The Plays of William Shakespeare in Ten Volumes

? And pall thee in the dunneft finoke of hell!
That my keen knife fee not the wound it makes;
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark",
To cry, Hold, hold! Great Glamis! worthy

Cawdor!

"Be then my coverture thick ugly night!
"The light hates me, and I do hate the light."

And pall thee-
thee]

1. e. wrap thyfelf in a pall. WARBURTON.

Enter

MALONE.

A pall is a robe of ftate. So, in the ancient black letter romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys, no date;

The knyghtes were clothed in pall.”

Again, in Milton's Penferofo:

"Sometime let gorgeous tragedy

In fcepter'd pall come fweeping by."

Dr. Warburton feems to mean the covering which is thrown over the dead. STEEVENS.

8 That my keen knife -}

The word knife which at prefent has a familiar meaning, was an ciently used to exprefs a word. So, in the old black letter ro mance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys, no date:

"Through Goddes myght, and his knyfe,
"There the gyaunte loft his lyfe."

Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. i. c. 6:

the red-crofs knight was flain with paynim knife.”

the blanket of the dark,]

STEEVENS.

Drayton, in the 26th song of his Polyolbion, has an expreffion refembling this:

"Thick vapours that, like rugs, still hang the troubled

air." STEEVENS.

To cry, Hold, hold!

On this paffage there is a long criticism in the Rambler.

JOHNSON. In this criticifm the epithet dun is objected to as a mean one. Milton, however, appears to have been of a different opinion, and has reprefented Satan as flying

4. in the dun air fublime." STEEVENS.

To cry, Hold, hold! The thought is taken from the old military laws which inflicted capital punishment upon "whofoever shall strike ftroke at his adverfary, either in the heat or otherwife, if a third do cry hold, to the intent to part them; except that they did fight a combat in a place inclofed: and then no man shall be fo hardy as to bid hold,

but

Enter Macbeth.

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have tranfported me beyond

3 This ignorant prefent time +, and I feel now

But the general." P. 264 of Mr. Bellay's Inftructions for the Wars, tranflated in 1589. TOLLET.

Mr. Tollet's note will likewife illuftrate the laft line in Macbeth's concluding fpeech:

And damn'd be him who first cries, hold, enough!"
STEEVENS.

2 Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!] Shakespeare has fupported the character of lady Macbeth, by repeated efforts, and never omits any opportunity of adding a trait of ferocity, or a mark of the want of human feelings, to this monster of his own creation. The fofter paffions are more obliterated in her than in her husband, in proportion as her ambition is greater. She meets him here on his arrival from an expedition of danger, with fuch a falutation as would have become one of his friends or vaffals; a falutation apparently fitted rather to raise his thoughts to a level with her own purposes, than to testify her joy at his return, or manifeft an attachment to his perfon: nor does any fentiment expreffive of love or foftnefs fall from her throughout the play. While Macbeth himself, in the midft of the hor Fors of his guilt, ftill retains a character lefs fiend-like than that of his queen, talks to her with a degree of tenderness, and pours his complaints and fears into her bofom, accompanied with terms of endearment. STEEVENS.

3 This ignorant prefent time,]

Ignorant, for bafe, poor, ignoble. WARBURTON.

Ignorant has here the fignification of unknowing; that is, I feel by anticipation thofe future hours, of which, according to the procefs of nature, the present time would be ignorant. JOHNSON. So, in Cymbeline:

his fhipping,

"Poor ignorant baubles, &c." STEEVENS.

-prefent time,

The word time is wanting in the old copy. It was fupply'd by Mr. Pope, and perhaps without neceflity, as our author omits it in the firft fcene of the Tempeft: "If you can command thefe elements to filence and work the peace of the prefent, we will not handle a rope more." The fenfe does not require the word time, and it is too much for the measure. Again, in Coriolanus :

"And that you not delay the present; but &c." Again, in Corinthians I. ch. xv, v.6: “ of whom the greater part remain unto this prefent," STEEVENS.

