ftones prate of Thy very stones my where-about," It may likewife be observed that Falstaff in the fifth act of The Merry Wives of Windfor fays to Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, " Divide me like a bribe-buck, each a haunch: I will keep my fides to myself," &c. Falftaff certainly did not think them, like those of Ovid's lover, paft fervice; having met one of the ladies by affignation. I believe, however, a line has been loft after the words "stealthy pace." MALONE. Mr. Malone's reafons &c. for this fuppofition (on account of their length) are given at the conclufion of the play, with a reference to the foregoing obfervations. How far a Latinifm, adopted in the English verfion of a Roman poet; or the mention of loins (which no dictionary acknowledges as a fynonyme to fides); can justify Mr. Malone's restoration, let the judicious reader determine. Falftaff, dividing himself as a buck, very naturally fays he will give away his beft joints, and keep the worst for himself. A fide of venifon is at once an established term, and the leaft elegant part of the carcafe fo divided-But of what ufe could fides, in their Ovidian fenfe, have been to Falftaff, when he had already parted with his haunches? It is difficult to be serious on this occafion. I may therefore be pardoned if I obferve that Tarquin, juft as he pleased, might have walked with moderate fteps, or lengthened them into ftrides; but, when we are told that he carried his " fides" with him, it is natural to ask how he could have gone any where without them. Nay, further, However fides (according to Mr. Malone's interpretation of the word) might have proved efficient in Lucretia's bedchamber, in that of Duncan they could anfwer no fuch purpose, as the lover and the murderer fucceed by the exertion of very different organs. I am, in fhort, of the Fool's opinion in King Lear "That going fhould be us'd with feet," and, confequently, that fides are out of the queftion. Such restorations of fuperannuated miftakes put our author into the condition of Cibber's Lady Dainty, who, having been cured of her diforders, one of her phyficians fays-" Then I'll make her go over them again." STEEVENS. With Tarquin's ravishing &c.] The juftnefs of this fimilitude is not very obvious. But a ftanza, in his poem of Tarquin and Lucrece, will explain it : "Now ftole upon the time the dead of night, "When heavy fleep had clos'd up mortal eyes; And take the prefent horror from the time, Which now fuits with it."-Whiles I threat, he lives; Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. [A bell rings. "No noife but owls' and wolves' dead-boding cries; WARBURTON. Thou fure and firm-fet earth,] The old copy-Thou foure &c. which, though an evident corruption, directs us to the reading I have ventured to fubftitute in its room. So, in Act IV. fc. iii: 5 "Great tyranny, lay thou thy bafis fure." STEEVENS, which way they walk,] The folio reads: which they may walk, Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. STEEVENS, 6 Thy very ftones prate of my where-about,] The following paffage in a play which has been frequently mentioned, and which Langbaine fays was very popular in the time of queen Elizabeth, A Warning for faire Women, 1599, perhaps fuggefted this thought: Mountains will not fuffice to cover it, "Cimmerian darknesse cannot shadow it, "If nothing elfe, yet will the very ftones 7 And take the prefent horror from the time, MALONE. Which now fuits with it.] i. e. left the noise from the stones take away from this midnight season that present horror which fuits fo well with what is going to be acted in it. What was the horror he means? Silence, than which nothing can be more horrid to the perpetrator of an atrocious defign. This fhows a great knowledge of human nature. WARBURTON. 'Whether to take horror from the time means not rather to catch it as communicated, than to deprive the time of horrour, deferves to be confidered. JOHNSON. The latter is furely the true meaning. Macbeth would have nothing break through the univerfal filence that added fuch a horror to the night, as fuited well with the bloody deed he was about to perform. Mr. Burke, in his Effay on the Sublime and Beautiful, go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.' [Exit. obferves, that all general privations are great, because they are all terrible;" and, with other things, he gives filence as an inftance, illuftrating the whole by that remarkable paffage in Virgil, where amidst all the images of terror that could be united, the circumftance of filence is particularly dwelt upon : "Dii quibus imperium eft animarum, umbræque filentes, "Et Chaos