82. sbag-bair'd. This is Steevens's conjectural emendation for shag-ear'd,' which is the reading of the folio, and it is a more suitable epithet for the stage murderer, whose features are almost concealed under his shock of wild hair. We have the same epithet in 2 Henry VI. iii. 1. 367:

'Like a shag-hair'd crafty kern.'

Ib. you egg! Compare Love's Labour's Lost, v. I. 78, where Costard calls little Moth thou pigeon-egg of discretion.' Thersites, in Troilus and Cressida, v. 1. 41, applies to Patroclus the term 'finch-egg,' expressive of his utter insignificance, moral smallness. He had just spoken of such waterflies, diminutives of nature.'

84. fry. A change of metaphor, suggested by the preceding egg.' Compare Pericles, ii. I. 34: 'A' [i. e. the whale] plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful.'

Scene III.

Before the King's palace. So Dyce. Former editors generally gave' A room in the King's Palace.' The words in line 140, Comes the king forth, I pray you?' seem to support the change. As usual there is no indication of place in the folio. The scene which follows is grounded on Holinshed. See the passage printed at length in the Preface. The poet no doubt felt that it was needed to supplement the meagre parts assigned to Malcolm and Macduff.

3. mortal, deadly. See King John, iii. 1. 259:

France, thou mayst hold a serpent by the tongue,
The chafed lion by the mortal paw,

A fasting tiger safer by the tooth,

Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold.'

Ib. good men, brave men. See Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5. 197: 'I knew thy grandsire,

And once fought with him: he was a soldier good.'

4. birthdom, spelt 'birthdome' in the folios, whence Johnson conjectured birth-dame.' Pope printed birth-doom.' 'Birthdom' is formed on the analogy of kingdom,' 'earldom, masterdom,' i. 5. 68, with this difference that king,' 'earl,' 'master,' designate persons, and birth' a condition. the termination '-dom' is connected with doom,' and 'kingdom' signifies the extent of a king's jurisdiction. It loses its original force when joined to adjectives, as in 'freedom,' ' wisdom,' &c., and is then equivalent to the German -beit, in Weisheit, Freiheit, our '-hood.' 'Birthdom' here does not, as we think, signify 'birthright,' but the land of our birth,' now struck down and prostrate beneath the usurper's feet. Compare 2 Henry IV. i. 1. 207, where the Archbishop of York, urging the people to deliver their country from Henry's tyranny,

Tells them he doth bestride a bleeding land,
Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke.'

6. Strike heaven on the face. A somewhat similar hyperbole occurs in The

Tempest, i. 2. 4:

'But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out.'

Again, The Merchant of Venice, ii. 7. 45:

"The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head
Spits in the face of heaven.

We have also the face of heaven' in Richard III. iv. 4. 239;
cheeks of heaven' in Richard II. iii. 3. 57.
heaven' in i. 3. 275, and the searching eye
same play.

Ib. that. Compare i. 2. 58 ; i. 7. 8.

'the cloudy

The sun is called the eye of of heaven' in iii. 2. 37, of the

8. syllable. Pope changed this to 'syllables,' unnecessarily. A single cry, the expression of grief of each new widow and orphan is in each case reechoed by heaven.

Ib. dolour, frequently used by Shakespeare. See, for example, Richard II. i. 3. 257:

To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart.'

10. As I shall find the time to friend. Compare Julius Cæsar, iii. 1. 143:

'I know that we shall have him well to friend,'

and All's Well that Ends Well, v. 3. 182:

Sir, for my thoughts, you have them ill to friend
Till your deeds gain them.'

For the construction see The Tempest, iii. 3.54:

'Destiny

That hath to instrument this lower world.'

So we find frequently in the Bible to wife' with the verbs have,' give,' take,' &c. The verb is used in Henry V. iv. 5. 17:

'Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now!' The phrase 'at friend' occurs in Winter's Tale, v. I. 140: 'Give you all greetings that a king, at friend,

Can send his brother.'

11. What you have spoke, it. So Richard II. v. 5. 18:

Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot.'

And King John, v. 7. 60: Heaven, he knows.' And 2 Henry IV. i. 1. 199: This word, rebellion, it had froze them up.'

