read “where there is a vantage to be gone" in the sense
of “to be off," " to depart," "to escape;" but there is
surely no need for altering advantage to a 'vantage in
this case; for, as Johnson pointed out, advantage is
frequently used by Shakespeare = a favourable oppor-
tunity, e.g. in Tempest, iii. 3. 12, 13:

Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolv'd to effect.
Seo.

The next advantage
Will we take thoroughly.
In F. 1. the given, in both lines, is printed in the unelided
form, and it certainly seems as if the double ending were
intended in line 11; and for that reason, if for no other, we
would not alter the text in spite of the repetition of the
word given, which may seem awkward, but is quite Shake-
spearean. The meaning may be "where there is to be,
i.e. where there must necessarily be given the advantage,
ie. opportunity of desertion, the more and less, that is to
say the greater and the less (=probably, “the officers and
private soldiers"), revolt from Macbeth. Macduff goes on
to say, "none remain with him but those who are obliged
to," which thoroughly agrees with what Macbeth says
himself, line 49, in the preceding scene: "the thanes fly
from me;" and again in the next scene (lines 5, 6) he says:
Were they not forc'd (i.e. reinforced) with those that should be ours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard.
If Macbeth had elected to give battle to the enemy out-
side his castle, he would have been compelled to afford
an opportunity to those who were disaffected to desert to
Malcolm's side.-F. A. M.

Amende, mad soole, when God this grace doth sende. 262. Line 23: dusty death.-It is scarcely to be believed that commentators have seriously exercised themselves over this incomparably appropriate epithet, one unfortunate person conjecturing that we should read dusky for dusty, and other unfortunate persons finding it plausible and convincing.

263. Line 37: Within this three mile.-- This is precisely what a working-man would say to-day; in Shakespeare's time such constructions were not the vulgarisms they now are. Compare I. Henry IV. iii. 3. 54: “this two and thirty years."

264. Line 39: Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive. -F. 1 has shall.

259. Line 21: Towards which advance the war.-Steevens has an interesting note on the irregular endings of many of the scenes in Macbeth. “It has been understood that local rhymes were introduced in plays in order to afford an actor the advantage of a more pointed exit, or to close a scene with additional force. Yet, whatever might be Shakespeare's motive for continuing such a practice, it may be observed that he often seems immediately to repent of it; and, in the tragedy before us, has repeatedly counteracted it by hemistichs which destroy the effect, and consequently defeat the supposed purpose of the antecedent couplets." Compare in the present play, besides the instance here, the end of i. 5; iii. 2; iii. 4; iv. 1; v. 1; V. 2.

ACT V. SCENE 5.

From here to the end of the play Shakespeare follows, in outline, the narrative in Holinshed, which, to avoid chopping it up into small pieces, I give here: “On the morow when Makbeth beheld them comming in this sort, hee first marueyled what the matter ment, but in the end remembred himselfe, that the prophecie which he had hearde long before that time, of the comming of Byrnane wood to Dunsinnane Castell, was likely to bee now fulfilled. Neuerthelesse, he brought his men in order of battell, and exhorted them to doe valiantly, howbeit his enimies had scarcely cast from them their boughes, when Makbeth perceiuing their numbers betook him streight to flight, whom Makduffe pursued with great hatred euen till he came vnto Lunfannain, where Makbeth perceiuing that Makduffe was hard at his back, leapt beside his horse, saying, thou traytor, what meaneth

265. Line 40: Till famine CLING thee.-Cling is from Anglo-Saxon clingan, to shrink up. Compare Piers Ploughman, 9010, 9011:

Or whan thou clomsest for cold

Or dyngest for dry. Cling, in some districts, appears to have a similar meaning to the more familiar clem or clam, meaning pinched with cold or starved with hunger.

266. Line 42: I pull in resolution. --So Ff., with the meaning, evidently, of pulling-in a horse, checking. Johnson conjectured “I pall in resolution,' and the Clarendon Press edd, suggest “I pale in resolution."

hucke, dodge." I suppose hedge is a misprint that has crept in with the revision.

