as a verb is more frequent. It is used in the old sense, Midsummer Night's Dream, v. I. 292:

'Quail, crush, conclude, and quell.'

It is derived from the same root askill,' viz. the Anglo-Saxon cwellan, of which the corresponding noun is cwal. We have the word 'man-queller' in 2 Henry IV. ii. 1. 58. The same compound is used by Wiclif for ' executioner,' in translating Mark vi. 27, and for murderer,' Acts xxviii. 4. 73. mettle. This is the same word as metal,' and in the old editions they are spelt indifferently in either sense. In modern times the former spelling is reserved to the word in its metaphorical meaning, the latter when it is used in the natural sense, but the two are sometimes so near together that it is difficult to distinguish between them. Compare Richard III. iv. 4. 302: They are as children but one step below, Even of your mettle, of your very blood.'

6

74. received, admitted, accepted as a truth. Compare Henry VIII. ii. 1.125: This from a dying man receive as certain.'

And Measure for Measure, i. 3. 16:

For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,

And so it is received.'

77. other, otherwise. Compare Othello, iv. 2. 13:

78. As, seeing that. We should be inclined to take other as' in the sense of otherwise than as,' if we could find an example to justify it.

79. settled, resolved. See Henry VIII. iii. 2. 22. 80. Each corporal agent, every faculty of the body. iii. 1. 16:

Compare Henry V.

Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height.'

'Bend up' is of course suggested by the stringing of a bow.
81. mock the time.

Compare i. 5. 61.

ACT II.

Scene I.

4. husbandry, economy. Compare Timon of Athens, ii. 2. 164: 'If you suspect my husbandry.'

And Troilus and Cressida, i. 2. 7. Husbandry,' like 'economy,' has first the sense of careful management, and then of thrift.

5. Their.

Note the plural, and compare Richard II. i. 2. 7:
'Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven :

Who, when they see the hours ripe on earth,
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads.'

See also Richard II. iii. 3. 17, 19; Hamlet, iii. 4 173; Othello, iv. 2. 47
In Richard III. iv. 4. 71, 72, we have the plural pronoun used with 'hell':
'Hell's black intelligencer,

Only reserved their factor.'

Ib. Compare The Merchant of Venice, v. 1. 220:

By these blessed candles of the night.'

'Night's candles are burnt out.'

And Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5. 9:

6

And Fairfax's Tasso, Bk. ix. st. 10:

'When heaven's small candles next shall shine.'

The original Italian has merely 'Di Notte.'

Ib. Take thee that too. Banquo hands to Fleance something else, a sword-belt or dagger, not lest he might be tempted to use them (as Elwin says), but because in a friend's house he was perfectly secure.

6. A beavy summons. The adjective is used here much as the adverb 'soundly,' i. 7. 63. Compare Tempest, ii. 1. 194:

'Alon.

I wish mine eyes

Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find
They are inclined to do so.

Seb.

Please you, sir,

Do not omit the heavy offer of it.'

7-9. Banquo says afterwards, line 20,

'I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters,'

and the cursed thoughts from which he prays to be delivered are doubtless the temptings of ambition. Banquo's character is made in every way a contrast to that of Macbeth; he prays to be delivered from entertaining even in dreams the plans which Macbeth was plotting to execute. Compare Lucrece," line 167.

14. largess. Compare Richard II. i. 4. 44.

Ib. offices, the part of the castle appropriated to the domestics.

There is no need to adopt Rowe's emendation, 'officers.' We have the same word in Richard II. i. 2. 69, 'unpeopled offices,' where the desolation of the Castle of Plashy is spoken of.

15. withal. See note, i. 3. 57.

which does not mend the matter much.

16. There is probably some omission here, because, if 'shut' be a participle, the transition is strangely abrupt. Hanmer read and 's shut up,' If we take shut' as the preterite, we require some other word to complete the sense, as shut up all,' or 'shut up the day.' 'Shut up' may however, like 'concluded,' be used intransitively. 19. Which. The antecedent is of course will.' Macbeth means: If we had been warned of Duncan's coming, our will would have had free scope in giving him entertainment, but it has now been fettered by want of preparation.

Ib. Hanmer read All's very well,' to complete the metre.

22. When we can prevail upon an hour of your time to be at our service. Macbeth's language is here that of exaggerated courtesy, which to the audience who are in the secret marks his treachery the more strongly. Now that the crown is within his grasp he seems to adopt the royal 'we' by anticipation.

