... Combin'd with Norway; or did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage; or that with both He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not; But treasons capital, confess'd, and prov'd, Have overthrown him. Macb. Glamis, and thane of Cawdor: The greatest is behind.-Thanks for your pains.Do you not hope your children shall be kings, When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me, Promis'd no less to them? Ban. 8 That, trusted home," Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange: And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths; Win us with honest trifles, to betray us In deepest consequence.— Cousins, a word, I pray you. Macb. Two truths are told," As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.This supernatural soliciting1 Cannot be ill; cannot be good:-If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor: If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 7 trusted home,] i. e. entirely, thoroughly relied on, or perhaps we should read thrusted home. 8 Might yet enkindle you—] Enkindle, for to stimulate you to seek. 9 Two truths are told, &c.] How the former of these truths has been fulfilled, we are yet to learn. Macbeth could not become Thane of Glamis, till after his father's decease, of which there is no mention throughout the play. If the Hag only announced what Macbeth already understood to have happened, her words could scarcely claim rank as a prediction. 1 This supernatural soliciting-] Soliciting for information. WARBURTON. Soliciting is rather, in my opinion, incitement, than information. JOHNSON. Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, 3 My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, But what is not.* Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance Come what come may; Macb. Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your lei sure. Macb. Give me your favour:-my dull brain was wrought seated i. e. fixed, firmly placed. single state of man,] Dr. Johnson says, that the single state of man seems to be used by Shakspeare for an individual, in opposition to a commonwealth, or conjunct body. But Mr. Steevens thinks that the single state of Macbeth may signify his weak and debile state of mind. 4 function Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is, But what is not.] All powers of action are oppressed and crushed by one overwhelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no existence. JOHNSON. 5 Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.] i. e. time and occasion will carry the thing through, and bring it to some determined point and end, let its nature be what it will. 6 favour:] i. e. indulgence, pardon. Mrs. MONTAGUE. With things forgotten." Kind gentlemen, your pains Are register'd where every day I turn The leaf to read them.--Let us toward the king. Think upon what hath chanc'd; and, at more time, The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak Our free hearts each to other. Ban. Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends. Very gladly. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Fores. A Room in the Palace. Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, and Attendants. Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet return'd? My liege, Mal. Dun. There's no art, my dull brain was wrought With things forgotten.] My head was worked, agitated, put into commotion. 8 To find the mind's construction in the face:] Dr. Johnson seems to have understood the word construction in this place in He was a gentleman on whom I built Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS. The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before, To overtake thee. 'Would thou hadst less deserv'd; Are to your throne and state, children, and servants; thing Safe toward your love and honour. Dun. Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing.9-Noble Banquo, That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known No less to have done so, let me infold thee, And hold thee to my heart. Ban. The harvest is your own. Dun. There if I grow, My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves the sense of frame or structure; but the school-term was, I believe, intended by Shakspeare. The meaning is--We cannot construe or discover the disposition of the mind by the lineaments of the face. MALONE. 9 full of growing.] Is, exuberant, perfect, complete in thy growth. Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter, But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you: I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful Dun. My worthy Cawdor! 2 Macb. The prince of Cumberland! That is a step, On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap, [Aside. For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [Exit. Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant; And in his commendations I am fed; It is a banquet to me. Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: It is a peerless kinsman. 1 Let us after him, [Flourish. Exeunt. hence to Inverness,] Dr. Johnson observes, in his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, that the walls of the castle of Macbeth, at Inverness, are yet standing. STEEVENS. 2 The prince of Cumberland!] The crown of Scotland was originally not hereditary. When a successor was declared in the life-time of a king (as was often the case,) the title of Prince of Cumberland was immediately bestowed on him as the mark of his designation. Cumberland was at that time held by Scotland of the crown of England, as a fief. |