That memory, the warder of the brain,5 cumstance relative to Macbeth's flaughter of Duncan's Chamberlains, (as I observed so long ago, as in our edition 1773,) is copied from Holinshed's account of King Duffe's murder by Donwald. Mr. Malone has fince transcribed the whole narrative of this event from the Chronicle; but being too long to stand 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 So, in the old tragedy of Cambyfes : Again: "If that your heart addicted be the Egyptians to convince." "By this his grace, by conquest great the Egyptians did convince." Again, in Holinshed: "-thus mortally fought, intending to vanquish and convince the other." Again, in Chapman's verfion of the fixth Iliad: "Chymera the invincible he sent him to convince." STEEVENS. - and waffel-] What was anciently called was-haile (as appears from Selden's notes on the ninth Song of Drayton's Polyolbion,) was an annual custom observed in the country on the vigil of the new year; and had its beginning, as fome say, from the words which Ronix, daughter of Hengift, used, when she drank to Vortigern, loverd king was-heil; he answering her, by direction of an interpreter, drinc-heile; and then, as Robert of Gloucester says, "Kuste hire and fitte hire adoune and glad dronke hire voryute." Afterwards it appears that was-haile, and drinc-heil, were the usual 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 : Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason 6 "Ecce vagante cifo distento gutture wass-heil, But Selden rather conjectures it to have been a ufual ceremony among the Saxons before Hengift, as a note of health-wishing, supposing the expreffion to be corrupted from wish-heil. Waffel or Waffail is a word still in use in the midland counties, and fignifies at present what is called Lambs'-Wool, i. e. roasted apples in strong beer, with fugar and spice. See Beggars Bush, Act IV. sc. iv: "What think you of a waffel? "And Ginks, to fing the fong; I for the structure, Ben Jonson personifies wassel thus:-Enter Waffel like a neat fempfter and fongster, her page bearing a brown bowl dreft with ribbands and rosemary, before her. Waffel is, however, sometimes used for general riot, intemperance, or feftivity. On the present occafion I believe it means intemperance. STEEVENS. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "-Antony, "Leave thy lafcivious wassels." MALONE. See also Vol. VII. p. 165, n. 6. 5-the warder of the brain, sentinel. So, in King Henry VI. P.I: 6 A warder is a guard, a "Where be these warders, that they wait not here?" STEEVENS. - the receipt of reasm,] i. e. the receptacle. MALONE. 7 A limbeck only :) That is, shall be only a vessel to emit fumes or vapours. JOHNSON. The limbeck is the vessel, through which distilled liquors pass into the recipient. So shall it be with memory; through which every thing shall pass, and nothing remain. A. C. • Their drenched natures-] i. e, as we should fay at prefent-foaked, faturated with liquor. STEEVENS. His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell?? Bring forth men-children only! For thy undaunted mettle should compose Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers, That they have don't? As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar MACB. I am settled, and bend up 3 -who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell?) Quell is murder, manquellers being, in the old language, the term for which murderers is now ufed. JOHNSON. So, in Chaucer's Tale of the Nonnes Prieft, v. 15,396, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit: "The dokes cryeden as men wold hem quelle." The word is used in this sense by Holinshed, p. 567: -the poor people ran about the streets, calling the capteins and governors murtherers and manquellers." STEEVENS. I -Will it not be receiv'd,] i. e. understood, apprehended. So, in Twelfth-Night: "To one of your receiving "Enough is shown." STEEVENS. * Who dares receive it other,] So, in Holinshed: "-he 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 otherwise (said he) but that they were of counsel in the committing of that most deteftable murther." MALONE. 3 - and bend up-] A metaphor from the bow. So, in King Henry V: "-bend up every spirit "To his full height." The same phrase occurs in Melvil's Memoirs: "-but that rather she should bend up her spirit by a princely, &c. behaviour." Edit. 1735. p. 148. Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. [Exeunt. Till this inftant, the mind of Macbeth has been in a state of uncertainty and fluctuation. He has hitherto proved neither resolutely good, nor obftinately wicked. Though a bloody idea had arisen 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 stage with an apparent resolution to murder his fovereign. But no sooner 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 hofpitality, or the ties of fubjection, kindred, and gratitude. His wife then assails his conftancy afresh. He yields to her suggestions, and, with his integrity, his happiness is destroyed. I have enumerated these particulars, because the waverings of Macbeth have, by some criticks, been regarded as unnatural and contradictory circumstances in his character; not remembering that nemo repente fuit turpissimus, or that (as Angelo observes) - when once our grace we have forgot, " "Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not-." a passage which contains no unapt justification of the changes that happen in the conduct of Macbeth. STEEVENS. ACT II. SCENE 1.4 The fame. Court within the Castle. 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 the goes down at twelve. FLE. I take't, 'tis later, fir. BAN. Hold, take my fword:-There's hufban dry in heaven,5 6 Their candles are all out. - Take thee that too. * Scene I.] The place is not marked in the old edition, nor is it easy to say where this encounter can be. It is not in the hall, as the editors have all supposed it, for Banquo fees the sky; it is not far from the bedchamber, as the conversation shows: it must be in the inner court of the caftle, which Banquo might properly cross in his way to bed. JOHNSON. 5 There's husbandry in heaven,] Husbandry here means thrift, frugality. So, in Hamlet: " And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." MALONE. Their candles are all out.) The fame expression occurs in Romeo and Juliet : Night's candles are burnt out." Again, in our author's 21ft Sonnet : As those gold candles fix'd in heaven's air." See Vol. VII. p. 386, n. 5. MALONE. |