Who comes here ?8 MAL. Enter ROSSE." The worthy thane of Rosse. LEN. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look, That seems to speak things strange." "Enter Rosse.] The old copy-Enter Rosse and Angus: but as only the name of Rosse is spoken to, or speaks any thing in the remaining part of this scene, and as Duncan expresses himself in the singular number, "Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?" Angus may be considered as a superfluous 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 Rosse, and says,— 66 We are sent "To give thee from our royal master thanks." MALONE. Because Rosse and Angus accompany each other in a subsequent scene, does it follow that they make their entrance together on the present occasion? STEEVENS. 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 suspect that the poet wrote 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: 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 something of importance; a metaphor so natural that it is every day used in common discourse. JOHNSON. Mr. M. Mason observes, that the meaning of Lenox is, "So should he look, who seems as if he had strange things to speak." The following passage in The Tempest seems to afford no un apt comment upon this: pr'ythee, say on: "The setting of thine eye and cheek, proclaim Again, in King Richard II: "Men judge by the complexion of the sky, &c. 86 My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say." 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 : "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, "And beat the wind, that for their gaudiness The sense of the passage, however, collectively taken, is this: Where the triumphant flutter of the Norweyan standards ventilates or cools the soldiers who had been heated through their efforts to secure such 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 insulted And fan our people cold.2 Norway himself, with terrible numbers, The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a dismal conflict: Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,3 Confronted him with self-comparisons, Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, Curbing his lavish spirit: And, to conclude, The victory fell on us ; the sky; but that, the standards being taken by Duncan's forces, and fixed in the ground, the colours idly flapped about, serving 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. And fan our people cold.] In all probability, some words that rendered this a complete verse have been omitted; a loss more frequently to be deplored in the present tragedy, than perhaps in any other of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. • Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof,] This passage may be added to the many others, which show how little Shakspeare knew of ancient mythology. HENLEY. Our author might have been influenced by Holinshed, who, p. 567, speaking of King Henry V. says: "He declared that the goddesse 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 version of a line in the 5th Iliad of Homer: 66 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 Rosse and Angus, indeed, had discovered, 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 salute him with the title, and insinuates his crime to be lining the rebel with hidden help and 'vantage. --with self-comparisons,] i. e. gave him as good as he brought, shew'd he was his equal. WARBURTON. DUN. ROSSE. That now Great happiness! Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; 6 DUN. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest :-Go, pronounce his death," And with his former title greet Macbeth.. That now Sweno, the Norways' king,] The present irregularity of metre induces me to believe that-Sweno was only a marginal reference, injudiciously thrust into the text; and that the line originally stood thus: That now the Norways' king craves composition.. Could it have been necessary for Rosse to tell Duncan the name of his old enemy, the king of Norway? STEevens. 6 Saint Colmes' inch,] Colmes' is to be considered as a dissyllable. Colmes'-inch, now called Inchcomb, is a small island lying in the Firth of Edinburgh, with an abbey upon it, dedicated to St. Columb; called by Camden Inch Colm, or The Isle of Columba. Some of the modern editors, without authority, read— Saint Colmes'-kill Isle: but very erroneously; for Colmes' Inch, and Colm-kill, are two different islands; the former lying on the eastern coast, near the place where the Danes were defeated; the latter in the western seas, being the famous Iona, one of the Hebrides. Holinshed thus relates the whole circumstance: "The Danes that escaped, and got once to their ships, obteined of Makbeth for a great summe of gold, that such of their friends as were slaine, might be buried in Saint Colmes' Inch. In memorie whereof many old sepultures are yet in the said Inch, there to be seene graven with the armes of the Danes." Inch, or Inshe, in the Irish and Erse languages, signifies an island. See Lhuyd's Archæologia. STEEVENS. 7 -pronounce his death,] The old copy, injuriously to metre, reads -pronounce his present death. STEEvens. ROSSE. I'll see it done. DUN. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Heath. Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 1 WITCH. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 WITCH. Killing swine.8 9 3 WITCH. Sister, where thou? 9 1 WITCH. A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd:Give me, quoth I: Killing swine.] So, in a Detection of damnable Driftes practized by three Witches, &c. arraigned at Chelmisforde in Essex, 1579, bl. 1. 12mo. " - Item, also she came on a tyme to the house of one Robert Lathburie &c. who dislyking her dealyng, sent her home emptie; but presently after her departure, his hogges fell sicke and died, to the number of twentie.' STEEVENS. 91 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 2 Witch. Killing swine. 3 Witch. Sister, where thou?] Thus the old copy; yet I cannot help supposing that these three speeches, collectively taken, were meant to form one verse, as follows: 1 Witch. Where hast been, sister? 2 Witch. 3 Witch. Killing swine. Where thou? If my supposition be well founded, there is as little reason for preserving the useless thou in the first line, as the repetition of sister, in the third. STEEVENS. |