6

6

25. If you shall adhere to my party, then, when the result is attained, it shall make honour for you. When 'tis' probably, means when that business (line 23) is effected.' If 'consent' be the right reading, it may be explained either as above, or as 'the plan I have formed.' Delius interprets 'my

consent' as 'an understanding with me.' Capell conjectured Malone, 'content'; Grant White, 'consort.'

'ascent';

28. My bosom franchised, i. e. free, as the context explains, from any obligations inconsistent with allegiance to the king. Compare Henry V.

ii. 2. 4:

'As if allegiance in their bosoms sat.'

And Richard II. ii. 3. 98.

Ib. clear, unstained. See i. 7. 18.

Compare i. 7. 61,

29. shall, as in iii. 4. 57. We should now use' will.' where, conversely, we 'll' is found where one would now say we shall.' 31. my drink. A posset commonly drunk just before going to bed. Compare line 6 of the next scene, and Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5. 180: 'Thou shalt eat a posset to-night at my house.' 32. She strike. 'That she strike' or 'strike' would have been the natural construction after 'bid.' She strike' would not have been used but for the intervening parenthesis.

6

36. sensible, capable of being perceived by the senses. Johnson gives as an example of this meaning from Hooker: By reason man attaineth unto the knowledge of things that are and are not sensible.' It does not appear to be used by Shakespeare elsewhere in this objective sense.

44, 45. Either the sight alone is deluded while the other senses judge correctly, or else the sight alone apprehends a reality which the others fail to perceive.

6

46. dudgeon, the handle of a dagger. Gerarde in his Herball, ed. 1597, p. 1225, speaking of the root of the box-tree, says Turners and cutlers, if I mistake not the matter, do call this woode dudgeon, whence they make dudgeon hafted daggers.' In the will of John Amell, dated 1473, quoted in Arnold's Chronicle, p. 245, ed. 1811, he bequeaths to his cousin and namesake all my stuf beyng in my shoppe, that is to saye, yuery, dogeon [i. e. dudgeon], horn, mapyll, and the toel yt belongeth to my crafte, as saues, anfeldis, hameres, rapis, filis, and other to werke wythal.' But the dagger itself is also called 'dudgeon,' and the only plausible derivations yet suggested are (1) the German degen, a sword, or, still better (2), dolchen, a dagger. Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) gives Dague à roelles. A Scottish dagger; or Dudgeon haft dagger.'

Ib. gouts, drops, from the French goutte, and, according to stage-tradition, so pronounced. Steevens quotes from The Art of Good Lyving, 1503, 'All herbys shall sweyt read goutys of water as blood.' And gowtyth' for droppeth' occurs in an Old English MS. (Halliwell, Archaic and Prov. Dict. s. v.). Gutty,' from the same root, is also used in English heraldry. 48. informs, gives information. Compare i. 5. 31.

49. the one balf-world, that is, half the world. Compare 1 Henry IV. iv. 1. 136: This one half year,' that is, this half year.

6

50. abuse, deceive. See note on iii. 4. 142.

51. This line wants a syllable. Rowe adopted Davenant's addition, 'now witchcraft,' and Steevens, perhaps rightly, guessed 'sleeper' for 'sleep.' 52. Hecate is to be pronounced as a dissyllable. Compare King Lear, i. I. 112:

'The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;'

Hecate's

and Hamlet, iii. 2. 269; and iii. 2. 41, iii. 5. 1, of this play. offerings' are offerings made to Hecate. They were made with certain rites, hence the use of the word 'celebrate.' See King Lear, ii. 1. 41, and compare act iii. scene 5 of the present play.

6

53. Alarum'd. We have this participle in King Lear, ii. 1. 55: My best alarum'd spirits.' 'Alarum' is formed from the French alarme, Italian alarma, a new syllable being introduced between the two liquids. The original word was doubtless Italian, all' arme. Shakespeare uses the three forms, alarum,' 'larum,' and 'alarm.' Compare v. 2. 4.

54. Whose bowl's his watch, who marks the periods of his night-watch by howling, as the sentinel by a cry. 55. Tarquin's ravishing strides. Lucrece, line 365:

This is Pope's emendation. Compare

Into the chamber wickedly he stalks.'

The folios here read sides,' which is adopted by Knight, He objects with Johnson that stride' is an action of violence, impetuosity, and tumult, like that of a savage rushing on his prey. But it is not so in Richard II. i. 3. 268. 'Every tedious stride I make

Will but remember me what a deal of world

I wander from the jewels that I love.'

