.

Will cheer me ever, or 5 dif-feat me now.
I have liv'd long enough: my way of life
Is fall'n into the fear, the yellow leaf;

And

Thus the old copy, and, I think, rightly. The modern editors however read,-difeafe me now; yet surely it is rather the nature of a pub, to thrust us from the fituation we occupy, than to affect us with any difeafe. I ground this opinion on the fuppofition, that by the push is here meant the violent affault preparing on the fide of the enemy; but fhould it only mean the forcible struggle he is about to make himself, it would not much alter the question; for then the meaning of the paffage might be, the push I am going to make will either give me perpetual confidence, or thruft me from the feat I have filled. I must confefs I never met with the word in STEEVENS.

any other author.

my way of life

Is fall'n into the fear,

-]

As there is no relation between the way of life, and fallen into the fear, I am inclined to think that the W is only an M inverted, and that it was originally written,

my May of life.

am now paffed from the fpring to the autumn of my days, but I am without thefe comforts that should fucceed the spriteliness of bloom, and Support me in this melancholy feafon.

An

The authour has May in the fame fenfe elfewhere. JOHNSON.
my way of life

Is fall'n into the fear,

anonymus would have it,

my May of life:

-]

But he did not confider that Macbeth is not here fpeaking of his rule or government, or of any fudden change; but of the gradual decline of life, as appears from this line,

And that, which should accompany old age.

And way is used for courfe, progrefs. WARBURTON.

To confirm the juftnefs of May of life for way of life, Mr. Colman quotes from Much-a-do, &c.

"May of youth and bloom of lufty hood."

And Hen. V. p. 292.

"My puiffant leige is in the very May-morn of his youth."

So in Sidney's Aftrophil and Stella, Stanza 21.

LANGTON.

"If now the May of my years much decline."

So

1

And that, which fhould accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but in their ftead,

Curfes, not loud, but deep, mouth honour, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. Seyton !

Enter Seyton.

Sey. What is your gracious pleasure?

Macb. What news more?

Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. Mach. I'll fight, 'till from my bones my flesh be hack'd.

Give me my armour.

Sey. 'Tis not needed yet..

Mach. I'll put it on.

Send out more horfes, 7 fkirr the country round; Hang those that talk of fear.Give me mine ar

mour.

How does your patient, doctor?

Doct. Not fo fick, my lord,

As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,
That keep her from her reft.

Again, in The Spanish Curate of Beaumont and Fletcher,
66 you met me

"With equal ardour in your May of blood."

Again, in The Guardian of Maffinger,

"I am in the May of my abilities,

" And

7

in
you your

December."

fkirr the country round ;]

STEEVENS.

To fkirr, I believe, fignifies to scour, to ride haftily. The word is used by Beaumont and Fletcher in the Martial Maid,

"Whilft I, with this and this, well mounted, skirr'd
"A horfe troop, through and through, &c."

Again in Henry V.

"And make them skir away, as swift as stones
"Enforc'd from the old Affyrian flings."

L14

STEEVENS.

Mach.

Mach, Cure her of that:

Canft thou not minifter to a mind difeas'd;
Pluck from the memory a rooted forrow;
Raze out the written troubles of the brain;
And, with fome fweet oblivious antidote,

8

* Cleanse the stuff'd bofom of that perilous ftuff, Which weighs upon the heart?

Dot. Therein the patient

Muft minifter unto himself.

Mach. Throw phyfick to the dogs, I'll none of it.— -Come, put mine armour on; give me my ftaff:— Seyton, send out. -Doctor, the Thanes fly from me— Come, fir, difpatch :--If thou could'st, doctor, 9 caft

The water of my land, find her difeafe,
And purge it to a found and priftine health,
I would applaud thee to the very echo,
That fhould applaud again.-Pull't off, I say.-
What rubarb, fenna, or what purgative drug,
Would fcour thefe English hence?-Heareft thou of
them?

Dot. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear fomething.

Mach. Bring it after me.

I will not be afraid of death and bane, 'Till Birnam-foreft come to Dunfinane.

Dot. Were I from Dunfinane away and clear Profit again fhould hardly draw me here. [Exeunt.

8

Cleanfe the ftuff'd bofem of that perilous fluff,]

Is the reading of the old copy; but for the fake of the ear, which must be fhocked by the recurrence of fo harfh a word, I would be willing to read, foul, were there any authority for the change.

STEEVENS.

To cap the water was the phrafe in ufe for finding out diforders by the infpection of urine.

STEEVENS.

SCENE

SCENE IV.

Drum and Colours. Enter Malcolm, Seyward, Macduff, Seyward's Son, Menteth, Cathness, Angus, and Soldiers marching.

Mal. Coufins, I hope, the days are near at hand, That chambers will be fafe.

Ment. We doubt it nothing.

Sey. What wood is this before us?
Ment. The wood of Birnam.

Mal. Let every foldier hew him down a bough, And bear't before him; thereby fhall we fhadow The numbers of our hoft, and make difcovery Err in report of us.

Sold. It fhall be done.
Sey. We learn no other,

but the confident tyrant

Keeps ftill in Dunfinane, and will endure
Our fetting down before't.

Mal. 'Tis his main hope:

? For where there is advantage to be given,

Both

He was confident of fuccefs; fo confident that he would not fly, but endure their fetting down before his caftle. JoHNSON.

2 For where there is advantage to be given,
Both more and lefs have given him the revolt ;]

The impropriety of the expreffion, advantage to be given, instead of advantage given, and the difagreeable repetition of the word given in the next line, incline me to read,

gone,

where there is a 'vantage to be
Both more and lefs have given him the revolt.

Advantage or 'vantage, in the time of Shakespeare, fignified opportunity. He fut up himself and bis feldiers, (fays Malcolm) in the

caftle,

Both more and lefs have given him the revolt;
And none serve with him but constrained things,
Whose hearts are abfent too.

Macd. Let our just cenfures

Attend the true event, and put we on
Industrious foldiership.

Sey. The time approaches,

That will with due decifion make us know
3 What we shall fay we have, and what we owe.
Thoughts fpeculative their unfure hopes relate;
But certain iffue ftrokes muft + arbitrate:
Towards which, advance the war. [Exeunt, marching.

SCENE V.

Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers with drums and colours.

Mach. Hang out our banners on the outward walls;

The cry is ftill, They come :-Our castle's strength Will laugh a fiege to fcorn.-Here let them lie, 'Till famine, and the ague, eat them up: Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours, We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat them backward home. What is that noife? [A cry within, of women.

cafle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone they all defert

him.

More and lefs is the fame with greater and lefs. So in the interpolated Mandeville, a book of that age, there is a chapter of India the More and the Lefs. JOHNSON.

3 What we shall fay we have, and what we owe.]

i. e. property and allegiance. WARBURTON.

What we shall say we have, and what we owe.]

When we are governed by legal kings we shall know the limits of their claim, and fhall know what we have of our own, and what they have a right to take from us. STEEVENS.