I cannot ftrike at wretched kernes, whofe arms
Are hir'd to bear their staves; either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my fword with an unbatter'd edge

I fheath again undeeded. There thou should't be :-
By this great clatter, one of greatest note

Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune! and
More I beg not.

[Exit. Alarum.

Enter Malcolm and Seyward.

Sey. This way, my lord :-The caftie's gently render'd:

The tyrant's people on both fides do fight;
The noble Thanes do bravely in the war;
The day almost itself profeffes yours,

And little is to do.

Mal. We have met with foes,

That ftrike befide us.

Sey. Enter, fir, the castle.

Re-enter Macbeth.

[Exeunt. Alarum.

Mach. Why fhould I play the Roman fool, and die

On mine own fword? whilft I fee lives, the gafhes Do better upon them.

Enter Macduff.

Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn.

Mach. Of all men elfe I have avoided thee:

But get thee back; my foul is too much charg'd
With blood of thine already.

Macd. I have no words;

My voice is in my fword; thou bloodier villain,

Than terms can give thee out.

Mach. Thou lofeft labour:

[Fight. Alarum.

As

As eafy may'ft thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen fword imprefs, as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crefts

* I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
To one of woman born.

Macd. Defpair thy charm;

And let the angel, whom thou still haft ferv'd,. Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb Untimely ripp'd.

Mach. Accurs'd be that tongue that tells me fo,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man!
And be thefe juggling fiends no more believ'd,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promife to our ear,
And break it to our hope.-I'll not fight with thee.
· Macd. Then yield thee, coward,

And live to be the fhew, and gaze o'the time.
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole; and under-writ,

3 As eafy may't thou the intrenchant air]

That is, air which cannot be cut. JOHNSON.

As eafy may' thou the intrenchant air

With thy keen fword impress, as make me bleed :]

So Milton, P. L. B. 6.

"Nor in their liquid texture mortal wound

"Receive, no more than can the fluid air." STEEVENS.

A1 bear a charmed life,]

In the days of chivalry, the champion's arms being ceremonioufly bleffed, each took an oath, that he ufed no charmed weapons. Macbeth, according to the law of arms, or perhaps only in allufion to this cuftom, tells Macduff of the fecurity he had in the prediction of the spirit.

To this likewife Pofthumus alludes in Cymbeline, act v.
I in my own woe charmed

"Could not find death." UPTON.

5

palter with us in a double fenfe ;]

That buffle with ambiguous expreflions. JOHNSON,

VOL. IV,

M m

Here

Here may you fee the tyrant.
Mach. I will not yield,

To kifs the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnam-wood be come to Dunfinane,
And thou, oppos'd, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the laft. Before my body

I throw my warlike fhield. Lay on, Macduff;
And damn'd be him, that firft cries, Hold, enough.
[Exeunt, fighting. Alarums.

"Re-enter fighting, and Macbeth is flain.

Retreat and flourish. Enter with Drum and Colours, Malcolm, Old Seyward, Roffe, Thanes, and Soldiers. Mal. I would the friends we mifs, were fafe arriv'd. Sey. Some must go off: and yet, by these I fee, So great a day as this is cheaply bought.

Mal. Macduff is miffing, and your noble fon. Roffe. Your fon, my lord, has paid a foldier's debt: He only liv'd but 'till he was a man ;

The which no fooner had his prowess confirm'd,
In the unfhrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he dy'd.

Sey. Then he is dead?

Roffe. Ay, and brought off the field. Your caufe
of forrow

Muft not be measur'd by his worth, for then
It hath no end.

Sey. Had he his hurts before?
Roffe. Ay, on the front.

6 Re-enter] This ftage-direction is taken from the folio, and proves, that the players were not even skilful enough to prevent impropriety in thofe circumftances, which fell immediately under their own care. Macbeth is here killed on the stage, and a moment after Macduff enters, as from another place, with his head on a fpear. STEEVENS.

Sey.

Sey. Why then, God's foldier be he!
"Had I as many fons as I have hairs,
I would not wish them to a fairer death:
And fo his knell is knoll'd.

Mal. He's worth more forrow,

And that I'll spend for him.

Sey. He's worth no more;

They fay, he parted well, and paid his score.
And, God be with him!-Here comes newer comfort.

Enter Macduff with Macbeth's head.

Macd. Hail, King! for fo thou art. Behold, where stands

8

The ufurper's curfed head. The time is free:
I see thee compafs'd with thy kingdom's pearls,
That speak my falutation in their minds;
Whofe voices I defire aloud with mine,--
Hail, King of Scotland!

All. Hail, King of Scotland!

↑ Had I as many fons as Í have háirš,
I would not wifh them to a fairer death:
And fo his knell is knoll'd.]

[Flourish.

This incident is thus related from Henry of Huntingdon by Camden in his Remains, from which our authour probably copied it.

When Seyward, the martial earl of Northumberland, underflood that his fon, whom he had sent in service against the Scotchmen, was flain, he demanded whether his wounds were in the fore part or hinder part of his body. When it was answered, in the fore part, he replied, "I am right glad; neither wish I any "other death to me or mine." JOHNSON.

Whether this is a metaphorical expreffion, or only a blunder of the prefs, I cannot determine. Mr. Rowe first made the alteration, which has been continued by fucceeding editors who read peers. The following paffage from Ben. Jonfon's Entertainment of the Queen and Prince at Althorpe, may countenance the old reading, which I have inferted in the text:

"Queen, prince, duke and earls,

"Counteffes, ye courtly pearls, &c." STEEVENS.
M m 2

Mal

Mal. We fhall not spend a large expence of time, Before we reckon with your feveral loves,

And make us even with you. My Thanes and kinf

men,

Henceforth be Earls, the firft that ever Scotland
In fuch an honour nam'd. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,
As calling home our exil'd friends abroad,
That fled the fnares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel minifters

Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen,
Who, as 'tis thought, by felf and violent hands
Took off her life: This, and what needful elfe
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
We will perform in measure, time, and place.
So thanks to all at once, and to each one,
Whom we invite to fee us crown'd at Scone.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

IT may be worth while to remark, that Milton, who left behind him a lift of no less than CII. dramatic fubjects, had fixed on the ftory of this play among the reft. His intention was to have begun with the arrival of Malcolm at Macduff's caftle." The

matter of Duncan (fays he) my be expreffed by the appearing "of his ghoft." It fhould feem from this last memorandum, that Milton difliked the licence that his predeceffor had taken in com prehending a history of fuch length in the fhort compass of a play, and would have new-written the whole on the plan of the ancient drama. He could not furely have indulged fo vain a hope, as that of excelling Shakespeare in the Tragedy of Macbeth.

STEEVENS.

MACBETH was certainly one of Shakespeare's lateft productions, and it might pofiibly have been fuggefted to him by a little performance on the fame fubject at Oxford, before king James, 1605. I will tranfcribe my notice of it from Wake's Rex Platonicus:Fabulæ anfam dedit antiqua de Regiâ profapiâ hi"ftoriola apud Scoto-Britannos celebrata, quæ narrat tres olim "Sibyllas occurriffe duobus Scotia proceribus, Macbetho &

Banchoni, & illum prædixiffe Regem futurum, fed Regem "nullum geniturum; hunc Regem non futurum, fed Regis ge"niturum multos. Vaticinii varitatem rerum eventus compro*bavit Banchonis enim è ftirpe Potentiffimus Jacobus oriundus." p. 29. FARMER.