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As two spent swimmers, that do cling together, And choke their art. The mercilefs Macdonwald' (Worthy to be a rebel; for, to that,

The multiplying villainies of nature

5

Do fwarm upon him,) from the western ifles
Of Kernes and Gallowglaffes is fupplied;

6

The old copy has-Doubtfull-fo that my addition confifts of but a fingle letter. STEEVENS.

4

-Macdonwald--] Thus the old copy. According to Holinfhed we fhould read-Macdowald. STEEVENS.

So alfo the Scottish Chronicles. However, it is poffible that Shakspeare might have preferred the name that has been fubftituted, as better founding. It appears from a fubfequent fceue that he had attentively read Holinfhed's account of the murder of king Duff, by Donwald, Lieutenant of the caftle of Fores; in confequence of which he might, either from inadvertence or choice, have here written Macdonwald. MALONE.

5 --to that, &c.] i. e. in addition to that. So, in Troilus and Creffida, A& I. fc. i:

"The Greeks are ftrong, and skilful to their ftrength,
"Fierce to their fkill, and to their fiercenefs valiant."

The foldier who defcribes Macdonwald, feems to mean, that, in addition to his affumed character of rebel, he abounds with the numerous enormities to which man, in his natural state, is liable.

6

-from the western illes

STEEVENS.

Of Kernes and Gallowglaffes is fupplied;] Whether supplied of, for fupplied from or with, was a kind of Grecifm of Shakspeare's expreffion; or whether of be a corruption of the editors, who took Kernes and Gallowglaffes, which were only light and heavy armed foot, to be the names of two of the weftern ifland's, I don't know. Hinc conjecture vigorem etiam adjiciunt arma quædam Hibernica, Gallicis antiquis fimilia, jacula nimirum peditum levis armaturæ quos Kernos vocant, nec non fecures & lorica ferrea peditum illorum gravioris armaturæ, quos Galloglaffios appellant. Warai Antiq. Hiber. cap. vi. WARBURTON.

Of and with are indifcriminately used by our ancient wri

ters.

So, in The Spanish Tragedy:

"Perform'd of pleasure by your fon the prince."

And fortune, on his damned quarrel fmiling,'

"Sypontus

Again, in God's Revenge against Murder, hift. vi: in the mean time is prepared of two wicked gondaliers," &c. Again, in The Hiftory of Helyas Knight of the Sun, b. 1. no date: "—he was well garnished of spear, fword, and armoure,"`&c. These are few out of a thousand inftances which might be brought to the fame purpose.

Kernes and Gallowglaffes are characterized in the Legend of Roger Mortimer. See The Mirror for Magiftrates:

-the Gallowglass, the Kerne,

"Yield or not yield, whom fo they take, they flay."

STEEVENS.

The old copy has Gallow-groffes. Corre&ed by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

7 And fortune, on his damned quarrel Smiling,] The old copy hasquarry; but I am inclined to read quarrel. Quarrel was formerly ufed for caufe, or for the occafion of a quarrel, and is to be found in that fenfe in Holinfhed's account of the ftory of Macbeth, who, upon the creation of the prince of Cumberland, thought, fays the hiftorian, that he had a just quarrel to endeavour after the crown. The fenfe therefore is, Fortune fmiling on his execrable caufe, &c. JOHNSON.

The word quarrel occurs in Holinfhed's relation of this very fact, and may be regarded as a fufficient proof of its having been the term here employed by Shakspeare: "Out of the western ifles there came to Macdowald a great multitude of people, to affift him in that rebellious quarrel." Befides, Macdowald's quarry (i. e. game) muft have confifted of Duncan's friends, and would the fpeaker then have applied the epithet-damned to them? and what have the fmiles of fortune to do over a carnage, when we have defeated our enemies? Her bufinefs is then at an end. Her fmiles or frowns are no longer of any consequence. We only talk of thefe, while we are pursuing our quarrel, and the event of it is uncertain.

it,

STEEVENS.

The reading propofed by Dr. Johnson, and his explanation of are ftrongly supported by a paffage in our author's King

John:

"And put his caufe and quarrel

"To the difpofing of the cardinal."

Again, in this play of Macbeth:

66- and the chance, of goodness,

"Be like our warranted quarrel."

Here we have warranted quarrel, the exa& oppofite of damned quarrel, as the text is now regulated.

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Show'd like a rebel's whore: But all's too weak: For brave Macbeth, (well he deferves that name,) Difdaining fortune, with his brandifh'd steel, Which fmok'd with bloody execution,

Like valour's minion,

Carv'd out his paffage, till he fac'd the flave;' And ne'er fhook hands, nor bade farewell to him,

Lord Bacon, in his Essays, ufes the word in the fame sense: 45 Wives are young men's miftreffes, companions for middle age, and old men's nurfes; fo as a man may have a quarrel to marry, when he will. MALONE.

8 Show'd like a rebel's whore :] fuppofe the meaning is, that fortune, while fhe fmiled on him, deceived him. Shakspeare probably alludes to Macdowald's firft fuccessful action, elated by which he attempted to pursue his fortune, but loft his life.

9 Like valour's minion,

MALONE.

