SCENE VII. Macbeth's Temper.

Yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o'th'milk of human kindness,

To catch the nearest way.
Art not without ambition;
The illness should attend it.

Thou wouldst be great;
but without

What thou wouldst highly,

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win.

Lady Macbeth, on the News of Duncan's Approach. (2) The raven himself is hoarfe,

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements. Come, all you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unfex me here,
And fill me, from the crown to th❜toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up th' accefs and paffage to remorfe:
That no compunctious vifitings of nature

Shake

it was not only unpolite but criminal, to doubt it, and as hath been remarked, "" upon this general infatuation, Shakespear might be easily allowed to found a play, especially fince he hath followed with great exactness fuch hiftories as were then thought true: nor can it be doubted, that the fcenes of enchantment, however they may now be ridiculed, were both by himself and his audience thought awful and affecting." See Mifcellaneous Obfervations on Macbeth, by Mr. S. Johafon, (note the firit) printed for Ed. Cave, 1745. Orway's celebrated defcription of the witch in his Orphan is fo universally known, I omit quoting it here.

(2) The Raven, &c.] It is faid in the speech which precedes this, that the meffenger, who brought the news,

-Almoft dead for breath had scarcely more,
Than would make up his message.

Him the queen moft beautifully calls the Raven. With this clue the Reader will easily enter into the sense of the paffage and fee the abfurdity of any alteration.-By mortal thoughts is meant deftructive, deadly, &e.In which fenfe mortal is frequently ufed.

Shake my fell purpose, (3) nor keep peace between
Th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breafts,
And take my milk for gaul, you murth'ring minifters!
Wherever in your fightless fubftances

You wait on nature's mifchief-Come, thick night!
And pall thee in the dunnest smoak of hell,
That my keen knife fee not the wound it makes;
Nor heav'n peep thro' the blanket of the dark,
To cry, hold, hold!.

SCENE IX. Macbeth's Irrefolution.

If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly: if th' affaffination
Could trammel up the confequence, and catch
With its furceafe fuccefs: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all- -Here,
But here upon this bank and (4) fhoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come-But, in these cafes,
We still have judgment here, that we but teach
Bloody inftructions; which, being taught, return
To plague th' inventor. Even-handed justice
Returns the ingredients of our poifon'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinfman, and his subject,
Strong both against the deed: (5) then as his hoft,

Who

(3) Nor keep, &c.] Mr. Johnfon is of opinion, that no fenfe at all is expreft by the prefent reading, and therefore he propoles keep pace between: the paffage feems clear to me, and the fenfe as follows: "grant that no womanish tenderness, no compunctious vifitings of nature, no ftings of confcience, may hake my fell purpose, may defeat my defign, and keep peace between it and the effect, that is keep my purpose from being executed," which is moft aptly expreft by a peace between them, which the remorfe of her mind and the ftings of her confcience were to be the occafion of her keeping.

(4) Shoal.] Others read shelve.

(5) Then as, &c.] This is quite claffical: hofpitality was held fo facred among the ancients, that the chief of their gods was dignified with the title of hofpitable. Zeus Zevios, Jupiter

Hofpitalis.

Who should against his murd'rer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties fo meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead, like angels, trumpet-tongu'd against
The deep damnation of his taking off:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blaft, or heav'n's cherubin hors'd
Upon the fightless courfers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in ev'ry eye;
That tears fhall drown the wind-Ï have no spur
To prick the fides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on th' other.

SCENE X. True Fortitude.

(6) I dare do all that may become a man, Who dares do more, is none.

ACT II. SCENE II.

The murdering Scene. Macbeth alone.

Is this a dagger which I fee before me,

The handle tow'rd my hand? come let me clutch thee,
I have thee not, and yet I fee thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vifion, fenfible

Το

Hofpitalis. The writings of the ancients abound with this noble principle, and hospitality is mentioned with honour in them all : this amongst a thousand other proofs, thews Shakespear to have been no stranger to the works of antiquity.

