Hear not my fteps, which way they walk,5 for fear Whoever has been reduced to the neceffity of finding his way about a houfe in the dark, muft know that it is natural to take large rides, in order to feel before us whether we have a safe footing or not. The ravisher and murderer would naturally take fuch frides, not only on the fame account, but that their fteps might be fewer in number, and the found of their feet be repeated as feldom as poffible. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's obfervation is confirmed by many inftances that occur in our ancient poets. So, in a paffage by J. Sylvefter, cited in England's Parnaffus, 1600: "Anon he talketh with an easy ftride, Again, in our author's King Richard II: "Nay rather every tedious ftride I make-." Thus alfo the Roman poets: แ -veftigia furtim Sufpenfo digitis fert taciturna gradu." Ovid. Fafti. “Eunt taciti per mæfta filentia magnis Paffibus." Statius, lib. x. It is obfervable, that Shakspeare, when he has occafion, in his Rape of Lucrece, to defcribe the action here alluded to, uses a fimilar expreffion; and perhaps would have used the word ftride, if hẹ had not been fettered by the rhime: Iuto the chamber wickedly he talks." Plaufible, however, as this emendation may appear, the old reading, fides, is, I believe, the true one; I have therefore adhered to it on the fame principle on which I have uniformly proceeded throughout my edition, that of leaving the original text undisturbed, whenever it could be juftified either by comparing our author with himself or with contemporary writers. The following paffage in Marlowe's tranflation of Ovid's ELEGIES, 8vo. no date, but printed about 1598, adds fupport to the reading of the old copy: "I faw when forth a tired lover went, "His fide past service, and his courage spent." Again, in Martial: Tu tenebris gaudes; me ludere, tefte lucerna, Et juvat admiffa rumpere luce latus. Our poet may himself alfo furnish us with a confirmation of the old reading; for in Troilus and Creffida, we find— You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors." Thy very ftones prate of my where-about, It may likewise be observed that Falstaff in the fifth act of The Merry Wives of Windfor fays to Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, "Divide me like a bribe buck, each a haunch: I will keep my fides to myself," &c. Falftaff certainly did not think them, like thofe of Ovid's lover, past service; having met one of the ladies by affiguation. I believe, however, a line has been loft after the words ftealthy pace." MALONE. Mr. Malone's reafons &c. for this fuppofitión (on account of their length) are given at the conclufion of the play, with a reference to the foregoing obfervations. How far a Latinifm, adopted in the English verfion of a Roman poet; or the mention of loins (which no didionary acknowledges as a fynonyme to fides), can juftify Mr. Malone's reftoration, let the judicious reader determine. Falftaff, dividing himself as a buck, very naturally fays he will give away his beft joints, and keep the worft for himself. A-fide of venifon is at once an eftablished term, and the leaft elegant part of the carcafe fo divided-But of what use could fides, in their Ovidian fenfe, have been to Falftaff, when he had already. parted with his haunches? It is difficult to be ferious on this occafion. I may therefore be pardoned if I obferve that Tarquin, juft as he pleased, might have walked with moderate Ateps, or lengthened them into frides; but, when we are told that he carried his "fides" with him, it is natural to ask how he could have gone any where without them. Nay, further, However fides (according to Mr. Malone's interpretation of the word) might have proved efficient in Lucretia's bedchamber, in that of Duncan they could answer no fuch purpose, as the lover and the murderer fucceed by the exertion of very different organs. I am, in fhort, of the Fool's opinion in King Lear "That going (hould be us'd with feet," and, confequently, that fides are out of the queftion. Such reflorations of fuperannuated miftakes put our author into the condition of Cibber's Lady Dainty, who, having been cured of her disorders, one of her phyficians fays" Then I'll make her go over them again." STEEVENS. With Tarquin's ravishing &c.] The juftness of this militude is not very obvious. But a flanza, in his poem of Tarquin and Lu crece, will explain it: "Now tole upon the time the dead of night, "When heavy fleep had clos'd up mortal eyes; ( And take the present horror from the time, Which now fuits with it.'