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.'

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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 spell 'clipt.' 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. I. 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. I. 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 olkovрós, Aristophanes, Vespæ, 970.

99. addition. Compare i. 3. 106.

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 BouleTaι dioтával. 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 'near'st.'

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.'

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.'

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. following, than with a noun.

More frequently used in this sense with a verb
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.

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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 is 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. In modern English, 'we will.' Compare iii. 2. 29; iv. 3. 220; v. 8. 60.

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. 1. 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 3 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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Shakespeare's manner. Mr. Collier's MS. Corrector adopts Johnson's conjecture, but with a different punctuation, thus:

that is, I will acquaint you with the time by means of a perfect spy,' viz. the third murderer, who appears in scene 3. For spy,' Mr. Bailey proposes 'span.' Steevens takes acquaint you' as the imperative, acquaint yourselves.'

130. on't may either mean of the time' or of the deed.' 131. something, somewhat. See Winter's Tale, v. 3. 23: Comes it not something near?'

Ib. from, away from, remote from. Compare 1 Henry IV. iii. 2. 31: 'Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.'

See also iv. 3. 212.

131, 132. always thought That I require a clearness, it being always borne in mind that I require to be kept clear from suspicion. 'Thought' here is the participle passive put absolutely.

133. rubs, hindrances, impediments, roughnesses, imperfections in the work. See King John, iii. 4. 128:

Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub,
Out of the path,'

and Richard II. iii. 4. 4: The world is full of rubs.' See our note on the last passage.

137. Resolve yourselves, make up your minds. So Winter's Tale, v. 3. 86: 'Resolve you

For more amazement.'

139. straight, straightway. See The Merchant of Venice, ii. 9. 1:

Quick, quick, I pray thee; draw the curtain straight.'

Scene II.

3. attend his leisure, await his leisure. Compare iii. I. 45.

8. keep alone. Compare iii. I. 43.

9. sorriest. See ii. 2. 20.

10. Using, keeping company with, entertaining familiarly. Compare Pericles, i. 2. 3:

'Why should this change of thoughts,

The sad companion, dull-eyed melancholy,

Be my so used a guest as not an hour

In the day's glorious walk or peaceful night,

The tomb where grief should sleep, can breed me quiet?'

We have the Greek Xpñolaι and the Latin uti with a similar meaning.
II. without all remedy. We should say 'without any remedy' or 'beyond
all remedy.' For without' in the sense of beyond,' see Midsummer
Night's Dream, iv. 1. 150:

'Without the peril of the Athenian law.'

This metaphorical sense comes immediately from that of outside of' as 'without the city,' without the camp.' For all' compare Spenser, Hymn of Heavenly Love, line 149:

'Without all blemish or reproachful blame.'

13. scotch'd. So Theobald corrected the scorch'd' of the folios. We have the word in Coriolanus, iv. 5. 198: He scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.' 'Scorch'd' is said to be derived from the French escorcher, to strip off the bark or skin. From the next line it is clear that we want a word with a stronger sense here.

14. The snake is spoken of as feminine in Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1.255:

'And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin.'

Ib. poor, feeble, insufficient. Compare i. 6. 16.

15. of her former tooth, must mean of her tooth as before,' of the tooth she had in her former state, before she was 'scotched.'

16. frame of things, the ordered universe, the 'cosmos.'

1 Henry IV. iii. 1. 16:

'At my birth

The frame and huge foundation of the earth

Shaked like a coward.'

See also Hamlet, ii. 2. 310: This goodly frame, the earth.'

Compare

Ib. both the worlds, the terrestrial and celestial. Compare Hamlet, iv. 5. 134, where the meaning is different, viz. this world and the next :'

'I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
That both the worlds I give to negligence,

Let come what comes.'

Ib. suffer, i. e. perish. Compare The Tempest, i. 2. 6:

'O, I have suffer'd

With those that I saw suffer,'

where the word is used in two senses.

