Enter an Attendant. ATTEN. The king comes here to-night. LADY M. Thou'rt mad to fay it : Is not thy mafter with him? who, wer't fo, thee, and which preternatural agents endeavour to bestow upon thee. The golden round is the diadem. JOHNSON. So, in Act IV: "And wears upon his baby brow the round STEEVENS. Metaphyfical for fupernatural. But doth feem to have thee crown'd withal, is not fenfe. To make it fo, it should be fupplied thus: doth feem defirous to have. But no poetic licence would excufe this. An eafy alteration will restore the poet's true reading: doth feem To have crown'd thee withal. i. e. they feem already to have crowned thee, and yet thy difpofition at present hinders it from taking effect. WARBURTON. The words, as they now ftand, have exactly the same meaning. Such arrangement is fufficiently common among our ancient writers. STEEVENS. I do not concur with Dr. Warburton, in thinking that Shak fpeare meant to say, that fate and metaphyfical aid feem to have crowned Macbeth. Lady Macbeth means to animate her hufband to the attainment of " the golden round," with which fate and fupernatural agency feem to intend to have him crowned, on a future day. So, in All's well that ends well: Our dearest friend "Prejudicates the bufinefs, and would feem "To have us make denial." There is, in my opinion, a material difference between"To have thee crown'd," and "To have crown'd thee;" of which the learned commentator does not appear to have been aware. Metaphyfical, which Dr. Warburton has juftly observed, means fupernatural, feems, in our author's time, to have had no other meaning. In the English Dictionary, by H. C. 1655, Metaphyficks are thus explained: "Supernatural arts." MALONE. ATTEN. So please you, it is true; our thane is coming: One of my fellows had the fpeed of him; LADY M. Give him tending, [Exit Attendant. He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarfe,3 3 The raven himself is hoarfe,] Dr. Warburton reads: Yet I think the present words may ftand. The meffenger, says the fervant, had hardly breath to make up his message; to which the lady answers mentally, that he may well want breath, fuch a meffage would add hoarfeness to the raven. That even the bird, whofe harsh voice is accustomed to predict calamities, could not croak the entrance of Duncan but in a note of unwonted harfhnefs. JOHNSON. The following is, in my opinion, the fenfe of this paffage : Give him tending; the news he brings are worth the speed that made him lofe his breath. [Exit Attendant.] 'Tis certain now-the raven himself is fpent, is hoarfe by croaking this very meffage, the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements. Lady Macbeth (for fhe was not yet unfexed) was likelier to be deterred from her defign than encouraged in it by the fuppofed thought that the meffage and the prophecy (though equally fecrets to the meffenger and the raven) had deprived the one of fpeech, and added harfhness to the other's note. Unless we abfurdly fuppofe the meffenger acquainted with the hidden import of his meffage, Speed alone had intercepted his breath, as repetition the raven's voice; though the lady confidered both as organs of that destiny which hurried Duncan into her meshes. FUSELI. Mr. Fufeli's idea, that the raven has croaked till he is hoarfe with croaking, may receive fupport from the following paffage in Romeo and Juliet: make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine "With repetition of my Romeo's name.' Again, from one of the Parts of King Henry VI: "Warwick is hoarfe with daring thee to arms." STEEVENS. That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 4 Come, come, you spirits] For the fake of the metre I have ventured to repeat the word-come, which occurs only once in the old copy. All had been added by Sir William D'Avenant, to supply the fame deficiency. STEEVENS. mortal thoughts,] This expreffion fignifies not the thoughts of mortals, but murderous, deadly, or deftructive defigns. So, in A& V: "Hold faft the mortal fword." And in another place : "With twenty mortal murders." JOHNSON. In Pierce Penniless his Supplication to the Devil, by T. Nashe, 1592, (a very popular pamphlet of that time,) our author might have found a particular defcription of these spirits, and of their office. "The fecond kind of devils, which he most employeth, are thofe northern Martii, called the Spirits of revenge, and the authors of maffacres, and feedfmen of mischief; for they have commiffion to incenfe men to rapines, facrilege, theft, murder, wrath, fury, and all manner of cruelties: and they command certain of the fouthern fpirits to wait upon them, as alfo great Arioch, that is termed the Spirit of revenge." Malone. 