Dun.. Where's the thane of Cawdor? We cours'd him at the heels, and had a purpose To be his purveyor: but he rides well; And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him To his home before us: Fair and noble hostess, We are your guest to-night. Lady M. Your servants ever Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, Still to return your own. Give me your hand: Dun. SCENE VII. The same. A Room in the Castle. [Exeunt. Hautboys and torches. Enter, and pass over the stage, a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service. Then enter MACBETH. Macb. If it were done,1 when 'tis done, then 'twere well I shall be still your beadsman." This phrase occurs frequently in The Paston Letters. Steevens. his great love, sharp as his spur,] So, in Twelfth Night, Act III, sc. iii: 7 66 my. desire, "More sharp than filed steel, did spur me forth." Steevens. Your servants ever &c.] The metaphor in this speech is taken from the Steward's compting-house or audit-room. In compt, means, subject to account. So, in Timon of Athens: "And have the dates in compt." The sense of the whole is:-We, and all who belong to us, look upon our lives and fortunes not as our own properties, but as things we have received merely for your use, and for which we must be accountable, whenever you please to call us to our audit; when, like faithful stewards, we shall be ready to answer your summons, by returning you what is your own. Steevens. 9 Enter a Sewer,] I have restored this stage-direction. from the old copy. It were done quickly: If the assassination2 A sewer was an officer so called from his placing the dishes upon the table. Asseour, French; from asseoir, to place. Thus, in Chapman's version of the 24th Iliad: 66 Automedon as fit "Was for the reverend sewer's place; and all the browne joints serv'd "On wicker vessell to the board." Barclay, Ecl. II, has the following remark on the conduct of these domestics: "Slowe be the sewers in serving in alway, "But swift be they after, taking the meate away." Another part of the sewer's office was, to bring water for the guests to wash their hands with. Thus Chapman, in his ver sion of the Odyssey: arm. and then the sewre "Pour'd water from a great and golden ewre." The sewer's chief mark of distinction was a towel round his So, in Ben Jonson's Silent Woman: " clap me a clean towel about you, like a sewer." Again: See, sir Amorous has his towel on already. [He enters like a sewer."] 66 It may be worth while to observe, for the sake of preserving an ancient word that the dishes served in by sewers were called sewes. So, in the old MS. romance of The Sowdon of Babyloyne, p. 66: "Lest that lurdeynes come sculkynge out, 66 1 If it were done, &c.] A sentiment parallel to this occurs in The Proceedings against Garnet in the Powder Plot. "It would have been commendable, when it had been done, though not before." Farmer. 2 If the assassination &c.] Of this soliloquy the meaning is not very clear: I have never found the readers of Shakspeare agreeing about it. I understand it thus: "If that which I am about to do, when it is once done and executed, were done and ended without any following effects, it would then be best to do it quickly: if the murder could terminate in itself, and restrain the regular course of consequences, if its success could secure its surcease, if, being once done successfully, without detection, it could fix a period to all venge ance and inquiry, so that this blow might be all that I have to do, and this anxiety all that I have to suffer; if this could be my condition, even here in this world, in this contracted period of temporal existence, on this narrow bank in the ocean of eternity, I would jump the life to come, I would venture upon the deed without care of any future state. But this is one of those cases Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, in which judgment is pronounced and vengeance inflicted upon us bere in our present life. We teach others to do as we have done, and are punished by our own example. Johnson. We are told by Dryden, that "Ben Jonson, in reading some bombast speeches in Macbeth, which are not to be understood, used to say that it was borrour."-Perhaps the present passage was one of those thus depreciated Any person but this envious detractor would have dwelt with pleasure on the transcendant beauties of this sublime tragedy, which, after Othello, is perhaps our author's greatest work; and would have been more apt to have been thrown into "strong shudders" and blood-freezing agues," by its interesting and high-wrought scenes, than to have been offended by any imaginary hardness of its language; for such, it appears from the context, is what he meant by borrour. That there are difficult passages in this tragedy, cannot be denied; but that there are "some bombast speeches in it, which are not to be understood," as Dryden asserts, will not very readily be granted to him. From this assertion, however, and the verbal alterations made by him and Sir W. D'Avenant, in some of our author's plays, I think it clearly appears that Dryden and the other poets of the time of Charles II, were not very deeply skilled in the language of their predecessors, and that Shakspeare was not so well understood fifty years after his death, as he is at this day. Malone. 