Enter Lady Macbeth.

How now! what news?

Lady M. He has almost supp'd: why have you left

the chamber?

Macb. Hath he ask'd for me?

Lady M.

Know you not he has? 30 Macb. We will proceed no further in this business: He hath honor'd me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon.

Lady M.

Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept

since?

And wakes it now, to look so green and pale

At what it did so freely?
Such I account thy love.

From this time

Art thou afeard

To be the same in thine own act and valor 40
As thou art in desire? Would'st thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'
Like the poor cat i' the adage?

have followed him. Side may have been meant by the Poet, but it was not said. And the sense feels better without it, as this shows the speaker to be in such an eagerly-expectant state of mind as to break off the instant he has a prospect of any news.-It hath been ingeniously proposed to change itself into its sell, an old word for saddle. But no change is necessary, the using of self for aim or purpose being quite lawful and idiomatic; as we often say, such a one overshot himself, that is, overshot his mark, his aim.-H. N. H. 45. "Like the poor cat i̇ the adage”; “The cat would eat fyshe, and would not wet her feete,” Heywood's Proverbs; the low Latin form of the same proverb is:

"Catus amat pisces, sed non vult tingere plantas.”—I. G.

Macb.

Prithee, peace:

What beast was 't then

I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.

Lady M.

49

That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you
durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fit-

ness now

Does unmake you. I have given suck, and

know

How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless
gums,

And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as

47. “do more”; Rowe's emendation of Ff., “no more.”—I. G. 50. "to be"; by being.-C. H. H.

54-59. "I have given," etc.; it is said that Mrs. Siddons, in her personation of Lady Macbeth, used to utter the horrible words of this speech in a scream, as though she were almost frightened out of her wits by the audacity of her own tongue. And we can easily conceive how a spasmodic action of fear might lend her the appearance of superhuman or inhuman boldness. At all events, it should be observed that Lady Macbeth's energy and intensity of purpose overbears the feelings of the woman, and that some of her words are spoken more as suiting the former, than as springing from the latter. And her convulsive struggle of feeling against that overbearing violence of purpose might well be expressed by a scream.-H. N. H. 59. "We fail!"; three modes of pointing have been pitched upon

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep—
Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him-his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail so convince,
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbec only: when in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon 70
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?

Macb.

Bring forth men-children only; For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be received, When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy

two

Of his own chamber, and used their very dag

gers,

That they have done 't?

Lady M.

Who dares receive it other,

As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar
Upon his death?

here by different critics, namely, (!) (?) (.). Here, again, we have recourse to Mrs. Siddons, who, it is said, tried "three different intonations in giving the words We fail. At first, a quick contemptuous interrogation, We fail? Afterwards, with a note of admiration, We fail! and an accent of indignant astonishment, laying the principal emphasis on the word we. Lastly, she fixed on the simple period, modulating her voice to a deep, low, resolute tone, which settled the issue at once; as though she had said, 'If we fail, why, then we fail, and all is over.' This is consistent with the dark fatalism of the character, and the sense of the following lines; and the effect was sublime."-H. N. H.

Macb.

I am settled, and bend up

80

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth

know.

[Exeunt.

ACT SECOND

SCENE I

Inverness. Court of Macbeth's castle.

Enter Banquo, and Fleance bearing a torch before him.

Ban. How goes the night, boy?

Fle. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. Ban. And she goes down at twelve.

Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose!

5. "that"; some other part of his accoutrement, probably the shield or targe. "On the stage the action would explain, and all Shakespeare's plays were written for the stage" (Chambers).-C. H. H. 7-9. "Merciful powers repose!"; it is apparent from what Banquo says afterwards, that he had been solicited in a dream to attempt something in consequence of the prophecy of the witches, that his waking senses were shocked at; and Shakespeare has here most exquisitely 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.-H. N. H.