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ACT

II.

SCENE I.

The fame. Court within the Caftle.

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 fhe goes down at twelve.

Fle. I take't, 'tis later, fir.

Ban. Hold, take my fword:-There's husbandry in heaven,

Their candles are all out 9.-Take thee that too.
A heavy fummons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not fleep: Merciful powers!
Reftrain in me the curfed thoughts, that nature
Gives way to in repofe !-Give me my fword;-

Enter

? Banguo.] The place is not mark'd in the old edition, nor is it easy to fay where this encounter can be. It is not in the ball, as the editors have all fuppofed it, for Banquo fees the sky; it is not far from the bedchamber, as the conversation fhews: it must be in the inner court of the castle, which Banquo might properly cross in his way to bed. JOHNSON. 8 There's husbandry in beaven,] Husbandry here means thrift, frugality. So, in Hamlet:

"And borrowing dulls the edge of busbandry." MALONE. 9 Their candles are all out.] The fame expreffion occurs in Romes and Juliet:

"Night's candles are burnt out."

Again, in our author's 21ft Sonnet:

"As thofe gold candles fix'd in heaven's air."

See alfo Vol. III. p. 100, n. 6. MALONE.

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Merciful powers!

Refrain in me the curfed thoughts, that nature

Gives way to in repofe !] It is apparent from what Banquo fays afterwards, that he had been folicited in a dream to attempt fomething in confequence of the prophecy of the witches, that his waking senses were fhock'd at; and Shakspeare has here finely contrafted his character with that of Macbeth. Banquo is praying against being tempted to encourage thoughts of guilt even in his fleep; while Macbeth is hurrying

into

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch.

Who's there?

Macb. A friend.

Ban. What, fir, not yet at reft? The king's a-bed: He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largess to your officers:

This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up2
In measureless content.

Mach. Being unprepar'd,

Our will became the fervant to defect;
Which else should free have wrought3.
Ban. All's well.

I dreamt last night of the three weird fifters:
To you they have fhew'd fome truth.

Mach. I think not of them:

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,

We would spend it in fome words upon that bufinefs,

into temptation, and revolving in his mind every scheme, however flagitious, that may aflift him to complete his purpose. The one is unwilling to fleep, left the fame phantoms fhould aflail his resolution again, while the other is depriving himself of reft through impatience to commit the murder. The fame kind of invocation occurs in Cymbeline: "From fairies, and the tempters of the night, "Guard me!" STEEVENS.

·2- - fout up] To shut up, is to conclude. So, in the Spanish Tregedy:

"And heavens have but up day to pleasure us."

Again, in Stowe's account of the earl of Eflex's speech on the scaffold: "he but up all with the Lord's prayer." STEEVENS. Again, in Stowe's Annals, p. 833: "the kings majestie [K. James] but up all with a pithy exhortation on both fides," MALONI. 3 Being unprepar'd,

Our will became the fervant to defect;

Which elfe bould free bave wrought.] This is obfcurely expreffed. The meaning feems to be :-Being unprepared, our entertainment was neceffarily defe&ive, and we only had it in our power to fhew the king our quillingness to ferve him. Had we received fufficient notice of his coming, our zeal should have been more clearly manifefted by our að. Which refers, not to the last antecedent, defe&t, but to will. MALONE.

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If you would grant the time.
Ban. At your kind'ft leisure.

Macb. If you fhall cleave to my confent,-when 'tis, It fhall make honour for you*.

4 If you shall cleave to my confent, when 'tis,

Ban.

It fhall make bonour for you.] Macbeth expreffes his thought with affected obfcurity; he does not mention the royalty, though he apparently had it in his mind. If you fall cleave to my confent, if you fhall concur with me when I determine to accept the crown, when 'tis, when that happens which the prediction promises, it shall make honour for you. JOHNSON.

Such another expreffion occurs in lord Surrey's tranflation of the fecond book of Virgil's Æneid:

"And if thy will fick unto mine, I shall

"In wedlocke fure knit, and make her his own." When 'tis, means, when 'tis my leifure to talk with you on this bufinefs & referring to what Banquo had just said, at your kindest leifure.

But yet another explanation may be offered.-Confent has fometimes the power of the Latin concentus. Both the verb and fubftantive, de cidedly bearing this fignification, occur in other plays of our author. Thus in K. Henry VI. P. I. fc. i:

66

fcourge the bad revolting stars

"That have confented to king Henry's death;"

i.e. acted in concert so as to occafion it.-Again, in K. Henry IV. P. II. A& V. fc. i: "they (Juftice Shallow's fervants) flock together in confent, (i. e. in a party,) like fo many wild geefe."-In both these inftances the words are spelt erroneously, and should be written concent and concented. See Spenfer, &c. as quoted in a note on the paffage already adduced from K. Henry VI.

The meaning of Macbeth may then be as follows:-If you shall cleave to my confent-i. e. if you shall stick, or adhere, to my party, when 'tis, i. e. at the time when fuch a party is formed, your conduct shall produce honour for you.

