Enter MACBETH. MACB. I have done the deed:-Didft thou not hear a noife? LADY M. I heard the owl scream, and the crick as the poet had drawn the lady and her husband, it would be thought the act should have been done by her. It is likewife highly juft; for though ambition had fubdued in her all the fentiments of na ture towards prefent objects, yet the likeness of one paft, which the had been accustomed to regard with reverence, made her unnatural paffions, for a moment, give way to the fentiments of inftinct and humanity. WARBURTON. The fame circumftance on a fimilar occafion is introduced by Statius in the Vth book of his Thebaid, v. 236: Ut vero Alcimeden etiamnum in murmure truncos Thoas was the father of Hypfipyle, the speaker. STEEVENS. 8 This is a forry fight.] This expreffion might have been borrowed from Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. V. c. i. ft. 14: "To whom as they approched, they espide "A forie fight as ever feene with eye; "A headleffe ladie lying him befide, "In her own bloud all wallow'd woefully." WHALLEY, LADY M. A foolish thought, to say a forry fight. MACB. There's one did laugh in his fleep, and one cried, murder! That they did wake each other; I ftood and heard them : But they did fay their prayers, and addrefs'd them Again to fleep. LADY M. There are two lodg'd together. MACB. One cried, God bless us ! and, Amen, the other; 2 As they had feen me," with these hangman's hands, Listening their fear. I could not say, amen, When they did fay, God bless us.' 9 As they had feen me,] i. e. as if. So, in The Winter's Tale: "As we are mock'd with art." STEEVENS. 2 Liftening their fear.] i. e. Liftening to their fear, the particle omitted. This is common in our author. Thus, in Julius Cæfar, A& IV. fc. i: and now, Octavius, "Liften great things." Contemporary writers took the fame liberty. So, in The World tofs'd at Tennis, by Middleton and Rowley, 1620: Liften the plaints of thy poor votaries." Again, in Lyly's Maid's Metamorphofis, 1600: "There, in rich feats, all wrought of ivory, "Of warbling birds." STEEVENS. 3 When they did fay, God bless us.] The words-did fay, which render this hemiftich too long to unite with the next in forming a verfe, perfuade me that the paffage originally ran thus: I could not fay, amen, When they, God blefs us. i. e. when they could fay God blefs us. line was left to be understood; as before and, Amen, the other:" Could fay, in the fecond i. e. the other cried Amen. But the players, having no idea of the latter ellipfis, fupplied the fyllables that deftroy the measure. LADY M. Confider it not fo deeply. MACB. But wherefore could not I pronounce, amen? I had most need of blessing, and amen Stuck in my throat. LADY M. These deeds muft not be thought After these ways; fo, it will make us mad. MACB. Methought, I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder fleep, the innocent fleep; 3 -the ravell'd leave of care,] Sleave fignifies the ravell'd knotty part of the filk, which gives great trouble and embarrassment to the knitter or weaver. HEATH. Drayton, a poet of Shakspeare's age, has likewife alluded to fleaved or ravelled filk, in his Queft of Cynthia: "At length I on a fountain light, "Whofe brim with pinks was platted, "With grafs, like fleave, was matted." LANGTON. Sleave is properly filk which has not been twifted. It is mentioned in Holinfhed's Hiftory of England, p. 835: "Eight wild men all apparelled in green mofs made with feved filk." Again, in The Mufes' Elizium, by Drayton : thrumb'd with grafs "As foft as fleave or farcenet ever was.” Again, ibid: "That in the handling feels as foft as any fleave." STEEVENS Sleave appears to have fignified coarfe, foft, unwrought filk. Seta groffolana, Ital. Cotgrave in his DICT. 1660, renders foye flofche, leave filk." See alfo, ibid: " Cadarce, pour faire capiton. The tow, or coarfeft part of filke, whereof leave is made."-In Troilus and Creffida we have " Thou idle immaterial skein of fleave filk." MALONE. 4 The death of each day's life, fore labour's bath, &c.] In this encomium upon fleep, amongst the many appellations which are given it, fignificant of its beneficence and friendliness to life, we find one which conveys a different idea, and by no means agrees Balm of hurt minds, great nature's fecond course, with the reft, which is: The death of each day's life. I make no queftion but Shak speare wrote: The birth of each day's life: The true characteristick of fleep, which repairs the decays of labour, and affifts that returning vigour which fupplies the next day's activity. WARBURTON. The death of each day's life, means the end of each day's labour, the conclufion of all that bustle and fatigue that each day's life brings with STEEVENS. it. Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd fleave of care, The death of each day's life, fore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds,] Is it not probable that Shakspeare remembered the following verfes in Sir Philip Sydney's Aftrophel and Stella, a poem, from which he has quoted a line in The Merry Wives of Windfor? "Come fleepe, O fleepe, the certain knot of peace, So alfo, in The Famous Hiftorie of George Lord Fauconbridge, &c. bl. let: 66 Yet fleep, the comforter of diftreffed minds, could not lock up her eyes." Again, in Golding's Tranflation of Ovid's Metamorphofes, B. VIII. 1587: 66 At fuch a time as folkes are wont to find release "Of cares that all the day before were working in their heds, By fleep," &c. Again, ibid. B. XI: "O fleepe, quoth fhe, the reft of things, O gentleft of the goddes, "Sweete fleepe, the peace of mind, with whom crookt care is aye at odds; "Which cherisheft men's weary limbs appall'd with toyling fore, And makeft them as fresh to worke, and luftie as before." The late Mr. Gray had perhaps our author's" death of each day's life" in his thoughts, when he wrote "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day." MALONE. He might as probably have thought on the following paffage in the firft scene of the fecond part of K. Henry IV : a fullen bell "Remember'd knolling a departed friend." STEEVENS, LADY M. What do you mean? MACB. Still it cried, Sleep no more! to all the house: Glamis bath murder'd sleep; and therefore Cawdor LADY M. Who was it, that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, You do unbend your noble ftrength, to think Масв. I'll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again, I dare not. LADY M. Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers: The fleeping, and the dead, For it must seem their guilt." [Exit. Knocking within. 5 Chief nourisher in life's feaft;] So, in Chaucer's Squiere's Tal, Y. 10661; Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit: "The norice of digeftion, the flepe." STEEVENS. 'tis the eye of childhood, That fears a painted devil.] So, in Vittoria Corombona, 1612: -gild the faces of the grooms withal, STEEVENS. For it muft feem their guilt.] Could Shakspeare mean to play upon the fimilitude of gild and guilt? JOHNSON. This quibble too frequently occurs in the old plays. A few inftances (for I could produce a dozen at least) may fuffice: |
