[Exit MACD. Goes the king For 'tis my limited service.1 Len. From hence to-day?2 Macb. He does he did appoint it so.3 Len. The night has been unruly: Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say, Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death And prophesying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion, and confus'd events, New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth Was feverous, and did shake.4 1 For 'tis my limited service.] Limited, for appointed. So, in Timon: 66 - for there is boundless theft, "In limited professions." Warburton. i. e. professions to which people are regularly and legally ap pointed. Steevens. 2 Goes the king From hence to-day?] I have supplied the prepositionfrom, for the sake of metre. So, in a former scene, Duncan says, 3 He does: he did appoint it so.] The words-be does-are omitted by Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton. But perhaps Shakspeare designed Macbeth tv shelter himself undor an immediate falsehood, till a sudden recollection of guilt restrained his confidence, and unguardedly disposed him to qualify his assertion; as he well knew the king's journey was effectually prevented by his death. A similar trait had occurred in a former scene: 4 "L. M. And when goes hence? "M. To-morrow,-as he purposes." Steevens. · strange screams of death; And prophesying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion, and confus'd events, The obscure bird Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth Was feverous, and did shake.] These lines, I think, should be rather regulated thus: •prophesying with accents terrible, Of tire combustion and confus'd events. New-batch'd to the woeful time, the obscure bird Macb. 'Twas a rough night. Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it. Re-enter MACDUFF. Macd. O horror! horror! horror Tongue, nor heart, Cannot conceive, nor name thee! A prophecy of an event new-hatch'd seems to be a prophecy of an event past. And a prophecy new-batch'd is a wry expres sion. The term new batch'd is properly applicable to a ird, and that birds of ill omen should be new-ba ch'd to the woeful time, that is, should appear in uncommon numbers, is very consistent with the rest of the prodigies here mentioned, and with the universal disorder into which nature is described as thrown by the perpetration of this horrid murder. Johnson. I think Dr. Johnson's regulation of these lines is improper. Prophesying is what is new-batch'd, and in the metaphor holds the place of the egg. The events are the fruit of such hatching. Steevens. I think Steevens has justly explained this passage, but should wish to read-prophecyings in the plural. M Mason. Dr. Johnson observes, that "a prophecy of an event newbatch'd seems to be a prophecy of an event past. And a prophecy new-batch'd is a wry expression." The construction suggested by Mr. Steevens meets with the first objection. Yet the following passage in which the same imagery is found, inclines me to believe that our author meant, that new-batch'd should be referred to events, though the events were yet to come. Allowing for his usual inaccuracy with respect to the active and passive participle, the events may be said to be "the batch and brood of time." See King Henry IV, P. II: "The which observ'd, a man may prophesy, "With a near aim, of the main chance of things "Such things become the batch and brood of time." Here certainly it is the thing or event, and not the prophecy, which is the batch of time; but it must be acknowledged, the word "become" sufficiently marks the future time. If therefore the construction that I have suggested be the true one, batch'd must be here used for hatching, or "in the state of being batch'd."-To the woeful time, means-to suit the woeful time. Malone. some say, the earth Was feverous, and did shake.] So, in Coriolanus: 66 as if the world' "Was feverous, and did tremble." Steevens. Macb. Len. What's the matter? Macd. Confusion now hath made his master-piece! Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence Macb. What is 't you say? the life? Len. Mean you his majesty? Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight With a new Gorgon:-Do not bid me speak; Ring the alarum-bell:-Murder! and treason! Tongue, nor heart, Cannot conceive, &c.] The use of two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly, is very common in our author. So, in Julius Casar, Act III, sc i: 66 there is no harm "Intended to your person, nor to no Roman else." Steevens. this horror!] Here the old copy adds-Ring the bell. Steevens. The subsequent hemistich-"What's the business?"-which completes the metre of the receding line, without the words Ring the bell," affords, in my opinion, a strong presumptive proof that these words were only a marginal direction. It should be remembered that the stage directions were formerly often couched in imperative terms: "Draw a knife;" "Play music;" "King the bell;" &c. In the original copy we have here indeed also-Bell rings, as a marginal direction; but this was inserted, I imagine, from the players misconceiving what Shakspeare had in truth set down in his copy as a dramatic direction to the property-man, ("Ring the hell") for a part of Macdufi's speech; and, to distinguish the direction which they inserted, from the supposed words of the speaker, they departed from the usual imperative form. Throughout the whole of the preceding scene we have constantly an imperative direction to the prompter: Knock within." I suppose, it was in consequence of an imperfect recollection of this hemistich, that Mr. Pope, having, in his Preface, Enter Lady MACBETH. Lady M. What's the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? speak, speak,7. Macd. O, gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak : Would murder as it fell.'-O Banquo! Banquo! Our royal master 's murder'd! Lady M. What, in our house ?9 Ban. Woe, alas! Too cruel, any where. Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself, And say, it is not so. charged the editors of the first folio with introducing stagedirections into their author's text, in support of his assertion, quotes the following line: "My queen is murder'd:-ring the little bell.” a line that is not found in any edition of these plays that I have met with, nor, I believe, in any other book. Malone. · 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. Steevens. 8 The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murder as it fell.] So, in Hamlet: 66 He would drown the stage with tears, "And cleave the general ear with horrid speech.' Again, in The Puritan, 1607: "The punishments that shall follow you in this world, would with horrour kill the ear should hear them related." Malone. • What, in our house?] This is very fine. Had she been innocent, nothing but the murder itself, and not any of its aggravating circumstances, would naturally have affected her. As it was, her business was to appear highly disordered at the news. Therefore, like one who has her thoughts about her, she seeks for an aggravating circumstance, that might be supposed most to affect her personally; not considering, that by placing it there, she discovered rather a concern for herself than for the king. On the contrary, her husband, who had repented the act, and was now labouring under the horrors of a recent murder, in his exclamation, gives all the marks of sorrow for the fact itself. Warburton. VOL. VII. Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX. Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time;1 for, from this instant, There's nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys: renown, and grace, is dead; Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. Don. What is amiss? Macb. You are, and do not know it: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Macd. Your royal father 's murder'd. Mal. They star'd, and were distracted; no man's life Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them. Macd. Wherefore did you so? Macb. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, and fu rious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: The expedition of my violent love 1 Had I but died an hour before this chance, 2 I bad liv'd a blessed time;] So, in The Winter's Tale: 66 "If I might die within this hour, I have liv'd "To die when I desire." Malone. badg'd with blood,] I once thought that our author wrote bath'd; but badg'd is certainly right. So, in The Second Part of King Henry VI: "With murder's crimson badge." Malone. their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found Upon their pillows:] This idea, perhaps, was taken from The Man of Lawes Tale, by Chaucer, I. 5027, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit: * "And in the bed the blody knif he fond.” See also the foregoing lines. Steevens. |