25. Cleave to my consent, adhere to my purpose. Cleave, to stick, is from A.-S. cleófian, or clifan; cleave, to split, is from A.-S. cleofan or cláfan. Macbeth's words here are designedly vague. We, who have seen the terrible "I am settled," to which he has been brought in the previous Act, interpret the words to refer to that determination. Banquo, to whom they convey the first dark hint of Macbeth's evil intent, might understand them simply to intimate that, if the prediction ever came about, he might rely on his favour. His reply, however, gives Macbeth no encouragement to continue the subject, and it is accordingly dropped. It will be observed how vainly Macbeth's real anxiety about the matter is disguised by his assumed indifference.

32. She strike upon the bell, n. cl. obj. to "bid" (scil.), that she strike. We should now use the simple inf. after "bid."

42. Marshall'st, directest. Marshal, Sc. mareschal, is from A.-S. mære, a horse, and scale, a servant; and hence signified (1.) a servant or keeper of horses (curator equorum); (2.) the master of the horse attached to the king's household, which gave rise to the titles of Earl-marshall, the eighth great officer of state in England, and Earl-mareschal, the commander of the cavalry in the royal armies of Scotland. Hence to mar-hal means to set in order, to manage, to direct.

46. Dudgeon, the haft or handle, which was made of a coarse or close-grained wood (probably the root of the box-tree), on account of its strength. It is derived, most probably, from Dut. dooghen, A.-S. dug-an, to be strong; hence its secondary meaning of stubbornness, sullenness; as Sc. dour, stubborn, from Lat. durus, hard, strong. From the Teut. root doogh also comes Sc. dow, to be strong, past docht, (1.) dought, whence the adj. doughty, strong, (2.) courageous, (3.) valiant, in an ironical sense.

48. Informs thus, presents this form or appearance.

49. Now o'er the one half world. etc. How beautiful, as well as skilful, is the play of light and shade here! In the midst of his most morbid moods, Macbeth breaks out into passages of sublime poetry.

53. Alarum'd, apprised, signalled; not to be confounded with alarmed, surprised, startled.

55. With Tarquin's ravishing strides; the folio reads sides, which has sadly perplexed the commentators, and has led to the usual efforts of emendation. Pope suggested strides, which, from the reference to pace" "above, and "steps" be

low, seems to give the truest meaning, and is now generally adopted. The steps of a ravisher, or of any one who moves stealthily with criminal intent, are generally long and cautious. The Tarquin referred to is

"Proud Sextus, who wrought the deed of shame,"

the son of Superbus and seducer of Lucretia. The name, however, must here be understood as a general term, a Tarquin. 57. Which way they walk. Which is here an adjective, qualifying its correlative "way, "hear not the way in which they walk."

"

=

58. Where-about, a noun. Shakespeare uses where itself as a noun :

"Thou losest here, a better where to

find."-Lear, I. 1.

59. And take the present horror from the time, etc.; i.e., lest my footsteps break the silence which is so suitable to the season and the circuinstances.

60. Whiles, whilst, still used in Sc. to signify sometimes." It is originally a noun; the A.-S. hwil, time, which, like hweal, a wheel, is probably from a-wylian, to revolve or turn. Comp. Lat. annus, and annulus, from root an-, am-, amb-, aup-, round about.

61. Words. gives; here grammar is sacrificed to rhyme. Vide Note on I. 282. 66. Quench'd (A.-S. cwenc-an) is generally used of fire by old authors, and is applied secondarily to thirst, because that is, both really and figuratively, a burning or parching appetite. Its last meaning is, to extinguish anything. As used in the text, the word plays upon all these meanings. "What hath quench'd their thirst, and also quench'd their reason, hath kindled my passion."

67. The owl that shricked; so, "And yesterday the bird of night did sit Even at noonday, upon the marketplace,

Hooting and shrieking."

Julius Cæsar, 1. 3.

70. Possets, potions of wine and milk, which it appears to have been customary to take at bed-time. It was evidently his posset that Macbeth referred to at l. 31. In Hamlet, the verb to posset is used, meaning to thicken, as milk does when vinegar is poured upon it. Posset is from Lat. potio; Ital. pozione; Fr. posson.

