Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSs, and ANGUS. The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me: thou art so far before, To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserv'd; Are, to your throne and state, children and servants; KING. Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour BAN. The harvest is your own. There if I grow, My plenteous joys, Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter As 't were a careless trifle.] "The behaviour of the thane of Cawdor corresponds in almost every circumstance with that of the unfortunate Earl of Essex, as related by Stowe, p. 793. His asking the Queen's forgiveness, his confession, repentance, and concern about behaving with propriety on the scaffold, are minutely described by that historian. Such an allusion could not fail of having the desired effect on an audience, many of whom were eye-witnesses to the severity of that justice which deprived the age of one of its greatest ornaments, and Southampton, Shakespeare's patron, of his dearest friend."-STEEVENS. b That swiftest wing of recompense is slow, &c.-] The substitution of wind for "wing" in this line, which Mr. Collier credits his "annotator with, was first proposed by Pope. c Would thou hadst less deserv'd; That the proportion both of thanks and payment For "mine," which no one can for a moment doubt to be a corruption, we would suggest that the poet wrote mean, i.e. equivalent, just, and the like; the sense then being,-That the proportion both of thanks and payment might have been equal to your deserts. Not, unaccompanied, invest him only, But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine And bind us further to you. MACB. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you: I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful The hearing of my wife with your approach; So, humbly take my leave. KING. My worthy Cawdor! MACB. [Aside.] The prince of Cumberland!—that is a step For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! - 57 KING. True, worthy Banquo,-he is full so valiant; Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: It is a peerless kinsman [Exit. [Flourish. Exeunt. SCENE V.-Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Castle. Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter. a LADY M. They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me, Thane of Cawdor; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with Hail, king that shalt be! This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promis'd:-yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness, To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition; but without The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly, And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou 'dst have, great Glamis, That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou have it; in the day of success;] In this place, as in Scene 3 of the present Act,- The news of thy success;' Shakespeare employs success in the sense it bears at this day; but its ordinary significe tion, when unaccompanied by an adjective of quality, was, as we have before said erent, issue, &c. b missives-] Messengers. And that which rather thou dost fear to do, Enter an Attendant. What is your tidings? Thou 'rt mad to say it! ATTEND. The king comes here to-night. LADY M. Is not thy master with him? who, were 't so, ATTEND. So please you, it is true:-our thane is coming: One of my fellows had the speed of him ; Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message. LADY M. He brings great news. Give him tending, [Exit Attendant. The raven himself is hoarse Under my battlements. Come, you spirits You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, c That my keen knife see not the wound it makes; Enter MACBETH. Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! - metaphysical aid-] Supernatural aid. b the raven himself is hoarse, &c.] "The messenger, says the servant, had hardly breath to make up his message; to which the lady answers mentally, that he may well want breath, such a message would add hoarseness to the raven. That even the bird, whose harsh voice is accustomed to predict calamities, could not croak the entrance of Duncan, but in a note of unwonted harshness."-JOHNSON. Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, &c.] Mr. Collier's annotator substitutes blankness for the familiar "blanket" of the text; and Mr. Collier is infatuated enough to applaud this miserable perversion of the poet's language. If "blanket" is a word too coarse for the delicacy of these commentators, what say they to the following from Act III. Sc. 1, of Middleton's "Blurt Master Constable"? "Blest night, wrap Cynthia in a sable sheet." Your face, my thane, is as a book where men To alter favour ever is to fear: Only look up clear; Leave all the rest to me. [Exeunt. SCENE VI.-The same. Before the Castle. Hautboys. Servants of MACBETH attending. Enter KING DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX, MACDUFF, ROSS ANGUS, and Attendants. KING. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses. BAN. b This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet,* does approve, Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird KING. See, see! our honour'd hostess ! Enter LADY MACBETH. The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you, ignorant present,-] Even this fine expression has undergone mutation; some editors actually printing, "ignorant present time." !! By his lov'd mansionry,-] Looking to the context,-"his pendent bed and procreant cradle," should we not read, love-mansionry ? How you shall bid God eyld us for your pains, LADY M. All our service In every point twice done, and then done double, We rest your hermits.a KING. Where's the thane of Cawdor? 20 We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose To be his purveyor: but he rides well; And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him We are your guest to-night. LADY M. Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, Still to return your own. KING. Give me your hand: Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly, And shall continue our graces towards him. By your leave, hostess. SCENE VII.-The same. A Room in the Castle. [Exeunt. Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage, a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service. Then enter MACBETH MACB. If it were done when 't is done, then 't were well It were done quickly: if the assassination c Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, But here, upon this bank and shoal* of time,- *Old text, Schoole; corrected by Theobald. With his surcease, success ;] and catch, The obscurity which critics lament in this famous passage is due to themselves. lf, instead of taking "success in its modern sense of prosperity, they had understood it according to its usual acceptation in Shakespeare's day, as sequel, what follows, &c., they must have perceived at once that to "catch, with his surcease, success," is no more than an enforcement of " trammel up the consequence." The meaning obviously being, --If the assassination were an absolutely final act, and could shut up all consecution, be the be-all and the end-all" even of this life only,-we would run the hazard of future state. |