Ser. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection Dun. 25 30 comforts well'd Johns. Discomfit well'd Warb. Discomfort wells Cap. 30. kerns] Han. kernes Ff. kermes Johns. 31. Norweyan] Norwaying H. Rowe. 32. furbish'd] furbusht Ff. Dismayed...Banquo?] Pope. Banquo] Banquoh F ̧F2. 25. 'gins] CAPELL (Notes, vol. ii, p. 3). This word is us'd for the purpose of insinuating that storms in their extreamest degree succeed often to a dawn of the fairest promise; for in that chiefly lyes the aptness of his similitude. 25. sun] SINGER (ed. 2). The allusion is to the storms that prevail in spring, at the vernal equinox-the equinoctial gales. The beginning of the reflection of the sun (Cf. So from that Spring) is the epoch of his passing from the severe to the mildest season, opening, however, with storms. 26. break] WALKER (Crit. iii). Perhaps burst would be better. (Or was the word threat?) 28. swells] ELWIN. The word storms in the preceding line suggests the idea of a spring that had brought only comfort, swelling into a destructive flood. CLARENDON. 'Swells' seems the best word, indicating that, instead of a fertilizing stream, a desolating flood had poured from the spring. 30. skipping] CLARENDON. An epithet appropriate enough to the rapid movements of the light-armed kerns. 33, 34. Dismay'd...Banquo] DOUCE (Illust. &c. i, 369). Sh. had, no doubt, written capitaynes, a common mode of spelling in his time. KNIGHT. This line is an Alexandrine—a verse constantly introduced by Sh. for the production of variety. ELWIN. The Alexandrine line is here introduced to suit the slackened delivery of dejection, in opposition to the more rapid exclamation of joyous admiration to which Ser. Yes; As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 34, 35. Yes...lion.] Pope. Two lines, ending eagles...lyon, Ff. 37. overcharged with] overcharg'd; with Theob. Han. charg'd with Seymour (reading As...they as one line). cracks;] cracks, FF. crackes F,F, 35 38. So they] Separate line, Steev. Mal. Rann. Var. Sing. i, Dyce, Cam. They so Ktly conj. So...foe] One line, Ff, Rowe, +, Cap. Knt, Coll. Hal. Huds. Sing. ii, White, Sta. Del. Doubly] om. Pope, +. upon] on FFF, Rowe, Cap. 39. reeking] recking FF. Duncan has just before given utterance, whilst it at the same time denotes (for to preserve the full music of the verse it must be spoken without stop) that the anxiety of the speaker forbids him to pause in his question. WALKER (Crit. iii, 171). Possibly 'Our captains twain,' &c. or we should end line 33 with ' 'captains.' Was captain ever pronounced as a trisyllable—capitain— in that age, except by such as, like Spenser, affected old forms? LETTSOM (Footnote to foregoing). It would seem so from the following: 'The king may do much, captain, believe it.'-B. and F. King and No King, IV, iii. 'Captain Puff, for my last husband's sake,' &c.-Play of Ram Alley, III, i. Hold, captain! What, do you cast your whelps ?'—Ib. [The following LETTSOM furnished to DYCE (ed. 2).] I sent for you, and, captain, draw near.'-B. and F. Faithful Friends, III, iii. 'I hear another tune, good captain.'-Fletcher's Island Princess, II, iii. Sirrah, how dare you name a captain ?—Shirley's Gamester, IV, i. 34, 35. Yes...lion] ELWIN. These lines are intended to signify, in their division in the Ff., the failing powers of the speaker, who lingers upon each idea, and pauses painfully in his speech, until he is newly aroused to greater vivacity by the warlike character of his own images, which infuse into him a momentary strength, in the exercise of which he faints. 37. overcharged] KEIGHTLEY. We might, but not so well perhaps, read ‘o'ercharg'd.' [Keightley prints so they' as the last syllables of a lost line. ED.] ABBOTT, 511. Probably we must scan 'As cànnons | o'ercharged | .' 