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And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blaft, or heaven's cherubin, hors'd Upon the fightlefs couriers of the air,

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Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears fhall drown the wind. 'I have no fpur

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or heaven's cherubin, hors'd

Upon the fightlefs couriers of the air,] Courier is only runner. Couriers of air are winds, air in motion. Sightlefs is invifible.

Again, in this play:

"Wherever in your fightless fubstances," &c.

Again, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613:

Again:

"The flames of hell and Pluto's fightlefs fires."

"Hath any fightless and infernal fire

"Laid hold upon my flesh?”

Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. II. c. xi:

JOHNSON.

"The fcouring winds that fightless in the founding air do Av. STEEVENS,

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So, in K. Henry V:

"Borne with the invisible and creeping wind.'

Again, in our author's 51ft Sonnet:

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Then fhould I fpur, though mounted on the wind."

Again, in the Prologue to K. Henry IV. P. II:

I, from the orient to the drooping west, "Making the wind my poft- horfe —

The thought of the cherubin (as has been fomewhere observed) feems to have been borrowed from the eighteenth Pfalm:

"He

"Thou

rode upon the cherubins and did flv; he came flying upon the wings of the wind." Again, in the Book of Job, ch. xxx. v. 22: caufeft me to ride upon the wind.

MALONE.

7 That tears fhall drown the wind. ] Alluding to the remiffion of the wind in a fhower. JOHNSON,

So, in King Henry VI. P. III:

For raging wind blows up inceffant fhowers; "And, when the rage allays, the rain begins.

Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"Even as the wind is hufh'd before it raineth."

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"This windy tempeft, till it blow up rain
"Held back his forrow's tide, to make it more;
At laft it rains, and bufy winds give o'er."

STEEVENS.

To prick the fides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself,

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And falls on the other. How now! what news?

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LADY. M. He has almoft fupp'd;' Why have you left the chamber?

Again, in Troilus and Creffida:

"Where are my tears ?-rain, rain to lay this wind."

I have no fpur

To prick the fides of my intent, but only

MALONE.

Vaulting ambition,] The Spur of the occafion is a phrase used by lord Bacon. STEEVENS.

So, in The Tragedy of Cæfar and Pompey, 1607:

“Why think you, lords, that 'tis ambition's fpur,
"That pricketh Cæfar to thefe high attempts ?"

MALONE.

And falls on the other. [Sir T. Hanmer has on this occafion added a word, and would read

And falls on the other fide.

Yet they who plead for the admiffion of this fupplement, should confider, that the plural of it, but two lines before, had occurred.

I, also who once attempted to justify the omiffion of this word, ought to have underfood that Shakspeare could never mean to defcribe the agitation of Macbeth's mind, by the affiftance of a halting verfe.

The general image, though confufedly expreffed, relates to a horse, who, overleaping himself, falls, and his rider under him. To complete the line we may therefore read

And falls upon the other." Thus, in The Taming of a Shrew: horfe upon her."

How he left her with the

Macbeth, as I apprehend, is meant for the rider, his intent for his horfe, and his ambition for his fpur; but, unluckily, as the words are arranged, the fpur is faid to over-leap itself. Such hazardous things are long-drawn metaphors in the hands of careless writers. STEEVENS.

2 Enter Lady-] The arguments by which lady Macbeth perfuades her husband to commit the murder, afford a proof of Shakspeare's

MACB. Hath he ask'd for me?

LADY M.

Know you not, he has ?

MACB. We will proceed no further in this bufi

nefs :

He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all forts of people,

Which would be worn now in their neweft glofs, Not caft afide so soon.

LADY M.

Was the hope drunk,3 Wherein you drefs'd yourself? hath it flept fince? And wakes it now, to look fo green and pale At what it did fo freely? From this time,

knowledge of human nature. She urges the excellence and dignity of courage, a glittering idea which has dazzled mankind from age to age, and animated fometimes the house-breaker, and fometimes the conqueror; but this sophism Macbeth has for ever destroyed, by diftinguishing true from falfe fortitude, in a line and a half; of which it may almost be said, that they ought to bestow immortality on the author, though all his other produ&ions had been loft:

I dare do all that may become a man ;

Who dares do more, is none.

