Enter SEYTON. SEY. What is your gracious pleafure? MACB. What news more? SEY. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was re ported. MACB. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd. Give me my armour. SEY. 'Tis not needed yet. MACB. I'll put it on. Send out more horfes, fkirr the country round;' Hang thofe that talk of fear. mour. 8 Give me mine ar 1 Not fo fick, my lord, How does your patient, doctor? DOCT. As fhe is troubled with thick-coming fancies, That keep her from her reft. MACB. Cure her of that: Canft thou not minifter to a mind difeas'd; 7 fkirr the country round; ] To fkirr, I believe, fignifies to fcour, to ride haftily. The word is ufed by Beaumont and Fletcher in The Martial Maid: "Whilft I, with this and this, well mounted, kirr'd "And make them kirr away, as fwift as ftones Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca: the light fhadows, "That, in a thought, fcur o'er the fields of corn, STEEVENS. talk of fear.] The fecond folio reads land in fear. 9 That keep her] The latter word, which was inadvertently omitted in the old copy, was added by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 1 2 Pluck from the memory a rooted forrow; And with fome Sweet oblivious antidote,] Perhaps, as Dr. Farmer has obferved, our poet here remembered Spenfer's defcription of Nepenthe: Nepenthe is a drinck of fovereign grace, Faery Queene, B. IV. c. iii. ft. 34. Our author's idea might have been caught from the 6th book of The Eneid, where the effects of Lethe are defcribed: Lethæi ad fluminis undam Securos latices, & longa oblivia potant. Thus tranflated by Phaer, 1558: "Thefe liquors quenching cares, and long forgetful draughts thei drink "That of their lives, and former labours paft, they neuer 3 Cleanfe the fuff'd bofom of that perilous stuff,] Stuff'd is the read ing of the old copy; but for the fake of the ear, which must be fhocked by the recurrence of so harsh word, I am willing to read, foul, as there is authority for the change from Shakspeare himself, in As you like it, A& II. fc. vi: Cleanse the foul body of the infected world." We properly speak of cleaning what is foul, but not what is Stuffed. STEEVENS. The recurrence of the word fluff in this paffage, is very unpleafing to the ear, but there is no ground, I think, to fufped the text to be corrupt; for our author was extremely fond of fuch repetitions. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Now for the love of love, " Ibid. Is only grievous to me, only dying." K. Henry VIII. DOCT. Therein the patient Muft minifter to himfelf. MACB. Throw phyfick to the dogs, I'll none of it. Come, put mine armour on; give me my ftaff:Seyton,fend out.-Doctor, the thanes fly from me:Come, fir, defpatch:- If thou could'ft, doctor, caft The water of my land, find her disease, "Upon his brow flame is afham'd to fit." Romeo and Juliet, King John. Ibid. " Macbeth. The words fuff'd and fluff, however mean they may found at prefent, have, like many other terms, been debafed by time, and appear to have been formerly confidered as words proper to be used As fuch Shakspeare has emin paffages of the greatest dignity. ployed them in Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale, Julius Cafar, &c. Again, in The Tempeft, in a paffage where the author certainly aimed at dignity: And, like this unfubftantial pageant, faded, "Leave not a rack behind. We are fuch fuff The In a note on a paffage in Othello, Dr. Johnson obferves, that fluff in the Teutonick languages is a word of great force. elements (he adds) are called in Dutch hoofd ftoffen, or head-fluffs. MALONE. The prefent queftion is not concerning the dignity of the word— Auffed, but it's naufeous iteration, of which no example has been produced by M. Malone; for that our author has indulged himself in the repetition of harmonious words, is no proof that he would have repeated harsh ones. I may venture alfo (in fupport of my opinion) to fubjoin, that the fame gentleman, in a very judicious comment on K. Henry IV. P. II. p. 16, n. 7. has obferved, "that when a word is repeated without propriety, in the fame, or two fucceeding lines, there is great reafon to fufped fome corruption." STEEVENS. cuft The water of my land,] To caft the water was the phrase in use for finding out diforders by the inspection of urine. So, in Eliofio Lucilla perceiving, Libidinojo, a novel by john Hinde, 1606: And purge it to a found and priftine health, DocT. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation Makes us hear fomething. MACB. Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane, [Exit. DOCT. Were I from Dunfinane away and clear, Profit again fhould hardly draw me here. [Exit. SCENE IV. Country near Dunfinane: A wood in view. Enter,with Drum and Colours, MALCOLM, old SIWARD and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOXx, Rosse, and Soldiers, marching. MAL. Coufins, I hope, the days are near at hand, That chambers will be safe. MENT. We doubt it nothing. SIW. What wood is this before us? without cafting her water, where he was pained," &c. Again, in The Wife Woman of Hogfdon, 1638: "Mother Nottingham, for her time, was pretty well fkilled in cafting waters. STEEVENS. 5 -Senna, ] The old copy reads-cyme, STEEVENS. Correded by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. MENT. The wood of Birnam. MAL: Let every foldier hew him down a bough, And bear't before him; thereby fhall we shadow The numbers of our hoft, and make discovery Err in report of us. SOLD. It fhall be done. Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant Keeps ftill in Dunfinane, and will endure Our fetting down before't. MAL. 'Tis his main hope: For where there is advantage to be given, but the confident tyrant-] We muft furely read: ~He was confident of fuccefs; fo confident that he would not fly, but endure their fetting down before his cafile. 7 For where there is advantage to be given, JOHNSON. Both more and lefs have given him the revolt; ] The impropriety of the expreffion, advantage to be given, inftead of advantage given, and the difagreeable repetition of the word given in the next line, incline me to read: - where there is a'vantage to be gone, Both more and lefs have given him the revolt. Advantage or 'vantage, in the time of Shakspeare, fignified opportunity. He fhut up himself and his foldiers (fays Malcolm) in the caftle, because when there is an opportunity to be gone, they all defert him. More and lefs is the fame with greater and lefs. So, in the interpolated Mandeville, a book of that age, there is a chapter of India the More and the Lefs. JOHNSON. I would read, if any alteration were neceffary: For where there is advantage to be got. But the words as they ftand in the text will bear Dr. Johnson's explanation, which is moft certainly right.. For wherever an opportunity of flight is given them, &c. More and lefs, for greater and lefs, is likewife found in Chaucer: "From Boloigne is the erle of Pavie come, "Of which the fame yfpronge to most and lefte." Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, fong the 12th: "Of Britain's forefts all from th' lefs unto the more." 13 |