And in his commendations I am fed; It is a banquet to me. Let us after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: [Flourish. Exeunt. SCENE V. Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Castle. Enter Lady MACBETH, reading a letter. Lady M. They met me in the day of success; and I Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be The illness should attend it. What thou would'st highly, That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false, Glamis,3 posed to have been bestowed on him by Banquo, the reply of I by the perfectest report,] By the best intelligence. Johnson. missives from the king,] i. e. messengers. So, in 2 Antony and Cleopatra: "Did gibe my missive out of audience." Steevens. 1 That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou have it, Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, 3 ings? thou'd'st have, great Glamis, What is your tid That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou have it; introduced speaking of itself, it is necessary to read: That which cries, thus thou must do, if thou have me. Johnson. ▲ And that which rather thou dost fear to do,] The construction, perhaps, is, thou would'st have that, (i. e. the crown,] which cries unto thee, thou must do thus, if thou wouldst have it, and thou must do that which rather, &c. Sir T. Hanmer, without necessity, reads-And that's what rather The difficulty of this line and the succeeding hemistich seems to have arisen from their not being considered as part of the speech uttered by the object of Macbeth's ambition. As such they appear to me, and I have therefore distinguished them by Italicks. Malone. This regulation is certainly proper, and I have followed it. Steevens. 5 That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;] I meet with the same expression in lord Sterline's Julius Cæsar, 1607: 6 "Thou in my bosom us'd to pour thy spright." Malone. the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown'd withal.] For seem, the sense evidently directs us to read seek. The crown to which fate destines. 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 Metaphysical for supernatural. But doth seem to have thee crown'd withal, is not sense. To make it so, it should be supplied thus: doth seem desirous to have. But no poetic license would excuse this. An easy alteration will restore the poet's true reading: doth seem To have crown'd thee withal. Enter an Attendant.. Attend. The king comes here to-night. Lady M. Thou 'rt mad to say it: Is not thy master with him? who, wert 't so, Would have inform'd for preparation. Attend. So please you, it is true; our thane is com ing: One of my fellows had the speed of him; Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message. Lady M. ১ Give him tending, He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse, [Exit Attend. i. e. they seem already to have crowned thee, and yet thy disposition at present hinders it from taking effect. Warburton. The words, as they now stand, have exactly the same meaning. Such arrangement is sufficiently common among our an cient writers. Steevens. I do not concur with Dr. Warburton, in thinking that Shakspeare meant to say, that fate and metaphysical aid seem to have crowned Macbeth. Lady Macbeth means to animate her husband to the attainment of "the golden round," with which fate and supernatural agency seem to intend to have him crowned, on a future day. So, in All's Well that Ends Well: Our dearest friend "Prejudicates the business, and would seem 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. Metaphysical, which Dr. Warburton has justly observed, means supernatural, seems, in our author's time, to have had no other meaning. In the English Dictionary, by Н. С. 1655, Metaphysicks are thus explained: "Supernatural arts." Malone. 7 The raven himself is boarse,] Dr. Warburton reads: Yet I think the present words may stand. The messenger, says The following is, in my opinion, the sense of this passage: Give him tending; the news he brings are worth the speed that made him lose his breath. [Exit Atten.] 'Tis certain : That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Stop up the access and passage to remorse;1 now-the raven himself is spent, is hoarse by croaking this very message, the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements. Lady Macbeth (for she was not yet unsexed) was likelier to be deterred from her design than encouraged in it by the supposed thought that the message and the prophecy (though equally secrets to the messenger and the raven) had deprived the one of speech, and added harshness to the other's note. Unless we absurdly suppose the messenger acquainted with the hidden import of his message, speed alone had intercepted his breath, as repetition the raven's voice; though the lady considered both as organs of that destiny which hurried Duncan into her meshes. Fuseli. Mr. Fuseli's idea, that the raven has croaked till he is boarse with croaking, may receive support from the following passage: in Romeo and Juliet: 66 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 hoarse with daring thee to arms." Steevens. 8 Come, come, you spirits - For the sake 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 same deficiency. Steevens. 9 - mortal thoughts,] This expression signifies not the thoughts of mortals, but murderous, deadly, or destructive designs. So, in Act V: "Hold fast the mortal sword." And in another place: "With twenty mortal murders." Johnson. In Pierce Penniless bis Supplication to the Devil, by T. Nashe, 1592, (a very popular pamphlet of that time,) our author might have found a particular description of these spirits, and of their office. "The second kind of devils, which he most employeth, are those northern Martii, called the spirits of revenge, and the authors of massacres, and seedsmen of mischief; for they have commission to incense men to rapines, sacrilege, theft, murder, wrath, fury, and all manner of cruelties: and they command certain of the southern spirits to wait upon them, as also great Arioch, that is termed the spirit of revenge." Malone. That no compunctious visitings of nature The effect, and it! Come to my woman's breasts, 1 - remorse; Remorse, in ancient language, signifies pity. So, in King Lear: "Thrill'd Again, in Othello: with remorse, oppos'd against the act." "And to obey shall be in me remorse -." See notes on that passage, Act III, sc. iii. Steevens. 2 - nor keep peace between The effect, and it!] The intent of lady Macbeth evidently is to wish that no womanish tenderness, or conscientious remorse, may hinder her purpose from proceeding to effect; but neither this, nor indeed any other sense, is expressed by the present reading, and therefore it cannot be doubted that Shak. speare wrote differently, perhaps thus: That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep pace between To keep pace between, may signify to pass between, to intervene. Pace is, on many occasions, a favourite of Shakspeare's. This phrase is, indeed, not usual in this sense; but was it not its novelty that gave occasion to the present corruption? Johnson - and it!] The folio reads and bit. It, in many of our ancient books, is thus spelt. In the first stanza of Churchyard's Discourse of Rebellion, &c. 1570, we have, Hit is a plague-Hit venom castes-Hit poysoneth all-Hit is of kindeHit staynes the ayre. Steevens. The correction was made by the editor of the third folio. "Nay, in the body of this fleshly land, "Between my conscience and my cousin's death." A similar expression is found in a book which our author is "In absence of her knight, the lady no way could fayne she would." : i |