make it the means of faving his own offspring. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 340. Marc. My lord, I am a mile beyond the moon.] My lord, 1 ayme a mile beyond the

moon.

Folios 1623, and 1632.

P. 405.

Dr. GRAY, thou found and firm-fet earth.] A corrupt reading will fometimes direct us to find out the true one. The firft folio has it,

-thou fowre and firm-set earth. This brings us very near the right word, which was evidently meant to be,

-thou fure and firm fet earth. Mr. STEEVENS.

Certainly right, P. 408. Macbeth. Sleep that knits up the ravell'd fleeve of care.] To confirm the ingenious conjecture that fleeve means fleaved, filk ravelled, it is obfervable, that a poct of ShakeSpeare's age, Drayton, has alluded to it likewife, in his queft of Cynthia.

"At length I on a fountain light, "Whofe brim with pinks was platted, "The banks with daffadillies dight, "With grafs, like fleave, was "matted."

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not yet attained. The death of the king only could neither infure the crown to Macbeth, nor ac complish any other purpose, while his fons were yet living, who had therefore just reason to apprehend they should be removed by the fame means. The defign to fix the murder on fome innocent perfon had taken effect, for it was already adjudged to have been done by the grooms, who appeared intoxicated, even after it was difcovered, and during that ftate were fuppofed, at first, to have been guilty of it; though the flight of Malcolm, and his brother, afforded Macbeth afterwards a fairer pretext for laying it to their charge.

P. 440. indiget.

Mr. STEEVENS, For indicet, read

P. 468.-hell is murky:] Las dy Macbeth is acting over, in a dream, the business of the murder, and encouraging her hufband, as when awake. She, therefore, would never have. faid any thing of the terrors of hell to one whofe confcience the faw was too much alarmed already for her purpose. She cer tainly imagines herself here talking to Macbeth, who (the fupposes) has juft faid, hell is murky, (i.e. hell is a dismal place to go to, in confequence of fuch a deed,) and repeats his words in contempt of his cowardice. Hell is murky!-Fie, fie, my lord, &c.

This explanation, I think, gives a fpirit to the paffage, which, for want of being underflood, has always appeared languid on the stage.

Mr. STEEVENS.

P. 472.

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"My puiffant liege is in the very May-morn of his youth."

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Mr. LANGTON. P. 478. I pull in refolution.] Mr. Johrfon in the room of this would read, I pall in refolution; but there is no need of change; for Shakespeare, who made Trincalo in the Tempeft fay, I will let loofe my opinion, might have written, I pull in my refolution. He had permitted his courage (like a horfe) to carry him to the brink of a precipice, where feeing his danger, he refolves to pull in that, to which he had given the rein before.

P.

Mr. STEEVENS.

.519. P'il potch at him Jome way.] The Revifal reads poac, but potch, to which the objection is made, as no English word is used in the midland counties for 3 rough violent push.

P. 553. --when the greateft tafe

Moft palates theirs] There

I think rightly.

REVISAL

P. 562. Clean kam] The Welch word for crooked is kam.

P. 578. My firft fon.] The Revifal reads, my fierce fon; but furely first may stand, for first in excellence. Prima virorum. P. 601. As is the ofprey to the fifb.] We find in Mich. Drayton's Poly-Olbion, Song 25, a full account of the ofprey, which fhews the jufness, and the beauty of the fimile, and confirms Theobald's correction to be right. "The fray oft here seen, "though feldom here it " breeds,

"Which over them the fish no "fooner do efpy,

"But, betwixt him and them, "by an antipathy, Turning their bellies up, "as though their death "they faw,

"They at his pleasure lie to

"stuff his gluttonous "maw." Mr. LANGTON.

