As sparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion, Doubly redoubled strokes 5 upon the foe: the verse, has been omitted in the old copy. Sir T. Hanmer reads Our captains, brave Macbeth, &c. STEEVENS. * As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks; &c.] That is, with double charges; a metonymy of the effect for the cause. HEATH. Mr. Theobald has endeavoured to improve the sense of this paffage, by altering the punctuation thus: they were As cannons overcharg'd; with double cracks He declares, with some degree of exultation, that he has no idea of a cannon charged with double cracks; but furely the great author will not gain much by an alteration which makes him say of a hero, that he redoubles Strokes with double cracks, an expreffion not more loudly to be applauded, or more easily pardoned, than that which is rejected in its favour. That a cannon is charged with thunder, or with double thunders, may be written, not only without nonsense, but with elegance, and nothing else is here meant by cracks, which, in the time of this writer, was a word of such emphasis and dignity, that in this play he terms the general diffolution of nature the crack of doom. JOHNSON. Crack is used on a fimilar occafion by Barnaby Googe, in his Cupido Conquered, 1563: "The canon's cracke begins to roore Barbour, the old Scotch Poet, calls fire-arms-" crakys of war." Again, in the old play of King John, 1591, and applied, as here, to ordnance : " - as harmle and without effect, "As is the echo of a cannon's crack." MALONE. * Doubly redoubled strokes &c.] So, in King Richard II: " And let thy blows, doubly redoubled, "Fall," &c. Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, I cannot tell : But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. DUN. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds; They smack of honour both :-Go, get him fur geons. [Exit Soldier, attended. The irregularity of the metre, however, induces me to believe our author wrote they were As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks, Doubly redoubling Strokes upon the foe. For this thought, however, Shakspeare might have been indebted to Caxton's Recuyel, &c. "The batayll was sharp, than the grekes dowblid and redowblid their strokes," &c. STEEVENS. • Or memorize another Golgotha,] That is, or make another Golgotha, which should be celebrated and delivered down to pofterity, with as frequent mention as the first. HEATH. The word memorize, which some suppose to have been coined by Shakspeare, is used by Spenser, in a fonnet to Lord Buckhurst, prefixed to his Pastorals, 1579: "In vaine I thinke, right honourable lord, T. WARTON, The word is likewise used by Drayton; and by Chapman, in his tranflation of the second Book of Homer, 1598: " - which let thy thoughts be sure to memorize." Again, in the third Iliad : - and Clymene, whom fame "Hath, for her fair eyes, memoriz'd." And again, in a copy of verses prefixed to Sir Arthur Gorges's tranflation of Lucan, 1614: "Of them whose acts they mean to memorize." STEEVENS. Enter ROSSE." Who comes here? 8 MAL. The worthy thane of Roffe. LEN. What a hafte looks through his eyes! So should he look, That seems to speak things strange.9 7 Enter Rosse.] The old copy-Enter Roffe and Angus : but as only the name of Roffe is spoken to, or speaks any thing in the remaining part of this scene, and as Duncan expresses himself in the fingular number, "Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?" Angus may be confidered as a fuperfluous character. Had his present appearance been designed, the King would naturally have taken some notice of him. STEEVENS. It is clear, from a subsequent passage, that the entry of Angus was here designed; for in scene iii. he again enters with Roffe, and fays, "We are sent "To give thee from our royal master thanks." MALONE. Because Roffe and Angus accompany each other in a subsequent scene, does it follow that they make their entrance together on the present occafion? STEEVENS. 8 Who comes here?) The latter word is here employed as a dissyllable. MALONE. Mr. Malone has already directed us to read-There as a dissyllable, but without supporting his direction by one example of such a practice. I fufpect that the poet wrote 9 Who is't comes here? or-But who comes here? So Should he look, STEEVENS. That seems to speak things strange.] The meaning of this passage, as it now stands, is, so should he look, that looks as if he told things strange. But Rosse neither yet told strange things, nor could look as if he told them. Lenox only conjectured from his air that he had strange things to tell, and therefore undoubtedly said: ROSSE. God save the king! From Fife, great king, DUN. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane? Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky, What a haste looks through his eyes! So Should he look, that teems to speak things strange. He looks like one that is big with fomething of importance; a metaphor so natural that it is every day used in common difcourse. JoHNSON. Mr. M. Mason observes, that the meaning of Lenox is, "So should he look, who seems as if he had strange things to fpeak." The following passage in The Tempest seems to afford no unapt comment upon this: " - pr'ythee, say on : "The fetting of thine eye and cheek, proclaim "A matter from thee-." Again, in King Richard II: "Men judge by the complexion of the sky, &c. "My tongue hath but a heavier tale to fay." STEEVENS. That seems to speak things strange.] i. e. that seems about to speak strange things. Our author himself furnishes us with the best comment on this passage. In Antony and Cleopatra we meet with nearly the same idea : I "The business of this man looks out of him." MALONE. -flout the sky,] The banners may be poetically described as waving in mockery or defiance of the sky. So, in King Edward III. 1599: " And new replenish'd pendants cuff the air, The sense of the passage, however, collectively taken, is this: Where the triumphant flutter of the Norweyan Standards ventilates or cools the foldiers who had been heated through their efforts to fecure fuch numerous trophies of victory. Again, in King John: STEEVENS. "Mocking the air, with colours idly spread." This passage has perhaps been misunderstood. The meaning seems to be, not that the Norweyan banners proudly infulted And fan our people cold.2 the sky; but that, the standards being taken by Duncan's forces, and fixed in the ground, the colours idly flapped about, ferving only to cool the conquerors, instead of being proudly displayed by their former possessors. The line in King John, therefore, is the most perfect comment on this. MALONE. 2 And fan our people cold.] In all probability, fome words that rendered this a complete verse have been omitted; a lofs more frequently to be deplored in the present tragedy, than perhaps in any other of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. 3 Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof,] This pafsage may be added to the many others, which show how little Shakspeare knew of ancient mythology. HENLEY. Our author might have been influenced by Holinthed, who, p. 567, speaking of King Henry V. says: "He declared that the goddeffe of battell, called Bellona," &c. &c. Shakspeare, therefore, hastily concluded that the Goddess of War was wife to the God of it; or might have been misled by Chapman's verfion of a line in the 5th Iliad of Homer: " - Mars himself, match'd with his female mate, "The dread Bellona: " Lapt in proof, is, defended by armour of proof. STEEVENS. * Confronted him with self-comparisons,] By him, in this verse, is meant Norway; as the plain construction of the English requires. And the assistance the thane of Cawdor had given Norway, was underhand; (which Roffe and Angus, indeed, had difcovered, but was unknown to Macbeth ;) Cawdor being in the court all this while, as appears from Angus's speech to Macbeth, when he meets him to falute him with the title, and infinuates his crime to be lining the rebel with hidden help and 'vantage. with felf-comparisons,] i. e. gave him as good as he brought, shew'd he was his equal. WARBURTON. |