As happy prologues to the fwelling act' Of the imperial theme. I thank you, gentlemen.- Cannot be ill; cannot be good:-If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of fuccefs, Still however the objection made by Mr. Steevens remains in its ful force; for fince he knew that " by Sinel's death he was thane of Glamis," how can this falutation be confidered as propbetick? Or why fhould he afterwards fay, with admiration, "GLAMIS, and thane of Cawdor;"&c? Perhaps we may fuppofe that the father of Macbeth died fo 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 fufpect our author was led to use the expreffions which have occafioned the prefent note, by the following words of Holinfhed: "The fame night after, at fupper, Banquho jested with him, and faid, Now Mackbeth, thou haft obteined thofe things which the Two former fifters PROPHESIED: there remaineth onelie for thee to purchase that which the third said should come to paffe." MALONE. -fwelling act] Swelling is used in the same sense in the prologue to K. Henry V: princes to act, "And monarchs to behold the fwelling fcene." STEEVENS. 2 This fupernatural foliciting] i. e. incitement. JOHNSON. 3 why do I yield to that fuggeftion] To yield is, to give way to. JOHNSON. Suggestion is, temptation. See Vol. I. p.139, n. 6. MALONE. 4- Prefent fears Are less than borrible imaginings:] Prefent 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. So, in the Tragedy of Crafus, 1604, by lord Sterline: "Seems greater than itself, whilft fears are lying." STEEVENS. My 1 My thought, whofe murder yet is but fantaftical, But what is not". Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my ftir. Ban. New honours come upon him Like our ftrange garments; cleave not to their mould, But with the aid of ufe. Macb. Come what come may; Time and the hour runs through the rougheft day". 5- fingle fate of man,] The fingle ftate of man seems to be used by Shakspeare for an individual, in oppofition to a commonwealth, or canjunct body. JOHNSON, 6 function Is fmother'd in furmife; and nothing is, But what is not.] All powers of action are oppreffed 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 exiftence. JOHNSON. Surmife, is fpeculation, conjecture concerning the future. MALONE. 7 Time and the hour runs through the rougheft day.]" By this, I confefs I do not with his two last commentators imagine is meant either the tautology of time and the hour, or an allufion to time painted with an hour-glais, or an exhortation to time to haften forward, but rather to fay tempus & bora, 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 Effay on the Writings and Genius of Shakspeare, &c. by Mrs. Montagu. Such tautology is common to Shakspeare. The very bead and front of my offending," is little lefs reprehenfible. Time and the hour, is Time with his hours. STEEVENS. The fame expreffion is ufed by a writer nearly contemporary with Shakspeare: Neither can there be any thing in the world more accept able to me than death, whofe bower and time, if they were as certayne, &c." Fenton's Tragical Difcourjes, 1579. Again, in Davifon's Pems, 1621: "Time's young bosures attend her still-. Again, in our author's 126th Sonnet : "O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power "Doft hold Time's fickle glafs, his fickle, bour—”, MALONE. Bas. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. wrought my dull brain was With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains The leaf to read them*.-Let us toward the king.- Ban. Very gladly. Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. [Exeunt. Fores. A Room in the Palace. Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Mal. My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have spoke 8 my dull brain was wrought—] My head was worked, agitated, put into commotion. JOHNSON. 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 fpeaks of the table of his memory. MALONE. 9 The interim baving weigh'd it,] This intervening portion of time is almoft perfonified: it is reprefented as a cool impartial judge; as the paufer Reajon. STEEVENS. I believe, the interim is used adverbially "you having weighed it in the interim." MALONE. I-Are not-] The old copy reads-Or not. The emendation was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 2 With one that Jaw bim die :] The behaviour of the thane of Cawdor correfponds in almost every circumstance with that of the unfortunate earl of Eflex, as related by Stowe, p. 793. His afking the queen's forgiveness, his confellion, repentance, and concern about behaving with propriety on the fcaffold, are minutely defcribed by that hiftorian. Such an allufion could not fail of having the defired effect on an audience, many of whom were eye witnefies to the severity of that juftice which deprived the age of one of its greatest ornaments, and Southampton, Shakspeare's patron, of his dearest friend. STEVENS. That That very frankly he confefs'd his treasons ; Dun. There's no art, To find the mind's conftruction in the face 4: An abfolute trust.—O worthiest cousin ! Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS. The fin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before, To overtake thee. 'Would thou hadft lefs deferv'd; Macb. 3-ftudied in bis death,] Inftructed in the art of dying. It was ufual to fay ftudied, for learned in fcience. JOHNSON. His own profeffion furnished our author with this phrafe. To be Audied in a part, or to have ftudied it, is yet the technical term of the theatre. MALONE. 4 There's no art To find the mind's conftruction in the face:] Dr. Johnson seems to have understood the word conftruction in this place, in the fenfe of frame or firulure; but the fchool-term was, I believe, intended by Shakfpeare. The meaning, is,-We cannot conftrue or difcover the difpofition of the mind by the lineaments of the face. So, in K. Henry IV. "P. II: "Conftrue the times to their neceffities." In Hamlet we meet with a kindred phrase: These profound heaves "You must tranflate; 'tis fit we understand them." In his 93d Sonnet, however, we find a contrary fentiment asserted: "Is writ." MALONE. 5 More is thy due than more than all can pay.] More is due to thee, than, I will not fay all, but, more than all, i. e. the greatest recompence, can pay. Thus, in Plautus: Nibilo minus. There Macb. The fervice and the loyalty I owe, Are to your throne and state, children, and fervants; Dun.. There is an obfcurity in this paffage, arifing from the word all, which is not used here perfonally, (more than all perfons can pay,) but for the whole wealth of the speaker. So, more clearly, in King Henry VIII. "More than my all is nothing." This line appeared obscure to Sir W. D'Avenant, for he altered it thus: "I have only left to fay, "That thou deservest more than I have to pay." MALONE. - fervants; Which do but what they fhould, by doing every thing-] From Scripture: "So when ye shall have done all thofe things which are commanded you, fay, We are unprofitable fervants: we have done that which was our duty to do." HENLEY. 7 Which do but what they should, by doing every thing Safe toward your love and honour.] Mr. Upton gives the word fafe as an inftance of an adjective used adverbially. STEEVENS. Read "Safe (i. e. faved) toward you love and honour;" and then the fenfe will be,-" Our duties are your children, and servants or vaffals to your throne and state; who do but what they should, by doing every thing with a saving of their love and honour toward you." The whole is an allufion to the forms of doing homage in the feodal times. The oath of allegiance, or liege bomage, to the king was abfolute and without any exception; but fimple bomage, when done to a fubject for lands holden of him, was always with a faving of the allegiance (the love and bonour) due to the fovereign. "Sauf la foy que jeo day a noftre Seignor le roy," as it is in Lyttleton. And though the expreffion be fomewhat ftiff and forced, it is not more fo than many others in this play, and fuits well with the fituation of Macbeth, now beginning to waver in his allegiance. For, as our author elsewhere fays, "When love begins to ficken and decay, "It useth an enforced ceremony." BLACKSTONE. A paffage in Cupid's Revenge, a comedy by B. and Fletcher, adds fome fupport to Sir William Blackstone's emendation: "I'll fpeak it freely, always my obedience So alfo the following words, fpoken by Henry Duke of Lancaster to K. U bonour |