And something from the palace; always thought,

How the critical juncture is the spy o' the time, I know not, but I think my own conjecture right. Johnson. I rather believe we should read thus:

Acquaint you with the perfect spot, the time,
The moment on 't; - Tyrwhitt.

I believe that the word with has here the force of by; in which sense Shakspeare frequently uses it; and that the meaning of the passage is this: "I will let you know by the person best informed, of the exact moment in which the business is to be done." And accordingly we find, in the next scene, that these two murderers are joined by a third, as Johnson has observed.--In his letter to his wife, Macbeth says, "I have heard by the perfectest report, that they have more than mortal knowledge." And in this very scene, we find the word with used to express by, where the murderer says he is "tugg'd with fortune." M. Mason.

The meaning, I think, is, I will acquaint you with the time when you may look out for Banquo's coming, with the most perfect assurance of not being disappointed; and not only with the time in general most proper for lying in wait for him, but with the very moment when you may expect him. Malone.

I explain the passage thus, and think it needs no reformation, but that of a single point:

Within this hour at most,

I will advise you where to plant yourselves.

Here I place a full stop; as no further instructions could be given by Macheth, the hour of Banquo's return being quite uncertain. Macbeth therefore adds-" Acquaint you" &c. i. e. in ancient language, "acquaint yourselves" with the exact time most favourable to your purposes; for such a moment must be spied out by you, be selected by your own attention and scrupulous observation.--You is ungrammatically employed, instead of yourselves; as him is for himself, in The Taming of the Shrew:

"To see her noble lord restor'd to health,
"Who, for twice seven years, hath estcemed bim
"No better than a poor and loathsome beggar."

In this place it is evident that him is used instead of himself. Again, in Aing Henry IV, P. I:

"Advantage feeds him fat -." i. e. bimself.

Again, more appositely, in King Richard II, where York, addressing himself to Bolingbroke, Northumberland, and others, says

- enter in the castle

"And there repose you [i. e. yourselves] for this night."

Again, in Coriolanus:

"Breathe you, my friends; "

Macbeth, in the intervening time, might have learned, from son.e of Banquo's attendants, which way he had ridden out, and

That I require a clearness: And with him,
(To leave no rubs, nor botches, in the work,)
Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
Whose absence is no less material to me
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;

I'll come to you anon.

2 Mur.

We are resolv'd, my lord.

Macb. I'll call upon you straight; abide within. It is concluded:- Banquo, thy soul's flight, If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. [Excunt.

SCENE II.

The same, Another Room.

Enter Lady MACBETH, and a Servant.

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court?
Serv. Ay, madam; but returns again to-night.
Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure

For a few words.

Serv.

Lady M.

Nought 's had, all's spent,

Where our desire is got without content:

therefore could tell the murderers where to plant themselves so as to cut him off on his return; but who could ascertain the precise hour of his arrival, except the ruffians who watched for that purpose? Steevens.

- always thought,

That I require a clearness:] i. e. you must manage matters so, that throughout the whole transaction may stand clear of suspicion. So, Holinshed: “ - appointing them to meet Banquo and his sonne without the palace, as they returned to their lodgings, and there to slea them, so that he would not have his house slandered, but that in time to come he might cleare himself." Steevens.

8 I'll come to you anon.] Perhaps the words to you, which corrupt the metre, without enforcing the sense, are another playhouse interpolation. Steevens.

9 Nought's had, all's spent,] Surely, the unnecessary wordsNaught's had, are a tasteless interpolation; for they violate the measure without expansion of the sentiment.

1

'Tis safer to be that which we destroy, Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy.

Enter MAСВЕТН.

How now, my lord? why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies1 your companions making?
Using those thoughts, which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without remedy,
Should be without regard: what 's done, is done.

Macb. We have scotch'd3 the snake, not kill'd it;
She 'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let

The frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,

For a few words. Madam, I will. All's spent,

is a complete verse.

There is sufficient reason to suppose the metre of Shakspeare was originally uniform and regular. His frequent exactness in making one speaker complete the verse which another had left imperfect, is too evident to need exemplification. Sir T. Hanmer was aware of this, and occasionally struggled with such metrical difficulties as occurred; though for want of familiarity with ancient language, he often failed in the choice of words to be rejected or supplied. Steevens.

