Dun. Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour Ban. There if I grow, Dun. My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, feek to hide themselves Our eldeft, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter, But figns of noblenefs, like ftars, fhall fhine Mach. bonour faved,) to have againe restitution of my perfon, my landes, and heritage, through your favourable licence." Holinfhed's Chron. Vol. II. Our author himself also furnishes us with a paffage that likewife may ferve to confirm this emendation. See the Winter's Tale, p. 223: "Save him from danger; do HIM love and honour." MALONE. 8-full of growing-] is, I believe, exuberant, perfect, complete in thy growth. So, in Othello: "What a full fortune doth the thick-lips owe?" MALONE. My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, seek to bide themselves In drops of forrow.] lachrymas non fponte cadentes Effudit, gemitufque expreffit pectore læto; There was no English translation of Lucan before 1614.-We meet with the fame fentiment again in the Winter's Tale: "It feem'd forrow wept to take leave of them, for their joy waded in tears." It is like. wife employed in the firft fcene of Much ado about Nothing. MALONE. From bence to Inverness, And bind us further to you.] The circumftance of Duncan's vifiting Macbeth, is fupported by history; for, from the Scottish Chronicles it appears Macb. The reft is labour, which is not us'd for you: I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach; So, humbly take my leave. Dun. My worthy Cawdor! Macb. The prince of Cumberland 2!-That is a step, On which I muft fall down, or elfe o'er-leap, [Afide. For appears, that it was cuftomary for the king to make a progress through his dominions every year. "Inerat ei [Duncano] laudabilis confuetudo regni pertranfire regiones femel in anno." Fordun. Scoticbron. lib. iv. c. 44. "Singulis annis ad inopum querelas audiendas perluftrabat provincias." Buchanan. lib. vii. MALONE. Dr. Johnfon obferves, in his Journey to the Weftern Isles of Scotland, that the walls of the castle of Macbeth at Inverness are yet ftanding. STEEVENS. 2 The prince of Cumberland!] So, Holinfhed, Hift. of Scotland, p. 171: "Duncan having two fonnes, &c. he made the elder of them, called Malcolme, prince of Cumberland, as it were thereby to appoint him fucceffor in his kingdome immediatlie after his deceafe. Mackbeth forely troubled herewith, for that he faw by this means his hope fore hindered, (where, by the old laws of the realme the ordinance was, that if he that fhould fucceed were not of able age to take the charge upon himself, he that was next of bloud unto him should be admitted,} he began to take counfel how he might ufurpe the kingdome by force, having a just quarrel so to doe, (as he tooke the matter,) for that Duncane did what in him lay to defraud him of all manner of title and claime, which he might, in time to come, pretend unto the crowne." The crown of Scotland was originally not hereditary. When a fucceffor was declared in the life-time of a king, (as was often the cafe,) the title of Prince of Cumberland was immediately bestowed on him as the mark of his defignation. Cumberland was at that time held by Scotland of the crown of England, as a fief. STEEVENS. The former part of Mr. Steevens's remark is fupported by Bellenden's Tranflation of Hector Boethius: "In the mene tyme Kyng Duncane maid his fon Malcolme Prince of Cumbir, to fignify yt be fuld regne eftir bym, quhilk wes gret difplefeir to Makbeth; for it maid plane derogatioun to the thrid weird promittit afore to hym be this weird fifteris. Nochtheles he thocht gif Duncane wer flane, he had maift rycht to the croun, because he wes nereft of blud yairto, be tenour of ye auld lavis maid eftir the deith of King Fergus, quhen young children wer unabel to govern the croun, the nerreft of yair blude fall regne." So alfo Buchanan, Rerum Scoticarum Hift. lib. vii. "Duncanus e filia Sibardi reguli Northumbrorum, duos filios genu. erat, Ex iis Milcolumbum, vixdum puberem, Cumbriæ præfecit. Id U 2 factum For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! It is a banquet to me. Let us after him, [Exit. [Flourish. Exeunt. factum ejus Macbethus moleftius, quam credi poterat, tulit, eam videlicet moram fibi ratus injectam, ut, priores jam magiftratus (juxta fum nocturnum) adeptus, aut omnino a regno excluderetur, aut eo tardius potiretur, cum præfectura Cumbria velut aditus ad fupremum magiftratum SEMPER effet babitus." It has been afferted by an anonymous writer that "the crown of Scotland was always hereditary, and that it should feem from the play that Malcolm was the first who had the title of Prince of Cumberland." An extract or two from Hector Boethius will be fufficient relative to these points. In the tenth chapter of the eleventh book of his Hiftory we are informed, that fome of the friends of Kenneth III. the eightieth king of Scotland, came among the nobles, defiring them to choose