Len. Or so much as it needs, To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds. Make we our march towards Birnam. [Exeunt, marching. SCENE III. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle. Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants. Macb. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all; Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm! Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know All mortal consequence, have pronounc'd me thus: Fear not, Macbeth; no man, that's born of woman, Shall e'er have power upon thee. thanes, -Then fly, false And mingle with the English epicures 1: The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear, Shall never sagg2 with doubt, nor shake with fear. Enter a Servant. The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd loon3 ! Where gott'st thou that goose look? Serv. There is ten thousand Macb. Serv. Geese, villain? Soldiers, sir. Macb. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, 1 Shakspeare derived this thought from Holinshed:- The Scottish people before had no knowledge of nor understanding of fine fare or riotous surfeit; yet after they had once tasted the sweet poisoned bait thereof,' &c. 'those superfluities which came into the realme of Scotland with Englishmen.'-Hist. of Scotland, p. 179. 2 To sag, or swag, is to hang down by its own weight, or by an overload. 3 cream-fac'd loon.' This word, which signifies a base abject fellow, is now only used in Scotland; it was formerly common in England, but spelt lown, and is justly considered by Horne Tooke as the past participle of to low or abase. Lowt has the same origin. Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch*? Macb. Take thy face hence.-Seyton!-I am sick at heart, When I behold-Seyton, I say!-This push + Patch, an appellation of contempt, signifying fool or low wretch. i. e. they infect others who see them with cowardice. In King Henry V. the King says to the conspirators, 'Your cheeks are paper. 6 Sear is dry, withered. We have the same expression and sentiment in Spenser's Pastorals : Also my lustful leaf is drie and seare.' For way of life' Johnson would read May of life; in which he was followed by Steevens and others. Warburton contended for the original reading, and was followed by Mason. At a subsequent period Steevens acquiesced in the propriety of the old reading, way of life, which he interprets, with his predecessors, course or progress. Malone followed the same track. The fact is that these ingenious writers have mistaken the phrase, which is neither more nor less than a simple paraphrasis for life. A few examples will make this clear: If that when I was mistress of myself, Massinger's Roman Actor. In way of youth I did enjoy one friend.' i.e. in my youth. 6 So much nobler Shall be your way of justice.' i. e. your justice. i, e. such justice. A very Woman. Thierry and Theodoret. Queen of Corinth. Pericles. 'He shall be found, and such a way of justice inflicted on him?' Thus ready for the way of life or death, I wait the sharpest blow.' i. e. for life or death. Is there no other way of mercy, But I must needs to the Tower?' King Henry VIII. This note I have abridged from Mr. Gifford's edition of Massinger, vol. iv. p. 309. 'I should have been contented with And that which should accompany old age, Enter SEYTON. Sey. What is your gracious pleasure? Macb. What news more? Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was re ported. Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd. Give me my armour. Sey. Macb. I'll put it on. 'Tis not needed yet. Send out more horses, skirr7 the country round; Hang those that talk of fear.-Give me mine armour. How does your patient, doctor? Not so sick, my lord, Doct. That keep her from her rest. Macb. fewer examples (says that excellent critic), had not my respect for Shakspeare made me desirous of disencumbering his page, by ascertaining beyond the possibility of cavil the meaning of an expression so long and so laboriously agitated. To return to Macbeth the sere and yellow leaf is the commencement of the winter of life or of old age; to this he has attained, and he laments, in a strain of inimitable pathos and beauty, that it is unaccompanied by those blessings which render it supportable. As his manhood was without virtue, so he has now before him the certain prospect of an old age without honour.' 7 i. e. scour the country round. 8 The following very remarkable passage in the Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso, which bears a striking resemblance to the words VOL. IV. EE Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Doct. Must minister to himself. Therein the patient Macb. Throw physick to the dogs, I'll none of it: Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff:Seyton, send out.-Doctor, the thanes fly from me: Come, sir, despatch:-If thou couldst, doctor, cast The water of my land9, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again.-Pull't off, I say.What rhubarb, senna 10, or what purgative drug, Would scour these English hence?-Hearest thou of them? Doct. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear something. Macb. Bring it after me. [Exit. Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exit. of Macbeth, was first pointed out in Mr. Weber's edition of Ford: 'Ma chi puote con erbe, od argomenti Guarir l'infermità del intelletto?' Cant. xxxvi. St. 37. 9 To cast the water was the empiric phrase for finding out disorders by the inspection of urine. 10. What rhubarb, senna.' The old copy reads cyme. The emendation is Rowe's. SCENE IV. Country near Dunsinane: 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. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand That chambers will be safe. Ment. We doubt it nothing. Siw. What wood is this before us? The wood of Birnam. Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough1, And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow The numbers of our host, and make discovery Err in report of us. Sold. It shall be done. Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure Our setting down before't. Mal. "Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given2, Both more and less 3 have given him the revolt; And none serve with him but constrained things, Whose hearts are absent too. 1 A similar incident is recorded by Olaus Magnus, in his Northern History, lib. vii. cap. xx. De Strategemate Hachonis per Frondes. 2 For where there is advantage to be given.' Dr. Johnson thought that we should read: where there is a vantage to be gone.' i. e. when there is an opportunity to be gone, all ranks desert him. We might perhaps read : where there is advantage to be gained.' and the sense would be nearly similar, with less violence to the text of the old copy. 3 i. e. Greater and less, or high and low, those of all ranks, |