МАСВ. LEN. Ay, my good lord. Fled to England? MACB. Time, thou anticipat'ft my dread CX6 ploits : The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it: From this moment, The very firftlings' of my heart fhall be The firfilings of my hand. And even now To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: The caftle of Macduff I will furprise ; 81 Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o'the fword. [Exeunt. Time, thou anticipat'ft my dread exploits :] To anticipate is here to prevent, by taking away the opportunity. JOHNSON. 7 The very firftlings--] Firflings in its primitive fenfe is the firft produce or offspring. So, in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613: "The firflings of their vowed facrifice." Here it means the thing first thought or done. again in the prologue to Troilus and Creffida : The word is ufed Leaps o'er the vant and firfilings of thefe broils." STEEVENS. 8 That trace his line.] i. e. follow, fucceed in it. So, in Si Arthur Gorges' tranflation of the third book of Lucan, 1614: "The tribune's curfes in like cafe “Said he, did greedy Craffus trace.” The old copy reads That trace him in his line. The metre, however, demands the omiffion of fuch unnecef fary expletives. STEEVENS. 9 But no more fights: This hafty reflection is to be confidered as a moral to the foregoing fcene: Tu ne qua fieris fcire, (nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi Ṭentaris numeros, ut melius, quicquid erit, pati. STEEVENS. SCENE II. Fife. A Room in Macduff's Cafle. Enter Lady MACDUFF, her fon, and Rosse. L. MACD. What had he done, to make him fly the land? ROSSE. You must have patience, madam. L. MACD. He had none: His flight was madness: When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors.2 Whether it was his wifdom, or his fear. L. MACD. Wifdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes, His manfion, and his titles, in a place Our fears do make us traitors. ] i. e. our flight is confidered as an evidence of our guilt. STEEVENS. 3 natural touch:] Natural fenfibility. He is not touched with natural affection. JOHNSON. So, in an ancient MS. play, intitled The Second Maiden's Tragedy: 4 "There's no fuch natural touch, fearch all his bosom." STEEVENS. -the poor wren, &c.] The fame thought occurs in the third part of K. Henry VI: 66 -doves will peck, in fafety of their brood. STEEVENS. Her young ones in her neft, against the owl. Rosse. My dearest coz', I pray you, fchool yourself: But, for your husband, ther: 5 But cruel are the times, when we are traitors, The fits o'the feafon.] The fits of the feafon fhould appear to be, from the following paffage in Coriolanus, the violent diforders of the feafon, its convulfions: Perhaps the meaning is,—what is moft fitting to be done in every conjun&ture. ANONYMOUS. - when we are traitors, And do not know ourselves;] i. e. we think ourselves innocent, the government thinks us traitors; therefore we are ignorant of ourfelves. This is the ironical argument. The Oxford editor alters But sure they did know what they said, that the ftate efteemed them traitors. WARBURTON. Rather, when we are confidered by the ftate as traitors, while at the fame time we are unconscious of guilt: when we appear to others fo different from what we really are, that we seem not to know ourselves. MALONE. 7 when we hold rumour From what we fear,] To hold rumour fignifies to be governed by the authority of rumour. WARBURTON. I rather think to hold means, in this place, to believe, as we fay, I hold fuch a thing to be true, i. c. I take it, I believe it to be fo. Thus, in K. Henry VIII: But float upon a wild and violent fea, 8 Each way, and move. I take my leave of you: Things at the worft will ceafe, or elfe climb upward L L. MACO. Father'd he is, and yet he's father- ROSSE. I am fo much a fool, fhould I ftay longer, L. MACD. [Exit ROSSE. L. MACD. The fenfe of the whole paffage will then be: The times are cruel when our fears induce us to believe, or take for granted, what we hear rumoured or reported abroad; and yet at the fame time, as we live under a tyrannical government where will is fubftituted for law, we know not what we have to fear, because we know not when we offend. Or When we are led by our fears to believe every rnmour of danger we hear, yet are not confcious to ourselves of any crime for, which we should be disturbed with thofe fears. A paffage like this occurs in K. John: "Poffefs'd with rumours, full of idle dreams, "Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear." This is the best I can make of the paffage. SREEVENS. 8 Each ua), and move. Perhaps the poet wrote And each way move. If they floated each way, it was needless to inform us that they moved The words may have been cafually transposed, and erroneously pointed. STEEVENS 9 Sirrah, your father's dead;] Sirrah in our author's time was not a term of reproach, but generally ufed by mafters to fervants, parents to children, &c. So before, in this play, Macbeth fays to his fervant, "Sirrah, a word with you attend thofe men our pleasure?" MALONE. L. MACD. Poor bird! thou'dft never fear the net, nor lime, - The pit-fall, nor the gin. SON. Why thould I, mother? Poor birds they are not fet for. My father is not dead, for all your saying. L. MACD. Yes, he is dead; how wilt thou do for a father? SON. Nay, how will you do for a husband? SON. Then you'll buy 'em to fell again. With wit enough for thee. SON. Was my father a traitor, mother? SON. What is a traitor? L. MACD. Why, one that fwears and lies, L. MACD. Every one that does fo, is a traitor, and must be hang'd. SON. And muft they all be hang'd, that swear and lie? L. MACD. Every one. SON. Who muft hang them? L. MACD. Why, the honeft men. SON. Then the liars and fwearers are fools: for there are liars and fwearers enough to beat the honeft men, and hang up them. L. MACD. Now God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father? |