74. The attempt . confounds, our danger or confusion lies not in the deed, but in its being no more than an attempt, that is, a failure.

76. Had he not resembled my father: This is not more skilful, as a reason for

her not doing the deed, than it is true to nature. Not even in Lady Macbeth is every better feeling extinct; no heart can be so entirely disfigured as to retain absolutely no trace of its original purity.

87. That, i.e., so that.

92. As they had seen me, i.e., as if, adv. cl. to "one cried," etc., contracted for "as would have been the case if they had seen me." 93. Listening their fear, i.e., listening to. So,

"And now, Octavius, Listen great things."-Julius Cæsar, iv. 1. There are other instances in old authors of verbs used without the preposition, by which now they are invariably followed. Thus also,

"But ere we could arrive the point proposed."-Julius Cæsar, 1. 2.

Milton also has

"Ere he arrive the happy isle."
Par. Lost, 11. 409.

101. Ravell'd sleave. The sleave is the silk in its untwisted and frizzled state, when the fibres are entangled, drawn into knots, and have the appearance of inextricable confusion. Holinshed speaks of

Eight wild men, all apparelled in green moss made with sleved silk."-Historie of England. Sleaved is probably the same as sleid, which from A.-S. slæ, the slay of a loom (from slaan, to beat), the reed with which the weaver beat the woof close into the web. Ravel is explained to be a dim. of reave, to seize, to rob, from A.-S. reáfian, to tear away. Ravel, therefore, is (1.) to tear or pull asunder; (2.) to unfold or put out of confusion. Thus,

"Let him make you to ravel all this matter out,

That I essentially am not in madness, But made in craft."-Hamlet, 111. 4. It has come, however, to have an opposite meaning, that belonging originally to "un-ravel," viz., to perplex, or throw into confusion. To knit up "the ravell'd sleave," therefore, means, to weave or twist it into a smooth and regular thread; and applied metaphorically, as in the text, to give the harassed spirit peace and equanimity. 103. Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course. Comp.

"Sleep, gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse.'

Henry IV. (Part ii.) III. 1. The line in the text was probably in Young's mind when he wrote

"Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep."-Night Thoughts, 1. 1.

105. Still it cried, etc. It is character

G

And in

"Have for the gilt of France; O guilt indeed."-Henry V.

126. The multitudinous seas incarnadine. To incarnadine the sea is to give it the same hue that blood gives to flesh. The epithet "multitudinous" is not here used for populous, as regards the inhabitants of the sea, as has been supposed, but signifies exhaustless, as regards the extent of its waters. We must obviously connect it with Lady Macbeth's advice to get some water, and wash this filthy witness fron your hand," and with his implied assertion, that "all great Neptune's ocean" will not "wash this blood clean from my hand." So forcibly does this impress him, that he repeats the hyperbole in the next line, "Red" is "making the green one red."

"

here a factitive object to "making;" but it should be observed that every factitive object is really an infinitive object contracted, "making the green (to be) one red."

131. A little water. What a grand antithesis,-grander by its puny simplicity of expression,-to the "multitudinous seas" and "all great Neptune's ocean" of Macbeth's soliloquy! Not grander, however, than the antithesis of character in the speakers, which they imply.

138. Wake Duncan with thy knocking! is addressed to the person knocking, not to Duncan, as has by some been supposed.

140. He should have old, i.e.. He should become old, wear himself out with the constant fatigue, so numerous are the calls.

146. An equivocator. To equivocate is to use a word answering to either of two opposite or at least different meanings,—a

197. Tongue nor heart cannot, etc. Great force is given to these words by the negatives being heaped upon each other confusedly. The subjects and verbs are to be taken alternately, but inversely also. Comp. I. 148.

204. Destroy your sight with a new Gorgon. This metaphor is taken from the legend of Medusa, the most famous of the Gorgones, and the only one of them who was mortal. For hair, she had hissing serpents, and every one who looked upon her was changed into stone.

