Give forrow words: the grief, that does not speak, Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break. MACD. My children too?

Let's make us medicines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.

MACD. He has no children.'-All my pretty ones?

1612:

the grief, that does not speak,] So, in Vittoria Corombona,

"Those are the killing griefs, which dare not speak." Cure leves loquuntur, ingentes ftupent.

Again, in Greene's old bl. 1. novel entitled The Tragicall Hiftory of Faire Bellora:

"Light forrowes often fpeake,

"When great the heart in filence breake." STEEVENS, In Daniel's Complaint of Rofamond, 1595, we have the like fentiment:

Striving to tell his woes words would not come; "For light cares speak, when mighty griefs are dombe."

the heart hath treble wrong,

REED.

"When it is barr'd the aidance of the tongue." MALONE.

He has no children.] It has been obferved by an anonymous eritic, that this is not faid of Macbeth, who had children, but of Malcolm, who, having none, fuppofes a father can be so easily comforted. JOHNSON.

The meaning of this may be, either that Macduff could not by retaliation revenge the murder of his children, because Macbeth had none himself; or that if he had any, a father's feelings for a father would have prevented him from the deed. I know not from what paffage we are to infer that Macbeth had children alive. Holinihed's Chronicle does not, as I remember, mention any. The fame thought occurs again in K. John:

"He talks to me that never had a fon."

Did you fay, all?-O, hell-kite!-All?
What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam,
At one fell fwoop? 3

MAL. Difpute it like a man.+

MACD.

But I must also feel it as a man:

I fhall do fo;

I cannot but remember fuch things were,

That were most precious to me.-Did heaven look

on,

Again, in K. Henry VI. P. III:

"You have no children: butchers, if you had,

"The thought of them would have ftir'd up remorfe.”

STEEVENS.

Surely the latter of the two interpretations offered by Mr. Steevens is the true one, fuppofing these words to relate to Macbeth.

The paffage, however, quoted from King John, feems in favour of the fuppofition that these words relate to Malcolm.

That Macbeth had children at fome period, appears from what Lady Macbeth fays in the firft act: "I have given fuck," &c.

I am ftill more strongly confirmed in thinking thefe words relate to Malcolm, and not to Macbeth, because Macbeth had a fon then alive, named Lulah, who after his father's death was proclaimed king by fome of his friends, and flain at Strathbolgie, about four months after the battle of Dunfinane. See Fordun. Scoti-Chron. L. V. c. viii.

Whether Shakspeare was apprized of this circumftance, cannot be now afcertained; but we cannot prove that he was unacquainted with it. MALONE.

3 At one fell fwoop?] Swoop is the descent of a bird of prey on his quarry. So, in The White Devil, 1612:

"That fhe may take away all at one woop." Again, in The Beggar's Bufh, by Beaumont and Fletcher : "no ftar profperous!

All at a woop.'

22

It is frequently, however, ufed by Drayton, in his Polyolbion, to exprefs the fwift defcent of rivers. STEEVENS.

4 Difpute it like a man.] i. e. contend with your prefent forrow like a man. So, in Twelfth Night, A&t IV. fc. iii:

"For though my foul difputes well with my fenfe," &c.

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Let me difpute with thee of thy eftate." STEEVENS.

And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff, They were all struck for thee! naught that I am, Not for their own demerits, but for mine,

Fell flaughter on their fouls: Heaven reft them now!

MAL. Be this the whetstone of your fword: let

grief

Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.

MACD. O, I could play the woman with mine

eyes,

And braggart with my tongue!

heaven,

5

But, gentle

Cut fhort all intermiffion; front to front, Bring thou this fiend of Scotland, and myself; Within my fword's length fet him; if he 'scape, Heaven forgive him too!"

MAL.

This tune goes manly.

Cut bort all intermiffion;] i. e. all paufe, all intervening time. So, in K. Lear:

6

"Deliver❜d letters, fpite of intermiffion." STEEVENS.

- if he 'Scape,

Heaven forgive him too!] That is, if he efcape my vengeance, let him escape that of Heaven also.

An expreffion nearly fimilar occurs in The Chances, where Petruchio, fpeaking of the Duke, fays

"He fcap'd me yefternight; which if he dare

"

Again adventure for, heaven pardon him!

"I fhall, with all my heart." M. MASON.

The meaning, I believe, is, if heaven be fo unjuft as to let him efcape my vengeance, I am content that it fhould proceed still further in its injuftice, and to impunity in this world add forgiveness hereafter. MALONE.

7 This tune-] The folio reads: This time. emendation. STEEVENS.

Tune is Rowe's

The emendation is fupported by a former paffage in this play, where the word is ufed in a fimilar manner:

"Macb. Went it not fo?

Bang. To the felf-fame tune and words." MALONE.

Come, go we to the king; our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave: Macbeth
Is ripe for fhaking, and the powers above
Put on their inftruments. Receive what cheer you

may;

The night is long, that never finds the day.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

Dunfinane. A Room in the Cafile.

Enter a DOCTOR of phyfick, and a waiting Gentle

woman.

Docr. I have two nights watch'd with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it the laft walk'd?

GENT. Since his majesty went into the field,' I

Put on their inftruments.] i. e. encourage, thrust forward us their inftruments against the tyrant.

So, in King Lear, A&I. fc. iv:

"That you protect this course, and put it on

By your allowance." STEEVENS.

9 Since his majefty went into the field,] This is one of Shakspeare's overfights. He forgot that he had fhut up Macbeth in Dunfinane, and furrounded him with befiegers. That he could not go into the field, is obferved by himself with fplenetic impatience:

our caftle's ftrength

"Will laugh a fiege to fcorn. Here let them lie
"Till famine and the ague eat them up.

"Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours,

"We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,

"And beat them backward home.”

have seen her rife from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her clofet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards feal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most faft fleep.

Docr. A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of fleep, and do the effects of watching. In this flumbry agitation, besides her walking, and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?

GENT. That, fir, which I will not report after her. Docr. You may, to me: and 'tis most meet you fhould.

GENT. Neither to you, nor any one; having no witness to confirm my fpeech.

Enter Lady MACBETH, with a taper.

Lo you, here he comes! This is her very guise; and, upon my life, faft afleep. Obferve her; ftand clofe.

It is clear alfo from other paffages, that Macbeth's motions had long been circumfcribed by the walls of his fortrefs.

The truth may be, that Shakspeare thought the fpirit of Lady Macbeth could not be fo effectually fubdued, and her peace of mind fo fpeedily unfettled by reflection on her guilt, as during the abfence of her husband :

deferto jacuit dum frigida letto, Dum queritur tardos ire relicta dies.

For the prefent change in her difpofition, therefore, our poet (though in the hafte of finishing his play he forgot his plan,) might mean to have provided, by allotting her fuch an interval of folitude as would fubject her mind to perturbation, and difpofe her thoughts to repentance.

It does not appear from any circumftance within the compafs of

this drama, that he had once been feparated from her husband, after his return from the victory over Macdonwald, and the King of Norway. STEEVENS,

VOL. VII.

Nn