All's well. Ban. I think not of them: It shall make honour for you. So I lose none, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. [Exit Servant. Is this a dagger, which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. 1 Largess, bounty. 2 The old copy reads offices. Officers of a household was the common term for servants in Shakspeare's time. He has before called the king's chamberlains 'his spongy officers.' 3 Steevens has rightly explained to shut up,' by 'to conclude,' and the examples he has adduced are satisfactory; but Mr. Boswell supposed that it meant enclosed, and quoted a passage from Barrow to support his opinion. The authorities of the poet's time are against Mr. Boswell's interpretation. 4 Being unprepared, our will (or desire to entertain the king honourably) became the servant to defect (i. e. was constrained by defective means,) which else should free have wrought (i. e. otherwise our zeal should have been manifest by more liberal entertainments.) Which relates not to the last antecedent, defect, but to will. 5 Consent is accord, agreement, a combination for a particular purpose. By if you shall cleave to my consent,' Macbeth means, if you shall adhere to me (i. e. agree or accord with my views,) when 'tis, (i. e. when events shall fall out as they are predicted,) it shall make honour for you.' Macbeth mentally refers to the crown which he expected to obtain in consequence of the murder that he was about to commit. We comprehend all that passes in his mind; but Banquo is still in ignorance of it. His reply is only that of a man who determines to combat every possible temptation to do ill; and therefore expresses a resolve that, in spite of future combinations of interest or struggles for power, he will attempt nothing that may obscure his present honours, alarm his conscience, or corrupt loyalty. Macbeth could never mean, while yet the success of his attack on the life of Duncan was uncertain, to afford Banquo the most dark or distant hint of his criminal designs on the crown. Had he acted thus incautiously, Banquo would naturally have become his accuser as soon as the mur. der had been discovered. Malone proposed to read content instead of consent; but his reasons are far from convincing, and there seems no necessity for change. 6 Dudgeon for handle; a dudgeon dagger is a dagger whose handle is made of the root of box,' according to Bishop Wilkins in the dictionary subjoined to his Real Character. Dudgeon is the root of box. It has not been remarked that there is a peculiar propriety in giving the word to Macbeth, Pugnale alla scoccese, being a Scotch or dudgeon haft dagger,' according to Torrizno. 7 Gouts drops; from the French gouttes. I see thee yet, in form as palpable Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going; Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, set earth, Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. [A bell rings. I [Exit. go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. SCENE II. The same. Enter LADY MACbeth. Lady M. That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold: What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire :- It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, 8 Dryden's well known lines in the Conquest of Mexico are here transcribed, that the reader may observe the contrast between them and this passage of Shakspeare: All things are hush'd as Nature's self lay dead. And sleeping flow'rs beneath the night dews sweat, In the second part of Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 1602, we have the following lines: "Tis yet the dead of night, yet all the earth is clutch'd 9 The old copy has sleepe. The emendation was proposed by Steevens, and is well worthy of a place in the text; the word now having been formerly admitted to complete the metre. 10 The old copy reads sides: Pope made the alteration. Johnson objects to the epithet ravishing strides. But Steevens has shown that a stride was not always an action of violence, impetuosity, or tumult. Thus in The Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. viii. With easy steps so soft as foot could stride." And in other places we have an easy stride, a leisurable stride, &c. Warburton observes, that the justness of the similitude is not very obvious. But a stanza in Shakspeare's Tarquin and Lucrece will explain it :'Now stole upon the time in dead of night, When heavy sleep had clos'd up mortal eyes; No comfortable star did lend his light, No noise but owls' and wolves' dead-boding cries; Now serves the season that they may surprise The silly lambs. Pure thoughts are dead and still, While lust and murder wake to stain und kill. 11 Macbeth would have nothing break through the universal silence that added such horror to the night, as well suited with the bloody deed he was about to perform. Burke, in his Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful, observes, that all general privations are great because they are terrible.' ets cry. Did not you speak? When? Now. Who lies i' the second chamber? Macb. This is a sorry sight. So brainsickly of things:-Go, get some water, I am afraid to think what I have done; Macb. [Exit. Knocking watnym. Whence is that knocking? How is't with me, when every noise appals me? As I descended? What hands are here! Ha! they pluck out mine Donalbain. [Looking on his hands. Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. Macb. There's one did laugh in his sleep, and one cried, murder! That they did wake each other; stood and heard other; As they had seen me, with these hangman's hands. Lady M. These deeds must not be thought Macb. Methought, I heard a voice cry, Sleep no Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep; house : Glamis hath murder'd sleep; and therefore Cawdor You do unbend your noble strength, to think 1 As for as if. eyes! Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this bloods Making the green-one red." Re-enter LADY MACBETH. Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but I shame To wear a heart so white. [Knock.] I hear a knocking At the south entry :-retire we to our chamber: A little water clears us of this deed: Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us, Macb. To know my deed,-'twere best not know Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would, thou [Exeunt. SCENE III. The same. Enter a Porter. [Knocking within. Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old' turning the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock: Who's there, i' the name of Belzebub? Here's a farmer, 12 that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: Come in time; have napkins13 enough about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking.] Knock, knock: Who's there i' the other devil's name? 'Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equiing.] Knock, knock, knock; Who's there? 'Faith, vocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator. [Knock Should flow for ever through these guilty hands, Yet the sanguinolent stain would extant be.' 7 To incarnardine is to stain of a red colour. 8 In the old copy the line stands thus :-'Making the Green one, Red.' The punctuation in the text was adopted by Stevens at the suggestion of Murphy. Malone prefers the old punctuation. Steevens has well defended the arrangement of his text, which seems to me to deserve the pre 2 i. e. listening to their fear: the particle omitted. 3 Sleave is unwrought silk, sometimes also called floss silk. It appears to be the coarse ravelled part separated by passing through the slaie (reed comb) of the weaver's loom; and hence called sleaved or sleided silk. I suspect that sleeveless, which has puzzled the etymologists, is that which cannot be sleaved, sleided,ference. or unravelled; and therefore useless: thus a sleeveless errand would be a fruitless one. 9 Your constancy hath left you unattended.'-Vide note on King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2. 10 This is an answer to Lady Macbeth's reproof. While I have the thoughts of this deed, it were best not know, or be lost to myself,' 11 i. e. frequent 4 Steevens observes that this triple menace, accomodated to the different titles of Macbeth, is too quaint to be received as the natural ebullition of a guilty mind; but Mr. Boswell thinks that there is no ground for his ob. lection. He thus explains the passage; Glamis hath 12 Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the exmurder'd sleep; and therefore my lately acquired dig-pectation of plenty.' So in Hall's Satires, b. iv nity can afford no comfort to one who suffers the agony sat. 6:-of remorse,-Cawdor shall sleep no more; nothing can 'Each muckworme will be rich with lawless gaine, restore me to that peace of mind which I enjoyed in a Altho' he smother up mowes of seven yeares graine, comparatively humble state; the once innocent Mac-And hang'd himself when corne grows cheap againe, beth shall sleep no more. 5 This quibble too occurs frequently in old plays. Shakspeare has it in King Henry IV. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 4: England shall double gild his treble guilt. 6 Thus in The Insatiate Countess, by Marston, 1613: Although the waves of all the northern sea 13 i. e. handkerchiefs. In the dictionaries of the time sudarium is rendered by napkin or handkerchief. wherewith we wipe away the sweat.' 14 i. e. a Jesuit. That order were troublesome to the state, and held in odium in the reigns of Elizabeth and James. They were inventors of the execrable doctrine of equivocation. nere's an English tailor come hither, for stealing Enter MACDUFF and LENOX. Port. 'Faith, sir we were carousing till the second cock: and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things. Macd. What three things does drink especially provoke ? Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to: in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him. Macd. I believe, drink gave thee the lie, last night. Port. That it did, sir, i' the very throat o' me: Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes. Len. Good-morrow, noble sir! Good-morrow, both! Not yet. Macb. The labour, we delight in, physics pain. Macd. I'll make so bold to call. death; Macd. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece With a new Gorgon:-Do not bid me speak ; Enter LADY MACBETH. Lady M. Woe, alas' Ban. Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX. The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. Macb. Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood, And prophesying, with accents terrible, They star'd, and were distracted; no man's life the earth Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, Macb. O, yet, I do repent me of my fury, Macd. Wherefore did you so? Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man : And in The Puritan, 1607: The punishments that 8 His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood.' To gild with blood is a very common phrase in old plays See also King John, Act ii. Sc. 2.-Johnson says, it is not improbable that Shakspeare put these forced and unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth, as a mark of artifice and dissimulation, to show the difference between the studied language of hypocrisy and the natu ral outcries of sudden passion. This whole speech, so considered, is a remarkable instance of judgment as consists of anithesis only.' Unmannerly breech'd with gore: Who could re- Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, frain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage, to make his love known? Macd. Look to the lady. Help me hence, ho! Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? Don. What should be spoken, Here, where our fate hid in an augre-hole, May rush, and seize us? Let's away; our tears Are not yet brew'd. Mal. Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion. Ban. Look to the lady :[LADY MACBETH is carried out. And when we have our naked frailties hid,2 That suffer in exposure, let us meet, And question this most bloody piece of work, To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us: In the great hand of God I stand; and, thence, Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight Of treasonous malice. To show an unfelt sorrow, is an office [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Without the Castle. Enter ROSSE and an Old Man. Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well: Within the volume of which time, I have seen Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. hilts. Ah, good father, 1 'Breech'd with gore,' covered with blood to their 2 i. e. when we have clothed our half drest bodies, which may take cold from being exposed to the air. It is possible, as Steevens remarks, that in such a cloud of words, the meaning might escape the reader. The Porter had already said that this place is too cold for hell,' meaning the court-yard of the castle in which Banquo and the rest now are. 3 Pretence is here put for design or intention. It is so used again in the Winter's Tale :- The pretence whereof being by circumstance partly laid open. Thus again in this tragedy:- in 'What good could they pretend?" i. e. intend to themselves. Banquo's meaning is our present state of doubt and uncertainty about this murder, I have nothing to do but to put myself under the direction of God; and, relying on his support, I here declare myself an eternal enemy to this treason, and to all its further designs that have not yet come to light, the near in blood, 4 The nearer bloody.' Meaning that he suspects Macbeth to be the murderer; for he was the nearest in blood to the two princes, being the cousin-german of Duncan. 5 The allusion of the unlighted shaft appears to bethe death of the king only could neither insure the crown to Macbeth, nor accomplish any other purpose, while his sons were yet living, who had therefore just reason to apprehend that they should be removed by the same means. Malcolm therefore means to say, 'The shaft 'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place," Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd. Rosse. And Duncan's horses (a thing most strange and certain,) Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make War with mankind. Old M. "Tis said, they ate each other. Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine Enter MACDUFF. Macd. Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. What good could they pretend ? Macd. Alas, the day! They were suborn'd: Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed. Rosse. 'Gainst nature still. Thine own life's means!-Then 'tis most like, Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth." Macd. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone, To be invested. Where is Duncan's body? Macd. Carried to Colme-kill;10 The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones. Rosse. Rosse. Will you to Scone ? Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! Old M. God's benison go with you: and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes' [Exeunt. has not yet done all its intended mischief; I and my brother are yet to be destroyed before it will light on the ground and do no more harm.' 6 After the murder of King Duffe,' says Holinshed, 'for the space of six months togither there appeared no sunne by daye, nor moon by night in anie part of the realme; but still the sky was covered with continual clouds; and sometimes such outrageous winds arose, with lightenings and tempests, that the people were in great fear of present destruction.'