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ACT II. SCENE I.3

The fame. Court within the Caftle.

Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE; and a Servant, with a torch before them.

BAN. How goes the night, boy?

FLE. The moon is down; I have not heard the

clock.

BAN. And he goes down at twelve.

FLE.

I take't, 'tis later, fir.

BAN. Hold, take my fword:-There's husbandry in heaven,4

Their candles are all out.-Take thee that too.
A heavy fummons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not fleep: Merciful powers!
Reftrain in me the curfed thoughts, that nature
Gives way to in repofe! -Give me my fword;-

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3 Scene I.] The place is not mark'd in the old edition, nor is it easy to say where this encounter can be. It is not in the hall, as the editors have all supposed it, for Banquo fees the fky; it is not far from the bedchamber, as the conversation fhows: it must be in the inner court of the cafile, which Banquo might properly cross in his way to bed. JOHNSON.

4

-There's husbandry in heaven,] Husbandry here means thrift, frugality. So, in Hamlet:

"And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." MALONE. 5 Their candles are all out.] The fame expreffion occurs in Romeo and Juliet:

Night's candles are burnt out."

Again, in our author's 21ft fonnet:

As thofe gold candles fix'd in heaven's air.”

See Vol. VIII. p. 149, n. 6. MALONE.

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Merciful powers!

Refrain in me the curfed thoughts, that nature

Gives way to in repoje!] It is apparent from what Banquo says

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch.

Who's there?

MACB. A friend.

BAN. What, fir, not yet at reft? The king's a bed:

He hath been in unusual pleasure, and

Sent forth great largefs to your offices:
This diamond he greets your wife withal,

afterwards, that he had been solicited in a dream to attempt fomez thing in confequence of the prophecy of the witches, that his waking fenfes were thock'd at; and Shakspeare has here moft exquifitely contrafted his chara&er with that of Macbeth. Banquo is pray. ing against being tempted to encourage thoughts of guilt even in his fleep; while Macbeth is hurrying into temptation, and revolving in his mind every fcheme, however flagitious, that may afft him to complete his purpofe. The one is unwilling to fleep. left the fame phantoms fhould affail his refolution again, while the other is depriving himself of reft through impatience to commit the murder.

The fame kind of invocation occurs in Cymbeline :

"From fairies, and the templers of the night,

"Guard me!" STEEVENS.

Sent forth great largefs to your offices:] Thus the old copy, and rightly. Offices are the rooms appropriated to fervants and culinary purpofes. Thus in Timon:

When all our offices have been opprefs'd

"By riotous feeders."

Again, in King Richard II:

Unpeopled offices, untrodden ftones."

Duncan was pleased with his entertainment, and difpenfed his bounty to those who had prepared it. All the modern editors have transferred this largess to the officers of Macbeth, who would more properly bave been rewarded in the field, or at their return to court. STEEVENS.

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By the name of most kind hoftefs; and fhut up' In measureless content.

MACB..

Being unprepar'd,

Our will became the fervant to defect;
Which elfe fhould free have wrought."

BAN.

All's well.

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I dreamt laft night of the three weird fifters:
To you they have fhow'd fome truth.

MACB.

I think not of them:

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to ferve, Would spend it in fome words upon that business, you would grant the time.

If

BAN.

At your kind'ft leifure.

-Shut up-] To Shut up, is to conclude. So, in The Spanish Tragedy:

"And heavens have shut up day to pleasure us.

Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. IV. c. ix:

"And for to fhut up all in friendly love.”

Again, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, 1621, fourth edit. p. 137: "" though the parents have already shut up the .contra&. Again, in Stowe's account of the earl of Effex's speech on the fcaffold: he fhut up all with the Lord's prayer."

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STEEVENS.

Again, in Stowe's Annals, p. 833: " the kings majeftie [ K James Shut up all with a pithy exhortation on both fides."

9 Being unprepar'd,

MALONE.

Our will became the fervant to defect; Which elfe fhould free have wrought. ] This is obfcurely expreffed. The meaning feems to be :-Being unprepared, our entertainment was neceffarily defective, and we only had it in our power to fhow the king our willingness to ferve him. Had we received fufficient notice of his coming, our zeal fhould have been more clearly manifefted by our acts.