Carv'd out his paffage, till he fac'd the flave ;] The old copy

reads

Like valour's minion, carv'd out his paffage

Fill he fac'd the flave.

As an hemiftich must be admitted, it feems more favourable to the metre that it fhould be found where it is now left.--Till he fii'd the flave, could never be defigned as the beginning of a verse, if harmony were at all attended to in its conftruction. Like valour's minion,] So, in King John:

-fortune fhall cull forth,

“Out of one fide, her happy minion." MALONE. And ne'er hook hands, &.c.

STEEVENS.

The old copy reads- Which nev`r.
STEEVENS.

Mr. Pope, inftead of which, here and in many other places, ends-who. But there is no need of change. There is fcarcely bae of our author's plays in which he has not ufed which for who. So, in The Winter's Tale: "the old fhepherd, which stands by," &c. MALONE.

The old reading-Which never, appears to indicate that fome antecedent words, now irretrievable, were omitted in the playhoufe manufcript; unless the compofitor's eye had caught which from a foregoing line, and printed it instead of And. Which, in the prefent inftance, cannot well have been fubftituted for who, because it will refer to the flave Macdonel, instead of his conqueror Macbeth. STEEVENS.

Till he unfeam'd him from the nave to the chops,3
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.

DUN. O, valiant coufin! worthy gentleman!

We seldom

3 -he unfeam'd him from the nave to the shops, hear of fuch terrible cross blows given and received but by giants and miscreants in Amadis de Gaule. Befides, it must be a ftrange aukward ftroke that could unrip him upwards from the navel to the chops. But Shakspeare certainly wrote:

—be unfeam'd him from the nape to the chops.

i. c. cut his skull in two; which might be done by a Highlander's
fword. This was a reasonable blow, and very naturally expreffed,
on fuppofing it given when the head of the wearied combatant was
reclining downwards at the latter end of a long duel.
For the nape

is the hinder part of the neck, where the vertebra join to the bone
of the fkull. So, in Coriolanus:

"O! that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of
your necks."

The word unfeamed likewise becomes very proper; and alludes to the future which goes cross the crown of the head in that direction called the futura fagittalis; and which, confequently, muft be opened by fuch a ftroke. It is remarkable, that Milton, who in his youth read and imitated our poet much, particularly in his Comus, was mifled by this corrupt reading. For in the manuscript of that poem, in Trinity-College library, the following lines are read thus:

"Or drag him by the curls, and cleave his fcalpe

Down to the hippes.

An evident imitation of this corrupted paffage. But he alter'd it with better judgement to:

66

to a foul death

"Curs'd as his life." WARBURTON.

The old reading is certainly the true one, being justified by a paffage in Dido Queene of Carthage, by Tho. Nafh, 1594:

"Then from the navel to the throat at once

"He ript old Priam."

So likewife in an ancient MS. entitled The boke of huntyng, that is cleped Mayfter of Game: Cap. V. "Som mem haue fey hym fitte a man fro the kne up to the breft, and fle hym all ftarke dede at o ftrok.' STEEVENS.

Again, by the following paffage in an unpublished play, entitled The Witch, by Thomas Middleton, in which the fame wound is defcribed, though the ftroke is reversed:

"Draw it, or I'll rip thee down from neck to NAVEL,
"Though there's fmall glory in't." MALONE.

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SOLD. As whence the fun 'gins his reflexion" Shipwrecking ftorms and direful thunders break ;4 So from that fpring, whence comfort feem'd to

come,

Difcomfort fwells.5 Mark, king of Scotland,

mark:

No fooner justice had, with valour arm'd,

3 As whence the fun 'gins his reflection] The thought is expreffed with fome obfcurity, but the plain meaning is this: As the fame quarter, whence the blessing of day-light arifes, fometimes fends us, by a dreadful reverfe, the calamities of torms and tempefts; fo the glorious event of Macbeth's victory, which promifed us the comforts of peace, was immediately fucceeded by the alarming news of the Norweyan invasion. The natural hiftory of the winds, &c. is foreign to the explanation of this paffage. Shakspeare does not mean, in couformity to any theory, to say that ftorms generally come from the east. If it be allowed that they sometimes iffue from that quarter, it is fufficient for the purpose of his comparison.

STEEVENS.

The natural hiftory of the winds, &c. was idly introduced on this occafion by Dr. Warburton. Sir William Davenant's reading of this passage, in an alteration of this play, published in quarto, in 1674, affords a reasonably good comment upon it:

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"But then this day-break of our victory
"Serv'd but to light us into other dangers,

"That Spring from whence our hopes did feem to rise."

MALONE.

--thunders break;] The word break is wanting in the oldeft copy. The other folios and Rowe read-breaking. Mr. Pope made the emendation. STEEVENS.

Break, which was fuggefted by the reading of the fecond folio, is very unlikely to have been the word omitted in the original copy. It agrees with thunders;-but who ever talked of the breaking of a form? MALOne.

The phrafe, I believe, is sufficiently common. All for Love, &c. A& I:

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-the Roman camp

Thus Dryden in

"Hangs o'er us black and threat'ning, like a form
'Juft breaking o'er our heads." STEEVENS.

Difcomfort fwells.] Difcomfort the natural oppofite to comfort.

JOHNSON.

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