4. stand, stay, continue.

ACT III.

Scene I.

See Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1.417:

And the blots of Nature's hand

Shall not in their issue stand.'

7. shine. Because they prophesied to Macbeth the lustre with which he is now invested.

10. Sennet. Spelt in the folios 'senit.' It is also found variously written 'cynet,' 'signet,' 'signate,' and 'senate' (Webster, p. 6, ed. 1857). It is a technical term for a particular set of notes played by trumpets or cornets, and different from a 'flourish.' 'Trumpets sound a flourish and then a sennet (Decker, Satiromastix); and 'The cornets sound a cynet' (Marston, Antonio's Revenge, ii. 1. init.). The word does not occur in the text of Shakespeare, and its derivation is doubtful.

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13. all-thing. So written in the first folio. The second has all-things'; the third and fourth all things.' All-thing' seems to be used as an adverb meaning 'in every way': compare something,' 'nothing.' In Robert of Gloucester, p. 69 (ed. Hearne), alle ping' appears to be used for altogether': As wommon dep hire child alle ping mest.' Again, in p. 48, where Hearne prints 'Ac po nolde not Cassibel, þat heo schulde allyng faile,' Lord Mostyn's MS. has alþynge,' meaning altogether.'

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14. solemn, formal, official. See Titus Andronicus, ii. 1. 112:

'My lord, a solemn hunting is in hand.'

15. Let. Rowe altered this to 'Lay,' and Monck Mason proposed 'Set.' The phrase 'command upon me,' for 'lay your commands upon me,' does not seem unnatural, though we know of no other instance in which it is employed.

16. The antecedent to which' is the idea contained in the preceding clause. 'Which' is frequently used with the definite article.

21. still, always, constantly. See The Merchant of Venice, i. I. 17; i. 1. 136; and The Tempest, i. 2. 229.

Ib. grave, well-weighed, weighty. So Pericles, v. 1. 184:

Thou art a grave and noble counsellor,'

where 'grave' does not apply to the aspect or manner.

3.20:

"With politic grave counsel.'

'Enrich'd

Ib. prosperous, followed by a prosperous issue.

So Richard III. ii.

22. we'll take to-morrow, we'll take to-morrow for our conversation; an ellipsis which we still use colloquially. Malone read 'talk' for 'take,' and Keightley take 't.'

25. go not my horse, if my horse go not. Compare Richard II. ii. 1. 300: 'Hold out my horse, and I will first be there.'

Ib. the better, the better, considering the distance he has to go. Stowe, in his Survey of London (ed. 1618, p. 145, misquoted by Malone), says of tilting at the quintain, 'hee that hit it full, if he rid not the faster, had a sound blow in his necke, with a bagge full of sand hanged on the other end;' where the meaning is, if he rid not the faster because he had hit it full,' &c.

27. twain, Anglo-Saxon twegen, nom. and acc. masc. The fem. and neut. form is twa. 'Twain' is frequently used by Shakespeare and in the Authorized Version. See for example Richard II. i. 1. 50, and St. Matthew v.41. 29. are bestow'd, are settled, placed. Compare Othello, iii. 1. 57, and iii. 6. 24, of this play.

31. parricide, used in the sense of parricidium as well as parricida. The only other passage in Shakespeare in which it is found is King Lear, ii. 1. 48, where it means the latter.

33, 34. When, besides the question of Malcolm and Donalbain's intrigues, we shall have business of state requiring our joint attention.

33. cause, a subject of debate. In iv. 3. 196, the general cause means the public interest,' and in Troilus and Cressida, v. 2. 143, it is used for 'dispute,'' argument':

'O madness of discourse,

That cause sets up with and against itself!'

38. I do commend you to their backs is said jestingly, with an affectation of formality.

41, 42. The punctuation in the text was first given by Theobald, and doubtless rightly, for it is solitude which gives a zest to society, not the being master of one's time. Delius, however, keeps the punctuation of the folios, which put a comma after 'night,' and a colon after 'welcome.'

42. It may be doubted whether welcome' is here a substantive, or an adjective agreeing with 'society.' We have the former construction in Timon of Athens, i. 2. 135:

'Music, make their welcome.'

If we took the latter, sweeter' would be used for the adverb 'sweetlier,' more sweetly.

Ib. ourself. Macbeth uses the royal style, as in line 78 of this scene. 43. while then, till then. Compare Richard II. iv. 1. 269:

Read o'er this paper while the glass doth come.'

So Whiles' in Twelfth Night, iv. 3. 29:

'He shall conceal it

Whiles you are willing it shall come to note.' See also Richard II. i. 3. 122, and our note on the passage.

