Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. False face must hide what the false heart doth know. [Exeunt. Till this instant, the mind of Macbeth has been in a state of uncertainty and fluctuation. He has hitherto proved neither refolutely good, nor obftinately wicked. Though a bloody idea had arisen in his mind, after he had heard the prophecy in his favour, yet he contentedly leaves the completion of his hopes to chance. At the conclufion, however, of his interview with Duncan, he inclines to haften the decree of fate, and quits the stage with an apparent resolution to murder his fovereign. But no fooner is the king under his roof, than, reflecting on the peculiarities of his own relative fituation, he determines not to offend against the laws of hofpitality, or the ties of subjection, kindred, and gratitude. His wife then assails his conftancy afresh. He yields to her suggestions, and, with his integrity, his happiness is destroyed. I have enumerated these particulars, because the waverings of Macbeth have, by some criticks, been regarded as unnatural and contradictory circumstances in his character; not remembering that nemo repente fuit turpissimus, or that (as Angelo observes) - when once our grace we have forgot, "Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not-." a passage which contains no unapt juftification of the changes that happen in the conduct of Macbeth. STEEVENS. : ACT II. SCENE I.4 The fame. Court within the Castle. Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, and a Servant, with a torch before them. BAN. How goes the night, boy? FLE. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. BAN. And the goes down at twelve. FLE. I take't, 'tis later, fir. BAN. Hold, take my sword:-There's husban dry in heaven,5 Their candles are all out. - Take thee that too. * Scene I.] The place is not marked in the old edition, nor is it easy to say where this encounter can be. It is not in the hall, as the editors have all supposed it, for Banquo fees the sky; it is not far from the bedchamber, as the conversation shows: it muit be in the inner court of the castle, which Banquo might properly cross in his way to bed. JOHNSON. There's husbandry in heaven,] Husbandry here means thrift, frugality. So, in Hamlet: "And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." MALONE. • Their candles are all out.) The fame expression occurs in Romeo and Juliet : Night's candles are burnt out." Again, in our author's 21ft Sonnet : "As those gold candles fix'd in heaven's air." See Vol. VII. p. 386, n. 5. MALONE. Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature Gives way to in repose! - Give me my sword; Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch. Who's there? MACB. A friend. BAN. What, fir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed: He hath been in unusual pleasure, and Sent forth great largess to your offices : 8 7 - Merciful powers! 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 folicited in a dream to attempt fomething in confequence of the prophecy of the Witches, that his waking senses were shocked at; and Shakspeare has here most exquifitely contrafted his character with that of Macbeth. Banquo is praying againft being tempted to encourage thoughts of guilt even in his fleep; while Macbeth is hurrying into temptation, and revolving in his mind every scheme, however flagitious, that may affift him to complete his purpose. The one is unwilling to fleep, left the fame phantoms should affail his refolution again, while the other is depriving himself of reft through impatience to commit the murder. The same kind of invocation occurs in Cymbeline : "From fairies, and the tempters of the night, "Guard me!" STEEVENS. * Sent forth great largess to your offices :] Thus the old copy, and rightly. Offices are the rooms appropriated to servants and culinary purposes. Thus, in Timon : "When all our offices have been oppress'd " By riotous feeders." Again, in King Richard II: Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones." Duncan was pleased with his entertainment, and dispensed his bounty to those who had prepared it. All the modern editors have transferred this largess to the officers of Macbeth, who would more properly have been rewarded in the field, or at their return to court. STEEVENS. This diamond he greets your wife withal, In measureless content. Being unprepar'd, Our will became the servant to defect; BAN. 9 All's well.2 I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters : To you they have show'd fome truth. MACB. I think not of them: Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, Would spend it in some words upon that business, If you would grant the time. Shut up-] To Shut up, is to conclude. So, in The Spanish Tragedy : "And heavens have shut up day to pleasure us." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. IV. c. ix: "And for to shut up all in friendly love." Again, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, 1621, fourth edit. p. 137 : "- though the parents have already Shut up "contract." Again, in Stowe's Account of the Earl of Effex's Speech on the scaffold: "he shut up all with the Lord's prayer.' STEEVENS. Again, in Stowe's Annals, p. 833 : "-the kings majestie [K. James] Shut up all with a pithy exhortation on both fides." Our will became the fervant to defect; MALONE. Which elfe should free have wrought.] This is obscurely expressed. The meaning seems to be :-Being unprepared, our entertainment was neceffarily defective, and we only had it in our power to show the King our willingness to ferve him. Had we received sufficient notice of his coming, our zeal should have been more clearly manifefted by our acts. Which refers, not to the laft antecedent, defect, but to will. MALONE. 2 All's well.] I suppose the poet originally wrote (that the preceding verse might be completed,)-" Sir, all is well." STEEVENS. BAN. At your kind'st leifure. MACB. If you fshall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,3 3 If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,] Confent for will. So that the sense of the line is, If you shall go into my meafures when I have determined of them, or when the time comes that I want your affistance. WARBURTON. Macbeth expresses his thought with affected obscurity; he does not mention the royalty, though he apparently had it in his mind. If you shall cleave to my confent, 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. Such another expreffion occurs in Lord Surrey's tranflation of the second Book of Virgil's Æneid: "And if thy will fiick unto mine, I shall "In wedlocke fure knit, and make her his own." Confent has fometimes the power of the Latin concentus. Both the verb and substantive, decidedly bearing this fignification, occur in other plays of our author. Thus, in K. Henry VI. P. I. fc. i: " - scourge the bad revolting stars "That have confented to king Henry's death;-." i.e. acted in concert so as to occafion it. Again, in King Henry IV. P. II. Act V. fc. i: " -they (Juftice Shallow's fervants) flock together in confent, (i. e. in a party,) like fo many wild geefe." In both these instances the words are spelt erroneoufly, and should be written concent and concented. See Spenfer, &c. as quoted in a note on the passage already adduced from King Henry VI. The meaning of Macbeth is then as follows:-If you shall cleave to my confent-i. e. if you shall stick, or adhere, to my party-when'tis, i. e, at the time when such a party is formed, your conduct shall produce honour for you. 4 That confent means participation, may be proved from a pafsage in the 50th Pfalm. I cite the translation 1568: "When thou sawedst a thiefe, thou dydst confent unto hym, and hast been partaker with the adulterers." In both inftances the particeps criminis is spoken of. Again, in our author's As you like it, the usurping Duke fays, after the flight of Rofalind and Celiafome villains of my court "Are of confent and sufferance in this." |