Line 551.

who shall bear the guilt

Of our great quell?] Quell is murder, manquel

lers being in the old language the term for which murderers is now used.

JOHNSON.

Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature

Gives way to in repose!] It is apparent from what Banquo says afterwards, that he had been solicited in a dream to do something in consequence of the prophecy of the witches, that his waking senses were shocked at; and Shakspeare has here finely contrasted his character with that of Macbeth. Banquo is praying against being tempted to encourage thoughts of guilt even in his sleep; while Macbeth is hurrying into temptation, and revolving in his mind every scheme, however flagitious, that may assist him to complete his purpose. The one is unwilling to sleep, lest the same phantoms should assail his resolution again, while the other is depriving himself of rest through impatience to commit the murder. STEEVENS.

Line 33. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,] Macbeth expresses his thought with affected obscurity; he does not mention the royalty, though he apparently has it in his mind, If you shall cleave to my consent, if you shall concur with me when I determine to accept the crown, when 'tis, when that happens which the prediction promises, it shall make honour for you. JOHNSON.

Line 62.

Now o'er the one half world

Nature seems dead,] That is, over our hemisphere all action and motion seemed to have ceased. This image, which is perhaps the most striking that poetry can

ACT 11.]

MACBETH.

5

produce, has been adopted by Dryden, in his Conquest of Mexico:

All things are hush'd as Nature's self lay dead,
The mountains seem to nod their drowsy head;
The little birds in dreams their songs repeat,

And sleeping flow'rs beneath the night dews sweat.
Even lust and envy sleep!

These lines, though so well known, I have transcribed, that the contrast between them and this passage of Shakspeare may be more accurately observed.

Night is described by two great poets, but one describes a night of quiet, the other of perturbation. In the night of Dryden, all the disturbers of the world are laid asleep; in that of Shakspeare, nothing but sorcery, lust, and murder, is awake. He that reads Dryden, finds himself lull'd with serenity, and disposed to solitude and contemplation. He that peruses Shakspeare, looks round alarmed, and starts to find himself alone. One is the night of a lover, the other, of a murderer. JOHNSON.

Line 160.

gild the faces of the grooms withal,

For it must seem their guilt.] Could Shakspeare possibly mean to play upon the similitude of gild and guilt?

JOHNSON.

Line 292. What, in our house?] This is very fine. Had she been innocent, nothing but the murder itself, and not any of its aggravated circumstances, would naturally have affected her. WARBURTON.

His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood ;] It is not improbable, that Shakspeare put these forc'd and unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth as a mark of artifice and dissimulation, to shew the difference between the studied language of hypocrisy, and the natural outcries of sudden passion. This whole speech, so considered, is a

6

ANNOTATIONS ON

[ACT III.

remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists entirely of

antithesis and metaphor.

Line 362

This murderous shaft that 's shot,

JOHNSON.

Huth not yet lighted;] The design to fix the murder upon some innocent person has not yet taken effect.

JOHNSON.

--

ACT III.

Line 78. · the common enemy of man,] It is always an entertainment to an inquisitive reader, to trace a sentiment to its original source; and therefore, though the term enemy of man, applied to the devil, is in itself natural and obvious, yet some may be pleased with being informed, that Shakspeare probably borrowed it from the first lines of the Destruction of Troy, a book which he is known to have read. This expression, however, he might have had in many other places. The word fiend signifies enemy. JOHNSON.

Line 103. Are you so gospell'd,] Are you of that degree of precise virtue? Gospeller was a name of contempt given by the Papists to the Lollards, the puritans of early times, and the precursors of protestantism. JOHNSON.

Line 110. Shoughs,] Shoughs are probably what we now call shocks, demi-wolves, lyciscæ; dogs bred between wolves and dogs.

JOHNSON.

Line 111. the valued file -] In this speech the word file occurs twice, and seems in both places to have a meaning different from its present use. The expression, valued file, evidently means, a list or catalogue of value. A station in the file, and not in the worst rank, may mean, a place in the list of manhood, and not in the lowest place. But file seems rather to mean in this place, a post of

honour; the first rank, in opposition to the last; a meaning which I have not observed in any other place.

JOHNSON.

Line 234. But who did bid thee join with us?] The meaning of this abrupt dialogue is this. The perfect spy, mentioned by Macbeth in the foregoing scene, has, before they enter upon the stage, given them the directions which were promised at the time of their agreement; yet one of the murderers suborned suspects him of intending to betray them; the other observes, that, by his exact knowledge of what they were to do, he appears to be employed by Macbeth, and needs not be mistrusted. JOHNSON.

Line 285. 'Tis better thee without than he within.] The sense requires that this passage should be read thus: 'Tis better thee without, than him within.

That is, I am better pleased that the blood of Banquo should be on thy face than in his body.

The author might mean, It is better that Banquo's blood were on thy face, than he in this room. Expressions thus imperfect are common in his works.

Line 311.

cold.

JOHNSON.

the feast is sold, &c.] Mr Pope reads

The meaning is,―That which is not given chearfully cannot be called a gift, it is something that must be paid for.

JOHNSON.

Line 349. O proper stuff!] This speech is rather too long for the circumstances in which it is spoken. It had begun better at, Shame itself! JOHNSON.

Line 433. Augurs, and understood relations, &c.] By the word relation is understood the connection of effects with causes; to understand relations as an augur, is to know how these things relate to each other, which have no visible combination or dependence. JOHNSON.

ACT IV.

Line 30. Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips ;] These ingredients in all probability owed their introduction to the detestation in which the Saracens were held, on account of the holy wars. STEEVENS. Line 34. Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,] Chaudron, i. e. entrails.

STEEVENS. The armed

Line 83. An apparition of an armed head rises.] head represents symbolically Macbeth's head cut off and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child is Macduff untimely ripp'd from his mother's womb. The child with a crown on his head, and a bough in his hand, the royal Malcolm, who ordered his soldiers to hew them down a bough, and bear it before them to Dunsinane. This observation I have adopted from Mr. Upton. STEEVENS.

And top of sovereignty?] This round is that part of the crown that encircles the head. The top is the ornament that rises above it.

JOHNSON.

Line 134. eight kings-] It is reported that Voltaire often laughs at the tragedy of Macbeth, for having a legion of ghosts in it. One should imagine he either had not learned English, or had forgot his Latin; for the spirits of Banquo's line are no more ghosts, than the representations of the Julian race in the Æneid; and there is no ghost but Banquo's throughout the play. Essay on the Genius and MR. MONTague.

Writings of Shakspeare.

Line 146. That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry:] This was intended as a compliment to king James the first, who first united the two islands and the three kingdoms