It shall make honour for you. commentator, indeed, (who is acquainted with what precedes and follows) comprehends all that passes in the mind of the speaker; but Banquo is still in ignorance of it. His reply is only that of a man who determines to combat every possible temptation to do ill; and therefore expresses a resolve that in: spite of future combinations of interest, or struggles for power, he will attempt nothing that may obscure his present honours, alarm his conscience, or corrupt his loyalty. Macbeth could never mean, while yet the success of his attack on the life of Duncan was uncertain, to afford Banquo the most dark or distant hint of his criminal designs on the crown. Had he acted thus incautiously. Banquo would naturally have become his accuser, as soon as the murder had been discovered. Steevens. That Banquo was apprehensive of a design upon the crown, is evident from his reply, which affords Macbeth so little en-, couragement, that he drops the subject. Ritson The word consent has always appeared to me unintelligible in the first of these lines, and was, I am persuaded, a mere error. of the press. A passage in The Tempest leads me to think that our author wrote-content. Antonio is counselling Sebastian to murder Gonzalo: "O, that you bore "The mind that I do; what a sleep were there "Ant. And how does your content> "Tender your own good fortune?" In the same 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 same sense :: "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. says Dr. Johnson, to act up to your desires. Again, in King Richard III: "God hold it to your honour's good content:"" Again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "You shall hear how things go, and, I warrant, to your own content.” The meaning then of the present difficult passage, thus corrected, will be: If you will closely adhere to my cause, if you will promote, as far as you can, what is likely to contribute to my satisfaction and content, when 'tis, when the prophecy of the weird sisters is fulfilled, when I am seated on the throne, the event shall make honour for you. The word content admits of this interpretation, and is supported by several other passages in our author's plays; the word Ban. So I lose none, In seeking to augment it, but still keep Macb. Good repose, the while! Ban. Thanks, sir; The like to you! [Exit BAN Macb. Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,* She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. [Exit Serv, Is this a dagger, which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch9 thee: consent, in my apprehension, affords here no meaning what soever. Consent or concent may certainly signify barmony, and, in a metaphorical sense, that union which binds to each other a party or number of men, leagued together for a particular purpose; but it can no more signify, as I conceive, the party, or body of men so combined together, or the cause for which they are united, than the harmony produced by a number of musical instruments can signify the instruments themselves, or the musicians that play upon them. When Fairfax, in his translation of Tasso, says "Birds, winds and waters sing with sweet concent," we must surely understand by the word concent, not a party,.or a cause, but harmony, or union; and in the latter sense, I ap. prehend, Justice Shallow's servants are said to flock together in concent, in The Second Part of King Henry IV. If this correction be just, "In seeking to augment it," in Banquo's reply, may perhaps relate not to his own honour, but to Macbeth's content. "On condition that I lose no honour, in seeking to increase your satisfaction, or content,-to gratify your wishes," &c. The words, however, may be equally commodiously interpreted,—“ Provided that in seeking an increase of bonour, I lose none," &c. Sir William D'Avenant's paraphrase on this obscure passageis as follows: "If when the prophecy begins to look like, you will when my drink is ready,] See note on " their possets,' in the next scene, p. 91. Steevens. 9 clutch] This word, though reprobated by Ben Jonson, who sneers at Decker for using it, was employed by other writers besides Decker and our author. So, in Antonio's Revenge, by Marston, 1602: 66 all the world is clutch'd "In the dull leaden hand of snoring sleep." Malone. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. To feeling, as to sight? or art thou but As this which now I draw. Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going; Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood,1 1 And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood,] Though dudgeon sometimes signifies a dagger, it more properly means the baft or handle of a dagger, and is used for that particular sort of handle which has some ornament carved on the top of it. Junius explains the dudgeon, i. e. haft, by the Latin expression, manubrium apiatum, which means a handle of wood, with a grain rough as if the seeds of parsley were strown over it. Thus, in the concluding page of the Dedication to Stanyhurst's Virgil, 1583. "Well fare thee haft with thee dudgeon dagger!” Again, in Lyly's comedy of Mother Bombie. 