I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell

6

That summons thee to heaven, or to hell." [Exit.

it may be observed, that one of the circumftances of horror enumerated by Macbeth is,-Nature feems dead. M. MASON.

veftigia retro

"Observata sequor per noctem, et lumine luftro.

"Horror ubique animos, fimul ipsa filentia terrent." Dryden's well-known lines, which exposed him to so much ridicule,

"An horrid ftillness first invades the ear,
"And in that filence we the tempeft hear,"

show, that he had the same idea of the awfulness of filence as our poet. MALONE.

$

-Whiles I threat, he lives;

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.] Here is evidently a false concord; but it must not be corrected, for it is necessary to the rhyme. Nor is this the only place in which Shakspeare has facrificed grammar to rhyme. In Cymbeline, the fong in Cloten's serenade runs thus :

"Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,

"And Phœbus 'gins to rife,

"His steeds to water at those springs
"On chalic'd flowers that lies."

And Romeo fays to Friar Lawrence:

-both our remedies

"Within thy help and holy physick lies." M. MASON.

the bell invites me.] So, in Cymbeline:

"The time inviting thee?" STEEVENS.

it is a knell

That fummons thee to heaven, or to hell.] Thus Raleigh,

speaking of love, in England's Helicon, 4to. 1600:

" It is perhaps that fauncing bell,

"That toules all in to heauen or hell."

Sauncing is probably a mistake for facring, or faints' bell; originally, perhaps, written (with the Saxon genitive) saintis bell. In Hudibras (as Mr. Ritson observes to me) we find

"The only faints' bell that rings all in." STEEVENS. Saunce bell (ftill so called at Oxford) is the small bell which hangs in the window of a church tower, and is always rung when the clergyman enters the church, and also at funerals. In some places it is called tolling all in, i. e. into church. HARRIS.

SCENE II.

The fame.

Enter Lady MАСВЕТН.

LADY M. That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold :

What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire :

Hark!-Peace!

It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'ft good-night. He is about it:
The doors are open; and the furfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with snores: 9 I have drugg'd

$ It was the owl that Shriek'd, the fatal bellman,

Which gives the stern'st good-night.] Shakspeare has here improved on an image he probably found in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. V. c. vi. 27:

"The native belman of the night,
"The bird that warned Peter of his fall,
" First rings his filver bell t'each fleepy wight."

STEEVENS.

It was the owl that Shriek'd; the fatal bellman,] So, in King Richard III:

"Out on ye, owls! nothing but fongs of death!"

the furfeited grooms

MALONE.

Do mock their charge with snores:) i.e. By going to fsleep, they trifle and make light of the trust reposed in them, that of watching by their king. So, in Othello: "O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love." MALONE.

- their poffets,] It appears from this passage, as well as from many others in our old dramatick performances, that it was the general custom to eat poffèts just before bed-time. So, in the first part of King Edward IV. by Heywood: "-thou shalt be welcome to beef and bacon, and perhaps a bag-pudding; and my daughter Nell shall pop a poffet upon thee when thou goest to bed." Macbeth has already faid :

That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live, or die.2

МАСВ. [Within.] Who's there?-what, ho!

LADY M. Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd, And 'tis not done: -the attempt, and not the deed, Confounds us :-Hark!-I laid their daggers ready, He could not miss them.3- Had he not resembled My father as he flept, I had done't.4-My husband?

"Go bid thy mistress when my drink is ready,
"She strike upon the bell."

Lady Macbeth has also just observed

"That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold:"

and in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Mrs. Quickly promises Jack Rugby a poffet at night. This custom is also mentioned by Froiffart. STEEVENS.

2

death and nature do contend about them,

Whether they live, or die.] Of this image our ancient writers were peculiarly fond. Thus again, in Twine's tranflation of the flory of Prince Appollyn: "Death Arived with life within her, and the conflict was daungerous and doubtfull who should preuaile."

Again, in All's well that ends well: "-thy blood and virtue

"Contend for empire in thee." STEEVENS.

Again, ibid:

"Nature and fickness

"Debate it at their leifure." MALONE.

* Hark!-I laid their daggers ready,

He could not miss them.] Compare Euripides, Orestes, v. 1291-where Electra stands centinel at the door of the palace, whilft Oreftes is within for the purpose of murdering Helen. The dread of a furprize, and eagerness for the business, make Electra conclude that the deed must be done ere time enough had elapsed for attempting it. She listens with anxious impatience; and hearing nothing, expresses strong fears left the daggers should have failed. Read the whole passage. S. W.

4

Had he not resembled

My father as he flept, 1 had done't.] This is very artful. For, as the poet has drawn the lady and her husband, it would

Enter MACВЕТН.

MACB. I have done the deed :-Didst thou not

hear a noife?

LADY M. I heard the owl scream, and the crick

be thought the act should have been done by her. It is likewise highly just; for though ambition had fubdued in her all the sentiments of nature towards present objects, yet the likeness of one past, which she had been accustomed to regard with reverence, made her unnatural paffions, for a moment, give way to the sentiments of inftinct and humanity. WARBURTON.

The fame circumstance, on a similar occafion, is introduced by Statius, in the fifth Book of his Thebaid, v. 236 :

"Ut vero Alcimeden etiamnum in murmure truncos
"Ferre patris vultus, et egentem fanguinis ensem
"Confpexi, riguere comæ, atque in vifcera sævus
"Horror iit. Meus ille Thoas, mea dira videri
"Dextra mihi. Extemplo thalamis turbata paternis

"Inferor."

Thoas was the father of Hypsipyle, the speaker. STEEVENS. 5 This is a forry fight.) This expression might have been borrowed from Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. V. c. i. ft. 14: "To whom as they approched, they espide "A forie fight as ever seene with eye; "A heedlesse ladie lying him beside,

" In her own bloud all wallow'd woefully." WHALLET.

LADY M. A foolish thought, to say a forry fight. MACB. There's one did laugh in his fleep, and

one cried, murder!

That they did wake each other; I stood and heard them:

But they did say their prayers, and address'd them Again to fleep.

LADY M.

There are two lodg'd together.

MACB. One cried, God bless us! and, Amen, the

other;

As they had seen me, with these hangman's hands.
Listening their fear, I could not say, amen,
When they did say, God bless us.

8

• As they had seen me,] i. e. as if. So, in The Winter's Tale:

"As we are mock'd with art." STEEVENS.

? Liftening their fear.] i. e. Listening to their fear, the particle omitted. This is common in our author. Thus, in Julius Cæfar, Act IV. fc.i:

"-and now, Octavius,

"Liften great things."

Contemporary writers took the same liberty. So, in The World tofs'd at Tennis, by Middleton and Rowley, 1620:

"

Listen the plaints of thy poor votaries."

Again, in Lyly's Maid's Metamorphofis, 1600:

"There, in rich seats, all wrought of ivory,
"The Graces fit, listening the melody
"Of warbling birds." STEEVENS.

* When they did say, God bless us.] The words-did say, which render this hemistich too long to unite with the next in forming a verse, perfuade me that the passage originally ran thus :

-I could not say, amen,

When they, God bless us.

i. c. when they could say God bless us. Could say, in the second line, was left to be understood; as before

" - and, Amen, the other:"

i. e. the other cried Amen. But the players, having no idea of the latter ellipfis, supplied the syllables that destroy the measure. STEEVENS.