-It is evident that Shakspeare had this passage in his thoughts. Most of the portents here mentioned are related by Holinshed, as accompanying King Duffe's death: there was a sparhawk strangled by an owl,' and horses of singular beauty and swiftness did eat their own flesh.' 7 A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place,' a techni cal phrase in falconry for soaring to the highest pitch. Faulcon haultain was the French term for a towering or high flying hawk. 8 Pretend, in the sense of the Latin prætendo, to design, or lay for a thing before it come,' as the old dictionaries explain it. 9 Macbeth, by his birth, stood next in succession to the crown, after the sons of Duncan. King Malcolm, Duncan's predecessor, had two daughters, the eldest of whom was the mother of Duncan, the younger the mother of Macbeth.-Holinshed. 10 Colme-kill is the famous Iona, one of the western isles mentioned by Holinshed, as the burial place of many ancient kings of Scotland. Colme-kill means the cel or chapel of St. Columbo ACT III. But to be safely thus :-Our fears in Banquo SCENE I. Fores. A Room in the Falace. Enter Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature Reigns that, which would be fear'd: 'Tis much he dares; BANQUO. Ban. Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, But that myself should be the root and father Mach. Here's our chief guest. If he had been forgotten, Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper,1 sir, And I'll request your presence. Ban. Let your highness Command upon me; to the which, my duties Are with a most indissoluble tie Ban. My lord, I will not. Macb. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd In England, and in Ireland; not confessing Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers With strange invention: But of that to-morrow: When, therewithal, we shall have cause of state, Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse: Adieu, Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you? Ban. Ay, my good lord; our time does call upon us. Mach. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot; And so I do commend you to their backs. Farewell.[Exit BANQUO. Let every man be master of his time Till seven at night; to make society The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself Till supper-time alone: while then, God be with you. [Exeunt LADY MACBETH, Lords, Ladies, &c. Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men Our pleasure? Atten. They are, my lord, without the palace-gate. Macb. Bring them before us.-[Exit Atten.] To be thus is nothing; 1A solemn supper. This was the phrase of Shakspeare's time for a feast or banquet given on a particular occasion, to solemnize any event, as a birth, marriage, coronation, &c. Howel, in a letter to Sir T. Hawke, 1636, says, 'I was invited yesternight to a solemne supper by B. J. [Ben Jonson,] where you were deeply remembered.' 2 i. e. if my horse does not go well. Shakspeare often uses the comparative for the positive and superla4 Nobleness. tive. 3 i. e. commit. 5' And to that,' i. e. in addition to. 6 For defiled. 7 The common enemy of man.' Shakspeare repeats the phrase in Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4:-Defy the devil: consider, he's an enemy to mankind. The phrase was common among his contemporaries; the word fiend, Johnson remarks, signifies enemy. 8 To the utterance.' This phrase, which is found in writers who preceded Shakspeare, is borrowed from the French; se battre a l'outrance, to fight desperately or to extremity, even to death. The sense therefore is : And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, there ? -Who's Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. Now go to the door, and stay there till we call. [Exit Attendant. Was it not yesterday we spoke together? 1 Mur. It was, so please your highness. Macb. Well then, now Have you considered of my speeches? Know, That it was he, in the times past, which held you So under fortune; which, you thought, had been Our innocent self: this I made good to you In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you, How you were borne in hand;1o how cross'd; the instruments; Who wrought with them; and all things else, that might, To half a soul, and to a notion craz'd, You made it known to us. All by the name of dogs: the valued file14 Let fate, that has foredoomed the exaltation of Banquo's sons, enter the lists against me in defence of its own decrees, I will fight against it to the extremity, whatever be the consequence.' 9 i. e. 'passed in proving to you.' 10 To bear in hand is to delude by encouraging hope and holding out fair prospects, without any intention of performance. 11 i. e. are you so obedient to the precept of the gospel, which teaches us to pray for those who despitefully use us? 12 Shoughs are probably what we now call shocks. Nashe, in his Lenten Stuffe, mentions them, a trundle. tail tike or shough or two.' 13 Cleped, called. 14 The valued file is the descriptive list wherein their value and peculiar qualities are set down; such a list of dogs may be found in Junius's Nomenclator, by Fleming, and may have furnished Shakspeare with the idea. 15 Particular addition, title, description |