1

- sorriest fancies -] i. e. worthless, ignoble, vile. So, in Othello:

"I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me.”

Sorry, however, might signify sorrowful, melancholy, dismal. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

"The place of death and sorry execution." Again, in the play before us, (as Mr. M. Mason observes) Macbeth says,-" This is a sorry sight." Steevens.

2

Things without remedy,] The old copy-all remedy. But surely, as Sir T. Hanmer thinks, the word all is an interpolation, ation, hurtful to the metre, without improvement of the sense. The same thought occurs in King Richard II, Act II, sc..iii:

"Things past redress, are now with me past care." Steevens. 3-scotch'd-) Mr. Theobald -Fol scorch'd. Johnson. Scotch'd is the true reading. So, in Coriolanus, Act IV, sc. v: - he scotch'd him and notch'd him like a carbonado." Steevens

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4 But let

The frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,] The old copy reads thus, and I have followed it, rejecting the modern contraction, which was:

Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams,
That shake us nightly: Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie

5

In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;.
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestick, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further!

Lady M. Come on;

Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night.

Mach. So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you:
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;
Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
Unsafe the while, that we

Must lave our honours in these flattering streams;

But let both worlds disjoint, and all things suffer. The same idea occurs in Hamlet:

"That both the worlds 1 give to negligence." Steevens.

5 Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace,] The old copy reads:

Whom we, to gain our peace

For the judicious correction-place, we are indebted to the second folio. Steevens.

6 In restless ecstasy.] Ecstasy, for madness. Warburton.

Ecstasy, in its general sense, signifies any violent emotion of the mind. Here it means the emotions of pain, agony. So, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, P. I:

"Griping our bowels with retorqued thoughts,
" And have no hope to end our extasies."

Again, Milton, in his ode on The Nativity:

" In pensive trance, and anguish, and ecstatic fit."

Thus also Chapman, in his version of the last Iliad, where

he describes the distracting sorrow of Achilles :

- Although he saw the morn

"Shew sea and shore his extasie."

Steevens.

remembrance) is here employed as a quadrisyllable.

So, in Twelfth Night:

"And lasting in her sad remembrance". Steevens.

& Present bimeminence,] i. e. do him the highest honours.

Warburton.

And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.9

You must leave this.

Lady M.
Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear-wife
Thou know'st, that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.
Lady M. But in them nature's copy 's not eterne.

Unsafe the while, that we

Must lave our honours in these flattering streams;
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,

Disguising what they are.] The sense of this passage (though clouded by metaphor, and perhaps by omission) appears to be as follows:-It is a sure sign that our royalty is unsafe, when it must descend to flattery, and stoop to dissimulation. And yet I cannot help supposing (from the hemistich, unsafe the while that we) some words to be wanting which originally rendered the sentiment less obscure. Shakespeare might have written

Unsafe the while it is for us, that we &c.

By a different arrangement in the old copy, the present hemistich, indeed, is avoided; but, in my opinion, to the disadvantage of the other lines. See former editions. Steevens.

1

nature's copy's not eterne.] The copy, the lease, by which they hold their lives from nature, has its time of termination limited. Johnson.

Eterne for eternal is often used by Chaucer. So, in The

Knight's Tale, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 1305:

"

O cruel goddes, that governe

"This world with binding of your word eterne,
"And writen in the table of athamant

"Your parlement and your eterne grant." Steevens.

Dr. Johnson's interpretation is supported by a subsequent passage in this play:

66

and our high-plac'd Macbeth

" Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath

"To time and mortal custom."

Again, by our author's 13th Sonnet:

"So should that beauty which you hold in lease,
"Find no determination." Malone.

I once thought that by "Nature's copy" &c our author meant (to use a Scriptural phrase) man, as formed after the Deity, though not, like him, immortal. So, in K. Henry VIII.

66

- how shall man,

"The image of his maker, hope to thrive by 't?"

Or, as Milton expresses the same idea, Comus, v. 69:

66

the human countenance,

"Th' express resemblance of the gods -."

But, (as Mr. M. Mason observes) in support of Dr. Johnson's explanation, we find that Macbeth, in his next speech but one,