37. cracks] JOHNSON. That a 'cannon is charged with thunder,' or 'with double thunders,' may be written, not only without nonsense, but with elegance, and nothing else is here meant by cracks, which in Sh.'s time was a word of such emphasis and dignity that in this play he terms the general dissolution of nature the crack of doom. MALONE. In the old play of King John, 1591, it is applied, as here, to ordnance: as harmless and without effect As is the echo of a cannon's crack.' 38. Doubly redoubled] STEEVENS. We have the phrase in Rich. II: I, ii, 80. From the irregularity of the metre I believe we should read (omitting So they) 'Doubly redoubling,' &c. WALKER. I suspect doubly is an interpolation. It reminds me of the wretched 40 Or memorize another Golgotha, I cannot tell But I am faint; my gashes cry for help. Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds; They smack of honour both.-Go get him surgeons. [Exit Sergeant, attended. The worthy thane of Ross. 45 old Hamlet of 1603: Shee as my childe obediently obey'd me.' For here the Satyricall Satyre writes,' &c. LETTSOM. Note the following similar examples, for which, I presume, we may thank compositors: Hen. V: IV, i, 236, ‘great greatness.' Dumb Knight, II, i, ‘our high height of bliss.' Shirley, Coronation, IV, i, 'great greatness' (here the metre demands the expulsion of great). Ezekiel, xx, 47, 'the flaming flame shall not be quenched;' Sept. οὐ σβεσθήσεται ἡ φλὸς ἡ ἐξαφθεισα. RITTER. Compare Much Ado, I, i, 16, better bettered expectation.' 38. So...foe] WHITE. The halting rhythm of the first part of this line, its two superfluous syllables, and the unmitigated triplication of double,' lead me to think that the greater part of a line has been lost, of which in 'so they' we have only the first two or last two syllables. 40. memorize] HEATH. That is, make another Golgotha, which should be celeirated and delivered down to posterity with as frequent mention as the first. HALLIWELL. 'Though Grecian seas or shores me captiv'd quel'd, And altar-decking gifts, I'd memorize.'—Virgil, translated by Vicars, 1632. 42. help.] COLERIDGE (p. 240). The style and rhythm of the captain's speeches should be illustrated by reference to the interlude in Hamlet, in which the epic is substituted for the tragic, in order to make the latter be felt as the real-life diction. 43. So] ABBOTT, 275. Bearing in mind that as is simply a contraction for 'all-so' ('alse,' 'als,' 'as'), we shall not be surprised at some interchanging of so and as. We still retain 'as...so,' but seldom use 'so...as,' preferring 'as...as,' except where so requires special emphasis. The Elizabethans frequently used so before as. CLARENDON. Compare Cym. I, iv, 3. 45. Enter Ross] STEEVENS. AS Ross alone is addressed, or is mentioned, in Len. What haste looks through his eyes! So should he look That seems to speak things strange. Ross. God save the king! From Fife, great king; 47 49. flout the] float i' the Becket. From...cold. two lines, the first ending banners (and reading Did flout) Ktly. this scene, and as Duncan expresses himself in the singular number, as in line 48, Angus may be considered as a superfluous character. Had his present appearance been designed, the king would naturally have taken some notice of him. MALONE. In Sc. iii. Angus says, 'We are sent.' ELWIN. That the whole attention of Duncan, Malcolm, and Lennox should remain so engrossed in Rosse, who first enters and first attracts it by his tale as tc make them unobservant of the presence of Angus, serves to show the intense interest which possesses them. 45. thane] CLARENDON. From the Anglo-Saxon 'þegen,' literally, a servant, and then, technically, the king's servant, defined to be an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, inferior in rank to an eorl and ealdorman' (Bosworth). Ultimately the rank of thegn became equivalent to that of eorl. 46. haste] Walker (Crit. i, 88). An instance where a is interpolated in F. DYCE. No doubt a is rightly omitted in F. See Jul. Cæs. I, iii, 42. 