Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

MACB. Your children shall be kings.

BAN.

You shall be king.

MACE. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not

fo?

BAN. To the self-fame tune, and words. Who's

here?

Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.

ROSSE. The king hath happily receiv'd, Macbeth, The news of thy success: and when he reads Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, His wonders and his praises do contend, Which should be thine, or his: Silenc'd with that,

Parthian war, are faid to have fuffered great distress for want of provisions. " In the ende (says Plutarch) they were compelled to live of herbs and rootes, but they found few of them that men do commonly eate of, and were enforced to taste of them that were never eaten before; among the which there was one that killed them, and made them out of their wits; for he that had once eaten of it, his memorye was gone from him, and he knew no manner of thing, but only bufied himself in digging and hurling of stones from one place to another, as though it had been a matter of great waight, and to be done with all poffible speede." MALONE.

* His wonders and his praises do contend,

Which should be thine, or his: &c.] i. e. private admiration of your deeds, and a defire to do them public justice by commendation, contend in his mind for pre-eminence. Or,There is a conteft in his mind whether he should indulge his defire of publishing to the world the commendations due to your heroism, or whether he should remain in filent admiration of what no words could celebrate in proportion to its defert.

Mr. M. Mafon would read wonder, not wonders; for, fays he, "I believe the word wonder, in the sense of admiration, has no plural." In modern language it certainly has none; yet I cannot help thinking that, in the present instance, plural was opposed to plural by Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

Silenc'd with that,] i. e. wrapp'd in filent wonder at the deeds performed by Macbeth, &c. MALONE.

In viewing o'er the rest o' the self-fame day,
He finds thee in the ftout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didft make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale,3

3

As thick as tale,) Meaning, that the news came as thick as a tale can travel with the post. Or we may read, perhaps, yet better:

-As thick as tale,

Came post with post;

That is, pofts arrived as fast as they could be counted.

So, in King Henry VI. P. III. Act II. fc. i:

"Tidings, as swiftly as the post could run,
"Were brought," &c.

Mr. Rowe reads as thick as hail. STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

The old copy reads-Can post. The emendation is Mr. Rowe's. Dr. Johnfon's explanation would be less exceptionable, if the old copy had-As quick as tale. Thick applies but ill to tale, and feems rather to favour Mr. Rowe's emendation.

"As thick as hail," as an anonymous correfpondent observes to me, is an expreffion in the old play of King John, 1591: breathe out damned orifons,

" As thick as hail-ftones 'fore the spring's approach." The emendation of the word can is supported by a paffage in King Henry IV. P. II :

" And there are twenty weak and wearied posts
"Come from the north." MALONE.

Dr. Johnfon's explanation is perfectly justifiable. As thick, in ancient language, fignified as fast. To speak thick, in our author, does not therefore mean, to have a cloudy indistinct utterance, but to deliver words with rapidity. So, in Cymbeline, Act III. fc. ii:

"-fay, and speak thick,

" (Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing
"To the smothering of the sense) how far it is
"To this fame blessed Milford."

Again, in King Henry IV. P. II. Act II. fc. iii:

"And Speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
"Became the accents of the valiant;

"For those that could speak low and tardily,
"Would turn &c.---To seem like him."

Thick therefore is not less applicable to tale, the old reading, than to hail, the alteration of Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS.

Came post with poft; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,

And pour'd them down before him.

ANG.

We are fent,

To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;

To herald thee 4 into his fight, not 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 deferves to lose. Whether he was

[ocr errors]

Combin'd with Norway; 5 or did line the rebel

With hidden help and vantage; or that with both

* To herald thee &c.] The old copy redundantly readsSTEEVENS.

Only to herald thee &c.

swith 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 deferves to lose. Whe'r he was combin'd "With those of Norway, or did line the rebel," &c.

Whether was in our author's time fometimes pronounced and

written as one fyllable,

whe'r.

So, in King John :

"Now shame upon you, whe'r the does or no."

MALONE.

He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not; But treasons capital, confefs'd, and prov'd,

Have overthrown him.

MACB. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind. --Thanks for your pains.Do you not hope your children fhall 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 :

66

-lack'd the sense to know

"Her estimation home."

Again, in The Tempest :

"I will pay thy graces

"Home, both in word and deed." STEEVENS..

The added word home shows clearly, in my apprehenfion, that our author wrote That, thrusted home. So, in a fubfequent scene :

"That every minute of his being thrufts

"Against my nearest of life."

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 cafted flough and fresh legerity." Home means to the uttermost. So, in The Winter's Tale :

"-all my forrows

"You have paid home."

It may be observed, that "thrusted home" is an expreffion used at this day; but "trusted home," I believe, was never used at any period whatsoever. I have had frequent occafion 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 conftantly pronounce the word thrust as if it were written trust; and hence, probably, the error in the text.

The change is so very flight, and I am so thoroughly perfuaded that the reading proposed is the true one, that had it been fuggefted by any former editor, I should, without hefitation, have given it a place in the text, MALONE.

Might yet enkindle you' unto the crown,
Befides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The inftruments of darkness tell us truths;

Win us with honeft trifles, to betray us

In deepest consequence.

Coufins, a word, I pray you.

MACB.

Two truths are told,

? Might yet enkindle you-] Enkindle, for to stimulate you to feek. WARBURTON.

A fimilar expreffion occurs in As you like it, Act I. fc. i: "-nothing remains but that I kindle the boy thither." STEEVENS.

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 tranflation of Boethius it should feem that Sinel, the father of Macbeth, died after Macbeth's having been met by the weird fifters. "Makbeth (fays the hiftorian) revolvyng all thingis, as they wer faid 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 fuld cum as the first two did afore." This, indeed, is inconfiftent 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 fifters : 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 faid 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

« ZurückWeiter »