That death and nature do contend about them, MACB. [Within.] Who's there?-what, ho! LADY M. Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd, And 'tis not done:-the attempt, and not the deed, Confounds us :-Hark! I laid their daggers ready, He could not mifs them. -Had he not resembled My father as he flept, I had done't. 7-My husband? 6 from many others in our old dramatick performances, that it was the general cuftom to eat poffets juft before bed-time. So, in the first part of K. Edward IV. by Heywood; 26 -- thou shalt be welcome too beef and bacon, and perhaps a bag-pudding; and my daughter Nell fhall pop a peffet upon thee when thou goeft to bed. Macbeth has already faid: "Go bid thy mistress when my drink is ready, She ftrike upon the bell." Lady Macbeth has alfo juft obferved That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold: " and in The Merry Wives of Windfor, Mrs. Quickly promifes Jack Rugby a poffet at night. STEEVENS. death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live, or die.] Of this image our ancient writers were peculiarly fond. Thus again, in Twine's tranflation of the ftory of Prince Appollyn, "Death ftrived with life within ber, and the conflict was daungerous and doubtfull who should preuaile." Again, in All's Well that ends well: thy blood and virtue 6 Hark! I laid their daggers ready, He could not miss them.] Compare Euripides,—Oreftes, v. 1291 -where Electra ftands centinel at the door of the palace whilft Oreftes is within for the purpose of murdering Helen. The dread of a furprize, and eagernefs for the business, make Ele&ra conclude that the deed must be done ere time enough had elapfed for attempt ing it. She liftens with anxious impatience; and hearing nothing, expreffes ftrong fears left the daggers fhould have failed. Read the whole paffage. S. W. 7 Had he not refembled My father as he fept, I had done't.] This is very artful. For, 'VOL. XI. H Enter MACBETH. MACB. I have done the deed:- Didft thou not hear a noife? LADY M. I heard the owl fcream, and the crick as the poet had drawn the lady and her husband, it would be thought the a& fhould have been done by her. It is likewife highly juft; for though ambition had fubdued in her all the fentiments of nature towards prefent obje&s, yet the likeness of one past, which she had been accustomed to regard with reverence, made her unnatural paffions, for a moment, give way to the fentiments of inftin&t and humanity. WARBURTON: The fame circumftance on a fimilar occafion is introduced by Statius in the Vth book of his Thebaid, v. 236: Ut vero Alcimeden etiamnum in murmure truncos Inferor. Thoas was the father of Hypfipyle, the fpeaker. STEEVENS. 8 This is a forry fight.] This expreffion might have been borrowed from Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. V. c. i. ft. 14: To whom as they approached, they efpide "A forie fight as ever feene with eye; "A headleffe ladie lying him befide, "In her own bloud all wallow'd woefully." WHALLEY. LADY M. A foolish thought, to fay a forry fight. MACB. There's one did laugh in his fleep, and one cried, murder! That they did wake each other; I ftood and heard them: But they did fay their prayers, and addrefs'd them There are two lodg'd together. and now, Octavius, Liften great things. their fear, the particle Thus, in Julius Cæfar, Contemporary writers took the fame liberty. So, in The World tofs'd at Tennis, by Middleton and Rowley, 1620: Liften the plaints of thy poor votaries." Again, in Lyly's Maid's Metamorphofis, 1600: " "There, in rich feats, all wrought of ivory, "Of warbling birds." STEEVENs. 3 When they did fay, God blefs us. ] The words - did fay, which render this hemiftich too long to unite with the next in forming a verfe; perfuade me that the paffage originally ran thus: i. and, Amen, the other: Could fay, in the fecond e. the other cried Amen. But the players, having no idea of the latter ellipfis, fupplied the fyllables that deftroy the measure. STEEVENS. LADY M. Confider it not fo deeply. MACB. But wherefore could not I pronounce, Amen? I had moft need of bleffing, and Amen LADY M. These deeds muft not be thought After these ways; fo, it will make us mad. MACB. Methought, I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder fleep, the innocent fleep; 3 4 3 the ravell'd leave of care,] Sleave fignifies the ravell'd knotty part of the filk, which gives great trouble and embarrassment to the knitter or weaver. HEATH. Drayton, a poet of Shakspeare's age, has likewife alluded to fleaved or ravelled filk, in his Queft of Cynthia: "At length I on a fountain light, LANGTON. Eight wild men all Sleave is properly filk which has not been twisted. It is mentioned in Holinfhed's Hiftory of England, p. 835: "6 apparelled in green mofs made with feved filk. Again, in The Mufes' Elizium, by Drayton: "That in the handling feels as foft as any leave." STEEVENS. Sleave appears to have fignified coarfe, fofte unwrought filk; Seta groffolana, Ital. Cotgrave in his DICT. 1660, renders foye flofche, "fleave filk. See alfo, ibid: "Cadarce, pour faire capiton. The tow, or coarseft part of filke, whereof leave is made. " - In Troilus and Crefida we have "Thou idle immaterial fkein of leave filk.” MALONE. 4 The death of each day's life, fore labour's bath, &c.] In this encomium upon Deep, amongst the many appellations which are given it, fignificant of its beneficence and friendlinefs to life, we find one which conveys a different idea, and by no means agrees Balm of hurt minds, great nature's fecond courfe, with the reft, which is: The death of each day's life. I make no queftion but Shakspeare wrote: The birth of each day's life: The true chara&eriftick of fleep, which repairs the decays of labour, and affifts that returning vigour which fupplies the next day's adivity. WARBURTON. The death of each day's life means the end of each day's labour, the conclufion of all that bustle and fatigue that each day's life brings with it. STEEVENS. Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd fleave of care, The death of each day's life, fore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, ] Is it not probable that Shakspeare remembered the following verfes in Sir Philip Sydney's Aftrophel and Stella, a poem, from which he has quoted a line in The Merry Wives of Windfor? "Come Meepe, O fleepe, the certain knot of peace, So allo, in The Famous Hiftorie of George Lord Fauconbridge, &c: bl. let: " -Yet fleep, the comforter of diftreffed minds, could not lock up her eyes. Again, in Golding's Translation of Ovid's Metamorphofes, B. VIII. 1587: แ " At fuch a time as folkes are wont to find releafe "Of cares that all the day before were working in their beds; "By fleep, &c. Again, ibid. B. XI: “O feepe, quoth fhe, the rest of things, O gentleft of the goddes, "Sweete fleepe, the peace of mind, with whom crookt care is aye at odds; "Which cherisheft men's weary limbs appall'd with toyling fore, "And makeft them as fresh to worke, and luftie as before. The late Mr. Gray had perhaps our author's "death of each day's life" in his thoughts, when he wrote "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day." MALONE. He might as probably have thought on the following paffage in the firft fcene of the fecond part of K. Henry IV: แ a fullen bell Remember'd knolling a departed friend. "STERVENS. |