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MACB. The fervice and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part

Is to receive our duties: and our duties

Are to your throne and flate, children, and servants; Which do but what they fhould, by doing every thing 9

Safe toward your love and honour. 2

'There is an obfcurity in this paffage, arifing from the word all which is not used here perfonally (more than all perfons can pay) but for the whole wealth of the fpeaker. So, more clearly, in King Henry VIII:

More than my all is nothing."

This line appeared obfcure to Sir William Davenant, for he altered it thus:

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"I have only left to fay,

"That thou deferveft more than I have to pay."

-fervants;

MALONE.

Which do but what they should, by doing every thing -] From Scripture: "So when ye fhall have done all thofe things which are commanded you, fay, We are unprofitable fervants: we have done that which was our duty to do.' HENLEY.

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2 Which do but what they should, by doing every thing

Safe toward your love and honour.] Mr. Upton gives the word Safe as an inflance of an adjective used adverbially. STEEVENS.

Read —“ Safe (i. e. faved) toward you love and honour;" and then the fenfe will be "Our duties are your children, and fervants or vaffals to your throne and ftate, who do but what they fhould, by doing every thing with a faving of their love and honour toward you." The whole is an allufion to the forms of doing homage in the feudal times. The oath of allegiance, or liege homage, to the king was abfolute and without any exception; but fimple homage, when done to a fubject for lands holden of him, was always with a faving of the allegiance (the love and honour) due to the fovereign. "Sauf la foy que jeo doy a noftre feignor le roy," as it is in Littleton. And though the expreffion be fomewhat ftiff and forced, it is not more fo than many others in this play, and fuits well with the fituation of Macbeth, now beginning to waver in his allegiance. For, as our author elsewhere fays, [in Julius Cæfar:] "When love begins to ficken and decay,

"It wfeth an enforced ceremony." BLACKSTONE.

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DUN.

Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour

To make thee full of growing. 3- Noble Banquo,
That haft no lefs deferv'd, nor must be known
No lefs to have done fo, let me infold thee,
And hold thee to my heart.

BAN.

The harveft is your own.

There if I grow,

A similar expreffion occurs alfo in the Letters of the Pafton Family, Vol. II. p. 245. " -ye fhalle fynde me to yow as kynde as I maye be, my confcienfe and worshyp favy'd." STEEVENS.

A paffage in Cupid's Revenge, a comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher, adds fome fupport to Sir William Blackftone's emendation:

"I'll fpeak it freely, always my obedience

And love preferved unto the prince.

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So alfo the following words fpoken by Henry Duke of Lancafter to King Richard II. at their interview in the Caftle of Flint (a paffage that Shakspeare had certainly read and perhaps remembered): "My fovereign lorde and kyng, the cause of my coming, at this prefent, is, your honour faved, to have againe reftitution of my perfon, my landes, and heritage, through your favourable licence.' Holinfhed's Chron. Vol. II.

"

Our author himself alfo furnishes us with a paffage that likewise
may ferve to confirm this emendation. See Vol. IX. p. 1561
Save him from danger; do HIM love and honour."
Again, in Twelfth Night:

“What shall you ask of me that I'll deny,
That honour fav'd may upon asking give?"

Again, in Cymbeline:

"I fomething fear my father's wrath, but nothing
"(Always referv'd my holy duty) what

"His rage can do on me.

Our poet has ufed the verb to fafe in Antony and Cleopatra:

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beft you faf'd the bringer "Out of the hoft.' MALONE.

"

full of growing.. -] Is, I believe, exuberant, perfe&, complete in thy growth. So, in Othello:

"What a full fortune doth the thick-lips owe?"

MALONE.

DUN.

My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, feek to hide themfelves
In drops of forrow. -Sons, kinfmen, thanes,
And you whofe places are the nearest, know,
We will eftablifh our eflate upon

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter;
The prince of Cumberland: which honour must
Not, unaccompanied, inveft him only,

But figns of noblenefs, like ftars, fhall fhine
On all defervers.-From hence to Invernefs,5
And bind us further to you.

MACB. The reft is labour, which is not us'd for

you:

I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.

DUN.

My plenteous joys,

My worthy Cawdor!

Wanton in fulness, feek to hide themselves

In drops of forrow.]

lachrymas non fponte cedentes

Effudit, gemitufque expreffit pe&ore læto;

Non aliter manifefta potens abfcondere mentis
Gaudia, quam lachrymis. Lucan. lib. ix.

It

There was no English translation of Lucan before 1614.-We meet with the fame fentiment again in The Winter's Tale: feem'd forrow wept to take leave of them, for their joy waded in tears. It is likewife employed in the firft fcene of Much ado about Nothing. MALONE.

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hence to Invernefs,] Dr. Johnfon obferves, in his Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland, that the walls of the caftle of Mac beth at Inverness are yet ftanding. STEEVENS.

