'medicine' in the modern sense. In the present passage it is of course Malcolm who is called 'the medicine of the sickly weal.'

27-29. For sickly weal' and the metaphor in l. 28, compare iii. 4. 76. 30. dew, bedew. The verb 'dew' is found 2 Henry VI. iii. 2. 340: 'Give me thy hand,

That I may dew it with my mournful tears.'

Ib. sovereign. Two ideas are suggested by the use of this epithet, royal or supreme, and powerfully remedial, the latter continuing the metaphor of lines 27-29. For the latter, compare Coriolanus, ii. 1. 127: The most sovereign prescription in Galen.'

Scene III.

1. let them fly all, let all the thanes fly from me.

3. taint, be infected. Compare Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 145: 'Lest the device take air and taint.' The word is rarely used, as in these two passages, intransitively, but there is no ground for suspecting the genuineness of the text, nor for adopting Sidney Walker's conjecture, I cannot faint with fear.' have something of the same metaphor in 3 Henry VI. iii. 1. 40:

'And Nero will be tainted with remorse.'

We

5. all mortal consequences, all that will befall men in the future, all the results of the present circumstances which surround men.

Ib. me here may either be dative or accusative, and the sense either 'The spirits have pronounced thus in my case,' or 'The spirits have pronounced me to be thus circumstanced.'

7. have power upon. Compare The Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1. 238: 'No more; unless the next word that thou speak'st Have some malignant power upon my life.'

8. the English epicures. Gluttony was a common charge brought by the Scotch against their wealthier neighbours. The English pock-puddings' is a phrase of frequent occurrence in the Waverley novels. The English too brought similar charges against their continental neighbours. Delius quotes from the drama of Edward III. falsely attributed to Shakespeare:

'Those ever-bibbing epicures,

Those frothy Dutchmen, puff'd with double beer.'

9. The mind I sway by. The mind by which my movements are directed, as in Twelfth Night, ii. 4. 32:

'So sways she level in her husband's heart.'

6

The other interpretation, The mind by which I bear rule,' is not impossible. Ib. bear. Compare King Lear, iv. 2. 51:

'Milk-liver'd man!

That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs.'

10. sag, hang heavily, droop. Mr. Halliwell, Dict. of Archaic and Provincial Words, quotes from Pierce Pennilesse, 1592 [sig. A 2, verso]: 'Sir Rowland Russet-coat their dad, goes sagging euery day in his round gascoynes of white cotton.' Mr. Atkinson, in his Glossary, mentions 'sag' as being still in use in Cleveland, Yorkshire. Forby, in his Vocabulary of East Anglia, gives: Sag, v. to fail or give way from weakness in itself, or overloaded; as the bars of a gate, beams, rafters, or the like. It is used figuratively in

Macbeth. We also use it figuratively. Of a man who droops in the decline of life, we say " he begins to sag." We have heard a railway porter apply it to the leathern top of a carriage weighed down with luggage.

II. loon. In the fourth folio, 1685, the word is changed to 'lown.' The former corresponds to the Scottish and Northern pronunciation, the latter to the Southern. It is spelt lown,' or 'lowne,' in Othello, ii. 3. 95, and Pericles,

iv. 6. 19.

13. There is. Changed by Rowe to 'There are.' See note on ii. 3. 122, and compare Richard II. iii. 4. 168:

'There lies

Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes.'

Ib. Coriolanus, i. 4. 34, thus reproaches his men :

You souls of geese,

That bear the shapes of men, how have you run
From slaves that apes would beat!'

་

15. lily-liver'd. So King Lear, ii. 2. 18: A lily-livered, action-taking knave.'

Ib. patch. So Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 9: A crew of patches,' and Merchant of Venice, ii. 5. 45, The patch is kind enough.' Florio gives: ' Pazzo, a foole, a patch, a mad-man,' and this seems the most probable derivation of the word. Some however derive it from the patched or motley coat of the jester, and this derivation seems to be supported by a passage in Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. I. 237, where Bottom says: Man is but a patched fool.'

16. linen cheeks. So we have in Henry V. ii. 2. 74:
'Look ye, how they change!

Their cheeks are paper.'

17. are counsellors to fear, are fear's counsellors, i. e. suggest fear in the minds of those who behold them.

