Your hand, your tongue : flower, look like the innocent. He that's coming But be the ferpent under it. SCENE VI. The fame. Before the Caftle. Hautboys. Servants of Macbeth attending. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO; LENOX, MACDUFF, ROSSE, ANGUS, and Attendants. DUN. This caftle hath a pleasant feat; the air Nimbly and fweetly recommends itself The seventh and eighth books of Daniel's Civil Wars were not published till the year 1609; [fee the Epiftle Dedicatorie to that edition: fo that, if either poet copied the other, Daniel must have been indebted to Shakspeare; for there can be little doubt that Macbeth had been exhibited before that year. MALONE. 6 To alter favour ever is to fear:] So, in Love's Labour's Loft: "For blushing cheeks by faults are bred, "And fears by pale white shown." Favour is-look, countenance. So, in Troilus and Creffia: "I know your favour, lord Ulyffes, well." STEEVENS. 7 This caftle hath a pleasant feat;] Seat here means fituation. Lord Bacon fays, "He that builds a faire houfe upon an ill feat, committeth himself to prifon. Neither doe I reckon it an ill feat, only Unto our gentle fenfes." 9 BAN. This gueft of fummer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, By his lov'd manfionry, that the heaven's breath, Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, buttress, 2 where the aire is unwholfome, but likewife where the aire is unequal; as you fhall fee many fine feats fet upon a knap of ground invironed with higher hills round about it, whereby the heat of the funne is pent in, and the wind gathereth as in troughs; fo as you fhall have, and that fuddenly, as great diverfitie of heat and cold, as if you dwelt in several places." Effays, 2d edit. 4to. 1632, p. 257. REED. This cafle hath a pleasant feat.] This fhort dialogue between Duncan and Banquo, whilft they are approaching the gates of Macbeth's caftle, has always appeared to me a ftriking inftance of what in painting is termed repofe. Their converfation very naturally turns upou the beauty of its fituation, and the pleasantness of the air; and Banquo, obferving the martlet's nefts in every recefs of the cornice, remarks, that where thofe birds moft breed and haunt, the air is delicate. The fubject of this quiet and easy conversation gives that repofe fo neceffary to the mind after the tumultuous buftle of the preceding (cenes, and perfe&ly contrafts the fcene of horror that immediately fucceeds. It feems as if Shakspeare asked himself, What is a prince, likely to fay to his attendants on fuch an occafion. Whereas the modern writers feem, on the contrary, to be always fearching for new thoughts, fuch as would never occur to men in the situation which is represented. This alfo is frequently the practice of Homer, who, from the midft of battles and horrors, relieves and refreshes the mind of the reader, by introducing fome quiet rural image, or picture of familiar domeftick life. SIR J. REYNOlds. 8 Unto our gentle fenfes.] Senfes are nothing more than each man's fenfe. Gentle fense is very elegant, as it means placid, calm, composed, and intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day. JOHNSON. 9 martlet,] This bird is in the old edition called barlet. The correction was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. JOHNSON. It is fupported by the following paflage in The merchant of Ve nice: 2 "like the martlet "Builds in the weather on the outward wall." STEEVENS. -no jutty, frieze.] A comma fhould be placed after jutty. 3 Nor coigne of vantage, but this bird hath made His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they 5 Moft breed and haunt, I have obferv'd, the air Is delicate: A jutty, or jetty, (for fo it ought rather to be written) is not here, as has been fuppofed, an epithet to frieze, but a fubftantive; fignifying that part of a building which shoots forward beyond the reft. See Florio's Italian Didionary, 1598 "Barbacane. An out nooke or corner flanding out of a house; a jettie."