SCENE I.-3. Went into the field. Steevens thinks S. forgot that he had shut up Macbeth in Dunsinane; but, as Boswell notes, Ross says (iv. 3. 185) that he had seen "the tyrant's power afoot." The strength of his adversaries, and the revolt of his own troops (v. 2. 18), had probably led him to retreat into his castle.

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9. Effects. Actions. Cf. Ham. iii. 4. 129; Lear, i. 1. 188, ii. 4. 182, etc. 10. Slumbery. For other adjectives of similar formation, see Gr. 450. II. Actual. Consisting in doing anything, in contradistinction to thoughts or words" (Schmidt); as in Oth. iv. 2. 153, the only other instance of the word in S.

17. Close. Hidden; as in 7. C. i. 3. 131, etc.

20. 'T is her command. Dr. Bucknill asks: "Was this to avert the presence of those sightless substances' (i. 5. 47) once impiously invoked? She seems washing her hands, and continues in this a quarter of an hour.' What a comment on her former boast, 'A little water clears us of this deed!""

22. Is shut. The folios have "their sense are shut." It may be an instance under Gr. 471, like horse, etc. See on ii. 4. 14. Cf. Sonn. 112. 10:

32. Hell is murky. Steevens thinks that she imagines herself talking to Macbeth, and that these are his words which she repeats contemptuously; but it seems better (with Clarke and Noble Butler) to regard them as the expression of her own dread of hell.

40. You mar all, etc. "Alluding to the terrors of Macbeth, when the Ghost broke in on the festivity of the banquet" (Steevens).

42. Go to. Often used as an expression of exhortation or reproof (Schmidt). Cf. Temp. iv. 1. 253; Oth. iv. 2. 194, etc. See also Genesis, xi. 3, 4, 7 and xxxviii. 16; 2 Kings, v. 5, etc.

46. Smell. Verplanck, after remarking that "the more agreeable associations of this sense are often used for poetic effect, adds: "But the smell has never been successfully used as a means of impressing the imagination with terror, pity, or any of the deeper emotions, except in this dreadful sleep-walking scene of the guilty Queen, and in one parallel scene of the Greek drama, as wildly terrible as this. It is that passage of the Agamemnon of Eschylus, where the captive prophetess, Cassandra, wrapt in visionary inspiration, scents first the smell of blood, and then the vapours of the tomb breathing from the palace of Atrides, as ominous of his approaching murder."

49. Sorely charged. Heavily laden. Cf. iv. 3. 210: heart."

"the o'erfraught

52. The dignity, etc. "The queenly rank of the lady herself" (C. P. ed.).

56. Which. See Gr. 266.

60. On 's. Cf. " on 't," i. 3. 42, etc.

etc.

Gr. 182.

See also Lear, i. 4. 114. iv. 5. 20,

72. Remove, etc. Lest the lady in her despair might commit suicide (Delius). On annoyance, cf. K. John, v. 2. 150; T. and C. i. 3. 48,

etc.

74. Mated. Bewildered, paralyzed. Cf. V. and A. 909; C. of E. iii. 2. 54, v. I. 281; and 2 Hen. VI. iii. 1. 265.

SCENE II.-3. Revenges. For the plural, cf. M. for M. iv. 3. 140; A. W. v. 3. 10; T. N. v. 1. 385; Cor. iv. 5. 143, etc.

Dear causes. Cf. Lear, iv. 3. 53: "Some dear cause.

On the pecul

iar uses of dear in S. see Temp. p. 124, note on The dear'st o' th' loss. 4. Alarm. Call to arms. See on "alarum'd," ii. 1. 53.

5. The mortified man. "The veriest ascetic" (Moberly). Cf. L. L. L. i. I. 28. Schmidt explains mortified as "deprived of vital faculty, made apathetic and insensible." There is little to choose between the two. The C. P. ed. suggests that it may mean "dead, mortified in the literal sense;" as in Hen. V. i. 1. 26.

8. File. List. See on iii. 1. 94. 10. Unrough. Beardless.

Cf. Temp. ii. 1. 250: "rough and razor

able." See also W. T. i. 2. 128, iv. 4. 744.

Malone cites K. John, v. 2.

133: "This unhair'd sauciness and boyish troops."

II. Protest.

1. 117.