12. whose sole name, whose mere name, whose name alone. So in Comedy of Errors, iii. 2. 64: My sole earth's heaven,' where' sole' really qualifies 'heaven,' not 'earth,' which it immediately precedes. Compare the phrase in the Collect for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity: of whose only gift it cometh,' &c.

Ib. blisters our tongues. Compare Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2. 90:
Blister'd be thy tongue

For such a wish!'

Compare also Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 335; and Winter's Tale, ii. 2. 33. The very name of the tyrant, once thought honest and proved to be so much the contrary, blisters the tongue that utters it as if it were in itself a lie.

15. deserve. 'discerne.'

This is Theobald's certain emendation for the folio reading

Ib. and wisdom. There is certainly some corruption of the text here. Hanmer read ''tis' for 'and.' Steevens proposed and wisdom is it,' omitting Staunton suggests and wisdom bids'; Lettsom, Perhaps a whole line has dropped out.

the previous words,' of him.'

'and wisdom Would offer.'

19. recoil. Here used, not in its usual sense of rebounding on the removal of pressure, but meaning to yield, give way, swerve. So also in v. 2. 23. Compare Cymbeline, i. 6. 128:

'Be revenged;

Or she that bore you was no queen, and you
Recoil from your great stock.'

Perhaps Shakespeare had in his mind the recoil of a gun, which suggested the use of the word 'charge,' though with a different signification. Compare 2 Henry VI. iii. 2. 331:

And these dread curses, like the sun 'gainst glass,

Or like an overcharged gun, recoil

And turn the force of them upon thyself."

The general sense of the present passage is, ‘A virtuous nature may give way under the weight of a king's command.' Imperial' is frequently used for 'royal,' as i. 3. 129, and in Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 163, Elizabeth is alluded to as the imperial votaress.'

21. transpose, invert, change. This word is only used by Shakespeare in one other passage, Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1. 233:

'Things base and vile, holding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity.'

23. would, for should.' See i. 7. 34, and note.

24. look so, i. e. look gracious, like herself. Compare Measure for Measure, ii. 1. 297:

'Mercy is not itself that oft looks so,'

i. e. looks like mercy.

Ib. I have lost my hopes. Macduff had hoped that he should be received by Malcolm with full confidence. Failing this, all his hopes of a successful enterprise against the tyrant are gone. Malcolm replies: "Your disappointment is due to your own conduct in leaving your wife and children, which has given rise to distrust in my mind.'

26. rawness, haste, unpreparedness. Compare Henry V. iv. 1. 147: 'children rawly left,' i. e. children hastily left. So Tennyson:

Raw haste, half sister to delay.'

27. motives, frequently applied by Shakespeare to persons, as in Timon of Athens, v. 4. 27:

'Nor are they living

Who were the motives that you first went out.'

So also All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 4. 20.

34. The title. Pope read 'His title,' and Malone Thy title.' No change is required.

Ib. affeer'd. This suggestion of Heath. 'afear'd;' the fourth

spelling was first given by Steevens, 1793, on the The first and second folios have affear'd'; the third afeard.' Some editors have taken this in the sense

of 'afraid'; but no satisfactory interpretation can be thus arrived at, even if we read with Malone, Thy title,' and suppose the words to be addressed to Malcolm. Sidney Walker conjectured 'assur'd' or affirm'd,' quite unnecessarily. 'Affeer'd' bears the sense of confirmed.' In Cowel's Law Dictionary, s. v. we read: 'Affeerers may probably be derived from the French affier, that is, affirmare, confirmare, and signifies in the common law such as are appointed in Court-Leets, upon oath, to set the fines on such as have committed faults arbitrarily punishable, and have no express penalty appointed by the statute.' To affeer,' says Ritson, himself a lawyer, 'is to assess, or reduce to certainty.'

37. to boot, in addition. So 2 Henry IV. iii. 1. 29:

'With all appliances and means to boot.'

'Boot' comes from Anglo-Saxon bót, profit, advantage. The impersonal verb 'it boots,' 'it boots not,' is frequent in Shakespeare. For the substantive, see Richard II. i. 1. 164, and 1 Henry VI. iv. 6. 52.

