Sirrah, a word: 4 Attend those men our pleasure? But to be safely thus:-Our fears in Banquo Reigns that, which would be fear'd: 'Tis much he dares; And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, He chid the sisters, 4 Sirrab, a word: &c.] The old copy reads Sirrah, a word with you: Attend those men our pleasure? The words I have omitted are certainly spurious. The metre is injured by them, and the sense is complete without them. . Steevens. 5 royalty of nature] Royalty, in the present instance, signifies nobleness, supreme excellence. Thus, in Twelfth Night, we have "Sport royal," for excellent sport; and Chaucer, in his Squiere's Tale, has "crowned malice," for eminence of malignity. Steevens. 6 7 to] i. e. in addition to. See p. 15, n. 4. Steevens. to that dauntless temper of his mind, He hath a wisdom that doth guide bis valour -] So, in Chapman's version of the fifteenth Iliad: superior to his sire in feet, fight, noblenes "Of all the virtues; and all those did such a wisdome. guide, Steevens. My genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said, Mark Antony's was by Cæsar.] For the sake of metre, the prænomen-Mark (which probably was an interpolation) might safely be omitted. Steevens. Though I would not often assume the critick's privilege of being confident where certainty cannot be obtained, nor indulge myself too far in departing from the established reading; yet I cannot but propose the rejection of this passage, which I believe was an insertion of some player, that, having so much learning as to discover to what Shakspeare alluded, was not willing that his audience should be less knowing than himself, and has therefore weakened the author's sense, by the intrusion of a remote and useless image into a speech bursting from a man wholly When first they put the name of king upon me, possessed with his own present condition, and therefore not at leisure to explain his own allusions to himself. If these words are taken away, by which not only the thought, but the numbers are injured, the lines of Shakspeare close together without any traces of a breach: My genius is rebuk'd. He chid the sisters —. This note was written before I was fully acquainted with Shakspeare's manner, and I do not now think it of much weight: for though the words which I was once willing to eject, seem interpolated, I believe they may still be genuine, and added by the author in his revision. Mr. Heath cannot admit the measure to be faulty. There is only one foot, he says, put for another. This is one of the effects of literature in minds not naturally perspicacious. Every boy or girl finds the metre imperfect, but the pedant comes to its defence with a tribrachys or an anapest, and sets it right at once, by applying to one language the rules of another. If we may be allowed to change feet, like the old comick writers, it will not be easy to write a line not metrical. To hint this once is sufficient. Johnson. Our author having alluded to this circumstance in Antony and Cleopatra, there is no reason to suspect any interpolation here: "Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side: "Thy dæmon, that 's thy spirit which keeps thee, is "Where Cæsar's is not; but near him thy angel "Becomes a fear, as being o'erpower'd." Malone. • For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind;] We should read: 'filed my mind; i. e. defiled. Warburton. This mark of contraction is not necessary. To file is in the Bishops' Bible. Johnson. So, in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608: "He call'd his father villain, and me strumpet, "A name I do abhor to file my lips with." Again, in The Miseries of inforc'd Marriage, 1607: “ like smoke through a chimney that files all the way it goes." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. III, c.i: "She lightly lept out of her filed bed." Steevens. For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd; To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!* Who 's I the common enemy of man,] It is always an entertainment to an inquisitive reader, to trace a sentiment to its original source; and therefore, though the term enemy of man, applied to the devil, is in itself natural and obvious, yet some may be pleased with being informed, that Shakspeare probably borrowed it from the first lines of The Destruction of Troy, a book which he is known to have read. This expression, however, he might have had in many other places. The word friend signifies enemy. Johnson. Shakspeare repeats this phrase in Twelfth Night, Act III, sc. iv: " Defy the devil: consider he's an enemy to mankind.” Again, in Fairfax's Tasso, IV, i: 2 "The ancient foe to man and mortal seed, "His wannish eies upon them bent askance." Steevens. the seed of Banquo kings!] The old copy readsseeds. