VARIOUS READINGS.

"Come, thick night,

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blankness of the dark,
To cry Hold, hold!'"

The original "blanket of the dark" has become a familiar phrase, and we are now to change it, under the authority of Mr. Collier's corrected folio. It is "an acceptable alteration," says Mr. Collier; "the scribe misheard."

(ACT I., Sc. 5.)

The phrase in 'Cymbeline,' " If Cæsar could hide the sun from us with a blanket," gives the key to Lady Macbeth's metaphor. The light of "heaven" was to be shut out by the "blanket of the dark." So, Drayton :

"The sullen night in misty rug is wrapt."

"What boast was 't then

That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man."

The original has, "What beast was't then," &c. A page of Mr. Collier's Introduction is devoted to the glories of this "substitution of the letter o for the letter e," that, "as it were, magically conjures into palpable existence the longburied meaning of the poet." Mr. Collier has another page, in the notes on Macbeth,' about this wonderful "boast." All previous editors are twitted with their dulness in never having "hit upon this improvement." The old reading, he says, was "a gross vulgarism." Lady Macbeth "means nothing of the kind. She alludes

to Macbeth's former vaunt, that he

says,

(ACT I., Sc. 7.)

It would have been well to have pointed out one single passage, one solitary expression, in which Macbeth vaunts that he is eager for the deed. In Act I., Scene 5, when Lady Macbeth first prompts the murder, "he that's coming must be provided for," Macbeth simply "We will speak further." When they next meet, and Lady Macbeth reproaches him for leav ing the chamber, he takes up his former answer, saying, "We will proceed no further in this busiWhere is the vaunt? where the braggardism? To her passionate excitements he replies:

ness."

Will chair me ever, or disseat me now.
I have lived long enough: my May of life
Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf."

The original has "cheer me ever." Percy suggested "chair," which is also the reading of the MS. Corrector.

The original has "way of life." Johnson proposed to read " May;" and that word is substituted in Mr. Collier's copy.

(ACT V., Sc. 3.) We believe "chair" is rightthe royal chair, in juxtaposition with "disseat."

Gifford says แ way of life is nothing more nor less than a simple periphrasis for life." It has been justly observed that "May," as applied to "life," is always used by Shakspere and other poets in connection with youth. Macbeth was not young. Shakspere has the exact sentiment of the disputed passage in his Sonnets :

"That time of year in me thou
mayst behold,

When yellow leaves, or none
or few, do hang
Upon those boughs."

"Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of the perilous grief

Which weighs upon the heart."

The original has " perilous stuff." The substitution of grief is in Mr. Collier's folio.

(ACT V., Sc. 3.)

The repetition is so much in Shakspere's manner, that we should be unwilling to make a change, even if grief were the better word. But Lady Macbeth was labouring under "a mind diseas'd"-not by grief, but by remorse-by the terrors of an evil conscience.

AFFEER'D. Act IV., Sc. 3.

"The title is affeer'd."

Affeered is confirmed, admitted, from the French affier. Affeerers were persons at the court-leet, who decided on the amount of fine to be received on the admission of copyholders to their lands. The original has affear'd.

AROINT. Act I., Sc. 3. See 'Lear.'

BOLTER'D. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me.” Bolter'd, probably derived from boll, a swelling, is a word of the midland counties, meaning begrimed or besmeared. Act IV., Sc. 1.

CHAUDRON.

"Add thereto a tiger's chaudron."

The chaudron is the entrails of a beast.

CONVINCE.

Act I., Sc. 7.

"Will I with wine and wassel so convince." Convince is used in the Latin sense of overpower. DUDGEON. Act II., Sc. 1.

"And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood." A dudgeon-dagger was a short dagger, having a dudgeon handle, supposed to be a plate to defend the hand. EYLD. Act I., Sc. 6.

"How you shall bid God-eyld us for your pains." God-eyld is only a more familiar and playful form of the old phrase, God yield you, i. e. reward you for your pains.

