MACB. Thanks for that: There the grown ferpent lies; the worm,' that's fled, LADY M. You do not give the cheer: the feaft is fold, From thence, the fauce to meat is ceremony; MACB. Sweet remembrancer! Now, good digeftion wait on appetite," LEN. May it please your highness fit? [The ghost of BANQUO rifes, and fits in MACBETH'S place. 7 the worm,] This term in our author's time was applied to all of the ferpent kind. MALONE. 8 -the feaft is fold, &c.] Mr. Pope reads:the feaft is cold, and not without plaufibility. Such another phrafe occurs in The Elder Brother of Beaumont and Fletcher: "You must be welcome too :-the feaft is flat elfe." But the fame expreffion as Shakspeare's, is found in The Romannt of the Rofe: Good dede done through praiere, Is fold, and bought to dere." STEEVENS. The meaning is,-That which is not given cheerfully, cannot be called a gift, it is fomething that must be paid for. JOHNSON. It is still common to fay, that we pay dear for an entertainment, if the circumstances attending the participation of it prove irkfome HENLEY. to us. Now, good digeftion wait on appetite,] So, in K. Henry VIII: "A good digeftion to you all." STEEVENS. 2 The ghost of Banquo rifes,] This circumftance of Banquo's gheft feems to be alluded to in The Puritan, firft printed in 1607, and ridiculously afcribed to Shakspeare: "We'll ha' the ghoft i' th' white fheet fit at upper end e' th' table." FARMER. MACB. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, Were the grac'd perfon of our Banquo prefent; Who may ROSSE. His abfence, fir, Lays blame upon his promife. Please it your high nefs To grace us with your royal company? MACB. The table's full. LEN. MACB. Where? LEN. Here is a place reserv'd, sir. Here, my lord. What is't that What, my good lord? moves your highness? MACB. Which of you have done this? LORDS. MACB. Thou canst not fay, I did it: never fhake Thy gory locks at me. ROSSE. Gentlemen, rife; his highness is not well. 3 Than pity for mifchance!] This is one of Shakspeare's touches of nature. Macbeth by these words difcovers a confciousness of guilt; and this circumftance could not fail to be recollected by a nice obferver on the affaffination of Banquo being publickly known. Not being yet rendered fufficiently callous by " hard ufe," Macbeth betrays himself (as Mr. Wheatley has obferved,)" by an over-acted regard for Banquo, of whofe abfence from the feaft he affects to complain, that he may not be fufpected of knowing the cause, though at the fame time he very unguardedly drops an allufion to that caufe." MALONE. Thefe words do not feem to convey any consciousness of guilt on the part of Macbeth, or allufion to Banquo's murder, as Mr. Wheatley fuppofes. Macbeth only means to fay-" I have more caufe to accufe him of unkindness for his abfence, than to pity him for any accident or mischance that may have occafioned it. DOUCE. 4 Here, my lord. &c.] The old copy-my good lord; an interFolation that fpoils the metre. The compofitor's eye had caughtgood from the next freech but one. STEEVENS. LADY M. Sit, worthy friends :-my lord is often thus, And hath been from his youth: 'pray you, keep feat; He will again be well: If much you note him, MACB. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that Which might appal the devil. LADY. M. O proper stuff!" This is the very painting of your fear: This is the air-drawn dagger, which, you faid, Led you to Duncan. O, thefe flaws, and starts, (Impoftors to true fear,) would well become" A woman's ftory, at a winter's fire, Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself! upon a thought-] i. e. as fpeedily as thought can be exerted. So, in King Henry IV. P. I: "-and, with a thought, feven of the eleven I pay'd." Again, in Hamlet: 66 as fwift "As meditation, or the thoughts of love." STEEVENS. -extend his paffion;] Prolong his fuffering; make his fit longer. JOHNSON. 6 O proper ftuff!] This fpeech is rather too long for the circumftances in which it is fpoken. It had begun better at, Shame itself! JOHNSON. Surely it required more than a few words, to argue Macbeth out of the horror that poffeffed him. M. MASON. 70, thefe flaws, and flarts, (Impoftors to true fear,) would well become &c.] i. e. thefe flaws and ftarts, as they are indications of your needlefs fears, are the imitators or impoftors only of those which arife from a fear well grounded. WARBURTON. Flaws are fudden gufts. JOHNSON. So, in Coriolanus: "Like a great fea-mark, ftanding every flaw." STEEVENS, Again, in Venus and Adonis : " Gufts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds." MALONE, 479 Why do you make fuch faces? When all's done, MACB. Pr'ythee, see there! behold! look! lo! Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.- LADY M. What! quite unmann'd in folly? MACB. If I ftand here, I faw him. LADY M. Fie, for shame! MACB. Blood hath been fhed ere now, i'the Impoftors to true fear, mean impoftors when compared with true fear. Such is the force of the prepofition to in this place. So, in K. Henry VIII. « Fetch me a dozen crab-tree staves, and M. MASON. ftrong ones; thefe are but switches to them." STEEVENS. To may be used for of. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona we have an expreffion refembling this: MALONE. "Thou counterfeit to thy true friend." 8 Shall be the maws of kites.] The fame thought occurs in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. II. c. viii: "But be entombed in the raven or the kight." STEEVENS. "In fplendidiffimum quemque captivum, non fine verborum contumelia, fæviit: ut quidem uni fuppliciter fepulturam precanti refpondiffe dicatur, jam iftam in volucrum fore poteftatem." "Sueton. in Auguft. 13. MALONE. 9 What! quite unmann'd in folly?] Would not this question be forcible enough without the two laft words, which overflow the metre, and confequently may be fufpected as interpolations? 2 STEEVENS. -i'the olden time,] Mr. M. Mafon propofes to read-" the golden time," meaning the Golden age but the ancient reading may be justified by Holinthed, who, fpeaking of the witches, fays, they "refembled creatures of the elder world;" and in Twelfth Night we have dallies with the innocence of love, "Like the old age." Ere human ftatute purg'd the gentle weal; * And there an end: but now, they rise again, LADY M. My worthy lord, Your noble friends do lack you. Масв. I do forget: Do not mufe at me,' my most worthy friends; to all; Come, love and health. Then I'll fit down:-Give me fome wine, fill full: I drink to the general joy of the whole table, Again, in "Thyftorye of Jacob and his twelve fones" bl. 1. printed by Wynkyn de Worde: "Of dedes done in the olde tyme." Again, in our Liturgy-" and in the old time before them." STEEVENS. 2 Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal;] The gentle weal, is, the peaceable community, the ftate made quiet and fafe by human ftatutes. "Mollia fecura peragebant otia gentes." JOHNSON. In my opinion it means " that ftate of innocence which did not require the aid of human laws to render it quiet and secure." M. MASON. 3 Do not mufe at me,] To mufe anciently fignified to wander, to be in amaze. So, in King Henry IV. P. II. A&t IV: "I mufe, you make fo flight a question." Again, in All's well that ends well: "And rather mufe, than afk, why I entreat you." STEEVEXS |