46. should] ABBOTT, & 323. Should, the past tense, not being so imperious as shall, the present, is still retained in the sense of ought, applying to all three persons. In the Elizabethan authors, however, it was more commonly thus used, often where we should use ought. See also I, iii, 45, and V, v, 31. 47. seems] JOHNSON. Sh. undoubtedly said 'teems,' i. e. like one big with something of importance. HEATH, p. 376. That appears to be upon the point of speaking things strange. COLLIER ('Notes,' &c.). If the objection to 'seems' be not hypercritical, it is entirely removed by the old annotator, who assures us that comes has been misprinted 'seems' (spelt seemes in the Folios). Ross certainly came to speak things strange,' and on his entrance looked, no doubt, as if he did. SINGER (Sh. Vind.' &c.). Seems may be received in its usual sense of appears. COLLIER (ed. 2). It is hardly intelligible unless we suppose it means seems to come. STAUNTON. Compare I, v, 27. KEIGHTLEY. Collier's (MS.) reads, I think, rightly. We can hardly take to speak' in the sense of about to speak.' BAILEY (ii, 21). Conf. parallel passage in I Hen. IV: III, ii, 162. CLARENDON. Whose appearance corresponds with the strangeness of his message. For the general sense compare Rich. II: III, ii, 194. 49. flout] MALONE. In King John V, i, 72: Mocking the air, with colours idly spread.' The meaning seems to be, not that the Norweyan banners proudly insulted And for our people of Norway himself, Assisted by that mort disloyal traitor, The thane of Davidon Began a dismal conflict; 50 terrible numbers,] numbers terrible, Pope, +, Cap. terrible numbers, there Ktly. 53. began] 'gan Pope, +, Steev. Var. Sing. Ktly. the sky, bur fa. Dhe standards being taken by Duncan's forces, and fixed in the ground, the soloen d'y formed about, serving only to cool the conquerors instead of being proterois tied by their former possessors. ANOX, Grey has tomowed t ́s thought, and even the expressions in the lines of bok pleys, Madbek and King John, in his Ode 'The Bard.' Ezwax. Posse, like the sergeant, describes the previous advantages of the rebels in the present tense. In order to set the royal victory in the strongest light of achieveThe Norweyen barners flout or insult the sky, whilst raised in the pride of expected y'ctory. It refers to the bold display of lawless ensigns in the face of heaven. And far,' &c. is metaphorically used for chill them with apprehension. KECHTLLY. Both sense and metre require 'Did flout,' &c. The battle was over and the enemy was defeated. CLARENDON, 'Eout the „ky' seems better suited to the banners of a triumphant or defant hot. 51. numbers) STAUNTON. Pope's transposition is prosodically an improvement. CLARENDON. It is impossible to reduce many lines of this scene to regularity without making unwarrantable changes. 32. Assisted CLAPENDON. Nothing is said by Holinshed of the thane of Cawdor's having assisted the Norwegian invaders. 53. Cawdor] See line 64. ED. 54. bridegroom] HENLEY. This passage may be added to the many others which show how little Sh. knew of ancient mythology. STEEVENS. He might have been misled by Holinshed, who, p. 567, speaking of Henry V, says: He declared that the goddesse of battell, called Bellona,' &c. &c. Sh., therefore, hastily concluded that the Goddess of War was wife to the God of it. HARRY ROWE. Suidas is not blamed for calling Aristotle Nature's Secretary.' DOUCE. Sh. has not called Macbeth, to whom he alludes, the God of war, and there seems to be no great impropriety in poetically supposing that a warlike hero might be newly married to the Goddess of War. KEMBLE. Sh. calls Macbeth himself Bellona's Bridegroom, as if he were, in fact, honoured with the union, of which Rosse, in his excessive admiration, paints him worthy. See BROWN (Autobiog. Poems, p. 130) to the same effect. ED. CLARENDON. The phrase was, perhaps, suggested to the writer by an imperfect recollection of Virgil's Æneid, iii, 319, Et Bellona manet te pronuba.' 54. proof] STEEVENS. That is, defended by armor of proof. |