-Whiles I threat, he lives; Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.8 No noife but owls' and wolves' dead-boding cries; -Thou fure and firm-fet earth,] WARBURTON. The old copy-Thou Joure &c. which, though an evident corruption, directs us to the reading I have ventured to fubftitute in its room. So, in A& IV. fc. iii : "Great tyranny, lay thou thy bafis fure." STEEVENS. which way they walk,] The folió reads: which they may walk,— STEEVENS. Corre&ed by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. Thy very ftones prate of my where-about] The following paffage in a play which has been frequently mentioned, and which Langbaine fays was very popular in the time of queen Elizabeth, A Warning for faire Women, 1599, perhaps fuggefted this thought: Mountains will not fuffice to cover it, "Cimmerian darkneffe cannot fhadow.it, "Nor any policy wit hath in fiore, "Cloake it fo cunningly, but at the last, "If nothing elfe, yet will the very ones "That lie within the ftreet, cry out for vengeance, 7 And take the prefent horror from the time, MALONE. Which now fuils with it.] i. e. left the noife from the flones take away from this midnight season that present horror which suits fo well with what is going to be acted in it. What was the horror he means? Silence, than which nothing can be more horrid to the perpetrator of an atrocious defign. This shows a great knowledge of human nature. WARBURTON. Whether to take horror from the time means not rather to catch it as communicated, than to deprive the time of horrour, deferves to be confidered. JOHNSON. The latter is furely the true meaning. Macbeth would have nothing break through the univerfal filence that added fuch a horror to the night, as fuited well with the bloody deed he was about to perform. Mr. Burke, in his Efay on the Sublime and Beautiful, I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. obferves, that "all general privations are great, because they are all terrible ;" and, with other things, he gives filence as an inftance, illuftrating the whole by that remarkable paffage in Virgil, where amidst all the images of terror that could be united, the circumftance of filence is particularly dwelt upon : "Dii quibus imperium eft animarum, umbrææque filentes, "Et Chaos Phlegethon, loca no&e filentia late.” When Statius in the Vth book of the Thebaid defcribes the Lemnian maffacre, his frequent notice of the filence and folitude both before and after the deed, is ftriking in a wonderful degree: "Conticuere domus," &c. STEEVENS. In confirmation of Steevens's ingenious note on this paffage, it may be observed, that one of the circumfiances of horror enumerated by Macbeth is,-Nature feems dead. M. MASON. ་ "Obfervata sequor per no&tem, lumine luftro. “Horror ubique animos, fimul ipfa filentia terrent.” Dryden's well-known lines, which expofed him to fo much ridicule, "An horrid fillness firft invades the ear, "And in that filence we the tempeft hear," fhow, that he had the fame idea of the awfulness of filence as our poet. MALONE. Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.] Here is evi dently a falfe concord; but it must not be correded, for it is neceffary to the rhyme. Nor is this the only place in which Shakspeare has facrificed grammar to rhyme. In Cymbeline, the fong in Cloten's ferenade runs thus: "Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate fings, "And Phoebus 'gins to rife, "His feeds to water at those springs "On chalic'd flowers that lies.' And Romeo fays to Friar Lawrence: 9 "both our remedies "Within thy help and holy phyfic lies." M. MASON. -it is a knell That fummons thee to heaven, or to hell.] Thus Raleigh, speaking of love, in England's Helicon, 4to. 1600: SCENE II. The fame. Enter Lady MACBETH. LADY M. That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold: What hath quench'd them, hath given me fire :Hark! Peace! It was the owl that fhriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the ftern'ft good-night." He is a bout it: 2 The doors are open; and the furfeited-grooms Do mock their charge with fnores: drugg'd their poffets,4 "It is perhaps that fauncing bell, "That toules all into heauen or hell." Sauncing is probably a mistake for facring. STEEVENS. It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, I have Which gives the ftern'ft good-night.] Shakspeare has here improved on an image he probably found in Spenfer's Faerie Queene, V. vi. 27: The native bellman of the night, "The bird that warned Peter of his fall, "First rings his filver bell t'each fleepy wight." STEEVENS. It was the owl that shriek'd; the fatal bellman,] So, in King Richard 11I : 3 "Out on ye, owls! nothing but fongs of death!" MALONE. the furfeited grooms Do mock their charge with fnores:] i. e. By going to fleep, they trifle and make light of the truft repofed in them, that of watching by their king. So, in Othello: "O miftress, villainy hath made mocks with love." MALONE. their poffets,] It appears from this paffage, as well as |