ATTEN. They are, my lord, without the palace gate. MACB. Bring them before us.-[Exit Atten.] But to be safely thus:-Our fears in Banquo Reigns that, which would be fear'd: 'Tis much he 2 dares; And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, Mark Antony's was by Cæsar. He chid the sisters, The words I have omitted are certainly spurious. The metre is injured by them, and the sense is complete without them. Steevens. 1 royalty of nature-] Royalty, in the present instance, signifies nobleness, supreme excellence. Thus, in Twelfth-Night, we have "Sport royal," for excellent sport; and Chaucer, in his Squiere's Tale, has "crowned malice," for eminence of malignity. STEEVENS. 3 to-] i. e. in addition to. See p. 16, n. 2. to that dauntless temper of his mind, STEEVENS. He hath the wisdom that doth guide his valour-] So, in Chapman's version of the fifteenth Iliad: 66 superior to his sire in feet, fight, noblenes "Of all the virtues; and all those did such a wisdome guide," STEevens. My genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said, Mark Antony's was by Cæsar.] For the sake of metre, the prænomen-Mark (which probably was an interpolation) might safely be omitted. STEEVENS. Though I would not often assume 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 propose the rejection of this passage, which I believe was an insertion of some player, that, having so much learning When first they put the name of King upon me, 5 as to discover to what Shakspeare alluded, was not willing that his audience should be less knowing than himself, and has therefore weakened the author's sense, by the intrusion of a remote and useless image into a speech bursting from a man wholly possessed with his own present condition, and therefore not at leisure to explain his own allusions to himself. If these words are taken away, by which not only the thought, but the numbers are injured, the lines of Shakspeare close together without any traces of a breach: My genius is rebuk'd. He chid the sisters-. This note was written before I was fully acquainted with Shakspeare's manner, and I do not now think it of much weight: for though the words which I was once willing to eject, seem interpolated, I believe they may still be genuine, and added by the author in his revision. Mr. Heath cannot admit the measure to be faulty. There is only one foot, he says, put for another. This is one of the effects of literature in minds not naturally perspicacious. Every boy or girl finds the metre imperfect, but the pedant comes to its defence with a tribrachys or an anapæst, and sets it right at once, by applying to one language the rules of another. If we may be allowed to change feet, like the old comick writers, it will not be easy to write a line not metrical. To hint this once is sufficient. JOHNSON. Our author having alluded to this circumstance in Antony and Cleopatra, there is no reason to suspect any interpolation here: "Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side: "Thy dæmon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, "Where Caesar's is not; but near him thy angel "Becomes a fear, as being o'erpower'd." MALONE. * For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind;] We should read: i. e. defiled. -'filed my mind; WARBURTON. For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd; To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!" there? 8 Who's This mark of contraction is not necessary. To file is in the Bishops' Bible. JOHNSON. So, in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608: "He call'd his father villain, and me strumpet, "A name I do abhor to file my lips with." Again, in The Miseries of inforc'd Marriage, 1607: "-like smoke through a chimney that files all the way it goes." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. III. c. i: "She lightly lept out of her filed bed." STEEVENs. -the common enemy of man,] It is always an entertainment to an inquisitive reader, to trace a sentiment to its original source; and therefore, though the term enemy of man, applied to the devil, is in itself natural and obvious, yet some may be pleased with being informed, that Shakspeare probably borrowed it from the first lines of The Destruction of Troy, a book which he is known to have read. This expression, however, he might have had in many other places. The word fiend signifies enemy. JOHNSON. Shakspeare repeats this phrase in Twelfth-Night, Act III. sc. iv: Defy the devil: consider, he's an enemy to mankind." Again, in Fairfax's Tasso, IV. i: 7 "The ancient foe to man and mortal seed, STEEVENS. -the seed of Banquo kings!] The old copy reads-seeds. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALOne. come, fate, into the list, And champion me to the utterance!] This passage will be best explained by translating it into the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it is borrowed. Que la destinée se rende en lice, et qu'elle me donne un defi a l'outrance. A challenge, or a combat a l'outrance, to extremity, was a fixed term Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. Now to the door, and stay there till we call." Was it not yesterday we spoke together? MACB. in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odium internecinum, an intention to destroy each other, in opposition to trials of skill at festivals, or on other occasions, where the contest was only for reputation or a prize. The sense therefore is: Let fate, that has fore-doomed the exaltation of the sons of Banquo, enter the lists against me, with the utmost animosity, in defence of its own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the danger. JOHNSON. We meet with the same expression in Gawin Douglas's translation of Virgil, p. 331, 49: "That war not put by Greikis to utterance." Again, in The History of Graund Amoure and la bel Pucelle, &c. by Stephen Hawes, 1555: "And so many monsters put to utterance." Again, and more appositely, in the 14th Book of Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis: "To both the parties at the length from battell for to rest, "And not to fight to utterance." Shakspeare uses it again in Cymbeline, Act III. sc. i. STEEVENS. • Now to the door, and stay there till we call.] The old copy reads Now go to the door, &c. but, for the sake of versification, I suppose the word go, which is understood, may safely be omitted. Thus in the last scene of the foregoing Act: "Will you to Scone? “No, cousin, I'll to Fife." In both these instances go is mentally inserted. STEEVENS. In our last conference; pass'd in probation with you, How you were borne in hand;' how cross'd; the instruments; Who wrought with them; and all things else, that might, To half a soul, and a notion craz'd, 1 MUR. You made it known to us. MACB. I did so; and went further, which is now Our point of second meeting. Do you find Your patience so predominant in your nature, That you can let this go? Are you so gospell'd,2 'pass'd in probation with you, How you were borne in hand; &c.] The words-with you, I regard as an interpolation, and conceive the passage to have been originally given thus: In our last conference; pass'd in probation how You were borne in hand; how cross'd; &c. Pass'd in probation is, I believe, only a bulky phrase, employed to signify-proved. STEEvens. The meaning may be, "past in proving to you, how you were," &c. So, in Othello: 66 so prove it, "That the probation bear no hinge or loop Perhaps after the words "with you," there should be a comma, rather than a semicolon. The construction, however, may be different. "This I made good to you in our last con→ ference, past &c. I made good to you, how you were borne," &c. To bear in hand is, to delude by encouraging, hope and holding out fair prospects, without any intention of performance. MALONE. So, in Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: "Yet I will bear a dozen men in hand, See Vol. VI. p. 224, n. 9. STEEvens. Are you so gospell'd,] Are you of that degree of precise virtue? Gospeller was a name of contempt given by the Papists to the Lollards, the puritans of early times, and the precursors of protestantism. JOHNSON. |