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone. 3 come, fate, into the list, And champion me to the utterance!] This passage will be best explained by translating it into the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it is borrowed. Que la destinée se rende en lice, et qu'elle me donne un defi a l'outrance A challenge, or a combat a l'outrance, to extremity, was a fixed term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an› odium internecinum, an intention to destroy each other, in opposition to trials of skill at festivals, or on other occasions, where the contest was only for reputation or a prize. The sense therefore s: Let fate, that has foredoomea the exaltation of the sons of Banquo, enter the lists against me, with the utmost animosity, in defence of its own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the danger. Johnson. We meet with the same expression in Gawin Douglas's translation of Virgil, p. 331, 49: "That war not put by Greikis to utterance." Again, in The History of Graund Amoure and la bel Pucelle, &c. y Stephen Hawes, 1555: "That so many monsters put to utterance." Again, and more appositely, in the 14th Book of Golding's ranslation of Ovid's Metamorphosis: Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. Now to the door, and stay there till we call. [Exit Attend. Was it not yesterday we spoke together? In our last conference; pass'd in probation with you, How you were borne in hand; how cross'd; the instruments; "To both the parties at the length from battell for to rest, "And not to fight to utterance." Shakspeare uses it again in Cymbeline, Act III, sc. i. Steevens. ▲ Now to the door, and stay there till we call.] The old copy reads Now go to the door, &c. but, for the sake of versification, I suppose the word go which is understood, may safely be omitted. Thus, in the last scene of the foregoing Act: "Will you to Scone? "No, cousin, I'll to Fife." In both these instances go is mentally inserted. Steevens. 5 - pass'd in probation with you, How you were borne in hand; &c.] The words-with you, I regard as an interpolation, and conceive the passage to have been originally given thus: In our last conference; past in probation how You were borne in band, how cross'd; &c. Pass'd in probation is, I believe, only a bulky phrase, employed to signify-proved. Steevens. 66 The meaning may be, past in proving to you, how you were," &c. So, in Othello: 66 so prove it, "That the probation bear no hinge or loop Perhaps after the words "with you," there should be a comma, rather than a semicolon. The construction, however, may be different. "This I made good to you in our last conference, past &c. I made good to you, how you were borne," To bear in band is, to delude by encouraging hope and holding out fair prospects, without any intention of performance. *&c. Malone. Who wrought with them; and all things else, that might, To half a soul, and to a notion craz❜d, Say, Thus did Banquo. 1 Mur You made it known to us. Macb. I did so; and went further, which is now Our point of second meeting. Do you find Your patience so predominant in your nature, That you can let this go? Are you so gospell'd, To pray for this good man, and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave, And beggar'd yours for ever? 1 Mur. We are men, my liege. Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men; As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, So, in Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: 6 "Yet I will bear a dozen men in hand, "And make them all my gulls." Steevens. Are you so gospell'd,] Are you of that degree of precise virtue Gospeller was a name of contempt given by the Papists to the Lollards, the puritans of early times, and the precursors of protestantism. Johnson. So, in the Morality called Lusty Juventus, 1561: "What, is Juventus become so tame "To be a newe gospeller?" Again: "And yet ye are a great gospeller in the mouth." I believe, however, that gospelled means no more than kept in obedience to that precept of the gospel, which teaches us "to pray for those that despitefully use us." Steevens. 7 We are men, my liege.] That is, we have the same feelings as the rest of mankind, and, as men, are not without a manly resentment for the wrongs which we have suffered, and which you have now recited. I should not have thought so plain a passage wanted an expla nation, if it had not been mistaken by Dr. Gray, who says, "they don't answer in the name of Christians, but as men, whose humanity would hinder them from doing a barbarous act." This false interpretation he has endeavoured to support by the wellknown line of Terence: "Homo sum, bumani nihil a me alienum puto." That amiable sentiment does not appear very suitable to a cutthroat. They urge their manhood, in my opinion, in order to show Macbeth their willingness, not their aversion, to execute his orders. Malone. |