—" Sporto. A porch, a portal, a bay window, or out-butting, or jettie, of a houfe, that jetties out farther than anie other part of the houfe.”See also Surpendue in Cotgrave's French Dia. 1611: “A jettiež an out-jetting room." MALONE. Shakspeare uses the verb to jutty, in K. Henry V : 3 "as fearfully as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his coufounded bafe." STEEVENS. --coigne of vantage,] Convenient corner. JOHNSON. So, in Pericles: His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they] Left the reader fhould think this verfe defective in harmony, he ought to be told, that as needle was once written and pronounced neele and neeld, fo cradle was contracted into crale, and confequently uttered as a monofyllable. Thus, in the fragment of an ancient Chriftmas carol now before me: "on that day "Did aungels round him minifter As in his crale he lay." In fome parts of Warwickshire (as I am informed) the word is drawlingly pronounced as if it had been written-craale. ४ Moft breed. -] The folio,-must breed. STEEVENS, Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. STEEVENS, DUN. Enter Lady MACBETH. See, fee! our honour'd hoftefs! The love that follows us, fometime is our trouble, Which ftill we thank as love. Herein I teach you, How you fhall bid God yield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble. The love that follows us, fometime is our trouble, And thank us for your trouble. | The attention that is paid us (fays Duncan on feeing Lady Macbeth come to meet him, fometimes gives us pain, when we reflect that we give trouble to others; yet fill we cannot but be pleafed with fuch attentions, because they are a proof of affection. So far is clear; but of the following words, I confess, I have no very diftin& conception, and fufpe&t them to be corrupt. Perhaps the meaning is, - By being the occafion. of fo much trouble I furnish you with a motive to pray to heaven to reward me for the pain I give you, inafmuch as the having fuch an opportunity of fhowing your loyalty may hereafter prove beneficial to you; and herein alfo I afford you a motive to thank me for the trouble I give you,, because by fhowing me fo much attention, (however painful it may be to me to be the cause of it,) you have an opportunity of difplaying an amiable character, and of ingratiating yourfelf with your fovereigu: which finally may bring you both profit and honour. MALONE. This paffage is undoubtedly obfcure, and the following is the beft explication of it I am able to offer. Marks of refpect importunately shown, are fometimes troublesome, though we are still bound to be grateful for them as indications of fincere attachment. If you pray for us on account of the trouble we create in your houfe, and thank us for the moleftations we bring with us, it must be on fuch a principle. Herein I teach you, that the inconvenience you Suffer, is the refult of our affection; and that you are therefore to pray for us, or thank us, only as far as prayers and thanks can be deferved for kindneffes that fatigue, and honours that opprefs. You are, in short, to make your acknowledgments for intended respect and love, however irksome our prefent mode of expreffing them may have proved. is here used in the Saxon fense -to pray. STEEVENS. To bid How you fhall bid God-yield us -] To bid any one God-yeld kim, i. e. God-yield him, was the fame as God reward him. VOL. XI. WARBURTON.. F LADY M. All our fervice In every point twice done, and then done double, DUN. Where's the thane of Cawdor? We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose To be his purveyor: but he rides well; I believe yield, or, as it is in the folio of 1623, cyld, is a cors rupted contra&ion of shield. The with implores not reward, but protection. JOHNSON. I rather believe it to be a corruption of God-yield, i. e. reward. In Antony and Cleopatra, we meet with it at length: "And the gods yield you for't." Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Efau, 1568: "God gelde you, Efau, with all my ftomach." Again, in the old metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick, bl. I. no date: 66 Syr, quoth Guy, God yield it you, Of this great gift you give me now." Again, in Chaucer's Sompnoure's Tale, v. 7759; Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. "God yelde you adoun in your village." Again, one of the Pafton Letters, Vol. IV. p. 335, begins thus: "To begin, God yeld your for my hats.' God fhield means God forbid, and could never be used as a form of returning thanks. So, in Chaucer's Milleres Tale: God fhilde that he died fodenly." v. 3427; Mr. Tyr whitt's edit. STEEVENS. 7 We reft your hermits.] Hermits, for beadfmen. That is, we as hermits fhall always pray for you. of Feversham, 1592: WARBURTON. So, in Arden I am your beadfman, bound to pray for you." Again, in Heywood's English Traveller, 1633: แ worshipful fir, "I fhall be fill your beadfman." This phrafe occurs frequently in The Pafton Letters. STEEVENS. |