47, 48. To be thus is nothing; But to be safely thus. To reign merely is nothing; but to reign in safety [is the thing to be desired]. Mr. Staunton, however, puts only a comma after 'nothing,' and interprets, To be a king is nothing, unless to be safely one.'

49. royalty of nature, royal, or kingly, nature. So we say nobility of

nature.'

51. to, in addition to.

See i. 6. 19.

55, 56. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 3. 19:

'Thy demon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is
Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable,

Where Cæsar's is not; but near him thy angel

Becomes a fear as being o'erpower'd,'

This is borrowed from North's Plutarch, Antonius (p. 926, lines 8-10, ed. 1631): For thy demon, said he, (that is to say, the good angell and spirit that keepeth thee) is afraid of his; and being couragious and high when he

is alone, becommeth fearfull and timorous when he cometh heare vnto the other.' For genius,' see Julius Cæsar, ii. 1. 65:

The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council.'

62. with was used formerly of the agent, where now we should rather say 'by.' Compare Winter's Tale, v. 2. 68: "He was torn to pieces with a bear.' We confine 'with' to the instrument, and still say with a hand,' 'with a sword'; but not 'with a man,' 'with a bear.' See also King John, ii. 1. 567 : 'Rounded in the ear

With that same purpose-changer.'

64. filed, defiled. This form is not elsewhere used by Shakespeare. It is found however frequently in other authors, as, for instance, in Spenser, Fairy Queen, iii. 1. 62:

'She lightly lept out of her filed bedd.'

Compare also Holland's Pliny, xiv. c. 19: 'If the grapes have been filed by any ordure or dung falne from above thereupon.'

66. vessel, derived through old French vaissel, from the Latin vasculum, vascellum. Its use here was probably suggested by St. Paul's words, Romans ix. 22, 23.

67. Delius interprets 'eternal jewel' to mean eternal happiness. But does it not rather mean 'immortal soul,' which Macbeth has sold to the Evil One? For 'eternal' in this sense compare King John, iii. 4. 18:

'Holding the eternal spirit against her will

In the vile prison of afflicted breath.'

70. list, nowhere else used in the singular by Shakespeare except in the more general sense of 'boundary,' as Hamlet, iv. 5. 99:

'The ocean overpeering of his list.'

lists.'

This seems to be the

For the space marked out for a combat he always uses
71. champion me, fight with me in single combat.
only known passage in which the verb is used in this sense.

Ib. to the utterance. Cotgrave has: Combatre à oultrance. To fight at sharpe, to fight it out, or to the vttermost; not to spare one another in fighting. Compare Cymbeline, iii. 1. 73:

'Behoves me keep at utterance,'

i. e. defend to the uttermost. So in Holland's Pliny, ii. 26: Germanicus Cæsar exhibited a shew of sword-fencers at utterance.'

Ib. The two murderers' here introduced are not assassins by profession, as is clear by what follows, but soldiers whose fortunes, according to Macbeth, have been ruined by Banquo's influence.

79. pass'd in probation with you, I proved to you in detail, point by point. The word 'passed' is used in the same sense as in the phrase 'pass in review.' For 'probation,' compare Measure for Measure, v 1. 156:

'What he with his oath

And all probation will make up full clear.'

80. borne in band, kept up by promises, which, it is implied, were never realized. Compare Hamlet, ii. 2. 67:

'Whereat grieved

That so his sickness, age, and impotence

Was falsely borne in hand.'

See also Cymbeline, v. 5. 43:

'Your daughter, whom she bore in hand to love.' So Surrey, Songs and Sonnets, xviii. line 53:

She is reversed clean, and beareth me in hand.'

82. notion, understanding. Compare King Lear, i. 4. 248: His notion weakens, his discernings

Are lethargied.'

87. gospell'd, instructed in the precepts of the Gospel. The reference is especially to Matthew v. 44: 'Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.'

88. To pray, as to pray.

See ii. 3. 32.

93. Shoughs or shocks, dogs with shaggy hair.

Ib. water-rugs, rough water-dogs.

Ib. demi-wolves, like the Latin lycisci, a cross between a dog and a wolf. Ib. clept. The folios spellclipt.' The word 'clepe' was becoming obsolete in Shakespeare's time. He uses it however in Hamlet, i. 4. 19: They clepe us drunkards.' In Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1. 23, it is used by Holofernes, 'he clepeth a calf, cauf.' The word is still used by children at play in the Eastern counties: they speak of 'cleping sides,' i. e. calling sides, at prisoners' base, &c. It is derived from Anglo-Saxon cleopian.

