P. 538.-344.-437.

Macb. The expedition of my violent love

Out-ran the pauser reason. Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;

And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature,
For ruin's wasteful entrance.

I am afraid the opinion delivered in Warburton's note, and in the latter part of that of Dr. Johnson, is a refinement of their own. I fear Shakspeare has here no claim to the praise of judgment. I do not think the idea started by these annotators ever entered his mind.

P. 539.-345.-438.

there, the murderers,

Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd with gore.

I think Mr. Steevens is right.

Ban.

P. 542.-347.-441.

Fears and scruples shake us :

In the great hand of God I stand; and, thence,
Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight

Of treasonous malice.

I think Steevens is right.

Mal.

P. 543.-348.-442.

This murderous shaft that's shot,

Hath not yet lighted; and our safest way
Is, to avoid the aim.

Steevens's explanation is right.

P.-352.-448.

Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir,

And I'll request your presence.

There is no need of the change proposed by Mr. Malone. This is a very common mode of speech.

Ban.

P. 547.-353.-448.

Let your highness

Command upon me; to the which, my duties

Are with a most indissoluble tie

For ever knit.

I incline to the reading of the modern editors.

P.-352.-449.

Macb. Ride you this afternoon?

Ban.
Ay, my good lord.
Macb. We should have else desir'd your good advice
(Which still hath been both grave and prosperous,)
In this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow.

Mr. Malone's emendation is certainly wrong. Shakspeare would not have written we'll take't to-morrow; he did not mean we'll take your advice to-morrow, but, we'll take to-morrow for our purpose, that of holding the council. I find (in the edition of 1793,) that Mr. Steevens is of the same opinion.

Macb.

P. 549.-355.-452.

There is none, but he,

Whose being I do fear: and, under him,
My genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said,
Mark Antony's was by Cæsar.

I think the words are genuine; but there is a pretty obvious reason why Mr. Malone has suppress'd Dr. Johnson's note.

Macb.

P. 553.-357.—456.

Are you so gospell'd,

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.

I think Mr. Steevens's explanation of gospell'd is the true one.

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.

Steevens is right.

P. 556.-360.-460.

Macb. Acquaint you with the perfect spy o'the time,
The moment on't.

The meaning of these words I still doubt.

Macb.

P. 558.-361.-464.

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.

Steevens is right. Sir W. Davenant has, In restless agony.

P. 559.-362.-465.

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.

I believe Mason is right, that nature's copy means only the human form divine.

Macb.

Ibid. 466.

ere, to black Hecate's summons,

The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

I think Mr. Steevens is right. The passage in Cymbeline confirms me strongly in this opinion.

Macb.

P. 562.364.-470.

Light thickens; and the crow

Makes wing to the rooky wood.

Rooky, I believe, means abounding with rooks,

P. 564.-367.-473.

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

"Can any one misunderstand this? Sure no"body but the commentator. Need I add, that "it means, at the beginning and at the end of the "feast, an hearty welcome ?" HERON'S Letters of Literature, p. 167.

Lady M.

P. 566.—368.—476.

My royal lord,
You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold,
That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a making,
'Tis given with welcome.

Dr. Johnson explains this rightly.

Lady M.

P. 568.-370.-478.

O, these flaws, and starts,

(Impostors to true fear,) would well become

A woman's story, at a winter's fire,
Authoriz'd by her grandam.

I believe this is rightly explained by Mr. M. Mason.

P. 569.-370.-480.

Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i'the olden time,
Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal.

I think Mr. M. Mason is right.

Macb.

P. 570.-372.-482.

Or, be alive again,

And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
If trembling I inhibit thee, protest me

The baby of a girl.

Inhibit has been explained to me by a gentleman of great learning and ingenuity, to mean, in this place to stop. He observed that inhibit was the word intended by Launcelot, when he says: "Tears

exhibit my tongue;" and added, that Shakespeare very commonly made his fools blunder in the use of prepositions in compound words. Whether there be any other authority for the use of inhibit in this sense I know not; if there be, this explanation may be admitted: but I incline to think Mr. Steevens's emendation should be received: I admit that it is possible, after all, that inhibit may be the right word: if so, it is rightly explained by Mr. Henley.

Macb.

P. 571.-372.-483.

Can such things be,

And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
Without our special wonder?

Dr. Johnson is right.

Macb.

P. 572.-372.-483.

You make me strange

Even to the disposition that I owe,

When now I think you can behold such sights,
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks
When mine are blanch'd with fear.

Malone is right.

P. 573.-374.-486.

Macb. It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood:
Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;

Augurs, and understood relations, have

By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth
The secret'st man of blood.

Sir W. Davenant understood relations in the same sense that Warburton did, for his alteration is:

Augurs well read in languages of birds.

I am not sure that we ought not to read with the modern editors, augurs that understood, &c. Sir W. D. seems to have read so.