210. Death's counterfeit, etc. Comp. 1. 117, 118, but contrast the circumstances in which the figure is introduced.

212. Doom, judgment; from A.-S. daman, to think, judge, deem.

214. To countenance this horror, to show their horror at the horrible deed.

222. What, in our house ? This is the view of the matter which Lady Macbeth is caught by. In looking about for something fitting to say, she seizes on an accidental and secondary circumstance, which could hardly have been the first to claim the attention of one to whom the murder itself was new.

225. Had I but died, etc. Again Macbeth speaks in riddles, his words being capable of a double interpretation. As heard by Lennox and Duff, they express merely the insupportableness of life after 80 terrible a calamity. The reader may, however, gather from them the signs of the first sting of remorse, which Macbeth already sincerely felt.

225. Chance here means event, or mischance. It is from Fr. echeoir, Lat. cadere, to fall.

229. Lees, grounds, or sediment; that which lies at the bottom. From Fr. lie, and A-S. liegan, to lie.

236. Badged with blood, with the badge, or distinctive mark of blood upon them. Badge is probably from A.-S. beág or beah, Dut. bagghe, Lat. bacca, Fr. bague, a ring. Bedg, like the cognate words, also means any circular metal ornament, from buyan, to bend.

242. I did kill them. In Holinshed's account of the murder of Duncan, no details are given. Shakespeare has, however, taken many of the circumstances introduced into the play from Holinshed's account, in an earlier part of his Historie, of the murder of King Duffe by Dowald, at his wife's instigation (A.D. 960). From it he has taken the surfeiting of the grooms, and their subsequent murder, as well as the feigned grief and mock revengefulness of Macbeth.

247. His silver skin laced with his golden blood, etc. The whole of this passage shows conspicuously Shakespeare's wonderful insight into the human heart, as well as his never-failing judgment. The forced metaphor and antithesis are doubtless in exceeding bad taste on Macbeth's part; but he is the murderer, and must needs bar all approaches to that fact, as well as conceal his real feelings, by a burst of mingled grandiloquence and commonplace.

251. Breeched with gore, sheathed in ! blood. The expression bas puzzled the commentators. Stevens suggests that it means covered with blood quite to the breeches or hilts. Farmer thinks Shakespeare must have misread a part of a contemporary translation of a French dialogue, in which breeches are mentioned immediately after daggers, but with no closer connexion. We believe the true explanation of the use of this not inappropriate expression will be found in the antithetical form of the whole passage. It is really a play upon the word "breach" in line 248, applied to the stabs which the daggers "breeched with gore" had made. We found Lady Macbeth punning (in the same connexion too) on "gild" and "guilt" at lines 121, 122. It is not inconsistent with the generally far-fetched, but hollowhearted, character of this speech, that Macbeth should be doing the same here.

257. Hid in an auger-hole, in a hole bored by an auger, i.e., where we least expect to find it. Auger is of doubtful etymology. The A.-S. gár, a sharp point, a spear, gives us, in composition, nafe-gár, a nave-borer, an auger, the nearest equivalent of our English word. It is not improbable, however, that Eng. auger, A.-8. gár, ecg, Eng. eager, Fr. aigre, Lat. ac-us, Gr. x-is, have all a common origin.

261. Our naked frailties hid, etc. It must be remembered that they have been suddenly called up from rest, and are standing in the castle court.

266. Against the undivulged pretence I | fight, declare war against whatever

designs (pretence) of this treasonous malice are yet undivulged.

268. Let's briefly put on manly readiness. Macbeth echoes Banquo's advice: "let us dress ourselves and meet in the hall," It would not become him to do anything else than encourage the inquiry.

272. To show an unfelt sorrow, etc. So Macbeth's bad counterfeit of grief is already found out! Donalbain repeats his brother's suspicion in a more direct form, -as is generally the case with the respor to a suspicion,-in the words: "The near in blood, the nearer bloody" (276).

