phrase peculiar to Shakespeare; it implies the frame or disposition of the mind, by which it is determined to good or ill.

NOTE XI.

Macbeth. THE service, and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties, and our duties

Åre to your throne and state, children and servants,
Which do but what they should, in doing every thing
Safe tow'rds your love and honour.

Of the last line of this speech, which is certainly, as it is now read, unintelligible, an emendation has been attempted, which Mr. Warburton and Mr. Theobald have admitted as the true reading.

-Our duties

Are to your throne and state, children and servants, Which do but what they should, in doing every thing Fiefs to your love and honour.

My esteem of these criticks, inclines me to believe, that they cannot be much pleased with the expressions Fiefs to love, or Fiefs to honour; and that they have proposed this alteration rather because no other occurred to them, than because they approved it. I shall therefore propose a bolder change, perhaps with no better success, but sua cuique placent. I read thus,

Our duties

Are to your throne and state, children and servants,
Which do but what they should, in doing nothing
Save tow'rds your love and honour.

We do but perform our duty when we contract all

our views to your service, when we act with no other principle than regard to your love and honour..

It is probable that this passage was first corrupted by writing safe for save, and the lines then stood thus,

-Doing nothing

Safe tow'rd your love and honour.

Which the next transcriber observing to be wrong, and yet not being able to discover the real fault, altered to the present reading.

NOTE XII.

SCENE VII.

THOU 'DST have, great Glamis,

That which cries, "thus thou must do if thou have it, "And that," &c.

As the object of Macbeth's desire is here introduced speaking of itself, it is necessary to read,

Thou'dst have, great Glamis,

That which cries, "thus thou must do if thou have me."

NOTE XIII.

HIE thee hither,

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
That fate and metaphysical aid do seem

To have thee crown'd withal.

For seem the sense evidently directs us to read

seek. The crown to which fate destines thee, and

which preternatural agents endeavour to bestow upon thee. The golden round is the diadem.

NOTE XIV.

Lady Macbeth.

COME all you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to th' toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up th' access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my full purpose, nor keep peace between
Th' effect and it.

Mortal thoughts,

This expression signifies not the thoughts of mortals, but murtherous, deadly, or destructive designs. So in Act 5th.

Hold fast the mortal sword.

And in another place,

With twenty mortal murthers,

Nor keep pace between

Th' effect and it.

The intent of Lady Macbeth, evidently is 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 Shakespeare wrote differently, perhaps thus:

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep pace between
'h' effect and it.

To keep pace between, may signify to pass between, to intervene. Pace is on many occasions a favourite of Shakespeare. This phrase is indeed not usual in this sense, but was it not its novelty that gave occasion to the present corruption?

NOTE XV.

SCENE VIII.

King. THIS castle hath a pleasant seat; the air,
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.

Banquo. This guest of summer,

The temple-haunting Martlet, does approve,
By his lov❜d mansionary, that heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here. No jutting frieze,
Buttrice, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird

Hath made his pendent bed, and procreant cradle :
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd
The air is delicate.

In this short scene, I propose a slight alteration to be made, by substituting site for seat, as the ancient word for situation; and sense for senses, as more agreeable to the measure; for which reason likewise I have endeavoured to adjust this passage,

Heaven's breath

Smells wooingly here. No jutting frieze,

By changing the punctuation and adding a syllable thus,

Heaven's breath

Smells wooingly. Here is no jutting frieze, Those who have perused books printed at the time of the first editions of Shakespeare, know that

greater alterations than these are necessary almost in every page, even where it is not to be doubted that the copy was correct.

NOTE XVI.

SCENE X.

THE arguments by which Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to commit the murder, afford a proof of Shakespeare's knowledge of human nature. She urges the excellence and dignity of courage, a glittering idea which has dazzled mankind from age to age, and animated sometimes the housebreaker; and sometimes the conqueror: but this sophism Macbeth has for ever destroyed by distinguishing true from false fortitude, in a line and a half; of which it may almost be said, that they ought to bestow immortality on the author, though all his other productions had been lost.

I dare do all that may become a man,

Who dares do more is none.

This topick, which has been always employed with too much success, is used in this scene with peculiar propriety, to a soldier by a woman. Courage is the distinguishing virtue of a soldier, and the reproach of cowardice cannot be borne by any man from a woman, without great impatience,

She then urges the oaths by which he had bound himself to murder Duncan, another art of sophistry -by which men have sometimes deluded their consciences, and persuaded themselves that what would be criminal in others is virtuous in them; this argu