Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Ban. This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet," does approve, By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath, Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,' buttress, Nor coigne of vantage, but this bird hath made His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they3 men in the situation which is represented.-This also is frequently the practice of Homer, who, from the midst of battles and horrors, relieves and refreshes the mind of the reader, by introducing some quiet rural image, or picture of familiar domestic life. Sir J. Reynolds. 8 Unto our gentle senses.] Senses are nothing more than each man's sense. Gentle sense is very elegant, as it means placid, calm, composed, and intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day. Johnson. 9 martlet,] This bird is in the old edition called barlet. Johnson. Malone. The correction was made by Mr. Rowe. It is supported by the following passage in The Merchant of Venice: like the martlet "Builds in the weather on the outward wall." Steevens. 1 — no jutty, frieze,] A comma should be placed after jutty. A jutty, or jetty, (for so it ought rather to be written) is not here, as has been supposed, an epithet to frieze, but a substantive; signifying that part of a building which shoots forward beyond the rest. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: "Barbacane. An out-nooke or corner standing out of a house; a jettie."-" Sporto. A porch, a portal, a bay-window, or outbutting, or jettie, of a house, that jetties out farther than anie other part of the house."-See also Surpendue, in Cotgrave's French Dict. 1611: "A jettie; an out-jetting room." Malone. Shakspeare uses the verb to jutty, in King Henry V : 66 as fearfully as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base.” The substantive also occurs in an agreement between Philip Henslowe, &c. &c. for building a new theatre, in the year 1599. See Vol. II: "- besides a juttey forwards in eyther of the saide two upper stories &c." Steevens. 2 coigne of vantage,] Convenient corner. Johnson. So, in Pericles: "By the four opposing coignes, "Which the world together joins." Steevens. 3 His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they-] Lest VOL. VII. Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, the air Is delicate. Dun. Enter Lady MACBETH. See, see! our honour'd hostess! The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble, the reader should think this verse defective in harmony, he ought to be told, that as nee lle was once written and pronounced neele and neeld, so cradle was contracted into crale, and conse quently uttered as a monosyllable Thus, in the fragment of an ancient Christmas carol now before me: In some parts of Warwickshire, (as I am informed) the word is drawlingly pronounced as if it had been written craale. Steevens. Most breed-] The folio-must breed. Steevens. The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble, And thank us for your trouble.] The attention that is paid us, (says Duncan on seeing lady Macbeth come to meet him) sometimes gives us pain, when we reflect that we give trouble to others; yet still we cannot but be pleased with such attentions, because they are a proof of affection. So far is clear;-but of the following words, I confess, I have no very distinct conception, and suspect them to be corrupt. Perhaps the meaning is,-By being the occasion of so much trouble, I furnish you with a motive to pray to heaven to reward me for the pain I give you, inasmuch as the having such an opportunity of showing your loyalty may hereafter prove beneficial to you; and herein also I afford you a motive to thank me for the trouble I give you, because by showing me such attention, (however painful it may be to me to be the cause of it) you have an opportunity of displaying an amiable character, and of ingratiating yourself with your sovereign: which, finally, may bring you both profit and honour. Malone. This passage is undoubtedly obscure, and the following is the best explication of it I am able to offer: Marks of respect, importunately shown, are sometimes troublesome, though we are still bound to be grateful for them, as indications of sincere attachment. If you pray for us on account of the Lady M. All our service Against those honours deep and broad, wherewith We rest your hermits. trouble we create in your house, and thank us for the molestations we bring with us, it must be on such a principle. Herein I teach you, that the inconvenience you suffer, is the result of our affection; and that you are therefore to pray for us, or thank us, only as far as pra ers and thanks can be deserved for kindnesses that fatigue, and bonours that oppress. You are, in short, to make your acknowledg ments for intended respect and love, however irksome our present mode of expressing them may have proved.