King. Where's the thane of Cawdor? We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose And his great love, fharp as his fpur+, hath holp him Lady. Your fervants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, King. Give me your hand : Conduct me to mine hoft; we love him highly, [Exeunt. That is, we as hermits fhall always pray for you. So, în Arden of Feverfham, 1592: "I am your beadfman bound to pray for you." Again, in Heywood's English Traveller, 1633: 68 -worshipful fir, "I fhall be still your beadfman." STEEVENS. 4 bis great love, Sharp as his fpur,So, in Twelfth Night, act III. fc. iii: 66 my defire, "More Sharp than filed fleel, did fpur me forth." STEEVENS. 5 Your fervants ever, &c.] The metaphot in this fpeech is taken from the Steward's compt ing-houfe or audit room. In compt means, subject to account. The fenfe of the whole is :-We, and all who belong to us, look upon our lives and fortunes not as our own properties, but as things we have received merely for your ufe, and for which we must be accountable whenever you pleafe to call us to our audit; avhen, like faithful fterwards, we fhall be ready to answer your fummons, by returning you what is your own, STEEVENS. Hautboys and torches. Enter a fewer, and divers fer vants with dishes and fervice over the ftage. Then enter Macbeth. Macb. 7 If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly: If the affaffination. up the confequence, and catch, 6 Enter a fewer, I have restored this stage direction from the old copy. The office of a fewer was to place the dishes in or der at a feaft. His chief mark of diftinction was a towel round his arm. So, in Ben Jonfon's Silent Woman; -clap me a clean towel about you, like a fewer." Again: "See, fir Amo rous has his towel on already. [He enters like a fewer."] 7 If it were done, &c.] 66 STEEVENS. A man of learning recommends another punctuation s 8 Of this foliloquy the meaning is not very clear; I have never found the readers of Shakespeare agreeing about it. I understand it thus: "If that which I am about to do, when it is once done and executed, were done and ended without any following effects, it would then be beft to do it quickly; if the murder could terminate in itself, and restrain the regular courfe of confequences, if its fucefs could fecure its furceafe, if being once done fuccessfully, without detection, it could fix a period to all vengeance and enquiry, fo that this blow might be all that I have to do, and this anxiety all that I have to fuffer; if this could be my condition, even here in this world, in this contracted period of temporal existence, on this narrow bank in the ocean of eternity, I would jump the life to come, I would venture upon the deed without care of any future ftate. But this is one of thefe cafes in which judgment is pronounced and vengeance inflicted upon us here in our prefent life. We teach others to do as we have done, and are punished by our own example." JOHNSON. With his furcéafe, fuccefs; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here, upon this bank and 'fhoal of time,- • With his furceafe, fuccefs; ~~] I think the reafoning requires that we should read: With its fuccefs furceafe. JOHNSON. A trammel is a net in which either birds or fifhes are caught. So, in the Ile of Gulls, 1633: "Each tree and fhrub wears trammels of thy hair.” Surceafe is ceffation, ftop. So, in the Valiant Welchman, 1615: "Surceafe brave brother: Fortune hath crown'd our brows." His is used instead of its, in many places. STEEVENS Shoal of time,] This is Theobald's, emendation, undoubtedly right. The old edition has fchool, and Dr. Warburton Shelves JOHNSON. 2 We'd jump the life to come]+ So, in Cymbeline, act V. fc. iv: -or jump the after-enquiry on your own peril." 3 This even-handed juftice] STEEVENS. Our poet, apis Matinæ more modoque, would stoop to borrow a sweet from any flower, however humble in its fituation. The pricke of confcience (fays Holinfhed) caufed him ever to feare, left he should be ferved of the fame cup as he had minifer'd to his predeceffor." STEEVENS. Hath borne his faculties so meek, Faculties, for office, exercite of power, &c. WARBURTON. Hath borne his faculties fo meek, -} "Duncan (fays Holinfhed) was foft and gentle of nature.". And again: "Macbeth fpoke much against the king's softness, and overmach flackness in punishing offendors." STEEVENS. So clear in his great office, that his virtues 5 And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,. 5 or heaven's cherubin, bors'd Upon the fightless couriers of the air,] But the cherubin is the courier; fo that he can't be faid to be hors'd upon another courier. We must read, therefore, courfers. Courier is only runner. tion. Sightlefs is invifible. Again, in this play: WARBURTON. Couriers of air are winds, air in mo "Wherever in your fightlefs fubftances, &c." Again, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613: Again: "The flames of hell and Pluto's fightless fires.". "Hath any fightless and infernal fire "Laid hold upon my flesh?" Again, in Warner's Albions England, 1602, b. ii. c. 11: "The fcouring winds that fightless in the founding air da fly." STEEVENS. That tears fall drown the wind. Alluding to the remiffion of the wind in a fhower. JOHNSON. -no fpur &c.] The Spur of the occafion is a phrafe ufed by lord Bacon. And falls on the other -] STEEVENS. Hanmer has on this occafion added a word which every reader cannot fail to add for himself. He would give: And falls on the other fide. But the state of Macbeth's mind is more strongly marked by this break in the fpeech, than by any continuation of it which the most fuccefsful critic can fupply. STEEVENS. Enter Enter Lady Lady. He has almost fupp'd; Why have you left the chamber Macb. Hath he afk'd for me? Lady. Know you not, he has ? Macb. We will proceed no further in this bufinefs: He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all forts of people, Which would be worn now in their neweft glofs, Not caft afide fo foon. Lady. Was the hope drunk, Wherein you dreft yourself? hath it slept fince? 9 Enter Lady. The arguments by which lady Macbeth perfuades her husband to commit the murder, afford a proof of Shakefpeare'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 fometimes the house-breaker, and fometimes the conqueror; but this fophifm Macbeth has for ever destroyed, by diftinguishing true from falfe fortitude, in a line and a half; of which it may almost be faid, that they ought to bestow immortality on the author, though all his other productions had been loft: I dare do all that may become a man, Who dares do more, is none. This topic, which has been always employed with too much fuccefs, is ufed in this fcene with peculiar propriety, to a foldier by a woman. Courage is the diftinguishing virtue of a foldier, 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 fophiftry by which men have fometimes deluded their confciences, and perfuaded themfelves that what would be criminal in others is virtuous in them; this argument Shakespeare, whofe plan obliged him to make Macbeth yield, has not confuted, though he might eafily have shewn that a former obligation could not be vacated by a latter that obligations laid on us by a higher power, could not be over-ruled by obligations which we lay upon ourselves. JOHNSON. |