I must become a borrower of the night, Масв. BAN. My lord, I will not. Fail not our feaft. MACB. We hear, our bloody coufins are beftow'd In England, and in Ireland; not confeffing MACB. I wish your horfes fwift, and fure of foot; And fo I do commend you to their backs." Let every man be mafter of his time Exit BANQUO. my horfe does not go the better for the hafte I shall be in to avoid the night. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's firft interpretation is, I believe, the true one. It is fupported by the following paffage in Stowe's Survey of London, 1603: " and hee that hit it not full, if he rid not the fafter, had a found blow in his neck, with a bag full of fand hanged on the other end." MALONE. 2 And fo I do commend you to their backs.] In old language one of the fenfes of to commend was to commit, and fuch is the meaning here. So, in K. Richard II: "And now he doth commend his arms to ruft." MALONE. Commend, however, in the prefent inftance, may only be a civil term, fignifying-fend. Thus in King Henry VIII: The " king's majetty commends his good opinion to you." What Macbeth therefore, after expreffing his friendly with relative to their horses, appears to mean, is—so I send (or difmifs) you to mount them. STREVENS. Till feven at night; to make society you. [Exeunt Lady MACBETH, Lords, Ladies, &c. Sirrah, a word: Attend those men our pleasure? ATTEN. They are, my lord, without the palace gate. MACB. Bring them before us.-[Exit Atten.] But to be fafely thus:-Our fears in Banquo Reigns that, which would be fear'd: 'Tis much he dares; 3 And, to that dauntlefs temper of his mind, He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour Mark Antony's was by Cæfar. He chid the fifters, 2 Sirrah, a word: &c.] The old copy reads Sirrah, a word with you: Attend those men our pleasure ? The words I have omitted are certainly fpurious. The metre is injured by them, and the fenfe is complete without them. STEEVENS. to -] i. e. in addition to. See p. 330, n. 5. My genius is rebuk'd; as, it is faid, STEEVENS. Mark Antony's was by Cæfar.] For the fake of metre, the prænomen-Mark (which probably was an interpolation) might fafely be omitted. STEEVENS. Though I would not often affume the critick's privilege of being confident where certainty cannot be obtained, nor indulge myself too far in departing from the established reading; yet I cannot but propofe the rejection of this paffage, which I believe was an infertion of fome player, that, having fo much learning as to discover to what Shakspeare alluded, was not willing that his audience fhould be lefs knowing than himself, and has therefore weakened the author's sense, by the intrufion of a remote and useless image When firft they put the name of King upon me, into a speech bursting from a man wholly poffefs'd with his own prefent condition, and therefore not at leifure to explain his own allufions to himself. If these words are taken away, by which not only the thought but the numbers are injured, the lines of Shakfpeare close together without any traces of a breach. My genius is rebuk'd. He chid the fifters. This note was written before I was fully acquainted with Shakfpeare's manner, and I do not now think it of much weight: for though the words which I was once willing to eject, seem interpolated, I believe they may ftill be genuine, and added by the author in his revifion. Mr. Heath cannot admit the measure to be faulty. There is only one foot, he fays, put for another. This is one of the effects of literature in minds not naturally perfpicacious. Every boy or girl finds the metre imperfect, but the pedant comes to its defence with a tribrachys or an anapæft, and fets it right at once by applying to one language the rules of another. If we may be allowed to change feet, like the old comic writers, it will not be easy to write a line not metrical. To hint this once is fufficient. JOHNSON. Our author having alluded to this circumftance in Antony and Cleopatra, there is no reason to fufpect any interpolation here: "Therefore, O Antony, ftay not by his fide: Thy dæmon, that's thy fpirit which keeps thee, is 5 For Banquo's iffue have I fil'd my mind;] We should read: i. e. defiled. WARBURTON. This mark of contraction is not neceffary. To file is in the Bishops' Bible. JOHNSON. So, in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608: "He call'd his father villain, and me ftrumpet, "A name I do abhor to file my lips with." For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd; To make them kings, the feed of banquo kings!" there? Who's Again, in The Miferies of inforc'd Marriage, 1607: "like fmoke through a chimney that files all the way it goes." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. III. c. i: "She lightly lept out of her filed bed." STEEVENS. 6 the common enemy of man,] It is always an entertainment to an inquifitive reader, to trace a fentiment to its original fource; and therefore, though the term enemy of man, applied to the devil, is in itself natural and obvious, yet fome may be pleased with being informed, that Shakspeare probably borrowed it from the first lines of The Destruction of Troy, a book which he is known to have read. This expreffion, however, he might have had in many other places. The word fiend fignifies enemy. JOHNSON. Shakspeare repeats this phrafe in Twelfth Night, A&t III. fc. iv: "Defy the devil: confider, he's an enemy to mankind.” STEEVENS, "the feed of Banquo kings!] The old copy reads-feeds. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 8 come, fate, into the lift, And champion me to the utterance!] This paffage will be beft explained by tranflating it into the language from whence the only word of difficulty in it is borrowed. Que la deftinée fe rende en lice, et qu'elle me donne un defi a l'outrance. A challenge, or a combat a l'outrance, to extremity, was a fixed term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odium internecinum, an inten tion to deftroy each other, in oppofition to trials of skill at feftivals, or on other occafions, where the conteft was only for reputation or a prize. The fenfe therefore is: Let fate, that has fore-doom'd the exaltation of the fons of Banquo, enter the lifts against me, with the utmost animofity, in defence of its own decrees, which I will endeavour to invalidate, whatever be the danger. JOHNSON. We meet with the fame expreffion in Gawin Douglas's tranflation of Virgil, p. 331, 49: "That war not put by Greikis to utterance,” Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. Now to the door, and stay there till we call." [Exit Attendant. Was it not yesterday we spoke together? Well then, now How you, 2 you were borne in hand; how crofs'd; the inftruments; Again, in The Hiftory of Graund Amoure and la bel Pucelle, &c. by Stephen Hawes, 1555: "That fo many monsters put to utterance." Again, and more appofitely, in the 14th book of Golding's tranflation of Ovid's Metamorphofis: "To both the parties at the length from battell for to reft, "And not to fight to utterance. Shakspeare ufes it again in Cymbeline, Act III. fc. i. STEEVENS. 9 Now to the door, and ftay there till we call.] The old copy reads "Now go to the door &c;" but for the fake of verfification I fuppofe the word go, which is understood, may fafely be omitted. Thus in the last scene of the foregoing act: Will you to Scone? No coufin, I'll to Fife. In both these instances go is mentally inferted. STEEVENS. 2 -pass'd in probation with you, How you were borne in hand, &c.] The words-with you, I regard as an interpolation, and conceive the paffage to have been originally given thus ; |