L. MACD.

What, with worms and flies? SON. With what I get, I mean; and so do they. L. MACD. Poor bird! thou'dst never fear the net, nor lime,

The pit-fall, nor the gin.

SON. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for.

My father is not dead, for all your saying.

L. MACD. Yes, he is dead; how wilt thou do for a father?

SON. Nay, how will you do for a husband?

L. MACD. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.

SON. Then you'll buy 'em to sell again.

L. MACD. Thou speak'st with all thy wit; and yet i'faith,

With wit enough for thee.

SON. Was my father a traitor, mother?

L. MACD. Ay, that he was.

SON. What is a traitor?

L. MACD. Why, one that swears and lies.
SON. And be all traitors, that do so?

L. MACD. Every one that does so, is a traitor, and must be hang'd.

SON. And must they all be hang'd, that swear and lie?

L. MACD. Every one.

SON. Who must hang them?

L. MACD. Why, the honest men.

SON. Then the liars and swearers are fools: for.

VOL. X.

there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men, and hang up them.

L. MACD. Now God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father?

SON. If he were dead, you'd weep for him: if you would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father.

L. MACD. Poor prattler! how thou talk'st.

Enter a Messenger.

MESS. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,

Though in your state of honour I am perfect.
I doubt, some danger does approach you nearly:
If you will take a homely man's advice,

Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.
To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage;
To do worse to you, were fell cruelty,7

6

in your state of honour I am perfect.] i. e. I am perfectly acquainted with your rank of honour. So, in the old book that treateth of the Lyfe of Virgil, &c. bl. 1. no date: which when Virgil saw, he looked in his boke of negromancy, wherein he was perfit." Again, in The Play of the four P's, 1569:

"Pot. Then tell me this: Are you perfit in drinking? "Ped. Perfit in drinking as may be wish'd by thinking.” STEEVENS. "To do worse to you, were fell cruelty,] To do worse is to let her and her children be destroyed without warning.

Mr. Edwards explains these words differently. "To do worse to you (says he) signifies,-to fright you more, by relating all the circumstances of your danger; which would detain you so long that you could not avoid it." The meaning, however, may be, To do worse to you, not to disclose to you the perilous situ

I am in this earthly world; where, to do harm,
Is often laudable; to do good, sometime,
Accounted dangerous folly: Why then, alas!
Do I put up that womanly defence,

To say, I have done no harm?What are these faces?

Enter Murderers.

MUR. Where is your husband?

L. MACD. I hope, in no place so unsanctified, Where such as thou may'st find him.

MUR.

He's a traitor. SON. Thou ly'st, thou shag-ear'd villain.

ation you are in, from a foolish apprehension of alarming you, would be fell cruelty. Or the Messenger may only mean, to do more than alarm you by this disagreeable intelligence, to do you any actual and bodily harm, were fell cruelty. MALONE.

8

shag-ear'd villain.] Perhaps we should read shag hair'd, for it is an abusive epithet very often used in our ancient plays, &c. So, in Decker's Honest Whore, P. II. 1630:

a shag-haired cur." Again, in our author's K. Henry VI. P. II: "like a shag-haired crafty Kern." Again, in Sir Arthur Gorges' translation of Lucan, 1614:

"That shag-haired Caicos tam'd with forts."

.And Chapman, in his translation of the 7th Book of Homer, 1598, applies the same epithet to the Greeks. Again, in the spurious play of King Leir, 1605:

"There she had set a shaghayr'd murdering wretch." Again, in Barnaby Googe's version of Palingenius, 1561: "But sore afraid was I to meete

"The shagheard horson's horne."

MUR.

What, you egg? [Stabbing him.

Young fry of treachery?
SON.

Run away, I pray you.

He has kill'd me, mother:

[Dies.

[Exit Lady MACDUFF, crying murder, and pursued by the Murderers.

It may be observed, that, in the seventh Iliad of Homer, the καρηκομόωντες Αχαιοί are rendered by Arthur Hall, 1581, "-peruke Greekes." And by Chapman, 1611, "-shag-haird Greekes." STeevens.

This emendation appears to me extremely probable. In King John, Act V. we find "unhear'd sauciness for unhair'd sauciness:" and we have had in this play hair instead of air. These two words, and the word ear, were all, I believe, in the time of our author, pronounced alike. See a note on Venus and Adonis, p. 456, n. 5, edit. 1780, octavo.

Hair was formerly written heare. Hence perhaps the mistake. So, in Ives's Select Papers, chiefly relating to English Antiquities, N. 3, p. 133: "and in her heare a circlet of gold richely garnished." In Lodge's Incarnate Devils of the Age, 4to. 1596, we find in p. 37, "shag-heard slave," which still more strongly supports Mr. Steevens's emendation. However, as flap-ear'd is used as an epithet of contempt in The Taming of the Shrew, the old copy may be right. MALONe.

Mr. Steevens's emendation will be further confirmed by a reference to one of our Law Reporters. In 23 Car. I. Ch. Justice Rolle said it had been determined that these words, "Where is that long-locked, shag-haired, murdering rogue?" were actionable. Aleyn's Reports, p. 61. REED.

SCENE III.

England. A Room in the King's Palace.

Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF."

MAL. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there

• Enter Malcolm and Macduff.] The part of Holinshed's Chronicle which relates to this play, is no more than an abridgment of John Bellenden's translation of The Noble Clerk, Hector Boece, imprinted at Edinburgh, 1541. For the satisfaction of the reader, I have inserted the words of the first mentioned historian, from whom this scene is almost literally taken :"Though Malcolme was verie sorrowfull for the oppression of his countriemen the Scots, in manner as Makduffe had declared, yet doubting whether he was come as one that ment unfeinedlie as he spake, or else as sent from Makbeth to betraie him, he thought to have some further triall, and thereupon dissembling his mind at the first, he answered as followeth :

"I am trulie verie sorie for the miserie chanced to my countrie of Scotland, but though I have never so great affection to relieve the same, yet by reason of certaine incurable vices, which reign in me, I am nothing meet thereto. First, such immoderate lust and voluptuous sensualitie (the abhominable fountain of all vices) followeth me, that if I were made King of Scots, I should seek to defloure your maids and matrones, in such wise that my intemperancie should be more importable unto you than the Hereunto Makduffe anbloudie tyrannie of Makbeth now is. swered: This surelie is a very euil fault, for manie noble princes and kings have lost both lives and kingdomes for the same; neverthelesse there are women enow in Scotland, and therefore follow my counsell. Make thy selfe kinge, and I shall conveie the matter so wiselie, that thou shalt be satisfied at thy pleasure in such secret wise, that no man shall be aware thereof.

"Then said Malcolme, I am also the most avaritious creature in the earth, so that if I were king, I should seeke so manie waies to get lands and goods, that I would slea the most part of all the nobles of Scotland by surmized accusations, to the end I might injoy their lands, goods and possessions; and therefore