3 Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, With his surcease, success;] I think the reasoning requires that we should read: With its success surcease. Johnson. A trammel is a net in which either birds or fishes are caught. So, in The Isle of Gulls, 1633: "Each tree and shrub wears trammels of thy hair." Surcease is cessation, stop. So, in The Valiant Welchman, 1615: "Surcease brave brother. Fortune hath crown'd our brows." His is used instead of its, in many places. Steevens. The personal pronouns are so frequently used by Shakspeare, instead of the impersonal, that no amendment would be necessary in this passage, even if it were certain that the pronoun bis refers to assassination, which seems to be the opinion of Johnson and Steevens; but I think it more probable that it refers to Duncan; and that by his surcease Macbeth means Duncan's death, which was the object of his contemplation M. Mason. His certainly may refer to assassination, (as Dr. Johnson, by his proposed alteration, seems to have thought it did) for Shakspeare very frequently uses bis for its. But in this place perhaps his refers to Duncan; and the meaning may be, If the Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,4- assassination, at the same time that it puts an end to the life of Duncan, could procure me unalloyed happiness, promotion to the crown unmolested by the compunctious visitings of conscience, &c. To cease often signifies in these plays, to die. So, in All's Well that Ends Well: "Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cease." I think, however, it is more probable that bis is used for its, and that it relates to assassination. Malone. 4 shoal of time,] This is Theobald's emendation, undoubtedly right. The old edition has school, and Dr. Warburton shelve. Johnson. By the shoal of time, our author means the shallow ford of life, between us and the abyss of eternity. Steevens. 5 We'd jump the life to come.] So, in Cymbeline, Act V, sc. iv: 66 - or jump the after-inquiry on your own peril. Steevens. "We 'd jump the life to come," certainly means, We 'd bazard or run the risk of what might happen in a future state of being. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 66 Our fortune lies Upon this jump.” Again, in Coriolanus: "To jump a body with a dangerous physic, See note on this passage, Act III, sc. i. Malone. Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor:] So, in Bellenden's translation of Hector Boethius: "He [Macbeth] was led be wod furyis, as ye nature of all tyrannis is, quhilks conquessis landis or kingdomes be wrangus titil, ay full of hevy thocht and dredour, and traisting ilk man to do siclik crueltes to bym, as he did afore to othir." Malone. 7 This even-banded justice —] Mr. M. Mason observes, that we might more advantageously read— Thus even-handed justice, &c. Steevens. The old reading I believe to be the true one, because Shakspeare has very frequently used this mode of expression. So, a little lower: "Besides, this Duncan," &c. Again, in King Henry IV, P. I: Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice "That this same child of honour and renown, Malone. • Commends the ingredients -] Thus, in a subsequent scene of this play: "I wish your horses swift, and sure of foot, "And so I do commend you to their backs." This verb has many shades of meaning. It seems here to signify-offers, or recommends. Steevens. 9 our poison'd chalice To our own lips.] Our poet, apis Matine more modoque, would stoop to borrow a sweet from any flower, however humble in its situation. "The pricke of conscience (says Holinshed) caused him ever to feare, lest he should be served of the same cup as he had ministered to his predecessor." Steevens. 1 Hath borne his faculties so meek,] Faculties, for office, exercise of power, &c Warburton. "Duncan (says Holinshed) was soft and gentle of nature." And again: “Macbeth spoke much against the king's softness, and overmuch slackness in punishing offenders." Steevens 2 The deep damnation —] So, in A dolfull Discourse of a Lord and a Ludie, by Churchyard, 1593: "Of deepe damnation stood." I should not have thought this little coincidence worth noting, had I not found it in a poem which it should seem, from other passages, that Shakspeare had read and remembered. Steevens. 3 — or beaven's cherubin, hors'd Upon the sightless couriers of the air,] Couriers of air are winds, air in motion. Courier is only runner. |