With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains Are register'd where every day I turn The leaf to read them.-Let us toward the king.— Think upon what hath chanc'd: and, at more time, The interim having weigh'd it 30, let us speak Our free hearts each to other. Very gladly. Ban. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Fores. A Room in the Palace. Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, and Attendants. Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet return'd? Mal. My liege, They are not yet come back. But I have spoke With one that saw him die: who did report, That very frankly he confess'd his treasons; Implor'd your highness' pardon; and set forth A deep repentance: nothing in his life Became him, like the leaving it; he died As one that had been studied in his death1, To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd, As 'twere a careless trifle. 30 The interim having weigh'd it.' The interim is probably here used adverbially- You having weighed it in the interim.' 1 Studied in his death is well instructed in the art of dying. The behaviour of the thane of Cawdor corresponds in almost every circumstance with that of the unfortunate earl of Essex, as related by Stowe, p. 793. His asking the queen's forgiveness, his confession, repentance, and concern about behaving with propriety on the scaffold, are minutely described by that historian.' Steevens thinks that an allusion was intended to the severity of that justice which deprived the age of one of its greatest ornaments, and Southampton, Shakspeare's patron, of his dearest friend.' 2 Ow'd, owned, possessed. 6 Dun. There's no art, To find the mind's construction in the face 3: Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS. Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before, To overtake thee. 'Would, thou hadst less deserv'd; Are to your throne and state, children, and servants; 3 We cannot construe the disposition of the mind by the linea ments of the face. In Shakspeare's ninety-third Sonnet we have a contrary assertion ; 4 i. e, I owe thee more than all; nay, more than all which I can say or do will requite. 5 Safe toward your love and honour.' Sir William Blackstone would read: Safe toward you love and honour; which he explains thus:- Our duties are your children, and servants or vassals to your throne and state; who do but what they should, by doing every thing with a saving of their love and honour toward you.' He says that it has reference to the old feudal simple homage, which when done to a subject was always accompanied with a saving clause-' saulf le foy que jeo doy a nostre seignor le roy; which he thinks suits well with the situation of Macbeth, now beginning to waver in his allegiance. Malone and Steevens seem to favour this explanation: but safe may merely mean respectful, loyal; like the old French word sauf. Shakspeare has used the old French phrase, sauf votre honneur, several times in King Henry V. Dun. Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour Ban. The harvest is your own. Dun. There if I grow, My plenteous joys, Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter, But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine 6 i. e. exuberant. 7. In drops of sorrow.' lachrymas non sponte cadentes Effudit, gemitusque expressit pectore læto; Non aliter manifesta potens abscondere mentis Gaudia, quam lachrymis.' Lucan, lib. ix. The same sentiment again occurs in The Winter's Tale. It is likewise employed in the first scene of Much Ado about Nothing. 8 Holinshed says, Duncan having two sons, &c. he made the elder of them, called Malcolm, prince of Cumberland, as it was thereby to appoint him his successor in his kingdome immediatelie after his decease, Macbeth sorely troubled herewith, for that he saw by this means his hope sore hindered (where, by the old laws of the realme the ordinance was, that if he that should succeed were not of able age to take the charge upon himself, he that was next of blood unto him should be admitted), he began to take counsel how he might usurpe the kingdome by force, having a just quarrel so to doe (as he tooke the matter) for that Duncane did what in him lay to defraud him of all manner of title and claime, which he might in time to come pretend, unto the crowne.' Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us❜d for I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach; So, humbly take my leave. you: Dun. My worthy Cawdor! Macb. The prince of Cumberland!--That is a step, On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, [Aside. For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [Exit. Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant9; And in his commendations I am fed; It is a banquet to me. It is a peerless kinsman. Let us after him, Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: SCENE V. [Flourish. Exeunt. Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Castle. Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a Letter. Lady M. They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfectest report', they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves—air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me, Thane of Cawdor; by which 9 True, worthy Banquo,' &c. We must imagine that while Macbeth was uttering the six preceding lines, Duncan and Banquo had been conferring apart. Macbeth's conduct appears to have been their subject; and to some encomium supposed to have been bestowed on him by Banquo, the reply of Dunean refers. 1 The perfectest report is the best intelligence. 2 Missives, messengers. title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with, Hail, king that shalt be! This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness, To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great; Art not without ambition; but without The illness should attend it. What thou would'st highly, That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false, That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou have it ; Hie thee hither, tidings? 3 Thou would'st have that [i. e. the crown] which cries unto thee, thou must do thus, if thou would'st have it, and thou must do that which rather,' &c. The difficulty of this passage in Italics seems to have arisen from its not having been considered as all uttered by the object of Macbeth's ambition. Malone is the author of this regulation, and furnished the explanation. 4 That I may pour my spirits in thine ear.' So in Lord Sterline's Julius Cæsar, 1607 : Thou in my bosom used to pour thy spright.' 5 Which fate and metaphysical aid,' &c.; i. e. supernatural aid. We find metaphysics explained things supernatural' in the old |