As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar I am settled, and bend up Away, and mock the time with fairest show: 3 False face must hide what the false heart doth know. [Exeunt. burthen'd the chamberleins, whom he had slaine, with all the fault, they having the keyes of the gates committed to their keeping all the night, and therefore it could not be otherwise (said he) but that they were of counsel in the committing of that most detestable murther." MALONE. 3 and BEND UP-] A metaphor from the bow. So, in King Henry V. : bend up every spirit "To his full height." 66 The same phrase occurs in Melvil's Memoirs : but that rather she should bend up her spirit by a princely, &c. behaviour." Edit. 1735, p. 148. Till this instant, the mind of Macbeth has been in a state of uncertainty and fluctuation. He has hitherto proved neither resolutely good, nor obstinately wicked. Though a bloody idea had arisen in his mind, after he had heard the prophecy in his favour, yet he contentedly leaves the completion of his hopes to chance. At the conclusion, however, of his interview with Duncan, he inclines to hasten the decree of fate, and quits the stage with an apparent resolution to murder his sovereign. But no sooner is the king under his roof, than, reflecting on the peculiarities of his own relative situation, he determines not to offend against the laws of hospitality, or the ties of subjection, kindred, and gratitude. His wife then assails his constancy afresh. He yields to her suggestions, and, with his integrity, his happiness is destroyed. I have enumerated these particulars, because the waverings of Macbeth have, by some criticks, been regarded as unnatural and contradictory circumstances in his character; not remembering that nemo repente fuit turpissimus, or that (as Angelo observes): when once our grace we have forgot, 66 Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not-." a passage which contains no unapt justification of the changes that happen in the conduct of Macbeth. STEEvens. ACT II. SCENE I1. The Same. Court within the Castle. Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, and a Servant, with a torch before them. BAN. How goes the night, boy? FLE. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. BAN. And she goes down at twelve. FLE. I take't, 'tis later, sir. BAN. Hold, take my sword :-There's husban dry in heaven 3, Their candles are all out 6.-Take thee that too. it 4 Scene I.] The place is not marked in the old edition, nor is easy to say where this encounter can be. It is not in the hall, as the editors have all supposed it, for Banquo sees the sky; it is not far from the bedchamber, as the conversation shows: it must be in the inner court of the castle, which Banquo might properly cross in his way to bed. JOHNSON. The Scene. A large court surrounded all or in part by an open gallery; chambers opening into that gallery; the gallery ascended into by stairs, open likewise; with addition of a college-like gateway, into which opens a porter's lodge; appears to have been the poet's idea of the place of this great action. The circumstances that mark it, are scatter'd through three scenes; in the latter, the hall (which moderns make the scene of this action), is appointed a place of second assembly, in terms that show it plainly distinct from that assembled in them. Buildings of this description rose in ages of chivalry; when knights rode into their courts, and paid their devoirs to ladies, viewers of their tiltings and them from these open galleries. Fragments of some of them, over the mansions of noblemen, are still subsisting in London, changed to hotels or inns. Shakspeare might see them much more entire, and take his notion from them. CAPELL. 5 There's HUSBANDRY in heaven,] Husbandry here means thrift, frugality. So, in Hamlet: "And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." MALONE. 6 Their CANDLES are all out.] The same expression occurs in Romeo and Juliet: 66 Night's candles are burnt out." A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch. Who's there? MACB. A friend. BAN. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed: He hath been in unusual pleasure, and Sent forth great largess to your officers: Again, in our author's 21st Sonnet : "As those gold candles fix'd in heaven's air.” See vol. v. p. 150, n. 5. MAlone. 7 Merciful powers! Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature Gives way to in repose!] It is apparent from what Banquo says afterwards, that he had been solicited in a dream to attempt something in consequence of the prophecy of the Witches, that his waking senses were shocked at; and Shakspeare has here most exquisitely contrasted his character with that of Macbeth. Banquo is praying against being tempted to encourage thoughts of guilt even in his sleep; while Macbeth is hurrying into temptation, and revolving in his mind every scheme, however flagitious, that may assist him to complete his purpose. The one is unwilling to sleep, lest the same phantoms should assail his resolution again, while the other is depriving himself of rest through impatience to commit the murder. The same kind of invocation occurs in Cymbeline: "From fairies, and the tempters of the night, "Guard me!" STEEVENS. Sent forth great largess to your OFFICES:] Thus the old copy, and rightly. Offices are the rooms appropriated to servants and culinary purposes. Thus, in Timon:" "When all our offices have been oppress'd 66 By riotous feeders." Again, in King Richard II. : 66 Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones." Duncan was pleased with his entertainment, and dispensed his bounty to those who had prepared it. All the modern editors have transferred this largess to the officers of Macbeth, who This diamond he greets your wife withal, By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up9 In measureless content. Масв. Being unprepar'd, Our will became the servant to defect; would more properly have been rewarded in the field, or at their return to court. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens, who has introduced so many arbitrary alterations of Shakspeare's text, has here endeavoured to restore a palpable misprint from the old copy; officers means servants in this passage. So before, p. 87: 66 66 66 What not put upon i. e. his chamberlains. So also, in The Taming of The Shrew, vol. v. p. 459: Is supper ready, &c. the serving men in their new fustian, their white stockings, and every officer his wedding garment on?" MALONE. 9 shut up-] To shut up, is to conclude. So, in The Spanish Tragedy: "And heavens have shut up day to pleasure us." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. iv. c. ix. : "And for to shut up all in friendly love." Again, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, 1621, fourth edit. p. 137: "- though the parents have already shut up the contract." Again, in Stowe's Account of the Earl of Essex's Speech on the scaffold : "he shut up all with the Lord's prayer." STEEVENS. Again, in Stowe's Annals, p. 833: "the kings majestie [K. James] shut up all with a pithy exhortation on both sides." MALONE. I should rather suppose it ineans enclosed in content; content with every thing around him. So Barrow: "Hence is a man shut up in an irksome bondage of spirit." Sermons, 1683, vol. ii. 231. BosWELL. 1 Being unprepar'd, Our will became the servant to defect; Which else should free have wrought.] This is obscurely expressed. The meaning seems to be :-"Being unprepared, our entertainment was necessarily defective, and we only had it in our power to show the King our willingness to serve him. Had we received sufficient notice of his coming, our zeal should have been more clearly manifested by our acts. Which refers, not to the last antecedent, defect, but to will. MALONE. BAN. All's well. I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: I think not of them: Масв. BAN. 'tis 3 It shall make honour for you. 2 All's well.] I suppose the poet originally wrote (that the preceding verse might be completed,)-" Sir, all is well." STEEVENS. 3 If you shall cleave to my coNSENT,-when 'tis,] Consent, for will. So that the sense of the line is, If you shall go into my measures when I have determined of them, or when the time comes that I want your assistance. WARBURton. Macbeth expresses his thought with affected obscurity; he does not mention the royalty, though he apparently had it in his mind. "If you shall cleave to my consent," if you shall concur with me when I determine to accept the crown, "when 'tis," when that happens which the prediction promises, "it shall make honour for you." JOHNSON. Such another expression occurs in Lord Surrey's translation of the second book of Virgil's Æneid: "And if thy will stick unto mine, I shall In wedlocke sure knit, and make her his own." Consent has sometimes the power of the Latin concentus. Both the verb and substantive, decidedly bearing this signification, occur in other plays of our author. Thus, in King Henry VI. Part I. Sc. I. : 66 scourge the bad revolting stars "That have consented to King Henry's death—." 66 i. e. acted in concert so as to occasion it. Again, in King Henry IV. Part II. Act V. Sc. I.: they (Justice Shallow's servants) flock together in consent, (i. e. in a party,) like so many wild geese.' In both these instances the words are spelt erroneously, and should be written concent and concented. Spenser, &c. as quoted in a note on the passage already adduced from King Henry VI. See The meaning of Macbeth is then as follows:"If :- you shall cleave to my consent-" i. e. if you shall stick, or adhere, to my |