He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust. -O worthiest cousin !

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and AN

The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee. 'Would thou hadst less des
That the proportion both of thanks and paym
Might have been mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.

Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties: and our duties
Are to your throne and state, children, and serva
Which do but what they should, by doing e

thing

Safe toward your love and honour.

Dun.

Welcome hit

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing. - Noble Banquo

That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known

No less to have done so, let me infold thee,

And hold thee to my heart.

There if I grow,

Ban.

The harvest is your own.
Dun.

My plenteous joys,

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know,
We will establish our estate upon

the sense of frame or structure; but the school-term was, I lieve, intended by Shakspeare. The meaning is-We cannot co strue or discover the disposition of the mind by the lineaments of face. MALONE.

9

full of growing.] Is, exuberant, perfect, complete in t on whom I built worthiest cousin!

Navo, Rosse, and Av

de even now ou art so far before, ecompense is slow uld thou hadst less deser of thanks and payme Only I have left to s re than all can pay the loyalty I owe, Your highness' part and our duties

e, children, and servas should, by doing eve

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter,
The prince of Cumberland: which honour must
Not, unaccompanied, invest him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,1
And bind us further to you.

Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for
you:

I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.

Dun.

2

My worthy Cawdor! Macb. The prince of Cumberland! That is a step,

On which I inust fall down, or else o'er-leap,

[Aside.

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

[Exit.

Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so va-
liant;

And in his commendations I am fed;
It is a banquet to me. Let us after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman.

1

[Flourish. Exeunt.

- hence to Inverness,] Dr. Johnson observes, in his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, that the walls of the castle of Macbeth, at Inverness, are yet standing. STEEVENS.

• The prince of Cumberland!] The crown of Scotland was originally not hereditary. When a successor was declared in the life-time of a king (as was often the case,) the title of Prince of Cumberland was immediately bestowed on him as the mark of his designation. Cumberland was at that time held by Scotland of the crown of England, as a fief.

SCENE V.

Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Castle

Enter Lady MACBETH, reading a letter.

Lady M. They met me in the day of success I have learned by the perfectest report, they more in them than mortal knowledge. When I ba in desire to question them further, they made t selves-air, into which they vanished. Whiles I rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from king, who all-hailed me, Thane of Cawdor; by и title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, an ferred me to the coming on of time, with, I king that shalt be! This have I thought good to liver thee, my dearest partner of greatness; thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by b ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. La to thy heart, and farewell.

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promis'd:-Yet do I fear thy

ture;

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness,
To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be gre
Art not without ambition; but without
The illness should attend it. What thou would

highly,

That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'd'st have, gre

Glamis,

That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou ha it;

missives from the king,] i. e. messengers.

ΈΝΕ V.

vom in Macbeth's Conte

BETH, reading a lette.

ve in the day of succes. benfectest report, they knowledge. When I further, they made vanished. Whiles

came missives frow hane of Cawdor; bywa isters saluted me, and n of time, with, Hi

we I thought good 10 ner of greatness; s of rejoicing, by tes promised thee. Lay

and shalt be

et do I fear thy

n kindness,

would'st be great; thout mat thou would'st

not play false, 'd'st have, great

, if thou have

And that which rather thou dost fear to do,
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid* doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal. -- What is your

tidings?

Enter an Attendant.

Atten. The king comes here to-night.

Lady M.

Thou'rt mad to say it:

Is not thy master with him? who, wer't so,
Would have inforım'd for preparation.

Atten. So please you, it is true; our thane is

coming:

One of my fellows had the speed of him;
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.

Lady M.

Give him tending,

He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse,'

[Exit Attendant.

Which fate and metaphysical aid - The crown to which fate destines thee, and which preternatural agents endeavour to bestow upon thee. The golden round is the diadem.

Metaphysical, which Dr. Warburton has justly observed, means something supernatural, seems, in our author's time, to have had no other meaning. In the English Dictionary, by H. C. 1655, Metaphysicks are thus explained: "Supernatural arts."

5

The raven himself is hoarse, The following is, in my opinion, the sense of this passage :

Give him tending; the news he brings are worth the speed that made him lose his breath. [Exit Attendant.] 'Tis certain nowthe raven himself is spent, is hoarse by croaking this very message, the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements.

Lady Macbeth (for she was not yet unsexed) was likelier to be deterred from her design than encouraged in it by the supposed thought that the message and the prophecy (though equally secrets

8.

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, come, you
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, to
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse;"
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace betwe
The effect, and it! Come to my woman's br
And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring min
Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell
That my keen knife see not the wound it ma
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the
To cry, Hold, hold! Great Glamis!

Cawdor!1

W

to the messenger and the raven) had deprived the one of s and added harshness to the other's note. Unless we absurd pose the messenger acquainted with the hidden import of his sage, speed alone had intercepted his breath, as repetition t ven's voice; though the lady considered both as organs of tha tiny which hurried Duncan into her meshes. FUSELI.

7

mortal thoughts,] This expression signifies no thoughts of mortals, but murderous, deadly, or destructive de - remorse; Remorse, in ancient language, signifies * And pall thee -] i. e. wrap thyself in a pall. To pall, however, in the present instance, (as Mr. Douce serves to me,) may simply mean to wrap, to invest. STEEV 9 That my keen knife -) The word knife, which at present a familiar undignified meaning, was anciently used to expre sword or dagger.

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!] Shakspeare has suppo the character of Lady Macbeth by repeated efforts, and ne omits any opportunity of adding a trait of ferocity, or a mark the want of human feelings, to this monster of his own creati The softer passions are more obliterated in her than in her h band, in proportion as her ambition is greater. She meets h here on his arrival from an expedition of danger, with such a lutation as would have become one of his friends or vassals; a lutation apparently fitted rather to raise his thoughts to a le