PORT. That it did, fir, i'the very throat o'me: But I requited him for his lie; and, I think, being too ftrong for him, though he took up my legs fometime, yet I made a fhift to cast him.5 MACD. Is thy mafter stirring?. Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes. Enter MACBETH. LEN. Good-morrow, noble fir! 6, МАСВ. Good-morrow, both! Not yet. MACD. Is the king stirring, worthy thane? MACB. MACD. He did command me to call timely on him; I have almost flipp'd the hour. MACB. I'll bring you to him. MACD. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you; But yet, 'tis one. MACB. The labour we delight in, phyficks pain." This is the door. king Duffe, already quoted:" he was long in his oratorie, and there continued till it was late in the night. Donwald's fervants "enter the chamber where the king laie, a little before cocks crow, where they fecretlie cut his throat." Donwald himself fat up with the officers of the guard the whole of the night. MALONE. To caft him up, to eafe my between caft or throw, as a 5 I made a fhift to caft him. ftomach of him. The equivocation is term of wrestling, and caft or caft up. JOHNSON. I find a fimilar play upon words, in an old comedy, entitled The Two angry Women of Abington, printed 1599: 64 —to night he's a good hufwife, he reels all that he wrought to day, and he were good now to play at dice, for he cafts excellent well." STEEVENS. 6 The labour we delight in phyficks pain.] i. e. affords a cordial to it. So, in The Winter's Tale, fc. i: "It is a gallant child; one that, indeed, phyficks the fubje&, makes old hearts fresh." STEEVENS. He does [Exit MACDUFF. Goes the king he did appoint fo.9 LEN. The night has been unruly: Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they fay, Lamentings heard i the air; frange fcreams of death; And prophecying, with accents terrible, Of dire combuftion, and confus'd events, New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obfcure bird Clamour'd the livelong night: fome fay, the earth Was feverous, and did flake." So, in The Tempeft: "There be fome fports are painful; and their labour. 7 For 'tis my limited fervice.] Limited, for appointed. for there is boundless theft, WARBURTON. "In limited profeffions." i. e. profeffions to which people are regularly and legally appointed. STEEVENS. 8 Goes the king From hence to-day?] I have supplied the prepofition—from, for the fake of metre. So, in a former fcene-Duncan says, From hence to Inverness," &c. STEEVENS. 9 He does he did appoint fo.] The words he does are omitted by Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton. But perhaps Shakspeare defigned Macbeth to fhelter himfeif under an immediate falfhood, till a fudden recollection of guilt reftrained his confidence, and unguardedly difpofed him to qualify his affertion"; as he well knew the King's journey was effectually prevented by his death. A fimilar trait had occurred in a former scene: 2 "L. M. And when goes hence? "M. To-morrow, -as he purposes." STEEVENS, And prophecying, with accents terrible, Of dire combuftion, and confus'd events, New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obfcure bird Clamour'd the livelong night: fome fay, the earth Was feverous, and did Jhake.] These lines, I think, fhould be rather regulated thus: VOL. XI. I 4 MACB. 'Twas a rough night. LEN. My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it. prophecying with accents terrible, Of dire combuftion and confus'd events. New-hatch'd to the woeful time, the obfcure bird A phrophecy of an event new-hatch'd feems to be a prophecy of an event past. And a phrophecy new-hatch'd is a wry expreffion. The term new-hatched is properly applicable to a bird, and that birds of ill omen should be new-hatch'd to the woeful time, that is, should appear in uncommon numbers, is very confiftent with the reft of the prodigies here mentioned, and with the univerfal diforder into which nature is defcribed as thrown by the perpetration of this horrid murder. JOHNSON. I think Dr. Johnson's regulation of thefe lines is improper. Prophecying is what is new-hatch'd, and in the metaphor holds the place of the egg. The events are the fruit of fuch hatching. STEEVENS. I think Steevens has juftly explained this paffage, but should wish to read-prophecyings in the plural. M. MASON. Dr. Johnson obferves, that " a prophecy of an event new-hatch'd feems to be a prophecy of an event past. And a prophecy new-hatch'd is a wry expreffion." The conftruction fuggefted by Mr. Steevens meets with the fift objection. Yet the following paffage in which the fame imagery is found, inclines me to believe that our author meant, that new-hatch'd fhould be referred to events, though the events were yet to come. Allowing for his ufual inaccuracy with refped to the active and paffive participle, the events may be faid to be the hatch and brood of time." See King Henry IV. P. II: "The which observed, a man may prophesy, "With a near aim, of the main chance of things "As yet not come to life; which in their feeds "And weak beginnings lie entreasured. "Such things become the hatch and brood of time." Here certainly it is the thing or event, and not the prophecy, which is the hatch of time; but it must be acknowledged, the word " become" fufficiently marks the future time. If therefore the conftruction that I have fuggested be the true one, hatch'd must be here used for hatching, or in the state of being hatch'd.". To the woeful time, means to fuit the woeful time. MALONE. Re-enter MACDUFF. MACD. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor heart, Cannot conceive, nor name thee! MACB. LEN. What's the matter? MACD. Confufion now hath made his masterpiece! Moft facrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and ftole thence МАСВ. What is't you fay? the life? LEN. Mean you his majesty? MACD. Approach the chamber, and destroy your fight With a new Gorgon:-Do not bid me speak; 3 great doom's image!--Malcolm! Banquo! Cannot conceive, &c.] The ufe of two négatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more ftrongly, is very common in our author. So, in Julius Cæfar, A& III. sc. i: "there is no harm "Intended to your perfon, nor to no Roman else." STEEVENS As from your graves rife up, and walk like sprights, LADY M. 5 Enter Lady MACBETH. Bell rings. What's the bufinefs, That fuch a hideous trumpet calls to parley / MACD. O, gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murder as it fell.'—-O Banquo! Banquo! 5 this horror!] Here the old copy adds-Ring the bell. STEEVENS. แ The fubfequent hemistich -"What's the bufinefs?"- which completes the metre of the preceding line, without the words Ring the bell," affords, in my opinion, a ftrong prefumptive proof that these words were only a marginal diredion. It should be remembered that the ftage directions were formerly often couched in imperative terms: "Draw a knife:"" Play mufick';" Ring the bell;" &c. In the original copy we have here indeed alfo— Bell rings, as a marginal direction, but this was inferted, Limagine, from the players mifconceiving what Shakspeare had in truth fet down in his copy as a dramatick direction to the property-man, ("Ring the bell.") for a part of Macduff's fpeech; and, to diftinguifh the direcion which they inferted, from the fuppofed words of the speaker, they departed from the ufual imperative form. Throughout the whole of the preceding fcene we have conftantly an imperative direction to the prompter : Knock within." I suppose, it was in confequence of an imperfe&t recollection of this hemiftich, that Mr. Pope, having in his preface charged the editors of the firft folio with introducing ftage-directions into their author's text, in fupport of his affertion quotes the following line: "My queen is murder'd :-ring the little bell.". a line that is not found in any edition of thefe plays that I have met with, nor, I believe, in any other book. MALONE. 6 Speak, Speak,] These words, which violate the metre, were probably added by the players, who were of opinion that Speak, in the following line, demanded such an introduction. The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murder as it fell.] So, in Hamlet: - STEEVENS. |
