See, and then speak yourselves.—Awake! awake!— Enter Lady MACBETH. Lady M. What's the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley Macd. [Bell rings. O, gentle lady! Tis not for you to hear what I can speak : Enter BANQUO. Would murder as it fell.-O Banquo! Banquo! Lady M. What! in our house? Ban. Woe, alas! Too cruel, anywhere. Dear Duff, I pr'ythee, contradict thyself, And say, it is not so. Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX'. Mach. Had I but died an hour before this chance, Ring the bell.] Malone and Steevens omitted these words, on the ground that they were a stage-direction; whereas they are a repetition of Macduff's order to 66 ring the alarum bell," and they are moreover necessary to complete the line. Lady Macbeth's speech begins, it is true, with an imperfect hemistich, but such has been the case in many previous instances. If "Ring the bell" had been a stage-direction, it would hardly have been followed by "Bell rings," as it stands in all the old copies. 7 Re-enter Macbeth and Lenox.] The folio, 1623, adds "and Rosse to this I had liv'd a blessed time, for from this instant All is but toys: renown and grace, is dead; Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN. Don. What is amiss? Macb. You are, and do not know't: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood O! by whom? Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't. Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood; So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found Upon their pillows: they star'd, and were distracted. No man's life was to be trusted with them. Macb. O! yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them. Macd. Wherefore did you so? Mach. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man: The expedition of my violent love Out-ran the pauser reason.-Here lay Duncan, stage-direction; but Rosse has not been on the stage in this act, and he is employed in the next scene. We have, therefore, had no difficulty in correcting an error, which runs through the old copies. Lady M. Help me hence, ho! Macd. Look to the lady. Mal. Why do we hold our tongues, That most may claim this argument for ours? Don. What should be spoken Here, where our fate, hid in an auger-hole, May rush, and seize us? Let's away: our tears Are not yet brew'd. Mal. Nor our strong sorrow Upon the foot of motion. Ban. Look to the lady.— [Lady MACBETH is carried out. And when we have our naked frailties hid, And question this most bloody piece of work, Of treasonous malice. Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them : To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy. I'll to England. Don. To Ireland, I: our separated fortune Shall keep us both the safer; where we are, Mal. This murderous shaft that's shot Against the undivulg'd PRETENCE I fight] "Pretence" is intention, design, a sense in which the word is often used by Shakespeare. So in the next scene, Rosse asks, "What good could they pretend?" Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Without the Castle. Enter ROSSE and an Old Man. Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well; Within the volume of which time I have seen Hours dreadful, and things strange, but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. Rosse. Ah! good father, Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Old M. A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd. Rosse. And Duncan's horses (a thing most strange and certain), Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, 9 the TRAVAILING lamp.] The words travel and travail (observes the Rev. Mr. Barry) have now different meanings, though formerly synonymous. Travelling, the ordinary reading, gives a puerile idea; whereas the poet, by "travailing," seems to have reference to the struggle between the sun and night, which induces Rosse to ask, "Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame," &c. Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Make war with mankind. Old M. "Tis said, they ate each other. Rosse. They did so; to th' amazement of mine eyes, That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Macduff.— Enter MACDUFF. How goes the world, sir, now? Macd. Why, see you not? Rosse. Is't known, who did this more than bloody Malcolm, and Donalbain, the king's two sons, Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them Rosse. 'Gainst nature still: Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up1 Thine own life's means!-Then, 'tis most like, Macd. He is already nam'd, and gone to Scone To be invested. Rosse. Where is Duncan's body? Macd. Carried to Colme-kill; The sacred store-house of his predecessors, And guardian of their bones. Rosse. Will you to Scone? Well, I will thither. Macd. No, cousin; I'll to Fife. Rosse. Macd. Well, may you see things well done there :— adieu 1 that will RAVIN UP] We have had "ravin down" used precisely in the same manner in "Measure for Measure," Vol. ii. p. 15, "Like rats that racin down their proper bane. |