—To bid is here used in the Saxon sense-to pray. Steevens. How you shall bid God-yield us -] To bid any one God-yeld him, i. e. God-yield him, was the same as God reward him. Warburton. I believe yield, or, as it is in the folio of 1623, eyld, is a corrupted contraction of shield. The wish implores not reward, but protection. Johnson. I rather believe it to be a corruption of God-yield, i. e. reward. In Antony and Cleopatra we meet with it at length: "And the gods yield you for 't." Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Esau, 1568: "God yelde you, Esau, with all my stomach." Again, in the old metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick, bl. 1. no date: 66 Syr, quoth Guy, God yield it you, "Of this great gift you give me now." Again, in Chaucer's Sompnoure's Tale, v. 7759; Mr. Tyr. whitt's edit. "God yelde you adoun in your village." Again, one of the Paston Letters, Vol. IV, p. 335, begins thus: "To begin, God yeld you for my hats." God shield means God forbid, and could never be used as a form of returning thanks. So in Chaucer's Milleres Tale: "God shilde that he died sodenly." 6 We rest your hermits.] Hermits, for beadsmen. Warburton. That is, we as hermits shall always pray for you. Thus, in A. of Wyntown's Cronykil, B. IX, c. xxvii, v. 99: "His bedmen thai suld be for-thi, "And pray for hym rycht hartfully.” Again, in Arden of Feversham, 1592: "I am your beadsman, bound to pray for you." Dun. Where's the thane of Cawdor? We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose To be his purveyor: but he rides well; 7 And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us: Fair and noble hostess, We are your guest to-night. Lady M. Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, Still to return your own. Give me your hand: Dun. SCENE VII. The same. A Room in the Castle. [Exeunt. Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service, Then enter MACBETH. Macb. If it were done,1 when 'tis done, then 'twere well worshipful sir, "I shall be still your beadsman." This phrase occurs frequently in The Paston Letters. Steevens. bis great love, sharp as his spur,] So, in Twelfth Night, Act III, sc. iii: 7 my desire, "More sharp than filed steel, did spur me forth." Steevens. • Your servants ever &c.] The metaphor in this speech is taken from the Steward's compting-house or audit-room. In compt, means, subject to account. So, in Timon of Athens: "And have the dates in compt." The sense of the whole is :-We, and all who belong to us, look upon our lives and fortunes not as our own properties, but as things we have received merely for your use, and for which we must be accountable, whenever you please to call us to our audit; when, like faithful stewards, we shall be ready to answer your summons, by returning you what is your own. Steevens. 9 Enter a Sewer,] I have restored this stage-direction from the old copy. It were done quickly: If the assassination A sewer was an officer so called from his placing the dishes: upon the table. Asseour, French; from asseoir, to place. Thus, in Chapman's version of the 24th Iliad: Automedon as fit "Was for the reverend sewer's place; and all the brownè joints serv'd "On wicker vessell to the board." Barclay, Ecl. II, has the following remark on the conduct of these domestics: "Slowe be the sewers in serving in alway, "But swift be they after, taking the meate away." Another part of the sewer's office was, to bring water for the guests to wash their hands with. Thus Chapman, in his ver sion of the Odyssey: arm. 66 and then the sewre "Pour'd water from a great and golden ewre.” The sewer's chief mark of distinction was a towel round his. So, in Ben Jonson's Silent Woman: " clap me a clean towel about you, like a sewer." Again: "See, sir Amorous has his towel on already. [He enters like a sewer."] It may be worth while to observe, for the sake of preserving an ancient word that the dishes served in by sewers were called' sewes. So, in the old MS. romance of The Sowdon of Babyloyne, p. 66: "Lest that lurdeynes come sculkynge out, Steevens. 1 If it were done, &c.] A sentiment parallel to this occurs in The Proceedings against Garnet in the Powder Plot. It would have been commendable, when it had been done, though not before." Farmer. 2 If the assassination &c.] Of this soliloquy the meaning is not very clear: I have never found the readers of Shakspeare agreeing about it. I understand it thus: "If that which I am about to do, when it is once done and executed, were done and ended without any following effects, it would then be best to do it quickly: if the murder could ter minate in itself, and restrain the regular course of consequen-, ces, if its success could secure its surcease, if, being once done successfully, without detection, it could fix a period to all vengeance and inquiry, so that this blow might be all that I have to do, and this anxiety all that I have to suffer; if this could be my. condition, even here in this world, in this contracted period of ̈ temporal existence, on this narrow bank in the ocean of eternity, I would jump the life to come, I would venture upon the deed without care of any future state. But this is one of those cases ·, |