275. Line 34.-Stage-direction. After this line we have apparently two rather conflicting stage-directions in F. 1: Exeunt fighting. Alarums, and Enter Fighting, and Macbeth slaine. Then immediately Retreat, and Flourish. Enter with Drumine and Colours, Malcolm, Seyvard, Rosse, Thanes, and Soldiers, and below, after line 53: Enter Macduffe, with Macbeths head. It seems to me that unnecessary trouble has been made about this stagedirection. It is quite possible that, as the last scene was played in Shakespeare's time, Macduff and Macbeth, after one driving the other off the scene, returned fighting after a brief interval, when Macbeth was killed; and that after Macduff had killed him close to what we call the "wing" or "side entrance," he dragged the body off the stage; as he could not well pretend to cut off the head before the audience; Siward and the rest would appear upon the “upper stage," as they are supposed to have entered the castle before in the last scene, or rather, as it stands in the Folio, at the beginning of this scene, there being no eighth scene in the Folio. As the attack was made on Macbeth when in his castle, he must have been compelled by the besiegers to make a desperate sally; it is not likely that he got very far from the castle walls, and the fight between him and Macduff was supposed to take place on the ground in front of the castle. I really can see no reason to suppose, with the Clarendon editors, that Shakespeare's share of the play ended here, line 34; for if the slight episode of the death of Siward's son was Shakespeare's work, I think it is only natural that he should make those, on whose side he was fighting, take some notice of that brave young soldier's death.

-F. A. M.

276. Lines 39-53. — The incident of the death of young Siward is taken from Holinshed's History of England: “It is recorded also, that in the foresaid battayle, in which Earle Siwarde vanquished the Scottes, one of Siwardes sonnes chaunced to be slayne, whereof, though the father had good cause to be sorrowfull, yet when he heard that he dyed of a wound which he had receyued in fighting stoutely in the forepart of his body, and that with his face towarde the enimie, hee greatly rejoyced thereat, te heare that he died so manfully. But here is to be noted, ye not now, but a little before, (as Henry Hunt. saith,) ye Earle Siward, wente into Scotlande himselfe in person, hee sent his sonne with an army to conquere ye land, whose hap was ther to be slaine: and when his father heard ye newes, he demaunded whether he receiuved the wound wherof he died, in ye fore parte of the body, or in the hinder part: and when it was tolde him yt he receyued it in the foreparte, I reioyce (saith he) euen with all my harte, for I woulde not wishe eyther to my sonne nor to my selfe, any other kind of death" (vol. I, p. 749).

277. Line 41: The which no sooner had his PROWESS confirm'd.-Prowess must be slurred over in pronunci. ation, so as to make it practically one syllable only. Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, p. 119) cites Greene, Alphonsus, iii. 1 (ed. Dyce, ii. 27):

Whose prowess alone has been the only cause.

3 accredited. Used in somewhat different sense in Sonn. xxxv. 6; Lover's Complaint, 104. 4a doll.

5 to be hardened in beat. 6 sandbank; used in other senses elsewhere.

7 Used figuratively curtain; in its ordinary sense in four other passages.

11 = spotlessness; = brightness, elsewhere.

12 to shrivel up; used twice in ordinary sense-to adhere to, in Macbeth, i. 2. 8, and Henry VIII. i. 1. 9.

13 copyhold; used frequently elsewhere in other senses.

V. 1 9

iv. 3 196 iv. 1 12 iii. 1 65

21 reinforced; used very frequently elsewhere in a variety of

senses.

22 an object of interest, Sonn. v. 2; used frequently elsewhere

14 immediately; used fre-intent, regard.
quently elsewhere in other senses.
15 alienation, antagonism;
used frequently elsewhere in or-
dinary sense.

16 Used figuratively soft.
17 = deep, sound; used fre-
quently elsewhere in other senses.
18-defiled; used elsewhere in
other senses.

23 a tailor's smoothing-iron. 24 that which keeps and guards.

25 Of the mouth; used in several passages the gum of trees; also rheum from the eyes, Henry V. iv. 2. 48.

26 saluted; to pour down like hail, in three other passages.