43. gracious England, i. e. King Edward. Compare King John, ii. I. 52:

'What England says, say briefly, gentle lord.' So Prospero says of himself, Tempest, v. 1. 86: As I was sometime Milan.' 48. more sundry, more various.

52. open'd, i. e. like buds.

55. confineless, boundless. A word not found elsewhere.Harms' is used either, as here, for injuries inflicted, or for injuries received, as Richard III. ii. 2. 103:

'But none can cure their harms by wailing them.' 57. top, excel, overtop, surpass, as King Lear, i. 2. 21:

'Edmund the base

Shall top the legitimate.'

58. Luxurious, always, as here, used by Shakespeare in the sense of luxuriosus in patristic Latin, and the French luxurieux, i. e. the adjective corresponding to luxure, not luxe. This sense of the word is now obsolete. In the modern sense we find it as early as Beaumont and Fletcher, and in Milton it has always either the modern sense or that of luxuriant.' 59. Sudden, violent, passionate. See 2 Henry IV. iv. 4. 34 : 'As humorous as winter, and as sudden

As flaws congealed in the spring of day.'

64. continent, restraining. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1. 262: 'Contrary to thy established proclaimed edict and continent canon.' In King Lear, iii. 2. 58, the word is found as a substantive:

'Rive your concealing continents.'

And in Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 92,

Have every pelting river made so proud

That they have overborne their continents,'

we have the same figure which is used in the present passage.

66. Steevens, for the sake of the metre, proposed to leave out 'Boundless.' But when a line is divided between two speakers, it frequently is in defect or

excess.

66, 67. Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny. Delius takes the clause thus: Boundless intemperance is a tyranny in nature.' If the words

are to be construed in this order, we should interpet them thus: 'intemperance is of the nature of a tyranny,' remembering Julius Cæsar, ii. 1. 69

The state of man,

Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an insurrection.'

Or we may join intemperance in nature,' and interpret' want of control over the natural appetites.' The former seems preferable. In any case 'tyranny here means 'usurpation,' in consequence of which the rightful king loses his throne. See our note on iii. 6. 25.

69. yet, notwithstanding. Compare 2 Henry IV. iii. 1. 41 :

It is but as a body yet distemper'd ;'

where we should have said yet but' or ' but yet.'

71. Convey, conduct, direct. It is used in the same sense, King Lear, i. 2. 109: 'I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal.' Mr. Collier's MS. Corrector altered the word to the common place 'Enjoy.' Something of secrecy and contrivance is implied in convey.

72. the time you may so hoodwink, you may thus blind your contemporaries to your faults. We have the time' in the same sense, i. 5. 61. For 'hoodwink,' compare All's Well that Ends Well, iii. 6. 26: We will bind and hoodwink him.' Johnson, in his Dictionary, s. v. from Ben Jonson :

So have I seen at Christmas sports one lost

And hoodwink'd, for a man embrace a post ;'

where the reference is to the game of 'hoodman blind,' our 'blindman's buff.' Perhaps it was originally a term of falconry, the hawks being hooded in the intervals of sport. In Latham's Falconry, published 1615, 1618, 'to hood' is the term used for the blinding, to unhood,' for the unblinding.

77. ill-composed, compounded of evil qualities. We have the opposite in Troilus and Cressida, iv. 4. 79:

The Grecian youths are full of quality;

They're loving, well composed with gifts of nature.'

Ib. affection, disposition, inclination. Compare The Merchant of Venice, i. 2. 41: According to my description, level at my affection.'

78. stanchless, insatiate, insatiable.

80. bis jewels, that is, one man's jewels. Compare Sonnet, xxix. 6:

Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd';

where him... him' are equivalent to 'one . . . another.' Compare also The Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 54 (Globe ed.).

82. forge, fabricate. Compare Richard II. iv. 1. 40:

And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,
Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.'

86. summer-seeming, befitting, or looking like, summer. Avarice is compared to a plant which strikes its roots deep and lasts through every season; lust to an annual which flourishes in summer and then dies. Theobald read' summer-teeming,' and Heath conjectured summer-seeding,' but there does not appear to be any necessity for altering the text. Donne, in his Love's Alchymy, uses the compound winter-seeming ':

6

So, lovers dreame a rich and long delight,
But get a winter-seeming summers night.'