Pluck from the memory a rooted forrow; And with fome fweet oblivious antidote,] Perhaps, as Dr. Farmer has obferved, our poet here remembered Spenfer's defcription of Nepenthe: 66 Nepenthe is a drinck of fovereign grace, "Devized by the gods for to affwage "Harts grief, and bitter gall away to chace,- "It doth eftablish in the troubled mynd." Faery Queene, B. IV. c. iii. ft. 34. MALONE. Our author's idea might have been caught from the 6th book of The Eneid, where the effects of Lethe are defcribed: Lethæi ad fluminis undam Securos latices, et longa oblivia potant. Thus tranflated by Phaer, 1558: "Thefe liquors quenching cares, and long forgetful draughts thei drink "That of their liues, and former labours paft, they neuer thinck." STEEVENS. 3 Cleanse the stuff'd bofom of that perilous ftuff,] Stuff'd is the reading of the old copy; but for the fake of the ear, which must be fhocked by the recurrence of fo harfh a word, I am willing to read, foul, as there is authority for the change from Shakspeare himself, in As you like it, Act II. fc. vi: "Cleanfe the foul body of the infected world." We properly speak of cleanfing what is foul, but not what is fuffed. STEEVENS. The recurrence of the word fluff in this paffage, is very unpleafing to the ear, but there is no ground, I think, to fufpect the text to be corrupt; for our author was extremely fond of fuch repetitions. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Now for the love of love,-." All's well that ends well. Ibid. "Is only grievous to me, only dying." K. Henry VIII. DOCT. Muft minister to himself. Therein the patient MACB. Throw phyfick to the dogs, I'll none of it. Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff:-~ Seyton,fend out.-Doctor, the thanes fly from me :Come, fir, defpatch :-If thou could'ft, doctor, cast The water of my land,+ find her disease, "Upon his brow shame is afham'd to fit." Romeo and Juliet. For by this knot thou fhalt fo furely tie 66 King John. Ibid. "Thy now unfur'd affurance to the crown." The words fluff'd and ftuff, however mean they may found at prefent, have, like many other terms, been debafed by time, and appear to have been formerly confidered as words proper to be used in paffages of the greatest dignity. As fuch Shakspeare has employed them in Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale, Julius Cafar, &c. Again, in The Tempeft, in a paffage where the author certainly aimed at dignity: And, like this unfubftantial pageant, faded, "Leave not a rack behind.-We are fuch stuff "As dreams are made of." In a note on a paffage in Othello, Dr. Johnfon obferves, that ftuff in the Teutonick languages is a word of great force, The elements (he adds) are called in Dutch hoefd ftoffen, or head-ftuffs." MALONE. The prefent queftion is not concerning the dignity of the wordfuffed, but it's naufeous iteration, of which no example has been produced by Mr. Malone; for that our author has indulged himself in the repetition of harmonious words, is no proof that he would have repeated harsh ones. I may venture alfo (in fupport of my opinion) to fubjoin, that the fame gentleman, in a very judicious comment on K. Henry IV. P. II. p. 16, n. 7. has obferved, "that when a word is repeated without propriety, in the fame, or two fucceeding lines, there is great reafon to fufpect some corruption." STEEVENS. The water of my land,] To caft the water was the phrafe in ufe for finding out diforders by the infpection of urine. So, in Elifto Libidinofo, a novel by John Hinde, 1606: "Lucilla perceiving, And purge it to a found and pristine health, That should applaud again.-Pull't off, I say.— What rhubarb, fenna, or what purgative drug, Would fcour these English hence?-Heareft thou of them? Docr. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear fomething. Масв. Bring it after me.— I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunfinane. [Exit. Docr. Were I from Dunfinane away and clear, Profit again fhould hardly draw me here. [Exit. SCENE IV. Country near Dunfinane: A wood in view. Enter,with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOX, Rosse, and Soldiers, marching. MAL. Coufins, I hope, the days are near at hand, That chambers will be fafe. MENT. We doubt it nothing. SIW. What wood is this before us? without cafting her water, where she was pained," &c. Again, in The Wife Woman of Hogfdon, 1638: "Mother Nottingham, for her time, was pretty well fkilled in cafting waters." STEEVENS. 5 Jenna,] The old copy reads-cyme. STEEVENS, Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. MENT. The wood of Birnam. MAL. Let every foldier hew him down a bough, And bear't before him; thereby fhall we fhadow The numbers of our hoft, and make discovery Err in report of us. SOLD. It fhall be done. SIW. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant" Keeps ftill in Dunfinane, and will endure Our fetting down before't. MAL. 'Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given, but the confident tyrant-] We muft furely read: He was confident of fuccefs; fo confident that he would not fly, but endure their fetting down before his caftle. JOHNSON. 7 For where there is advantage to be given, Both more and lefs have given him the revolt;] The impropriety of the expreffion, advantage to be given, inftead of advantage given, and the difagreeable repetition of the word given in the next line, incline me to read: where there is a 'vantage to be gone, Both more and lefs have given him the revolt. Advantage or 'vantage, in the time of Shakspeare, fignified opportunity. He but up himself and his foldiers (fays Malcolm) in the cafle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone, they all defert him. More and lefs is the fame with greater and lefs. So, in the interpolated Mandeville, a book of that age, there is a chapter of India. the More and the Lefs. JOHNSON. I would read, if any alteration were necessary : For where there is advantage to be got. But the words as they ftand in the text will bear Dr. Johnson's, explanation, which is moft certainly right." For wherever an opportunity of flight is given them," &c. More and lefs, for greater and lefs, is likewise found in Chaucer: "From Boloigne is the erle of Pavie come, "Of which the fame yfpronge to most and lefte.” Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, fong the 12th: "Of Britain's forests all from th' less unto the more.” And none ferve with him but constrained things, Whose hearts are abfent too. MACD. Let our juft cenfures Attend the true event, and put we on Industrious foldiership. SIW. The time approaches, That will with due decifion make us know Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. V. c. viii: 66 all other weapons leffe or more, "Which warlike ufes had devis'd of yore." STEEVENS. Where there is advantage to be given, I believe, means, where advantageous offers are made to allure the adherents of Macbeth to forfake him. HENLEY. I fufpect that given was caught by the printer's eye glancing on the fubfequent line, and ftrongly incline to Dr. Johnson's emendation, gone. MALONE. Why is the repetition of the word-given, lefs venial than the recurrence of the word-ftuff'd, in a preceding page? See Mr. Malone's objections to my remark on "Cleanse the stuff'd bofom of that perilous stuff." STEEVENS. Let our just cenfures Attend the true event,] The arbitrary change made in the fecond folio (which fome criticks have represented as an improved edition) is here worthy of notice : Let our beft cenfures Before the true event, and put we on, &c. MALONE. Surely, a few errors in a few pages of a book, do not exclude all idea of improvement in other parts of it. I cherish this hope for my own fake, as well as for that of other commentators on Shakspeare. STEEVENS. 9 What we shall fay we have, and what we owe.] i. e. property and allegiance. WARBURTON. When we are governed by legal kings, we fhall know the limits of their claim, i. e. fhall know what we have of our own, and what they have a right to take from us. Mr. Henley explains the paffage thus: "The iffue of the contest will foon decide what we shall fay we have, and what may be accounted our own." To owe here is to poffefs. STEEVENS. |