with a merry noise, and the Lord with the sound of the trump. STEEVENS.

P. 60, first 1. Eight Kings appear, &c.] It is reported that Voltaire often laughs at the tragedy of Macbeth, for having a legion of ghosts in it. One should imagine he either had not learned English, or had forgot his Latin; for the spirits of Banquo's line are no more ghosts, than the representation of the Julian race in the Eneid; and there is no ghost but Banquo's throughout the play." Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakspeare, &c. by Mrs. Montague. STEEVENS.

P. 60, 1, 6. The expression of Macbeth, that the crown sears his eye-balls, is taken from the method formerly practised of destroying the sight of captives or competitors, by holding a burning bason before the eye, which dried up its humidity, Whence the Italian, abacinare to blind.

JOHNSON.

P. 60, 1. 7-9. And thy hair &c.] As Macbeth expected to see a train of Kings, and was only enquiring from what race they would proceed, he could not be surprised that the hair of the second was bound of gold like that of the first: he was offended only that the second resembled the first, as the first resembled Banquo, and therefore said; and thy air,

Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first, This Dr. Warburton has followed. JOHNSON. I do not at present recollect that the term air, signifying the manner of a person, is any where employed by Shakspeare. Perhaps, indeed, this adoption from the French language is not as ancient as his time; for the word then used to express peculiarity of countenance or gesture, was --

trick. So, in King John: "_ de-lion's face:

"

-a trick of Coeur

The old reading, therefore, as Mr. M. Mason observes, may be the true one, "It implies that their hair was of the same colour, which is more likely to mark a family likeness, than the air, which depends ou habit," &c. STEEVENS.

P. 60, 1. 12. the crack of doom?] i, e. the dissolution of nature. Crack has now a mean signification. It was anciently employed in a more exalted sense. STEEVENS.

P. 60, 1, 15. 16.

the eighth appears, who bears a glass,

Which shows me many more; This method of juggling prophecy is again referred to in Measure for Measure, Act II. sc. vii: and like a prophet,

"Looks in a glass, and shows me future evils. STEEVENS. P. 60, 1. 17. That twofold balls and trebl scepters carry:] This wa intended as a compliment to King James the first who first united the two islands and the three king doms under one head; whose house too was sai to be descended from Banquo. WARBURTON.

Of this last particular, our poet seems to have been thoroughly aware, having represented Banque not only as an innocent, but as a noble character whereas, according to history, he was confederat with Macbeth in the murder of Duncan. The flat tery of Shakspeare, however, is not more gros than that of Ben Jonson, who has condescende to quote his majesty's ridiculous book on Daemo nology, in the notes to The Masque of Queens 1609. STEEVENS.

P. 60, 1. 19. To bolter, in Warwickshire, sig

nifies to daub, dirty or or or begrime. «I ordered (says my informant) a harness-collar to be made with a linen lining, but blacked, to give the appearance of leather The sadler made the lining as he was directed, but did not black it, saying, it would bolter the horse. Being asked what he meant by bolter, be replied dirty, besmear; and that it was a common word in his country, This 1200-22 conversation passed within eight miles of Stratford on Avon.

In the same neighbourhood, when a boy has a hassi broken head, so that his hair is matted together with blood, his head is said to be boltered (pronounced haltered). Such a term is therefore strictly applicable to Banquo, who had twenty trenched gashes on his head.

P. 61, 1. 24. That trace his line.] i. e. follow, succeed in it. STEEVENS.

P. 61, last 1. but one. But no more sights!] This hasty reflection is to be considered as a moral to the foregoing scene. STEEVENS.

P. 62, 1. 9. Our fears do make us traitors.] i. e. our flight is considered as an evidence of our guilt. STEEVENS.

P. 62, 1. 16. He wants the natural_touch:} Natural sensibility. He is not touched with natural affection. JOHNSON.

P. 62, 1. 26. The fits of the season should appear to be, from the following passage in Coriolanus, the violent disorders of the season, its convulsions. STEEVENS.

Perhaps the meaning is, -- what is most fitting to be done in every conjuncture. ANONYMOUS. P. 62, 1. 28. 29. But cruel are the times, when we are traitors,

And do not know ourselves;] i. c. we think ourselves innocent, the government thinks us traitors; therefore we are ignorant of ourselves. This is the ironical argument. The Oxford editor alters it to,

And do not know't ourselves:

But sure they did know what they said, that the state esteemed them traitors. WARBURTON.

Rather, when we are considered by the state as traitors, while at the same time we are unconscious of guilt when we appear to others so different from what we really are, that we seem not to know ourselves. MALONE.

P. 62, 1. 29. To hold rumour signifies to be governed by the authority of rumour. WARBURTON. I rather think to hold means in this place, te

believe, as we say, I hold such a thing to be true, i. e. I take it, I believe it to be so.

The sense of the whole passage will then be : The times are cruel when our fears induce us to believe, or take for granted, what we hear rumoured or reported abroad; and yet at the same time, as we live under a tyrannical government where will is substituted for law, we know not what we have to fear, because we know not when we offend. Or: When we are led by our fears to believe every rumour of danger we hear, yet are not conscious to ourselves of any crime for which we should be disturbed with those fears. This is the best I can make of the passage.

STEEVENS. P. 63, first line. Each way, and move. -1 Perhaps the poet wrote And each way move. If they floated each way, it was needless to inform us that they moved. The words may have been casually transposed, and erroneously pointed. STEEVENS

P. 63, 1. 13. Sirrah in our author's time was not a term of reproach, but generally used by masters to servants, parents to children, &c. So before, in this play, Macbeth says to his servant. "Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men our pleasure?" MALONE.

P. 64, 1. 21. Though in your state of honour I am perfect.] i. e. I am perfectly acquainted with your rank of honour. STEEVENS.

P. 64, 1. 26. To do worse is to let her and her children be destroyed without warning. JoHNSON. Mr. Edwards explains these words differently. "To do worse to you (says he) signifies, fright you more, by relating all the circumstances

to