To pray for this good man, and for his issue,*
Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave,
And beggar'd yours for ever?

1 Mur. We are men, my liege.

Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ;

As hounds, and grey-hounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, 2 water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped
All by the name of dogs: the valued file3
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,
The house-keeper, the hunter, every one
According to the gift which bounteous nature
Hath in him clos'd; whereby he does receive
Particular addition, from the bill

That writes them all alike and so of men.
Now, if you have a station in the file,

And not in the worst rank of manhood, say it;
And I will put that business in your bosoms,
Whose execution takes your enemy off;
Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
Which in his death were perfect.

2 Mur. I am one, my liege,

Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
Have so incens'd, that I am reckless what

I do, to spite the world.

1 Mur. And I another,

So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,
That I would set my life on any chance,

To mend it, or be rid on't.

Macb. Both of you

Know, Banquo was your enemy.

Mur. True, my lord.

Macb. So is he mine: and in such bloody distance,

(1) Are you of that degree of precise virtue? Gospeller was a name of contempt given by the Papists to the Lollards, the puritans of early times, and the precursors of protestantism. JOHNS.

(2) Shoughs are probably what we now call shocks, demi-wolves, lyciscæ; dogs bred between wolves and dogs. JOHNS.

(3) In this speech the word file occurs twice, and seems in both places to have a meaning different from its present use. The expression, valued file, evidently means a list or catalogue of value. A station in the file, and not in the worst rank, may mean, a place in the list of manhood, and not in the lowest place. But file seems rather to mean, in this place, a post of honour the first rank, in opposition to the last; a meaning which I have not observed in any other place. JOHNS.

;

(4) By bloody distance is here meant, such a distance as mortal enemies would stand at from each other when their quarrel must be determined by

That every minute of his being thrusts

Against my near'st of life: And though I could
With bare-fac'd power sweep him from my sight,
And bid my will avouch it; yet I must not,
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
Whom I myself struck down: and thence it is,
That I to your assistance do make love ;
Masking the business from the common eye,
For sundry weighty reasons.

2 Mur. We shall, my lord, Perform what you command us. 1 Mur. Though our lives

Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour, at most,

I will advise you where to plant yourselves.
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,
The moment on't; for't must be done to-night,
And something from the palace; always thought,
That I require a clearness : And with him,
(To leave no rubs, nor botches, in the work,)
Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
Whose absence is no less material to me
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;
I'll come to you anon.

Mur. We are resolv'd, my lord.

Macb. I'll call upon you straight; abide within.
It is concluded :-Banquo, thy soul's flight,
If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

The same. Another Room. Enter Lady MACBETH and a Servant.

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court?

Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.

Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure

For a few words.

Serv. Madam, I will.

Lady M. Nought's had, all's spent,

Where our desire is got without content:

[Exit.

the sword. This sense seems evident from the continuation of the metaphor, where every minute of his being is represented as thrusting at the near'st part where life resides. STEEVENS.

[5] i. e. You must manage matters so, that throughout the whole transac fion I may stand clear of suspicion. STEEV.

'Tis safer to be that which we destroy, Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy. Enter MACBETH.

-How now, my lord? why do you keep alone? Of sorriest fancies" your companions making? Using those thoughts, which should indeed have died With them they think on? Things without remedy Should be without regard: what's done, is done.)

Macb. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it; She'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth.

But let

The frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams,
That shake us nightly: Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecstacy.7 Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,

Can touch him further!

Lady M. Come on ;

Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night.
Macb. So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you :
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;

Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue :
Unsafe the while, that we

Must lave our honours in these flattering streams;
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.

Lady M. You must leave this.

Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know'st, that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. Lady M. But in them nature's copy's not eterne."

[6] i.e. worthless, ignoble, vile.

STEEV.

[7] Ecstacy, in its general sense, signifies any violent emotion of the mind. Here it means the emotion of pain, agony. STEEV.

