And his gafh'd ftabs look'd like a breach in nature, "Their armours that march'd hence so filver bright, "Hither return all gile with Frenchmen's blood." STEEVENS. His filver fkin laced with bis golden blood.] We meet with the fame antithefis in many other places. Thus, in Much ado about Noshing: "C to fee the fish "Cut with her golden oars the filver stream." Again, in The Comedy of Errors: "Spread o'er the filver waves thy golden hairs." MALONE. The allufion is fo ridiculous on fuch an occafion, that it difcovers the declaimer not to be affected in the manner he would reprefent himself. The whole fpeech is an unnatural mixture of far-fetch'd and commonplace thoughts, that fhews him to be acting a part. WARBURTON. 7a breach in nature, For ruin's wafteful entrance:] This comparifon occurs likewife in A Herrings Tayle, a poem, 1598: "A batter'd breech where troopes of wounds may enter in." STEEVENS. 8 Unmannerly breech'd with gore:] The expreffion may mean, that the daggers were covered with blood, quite to their breeches, i. e. their bilts or bandles. The lower end of a cannon is called the breech of it; and it is known that both to breech and to unbreech a gun are common terms. STEEVENS. Mr. Warton has juftly obferved that the word unmannerly is here used adverbially. So friendly is ufed for friendlily in K. Henry IV. P. II. and faulty for faultily in As you like it. A paffage in the preceding fcene, in which Macbeth's vifionary dagger is defcribed, strongly supports Mr. Steevens's interpretation: I fee thee ftill; "And on thy blade, and dudgeon,[i. e. bilt or baft] gouts of blood, "Which was not fo before." The following lines in King Henry VI. P. III. may perhaps, after all, form the beft comment on thefe controverted words: "And full as oft came Edward to my fide, "With purple faulchion, painted to the hilt Though fo much has been written on this paffage, the commentators have forgotten to account for the attendants of Duncan being furnished with daggers. The fact is, that in Shakspeare's time a dagger was a common weapon, and was ufually carried by fervants and others, fuf pended That had a heart to love, and in that heart Lady M. Help me hence, ho! Macd. Look to the lady 9. Mal. Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? Don. What fhould be spoken pended at their backs. So, in Romeo and Juliet: " Then I will la the ferving creature's dagger on your pate." Again, ibid: "This dagger hath mitta'en; for lo! his house "Is empty on the back of Mountague, "And it misheathed in my daughter's bofom!" MALONE. The fenfe is, in plain language, Daggers filthily,-in a foul manner, -fbeatb'd with blood. A feabbard is called a pilche, a leather coat, in Romeo ;-but you will ask, whence the allufion to breeches? Dr. Warburton and Dr. Johnfon have well obferved, that this speech of Macbeth is very artfully made up of unnatural thoughts and language: in 1605 (the year in which the play appears to have been written) a book was published by Peter Erondell, (with commendatory poems by Daniel, and other wits of the time,) called The French Garden, or a Summer Dayes Labour, containing, among other matters, fome dialogues of a dramatick caft, which, I am perfuaded, our author had read in the English; and from which he took, as he supposed, for his prefent purpofe, this quaint expreffion. I will quote literatim from the 6th diafogue: "Boy! you do nothing but play tricks there, go fetch your mafter's filver hatched daggers, you have not brushed their breeches, bring the brushes, and brush them before me."-Shakspeare was deceived by the pointing, and evidently fuppofes breeches to be a new and affected term for fcabbards. But had he been able to have read the French on the other page, even as a learner, he must have been fet right at once. "Garçon, vous ne faites que badiner, allez querir les poignards argentez de vos maistres, vous n'avez pas efpoufleté leur bâutde chauffes," their breeches, in the common fenfe of the word: as in the next fentence bas-de-chauffes, stockings, and fo on through all the articles of drefs. FARMER. 9 Look to the lady.] Mr. Wheatley, from whofe ingenious remarks en this play I have already made a large extract, juftly observes that "on Lady Macbeth's feeming to faint,-while Banquo and Macduff are solicitous about her, Macbeth, by his unconcern, betrays a consciousness that the fainting is feigned." I may add, that a bold and hardened villain would from a refined policy have affumed the appearance of being alarmed about her, left this very imputation fhould arife against him: the irrefolute Macbeth is not fufficiently at cafe to act such a part. MALONE. Here, Here, where our fate, hid in an augre-hole', May rush, and feize us? Let's away, our tears Mal. Nor our ftrong forrow Upon the foot of motion. Ban. Look to the lady :- [Lady Macb. is carried out. And when we have our naked frailties hid, That fuffer in expofure 2, let us meet, And question this moft bloody piece of work, To know it further. Fears and fcruples fhake us: Mach. Here, where our fate, bid in an augre-hole,] In the old copy the word bere is printed in the preceding line. The lines are difpofed fo irregularly in the original edition of this play, that the modern editors have been obliged to take many liberties fimilar to the prefent in the regulation of the metre. In this very fpeech the words our tears do not make part of the following line, but are printed in that fubfequent to it. Perhaps however the regulation now made is unneceffary; for the word where may have been used by our author as a diffyllable. The editor of the second folio, to complete the measure, reads-within an augre-hole. A word having been accidentally omitted in K. Henry V. Let us die in [fight]," Mr. Theobald, with equal impropriety, reads there" Let us die inftant:" but I believe neither tranfcriber or compofitor ever omitted half a word. MALONE. - bid in an augre-bole,] So, in Coriolanus: 66- confin'd, "Into an augre's bore." STEEVENS. 