Malcolm, the fon of Kenneth, to be Lord of Cumbir, “y be mycht be yt way the better cum to ye crown after bis faderis deid." Two of the nobles faid, it was in the power of Kenneth to make whom he pleafed Lord of Cumberland; and Malcolm was accordingly appointed. "Sic thingis done, king Kenneth, be advise of his nobles, abrogat ye auld lawis concerning the creation of yair king, and made new lawis in manner as followes: 1. The king beand deceffit, his eldest son or his eldest nepot, (notwithstanding quhat fumevir age he be of, and youcht he was born efter his faderis death, fal fuccede ye croun," &c. Notwithstanding this precaution, Malcolm, the eldest fon of Kenneth, did not fucceed to the throne after the death of his father; for after Kenneth reigned Conftantine, the son of king Culyne. To him fucceeded Gryme, who was not the fon of Conftantine, but the grandson of king Duffe. Gryme, fays Boethius, came to Scone, "quhare he was crownit by the tenour of the auld lawis." After the death of Gryme, Malcolm, the fon of king Kenneth, whom Boethius frequently calls Prince of Cumberland, became king of Scotland ; and to him fucceeded Duncan, the son of his eldest daughter. Thefe breaches, however, in the fucceffion appear to have been occafioned by violence in turbulent times; and though the eldeft fon could not fucceed to the throne, if he happened to be a minor at the death of his father, yet, as by the ancient laws the next of blood was to reign, the Scottish monarchy may be faid to have been hereditary, fubject however to peculiar regulations. MALONE. SCENE SCENE V. Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Caffle. Enter Lady MACBETH, reading a letter. 4 Lady M.-They met me in the day of fuccefs; and I have learned by the perfecteft report3, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burn'd in defire to question them further, they made themselves-air, into which they vanifb'd. Whiles I food rapt in the wonder of it, came miffives from the king, who all-hail'd me, Thane of Cawdor; by which title, before, thefe weird fifters faluted me, and referr'd me to the coming on of time, with, Hail, king that fhalt be! This have I thought good to deliver thee, my deareft partner of greatnefs; that thou might'ft not lofe the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatnefs is promifed thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewel. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy nature; To catch the nearest way; Thou would't be great; The illness should attend it. What thou would'st highly, That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou have it; 3 Than by the perfeteft report,] By the best intelligence. JOHNSON. miffives-] Perfons fent; messengers. The word is frequently ufed by our old writers. 4 MALONE. 5 That which cries, thus thou must do, if thou have it;] As the object of Macbeth's defire is here introduced fpeaking of itself, it is necessary to read—if thou have me. JOHNSON. 6 And that which rather thou doff fear to do,] The conftruction," perhaps, is, thou would'st have that, [i. e. the crown,] which cries unto thee, thou must do tbus, if thou wouldst have it, and thou must do that which rather, &c. Sir T. Hanmer without neceffity reads--And that's what Than wifheft be undone. Hie thee hither, Atten. The king comes here to-night, Is not thy mafter with him? who, wer't fo, Atten. So please you, it is true; our thane is coming: One of my fellows had the speed of him; Who, almost dead for breath, had fcarcely more Lady M. Give him tending, what rather. The difficulty of this line and the fucceeding hemiflick feems to have arifen from their not being confidered as part of the fpeech uttered by the object of Macbeth's ambition. As fuch they appear to me, and I have therefore diftinguished them by Italicks. MALONE. 7 That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;] I meet with the fame expreffion in lord Sterline's Julius Cæfar, 1607: "Thou in my bolom us'd to pour by fpright." MALONE. Which fate and metaphyfical aid doth feem To have thee crown'd witbal.] I do not concur with Dr. Warburton, in thinking that Shakspeare meant to say, that fate and me. taphysical aid seem to have crowned Macbeth.-Lady Macbeth means to animate her husband to the attainment of "the golden round," with which fate and fupernatural agency feem to intend to bave him crowned, on a future day. So, in All's Well that ends Well: Our dearest friend "Prejudicates the bufinefs, and would feem "To bave us make denial." There is, in my opinion, a material difference between-" To have thee crown'd," and "To have crown'd thee;" of which the learned commentator does not appear to have been aware. Metaphyfical, which Dr. Warburton has justly obferved, means fupernatural, feems in our author's time to have had no other meaning. In the English Dictionary by H. C. 1655, Metaphyficks are thus explained: Supernatural arts." The golden round, as Dr. Johnson has obferved, is the diadem. MALONE. He |