[8] i. e. do him the highest honours. WARB.

[9] The copy, the lease, by which they hold their lives from nature, has its time of termination limited. JOHNSON.

The allusion is to an estate for lives held by copy of court-roll. It is clear. from numberless allusions of the same kind, that Shakspeare had been an attorney's clerk.

35

RITSON.

VOL. III.

Macb. There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund: Ere the bat hath flown

His cloister'd flight; ere, to black Hecate's summons,
The shard-borne beetle,2 with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

Lady M. What's to be done?

3

Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, 3 Skarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;

And, with thy bloody and invisible hand,

Cancel, and tear to pieces, that great bond

Which keeps me pale !-Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood : 4

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
Whiles night's black agents to their prey do rouse.
Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;
Things, bad begun, make strong themselves by ill :
So, pr'ythee, go with me.
[Exeunt.

The same.

SCENE III.

A Park or Lawn, with a Gate leading to the Palace.
Enter three Murderers.

1 Mur. But who did bid thee join with us?

3 Mur. Macbeth.

2 Mur. He needs not our mistrust; since he delivers Our offices, and what we have to do,

To the direction just.

1 Mur. Then stand with us.

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day :
Now spurs the lated traveller apace,

To gain the timely inn; and near approaches
The subject of our watch.

3 Mur. Hark! I hear horses.

Banquo. [within.] Give us a light there, ho!

[1] The bats wheeling round the dim cloisters of Queen's College, Cambridge, have frequently impressed on me the singular propriety of this orig. inal epithet. STEEV.

[2] The shard-borne beetle is the beetle borne along the air by its shards or scaly wings. To have an outward pair of wings of a scaly hardness, serving as integuments to a filmy pair beneath them, is the characteristic of the beetle kind. WARB.

[3] Seeling, i. e. blinding. It is a term in falconry.

WARB.

[4] Rooky may mean damp, misty, steaming with exhalations. It is only a North country variation of dialect from reeky. Rooky wood, indeed, may signify a rookery, the wood that abounds with rooks. STEEV.

2 Mur. Then it is he; the rest That are within the note of expectation,5 Already are i'the court.

1 Mur. His horses go about.

3 Mur. Almost a mile: but he does usually, So all men do, from hence to the palace gate Make it their walk.

Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, a Servant with a torch preceding them.

2 Mur. A light, a light!

3 Mur. 'Tis he.

1 Mur. Stand to't.

Ban. It will be rain to-night.

1 Mur. Let it come down.

[Assaults BANQUO.

Ban. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly;

Thou may'st revenge.- -O slave !

[Dies. FLEANCE and Servant escape.

3 Mur. Who did strike out the light?

1 Mur. Was't not the way ?7

3 Mur. There's but one down; the son is fled.

2 Mur. We have lost best half of our affair.

1 Mur. Well, let's away, and say how much is done.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

Room of State in the Palace. A Banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH, Lady MACBETH, ROSSE, LENOX, Lords, and Attendants.

8

Macb. You know your own degrees, sit down : at first And last, the hearty welcome.

Lords. Thanks to your majesty.

Macb. Ourself will mingle with society,

[5] i.e. they who are set down in the list of guests, and expected to supper. STEEV.

[6] Fleance, after the assassination of his father, fled into Wales, where by the daughter of the Prince of that country, he had a son named Walter, who afterwards became Lord High Steward of Scotland, and from thence assumed the name of Walter Steward. From him, in a direct line, King James I. was descended; in compliment to whom our author has chosen to describe Banquo, who was equally concerned with Macbeth in the murder of Duncan, as innocent of that crime. MAL.

[7] i. e. the best means to effect our purpose.

[8] I believe the true meaning of this passage is,

RITSON,

You know your own degree, sit down.-To first

And last the hearty welcome.

All of whatever degree, from the highest to the lowest, may be asssured that their visit is well received, JOHNS.