When mine are blanch'd with fear.4 ROSSE. What fights, my lord? LADY M. I pray you, fpeak not; he grows worfe and worse; Question enrages him: at once, good night:- But go at once. LEN. Good night, and better health Attend his majesty! LADY M. A kind good night to all!5 [Exeunt Lords, and Attendants. MACB. It will have blood; they fay, blood will have blood: " 4 ——are blanch'd with fear.] i. e. turn'd pale, as in Webfter's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623: "Thou doft blanch mifchief, "Doft make it white." STEEVENS. The old copy reads—is blanch'd. Sir T. Haumer corrected this paffage in the wrong place, by reading-cheek; in which he has been followed by the subsequent editors. His correction gives perhaps a more elegant text, but not the text of Shakspeare. The alteration now made is only that which every editor has been obliged to make in almost every page of thefe plays. In this very scene the old copy has the times has been," &c. Perhaps it may be faid that mine refers to ruby, and that therefore no change is neceffary. But this feems very harsh. MALONE. 5 A kind good night to all !] I take it for granted, that the redundant and valueless syllables—a kind, are a playhouse interpolation. STEEVENS. 6 It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:] So, in The Mirror of Magiftrates, p. 118: "Take beede, ye princes, by examples paft, I would thus point the paffage : HENDERSON. It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood. As a confirmation of the reading, I would add the following authority: Blood afketh blood, and death muft death requite." Ferrex and Porrex, A& IV. fc. ii. WHALLEY. 1 Stones have been known to move, and trees to ípeak; 6 Augurs, and understood relations,' have By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth I have followed Mr. Whalley's pun&uation, inftead of placing the femicolon after-fay. 6 The fame words occur in The Battle of Alcazar, 1594: "Bloud will have bloud, foul murther fcape no scourge." STEEVENS. and trees to speak;] Alluding perhaps to the vocal tree which (See the third book of the Eueid) revealed the murder of Polydorus. STEEVENS. 7 Augurs, and underfood relations, &c.] By the word relation is understood the connection of effects with causes; to understand relations as an augur, is to know bow thote things relate to each other, which have no vilible combination or dependence. JOHNSON. Shakspeare, in his licentious way, by relations, might only mean languages, i. e. the language of birds. WARBURTON. The old copy has the paffage thus : Augures, and understood relations, have The modern editors have read : Augurs that underftand relations, have By magpies and by choughs, &c. Perhaps we should read, auguries, i. e. prognoftications by means of omens and prodigies. These, together with the connection of effects with causes, being understood, says he) have been inftrumental in divulging the moft fecret murders. In Cotgrave's Di&ionary, a magpie is called magatapie. So, in The Night-Raven, a Satirical Collection, &c : "I neither tattle with iack-daw, "Or Maggot-pye on thatch'd' houfe ftraw." Magot-pie is the original name of the bird: Magot being the familiar appellation given to pies, as we fay Robin to a redbreaft, Tom to a titmoufe, Philip to a fparrow, &c. The modern mag is the abbreviation of the ancient Magot, a word which we had from the French. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens tightly reftores Magot-pies. In Minfhew's Guide to the Tongues, 1617, we meet with a maggatapie: and Middleton in his More Diffemblers befide Women, fays: "He calls her magot o' pic." FARMER. The fecret'ft man of blood. What is the night? LADY M. Almoft at odds with morning, which is which. MACB. How fay'ft thou, that Macduff denies his person, At our great bidding?9 LADY M. Did you fend to him, fir? MACB. I hear it by the way; but I will send: and choughs, and rooks, brought forth The fecret ft man of blood.] The inquifitive reader will find such a ftory in Thomas Lupton's Thousand notable things &c. 4to bl. I. no date, p. 100; and in Goulart's Admirable Hiftories &c. p. 425. 4to. 1607. STEEVENS. 