O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'ff, that Banquo and his Fleance lives.
Lady. But in them, nature's copy's not eternal.
Mach. There's comfort yet, they are affailable;
Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown
His cloyfter'd flight, ere to black Hecate's fummons
The (15) fhard-born beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

Lady. What's to be done?

Mach. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, 'Till thou applaud the deed: come, (16) feeling night, Skarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,

And with thy bloody and invifible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond,
Which keeps me pale; light thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to th' rooky wood:

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
Whiles night's black agents to their prey do roufe.

SCENE V. Scene changes to a Room of State. Banquet prepared. Macbeth, Lady, Roffe, Lenox. Lords and Attendants.

Lady. My royal lord,

You do not give the cheer; the feast is fold,
That is not often vouched, while 'tis making,
'Tis given with welcome. To feed, were best at home;
From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;
Meeting were bare without it.

[The ghoft of Banquo rifes, and fits in Macbeth's place. Mach. Sweet remembrancer!

Now

(15) Shard-born,] i. e. fays Warburton, the Beetle hatch'd in clefts of wood. Upton proposes fearn-born, i. e. the beetle born from dung. See remarks on three plays of Ben Jonson, p. 109.

(16) Saling, i. e. blinding, a term in falconry.

Now good digeftion wait an appetite,
And health on both!

Len. May't please your highness fit.

Mach. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, Were the grac'd perfon of our Banquo prefent,(Whom may I rather challenge for unkindness, Than pity for mifchance!)

Roffe. His abfence, Sir,

Lays blame upon his promife. Please't your highness
To grace us with your royal company?
Mach. The table's full!

[Starting.

Len. Here's a place referv'd, Sir.
Mach. Where?

Len. Here, my good lord,
What is't that moves your highness?
Macb. Which of you have done this?
Lords. What, my good lord?

Macb. Thou can'st not say, I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.

Roffe. Gentlemen, rife; his highness is not well. Lady. Sit, worthy friends, my lord is often thus, And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep feat, The fit is momentary on a thought He will again be well. If much you note him, You fhall offend him, and extend his paffion : Feed, and regard him not.-Are you a man?

[To Macb. afide.

Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that Which might appal the devil.

Lady. O proper stuff!

This is the very painting of your fear;
This is the air-drawn dagger, which you faid,
Led you to Duncan. Oh, thefe flaws and starts
(17) Impoftors to true fear, would well become

[afide.

A wo

(17) Impostors, &c.] Mr. Johnson says of this paffage, that "as farts can neither with propriety nor fenfe be called Impoftures to true fear, fomething elfe was undoubtedly intended by the author, who perhaps wrote

-Thefe

A woman's story at a winter's fire,
Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itfelf!
Why do you make fuch faces? when all's done,
You look but on a stool.

Mach. Pr'ythee, fee there! Behold! look! lo! how fay you?

[Pointing to the ghoft. Why, what care I! if thou canst nod, fpeak too.➖➖➖➖ If charnel houfes and our graves must fend Thofe, that we bury, back: our monuments Shall be the maws of kites.

[The ghoft vanishes. Lady. What? quite unman'd in folly? Mach. If I ftand here, I faw him.Lady. Fie, for shame!

Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now i'th'olden time, Ere human ftatute purg'd the gen❜ral weal; Ay, and fince too, murthers have been perform'd Too terrible for th'ear: the times have been,

Lady. My worthy lord,

Your noble friends do lack you.

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rife again
With twenty mortal murthers on their crowns,
And push us from our tools: this is more strange
Than fuch a murther is.

Macb. I do forget.

Do not mufe at me my moft worthy friends,
I have a strange infirmity which is nothing.

To

-Thefe flaws and ftarts
Impoftures tun to fia', lic.

Thefe fymptoms of terror and amazement might better be-come "impoftures true only to fear, might become a coward at the recital of fuch falfhoods as no man could credit, whofe underftanding was not weak ned by his terrors; tales told by a woman over a fire on the authority of her gran iam.”—-—- -Mr. Warburton explains the pailage thus, "Thete flaws and ftarts, as they are indications of your needleis fears, are the imitators or impoftors only of thofe which arife from a fear wellgrounded."

To thofe that know me. Come, love and health to all!
Then I'll fir down: give me fome wine, fill full-
I drink to th'general joy of the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we mifs;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirit,
And all to all.

Lords. Our duties and the pledge.

[The ghost rifes again. Macb. Avaunt, and quit my fight! Let the earth hide thee!

Thy bones are marrowlefs, thy blood is cold;
Thou haft no fpeculation in thofe eyes,
Which thou doft glare with.

Lady. Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of cuftom; 'tis no other;
Only it fpoils the pleasure of the time.
Macb. What man dare, I dare:
pproach thou like the rugged Ruffian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros or Hyrcanian tiger,
Take any fhape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: or, be alive again,
And dare me to the defert with thy fword?
If trembling I inhibit, then proteft me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal inockery, hence! Why, fo,being gone,
[The ghost vanifees.

I am a man again: pray you fit ftill.

Lady. You have displac'd the mirth, meeting

With most admir'd diforder.

Macb. (18) Can fuch things be,
And overcome us like a fummer's cloud,

[The lords rife broke the good

Without

(18) Can, &c.] Mr. Wa burton's alteration of this paffage is very wonderful; nothing can be plainer than the meaning of it; "Can fuch things be, can fuch dreadful fights as this of the ghost come over us, overcaft us like a dreadful black fummer cloud, without our fhewing any amazement, without be ing at all moved at it."

Without our special wonder? You make me strange
Ev'n to the difpofition that (19) I owe,
When now I think, you can behold fuch fights,
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
When mine is blanch'd with fear.

Roffe. What fights, my lord?

Lady. I pray you, fpeak not; he grows worfe and worfe;

Question enrages him; at once, good-night. the order of your going,

Stand not upon
But go at once.

Len. Good-night, and better health,
Attend his majefty!

Lady. Good-night, to all.

[Exeunt lords. Mach. It will have blood, (they fay) blood will have blood:

Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;
Augurs, that understood (20) relations, have
By magpies and by choughs, and rooks, brought forth
The fecret'ft man of blood.

ACT IV. SCENE II.

Witches, their power.

I conjure you, by that which you profefs,
(Howe'er you come to know it) answer me.
Though you untie the winds, and let them fight
Against the churches; though the yefty waves

Con

(19) That I owe. ve.] Mr. John on here would read know: "Though I had before feen many inftances of your courage, yet it now appears in a degree altogether new: So that my long acquaintance with your difpofition, does not hinder me from that aftonishment which novelty produces."

(20) Relations. By the word relation, is understood the connection of effects with caufes; to underftand relations as an augur, is to know how thofe things relate to each other, which have no vifible combination or dependence. JOHNSON.