BAN. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time 'Twixt this and fupper: go not my horfe the better,9 Had Shakspeare written take, he would furely have faid-" but we'll take't to-morrow." So, in the firft fcene of the second act Fleance fays to his father: "I take't, 'tis later, fir." MALONE. I do not perceive the neceffity of change. The poet's meaning could not be misunderstood. His end was anfwered, if his language was intelligible to his audience. He little fuppofed a time would arrive, when his words were to abide the ftricteft fcrutiny of verbal criticism. With the cafe of converfation, therefore, he copied its incorrectness. To take, is to use, to employ. To take time, is a common phrase; and where is the impropriety of faying "we'll take to-morrow?" i. e. we will make use of to-morrow. Banquo, "without a prompter," muft have understood, by this familiar expreffion, that Macbeth would employ to-morrow, as he wished to have employed to-day. When Piftol fays—" I can take"—he means, he can kindle, or lay hold, as fire does on its object.- So Dryden, speaking of flames "At fift they warm, then fcorch, and then they take." That the words talk and take may occafionally have been printed for each other, is a fact which no man converfant with the press will deny; and yet the bare poffibility of a fimilar mistake in the prefent inflance, ought to have little weight in oppofition to an old reading fufficiently intelligible. So, The word take is employed in quite a different sense by Fleance, and means--to understand in any particular fenfe or manner. Bacon: "I take it, that iron brafs, called white brafs, hath fome mixture of tin." STEEVENS. 9 go not my horfe the better,] i. e. if he does not go well. Shakspeare often ufes the comparative for the pofitive and fuperlative. So, in K. Lear: "Were like a better day." Again, in Macbeth: ——it hath cow'd my better part of man." Again, in King John : "Nay, but make hafle; the better foot before." Again, in P. Holland's tranflation of Pliny's Nat. Hift. B. IX. c. xlvi: "Many are caught out of their fellowes hands, if they beftirre not themfelves the better." It may, however, mean, If I must become a borrower of the night, MACB. Fail not our feast. BAN. My lord, I will not. MACB. We hear, our bloody coufins are beflow'd In England, and in Ireland; not confeffing MACB. I wish your horses swift, and sure of foot; And fo I do commend you to their backs." [Exit BANQUO. Let every man be mafter of his time my horfe does not go the better for the hafte I fhall be in to avoid the night. STEEVENS. It Mr. Steevens's firft interpretation is, I believe, the true one. is fupported by the following paffage in Stowe's Survey of London, 1603 -- -and hee that hit it not full, if he rid not the fafter, had a sound blow in his neck, with a bag full of fand hanged on the other end." MALONE. And fo I do commend you to their backs.] In old language one of the fenfes of to commend was to commit, and fuch is the meaning here. So, in K. Richard II: "And now he doth commend his arms to ruft." MALONE. "The Commend, however, in the prefent inftance, may only be a civil term, fignifying--fend. Thus in King Henry VIII: king's majefty commends his good opinion to you." What Macbeth therefore, after expreffing his friendly with relative to their horfes, appears to mean, is--fo I fend (or difmifs) you to mount them. STEEVENS 1 Till feven at night; to make society The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself Till fupper-time alone: while then, God be with. you. 2 [Exeunt Lady MACBETH, Lords, Ladies, &c. Sirrah, a word: Attend thofe men our pleafure? ATTEN. They are, my lord, without the palace gate. MACB. Bring them before us [Exit Atten.] But to be fafely thus:-Our fears in Banquo Reigns that, which would be fear'd: 'Tis much he 3 And, to that dauntlefs temper of his mind, He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour Mark Antony's was by Cæfar. He chid the fifters, ? Sirrah, a word: &c.] The old copy reads— Sirah, a word with you: Attend thofe men our pleasure? The words I have omitted are certainly fpurious. The metre is injured by them, and the fenfe is complete without them. STEEVENS. 3 to. -] i. e. in addition to. See p. 12, n. 5. 4 My genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said, STEEVENS. Mark Antony's was by Cæfar.] For the fake of metre, the prænomen-Mark (which probably was an interpolation) might fafely be omitted. STEEVENS. Though I would not often affume the critick's privilege of being confident where certainty cannot be obtained, nor indulge myself too far in departing from the established reading; yet I cannot but propote the reje&ion of this paffage, which I believe was an infertion of fome player, that, having fo much learning as to difcover to what Shakspeare alluded, was not willing that his audience fhould be lefs knowing than himself, and has therefore weakened the author's fenfe, by the intrufion of a remote and useless image 1 When firft they put the name of King upon me, 5 into a speech bursting from a man wholly poffefs'd with his own My genius is rebuk'd. He chid the fifters This note was written before I was fully acquainted with Shak- Our author having alluded to this circumftance in Antony and แ Therefore, O Antony, ftay not by his fide: "Thy dæmon, that's thy fpirit which keeps thee, is "Where Cæfar's is not; but near him thy angel "Becomes a fear, as being o'erpower'd." MALONE. For Banquo's iffue have I fil'd my mind ;] We fhould read: This mark of contraction is not neceffary. To file is in the So, in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608: "He call'd bis father villain, and me ftrumpet, For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd; Only for them; and mine eternal jewel 6 7 To make them kings, the feed of Banquo kings!" there? Who's like Again, in The Miseries of inforc'd Marriage, 1607: fmoke through a chimney that files all the way it goes." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. III. c. i: 6 "She lightly lept out of her filed bed," STEEVENS. the common enemy of man,] It is always an entertainment to an inquifitive reader, to trace a fentiment to its original fource; and therefore, though the term enemy of man, applied to the devil, is in itfelf natural and obvious, yet fome may be pleafed with being informed, that Shakspeare probably borrowed it from the firft lines of The Deftruction of Troy, a book which he is known to have read. This expreffion, however, he might have had in many other places. The word fend fignifies enemy. JOHNSON. Shakspeare repeats this phrase in Twelfth Night, A& III. fc. iv: 66 Defy the devil: confider, he's an enemy to mankind." STEEVENS. 7 the feed of Banquo kings!] The old copy reads-feeds. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. come, fate, into the lift, And champion me to the utterance!] This paffage will be beft explained by tranflating it into the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it is boriowed. Que la deftinee fe rende en lice, & qu'elle me donne un defi à l'outrance. A challenge, or a combat à l'outrance, to extremity, was a fixed term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odium internecinum, an intention to defroy each other, in oppofition to trials of skill at feftivals, or on other occafions, where the conteft was only for reputation or a prize. The fenfe therefore is: Let fate, that has fore-doom'd the exaltation of the fons of Banquo, enter the lifts against me, with the utmost animofity, in defence of its own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the danger. JOHNSON. We meet with the fame expreffion in Gawin Douglas's tranflation, of Virgil, p. 331, 49: "That war not put by Greikis to utterance." |