Keeps ftill in Dunfinane, and will endure Mal. 'Tis his main hope, 9 For where there is advantage to be given, Macd. Let our juft cenfures Attend the true event, and put we on Siw. The time approaches, That will with due decifion make us know not belong to him; (namely confidence, or repofing himself fecurely in any thing or perfon) while they rejected the true one, expreffive of a tyrant's jealousy and fufpicion, and declarative of the fact. We muft furely read, the CONFIN'd tyrant. WARBURTON. He was confident of fuccefs; fo confident that he would not fly, but endure their fetting down before his caftle. 9 For where there is advantage Both more and less have given him the Revolt;] The impropriety of the expreffion advantage to be given, instead of advantage given, and the disagreeable repetition of the word given in the next line, incline me to read, -where there is a 'vantage to be gone, Both more and lefs have given him the Revolt. Advantage or 'vantage, in the time of Shakespeare, fignified opportunity. He fut up himself and bis foldiers, fays Malcolm, in the caftle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone they all deJert him. More and lefs is the fame with greater and lefs. So in the interpolated Mandeville, a book of that age, there is a chapter of India the more and the less, * What we shall fay we have, and what we owe:] i. e. property and allegiance. WARBURTON. 2 Arbitrate is determine. S CENE V. Changes to the Castle of Dunfinane. Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers with drums and colours. Mach. ANG out our banners on the outward walls, HA The Cry is ftill, they come. Our Caftle's ftrength Here let them lye, 'Till famine and the ague eat them up; Were they not forc'd with thofe that should be ours, 3 fell of hair] My hairy part, my capillitium. Fell is fkin. 4—I have fupt full with borrors;] The Oxford Editor alters this to, furfeited with horrors; And fo, for the fake of a politer phrafe, has made the fpeaker talk abfurdly. For the thing we furfeit of, we behold with uneafinefs and abhorrence. But There the speaker fays, the things he fupt full of, were grown familiar to him, and he viewed them without emotion. WARBURTON. 5 She should have died hereaf ter: There would have been a time for fuch a word.] This paffage has very jufly been fufpected of being corrupt. It is not apparent for what word there would There would have been a time for fuch a word.". 7 The way to dufty death. Out, out, brief candle! would have been a time, and that She should have dy'd hereafter. There would have been a time for-fuch a world !-To morrow, &c. It is a broken fpeech, in which only part of the thought is expreffed, and may be paraphrafed thus: The Queen is dead. Mac beth. Her death fhould have been deferred to fome more peaceful hour; bad he lived longer, there would at length have been a time for the honours due to her as a Queen, and that refpect which I owe her for ber fidelity and love. Such is the world-fuch is the condition of human life, that we always think to-morrow will be happier than to-day, but to-morrow and tomorrow feals over us unerjoyed and unregarded, and we full linger in the fame expectation to the moment appointed for our end. All thefe days, which have thus paffed away, have fent multitudes of "fools to the grave, who were engraffed by the fame dream of future felicity, and, when life was de 7 parting from them," were like me Such was once my conjecture, but I am now lefs confident. Macbeth might mean, that there would have been a more convenient time for fuch a word, for fuch intelligence, and fo fall into the following reflection. We fay we fend word when we give intelligence. To the last fyllable of record ed time; ] Recorded time feems to fignify the time fixed in the decrees of heaven for the period of life. The record of futurity is indeed no accurate expreffion, but as we only know tranfactions paft or prefent, the language of men affords no term for the volumes of prefcience, in which future events may be fuppofed to be written. 7 The way to DUSTY death-] We fhould read DUSKY, as appears from the figurative term lighted. The Oxford Editor has condefcended to approve of it. WARBURTON. Dufty is a very natural epithet. The way to ftudy death. Told . H Told by an idiot, full of found and fury, Signifying nothing! Enter a Mejenger. Thou com'ft to use thy tongue. Thy ftory quickly. I should report That which, I fay, I saw, Mef. As I did ftand my watch upon the hill, Mach. Liar, and slave! [Striking bim. Mef. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not fo. Within this three mile may you fee it coming; 1 fay, a moving grove. Macb. If thou fpeak'ft falfe, Upon the next tree fhalt thou hang alive, To doubt the equivocation of the fiend, And wifh, the ftate o'th' world were now undone. I pull in Refolution, and begin To doubt the equivocation of the fiend, That lies like truth-] Though this is the reading of all the editions, yet as it is a phrafe without either example, elegance or propriety, it is furcly better to read, It is I pall in Refolution,—— I languifh in my conftancy, my confidence begins to forfake me. fcarcely neceffary to obferve how eafily pall might be changed into pull by a negligent writer, or mistaken for it by an unfkilful printer. Ring Ring the alarum Bell. Blow, wind! come, wrack! At least, we'll die with harness on our back. [Exeunt. SCENE VI Before Dunfinane. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff, and their Army Mal. with Boughs. OW, near enough. Your leavy screens throw down, Now And fhew like thofe you are. You, worthy uncle, Siw. Fare you well: Do We but find the Tyrant's Power to-night, Macd. Make all our trumpets fpeak, give them all Thofe clam'rous harbingers of blood and death. [Exe. Enter Macbeth. [Alarums continued. Mach. They've ty'd me to a ftake, I cannot fly, But, bear-like, I muft fight the courfe. What's he, That was not born of woman? fuch a one Am I to fear, or none. Enter young Siward. Yo. Siw. What is thy name? Mach. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. Yo. Siw. No, though thou call'ft thyfelf a hotter name, Than any is in hell. Mach. |