Finallie, fuch was his over-earneft diligence in the fevere inqui fition and trial of the offenders heerein, that fome of the lords began to millike the matter, and to fmell foorth fhrewd tokens that he fhould not be altogether cleare himfelfe. But for fo much as they were in that countrie where he had the whole rule, what by reafon of his friends and authoritie together, they doubted to utter what they thought, till time and place fhould better ferve thereunto, and hereupon got them awaie everie man to his home."

MALONE.

Add, at the conclufion of Mr. Malone's note, p. 93.] I believe, however, a line has been loft after the words "fealthy pace.

Our author did not, I imagine, mean to make the murderer a ravifher likewife. In the parallel paffage in The Rape of Lucrece, they are diftin& perfons:

“While LUST and MURDER wake, to flain and kill.”

Perhaps the line which I fuppofe to have been loft, was of this import :

and wither'd MURDER,

Alarum'd by his fentinel, the wolf,

Whole howl's his watch, thus with his fealthy pace

Enters the portal; while night-waking LUST,

With Tarquin's ravishing fides, towards his defign
Moves like a ghost.

So, in The Spanish Tragedy:

"At midnight

"When man, and bird, and beaft, are all at reft,

Save thofe that watch for rape and blodie murder," There is reafon to believe that many of the difficulties in Shakfpeare's plays arise from lines and half lines having been omitted, by the compofitor's eye paffing baftily over them. Of this kind of negligence there is a remarkable inftance in the prefent play, as printed in the folio, 1632, where the following pallage is thus exhibited:

that we but teach. }

Bloody inftructions, which, being taught, return

« To plague the ingredience of our poifon'd chalice

"To our own lips."

If this miftake had happened in the first copy, and had been continued in the fubfequent impreffions, what diligence or fagacity could have reftored the pallage to fenfe?

In the folio, 1623, it is right, except that the word ingredients is there alfo mif-ipelt:

which, being taught, return

To plague the inventor. This even-handed juftice
Commends the ingredience
To our own lips. "

of our poifon'd chalice

1

So, the following paffage in Much ado about nothing,

And I will break with her and with her father,

And thou shalt have her. Was't not to this end," &c. is printed thus in the folio, [1623] by the compofitor's eye glanc ing from one line to the other:

“And I will break with her.

Was't not to this end," &ċ♫ Again, we find in the play before us, edit. 1632: for their dear caufes

แ

See p. 107, n. 4.] After the horrour and agitation of this fcene, the reader may perhaps not be displeased to paufe for a few minutes. The confummate art which Shakspeare has difplayed in the preparation for the murder of Duncan, and during the commiffion of the dreadful act, cannot but ftrike every intelligent reader. An ingenious writer, however, whofe comparative view of Macbeth and Richard III. has just reached my hands, has developed some of the more minute traits of the chara&er of Macbeth, particularly in the prefent and fubfequent fcene, with fuch acuteness of obfervation, that I am tempted to tranfcribe fuch of his remarks as relate to the fubject now before us, though I do not entirely agree with him. After having proved by a deduction of many particulars, that the towering ambition of Richard is of a very different colour from that of Macbeth, whose weaker defires feem only to aim at preéminence of place, not of dominion, he adds, "Upon the fame principle a diftin&tion still stronger is made in the article of courage, though both are poffeffed of it even to an eminent degree; but in Richard it is intrepidity, and in Macbeth no more than refolution: in him it proceeds from exertion, not from nature; in enterprize he betrays a degree of fear, though he is able, when occafion requires, to ftifle and fubdue it. When he and his wife are concerting the murder, his doubt, if we should fail?" is a difficulty raised by an apprehenfion; and as soon as that is removed by the contrivance of Lady Macbeth, to make the officers drunk and lay the

crime upon them, he runs with violence into the other extreme of confidence, and cries out, with a rapture unusual to him,

Bring forth men children only, &c.

"Will it not be receiv'd

"When we have mark'd with blood those fleepy two
Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers,
That they have done it?"

which queftion he puts to her who had the moment before fuggefted the thought of

"His fpungy officers, who fhall bear the guilt
"Of our great quell."

and his asking it again, proceeds from that extravagance with which a delivery from apprehenfion and doubt is always accompanied. Then fummoning all bis fortitude he fays, "I am fettled," &c. and proceeds to the bloody business without any further recoil. But a certain degree of reftleffnefs and anxiety ftill continues, fuch as is conftantly felt by a man not naturally very bold, worked up to a momentous atchievement. His imagination dwells entirely on the circumftances of horrour which furround him; the vifion of the dagger; the darkness and the ftillness of the night, and the terrors and the prayers of the chamberlains. Lady Macbeth, who is cool and undismayed, attends to the bufinefs only; confiders of the place where he had laid the daggers ready; the impoffibility of his miffing them; and is afraid of nothing but a disappointment. She is earnest and eager; he is uneafy and impatient; and therefore wishes it over:

66 T go, and it is done;" &c.

But a refolution thus forced cannot hold longer than the immediate occafion for it: the moment after that is accomplished for which it was neceffary, his thoughts take the contrary turn, and he cries out in agony and despair,

"Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou could'ft!” That courage which had fupported him while he was fettled and bent up, forfakes him fo immediately after he has performed the terrible feat, for which it had been exerted, that he forgets the favourite circumftance of laying it on the officers of the bedchamber; and when reminded of it he refuses to return and complete his work, acknowledging,

"I am afraid to think what I have done;

"Look on't again I dare not."

His diforder'd fenfes deceive him; and his debilitated fpirits fail him; he owns that "every noise appals him ;" he liftens when nothing firs; he miftakes the founds he does hear; he is so confufed as not to know whence the knocking proceeds. She, who is more calm, knows that it is from the fouth entry; fhe gives clear and direct answers to all the incoherent queftions he afks her; but he returns noue to that which she puts to him; and though after VOL. XI. V

fome time, and when neceffity again urges him to recollect himself, he recovers fo far as to conceal his diftrefs, yet he ftill is not able to divert his thoughts from it all his answers to the trivial queftions of Lenox and Macduff are evidently given by a man thinking of fomething else; and by taking a tindure from the subject of his attention, they become equivocal :

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?

Macb. Not yet.

Len. Goes the king hence to-day?

Mach. He did appoint so.

Len. The night has been unruly; where we lay
Our chimneys were blown down; &c.

Mach. Twas a rough night.

Not yet implies that he will by and by, and is a kind of guard against any fufpicion of his knowing that the king would never ftir He did appoint fo, is the very counterpart of that which he had faid to Lady Macbeth, when on his firft meeting her fhe afked him,

more.

"Lady M. When goes he hence?

"Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes."

in both which anfwers he alludes to his disappointing the king's intention. And when forced to make fome reply to the long defcription given by Lenox, he puts off the fubje& which the other was fo much inclined to dwell on, by a flight acquiefcence in what had been faid of the roughnefs of the night; but not like a man who had been attentive to the account, or was willing to keep up the converfation." Remarks on fome of the Characters of Shakspeare, [by Mr. Whateley] 8vo. 1785.

To thefe ingenious obfervations I entirely fubfcribe, except that I think the wavering irresolution and agitation of Macbeth after the murder ought not to be afcribed folely to a remiffion of courage, fince much of it may be imputed to the remorfe which would arife in a man who was of a good natural difpofition, and is defcribed as originally full of the milk of human kindnefs;- -not without ambition, but without the illnefs fhould attend it." MALONE.

See Remarks on Mr. Whateley's Differtation, p. 266 & feq. They first appeared in The European Magazine for April, 1787.

STEEVENS.

KING JOHN.*