It were done quickly: If the affaffination "Slowe be the fewers in ferving in alway, "But fwift be they after, taking the meate away." Another part of the fewer's office was, to bring water for the guests to wash their hands with. Thus Chapman, in his version of the Ody fey: and then the fewre "Pour'd water from a great and golden ewre." The fewer's chief mark of distinction was a towel round his arm. So, in Ben Jonfon's Silent Woman: “ -clap me a clean towel about you, like a fewer." Again: "See, fir Amorous has his towel on already. [He enters like a fewer."] It may be worth while to obferve, for the fake of preserving an ancient word, that the dishes served in by fewers were called fewes. So, in the old MS. romance of The Sowdon of BabyLoyne, p. 66: "Left that lurdeynes come fculkynge out, "For ever they have bene fhrewes, "Loke ech of them have fuch a cloute "That thay never ete moo fewes." STEEVENS. "It 6 If it were done, &c.] A fentiment parallel to this occurs in The Proceedings against Garnet in the Powder Plot. would have been commendable, when it had been done, though not before." FARMER. 7If the affaffination &c.] Of this foliloquy the meaning is not very clear; I have never found the readers of Shakfpeare agreeing about it. I understand it thus: "If that which I am about to do, when it is once done and executed, were done and ended without any following effects, it would then be beft to do it quickly if the murder could terminate in itself, and restrain the regular course of confequences, if its fuccefs could fecure its furceafe, if, being once done fuccefsfully, without detection, it could fix a period to all vengeance and enquiry, fo that this blow might be all that I have to do, and this anxiety all that I have to fuffer; if this could be my condition, even here in this world, in this contracted period of temporal exiftence, on this narrow bank in the ocean of eternity, I would jump the life to come, I would venture upon the deed without care of any future ftate. But this is one of thofe cafes in which judgment is pronounced and. vengeance inflicted upon us here in our prefent life. We teach others to do as we have done, and are punished by our own example. JOHNSON, Could trammel up the confequence, and catch, We are told by Dryden, that " Ben Jonfon, in reading fome bombaft speeches in Macbeth, which are not to be understood, used to say that it was horrour."-Perhaps the prefent paffage was one of those thus depreciated. Any perfon but this envious detractor would have dwelt with pleasure on the tranfcendent beauties of this fublime tragedy, which, after Othello, is perhaps our author's greatest work; and would have been more apt to have been thrown into " ftrong fhudders" and blood-freezing agues," by its interefting and high-wrought fcenes, than to have been offended by any imaginary hardness of its language; for fuch, it appears from the context, is what he meant by hor That there are difficult paffages in this tragedy, cannot be denied; but that there are "fome bombaft fpeeches in it, which are not to be understood," as Dryden afferts, will not very readily be granted to him. From this affertion, however, and the verbal alterations made by him and Sir W. D'Avenant, in fome of our author's plays, I think it clearly appears that Dryden and the other poets of the time of Charles II. were not very deeply skilled in the language of their predeceffors, and that Shakspeare was not fo well underftood fifty years after his death, as he is at this day. MALONE. rour. 8 Could trammel up the confequence, and catch, With his furceafe, fuccefs;] I think the reasoning requires that we fhould read: With its fuccefs furcease. JOHNSON. A trammel is a net in which either birds or fishes are caught. So, in The lfte of Gulls, 1633 : "Each tree and fhrub wears trammels of thy hair." Surceafe is ceffation, ftop. So, in The valiant Welchman, 1615: His is used instead of its, in many places. STEEVENS. The perfonal pronouns are fo frequently ufed by Shakspeare, instead of the imperfonal, that no amendment would be neceffary in this paffage, even if it were certain that the pronoun his refers to affaffination, which feems to be the opinion of Johnson and Steevens; but I think it more probable that it refers to Duncan; and that by his furceafe Macbeth means Duncan's death, which was the object of his contemplation. M. MASON. Might be the be-all and the end-all here, His certainly may refer to affaffination, (as Dr. Johnson, by his proposed alteration, feems to have thought it did,) for Shakfpeare very frequently ufes his for its. But in this place perhaps his refers to Duncan; and the meaning may be, If the affaffination, at the fame time that it puts an end to the life of Duncan, could procure me unalloyed happiness, promotion to the crown unmolefted by the compunctious vifitings of confcience, &c. To ceafe often fignifies in these plays, to die. So, in All's well that ends well: "Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, ceafe." I think, however, it is more probable that his is used for its, and that it relates to affaffination. MALONE. 