(6) I dare, &c.] The whole prefent fcene well deferves a place here, however I fhall only beg to refer the Reader to it. The arguments," fays Johnson, "by which Lady Macbeth perfuades her husband to commit the murder, afford a proof of Shakespear's knowledge of human nature. She urges the ex

cellence

To feeling as to fight or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a falfe creation
Proceeding from the heat-oppreffed brain ?
I fee thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw

Thou marshall'it me the way that I was going?
And fuch an inftrument I was to use.

Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other fenfes,
Or elfe worth all the reft-I fee thee ftill;

And on thy blade and dudgeon, (7) gouts of blood,
Which was not fo before. There's no fuch thing-
It is the bloody bufinefs which informs

Thus to mine eyes-(8) Now o'er one half the world
Nature feems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd fleep; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,
(Alarum'd by his centinel, the wolf,

Whofe howl's his watch) thus with his ftealthy pace,
With

cellence and dignity of courage, a glitt'ring idea, which has dazzled mankind from age to age, and animated fometimes the houfe-breaker, and fometimes the conqueror; but this fophifm Macbeth has forever destroyed, by diftinguishing true from false fortitude, in a line and a half, of which it may almost be said, that they ought to bestow immortality on the author, though his other productions had been loft." &c.) See his fixteenth note.

(7), Gouts, i. e. drops.

(8) Now o'er, &c. That is, over our hemisphere all action and motion feem to have ceased. This image, which is, perhaps, the moft ftriking that poetry can produce, has been adopted by Dryden in his Conqueft of Mexico.

All things are hufh'd as nature's felf lay dead,
The mountains feem to nod their drowsy head:
The little birds in dreams their fongs repeat,

And fleeping flow'rs beneath the night-dews fweat:
Ev'n luft and envy sleep!

Thefe lines, though fo well known, I have transcribed, that the contrast between them and this paffage of Shakespear, may be more accurately obferved:-Night is defcribed by two great

poets,

(9) With Tarquin's ravishing ftrides, tow'rds his defign Moves like a ghost.(10) Thou found and firm-fet

earth,

Hear

poets, but one defcribes a night of quiet, the other of perturbation. In the night of Dryden, all the difturbers of the world are laid afleep in that of Shakespear, nothing but forcery, luft, and murder is awake. He that reads Dryden finds himself lull'd with ferenity, and difpos'd to folitude and contemplation: he that perufes Shakespear, looks round alarmed, and ftarts to find himself alone. "One is the night of a lover, the other that of a murderer. JOHNSON.

(9) With, &c.] The reading in the old books is,

With Tarquin's ravishing fides towards, &c.

Which Mr. Pope alter'd to that in the text. Mr. Johnson is for reading,

With Tarquin ravishing, flides tow'rd, &c.

Because a ravishing stride is an action of violence, impetuofity, and tumult; and because the progreffion of ghofts is fo different from firides, that it has been in all ages represented to be as Mikon expreffes it,

Smooth Sliding without step.

It seems to me, the poet only speaks of the filence, and fecrecy wherewith the ghofts were fuppofed to move; and, as when people walk with a ftealthy pace, or as it is called on tip-toc, they generally take long ftrides, not ftepping frequently, I fhould judge ftrides to be the proper reading; befide, I think the two verbs coming in that manner together not entirely elegant; fides towards his defign, and moves like a ghost, seem too near a tautology. I am the more explicit in this paffage, as any remark of fo ingenious a perfon deferves all attention. We may obferve, Shakespear, in his poem of Tarquin and Lucrece, fays of Tarquin entering the lady's chamber,

Into the chamber wickedly he falks.

(10) Thou, &c.] "Hear not, O, earth, my fteps, left thy very ftones fhould prate, fhould tell of where I am, and what I am about to perpetrate, and by their prating, or making a noife, take away that filence, the prefent horror, from the time, which

fo