And pour'd them down before him. Ang. We are fent, To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; Not pay thee. Rofe. And for an earnest of a greater honour,`` He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor : In which addition, hail, moft worthy Thane! For it is thine. Ban. What, can the devil fpeak true ? Macb. Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor! [Afide. [To Angus. Do you not hope, your children fhall be Kings? [To Banquo. When thofe, that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me, Ban. That trufted home, Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Befides the Thane of Cawdar. But 'tis ftrange: Win us with honeft trifles, to betray us Coufins, a word, I pray you. [To Roffe and Angus. As happy prologues to the fwelling act [Afide. Of the imperial theme. I thank you, gentlemen This fupernatural folliciting Cannot be ill; cannot be good.-If ill, Why Why hath it giv'n me earnest of success, My thought, whofe murder yet is but fantastical, But what is not. Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt! Macb. If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me, Without my ftir. Ban. New honours, come upon him, (9) prefent fears [Afide. Are lefs than borrible imaginings.] Macbeth, while he is projecting the murder, which he afterwards puts in execution, is thrown into the most agonizing affright at the profpect of it: which foon recovering from, thus he reafons on the nature of his diforder. But imaginings are fo far from being more or less than present fears, that they are the fame things under different words. Shakespeare certainly wrote; -prefent feats Are lefs than horrible imaginings. i. e. When I come to execute this murder, I fhall find it much less dreadful than my frighted imagination now prefents it to me. A confideration drawn from the nature of the imagination. Mr. Warburton. Macbeth, fpeaking again of this murder in a fubfequent fcene, ufes the very fame term; I'm fettled, and bend up Each corp'ral agent to this terrible feat. And it is a word, elsewhere, very familiar with our poet. I'll only add, in aid of my friend's correction, that we meet with the very fame fentiment, which our poet here advances, in OVID's Epiftles; Terror in bis ipfo major folet effe periclo. Paris Helenæ. ver. 349. And it is a maxim with Machiavel, that many things are more fear'd afar off, than near at hand. E fono molte cose che difcofto paiono terribili, infopportabili, strani; & quando tu ti appreffi loro, le riescono bumane, fopportabili, domeftiche. Et pero fi dice, che sono maggiori li fpaventi che i mali, Mandragola, Atto. 3. Sc. 11. Like N 4 Like our ftrange garments cleave not to their mould, Macb. Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the rougheft day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we ftay upon your leisure. Mach. Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought With things forgot. Kind gentlemen, your pains Are registred where every day I turn The leaf to read them--Let us tow'rd the King; Think, upon what hath chanc'd; and at more time, [To Banquo. (The Interim having weigh'd it,) let us fpeak Our free hearts each to other. Ban. Very gladly. Macb. Till then enough: come, friends. SCENE changes to the Palace. [Exeunt. Flourish. Enter King, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lenox, and Attendants. S execution done on Cardor yet? King⋅ Is Or not thofe in commiffion yet return'd? They are not yet come back. But I have spoke King. There's no art, To find the mind's conftruction in the face : Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Roffe, and Angus. O worthieft Coufin ! The fin of my ingratitude e'en now Was Was heavy on me. Thou'rt fo far before, (10): To overtake thee. Would thou'dft lefs deferv'd,. King. Welcome hither: I have begun to plant thee, and will labour Ban. There if I grow, The harvest is your own. King. My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, feek to hide themselves (10) Thou art fo far before,. That fwifteft wind of recompence is flaw · To overtake thee.] Thus the editions by Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope:: whether for any reafon, or purely by chance, cannot determine.. I have chose the reading of the more authentick copies, Wing. We meet with the fame metaphor again in Troilus and Creffida, (11) Are to your throne and ftate, children and fervants; Safe towards your love and honour.] This may be fenfe; but,, I own it gives me no very fatisfactory idea: And tho' I have not disturb'd the text, I cannot but embrace in iny mind the conjecture of my. ingenious friend Mr. Warburton, who would read; by doing every thing, Fiefs towards your love and honour. i.e. We hold our duties to your throne, &c. under an obligation of doing every thing in our power: as we hold our Fifs, (feuda) thole: eftates and tenures, which we have on the terms of homage and fer vices. In drops of forrow. Sons, kinfmen, Thanes, Our eldeft Malcolm, whom we name hereafter But figns of Nobleness, like ftars, shall shine And bind us further to you. Mach. The reft 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. King. My worthy Cawdor! Macb. The Prince of Cumberland !—that is a step, On which I muft fall down, or else o'er-leap, Let not light fee my black and deep defires: [Afide [Exit. King. True, worthy Banquo; he is full fo valiant; And in his commendations I am fed ; Let us after him, Whofe care is gone before to bid us welcome: It is a banquet to me. It is a peerless kinfman. [Flourish. Exeunt. SCENE, changes to an Apartment in Macbeth's Caftle, at Inverness. Enter Lady Macbeth alone, with a letter. Lady. T HEY met me in the day of fuccefs; and I have learned by the perfecteft report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burnt in defire to queftion them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. While I ftood rapt in the wonder of it, came miffives from the King, who all-bail'd me Thane of Cawdor; by which title, before, these weird fifters Jaluted me, and referr'd me to the coming on of time, with hail, King that fhalt be! This have I thought good to deliver |