20. This push, this assault, this attack now made upon me. Cæsar, v. 2. 5:

'And sudden push gives them the overthrow.'

21. The first folio reads:

'Will cheere me euer, or dis-eate me now.'

So Julius

The second folio substitutes' disease' for dis-eate.' Steevens first put 'disseat' in the text, following a conjecture of Capell's. Mr. Dyce adopts a suggestion of Bishop Percy, chair' for 'cheer.' The antithesis would doubtless be more satisfactory if we followed the later folios, and read:

Will cheer me ever or disease me now,'

or if, with Mr. Dyce, we read:

'Will chair me ever or disseat me now.'

6

But disease' seems to be too feeble a word for the required sense, and 'chair,' which is nowhere used by Shakespeare as a verb, would signify rather 'to place in a chair' than 'to keep in a chair,' which is what we want. The difficulty in the text, retaining cheer,' is still greater, because the antithesis is imperfect, and it seems strange, after speaking of a push as cheering' one, to recur to its literal sense. We have, however, left cheer' in the text, in accordance with our rule not to make any change where the existing reading is not quite impossible and the proposed emendations not quite satisfactory.

22. For way,' Johnson conjectured May,' which Steevens adopted in his edition of 1778, and so the passage is popularly quoted. Very probably Shakespeare wrote May,' but we have not inserted it in the text, remembering with what careless profusion our poet heaps metaphor on metaphor. This mixture of metaphors, however, is not justified by quoting, as the commentators do, passages from Shakespeare and other authors, to prove that way of life' is a mere periphrasis for life.' The objection to it is, that it is immediately followed by another and different metaphor. If we were to read May' we should have a sense exactly parallel to a passage in Richard II. iii. 4. 48, 49:

·

'He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring

Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf.'

Sidney Walker, whose knowledge and taste were excellent guides, had no doubt that we ought to read 'May.'

28. deny, refuse. See iii. 4. 128.

35. moe. So the first and second folios; altered in the third to more. Shakespeare used both forms. See Richard II. ii. 1. 239, and The Merchant of Venice, i. I. 108.

Ib. skirr, scout. Rapid, hurried movement is implied. We have the same word used intransitively, Henry V. iv. 7. 64:

We will come to them,

And make them skirr away.'

In Beaumont and Fletcher, Bonduca, i. I:

'The light shadows

That in a thought scur o'er the fields of corn,'

we have the same word differently spelt.

39. Cure her.

So the second folio. The first omits her.' Perhaps the author wrote Make cure of that.'

42. We have the same figure in Hamlet, i. 5. 103:

Within the book and volume of my brain.'

43. oblivious, causing forgetfulness, like obliviosus in Latin :

Among the meanings which Cotgrave gives to the French oblivieux, is 'causing forgetfulnesse.'

6

44. stuff'd . stuff. This can hardly be right. One or other of these words must be due to a mistake of transcriber or printer. Pope read 'full' for stuff'd.' Others have conjectured foul,' clogg'd,' fraught,' 'press'd.' Others, retaining 'stuff'd,' would alter 'stuff' to grief,' or matter,' or 'slough,' or 'freight.'

6

46. I'll none of it. The omission of the verb adds to the emphasis of the phrase. So Proverbs, i. 25: But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof.'

48. staff, the general's baton.

50. Come, sir, dispatch. These words are addressed to the attendant who is buckling on the armour. The agitation of the speaker's mind is marked by his turning from one to the other. No sooner is the armour put on than he bids the man pull it off, line 54, and then line 58, orders it to be brought after him.

In

52. Compare iii. 4. 76. 55. senna. The first folio has cyme'; the second and third 'caeny'; the fourth 'senna.' As Mr. Dyce says, the 'cyme' of the first folio was doubtless a misprint for cynne,' one of the many ways of spelling' senna.' Cotgrave it is spelt 'sene' and 'senne,' and defined to be a little purgative shrub or plant. By 'caeny,' the editor of the second folio meant the same thing. In Lyte's New Herbal, 1595, P. 437, is a chapter headed 'Of Sene.' In it he says the 'leaues of sena . . . scoure away fleume and choler, especially blacke choler and melancholie.'

