So brain-fickly of things; go, get some water, And wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go, carry them, and smear The fleepy grooms with blood. Mach. I'll go no more; I am afraid to think what I have done? Look on't again, I dare not. Lady. Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers; the sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood, Knocks within. Mach. Whence is that knocking ? [Exit: [Starting. How is't with me, when every noise appals me ? * What hands are here? hah! they pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood * What, &c.] Shakespear had this from his brother tragedians. So Hercules in Seneca, Arctorum licet Mæotis in me gelida transfundat mare Et tota Tethys per meas currat manus, Hercul. Fur. Ac. 5. 'Tis faid of Oedipus, in Sophocles, that neither the waters of the Danube or Phasis can wash him and his house clean. Οιμαι γαρ ετανισρον στε φασιν αν In allufion to their expiatory washings in the fea or rivers. Various were the ceremonies of washing among the Jezus as well as Gentiles; particularly that of the hands. Hence came the proverb of doing things with unwashed bands; i. e impudently without any regard to decency and religion. Henry IV. Act 3. Falf. Rob me the Exchequer the first thing thou dost, and do it with unwashed bands too. UPTON.. Clean Clean from my hand? no, this my hand will rather Thy multitudinous sea incarnadine, Making the green one red Enter Lady. Lady. My hands are of your colour; but I shame To wear a heart so white: I hear a knocking [Knock. At the fouth entry. Retire we to our chamber; A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then? your constancy Hath left you unattended--hark, more knocking! [Knock. Get on your night-gown lest occafion calls us, And shew us to be watchers; be not loft So poorly in your thoughts. Mach. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myfelf. Wake, Duncan, with this knocking: 'would, thou couldst! АСТ Ш. SCENE III. Macbeth's guilty Conscience, and Fears of Banquo. Enter Macbeth to his Lady. Lady. How now, my lord, why do you keep alone? Of forrieft fancies your companions making, Ufing those thoughts, which should indeed, have dy'd With them they think on? things without all remedy Should be without regard; what's done, is done. Mac. We have scotch'd (12) the snake, not kill'd it (12) Scotch'd.] This reading is Mr Theobald's, the old one is fcorch'd, which Mr. Upton, wou'd attempt to defend by telling us, "the allusion is to the fstory of the Hydra. We have scorch'd the snake, we have indeed Hercules like, cut off one of its heads, and scorch'd it, as it were, as he did, affifted by Jolaus, hindering that one head, thus scorch'd from sprouting again; but fuch a wound will close and cure; our bydra-snake has other heads still, which to me are as dangerous as Duncan's, particularly that of Banquo and Fleance. &c The allufion is learned and elegant. Crit. Obfervat. p. 154. But learned and elegant as it is, 1 am apt to imagine Mr. Theobald's the true word: the fentence seems to confirm that fuppofition; however Mr. Upton's remark is worth observing. VOL. II. She'll close and be herself; whilst our poor malice * * * O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Lady. What's to be done ? Mach. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, 'Till thou applaud the deed: come, † feeling night, 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 th' rooky wood: * Shard-born, i. e. fays Warburton, the Beetle hatch'd in clefts of wood. Upton proposes sharn-born, i. e. the beetle born from dung. See remarks on three plays of Ben Johnson, p. 109. Į Seeling, i. e. blinding, a term in falconry. Good Good things of day begin to droop and drowze, Whiles night's black agents to their prey do rowze. SCENE V. Scene changes to a Room of State, Banquet prepar'd. Macbeth, Lady, Roffe, Lenox. Lords and Attendants. Lady. My royal lord, You do not give the cheer; the feast is fold, Meeting were bare without it. [The ghost of Banquo rises, and fits in Macbeth's place. Macb. Sweet remembrancer! Now good digeftion wait on appetite, And health on both ! Len. May't please your highness sit ? Macb. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, Were the grac'd person of our Banquo present, (Whom may I rather challenge for unkindness, Than pity for mifchance!) Roffe. His absence, Sir, Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness To grace us with your royal company ? Mach. The table's full. Len. Here's a place referv'd, Sir. Len. Here, my good lord, What is't that moves your highness? Mach. Which of you have done this? Lords. What, my good lord ? [Starting Mach. Thou can'st not say, I did it: never shake Thy goary 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 [To Macb afide Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that, Which might appal the Devil. Lady. O proper stuff! [afide This is the very painting of your fear; Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself! Mach. Pr'ythee, see there! Behold! look! lo! how say you? [Pointing to the Ghost. [The ghost vanishes. Lady. What? quite unmann'd in folly ? Mach. If I stand here, I saw him. Lady. Fie, for shame! (13) Impostors, &c.] Mr. Johnson says of this passage, that as starts can neither with propriety nor sense be called Impostors to true fear, fomething else was undoubtedly intended by the author, who perhaps wrote These flaws and starts Impostures true to fear, &c. 1 These symptoms of terror and amazement might better become " impostures true only to fear, might become a coward at the recital of fuch falshoods as no man could credit, whose understanding was not weaken'd by his terrors; tales told by a woman over Mr. Warburton exa fire on the authority of her grandam." plains the passages thus, "These flaws and starts, as they are indications of your needless fears, are the imitators or impoftors only of those which arife from a fear well-grounded. |