9 How fay' ft thou, &c.] Macbeth here afks a queftion, which the recollection of a moment enables him to anfwer. Of this forgetfulness, natural to a mind oppress'd, there is a beautiful inftance in the facred fong of Deborah and Barak: "She asked her wife women counfel; yea, fhe returned anfwer to herself. Mr. M. Mafon's interpretation of this paffage has, however, taught me diffidence of my own.. He fuppofes, and not without fufficient reason, that what Macbeth means to fay, is this. What do you think of this circumftance, that Macduff denies to come at our great bidding?. What do you infer from thence?. What is, your opinion of the matter?" So, in Othello, when the Duke is informed that the Turkish fleet was making for Rhodes, which he fuppofed to have been bound for Cyprus, he says, "How fay you by this change?" That is, what do you think of it?` In The Coxcomb Antonio fays to Maria, "Sweetheart, how fay you by this gentleman? "He will away at midnight. Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Speed fays— "But Launce, how fay't thou, that my mafter is become a no table lover?" Again. Macbeth,, in his addrefs to his wife, on the firft appearance of Banquo's ghoft, ufes the fame form of words: behold! look! lo! how fay you?" The circumflance, however, on which this question is founded, took its rife from the old history. Macbeth fent to Macduff to There's not a one of them, 9 but in his house I keep a fervant fee'd. I will to-morrow, (Betimes I will,) un to More fhall they speak; the weird fifters:2 for now I am bent to know, By the worst means, the worft: for mine own good, All caufes fhall give way; I am in blood Stept in fo far, that, fhould I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er: Strange things I have in head, that will to hand; Which must be acted, ere they may be fcann'd, 3 LADY M. You lack the feafon of all natures, fleep. 4 affift in building the caftle of Dunsinane. Macduff fent workmen &c. but did not choose to truft his perfon in the tyrant's power. From that time he refolved on his death. STEEVENS. 9 There's not a one of them,] A one of them, however uncouth the phrase, fignifies an individual. In Albumazar, 1614, the fame expreffion occurs: "( - Not a one fhakes his tail, but I figh out a paffion." Theobald would read thane; and might have found his propofed emendation in Davenant's alteration, of Macbeth, 1674. This avowal of the tyrant is authorized by Holinfhed: He had in every nobleman's houfe one flie fellow or other in fee with him to reveale all, &c. STEEVENS. 2 " (Betimes I will,) unto the weird fifters:] reads The ancient copy "And betimes I will to the weird fifters." They whofe ears are familiarized to discord, may perhaps obje& to my omiffion of the firft word, and my supplement to the fifth. 3 Hamlet: '' be fcann'd.] Tofcan is to examine nicely. fo he goes to heaven, STEEVENS. Thus, in "And fo am I reveng'd: That would be feann'd.` STEEVENS. You lack the feafon of all natures, fleep.] I take the meaning to be, you want fleep, which feafons, or gives the relish to, all nature. Indiget fomni vita condimenti." JOHNSON. This word is often used in this fenfe by our author. So, in All's Well that ends well: " 'Tis the beft brine a maiden can season her MACB. Come, we'll to fleep: My ftrange and felf-abuse Is the initiate fear, that wants hard ufe : We are yet but young in deed. 5 praise in." [Excunt. Again, in Much ado about Nothing, where, as in the prefent inftance, the word is ufed as a fubftantive: "And falt too little, which may feafon give "To her foul tainted flesh." An anonymous correfpondent thinks the meaning is, "You ftand in need of the time or feafon of fleep, which all natures require. MALONE. 5 We are yet but young in deed. ]. The editions before Theobald read: We're but young indeed. JOHNSON. The meaning is not ill explained by a line in King Henry VI. P. III: We are not, Macbeth would fay, "Made impudent with ufe of evil deeds." old murderers." or, we are not yet (as Romeo expreffes it) Theobald's amendment may be countenanced by a paffage in Antony and Cleopatra: "Not in deed, madam, for I can do nothing. " The initiate fear, is the fear that always attends the firft initiation into guilt, before the mind becomes callous and infenfible by frequent repetition of it, or (as the poet fays) by hard use. STEEVENS. |