2 And when we bave our naked frailties bid, That fuffer in exposure,-] i. e. when we have clothed our balfdreft bodies, which may take cold from being exposed to the air. It is poffible that in such a cloud of words, the meaning might escape the reader. STEEVENS. The porter in his fhort fpeech had obferved, that "this place [i. e the court, in which Banquo and the rest now are,] is too cold for hell." Mr. Steevens's explanation is likewife fupported by the following paffage in Timon of Abens: 66 Call the creatures, "Whofe naked natures live in all the spight "Of wreakful heaven." MALONE. 3 In the great band of God I ftand; and, thence, Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight Of treasonous malice.] Pretence is intention, defign, a sense in which Macb. And fo do I. All. So all. Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i'the hall together. All. Well contented. [Exeunt all but Mal. and Don, Mal. What will you do? Let's not confort with theme To fhew an unfelt forrow, is an office Which the falfe man does cafy: I'll to England. Don. To Ireland, I; our feparated fortune There's daggers in men's fmiles: the near in blood, Mal. This murderous fhaft that's fhot, Hath not yet lighted; and our fafest way which the word is often ufed by Shakspeare. So, in the Winter's Tale: confpiring with Camillo to take away the life of our fovereign lord the king, thy royal husband, the pretence whereof being by circumftance partly laid open." Again, in this tragedy of Macbeth: "What good could they pretend?" i. e. intend to themfelves. Banquo's meaning is,-in our prefent ftate of doubt and uncertainty about this murder, I have nothing to do but to put myself under the direction of God; and relying on his fupport, I here declare myfelf an eternal enemy to this treafon, and to all its fur. ther defigns that have not yet come to light. STEEVENS. See Vol. I. p. 145, n. 7.-Hand, as Mr. Upton has observed, is here ufed for power, or providence. So, in Pfalm xxii: "Deliver my foul from the fword, my darling from the power [Heb. from the band] of the dog." In King Henry V. we have again the fame expreffion : Let us deliver "Our puiffance into the band of God." MALONE. -the near in blood, The nearer bloody.] Meaning, that he fufpected Macbeth to be the murderer; for he was the weareft in blood to the two princes, being the coufin-german of Duncan. STEEVENS, 5 This murderous shaft that's fhot, Hatb not yet lighted;] The defign to fix the murder upon fome innocent perfon, has not yet taken effect. JOHNSON. The shaft is not yet lighted, and though it bas done mischief in its flight, ave bave reafon to apprehend fill more before it has spent its force and falls to the ground. The end for which the murder was committed, is not yet attained. The death of the king only, could neither insure the crown to Macbeth, nor accomplish any other purpoft, while his fons were yet living, who had therefore just reason to apprehend they should be removed by the fame means. STEEVENS. Is, to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse; But fhift away: There's warrant in that theft Which steals itfelf, when there's no mercy left. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Without the Caftle. Enter Rosse, and an old Man. Old M. Threefcore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen Hours dreadful, and things ftrange; but this fore night Hath trifled former knowings. Roffe. Ah, good father, Thou feeft, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Old M. 'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done. On tuesday laft, A faulcon, tow'ring in her pride of place?, 6 darkness does the face of earth intomb, When living light fhould kiss it? After the murder of king Duffe, (fays Holinthed) "for the fpace of fix moneths togither there appeared no funne by day, nor moone by night, in anie part of the realme, but ftill was the sky covered with continual clouds; and fometimes fuch outrageous winds arose with lightenings and tempefts, that the people were in great fear of prefent deftruction."-It is evident that Shakfpeare had this paffage in his thoughts. See p. 312, n. 7. MALONE. 7-in ber pride of place,] Finely exprelled, for confidence in its quality. WARBURTON. In a place of which the feemed proud;-in an elevated fituation. Perhaps Shakspeare remembered the following paffage in Holinfhed's defcription of Macbeth's cattle at Dunfinane: ") -he builded a strong caftell on the top of an hie hill called Dunfinane, on fuch a proud height, that ftanding there aloft a man might behold well neare all the Countries of Angus, Fife," &c. MALONE. Was |