Proclaim. Cf. iii. 4. 105; and on first of manhood, iii.

13. Lesser. S. uses it several times as an adverb. See on i. 3. 65. 15. Steevens notes that we have the same metaphor in T. and C. ii. 2.30:

"And buckle in a waist most fathomless

With spans and inches so diminutive
As fears and reasons.'

The

Sr., D., Coll., and H. (2d ed.) adopt Walker's "course" for cause. C. P. ed. explains distemper'd cause as the disorganized party, the disordered body over which he rules. Instead of being like "a well-girt man," εvswvoc ȧvýp, full of vigour, his state is like one in dropsy. We have the same metaphor more elaborated in 2 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 38: "King. Then you perceive the body of our kingdom How foul it is; what rank diseases grow,

And with what danger, near the heart of it.

18. Minutely.

Warwick. It is but as a body yet distemper'd," etc.

"Happening every minute, continual" (Schmidt).

Used nowhere else by S.

20. Nothing. Adverbial, as in v. 4. 2. Gr. 55. For the figure that follows, cf. i. 3. 145.

23. Pester'd. Troubled, perplexed. Cf. Ham. i. 2. 22; T. and C. v. I. 38, etc. On to recoil=for recoiling, see Gr. 356. Cf. iv. 3. 19.

27. Medicine. Some critics take this to mean physician (Fr. médecin), as in A. W. ii. 1. 75, and W. T. iv. 4. 598. Schmidt so explains it here. But the next line rather favours taking it in its ordinary sense. may refer to Malcolm, as Heath suggests, not to medicine. easy to decide between the two interpretations. Cf. iii. 4. 76. 30. Dew.

Him It is not

Also used as a verb in V. and A. 66; M. N. D. ii. 1. 9; R. and J. v. 3. 14, etc.

SCENE III.-1. Them. That is, the thanes.

3. Taint. Be infected. Cf. Cymb. i. 4. 148, and T. N. iii. 4. 145. Walker conjectured "faint.”

5. On the measure, see Gr. 496. For pronounce, cf. Hen. VIII. i. 1. 196. 8. English epicures. The C. P. ed. observes that gluttony was a common charge brought by the Scotch against their wealthier neighbours. "The English pock-puddings" is a phrase of frequent occurrence in the Waverley Novels. The English too brought similar charges against their Continental neighbours. Delius quotes from the drama of Edward III., falsely attributed to Shakespeare:

"Those ever-bibbing epicures.

Those frothy Dutchmen, puff'd with double beer."

9. The mind I sway by. That is, am directed by (Schmidt). explain it, "by which I bear rule."

Some

10. Sag. Droop. We infer from the C. P. ed. that the word is only provincial in England. Like some other words we have noted in S., it

is still in common use in New England. See Mer. p. 139, note on Fillhorse; also on Paddock, i. 1. 10, and Sliver'd, iv. 1. 28 above.

13. There is. See Gr. 335.

15. Lily-liver'd. Cowardly.

Cf. Lear, ii. 2. 18: "A lily-liver'd, action taking knave;" M. of V. iii. 2. 86: "livers white as milk;" 2 Hen. IV. iv. 3. 113: "the liver white and pale," etc.

Patch. Clown, fool. See Mer. p. 142. Cf. Temp. iii. 2. 71; C. of E. iii. 1. 32, etc.

16. Linen cheeks. Steevens quotes Hen. V. ii. 2. 74: "Their cheeks are paper.' See on iii. 4. 116.

20. Push. Attack, onset (Schmidt); as in 7. C. v. 2. 5, etc.

21. Will cheer me, etc. The Ist folio has "Will cheere me euer, or dis-eate me now;" the other folios have "disease" for "dis-eate." Capell conjectured "disseat," which has been generally adopted by the editors, with Bishop Percy's suggestion of "chair" for "cheer." S. uses neither disseat nor the verb chair anywhere else. Furness suggests "dis-ease," which, as he remarks, "is the logical antithesis to cheer, and is used with no little force in the earlier versions of the New Testament." Cf. Luke, viii. 49 (both in Cranmer's Version, 1537, and in the version of 1581): "Thy daughter is dead, disease not the Master." Cotgrave gives disease, trouble," etc., as translations of the Fr. malaiser. See also Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2, 12: "His double burden did him sore disease;" Id. ii. 2, 24: "Whom raging winds... doe diversely disease," etc. Furness might have added as a confirmation of his reading that in the only other instance in which S. uses disease as a verb it is in this sense. See Cor. i. 3. 117: "She will but disease our better mirth." He uses the noun disease several times in the sense of trouble, vexation. Cf. 1 Hen. VI. ii. 5. 44:

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"First, lean thine aged back against mine arm;
And in that ease I'll tell thee my disease."