18, 19. Those who have seen Miss Helen Faucit play Lady Macbeth will remember how she shuddered at the mention of the terrible dreams,' with which she too was shaken. The sleep-walking scene, v. 1, was doubtless in the poet's mind already.

20. to gain our peace. The second and following folios read to gain our place.' Mr. Keightley reads 'seat'; Mr. Bailey conjectures 'pangs.' There is no necessity to make any change. For the first 'peace' compare iii. 1. 47, 48:

To be thus is nothing;

But to be safely thus'; and for the second, iv. 3. 179 and note.

21. The torture of the mind' is compared to the rack; hence the use of the preposition 'on.'

22. ecstasy is said of any mental disturbance, whether caused by joy or grief. Compare iv. 3. 170, and Hamlet, iii. 4. 138, 139.

23. A fitful fever' is an intermittent fever.

Measure, iii. 1. 75:

Compare Measure for

'Lest thou a feverous life should'st entertain.'

25. Malice domestic, such as the treason of Macdonwald; foreign levy, such as the invasion of Sweno.

27. Gentle my lord. So we have 'Good my lord,' frequently; 'Dear my lord,' Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 150; Poor my lord,' Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2. 98; Gracious. my lord,' v. 5. 30, of this play.

Ib. sleek o'er, smooth o'er. Sleek' is not used as a verb elsewhere in Shakespeare. In Milton's Comus, 882, we have:

'Sleeking her soft alluring locks.'

The word, verb or adjective, is almost always applied to the hair.

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28. jovial. This word is a relic of the old belief in planetary influence; we have other examples in 'saturnine,'' mercurial,' 'lunatic.' The same faith in the influence of the stars survives in disastrous," "ill-starred," ascendancy," "lord of the ascendant," and indeed in "influence" itself.' (Trench, on the History of Words, p. 126.) Compare Cymbeline, v. 4. 105, where Jupiter says:

'Our jovial star reign'd at his birth.'

29. So shall I, so will I. Compare iii. 1. 126.

30. remembrance; to be pronounced as a quadrisyllable, as in Twelfth Night, i. I. 32:

See i. 5. 37.

And lasting in her sad remembrance.'

Ib. apply, attach itself, be specially devoted.

So in Bacon, Essay lii.

p. 211, To apply ones selfe to others, is good: so it be with demonstration, that a man doth it upon regard and not upon facilitie.' Compare also Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2. 126:

'If you apply yourself to our intents,

Which towards you are most gentle, you shall find

A benefit in this change,'

where we should say: If you adapt or accommodate yourself.'

31. Present him eminence, show that you place him in the highest rank. Observe that Lady Macbeth as yet knows nothing of her husband's designs against Banquo's life.

32. Unsafe the while, that we. This line is imperfect both in construction and in metre: something has doubtless dropt out, and perhaps also the words which remain are corrupt. Steevens' suggestion is tame :

Unsafe the while it is for us, that we,' &c.

The words should express a sense both of insecurity and of humiliation in the thought of the arts required to maintain their power.

33. must lave our honours. Must keep our royal dignities unsullied by flattering Banquo and those who are formidable to us.

34. vizard, visard, or visor, from the French visière, the front part of a helmet protecting the face; hence, a mask. Cotgrave has Masqué, masked, disguised, wearing a visor.'

35. leave, cease, leave off. Compare Richard II. v. 2. 4: leave?'

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Where did I

37. lives. We should say 'live.' See note on i. 3. 147. 38. But in them Nature's copy's not eterne. The deed by which man holds life of Nature gives no right to perpetual tenure. Nature is here compared to a lord of the manor under whom men hold their lives by copyhold tenure. Copyhold, Tenura per copiam rotuli curiæ, is a tenure for which the tenant hath nothing to shew but the copy of the rolls made by the steward of his lord's court. . Some copyholds are fineable at will, and some certain that which is fineable at will, the lord taketh at his pleasure.' (Cowel's Law Dictionary, s. v.) Monck Mason takes Nature's copy' to