Which refers, not to the laft antecedent, defedl, but to will.

MALONE.

All's well.] I fuppofe the poet originally wrote (that the pre66 Sir, all is well." STEEVENS.

ceding verfe might be completed).

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MACB. If you fhall cleave to my confent,-when 'tis,

If you hall cleave to my confent,—when 'tis,] Confent for will. So that the fenfe of the line is, If you fhall go into my measures when I have determined of them, or when the time comes that I want your affiftance. WARBURTON.

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Macbeth expreffes his thought with affected obfcurity: does not mention the royalty, though he apparently had it in his mind. If you shall cleave to my confent, if you fhall concur with me when I determine to accept the crown, when 'tis, when that happens which the prediction promises, it shall make honour for you. JOHNSON.

Such another expreffion occurs in lord Surrey's tranflation of the fecond book of Virgil's Eneid:

"And if thy will fick unto mine, I fhall

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"In wedlocke fute knit, and make her his own." Confent has fometimes the power of the Latin concentus. the verb and fubftantive, decidedly bearing this fignification, occur in other plays of our author. Thus in K. Henry VI. P. I. fc. i: fcourge the bad revolting stars

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That have confented to king Henry's death;"

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i. e. acted in concert fo as to occafion it.-Again, in K. Henry IV. P. II. A& V. fc. i: "they (Juftice Shallow's fervants) flock together in confent, (i. e. in a party,) like fo many wild geefe.". In both these inftances the words are fpelt erroneously,, and fhould be written concent and concented. See Spenfer, &c. as quoted in a note on the paffage already adduced from K. Henry VI.

The meaning of Macbeth is then as follows:-If you shall cleave to my confenti, e. if you shall stick, or adhere, to my party when 'tis, i. e. at the time when fuch a party is formed, your condu& fhall produce honour for you.

That confent means participation, may be proved from a paffage in the 59th Pfalm. I cite the tranflation 1568. “When thou fawedst a thief, thou dydli confent unto hym, and haft been partaker with the >dulterers." In both inftances the particeps criminis is fpoken

of.

Again, in our author's As you like it, the, ufurping Duke fays, after the fight of Rolalind and Celia,

forme villains of my court

• Are of confent and fufferance in this."

Again, in K. Hony V:

"We carry not a heart with us from hence,
"That grows not in a fair confent with ours.'

It fhall make honour for you.

BAN.

So I lofe none,

Macbeth mentally refers to the crown he expe&ed to obtain in confequence of the murder he was about to commit. The commentator, indeed, (who is acquainted with what precedes and follows) comprehends all that paffes in the mind of the speaker; but Banquo is fill in ignorance of it. His reply is only that of a man who determines to combat every poffible temptation to do ill; and therefore expreffes a refolve that in fpite of future combinations of intereft, or fruggles for power, he will attempt nothing that may obfcure his prefent honours, alarm his confcience, or corrupt his loyalty.

Macbeth could never mean, while yet the fuccefs of his attack on the life of Duncan was uncertain, to afford Banquo the most dark or diftant hint of his criminal defigns on the crown. Had he acted thus incautiously, Banquo would naturally have become his accufer, as foon as the murder had been discovered. STEEVENS.

That Banquo was apprehenfive of a defign upon the crown, is evident from his reply, which affords Macbeth fo little encouragement, that he drops the fubje&. RITSON.

The word confent has always appeared to me unintelligible in the firft of thefe lines, and was, I am perfuaded, a mere errour of the prefs. A paffage in The Tempeft leads me to think that our author wrote-content. Antonio is counfelling Sebaftian to murder Gonzalo :

"O, that you bore

"The mind that I do; what, a fleep were there
"For your advancement! Do you understand me?
Seb. I think I do.

" Ant.

And how does your content

"Tender your own good fortune?"

In the fame play we have Thy thoughts I cleave to," which differs but little from "I cleave to thy content."

In The Comedy of Errors our author has again ufed this word in the fame fense:

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Sir, I commend you to your own content." Again, in All's well that ends well :

"Madam, the care I have taken to even your content,"i. e. fays Dr. Johnson, to a& up to your defires. Again, in King

Richard 111:

God hold it to your honour's good content!" Again, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "You fhall hear how things go, and, I warrant, to your own content."

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