MACB. My dearest love, Duncan comes here to-night. LADY M. And when goes hence? O, never MACB. To-morrow,-as he purposes. LADY M. Shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men May read strange matters :-To beguile the time, 66 STEEVENS. This ignorant present,] Thus the old copy. Some of our modern editors read: - present time:" but the phraseology in the text is frequent in our author, as well as other ancient writers. So, in the first scene of The Tempest: "If you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more." The sense does not require the word time, and it is too much for the measure. Again, in Coriolanus: "And that you not delay the present; but" &c. Again, in Corinthians I. ch. xv. v. 6: “ of whom the greater part remain unto this present." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra : "Be pleas'd to tell us • Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men May read &c.] That is, thy looks are such as will awaken men's curiosity, excite their attention, and make room for suspicion. HEATH. So, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: "Her face the book of praises, where is read Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece : "Poor women's faces are their own faults' books." MALONE. Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it.' He that's coming This night's great business into my despatch; LADY M. Only look up clear ; To alter favour ever is to fear: 2 Leave all the rest to me. 9 [Exeunt. To beguile the time, Look like the time;] The same expression occurs in the 8th Book of Daniel's Civil Wars: "He draws a traverse 'twixt his grievances; "Wore a clear face upon a cloudy heart." STEEVENS. The seventh and eighth Books of Daniel's Civil Wars were not published till the year 1609; [see the Epistle Dedicatorie to that edition:] so that, if either poet copied the other, Daniel must have been indebted to Shakspeare; for there can be little doubt that Macbeth had been exhibited before that year. 1 look like the innocent flower, MALONE. But be the serpent under it.] Thus, in Chaucer's Squiere's Tale, 10,827: "So depe in greyne he died his coloures, Right as a serpent hideth him under floures, "Til he may see his time for to bite." STEEVENS. 2 To alter favour ever is to fear:] So, in Love's Labour's Lost: "For blushing cheeks by faults are bred, Favour is-look, countenance. So, in Troilus and Cressida : "I know your favour, lord Ulysses, well." STEEVENS. SCENE VI. The same. Before the Castle. Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQuo, LENOX, MACDUFF, ROSSE, ANGUS, and Attendants. 3 DUN. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air › This castle hath a pleasant seat ;] Seat here means situation. Lord Bacon says, "He that builds a faire house upon an ill seat, committeth himself to prison. Neither doe I reckon it an ill seat, only where the aire is unwholsome, but likewise where the aire is unequal; as you shall see many fine seats set upon a knap of ground invironed with higher hills round about it, whereby the heat of the sunne is pent in, and the wind gathereth as in troughs; so as you shall have, and that suddenly, as great diversitie of heat and cold, as if you dwelt in several places." Essays, 2d edit. 4to. 1632, p. 257. REED. This castle hath a pleasant seat ;] This short dialogue between Duncan and Banquo, whilst they are approaching the gates of Macbeth's castle, has always appeared to me a striking instance of what in painting is termed repose. Their conversation very naturally turns upon the beauty of its situation, and the pleasantness of the air; and Banquo, observing the martlet's nests in every recess of the cornice, remarks, that where those birds most breed and haunt, the air is delicate. The subject of this quiet and easy conversation gives that repose so necessary to the mind after the tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts the scene of horror that immediately succeeds. It seems as if Shakspeare asked himself, What is a prince likely to say to his attendants on such an occasion? Whereas the modern writers seem, on the contrary, to be always searching for new thoughts, such as would never occur to men in the situation which is represented.-This also is frequently the practice of Homer, who, from the midst of battles and horrors, relieves and refreshes the mind of the reader, by introducing some quiet rural image, or picture of familiar domestick life. SIR J. REYNOLDS. Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself BAN. This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet," does approve, By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath, Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, buttress, Nor coigne of vantage,' but this bird hath made 6 * Unto our gentle senses.] Senses are nothing more than each man's sense. Gentle sense is very elegant, as it means placid, calm, composed, and intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day. JOHNSON. 5 martlet,] This bird is in the old edition called barlet. JOHNSON. The correction was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. It is supported by the following passage in The Merchant of Venice: "Builds in the weather on the outward wall." STEEVENS. no jutty, frieze,] A comma should be placed after jutty. A jutty, or jetty, (for so it ought rather to be written) is not here, as has been supposed, an epithet to frieze, but a substantive; signifying that part of a building which shoots. forward beyond the rest. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: "Barbacane. An outnooke or corner standing out of a house; a jettie."-" Sporto. A porch, a portal, a bay-window, or out-butting, or jettie, of a house, that jetties out farther than anie other part of the house."-See also Surpendue, in Cotgrave's French Dict. 1611: "A jettie; an out-jetting room." MALONE. Shakspeare uses the verb to jutty, in King Henry V : as fearfully as doth a galled rock 66 66 O'erhang and jutty his confounded base.” The substantive also occurs in an agreement between Philip Henslowe, &c. &c. for building a new theatre, in the year 1599. See Vol. II: " besides a juttey forwards in eyther of the saide two upper stories &c." STEEVENS. 7 ·coigne of vantage,] Convenient corner. JOHNSON. So, in Pericles: "By the four opposing coignes, "Which the world together joins." STEEVENS. His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they 8 Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, the air Is delicate. DUN. Enter Lady MACBETH. See, see! our honour'd hostess ! The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you, How you shall bid God yield us for your pains, your trouble.' And thank us for His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they-] Lest the reader should think this verse defective in harmony, he ought to be told, that as needle was once written and pronounced neele and neeld, so cradle was contracted into crale, and consequently uttered as a monosyllable. Thus, in the fragment of an ancient Christmas carol now before me: In some parts of Warwickshire, (as I am informed,) the word is drawlingly pronounced as if it had been written-craale. 9 Most breed-] The folio-must breed. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone. STEEVENS. STEEVENS. 1 The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you, How you shall bid God yield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble.] The attention that is paid us, (says Duncan on seeing Lady Macbeth come to meet him,) sometimes gives us pain, when we reflect that we give trouble to others; yet still we cannot but be pleased with such attentions, because they are a proof of affection. So far is clear ;-but of the following words, I confess, I have no very distinct conception, and suspect them to be corrupt. Perhaps the meaning is,-By being the occasion of so much trouble, I furnish you with a motive to to heaven to reward me for the pain I give you, pray inasmuch as the having such an opportunity of showing your loyalty may |