6 -remorfe ;] Remorse, in ancient language, fignifies pity. So, in King Lear: "Thrill'd with remorse, oppos'd against the act." Again, in Othello : "And to obey fhall be in me remorse-.' See notes on that paffage, A&t III. sc. iii. 7 nor keep peace between STEEVENS. The effect, and it!] The intent of Lady Macbeth evidently is to wish that no womanish tenderness, or confcientious And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring minifters, Wherever in your fightless fubftances remorfe, may hinder her purpose from proceeding to effect; but neither this, nor indeed any other fenfe, is expreffed by the prefent reading, and therefore it cannot be doubted that Shak fpeare wrote differently, perhaps thus: vene. That no compunctious vifitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep pace between To keep pace between, may fignify to pass between, to interPace is, on many occafions, a favourite of Shakspeare's. This phrafe is, indeed, not usual in this fenfe; but was it not its novelty that gave occafion to the prefent corruption? JOHNSON. and it] The folio reads-and hit. It, in many of our ancient books, is thus fpelt. In the first stanza of Churchyard's Difcourfe of Rebellion, &c. 1570, we have, Hit is a plague-Hit venom caftes-Hit poyfoneth all-Hit is of kinde→→→ Hit ftaynes the ayre. STEEVENS. The correction was made by the editor of the third folio. Lady Macbeth's purpofe was to be effected by action. To keep peace between the effect and purpofe, means, to delay the execution of her purpofe; to prevent its proceeding to effect. For as long as there fhould be a peace between the effect and purpose, or, in other words, till hoftilities were commenced, till fome bloody action fhould be performed, her purpose [i.e. the murder of Duncan] could not be carried into execution. So, in the following paffage in King John, in which a correfponding imagery may be traced: Nay, in the body of this fleshly land, "This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath "Between my confcience and my coufin's death." A fimilar expreffion is found in a book which our author is known to have read, The Tragicall Hyftorie of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: "In abfence of her knight, the lady no way could Keep truce between her griefs and her, though ne'er fo fayne the would.” Sir W. D'Avenant's ftrange alteration of this play fometimes affords a reasonably good comment upon it. Thus, in the prefent inftance: You wait on nature's mifchief!9 Come, thick night,' And pall thee in the dunneft fmoke of hell! 2 That my keen knife fee not the wound it makes make thick "My blood, ftop all paffage to remorfe; "Shake my defign, nor make it fall before "'Tis ripen'd to effect." MALONE. take my milk for gall,] Take away my milk, and put gall into the place. JOHNSON. 9 You wait on nature's mifchief!] Nature's mischief is mifchief done to ne to nature, violation of nature's order committed by wickedness. JOHNSON. I Come, thick night, &c.] A fimilar invocation is found in A Warning for faire Women, 1599, a tragedy which was certainly prior to Macbeth: "O fable night, fit on the eye of of heaven, "That it difcern not this black deed of darkness! "Muft wade through blood to obtain my vile defire: And pall thee-] i. e. wrap thyfelf in a pall. MALONE. WARBURTON. A pall is a robe of state. So, in the ancient black letter romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys, no date: "The knyghtes were clothed in pall." Again, in Milton's Penferofo : "Sometime let gorgeous tragedy "In fcepter'd pall come fweeping by." Dr. Warburton seems to mean the covering which is thrown over the dead. To pall, however, in the prefent inftance, (as Mr. Douce obferves to me,) may fimply mean-to wrap, to inveft. STEEVENS. 3 That my keen knife] The word knife, which at prefent has a familiar undignified meaning, was anciently used to exprefs a fword or dagger. So, in the old black letter romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys, no date: Through Goddes myght, and his knyfe, "There the gyaunte loft his lyfe." |