lor come hither, for stealing out of a French hofe: come in, taylor; here you may roaft your goofe. [Knock] Knock, knock: Never at quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devilporter it no further: I had thought to have let in fome of all profeffions, that go the primrose way to the everlafting bonfire. [Knock] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember the porter. Enter Macduff, and Lenox. Mac. Was it fo late, friend, ere you went to bed, That you do lie fo late? Port. 'Faith, fir, we were caroufing 'till the fecond cock and drink, fir, is a great provoker of, three things. Macd. What three things doth drink especially provoke ? Port. Marry, fir, nofe-painting, fleep, and urine. Lechery, fir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the defire, but it takes away the performance : Therefore, much drink may be faid to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it fets him on, and it takes him off; it perfuades him, and difheartens him; makes him ftand to, and not fland to in conclufion, equivocates him in a fleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him. "And all this magazine of device is furnish'd "By your French taylor." Again, in the Defence of Concycatching, 1592: "Bleft be the French fleeves and breech verdingales that grants them (the taylors) leave to coney-catch fo mightily? STEEVENS. When Mr. Steevens cenfured Dr. Warburton in this place, he forgot the uncertainty of French fashions. In the Treafury of ancient and modern Times, 1613, we have an account (from Guyon, I fuppofe) of the old French dreffes : "Mens hofe answered in length to their fhort-skirted doublets; being made close to their limbes, wherein they had no meanes for pockets." And Withers, in his fatyr againft vanity, ridicules the fpruze, diminitive, meat, Frenchman's hofe." FARMER. Macd, Macd. I believe, drink gave thee the lie laft night. Port. That it did, fir, i'the very throat o'me: But I requited him for his lie; and, I think, being too ftrong for him, though he took up my legs fometime, yet I made a fhift to caft him. Macd. Is thy mafter stirring? Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes. Enter Macbeth. Mach. Good-morrow, both! Macd. Is the king ftirring, worthy thane? Mach. Not yet. Macd. He did command me to call timely on him; I have almost flipt the hour. Mach. I'll bring you to him. Macd. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you; But yet, 'tis one. Macb. The labour we delight in, phyficks pain. This is the door. Macd. I'll make fo bold to call, For 'tis my limited service. Len. Goes the king hence to-day? Mach. He does: he did appoint so. [Exit Macduff. Len. The night has been unruly: Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say, 8 I made a shift to caft him.] To caft him up, to ease my ftomach of him. The equivocation is between caft or throw, as a term of wrestling, and caft or caft up. JOHNSON. I find the fame play upon words, in an old comedy, entitled The Two angry Women of Abington, printed 1599: to-night he's a good hufwife, he reels all that he wrought to-day, and he were good now to play at dice, for he cafts excellent well. STEEVENS. t 9 For 'tis my limited fervice.] Limited, for appointed. WARBURTON. Lamentings Lamentings heard i'the air; 'ftrange fcreams of death; And prophefying, with accents terrible, Of dire combuftion, and confus'd events, New hatch'd to the woeful time: The obfcure bird Clamour'd the live-long night: fome say, the earth Was feverous, and did fhake. Mach. "Twas a rough night. Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel A fellow to it. Re-enter Macduff. Macd. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor heart, -ftrange fereams of death; And prophecying, with accents terrible The obfcure bird clamour'd the live-long night. Of dire combuftion and confus'd events. Cannot A prophecy of an event new hatch'd, seems to be a prophecy of an event paft. And a prophecy new hatch'd is a wry expreffion. The term new batch'd is properly applicable to a bird, and that birds of ill omen should be new-hatch'd to the woful time, that is, fhould appear in uncommon numbers, is very confiftent with the rest of the prodigies here mentioned, and with the universal disorder into which nature is defcribed as thrown, by the perpetration of this horrid murder. JOHNSON. I think Dr. Johnson's regulation of thefe lines is improper. Prophecying is what is new-hatch'd, and in the metaphor holds the place of the egg. The events are the fruit of fuch hatching. STEEVENS. 2 -Tongue, nor heart,] The ufe of two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly, is very common in our author. So, Jul. Caf. act III. fc. i: Cannot conceive, nor name thee! Macb. and Len. What's the matter? Macd. Confufion now hath made his mafter-piece! Moft facrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple, and ftole thence The life o'the building. Mach. What is't you fay? the life? Len. Mean you his majefty? Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your fight With a new Gorgon :-Do not bid me speak; Bell rings. Enter Lady Macbeth. Lady. What's the bufinefs, That fuch a hideous trumpet calls to parley "Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: Would murder as it fell.-O Banquo! Banquo! "Intended to your perfon, nor to no Roman elfe." STEEVENS. 3 this horror!] Here the old edition adds, ring the bell, which Theobald rejected, as a direction to the players. He has been followed by Dr. Warburton and Dr. Johnfon. Shakespeare might think a repetition of the command to ring the bell neceffary, and I know not how an editor is authorized to reject that which apparently makes a part his author's text. STEEVENS, of Enter Enter Banquo. Our royal mafter's murder'd! What, in our house? Ban. Too cruel, any where. s Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself, And fay, it is not fo. Re-enter Macbeth, and Lenox. Mach. Had I but dy'd an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a bleffed time; for, from this inftant, There's nothing ferious in mortality: All is but toys renown, and grace, is dead; Enter Malcolm, and Donalbain. Don. What is amifs? Macb. You are, and do not know it: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is ftopt; the very fource of it is stopt. Macd. Your royal father's murder'd. 4 What, in our house?] This is very fine. Had the been innocent, nothing but the murder itself, and not any of its aggravating circumstances, would naturally have affected her. As it was, her bufinefs was to appear highly disordered at the news. Therefore, like one who has her thoughts about her, she feeks for an aggravating circumstance, that might be fuppofed most to affect her perfonally; not confidering, that by placing it there, fhe discovered rather a concern for herself than for the king. On the contrary, her husband, who had repented the act, and was now labouring under the horrors of a recent murder, in his exclamation, gives all the marks of forrow for the fact itself. WARBURTON. s Dear Duff,-] In the folio, for Macduff is read Dear Duff. JOHNSON. If the original copy reads Dear Duff, on what authority can it be chang'd into Macduff? We are not writing out the parts for players. STEEVENS. Mal. |
