Macd. Confufion now hath made his mafter-piece; Most facrilegious murther hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and ftole thence Mach. What is't you fay? the life? Len. Mean you his Majesty ?——————— Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your fight With a new Gorgon.-Do not bid me speak; And look on death itself -Up, up, and fee The great Doom's image Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rife up, and walk like fprights, To countenance this horrour. Lady. What's the business, That fuch an hideous trumpet calls to parley The fleepers of the houfe? Speak. Macd. Gentle lady, 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition in a woman's ear Would murther as it fell.-O Banquo! Banquo! Enter Banquo, Our royal master's murther'd. 9 this borrour. -] Here the old editions add, ring the bell, which Theobald rejected, as a di rection to the players. He has been followed by Dr. Warburton, What, 2 What, in our houfe ?- Ban. Too cruel, any where. Macduff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself, And fay, it is not fo. Enter Macbeth, Lenox, and Roffe. Mach. Had I but dy'd an hour before this chance All is but toys; Renown, and Grace, is dead; Enter Malcolm, and Donalbain. Don. What is amifs? Mach. You are, and do not know't: Mal. Oh, by whom? Len. Thofe of his chamber, as it feem'd, had don't; What, in our houfe?-] This is very fine. Had he been in nocent, nothing but the murder itfelf, and not any of its aggra. vating circumstances would naturally have affected her. As it was, her bufinefs was to appear highly difordered at the news. Therefore, like one who has her thoughts about her, the feeks for an aggravating circumftance, that might be fuppofed most to affect her perfonally; not confidering that by placing it there, the dif WARBURTON. Macb Macb. O-Yet I do repent me of my fury,. . That I did kill them.. Macd. Wherefore did you fo? Matb. Who can be wife, amaz'd, temp'rate and furious, Loyal and neutral in a moment? No man. The expedition of my violent love Out-ran the paufer, Reafon.. Here, lay Duncan; * His filver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gafh'd ftabs look'd like a breach in nature For Ruin's wafteful entrance; there, the murtherers Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers Unmannerly breech'd with gore. Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart 3. Here, lay Duncan; His filver fin laced with his golden blood, And his gash'd ftabs look'd like a breach in nature For Ruin's wasteful en trance; -] Mr. Pope has endeavoured to improve one of thefe lines by fubftituting geary blood for golden blood; but it may eafily be admitted that he who could on fuch an occafion talk of lacing the filver fkin, would lace is with golden blood. No amendment can be made to this line, of which every word is equally faulty, but by a general blot. It is not improbable, that Shakespeare put thefe forced and unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth as a mark of artifice and diffimulation, to fhow the difference between the ftudied language of hypocrify, and the natural outcries of fud VOL. VI. Cou den paffion. This whole fpeech fo confidered, is a remarkable inftance of judgment, as it confifts entirely of antithefis and metaphor. 4 His filver skin laced with his golden blood,] The allufion is fo ridiculous on fuch an occafion, that it discovers the declaimer not to be affected in the manner he would reprefent himfelf. The whole fpeech is an unnatural mixture of far-fetch'd and common-place thoughts, that fhews him to be acting a part.. WARBURTON. 5 Unmannerly breech'd with gore. An unrannerly dagger, and a dagger breech'd, or as in fome editions breach'd with gore, are exprellions not easily to be understood. There are undoubtedly two faults in this paffage, which I have endeavoured to take away by reading, Courage, to make's love known? Lady. Help me hence, ho! [Seeming to faint. Macd. Look to the lady. Mal. Why do we hold our tongues, That moft may claim this argument for ours? May rush, and feize us? Let's away, our tears Mal. Nor our ftrong forrow on The foot of motion. Ban. Look to the lady; [Lady Macbeth is carried out. And when we have our naked frailties hid, And question this moft bloody piece of work, daggers Unmanly drench'd with gore: Each of thefe words might eafly be confounded with that which I have fubftituted for it by a hand not exact, a cafual blot, or a negligent infpection. UNMANNERLY BREECH'D with gore.-] This nonfenfical account of the ftate in which the daggers were found, muft furely be read thus, UNMANLY REECH'D with of ftcel ftain'd with blood. He ufes the word very often, as reechy bangings, reechy neck, &c. So that the fenfe is, that they were unmanly ftain'd with blood, and that circumftance added, becaufe often fuch ftains are most honourable. WARB. Dr. Warburton has perhaps rightly put riech'd for breech'd.. In the great band of God ľ Of treas' nous malice.] Pretence, for act. The fenfe of the whole is, My innocence places me under the protection of God, and under that fhadow, or, from thence, I declare myself an enemy to this, as yet hidden, deed of mifchief. This was a very Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight Mach. So do I. All. So, all: Mach. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, And meet i'th' hall together. All. Well contented. [Exeunt. Mal. What will you do? Let's not confort with them. To fhew an unfelt forrow, is an office Which the falfe man does eafie. I'll to England. Mal. This murtherous fhaft that's fhot, Therefore, to horfe; And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, natural fpeech for him who must needs fufpect the true author. WARBURTON. Prefence is not act, but fimulation, a pretence of the traitor, whoever he might be, to fufpect fome other of the murder. I here fly to the protector of innocence froth any charge which, [Exeunt yet undivulg'd, the traitor may pretend to fix upon me. 7 This murtherous shaft that's Shot, Hath not yet lighted;-] The' defign to fix the murder upon fome innocent perfon, has not yet taken effect. |