Mal.

My liege,

They are not yet come back: but I have spoke
With one that saw him die; who did report,
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons,
Implor'd your highness' pardon, and set forth
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it he died
As one that had been studied in his death,'
To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd,'
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Dun.

There's no art,

To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust. O worthiest cousin!

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS

The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee: 'would thou hadst less deserv'd;
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,
Your highness' part

In doing it, pays itself.

Is to receive our duties and our duties

Are, to your throne and state, children and servants; Which do but what they should, by doing every

thing

Safe toward your love and honour.3

That is, well instructed in the art of dying. The behaviour of the thane of Cawdor corresponds in almost every circumstance with that of the unfortunate earl of Essex, as related by Stowe. His asking the queen's forgiveness, his confession, repentance, and concern about behaving with propriety on the scaffold, are mi autely described by that historian.

2 Owned, possessed.

.

"Here, in contrast with Duncan's plenteous joys,' Macbeth

Dun.

Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing. — Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known
No less to have done so; let me infold thee,

And hold thee to my heart.

Ban.

The harvest is your own.

Dun.

There if I grow,

My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow. - Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know,
We will establish our estate upon

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter
The prince of Cumberland: which honour must
Not, unaccompanied, invest him only,

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. - From hence to Inverness,
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

nas nothing but the commonplaces of loyalty, in which he hides himself with our duties.' Note the exceeding effort of Macbeth's addresses to the king, his reasoning on his allegiance, and then especially when a new difficulty, the designation of a successor, suggests a new crime." Such is Coleridge's comment on the

text.

H.

Holinshed says, " Duncan, having two sons, made the elder of them, called Malcolm, prince of Cumberland, as it was thereby to appoint him his successor in his kingdome immediatelie after his decease. Macbeth sorely troubled herewith, for that he saw by this means his hope sore hindered, (where, by the old laws of the realme the ordinance was, that if he that should succeed were not of able age to take the charge upon himself, he that was next of blood unto him should be admitted,) he began to take counsel how he might usurpe the kingdome by force, having a just quarrel so to doe, (as he tooke the matter,) for that Duncane did what in him lay to defraud him of all manner of title and claime, which he might in time to come pretend, unto the crowne." Cumber land was then held in fief of the English crown.

The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.

Dun.

My worthy Cawdor! Mab. [Aside.] The prince of Cumberland!

That is a step,

On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires!

Let not light see my black and deep desires;
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,

Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

[Exit

Dun. True, worthy Banquo: he is full so valiant, And in his commendations I am fed;

It is a banquet to me. Let us after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman." [Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE V. Inverness.

A Room in MACBETH'S Castle.

Enter Lady MACBETH, reading a Letter.

Lady M. They met me in the day of success; and I have learn'd by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burn'd in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanish'd. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives' from the king, who all-hail'd

Of course during Macbeth's last speech Duncan and Banquo were conversing apart, he being the subject of their talk. The beginning of Duncan's speech refers to something Banquo has said in praise of Macbeth. Coleridge says, “I always think there is something especially Shakespearian in Duncan's speeches throughout this scene, such pourings-forth, such abandonments, compared with the language of vulgar dramatists, whose characters seem to have made their speeches as the actors learn them."

H

1 Messengers.

me,

"Thane of Cawdor;" by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referr'd me to the coming on of time, with, "Hail, king that shalt be!" This have J thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promis'd 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 would'st be great;
Art not without ambition; but without

The illness should attend it: what thou would'st

highly,

That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false, And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'dst have, great

Glamis,

That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou

And that which rather thou dost fear to do,

Than wishest should be undone.2 Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid3 doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal. What is your
tidings?

216 Macbeth," says Coleridge, " is described by Lady Macbeth so as at the same time to reveal her own character. Could he have every thing he wanted, he would rather have it innocently; -ignorant, as, alas! how many of us are, that he who wishes a temporal end for itself does in truth will the means; and hence the danger of indulging fancies."

H.

That is, supernatural aid. We find metaphysics explained things supernatural in the old dictionaries. To have thee crown'd is to desire that you should be crowned. Thus in All's Well that Ends Well, Act i. sc. 2: "Our dearest friend prejudicates the business, and would seem to have us make denial."

Enter an Attendant.

Attend. The king comes here to-night.

Lady M.

Thou'rt mad to say it

Is not thy master with him? who, wer't so,

Would have inform'd for preparation.

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.

Give him tending:

He brings great news.-[Exit Attendant.] The raven himself is hoarse,

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements. Come, you spirits

5

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse;
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

4 This passage is often sadly marred in the reading by laying peculiar stress upon my; as the next sentence also is in the print ing by repeating come, thus suppressing the pause wherein the speaker gathers and nerves herself up to the terrible strain that follows. Mr. Collier quotes a similar passage from Drayton's Barons Wars, book v. stan. 42:

"The ominous raven with a dismal cheer

Through his hoarse beak of following horror tells." H. Mortal and deadly were synonymous in Shakespeare's time. In another part of this play we have "the mortal sword," and "mortal murders." The spirits here addressed are thus described in Nashe's Pierce Pennilesse: "The second kind of devils, which he most employeth, are those northern Martii, called the spirits of revenge, and the authors of massacres, and seedsmen of mischief; for they have commission to incense men to rapines, sacrilege theft, murder, wrath, fury, and all manner of cruelties: and they command certain of the southern spirits to wait upon them, as also great Arioch, that is termed the spirit of revenge."