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Compell'd these skipping Kernes to truft their

heels;

But the Norweyan lord, furveying vantage,
With furbifh'd arms, and new fupplies of men,
Began a fresh affault.

DUN.

Difmay'd not this

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?

SOLD.
Yes; 6
As fparrows, eagles; or the hare, the lion.
If I fay footh, I must report they were
As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks ;'

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo;

Sold.

Yes;] The reader cannot fail to obferve, that fome word, neceffary to complete the verse, has been omitted in the old copy. Sir T. Hanmer reads

Our captains, brave Macbeth, &c. STEEVENS.

7 As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks; &c.] That is, with double charges; a metonymy of the effect for the cause.

HEATH.

Mr. Theobald has endeavoured to improve the fenfe of this pas fage, by altering the punctuation thus:

they were

As cannons overcharg'd; with double cracks

So they redoubled ftrokes

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He declares, with fome degree of exultation, that he has no idea of a cannon charged with double cracks; but furely the great author will not gain much by an alteration which makes him fay of a hero, that he redoubles ftrokes with double cracks, an expreffion not more loudly to be applauded, or more cafily pardoned, than that which is reje&ed in its favour.

That a cannon is charged with thunder, or with double thunders, may be written, not only without nonfenfe, but with elegance, and nothing else is here meant by cracks, which in the time of this writer was a word of fuch emphasis and dignity, that in this play he terms the general diffolution of nature the crack of doom.

JOHNSON.
Crack is ufed on a fimilar occafion by Barnaby Googe, in his
Cupido Conquered, 1563:

"The canon's cracke begins to roore
"And darts full thycke they flye,

And cover'd thycke the armyes both,
And framde a counter-fkye. STEEVENS.

VOL. XI.

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1

So they

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Doubly redoubled ftrokes upon the foe; Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, Or memorize another Golgotha, 9

I cannot tell:

But I am faint, my gafhes cry for help.

DUN. So well thy words become thee, as thy wounds;

They fmack of honour both:-Go, get him fur[Exit Soldier, attended.

geons.

Again, in the old play of King John, 1591, and applied, as here, to ordnance:

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7

MALONE.

Doubly redoubled ftrokes &c.] So, in King Richard II:

And let thy blows, doubly redoubled, "Fall," &c.

The irregularity of the metre, however, induces me to believe

our author wrote

they were

"As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks,
“Doubly redoubling strokes upon the foe.

STEEVENS.

9 Or memorize another Golgotha,] That is, or make another Golgotha, which should be celebrated and delivered down to pofterity, with as frequent mention as the firft. HEATH.

The word memorize, which fome fuppofe to have been coined by 'Shakspeare, is used by Spenfer in a fonnet to lord Buckhurft prefixed to his Paftorals, 1579:

"In vaine I thinke, right honourable lord,

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"By this rude rime to memorize thy name. T. WARTON. The word is likewife ufed by Drayton; and by Chapman, in his tranflation of the fecond book of Homer, 1598:

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- which let thy thoughts be fure to memorize." And again, in a copy of vèries prefixed to Sir Arthur Gorges's tranflation of Lucan, 1614:

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of them whofe ads they mean to memorize."

}

STEEVENS.

Enter ROSSE.?

Who comes here?"

MAL.

The worthy thane of Roffe. LEN. What a hafte looks through his eyes! So fhould he look,

That feems to fpeak things ftrange. 3

9 Enter Roffe.] The old copy-Enter Roffe and Angus: but as only the thane of Roffe is fpoken to, or fpeaks any thing in the remaining part of this fcene; and as Duncan expresses himself in the fingular number,

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Whence cam'ft thou, worthy thane?

Angus may be confidered as a fuperfluous character. Had his prefent appearance been defigned, the King would naturally have taken fome notice of him. STEEVENS.

It is clear from a fubfequent paffage, that the entry of Angus was here defigned; for in scene iii. he again enters with Roffe, and fays,

We are sent

"To give thee from our royal master thanks." MALONE. Becaufe Roffe and Angus accompany each other in a fubfequent fcene, does it follow that they make their entrance together on the prefent occafion? STEEVENS.

Who comes here?] The latter word is here employed as a dif fyllable. MALONE.

