Came post with post; and every one did bear ANG. We are sent, To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; 4 pay thee. ROSSE. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor: In which addition, hail, most worthy thane! For it is thine. BAN. What, can the devil speak true? MACB. The thane of Cawdor lives; Why do you dress me In borrow'd robes? ANG. Who was the thane, lives yet; But under heavy judgment bears that life Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was Combin'd with Norway; or did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage; or that with both 5 * To herald thee &c.] The old copy redundantly reads-Only to herald thee &c. STEEVENS. 5 with Norway;] The old copy reads: with those of Norway. The players not understanding that by "Norway" our author meant the King of Norway, as in Hamlet "Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy," &c. foisted in the words at present omitted. STEEVENS. There is, I think, no need of change. The word combin'd belongs to the preceding line: "Which he deserves to lose. Whe'r he was combin'd "With those of Norway, or aid line the rebel," &c. Whether was in our author's time sometimes pronounced and written as one syllable,-whe'r. So, in King John: "Now shame upon you, whe'r she does or no.' MALONE. He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not; MACB. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains.Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me, Promis'd no less to them? BAN. That, trusted home," 6 trusted home,] i. e. entirely, thoroughly relied on. So, in All's well that ends well: The added word home shows clearly, in my apprehension, that our author wrote-That, thrusted home. So, in a subsequent scene: "That every minute of his being thrusts Thrusted is the regular participle from the verb to thrust, and though now not often used, was, I believe, common in the time of Shakspeare. So, in King Henry V: "With casted slough and fresh legerity." Home means to the uttermost. So, in The Winter's Tale: all my sorrows 66 "You have paid home." It may be observed, that "thrusted home" is an expression used at this day; but "trusted home," I believe, was never used at any period whatsoever. I have had frequent occasion to remark that many of the errors in the old copies of our author's plays arose from the transcriber's ear having deceived him. In Ireland, where much of the pronunciation of the age of Queen Elizabeth is yet retained, the vulgar constantly pronounce the word thrust as if it were written trust; and hence, probably, the error in the text. The change is so very slight, and I am so thoroughly persuaded that the reading proposed is the true one, that had it been suggested by any former editor, I should, without hesitation, have given it a place in the text. MALONE. Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, MACB. Two truths are told, * Might yet enkindle you-] Enkindle, for to stimulate you to seek. WARBURTON. A similar expression occurs in As you like it, Act I. sc. i: -nothing remains but that I kindle the boy thither." STEEVENS. 66 Might fire you with the hope of obtaining the crown. HENLEY. Two truths are told, &c.] How the former of these truths has been fulfilled, we are yet to learn. Macbeth could not become Thane of Glamis, till after his father's decease, of which there is no mention throughout the play. If the Hag only announced what Macbeth already understood to have happened, her words could scarcely claim rank as a prediction. STEEVENS. From the Scottish translation of Boethius it should seem that Sinel, the father of Macbeth, died after Macbeth's having been met by the weird sisters. "Makbeth (says the historian) revolvyng all thingis, as they wer said to be the weird sisteris, began to covat ye croun. And zit he concludit to abide, quhil he saw ye tyme ganand thereto; fermelie belevyng yt 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 second 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 As happy prologues to the swelling act" Cannot be ill; cannot be good:-If ill, 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. 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. 1 This supernatural soliciting-] Soliciting for information. WARBURTON. Soliciting is rather, in my opinion, incitement, than informaJOHNSON. tion. 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. * Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,] So Macbeth says, in the latter part of this play: And make my seated' heart knock at my ribs, My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man, that function 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: "From their foundations loos'ning to and fro They pluck'd the seated hills." STEEVENS. — Present fears Present fears are Are less than horrible imaginings:] 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: "For as the shadow seems more monstrous still, "Than doth the substance whence it hath the being, "So th' apprehension of approaching ill "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." 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." So, in Fletcher's Pilgrim, Curio says to Alphonso: "Mercy upon me, Sir, why are you feared thus?"? Meaning, thus affrighted. M. MASON. 6 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 VOL X. E |