Duncan comes here to-night.

Macb.

Lady M.

O, never

Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes.

Lady M.

Shall sun that morrow see!

Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time,

Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent
flower,

But be the serpent under 't. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put

This night's great business into my dispatch; 70
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Macb. We will speak further.
Lady M.

Only look up clear;

To alter favor ever is to fear:

Leave all the rest to me.

[Exeunt.

65. "To beguile the time"; to deceive the world.-C. H. H.

SCENE VI

Before Macbeth's castle.

Hautboys and torches. Enter Duncan, Malcolm,
Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff,
Ross, Angus, and Attendants.

Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.

3an.

This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his loved mansionry that the heaven's
breath

Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,

Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle:

1. "The subject of this quiet and easy conversation gives that repose so necessary to the mind after the tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts the scene of horror that immediately succeeds. It seems as if Shakespeare asked himself, What is a prince likely to say to h.s attendants on such an occasion? Whereas the modern writers seem, on the contrary, to be always searching for new thoughts, such as would never occur to 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).-H. N. H.

4. "martlet"; Rowe's emendation of Ff., "Barlet."-I. G.

5. "loved mansionry"; Theobald's emendation of Ff., "loved mansonry"; Pope (ed. 2), "loved masonry."-I. G.

6. “jutty, frieze"; Pope, "jutting frieze"; Staunton conj. "jutty, nor frieze," &c.—I. G.

Where they most breed and haunt, I have ob

served

The air is delicate.

Dun.

Enter Lady Macbeth.

See, see, our honor'ed hostess! 10

Herein I teach

The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love.

you

you

How shall bid God 'ild us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.

Lady M.

All our service
In every point twice done, and then done double,
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honors deep and broad wherewith
Your majesty loads our house: for those of old,
And the late dignities heap'd up to them,
We rest your hermits.

Dun.

Where's the thane of Cawdor?

9. "most"; Rowe's emendation of Ff., "must"; Collier MS., "much." -I. G.

13. To "bid" is here used in the Saxon sense of to pray. "God ild us," is God reward us. Malone and Steevens were perplexed by what they call the obscurity of this passage. If this be obscure, we should like to know what isn't. Is anything more common than to thank people for annoying us, as knowing tha they do it from love? And does not Duncan clearly mean, that his love is what puts him upon troubling them thus, and therefore they will be grateful to him for the pains he causes them to take?-H. N. H.

14. Here again we must quote from Coleridge: “The lyrical movement with which this scene opens, and the free and unengaged mind of Banquo, loving nature, and rewarded in the love itself, form a highly dramatic contrast with the labored rhythm and hypocritical over-much of Lady Macbeth's welcome, in which you cannot detect a ray of personal feeling, but all is thrown upon the dignities, the general duty."-H. N. H.

We coursed him at the heels, and had a pur

pose

To be his purveyor: but he rides well,

And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp

him

To his home before us.

Fair and noble hostess,

Your servants ever

We are your guest to-night.

Lady M.

Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in

compt,

To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
Still to return your own.

Dun.

Give me your hand; Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly, And shall continue our graces towards him. 30 By your leave, hostess.

SCENE VII

Macbeth's castle.

[Exeunt.

Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. Then enter Macbeth.

Macb. If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well

It were done quickly: if the assassination

Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success; that but this blow

"Enter a Sewer"; an officer so called from his placing the dishes on the table. Asseour, French; from asseoir, to place.-H. N. H. 4. "his" for its, referring to assassination.-H. N. H.

Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'ld jump the life to come. But in these

cases

We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which being taught return To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice

10

Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice

To our own lips. He's here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against is murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Dun

ean

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,

20

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no

spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.

6. "shoal"; Theobald's emendation of Ff. 1, 2, "schoole."—I. G. 8. "that"; so that.-C. H. H.

23. "the sightless couriers of the air" are what the Poet elsewhere calls the viewless winds.-H. N. H.

28. Hanmer inserted side here upon conjecture, and some editors XXVIII-3

33