You owe this strange intelligence? or why Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, That takes the reason prisoner? Macb. Your children shall be kings. You shall be king. Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so? Ban. To the self-same tune, and words. Who's here? Enter ROSSE and ANGUS. Rosse. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, Which should be thine, or his : Silenc'd with that", eaten of the insane root,] The insane root is the root which makes insane, and which the commentators have not discovered. 5 His wonders and his praises do contend, Which should be thine, or his: &c.] i. e. private admiration of your deeds, and a desire to do them public justice by commendation, contend in his mind for pre-eminence.-Or,―There is a contest in his mind whether he should indulge his desire of publishing to the world the commendations due to your heroism, or whether he should remain in silent admiration of what no words could celebrate in proportion to its desert. 6 As thick as tale,] Meaning, that the news came as thick as a tale can travel with the post. Came post with post; and every one did bear Ang. We are sent, To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; * Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor: In which addition, hail, most worthy thane! For it is thine. Ban. What, can the devil speak true? me In borrow'd robes? Ang. Macb. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains.Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me, Promis'd no less to them? Ban. 8 That, trusted home', Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange : "Only to herald," &c.-MALONE. + Mr. Malone reads, "Whether he was combin'd "With those of Norway," &c. 7 · trusted home,] i. e. entirely, thoroughly relied on, or perhaps we should read thrusted home. 9 Might yet enkindle you] Enkindle, for to stimulate you to seek. And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths; In deepest consequence.- Macb. Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme. I thank you, gentlemen.— This supernatural soliciting' Cannot be ill; cannot be good :—If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, But what is not. Two truths are told, &c.] How the former of these truths has been fulfilled, we are yet to learn. Macbeth could not become thane of Glamis, till after his father's decease, of which there is no mention throughout the play. If the hag only announced what Macbeth already understood to have happened, her words could scarcely claim rank as a prediction. 1 1 This supernatural soliciting -] Soliciting for information. 3 WARBURTON. Soliciting is rather, in my opinion, incitement, than information. seated —] i. e. fixed, firmly placed. JOHNSON. single state of man,] Dr. Johnson says, that the single state of man seems to be used by Shakspeare for an individual, in opposition to a commonwealth, or conjunct body. But Mr. Steevens thinks that the single state of Macbeth may signify his weak and debile state of mind. -function Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is, But what is not.] All powers of action are oppressed and Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir. Ban. New honours come upon him Like our strange garments; cleave not to their mould, But with the aid of use. Macb. Come what come may; Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Macb. Give me your favour:-my dull brain was wrought With things forgotten'. Kind gentlemen, your pains The leaf to read them.-Let us toward the king.- Our free hearts each to other. Ban. Very gladly. [Exeunt. Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. JOHNSON. Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.] i. e. time and occasion will carry the thing through, and bring it to some determined point and end, let its nature be what it will. Mrs. MONTAGUE. 6 - favour :] i. e. indulgence, pardon. 7 my dull brain was wrought-] My head was worked, agitated, put into commotion. SCENE IV. Fores. A Room in the Palace. Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Mal. My liege, Dun. There's no art, To find the mind's construction in the face": He was a gentleman on whom I built An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin! Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS. The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before, To overtake thee. 'Would thou hadst less deserv'd; 8 To find the mind's construction in the face :] Dr. Johnson seems to have understood the word construction in this place in the sense of frame or structure; but the school-term was, I believe, intended by Shakspeare. The meaning is-We cannot construe or discover the disposition of the mind by the lineaments of the face. MALONE. |