See also A. W. v. 4. 68, and T. of A. iii. 1. 56.

22. Way. Johnson conjectured "May," which the C. P. editors think S. "very probably wrote.' Malone quotes Rich. II. iii. 4. 48:

"He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf."

W. says:
"Dr. Johnson's emendation is a step prose ward, although
speciously poetic."

23. Sear. Schmidt and Moberly take this to be a noun; Steevens, Halliwell, and D. explain it as an adjective, which seems to us better. S. uses the noun or adjective sere (the same word) elsewhere only in Ham. ii. 2. 337: "tickled o' the sere" (where the meaning is much disputed), and in C. of E. iv. 2. 19: "He is deformed, crooked, old and sere."

On yellow leaf, cf. Sonn. 73. 1 :

24. Old age.

"The time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs," etc.

Clarke suggests that Macbeth's mention of himself as in

the autumn of life is "one of those touches of long time systematically thrown in at intervals, to convey the effect of a sufficiently elapsed period for the reign of the usurper since his murder of the preceding king, Duncan." Furness asks: "May we not add as one of these 'touches' the tardy recognition of Ross by Malcolm in iv. 3. 160?"

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35. Moe. More. Cf. Much Ado, ii. 3. 72: Sing no more ditties, sing no moe" (where it rhymes with so, as it does in R. of L, 1479, ; 7. C. ii. 1. 72: "there are moe with him," etc. The modern eds. generally change it to "more," unless the rhyme requires "moe."

Skirr. Scour. Used by S. only here and in Hen. V. iv. 7. 64, where it is intransitive.

40. Thou.

231.

On the use of the pronoun in the time of S., see Gr.

42. Delius notes that we have the same figure in Ham. i. 5. 103: "Within the book and volume of my brain.”

43. Oblivious. Causing forgetfulness (Schmidt). S. uses the word only here and in the compound “all-oblivious" (forgetful of all), Sonn. 55.9.

44. Stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff. There may be a corruption of the text here, as many critics have supposed, but similar repetitions are not uncommon in S. Cf. v. 2. 19 and v. 8. 72 in the present play. See also A. and C. i. 1. 44; A. W. ii. 1. 163, v. I. 35; R. and J. iii. 2. 92; K. John, ii. 1. 471, etc.

48. Staff. Lance, according to Schmidt; as in K. John, ii. 1. 318; Rich. III. v. 3. 65, 341; Much Ado, v. 1. 138, etc. The C. P. ed. explains it as "the general's bâton."

50. Come, sir, dispatch. These words are addressed to the attendant who is buckling on the armour. The agitation of the speaker's mind is marked by his turning from one to the other. No sooner is the armour put on than he bids the man pull it off (line 54), and then (line 58) orders it to be brought after him (C. P. ed.).

Cast. This was the word in use for finding out disorders by inspection of the water (Steevens).

52. Purge, etc. Cf. iii. 4. 76.

55. Senna. The reading of the 4th folio. The 1st has "Cyme;" the 2d and 3d, "Cæny." D. suggests that "cyme" was a misprint for 'cynne," one of the many ways of spelling senna.

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59. Bane. Ruin, destruction; as in T. and C. iv. 2. 98, T. A. v. 3. 73,

etc.

61, 62. Fleay rejects this couplet as a "washy sentiment," and "out of place after Macbeth's emphatic declaration."

SCENE IV.-2. That. When. See Gr. 284; and on nothing, Gr. 55. H. thinks the allusion is to the spies mentioned at iii. 4. 131; Ritter refers it to the circumstances of Duncan's murder.

6. Discovery. This refers to Macbeth's spies (Delius).

8. Other. See Gr. 12 and cf. 123.

=

10. For set down sit down, or begin a siege, cf. Cor. i. 2. 28, i. 3. 110; 7. of A. v. 3. 9, etc.