Macbeth mentally refers to the crown he expected to obtain in confequence of the murder he was about to commit. The commentator, indeed, (who is acquainted with what precedes and follows) comprehends all that paffes in the mind of the fpeaker; but Banquo is still in ignorance of it. His reply is only that of a man who determines to combat every poffible temptation to do ill; and therefore expreffes a refolve that in fpite of future combinations of intereft, or struggles for power, he will attempt nothing that may obfcure his prefent honour, alarm his confcience, or corrupt his loyalty.

Macbeth could never mean, while yet the fuccefs of his attack on the life of Duncan was uncertain, to afford Banquo the most dark or diftant

Ban. So I lofe none,

In fecking to augment it, but ftill keep

My

diftant hint of his defigns on the crown. Had he acted thus incautioufly, Banquo would naturally have become his accufer, as foon as the murder had been difcovered. STEEVENS.

I have too much respect for both the learned commentators, to omit their notes on this very difficult passage, though I do not agree with either of them. The word confent has always appeared to me unintel ligible in the firft of thefe lines, and was, I am perfuaded, a mere errour of the prefs. A paffage in the Tempeft leads me to think that our author wrote-content. Antonio is counselling Sebaftian to murder Gonzalo :

"O, that you bore

"The mind that I do; what, a fleep were there

"For your advancement! Do you understand me?
"Beb. I think I do.

"Ant. And how does your content

"Tender your own good fortune?"

In the fame play we have- Thy thoughts I cleave to," which differs but little from "I cleave to thy content."

In the Comedy of Errors our author has again used this word in the fame fenfe :

"Sir, I commend you to your own content."

Again, in All's well that ends well:

"Madam, the care I have taken to even your content,"

i. e. fays Dr. Johnson, to act up to your defires. Again, in Kirg Richard III:

"God hold it to your honour's good content!"

Again, in the Merry Wives of Windfor: "You shall hear how things go, and, I warrant, to your own content."

The meaning then of the prefent difficult paffage, thus corrected, will be,-If you will clofely adhere to my caufe, if you will promote, as far as you can, what is likely to contribute to my fatisfaction and cessent, when 'tis, when the prophecy of the weird fifters is fulfilled, when I am feated on the throne, the event fhall make honour for you.

If Macbeth does not mean to allude darkly to his attainment of the crown, (I do not fay to his forcible or unjust acquifition of it, but to his attainment of it,) what meaning can be drawn from the words, "If you fhall cleave," &c. whether we read confent, or the word now propofed? In the preceding fpeech, though he affects not to think of it, he yet clearly marks out to Banquo what it is that is the object of the mysterious words which we are now confidering:

"Yet, when we can entreat an hour to ferve,
"We would fpend it in fome words upon that bufinefs;"

2

My bofom franchis'd, and allegiance clear,
I shall be counsel'd.

i. e. "upon the prophecy of the weird fifters, [that I should be thane of Cawdor, and afterwards king,] which, as you obferve, has been in part fulfilled, and which by the kindness of fortune may at fome future time be in the whole accomplished."

I do not fuppofe that Macbeth means to give Banquo the most diftant hint of his having any intention to murder Duncan; but merely to state to him, that if he will ftrenuously endeavour to promote his fatisfaction or content, if he will efpoufe his caufe, and fupport him against all adverfaries, whenever he fhall be feated on the throne of Scotland, by whatever mysterious operation of fate that event may be brought about, fuch a conduct shall be rewarded, fhall make honour for Banquo. The word content admits of this interpretation, and is fupported by feveral ●ther paffages in our author's plays; the word confert, in my apprehenfion, affords here no meaning whatsoever.

Confent or concent may certainly fignify barmony, and ina metaphorical fenfe that union which binds to each other a party of number of men, leagued together for a particular purpofe; but it can no more fignify, as I conceive, the party, or body of men fo combined together, or the caufe for which they are united, than the harmony produced by a number of mufical inftruments can fignify the inftruments themfelves or the musicians that play upon them. When Fairfax, in his tranflation of Taffo, fays

Birds, winds and waters fing with fweet concent,

we muft furely underftand by the word concent, not a party, or a caufe, but harmony, or union; and in the latter fenfe, I apprehend, Juftice Shallow's fervants are faid to flock together in concent, in the fecond part of K. Henry IV.

If this correction be juft, " In feeking to augment it," in Banquo's reply, may perhaps relate not to his own honour, but to Macbeth's content. "On condition that I lofe no honour, in feeking to increase your fatisfallion, or content, to gratify your wishes," &c. The words however may be equally commodiously interpreted,- Provided that in feeking an increase of bonour, I lofe none," &c.

Sir William D'Avenant's paraphrafe on this obfcure paffage is as follows:

"If when the prophecy begins to look like, you will

"Adhere to me, it shall make honour for you." MALONE. Macbeth certainly did not mean to divulge to Banquo the wicked means by which he intended to fecure the crown, but his profpect of obtaining the crown was evidently to be the subject of their conference: and it was only on the fuppofition of Macbeth's obtaining it, that he could promife any addition of honour to Banquo, who was his equal, while he remained a fubject. MASON.

Mach.

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