280. Dainty, particular, scrupulous. The Fr. dain (a deer, whose flesh was prized as a dainty) gives us the nearest equivalent to the stem of the word; but as it is of Gothic origin, Dr. Jamieson supposes it to have been introduced by the Franks. He further conjectures that dainty and dandy may both have come originally from the Goth. dandi, befitting a freeman, liberalis.

283. SCENE 11.-It is noteworthy that the "Old Man" of this scene appears nowhere else in the play. What, then, could be Shakespeare's reason for introducing him here? In explanation, we may observe, first, that the scene carries us outside the castle walls, and suggests that the events which have transpired within them have an interest for and influence upon a wider circle than that of the court. In the second place, the scene presents us with the last remnant of the ancient chorus, which had a place, however, in the mediæval Moralities, and even survived for a time in the regular drama. It is the "Chorus of Aged Men" of Gorboduc reduced to a unit.

285. Sore, severe, troubled; from A.-S. sar, pain; also sorh, grief, from which sorry, sorrow. Comp. with the former, Sc. sair, and with the latter, Ger. sorg. Horne Tooke maintains that they are all from the same root. It has also been suggested that they are cognate with the Lat. severus and the Gr. réßouas, which are connected with the Sanscrit sev venerari.

287. As troubled with man's act. Adv. phr. of cause to "threaten."

288. His bloody stage,

"All the world's a stage."

As You Like It, 11. 7.

289. Strangles the travelling lamp, obscures the sun.

292. When living light should kiss it. One of those gleams of true poetry which show its universality. The line might have come indifferently from Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, or Tennyson.

294. A falcon, etc. Comp. the enumera

tion of prodigies here with the scene in Julius Cæsar, describing the portents that filled the air of Rome on the night preceding Cæsar's murder.

306. Pretend, like "pretence" (1. 266), is used in its literal sense of "to stretch forward to," to expect.

308. Are stol'n, a passive perfect, for "have stolen." Vide Note on I. 260.

310. Thriftless ambition, scil., That is thriftless ambition.

away.

310. Ravin, tear; one of the numerous words derived from A.-S. reaf-ian, to tear Vide Notes to 1. 145, and II. 101. 312. The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth, n. cl. in apposition with "it" (311). 313. And gone to Scone, etc. Comp. Hol. § 18.

315. Carried to Colme-kill. Comp. Hol., § 18, "It was remoued and conueied vnto Colmekill, and there laid in a sepulture amongst his predecessors."

318. Thither, i.e., to Scone.

319. Adieu, i e., Fr. a-Dieu, Ital. a-Dio, to God! Comp. good-bye, i.c, God be wi' ye. Farewell (321) is from A.-S. faran, to go (on a journey). Comp. Ger. Lebe wohl. Here we have an instance of the awkwardness into which Shakespeare's rhyming perorations lead him: the "adieu" comes between two clauses of the same sentence.

322. Benison, Fr. beniçon, contr. from Lat. benedictio. Comp. malison, from Lat. maledictio.

ACT III.

4. Stand, continue.

7. Shine upon, like "to smile upon," is here used metaphorically for to favour. As in this line is not the relative, but a pure conjunctive: If there came truth from them (a thing that may be since their speeches shine upon thee, Macbeth), Why.

etc.

10. Hush, a word formed by onomatopoeia from the sound naturally made in enjoining silence. The Eng. hist and whist are the same with the Lat. 'st; the Ger. st, bst, bsch; Fr. st, chut; Span. chito; etc. Even yet, it is not so much a word, as a cry, and does not belong to any one language, but to man. The form hush is now a word, being used both as a verb and an adj., and in the compound hushmoney.

13. All-thing, ie., wholly. The Sc. for everything is still a' thing, as for everywhere, a' where.

14. Solemn, formal, or state; from Lat. sollennis, held once a year, which from Oscan sollustotus, whole, and Lat. annus. 14. We hold. The use of the present for

the future brings the future event nearer, and indicates the speaker's great interest in it. The peculiarity in this case is, that it is followed by a future in the next line, "I'll request," which may be called the future of politeness.

