LADY M. LADY M. And when goes hence? MACB. To-morrow,-as he purposes. Shall sun that morrow see! 8 O, never Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men May read strange 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 serpent under it'. He that's coming This night's great business into my despatch; 8 Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men May read, &c.] That is, thy looks are such as will awaken men's curiosity, excite their attention, and make room for suspicion. HEATH. So, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: 66 STEEVENS. "Her face the book of praises, where is read Nothing but curious pleasures." Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece: "Poor women's faces are their own faults' books." Malone. 9 - To beguile the time, LOOK LIKE THE TIME ;] The same expression occurs in the eighth book of Daniel's Civil Wars: "He draws a traverse 'twixt his grievances; "Looks like the time: his eye made not report "Than usually he was in every part; "Wore a clear face upon a cloudy heart." STEEVens. The seventh and eighth books of Daniel's Civil Wars were not published till the year 1609; [see the Epistle Dedicatorie to that edition] so that, if either poet copied the other, Daniel must have been indebted to Shakspeare; for there can be little doubt that Macbeth had been exhibited before that year. MALONE. I look like the innocent FLOWER, But be the SERPENT under it.] Thus, in Chaucer's Squiere's Tale, 10,827: "So depe in greyne he died his coloures, Right as a serpent hideth him under floures, "Til he may see his time for to bite." STEEVENS. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUo, LENOX, MACDUFF, ROSSE, ANGUS, and Attend ants. 3 DUN. This castle hath a pleasant seat 3; the air 2 TO ALTER FAVOUR ever is to FEAR :] So, in Love's Labour's Lost: "For blushing cheeks by faults are bred, Favour, is look, countenance. So, in Troilus and Cressida : "I know your favour, lord Ulysses, well." STEEvens. 3 This castle hath a pleasant SEAT;] Seat here means situation. Lord Bacon says, He that builds a faire house upon an ill seat, committeth himself to prison. Neither doe I reckon it an ill seat, only where the aire is unwholsome, but likewise where the aire is unequal; as you shall see many fine seats set upon a knap of ground invironed with higher hills round about it, whereby the heat of the sunne is pent in, and the wind gathereth as in troughs; so as you shall have, and that suddenly, as great diversitie of heat and cold, as if you dwelt in several places." Essays, 2d edit. 4to. 1632, p. 257. REED.. "This castle hath a pleasant seat." This short dialogue between Duncan and Banquo, whilst they are approaching the gates of Macbeth's castle, has always appeared to me a striking instance of what in painting is termed repose. Their conversation very naturally turns upon the beauty of its situation, and the pleasantness of the air; and Banquo, observing the martlet's nests in every recess of the cornice, remarks, that where those birds most breed and haunt, the air is delicate. The subject of this quiet and easy conversation gives that repose so necessary to Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself BAN. the mind after the tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts the scene of horror that immediately succeeds. It seems as if Shakspeare asked himself, What is a prince likely to say to his attendants on such an occasion? Whereas the modern writers seem, on the contrary, to be always searching for new thoughts, such as would never occur to men in the situation which is represented. This also is frequently the practice of Homer, who, from the midst of battles and horrors, relieves and refreshes the mind of the reader, by introducing some quiet rural image, or picture of familiar domestick life. SIR J. REYNolds. 4 Unto our GENTLE SENSES.] Senses are nothing more than each man's sense. Gentle sense is very elegant, as it means placid, calm, composed, and intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day. JOHNSON. 5-martlet,] This bird is in the old edition called barlet. The correction was made by Mr. Rowe. MALOne. JOHNSON. It is supported by the following passage in The Merchant of Venice: 6 66 like the martlet "Builds in the weather on the outward wall." STEEVEns. no JUTTY, frieze.] The word jutty has been considered as an epithet to frieze; but this is a mistake. A comma should have been placed after jutty. A jutty, or jetty, (for so it ought rather to be written,) is a substantive, signifying that part of a building which shoots forward beyond the rest. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: “ Barbacane. An outnooke or corner standing out of a house; a jettie."