94. the valued file, the list in which items are distinguished according to their qualities, not a mere catalogue, but a catalogue raisonné. For 'file,' see iii. 1. 102, and v. 2. 8; and Measure for Measure, iii. 2. 144: The greater file of the subject held the Duke to be wise,' i. e. the upper classes or higher ranks held, &c.

96. bousekeeper, guardian of the house, watch-dog. In Topsell's History of Beasts (1658), the housekeeper' is enumerated among the different kinds of dogs. So olkovpós, Aristophanes, Vespæ, 970.

99. addition. Compare i. 3. 106.

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Ib. from. It seems more natural to connect from' with 'particular,' which involves the idea of distinction, than with 'distinguishes,' line 95, which is used absolutely in the sense of defines.'

99, 100. the bill That writes them all alike, is the same as the general 'catalogue,' line 92, the list in which they are written without any distinction. 101. file, the muster-roll, as in All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 3. 189: 'The muster-file, rotten and sound, upon my life amounts not to fifteen thousand poll.' The use of the word 'file' suggested the word 'rank,' so frequently used with it in describing soldiers drawn up in order.

104. takes . . . off. See i. 7. 20.

105. Grapples. Compare Hamlet, i. 3. 63:

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.'

107. Pope omitted my liege,' for the sake of the metre.

III. tugg'd with fortune, hardly used in wrestling with fortune. In King John, iv. 3. 146, we have 'tug and scamble,' and in Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 508: 'Let myself and fortune

Tug for the time to come.'

Warburton altered the line to

'So weary with disastrous tuggs with fortune.'

113. on, for 'of.' Compare i. 3. 84, and line 130 of this scene.

115. distance, alienation, hostility, variance. The word is not again used by the poet in this sense. Bacon uses it, Essays xv. p. 62: Generally, the dividing and breaking of all factions, and combinations that are adverse to the state, and setting them at distance, or at least distrust amongst themselves, is not one of the worst remedies.' To set at distance' exactly expresses the Greek διϊστάναι, as used in Aristophanes, Vespa, 41: τὸν δῆμον ἡμῶν Boúλetai diïorával. We still speak of distance of manner.'

116. The use of the word 'distance' suggested the idea of a single combat, where each party kept his distance. We have the same train of thought in

117. my near'st of life, my most vital parts. Compare Richard II. v. 1. 80: 'Sent back like Hallowmas or short'st of day.'

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And their first of manhood,' v. 2. II, of the present play. See also Measure for Measure, iii. 1. 17: Thy best of rest is sleep.' So Webster, The White Devil, p. 50. ed. Dyce, 1857: Defy the worst of fate.'

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119. bid my will avouch it, order that my will and pleasure be accepted as the justification of the deed. 'Avouch' or ' avow,' is from the French avouer, and the Low Latin advocare, to claim a waif or stray, to claim as a ward, to take under one's protection,' hence, to maintain the justice of a cause or the truth of a statement.' Compare Measure for Measure, iv. 2. 200: You will think you have made no offence, if the Duke avouch the justice of your dealing?' Compare v. 5. 47.

120. For, because of. More frequently used in this sense with a verb following, than with a noun. But see Coriolanus, ii. 2. 53: 'Leave nothing out for length.'

121. Whose loves. We should say whose love.' See our note on Richard II. iv. 1. 315. Compare iii. 2. 53, and v. 8. 61.

122. Who. Pope here, as in many other passages, altered Who' to 'Whom.' But there is no doubt that who' was in Shakespeare's time frequently used for the objective case, as it still colloquially. See notes on The Merchant of Venice, i. 2. 21, and ii. 6. 30: For who love I so much ?' And compare The Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. I. 200. See also iii. 4. 42, and iv. 3. 171, of the present play.

125. We shall.

3.220; v. 8. 60.

In modern English, 'we will.' Compare iii. 2. 29; iv.

127. Compare i. 2. 47, and Hamlet, iii. 4. 119:

Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep.'

Ib. Within. Pope read In,' and Steevens proposed to leave out 'at most.' 128. advise, instruct. See Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. I. 122:

'Advise me where I may have such a ladder.'

129. If the text be right, it may bear one of two meanings: first, I will acquaint you with the most accurate observation of the time, i. e. with the result of the most accurate observation; or secondly, the spy of the time' may mean the man who in the beginning of scene joins them by Macbeth's orders, and delivers their offices.' But we have no examples of the use of the word 'spy' in the former sense, and according to the second interpretation we should rather expect a perfect spy' than the perfect spy'; and so indeed Johnson conjectured we should read. 'The perfect'st spy' might also be suggested, or possibly the perfect'st eye,' a bold metaphor, not alien from

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