9 -Shoal of time,] This is Theobald's emendation, undoubtedly right. The old edition has fchool, and Dr. Warburton Shelve. JOHNSON. By the Shoal of time, our author means the fhallow ford of life, between us and the abyfs of eternity. STEEVENS. We'd jump the life to come. So, in Cymbeline, A& V. fc. iv : ·or jump the after-inquiry on your own peril.” STEEVENS. "We'd jump the life to come," certainly means, We'd hazard or run the risk of what might happen in a future state of being. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: Our fortune lies "Upon this jump." Again, in Coriolanus: 2 - and wifh "To jump a body with a dangerous phyfick, See note on this paffage, Act III. fc. i. MALONE. we but teach Bloody inftructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor:] So, in Bellenden's translation of Hector Boethius: "He [Macbeth] was led be wod furyis, as ye Commends the ingredients 4 of our poifon'd chalice Strong both against the deed; then, as his hoft, nature of all tyrannis is, quhilks conqueffis landis or kingdomes be wrangus titil, ay full of hevy thocht and dredour, and traifting ilk man to do ficlik crueltes to hym, as he did afore to othir." MALONE. 3 This even-handed juftice] Mr. M. Mason obferves, that we might more advantageously read Thus even-handed juftice, &c. STEEVENS. The old reading I believe to be the true one, because Shakfpeare has very frequently used this mode of expreffion. So, a little lower: "Befides, this Duncan," &c. Again, in King Henry IV. P. I: "That this fame child of honour and renown, MALONE. * Commends the ingredients-] Thus, in a fubfequent scene of this play: "I wish your horses swift, and fure of foot, "And fo I do commend you to their backs." This verb has many fhades of meaning.' It seems here to fignify-offers, or recommends. STEEVENS. 5 ----- our poison'd chalice To our own lips.] Our poet, apis Matinæ more modoque, would ftoop to borrow a fweet from any flower, however humble in its fituation. "The pricke of confcience (fays Holinfhed) caufed him ever to feare, left he fhould be ferved of the fame cup as he had ministered to his predeceffor." STEEVENS. 6 Hath borne his faculties fo meek,] Faculties, for office, exercise of power, &c. WARBURTON. "Duncan (fays Holinfhed) was foft and gentle of nature." And again: Macbeth spoke much against the king's foftnefs, and overmuch flackness in punishing offenders." STEEVENS. VOL. X. G So clear in his great office, that his virtues 7 The deep damnation-] So, in A dolfull Difcourfe of a Lord and a Ladie, by Churchyard, 1593: I should not have thought this little coincidence worth noting, had I not found it in a poem which it should seem, from other paffages, that Shakspeare had read and remembered. 8 or heaven's cherubin, hors'd STEEVENS. Upon the fightless couriers of the air,] Courier is only Couriers of air are winds, air in motion. Sightless is invifible. JOHNSON. runner. Again, in this play: "Wherever in your fightless substances," &c. Again, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613: Again: "The flames of hell and Pluto's fightless fires." "Hath any fightless and infernal fire "Laid hold upon my flesh ?" Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. II. c. xi: "The fcouring winds that fightless in the founding air do fly." STEEVENS. So, in King Henry V: "Borne with the invifible and creeping wind." Again, in our author's 51ft Sonnet : "Then fhould I fpur, though mounted on the wind.” Again, in the Prologue to King Henry IV. P. II: "I, from the orient to the drooping weft, "Making the wind my poft-horse-." The thought of the cherubin (as has been fomewhere obferved) feems to have been borrowed from the eighteenth Pfalm" He rode upon the cherubins and did fly; he came flying upon the wings of the wind." Again, in the Book of Job, ch. xxx. v. 22: "Thou caufeft me to ride upon the wind.” MALONE. |