(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains Will I with wine and waffel fo convince,4 place, he feems to have thought the poet meant the ftabbing place, the place where Duncan was to be wounded; for he reads, Will I with wine and waffel fo convince, &c.] The circumftance relative to Macbeth's flaughter of Duncan's Chamberlains, (as I obferved fo long ago, as in our edition 1773,) is copied from Holinthed's account of king Duffe's murder by Donwald. Mr. Malone has fince tranfcribed the whole narrative of this event from the Chronicle; but being too long to ftand here as a note, it is given, with other bulky extracts, at the conclufion of the play. STEEVENS. To convince is, in Shakspeare, to overpower or fubdue, as in this play: Their malady convinces "The great affay of art." JOHNSON. So, in the old tragedy of Cambyfes : “If that your heart addicted be the Egyptians to convince." Again : By this his grace, by conqueft great the Egyptians did convince." Again, in Holinfhed: thus mortally fought, intending to vanquish and convince the other." STEEVENS. --and waffel- ] What was anciently called was-haile (as appears from Selden's notes on the ninth fong of Drayton's Polyolbion) was an annual cuftom obferved in the country on the vigil of the new year; and had its beginning, as some say, from the words which Ronix daughter of Hengift ufed, when the drank to Vortigern, loverd king was-heil; he answering her, by direc tion of an interpreter, drinc-heile; and then, as Geoffry of Monmouth fays, Kufte hire and fitte hire adoune and glad dronke hire heil ; And that was tho in this land the verft was-hail, "As in langage of Saxoyne that me might evere iwite, That memory, the warder of the brain,5 8 Afterwards it appears that was-haile, and drinc-heil, were the ufual phrafes of quaffing among the English, as we may fee from Thomas de la Moore in the Life of Edward II. and in the lines of Hanvil the monk, who preceded him: "Ecce vagante cifo diftento gutture wass-heil, "Ingeminant wafs-heil But Selden rather conjectures it to have been a ufual ceremony among the Saxons before Hengift, as a note of health-wifhing, fuppofing the expreffion to be corrupted from wish-heil. A Waffel or Waffail is a word ftill in ufe in the midland counties, and fignifies at prefent what is called Lambs-Wool, i. e. roafted apples in ftrong beer, with fugar and fpice. See Beggars Bush, A& IV. fc. iv: -Enter Waffel like a neat Ben Jonfon perfonifies waffel thus:- femper and fongfter, her page bearing a brown bowl dreft with rib. bands and rosemary, before her. Waffel is, however, fometimes used for general riot, intemperance, or feftivity. On the prefent occafion I believe it means intemperance. STEEVENS. 5 the warder of the brain,] A warder is a guard, a fentinel. So, in King Henry VI. P. I: "Where be thefe warders, that they wait not here?" STEEVENS. 6the receipt of reafon] i. e. the receptacle. MALONE. A limbeck only :] That is, fhall be only a veffel to emit fumes or vapours. JOHNSON. The limbeck is the veffel, through which diftilled liquors pafs into the recipient. So fhall it be with memory; through which every thing shall pass, and nothing remain. A. C. 8 Their drenched natures-] i. c. as we should say at prefent,foaked, faturated with liquor. STEEVENS. What cannot you and I perform upon MACB. Bring forth men-children only! For thy undaunted mettle fhould compofe Neding but males. Will it not be receiv'd, When we have mark'd with blood thofe fleepy two Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers, That they have don't? LADY M. Who dares receive it other,9 As we fhall make our griefs and clamour roar MACB. I am fettled, and bend up2 Of our great quell] Quell is murder, manquellers being in the old language the term for which murderers is now used. JOHNSON. So, in Chaucer's Tale of the Nonnes Prieft, v. 15396, Mr. Tyrwhite's edit: "The dokes cryeden as men wold hẹm quelle.” The word is ufed in this fenfe by Holinfhed, p. 567:"—the poor people rán about the streets, calling the capteins and governors murtherers and manquellers." STEEVENS. 9 Who dares receive it other,] So, in Holinfhed: ishe burthen'd the chamberleins, whom he had flaine, with all the fault, they having the keyes of the gates committed to their keeping all the night, and therefore it could not be otherwife (said he) but that they were of counfel in the committing of that almost deteftable murther." MALONE. 2 ——and bend up-] A metaphor from the bow. So, in K. Henry V. "-bend up every fpirit "To his full height. ' The fame phrase occurs in Melvil's Memoirs: " but that ra ther she should bend up her Spirit by a princely &c. behaviour." Edit, 1735. p. 148. Till this inftant, the mind uncertainty and fluctuation. of Macbeth has been in a ftate of / He has hitherto proved neither refo Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. know. [Exeunt. lutely good, nor obftinately wicked. Though a bloody idea had arifen in his mind, after he had heard the prophecy in his favour, yet he contentedly leaves the completion of his hopes to chance.— At the conclufion, however, of his interview with Duncan, he inclines to haften the decree of fate, and quits the ftage with an apparent refolution to murder his fovereign. But no fooner is the king under his roof, than, reflecting on the peculiarities of his own relative fituation, he determines not to offend against the laws of hospitality, or the ties of fubje&tion, kindred, and gratitude wife then affails his conftancy afresh. He yields to her fuggeftions, and, with his integrity, his happiness is deftroyed. His I have enumerated thefe paruculars, becaufe the waverings of Macbeth have, by fome criticks, been regarded as unnatural and contradi&ory circumftances in his character; not remembering that nemo repente fuit turpiffimus, or that (as Angelo obferves) when once our grace we have forgot, "Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not-: a paffage which contains no unapt juftification of the changes that happen in the conduct of Macbeth. STEEVENS. VOL. XI. G ACT II. SCENE 1.3 The fame. Court within the Cafile. Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE; and a Servant, with a torch before them. BAN. How goes the night, boy? FLE. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. BAN. And he goes down at twelve. FLE. 1 take't, 'tis later, fir. BAN. Hold, take my fword:-There's hufbandry in heaven,4 Their candies are all out.5-Take thee that too. 6 fword; 3 Scene I.] The place is not mark'd in the old edition, nor is it eafy to fay where this encounter can be. It is not in the hall, as the editors have all fuppofed it, for Banquo fees the fky; it is not far from the bedchamber, as the converfatión fhows: it must be in the inner court of the caftle, which Banquo might properly cross in his way to bed. JOHNSON. 4 There's husbandry in heaven,] Husbandry here means thrift, frugality. So, in Hamlet: And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." MALONE. 5 Their candles are all out.] The fame expreffion occurs in Romeo and Juliet: Night's candles are burnt out." Again, in our author's 21ft fonnet: "As thofe gold candles fix'd in heaven's air." See Vol. VIII. p. 149, n. 6. MALONE. 6 Merciful powers! Refrain in me the curfed thoughts, that nature Gives way to in repofe!] It is apparent from what Banquo says |