The circumftance of Duncan's vifiting Macbeth is fupported by hiftory; for, from the Scottish Chronicles it appears, that it was customary for the king to make a progress through his dominions every year. Inerat ei Duncano] laudabilis confuetudo regui pertranfire regiones femel in anno." Fordun. Scotichron, Lib. IV.

c. xliv.

VOL. XI.

E

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MACB. The prince of Cumberland! —That is

a flop,

On which I muft fall down, or elfe o'er-leap,

[Afide.

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Singulis annis ad inopum querelas audiendas perluftrabat provincias.' Buchan. Lib. VII. MALONE.

6 The prince of Cumberland!—] So, Holinfhed, Hift. of Scotland, p. 171: "Duncan having two fonnes, &c. he made the elder. of them, called Malcolme, priuce of Cumberland, as it were thereby to appoint him fucceffor in his kingdome immediatlie after his deceafe. Mackbeth forely troubled herewith, for that he faw by this means his hope fore hindered, (where, by the old laws of the realme the ordinance was, that if he that should fucceed were not of able age to take the charge upon himself, he that was next of bloud unto him should be admitted,) he began to take counsel how he might ufurpe the kingdome by force, having a juft quarrel fo to doe (as he tooke the matter), for that Duncane did what in him lay to defraud him of all manner of title and claime, which he might, in time to come, pretend unto the crowne."

When a

The crown of Scotland was originally not hereditary. fucceffor was declared in the life-time of a king (as was often the cafe), the title of Prince of Cumberland was immediately beftowed on him as the mark of his defignation. Cumberland was at that time held by Scotland of the crown of England, as a fief.

STEEVENS.

The former part of Mr. Steevens's remark is fupported by Bellendeu's Tranflation of Hedor Boethius: In the mene tyme Kyng Duncane maid his fon Malcolme Prince of Cumbir, to fignify yt he fuld regne eftyr hym, quhilk wes gret difplefeir to Makbeth; for it maid plane derogatioun to the thrid weird promittit afore to hym be this weird lifteris. Nochtbeles he thoct gif Duncane were flane, he had maist rycht to the croun, because he wes nereft of blud yairto, be tenour of y auld lavis maid eftir the deith of king Fergus, quhen young children wer unabel to govern the croun, the nerreft of vair blude fal regne." So alfo Buchanan, Rerum Scoticarum Hift. lib. vii.

Duncanus e filia Sibardi reguli Northumbrorum, duos filios genuerat. Ex iis Milcolumbum, vixdum púberem, Cumbriæ præfecit. Id factum ejus Macbethus moleftius, quam credi poterat, tulit, eam videlicet moram fibi ratus injectam, ut, priores jam magiftratus (juxta vifum no&urnum) adeptus, aut omnino a regno excluderetur, aut eo tardius potiretur, cum præfectura Cumbria velut aditus ad fupremum magiftratum SEMPER effet habitus." It has been

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For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light fee my black and deep defires:
The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to fee.

[ Exit. DUN. True, worthy Banquo; he is full fo valiant;'

afferted by an anonymous writer [Mr. Ritfon ] that "the crown of Scotland was always hereditary, and that it thould feem from the play that Malcolm was the first who had the title of Prince of Cumberland." An extract or two from Hedor Boethius will be fufficient relative to these points. In the tenth chapter of the eleventh book of his Hiftory we are informed, that fome of the friends of Kenneth III. the eightieth king of Scotland, came among the nobles, defiring them to choose Malcolm, the fon of Kenneth, to be Lord of Cumbir, yt he mycht be yt way the better cum to ye crown after his faderis deid." Two of the nobles faid, it was in the power of Kenneth to make whom he pleafed Lord of Cumberland; and Malcolm was accordingly appointed. Sic thingis done, king Kenneth, be advise of his nobles, abrogat ye auld lawis concerning the creation of yair king, and made new lawis in manner as fol lowes: 1. The king beand deceffit, his eldeft fon or his eldeft nepot, (notwithstanding quhat fumevir age he be of, and youcht he was born efter his faderis death, fal fuccede ye croun," &c. Notwithftanding this precaution, Malcolm, the eldest fon of Kenneth, did not fucceed to the throne after the death of his father; for after Kenneth reigned Conftantine, the son of king Culyne. To him fucceeded Gryme, who was not the fon of Conftantine, but the grandson of king Duffe. Gryme, fays Boethius, came to Scone,

qubare he was crownit by the tenour of the auld lawis." After the death of Gryme, Malcolm, the fon of king Kenneth, who Boethius frequently calls Prince of Cumberland, became king of Scotland; and to him fucceeded Duncan, the fon of his eldeft daughter.

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Thefe breaches, however, in the fucceffion appear to have been occafioned by violence in turbulent times; and though the eldeft fon could not fucceed to the throne, if he happened to be a minor at the death of his father, yet, as by the ancient laws the next of blood was to reign, the Scottish monarchy may be said to have been hereditary, fubje& however to peculiar regulations.

MALONE.

7 True, worthy Banquo; he is full fo valiant;] i. e. he is to the

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