et Phlegethon, loca nocte filentia late." When Statius in the Vth book of the Thebaid defcribes the Lemnian massacre, his frequent notice of the filence and folitude both before and after the deed, is ftriking in a wonderful degree: "Conticuere domus," &c. STEEVENS. In confirmation of Steevens's ingenious note on this paffage, it may be obferved, that one of the circumftances of horror enumerated by Macbeth is,-Nature feems dead. M. MASON. "Obfervata fequor per noctem, et lumine luftro. "Horror ubique animos, fimul ipfa filentia terrent." Dryden's well-known lines, which expofed him to fo much ridicule, "An horrid ftillnefs firft invades the ear, "And in that filence we the tempeft hear," fhow, that he had the fame idea of the awfulness of filence as our poet. MALONE. Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.] Here is evidently a falfe concord; but it muft not be corrected, for it is neceffary to the rhyme.-Nor is this the only place in which Shakspeare has facrificed grammar to rhyme. In Cymbeline, the fong in Cloten's ferenade runs thus: "Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate fings, "His fteeds to water at those springs And Romeo fays to Friar Lawrence: 9 "Within thy help and holy phyfic lies." M. MASON. it is a knell That fummons thee to heaven, or to hell.] Thus Raleigh, speaking of love, in England's Helican, 4to. 1600: SCENE II. The fame. Enter Lady MACBETH. LADY M. That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold: What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire :Hark! Peace! It was the owl that fhriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the ftern'ft good-night. He is a bout it: 2 The doors are open; and the furfeited grooms Do mock their charge with fnores: I have drugg'd their poffets,* "It is perhaps that fauncing bell, "That toules all into heauen or hell." Sauncing is probably a mistake for facring. STEEVENS. 2 It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the fern'ft good-night.] Shakspeare has here improved on an image he probably found in Spenfer's Faerie Queene, v. vi. 27: The native belman of the night, "The bird that warned Peter of his fall, STEEVENS. It was the owl that fbriek'd; the fatal bellman,] So, in King Richard III: "Out on ye, owls! nothing but fongs of death!" 3 - the furfeited grooms MALONE. Do mock their charge with fnores:] i. e. By going to fleep, they trifle and make light of the truft repofed in them, that of watching by their king. So, in Othello: "O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love." MALONE. their poffets,] It appears from this paffage, as well as That death and nature do contend about them, MACB. [Within.] Who's there?-what, ho! LADY M. Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd, And 'tis not done :-the attempt, and not the deed, Confounds us :-Hark!-I laid their daggers ready, He could not mifs them.'-Had he not resembled My father as he flept, I had done't.'-My husband? from many others in our old dramatick performances, that it was the general custom to eat poffets juft before bed-time. So, in the first part of K. Edward IV. by Heywood; " -thou shalt be welcome to beef and bacon, and perhaps a bag-pudding; and my daughter Nell fhall pop a poffet upon thee when thou goest to bed." Macbeth has already faid: "Go bid thy miftrefs when my drink is ready, "She ftrike upon the bell." Lady Macbeth has also just observed "That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold :" and in The Merry Wives of Windfor, Mrs. Quickly promifes Jack Rugby a poffet at night." STEEVENS. 5 death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live, or die.] Of this image our ancient writers were peculiarly fond. Thus again, in Twine's tranflation of the ftory of Prince Appollyn, "Death ftrived with life within her, and the conflict was daungerous and doubtfull who should preuaile." Again, in All's Well that ends well: thy blood and virtue "Contend for empire in thee." STEEVENS. Again, ibid: Nature and fickness "Debate it at their leifure." MALONE. Hark!-I laid their daggers ready, He could not miss them.] Compare Euripides,-Oreftes, v. 1291 -where Electra ftands centinel at the door of the palace whilst Oreftes is within for the purpose of murdering Helen. The dread of a furprize, and eagernefs for the business, make Electra conclude that the deed must be done ere time enough had elapfed for attempting it. She liftens with anxious impatience; and hearing nothing, expreffes ftrong fears left the daggers fhould have failed. Read the whole paffage. S. W. Had he not refembled My father as he flept, I had done't.] This is very artful. For, |