"Still it cried, sleep no more to all the house; "Glamis hath murdered sleep."

i. e. There shall be no sleep any more to all those who are now reposing under this roof; Glamis hath murdered sleep. The following part, which, as it has been justly remarked, is Macbeth's own speech, approaches with a horrid solemnity that is inimitable.

-And therefore Cawdor

"Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no B. STRUTT.

more.'

115. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this

blood

"Clean from my hands ?”

A thought resembling this, but with advantage, occurs in Hamlet

-What if this cursed hand

"Were thicker than itself with brother's blood, "Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens "To wash it white as snow.".

120. "Your constancy hath left you unattended.” Hath forsaken you, left you by yourself.

Show us to be watchers."

To have been purposely awake, or on the watch.

SCENE III.

131. "Had I but died an hour before this

chance,

"I had liv'd a bless'd time."

Besides the instance quoted by Mr. Malone,

from The Winter's Tale; this thought occurs again in Othello

"If it were now to die, 'twere now to be most happy."

"Nearer in bloody thoughts though not in blood."

139.

-There's warrant in that theft "Which steals itself when there's no mercy left.".

Here is a jingle between "steel" and "steal," to steal itself away, and to steel or make hard itself by dismissing the softness of good manners.

SCENE IV.

"The heavens, as troubled with man's act, "Threaten his bloody stage."

Shakspeare is very profuse of theatrical allu

sions. 140. "

“

Duncan's horses

broke their stalls, flung out

Contending 'gainst obedience."

Churchill has amplified on this prodigy, in the Ghost

"The horses that were us'd to go

"A foot pace, in my lord mayor's shew,

"Impetuous, from their stables broke,
"And aldermen and oxen spoke."

141. "Make war with mankind."

The metre would be saved by reading, with Pope,

149. "Mark Antony's was by Cæsar-he chid the sisters."

Dr. Johnson's censure of Mr. Heath, who contended for the prosody of this line, might have been spared. The measure is not incompatible with the legitimate occasional licence in the structure of dramatic verse.

"Mark An'tony's was' by Cæsar' he chid' the sis'

těrs."

See Introduction Note. 151. Put rancours in the vessel of my peace." Embittered my cup of happiness.

157. Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the

time.'

Acquaint" is used imperatively, and the sense is obscured only by that common corruption of putting the accusative plural of the second personal pronoun into the place of the nominative: you for ye; acquaint ye i. e. ye; acquaint ye i. e. learn, make

yourselves acquainted.

160. "

SCENE II.

Nought's had; all's spent,

"Where our desire is got without content." When disappointment accompanies the possession of what we sought, we have in effect gained nothing; and we have lost that animating expectation which constitutes our chief happiness. I fully agree with Mr. Steevens here, in supposing that Shakspeare's metre was originally regular; but cannot admit of the offered correction in this place; an opposition is evidently intended between what had been lost and what had been gained, or "had." I would propose the rejection of "Madam;" "I will," submissively uttered, is sufficiently expressive of the servant's obedience.

It has been remarked to me, by my ingenious friend Mr. Strutt, that these four lines, "Nought's had," &c. seem to be the property of Macbeth himself, who is supposed to be speaking them as he enters; and who, at the conclusion of them, is addressed by the lady.

"How now, my lord! why do you keep alone?"

And, indeed, the querulous spirit which they breathe is much more in character with Macbeth than with his wife.

162.

66

Better be with the dead, "Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace.'

I think it strange that any editor should have made, and still more so that Mr. Steevens should applaud, the alteration from the first copy, of

"peace" to "place;" the old reading appears to me not only in itself better, but exactly conformable to the language and turn of thinking by which the author has designated the character of Macbeth: the form of words is not yet arranged in his mind, when he begins,

"Better be with the dead,

"Whom we, to gain our peace,”

(That tranquillity and satisfaction which can only result from Duncan's death,)—have sent to the grave-he was about to say; but catching hold of, according to his fanciful habit, a word already uttered, which will apply in the sequel of the sentence, he says "to peace."

"Better be with the dead;"

"Whom we, (in hope,) to gain our peace, have (actually) sent to peace." The same sentiment had occurred a little before.

""Tis better to be that which we destroy, "Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy."

i. e. It is a condition more secure of peace to be the victim of assassination, than by triumphant murder, to be subject to the perturbations and alarms of conscience.

My friend's conjecture that the liness set down to the lady, in the foregoing part of the scene, should properly belong to Macbeth, may derive support from the passage last quoted.

Be bright and jovial
Among your guests to-night.

So shall I love,

And so, I pray, be you;

membrance

let your re

"Apply to Banquo; present him emi

nence," &c.