58. it, i.e. some part of the armour.

59. bane. Here used in the general sense of ‘harm,' ' evil,' 'ruin.' More frequently found in the special sense of ' poison.'

Scene IV.

2. That, loosely used as a relative for in which.'

Ib. chambers will be safe. As we say 'every man's house will be his castle.' For chambers' see King John, v. 2. 147:

'Shall that victorious hand be feebled here,

That in your chambers gave you chastisement,'

i.e. which pursued you into your very houses and punished you there. Ib. nothing.. See i. 3. 96.

5. shadow, and so conceal.

6. discovery, reconnoitering, the report of scouts. Compare King Lear, v. I. 53:

'Here is the guess of their true strength and forces
By diligent discovery.'

8. For other followed by 'but,' see Hamlet, ii. 2. 56:
'I doubt it is no other but the main.'

Ib. but, but that. So Coriolanus, i. 2. 18:

'We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready

To answer us.'

9, 10. endure Our se'ting down, stand a regular siege from us. For 'set' where we should say 'sit,' used intransitively, see Coriolanus, i. 2. 28: 'Let us alone to guard Corioli:

If they set down before 's,' &c.

11, 12. This passage, as it stands, is not capable of any satisfactory explanation. Capell's reading, which nearly coincides with Johnson's conjecture, is as follows:

'For where there is advantage to be gone

Both more and less,' &c.

But we should have expected was' rather than 'is,' unless indeed, 'where' be taken in the sense of wherever.'

The meaning is, where they had

a favourable opportunity for deserting.' Steevens conjectured:

Where there is advantage to be got,'

which Mr. Collier's MS. Corrector adopted, changing only 'got' to gotten.' Lord Chedworth guessed taken,' and Sidney Walker ta'en,' for 'given.' But we rather incline to think that the word 'given' would not have been used in the second line, if it had not been already used in the

first, a play upon words very much in our author's manner. first line should stand thus:

or,

For where there is advantage given to flee,'
For where there is advantage to 'em given.'

Perhaps the

12. more and less, great and small. See 2 Henry IV. i. 1. 209: 'And more and less do flock to follow him.'

14, 15. Let our just censures Attend the true event. The meaning of this obscurely worded sentence must be: In order that our opinions may be just, let them await the event which will test their truth. The editor of the second folio introduced here a strange conjectural emendation which is more obscure than the original:

'Let our best censures

Before the true event.'

Rowe changed 'let' to 'set':

'Set our best censures

Before the true event,'

which gives indeed a sense, but scarcely that which is required.

15. the true event, the actual result, whose certainty is contrasted with the vagueness of the information received, insufficient, as Macduff says, for forming a just judgement.

15, 16. To put on soldiership' is a metaphor suggested by the putting on of armour. Compare ii. 3. 115.

18. owe is here used in the ordinary modern sense, opposed to have.' Siward says that the issue of a decisive battle will enable them to balance their accounts, as it were.

19. relate, give utterance to, tell.

20. arbitrate elsewhere in Shakespeare is followed by an accusative indicating not the issue' but the quarrel, as Richard II. i. 1. 50, 200, and King John, i. 1. 38.

Scene V.

5. forced, strengthened, reinforced. In Troilus and Cressida, v. 1. 64, Wit larded with malice and malice forced with wit,' the word is used, as farced' elsewhere, in a culinary sense.

6. dareful does not occur again in Shakespeare.

8. Exit. This was inserted by Dyce. The folio has no stage direction here, nor at line 15, where Dyce, whom we have followed, put 'Re-enter Seyton.' Perhaps Seyton should not leave the stage, but an attendant should come and whisper the news of the Queen's death to him.

10. cool'd.

Malone and Collier think cool'd' too feeble a word for the sense required; the former proposes 'coil'd,' i.e. recoiled, the latter ‘quail'd.' But 'cool' is sometimes found in a sense stronger than that which it bears in modern language, as King John, ii. I. 479:

'Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath

Of soft petitions, pity and remorse,

Cool and congeal again to what it was.'

II. To hear a night-shriek. Delius supposes that he refers especially to the night of Duncan's murder, ii 2. 58:

How is't with me when every noise appals me?'