I think, be inftrument, and explained thus;

The genius, ie. the foul, or fpirit, which fhould govern ; and the mortal inftrument, i. e. the man, with all his bodily, that is, earthly paffions, such as, envy, pride, malice, and ambition, are then in council, i. e. debating upon the horrid action that is to be done, the foul and rational powers diffuading, and the mortal inftrument, man, with his bodily paffions, prompting and pushing on to the horrid deed, whereby the ftate of man, like to a little kingdom, fuffers then the nature of an infurrection, the inferior powers rifing and rebelling against the fuperior. See this exemplified in Macbeth's foliloquy, and alfo by what King John says, act iv. p. 453..

"Nay in the body of this
"fleshly land,
"This kingdom, this confine
"of blood and breath,
"Hoftility and civil tumult
reigns,
"Between my confcience, and
66 my cousin's death.”

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Mr. SMITH. P. 122. Ant. Now by my frward.] An expreffion ufed by Shakespeare, Winter Night's Tale, act ii. fc. laft. Leontes to Antigonus.

Leo. -"Swear by thy fword, "Thou wilt perform my bidding." See act iii. fc. ii. And in allufion to the Danish customs, Hamlet, act i. fc. ix. See Titus Andronicus, act. iv. sc i.

Spencer obferves (in his View of the State of Ireland, Works, 12mo. 1564.) from Lucian's Dialogue, intitled Toxaris, “That

་་

"To take Briana for his lov. ing Fere." Fairy Queen, book 6. canto 1-53. Dr. GRAY,

This note, which is referred to this place by its authour, may deferve more confideration to the reader of Hamlet, where the friends of Hamlet are required to fwear upon his fword.

P. 155. Cleo. Go to the fellow, good Alexas; bid them to report the feature of Octavia, her years, her inclination; let them not leave out the colour of her hair.] This is a manifeftallufion to the question put by Queen Elizabeth to Sir James Melvil, concerning his mittress, the Queen of Scots." She de"fired to know of me what co"lour of hair was reputed beft? "And whether my Queen's hair or her's was beft? And which "of them two was faireft? I "answered, The fairness of them was not their worst faults. Dr. GRAY. P. 172.

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To make a muss, yet'mong

"the

game fome fuitors." Dr. GRAY.

P. 260. In the note, for Don Belliarus, read Don Bellianis.

P. 286. What both you Spur and flop.] I think Imogen means to enquire what is that news, that intelligence, or information, you profefs to bring, and yet withhold at leaft, I think, your explanation a miltaken one, for Imogen's requeft fuppofes Iachimo an agent, not a patient.

Mr. HAWKINS. P. 347. Untwine his perishing root, &c.] The attribute of the elder in this place is perishing, that of the vine encreafing. Let therefore the linking elder grief

Shakespeare ufes it in this fenfe, Life of King Henry V. act iii. fc. iii. p. 360.

Bay. Nym and Bardolph are "fworn

*fworn brothers in filching, and "in Calais they ftole a fire"fhovel; I know by that piece "of fervice the men would carry « coals."

So it is ufed by Skelton, in his poem, intitled, Why come ye not to Court? Works, P. 142.

"Will you bear no coles ?" And by Ben Johnson, Every Manout of his Humour, a&t v. sc, i. Puntar volo to the groom. "See here comes one that "will carry coals ;

Ergo, will hold my dog." And again, a&t v. fc. iii.

"Take heed, Sir Puntarvolo,

braham Cupid, he that shot

So true, When King Cophetua low'd the beggar maid.] I rather think that Shakespeare wrote,

"Young Adam Cupid.”—→ Alluding to the famous archer Adam Beil.

Dr. GRAY (Venus) purbind

P. 37.
fon and heir,
Young Adam Cupid, he that
foot fo true

commentators

When King Cophetua lov'd the the beggar-maid.] As the are agreed that Cupid is here called Adam, in allufion to, the famous archer Adam Beil, the hero of many an ancient ballad So I believe, I can refer you to the ballad of King Cophetua, &c. In the fift of the 3 vols. Izmo. p. 141. is an old fong of a king's falling in love with a beggar-maid, which I take to be the very ballad in queftion, altho' the name of the king is no longer found in it, which will be no objection, to any one who has compared old