This topick, which has been always employed with too much fuccefs, is used in this fcene with peculiar propriety to a foldier by a woman. Courage is the diftinguithing virtue of a foldier; and the reproach of cowardice cannot be borne by any man from awo, man, without great impatience.

She then urges the oaths by which he had bound himself to murder Duncan, another art of fophiftry by which men have fometimes deluded their confciences, and perfuaded themselves that what would be criminal in others is virtuous in them: this argument Shakspeare, whofe plan obliged him to make Macbeth yield, has not coufuted, though he might eafily have fhown that a former obligation could not be vacated by a latter; that obligations, laid on us by a higher power, could not be over-ruled by obligations which we lay upon ourselves. JOHNSON.

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Part of Lady Macbeth's argument is derived from the tranflation of He&or Boethius. See Dr. Farmer's note, p. 32. MALONE. 3 Was the hope drunk, &c.] The fame expreffion is found in K. John:

"Q, where hath our intelligence been drunk,
Where hath it flept?" MALONE..

Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the fame in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in defire? Would't thou have that
Which thou efteem'ft the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own efteem;4
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage? 5

MACB.

Pr'ythee, peace;

I dare do all that may become a man ;

Who dares do more, is none.

LADY M.

What beast was it then,

That made you break this enterprize to me?
When you durft do it, then you were a man ;

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Would't thou have that

Which thou efleem'ft the ornament of life,

And live a coward in thine own efteem ;] In this there feems to be no reasoning. I fhould read:

Or live a coward in thine own efteem;

Unless we choofe rather:

Would't thou leave that. JOHNSON.

Do you wish to obtain the crown, and yet would you remain fuch a coward in your own eyes all your life, as to fuffer your paltry fears, which whisper, I dare not,' to control your noble ambition, which

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cries out, I would?" STEEVENS.

5 Like the poor cat i'the adage?] The adage alluded to is, The `cat loves fifh, but dares not wet her feet :

Catus amat pifces, fed non vult tingere plantas." JOHNSON.

6 Prythee, peace: &c.] A paffage fimilar to this occurs in Measure for Meafure, Aa II. fc. ii:

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be that you are,

"That is, a woman: if you're more, you're none."

The old copy, instead of do more, reads no more; but the prefent reading is undoubtedly right.

The correction (as Mr. Malone obferves) was made by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS.

The fame fentiment occurs in Beaumont and Fletcher's Rollo

My Rollo, tho' he dares as much as man,

Is tender of his yet untainted valour;

So noble, that he dares do nothing bafely." HENLEY.

And, to be more than what you were, you would Be fo much more the man. Nor time, nor place, Did then adhere and yet you would make both : They have made themselves, and that their fitness

now!

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Does unmake you. I have given fuck; and know
How tender 'tis, to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was fmiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dafh'd the brains out, had I fo fworn, as you
Have done to this.

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MACB.
LADY M.

If we fhould fail,

We fail!*

7 Did then adhere,] Thus the old copy. Dr. Warburton would read-cohere, not improperly, but without necefty. In The Merry Wives of Windfor, Mrs. Ford says of Falftaff, that his words and actions no more adhere and keep`pace together than &c.

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MALONE.

STEEVENS.

I would, while it was fmiling in my face,] Polyxo, in the fifth book of Statius's Thebais, has a fimilar fentiment of ferocity:

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"In gremio (licet amplexu lachrymifque moretur)
Traufadigam ferro- STEEVENS.

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- had I fo fworn,] The latter word is here used as a diffyllable. The editor of the fecond folio, from his ignorance of our author's phraseology and metre, fuppofed the line defe&ive, and reads had I but fo fworn; which has been followed by all the fubfequent editors. MALONE.

My regulation of the metre renders it unneceffary to read Sworn as a dissyllable, a pronunciation, of which I believe there is no example. STEEVENS.

We fail!] I am by no means fure that this pun&uation is the

true one." If we fail, we fail",-is a colloquial phrafe still in frequent use. Macbeth having cafually employed the former part of this fentence, his wife defignedly completes it. We fail, and

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