"How will thy shame be seeded in thine age, "When thus thy vices bud before thy spring?" And in Troilus and Cressida: "The seeded pride that hath to its maturity grown up "In rank Achilles, must or now be cropt, “Or, shedding, breed a nursery of evil HENLEY. I have paid the attention to this conjecture which I think it deserves, by admitting it into the text. STEEVENS. Summer-seeming is, I believe, the true reading. In Donne's poems, we meet with "winter-seeming.” MALONE. 367. -foysons-] Plenty. POPE. It means provisions in plenty. So, in The Ordinary, by Cartwright: "New foysons byn ygraced with new titles." The word was antiquated in the time of Cartwright, and is by him put into the mouth of an antiquary. Again, in Holinshed's Reign of K. Henry VI. p. 1613: "-fifteene hundred men, and great foison of vittels." See Vol. I. p. 52. STEEVENS. 368. Portable is, I think, here used for supportable; and ought to be printed with a mark of elision.-All these vices, being balanced by your virtues, may be endured. MALONE. Portable answers exactly to a phrase now in use. Such failings may be borne with, or are bearable. STEEVENS. 392. Dy'd ev'ry day she liv'd.] The expression is borrowed from the sacred writings: "I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus, I die daily." MALONE. To die unto sin, and to live unto righteousness, are phrases used in our liturgy. See 1 Pet. ii. 24.. 401. STEEVENS. -and modest wisdom plucks me From over-credulous haste.]. From overhasty credulity. MALONE. 417. All ready at a point,] See catch-word Alphabet. 418. WARBURTON. -And the chance, of goodness, Be like our warranted quarrel!] The chance of goodness, as it is commonly read, conveys no sense. If there be not some more important error in the pas sage, it should at least be pointed thus ; and the chance of goodness, Be like our warranted quarrel! That is, may the event be, of the goodness of heaven, [pro justitia divina] answerable to the cause. The author of the Revisal conceives the sense of the passage to be rather this: And may the success of that goodness, which is about to exert itself in my behalf, be such as may be equal to the justice of my quarrel. But I am inclined to believe that Shakspere wrote: —and the chance, O goodness! Be like our warranted quarrel.· This some of his transcribers wrote a small o, which another imagined to mean of. If we adopt this read ing, the sense will be: And, O thou sovereign Goodness! to whom we now appeal, may our fortune answer to our cause. 423. JOHNSON. -convinces] i. e. overpowers, subdues. See catch-word Alphabet. 437. STEEVENS. a golden stamp, &c.] This was the coin called an angel: So, Shakspere, in The Merchant of Venice: "A coin that bears the figure of an angel The value of the coin was ten shillings. To the succeeding royalty he leaves STEEVENS. -] It must be owned, that Shakspere is often guilty of strange absurdities in point of history and chronology. Yet here he has artfully avoided one. He had a mind to hint, that the cure of the evil was to descend to the successors in the royal line, in compliment to James the first. But the Confessor was the first who pretended to the gift: How then could it be at that time generally spoken of, that the gift was hereditary ? this he has solved, by telling us that Edward had the gift of prophecy along with it. WARBURTON. 445. My countryman; but yet I know him not.] Malcolm discovers Rosse to be his countryman, while he is yet at some distance from him, by his dress. This circumstance loses its propriety on our stage, as all the characters are uniformly represented in English habits. STEEVENS. 455. -rent the air,] To rent is an ancient verb which has been long ago disused. So, in Casar and Pompey, 1607: "With rented hair and eyes besprent with tears." STEEVENS. 457. A modern ecstacy ;- -] That is, no more regarded than the contortions that fanaticks throw. themselves into. The author was thinking of those of his own times. WARBURTON. I believe modern is only foolish or trifling. JOHNSON. Modern is generally used by Shakspere to signify trite, common "modern instances," in As You Like It, &c. &c. ; as STEEVENS. 480. To doff their dire distresses.] To doff is to do off, to put off. 489. STEEVENS. -should not catch them.] The folio reads, Latch them, I believe rightly. To latch (in the north country dialect) signifies the same as to catch. STEEVENS. 491. fee-grief.] A peculiar sorrow; a grief that hath a single owner. The expression is, at least to our ears, very harsh. JOHNSON. 504. Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer] Quarry is a term used both in hunting and falconry. In both sports it means either the game that is pursued, or the game after it is killed. So, in Massinger's Guardian: he "The trembling bird, who ev'n in death appears "Proud to be made his quarry.” STEEVENS. 507.—ne'er pull your hat upon your brows;] The same thought occurs in the ancient ballad of Northumberland betrayed by Douglas: “He pulled his hat over his browe, "And in his heart he was full woe," &c. Again: "Jamey his hat pull'd over his brow," &c. 508. STEEVENS. -the grief, that does not speak,] So, in Vit toria Corombona, 1612: "Those are the killing griefs, which dare not speak." "Cura leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.” STEEVENS. 519. He has no children. -] It has been observed by an anonymous critick, that this is not said of Macbeth, who had children, but of Malcolm, who, having none, supposes a father can be so easily comforted. JOHNSON. He has no children. -] The meaning of this may be, either that Macduff could not, by retaliation, revenge the murder of his children, because Macbeth had none himself; or that, if he had any, a father's feelings for a father would have prevented him from the deed. I know not from what passage we are to infer that Macbeth had children alive. The Chroni cle |