To overtake thee. 'Would, thou hadst less deserv'd; In doing it, pays itself. Is to receive our duties Your highness' part Are to your throne and state, children, and servants; Which do but what they should, by doing every thing Safe toward your love and honour. Dun. Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour Ban. There if I grow, Dun. My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter, But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine And bind us further to you. Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you : I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach; So, humbly take my leave. Dun. My worthy Cawdor! [Aside. Macb. The Prince of Cumberland !-That is a step, On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires : The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [Exit. [8] From Scripture: "So when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do." HENLEY. [9] Dr. Johnson, observes, in his Journey to the WesternIslands of Scotland, that the walls of the castle of Macbeth, at Inverness, are yet standing. STE. Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant ; And in his commendations I am fed ; It is a banquet to me. Let us after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome : [Flourish. Exeunt. SCENE V. Inverness. A Room in MACBETH's Castle. Enter Lady MacBETH, reading a letter. Lady M.. -They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselvesair, into which they vanished. WhilesIstood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives' from the king, who allhailed me, Thane of Cawdor; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with, Hail, king that shalt be! This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, aud farewell. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promis'd :-Yet do I fear thy nature ; To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great ; The illness should attend it. What thou would'st highly, Glamis, That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou have it ; Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, 2 To have thee crown'd withal.-What is your tidings? [2] The golden round is the diadem. JOHNS. Metaphysical, which Dr. Warburton has justly observed, means supernat ural, seems, in our author's time, to have had no ather meaning. MAL Enter an Attendant. -Atten. The king comes here to-night. Lady M. Thouʼrt mad to say it : Is not thy master with him? who, were't so, Atten. So please you, it is true; our thane is coming: One of my fellows had the speed of him; Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Lady M. Give him tending, He brings great news.-The raven himself is hoarse, 2 [Exit Attendant. That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan You wait on nature's mischief!7 Come, thick night, [2] The following is, in my opinion, the sense of this passage: Give him tending; the news he brings are worth the speed that made him lose his breath. [Exit Attendant.] 'Tis certain now-the raven himself is spent, is hoarse by croaking this very message, the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements. FUSELI. [3] This expression signifies not the thoughts of mortals, but murderous, deadly or destructive designs. JOHNS. [4] Remorse, in ancient language, signifies pity. STEEV. [5] The intent of Lady Macbeth is evidently to wish that no womanish tenderness, or conscientious remorse, may hinder her purpose from proceeding to effect but neither this, nor indeed any other sense, is expressed by the present reading, and therefore it cannot be doubted that Shakspeare wrote differently, perhaps thus : That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep pace between The effect and it. To keep pace between, may signify to pass between, to intervene. Pace is, on many occasions, a favourite of Shakspeare's. This phrase is indeed not usual in this sense; but was it not its novelty that gave occasion to the present corruption. JOHNS. [6] Take away my milk, and put gall into the place. JOHNS. [7] Nature's mischief is mischief done to nature, violation of nature's or der committed by wickedness. JOHNS. That my keen knife9 see not the wound it makes ; Enter MACBETH. Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! This ignorant present, and I feel now The future in the instant. Macb. My dearest love, Duncan comes here to-night. Lady M. And when goes hence? Lady M. O, never Shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men May read strange matters :3—To beguile the time, Your hand, your tongue: Look like the innocent flower, To alter favour ever is to fear: [Exeunt. [9] The word knife, which at present has a familiar undignified meaning, was anciently used to express a sword or dagger. STEEV. [1] The thought is taken from the old military laws which inflicted capital punishment upon "whosoever shall strike stroke at his adversary, either in the heat or otherwise, if a third do cry hold, to the intent to part them ; except that they did fight a combat in a place enclosed: and then no man shall be so hardy as to bid hold, but the general." P. 264 of Mr. Bellay's Instructions for the Wars, translated in 1589. TOLLET. [2] Shakspeare has supported the character of Lady Macbeth by repeated efforts, and never omits any opportunity of adding a trait of ferocity, or a mark of the want of human feelings, to this monster of his own creation. The softer passions are more obliterated in her than in her husband, in proportion as her ambition is greater. She meets him here on his arrival from an expedition of danger, with such a salutation as would have become one of his friends or vassals; a salutation apparently fitted rather to raise his thoughts to a level with her own purposes, than to testify her joy at his return, or manifest an attachment to his person: nor does any sentiment expressive of love or softness fall from her throughout the play. While Macbeth himself, amidst the horrors of his guilt, still retains a character less fiend-like than that of his queen, talks to her with a degree of tenderness, and pours his complaints and fears into her bosom, accompanied with terms of endearment. STEEV. [3] That is, thy looks are such as will awaken men's curiosity, excite their attention, and make room for suspicion. HEATH. SCENE VI. The same. Before the Castle. Hautboys. Servants of MAC- Ban. This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet,5 does approve, Enter Lady MACBETH. Dun. See, see! our honour'd hostess! The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble, Lady M. All our service In every point twice done, and then done double, Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith [4] 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 situ ation and the pleasantness of the air; and Binquo, 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 domestic life. SIR J REYNOLDS. [5] This bird is in the old edition called barlet. JOHNS. [6] 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. MAL. [7] Coinage of vantage-Convenient corner. JOHNS. [8] To bid any one God-yeld him, i, e. God-yield him, was the same as God reward him. WARB. |