FOYSONS. Act IV., Sc. 3.

"Scotland hath foysons to fill up your will." Foyson is plenty, abundance. See 'The Tempest.' GALLOWGLASSES. See KERNES.

GERMINS. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"Of nature's germins tumble all together."

Germins are seeds. The original has germaine, which means kindred.

HERMITS. Act I., Sc. 6.

"We rest your hermits."

Hermits were frequently religious men endowed by certain persons to pray for their benefactors, beadsmen.

INCH. Act I., Sc. 2.

Inch is an island.
Frith of Forth.

"At St. Colmes' inch."

St. Colmes' inch is now Inch-Colm, in the

INSANE ROOT. Act I., Sc. 3.

"Or have we eaten on the insane root."

In an old medical book, which Shakspere might have seen, henbane is called insana.

KERNES. Act I., Sc. 2.

"Of kernes and gallow-glasses is supplied."

Phillips (New World of Words') says a kerne is "an Irish foot-soldier, lightly armed with a dagger; a vagabond." A gallowglass is described by Barnaby Rich as being a footsoldier, armed with a skull [skull-cap, helmet], a shirt of mail, and a gallow-glass axe; and he says also that the kernes were the dross of the country. In Henry V.' (Act III., Sc. 7.), we have, however, "you rode like a kerne of Ireland."

LATCH. Act IV., Sc. 3.

"Where hearing should not latch them."

To latch is to fasten on, to hold them.

"For 't is my limited service."

Limited service is the service he was limited to, appointed to. MATED. Act V., Sc. 1.

"My mind she has mated."

Mated is to be amazed, astonished, daunted.

METAPHYSICAL. Act I., Sc. 5.

"Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem." Metaphysical is here used in the sense of supernatural.

MORTIFIED. Act V., Sc. 2.

"Excite the mortified man.”

A mortified man is probably a hermit or ascetic. NOISE. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"What noise is this?"

Noise is the music of the hautboys. See 'Henry IV., Part II.' PADDOCK. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Paddock calls."

Paddock is a toad; Phillips says "a great toad." This word in
Scotland is now used for a frog.

QUARRY. Act I., Sc. 2.

"On his damned quarry smiling."

Quarry is a term used in hawking for the bird that is flown at and killed, and also for the parts given to the hawk as a reward--his prey.

QUELL. Act I., Sc. 7.

"Of our great quell."

Quell, from the Anglo-Saxon cwelian, to kill, to destroy, is here used for murder. Chaucer has used the verb in the 'Canon's Yeoman's Prologue;' "the fould fiend him quell."

KONYON. Act I., Sc. 3.

"The rump-fed ronyon cries."

See As You Like It.'

SAGG. Act V., Sc. 3.

RoYNISH.

"Shall never sagg with doubt, nor shake with fear." To sagg is to droop or sink down.

SEELING. Act III., Sc. 2.

"Come, seeling night.

Seeling is a term borrowed from falconry. To seel a hawk was to close up its eyes by passing a thread through the lids, in order to accustom it to endure the hood.

"The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums."

The shard is here the scaly wing-cases of the beetle. In
Gower's 'Confessio Amantis' we find-

"A dragon,

Whose sherdes shynen as the sunne."

In 'Cymbeline' it is used in the same sense as here. In 'Hamlet' we have the other meaning of the word, broken pottery

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Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her."

SLEAVE. Act II., Sc. 2.

"Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care." Sleave is unwrought, untwisted silk, now known as floss silk In 'Troilus and Cressida' it occurs, in Act V., Sc. I. "Thou idle, immaterial skein of sleave silk."

WEIRD. Act I., Sc. 3.

"The weird sisters, hand in hand."

Weird is no doubt from the Anglo-Saxon, wyrd, fate, destiny, and probably from the same root as word; the word spoken is fate. In the original the word is spelt weyward and weyard

"As the weyard women promis'd."

In "weyward" the w is inserted probably to mark its pronunciation as two syllables.