1594: "-- then have at the bag with the dudgeon hafte, that is, at the dudgeon dagger that hangs by his tantony pouch." In Soliman and Perseda is the following passage: 66 Typhon me no Typhons, "But swear upon my dudgeon dagger." Again, in Decker's Satiromastix: "I am too well ranked, Asinius, to be stabb'd with his dudgeon wit." Again, in Skialetheia, a collection of Epigrams, Satires, &c. 1598: "A audgin dagger that 's new scowr'd and glast." Steevens. Gascoigne confirms this: "The most knottie piece of box may be wrought to a fayre doogen bafte." Gouts for drops is frequent in old English. Farmer. gouts of blood,] Or drops, French. Pope. Gouts is the technical term for the spots on some part of the plumage of a hawk: or perhaps Shakspeare used the word in allusion to a phrase in heraldry. When a field is charged or sprinkled with red drops, it is said to be gutty of gules, or gutty de sang. The same word occurs also in The Art of good Loving and good Deyng, 1503: "Befor the jugement all herbys shal sweyt read goutys of water, as blood." Steevens. Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er the one half world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse Deeper The curtain'd`sleep now witchcraft celebrates3 Now o'er the one half world Nature seems dead,] That is, over our hemisphere all action and motion seem to have ceased. This image, which is, perhaps, the most striking that poetry can produce, has been adopted by Dryden, in his Conquest of Mexico: "All things are hush'd as Nature's self lay dead, "The mountains seem to ncd their drowsy head; "And sleeping flow'rs beneath the night dews sweat. These lines, though so well known, I have transcribed, that the contrast between them and this passage of Shakspeare may be more accurately observed. Night is described by two great poets, but one describes a night of quiet, the other of perturbation. In the night of Dryden, all the disturbers of the world are laid asleep; in that of Shakspeare, nothing but sorcery, lust, and murder, is awake. He that reads Dryden, finds himself lulled with serenity, and disposed to solitude and contemplation. He that peruses Shak. speare, looks round alarmed, and starts to find himself alone. One is the night of a lover; the other, of a murderer. Johnson. Perhaps Sir Philip Sidney had the honour of suggesting the last image in Dryden's description: "Night hath clos'd all in her cloke, "Twinkling starres love-thoughts provoke ; "Fealousie itselfe dooth sleepe." England's Helicon, edit. 1600, p. 1. Steevens. Now o'er the one half world &c.] So, in the second part of Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 1602: ""Tis yet dead night; yet all the earth is clutch'd "No breath disturbs the quiet of the air, "No spirit moves upon the breast of earth, "Save howling dogs, night-crows, and screeching-owls, "Save meagre ghosts, Piero, and black thoughts. 66 I am great in blood, Unequal'd in revenge :-you horrid scouts "That sentinel swart night, give loud applause 3 The curtain'd sleep; now witchcraft celebrates-] The word now has been added for the sake of metre. Probably Shak speare wrote: The curtain'd sleeper. The folio spells the word sleepe, and an addition of the letter r only affords the proposed emendation Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder, IVhose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, Milton has transplanted this image into his Masque at Ludlow Castle, v. 554 : "That draw the litter of close-curtain'd sleep." Steevens. Mr. Steevens's emendation of " the curtain'd sleeper," is well intitled to a place in the text. It is clearly Shakspeare's own word. Ritson. So afterwards: a hideous trumpet calls to parley "The sleepers of the house." Now was added by Sir William D'Avenant, in his alteration of this play, published in 1674. Malone. 4 thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design Malone. A ravishing stride is an action of violence, impetuosity, and tumult, like that of a savage rushing on his prey; whereas the poet is here attempting to exhibit an image of secrecy and caution, of anxious circumspection and guilty timidity, the stealthy pace of a ravisher creeping into the chamber of a virgin, and of an assassin approaching the bed of him whom he proposes to murder, without awaking him; these he describes as moving like ghosts, whose progression is so different from strides, that it has been in all ages represented to be as Milton expresses it: "Smooth sliding without step." This hemistich will afford the true reading of this place which is, I think, to be corrected thus: and wither'd murder thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin ravishing, slides tow'rds his design, Tarquin is, in this place, the general name of a ravisher, and the sense is: Now is the time in which every one is a-sleep, but those who are employed in wickedness; the witch who is sacrificing to Hecate, and the ravisher, and the murderer, who, like me, are stealing upon their prey. When the reading is thus adjusted, he wishes, with great, propriety, in the following lines, that the earth may not bear bis Props. Johnson, YOL VII, 器 |