The

The future in the inftant.

Mach. My dearest love,

Duncan comes here to-night.
Lady. And when goes hence?
Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes.
Lady. Oh, never

Shall fun that morrow fee!

Your face, my thane, is as a book ", where men
May read ftrange matters:-To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent
flower,

But be the ferpent under it. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you fhall put
This night's great business into my dispatch;
Which fhall to all our nights and days to come
Give folely fovereign sway and mafterdom.
Mach. We will fpeak further.

Lady. Only look up clear;

To alter favour ever is to fear :
Leave all the reft to me.

5 Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men

May read, &c.]

So, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609:

"Her face the book of praises, where is read
"Nothing but curious pleasures." STEEVENS,
to beguile the time,

Look like the time; -]

[Exeunt

The fame expreffion occurs in the 8th book of Daniel's Civil
Wars:

"He draws a traverfe 'twixt his grievances;
"Looks like the time: his eye made not report
"Of what he felt within; nor was he lefs
"Than usually he was in every part;

"Wore a clear face upon a cloudy heart."

It is almost needless to obferve that the Poem of Daniel was pu blished many years before Macbeth could have been written.

STEEVENS.

SCENE

SCE NE VI.

Hautboys and Torches. Enter King, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lenox, Macduff, Roffe, Angus, and Attendants.

King. This caftle hath a pleasant feat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 7 Unto our gentle fenfes.

Ban. This gueft of summer,

The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his lov'd manfionry, that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty frieze,
Buttress, nor coigne of vantage?, but this bird

7 Unto our gentle fenfes ]

How odd a character is this of the air that it could recommend itfelf to all the fenfes, not excepting the fight and hearing? Without doubt, we should read:

Unto our general sense,

meaning the touch or feeling; which not being confined to one part, like the rest of the fenfes, but extended over the whole body, the poet, by a fine periphrafis, calls the general fenfe. Therefore by the air's recommending itself nimbly and faweetly must be understood that it was clear and foft, which properties recreated the fibres, and affifted their vibration. And furely it was a good circumstance in the air of Scotland that it was foft and warın: and this circumftance he would recommend, as appears from the following words:

This gueft of fummer,

The temple-haunting martlet,

General has been corrupted to gentle once again in this very play. See note, act III. fcene v.

WARBURTON.

Senfes are nothing more than each man's fenfe. Gentle fenfes is very elegant, as it means placid, calm, compofed, and intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day. JOHNSON.

3-martlet,] This bird is in the old edition called barlet. JOHNSON. The correction is fupported by the following paffage in the Merchant of Venice:

-like the martlet

"Builds in the weather on the outward wall." STEEVENS. -coigne of vantage,-] Convenient corner. JOHNSON.

VOL. IV.

I i

Hath

Hath made his pendant bed, and procreant cradle: Where they' most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, The air is delicate.

Enter Lady Macbeth.

King. See, fee! our honour'd hoftefs! The love that follows us, fometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you, * How you shall bid God yield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble.

Lady. All our fervice

In every point twice done, and then done double, Were poor and fingle bufinefs, to contend Against thofe honours deep and broad, wherewith Your majefty loads our houfe: For those of old, And the late dignities heap'd up to them,

3 We reft your hermits.

moft breed,

King.

-] The folio,-muft breed. STEEVENS.

2 How you should bid God-yeld us-]

To bid any one God-yeld him, i. e. God-yield him, was the fame as God reward him. WARBURTON.

I believe yield, or, as it is in the folio of 1613, eyld, is a cor rupted contraction of field. The with implores not reward, but protection. JOHNSON,

I rather believe it to be a corruption of God-yield, i. e. reward. In Anthony and Cleopatra, we meet with it at length:

"And the gods yield you for't."

Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Efau, 1568:

"God yelde you Efau, with all my ftomach