Mr. Malone has already directed us to read-There -as a diffyllable, but without fupporting his direction by one example of fuch ä practice.

I fufped that the poet wrote.

3

Who is't comes here? or- But who comes here? STEEVENS.

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That seems to speak things strange.] The meaning of this paffage, as it now ftands, is, jo fhould he look, that looks as if he told things ftrange. But Roffe neither yet told ftrange things, nor could look as if he told them. Lenox only conjectured from his air that he had flrange things to tell, and therefore undoubtedly faid: What a hafte looks through his eyes!

So fhould he look, that teems to speak things strange.

Rosse.

God fave the king!

DUN. Whence cam'ft thou, worthy thane? ROSSE. From Fife, great king, Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky,

He looks like one that is big with something of importance; a metaphor fo natural that it is every day used in common difcourfe. JOHNSON

Mr. M. Mason obferves that the meaning of Lenox is, "So fhould he look, who feems as if he had ftrange things to fpeak. The following paffage in The Tempeft feems to afford no unapt comment upon this:

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"The fetting of thine eye and cheek, proclaim
"A matter from thee—."

Again, in King Richard II:

Men judge by the complexion of the sky, &c.

"So may you, by my dull and heavy eye,

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My tongue hath but a heavier tale to fay." STEEVENS.

That seems to speak things frange. ] i. e. that seems about to fpeak ftrange things. Our author himself furnishes us with the beft comment on this paffage. In Antony and Cleopatra, we meet with nearly the fame idea:

"The business of this man looks out of him." MALONE.

4 flout the fky,] The banners may be poetically described as waving in mockery or defiance of the fky. So, in K. Edward III. 1599:

And new replenish'd pendants cuff the air,

"And beat the wind, that for their gaudinefs

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Struggles to kiss them."

The fenfe of the paffage, however, colle&ively taken, is this.Where the triumphant flutter of the Norweyan ftandards ventilates or cools the foldiers who had been heated through their efforts to fecure Juch numerous trophies of victory. SIEEVENS.

Again, in King John:

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Mocking the air with colours idly spread. This paffage has perhaps been mifunderfood. The meaning feems to be, not that the Norweyan banners proudly infulted the fky; but that, the ftandards being taken by Duncan's forces, and fixed in the ground, the colours idly flapped about, ferving only to cool the conquerors, inftead of being proudly difplayed by their former poffeflors. The line in K. John, therefore, is the most perfe& comment on this. MALONE.

And fan our people cold.'

5

Norway himfelf, with terrible numbers,
Affifted by that moft difloyal traitor

The thane of Cawdor, 'gan a difmal conflict:
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof,
Confronted him with felf-comparisons,"
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainft arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit: And, to conclude,
The victory fell on us;--

DUN.

ROSSE. That now

8

Great happiness!

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves compofition;
Nor would we deign him burial of his men,

And fan our people cold.] In all probability fome words that rendered this a complete verfe, have been omitted; a loss more frequently to be deplored in the prefent tragedy, than perhaps in any other of Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

6 Till that Bellona's bridegroom, may be added to the many others, fpeare knew of ancient mythology.

lapt in proof,] This paffage
which fhow how little Shak
HENLEY.

Our author might have been misled by Holinfhed, who, p. 567, fpeaking of King Henry V. lays He declared that the goddeffe of battell, called Bellona," &c. &c. Shakspeare, therefore, haftily. concluded that the Goddess of War was wife to the God of it. Lapt in proof, is, defended by armour of proof, STEEVENS.

7 Confronted him with self-comparisons,] By him, in this verse, is meant Norway; as the plain conftruction of the English requires. And the affiftance the thane of Cawdor had given Norway, was un, derhand; (which Roffe and Angus, indeed, had discovered, but was unknown to Macbeth;) Cawdor being in the court all this while, as appears from Angus's speech to Macbeth, when he meets him to falute him with the title, and infinuates his crime to be lining the rebel with hidden help' and 'vantage.

with felf-comparisons,] i. ́e. gave him as good as he brought, fhew'd he was his equal. WARBURTON.

& That now

Sweno, the Norways king,] The prefent irregularity of metre induces me to believe that- Sweno was only a marginal reference,

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