16. The which; the use of the demonstrative before the relative is common with old authors. The correlative of which must be taken out of the preceding clause: His duties are for ever knit to whatever his highness may command upon him.

21. Still, hitherto. This word is the imp. of A.-S. stellan, to place. Ger. and Dut. stellen; as yet is the A.-S. get, imp. of getan.

23. Is 't far you ride -Observe how, in the course of the conversation, Macbeth contrives to worm out of Banquo how or where he and his son are to be found that night. Comp. 1. 35.

25. Go not my horse; the protasis of a conditional sentence, if my horse go not.

27. Fail not our feast; fail used transitively means to abandon, or be absent from, its object, because thereby it would be disappointed. The object. however, is usually personal, e.g. (The Lord) "will not fuil thee, nor forsake thee," Deut. xxxi. 6. The root of fail (Lat. fallere) is frequently used in the sense of latere, to escape the notice of, and hence to deceive.

29. Bestow'd, concealed, lit. placed. From be- and A.-S. stow, a place. Hence Eng. stow, to lay up; stowage, the place for laying up; and steward (stow-weard), the keeper of a place, whence the surname Stewart, Stuart.

33. Therewithal, in connexion with all that, not necessarily in addition to it. Vide Act 1. 336, Note.

34 Hie, hasten; from A.-S. hig-an, to hasten, also spelt "high." High, lofty, is from Goth. hauh, A.-S. heah, Ger. hoch. Hight, aloud, used after on (" on hight"), is corrupted from Fr. en haut; haut being from the same root as high. Hight, called, is from Goth. haitan, A.-S. haet-an, Ger. heissen.

43. While then, i.e., in the interval, in the meanwhile.

47. But to be safely thus, scil. "were something."

48. Royalty, kingliness, nobility.

50. To, i.e., up to, equivalent to, to match. His wisdom is equal to (as great as) his dauntless temper, or his valour.

52. But he, though a false concord in our day, was not so regarded by Shakespeare, or by still earlier writers. This solecism probably arose from the use of but sometimes as a conj., sometimes as a prep. There are really two words "but" in English,

one of which is always an adversative conj., the other sometimes a conj., sometimes a preposition. They may be thus exemplified :

I. Adv. conj. :-I do not fear any one; but he fears me (Lat. sed ille, etc.), Ger. sondern, A.-S. ac.

II-1. Conj. :-I do not fear any one, but in the dark (Lat. nisi), Ger. als, A.-S. búton.

2. Prep.-I do not fear any one but

him (Lat. praeter illum), Ger. ausser. No. I. is said to be derived from the A.-S. bót, amends, correction; and is by old authors often spelt bot.

61. With, again by.

61. Wrench'd, from A.-S. wring-an, to twist, rest, wring.

63. For Banquo's issue, i.e., for their behoof, a good example of a dative of advantage. Observe the repetition of "for them and "them " in this passage, prompted by contemptuous hate.

"

66. Mine eternal jewel, i.e., my soul. 70. Champion me to the utterance, i.e., challenge me to a combat à l'outrance, which in the language of chivalry meant a life-and-death contest with naked spears. It is no mere translation or corruption, however. The Eng. utterance is usually applied to the giving out or expression of thoughts in the form of words; but it may with equal propriety be applied to the expression of thoughts in the form of deeds.

75. Which held you.-The cor. of this "which" is not "he," but "it:"-"It (the person) which held you so under fortune was he."

76. Which, you thought, etc.-This "which" has for its cor. "it which held you so under fortune :" constr. You thought which (ie., it which held you so under fortune) had been our innocent self.

79. How you were borne, etc.-A series of n. cl., in the objective after "I passed." 81. A notion crazed. Notion is here used, by metonymy, for the mind.

86. So gospell'a to pray, i e., as to pray, So gospell'd means, so full of the gospel that they could "pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." There is probably also a reference to the name of Gospellers, applied contemptuously to the early Puritans. "Good man' (87) is of course ironical.

92. Clept, named: all that remains of the past part. of A.-S. cleopian, clypian. The past part. originally was ge-clypode; Robert of Gloucester (1300) writes it