With furbish'd arms, and new fupplies of men, King. Difmay'd not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? As fparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion. Doubly redoubled ftrokes upon the foe: 7 As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks; I can Mr. Theobald has endeavoured to improve the fenfe of this paffage by altering the punctuation thus: -they were As cannons overcharg'd, with double cracks So they redoubled ftrokes He declares, with fome degree of exultation, that he has no idea of a cannon charged with double cracks; but furely the great author will not gain much by an alteration which makes him fay of a hero, that he redoubles ftrokes with double cracks, an expreffion not more loudly to be applauded, or more easily pardoned than that which is rejected in its favour. That a cannon is charged with thunder, or with double thunders, may be written, not only without nonfenfe, but with elegance, and nothing else is here meant by cracks, which in the time of this writer was a word of fuch emphasis and dignity, that in this play he terms the general diffolution of nature the crack of doom. The old copy reads: They doubly redoubled frokes. JOHNSON. I have followed the old reading. this paffage in fupport of it: In Rich. II. act I. we find "And let thy blows, doubly redoubled, Or memorize another Golgotha,] Memorize, for make memorable. WARBURTON. memorize another Golgotha,] That is, to tranfmit another Golgotha to pofterity. The word, which fome fuppofe to have been coined by Shakespeare, is used by Spenser in a fonnet to lord Buckhurst prefixed to his Paftorals. 1579: I cannot tell : But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. King. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds; They fmack of honour both :-Go, get him furgeons. 9 Enter Roffe. Who comes here? Mal. The worthy thane of Roffe. Len. What a hafte looks through his eyes? So fhould he look', That seems to speak things ftrange." "In vaine I thinke, right honourable lord, Roffe. WARTON. The word is likewife ufed by Chapman, in his translation of the fecond book of Homer, 1598. -which let thy thoughts be fure to memorize.” Again, in The Fawne, by Marston, 1606: -oh, let this night "Be ever memoriz'd with prouder triumphs." Again, in Daniel's dedication to the tragedy of Philotas: "Which to fucceeding times fhall memorize your stories." Again, in the 21ft fong; "Except poor widows' cries to memorize your theft.' Again, in the Miracles of Mofes : "That might for ever memorize this deed." And again, in a copy of verfes prefixed to fir Arthur Gorges's tranflation of Lucan, 1614: "Of them whofe acts they mean to memorize." STEEVENS. 9 Enter Roffe and Angus.] As only the thane of Roffe is fpoken to, or fpeaks any thing in the remaining part of this fcene, Angus is a fuperfluous character, the king expreffing himself in the fingular number; Whence cam'ft thou, worthy Thanc? I have printed it, Enter Roffe only. STEEVENS. I So fhould be look, That seems to fpeak things ftrange.] The meaning of this paffage as it now ftands, is, fo fhould be look, that looks as if he told things ftrange. But Roffe neither yet told ftrange things, nor could look as if he told them; Lenox only G g 2 con Roffe. God fave the king! King. Whence cam'ft thou, worthy thane? 2 Where the Norweyan banners flout the fky, Norway himself, with terrible numbers, The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict 4 Point conjectured from his air that he had strange things to tell, and therefore undoubtedly faid: What hafte looks through his eyes? So fhould be look, that teems to fpeak things ftrange. 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. The following paffage in Cymbeline feems to afford no unapt com ment upon this: one but painted thus, "Would be interpreted a thing perplex'd, &c."* Again, in the Tempest: -prithee, fay on : "The fetting of thine eye and cheek proclaim Again, in K. Richard II: 2 "Men judge by the complexion of the fky, &c. "So may you, by my dull and heavy eye, "My tongue hath but a heavier tale to fay." STEEVENS, To flout is to dafh any thing in another's face. WARBurton. "And new replenish'd pendants cuff the air, 66 3 Confronted him with felf-comparifons,] The disloyal Cawdor, fays Mr. Theobald. Then comes another, and fays, a ftrange forgetfulnefs in Shakespeare, when Macbeth had taken the Thane of Cawdor prifoner, not to know that he was Fallen into the king's difpleafure for rebellion. But this is only blunder Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, King. Great happiness ! Roffe. That now Sweno, the Norways' king, craves compofition; King. No more that thane of Cawdor fhall deceive Our bofom intereft:-Go, pronounce his prefent death, blunder upon blunder. The truth is, by him, in this verse, is meant Norway; as the plain construction of the English requires. And the affiftance the thane of Cawdor had given Norway was underhand; which Roffe and Angus, indeed, had discovered; but was unknown to Macbeth. Cawdor being in the court all this while, as appears from Angus's fpeech 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. WARBURTON. The fecond blunderer was the prefent editor. JOHNSON. 4 with felf-comparisons,] i. e. give him as good as he brought, fhew'd he was his equal. WARBURTON. Colmes-inch, now called Inchcomb, a fmall ifland lying in the Firth of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it, dedicated to St. Columb; called by Camden Inch Colm, or the Isle of Columba. Tlie modern editors, without authority, read: and Saint Colmes'-kill Ifle; very erroneoufly; for Colmes Inch, and Colm-kill are two different iflands; the former lying on the eaftern 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 mentions the whole circumftance: "The Danes that efcaped, and got once to their hips, obtained of Macbeth for a great fum of gold, that fuch of their friends as were flaine, might be buried in Saint Colmes' Inch. In memory whereof many old fepultures are yet in the faid Inch, graven with the arms of the Danes." Inch, or Infhe in the Irish and Erfe languages, fignifies an ifland. See Lhuyd's Archæologia. STEEVENS. Gg 3 And And with his former title greet Macbeth. Roffe. I'll fee it done. King. What he hath loft, noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 1 Witch. Where haft thou been, fifter? 2 Witch. Killing fwine. 3 Witch. Sifter, where thou? 1 Witch. A failor's wife had chefnuts in her lap, And mouncht, and mouncht, and mouncht :-Give. me, quoth I. 8 Aroint thee, witch! the 7 rump-fed ronyon cries. Her In one of the folio editions the reading is Anoint thee, in a fenfe very confiftent with the common account of witches, who are related to perform many fupernatural acts by the means of unguents, and particularly to fly through the air to the places where they meet at their hellish festivals. In this fenfe, anoint thee, witch, will mean, Away, witch, to your infernal affembly. This reading I was inclined to favour, because I had met with the word aroint in no other author; till looking into Hearne's Collections I found it in a very old drawing, that he has published, in which St. Patrick is reprefented vifiting hell, and putting the devils into great confufion by his prefence, of whom one that is driving the damned before him with a prong, has a label iffuing out of his mouth with these words, oUT QUT ARONGT, of which the last is evidently the fame with aroint, and used in the fame sense as in this paffage. JoHNSON. Rynt you witch, quoth Beffe Locker to her mother, is a north country proverb. The word is ufed again in K. Lear: "And aroint thee witch, aroint thee." STEEVENS. 7 the rump-fed ronyon -] The chief cooks in noblemen's families, colleges, religious houfes, hofpitals, &c. anciently claimed the emoluments or kitchen fees of kidneys, fat, trotters, rumps, &c. which they fold to the poor. The weird fifter in this fcene, as an infult on the poverty of the woman who had called her witch, reproaches her poor abject state, as |