The adjective is transferred, poetically, from Tarquin' to ' strides,' as 'heavy' in line 6 of this scene.

6

57. my steps, which way they walk. For this construction, so common in Greek, compare King Lear, i. I. 272: 'I know you, what you are.' See also Mark i. 24; Luke iv. 34. The reading of the text is Rowe's emendation for my steps, which they may walk,' the reading of the folios. 58. The very stones prate. Compare Luke xix 40, The stones would immediately cry out.' To Macbeth's guilty and fearful conscience his own footfall is interpreted thus. Compare Lucrece, 302-306:

'The locks between her chamber and his will,

Each one by him enforced retires his ward;

But, as they open, they all rate his ill,

Which drives the creeping thief to some regard;

The threshold grates the door to have him heard.'

Ib. my whereabout. So where' is used as a substantive, King Lear, i. 1. 264:

'Thou losest here a better where to find.'

And 'why' and 'wherefore,' Comedy of Errors, ii. 2. 45: They say, every why hath a wherefore.'

59. the present borror, the silence which then prevailed, suiting the time in which so horrible a deed was to be done.

60. Whiles. See i. 5. 6.

Ib. threat, threaten. Used in King John, iii. 1. 347, 'No more than he that threats,' and Richard II. iii. 3. 90.

61. Words...gives. In this construction there was nothing which would offend the ear of Shakespeare's contemporaries. There is here a double reason for it: first, the exigency of the rhyme; and secondly, the occurrence, between the nominative and verb, of two singular nouns, to which, as it were, the verb is attracted. See our note on Richard II. ii. 1. 158. But a general

sentiment, a truism indeed, seems feeble on such an occasion. Perhaps the line is an interpolation.

Scene II.

1. Lady Macbeth had had recourse to wine in order to support her courage. Her prayer to be unsexed' had been heard.

3, 4. the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern'st good-night. The full significance of this passage, which seems hitherto to have escaped the notice of commentators, may be best shewn by comparing the following lines from Webster's Duchess of Malfi, act iv. sc. 2, where Bosola tells the Duchess: 'I am the common bellman,

That usually is sent to condemn'd persons

The night before they suffer.'

Here, of course, Duncan is the condemned person. Compare also Spenser's Fairy Queen, v. 6. 27, where the cock is called the native belman of the night.' The owl is again mentioned, line 15, and in I Henry VI. iv. 2. 15: 'Thou ominous and fearful owl of death.'

5. grooms, menial servants of any kind. In Fairfax's Tasso, Bk. xiv. st. 49, 'grooms' are servants waiting at table, ministri in the original:

A hundred grooms, quick, diligent, and neat.'

This more general sense of the word is still traceable in the phrase 'groom of the chambers.' The word is supposed to be derived by a curious corruption from guma, a 'man,' in Anglo-Saxon, whence also bridegroom,' from bryd-guma. But there is in Dutch 'grom, a stripling, a groom' (Hexham's Dictionary), as also gromr in Icelandic, and it is probable that the form was used also in Anglo-Saxon, though not found in any extant literature.

6. possets. Malone quotes the following from Randle Holme's Academy of Armoury, Bk. iii. p. 84, 1688, Posset is hot milk poured on ale or sack, having sugar, grated bisket, eggs, with other ingredients boiled in it, which goes all to a curd.' See note on ii. I. 31.

7. That, so that. See i. 2. 58, i. 7. 25, and ii. 2. 23.

8. Macbeth fancies that he hears some noise (see line 14) and in his nervous excitement has not sufficient control over himself to keep silence. The word 'within' was added by Steevens. The folios make Macbeth enter before speaking, but it is clear that Lady Macbeth is alone while speaking the following lines.

IO, II. To attempt and not to succeed would ruin us. For confound,' see The Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 278:

'So keen and greedy to confound a man.'

12, 13. This touch of remorse, awakened by the recollection of her father, whom she had loved in the days of her early innocence, is well introduced, to make us feel that she is a woman still and not a monster.

20. a sorry sight, a sad sight. Sorry,' from the Anglo-Saxon sárig, is frequently attributed to inanimate things, as in 2 Henry VI. i. 4. 79. A sorry breakfast.' The stage direction 'looking on his hands' is not in the folios. It was added by Pope. See line 27.

24. address'd them, prepared themselves. Compare The Merchant of Venice, ii. 9. 19: ' And so have I address'd me.'