As happy prologues to the swelling act 9 Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen. 66 all thingis, as they wer said to be the weird sisteris, began to covat y' croun. And zit he concludit to abide, quhil he saw y tyme ganand thereto; fermelie belevyng y' ye third weird suld cum as the first two did afore." This, indeed, is inconsistent with our author's words, By Sinel's death, I know, I am thane of Glamis; "--but Holinshed, who was his guide, in his abridgment of the History of Boethius, has particularly mentioned that Sinel died before Macbeth met the weird sisters: we may, therefore, be sure that Shakspeare meant it to be understood that Macbeth had already acceded to his paternal title. Bellenden only says, "The first of them said to Macbeth, Hale thane of Glammis. The secound said," &c. But in Holinshed the relation runs thus, conformably to the Latin original: "The first of them spake and said, All haile Mackbeth, thane of Glammis (for he had latelie entered into that dignitie and office by the death of his father Sinell.) The second of them said," &c. Still, however, the objection made by Mr. Steevens remains in its full force; for since he knew that " by Sinel's death he was thane of Glamis," how can this salutation be considered as prophetic? Or why should he afterwards say, with admiration, "Glamis, and thane of Cawdor;" &c.? Perhaps we may suppose that the father of Macbeth died so recently before his interview with the weirds, that the news of it had not yet got abroad; in which case, though Macbeth himself knew it, he might consider their giving him the title of Thane of Glamis as a proof of supernatural intelligence. I suspect our author was led to use the expressions which have occasioned the present note, by the following words of Holinshed: "The same night after, at supper, Banquo jested with him, and said, Now Mackbeth, thou hast obteined those things which the Two former sisters PROPHESIED: there remaineth onelie for thee to purchase that which the third said should come to passe." MALONE. I can see no ground for Mr. Steevens's objection. Macbeth has not called them prophecies, but truths-" They called me Thane of Glamis; that, I knew to be true.-They called me Thane of Cawdor; that, I have now found to be true: I may therefore confide in their prophecy that I shall be King hereafter." BOSWELL. 9 SWELLING act] Swelling is used in the same sense in the prologue to King Henry V.: 66 princes to act, "And monarchs to behold the swelling scene." STEEVENS. This supernatural soliciting' 2 Cannot be ill; cannot be good:-If ill, 1 This supernatural SOLICITING ] Soliciting, for information. WARBURTON. Soliciting is rather, in my opinion, incitement, than information. JOHNSON. 2-suggestion] i. e. temptation. So, in All's Well That Ends Well: "A filthy officer he is in those suggestions for the young earl." STEEVENS. 3 Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,] So Macbeth says, in the latter part of this play: 66 And my fell of hair 'Would, at a dismal treatise, rouse and stir, "As life were in it." M. MASON. seated] i. e. fixed, firmly placed. So, in Milton's Paradise Lost, b. vi. 643: 5 66 From their foundations loos'ning to and fro "They pluck'd the seated hills." STEEVENS. Present FEARS Are less than horrible imaginings:] Present fears are fears of things present, which Macbeth declares, and every man has found, to be less than the imagination presents them while the objects are yet distant. JOHNSON. Thus, in All's Well That Ends Well: " - when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.” Again, in The Tragedie of Croesus, 1604, by Lord Sterline : "Seems greater than itself, whilst fears are lying." STEEVENS. By present fears is meant, the actual presence of any objects of terror. So, in The Second Part of King Henry IV. the King says: 66 - All these bold fears "Thou see'st with peril I have answered." My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man, that function Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is, But what is not ". To fear is frequently used by Shakspeare in the sense of fright. In this very play, Lady Macbeth says— "To alter favour ever is to fear." 66 5-single state of man,] The single state of man seems to be used by Shakspeare for an individual, in opposition to a commonwealth, or conjunct body. JOHNSON. By single state of man, Shakspeare might possibly mean somewhat more than individuality. He who, in the peculiar situation of Macbeth, is meditating a murder, dares not communicate his thoughts, and consequently derives neither spirit, nor advantage, from the countenance, or sagacity of others. This state of man may properly be styled single, solitary, or defenceless, as it excludes the benefits of participation, and has no resources but in itself. It should be observed, however, that double and single anciently signified strong and weak, when applied to liquors, and perhaps to other objects. In this sense the former word may be employed by Brabantio: And the latter, by the Chief Justice, speaking to Falstaff: "Is not your wit single?" The single state of Macbeth may therefore signify his weak and debile state of mind. STEEVENS. So, in Jonson's Every Man Out of his Humour : "But he might have altered the shape of his argument, and explicated them better in single scenes-That had been single indeed." BoS WELL. function Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is, But what is not.] All powers of action are oppressed and crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. JOHNSON. Surmise, is speculation, conjecture concerning the future. MALONE. BAN. Look, how our partner's rapt. MACB. If chance will have me king, why, chance Shakspeare has somewhat like this sentiment in The Merchant of Venice: "Where, every something being blent together, Again, in Richard II. : 66 is nought but shadows "Of what it is not." STEEVENS. 7 TIME AND THE HOUR runs through the roughest day.] "By this, I confess I do not, with his two`last commentators, imagine is meant either the tautology of time and the hour, or an allusion to time painted with an hour-glass, or an exhortation to time to hasten forward, but rather to say tempus et hora, time and occasion, will carry the thing through, and bring it to some determined point and end, let its nature be what it will." This note is taken from an Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakspeare, &c. by Mrs. Montagu. So, in the Lyfe of Saynt Radegunda, printed by Pynson, 4to. no date : "How they dispend the tyme, the day, the houre." Such tautology is common to Shakspeare. "The very head and front of my offending," is little less reprehensible. "Time and the hour," is Time with his hours.' STEEVENS. The same expression is used by a writer nearly contemporary with Shakspeare: Neither can there be any thing in the world more acccptable to me than death, whose hower and time if they were as certayne," &c. Fenton's Tragical Discourses, 1579, Again, in Davison's Poems, 1602 : "Time's young howres attend her still." Again, in our author's 126th Sonnet : "O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power "Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour—.” BAN. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your lei sure 8. MACB. Give me your favour' :—my dull brain was wrought With things forgotten 1. Kind gentlemen, your pains Are register'd where every day I turn The leaf to read them 2.-Let us toward the king.Think upon what hath chanc'd; and, at more time, The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak BAN. MACB. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. Again, in his 57th Sonnet : Very gladly. [Exeunt. "Being your slave, what should I do but tend 66 Upon the hours and times of your desire ?" Again, in The Mirrour for Magistrates, 1587 (Legend of the Duke of Buckingham): "The unhappy hour, the time, and eke the day." MALONE. 8 - we stay upon your leisure.] The same phraseology occurs in the Paston Letters, vol. iii. 66 80: P. sent late to me a man ye which wuld abydin uppon my leysir," &c. STEEVens. 9-favour:] i. e. indulgence, pardon. STEEVENS. 1 my dull brain was WROUGHT With things forgotten.] My head was worked, agitated, put into commotion. JOHNSON. So, in Othello: 2 "Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought, Perplex'd in the extreme." STEEVENS. - where every day I turn The leaf to read them.] He means, as Mr. Upton has observed, that they are registered in the table-book of his heart. So Hamlet speaks of the table of his memory. MALONE. 3 The INTERIM having weigh'd it,] This intervening portion of time is also personified: it is represented as a cool impartial judge; as the pauser Reason. Or, perhaps, we should read"I' th' interim." STEEVENS. I believe the interim is used adverbially: "you having weighed it in the interim." MALONE. |