse and stir, 4-feated-] i. e. fixed, firmly placed. So, in Milton's Paradise Loft, B. VI. 643 : S "From their foundations loos'ning to and fro Prefent fears Are less than horrible imaginings:] Present fears are fears of things prefent, which Macbeth declares, and every man has found, to be less than the imagination presents them while the objects are yet diftant. JOHNSON. Thus, in All's well that ends well: "-when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear." Again, in The Tragedie of Cræfus, 1604, by Lord Sterline: " Seems greater than itself, whilst fears are lying." STEEVENS. By present fears is meant, the actual presence of any objects of terror. So, in The Second Part of King Henry IV. the King says: - All these bold fears "Thou see'st with peril I have answered." To fear is frequently used by Shakspeare in the sense of fright. In this very play, Lady Macbeth says "To alter favour ever is to fear." So, in Fletcher's Pilgrim, Curio says to Alphonso: "Mercy upon me, Sir, why are you feared thus?" Meaning, thus affrighted. M. MASON. 6 -fingle state of man,] The Single State of man seems to be used by Shakspeare for an individual, in oppofition to a commonwealth, or conjunct body. JOHNSON. By Single state of man, Shakspeare might poffibly mean fomewhat more than individuality. He who, in the peculiar Is smother'd in furmise; and nothing is, BAN. Look, how our partner's rapt. MACB. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my ftir. New honours come upon him fituation of Macbeth, is meditating a murder, dares not communicate his thoughts, and consequently derives neither spirit, nor advantage, from the countenance, or fagacity, of others. This state of man may properly be styled fingle, folitary, or defenceless, as it excludes the benefits of participation, and has no refources but in itself. It should be observed, however, that double and fingle anciently fignified strong and weak, when applied to liquors, and perhaps to other objects. In this sense the former word may be employed by Brabantio : - a voice potential, "As double as the duke's;" and the latter, by the Chief Justice, speaking to Falstaff: " Is not your wit fingle?" The fingle state of Macbeth may therefore fignify his weak and debile state of mind. STEEVENS. 0 -function Is fmother'd in furmise; and nothing is, But what is not.) All powers of action are oppressed and crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. JOHNSON. Surmise, is speculation, conjecture concerning the future. MALONE. Shakspeare has fomewhat like this fentiment in The Merchant of Venice: "Where, every fomething being blent together, "Turns to a wild of nothing." Again, in King Richard II: is nought but fhadows "Of what it is not." STEEVENS. Like our strange garments; cleave not to their mould, But with the aid of use. MACB Come what come may; Time and the hour runs through the rougheft day.7 BAN. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leifure.8 1 7 Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.] "By this, I confess I do not, with his two last commentators, imagine is meant either the tautology of time and the hour, or an allusion to time painted with an hour-glass, or an exhortation to time to haften forward, but rather to say tempus et hora, time and occafion, will carry the thing through, and bring it to fome determined point and end, let its nature be what it will." This note is taken from an Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakspeare, &e. by Mrs. Montagu. So, in the Lyfe of Saynt Radegunda, printed by Pynson, 4to. no date: "How they dispend the tyme, the day, the houre." Such tautology is common to Shakspeare. "The very head and front of my offending," is little less reprehenfible. Time and the hour, is Time with his hours. STEEVENS. The fame expreffion is used by a writer nearly contemporary with Shakspeare: "Neither can there be any thing in the world more acceptable to me than death, whose hower and time if they were as certayne," &c. Fenton's Tragical Discourses, 1579. Again, in Davison's Poems, 1621: "Time's young howres attend her still." Again, in our author's 126th Sonnet : 8 "O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power MALONE, -we stay upon your leisure.) The same phraseology occurs in the Paston Letters, Vol. III. p. 80: "-fent late to me a man ye which wuld abydin uppon my leyfir," &c. STEEVENS. MACB. Give me your favour: 9-my dull brain was wrought With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains The leaf to read them.2-Let us toward the king.- BAN. Very gladly. MACB. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. [Exeunt. 9-favour:] i. e. indulgence, pardon. STEEVENS. I -my dull brain was wrought With things forgotten.] My head was worked, agitated, put into commotion. JOHNSON. So, in Othello : 2 "Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought, where every day I turn The leaf to read them.] He means, as Mr. Upton has observed, that they are registered in the table-book of his heart. So Hamlet speaks of the table of his memory. MALONE. 3 The interim having weigh'd it,] This intervening portion of time is also personified: it is represented as a cool impartial judge; as the paufer Reason. Or, perhaps, we should readI' th' interim. STEEVENS. I believe the interim is used adverbially: you having weighed it in the interim." MALONE. |