-" Sporto. A porch, a portal, a bay-window; or out-butting, or jettie, of a house, that jetties out farther than anie other part of the house."-See also Surpendue, in Cotgrave's French Dict. 1611: "A jettie; an outjetting room." MALONE. Shakspeare uses the verb to jutty, in King Henry V.: as fearfully as doth a galled rock "O'erhang and jutty his confounded base." The substantive also occurs in an agreement between Philip Henslowe, &c. &c. for building a new theatre, in the year 1599. Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird Hath made his pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, The air is delicate 9. DUN. 8 Enter Lady МАСВЕТН. See, see! our honour'd hostess! The love that follows us, sometime 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 '. 66 See vol. ii. : besides a juttey forwards in eyther of the saide two upper stories," &c. STEEvens. 7-coigne of vantage,] Convenient corner. So, in Pericles : "By the four opposing coignes, MOST breed-] The folio-Must breed. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALone. JOHNSON. STEEVENS. STEEVENS. 9 is delicate.] So this passage is exhibited in the old copy. Mr. Steevens, without giving the reader any notice of the alteration, has arranged it in the following manner : "Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, buttress, "Nor coigne of vantage, but this bird hath made "His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they “Most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, the air "Is delicate." The reader must make out the superior harmony of the first of these lines without assistance; but the next note will inform him what he is to do with the third. BoSWELL. "His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they." Lest the reader should think this verse defective in harmony, he ought to be told, that as needle was once written and pronounced neele and neeld, so cradle was contracted into crale, and consequently uttered as a monosyllable. Thus, in the fragment of an ancient Christmas carol now before As in his crale he lay." In some parts of Warwickshire, (as I am informed,) the word is drawlingly pronounced, as if it had been written-craale. STEEVENS. LADY M. All our service In every point twice done, and then done double, The love that follows us, sometime is our trouble, AND THANK US FOR YOUR TROUBLE.] "The attention that is paid us, (says Duncan on seeing Lady Macbeth come to meet him,) sometimes gives us pain, when we reflect that we give trouble to others; yet still we cannot but be pleased with such attentions, because they are a proof of affection." So far is clear;but of the following words, I confess, I have no very distinct conception, and suspect them to be corrupt. Perhaps the meaning is," By being the occasion of so much trouble, I furnish you with a motive to pray to heaven to reward me for the pain I give you," inasmuch as the having such an opportunity of showing your loyalty may hereafter prove beneficial to you; "and herein also I afford you a motive to thank me for the trouble I give you," because by showing me such attention, (however painful it may be to me to be the cause of it,) you have an opportunity of displaying an amiable character, and of ingratiating yourself with your sovereign which, finally, may bring you both profit and honour. MALONE. This passage is undoubtedly obscure, and the following is the best explication of it I am able to offer: "Marks of respect, importunately shown, are sometimes troublesome, though we are still bound to be grateful for them, as indications of sincere attachment. If you pray for us on account of the trouble we create in your house, and thank us for the molestations we bring with us, it must be on such a principle. Herein I teach you, that the inconvenience you suffer, is the result of our affection; and that you are therefore to pray for us, or thank us, only as far as prayers and thanks can be deserved for kindnesses that fatigue, and honours that oppress. You are, in short, to make your acknowledgments for intended respect and love, however irksome our present mode of expressing them may have proved."-To bid is here used in the Saxon sense-to pray. STEEVENS. "How you shall bid God-yield us.” To bid any one Godyeld him, i. e. God-yield him, was the same as God reward him. WARBURTON. I believe yield, or, as it is in the folio of 1623, eyld, is a corrupted contraction of shield. The wish implores not reward, but protection. JOHNSON. I rather believe it to be a corruption of God-yield, i. e. reward. In Antony and Cleopatra we meet with it at length: "And the gods yield you for't." |